The Amsterdam Ship Museum










My building as seen form the Museum window

I live in downtown Amsterdam. The city is divided into many parts; I live on the border of the Old Town and the Plantage (the east end). It's where the city zoo and botanical gardens are, so it's mellow and no tourists. I live on the river, right by the city's Ship Museum. My window faces a courtyard, how European!

My New Bike!

The last few days I have spent wandering the streets of Amsterdam, buying things for my new life and taking care of initial business. I would find cool places, and then shortly return to them, not knowing how I ended up where I did, even if the outcome was what was hoped for. I would also spot the buildings I wanted to visit from a distance, and then head towards them instead of using a map. Sometimes I ended up 20 feet from the main entrance, with a tiny canal seperating us. A canal can be an ocean let me tell you. I even ended up in the Red Light district not realizing it, and asking (what I later realized was) a junkie for directions.

Today my wandering through the streets was totally planned; I know know the major streets, how to get to them and where they will take me. I intentionally returned home through the Red Light district. A happy fellow on a bike cycled up to me. I smiled back. He asked me how I was doing. "Good, just looking for a bike". To this the happy cyclist replied "You can have mine for 25 euro". After more casual conversation, me asking if he was a cop 3 times, and an exchange of 20 euros, I am now the owner of a very cool bike. I even fixed it up so it's not recognizable. If you're still wandering what happend, I bought a very very very expensive bike for only 20 euros from a happy guy in the Red Light district.

Before / After

Pillows

On my first day in Amsterdam I decided to go to the local "Honest Eds", to get everything cheaply for my new place. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to get a set of heavy plates and many other items and carry them through the city when I was exhausted, jet-lagged, and constantly looking at a map. But I'm making my way around the city and on my second day I'm already a regular, card toting grocery shopper.

Let me tell you about the pillows I bought. I couldn't fin anything other than decorative pillows, so I finally asked an employee. The dutch are nice but kinda rough when making casual conversation and I felt like a total foreigner. But don't blame me for missing the pillows. They were in large, heavy duty boxes, vacuum packaged in bags. Weird.

Welcome!

Hello, I will write more once I spend some time in Amsterdam. Keep checking for exciting titles such as "My Bike From A Junkie", "Stranger on the Midnight Express to Estonia", "My Roof Has A Leak" and many more tales from my adventure. In Amsterdam, anything could happen.