The reason why I haven't been able to write is because I spent the last week touring northern Europe with nothing but a backpack full of things I needed. I wouldn't say I was struggling, but it was definitely and adventure.
I left two Saturdays ago with one of Jana's mom's friends. It was very weird, but I didn't have to get a train from Oberbrechen to Cologne. I spent about 5 hours in Cologne doing what I normally do in a strange city-- walk aimlessly. Surprisingly, Cologne was a really nice place, with some of the best shopping I have found in a smaller city. I had a McFlurry, something that was a reoccurring thing throughout my week (I will get into that soon).
I took the train to Brussels and told Jen that I would meet her at around 9.15 pm. I got lost because Brussels makes no sense and my map was horrible. I made it to the hotel at around 9.35 and realized I had no way of telling anyone from school that I had arrived. So I did the most logical thing I could think of: go get wifi at McDonald's. Of course, it had non (honestly, the only McDonald's ever not to have it). I then did the second most intelligent thing I could think of: walk around the block about fifteen times. That made me feel suspicious though, so I just stood at the corner and hoped that I would run into someone from Fisher. No longer than two hours later (around 11) I ran into my professor and the look of fright, surprise, and confusion in his face is one I won't soon forget.
The next day, I bummed along with them to the towns of Brugge and Ghent. Both of the towns were in Belgium and they honestly looked like the villages out of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I started talking to the representative of the tour company, who I think she was only like 26-28. Her name was Merika and she was from Amsterdam. We developed a decent friendship and the Dutch are a completely different type of people than anyone I have ever met. They have such a "whatever approach" to life and she couldn't understand a lot of the rules that we have in America.
Anyways, I left Brussels a few days later, not too disappointed though. I don't really like Brussels I have decided. The train to Amsterdam was fun though because I had to change trains in Rotterdam, which there were 0 signs in English and I have no knowledge of the Dutch language. I headed off to Amsterdam for about 50 hours or so.
Amsterdam was amazing. I spent the day walking around exploring, waiting until my friends from Fisher arrived. I had dinner with them, where I spent most of it talking to Merika about Amsterdam and the Dutch in general. She offered to take me on a bike tour because the group was doing it and everyone in Amsterdam has bikes. No jokes, it is like there is the same number of bikes as there is people.
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| It did rain though. A lot |
I felt bad during the bike tour though because I sat on the back of her bike. I was basically dead weight but she was a pro bike rider. Oh, I had a beer in Brussels though that was voted the best beer in the world. It is called Delirium (you can click that). I wanted to get some in London because I liked the logo (an elephant) but it cost 9 quid for a pint. I got it for 3.20 Euro for a half liter (almost a pint) so I was happy with that.
Anyways, for an example of the Dutch school of though, I asked her if helmets are required for bike riders. She was dumbfounded by the question and said that a law requiring people to wear helmets would be useless in the Netherlands. She said the Dutch do not want to be told what to do and if a law is passed and it doesn't make sense to them, they just won't follow that law. A solid response.
I took an overnight train the following day to Copenhagen. It was a decent ride but I couldn't sleep at all. Copenhagen is beautiful.
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| See. |
In Copenhagen, I just walked around. I honestly walked so much, that the last few days, I was dragging. I would set out to walk and then four or five hours later I would get a coffee or a pastry and walk another three hours or so. In my hostel I did make some friends one night though. They were from America, but a lot of fun. They asked if I wanted to go on a pub crawl with them, and I said sure. So we figured out a way to the pub where it started and the bartender told us that there was no pub crawl here... ever. So we went across the street and found that they also have never heard of a "viking pub crawl." So we decided just to make up our own.
It doesn't get dark in Copenhagen in the summer until late. So the sun went down and it was dark at around 11.30. We went to 5 different bars and it was quite a lot of fun. The Danish people are also extremely nice and friendly. All northern Europeans are (aka, people from Amsterdam). We started walking home at 3.00 in the morning, and the sun was coming up. It was such a weird thing.
Also, the money makes no sense there. I paid 22 Kroners for a McFlurry and 50 for a sandwich. My room cost 315, which was only $50. No clue. Why I mentioned McFlurries was because I ate about 7 of them during my time there (not to mention about 5 other ice creams because it is absolutely delicious here). The reason for this is that they have different flavors in every country you go to. In London, they had Cadbury chocolate and chocolate caramel. In France and Germany, they had Kit Kat, along with Oreo in Germany... but the Oreo they put in Oreos and chocolate syrup. In Belguim, they had a thing called Smarties (not like the ones in America)... which I am not sure what they are but they were ok. Amsterdam had Snickers (again with extra chocolate syrup) and Copenhagen had Twix.
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| Copenhagen |
Now I am spending the next two weeks here in Germany and I will be home on the 10th of June late. I am excited to come home and see everyone and to tell and hear stories! Also, I applied for graduation today, so that is also something I figured I should tell you guys about haha.
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| Oh yea... there is also a type of chip here flavored American Cream. I have never had American cream before and it tasted like nothing we have in America. |
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