Amsterdam Part Deux: A Rain Story

Since the last time I went to Amsterdam it was a unplanned event, I decided to go back with Jo and some other classmates.  We elected to stay on a houseboat (don't lie, you are jealous).  Yes, I was singing "I'm on a Boat" in my head all weekend.

1. Bottom left: The House Boat!
2. Bottom right: The view from the boat...ok, so it is nothing special.
3. Top middle: The room.  I slept in the single bunk and it was so close to the ceiling that my shoulder touched if I laid on my side. Tight.
4. Top right: The friendly cat from next door.  This is Friendly Cat 2 (the picture is from Saturday when it's light outside, don't worry...Friendly Cat 1 is coming).

Friday night was just a party night because we arrived too late to do anything (aside from activities that don't start until night time).

• Top: At dinner we met Friendly Cat 1.  He curled up on someone's jacket (right next to them) after they sat down for dinner.  They must have been cat people because not everyone would tolerate that.
• Bottom left: Not the first time I have urinated in public in Amsterdam.
• Bottom middle: Killer swans in the canals!

Saturday was eventful.  After waking at the crack of noon, we made our way over to the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, which had a number of Rembrandt's and other famous paintings.  I bought postcards of all of the paintings that I like; I will comment that I bought nothing from the Rembrandt museum.  I'm not saying his work, and other works from that era, were not amazing.  The paintings were so incredibly lifelike I can't believe it was a painting...but I was not blown away like I was by some of the Van Gogh paintings.  There were some of those where I just had to buy a copy.

• Top middle: An amazing mullet outside of the Van Gogh museum.   For those living under a rock, a mullet is a haircut with business in the front and party in the back. His party is dreadlocks.
• Bottom: MITamsterdam! how great is that?

After the museums Jo and I headed over to the Heineken experience.  We've done the Guinness experience in Dublin and I'll just say that both are fun, but it is a different experience (aside from the beers you get with your entry ticket).  I gave my tickets to Jo, which produced one of the quotes of the weekend.

Jo: Do you want me to see if you can get a coke with you tickets?

Drew: I'd rather watch you pound 4 beers in 20 minutes.

We had agreed to meet the group at a certain time and had 20 minutes to leave...and you can't just throw away beer...someone had to drink it, and Jo was up to the challenge.

After that we did some more partying.  This time we found a karaoke bar.  Anyone who has heard me sing before can imagine how bad it was for everyone that night.  Luckily we were the only four people in there for quite a while...until 20 German high-school boys showed up and joined together in "When You Say Nothing at All"  which is a love song you may or may not know (look it up on youtube).  Quite funny coming from adolescent guys.

• Top right: Donner kabob and Friendly Cat 3.  What more could you want?

Sunday we went to the Anne Frank house because Jo had not been yet and then we drove home.