After the Mad Professor -

Spending time at the Mad Professor (or is it Processor?). By the time I left it was getting dark. I walked back to my bike and rode to a Dutch restaurant for an authentic Dutch meal. I had some kind of beef stew over vegetables and a Palm Beer.



This cat was sitting on a bar stool right near me at the Dutch Restaurant I went to Restaurant 't Zwaantje, at Berenstraat 12, 1016 GH Amsterdam. Visit www.zwaantje.demon.nl for their site.


Rode my bike back to the hostel at night, by riding down a street along a canal which slowly curved south and then east to take me right to the Leidseplein, and the hostel is right below that. The streets can start to become easy once you realize that many curve in a semi-circle with the canals. Many people ride around at night and the city is completely safe. I stopped to take a photo of a canal and the only person that approached me was a tourist from Equador looking at a map. I am amazed because often at 3am, you will hear the clammoring of a bicycle coming towards you on a dark street and suddenly it is girl all by herself, coming or going from a night out.


More at night. I just kept riding my bike down along the canal towards the Leidseplein and the hostel, and whenever there was something worth shooting, I pulled out my camera.

New roommates: two girls from Canada, two from Sweden, and a guy named David from Israel, and one dude from Argentina.

Later that night at the Hostel, I hung out with Eric from Florida and Rudy from Whales. We joined up with a couple girls from Westchester, New York, and went out to the Rokerij. Now for me, the Rokerij in the Leidzeplein is one of my favorites, next to Katzu in the Albert Cuyp Market. Here is a link to the den of inequity called the Rokerij: http://www.rokerij.net/

A guy who works at the hostel, named Joel, found an empty house and was organizing to make a Squat there. A Squat means that the original owners of a building have left it vacant for a year and it is totally legal for people to take over the property and live there. There are quite a few squats around and all you need is a table, a chair, and a lamp, and the house becomes yours (if you can keep the original landlord from sending heavies over there to throw you out) interesting.. but I guess it is the way that they solve the housing problems in Amsterdam.

Sunday Morning
I checked out of the Flying Pig. Said goodbye to the lovely receptionists and the people that I met who work there Joel, Dennis, and Rudy, and a few others, and took a taxi to my new digs, the Luxor Hotel near the Train Station. I have one more night here in town and Im still waiting to check into my room. I plan to take a shower, rent a bike, and continue the fun. And tomorrow, early, I will be walking over to train and heading to the airport.

So far I have taken over 150 photos. What do you think of the ones I posted so far?