Europe2002

And so I am come full circle, sitting in Amsterdam.

Rotterdam

An okay place. Not particularly pretty, but nice enough to walk around, and there's a couple of museums. Good hostel; first HI place I've been with a bar. Nice people.

Delft

I took a day trip to Delft yesterday. Now that was pretty. Lots of canals and old buildings. The old church/cathedral is rather unusual in style. Certainly not the elegant curves you see elswhere, it is pretty square, but also pretty old. And as for the tower, it leans at such an angle that I thought I was feeling funny when I walked out of the museum opposite and saw it again.

Amsterdam, reprise

Amsterdam's still a nice place. I've only just got a bed here, so nothing much to write of.

At least this is a properly labelled azerty keyboard, and apart from punctuation I'm almost getting used to it.

So since I last wrote I've been in many cities, making my way back from Budapest to Amsterdam. So a brief précis:

Vienna

Stayed in a nice place, with a garden people would play guitar in, and it was cheap. Wandered Wien for quite a while, but found it nothing special. After a while you just take beautiful cities for granted. Didn't spend time in cafés watching people.

Salzberg

Lovely little town in a lovely location. The castle had beautiful views, and I sat on a bench overlooking the town for absolutely ages. Staying at a nice place with a fun bar; ended up with some Irish and Canadians writing poetry in the bar into the early hours.

Munich

Nice place. Didn't end up seeing much, but I stumbled into some sort of clean energy or hippiness festival: lots of bongoes, and a couple of decent digiridooists.

Brussels

A bit of a head cold here. Didn't do so much. Wandered around blindly a little.

Brugge

Now this was nice. Spent quite a while walking around, and did touristy sight-seeing too. Some nice art, etc. Place I stayed had really nice food. Ended up playing cards into the early hours. Quite a laugh.

Antwerp

And so to the present. Just got here a couple of hours ago. I only meant to change trains here on the way to Rotterdam or somewhere, but I decided to stay on a whim. Seems nice.

Things changing under me. Azerty keyboard which is not even labelled right for azerty. Something keeps on caching the bloody page, making debugging hard. Anyway I'm alive; I'll write if I find something useable.

Well, well. A little exhausted after a busy day, but this is what I've been up to:

Bratislava

Spent two nights in Bratislava. Cheap but clean accomodation, close enough to the centre of the small Slovakian capital. Really nice town. Spent ages wandering around the old town the first day. After walking up the hill to the castle, which gives a good view as always, one sees the gigantic mass of the SNP most, or the bridge of the slovakian national uprising. A massive communist development, meaning lots of stuff was bulldozed to build it. Beyond that lies the very communist housing estates; time after time, the same tower block is repeated for miles.

Anyway, enough of the tour-guide stuff. That night (the second) was odd. A guy who I think was connected with the place I ate somehow (I'm pretty sure the woman who might have been his wife could have cooked my dinner) started eating beside me, then buying drinks. This happened for a while; quite a laugh trying to be understood.

The day I set off was a Tuesday, so I had to do a quick museum sweep before going, Mondays being museum closing days. Couple of nice little museums, but nothing magical I suppose.

So then I arrived in Budapest, last night. Being tired out from a train ride, and the earlier activity, I didn't do much, except hang around, have dinner, and chat to people. It was good enough though.

Today, however, has been a real tourist trek. Since I left the hostel this morning (09.30), I've been walking around historic places (>3), visiting museums (3), and art galleries (2); it's now 6.30 local time. Phew.

Been a few days. I visited Cesky Krumlov the other day; nice little town, but overrun by tourists. Beautiful scenery, lush green hills, a river running through the town, but full of coach tours etc.

I've kind of got stuck in Prague right now. I keep meaning to leave, then not leaving. This is the fourth "last night" in a row. Staying at a cool hostel. Bar, next to a park, and beer garden. Just sitting around with people, occasionally going into town...

Definately going to Bratislawa tomorrow though.

Wow. Had such a great meal last night, in the resturant opposite the hostel I stayed in. Spicy ribs; loads of meat, and the "slightly spicy" sauce was enough to be called hot by British standards, and yet was tasteful. Cheep nice beer too. Best meal I've had in months.

