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Published: December 3rd 2008
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I arrived in Amsterdam at midday on Friday the 25th of July. I picked up my backpack only to find it almost completely destroyed, and sadly no longer had Louise there to sew it up for me 😞 In Amsterdam I was staying with my good friend Tamar, who lives in Amsterdam, but I had met in London th previous semester where she was also doing exchange at UCL. I took the train from Schipol airport to the centre of Amsterdam, where I met Tamar's older brother Jurjen at the station. I dropped my stuff at Tamar and Jurjen's apartment (Tamar was away for the first day I was there, with her parents at a holiday house in the north of Holland), hung out with Jurjen for a little while and then headed to the Van Gogh museum on the tram. The museum was very good. The paintings are in chronological order and are accompanied by the story of Van Gogh's life. After a few hours, I went back to the apartment and had dinner with Jurjen. After dinner we went to one of Jurjen's friends apartments. Bikes are big in Amsterdam, everyone rides everywhere, but unfortunately we didn't have the
key for Tamar's bike, so we only had one between us. Jurjen dropped me at the tram stop, told me where to go, then cycled and met me at the other end. We met a couple of his friends, had some drinks and then headed to a bar and then a club. It was a good night. We left at 4am, and I had been up since 4am to catch my flight from Athens, so I was pretty tired. On the way back we decided that I'd dink on the tray on the back of Jurjen's bike. I alternated between that and running, but unfortunately found myself over the back wheel as Jurjen hit a speed bumb, and the tire blew. Luckily we were close to home and Jurjen wasn't drunk enough to take a swing at me 😊
The next morning I slept in, and then said goodbye to Jurjen (who was taking Tamar's place at the holiday home) promising him that I'd fix his tyre. I went to the bike repair shop around the corner and dropped it off. Bikeless, I walked around the streets of Amsterdam, had a quick lunch while I was waiting for the
Amsterdam housing
Note the leaning and the pulley thing at the top bike, then went back to the shop to pick up the fixed bike, and back to the apartment to meet Tamar. It was nice to see her again after a couple of months. We went to the local supermarket, bought ingredients for a stirfry, and on the way home picked up a sneaky joint from one of Amsterdam's famous "coffee shops". We went home, cooked and ate, and then made some coffee and had the joint. Tamar was pretty affected, but it did almost nothing to me. Weird. Both of us had not had one in a long time.
Tamar had a gym consultation session on Sunday morning, so I decided to skip that and went on the free walking tour instead. It was pretty interesting, though not the nest walking tour I've done. The red light district was an experience, and I liked the narrow buildings with pulley systems attached so furniture (originally shipping goods) could be hoisted to the top floors. That evening, Tamar and I and a friend of hers called Adrian went and saw Black Knight, the new batman film with the late Heath Ledger. The movie was good, though none of us would have
chosen to go and see it. Jurjen had bought the tickets (for him, Tamar and me), but then had to be out of town). After the movie the three of us went for a really good Indonesian feed near Tamar's place. They are both vegetarians, and the conversation got fairly philosophical, eventually culminating in a heated discussion about the existence of God. Adrian is an acclaimed postgraduate economist (he describes what he does as "mathematical psychology"), so he's got some smarts, but while Tamar and I invoked Dawkins, he stuck to his argument that the question is beyond the scope of science. He didn't convince me.
On Monday Tamar had work at her new restaurant job. I sorted out my travel plans to get back to London for my flight. My travel agent gave me an open ticket to get to Brussels for the Eurostar, but failed to realise that there was no connecting trains that day. After a phone conversation with my sheepish travel agent, I grudgingly conceded that I'd have to leave Amsterdam that night and stay in a hostel in Brussels. After organising my travel and accommodation, I headed to the Anne Frank museum. The line
was ridiculous. I didn't have that much time, so I decided to skip it and go to the Rijksmuseum around the corner instead, which was pretty good. I then retreated to a park with my Dostoevsky (yes, pretentious), and then met Tamar and one of her friends for a beer at a cafe. Tamar and I went back to her apartment, cooked fajitas, and then I said goodbye and headed to the station for my train to Brussels. I actually left it a bit late, and had just missed a tram, so I was tossing up whether it was quicker to wait ten minutes for the next tram, or basically run the tram route. The tram would have just gotten me there on time, but if it was a little bit late I would have missed my train and been absolutely screwed. So I ran through the streets of Amstredam with my giant and disintegrating backpack while dodgy dreadlocked guys tried to stop me and sell me drugs.
I managed to make the train, and got to Brussels late at night. I had a quick shower, and then grabbed a few hours sleep before having breakfast at the hostel
and heading to the station to catch the Eurostar. When I arrived in London I had this distinct feeling like I was home. I love that place. I had about 12 hours before my flights, so I headed to the bank to close my account and transfer some money for my Czech ex flatmate, Martin (he had no English bank account, so all his earnings in London went into mine). I then went to my old pub, caught up with my ex colleagues and had some lunch and a beer. I then decided to spend my last few hours in London at the Imperial War Museum - I had been once before and absolutely loved it, but didn't see everything and wanted to finish it off. After that, I went to Hazel's house (she wasn't in London, her sister let me in) where I had left my laptop and guitar before I set off for Europe. Hazel's sister Gemma then dropped me at the station, I took the tube to Heathrow, and got on a plane bound for Perth.
And that's all.
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