DAY 1: Landed in Netherlands

(Amsterdam Aiport)

Travel day. Nine hour flight from Fort Laudy-Daudy, FL to Copenhagen, Denmark. Pleasant flight. Norwegian Air exceeded expectations. In light of the cheap ticket prices, I was anticipating a lower-end service in the vein of Spirit Air but that was not the case! Skip the LowFares+ option though. Save yourself the $70 it costs to reserve a seat, check your bag and get a meal. Simply reserve your seat at the airport, bring your bag on board and skip the crappy meal. It'll save you cash.

Copenhagen airport harbors some of the most spacious shitters I’ve ever encountered. The stalls were practically separate rooms. Entirely blocked off. Spacious. You could fart as loud as you wanted without blinking an eye; It's amazing.

(Copenhagen Airport Customs)

Anyway, Copenhagen was pleasant for the hour I was there. Then, it was onward to the connecting flight to Amsterdam! Amsterdam Airport is gorgeous and vast. I don’t know if its the biggest airport I’ve stepped foot in per se but it’s damn-near close.

Generally everyone speaks english very well. I definitely cheated by starting the trip in Netherlands. No one speaks Dutch, really. The language barrier is a non-issue here. Took a cab to where I’m staying and the driver offered some recommendations. Admitted to disliking Amsterdam a great deal. Said he wanted to settle down in Morocco. Even if you were born and raised in the most luxurious and exotic of locations in the world, it would still be a place that reminded you of growing pains… Even if the cannabis is legal.

The cab driver dropped me off at a quaint spot. Built by brick. Upon knocking I was greeted by Mitchell, a 2-year old lab that would bark for a couple minutes until eventually resting his head on the window frame, staring at me. I’m absolutely smitten with him. There’s a cat here too, who’s a sweetheart but like all cats, does her own thing. I’m staying with a truly wonderful family in Amstelveen, which is about 15 minutes outside of downtown Amsterdam, and they’ve been so accommodating. The host is a flm society lecturer who specializes in exploring Israeli documentaries in the center of Amsterdam. She has three adorable daughters, ages 9 to 14. They were incredibly shy upon first meeting but helpful and very sweet.

Something very interesting about Netherlands… It doesn’t fully transition into nighttime until about 10:30PM. So, twilight happens by about 8 or 9PM here. It’s bizarre. My host said the sun rises about 5am, so the sun is only down for about 6.5 hours at a time. Very interesting.

Didn’t do much today outside of walk around and explore Amstelveen though. Went grocery shopping, familiarized myself visually with the surrounding area… The host recommended some museums, particularly the Van Gogh Museum at the city center. I had my eyes set on the Anne Frank museum but I assured me there would be a line around the block for it, so we’ll see... I'll be researching and planning routes tonight before bed. Probably venture off into downtown Amsterdam for the day. I’ll attempt to be consistent with these blogs and complete one at the end of each night. Talk about what I saw and felt. Who I met. Provide photographs of some of these spots.

I'll try to update with a new entry each night. If you’re in Los Angeles, you’ll see a new entry from me by about 3 or 4pm and if you’re on the East coast, it’ll be about 5 or 6pm... Unless I'm out late... Til the next one…