Home

I feel like I have been here before... That's because I have! I am writing this entry from the computer lab of Metrogate. No joke!

I woke up and finished packing this morning. I got my backpacks on (pretty much for the last time I guess) and walked to the train station. I took the train to the airport and checked in. I went to the gate and waited for them to announce the specific gate number. They announced and then I waited some more to board. I listened to music. We boarded and departed. The flight was only 50 minutes long. We barely got in the air and flying when it was time to descend back down. I had to wait in line for the passport check because a flight from the US just unloaded in front of me. Bummer. Oh well. I got checked and then grabbed my backpack and hopped on a train. I took the Tube to the storage place. I forgot about how much stuff I left in random plastic bags. It will be a squeeze to fit it all in tomorrow but I will get it done. I took the Tube again to my hostel, Hyde Park Inn. It is on the other side of the park from Metrogate. My mom stayed in a place right by it when she was here. My room is on the third floor. Ugh, too many stairs. Oh well. It seems ok and I am going to be there only one night so who really cares anyway?

I got settled and then started walking. I walked across the park and then over to Our Lady of Victories. It was good to be back there. I grabbed some lunch from Tesco and ate it in the courtyard thing by the library. I walked over to Metrogate where I am now. I don't think I will be able to write in the blog again until I get home.

I wish there was some succinct way for me to sum up all the experiences and fun and sights and sounds and just everything that has happened to me since I left back in January. That's not possible though. I know I don't need to do this but thank you to everyone who read this blog even once (but especially to the people who read it everyday). That means more to me than I could write and I will always cherish this blog and this trip. So yeah, I guess this is it. I might write again tomorrow when I get home. Only because I wrote in it just before I left so I think it would be good to write again when just after I get back. I will also be updating the posts, adding pictures, and stuff so feel free to check back if you want in the next week or so. Um, that's it. I can't wait to get home!

I thought of this song while I was writing this post. It's called "Home" by Micheal Buble. Here are the lyrics. (These lyrics coincide with how I feel.)

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

May be surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky, I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

Haarlem Renaissance

Phew. I have just finished writing the rest of the entries for Monday and Sunday and now I have to do today's. That's a lot of blogging. Oh well. It is always hard when you get even one or two days behind to catch back up but I am doing it. I woke up and had some more stroopwafels for breakfast. I also had some crackers. It was raining a little when I left my hostel which sucks. I bought my train ticket to Haarlem. That name should look and sound familiar because back when New York was New Amsterdam, Harlem was named after the Dutch town of Haarlem. Haarlem had it's Golden Age at the same time as Amsterdam as well. It was a town of merchants and traders. Amsterdam and Haarlem are only a 20 minute train ride apart. I purposefully did not bring my new book with me because I want to try and save it for later (like my plane ride back home or the plane ride to London). I just sat and looked out my window at the Dutch landscape. Not much to see frankly. There is a lot of urban sprawl like Industrial Areas. There was one little bit of field though with some cows. I arrived in Haarlem and it stopped raining. I walked down the street for 10 minutes to the Grote Markt (Market Square). This is the best part of town. The architecture of the city was similar but not the same as Amsterdam. There were still some skinny brick houses but they didn't seem as prevalent and there were fewer canals which really changed how the town looks.

I went into the Grote Kerk (picture 1). It is like most other Dutch churches (white walls, wooden ceiling, graves on the floor) but still super interesting because of all the knick knacks in the walls. I used my Rick Steves' book and did a tour around the church. I saw the pulpit with snakes running away from the Word of God as hand rails on the steps. On one of the columns, there is a mark showing the tallest and shortest members of Haarlem since the church was built. One guy was 8'8" and the other was about 2'9". Rumor has it that the dwarf guy got killed in a dwarf tossing competition back in the day. I don't know if I believe that or not. There is a cannon ball stuck in one of the walls in memory of when Haarlem was laid under siege by the Spanish in 1537. It was kind of like the Alamo. They defended braving but ended up surrendering. There is a column top with a carving of the Dog Whipper. He kept the dogs out of the church on rainy market days (picture 3). The organ of the church is unbelievably big (picture 3). It has 5,028 different pipes. By pulling a couple levers, you can make it sound like a tuba (!), a flute, or almost any other instrument. Handel and Mozart both played it. While I was walking around, a guy was practicing for the organ festival in a couple weeks. I learned that tid bit from one of the workers who came up to me as I was looking at those height marks. She spoke to me in Dutch. When I smiled and nodded dumbly she found out I spoke English. That happened to me like 6 times today. People spoke Dutch to me. It made me feel good that I didn't totally look like a tourist (or at least an English speaking one).

