Holland

We were the cliché American backpackers

Standing on the side of the road in the rain

With our cardboard sign written in black sharpie

That read Amsterdam

We were going to Amsterdam

So we weren't surprised by the looks in the eyes

Of the people in their cars when they passed us by

And the gave us the middle finger

Or the thumbs up or thumbs down

But we stayed tough, we stood our ground

And by the end of the afternoon

We got dropped off in the middle of this town

Now everyone will tell you 'bout the coffee shops

And everyone will tell you 'bout the red-light district

But somehow up to now it seems they all forgot to mention

The millions of bikes locked to the millions of bridges

That arch up like rainbows to cross the city's millions of canals

That run down every street with the houseboats nice and neat

And the buildings lean so much you think that they might fall down

Like the rain that day that drove us to a stoop

Gotta feel sorry for all the hippies

That came here in the '60s

Now they don't know who they are

We watched one of them playin' flute

He was tryin' to earn some change

We had spent all of our money for that day

We grew hungry and the rain just came and came

And oh how I wished I had some of those fries

All the people were eating when they passed us by

And I closed my eyes for a minute or two

I opened them up when I got a nudge from you

There was the hippie, the one with the flute,

And holding in his hands was my wish come true

And he handed me the whole thing

And this whole interaction felt was more like a dream

He was readin' my mind it seemed

Like a genie granting wishes for people on the street

And we never could have thanked him enough

I don't know if he knew how much it meant to us

And that night in a tent we counted all our money

And we figured out how long we could stay

The way it looked to me we could live here forever

Sleep in the campground, eat falafel every day

But that's not what we came here to do

We had so much more left to see

And though this place felt so nice

We made our plans to leave

And we went to this park where they had free bikes at the gate

Spent the day riding through the trees and it felt great

We were offered a place to stay on the floor of someone's office

But we chose to sleep beside the interstate

And the sounds of the cars passing by

Put us right to sleep

Nothin' beats layin' right under the stars

And I always feel safe when you're sleepin' beside me