We didn't really get started until 4:30 pm on our last day (Randy and Dominic needed their 4 hours of sleep!). We decided to meet at a "smart shop" called Kokopeli at 5:45 pm. There are about 20 of these shops around Amsterdam, and they sell pot as well as other herbal and vitamin concoctions. We had some vitamins and an energy drink, and sat by the window looking out over a canal for a while with Dominic.

The relaxing view from Kokopeli.

Aren't they just so adorable? Randy and Dominic inside Kokopeli.

Then we decided to walk over to what Matt's friend David (the British guy from day 6) had called "the most beautiful canal in the city." It was nice, but probably would have looked better in the spring when the trees would be in full flower. There was a great Thai restaurant across the canal that Dominic recommended, so all three of us headed through the tiny little door and down some steps into a pleasant and friendly space with good food.

Love those canals.

After dinner we strolled back towards the hotel, marveling at the huge numbers of people around and about on a Saturday evening. We passed an area where there were a bunch of sex shops and saw a marble fountain topped with a 5 foot phallus spewing water all over itself. The testicles were spinning madly under the power of their own little water jets. It was very Amsterdam.

The giant marble love muscle.

Dominic needed to go home to change, so we decided to meet at a club called Havana at midnight to head out for "iT", a large dance club that had just reopened the previous week.

We went upstairs to Matt's apartment and relaxed for a while, talking over the events of the last few days. Randy was sure that he'd have warm memories of Amsterdam for a long time to come.

Matt woke Randy up at 11:00 pm, and we both got ready for some more dancing. We took a tram down to Havana, which was really busy, and very cruisy. Dominic was there already waiting for us. We headed down the street to Soho in the hopes it would be a bit quieter, but no such luck. It was also just as cruisy and flirty, which seems to fit the comment made by Dominic's friend Dennis; he'd said that Amsterdam was nice to live in but got boring really quickly... after a while the only thing left to do was fuck.

We hung out at Soho until about 12:45 and then walked over to iT. It turns out that they have a really weird door policy and only let people in on Saturday nights that have a gay membership card. You can only get these cards by going to the club on some other night. We were pretty annoyed, but decided not to let it bother us.

Dominic suggested that we head over to Cockring, as he thought that would have the best music. A quick stop for pizza along the way was in order, then to the club. The music upstairs was quite good, but the music downstairs (spun by DJ Deb, a cool woman indeed) was awesome...better, in fact, than some of the clubs we'd been to in London. We were quite blown away and had a fantastic time with the great pounding sounds. Randy and Dominic danced mostly off to the side of the bar, while Matt stirred up the dance floor and bounced off the walls. Nitrous oxide and oxygen-filled balloons added to the night's fun.

Around 6 am Randy and Dominic headed back to the apartment, while Matt decided to stay for just a bit longer (any thought of actually getting any sleep on the last night had gone out the window several hours before). Matt bopped around a bit more and then walked down to the nearest canal to sit and watch the water and reflect on the fun we'd had.