Ahhh where to begin with Amsterdam? Well firstly, to be honest, Amsterdam is definitely not what I was expecting. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting but I guess I was just expecting….more? I don’t know, I guess I just prefer the vibe of my town Haarlem. Amsterdam is so touristy and doesn’t have half the historical magicness of Haarlem. Not sure if I could ever live in Amsterdam but I much preferred the beauty of Den Haag, The Hague (now THAT’S what I call an amazing city but more on that later). That being said, Amsterdam is still a great city as there’s always so much on. Lololol Amsterdam reminds me a little bit of Melbourne minus the gigantic evil penguins with the addition of ten billion more pigeons (the pigeons here are more brownish and their feet are more pink but they still have that evil “IM GONNA MAKE YOU WEAR A DRESS AND HURT YOU REAL BAD” look in their eyes.) 

The day I snapped these pics was my first time into the city where I checked out The 9 Streets with Winona, our neighbours daughter (who’s actually 14 but looks and seems like she’s the same age as me. In my opinion, Dutch teens are way more mature than Aussie teens). At first the city was daunting, and as Winona doesn’t come into the city that often, we got lost a few times and went round a circle until I asked some friendly Dutch ladies for directions. In my adventures I’ve been lost so many times, but it’s never a problem as people are always willing to point you in the right direction (haha unless you’re trying to pronounce the Dutch name of the place you’re trying to get to and the Dutch people cant understand your terrible pronunciation – try saying ‘houtplein’, ‘wagenweg’, ‘bakje’, ‘kruidvat’ and ‘grote markt’. Haha I get a lot of laughs from people I ask for directions thanks to my mastery of the Dutch language :P

As it’s summer, every weekend there seems to be a free festival in Amsterdam. I’ve already been to the Canal Festival last week, where there was a floating stage on the canals that we got to sit on and this weekend there’s a huge free cultural festival that I’m going to. Will report back!

  

  

 Destroyed feet after Amsterdam. The skin is actually peeling off my feet as i type this. Sidestepping those bikes and them cobblestones is nasty.

 

Ps. Suggestions for places for me to travel to on my 2 weeks off? Probably wont do somewhere close ie. Paris/London/Antwerp that I could do in a weekend. Somewhere farther afoot? At the mo’ I’m keen on Sweden, Spain, Greece, Prague… perhaps Budapest? Suggestions please!
 

Pps. Sorry I fixed up the comment thing so now anyone can comment and you don’t need a google account to comment so leave me comment love peeps :)

The flight

So summer in Holland is kinda ridiculous. One day it can be nice and sunny and the next day it’s raining all over the place. Hmm I wouldn’t really describe the weather here as warm since there’s always a raging windstorm going on…for serz, that day I went to the beach it felt rather chilly and none of us were game enough to go in the water. But all the Dutch people and the Pommie tourists (swarms of ’em around) were frolicking about like it was a heatwave. Hollish summer definitely has nothin on Aussie summer. Btw there are no flies in Holland in summer which makes for a nice change…

This is actually an old post, as I typed this on Microsoft Word a while ago, meaning to put it up but never getting around to it. So as im rather lazy and cant be bothered writing a new post, I shall stick this one up instead.

---------------------------------------------------------

Well I’ve reached Amsterdam in one piece safe and sound. I didn’t end up in North Korea or on a plane to Bahrain. Actually the flights from Sydney to Seoul and from Seoul to Amsterdam were quite easy and flying by myself wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, I guess coz I’ve flown to Nepal quite a few times. On my Sydney to Seoul flight I was sitting next to a Korean girl, Amy, who’d come to Sydney to study at Griffith University and she became my plane buddy. Argh the worst thing about the flight from Sydney to Seoul was there was no small screen tv built into the back of the headrest so I had to make do with the big screen tv. It didn’t really matter since I didn’t watch tv at all. I spent most of the flight asleep anyway…

Me and Amy werkin it for the camera

When I got to Seoul I was confronted with people in white plastic space suits and I was tested for the SWINEEEEE. From there I had to find the Korean Air desk so I could get to my hotel. Damn Korean Air kept me waiting for ages and I was getting worried and thinking I’d have to sleep in the airport for the night as they all kept talking to each other in Korean and getting me to move from bench to bench. While this was happening I befriended an old Italian Jehovah’s Witness from Milan who tried to convert me. BTDUBZ. Did you know Jehovah is a name for god? I had no idea…

After about half an hour, Korean Air finally got me to my hotel which was the Hyatt Regency, which is a 5 star hotel that I totally wasn’t expecting. It felt a bit weird to have an entire hotel room to myself – hehehe I even wore my fuzzy white bath towel which made me feel like I was either charlotte/bill from Lost in Translation (you should probably watch this movie if you haven’t already. Lost in Translation = Me). Breakfast and dinner was an all you can eat buffet and I got to try some tasty Korean oolong tea recommended to me by my new friend, the Mr Korea aka. the waiter. Haha they had a Karaoke Bar in the hotel and i was planning to show off my stellar singing prowess but when i wandered down the dark hallway to the Karaoke Bar, I found they only had Karaoke rooms which were closed off. As i was making my way back - a group of Korean businessmen all laughing and whispering excitedly in Korean opened the door to one of the karaoke rooms and i saw a bunch of scantily clad girls squealing, singing and partying inside, with the men quickly filing in. Methinks the girls were there to "entertain" the businessmen :P

The hotel room 

Raiding the minibar

 

 Herrrrrro Virginia Tivoli and that other guy from the ABC Breakfast Show 

Lol they had an 'Australia Network' channel where all they showed was this and RPA - which reminded me of Kanooooo ;) 

Spent the evening watching Korean MTV (was hoping to catch the Wonder Girls - still love em Krisha, recommend some of their other songs to me!) and 'Friends' which I've never really watched before in my life - ugh hate Chandler

Back on my flight from Seoul to Amsterdam I got to eat cool Korean food called bibimbap which was rather tasty and reminded me of Sarahn (dude i am totally coming to your house for Korean food when i get back - Korean food is yummmm :) In no time in was at Schipol Airport. I got picked up by my host mum Thessa and we had no problem recognising each other. We drove back to their house and met the rest of the family. Patrick, the dad, was at home with the kids Brecht (8) Phenna (7) and Stach (5). The kids were pretty excited to see me but were a bit shy in the beginning. Their house is ahhhhhmazing will take some pics when I get the chance. It was built some time in the 1800s. I’ve just been settling in atm and am still feeling so tired with the jetlag. I’ve been getting up at 5am and haven’t been able to get back to sleep…

---------------------------------------

Argh i had more photos i wanted to upload but Blogger is going way too slowly. Hmm okay that was the end of the first post about ma flight. Shall write again whenever I can letting y’all know what I’ve been up to.

Ps. I know i have a mountain of emails to get back to and will get back to each and everyone of you asap x

Pps. Due to popular demand i might make a reappearance on Facebook but am still iffy about it... You can add me if you want but im not sure when ill be on...

Today i jumped off a crane into the ocean.

Life is good :)