The boat ride was nice. It was the biggest boat I had ever been in and had a disco and a movie theater. I saw Mr. Been. I slept on the couch and arrived in Rotterdam, Holland the next morning. I was excited to be in a country where they didn't speak English.

I rode for a long time until I finally got to the center of the city where I promptly started asking people where the hash bars where. I asked an old woman and she gave me directions to a hash bar as if I was asking where any other place was, which I had a chuckle to myself about. I bought a stick of hash about a third the size of a gum stick for about 15 bucks, and bought a soda can and smoked up on a park bench near the road. It was cool to smoke weed in the middle of the day outside with cars driving by. I later found out that smoking outside is illegal. I got really stoned and was quiet happy to see that the bikers had their own roads, and started riding down south.

It didn't take me long to realize that having a separate road for the bikes and being stoned meant that it was really difficult to keep track of were I was going because they kept winding around and going their own way. I lost track of the bike trail at one point and started riding on the highway, but just about every single car was honking at me so I got off and made an effort to find the bike path.

I had dinner at a place and noticed that they don't use ketchup with their French fries, but mayonnaise. After that dinner I went to sleep in the trees between the bike path and the road and listened to the radio. I noticed that they liked Tina Turner there, and half of the words in their advertisements were in English. I really liked the music there, it sounded like ABBA music, with lots of happy up-beat beats. I really liked riding through Holland because there were lots of animals everywhere, and because the bikes had their own road.

The riding was really peaceful. It wasn't too rare to sea houses with deer, chickens, dogs, sheep, cats, and birds all in the same small backyard. They really use their space well. In the area between the highway and the houses, instead of having just a grass patch they had a heard of sheep. This place is a lot more densely populated than England. It really did seem like it was one great big city. I only remember one point where there was no neighborhood connected to another neighborhood. It was in a forest that the bike path went through where there were people everywhere riding bikes and out on hikes. It was in this forest where I noticed a church tower in the distance and realized that was the center of a town. Every town had one of those church towers marking the center.

It took me about five days to get across Holland. I crossed into Belgium at night; and immediately knew when I was in Belgium because the bike path suddenly disappeared and the constant neighborhoods were replaced by uninhabited land.

I forgot about the time change and was the last person out of the ferry as I slept through the docking. I indulged myself on the ferry by drinking a bottle of wine and watching a movie. Even though I haven't ridden very hard the last couple days my legs are beat and I feel kind of sick. If I am queasy at the end of tomorrow I will take the next day off completely.

I bought a stick of hash in Rotterdam today. They smoke it with tobacco here in joints. The guy who sold it to me said it is too hard on your lungs without it. I think it is the other way around.

It is very awkward when half the people here don't know English. They speak a dialect of German that has a lot less "sh" and "ch". It is definitely it's own language though.

I had a hard time figuring out how the road systems are like here. The bikers and scooters literally have their own roads that get you to your destination along entirely different paths than the cars which use freeways to get from town to town. It seemed that this country is like one giant city with all the cars and buildings connected without any apparent greenbelts between the metropolitan centers.

It is really cool that cyclists have their own roads. A lot of young people have scooters on the bike paths. This country is definitely different than England. I thought England used their space frugally with a lot of their space being used for farms and such; but these people spare almost no space at all. Almost all of the grass that separates the condos and houses from the highways and roads is used as pasture for goats, and there are horse pastures and farms smack dab in the middle of the city. I love it!

I had a hard time finding my way around at first because the signs for places are different for the bikes than the cars and I was looking at the road signs instead of the bike path signs and not realizing that there are lots of paths going different places. I have learned now and am sure I will like this system more as time passes. It sure is taking me a long time though. I was getting lost right after being reoriented by someone. I must have asked 15 people for directions today over a distance of only about 20 miles.

It seems like most of the young people here know English and most of the old ones don't. I am looking forward to getting a French phrase book and communicating with people in France in their language. My plan is to ride to Luxembourg through Belgium, and then go to Paris. I feel like I should go there because I have heard so much about it. If I am still in the Netherlands where the bike paths are good when the full or near full moon is here, I want to ride all through the night. I have never ridden all through the night by myself before. Passers by don't seem to smile as much here as in England, but I can tell they are just as content and kind. Some people I ask directions from tell me in their language which I don't understand a lick of, but I understand their gestures and the names of places and roads and ideas of distances they tell me.

I definitely over did the candy and weed today and the drinking last night. People are really loud at this bar I am at. The group that is my age isn't, but the 40-50 year old group are yelling really loud; which is strange. Two people brought dogs in here, which is two more than I have ever seen in a bar before.

The neighborhoods near the canals are about 5-10 feet lower than the water level of the canals. The bike paths are on top of the banks which is cool because you can see over all the houses to the cathedrals that mark the center of the towns.

The people are so much louder in this place than I have ever seen. It is definitely like I am in another country. A man just came to me and asked me a few questions and talked to me in his broken English for a couple minutes, and then returned to his bar seat and bought me a coffee. I asked him if they speak German and he said they speak Holland. My plan is to ride to the southernmost point in Holland because I like these bike paths, and then go into Belgium and buy a map and get there currency and stay long enough to get a taste of it before I go to Luxembourg.