As I left and the church and started walking toward the Frans Hals Museum, I passed by a bunch of shops attached to the side of the church like barnacles. This is just like it was in Medieval times. The church had to make money to keep building or whatever so they put stores along the outside and rented the space out. Pretty cool. So, as I said, I went to the Frans Hals Museum next. I talked about him yesterday as well when I went to the Rijksmuseum. He was around in the Golden Age and painted all sorts of things (landscapes, portraits, group portraits, still lifes, you name it). This museum, obviously, houses the largest collection of him in the world. The museum is housed in an old dormitory or something. Anyway, I started off by looking at paintings by people who came before and were contemporaries of Hals. Then I saw a bunch of his Civic Guard group portraits (picture 4). They are so cool. Each person in each painting has a different personality and you can see it just by looking at this one little painting of them. It was fun trying to think about what each guy was like. I was excited to get to the next part because that was where his portraits were but there was an exhibition going on! That means all those paintings of his were not out!!!! BOOOOOOOO! Instead, I looked at a bunch of paintings by the de Bray family. They were good and stuff but I came to the Frans Hals Museum to see FRANS HALS! Oh well. Rick Steves talked about some of the paintings that were not hanging up so I looked at the paintings as postcards in the book shop. Haha. Not as good but it will do. I bought a couple postcards and then left.

I started to walk around a little bit trying to, what else, find a place to eat. I ended up at the same brand of department store as the day before. They have the same cafeteria style dining. I bought a cheese filled pastry and a sausage one. I took them and walked back to the Grote Markt and ate them there. It was a nice atmosphere and actually wasn't raining which was nice (still cloudy). I walked to the Teyler's Museum next (picture 5). It was the first public museum in the Netherlands. It was created by the bequeath of a guy named, you guessed it, Teyler. The museum houses fossils and other scientific stuff but also coins and paintings. I used my museumkaart (sweettttt) and got a free audio guide as well. I looked at the fossils. Pretty cool. It had been a while since I saw genuine fossils so it was fun to look and imagine those creatures long ago. One of the most interesting parts of the museum is that they have kept the arrangement that the stuff was originally in. So the visitor can get a look at how people back in the 1800s thought this stuff was organized. Pretty cool. There was a little room with rocks that glow in the dark and other rocks that glow under UV light. Those were really awesome. One of the rocks glowed bright blue. The paintings were ok. I liked some of the Dutch Impressionists they had. It was strange that the D.I. did not really use bright colors but did use some of the same techniques. I guess there aren't really a lot of bright colors in the Netherlands.

I left the museum and walked by the windmill in town (picture 6) and then walked through the tiny Red Light District. It was four pm so most of the "workers" were not there. I walked through because that sort of thing is special to this region. It would be like going to London and not riding a double decker bus or something like that. The district had the same sort of look as the one in Amsterdam. Women in womens showing off their stuff with a red neon light along the top of the window. The women almost always wear a bra and panties. I am just describing it so that you all get an idea of what it is like. Anyway, I walked through the area (which has two churches in it) and back to the train. I went to "Our Lord in the Attic" Church when I got back to Amsterdam. It is a museum about the hidden Catholic Churches in Amsterdam. I have already discussed them so I won't say much more about it. The museum is reallllly cool and the church is very nice (picture 7). It can seat 150 people. There is an altar with a painting of Jesus being baptized behind it. There are a couple cool statues in the back. There were two old kitchens in the back part of the house. They looked very Vermeer-ish (quiet, old, etc.). I liked the museum a lot (Vermeer-esque tiles picture 8). It would be fun to go to a mass there (they don't have them anymore).

I went to the library and did yesterday's post and emailed people and stuff (view from library picture 8). Then I went to get dinner. I bet you guess where I went. The grocery store of course!! I got fruit salad, a tuna sandwich, some pop, and some chips. I ate them at... Dam Square, of course! Haha. It was basically the same thing I have done for the past three dinners. Oh well. There was a pub crawl organizing on the steps by me. The woman working for the company who gets the money was being very persuasive with the people who were unsure. After eating, I went on the Red Light District Walk in my Rick Steves Book (the main canal of the RLD picture 9). Yup, he has a walk about it. There are lots of bars and coffee shops (um, marijuana) and lots of prostitutes. Just a crazy place. The weirdest part for me is that there are like churches and stuff in the area too (picture 10). I guess I am naïve or something like that but seriously, the Old Church in smack dab in the middle of the RLD. There were a couple very skinny alleyways where most of the "workers" were. They were organized by race usually. Anyway, it was a weird experience walking through there and if you want to know more about it or something let me know and I can tell you about it. I came back to the hostel and read. I talked to a girl from Canada for a little bit. She was nice. Then I tried to go to sleep.

