Scotland

After spending the night in the Budapest airport, I was on my way to Scotland to meet up with Janny!

Day 1: Saturday

Janny lives in a small town on the eastern coast of Scotland called St. Andrews. It is home of the third oldest university in the world, having being founded in 1413 (the only two older universities are Oxford and Cambridge). I met Janny at the local bus station around noon, where we headed to her flat about a 5 minute's walk away. I dropped off my bags and we chatted for a bit before heading out for a quick tour of the town.

When I said St. Andrews was a small town, I really did mean small. It consists of three main parallel roads--North Street (near Janny's flat), Market Street, and South Street. It took us all of 30 minutes to walk around the town. Much like the university, the entire town is incredibly old, accented by the stone houses and crumbling castles that inhabit the place. After the quick tour, we headed to a nearby cafe called The Cottage Kitchen, where one of Janny's friends, Muir, worked. We ordered a sausage roll and a coffee, and hung out for a while catching up and reminiscing on old times.

Afterwards we decided to head back to Janny's flat for a nap. Apparently I was much more tired that I expected, and ended up sleeping like a brick for about 4 hours before being woken by Janny for dinner. We had some pasta and sweet potatoes before heading out to meet up with some friends at a bar. We had a few drinks before deciding to head to the student union pub, where we ordered "classic" drinks called a Pablo. Anyways, I probably had one too many, so after stopping by one of the guys, Alex's, flat, Janny and I made our way home at around 4:00am.


Day 2: Sunday

To treat our hangovers the next day, we decided to take it easy. We got some books and the Sunday paper and headed to some benches that overlooked one of the several beaches around St. Andrews. We sat there for a while, reading and chatting before deciding to grab some food at a burger place that Janny used to work at. From there, we headed back to the flat for a quick nap before heading to the movie theatre around the corner to watch Suicide Squad. It was the worst movie I have ever seen. After struggling through the two hour disaster, we went back to the flat to meet up with Karyn, one of Janny's flatmates who had just gotten back from visiting family in a town about an hour away. We sat around for a while talking, and once it got dark we headed to the beach to do some stargazing. While we had missed the peak of the Perseids meteor show the night before, we were still treated to a nice showing that night, and we lay there for a while marveling at the stars before calling it a night around midnight.


Day 3: Monday

While our original plan for the day was to walk part of the Fife Coastal path (a path that makes its way along the coast of the North Sea, which the kingdom of Fife borders), after we missed the bus we instead to spend our day at the beach. We bought a few snacks and drinks at the grocery store, and headed to the beach to settle in a for a few hours. After a while we joined by a girl named Milan, who hung out for a little bit before she had to go to work. While I did stick my toes in the water to say I had, I spent most of the time just laying out in the mild sun (there is a reason Scottish people are so pale). We headed back to the flat around 4:30 when Karyn was getting off of work.

Janny has a job where she spends a few ours each week with a guy named Ryan who has a mental disability, so while she went to go do that I went to the library to connect to the internet and figure out my game plan for the days after I left Scotland. Karyn met me at the library an hour or so later, and from there we went to go meet up with Janny, Ryan, and a few other friends who were hanging out at a restaurant/bar. We played some Uno and hung out for a while before Janny walked Ryan home and Karyn and I headed back to the flat. At around 1:00am Janny insisted that I watch Trainspotting, a movie about heroine addicts which is set in Scotland. After the movie, we called it a night and went to bed.

Day 4: Tuesday

Going back to our original plan, Janny and I hopped on a bus to Crail to walk part of the Fife coastal path. Once in Crail (which is about 20-30 minutes from St. Andrews), we stopped by a cute little museum that Janny suggested before starting our walk. Our plan was to walk the coastal path from Crail to Anstruther, which was around 4 miles away. The coastal path was absolutely beautiful, and we were treated to an amazing view of the ocean, including the Isle of May, a small island about 4 miles off the coast. We took our time walking the path, soaking in the sun and the sights. At one point we found some great rock formations/caves right next to the path and we took a break to climb around on the rocks and explore them a little. From end to end it took us about two hours to get the Anstruther, where we treated ourselves to a delicious fish and chips (AKA a chippy) meal before catching a bus back to St. Andrews at around 4pm.

Our plan for the night was to host a dinner party at the flat. We bought ingredients for fajitas, told a bunch of friends to come around 9, and started prepping for the dinner. At around 8 we were joined by Grace, Janny’s old roommate who is studying abroad in Russia for a year. While Grace lives in Texas, she had come to St. Andrews about a week and a half before she was supposed to go to Russia to get her visa and see some friends before she leaves.

Shortly after grace arrived more friends started showing up and dinner was served. We hung out in the kitchen for a while before heading out back to the shared courtyard that is connected to the flat. We were out there for a few hours before someone from the hotel that is also connected to the courtyard leaned out of their window and shined a flashlight on us. We didn’t really know what signal was being sent, but we found it best to head back inside. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and chatting. We had a fun conversation about what our Top 5 albums are, which was an incredibly hard list to make. At around 1:00am everyone had headed home (except for Grace who was staying at the flat until she left for Russia) and the four of us called it a night.

Day 5: Wednesday

Janny was scheduled to work all day at the distillery, so Karyn and I had made plans to head to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, a month long arts festival throughout the entire city. Our plan was to meet up with Grace there, who had left early that morning to do some visa stuff. We got to Edinburgh at about 12:30pm after an hour and a half bus ride. Karyn showed me around for a little bit before meeting up with grace a little after 1. From there we roamed around for a while before getting a quick bite to eat. We were planning on going to a comedy show at 6:30, so until then we grabbed some drinks and found a place to sit and chat for a while.

The show was called “Fast Fringe”, where the idea of the show was to get a ton of comics on and off stage quickly. Each comedian would have three minutes for their skit before the next comic would come on. It was a fun show and we got to see around 15 comics in an hour. After the show we met up with Milan and her roommate (who we were going to meet at the show, but they had shown up a bit late), and walked around the city for a little bit. Grace, Karyn, and I wanted to get back to St. Andrews sooner rather than later, so we soon split paths with the others and headed to the bus station. Due to some changing in the bus schedules, we had a bit of a trip getting back, and while we left Edinburgh around 9, we didn’t get to St. Andrews until around midnight. We got back to the flat to find that Janny wasn’t there, so we hung out while we waited for her to get back. When she finally got back about an hour later we stayed up for a little longer to talk, since I would be leaving the next morning.

Day 6: Thursday

I had to wake up bright and early at 8:00am to give myself ample time to pack and print my plane ticket. Janny had generously offered to wake up as well to help me print my ticket, as well as walk me to the bus station afterwards. We got to the station about 20 minutes before the bus arrived, so we were able to have a nice little conversation while we waited. Once the bus arrived, we said our goodbyes and I was off to Glasgow to catch a plane to Amsterdam.


———

Since I have been back in the States, a lot of people have asked me what my favorite part of my trip has been. While yes, Tomorrowland and Lowlands were amazing, and cities like Berlin and Budapest were awesome, I’ve told them that my favorite part was Scotland.

Scotland was just such a refreshing change of pace from everywhere else I went. While all the big cities were unique in their own way, they all had very similar atmospheres to them. St. Andrews, on the other hand, was completely different from anywhere else I was. The small town, full of old stone buildings right along the coast of the North Sea was just incredibly beautiful and relaxing. Not to mention that getting to see Janny and being able to get a glimpse of what her life is like across the pond was just a cherry on top.

So Janny, thanks for showing me around for those few days. I can’t wait to see you in the winter, and hopefully one day I’ll come back to St. Andrews and we can do it all again.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Lots of Places

From Cologne I took a relatively quick bus to Hamburg, where I had found a hostel to stay in for a few days. I arrived at around 6:00pm, and after dropping my bags off and taking a second to collect myself, I headed out to a pizza place that I had found online. What I expected to be the run of the mill pizza ended up being one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten, so if you ever find yourself in Hamburg, definitely go check out Pizza Blande. Anyways, after dinner I decided to take the scenic route back through the nearby red light district. While I was walking, I got practically cornered by some overly aggressive prostitutes, and after I managed to get away I figured that I had seen enough for the night, and beelined back to my hostel.

I didn't really have anything in mind for what I wanted to do while in Hamburg, so the next morning, after buying some cheese and bread, I headed out for a long walk. I ended up in the city center, and roamed around the streets checking out some stores and enjoying the sights. Hamburg is a port city, so I spent a while sitting at some benches enjoying the view of the ocean. After several hours of a mixture of walking and sitting, I headed back to the hostel to make dinner and call it a night.

