Baby went to Amsterdam

She put a little money into travelling

Now it's so slow, so slow

Baby went to Amsterdam

Four, five days for the big canal

Now it's so slow, so slow

　
I listened to 'Amsterdam' by Peter Bjorn and John on the beautiful train ride from Paris, with a stopover in Antwerp, Belgium, arriving in sunny Amsterdam at about 3 in the arvo. I put my bags in a locker and headed out into the streets of Amsterdam, I had a few hours to kill before meeting the girls at the station after they arrived from their bus. I really liked the gorgeous 17th Century architecture and ofcourse the canals and multitudes of bikes and pretty young things strolling through the narrow streets, others sitting outside those infamous coffee shops smoking away. The smell is everywhere, you can't escape it.

And I was heading up north

To a place that I know

Eating well, sleeping well

But still I was way, way out of line

Amsterdam was stuck in my mind

Walked from Amsterdam Centraal (I love the double a in that, not sure why) Station, through Dam Square and the very cool Palace, along the canals to anne franks house. Out the front the line was too long and by then I was running outta time, but it was still cool to just see the outside of where it all happened. There was a festival thing going on in , with a big stage, lots of people, cameras, bars, later on in the night when we all went out, there was this really epic classical music and kindof opera stuff going on, it was pretty cool! After I met the girls we got ready for a night out, it was a bit chilly so we didn't forget our jackets, and had an interesting night, fun, it was strange being in a place like Amsterdam for less than 24 hours, just this kindof elongated introduction to this crazy crazy environment that is beautiful in an ugly kind of remote way, the red light district was stumbled upon by accident, and in our little haze it was just so so odd, so Amsterdam but you don't really think something like that could be real, its just so…weird. I would have liked to travel around other parts of Holland and the Netherlands, especially the north where my aunty Carol recommended me to visit (the cheese markets especially!) but it will have to wait till next time. Until that time, Amsterdam will be a fond, funny, one night memory.

Oh, it's a kind of stupid groove

That you can't ignore

Oh, it's a kind of natural fact

Sometimes you're just left to be alone