amsterdam - snack food capital of the world

so amsterdam is basically my new favorite city. everything is SO CHILL there. and trust me, i'm not one of those stoner-types that went for the pot and prostitutes in the red light district. no.. the city is actually extremely beautiful--canals on every street lined with bicycles and cheerful low-rise apartment buildings that remind me a little of the west village. their specialty food is pancakes--an obvious plus. the people aren't pretentious and everyone speaks english and nobody cares that you don't speak dutch. also, it's so clean! since everyone rides bikes the air feels smooth and the streets look nicer. and of course, i'm not going to complain about the laid back drug laws. it all seems to work in the netherlands. it's a very movable, doable city. i thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

now what did we do? in a nutshell, the van gogh museum, anne frank's house, tour of the red light district, shopping, and walking around seeing the sights in general. 

the van gogh museum was excellent, of course. though many of the pieces were almost too famous to really appreciate, seeing them in person makes you understand why they're so famous. for example, the nuances of the texture and shades of yellow in his sunflower paintings. they also had a special exhibit on redon... one of my faves!! his paintings have a way of looking like an archaic, science-fictiony dream. i love it when you can't quite figure them out. 

anne frank's house gave me the sads. i can't say that physically being in the frank dwelling gave me better insight into what their lives were like at the time, but it's a good way to recall the history of everything that happened and to remind yourself that treachery like that is never really over. 

moooooooving on. red light district. hmph. kind of disturbing. just as my mother described it to me... it's just.. women in windows. selling themselves. i wasn't quite shocked by the way they looked--it's not like you can't see that shit on any given spring break in panama city, florida. it was just so blatant. we just had some food there and then we left. 

saturday was all about pancakes, walking, and shopping. bought a vintage leather mini-skirt and for some reason i thought it was perfectly appropriate to buy a leather mini-skirt in amsterdam. some things just go together? 

hmmm how to explain the food situation? so basically, because all the tourists smoke pot in amsterdam, every place near one of the famed "coffee shops" (it has to be a coffee shop, not a cafe, for it to sell mj apparently) advertises SNACK FOODS HERE. brilliant marketing or just practically meeting a market demand? all i know is that i was basically eating every step of the way. 

our hostel situation worked out well, also. we had 8 people traveling together and we got one big room to ourselves with 9 beds and our own bathroom to share with each other. i slept on the top bunk because i just like that and it wasn't too uncomfortable. i've learned that if you don't expect much going into a hostel you'll wind up being pleasantly surprised. 

whoaaa this post is looong. had to cram all the exciting amsterdam stuff into one post! tough. i probably forgot stuff but i'll add it later if i have to. 

only two more weeks?!!