Bremen and Amsterdam

I stayed a night in Bremen because the journey from Stockholm from Amsterdam could not be done in one day. However long it was though, the ferry from Denmark to Germany had a beautiful sunset. I had trouble finding the hostel, and I again had to walk past numerous sex shops to get to it. Why is this always the case?

I shared an 8 person room with a fifty something year old who was ironing his jeans when I walked in. He seemed like a very nice man, but for the first time during my trip I was actually scared he was going to stab me to death in the night. He was in one section of the room and I was in the other, and all I could hear was him packing, changing, and then closing and locking the door and going through his bag (for the knife, I was sure). I'm not sure why I had such an irrational fear, but before I had any time to really worry I fell asleep. Oops.

I awoke in the morning to him scurrying around yelling "Scheiße, Scheiße, Scheiße!", so he must have been late for something.

On my way to Amsterdam I met some nice people from Florida and New York. The girl in this photo was staying at the same hostel I was, so we went out with the girl in this picture for dinner at an Indian restaurant and then went out and got some coffee afterwards (the guys in the photo were meeting some friends of their own).

The next day I was so tired from travelling I spent the majority of the day in Vondelpark, wandering around. Vondelpark is a giant park right near my hostel and it's full of different kinds of birds and flowers and landscapes. You can really spend an afternoon there checking out all of the nooks and crannies of the park. Out of all the cities I have heard about, Amsterdam is the most talked about. People always have an opinion about the city (it's hard not to when prostitution and weed is legal), so I was very anxious to see how I felt about it myself. People either love it or hate it (kind of like Napoli).

After going to the park I did all my laundry and hung it out around my bed to dry. You get pretty creative with laundry when you are on the road for so long...

The next day I met my friend Dieuwer in the city. Dieuwer and I used to play videogames with eachother online back when I was much younger, and since then we have become good friends. I told him I was in Holland and we thought it would be cool to meet up in Amsterdam and then spend the night at his family's house in Groningen.

We drove around for a while looking for parking until we found a place to stop so we could look at a map. We kind of lost track of time while looking at the map/talking and when we went to start the car back up again, the battery was dead.

We walked around for a while, looking for a door to knock on or someone to talk to to see if they have jumper cables. We asked someone in the street and she pointed us to a woman who had her door open. So we went over to her and asked her if she had cables, but she was really, really suspicious of us and told us to go find a garage. So we went and found a garage, but they were going to charge us twenty five freakin' euros to walk down the street and start a car.

Before all hope was lost and we broke down and paid the money, Dieuwer remembered that he had his dad's service card (like AAA). We called them and they arrived within twenty minutes and charged the battery, allowing us to continue our original quest of finding a parking garage.

We eventually did find one and then headed to the Anne Frank House. It was across the entire city center, so we did get to see a lot of Amsterdam. With all of its canals and houseboats, I think it's one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. I didn't get that close to the Red Light District, so I didn't get a chance to see all the trash and drug use people talk about, so from what I saw it was very nice.

Anne Frank house was pretty neat. We had to wait in a giant line for about forty minutes, but the inside was extremely interesting, if not creepy at times. I have only read half of her diary, so I think I will reread it again when I have the chance. It makes it a lot more exciting if you have actually been there.

After visiting the house, we decided we had had enough of Amsterdam and that it was time to make the drive to Groningen. Driving along the country side in Holland was really nice. Plus, he had an MP3 player so I could hear some familiar music I like, and believe me, that is a luxury.

We got to his house (a renovated two hundred and fifty year old farmhouse!) and fooled around on some guitars and computers before heading to bed. The next morning we packed my stuff in the car and I said goodbye to his parents and the two biggest dogs I have ever seen. (So on this trip I have seen the biggest lips ever and the biggest dogs ever) We headed out to the city center of Groningen and just browsed around for a few hours and also went up to the top of a church steeple that provided a great view.

Shortly after I hopped on the train to meet another friend in Belgium...