Day 1-ish

Well, here I am in Amsterdam and utterly exhausted. So far, not exactly the banner trip I had been anticipating. Lets see . . .

Minor panic attacks and fury/regret (furgret?) prior to leaving, combined with not, as it turns out, knowing my HSBC pin number and thus leaving me in a precarious position. I can't get cash from my HSBC account without it, and that's the one I planned to use to fund this whole mess. A solution is in place but just one more damn frustration.

Moving on! The seat I chose on my transatlantic flight was not as good as I was led to believe. The bulkhead was close enough to make any gained legroom minimal, though I picked up the trick of wedging your legs against it in midair, so we'll see on the flight back. My seat wouldn't stay in the upright position even when I wanted it to, provoking chiding from flight attendants and grunts from the guy behind me. We could see the bastards in premium class with their reclinerbed chairs. The seats were laughably narrow - I'm not svelt, but this was ridiculous. The personal TV was pretty awesome; watched Shutter Island and Daybreakers, neither of which was as good as I'd hoped. Food was decent, the old guy next to me was pretty nice, but a woman right behind us passed out mid-flight and provoked some flurry of activity and concern. Also, smell of vomit for the rest of the flight - yay!

Thought I lost my watch in Dublin airport, but found it outside Amsterdam Centraal Station, so all good there. Didn't find a phone place, but no hurry on that.

Amsterdam, what little I've seen, is very "nifty." Lots of canals and bikes, people sort of faffing about and hippie-types. The process of getting to my hostel was a bit more complex than I had anticipated - train from airport to Centraal, tram to a certain stop, then a longer walk than expected. However, it was easy to find once I got my bearings, and is away from really crazy stuff. At this point I'm too exhausted to want to do anything - I'm really not sure what I'll even eat at this point. The Filmmuseum, which used to be like 5 blocks from here in a huge park, has moved just far enough that I'm no longer willing to make that a trip for today.

The hostel itself is pretty cool - if this were a bar, I would hang out at it. And it is a bar, though you have to be staying here to use it (and the wifi). My room has 6 beds, I have a lower bunk. Sink and mirror in the room, shower and WCs on each floor. My own locker, which is large enough to hold my entire suitcase (but isn't). I like this bar - sort of relaxed, good music, funky, a smoking room through a glass door (what a concept!), and the World Cup on TV. I think I'll be a lot happier with things once I get some sleep - right now I'm sort of generically hostile to the world, though a delicious beer called Dommelsch is helping. Drinking at 3 in the afternoon is nothing new, but it's like 8am at home sooooo . . .

Okay then. Tomorrow I will sightsee, then haul my way out to the bus station and head to Berlin on an overnight bus that was a much better idea a month ago!