Today was to be my first in Amsterdam. A three-hour train ride north from Brussels would have me at Amsterdam Centraal by late morning, with the rest of the day free to explore the city that has earned a world-wide reputation for its laidback tolerance of life at its most hedonistic.
But the rain that had been falling since I arrived in Paris a week ago was falling still, and I, having stayed up too late reading about Croatia from Manuel's LP collection, wanted nothing more than to lazily loll in bed for a few extra hours. By noon, I was packed, and had made and eaten with Manuel one of my favorite breakfasts from the States -- you guessed it, omelette with red pepper and mushroom.The journey turned out to be a bit more involved than I had expcted, and fortunately, I made friends with a Dutchman named Martin, who was heading in the same direction as I. Since one of the rail tracks was down for repair, we had to stop just shy of the Belgian-Netherland border in Essen, before continuing by bus to another city's train station, and rerouting ourselves to Amsterdam with another train connection.
He and I talked about the States, as he had spent a year studying abroad at Texas A&M. He is currently a student in Gent, where he is in an advance program working towards veterinary medicine. After telling him of my love for the southwest and my ideas of moving there after returning from my travels, he whipped out his laptop and gave me a virtual tour through the Canyonlands, Zion and Arches National Parks, Monument Valley, and Antelope Canyon. As we clicked through his digital images, I had to laugh at the irony of it all -- here I am in Belgium, crossing over to the Netherlands with a perfect stranger who has seen and loved some of my most favority national parks back in the U.S.Other random highlights:*canal bridges at night - lit up, reflections on the water*getting lost in the concentric rings of canals, winding up in the Red Light District
~Melanie
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