Trip to Amsterdam

This week has been an experience that I wish to share.

I’ve took nearly three days to travel out of the country, to Amsterdam. (thank goodness my partner works for the airline or none of this would be happening) I first flew to Minneapolis from my home in Kalispell, it seemed just to have a chance to watch the presidential debate. I say that because I don’t have a TV at home and a friend had recently got me caught up on the state of the union. Normally I stir clear of politics, because I understand how the world works so it drives me crazy and then I start to growl at TVs and talk to myself around the house like an angry crazy person. (Thank you my friend for this frustration. J )

            This first day ended in my last flight being canceled and I slept in the airport. It was pretty cool actually. They gave the lot of us on the flight mats to lay down on the floors to sleep or hang out. I don’t recommend it. But it was the neatest thing to watch the other passengers with their mats. Two women, who had just meet, put there mats together and shared the food and water they had between them. One middle aged couple was so sweet, the husband took six of those mats to make a thicker bed for them to sleep on and also used the mats to make walls for privacy. He built the shelter while she guarded their stuff. I saw one man put his mat under a desk and others build walls using the areas behind the payphones and chairs. One of the other passengers got stuck outside because he left the gate area to smoke and then got detained by TSA because his boarding pass wasn’t for the current day. And we had an older women who was having a hard time, and a nice men just started helping her, getting her drinks, checking on stuff for her. It was wonderful to see people come together like that. Four people even got together to rent a four and drive to their distention but there was no cars for rent going one way.

            After all this I realized that I forgot my passport at home. So I took the opportunity in the morning to fly back to Montana and to a quick hour and a half turn to come back to Minneapolis. My daughter met me with my passport and I was back on the plane to Minneapolis to meet my partner. It was only an hour after landing and we were on a plane to Amsterdam: land of cheese, weed and a red light district that is on the tourist stops.

Now on the third day we landed at the nicest airport I’ve ever been in and the first thing I wanted was to find a hotel and get a shower and a nap. (I don’t sleep well on planes.) Six hours later we woke up and went hunting for food and fell back to sleep. An eight to nine hour difference can mess you up.

The hotel room was nice and compact but small by US standards. This is common all over Europe and in Japan that I’ve noticed. We Americans like our space. It had a double bed, desk, hot water kettle (That I prefer over a coffee maker), and a flat screen TV. Some interesting differences to the typical room, no wash cloths, the shower has different hot and cold water controls that I still hadn’t completely figured out in 3 days, the soap and shampoo were in dispensers (no conditioner), tiny trash cans, and when you come in the door there is a slot that you put your room key that control the power to the lights. (I like that feature too.) 

So day 4, not only are we going site seeing but we have a homework that is due sometime before midnight my time at home, and I have no idea when that would be. But you don’t go somewhere like this and just hang out in the hotel. So we ventured and found a chip-less fish vender with very good fish. The man and his wife were very nice. The man who owned it teased us and promised the best fish I’d ever had. I would have to say it was close. I’d had amazing crab cakes in West Palm Beach and the nicest fish in a restaurant in Disney world. So I guess Florida is just a head of Amsterdam. I honestly expected more from Ireland and England, since they are big in the fish trade, too.

  

We rode the train to Central Station and took a tour ride on the canals and I had a lovely time with infants in front and behind me. They were sweet babies and the parents were having a great time with them. I played peek-a-boo with the little girl behind me who was fascinated with my red hair, playing/ tugging on it now and then. When the parent kept apologizing I explained I had four kids, so I have a tough head. I couldn’t help but smile as these young parents as they took lots of pictures with their I-pad of not just the sites, but the baby and them as a family. I think these new cameras that you can take pictures of yourself while seeing the picture is wonderful. It all made the hour ride memorable. 

We walked around the inner city to see a McDonald’s about every other block while close to the train station, there was also a BK, KFC and subway, and the many, many, Starbucks (I swear those places are like weeds, pop up everywhere and hard to get rid of). We also found a carnival, complete with haunted house, thrill rides, and cari-games. There were Dutch food venders and crane games were very popular. I was totally entranced by a ride that launched two people in a sphere in the air with bungee cords. I have pictures. It looked like they should have a chiropractor at the end of the ride.

