OKAY! So I’m home. This is my last batch of photos, and likely the last post to this blog for awhile. School starts next week, and tomorrow I have my first actual responsibilities. Yike. So here we go.

Not much to say.

I didn’t mess up anything on my return. I got up at 4:30 or so in Amsterdam, got a cab to the train station, got on a train to Brussels, got on another train in Brussels which stopped in France, then went through the Chunnel to London. It went so smoothly, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I got into London before 11 am, so I got off the train at a random stop, wandered around, had a super expensive lunch, got back on the train and went to the airport. Had a pleasant time there, then boarded my plane, came to America! A bus, a train, and a short walk and I’m home.

My apartment was just as I left it, except for a couple piles of mail my friends had collected for me. So now I’m home, and that was that.

Some people would take this opportunity to reflect on the summer, discuss Estonian language and culture and travelling and trains and whatnot, but I’ve got laundry to do and groceries to buy, so Imma peace out. Last photos.

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I’m now writing from the comfort of my local coffee shop in DC. When I say coffeeshop, I mean a place where they sell coffee and baked goods. This is distinct from the meaning of coffee shop in Amsterdam, which is annoying. Seriously, when you just want a cup of coffee and maybe a croissant, you can go pretty much anywhere but a coffee shop.

I went to the Netherlands on Sunday morning. I had to take several trains, and I got on the wrong train two times, so what should have been a 4 hour journey turned into almost 5 hours. Which is to say, travelling by train in the Netherlands is quite nice, even when you’re a sleepy idiot.

I was planning on going to a music fest to see my friends perform, so I got to this little town, then took a bus to the festival grounds. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a place to put my luggage (of course- why would there be?) so I went back to town to see if the train station had lockers. It didn’t, because it was a tiny little town. So I didn’t get to go to the festival, but I actually had a pleasant time in this little town, just wandering around, looking at more old stuff, etc. Sunday night I went to Amersfoort, which seems to be a cute little suburb of Amsterdam. Really nice. Man, do they love their bikes. I should have gone to Amsterdam that night, but I wasn’t eager to get back into a crazy big city again, so I just spent another day relaxing. It was pleasant, and it got me nice and relaxed for a day in Amsterdam.

And Amsterdam. Very pretty city, but… well, as I mentioned the other day, Amsterdam… well, I don’t know.
it’s very tourist friendly, especially if the tourists want to spend a lot on hotels/hostels, or smoke weed, etc.. but.. well, I guess I wasn’t as stoked on it as I might have been. Maybe I should have visited it at the start of my trip, but I was pretty much over slowly walking through crowded streets, etc. Etc, etc, etc. So I’ll have to go back to Amsterdam sometime when I’m not already kinda done with travelling. I slept at a hostel, nice except for its disgusting bathrooms, got up at 4 something on Wednesday morning and left.

Okay dudes, where were we? Right. We arrived in Hamburg on Saturday morning, pretty much totally exhausted. The first thing I decided on was to get one of those hop on-hop off bus tickets. I thought it would be like my own personal taxi. That sort of worked out, except the English translation of the tour definitely lacked. The guide would go on and on in German, continually interrupted by applause. This would be followed by a ten word English explanation. Like “Deutsche Deutsche Deutsche Deutsche Deutsche Deutsche Deutsche” . “English.” . (Am I even spelling that right?)

Oh well. I got off the train the first time in a neighborhood called St. Pauli. You know, like the girl? Well as far as I could tell, a St. Pauli girl is a stripper or a prostitute, cause this neighborhood made the worst parts of Nevada look classy. Yikes. Weirdly, just a block or two off the main drag, there were cool record stores, cafes, ice creamshops, etc. I stopped in for breakfast at a place. Then I ate breakfast. Good times.

I wandered around a fair amount, but the battery on my camera died, so I didn’t get to take as many photos of this part as I would have liked. Then I found a hostel that, though it didn’t have any vacant rooms, let me take a shower and freshen up. That saved me. I got back on the bus, toured around some more, and it was good. I kept trying to find a hostel that had an open room, but there was only one that was rather far away and like 80 euros. Gross.

So.. I think I’m forgetting something. Oh well. I left Hamburg late that night, or early the next morning, depending on whether your glass is half full or half empty. Luckily, I got some half-bad photos to share.

Yo. So it always happens that I forget to post for a few days, then I want to get a thousand posts done all at once, and then I quickly lose patience, and then quality declines, profits slump, and layoffs are inevitable. So it goes.

Thursday I went on a walking tour, which was free and nice. Like I said, Berlin is not a small city, so I kinda think I may have preferred a bus tour. The guide was great, so that was nice, but we really only saw a couple places. The gate, Gendarmenmarkt, a couple memorials, the parking lot above Hitler’s bunker, Checkpoint Chuck, etc. Don’t worry, there are pictures.

I also went to the Bauhaus museum, which had a wide selection of really quite boring kitchen chairs on display, yet was still somehow interesting. I also checked out the German history museum, which is so, so, so big. So big. It was cool though, especially, I think, because the whole idea of “Germany” is relatively recent, it was fun to see how it developed throughout the centuries and kingdoms, etc. It was appropriate gigantic for its subject, but I think I’d prefer a book-lengthed museum as opposed to this, a set-of-encyclopedias-lengthed museum.

Friday night I went out with friends of mine, which is kinda funny, cause we’ll both be back at school next week and it won’t be notable if we hang out. I was planning on spending another couple days in Berlin, but I started to realize how short my trip is, so I decided to hit the road and go to Hamburg. So we’ll catch up with myself in Hamburg some time tomorrow.

Have you noticed that I’m a little bit behind in my updating? Sorry. It’s been a super fun week though, which has led to me not being so enthusiastic about sitting computerwise and typing. So, where were me?

Ah yes. Berlin. I got there on Tuesday afternoon. When I arrived, I realized I had no idea about anything about Berlin. At all. Like, is the airport near town or like 50 kilometers away? Is there a train, or is it a bus city? What’s nice? What’s terrible? Luckily, using the airport wifi and some friends who respond to e-mail quickly, I got some hostel recommendations, and I was soon on my way to town! Hooray!

I’ve got two friends in Berlin this summer, and I was able to meet up with one of them that night. We went out to a handful of cool bars, though I don’t remember their names or where they were. That’s not a being drunk thing, that’s a Berlin is a giant city and I wasn’t really paying attention thing.

Speaking of which, Berlin is a giant city! Previously, every city I’d visited has been tiny. If something looks really far on a map, it’s probably a ten minute walk. In Berlin, if something looks really close, it’s probably a twenty minute walk and two train stations. That’s what happens when you finally get to a normal sized city though. Anyhow, Wednesday was a little bit lame. I got up late, which was fine, and then I spent most of the day doing laundry. Kind of a silly way to spend limited time in a new city, but it had to be done. Now I don’t have to do it again until I’m back in my own home which, as I write this, is technically tomorrow. Wow.