After 9 days of being “eased into Europe,” I’m starting the solo
journey today(yesterday by the time I post this). Werner was a great
host & as expected we had a great time. Some days were all about
sightseeing, and others were more relaxed with just walking around,
grabbing food & drinks, etc. I think I might have lost an entire day
when you add up all the time spent turning on & off light switches
just to get one thing to work in his apartment. I can already see how
there will be plenty of days where I do NOT want to do all the
touristy things; that gets tiring quickly.
To catch you up on the last bunch of days since my previous post,
here’s a quick recap:
Last Saturday was the laziest day we had due to the inevitable
Amsterdam hangover. It didn’t seem like Werner & I had the energy to
even talk to each other so we decided to go see a movie. Before making
that decision, we checked with his Dutch roommate on whether the
theaters would be playing the movies in English or not. He said they
would be in English, but with Dutch subtitles. No big deal we
thought…except that we decided to see Inglourious Basterds. For anyone
who hasn’t seen it, the movie jumps between 3 different languages,
meaning the movie naturally has subtitles in English for the
non-English speaking parts. Just not in foreign countries where
another language for subtitles trumps English. I’d estimate I
understood roughly 55% of the movie; Werner probably understood 75%
since he speaks French, which is one of the languages they jumped into
during the movie. It was obviously a slight oversight on our part, but
it still seemed like a good movie. I’ll have to catch it in English
some time to fill in the gaps.
Sunday was a quick daytrip to a couple cities near Rotterdam: The
Hague & Delft. Not a ton to say here because they were interesting
cities, but not so much to do besides walk around & look at the
buildings. In The Hague, there was one particular building we wanted
to check out: the International Court of Justice (basically a palace).
We spent about 10 minutes in front of a building we thought was the
palace taking pictures of each other only to find out it was the wrong
building & the correct one was over a mile away.
This past Monday was a daytrip for me back to Amsterdam. I went solo
this time because Werner had class. Somehow I made the roundtrip to
Amsterdam & back to Rotterdam without a single issue on the trains or
communicating with people. I was surprised by that. Finally did my
first European museum: the Van Gogh Museum. For someone who has
minimal (read: none) interest in art, I was amazed by it. I guess I’d
convince myself it was cool no matter what so I wouldn’t feel like it
was a waste of time & money, but I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it. We’ll
see how other museums go. For art beginners like myself, I’d totally
suggest doing the audio tour because it gives some good info on Van
Gogh’s life & the paintings themselves. I eventually made my way over
to Anne Frank’s House because my mom told me to, and if I have learned
one thing over the years, it’s always do what mom tells me to
do--she’s rarely been wrong (how 'bout that for locking myself into a
better Xmas gift this year). Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I
didn’t have time to wait in the long line because I had a train to
catch. So yeah I saw the outside of her house. I’ll pretend that
counts.
For those of you who took a stab at the last, “Where in the World is
Ross,” thanks for trying, but you were all wrong . I guess I don’t
have to give a keychain bottle opener with a picture of Bruges on it
to anyone! Bruges…Bruges was the answer people (I wrote that before
Neil came in with a late but correct guess). Congrats Neil. Now I
don't have to think about a gift to get you. Anyway, Wednesday was my
last day with Werner & we decided we were so sick of each other I’d go
to Bruges while he stayed in Brussels. Actually, I think he had some
school work that surprised him & he needed to do it all day. So once
again I was solo. I pretty much felt like a pro on the trains by the
time I got back from Bruges.
Some thoughts on my trip to Bruges:
-I’ve gotten in the habit of looking in my travel book at the city I’m
visiting when on the train, finding some must-do sights & writing down
some rough directions for them. Note to self: you don’t need to write
down directions to the 2 buildings in a city that are 5x taller than
any other building. Just look up & you’ll get it.
-Walking up 366 stairs in a normal staircase would be hard enough, but
the Belfort in Bruges adds several degrees of difficulty to this.
Every two steps is the equivalent of a 90-degree turn all the way up;
the staircase isn’t quite wide enough for two grown humans to fit in
it at the same time; and finally, not much in the way of railings to
hold on to through a lot of it. Good times.
-I’ve started to realize that most of the “public bathrooms” & some
bathrooms in certain buildings have people collecting money for use of
said bathrooms--usually 20-50 euros. I’m suspicious. Not sure if these
people are actually sanctioned by the city to do this, or if they
happen to be the world’s smartest panhandlers. Either way, if I can’t
find a job when I get back to the US, you can bet your ass I’ll be
standing in front of bathrooms trying to make some money.
-I’ve also come to realize that the major tourist areas naturally have
the highest priced food. What I’ve been doing lately is walking far
away from these areas, stalking some local folk, and following them to
the places they eat. Bonus points if I find kids or teenagers because
they most likely are eating really cheap.
-I finally ate my first Belgian Waffle…2 enthusiastic thumbs up.
Two quick notes from the stop I had in Cologne, Germany, today. I had
to stop here anyway on my way to the next destination, and it sounded
like there were a couple sights to check out. I figured I’d spend a
couple hours checking them out, and then be on my way. I spent 20
minutes at “Germany’s greatest cathedral,” the Dom, and it was
definitely worth it. But then I grabbed a beer from some bar & asked
the bartender what else there is to do in the city. Her response: “We
have 4 churches here. So you might want to check out the other 3.”
Pass. I was back on the train 30 minutes later. The other note is
about the Dom itself. There’s no experience like walking into a church
as a tourist in the middle of a Mass/Service. That’s how you make
friends quickly. I think they make the doors slam behind you on
purpose so you can feel awful by having 300 people staring at you at
once.
This obviously turned out to be a long recap; sorry for that.
