Quick email because we've only got a day in Amsterdam now. So we're started our crazy trip to the other side of the world and occasionally I actually remember this! We hitched from scunthorpe to Gent in about 13-14 hours crossing over the channel at dover to calais. We had lifts from Kathy ( a rebellious post lady), Kartuk (Dr), Selema (Meat man... dont buy meat from small shops in london!), Camilla and Sky (from germany and scotland, who took us a long curving way from above Dover to the ferries), Jules and Steve (rugged booze cruisers we propositioned outside the terminal) who kindly took us onto the ferry after a lot of banter. Finally we found Thomas and Sarah (coming from their honey moon!) after asking pretty much everyone we could for a lift on the ferry, kindly drove us all the way to Gent and gave us a bed for the night. That night we had a tour around Gent which is a really beautiful belgium city. They kept telling us it's alot more nicer than Bruges. We had a mini tour, french fries and a beer... and then happily went to bed after a very long day!

Yesterday we woke up to a continental breakfast, they were great hosts for non- couchsurfers, felt like old friends we were visiting. Harri and I went into the city for the morning looking for Belgium waffles :) I had squirty cream and Harri had chocolate- which ending up mostly all over his jumper, trousers and face! Then Thomas drove us out of town to a service station on the way to Antwerp-en. We quickly got picked up by Lynne, then a turkish man who didnt speak any English.. but soo friendly. We weren't sure where he was heading, but he got his satnav out to take us all the to amsterdam.. 3 hours away! We kindly refused and got out on the border of the netherlands. We didnt even have time for another peanut butter sandwich when we got our final hitch from Sandor and Marisol all the way to Amsterdam, with a detour to the Haag. We had a very informative chat about politics, the queen and coffee shops.

In Amsterdam we met our host Menno who took us to his friends apartment to sleep (ill take a pic before we leave). But very nicely decorated but no bathroom yet... so we went across the city to Neils, another friends to have a shower, but on the way of course Menno paid for(!) a Thai meal for all of us. After our showers we went and scoured the red light district looking for our favorite prostitutes. We found lots, but none worthy of investment. So we just came back to our comfy double bed while our host had to sleep on the couch as he'd lost the keys to his bike! Today we're gonna do it like the locals and rent a bike and cruise the mean biking lanes of amsterdam, before cooking something english for our hosts later!

Lots of exhausted love

Lauren and Harri

xxxxxx

written by  harripix on September 19, 2010 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: harripix's Travel Blog
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The time has come to vent some more travelling steam! In our last message we were planning some cycling in Amsterdam, which we did on a fairly eventless afternoon on Sunday. It was pretty cool just cruising the cobbled streets and scaring pedestrians with our bell.

That night, after some pancakes, we went with our host Menno, to what we only knew as a life drawing session. It was a local couchsurfers meeting, and was taking place in the "supper club", which had loads of white beds surrounding the center of what is usually a dance floor. There were DJs and a live jazz band playing, but we were then presented with a nude model and some drawing stuff! It was so surreal, a bit like a movie. Theres a pic on the group that shows some of our attempts at "capturing" the beauty!

We left 'dam the next day at lunch time, aiming for Maastricht, and had loads of trouble hitching out of the city at an official hitch-hiking spot. We should have guessed really when other hitchers had written stuff like 'This place is so shit, only jokers and assholes pass by' all over a sign nearby! We tried at a petrol station, and a guy took us just out of the city where we had to compete, against some guys hitching to Hamburg, for a lift. After 4 more lifts of zig-zagging the Netherlands, we were standing by the side of the road in Tilburg, in the dark, at half eight in the evening, pretty much resigned to sleeping beside the road. Then, like a miracle, this local guy Benny stopped for us, he was late for his sport lesson and wanted to help us out. Maastricht was still 120km away, but he drove us the whole way, out of his way, because he wanted to talk to us! It was amazing, and I don't think we could have met a nicer guy. He'd left his job and his family, about 5 years ago, just before he turned 40, to walk from his home, near Eindoven, to Santiago de Compostella, to "discover".

So we arrived in Maastricht, with some much needed salad waiting for us at our next host Chiel's place, which was definately a blast from studentville past! We had a sunny morning in Maastricht, which is really beautiful and chilled, and hitched to Cologne in 3 very easy lifts, which took us about 3 hours to get to our next host, Inga. We had some beers last night, but were definitely ready for our fold out bed when we got back! We´re planning a relaxed day today in the city, exploring the old town a bit in the sun :D

Lots of love!

Lauren + Harri

xxxxxxx

written by  harripix on September 22, 2010 from Koln, Germany
from the travel blog: harripix's Travel Blog
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