iamsterdamntired

amsterdam day 1 (17 mar 06)
we reached the airport evening and were greeted by andrew and sy, the 'lao jiao's of amsterdam. they reached and explored the place hours earlier than us, and thus became our guides in the red light district that night. shocking scenes around, but i was a little tired to 'appreciate' it yet. we arrived at our hostel and spent much time checking-in. and i got a packet of sweets for free from the vending machine! a nice supper treat.
amsterdam day 2 (18 mar 06)
another two packets of free sweets. i think only the finger of a genius can get free candy. haha. anyway, today we're going on 'mike's bike tour'. yes it's a biking tour in the city and countryside of amsterdam. and yes it's my third time cycling! *freak*honestly i spent most of my concentration and energy focusing on balancing myself on the bike. these bikes are kinda built in a funny manner, small wheels, curved handbars and bicycle chain that keeps falling off when i change gear. well of course i had many falls and crashes. hey the roads of amsterdam are used by pedestrains, bikes, cars and trams. dangerous okay.
we cycled past the bridges, enjoyed the canals, architecture and the bustling city life. but i like the countryside the most. there we saw the windmills and went into the cheese factory.well, boastfully, now i can tell people that i CYCLED in amsterdam. and i repeat, it's my THIRD time cycling. *applause*
iamsterdamntired...

amsterdam day 3 (19 mar 06)
isn't it interesting to see so many museums smacked right in amsterdam, the city of vices. we visited the van gogh museum, the heineken museum and the *cough*sexmuseum*cough* today.
vincent van gogh is an interesting artist. he moved from places to places, and painting in different styles. his most popular pieces, or rather the ones i've seen or heard about, are the 'irises' and 'sunflowers'. it kinda makes me feel great to see the original paintings. in the paris period of van gogh's life, he painted using 'pointillism', a style of art in which tiny dots of primary-colors are used to generate secondary colors. these paintings are my favorite because they reflect a simpler perspective of life, representing so many things in dots and strokes.
the next place we visited was the heineken museum. so far i've 'conquered' tiger breweries in singapore, carlsberg in denmark, now will be heineken in netherlands and finally guinness in ireland in april. haha. the museum was more or less like the carlsberg one, but with more cool stuff like the horse carriage ride, the 'be your own DJ' and make music (noise), etc.the final museum we visited was the sex museum. not very interesting. it was more of gory sex images and presented little artistic sense. it was more interesting to walk in the iconic red light district actually... haha.

amsterdam day 4 (20 mar 06)the last day is left for shopping and completing last wishes. we went to a 'coffeeshop' to have a 'muffin', in addition to the space cake we had yesterday. we also took the boat tour in the canals and out to the sea, passing by places of attraction like anne frank's house and boat houses. the scenery of amsterdam was nice from the boat, but the atmosphere was slightly sleepy.we then went to the 'holland casino'. it is amazing to see that there's a large proportion of chinese gambling. maybe because the chinese love money more. *shrug*
after some photo taking at dam square, it's time to bid amsterdam farewell. amsterdam was a whole new experience for me, first budget airline, first hostel, first time travelling w/o parents, first red light district and first long distance cycling. hurray!