I’ve been aware of this for a while, but never really thought too much into it until I recently saw an old episode of Loony Tunes. It was one of those episodes where Elmer Fudd was hunting rabbits and that rabbit - of course - happened to be Bugs Bunny. Apparently the most clever rabbit of all time. Basically the same formula for all the episodes with those two characters. You know the routines if you watched it when you were younger. Bugs plugs Elmer’s gun with his finger and the gun blows up in Elmer’s face then Bugs kisses Elmer and runs away and jumps in a hole. Or the classic moment where Bugs dresses as a girl rabbit and somehow makes a pass at Elmer Fudd. Elmer always falls for this and falls completely in love with Bugs Bunny.  Elmer will then find out it is Bugs trying to trick him and the hunt resumes. Everyone passes this off at Bugs’ clever wit. But I feel that Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd are both gay.

Just because I’m a white, straight male born in a small town in Alberta doesn’t mean I’m against gay men having a cartoon icon, but the cartoon icon they have chosen (apparently) is SpongeBob SquarePants. Don’t believe me, read the Beginning, peak popularity (1999-2004) of the Wikipedia article on SpongeBob. If you read this section, you will see that the creators even stated that SpongeBob is asexual. This is, in fact, true to what SpongeBob is… a sea sponge. Actually sea sponges are hermaphrodites. They do have both sexual organs, but not in a way that humans can. Read the wiki article about sponges if you want to find out more. So if any group should pick SpongeBob as a cartoon icon it should be hermaphrodites.

In closing, I think Bugs and Elmer should tie the knot. And, from what I derive from this picture, Elmer has accepted the fact that Bugs is the dominate member of their same sex couple as he has outwitted him in so many meetings that he is clearly the big spoon. I wish them happiness in all their years of marriage and I hope they find acceptance in the world. Congratulations you two!

I’ve never been much of a music purchaser, I think the last time I bought a CD though was in January. I actually bought 2. Cardinology by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals and Only By The Night by Kings of Leon. And by the time I got them home, they were just turned into digital copies on my computer and the actual albums are on a shelf some where. This lead me to my decision to start buying digital copies only. And since I got an iPhone, I make all of my purchases, to date, on iTunes. I just wanted to throw out a list of what I’m listening to lately on hear with the hopes of people will recommend me some tunes perhaps. I’m just going to put them in alphabetical order.

• Bravery
• Cage The Elephant
• Coconut Records (Jason Schwartzman’s band)
• The Dead Weather (Jack White’s new thing)
• The Dodos
• Great Lake Swimmers
• The Raconteurs
• Ryan Adams
• Taylor Swift
• The White Stripes

I’m really enjoying anything involving Jack White even though he looks like Michael Jackson.

Edit: apparently I didn’t allow comments on this post. So… hopefully if you were going to comment you will now.

Pfffsssshhh! Yeah. This is happening. Basically I haven’t updated anything in a while and decided I should share.

I’ve been buying a ton of DVDs on Amazon lately. I mean a lot. 15 in the last 2 weeks or something. Due to this I’ve been watching a lot of movies. And it turns out my cheap, Sears brand DVD player starts kicking the bucket. Since I got a new HD TV for Christmas, I decided it was time to upgrade and got myself a Blu-Ray player. Future Shop had the model I wanted from Sony and I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about it from my friends, so I bought it. I have to say, the quality is amazing and I can’t wait for the Blu-Rays I’ve ordered off Amazon to show up. Which ones you ask? Band of Brothers, Die Hard quadrilogy, Rambo, Planet Earth and maybe some others I can’t recall.