The next day was Sunday, which meant that there wasn't a lot happening in the city (everything is either closed or on abbreviated hours on Sunday's in Europe). I decided to take a short walk in a nearby park, and then call it an early day to give myself time to plan out the next few days of my trip. I knew that my next stop would be Berlin, and in hopes of saving some money, I wanted to try to replace my stay at a hostel with Couchsurfing, a community based app that offers travelers places to crash for a few nights.

I was lucky enough to come in contact with a guy named Mario, a programmer who was currently living in Berlin. I was planning to stay in Berlin from August 1st through the night of the 4th, and Mario said he could host me for all but the first night. Luckily, there was a cheap hostel literally 20 feet away from Mario's apartment, so I booked a one night stay there until Mario would be available.

I got to Berlin on the afternoon of the 1st, and quickly headed out for a nice meal at a small little French restaurant a few minutes walk from the hostel. Afterwards, I walked around the neighborhood, enjoying the fantastic sunset over the river. Once it got dark, I headed back to my hostel to call it a night.

Mario informed me the next morning that he would be out of the house for work until around dinner time, so I had all day to explore Berlin before meeting up with him. I didn't know exactly what do to, so I spent most of my day walking around the city. Unlike most of the other cities I had been to, Berlin is huge. Most cities have one definite central location, and the further you walk from the center the more residential it becomes. Berlin, on the other hand, was big enough that there isn't one definitive center. The whole time I was walking I kept thinking I had found the center, only to walk further and find another busy area.

After several miles of walking and sightseeing, I decided to head back towards Mario's place a little early to get out of the rain. After a quick exchange of pleasantries and a cup of coffee, Mario informed me that he still had to work for a while, so he didn't have any time to show me around that night. Instead, he suggested I used Couchsurfing 'hangouts' to find some people to go out with for the night. I had nothing better to do, so I decided to give it a try.

I ended up meeting up with two guys, Ninji and Pjotr. Ninji was originally from China, but moved to the USA to go to college at Dartmouth, and then moved to Berlin to teach Dartmouth study abroad students German. Pjotr had lived in Amsterdam his whole life, and had managed to get a week or two off from his summer job to do some impromptu traveling. We met at a bar that Ninji had suggested since it was surrounded by a lot of nice nightlife. After a quick drink, we headed to another bar that was one of Ninji's favorites.

This bar was actually a wine bar with one of the most interesting business plans I had ever heard of. The idea was that you paid €2 ($2.20) at the door for a glass, and then you have unlimited access to self-serve wine after that. Once you leave, you return the glass and pay what you think is a reasonable price. I have no idea how a business like that could stay open for long, but I love the idea. Unfortunately, the bar was so busy (on a Monday night!) that they had run out of glasses, so we couldn't get in.

We headed back out down a street that was littered with bars, and decided to make a stop at a döner place for a quick bite to eat. Döner is basically a lamb kebab, and is popular German drunk food since it is cheap, quick, and delicious. After our meal, we headed to a bar that Pjotr had heard of.

The bar was rasta themed, and was on the shore of the river. After buying our drinks, we found a nice place to sit near the river, and chatted for a while before deciding to call it a night. Ninji was busy the next few days, but Pjotr and I had nothing really planned, so we exchanged contact info so we could hang out the next day.

The following morning I got in contact with Pjotr to see what we should do for the day. He wanted to go visit some museums, but first had to find a new place to sleep for the night, since he had only booked one night at the hostel he was at. We agreed to meet up around 4:00, and until then I was just going to walk around and explore more. I found a few cool things to see, and eventually found a cool modern art museum that Pjotr sounded interested in. Unfortunately, by the time he was ready to meet up, the museum was about to close, so instead we ditched the museum idea and decided to go out for some drinks.

Pjotr had met a group of about 10 people through Couchsurfing hangouts and we met them at a restaurant that could seat all of us. After a round of drinks and cheesy ice breakers, we headed out of the restaurant for our next destination. Most of the group wanted to go to a big meet up event which would host around 50 couchsurfers, but Pjotr, one guy who's name I can't remember, and I decided to split paths and go to a jazz bar that our new friend knew of.

When we got there, we were disappointed to see that the bar was packed way beyond capacity, and although our new friend decided to stay to find a friend that he was supposed to meet up with, Pjotr and I thought it would be better to head off on our own again. We explored a part of Berlin that had some famous clubs, but didn't go into any of them since it was early on a weekday and they are all basically empty. After a few drinks at random bars, we decided to call it a night. We had different plans for the next day, so we said our goodbyes. I might end up seeing him again when I go back to the Netherlands for a music festival at the end of August, since Pjotr generously offered to lend me some of his camping gear for the weekend!

For my last day in Berlin, I decided to go to a couple of the famous memorials that lie within the city. My first stop was the memorial dedicated to the Soviets who lost their lives to free Germany from the Nazis. The memorial was a massive park (that had its own metro stop!), with a beautiful walk up to a huge statue at the end. Walking towards the statue you pass under a cool archway thing, and then walk past several stone blocks that are engraved with Stalin quotes. The statue was a 12 feet tall man, holding a German baby in one hand and a sword in the other while standing on a shattered swastika. While 12 feet isn't too big for a statue, the sculpture towered over you, since it sat atop a 10 foot base which was on top of a small man made hill.

After sitting in the memorial for a while and admiring the view, I headed back to the metro to visit my next stop: The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial was right in the middle of the city, taking up about a city block. It consisted of hundreds (maybe thousands?) of grey stone blocks of varying heights. You could walk in between the rows of blocks, and in the middle where the blocks were the highest they reached up to 10-12 feet. I wish I had spent some more time learning about the meaning behind the installment, as I'm sure there was some significance to the heights and number of blocks.

After that I decided to call it a day, and headed back to Mario's place to pack and get ready to leave for Wrocław, Poland. Mario had to head out a little earlier than I wanted to, but since I had no way to drop off the keys without him there, I left with him and camped out at the bus station for a few hours until my bus arrived at midnight.

In Wrocław I was supposed to meet a friend I've known for a few years Goda (who had been studying abroad in her hometown of Lithuania for the summer), as well as a girl who I knew from Pitt Dora (who is originally from Hungary), and Dora's cousin Gergely. Our plan was to stay in Poland for a few days to catch the final two days of the World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC).

Both of our busses arrived around 5:00am, and after stopping for breakfast to take some time to figure out where our AirBnB was, we hopped on a tram to our new temporary home. We got to our room around 7:00am, with the first semifinal game between USA Women vs Netherland Women scheduled to start at 11:00. Rather than risking taking a nap that we would probably not wake up from, we decided to get to the fields early, and sleep later. We watched Japan vs. Colombia men's consolation game, then the USA vs. Netherlands semifinal, and finished off the day watching USA vs. Great Britain men's semifinal. Finally, we headed back to our house around 3:00pm for some much needed sleep. We woke up around 9:00pm for a delicious (and super cheap) pizza dinner before calling it a night.

The next day was finals, and both men's and women's division was a USA vs. Canada match up. Women's was first, and USA couldn't quite dig themselves out of a hole they went into early, and lost on double game point, 15-14. The USA men's team made up for the loss, convincingly winning 15-12.

Once the games and awards ceremonies were over, we headed into the old town to do some sight seeing and get some food. We walked around for a little before sitting down for some amazing pirogies (Pittsburgh ain't got nothin' on Poland...sorry) that cost somewhere around $2. Afterwards we did some more sightseeing before going to a bar for some drinks. After some hanging out, we headed back to call it a night.

For our last full day in Poland, we decided to spend it similarly to the day before. We headed into the old town and walked around basically the entire city. We found a small little restaurant and had an amazing meal for something like $10 between the 4 of us. Afterwards we did some more walking around before going to a sports bar in hopes to catch some of the olympics. Unfortunately the remote for the TV was broken, so we were stuck watching soccer highlights while eating mediocre food. Oh well. After that we did a little more sight seeing before finally heading home for the night.

Our bus to Prague was scheduled to leave the following day around 4:00pm, so the next morning we had an early start to take advantage of the little time we had left in Poland. We started the day off with some ridiculously good donuts. We walked around for a while before heading to a "milk bar", which is a popular eating place for locals in Poland. We got a ton of pirogies and beet soup for under $2 a person and gorged ourselves before heading to the bus.

Our bus was supposed to arrive to Prague around 8:30pm, but due to our driver avoiding highways (I have no idea why), we got there closer to 9:15. We had an AirBnB booked outside of the city, about 30 minutes via train. We got a little lost looking for the train station, and ended up getting to our airBnB around 11:00pm. Our host, however, had managed to fall asleep before we got there, so we were locked out of the house. We only had the one night in Prague before heading to Budapest, so we decided our best option was to catch the train back into the city, and hope to find a hostel for the night. We barely managed to catch the last train back into the city, and by the time we found a hostel it was about 1:00am. We were all starving, so after checking in and dropping off our bags, we headed out for a quick döner meal before calling it a night.

