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