Conquering Western Europe.

NYC - LONDON. 

Wow. Only one week in and feel like it's going WAY too fast! I'm writing this on the hi-speed train to Paris to meet my sister and cousin; will be nice to have come company after a few days of exploring Amsterdam solo. Earlier, I got on the 1st class car by accident and managed to fly under the radar for about 2 hours until the ticket guy came by and escorted me back to 2nd class. Oops. At least I managed to get a free chocolate croissant and cappuccino from them!  

My first few days with Tinus and Lucia (and her sister, Vikki) in London were just brilliant! It was a perfect overseas warm up for my long travels in that they are practically family so I felt super comfortable the whole time, and was able to speak English to everyone. They were such great hosts and took me to the best restaurants, an awesome show, and really just ALL over the place (Central London, Richmond, Camden, Chelsea, etc)! Highlight of the trip (other than spending time with those two) was the weather! I had braced myself for crappy, cold, rainy days as they and others who had been to London warned, but when I got there - jeez -  felt like California! Everyone was out and about...sidewalk cafe's open, lots of people walking around, overall very lively and just gorgeous! Visiting Camden was certainly an experience. It was like St. Marks Place in the East Village....times ten. Good times. Thanks again Tinus and Lucia! xo.

 LONDON - AMSTERDAM. 

I LOVE AMSTERDAM. It's unlike any other place I have been so far and I did my best to soak up each and every moment!  Although I had a map handy, I decided to just walk around and discover the various places on my own. It's a pretty small city to be honest - was able to walk the cobblestone streets around the canals in just a few hours. The first thing I stumbled upon was the famous Flea Market, Waterlooplein. I let myself roam around the 250 stalls brimming with unique, vintage treasures for nearly 3 hours. I wish I could have just taken everything but obviously have limited space so only picked up some small things for a friend. In chatting with a few Australian girls who had asked me to take a picture of them, they told me I HAD to go to this Middle Eastern lunch place called the Bazaar which is where they had just come from. It was about a 20 min., walk, and when I got there, I was quite bemused. Was expecting a quant little lunch place for some iced tea and a salad, but this place was chock-full of mirrors on every wall, Christmas lights, disco balls, and LOUD techno music. Had a falafel and hummus (ah, probably the best I've ever had - better than Tabouli Grill!) and they went on my merry way.

Next, I found myself in a coffeshop...to have some COFFEE. Uh...They had coffees I couldn't even pronounce. I went ahead and settled for "Northern Lights" (Mom - it's just like a skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks, just a different name...). Wow - that was a strong coffee. Went straight to my head. After staring into space for a while and then chatting with some Spanish guys, I gathered myself and began to slowly roam the canals all the way to the Red Light District (it was still light and relatively early so I think I saw more of an R-rated versus XXX-rated version of the place). By that time, I realized my tummy was growling and I was pretty out of it so I headed straight to a cafe back in Leidesplein to get something in my stomach. On the way, I paused to watch a skinny, awkward looking street performer with a nasty mullet who claimed he was going to do some amazing magic with fire. I thought, hey, this will probably make a cool picture, so got right in the front row. Then he started to babble on with a heavy Australian accent making jokes and getting the audience rowdy when he asked for a volunteer. There were so many people in the crowd so I looked aroundwaiting for someone to jump out, and OF COURSE, low and behold, he walks straight over to me and literally grabs my arm and pulls me onto the "stage." My timid cries "oh no, not me! I can't!" were fruitless.  Queue Bug sweating, blushing, shaking...So, In my not-so-with-it-post-coffeshop-state, I somehow had to tie him up in Saran Wrap and chains (I did it really slowly and awkwardly so that fueled even more jokes) and then stand there as he made crude jokes about it to about 100 foreign people who hopefully didn't understand English! He managed to get out of the chains and Saran Wrap safely, by the way. Thank god I didn't kill the guy. Then I practically sprinted to the cafe and immediately ordered a glass of wine to calm my nerves. 

Yesterday, wanted to make sure I was NOT the center of attention, so went straight across the street for a morning of relaxing museum touring at the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum.  Ah, too much to say - I'm still digesting everything that I saw. Amazing. 

The afternoon brought on more meandering and this time I found myself in a packed canal cruise surrounded by ONLY Asians (No, I am not that culturally acute yet to place which specific nationality!) and elderly Scottish women (about 50 of them).  And you know what -- it didn't matter that the tour was not in English because I made BFF's with the Scottish women and hardly even looked out of the boat. They cracked me up the whole time! I sort of felt like I was in that Twilight Zone episode where the people in the Retirement home turn into kids during the night and play....these women were likely 75-85 years old and had such a great sense of humor! We ended up playing eye-spy for the last 20 minutes and then they bickered over whose grandson they should set me up with. I couldn't really understand them through their heavy accents, but there was sure a lot of laughing.

Tough to say goodbye to that beautiful place but obviously excited to see all that Paris has to offer! XO