Happy New Years from Amsterdam!!!!

Happy New Years from Amsterdam!

Yesterday, we arrived around noon and quickly skipped off to an Irish pub and then to the Heineken Brewery... it was really fun and we found ourselves purchasing everything in the gift shop that wasn't nailed down. With the purchase of entry, we scored 3 free beers and a glass- all in all, it was a bargain until we fell into the gift shop trap! On the way home, feeling slightly juiced and anxious to shop, we located a cute little snowboard shop/hair salon (we'll describe in a second) with shoes in the window that lured us in. Colleen immediately found a sweater she couldn't live without and the damage was done- out came the CASE of champagne and about 7 bottles and 7 new friends later, we decided it was time to buy the shoes that initially drew us in and head for home.

*This place was so random... it was a clothing/snowboard shop in the front and in the back was a shampoo bowl and hair cutting station. I guess it's one-stop shopping at its finest- those damn efficient Dutch people!*

After the champagne debauchery, we almost didn't quite make it to the New Years celebration b/c we fell asleep. We asked our roomie, who is from CA and played water polo at UCSB and knows a mutual friend (Matt Bush for those of you who know who that is) to wake us up, but in his haze, he inadvertently forgot to do that. We jumped out of bed at 10pm, got ready in about 15 minutes and headed out to meet Chikako and her boyfriend at Bitterzoet (Bittersweet). Unfortunately, we had no idea where it was and neither did the 100,000 other people in the street- we stumbled upon Dam Square where a huge New Years celebration was underway, fireworks and all, and we almost didn't think we were going to be able to make it thru the crowd. Somehow at 11:40pm, after having walked past some "promiscuous windows" with peculiar red lighting, we looked up and there it was- Bitterzoet. Under the guise of Asha and Abigail (who are they- we don't know!), we were in the bar just in the nick of time for New Years! A guy was walking around taking candid pictures and the next thing we knew, we were up on this giant screen in a slideshow. We had a great time with our friends and then headed for home, but not before we took down 2 LARGE pieces of pizza EACH at this New York pizza cafe as the Dutch looked on in horror at our sordid and sloth ways. Good night!

We finally woke up around noon today, and we were the 1st ones up thank you very much, and decided we needed to get our asses out on the street. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that it's New Years day and nothing is open, except Anne Frank's house and the casino (yes, casino). We opted for Anne Frank's house, which was truly an amazing experience. It was very informational and historical, but very, very sad at the same time. We thinks it's the best thing we've seen thus far.

*Sidebar: as we were walking thru and Kyle went to get something from her purse, we were both shocked to find a bottle of French's YELLOW mustard tucked neatly away. Where did it come from??? Well, we think it probably came from the Hard Rock Cafe, but since neither of us really remember being there the day before, that can't be confirmed!!!*

On the way back, we decided to take a canal cruise on one of the boats that show you around the city. We were very tired at this point but one thing managed to arouse our photographic interest on the boat- a Rod Stewart look alike. Colleen managed to snap a photo of him, under the pretense that she was taking my picture, but we're pretty sure he was hip to our jig and knew exactly what the two annoying American girls were up to! Who cares- we have the picture and he has a golden, wavy mullet!

We leave tomorrow morning, bright and early, for Berlin and we're very excited for the next adventure. Colleen's Mom has managed to hook us up with a friend from work's sister who lives in Germany, and her son/daughter has been employed to show us around. We're off to the bar in our hostel for now and we'll check in w/ everyone from Germany!

Miss everyone...

Love, Kyle & Colleen