well well WELL.... been a while. i was typing a quick mini-post on the first day in amsterdam, but my time ran out literally as i was moving the mouse to click submit. ANYWAY....
since i last checked in, miller and i cruised from berlin to kiel (north germany, port city, baltic coast) to amsterdam.
brandon and i spent WAY too much time deciding on which out-of-the-way coastal german city we would visit (we wanted some saltwater). back and forth between rostock, lubeck, kiel, puttgarden... the list goes on and it gets more obscure as you go. finally we decided on rostock. then we got to the train station to find out our train didnt exist. kiel train was leaving in 20 min. decision made. we had one helluva time finding a hostel. ate some dee-licious seafood- butterfish and mackeral. found a semi-pro beach vb training station. i love traveling.
amsterdam treated us well. the two of us stayed in a hostel near the city center on thursday night, and then switched places a little hike from the center (near the van gogh museum) to stay in a quad room with our boys a.t. and mike. checked out a few museums. all of us buckled down here and did some serious souvenir buying. i was the worst- getting gifts is so tough because everything you see looks like... a souvenir?! too predictable? cliche? whatever it is i don't like it. problem is... the souvenir shops are where all the stuff is. vondel park is a HUGE and beatiful park that was just a couple blocks from our room, so we spent a bunch of time there yesterday, tossin the fris and just soaking up the sun and the view (finally some damn SUN!!!). gorgeous canals, willow trees, zero clouds and a slight breeze- glorious.
now i am taking a relaxing night to recouperate for leg 2 of the journey. i had a competely stressful morning this morning, as i'd opted for the cheaper yet more complicated of getting my ass to the schipol airport for my flight to athens early this morning (i.e. not taking the 35 euro airport taxi, and taking the tram to train to airport route). after not taking the less-frequent tram times into account (sunday), i took the tram too far, only to have to turn around to reach the connecting stop for the train to the airport. luckily the layover was virtually nil, and i got to my check-in desk with 70 min. before flight time. but then, the group in front of me was this enormous italian family (not large people, but there were 10 of them)... their luggage weighed too much, they didn't want to pay, i'm pulling my hair out looking at the security line in the distance. nevertheless... i made it. i love traveling.
i'm finally in a city where people wear shorts. and sandals!! about time.
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