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While it was beautiful clear skies upon landing in Amsterdam (which is always helpful when landing a 747), when I arrived at Amsterdam Centraal, the skies had opened up and Amsterdam had additional canals of water, this time running down the pavement. I had caught a direct train to the Centraal, paying 6.40 Euros for a first class ticket (thats about A$9 - oops!), and I had no idea where first class was! There was a massive German Shepherd in my carriage - I wonder if he had paid the same price that I had...
I set off with my tiny travel umbrella in search of my hostel. It looked fairly easy to get to. After taking a few wrong bridges across the canals, I ended up in the red light district of Amsterdam. You know how I could tell? There were women in the windows in their underwear (and less!) beckoning me to come a bit closer... A man standing outside a sex show said to me ¨Come on in. It´s a cultural experience. Best sleaze and filth in Amsterdam¨ - AHHHHHH!!! Run away!
Something I noticed straight away about Amsterdam is that the smell of marijuana is absolutely everywhere. I knew that they Dutch are pretty lax about the drug, but I thought it would be at least a little more under the counter - nope! People everywhere were standing in the streets outside ´coffee houses´ smoking the stuff. Crazy.
I eventually made it to my very first youth hostel - Shelter City Christian Hostel, a beautiful shining beacon amongst all of the sex and drugs. After 31hours in transit, arriving to rain, getting lost in the red light district and my enormous pack making my legs shake, I still wasn´t feeling too great about this whole traveling business. I started to doubt whether I would make it over here for 5 months. After a teary phone call with Mum, (waaaaah!) I set out to explore the city.
There were lots of people everywhere - and the traffic is terrible! There are trams, cars, bikes, mopeds, buses, darting all over the road (well, I suppose trams can´t really dart...). It´s not the same sort of traffic as in Australia, there are less cars and way more bikes. Also, you know zebra crossings? Well, over here they don´t mean you can walk anytime (unless you´d like getting screamed at by a Dutch bicyclist), you still have to wait until the little green man says go (so don´t make the same mistake I did). There is this massive square just near Madam Tussuad´s where there were lots of street performers - two of interest that I´ll tell you about. The first was one of those performers that make really bad, dirty jokes while doing silly illusions, and thinks that they´re the most awesome person on the planet - really arrogant. He spent the majority of the show instructing people on where to stand, and yelling at newcomers for standing where he had told others not to stand. BORING! The second was a dude (I think) dressed like King Neptune - a big fat grumpy King Neptune! He would hold his septor in front of his face, and wouldn´t let you take a picture unless you put money in his dish. But not just any sort of money. If you put a few Euro cents in, he´d protest until he got the amount he had in mind. What a bad attitude.
For lunch I had some awesome Dutch frittes (fries) with mayonnaise! Anyone from college knows how much I love my chips and mayo. The mayo was almost as good as my trusty favourite, Kraft. So I was suitably impressed.
Back at the youth hostel, I heading out into the courtyard to read my book. I sat at a table with some chicks who were from Ireland, by the sounds of their accents. I heard them say that they were going to the supermarket, to I asked one of them if I could come too. Turns out they are really lovely girls, and we had lots of fun hanging out the rest of the evening. They were heading out on the town that night, and as our hostel has a 2am curfew they were going to come home at 7am when the hostel reopened. This place makes people crazy!
There was free dinner at the youth hostel that night (score!) - satay rice with chocolate mousse for dessert. YUM! We were eating dinner in the courtyard when I realised it was 8:30pm - and it was still really light outside! It felt like it was about 5 in the afternoon. Back in the dorm, the girl who was sleeping in the bunk above me introduced herself as Sarah from Boston, and gave me some Boston Salt Water Taffy - really yum! We chatted for a bit (she´s traveling alone also), and she told me she was going on a bike tour the next day, and did I want to come? We then went into the common room and watched some of the Olympic opening ceremony, but had walked in at the unfortunate time where the President, chairperson, etc, were making speeches in languages we couldn´t understand, and that were dubbed in Dutch. I soon after had my first hostel shower (not too bad, actually!) and curled up in bed with my iPod and book.
And now here I am. It´s not 7am on Saturday (I think), and at 8am there will be a free hot breakfast served in the common room. I´m going on the bike tour with Sarah today, and tonight I will catch an overnight bus to Paris. The fact that I am a world champion at sleeping is such an asset while traveling!
I´m feeling a bit better about my travel prospects. Initially I felt really lonely and isolated, but after meeting those nice girls last night, things are looking brighter. Hopefully there will be people like them in every city I visit.
Talk to you soon!
Love Hayley xxx
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