day 3 paris - amsterdam

23 may 2009
another slow start, but we made it to gare du nord to catch our thalys train. prior to that, nusbaum left a killer bomb at andree's - ugh.

train is nice as hell with food galore, wifi and cool seats. steve is eating everything that comes even though he isn't even hungry... just like the chocolate cake in vegas... don't let it beat you.

on train, managed to fire off a few emails, facebook a bit and chat with andree via fring/skype

arriving in amsterdam, one of the first things we experienced whilst looking for the washroom in amsterdam centraal station, was the smell of weed... ah holland.

this city also marks the first time we had to find our way around... sort of felt like the amazing race, asking random people questions... FYI pretty much all dutch folks (here at least) speak english. oh, and they are pretty crazy tall... and the talent is amazing here.

our room at nh amsterdam centre in leidseplein (lied-spline... not led zeppelin) was nice, but had 2 single beds on hardwood, so the middle crack would've been dicey to sleep on for third person. however, given our advanced education, we managed to push the 2 beds together against a wall and cram in a chair and bench between the beds and other side of wall to wedge everything together. then the hunt for coffee... which turned into beer. oh well.

we had dinner at some common venue (well, more common meal type) called a "rijsttafel" which is indonesian banquet-like. rich didn't tip and we learned later on that this was an uncool thing to do to someone who serves consistently, unlike at a bar.

then we met up with daan who did an exchange at schulich and his brother thomas who we went out with and learned tonnes about amsterdam, holland, canadian stereotypes (from south park) and dutch culture. best part of the night was the club we went to (trouwe)... used to be an old newspaper press. in lineup, i took my cap off thinking it was too casual. guys in front of our group were not let in because they were dressed far too trendy (nice shoes, collared shirt, jacket)... i put my cap back on :)

felt like a miniature person in the club. they are all crazy tall.

other:
- rich gets screwed by thalys
- slight drizzle during 1st round of drinks with daan and thomas
- daan and thomas laugh at canadian cel rates
- nusbaum moves in for a pic to demo how he is not so tall here
- daan and thomas drink like fish
- almost get hit multiple times by rampant cyclists
- red light district has a section for the ugly girls