Antwerp

Antwerp was nice. Cute town. I didn't think I would like it because supposidly it's the shopping mecca but I found some interesting sites by walking around. There are lots of cute little streets with tiny shops. I found an area where graffitti is legal, a candy shop with chocolates in the shapes of private parts, checked out the photo museum, old town, churches, etc. The frites were good. I had some with the curry sauce which was excellent. Belgian frites are good because they use a different type of potatoe and triple fry them. I also had a chance to speak to this lovely gentleman who was missing his front teeth and had BO. He insisted on walking around with me to show me the city. Charming. Yes there is some sarcasm in that statement. I tried a piece of chocolate but I couldn't really appreciate it since I'm not a chocoholic. I did buy some chocolate liquor which I'm saving for later.

'Antwerp' means hand throwing. It's named that because there used to be a giant who chopped people hands and throw them in the river. When he was finally overthrown, his hand was cut off and thrown in the river as well. When you walk around, you see a lot of hands. Chocolates in the shape of hands or hand figurines in the stores.

I loved my hostel. I stayed at ABHostel. It has a full kitchen stocked with china, silverware, spices, and fridge. She provides breakfast with tea and coffee. The rooms and bath are clean. There is a living room with dvds and books for you to watch or read. I felt as though I was in someone's home. I would definitely recommend the place.

Netherlands

I've spent 4 days with friends here in the Netherlands and had a great time. I think you will be surprised to hear that I didn't do most people come here for which is to visit a coffee shop.

Day 1 - My friends gave me a tour of Amsterdam. We took a canal tour which was very nice and hand lunch at Vondel Park by some body of water. We then saw the National Monument, De Dam (plaza), Grote Kerk ("Big Church"), and the Royal Palace. I was curious about De Wallen, the Red Light District, so they took us there as well. I was so surprised to see that the women were quite unattractive and overweight or plump.

Day 2 - We visited the Japanese Garden which is only open for 3 months out of the year in Den Haag located inside Clingendael Park. We also had tea with the Queen at her royal palace. Then off to the beach for some sun and fresh hering. I really didn't know what to think of the hering. I had it with bread and raw onion. I was a real guy magnet after having one of these. It was a bit fishy so the onion killed that but then the onion was so strong it over powered your mouth. At night we had a nice BBQ in Bertine's garden.

Day 3 - We visited the horse market. We got a chance to photograph farmers with the wooden shoes! I had fresh stroopwaffel which was awesome. They are soft and really thin big waffels with syrup in the middle. They also sell these at the supermarket but they taste very different. There were different types of horses - big and small, young and old, beautiful and not so beautiful. Then in the afternoon, we headed to Brielse Maas for a picnic lunch and canoe ride. It was challenging canoeing with 3 people but it was nice. We then checked out Brielle which is historic town with an old harbour. Supposidly April Fools Day originated here. If you google it, let me know the result.

Day 4 - I went to Rotterdam to hit the bookstore to find information about my next destination, Belgium. It is a nice city with a harbour as well. There is a unversity there so I mostly heard English spoken here rather than Dutch. I checked out the really cool apartment buildings Kijkkubus. They look like cubes which have been stood up on their point. I can't describe it so check the website. I crossed Erasmusbrug (famous swan bridge) to meet Sandra on the other side who took me to Bertine's house. At night, Bertine made huge white asparagus for dinner since I kept asking about them. They are in season right now. It was so good. We had it with sauce, ham, potatoes and eggs.

Tomorrow I am headed to Antwerp, Belgium for 2 nights. I might check out some of the neighboring cities as well before heading to Calais, France where I will take a ferry to Dover.

Berlin

It has been a while since I last updated so I am forgetting what I have done. We spent one night in Berlin for a stopover before heading into the Netherlands. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. I rather enjoyed my visit to Berlin. On the first night our hostel, Wombat, was located in the East which is close to the Berlin Domer (I'm not certain on the name) so after grabbing some dinner, we walked around to see that and the canal near our hostel.

Then the next morning, we had a few hours to kill until our train left so we took the free tour of Berlin. http://www.newberlintours.com/nbt/content/view/1/2/lang,en/ It turned out to be really informative and had a good time. The guide had so much information, there were times when I tuned out. To name some of the sightes we visited: Brandenburg Gate, the remainder of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, churches, the location of Hitler's bunker if it were still standing, memorial to the Jews who were murdered during WW2, and much much more. We had to leave the tour early to catch our train, but if I had time, I would have liked to see the museum by the memorial. It contains artifacts found from the time period (i.e. journals, etc). They also offer a tour to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp which sounded really interesting. Of course there is Pottersdam which is supposed to be beautiful with nice gardens. It's also listed in 1000 Places to See Before You Die. By the way, I definitely recommend this tour company. The guides make money through tips so they work hard to keep you entertained. They provide information in an animated and interesting way so you stay tuned in.

One thing that I find great about this trip is that I've really taken an interest in history which I didn't before. Growing up, it was always 'that subject' for guys. I am also a visual person and reading about events in a book is too removed for me. Now that I am here, I see and experience things which help me to retain information much better. I am not retaining everything, of course, because my bad memory is still bad. At least it is filled with some new information.

