AMSTERDAM. 22nd-23rd September

Arriving in Amsterdam. After an unremarkable trip, arrive at Central Station just after 7pm.
The hostel had said to get a 1, 2, or 5 tram, get out at Leidesplein, and 'walk across the park'. There are 4 tram stops outside, with indicator boards like those new tramstops in Collins Street,
and I wait for about 15 minutes, and then need to go to the 'loo, and then stop by a supermarket, and come back, and none of the required trams are arriving. Ask someone, and it turns out the other trams are 'round the corner'. A lot of Amsterdam trams are 'double' ones, and have a (usually jovial) conductor on board, in a cubicle at the back, where you can buy tickets. An indicator tells you each stop that's coming up, plus a recording tells you, so it's pretty easy to get around. Luckily I have worked out from Lonely Planet that the park is Vondel Park. Vondel (pronounced 'fondle') is Holland's equivalent to Shakespeare. The park is actually over a canal and to the left a bit, and I have to ask a couple of times. It's just getting dark, and the park contains quite a few spaced-out looking people, either sitting on benches, or lying on the grass. I had imagined I would have to walk the length of the park (which I later discover is a couple of kilometres long), but fortunately notice some lights on my right after a couple of hundred metres, which is the hostel. After settling in, I check out the hostel's internet, which is 5 euros an hour, and after asking, get directed to an internet cafe, where it's $2-50 euro an hour.

Although I've shaken off the 'flu in quick time, it's left me with a badly-swollen and painful gland on the left side of my neck, plus occasional headaches, and at this stage I don't know if it's that or something more sinister, so I decide to take it a bit easy for a couple of days, before letting myself loose on Amsterdam. The following morning I wander over to the internet cafe, but you can't upload photos onto a blog there, as the system is unprotected in some way and the whole system could crash, so, as that's what I want to do next, I drift down nearby Leidestraat to check out a place listed in Lonely Planet, but it's closed down. So I ask again at the hostel, and get directed a kilometre or so down Overroom, a big street near the hostel, but away from the tourist routes. So you see, blogspots, what lengths I go to, to keep you informed. Fortuitously, I come upon a great little laundry, run by a Sikh man, which has internet terminals, 2 euro an hour.