I've dropped into my haunted bunk
been to the touchless times,
out where the water's drying
been past the 'No Attractions Past This Point' sign
what we have here are all flaws in progress
where all songs are one song and that song is, Don't Forget
- 'World Container' by The Tragically Hip

Last time I left off, Darren had missed his flight back to Hamburg/Lubeck... well he made it up to Eckernforde (the closest train station to Peter's parent's place) and we picked him up at 4:30am. So that was fun for everyone.

Anyway, the five of us headed north to Denmark a day later. We stayed at a place called Blavand, which is near the beach and is full of Germans during the summer but was well on its way to being deserted by the time we were there in mid-September. We rented a two-storey, 3bdrm holiday home and it was lush - it even had a sauna. Played a lot of card and board games with the fire roaring. Was lovely.

The beach at Blavand was really interesting. There were lots of bunkers there from WWII and you could go in some of them (briefly, they smelled of pee), and climb on them etc. They all had iron mule heads and tails affixed to them, the meaning of which is along the lines that mules, being the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, are sterile, therefore, these bunkers are sterile so there will be no more (fingers crossed). Anyway, it made for interesting sunset photos.

After two nights in Denmark, we made our back down to Hamburg because Sina had to go back to work. We had a couple of lazy days there, but did some serious sightseeing on the weekend. Went on a ferry up the river, and man is the port HUGE. I loved it. Ports are cool.

On the Sunday it was beuatiful and sunny (a rare thing these days) and we went to the Stadtpark for a picnic. Such a nice way to spend the day.

On Monday night we caught the overnight bus to Amsterdam (the 3 of us were pretty sick of overnighters by now, but it was the only option barring 300euros for the train). We arrived at 6:30 tuesday morning. It was raining and we weren't allowed to check in to our hostel (or even leave our bags there) till 2pm, so we had to go back to the train station and use the lockers there. We ended up going to the Heinekin Brewery for the self-guided tour. It was a great way to spend four hours out of the rain. It was hard to drink the complementary beers having not slept much, but we did it.

Anyway, the real reason we were in Amsterdam was the Tragically Hip were playing there, twice. Me and Meze went to Tuesday and Wednesday's shows at the Paradiso. Both shows were pretty much sold out and the crowd was about 60% Canadians (where the Hip are from) and 40% other. They played 19 songs both nights, but only played six on both nights, so in the end we got 32 different songs, including covers of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, and The Clash (setlists available at http://thehip.com/touring-SetLists.html). We were about three rows back for the first concert and it was the best live show I've ever seen, until we stood up the front of the stage for the second concert, and it was better.

In between concerts we looked around Amsterdam... which was ok. Not really taken by the city. Maybe if I was into smoking dope and hanging out in the redlight district. On an unrelated note, Darren has stayed in Amsterdam, crashing at his friend Tambo's house for an indefinite period.

We are now in Brugge, Belgium, which is about an hour train ride west from Brussels. The town is lovely and it's only a half hour bike ride to the coast, but unfortunately today it's raining so it's neither beach nor bike weather... but it is blog weather, so lucky you! Brugge (or Bruges) is really beautiful though. The whole centre of town is UNESCO heritage listed. Will take some photos today when there's a break in the weather.

Tomorrow our (Continental) European Odyssey will come to an end, as we are flying from Brussels to London at 7:30pm. We will be staying with Marisa's cousin, Nadia, for a few days while we hastily try and sort out more permanent accomodation and (gasp) employment.

I think we're both strangely looking forward to settling down for a bit. Not having to worry about booking the day after tomorrow's accomodation or what "thank you" is in the local language, or where the heck to find the @ key on the local permutation of a keyboard. But, considering we left NZ on the 9th of July, and we haven't had our own place since back in Brisbane on the 3rd of June, we're in pretty good shape. Or maybe this is just me talking in the afterglow of two Tragically Hip shows??

We still have a lot of Europe to see (on the agenda are France, Spain, Greece, Southern Italy, and maybe Turkey and Egypt), so this blog ain't done. Till then...

Craig