A Trip to Amsterdam...***heady***

Hello readers. Last weekend, Katy and I made a pilgrimage to the headiest city on the globe: Amsterdam. We got a ride from a very hip German couple for relatively little money. After an 8 hour ride through some pretty shitty weather, we had arrived. Our first stop was a coffee shop known as Abraxas. The Disco Biscuits have a song named after this place, so I felt it my duty to stop in and try out their store brand (Abraxas Delight), and delightful it was. On my last trip to Amsterdam (more like trip IN Amsterdam), we had failed to locate said coffee shop, but I won't get into the messy details of that fiasco, lest Tom Leane be reminded of the weekend he lost his wallet, and the rest of us lost our minds.
We stayed at the Flying Pig hostel, located right next to the famous Vondel Park. It was nice, but did not live up to the heady reviews it received on the Disco Biscuits messageboard, where of course I got all of my information in preparation for the trip. These reviews boasted of a smoking lounge open all night. In reality, this "lounge" was a filthy, cramped kitchen, full of weed and tobacco smoke, to the extent that even I felt nauseous. The first night we were there, Katy and I went to a club where amateur psy-trance DJs were spinning some pretty heady shit. But we were tired from our travels, and did not make too late a night of it. The next day we wandered around, taking shelter from the hail in various coffee shops and eating a delicious goat-cheese based meal at a cafe. Minimal funds and the shitty weather put a damper on any bold sightseeing activities, but it was still a pleasant day. Amsterdam is incredibly beautiful, aside from all the vice that it contains, it really is an amazing city, and I would love to live there one day.
After a nap and dinner, we took an evening stroll through the Red Light District. On my last trip to Amsterdam, we hung out here at night, which was probably a mistake. It is a sight to behold, but not really the optimal place for a fun night on the town. I decided Katy should at least see it, because it really is mind boggling to see a part of one of the world's major cities completely steeped in debauchery. Mediocre looking prostitutes beckon from shop windows, drug dealers walk freely selling their wares, and hordes of drunken European men stumble about, trying to get up enough courage to actually have sex with one of these women. After about twenty minutes in this place, we had had enough, and were ready to dance. We found a really sick club elsewhere in the city, and after a short wait were admitted. The music was really good and the vibe was awesome. Everyone was untzing out hardcore, and we were happy to join them. After a couple hours, we stumbled back home and went to bed. The next morning we had only a couple of hours before we had to meet up with the German couple for the return trip. We stocked up on some of that sticky-icky and braced ourselves for the long journey back to eastern Germany.
The following week has been pretty normal- it snowed here all weekend and the town is very pretty as a result. I can't ride my bike though, and its a pain in the ass to walk everywhere now; people don't like shoveling their sidewalks. This weekend was the beginning of the Weinachtsmarkt or Christmas Market. On Friday night we went to the bar downtown to meet a friend of mine from the tennis team. Things got a little out of hand since every time we go random Germans decide to buy us drinks. Katy threw up in the bathroom, and apparently I was pretty sloppy myself. We of course left the bar without paying our tab, and stumbled home, though I have no memory of this. While I didn't quite black out, I would say that it was a definite brown-out, only my second or third in the past three months; as compared with my well-documented habit of blacking out two or three times per week at BC (air guitar). On Saturday we stayed in bed until about three, then went downtown to see the Christmas Market. It was very nice, with dealers of sausage, beer, and crafts at every turn. This region, the Erzgebirge (ore mountains), is known for its handmade wooden crafts. Christmas is a huge deal here, and apparently tour buses full of Germans flock to this region for the Christmas season. We ate some sausage and drank some Gluhwein (a hot, spiced wine drink that is quite delicious), and then headed back home for a quiet evening in, eating cheese and watching TV on Internet.
So that about sums up the last couple of weeks. I am currently reading Richard Wright's Native Son, which is excellent so far. It is a third-person narrative about a young black man in post-depression Chicago. The tension and suspense are akin to Crime and Punishment, and the protagonist is every bit as introspective and intense as Raskolnikov. I am having trouble putting it down, and I would highly recommend it. That about does it for now, I would ask my readers to follow in the footsteps of Alex Noble by posting humorous comments on this page. We are very bored here, and miss everyone dearly.
Later, Bros.