A second day in Amsterdam

Yesterday I got up early, pretty jet lagged and proceeded to spend some time repacking, trying to get things in more usable places after being packed for the plane ride. After a shower I had some of the complementary breakfast the Flying Pig serves till 10:30. It was pretty basic, bread to toast, fruit slices, and some cereal. After breakfast I checked out of my old room and into my room for the second night then proceeded to chill in the lobby with all my stuff, taking advantage of the internet, till Pat got up. The internet not being available in the rooms sometimes, I made sure to load recent episodes of the Daily Show and Cougar town to watch later. Additionally I used the time to charge my phone and computer, as they seem to be in a perpetual state of being half charged. 

Once Pat arose, around noon, we headed out in search of brunch/lunch and found this nice place with delicious grilled sandwiches and free wifi.

After lunch we headed back to the hostel stopping into a number of the coffee shops along the way to check out their prices and selection. The two nicest places we saw were Green House and Dampkring.  Both had really good selections and atmospheres though Green House was on the pricy side.  It is really cool how ubiquitous coffee shops are here; on the way to my hostel from centraal station, a matter of blocks, I passed three coffee shops. They are everywhere in downtown Amsterdam often with multiple shops on a block.

After a large lunch we were ready to chill at the hostel so we just hung out and relaxed for a bit. After a bit, some of the people relaxing with us invited us join them in going out to make something of the day. We didn’t have much of a plan and ended up wandering into a café and chilling there for a while, with our new found friends.

Eventually we landed on the idea of going to NEMO, a large interesting shaped building just east of central station that Pat and I had spotted yesterday. We were unsure of the building function and as we approached it bickered over whether the building resembles a ship (It does!). It was beautiful out, despite it being windy at times and we got some blue sky and sun on the walk there.

Turns out NEMO is the Netherlands largest interactive science center and “touching is mandatory”. That was pretty cool and we stayed till it closed around five. Upon getting back to the hostel Pat and I realized it had gotten a bit on the late side and we still hadn’t booked rooms past that night yet. After hanging out a bit more we clamored on to the internet to research a place to stay. After comparing various hostels on multiple sights (I was using hostelworld and I think Pat was using hostelz) we landed on spending 2 nights at Hostel Cosmos Amsterdam. After that was booked we met up with some of our friends from earlier and headed to Wok to Walk, a somewhat Subway style design your own pasta place. I got egg noodles with chicken and pineapple and a coconut curry sauce and loved it. Wasn’t too expensive either if I do recall; I would certainly go there again. 

After food we decided to explore one of the nicer coffee shops we were at earlier and ended up hanging out at Dampkring. Once we left, everything downtown was closed so be headed back to the hostel to rest for a spell before figuring out what we would do that evening. When we reconvened at 11:30 we decided to chill for a bit before grabbing some late night McDonalds and heading to bed with plans for an early rise tomorrow.

Shout out to Brent for editing this for me, these posts are written in the scarce time I'm not doing anything and editing is ever so required.

To Amsterdam

Here is an update on my journey to Amsterdam.

This is my dad and me just before I left home:

I managed to check my luggage without much wait or hassle so I chilled with my mother for half an hour or so by this really cool art instillation before heading through security. I wanted to blog this while waiting for boarding in Toronto but the Pearson wifi is frustrating. So I am going to keep updating it till I get a chance to upload it.

Air Canada hooked me up with a pretty sweet setup for my flight to Frankfurt, an interactive tv, which was pretty neat. I didn't even have someone sitting beside me on the flight. After a documentary on Islamic art and a Quebequois budget myth busters type show and a pretty decent dinner with complementary red wine I was ready to get some sleep.

When I woke I used the interactive tv to follow our final hour into Frankfurt, which, funnily enough, went directly over Amsterdam as far as I could tell.

I didn’t have to wait very long at all to get boarded in Frankfurt, though I did get pulled aside for an additional sweep cause I had forgotten a twist tie in my pocket from a pair of headphones I had used on the flight there. They wanted me to pay for wifi, so I didn’t and hence you got no update.

I got to take a bus out to the plane to board, which I have always thought is super cool since I have never been able to do that in Canada. Though it was raining my spirits remained undampened.

There was a surprising amount of uniformed airline personnel on my flight to Amsterdam. I took this as a positive sign because if these people, who can presumably go anywhere on their free time, are choosing on mass to go to Amsterdam it must be good. The snack on the flight was some sort of potato salad, I considered a coke with it to help me wake up because despite being 1:30 pm in Europe it was still around 7:30am EST… but I decided to take the healthy choice and had a glass of red wine.

It was raining when I got to Amsterdam. I got my bags and took the train to Amsterdam Centraal Station, blocks away from my hostel. As soon as I got in I saw Pat. We dropped off my stuff, and after an unsuccessfully attempt to connect to the wifi, headed out to see the sights. We made a stop at the Bulldog then headed out for a few hours. When we got back we grabbed food at the Burger Bar. Really good burgers and fries at a reasonable price, I think it’s a chain.

After our meal we headed to the Blues Brothers coffee shop across from our hostel. It’s still spitting the same as it had all afternoon so the hostel common space was packed. The coffee shop was much less packed and was a good place to chill. We're both kinda tired from the hours of walking and decided to go back to the hostel for a drink. 

All packed! About five and a half hours till my flight leaves. Still feels pretty surreal but I'm beginning to get excited. My mother is apparently cooking me something special for dinner but what it will be is, as of yet, a mystery.

My Flights are AC876 from Toronto to Frankfurt and LH992 from Frankfurt to Amsterdam.

Also interesting, seems like this is an interesting time in Dutch history: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/01/28/us-dutch-monarchy-idINBRE90R0RC20130128

The Morning Of

The weather this morning in Toronto: 

A bunch of Air Canada flights have been cancelled but not mine! T- 10 hours.

Oh, and I bought a memory card reader cause I couldn't be bothered to tear appart my house to find the right cable. Time to pack!

I've Said My Goodbyes

Today I got back to Toronto from an extended weekend in London. It's been really difficult to get to London these last few months and I had been really missing all the people that together were my family throughout university. I had an amazing time and though I can never see everyone I would like to in a single weekend I was able to see a lot of them. It's great to feel so loved by so many people; it was a perfect end to this chapter of my life.

Tomorrow I'll wake up early and begin the mad dash to get every loose end tied so I can get out of here. My flight is scheduled to leave at 9:50pm tomorrow night and due to the magic of time zones 10 hours later I'll spend my afternoon in Amsterdam. The weather forecast is for it to be 13 degrees, if a bit wet. I am starting to get really excited!

But I shouldn't get ahead of myself, it's late and I need sleep. I discovered today that my camera-computer transfer cord has apparently migrated from where I have kept it these past few months. Preliminary searches turned up nothing so that's bound to be fun. Just gotta cross your fingers and hope there aren't to many other object with blossoming careers as escapologists.

The First

My hopes for this blog is as place to share my stories, thoughts and photos with my family, friends, and anyone else thinking of a similar experience. Wish me luck.