The Damage

Amsterdam...the home of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Each year about 3.5 million people flock to the city to do the following things:

1. Spend the afternoon smoking in a "Coffee shop".

2. Walk through the Red Light District wondering how much the women in the windows will set them back.
3. Go to a sex show.
4. Get outrageously drunk in any one of the cities hundreds of bars/clubs.

About another 1.5 million people come to the city to stroll through Vondelpark, go cycling through the countryside, admire the gorgeous cobbled streets and hit up the van Gogh Museum...

We, being the party animals that we are, did the latter...and we had a great time doing it.

Bron and I had a ball in Amsterdam. On our first night we met some friendly British folks in our hostel and went to the pub for a few pints of Heineken. I had never had Heineken before, it was pretty great. I didn't try Amstel because I was told that until about 40 years ago they were still making their beer with water from the River Amstel...I've seen that river, and that is just gross.


The next day we went cycling through the Dutch countryside to a cheese and clog farm. It was beautiful! (The countryside, not the farm...though it did have a cute cow...) I don't know if I've mentioned this - but cycling is my new favourite thing. My bikes name was 'Pumpkin'...

The farm was pretty cool also. We got to see how proper farmers cheese is made and then we got to taste all different kinds...YUM! We bought about a kilo of smoked cheese which we finished the other day...I was very sad. We also got to see how clogs are made. The guy who showed us how to make them has got to be one of the creepiest people I have ever met...he was flirting with all the girls and being racist and gettin' all thrusty with his clog machine...not cool! But entertaining all the same.

We have decided that clogs are the stupidest shoes ever. Seriously, look at them...why would you wear them? Apparently they protect your feet if a cow steps on them when you're milking it...ever heard of steel capped boots? They don't look nearly as silly!

Ridiculous...

Then we went to the van Gogh Museum. It was amazing! Probably my favourite so far, along with the Musee d'Orsay. The collection of paintings was incredible...and that's about all I can say about it...except that there was this really annoying child there who screamed non-stop for like half an hour. When will parents figure it out - small children don't appreciate art, so take them outside!!!

This was one of my favourite paintings...they look a bit like my boots :)

We did also walk through the Red Light District...because you just have to when you're in Amsterdam, right? It was seeeeedy. The 'Condomerie' really did crack me up though.

And that's about all to report from Amsterdam. Last Wednesday we hopped on the bus to Berlin and have been loving it! Sorry I couldn't put any of my photos from Amsterdam up - we've been having a great deal of trouble finding computers with USB ports over here...I don't understand it...

Will blog again soon, sorry about the delay on this one!


Love from Courtney! <3