Day 3: A Sunday Morning Meander

Actually, it was more like an afternoon adventure, because it began around noon, but I'm still on USA time so it felt like 6 a.m.  Irrelevant clarification aside, I spent an awesome four hours just getting lost and walking along the canal.

This is a train platform behind my dorm.

Houseboats are all up and down the canals.

There are those hooks I was telling you about!

More houseboats.

There are also plenty of regular boats moored along the edges.

I'd originally intended to find the flower market (Bloemenmarkt), but couldn't find the street it was on, even after examining the various maps around the city.  I ended up around the city hall area, aka tourist central.  The only bits that made it look touristy though were the tiny shops selling clogs and the hoards of people on rentable bikes.

Here's an example of how prevalent the bike is in Amsterdam.

This bridge had a bunch of locks on its chains.  I wanted a better picture, but I was trying to avoid getting hit by bikes.

[Edit: here is an article about love padlocks]

 The other side had them too.

More bikes and boats.

This is Amsterdam's city hall and opera house.  Those white tents are all selling books.

Seriously...tons of books.

Bridge detail.

Clogs!

Other snapshots.

What's everyone looking at?

These groovy dudes were jamming out by some statues.  They are called The Street Radio, and are from Germany.  They lured me in with their rendition of "Better Together" by Jack Johnson.  Here's a short clip.

This is Oosterpark.  I wanted to explore further and figure out how I can get in on the camping action, but by this time my feet were killing me and I needed lunch.  I might check it out tomorrow.

There are ads plastered wherever there's construction.  From these, I have learned that T-Pain is coming in September, for anyone who is interested.

 And now for another story of slight failure.  It's a big faux pas here to walk in the bike lanes.  There are lanes for cars, bikes, and pedestrians, and they're usually all different colors or at least different materials.  I've been doing really well about keeping in my lane, but wandered into a more residential area near where I live where the bike and pedestrian lanes were the same color and cobblestone material, only differentiated by a slight painted line.  I was thinking how odd it was that I was in such a large pedestrian lane when I checked myself and stepped out of the way of an oncoming biker.  He didn't yell or anything, just smiled at me.  Then he turned around and smiled again.  And then he turned around and smiled and waved.  And then turned around and smiled again, but by now I had stopped looking at him, just in case he misread my polite eye contact.  Anyway, if I go missing, it's because bike man has kidnapped me and is holding me hostage while he creepily grins at me from afar.

Success of the day: found vegan chocolate at Albert Heijn.  Om nom nom!

Tomorrow, I plan on buying a bike, completing my De Key registration, and hopefully biking to the location of my Getting Started intake meeting, just to make sure I can get there without getting lost.

Love to you all!  Skype me/ video chat me soon, I'm six hours ahead of ya'll.
Mwah : - *
C