After spending a week in Dordrecht I thought it was right and proper to return to Amsterdam if only for a few days.
First things first; find and check-in to my hostel. As usual my ‘mixed’ dorm was mostly male so after a quick chat with my Finnish roomies I headed off to find the place I had to meet my friend the next day.
Before I continue, I have to point out that I have excellent sense of direction. I rarely get so lost that I can’t find my way back and I am exceedingly proficient at reading maps – despite the female stereotype.
However, I spent two and a half hours looking for a place that, on the map, appeared to be only five blocks away. At some point I found myself going down this one street in the red light district for a third time. I’m sure I gave the girls in the windows a good laugh. Once I found the place I then managed to navigate my way back to the hostel in about an hour.
After much walking and a general sense of inadequacy I decided to retire to my room … possibly for a bit of sulking but this was not to be. Back in my room, my two Finnish roomies were sampling some Finnish schnapps which they kindly offered me. Our South Korean and Ukrainian roomies joined us with some Korean win (similar to Saki) and some French wine. Throw a few Heinekens into the mix and we had ourselves an international drinking party. I also tried, for the first time, this kind of ‘mouth’ tobacco (courtesy of my Finnish roomies) – not to be confused with chewing tobacco. You place a wad of it under your top lip and to one side so it’s sort of tucked up in your cheek. It kind of slowly dissolves, not completely, I mean, the wad is still there but you get the taste of tobacco. I don’t recommend it because it’s kind of unsightly to have what looks like cotton wool pushing your lip out but hey, it was something different. I ended up crawling into bed at about midnight. All in all, not a bad night.
An interesting side note – our Korean roomie is a heavy snorer which doesn’t bother me in the least and a sleep-talker – always interesting when it’s in a different language!
Day two. Armed with a new map that actually showed the names of the street and not just the canals, I made it to my fiend’s place in 20 minutes – I knew it wasn’t that far! We proceeded to do what I imagine most tourists come to Amsterdam to do – a coffeeshop crawl, or should that be stagger?
After such a day I declined to go out on the town. I had earlier in the day contemplated going to Boom Chicago – a comedy show my friend back home had told me about and which I later discovered was just around the corner from where I was staying. Sadly my Amsterdam ‘trip’ had worn me out so instead I retreated back to my hostel after a little souvenir buying. I ended up chatting to a rather interesting American chap who I correctly guessed was from New England – all the best Americans seem to be.
I’m heading back to Dordrecht tomorrow – I just can’t seem to stay away from that area – and hopefully bike riding through tulips on Sunday if the weather is good.
