Mom, I need more money.

For those of you who are not yet aware, I am travelling through Europe over the course of the summer. I bought a one-way ticket to Amsterdam and that's it. I'd like to think I'm going to make it 3 months but my mom seems to think I'm going to run out of money in two...a likely possibility.

This whole journey began with a flight to Toronto on which I was presented a snack bag of corn chips marked "maized and confused" at which point I knew I was off to a very good start. I spent my 10 hour layover there wandering around and trying to stay awake based on the notion that I would be sitting for five hours on the way to Iceland (which is brown not green, but also didn't have any exploding volcanos so I'll take what I can get).

A million hours later I finally made it to Amsterdam and began calculating how much I was spending, minus the two bagels, three coffees and Chinois chicken salad I managed to eat in the Toronto airport. I hopped on a train and thought I was doing pretty well considering I had no idea what I was doing but then I got completely lost on my way to the hostel and even more lost after I had found it.  Eventually I figured my ish out and walked to get a caffe and a tosti.

This morning when I woke up I went to breakfast and then walked to the Van Gogh Museum followed by the Rijksmuseum (Dutch people feel it's necessary to place random "j's" in the middle of their words). By the end of the two I was up to my eyeballs in art and decided to have a cafe and a baguette sandwich (prociutto with ricotta, salad, and sundried tomatoes...i died) in the plaza. After that I walked back to the hostel and met up with two new friends I had made and we spent the afternoon in Vondelpark.

Eventually I made my way to the main strip where I split from my group and stopped into a local grocery for dinner goodies. The guy working was my age and let me taste all kinds of noshies before I decided on a mini baguette, dutch cheese (his gift to me), salami...all for a sandwich and an apple strudel. The food is so good it's hard to pick. I munched, I napped, I'm staying in tonight to read some magazines and I'll keep everyone posted for when I venture into the redlight district etc etc.