I made it in one piece to Amsterdam yesterday. I guess this was the easy part of the trip! Saying goodbye to Danielle and my Mom was tough - the fact that my poor dog Tess is sick just made it that much worse. On top of that I got maybe one hour of sleep on the plane. Match Point was playing and since I had seen it only a couple of weeks ago I could pretty much guess how much I slept through. Arriving to Schipol ("Skip-pol") was cool - its' connected to the train station so I managed to get into Amsterdam with ease. Having said that, finding a Hotel was much tougher. I went to the tourism office in Centraal Station (an amazingly efficient domestic and international train station) and the only place they found for me was a youth hostel in a place called Haarlem (I spent the night with 7 other backpackers - another interesting first). I managed to figure out how to get to Haarlem by train (15 minutes away) and eventually the right bus to take through the city. I checked in and dropped my bag off and went back to Amsterdam deciding not to wait and take a nap as I planned.
Back in Amsterdam I basically walked around through the different neighbourhoods exploring the city. I decided that I would buy a tourist pass on my way back through the city in August which gives me access to most of the museums and a canal tour as well. So what I'm going to do today is go see Anne Frank's house.
Amsterdam is a pretty cool city. I've never seen soooo many bikes! definitely more bikes than cars - but what I can't figure out is that I haven't seen a single bike helmet. I guess I sound like an amateur but even the kids - babies! - don't get helmets. And the bikers weave in and out of the pedestrains and the cars and because the roads aren't that wide I've seen many a near collision in the 24 hours that I've been here. Crazy!
My time here on the public library computer is nearly up so I'll be back with more news of Amsterdam and my arrival in Tel Aviv!
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