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| Erin's Journal for 10-14-02 This morning we heard the rain before we even got out of bed. The day was so dark that our alarm at 7:45am seemed like a mistake! But we got up, packed and were at breakfast by the time they opened shortly after 9am. We quickly downed a few pieces of toast and a drink before hustling on our raincoats and packs to trek to the train station. As we left the hotel, the wind was driving the rain sideways to soak our legs and packs. Then when we turned on the main street toward the station, we were facing into the wind and got it full in the face for almost 2 km. I was glad I hadn't wasted time on a shower earlier! We were both soaked when we reached the station, and so were our packs. We jumped on the 10:05 to Antwerp, where we'd have to switch trains to go on to Amsterdam. I quickly typed out more journals to catch up with the past few days. Upon reaching Antwerp Central station, we realized that the transfer point to Amsterdam was actually at one of the outskirt stations, as Central was under construction! We boarded the same train we'd gotten off and rode back a stop, then waited an hour to find the train to Amsterdam. Finally we arrived, sometime around 2pm. It was ok though - we planned to use a hotel booking service, rather than walking around trying to find a place. When we got there, the hotel booker was pretty bored-looking, and told us about a special deal at the Best Western - $50 for a double at a 3 star hotel is pretty rare! But we could only have the room for 2 days, and we were leaving after 3. We figured we'd figure it out later, and booked the Best Western. We took the tram out to the hotel, which was really crowded and humid due to the rain. Finally we arrived, and found the hotel was trying to charge us more than we'd agreed to pay! We raised a little hell and they called the hotel booker, who had quoted us the wrong rate. Justly, the hotel told him to cover his mistake with his commission, so we stayed. This was a very nice stay for us, as it had a tv, private bath, and breakfast included! A bit of spoiling before heading on to my first 3rd world country. We went downstairs to try to arrange our next most important item - malaria pills! We should have started taking some a week before heading to Africa, but here we were, 3 days to go, and no pills yet! So through the hotel front desk (and a lot of tail-chasing by the confused new desk clerk), we finally managed to contact a doctor nearby who would write the prescription for us (for $30) and fax it to the nearest pharmacy. We then walked down there to see how much the drug would cost, and were shocked by the price. Lots of money! But it's life we're talking about, so we agreed to pay it and said we'd be back for the pills in the morning. Then we walked back to the main street and into the EasyEverything internet cafe for a few hours of much-needed web work. We finally had pictures and journals to put up! We spent almost 6 hours there, till almost 11pm, and missed the dinner hour. As we walked back, we searched for open restaurants but ended up at a fast-food pizza joint in the Red Light district. The food was lousy, but you take what you can get at that hour! Then we walked back to the hotel and crashed in our luxurious digs! |
| We lived it up for our last few days in Europe |