Today is Mother's Day, and also the day I will start going through my Spring Break trip (this part'll be Crete).

Today is Mother's Day, and as I sit in my flat looking out onto the green fields, sheep, and a darkening gray sky I figured I should do a little bit of updating.

This afternoon I Skyped with the parents and Aunt Kay, who are currently finishing up their 'camping' trip in Dogwood, California. 'Camping' in an RV of course, haha.

A few weeks ago I returned from a trip to Crete, Cyprus, and Istanbul. It was amazing. It was beautiful. I have over 1,200 pictures of awe-inspiring sights, beauty, and culture to remember.

DAY 1
Thursday 11 April, 2013

I went with a close acquaintance I met here in Utrecht. Her name is Alexis, and she is from California.

Crete is the largest of the Grecian islands in the Mediterranean, and our only hopes for the place was sunshine and beaches (it delivered). The picture above is of Alexis in our own little private room, including a television, bathroom, stove, refrigerator, and table. I mention these things because this is the first time I've stayed in a private room when traveling, and it felt like luxury- all for 10 euro/night! It was located in Agii Apostoli, about 5 minutes outside Chania, and so much more pretty.

This first night was simply finding the hotel and enjoying what I think was the best Greek meal of our trip. It was just a hole-in-the-wall, run-of-the-mill fast food Greek place. I'm not sure if its deliciousness was due to the hunger we had in our stomachs, or that we were trying real 'Greek' food for the 'first' time, or that it was actually the best of the trip, but:

The tatziki was light, the sausages were delectable, the fries were lightly crunchy, and the pita was fresh. A nice thing about every place we went to in the Grecian islands was that nearly all the beers were served with a frosted beer mug. The ultimate level of class, if you ask me ;)

DAY 2

Anyways, the next morning our main goal was to go to the beach. First. We went to a nearby market and got some fresh bread and Greek yogurt and happily slid that down with some fresh orange juice. I found out that I really really enjoy Greek yogurt now.
We soon found that the hotel was about 50 meters from the ocean. And by ocean, I mean the hotel was placed between three distinct gorgeous beaches facing the east, north, and west. Our hotel owner, George, had tried to convince us to take some buses or taxis to some amazing looking beaches, but we were more wondering about why we wouldn't just take advantage of the three beautiful beaches laid out before us?
We stopped by a liquor store to pick up some cheap tourist stuff and headed to the beach:

And then spent the next four hours working on our tans. It was glorious to feel the sun, blue skies, mountains, green foliage, and crystal-blue water.
After roaming beaches #1 and #2, we decided that we would head into downtown Chania (pronounced like "Hah-Nya" with a hard beginning "H").
We wandered the old-town district (Presenting, Chania harbor from the old church tower ruin):

 Discovered some ruins (There was a gate which we kinda broke through to wander through here, but definitely worth it):

And meandered down the typical-Greek looking passageways between buildings (we were offered three shots of differently flavored Raki from an incredibly friendly shop-keeper. He got our business, to say the least. Parents, you have a gift from there!):

Then we walked through the 'New' part of Chania. There are an incredible number of tourist restaurants along the Chania harbor seaside, and that is where we encountered the most active restaurant-waiters trying to get our business.
They would walk up to us with one hand out saying, "Hello, would you be intereste-" After the five previous restaurants saying this,
"No, thank you." I would interject.
"I would just like to have a conversation with you, Sir, I am trying to be friendly. Sir, ca-"
"No. Thank you." Really? Don't even try to guilt trip me.
And the key would be to just keep walking.
Actually, by the end of this week-and-a-half adventure, we discovered the best way to 'fend off' the more insistent restaurant waiters was just to say, "Thanks, but we just ate." Thank you for that initiative, Alexis. To which they would more often than not respond, "Well maybe tomorrow, sir?"
We discovered easy ways to take advantage of the restaurant people, but I'll get to that later.

Anyways, we made it to the end of the jetty surrounding the harbor just in time for sunset, and it was beautiful.

