Ramada Amsterdam Beethoven

... back to the hostel for a brief nap and then dinner at a local pizza restaurant. That night was again spent with Annie and Kelly at some bars near our hostel, though Annie and Kelly called it an early night because they had been up early that morning to do the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house in the same day.
The next day was not much more productive than the first two days, however Sarah, Katherine and I did enjoy spending the afternoon at the ...

... which was a little less smoky, but not by much. We had breakfast here, the food was great but obviously our experience here was really the highlight of breakfast. Every table had an ashtray and a separate bowl full of hookah tobacco to mix with your marijuana to roll into a cigarette. Alex and I were literally the only people in the restaurant just there for food - every other table had people, young and old, smoking pot while enjoying their ...

... like: **** me, they’re bigger than I thought - and faster! Sprinting, looking over shoulder, then in front, then behind again, dodging people, checking where bulls were, checking in front then behind, holy **** they’re close! Check in front, hurdle someone who fell over, poor bugger check in front again. Start checking behind, get massive shunt, ****en hell!, flash of large brown object, hooves, propelled violently into pile of about 8 or 9 people. Trying to extricate ...

... to music and lighting. You can’t take photos in there or in the red light district for protection of the peoples identies . They did crowd participation as well, they got 5 of our group up for a bit of a dance and then they all had to take turns eating a banana….thats all im saying. Then they had a show for the girls where I got pulled up and a girl from another group to help strip the police man off! It was an experience that’s put it ...

... and see an empty room. Off I go...to the train station. What do Europeans do a lot of? Well? Travel by train! Since I'm travelling by motorcycle I don't get to see much of train stations. What else do Europeans do a lot of? Travel by bike! I saw a lot of bikes at the train station. And I mean a lot of bikes. The pictures I took barely shows the number of bikes parked at the train station. Imagine a 3 story parkade for bikes...full! That was ...

... decision to leave my chunky sweater home. It probably made it to the upper 50s today and I never got rid of the chill. Morning began early, but halted abruptly as I started out, camera-clad, into the crisp air. As soon as I pointed my camera, I got a message that my 2 gig data card was filled. How could it be? I had only taken about 100 pictures, and I typically get 250 pics on a data card 1/4 that size. I headed out to find a "foto" shop, toward Dam and Central ...

... miss our flight! As we stood there trying to figure out if we could walk to the airport in time and staring at the schedule board hoping it would miraculously change, we met a cool German woman with a baby and a little girl who was also looking for the train to the airport; she said there was usually always a train leaving for the airport every ten minutes, and she didn't know why that day was any different. We figured out we were all going to Amsterdam ...

... or companies will be buying the remainder of the bank but it could still take some time before we know what that means for us personally. In July there were already many layoffs in New York and Chicago and many more are expected in the coming months. It is strange to think that many of those who remain will be working for another company soon and that Melanie will not likely be working with people whom she has known and woked with for nearly 20 years ...

... platforms, full of shops and take-aways, until finally I spotted a slightly red sign that said "Travelex". It was there in all it's glory, but it was missing something: Liane. There was an information booth next to it for travelers, so I asked them if this was the only Travelex in the building. The lady gave me a weird look and answered "yes". Ok, so this was it. Where was Liane? I did get off the plane pretty early what with walking through customs and the quick ...

... of course we had to queue up. It was an amazing experience. I read the book years ago and it gave me a chill up my spine to see the original diary and the rooms where they hid from the nazis. Very sad. We then did some shopping and went back to the hostel. Fiona, Abby and I went to bar at the hostel and smoked our joint. Well you know it we ...