Beatlemania!

Sparknotes:

• Went to the Beatlemania Museum
• Took a train/ferry/bus to Copenhagen
• Met a cool guy from Boston who was couchsurfing in Copenhagen
• Hung out with Laerke and her awesome roomies

My next day in Hamburg was pretty easy going. I had breakfast at the hostel and lounged around doing computer stuff. I left around noon and made my way to the Beatles Museum. I’ve been a Beatles fan my whole life, so I was pretty excited to go to a museum dedicated to them. I also recently took a class at Cal Poly on the Beatles (sooooo amazing), so I was feeling pretty knowledgeable about everything I was about to see, and was excited to learn more.

The museum had 5 levels and lots of information, but it failed to impress me. L I thought it could have been structured much better, and had cooler exhibits that you could interact with more. Oh well. The cool parts included seeing lots of photos of the Beatles I’d never seen before, watching videos of girls going nuts screaming for the Beatles, posing with the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album Cover in real life, and checking out the insane amount of Beatles memorabilia! They had Beatles everything!!! I had no idea there was a board game called the “Mop Tops” haha There was also lots of Beatles jewelry, lunchboxes, binders, room décor, combs, and everything else you’d ever need. Haha

I then explored the city center for 1.5 hours or so. I didn’t have much time, but got to see a decent amount of stuff in the city. It’s pretty cool/huge. Apparently it got bombed to nothing in WWII, so everything looks somewhat new and similar, which gives the city an interesting atmosphere. I liked it, but it wasn’t anything special (sorry Louisa. Maybe you can show me the cool parts another time haha).

I then took a ~6 hour train ride to Copenhagen where I got to blog for a bit (I usually make a word document draft of my blogs, then post them when I have internet) and play angry birds. Gosh that game is addicting. Haha Oh, and something I had no idea about, was that our train would drive directly onto a ferry to get to Denmark! I was so confused for a bit, and was yelled at by a German train employee to GET OFF THE TRAIN! Haha Oops. The ferry ride was really cool, and definitely unexpected (I thought there was a bridge between Germany and Denmark. My bad).

Due to train problems in Copenhagen, we all had to take a bus from the ferry port to Copenhagen. It was alright, and I ended up sitting next to a guy from Boston who was super cool. His name was John, and he’s been traveling around Europe for the last 2 months, couchsurfing everywhere. He’s traveled all over the world pretty much, and is what I would consider a “travel-holic.” Haha He had lots of good advice for me of places to go, how to get there, what the people are like, and things to watch out for. Listening to him was always kind of distracting tho, because Boston accents just crack me up. Haha At one point he said “turquoise” with such a thick accent I had to stop him so I could get myself back together.

We were both staying with couchsurfers for the night (tho I actually had already hosted the girl I was staying with back in CA), and our hosts lived roughly in the same area so we walked together for a while before splitting up. We talked about meeting up the next day to explore the town since both our hosts had work or school, and we actually did which was cool. I eventually made it to my friend Laerke’s house, and it was SO GREAT to see her.

When Laerke stayed with me in San Luis Obispo, she was with 2 other girls so I didn’t really get to spend that much 1-1 time with her. But now that I was staying with her, we got to talk a lot more and I got to know her so much better even in just a short amount of time. It’s also cool seeing the living situation and lifestyle of the people I hosted back in slo, and Laerke had a really cool living situation. She lives in a cooperative with 6 other people (6 bedroom apt/dorm mix).

I got to meet most of her roommates that night, who were super laid back and spoke very good English. Fresh bread was cooking, I had some tea, and soon Laerke was showing me everywhere I needed to hit up while in Copenhagen. She even drew up some maps/ streets/ buildings/ cafes/ restaurants on a piece of paper for me. J With the help of her flatmate Sarah, I had a decent idea of what to do the next day.

Hostel in Hamburg

Sparknotes

• Had a GREAT 5 hour train ride from Leeuwaden to Hamburg
• Stayed at a hostel (2^nd time this trip…)
• Caught up on computer/email stuff
• Hit up a bar with a Canadian and Italian guy

After sleeping in a bit and hanging out with Elisabeth for a short breakfast (included fresh muffins she just baked), I made my way to my favorite place - the train station, to catch a ride to Hamburg, Germany. I was mainly just going to Hamburg to split up the travel time to Copenhagen which is where was heading next. I also thought it would be cool to check out the Beatlemania museum, considering that I’m a huge beatles fan and the Beatles got their start it Hamburg.