Since we only had the one day, we got up early to make the most of all the time we had in Prague. We got some tasty pastries and coffee for breakfast before walking around the city for a while. Prague is much bigger than Wrocław, and all of the building were a lot older since a lot of Poland was destroyed during WWII. We ended up finding a nice viewing point of the city on the top of a hill, so we spent some time up there enjoying the view. After walking around the park at the top of hill for a while, we headed back down towards the city to get some food.

We treated ourselves to some delicious goulash served in bread bowls before lunch, followed by a popular local dessert which could be described as a funnel donut. Afterwards we strolled around for a while before finding a bench near the old town square to sit at to rest our tired legs. We sat for a while before heading out for the final part of the day. We decided to go back to the döner place we had gone to the night before for dinner, and afterwards did a little souvenir and snack shopping before heading to the train station.

Our train to Budapest was a nine hour overnight expedition, departing from Prague at 11:00pm and arriving at around 8:30am. Since we were all tired from the uncomfortable sleep on the train, we planned an easy day at a traditional Hungarian bath house. The bath house consisted of about 20 different pools of varying temperatures. We stayed there for five or six hours before heading to our AirBnB. We did a quick charging of phones before heading out for a nice dinner, taking suggestions from Dora and Geri about what to eat since we were on their home turf. After dinner we headed back to our apartment to watch a little bit of the Olympics before calling it an early night.

The next morning I got up a little earlier than the rest of the group to do some laundry at the nearby laundromat. But, as I was leaving the building, I got trapped in the area in between the stairs to the apartment and the front door. The front door was supposed to be opened with a buzzer, but the button was broken, and the door to the stairs could only be opened from outside the front door, or the buzzer on the other side of the stairs. I tried to contact my group, but they were still fast asleep. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes in the room until a few other residents came down. They also couldn't get the door open, but after a quick phone call someone came to save us.

Once I got back from doing my laundry we headed out to do some sightseeing. Budapest is a fairly big city, so we ended up walking a ton over the day. We went to a nice little family owned restaurant from lunch, and again took suggestions from Dora and Geri since the menu was all in Hungarian. Afterwards we walked some more, enjoying the wonderful architecture that Budapest boasts.

We eventually made our way back to our apartment to rest a little bit before going out that night. Dora had suggested we get a traditional food called lángos, which was basically just a savory version of funnel cake. It came served with sour cream and cheese, and while delicious, it was probably the most unhealthy thing I have eaten during my trip. We decided we wanted get smoothies for dessert in attempt to counteract the lángos, so we went on a bit of an expedition to try to find a store that served smoothies that was still open. After finally finding one after walking around in a circle for a while, we wound up just heading back to our apartment to call it another early night.

The next day was our last day together. Goda had a 24 hour bus ride back to Vilnius, Lithuania at around 3:00pm and Dora and Geri were heading back to their hometown in the eastern part of Hungary at around the same time. Before checking out of our AirBnB we decided to get breakfast at a nearby cat cafe, where we ended up just playing with cats for about an hour. After getting our fill of petting cats, we headed out to do a little souvenir shopping before they had to leave. After buying a bunch of little things, we grabbed a quick döner lunch (we really like döner, OK?) and washed it down with pastries from a neighboring bakery. Afterwards, it was time to say goodbye. My flight to Scotland was scheduled for early the next morning, so I had all day to spent in Budapest before heading to the airport to spend the night.

After saying our goodbyes at the metro, I headed out to the park which was just outside the metro station. I sat a bench for a while as I figured out what I wanted to do. I decided to walk by the island in the middle of the river that cuts Budapest in half. The island was hosting a music festival called "Sziget" (which means in island in Hungarian) that spanned a whopping 8 days. While I knew I wasn't going to actually get into the festival, I thought it'd be cool to see it from afar. Besides, walking along the river meant I get to pass by the amazing parliament building that we had visited the day before. It turned out the island wasn't too exciting to look at from a distance, so instead I found a nearby cafe with wifi, and spent a few hours there to pass the time. 

After a while of sitting in the cafe, I began to get antsy, so I headed back out. I didn't really have anything to do, so after about an hour of aimlessly walking around, I decided to grab a small dinner and grab some groceries before ultimately heading to the airport. Once I arrived to the airport, I discovered to my dismay that I wouldn't be allowed through security until two hours before my flight left at 6:00am the next morning. While past security was rumored to have nice comfortable chairs (which I can now confirm), I was forced to spend my night on the uncomfortable metal chairs that the pre-security side of the airport offered.

The last two weeks have been amazing. I had a ton of fun in Berlin meeting all sorts of people through Couchsurfing, and then getting to travel a little with some friends was a refreshing change of pace. While I wish I could have spent more time in basically all of cities I was in, it is now time to move on to the final leg of my trip. I will be spending the next week in Scotland with Janny, before heading to a little city outside of Amsterdam for the weekend to attend Lowlands music festival. From there I fly back to Tel Aviv where I will spend 2 nights, before ultimately heading back to the states.

It's been a amazing trip so far, and I'm sure these final two weeks will be the perfect way to end this two month adventure.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Belgium & Germany pt. 1

With Tomorrowland over, both Federico and I were scheduled to check out of our hostel the next morning. Federico had a train to London, where we would spend a few days before going Mallorca. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.

For reasons that I'll never be able to explain, I managed to wake up the morning of our checkout day at around 7:00am, even after the long day/night at Tomorrowland. While confused about how the hell I woke up, I used the extra few hours to plan the next part of my trip. I knew that I was eventually heading east, into Germany, but I wanted to spend a day or two more in Belgium, as I had actually really enjoyed Brussels for the little time I spent there.

I ended up finding a small city called Genk in Belgium, which is a few kilometers away from the German border. It was also next to a national park, so I decided is was as good of a place as any to spend two days. I booked an AirBnB for that night, and then used the rest of the morning to shower and pack my stuff.

Once Federico was ready to go, we headed to the train station to say our goodbyes. We hugged, got a random stranger to take our picture, and that was that. I had all day to spend in Brussels before heading to Genk, so I dropped by bags off at the hostel for the day, and began to roam around. I went to the Grand Place square, and sat there for a while enjoying the amazing architecture around me. It is one of the most remarkable squares I have ever seen, and I could have literally spent all day there if I had had a more comfortable place to sit.

Instead, once my butt had fallen asleep, I got up and decided to walk around a little more. I explored some of the smaller streets, kind of getting lost in the process, before finding a small bar to sit at. I ordered a random beer off the tap (Belgium has very good beer), and waited for my drink to arrive. The menu had called the beer a "cherry" beer, which I had presumed was a bad translation for an amber beer. 

But no, it was cherry.

Known as a Kriek beer, the beer I ordered was probably the sweetest drink I have ever had. Unlike a normal beer, Kriek beers are very fizzy which basically makes you think you are drinking soda. I would compare the taste to a carbonated version of the cherries they put on top of sundaes. I could only take tiny sips at a time, so it took me about an hour to finish the drink.

From there, I decided I had gotten my fill of Brussels, so I picked up my bags and headed to the train station to go to Genk. The train took about two hours, and while the train was close to full when I got on, I was basically the only person left on the the train when it reached Genk (which gives you a bit of an idea of how boring of a place Genk was). I hopped off the train, and immediately onto a bus that would take me to my AirBnB.

Once I arrived, I was greeted by my host Ilse and her four Whippets (mini greyhounds) and two Sphinx (hairless) cats. Needless to say Ilse was a little odd, but incredibly nice. After throwing a load of laundry into the wash, I settled into my room and started doing some research of what I wanted to do for the next few days.

I unfortunately discovered that the national park that I wanted to go to in Genk would take about 6 busses and several hours of commute, since the airBnB and national park were on opposite sides of Genk. Instead, I found a nearby lake with a public beach, and decided that is where I would go the following day. I then planned out where I would be going in Germany, and booked a two night stay in a hostel in Cologne, which would be my first stop.

The next morning, after a good nights rest, I headed out on the two mile walk to the lake. After thinking that I had gotten lost, I basically stumbled upon the lake, and found a nice shady spot to put my stuff down on and relax. I popped in my headphones, laid down, and watched the clouds go by. I must have laid there for several hours, because by the time I got up to go, I didn't recognize any of the other people sitting around me.

