leaving Amsterdam

The girls in the hostel for some reason decided to all wake up at six am and rustle around their sheets and blankets and nylon duffel bags and zippers and unlock and open and close their lockers. Also they all thought it would be a good idea to walk back and forth across the room.

Which meant that I had to get up too, even though they weren't serving breakfast until eight. While I was changing into the tank tops and jeans I've worn for the past three days, I watched one of the early risers comb her eyebrows with a brow brush. Or whatever that thing is called. Then she put on eyebrow pencil.

When you are travelling around with a heavy backpack and sleeping in dormatory hostels, isn't an eyebrow brush the sort of thing you leave at home? I mean, I had to think SERIOUSLY about whether or not to bring a hairbrush. (I didn't, in the end.)

We ex-nayed breakfast at the hostel, walked to the train station, left our luggage in some lockers (I love that about Europe, that you can leave you stuff in all sorts of places), and bought a chocolate croissant. On to Alkmaar and the cheese market!