Amsterdam

Arrived safely in Amsterdam yesterday.

We took a train out of the Paris airport. We were told our metro tickets would work to get out there...they worked in the machines to let us on the train, but once we got to the airport we had to put them back in the machines and they beeped and the machine lit up red. Some metro ticket watch guards fined us 25 euros for that mistake. Bummer.

Got on the train to Brussels and then switched to a couple different trains headed to amsterdam. In the Amsterdam station a couple that was leaving gave us their day passes for the tram, score!

It was freezing and pouring when we arrived and we couldn't remember the name of our hostel. We found a mcdonalds with wifi and looked it up. Problem solved!

Got here and only some of the rooms have lockers, but we can put stuff in the reception safe so all is well. We are in a four bed room with an ensuite bathroom and shower. Not too shabby.

Took a walking tour today. It was pretty sunny out and nice. I bought a jacket anyways so now I am prepared for London and Ireland. I'm also looking for some closed toed shoes/ ankle boot type things so that I can wear tights with my dresses. Fascinating stuff on today's blog post.

The walking tour was great. Rivals the one in Madrid which was really good too. Tour was led by an Aussie guy who moved here about a year and a half ago after meeting a nice Dutch girl in Australia. We walked all around and he talked about Amsterdam history and present day things.

Saw a lot of coffee shops(different from coffee company where you can actually get coffee.) tour guide explained that while marijuana is not technically legal here, the police ignore it because they have been more focused on ridding the city of heroin addicts. They focus on stopping hard drug use and let the massive marijuana industry carry on. Tour guide also explained that you can do pretty much whatever you want here as long as it doesn't hurt people or businesses and as long as you remain discreet/chill about whatever you are doing. Amsterdam = so casual.

Tonight we are going to figure out how to get to London on Friday. Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, we want to rent bikes and bike around.

I'm having a great time saying all the street names with an extreme accent. For example, we are staking on Fokke Simonsztraat. And that is one if the more casual names. The tram stopped at a stop that had the longest name/ one word that I have ever seen. Amazing.

Train station time.
Bye.