After Zagreb I started to head back west. I considered stopping in Slovenia, but I really wanted to see Belgium, so I skipped it so I would have more time.
After a 14 hour bus ride, I arrived in Cologne. It was really nice right off the bat. The city felt very modern, but quite welcoming. Apparently Cologne is known for being a very friendly city so that made sense. My hostel was right in the middle of downtown which was nice. I spent my first day just walking around and exploring I found out Cologne has a hockey team, Christian Ehrhoff the ex-Canuck plays for them now. I was hoping to see a game, but they were playing away games the whole time I was there.
The second day was good except for my hostel room mates. I had arrived in my hostel and found the dorm to be empty, so I setup in my bed and went to sleep. Well at about 1:30 in the morning 3 girls from California burst in loud and carefree as could be. It’s generally hostel etiquette to be quite and respectful at night… These girls were anything but. It wasn’t the lights or the sounds of bags opening and closing that bothered me, it was irritating but understandable, it was when they all decided to take showers… And then run their hair dryers at 2:00am that they got a bit intolerable.
the next day I continued wandering, I found a cool waffle place for breakfast and then found pretty much the only hockey oriented bar in the city for lunch. That was fun actually because the bartender spoke really good English and followed the NHL so we talked about hockey for a solid hour or so. That evening I went to a gaming themed bar and grabbed a computer, I played games with my buddy in Kitchener, so that was cool.
on my final day I mostly just rested. I grabbed another waffle for breakfast and just sorta chilled out. I was in a different room for my last day (not because of my roommates just cause of some weird booking shenanigans) this one was much better. There was an aerospace engineer from Seattle there, so we chilled on the balcony that evening with a few beers.
The next day I headed for Brussels. Everyone I talked to told me to skip Brussels and go right to Bruges or Ghent, I understand why now. Brussels was dirty and generally just felt unsafe. Their biggest tourist attraction is a 10″ statue of a urinating boy, and aside from that it’s pretty lame. They say a good compromise leaves everyone unhappy, so I guess that’s why the EU is based in Brussels.
I wandered to the shop that was supposed to have the best fries in the country (for some reason fries are a really big thing in Europe. I’ve heard about 5 cities now takeing pride in having “the best fries in the world” I tried them all… They’re just fries). This shop was famous because Angela Merkel once left an especially long EU meeting and picked up fries from this place for all her people. I waited in line for 15 mins to get them. I’ll admit they were good fries, but still, they’re just French fries nothing to special. It was also weird seeing soldiers just walking around in their full gear carrying assault rifles. I guess it’s necessary, but a bit off putting. I only spent a day in Brussels before heading to Bruges. Bruges is amazing and way better, but that will be the next post.
I’m currently in my hostel in Bruges. I’m heading to London tomorrow so I can go see the rest of the UK.
pictures:
Ok the waffle pics are making me hungry !