Many rivers to cross

You can't plan for these things, so its best if you just roll with it. We have spent that last couple of days trying to get Dan's money to him in the form of cash. Western Union won't release your money to you unless the name on the wire matches your name EXACTLY as it is on your passport! Apparently a space or letter was out of place. So we need to contact the States to have that changed. Until then, we are budget traveling. The ironic thing is that he needed to shop for shoes, so off to Kalverstraat we went. He found a pair of trainers in no time. What can we do now? With little spending money we took to Vondelpark - free, beautiful, and relaxing. We wanted to get into the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum, but decided to save the cash.

After a second day of much wandering, we decided that a good steak would help take our minds off of it. There are dozens of Argentinean steak houses around the centruum, so we found one that looked nice, but not too nice. With full bellies, we made it up to de Bierkoning before it closed to pick up some house beers so we could lay low for the night. De Bierkoning is like a home away from home - like Bottleworks in Walingford, but with a lot more Belgian and Netherlands varieties. I found a few locally brewed ones and was amazed at how many were imported from the u.S.

Thanks to Mel, the wire will (hopefully) go through tomorrow. John will arrive from NYC, so things will be picking up. While walking around, I was reminded by the interesting artifacts of culture and humanity that the best things in life are free and that they aren't even things. It was a good time simply being. Being in a different country and culture. Being with a pal and carrying interesting conversation. Being on vacation.