Europe take 2

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From London, my mom headed back to snowy Canada while I made my way across the city on the tube with my backpack to London City Airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam. I tried to find flights from a closer airport, but the best option was through LCY. I wanted to avoid taking the tube with my backpack, especially in the middle of the day but it was a necessary evil. I know how much people hate people taking the tube with backpacks...and I'm sorry! Its impossible not to be in the way. It's just as miserable of a process for the backpacker as it is for the other people on the train. However, an hour and a half later I was at LCY, belongings still intact.

Once in Amsterdam, I wasn't really sure where to go. I've been to the Amsterdam airport several times, but its always been for a connecting flight. I had no idea what the best way to get into the city was. A taxi driver said it would cost 40Euros to get downtown. No thanks. There were trains going in, but I couldn't tell where to go to catch those. I did see a bus stand with several buses coming and going. I walked over to the stands, but I could not make heads or tails of the route maps. Feeling a little frustrated and slightly dumb, I saw a guy in a brilliant yellow vest. An airport worker! Yes! He was very helpful and told me which bus to take as well as where to jump off and what landmarks to look for so I'd know where I was. The bus was only 1 or 2 E. That beats 40! The driver was helpful as well and made sure I got off at the right stop, but I still managed to have issues when I tried to find the street I needed. The bane of Europe is their street names changing every 2 blocks. I literally walked by the street I needed three times because where it connected to the street I was on it had a different name than it had where the hotel was. I knew I was close to where I needed to be because my hotel overlooked the Vondelpaark, and I was right by the park. I approached a woman who was just locking up her bike, and she very helpfully Google mapped the area on her phone (my phone doesn't work in Europe) and sure enough I was only two blocks away from where I needed to be.

Thankfully most people in the Netherlands speak very fluent English. I don't know any Dutch at all so I do appreciate people who speak English! Even when they don't hand signals can still be very helpful. Communication is about more than just language! (which I have more stories about when I get to Spain)

I arrived in the late afternoon, so I explored the area close to my hotel a little bit and bought some groceries before I settled in for the evening. It was nice being so close to the park because it was quiet, but there was still lots of activity and people biking back and forth. I was only a couple of blocks from the museum district, but I actually didn't go to any of the museums in Amsterdam.

A lot of people go to Amsterdam because so many things are legal there which are illegal in North America. They go to smoke weed and party. I don't do drugs, I rarely drink and I sure don't need a prostitute. Those like myself go to Amsterdam for the museums and the tulips. Well it was too early for flowers and I was kind of over museums.

What did I do with my time? I did a lot of walking around. I walked from my hotel through the downtown as far as the train station, then took a different route back. I walked the other direction which seemed less touristy and ended up in a little market that sold everything under the sun. That was neat, but I didn't need anything so I just checked stuff out.

I felt pretty grungy after having travelled for almost three weeks already and my hair was way too long and disgusting. So I went for a haircut. This spunky girl with the craziest outfit that I loved cut my hair, gave me some tea and chocolate and told me stories of her travels in Germany. I left feeling like a civilized human being again. It was expensive, 40E (which when you think of the conversion to Canadian dollars it hurt a little!) but it was worth every cent! Very shortly after that I just stopped thinking about how much things were costing me in my own currency. Its just expensive to travel in Europe and everything is about double of what it costs at home. Money can always be made back and I knew the costliness of things ahead of time.

I also walked in the Vondelpaark, caught up on writing in my journal, decided where else I was going to travel and enjoyed the sunshine. Amsterdam was revitalizing for me.

I wanted to explore the Netherlands a bit because on my first trip to Europe, we skipped it. Spain was another country I wanted to go to for the same reason. My vague plan was to go to a couple of places in the Netherlands then take the train down to Spain. Sounds easy enough? It always does!

