So, This Is Europe: A Moment In London and Amsterdam

9.4.10 @ 1:15 pm

Barely survived my first day in Europe. After landing, grabbing my luggage and calling my parents, was told the fastest way to the Royal Nat'l Hotel was the tube. It. Took. Forever. But it didn't matter, since the pre-departure meeting was a quick "hello and see you at 6:45 am." Met Aaron and Pat, 2 great Aussies, on a different trip but we're all traveling more or less together (I was mistaken, their trip was 21 days as opposed to our 14, so we parted ways after Amsterdam). Had way too much phone drama. Have to wait for Monday before I even have a chance of it working. Have a cold, and started freaking out (we'll leave it at that). Met Nathan, a Canadian soldier and Mark, a San Diego-an (?) who pounded one too many and passed out after making one too many stupid jokes.

[Way too many fries and beer with the boys at the London Pub (please ignore Nathan's hand)]

Hung out with all these boys last night and (surprise!) was the only girl in the group. Crashed in my triple (turned double) room after dropping Nathan and Mark off at their room and Ben + Jerry's with Aaron.

[Cliche English telephone booth photo]

Today...woke up @ 6 am, chugged coffee and got on the bus to the white cliffs of Dover, and ferry over to France (not France, I don't know where I got this from; we went through Belgium). A massive ferry.

[Beautiful White Cliffs of Dover]

Ate a pastie. (It had meat in it.) Our guide, Pedro, is great. Looks like a hybrid of between Richard Simmons and Carrot Top.

In Belgium? You have to pay to pee. Like a real life Urinetown. (I later learned that this is the case in most of the countries we visited, which bugged the hell out of me and made me appreciate hotel bathrooms more than I thought I ever could!)

Bus just drove into the Netherlands. On tap for tonight: a canal cruise and (get this) a sex show. Stay tuned.

And now for some side notes:

• Amsterdam is amazing. The gable houses are just lovely, especially at night.

[Amsterdam]

• After seeing all of the houseboats, I decided I would like one. But not enough to pay the $600,000 price tag.
• A canal cruise with unlimited beer and wine is a great way for a tour group to get to know one another.

[Michelle (from Australia), Jaspal (from England) and I on the canal cruise]

• Nobody can prepare a normal human being for the sex show we saw. Also note that we had all just met each other, and were watching people do it (in every way, shape and form) on stage. Forgive me for the lack of pictures with this one; it is against the law to take photos of the (legal!) prostitutes in the Red Light District. I might be the only one in the world who didn't know prostitution is completely legal in the Netherlands before my eye-opening experience (Pedro called it the "Dutch cultural experience").