Amsterdam is crazy!

September 8, 2008 at 1:52 PM

Sat-

The city is beautiful, both in architecture, and it's systems of canals and bike paths, but the people do not want to associate with "tourists." I know all about dislike of tourists, (being from New York) but the people here have a stronger destain for visitors than either Paris, Brussels, or certainly anywhere that I've been in the US, though I suppose that's partly because I don't even attempt to speak Dutch, but they seem cold to one another. (Let's face it, but a joke that makes you the idiot just because you don't speak the language making is really poor form and juvenile.)

I suppose that I can see why they would hate tourists so much though. I'm sure that a tourist to them is someone who is always on drugs, getting in the way of their life by getting in the way of bicycles, etc.

Last night, I a man who had fingernail scratches all over his body demanded more money from me after I gave him 1 euro and told him to go to a hospital. I ended up having to yell at him to let me pass. (He was obviously a really strung out junkie.)

I had success today playing on the street today. The first attempt had no success at 20 cents in 10 minutes, then a crazy homeless man holding a stuffed animal suggested that I choose a quieter street, so I agreed that that would be a better idea, so I left and found a perfect place to play on a street with an outdoor mall. I played for 2 hours there until the sun had nearly set and made 50 euros! I'm stoked. I'll play there again.

Sun.-

Today I took a bunch of photos of the area where we are moored and some of the city sights. I hope that you will all be interested. I think that they came out nice. I've been having difficulty, as usual, to find a good connection to upload my photos.

It's been cold and rainy all day, which sucks because I can't play in the rain. I think that the people here are used to being cold and damp. The food is also more expensive than that of Paris or Brussels and there are fewer grocery stores. I think that those are the reasons why it is legal for you to smoke here.

They don't have grocery stores here, or at least there are very few. I've been spending more than I would like to on food. After the conversion and increased prices, I'm unfortunately spending nearly double on a meal. Today I'm going to see the windmills, but I uploaded photos of what I have seen from Amsterdam already.

Check them out at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/crawfordviolin/NewAlbum9308608AM?pli=1#

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Amsterdam is crazy!

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