Well... picking up where we left off. I had landed in Amsterdam and some dodgy guy on the street helped me find a hostel. Thank goodness. I was told that there was only one hostel with rooms left in all of Amsterdam because of Konnoningenday (Queens Day, I hope the spelling is right Madous!). And you could really see why this place had rooms left. The sheets were dirty, ripped, the rooms smelt of feet and cigarettes, and there was a stray black cat that would walk around trying to eat your food.

 

I had booked there until the Saturday of Queens Day, and decided that I would check my bag into a train station locker and stay up all night. Sure beats paying forty euros to stay in that dump (Hostel Kabul if you ever go to Amsterdam). Queens Day was full of canal and street parties, it seemed as though the whole country had descended on Amsterdam with all their orange clothes. Thankfully, an exhaustful day was accompanied with some amazing dutch hospitality and my sister's host brother Sjoerd, put me up at his house for the night. So good to have a bed and a real sleep without drunken englishmen coming to wake you up at 3 in the morning.

 

Found a great hostel (the bulldog) after Queens Day and stayed there for another 6 nights. Met some great people there, and now know about 15 people going to the Roskilde festival that I will need to catch up with. Just need a phone now :)

 

Spent quite a bit of time with Sjoerd,Inge and Sarah. We had dinner at Inge's one night, dinner and a movie at Bazar another night and checked out a screening of a film Sjoerd had directed in Utrecht.

 

All in all I spent about ten days in Amsterdam. I made the most of the museums, visiting the Tropem, the Rijk, Van Gogh and Stelijk CS Modern Art Gallery. Spent a lot of time relaxing in the Vondel and Ooster parks, which filled with people in the hot hot weather here. It was about 25 degrees today, really nice for travelling.

 

Also managed to see liberty day here in Amsterdam, which is a bit like Australia day, just with even more street parties. A great time of year to be in Amsterdam, with the Queens Day and Liberty day.

 

I have headed off to visit Sjoerds family for the weekend, and they have been looking after me soooo well with food and a real bath... and a bed! A really lovely family and I can see where Claire has picked up a lot of her 'dutch' humour from.

 

Anyway, I will write soon from Germany again, as I travel back to Frankfurt then to Munich. By the way, if you dont have my email it is stephenharland@gmail.com