There was also a swing ride that was a two-seater swing that lifted you about ten stories into the air. (maybe higher)

Something you see all over this city is bikes. Here there are more bikes then people. There are bike parking, bike garages and bike ferries. Public transportation is huge; Buses, light rail, subway, and the massive train system. I think it’s great. I didn’t come from a place with a large public transit system. My hometown stopped running regular buses more than ten years ago. But it isn’t hard to figure out, even without knowing the language. English is most places and if have some idea of the written word for where you are going you shouldn’t have to ask anyone, and if you do have to ask the people are nice. 

On the way back to the train station we found a medieval torture museum, and being a medievalist we had to go. There are two sex museums I want to go to as well. It was neat to see all the tools in person that I’d heard of and read about. It actually gave me a few ideas for different characters. It was four floors of devices and descriptions, and videos.

The rest of the night was homework, I mean till 5am. (or 10pm at night back home.) And then it was sleep. Let me tell you, there are some interesting programs on TV in the middle of the night in Amsterdam. I watched a lot of news and programming for schools to tape for classes.

We didn’t get out until 1ish on this 5^th day. I was back to our new favorite fish vender on this slightly cooler day, only maybe 9 Celsius. (I have no idea want that converts to but it was a little nippy.) The venders invited us to stand under the shelter to stay warm and I listened to them talk to people in four different languages. I’m totally impressed with the multi-cultural nature of this city/nation. Yesterday they teased my partner that he didn’t mention he was American as they spoke in Spanish to him.

We headed backed to city center by train and took the hop on hop off tour for the next two hours. Amsterdam fact: it is below sea level. Interesting since it is a port city and huge canal system. Accord to the tour guide, all the land you see is built there and built up. It is drained or pulled up from the bottom of the canal to be put there. It reminds me of Venice or Mexico City they are also constructed in this manner. 

When we finally decided where we wanted to go, it was 5pm and they were closed. There was a diamond factory with a tour and Anne Frank’s house where she hid during the war. We thought that we might try to come back in the morning before the plane but we will see. I still wanted to go through the red light district and the sex museums, you can see want is on my mind, but food was the next on the list. We went to a restaurant called Teasers, babes and beer. Much like Hooters crossed with the bar in the movie Coyote Ugly. It was loud but I liked the music and especially the uniforms of the girls. Blue sequined short short shorts, and tight sleeveless t-tops that showed off their breasts very well.

The best parts were when they played a song that I didn’t think was so known, a friend had just shown me the video a week before.

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE Lyrics English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFHshctPO9E&feature=related

            The other part of dinner was the show. As if we had completely walked in to Coyote Ugly, the girls started to dance on the bar. It was great. A cross between a pole dance and lap dance there on the bar. I loved how the men in the restaurant were dancing and flirting. It was fun to watch.

              

            After a long walk down the busy streets we picked up some sweet buns at the carnival and headed back to the hotel. The jet leg was still messing with us since it was morning at home and time for bed here. For example, 4pm here is 8am at home, so I’ve learned.

            We relaxed and showered, then hung out for the night. I do like the BBC programming. And a great note for thoses coming over is my TV discovery of the night. The Disney XD channel turned into the phone sex commercial channel after 1am. Graphic commercials too.  I couldn’t stop watching. The best was a live feed of a phone sex girl.

            Day 6 …. Well we slept in and just made breakfast while enjoying BBC kids shows. It was that or news for English teli. We didn’t head out till 2pm. My partner sleeping until it was time to go. The fish vender was closed when we got out, so we picked up fish and chips at the airport. Schiphol, the airport in Amsterdam, is lovely. It is bright, friendly and easy to navigate. There isn’t anything you can’t do inside the airport that you can’t do outside of the airport expect maybe get a prostitute, but I haven’t explored the whole airport yet. It just isn’t listed under on the map, unless it is under massage.

