Coffee shops and currywursts.

The Netherlands
September 1 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
We made our way into the bus station in Amsterdam at night. We walked around trying to figure out how to buy bus tickets and find the bus we were supposed to take to Tara's friend Aafke's place. We settled into Aafke's friend's room (who was away interviewing in another city) and went out to the corner store to grab random food for dinner. The next morning, we started out with some street wandering in the centre and some shopping. We saw the Dam Square, passed a decently-sized Chinese restaurant and the red light district by daylight. We continued wandering around and encountered Amsterdam's Chinatown! Yes, Amsterdam has a Chinatown too! Gee! It was actually a pretty big Chinatown, bigger than the one in Montreal -- pretty sizeable. Just wandering through the streets of Amsterdam was a unique experience. I have never seen so many advertisements for weed/marijuana-related accessories. It was seriously in every other window!

This was part of the China town that was actually quite large!

In the evening, we found ourselves at a cafe, where we enjoyed some coffee near one of the many rivers in Amsterdam. We were a bit on the outskirts of town.

We later returned to the centre to check out the infamous Red Light District. Earlier in the day, we had already seen old horny men lining up for peep shows in the Red Light District. I thought it was rather amusing.
The next day, we took another one of those Europe free tours and the random stories told were pretty entertaining. Apparently they are looking to close the coffee shops and the red light district slowly. If those are things you want to experience, then go in the next couple of years before they are all phased out! They plan to close coffee shops as they break regulations. This means that they are more stringent now. We also saw the Anne Frank hideout. I just stood across from the house -- a house that looked like any other house in Amsterdam. The memories of reading her diary and imagining all of that unfold in the house before me was incredibly moving. I can't believe that history was so cruel to some, and that people were responsible for such abominable acts. It was definitely a sobering moment of the trip.

The coffee shop filmed in Ocean's 11.

On the last night, we hung out with Aafke, our host (thanks Taras!) and had some delicious bread, cheese and wine before we took off to the bus terminal. Amsterdam was quite interesting, with some stories that I don't think I will repeat in this blog in case it offends anyone. I will end off Amsterdam with an attempt an artsy shot. Yay Heineken!

Germany

September 3 - Berlin, Germany
We took a night bus into Berlin: a grueling 9 hour bus ride. Joey was fast asleep throughout, having slept right across the back few seats. It was a pretty bumpy ride for me, but I got to experience the German autobahn! Damn those cars go faaast! No wonder all the guys love the autobahn! We got into town, found the subway and made our way to the hostel. After getting a little lost a few times, we managed to find the hostel and a supermarket nearby. This is where we purchased our breakfast and snacks for the day. We then made our way to the Brandenburg Gates -- the site where the free Europe tour was meeting (as our hostel had told us). This was also the location of the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his children over the railing.
We took yet another free tour through the vast city of Berlin. It is hard to imagine that Berlin has gone through so much in its history. The Jewish Memorial was quite outstanding and is meant to be left to the viewer to interpret. There was also an amazing Jewish museum that we later re-visited. The memorial is essentially concrete blocks of different sizes for one whole block. Below is a an example of one of the aisles.
Next, we stopped at the hide out of Hitler. It looks like an ordinary street now. We would've never known it was the location of Hitler's bunker without the tour guide telling us. It was crazy imagining the last seconds of Hitler's life right on the very spot where he was found. We later visited the site where Nazis burned all of the books from the university. There is a memorial now with empty bookshelves for symbolism.
After this, we also visited chunks of the Berlin Wall. The last stop on the tour was to the Berlin Dom and the art museum we didn't end up going into due to entrance costs. Below is a picture of our tour guide explaining stuff to us.
The next day, we decided to explore on our own and see the East Side Gallery -- the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. We didn't end up walking the whole stretch because Joey got tired. However, it was still a unique experience. Shortly after returning to the metro station, we found hot dog vendors. They carry the grill literally like backpacks facing forward. It was only 1 Euro and more delicious than the $2.50CDN hotdogs back in Canada! So good!
At one of the Berlin Wall sites, we went into a Holocaust memorial. There were many placards of information as well as photographs. Some of the photos were so heartwrenching and completely sobering. There was one photo that had a particular impact on me:
Playground. Reserved for children. Forbidden to Jews.

