So I’m on the road again, and Amsterdam was an almost perfect place to start from; not too far from home, but a million miles away from reality. Met up with my uni buddies out there and just wandering around the town between bars we stumbled across sumo wrestlers, bunny girls, guys clad head to foot in neon and at one the point the pink panther… and they were all real! Had a nice afternoon lazing around in the vondelpark too, but other than that it was just bars and coffee shops before jumping on the next flight.
Now I’ve made it to Helsinki, which is hopefully going to be the coldest place on my trip! Had some snow yesterday while I was wandering around town, but it’s not been too bad. Went to Kiasma, the contemporary art gallery here, which was great! I’ve been before, and they always have really cool exhibitions on that don’t take themselves too seriously. My favourite thing there was probably a life size cardboard model of ALF, next to a miniature cylon. Hung out in there for a while anyway, and then in the evening went to karaoke with my friend Ed, who is currently in the final of the Ourvision talent contest over here. I think karaoke must be taken pretty seriously over here, because almost everyone in the bar was incredibly good – which I think misses the point of karaoke entirely! Anyway, it’s all good practice for Japan.
Ah yes, the trip! So after Amsterdam and Helsinki I’m off to South Korea later today, to hopefully meet up with some korean friends I met last time I was away. After that it’s Japan, where I might, just, maybe, get to see some cherry blossoms, then Sydney for a week, Tahiti for a week and then Easter Island for 10 days! That’s quite a long time to spend on Easter Island I guess, but I didn’t want to turn up for five days and have it rain the whole time. It could rain for 10 days of course, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen… Then from June I’ve got 3 months in South America, where I hope to improve my Spanish and see Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Should be fun!