Sex, Drugs and Waffles

Hello everyone, it's been awhile. I haven't updated this thing since last Thursday. Holy cow, that's awhile ago. It's been pretty crazy the past half a week, so bear with me...

Ok, so this past weekend was the trip to Belgium and Amsterdam! We only planned on staying in Brussels for a few hours, with the majority of the trip focused around Amsterdam. So Thursday evening we went to the train station, and boarded a bus bound for Dublin. The train cost a little more than a bus, but it was about 2 hours faster. A bus takes four hours to cross Ireland, where as a train takes just over 2. We had a little trouble with getting our tickets at first since we prepaid for them and the machine wasn't reading our friend Michelle's card, but one of the convenience store managers inside the station helped us out. It's amazing how no one is ever at the information or service desk. Anywhere. It's pretty absurd. It's like people really don't care about customer service in this country. It pisses me off to no end.

So we board the train, which is only about 5 cars in length, and start on our journey to Amsterdam. The train itself was different from US Amtraks. All the seats were positioned facing each other in groups of fours. So you had to look at whoever was across from you the entire ride. Also, randomly every couple of groupings, there was a table in between the four. Almost like an old school train that you'd see in the movies from the 40's or 50's. So of course we sat at the table seats, which wasn't a problem since there was no one on our train. So we traveled for about an hour, then stopped at a station, and changed to another train on the same platform. This train would take us the rest of the way. On this train, all of the groupings had tables, and it was a bit more classy than the other train. I sat next to Molly from California, who was part of our group. We ended up talking for the entire train ride about our goals and ambitions for the future. It actually made me realize that there is a lot of shit I wanna do. Like run across America. I want to do that. If I'm gonna be a teacher, I have the summer off. So why not take 3 months to run across the United States in the name of a charity. Not non-stop, but it could be done. Hell I'd take a sabbatical and do it if I had to. Also, one of these summers I will finally go through with my road trip I've dreamed of since I was a kid and visit every MLB stadium in one summer. That is doable. For sure. You can always find really cheap tickets to ballparks depending on the game and the day, and I'm gonna have a job so I'll have money. I'm doing it. Case closed. I also want to start Civil War reenacting. Yeah, bet ya didn't know I love the Civil War. I do. And I've always wanted to reenact. I've been researching it. Texas doesn't have many reenactment groups so I'm kind of bummed about that. However, in order to participate in the Gettysburg reenactment in July, you don't have to be part of a unit, you can just go as an individual and attach to someones group. So I'll just do that. Confederate soldier of course. I'd never be a Yankee.

Anyway, back to Europe. So we got into Dublin around 8 or 9pm on Thursday night. I don't have Friday class so it was all good. We walked from the train station to our hostel, which was basically smack dab in the center of Dublin. It was called the Abbey Court Hostel. It was right next to 'OConnell Street, where we were for the majority of our time in Dublin earlier in the month. So we knew the area. So we checked in and got to our room. It was nice. There were 3 bunk beds and we had our own bathroom. There were six of us, so we booked a 6 person private room. It was nice to just leave our stuff in the room and not have to worry about locking it up. So, we got situated and decided to go find food. Only, food turned into us going to a pub next door and drinking a Guinness or Smithwicks first. The pub wasn't anything great, but it caught our attention because they had live traditional Irish music on Thursday nights. So we went in and listened to an older lad and a dude probably in his late 20's sing some traditional Irish music to our group and about 4 other people. The four other people were hilarious, because they were A. Drunk and B. Good friends with the 2 lads playing. So they were constantly yelling out requests. The one guy kept yelling, "Ah, play Streets of Chicago. Jus play it far em. They're from the United States. Play streets of Chicago." Eventually they did. I left for a bit to go find something to eat by myself. However, not to my surprise, everything was closed. That's why I returned back to the pub and drank a Smithwicks. After they finished their set we decided to go to McDonalds, because it was the only place still open. Plus McDonalds tastes better after drinking alcohol, like most fast food. So I ordered my Big Mac meal and we ate. I eat McDonalds more here than I do back in the States. That's sad.