Anyway, the train ride was good, but pretty soon I was lost in Hamburg trying to find my hostel. After an hour of taking different metros and walking the wrong way for 15 minutes, I made it to the Backpackers Hostel in Saint Pauli. It was cozy, but not exactly in the prettiest of locations (which is also what is "cool" about the area I found out). I put in some solid computer time at the hostel, then went out to the bars with my two roommates for the night: an Italian and Canadian guy who were both roughly my age.

The night was pretty laid back and I had a good time hanging out with them, but it wasn’t anything special. At about 1am, we left the bar and parted ways. My contacts were killing me and I was super tired, so I went back to the hostel while they went off to some more bars in the Reeperbahn district of town. That’s about it. Haha

Red Lights & Coffee Shops

Sparknotes:

• Went to a sex museum that may have scarred me for life. Haha
• Took a stroll through the red light district
• I spent the afternoon with a random woman who bought me a tea and coffee
• Had one of the best conversations I’ve had this trip with a 55 year old Shaman
• Experienced “Occupy Amsterdam”
• Elisabeth = Great chef and amazing person

While Elisabeth was at school on Monday, I decided to head to famous Amsterdam for the day. Stoked! As usual tho, my morning got off to a late start and I found myself peddling as fast as I could to the train station to make it on time. It was a semi long train ride of 2.5 hours, but I finally made it to the city famously known for its marijuana tolerance/legality, red light district, and canals throughout the city requiring over 1,000 bridges.

Despite being fairly chilly and windy all day, the sun was out so it wasn’t so bad. After wandering around the streets for a bit, I stumbled into the sex museum a friend of mine had told me about and insisted I check it out. Well, it was interesting all right… That is, if you like seeing ancient artifacts and art with penises and every sex position on them, sex diorama photo shoots, peep hole machines, porn from the 1930’s, and everything else SEX. Haha While amusing at times, it was more shocking and disturbing than anything else. If you ever do go here tho, please DO NOT go into the showcase room that says “WARNING: Enter at Your Own Risk.” Resist your curiosity to go in, and save yourself years of nightmares from the pictures you’ll see.

While already feeling kinda dirty, I decided to get the red light district over with next. Haha It was a lot different than I was expecting, and was just a block away from some really nice shops. It’s pretty much right in the middle of the city center (which is incredibly huge btw). The dark alleyways with red lights were packed with guys walking around, checking out the half-naked women in the windows. It was definitely a bizarre atmosphere as the girls were always tapping on the windows trying to get you to come in, groups of guys joking around asking girls “how much?”, and the occasional dude who quickly snuck in or out of one of the rooms. I tried to start a slow clap for a guy that walked out of a room, but I guess the slow clap never really caught on with Europeans. Haha

After getting in enough creeper time for the next 10 years, I made my way down to the largest park in the city to hang out. Along the way I saw a number of "coffee shops" which are places you can legally buy and smoke marijuana. You can also smoke on the streets and in public, but I think there are certain regulations prohibiting it in certain areas. I also bought a new book along while walking to the park, and after walking around the park for a bit I headed to a café to get some food and tea (and to start my new book). After moving outside to enjoy the fresh/brisk air at a table, I was approached by a woman who asked if I wanted a tea. What?! There was only one table outside, and I guess she wanted to smoke a cigarette over some tea, so she offered to buy me some tea and sit with me. Cool. Haha

The woman was 33 years old, married, and is a professional artist of sorts and gets to travel all around the world for her job. She was somewhat of a mystery woman tho. She wore a long black jacket, sunglasses, a scarf, and a hat, so essentially her entire face was covered and I had no idea what she actually looked like. Haha Oh well, it was nice talking with her, and we actually decided to get a coffee somewhere next. We wound up in a little plaza, sat outside, and observed the semi-life sized chess game in front of us. It was cool; you had a bunch of people standing around watching and commenting on the players moves. Taccini and Wholesome should face off in Amsterdam. Haha Oh, and I forgot to mention that she bought me the coffee too. She was super nice and kind of my suga momma for the day. J She even walked me across town after to another cool café she thought I’d like. Haha

The next café had a really mellow atmosphere with low lighting and interesting people. Most interestingly tho, was an older guy I sat next to at the bar who I ended up talking to for a couple hours. haha We had one of the better conversations I’ve had on this trip, and even in my life actually. It’s hard to explain what he was like, but if you know my friend Michael Crivello, he’s pretty much a 55 year old version of him. Very wise, observant, generous, and has a unique perspective on life and how he views other people and himself.

