Amsterdam is wonderful!

Photos are up!  Look at the next post down!

The weather was much better today.  We got a late-ish start again and headed nearer to Downtown to visit the Anne Frank museum.  First the five of us (Marc, Michael, myself, and the two guys we met- Aaron and Karma) stopped at a mediocre little Italian place where we picked up some decent food for 7 Euros.  Then we enjoyed a great walk to the museum.  It was a nice museum, though it was less authentic then I was hoping.  A lot of it had been sterilized by the museum aspect of things, but some other areas were quite powerful.  Apparently the house is to remain forever unfurnished at the request of Otto Frank, a fact about which I'm not sure how I feel.  All the museums here cost money, so perhaps our only other one will be the Van Gogh museum.  Then we took a longer route through the city to arrive back at the great open air market we discovered yesterday for food.  

We shopped around for some food, and I wound up with Chorizo (sausage), dried apricots, and delicious fresh nectarines.  We were going to take our food all the way to the park near our hostel, but instead found a great grassy strip near the Amstel Canal to sit, eat, talk, and watch the water.  I had brought my leftover bread and cheese from yesterday, as well as my water bottle, so I had a great lunch, with plenty of leftovers for later.  After this, we headed back to the hostel and split up.  The three of us are hanging out currently in the hostel talking to anyone and everyone who comes into the room about our and their adventures, and then we're planning to head to the Red Light District tonight to see what it's like tonight.

The Dutch are all so wonderfully friendly, and pretty much everyone we've met so far (whether Dutch, American, or otherwise) has been very outgoing and fun to talk to and spend time with.  This country seems very laid back as a whole, willing to help and switch into English to deal with you.  Just stay out of the way of the bikes!

As I mentioned below, the Internet's being a pain again so today's pictures will have to wait.  Until then, adieu!