Day 1--Travel Day

July 14th/15th

Today was basically a travel day (and a long one at that!). I flew to London from Philadelphia on July 14th at 9 pm, arriving in London at 9:30. Jenny flew to London from Chicago, leaving two hours before I did, arriving 1 hour after I did with a change in Ireland. Since I arrived first, I was hoping to meet her at the gate and leave together, but I had to go through customs since I arrived in Terminal 5 and Jenny arrived in Terminal 2. London is a HUGE airport!

My flight was good. I got two meals (chicken stir fry with rice, roll, salad, and a cheese cake) for dinner and a cinnamon danish for breakfast). They provide complimentary wine, so I took one bottle. It was nice to be able to drink anything without having to pay and get full course meals on the plane! :)

When I met Jenny, we departed to central London using the Underground. We opted to use the underground because then we could see more of London than we would if we used the train. We arrived at King's Cross station (for you Harry Potter fans, that is where their train to Hogwarts depart from at platform 9 3/4). We ate at Yosushi! at the St. Pancras station to kill some time before getting on our trian to Amsterdam.

We got on our train to Brussels, Belgium. I slept most of the 3 hour train ride there. I was very tired from the flight ride the day before plus the jetlag. Brussels was not impressive. We got out of the station to walk around a bit and we were not impressed with what we saw. The train station was confusing as well. On our next train ride to Amsterdam, we got on the train, found seats (the ticket did not assign us seats). After about 1 hour, the conductor came, asked us for our tickets and we gave them to her. She said that we were sitting in the wrong seats and had to move (we were in the 1st class, needed to sit in 2nd class) so we moved and 2nd class was full! We managed to find two empty seats (not next to each other). Trains in Europe have two classes--first and second with the numbers painted next to the doors. After that incident, we were sure to get in the right car (2nd class).

During the train ride, we saw the same conductor coming around asking for tickets. One guy sitting a few rows in front of us got into an argument with the conductors. They took him to the doors and had the train stop at a station (not planned stop) to kick him off the train! We were shocked to see that actually happen and wished we could hear what happened!

We got to Amsterdam, had no problem getting on the tram and walking to our hostel. We stayed at a Christian Hostel and it was very nice! We shared a room with 18 other women. We had a locker to keep our stuff in. We were starving and decided to walk around after showering to find food and look at the famed red light district. We found a restaurant (Italian!) near the hostel so we ate there and walked to the Red Light District. We saw many "Smoke" shops that sells marijuana and bars there. We did not see any of the prostitutes that the district is known for! Went back to the hostel to sleep.

One thing that struck me about Amsterdam is that there are many canals, bridges and BIKES! The bikes have right of way there, and they will not stop if you happen to get in their way. We found that out the first night there with many close calls. Thankfully we did not get hit by a bike!

For Day 1 pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/suzyki/Day1FlightTrainAmsterdam?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_yrtShweLRfQ&feat=directlink.