I should've gotten out of town earlier. I tried to use an inter-region ticket on an express train. It's not that I was specifically trying to cheat the system, I simply bought the cheapest ticket I could and boarded the next train leaving (I missed the IR train by about half an hour). Turns out that I had to pay the supplement to the conductor making the fare 22.700 lire for the IR ticket plus 12.400 lire for the supplement for a whopping 37.100 lire from Venice to Milan which ain't too bad in my book. My plan was to see Milan for the afternoon and then head out for Interlaken arriving there late. It was a good plan in theory. I arrived in Milan and went to inquire about buying a EuroSaver Pass which would allow me to simply step on the trains and have to pay a reservation fee and/or a supplement if the train is special. In theory it's a cheaper way to travel in europe. I checked my large pack and headed down to check out the Duomo (I'd heard that it was really the only thing to see in Milan). Honestly, it's a thing to behold -- massive and it even looks cool. I noted quite a few folks speaking arabic in the square in front of the Duomo, most I'd heard since leaving the middle east. Now we enter the less than optimal part of the story. I made it back to the train station with about 15 minutes until my train for Interlaken left -- the last train to interlaken that day. So, do I simply step on and pay the ticket (about US$40) or do I buy the EuroSaver Pass (US$425 and can be used for 5 days within 2 months). Had I written it out like I just did then I would have paid the fare and gotten the EuroSaver Pass later. As it turns out the choice I made worked out interestingly enough. The pass took quite some time to acquire, like over an hour, but the guy working with me was nice. There were some nice kids waiting on a train to Paris and as the train station got colder (it's just a big open barn like structure, they have to drive trains through there after all) I decided to tell them about the "warm room" (a waiting room for folks with tickets), they were appreciative :o) Since my train was scheduled to leave just after 8am I hung around until about 7:45pm then re-checked my large bag (after retrieving my coat) and also checked my small bag as they will only hold them for 12 hours. Since I was stuck there for the night on easter sunday (I think it was easter, it was at least some wack holiday) with no accommodation I decided that the only sensible thing to do was to walk the town in search of a bar or club or something that would stay open as late as possible. The search was looking grim though and I had resigned to return to the train station for the long night. On my way back I heard the tell tale thumping of a club that had just opened -- woohoo! I chatted for a while with a very nice woman who happened to be both american and an engineer. Time passed as it does and she left just in time to make room for a foursome of locals. Being who I am I was able to strike up a conversation of sorts and got myself invited to their table. The choice bit is that one of the women at the table spoke no english at all. Via one of the guys at the table it came out that she thought I was gay. "That was an odd remark", I thought to myself. Whatever would make her think that? And then I looked around and noticed the man behind the bar dancing on a stool with his shirt off, and the other man on the other side of the bar dancing with him and then pulling him acrossed the bar for some more intimate dancing. Further inspection of the room yielded similar things. Hmmmmm. Ok, that's why she might think I was gay, but it was the only bar open! It does kinda figure that this would be the only type of bar open in Italy on easter sunday. Not to propegate stereotypes, but that social group tends not to be the most stoically religious. No worries, I still had a great time there (add 5 margharitas, 1 open mind, and dance) and was able to stay out 'til just before 2am. You might think that 2am is great since I wanted to stay out all night, but alas it was not as great as one might think. It turns out that they lock the main doors to the train station from1am to 4am. This is not a good thing. I took up my spot with all the other homeless folks outside the station and actually slept until time to go in just sittin next to the doors. They were merciful and opened the doors at 3:55. I made a bee-line to the "warm room", found a nice solid wooden bench and parked my carcass. Set the alarm for 7:30, pull out ye ol' radio, and snooze the night away.
Most of you are probably thinking that you wouldn't be able to sleep in a train station. As it turns out I not only slept in a train station but also slept through my alarm! It all worked out ok as I woke up around 7:45, gathered my bags, and scooted onto my train just like I had planned it that way. (I think this is where I left my radio, which is really too bad. Sure it only cost me like US$6 in the states, but still...)
