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Published: November 17th 2009
Well I have been touring around Europe for a couple of weeks now. I feel like I've experienced and learnt more in a couple weeks then I have in the past year. For the last couple of weeks I have done nothing but tour around cities and museums by day, and drink with people all night.
Yah I just don't sleep anymore. My good friend Hoss says 'Teach your body who's boss' haha. At this rate I'll never reach 5500m ASL when Dylan, Nick and I hit up Everest. Ah well, you only live once.
**DISCLAIMER
I am typing this up in Notepad, which doesn't spell check. I type fast, and make a lot of errors, and due to years of relying on spell check I have terrible spelling ...so don't expect this most academic of blogs***
***DISLCLAIMER NUMBER 2;
I've had some bad luck with my discount brand memory card. It seems as if I may have lost all of my pictures from Copenhagen and Berlin. It's too bad because I got some really great shots of Berlin over
the last couple of days, but I am trying to look on the bright side that
Trinity College
Most beautiful campus I have ever seenit happened early in my trip. Lesson learnt, only quality camera gear from now on. I stole some pics from the internet that were similar to ones
that I actually took - so just pretend they are mine. I don't have pictures of nightlife, because when the
beer starts flowing, I put my camera away. Although most people I party with have cameras at night
so eventually i'll get tagged in facebook and i'll post some to the blog.
Travelling solo is an amazing time. I find it hard to become lonely because there are so many other travellers out there that it's impossible not to meet somebody in your hostel or in a tour group to hang out with everyday. On any given night I could be partying with a fellow Canadian, some AUssis, some blokes from the UK or Ireland and yes even Americans. Not to mention that locals in each city I have been to are easy to approach and like to hear about Canada. It is sort of strange though. Every night I make a new group of friends, and then generally they next morning I'll never see them again. Sometimes if
our schedules
First Irish Guinness
After touring around Dublin I stopped in here for my first pint. Many, followed. line up then I'll hang out with the same people for a few days - but inevitablely the goodbye is just around the corner....thats just the life of a traveller.
Ireland
So I started in Dublin after a layover in the JFK airport at the same time that the Yankees won the World Series - that was cool. Observation number 1: people from Dublin are very friendly, and very willing to help a traveller in need. Observation 2: Compared to the chic men and women of Europe - I look like a complete chump. I seriously considered purhcasing and entire new wardrobe when I first arrived in Dublin, but I've been wearing basically the same outfit for two weeks now and it hasn't really hindered me at all I don't think. Although I must be starting to smell a bit..
Dublin is a party city! It is also really compact which is nice for touring the city by day. I could
basically walk to any of the main attractions in the city. If I go into detail about each and everything I do in each city it would take me a few hours
St Patricks Cathedral
I am pretty sure thats the name of this one. just to catch up on two weeks - so for my sake, and your's I'll just point out the highlights. St.James' Gate (Guinness Brewary) was a self guided tour ending 7 floors up for a panoramic view of the city and a free pint of Guinness. Met some American girls who are studying in Florence and enjoyed a few pints. Trinity College was beautiful,
and almost inspired me to continue my education - almost. Sites like Dubin Castle and St.Patrick's Cathedral were cool too, I am really not used to any architecture older then about 100 years old, so most of my first day in Dublin I was awstruck at every corner. By night, I went out with lots of different people from my hostels. Aussis, Canadians and Americans (I think I'll meet many of these people on my travels). We partyed hard in the temple bar district drinking Guinness and Jameosons all night, as well as a popular local bevey - cider beer. To say the least, I had a blast in Dublin.
After a couple of days I toured up to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Belfast is really interesting because the city is where a lot of
Belfast Murals
Militant murals from the Catholic vs Protestant troubles in Northen Ireland the past violence reltaed troubles of Catholics vs Protestants occured. I saw Europa, the most bombed building in Belfast, as well as many militant murals warning Catholics of entering the neighbourhood. It was sort of unsettling.
