I took a New Europe walking tour in the morning, which was very entertaining and gave me a much better appreciation for the city's history and its dedication to tolerance. As our guide stated twice, the general rule of thumb in Amsterdam is "if you're not harming anyone else, and you're good for business, you're free to do as you want." This tolerance has spanned everything from prostitution and marijuana to religion and same-sex marriage. Fun facts learned: the Dutch are the tallest people in the world, every year approximately 12,000 bicycles are dredged out of the canals and refurbished by the Dutch government, a good portion of these bikes ended up in the canals as part of a Dutch drinking game. There were lots of history lessons as part of the tour (I had no idea that the Netherlands has a royal family), and solid advice on Amsterdam. Our guide's first tip: never take photos of the women of the red light district. Those windows are actually doors, and they are known to chase down photo-takers, smash their cameras, and throw ready-for-this-purpose cups of urine on the offending tourists.
The tour made Amsterdam's seediness seem more meaningful, and the tour guide was very knowledgable. After the tour, I joined the guide and a few other tour members for a quick beer. Two of the other tour participants were Canadian travel agents, and they had some great stories about their insane clients. It was a very fun conversation.
After the tour, I wandered back to my hostel, but I was getting bored with wandering the streets. I think Amsterdam is a great place for many reasons, but it wasn't my favorite place to hang out by myself. By yesterday afternoon, I was feeling a little done with Amsterdam. When I passed by a bar that was showing the Boston Red Sox game, I went right in and had my first dose of homesickness.
I was happy to spend my evening just watching the game as Amsterdam went on around me, and by the 6th inning it was getting late in Amsterdam. I grabbed my bags from the hostel and headed to the airport, where I had booked a Yotel "sleeping cabin" for the night. Mom's flight was due in at 6am, and I wanted to meet her at the airport, so I thought the inside-the-airport option would both allow me to get some extra sleep and also give her a place to crash when she landed.
The cabin was just that - a tiny cabin reminiscent of a cruise ship. I found that having 20 English TV channels was more entertaining than I expected: a luxury I haven't had in a while. After spending too long watching very bad TV, I went to bed far later than I had planned.
The good news is that I'm at the airport now, and Mom has landed! I am so excited for the next part of this trip with her, and I'm very happy to see some family after these last 7 weeks of traveling. Scandinavia is next!
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