Switzerland is a magnificent place. Really. I was actually taken aback. Stunned and unable to parry. My breath caught. Jutting mountains, stone houses dotting the hillsides and valleys, rivers and streams, and it was even snowing in Kandersteg between Brig and Spiez. It was real nice. I switched trains in the postcard-like town of Spiez and got into Interlaken at 12:30 (midday). Talk about your quaint towns. Interlaken is packed into the beautiful mountains of Switzerland and sandwiched between two lakes connected via a river (man-made I suspect). One of the nicest people I've met detrained with me in Interlaken and was looking for the same hostel so we hooked up for the hunt. Her name is Cori and she's about as typical Wyoming as they get. We got into Balmer's Herberge (our hostel), dumped our bags and went in search of food and sights. The food we found wasn't as good as the sights, but it was tasty just the same. I did a bit of e-mail from the train station (cool coin-op internet terminal at the train station is cheaper than doin e-mail from Balmer's -- fast too). I was way too tired so I went back to the hostel to veg and wait for a bed. By time dinner rolled around I had gathered my second wind so I went and ate in the cafeteria, then went down to the bar which was packed with 90% american highschool or college students. It's possible that I was the oldest person in the room, what an odd feeling. I hooked up with the next oldest guy in the room (easily 5 years younger than me), his sister, and an argentinian guy that was interested in the girl. The film of the evening was Scent of a Woman, hoo-haw!
A beautiful day I must say. Kinda cool, overcast, dripping a little bit. Ahhh, ya gotsta love Switzerland! A pack of us (including the three from the night before) decided to take a bit of a walking tour of the town. One very noteworthy place that we went was to get a cup of coffee in the 18th floor cafe at the top of the tallest building in town. The view was... nevermind, I won't even say it ;o) We all spent a while up there enjoying conversation and gawking at the countryside and then got lunch. Someone suggested that we check out the Natural Products store, so we did. Nature is just simply amazing folks. As it was getting to be that time we went back to the ranch (it's just a figure of speach, it's not really a ranch). Some folks were leaving to go bungy jump (the highest gondola jump on the planet is offerred in Interlaken), so I and some others went to watch. That's right folks, I just went to watch. It cost over US$100 for the jump, and I simply have no desire to have some dork tie a rubber band to my feet and tell me to step off. It was cool being with the folks jumping though as it was the first time for most of them. By time we got back to the hostel there was just enough time to relax before eating in the hostel cafeteria and then going downstairs for more beer and the film du jour: The Spy Who Shagged Me (it was supposed to be The Eiger Sanction but the kids weren't interested in that one).
The day was quite beautiful: sunny and not too hot. Some canadians (Hi Dave!!) and aussie guys were taking a walk along the river down to one of the lakes, so I figured I'd tag along. I actually took my camera this time and captured some of the scenes along the way. It turns out that the walk was longer than we thought, and one of us had to get back for something, so we cut the thing short, relaxed, and returned to Balmer's to eat dinner and just hang out. Due to some snafu I had to switch beds as they assigned mine to someone else by mistake and it was easier for me to move then to try to find him. Someone dug up Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for us to watch -- it's just not the same anymore :o(
I really didn't want to get up today. Checkout is some ungodly hour like 9am or something. I decided that it would be nice to take the boat over to Thun (pronounced "Toon"). I walked up there with 3 americans but they couldn't wait the 2 1/2 hours for the 12:08 boat. The day is beautiful and I was happy to stowe my luggage, get some chow, and do a bit of e-mail while waiting. The sad thing about the lake ride, and the views were fantastic, is that the closer that we got to Thun the worse the pollution got. You'd think that a smallish city in the mountains of Switzerland on a beautiful lake wouldn't have such a thick sky. And to think that I almost stayed in Thun instead of in Interlaken. I decided, with the help of my beautiful information officer, that it would be best to head over to Dijon for the night and then hit Paris in the morning. All of this holiday BS is going to make it hard to get a room in Paris so I'd better get there as early as possible. With that plan I had to switch trains 3 times and finally got to Dijon just before midnight. I scheduled a train at 9am for Paris, but the board shows one going from Dijon to Paris at 3:13am -- I'm going to try that one. The beautiful information wench in Thun said that 9am was the first available seat. Odd since the 3:13 was a friggin morgue on rails and I wasn't bothered to show my train pass so I could sleep right through.
