Amsterdam, the Netherlands

After a nightmare trying to change my round-the-world ticket in Cairo, I managed to get a last-minute flight on KLM to Amsterdam. It turns out that I have a lot of friends here and six days were perfect to decompress from Egypt and transition to Europe.

Much of the time I stayed with a wonderful Dutch family that I met at the Israeli wedding: Eli, Anne, and the twins. We biked around town, watched the World Cup, took a boat ride through the canals, and hiked in the sand dunes beside the North Sea. Over the weekend I met up with Casey for the second time (See my November post: Singapore) and we enjoyed being "tourists." I also visited a few friends from the Netherlands with whom I traveled in Laos and Kenya. I feel very happy to be in familiar surroundings and am even enjoying Holland's rainy weather after dehydrating in the Middle East.

Tomorrow I fly to Madrid where I plan to catch a bus heading West to Salamanca. From there I'll cross into Portugal and work my way down the coast to meet David in Lisbon.