Amsterdam

I hated Amsterdam. It was not my kind of city. The people were cool and there is a very diverse population there. It is also known for its red light district and open marijuana coffee shops. I didn't visit either one which it part of the next story. Upon arrival of our hostel, I knew I couldn't stay there. I was so grossed out...it smelled horrible, was really small and dirty and there was a kitchen where basically everyone smoked pot. I can't stand the smell and knew I wasn't staying there. Why did we reserve it...well lets just say that marketing can do wonders sometimes. They basically false advertised.

There was a bed and breakfast down the street, so I decided to cut my costs and stay there for the night. This 80 year old man owned it and he happened to have availability that night. Lucky me. It was a very old house, but the room was clean and I knew I could sleep. It was his birthday that day, so they were throwing a party for him..he was turning 82. When I asked how many people were coming, they said about 50...holy crap...I hope I know that many people when I am 82 and can stay up that late. He is a fashion designer and makes hats of all kind. He even makes them for the royal family there, so he was pretty well known in the city. I met some cool people at his party, but called it a night at 9:30 so I could get some rest. I awoke about 8:00 to the doorbell ringing. I didn't understand why noone was answering, so I went downstairs to answer it. The house was super smoky. I was like "Man, these people smoked a lot of cigarettes last night." I know I am super naive, but I was still slightly asleep. Anyway, long story short, their house was on fire and this lady was yelling at me in Dutch...all I understood was Fire. So I woke up the owners who were still pretty drunk I think and ran down the hall to gather my stuff. I know you are supposed to just get out of the house when it is on fire...but I couldn't leave all my stuff in there...I would have been screwed for the next week. I grabbed all my stuff which luckily most of it was already packed. As I was coming down the stairs the house was filled with smoke. These houses are very little and the staircases are super narrow...so imagine me coming down with my big ol backpack and 20 firefighters coming up the stairs. I kept yelling there are 2 more people in the house upstairs. This is another story in itself but needless to say I was alittle shook up for the rest of the day. Happy Thanksgiving Trudy...what a wake to wake up. It was a great reminder of how thankful I am for my life and the people in it and also how fast our material possesions can be gone. So that is why I think it is stupid when people put all their pride in to materialistic things. I think they either forgot to put out the fire in the fireplace fully or the chimmney hadn't been cleaned in over 100 years and it started there. Not sure, but I was lucky to get out when I did. So let this be a reminder to all of you to clean your chimmneys regularly.