The train to me under the English Channel and on to main land Europe, towards Brussels. Just like everywhere I had to figure out how to get to my hostel with no internet and just old school map reading skills. This hostel turned out to be the nicest one and I got bumped from an 8 bed to a 3 bed. I dropped my stuff off and headed towards the city. I have usually walked around the city center and sights at night but Brussels was a great place to see. The old buildings and squares glowed with there dimly lit lights and and moon. Absolutely stunning.
I headed back for the hostel and met two girls who go to school in Paris. They kindly asked if I wanted to join them for a drink on the town. We headed downtown and stopped at a little cafe and informed eachother on culture and life in both our parts of the world. They wanted to go to a little bar down the road so we grabbed a couple beers and went and sat in a square where 100s of kids were just hangin out in the streets drinking. They asked about living in such a small area with no people around, ha. And I showed them country music and a few jitterbug/2step/ swing dancing moves. They had never heard country or seen this kind of dancing. I'm full of education it seems haha. They also showed me their music and dance, much different. We headed for the club and danced and jumped around (their style of dance), And we headed back to hostel.
I woke up for the free walking tour at 1030 and my 2 roommates charles(Chicago) and summer (newyork) were convinced to come with me. It was raining and windy but we learned a lot about the city, why it's the capital of the European Union, why it's famous for beer, waffles, chocolate, and Belgian fries. And many other things. It took about 3 hours and then after the tour we all went and had to try these things. The fries were very good about 3 times as thick as the McDonalds fries, and I might have to say 3 times as good. We also got waffles which they eat as dessert not breakfast, and mine had ice cream and chocolate on top and I could barely finish it was so sweet. The waffles sugar inside carmalize in the middle making it very sweet but so delicious, no way I could eat 2. We met another girl from canada who joined in the activities.
Charles and I were chatting and after about 3 hours I told him I had went to school in Montana and he said I know one person in montana, so out of the small town mindset I have asked "who's that?" He said Jeff Wilcox, and I was taken aback, Jeff was one of my really good friends at MSU, and we both couldn't believe that we were in Brussels and have the same friend from back home. Such a small world. He also told me that his childhood friend who also is good friends with Jeff was coming to meet him in Brussels that night his name Philip. We all got together that night and went out in a pub crawl that was offered by the tour company and we all were laughing and still couldn't believe how small the world actually was. After all our shenanigans we were on our way back to the hostel going through the beautiful main square when three 16-18 year old boys came and started heckling us a bit we got away from them, but then Charles noticed his phone was missing. the 3 boys had left us but went back and joined there other 10 friends. We tried to get it back but it was useless with the language barrier and the fact that there were 13 of them and 3 of us. So his phone got stolen right in front of our eyes, right in the middle of the main tourist square. Gosh darn.
We went back to hostel and went to sleep all of us bummed out for Charles. The next morning we were planning on going to Bruge but I decided to just do my own thing and go check out some more palaces and stuff I had seen on the map. I got some great views of the city as well as some down pouring rain, hail and a group of people watching the backstreet boys inside a hotel(they are on their European comeback tour). I went back to the hostel where I hung for a bit and summer showed up just after me and I asked her if she wanted to join me to the Automium. We headed off and the traffic was horrible with people everywhere and found out that the Belgian soccer championships were that night and we were right by te stadium. The game was at 830 and it was 5 but still so many people around. I saw an opening in the fence towards the stadium so we walked through it and made our way towards it. Next thing I know we were on the grass in the center of the stadium. It was incredible, I wanted to just hide in the stadium but I thought 3.5 hours might be a bit long so we took off for the Automium. The Automium was a huge structure that was built for the world fair in 1958, and is like the Eiffel Tower of Brussels. We went up in it got a fantastic view of the city and made our way back down. The two teams in the match that night had huge parties going on trying to get their fans fired up. There were dj's on big sides and everyone was wasted. It's how all soccer favs get during their teams matches. We hung in there taking in all the soccer culture and even snuck into a VIP area for a bit and had some free drinks before we took off to meet Charles and Philip.