We talked about a number of different things, but spirituality and understanding ourselves was at the heart of the conversation. He asked me what my passion was at one point, and I gave a surprisingly quick answer: “people are my passion.” That’s something to think about as I move forward in my career and everything I’m involved in. But he also pointed out that I can really do no wrong in whatever career path I choose, which is something I’m moderately stressing about right now. So it was definitely great to talk with him and to have his support. I definitely plan to stay in touch with him.

After leaving the café, I found myself walking towards a large area with tons of tents, people, and signs everywhere. “Occupy Amsterdam” had taken over a parking lot, and was a pretty impressive to see in person. People were rallying together, huddling up in tents (it was pretty cold by this point; I have a lot of respect for the people camping out and braving the weather), serving/eating food, and in general just talking about what needs to change. A very cool atmosphere, and after debating making some friends and camping out there myself, I thought “better” and took a train home.

Home was good, and after returning the bike I borrowed, Elisabeth made me an amazingly huge dinner! Haha She made me a typical german dish, complete with sliced potatoes (3 of them), an onion (grilled with the potatoes), and 4 sausage links. Oh man, it was SOOOOOO good. Thank you so much again Elisabeth. We had another good talk that night, but we both had to wake up early the next day so we said good night after dinner. Amsterdam was definitely a cool city with laid back people, but it’s become too commercialized and I think it’s lost a lot of its original appeal/flavor. I’d like to come back eventually, but I’m not necessarily in a hurry to see it again.

Ferry Ride + Tandem Bike

After explaining to Elisabeth that I was getting tired of seeing cities cities cities (all the streets, plazas, and churches look somewhat the same now), she decided to take me on a ferry ride adventure to one of the islands off the northern coast of The Netherlands. Definitely a good call (tho kinda expensive). After a quick breakfast that was super good (sandwiches are common for breakfast btw), we made our way to the train station to head to the coast. Side note: next time you have breakfast, try a bread roll with cream cheese, sliced ham, and sliced Gouda cheese. Greatest thing ever.

The ferry ride was fun, but I wished I had brought a deck of cards. It’s a Gaunt family tradition to play card games on ferries. Haha We made the most of it tho by playing angry birds on my itouch, and feeding the seagulls as we left the dock which was fun. Upon our arrival to the freezing cold/windy island, we walked around for a bit (all the shops are closed on Sundays so it was dead), then decided it would be fun to rent a tandem bike for the day to explore the island. Woot woot! I’ve always wanted to rent/ride one.

Elisabeth and I had a hell of a time riding around the island all day. Tho at times I questioned whether Elisabeth was even pedaling… haha Controlling those bikes is also kinda tricky/wobbly which added to the fun. The countryside/oceanside was beautiful as you can imagine, but very different from any coastline I’ve ever been on. We biked through a couple towns then made our way to the beach to eat our lunch. The beach wasn’t quite a beach we Californians are familiar with, but I guess its probably similar to one near San Francisco where there’s lots of wind and its cold. Haha There were tons of people “sand sailing” (roller derby like cars with sails attached) which looked like a lot of fun.

The rest of our time on the island was fun, but we made it back to town too early and decided to just walk/hike around for a bit on the ocean/tide area before our ferry headed back. It wasn’t as pretty as I would have expected, but I guess it was pretty in its own way. We finally hopped on our ferry, and after a long ride back and waiting forever to catch a train back into town, Elisabeth and I were home.

One of her guy friends from Germany met up with us soon after to hang out and enjoy Elisabeth’s cooking. She made a delicious potato and pumpkin soup, and a type of chicken stir fry with a creamy sauce that was quite good. She’s spoiled me for sure. J Thank you! Such a great day and change from what I've been used to. Next stop: Amsterdam!

Leeuwarden???

Most tourists from America will probably never make it up to Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, but it was actually a pretty cool town. Side note: Holland and The Netherlands are NOT the same thing I found out. Holland is just a region in The Netherlands that is the most densely populated and visited place in the country.

