Amsterdam, Holland

Hmmm, still not sure how to say Hello in Dutch, (although I know that some of you know... and I imagine it has a few oooo's in it,) so I will just say Hello, greetings from Amsterdam!
In the past few days I have passed by many internet cafes, yet finding them again has proved rather difficult. There is one behind my hostel, but I have now gone to it three times and it has not been opened once... and there are no signs giving hours... ???

Anyway...

Amsterdam is a crazy city--and I'm not talking about because of legal pot or prostitutes--I'm talking about the mix of bicycles and cars on the streets without lights at intersections, streets that go in large circles, and weather that turns from thunder and lightning and rain to sun and back in about ten minutes. (Okay, the last part I should be more than acquainted with, coming from Williamsburg.) Speaking of Williamsburg, for all of us that have always enjoyed gawking at the tourists, boy would you have fun here! I have found it much more difficult to navigate, (with the streets that all look the same and go in circles,) than Paris. Now, I know that some of you may doubt my directional ability, (Stewart--I was very close to pulling out my compass,) but I will tell you that I was one of several dozen tourists in any given area who had my map out and was searching for the street names on the sides of buildings. (Vic--you can attest to my great direction anyway--think of my stellar navigation through Orange County.)
I cannot believe how the bikes, cars, and people all seem to mix rather easily through intersections with no traffic lights or signs. And I still have not figured out which places are roads, walkways, or place/park areas. I saw a truck drive right through an area I am positive was a pedestrian zone because there were seats and tables everywhere... but maybe he just had to cross! I have no idea! I suppose everyone is alert... I know I have been. I decided not to rent a bike though, that would have been too difficult. Oh and the trams, phew, nevermind.
It has rained everyday that I have been here, but not all day everyday. Some parts of the day have been beautiful. Parts of today felt like a nice early Spring or Fall day. (Until the lightning storm that I spent under a bridge with a ton of other people who were at Vondel Park when it happened. The smell of rain mixing nicely with pot smoke.)
Fortunatly, despite of all the rain, there is a lot to do inside. I think my guidebook said there were more museums in this city than any other in the world... or maybe it was per sq. kilometer.
I decided to take the Canal Hop-on-hop-off bus, (like the big red ones in London,) so I could mix my museums with a canal cruise. The boating bus proved much more difficult than the road buses in other cities because it was extrememly difficult to figure out where the dock was that the boat would show up at! (I was one of many who finally arrived at a dock with a sigh.) When the weather was nice it was awesome to be sailing through the canals!
(I have to say--Chris and pass it on to Nick, if you are even reading this--that I thought of our bus experience in London more than once!)
On Thursday I went to the Van Gogh museum, mostly in honor of LaToya, and it was a great museum... not too much stuff, and a nice mix of Van Gogh's life history explained in each room with his art. (I was disappointed to find out that Starry Night is in NYC, not here... but LaToya, I'm sure you knew that already.) I also went to the Anne Frank House, and now agree with Vic that it is one of the best museums I have seen. Nice mix of multi-media in the house, I was one of several with tears in the eyes by the end of it, and it has been a long time since I read the book. I got lost for awhile... of course when it started to rain... but ended up in the center square area-- Dam Square, which had a great feel even in the rain! Desperate to eat, I finally had a meat sandwich from one of the kabob stands, (nothing like the kabob stands in Oxford though.)
On Friday, because it was once again raining in the morning, I went to the Rembrandthius--Rembrandt's house and museum. Nice mix of art with 17th century house history--but the best part had to be that they explained how the bed was so short because people were shorter at that time!!!! (No joking!) Of course, this made me a little more leary about the rest of the history given. I had a nice chance to walk over to the History Museum... before it started raining again. On my way I stumbled upon a park with the Clandestine Church in it. Apparently it was a Church that remained a secretive Catholic Church even when during the Reformation when Catholicism was actually banned here and all the Catholic Churches were forced to shut down. It was a beautiful little Church in a lovely courtyard, but I must say that I found it very amusing that I had to search and search for some things, (on the look-a-like-circular-roads,) and constantly use my map, but then bam--unintentionally I ran right into the Clandestine Church. The history museum was alright, although there were a few too many artifacts for my taste, (and no people dressed in costume giving me a tour--just what kind of history museum do they think they are??)
Brooke--there was a special costuming exhibit though! Wish you were there!
I met some girls from my dorm who wanted to walk through the red light district and get drinks last night-- definitly not something I wanted to do on my own--although I'm not sure what the bigger stretch was--Christine going out and meeting people or Christine going to the Red Light District?? Anyway, quite an interesting experience, but I must confess, really not all that crazy. I think I trip down Rugby Road, Cville on Friday night was about the same as a trip down the Red Light District, Amsterdam on a Friday night... the difference being that the guys in the Red Light District were absolutly quiet... no yelling or gawking, (unlike Rugby Road,) so I was quite suprised. I did decide to go with the part of the group that decided NOT to go to the sex show though.
To Bruce and the YAM group---I went to St. Nicholas' today, I think he is the patron saint of Amsterdam... which would make sense with all the water and sailing! I also went to Vondel Park, but it rained before I could make it all the way to the Film Museum, (and I was about museumed out.) Perhaps the best part was going to the Diamond Exhibit! Amsterdam is well known for their diamonds, so I went to a free museum where I could see some people actually cutting the diamonds... they explained all about diamond cuts and such... haha, I think that I already knew all the information though:) They had lots of rings for sale... and I looked through them, just to prove that not one of them is as nice as mine:)
On a few other notes, Ben and Ellen--I think I fit in very well here because they eat A LOT of sandwiches!
Stewart--you would love it here with all the canals and there are tons of house boats. I think you should move here, because with all the lost tourists you would not get homesick. Oh, and tell James that my waiter tonight at dinner looked exactly like him! (I also saw him drinking lots of beer behind the counter in between taking orders, so he rather reminded me of James as well.)
Jenny--there was a dog in a really nice antique shop window, lovely golden retriever, but a little odd to be in an antique shop, don't you think?
Well, I must say, that to love the city, despite the rain (and public urinals... I forgot to mention those,) says it is a lovely place with all its canals. The buildings actually lean in. There are some extremely narrow ones--two houses down from my hostel is one that is only the width of a door!

I must be off! My time is nearly out!