Thursday, October 13, 2011

Crazy changes to plans, sickness, and Belgian chocolate to top it off

I am now sitting at my hostel in Brussels, Belgium after an unexpected last few days. As I mentioned in my last blog post, Adam and I were having train troubles reaching Amsterdam. Our first train was having engine troubles so it came in 30 minutes late to Munich, causing us to miss our night train to Amsterdam. At first we were dismayed, but in the end it turned out well because we got a room in a 4 star hotel right next to the train station. It was definitely the nicest accommodation I have had so far on this trip, except for the amazing hospitality from the Swedish family from Kuttainen. Another bonus was that we got to hang out with a cool lady we met on the first train for a while longer because she had a similar problem (and helped Adam and I resolve everything and book the hotel room). 

On the train the next day to Amsterdam, I played spades for a while with Adam and a German girl named Valerie who was from Dusseldorf. Unfortunately, after the card game I began to feel very ill, and by the time we reached Amsterdam I had quite a fever, and to make things worse, it was pouring and we had a 15 minute walk to the hostel. After what seemed like forever, I finally collapsed into bed and stayed there for a good 20 hours, only getting up to use the toilet and refill my water bottle amidst a massive headache, sore throat, and vomiting. To add to all the misery, there were 3 annoying jerks in the hostel room who were high on weed and wouldn't turn off the lights or shut up until 4 AM. AND they were throwing salami in my bed. Even when they weren't high, they were still jerks, so I know it wasn't just the weed. Its the person that decides who they are, not the drugs they take. It was definitely one of those times I was like, fml. 

The next night was much better, I finally left the hostel room for more than a few minutes and went out to explore the canals and the city with some guys from the hostel. And luckily the jerks were not there that night because they had checked out, and none of the rest of us would let them in when they knocked at the door to try to come back for some reason or another. It is interesting to note that the whole city of Amsterdam is centered around weed, since it is legal in the Netherlands. All of the coffee shops sold it as well as some other places. Adam and I were trying to find the word they used for coffee shops that didn't sell weed, and we came to the conclusion that the word didn't exist because all of the coffee shops sold it.

Amsterdam canals:



The next morning I parted ways with Adam as he headed back to England to celebrate his birthday. We had in total traveled for almost 2 weeks together through Helsinki, Tallinn, Budapest, Vienna, and Amsterdam, so it was sad to see him go. I caught a train to Brussels and immediately sought out some chocolate. And here I am now, doing my laundry. A good photo of the Brussels skyline as an end to the post and to the night:


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