The European Extravaganza!

Dust cakes and Apple

Ok, after one thwarted attempt at Shelter Jordaan, we're trying to post again. This time from the lovely Apple store on... some major Dutch street!

As you may have already heard, our flight was delayed by 6 hours, so although we are currently in A-dam, we're going to be leaving it in about, 3 hours. Months of careful planning, but we've learned our lesson: Air Transat is evil. While stranded in Pearson International, we saw many weird people who we hope to never see again. There were several tiny children, who we named thus: "Milk Junkie" (because he was wearing a shirt with that on it), "Ron Weasley" (because he had bright red hair), and Ron's sister "Scooter" (because she would propel herself along the ground with one hand at lightning speed!). There was also "Duty Free Swigger" who, upon hearing we were at Pearson until 9:45 pm, started drinking his whiskey he had purchased.

The plane ride itself was tolerable, although we did not appreciate the staff telling us that we should be thanking them for "sticking around". All right Air Transat, we'll "thank" you once we're back and have your customer service number. Even the free bottles of wine and headsets (saving us a whole dollar!) were not enough to placate us. Although, at least they did not show "Hitch" (they were going to!), but instead switched to "Cellular". Never heard of it? Good. The food was so bad: the cake coated our tongues in dust and tasted as though it had been in an oven... at some point (I exclaimed: It tastes like baked!). The pasta sauce actually managed to remove any flavour whatsoever, no small feat! Thankfully, we managed to get some sleep.

Once we got to A-dam, things went relatively smooth... until Laura got us off the tram one stop too early. It was a bit of a hike to the hostel, but we made it, our backs aching. We ended up missing the bike tour in lieu of showers, but we don't regret it since we ended up going to the Van Gogh museum, and then travelled for dinner at this little place famous for it's apple pie. We were a little unsure about the whole tipping thing, since it varies based on where you are in Europe, but ended up assuming tip was included in the price (along with taxes). We had this "lentil" soup, that was supposed to be curried, but was neither curried nor made of lentils. The bread was ok. However, scrumptious apple pie made up for it. Then it was off to the Anne Frank House, which was really neat, and if any of you ever get to A-dam, make sure you check it out. Surprisingly there were absolutely no lines, and in fact, the city itself wasn't that busy. Later that evening we went off to find the famous "Skinny Bridge" which has an identical bridge cousin that we first mistook for it. Then we found "Bridge with a (not so great) View", and walked back to the hostel (considerably easier when we're not lugging 12-15 kg packs on our backs!).

This morning, we went to the flower market, saw Beguine in the gutter, and the mysterious statue (in the Red Light district... To our fathers: don't worry! We weren't buying (or selling) anything!). Now it's off to try and find some "frites", pick up our bags, and then head back to Centraal Station where we'll depart for Berlin.

Keep the comments coming! We don't know how to say "bye" in Dutch, so: "Laters!"

posted by Steph @ 9:44 am