Well to be honest, there are two approaches to writing a journal that I could take. One is the write about everything.. explaining the trip as it goes, and the other is write as I go, and omit descriptions of parts because it is no longer fresh in my mind. Since I have limited time to type, I think I must go with the later, but perhaps I will revise and edit this journal after my trip is over to fill in more details.
So it is now the 24th and my last day in Amsterdam, and it will be the past few days here that I am going to not write very much about. Amsterdam is such a nice place to be.. with its chill, layed back attitude, friendly locals, romantic street lined canals, funky buildings and architecture, amazing local cheese and bread shops, very good and varied restaurants, and its readily available and legal weeds. I could really stand living here for a while I think. Though like much of Western Europe, and especially the tourist popular large cities, it is very expensive. Food, Accommodation, everything.
I love, maybe the most here, the windy maze of endless brick and stone layed streets and alley ways. And the shops and activity abound. Barney's Cafe and Coffeeshop (which are two separate entities, but practically next door from one another) has good breakfasty foods, and good weed, but mainly a very cool atmosphere. It doesn't reak of the bar-ish scene that prevails in other coffeeshops.
Despite the fact that the locals here all speak English fluently and do not mind doing so, being here in Amsterdam really makes me want to learn Dutch. I love the phonetics of it, and it is perhaps surprisingly similar to English. Actually it is the second closest living relative to English, with the first being a tiny mostly unknown one, by the name Frisian and spoken in some of the Northern areas of the Netherlands and Germany.
We stayed at a very nice place just a little south of central Amsterdam called Hotel Max. It was in a nice area with very few tourists nearby. I enjoy being surrounded by locals, and hearing dutch as I wander around. Also, notably, there was a huge outdoor market that begun a block away from you hotel and continued for some 10 blocks or so. It was a general market, fresh fruits and vegis, fish, clothing, junk, etc. And from what I could tell its an everyday affair.
Honestly, I am sad to leave it... (though I do look forward to Belgium)
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