DOCTORAL STUDENT TRAVEL GRANTS

Well I wound up spending most of the rest of my time in those casinos. The first one I went to was Video Gaming machines only, but they had video poker, video blackjack and Video Slot machines as well, I did not really do well her in this place so I only spent about an hour, and about 100 Euro, then left.

The next place I found was a nicer place. Unlike in New Jersey, in these casinos people are dressed up in their nice clothes instead of jeans, sneakers and T-Shirts. This casino had actual table games so I tried to play some Blackjack, but there was a player at the table that either had no idea on how to play or he was somehow involved in cheating with another player, but I am inclined to think he just did not know how to play blackjack.

So I started playing at the Roulette table, and I was doing really well, at one point I was up about 400 Euro before I started losing. So I decided to leave this casino and go walking around for a while.

The next day I found myself in another casino, and I decided to see if my luck was back, I went to a slot machine and put in some money and on the third spin I won another 200 Euro, so feeling lucky I decided to enter the poker room, and that is when things got really interesting. I got into a game and boy were these guys good, but I was winning just as much as I was losing, and in the end I may have even walked away with a few Euros more then when I walked in.

After playing for about 5 hours I decided to go outside and walk around a bit to stretch my legs. I would up deciding to sit down and have a cup of coffee, but I did not know the difference between a coffee shop and a caf?.

• In Amsterdam a caf? is a place to sit and have a coffee, but a coffee shop is a place to purchase and smoke Marijuana. So as I was sitting there drinking my coffee I noticed several people rolling joints. Now I have herd about this and I hade smelled plenty of pot while I was there, but I did not realize it was sold out in the open like this. So I decided to buy some pot and try it.
• I went to the counter where I saw others buying their weed and the guy behind the counter was very nice and showed me a menu of what they had for sale. I wound up buying a joint of white widow. The man behind the counter told me his was very strong stuff, but I was not prepared for this.
• I managed to smoke about half of the joint, before I was hit with this feeling. I have been a drinker for many years, but even in my college days I was never out of my head like this.

Eventually I managed to get out of there and get some fresh air, and some waffles. I decided, this was the time to back into the casino and win my money back, and in the end I lost another 600 Euro, and wound up falling off my chair in the casino and needed to be helped out.

• So if you are going to be going to Amsterdam, be careful the grass is really strong.
• During the vacation I got to see many of the wonders that Amsterdam has to offer. One of the first things I went to see was the Van Gogh Museum. Having just gotten off the plane I was tired, but some of his art is just amazing to see, and I did not want to wait to see them.

After going to the museum I headed into the city center to look around, maybe do some shopping and get some food.