To Love a Wild Thing

Hi, it's Nick here! Laura's let me write this section, so I hope you enjoy. We left for Amsterdam on the 25th of January using DFDS ferries, we were on the KingSeaways ferry. We drove from my house in Washington to North Shields ferry terminal, after having a round of teary goodbyes with our close family. It was one saddest and most nervous journeys of my life. Through passport control, through customs and up the giant metal ramp onto the ferry. We were on! No hiccups, screw ups, cock ups, or any other ups of that nature. I have travelled a lot with my dad on the back of his motorbike, so I knew the procedure, but that didn't makeit any less nerve-wracking, especially when you dont have an experienced traveller to deal with what documents you need to give to who, and all that scary stuff. It ended up being rather simple really, hand your passports to the lady at the drive through check in desk, upgrade to a bigger seaview cabin for £10  pounds because why on earth not, and drive on. Customs didnt even check our car, they just waved us through. The cabin was nice, lots of storage space and four single beds, not that we needed them. I led Laura up to the top observation deck, where in the summer they have a bar open, 'the mermaid bar'. But as its not summer, no bar. No people at all for that matter. So I had a childish jump about while Laura took a few photos, and probably questioned the solidity of my mental state. A bit of an explore, and one overpriced margherita later, and we were ready for a little relax in the cabin. We'd been at full throttle all day, and this was the first time we had the chance to stop and think about what we were actually doing. No return date, only a month into our trip planned and booked, driving on the right hand side of the road. Terrifying, wouldn't you say? So it hit us, and some tears were shed. I ain't afraid to admit it, I was scared, worried, but I think we'll be fine. We went for one more wander onto a cold, dark deck, before coming back in and crashing out. Getting off the ferry the next day was as simple as it was getting on, a flash of our passports to a cheery dutch border officer and I was driving on THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD HOLY HELLFIRE THIS IS TERRIFYING. Looking LEFT at a roundabout?! Insanity, but I'd have to get used to that. In fact, travelling into Amsterdam, we'd have to get used to a lot of things we weren't used to. Read on in the Amsterdam page for tales of adventure, hardship, and red lights. Lots of red lights.