The day began at about noon when Matt came upstairs to knock on Randy's door. Randy answered and asked for another hour before getting ready for brunch (he and Dominic had a few more beds to bang about). We left at around 1:30 for a café called Walum (pronounced Valum) for sandwiches. Dominic suggested a party for that night called "Hard" at the Club de Ville, which was making its first reappearance after having recently burned down.

Dominic and Randy outside of Walum.

Afterwards Randy said goodbye to Dominic and then he and Matt headed for the Rijksmuseum. Randy stayed for an exhibit of Dutch Painting in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, then headed back in the direction of the hotel to get tickets for the night's party. Matt stayed at the museum enjoying the gorgeous Rembrandts until they forced him out at closing.

The fabulous Rijksmuseum.

The "people in funny collars" room.

Back at the hotel we got day 6 and day 7's web pages ready to upload, then headed out to find an internet café. Randy called Dominic and was very happy to hear that he was going to join them for the party later on (turned out Dominic had been eagerly awaiting Randy's call, as he was also looking forward to getting together again). Walking a few minutes across the city found us at the "Betty Boop" Internet Café. We paid for half an hour's access, then went upstairs and climbed around behind an aging 386 PC to find the ethernet cable to hook up to the PowerBook. Lo and behold, through the magic of DHCP, TCP/IP, and Appleshare IP, a few moments later we had the hard drive on the server in Randy's house mounted on the desktop of the PowerBook a third of the world away. Made us feel like we were in some sort of "Johnny Mnemonic" movie or something.

We had dinner at a gay-owned restaurant called La Strada where we both ordered salmon trout. This wasn't a surprise as we clearly had an amazing knack for wanting the same one item on a menu in any given restaurant; this often turned into a race to order first, so as not to be the copy-cat. When the waiter asked if we wanted our water with gas or without and Matt playfully clued him in that asking if one wants gas has an entirely different meaning to an American.

Fries are very popular in Amsterdam... it seems as if there's a fry shop on every block, serving them up in paper cones. The only difference is that they always come smothered in so much mayonnaise they look like ice cream cones. When we ordered fries at La Strada for an appetizer, they of course came with a bowl of mayonnaise... lots of it. We meekly asked for ketchup and mustard (feeling like boorish American tourists) and the waiters looked at us like we were insane. They teased us and made us try it Dutch style before they would bring our ketchup. It was as gross as it sounds.

After a quick run back to the hotel to change, we headed back down to Getto (from day 6) to meet Dominic. He arrived shortly thereafter, along with two of his friends. After a few drinks we all headed over to the warehouse district for the Hard party. We arrived at about 12:30 and walked into a unique scene. Two women were dancing around on stilts, their faces painted white and their white costumes looking like a cross between Cirque du Soleil and 18th century clothing. It was a bit quiet at first, but picked up as the evening went on. Unfortunately the organizers had not properly advertised the event and although it had always been a very popular club before the fire, not everyone knew about its resurrection. Still, the music was great and there were lots of people having a good time. Into the evening two people came out and climbed up onto a bar in front of a giant disco ball. One was a beautifully muscled black man whose jock strap was covered in disco ball mirrored squares, and the other was a woman completely covered in the same mirrored squares from her platform heels to the miniature ball in her hand. The only openings on her outfit were for her eyes. They danced about and occassionally a leaf blower was used to spew silver confetti squares around them. Very cool! Later there were two more go-go dancers on platforms, their dark skin a beautiful contrast to their mirrored jocks and armbands.

At about 4:15 the music ended, so we headed back into town for a quick stop at The Cockring for some drinks (and nitrous oxide balloons), and then we headed to the EXiT for an after hours party. The EXiT was pretty crowded, and the music was good. Randy and Dominic had a great time dancing (Dominic is such a sweet guy!). At about 8:30 am Randy and Dominic decided to head out, and Matt brought along a new friend as well... Fred, an American who had moved to Amsterdam so long ago he now had a thick Dutch accent.

We decided to check in with each other in the "late" morning to see what we were up for for day 9.