broken （in Amsterdam)

most people do their reading before they travel.  i tend to go...and do my research after i've been there...but amsterdam broke me.  so i had no urge to really figure out the 3 day mess i got myself into.  i woke up drunk, checked out and headed to the airport.  my hangover didn't subside till we arrived in amsterdam.  and arriving into a city with no prior accommodation arrangements with luggage and a hangover makes hostel hunting that much more annoying.  we eventually checked into the heart of amsterdam and got the 4 bunk 8 person shared room at 150 euro's on the third floor with no AC and a shared bathroom.  it's nerve racking checking into a hostel as a novice.  not knowing what to expect, not knowing how to handle safety, not knowing what to do with luggage.  we hung onto whatever innocence and naivete we had left, locked out stuff up and headed out for a childish adventure into europes version of sin city.

holland is like most of northern europe.  cuisine and infrastructure.  canals and waffles.  french fries and a biking culture.  amsterdam however is the black sheep of it's counterparts where people convene to go bezerk for the weekend before returning to desk jobs on monday.  we just so happened to pick gay pride parade weekend for our excursion.  and whenever gays are around, the music is going to be fantastic.  so are the parties.  so are the drugs.  essentially mayhem.

and so we started with a walk around town.  google maps is a godsend.  we ate some local fare.  it was good for what it is...but what it is isn't that good.  hot dogs, tar tar on potato bread.  we were exhausted but the sun was still out at 8pm.  so we had some beers and some more beers, joined the concert at rembrandt plein and found ourselves bar drinking 10 shots of jager.  slightly buzzed we rode a bike trolley and that's when the night broke me.  we went to a club, of which i got kicked out of.  proceeded to the club next door.  found myself sitting in a corner most of the night.  when we left at 4am, the streets were filthy littered with beer cans and piss, we were looking for some kind of food...ended up walking around the red light district admiring the view before calling it a night.  at 7am.

all the bunks were full.  and a girl was in our room.  we slept 4 hours.  found some time to chat with the neighboring australians while waiting our turns for the showers.  there would be no way we would hostel it again.  and so hotels.com provided us with a hotel nearby that was booked.  until they found us another accomodation.   that was the story of the trip.  everything worked out.  but nothing was easy.  nothing was plug and play.  everything had to break, everything had to get lost, everything had to take just enough longer where it made everything slightly miserable.

i was ready to leave after 20 hours.  and yet had to survive another 20 hours.  at least we got to rest in our own room on saturday.  but being that the hotel was in the center of the party, music blasted from right outside the window...beginning at 11am.  and onwards till way past midnight.  and then again on sunday.  so napping was a haze between sleep and reality.  we caught the gay parade on the canals...rainbow pride party style on full blast even with torrential rain.  europeans are very good at day drinking.  i am not.  nor was i able to drink after the night before.  so we hit up a cafe.  and somehow i made it out of amsterdam alive.  broken.  but alive.