Stepping Foot on the 7 Continents of the World A Step at a Time

The wonderful thing about not being anal about your vacation plans is that there's no pressure to come up with what to do when that day comes. And I learned this early in my trip. In fact, on my third day, I still had no game plan on what to do what day and where. And I was loving it, given my OC nature. It was a slow day, I said to myself while I was having breakfast at my hotel, looking at the streets of Amsterdam. There was hardly any traffic at rush hour. More like bike traffic, which was not much. Come to think of it, the city's so laid back any day would seem like a slow day especially for someone used to traffic infested Manila. With no plan at hand, I decided to venture on our national pastime - malling. I rode the tram to the part of the city where I saw a lot of interesting shops the day before, Liepsdein near the Dam Square. I was too early. At 10am, everything was still closed. I did a little bit of walking to look around. Rested in a park for a while, where sunlight on me was a welcome change in freezing cold weather. Everyone who knows me knows that I absolutely hate the sun. But here, I embraced it, with sun protection of course. Now I totally get it why Europeans love the sun. Too much cold weather is tiring. Just like what too much sun is for me. Another problem I have with cold weather is my always-wanting-to-be-emptied bladder. It's such a hassle when it calls. And it calls at the most unexpected places of transit. Right now at the middle of the park, it was calling. Luckily, and thanks to First Worldom, there was a decent pay toilet where you just needed to insert 0.50 euros to use. Just insert the coin, and the door revolves to open and welcome you. How cool is that?! Time check, it was already 11am and shops were beginning to open. I must say Amsterdam has the weirdest fashion brands. Totally unfamiliar territory for a shopping whore like me. But because I am such a whore, I still decided to check them out. Same stuff, like Springfield or Celio. With wanting to buy and nothing attracting me, I walked and walked around for a bit until I ended up in a tulip market. Whoah! Name the color they have a tulip for it. Nice to see tulips of every size and color. I just love tulips. To me, they're the most sophisticated flowers. Would love to buy but how to bring them back to Manila alive and still vibrant in color?? Ok, next stop, a mall that would compare to Podium. The usual suspects were present like Mango, Body Shop, Mexx. At least Mexx here meant it came from the source. If you buy one, that is. The biggest surprise was HEMA. It's the Dutch version of Target or Muji. It was Disneyland for me. I could spend a day inside buying stuff that I didnt' really need. When I ran out of shops to go to, I thought, I should already do the obligatory gay must-do in any visit to a foreign land- go to a bath house! The details will be omitted due to the general patronage of this blog, but rest assured that nothing happened. I saw a lot, but that was as far as it went. Mmm, let's just say it was money not well spent in the land of sexual liberation. Ok, I will go as far as to reveal the name of the place, Thermos... Today I learned the art of killing time with absolutely no agenda planned. Even as the day was ending, I was pretty much open to doing and exploring anything. Which included a visit to the sex shops and smoking pot once again for the last time. Legally, that is.