Digital pimp, hard at work..."
As we sit in the BA lounge at the airport waiting for the flight home (Boo), I thought I might the chance to catch you up on the trip.
I think I might work my way backwards from our most recent pitstop...
AMSTERDAM
We were only there for 2 nights, but we could have spent at least a week, easily. This is a very fun, safe (relatively speaking), liberal, accepting and colourful city.
In fact the city is famous for it's colours.
Green for it's dope, of which you can buy about 10 different varieties! Unfortunately, we did not get to enjoy with the locals due to only staying for a very limited time and having colds. Yeah, we picked up a second cold from London. :(
Red for it's "Red Light District", which I found a little disappointing and very tame. In fact, the only thing I saw any of the girls playing with was their mobiles! It was so tame that out of the multitude of windows that we passed, I only saw 1 single boob! Not even a full pair, and I don't even think she was aware that she was showing it!
Rainbow colours, not just for all of the rainbow flags (symbol of a gay/gay friendly business), but also for their famous tulips. None of which we ever saw other than in a shop.
The only museum that we got to see was the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, which was a powerful and highly emotional journey. This man was a genius whose life was cut very short. He was filled with an inner torment and a constant questioning of self-worth. However, there were certainly times of hope, joy, friendship brilliance & beauty which balanced his destructive, depression & his illness (they believe a form of epilepsy).
I did want to check out "Anne Frank's" house ("she's in the attic"), based on the recommendation of a friend, but the line was over an hour long! Sorry, but we only had 1 full day and 2 1/4 days due to airport travel. No time to waste waiting.
We got up early on the one full day we had with every intention of getting as much as possible done. However, in true "stoner" fashion, the city doesn't wake up until 9 or 10am. So we figured that a scenic way of seeing the city was a canal tour, but this didn't start until 11! Alas, half our day was almost gone...
As I said, we checked out the Van Gogh Museum which took us to an early dinner (in an Aussie 'restaurant' - David was hankering for a burger and wanted to view the cricket highlights). Checked out a gay pub and then walked around the city until we hit the Red Light District before heading back to the hotel.
The next morning we got up early and walked through the city to the "Homomonument" which is three different pink, granite triangles set in the ground and form the cornerstones of a larger triangle. This is to commemorate all gay & lesbian (glbti) people who have been oppressed, tortured or murdered during times of war & intolorent regimes.
We checked out of our hotel and casually strolled over the bridges and alonside the canals; pausing to view through shops and stalls of irredescent tulips, tasty pomme frittes, open air loos and other little momentos to celebrate our time in Amsterdam. We also took photos of the locks, bridges, buildings and the bicycle park which was as big as a 3 story car park.
We then strolled to the train station, caught the train out to the airport and headed back to London.
NYE (London)
We caught up with friends (Mal & Tony, Ted & Christopher and Shayne) for some drinks a chatting before heading out to the dance party at a club called XXL. Yeah, it's a reference to the type of guys that go there, "Bears & Cubs" (Bears = big hairy men, Cubs = younger Bears) and their admirers. The club and people were great, very, VERY friendly, but the music was very hit & miss. A very fun night was had never the less and we left the club at about 3:30am and walked home across Tower Bridge in full moonlight.
Very romantic!
PARIS
"...We'll always have Paris..."
This place is just magical and, until you experience it, you really can't understand just how much this is true.
Here's a quick rundown on what we did -
- Louvre Museum
- Musee D'Orsee
- Picasso Museum
- Champs Elysse
- Effil Tower (even got to the very top!)
- Arc de Triumph
- Fauchon
- Yule Eve Feast
Oh and shopping! :)
The people here a so lovely and friendly. Even though I learnt a small amount of French (and I really mean the basics), there were very few time where we had a truely difficult time communicating. On the very few occasions when there was a problem with understanding each other, if there was another customer in the store everyone would help with the little bits of languages that they knew. You may come out with a little more, less or different than what you were looking for, but it was often an entertaining experience. ;)
I love Paris, I was very sad to leave...
ROME
You can got five steps without tripping over a collumn, ancient ruin, archeological dig or vespa! This is a true state of fact. Crossing t e roads in Rome is a battle of wills that you must not fail or you will never cross.
Bugger, out of time... Flight's been call.
See you all at home soon.
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