Stuff is about the same price here as in America. I lost my map of Europe today. I don't know what happened to it. That is the first thing I have lost on this trip. I don't want to have to buy another one. I will just rely on the maps of individual countries. I need to stretch more. My muscles are sore and as tight as can be. I think I could use more sleep but for the first time in my life I am having trouble staying asleep in the morning, which is exactly what I prayed so long for, so I am not complaining. I have always had a problem sleeping in even when I'm not tired. It is the only time of day that I can really relax. So far I have been easily finding places to sleep and not worrying about people seeing me in the morning. I am near trees now that I plan on sleeping in. Luckily there haven't been any torrential rain storms yet. My bag gets wet every night from perspiration from the blanket and bevy sack, and down bags don't like to be wet. But I have had chances to dry it out on the boat and that ladies house. When it gets too wet I will take time out at a laundry mat and dry it off.

I got up late today and patched my thermarest, got stoned and stretched. After I rode and had lunch a guy helped me phone home. I rode down some more on these paths which are so hard to negotiate, but it is so cool that we bikers have roads all to ourselves. I woke up sore and weak but feel fine now at the end of the day. It is cool that this country has a bike system but the paths take so many twists and turns and I don't have a compass so I don't always know where I am going. It is hard to cover a lot of ground in one day with these paths going every which way... oh yeah and I'm stoned off my ass all the time.

Off to Belgium tomorrow. It seems like most of the people (from riding these paths) are old men. All the people ride around on three speed cruisers or scooters, who also get to ride on the bike paths. People love to give directions to me here, today I asked an old man on a bike where the way to Maastricht is, and he had me follow him a quarter mile up to a bridge and then showed me the way to the path that runs right next to the canal all the way to Maastricht. I got bored and got off it but got lost again. I still made it to Maastricht at five though. Today I bought five rolls of film, three blank tapes for recording, and maps of Luxembourg, Belgium, and France. I will need one of Germany also if I am going there, which I plan on.

I learned a lesson on Map buying today. I went into a book store and asked the woman to get me a map of Belgium and France, and she gave me maps of parts of the countries. The part of France was so small that it is useless to me, and I paid seven bucks for it. The woman should have known better also, but she was in a rush closing up. I will just buy another map in a gas station in France. I need to buy a French-English dictionary also. I have been told that French people don't like to speak English.

Tomorrow will be the last day that I will be stoned because it is illegal in all places but Holland. I am glad I had this time to ride stoned in another country, but I much rather doing it long term sober because I have my goals more in order. When I ride sober I don't take as much time out to eat munchies, and don't bust my body with sweets and smoke, and I can think clearer. The hash here is very good and 12 bucks got me a lot, probably the equivalent to an eight ounce of kind nuggits, but which costs 40 dollars in the states. Holland is cool!

About half the people here speak English. There are a lot of motor scooters around and interestingly they are primarily ridden by young people and the old people have bicycles which they ride very slowly taking their time. This is a loud country. They speak fast and seem to interrupt each other a lot on the radio, in cars, and at the restaurant, and bars tend to play their music loudly. There are many different nationalities of people here.

Over the last two days I have experienced for the first time what it is like to take too many pictures. I bought film today and before I knew it had taken 10 pictures.

I want to know how they made the canals. The water is like 20 ft. higher than the land, all the way down to Maastricht and the boarder with Belgium.

I want to go to a country where the exchange rate is better. I have a feeling it is basically the same all over Europe. I have 200 more pages left on Esoteric Heeling; then I will read the new testament, which is like another 600 pages. While I was reading the book I just came to another decision, and that is to spend my evenings in rural places because that will reduce the chances of my stuff being stolen off my bike while I'm inside, and I will be close to a place where I can sleep.

I am in the dead center of the town of Maastricht in Southern Holland. The first time I have spent time at night in the middle of the city. I will have to ride a long way before I hit terrain suited for camping. I have had perfect luck so far finding places to stay. It is harder at night because you can't see what might be near.

I feel good now; and even though I will be up at least until midnight, I want to get up at like 6:30 tomorrow. I think pushing by body to the brink of exhaustion after I have completely recovered is a good idea, because I will know where my limits are (how much sleep I need as apposed to how much I can ride and read and write.

I feel fortunate there is nothing that could distract me but that is just for now. I want to start another dream journal, but I haven't been remembering my dreams well lately because of all the weed I have been smoking.

Being in the world alone where they don't speak my language, I can find myself in the context of the world and not my bubble because I am kept at enough of a distance from others that they won't affect me by the way they see it.

Marijuana is an interesting drug. I want to write about it some more in the future when I am not smoking it. It is interesting that a drug that opens you up to an expanded consciousness also makes you content in your own little world, and then makes you self conscious. Why does it make you self conscious? Only when you unconsciously expect people to be critical of you; but when you don't thought it doesn't. I am at a point now that I don't compare counties to America, just countries to each other.