When in Amsterdam...

20-22 July

Well the 20th of July was Paul (my cousin's) birthday so three of us decided to go to Amsterdam for the weekend to celebrate. It poured on Friday morning so we were delayed at Heathrow for three hours but had the most animated in-flight safety demonstration aboard KLM and finally made it to our hostel at around midnight. Just enough time to dump our stuff and head out for a few drinks and a dance until 4am.

The next morning I was up early to beat the crowds and head to 267 Prinsengracht (otherwise known as Anne Frank House). It was great to walk around - everything is really well displayed - and amazing feeling to step behind the bookcase and up the narrow stairs to where they were hiding. It brought a sense of completeness to my other experiences of the Holocoust on my travels and I feel like Im getting a much more complete picture of a part of history I really had little knowledge about before this trip. Was definitely glad I got in early as the line was all the way around the corner by the time I got out.

Paul and Hayley met me after I'd finished at Anne Frank House (they'd both already been to Amsterdam before and done it then) and we decided to hire some old-school Dutch bicycles for the afternoon, it was a bit crazy cycling through the city but beautiful to get out for a bit

In search of windmills we cycled about 10 miles down the Amstel and then back up the other side, it was such a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon and we got some great pictures!

We returned the bikes at around 2ish and decided it was time for

lunch at a cute little cafe, so stopped for a couple of pints of Amstel - the beer not the river : P before continuing with the afternoon's adventures. Checked out Dam Square and a Dutch verion of Punch and Judy, it was classic - even if we didnt understand a word : P

Paul and Hayley went back to the hostel for a rest and I wanted to wander around the city a bit more and checked out the Sex Museum - pretty good value for money (I think it was about 3 Euros) and had lots of weird and wonderful stuff with some photos even dating back to the 1800s! Amsterdam itself was just a really cool city to walk around, I think growing up in Wellington its really nice to have water around so all the canals here help make it a really calm and picturesque city. It is also really well organised with cyclists having the right of way, outdoor urinal stands for men and delicious food stalls for everyone to visit after the coffee shops.

That evening we had booked a canal cruise around the city for 8:30pm. Turned out to be perfect timing with the sun setting while we were on the cruise and it was awesome to get to see the city from another angle and get out to some parts of town we hadn't even seen before. Hayley was so excited when we found the parking garage just for bikes!

Finished off the evening with dinner at a Thai restaurant and a couple of pints, nice relaxing way to end a pretty busy day.

The next morning we decided tocheck out a few more of the touristy things to do around the city. Up bright and early again we grabbed breakie at the hostel - sooo good! They had quality cereals, fresh bread, ham, cheese, salami and spreads (including the awesome chocolate one I tried at Nina's house in Bremen) and orange juice and coffee so a great way to start the day. Hayley and I went to see the Van Gogh Museum and Paul checked out the Rijksmuseum.

After a morning of culture we decided to continue in that fashion and ended up at the Heineken Experience. This is on the site of the old factory and was very much commercialising the whole idea of the Heineken lifestyle (like crazy motion master rides of what its like to be a Heineken bottle) but there was a great time had by all. And at 11 euros for the walk through that included 3 (half) pints and a souviner bottle opener, it wasnt a bad little way to spend our last afternoon

After that we just had enough time to take a photo outside one of the famous Bulldog Coffee Chain stores and then chill at the airport until our flight back. Had a great weekend in Amsterdam. Thanks to Paul and Hayley for organising/coming along! What an amazing city! Would love to come back in the springtime and see all the tulips - just know when I get back to Europe (at some stage...) that Amsterdam will definitely be on my list to go back and visit!

