Hello from a marijuana cafe in Amsterdam! The last couple of days with Don L. have been absolutely fantastic. We've done some touring around Amsterdam, visited the Red Light District, and have drunk quite a bit of Heineken, which is ubiquitous here. We're staying in a quite nice hotel called the Swissôtel Amsterdam (which we are only sort of sure that we know how to pronounce), and it's right in the midst of everything interesting: right next to the Royal Palace and Madame Toussaud's, and just blocks from the train station. I'll take more time from Norway to tell more details [View Full Entry]

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Where to begin… Let me provide an update for everyone about my trip before I get into the specifics of my time in Amsterdam. In my classic, some may say genetic, miss-calculation of time, I was late to my flight to Amsterdam on July 10th. And I missed it… I was forced to spend a painful 3.5 hours at the airport talking to United personnel, my brother-in-law and his travel agent, and eventually my travel agents. In what would seem to be an easy process of getting on another flight, I spent all this time being the liaison between different parties, [View Full Entry]

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Hello all! Sorry that it has been so long, but I have been very busy. Let me start from last week... I bought a bike! It is a boy's bright green bike, but it was cheap and it is amazing. I have joined the group of angry locals that rings bike bells at unsuspecting tourists walking in the streets. It seems like public shaming is very popular with the Dutch and I am embracing that custom with great ease. The bike has enabled me to see a lot of the city that otherwise I would probably not be able to walk [View Full Entry]

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The really traveling has begun! This morning a very excited Stuart woke me up with tea as we prepared ourselves for our big adventure. We strapped on our bags a waddled our way to Rotterdam station to catch the train. Kindly Saar came with us so we could get discounted tickets and seemed to share our excitment. When the turtle people and Saar arrived to Amsterdam it was a bustling and beautiful place. It was exatcly as I had picture and yes, it wasn't raining! We made a beeline for the museum park and finally after years of waiting, I was [View Full Entry]

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En nuestro último día en Amsterdam, hicimos 2 cosas muy importantes: los paseos típicos que nos quedaban pendientes, y llenar los tanques de cerveza Heineken helada! Salimos del hotel temprano y tomamos la línea 4 del tranvía a un par de cuadras del hotel. Frente a la estación central hay negocios que venden entradas a los museos y atracciones a precios convenientes. Comimos algo en McDonalds y fuimos hacia nuestro primer paseo, el Museo de Mada [View Full Entry]

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Hello there, we are in Ye Olde England, flew in last night from Schiphol Amsterdam to Gatwick. We were met at the airport by Carol, Jade and Alix. Today we went to the Michelham Priory, pics up later, meanwhile, here's some from Amsterdam. Byee. [View Full Entry]

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El 12 de julio era el día de la despedida de los tíos. Ahora puedo decir que entiendo un poco mas esa canción que dice que cuando un amigo se va queda un espacio vacío. Cuando alguien nos viene a visitar, lo disfrutamos a mas no poder, y cuando se tiene que ir, la verdad que no se nos hace fácil. Nos queda un vacío por dentro, que nos lleva días asimilar, hasta que volvemos a nuestra rutina. Pero bue... es parte de la vida, y de nuestra elección de vida. Por suerte, el vuelo salía a las 7 de la [View Full Entry]

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Another oddity to note: In the remaining three hours in Paris (after the ticket business), Daniel managed to eat a incredibly delicious kebab sandwich, and I managed to get horrendously lost. Truly, utterly, screwball lost. As in, I arrived at our Amsterdam train sweaty and out of breath. I had decided to take a simple walk, but damn Paris is so beautiful that I kept being propelled from one pretty thing to the next (be it bellydancing outfits, green sidewalk trees, or bits of, you know, centuries-old architecture lying around the streets). Well, beautiful things and KFC, because I had to [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 Rijksmuseum and tons of celebrity paintings. One in particular with an iridescent yellow gown picture portrait leading to a blue shoe. Day 9 Characters met at the 2nd hostel, the fantastically named "Sphinx Hotel": Lando: tall Louisianian (?) who enjoys teaching American history and social studies, Jagermeister, Lil' Wayne and Sting Mischa: bubbly Toronto-ian (?) who enjoys tequila-beer, au pairing, details of Europe, maps I visited the Tropenmuseum today, basically an anthropology museum for kids. So, ideal for yours truly. Witnessed an enormous Shi'ite parade piece ma [View Full Entry]

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La mágica Ciudad de Ámsterdam combina sus extensos canales y numerosos puentes con la original arquitectura de los siglos XVI y XVII concentrados en una pequeña superficie. Las obras de famosos artistas como Rembrandt y Van Gogh se pueden admirar en los Museos de Ámsterdam y caminando la ciudad Ámsterdam nos ofrece la historia viva de una de las ciudades mas bellas y románticas de Europa. Como estabamos en plenas vacaciones europeas, encontrar alojamiento no fue fácil. También es prácticamente imposible encontrar hoteles con estacionamiento dentro d [View Full Entry]

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