On my way back I went in search of a supermarket to buy some food, as my daily supply of bread and cheese had run out. I found  a few different stores, but since it was Sunday, there were all closed. I cut my losses and stopped at a local fast food place, got a quick bite to eat, then headed back to the house.

As I was getting ready for bed, I got a message from Toby, Leo's younger brother. I had contacted him earlier, since I knew he would be in Europe/Belgium around the same time as I would. He mentioned that he would be getting into Brussels around 3:00pm tomorrow, and wanted to know if I wanted to get lunch with him and his friend. I was in no rush to get to Cologne the next day, so I was happy to go back to Brussels for the day.

The next morning my AirBnB host offered to give me a ride to the train station at around 9:00am. We quickly stopped at the supermarket (which was now open), I bought some more bread and cheese, and then we were on our way. I got on the first train to Brussels, which got me to the city at around 11:30am. I had a few hours before Toby got there, so I headed back to the Grand Place square, and sat for a while. I got a little restless, so I headed up to a local park near the train station, which had some nice quiet benches to sit on and relax. I stayed there for a while until Toby arrived, and I met him and his friend Gilles at the train station. We walked around the city for a bit, before heading to Delirium for a beer.

This time, I avoided the Kriek beers, and instead opted for a dark beer. If I recall it was called a Kasteel Donkel, and it was delicious. It had this amazing chocolatey aftertaste that just made me want to keep drinking. Once we finished our beers, I figured it was probably best to head to Cologne (which was about a 3 hour train ride away), so we headed back to the train station to say our goodbyes.

After parting ways, I bought a ticket for the last train to Cologne, which was leaving about 45 minutes later. It was leaving from a different station in Brussels, but the person who sold me the ticket said I could take any train not on line 4, and it would stop at the station where I needed to go. I must have misheard, because when I got onto the first train I saw, it most certainly did not stop at the station I needed to go to. By the time I realizedI was going in the wrong direction, I was about 20 minutes outside of the city.

I quickly hopped off the train and got on another one that was heading back in the right direction. This one did stop at the correct station, and I got there with about five minutes before my train to Cologne was set to leave. I frantically looked for a sign to show me which line my train was on, but by the time I finally found my train it was too late. I stood on the platform, stunned that I had managed to miss my train, and was approached by one of the attendants. He directed me to a desk that would help me figure out what to do. After determining that the train I missed was literally the last train going to Germany, they rescheduled my ticket for the next morning, and told me to try to find a hostel nearby. I quickly found a super cheap hostel about 5 minutes from the train station, and headed over there.

While there, I contacted the hostel I was supposed to be staying in that night in Cologne, and they were kind enough to cancel one of my two nights there for free. All in all, I ended up saving a few Euros by missing my train, since the hostel I stayed in that night was cheaper than the one in Cologne. Cool.

The next morning I headed back to the train station, this time making sure that I had plenty of time to find my train. I quickly found the right platform, and hung out for a few minutes while I waited for my train to arrive. Once it got there, I hopped on and found a seat, where I almost immediately fell asleep. For the next couple hours I was in and out of consciousness, nearly causing me to miss my stop. Luckily I didn't, so I had finally made it to Cologne.

The first thing you see when stepping out of the train station is a massive cathedral called Kolner Dom. While usually I get pretty bored with cathedrals, as they are all over the place in Europe, this one was definitely something special. I walked around inside for a while, and after dropping my bags off at my hostel, I headed back to the cathedral to climb up the tower.

The top of the tower is 100 meters tall, or about 330 feet. It takes 537 steps up a narrow spiral staircase to get to the top. Once at the top you are greeted with a fantastic 360 degree view of the city, and I spent a little while just walking around the top of the tower enjoying the view.

Afterwards, I headed to a local crepe place, and ordered a random crepe off the menu. It ended up having salami, salmon, and mushrooms in it, and it was delicious. From there, I walked around for a little bit, bought some pasta and sauce from a supermarket, and then headed back to my hostel. After making a nice dinner, I found a campsite that was known for stargazing just outside of Frankfurt. I decided that if I could figure out a way to get down there (it was about 80km, 50 miles, from Cologne), I would spend a night there to enjoy some stargazing. I looked at a few option for transportation, and decided to look into them more the next day.

The next morning I headed to my first option: a scooter rental place. I talked with the clerk, and quickly found out that renting a scooter was probably way too easy. Within 20 minutes, papers were signed, a deposit was given, and I was handed key to a scooter that had a top speed of around 100kph, or 65mph. After literally having to ask the guy how to work the thing, I hopped on my new ride, and drove around some back streets for a little to get a hang of how the bike handled. It was incredibly easy, so after a few minutes I headed back to my hostel to prepare for my trip to the campsite.

I packed a few clothes into my backpack, bought a couple things to eat, and plugged in the directions to the campsite on my phone. I realized that I wouldn't exactly be able to look at my phone as I was driving, so it presented a decent challenge in figuring out where the hell I needed to be going. I ended up having to just pull over every couple miles and check to make sure I was still going in the right direction.

After several wrong turns and probably an extra 20 minutes to my drive, I finally made it to the campsite. I got a cabin, dropped off my stuff, and headed to the nearby lake to scope out the surroundings so I could find a good place to stargaze that night. I found a nice spot, relaxed there for a while, before heading back to my cabin to take a nap so I would be awake that night. When I woke up around 11:00pm, I was dismayed to see that it was an overcast night, so there were no stars in sight.

So that's where I am now. Sitting in my cabin at 1:00am writing this blog post, disappointed that I can't go look at some stars. I am only here for the night, since I have to go back to Cologne to return the scooter tomorrow. While I haven't actually booked anything yet, I plan to head north after this, and stay a few nights in Hamburg. From there I might do a day excursion to Copenhagen, depending on how long the ferry ride would take. Afterwards I'll head to Berlin for a few days, before ultimately going to Wroclaw to meet up with Goda, Dora, and Dora's cousin to watch the World Junior Ultimate Championship (WJUC).

If anyone has any suggestions of activities to do, or things to see while I'm in Germany, I'm all ears.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

 

Tomorrowland

Let me start off with saying: that was awesome. I only went to one day of Tomorrowland, but it was more than enough time to know that I'll definitely be going back some day. The atmosphere of the festival was downright intoxicating, the people, the music, the venue--all of it was great.

My Tomorrowland experience actually started the day before the actual festival, on Thursday the 21st. My friend Federico and I had just arrived in Brussels at around 1:00pm and were walking into our hostel to check in when we ran into a group of Argentinians who were just about to leave for a walking tour of the city. We quickly dropped off our bags, and then went to join them to get a bit of tourism in before Tomorrowland.

As we walked to the start of the tour, which was located in the Grand Place Square, we noticed that there was basically no one out and about. No cars, no people, nothing. Apparently we had arrived on Belgium's day of independence, so almost everything was closed. But, as we got closer to the square, we started seeing more and more people, and a lot o them were wearing flags from countries all over the world--a trend created by Tomorrowland.

Once in the square, we were greeted by a spectacular view of Tomorrowland decorations covering the Maison du Roi (House of the King), which is a gothic palace built in 1895. The whole square is surrounded in these gothic buildings, and it was a super cool contrast to the decorations that Tomorrowland had put up. We were told that there would be a pre-party concert hosted in the square in a few hours, and in the meantime our tour began.

I'm not a big fan of walking tours, so for a decent portion of the time I was kind of zoned out, thinking about what I needed to do to prepare for the festivities the next day. Once the tour ended, I beelined back to the square where the concert had already started, so I could get a taste of what the next day had in store.

I wasn't entirely sure of where I was going, but it wasn't too hard to find my way back simply by following the sound of the music, which I could hear from several blocks away. As I arrived I immediately noticed that there were a lot more people there than there was when the tour had started, and the square was now packed, with people dancing and singing along to the music. I hung around for a while, bought a delicious Belgian beer, and sat in the shade, enjoying the music.

A little later I met back up with the Argentinians (there were five in total, now) who I had split up with during the tour (they had gone on a Spanish speaking one, I had gone on and English speaking one), and we made our way into the crowd to dance. We ran into some more Argentinians (they seem to attract one another), and partied with them for a while.

After an hour or two, the concert ended, and we headed out to a local bar, Delerium, which holds the world record for most variety of beers offered: 3,000+. We ordered two pitchers basically at random, and drank them while socializing with the surrounding people who had come to bar after the concert as well. Afterwards, we got a quick bite to eat, before heading back to the hostel for the end of the night.

