Half Way Complete...

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Allow me first to start with my realization that I have been here two months and one day. And I have two months minus 4 days remaining. I cannot believe how fast everything is going! I feel like I just got here! But, I suppose I have been to Oktoberfest and Amsterdam, celebrated Canadian thanksgiving, lived in three different apartments and had roughly 500 cups of coffee. I should create a checklist of the things that remain to be completed with my time here in Europe. (Paris, Dublin, Sicily, Prague, Bratislava, real Guinness, more soups, hot punch, stuffing competition with Eliza, Prater wheel, Shonbrun park, plus a many bars, cafes and restaurants to attend).

Amsterdam!

What's to say that hasn't already been said before? It was amazing! But in a very tiring sort of way. I had learned about half way through my trip that Amsterdam had 500,000 in population, and Great Amsterdam had 1.5million people. I could not believe it for one second. The streets are PACKED with people. Considering Vienna is home to two million, and we also have A LOT of tourists, I would never have assumed Amsterdam would be so hustle and bustle.

Despite the not-so-relaxing atmosphere, it was delightful to be somewhere else once again. It had been a month since I went to Oktoberfest, and work was in the middle of a conference that can be, at times, dreadfully boring. We left very early on Thursday morning, the flight took off at 7am, and we landed in Amsterdam around 830. Since we hadn't had breakfast, Eliza and I went and got some food in the airport. That's where I had my first REAL Heineken. Mmm... didn't even taste like beer. We called the hostel to see what was happening with the Shuttle that was supposed to pick it up only to hear that it had been stolen the previous day!! That was pretty upsetting, and ended up costing us quite a bit of money in transportation to and from our hostel every day.

We went to the hostel to take a quick nap and drop off our stuff, it took roughly 1.5hrs to get there - 25mintues on a train and then an hour on a bus. Our hostel was not in Amsterdam, but a town 35km away called Noordivjk (something of that sort). It's a very sleepy town, but home to surfing in the summer. We took a nap and woke up at around 1pm or so.

after our 1.5hrs ride into Amsterdam central we decided to do no more than just walk around (we were still super exhausted!). It quickly became dark as we arrived around dinner time, and since our sleeping pattern was so screwed up - so was our eating habbit. We ate when we felt hungry, but it was just a snack everytime. It was very strange in fact! We had no map and no idea where anything was. We only had a giant Ferris Wheel to guide us around downtown. We would walk here, and then there, then this way and that, and then realize we had just walked in a very large circle, so we would try again with a different route, and end up at a similar place... it was very odd. We did find ourselves in the infamous red light district at one point, but just as suddenly as we had found it, it just vanished. We headed back to the hostel early to sleep and be able to wake up early for a full day.

The next day (Friday), we decided to do our touristy things since we had the full day ahead of us. It was a on-and-off sunny day, so we started with a canal tour. It was interesting to hear the little info about the city while we were going around, and there were a lot of neat things to see. Unfortunately, the canals are extremely dirty - garbage everywhere. But I suppose the canals act as an ideal place for garbage to roll or blow into. I tried taking a few pictures to show how dirty it was, but none of them came out properly, so no such luck.

After our tour we took a tram to the Museum Square and went to the Van Gogh Museum. The architecture of the building was really nice. The architecture in Amsterdam is a mix between really old and really new. There seems to have been a lot of notable architects who have graduate from the architect university there, and would go on to build all sorts of very nice looking buildings (I would buy a calendar of them). The Van Gogh Museum was (I believe) four stories which includes the ground floor. It housed paintings from (obviously) Van Gogh, but also his friends and people who inspired him. Not being a huge art fan, I was often drawn more to the style of the building and how it was designed, but the paintings would catch my eye here and there - one specifically which caught my eye was a painting done by Van Gogh while he was in psychiatric care (self checked-in), which emphasises the lines. This one specifically was simply a row of trees, but it looked sublime.

Surprisingly, once finished this museum (and getting a bit lost) it was dinner time again! Though, again, we simply late snack food. I was absolutely addicted to the french fries there... I couldn't believe how perfect they were... ALL THE TIME! I think it may have been one of the last things I ate before leaving Amsterdam (perhaps THE last thing). And Eliza was continuously on the hunt for her Belgian Waffle with chocolate sauce (which I must admit, was very delicious). Another evening of walking around without a map we managed to do a little better than the previous night. We hung out a little longer in the Red Light District... but unless you are buying "something" there really isn't much to do there. We hung around the Nostalgic Fair (and its giant ferris wheel) and walked around the shopping streets. We headed back early to our hostel to party there a little bit. Unfortunately, not much was going on when we arrived - most of the internationals had already gone to bed, and it was mostly locals who remained. We had a few beers though and went off to bed.

The final day of our trip we checked-out of the hostel, and went to the airport to drop off our things. Once again, another hickup happened, and the trains stopped working!! So, we had to take a bus (twice as long) from Leidon (the train station 'near' the hostel) to the Airport. We put away our stuff - including my umbrella - and went to catch the train to Amsterdam Centraal.

When we arrived it was POURING... complete downpour... it would costly roughly 26 EURO for one of us to go back and 46 if we both went back for it. So there was no way that was going to happen. We ran around from store to store to try to save ourselves. Since it was around 5degrees, very windy and pouring rain it was always a good time for tea, so when we just wanted to sit (and not 'shop' anymore) we would stop in somewhere and have tea. We decided we still wanted to see the city, but couldn't handle the weather so we hopped aboard a tram and just rode it around for a while, then took another one back to the Centraal station. We were curious to see what the red ligth district looked like in the daytime, and since the weather had temporarily subsided we went there. Just as you may assume, its completely ghost - as if there is not 'special' district there... we went back to the carnival and then went to meet my fellow intern who would be there Saturday-Tuesday. Miscommunication led to an hour waiting and then with the raining having really let down, we just walked around town. We had to catch an early train to the airport (last one)... we arrived around 1230am.

We slept "desk-style", sitting in a chair heads on a table until about 4am, then got up to see if we could check-in, the answer was no, and someone stole our 'bed'. So we lay on the floor, but couldn't sleep. At 5am we checked-in, went through Security and lay on couches for about1.5hrs then moved to our terminal to board the plane. Sleep on the plane the entire way, sleep when we arrived home, and after being awake for maybe 5hrs I had gone back to sleep... but Eliza had disappeared - she left for Dubai the next day.

Other
It's now wednesday, I finished the review conference from work yesterday with a nice reception afterwards. I'm so thankful its over - but I think I'm sick now (amsterdam + work + gross apartment + sick Eliza), which really sucks. I'm currently eating homemade stew which makes me think "I sure am glad I know how to cook!" <-- that's how delicious it is 😊

I have another Stammtisch this Friday which should be a lot of fun. Halloween is this coming weekend, but since they don't really celebrate it in Europe, I will have to actively search for a party or something to do for it (it is my favorite holiday!!)

I leave for Paris in 9days, and I am looking into flights to Sicily. Waiting for Eliza to come back from Dubai. Overall! Not too much to report on! But if something happens I will be sure to let all of you know!

Until Next Time!

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