Last blog

Hello everyone!

Thank you all very much for reading. I had a wonderful time and I enjoyed sharing many of my experiences with all of you. I came home a bit earlier than planned, but really from the beginning I had no idea how long my savings would last. I stayed until the last day of my Eurail pass and that worked out just about perfectly.

Thank you all!

Joshua

A few missteps, a happy landing

I woke up to the sharp sound of high heels walking across the pavement. I peeked out of my sleeping bag to see a woman in business attire walk by. I hid back in my sleeping bag to think for a bit. To think or dream, I'm not really sure, the two can be quite indistinguishable when my eyes are shut. Only a few moments later, I heard the train approach. I got out of my sleeping bag and made the transition from bum to backpacker so lightning fast that I think I could give hope to bums. They just need to trade in that shopping cart for a big backpack. Although, maybe they started out with a backpack and it will only be a matter of time before I get a shopping cart! Well, I got on the train. I slept next to the track of the train that I needed to take so I could be on the first one of the day. The benches along the track were divided to discourage sleeping on them I suppose, but somehow I managed. Things hadn't gone well the night before and the misfortunes were not done peppering my journey to Cherbourg, France to get on a ferry to Ireland.

Eindhoven! The train ended up back in Eindhoven, the city I was trying to get away from the previous night. After many failed attempts to go south, I revisited many Dutch towns I had never heard of before and they started to become my new curse words. Eindhoven was my most used, and its foulness grew more putrid with each revisit.

I decided to go back to Rotterdam and fix the major mistake I made just 12 hours before. From my return to Rotterdam I learned how my mistake happened. A train to Venlo (another curse word) left from the same platform just 8 minutes before the train to Brussels. I had been so use to getting on trains early... erggggh... Eindhoven!

The lady at the ticket counter in Rotterdam informed me all the trains to Paris were full until a 2:43 train from Brussels. She also told me I shouldn't travel last minute and missing my train the night before was not her fault. I was so glad to hear her advice! I told her to have a nice day (in honestly a sincere manner) and got on the next train to Brussels. In Brussels, my downs were countered by a very big up. After calculating the time I would get to Cherbourg if I left Brussels at 2:43, I found there would be absolutely no way to make my ferry. I thank God that I met a very friendly train manager who allowed me to board the 11:13 train and even showed me to a seat. I arrived in Paris at 12:30, five minutes after a train left to Cherbourg. I was okay with not being on that one though because I was happy I was going to be able to make the 3 o'clock one.

When I got to the other train station (since there are many in Paris) I found out the 12:25 train had not left to Cherbourg, it was broken and still being worked on. I tried to decide if that was a good sign or a bad one. Did that mean if I had been on time that day that I would've still been as late as I was? Did it mean I was destined to not make the ferry? Well, I didn't think about it too long and I got on the 3 o'clock train to Cherbourg.

The 3 o'clock train was due to arrive in Cherbourg at 6 pm, 1 hour before the ferry's departure. I had no idea if the train station would be close to the port, if there would be taxis, buses, or anything at all. I tried to not even think about the fact that I hadn't even purchased a ticket yet! I was trying to think of chores I could do for them if they let me on a full ferry. (Full or not I did not know, by the way) I imagined myself scrubbing the deck clean with a tooth brush, Forrest Gump-style. I would've been happy to do it of course, I needed to be on there! I also thought about the backup plan and all the debt I would accrue buying a flight from Paris to Dublin. Or what if the flights were full?? What if I completely missed my flight home?!?

