Anyways, I thought I would continue the blog posts while I'm here. So we've covered off quite a bit of the Iceland, UK & France trips so far. I might go back and add some photos in there. I'll let you know if I do. But anyways, we are going to cover Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany today! Yaaaay! Here we go.
Belgium - AKA no you cannot have free water.
So Belgium was my first solo stop after my Mom flew back from Paris. I took the train there, which only took about an hour or two (it's been so long, I can't remember). I had a super annoying group of people in their early twenties beside me who were drinking and just being generally loud. I felt like a grumpy old person lol. When I arrived in Belgium (Brussels), I took the metro to my hostel. It was directly next to this like commercial shopping street so that was super handy for anything I needed. I bought some drinks and such at the grocery shop as things in Belgium are a bit expensive. One thing I learned the hard way: water is NOT free in restaurants.
In Belgium, it's illegal to charge money for tap water. So, instead of giving it away for free, restaurants just REFUSE to serve it. It's soooo frustrating. Even when I was willing to buy another drink (ie: beer), they still wouldn't give me tap water. So I carried my bottle with me everywhere but the places to fill it were few & far between. I read online about this guy who asks for tap water when he goes into any restaurant there, and if they refuse, he leaves and refuses to eat there. Seemed kinda genius to me, but by the time I was ready to sit down and eat, I was starving so it seemed a bit silly to spend an hour finding a place that would give me free water. Just writing this has made me thirsty, and I am going to get a glass from my hostel.
Anyways, the first evening I took it easy and went to bed relatively early. The next day, I slept in, and then wandered around the city. I found most of the major sights by accident: Mannekin Pis (which is TINY and somewhat disappointing and not even the original one), Grand Place (which is soooo cool), and the touristy areas - shops, etc. Then I came back to the hostel and willed myself to go on a pub crawl. It was GREAT because I met a LOT of people and we had tons of fun (Reed! That's you!). But the next day, I was soooo hurtin'. My hostel kicked everyone out from 11am - 3pm for cleaning (if I'm in my bed, can't you just clean around me!?). I literally walked like 20 feet to McDonalds and slumped into a booth with a smoothie for an hour. Then I went to a pizza hut buffet, because I needed grease. They wouldn't give me water. And their pizza wasn't greasy!!! All in all it was an expensive disappointment. At like 2PM I went back to the hostel and laid in a giant bean bag chair for an hour, then FINALLY at 3PM, I went back to bed (my key card literally didn't work until 3 on the dot.) I don't remember if I did anything that night, but probably not. And I probably had McDonald's for dinner lol.
I booked too many days in Brussels, so it was actually not bad to waste one on a hangover. The next day, I wandered all over the city some more. The Royal Palace there is open to the public for free in the summers, so I went there. It was pretty cool to be in a building like that. This one room is decorated entirely in Emerald green, BUT it's actually comprised of the shells of emerald beetles! It was so crazy.
I also went to the Comic Strip museum. It was a bit of a disappointment. However, when I went up to buy a ticket, I said "one adult please". (The adult price was for those 22+). The woman goes "are you sure you're an adult?" and I said "yes...". She goes "How old are you?". "Twenty-eight...". "Twenty-two it is." hahaha. I saved like $6 thanks to that lovely lady.
I think I'm going to do a separate post about #ThingsDevinAte so I won't outline that stuff here.
The next day, I took a day trip to Bruges. It was a really cool medieval city, but very much just tourists. I met some really cool girls on the trip though, and we came back to Brussels and had dinner. I also got to accompany one of them to a walk-in clinic which was an adventure :-) I met up with one girl, Killian, again in Amsterdam - it was nice to have a friend there!!
And now, Brussels - things to note:
- You'll be very thirsty unless you're willing to pay a lot of money for water.
- They don't joke around with their waffles, frites & moules (see upcoming food post!)
- Pub Crawls can be dangerous to one's health.
- Primark (this amazingly cheap clothing store) opened up a year ago, and had a lineup to get in EVERY DAY I was there.
After Brussels, I was pretty exhausted. I had been travelling for about a month, so I decided to book two days in the Dutch countryside before heading into the proper Amsterdam city. My hostel - Lucky Lake Hostel - was SO amazing. Firstly, it's basically like camping. Everything is outdoors. I was in a 4 bed female dorm called "Pink Lady". I only had one roommate the whole time I was there, and she was AWESOME. Her name was Hannah, although on facebook her name is Bex so I'm always about to call her Rebecca. I spent the first day doing laundry, laying in a hammock reading and not much else. After Hannah came back from the city, we rented bikes and biked into the nearest tiny little town (I can't remember the name anymore). We got a bit lost - sorry Hannah - but then found a bar (where they gave me free water! yay!) and had a drink, before finding the nearest grocery shop. We got some wine and things for dinner, then biked back to the hostel, where we cooked and hung out. We lounged in the hammocks. We went to bed early. It was glorious (and Hannah was the first person I met near my age who could relate to wanting to go to bed early haha!)
