trotted out the front entrance, to be enswarthed by an unbelievable amount of people. i have a new theory, the more people there are, the better the goodlooking ratio :) lei and i sent a few "did you see that one :O" smiles over laur's head, who is starting to think we are a little bit shallow haha. annyway trying to avoid straying into the paths of trams, and angrily fast dutch cyclists we wondered down our first street.
first priority was to widen our eyes, widen our knowledge of the world.. really an excuse to check out the red light district. Amsterdam is like everyone's naughty dreams when they were younger. all the taboos are openly broken, everyone staring at the nearly naked women straight out of those seedy mens magazines (only a bit fatter) behind thin glass doors. we sort of looked, haha ok we looked, but also didnt know where to look. it was a bit like a zoo, these women standing there showing off their wares, shaking their booty (boobs, bums, thighs, cellulite wobbling all over the place) , in underwear slightly too small for them, beckoning the men with two fingers. amongst our gasps of "why on earth would they want to do that?""imagine the seedy old men , all sweaty that they have to do""they wouldn't want to spend their money from that on stupid things""wonder how long they work for, how many they fit in" we tried to spot any men making their transactions. nope, none, too early..we decided to come back later.
walking around the blocks, we accidently walked down the same street again. putting our pace on and looking down so they wouldnt think we were perverts, we walked a few kilometres to observe the tall ships that sail into amsterdam once every 5 years. milling with about 20 000 other people, we climbed through giant I amsterdam letters sat down and stared at the river. lets just say you wouldnt have been able to fit a canoe in there let alone cross to the otherside, it was like a highway. finding the ships amazing, we decided to leave it at that look and head back to amsterdam city.
aleida finally got her wish of having chips in a cone, piled with mayo. also a plastic cone filled with candy goodness from jamin (the biggest lolly shop ive ever seen). the sun was shining alll day causing a little sweat to rise, so we searched for a shady seat. a square on the main st had a few tall trees so we headed in that direction. finding no chairs there, thought stuff it and sat down on the pavers. got quite a few stares from passing by amsterdamers, not sure if they'd ever seen a person sitting on the pavers amongst the pidgeons before, but we started quite a trend. by the time we left after about an hour of giggling, bloatedness, trying on my headphones etc, there was about 5 groups all lounging around.
wondered around, found a canal, took our shoes off (didnt want them falling into that murky looking water.) and perched on the edge of the cobbled street. the sun twinkled through the trees, a sweet breeze blew off the water, we ate our lollies, sipped our precious water and iced tea and smiled at passing boys in boats :) (me and aleida mostly) watched a wedding party climb into four beautiful cream boats. a boat we all wished we were on passed. a group of about 20, men in top hats and dreadies, brown and laughing, women in summery hippy clothes, brown and laughing, pulled up beside the wedding boat, whisked out a trombone, and put on a circus act for them. all in front of our eyes :) boats passed to and fro for another couple of hours, while we sat and relaxed. people in canal tour boats took photos of us.. wonder if they would if they knew we were tourists too?
(sorry couldnt rotate it.)
finally decided to move on, walked past a few weed shops, another taboo broken. quickly glanced around before sneaking into one. bought a brown cocacola looking hash lollypop for a giggle. once unwrapped and in our mouths, it tasted like sugary parsley soup and utterly disgusting so was immediately plopped into the depths of a canal. sat again on another canal's edge. proceeded to lie down, hot stony ledge beneath our backs, sun beating down on our closed eyelids, legs swinging on other side of the ledge to the beats of our headphones. totally relaxed amidst the fishy smells, the weed smell, the pidgeons cawing, the weird seagulls of the northern hemisphere cawing, the traffic motoring, and the people chattering.
thought it was a good time to go back and check out the red lights again. this time crowded with people. lots of groups of men, but lots of women too. one women desperately kissing her husband/partner , which we interpreted as an attempt to stop his wandering eye. lots of couples, lots of everyday people like us. saw a couple of men making transactions, pointed and stared, spotted some getting dressed through gaps in curtains, transactions over. again thought it was a zoo, but were slightly tempted to check out a show. lei squeaked, so we decided to follow our better judgement and again decided to move on to sit somewhere else, found another canal, sat down, said hello to the man who said hello to us and realised we'd sat next to a rather open urinal. eeek tried to unembarrassedly stand back up and walk away. wandered around again for a couple of hours, wondering what backpackers do.. but not unhappily. we all loved sitting by the water, relaxing, people watching, sitting.
found that square again, sat for a bit. a group of frisbee throwers, frisbeed around showing off their tricks to about two people ..wearing "create peace, play frisbee" t-shirts. they were quite good, but frisbee is only so entertaining. called it a day and straggled back to the trains and home.
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