I see dead people

I just came back from the ghost tour. The original tour company didn't show up so we went with one that was already there. As usual, like the tours in NY, we found out about all the dead people in Prague. Tynska church has two towers and the two are of two different sizes. The smaller one represents the female. The architect decided that he didn't like how all churches looked symetrical so he decided the two towers different. If I understood the guide correctly, the smaller tower has or used to have a stone bell in it. There is/was a stone bell in it because a Czech queen decided to kill one of her twin daughters to prevent them from arguing over who will inherit the throne. Later on she regretted her decision and bought a stone bell. Makes complete sense to me. You? That was just one of the several stories I kind of, sort of got (or didn't get depending on how you look at it.)

Random Fact

I came across this a while ago... back in Thailand. There was an article about a homosexuals and how they cannot donate blood in Thailand. Sexual preference is a question on the form donors have to fill out. Of course they cannot verify it so it is based on an honor system. The author said he felt bad for lying but he does it to give back to the community. His sister required a lot of blood when she had surgery done. Apparently the same rule was in place in America at some point. It was originally set to prevent the spread of AIDS because it was thought that only homosexuals contracted it. Interesting eigh?

Prague

It is incredibly beautiful here... and charming. Again the customer service part is lacking. Today I tried to go to the salt cavern for a treatment and the woman sits back aloof speaking in Czech and making no effort to service me. She points to the monitors and tells me they are full. Meanwhile, I see several are empty chairs. That's fine. The salt caverns are nothing special. They are basically a room covered with salt. You sit in the room for about 45 min and calm music is streamed into the room. When you are through, you are supposed to feel relaxed and it improves the following ailments:

Upper and lower respiratory passages (nose, larynx, sinus, bronchus)
Reduced function of thyroid gland
Cardiac-vascular diseases (high blood pressure, after-treatment of heart attack, etc.)
Diseases of digestive tract (gastric and duodenal ulcer, Crohn’s disease, unspecified inflammation of large intestine)
Dermatological diseases (psoriasis, allergies, non-festering eczema)
Dysfunction of vegetative nervous system
Neurosis, stress, and states of exhaustions
It slows down processes of aging <--- maybe I can finally use that college ID

I read somewhere that it started in Poland so maybe I should go there. *Hint hint* Next trip? You know who you are. I'll be bugging you after I get back to know when we're going to visit Poland.

Back to Prague. We've walked past a ton of landmarks but unfortunately, I don't know what most of them are because I lost our guide book a while back. My favorite has be walking on Charles Bridge. When you come from the west and walk east, you get a great view of the statues with the room tops of all the churches behind them. There are a total of 30 statues standing on the edges. I think they all have a bit of gold embellishment on them.

Tonight, if it's not raining, we will do a ghost tour and find out all the gory facts about the city. On the 7th, we got tickets to see Swan Lake. I am so excited about it because I've been wanting to see it for a while and it never seems to be performed in NYC. Maybe it is and I just don't know about it. There were thoughts of going to see it in St, Petersburg but Russa makes it very difficult for tourist to visit and travel around. Basically, it sounds like you need to be baby sat by someone at all times.

Baths

We went to the Sze-something baths. It was really nice. When you enter the main area, the ceiling in high with an arched atrium. For 2200 HUF (about $15) we tried about 8 different baths with varying degrees. They were any where from freezing cold to 35 celcius. The sauna was about 45C. It felt really good to go to a bath but they were not as clean as the ones in Japan. Occasionally you see things floating in the water. Yuck. However, it felt good to relax our sore muscles and feet. I even jumped into the freezing cold water which surprisingly felt good. I felt toasty and warm once I got out.

It was nice to go to a bath because it reminded me of Japan. The Japanese, similar to Hungarians and Turks I guess, take pleasure in relaxing in a bath and soaking their bodies. It is a social experience. You go with friends and talk and relax.

Budapest continued

I really liked Budapest. Every where you look, the buildings look old and historic. They are not big into customer service though. We have been walking so much since arriving in Europe we are exhausted.

We are staying at a hostel named Carpe Noctum. It is coveniently located near the train station, Danube and other major landmarks. It is clean and service a decent breakfast of different cereals, bread, jam, coffee and tea. The beds and bathroom are clean which is always a plus.

After breakfast, we walked to St Stephans Basilica which was absolutely beautiful. It is very ornate with gold trimmings. We went to the top of the tower which had a great view of the Pest side of the city. Next we were able to score some tickets to Midsummer Nights Dream at the opera house for 7pm. Next we walked towards Chain Bridge but decided to walk south and walk across Elizabeth bridge instead. Chain Bridge was the first suspension bridge to go up at the time... I think. I may be getting my facts mixed up. After walking across, we walked for about an hour up the hill to the Citadel for a nice view of the Buda side. We were exhausted at this point so we cabbed it to the funicular back near Chain Bridge then headed back to the hostel.

After cleaning up and changing, we headed right back to the Opera House for the ballet. It was pretty good but Midsummer Night dream is a strange show with synthesized sounds and bizarre creatures. I like ballet but this was not my favorite show.

After the show, we went to take a look at Chain Bridge illuminated. It really is a beautiful city with a nice landscape.