Day Sixty

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today Zac got robbed.

Not really, but kinda.

We hopped on another train early this morning and left the lovely city of Bruges. We headed north toward Holland, stopping first for an afternoon in Antwerp Belgium before crossing the border.

Since we had our packs we decided it would be best to shove them into a locker while we roamed the city. While we were getting our bags situated, and eating some free doughnuts courtesy of ING, a man came up to us and asked for a Euro so he could afford the train. instead of just saying no Zac reached into his pocket and whipped out a fistful of small change. he explained to the man that he had no change because he needed some of the coins for the locker, and some for something else. The man muttered something about making change and then reached in and grabbed a Euro from Zac's hand. We all just stared and laughed as Zac said "I think I just got robbed". It was definitely one of the funnier moments of the trip so far. We even saw the guy later that day bumming a cigarette off of another guy.

After witnessing the robbery of the century we walked around Antwerp for a couple hours with no real destination in mind. We ended up doing some shopping and getting some food at an incredible sandwich shop. I'm sure it would have been an awesome city had we given it a fair chance, but for the short while we were there it was pretty crappy. It just felt like a big busy city street, but without the class or character that sets most cities apart.

Almost as soon as we had arrived, we were back on a train toward the next city. We arrived in Amsterdam around 5:00pm and walked around for an hour looking for a good place to stay. After striking out a few times we happened upon a cheap hotel where we are splitting a double/triple room between the five of us for around ten Euro each. It is pretty cramped, but we can make it work.

I'm pretty excited to explore the city tomorrow, I don't have the highest expectations, but from what we saw today it looks pretty great.