Eurotripping

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I was excited to be going away with my friends Christina and Scott. We had been discussing for months about our Eurotrip. It was such an easy trip to plan and no better 2 friends I would rather have gone on the trip. I had been to Amsterdam and Munich before on my Contiki trip, but was excited to see more of the cities. In addition, I have never been to Prague before so I was excited to see the city.

The flight to Amsterdam was a decent flight. I didn't like the couple next to me who shushed me while I was watching a movie and claimed that they were sleeping, however they didn't sleep. I had a delicious pasta dish with cheese and crackers, as well as I got myself a glass of red wine. I was able to sleep a little but definitely not enough. We also were given breakfast and I had a muffin and yogurt. The food overall was delicious for dinner and breakfast. We started to descend and it was raining outside. A random song of anything for you came on which was very random, yet pretty funny. The passport line was extremely efficient in Amsterdam. We were staying at Scott's aunt/uncle during the trip in Leidsplein. Scott's aunt had a little terrace in a neighborhood with brick to walk on. It was so charming area to stay in. Before we got to the apartment, we got our bags and walked into a large shopping area in the terminal. We took the train and thankfully Scott's aunt/uncle gave us a train card. It had very specific rules on which car you can enter and depart the train. It was a little crowded on the train. We went to Dignita for brunch after a decent wait. I had an over easy eggs benny brunch with hollandaise sauce, as well as bacon micro greens with potato hash. It was a delicious meal and would totally recommend the cafe, minus the wait to get in.

A few fun facts I learned about Amsterdam that I wasn't aware of the last time I visited. I did know about the bike riders as it is one of the highest population of biker commuters. However I learned that there are over 100,000 bicycles, as well as 1000 house boats. We walked through Vondelpark, which was a good size park with fountains and bicyclists all over the place. We walked down a street towards the end that had high end shops. This trip I got to see the I Amsterdam sign which I missed last time. It was a crowded area with people standing on top of the sign letters trying to get photos. We went into the Reijkmuseum. This was one of the more fun things we got to see as Rembrant originals was in the museum. There was oil paintings, as well as artifacts, weapons, pottery, musical instruments that dated back to year 1100's. I always enjoy seeing historical artifacts and imagining how people lived back in the older days. We walked back towards the apartment and got to see charming roads/shops on the way back. We made our way through the Museumplein park. We relaxed then had dinner. We made it an early evening as it was a tiring flight over to Amsterdam.

The next day we took the tram back to the canals. It was a cool crisp day. We got to see all the beautiful canals with cruises and house boats on the side. We walked around the local shops then did the Anne Frank tour. I would totally recommend signing up for this ahead of time as it can get busy. The last time I came to Amsterdam and did the tour I didn't sign up for it ahead of time and waited 45 minutes on line to get in. I didn't remember much from the last time I did the tour, though it is a pretty surreal experience. You learn that Otto Frank was the only one way to survive the hiding out and then capture by Nazi Germany. On the your, you see Anne Frank's room, bathroom, spice room, original parts from Anne Frank's diary, among other things. The steps to get to the attic was steep. There are photos of the family. The one thing that is interesting is that we learn so much about about her hiding, but what about the rest of the people in hiding, as well as other people who died that didn't have their story told.

We met up with a friend from my Australia contiki tour. She is from Germany but came all the way to Amsterdam to hang out for the day which was very kind. We had a good lunch and then went to the Heineken brewery. It was a fantastic tour and got to see barley up close and horse stables with horses. It was very interactive and informative. There was a free beer pouring, as well as a rooftop bar with 2 free beers included as part of doing the tour. At the end, there was different photo booths and videos for people to be put into different entertaining scenarios. We got back to the apartment complex and relaxed before dinner. We went to an Argentinian steakhouse for dinner. I had a beef brochette for dinner. They are skewers with beef on it and it came with a little fire pit to cook it on. It came with a baked potato and salad. The food was delicious to eat. We left for the redlight district and went to a gentleman's club called Cassa Rosso. It was the same exact club I had went to when I went on Contiki, but had completely forgot the name of the establishment. We walked around and saw the women in the windows inviting people to come in for different activities for money. The red lights was all lit up on the canal. It really is a pretty area and one that must be seen if you are in Amsterdam. We had heard that the women in the window are in a big powerful union and get good benefits, which was surprising to hear. On the way back, we took an Uber and the driver got pulled over by the police. We weren't sure for what charge, but it could have been for making an illegal u-turn, or parked in an area that he shouldn't have been.

