This is not a Shizen Wiesen

Amsterdam has been pretty interesting so far. The weather has been like nothing else absolutely pouring then blue sky 5 minutes later, and it will do this transition probably 10 times a day! The city isn't really what I expected in that most of the roads are paved, pretty much the same kind of city as Vancouver except for the canals going through it. The night life is pretty interesting shops that are considered to be a huge taboo in Canada thrive at night in Amsterdam. I guess we visited both extremes of Europe, Munich with its strong tradition then Amsterdam with its relaxed down to earth environment. The first night we got here we ask a couple of cops some directions and they seemed pretty nice as they were flashing peace signs and common touristy jokes. We have met more people here as well, the list of friends just keeps building and building. Of course, we had to walk through the red light district just to see what it was all about... and of course it was pretty strange. It was much smaller and shadier then I had expected. You had to walk down a gloomy alley that had a red light tint it was pretty easy to just look at the ground and pass on through. So Amsterdam has been pretty good so far, maybe worth another visit.. really depends what you're into! As for now we are off to a cabin by a lake in the outskirts of Amsterdam, should be nice but its pretty out of the way. After that we are heading back to base in Munich and getting the last 2 days of Oktoberfest in.

So we took a 7 hour train ride through frankfurt, brussels then to bruges. It was pretty fun hopping on and off trains and almost loosing gary in the trainstation, but hey, we made it. Now that we are seasoned trainhoppers I am pretty sure we could go anywhere.. if we have the itinerary. So on the way to Bruges Jeremy could not find his Eurail pass, perfect. So he ended up leaving it at Amelies house in Munich. So the only way he can get around is sit in the watercloset the whole way, what a way to travel! As soon as we got to Bruge it was a breath of fresh air, for me at least. The tiny little city seemed to have so much midevil character, and it did! But after the first day, we had already seen it all. Coming from Oktoberfest we were seasoned in all the different types of beer and pronounciations of the beer. Here in Belgium it is a whole different story, they have banana beer, cherry, mango, rasberry and beer made by Monks.. the beer is good, but compared to Germany it is so small (25cl compared to 100cl). The hostels have been decent for the price, yet we are sharing a room with 13 other people and I have probably inhaled 5 cigarettes worth of second hand smoke just sitting here typing this. We have met tons of people in Bruges, more so in our first hostel. Yesterday we rented some bikes for 6 Euros each, not bad and totally worth it. We took an hour ride to the North Sea and were so suprised to see powder white sand! The beach was huge and completely unexpected. Biking through the city is quite the experience, the streets are so narrow and the cars are going so fast and the roads are all cobblestone. So 2 more days here then off to Amsterdam!

Finally I am able to make an entry. This place is full of culture, old streets and amazing architecture. The first day we got here we went to the Augustiner brau hall which was located right across the street from our first hostel. Through a window you can see the horses carrying around beer barrels that are ready to be tapped. Its amazing how much this culture is based upon beer. On our way here we took the train from the Frankfurt airport through Wurzburg and Nuhremburg, on the way there were fields upon fields of Hops growing. We still have not even gone to the main event Oktoberfest and my memory card is already full! The festival starts tommorow and we are all looking very forward to it. On wednesday night we decided to visit the infamous Haufbrau house. As soon as you enter the huge beer hall you're greated by burly bavarians swinging mugs and singing songs, quite the experience. Aswell, there are live bands every night playing traditional bavarian music. On Thursday night we decided to do some sight seeing.. this city is full of history, you could walk down a narrow cobblestone road with tall buildings that seem to block out the sky and stumble upon an amazing church that shoots up to the sky. We went into this one church that was absolutely amazing, huge white colums that were lit by stainglass windows that were as tall as the building. Our hostels have been pretty good yet pretty cramped, however they are letting me write this entry in the front room even though I checked out 5 hours ago. We have already met a fair bit of people in the hostels, some nice, some just downright drunk and out of it. There are so many aussies here it is incredible the advice and stories they have really bring a shine to the experience of meeting people.

Our first entry, me and two other comrades depart for Frankfurt on September 16th. So the flight was very very long and very tight, at least we were entertained by some Grade D Hollywood blockbusters... As soon as we got off the flight we headed straight to the train, not so simple.. we had to walk in various directions and up and down large escalators. We went to buy our Eurail pass and it worked out well, pretty cheap but they don't do eastern countries! So prague is now out of the question, instead are going to Salzburg in Austria which I have heard alot about by some fellow travellers. The name literally means Salt Mountain, I cannot wait to see what this is all about. So we found our train and got on, and wow absolutely no seats were available, I was expecting a nice room we could all sleep in, instead we were stuck next to the watercloset that popped and squeeled every 2 minutes. As soon as we got of the train we were dead tired, it was a 12 hour flight and a 4 hour train ride, talk about a whole day. We are going to be heading to Amelies house tonight and I will be able to write more there, so until then! Auf Wiedersehen!