Notice the smiling faces of the children, ignorant to what was going on. It reinforces once again to me why the right education is so important. (Well, I mean there is always that argument of what constitutes as the "right" kind of education, but I am sure you catch my drift.) Obviously it is not the children's fault that they were taught this way. They don't have a mind of their own yet. This way, unchecked, children can grow up in a controlled environment to whatever adults teach them to know. That's how we get our expert child suicide bombers and militants. Anywa, enough depression... Afterwards, we continued roaming around and gorged on a huge sausage dinner. I felt so gross after. lol. We revisited the Brandenburger Tor at sunset and took some beautiful pictures with the sun setting in the background. We then made our way to the Reichstaag, one of the political buildings in Berlin (the one that a random man allegedly burned down (whether on purpose due to his mental state, or under the influence of Hitler, we don't know)). This is the historic building that was burnt and triggered the entire Hitler regime. The building has been reconstructed with a clear glass dome, symbolizing the political process that would be entirely transparent to the German population now. It is actually a really cool dome and it served as the subject of many of my best amateur photographic works ;)


After hanging out in the Reichstaag dome for awhile, we headed back to the hostel and got ready to fly out the next morning.

United Kingdom
September 5 - London, UK
After flying back to London, we finally encountered some bad luck with weather. Well, I wouldn't call it bad luck, because it wouldn't have been a true cultural experience if I couldn't experience rain in London! Because of the rain, we decided to stay in on the first day, just lying around checking email and watching TV. We got the luxury of staying at Joey's friend's place, who happened to be out of town. She had an entire townhouse complex to herself -- which meant we had an entire townhouse complex to ourselves!

The next day, we headed off to the British National Museum with Charlotte. Again, it was a chill day of just walking around, having a few drinks here and there and catching up with Charlotte before getting ready for our flight the next day. We had lunch on Brick Lane, the Little India of London and walked around that trendy district (it reminded me of Queen St.) It was a really cool neighbourhood that I am sure Jason Chow would have loved! In this neighbourhood, we saw a restaurant that was in a double-decker bus! It was pretty cool:
... and so ended our European adventures! I hope you enjoyed following my belated blog! I wonder if I will end up writing about my trips since then: Vancouver re-visited (Dec 2008), Cuba (Feb 2009), NYC/Saint John/Halifax re-visited (July 2009). We'll see! Until next time, tata for now!

Paris, how I love thy croissants! You too, Brussels.

France
August 25 - Paris, France
We got into Paris in the morning, took the bus into the city, and the metro to our hostel. St. Christopher's Inn was a bit far from the city, but offered clean, modern accommodations. We stayed in a room for 6 people, bunk bed style. It was unique in the way it was built -- almost Japanese? The bed supports came right out of the wall and blended into the surrounding decor. The room had a sink, and sliding lockers underneath the beds. Each bed has it's own curtain, to compartmentalize every bed into private quarters. This hostel offered shared washrooms (non-co-ed). Again, we arrived before check-in time, so we dropped off our luggage and headed into the city. We found some lunch at a Turkish place, and I had my first Parisian croissant. I was in love! Our first touristic destination of the day: none other than the Eiffel Tower! We took a train into the area, and were following signs towards the site. Out of the blue, I caught a glimpse of it in a side street!

Our first peak at the towering hunk of metal that is the epitome of Paris today.

After a drawn out photo shoot at the tower and its vicinity, we walked towards the Grand Palais, where the Pont Alexander III was located. Les Invalides houses the tomb of Napolean Bonaparte underneath the chapel's golden dome. We didn't go inside, but instead trudged towards the open grass just before the Pont Alexander III. We just sat there for awhile, taking in the scenery and taking a break from the walk. The bridge itself was beautifully decorated with statues and sculptures.

A view of the Pont Alexander III, with the Grand Palais in the background.