So after we ate we returned to our room. I decided to get a shower since we were getting up at 4am to catch a taxi to the airport. Our plane left at 6:35. So I hopped in the shower. It was great. Nice and warm, good pressure. And within literally 20 seconds it went ice cold. Ireland has a problem with keeping water hot. I was so mad. I hate the feeling of being partially wet and cold. So I decided to skip the shower and went to bed. It was probably around 12 when I went to bed, but I didn't fall asleep until about 1 or 1:30. Why? Because Katie snores like crazy, and someones car alarm was going off literally all night. It was the worst combination I've ever experienced. I finally somehow got to bed, and the next thing I knew I was awoken by the girls saying it's time to leave. So I packed up all my crap and we hopped into our taxi to the airport.

We arrived at the Dublin airport, which was huge, and got checked in, etc. Of course, it wasn't an airport without me getting searched. I put my bag through, took everything off, walked under the medal detector and beeped. I was once again patted down, and then bomb scanned. Also, my hair gel that I bought in an airport last week, was thrown away. As well as my Old Spice body spray. I wanted to punch the guy in the face. So after going through pointless security crap, we went to our gate. It was a good hike to get to our gate from the main lobby. Probably a ten minute walk. Which I had to make again because I had no money, and there was no ATM down around our gate. So I walked the opposite direction of all the moving sidewalks and finally found an ATM. Then I had to walk all the way back to my gate. I was sweating. But I was able to buy a bangin almond croissant for breakfast so it was all worth it.

So we got on the plane, and were headed for Brussels. When we got to Brussels, it was pouring. At least we got a stamp in our passport. It wasn't until I was in the lobby of the airport that I realized for the first time in my life, I was in a place that didn't speak English as a first language. All the signs were in French. All the people were speaking French. It was nuts. I said Merci to the dude who took my passport. That was as good as my French got. If I wanted to I could have called everyone a bitch and told them to do dirty and raunchy things, but I don't think that would have went over very well. After all, profanity is about all I know in French. Oh well.

So we hopped on a bus and drove an hour into Brussels. We got off at the station and made our way toward the city center. My impression of Brussels? Dreary, dirty, and kinda shady. It almost reminded me of what an Eastern European country would look like. Trash everywhere, all over the streets. Graffiti literally everywhere, lonely looking businesses, crumbled and condemned apartments, vacant buildings with glass shattered everywhere, and construction all over the place. It just wasn't what I expected from Brussels. So we made our way toward the historic district. Brussels is small. It didn't take us long to get there. First we stopped by the little statue fountain of the baby peeing.The Mannikin Pis. This is a statue donated by a man who promised to reward the city if the people found his lost son. When he was found, he gave the city a statue of a naked little boy peeing. For some reason the statue has become a Brussels landmark. So I got a picture with it. It's actually much smaller than you think. I thought it was a huge statue, but it's tiny. Meanwhile, it's solidly raining. Right next to the statue, which sits in a corner of two rows of buildings, was a Belgian waffle bakery. It was a walk up window. They had all the waffles you could choose from laid out on a big cart. You just pointed to the one you wanted and the ladies would make that one for you. I got the one with strawberries, nutella and whipped cream. It was amazing. The best breakfast food I've ever tasted, in dough form. It was delicious. Now I know why Belgian waffles are famous. They are that good. So we walked down the street eating our waffles, and because I am me, I bit into mine and felt it become very top heavy. Ya see, the strawberries were fresh. Not concentrated or packaged. So they weren't mashed onto the waffles. They were laid on top of the waffle. And the whipped cream was put on top of the strawberries. So they were shifting with every bite. Of course, a couple bites in, all my strawberries and whipped cream combines into a massive ball and falls forward off my waffle. At the time I was eating it with one hand and felt the mass fall. In that split second I thought, "Shit do I catch this or let it fall?" I caught it. Then put it back on top of my waffle. However, my right hand was now covered in melted chocolate and whipped cream. They don't give you napkins with your waffle. So I had to stand over a trash can and wolf down my waffle, and then basically lick my hand clean. Not the best situation. But I had to do what I had to do.

As we pressed on, we walked into this huge courtyard with some of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen. A huge Cathedral with intricate carvings of men and women all over it. It was unreal. Literally every inch of this massive cathedral had people carved into it. The other buildings in the courtyard were the same way. Huge statues and figures carved into them, with gold lining the buildings. It was amazing. The coolest architecture I have ever seen. Hands down. We also got to see this gold statue of a man lying dead. It is apparently famous in Belgium. It sits underneath an overhang of one of the buildings in the courtyard. I was watching people approach it. They take their hand and rub it from the head of the mans body down to his feet. They then rub the dogs head which is carved next to the mans body, the steers head above his body, and a baby's head that also appears above his body. I have no idea what it meant or symbolized, but I did it anyway. Apparently, legend has it that if you touch the statue, you will visit again.