Well, the long ride to Cherbourg was a nerve-racking one. Especially when the time passed 6 o'clock and the train continued to stop at towns that were not Cherbourg. When we finally arrived in Cherbourg, I hit the platform running, as did many other people in front of me. As I was chasing after them, I was reminded of running to get to the front section at the Bruce Springsteen concert, but it was a totally different feeling this time. And as I caught up to them I didn't pass them because I didn't know where I was going and I figured they were headed to the ferry, too. Many people jumped in taxis, I jumped in my own. I told the driver, "The ferries! The port!" I looked at the clock, 6:24. The taxis drove very fast. I was watching the excitement from the middle of the backseat and as a citybus made a stop ahead the taxi in front of us couldn't wait for that stop. The taxi steered a hard right onto the sidewalk, and even around the waiting booth structure. We weren't behind the bus too long and it wasn't even too long before I was out and running into the terminal. The lady at the counter was surprised I didn't have a ticket but she was happy to sell me one and I was soooo happy to buy one. I wanted to hug her, I wanted to go back out and hug my taxi driver, I wanted to hug everyone.

On the way to board the ferry a couple was talking about how surprised they were that their taxi driver drove on the sidewalk to get around the bus. I said, "That was you? I was right behind you! I was thinking, why can't my taxi driver do that?" They said they paid extra, ha.

Sidenotes:

• I don't condone using Dutch towns as curse words. I am certain they are nice towns and well-worth visiting, and shouldn't be associated with anything like foul language. The origin of the names as curse words came from each time I'd read the name of the town in surprise that I was there again. Sharing my thoughts on this subject was for humorous purposes.
• I don't mean what I said about bums, that was for humorous purposes also.
• Last of all, I know the lady at the counter in Rotterdam was right, that if I do want to travel smoothly and to places on time I should plan ahead better. I think her contempt for my style of traveling came to surface when I asked if I could just stand somewhere or maybe sit on the toilet for the train ride.

Athens

One night in Athens there was a partial lunar eclipse. For the occasion, people were allowed up on the acropolis after midnight. The regular hours of visiting the acropolis ended before sunrise normally, so I was extremely happy for this special occasion. It was thanks to my friends Lena and Lisa that I have pictures from this event because I went up camera-less. They even let me take many of the pictures.

For my last sight-seeing day in Athens, I went to both Olympic stadiums, the 1896 one and the 2004 one. The 1896 one was impressive but it was a quick visit. You weren't allowed inside so there wasn't much more to do than to take a few pictures and walk by. 1896 was the first time the ancient games had been revived, so it was the first year of the modern Olympics.

The most recent Olympic games held in Athens were outside of the city's center. I took the metro out there and I didn't know what to expect. I had heard you weren't allowed inside there either so I thought I would be taking pictures through a fence. However, you just aren't allowed in the actual stadium or event centers, entry into the sports complex was permitted. It was like walking in a park. Every building was a site to see, and despite lack of recent upkeep it was still very pretty.

And last, a few pictures from other spots in Athens.

The temple of Olympian Zeus

Pompeii

Pompeii had a lot of stray dogs.

Rome

I think I'm just going to do pictures for awhile. I have some good stories, but I am so far behind... I will tell my new ice cream story when I catch up a bit.

Blog update

Florence and venice need work, other than that it's pretty updated. I am hoping this post will make it easier to catch up on all the cities I've been to recently without having to scroll through everything. Oh, and I wanted to tell an ice cream story from my time at the Minnemas in addition to all the city sight-seeing updates.

Starting with Saturday, the 12th of July I was in Antwerp Saturday and Sunday. Monday night I spent in Lucerne, Switzerland. On Tuesday, I traveled to Italy to spend two nights in the lake town Como. From there I went to a large harbor city Genova. After a quick early morning train ride, I arrived in the Cinque Terre on Saturday, the 19th.

Not far south from the Cinque Terre is Pisa, so I spent a couple nights there. Florence was the next big stop. After that well-planned route I decided I needed to go back up north to see a few cities and I loved Verona. And just going a little west I arrived in Venice on Saturday, the 26th.

Currently I am in Siena, and it is Wednesday!

