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I think of what rateful for what you have instead of yearning for what you think you want Standing here, on the caet what she was talking about I think I finally understand what it truly means to quit while you’re ahead

Thirty-six

Amsterdarets And no going back

I cancel the Paris-London portion of ht froo somewhere else I have five more days in Europe, and there are all these low-cost airlines I could go to Ireland Or Romania I could take a train to Nice and hook up with the Oz crew I could go anywhere

But to get to any of those places, I have to go to A first On the pink bike

When I went to deliver the bike to Saskia, along with a box of chocolates to say thank you, I told her that I didn’t need her to find me Robert-Jan’s contact information

"You found what you needed?" she asked

"Yes and no"

She seemed to understand She took the chocolates but toldto anyone, and I’d need it in Amsterda to someone else

"The pink White Bicycle," I said

She smiled "You know about the White Bicycle?"

I nodded

"I wish it still existed"

I thought about s that people had passed on to ement, macarons "I think it still does," I told her

Ana from Utrecht to Amsterdam It’s only twenty-five et to the eastern end of the city, I’ll hook up with the tram line nine, and I can just follow that all the way to Centraal Station, which is where et youth hostels are

Once out of Utrecht, the landscape turns industrial and then to far stone winds But it doesn’t take long for the bucolic to meld with office parks and then I’e stadium that says Ajax and then the bike path du I hear the bring-bring of a tram, and it’s the nu stretches past the Oosterpark and what I assuos in theat an intersection by a big flea , and the traffic of bicycles see to find the tra like the last, with tall stone banks and every kind of boat--frolass-domed tour boat--on its brackish waters I pass by iabled row houses and cozy little cafés, doors flung open to reveal walls a hundred years’ worth of brown I turn right and wind up at a flower

I pull out my map and turn it around This whole city seems to turn in circles, and the naot into a car accident: Oudezijds Voorburgwal Nieuwebrugsteeg Couy in a leather jacket who’s strapping a blond toddler into a bike seat When I see his face, I do another double take because he’s another, albeit older, Willem clone

I ask him for directions, and he has me follow hi traffic circle to the Warmoesstraat I pedal up a street full of sex shops, brazen with their luriddisplays At the end of the block is one of the city’s cheaper youth hostels

The lobby is boisterous with activity: people are playing pool and Ping-Pong, and there’s a card ga, and everyone seeh it’s barely lunchtime I ask for a dorirl at the desk takes my passport info and money Upstairs in n, the air is thick with hash sh a tube on a piece of tinfoil, which I’al I lock my backpack in the locker and head back downstairs and out onto the street to a crowded Internet café

I pay for a half hour and check out the budget airline sites It’s Thursday now I fly hoht to Lisbon for forty-six euros One to Milan, and one to sole Croatia and look at pictures of rocky beaches and old lighthouses There are even cheap hotels in the lighthouses I could stay in a lighthouse I could do anything!

I know alo there I pull out my debit card to pay for the ticket, but I notice a new ele over It’s from Wren The subject line reads WHERE ARE YOU?

I quickly write back that I’ in Paris last week, she was planning on catching a train to Madrid, and Kelly and the creere heading to Nice, and they were talking aboutup in Barcelona, so I’et an ee has her cell nu as I call her "I knew you were here," she says "I could feel it! Where are you?"

"At an Internet café on the War to Spain!"

"I changed my plans Winston, how far is Waruy orks here," she whispers to round Then Wren squeals "We’re, like, five minutes from each other Meetthat looks like a penis"

I close the bro, and ten -lost relative

"Boy, that Saint Anthony works fast," she says

"I’ll say!"

"So what happened?"

I give her the quick rundown about finding Ana Lucia, al not to find hi to Croatia"

She looks disappointed "You are When?"