Silly Things in Amsterdam

Here's how Madame Tussaud thinks of our President - not far off?

Here is what, for the love of God, a SHOPPING MALL looks like in Europe.
Finally, we have found it:
This is not the steepest staircase I saw, nor the steepest staircase at a place of intoxication:
Here's one of Holland's pervasive bicycle attack zones:
If it takes you fewer than three days of almost getting hit to remember how to pick these out, you're a better traveler than I am.

Amsterdam Picnic

My plan was to spend my last 28 hours in Holland awake and wandering the streets of Amsterdam. Luckily, Pud could spend the first 7 or so hanging out in Amsterdam with me. We managed to do everything we wanted, including grocery-store cheese and The Other Heineken, which we enjoyed at a canal-side picnic:

Where we managed to fend off a concerted attack by the local pigeons:

Favourable Exchange Rates

If somebody on the street asks to buy a cigarette off me, I usually just give them a cigarette. If some people on the street offer to give me a beer for a cigarette, well....

Nightlife

Charlotte and Tyler are here! I showed them the winter wonderland/nightclub district near the hostel, where all the bars were packed. And all the chairs on the street were packed:

... because it turns out that the soccer game the high Australians invited me to watch was kind of a big deal. Fortunately Tyler and Charlotte passed a nice quiet street-corner cafe on the way to find me, so we went there to catch the rest of the game. And to have smoooooooth Belgian beers. Yes indeed.

Leaving the World

Amsterdam! Which I've been left to explore on my own for 36 hours. Few photos of this period have turned out to be postable. But here's one of the surprising store names:

And here's a store that I've seen _as often as McDonald's_ in the entertainment districts:And here's the bar-hotel-coffeeshop I wound up at later in the evening. Someone from Amsterdam, tell me this is a place where the hipsters go. I walked by not thinking about it, and suddenly it was like an alarm went off. A hipster alarm. I went in. To investigate.