Saturday, February 14, 2004
Amsterdam
I'm at an internet cafe in Amsterdam's Centrum. I got a late start from The Hague and got here around 3:30 or so, so I'm just wandering around the Centrum until I get too tired or until it gets too dark. Then I'll find my way back to the Centraal Station and back home.
Two immediate observations: The first is that I see a lot of people walking around here with their faces buried in maps. I'm trying to avoid looking too much like a tourist myself, stealing only the random furtive glance at my Lonely Planet guide (the maps in it are typically bad anyway). There are also lots of people stopping traffic to take pictures of each other with a canal or something in the background.
The other observation is that I smell marijuana smoke wafting on every street. I suppose this was to be expected, but somehow I figured Amsterdam's reputation in this regard was overstated. It clearly is not.
My 38 minutes of internet time are nearly spent. More later ...
Two immediate observations: The first is that I see a lot of people walking around here with their faces buried in maps. I'm trying to avoid looking too much like a tourist myself, stealing only the random furtive glance at my Lonely Planet guide (the maps in it are typically bad anyway). There are also lots of people stopping traffic to take pictures of each other with a canal or something in the background.
The other observation is that I smell marijuana smoke wafting on every street. I suppose this was to be expected, but somehow I figured Amsterdam's reputation in this regard was overstated. It clearly is not.
My 38 minutes of internet time are nearly spent. More later ...
