Ddduuuudddddeee, look at the lights man!!!

The trip was long but somewhat uneventful. They upgraded the movie thingy in Delta flights. Oddly enough they went for the 21st century, whodathunkit? Each individual console can stream from a large selection of movie or TV shows. There is even a USB slot so you can watch or listen to whatever you want to bring.

About time.

However, this meant I didn't get to sleep. But I did see some cool movies including Inside Out. Wow. That one actually surprised me. Definitely for a younger audience, but it dealt with sadness and depression very well. Got a little teary in the end, gotta admit.

Anyway, landed in Amsterdam around 9am and had to figure out what to do about it. Word of warning folks, if you get a Eurail Pass - be VERY careful filling it out, I had a month long pass and I filled out the start date correctly, but mistakenly put in the end date in the standard US way (month, day, year). So I crossed it out and wrote it correctly underneath.

Well apparently they can't figure out that a month long pass, that they have to date stamp in the beginning with their stamp btw, lasts a month if there is any error on the end date. Sssoooo I got charged 30 euro to get it reprinted. Which was better than the beginning when they initially told me I have to buy a new ticket ($250). Yah. I'll write them when I get back home and tell them they are kinda messed up.

So I landed, wandered around the Red Light district (basically the closest place to the train station) and got some food while I waited until it was a bit later so I could check in. Not much different in the early morning between summer and winter. Not a lot of gals out, some frat boys (stag parties over here) drinking early. Meh. I don't even remember what I ate. My plan was originally to maybe visit Delft or The Hague, but jet lag was hitting me pretty hard. No surprise and I thought this might be the case.

However, this actually worked out in my favor. Apparently to ward off the long nights, Amsterdam has a Festival of Lights where they have big public light based art on a easy followed art walk.









It was really rainy and windy, which didn't matter to me since I'm from Portland, but it did make taking pictures a pain since I had to wipe the camera down all the time.

And then on the way back, there was a really cool night market where I picked up some sweet local pastries. Not sure if it was a night thing, a celebration of some new public art, or ? Whatever, it was actually pretty sweet.





So after the market it was up four flight of VERY steep stairs (seriously, in Amsterdam - some of the stairs are basically ladders with a slight angle) with a cup o lemon tea, I tucked my tuckered furry ass to count sheep and dream of sex with Dutch supermodels. Or vice versa. I'm not picky.