Friday, October 21st. Day 55. Paris -> Amsterdam

Another early start to a long day of traveling. As there was, for some still unknown reason, a lot of people traveling to Amsterdam this weekend, I had to make two train changes, making the already lengthy journey a full day event. Anyway, leaving from Paris Noord at 11:50am, meant I was there at 10am to reserve my seat for the already booked train to Lille Flanders. Needless to say, there was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. But, once on the train, all was well. It was my first time on a high speed train, and it was quite entertaining (especially the businessman sitting next to me trying to speak French to me the whole time).

Once in Flanders, there was another hour+ long wait for my train to Antwerp. As such, I decided to have some lunch. There was a sandwich shop inside the station, where thy had a sign (in english) for a "classic italian" sandwich, with the usual cold cuts and cheese and such. Anyway, I went inside, pointed at the sign and said "I would like the classic italian sandwich, please". The man behind the counter either spoke absolutely no english at all, or was just being a jerk (after being in Paris for a few days, I would not doubt the latter). After some more awkward gesturing and such, I was handed a bag with my sandwich in it. I took it outside, took a bite, only to find a mouth full of nasty, disgusting, mushy, tuna. I. Hate. Tuna. So, not the best final memory of my trip in France, but what can you do?

The train to Antwerp was fairly uneventful, with about 20 stops at which a few people would get on, a few get off, etc. Somehow, we managed to get more than 10 minutes off of schedule (aren't trains notorious for being ontime?), so I missed my train to Amsterdam. Waiting yet another hour in the Antwerp station, there was a huge crowd assembling on the platform for the Amsterdam bound train. As that train was also more than 10 minutes late, even more people had time to gather. I knew I only had one chance, so I decided to use my huge hiking pack as a ram to muscle my way onto the already packed train. There were but two seats in the car I was on, and I managed to snag one. Oh yea, I'm pretty pro.

Another few hours on the train, and I was quite ready to be home. I mean Amsterdam. But that is kind of my home, right? Needless to say, I learned a lot about myself and society traveling over 4 countries in 7 days, and hopefully I can manage to apply those lessons to my daily life as I go forward with the last half of my time at CvA.