Amsterdam!

What an amazing and terrifying experience, definitely waaaaay out of my comfort zone. It felt very different from my joburg solo trip...there, I arranged to be picked up and dropped off at the airport and then only explored with people I met at my hostel. Here, I was on my own.  

And I definitely made mistakes left and right. But I made it back to the airport in one piece, probably only a few gray hairs worse for wear.  First off, ams airport gives 2 free 30 minute sessions of Internet.... Not 60 minutes total of signing in and out. Oops. Only used 3 minutes of my first session. Couldn't find Amanda so decided to venture out after looking up and loading a bunch of pages on the ol' iPad. Stored luggage, spent 40 minutes at the tourist center, exchanged money (commission!?!?!) and off to the bus. Easy peasy. Then tried to find some Internet, found some at this cute cafe.  Talk about a lot of bikes amsterdam!! And I thought Minneapolis was bike friendly. Anywho, it was lovely to take a long lunch in the sun looking out the window, people-watching.  Remember to tell abhijit and Derek about the pulley furniture business! Reluctantly left Internet and cafe to go exploring (gross dependence). Got way lost trying to find canal for 1pm tour so I relaxed at the big green park with the I am amsterdam sign and modern art. Waaaay cool. And refreshing to absorb some rays and people-watch. Decided at last to venture out to find the canal with my map. Got em! Had to wait an hour for next boat so went and took a nap in the grass in what is apparently the second largest park in the world...like 182 acres (thanks Zeb!).  Soooo nice. Then off on my boat tour! Such pretty architecture and so much interesting history.  It also really helped with my layout of the city.  Too bad I got hit with a strong bout o' jet lag! Bedtime for charise.  

Now that was a challenge. I forgot to ask if I took the same bus back, and when I looked it up, it had me going on the tram and transferring.  No thank you.  So just kinda walked around until I finally got frustrated and asked the hotel across from bus stop.  ALWAYS ask hotels for directions, esp to airports. Believe me, they know, they speak English, and are more than helpful.  Met this guy Jason (oranzaab?) looking for the airport too.  Real outgoing and even a bigger traveler than me.  32 countries at age 23!!? Nuts.  

Well I made it back. Got a ticket and everything. Not sure how I feel about ams airport. But at least I'm off to Kenya in 2 hours!!!!

Travel has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  My first flight was when I was just an infant, and I haven't been able to stop since!  While I've only been to 12 countries, I've traveled around the U.S. more times than most people would in a lifetime.  Countless flight delays, missed flights, and improvised flight itineraries has made me the woman I am today.  And I wouldn't trade in a single one of those hours for the world.

I've been trying to figure out recently how I'm going to sustain my traveling passion since my Delta flying benefits will run out next May when I'm no longer a full-time student.  I've come up with a few options (some are better than others, and far more feasible lol).

1.  Work part-time, maybe as a TSA for Delta (or anyone that would hire me)
2. Somehow convince Kip to switch me to being his primary flying companion
3. Airport beautification proposal: connect the nation's ugliest airports (or if I'm feeling ambitious, the world's ugliest ones) with local craft artists I've met at markets during my travels.  Not only will this make me valuable enough to airports that I would probably be hooked up with flight benefits, but it also supports small-scale business in the underprivileged communities that I've visited.
4. I was reading an old National Geographic Traveler magazine, and I stumbled across an article called "The Perfect Airport."  It detailed several airports across the world that excelled in a certain area of interest.  And I thought to myself, maybe I could do something similar.  With all of the airports I've traveled to, I could offer valuable advice on where to go, what to eat, and what to see.  I'd be able to connect travelers with essential info (that is, if my blog got widely read).  This would be great if I could develop it into a navigable database where people can do a quick search of an airport before they fly, and find all of the necessary info.  Because I know how confusing airports can be, especially for infrequent travelers.  (Something like this would be SOO good for airports like La Guardia that make you switch terminals for connections sometimes, and have to take a shuttle that is not clearly marked...yeah, that was a fun trip!).
5.  If all else fails, I could write a book called "What NOT to do when you travel" and share some of my travel nightmares.  And believe me, I have plenty!

Hopefully, I won't accumulate any more for my next destination.....KENYA!!

"In my experience, the more you see the world, the more you want to do something about its needs."

-Steve Brock