Europe: Jay's Tips For Traveling In Europe - Part II

Second round of my random tips for visiting and traveling in Europe. If you'd like to check out the first round, scroll down to the bottom of this article for a link.

• Almost everything is closed on Sunday, so buy whatever you need before then and prepare for a nice relaxing day.
  
• You can get stamps at tobacco shops.
  
• A lot of websites won't work outside of the United States. Hulu and Pandora for example. These sort of sites will block you if have an out of the U.S. IP address. There are plenty of programs out there to spoof your IP and work around this. Google has the answer.
  
• H1N1 flu is a big deal everywhere, even though nobody seems to have it.
  
• Karaoke bars will usually have about 80% songs of their own language, and 20% everything else. American songs somewhere in that 20%.
• Irish Pubs are your friend. You always know what you're going to get and they always deliver.
  
• They use coins here a lot more than in the States, and stores want you to use them. For example in the US if something costs $3.79 we'd just hand them a $5 dollar bill most of the time, or maybe four $1 bills. If you sat at the register counting out exact change most people would be annoyed. Here, it's the opposite. It's rude to give bills if you have exact change, and you're expected to use exact change any time you can. Especially at smaller shops, bakeries, etc. There are 2€, 1€, 0.50€, 0.20€, 0.10€, 0.05€, 0.02€, and 0.01€ coins. Yes there is a two cent coin. It's weird and next to useless in my experience.
• Most banks (at least in Paris) have both outdoor and indoor ATM machines. I advise going to the ones inside so you don't get mugged. Especially if you're a lady.
  
• Don't carry all of your cash with you, and don't keep it all in one place. Money belts are cool.
  
• Bring your passport with you everywhere, or at least have a copy of it on you on at all times.
  
• The US Dollar is currently a lot weaker than the Euro and the British Pound. So even if some things seem to be the same price they are actually more expensive. Keep an eye on the exchange rates so you know what you're spending. Also, traveling in countries where the Dollar is stronger than their local currency has the opposite (positive) effect.
  
• Gasoline is a bit more expensive in Europe than in the US, but not by too much. And they refer to it as Petrol, not gas or gasoline.
• If you plan on driving, be humble and ready to learn some new driving rules. Roads are very slim and with different traffic laws it can get dangerous if you aren't paying attention.
• France Specific: Cut or tear off a piece of baguette, then tear with your hands. Don't cut the tip off the cheese. Slice it from the side so it always leaves a tip.
• Maybe France Specific: The family I'm staying with this weekend sometimes drinks coffee or hot cocoa out of a bowl with a spoon like we would with cereal. Not sure why, but it's cool!
• France Specific: Visiting the French country-side, I've yet to meet anyone who speaks English. Not one single person.
  
• Roads signs and speeds in Europe are in Kilometers Per Hour (KPH) as opposed to Miles per hour. (MPH) In fact, everything is in the metric system, and as much as I hate to admit it...after using it for awhile it makes so much more sense and is awesome.
  
• Scooters and motorcycles are everywhere. E-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.
• You can find free WiFi at any McDonalds as well as a host of other random places. I've yet to have any trouble finding free random street WiFi either, just walk around and sit on a bench and check the nearby networks.

Read PART 1 OF EUROPEAN TRAVEL TIPS here or read about some adventures from Central France.

Europe: Corbigny, Vezelay, and Central France

On Wednesday, I left with my friend Richard to visit his home town of Corbigny located in the Burgundy region of France. Richard lives in Paris and is a friend I met through working in CG a couple of years ago. His family has a house (and a seriously enormous amount of farms and land) in the village of Corbigny about a three hour drive south of Paris. We left in his car and headed south around 3pm, got stuck in a little traffic, but were able to arrive at our destination around 7pm.

Burgundy Region, France

It was dark so I didn't see much of the country side or the town on the way in, but when we got to Richard's house it was a sight to see! It's a beautiful house filled to the brim with all sorts of trinkets, art, books, weapons, world currency, puppets, souvenirs, and scores of great items from countries all over the world. Richard and his family have traveled to many places and they have such great things to look at from the trips it's like a museum. Very cool! Richard's father doesn't speak any English so we haven't really been able to talk much besides Rich's translating for us. He had dinner waiting for us though which was great. Fresh pheasant he had just hunted that day, potatoes, vegetables, fresh bread, and...epic wine. His Dad is a French wine connoisseur and opened a bottle of red for us that can only be described as mind-blowing. I wish I could tell you what it was, it was a 1999...something. He picked it out to go with the meal and I must say it was absolutely awesome. The best wine I have ever tasted. Dinner was followed by a fresh apple tart made with apples from their garden outside, and a nice cup of coffee.

The next morning we woke up to breakfast where we had fresh croissants, coffee, and fresh bread from the local bakery. Got ready to go out and spent the first part of the morning hiking through the forest and a local field of Corbigny. One of the local fields has a large monument in a farmer's field where a plane crashed in 1934.


