Amsterdam.

Well it's been a busy few days. According to my watch (that's also a pedometer) we have averaged about 10 miles walking everyday. It's such a walkable city, and the bike culture here is huge. They actually have a multistory parking garage just for bikes and from what I could tell, it was rammer jammer full. You have to be careful that you don't accidentally walk into the bike lane as they speed by.. Don't worry, they will let their prescence known by ringing the bike bell in case you forgot your place! I couldn't imagine living here and having to navigate around the tourists who come here for what their city is famous for...party time! Ahhh to see the idiotic antics some people perform here. I've seen quite a few in rare form. Most of them were Scottish.

Our flight here from London was packed full of Scottish Celtic fans. They are a rowdy bunch.. If you're not aware of these fans, there is a short clip of them singing in the plane on my Facebook page. This went on from the time we went to descent to the gate. We made a friend named Gavin, pictured below. He was good fun. Needless to say, it seemed to be the quickest flight I've ever been on and that wouldn't be the last I would hear of the Celtic songs..I felt so bad for the flight attendants though.. They had a rough time dealing with these lads getting up and being generally shammered.

The next day we realized on of OUR favorite Celtic fans was in Amsterdam too! Our old college friend whom I shared many freshman year memories with, Gerry, met us in Dam Square and we shared some  memories and enjoyed a drink while other fans were entertaining us with their mental states. Unfortunately as the night wore on closer to game time, there was some tension between the Celtic fans, Ajax fans, and the police were showing their muscle.. So we decided to head our of the center before things kicked off. We instead walked around all the streets and alleyways, checking out what Amsterdam had to offer, which turns out to be a whole lot.. Haha! It was interesting to say the least. 

Gerry!!

Today we did some more exploring, and found a canal boat dedicated to rescuing and adopting cats. It is called the Poezenboot, and there were around 40 cats on this boat! It was nuts! 

We were definitely able to get our pet fix at this place!

We headed to the VanGogh museum next and got to see a lot of his paintings and learn about his evolution as an artist. Turns out he started studying as an artist at 27 and only painted for 10 years. The he went crazy. Then he died. Moral of the story is, no matter what your age, pursue your dreams. But don't let it get to your head.

We headed back into the center after seeing the museum, stumbling upon a huge market on the way. We didn't buy anything, but we did sample some Dutch waffles. Im wondering if when we go to Belgium tomorrow they will have Belgian waffles...hmmm..

When we got back to the center we did try frites.. French fries doused in a number of different available toppings. We ordered "special curry" thinking it would be special. It was curry and mayonnaise. Yuck!!! We figured we'd do the Dutch thing and eat it anyways. Fries and mayo. Disgusting. When in Amsterdam....

Next time I'll tell all about the mussels in Brussels, apparently that's the thing to eat there. We head for Belgium at 11:30 am Megabus here we come!