Roaches! And I mean hundreds of them, they were everywhere in the kitchen. On the walls, on the stove, in the sink, it was one of the most disgusting things I had ever seen. Needless to say, sleep was very restless that night. I knew that I would never be comfortable in this place so the next day I took the increasingly familiar task of putting the word out that I needed a new place. Thankfully within a few days a guy I knew from the Nes came over to me and told me he had an apartment for rent. Bingo! Just what I needed and said I’d take it before he even told me about it. He was leaving town for 3 months and wanted to rent it out for that time. it was a studio apartment in the near west, down past the Harlemmerplein. He was asking quite a bit but was cool if I had a room-mate and it just so happened that Kurt had worn out his welcome at the employee house where Frank lived so he was on board to share the new place. We moved in on the week-end rekindled our party ways almost immediately. I was still playing in 5 pool tourneys a week but now I added Friday and saturday nights to the mix with hitting the clubs with Kurt and occasionally Frank. Kurt loved to trip on ecstasy and dance the night away and I was quite fond of it as well, but Frank would never hit the dance floor instead he was content to just trip out and roll joints which was great for Kurt and I as we always had a doobie ready to go. Sometime in the middle of December, Frank headed back to the States to make some money. The job was getting very difficult as there were very few tourists around and what was friendly competition in the summer, had now turned extremely cut throat. It was getting harder and harder to find any tourists for the place and my funds were starting to feel it.
With all the hype about Y2K, Kurt and I were ready to party as if it was our last one ever, we took all kinds of drugs and hit all types of parties. When it was all over we had partied our asses off, had a great time and most importantly…the world was still intact. We really hadn’t been too worried about that but thought it wa a good excuse to party like rock stars and we took full advantage of it. After that things started to slow down a bit, less partying and more focus on responsibility. Sometime around the middle of the month I got a phone call from the lady I had previously rented a room from. I had given up on that and was pleasantly surprised when she says that the room in the houseboat is now available and I could have it straight away. The place was half as much as we were paying for the apartment, it was half the distance from the center and best of all it was a houseboat. I thought it would be one of the coolest places to live and without hesitation I said yes. The downside was that I had said I would take the apartment for 3 months and calling the guy to tell him that we were leaving was intense. He was very unhappy and was not afraid to let me know it, he yelled at me on the phone for what seemed like forever and when he finally knew that he could do nothing, he told me to fuck off and hung up the phone. That bridge went up in smolders and I hoped that I didn’t regret it in the future. We packed up and moved the next day. the boat was unique in that it had been converted into four apartments with a shared toilet and shower between them. our room had two single beds with a bamboo divider then the living area with two leather couches and a big T.V., followed by the kitchen with a small fridge and a cooker on top. We loved it and settled right in, but with anything good there was always a catch… she was selling the boat and we would have to leave when that happened, she assured us that it would take at least 3 months so we would have some time to enjoy this new treasure.
Over the next couple of months, Kurt and I had a blast living on the boat. It was everything I thought it would be and more. After two months Frank returned and moved in on one of the couches. It was cramped but as we all got along like peas in a pod, it was no problem for anyone. There had been about a half-dozen different people over to look at the boat in that time and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before the word came down that it was sold. The other renters knew this also and slowly they started to move out. we were down to just two rooms when the dreaded day came that the landlady told us that it had been sold and that we would have two more months before it closed and we had to leave. The other renter left within a week and now it was just the three of us on the boat. shortly after that Kurt found a room with someone he worked with and he was gone as well. The spring was in the air and the tourists were stating to show up again and that’s when I had a lightbulb moment on how to make some extra money and help out the landlady at the same time. I would find the tourists that wanted a private room and tell them about an opportunity to stay on a houseboat in Amsterdam. It was the easiest thing I ever did, everyone wanted to stay on a houseboat in Amsterdam! Over the last tow months I filled that boat up almost every night and made a nice penny doing it, but the real prize was making the landlady very happy, so happy that she told me about another houseboat she owned up the street next to hers. It was a one bedroom boat that was fully furnished and that the girl who lived there was going to be leaving soon and when she did I could have it. This was great news as I was unsure of how I was going to ever get long-term housing and now I had hope.
With no new place to go, I went back to the mold infested room at work. I couldn’t complain as it was a roof over my head, a great location and best of all…it was free! Frank was able to get back into the employee house at his work and I would spend a couple of nights there each week to get away from the smell. Work was starting to get busy again and the money started to roll in non-stop. When Queen’s Day rolled around we were ready for a day of madness. We had no worries about having to work as the city was full and there was nothing to do but enjoy. Frank, Kurt and I spent the day ‘strolling’ through town, having a blast as we walked through the biggest yard sale in the world. It was everything I had been hoping for and more and I once again renewed my vow to never work on a Queen’s Day again. Towards the end of spring some of the regulars from the Hill started to put together a trip to Pink-Pop, one of the oldest music festival’s in the world that took place in the south of the country. It was a week-end affair with a campground near-by by like most festivals, the best day was the last one so we decided to make it a day trip. The line-up was great but for me and Frank there was one band that made the decision easy…Pearl Jam! We were both big fans and were amped to see them. The day was spectacular, the weather was perfect and the music was awesome. Pearl Jam was everything we expected, we were blown away by a band we had never heard of called Muse, and the night was topped off by the best light show I had seen since Pink Floyd when Moby stole the show, I now understood why he was the last show of the night. It turned into one of the best days I had in Holland and I was on top of the world.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run