We Arrive! (Amsterdam)

After a night of practically no sleep for either of us due to last minute packing and emailing (I'll let you decide who was doing what), on August 17th Keith and I got on a plane to Amsterdam via Newark. Customs was smooth sailing and as soon as we got off of the plane, Bram (a fellow I21 guy) was there to pick us up. Bram took us to his place where we would be spending the night, then showed us to Joost's place (another I21-er) and the local I21 Netherlands office where we met Steven S. After making arrangements to meet up with Steven and Joost later that day, Keith and I headed out to a cafe then to Bram´s for a quick nap. We met up with the guys for a local´s tour of Amsterdam which began with a boat trip as a part of Sail 2005 which involved tourists and locals touring the Amsterdam canals for the special weekend. This event only occurs once every 5 years so we were lucky to be there when we were. After sailing, we headed to a local pub for some home brewed liquor. Keith tried a few of the various liquors (I only smelled them), and we headed off to dinner. We followed dinner with a stroll through the famous Red Light District (which wasn´t nearly as bad as I was expecting), then home to rest up for the next day. We´d hoped to see the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh museam before leaving, but got caught in line at the train station waiting to buy our Eurail Passes. :( Guess that just means we'll have to come back to see more later!