Amsterdam
Thursday June 8, 2017
Hoo boy.
I was so enthralled with Amsterdam when I first arrived. The canals and bridges are very Venetian and extremely picturesque; of course, Venice's bridges outnumber Amsterdam's 2 to 1, but that whole aesthetic made me so happy. I arrived in the evening on Sunday and naturally, went to the red light district for a quick look. I knew it was a public holiday the next day, so it was going to be super busy and sure enough, there were hundreds of people walking around, having a peek at the windows of various shops. Yep. Exactly what I imagined Amsterdam to be like.
On my first full day, I got to see some classic Dutch windmills, and I visited a clog factory and a cheese factory too. In the afternoon, I wandered around Amsterdam Centraal and the adjoining area - I even found a piano at the train station, and got some applause for playing Let it Go (it made me feel like a boss!) I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing about in the sun on the rooftop terrace of NEMO, the science museum. What a beautiful sunny day it was.
The next day, the rain and cold came. I went to the Van Gogh Museum and wandered around for a good three hours before meeting Lizzie very briefly at the I Amsterdam sign. I was super tired, so went back to my hostel for a nap. I decided to go for dinner since I didn't hear back from Lizzie; after dinner, I began to feel unwell, and sure enough, food poisoning had struck again.
So yeah, my time in Amsterdam has been half great and half awful. I'm very well acquainted with the bathroom at my hostel, and even at my average 5'11 height, my knees were touching the door of the toilet. I barely left my room and slept most of the day, but I did feel better in the afternoon, and went out to get some coconut water and some fruit. I finished all the food poisoning medication I brought along, and the side effect of that is a black tongue.
I felt like I could eat proper food this morning, so after checking out of my hostel, I went to the Pancake Bakery and ordered a massive Dutch pancake, strewn with stroopwaffels and covered in cream and cinnamon ice cream. It was a terrible choice but I didn't care. I actually made it through 3/4 of it before giving up - the waitress congratulated me on my effort, but deep down inside I was really sad I couldn't finish it. Afterwards, I settled into this little cafe for some mint tea to help soothe the stomach. I still had loads of time to kill before I had to be at the airport, so I wandered slowly around the city. I stopped by the piano at Amsterdam Centraal again and had a little play; I got some fries and truffle mayonnaise, which I couldn't finish; I sat in the square outside the Royal Palace and people watched.
I guess I'll have to come back. I didn't even get to try space cake. Or weed brownies. Or magic mushrooms. I mean, not that I was going to anyway. Nevermind.
It would be nice to come back during tulip season though.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:09pm on Thursday June 8, 2017 :: 0 comments :: 
Not Rome
Monday April 10, 2017
So much for the lovely sentiment at the end of my last blog - "Here's hoping Rome will be better!"
I wasn't aware I had to tell my B&B hosts what time I was arriving - I booked them through booking.com, not AirBnB, so I assumed it was a business instead of a side rental. Anyway, I arrived and no one was there, so I called them up and a lady on the end of the phone said she could let me in in an hour; that's fine, I said, and I waited. 90 minutes later, no one had showed up so I called her again and she said her scooter had broken down and she would be another 30 minutes. Finally she arrived to let me in, and we're all good.
Except my room smells of cigarettes.
I went out for dinner to a highly recommended local place, again with a very basic English menu and the staff having very limited English. The food tasted fine; I got two bruschetta, fettuccine with smoked salmon in a cream sauce, and panna cotta drowned in Nutella, and I felt quick sick after the dessert. I went to bed and woke up this morning feeling awful, and sure enough, I've got food poisoning.
I've spent the whole day in bed, I haven't eaten anything except water to replace all my lost fluids. I'm quite miserable and the damn room still smells like cigarettes. I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow, otherwise it might be a very quick run through all the major landmarks. I've got tickets booked for the Vatican on Wednesday, which I can't miss, so if I'm not better by then, then I'll have to force myself to go. Worse comes to worst, I've still got Thursday to see everything, but then I'm off on Friday to Sorrento.
Posted by Jeremy at 7:12pm on Monday April 10, 2017 :: 0 comments ::