We slept late the next morning and headed out to the Vincent Van Gogh museum. I would totally recommend to buy the tickets online as you don't have to wait on a long line to get into the museum and can pick the time to enter. It was fascinating how advanced Van Gogh was for his age and started to paint a lot by age 27. The most annoying part of the self guided tour was that people with audio sets don't know how to move out the way once done reading a section and moving on. It was a little crowded and pictures weren't allowed, though I was able to get a few in, by pretending to take a selfie but instead aiming it at the pictures. He had a fascinating with different images, like Japan, Seine river with landscapes that was so beautiful, peasants, fruits and other random things. He committed suicide, and after his death it was found out that he had a mental illness, as well as he bled to death for 2 days. Most people know him for cutting off his ear, but it was amazing how much depth there was to this man.

We left the museum and the rain/wind/cold began. We walked to a restaurant called p.cole. We met with Scott's aunt and I had for lunch a Tom Khai kha (Spicy soup) with a side of bread. I had a coffee that came with a biscotti. The biggest reason I love Europe is that everything is meant to be savoring the company you are with and enjoying it, rather than in the US, where it is a go go type of atmosphere. We took the Amsterdam canal cruise afterwards that was covered overhead which helped to prevent the rain from getting into the boat. We got to see beautiful views of the city, despite the on and off rain. We saw canals, homes, old buildings and opera center. We went back to the apartment and changed for our final dinner. We went to a delicious tapas restaurant called Vida. We had refreshing sangria, various tapas and a desert churros. We saw a mouse randomly run across the restaurant at the end of the meal. Overall this was a fantastic trip to Amsterdam that was very different than my last trip here. The last time I just did canal cruise and red light district, whereas this time I got to see more unique museums and it was a total different experience with Scott's aunt/uncle being our guide.

We arrived at Schippel airport and saw these beautiful yellow sunflowers sitting outside where to enter the airport. In addition, there was a huge cow statue outside. You get to scan your ticket to get into the security area rather than showing it to someone. It was very different than in the US. There was a thorough path down after through the security scanning. We went to this local cafe called Douwe Egberts and got a breakfast muffin and small coffee. It was a modernized airport and very spread out. The latter detail will come back to haunt us later in the trip. We took Czech airlines, which reminds me a lot of Spirit. You have pay for beverages and food on the plane. The stewardess yelled at me because I had my headphones on listening to music during the airplane announcements. This was the first time I have ever had this happen during all my travels. It was overall a good flight and when you descend down into Prague, the first thing you see is a lot of green fields, and a small body of water. Initially, it doesn't appear to be crowded, however once you get closer to the ground you see a lot more buildings. The flight was about 50 minutes from Amsterdam to Prague. It was a long baggage claim area for the bag to get to you. It wasn't super crowded, but the distance from the bag to go around the carousel to you was longer than most airports. The strange thing was there wasn't much security, or anywhere for you to declare your purchases. There was no official customs area, as opposed to Munich where there is an official place to declare your baggage.

We got our hotel transfer and there was many beer signs on the road. We had arranged with the hotel to pick us up at the airport and was super easy to find them. On the outskirts driving into the city, it doesn't appear so impressive. Once you get closer, you see city buildings on hills and a lot of transportation systems similar to Amsterdam. There was beautiful old buildings all around. We pull up to the hotel and see winding roads with cobblestones. There was a huge river that divides the city with bridges connecting the two sides of the city. It was very charming and had an old town feel to it. The streets themselves are very narrow to maneuver. We stayed at the Hotel Yasmin, which was changed over to Hotel Grandium. This was a fantastic place to stay. We were in the heart of the city and breakfast was included. It was a four star hotel at a cheap per night rate. We walked into the hotel lobby and saw this big glass ceiling with a large breakfast area. We left our bags with concierge and made our way to the city.

You walk down the cobblestone streets to old town. There are a lot of shopping and old buildings as far as you can see. We went to a restaurant called Svejk. They had pretzels on the table that you could pay to eat. I got a pilsner urquel beer, which was so refreshing and crisp. The cafe was charming and overlooked all the people walking down the streets towards the shopping. I had this beef goulash dish with raw onions and bread in gravy with potato dumplings. One thing I will say about Prague is the food was some of the best eats I have ever had. It was so comforting this dish. Christina sat at the tab savoring her dish. An example was when I asked her when she went to England and laid out a huge belch. It was the first time I have heard that from her in all of these years of being friends together.

