Wrote this a couple days ago because our hostel in Amsterdam had no wifi! What a shame … really behind on uploading photos now. There’s still most of Brussels that has yet to go up. Eep!

What can you say about Amsterdam that is SFW?

I went on a nice free tour of the city today. The group of about 20 of us walked through the city, learning about the history and tolerance and whatnot. Very fascinating stuff. For example, did you know that there’s a kindergarten school in the red light district? Yes, neither did I. The window ladies were also there in all their glory. Our tour went by in the afternoon so there were quite a few empty windows. Not that I’m complaining. It’s all so very different, that’s for sure!

Oh, then there’s the abundant coffeeshops and smartshops, which are pretty much everywhere. Interestingly a scene from Oceans 11 or 12 (the remake) was shot in one of them and the alley outside it. Cool beans, for sure.

Peeing in the streets has also been a problem it seems, so some corners contain ‘urine deflectors’. At some point there was apparently an electrified fence in one corner. There’s also open-air urinals (our tour group stopped in front of one of them as there was a guy inside one. Ahaha. The city apparently also puts up porta-pottys every Friday for people to use over the weekend.

The buildings are extremely fascinating since most are slanting left/right and some of them are intentionally designed to lean forward. The idea of making a building lean forward seemed strange until it was pointed out that there were hooks on the front of pretty much every house in the city. The idea is to use some rope, put it around the hook (probably with some kind of pulley) and then hoist the item in question into your house. This has more to do with how steep and narrow stairs are here than anything else. It’s RIDICULOUS how steep the stairs to get to the first floor of our hostel are.

Maybe it’s just the time of year, but the weather is insane!! It will rain for 5 minutes, go sunny and hot, go cloudy and chilly. Then there’s the strong wind that appears to be omnipresent. Makes holding a map quite challenging, but frankly so far Amsterdam has been the easiest city to get around. The one thing I am slowly getting used to is paying far more attention while crossing streets. Compared to Ottawa, there’s certainly a lot more going on and there’s a lot less space on sidewalks/streets. Most streets are one way, but it’s still a good idea to check both ways for cyclists, otherwise there’s mopeds/scooters, not to mention cars and the trams. Agh. Sidewalks tend to be pretty nondescript and blend in with the street and bicycle paths. It’s madness!

I had to buy a new belt today. My other one became all frayed and has been doing a very poor job of keeping my pants up. That’s neither here nor there, though.

C’YA.