As we stood in the courtyard, it really started to pour. So we decided to go grab something to eat. We just popped into a little pizza joint and got three small pizzas. I had a Maes beer. When in Belgium, get a Belgian beer. It was good. Kinda like a Coors light. After we ate we headed to the bus station to catch our bus to Belgium. We got kinda lost, but we were heading the right way the entire time, so it wasn't a big deal. We made the bus on time, got on around 5, and took the 3 hour journey to Amsterdam. I fell asleep on the ride, and when I woke up I was in Amsterdam. It was night and raining so I didn't really have a great first impression of the city. Pretty much because I couldn't see anything. The bus station is right in the center of the city, located right behind the only 2 or 3 skyscrapers in the entire city. The one kinda reminded me of the Chrysler building in NYC. So we grabbed something to eat in the bus station, and then got a taxi to our hotel.

Our hotel was awesome. It was a room for the six of us, our own bathroom, a tv. It was great. We didn't have to worry about locking up our belongings again, and we could leave for the day and come back at our leisure and not have to worry about waking others up and what not. And the shower was nice and hot for the entire shower. Not just 20 seconds. So once we got into our hotel room, we just spent the night in watching the Olympics. Skating pursuit was on. Do not get that sport. It was kinda boring. Couldn't understand the announcers wither because they were speaking Dutch. However, it is a neat language. It's like a cross between French and German. They pronounce some words very harsh like German, but when listening to a conversation it flows like French. It's pretty cool.

So Saturday we got up at 8 and then hit the city of Amsterdam. It's a cool city. It's very Dutchy. Like, when you think of the Netherlands, it's exactly what it looks like. No huge buildings, has that old school flare to it. Small bakeries and shops everywhere. It was neat. It was what I pictured Europe to be. They have trains that run all over the city on different lines right down the center of the street. It was really cool. But everything looked the same. Which wasn't a bad thing. We just had trouble remembering where we were. There were canals everywhere, trees lining the streets, all the streets were basically brick or cobblestone. It was great. It rained basically the whole day, but it stopped in the afternoon for a little bit. We started the morning walking toward the city center from our hotel, and stopped at a bakery to get some pastries. I got an amazing chocolate croissant, choco chip cookie and a coffee for 3 Euros. Amazing. The best deal I've got in Europe so far. Hands down. And it was great! Breakfast of champions. We also noticed, everyone, literally everyone rides a bike. There are as many bikes as cars in the Netherlands. It was insane. There was a legit 3 story parking garage, for bikes. It was ridiculous. They have huge bike lanes that are packed throughout the day. It is literally like a highway. People constantly buzzing around. You have to have your head on a swivel because you have to watch for cars, trains and bikes. It's pretty intimidating. I was almost hit several times by bikers.

So after breakfast we continued walking and somehow stumbled upon the red light district. I say stumbled upon, because everything looks the same. Apparently there are 3 red light districts in Amsterdam. However, they are all adjacent to one another. The one in the center just goes farther down the canal than the other two. So we walked down the world famous red light district, and I put my camera into my bag. Taking pictures in the red light is a no no. The prostitutes get pissed, and people get their cameras taken or smashed. I read up on what to expect from the red light district before we left, but the things people were saying about their experiences came nothing close to mine. People were saying they were offered drugs, people tried to rob them, etc. First of all, there weren't that many people there. I wasn't offered drugs, and the majority of the prostitute windows were closed. However, there were a good amount of girls in the windows! It was crazy! However, the afternoon shift is filled with the heavier and older chicks. Some of them were pretty hideous. It's crazy how liberal everything in the city is though. You walk down the street and there is a big nice church, and right across the street is a half naked chick in the window. Haha, it was insane. Also, there are pot and sex shops everywhere. We decided to go into both. You can't go to Amsterdam, the sex shop capital of the world, and not go into a sex shop. It was pretty graphic. Some of the things they had, I didn't even know they made. Let's just leave it at that. The weed shop was cool too, because it's a weed shop. They don't have them in the states. It's legal in Amsterdam. So of course we went into one. We however didn't get to go into the life size women mannequin shop, for all those lonely guys out there. The things were realistic looking too. The had a naked one just chilling in the front window. It looked like a real woman. So we walked around the city for the whole day. Took in the sites, visited a flea market, ate at a cafe. I ate an awesome crepe, drank some Heineken(brewed in Amsterdam) and had a great time. It's a cool city. I didn't like it as much as London, but it was something you have to see for yourself. My favorite part of the day was in the afternoon when we went to the Anne Frank house. I can hear all the guys back at home laughing. It's a long story. Basically, up until about 3 or 4 years ago, I thought Anne Frank was alive. Yeah, dumb right? Anyway, we still laugh about it. So being there, I wanted to laugh, but it was so sad that I felt like an ass. But being in the house was very powerful and moving. If you ever get a chance to see it you need to. You get to go through the entire house. I got to walk through the bookcase, I got to stand in Anne Franks bedroom, I got to walk around in her kitchen and apartment. It was surreal. Best part of the day.

