This place smells like college

I am officially in Europe for the first time, Amsterdam to be exact, and am so far enjoying the whole deal. The architecture is incredible, people here are a more smiley and helpful bunch than I expected, and EVERYONE I've talked to so far talks English real good. There seem to be as many signs in Dutch as there are in English, and when they're in the former I can still do some decent translating since Dutch seems considerably similar to German.

The process of getting here was an extremely mixed bag of ups and downs. My first flight was delayed, so I would have missed my connection, BUT THEN I got switched to a direct from Detroit instead of going through Newark yet somehow saved two hours, BUT THEN there was a possibility that my bag wouldn't make it to the other plane in time, BUT THEN I was told my bag would make it, BUT THEN it wasn't there when I got to Amsterdam, BUT THEN someone made a call to someone else to try and find it, which they didn't, BUT THEN as I was filling out the form to have them ship my bag to me eventually I was told they finally found it. It was a glorious early-morning reunion between me and my backpack.

After I got that mess straightened out, I took a ridiculously smooth, fast, cheap, efficient train from the airport to Station Centraal (if you can't figure out what this means in English, just give up now, there is no hope for you). Since I'm at the latitudinal equivalent of roughly mid-Canada, the sun was still on its way up despite the fact that it was nearly 8:00 a.m., but I could still make out some definining features of the city's outskirts, which actually reminded me of a larger version of Anchorage in a way.

From S.C., which is absolutely gigantic, I began a chilly, long and aimless search for my hostel. And why not? I checked my schedule and it turns out I have no plans until, ohhhhh, November 20 when I have to fly back to the States. So, after successfully avoiding the many, many bikes/trams/cars and kind of figuring out the crosswalks, I concluded that my best comparison of American cities to this one would be a bigger Portland with canals.

I finally found the hostel, which is also huge, but is unfortunately in a somewhat lame area far from downtown in a slightly plain neighborhood (just like the reviews said, ha). Well, lame by Amsterdam standards anyway, but not lame enough for me to score some borek at a Turkish bakery three blocks away. It was my first borek experience, and I must say it was met with positive results.

Other than that I haven't done much, mainly because I've only been here for about four hours and am basically just biding my time until 2:00, at which point I can check into my room and hopefully proceed to a solid, afternoon-long nap. I know what you're thinking- why waste time sleeping when I could be out checking out one of the coolest cities in the world? Wellllll, considering I slept about 4 good hours the night before I left, plus the zero hours I slept on the plane because the kid behind me was fulfilling his life purpose of kicking my seat and because the people on each side of me immediately claimed each armrest for the majority of the 7-hour flight and because middle seats should just be illegal, then I guess I've slept about 4 hours out of the last 48 (on a positive note I sat next to a Michigan guy living in Bucharest who gave me some great Romania advice). I'm pretty sure my body still thinks it's six in the morning right now (or maybe even 4 since I only left Denver a few days ago) and basically I'm completely exhausted and in need of a recharge before I can go out and fully appreciate this amazing city.

Oh, I DID go to one of those, what do you call them, coffee shops this morning. For those of you 493 years old and older, these establishments are some of the only ones of their kind in the entire world. Where else can you go and point out on a menu what strain of marijuana you want to buy? If any of you have the idea that I did a few years ago about the Dutch reefer situation (i.e. it's a total free-for-all and everybody is stoned all the time), you're completely wrong. You can't just light up anywhere you want, it's mainly confined to coffee shops, and there is a surprisingly large number of people that don't even smoke.

So, it being my first time in Amsterdam and all, I had to see what this was all about. I didn't WANT to, you know, since drugs are bad, but it was just the obligation I had to fulfill. Anyway, the place had an entirely different feel to it than a normal bar (no alcohol there, by the way, just really really good pot & hash), but I can't really pinpoint what it was. People just sit there, sip tea, and smoke away. I opted for a cigarette, which really is more of a cigarette than a joint since they pack it full of tobacco in addition to the you-know-what. I was aware of this unappetizing fact (I hate cigarettes) before I made the purchase, but I was unaware of the horribly low ratio of hashish to tobacco. Sadly, the tobacco was just too much, and I did not meet my responsibility of finishing the product, but I am all the wiser now and optimistic about a more promising experience next time around.

Well, that's all I've got so far, and I'm starting to question how often I will be able to post stuff since internet use is charged by the hour (I really took those Argentina freebies for granted), but I will see what I can do.