Venice

Venice

Verona

Verona was wonderful! I wish I had more pictures of the beautiful city, but I only took a couple and they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

The first day there I wasted so much time getting to my hostel because I kept doing Sudoku puzzles. When I finally arrived to my hostel to my surprise they had a piano. That night I played until midnight and I had a bunch of people in the room joining in on the fun. Many of them knew some of the songs I was playing so they were singing along. We happily sang through three verses of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and then we stumbled through the fourth, and then I attempted the fifth. I guess there are sixteen total, but I'm sure that many would've worn out the song. They also knew a little Regina Spektor and ever since I have had Fidelity stuck in my head. Which is much better than having the new Coldplay song stuck in my head because that was there for a long time!

One girl asked if I could play Fur Elise. I used to always tell people no and that I never liked that song. However, it gets harder as the years go by to say that to people who really do love that song. And after a few years, I started to learn how to play it unwillingly. So I played what I could for her and then she wanted me to teach it to her. The funny thing is she didn't even speak English. Her friend translated for her that she wanted me to teach it to her. We tried playing it anyway.

The next day I received word that the opera that night was Bizet's Carmen. I had to go! I love Bizet's Carmen and the ticket prices were pretty cheap, €22.50, not bad. It was such a lovely evening! Upon entrance to the amphitheatre there are candles you can take so you can join in the tradition. Since 1908 (I think was the year) it has been tradition to light candles during the first act. The picture actually came out a lot brighter than it really looked that night. It was cool to see the many candles. The music was wonderful.

Juliet's balcony. I don't know if that means it was used in a movie or what... (After a comment I thought I would research the balcony.) Just so you know, I wasn't questioning who Juliet was, but I was questioning if in fact she is a fictional character then what is the purpose of saying this house and balcony belonged to her. It seems that the suspicion arosed over the years that the house belonged to the Capulets because of the owners many years ago that were named Capella. Suspicion turned into belief of many after the 1930's when the house was renovated and a balcony was added. Here is where I found some of the info on it: the Casa di Giulietta.

Florence

I took a lot of pictures of the sunsets in Florence... way too many.

florence

Pisa

I like this one where you can see everyone doing the same pose of holding up the tower.



I went to Pisa pretty much only to see the leaning tower. I camped out and found that Italy does have mosquitos. Until Pisa, I was thinking the weather was very similar to Idaho's but without mosquitos. After Pisa I haven't been able to get away from the mosquitos.

Some graffiti in Pisa. It looks like someone likes Groningen, too.

Cinque Terre

I recently found out I've had my days mixed up for awhile. The Cinque Terre is very small and very popular, so I thought it would be best to visit on a weekday. When I got there it was unbelievably crowded. Still though, it was beautiful. I took a little break because I thought the crowd would thin out. Luckily, I was right. Around dinner time all the crowds were eating and nearly on their way out, and the rest of my exploration through the villages was pretty much crowd-free, apart from when I was in the center of the village of Vernazza. I took a swim in the sea. I actually thought it would be a good substitute for a shower. I didn't bathe in it or anything, but since I had been hiking around all day, I thought a swim would really cool me off and refresh me. I didn't smell fresh after my swim though.

The villages were very adorable and it would've been very nice to spend more time there. It would have been amazing to be there without all the crowds. It has the good mixture of natural beauty with small Italian-village charm. By the way I visited on a Saturday, which probably made it much more crowded, but I thought I visited on a Thursday, or a Tuesday, I can't remember.

Genova

I went to Genoa without knowing anything about it. It is a very big city and it is on the Mediterranean. Well, actually it is on the Ligurian Sea, all this time I have been calling all the water around Italy the Mediterranean, I am learning.

I met some Italian guys one night. I was walking around looking for a place to eat and I wandered into this place where some people were spending their evening chatting away like old pals (well actually they probably were old pals). Only one of them spoke English, his name was Pino. I had a lot of fun hanging out with them. To go with my dinner I ordered milk and they kept laughing that I ordered milk, they would say, "Vino! Vino!" They wanted to know how my dinner was and even though it was obvious by the plastic container and lid that it was a microwavable dinner, I said, "Magnifico!" And I told Pino to give my compliments to the chef. They laughed.