-----------------------------------

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I could feel the excitement in the air. Brussels was packed with people who were attending the festival, so the city was bubbling with energy that Friday morning. The plan to get to the festival was to try to get a ticket for one of the shuttles that went directly to the Tomorrowland venue, which left every hour. Since we were only going for the one day, we wanted to get there as soon at the venue opened at noon. It was about an hour long bus ride, so we aimed to catch the 11:00am bus.

Unfortunately, as most Latinos tend to be, the Argentinians were late. 11:00 came and went and the Argentinians were not even out of their rooms. At around 11:30, after taking a painfully long time to make and eat breakfast, we were ready to head out. About ten feet out the door, one of them proclaimed we had to go meet up with a friend he made the day before, who just so happened to be in the completely wrong direction from the bus stop. We make our way in the direction of the friend, who was also Argentinian, and also late.

Finally, by 11:50, we had found the friend, and tried to make our way to the bus station. In hopes of getting there faster we hopped into a taxi, but after realizing that getting on the 12:00 bus was hopeless, we haggled the taxi driver down to a reasonable price, and headed straight for Tomorrowland.

Once there, we headed through security, which separated those with and without backpacks. I was in the longer and slower backpack line with two of the Argentinians, and we slowly made our way through the surprisingly light security (they didn't even open my backpack). Once through, we found the rest of our friends, exchanged our tickets for the bracelets, and headed into the venue.

We walked around the festival for a while, figuring out the general layout of the massive venue. We ended up checking out the main stage, where we danced for a little while before heading to a rest area to get food and drinks. Up until then I was with the Argentinians, and the whole time I felt like I was waiting. First they got in a long line to buy some merch, then we waited for one of them go try to find a friend, then they wanted to buy drinks...it felt like I was never going to be able to get going at a pace I wanted. So, when they decided to go for lunch, I told them I was splitting paths, and I'd meet back up with them at 8:30pm. I assumed they would have motivation to find me, since I was carrying some of their stuff in my bag (including a passport), so with that in mind I headed on my way.

I walked around for a while, discovering new stages and areas with every turn, before heading in the direction of the stage where the deadmau5 vs. Eric Prydz show was set to take place later that night. I found the stage, figured out where/when I wanted to be for the show, and then headed back out to find a smaller stage to enjoy for a while. I stumbled into a stage called the Rose Garden, across the street from the mau5 vs. Prydz stage was. I was treated to some throwback hip hop mixes by a DJ who went by the name Blackout boy (who I can't seem to find anywhere on the Internet). I stayed for a while, doing a mix of dancing and sitting in the shade, before heading back to the main stage area to catch Galantis at 6:00pm.

I got to the main stage at around 5:15pm, and worked my way into the crowd, trying to get a spot for Galantis. After a few minutes, content with where I was at, I settled in and enjoyed the end of a show by R3hab. With about 30 minutes left of R3hab, there was a sudden commotion as a bunch of people in front of me started running backwards, away from the stage. Initially, I thought it was due to a fight, which is usually what causes a stampede like that, but after I noticed people holding their shirts to their noses and running, I realized that it might be more serious than that, so I ran too. Apparently, someone had sprayed the crowd with pepper-spray which caused a mass stampede of panicked people, who were fearing the worst due to the recent terror attacks in Belgium and surrounding countries.

The whole commotion lasted all of five minutes, and people soon realized that there was no real danger--just some asshole spraying pepper spray. With the music not even stopping, people quickly made their way back to the stage to regain their spots. I decided to find a spot on the opposite side of the stage, just in case of another stampede.

Galantis soon started, and while I was a little disappointed in the show, it was hard not to have fun in the crowd, dancing with random people and offering water from my CamelBak to those that seemed in need. Near the end of the show, I decided to head out of the pit, and walk up the hill to get a better view of the stage and crowd. I sat for a little to catch my breath, took a few pictures, then headed out to explore again for about an hour before I had to meet back up with the Argentinians.

I continued to find more stages as I explored, and I tried to spend a little time at all of them, getting a feel for the different genres that each offered, and the vibes that came with them. At around 8:00, I made my way back to the previously agreed meeting point with the Argentinians. I got there at about 8:15 and waited impatiently--and as usual, the Argentinians were late. At around 9:15, after an hour of waiting, I gave up and headed back out as to not miss anything else.

The mau5 vs. Prydz show was scheduled to start at 11:25, so at around 10:15, after refilling water and getting a bite to eat, I headed to the stage in hopes of getting as good of a spot as possible for the show. I slowly weaseled my way through the crowd, all the while enjoying the music from the artists playing at the time. By the time their set had ended up and mau5 vs. Prydz was about to start, I had managed to get within 10-20 feet from the front, right in the middle. Surprisingly, even so close to the front, I still had a reasonable amount of room to move around and dance in.

The show itself was incredible. Deadmau5 has been one of my favorite artists since I rediscovered him at Bonnaroo last year, and when paired up with Eric Prydz--another one of my favorite artists over the past year--it made for a magical show. The music was a fantastic mix of both of their best works, but what really made the show come together was the lights and the crowd. The light show was highlighted (haha get it? HighLIGHTed? ...Guys?) by the use of several hundred (thousand maybe?) lasers that created a cube around the stage. That, combined with the other unique light fixtures, created a show unlike anything I had ever experienced before. The crowd seemed to feel the same way I did, and everyone I was surrounded by was as happy and friendly as could be, creating the perfect concert atmosphere.

When the show ended around 1:00, it was time to head home. Due to the fact that I still had some of the Argentinians' stuff, I made my way to the nearby wifi zone to try to check in with them. After no luck, I walked to the bathroom before leaving. On my way there, I literally bumped into them (which is insane given that there are around 180,000 people at the festival), and we happily headed home together.

Tomorrowland was simply incredible. I saw flags from more countries that I could count, and everyone was just so happy and excited to be there. The one day that I got to spend there was amazing, but it left me wanting more. Even after the several hours of walking around and exploring, I know that there were still a few stages that I never saw. If I had more time, I would have spent more of it at some of the smaller stages, listening to some of the lesser known artists. My one regret of the day though was not being at the main stage for any of the shows once it got dark (which wasn't until almost 10:00). While the stage was enormous and incredible during the day, some pictures I saw of it at night were surreal. There were so many hidden lights and features that couldn't be seen during the day, and I wish I had gotten to experience the sight while I was there.

I guess it'll have to wait until next time.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Switzerland/Amsterdam

In order to be able to dedicate a whole post just to TomorrowLand (the music festival I'm going to in Belgium tomorrow), I wanted to get out a shorter recap of the last few days.

Switzerland

7/17/2016

After parting ways with my dad, I was scheduled for a 2:00am train ride from Florence to Zurich. I arrived to Zurich after a couple delays at around 1:00pm, where I was instantly greeted by the smiling faces of Barb and Markus Unger, old friends of my dad that he knew in college. I had met them twice before, when I was 5 and living in Spain, so I had basically no recollection of me meeting them, much less what they looked like. Luckily, with my orange hair I stick out like a sore thumb in most places, so they recognized me instantly.
After handing me a very much appreciated soft pretzel and water, we headed to the Rhine Falls, a beautiful waterfall just a couple miles outside of Zurich. We walked along the Rhine (the river which feeds the falls) for about half a mile before actually getting to the main attraction. While walking, Barb and Markus pointed out how unusually high the river was, due to the massive amounts of rain Switzerland has gotten this year.

After soaking in the sights, and eating a delicious bratwurst, we headed to the nearby town of Schaffhausen. There we met up with one of Barb and Markus' sons, Bryan, who is a few years older than me. Unfortunately, Bryan's twin brother Jeffery was out of town while I was there, so I didn't get to say hello to him as well.While I don't remember much from my visit to Switzerland when I was 5, the two memories that have stayed with me was being excited about the chocolate (naturally), and the blonde twins that we got to hang out with.

Schaffhausen was a cute little town that borders Germany, and is actually the only Swiss territory that is north of the Rhine, the rest being Germany. Due to this, Schaffhausen was actually bombed by the Americans during WWII when it was confused for a German city. We walked through basically the entire town in about 30 minutes, before getting some beers at a restaurant next to the Rhine. From there, Bryan and I made our way up to the town's castle, which sits on top of a hill in the center of the city. The castle was actually built as a safe haven for the townspeople when barbarians came from around the Rhine to raid the city. Unfortunately, by the time they had finished building the castle, the barbarians had stopped raiding the city, so it ended up being relatively useless other than for the nice view from the top.

At around 4:30, we headed to the Unger's home just a few miles outside of Schaffhausen. We actually had to drive through Germany for all of 5 minutes on the commute back,which was very exciting since the speed limit was 100 kilometers an hour, as opposed to the Swiss 80 kilometers and hour. When we arrived at their house, I quickly threw a load of laundry into the wash before taking a much needed shower. Afterwards, I was treated to a traditional Swiss dinner which translated to "table grill" in English.

