Amsterdam and Brussels Extended

Ok so Amsterdam...first day was completely made up of walking around and acting/being a complete tourist because really we didn't know any better. We got in around 12, found our hostel within an hour, and then just started wandering to get a little bit of a sense of where we were. Our hostel was right on the edge of the red light district which = some of the funniest t-shirts we have ever seen (AJ I got you your gift), some of the most expensive non-netherlands shops, and within a couple blocks you could look over your shoulder and jump a little bit because there was a half naked person winking at you through a window. Just down the road there was a Carnival of all things...which we thought was a little much as far as catering to tourists. On Saturday it was already our mission to find the non-touristy part of town...and luckily our Canadian roommates had a good direction to point us in. We walked about 30 minutes south of our hostel and came across a much more local restaurant and beer district where the prices were a lot more reasonable and the people gave good suggestions on where to go. Our first stop we had some "bitter balls", which were surprisingly good appetizers, and had a couple of local microbrews. That bartender pointed us across the street to a place called Gollem (yes like the LOTR character) where they had 260 beers to choose from. We met up with an English couple and they gave us lots of tips on what to do during our time in London. The guy we were talking to was a university professor and claimed to have taught Prince William and Harry (which is really neat if he's not full of it). Later that night we went to a comedy club called Boom Chicago...don't go there. The comedians were americans that pretty much hate america...not impressed and laughed at maybe one of their jokes at the beginning. Those are pretty much the highlights of that day.

Day two we rented some bikes and rode down to the Olympic stadium and watched the finishers of the Amsterdam marathon. I think first place finished it in 2 hours and 7 minutes or something, 1st women was 2:22. It was a really nice day so we decided to get lost on that side of town. It was nice to see a side of the city where people actually live, it was much prettier. We found a little hole in the wall to eat lunch where I had the BEST italian club sandwich I have ever had. We forgot the camera for that day so all we have is really good mental pictures. The bikes were a lot of fun to ride around and I recommend it to anyone that wants to see a lot of the city, but our butts are really sore from the seats (need to replace schocks on the bikes).

The next day we packed up and headed for Brussels. Got there about 2 and found our hostel by about 3. We met a really nice girl from Chicago on the train ride there who gave us a GREAT little tour map. It had a bunch of little spots that we wouldn't have known about otherwise. We thought the town was much more pretty at night than during the day. A lot of construction right now that just kinda took away from everything. Anyways, the map had a cheap vietnamese restaurant on it that we checked out and ended up being really good. We then ventured on to one of the famous chocolate places and bought a variety box to carry around with us while we walked around the Grand Place. We found a bar called Delerium that is in the Guiness book of world records for most beers available. It had something like 2600 different kinds available. Really neat little place with good music and great atmosphere. We took a picture of the menu which looked more like a phonebook. With all of that selection, we still only tried 2 really good ones each...the combination of that and chocolate was already forming a stomach ache for the next day. We took a walk up to the Palace after that, then headed back to the hostel for sleep. We are in Bruges now for a few days, England is next on the list. Catch up with you soon.