Out and About in Amsterdam (Pt III)

Night three presented an interesting twist.  Brandon and I were joined by a new roommate, a 29 year old guy named 'Nando, who hailed from California, but was studying sculpture at a school in Madrid, and had decided to come to Amsterdam for a night. 

I had already established plans for the evening -- the day before, I had acquired enough mushrooms for both Brandon and me (he mentioned that he really wanted to try some in Amsterdam), but he pussed out and decided that he no longer wanted some.  Cool -- more for me! 

I prepared for the evening (like every other evening on this trip) by having a nice dinner.  This time, I decided to try my luck at a place that promised Tex-Mex.  I've been craving it quite a bit and it's comical to me to see how each oversees restaurant screws up the dishes.  This particular night, I decided to go with something that I thought would be pretty straight forward -- fajitas with queso to start. 

So...umm...the "queso" showed up (along with a steak knife -- which at first I didn't understand until I tried eating it):

Yep -- that's a large chunk of fried cheese.  My fork wouldn't cut through it, and at one point, while I sawed it with my fork, the whole chunk almost flew off my plate.  Whaaa??

After dinner, I returned to the Flying Pig and was feeling stinkin' good from the cocktail + mushroom mix that stirred in my belly.  'Nando and Brandon were in the smoking room, talking with two 20 year old Canadian girls.  Apparently, they had just hit some stuff, because 'Nando's eyes were flame red.  After I arrived, he stammered a couple of sentences before stumbling out of the bar, and into the night's street. 

I hung back with Brandon and the girls, which I learned quickly was a mistake.  Aside from learning about his fraternity (was there any doubt he had been in a fraternity??), the conversation was propelled by such intriguing questions as, "Can you name the most obscure band?"  Side note -- I tried to talk them out of this game on the notion that the premise makes no sense -- by definition, if a band is obscure, how would anyone know enough about it in order to rate it more or less obscure than others?  Ugh -- stupid kids. 

At any rate, words no longer meant much to me, so I chilled and enjoyed the sounds of the conversation of the music playing in the background.  Finally, around 1am, I was ready to go, and at one point, checked to see what everyone was planning that night. The kids decided that they were going to stay at the hostel all night (Brandon told me he was going to score one of the girls, which I'm sad to report didn't happen ;p).

I decided that I had had enough, and I walked around the city for a bit.  With no particular direction in mind, I made my way into the Holland Casino, but quickly left after they tried to charge me a cover charge -- really??  I mean, you're already gonna take all of my money, and you want me to pay you for the privilege of doing so?  WTF???

I walked around a bit more, and I think I was in a bar at one point (though I don't really remember) and then I returned to the hostel, and passed out.  Good times...

Brandon left the next morning, and after talking about how much he wanted to hang again (he was going to Berlin the same day as me), I pretended to sleep while he left so that I didn't have to give him my email address (and thankfully, he didn't leave his) -- this not being on facebook thing works wonders with not having to deal with annoying people ;p

'Nando and I spent some quality time at the airport as his flight back to Madrid was roughly the same as mine to Berlin (Brandon took a 7hr train to Berlin).  He was a pretty funny guy, in a "that's the guy in the group that you make fun of" sort of way, but it was amusing nonetheless. :)

Off to my new favorite city in Western Europe -- Berlin!!