amsterdam with caramellow joe

Amsterdam is a beautiful, relaxed place. I think the lack of car traffic is what gives it such a chilled vibe. I love the concentric rings of canals and the bike filled cobble stone streets. You start to realise how nice and peaceful it is when there's not the constant hum of traffic in the background. 

This is Centraal Station where we arrived by train from Antwerp.

We stayed at the lovely neighbourhood of Jordaan, where there's a secondhand book market nearby and a weekend market right outside our doorstep. We spent a good part of the day just browsing the markets and soaking up the fine weather.

 We tried some Dutch pancakes.

and had delicious burgers at Burger Meester.

What is this? A truck for ants?

And yes, we did try smoking pot in Amsterdam. Though somewhat disappointing, it didn't really have much effect on me.. probably because being the noob that I was, I had trouble uh, inhaling, and coughed most of it out. (I also tried eating weed brownies the night before but I think I fell asleep before any effect kick in) Joe on the other hand, after two third of a joint, got all quiet and boring.  Like he would just sit there, not talking much, with a serious expression on his face. On our walk back to the hotel I started calling him caraMELLOW joe.. which made him giggle, but otherwise you couldn't really tell if he was high or not. And then he started telling me how he thinks that pot was effecting his short term memory, and if he were about to say something, he'd be unsure if he had already said it or not. Immediately after he told me this, I said, "but Joe, you just said that", and he was all confused like "what? Did I really?" And I said, "yea, you just repeated what you said before..." and then he got all worried thinking he had been repeating himself and not knowing it, while I had a good laugh at his expense. Then we went back to the hotel and Joe said he might need to throw up, but then just stood in the bathroom for an hour, not doing anything. And then he came out and fell asleep.

Oh well, at least I can tick that one off the list!

On our last day in Amsterdam we rented bikes and rode around town.  We went by the museum district but were in such lazy mood we just lounged around in the park instead.

It was great having bikes, it allowed us to see much more of the town. 

We rode to the red-light district that night. The red-light district was pretty full-on. Barely dressed prostitutes stand in windows lining the canal... I wondered why anyone would want to negotiate with the prostitutes in full view of the throngs of tourists, all gawking at this spectacle. Definitely an eye-opening sight.

The next day, backpacks in tow, we returned the bikes and jumped on a plane to Budapest! Amsterdam was loads of fun. Joe didn't really dig the more dodgey aspects of the place, but despite all the coffeeshops and prostitutes in windows, there was something really nice and serene about the city - especially on a bike!