Well, I can’t say this was unexpected. As the old quote goes, “what goes up must come down,” or, in my case, “who goes to Europe must eventually leave it.” Yes, yesterday, August 22nd, I returned to Canada after exactly 367 days in Europe. During this time I visited 18 countries and over 50 cities, all the while spending quality time in Madrid and living like a local.
It was, by far, the best, most fulfilling year of my life, but more on that later. This blog post is not a reflection on the year, that will come in a future post, here I simply want to tell you about my last week of traveling, and about the two new countries that I had the pleasure of discovering.
After spending the night at the airport in Rome after leaving Italy, I landed in Brussels but took a train directly to Bruges. It’s funny, Belgium is so small (though bigger than Slovenia) that Bruges, another city entirely, is just over an hour away from the capital, Brussels, which is smack in the center of the country. Hell, in Montreal Bruges could even be a suburb of Montreal and you’d find people commuting in from there every morning. But no, not in Belgium, their population of nearly 11 million people is crammed into a space a lot smaller than Canada, so there is actually a life and jobs in Bruges. It’s interesting, observing how life unfolds in these smaller countries.
So Bruges. I was first inspired to go to Bruges when I watched a movie, ‘In Bruges,’ about a year earlier. The movie was alright, but it was entirely filmed in Bruges and the city was even referred to in the film as a ‘fairy tale city,’ so, naturally, I was in Belgium, I would be forever regretful to not have gone check it out. So I did.
A fairy tale, perhaps not, but this city was overrun with tourists, and for a reason! First off, the two main squares were simply stunning!
And the rest of the city was not too shabby either.
I particularly loved the architecture, which resembled the typical Dutch architecture, and it kind of makes sense, even though I was in Belgium I was in the Flemish part of the country, and everyone was speaking Dutch and not a word of French. The typical architecture is essentially the ‘staircase-style’ roofs on the houses, anyways it was really interesting.
Bruges didn’t take too long to visit, and that day I had already booked a hostel in Ghent, so off to Ghent I went. Ghent is in between Bruges and Brussels, about half an hour from both, and is smaller than Bruges with a more compact historic center, but very pretty nonetheless!
The Ducth-style architecture here was a lot less pronounced, kind of like a middle-ground between Dutch and French architecture, but it was also a really cute city and well worth a visit.
Off to Brussels.
The first thing I noticed about this city was how small it is. Now, I’m not suggesting by any means that Brussels is small, it’s Belgium’s biggest city and is pretty big, however I expected it to be even bigger, and it wasn’t. What I’m basically saying here is that the historical center, the area worth visiting, isn’t huge and can be seen within a few hours. The main square in Brussels, however, is one of the most impressive I have ever seen.
Of course, while in Brussels I had to go check out the little statue of the Mannekin Pis, a little boy pissing that somehow attracts a lot of tourists. Samo was laughing at it and even he refused to take a picture, but I enjoyed seeing this historic statue (it’s the one on the left).
The rest of the city ain’t too shabby either.
And, of course, while in Brussels you must go check out the Atomium. I was left incredibly impressed by the grandeur of this famous monument, which is apparently one of the most visited in all of Europe. And, of course, we checked out the neighboring park with cute architecture as well.
Finally, it was time to leave Belgium and head to my final new country, the Netherlands and Amsterdam. But, of course, let’s not forget all the delicious Belgian food that I ate, including fries, moules et frites, waffles, lots of chocolate and, of course, Belgian beer!
Off to Amsterdam!
I Amsterdam. Yeah… it would have been cooler to see without ALL THESE TOURISTS, but it was cool nonetheless. I mean, there was even A LINEUP to climb on top of the letters.
In all honesty though, Amsterdam was AMAZING. They call it the ‘Venice of the North,’ and rightfully so. The city is kind of like a ‘partial-Venice’ in the sense that canals flow through the entire city but there are enough streets and pedestrian walking areas that cars can still pass. It’s an interesting dynamic. Also, the city is structured in the form of a wave/ripple effect. There’s the centre of the city by the water, and then the city slowly expands outwards, each section split off by a canal. Especially walking across the bridges was really impressive.
