The flight itself was uneventful but upon arriving at the Amsterdam airport the airlines were unable to produce Toddo,s baggage. Various theories were put forth as to what had happened to it but we all agreed upon the hypothesis that after the drug sniffing dogs that plied the airport were rendered comatose by the foul smell of Todd’s dirty laundry the airport baggage handlers had erroneously assumed that someone was illegally shipping toxic waste into the country and summarily ordered his bags destroyed. Either that or they had just plain lost it. After about an hour of waiting his bag appeared and we took the train into town.

Our next task was to find a cheap place to crash and our trusty Lonely Planet guide provided the answer. We would be staying in a hostel that was a former orphanage. We took a trolley to the aforementioned hostel all the while being subjected to a very drunk local rider extol the virtues of America and Americans. We checked into the hostel and then headed out for a tasty dinner at a local Italian eatery where I enjoyed a massive calzone.

This is Todd

I woke up this morning in a slight fog from the night before, and a sore back from spending the last couple of nights on the floor. All was worth it. When hanging out with Nick, there is always adventure on the horizon.

Today we left London. Although we had cherished our time in England, Amsterdam provided quite a different beck and call. The team had split two days previous as Doug and Jeff had left to spend time at a friend’s house, and save a little dough on lodging. We had been in communication and we all had decided to meet at the airport.

We showered up and checked out of the hotel. There were five of us and Russ was figuring out the most economical way for the crew to get to the airport (generally cabs only take four people). He called a cab, and for a few extra pounds convinced the guy to take all of us straight away. All the bags lay in the lobby when the cabby arrived. However, as we were not used to being on someone else’s clock, the group was not in one central location. I took it upon myself to load the bags as Russ assembled the troops. Soon the cab was packed and the team squeezed in: off to the airport.

Our taxi driver was from Jamaica. We cruised through the streets of London to the sounds of Bob Marley, wondering if our cab driver was for real. He was enchanted by the fact that we were all from California, especially, because in his opinion, California was the Mecca for the best ganga in the world.

As we neared the outskirts of London the distance between buildings increased and the traffic became less dense. Our cab driver commented on the scenery and told us that his friend was pulled out of the river that we had just crossed. Apparently his friend had been stabbed and dumped there. We all looked uneasily at each other, but at least there were five of us. After we arrived safely at the airport we were relieved to be there, yet were excited to have had him as a cabbie. He was fun and friendly, as well as unforgettable. We arrived early enough to catch our flight, but without much time to spare. We unloaded the bags and entered the airport.

We regrouped just inside the front door. Nick asked me if I had the video camera and I said no. Everyone began searching through the pile of luggage only to come up empty. Russ having the presence of mind ran outside just as the taxi drove away. After the taxi drove away Russ quickly got on the horn to call the taxicab company. If we were lucky they could call him on the radio and send him back before he got too far. Our plane was leaving in less than an hour so Chanda and Gina went to the ticket counter to check us in. Russ was able to get in touch with the cab company and they said they would radio him. At that point I went outside to look for the cab. Although we were optimists the cab ride was too funky to have any good ideas of whether the cabbie would return or not. After everything was done that could possibly be down, we played the blame game until we were too mad to hang out with each other.

We waited and waited and sure enough the cabbie returned with our camera. We tipped him with grateful hearts and hustled to the gate where we were to meet our plane. Unfortunately the plane had already departed. We rescheduled our flight and figured that Jeff and Doug would have an educated guess of what happened. As luck would have it the next flight departed only an hour later then our original so things were all good again.

We made it into Amsterdam without too much trouble and met Jeff and Doug at the gate. We went to get our luggage, but unfortunately it didn't arrive with same ease as we had. After scrambling and foraging through several different baggage claims all bags but my own had been found. To make matters worse the airline didn't even have any record of my luggage evening being on any plane. The airlines promised to return it as soon as they located it. I just figured that we were almost home and there wasn’t much I could do at this point. So we left the address of the hostel in which we were staying and departed.

The good thing was that since I didn’t have any luggage I didn’t have to carry anything. Russ soon remedied this problem with a game he bought back in Germany. It was a large Nine Men's Morris game that he bought as a Christmas present for Gina. Unfortunately this game was just large enough to be really inconvenient. Therefore it was dubbed the game of inconvenience, and I became the proprietor.

Being generally annoyed with the day’s events I walked behind the group and didn't participate in the finding of our way. I figured we were now seven people and I certainly didn't need to add to the confusion. We boarded a train and took it to the city center. From there we squeezed onto a trolley that we rode to our hotel. On the trolley we met an interesting fellow from Turkey. He seemed nice enough, but soon we learned he was a bit on the crazy side. I talked and talked and talked and talked. He talked loader than any American that I have ever run into and he talked fast. He talked of America and Jerry Springer (a name that chased us all around the world). I can't remember what else he talked about as I quickly tuned him out.

We were all thankful to arrive at our stop. We exited the trolley and looked at each other wondering what way to go. Luckily there was a very nice Dutch Gentleman that noticed our confusion and offered to help. He walked us most of the way to our hotel. Finally when we were in site of the building he pointed to where we were to go and departed. Throughout our trip we have met a lot of really helpful people. I hope to return the favor to travelers in my own country. It is just so nice when people take the time out of their day to help other people. It makes the world seem much more like a community.

Our hostel was a converted orphanage it was really neat. Doug, Jeff and my room was two stories, I slept upstairs in the loft. After checking and trying out the firmness of our beds we were soon off again. Dinner was on the agenda as well as some possible after dinner Amsterdam recreation....