Oh my this day has been frustrating. I had a later start than I wanted just because I had to wait for the post office to open. Once there, I needed more Dutch than I have to make myself understood, but eventually we got my kit and my books all packed up and ready to be mailed. I am not surprised, given the weight and the size of the thing, that it was expensive, but in fact it cost more to send these gifts home to Canada than it did to send me between two cities on the train. Ah well, it is done.
The train was to have been a simple affair, but somewhere along the way, the problems (I am assuming here) of yesterday's schedule seem to have carried over. So, We pulled over to the 'side of the track' and waited while two trains passed us. Then we carried on with all sorts of explanation but in the midst of it, I thought I understood that my train was going to be a half hour late. Not bad that, considering that I don't know Dutch. That was before we pulled over for somethign a second time. In the end, I missed my connecting train, which resulted in me needing two transfers instead of one, and the trip was an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to be.
That being said, I made it, and I'm proud of myself for doing so. So proud in fact that I looked at my map of Amsterdam on the train and forgot to pull it out for the actual walk to my hotel. You see, I have a compass now, so I wasn't supposed to get lost.
Except I did. I even knew why I was lost, thanks to the compass which said to me, "you're too far south and not far enough west". I found my street, and I recognized that I was only two blocks away from the mistake that I made last week doing the same thing. This is silly. There are SIGNS to Westerkerk, and my hotel is but a block away. It's sillier too to watch my little compass take me south, west, north...and yet, I barely felt the direction change. What a lesson for me.
Nonetheless, here I am. There is a delightful woman who is training at this hotel, and she checked me out last week, and in this week. I appreciated her smiling friendly face, for I am anxious to get back to familiar things.
And that will happen tomorrow when I fly home. My old home with my newer floors!
I can't wait :-)
I've lost my opportunity to go shopping today, which had been my original plan. I probably have about two hours of light left, so I am going to see what I can see, shop where I can and that will be that.
I'm taking the map AND the compass.
No comments:
Post a Comment