Steez

At the Strowis hostel in Utrecht, we met these interesting Italians, very stylish. They invited us to smoke this unique pipe they had said was very special, and expensive. Basically a long tapered tube with an equally long stone “stopper” that was removed to clean the pipe after every smoke. You were supposed to hold the pipe somewhat vertical and then use a small cloth as a filter. Only one of the four knew enough English to talk with us, but the others kept feeding him words or the proper conjugations of words when he was stuck.

Now we're back in Amsterdam at the same hostel, about to check out the Rijksmuseum. Last night turned out to be very interesting. We were invited, by a friend of Tyler, to stay at their place for a Midsummer Party that was medieval themed. We had each bought toy battle axes at thrift shop and didn't have much else. It occurred to me that we might be making a mockery of their event, but we stuck with the plan. Everyone else had unique, probably expensive, outfits you would see at the renaissance fair. We hung out and drank some great beer and ate grilled
chicken, fish, homemade salads, and what not. The best part of the evening took place when they busted out the homemade metal throwing axes and a wooden target. Quite entertaining and also quite dangerous once everyone's drunk.
Later in the evening our hosts also brought out the Mead (honey wine) and Absinthe. We slept on the floor, but not after checking the Brewers score while they were winning at 3:00 in the morning here.