Moving right along (to Amsterdam)

On my last day in Brussels, I walked around (big surprise there). I took a visit to the Atomium, constructed for the 1958 worlds fair. It's a giant steel model of an iron atom, with a museum about its construction inside. It also currently houses an exhibit about designer Willy Van Der Meeyre. I've got to say, some of his ideas, like a table that wraps around a sofa - pretty neat. Others....not so attractive. It was the 60s and 70s though, so I guess it'll have to slide.

After walking around town some more, I headed over to Moritz's apartment for dinner. Did I mention how nice this guy is? I got to meet his adorable 16 month old daughter Luna, and his 4 year old son, Lio. They were kind of scared of me at first, I think, since I don't even speak their first language (French, not that Luna speaks yet). By the time they had to go to bed though, I was tossing a balloon around with Lio and Luna, and helping Lio draw (and cut some cardboard - he's not allowed to use the big scissors). They're sweet kids. Fun fact, Lio speaks French, but also understands German (his father speaks in German to him). When he tries to speak German, though, he sometimes mixes in French words when he doesn't know the German words, which made it pretty challenging to understand him at times. Moritz and I, and later his girlfriend (wife?) Annabelle had some pleasant conversation, and then I went back to my hostel, and then to bed. Or so I thought.

Now, for the first two nights in Brussels, I was in a single room, but I moved to a 4 bed room for the last night. My roommates had finally arrived when I got back from Moritz's. Reggie, Willy, and...something. Let's go with Bobby. They had just started Lady in the Water on a portable DVD player, so I didn't go to bed just then. When the movie finished, Reggie probably said that he "knew the movie was tight, man, but..man. That shit is tight" about 4 or 6 times before bed. And then he said it another 4 or 6 the next morning. Ok, man. we all get it. It's tight.

Let's move on, though. It's going to take too long to relate everything about Amsterdam (because I'm a slowbie), so I'll keep this a bit shorter.

I got in to Amsterdam mid afternoon, and bought a metro ticket after walking the 5 minutes to my hostel, and then back to Central Station (I thought I should learn the surrounding streets). Right around my hostel were several sex shops, a porno theater, 'coffee shops,' and a fair assortment of people who would murmur 'cocaine, ecstacy' as you walked by. I've got to say, I wasn't expecting any of this, even though Amsterdam is supposed to be a liberal city (coke and X are still illegal). It probably had something to do with the fact that the city is so small, that all of this existed even though we were right in tourist central/downtown Amsterdam. *shrug* Whatever. I walked around the block, and planned my next couple of days. With luck, one of them would be spent on a bike. I note how cold it had gotten. Dinner was at this asian place called Nooch (who named it, Kevin Smith?). Although it was fairly expensive (it's on a main street in downtown), it was absolutely delicious (Pad Thai). I went to bed comparatively early that night after sitting in the in-hostel bar watching a football game (soccer). I think Barcelona won.

The next day, I hit up the Rijksmuseum (the Dutch history museum), and among other interesting things from the Golden Age, I got to see Rembrandt's 'Night Watch.' It was really amazing, of course, but there were many other worthy pieces of art, such as an enormous painting of a Swan (the interior ministry) defending her nest (Holland) from a Dog (Holland's enemies). I briefly considered heading to the Diamond Museum (and there were tons of diamond shops around, also, not that I was buying), but instead I wandered into a street market while on my way to the Heineken Brewery (now a museum). A small band was playing a very jazzy arrangement of the love theme from The Godfather. I dropped some change and gave the sax player a look that hopefully implied how much I was enjoying their music. As for the Brewery, the whole experience was somewhat hokey on the whole, with small rides like "Learn what it's like to be a bottle" and "Drive a horse carriage through Amsterdam." In the middle of, and at the end of the museum, there were bars where you could pass in color coded chips for frosty Heineken. It's a brilliant marketing scheme, of course - for who can resist recieving not one, not two, but three free beers and a free gift by the end of a museum tour. Not me, I guess.

The gift, by the way, is a bottle opener.

After the Brewery, I hit up Madame Tussaud's Wax museum. I yawned through the Dutch history (although the giant amalga-man, made from icons of Dutch culture, was...eye-catching, to say the least), and sighed at the Pirates of the Carribean cash-in (the woman guiding us through the strobe-lit, foggy corridor was appropriately 'piratey,' though - She made some children scream at the very least. The main attraction, of course, was the celebrity figures they had. There were models of everyone from Lenin to W. Bush, Clooney to Dame Edna, and, of course, Gandhi was there with Mandela. I took pictures of most of them, so when I get those up you can see who was there.
I hit up a cheese shop for some smoked Gouda, after wandering through a mall complex.
After all that, I went to the Torture museum. I'm sorry that I did, really. It was mostly to kill time before dinner, and it was cheap. I got some pictures of nasty looking implements, but it's nothing that can't be seen elsewhere.

Third day, I got up, and headed off to see the city some more. This was supposed to be my bike day, but the weather refused to cooperate. It had rained, and it was still a bit damp, and more than a little bit cold. Walking would have to suffice. I made my way slowly to the Versetzmuseum (Dutch Resistance during WWII), where I found an interesting and educational exhibit and some annoying British children. There was even a small piece on victory and liberation songs after the Allies broke the Nazi hold on the Netherlands.

I don't really know what to say about the rest of the day. Most of it was spent walking around the city again, with short stops to take pictures of things that caught my eye as I passed by. I did a little more shopping, and got a CD with a discount coupon from Madame Tussad's (Jurassic 5 LP). I took a short boat tour of the canals and harbors later in the day, but I eventually found myself reading at the Leidseplein before dinner. Afterwards, I ventured into "The American Book Center" for the 2nd time (the first I was just browsing), and bought World War Z. That about sums up the day. I'm pretty sure I was in bed around 10 or so.

Just a word on my hostel arrangement in Amsterdam. I was in an 8 bed room, which was full every night except the last. The street the windows faced was a busy side alley. Every night, there were two people who snored like they were doing their best impersonations of a couple of bullfrogs. There was this one girl who always turned the light on when she came into the room, and she was always one of the last people to go to bed. The beds and pillows? Sort of lumpy overall (one springs; the other, fluff). All of this meant that I never got to sleep before 11 or 12, and I woke up several times each night. I must have looked like crap, but I really never felt it. Strange world, right?

So on the last day, I got up, ate breakfast, packed my things, and headed off to catch my train. Now, you might remember me saying that I bought a metro ticket; look at how useful that was - I walked everywhere. Since I never stamped the ticket, I slipped it in the money slot on the ticket machine. Hopefully some other tourist or traveler will get some benefit out of - if they don't just toss it right away.

Over this past week I've grown a beard, although I'm not sure if I'll keep it past the week. Now, it might just be my imaignation, but I think the man checking passports as we crossed the boerd thought I was a terrorist or something, since I think I was the only person in the car that he asked whether "I had anything to declare." Who knows.
I did read approximately 250 pages in various books during the train ride (over half of that from World War Z - it's an amazing read).

So. In a nutshell, that was my trip.

Good night.