 This was the view walking back from the Lighthouse we watched the sunset from. We met two people from the US Military while out there, and spent the rest of the evening with them: Kiki and Jiggy.

The view from the restaurant we ended up eating at, where I had Greek pork fried in wine. Tasted pretty great.

This is us inside the second bar of our four-person, unofficial pub crawl. The city was packed with US Military people. And I'm pretty sure we heard the song "Thrift Shop" at every place along the night. Probably twice. It's a little over-played these days.
Thrift Shop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

 After five (and an attempted six) bars, we finished our journey at Senso, courtesy of Jiggy. It was a good night out, for it being the only big night out of our trip :) A taxi ride home at 4am and some good night chats, we were ready for bed.

DAY 3!

We woke up entirely refreshed the next morning, going back to the market for some tasty bread and yogurt (this time with meat), and ate breakfast out on our private patio in the sunshine.
We asked George about local places to see and he recommended going to Lake Agias with some bikes. We rented ourselves some bikes and headed off in the direction of the Lake. It was over a small mountain hill (I say 'mountain', because even on the paved roads of Crete, those hills were very, very steep in some areas. We got off our bikes a couple times heading up through the steep little Greek towns.) Once on the other side though, it was a blissful downhill coast through orange trees, blue skies, and fertile foliage.
Downhill selfies, as Alexis was ahead of me videotaping the bike ride.

 Directional signs (thank God, because we were on some rather rural roads along the way). Pronounced something like, "Lake Ah-jya".

 This is where we spent our early-afternoon; at Lake Agias, drinking Banana milkshakes and eating feta tomato bagels. Alexis was hunted by two geese while we were here, and has a video of them slowly stalking her down like Veloceraptors haha.

 This was the road we took down from the little mountain back towards Agii Apostoli. It was much easier to find our way home this way. No brakes! Go hard or go home!

And, of course, after returning our bikes and grabbing a little snack, we headed back to the beaches again.
Another hour or so of sleeping on beach #3 led to us wandering the peninsulas between the beaches. It was slowly getting to the time of sunset again, so we then planned to explore around the peninsulas until the sun was positioned right in front of beach #1 again. I should draw diagrams of this, haha.
Wandering around the peninsulas:

 Leading to:

 One of the most spectacular sunsets of my life:

This moment will stick out to me for a long time, I think. Everything was just... good. It was beautiful weather, I wasn't worried about school, relationships, clothes on my back, friends to talk to, food to eat, where I would sleep for the night, or anything really. I loved everyone who had impacted my life leading up to this point. Alexis, sitting next to me, was a great amount of fun to talk to and banter back and forth. My parents, I love them so much, I can't even fathom... Wow. Somewhat emotional writing this, actually. Yay Matt. The opportunities I have been presented, the times we live in (I was able to fly to another part of the world essentially just to talk with people from everywhere and lay on an incredible beach and eat another culture's food. Wow.), along with my incredible fortune just to be here in Europe at all. I loved every moment of this trip and am so grateful.
But enough of that.
We got hungry and a bit chilly, so we went back to the hotel for some clothes and some money, and wandered over to the Artemis Hotel for dinner. We were the only ones there! Such a pity, it was a beautiful hotel with fountains into the pool and lined with hammocks, palm trees, and a pool bar. I ate some delicious Musaka after raving reviews from the waiter. He said that he ate it almost every day, and after consuming the Musaka, I don't doubt that statement in the slightest.
Alexis and I had just finished commenting on how hospitable and gracious the Greek people seemed to be throughout our trip so far when the waiter walks over with a 'complementary' dessert of Greek yogurt, honey, and some sort of fruit that maybe resembled a date? I'm not entirely sure, but it balanced bitter and sweet tones throughout and made me and Alexis more than happy with the experience.
We then returned to our hotel room with the expectation to go out once more for one last Greek gyro, but after finishing American Wedding near 2am in the room, we passed out with little resistance.

DAY 4

The next (early, early) morning, we finished off the last of our bread, meat, and yogurt in downtown Chania at the harbor.

