it was green of me to think i have ever know anything about anything.

amsterdam was a rude awakening, crippling in itīs beauty. buildings older than the sum of my countryīs history combined with raw color and brilliance. the canals flow through the city like veins that whisper of another time and itīs heart is carved from stone where i walk cobbled streets bathed in fluoresent lights. bicycles have the right of way and cars must halt when the ringing of their bells toll an approach. the people are stunning, and more alive than i have ever thought those of flesh and blood could be, women bathed in yellow and orange and black and red cloth contrasting sun toned skin. the men in their long dreaded hair speaking dutch with fluent tongues, hash joints dripping from lazy fingers. god, their mouths! the sun hangs low in the sky and the clouds seem to hold it in a golden womb. the air is sticky and the humidity licks my skin like a baptism.

i am drunk on the wine of these baptists. i am cleansed.