we walked around in circles. i said, we walked around for practically forever.

There are many obscure things about Amsterdam. Traffic is just one of them. Here's an attempt to describe the situation. Let me emphasize the attempt at this point...
In order to cross a road in Amsterdam as a pedestrian, you have to do as followed.
First we have to understand a typical road in Amsterdam. There's usually a seperate "road" just for cyclists on either side of the actual road. In the middle, that's where the cars ride. And then there's sometimes another part for the tram. Our goal is it, to reach the other side of the street without getting hit by a moving vehicle.
Stop and see if there's a stop light. If there is one, don't walk in case of a red light and don't walk at a green light either (more about that later). If there's no stop light, look around. Look around you in a 360 degree radius. Bicycles usually appear everywhere.
If you look left and right, and see a bicycle getting closer, don't walk. If you see one from quite a distance, don't walk either. Dutch cyclists are about twice as fast as common Austrian ones (or probably faster than in any other country on this world). It's a bit like leisure time Tour de France. Every day.
If you're brave, you can run or walk fast. If there aren't any bicycles to see, there are only three reasons how this could happen.
a) it's your lucky day
b) you're not in Amsterdam
c) you're looking down a damn canal, silly
Let's say you somehow made it over the first bicycle lane (btw, motor scooters count as bicycles in the Netherlands!). Now you do the same for the car part of the road and the second bicycle lane. Crossing the part with the cars is almost relaxing.
But what's up with the stoplights?
They're useless. That's how it works.
If the light is red, DON'T walk.
If the light is green, TRY to walk.
The way I understand it, the stop light has only one purpose. To signalize with a red light when it's an absolutely bad idea to cross the road.
A green light means that you have to cross the road the same way as described at the beginning of this post.
Cyclists never stop. They ignore every sign or stop light made for them.
Same for trams. Sometimes you're like "Awesome! Green light! No bikes! Yes!"
And then there's a tram passing right in front of you. You've been waiting all this time for the light to turn green and then when the tram is finally gone, the stop light is back to red.
I think the only ones who stick to the rules are car drivers...wait...no...
Pedestrians?
Um...do you really think that pedestrians would possibly make it to the other side of a street with following the rules?
The conclusion of this attempt to describe how street crossing and traffic works in Amsterdam is, that there's no way to describe how you can really survive all of it. But you will. And you'll love it nevertheless. And you'll walk around in circles...

More Dutch stuff to come...