We then made our way towards the infamous Champs-Elysees, passing fancy stores and restaurants towards the Arc de Triomphe.
The arch looked so close from where the bridge was, but it was much farther than anticipated. We then walked all the way back down towards Plaza de la Concorde, through the Jardin des Tuileries and onwards to Musee du Louvre. This was our meeting point for Ryan MacIsaac, our friend and co-worker from Arosa. (Although Ryan and I go back to our Sainte-Anne days in Nova Scotia.) Ryan had been there for a bit longer than us, so he started showing us around and we hung out for the rest of the day. First stop, le Notre Dame in the Ile de la Cite.
It was soon dinnertime, so we grabbed a Panini at a sandwich store and found a random spot by the Seine off of St. Germain to chow down. We were sitting behind the Notre Dame, cracking jokes from our working days and just taking in the scenery and environment (the back of the Notre Dame has a spidery structure). There were other groups of young French people having picnics by the Seine, with picnic cloths, tons of food and wine of course. After dinner, we trudged up to a bridge near the Notre Dame and chilled there while a bunch of street musicians played some music. There was the loveliest old woman ever, who was dancing by herself to the music. It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. After that, we made our way back to St. Michel where we enjoyed an expensive coffee. I picked up the tab since I owed Ryan a few bucks back in Switzerland. It was also quite funny because the server totally looked down upon us. Love it when people are prejudice and condescending.

August 26 - Paris cont'd
The next morning, we went to purchase our train ticket after confirming that it was okay for Christian and Steph that we arrived in the next few days. Yay, go me and my forgotten French skills! We got a ticket on one of those speed trains to Brussels for the 28th. From the train station, we walked into the Montmartre area (where Moulin Rouge is!) and visited the Sacre Coeur on the top of the hill. We also ate our lunch of home-made sandwiches (go student budgets go!) of salami and fresh cheese in baguettes. We walked through the streets filled with sex shops, peep show theatres and sex museums and arrived at the Moulin Rouge.
After our own tour of the Monmartre, we went back to St. Michel to go on our free tour of Paris. The tour guide was a pretty cool guy, telling us stories about many of the historical monuments we walked by. After the "free" tour (they work on tip), we slowly made our way to the eiffel tower for its light show. We stuck around for awhile, and decided to walk up at least to the 2nd floor of the immense structure of steel. On our way up, Joey accidently stepped on my flip-flop and effectively broke it. Needless to say, I have an unforgettable memory of my ascent, both visual and tactile, as my feet soaked in the grime of the thousands of shoes that had walked up and down the stairs that day. It wasn't that bad actually... the cold metal was nice in the warmth of the Parisian summer evening. I also managed to temporarily fix the flip-flop for the descent.
August 27th - Paris cont'd
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to beat the crowds at the Louvre.
Reminiscent of the Vatican Museum, we went straight for the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, you know, the good stuff. I'm not a huge art fanatic, but I think I will grow to become one once I'm older and have the time and money. There were tons of cool paintings, sculptures and artifacts. After a crude tour of the Louvre, we went off to find lunch. We decided to indulge a little and get a taste of upper class Parisian cuisine. We bought a sandwich with truffles at La maison de Truffe, and took a visit to Hediard and Fauchon for some cheese and quiche. To top it off, Joey got some wine from Nicolas for himself. We had a gourmet picnic on a strip of grass off of the Champs-Elysees. The St. Fecilien au lait cru (cheese) was SOO delicious! Speaking of it now makes my mouth water! After the picnic, we made our way back to the hostel to pick up our belongings and make our way to the train station. A quick one-hour ish ride later on the Thalys train, we were already in Belgium! A whole new country and a whole new experience awaited us!