I have reached my next destination & already have plenty to say about
my first night here, but I'll save it for another time.
journey today(yesterday by the time I post this). Werner was a great
host & as expected we had a great time. Some days were all about
sightseeing, and others were more relaxed with just walking around,
grabbing food & drinks, etc. I think I might have lost an entire day
when you add up all the time spent turning on & off light switches
just to get one thing to work in his apartment. I can already see how
there will be plenty of days where I do NOT want to do all the
touristy things; that gets tiring quickly.
To catch you up on the last bunch of days since my previous post,
here’s a quick recap:
Last Saturday was the laziest day we had due to the inevitable
Amsterdam hangover. It didn’t seem like Werner & I had the energy to
even talk to each other so we decided to go see a movie. Before making
that decision, we checked with his Dutch roommate on whether the
theaters would be playing the movies in English or not. He said they
would be in English, but with Dutch subtitles. No big deal we
thought…except that we decided to see Inglourious Basterds. For anyone
who hasn’t seen it, the movie jumps between 3 different languages,
meaning the movie naturally has subtitles in English for the
non-English speaking parts. Just not in foreign countries where
another language for subtitles trumps English. I’d estimate I
understood roughly 55% of the movie; Werner probably understood 75%
since he speaks French, which is one of the languages they jumped into
during the movie. It was obviously a slight oversight on our part, but
it still seemed like a good movie. I’ll have to catch it in English
some time to fill in the gaps.
Sunday was a quick daytrip to a couple cities near Rotterdam: The
Hague & Delft. Not a ton to say here because they were interesting
cities, but not so much to do besides walk around & look at the
buildings. In The Hague, there was one particular building we wanted
to check out: the International Court of Justice (basically a palace).
We spent about 10 minutes in front of a building we thought was the
palace taking pictures of each other only to find out it was the wrong
building & the correct one was over a mile away.
This past Monday was a daytrip for me back to Amsterdam. I went solo
this time because Werner had class. Somehow I made the roundtrip to
Amsterdam & back to Rotterdam without a single issue on the trains or
communicating with people. I was surprised by that. Finally did my
first European museum: the Van Gogh Museum. For someone who has
minimal (read: none) interest in art, I was amazed by it. I guess I’d
convince myself it was cool no matter what so I wouldn’t feel like it
was a waste of time & money, but I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it. We’ll
see how other museums go. For art beginners like myself, I’d totally
suggest doing the audio tour because it gives some good info on Van
Gogh’s life & the paintings themselves. I eventually made my way over
to Anne Frank’s House because my mom told me to, and if I have learned
one thing over the years, it’s always do what mom tells me to
do--she’s rarely been wrong (how 'bout that for locking myself into a
better Xmas gift this year). Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I
didn’t have time to wait in the long line because I had a train to
catch. So yeah I saw the outside of her house. I’ll pretend that
counts.
For those of you who took a stab at the last, “Where in the World is
Ross,” thanks for trying, but you were all wrong . I guess I don’t
have to give a keychain bottle opener with a picture of Bruges on it
to anyone! Bruges…Bruges was the answer people (I wrote that before
Neil came in with a late but correct guess). Congrats Neil. Now I
don't have to think about a gift to get you. Anyway, Wednesday was my
last day with Werner & we decided we were so sick of each other I’d go
to Bruges while he stayed in Brussels. Actually, I think he had some
school work that surprised him & he needed to do it all day. So once
again I was solo. I pretty much felt like a pro on the trains by the
time I got back from Bruges.
Some thoughts on my trip to Bruges:
-I’ve gotten in the habit of looking in my travel book at the city I’m
visiting when on the train, finding some must-do sights & writing down
some rough directions for them. Note to self: you don’t need to write
down directions to the 2 buildings in a city that are 5x taller than
any other building. Just look up & you’ll get it.
-Walking up 366 stairs in a normal staircase would be hard enough, but
the Belfort in Bruges adds several degrees of difficulty to this.
Every two steps is the equivalent of a 90-degree turn all the way up;
the staircase isn’t quite wide enough for two grown humans to fit in
it at the same time; and finally, not much in the way of railings to
hold on to through a lot of it. Good times.
-I’ve started to realize that most of the “public bathrooms” & some
bathrooms in certain buildings have people collecting money for use of
said bathrooms--usually 20-50 euros. I’m suspicious. Not sure if these
people are actually sanctioned by the city to do this, or if they
happen to be the world’s smartest panhandlers. Either way, if I can’t
find a job when I get back to the US, you can bet your ass I’ll be
standing in front of bathrooms trying to make some money.
-I’ve also come to realize that the major tourist areas naturally have
the highest priced food. What I’ve been doing lately is walking far
away from these areas, stalking some local folk, and following them to
the places they eat. Bonus points if I find kids or teenagers because
they most likely are eating really cheap.
-I finally ate my first Belgian Waffle…2 enthusiastic thumbs up.
Two quick notes from the stop I had in Cologne, Germany, today. I had
to stop here anyway on my way to the next destination, and it sounded
like there were a couple sights to check out. I figured I’d spend a
couple hours checking them out, and then be on my way. I spent 20
minutes at “Germany’s greatest cathedral,” the Dom, and it was
definitely worth it. But then I grabbed a beer from some bar & asked
the bartender what else there is to do in the city. Her response: “We
have 4 churches here. So you might want to check out the other 3.”
Pass. I was back on the train 30 minutes later. The other note is
about the Dom itself. There’s no experience like walking into a church
as a tourist in the middle of a Mass/Service. That’s how you make
friends quickly. I think they make the doors slam behind you on
purpose so you can feel awful by having 300 people staring at you at
once.
This obviously turned out to be a long recap; sorry for that.
I have reached my next destination & already have plenty to say about
my first night here, but I'll save it for another time.
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