We explored the monument a bit and then went for a walk through the forests behind it for awhile, it was partially raining and cold as hell but it sure is nice to see TREES for the first time in awhile. And I don't mean palm trees or the ones you find in Paris, I mean a real forest. The kind that you could start walking through and not ever find your way out. There weren't any leaves on the trees though because of, well you know...Winter...but it was great anyhow. Stumbling upon old tree houses and the like, reminded me a lot of my child hood growing up on Cape Cod and doing the same sort of thing. The climate and geography here are much like the Cape in a way.

Not all that exciting, but...trees!

After the forest we headed back to the house for lunch where we had one of the best steaks I've ever tasted, a glass of wine from a bottle that I probably couldn't afford with a week's paycheck, mashed potatoes and some fresh bread. This is lunch by the way. (I love this place!) Next we left off on a thirty minute drive to visit the nearby town of Vezelay. Vezelay, France is an amazing town located on a large bluff overlooking the surrounding Burgundy region. It contains one of France's oldest and most famous Romanesque churches, the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene. We visited the church and got to explore a crypt underneath before walking the grounds and seeing a fantastic view of the surrounding valleys from atop the bluff. Here is a photo I found of the city.

Vezelay, France

I picked up a souvenir from Vezelay before we headed back into Corbigny for another epic dinner at the Adenot House. That night we had a meal known as Croque Monsieur/Croque Madame. It's essentially a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, the latter with a friend egg on top. It was great! The combination of French cheese, ham, butter, and eggs delivers just an exquisite taste. All natural food, probably from a farm right nearby. Richard's father uncorked another epic bottle of red wine from his wine cellar and we enjoyed a great meal. For dessert we had a fresh apple pie, yogurt, and coffee.

This morning we woke up and after another breakfast of fresh bread and croissants we hopped in the car for an hour ride to visit Richard's aunt and uncle on their farm. The farm is so big it stretched from one horizon to the next it seemed, their house sitting atop a great bluff overlooking the farmland spread out for miles (kilometers, har har) in all directions. They didn't speak any English either, so again Rich was the translator for us. His aunt greeted us with a glass of "Porto" which I can only describe as a ridiculously potent wine. Your glass is filled up with only about as much as a shot in the States (an ounce or so), it tastes sweet and rich like a sweet red wine but has a much higher alcohol percentage. It's tasty, heh. While waiting for his Uncle to finish work, we got to spend a half hour or so on their Four Wheeler romping around their land in the woods. So. Much. Fun. Haven't been on one of those since I was probably 16-17 or so. We finished up, cleaned off (some of) the mud, and went back to the house. For lunch we had fresh salad, another steak, scalloped potatoes, and fresh bread. Yeah...this was lunch again, they eat well here! Some apple cider and a yogurt for dessert.

We spent awhile at the house and then decided we would drive to Magny Cours, a large F1 circuit about 20 minutes away. We wanted to go there to do some kart racing on the kart circuit they have and got lucky when we arrived and were the only ones there. We had the course to ourselves! We paid roughly 60 euros each for 5 tickets, (5 runs each) which was about 30 laps over the course of two hours. This was my first time ever driving a kart on a real circuit, and it was some of the most fun I've EVER had. It had rained that morning so the track was wet still, so I started off pretty slow while I got used to it and we got the tires warmed up. I think my first lap time was something around 1:28 and by the end of the day I had a lap time of 1:10:967. 18 seconds shaved! Richard has done this a hundred times and his best time was 1:10:300 so I was really happy with my lap time for my first day. I really want to try it again once I get back to Los Angeles. My body is sore, my head hurts, I'm tired, and I can't wait to do it all over again.

This is the kart circuit at Magnys-Cours.

After racing we drove to another place yet again where Richard wanted to show me his land. His father had given him a large spot of land nearby and we wanted to hike out through it and look around. Rich hadn't been here in while so he wanted to walk through, but also it was fun just to explore and see everything. We walked awhile and came across a large river flowing through the middle of it, skipped some stones, hung out a bit then headed back when it got dark. We came back to the house again in Corbigny after that, where we just had yet another epic dinner. Beef, sausage, vegetables, potatoes, bread, and what was described to me as "the best bottle of white wine you will probably ever taste in your life." Even Richard's father was apprehensive about opening this one. For dessert we had the Adenot Family's secret recipe Chocolate cake. So good! After dinner his Dad showed us his wine collection, which was unbelievable. He had several bottles from the 1950's and probably a bottle from every year in between. I can't properly describe how awesome this is. Just believe me.

After dinner his dad wanted to show us his hobby, collecting rare old documents related to his family's history. He has documents dating all the way back to the 12th century. Un-freaking-believable to see and touch these. Eight hundred year old pieces of paper, err, leather I should say, just in a folder we can see and touch and read. He had traced his family's heritage and history and built a family tree reaching back to the 1500's. He said it has taken him over twenty years to complete what he has done so far. Stop and consider that for a moment. It's amazing and inspiring.

Here I sit now in front of a warm fire, watching Star Wars and writing to the world. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day filled with more great food, alcohol, good stories, and who knows what else.

Europe: Jay's Tips For Being In Europe - Part I

Welcome to a multi-part series I'll be doing periodically to outline some tips I have for an American living in Europe. Now that I've been here a month, I've put together a list of things I've learned that may be of use to someone who is visiting Europe for the first time. A lot of these things apply to France since I've been here primarily, but consider them if you travel outside of France as they very well may be true in other countries as well. Some may be obvious, and some you may not know, enjoy!

