I AMsterdam

Which way do I go?!?

LOL :P saw this sign near my hostel tonight...

I am now at my final destination in Europe :) It is somewhat a sense of relief, that I will no longer have to drag my super heavy luggage around anymore after this... ahhhh...home is so close!

So I haven't really the opportunity yet to explore Amsterdam having arrived at around 5pm. At the reception of my hostel (Flying Pig), there is this common area where everyone sits together (kind of like sitting on a square tatami bed), smoking pots/weed/hash (I've only heard of such thing as hash today). Oh, and apparently mushroom is not allowed in the hostel...like I would know the difference...:p It was quite eye-opening...not to mention this hostel is not too far away from the red ligh district (prostitution is legal here!) I got to walk around the hostel tonight as I needed to get something to eat...and saw so many "coffee shops" one after another, and almost walked into one thinking it was a cafe! It was quite a scary experience being out there alone and also wearing my thongs (flip flops for non-Aussies) in the 5C weather is not fun! (my only pair of shoes is still saoking wet from walking in the rain for 5 hours yesterday in Luxembourg.)

I also came across a whole lot of souvenir stores selling the stereotypical Dutch items such as clogs and wooden tulips. I can't wait to see and explore another side of Amsterdam tomorrow...the artsy fartsy part of it - the floating flower market, Van Gogh musuem, the colourful houses, Rijksmusuem, the parks...and people watching in the quaint cafes...

Alright, I better plan my schedule for tomorrow...

I'm a bit anxious about meeting my roommates, I hope they won't come in all high and drugged!

luxembourg in the rain

Sleeping time now, update later when I get to Amsterdam....

final week tentative itinerary

Brussels really is an underrated city - the fine cuisines and the friendly people really make me fall in love with this city! :) I wish I could go out and explore the city a bit more, however it is freezing cold outside (colder than Sydney winter) and I do not have a jacket to keep me warm. Today, it was great to have Christine, who's a local, showing me around Brussels. She took me to the list of chocolate stores that I had written down (from my research on the best chocolatiers) and then we went to see the peeing boy (Mannekis-pis) as well as the less famous, peeing girl.
However, by lunch time, I felt my muscles ache and a sore throat developing... >< So I retired back to my temporary home (the bunk bed) and swallowed a panadol. Hopefully I will be better by tomorrow.

26th Oct - Bruges
27th Oct - Bruges
28th Oct - Ghent and then back to Brussels
29th Oct - Day trip to Luxembourg
30th Oct - Train to Amsterdam
31st - 1st Oct - Amsterdam
2nd Oct - Au revoir Europe!!

random pics

The Amphitheatre aka Colosseum!

On a bridge in Florence

hola! bonjour!

Yesterday, my camera was stolen without my knowledge of the theft taking place! Thankfully it was returned to me at the end (since I wasn't aware that it was stolen, it was a nice surprise!).

So what happened exactly? I was in an outdoor churros cafe in Madrid (deep fried dough dipped in hot chocolate sauce...hmmmm) with Anna-Marie (from Finland) and we were deep in conversation about something (I can't remember what though) when 2 gypsy kids (one boy and one girl) came over to our table. The boy was holding a piece of newspaper and I think he pretended to be a handicap and kept pointing at some random stuff on the newspaper for me to read. I was confused and so we ignored them, and then he pointed at my churros so I concluded that maybe they are here for the food coz they're hungry. We shook at our at them and they left. Twenty seconds later, a man came up to my table and handed me my camera!! HUH?!?! How did he get it?!

What happened was, while the little boy distracted me with the newspaper, the girl next to him took my camera which I put on the table next to my churros. He used the newspaper to cover up the camera so I wouldn't see the girl taking it, however that Spanish man was sitting opposite us and I guess he witnessed the event and ran after the kids when they left to get my camera back!

Phhheewww, most of my photos from Barcelona are still in the memory card as I still haven't the time to burn them onto my CD. I'm so grateful as I was extremely close to losing my camera and it would totally dampen the rest of my holiday...I can't imagine traveling without my "memory keeper". It actually took me a 10 minutes to realize what really happened and then I walked to the Spanish man's table and told him that he saved my day!

So now, I am in Brussles...waffle-land now! Since my last entry, I've been in Italy (Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, Sorrento, Milan and Venice) and Spain (Barcelona and Madrid). I'm not particularly impressed with Italy despite the great gelatos I've had! Barcelona had been wonderful so I ended up staying there for just over a week.

I still have around a week in Europe....so basically my Euro trip has come to an end now! I still haven't planned for the rest of the week so I think I should do that now.