Iamsterdam

So Amsterdam. I was there for three days and I fell in love with it so feel that it deserves a separate blogpost, just a tiny one. It is such a beautiful city- with all it’s twisty streets and canals and boats. Millions of bikes. They are probably more dangerous to the pedestrians than the cars. And it’s unpredictable weather. About one month ago the dutch had a strike against bad weather there, can you imagine? Crazy ! And according to my source it worked. They are quite crazy about strikes in general. They are not afraid to stand up for what they believe and that’s another reason why I loved Amsterdam. And of course it’s diversity and tolerance- the coffeeshops, the red light district, children day care centre and churches peacefully coexist together despite being complete opposites. I happened to witness the favourite sport of drunk Dutch men- throwing unlocked bicycles in the canal. It’s a competition to see who can throw them the furthest as I later found out. I was quiet in a hurry back then because I didn’t want to end up in the canal with the bikes. My hostel was near the Museumplein so I could walk everywhere by foot. Very useful. Met a few people from Argentina with who I had a couple of beers at 9am during breakfast because they insisted. On our third day we got involved in a little adventure. We went to have lunch in a beautiful cafe near the river. It was the sunniest day and we were truly enjoying ourselves. And then suddenly, I am not entirely sure how a woman fell of her chair into the canal. Again, I am not quite sure how but she managed to grab the edge to the pavement so she didn’t fall into the water directly. She was hanging above the water with her expensive camera on her neck. Luckily everybody reacted really quickly. People jumped to pull her out. Unfortunately her bag was already in the water so as a small boat was passing by we asked them to pull the lady’s stuff out of the water and the cafe’s chair. Quite a few people gathered to watch the mini show at the other side of the canal and as soon as the lady, her bag and the chair were safe they started to applaude. So my piece of advice would be- yes it’s nice to sit and chill near the beautiful canals of Amsterdam but don’t get too chilled (or stoned haha) cause well... You can easily end up in the water together with the bikes. What else to tell? Well, went out at night, got lost a couple of times, and had a lot of fun during entire time of my stay. I intend to be back to the Dam someday. I met quite a few people who lived there for a while and then came back because they loved Amsterdam and I can perfectly see why. It was amazing. I am really glad it ended up being my last stop in Europe. Iamsterdam. I <3 Amsterdam !!

There's a whole New World

And so my final hour in Europe is finally ticking. I should probably write about my experiences in Amsterdam.. but I am way too excited and scared at the same time about what is yet to come and is coming so soon that I just can’t. I will sum up Amsterdam in three words for now and they are: IT WAS AWESOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEE !!!!! I hopefully will write more later, trust me, I did work up some funny and interesting stories to tell. But for now this shall be enough. I really love Europe and I’m going to miss it- the old town streets full of charm, the fact that is relatively small say compared to the states or Australia but every single bit of it is different, full of history. And it’s going to be really hard to be away from everyone, I am pretty sure I am going to be homesick quite a few times but I think in the end is going to be worth it. Because you become stronger, you learn only when you come outside of your comfort zone and both Singapore (which is oh god, so disorganized. Hopefully I will see at least something there and well... certain someone. Fingers crossed !) and New Zealand are definitely outside my comfort zone for now. I am pretty sure they will be completely different from everything that I could have imagined so I am trying not to expect anything at all. Wish me luck because I am going to need it. Goodbye Europe. Dear Singapore and dear New Zealand, here I come ! There's a whole world out there.

On the way to New Zealand

Hello, dear reader. I decided to start writing this blog so I can keep in touch with my family and friends back in Lithuania because I am from there and also everyone that I met in Greece, England and everywhere else. I won’t write a long introduction because I am assuming you are one of them, so you already know who I am and that the main reason I am starting this blog is because I am going to New Zealand from my placement where I will work in New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour for at least 9 months. Hopefully, whilst I am I can also travel to Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and well.. wherever the wind takes me. So tonight I took the bus from London where I spent most of my summer to Amsterdam because that is from where my flight New Zealand departs. I think it was a 10 hour journey. Night journey. Needless to say at the moment I am feeling slightly sleep deprived. But I have a spare hour because I already managed to make my way around the city and find my hostel. Now I am waiting for my mum who should arrive here in one hour. She took the plane from Lithuania to Amsterdam to stay with me here for my last three days in Europe because she was determined to be the last one to see me off. I rode a tram and a bus to get to my hostel and I did it for free because I had no cash with me and the drivers decided to be super nice to a foreigner with her entire life packed into two massive suitcases, very heavy suitcases by the way. Thank you. It made my morning. And thank you, the girl from Hong Kong who I met at London Victoria Coach Station who took the same bus to Amsterdam with me for agreeing to pretend that one of these massive suitcases were yours so I did not have to pay the fine for violating megabus baggage restrictions and was allowed to enter the bus. And finally, the guy who I met on that bus too but who got off at Brussels. Who did history and international relations for bachelors degree, but is now doing journalism for masters, doing an internship in BBC in London and who was going to Brussels for the weekend only- the wedding and few parties. If you ever happen to read this, please do contact me. I wish I asked for your contact details. I guess it’s crazy to expect that will ever happen, but in this crazy universe you never know, right? Not sure how much time will I have to write in this blog, because I want to make the most of Amsterdam, the most of my 15 hours in Singapore and of course my final destination for now- New Zealand. But I’ll make an effort I promise. I guess that’s it for now. Time to go and explore Amsterdam ! M.