The 3:13 train turned out really nice as I hit Paris right about 7am. I got some coffee and then paid way too much for a cab over to the Three Ducks Hostel, a place that I had heard great things about. Turns out that they were undergoing renovations and booked solid (an odd thing at 8am). The girl that was working simply couldn't be bothered to help me find accommodation, and as I got more insistant the guy eating at the counter began being more helpful. Turns out he found a place with quite a few beds in it at a cheaper rate. It's amazing how helpful people can be when forced. I took the metro this time and found the place called simply "Bed and Breakfast" in a fairly central part of the city. The guy working there is kind of a flake, but in a way too nice way. It's clean and has nice showers, if a bit cramped (full dorm of triple bunks). I slept from 10am-3pm after a shower and woke feeling much better. Hmmmm, what to do in Paris on your first day? I walked a bit. Scratch that, I walked quite a bit. I saw this big arch (Arc de Triomphe, whatever), The Eiffel Tower (ok, so it's big), and noted that they have streets named "New York", "FDR", etc. and have pictures of things like the Statue of Liberty on their busses. Not what I would expect. Another noteworthy point would be that the people in Paris seemed no more rude than folks in the states, and I saw no dog shit on my first day.
Evening found me hungry so I ate some deliciously affordable Pakistani food for dinner. I've found that if I ask someone for a place that sells alot of food for a good price and stress that it doesn't even really have to taste good then I generally find the type of restaurant that I'm looking for. I mean really, what restaurant sells food that actually tastes "bad". It's either big portions of stuff that tastes ok, or it's tiny portions of stuff that may taste better but probably tastes "exotic" or something. In any case, I was pleased with this Pakistani place with its large portions of decent chow. Walked around a bit to relax and then headed back to the hostel for a snooze while it's dark for a change ;o)
To write these entries I carry around a small notepad and scrawl things that will help me remember what to write. Well, my first pad is coming to an end so I bought another for a mere 9.30 FF (5 FF (French Franks) is about US$1). The first pad came from a shop in Florence Italy.
Up at the crack of noon when I met a couple brits named Gordon and Martin, and a french chick named Fiona. The weather was typical for Seattle (except that I wasn't in Seattle), cool, overcast, and drippy. We hit a cafe for lunch, cruised by Notre Dame but didn't go in as the line was prohibitively long (the french zero kilometer is outside Notre Dame, all distances are measured from there), walked along the river, and ducked into a cafe to wait out a passing deluge. The deluge turned out to be longer than we anticipated but the cafe was nice and a good place to watch people :o) Fiona had to leave that night so we had some chinese and headed for the train station where she was to meet her ride. We got there early and decided to make the most of our time acrossed the street in some weird french pub. Tip: the french can't make beer. Fiona made her connection and it was up to myself, Martin, and Gordon to make something of the evening, which should be no problem whatsoever ;o) We took a metro down to an area that is supposed to be the night scene and found a lousy bar with a one man band doing decent covers of classic rock. The bars in France (the ones that I saw) have an interesting mix of toilet type apparatus available. Each one that I went to had the standard bowl, a squat toilet, and a urinal (I didn't check the ladies room for this variation). Aren't you priveledged? Who else would write about such a thing? :o)
Ok, now it's not noteworthy that I got the hiccups. What is noteworthy is that Gordon shared with me the first cure for hiccups I've seen that actually works. It's tricky, and if I tell it to you then it may not work on you in the future. I realize that your curiosity is piqued so I must tell you, but don't blame me if it doesn't work on you once you know. The trick is to take a large amount of cash (US$100 or more should be fine) and place it in the person's hand that has the hiccups. Tell him that he can have the cash if he hiccups one more time. I haven't hiccupped since. Thanx Gordo! :o)
The rest of the night consisted of us walking around looking for an irish pub that Martin found the night before (granted that was at the end of the night and his mind wasn't in the same condition yet). We did actually find an irish pub very late in the evening, after finding a bar that wanted you to believe that it was an irish pub but wasn't even close. We ended up in a cab back to the hostel for 29FF because the metro had shut (around 1am I think). A short walk for relaxation and finally to bed around like 4am (I think).