Anyway, Leeuwarden has canals going through the streets (lit up at night which was cool), a huge market with more people/locals walking around than any other city I’ve been to (it seemed that way at least), it’s a college town so everyone looks young and fit, there's an ice skating rink, a mysterious dark tower/building that looms over the city, and everyone is a freakin tall! The women were kinda like blonde Avatars haha. It was so weird; many of them were as tall or taller than me! It was a cool town for sure, but I doubt I’ll ever come back to the city and wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone, but I was glad to see it regardless.

My first day in Leeuwarden got off to a great start by: a. Skyping with Jenny for ~2 hours, b. Having a huge breakfast feast with Elisabeth. I like the way they do meals in Europe btw. Meal time actually means something to Europeans. They take more time to prepare meals (often with the help of others), there’s lots of variety, and the meals are just longer which encourage people to socialize more. My family has always (and still do) accused me of taking too long to eat at the dinner table to get out of dish duty. J However, having gained a worldly perspective traveling around the last month (I kid I kid), I think I’ve just been expressing the inner European in me all these years, and my family just can’t see it. Haha

So yes, Elisabeth prepared a wonderful breakfast and after cleaning up we took off to see her city via bicycle. The main street was actually super close tho, so we just parked our bikes and walked around. People were everywhere.! It seemed as tho everyone in the small town of ~90k people were out shopping and eating at cafes. We got a “donut” like pastry and sat with our legs hanging over the canal for a bit, then made our way into a café for some tea. Such a relaxing day. I needed it. Belgium was intense/awesome. Haha

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with some of her other friends, almost going ice skating (it was closing in 30 min. when we showed up so we didn’t go), hitting up another café, and having dinner/game night with 2 of her german friends and 2 guys from Romania, who were crazy btw. Oh man, I got so frustrated this night. We tried to play Yahtzee (board game) with everyone, but the Romanian guys were in their own world and spent the entire time either cheating, smashing the dice cup up on the table, or most frustratingly, having no clue how to play the game (despite our best efforts to teach them) and ignoring everything we tried to tell them. Seriously, it was as if I was talking to a monkey (a dumb one at that, sorry).

For those of you who know anything about Yahtzee, you get three rolls then put your score into one of the boxes on your sheet of paper. At one point, Razvan #1 must have rolled at least 12 times in a row, with everyone just watching in silence/awe to what the #&^$ he was doing. He was just picking and choosing certain dice, re-rolling all of them again, moving them around, paying no attention to what he was doing or why he was doing it (so pretty much doing nothing), before I finally had to step in and say something. These guys definitely tested my patience, and won. Haha And then there was the crazy Romanian techno/hip-hop they kept playing, which was fine, but what was worse was that I’m pretty sure the Romanian guys didn’t say one word to the other German girls the entire night, and the German girls didn’t talk to the Romanian guys either. It was such a bizarre atmosphere that only seemed normal due to Elisabeth and I making conversation with everyone.

Anyway, dinner was amazing. Elisabeth made pancakes with ham and cheese, or whatever filling you wanted such as Nutella. Mmmmm….. Thanks again Elisabeth! Everyone eventually left the party around 11pm, and Elisabeth and I just hung out for a bit before going to bed. Strange night. haha

Bruges and Brewery Tour

Wow. The pub crawl the night before was so much fun, but it definitely took its toll on me the next day. Waking up, packing, and dealing with the train stations were all even less fun. Haha Jasper helped me get back to the train station which was sweet (he was an awesome host by the way. Incredibly trusting and giving), then I was off to the next Belgian city of Bruges (known as the Venice of the North because of its famous canals).

Upon arrival in Bruges around noon, I dumped off my large pack in a locker at the train station and snagged my school backpack with water and other stuff for the day. The town was very pretty, with nice parks and beautiful canals. I feel like this town is overhyped tho. The main square is nice, but not as gorgeous as other places I've been to. And the canals weren’t any cooler than the ones in Ghent, Leeuwadern, or Amsterdam (I’m a few days behind in the blog, I'm actually in Hamburg Germany right now and head to Copenhagen this afternoon). The streets weren’t all that cool either, and with a million tourists everywhere, this town really went down on the cool charts for me, especially considering how hyped it was by people I know.