But my DVD player is still kind of working. So I took my old TV and DVD player and set it up by my exercise bike and Bowflex. Ya, I got a Bowflex. No big deal. I like to watch movies while I’m exercising because I usually exercise for about an hour at a time. Also for Christmas - which I realize was months ago but whatever - I got Mighty Ducks 1 and 2 on DVD. I’m sure you all remember the basic story of Mighty Ducks 1. The classic underdog story of a team with no chance that no one wants to coach in the poor neighbourhood. Even the coach is court ordered to coach the team. So basically in the D2 (Mighty Ducks 2) they decide to get Coach Bombay to do it again but this time for USA in the world champs. This time he isn’t court ordered to do it, but is injured in the minors just as he was about to get a shot to get into the NHL and has nothing better to do. So for some reason they get all the same kids from the first movie to be on team USA plus 5 more randoms. One of whom I might add can’t even stop. Immediately the one kid is upset that they can’t be The Ducks and they have to wear Team USA jerseys. I don’t see the big deal here, because it’s your countries colours and you’re representing them on a world scale and you should be honoured. But whatever, they eventually become the Ducks again the last period of the last game against the dreaded Icelandic team! So the 3 teams they play are Trinidad, Germany and Iceland. Iceland being their biggest competition. The first thing that comes to mind is… what the hell?! Fair enough you see Germany actually putting up a fight in a world competition standard but Trinidad and Iceland? What about Canada or Sweden or Russia? The movie is basically a mockery of hockey, but I suppose it has a good message. It’s not all about winning. It’s about having fun playing the game… and once you realize that, you will win first place. Also, I’ve never been to Minnesota, so no offense if I’m way off, but at one point the movie there is a comment that Iceland is very similar to Minnesota. I don’t believe that for a second, I’ve been to Iceland and I would be really surprised if they looked anything a like. I think in the end though, they should have done the Flying V with the Knuckle Puck and some how incorporate the kid who can’t stop, the Texan with the lasso and Fulton Reeds’ incredibly powerful slap shot (he only gets 1 in 5 on net though I guess).

Another completely unrelated fact I found today is that there are different iTunes Stores for different countries. For example, there is some music on the US iTunes store that isn’t on the Canada iTunes store. And this is completely the fault of international copyright laws and how record labels handle this with iTunes directly, so I’m not blaming Apple, but I’m blaming the large record labels. Don’t make it hard for me to buy music on iTunes just because I live in Canada. I’m probably going to end up downloading it illegally if I can’t get it legally. Hopefully this post doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

Well it’s back home now and why not give my blog a new name. The title bye for now no longer seems appropriate now that I’ve returned to Canada. I suspect a lot less people will care - including myself - about what I write now that I’m not traveling. So I’m basically going to write what I’m up to in the next while including Christmas and New Years.

Christmas I’m spending at home this year. Last year I was in Jaca, Spain and, even though it was not with my family, it was still really fun. It was with my second family that was established in Scotland at Castle Rock hostel in Edinburgh. We did a small gift exchange and I experienced a few things I hadn’t before. Midnight Mass. Caroling. And, primarily, Christmas without my real family.

New Years Eve last year was in Edinburgh. There is a festival called Hogmanay every year and it’s pretty mad. We rung in the New Year on Princes Street with thousands of other people counting down, screaming, drinking and enjoying a copious amounts of fireworks exploding in any direction you were facing. This year I will be in Vegas with a few close friends and I imagine it will be similar to to the last time we were in Vegas, but with tens of thousands of extra people. I can’t say I’m not excited for it, but I’m also not expecting it to be much different than last time I was there, which will be good, because I had a blast.

I’d like to close with saying I bought a Macbook Pro. I didn’t really need a new laptop, but I decided it was time to make a point to Microsoft and companies that sell laptops packaged with Vista (Like Dell). I no longer want to use Microsoft Vista as my operating system. It is horrible and it is time for a change. Windows XP was by far the best operating system Microsoft has ever released and Vista is a joke in comparison. I don’t suspect I will be buying another PC with a Microsoft operating system again. I also don’t suspect I will ever buy a desktop computer again. As I game less and less, I find that PCs are too hard to maintain for the 1 or 2 games I’m interested in per year. Besides Vista is basically trying to mimic Mac’s OS X, so why not just use what they are trying to copy?

Alright, here’s the scoop. I’m in Iceland. And I’m writing this post as a draft. This means I’m writing it installments and saving my progress in between for those of you who don’t know. I don’t typically do this, but I feel more ambitious about writing in my blog lately. Where will I be when I’m done? Who knows. Will I proofread what I have written after and try to make it sound meshed together better? No.