Doh! Woke at 2pm. Hey, did anyone out there know that there is a french rap version of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors out there? Maybe that's what folks were talking about when they said that the people in Paris are offensive (heh). The Louvre is closed today (go figure). The brits and I walked over to the Eiffel Tower and climbed it (ya gotta, right?). They don't let you climb all the way to the top tho, you have to take a lift from the 2nd level up to the tip top. After that we walked around a bit more and then headed back to the ranch. Dinner was Pakistani again, but this time I took Gordon and Martin (the brits) along. Afterwards we hooked up with Kate, Shannon, and John who were staying in our hostel and drank some of their wine. We only had a couple of bottles so the plan changed to heading down to a local cafe and getting a couple more bottles. Once we got there someone had the grand plan that we should play cards. I had a deck in my pack so I made the trek all the way back (2 blocks) to get them. It was a relaxing walk so I didn't mind much ;oP. We played cards a bit, drank some vino, and basically had a great time. The walk back was relaxing again, and I found my bed to be soft, warm, and very inviting.
First let me say that Amsterdam is in both Holland and The Netherlands. In fact they are the same danged place. Not sure why one name isn't good enough for these folks, but I used "Holland" here because it was shorter while "Netherlands" would proabably be more correct ;o)
The plan was to see The Louvre on my way out of town, so first order of business was to stowe my bags at the train station and determine when my train leaves. I had the option of leaving at 2:55, 3:55, 5:55, and 6:55 with approximately a 5 hour train ride to Amsterdam. At that point it was still up in the air if I was headed for Amsterdam Netherlands or Brussels Belgium. It would be nice to see places in Belgium, but I had heard that it was more industrial and I was anxious to get to Amsterdam ;o) I got to the Louvre around 11:00 and was met with a massive line. It would easily take over 3 hours to get inside the door. There had to be an alternative. I saw a woman working for the museum pushing a cart of boxes acrossed the square where the line wound. She grunted (in french, heh) picking up the first box so I stepped up and carried the rest of them up the 5 steps to the table she was working at. My whole point was to ask if I could get to the main museum if I bought a pass to a smaller extension. She said that it was possible but since I helped her then she would just let me skip the line -- woohoo! I was inside by 11:30, did the tour, and was left at 1pm. Now I wasn't running a foot race here, but frankly the egyptians have a better collection of egyptian stuff, the greeks have better greek stuff, the romans have better roman stuff... you get my point? I did walk the whole thing. I was most impressed with the Holland art. Rembrandt rocked, and this guy named Wenix was pretty danged cool. How many pictures of the friggin madonna and a fat baby do you need anyway? And why do they all look so sad in those pics if that's supposed to be this dude that the world has been waiting for?? Anyway...
I hit the 2:55 train to Amsterdam via Brussels with a decision to be made still. I transferred at 4:40, skipped Brussels and shot straight to Amsterdam arriving at 7:45. Because it was late I actually spoke to one of the runners waiting at the station and walked with an aussie girl just getting into town as well named Nicole. A "runner" is someone working for a hostel that gets commission for every person that they bring from the train station to that hostel. I ended up at The Globe which charged 40 FL (2.2FL (Guilders) is about US$1) for a dorm bed. Not too bad, but not too good either. The Globe is more of a sports bar hostel than anything else. It was filled with drunken scotish men in kilts who came in for a football (soccer) match on 26 April. I dropped off my bags, showered, and walked the town with Nicole. Amsterdam is a bit like Venice in that it has canals, but it also has cars, busses, light rail, and bikes (lots of bikes). I went by and talked with a guy at "The Flying Pig (Downtown)" We found a cheap chinese joint and got a load of food for a small price. A friend had told me of a coffee shop that he liked named the Rokery (the 'o' has an accent over it making it more like "the rookery") so Nicole and I headed over there, purchased from their menu, and just kicked back in the relaxing environs of Amsterdam ;oP