We saw guys that had these ropes that dipped into water and made huge bubbies in the air. We did this free walking tour called Permiant city. There was different tour guides with accents. They gave the tours in different languages depending on where you were from in the world. Our tour guide was Rafa. He was very passionate about his city and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour,. First, we went to the Astronomical clock. This was the biggest waste of time. It was a cheesy quick show similar to the Glockenspiel in Munich, which has a better show. We also were told that a lot of pickpocketing goes on so we watched our valuables carefully as we saw the show. We learned a lot of interesting history of the city, saw old buildings, churches, old world buildings powder (Separates new and old Prague). An interesting fact was that World war 2 was not started by Germany invading Poland, but Czech-Republic was invaded first, which wasn't taught in school. We saw the original theatre where Moazart played, Jewish quarter with oldest Jewish Synagogue, Jewish cemetery of Prague, St Vitus Cathedral in the distance, as well as Charles Bridge. It was very informative tour. We went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The lobby was busy with Asian tourists, so we took the stairs up one flight and had to carry our luggage to the room. There was only one elevator and this might have been one of my few complaints on the hotel. It was a decent sized room with smallish bathrooms, but very modern and a good shower pressure. I had a pork knuckle for dinner with potato salad and pickles. The pork knuckle was so tender. The restaurant was called Como and very tasty. We walked across the Charles Bridge, which was lit up at night time and so beautiful. We went back to the hotel and got some sleep as our first day in Prague was tiring.

We woke up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel. It was a delicious breakfast with so many different choices of things to eat: pastries, waffles, omelette station, baked beans with tomato sauce, sausages, fresh fruit and many different types of fresh fruit. They had a piano player with beautiful music in the background. We went to the Prague bike tour. We signed up for the tour through Aviator. It was a great tour and would totally recommend the Aviator tour company. We did a ride through the Old Jewish quarter/ghetto. It has the oldest synagogue in Europe. We saw the Powder Gate Estates theatre, as well as Charles University. There was a hanging man statue on the building. We crossed the Charles Bridge and in the distance saw a replica of the Eiffel Tower on a hill. The views of the city on the outskirts of the city was breathtaking. We saw the Prague Castle and St Vitus cathedral, as well as Theatre dancing house and the John Lennon wall. Our tour Mike/Mikhael was a great tour guide. The John Lennon wall had a lot of graffiti, as well as someone playing music nearby to the wall. There was a symbolic baby statues that crawled with barcodes on the face. It was a symbol of children raised by tv and social media. Very odd, but definitely got its point across well. The funniest thing we saw on the tour was a statue with 2 men and water going into this fountain. It resembles two people pissing into water. It was crowded in the city to ride the bike, but the bikes we used was very efficient, even with riding on the cobblestones. We met this couple from Boston: Rachel and Mark. We found out they were doing a similar tour to us and going to Munich for Octoberfest. They offered us to hang with them at a tent in Munich for Octoberfest. We took down their information and agreed to meet up with them. It was such a generous offer and was very excited for the opportunity.

We found out on the tour that many agnostic people live in Prague and most of the local people don't live in the city, but on the outskirts because of how expensive it is. We walked along the river and saw riverboats. We walked past an activity called Waterzorbing the night before on our walk and Christina said we should try it. We figured to give it a try. It is a bubble that you can do it alone or with a group of people and the operators push you into the water and you have to try and stand and move the bubble. It was so much fun doing this with my friends. It was virtually impossible to all stand without going flying. It was one of the best highlights of the trips and best laugh I had. We went into a real life marionette shop with so many different dummies. We had lunch at the Coco Cafe. I had this amazing tuna quiche that had soft and flaky dough. They had homemade chocolate there from different countries, which I picked up some for my coworkers. We relaxed then went on a Prague cru9se. We got this shot of local liquor that was green going in called Becherovka. It tasted very similar to Fireball Whiskey. The views of the city at sunset was surreal. We saw an island full of fake penguins and a barge of seagulls. We sat downstairs and started off with bread with sour cream. We went upstairs to look as we left the city. It was all lit up and beautiful at night time. We went downstairs for dinner. It was a buffet with a lot of different foods like pasta, goulash, dumplings, potatoes, pork, crabmeat and rice. It was very tasty, though the desert selection wasn't as great. I had a couple glasses of Mullen wine, as we sat outside with blankets over us for warmth. It was a picture perfect evening. It was a 3 hour cruise that went one direction than went back to the shore. We went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