Table grill is an assortment of raw meats and veggies that you put  on a small electric grill that is in the middle of the table. You can season them as you like, and there is a little drawer underneath the grill for you to put slices of cheese to let them melt. Once your food is done cooking, you take the cheese and mix it with some potatoes, and then you begin to feast. It is common for a dinner like this to last a few hours, as you take you time making your food, and go back for several servings. Afterwards they brought out the chocolate and schnapps (which was nothing like the sugary vodka you buy in the States), which was a perfect way to top off an amazing dinner. Afterwards, Bryan's girlfriend, Lisa, stopped by to say hello, and we hung around for a while talking about our upcoming travels (Bryan and Lisa are going to a little island south of Spain in a few days) before retiring for the night.

7/18/2016

The next morning I was given a ride by Markus to the Zurich airport, where I took a short metro ride into the city. I had a bus booked to leave for Amsterdam at 7:30pm, so I spent the day walking around the town, relaxing by the lake and enjoying the majestic view of the alps in the distance. I bought a small lunch and a snack for the bus ride (Switzerland is EXPENSIVE), and then headed to the bus stop.

Switzerland, although small, holds plenty of things to do and places to see. In the short 30 hours that I were there, I just got a small peek of what the country had to offer, and I wish I could have stayed longer. But, adventure called me elsewhere, so exploring the rest of that country will have to wait for another time.

Amsterdam

7/19/2016

After a brutal 13 hour bus ride in which the wifi and outlets did not work, I arrived to Amsterdam at around 8:30am. I got directions to my hostel, and made quickly made my way there. I soon discovered that I had managed to book a hostel which was literally in the Red Light District. Whoops. Since check in didn't start until 2:00pm, I was only able to drop off my bags before heading back out to explore the city.

I ended up just roaming around for a while, with no real destination. I was amazed at how many people were out and about, every street I turned on to was filled with people of all shapes and sizes. The countless bikers and stoned tourists made for quite the entertaining show, as people were getting nearly run over left and right since they weren't paying attention.

After indulging in some of what Amsterdam has to offer, I decided I needed to take a nap, so I headed back to the hostel. When I got to my room, I immediately realized that I would not be able to sleep well, if at all, due to the blazing heat of the room. There was no air conditioning, and only one small fan that did next to nothing. Still, I climbed onto my bunk, and tried to get some shuteye to catch up on the hours of sleep I missed on the bus.

An hour or so later, I woke up and headed back out to do some more exploring. I made my way to Vondelpark, the famous park at the edge of the city. The park was FILLED with people, so it took me a while to find a shady spot with enough room to sit in. Once I did, I settled in for a while, snacking on some bread and cheese while I enjoyed the great people watching. After that had run its course, I headed back to the hostel in hopes of meeting some people to go out with that night.

I ended up meeting an Argentinian guy named Federico, who was sharing a bunk with me. As it turned out, Freddy had basically the exact same itinerary as me over the next few days, including going to the same one day of TomorrowLand. We decided it was best to become good friends, and I have basically spent all of my time with him up until now.

We went to get a quick dinner before meeting up with another guy from our room named Aaron, who was from Australia. As it got dark around 10:30 (which threw me off a ton), we headed out to some bars. Of course, we strolled through the red light district, taking in the incredible strangeness of the place. Afterwards we found a bar, but after ordering a beer Aaron and I realized that we were super tired, so we decided to head back and call it a night. Freddy wanted to go find a club, so we parted ways for the night.

7/20/2016

After a bad night's sleep (the red light district is very loud at night...), Freddy and I headed back to Vondelpark for the day. We brought a blanket and some food, and found a nice place to relax for several hours. Afterwards, at around 3:00pm, we slowly made our way back towards the hostel, strolling through the markets and going into a few stores on our way. Once back, we sat in the slightly cooler lobby area as we booked our bus tickets to Brussels. While we were doing that, we met a couple of Swiss guys who were checking in, and decided to hang out with them for the night. We showed them around the little bit of Amsterdam that we knew, got a quick dinner, and then went back to the hostel to get ready for the night's festivities. Unfortunately, we forgot to get their contact information, so by the time we went back down to the lobby, they were nowhere to be found.

So instead, Freddy and I headed to a club across the town. After getting a little lost, we finally made it to the club around midnight. Much like the club in Tel Aviv, the music featured in the club was this very funky electronic music. I had never really heard this genre of music before, so it must be a Middle Eastern/European thing. We danced for a few hours, before heading home for the night in hopes of getting a few hours of sleep before are morning bus ride to Brussels.

Amsterdam was a crazy place.While I enjoyed my 2 day stay there, I don't think I could have stayed there much longer. There were so many tourists, and so much commotion, it was a pretty overwhelming experience. If I had to describe Amsterdam in one sentence, I'd say it is the one place on earth that humans just decided anything goes. From the open prostitution to the countless pot shops, Amsterdam really is just a place where people go to experience their wild side.

These few days in Amsterdam marked the first few days of the next 3 weeks that I will be traveling alone. For the first day, I was worried that I might end up getting pretty lonely, given that the day seemed to be so long. But after making friends with Freddy and a handful of other people, those worries soon went away. Up next is TomorrowLand and Germany.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Italy

With the first leg of my trip completed, I shipped off to Italy to meet up with my dad. Before I could get to Italy though, I had to sit through a 10 hour, overnight layover in Athens. Initially, I had planned on going out and trying to find a bar to pass the time in, but I soon realized that the airport was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and it would be too much effort to schlep my bags around for a few hours before inevitably heading back to the airport. So instead I found a cozy little corner and settled in for the long haul. I tried to sleep a few times, but a mixture of noise, lights, and paranoia of getting my stuff stolen prevented me from dozing off for more than a couple minutes at a time. To pass the time I decided to write for my blog, read my book, and generally dick around.

After my long wait, I hopped on a plane for a quick flight to Rome. From the Rome airport I took a taxi to the AirBnB my dad and I had booked before I left, and decided to take a much needed nap as I waited for my dad to get there. Several hours later, my dad showed up, and after dropping off his bags, our Italy adventure officially began.

Side note: we walked A LOT while in Italy. I am going to put the total miles walked (according to my phone) at the end of each day, and then add them all up at the end of the post.

Day 1 (7/11/16):

From the apartment we were staying in, we decided to skip the bus and walk to the two miles to the metro station, which would lead us directly to the city center. The metro exit that we got out at was literally 100 feet from the colosseum, so it was a nice welcoming view to validate the fact that we had made it to Italy. After taking a few pictures, we went in search of food, as neither of us had eaten a proper meal all day. We found a nice sit down restaurant, and treated ourself to the typical pasta/pizza/wine dinner. 

From there we decided to walk around and explore the sights of Rome. We ran into the Altare della Patrai (Altar of the Fatherland), some cool ruins, the Pantheon, a couple castles, and the river which lead to the Vatican. Since it was getting late, we thought it'd be good to leave the Vatican sight-seeing for the next day. We hopped back on the metro to head home, and got off a few stops early so we could catch the last bus which would drop us off at the apartment. Unfortunately, after about an hour wait, the bus never showed up, so we made the 3 mile walk back home.

Miles walked: 7.82

Day 2 (7/12/16):

Our first stop of the day was Vatican City. We went into St. Peter's Basilica, and marveled at the intricate decorations that covered the building, inside and out. From the endless paintings, to innate carvings and statues, it truly was a sight to see. After a couple hours, we decided we had seen enough of Rome, so we caught a bus to take us a few miles outside of the city to visit Christian catacombs, in which around 500,000 people were buried. Due to some delays and a longer-than-anticipated walk, we arrived at the catacombs just as the last tour was starting. We managed to buy tickets for the tour, and we got to see a little portion of the 40 acre burial grounds, all the while learning about the history of the catacombs.

Afterwards, we walked a few miles to a little bar to have a quick drink before hopping on a bus to take us back into the city. While waiting for the bus, we met a few fellow Americans who had also been touring the catacombs. We discovered that one of them had been living in Prague for the last year for a teaching job. I mentioned I would be visiting Prague for a few days at the beginning of August, and she ended up offering me and Goda (who I will be meeting up with in a few weeks) a place to crash while we were there!

Once we were back in the city, we walked to the local university to try to get a taste of youth life. We found a bar which was overrun with old people, decided it was what we were looking for, and partook in a few drinks and happy hour snacks. We ended up staying for a couple hours before ultimately heading to the metro to go home for the night.