 We took our last bus on Crete to the airport, which we then finished up another hour or so of sleep.  Before long, we got on our 16 Euro RyanAir flight and were blasting off to Cyprus! You can barely see the beaches we went to in this picture off in the distance. I'll find a better picture somewhere. Either way, it was a beautiful day to leave.

It's been a while.

Hallo!
It feels like it was just last week that this blog fell off the map and I arrived on it. I was writing here every day for the first three weeks, and I guess that was a little ambitious. At least there will be a good picture of arriving here and now here's a little snapshot of the midway point. Apparently I haven't written anything for almost 6 months, but there's no worries- someday it will be caught up. To go through pictures, be transported once again into the 11 countries and numerous cities I have seen over the past 6 months, I look forward to that.
I feel so incredibly blessed.

In order:
the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, den Haag, Rotterdam, Leiden)
England (London, Cambridge, Manchester)
Scotland (Glasgow, Kyle of Lochalsh, Inverness, Edinburgh)
Belgium (Brussels, Brugge)
Ireland (Dublin, Galway)
Czech Republic (Praha, Kutna Hora)
Hungary (Budapest)
Spain (Madrid)
Germany (Munich, towns all over Bavaria and along the Rhine, Berlin)
Austria (Salzburg, Halstatt, Innsbruck)
Poland (Krakow)
For pictures of each location, there are albums on my facebook page dedicated to each city individually. Short descriptions should be by most of the pictures. It's a lot. Cutting down thousands of pictures is a bit of a task.

The cathedrals, the people, the museums, the travelers  the tours, the food, the history, the customs, the language, the memories. Partying in Budapest, eating in Krakow, crying in Berlin, rapping in Inverness, dancing along the Rhine, hiking in Kyle of Lochalsh, drinking in Munich, meeting vampires in Brugge, Mozart concerts in Salzburg. I am living a lifetime in a year, and that year is only halfway over.

I have moved for the last and final time of the year to de Uithof, on campus, and will be here for the next 5 months. My flatmates are a paleontologist from England and a musician from France, and they're great. The Brit's got wild curly red hair with a social personality to match, and the Frenchie's got glasses with blonde hair, taller than me, and somewhat quiet. Our flat is on the 14th floor, and out my window I look out onto meadows, forests, and canals which butt up against the campus. When spring comes, the sheep will return to grazing the fields, and my guess is sunset will look pretty good over the treetops. This is also the first week in the past month and a half without snow consistently on the ground. It's been over 0'C for a week now! (Comfortable again, haha).

I am taking courses in GIS/Cartography and Environmental Impact Assessment this block, which are both taking up a fair amount of time, but they are very hands on and even more interesting than expected. Definitely a good thing.

Either way, spring is coming, and that causes a healthy amount of excitement all by itself :D

Beste betreft,
-Matt

Then there was Manchesser...

Last we left off, I was jumping on a punt in Cambridge for the afternoon with Brooke and the gang. That was 2 and a half weeks ago now. Wow. Alrighty, time to get back down to work.
I was the first to drive the punt. The "punter" stands on the back of the punt, similar to what those people do on the gondolas in Venice. I held a long pole, about two and a half times my height, and about the width of my arm, and stood on the back. The canals are shallow, so you put the pole into the water till it touches the bottom and push the boat forward. Steering it was similar to a sailboat ("tiller towards trouble"). I was doing surprisingly well actually, until I underestimated how close and low the bridge was in front of us. The pole hit the bridge, I tried to hold on, and ended up in the water. Thank god my camera was waterproof. Too bad I was still wearing my hiking boots. I climbed back on, my picture was taken by Brooke, and we continued. Other than a large amount of knowing, humored faces looking at my wet clothes, the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.
We came back to the dock, walked back to school, found a pair of shoes to borrow from one of Ariel's friends, did some laundry, and took a shower. Everyone was at their "end of the summer" dinner event, and I hung out in Ariel's room. Their dinner ended, a group of about 9 girls and 3 guys started partying in the room, and after chilling for a bit we went to their favorite club called "Lola Lo". It was a three story club, complete with thatch-roof tropical decorations, palm fronds, and a light up dance floor that looked straight out of Saturday night fever. Got home somewhat late, with a slight detour... hehe... and slept comfortably on my makeshift bed of four chairs and a pillow :)

