I am extremely sleep deprived as I flew from Barcelona to London Tues arriving at around 5:00, slept at the London airport that night which was really impossible but had great conversations with random people, then flew all day Wed 9 hours from London to Vancouver, had a 3 hour layover in Vancouver than got on the worlds smallest plane to Portland. I am very sensitive to caffeine, if I have too much it makes me look like a drug addict, my hands shake, my nose runs, I twitch, and I had two huge coffees on Wed just to get through the day.
I was hoping to get a good night sleep last night once I got home but that didn't happen.
I met some really nice guys on my flight I was trying to get some sleep and luckily the seat next to me was open so I just sprawled out but couldn't sleep because they kept looking at me and talking to me. When I am tired I also get the giggles but the funny thing that was making me giggle was that the airline stewardesses had the hots for these two guys. They were bringing them extra goodies trying to be all secretive about it. What hussies! You don't usually see guys getting free things from women it is usually the other way around, but I was benefitting from it as they were sharing with me. It was great because one of the guys was a filmmaker and he had just recently done a documentary on an African organization that takes cares of children orphaned by Aids.www.saveafricanow.org
I have always wanted to go to Africa and volunteer somewhere and of course do a safari so it was great that I could talk to him and hear about his experience and get the information. I apologize right now for my rambling, run ons, lack of punctuation, and mispells, but I wanted to write about Amsterdam because I did have a blast and it will take my mind off the other sad stuff.
I loved Amsterdam it is an amazing, beautiful, liberal, and crazy city. I flew into Eindhoven which is about 2 hours from Amsterdam, I had a cheap flight so it flew into a location that was a little inconvenient. Of course that morning before my flight I had been rushing around getting ready at Jessicas because my flight from Barcelona, which actually flew out of the Girona airport, which you have to take a bus to get to which takes about an hour. So I saw this great looking young guy at the airport oozing sex appeal just so sexy in a tight green shirt and jeans. I thought to myself Mmmm hope hes on my flight. I grabbed some chips as I hadn't eaten and ate a few before we boarded. On Ryan Air flights you do not have assigned seats so it is good to get checked in early. I get in my seat and was munching on some more chips when decides to plop down in the seat right next to me?? Sexy guy. I about had a heart attack. I smelled like Doritos and he is sitting there smiling away at me. He said if the plane isn't too full I will move over one seat so I am not right on top of you, of course you know where my mind went with that one.. So we end up having this wonderful conversation, he was fascinating so smart and we were talking about politics and travel and just everything. I was trying to ignore what he looked like as it was distracting to me. He bought me a drink on the plane, I just wanted pop, but they are expensive on the plane I was trying to get rid of my chip breath. The funny thing is that he has the most unattractive name... Victor, ha a young hot guy named Victor, it didn't fit him. He was Dutch and he lived in Eindhoven and had just been visiting friends in Barcelona. We exchanged emails but he couldn't come with me to Amsterdam as he had tons to do after his holiday, too bad. It was a great way to start my Amsterdam trip though I must say!! I took a train from Eindhoven to Amsterdam and arrived at my hostel that night around 7:00. I was tired so I just went to the bar in the hostel and had a beer and some goulash which I had never tried before and really enjoyed. I looked around and there wasnt anyone interesting to talk to. I have to say I can usually talk to anyone but there were tables of 18 year old nerdy looking guys so I ate my food and went to my room so I could rest up for the next day as I hadn't even recovered from my trip to Ireland at that point. The next day I did a 3 hour walking tour that was free which I found very interesting and informative. After the walking tour I went to the Anne Frank House which made me very emotional, I had read the book but being in the house really brings it to life. On the tour they had told us that some of the money they receive for admission has been used to make part of the house into free student housing for those who couldn't afford it otherwise. Since Anne Franks father Otto wasn't able to save his daughters, he wanted to help kids this way, so touching. I thought I would meet someone interesting on my tour to hang out with, nope. I had never had this situation before and I don't mind walking around by myself but I wanted to go to the Red light District and I knew better than to go by myself. So of course the city of Amsterdam had an answer, another tour that was provided. Our guide was so funny, a wild guy covered in piercings and tatoos, he was very informative, and I was grateful since I am always full of questions, he patiently and enthusiasticly answered all my questions as we walked around the Red Light district. This area did not turn out to be like I thought it would be by what I had heard. Amsterdam is a beautiful city full of canals, bridges and bike riders. Las Vegas which has many of the same freedoms I consider seedy and dangerous due to all the craziness but I didn't get that feeling at all in Amsterdam. It was so interesting to see all the "coffee shops" I got a second hand high just walking by. It was really amazing to see these guys just walking into the rooms with the girls, and I was suprised that a lot of the girls were totally ordinary looking or unattractive but of course when I brought this up my guide pointed out that different guys have different tastes, yes that is true I guess. For some reason in my head I thought all the girls would look like Playboy models, not so, some but not very many. The next day I finally met a nice girl at my hostel who I hung out with at a coffee shop and then we went to a pub crawl that night. At the pub crawl as you walk into each club this hot guy pours shots of vodka mixed with juice into your mouth plus you get a token for a free drink. There were so many guys trying to buy us drinks, great music and dancing, it is kind of a blur, lets just say I drank enough to be crawling home at 5:30 the next morning. My so called "friend" I had gone to the pub crawl with had left me at the last bar and so this nice hot Irish doctor I had been dancing with paid for me to take a taxi back to my hostel. Oh crazy times.
The next day as I clutched my throbbing head at 8:00 in the morning I went downstairs to the free breakfast to get some coffee and ran into this nice couple I had been talking to the day before. I told them of my evening adventures and how crappy I felt. They invited me to join them that day to go to the Van Gogh museum, they were going to do mushrooms and trip out on the paintings but I didn't want to do mushrooms as they scared me. We had a great day walking around the city and at the museum, my hangover went away with a little substance help and the 3 of us we became great friends, giggling that night as we walked around the red light district, laughing at all the porn shops everywhere. My eyes were opened at all the freaky things and fetishes that I never knew about. The day of the pub crawl I had rented a bike as that is the best way to navigate the city and it was great to ride around yet you are risking your life as the local people fly by you almost killing you repeatedly, I had planned on renting it for several days but after I made it alive through 3 hours I wasn't going to risk it. My friends did the mushrooms which are supposed to make you hallucinate but for some reason it didn't affect them so we were all just high together. They were from New York and I really enjoyed hanging out with them, as they were madly in love with each other and it flowed out from them onto me, and it just felt good being around a happy couple, it made me think that maybe it really is possible! My trip was so much fun and I will continue to write more here in my journal as there is so much that I haven't even shared about, like my adventures in Rome, and some very funny things happened there. I enjoy telling about my adventures and just so many good things have come out of this trip for me I am grateful. Thank you to all that have sent your email support over my loss, I appreciate it. I just need to get some sleep one of these days I know that would help. XO Marci
