I am no longer bicycleless

Now I can be everywhere and unstoppable, as I finally secured a bicycle. And after much headache, it is now fully functional. Behold



It's no looker, but it gets the job done.

Other than the cycling business, a lot has gone on this past week. I began classes, which has been exciting. All of my lecturers are Dutch, which I didn't really expect, but perhaps should have considering I'm studying at a Dutch university. I think I'm going to enjoy this semester. It's very nice to exclusively study exactly what you want.

My buddy, Paolo showed me around the university and a bit of the town, and directed me towards the oddly named book store. It was really just a regular ass book store and not one devoted to the sales of text and school books, which made it a bit difficult, luckily I had a native to guide me. Below is said oddly named bookstore, which I now know how to pronounce, but cant pull off spelling it phonetically, so you will just have to guess.



After getting all set up and getting back into the groove of school, I wandered around town a bit. My neighbourhood, Haarlemmerdijk seems to be nice. It has a ton of shops and a market every Saturday.



It's no Adams Avenue, but it will do just fine.

On Friday, a few of us from the building went to our corner bar for some drinks. CJ, an American I have befriended here is half Dutch and his father was in town for some sort of college reunion. Thus we went out to the Spui to see if we could scrounge up a few free drinks from his dad and his buddies at the bar they were at. When we finally arrive after getting a bit lost, the bartender says he is closing up shop and isn't serving anymore. He claims he was sick, but I think he didn't want to serve a few Americans and a Welshman, the racist bastard.
After this slight, he points us to a couple of bars, one of which he calls a punk bar and have very cheap beer. Naturally, I am intrigued and insist on going for both the punk and the cheap beers. You can't really beat that.
Thus we spend the wee hours of the morning with a bunch of Dutch punks. Good times were had by all. A few days later, I am walking back home and stumble upon this place in the daylight.



Oddly enough, there is no stage, but I will have to return.

That is all for week two, but I leave you with a few photos, naturally.

I saw this and thought it was a classy piece of graffiti, then I translated it and it became so much more glorious. I don't know who did it, but I admire him to no end. It translates to "we are everywhere and unstoppable."


Here is De Krijtberg R.K. Kerk St. Franciscus Xaverius, the big Catholic Church in Amsterdam. From what I understand, it was made in 1883. Don't worry Moms, I will investigate into the church further, per our agreement.


Below is the Dam Palace, where the Queen lived when she lived in Amsterdam, before high tailing it to the Hague. She still stays here when in Amsterdam, but it's not or ordinary residence.


Finally, I think Chevrolet needs to reevaluate its strategy in Europe.


More to come,
Matt