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The day after Christmas feels more like the day of Christmas!!!

Amsterdam Travel Blog › entry 2 of 12 › view trip summary

It seems I waited an eternity for this European trip to begin…but when the time finally arrived it was for but a fleeting moment. The memories, however, will last for as long as I live. And I assert, without hesitation, this travel journey is and will always remain at the top of my list. Visiting new countries for the first time (such as Germany, France, and Czech Republic) made it a true adventure, but it was all the Travbuddy friends who made it special!

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The day after Christmas feels more like the day of Christmas!!!

December 26, 2008

Erin wins a shirt for recruiting the most people!

Looking back on my accomplishments in life, there are a limited number of things I have reserved as something I am super proud of doing. And without a doubt, the opportunity I have had to meet people from all over the world in the past year is something I couldn’t be more proud of!!! Even as I write this, I am still brimming with pride from the fact that I now have friends in places such as Russia, Thailand, Czech Republic, Peru, and the Netherlands. What an incredible high!!!

Before I begin my story, I have to recognize a few people who I owe a very special “thank you” to.

First, I want to say how much I appreciate the co-organizers of the NYE meet-up…Alex, Anna, Devi, and Wendy.

Lynn, Sal, Oussama, Sylvie...at the famous IAMSTERDAM Sign.

It was such a pleasure scheming and planning this thing with all of you over the past 6 months. I suspect that our work paid off in the end!!! Dennis (beerbiker) made bracelets for the meet-up and I think I failed to say thanks to him for that. So thank you, Dennis! (Even though I somehow didn’t get one! haha)

Next I want to thank Brett and Erin for their gracious hospitality and allowing Lynn, Julie, and me to tag along on our whirlwind tour of 5 European countries. It was absolutely amazing. I owe you BIG time!

To Dennis (dennis_d), I also owe a debt of gratitude for welcoming me into his home on the last night of my vacation; otherwise I would have spent the night at Schiphol airport.

Although Lili was not able to make it to the meet-up, she did grace us with her presence the night before and I am soooo happy I was able to finally meet her.

I can never resist pinching Devi's cheeks!!! hehe

Thank you Lili for the gift you brought me…I will always treasure it!

And speaking of gifts, I can’t forget Martijn (Marty2081)! I wasn’t able to order the Amsterdam NYE coffee cup from the American TB store, and so he was kind enough to order me one through the European store. Thanks Martijn! I am, in fact, using it right now.

I also need to mention Sal (sincitytraveler), because without him I would have traveled to Prague all by my lonesome! Thanks for joining me, Sal. I wish we would have had more time to freeze our butts off in Czech! haha

And then there is Lynn (bluemoonadventure), also known as Sheryl Crow! Lynn was so great in letting a few of us stragglers stay in her room while in Amsterdam.

Group photo...a few TBs were missing, but this is almost everyone. Thanks, Matt, for taking it.

Thank you for putting up with us, Lynnie!!!

Oh my…who else am I forgetting???? Okay, I need to thank Matt (mc142) for taking our group photo! He did an excellent job with that, and I will be including the link to his site where you can get the pictures in various resolutions. It is also listed on the forum.

I want to thank Eric and David for this site!!! I also want to thank Eric for the TB buttons he supplied for the meet-up.

So, I knew I would forget someone...Thank you Bart for letting us use your PayPal account for payments, too!!!

And finally, I want to thank everyone who came!!! You know who you are! This was such a great group of TravBuddies…I love all of you!!!!

It all started the day after Christmas…And I was just like a kid on Christmas morning!!!

I left from Lambert Field airport in St.

Doing my Dean Martin imitation.

Louis Friday morning with a connecting flight in Newark-Liberty airport in New Jersey. My lay-over in New Jersey was about 5 hours:( But while I was there killing time I did a little reminiscing about the New York City meet-up from last year as I looked across the river to Manhattan. And then around 6:00 I caught my flight to Amsterdam, which wouldn't arrive until 8:30 the next morning.

To my utter dismay, I just copied over some pictures I took on this day and have lost them forever. So, I suppose I will just post some random photos in this entry that were taken over the course of the trip, even though only one was actually taken in St. Louis.