I grabbed my (mostly dry) boots, said goodbye to Ariel, and left the next morning around 0830 to get on my 0945 bus to Manchester. The first leg of the journey went off without a hitch, and I met a cool business guy from London who was meeting a friend up north for a stag party. The connecting bus, however, would turn into the worst public transportation experience of my life. What was supposed to be a 2 and a half hour trip to Manchester became a 6 and a half hour trip, stuck in Friday afternoon traffic. The son and daughter who sat behind me with their mother were the most vile, inconsiderate English teens I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. The daughter was a heavy smoker, and since the bus would not stop for her, she could not get her fix and was cursing out her mother for her &@%#^ *@#&( decision. The mother retaliated with *&@# yourself or I'll &^%@# go &*#^%$ ^&#%^* @^% punch you again. Another time, the mother went to the restroom once, tripped slightly, and the son (who also enjoyed kicking, touching, tapping the back of my seat) retorted with something like, hahaha, you're such a &@$#^% idjit.
I commented on this remarkable family dynamic to the man sitting next to me, presumably from a rough part of north England, to which he replied, "We don't need to be worried about anything until punches are thrown." At least the bus driver was cool, haha, and calmed the daughter countless times with witty comebacks to her incessant complaints. Made many of the passengers laugh. He also responded to a (very smelly, dirty, illogical) orthodox Jewish man with witty comebacks and questionable (yet undeniably funny) responses to his additional complaints about the bus stuck in traffic.
It also rained.
We arrived in Manchester about 1830 and were finally free to breathe fresh air. I walked out of the bus station and directly into... gay pride. That was quite a surprise. I found out which direction I had to go to get to Kayla's friend's place, and headed off straight through one of the main streets of the (now thriving on a Friday night) gay festivities. The funniest thing I saw during that short 300 meter walk was by the DJ stage being set up. Imagine those bucking rodeo things you see in country bars to see how long you can stay on. Alright, well this thing was a massive penis that did the same thing.
Moving on.
I make it to Mel's flat (Kayla's friend) and spend the next hour or two catching up with Kayla and Melissa about our adventures of the past week or so. They had just come from Croatia and Hungary, and have inspired me to make it there, myself, this year. Mel had decided that she would show us all a "night out" in Manchester, and when her friends arrived, we proceeded to do just that. Now, Manchester is known for its nightlife, and I am very happy that I had the opportunity to meet up with the girls and have a local show us around. We didn't go to that many places, but we went to the local's favorites and had a great time anyways, so I couldn't have asked for more. At one place, Melissa had a very creepy (and *slightly* funny) encounter with a horny clubber, which quickly sent her running back to our group. A Fireball and some Sambuxco were also some interesting accompaniments to the evening. It rained a little on our way home, so we paid for a taxi and each chipped in a pound. Chatted a little at Mel's flat, and shortly went to sleep.

The next morning, my bed of pillows on the ground had held together and I felt well rested. Mel had apparently planned an itinerary of things that she wanted to show us, "after the Pride parade, of course". We found a library to print out some future tickets, grabbed a burrito from Mel's favorite Mexican food place (which wasn't half bad and contained some decent guacamole), and lined up by the gate to see the parade. If you have not seen a Pride parade before, it is some standard fun and I recommend. If you have seen one, then I assume you pretty much know what went down. Awkward moments, hilarious moments, and some very happy people.
Afterwards we went back to Mel's flat to grab some stuff and headed out the door again; this time into the rain, and onto the trolley that would take us to "where the BBC lives". There are multiple locations that house departments of the BBC, but the one in Manchester is by far the largest. We did a bit of shopping in the mall and found a great bag of chocolates called "MisShapes", which was definitely detrimental to our health for the next hour or so. We viewed Manchester Stadium from afar, took some pictures with some Doctor Who Daleks and Tardis's, and headed back to town. We went to an all-you-can-eat Chinese place in China Town, and headed home for the last time. Mel introduced us to a show called "The Inbetweeners", which is a very vulgar, yet very hilarious British show. There's three seasons and a movie, too, if you're interested. Mel helped decipher all the British lingo for us, and we learned exactly what a "bell-end" is. Good times.