I'm now in Budweis . Much cheep beer abounds (say two pints for a pound). I'm not indulging.

Earlier I was sitting in the gardens below Prague's castle, enjoying the nice view from the hill. A lush green hill supporting transmission towers and the like lay to my right, while the city lay in front and to the left, split by the river before the heart of the old city.

I arrived in Prague yesterday afternoon, but didn't do anything but wander about. It was still nice. It's good to be able to eat comfortably in a resturant on my budget - only 3 euros for dinner, and a half litre of nice beer (e.g. Pilsner Urquell) is only a euro in a nice resturant. Don't know quite why I'm still thinking in euros rather than pounds or Czech Crowns though.

Walking around has been rather tortuous today. The city is full of tour groups being lead by somebody holding an umbrella or similar up high. It's hard to move around, and I really hate the feeling of being trapped between the hordes of bumbling coach-tourists. Still, the city has beautiful architecture in places

So I stayed another night in Köln. The private hostel I was staying at was full of nice folk, so it was quite a laugh. Just sitting in the lounge drinking a beer chatting with a varied bunch of people - Americans, Irish, a Czech, Germans, etc. - and chilling out. Great.

Yesterday morning (08:00!) I took a train to Nürnberg/Nuremberg. This is a really nice city. It was rebuilt really well after the war, and the walled medaevil centre is impressive. The Castle, walled town, lovely churches - great work.

The youth hostel I am staying at is actually part of the castle complex, though it is a rebuilt part of it. A good view over the old city, and a nice feeling staying up there.

Last night I gathered that the Germans won at football due to the gathering outside the castle. A hillside full of Bavarians wrapped in German flags, chanting chants (it's strange that there only seems to be a few victory tunes throughout the footballing world, with only the lyrics varying). The streets were occupied by cars adorned with streaming flags and honking horns, and the periodic lunatic running about the road with a giant flag. Actually that was generally the one lunatic, running about periodically.

And today. Mmm, Bratwürst! This afternoon I sampled the bratwürst and beer at the local Bratwursthaüsle. Sitting, watching the people go by on the long sloping street up to the castle. Wonderful.

Probably off to Prague, or somewhere in the Czech Republic now.

Ah. It's nice to be somewhere different for a change. Nice and relaxing.

In the last few days I've been in Amsterdam, Leiden, and now Cologne. Really enjoying just walking around different cities and taking in a different atmosphere.

On Friday I arrived in Amsterdam, and spent a while working out where my hotel was. I then spent longer randomly wandering around, starting at the central station and ending up not too far from the hotel again. I ran into this great group of Monglian buskers near to a museum. Such a wonderful sound; I really don't know how they do that with their voices.

Saturday I wandered round Leiden, and later went to the beach with a bunch of afpers. Fun.

Now I'm in Köln/Cologne. Such an impressive cathedral. It's really tall, and the Gothic architecture makes it look really elongated. Very impressive.

(My spelling probably sucks, I can't get used to qwertz keyboards.)

I got my exam results for my 3rd year today, and was pleasently surprised. I didn't think several of the exams I took went as well as I expected. I suppose that marks are adjusted for the average level of knowledge; I know if I marked some of these things I wouldn't get half the marks. Still, I feel warm and fuzzy, and get to feel superior by asserting that I didn't deserve what I got.

So, a month or so to relax, then an academic job, then uni again. I must read more books, and do more things, this summer. I never do enough stuff, I'm too passive.

Looking forward to travelling. Found out I'll have to be up ridiculously early on Friday. Like, before I normally go to bed. Wonder if I'll be able to catch any sleep at all then. Ah well, that's life

I've been buying things for incipient trip to mainland Europe. One necessary item was trousers. This was how my search/week went:

Monday

Got back from Paul's on the train. Too tired to do much. Didn't buy any trousers.

Tuesday

Woke up later than intended. Went shopping for trousers. Bought three books and a PDA. No trousers.

Wednesday

Got up at a reasonable time. Went shopping for trousers. Bought five books. Finally bought trousers.

Thus ends the saga of the trousers.