Of course, you’ll never find more typical Dutch architecture than in the capital of the Netherlands.
And it’s along the way we hit up a few museums… like the Hash and Sex Museums..
Sex is obviously a central theme in Amsterdam. In fact, even the Amsterdam flag (pictured above) is sexual, essentially featuring two red stripes with a black stripe in the middle with three white X’s on it, you can’t get more sexual than that.
And on that note, it’s time to talk about the nightlife and the Red Light District. So, I knew that prostitution was legal in the Netherlands for a while, this is no secret to anyone, but seeing the Red Light District first hand was actually a really crazy experience. First off, the city takes on a completely different tone at night. Everywhere you walk there is an unavoidable stench of weed, of course, since it’s legal, and the Red Light District is like the hotspot of everything.
So immediately once you step onto the street, all the windows are illuminated, in red of course, and there are prostitutes at every window. Usually behind the prostitutes there would be a door half open featuring a bedroom and a bed. I read up a little bit about prostitution culture there in Amsterdam because I was curious, and learned that most of the prostitutes are white and the prostitutes there are actually more attractive than prostitutes elsewhere because since it’s regulated it’s a more attractive market for them. White prostitutes, apparently, go for around €50 for 15 minutes, whereas African-American ones go for a little cheaper, around €30 for 15 minutes, price increasing by this amount every additional 15 minutes. And, given this, men were lining up and handing over crisp €50 banknotes for the more attractive prostitutes. You really have to wonder how many clients they attract per evening, and how regulated this business really is though.
Also, it has to be said that there were no male prostitutes at all, perhaps there were in some hidden corners of the city, but, as probably expected, the main attraction was, of course, the women.
Ok, enough about prostitution, let’s move on to another huge Amsterdam phenomenon: biking.
You almost get the sense that there are more bikes than people in this city. Everywhere you looked there are people on bikes, and there are designated bike lanes on every single street without exception. You’d be hard-pressed to find a pole, lamppost or railing without a bike locked onto it, and I get the feeling that bike thefts are actually pretty high in this city.
Who could criticize a city where everyone gets their fair share of exercise, however. And, of course, when in Amsterdam, do as the Amsterdamians do… So Samo and I decided to rent a bike on our last day in Amsterdam, and it was really cheap too, €7.50 for 24 hours.
After quickly touring the city by bike, we set out to reach bigger and better heights, so naturally we decided to venture 25km from the city to the Dutch beach, which is along the English Channel.
We got lost along the way, however, and thus encountered some cute small villages, some typical Dutch windmills and a really impressive town called Haarlem. This epitomizes my year abroad: it’s all about the journey, not the destination.
24km later (but probably longer since we got lost), we finally arrived at the beach, bodies, especially legs, aching beyond belief, but totally worth the journey, this time for the destination.
Not the prettiest beach I’ve seen all year, and the water was probably really cold, but hey, we made it and there was some pride in that!
Of course, at this point it was time to go all the way back to Amsterdam. I was in so much pain when we got back, but it was a day extremely well spent, and I felt like I must have been in pretty good shape if I managed 50km by bike without any real difficulty.
After Amsterdam, it was back to Brussels for my final 24 hours in Europe.
We took advantage to sightsee and visit some of the stuff I’d missed during my first visit.
And, in the evening it was time to go sample some Belgian chocolate and some Belgian beer, before finally the next morning settling for my final European cappuccino.
Everything was delicious of course.
And thus ended my year abroad. Off I went to the airport, after a heartfelt goodbye with Samo. And, after having some trouble getting on the plane since apparently I look nothing like my passport picture on my Canadia passport, once I finally got on it was goodbye Europe and, well, I’m back in Montreal.
It was an amazing journey, and when I look back on it today, just a mere four days after returning, everything, just everything, was perfect, and I regret ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. But more on that in the next post.
Dan.
Studying Abroad in Madrid!! 