in amsterdam, even the cats are stoned

Yeah, it's true. Jason and I are staying in this place called Hotel My Home, and the resident cat is the mellowest animal I've ever seen. And since some people were lighting up a bong last night before Jason and I went out for food, I have my suspicions of the reasons for such mellowness.

But luckily, the other person in our room doesn't smoke, so we don't have to worry about that. We more have to worry about breaking the language barrier. She's Japanese, but she speaks English fairly well.

Anyway, Brussels was HOOOOOOOT yesterday (31 degrees Centigrade by mid-morning), and we were carrying our heavy packs all day. Wandered around, saw some stuff, got a Belgian waffle (yuuuuum!!), and took the train to Amsterdam. Finally have the railpass validated.

In Amsterdam, finally got a new pocketknife (16euro isn't too bad), so now I can slice my apples again. Checked into the hostel (we're at the very top of a very steep, narrow, and swaybacked stairwell. Wandered teh town for a bit...Amsterdam is quite walkable, and the bikes are more dangerous (and prevalent) than the cars.

Today, went to the Rijksmuseum (awesome!) and did some wandering again. Going to do the Van Gogh museum tomorrow. And now, we're holing up in an internet cafe trying to wait out the rain. Sure, it was bloody hot yesterday, but now it's chilly, windy, and with the rain, it's sort of miserable. We might go to a bar for a World Cup game in a bit, and eventually, we're going to celebrate Jason's birthday.

Being on the continent is rather humbling. All the people we've met seem to be able to speak multiple languages and can switch without any apparent effort. Even the grade-school French kids switched to unaccented English! It's very nice, but I wish I weren't a monoglot.

And we're just about booked hostel-wise through Italy. Germany until the 22nd. Then Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre. After that, we head to Barcelona and then Paris. Hard to believe!