Coffee Shops & Canals in Amsterdam
Greetings,
Spent the day doing everything people like myself do, wandering around the streets eating pieces of pie and smoking. At about 1pm decided it was time for a pint. Random things can occur when you drink pints during the day and spend the rest of your time in coffee shops near the canals in Amsterdam. Day drinking is a luxury that most certainly has a time and a place.
First, I switch rooms and thought “if this is some weird people, I’m just outta here”. I also have decided if I stay, I need an apartment STAT. Living in a shady hotel or hostel long term are not recommended.
Anyways, I walk in and there are these 2 gorgeous Brazilian women who live in London and are here for the weekend. Sleeping in a dorm is like a real version of chat roulette, you open a door and suddenly “there you are”.
Back to that beer, drank a delicious beer in a brown bag wandering the shady streets of Amsterdam until I came across this pub. Hung out chatted with some people. These girls who claimed to be “Lady Gaga” showed up. These girls love Lady Gaga so much that one even agreed to drink her bath water, that’s dedication ok? How do I know this?!? I asked them.You’d like be how’s it going, they’d reply “Lady Gaga” or “Fame” or something like that. One of them also wanted to “drink” Christina Agguelera or however you spell it.
Also met this bar lady who was ~55 and she came to Amsterdam when she was 25 and never left. Let me tell you, if aging gracefully is on your “things to do list” don’t work in an Amsterdam bar near the Red Light District for 30 years, just don’t do it.
Ended up chilling with this dude and some other guy formally known named as “Poppa”. We went back to Poppa’s pad, man that guy through like squat laws or something has this studio in the front and this massive apartment. Granted the apartment is bare and not heated, but it’s massive and sweet. If you like a lot of space and no frills it’s quite nice. Notice there is already a laptop in the photo below.
Buddy gets a call that his friends are having a BBQ on a boat in the Canals so roll up there, get on a boat and spend the evening drinking more beer, eating BBQ and stuff like that. People don’t really do that in Ottawa despite our canal, it’s just like one long street, here they interconnect constantly.
When I first arrived I remember some local people telling me NO ONE goes into coffee shops except tourists, I believe them. People smoke everywhere, all the time and aren’t hiding it, it’s legal. That being said, if you have ho home or anywhere to go, why not buy a coffee and just kick back until you can’t any longer and do it all over again? On that note, it IS ILLEGAL to smoke a cigarette, supposedly to even use real tobacco. Imagine getting a ticket for smoking in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, that would be quite the buzz kill.
The bars close reasonably early here. I do remember going to this pub afterward, this guy asked if I was a wise guy or “in the business” then like wanted to hang out. Just as I was starting to be like “WTF” is this guy doing he started talking up these Norwegian ladies and all was forgotten.
In totally unrelated news, Bangkok is getting a beating, I’m not sure why any expats are still there. I like to do “Edgy stuff” as much as the next guy but when words like civil war get thrown around, I think it’s a good idea to splurge on that ticket, outta there, to anywhere.
In even more unrelated news, I broke my new sunglasses, moving a chair of all things. Ever done that? You bend down and in the same movement your lenses hit the floor and you swiftly step on them, goodbye glasses.
I’ve been in Amsterdam a week, feels like a day.
