Being a tourist in my own city and going dutch

Well, it is about a two month since I have returned to Europe and surprisingly I like it a lot. Not only the weather has been pretty damn good (31 degrees in May, sorry to all the people in the Southern hemisphere) but I also love the fact that within no time at all, I can be anywhere in Europe. And I can be a tourist in my own city as the stream of friends from all over the world visiting me in Berlin hasn't stopped since I got back to Germany's best city. Here's a link to my Australian friend Lauren's site so you can find out what it is like to be a tourist at home.
http://www.fuzzytravel.com/lbouette/1093-number.html
There are also some very fun pictures not to be missed .
http://www.fuzzytravel.com/lbouette/pictures/berlin-baby/

Nevertheless, I couldn't help it and headed off to the Netherlands a week and a half ago. I first went sailing with a big group of people including my best friend Maren and my brother Jan, around the lakes/canals of Ijselmeer and realized once again how cool it is to be on the water. I got my sailing license two years ago on the lakes of Berlin (yes, in Germany we do have to get a license to go sailing...!) and haven't been out and about since. I mean sailing of course, lol. The group we were going with was part of the German club Snow 'n' Water which organizes trips all year around. In the end we happened to be 33 people on 8 boats with 4 people each and we were sailing around for 5 days in total. Weather on the first two days was perfect and apart from the sailing we also got a chance to cool off in the refreshing but not so clean waters of the lakes. Luckily a nice Dutch man had given me a bright yellow lilo as a present before we took off and the lilo became my most important companion for the whole trip. It definitely came in handy for many reasons, as a cushion on the boat, a mattress while sunbathing, a lilo in the water and last but not least as a mattress in the tent.
In the arvos we would go and check out little cute Dutch villages to have traditional fish and chips and at night we slept on an island once and the other nights in some small harbor. There people would either sleep on the boats or share a tent. It felt a bit like being back on a school camping trip with the shared cooking and drinking together at night or going to the local pub listening and dancing to Dutch country music. Fun times! Although I seriously need to detox for the next week or so as we started drinking and smoking already in the early afternoons. In general we had our first beer/wine/sherry/martini according to the individual taste around lunch time and continued on until we went/crawled to sleep. Mind you though, my crew was very sophisticated and we even had Italian Antipasti, smoked fish and strawberries for our lunches. Not to forget about the Hemingway and other highly intellectual literature that was read on board .

On Monday then it was time to part with all the new made friends and while everybody was heading home to Germany I travelled down to Amsterdam to catch up with my friend James. We met almost a year before in Melbourne and so I was quite excited to see him again after such a long time. James was kind enough to pick me up from the train station and after a yummy dinner and a bottle of wine it seemed like we hadn't seen each other for a week. Lots of late night chatting away followed and it wasn't surprising that we didn't do any sightseeing until the afternoon the next day.
I had only visited Amsterdam briefly a few years before so it was really cool to get the insider tour this time. James not only organized a bike for me but also took me to Vondelpark and other cool places where tourists usually don't go. Amsterdam definitely is a very nice city and if it wasn't so small (the centre) I could easily live there for a while. Also I think the Dutch language is very cute compared to German.
On Wednesday James and I had breakfast with some of his housemates and while he had to go to work I went back to bed and again didn't start my tourist program until the afternoon. I just love sleeping in!
Later I went on the bike to check out China Town and buy ingredients for Sushi headed to the Queen's Palace, a few churches and just strolled down the many little streets by the canals. I happened to have coffee with a fellow backpacker and within no time I headed back to James' to prepare sushi with him and his brother Tristan.
Thursday I had decided I wanted to be a proper Art history student for a change and James and I went to the Van Gogh museum. Bloody expensive (10?!) but worth the expense if you do not want to miss out on some amazing Dutch painter's work.
If I think about it now the whole day was going Dutch as we went to a great Dutch restaurant for dinner (the beer was on the house) and did a typical boat cruise on the canal at twilight. Afterwards we met with some of James' friends to go out and ended up dancing the night away at 'Paradiso'. It has been a while that I have been to a nightclub and therefore I totally enjoyed to boogy. This time they didn't even play any Dutch folk music...
After another lie-in the day after we went to see the World Press Photo exhibition in a church (pretty cool place to use as a gallery) and if it is on close to where you are, you should definitely go and check it out. They were some very touching but also beautiful pictures from all over the world on display and I can only recommend going and having a look.

Last but not least you might be asking so what about the coffee shops and red light district and tulips and wooden shoes, etc. Didn't get in touch with any of it and I honestly do not think that I missed out on anything there. Fair enough, my journey to the airport and checking in for the flight was very relaxed thanks to some quality time in James' backyard. 'nuff said . Go and find out yourself!