• Toilets have two flush buttons, the smaller button uses less water.
• Remember that €1 != $1. Obvious, but don't forget! You're spending roughly $1.50 (Nov.2009) every time you spend a single Euro.
  
• Electrical sockets are different in different parts of the world, you'll need adapters.
• Food is way better here in general, even things like jam, mayonnaise, etc. because shit isn't made with Corn Syrup, they use actual ingredients. (Novel concept.)
• Clocks use the 24 hour cycle and not A.M. P.M. So 8pm is 20:00.
• Temperature is in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Convert Here!
• European Trains are amazing, travel on one at least once in your life.
• If someone offers to help you find your way, they want money.
• If someone asks if you speak English, just shake your head, they want money. English speakers will just start speaking in English and hope you respond, they won't ask first.
  
• If someone finds a gold ring on the ground and offers it to you for free, they want money.
• If someone talks to you at all on the street, they probably want money.
• If you're under 26 years old, everything is cheaper in Europe. Everything. Travel before 26! Most museums are free, train tickets are cheaper, hotels/hostels, everything.
  
• Don't lie about your age on the train to get a cheaper ticket, it'll cost you. A lot.
• Paris Specific: They have separate stores for everything! No giant Targets and shit. You'll find specific stores for lots of different items. Hard to get use to but quite awesome.
  
• Commas and Decimals are switched. So $1.50 == $1,50 and 1,000,000 == 1.000.000
• Paris Specific: Nothing is in English and nobody will speak it to you, unless you're a pretty girl. If you're a guy, prepare for a pain in the ass if you don't speak French.
• Paris Specific: It rains all of the time in Winter. Get ready.
• Almost all homeless people have pets. They get a stipend to feed the pet from the Gov't so most of them have dogs. It also prevents them from getting arrested since the cops can't leave the pets by themselves. Smart eh?
  
• Hostels aren't dirty and dangerous like in the movie Hostel. That is all bullshit. They are awesome and you'll meet excellent people if you're willing to.
• Cities: Dog shit is all over the ground and all over the place. I mean everywhere. Watch your step.
  
• Paris Specific: Nobody smiles, don't take it personally it's the culture. Just smile at everyone and laugh when they give you a weird look for not looking depressed.
• Learning bits of the the languages can help a lot, but in my experience if you try to speak the language they will respond in their language and then you won't know what they said. If you go this route, it's almost smarter to be obviously bad at it when you try to speak, so they respond in English. Otherwise you're fucked anyway 'cause you'll have to just say, "Sorry I know I tried but I have no idea what you just said, so can we start over in English?". In which case, a Parisian will roll their eyes and be a jerk, and you might as well have said it in English to begin with anyway. Belgians, Italians and Dutch will be nice though so give it a shot and see if your experience differs from mine. Note: Are you a good looking girl? Forget this one. You're all set.
  
• Plan on doing some cooking, going out to eat is big money around here. Some hostels have kitchens, check when you make a reservation.
• Buying a coffee or anything at the bar will be cheaper than sitting down and ordering it. You don't tip servers in Europe so they charge you extra for ordering it from a server instead.
  

That's it for part one. If you'd like to read Part II, check it out here. Enjoy!

Europe: Brussels and Amsterdam

Just to get it out of the way since I know the world wants to know, unfortunately I did not meet Jean-Claude Van-Damme in Brussels. A failure I will take to the grave. Now that it's out of the way, I'll write about what I did instead. Second note, this is going to be very long. I had an amazing time and really don't want to forget a single detail so I'm writing it all down for my own memory. It's a shame I won't remember this fifty years from now so instead I'll just read my blog again when the time comes.

JCVD was nowhere to be found in his home country of Belgium.

This was my first time traveling by train so it was a neat experience finding my way to the platform and figuring it all out. Emily wanted to see how it was done as well so she came with me to the Paris Nord (North) train station. Thankfully the station is very easy to navigate and the people were nice so I got my tickets easily and found myself on the train a few minutes later. Said goodbye to Emily for the time being and relaxed into my seat for the two hour ride to Brussels in the country of Belgium. I actually had a connection somewhere random but blah blah blah. The train was awesome and very, very relaxing. It's great to just chill out and watch the world go by outside the windows.

I arrived at Brussels Midi (South) station on time around 12:30pm and via the directions I had written down I took the metro to the north side of the city center and made my way to my hostel. The 2Go4 Hostel is where I was staying and checking in was a breeze with my reservation already made for the next four nights. I walked upstairs to my room where I met a girl named Libby who was still sleeping from the night before, looking quite hung over . Keeping the noise down so she could sleep, I took a shower, unpacked a bit, and headed out to explore and find some epic Belgian food.

Epic waffles.

