Once off the plane from Aqaba to Brussels, our first goal was to find a hostel. Unprepared as always, we quickly found a train to take us from Brussels airport to Brussels central. Unfortunately we somehow ended up in Leuven, which was completely the wrong way. Luckily, even though it was around 8pm at the time, the day was still bright as Brussels is so far north of the equator. Daylight usually lasts until 10.30pm, so once we had found the correct train and gone back to Brussels, we could still walk around to find a place to sleep in the daylight.
Totally unprepared, we consulted our Lonely Planet guide to find a hostel. We found one a couple of streets away, although I was shocked at the price jump from Jordan to Belgium - one dorm bed cost 19 Euros! After settling down and settling in, we went out to the courtyard and grabbed a beer with some other Aussies that were staying at the hostel. After a couple of hours of chatting, the other Aussies, who had been drinking beer for a considerably longer time period, starting getting rowdy while I was sleepy, so I went to bed.
Waking up the next morning, we realised that there was very little in Belgium that I wanted to see. Apart from a quick look at Bruges, I would rather just head straight for Holland. Skipping the Bruges expedition, we took a bus to Amsterdam instead (Eurolines, 16EUR).
I was very excited to see Amsterdam, and was not at all disappointed. Bec was a little bored as she had already been here, but I was rapt with the beautiful canal houses in the district we were staying. Sharpati Hostel is really nice, albeit a little cramped, and is incredibly cheap for a dorm bed (9.5EUR/night). The breakfasts provided are also great - bread with jam/nuttella/peanut butter and muesli with milk.
Holland seems to be a utopia. Everyone rides bicycles, and because of all the exercise they're getting, everyone's beautiful. They're all dressed very well, too, with leather jackets and leather boots the vogue. They even take picnics with their bicycles when it's sunny, while little children get toy bicycles to practise on. I heard somewhere that there are twice as many bicycles in Holland as there are people, and now I believe it!
The first night, Bec was tired so I went out to visit the Red Light District by myself. As a solitary man, many of the workers thought I was seriously looking for a purchase, so I heard lots of knocking and 'Hey, you'. It was really interesting to see, and well worth a look for anyone else in Amsterdam. The next day, we visited a canal house museum, which was a house furnished in the style of the 1800's. It was beautiful - I'd like to furnish my house like that one day. We spent three more days in Amsterdam, planning where to go next. Rebecca decided on going to Italy and Spain, as her money is running low, while I'm continuing on to Arnhem to visit a friend I met from my last travels.
On our last night in Amsterdam, it turned out to be a Dutch public holiday. Caught completely unawares, the price of dorm beds rocketed to 50-90 Euros for a single dorm bed. Luckily, we were able to find someone to host us for couchsurfing. However, he was a very old, strange man. He took a video of us talking and then showed us hundreds of videos of the other couchsurfers he had - all ~21 year old women, except for a couple of families. Afterwards, he asked us to pay for our stay, as he had been losing money couchsurfing. I think perhaps he should couchsurf less, although he seems to use it as a social tool, with little other outlet to meet new people.
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