Belgium
August 28th - Bruxelles, la Belgique
Upon arrival that night, Christian and Steph picked us up from the train station. We just chilled and got settled in. We also found Rita awaiting us at their place! It was so strange to hang out with people you were so used to seeing in Toronto all together in a whole different country. Anyway, on the morning of the 28th, we were taken to the Palais de Justice and the Palais Royal, which happened to be open while we were there. (It's closed to the public 51 weeks of the year). There was an interesting display of a ceiling completely covered with beetles. How's that for art? We weren't allowed pictures, but Christian snuck one on his iPhone. I think he has yet to send it to us =P Oh well! Anyway, we drove to check out the town church and into the centre afterward and fit into a very narrow parking space via parallel parking. We then walked towards the Grande Place where we had a suculoo waffle. OMG. SOO different from the waffles we find in Toronto, but OH SO delectable! Once a year, they fill the entire square with flowers for some sort of festival. This time, we weren't there at the right time. Oh well! Later, we checked out the infamous peeing baby sculpture, that was in reality much smaller than expected. It's called the Mannekin Pis and apparently represented the co-habitation of French and Dutch-speaking people of Brussels. I also learned that the Smurfs and Tintin were Belgian, and that French fries had Belgian origins also! We went home after walking around the centre for awhile, and waited for Fred to come over after he got off work. It was so nice to see him again! (Once again, in Belgium and not Toronto for once!). We ordered some Chinese take out and had a feast at Christian and Steph's lovely and spacious home. Later that night, Christian took us out to see the Belgian balls ;) Also known as the Atomium in Heysel Park.
We called it an early night and just hung out at Steph's.

August 29th - Brussels cont'd
The next day, we saw the atomium by daylight and then headed out to the Chinese pavilion and Japanese garden, which were gifts from the Chinese and Japanese governments respectively. It wasn't too interesting to me, due to my asian roots. It was also closed, so we just hung around for a bit, then left to downtown again.
We went to a bar which hit a world record for having the most number of different beer brands in one bar. I forgot the number -- somewhere in the thousands? There was a huge binder for their beer listing.
We ended the night with some greasy Belgian french fries in a huge paper cone. Steph went so far as having a hot dog WITH fries inside it as a garnish! Needless to say we had itis afterwards. After filling up on greasy food, we went out that night to some bars with Rita instead of visiting John Kelly in Antwerp. It was too far and we didn't want to make our lovely hosts drive! Plus, Rita had just moved out from Christian and Steph's place. She had already started her internship at DHL by that time. The bar-hopping was fun. First, we passed Brussel's very own red light district and caught a man being glamoured by one of the woman in the window. I wonder what she was doing, because the man did not move his car (in this one lane road) despite the piling traffic behind him for some minutes. We got a good laugh out of it. The bar was nice, but I just don't enjoy bars as much due to my sad tolerance for alcohol. After that, we enjoyed some grand turkish food at a donar kebab place next door before heading home for the night.

August 30 - Bruges, De Haan, Oostende; Belgium
Today we had an awesome trip to the Western coast of Belgium, touring through Bruges (the city where In Bruges (Colin Farrell) was filmed, I later discovered). Before that, we had the most delicious croissants (even better than those I had in Paris!) Thanks Steph and Christian for showing me the light! =P In Bruges, we took a boat tour around the city (although we couldn't hear a thing the guy was saying since we sat at the back). After the tour and a quick walk through the town, we went to the area of De Haan for its beaches and stayed there for the day for some tanning. (It was a bit chilly and there was a lack of sun for some days in Brussels before we arrived). Christian and Steph were excited to get some tanning done! The beach was interesting, with lots of stage 1 succession bushes bordering the entrance to the beach. We stayed until the tide was low, and decided to head off to Oostende to find some dinner.
In Oostende, the restaurant we found was quite expensive, but we were satisfied with the random candy stand we found near the beach after dinner. =]

August 31 - Brussels cont'd
The next morning we were so exhausted from our previous beach day, that we slept in a little bit. After packing and getting ready for the day, we went off to find some crepes for brunch. It was my first time having salty crepes and man were they delish! Christian then gave us a ride to the bus station to purchase our Eurolines bus ticket to Amsterdam. We then picked up some beverages and headed off to a park near the Africa Museum. We had a little picnic if I may. What a great way to end our Belgian adventure with great friends!

