Repekaneuro - Amsterdam

A post so overdue (because i'm lazy) and lazy still. Our sorta Euro trip, end of August 2014.

While waiting for Alisa.

Kokopelli

Alisa'a bedroom.

We didn't get to Rijksmuseum, so yeah. This was taken before our flight to Lisbon.

However, suddenly today (Mar 6) i feel the urge to blog a lil bit of the trip. I flew in Amsterdam from KL alone (transit in Dubai) and arrived at Schiphol about 7am, Aug 29. Mili was supposed to arrive on the same day, around 4pm (currently she's staying in Jeddah). I was in charge of accommodation, at first i looked through for backpackers' hostels but it was just the same price as Airbnb and so for our first part of Amsterdam, we stayed at Alisa's beautiful one-room apartment in Wibaustraat, 3 metro stops from Centraal. It was magical, it's like meeting another you (tie-dye shirts, boho stuff, Moroccan drum, etc). The bedroom is attached to the backyard and the glass door was left opened so when we wanted to go out i asked if i should close it but she said it's okay to leave it opened, the neighbours won't bother. Ah, okay. Alisa was the one that brought me to Kokopelli and from our conversation, she was quite new to this whole healing organic thing (or i've misunderstood her. Can't really blame her because i have an attention span of a 5-yo). After munching on 2 energy bars, she had to go check out her new apartment and i was left alone wandering the streets of Amsterdam. Of course, i remembered to check out Patta store so at least i can get lost a lil bit in the alleys to kill time for Mili's arrival.
The next day, we joined a free walking tour (Europe's famous for that, i don't think we have it here in Asia). It was my first experience and i really like it because it was casual and Amsterdam's history is just, wack haha. Apparently Amsterdam is under sea-level (wack right?) and guess what? Marijuana is not legal, it's just that there's no bill stating whether it's legal or not. We walked until we came to an old church which is ironically situated opposite a brothel. So the story was that prostitution started waaayyy back for sailors and merchants because they wanted the good ladies to stay, err, good and the church? Well, if you hung out with a prostitute and you feel guilty, you know what to do. At the end of the tour, we tipped our guide (who's not Dutch by the way, she came from Arizona or something like that) for the effort and the fun tour we had. Things you can do in life: be a tour guide somewhere else besides your country. After the tour, we roam around the city where i can never remember the alleys, it was crazy (reasons why i can't travel alone). We then walked back to Kokopelli and bought some magic beans, uhuh. The next day before our flight to Lisbon, i saw a baby elephant in the backyard, trying to climb next door.

Okay, i don't know when i will blog about our Lisbon-Porto trip so, don't count on it.

Trip duration: 28 Aug - 7 Sept 2014