To Amsterdam and Beyond!

Well we've made it to our main last stop of the trip. We arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday, and by Friday evening our group had grown to 10 people. Our cousin Julie and some friends, Jeremy's friends living south of here in Holland, my Swedish and Irish Friends. It was a Jolly group for a day or two, and now they have all left save for myself and Ross. Jeremy I have even split up for a few days. He has gone off to stay in the less urban area of the country with his friend Leon from Acadia. I am staying here with Ross for three more days, as there is a fairly large poker tournament happening this week here in Amsterdam which I will try and win into. It would be a good warmup for Foxwoods, and could be alot of fun, and even less likely, it could be profitable. :)

It has been an a amazing time so far here in amsterdam. It feels like the most progressive multi cultural, racially mixed city I have ever been to. The variety in people here is most evident when playing the language guessing game, there are always about 8 very probable guesses, yet I feel like anything is always possible. This also seems to make this a city of the world, where dutch is likely the most widely spoken language, but still not a majority over the many many others. You dont nearly feel like you are a tourist here as much as in other cities where accents can say so much.

The city appears so safe and free, and there is a certain very proud and happy feeling the locals and inhabitants seem to possess in everything they do. Anything goes, and everything does. There are way more bikes then cars, and there are way more taxis then other types of cars. It is a common sight to see two people on one bike, just giving the other a lift somewhere. Great feeling having a city that is much more bike oriented with few of the traffic problems dealt with on a constant basis in nearly every other large European city we have been.

I never quite thought about deeply the nature of the politics or atmosphere that has prevailed in this corner of the world for the last 500 years, but there is a reason that it has stayed true to its ideals. One cabby explained it as seeing everyone else being too far left or too far right, and that the Dutch like to keep themselves in the middle. It sure seems to work on many levels here, and the majority of these city folks appear much happier then the average compared with other large cities Ive been to.


Well in this city weve been tourists ourselves and sights for others. We made it to the Van Gogh museum and the Heineken Brewery, toured the canals the coffeeshops and the the clubs. Overall a great experience. Ill write more before I leave hopefully, or maybe Jeremy will add his own bit from the countryside. We are gonna try out Belgium for a day before we head back to Paris for our Saturday flights. Cant miss this flight, I might have to play poker on Sunday with jetlag. I cant wait!