AMSTERDAMN!!!!

wow. what an amazing city.

i think that the entire world should adopt amsterdamn polices. from the way they view housing ( squatters can live in ANY building that has been unused for over one year. "why should people sleep on the street if there is a perfectly good building just sitting there?"), to theier drug policy- if you want to smoke dope- do it in a cafe. if you grow, sell, or smoke dope on the street- you will be arrestted. if you are going to do it- do it properly and safely. Dont want to breathe in smog? great- ride a bike! if you want to endulge in prostition- dont do it in some sleazy back alley riddled with drugs and filth. do it in a estab;ished house. it just seems to me like these things happen anyway, so why not make them safe?

in the red light district you do get offered other drugs by drug dealers in the street but that is it. no where else in the city. it is very much localised and i think that would make it more managable for the police.

ANYWAY, here are some of the sights that we saw there....

if you look closely at the street signs here you will see that if you turn left, you get to centaal station, and if you turn right, you get to centraal station. me and ang were trying to navigate our way through the city and we would come to a sign and turn left and then gop a few blocks and turn right, and then left and then we would be " hey didnt we just go past that?" it started to really frustrate me in the end but we got there eventually.

DUDE, WHERE MY BIKE?

in the city, EVERYONE is travelling around on bikes. old ladys, teenagers, suits, art students, everyone. they all have pretty crappy old bikes as well. the way of thinking is to get a expensive lock and a crappy bike. th ewhole city is flat and the only hills you really have to ride over are when you have to ride over the canals. this photo is at a train station, where evryone has left their bikes when they boarded on the train. do not ask me how they find which bike is thiers. i have NO IDEA! but somehow it works, so thats great.

i have a heap more photos but i have to run to work so i will post them all later.

love you all and miss you all heaps.

xO