Anyway, the title of the post is a quote from a song by the band Foreigner. The song being of course, Cold As Ice. It has been stuck in my head the whole time I’ve been in Iceland and I’d really appreciate if you could listen to the song while reading this. Wait for my queue to start playing it though. I’m going to write this post so that the amount of time it takes you to read it, is the exact length of the song. If you finish the reading before the song ends, congratulations. You are an above-average reader. If the song finishes before you finish reading, you are mentally retarded. Sorry.

Start the song… NOW!

I arrived in Reykjavik - the capital of Iceland - on Oct 8th at about 10:30pm, in Icelandic time. This was disappointing because I wanted to see the landscape from the sky. I hope it is clear on my return flight as I will be leaving in the morning. Anyway, Reykjavik is awesome. It’s strange, because in the city itself, there isn’t that much to do. Sure there are a few museums, but I’m not a big museum guy. It’s a small city as well, only ~180,000 people. This is more than half the population of Iceland however. I do like small cities though. I like being able to walk every where. The houses look a little different than any where else. Usually they have tin siding and roofing. Tin buildings sound horrible looking I understand, like a shed or a barn of some kind. But the style of the tin they us is actually quite nice looking, and since pretty every house you see has tin on it, it’s not weird. Lots of the houses are even all black, which is I think looks really awesome. Speaking of which, I heard a rumor from a few Icelanders that Björk has a house in Reykavik that she recently painted all black… including the glass of the windows, so you can’t see in or out. Björk is a weird person, but I’d like to find this house and take pictures of it and hopefully weird her out more. I did search for it where I was told it roughly was, but couldn’t find it.

Enough about Björk and her weirdness. I feel ending the subject requires a new paragraph entirely. Icelanders remind me Norwegians. They are really friendly and it is easy to initiate a conversation any where. This is great for a person traveling alone. Especially in the low-season (i.e.: right now). I can easily go to the bar alone and some random Icelander(s) will have a conversation with me. Speaking of the bar, they are like Norwegians in that matter as well. Liquor is cheap in the liquor store - because they are controlled by the government - but liquor is expensive at the bar. So; likewise in Norway, they don’t go to the bar until 1 or 2am. And they usually only go on Friday and Saturday, as they are apparently hard workers during the work week. I’d imagine Thursday is popular for uni students in Reykjavik, but I didn’t go out Thursday. However good I think Reykjavik is, any Icelander will tell you that Iceland is all about the countryside. So you have to get out of Reykjavik.

I did leave Reykjavik of course. It is quite easy to, there are so many excursions from the capital. Even in the low-season and even more in the high-season. First off, I went to the Blue Lagoon. Which is completely incredible looking. I understand there are lots of places in Iceland that look similar to the Blue Lagoon, but apparently the Blue Lagoon has certain bacterias and other minerals in the water that other similar looking places do not. Check out the picture near this paragraph to see what I’m talking about. I don’t know if the photo captures how cool it truly is, but it will have to do. I mean, unless you actually go to Iceland and check it out yourself. I’d recommend it.

I also did a tour of The Golden Circle as it is called. It’s probably the most popular tourist route in Iceland. The main sights you see are The Golden Falls, Geysir (where all geysirs got there name from), where Iceland is breaking apart, and many other really great sights. The tour was pretty good I thought. The scenery was epic, there was tons of info from the guide, but my guide was really boring. I mean, she tried to make a couple of jokes, but her stories were like reading a history book. It’s all really interesting, but the presentation just isn’t riveting. I suppose it is hit or miss with the guides. I’m not dissatisfied with the tour and I’d say check it out for sure. Unless you feel like renting a car and just driving to the spots.

Whale watching was a bit disappointing. Perhaps I’m a bit jaded. When I was in the Dominican Republic last, I went deep sea fishing and it happened to be hump back whale mating season. Apparently, the Domincan is where they go to do this. So we must have saw 20 to 25 hump backs. On the whale watching tour I went on we saw 5 minke whales. They did keep resurfacing and one was really near the boat, maybe 10m away. So that was cool. Really hard to get a picture of, because you don’t know exactly where they are going to come, they surface only briefly and you aren’t really watching if you are playing with your camera. We also saw some dolphins about 150m away, and it was nearly impossible to see anything more than splashes. But a whale watching tour is very hit or miss. They can’t make whales swim near the boat. So I forgive them. Plus, it was pretty cheap to go anyway.

