AMSTERDAM

Walking off the plane it seems that we have skipped forward a few months. We had buried our jackets at the bottom of our packs but we needed them right away. Apparently its Fall in Europe.

Neither of us slept on the flight over, even though we had three seats to ourselves. Chaulk that up to the excitement and anticipation of the unknown. Just to make things interesting, we conveniently forgot to get our India passport while in NYC - Praveen, I blame this entirely on you! So, in our semi-conscious state we thought it best to head directly to Da Haag in search of the Indian Embassy. Its amazing how much money you can spend so quickly on absolutely nothing. After 2 trams, a train and $100, we arrived at a street corner where a lovely Polenesean woman told us we were on the wrong side of town! After explaining that we were from NYC and there was no way we could be wrong she phoned a friend. Turns out the embassy was right donw the street. In an Amazing Race style, we followed directions to the embassy and were then redirected to the visa office (which by the way are in different buildings - of course). Finally a nice Dutch woman told us what we should have known before we left...it takes time to get a visa from India - at least a week. So, we strolled through the streets. Ironically, soon there after we had our first fight - at the entrance to the Peace Palace of all places! Luckily, as designed, we made our peace and had a drink to toast our adventures.

After much needed sleep we have decided to take up our Visa search with the Italians. The food is better there anyway!

Hedda - we cannot thank you enough for the apartment. The view is magnificent.

Amsterdam was wonderful and confusing at the same time. Which is probably what it is supposed to be. We easily walked every inch of the town just trying to find our way. Luckily they plop those outdoor cafe's and coffeeshops everywhere.

Our time in Amsterdam was spent mostly gearing up for the times to come. A transitional period so to speak. The journey has begun and its all just sinking in. Here are a couple more snippets...

(Just in case anyone was wondering, it takes less than 7 minutes to make a soft boil egg. We are not totally sure how many less but we will let you know when we get it right! We tried every day!)

-Alan and Mika