I went out to the pub for dinner, and there was about 80 irishmen already completely pissed. On a Saturday in Ireland, the locals start early. Locals found me a lot more interesting (as a foreigner) then people from Dublin, because they don't get nearly as many travellers. After meeting some people in my hostel we went out to the bars and found a good young crowd with live music. Jigged and Boogyed the night away. In few short days in Ireland I probably consumed more Guinness the I have in the past year (and I do drink GUinness at home from time to time).
Alright already this is getting long - so i'll try to be more brief.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam was surprisingly full of history and culture, not just sex and drugs. I did a 4 hour walking tour of the city and learnt a ton about the history of the city and the Dutch. The city center
Europa
Belfasts most bombed building (Red light district area) is surroundended by many semi-circular canals, lined with Tall, narrow buildings - sort of like venice but not as pretty. The narow lane ways throughout the city are DOMINATED by locals who ride old black cruiser style bicycles everywhere. There are twice as many
bikes in Amsterdam as there are people. The Dutch, like the Irish were very friendly and spoke great english.
Amsterdam is possibly the most tolerant city in the world. They pride themselves on the fact that every culture, religion, race and belief is accepted ther. To describe it: I was at a bar where there were some fairly manly looking ladies. Me and a couple American boys from Michigan were wondering if maybe we were in a funny bar or if there was some sort of theme night. So, I asked the Aussi bartender (the aussi's are EVERYWHERE) if there was a theme. She responded gleefully with 'We are in AMsterdam, we Accept everyone here!!'
I learnt that in Amsterdam, you can break any rule (i.e. it is illegal to sell marijuana) as long as you maintain three other rules. 1. You must be discrete 2. You cannot harm anyone.
3. It must bring positive economic activity to the area.The third being the most important.
I met two girls in my hostel - Nitya (sounds like Nature) from Australia and Stephanie the Seperatist from Quebec. Aussi's and Canadians seem to have an unspoken bond and attraction for each other. So we hung out for a couple days and celebrate the tolerant society of Amsterdam. Coffee shops exist throughout the city that do sell coffee, but also some of green stuff (rule 1: discrete).
After indulging at a coffee shop, the three of us headed for the red light district.
Hundreds of semi-nude women, standing in narrow windows, tapping the glass as you walk by trying to get you to approach them. Rediculous!! After cruising around the district for a while with a bunch of other pie-eyed toursits, the girls and I agreed to try out a live sex show (sorry mom). So here I am, hanging out with two chicks, partying in Amsterdam and going to a sex show. There were multiple moments when I had to take a step back and think to myself - ''only in Amsterdam'.
Copenhagen
After ripping it up for a
Amsterdam
City of Canals few days in Amsterdam I took an overnight train to Copenhagen.
I loved Denmark. The city it'self wasn't overly impressive, but it was nice. I met plenty of friendly locals here, all who speak very fluent english. Many also speak a third language, either french or german. I met a man who explained to me why he is okay with being taxed at a very high rate (I think it's like 65%) while runnning two businesses. Basically, Danish people feel that they would rather have less money and less things, but know that in a time of need Denmark will be there for them. If they, or a relative gets ill or anything tragic occurs they won't have to worry. Not to mention their quality of life is very high. I also found that Danish people are very family oriented. They don't party as often as many other countries, infact for a such a large city I was surpised to find that very few clubs (if any) would be
worth going to on a Thursday night (maybe i was just talking to the wrong people).
Like Amsterdam, locals ride their bikes everywhere. The bike lanes that run throughout
the
Amsterdam
City of Bikes city are as wide as one lane of a North American Road. All of this biking not only helps the environment
and reduces traffic congestion. It has another great affect... Danish women must be on average the most beautiful in the world. They are all fit (from riding bikes everywhere). Many are blonde, blue eyed, tall and comparable to supermodels. The best part about it though is that they aren't barbie dolls. Every danish girl that I approached (there were many), seemed down to earth, intelligent and had lots of interesting things to say. Perhaps, because I was a foreigner they were just trying to be nice, but I defiantly did not get the feeling that any of them were full of them selves.