            We ate at a cute self-serve cafeteria style, Dutch restaurant that had a couple of themes. We sat in a huge tea cup in the mad hatter tea party area. I really liked that they still used really plates, dishes and silverware. Very environmentally friendly. They had these tiny pancakes, a Dutch traditional dessert, that are very good. I wish we could have got more, I thinking of finding a recipe. 

             My partner enjoyed that nearly everywhere we went they were playing 80’s music and reported that he could live comfortable, maybe on a houseboat on the canal, in Amsterdam because he would be surrounded by familiar music.

            Time to fly and on top off the time change, it is daylight saving time this weekend. International travel it a bit like syfi time traveling, and today I’m going back in time.

            On the plane ride I got to sit beside an older Asian couple, that the man video screen was pink the whole 8.5 hours of the trip. A nice man on my other side was issues with his controller for his video screen. And I sat behind a 7 year ago and his mother who was coming back from Rome where they were visiting Dad in the military. She hadn’t seen her husband since April and hoped to see him again by Easter. The boy was just eager to get home and not have to walk everywhere anymore. In the customs line I was getting to know a nice woman who was feeling singled out by security because of her cell phone. So I played interference so that she was more comfortable.

            One more night to go and I’ll be home again and things can get back to normal and I can get this book I’ve finished published.  

Some memorable people on the trip:

An old man “playing” a recorder on the sidewalk in Amsterdam. The thing was he wasn’t playing the instrument he was blowing into the record and running his fingers up and down the holes. My 4^th grader is learning in school so I’ve know a little about the subject.

There was a Scottish man in full regalia outside Central Station in Amsterdam playing the bag-pipes and chatting with people. It was neat.

 At Teasers, the barmaid in the video tended to dance a little hip wiggle, arms tight to the chest. She was very cute and reminded me of myself, at age 20 something and even today. Does it show my vanity that I find a girl who reminds me of me cute. (Hummm?)

Another street musician who had one of those hand crank music boxes. I’d never seen a person actual play one outside of cartoons. I full expected him to have a monkey pop out at any moment, but sadly no. The odd thing about him was that he had a handkerchief over his face the whole time I saw him.

At the hotel in Detroit, while we were checking in a couple who had just check in came back to the desk. They reported that someone was already in that room. There were shoes on the floor and clothes in the room. The woman of the couple told the front desk that she wasn’t going back to that room and they would have to come with her to the next one, checking it before she went in. She wasn’t rude or mean about it, she was worry and anxious. I found the housekeeping terrible, hair in the tub, no soap and I stopped looking after that.

On the plane from Detroit to Minneapolis, when we landed a man was nice enough to get everyone’s bags down from the overhead compartment. Very nice and not seen very often. 

            All and all I’m glad to have gone, I got some writing done and a new story started. I always like to travel. It gets me out of my routine and gives me ideas.

Dam Square across from the carnival.

The is center station in city center of Amsterdam

Angel page 6

            A glass flew across the room and Angelina turned them so it hit them in the back, shielding the youngest Sister, before it broke on the floor. Angelina tried to steady Amy, too, but her nervous sister dropped the water bowl and it broke on the floor.

            The younger sister looked wide-eyed at the water on the floor before she scurried off. “Stupid, you can’t do anything, can you?” the middle Sister yelled as she laughed. Both of the older girls shared very similar features, though the middle Sister was (less of a leader). It was impossible to tell if this was her nature or whether her siblings had crushed her budding independence early. To distinguish herself from her older siblings she once tried to lighten her hair to a brilliant blond color, but through accident or subtle sabotage her hair fell out and she spent the better part of two years perpetually in wigs. Both older sisters headed for Amy now and Amy backed up to the door to the hallway that lead to the back of the house.

            “I think,” the Middle Sister began, “our stupid cousin needs to sleep where all slow, filthy fools belong.”

            They weren’t really her cousins but that is how every one referred to them with respect to her. Amy was trying to get back out of the house, get back to work. “This will work,” Angelina whispered to Amy knowing they were about to throw them out.

