Amsterdam

Arrived safe and sound. The balance of my London visit was entirely lovely. Well, on my errand of sisterly affection my spirits were tested. Holy cow - so many people and none of them seem to have any idea of which side of the sidewalk one should use. They drive on the left, so one would think you walk on the left. No. Not at all, walk wherever you feel like it and for good measure stop wherever it feels right - even better if there are three of you and you need the whole frickin' sidewalk because you're just stupid and rude. Makes for a very stressful experience for the crowd disliker in me.

What placed me in this position on Oxford street at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon was trying to save a little money. At this point in the game, dumb, I know. I had taken a bus from where I was staying to Oxford Circus because it is 1pound20 and a nice walk rather than 1pound20 bus fare plus 2pounds30 tube fare for the more direct route. Well, I ended up buying a tube ticket after all because I didn't have a map with which to find an alternate route and I couldn't take any more people shopping and walking all over the damned sidewalk with no order and no consideration for my poor nerves. It was money well spent - I finished my errand without popping any blood vessels and I didn't hurt anyone, not even myself.

I exited at Embankment and walked up to Trafalgar Square - there has to be a souvenir shop or two near there, I thought. Happily, I was right. I did have to go into two vile souvenir shops (both playing horrid, too-loud Christmas music) before I found what I was looking for; the last one on the shelf, I might add. Then I stood in line behind five Dutch teenage girls who wanted to get rid of their change - they tried to pay 17pounds97 with change -- most of it was 50pence coins.

After all was counted, they were still short so they paid with a 20 pound note. I thought, okay, my turn. Each of the teenagers had something to buy. Such fun, such joy, and all while the too-loud horrid Christmas music is blaring from a speaker not two and a half feet from my head. Finally, I purchased my little sign and magnets and was able to flee the store.

Whew. I decided, I'm in town, I see Big Ben, I'll take a walk as the weather is nice. I did. So, the extent of my activities in London proper was have a trying walk down Oxford Circus (direction of Charing Cross), buy some stuff in an icky souvenir store, taking a nice walk to take a photo of Big Ben to proove I was there, and have a Starbucks hot chocolate while I prepared myself for the transition from pleasantly cool air to the rush hour tube world.

I am now in Amsterdam. Happy to be visiting, happy to be done being a tourist. Tomorrow will be a nice day of visiting A. and M. and Monday morning I head to the airport. I look forward to being home, though I will miss my friends and Amsterdam. So, if you know of anyone hiring in this fair city, send them my name.