Hamsterdam

Yohoho,

Set off this morning around ten or so, have gotten fairly used to riding a loaded up bike now, didn't fall over at all today (I think I fell over 3 or so times yesterday?). Anyway, made it to amsterdam at about 1 or so, and bumbled around for another two hours or so heading through town trying to find my hostel. Turns out it's on the smallest most inconspicuous street ever. Seems like an alright place though, facilities are however a bit light on (what kind of hostel has no washing machine or microwave?).

Anyway, today my scalp which got badly sunburnt yesterday has been oozing pus all day, it's really quite gross. Don't think I've ever had sunburn this bad before. I guess shaving my head before I left was a bad idea, oh well. I did buy some sunblock today, but I think it's a bit late.

The weather was atrocious today, rained all morning, so I ended up at my hostel half soaked, and a little on the cold side. Still, it was a good little ride, the bike paths were all clearly signed and most of them were in good repair, and a lot of the ride was through nice semi-rural countryside.

Amsterdam really seems like a chilled out version of london. It has all of the shops restaurents and general big city features, but none of the traffic, and even the foot traffic seems more relaxed. There's also millions of bikes all over the place, and trams. The trams seem really awesome, might have to catch one tomorrow. Still, haven't really seen much of the city yet, wandered over to the red light district but being still daylight, there wasn't much in the way of interesting things going on. It did only take about 30 seconds before a guy wandered over wanting to sell drugs though, that's what I call service.

Still, been too tired today to be arsed doing much, just woke up from a nap a minute ago. Might leave it to tomorrow night before I go exploring at night.

Anyway, that's all I got for now.

dutchyland day I

Right, well I left yesterday ridiculously overloaded, barely made it out of the carpark I was so loaded up (as I'm sure some of you were switched on enough to pick up) anyway, I emptied out some water and made it to basingstoke more or less ok. Caught the train to london, and managed to get lost trying to find liverpool street station. Turns out I ended up cycling around london on a ridiculously loaded bike for 2 hours or so before I found it. Got there eventually, and caught the train to harwich (turns out it is pronounced harrich, like norrich but not). Spent a while out in the cold and wet before I boarded the ferry, but when I did it was pretty awesome. 20 Pounds got me this awesome little cabin overnight, two beds, shower, it was a tops little room. Still only ended up getting like 3 1/2 hours sleep, but it wasn't so bad. Had a major repack while I was in my cabin, ditched a good couple of kilos of clothes and books and random shit. Will see how I end up going I guess.

Anyway, landed in holland at like 8:30 in the morning or something, and set off. Turns out there are cycling signs and paths everywhere, so I just jumped straight on one that was going in the right direction and set off. Visited the hague briefly, didn't really stop for anything, but I went through there. Most of the cycling path I was riding on was parallel to the beach, but protected from the wind by the sand dunes. Seems like the dunes are protected and you're not allowed to walk in there or whatever, I kept seeing signs saying not to do something or other in dutch while I was going along.

Anyway, I eventually reached Leiden, and decided to look for a hostel. Google turned up one in Nordwich, which is a pretty cool place. Met a few aussies, drunk a bunch of beer and smoked a couple of joints with them. Was on the nod till a minute ago though, not the best, apparently I have something drawn on my head already (a naked lady I hear). Anyway, my dinner tonight was a microwaved cheeseburger and a couple of these awesome microwaved indonesian bun things, they were tops. Only .35 euro as well.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm heading off to amsterdam, 35 or 40k or so, will probably swing though haarlem on the way, apparently that;s a cool place. I just hope I'm not too sore to sit down on my bike.

anyway, that's all I got for now, adios amigos
Joel.