            “Get her stuff,” the Eldest commanded her lady’s maid who quickly got the basket and a dress from the tiny scullery maid’s room and handed it to her mistress.

            The two older sisters grabbed Amy, their fingers digging into her tiny arms, and pulled her to the back door. There they took her outside and pushed her off the steps to land in the rubbish heap, then threw her one good dress and the basket out into the rubbish heap, too. “And don’t come back,” they cackled and grinned as they went back inside.

            Angelina sighed. “I hate parties, but at least they sent us away.” Angelina still didn’t know how they were going to be able to pay their debt this month and pay their rent here. She was starting to think they would have to move, so this was step in the right direction.

            Amy picked up the dress and scraped off some of the muck. “It will have to be washed now or the Matron will lash me.” Amy was all for the idea of moving and not telling anyone where they were, especially Nathaniel. She was still sore from him getting to them last night. And she knew Angelina was more than sore and this beating wasn’t going to help. 

book covers.

Angel page 5

Chapter 2 

Weeks had gone by and Amy hadn’t been back to the manor house. However, there was going to be an event the next night. Her three cousins, whom everyone called the Sisters, were very, very excited about it, which meant they were extra mean to Amy.

            “Hey, Dungheap-girl,” the eldest yelled at Amy and grabbed a riding crop, “where's my brush?” She waved the crop like a weapon, her medium dark blond hair slightly disheveled. All of the children of the Matron were born with blond hair with a trace of dark, which turned darker as they matured. She often rambled on about dying her hair black, but that color was reserved by her mother, and she would never dare to go directly against her mother’s decree.

            With several mighty swings she beat Amy across the back until the youngest Sister displayed the brush for her. The youngest daughter of the Matron had a rounder face and her hair had stayed mostly blond. Within her she harbored a kind soul which had slowly been burnt on the outside by the incessant, searing flames of her older siblings. The Eldest laughed, grabbed her youngest sibling by the arm and threw her at Amy, sending the girl hurling uncontrolled across the floor. But Angelina caught her before she was about to hit her head on the floor. The eldest Sister laughed again and began to beat them both.

            Taking advantage of a long backswing the youngest sister scooted off and the Eldest ceased her attacks and walked away, sitting down to play in her powders on dressing table.

            Amy got up slowly, and Angelina ached from the beating. She did her best to keep Amy from being hurt or feeling hurt. Amy quietly fetched the water bowl for the youngest sister, who was bleeding from several gashes on her arm. Amy was very scared of blood but she was more scared of being beaten again.

Angel page 4... adult content warning Graphic

“You have been delinquent in paying your debt to us, simple Amy,” the Matron causally reprimanded her. “You’ll need to start to pay more a month. We can’t be delinquent or it’s off to prison with you. Bad, stupid girls like you, die in prison, Amy.”

            “Yes, Matron,” Amy complied. She didn’t remember missing a payment. She was faithful every month but her Matron was never wrong and saying so would get her lashed.

            More a month was going to be hard. Angelina was distracted but would figure it out. She would think about it later, right now she had other concerns. Being delayed by the Matron, like this, always left her exposed. Angelina could normal blend at these parties and keep them out of the torment that came from being so exposed. She glanced at Dietrich dancing with the eldest sister but glancing back at her. She couldn’t think about him anymore tonight, she had other problems more pressing than him.

            Amy was finally given permission to leave by the Matron. She resisted the urge to bolt, to fly at the fastest speed possible. Such behavior would only get her called back and lectured more. Amy walked fast. A final glance at the new man and she was back on course. There was so much for the others to do, and all she had to do was …

            Pain shot through Amy’s wrist as an arm reached out of a darkened doorway. She jerked to a stop as a figure in an unlit side room pulled her towards it. In the last moment before being drawn into the room Angelina came forward and glanced desperately towards where she last saw Dietrich, but the eldest sister had danced him out of sight.

            Amy began to panic and Angelina’s attention turned back to the situation at hand. It was Nathaniel. Angelina held Amy close to steady her young sister as she began to tremble and silently cry. Once Nathaniel had them there was no escape, for if she ran he would catch her later and beat her worse before he raped her.

