Amsterdam Day 2

Ok, today was a busy day for me.I slept in a little bit and then headed down to Dam Square to visit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.Unfortunately I was there about 9.15am and it didn't open until 10am so I had a look around at some of the souvenir shops around the place.There was a really good one that had all the stuff I wanted to buy so if there's nothing similar at the airport I might catch the train back in there when I have my 10 hour stopover in Amsterdam on my way home. I then went and waited at the wax museum and ended up second in line. YAY!! The museum was amazing. All the statues looked so real I'm so glad I went. I got photos of me with Robbie Williams, Elvis and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Very cool. Then I had a quick stop back at the hotel before heading back down to the Rijksmuseum to meet my Bike and Boat Tour group.

Mike was our guide (the owner) and there were about 20 of us in the group. First, Mike gave us a quick rundown of the history of Amsterdam before we headed down to the shed to pick up our bikes. I was so awkward and shaky when we first got on but by the end I was riding like a pro. It was a bit hard at times with all the cars and other bikes we had to avoid, and of course they drive on the right side of the road there so it was all a little scary. We went around the city for a bit, looking at canals and we had a look at some crooked houses (Amsterdam was built on a swamp and the houses were built on top of sandy foundations so the wooden beams the houses are made of begin to sink at uneven rates making the houses slanted). We also had a look at some coffee shops (for those that don't know, it's legal to smoke marijuana in Holland and there are shops where you can buy some and sit in there and smoke it). We then went out to see the Skinny Bridge and then further out past the warehouse district (now a residential area) and the back of the Artis Zoo (I saw zebras and got excited cos I'm going to see them in their real habitat soon). Then we went to see a windwill (very exciting, cos I didn't think I would get to see one while staying in the city). It was massive and pretty cool, there's a bar underneath as the windmill is a brewery now. Then we went out to the inlet of the harbour, beautiful to see the houses on the other side and all the boats in the water. After looking at that for a few minutes we rode out to an island in the harbour - mostly modern building with reallt interesting architecture. From there we headed back into the city to Dam Square (which I had already seen) and then into the Red Light District which was very interesting. For those that don't know prostitution is also legal in Holland and in the red light district there are women that stand in these windows lit up by a red light, in bikinis or lingerie and call out to men to buy some time with them. It's a very different world in there. Then we headed back towards the Rijksmuseum where we got on our canal boat and cruised around the canals for about an hour, drinking beer (I tried a Heinekin for the first time, not too bad actually, considering I don't like beer very much). We got back, went for a ride through Vondelpark, very pretty and luschious and green, and then back to the shop where we finished up. It took about 5 hours, all up. There was an Australian couple in the group, which was nice, and then most of the others were Americans.

After that I went back to the hotel, I was a bit sore after the bike ride, and then I headed out to dinner around 7.30pm. I went to this nice little mexican restaurant, very nice food, howver it took about 1 hour for the food to arrive (can be pretty boring when you're eating alone) and then home to bed for a relatively early night as I had to get up earlier in order to catch the train to the airport to make my flight.

I made it to the airport a little early, however I was unable to check myself in for the flight and after waiting about an hour in the check-in line, found out the plane was overbooked, but that was ok because it meant some economy passengers would be upgraded to business class. I hoped it would be me, but sadly it was not to be. The plane ride was long (8 hours) but I talked to the French gentleman next to me, who goes to Uganda like 4 times a year, so he was quite helpful. I watched tv most of the plane ride and finally saw "In the Land of Women" and the rest of "Night at the Museum". We arrived in Uganda about 8.15pm.

Uganda

The airport in Uganda is very different to any in the western world. You would straight off the plane onto the ground (not into a building as in most places) and then line up to show your passport and then you just collect your bag and go. There's no metal detectors or security screening of luggage or anything like that at all. I then went outside to find a taxi and got one straight away. The man was really nice and helpful telling me about the area and where we were and things like that. The roads are very dusty and there are stacks of cars on the road at any time (this was at 9pm at night) and there was also heaps of people wandering around. as I was looking around as we drove through, there was these little stalls or shops all over the place on the sides of the roads, and it looks like they were selling all kinds of things, food, clothes, everything. The people here do this weird thing when driving (on the left), they put their right hand indicator on to indicate they are still going straight ahead so cars coming in the other direction know that. The drivers are all crazy, they overtake on either side, just pull out etc. and it all seems to be acceptable behaviour. There are heaps of people out at night, more so I noticed outside Kampala than directly in the city (although there were a fair few out in the city as well). I arrived at my hotel about 9.45pm (it took about an hour to get here from the airport, even though it's only 35km, the roads mean it takes a while). The hotel is really nice, there's a restaurant here and everything. When I first walked in I noticed a mosquito net over the bed, which made me paranoid about mosquitoes, so I spent most of the night hiding under the net, scared some were going to get in.

This morning I slept in late and then went to find the internet to update my blog, check my mail etc. It's raining at the moment, although still quite hot (it was very hot when I arrived last night, especially compared to the weather in Amsterdam). I'm going to hang out in my room most of the day today and rest up before the tour starts tomorrow afternoon.

Ok, I might not have a chance to update this until the tour is over, but we'll see. Love and miss you all, Sarah.