Pino wanted me to meet his friend Chichi who has traveled all over the world and is proud that he only knows how to speak Italian. We were outside when Chichi was approaching and Pino told me to say, "Ciao, Chichi! Como estai?" When I did, Chichi was very befuddled and just stared for awhile. Then Pino started laughing and Chichi could tell we were joking with him. Pino told him I was Americano and then we talked about traveling for quite a while.

I saw my Italian friends the next day and they gave me their email addresses and the address of the bar so I could send a postcard from Greece and America. I also had dinner again and this time instead of milk I had Vino! :)

By the way, I cut my hair recently.

Como

Como was the first city in Italy I visited. I stayed a night in Lucerne the night before but there is no point in writing a blog because I left my camera in a locker even though I had a picturesque morning walk along the lake. Well, back to Como. It was a beautiful train ride from Switzerland to Italy, right through the alps. I was glad I did it in the daytime to see it all, instead of a night train like my original plan.

Como was right on the lake. I pretty much did nothing but relax by the lake my whole visit in Como. I was reading a book my friend Jana loaned me when I saw her in Paris. The book is called Three Cups of Tea and it is about a man, Greg Mortenson, who after trying to climb K2 decided to start building schools in impoverished villages of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. It took me awhile to get going on the book, but I pretty much read the whole thing on the train ride to Como and then in Como. It is a very inspiring and informative book!

Como was a great place to stay for a first time in Italy. I had pizza, gelato, wine, grapes... It is nice to be somewhere that all the food I love is so common!

Antwerp

In Antwerp I stayed with my cousin Kathy's friend Mia and Jos in their apartment on the waterfront. It was very nice since earlier that week I had camped out in Bruges, Minden, and had two nights on the train.

I was excited to see the magnificent cathedral in Antwerp, the Cathedral of Our Lady. I had previously learned about it through the Dutch painter Neeffs paintings of the beautiful interior. Also, inside the cathedral they had some impressive paintings by the famous painter from Antwerp, Pieter Paul Reubens. I also visited Reubens house in Antwerp.

Antwerp had some of the most bizzarre activites going on I had seen yet in any city. There were pub trolleys going through town, where it looked like an actual pub on wheels, and people were all sitting at the bar just enjoying the ride. There were groups of people all dressed up and seemingly trying to accomplish strange tasks; for instance one group of males were trying to get signatures on their friend who was wearing nothing but a diaper. It was quite strange.

There were lots of tempting waffles being sold on nearly every corner in Antwerp, and at first I was reluctant to give in. When I was in London the smell in the air from the waffles was overwhelmingly tempting, so I gave in and had one. The taste of that waffle did not come close to as good as it smelled. Well, completely forgetting the fact that in Antwerp, Belgium a waffle would not just be an ordinary waffle it would be a world-famous Belgain waffle, I gave in once again to the smell and was expecting a similar experience to London's. This time, however, the waffle tasted just as amazing as it smelled. It was a few days later when I was thinking about how good that waffle was that I realized, oh right a Belgain waffle, that's why it was so good.

Thank you to Mia and Jos for letting me stay with you in Antwerp! Thank you, Kathy for contacting them for me!

To Brussels or... Minden?

As I left Germany, there were still a few towns I would've liked to have visited, but since I felt I needed to venture on towards Italy and Greece they were moved to later in my itinerary. Minden was one of them.

A benefit of traveling alone is that I don't have to feel responsible enough to stick to any plans. I knew of one hostel in Brussels but to my surprise they were booked for the night. The first thought I had: I'll go to Minden. So, after a night's sleep on the train traveling from Belgium through Germany and then a pretty lucky guess of taking the train from Hannover, I arrived in Minden, Germany.

My Grandpa Loris's grandparents were from Minden and I am very glad I took the chance to go visit because it was a lovely city. I enjoyed the charm of the old German houses and the many German shops in the center of town. Also, early the next morning I took a very nice and long walk along the river. Then I left in time to take a connecting night train to Brussels and see what I had missed just the day before.

