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.