Most everything happens at night

Slowly Amsterdam works it's voodoo on me. Yesterday, I got up at 11AM, but didn't leave the hostel until 1PM because I was doing online chores. (Gotta take advantage of the free wireless when I can.)

I walked down to the Van Gogh Museum, because I'd never been during any of my previous trips. He did some nice work, but I'm not sure he warrants the most expensive admission fee so far (13.50 euros). The sunken courtyard of the building is in almost constant shade, allowing the slate tile to turn green with slime mold. They actually had a man in there trying to scrub them with an industrial floor machine, to little effect.

I walked through Vondelpark a bit. They've done well mixing English and Japonese park/garden types, better than the part of Regent's Park I walked through.

In London I decided I wanted to see The Island, but it didn't open until after I left. Then in Paris it didn't open until after I left, but finally here in Amsterdam it's open, so I went to see it last night. It was an 8 out of 10 and surprisingly good for a remake of Logan's Run.

My cousin and I walked through the Red Light District at 1:30AM last night to meet up with his friend who had gotten off of work from La Vie en Proost, a strip club where the girls can be touched. (My cousin's friend only hands out flyers on the street.) There had been a shooting in the alleyway right next to the building he works in and the police had everything cordoned off as they went building to building searching for the shooter. Shootings are extremely rare and this one was pretty stupid being literally right in front of the blockwide police station. Of course, the highlight for me was walking through at night at all. The things that people will pay for.

Today I went to the Beurs van Berlage Museum which has an exhibit on contemporary Dutch design. The main hall, the former commodities trading floor, has skylights above it, but they were covered to keep it a constant temperature, according to the guide. It was truly unfortuanate because the pictures I had seen of the space with the skylights uncovered were wonderful. Then half-way through the tour the skylights opened automatically partway, flooding the room with diffuse light. The guide stopped his spiel and said, "That hasn't happened in a month." The architecture sprite's watching out for me.

The rest of today has been spent in the hostel, sleeping mostly. I got back around 3:30AM last night and was woken up about 8:30AM, so I felt justified in taking a two hour nap. Tonight, I think I'll stay with my cousin's friend and his wife at their house on the Prinsengracht, a fashionable street. There are 20 beds in this one hostel room and while my room is female only, the boyfriend of the spanish couple in the next bed keeps seeing how far his girlfriend will let him go while I'm sitting here typing. *sigh* And the water pressure really sucks. It was like washing in a drizzle today.