26 February
Amsterdam
Watch for Bikes!
There are so many bikes here, it's crazy. Watch out for 'em. I've found that the people here are elegant. Everyone has their stylish clothes and their fashionable (and warm) jackets. I feel kinda blocky here. I feel so.. American, it's very interesting how "we" seem to stand out in this place. I should go shopping and get a bit of clothing but .. eh, it's kinda expensive with the dollar being worth only .70% of the Euro at the moment.
Another thing I've noticed is that much of the food has an incredibly high salt content to it. I just had bacon that had to be salted and fried in salt (or so it tasted). I could barely eat a tiny bit of it.
Oh yes, and we had a bit of drama yesterday with the hotel. Seems that though the room is payed for under the corporate account, I put my card down just for "incidentals". Typical thing right? They ended up holding 530E which translates to $745.00! We quickly ran down and put the corp card on the room and had them reverse the charges. Was there a written policy as to how much they put on hold? No, there wasn't. It was at the discretion of the person who checked you in. Ugh! It did get reversed but wf? That was insane. And did I mention I saw a mouse at the hotel? I was going to mention it but I also saw they had placed rodent poison boxes behind my bed frame. blah.. not going to stay there again.
Anyway, it's my last full day in Amsterdam and I'm not really sad to see it go. It's been a ton of fun with my coworkers going out to breakfast and dinner n such. Tonight we have an event to see so that will be fun. And while the hotel is a decent place, staying at the Eden Amsterdam American, they overcharge for everything. And I mean everything. I know friends are going to ask if I went out, hit up any gay bars or tried to meet any cute Amsterdam guys but.. who has time? Between working normal daylight hours here setting up a new office and then working late at night when the states wake up who has the time or energy.
I miss the UK, I miss the apartment I stayed in while there and I miss the people. And while I miss some folks back in the states I really don't miss SF all that much. I don't know how much I will feel at home once I'm back. I was born to live in Europe.. I just didn't know it till I got here.
27 February
Back to the UK I go!
The car picked me up from the hotel at 9am sharp. We went to Schipol airport and I checked in my bags and then wandered around for a bit of time before heading through Customs. And after going inside customs there's a huge shopping mall. Whoda thunk it? Yes, bought myself a tshirt.. why not? the interesting thing at this airport is that security is at each gate itself, so the lines are typically much shorter and easier to get through.
Flight to Amsterdam was not very exciting, takes just a little over an hour.. amazing how easy it is to get to everything from London/UK. Landed and after a bit of a mixup as to where I would be my friend GK picked me up and we drove from Gatwick airport to Watford.
Watford is a cute little place. Typically English in some of the architecture, has a great train station, and some fun little shops.
Got settled in and then we decided to take the mainline train to London for dinner. Man, the amount of people there was incredible. Not sure if it was a typical Saturday night or if there was a group or what but holy cow the droves of people getting out of the train station was immense. Had to queue for 5 minutes just to exit the turn-styles, and another 5 to get up the stairs to the streets above.
Immediately felt right at home in London. the shops, the streets, the atmosphere. It is an incredible city. We had dinner at the Spaghetti House as everything else was packed to the rafters. no problem though as the food was great. I think I've fallen in love with their lasagna! After dinner was time to be off to my friends place in Finsbury. I had been invited over to my friend LW's place for a birthday party so met him outside the station and we walked to his flat. The room was crowded with people from Spain, Germany, the UK, and one other American. Hung out there for a good few hours, everyone drinking and smoking and carrying on.
Next stop was to go to a club called Coronet. LA didn't tell me this was going to be a big gay dance party! Everyone there had obviously spent weeks working out for this sorta thing and the sight was amazing to say the least.
Spent the next several hours dancing and drinking and having a great time, all of LAs friends were there and we had a blast. LW decided we're going to cab it back to his place (the trains had stopped running by the time we left at 3.30) and he bickered with the cabbie on the fare and we finally agreed to a fee but only if he would stop at a 24 hour restaurant so we could get take-away. It was hilarious as that wouldn't have been something we do in the states at all.
28 February - Sunday
Woke up this morning, headed back to Watford and thanks to GK (who had schooled me in the ways of the London Underground system) I was able to make my way from Finsbury all the way to the mainline train and back here.
Will rest up a bit then head back into London to do some shopping. Yes.. shopping. For me.
ciao!
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