This time, we decided not to trust the bus, so we got off at the closest exit (about 2 miles from the apartment), and began to walk home. We tried to take a shortcut on our way back, but ended up getting horribly lost, and turned the 2 mile walk into a 5-6 mile one. When we finally got back, we basically collapsed onto the bed and didn't move until we woke up the next morning.

Miles walked: 15.8

Day 3 (7/13/16):

Our stay in Rome had run its course, so inspired by the suggestion of our AirBnB host, we headed to Siena for a few days. We bought the proper bus tickets, and settled in for the 3 hour drive out of the city. As we got into a more rural part of Italy, we were treated to some great views of rolling plains and small villages settled on top of some hills. We got to the Siena bus station in the early afternoon, and made the couple mile walk to our new AirBnB.

Siena is a beautiful little town, full of small winding cobble roads surrounded by cute vintage apartment buildings. After dropping our bags off at the apartment, we had a short conversation with our new host about what we should do while in Siena. A few minutes later, we were out the door with a decent plan for the night. Siena is known for a cathedral in the center of the city, so we headed over there to admire the artwork and architecture. Afterwards, we walked a few blocks to the center plaza, where we decided to relax and people watch for a few hours.

For dinner, we headed in the direction of a bar which was supposed to be a popular hangout area for the locals. Unfortunately, due to some rain, we were practically alone there besides the bartender and DJ. We hung out for a little, enjoying some wine and snacks before heading back to the apartment to call it an early night.

We were welcomed back by the 3 residents of the apartment we were staying in, who treated us to a nice little fish and salad dinner. We stayed up a while talking to them about life in Italy, and ended the night by getting some help figuring out how to go about our planned excursion for the next day.

Miles walked: 8.64

Day 4 (7/14/16):

Our plan for the day was to catch a bus to a little area about 30 minutes out of town that was home to some natural hot springs. We had found the place through the help of our hosts, and it sounded like a nice way to relax for a day. We packed up some food, a change of clothes, and plenty of water, and headed on our way.

After getting off the bus, we start making our way in the direction that the street signs were pointing. There were two different options of where to go, and according to Google, one of the options was more of a spa than hot springs. So we headed for the other option.

We had to walk about two miles down a little street, passing a couple farms and vineyards. After finally getting to where our GPS was pointing us to, we were sad to discover that our destination was just another spa/hotel. Disappointed, we explored the area for a little bit in hopes of finding some hot springs, but after a few minutes we realized that it was hopeless, so we started our walk back.

Once back in town, we decided to walk to the other option, in hopes that Google had lied to us. This option was less than a mile away, so it was a quick trip. Unfortunately, Google had told us the truth, and it was just another spa area. We decided to go in though, as there was a large pool area that we could relax by for a few hours before the bus came. We found a nice shady spot, and snacked and read for before jumping in the pool for a little bit to cool off. After a little more time spent hanging out, we headed back to the bus stop.

We got on the 4:00pm bus, the last one on the route we needed until 9:30pm. While on the bus, I started dozing off while my dad read his book. At one point, I woke up as the bus was stopping, and thought I recognized our stop. Since neither of us had really been paying attention to the ride, we assumed I was right. We quickly got off the bus, and only to realize it was not our stop as the bus was driving away. We were 11 miles off target. We looked at the bus stops in hopes that we could catch anything back into town earlier than the 9:30 bus, but we were shit out of luck.

Still hoping that we wouldn't have to wait 5 hours for the next bus, we went into a local bar to ask if they had any suggestions on how to get back. It turns out, the next town over had a bus to Siena every 30 minutes. Awesome! Unfortunately, we also discovered the next town over was 5 miles away.

After deciding making the 5 mile walk was better than waiting for 5 hours, we filled up our water bottles, and headed on our way. While the walk was long, it was mostly down a scenic winding road. We passed countless farms full of grapevines and olive trees. It was actually a pretty enjoyable walk since it was a cooler day. We finally made it to the other town just as a bus had pulled up, and while I enjoyed our walked, I have never been more grateful of public transportation. We got home, exhausted, and spent an hour or two lying in bed catching our breath.

After a shower and more resting, we headed back out to get some much deserved pizza. The restaurant we had found was supposedly the best pizza in town, so we were excited as can be to dig in to our food. Unluckily for us, the restaurant was packed, so it took close to an hour for us to be able to order and get our food. The pizza was great, but it was probably the best meal I had while in Italy, simply because I was so hungry. We finally made our way back to our apartment, and quickly fell asleep.

Miles walked: 15.14

Day 5 (7/15/16):

That morning we packed up our stuff, and headed to Pisa. Once there, our new AirBnB was a little over a mile from the train station, so we headed over there to drop off our bags. After that, we decided we would head back to the train station and catch a quick train to a town on the coast called Livorno. We walked from the train station in Livorno to a supposed plaza, but when it turned out to basically just be a bus stop, we turned around and headed back towards the beach. We found a large dock (large enough for a couple cruise ships), and we walked through it in hopes of finding a shoreline to sit on and eat some bread. After walking a mile or so, we didn't find anything, so we headed south to the boardwalk. Although the boardwalk was only a mile away, it took us about twice that distance to get there, since we had snaked our way through the dock in search of a shore.

It was an incredibly hot day, so when we finally made it to the boardwalk we quickly found a bench to sit on and eat some food and drink some wine. After about an hour, we walked down the boardwalk, enjoying the view. We decided to catch a bus from there to some cliffs that you could climb down and enjoy a secluded little beach area. The waves were pretty rough, and the shoreline was very rocky, so we ended up not swimming at all, and just relaxed on the rocks. I took a short nap, and once I woke up, we caught a bus to go to the train station to head back to Pisa.

Once back in Pisa, we walked around the town for a while to see the sights. We saw the leaning tower (which is really fucking leaning), had some good beer and food, and finally headed back to the apartment to call it a night.

Miles walked: 17.3

Day 6 (7/16/16):

I had a 2:00am bus ride from Florence planned that night, so we decided to spend the day there as to not be rushed to get there later. With bags in hand, we caught a train into the city as our last day together began.

As soon as we arrived at the Florence train station we realized how crowded the city was going to be. There were tourists everywhere, and it was hard to just walk down the street, so we quickly made our way to an amazingly unpopulated gardens. A short but steep walk up a hill later, we were treated to an amazing panoramic view of Florence. After a while, we left the gardens to visit a slightly more popular gardens area called Boboli Gardens. By this time I was getting pretty tired from lugging my heavy bag around, so we went in search of a place to eat.

We found a nice little restaurant slightly off the beaten path, and we indulged in a delicious 3 course meal, including a nice bottle of wine. We stayed for a while to recover from all of the walking, and eventually to grabbed our things, paid for the meal, and headed back towards the center of the city. On our way we stopped to look at some art and browse the markets, but nothing really caught our eye so we didn't buy anything past a couple posters.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. Dad had to catch a train back to Pisa where is flight was leaving from early the next morning, so we found a gelato shop with tables and wifi, put down my bags, and said goodbye. I stayed in the shop for a while, figuring out where I needed to go to catch my 2:00am bus, and sending a couple emails to my future hosts in Switzerland. At around 9:00pm, I grabbed my stuff, and set off at a leisurely pace back towards the train station where my bus was supposed to pick me up. I found a few nice places to sit and watch people walk by, but as it got darker and cooler, I headed into the train station to find a corner to sit in until my bus came.

Miles walked: 12.25

Italy is a beautiful country. It was my first time visiting, and while I enjoyed the touristy sights (and feel like I needed to see them at least once in my life), if I ever visit again I definitely want to explore the southern part more. According to several people that we chatted with, the south is much cheaper, and much less laden with tourist groups. I've always preferred living like a local when I travel, so southern Italy seemed much more inviting. 

The 6 days I spent were wonderful all the same. I spent some quality time with my dad, and it was a nice transition into the next 6 weeks which I'll be spending on my own. From Italy, I took a bus to Switzerland (which is where I am as of writing this post), where I spent a day with some family friends, before leaving the next night (now this night) for Amsterdam! The next three weeks I'll be all by myself, and I couldn't be more excited.

Total miles walked: 76.95

I haven't been able to get any planned workouts in, but I'm not too worried about staying in shape so far.

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Taliaglit

Day 1:

The first 10 days I spent in Israel were under the supervision of Taglit, the name that Israeli's have for Birthright trips. Over the next 4 days, I spent time with a close friend (and prom date!) Talia. Talia, who moved to Israel a year and a half ago, made Aliyah (joined the army) in the early months of 2016. Currently, she is on a 3 month "summer break" due to the timing of a certain course she is taking. This gave her the time to give me a personal tour of local life in Israel, which I so aptly named "Taliaglit". Here is a recap of what those days consisted of.

