Alright, you win

I didn't mention one thing in my last entry about the 6th because I was waiting to see what would happen.
On my way back from Berlin (to Utrecht), I had to change trains in Druisburg, Germany. I had about 30 mins to waste at the station so I found some food and then went to a small shop that sold fruit and juices and of course some soda. I grabbed a sprite, went up to the counter where there was this mini shelf on my side of the counter. I put my poster protection tube on the mini shelf while I got money out of my wallet. Well, I didn't realize until I got to Utrecht that I no longer had my poster tube. On the train, I sat in one of those little rooms with 3 other people and I was distracted by trying to ignore the uncomfortable stares of the guy facing me and then talked to an American guy most of the ride. I thought back to it and I didn't remember taking the tube onto the train with me, so it had to be in that shop. Now, had my poster tube contained only the 2 posters I bought, I probably would have gotten over it quickly enough and thought "oh well", but it didn't contain just the posters. I stupidly put my prescription sunglasses in the tube with my posters. I almost hopped back onto a train to Druisburg (1 1/2 hour train ride) but I realized that by the time I got there, the shop would be closed and the trip back would be pointless that evening. I decided I would go back the next morning, it would take 4 hours out of my day, I'd be back to Utrecht by 1 or 2 and then continue on to Amsterdam to do the museums I didn't do yet. So, I got on a train the next morning (thank gawd for my train pass!), got to the Druisburg station, went to the shop and they had it! I was so relieved. I then waited at the station for an hour until the next train to Utrecht/Amsterdam came. Well, on the way back, the train got delayed and we stopped on the tracks no where near a station. Sometime later, we moved on to stop at a station and it was explained to us in 3 different languages (German, Dutch, English) that there had been "a collision" between a train in front of us and a person... meaning someone jumped. Apparently, it happens all the time. After a while, I started talking to a Latvian guy who I heard talking to other Americans earlier who left the train and decided to bus it the rest of the way to Utrecht (30 mins). A 19 year old Canadian guy joined us and eventually me and the Canadian decided to try the bus to Utrecht, since the train was already 2 1/2 hours late to Utrecht, and then hop a train to Amsterdam together since we were both pretty much planning on do the same things in Amsterdam. We left the Latvian on the train and took the bus. When we go to the Utrecht train station and were waiting for the Amsterdam train, the Latvian guy shows up! Turns out the train finally started moving and caught up tp us. We all caught the train to Amsterdam only to find all the art museums closed already. It was almost 6pm. The Anne Frank house was still open and that was 1 of the things I wanted to do that day. So the boys went to have a beer while I went into the Anne Frank house and they would wait for me at the edge of the canal in front of the house. When I was done, I met them outside and sat down on the step before the edge of the canal, pulled out my phone to see what time it was, put it in my lap and tried to decided with them what to do next. As we got up, I heard something hit the sidewalk and then a splash... I dropped my phone in a canal in Amsterdam. That's talent, right?

So that was the 6th and 7th for you. I'll try to be brief with the rest, but I'll update you non-the-less.

8th - 10th - I packed up my bags and said bye to Simone before heading to the station on the bus. Simone suggested the shopping blocks next to the station to find a phone. Got a Dutch cell phone that kept sending me messages in Dutch. Mind you, Dutch is really difficult to understand. I thought Dutch was very similar to German but I was mistaken. Apperently Germans cqn barely understand Dutch, but at the same time, the Dutch can understand German pretty well if they've taken even just a little bit of German in school. Anyways, caught a train to Rotterdam, then another to Antwerpen, and then another to Leuven. I decided to stay in Leuven which is a nice little college town/city and I would day trip it to Antwerpen and Brussels. Apparently the University owns like 1/3 of the real estate in Leuven (campus, libraries, student housing, etc...). One of the days that I was there, I decided I needed to finally shop for new clothes for the warmer weather since most of my clothes that I brought were suited for colder UK weather. Guess what! I bought shorts! Can you believe it? I mean, they're those knee length shorts but they're shorts non-the-less. I have worn shorts in years, not since like middle school. I look at my knees and think it's strange to see them and still be fully dressed lol. Besides that, I bought some tank tops too. I'm really glad I stayed in Leuven because my last night there, there was a festival and they had this fantastic percussion show where the performers did a ton of pyrotechnics too... fireworks, flames throwers, torches, everything. It was brilliant.

11th - Packed my bags again and headed of for one last day trip to Brussels before heading to Paris. When I arrived in Brussels, I strored my bags in the train station since I'd be leaving from the same station to go to Paris, and then tried to figure out trams to the area of Brussels that I wanted to go to. It took forever to figure out but I finally got there and there were festivities going on in the streets. I walked to the museum I wanted to go to only to find out it was open. Not to mention, it took me so long to get there that I didn't have much time left to do much anyways. Considering it was so sunny and really warm out, I didn't want to do any pointless walking so I decided to go back to the park that I passed by, give my new shorts 1 roll up, lay down in the grass with Bob Marley playing on my iPod (it really fit the moment lol) and played Sudoku on my phone to waste time before I had to go back to the train station. I realized when I got to the train station that I still hadn't gotten Belgian chocolate in Belgium. Fortunatley, there were chocolate shops in the train station, so I got my chocolate before I left. I arrived that evening in Paris, checked into my hostel and then got some yummy Chinese food for dinner.

12th - Me and 2 people from the hostel decided to find a park and do a picnic. We ended up finding a park next to a lake. Afterwards, we decided it would be a fabulous idea to rent a row boat on the lake for an hour. They each took their turns trying it and didn't do so well and then finally I got my turn and managed to do pretty darn good. I hadn't rowed a boat in many years, but I managed to remember how to do it. We rescued what I think was a rugby ball from the water... our good deed for the day. Later, we went to The Arc de Triomphe.

I'll write more about Paris another time.

---

---