City Hopping: Amsterdam

19th-22nd July

Reunited once more

I had already had a reunion with Daimi in Berlin but she was back home in Amsterdam so we thought we'd meet again whilst we were visiting. This was the fourth country we had been in together after Thailand, Laos and more recently in Germany. The day we arrived she took us to a local takeaway place that was full of local treats. I had some sort of battered cheese sausage. It was rather nice.

We had spent a night and half a day to get to Amsterdam so we weren't too keen on doing too much exploring straight away. We were staying in a hotel outside of the city as it was cheaper than any of the hostels that were available in the centre. We hung out at the hotel for the afternoon recuperating after an EPIC birthday weekend. It had a pool so I went for a bit of a swim too.

Fancy train station

The next morning, fully refreshed, we took on Amsterdam. Daimi was busy working so she couldn't be our tour guide.

Just a small bike rack

We found it was quite a difficult place to wander around. There's a lot of things to be looking out for in Amsterdam. First of all it was quite busy with people and there is a bike mad culture so there's a lot of things to dodge, that's before looking out for cars but the worst were the trams that seem to come out of nowhere!

Famous canals

Its better to be away from the centre and that's where the local charm of the place comes out with all the canals, narrow streets and buildings that look like they might fall in on you at any moment.

Leaning tower of McDonalds

Dead person

There's a lot of interesting and random museums in Amsterdam. One such place, the Happiness Project, turned out to be a highlight. Once you move past the grim real dead bodies on display it becomes a fascinating place.

He lost his skin

The first part of the exhibition shows how the human body is put together. It was very interesting to look at real organs rather than a picture or plastic model. Some of the displays were really cool like the blood vessel one. I don't know how they managed to put it together but it was all real.

Blood vessels

Big lungs

Dave making himself happy

The second part of the exhibition was about how to make yourself happy. It started with the obvious, exercise releases endorphins etc. Look at how much I'm smiling while I'm swinging away!

Making myself happy

Interesting fact

Then it became even more interesting. The was a sign saying people who give more are happier. That makes sense but then there was another study about choice. You'd think the more choices you have the better but that's not the case. This study showed that having no choice is stressful but also having too much choice can also be stressful.

I want to eat all of them

Another thing I found quite surprising was having kids does not make you happy. Its obviously stressful to have kids but I thought overall it would make you happier, apparently not.

Stressful times

No trip to Amsterdam would be complete with a trip to a local Cafe to try some of the local delicacies. This we did before heading towards the sex museum. This was...interesting. Who knew the Egyptians were such dirty bastards!

Fancy building

More leaning buildings

The next day we continued to wander around the city with no real purpose. We thought we'd leave the red light district until later as we had heard early evening is the best time to visit.

Wandering

The famous sign

We went to the iconic sign which is on the edge of a park. We hung around there for a while as it was such a nice day and the park was full of activity.

Sitting in the sun

Sign Selfie

We met up with Daimi that night and went out for dinner. By the time we had eaten we didn't want to go all the way across the city to see the Red Light District to come all the way back for drinks so we didn't bother. Its a shame we missed it as it would have been fun. But we were drunk and didn't care too much.

Smile?

Big rave!

We had a lot of Jager shots in the bar. Daimi and I reminisced about Asia again and speculated which country we might next see each other in. We ended up in a big nightclub with some randoms. It was a really good night. It was to be our last big night out in Europe as we only a couple more places to visit.

Raving with randoms

It had been another successful reunion and it wasn't the last on this victory lap of Europe. There was to be one more reunion in our next destination, Belgium.

City Hopping: Copenhagen

16th-18th July 2016

Hungover and tired from my birthday night out in Berlin we boarded a train heading for Copenhagen. We felt slightly more human after a McDonald's in Hamburg whilst waiting for a connecting train.

Its a train on a boat!

The train did something we weren't expecting, it boarded a ferry! We were told to sit tight until the train was safely on the ferry and then we had to get off while the ferry was moving. It was a very unexpected surprise and made the journey more interesting. Plus the strong sea breeze woke us up a bit.

Sailing to Denmark

Reunion

The hangover had just about worn off as we arrived into Copenhagen. Just in time to start drinking again. Felix, my Danish friend who I'd first met farming in Bundaberg in 2013, had invited us to stay at his flat. Felix and I had travelled to Cairns after Bundaberg where we met Steve who couldn't resist the temptation of a reunion and had flown out to meet us for a weekend in Denmark. The four us then started on the drinking games.

Quadruple parked

We had a ridiculous amount of shots including some weird Danish liqueur that was absolute disgusting! Steve had to have a tactical vom before we went out.

Lads on tour

We went to a bar where Felix started chatting to a girl and bought a round of drinks. Steve dared me to drink her drink so that we could move on so I did. She didn't want a pint anyway.

Dancing

It was another good night. Felix was off chatting up some other girl (player), Dave was drunk in the corner and I had no idea where Steve was. I was dancing on stage to side of the main dancefloor loving life!

As the sun came up we reunited and got the bus home. Felix gave us his key as he was occupied.

Rosenborg Castle

The next morning non of us really felt like sightseeing but thought we must. It would be stupid to go Copenhagen and not see some of it.

Rundataarn (Round Tower)

The first stop was a 17th century castle in a park and then we walked to the top of the Rundataarn. Felix told us that the reason for the spiralling equestrian staircase was for the king at the time. He was too lazy to walk and so made the horses pull him up 7 stories. Poor horses. We were knackered but the time we got to the top

So steep!

View over Copenhagen

Bridge to Sweden

At the top of the tower there was still the old observatory. You could look through the telescope at a clock. There was a great view over the city and you could also see the massive bridge in the distance that connects Denmark to Sweden.

Old observatory

Central spine of the tower

French Embassy

We continued to explore the city with our tour guide Felix. We walked past the French Embassy where people were laying flowers . It was only a couple of days after the Bastille Day attack.

The famous canal

Hippie town

We talked along canal with the famous multicoloured houses and then head towards the very the interesting neighbourhood of Christiania. I wouldn't have known about this place if it wasn't for Felix. It's a rebel suburb for the homeless and squatters self governed by its own leaders with their own laws. Weed is available freely on the street from vendors with masked faces. They cover up because the police occasionally try to shut it down ever since it was first established in 1971. Its a proper hippie community and it attacks a lot of tourists.

It was a little unnerving at first but it seemed like a very friendly and free community. It's not completely without law as we saw on a sign as we entered. No weapons or hard drugs are allowed and no pictures.

Frederik's Church

We had lunch outside a huge warehouse that had about 30 different food stalls with food from all over the world. I went for a curry. We had a beer in the sun out front before heading back. We had a chilled night with a dominoes. There was talk of another night out but Dave and I just couldn't hack three nights in a row.

We had intended to get the train early the next day but the trains were completely sold out with it being the first few days of the summer holidays. We had to wait until the evening and get an overnight train. It wasn't a sleeper train so it wasn't the most comfortable of journeys. It was a very long journey but eventually we arrived at our next destination, Amsterdam.