2004.09.09 in Amsterdam

Arrived in London just past midnight trying to catch the very last tube trains to the city's international rail station, Waterloo. We caught the last one which was delayed but we missed our transfer line so we trekked around to catch a bus instead. Stupidly, we wanted to get rid of all our British pounds coins back in Edinburgh and we forgot we needed them to buy bus tickets. Good thing a Boots (UK's Shoppers Drug Mart equivalent) was open near Piccadilly Circus. When we got into Waterloo station, the Eurostar terminal was closed until 4:45am so we had a few hours to kill/sleep off. Instead we went searching for a WC (public toilet) outside and found one at a hospital. Fortunately, this led to some awesome night pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye (now I know why all my night time pics were blurry - get a tripod!). We left London at 6:30am and arrived into Brussels by 10am without much sleep all night. We weren't staying in Brussels anymore so we waited for our Amsterdam train.

Checked into the Flying Pig hostel in Amsterdam before 3pm and luckily got what seemed to be the last available beds for the next few days. Explored central downtown including the infamous Red Light District (RLD) and coffeeshops... Everyone here speaks English well even though they'll revert to their native Dutch/Flemish language. The food is pricey but everyone's relaxed and enjoying themselves either by shopping, eating, or other means. ;)

Being here presented many opportunities to do things you'd never see in other cities - while in the RLD we noticed a huge queue full of tourists for a real live sex show. We got into the queue for Casa Russo's 5 'shows' lasting almost an hour... just imagine watching a play with different scenes - it's just not your average Les Miz.

Interesting notes: I thought the Eurostar was going to be a hi-speed train but it didn't seem like we went anywhere over 200km/h; bikes outnumber cars in Amsterdam and there are huge dedicated bike lanes all over the city; the RLD isn't as seedy as I imagined - only tourists are all around it seemed