Lost in Amsterdam: Live from Den Haag . . . P!nk!

OK, so it's my first trip to Amsterdam and I'm here with my friend Doug! You may remember him from my first foray into the German wine country . . . And here we are watching P!nk in Den Haag in the middle of a wildly dusty open-air music venue.

We've been talking with this amazing outgoing Dutch guy (he reminds me of my friend Harmony's husband Eric who can also walk randomly up to people, have tons of energy and suddenly find himself with brand new group of friends, plus he's a musician which Harmony's husband also it . . . the parallels were unending).

The show is great! P!nk is amazing, and plus we've heard some really great Dutch bands, a group called Di-rect. Fantastic! I thought they were American because of their sound until our new friend informed us that no, they were in fact a Dutch band.

Anyway, Amsterdam has been great. Doug and I have wandered all through the streets along the canals and of course into the famous Red Light District. Somehow even though it's legal I still find it disturbing. You just hear too many stories about modern day slavery and Eastern European women being tricked into an indentured slave situation.

On our way back from the Red Light District we were getting ourselves lost among the canals when we hear this raucous singing echoing through the buildings. Of course, we had to go and check it out . For a little while all we could hear was crazy singing (in what I assume must have been Dutch) and the occasional loud splash. . . . And then we saw them. A canal boat full of drunken guys probably in their mid-20s boating their way through the canal attracting as much attention as you can at 2am on a Friday night. We stood there watching them for a few moments and then all of a sudden these two other guys go running up the street to the next bridge. They stood up on top of the railing and just as the boat with the singing guys was about to get there they jumped! And their friends scooped them up with out missing a beat in whatever song they happened to be singing. Now I don't know about you, but somehow I feel like the water in the canals in Amsterdam must be kind of similar to the water in the Charles River in Boston. In other words, something I really would have no desire to go swimming in. Ever. But hey, they looked like they were having fun, so whatever. I guess Amsterdam is a pretty big destination for Hen and Stag parties.

But anyway, the city is beautiful. I love it here. All the bicycles piled one on top of the other tied up along the bridges, 'parking garages' full of hundreds of bicycles near the ferry. It's the quintessential vision of Holland and yet somehow it avoids being a cliche. I wish I could spend more time here.

With interiors are as beautiful as the exteriors full thick wood beams and ceilings sculpted with intricate plaster decorations, the buildings are gorgeously distinctive and such fun to spy on through the windows at night. On our canal tour today I learned all about the different styles of gables and why there are hooks on the front of every building (so that they could get furniture to the upper floors). It's an amazing city, I will definitely be coming back to explore it more soon.