Alright everybody, here's my side of the story. It's rather long, so feel free to skip to the next post where I meet Gareth and BeoPuppy.
On my way to Amsterdam, I had to take another connection than I had planned, because the railway was having some problems and we were kicked out of the train at some station I had never heard of before ('s-Hertogenbosch. Yes, it starts with an apostrophe). I was super worried I had to take an extra ticket or something, but everything turned out fine in the end. So I arrived in Amsterdam shortly before 2pm on Thursday.
After fumbling around to get a local tram ticket (it's an RFID chip embedded into a card), I set off to my hostel. (Ironically, the RFID chip is from a German manufacturer). Checkin was at 2pm, so I didn't have to wait long.
I had to pay extra for the lockers to store my luggage in, which kinda sucked, but everyone at the hostel was very nice. I unpacked and set off into the city.
There was a cat outside my hostel which would come up to everybody and be petted x)
I stalked for a few hours through town. As Gareth said, lots of bikers, relatively few cars. And hella expensive - I spent most of my budget for the day for overpriced food.
Among other things, I discovered an American Book Center and promptly purchased "The World of Poo" by Pratchett. I also considered getting some D&D materials, but they were too costly for my budget.
I also walked into a sweets shop which sold organic candy.
Literally all I said was "Hi".
Suddenly, the salesgirl starts talking to me in German. I must have looked very confused - she explained that Germans tend to speak higher. Considering I don't even have a pure German accent, how she found my language from the one syllable was amazing. She offered a lot of sweets to taste, and I promised to come back the next day.
At some point, I sighted an alien.
To keep up the tradition, the picture is appropriately blurry.
At some other point, I hung out with some backpackers at one of the main channels, where all the tourist ferries were starting. We were basically half-lieing on the floor. A guy from the ferry company came over, but instead of ushering us away like I definitely had expected, he was like "hey guys, there are places getting free at that benches over there, so when they do, could you go over there please? Thanks, that's real nice of you". To someone used to German strictness, this was heaven.
I also walked through some parts of the Red Light District. There, among other things, I encountered a derpy-looking seagull
and a Christian hostel.
And Gareth forces me to tell this:
While hanging out in one of those tourist trap shops, I overheard a guy asking the cashier where to find a midget prostitute.
Yes, really. I can now personally attest this doesn't just happen in movies.
Yes, the cashier did know where to find one (although he had to think about it for a moment). In fact, he recalled two of them.
I also walked into a pub and there was a cat on the counter. I couldn't quite put my finger on why that confused me so much, until I realised this would never have flown in Germany because of the tight food and health regulations. So that was definitely an eye-opener.
I also tried some Grolsch beer while I was there. It was surprisingly okay (I don't usually like beer.) There was an FC Bayern fan sticker in the bathroom, which was quite amusing.
I eventually decided to head home, because I was really tired. Bought myself some proper food in a grocery shop and had some cocoa and crisps at the hostel bar.
END OF DAY ONE.
Second part to be added tomorrow, as I can already tell it's also going to be lengthy and I'd like to sleep sometime.