Holla for Holland

This last weekend, Katie, myself and a friend from school decided to go check out this dutch town you may have heard of, called Amsterdam.  We took a bus there from Brussels, which only took about 3 hours and actually wasn't that bad.  It was kind of a spur of the moment type of thing, so we left Saturday and came home Sunday.  And! Katie's good friend from home in Hotlanta (she insists nobody in Atlanta says 'Hotlanta' but I think she's lying) also has a delta pilot father, and she flew into Amsterdam just for the 24 hours!  It gets better!  Her pilot dad also has some Marriott hookups and got us a free room!  So that was awesome, it sure beat paying 30-40 euro for a cruddy (sp?) hostel.

Amsterdam is a pretty unique place to say the least.  There were bikes EVERYWHERE.  There aren't bikes in Brussels like there are in Amsterdam, and I haven't ever been to scandinavia but I hear those countries similarly have an incredible amount of people on bikes.  I felt like there were more bikes locked up everywhere than there were people (and it was crowded).  Also, you really have to pay attention crossing the street, so as to not get hit by a bike, car, or tram.  Here's a pic of some bikes:

I'm thinking they know why a lot of people come to the city.  Holy smokes (pun intended).  There were 'coffee shops' everywhere, luring in all the tourists.  This was quite the shock, coming from the land of 3.2% beer.  Also, of course the red light district was quite crazy.  It was actually pretty funny, while we were walking through, I got to see this nervous looking 20 something year old walking with his friend, stop and say: "I'm doin it".  Just before he walked up to a window and said: "how much?". Naaaaaaaastay! 

Funny sign on the window of a coffee shop:

So, we walked around quite a bit, saw that cool I Amsterdam sign, a cool park, etc.  Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to see some of the really cool sights that I'd like to catch (Anne Frank House, Van Gogh museum).  BUT! I will be headed back in a week to meet up with a friend from SLC that's stopping by!  I think the Van Gogh museum is on the agenda, so that should be good.  Here are some more photos: 

 Also, had a pretty eventful night last night.  So another post will soon follow.
-C