Fletcher Badhotel Egmond aan Zee

... the horror movie hostel people, not funny! Anyways, Colin then proceed to tell us that he's been living in Amsterdam for a couple of months working, and though he would like to go back to Donegal, he can't because he is wanted in Ireland for "head-butting a copper." Luckily, our three other mystery roommates were nice (not that Colin wasn't, he very friendly actually) and not wanted in their respective countries. We did a lot of walking around Amsterdam ...

... peaks of the Andes; meet the most interesting and remarkable people (my favourite is the 82-year-old couple that went zip-lining through the trees in the Andes); do things I would never have dreamt of doing such as swimming with sharks in Lang Tengah and Bora Bora, and trekking across the desert in San Pedro de Atacama; and experience the sights and sounds of some fascinating cultures (that hot-air lantern in Krabi and that tango evening in Buenos Aires were ...

... the Netherlands staff) to finally getting to Brussels to have to wait almost two hours for our connection to Paris...we thought we would arrive at about 5:30pm we got to our hotel at about 9:30pm. Lesson learned...Responsibilities before space cakes!!! All in all Amsterdam was way nicer than I expected, it was truly a beautiful city full of life and character. We definitely were sad to go and wish we could have had just one more day!

... Utrecht. August, 1979 was the last time I visited Amsterdam. The Melkweg (The Milky Way) and the original Bull Dog Café remain. Unlike the rest of the city, neither has changed much, although the Bull Dog isn't the biker bar it once was, replete with Hells Angels in full colours and I didn't get inside the Milky Way this time. I gather it's still a multi-media venue but more club oriented on the music side. Otherwise, the Dam has changed a lot ...

... checking-in. Food was not what we found. Before I came to Amsterdam, the city made me think of legal prostitutes, 'legal' drugs, and a liberal attitude for all lifestyle choices. After having been here for a day, this city is about legal prostitutes, 'legal' drugs, and a liberal attitude for all lifestyle choices. The red-light district is crazy. Not necessarily unsafe- (Mom) just crazy. There are creepy guys left and right, hookers in windows ...

... are amazing and the people are so friendly aswel. I've taken so many photos and will be posting them on the1st so you all the get idea of how hectic it is here! Its so busy here at this time of the year! Well only 10 hours until i see the new year in....very exciting stuff :). Thats it for now and il be back on in the next few days to post a new entry and picurtes.Take care Mike x

... a half hour bus journey, bit of a stretch of the imagination to say it was in Amsterdam, but still), we headed off to the station to try to get there before dark. Once there (eventually), we headed off to the supermarket to get some food for our dinner. What is usually a rather mundane task ended up becoming one of the events of the day. As we approached the till to pay, there was a serious leak in the roof of the supermarket, with ...

... is almost as bad as the auto traffic, and they're not afraid to run you right over if you happen to be standing in their lane. If you want to go to other cities in The Netherlands or in a nearby country, don't bother renting a car, it's way too much effort. Just get a Euro Rail pass and use it to explore the area. The trains are frequent and convinent. Check out the rest of this blog if you want to see how I got around in my two days on the train.

I headed back up to Amsterdam to meet up with Cavka et al. We stayed at the Flying Pig which was cool because it was the first time I'd actually stayed in the city. I was still pretty wrecked after Octoberfest and although on the mend, we managed to get some beers into us and walk around the red light district having some fun. I finally got to see the Van Gogh museum which ...

... time driving. Next thought was a flight to Oslo which we had seen advertised as a package deal including accommodation. We proposed this to Anoushka, the lass in the travel agency, but we could not get a suitable package for the time we wanted and most of the hotels seemed to be a long way from the city. It had been very hot and sticky which did not encourage energetic days out but we had five weeks to play with. We were kept awake by our neighbours the night ...