Almost a month in!

Well, I imagined this trip to be traveling slow. I know I told everyone that's what my plans were but then again, I've never done this. It's been pretty fast the last week or so.

It was great to be in Hereford, England for more than a week. As mentioned before, my hosts, Jill and Sean were the best. 

Jill and I arrived in Amsterdam and loved it. Neither of us had been and both of us immediately fell in love. Our hostel was located just a bit out of the city center, but we didn't mind the walk. The hostel was clean, and we met some nice people from Glasgow and London. We weren't in the room much. That's the beauty of hosteling, most people staying in hostels are young and are never in the room. Jill and I meet half of that criteria.

I had read that there are more bicycles in Amsterdam than people. I believe it. EVERYONE bikes! Old people, young people, students, business professionals. At least they look like business people. People in Amsterdam have a very good sense of style. The Dutch are very attractive people. Jill and I commented on it multiple times.

Jill and I just walked everywhere. We didn't trust ourselves with the masses of bikers and the organized chaos. It did seem like the best way to get around. We did almost get run over a few times. 

The roads and canals there are arranged in a concentric sort of pattern. It is not grid-like, like in the states. We did get lost multiple times, but it was always fun. There are a ton of cafés, restaurants, clothing shops, and coffee houses. These aren't your normal coffee houses. These are more marijuana bars. We did walk in and "ask questions" as in how legal it was. It is completely legal to smoke weed pretty much anywhere. We were told there are signs with a joint on it and an "X" signifying it isn't cool to smoke there. We never saw any. I was hoping to find one to take a picture. We would go into a normal bar to have a beer and people were rolling up joints at the bar while having their beer. There were signs that said, "No hard drugs." You have to regulate some things, I guess.  

Speaking of regulation, it was interesting to walk through the Red Light District and glance over at what you think is someone's residence, and in it is a women in lingerie looking at you through an all-glass door sitting on a chair or standing and waving at you. None were attractive, except one. She had her door open so everyone could get a good look. She was very pretty. We never made it in that area at night, maybe the women get prettier as the night goes on.

The coffee in Amsterdam was delicious, and I am not that big of a coffee drinker. We did have some crepes, or pancakes as they call them, at a pancake house. I had the ham and cheese and enjoyed it very much. As far as Dutch food, that's all we pretty much ate. We discovered a noodle house called Wok to Walk, and loved it!!! We ate there three times. We even asked other people what they recommended, and it was recommended a few times. 

It was also interesting to see so many people smoking cigarettes. Even kids were smoking with their parents. When I say kids, I mean what looked to be 16 or older. Everyone rolls their own here, as well in the UK.  I guess it is a lot cheaper to smoke this way.

Our three days in Amsterdam were full of walking, drinking at neat pubs, taking boat rides and eating at cafes.  It was time to move on.  I hope to come back someday.  The Dutch are very friendly. I very much enjoyed it here.

Jill's and my first day in Amsterdam, we sat at the hostel when we checked in and decided to plan our next stop.  We looked up flights on this wonderful app I found called Skyscanner.  We looked at the cheapest flight out of Amsterdam after three days stay and found it to be Mallorca, Spain.  Neither of us new much about it so we did a little research and found it to be a nice island of Spain. We decided some warm weather and beach time was in order, so we booked it.

We arrived in Mallorca, and the weather was very tropical.  It was very nice in Amsterdam but it did get a bit chilly there at night. Not in Mallorca.  It was warm everyday.  I finally got to wear shorts. Since we didn't do that much research, we weren't sure exactly what to expect.  The area we were staying in was a hot spot for the Dutch and Germans.  There were a bunch of young German men walking around with beer and buckets of booze and chanting.  We saw this every day we were there.  We felt a bit out of place. I then learned that the Germans call Mallorca the 17th state of Germany since they travel there a lot. 

Our hostel was great. It was just a few blocks from a touristy beach. We ate delicious tapas from a place off the main strip,and walked around to check things out the first day. Our hostel reception guy, Ollie, recommended to go to a beach called Es Trenc. The Spanish spoken here can be very different than what I'm used to. I couldn't understand a lot of it. 

The next day we took a bus to Es Trenc. It was about an hour away. It was much less crazy than the one by our place. We were warned that people go topless at the beaches. We saw plenty. We even saw an older man completely disrobe and change into his swimsuit in front of everyone. Funny shit.

Jill and I had a couple of beers on the beach and sunbathed at the beach for a few hours and made sure we caught the last bus back into town. 

When we got back, we ate some delicious paella. I had the mixto, which has seafood and other meat. It was nice to try something new and local. After dinner we went shopping. I bought a regulation European swimsuit. It was not very comfortable. I did wear it to the beach the next day, and no, pictures will not be posted. We went back to the hostel and hung out with other hostelers. We met so many cool people. People from Finland, Holland, Germany, Bahamas, New Zealand and the US, of course. We went to karaoke and tried to sing. It was fun, regardless of the efforts. There were some pretty impressive locals crooning.

We met more Americans there than I had thought I would. It was great to see Americans traveling and representing America so well. Everyone was super nice. Off to Barcelona after some Spring Break type of fun at the beach. 

Barcelona was a great city as well. Jill and I walked miles and miles of the city and loved the cityscape. Beautiful building and architecture. We even took a boat ride to the beaches but weren't in much of a sit-on-the-beach mood. We stumbled upon a Boquerria, which is a food market. There was so much fruit, sweets, and savory things to eat. We were overwhelmed. Great place.

We didn't do much else. We just walked and watched. Our hostel was very hip but it was the loudest hostel I have ever been in. I would recommend The Generator hostel to people who just want to party in Barcelona. Tons of youngsters there for that. Jill and I were just not in the mood. We got no sleep in that place. And after walking for hours and hours, all we wanted to do was rest. 

We were leaving Barcelona yesterday and found it very difficult to obtain train tickets to the south of France. It is a very inefficient system. I had to take a ticket to purchase tickets for the next day and took a number. My number was called two hours later. We couldn't even buy the tickets to get to our final destination there at the station. Not cool. We had to buy tickets for the 7:20am train which means we wake up at 5:30am or so. Not a problem at that hostel. I slept about three hours in preparation for this France trip.

We get to Aix-en-Provence, France after seven hours of traveling. We then find out that there is a labor strike with the trains and with the Paris air traffic controllers that are affecting multiple fights. Jill has a flight in two days and we can't get out of Aix tomorrow because of the train strike. We were able to book a train for following day. Jill still doesn't know if she can get home and I don't know what I'm doing either. Oh well, keep in touch!

Be well!