This is an e-mail sent back home. People seemed to love it. I enjoyed it too.
Hello everybody...
I've been away for only two weeks... i can't believe that... it seems like a month... and the last 3 days have seemed like years...
I'm in Amsterdam... I'm currently in the Amsterdam library using their free internet... now i know where to go to get internet.... Donde es el bibliotheca?
I do not know what to think of the city... sure its nice and unique... and yes all the buildings lean and slant... sure the canals are filled with bikes and cars (an average of 50 cars a year fall into the canals)... but it has not stopped raining ... If i wanted this type of weather i would have stayed home but I'm sure it's just wonderful in Vancouver right now...
The weather has been horrible where ever I've travelled... Paris and Brussels were nice and sunny but it has not been very warm at all... London was a little windy with slight showers here and there but Amsterdam is getting dumped on... and the really funny thing about this horrible weather... I'm currently camping 20 minutes outside of Centraal Station...
The first night was a mess... I was a captain aboard a sinking ship... My Trail Appliance towel became a bucket to bail water from the leaking walls... Socks became corks... jackets became sleeping bags... t-shirts were pillows... and beer became sleeping pills... Before i left Brussels I had checked the weather via the internet and Amsterdam showed Sun all week... When i arrived 4 hours later the weather looked fine... there was no change in the sky when i arrived at Gaaspercamp, so I arranged to stay 4 nights in the campgrounds... The weather started to shift about an hour after i set up my tent... but that was ok... i positioned my little fort below a nice overhanging tree to minimize the amount of freefalling rain... This should have taken care of at least one night... 3 hours later the rain began to fall... thwacking the top of my nylon tent I was a little worried but I wouldn't let a little rain steal away the €42,00 I paid for 4 nights worth of camping...
And so the flood began....
That first night was horrible... but now I'm laughing at it because the next day i reinforced my tent... it's now a fortress of clear plastic garbage bags... I even bought a winter toque, that reads ''Amsterdam", to keep my head warm at night... The second and third night have been much more enjoyable... and by enjoyable i mean rather shitty, just better than the first night... Less leaks, less of a mess... a little more warm....
Anyways, tonight is my last night at Gaasperlas Camping... (Gaasperlas is the name of the lake, the name of the camp site is Gaaspercamp) I'm going to try and get a bed at the Flying Pig Hostel in downtown Amsterdam... where all the kids have piercing, dirty dreadlocks and ugly facial hair... The downtown district is not very nice... everyone is a tourist visiting for Amsterdam's notorious decriminalized commodities... I don't blame them... it's one of the things that makes Amsterdam so interesting, but it attracts a large diverse crowd... I think I'll leave for Deventer on Sunday... and then I will either B-line it for Berlin or head south for some sun... I shouldn't be putting myself through such horrid weather... a beach in Spain sounds really nice right now... Anyways... I'm going to try and salvage what I can of this soggy day in Amsterdam...
Adios Amigos
Matthew J. Van Deventer
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