            Angelina fully replaced Amy when Nathaniel pulled them into the room. Angelina didn’t let Nathaniel do this to Amy if she could prevent it. As he forced her down he pushed her face hard into a chair so that she was bend and muffled. Angelina turned Amy away from this violence to endure yet another of Nathaniel’s violations of her body alone.

            “I needed a tasty treat,” he said loudly in her ear from behind her, “before my meal tonight.”

            Angelina felt numb and barely listened and she heard the buckle from his loosened belt strike against the wood of the chair. She felt his hands throwing her skirt aside. Angelina could only hope he would be quick as she pulled slightly away from her body so she didn’t have to feel everything he did so vividly, though she could still feel his hard phallus rip into her. She remained calm, accepting the torment, knowing that if she struggled it would only last longer and the pain would be more intense. She hadn’t struggled since a few weeks after this unending nightmare began.

            Nathaniel thrust roughly into her, pounding at her while he grabbed her long braid to secure her. He would take longer here, unlike when he attacked in the middle of the night, forcing her in the bed she had at the Sisters’ house in the city. She knew he would probably be at her again tonight after the party, then going to continue his delights in the pub in the city. When he was drunk and swaying he was harsher but quicker, collapsing on her into a passed-out heap when he released.

            Nathaniel relieved himself inside her, groaned a satisfied sigh and shoved her to the floor, where she laid and waited for him to leave so she could make her way out of the manor. 

Angel page 3

            “A what?” Amy said turning to follow the fast walking man along the side of the crowd. “He sure does walk fast. Why is he in such a hurry? Is this how fast they walk in the East?”

            “He’s on a mission,” Angelina said having no choice but go with Amy. Sharing a body had its problems, but Angelina couldn’t stop looking at the man. “Dietrich.” She said the man’s actual name only to Amy in their mind, as she had been speaking the whole of the time. Angelina didn’t like to talk out loud or to even make her presence known to the outside world.

            The two girls made it all the way to the gathered family, just before the Margrave, to stand in the back, to stand out of the way where they were suppose to stand. The Matron of the family introduced each of her own children, one son and three daughters, who bore striking resemblances to her except for the youngest girl who only had a slight resemblance. The Matron did not look old enough to have mature children like these, her dark wig and ample cosmetics expertly hiding her gray, wrinkles and blemishes.

            Once all the family had been introduced Amy was mentioned like less than a second thought. “And this plain-looking girl here, whom we have so charitably taken in, is Amy,” the Matron said and gave a slight gesture to Amy but didn’t even bother to glance at her.

            Angelina didn’t know why Dietrich was back. He was supposed to dead, yet it didn’t surprise her at all that no one here remembered or recognized him. They didn’t normal see people. With the introductions over Angelina could see that Dietrich was watching her now.

            The clustered group of the Family broke apart, drifting off to enjoy the party and one of the three daughters of the Matron took Dietrich by the arm and began to flirt with him. It turned Angelina’s stomach to think of Dietrich as one of the sisters’ new pets.

            “It’s too bad,” Amy whispered only to Angelina. “Maybe he won’t like them and go home. Is the East better than here?”

            “Anywhere is better than here,” Angelina said, watching him go. But there was no time to think about that now; they had to get back, to get back to work. They needed the money. 

            Amy turned to leave but an icy chill went through her as the Matron called her. She swiftly and quietly moved over to the Matron, curtseyed low and stayed that way, never looking the Matron in the face. The Matron not only had an authoritative voice but her eyes were a hazel color that quite often changed, a fact which terrified Amy.

Angel page 2

            Amy moved from the window to circle back around to the food. Amy was very good at moving around in the background, having been everyplace but not being seen. She was trying to eat as much as she could without being noticed. Amy especially liked the small, soft breads. Not only did they taste good but were easy to hide, both on her and from others seeing her get them. If the Family caught her eating she would be publicly scolded now and lashed later after being made to repay the cost of the stolen food. But Angelina made her eat anyway, made sure it wasn’t just bread and made sure she avoided anything that would make her ill. Amy always found meats and greens stashed in the pouch hidden beneath the bodice. The food from such a party would last them for days before having to worry about finding food again.