The last tour I did out of Reykjavik was supposed to be just a tour of a lava cave. Being the low-season, I went later in the day to the place where you book tours and asked what other people have booked, because you need a minimum of two people to go on most of the tours. And I’m clearly only one person. Turns out a group of three book a tour of a lava cave. It sounded cool, so I paid for the same tour. The touring company phoned me an hour later and told me there has been a mistake and the group changed their mind. They wanted to go into the lava cave, but as well go snorkeling in Silfra, which is where Iceland is breaking apart. The water comes off a glacier and is filtered through volcanic rock and other fun geological stuff that I don’t undestand. Anyway, this results in the water being incredibly clear. You can see for 100m underwater. The water coming from the glacier also results in the water being +2°C at all times. Fortunately we had dry suits on for this, but, as I found out, no dry suit is ever 100% dry. Fortunately the suit you wear underneath absorbs the water and when your body warms that water, it’s like another layer of insulation. The dry suits also make you float. So basically anyone can do it. All you have to be able to do really is kick your feet and breath through your mouth. And there is a slight current that pushes along the way, so you barely have to swim. I’d highly recommend going snorkeling. It was so incredible. Also, the lava cave was really awesome. Very short, but I’ve never seen anything like it before, so it amazed me.

Alright, most of the stuff I mentioned wasn’t in Reykavik. What did I do there, you ask? I searched for Björk’s house, walked around… a lot, went out to some bars, and ate whale and puffin. I know you want to hear about how whale tasted, but I’m going to start with puffin. I had smoked puffin, which didn’t really taste that great. Sort of just like any kind of random smoked meat. It had a weird consistancy and was really dark. I didn’t like it very much, but the mustard dip they provided with it was great. First off, don’t give me crap for eating whale. Whale was actually pretty good. I think I had minke whale. It basically looked like a beef steak. But it was in small chunks because I got it on a skewer. To be honest, it pretty much tasted like beef. The only differences I could find was that it didn’t really have a grain like you’d see in a beef steak, making it harder to cut than beef. And, it had a slight fishy taste. I imagine this is from being in the ocean. I also ate it with mustard. The mustard they have in Iceland is different than our typical crappy yellow French’s mustard. It actually tastes good. Speaking of mustard, I’ve also been eating lots of hot dogs. Apparently hot dogs are really popular in Iceland. There is an old hot dog stand in Reykjavik that has been opened since 1919. I was told to try a hot dog when I got to Iceland and I thought that was stupid, because you can get hot dogs anywhere in the word really. But they really are better here. I was really surprised. I strongly suggest eating hot dogs when in Iceland.

I’m also drove around Iceland. I decied to go clockwise due to a lot of mountain roads being in the North. I figured they might be more difficult to traverse and if I got them out of the way first, I could see how much time I had left to get back to the airport down the South. I actually didn’t have any problems with the roads in the North. I thought they’d be a lot more difficult. I mainly stuck to highway 1. This is Iceland’s main road that basically goes around the coast. I feel the more difficult roads the ones along the East coast, but I could see how the roads could get a lot worse in the North later in the winter. Probably all the roads would be a lot worse in winter actually. But that’s pretty obvious.

My basic Itinerary

Day 1. Reykjavik to Akureyri.
Day 2. Akureyri to Seyðisfjörður.
Day 3. Seyðisfjörður to Vagnsstaðir. This was the most difficult part of the drive.
Day 4. Vagnsstaðir to Vik.
Day 5. Vik to Skógar. Walked on the glacier, then back to Vik.
Day 6. Vik to Njarðvik.
Day 7. Around the peninsula and back to Njarðvik.

