August 3, 2010
Even though I didn't wake up in time to say goodbye to Oskar and Rosa before they went to work, they both called me to say goodbye. It was sad to leave Reykjavik again, but I feel more confident than ever that I'll be back again someday, hopefully not TOO far in the future.
Eva drove me to Keflavik airport through the rain. The weather had been so good all along though. I'll be seeing her in Copenhagen in a week or so.
On the plane I watched "Date Night", which I had loved in the theatre, and 2 episodes of a reality show about Joi and Simmi, the founders of the Hamburger Factory in Reykjavik.
When I arrived in Copenhagen, I felt a slight dread at 1) traveling alone, and 2) being in a big city again. The connecting flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, although my blood sugar was (for what I later discovered was no good reason) running high.
When arriving a new city, I always assume that, especially if I have a map, I'll be able to either walk to take public transportation directly to my first destination, but this prediction is almost always inaccurate. It took me a good 15 minutes walking around the front of the train station just to find the tram I needed, EVEN THOUGH I ALREADY KNEW THE TRAM NUMBER. And then after I got off the stop, I walked up and down the street in the lightly drizzling rain, just trying to find the (prominently lit) Hotel Nadia.
I walked up a very long, narrow flight of stairs to the reception, which was surprisingly friendly, offered me a drink (soft drink), handed me my room key. My room at the Hotel Nadia was VERY SMALL (not quite as small as the ship cabin in Savonlinna), but smaller than the cabin in the woods at Ruunaa. Just enough room to squeeze through the door with my huge backpack, throw my stuff on the small bit of available floor, step over that, and plug my phone in to be charged.
As I often end up doing in a new city, I walked the streets for a long time looking for something to eat, and eventually settled on a kebab stand. I walked for a long time after that, it rained for part of it, I didn't meet anyone. The streets of Amsterdam are funny in that there are people everywhere, there's bars everywhere, nothing is empty, but no one place looked particularly "happening." I had a beer at Cafe Hoppe, which actually seemed like quite a nice bar, wood everywhere, on a busy square (Spui), recommended by the Lonely Planet, but there was hardly anyone there, so it was kind of boring.
Up and downthe canals, getting lost, using google maps on my phone to find the way back to the hotel.
Eat some of the licorice candy I bought in Iceland. Listen to a Planet Money podcast. Go to sleep
Ragnhildur Gísladóttir -- Fegurðardrottning
Joni Mitchell -- Carey
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