Kyle and I (Nate B.) have headed out on our first leg of the journey through to Uganda. We took a redeye flight into Amsterdam, our first destination. The flight was quite good, though the movie quite bad (Alice in Wonderland). These new planes are so cool. We had movies, TV and games on demand with a controller right in the seat. Anyways...we got into Schipol and took a quick train into Amsterdam Centraal. We couldn't have asked for better weather; sunny but with a nice breeze.
We strolled around the city center, stopping to check out the infamous Redlight District and getting to see where I stayed when I studied in Amsterdam. We got to see much of the city, including the beautiful canals that I missed so much. Most importantly we stoopped and got stroopwaffles, this delicious treat that you can only get in A'dam. It was what I lived off of for those five months. Kyle wanted to see the Van Goh museum, so we stopped in and saw some amazing paintings. I had forgotten how beautiful that museum was.
After tiring ourselves out walking around the city and seeing the sights and sounds, we found ourselves in Vondle Park, one of my favorite places in the city. We stopped at a cafe and enjoyed some lunch before exploring around the city some more. We stumbled across Anne Frank House and the Homomonument, a memorial for the gays killed in the Holocaust. By this time our jet lag was kicking in and we winded our way back through the canals of the old city up to the train station, back to the airport.
Another redeye was in store for us and we touched down Egypt after I got through the boring part of the Girl with Dragon Tattoo. Egypt is a crazy, hot mess and something so amazing that I can't even put it into words. The traffic is just short of killer and crossing road is like a game of Frogger, as Kyle pointed out as we were running for our lives. The hotel is amazing (City View Hotel) and the staff are so abnormally nice and helpful that it has been kinda creeping me out a little bit.
After a long morning nap to shake off the jetlag, we wandered around the hotel, taking in the busy cityscapes (a far cry from the order and layed back pace of the Netherlands). We found ourselves in front of the National Museum and decided to take a quick tour around inside. The place was enormous and filled to the brim with tomb artifacts, engravings and mummies. It was pretty awe-inspiring, really. To think that we touched some of the rocks and things that were around hundreds of years BC. The museum is right along the Nile and we stopped by to snap a few pictures of the end of the Nile, expecting to get complimentary pictures of the start of the Nile when we finally make it through to Uganda. We topped off the day with a delicious dinner at the hotel ($11 for a huge feast for both of us!) and are resting up for the night to shake the rest of the jetlag still bothering us.
Tomorrow we have a big day ahead of us. We are traveling on a personal tour to the Giza and the pyramids. It will be a whole day affair and I'm just chomping at the bit to get out there and see things. It's been an emotional rollercoaster coming through three continents in three days, seeing my old home in Amsterdam and finally plopping ourselves down into hotel on the Nile. I can't wait to post some pictures to go along with his post and write more about our crazy adventures! Until then, ciao.
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