Half of the people on the bus thought I was nuts the other half just did not care. I had been on a 6 weeks Contiki tour of Europe and there was only a couple of days to go. I had a word with the tour bus manager and driver the night before and when our bus pulled up at a set of traffic lights near a train station, I grabbed my back pack from the the overhead shelf, the driver quickly opened the door and I was off. I caught up with a few of people after the tour in England months later and they said some were shocked me just getting off sort of unannounced, we had become a bit of a family but I did not want to have to explain myself to everyone. I told a few, I had other plans, things to do. The bus tour was great to see a lot of the tourist stuff in Europe, have a few drinks and a laugh but after backing solo through Asia and a bit of Africa I was keen to explore more at my own pace again.
A few years earlier I got a few pen pals through the Australia post world expo 1988 site in Brisbane with the idea that if I got along with any of them, I might score some free accommodation, if I ever got to travel the world. This was about to all come together. I had been writing to his Dutch girl for ages and eventually I got an invite. I don't think back then many people would expect somebody to show up but I did and it was so good meeting some of the locals staying at her family home. I even got show around. I don't think her boyfriend at the time was that impressed but I was only there for a few days.
So I got to stay with a Dutch family in Utrecht
And got shown around the Centre of Amsterdam before I started travelling off again by myself. I kept in contact with my pen pal for a while but stopped as life moved on, maybe one day I should try to see if I could reconnect and see that she has been up to all these years later.
I think the Contiki bus dropped me off some where near the Amsterdam town centre
I used to send postcard home to update my parents on where I was at and what I was doing. Dad was a stamp collector, I used you enjoy going to a post office in each country I visited and getting some different stamps.
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