The next morning I woke up, left her flat in the heart of the city as they were leaving for their Liverpool train, and got on my bus to Glasgow- Scotland!

Then there was some tourism in Cambridge...

The next day at Cambridge was packed with touristy activities.
I went to breakfast with Shreya (Ariel's friend) and grabbed some cheap panini's at the college cafe. We had decided to check out Trinity College, and Queen's College, and the Mathematical Bridge. We separated from each other for her to do some errands and for me to do some more tourist objectives. I wandered into another random college and the Fitzwilliam museum and the Zoology museum and the Archeology museum. I met up with Brooke and her gang around 3pm to go punting. We grabbed some drinks and jumped on the punt.
What came next will be followed in the next post :) Just be sure it includes me ending up wet beneath the orgasm bridge. Yayness

Then there was the Irish bar, David Hasselhoff, the Tate Modern, and getting to Cambridge...

...I made it to the Thames after checking out the Somerset house (where I'm pretty sure Vantage Point was filmed) and saw the skyline 360 view from Waterloo bridge. Breathtaking. London Eye down south, Tate Modern across the water, the Gherkin building in the distance.
I walked across and stepped inside Waterloo station. Grabbed a drink at a cafe inside (SO hot and humid still) and sat down to watch the people shuffling to their trains. A pretty looking girl sat down two seats from me, and I "asked her the time" to start the conversation. She had spent some time in London with some friends and was waiting for a train to take her down near Brighton for a job. She had ordered white wine and received red from the same cafe. It was her 22nd birthday.
I finished my drink and continued through the South End to my hostel. It was called the Dover Castle Hostel and was situation above a bar. I was put on the third floor (which in America would have been the fourth, as their first floor is simply called the "ground floor"). It was still hot. I went downstairs to order the special drinks they had, and soon found out that Cider is very popular here. Definitely a little too sweet compared to what I was expecting.
I decided to walk down to the river walk to see what the Tower Bridge looked like during nighttime. It's beautiful. And I'm pretty sure I saw it for the last time it had the Olympic rings, as they were not there the following day. There was also an exhibition that had been set up called "Perspectives" in which photographs of major traumatic events in the world were displayed. Some of the captions sent shivers up my spine. It contained pictures of starving children, wars, 9/11 images (of the people watching, not the event itself, which were some haunting images), British troops in Iraq, the earthquake in the Philippines, and more. Very cool. There were fountains in the ground which were still on, too, at 2230, and people were still playing in them, partly because it was so warm still. I got my first Guinness in Europe at a pub on my way back to the hostel, watched part of a James Bond film in the lounge, and went to bed.

The next day I decided to do the major touristy things: got my "Oyster Card" to be able to ride the Tube and headed over to the London Eye, Big Ben, St. James Park (filled with birds and pelicans), Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Hyde Park (which was filled with monuments and stuff still set up from the Olympics), the official Olympic shop, and Harrod's (the largest shopping store in London, possibly the Empire). Harrod's was awesome, as was when I was 11. I found the HoverDisc thing I had when I was a kid, clothes that I could possibly never afford, and got myself lost. Very fun. I stopped by the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square, saw some Rembrandt's and had my picture taken with the lion statues.
My next stop was SoHo and Chinatown, where I spent most of the rest of the day. There was the M&M store which was four stories high, and the premiere of Keith Lemon (a British comedian with a reputation that looks like a rehashed version of Austin Powers) which brought David Hasselhoff and some well known British stars that the two teens standing next to me on the fence were raving about. I headed back to the hostel to grab some pants and a decent shirt, then went back to SoHo to see The Bourne Legacy at what was apparently a really nice theatre. I got to choose between salty and sweet popcorn, which was cool. I didn't get popcorn. There was also beers, wines, and spirits to choose from. I didn't get alcohol. I bought an orange Fanta and took my seat in the theatre (which had three tiers of seating!).
After the movie I wandered into Chinatown, where I found a nice, three story Irish bar (bottom floor: seating/bar, second floor: dancefloor/ bar/ live rock band playing some awesome classics from late 90s and early 2000s, and the third floor was a top floor open balcony) which was all overrun with some Australians and some French girls. That was entertaining for a while. I stopped by the Underground to head back to the South End, but Tube was apparently done for the day. I took a big red bus home and crashed.

