okay, so because i didnt have decent internet access during my amsterdam days, here are my thought from then that i wrote down at the time. enjoy... (it's pretty long)


Well I’m writing this on my computer sitting on my bed in the hostel. For some reason, the internet in the lobby won let me go to blogger.com. so the date on this entry will be a bit off.

What a trip. I’m so tired. Every movement just drains me. (and I’m on the third floor). At the Nashville airport I was doing everything I could not to just bust out crying. Only by sheer mental power did I make it till the end. But as soon as I hugged my dad it was over. And then I didn’t know if I was going to be able to let go of jesse. I still don’t know how I did.

The flights were great. I got to sit by myself on BOTH of them. Which wasn’t a huge deal going to Detroit, but made an enormous difference on the 7hr flight to Amsterdam. AND since I flew on a brand new plane, there were TVs in the headrests! I got to watch matrix 2 like twice (well I watched the cool parts multiple times. AND it was like a DVD. I could pause, fast forward, or rewind at any time. That was great. However, I didn’t sleep at all, which didn’t make sense to me since I have slept in much more uncomfortable places than that. But no sleep (man this seems like several days ago. I’m so freakin tired.). it’s like my night time was taken away from me. And since I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before I left, I’m really running on fumes.(oh yeah, the Detroit airport was awesome. It had a raised monorail thing. Looked really cool) And I haven’t eaten much at all today. I had some breakfast (at 2 am home time) and then I just couldn’t eat. The thought of food makes me wanna throw up, but I managed to eat a ham sandwich this afternoon (I am 7hrs ahead of Mt. Juliet and 6 ahead of ktown (in case you didn’t know)). The guy in the deli I bought it from was so nice. Probably in his late 20s and just as nice as could be. Then I decided to sleep through dinner because I wasn’t hungry anyway. Now I’m trying to make myself eat a moon pie so that I can take a vitamin.

I did NOT pack efficiently for this part of the trip. I had to drag those heavy, huge-ass bags so freaking far and up and down so many steps. I also felt stupid carrying twice as much luggage as everyone else. (you gotta love wandering half aimlessly with two cumbersome bags) But I’m not on vacation. Buttheads.

This place is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I mean, I’ve seen pictures, but they might as well be fake until you see it in person. There are bikes EVERYWHERE. Which is not surprising since the streets are maybe 10ft wide for cars. And the thing is, is that all of the bikes look like something straight out of the Bicycle Thieves.They are all old European looking bikes. There isn’t a new looking one or mountain bike in the whole lot of them. They all have little curvy handle bars with baskets and crap. Crazy dutch. But there are so many great posters and signs that would line the walls in jesse and sams place perfectly. I guess they just look so neat because we don’t have them. Nothing at home is like it is here, except the people (generally). They look just like Americans, but you just never know what language is going to come out of their mouth and how well they’ll speak it. However, there are the ones here who dress all weird euro like too. Especially girls. I saw one on the subway who was wearing a small plastic garbage can as a back pack. And then I saw this guy wearing a sweater with a denim vest over it and a toboggan and j.lo type glasses. And the bums are very courteous. Which is good because no one like a rude bum. This really seems like a place where sam would fit in perfectly.

Yeah, I walked around talking pictures like crazy today. That was all I had the strength to do. I was going to walk around town tonight, but it’s a bit scary by myself. So I went about a block and just turned around. 

Well I’ve succeeded in getting my crushed moon pie all over me. So I’m going to shut this down (my converters work!) and shower and sleep.

Tomorrow it’s off to vondelpark to see the rijksmuseum and the van gogh museum.

Take care.

