Amsterdamn it!

Hello everyone. I hope that your March is going splendidly.  Perhaps you are also wondering where spring is. I should be nearing Perigueux right now, but alas, I am sitting in a McDonalds (for the free wifi, that's all, I promise) in Amsterdam, while Belgium and Paris are being "crippled" by snow. I don't want to pass judgment because I am not sure exactly how bad it is there, but I'm going to judge anyway. I feel that if I acknowledge my judgement in advance, it absolves me from guilt or shame and you can't judge me for judging. Got it?

Anyway, based on my previous experience with  "snow" in Europe, I'm going to go ahead and call them wimps. Perigueux got about 3/4 inch of slush/snow in January and public transport and many schools were canceled. Later that week, I went to London where they got 2 inches of slush/snow, which caused Heathrow to essentially shut down and Kristin nearly didn't make it from Switzerland. I watched the news that evening, and the BBC devoted HOURS to snow coverage. For a couple of inches. I know Wisconsin weather is not normal, but I still can't help but wonder why mild snowfalls are catastrophic.

Last night, I was scheduled to take the overnight bus from Amsterdam to Paris, and then catch an early afternoon train from Paris to Perigueux. Past Katie was congratulating herself on saving $30 on a hostel room for the night, while present Katie was wondering why a stupid idea ever sounded appealing. $30 is about 7 beers, which is a days work, after all. That's easy to make up. I headed down to South Amsterdam where the bus "station" (read: parking lot) is located, a couple of hours early. I found a bar/restaurant and got some dinner, then headed back to the parking lot at about 11:30 to wait for my bus, which was scheduled to depart at 11:45. Fortunately, there was a kebob shop right there, so I bought a bottle of water and waited inside. 11:45 came and went, and the man who worked there tried to call the bus company to see where the bus was. But, it's a French company so no such luck. They don't answer phones past 8pm, of course. He told me that Northern France and Belgium were getting some snow, and he thought that the bus was canceled. I waited a few more minutes, and he told me that the last tram back into Amsterdam was in a few minutes, and I should probably just get back to the city and get a hotel. I went into one of the ones near the train station and it was crowded, since apparently all the high speed trains to Brussels and Paris were canceled (lucky them!). $200 later, I was set up in a hotel room. I get that if safety is an issue, cancel the bus. But let a sister know before she goes alone to an abandoned parking lot at night with no accommodations.

I went to the train station today and the trains to Paris were all full with people who had been canceled on yesterday. SO, I'll be spending an extra two nights in Amsterdam, which isn't too bad considering what I did instead:

Hopefully I'll make it back tomorrow, and hopefully SNCF will be kind to me and rebook me without too much of a hassle. But it is France, after all, and hassles are their specialty. It's mean, but it's true.

Hope you're staying warm out there!