Dag 2 -- Amsterdam

We took the train to Amsterdam on Saturday. The train ride was very nice and smooth. The scenery? Uh... pretty much the same as the first ride from Amsterdam to Groningen. Farmlands! Though there are more houses around this time. Very cute and very small single family houses. On the whole, everything's small in scale in Holland, other than the people. Apparently they are on average the tallest people in the world!

The train has three (as far as I can tell) different sections, the Silence section (watch out, if you are talking on your cellphone, someone just might come and yell at you!), the regular section (where people conversed loudly to each other NON-STOP the entire time they're on the train), and first class (where the seats are more comfortable, and there might be a private booth with doors).

Finally after 2 and half hours of train ride and 2 train changes, we arrived in Amsterdam, the city famous for it's red light district, and "coffee shops". The first weird thing? You have to pay to go to the bathroom at the train station, 50 euro cents, which completes the "nothing is free in the Netherlands" observation. There was a Burger King that has ultra slow service much like the BK's in the States (good to know!), and a Ben and Jerry's at the station.

Now Amsterdam. There were tourists everywhere! On a quick look around, there were little shops where they sell fries (of course), sex toy shops, sourvenier shops, and "coffee shops" with a distinct marajuna scent. In fact, that scent is pretty much everywhere as you walk around the city. Not a very pleasant smell, but I guess when you are high, you don't really care what it smells like.

The sourvenier shops are full of wooden clogs in various forms, sizes and patterns; windmills, sex and coffee shop/weed on various items including postcards, magenets, shot glasses, keychains and more.

Sex toy shops range from your usual "items" to S&M specific shops, to pure DVD shops, all openly displaying their merchandize. "Coffee shops" does not seem to be hiding the fact that they sell marajuna either. It's a common misconception that weed is legal in the Netherlands. It is not. But the law is very lenient towards it, and no one gets panelized for using or selling it apparently. In fact, it's expected that you don't get punished for it. Only mass trafficking is illegal. The smell made me shy away from the coffee shops, even I was extremely curious about what the menu looks like in them. I'm told the fact they sell weed is on the menu as one of things to be ordered. Oy!

The red light distrcit. ahh... well, it looked a lot like the red light district in Groningen, only MUCH bigger. There are even hookers in windows on the second floors. There's even a section with transvestites. Some of them are so "decorated" that Í couldn't tell that they're not female! There were strip clubs, peep shows and live sex show clubs everywhere. 25 euro, on average, will get you in the door.

There're buses and trams in the city that run on electric lines above and tracks below. I haven't seen the buses with electric lines above in ages, since I was little in China. Speaking of China, we went through the Chinatown. It was small, but adorned with the usual Chinese bakery, Chinese restaurants and grocery stores. I tried hard to find egg custard tart, but failed. I'm told one of the bakery down the street serves it, but since it was close to 5pm and the stores were closing fast, I couldn't get to it in time for them. This 5 pm closing time is for the birds, I tell u!

The square in front of the Queen's Palace was packed. There were street performers, living statues (in the form of Renaissance Knights, Darth Vader and weird monster looking person), protesters and the "Free Hugs" people. There were some people holding signs that says Free Hugs and were giving out hugs to anyone who were willing to accept one, apparently trying to get people to be more comfortable with giving and receiving hugs. Okay!

The Queen does not, however, live in the Palace. It is currently completely empty. Netherlands is the only country in the world (I'm told), that the government (Monarchy or otherwise) does not function out of its rightful capital. The parliment and the queen work in Den Haag, leaving Amsterdam in the hands of tourists.

After a full day of walking all aruond Amsterdam (crossing the main section several times), we took the train back to Groningen and had ourselves another expensive dinner, this time in an Italian restaurant. I'm told there are NO chain restaurants other than McD's, KFC and BK. The Italian restaurant was small (most of the restaurants here are), and packed. The food was rich and yummy for the most part. I had a shrimp salad that was wayyyyy too rich, and mussels that were delicious. The cheesy pasta side dish was awful in my opinion, since I'm not a big cheese fan and cheesy pasta was just not my thing. Yeah, I know, I'm weird. :D

After dinner, we had a beer and iced tea in a local pub. It being Saturday night, the city was hopping. But it being only 10pm, it wasn't quite as hopping as it would be at midnight, I'm told. I feel old!