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After ten years of waiting I finally got my British passport and was ready to use it. However, I had very little money. No exotic destinations for me. However, I hatched a cheeky plan. I’m a competitive Latin dancer, and we have a very close-nit global community. So, I emailed a few dance schools around Europe asking whether I could train with them. The first reply came from a school in Amsterdam. Since all I could afford were flights I messaged one or two random people tagged in the dance-school’s Facebook page regarding accommodation, and one of them replied with a very warm ‘Yeah, you can stay at mine, and in our spare time I’ll show you around Amsterdam.’ Within two weeks I was on an Easyjet flight with barely £30 in my account, on a trip I couldn’t afford, knowing nothing about my host, all in the name of travel and adventure. My first challenge was getting to my host’s address in Diemen at minimal cost. En route to Schiphol I turned to the person sitting next to me. He was tall, worse jeans, brown boots, highlights in his hair, and ordered vodka with tomato juice. I thought to myself ‘he must be cool’, and ‘being that tall, he’s probably Dutch’. “Excuse me”, I said meekly. “Sorry to trouble you but do you have any idea how to get to this address?” Fortunately for me, he was local to Amsterdam, and even more fortunately, he was couldn’t go far enough to help He introduced himself as Meno and promised to take me to the train station and search for the best ticket to Diemen. By the time he did so, we had pretty much shared our life stories, and out of sheer generosity he paid for my 6 euro ticket to Diemen. What a start! I’d barely arrived and I’d already made a friend. When I arrived in Diemen I thought that I had to return back to the universe the kindness that Meno had showed me. I decided that I would cook for my host. At 7pm I arrived at Anna’s flat, having never met her, with grocery shopping from the Albert Heijn just down the road. I rang the bell and a tall beautiful girl came to the door and with the warmth of an Arabian Bedouin welcomed me in. I cooked for her that evening, and we spent the night watching videos of our favourite dancers. Hers was a one-room flat, and I slept on the sofa. Yet, it was still more profoundly comfortable and heart-warming than any of my previous high-budget travels. Comfort is basic, but real warmth comes from community. The next morning we resolved to hire a bike for 3 euros, which was the daily rate, but the rental place was already a good 20 minutes cycle away and did not want to pay for any public transport to get there. “No problem”, said Anna. “I’ll carry you on my bike.” I thought that was only something people did in India and Africa, but when I hopped on it was very comfortable. By noon we were cycling all over Amsterdam. We did do about 4 hours of hard dance training at her school, but we also saw much of Amsterdam, and there was more dancing to be had for that night was the gala night of Anna’s university dance society. I therefore made a last-minute decision to attend, even though I was completely under-dressed. No one seemed to care, and almost everyone there was just a warm and inviting as Anna. Anna and I left at 3am having had tons of fun and making many friends, and I’m not just saying this. Anna had to leave the following morning for a ski trip and left me in the care of her friends. In comes storm Ciara, and I am stranded in Amsterdam for another 3 days, but thanks to Anna’s bike and the dancing community, no holiday-maker received more care and spent almost nothing for it. I now feel like I have a 2nd home just across the channel. Amsterdam was totally worth it!