London…I underestimated you

Up till now, whenever I've thought of London it usually brings up a few things;

1. Bend it like Beckham (great movie)
2. Tea, Crumpets and the Queen
3. Harry Potter (Blimey Harry, didn't your parents ever tell ya, you're a wizard…)

These thoughts were of course quickly swept away as I walked the streets.

London is quite apart from other European cities. Notably, it's kept it's own currency (pounds or quid as locals refer to it), which made it difficult to pay for the bus into the city from the airport. I had to quickly dash over to the ATM to withdraw 50 pounds so I could pay the driver 10. But here's where the troubles began, I missed my stop because I had headphones on, so got off at the next one.

However, let me tell you. London is not an easy city to navigate if you're just dropped there with no clue where to go. The map of the tube looks like a child scribbled all over it with crayons. It's your job to figure out where the lines go and what grade he/she deserves. (F in readability, A+ in fundamentals)

Turns out the kid was pretty smart cause the tube is the best connected underground system I've seen yet. Sure, it has it's flaws, but what system doesn't. For Londoners there's always a way to get around. (Busses, Bikes, Shuttles, cabs etc.)

With the help of a fellow passenger on the bus, I was able get to the right stop and walk down to my hostel. (near Regent Park if anyone's familiar) As usual, after dropping off my stuff I headed out to explore the city (close to 11:30PM now) which is perfect because it's a Friday night and everybody's out and about. As I headed to SOHO I got slightly turned around and asked a group of people where I was, and turned out I was in the smack dab middle of the neighbourhood. A fellow in the group quickly offered to show me around and took me out to a bar nearby.

The rest is a giant amazing blur, as before I knew it, we went from a pair to a group of 6. We spent the entire night out, hopping from bar to clubs and exploring the city. It was an absolute delight to meet these people and they really made it a special night for me! Cheers to the whole lot of you :)

I'm going to conclude this post here, because in the next one I'll go into the thoughts that I have about London. 

In Amsterdam…Money Talks

It's now Day 8, and with only 2 days left to go, my trip is speeding towards it's end. I can't help but feel I could have done more, even though I have done quite a fair bit. (It's a constant battle)

My digs in Amsterdam were comprised of a 4 bed shared dormitory featuring a bar downstairs. Did I mention the bar? Yes, this was a huge advantage because it just happened to be THE bar of choice in the red-light district for young people. WIN!

You can read about my night life experience in my post below, as I would like to focus on what I did during the day in this post. There's a fair bit to say, as always. Started off by taking a free walking tour of the city, by Sandeman tours. This is a pretty cool company, that has a ton of different tours all across Europe and they have been my company of choice. (#1 on tripadvisor :))

Feel free to take a look at the pictures below for some candid shots of the city and it's various canals. In addition, I've listed some insights and observations that I had about the city.

For context, Amsterdam is home to many an "illegal thing". In most places around the world, weed, prostitution and general sexual promiscuity are pretty "hush-hush". However, Amsterdam has 3 rules that allow this and many other things to be possible.

1. As long as what you want to do doesn’t hurt anybody- go ahead and do it.
2. If what you want to dois good for business - Do It. ("mo money, mo taxes")
3. If the general population can turn a blind eye to the activity in question- Do It (Plausible deniability)

These are the principles that the city operates on, and it works. I think there's a beauty in such blunt honesty. These things cross everybody's minds, but Amsterdam is the only society as a whole that acknowledges it. It accepts, tolerates and welcomes over 192 nationalities that make up the fabric of the city.

There's a lot to be learned from such a society.

I next went to the Anne Frank museum. Fair warning: buy tickets online! Tickets sales open 2 months in advance of the booking date, however a friend and I were lucky that we were able to secure 2 during our walking tour, otherwise we would have waited in the long line (see below).

This was a doozy. I use "doozy" because the gravity of the experience is hard to describe. I read Anne Frank's diary back in grade 8 and ever since then I've wanted to see the museum. It's the exact house that the entire family hid out in during WWII. I won't go into the history of Anne Frank, you can read more here if you'd like.

What made it so real though, was from seeing the star of David on display to the actual hand written diary preserved in it's original form inside the museum. 

It was moving to see with my own eyes and walk around the house. The bathrooms tiny, the living room non-existent, and dim lighting all add up to an insight that words cannot merely capture.

Unfortunately, while walking through the museum, I lost track of the friend I came with. I did wait, but never found him. I didn't have anything but his first name and therefore became almost impossible to locate him on Facebook. Kinda sucked.

Anyway, capped off the night by heading to a Salsa/Bachata event in the city. This was a big departure for the "usual" things that most backpackers do, as the hostel offers pub crawl events that most attend. But, I'm not the "usual" person and the Salsa event was way more fun. I learned how to do the Cha-Cha along with meeting another like-minded person! All in all a great day of absorbing the culture and vibe.

As I type this out in a local cafe in Amsterdam, before flying out to London, I wanted to acknowledge how different Europe is from the North America. People are people, of course, with many of the same stresses, worries and problems. However, the cities I've been to so far have been refreshing. It's given me a glimpse of how tiny, yet big the world is.