If you're not familiar with Belgium, it's known and famous for a few different things. Not necessarily in this order, it's known for it's Beer, Chocolate, Waffles, and Mussels, however Brussels is also the capital of Europe and houses a lot of the government offices and conferences for the European Union (EU). It's a busy, bustling city that is no stranger to tourism and greets it in kind. All of the restaurants have menus in four different languages (French, English, Flemish, German) and I'm sure the servers probably speak enough of each to greet and serve everyone properly. Just from walking around I got the idea quickly that everyone was friendly and it was in general a laid back place, a nice contrast from Paris where everyone is in a hurry and smiling is against the law (har). The map I got from the hostel also had some tips on what to do and some suggestions for food, etc. so it got me off to a good start. After an hour or so of wandering I ended up at a medium-sized restaurant called Le Grand Cafe where I had a steak lunch with a nice, tasty pint of Stella. An amazing meal and a nice buzz later I walked back to the hostel where I took a break in the room and got to talk to Libby a bit. She is from Melbourne, Australia and had been there a few days already so she told me a few stories of where to go and what was fun in the city. It's always good to meet people who have done it before to get the scoop and all. Thankfully she was cool and didn't smell or snore or anything so +1 point for that. Hostel mates can be such a gamble, I think that anytime they aren't completely weird it's a good stay! So, cheers to Libby for being cool. :)

After hanging awhile two more people came into the room. A bearded mountain man named Mike from Canada and a girl named Shannon who was from Boston, Massachusetts which isn't too far from my own home town of Brewster, MA. They had met a couple of days earlier and become friends so they were traveling together for the time being and ended up in our room for what was also their last nights in Brussels. We all chatted for awhile, got settled in, and decided to head down to the hostel common area for some dinner and beers from the vending machine. (Isn't that awesome? Yes, vending machine beer. Cheap too!)

Down in the common area we met a few more people, another girl from Australia, one from New Zealand, a guy named Kasper from New Zealand, and a guy from Australia, and two guys from France I think who didn't say much. We chatted it up, talked about our trips, lives, and got prepared for the night. Dinner time rolled around so we went out for some Greek "kebabs" at the Sultan of Kebap (yes, spelled wrong haha!). Kebabs are basically just sliced beef in pitas with a bunch of vegetables and some epic sauces. It's the equivalent to a burrito/taco in California as there are Kebab shops on almost every street in Europe. It was bound to be a long night of drinking so I ate as much as I could and we headed out towards the first bar, Delirium.

Delirium is definitely not a locals' spot in Brussels, it's a tourist bar to the max and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone there from Brussels who wasn't an employee. Buuuut, it holds the current Guinness Book Record for having the most types of beers available and is FUN as hell. In 2004 they scooped the record by having 2004 different beers available. Years later it's gotten even more and still holds the record,definitely a kick ass place to drink beer. I must have tried 15 different beers that night, some great, some terrible. There are a lot of "flavored" beers, chocolates and cherries and bananas and coconuts and mangos and so on and so forth, but thankfully they have plenty of manly beer as well. The one that stood out for me was the Orval Trappist Ale, which they had a batch of "plus one year" which was a batch that had been aging a bit longer and was just AWESOME. It's about 8% alcohol which is medium for a trappist, but man was it great! I also had a few others that were almost as good, most of them ranging from 8-11% alcohol content, so needless to say it was a nice, drunken night. It was great fun talking to the different people and learning about New Zealand, Australia, and all the places Mike and Shannon had been already. I felt like a big traveling noobie but it was fun anyway to hear such great stories. I'm a bit jealous of the freedom that the backpackers had, just wandering the continent, going from adventure to adventure while I seemed a slave to my planning. I decided at that moment that I was going to make the very best of my time here in Europe and really step it up a notch. Even if that meant being a bit spontaneous and stepping outside of the box a little.

Delirium Cafe in Brussels. Photo credit to TripAdvisor.com

There was a large group of us when we arrived at the bar, probably ten or so, but eventually it dwindled down to only three when all of the ladies and some of the guys went back to the hostel due to hang-overs from the previous day(s). Mike, Kasper and I were still good to go so we hung around and started to talking to some other people. A large group of German women showed up eventually so Mike started talking to them and made some new friends. Both of the guys spoke some German, while I couldn't think of even one word...so it was funny to watch them talking while I just sat around listening and enjoying the brew. I tried to learn some of the language to no avail, though I did get the name of what is suppose to be the all-time best German wine, (Spätlese Rheinhessen). The night moved forward and for some reason (I can't remember but I imagine this was my idea...) we decided to go and find some karaoke. After a good bit of wandering we did actually find a karaoke bar, but we looked inside and saw maybe three or four people, compared to the hundreds at the bar we had just come from...so we all decided to move on and ended up at a place called Celtica. At this point I was totally hammered and details are fuzzy, but there was live music inside with an older man playing some well known tunes on his guitar. The best part was that he would only play about half the song and then trail off into some random jam session on every song. It was funny as hell, it's as if he didn't know the whole songs. As the night went on he got more drunk and the songs became even more diluted with weirdness, yet somehow still so awesome! One of the girls taught us all a trick with some beer coasters where you lay them on the side of the table and flip them over and try to grab them with your hands without them coming apart or turning your hand over. I totally nailed that shit. I managed to get seven of them on my first try. Minutes later though I tried again and I spilled my beer, or someone's...not entirely sure who's it was. ;) Good times. Mike and Kasper were dancing with the two girls so I decided it was time for me to find my way back to the hostel, I grabbed my coat and headed outside. I really had absolutely no idea where I was, so wandering out alone was probably a bad idea, but thanks to my superior sense of direction and my previous wanderings I actually made it back really easily. It must have been about 4-5am, still my first day in Belgium and already having a really, really great time.