The one highlight of Bruges came at 4pm when I did a brewery tour for 5.50 euro (includes a free drink at the end). I believe the company was called Half Moon, and their prize winning beer is the Brugse Zot. They have a really cool history which was all explained/shown on the tour. I met a nice couple from Pennsylvania/Germany on the tour who I hung out with for a while after the tour, drinking our beers. Turns out the guy just graduated from Penn State as an Industrial Engineer. Haha Crazy. However, as always, I wasn’t really watching the clock that closely, and had to sprint to the train station to make my train on time – which I did. J

Next stop, The Netherlands!!! I got into Leeuwarden (1.5 hours north of Amsterdam) a little after midnight, and Elisabeth (my good friend from Germany – couchrufer/Nanny in Palo Alto) picked me up. It was so great to see her. After some quick hellos at the station we made our way through the cold dark streets back to her apartment. After hanging out for a bit and having a cup of tea (I’ve had so much tea on this trip btw), we went to one of her friend’s house to pick up a bike for me to use the next few days. We debating going out for a drink, but thought better and went to bed “early.” Haha

Side note: it’s nice to be staying with a friend I knew from before again. As much as I love couchsurfing (which I do), it’s nice to just be able to relax and not have to impress (not sure that’s quite the right word) the person you’re staying with. It’s just more laid back staying with a friend you already know, and after couchsurfing in Caen and in Ghent the last 5 nights or so, I'm glad to be staying with Elisabeth for a few days.

Pub Crawl!

My next day in Belgium was just as awesome as the night before. After getting a late start on the day (probably due to the crazy night before) Jasper and I made a tour around the city starting with his University. While walking to the University, Jasper decided to make a quick detour to stop at the largest beer store in Ghent (Gent). I can’t remember how many different types of beers were in there but it had to be a lot (at least 800+ I think). I was like a little boy in a candy store, marveling at all the different types of beer; big beer, small beer, cheap beer, “how much!” beer, delicious beer, @#%! beer, widely distributed beer, local beer, monk beer, Scientology beer (jkjk). Seriously tho, they had everything, even kits for brewing your own beer. After wisely choosing a beer for each of us, we made our way to the street to continue our trip, drinking our Belgian beers on the way of course which is legal (in the bottle unfortunately, sorry dad).

Jasper’s University was nice and had a lot of character to it. It reminded me of a much smaller version of Washington State University with all the red bricks. But we quickly saw it all, and decided to check out the museum of Ghent nearby. For only 1 euro (student discount), I had an amazing time in the little museum of Ghent. They had lots of cool artifacts and information about the history of the town, but the two highlights were the map room and lego room. In the map room you could walk on a brilliantly lit up satellite view of the town, and in the lego room, well, you could play with the legos. Haha We built and destroyed some towers which was fun.

Anyway, the next part of the day is when our day REALLY started. It was time to do a pub crawl in Ghent. With over 1,500 beers made/sold in Belgium, I had a lot of work to do for the day. Quick side note, they have sheep roaming along the canals to “mow” the grass which is super cool (Jasper thought I was retarded haha). All of the pubs we went to were were unique and typically small with brick walls, dark lighting (some had candles), and old wooden décor. They reminded me of pubs that probably exist in Ireland. Either way, the jazz club and “bike part ceiling” pub were the coolest for sure.

Over the course of the day/night Jasper carefully selected a number of beers for me, all of which were delicious (except for maybe the sour beer), and were often of very high alcohol % (9-10%). At one point we hit up a fry shop, which I was desperately craving at the time. Haha And at one of the pubs we went to the night before, we met some fun students our age who were hilarious to talk to joke with. After buying each other a couple rounds of whiskey shots (chocolate, cactus), we recruited Frederik and Eveline to join us to the next pub, as well as Jasper’s friend Simon. The rest of the night was such a great time hanging out with everyone, and tho there were no particular highlights, it was the kind of night you look back upon and just smile thinking about it. I love Ghent.

The last bar we went to had thousands of old rusty bicycle parts hanging from the ceiling (I’m pretty sure I had to duck in several places in the bar to avoid hitting my head haha). It was also completely dark in the pub except for the wooden fire an old man was tending to and candles on the tables. It was SOOOOOOO cool!!!! The old man was kinda creepy as well which added to the unusual atmosphere. We had a great time tho, and I got to become pretty good friends with everyone there (I have a ton of new foreign facebook friends now which is sweet haha). Sadly, the pub crawl came to an end after here, but what a night! I wish the pubs in California had this kind of atmosphere. Oh well, I’ll be back in Europe soon enough!