Met Charles and Philip at this small pub that still had a working juke box playing 45's to all the older people in the pub. It was a great atmosphere. We went to Delirium which is a bar/area that serves 2000+ different kind of beers it was packed and we caught ourselves getting crazy with some New Zealanders. They were hilarious and we were all laughing and goofing around. Amidst all this madness Philip had realized his phone had been pick pocketed to. He remembers getting pushed a bit by 2-3 people and his phone went missing but no idea who took it. Two phones stolen in 24 hours. Not very good odds. But we went walking around to find something else going on but ended up at a Kebab shop. And we went back to hostel.
Grandma Colleen and My mother I would like to thank you both for making and helping me with my zipper pockets that were placed in all my pairs of pants. No pickpockets here! And hopefully never.
The next morning I caught the train to Amsterdam to see all the stereotypes of the city. Coming into amsterdams central station the buildings, canals, and greenery were stunning. I dropped my bag off at the hostel. The hostel Flying Pig came equipped with a smoke room so everyone could smoke anything they wanted. I went to walk around the city seeing all the beautiful canals and buildings and the lingering smell of weed outside every coffeeshop and I happened to have stumbled across big mamma alley.
If you want a coffee don't go to a coffee shop, go to a cafe. Huge difference and you might end up getting high just walking into one of these places.
Many people were smoking pot in the streets it was different. And I headed back to hostel to see if I could make some new friends. I saw some kids playing cards so I asked what they were playing and if I could join. They were allying cribbage so I just say and we chatted Doug and Tyler (canada) were just in Europe for a couple weeks. I met up with Wes as well who I had stayed with in Venice and we all went and checked out the city. We walked through the red light district as it has been culture here since when the country was formed. It is so awkward watching people go up to the windows and asking the girls how much, and having the girls tap on the window trying to get your attention, and watching other guys come out of the rooms with there head down trying to hide their identity. We then just went back to the hostel to get some sleep.
We caught the free walking tour in the morning. And we walked for 3 hours getting explained the history, monuments and of course the red light district and coffee shop happenings. Amsterdams philosophy is that if it's going to happen anyway, we may as well regulate it.
The tour guide told the group that only 5% of the population of Netherlands actually take weed regularly, so it's strictly pretty much for the tourists. And the red light girls rent the windows and pay tax and everything to the city. They work for themselves, freelancers. All this was news to me. Learning so much
After the walking tour we continued the journey around the city and went to hostel to hang out and relax and we met a bloke by the name Gethin (Uk) who had been working in Australia. Most of the people in the hostel just sat in the smoke room the entire time I was there. Not my scene, I like to go do things. But that night we went to try and find a locals spot and that's just what we did, went to a bar where maNy of the people were speaking dutch and we all stayed out to late.
I woke up early for the Anne frank museum the line was huge but it moved quickly only waiting about 30min. Since I read the book in high school I knew a bit about it, but actually being there was a whole new level of intensity. The tour walked through the house, the rooms, and everything mentioned in the book. It was surreal almost bringing tears to my eyes. Highly recommended for everyone.
I left there and ran into my friend I had met in Florence Hildemarie who is from the Netherlands. Gethin, Hildemarie, and myself rented bicycles and cruised around the city like locals. The city actually has more bikes then it's actual population. So sweet! And they pull 20,000 bikes a year out of the canal. As well as 1 body per month because none of the canals have railings. But we cruised around on the bikes seeing much of the city I had not seen enjoying the brightly sunny day. I felt so uncomfortable riding my bike here because there were so many bicycles as well as mopeds romping past you in the bike lanes. I learned quickly hold your line and don't swerve. We finished that after 3 hours and Chilled at the hostel am before meeting up with Doug and them to play go fish for a few hours at the hostel. We didn't stay out to late that night as all of us were leaving the next day.
So today I'm off to Berlin for some more culture shock and devastation from the nazi in WWII. I'm excited to see Germany heard a lot of great things.
Put coins in, open, and grab your burger
Biking selfie
Now I'm on the train again trying to get some rest but between all the stops and passport checks and ticket checks it's a bit tough! Plus I wanted to keep y'all up to date!
Booyah, here we go, let's get em
