The Idea Oubliette

A Day in Amsterdam Taking a flight from Halifax to Prague, I was provided an opportunity to visit Amsterdam, seeing as I had a 12 hour layover there before the final leg of my voyage. It was a beautiful city and I'm glad I got the chance to see it. I arrived pretty early in the morning, on Christmas Day. My first stop was the Museumplein and the Rijksmuseum. It was very early, and so nothing was open at all. I took the time to walk around the Museumplein and some of the surrounding streets while I waited for everything to open. It was a nice walk and a comfortable 8°C, making for a nice change from the heat of the plane, terminal and bus. Ravens were cawing and pigeons tried to beg food off me. I didn't have any, so they were out of luck.

UPDATED! It seems almost certain that Sophie will be getting laid off at the beginning of next month. As such, my trip to the UK is nixed, unless I get some sort of windfall of cash. Layoff plans In order to cover expenses, and possibly have some money left over for the trip, I’ll be looking at getting a part-time job. With my constant headaches and the possibility of depression, I’d have to get something pretty stress free, and not in a noisy environment. I’m not entirely confident in my ability to show up to work every day. Our income would be significantly reduced, so a lot of what I make from a part-time job would go to bills and such. Part-time is definitely about the limit I could handle. Implications There will be no trip, as it stands. The primary implication is that I might not be able to buy my plane ticket. I think that’ll be the single biggest expense of my trip. Food is probably next, and I *was* a university student on a budget, so I know how to keep from oversp...

I have never had the pleasure of traveling to Europe before. In fact, I’ve never left the borders of North America, having only visited parts of Canada and the US. In June 2010, it seems that this is going to change; my father will be taking me to Belgium both to visit relatives and see the sights. Realizing how easy it would be to simply take some of that time to visit the United Kingdom gave me the idea to have a few tweetups with my UK tweeples, and of course, see the sights. My basic idea is to take a week of my European trip to travel through the UK. I’m planning to have stays in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh. There’ll be a plane trip from Halifax to London, then a train trip to Liverpool, followed by another train trip to Edinburgh, and finally a plane to Brussels to join my father in Belgium. I’m planning to get to London between the 10th and 12th of June, with a departure from Edinburgh between the 18th and 20th of the same month. How much time I spend in each city will d...