dorm mates that it was my first day in Europe, after he told me he was months in. Now, I have two weeks left in my 4 month adventure. (Coming home on the 20th, flight finally booked).
It has been creeping up on me for a couple weeks now - the feeling that a chapter in my life is coming to an end. Needless to say I've been a bit restless lately, so much in fact that I've been in four countries and 5 cities in the last week.
After Bruges I decided to go to one more city in Belgium, giving Antwerp a try. Only stayed a couple days and really don't have much to say about the city, only the people I met. As I may have discussed before, when traveling solo your experience in a city can be really affected by the people you meet, and/or the hostel you stay in. In this case, I loved my time in Antwerp, loved my hostel, and it was entirely based on the people I met there. For the most part, I spent the whole time there with a group of three girls from Tennessee and another girl from Canada. More on them later, I'm actually on the way to Bad Gastein, Austria to ski with them for a day then go to Vienna. So more on them later. Here's an idea of how cool we are though:
Album cover shot - act too cool for the picture being taken of you. And pose somewhere really weird...though we decided to climb this jungle gym before the picture, so maybe we're just immature...
I went to the train station the next morning with only an idea of where I might go. I was interested in seeing Luxembourg, that little country wedged between Belgium, France, and Germany, so I found the next train with "Luxembourg" written next to it on the board and hopped on. I was only going to stay the night so I wandered the city, trying to see as much as I could in the dark. Lucky for me, there's really not much to see in Luxembourg. I walked around for a few hours, trying to find a bar or something to meet some people and have a drink, and couldn't find anything that seemed appealing, or even full of people. Sure your country is smaller than Rhode Island, but come on. Something that was great about the city was their natural layout, spread across hills and small mountains, and beautifully connected by some impressive bridged. Below is a picture of my hostel, right next to one of the railway bridges... sadly the picture I took at night of more impressive bridges didn't turn out too well.
Getting to this place was a pain...
The following morning I made the painstaking climb back to the Luxembourg train station and hopped on a train on the way to Zurich. A couple hours in it made a stop in Strasbourg, France. I had no reason to be in Zurich that day, hadn't booked a hostel or anything so I grabbed my bag and got off. Why not? I spent the next three hours walking around the city trying to find a hostel. The first one I went to was way outside of the city and ended up being closed for renovations. Finally made it to one on the other side of the city for a reasonable price and dropped by bag off. Headed into town for a day of exploring a totally random city, and loved it. Strasbourg was filled with Christmas markets, especially around the Notre Dame cathedral in the center. Even the streets connecting them were decked out in holiday lights and decorations.
After walking through a few of them, I toured the cathedral and climbed to the top for a great view of the city at night. Here's a picture I took earlier in the day-
After I joined the festive mood even more and bought a cub of vin chaud (hot wine, aka mulled wine) that is so loved in these parts. Gotta admit, I was skeptical but it was pretty good. Also ate a giant hot dog covered in cheese - so french - even too cheesy for me. Seriously, look at these suckers-
I've noticed my camera is best at taking pictures of food... man I'm hungry right now.
The next day I went to Zurich. Then I went to Interlaken, and now I'm going to Bad Gastein, Austria. Yes, I'm ending this post abruptly. Switzerland will get its own post. I have some things I need to say about it, accompanied with plenty of pictures. You will see.
- Matt
Location:Belgium, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Zurich, Interlaken
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