The next day, I just lounged around some more (see a theme here?) before having to head into town. Honestly, I wish I would have stayed at that hostel. There was a shuttle so I still could have gone into town. When I got to my new hostel, I wanted to die. I was on the fourth floor (technically the 5th as they call ground floor 0), and there was no elevator. Also, you had to go DOWN one floor to check in, then back up to your floor! They got someone to carry my bag up for me, which was great, but still it was hard to deal with. The worst part was coming back to the hostel and wanting to go upstairs, but having to go DOWNSTAIRS, through the bar/reception, then back up a different set of stairs. There was another set of stairs, and a door on the ground floor which was locked (so stupid). It was an OK hostel and I slept fine. Thank god there was air conditioning.
It was right next to Vondel park so I spent some time laying there reading (again, a theme). I also wandered the whole town. I saw all the touristy stuff, then met up with my friend Killian. We went to Anne Frank house which just astounded me. The other people there were VERY annoying though, which kind of made it crappy. It was insane to see where they lived, and just so sad. I cannot believe that is part of our world's history. Killian and I had snacks first at a local brewery, and then afterwards we walked through the Red Light district. For the record, there are LITERAL red lights everywhere. I thought it was just a figure of speech but apparently not.
The day before I left, I headed to the Van Gogh museum. I waffled back and forth on going, but finally decided to, and I do not regret it in the least. It was so amazing to see so many of his works in person, and to learn more of his history. I hadn't realized how much mental illness had played a role in his life. I suppose it's true for most artists. I can only imagine what would have come from him if he had stayed around longer. (Fun fact... at around age 27 I think, he just decided to become a painter. "Hmmm I think I'll be an artist. Perfect.")
That's about all I did in Amsterdam. It was more than enough - I had a lot of fun and saw everything I wanted to see.
Amsterdam - things to note:
- If you go, make sure you have the stroopwaffles with caramel. OMG. You'll see more in my food post.
- I also had really great dutch pancakes (pannakukkur).
- There were a lot of frat boy types obviously just there to smoke weed - kind of annoying.
Berlin - aka Cheap Beer & Overdue Freedom
Next up, I headed to Berlin from Amsterdam. I wasn't sure what to expect of Berlin, and it was certainly strange. My hostel was in East Berlin (Cold War East Berlin), and it was right near the remaining portion of the Berlin wall that had been painted by artists. It was interesting to see that.
This city perplexed me a bit. I knew there was a TON of history, but by this point, I had seen so many statues and enough museums. I wanted something different. I did a free walking tour which was cool. I got to see Checkpoint Charlie which was probably the most overrated thing I'd seen so far on this trip. Nothing is original, so what's the point? The brick line where the wall used to stand is so interesting, and also hearing about the people who succeeded at crossing the wall. Sadly, there are many stories about those who failed too. This is another part of our history that I just cannot believe happened. How can anything think that the best solution to political unrest/unhappiness is just to wall people in, literally over night?
The first day, when I walked out of my hostel, I walked to the end of the street. Lo and behold, there were the Universal Music Berlin offices. I laughed a lot - you may recall this exact thing happened to me in London. Now I'm wondering how many more offices I'll see before I head back to Canada! I sent pictures of both to my old boss and she loved it :-)
After doing the walking tour, I met some cool people and we decided to do the alternative pub crawl that night. When I got back to the hostel, two of my roommates were there and I convinced them to come along (which didn't take any convincing at all). It was WAY MORE my speed than other pub crawls, which primarily take you to CLUBS. These were actual bars & pubs. There are rules before you sign up, including but not limited to: don't be a douche bag, don't puke by the second bar (and preferably not at all). These rules made it more fun for SURE. Only two of the three people that were supposed to join me were able to make it, but we had a really good time! I also met my Berlin soulmate, Charlotte. We had a hilarious time - I told her that my mom called me Charlotte (for no real reason), so we decided we were going to go by Char Squared for the rest of the night (and we MAY have scrawled it into the bathroom stall at one of the bars). At the end of the pub crawl, a friend of our guide joined the party, and he was SUCH A DREAMBOAT. Char squared was in love lol.
The next day I headed out, on my way to Denmark. I got to enjoy a lovely hungover bus ride and ferry ride, but it was well worth it!
Berlin - Things to note:
- I forgot to buy a shotglass in Berlin - but it's OK because I'm going back to Germany and can get one when I go to Frankfurt/Munich
- The city is odd. It's very spread out, understandably so, which means it takes like 15-20 minutes to get anywhere you want to go, via metro. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn were confusing at first but I got the hang of it.
- BEER IS SO CHEAP. It was amazing. I don't think I actually ate anywhere that I needed water, so I can't recall if it's free or if they charge. But the beer was top notch and only 1.5 euros for a LITRE bottle.
- There is a lot of evil history in this city. But the people are doing their best to move on and it's good to see.
OK so this post took me like an hour to write! I didn't mean that. So now I'm off to explore Warsaw further. Next post will cover Denmark, Sweden and Finland!
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