It was definitely exciting to come back to land at the Ottawa airport and know exactly where I would be sleeping that night. Nothing beats knowing precisely where and how you are going to get to the place you will be sleeping later that night. Bliss. 

Anyway, here are some of my favourite photos/moments from across the pond:

Yeah, there’s lots. I think I uploaded over 1,250 photos to flickr. Bwhaha.

Honestly, in my Paris hostel I saw the two button system again and genuinely thought that there must be some pretty blatant design flaw with the idea of a two button flush system. After the deed is done, which do you press? Presented with such confusion I always went for the bigger of the two buttons (occasionally trying out the smaller one). However, I noticed that when I pressed the smaller one, generally both buttons depressed (that’s the case in this London hostel). In such a case it seems like an aesthetic choice to split the buttons up — so clearly there’s a design issue!

I figured that in my last two days outside of Canada I’d google the matter and was quite surprised to learn that the button size corresponds to the amount of water used with the flush. Big problem with that logic: given the potential inconsistencies between flush mechanism designs, do you press the large button because it’s bigger (thus more important) or because it symbolizes more water? It’s ambiguous!

What can you say about Amsterdam that is SFW?

I went on a nice free tour of the city today. The group of about 20 of us walked through the city, learning about the history and tolerance and whatnot. Very fascinating stuff. For example, did you know that there’s a kindergarten school in the red light district? Yes, neither did I. The window ladies were also there in all their glory. Our tour went by in the afternoon so there were quite a few empty windows. Not that I’m complaining. It’s all so very different, that’s for sure!

Oh, then there’s the abundant coffeeshops and smartshops, which are pretty much everywhere. Interestingly a scene from Oceans 11 or 12 (the remake) was shot in one of them and the alley outside it. Cool beans, for sure.

Peeing in the streets has also been a problem it seems, so some corners contain ‘urine deflectors’. At some point there was apparently an electrified fence in one corner. There’s also open-air urinals (our tour group stopped in front of one of them as there was a guy inside one. Ahaha. The city apparently also puts up porta-pottys every Friday for people to use over the weekend.

The buildings are extremely fascinating since most are slanting left/right and some of them are intentionally designed to lean forward. The idea of making a building lean forward seemed strange until it was pointed out that there were hooks on the front of pretty much every house in the city. The idea is to use some rope, put it around the hook (probably with some kind of pulley) and then hoist the item in question into your house. This has more to do with how steep and narrow stairs are here than anything else. It’s RIDICULOUS how steep the stairs to get to the first floor of our hostel are.

Maybe it’s just the time of year, but the weather is insane!! It will rain for 5 minutes, go sunny and hot, go cloudy and chilly. Then there’s the strong wind that appears to be omnipresent. Makes holding a map quite challenging, but frankly so far Amsterdam has been the easiest city to get around. The one thing I am slowly getting used to is paying far more attention while crossing streets. Compared to Ottawa, there’s certainly a lot more going on and there’s a lot less space on sidewalks/streets. Most streets are one way, but it’s still a good idea to check both ways for cyclists, otherwise there’s mopeds/scooters, not to mention cars and the trams. Agh. Sidewalks tend to be pretty nondescript and blend in with the street and bicycle paths. It’s madness!

I had to buy a new belt today. My other one became all frayed and has been doing a very poor job of keeping my pants up. That’s neither here nor there, though.

C’YA.

Last night we headed on over to ‘Delirium’, a bar claiming to have 2004 beers from around the world. We go in and because it was so empty I grew a bit skeptical, but we sat down at the bar — asked for the menu. The menu they gave was at least 20 pages long or so, but they dedicated a page to a beer. Then we thought that maybe at one point they had 2004 beers in the place. It all seemed odd. 

Then, just for kicks I asked if they had any Canadian beer. That’s when I found out that we were on the wrong floor. D’oh! This floor had 20 or so taps, the basement had fewer taps, many more bottles. It was almost packed down there. 

I continued my quest for a Canadian beer though, and eventually figured out that they had Canadian. Asked for it (I KNOW) and the guy said it would be 10 euros for a bottle. AHAHA. Never in my life would I have expected to see a bottle of Canadian for $16.00 (CAD). I did not buy it.

The basement menu was significantly longer than the one on the first floor. It looked very long. Ah, what else — there was 1L of some beer for 31 Euros, which was pretty insane. 

Shawn, I think you must visit Delirium. 

On an unrelated note, there’s 4 Japanese dudes in this dorm room who seem to have no notion of the concept of being quiet while others sleep. Sucks to all the people out there who put things in plastic bags or those vacuum bags and have to rifle through them between 8:00 and 9:30. Zippers are bad too, but what can you do about those.

THE LUFTHANSA BUS WENT ON AN AUTOBAHN. Most of the way there was a 100/120 speed limit, but every now and then (usually when there were no exits coming up) there was no speed limit. Still, I think buses have stickers on the back of them that say they don’t go faster than 80-100. Ours seemed to be quite speedy, though.

This was after getting 4h of sleep, at most, at the hostel. Two Australian girls arrived at midnight or so and there was some confusion because our room seemed overbooked. Luckily, it wasn’t — still — it meant going to bed at midnight and getting up at 4am. Aha. Fun stuff. 

Flight to Brussels wasn’t that bad. Descending still messes with my ears, but that passes not long after landing. 

The hostel we’re staying at is very modern, clean, nice. Has free wifi — i’ve got 5 bars of strength this time — though the wifi station is on the other side of the wall behind me, so that makes sense. We’re in a 16bed dorm, though — which I would not do again, given the choice. People are constantly coming and going (ESPECIALLY BETWEEN 7:00am-10:00am), people go to bed early so lights are out fast. Kind of lame, but there is a common area near the main foyer. 

SO. Brussels. Not so impressed with Brussels at the moment. It’s got an interesting blend of modern, old, and derelict architecture that doesn’t quite jive with me. Has some very interesting looking streets though. For instance, there is this one narrow street in particular covered in restaurants on both sides. Tables on both sides, waiters or something at each restaurant trying to get you into their restaurant. Very different/hectic/crazy.

There also appears to be a pretty apparent income gap. Brussels definitely seems to have rougher parts of town, far more homeless people than the only other places I have been: London/Munich. Interestingly, I feel like there are more homeless people in Ottawa than here. Haha, but unlike Munich I haven’t seen any homeless people bathing in fountains (yet). 

It’s Sunday and apparently everything in Brussels is closed. We’ll find out later when we head out, but yeah — this might not be an exciting day. Especially since it’s raining, too. Agh!!