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Well, what a week its been. How many times in my life will I be able to say I started off a week in Hamburg, Germany and finished it in Zurich, Switzerland, with stopovers in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Admittedly it has been more then a week but still...
So after my last blog, I went out to further explore Hamburg, it was 5pm before I left Gerd's place as Id slept half the day and spent the other half on the internet. Quite uneventful other then meeting up for a drink late in the night. The following day, and my final in Hamburg I met up with David, a friend of my parents who is now living in Hamburg, who showed me around St Pauli and the Reeperbahn area as well as other parts of the city. In the evening I met up with a girl called Krsitina that I met through globalfreeloaders and we went to Sternshanze which is a cool area full of bars and food places, it was a good way to spend my last night. Early the next morning I was on the train to AMSTERDAM.
Crazy place Amsterdam is, the city is filled with the famous 'coffee shops' which are renowned for selling marijuana and 'cafes' which are the pubs, which led to my dilemma of where do you guy to just drink a coffee in Amsterdam. I spent the first day wondering round the canals, which all start to look the same after a while, before finding vandel park where i spent part of the afternoon enjoying the little sunshine Amsterdam had to offer. I met Jeroen, the guy who was hosting me, after he had finished work and went out to his place just outside of the city. the second day i was there i was given the idea to hire a bike and explore the area outside of the city. One of the most scenic countryside I have seen, (see photos). I only spent 2 nights in Amsterdam which was enough for the moment.
The next morning I headed to Brussels which I have to admit is one of the more boring cities I have visited. I spent the first day looking around, not so much to see before meeting Jan and his girlfreind Natalie at around 5.30. We went to Natalies place and chilled for a while which was a welcome change from the hours previous, before doing some grocery shopping, Belgium's selection of beer is amazing, never before have I seen so many different types of local beers, lucky for me I had some locals with me to select some for sampling. Natalie made an awesome lasagne for dinner and then we hung around at jan's place which was in a cool big old building. The plan was to go to a party, something else Belgium has a wide selection of but for most of the night we just sat around in the loungeroom with Jan's brother and his girlfriend until around 2 when the decision was made to go to the party. The anticipation almost killed me as the party was talked down so much that I was expecting there was only going to be a guy and a dog, adding to the anticipation was the fact that the guy who was hosting the party is a model, so on one hand I was expecting a model to be hosting a great party where as on the other hand it was being talked down. After walking through the ghetto for quite along time and waking up someone at the wrong house we managed to find cristoph's place, the party consisted of 3 guys, 2 girls and a dog. So not overly exciting but was still enjoyable to meet new people. We got home at 5 am so unsurprisingly the next day didnt start to early. By mid afternoon I was looking for ideas to spoend the day, the idea of seeing more of Brussels was not so appealing so jan suggested I go check out another city as he had uni work to do. He organised for one of his university friends who lives in Brugge to show me around up there. It was overly touristic but good for taking photos, the city looks very medieveil and that is its main attraction to tourists. The churches there were really interesting, 1 big one with massive stained glass windows and a sculpture of michaelangelo's, then there was another church which contains on alter under which is said to contain a cannister in which is a piece of the cloth worn by jesus when he was crucified and therefore the only remaining traces of the blood of christ. Kinda cool if its true. Jan's friend was a good guide and we finished off with a local Brugge beer which was superb,-) In the night me and Jan joined some of his friends at a party in a strange youth centre complex, the party was quite lame but the people were fun and so it was a good night.
The next day I was off to paris, it took me at least an hour to leave the Gare Du Nord station due to the complexity of the station and then another hour to work out how to return there half an hour later to meet my host Herbert, he was a really cool guy, he showed me round in the eveing, we seriously covered 70% of Paris in an evening by foot, over 20km. By the time we got home we cxould hardly walk. Spent the next day riding the cool street rental bikes which if you return within half an hour cost you nothing which means you are constantly returning and getting new ones and rode down to Bastille and along the river to the Louve where I spent several hours. Big nd interesting place, the Mona Lisa is quite small though especially when you cant get any closer then about 5 metres for security reasons. Also went to the top of the Eiffel tower, got really amazing view of the sunset over Paris. Got home quite late and was up early this morning to get the train to Bern in Switzerland and then onto Zurich where a friend of my dads lives.
I have been going through places quite fast I know but the idea of this trip is to see a bit of everything and then I will come back for longer next time. If i start to feel tired I always have ppeople I know close by where I can chill out for several days. I only really have 7 weeks in Europe as i got a volunteer english teaching job in Madrid towards the end of the trip so i will be spending more time in Italy, Greece and Turkey before I go to Spain. Also I have a Eurail pass which I only really save money if i use the trains a lot. the distances here are so much shorter then Asia that there is no need for night trains. I went on a train that travels at over 250km an hour the other day... beat that cityrail.
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