Hup Holland Hup

After months of careful planning and building anticipation, it was with much enthusiasm that I set off with one sunhat (which I quickly lost at Melbourne airport), one pair of high heals and one wooden K to explore the far off lands of Europe. From bed bug hell in Moscow hostels to our room with French windows in Paris, from 6 squished travellers in a Lada in Lviv to Barb's convertible in Rosmalin From toilets that flush with a button, wave of the hand, vibe of your presence or not at all, and from Pork Knuckle in Prague to clocking up about 100 baguettes in Paris, we did, saw, tasted, danced and drunk it all!
After what seemed like a decade in cattle class hell which left me under slept, with the flu and no voice, I finally touched down in the flat land of bikes, canals and really big... cigarettes. I was absolutely stuffed after 2 days of no-sleep-flying, so it was all I could do to drag my sorry arse along with my heavy heavy back pack to the first bench I could find. It was there, between construction to the right of me, construction to the left and walking tourists all around, that I crashed out until Winks came a few hours later.


The Reunion! As soon as we met, we immediately found the first cheese shop and sat ourselves by a pretty lake to catch up Dutch style.


The best damn mode of transport in the world!!!


Space-Invader, the street artist has Europe covered. This is one of about 50 that we saw all over the continent.


We fell in love with this city very quickly and I started calling it 'My Amsterdam' by about day 2. A large majority of our time was spent sitting by canals like this one and taking in the serenity, scenery and smoke.... Ahhhhh bliss.


Cup fever means crazy Dutch nationalism oozes from every store and every pore in the country, and if you haven't got your own orange insults to fashion, here's where you can pick something up!


....and then you will blend in with these kids. Hup Holland Hup!!


...and you can decorate your streets like this:

Hangin with my Dutch pal Barb in S-Hertenbagoshc (or however one spells it)


Creative rubbish


There had to be at least one pic right....?!


If you look closely at this building, you'll see a cannon ball lodged in the wall that hit its target but didn't quite do what it was meant to do....