but now, a few thousand feet above the english channel, i'm inside an aer lingus flight with two of my closest friends headed to dublin after spending the best week ever in western europe.
we spent the first night in paris in this sheik hotel called the 'le mondrien'. it was nice but we didnt spend much time inside. we walked around the city, played typical tourists while taking countless pictures of the same sites you see on your friends facebook page. we made our way back to the hotel, showered and quickly headed to the eiffel tower for some lambrusco time. as soon as it got dark, the eiffel tower went paparazzi. hundreds of sparkling lights lit up the massive A as we zipped our sweet wine.
the dazzling light show went on on every top of the hour. the next morning we walked to the train station where we caught our train to brussels.
from what i gathered over the years, brussels was not a happening place to be. but o contrare, we was wrong! the city has a unique vibe, one which i cant quite fully describe. normally a city looks similar to others but i cant think of a city to compare belgium with.
the belgian people were extremely friendly, but this might have been due to the fresh rudeness the french had given us the day before.
we stayed in a neat hostel next to the 'godiva' chocolate factory. we also knew coming into to belgium about their famous beers along with the renown monasteries that produced them. as the night progressed, we stumbled into the delirium cafe/bar, which was a three-level cave. it was there where i discovered 'delirium's' nocturnum. if you haven't tried it, do so. it has such an interesting flavor, one that i can only describe as sweet, dark, and refreshing. i usually go for the bitter side of brew, but the nocturnum won me over.
we pretty much did the same the next day.
from brussels we rode the train up to amsterdam where i had amazing time as well. at first, walking outside the train station was a bit overwhelming. all you see is people on their bikes and one false move can have you laying in a hospital. we walked for about thirty minutes looking for the 'flying pig' hostel. we finally found it, and off we were. we bought some of the native brew 'amstel' , some bread, cheese, turkey, then headed to vondolf park. everyone was out, the day was sunny and breezy; the day: perfect.
the next day we rented bikes and pretty much did the same as before. as we rode our bikes through small streets over the canals we rode right into the outskirts of the red light district, which was not what i thought it was going to be. i found it to be a very organized operation. people walked towards the ladies behind the glass, prices were whispered to each other, and many transactions were done.
a few hours later and we arrived in the emerald island.
once again the sky was open with blue skies and warm weather. we tossed our bags in our hostel and once again we took to the streets. andy and i had already been to ireland the year before, but we primarily stayed on the south side of the river leffey. on this trip we stayed on the north side, which isn't as touristee as the south. we went on a quest to find a store called 'penney's' in order to buy towel. our hostel was charging 6 euro but the kind lad at reception told us that we could buy cheaper ones, which we did. along the ways, i couldn't resist to stop at a kebab shop. later that night, we walked on over to temple bar where we had some guinness and listened to some traditional irish folk.
we ended the night with 'papa johns' pizza.
the next day was pretty uneventful. we did the 'john jameson' tour, which was very informative and fun.
it began to rain so we spent some time inside the hostel. you could tell in our gazes that we were tired. we found a place to eat and from there we stopped by for some souvenirs. sleep came next.
now, like many time before, i'm overlooking the atlantic thinking to myself what comes next.