The other minor inconvenience with the hotel was in the morning I heard this buzzing noise. I thought it was construction ongoing and that woke me up in the morning. We had breakfast than headed out to get souvenirs. We saw St James Basilica church, which was closed, but could see inside this stunning church with an organ playing. There was huge ceilings and religious statues placed around the church. We walked past the Spanish synagogue and saw a church inside a pizza place in Old Town Square. We next ventured to Czechslovakia Hussite church. It had this impressive chandelier and murals all over the wall. We met our tour group for the Prague Castle at Dharakova Praha, which hosts concerts and operas. It was a cold, rainy and windy day. We got to see Schwarzenberg Palace. Our tour guide was named Mike. It was his last tour and moving to Slovakia once he was finished as a tour guide. We took this shuttle up to the castle. You walk in and there is this circle area where if you stand in a certain area and talk your voice projects very loud to the group sitting on these steps. It could had this Roman Colosseum feel to the area of the castle. We saw parts of the castle that dated back to the 9th century. This just boggles my mind and intrigues me that a place can go back this far in time. We saw St Vitus cathedral on the tour. It was the most breathtaking site. You walk inside and so many colors illuminate from the stained glass. You look up and it feels so high up where the top of the cathedral is. The oldest part of the cathedral was in the back with statutes and paintings all around. The side of the cathedral was just as amazing to see.

We finished the tour and went to try and find a beer garden. We climbed up to the top of this area outside the city. We saw this tour that replica that had babies on it and was a symbol of socialism. There was a part of the tour where the Joseph Stalin statute was that we was able to see. We got to the beer garden and of course they only accepted cash and not credit card, which we didn't have cash on us. We walked further back towards into Prague. We walked through a festival that had delicious honey wine to try and other treats. I ended up buying a bottle of wine to bring home. We had dinner at the oldest bar in Prague that reminded me of a german brewhaus. I had schnitzels, mashed potatoes and dark beer. It was an excellent evening and we made our way back to the hotel since it was a long day of walking. We had breakfast and walked around the city. An interesting fact was that there wasn't many lights to get across cross streets. We had to wait for trams and cars to cross, but at least there was a lot less bike traffic than in Amsterdam. Christina and I got to try this delicious treat called Tredlnik, which was a warm cinnamon bun swirl. You could get Nutella or ice cream on it, but we had it plain. There was a lot of open markets that you could get beer, cheese, pork goulash and wine. It was such a lovely sunny day and warmer than it had been so far on the try. We got a beer at Dubliner Prague and enjoyed the nice weather. We waited for Scott to meet up with us who went on his own to check out the Communist Museum. My overall impression of the city was it can be very commercial and parts are very crowded similar to Times Square in NYC. We had lunch at a restaurant that was near the hotel after we checked out. It was called Restaurace Bredovsky Dvur. I had board dumplings and cabbage. It was so soft, comforting and tender. At one point, we saw a guy leave the restaurant dressed in a unicorn outfit. We didn't know why but it brought to us a good laugh. The urinal in the restaurant had oranges and grapefruits where you peed. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen in a urinal, but I guess it was for sanitary reasons.

We got our return shuttle from the hotel and made our way to the airport. There was a 1 hour delay at the Prague airport, but it was very easy to get through security. We got free wine on the flight. I had a red wine. It was a short flight that felt like 20 minutes, but it was only 50 minutes. We got into Germany airport and there was no declaration lines and easy to get through customs. The luggage came out right away. We grabbed a cab and on the way into the city, since it was night time, the roads was dark. Once you get into the heart of Munich, the city was all lit up. Different company buildings, such as BMW, Microsoft lit up. Once we got off the highway, Mercedes Benz had this impressive show room of hundreds of cars on different levels of the headquarters. You go through a long green lit tunnel to enter into the city. We got to the hotel called Cocoon Hauptbahnhof and it looked like a ski lodges. You go up in the elevator and there is a simulation background mural that resembles going up on a mountain ski lift. We get to the room and it was a tight fit. There wasn't much space to maneuver. The bathroom was beautiful, shutters on outside would close based on button pressed and lights can be controlled by switch at bed. There was a funny moment when Scott was in the shower. Christina and I wanted to shut a light and kept turning off the lights, which included the bathroom. Scott was in the dark so we kept switching it on and off to mess with him. The toilet and shower was in separate areas. The only bad thing is when you showered a little water came out of the shower. It was so easy to sleep late as the room was pitch black when the curtains was put down.