Woke at 8:45 (yes, that's AM) to hit the Flying Pig to move. The coffee in the Globe is bottomless and filter -- yummy, just like it comes in the states. The weather here has been awesome -- sunny but not too warm. Amsterdam is a nice place to just walk around or sit and people watch. I think of it like Venice on drugs, take that as you will. While waiting for my name to be called on the waiting list at the Flying Pig I met up with that argentenian guy from Interlaken. The sad thing is that I still don't recall his name. Alex or something like that. The dorm bed I got, in a room with 30 beds, is costing me only 35.50 FL per night (just over US$15). Better price and the group here is still party oriented but not so much sports oriented. I decided that today should be laundry day (actually that day should have come a week ago). I bought some bread so I could have some PB and jam or banana sandwiches (yum again!). I also found an egyptian restaurant. Didn't actually eat there though, just smoked a couple sheesha, had some tea, and chatted with some egyptian guys again. They were impressed with my arabic and picked up the tab on a sheesha for me -- nice guys ;o) E-mail at the Flying Pig is free, although I can't update my site from there as their machines only let you run internet explorer. It'll be nice to be able to check e-mail whenever I want to. Another famous coffee shop is the Green House. I located that one on my self-tour and sat in there for a few hours just relaxing. Back at the ranch I met a couple of couples in the hall and went with them for drinks just acrossed the road. First full day in Amsterdam, not at all bad ;o)
Up at 11:30 for a shower and what the heck, a shave. Bought some bananas on my way over to the Globe. Sure I don't live there, but I like the way they do bottomless coffee ;o) A banana and a couple cups of coffee later I had acquired the notice of the men in kilts. They were well on their way to tanked and felt that I needed beer. As luck would have it the Globe has Guiness on tap *drool*. Turns out this bloke named Davey was buying so hey, I was drinking :o) They were taking the piss out of poor Davey boy (that means they were teasing him), so I joined in even though I didn't know him. I tell ya though, these scots don't know how how to truly rip a man down. They were impressed with my skills such that they not only kept buying me pints but also wanted me to go to their football match with them -- too bad I didn't have a ticket :o( Well, they finally left and I headed back to the ranch to relax. I can see how time could escape you here...
My brother Carey woke me at 8:45am (I slept through my alarm, which was in my hand). We went downstairs and ate the Flying Pig's free breakfast (bread, jam, nutella, an egg, coffee or tea) as we waited for Carey to get checked in. Did a bit of e-mail, relaxed, Carey got checked in, and we walked Nicole down to the train station. As long as we were out we stopped for a Guiness and Brat (which oddly wasn't cooked). Being fully fuled we did a bit of a walking tour and enjoyed the day. It was weird to have Carey join up with me, but in a good way. Our tour left us tired and hungry so we hit up the cheap chinese joint and then went back to the hostel for happy hour and some pool with a couple of americans named Alex and Nick. The beer went down smoothely, as did the night. It turns out that I don't like Hienekin beer (their happy hour beer and the only beer on tap), so I introduced myself to Duvel. It's kinda like cider, but still beer with 8.5% -- not bad for a beer. I relaxed and became acquainted with a 17 year old German girl named Katja who reminded me a bit too much of a girl I once knew named Alison. An interesting note would be that she was also drinking beer that night. Welcome to somewhere outside the United States ;o) The night was comfortable and so was I.
Another beautiful day, if a bit warm. Laurent came up, that's weird too, seeing him again (gain, in a good way). He had also been in contact with Mark, an aussie guy that we hooked up with in Jerusalem (Lau travelled down towards Dahab with Mark when we all left Jerusalem). We all met at the train station at 11L:15. Being as we were in his town Laurent bought us lunch at this cafe -- what a sweet guy :o) We all walked around a bit and ended up thirstin for coffee so headed for a coffee shop for espresso and some of their special cake. It seemed as good a time as any so we relaxed there a bit before walking some more. I had a bit of a weird flashback as I followed Lau's day pack through the crowds of a city once more. I hadn't done that since Jerusalem ;o) The sad good-bye occurred at 5pm as we went our separate ways. Carey was still jet laggin a bit so went to take a nap. I just kicked back in the tv room of the hostel and watched a couple of movies -- I'm sure that I slept some tho ;o) We were both up and ready to tour Queen's Night and helped usher the party in with the rest of the city. If Queen's Night is any indication then Queen's Day should full on rock. Tons of crowds, kegs everywhere, stages with live bands every time you turn a corner, and just an excellent time waiting to happen. We drank, we had fun, we were in Amsterdam!