When we got done eating in the evening, we wanted to go back to our hotel and chill before we went out to celebrate my birthday. However, since everything looks the same, we walked for an hour in a circle and realized we were right back to where we ate at. Before we headed back, it was dark, so we decided to walk down to the red light district to see what was going on. It was getting crowded. It was about 8 or 9. The red lights lit up the sidewalks and filled the air. Guys tried to get us to come in and watch live sex shows. Drunk people hooted and hollered down the canals. And the women in the windows got 1,000 times hotter. We only saw two or three walking through at night time, and they were much younger, and a lot more fit. They looked like super models. We only saw 2 or 3 though, because most of the windows were shut, meaning people were getting busy. Haha. Also, there was a urinal in the middle of the sidewalk. You walk into this circular steel cage thing, where your body is covered, but your head sticks out. So you could stand there taking a leak and talk to someone on the street. It was odd. But everything goes in Amsterdam.

At night we headed down toward the red light district to go out. All the clubs and bars were basically member only, but we finally found a place called "Royalties" to go into. The place was crazy. Lots of techno and fog and what not. I had to pay 5 Euros to get in but the girls didn't have to pay anything. But it was okay, they bought me drinks for my birthday. It was a good time.

So the next morning, my birthday, we got up at 8, jammed everything into our backpacks and headed off to the Van Gogh Museum. It was pouring out, so our bags got soaked. We ate waffles at an outside cafe under a tarp and then headed into the museum. It was annoying though, because you couldn't take pictures. I was pissed that we couldn't take any in the Anne Frank House, but i figured, oh it's sentimental, I understand. But the Van Gogh museum. Who cares. It was just annoying. The museum itself was pretty cool. As an art lover, I took my time and examined everything. Never really was a big Van Gogh fan, but I appreciate his work a lot more now that I've seen it up close. Lot's of color and texture that you just don't see in pictures.

After that, we just headed back to the bus station, hopped on a bus and went back to Brussels. We stopped at McDonalds along the way, haha. I know, more McDonalds. When we ot back to Brussels, we headed back to the other bus station where we would take the shuttle to the airport. As we walked down the street, I realized that there were girls, in thongs and bras standing in a window across the street. I thought it was only in Amsterdam, but apparently not. Kinda shocking. Haha. So we walked back toward the courtyard, but stopped at Godiva Chocolate first. Belgium is the home of Godiva. Here I got the best cup of hot chocolate I've ever had. It was chocolate heaven in a glass. Delicious. Once we finished our coco, we just headed to the bus station, got confused, finally got our bus, and headed to the airport. Then we went through security, I beeped again for no reason, got thoroughly patted down and bomb scanned once again, had a terrible "ham" sandwich, and then got on the plane to head back to Ireland. It was a looooong day.

When I finally got back to my apartment around midnight, I got a call from my family at my grandparents house. They sang Happy Birthday to me! It was great. Then my parents called me, and I got to talk to Emily. So I wasn't as cranky. Just kinda stunk to travel allll day. But I can say I was in 3 countries on my birthday, and I got a stamp from Belgium that says 2.28.2010. So that's cool.

The last two days I've just been really busy. Yesterday it was 55, clear and warm. It was great. Tonight I finally did the first school work I've done all semester. I finished my annotated bibliography. Woo.


Also, tonight I realized I have the biggest craving for Swiss tea cooler and fruit punch. Oh my God, I would kill someone to drink Swiss products right now. And then I go to Texas and they don't have Swiss! I took PA for granted all these years.

Alright, hope you guys enjoy the update. Talk to you later!