I can’t really describe the stops I made. I just kind of pulled over at picnic areas or at other marked points of interest or really whenever I saw something that looked cool. I can say the landscape changed pretty frequently and into types of landscape I’ve never or rarely seen before. Glaciers, lake filled with icebergs, lava fields, areas with geothermal activity (steam coming out of holes in the ground and/or geysirs), black sand fields, and black sand beaches. I’m sure my descriptions here are not adequate, but, I assure you, the landscape is amazing. You rarely see forests and the villages are very small. Like I said, over half the populate lives in Reykjavik leaving the rest - about 120,000 - in an area about as big as Great Britian. I would like to repeat that you should definitely get out of Reykjavik. I’m sure I could have driven around Iceland in 4 days, but I’m glad I had 7. I could probably have done with more days because I missed some stops and drove more than I wanted to some times. But I kind of just winged it. I had a map and a car and just drove. Picked a town each morning to drive to and just went there. If there was a hostel in the town and it was opened, I’d stay. Otherwise, I’d just go some where else.

I’d like to conclude by saying I ate 21 hot dogs in 5 days. And also, go to Iceland.

If you were to ask me, “If you could go only one place in Belgium, where would you go?” My answer would not be Brussels. It would be Ghent. Or Bruges if you want to be in a more touristy place. Brussels had quite a few tourists too, despite the fact that there was even a rail strike while I was there. I’m not sure why to be honest.

I guess the highlight of Brussels is supposed to be that fountain with the pissing child. It’s small and I’ve seen similar statues in other fountains, but maybe it was the first. It’s really not that impressive, but if you’re in Brussels you should probably look at it. Or at least laugh at the crowds of people swarming it for pictures.

There was also the Atomium, which is supposed to be “The Eiffel Tower of Belgium”. For being labeled that you would think that I would’ve heard of it before. It looks kind of cool, but it is quite a far ride on the metro to get there. It also costs 9 Euro to enter, which I thought was a little high, since it wasn’t that tall (maybe a tenth the size of the Eiffel tower, probably smaller) and and far from all the other sights. I would say it was worth a look at from the outside.

One other odd thing I’ve seemed to notice about Belgium - at least the cities I’ve been been to - is that they like to label their entire population with an identity or general attitude. Maybe this is just the information I got from Use-It, but I didn’t really see much of this identity at all. For example, Antwerp claims to be the fashion capital next to Paris and one of the main places to go out in central Europe; Brussels’ people tend to people being “cool” is stupid and more of an insult and they are more laid back (I thought being cool and laid back was the same thing). I think this is probably just Use-It trying make up things for tourists to talk about.

I don’t want to say that Brussels was completely horrible. I mean, they seem to have a cool night life and I think it would be a good city to live in. It is a great hub for travelling. I’m sure there are a number of other entertaining activites to do in the city that aren’t related to tourism. But go to Ghent or Bruges instead if you have to choose.

Utrecht is a fairly decent city. Not a lot to do or see. But a decent place to relax. The hostel I’m at is pretty nice as well. It’s called Strowis and I’d recommend staying here if you are planning to stay in Utrecht. If you plan to stay here, book well in advance. I spent only a few hours looking around the city and I feel I’ve covered all the sights and then some. The centre is pretty packed and doesn’t allow much of any area for relaxing (i.e. green areas). Most of my time here has actually been spent either on laundry or catching up on some reading. But sometimes it’s nice to have a break from constant sight-seeing.

I took a day trip from Utrecht to Zaanse Schans, which is a small and pretty much fake village north of Amsterdam by about 20km according to Google Maps. It was a pretty odd itinerary given some track repairs going on. (1) Train from Utrecht Centraal to Amsterdam Sloterdijk. (2) Bus from Amsterdam Sloterdjk to Zaandam. (3) Train from Zaandam to Doog-Zaandijk. (4) Walk ~300m to canal. (5) Take a ferry across the canal. (6) Walk another ~300m to Zaanse Schans. The description I read of Zaanse Schans was that there used to be thousands of windmills and, even though, a lot of the original windmills are gone, many have been rebuilt and some moved to the location to show what it would be like back in that time. Well, there were only 4 or 5 windmills there, much to my dismay. However, I still love a good windmill, so I wasn’t so upset that I couldn’t enjoy what was there. I’d recommend checking it out, but be aware of the fake-ness and the low count of windmills.

