Oh you're American? I love Americans!

2:00 PM Amsterdam

                This morning we purposely slept in and skipped the hostel breakfast.  Once we were ready to go, we organized all our dirty clothes into one bag and headed to the Laundromat (currently waiting for our clothes to dry).  It’s 5€ to wash and 2€ to dry – it isn’t a bargain but it’s worth it. The machines only take coins but in Europe the 1€ and 2€ coins are used generously.

                Our hostel has a kitty that just lives here and it’s currently hanging out in the bar area sitting on the stools, and meowing for snacks.  It’s a very social kitty!  Our clothes are almost dry, though, so I will have to finish this post later. Today we’re going to a few markets and a very big park in the do-nothing-hang-out area marked on the map!  Yesterday in the market there was a guy selling antique figure skate blades that people tied to their shoes in old times.  Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures because there were signs everywhere saying NO PICTURES UNTIL YOU BUY! So rude.  But as Andy mentioned, an older gentleman came up to us and pointed to a particular set of blades and then to a nasty scar on his arm and said… playing hockey when I was 12! Too bad I didn’t have any cool scars to show him… just stupid I-burned-myself-while-making-caramel scars :P

                Okay, we’re back in the hostel again and it’s about 7 PM.  We walked quite a bit today, south of the hostel and the city center.  We saw the same street performer with the 10ft unicycle and heard him tell a couple of the same jokes as yesterday... (Oh you're American?! I love Americans! I love their accents - instead of ore-gah-no it's oregano!) We went to the Heineken brewery but it was 18€ per person for the “Heineken Experience” which I presume is a brewery tour and beer tasting (sheesh, for 18€, that better come with beer!), but we decided since we don’t even like Heineken that it wasn’t worth the money.  We’re really excited about the beer in Germany!  Along the canal, there were a lot of green houses set up selling flowers, plants and LOTS of tulip bulbs! The ceilings inside the greenhouses were completely covered with hanging flowers – so beautiful.  A couple streets further, there was an open air market that was literally just the stores along that particular street expanding their merchandise onto the sidewalks and streets in a market fashion.  You could walk along this street and buy everything from clothes, to art, to toothpaste and shampoo and frying pans. 

                At the park, almost the entire lawn was covered with people picnicking! There were kids everywhere throwing sticks in the water, chasing ducks and climbing trees.  Not a whole lot happened today, honestly.  Amsterdam has been really chill!  We had Mexican food for dinner – we both love Mexican and it’s a LOT harder to find here!  Tomorrow we have an early flight to Basel, Switzerland, then a bus to the Basel train station and then a train to Lucerne.  Our hostel in Lucerne should be similar to this one (except we’ll have our own room! Woo!) and it’s two minutes walk to the beach and 15 minutes from the famous bridge that we can’t wait to see :)

                Short post today but I didn’t want to bore you all! Next time I check in, I’ll be in Switzerland!