First Impressions

We had a three hour train ride to reach our destination. We made a few stops in Belgium along the way, but it was rather uneventful as Whitney slept and I alternated between sleeping, reading and staring out the window.

Now, we are in Amsterdam! We had planned on walking to our hostel because it was only about 7 minutes according to MapQuest, but when we looked around, we decided against it and tried to get a cab. The cab driver told us that it was too close to bother, however. He pointed over his shoulder and said "see that church?" -- we did, because it was a giant friggin' church -- walk that way.

Those directions weren't entirely correct, because after walking to the church, we were lost. We finally got some police officers to give us directions and then we were able to find our way.

Is Amsterdam different than Paris? Hell yes. As far as I can tell, everything within at least three blocks of where we're staying smells like weed. There are more bicycles, less street signs and well, canals, duh.

While we were walking to our hostel, some brilliant young man came to the correct conclusion that we were just arriving in the city (two girls carrying suitcases, I wonder where they're going?!) and invited us to his pub crawl; it's like a party bus that walks you around to the best clubs and you get free shots. He told us that to find where the thing started, we just needed to walk straight until we found the "giant monument that looks like a dildo." I kid you not, that is what we said. He asked us if this seemed like our thing? It seems like Whitney's, not mine, although she is pretty determined to get me to participate. We shall see (although we probably won't blog about it...).

Now, we're sitting in our hostel -- we got twin beds this time -- taking a breather before we decide what we're doing with the rest of our day here.

Look at all the space we don't have! Love it.