It Begins: Amsterdam

I am a recent college graduate, so as any recent college graduates can understand, I have been pummeled with questions like “What next?” or “What do you plan to NOW?” …and so on and so forth. To such questions I would respond “travel”. And then the expected query—“to where?”. In return, my rehearsed response of “The Netherlands (Amsterdam!), South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, little stopover in Thailand, and then probably onto Australia for a bit and then New Zealand.” In turn I received a variety of retorts, but the most common was “why?”… so I reply “I simply can’t see myself doing anything else right now.”

Now, I find myself sitting in an apartment in Amsterdam awake at four in the morning. I’m firstly jetlagged, but secondly in what you might call an old-fashioned stand off with a mosquito. We can all agree that there is nothing more annoying and infuriating than the high-pitched buzzing of a mosquito flying around your head. It was this particular sound that awakened me this morning. I tried to ignore it, until finally it foolishly landed on my face. I declared war. I turned on the light and sat perfectly still until I heard my enemy behind me. I turned with lightning speed and smashed it, first try, with my “Getting Started in Dutch” book (shouldn’t have messed with me). Contented and proud of myself, I went back to bed only to be awakened five minutes later by another mosquito obviously coming to avenge the death of his brother… 

The next morning, sleep deprived and groggy, I had my first experience riding a bike in Amsterdam. If you imagine being a sperm fighting to reach the egg (of course you can, you used to be one) then you can imagine cycling here. There are thousands of bicyclists all crammed into a small bike path, riding the same direction, passing you, ringing bells, then the occasional motorbike practically running you over…it becomes a fight for life. As you can imagine, I was in no shape for this sort of activity that morning, but I somehow survived the many obstacles that tried to obliterate me that day.