I arrived in Serbia by train from Hungary, travelling from Szeged to Subotica. It occured to me when my passport was getting stamped that I can never arrive in Serbia for the first time again.
Being new in a country can only happen about 200 times in your life, give or take the number over a lifetime as unions are formed and regions break away to become new countries.
Serbia Country of Origin Sticker - SRB
Serbia is a prime example of one country becoming many, many times over. In 1991 Serbia was part of Yugoslavia. Since then Yugoslavia gradually split up to become Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia (which for a while was known as FYR Macedonia), leaving just Serbia and Montenegro in 2003.
In 2006 Montenegro voted to end its union with Serbia and become a separate country, thus adding another nation to the world tally.
In 2008 the region of Kosovo in Southern Serbia declared independence from Serbia, and they too proclaimed themselves a separate country. Here is where your country count gets tricky. Serbia has not recognized Kosovo as an independent country as it counts the region of Kosovo as a historical and integral part of Serbia. Half of the world has recognised Kosovo as an independent country and half of the world hasn’t.
If you are on a quest to visit every country in the world and you ticked off Yugoslavia before 1991, you now have to come back and visit 7 countries, or 8 if you count Kosovo. I will expand on the every country quest in another post. For now though I am savouring that fresh “new country day” feeling.
Amsterdam is world famous for its coffee shops, but as a non-smoker I have no interest in these “coffee shops”.
Cannabis coffeeshop displaying Coffeeshop license
The Netherlands doesn’t rate high in the coffee making stakes in Europe. The typical coffee of the Netherlands is filter coffee.
Coffee shops that aren’t coffee shops in a land of filter coffee may sound like a strange place for a coffee snob to like. Nevertheless, Amsterdam is an international city and there are plenty of places to find a good coffee.
If you are after a koffiehuis and not a coffeeshop, then here is a selection of my faves.
Cafe het Palais
Good coffee and international newspapers has made this one of my favourite cafes in Amsterdam.
Cafe Het Paleis
Cafe Luxembourg
For a classic Parisian style people watching cafe head to the Cafe Luxembourg on Spuistraat. It has theatre row seats out the front, which is a perfect spot for watching Dutch girls on bicycles riding by.
Cafe Luxembourg
Coffee Company
For take away coffee this American style coffee store does the job for me. They have a few locations around Amsterdam.
Coffee Company
Cafe Americain
For a bit of old school American style I like the Cafe at the Hotel Americain.
Cafe Americain
Cafe de Saloon
This place is more of a bar than a cafe but I like to come here on a sunny day and sit outside. The building is Flatiron shape and is next to a canal.
De Saloon
As much as I love sitting in European cafes watching the world go by, I do miss the ritual of reading the newspaper with my coffee.
I have found a regular cafe in Amsterdam that has great coffee and a selection of daily newspapers in different languages. In English they have the International Herald Tribune and The Guardian. This is at Cafe het Paleis on Paleisstr, behind Dam Square.
Koffie verkeerd (caffe latte) in Amsterdam
I have been in the Netherlands and Germany for the last week and I now find myself in Amsterdam for a few days. I always forget how beautiful this city is. I could walk around the canal lined streets for days, which I have done plenty of times before. As it turns out it’s been raining alot, so not much walking around but a good time to catch up on some work.
Amsterdam: Rainy Days = Good Work Days
Next door to modern Rotterdam is Schiedam, a picture postcard version of Holland. Schiedam is a separate city to Rotterdam, though it is practically a suburb and is part of the Rotterdam metro system.
In Schiedam you will find everything you thought a Holland town should have: windmills, canals, old world homes and warehouses, and a classic old Stadhuis (town hall).
View of the Stadhuis, Schiedam - Netherlands
The Netherlands is famous for being a liberal country, but this public art in Rotterdam could be the most offensive in Europe.
Santa Claus - Rotterdam
The statue is of a giant Santa Claus holding a butt plug. It was created by the American installation-artist Paul McCarthy and it represents a symbol of modern consumerism.
I never would have thought that a coffee from an airport Starbucks would make it as coffee of the day, but I didn’t want to leave the UK without mentioning the current exchange rate.
Coffee of the day: London Stansted Airport - UK
At the moment 1 AUD is around 53 pence. In my 10 years of coming to the UK the Australian dollar has never been so strong. At one point 1 AUD got just 33 pence. So this £2 coffee in 2009 is a bargain at $3.77 . In the darkest days of the weak Australian dollar this £2 coffee would have cost me $6.06 AUD.
I never thought that I would be saying that I came to London and had a cheap holiday.
Ahh London, it’s good to be back. This city feels like my second home, and for a while it was my home.
2009 marks 10 years since I first came to London. I arrived in 1999 on a 2 year working holiday visa, unaware at the time that I had the travel bug. I couldn’t have known then that I would be back to London at least once a year every year since.
I was here in 1999, 2000 and 2001 on the UK work visa, 2002 and 2003 passing through on the Irish work visa, then every year on the way to European destinations to create content for online travel articles.
I use London as the entry point for Europe as the cheapest fares from Australia are usually into London, though this might change with the increase in Air Passenger Duty.
I’m staying in Victoria, which is a handy transport hub if you are in London for a short time. I get the bus to Stansted Airport from here to my next destination.
London Victoria Station
