Hey Everyone, I know that it has been a few weeks but things have been a little busy here. I took my last finals for the program I was taking. I think that they went well. I am now off to the Hague for a few days then to Brussels then to Paris. I will be back in the States on Sunday. My birthday celebration was a lot of fun. All of the people in the program with me went out to a Euro dance club and we had a great time. No worries I have tons of pictures. I am [View Full Entry]

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We tried to sleep in, but sharing a room with a ton of other people makes that difficult, so by 10:30 we were forced to get up so the hostel crew could clean the room... Karin and Steve had left to do their own thing, so Jesse, Lauren and I walked toward a market that was a lot like a flea market (random goods, clothes, and jewelry). Both Jesse and Lauren bought a vintage biking jersey and after we looked through all the stalls we made our way back to the hostel. We changed rooms and took a quick nap before [View Full Entry]

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Hi, I think I got carried away with my last blog. So , heres another place in Amsterdam that blew my mind away. Sloten. It is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Amsterdam, and lies about 6 km west of the city centre. Sloten is famous for its windmill and it was a random idea, which i suggested as a joke. I think everyone was bored of walking over the same canals over and over again, so they agreed. We figured out that the best way to reach the place [View Full Entry]

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If the Dutch could, they would ride thier bicycles upstairs. After the casualness of Dutch customs at Schipol airport it was the dominance of bicycles on the streets of Amsterdam which strikes you . We had glided past racks and racks of bikes at all the stations on the way into central Amsterdam on the electric train. We needed to find our hostel. The Dutch speak english, all 16 million of them with precision. Asking for directions from a local will be answered with crisp, concise english delivered in a crisp, precise cadence. It's a whole nation of BBC news presenters! [View Full Entry]

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Despite a bit of jetlag, PJ was up early and eager to hit the road for some action. We decided to go to the city to do a bit of canal-biking. Cousins Joyce, Irvan and Roseanne joined us for a day of fun. Our first stop was at the Vlaamse Friets shop (Flemish Fries) for a few helpings of frites with mayonnaise and/or satay sauce. A nice stroll down the Damrak and the city square (the Dam) adjacent to the palace provided the usual points of interest. Streets alive with bicycles, trams, buses, horse-drawn carriages and cars provided a vibrant backdrop [View Full Entry]

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We woke up early and headed to the train station via metro. Jesse and I had some breakfast at the train station (I had to get my fill of chocolate croissants before leaving France) and we were on the train by 9:30. The train ride went by really fast because we all slept the whole way and it was a direct ride from Paris to Amsterdam. By 1:30 we were in Amsterdam and we found a map and the tram and made our way to the hostel. We ended up getting lost (and it was raining, so this made for some [View Full Entry]

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As my last portion of my trip to Europe I have decided to go to Amsterdam. We have decided to travel there by ICE fast train international to Amsterdam. We left cologne at 8:48 am and suppose to arrive there at 11:28 a.m. It’s a cloudy day in the morning when we leave Germany in the morning and hoping it turns out to a sunny day when we arrive there. The train was so comfortable and the smooth rocking in the train put me on a short deep sleep. My son woke me up when we were in Amsterdam station. I [View Full Entry]

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Hey all! Sorry there hasn't been word for long but at the last hostel I didn't really have a chance to write... we all shared a computer so it didn't make sense to go to an internet cafe but there was always a line so I felt rushed. I'm still alive and ok! We took a free tour in Berlin on our first day and it was amazing- it gave us a real feel for the city. We also got to see the film museum and took daytrips to Potsdam and the local concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. We went out to [View Full Entry]

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I finally said goodbye to Berlin yesterday after staying there for more than a week, and having some awesome times at the new hostel. I met up with my friends from Vancouver, and met some more amazing people over a few late nights. Currently I am sitting with my good friend Ross Palmer in Amsterdam after a hectic day of travel, full of missed and re directed trains. And on very little sleep I was pretty worn thin when I finally found my way to my hostel last night, around 11 pm. But I got a good long night of sleep, [View Full Entry]

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After the first two days, I had seen almost the whole of Amsterdam from Museums to Volden Park to coffeeshops to red light district. The most striking ofcourse was the red light district. The sheer volume of women at that place was striking. The Amsterdam Red Light District covers a large area of the oldest part of the city. The buildings are tall, thin and crowd together, overlooking the tree lined canals. Its a beautiful area. The Red Light District is located just south (10 minutes walking) of Centraal Station, the main train station. It consists of theaters, shops, museums, restaura [View Full Entry]

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