Den Haag was my next stop. And it pretty much rained non-stop the whole time I was there. So I spent most of my time at museums or in the hostel. I only really went to two museums and those were the Mauritshus and Escher in het Paleis. Maurtishus was partly closed for renovations and wasn’t really that indepth. However, Escher in het Paleis was really interesting. It’s really easy to follow with lots of reading material that helps you understand MC Escher’s work. Was easily one of the top three museums I’ve been to in Europe. My favorite being Van Gough in Amsterdam, then Escher in het Paleis in Den Haag and finally The Louvre in Paris. I’d recommend going to Den Haag just for the Escher museum.

I went to stay with a friend in Leiden. However, I spent most of my waking hours day-tripping.

I first went to Kinderdijk. A great place to see windmills. I would wager there are 20 to 25 windmills there. It is also completely free. Unless you want to go in one of the windmills, that will cost you 3 Euro. The best way to get to Kinderdijk is from Rotterdam. Take Waterbus route 1 to Ridderkerk, from Ridderkerk take Waterbus route 3 to Kinderdijk. It takes about 1 hour in total to get there and I think the last boat returned at about 5:30pm. I’d highly recommend going to Kinderdijk if you are in The Netherlands. Windmills are what Holland is all about. Since I happened to be going through Rotterdam, I decided to check it out a little bit. It is basically just a general big city. Nothing really wrong with it, but just kind of boring for a tourist. On the way back to Leiden I also got off in Delft, which was described to be as “sort of like Amsterdam with its canals.” I think Delft was nicer than Amsterdam, mainly because it wasn’t packed with tourists. It’s also quite small and, since there are not as many tourists, it doesn’t have many cheesy tourist shops.

The following day I went to IJmuiden, which is nearly impossible for me to pronounce, I think I sort of can say it now after about 30 or 40 tries. After randomly searching the Internet for some time, I found that IJmuiden has a Bunker Museum. It turns out it isn’t even really a museum… maybe an open-air museum. Anyway, its completely free to wander around. The tricky part was finding it. It was pretty easy after I got help from the bus drivers. I took a train to Haarlem, took bus 4 from the central station and got off at Camping de Duindoorn. If you are coming from Amsterdam, you can take bus 82. From there you walk a little further up the road to see “Bunker Museum” painted in blue on a half-buried bunker. Most of the bunkers are half - or more - buried in sand and covered in graffiti. I really wish I would have brought a flash light to venture further into some of the bunkers. Some of them you had to climb into or crawl into. It didn’t seem there were too many people around viewing them as well. So dare I say, it was off the beaten path. It was October when I went there and that is usually the off-season. I’d still recommend going if you can. There are apparently countless bunkers that haven’t been found yet and there is some on-going project to find them. I should also mention these are Axis bunkers, designed and built by the Dutch. Of course they were forced to do it by the occupying German military. I also took a brief look around Haarlem while I was passing through and was pleased with what I saw. It was quite busy, but I think this was due to some sort of market going on in the main square.

Now I am out of The Netherlands and off to further adventures in Brussels. I’d also like to add to ignore the constant change in tense of my post as I wrote it in a few sittings, so it might not make complete sense. I also refuse to edit the previous parts any further. I wanted to add more images, but the WiFi I’m using at the hostel in Brussels is restricting me some how.

On first arrival to Belgium, I have to say, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m in Liege. Which Lonely planet claims you either love it or hate it. I use to trust my Lonely Planet book like some sort of religious scripture. This was one of my downfalls. Their books are a decent guideline, but then you realize they never say anything bad about any where. They are always positive about everything. I mean, being positive is good. But I’ve gone to some museums - or other points of interest - suggested by Lonely Planet and they totally were lame. I think someone needs to write a guide book where they recommend places to go and places to avoid. I guess I could do it, but I’m lazy. Anyway LP is OK, but I realize I should only take ideas from it and not do everything they say.

