Paris, Brussels, Brugge, and Sin City
So far, I'm not sure what was more interesting about my travels over the past few days: learning about how the European Commission constructs the budget and spending for the EU or meeting with the mayors office in Amsterdam to find out the real truth about the legalization of prostitution, and the untruths of "legal marijuana".
To be honest, the entire 10-day trip, and 24+ hours of trains rides was an adventure in itself. My opinions of the cities vary greatly, but I must admit that Brussels has the most beautiful women in Western Europe.
My favorite places in Paris where: The Louvre, Saint Chappelle, The Imperial Palace and the Chan de Lise, the Arc de Triumph, and the top of the Eiffel Tower at night. And Paris at night, from the top of the Tower. Also, during my afternoon spent at the tower, a total of 3 proposals were witnessed. All 3 of the young women said yes. Also, a 45-year old creepy french man tried to pick me up. I almost clocked him in the face when we wouldn't leave me alone.
On the steps of the Louvre:
Myself and the very sexy Venus de Milo:
Overall, I did not like Paris. It was dirty and over crowded and people there are sort of rude and we were almost killed by several rouge bicyclists. I was not impressed by Notre Dame. The inside is okay I guess. The Rose Windows were cool, but it felt too touristy. I much preferred the outside. We also saw naval cops searching the Sen for something. A body, maybe. We don't know. We kept walking. And the hostel we stayed at was like a hotel for old people. Don't get me wrong, I met some cool people: this old couple from Kentucky, Carolyn and Jim, who were visiting because Carolyn had gone to school near Saint Michelle 44 years ago and just wanted to show Jim the area. I ended up taking some time to fix her computer and she bought me a hamburger and some fries from the place down the street. And then there was Kate and her four-year-old daughter Gretta visting from Australia who I spent a day with and went out to dinner with at this cool little Italian resturaunt. Other than that, Paris was unimpressive. So, on day 3, we boarded a train for a three hour train ride to Brussels.
In Brussels, we stayed in a youth hostel that felt more like a college dorm room that a hotel. But it did have a bar in the basement that had a happy hour from 8 - 9.
We went there every night. The bar tender loved us and called us one of the most well behaved groups to come through there in a long time. The most exciting thing about Brussels, as I mentioned, was getting to go to the European Union Commission to learn how the EU contructs budgets and spending for Member States. In all honestly, I didn't really understand anything, but we did get a ton of free stuff including a tote bag that says, "I (Eu Flag) EU". It's a funny twist off those "I (heart) Something" bags. You have to see it, you'd appreciate it. The next day, we took a bus tour of the city. It was nice. We saw a lot of things we wouldn't normally see otherwise. A good time was had by all in Brussels.
Group photo outside the EU:
And then, we boarded a train to none other than Sin City itself: Amsterdam, Holland. Here, the most unique of all hostels was stayed at: The Shelter Jordan Christian Shelter. We stayed at a religious hostel, with a gay man in our group. We couldn't figure out if we were going to have to sacrifice him to stay there, or if we could pass him off as a really effeminate straight man. Turns out it didn't matter because the boys and girls had to stay on separate floors, and we couldn't go onto each other's floors. The hostel did have it's own cafe though, with the best breakfast we've had since coming to Vienna. It was absolutely delicious. While we were there, we met this group of students from American studying through an independent study-abroad program. They were bunking in Prague, but visiting. We obviously hung out with them for a while, exchanged information, and told them to hit us up when they were in Vienna. I had planned on contacting them in Prague.
Here, we also had a chance to go the mayor's office, and learn the in's and out's of the legalization of prostitution and the untruths about their supposed legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is illegal in Amsterdam, just like every place else, they just have a higher tolerance for it with the inventions and institutions of their famous "coffee shops". It's complicated to explain, but both the prostitution and coffee shops makes a lot of sense.
Inside the Mayor's Office:
And then, oh lord... we walked through the Red Light District... at night. I have never been so scared in the entirety of my existence. Melissa almost got mugged, Kyle almost got mugged, Melissa and Amanda were offered "jobs" and, oh god it was just terrifying. I never want to go back there. We found the men in drag, but no straight up male prostitutes. Kind of disappointed. After the mayor's office, we took a two-hour long canal tour of Amsterdam. Did you know that Amsterdam has over 100 canals and a 1,00 bridges? You do now.
We also saw the real Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, but we didn't go in. It was like...20 bucks a person. Not worth it. The Sex Museum and Torture Museums were much more fun.
Finally, comes our 13 hour train ride back to Vienna from Amsterdam. We had a 2 hour "lay-over" in Frankfurt. But it was ridiculously long. We napped early on, which was probably a bad idea, because then we were wide awake and ready to go when it was getting dark. By the time we reached Linz, we had an entire train car to ourselves. We ended up playing a lot of cards, and talking about everything and anything.
We got back to Pilgrimgasse (our U-bahn stop) by 12:00am, and we were all in bed by 12:30am. Five hours later, everybody but 3 of us pulled their asses out of bed to catch a 5am train to Munich for the last day of Oktoberfest.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the re-cap of our 10-day trip to Paris, Brussels, Brugge, and Sin City.
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