The next morning I woke up completely dressed on my yet-to-be made bed with a headache and a fleeting memory of where I was or what I had done to get in such a place. Hostel, Brussels, oh right. Check out time was at 11am, so it was about 10am when everyone got up and started getting ready. I was booked for another few nights so I didn't move much while we all hung out for what was most likely the last hour we'd ever see each other. Eleven rolled around so we headed downstairs for some breakfast and the common room. Mike was headed to Bruge (Belgium), Libby to Amsterdam (The Netherlands), and Shannon I believe had planned to go to Frankfort (Germany). I think it was Shannon who then said, "well I'll just go to Amsterdam with (Libby) so I have someone to travel with". Moments later Libby got an email from two friends who had just come from Bruge and they said it wasn't all that fun, so Mike and I kind of just said, well I guess we'll go with you as well. Moments later, after what was probably the most spontaneous decision of my life, I packed up and headed off with some new friends to the city of Amsterdam. Since I had already paid for this current hostel and couldn't get a refund I just packed an overnight bag and locked everything else in my locker in Brussels and left with everything I'd need for a one-day adventure to Amsterdam.

I purposely only packed a night's worth of clothes and brought enough money to last me just a day so that I wouldn't get crazy and end up in yet another country after-wards. We all hopped on the metro to the train station where we randomly met up with two of Libby's friends from Canada who's names unfortunately escape me right now. They were the two guys who had emailed her saying Bruge was boring, and had come back to Brussels to catch the train to Amsterdam (one leaves every hour). Everyone except for me had a Eurorail pass (a pass that allows anywhere/anytime train travel in Europe) so I needed to buy a train ticket. Shannon had a Eurorail pass but her's was slightly limited and she didn't want to use it up so she decided to buy a ticket as well. We went to the counter and whilst buying the woman at the desk asked if either of us were over 26. I told her I was 27 and she said, "aww, well I guess you don't get the discount!" My reaction was something like, "shit". My ticket cost 36 euro while Shannon's only cost her 23 euro. I laughed and thought, "well lesson learned, next time I'm 25 years old". With our tickets in hand we headed to the platform and hopped on the train that left shortly after.

With the six of us together we secured some seats facing each other on the train and spent the next three hours talking, telling stories, playing cards, drinking coffee, and relaxing. The Canadian guys all geeked out about hockey for awhile, which I thought was hilarious. These guys could not have possibly fit our (America's) "Canadian" stereo-type any stronger. It was all about snow, hockey, beards, and beer. Great group of guys who were happy to fit such a stereotype anyway. We figured out the equation for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice-versa with some simple math, which helped us figure out how cold it was in The Netherlands. Time passed, borders were crossed, and eventually the train slowed to a stop and we climbed out into another country.

Thankfully the weather was nice and Amsterdam at 3pm was a beautiful and vibrant city. I didn't know much about it besides the stories every American knows of the prostitutes and marijuana being legal, but it's actually incredibly nice. There are museums, fantastic buildings and architecture, canals, trams, and all sorts of things that make a city fun to be in. As we left the Amsterdam Central train station Mike was in the middle of telling us not to be run over by a tram when he was promptly run over by a bicycle. It was a skinny girl to, just straight up ran him down. Watch out for bikes in Amsterdam, they are everywhere! We continued on the mission to find our hostel, which we learned shortly after was right in the center of the red-light district, called "Heart of Amsterdam". We all checked in, and found that all of the rooms were film themed, each of them having a different film. The guys were in the James Bond room, appropriate I thought. The girls were in the Clockwork Orange room, with a bunch of guys who had apparently been smoking ganga all day and couldn't even move. Our first mission was food, and we found an Irish Pub where all four guys ordered the same thing, a big cheese burger and a pint of Heineken (Amsterdam's home brew). Seriously, this was the best burger I think I've ever had. It was AWESOME. The pub was called Slainte and I'd recommend it to anyone, anytime. After dinner we went back to the hostel to get changed and get ready for the evening.

Bulldog Coffee Shop, Amsterdam - The first coffee shop to open.

