Archive for July, 2008

In Europe at Last

I know it’s been ages since I last wrote here, but I’m finally in Europe and wanting to keep this up to date! I flew into Gatwick Tuesday with a buddy of mine, feeling relatively good after the 10 hour flight from Vancouver that ended up landing about 3 hours late. We managed to connect to the internet at an airport computer there and scraped up Helen’s address – an old friend of my mother. We had a great barbeque dinner there – sausages, ribs, and chicken along with salad and our first ever legal beer (a mexican brew, SanMiguel). We sleapt well, and went for a quick run around Horley the next morning. Breakfast was some toast and tea back at the house, and then we got a ride to the airport from Victoria (Helen’s daughter). We arrived in Amsterdam around 6pm and were fully settled in, in the Shelter City Christian youth hostel, by about 8pm. Dinner came from the grocery store for about 5 Eur, comprised of some tomatoes, meat, cheese, and potato salad slapped together as sandwiches.

We were lucky as there was still availability for the night train from Amsterdam to Vienna Saturday night, so we booked beds for 20 Eur each – 1 less thing to worry about. After our makeshift dinner we decided to explore Amsterdam. As we stepped out of our hostel, we were accosted by a couple of teenagers who somehow convinced us to buy them a joint from across the street as they were underaged. It sure feels different being legal now. We relaxed in a coffee shop for a bit, had a pint of Heinekan, and were given some life lessons by a couple guys, supposedly from MIT, who ended up utilizing the coffee shop to it’s full extent.

This morning we woke up to a complimentary breakfast of coffee and french toast at the hostel and hot showers. We’ve been perusing the shops today, exploring the city, and trying to keep away from the scattered showers. The weather’s been warm and even in the rain, we’ve been fine in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. My new Birkenstocks are great! We’ve been taking pictures here and there and I’ll see if I can get them posted here as a slideshow at some point. We’ve still got a couple days to see the rest of Amsterdam and will definitely try to see as much as we can. My next post here will probably come from Vienna sometime in the next few days as we’ll likely have internet access at my relatives’ there.