Till Next Time!

Dam Over The River Amstel

I had to spend the night at Geneva Airport . The security guard came around, looked at my passport and said it would be fine if I slept there. I used my backpack as a pillow and slept for about 4 hours. Not bad for sleeping on cold floor. It was basically the same as sleeping on the ferry from Chania to Athens. Except there was no Catherine or tv or snacks or warmth. Well, ok, it wasn't really the same. Anyway, it was time to check in which I did. I was a little apprehensive (I thought something might go wrong again) but it all went smoothly. I went through security and waited to get on the plane. I did my now usual routine of trying to get on earlier and get an aisle seat near the front. The plane ride was only about 1 hour long. I listened to music since I don't have any books to read. It was cloudy and kind of rainy in Amsterdam when we landed. I grabbed my bag and hopped on the train into town. I found my hostel, Aivengo Hostel, pretty easily. It is only 5 minutes from the train station. There are two big dorm rooms with 16 beds in each. I am staying there four nights. That is the most nights I will be staying in the same place the whole trip. Weird. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I couldn't check in right away so I left my backpack and decided to go for a walk.

The walk I decided to do was through the Jordaan (yor-DAHN) neighborhood. This is the neighborhood on the western side of the city. It is a very artsy, yuppy area. There are many small canals (Amsterdam is known for having a lot of canals by the way). I started at Dam Square which is sort of the main square of Amsterdam (City Hall Building picture 1). I will talk more about that tomorrow when I do another guided walk. I bought a couple donuts for breakfast. Everything seems cheaper here. I also exchanged the last of my Swiss money. Goodbye pretty money, hello again Euro. I started walking and it started raining pretty hard. I kept my book under my jacket whenever I wasn't under some kind of cover. I walked through some canals and by a bunch of really cool streets. The houses here are so different. They are very skinny and very long. Completely different architecture from everywhere else I have been. They also used a lot of brick since they had multiple fires long ago (brick buildings in picture 6). Another thing about Amsterdam, there are a lot of bikes here. They are much more popular (and practical) than cars. Bikes are locked up to everything, I think it's pretty cool (picture 1 and 3). Also, Amsterdam has lots of ethnic food places. You know what that means... Kebabs again! Haha. We'll see if I ever get one here.

So back to the walk. I kept walking and finally came upon the Westerkerk (picture 5). This literally means Western Church. Rembrandt is buried somewhere under the chairs (they don't have pews). It has the tallest spire in the city. The organ is pretty sweet looking. I went into the Anne Frank House next. There was a little bit of a line to get in and it was pretty crowded inside but I didn't really mind. As most of you should know, Anne Frank was a Jew in Amsterdam during WWII. She wrote some diaries (for those with good memories, or who happen to look to the side bar, you will remember that I read those diaries back in February) while she was holed in a secret annex for two years. No pictures allowed inside (BOOOO) but I bought a couple postcards. It was insane trying to imagine 8 people living in that tiny little space for 2 years. They ended up getting caught and all but Otto Frank (Anne's dad) survived the concentration camps. So sad. I was really glad I went to the House today and I really liked seeing the room. It made me remember a lot of the stuff from the Diaries.

From there, it was still raining but I kept walking. I came to what Rick Steves calls "The Center of the Jordaan"which is a bridge over a canal. One road has a lot of shops, another road has a great view of the Westerkerk spire and the canal is tree lined and very pretty. I will admit, the neighborhood is pretty spectacular. I think I took some pretty cool pictures. We will have to wait and see when I put them on a computer. I walked back to the hostel and on the way stopped at a grocery store. There are a lot of pastries and salads and sandwiches there. It was a pretty big store and had cheap prices. I liked it. I bought some almond pastries, a fruit/lettuce salad (weird but looked interesting), and some crackers for sometime in the future (I always like having some crackers around just in case). I had the salad and pastries back in the hostel after I got checked in. My hostel is only about €18 a night. That isn't bad at all for where it is located and stuff. I sat around and regained some strength.

