Getting good.

Well, we just arrived in Brugge (In Brugge?) and we’re in love. With the city, and more and more with each other. Amsterdam was, well weird. And Rotterdam was a whirlwind. Delft was just wet. Ok- backtrack. So we went to Amsterdam and stayed in the scariest hostel ever. Neither of us had ever been in a hostel before but for 10euro a night, we got what we paid for. We arrived after getting lost a bunch of times and getting misdirected by some local cops- to a girl screaming at the reception guys who eventually called the cops on her. Then, no idea if it was intentional or not but we almost got swindled by the guy at reception for 10euro. Ken who had his sharp wit about him caught it and got me my money back. I was like… is this hostel life? Cuz I’m not cut out for this!

We’ve been so paranoid about money and pickpockets the trip has been almost a bit stressful so far. It’s like we’re trying to survive without ever eating and we are trying not to look like tourists even when with big backpacks on our backs, we obviously look like tourists. I finally had to say to Ken- you know most countries like tourists, as long as we don’t cause a traffic jam or anything I think it’s ok. We’re so Canadian! Scared to be impolite, or annoying… when in reality here the culture is a lot more shall we call it- blunt. People say what they feel, with no filter.


That first night we went hunting for food and got a ham and cheese sandwich and some nachos for way too much money. Then, off to the ‘coffee shops’ we made it to The Bulldog and asked to see the menu. The guy was nice, obviously used to people asking for some explanation, and we took part is a little piece of Netherlands tradition- Fred. Fred came ready rolled and HUGE! by my standards. We smoked and sat for a while in the heart of Amsterdam, adjusting to this strange reality. (Dad, breathe… you only live once). On the walk back to the hostel, the inevitable philosophical conversation started… Fred will do that to you. See, Ken is having a bit of a hard time with this whole trip. He misses home. He’s a creature of comfort. I think we both had an idea in our heads of the ‘woo hoo! TRAVEL’ adventure mentality. But in reality, that’s not who we are. Don’t get me wrong, I had my meltdown. Tears, yelling, the whole bit. Be he has to reevaluate this trip pretty often. He’s lonely. I tell him I’m here for him. I try to get peppy and do the usual ‘Kalene’ thing, and try to fix it. But of course, this is the journey we are on. I can’t fix it. He has to decide for himself that this CAN be fun and adventurous, as long as we stick true to ourselves.

Day two in Amstedam was much better. We found our new hostel, a bit far but nice, clean and huge. We already knew we would meet some good people. We went off exploring and found Anne Frank house. It’s pretty unbelievable. That girl was wise well beyond her years. The house is so tall and narrow the stairs are downright scary. We both loved the experience of seeing everything. They even have some posters of Anne’s favourite actors and musicians of the time on the wall, preserved on the original wallpaper. Otto Frank, Anne’s father and the only remaining relative after the war, actually cut down the wallpaper to preserve it . He worked for two years to make Anne’s dream of publishing a book about a family who lives out the war in hiding come true.

The next day we went to the sex museum (can we say tourist trap?) and that night we went on a pub crawl in the red light district. Another oddity of Amsterdam. It was really strange to see girls sitting or standing in these little glass cubicles trying to attract men. And then to see someone either enter of exit the little rooms, wow. Just plain weird to me. And, it costs these girls a FORTUNE to rent the spaces. Often 150euro for an 8 hour shift. They charge abound 70 euro per guy… just for the basics (use your imagination people).

Sunday we had to check out and we went on a free, 3 hour guided tour of the city. It was AWESOME. The guide was really well informed and gave tons of insight into the history, current lifestyle and curiosities of the city (for example, she explained that the buildings pay taxes based on the width of the house… hmm). Next, we went to meet our next couchsurfing host Rik at his place and got to know him. He is a really nice Dutch guy who is a cop. He let us stay at his place the next morning and let ourselves out when we were ready to get going which was awesome.

We had a nice couple relaxing days in Amsterdam after that went to a bar to listen to a Canadian friend Tavo’s band and then Tuesday we bid Amsterdam adieu and were off to Rotterdam!

Rotterdam is totally different than Amsterdam. It’s big, built up and modern. I mean really modern. The whole town was bombed flat during the war and so everything had to be rebuilt within the last 50 years. They love their modern art so there are some great funny sculptures around. The most famous is a huge Christmas gnome holding a really weird object. He has been nicknamed, yup- the buttplug gnome. So funny. We basically toured the whole city, which is quite small but has some fun stuff. It seemed like summer would’ve been a bustling port city (it’s the 2nd largest port in the world after Shanghai). I was absolutely frozen stiff when we got to Rotterdam so off we went to the shopping district (yippee!) to buy me a coat.

Here, we stayed with an amazing Aussie couple from Melbourne named Mandy and Andrew who really showed us an awesome time. They live right in the middle of the city in an old apartment that has no fence on the roof! It was so scary up there because the wind is INSANE in the Netherlands. But we got a really excellent view of the whole city and even saw the bridge where the Tour De France started last July. Pretty excellent. We hit up some great restaurants and had way too much beer (I couldn’t keep up!) But may I just say, Turkish food, pretty yummy.

You might think after 7 days in The Netherlands this would be enough, but nope. We had to hit up Delft before we left. It’s a small little town near the Hague where that classic blue and white pottery stuff comes from. I really enjoyed it and we stopped at 11:11am next to the old church to have a moment of silence for Remembrance Day. I was actually really surprised because everyone in London wore poppies but in The Netherlands I didn’t see a single one. It was however beautiful listening to the bells, which chimed for the whole 11th hour (except for one minute at 11:11). We got absolutely sopping wet so we cut the visit short and we decided it was high time that we headed off to BRUGGE! However, not before we realized that our train passes got us into the 1st class lounge. Um, SCORE! We got free coffee and a nice, clean, FREE bathroom. Plus we took pop for the train ride.

The train was actually wonderfully relaxing. We also got first class seats which didn’t mean much this time but for the girl who is used to saying ‘give me the cheapest thing you got’ it was pretty fun none-the-less.

Brugge is stunning. We are both really excited to be here. Belgian beer! Belgian waffles! Belgian Chocolate! I’m in! We have a hostel here for three nights which is highly rated so we’ll see. I’m just excited to see the Medieval stuff. It’s all been rebuilt here but I’m still excited.

I feel like I’m settling in to this moment to moment business ok. I still sometimes get caught up in the advice people have given us and I forget to look at the things I actually want to do or see, or how I feel like things should be done. We were given so much advice, which I know was all done with good intention, but it’s proving to be downright annoying. (Yes dad, I am cold and wet. No, the couchsurfing thing isn’t always perfect. Yes I do wish I had a smaller bag sometimes. No my shoes are NOT waterproof). The thing is, no matter what happens, we will fuck up. We will not see or do everything, and there will always be someone who thinks we could’ve ‘done it better’ but right now whenever I get those moments (however fleeting) where I feel like ‘wow’ I’m in fucking BRUGGE. I can’t explain the power that comes with that. And no matter how we live our lives no one gets those moments all the time. You just bide your time until next one comes and you can pump your fist and say ‘FUCK YEAH! I’m THERE!’