Jason's Daily Notes

Woke up in an empty fold-out couch/bed thingy. Mariah had left.

I was in Amsterdam. My phone was fully charged. It was nearly 13:00. I browsed online on my phone for a bit, then decided to take a shower. I chatted with Annemarije, but she was busy to meet up today. Soon, Anna-Luna and Willem woke up and we decided to make eggs for breakfast. I sauteed some onions and Luna bought some red bell peppers, which I threw together into a 5-egg scramble. Willem spilled salt all over his plate, rendering it inedible.

It was already like 4pm when Willem and I left. I took some pictures as we walked to Amsterdam Centraal station. I was impressed by the buildings, especially when they reflected in the still water of the canals. Across the water was a theater that looked like an eye.

In the end, I didn't see much of Amsterdam on this visit.

We took the train back to Utrecht, standing in the doorway because there were no seats available. We had to prepare dinner, which we decided would be an Indonesian feast, and so we bought a bunch of ingredients from Albert Heijn (the Asian market was already closed from 5pm).

We got home, nearly at 6pm, and soon after Willem's friend Saco arrived, carrying with him a big crate full of beers (24 bottles). The other friend, Floris, arrives soon thereafter with a 12-beer crate. (Saco and Floris had been visiting Willem in LA and were at my New Years Party 2011; they re-told stories of stealing my ice cream and falling down in front of the police. The three of them are travel mates and are planning to go to Japan this year.)

We (mostly Willem) cooked dinner, Indonesian satay with peanut sauce, vegetable fried rice and sambal flavoured green beans. Amazing. Floris's flatmate/friend/ex Sara came over and we all hung out.

Later, around 11pm, we went out. To the Belgian bar, for a drink (we were tasting each others' drinks). We left and met a couple more friends, including the legendary Hans. Two other guys - Mikhailis and Omrah (I could be completely messing it up).

We made our way to EKKO, a small/medium music venue. It was €6 to enter, and €1 for the coat check, but beers were only €2 so I couldn't complain. The music, however, was an odd mix of 80's, simply bad songs, techno music, hard rock, and Dutch pop. It wasn't the best to dance to.

My throat was still bugging me, so I had a hard time talking to people in the loud hall. And we kept buying rounds of beers for each other. Man. I forced myself to take t eime out and grab some water and a coke. The club was open until 4am, when we left and grabbed our coats. Hans was completely wasted, so we couldn't let him get on his bike. Sara's bf Omri arrived. We all went to El Greco, a greek take-away, to get the famous Kapsalon (fries with meat and sauce on it - basically a wrap-less kebab on fries). We took those back to Willem's place, where there was a bit of an after party.

There was a girl crying and hysterically banging on the door of room 1, where her boyfriend was presumably passed out (or not in there). She annoyed us for a while, then we got the idea to help her break the door down. Hans (now much less wasted) wanted to do it with a fire extinguisher. (He had told me the story of how he broke his kneecap.) But the door wouldn't break.

Two guys who used to live there arrived and hung out with us. They were annoying, so we eventually kicked them out and we slept.

It was 7:30am.