Back to Liege. I don’t love it or hate it. It’s not bad. Some interesting sites. The highlight of Liege was actually going on a day trip to Spa and checking out some natural springs. Also, going to the sauna for a couple hours was nice too. The steam in the steam room tasted like mint. As well, I had my first waffle in Spa. I was walking back to the train station when I came across a small bakery. I found out a little old lady - looked to be about 70 - was running it once I went inside. She spoke a little English and helped me pick out some waffles. I ended up getting rhubarb and apple. She also gave me some free pastry as well as a gift. For this reason, I’d recommend you go to Spa.

Bruges is mental. There are so many people (read as tourists) there. I understand they made a conscience decision to become this. So naturally you find nearly everything is overpriced. The city is amazingly beautiful and, as LP tells me, a touch fake. However, I had a hard time telling what was supposed to be fake and what was actually really medieval. So, I was pleased. Fighting with the crowds is never fun, but I’m one of them, so I cannot complain… too much.

Gent (Ghent or Gand or Ghentd or Gaunt, etc.) is sort of like Bruges with a medieval old town. However, it is commonly missed by tourists, which is something I love. I did arrive on a Sunday during a massive parade and the streets were packed with people. And, if they weren’t packed with people, they were blocked off for the parade. I was worried this would last my entire stay, but once Monday rolled around, it was a lot more comfortable. I highly recommend Gent. But in July, they have a massive festival, so if you want to avoid the crowds don’t go then. Oh I almost forgot. Gent, and Belgium in general, is infested with cyclists. However, cobble-stoned roads with tram tracks in them plus rain equal disaster for cyclists. I witnessed two painful crashes. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but lots of people have those little seats for their babies on their bikes and it just made me cringe everytime I saw one. Luckily, no babies were involved in the accidents I witnessed.

Antwerp is supposed to be one of the fashion capitals of Europe, but not on the same level as Paris. I don’t particularly follow fashion, so I honestly don’t care. Antwerp is just OK. I mean, it’s got some cool sights - the Cathedral is quite nice and they have the oldest skyscraper in continental Europe - but it’s just not as nice as a place like Gent or Bruges, but I would say it is nicer than Liege. It is one of Belgium’s big 3 - Antwerp, Bruges and Brussels - but I haven’t been to Brussels yet, so I can’t really criticize it properly. It’s worth a visit, but 3 nights to me seems a little bit excessive.

I won’t be back in Belgium until after I do a tour of The Netherlands. At which point I will need to be in Brussels to catch a train to London. So this post will continue later when I return.

Luxembourg City is a great city. I wish I could spend more time in the country to see the other towns, but I decided to spend more of my time in Belgium. To be completely honest, I didn’t realize that Luxembourg was bigger than just one city. It’s a small country - 3rd smallest in Europe - but not as small I thought apparently.

L-city is very 3 dimensional. They should have packaged 3d glasses. After a long 3 days of walking throughout the city, my legs were killing me with he number of hills I had to climb. It is worth exploring every valley and hill you can climb though for some great scenery hidden away throughout the city.

I’m not updated as often as I use to. I’m not really surprised. As much as I want people to be up-to-date. Doing this is becoming too much of a chore. Anyway, I’m going to sum it up.

Kolding, Denmark (Aug 30 to Sept 1)

• Quiet town. Not much going on except on Friday and Saturday nights.
• Went to the beach and got sun burnt.
• Took a bus to Billund to check out Legoland.

Skagen, Denmark (Sept 1 to Sept 3)

• Walked to where the seas meet.
• Not much else to do. Just relaxed and read.

Århus, Denmark (Sept 3 to Sept 6)

• Århus Festival was on. Checked out some live music.
• Walked around the harbor area.
• Generally explored the city.

Hamburg, Germany (Sept 6 to Sept 9)

• Explored all the touristy locations that interested me.
• There was a bicycle race in the city which generally obstructed everything. Seemed like everyone was wearing gold medals after. I didn’t get one though. Jerks.
• Drank beer.

Dusseldorf, Germany (Sept 9 to Sept 12)

• Drank more beer. It’s still not as good as it was in Munich.
• Searched many book shops trying to find books in English that I actually want to read.
• Checked out the modern district, shopping street, and old town.

I know it’s not much, but it’s the basics of what I’ve been up to.