Thursday morning...
I just made it to the hostel cafe on time to get breakfast. They stop serving it at about 10.30 in the morning, yesterday I got there at 10.30 and they still had a hot breakfast going (fried eggs on bread with melted cheese and a slice of ham... gourmet stuff!) and today, I got there at 10.29 am, but no hot breakfast to be had. Darn it! And today's hot breakfast was french toast!!! Just 3 pieces of bread, jam, ham, and cheese, and a cup of tea.. Perhaps this is why I haven't met anyone in the cafe yet, as it is usually deserted by the time I get there, all the eager wide eyed backpackers setting off early to make the most of their days.
Meanwhile, back in my dorm, the two english girls are trying to sleep off football match hangovers, dozing happily beneath me (I am on the top bunk.)
As I type this, the bells of a church nearby are chiming a little melody, it sounds really sweet. It's quite different to what I have been hearing out of the attic window over the last few nights, drunken Brits chanting stupid football songs down the alleyways. I suppose they are all hungover and sleeping, or hopefully, leaving.
I was a bit disgusted yesterday, I went to meet the Swiss girl, Laura in Dam Square, where a WW2 monument stands in the centre of the city. The monument had been fenced off, and draped and hung all over the fences were flags of St George ( White with Red Cross ) with slogans relating to the English football team that was playing. Crowds of white clad male bogans stood around drinking beer, snorting with laughter, acting like idiots. A strong police presence of vans and horses were nearby, watching them. The atmosphere wasn't tense, just jovial, but there was potential for some action seeing as its so crowded with tourists and cyclists and cars etc.
Fancy coming to another country to support your sporting team, and then taking over another country's national monument, desecrating it with stupid flags and memorabilia from your country?! How is that even remotely appropriate?
Actually, there was quite a strong police presence in the centre last night, with lots of packs of police on horses galloping down the alleyways, walking around the canals, a helicopter hovering around, cycling through streets. It wasn't scary, in fact, a little disconcerting but comforting at the same time. I didn't see anything get out of hand, so it must have worked. The english girls came back and said the game was a 2-2 draw.
Anyway, I met Laura at about 6pm and she turned out to be a pretty awesome and laidback girl, and we had a drink at a cafe that had a terrace over a canal on the outskirts of the Red Light district, where it starts to meet the Canal district. We got along really well, chatting until about 11pm, where we decided to call it a night, and maybe catch up over the weekend.
Yay, a new friend!
When I got back to the hostel, Pia had written me an email, saying it was nice to meet me, and she would like to get together again and introduce me to her friends in a little "Welcome to Amsterdam" shin dig for me, and gave me a few more places to check out in my exploration days.
Yay, another new friend!
What a great day yesterday was!
Call me a bit of a nerd, but I was thinking about how my life has sort of turned out like the Sims game. Which is actually just a glorified virtual reality game revolving around Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Yesterday I felt like I had a boost in my Social interaction meter, and over the last few days, my environment and shelter meter improved. Just need to get the aspirations meter higher, and the income meter peaking!
1 comment:
You are a massive SIMS nerd!! But that's okay, 'cos I can be too.
I'm glad things are going well for you. :D
When you have the time, check out Anne Frank's house.
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