The next morning I missed breakfast at the hostel, which was alright, I needed the sleep. I grabbed breakfast at a grocery store and enjoyed it at the RiverWalk. It was a really pleasant morning. I had all my gear with me, but when I stopped into the Tate Modern I was able to check my bags. The Tate Modern is filled with (imagine this) REALLY modern art. I have been waiting for the day I would see a pile of feces on a pedestal and be told it was art. Tuesday, the 21st of August, 2012, at about 11am, was that fateful day.
I took the Tube over to the Tower of London and wandered around the grounds a bit, then headed over to the station to be taken by the bus. I missed the first bus, so had to take the Underground to the other station, but I caught the bus eventually. Wound up in Cambridge, walked around some more after some more confusion, but eventually made it to Brooke's place. We grabbed a (fantastic) burger from the "Trailer of Life" and met up with some people at the canal for some beers. Had a nice chat about life at Cambridge, the work they had done, and what it's like to be going home soon (which was kindof weird). Came back to her place and crashed on her floor. :) Slept rather well.

More on Cambridge to come later! :) Goodnight everyone

Then there was sleeping in the Brussels train station...

I have reached Cambridge and I am currently using my friend Brooke's computer in her dorm at Pembroke University. I won't be able to cover everything right now- I'm on my way to bed- but we'll see what I can post for now to tide you guys over for a bit.
I spent the last night in Utrecht at my friends Josh and Brian's place near the Wall at the UCU campus. The last day in Utrecht comprised almost solely of getting bus tickets, hostel reservations, and finding a place to print it all. When it was all completed, I decided to head back to De Beurs (an outdoor cafe in the city center) for a beer and london trip planning. The people next to me started talking about Salsa, which caught my ear. I found a place to go for some latin ballroom! Time to meet some locals when I get back from this two week trip.
When it was almost time for my train to come, I headed over to the train station, only to find that it had been cancelled. I searched the board for the next train leaving for Rotterdam (which I realized later was the LAST possible option), and it was sitting at the station at that moment. I ran to the platform and hopped on the train. I had a different ticket, on a different train, but was determined to get to the Bruxelles-Midi train station.
No one checked the tickets, though I'm sure it would have been fine anyways. I arrived in Rotterdam twenty minutes before originally planned, which is a blessing because the terminal my next train was going to leave from had been switched. This notification was in Dutch, so I had to ask a few people what it meant, but I made it on the correct train this time, heading to Bruxelles-Midi.
I arrived in Brussels at 00:42 and was hoping to find another wayward traveller spending the night in the station that I might be able to hang out with. And no problem- the place was nearly crowded with backpackers; or, at least the benches were. The first group I heard speaking English I asked for directions, and I soon found out that I was definitely in the right place. The group was made of two German girls (age 24 and 25), a French guy (21), and a guy from New York (23). I know the guy from New York was named Joe, and haven't a clue about the rest. We chatted about good horrible movies (such as Tremors, Croctopus, Dale & Tucker vs Evil, etc.) for a while. Something about a shark eating a plane in flight. Good times. We also touched on EU/USA politics, travel plans, language acquisition, and more. The German girls were studying archeology and received permission to do a dig in England for two weeks. Something about the design of houses from centuries before our time; a thesis project. Joe was on the last leg of his two-month excursion of Europe, and he would fly home shortly after exploring England. Additionally, Joe really wanted to say that in his life he had been slapped with a black leather glove by a French guy cursing in French. So that happened, and the picture is on its way. We fell asleep around 4, and woke up around 5:30, fending off homeless people along the way. We all went through customs to the Eurostar (except the French guy), got on the train, and woke up at Pancras station.
I withdrew some money, found a map, and departed from the station in search of the British Museum. I had been there when I was 11, but I wanted to remember and appreciate it this time around. So I spent hours in there, covering everything I could. The place is amazing and I highly recommend to anyone who visits London. I just... I really like that place. Check it out.
After the museum I wandered towards the Thames, walking down streets I didn't know the names of, but finding street performers and large crowds and little shops and large malls and telephone booths and beautiful architecture. My ultimate goal was to reach my hostel on the other side of the city, but the pure joy in seeing the streets packed with the hustle and bustle of tourists was intoxicating. So I just kept walking, with my backpack strapped on.
On that note, this will be an intermission. I'm really tired now. Goodnight everyone, I'll pick this up again later :)