When everyone was ready to go, we headed out to our first stop, the Bulldog Coffee Shop. Bulldog is famous for being the very first coffee shop in Amsterdam so it was kind of a must-stop for us. We went in and ordered some coffee and headed into the basement where you can buy any kind of marijuana you want easily and legally, and smoke it right there. I don't smoke, but I took a few hits just so I could say I had done it. While here we discussed some very important things like the Image Metrics standard drunken arguement, "Bacon Vs. Cheese". As per usual, everyone agreed cheese was better except for one person, Sam. There you have it world, there is always one guy who thinks bacon is better. It was definitely fun sitting there in a little coffee shop smoking a legal joint. We were there for about an hour and decided to head off to get some beers. There really aren't any places in Amsterdam where they advertise being able to drink beer/alcohol AND smoke weed. They frown upon it so it's usually one or the other. We ended up finding some places where you can bend the rules a bit but you'll never find one that advertises both inside. While we were looking for one I dragged everyone into a small bar called "Rock Planet" where they were playing Bon Jovi, GnR, Def Leppard, etc. (yep, all of the best bands ever.) We drank some beer there and then Shannon told us she didn't like Bon Jovi, I think my heart stopped for a second. Being in close proximity to someone who openly admitted not liking Bon Jovi. It was difficult, but...but I pushed on and kept moving forward. :) Next was another random bar that seemed to have a nautical theme. Lots of ships and knots and things all around. Some more good beer and good stories later we headed out for yet another bar where we drank some jager shots, a few bombs, some beers, the guys smoked a bit more, and we came to the realization that the Red Light District was about to close. This came as a bit of a surprise to us. It may have been due to it being Monday, or maybe it's the off season or something, but the bartender named Sandy told us that all of the bars on the strip close at 1am. 1am, in Amsterdam? wtf! She did however have some insider local info on where we should go next, a locals dance club named "Bubbles" that was about a fifteen minute walk away in another part of the city. We thanked her for the info, paid our tabs, geared up and headed off in what was hopefully the right direction.

About thirty minutes later I was trying to figure out where we were when a man came up and pointed out our location on the map. Nice! He was cool right? No. Homeless people here always trick you and help you before you can say no and then guilt trip you until you're not sure where all you're extra coins went. This happened two more times before Shannon finally asked directions from a non-homeless man and we found what we thought was Bubbles. Apparently it wasn't Bubbles at all but equally fun so we ended up hanging around. Sam and Conlan (two Canadians who's names I just remembered) were apparently super stoned and wandered off somewhere else before we made it inside, so it was back to the four of us in this random Dutch dance club at 2am somewhere in Amsterdam.

This club was pretty damn cool really. I wish I could tell you what it was called, but...no idea. There were about 10 bartenders, all of whom were running around and shouting happily and constantly ringing random bells very loudly and giving us all free shots of some mystery blue liquid which tasted like kool-aid and vodka. It was fun, dancing, drinking, loud music, exploding paper bomb things, conga lines, madness ensued. I think I drank like ten half-pints of Heineken there, they just kept coming. The club shut down around 5am and we headed out to walk back to the hostel. On the way back we saw a local guy totally just randomly crash his bike in the middle of the street right next to us. I walked up to him to see if he was okay but he either spoke no English or was too inebriated to reply. As I stood there, totally hammered, watching this guy on the ground who wouldn't respond and trying to decide what to do...what I presume was his girlfriend ran up from the side and started accosting us for not helping him properly. "STUPID FUCKING AMERICAN TOURISTS! WHY DON'T YOU JUST STAND THERE AND LAUGH AT HIM YOU STUPID AMERICANS!" I reply, "We were trying to help him!!" "WELL YOU AREN'T ARE YOU, STUPID AMERICAN FUCKERS!!! YOU ARE JUST STANDING THERE! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE STUPID TOURISTS!" I'm thinking to myself "lolol, first of all tell him to quit being a little girl and get off the ground, (she literally is lifting him up and patting him on the back and helping him stand) second of all nobody here is American except for me..." :P Shannon is American yes, but my little joke to myself in my head was really funny. We joked about it on the way home to the hostel and finally found our way back to get some sleep. Check out time was 11am so we all bunked down for a few hours of shut eye. The next morning I had a train to catch, so I said goodbyes to cool new friends, exchanged emails, facebooks, whatever, and I walked off towards the train station.

The train back was amazing, and bad at the same time. I sat by myself, thinking, enjoying the quiet and trying to recuperate a little bit of strength for the next couple of days in Brussels. When I bought my ticket home I remembered the trick to say I was under 26, so I got the ticket for only 23 euro which was great! However, an hour into the train ride the ticket guy walked by and when he checked my ticket he decided that he'd call my bluff and checked my passport. "This is a youth ticket, you are not a youth, you will need to buy a new ticket, it costs 44 euro." DAMN!! So not only did I not get the discount, I just paid 67 euro to get home. Blargh! Take that as a lesson folks. The ticket is still valid until January 10th, 2010 so if anyone wants to buy a ticket from Amsterdam to Brussels for cost, let me know. I met a few girls on the train who were studying in Paris and happened to be staying in the same hostel as me in Brussels. Got to chatting with them a bit but didn't end up seeing them again after we got to the hostel. I grabbed a bite to eat nearby, went upstairs and fell asleep almost instantly. I was so tired from the last couple of days that I ended up chilling out in the room and resting that night. A few new roommates showed up later that evening but I didn't meet anyone until the next day at breakfast.

I was down in the common room with my computer checking my emails and such when the girls from the train showed up. We chatted for a few minutes and I decided that they were without question the most uninteresting people I had ever met. A proper contrast to the cool people I had met just two days before who were awesome and had endless funny stories. While I was regretting saying hi and wanting to gouge my own eyes out with a rusty spoon, the guys from my hostel room came down and I was saved. (Thanks fellas!) They were three American guys studying in Paris and visiting Brussels for a couple of days before heading to Amsterdam. Yeah it's a common trip combination it seems, Brussels/Amsterdam. :) They were going to spend the day checking out Brussels' museums, parks, gardens, etc. which I hadn't done yet so I decided to head out with them and see the sights.

