Centraal

My last night in Amsterdam and I have to admit that I'm totally exhausted, this city has broken me again! I didn't take many photos over the past few days so for my own memories I'll just write what happened instead.

On Monday, after pretty much no sleep at all, we did a bit of shopping in a cool part of town with lots of vintage shops and boutiques, and of course stopped for the customary hot chocolates. We were feeling adventurous so then hired a pedal boat and canal biked through the city! It will surprise nobody to hear that we were totally rubbish at steering the thing, and avoiding death by canal boat was a constant struggle. At one stage we managed to get jammed under a long bridge, 90 degrees to the walls, with just inches in front of and behind us. Not sure how we managed that! Anyone who has seen the hilarious scene from Austin Powers where he does the same will be able to imagine what we looked like! Quite embarrassing :) In the evening we went to a meeting at the house of my friend Gil (who I met on my last trip here a couple of months ago) and then went out for a few drinks with his friends.

Yesterday we had a lovely morning, meeting with two of Lucy's friends before she hopped on a train to Paris for a couple of days. I then went for a coffee with Gil, and in the evening had a drink with an old Physics friend who has recently started working at the University of Amsterdam, which was really lovely.

Today I didn't do too much! I met with Gil again in the morning at his wonderful friend Sharon's house, and they taught me a few more of the principles of Nichiren Buddhism, which they both follow, and then chanted for an hour or so. Then I did a bit of shopping and had a very chilled out afternoon (a nap may have been involved). In the evening I decided to visit the Amsterdam Light Festival, but the thick fog meant that all I could see were vague coloured glowing balls in the sky! So you get a quick photo of the gigantic Christmas tree outside Centraal Station instead :)



PS: I've backblipped a couple of photos from the start of my trip!