Getting around the Netherlands was easy. Trains go everywhere and frequently. I went to Den Haag next and it was like 10E to get there. In Den Haag there wasn't much to do and the snow started up again but I still explored the city on foot and met some interesting people. I stopped in at a kebab shop and the owner was from Egypt! That was exciting. Then one of the girls in my dorm had also lived in Egypt for several years. She was originally from Saudi Arabia, and was now going to school in Spain taking architecture. She was just travelling in The Netherlands for her school break. We had some good conversations about the state of things in different countries, including our own. She was very curious about Natives in Canada. Not being Native I didn't feel confident speaking about their affairs, but did the best I could to represent the issues fairly. The Idle No More movement had been happening just before I left Canada so it was a topic of conversation. She really wanted to travel Canada and experience Native culture. Unfortunately I had no idea what types of things she could do or where the best place to go for that would be. The most I've ever done in that sense is go to Wanuskewin outside of Saskatoon. And there's Grey Owl's cabin that's interesting, but what else? So if by chance anyone reading this has suggestions I will pass them on to her.

Den Haag is a very small city and you can walk everywhere. Even my hostel was only 15 minutes walk from the train station, and the person at the information desk suggested taking a tram. I have legs, I will use them. I always feel like walking is the best way to see things. And the exercise doesn't hurt!

From Den Haag I went to Rotterdam. I was there over the Easter weekend, so not knowing if trains would be running as frequently or at all I booked a hotel for the whole weekend and settled in. 3 nights in Rotterdam was too much. I was bored. This time I did go to some museums, mostly for a lack of anything else to do. The maritime museum was ok. It killed some time. The girl from Den Haag told me to check out some odd buildings so I did that as well. I walked to the cube apartments and went into the model one. Completely bizarre. They look interesting, but I could not imagine actually living in one. It felt unnatural. There is lots of art and sculpture around the city to look at, but I think that I just don't understand modern art. Most of it just seemed weird to me. Interesting, but not what I would choose to decorate with.

I felt very isolated in Rotterdam. I stayed in a hotel instead of a hostel so that right away separated me from other people. I also didn't get approached on the street or around the city as much either. Typically I find that when I travel alone people will just come up and talk to me when I'm out walking, or ask me for directions (I'm not sure why...I'm just as lost as they are but it happens a lot). In Rotterdam I felt like I didn't speak to anyone the entire time I was there.

On my last day there, I had pretty much explored what I wanted to see so I decided to go to the main museum (I forget what it's called). My expectations weren't high, I expected to be sort of bored. When I realized just how much was there I was pleasantly surprised! It was kind of an art gallery and museum together. I spent three or four hours there, I actually lost track of time. That's a long time for me to spend in any gallery or museum. They had some Monet paintings, and there were only three other people in the room so I was able to see them up close but also from a distance. I could sit back and view them at my leisure. I wished my mom could have been there for that. They also had some Dali sculptures which were weird of course, and lots of other odds and ends which were interesting.

They had a big exhibit called hand made at the time as well. It was interesting in that the focus was to consider what 'hand made' actually means and what constitutes something that's made by hand. Does hand made equate with quality...no, but marketing would have you believe that. I liked it. The museum was actually a highlight of Rotterdam. The giant bridge was cool too, but the museum I think was the real gem here.

From Rotterdam I wanted to head to Spain. I hoped to be able to take a train straight there. An overnight train would have been fine, but this was not to be. There was one that went through Paris, but I would have to change trains and I wanted to avoid Paris. It also seemed impossible to go through Spain without going through either Barcelona or Madrid which I was also hoping to avoid. I really have no interest in the big cities. I ended up taking a train to the Marseille in the south of France with the intention of going somewhere small in Spain from there. For the amount that it cost me to go that route, it would have been cheaper to fly. This is the sort of thing that happens when you don't plan ahead. In any case, it worked out. I still got to my destination and I had a couple of days in France as a bonus.

Overall, I had a nice time in the Netherlands, but it was cold and while the people were polite and helpful they lacked the warmth and welcoming attitude that had surrounded me in Egypt and Jordan. It was a bit hard to take the feeling of isolation at first. I think it was just a bit of reverse culture shock. It felt normal to interact with people this way again after a week or so. There are lots of things worth seeing and doing in the Netherlands...just maybe in warmer weather!

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