| | Aug 3, 2009 - Amsterdam | (click to enlarge)
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 | | show all 6 | | a quiet, little canal | | Old town gate at Waterlooplein | | bridge over Bloomengraacht canal | | |
| It was a gray, rainy day the morning I arrived in Amsterdam, but it was a relief after the heat wave we've had in Seattle. This city is as always, fantastic. Now matter how many times I come here, I always enjoy it. The historic core of the city is shaped like a horseshoe, with concentric rings of canals, all with unpronounceable names. I've been here several times, but always get lost. Since nearly everything is on a curve, surrounded by countless canals, it's really easy to get turned around. But, I think that's half the fun. Just walking and getting lost, wandering the canals with all the skinny row houses and their ornate gables. There's great food, friendly people and everything is so darn cute.
My friend Birgit met me later that afternoon, so I spent the day walking around the old town, exploring and eating cones of french fries and stroopenwaffels (a thick carmel called stroop, sandwiched between two crispy, waffle cookies- best when they come hot off the waffle iron, mmm). I resisted the temptation to take a nap and just walked around until Birgit's train came in. I got pretty sleepy about dinner time, but forced myself to stay awake. It was gay pride weekend, but most things had died down by Sunday, and the city seemed pretty quiet. Unusually quiet for August, but I guess tourism is down everywhere this year.
For the first time ever, I really didn't suffer from jetlag. The key was to get a lot of exercise and fresh air and force myself to stay awake until 11:00 p.m. I was pretty beat when I went to bed, but slept the whole night, until 9:00 the next morning (maybe the joint I smoked after dinner helped a bit).
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