The next morning we went outside and more cold and rain awaited. We walked to the area where the Octoberfest parade was to begin. We saw many people dressed up and the main streets was closed. The traditional parade began at 10:45AM on Saturday. We saw cops on horses, people holding flags, horses carrying people on carriages all decked out and dressed up for the festival There was marching bands and floats with people drinking beer and waving to the crowds. Some of the horses was covered in roses or decorative designs. There was music playing all over and roses thrown off the floats. It was a festive and amazing experience. We saw this church called Frauenkirche. We saw some stunning statues and murals inside. We got hungry so we started to walk to find a lunch spot. We passed the Glockenspiel and walked into the Marienplatz Square. I always forgot how charming of a city Munich was and our walk reaffirmed that feeling. We went to Rischart for lunch. I had a bagel with swiss, tomato, cream cheese and cucumbers. It was a very good lunch. One of my friends got a chocolate covered croissant and I tried a little bite of it. It was very tasty.

We found a free walking tour called Sandeman to explore to the city. We got to see Mary's column, Marienplatz, Glockenspiel, St Peter's church (oldest church in the city), Hoftbrauhaus, Residendez Museum and Odeonsplatz. The tour guide Ali gave a lot of good history about the city. We ended the tour and walked inside the Herz Maria church, which was stunning. We sprinted back to hear the Glockenspiel at 5pm. We made it just in time to see the figurines moving in different directions and the bell tone. The show is a lot better than in Prague. We walked around after the show and saw botanical garden and more churches. There was so many thai massages in Munich, similar to the ones we saw in Prague. We walked around looking for Scott to buy an Octoberfest outfit. We went to Schneider Weiss for dinner. I had this delicious cordon bleu pork, which is different than chicken that it is normally served with. It came with noodles with cheese dish. I got a tap 2 beer which was delicious. We headed back to the hotel to relax for the Octoberfest festivities next day.

We dressed up in our Octoberfest attire, except for Scott and met up with our friends that we met in Prague. We walked to the festivities and saw these huge tents, rides and concession stands all over. It was a lot different and more family friends that I had anticipated. We went to the Spaten tent and entered this impressive hall all decorated for the holiday. Mark and Rachel had a great bunch of friends that we met and really enjoyed the day getting to know them. The appetizers on the table consisted of cheeses and ham. I had this sausage, sauerkraut and potatoes for lunch. There was a lot of singing, toasting and dancing in the tent. The only minor inconvenience was It was a little difficult to undo the lederhosen that I wore when going to the bathroom. It was such a blast. We sat at the table drinking and eating for 4 hours. We left the tent and grabbed water at a concession stand. Once you finished the water bottle, you can give the bottle back and receive euros for returning it. It was such a unique thing to see. We saw bands outside playing in the streets. We went to Lowenbrau tent and had some more beer. We got these huge pretzels to eat. We made our way next to Cafe Kaischerman. There was a lot of singing in the bar. The funniest part was when Hey Jude from the Beatles came on and everyone was blasting the lyrics out. We went to a few other tents and called it an early night since we had a tour of Dauchau concentration camp at 9AM. I had 4.5 liter mas/steins of beer, which was equal to 10-12 beers over the 8 hour day. It was important to have water, food and pace yourself during the day. We went back to the hotel and rested up the next day.

We woke up the next morning and things went back to normalcy. The partying died down and seemed a little calmer. Christina wasn't feeling great so she didn't go with Scott and I on the tour. We had this delicious breakfast at the hotel. There was eggs, pretzels, pastries, white sausages (had to peel back the casings) and different types of coffee drinks. We took the Alan Evans tour for Dauchau concentration camp We took a subway and got off at this stop. It smelled a little bit once we got off the stop. We took the S Bahn and going forward everything was pretty clean. It took 25 minutes out into the countryside to get to the next stop. There was a lot of woods and beautiful European homes. We arrived in this charming little city and took a bus. The route was the same route taken as the prisoners did on the way to the concentration camp. We got to the camp and it was a cold, crisp and drizzling morning. It felt very somber with the mood arriving at the camp. There was black crowds all around. We found out that political opposition was brought here and Jews was shipped to other concentration camps outside Germany. We saw barracks, extermination rooms, guard towers, 2 crematoriums, gas chamber bunker and washrooms. This was one of the first concentration camps set up and all camps modeled this camp. We went to the gas chamber and it had a short ceiling. We found out from the tour guide that British established concentration camps first in Africa, however the atrocities was very different than what happened in Europe. Germany had concentration camps set up in Africa in World War 1. Younger Germans have to visit the concentration camps to learn from the past and incorporate changes going forward. There was Protestant, Catholic and Jewish memorials. It was a very large camp, though the tour guide told us that Auschwitz is a lot bigger in size. We saw video from the American liberation and what the camp looked like with dead bodies all over and boneyard near the crematorium. It was very sad to read quotes from the prisoners and what the liberators saw when they freed the camp. We ended the tour and made our way back to the city. It was a fantastic tour and Alan was very knowledgable as our guide.

