Central Europe

Well, I know that I`ve been around free internet for this must be my
second week now, but I just now have had enough time to sit down and
writ the latest instalment of my travels. Enjoy.

We left off in Brussels, where I was scurrying about trying to attempt
at all my Visas and whatnot. Finally I caved to the Chinese Consulate
and left my passport there for a week.

Leaving Brussels I acompanied two other Americans, not from the U.S.,
but one from Canada and one from Mexico. (We got into many long
conversations/fights about what an "American" is.) We headed to Brugge
where each and everyone of us fell in love with the beuty of the city
in a matter of minutes. We spent a good bit of time just wandering
around the city, enjoying the general atmosphere and such. While there
we met up with another Canadian, and an Aussie. Our rag-tag team of
international travelers spent pretty much all our time together,
sitting in the many parks and bars, and touring the brewery and city,
as we spent our days in the fine Belgian city. My last day there I met
a American couple (from the states) and had a good time just chilling
with some fellow seasoned travelers, even if my journey has not even
reached half of theirs as of yet.

From Brugge I headed up to Holland, Leiden to me a bit more precise,
to meet up with my much heard of cousin, Otto. He treated me to a
great time while I was there, even while he worked at his job he still
found a little bit of time to show me around a bit of The Netherlands,
and took me to the Worlds largest collection of flowers, and a place
filled with small replicas of prominant Dutch buildings. While staying
with Otto, I took several day trips to the infamous city of Amsterdam.
While I did not partake in the local "herbs". I still had a great time
looking around the city, seeing things such as the Anne Frank House,
the Van Gough Museum, and the Heineken Experience. My stay in Holland
was great and as much as I liked it, exploring the small nation will
have to wait for another visit.

Straight from Lieden I made my way back to Brussels to retrieve my
passport, and newly acquired Chinese visa. The first leg went
flawlessly, made it to Brussels at the desired time and went on my
way. The public transport leg to the actual consulate went quite under
desired expectations, with it taking me almost an hour to get to the
consulate, due to slow trams, and delayed metero trains. Once I picked
up my passport I had no desire to even attempt to use the public
transport to get to a station I didn`t even know the location of and
hailed a cab. After running with my 20 kilo pack on, I doubt I was the
nicest smelling passenger for the driver, and was reassured of this as
he "sampled" the cologne he just bought while at several traffic
lights. The cab ride put me back some money, but it was well worth it
since by the time I made it to the train station I had only a matter
of mins to find the train and get on. From there it went thankfully
uneventful, from Cologne to Hamburg I had to sand due to my lack of
reservation, and then from Hamburg up to Arhus I had a booth all to
myself for the majority of the journey.

The days in Arhus were enjoyed with the super cool friend of my
sisters, Alex. I worked for her parents to save up all the money for
this trip and it was quite entertaining to realize how small this
world actually is. She`s lived in Arhus for the last 9 months and goes
back home in two more, she`s on an exchange program for school. While
I was there my mum had sent over several relief items, mainly birthday
preasents, but these included, snickers bars, girlscout cookies, and a
home DVD of my baby brother. It was a great place to relax and enjoy
myself a little without the worry of traveling and sight-seeing.

From Arhus I headed to the Danish capital of Copenhagen, there I met
up with Alex`s boyfriend Thomas, who, although he had a tiny 1.5 room
flat, was more then accomodating. It was good, I spent most of my time
there looking around the city, getting back into some of those
standard traveling procedures like hitting up 2 or three museums in a
day, and enjoying parks to the full extent to watch a little bit of
the day go by.

I left Copenhagen, and headed down to meet up with my good friend
Maude. When I arrived Maude was waiting in the train station, just as
according to plan. Right now Maude is a French teaching assistant
(entertains the children in French) here in Lübeck, Germany. Her
contract terminates in June, and she and I have discused her traveling
with me through Asia, and toward home. I`m staying with her until and
she`s helping me get all the needed vaccines that will let me survive
in the wilds or the south pacific.

Well that`s my life for the last 2 weeks, on Monday afternoon I head
off to Hamburg, where I`ll be for a few nights, then off to the
capital of Berlin, where I can hopefully get my final Visas in order.
Right now it looks like entry to China won`t be until the 20th of
June, actually a month later then desired, but well worth the wait.

Until next time everybody,
=Logan, Deutschland