I arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday evening.  I’m staying out of the center of the city closer to the museums, which is kind of my preferred way to do things.  The hostel I’m staying in is very small and cozy, which is kind of a nice change.

With only a few people there, you’ve got to talk to everyone and the hostel people are much more personal.  One of the workers there took us on a walk down to the center of the city, actually it was more like a trek.  We had a beer at some Australian place, then a more authentic Dutch bar, and then a more touristy bar in the red light district area.

Of course in that area a lot of people were smoking, but strangely the whole red light district almost just feels normal there – not really sketchy or exciting at all… just kind of a different thing to visit.  As long as you don’t mind walking past a lot of erotica shops with a lot of penis-shaped things in the window.

Monday morning I walked through the Albert Cuyp Market, which is right across the street from where I’m staying.  It has a lot of clothing for sale, but also has fresh food and a range of other things from jewelry and makeup to teas and souvenirs.  Bought a couple avocados then went grocery shopping, because *yay* I have a small kitchen.

After a day mostly full of work, I met someone out for a couple drinks who I had met in Bruges.  We had planned on going to listen to live music, but nothing was going on, so we just ended up next door at Tripel, a Belgian beer bar (as if I haven’t had enough Belgian beer).  Which ended up great because it was a fun place with a laid-back vibe (more traditional bar I’d go to), and we talked to some locals to get the inside scoop on what we should see.

I took a picture of the canal at night on my walk back to the hostel.

Tuesday morning I stopped by the Boekenmarkt on the way to the library.  It’s just a market of flowers.  But the Amsterdam Public Library is actually pretty amazing, and while the WiFi isn’t free (2€/hour), it’s very cool looking and was a great place to work.  I might come back here in the evenings for a quite place to get some things done this week.

In the evening, I met up with Ashok and we had dinner at an Italian place.  It was the best pizza I’ve had in a while.  But I don’t remember what the place was called, so I guess we’ll never know.

Yeah sorry I haven’t done a ton the last couple days or taken many picture.