Despite it raining in the afternoon in Amsterdam it was beautiful weather flying back into Heathrow. And I got some great view of places I've come to know and love in London

Northern Italy

13-15 July

This weekend I took a trip with my rooomate (Sara) to Northern Italy to catch up with her family and friends. We started out fairly early on Friday morning (even though our flight wasnt until 11 all the cheap flights are from airports quite a way out of the city centre). Arriving in Torino in the afternoon we were immediately hit by the warmth as we stepped off the plane (so much nicer than the grey rainy London morning we had left!) Managed to figure out how to take the train into the city centre and the bus to the park while Sara liaised with her friends about meeting up later. We had some time to chill before they arrived so peered over the fence to catch glimpses of the bands backstage and sunbaked in the huge area that would later that night be jammed with people

Saras friends arrived and we pitched our tents a little away from the central festival area. After settling into the park with a few drinks we decided to grab something to eat before the concert started and had a whole pile of caravan vendors to choose from - not selling chips and hot dogs but instead pita breads and foccacia rolls - nice but festival food is always pretty expensive.

Around 10pm the bands started up - pretty amazing atmosphere and you can never complain about a free gig in Italy - what a great excuse to come here for the weekend! Check out http://www.trafficfestival.com/en/chi.asp for more information on the Traffic Free Festival that happens every year in Turin. On Friday night, The Coral and then the Arctic Monkeys played and was stoked with how many songs I knew. Managed to mosh our way pretty much to the front and had a great time.

After the concert finished at around 1-ish we headed back to the campsite to wind down and got to sleep at around 3. Up at 5 to find our way to the central station and buy tickets to head towards Sara's hometown, Rolo. Because it was a Saturday we couldnt go the whole way but training through Northern Italy from Torino to Modena was pretty nice - even if we napped a little along the way. Sara's older brother Mario picked us up from Modena and we drove to her place, it was lovely and her parents were so surprised and happy to see her.

Unfortunately we could only stay at their place briefly because one of Sara's best friends Marty was having a BBQ for her birthday in the park so we drove out there. Had a great time chatting to people (despite my very limited Italian!) delicious food (we had Argentine steaks and salad followed by home-made Tiramisu), and just relaxing in the park - but not in the sun because it was too hot!

Came home at around 6ish and were greeted with one of the biggest watermelons Ive ever seen so we had huge slices each which was the perfect way too cool off after being out in the park for the last 6 hours. Spent the early evening chilling and then went out to dinner with Sara's parents and her younger brother to a delicious fish restaurant and had my very first espresso - thats what you get if you ask for a coffee in Italy!

That night we headed to a house party in this huge old house in the middle of the countryside. Sara's older brother Mario and some of his friends rent out this place but its not up to standard for people to live in so they use it as a workshop/studio area (as most of them are artists) and once a year they have a huge party there - which just happened to be the one Saturday we were in Rolo - stoked! The party was great with beer on tap in two bars inside and out, a DJ, awesome art adorning the whole place and a bunch of friends I'd met earlier that day at the BBQ.

We got home from the party at about 6am so after having a huge day on Saturday its no doubt that Sunday was pretty relaxed. It was even hotter than Saturday so plans to walk the three blocks to the centre were traded in for chilling at Sara's and her next door neighbour's place.

One of the coolest things about this trip was that I already knew 3 or 4 of the faces as they'd come to stay at our place in London so great to see them again and get to meet Sara's other friends. Her family were lovely and it was so nice of them to welcome me into their home. Although I will come back and travel around Italy on my own in September its not very often you get the chance to come to a small town and hang out with a real Italian family - it was a great experience!

Italian people seem really emotional in their non-verbal communication. I watched a lot of it this weekend - not knowing much more than Ciao! - but never got sick of listening to people speaking Italian and trying to figure out what it why they were talking about by their tone and facial expresssions etc. Even the graffitti was lovely!

We flew out of Bologna-Forli airport a little late but managed to make up the time in the air arriving into Stansted at midnight, this would have been fine as the last cheap bus back into town runs at 1am and I only had carry-on luggage but I was stuck in the Non-EU passports queue for 90 minutes! So by the time I got through I made an executive decision to sleep at the airport, catch the first bus back into town in the morning and go straight to work. Sara and her friends opted to buy tickets on the 24hr bus and got back home at about 4, while I had a nice fairly solid 5 hours sleep on the seats in the Bus Waiting Room - what a great end to the weekend!