Furado em Países Baixos

Geplakt in die Nederland. Or: Stuck in the Netherlands. My weekend pretty much started last Thursday after work. All of the Poolia Parker Bridge temps from Travel 2 met up together at a pub up the street from our office with our recruiter, Christian for a "drink or two." I went in with the idea we would have a couple pints on the house and then end up paying the rest ourselves. Well, 7 pints a couple packets of crisps and £0.00 later, I was quite pissed dicussing the rediculousness of Cricket with some South Africans and my British recruiter. It was one of those drunken pub conversations that really only happen in England. At this point I realised how little I know about global issues, from history to sport. I made my way home around 1130 as I wanted to not have to take 3 hours worth of nightbusses through London to get home wicked late on a work night.

I ate what was the worst kebab I've ever had in my life after I got off at my tube stop. Avoid Willesden Best Grill. Friday morning I woke up with a pretty wicked hangover and felt like crap til about noon. Friday workday passed quickly enough and I was able to go home and relax a bit and get some light dinner. I was planning on taking a nap til 3am but instead my friend Azeta txt'd me wanting me to meet up with her at Club Rumba down at Picadilly circus. I got ready and went down there, arriving around 22h00 to a waiting line 50 yards long. I stood across the street staring at the line with disgust when I received another txt from Azeta. I went over to the zoobar in leicester sq. (5 minutes walk) and stood in a much shorter line. Since leaving club Rumba i had been frantically txting and calling Azeta try to get a hold of her so that she could come outside and get me into the club. I don't know how it works in the States so much, but if you aren't in line with a girl, you stand almost no chance getting into the club. There was a group of 4 guys infront of me who were kicked out of the line (nevermind getting kicked out of the club) for not being on the guestlist. I thought I was next. Nope! Azeta came from inside and got me in. I met her two friend and we had a few drinks and finally left just after 1am. I came to the conclusion that if I am to dance, even with hot girls, I need at least 5 drinks to not feel like an idiot.

I somehow made it home in about 45 minutes on the nightbus, which has to be a world record. I even had to take two buses! So I watched some rugby for about an hour then gathered up my stuff and walked over to Cricklewood trainstation to wait for my 330am to Luton Airport. After check-in I watched people down pints like it was still 10 o'clock from the night before until I caught my 610am flight to Amsterdam. I was the first one on the plane so I got first dibs on seats! I sat in the emergency exit row so I had about 6 feet of leg room. All I remember from that point on is talking to the stewardess about how I had to be competent enough to operate the emergency door (and at this point I clearly wasn't, but said yes). The next thing I knew I was being woken up because the plane had landed in Amsterdam. Smoothest take off and landing of my life - mostly because I have no recollection of them.

After arriving in Schiphol, I got tickets to and from Central Amsterdam, headed in to the city and walked to the hostel to meet Isabela, Debora and Alexandre (DDD). Maria also came up from Spain to meet us. These are my friends from Brasil who I met over Christmas. There was a group of 8 and they scattered over Europe to study ant various clinics and hospitals for January. Isabela and Debora were in Ultrecht til the end of Jan. and are now travelling around central Europe to mid Feb. so I met them in Amsterdam for the weekend. They had all been drinking the night before and Isabela was quite sick; we all thought it was from alcohol but after we took her to the hospital it turns out she has a bad virus. While she was at the hospital Maria, DDD and I moved everything from the hostel to a new hotel. We had time to kill before we could go into our room so the three of us walked around. I took pictures and got lunch while they went to the Anne Frank house. While I was waiting for them to come out of the museum, I ran into Raphael -another Brasilian who was waiting to go into the museum. He had come up from Italy ( I think?) to also travel around with the rest of the group. Maria, DDD and I went back to the hotel to move in. Isabela was back from the hospital. She pretty much slept all day and the rest of us had a short nap that somehow felt like a good night's sleep. Off we went to go to the Has and Marijuana museum. This is by far the lamest thing I've ever done in Europe. Waste of time and money. I thought I might at least learn something interesting, but no, it is more of a front for the legalisation of marijuana. Pretty much the only evidence they provide is how great hemp was 300 years ago. I couldn't stand the stuff before that, and now I dislike it even more. On our way back we watched some street performs in Leidseplein. They were breakdancing, they were pretty good/talented, but no one like breakdancing so no one cared. We pulled the typical cheap tourist move and walked over just after they finished but before they asked for money. After dinner we called it a night and went to bed around midnight. Sunday we woke up and tried to figure out what we wanted to do. We chose sleep. Everyone slept for another 4 hours while I watched snooker, alpine ski jumping and cross country Eurosportchampionships. Some more wandering through Amsterdam and a stir fry dinner brought me to the time I had to leave to catch my flight back to Luton.

After my goodbyes to Isabela and the rest I made my way to Schipol. I went to the departure window and saw my flight had been cancelled. Bugger. I txt'd Rachel (flatmate) to let her know I wouldn't be around for a while, rebooked for the next morning into gatwick and figured out what to do. Turns out that a jet overshot the runway at Luton and crashed, thus reulting in the closure of the airport. I was quite glad I rebooked to an airport other than Luton because it was still closed in the morning and flights were continuing to be cancelled. I thought about sleeping in the airport that night; it was 7 euro for another return ticket to and from Schiphol and I didn't know if I could make it to the hotel reception before close. I took my chances with going back to Amsterdam (I would get to see Isabela =) again) and got to central station at 920 and ran to the hotel. I made it with ten minutes to spare! Everyone except Debora had gone out; she woke up quite startled when I walked in. I talked to her for a while, tried to call DDD's mobile but it rang on the chair in the corner and went to bed a while later. Soon after everyone walked back in and they were also quite surprised to see me. I explained about the airplane crash, I think they were all glad to see me. Or at least Isabela had been telling me I was their "favourite American" and that they liked me. We woke at 530 Monday and all walked to central station. I saw them onto their train to Berlin and then went to Schiphol. The timing was perfect, so it seems like that was the first thing that went right all weekend. I read my copy of EasyJet magazine backwards on the flight home, got lost in Gatwick airport and finally found my train up to central london at 11. I didn't get into work til 13h15. On the ride to C. London, I sat with a smile, listening to music letting the events of the weekend catch up to me. I went to Amsterdam with only one or two things in mind, did them and came home. The whole process was just a bit chaotic. I am looking forward to going to Brasil (I made it a New Years resolution) and now have 3 or 4 places to stay in Sao Paulo.

Monday night I finally got a good night's rest. After work on Tuesday I met up with Dan and Adam at Paddington station. Dan's work visa has finished and he had gone to Croatia for a week before going back to the U.S. Had a nice dinner, and went to a pub. Later Ben and Natasha joined up with us as they were also in London for the night before going back to the U.S. the next day. No rest for the weary.

The next month will probably be pretty quiet. I should be able to save some money, and wait for it to get nice. I don't really want to start travelling til mid march.

Kudos to Ben and Tash for doing Western Europe for 30 days on 2 grand. Most impressive. Well, that is that. Laundry and possibly Greenwich are on the agenda for this weekend. Oh and an Ultimate tournament as well! I hope. I should figure that out now. Cheers!