11.0 pm (my time)


okay so the name of the game is fast showering. the rules: no shower curtains. that’s right. we have no shower curtains. there are dividers, but that’s about it. not quite sure what that’s all about. especially since we’re in a coed dorm. I asked some Hungarians (because I thought, well maybe since school hasn’t started, you know? running behind, that sort of thing) and they said they never have them. so i think i’m going to try and rig up some sort of towel-curtain. we’ll see, but it’s a bit discomforting.

anyway, my second day in Amsterdam:
i got up and took the tram to the museum area where i visited the rijksmusem and the van gogh. the rijks was huge, but i think i preferred the van gogh. i like his are better. like he’ll pain a wooden table, but include blues and greens and stuff. i just really think it’s great. ESPECIALLY the oil painting. they’re simply magnificent. i didn’t feel too great that day, but i managed to find a mcdonalds and eat a bit. much to my dismay it was not called a “royale with cheese”. but i think perhaps he said it was called that in france. we’ll see about that. then, i walked over to vondelpark. it was nice. there’s kind of a small lake running through the middle of it with many people laying around it. no frisbee though. soon though. i hope. then i took a tram back to centraal station and bought a train ticket to Brussels for the next day. after this i slept until dinner.(i’ve been needing to take these 2-3 hr naps during the day). the hostel offers a free dinner and on the menu was macaroni, so i said i’d take that. they asked if i wanted cheese or not and i was like, “DUH” (i didn’t actually say “duh”). anyway, it turned out to be goulash. then i thought i would try and find my way to the proverbial “red light district”. (i couldn’t go to Amsterdam and NOT be able to say i’d seen it.) i eventually found it, due to the numerous red lights. (i cant say i ever felt “threatened” in Amsterdam, but there certainly were enough creepy people to keep me on my toes.) so sure enough, there were all the glass doors with women (i can only assume prostitutes) wearing underwear or something (not naked) just standing there. i was afraid to look for fear of eye contact. but it was all taking place along a canal (and connecting alleys) and it was like a big party and everyone was just out and about. most people, it seems, were just out to observe. so i made my way through the main canal and headed back. i went to sleep and set my alarm for early.

my third day in Bruxelles (Brussels):
i met some irish guys at the hostel. they were funny guys. i had just about as much trouble understanding them as i did anyone else. seriously. i was sort of embarrassed by the fact that i couldn’t understand my own language, but it was so slurred together. quite impressive actually. they referred to me as Tennessee. they were loud and violent with each other. funny stuff. anyway . . .
i left at 6 for the train to Brussels. it was a good train ride. a much smoother ride than i envisioned. i got to see some of the country side which was sort of interesting. each section of land was marked off with a small moat of sorts. i’m not sure why. maybe to keep animals in a certain part. someone should let these guys in on the secret of fences. i knew nothing about Brussels when i went, so my visit started off a bit slow. in fact, i experienced my first bout of cultural shock here. i was walking around looking at stuff when i got hungry. i hadn’t really been hungry on this trip yet so i this seemed like a good thing. the only problem was that i couldn’t find a place to eat. everything seemed to be closed and as far as i could tell the city seemed to go on as far as the eye could see in every direction. and i was running into more and more people who lacked knowledge of the English language. i finally made my way to a large food and shop area and it was fine from there. actually, i ate this chocolate, flaky, square biscuit looking thing with vanilla pudding/crème in the middle. it was awesome. i mean really good. and this was at centraal station, so if this was the airport food, i’d have loved to have seen the real stuff. (but i didn’t) i was tired from my aimless wandering, so i hopped on a tour bus with an open 2nd story on it and toured the city! it was fun. i never would’ve seen anything had i not. i photographed everything so everyone can just see those rather than me typing up thousands of words. but i will say that the architecture there truly was beautiful. so many remarkable buildings. apparently there was a worlds fair there at some point and the Belgians built this HUGE model of a 9 point crystal atom. i stands at 102m high! it’s freaking enormous like something out of a science fiction movie. finally, i rode the bus back to central station to arrive just in time for my train back to Amsterdam. i was ready to go back too. back to my home in Amsterdam.

the following morning...
i had to get up at 4:15 to make my train and flight. first the guy at the front desk woke me up 20min late (they told us not to use alarms because it would wake everyone else. i set my watch alarm but didn’t hear it. so was running to get out of there and catch the metro (subway), but the metro was not going to be open until 8.0 according to the closest bum. so i frantically searched for a taxi. luckily, i got one and made my train. security went through my stuff at the airport, but i don’t think it was personal. i think it’s just because my shirt (which i had worn the night before as i walked through town) smelled like wacky-tobbacky.
i was thanking God that gabor and his wife were at the airport to pick me up. man that made it easier.
and that’s all she wrote . . . or is it?

(it is.)