And, it's all worth it.

My trip to Amsterdam is better described as my trip to the Netherlands. I flew in Friday afternoon a hopped a train to Leiden, where Sean lives. This comparatively small town is located about twenty minutes South of Amsterdam and boasts all the canals, windmills, and stereotypical Holland "culture" you would expect, but in it's own, rather wonderful, way.

Within twenty minutes of arriving in Leiden, I was experiencing some of that "culture" for myself. We met up with two of Sean's friends, Chris and Tad (who became our compatriots of debauchery for the weekend), and proceeded to go from bar to bar enjoying rounds and hilarious conversation. Apparently, these guys have recently embarked on a no-holds-barred "your mom" competition of epic proportion. Needless to say, I immediately felt at home (and homesick for my dear friends). At the third or fourth bar, I befriended a Dutch girl named Ester, who had an uncanny resemblance to Liza Minnelli. A good friend of Ester's was having a birthday celebration of some kind, so we ended up tagging along. At some point in the evening, I had my first kebab - it was delicious, as promised. We stumbled home sometime around three.

Saturday morning we explored the weekly market along the canals. I've never found the smell of fresh fish appealing before. There were stalls of all kinds of fresh produce, cheese (they're really big on their cheese), and stroopwaffle. If you ever have the opportunity to eat some stroopwaffle in your life, take it from me, don't pass it up. For breakfast I had a traditional Dutch pancake. The best description I can come up with for this delicacy is as follows: an open-faced breakfast taco on a crepe tortilla. Mine had mushrooms, bacon, and cheese and was the size of my face. Later that day we collected Tad and Chris and hopped a train to Eindhoven (about two hours further south). Sean had read about the Eindhoven Winter Festival and was eager to go experience all the ice sculpture, sledding, wintry glory. Since Sean had proposed this idea (and it was, sort of, the reason I went this weekend), I figured Sean must have had some kind of plan. Not really. Once we got there, we sort of just wandered off in a random direction. (Though it wasn't entirely random as there was some thought put into why we went that way. It was more of an educated guess). The first thing we stumbled upon was an ice rink - that's "winterfest-esque" enough for us. So we got some skates and (I at least) proceeded to fall down a lot. It was fun, if not a little painful. We asked the people running the rink where the other festival stuff was and they pointed down a little road to our left. As we headed down said little road, Chris got distracted by an Irish pub and we ended up in there drinking and playing pool for a couple of hours. When we finally did make it thirty seconds down the road, we found several tents and sledding ramps and all sort of fun - but it was closed. There was nothing else to do but find another bar. Eindhoven, in case you didn't know, it home to the "longest strip of bars in the Netherlands". This strip of bars consists of about eight dodgy looking places. For those of us familiar with 6th street, it's kind of a joke. The rest of the night carried on much like the previous night except for one major difference: getting home consisted of catching a two hour train back to Leiden at some point. That point, we decided, was 2:30. We bundled up and headed back to the train station only to find it was closed. After a couple more drinks and an hour or so of trekking from booked hotel to booked hotel, we started up negotiations with local cabbies to see who we could convince to drive us the two hours back to Leiden for less than 300 Euro. I say "we" here, but really Sean was the only person making much effort to get us home. Eventually, with the help of some pretty stellar negotiating powers, Sean got a Mercedes to agree to 160 Euro, and we made it home safe and sound.

Sunday, I left Sean to study and I went up to Amsterdam for the afternoon. I went to the Rijst Museum, where they house a hilariously random array of Dutch painting, sculptures, artefacts, and china as well as an impressive collection of Rembrandt's work (including the Night Watch which is IMPRESSIVE, to say the least). I then went to the Van Gogh Museum, which might have been one of my favourite tourist things in Europe so far. I embraced the nerd within, rented the audio tour, and proceeded to listen (with undivided fascination) to the entire thing. After the museums, I attempted to go find the Red Light District just to say I did. The tram system got the best of me and I ended up fairly lost. I got a little more panicky than I needed to, but I attribute this to the fact that everything was in Dutch and to the fight that broke out within five feet of me. This guy got jacked in the face, twice, and ended up very bloody and (understandably) very irate. So, I gave up fairly quickly and decided to seek the safety of the train station. This is the only thing traditionally "Amsterdam" that I missed out on - but I'm not that broken up about it. If nothing else, it just gives me an excuse to go back in the future. That night, I went with the three guys to watch the Steelers game. There was a girl from Pittsburgh there who, after one look, I immediately disliked. Other than her presence, it was another excellent evening.

Monday, I spent the morning wandering around Leiden while Sean was in class. I found several neat looking churches, loads of interesting nooks and alleyways, some of the best chai I've ever had, and a medieval citadel. After a cup of coffee with Tad and Sean, I had to head to the airport for my flight home. If my Dublin trip was a prime example of the tourist's sightseeing weekend (which I think it kind of was), then this trip was the exact opposite. It was a trip full of stories and exploits best categorized under "you had to be there". It was a much needed weekend of over-indulgence and I had an absolutely wonderful time.