europe envy

okay, I only have about 25 minutes, but I must blog about Amsterdam before the adventure of Africa sets in and all this seems insignificant.

Firstly, Europe is flipping expensive. Even if you transfered the amounts directly into Canadian dollars without timesing it by 2.2 it would be expensive. The timesing it by 2.2 just makes everything about a billion times worse.

But hey, how often are you in Europe?

Outta There
So upon my leaving my parents gave me a direct order and a piece of advice. The direct order was to not leave the airport at any point during my 7 and a half our lay over in Amsterdam. There advice was to talk to the person next to me. Well this morning upon waking up i decided to have a little chat with the scagally stranger who didn't bother to shave who had slept on my shoulder most of the night. He, along with others around, told me it would be a shame if i didn't go out and explore. So i guess i took my parents advice, and ignored their direct order. oops, sorry.

Okay, but you don't understand... Amsterdam was awesome! I've officially been to Europe. It is a great begining to the adventure.

For the sake of time I will do some of this stuff into more point form:

01. Amsterdam runs on Wind Energy (cool eh Yalda), which is something Vancouver should do. It was very very cool to see... actually (and I could be wrong) but it seemed like some of the airport cars ran on some form of wind energy too.

02. I have now walked past my next flight and I will be one of two white people on board. OKay, not that i didn't know this would happen, but still weird and extremly exciting to feel the trueness of being an ethnic minority!

03. Everybody in Amsterdam smokes. Smokes pot. All of them. People smoke up next to police officers... there are about one billion "coffeeshops" which are really "seedshops." It gives the entire city a sort of chilled out feeling. It's really weird seeing people lighting joints in front of some of the most beautiful architecture I've ever seen.

04. THis is the first time I've been somewhere where I don't honestly know what's going on because I don't speek or read Dutch.

05. Upon walking around Kreig (the guy from the plane) and I happened to stumble upon the Red Light District. For those of you who don't know what that is; it is a protected district in Amsterdam for prostitutes. So, leagal prostitiution. For those of you who know what it is but it pains you to talk about it because you are so strongly opinioned, skip this next paragraph. Alright, firstly, you have no idea it is the Red Light District, because it comes out of nowhere. Seriously, beautiful architecture, churches! right near by! It is crazy sudden. Secondly, I knew about the concept, but did not know exactly how the street was set up. Well here it is: women are kept behind doors in rooms. The door is made of glass and you can see in. All the women "display" themselves and I guess you can decide who you want. There are all sorts of women. The women come in diverse forms of ethnicity, size and age. Quite a variety. There were obvioulsy "pimps" walking around talking to the women and collection money. Now I am still processing, but it seemed like a really good thing to be protecting these women! Mind you, I walked in the area in broad daylight, so I don't know the complete dangers... I don't know what it would be like to go at night, but I'm sure it's much more terrifying and intense.

06. There are thousands and thousands of bikes... EVERYWHERE. Seriously, it is just over the top. Outside the train station (we took the train into Amsterdam Central, about 15 mins) there was this walk-way which twisted back and forth for three levels. Well, it was just covered in bikes of all sorts. Rusty, new, public... People don't lock up their bikes, people do, people have mopeds and scooters. It was great

07. I didn't go into any of the buildings really, but exploring was fun. There was some beautiful stuff to be seen. I've been told about a zoo and some museums. Hopefully my next trip over will be more planned and I will be able to see some of that stuff.

Conclusion
Now, the moral of the story is that I am back in the airport and rested. This airport "Schipol" has these lounge areas where you can sleep. It was seriously glorious. It was just undercribably stupendous. Now I am writing this and about to get on my 10 hour flight to Nairobi. bleh... it takes way to long to get to Africa. But that's okay, because the people watching is seriously the best its ever been.

Moral number 2: I love Europe, it seems just fantastic and I hope to come back one day. There are clearly some great things to be seen and I can't tell you how happy I am that i left the airport, great as it may be. Plus this way I have now officially been to Amsterdam! woot!