Copenhagen - every single man's dream haha. Another cool thing about Denmark is the bars stay open all night. I partyed until 6 a.m. on the Thursday night not realizing how late it was (and expecting the bartender to turn on the ugly lights at 2 a.m.). I learnt a good drinking game with 5 dice that I'll have to bring back home someday...it would be good for the Goodrats..simple to learn, and it gets
Amsterdam
city of drugs - one of the more famous coffee shops you drunk..perfect.
I would have stayed in Copenhagen for at least another week, but, the place is bloody expensive!! I just couldn't justify paying those prices much longer so after a couple days, I packed up my stuff and sadly boarded the train for Berlin. The cities (apart from Belfast) that I have been to so far are some of the most expensive in Europe. I am defiantly appreciating the wheat beer that I am currently sipping on that will only cost me a couple of Euro's (3.20 CAD). A half litre beer from a supermarket would cost be about 50 cents (about a buck) and I can walk around ANYWHERE with it opened. I figure if you coudl walk around
with open bottles in Canada I would be approximately 700 dollars more wealthy at this point in my life - but then agian, what would port elgin cops and McMaster security do with themselves with out the open alcohol law.
Berlin
I can't say enough about Berlin. This city has it all. History, Culture, Nightlife. The transportation system
here is highly efficient making it easy to see the spread out city. Berlin has been rebuilding for
Nyhavn - Copenhagn
I took this same picture,, so lets pretend its mine. a couple of decades after enduring 3 wars in less then a century. Posterdam Platz, the new economic center of the city has plenty of brand new highrise bulidings. Other neighbourhoods still reflect the past, and many of the cities most beautiful monuments and buildings that were damaged in the wars have been refurbished or are in the process of being refurbished.
It really is a shame that I don't have my picutres from Berlin. Two days ago I did a lengthy walking tour of the city with a very knowledablge guide and took over 150 photos. I think the Berlin Dome (cathedral) was the most impressive architectually - so I stole a picture from the internet to post here. There was a jewish memorial that was fairly impressive as well so I stole a picture of that too. Not to mention one of my only self portraits of myself infront of the wall.
The tour was a great way to re-learn my Grade 11 history. Seeing the city were so much important history occured in the last century really made things come together. Now, I don't think I'll ever forget exactly what the iron curtian was, or
Berlin Dome
Impressive Cathedral. I had a better picture, but it's lost now :( how the city of berlin was divided into east and west. The east controlled by communist russia and the west by UK, France and the US. The city also has a much older history in a time of Prussian rule. Many prussian palaces, and monuments still remain throughout the city.
Culture and Nightlife. Berlin attracts artists from all over the world. There are more museums here then the UK and France combined. I believe there are 4 symphanies, and it seems like and endless amount
of jazz bars. After realizing last night I had lost many of my pictures, I was a little bummed out. So I took a strole to grab a cheap beer from the store and stumbled upon b-flat - a jazz bar. There was a hip crowd of 20-somethings drinking wine and listening to an amazing 4-piece jazz band from Japan. The music completely took my mind off of the fact that I lost my pictures and I ended up meeting lots of cool germans.
We went to a bar full of old 70's furniture (they love that here). I paid 2 euros for a wine glass, and then we drank wine for free
Book Burning Memorial
There are empty book shelves which represent all of the jewish litterature burned by Nazi students just prior to WWII until we were satisfied. You then pay whatever you feel is fair...it's a cool system, and I don't think anyone really takes advantage of it. They don't speak as fluent of english here as in Denmark, so at times it was hard to understand each other but it didn't stop us from finding a 24 our bar and partying till sunrise - and this was Monday night.
Right now I am chilling out at a cafe because its raining pretty hard. If it lets up, I'm going to go check out a few more sights and hopefully get another picture infront of the wall. Tomorrow morning, I'm catching a train to Prague.
Well I hope that wasn't too long or boring of a blog. There is plenty more that I could write, but I've got better things to do, and so do you (get back to work Adam Querin).
Send me a message on this blog, or facebook, or email and let me know whats going on in your life..i'd love to hear from ya!
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Deb Whyte
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Hey Ben, It is so great to hear about all the things you are doing. Sorry bout your pictures - take more! It is all so interesting and not boring at all so when you have time write more! Love Mom