Saturday, July 31

In Bruges

This post is full of lessons, so read carefully and take notes if you must. We arrived in Bruges today at around 2:00 with nothing to do but everything—an empty appointment book and a proverbial full tank of gas. The movie In Bruges got it exactly right, the place is “a fuckin’ fairy tale town.” Brick roads, castle-like buildings, quaint shops, and a huge clock tower make Bruges a cozy little place. Colin Ferrell says of it, “If I grew up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn’t so it doesn't.” While those profound words have some truth to them, Bruges was still a nice stop. (Lesson 1: You don't call retarded people retards. It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards when they’re acting retarded). We had authentic Belgian waffles, climbed the clock tower, and visited a church that had drops of Christ’s blood. (Lesson 2: Legend has is that the phial that contains Jesus' blood was brought to Bruges by Thierry of Alsace after the Second Crusade. During great moments of stress throughout history, it is said that the blood has temporarily turned back into liquid from its dried state).
Afterward we took the train to Brussels where we were sourly disappointed not to find any Mussels in Brussels. I did, however get a great footlong sandwich and mayo-fries (Lesson 3: They love smothering French fries in mayo here, it’s actually not too bad) for four Euro. If that’s not a deal, I don’t know what is. However, other than cheap dinners, Brussels pretty much has nothing going for it. It's a pretty run down city without much to do (it took a while to even find a place to eat that was open). Maybe if I was retarded and grew up on a farm, Brussels would impress me, but I'm not, and I didn't, so it doesn't (see what I did there? That can be Lesson 4).
Anyways, tomorrow at 7:25 am it's off to Munich to visit old friends. I'll update the next time I get internet.

Pictures: View of the "Markt" from the top of the tower, The Basilica of the Holy Blood, LEGIT Belgian Waffles, Me in the Markt, Us on the top of the tower

Friday, July 30

The adventure continues, dear readers, on a beautiful sunny day in Amsterdam. Shelman and I got a pair of bicycles grabbed breakfast from a grocery store on the corner—fresh peaches and mango juice. Then, after a short, perfect-day-esque snack on the canal, if you KWIS, we made our way down to Vondelpark (pictured) and the Van Gogh museum.
Later for dinner we stopped at a small place near our hostel. Bacon and cheese pancakes were for me, while Shelman went with the more conservative choice, a “Queen Burger”—two burnt beef patties stuck together between a burnt bun; no more, no less. Mediocre-at-best comes to mind when trying to describe the taste (or lack there of?) of the “Queen Burger.” The bacon on my pancakes, on the other hand, was some of the best bacon I’ve ever had—what it was doing on a pancake I haven’t a clue. In my opinion, bacon and pancakes are best left to their own.
That night we went out on a pub-crawl where we met two smoke sisters from Australia (sweet). We also hung out with a bunch of soccer hooligans from Wales, and an Irishman, Mark, who talked more about gaelic football than I could shake a stick at. We ended up a sweet club called Homes where some guy took the picture below (like thanks for the pic, but a Polaroid? Might as well watch Space Jam on VHS and get the soundtrack on cassette [great soundtrack, btw])

Pictures: A little devil car some crazy dude was driving while talking to his fist, Us having a snack on the canal with our bikes and mango juice, Vondlepark, Us at the I AMSTERDAM sign)

Thursday, July 29

Thursday, July 29:

We finally arrived in Amsterdam at around 8:00 this morning. The flight over was great—-hot towels, food, a great selection of TV shows and movies, not to mention drinkin fo' free. Already psyched about the plane ride home.
For those who don’t know, outside of a trip to Mexico and a vacation in the Virgin Islands, this is the first time I’ve ever been to another country. I had never been submerged into a foreign culture quite like this before. I was amazed at how different yet familiar everything was. For the first few hours in Amsterdam, Shelman and I grabbed a table and a drink on the canal and all we could do was people watch. Man, were we geeking.
We met a bunch of people our first day. One guy was from Milan, a couple was from Georgia, and two kids were from Argentina. Our hostel was good, not great (see: Grodman playing volleyball). Our room is on the top floor of the building, up steep and narrow stairs, and has a great view of Warmoesstraat, the street the hostel is on.
Anyways, here are a few pics from the first day (Me outside the Amsterdam train station, Shelman on a bridge, Me where we ate lunch, Shelman in our hostel, a record album we found at a market):

Day 1

Yesterday at about 2:00 I learned that our flight to Amsterdam was at 4:00 that day instead of 4:00 the following day. A great start to our trip, I know. After quickly running the numbers I realized there was no way we were going to make the plane. So, I called Shelman more rattled than I thought possible (see: Grodman at volleyball practice) to give him the news. He was astonished. Could this trip that Shelman and I had become obsessed with (See: Galen and DMB. See also: Galen and Texas, Galen and the Red Sox, Galen and Ghana, Galen and the Loft) come to an abrupt end before it even started? Oh, how the turntables! (See: The Office).

Anyways, we missed the flight and because Sheltod and I got discounted tickets (See: Studentuniverse.com) we were unable to fly standby on any following flights. After 3 or 4 hours of making calls and talking to airline agents, it seemed our only option was to pay $900 extra to leave August 3rd, or not go at all. Then, just when all was lost, my dad came through in the clutch (See: David Tyree, 2008) and found a Delta Airlines agent named Ms. Allbright who was able to put us on a flight fo free today at 6:00 pm.

So, at long last, we're on our way to not only Amsterdam (see: Tom Harkin), but we're goin to Bruges, and Brussels, we're going to Paris and Munich and Prague, then we're going to Vienna and Switzerland, the we're going to Venice and Rome and Florence and the The Cinque Terre then Marseilles and Barcelona! Byahhh!