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I can sleep really very badly indeed, but after 5km on the bicycle, a litre of water and a far-too-large-to-be-healthy coffee I can feel fine.

Melissa of partying in Brussels fame got back to me with this piece of delight:

Click it to download the video (quicktime). DO IT!

Finally. I only uploaded a small(ish) selection of reasonably unboring ones.

See them here.

But, alas, only really covers half of the trip as per the unfortunate camera loss in Brussels.

I’m easing myself back into the mundane now. Listening to Triple J and getting all my washing out of the way before I fly out tomorrow.

So I finally did make it to a (proper) beach and go swimming. I never imagined that it would be in (ok, near) Amsterdam. Zandvoort a Zee, bout a 30 minute train from Amsterdam Centraal. It was wicked! Lots of nice sand, water a bearable temperature and perrfect weather. Even managed a little bit of sunburn. Never in my life have I seen such a packed beach, it was people as far as the eye could see in both directions. I guess it’s a reasonably easy drive for much of Holland’s 16 million and I’m pretty sure most of them decided to join me on Monday ;-)

Ironic that in the red light district all the girls have to be clothed to a reasonable degree while at the beach there are no such encumberances.

Amsterdam is a really beautiful city and I look forward to going back there sometime to do it properly; 2 days isn’t sufficient. I didn’t see enough windmills for starters! Would need a bicycle and a ride out of town to see some more I expect.

Was quite trippy moving through Amsterdam, Brussels and London in one day. Watching the scenery change along the train route really accentuates just how close these different cultures are to eachother. Having the train stop (due to congestion) while in the Channel Tunnel (i.e. while well under the ocean) was also memorable. If a little boring.

So James threw this crazy guy’s site in my direction. Makes my attempt at an epic bike adventure look rather pitiful; he’s riding from Chennai (India) to Charing Cross (a London tube station!). What a freak! Not that I’m jealous you understand ;-) Knew I should have taken a BMW instead…

That’s all really. I’ll be back to reality after long flight to Melbourne. Looking forward to seeing you all!

Found a very nice spot devoid of tourists.

It’s seriously warm here. I need sandles.

(back at the hostel now)

Ahh more Linux goodness; this one is definitely Gnome, Lucas ;-) Which one did I like again? I can’t remember.

I’ve had the Jet song “Move On” in my head for a few days now. Mainly because it’s almost time to go home and I have quite a few train trips behind and ahead of me. I think the lyrics sum up my mindset quite well. I tried unsuccessfully to buy the album yesterday so we could crack it out at the hostel for my last night in Brussels. Luckily a German girl had a Powderfinger CD so that did the job instead.

Was a bit sad this morning at about 1am when I called it a night. It would have been very, very easy to spend my last two nights in Brussels; that hostel had possibly the most enjoyable party atmosphere of any I’d been to, and I’d made a few good, fun friends by the time I left. But “Yeah, gonna have to move on, before we meet again” and after breathing fire (photos to come!) I loped off to bed for the early train to Amsterdam.

And so we did. I ran into a guy I met in Brussels and have already covered quite a lot of ground in this – rather small – city. Had to get an early train (ok, 9:41am) because hostels here fill up very quickly and they don’t take reservations this late.

This hostel is actually a bit different to most, probably because right now I’m surround by some hella stoned people. (Yes believe it or not they’re not usually like that) Funny how people come here and spend their entire time being – for all intents and purposes – asleep.

Dunno what the plan is for tonight, but it’s not cooling down quickly so it’ll very likely be a late one.