Amsterdam is a strange place.

Following the rules across western Europe, cigarettes may not be smoked indoors.
But that's cigarettes.

Everything else is legal and may be smoked anywhere.

To buy a pack of cigarettes you need ID, to prove that you are above 16. To buy anything else, you need no ID.

I laugh when I see the menus. Unbelievable.





We spend some quality time here before walking back to the party. (no more interior pictures, sorry)

Now we split and go our own ways. Everyone has their own plans. I don't want to know what their plans are. I decide to walk back alone to the party. Jenny is waiting for me there.

As I walk past the square I hear some incredible blues-jazz singing with a pom-pom-pom-pom of a perfectly tuned double-bass. I just have to stop.



I love street performers, this guy is just incredible!


On the way back I walk past the beautiful canal, I see a pink arm swinging out from behind a tree. What the hell was that?
I walk a little ahead to see an absolutely gorgeous girl in a pink tracksuit.

She's dancing.

No. Not aerobics and one-two, one-two. She's dancing, like wild and free. I see a familiar white cable going up to her ears and realise that she has her headphones on connected to her iPod.

She's swinging her hair and wiggling her body and dancing. It looks really strange as there is no music to be heard.

I think for a minute. What gives?
I look to the floor, thinking perhaps she's collecting money.

Nope. She's just dancing. I peep across and on the bridge is a swarm of boys. 3 or 4 have their mobiles pointing towards her.

She's not just pretty, she's bloody hot. And she's dancing.
Like she was at a club. But this looks like her exercise to be sure, because she is wearing a sportsband on her hair and a pink body hugging tracksuit.
I look at her for a few seconds and walk on. I somehow feel I would be violating her privacy by taking a photo. I would have taken one if I could manage without a flash, but it is just too dark to do that.

Ah well.

I shake my head and walk on smiling.

Amsterdam is a strange place.

I return to the party and start to dance. Some of my other colleagues want to have more coffee. Oh it is a interesting and brilliant night with a lot of fun.

We finish quite past midnight. As we take the bus-shuttle home we are told.

Tomorrow morning at 8.
WHAT???
Well the new President wants to give everyone a presentation.
At 8!! please tell me you're kidding.


No. Nobody's kidding. The presentation is at 8.

I don't get much sleep at all that night. A few hours and I hear the alarm. I groan and manage to drag myself out of bed. I drag Jenny out too.

Come and see the presentation.
Why? I don't work for Harman anymore. You go.
Please just come with me!

She comes and takes a few pictures of the entire area and of the presentation. I'm super grumpy and irritated at the complete lack of sleep.

Jenny's flight to Germany is a few hours before ours. We still have meetings. Jenny packs everything and checks out while I'm still in the meeting.

She's gone.

We will follow in 3 hours. We spend some time at the very beautiful Schiphol airport. This is my first time at the airport in Amsterdam. Previously I have only come here by train.

Now if I could only get some sleep...

The airport is very interesting, just like everything else about this place. I have had a really lovely time.













I buy some stroopwaffel. I love the compressed caramelized waffles in a bag, typical of holland.

A last couple of photos on our way out.





While I'm sorry to leave so early, the happy thing is that we're going to Germany now and will spend a few days at beautiful (not so flat,lol) Bad Nauheim.!

Message me when you land at Frankfurt, comes the sms.

Jenny's going to pick us up and drive us to Bad Nauheim. My colleague will be spending the weekend with us at her sister's home.

Thank you!
Thank you!!

*Crash* umm. Thanks. I guess. lol


The story will continue on Monday. I look forward to your comments if any. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Great, Sam.

Curious to see shop signs at Schipol, like 'juice' and 'Luxury Leather Goods' are in --- English!

When your camera is trained on the left hand side of the road from the main station, your subconscious mind is exposed!

The coffee must have knocked you out!

English is very widely spoken throughout Amsterdam. Not only is it commonly used between locals, the grammar is correct and accent is clear.

I believe that this may have something to do with their proximity to ol' Blighty.

I didn't know that it was commonly used by locals between themselves. I think Netherlands was my first "abroad", quite late in life, and I was astonished at the flexibility of language, currency, weights and measures, compared to my insular home.

Oh absolutely. What was even more surprising was that I overheard the some young people on bicycles - definitely locals of Lisse (not a big city by far) talking amongst themselves in English.

This was not a new fact to me, I'd been told by a Dutchman earlier that almost everyone in Holland spoke English.

In return I believe every true blooded English chap should manage at least a smattering of Dutch.

Wat over u Nick? lol

Edit: By the way I'm not having you on, this is really how you say "What about you" in Dutch. And Thank you is Dank u. I'm beginning to see why the Dutch would understand English better than their other European counterparts.

Ah lovely pics Sam and Jenny.

Brings back a lot of memories. I was there last summer and had super fun.

The house, the streets .the coffee shops , the tulips.

And the other unspeakables

And to top it all the pics at Leidseplein . Leidseplein was perhaps the most hot and happening place in Amsterdam till very very late in the night .

And the Burger King at Leidseplein. Ah. Long chicken burger at 2 in the night when you are sooo hungry .
Jannat.
Did you see the museum near the Central Station just next to the McDees.
And the dark city tour. updates please


Thanks Sam.

Hey leidseplein is that place we went to by the tram right at night. We saw some street performer there I remember.

yup leidseplein it was . the place where we played pick-the-cab-you-want@ 2 in the night. We finally picked up a Chrysler SR 300C

The street performers typically start playing from 2 or 3 on saturday and sunday afternoon. Sometimes there are mobile DJ vans. With DJ consoles, speaker and performance stages all loaded onto a truck and playing full volume at Leidseplein. Thats what you call a free entry to an open air Discotheque.

Btw Sam the way you described the girl in pink dress dancing, I remembered how wildly girls danced on the Queens day celebration.
WOW my eyeball made a 360deg spin on that day . Didn't know which way to stare at.

This is the first YetiBlog post in the last 1.5 years, which doesn't end in like a sharp 4 word sentence that leave one hanging (like your RX adventure posts).

What goes?

Every time I see them this song comes to my head.

Tho' you're older now its just the same
You can play this dandelion game...
...Little girls, and boys come out to play
Bring your dandelions to blow away...
- I am not going to name this Artist

The "Mr. Kapasi" should have been your hint.

I get the feeling not many here understood what coffee shops in Amsterdam have on their menu.

The Dutch are one of those people (like the Japanese, for instance) who have a language that nobody else in the world commonly speaks. I'm sure this helps their linguistic skills just as the ubiquity of English makes us Brits lazy.

I find it a very pleasant language to listen to. A bit like German with a Welsh accent! Sorry, Jenny --- I don't speak either language <Blush>. But I've heard it said that the English find it unpronounceable, but the Scots don't have that problem.

I vaguely recall working out that, once I knew what they were, quite a few Dutch words were comprehensible. The Dutch word for meat, for instance, looks as if it would sound like "flesh") --- Ah, what one learns from supermarket shelves!