I had some Krieg's and.. an Orangina ;)

Wow these postings take entire afternoons! >.<"

Madrid -- the city of heat

August 21 - Madrid, Spain
We arrived in Madrid the next morning and checked into our hostel. When we arrived, we heard of some terrible news: a terrible plane crash had occurred that morning. I later got some concern from friends/family regarding my well-being. They didn't know I had gone by bus. Oops! I guess I should provide more detailed itineraries to people next time... Anyway, we were extremely tired, but couldn't exactly check in yet. We stowed our luggage in their luggage room and went to an art museum nearby -- the Museo de Prado. We ate breakfast outside, and then headed into the museum. We were sooo tired from the previous night's bus ride that we could barely concentrate on the artwork there. I don't even remember what we saw! I just remember sitting on a bench and almost falling asleep like a bum in the art gallery! After finishing the art gallery, we walked over to a beautiful park -- el Parque de buen retiro. It reminded me of central park, but with more pruning and gardens of flowers. There was a small lake in the center, where people paddle-boated amongst the sea of gold fish. Finally, it was time to check-in, so we trekked back to the hostel and took a nap. After our siesta, we made our way to the Palacio real, the royal family's palace. We sat in the square for awhile, taking in the scenery, while some kids nearby were racing across the square. It was cute! We also found a random restaurant and went into try some paella for dinner. We watched a bullfight on TV. I never knew how gruesome it was! A good bullfighter kills the bull as quick as possible and as painlessly as possible. The fight we watched involved the bull fighter missing the bull's heart when the sword came out. =S On the way back, we took in the night-time ambience. Of the pedestrian-filled streets. I really enjoyed the vibe! There was also some guy who put on a display of toilet paper in the vents!

The children play in the windy vents, after a man tucks toilet paper in various spots. It was quite a spectacular show despite the weirdness. (The vent also smelled funny)

The next day we embarked on a free tour of Madrid. We saw many of the major sites by daylight and were let off in the downtown area on Gran Via (one of the major streets). We headed back to the hostel for our daily siesta and later prepared for dinner. In the evening, we went to the Plaza Mayor to take in the sights and sounds of Madrid.

August 23rd -- Madrid cont'd
Joey really wanted to see a bullfight so we went to the bullring to see what we could do about that. There were no shows that we were able to watch, so we just checked out the bullring (Plaza de las Ventas). We then made our way to la Puerta de Alcala (in la Plaza de la Independencia), an arch near Gran Via. Joey was hungry so we walked up the Gran Via and stopped in the McDonalds. We walked through the shopping district around Gran Via and headed back to the hostel. Later the night, we embarked on a pub crawl to the Dubliners (Irish Bar) and Sol y Sombra (with the free tour crew) and our roommates from the hostel.

August 24th -- Madrid cont'd
This morning, we went to El Rastro, a flea market. There were so many people! I hate being in crowds, so we just made a walk-through avoiding the crowded stalls (probably where the good stuff was). We stopped by a Chinese-run tapas bar (it was just coincidence that it was run by chinese people). Joey had a beer and we had some chinese tapas. We continued walking and later randomly found ourselves at el Museo de Arte Reina Sofia. It was bittersweet as it was free that day, but we had arrived about an hour before it was closing. We quickly toured as much of the art museum as we could, and saw some Picasso and Dali works. I wish we had more time to check out the museum! It was so much better than the Prado museum. Oh well! We then found our way to Estacion Atocha. This was the infamous train station that was victim to the bombing a few years ago. This is the most awesome train station ever! There is an indoor garden, home to a forest and a pond full of turtles!!!

We were on our way home, when we randomly saw a living wall beside a bank. It was pretty cool since I've never seen an outdoor one!
We stopped by at the Parque del buen retiro and just chilled there for awhile. There were families having picnics, a group jamming (which we enjoyed listening to), and children playing everywhere. There was supposed to be a drum circle according to my guide book, but I guess we didn't find it. I ended up taking a nap in the park because it was so nice! Joey wanted a beer, so we found a tapas bar near our hostel and they had some awesome tapas! That evening, we went to a Churerria with John and Shane, Joey's roommates from the hostel, and I introduced the churro to Joey. It was soooooooo delicious! We chilled in the hostel for awhile until it was time for us to leave for the airport for our red eye flight to Paris.

Wow, catching up on blogging is taking much longer than intended! However, I must finish before school starts! Only 12 days left of our journey!