After parting ways with the group (which was much more difficult than I expected it to be), Jenna, Emily, and I made our way to the nearest coffee shop to get some wifi so we could contact Benji, a friend from Pitt who is living in Tel Aviv for 5 months for an internship. After a few minutes of confusion, we were able to communicate our whereabouts to him, and he showed up soon after to walk us back to his apartment.

Once there, Jenna and Emily got to repacking all of their stuff in preparation for their 5 week hike across France and Spain which they were leaving for early the next morning. Since we had so recently said our goodbyes to everyone on our Birthright trip, I wasn't prepared to do it again so soon. I told them to wake me up when they were going to leave (around 4:30am) so I could give them a proper goodbye. When I woke up I decided I would walk with them to the train station so that I could spend a few more minutes with them before parting ways. It was fun to walk through Tel Aviv that early in the morning, as the streets were practically empty. We arrived at what we thought was the train station and we finally said our goodbyes. I later discovered that I actually left them at the BUS station, and the train station was a few more minutes down the road, but I'm pretty sure they managed to figure everything out so I think we're OK.

A little side note before I continue the recap: I invited Jenna and Emily to write about their travels and send it to me. I don't know if they actually will, but if they do expect a guest post!

After walking back to Benji's, I decided to do a little writing before going back to bed since I was already awake. Afterwards, I slept for another hour or so, and then went to a nearby coffee shop while I waited for Talia to arrive. Once she got there around noon, we embarked on a bit of a walking tour of Tel Aviv while she ran a few errands.

Our first stop was at a bar about 15 minutes away to buy tickets for a club we would be going to that night. Usually there was free entry to the club, but there was a big show that night (Richie Hawtin was playing...neither of us had ever heard of him, but we had heard good reviews), so we had to buy tickets if we wanted to get in before 4:00am.  From there, we went in search of a camping store about 15 minutes away that Talia had found online. It ended up taking us an extra 10-15 minutes to find the damn store, as it was hidden in the middle of this weird warehouse/apartment building thing. I still have no idea how that place manages to get any business, as it literally could not have been any harder to find. Anyways, Talia bought a tent for her upcoming stay at an ashram, so we then headed back to Benji's to drop off some stuff and grab some much needed water.

By the time we got back, it was a little before 2:00pm (so we had been walking for about 2 hours). After a short rest, we went to go meet one of the staff from Taglit, Avinoam, for lunch. We had told Avinoam to meet us at a restaurant called Benedict, which was about two miles away from us according to our phone. The phone also mentioned that it would take an hour to walk there, but we shrugged that off, assuming that there would be no way that a 2-mile walk could take an hour.

Well, it did.

When we finally arrived at the restaurant, dripping in sweat and breathing heavily, Avinoam had already been there for about half an hour. We apologized for keeping him waiting, and he was forgiving enough, saying that he had just read his book in the meantime. We went on to order some delicious food and mimosas. At one point we did a cute little love triangle of mimosa tasting, which I think really sealed the deal on a great overall lunch experience.

After parting ways with Avinoam, we caught a bus to the nearby mall to finish the last few errands that Talia needed to run. She bought a charging cable and a memory card for her new camera, both of which were used plenty for the rest of the trip. From the mall, we decided we could muster up the energy to make the 30 minute walk back to Benji's. We got back, took a short rest (I think I showered?), and then headed over near the train station to meet some of Talia's army friends. We hung out there for an hour or two before heading back one last time to Benji's to eat dinner and prepare for the club that night. In total, according to Talia's phone, we walked 14 miles that day. This was all on about 7 hours of cumulative sleep over the last two days, and we were still planning on leaving for the club at around 1:00am. After a nice dinner on the roof, we took a quick 45 minute power nap (which was not nearly enough) before heading out to the club.

The club we were going to was called "The Block", and the event of the night was supposed to until 7:00am, with the headliner coming on at 3:00. It was a cool little venue on the side of a building. As soon as you walk in, you get the feeling that you are in this secret underground club. We weren't allowed to take our phones out as to "respect the vibe", and it actually made the environment a lot better without all the annoying LED screens shining in your eyes. There were two main rooms, both playing some great techno-y/trance-y music. We danced until around 5:00 before deciding it was time to call it a night. When we got back to Benji's we decided to go to his roof to watch the sunrise, where we ended up talking for a while. We finally went to bed around 7:30, knowing that we had to wake up at 9:00 in order to go to a birthday brunch for a friend.

Day 2:

After sleeping through several alarms, we were woken up by one of the friends we had met the day before, Jaren. We were supposed to meet Jaren at the train station at 9:30, but we had woken up at 9:20 so it wasn't looking good. We quickly grabbed our stuff and ran out the door to jump in a taxi. We managed to get to the train station by 9:45, and got on the train just as it was about to leave.

From the train station we took a short bus ride, followed by a short walk to the friend's, Gal's (I think I'm spelling that right), house. We were treated to an amazing array of breads, cheeses, salads, and other random dishes that I'm not sure what they were. We hung around for a while talking to the other people that were there, all of whom were in the army. For a large portion of the time they were all just speaking in Hebrew, so I found myself smiling like an idiot sto show that I was still having a good time, even though I couldn't really verbally communicate with a lot of them. It was an interesting experience to be surrounded by so many people all around the same age as me, that lead such different lives. While lots of them had many of the same hobbies and interests as I do, the majority of their conversations revolved around the army. There were people who had moved to Israel from all over the world to make Aliyah, and it was eye opening to see the different paths that people take.

After leaving Gal's house, we took a bus to a grocery store near Talia's aunt's house, which is wear Talia lives while she is in the army. We bought a few ingredients for dinner, and then were picked up by her aunt Hela, who was on her way back from a swimming lesson with 1 of her 4 kids. We got to their house and started making dinner as Talia's family got ready to go out for a separate dinner. We made a delicious vegan meal (Talia is mostly vegan) which consisted of rice, sweet potatoes, lentils, some veggies, and tahini. After dinner I took a quick nap (I was still exhausted from the day/night before) while Talia prepared some stuff for the upcoming night.

After her family came back, we got a ride to the kibbutz that Talia lived on for 5 months to learn Hebrew in preparation for the army. The kibbutz was huge, with around 2000 people living there. We brought the tent that she had just bought, and set it up on the beach. While we were unpacking some of our stuff, we were met up with one of Talia's friends Rachel, who was on the kibbutz the same time as Talia.

After putting everything we needed in the tent, we headed to a mutual friend's house to drink a bit before going to the local pub. We made makeshift mojitos using rum, mint lemonade, and pineapple flavored seltzer. They were delicious and we probably drank a little more than we should have...oh well.

Finally, we headed out to the pub, which was practically a club. There was a big dance floor, a light show, and a DJ who was live mixing popular music. We stayed for a while, dancing and talking to people that Rachel and Talia knew, before deciding to head back to the tent at around 4:30.

Day 3:

Our last full day together was fittingly on Shabbat. We took the day of rest to our advantage, catching up on some much needed at the beach. The next several hours we spent sitting on some couches under the shade, listening to the waves roll in. We were picked up by Talia's aunt in the afternoon, and headed back to their house for a few minutes, before leaving again with 2 of the kids for the local pool. We spent a couple hours there, reading and relaxing, before heading back for dinner.

Dinner consisted of an amazing cabbage salad, as well as some eggs and toast. Afterwards, the kids were put to bed, and we stayed up for a while talking to Talia's aunt and uncle about my travels, school, and whatever else. At around midnight Talia and I decided to watch a movie, but I almost immediately fell asleep once the movie started.

Day 4:

Still recovering from the last few days, we slept in again on Sunday morning. Originally we had planned on getting breakfast at a local store, but due to our late start we decided to do breakfast at the house. Afterwards, I packed up all my stuff, and it was time for our final voyage together. We took a bus towards the train station, stopping along the way to get a smoothie. We ran into another one of Talia's many army friends when we got to train station, so they started chatting as we sat on the train. Talia, who had a dentist appointment in the north part of Tel Aviv, got off a few stops before the airport. We took a quick picture of the two of us (almost forgot to!), and said our goodbyes. About 20 minutes later, I arrived at the airport where I would spend the next several hours before my flight left that night.

The few days that I got to spend with Talia were incredible. It was a nice change to go from ultra tourist mode to getting to live a life more similar to a local. Talia was as good of a tour guide as anyone could have asked for, and I wish her all the best in her travels and next few years in the army. She is spending the next month or so on an ashram in the middle of the desert, and I can only imagine how awesome that will be.

Stay safe Talia!

Thanks for reading,

Ben