Schiphol and Amsterdam story #1

From Sunday, 3-23 (I wrote this in my journal before writing it here):

I’ve never considered myself the type of writer that people would read, not to mention actually find funny. Yet, when you’re sitting in a FREEZING train station for 7 hours, you have little more to do. Yes, we tried going into Amsterdamproper this morning, but that was a bust. We got on the train ok, left Centraal Station and started to freeze. Of course, we put our luggage in storage, so we didn’t have access to our coats and Brother Bee was in shorts. So we walked about 6 blocks to the Dam (a square) where the palace of the current royalty lives. There is also a WWII momument in the Dam. But it was cold! So, we decided to find a place to eat something. This turned out to be a little bakery called Delifrance. We ate apple tart and some croissant thing with berries and cream. But the second I sat down, I started to feel jetlag and I’m exhausted. I think as I wrote this note in my journal, I had been up about 24 straight hours. All energz to actually do something has left me. Only the cold and fear of missing our train is keeping me up. (this was the low point of the trip) Maybe this $8 mocha has something to do with it. Culture shock? Not really, money shock? Totally. I mean, I knew it would be expensive, but this is nuts. We’ll see how two weeks goes! Also odd is the sensation that everyone looks Anglo or English-European, but I can’t understand them. This is an amaying phenomenom. One last word- boots. BIG in Amsterdam. From ankle boots to knee highs, the are B-I-G.