I'M IN AMSTERDAMN!!

People always comment on the politeness of the British. And I am going to have to concur. A prime example was Yesturday night at the Rage Against The Machine Gig when I accidentally stood on a girls head, and then she appologised to me. Now to be fair I haven't stood on any ones head in Amsterdamn yet, but everyone seems very nice and helpful so far.

I think I'm going to class today as my first official day of travel. Mainly due to the fact that I have now left the country. The flight was only 40 minutes from Stansted and I landed in Amsterdamn about 7pm local time. The airport here is massive. I must have walked about a mile before I was actually in the arrivals lounge. Then I had to get from the airport to the centre of Amsterdamn. Luckily there is a train station under the airport and it was simple enough to get a ticket.







The train was pretty cool. It was a double decker, and like a child I had to sit on the top floor. I was surprised to find it had swingging glass doors, the surprise mainly came as it swung back and nearly hit me in the face

I Found the hostel with in couple of minutes and with no major difficulties. It was basically over the main road from the station. I managed to be nearly killed only twice when crossing the road (once by cyclist and the other by tram) which is actually an improvement on past visits. The hostel is pretty much what I expected. I'm shareing a room with 17 other people. This is the view from my bunk





After I'd checked in fully I thought I'd get to know the area a bit better so I want out for a bit of a walk and got a bag of frites (which seems to be the national dish). I had to get them with ketchup though, I couldn't face Mayo.












When I came back from my little adventure I got chatting with a group of Ausies (Paul, Domanique and Jamie). Strangely they had been to Leeds before, so they could unterstand my northern accent.... just, although they thought I was Irish at first.

We had a good laugh and accidentily insulted a couple of Americans, which was fun. After a quick escape we went for a walk round so the two girls could get some waffles and then went for a couple of drinks in the bar next door.

It's about 2am now and I'm knackerd so I'm gunna get some kip.

Night.

Ps John (the ausie) looks exactly like Cesar Milan (the dog whisper) but about 15 years younger.

Pps if anyone is interested in inter-railing, you can find loads of interesting and helpful information here - http://forum.interrail.net/

I'M IN FINSBURY PARK!!!

Yesturday when walking through London, I ended up in Leicester Square. Feeling a bit tired after a long days walking, I decided to have a bit of a sit down in the grassy/parky sort of area in the centre. It was really busy due to a Christian festival. It had foot washing, bible reading and a stage with some people singing and playing instruments. After a while a monk took to the stage with nothing but a bass guitar and a sampler and blasted out some tunes and poetry. He was the Scrubious Pip of the Christian world. Now this could have been the best live music act I saw in London whilst here, but no. Today I was in Finsbury Park watching RAGE AGAINT THE MACHINE.

First though I started my day with a quick trip to the national history museum (after a quick stop off for some Krispy Kremes)




I love that place and always find something of interest there





After my highbrow activities I shot off to finsbury park. But not before bumping into Yoko Ono outside Harrods and nipping in for a few more Krispy Kremes


I did actually make it to the RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE gig and it was awesome


The above pick makes it look a bit quiet. This is before any of the bands came on (my battery ran out straight away after that). There were 40,000 people there and it was a bit of a squeeze. It was hot an sweaty.

At gigs like this there are always cups of water (or the odd beer) been thrown about. This gig was no exception. Your instinct is to get annoyed when one hits you, but on a hot day like today it's a blessing in disguise to have the cold refreshing liquid hit your skin. Or it would be if it wasn't warm...... and piss!

On that note, I'm going for a shower.

Night.

Ps the gig raised over £130,000 for the charity Shelter. Very good.