Three Types of People

Before my trip to Amsterdam i thought there were two types of people, those who can ride a bike and those who cant. this doesnt really include BMX riders or mountain bikers and stuff but thats what i thought. then i went to visit a good friend that is living and working outside of Amsterdam, in a city called Haarlem and i found out there are in fact three types of people; Those who cant ride a bike, those who can.... and the Dutch... They ride their bikes and roll cigarets, they ride there bikes and hold hands with each other, they ride there bikes and walk their dogs, they ride their bikes and do everything. Ive never seen so many people so good at riding bikes. I found myself so happy to be in such an active society and with such a free people. I got to Amsterdam with a really good friend of mine from Berlin to meet up with my friend from Charlotte. As soon as we all met up we were tossed into the nightlife of Amsterdam which is lit by the neon lights of the Red Light district, it all swirls with the Smoke from countless 'coffee shops' and is fueled by countless Heinekens and Amstels.We had a few drinks and watched the local soccer club win on tv and get ignord by our server who was also watching the game with everyone else in the bar. We then roamed through the very open underbelly of the city and saw all of the store fronts with things a bit too harsh to mention but was memorible to say the least. We then went back to my friends place, he lives behind the people he works for and told me that he had to get up really early to get the boys ready for school and make them breakfast so odviously i offered to help and was so glad i did. We woke up early and headed into the house of his employers to wake up the children that he takes care of and i met all three of the little hellraisers (which i mean in the best way possible) and we got them  ready and jumped on the bikes and rode to school with them after making their lunches, found lost shoes, and made sure backpacks and jackets were all zipped up. Afterwards we ran a few errands and proceeded to cruise the streets of Haarlem which is amazingly eazy, one because there are more bikelanes then roads and two it is AMAZINGLY flat so it takes no effort to get around. The day ended by us picking up the kids, wresteling for 2 hours and then making dinner and had a few beers before we put them to bed. Once the weekend rolled around things got very interesting, going to sleep as the sun came up and getting back up after the sun went down just to start it all again. the story of most weekends really. But then monday came back around and it was back to work which was actually more like fun for me because it consisted of riding bikes, making food, wresteling with kids, playing video games, and having a few beers. After a week of this i was feeling like a part of the family and the parents of the children were so great and were always happy to have me around... or at least they said so. Once i felt i was about to overstay my welcome i made my train ticket to get back to switzerland so that  i could say goodbye to all the friend i had made here before they left for vacations and moved back home after a semester of study abroad.

The next few days will be goodbye parties and nights out on the town so until next time ... Cheers