Hello From Amsterdam!

I'm finally en route to Tel Aviv, by way of Amsterdam. Most flights arrive/leave Israel in the early morning hours (12-6am) in order to allow for easy connections in Europe, so I have quite a bit of time to kill between flights. My friend and travel buddy Greg and I spent the last few hours walking the streets of Amsterdam and lounging at various restaurants and cafes. I'm about to upload some pictures, which you'll be able to see in my Flickr photostream to the right (they'll later be tagged and placed into a set as well). Some pictures were taken with my phone, others with my new SD400. Check out the airport cops on their segways!

The flight to Amsterdam was decent. It was my first time on one of Northwest's new A330s. Shortly before the flight, I used my phone's GPRS connection via Bluetooth to check out the A330 on seatguru.com, and found out that my seat had power (and that my leg room was limited by the A/V equipment for my row -- doh!). I didn't even need my airplane adapter -- the port seems to meet at least US and EU standards. In the end, however, I spent most of the trip playing with the A330's entertainment system in the headrest in front of me. They had a great selection of movies, music, and a few addictive puzzle games. I also made some headway in a great book I've been reading recently (Unlocking The Clubhouse: Women in Computing -- review to come soon), and got in an hour or two of sleep.

I suppose that's all I've got to say for now. Oh yeah, and I thought it was pretty cool to see that in the Netherlands, the Dutch still see KFC for what it really is -- FRIED CHICKEN! It's so refreshing to get away from our own country's low-carb, 10-versions of diet coke, marketing-is-everything-quality-is-nothing culture. Hmm.. I sound bitter.