the trip was awesome, but exhausting. we walked everywhere and all day for a week and a half. when we first got to amsterdam there was a mishap with some boiling+ temp water and my hand and fingers were burned. thereafter followed encounters with rude dutch workmen and a really nice dutch doctor who, after bandaging me up, basically told me that i would feel better if i went out and smoked up. at amsterdam schiphol passport control the lady asked me if i spoke dutch and if i lived in italy. i was confused until i remembered this. the hotel in amsterdam was really cool and the city is beautiful and so laid-back. we saw the van gogh museum but not the rijksmuseum due to time constraints and construction. in london we hit a museum almost every day and had some delicious food at restaurants and homemade by brook and will. i got to know the admiral and kittybuns, brook and will’s roommates and learned that home design (particularly kitchens) in london is leaps and bounds ahead of anything i’ve seen in the states. i had a full english breakfast and saw the imperial war museum. we took a day trip to greenwich, had delicous pasties at goddard’s pie house, was the national maritime museum, climbed the hill to the royal observatory and stood on the prime meridian. eric and i went to a movie at the clapham theater – layer cake, a london gangster film that was really good – lots of twists and turns. i shopped in covent garden – bought a load of stuff at muji including a nice teapot and went to the tea house for some unique herbal teas and whole leaf teas. we ate at neal’s yard salad bar and i had some incredible vegan food including a chili-sort of stuff that i would’ve sworn had meat in it. we saw the graphic design and liebskind exhibits at the barbican and an exhibit about the history of optical illusions and the moving image at the hayward. tea every day all day in london and great architecture everywhere. i would love to live in either of these cities!