Christina met up with us feeling a lot better. We walked through the English Garden and saw ducks/waterfalls. It was very peaceful and saw surfers in Park Green. I remembered that from the last time I saw the park. It was a cool day, but very easy to walk around the park. There was ponds all over and saw whole garden. We finished and walked up Turn St Peter. It was 300 steps to the top of the tower. It was very narrow and I almost lost my sunglasses, which fell off my face and landed on a step below. The top offered views of the Alps, Glockenspiel, Marienplatz and rest of Munich. It was a great view and well worth walking up the tower. We finished and went souvenir shopping. Scott and I tired of eating European foods so we went to a Japanese restaurant. We went to this place called Tonkotsu Shoyu. I had ramen meal that came with Gyoza and rice with salmon/soy sauce. It was a delicious and not heavy meal. We walked around and got gelato. I had one scoop of whiskey cream and one of snickers. Both scoops was amazing and tasted like their flavor. We walked around then relaxed before bed.

We had breakfast at the hotel. It was a little confusing to get to the train station. We found out that if you get group tickets it is cheaper than individuals. No one checked our tickets on the way to the airport. At the airport the KLM checkin was slow. My bag was over 2 Kilograms for the weight restriction so I had to put my shoes and lederhosen in Scott's bag. This was the only airport that said anything about my bag being overweight. I bought a bottle of water at the airport and I needed to show my boarding pass and passport to purchase it, which was very unusual. The terminal was very small with not much to eat or drink. Our flight was delayed 1.5-2 hours due to fog in Amsterdam that caused a backup in the flights in and out of the city. The flight was a little bumpy. I had a sweet pepper and spinach wrap for a light lunch. We got to Amsterdam and had only 20 minutes to get to our flight. I told the flight attendants that we needed to get off the plane and they wouldn't allow us to go. We told some of the passengers we needed to get a connecting flight most of them let us go except this one woman who was so rude and wouldn't let us move ahead. We ran through 3 terminals seeing long lines at different gates. We got through customs easily and made it to the gate. Security allowed Christina and Scott through, but I was forced to be pulled aside and had to take off all things I was wearing and take my iPad out of its case. It had a crack on the cover case from running so they questioned me about the reason. I was swabbed for explosives for the first time and was furious as my poor friends waited for me at the gate as the flight attendants yelled at them to get on the plane since it was about to leave. I wondered if it was related to the water bottle purchase back in Munich.

We got on the flight and I was so appreciative of my friends waiting for me. They are such great people and incidents like this always reaffirm that. We got to our seats as the last ones on the plane and still waited 20 minutes to leave. There was limited selections of movies and my TV didn't work the best. The in flight entertainment had to be rebooted for 45 minutes to reset the brightness. Afterwards, my TV was still not great especially the sound. The flight itself was decent and had a great array of foods and drinks, such as vodka tonic, nuts, many choices of alcoholic/non alcoholic drinks, chicken dinner dish with rice, green beans, bread in an oyster sauce, ice cream, cheese quiche and other snacks. It was all very tasty. We got a hot wet nap to wash our hands before the meals. It was overall decent even with the security and TV mishaps. We got off the flight back in NY to find out our bags didn't make the connecting flight due to the issues in Amsterdam. It took us 2 extra days after coming home to get our suitcases. It was an amazing trip overall and definitely should be taken by all people. A few quick observations to close up the trip:

- Beer cheaper than water. If you get a water bottle keep it and refill so you save yourself on paying a lot for water
-Bathrooms are not always free in certain parts of Europe
-Smaller rooms at hotels than in States, though I knew this from my previous European travels.
-I learned what AF meant (as fuck), which has been used in slang, but I had no clue what it was
- This girl we met at the Octoberfest when she was drunk would say "Oh my God" in this my high pitch, but funny tone
-Weather was cold and rainy for most of the trip. I didn't wear most of my shorts/short sleeve shirts, bathing suits or sandals, which reminded me a lot of my travels to the Pacific Northwest
-We picked up this thing we do now which goes like this: Hi Scott, Hi Skotchy, Hi Jay

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