Brussels Beckons

It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to write an update, and it’s not because I’ve been entirely too busy, it’s actually because it’s a little difficult to find time to upload my pictures in the hostel we’re staying in without keeping my laptop out in the open for too long.  Darryl and I moved to the Flying Pig Downtown Hostel a few days ago, and while it’s definitely a change from the hotels I was in, I can’t complain.  There’s free internet (the service is spotty but hey, it’s free), a clean room with a relatively comfortable bed, a good shower, and most importantly the whole place here is safe.  It’s a little odd to get used to locking up everything you own all the time and worrying that someone might take anything that’s left out, and while all of the people that we’ve run into have been very friendly, there are certain precautions that you just have to take because you really don’t know who’s staying around here.  That being said, it’s a 24 hour party atmosphere here, with a 24 hour bar in the lobby and a porch/patio out back to hang out on at all times of day.  Pretty wild.

In terms of out in the city, we’ve been doing some on-our-own type exploring and some more touristy stuff.  I generally don’t like paintings and visual art very much, but the Van Gough museum here is awesome.  They have the largest collection of his works (I’d hope so, given the name and purpose of the museum), the works of some of his inspirations, and also a cool exhibit about preserving paintings.  We took a stroll through Rembrandt Park also, which was nice.  Not much to do there, but nice to look at.  We took a tour of the Heineken brewery which was actually really cool.  They do a good job explaining the history of the company and making you genuinely love beer.  I also got a lesson in professionally drafting a beer from one of the brew masters there.  We’ve found our absolute favorite spot in the city – a little café in the corner of the Dam square called Euro Pub.  All we do there is sit and have a coffee, but you can see the entire square from their outdoor seating area, and you could literally sit and people watch all day there if you wanted (and we have).  A few days ago we took an afternoon train ride to Haarlem (the original Haarlem), which is a much quieter, much less touristy town outside of Amsterdam.  You can see a traditional Dutch windmill there (they’re just like you’d imagine), and also a really cool Church dating back to at least the 1500’s.  The church was a little creepy because the whole floor is made out of gravestones, but the decorations and artwork inside are fantastic.  Yesterday we left Amsterdam and moved on the Brussels, Belgium.  While I was sad to leave, I actually think it’s about time to move on.  Amsterdam is definitely a hang out kind of city, with some things to go do and see, but not a wealth of them.  Brussels, so far, has been significantly cheaper (half the price for food and beer) and much less touristy.  Not only that, but this place is ridiculous for beer lovers.  Last night we went to a bar that had 2000+ different beers available (!), including 50 pages of just Belgians. 

 

One thing about Europe in generally, and seemingly especially Amsterdam at this point, is that everything here is extraordinarily expensive.  In order to keep a decent budget we’ve really been eating mostly sandwiches that we make from stuff we get in the supermarket (think really cheap meat, bread, and cheese), frites (which are awesome but have zero nutritional value), and carry out type food (as our splurge of the day).  The cost of living is really making me realize how much it sucks to have a weak Dollar when traveling.  Everything would be relatively reasonably priced had the Euro and the Dollar been evenly valued, but paying 1.5x more for everything really is a killer.