Amsterdam

In Amsterdam I saw the house in which Rembrandt lived. They had many of his drawings and even had a demonstration on how he made prints from his etchings. Rembrandt is one of my very favorites. They also had a painting of his that is somewhat controversial on whether or not it can officially be attributed to him. It was a self portrait of Rembrandt laughing. I liked it very much and I would feel safe in betting that is his painting.

I also saw the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum. I really enjoyed the Van Gogh museum and much of the background of his life. I was surprised to find out how short his career as a painter was. Not just the fact that he died young, but he started so late! Also, he loved Japanese art so much.

And the things Amsterdam is notorious for:

I walked through the Red light district in the middle of the day. It seemed like the middle of the day would not be appropriate for that type of business, but I think Amsterdam does not distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate. There did not seem to be any internet cafes in town. Well, there were not any shops that were only internet cafes. I walked in one place to use the internet, but it was also a "coffee shop." It was so smoky inside I decided I did not need to use the internet after all. Just in case you are unaware of what Amsterdam's coffee shops are, I will give you an idea: the shops are almost always playing Bob Marley music and you can smell them from a block away. They seem to be the only shops other than McDonald's that are included in the street signs that point you to places of interest. Well, McDonald's has its own signs, but it is funny to see arrows pointing you to: <-- Anne Frank house, or --> Rijks-museum, and then <--coffee shop. It just seemed kind of strange.

Hamburg and the beginning realities of the trip

When I first began to plan out my trip to Europe, I noticed that Bruce Springsteen was going to be on tour through Europe during the same time. I grew up listening to Springsteen and had always wanted to go to one of his shows.

It was way back a little before Thanksgiving when I told my parents I was definitely going to go to Europe. At the time, I didn't know how I was going to tell them. Because it was more than just a trip, I was going to go away for quite a while in addition to leaving my job. Also, there was a lot of discussion about the possibility of me going on an organized tour, but I was determined I would be happier to do it on my own. Well, I bought a ticket for the Bruce Springsteen concert in Hamburg, Germany in June. At the same time I bought a ticket to Dublin, Ireland in April. I didn't know how it was going to happen or what would happen from the time I got to Ireland to the time of the concert, but it settled any doubts I had of going or whether or not I would do a tour.

I was excited to tell my parents I bought a concert ticket to see Bruce Springsteen. And I knew it would be shocking to tell them it was to see him in Germany.

So I finally saw Bruce Springsteen. Now that was a couple weeks ago since I am not up to date on my blog anymore. It was such a good concert. Some of my very favorite songs were played.

In addition to the concert, I enjoyed Hamburg a lot. I hung out with my friend, Catherine, and we rode bicycles all over town. I wrote bicycles instead of bikes just to be sure no one is thinking I am riding a Harley ever. Harley Davidson was having a big event that weekend in Hamburg. So, just in case you knew that. :P

In Bruges

Bruges was a charming little city. Even though it was noticeably a touristy city in the daytime, by nightfall it was one of the quietest cities I've been to. Since Bruges was my first city in Belgim I had to try some Belgian chocolate because I have read that it is the best in the world. It was pretty good to be honest! I also bought some 1/2 chocolate 1/2 white chocolate asparagus sticks. Those were good, too, and I ate them very quickly even though the cool weather would've permitted me to carry them around for a while.

Later, I walked up the 366-staired clock tower, which gave a great view of the city. And I went to the cathedral that houses the only known Michelangelo outside of Italy. The statue was the Madonna and Child. It was so tiny but yet so magnificent. I am excited to see more Michelangelos in Italy.

The day I left it was pouring down rain! I guess that is typical of Belgium's weather. It was actually a lot of fun. Very often I enjoy rainy weather. The only downside was that I didn't want to get my camera out and I passed up a gorgeous picture of swans swimming on water of a million ripples from the falling rain through the lushest lillies of lala-land. It was quite a moment. I'll have to draw you a picture later. :)

This is what I sleep in when I camp out. I am not in it, btw, my backpack and sleeping bag are in there.