The first stop was the big tourist area in Brussels, the Grote Markt (Great Place).

A great, big square with some fantastic architecture.

It's the sort of city-square of Brussels where there are many large buildings all built around 1697. It's definitely impressive. Some of the buildings have this sort of gilded gold on a lot of the stone which makes them really awesome looking. The gold does a lot to make it interesting. I'm not saying I'm jaded by a long shot, but certainly a lot of these old buildings look the same, so seeing something a little different was really cool. We walked around here a bit before heading to check out some more of the churches in the area. There is on church called St. Catherine's where they installed a urinal for people to piss on the church. Don't ask me why, I don't know. You are just suppose to pee on the church. *shrug*

The chocolate museum was next, it was awesome! They had statues made of real chocolate that had been hardened and carved like stone. The ancient Mayans were the first to use the cocoa plant to make things with and we got an interesting lesson into the history of chocolate. A live chocolate making demonstration was great too, with lots of free samples and tastes!

Some of the old metal tools from the early days of Belgian Chocolatiering

Ancient Mayan Chocolate Statues - Some of the these were as big as a person! And you can eat them! Though they'd kill you if you did...

We visited some great churches and one of them we were able to explore the underground foundation and check out all of the old stone that once held the place up. It reminded me of a story Mike had told us of a church in a place called Kutna Hora that is about an hour north of Prague where the church is made of out human bones. Seriously. Google it. Kutna Hora.

This was from inside St. Michael's Cathedral in Brussels.

Next stop was the famous Belgian Comic Museum where comic legends such as Tin Tin and the Smurfs are immortalized. It was fun to walk through and check out all of the exhibits for the different artists and authors. All comics were celebrated as well, not just Belgians. Japanese, American, French, Belgian, a vast array of different comics were studied and put up for all to see in what was certainly a comic nerds heaven.

A small glimpse into the Comic Book Museum.

Next we walked nay across the whole city to check out the Belgian Royal Palace and the royal gardens. The gardens were nothing to mention really, unkempt and barely even attended to, which was interesting. The palace though is, yeah it's a palace. Check it out.

Royal to the max!

Brussels has a few more interesting sights to see such as the famous "Manneken Pis" which is a statue of a naked little boy peeing into a fountain. He is dressed up throughout the year to celebrate holidays, football games, etc. Simple yet cool. You can also visit the EU central area where all of the government business goes down, but we didn't end up going. We picked up a waffle (epic!) on the way back to the hostel and chilled out there for awhile drinking whiskey and planning out the evening.

We all knew we wanted to have Mussels for dinner so we headed to one area we knew had a lot of restaurants offering fresh seafood. We found one and settled in for what turned out to be a long wait but a large and great meal. I had raw oysters for an appetizer, Mussels and french fries for the main course, and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. It also came with a beer and bowl of bread, not a bad meal for 12 euro. After dinner it was back to the hostel for some whiskey pre-gaming and then we headed out to Delirium again for some more epic beer tasting. I wish I could tell you all of the great beers I had that night, and the one terrible one. Good ones I remember: Brigand, Pirat, Orval, Satan, Lucifer, Seks, and the bad one was something like Vraadenkraak. I remember there being lots of aaaa's in it. Seriously, terrible beer. Sorry if you love it, but I can drink pure vinegar at home...don't need it in my beer. We spent the evening there and headed home around 4 or 5am or something like that. Sleep! Woot!

The next morning I packed my gear to head home to Paris, said goodbyes again to Joel, John Mayer (yeah his name was that haha) and Jon. Figured I'd see them again in Paris in a few days so it was no biggie, I checked out and headed off to the train station.

The train itself was so great, again. I got a nice seat by the window, got to watch the world go by for about 2 hours while I recollected the adventures I had just had for the past five days. So many cool people in such a short amount of time, it made me wonder if this is what backpackers experience on a daily basis. The jealousy resurfaced for a bit while I considered what it would be like to do it some day, to just grab a backpack full of gear and disappear for a few months. I decided I'd have to at least sometime again in my life, as it's just so much...fun, and you can learn so much about yourself and the world. As the train arrived on time in Paris, I grabbed my bag and walked out into France and the city.

On the plane ride back from Venice, Italy there happened to be a brochure in my seat talking about Brussels and how nice it was, which is what prompted this trip initially. It was a bit of a quick decision when I planned it but it ended up a great idea in the end where I had one of the most fun and interesting trips of my life. People are amazing, the world is amazing. Get the hell out there and see it!

As always you can see more photos from the trip at my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/jayonidas

Thanks for reading!

Europe: Paris And Things

The last few days have been a lot of fun. On Thursday Emily had class the entire day so I spent most of the day wandering the sunny streets of Paris. My first trek took me to the Louvre museum (the largest museum on the planet!) where I had planned to spend most of the day inside touring around and looking at famous pieces of art such as the Mona Lisa, and ancient Greek statues and sculptures. However, when I got there I realized that it was the first day since I had arrived in France that it wasn't raining, and that maybe a day spent inside would be better spent on a typical rainy day. So instead of going into the museum I kept on walking and explored the Louvre Gardens and tried to get lost in the first district.