            “Eat this,” Angelina told Amy as she slipped a piece of food directly into Amy’s mouth. Amy didn’t resist. They only ate breads while at the gatherings, so that no one could smell any trace of food on their breath. Angelina took care of her even though she was only a simple, stupid thing.

She talked softly to Angelina about different aspects of the party and Angelina was making Amy giggle about them. They wandered to the entrance of the room, hoping to leave soon; they really had work to do, but they couldn’t leave until this new man in town had been introduced to the nobility by the Family. Amy had to stay until then so she, too, could be introduced as a ward of this family.

            “Maybe he came to his senses,” Angelina told Amy.

            “Maybe he’s lost,” Amy whispered back, watching the entrance.

            “Lost his mind, maybe,” Angelina quipped back and Amy softly giggled again as Angelina kept a watchful eye to the room.

            The herald came forth to make an announcement and they hoped it was this new man. “Margrave Bennu of the Eastern Realm,” the herald called out.

            “That’s odd,” Angelina mentioned. “There are no Margraves in the East.”

            “Maybe the herald heard him wrong,” Amy suggested, not wanting to think badly of anyone. She waited for Angelina’s reply and gazed at the man. She thought him handsome with shoulder length dark hair and a short beard that followed his jaw line. His skin was darker than the people around here but not as dark as she expected. “Angelina, is his skin dark enough to be a Margrave? Angelina?”

Angelina watched the new man walking in and Angelina froze. “It’s a ghost,” she told Amy. He was supposed to be dead, this Margrave. Angelina knew he was no Eastern Lord, he was a native to this very city. He was a man that her thoughts turned to nearly every day. This was the man she herself had killed and now he was back, risen from the dead like the name Bennu suggested, for bennu was the legendry phoenix of the East. Angelina was stunned. 

Angel

            Faintly in the distance she heard the church bell ring, a noise which more often than not gave Amy a twinge of despair, not hope. It was of no surprise that the noise of the Family's gathering obscured the church bell--almost everything else in this city was obscured and overshadowed by the Family's endeavors. Tina, for instance, should have been well on her way down to the docks, but instead was stuck here. Amy wasn’t sure where Tina was, but only Angelina was here right beside her. The two had been inseparable all this night.

            Amy glanced out a window to see the darkness settle upon the town. She hoped to spy the approaching carriage and the evening would begin to move to its end instead of the continuing, restless waiting. As the glass darkened her own reflection appeared. She was pleased with her presentable plain-ness. She was pretty enough to neither stand out above the opulence nor seem a miss-fitting, base creature amongst the cruelly beautiful. First off, her face was nicely rounded, not long. Second, her nose was also nicely rounded and not so sharply pointed, like her “relatives”.

            Amy glanced from the reflection back to the mass of bodies, squinting to make the details blur and the hard edges and tense faces melt. Each one of them feared the faux-pas that loomed in the desperate pauses.

            It was too late. The guest of honor had not arrived, not sent word, and everyone else felt like fodder for the gnashing teeth of the Family's fury. Amy felt sorry for them but Angelina felt nothing.

            Amy glanced back to her lone reflection. She felt too tall for her age, but she wasn’t gawky by any means. Her hair was in a tight, thick braid and even though she couldn't see in the reflection the rich, light and dark brown color, she knew it was there. She knew a few of things that others didn't see, like the silky scarf she had underneath her dress that tickled her when she walked a certain way.

But Angelina knew a lot, almost everything as far as Amy could tell. She knew how to braid hair and how to send Amy away to safety at the right time and how to stand up to bullies. Angelina also knew adult things that Amy didn’t, like the fact that the vast array of exotic food that was presented to the guests had come at the cost of servants being only given half their normal food for the week gone by and the week to come, and the fact that the excuse given them about the extravagant cost was a lie, for the procurer of the goods had never and would never leave the grounds to spend his salary. Angelina knew lots of things Amy didn’t.