Then there was the last day of DCL...

I woke up this morning with a slight headache. Last night was pretty crazy at the Wall. Since we did our final on Thursday, our instructor Matte decided to join us that night for drinks at the University College Utrecht (UCU) campus for our home-made "graduation" party at "the Wall" (where some of the people from UCEAP are living this year). It was just some good old fashioned college bonding over a drink or two... or three...
But enough about that.
After a crazy, hectic morning of packing and moving our stuff down to the Utrecht Summer School office on Janskerkhof (pronounced "Yains-kair-koff", and don't forget to roll your R's), we headed over to the Dom Tower to climb to the top. It's the highest church tower of the entire Netherlands, and we were able to see Amsterdam from the top. It's about 450 steps to get up there, so it was definitely our morning workout. I got to bang one of the bells with a sledgehammer inside, too! ...I think there's a picture of that somewhere. I'll try and find it.
After Dom Tower we went back to Broer's for final drinks. Everyone was allowed two drinks paid for by them. I was not quite in the mood for beer yet, similar to a number of other people, and thus Chocomelk (chocolate milk) ended up being the drink of choice for us college kids. And as we all know, Chocomelk is the only obvious alternative to beer or wine, of course.
Afterwards, Josh, Jun, and I went over to HEMA (the Dutch version of Target) for a cheap lunch of Turkish pizza and mustard soup, and shortly went back to Josh's place with Michael to drop off some luggage.
I slept for three hours this afternoon at Josh's place, and it was glorious.
We started to teach Michael how to ride a bike! ...which can only go so well for the first day. But it went alright- he was able to go by himself for at least fifteen feet until he hit grass. It's a work in progress. We determined that swimming and biking are two skills every child should learn growing up. Yes, Michael knows how to swim.
I went downtown with Erin, Joey, and Katrina for a drink in Neude Square (Nyoo-deh Square) in the evening, and we people watched and talked about animal genetics and travel plans and complained about the administration people and it was a very pleasant evening for everyone. Came back to UCU, stopped by the Wall to say hi (they were all planning their trip to Belgium this weekend) and now finishing up this blog post.
I have still not posted pictures to this blog, I apologize. For now I have been using Facebook to dump all my pictures into, so I hope everyone has had a chance to see a couple on my page.
It's really humid here, I feel like I've been dropped off in Florida. It's supposed to be something like 95 degrees Fahrenheit here over the weekend, and there's so much water in the air I'm sticking to anything that feels like leather. Long story short: it's hot and it's muggy. But my god it's beautiful :)
By the way, I have my housing organized for the first full week in England. Transportation is another story, but it'll happen. Via CouchSurfing, I've made contact with a host in Scotland near this castle: http://www.rampantscotland.com/castles/blcastles_donan.htm and this bridge: http://www.lochalsh.co.uk/skye_bridge.shtml , which means I cannot wait to see what else the Scots have to offer. I am getting very anxious for tomorrow's train ride to London.
More on that later.
Wish me luck!