Amsterdam

I had a twelve hour wait in Amsterdam so, although I had been awake all night, I ventured into the city for the day. I had quite strong feelings of reverse culture shock, particularly in light of the events of the last month.

Amsterdam is so pretty, but it was very wet and cold so I spent much of the day shivering. I went from café to café, staying long enough for a cup of coffee or a glass of gluehwein, then leaving out of embarrassment after I inevitably fell asleep!

I even fell asleep on the train back to Schiphol Airport and missed my stop, ending up in Leiden. The people on the train were very amused when I woke with a start, swore loudly, ran down to try and open the door, then came back laughing and asked where we were going.

My arrival to Cork was very emotional. The man sitting next to me on the plane was quite surprised when I began to cry as the plane landed in Cork Airport. Coming through the arrival gate, I spotted my brother smiling in the crowd and began to sob as I ran towards him, causing a line of people to go 'Aaaaw!'. It is difficult to describe the relief I felt as I hugged him.