I decided to go to the library next (picture 8). It is pretty near to the train station in the northeast part of town. The library has loads of computers and free internet usage. That is pretty much the coolest thing ever. It is a very modern building and has some awesome views over the city. Like the view on the other side of the computer monitor I used to write most of this post. I spent a couple hours in the library starting, but not finishing, both of the posts from the weekend. They should be finished tomorrow. I also picked out my hostel for Friday in London. I went back to the hostel and sat around for a little bit. Then I walked down to Dam Square and ate some French Fries with mayonnaise (the Dutch way). It wasn't too bad, very different, but I still prefer ketchup. The Square was much more lively at 6 pm than it was at 10 am when I was here earlier. Lots of people walking around and stuff. I just sat and people watched for a while. I stopped by the grocery store again for some dinner. Just a ham and cheese sandwich and some stroopwafels. Stroopwafels are little waffles with the syrup inside them. SO GOOD. Oh man. I am like addicted. I ate that stuff back at the hostel and then went back to the library and emailed a bunch of people. I came back to the hostel and slept. Only one person snored in the entire room... and he was right above me. How does that always happen? Also, I was right under the emergency light which stays on the whole night. Very annoying. Oh well. I slept really well (I got about 10 hours of sleep).

Happy Monday!

Wilhelm Tell

I woke up and showered. They have holders for the shower head! One of my few gripes about the hostels in Greece was that you had to hold the shower head in one hand to get yourself wet. It was incredbily annoying. In Switzerland, that is not a problem, thank God. I packed up and left my big backpack until I came back for it before I left. I decided to walk down to the waterfront one last time. It was drizzling a little while I walked but not too much. The mountains were obscured by clouds (view from near train station piture 1). I am glad it wasn't like that when I arrived yesterday. I bought an almond cake thing and some orange juice for breakfast and ended up not finsishing it so I had for lunch on the train as well. I ate my breakfast in a bus shelter on the lakefront beause all the benches were wet. Haha, that must have been a sight to see. I hopped on the scenic train up to Fluelen which is on the end of Lake Lucerne (picture 2). There are four scenic train rides in Switzerland and this is one of them. The train ride is called the William Tell Express because this was the area in Switzerland he supposedly came from. William Tell is a folk hero for the Swiss like Daniel Boone is for Americans. The train ride was quite scenic and actually passed through a tunnel that was 10 miles long. Geez. You couldn't totally make out all the mountains because of clouds but I saw enough to get a pretty good idea (picture 3). There were lots of valleys and I could watch the architecture change from Italian to German influenced. The train ride took about 1.5 hours.

I arrived in Fluelen and decided to call a hostel in Lucerne. I called the hostel and got a reservation but accidently left the Rick Steves Switzerland on the garbage can. I walked around trying to figure out where to buy tickets for the ferry and when the ferry left. This was easier said than done because everything was in German. I finally realized I didn't have the book and found that it was gone. Huge, big, large, bummer. I was pretty depressed about that. It was from the Kensington Library which makes me feel bad because they are never getting it back now. Oh well. I bought a ferry ticket to get across the lake. It was kind of expensive but I figured that I would probably never be able to do it again. The boat had restaurant like seating inside and benches outside. I sat outside the whole time (picture 4). That was pretty cold especially since I was so used to eighty degrees and sun in Greece (it was windy, fifty, and cloudy). I survived and looked at the scenery. The boat trip was 3 hours long so I looked at the scenery and read more of The Lost World. Super good book. The clouds were hanging low in some places and not in others (picture 5). I got to Luzern (the way they spell it here) and started to walk to my hostel. On the way, a young guy asked if I needed help. That was nice of him. He said that he went to school near the hostel and backpacks would always walk by it looking lost.

My hostel is ok. One of the guys in my room is from Canada and another is from Beijing but speaks English fluently. I was hungry so I used my Let's Go (thanks Amy) and ate at a, what else, kebab restaurant. I swear, I can't escape them. I got a Hawaiian kebab. It had ham, chicken, pineapple, and lettuce and tomato with some amazing sauce. Eating it was messy but delicious. I walked around Luzern a little bit after that. I walked along the river that cuts the town in two. I walked up one side and down the other. There were not that many people walking around. I saw the famous wooden bridge (picture 6). Very cool. I also saw the awesome fescoed walls of the houses (they painted the outside of teh buildings). The architecture just makes me want to smile (picture 7). Gingerbread houses or whatever. I went back to the hostel and went online. I bought a ticket for Sunday night to Amsterdam so it looks like I am going there. Haha. No turning back now I guess. I finished reading The Lost World. I am going to Jim's tomorrow.

Bye!