Greetings and salutations.
It's been a while since I've posted, but in the past ten days I've flown 3517 miles, walked 156,139 steps (nearly 70 miles), and been in four countries, so cut me some slack.
I departed from Berlin on Thursday afternoon, via Alitalia, my favorite airline, and was first flown to Milan and then on to Amsterdam. The journey was not exciting in anyway, and I discovered that I hate the Milan airport. That evening, I arrived in Amsterdam, and met my friend in the central train station. We hugged for about five minutes straight, laughing the whole time, as we hadn't seen each other since mid-January, with her living in Amsterdam and myself in Berlin. Then, we went on the prowl for dinner and ate at a delicious crepe and waffle shop. I had the sweet classic, with sugar, butter, lemon juice, and strawberries. Oh, it was delicious.
Afterwards, we headed out of the center to meet my host for the next few days. Her apartment was quite cozy. The complex was made of shipping containers stacked on one another, and each container was a residence. The front part of the container contained the living/cooking area, then it narrowed into a hallway, flanked by the bathroom, and then opened up in the back into a bedroom with a balcony. I loved the idea and enjoyed stating there. My host's adorable cat also helped. After a cup of tea and some good conversation about books, tea and cats, my host and I called it a night.
The next morning, I met my friend again, and we wandered around the city, exploring and killing time before another friend arrived. We grabbed breakfast at a small supermarket and sat on a bench overlooking her street/canal (she lives on a houseboat with a host-family!), chatting and eating. Then, we went exploring, with her showing me many of the main sights, such as Dam Square, the area around the Central Train Station, a book market (where there was a Banksy work in a nearby courtyard), the main library with a wonderful view of the city, and NEMO, the city's science center.
The latter was quite interesting, as there was an excellent educational section about puberty and sex, that informed people of all ages with barely any bias about the topics in a factual and unstigmatized way. It's something you would've never seen in the states, as it contained exhibits showing various sex positions, birth control and protection methods, and other photos and items pertaining to the topic. It really made me think about the cultural differences regarding sex and the stigma surrounding it, particularly between America and Europe, the Netherlands in particular.
After that experience, we waited for the bus that was carrying another friend to arrive and the three of us had an excellent reunion, that involved many hugs and smiles. We dropped the newly-arrived friend's luggage off at my friend's houseboat (which was quite fascinating), and headed out for lunch. We grabbed quiche, apple pie, and french toast to go, and returned to the book market and ate in the courtyard with the Banksy piece behind us. The courtyard was quiet, with some children playing, and the food was incredibly good. Was definitely a moment to remember.
Following that, we wandered around the area some more, and visited various places such as the Cannabis College, which is a non-profit devoted to informing people about the many uses of cannabis and how to safely partake in the drug. It was pretty interesting, and provided some good laughs, along with the next stop, the Condomerie, a very thorough condom store, that also had informational materials, on top of condoms of all sizes, flavors, designs and colors. As you can tell, we were taking Amsterdam pretty seriously. The next thing on our list was the Old Church, some more wandering, and then we met up with our host for dinner at a vegan co-op restaurant.
Dinner there was five euros for a three-course vegan meal, which consisted of soup, pizza, an eggplant dish, rice, salad and a cake. All the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was quite relaxed, which the diners required to wash their own dishes. The cooks are all volunteers, and the money made from the meals is distributed throughout the city to various charities and causes. All in all, it was quite fun, and afterwards, we picked up my newly-arrived friend's luggage from the houseboat, and the two of us headed back to our lodgings to cuddle together on a mattress and call it a night.
In the next post, I will finish up the Amsterdam trip, recount my brief time in Rome, and then move on to Malta, as well as update you on what is currently going on now that I'm back in Berlin.
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