The following day, Emily had the day off from school so we decided to go and see the Arc de Triomphe and the famous Champs de Elysees which is basically the boulevard that Rodeo Drive aspires to be. The Arc was incredible. Check out a photo.


It's an amazing piece of art in and of itself, and looking at it from next to and underneath is incredible. The weather held out so nicely for us as well, no rain at all that day! Adjacent to this magnificent structure is the famous Champs De Elysees, which we walked down next.

If you're a big fashion person or just flat out rich than you'd probably enjoy this street a lot more than me, as it's home to a lot of Paris' big time stores like Louis Vitton, Cartier, ROLEX, etc. It was neat to window shop and I got to see a Peugeot F1 car in the official Peugeot store, but besides that it was more of just a nice place to walk through. We kept on down the boulevard and ended up at the next landmark known as the Obelisk of Luxor. A giant obelisk given to the French by the Egyptians in 1829. It's covered in crazy hieroglyphics too. Awesome. Check it out!


And yeah that's the Eiffel Tower in the background. This place is cool because you can see the Obelisk, Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, and the Louvre all from this one spot. After this we walked back home and prepared for what would be a fun night, as the following day was Emily's birthday! Emily invited a bunch of her friends over from her classes here, so we all hung out with some music, food, and good wine. It was indeed a fun night for all.

Today being Emily's birthday, we did some shopping and went out to dinner at a great Belgian seafood restaurant. It was awesome! We're off tonight to go drinking again, so I'm sure more stories will arise. Good times in Paris for sure.

Tomorrow I leave for Brussels, Belgium where I'm going on a five day epic beer tasting adventure. Fun, Awesome, and Win.

Europe: More Photos

Hey all! Nothing too exciting to report today except I got a few more photos uploaded. Please head on over to my Flickr page to view them all. I try to update it at least once a day so check back often.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayonidas/

I did take a nice long walk along the Seine and ended up outside of the Louvre Museum, but it started raining heavily so I couldn't snap any photos. Tomorrow I'm going to tour the museum though, stay tuned.

Europe: Paris and Notre Dame

This morning Emily had to leave for school so I packed up and decided to head off into the city and do some wandering. First I made way to the local mall and to the mobile phone shop to see about getting a sim card for my phone. All of the "pay as you go" plans don't include data and charge you for it at a rather scary rate, so I didn't end up getting one yet. I still need to research more. After the mall I headed down Rue Beaubourg and snapped a few photos on my way to visit Notre Dame. As I crossed the River Seine I got lucky with a couple of nice shots of the river and the boats it held. The clouds were a bit murky and gave way to a few short spurts of rain but for the most part it was holding up as a nice day for the camera.

After snapping the photos of the Seine I kept on walking until I reached Notre Dame. It's really only about a mile from Emily's apartment, if that, so it's easy. The outside of Notre Dame is absolutely awesome. If you're anywhere near it you really can't take any pictures because it's too big... I needed to walk a good 50 yards back just to get the whole thing into a picture. It really is amazing though when you see it...it's inspiring just taking it all in even.




Awesome isn't it? That would be the front if you will, and it's the shorter side of the rectangular building. The long side is about twice as wide as that haha. It's HUGE. I went inside where a big sign said NO CAMERAS but as I got in and saw hundreds of other people taking photos I said what the hell. It was extremely dark in there but I managed to get a couple good ones.


The inside of the Cathedral is breath-taking. The statues, the stained glass windows, the golden chandeliers and amazing artwork on the walls and architecture...it's awesome. If I had to compare to some of the Italian churches I'd say I like the actual architecture and awesome power of this place a bit more, but Italy wins in the ways of their churches being much more filled with amazing artwork and statues and such. Still though, who cares? All of these places are ridiculous and awesome.

I've got a bunch more pictures of the inside of Notre Dame but they are dark and kind of hard to see what's going on. They'll be on my Flickr eventually. ;) Speaking of, check the link below to see these photos larger and a bunch more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayonidas/

Europe: Venice, Italy - Part V

Venice was great! We're now back in Paris with a grand pile of pictures to sort through and some fond memories of a really beautiful city. Our last night in Venice took us to a couple of neat little pubs where we got to sing some Italian karaoke and drink a few mojitos after a great dinner at one of the local eateries. Italian pasta and Venezian seafood is serious fantastic. We walked up and down the streets a bit more that day collecting souvenirs and seeing the sights one last time before heading out the next morning. One interesting thing that happened was that at 7am when we attempted to leave, the hotel was locked from the outside. We were literally locked in the hotel lobby for 30 or so minutes waiting for the clerk to return from whatever the heck he was doing. When he finally returned we headed to our bus and to Marco Polo airport.

I've started to sort through some of the photos so here are a bunch to get started with. There are oh so many more, but this should be cool to look at for now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayonidas/sets/72157622591833445/

Enjoy, and au revoir for now!