Late observations from Amsterdam and traveling and the return to the reality of life.

The euphoria has gone, the business of doing day to day stuff is back, but my brain and my words and my thinking are not yet on the same wavelength. I came back to multiple responsibilities and demands, and worked non stop for several days. My sleep patterns are not yet normal. I was up to 1:00 a.m. last night. Can't get a rythym yet. I do absolutely love to travel, but my body does not adjust as quickly each time. Of course, it does not help that I go from 7:00 a.m. in the morning to midnight or later each day that I travel! LOL.. I am so afraid I will miss something and if I could figure out how to go without sleep I would.

Amsterdam grew on me this time. I had more time to sightsee. It is a quaint, antique town carved into sections by canals and filled with diversity. It is a city with thousands of houseboats and old buildings packed tightly together in small places, many of which lean precariously out to the street at an angle. Amsterdam 'bustles' with energy, with life and with people.

It has cafes in which you can walk in and purchase hashish and related items. Most of the resturants we passed had at least one person with their pet in their laps or sitting beside them. The walking lanes (kind of sidewalks) are very narrow and we, as a group, often had to walk single file. This makes for very interesting conversations! I could not get the hang of looking to the right and left for the 'thousands' of bikers coming at me from both directions, hundreds of people, tens of cars and several trams all passing at once. It was dizzying. Fortunately, I was with friends who kept pulling me back from the path of the bikers, hikers, cars, and trams. And I will have to tell you about my experiences in the Red Light District when I know you better!

Some of the discoordination I am experiencing today, I am sure, came from the long flight over and lack of sleep. I can't sleep on airplanes..so I usually go about 32-26 hours without sleep before I crash into my bed.


debra:)

Reflections on My Travel in Italy and Under the Tuscan Sun

This is not traveling, but is my reflection on the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun which I had been anxiously awaiting. I traveled in Italy a couple of summers ago and like Francis Mays and many others, fell in love with the country and the people. I saw the movie on Friday night a couple of weeks ago. It was not nearly as good as the book. In fact, they took extreme liberties with the story line for the movie.

Too bad PBS did not get the rights to this book. They would have honored the truth and told a love story about a house and the people who inhabited the world around this woman's house and life in Tuscany.

I later read the book on the plane on the way to Amsterdam. If I could write, I would want to write as Frances Mays does. It is poetic, people-centered, and objects are treated like people in her book. Very good description. Now I am ready to win the lottery and buy myself a house in Tuscany..

debra:)