Queen's Day!
Mark showed up at our hostel at noon as we had arranged, but no Lau. We assumed that he missed his train so waited until 1pm and then called. Turns out he was sick. He had called to leave a message for me at the hostel but they said I wasn't staying there -- go figure. The day was a bit rainy, but not so bad really. Much better than being sweltering hot or something will all of these crowds. The only thing I'll say is that they should require a license for umbrellas as we all nearly lost eyes and such multiple times throughout the day. Breakfast/lunch consisted of these awesome meatballs on a roll and my first Red Bull energy drink (Yum!). I got tired of carrying my coat (it was dripping a bit but too warm to wear a shell even with all the zips open) so we took a bit of a break to drop stuff at the hostel. That turned out to be a decent thing as I met up with some friends there and relaxed briefly with them before re-entering the fray. The party was amazing. All of the people, the bands, dancing, everyone having an excellent time. The weirdness was that it all stopped at 9pm, and I mean everything. The stages came down, the kegs disappeared, everything got quiet. Queen's Day had ended.
Ah, I almost forgot to mention the other thing about Queen's Day in amsterdam. What would you think to be the largest problem in a city packed with people all drinking beer? Urine, of course. After all, you don't buy beer, you just rent it ;o) A while back the number one tourist complaint about amsterdam changed from dog shit to the smell of urine. That's because people will just walk up to a wall, shrub, corner, curb, whatever and do what must be done. On Queen's Day we saw both men and women peeing into the canal, along walls, wherever the urge grabbed them. One thing that the city did to try to curb the problem is to put in these things called... well I don't know what they're called but we called them "pissers". They are a portable toilet that has four urinals back to back (in the shape of a cross) and no doors. You just stand with your back to the crowds and traffic and let loose. It's actually more private than a wall and definately more private than the canal. My only regret is not getting that photo of Carey using it in a busy intersection ;oP
Well, that was Queen's Day. Definately glad I came up for it, and definately glad that Carey came over to join me. The only thing left to do was to go back to the hostel where Silence of the Lambs happened to be on the tube. Afterwards I crossed the road to the Blues Brothers coffee shop for a bit, but it was dead there as well. Back to the ranch to relax after the big day and then hit the hay.
I woke at 10:30 to check out and found myself feeling awful. I thought I may be experiencing my first hangover as I felt like a truck had hit me, backed over me, and then hit me again. Carey and I checked out of the hostel and went up to the train station to stowe our packs. It sounded simple anyway. Turns out that everyone else in town wanted to stowe their bags as well. We had to wait in a massive queue to store in the extra storage area provided. That done we arranged reservations to get to Prague -- our train was to leave at 6pm.
We walked over and ate some chinese food where I realized that what I was feeling was getting worse and not better. Playing the tourists that we were we hit up the Sex Museum and Anne Frank's House. I found the Sex Museum to give actually a great overview of the history of sex/porn. We've actually made very little progress in the area of "accessories" lately. Some of the items that I thought would be of fairly recent design are actually remarkably old. And whatever the kids are doing these days has been being done for centuries. It's not like we just invented it or anything. Carey was more impressed with (moved by??) Anne Frank's house than I was, but I had heard the story before and seen the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem so what can be said.
We shared our train cubicle with a spanish girl, a hungarian guy, and two french guys. The car was unbearably hot to me and I was sweating buckets. Turns out that means I had a fever of sorts. I spent alot of time in the WC (abbreviation for Water Closet, aka Toilet) trying to keep things inside myself. Definately not a pleasurable night train by any stretch. Carey was impressed that he could sit there and watch he sweat roll off my face. I almost commented that I tend to get sick at inopportune times, but I guess when you're travelling there really isn't a good time to be sick. If Carey didn't have a schedule to stick to then I would simply have stayed put until whatever I had blew over. C'est la vie. The night was long, hot, and un-freakin-comfortable, but at least I had a seat this time.