Well, our last day in Paris has come to a close. It was a day full of culture, we went to the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay.

The Louvre is simply huge. You can see its big from the outside but its deceptive. From the inside its hard to comprehend how big it is. Some of the paintings there date back so far that if you told me that you had a painting that was so old I would have thought it would be grey and faded. However they have paintings that are over 500 years old and still have vibrant colour. It’s a really cool place and you could spend a week there and not see everything

Musee d'Orsay holds newer paintings, many items date from 1800 and on. Impressionist paintings (Van Gogh and Monet to name two).

Yesterday we went to the Eiffel Tower. I walked up to the second level then took the elevator (they don't let you walk) up to the top. That was great. The view is great and it was just a good feeling.

Tomorrow I head off to Brussels on my own. Its going to be fun:)

Well, I'm by myself in Brussel. I made it on the train, got a cab and arrived at the hostel. The cab driver refused a tip so I asked in the hostel and everything is included here, no need to tip. This is important information. There are computers at the hostel, however they still have the funky keyboard (the AZERTY keyboard for anyone who is interested.

I don't have a plan anymore, I will probably just walk around a bit today and head out to do something 'real' tomorrow.

Feel free to send me an e-mail, I am checking adam[dot]nayer[at]gmail[dot]com while traveling.

After getting some food I walked to the centre of the city and back. The area around the hostel reminds me a bit of Montreal, once you get closer to down town it looks a bit more like Europe. Right in the centre of town there is a square. Around the square there is a lot of action, there are some very old buildings, there is some kind of beer festival and these two things put together mean a lot of people.

Another thing I can say is that there is now an Apple store in Brussels. I saw it so I had to go in to compare prices and I found out they just opened yesterday. I don't think they have had their official grand opening yet. Survey says that after taking into account the exchange rate some things are a little bit cheaper some are more expensive. I'm not going to buy anything.

I stopped in a couple of tourist shops and found a huge glass I want and a huge mug dad would like. Unfortunately I don't have any way to transport items that big / fragile so I am not going to get them. I also got a couple of chocolate bars from one of the many very nice chocolate shops.

I was also going to compare the traffic in all the places I have visited so far but this is long enough already so that will wait for another time.

I am currently at an internet cafe in Brussels. I started today off by taking the metro across to the other side of the city to the EU area. It was kind of boring because everything is closed for the weekend. There is tons of construction in the area, it look nice right now but I bet it will look really nice in a couple of years.

After that I tried to aim south to go to a park. I made it to a park and Royal Palace. The palace was neat, some of the chandeliers were not to be believed. I then went across the street to a park where I tried to figure out exactly where I was. This is when I finally figured out I actually had gone north and not south earlier. After I realized this it was much easier to figure out where I was.

Next I went to a cathedral which was nice. I then wandered around until I found myself in the middle of the square downtown where some kind of festival is happening. Now I am heading back to the hostel before figuring out what to do for dinner.

Firstly, this will seem very random to most people but:
Irwin would like to say hello to Lindsay.

Wow, I am actually on a normal (QWERTY) keyboard. I am actually having a bit of trouble typing because I was getting used to the other messed up one. Anyways, my time in Brussels is coming to an end. Tomorrow I head off for Amsterdam.

Two full days is about all you need in Brussels. There is not a huge number of things to do here. One thing I will say, if you like flea/junk markets it looks to me like you should be in Brussels on a Sunday. Most things are closed but there are at least 3 markets that I saw and I heard of one other.

Downtown Brussels is very nice, the rest...it’s a bit dirty. One thing I noticed about Paris and London was that they were very clean, no garbage on the street. not too much happened today. The best part of the day was dinner. I found what turned out to be a very nice restaurant, I wanted to get their card but there were out. After dinner I found one of my roommates sitting on a step on the street very drunk. If I had not found him and taken him back to the hostel I think he might have spent the night on the street, he had no clue where he was.

I made it to Amsterdam and found a place to stay. What I have not found is good internet access. This hostel is not as nice as the one in Brussels but it does have a great location.

Quick fact (according to my book):

1. Amsterdam has approx. 735 000 people
2. Amsterdam has approx. 600 000 bikes

I started off today by going to the Anne Frank exibit. That was quite intense. I followed it up by a nice lunch at a cafe. It was a good way to follow the visit as it helped relax me. A church not far off also had its chimes and bells what whatever else it had playing music.

After lunch I went to the Tulip Museum which I saw during lunch across the street. After that I went to the Fluorescent something museum. Yes, its been a weird afternoon. The fluorescent place is run by a major hippie (as you might imagine). Even so, it was pretty cool, he has some interesting things there. Did you know that if you put your VISA card under black light there is a blue eagle (its red if your card is from Europe)?

I hope I will be able to sleep better tonight. There are a bunch of kids (maybe 13-15ish don't I know) on my floor that were slamming doors and making a pile of noise last night.

Having the bike to get around is nice, beats walking everywhere. I think I will go ride through the park. I went for a short walk there yesterday but its pretty big so I think I only saw a quarter of it.

Well, I just got back from a walk around the red light district. That was interesting. Some good looking woman, some look like they used to be men, some may still be men. Anyways...it was worth walking around once. Its just so different.

Yesterday I went to the Van Gogh museum. It ended up being a bit smaller then I expected but it was still good. After that I went to a museum that has the history of Amsterdam. That was very interesting. I had no clue how old the city was. It was interesting to see how the canals were built and how the city was shaped.

I also went for a bike right through the large park. I was trying to measure it on my map and it may be close to 2 km long. It went slow and looked around. Huge numbers of people sun bathing and relaxing, it was very nice.

Today I went to a Jewish museum. It has the history of Jews in Amsterdam. That was very educational as I had no clue about any of the area's history.

Later today if there is time or tomorrow I'm hoping to go to some lighter museums; the history of sex museum and the hemp and hash museum.

Last thing, I saw a bike parking lot today by the train station. Wow. I took a couple of pictures, its was really impressive to see so many bikes like that.

After one final nearly sleepless night in Amsterdam I have made it to Prague. Last night was nice and cool outside, but brutally hot inside. I wanted to stay out later but decided I should try and get some sleep as I had to get up at 5:30 this morning to make my flight. I should have just stayed out as I think I only got about 2 hours sleep. Oh well. Amsterdam was fun and is a place I would go back to.

There was quite a thunderstorm in Amsterdam this morning between about 5:00 and 7:00. This translated into almost a 30 minute delay. Of course they bored us then told us about the delay so we sat there in the plane at the gate. Sigh.

Getting to the hostel was easy enough. They had transit directions online and that worked fine. The biggest challenge now is getting my head around the money. One dollar is about 20 crowns. Its an odd conversion so getting the hang of the prices will be a bit tricky.

I had heard so much about Czech crystal before coming to Prague that I thought I would be able to find it everywhere. However I when I went out for a walk last night I did not see any crystal shops. While walking around this morning I did not see any crystal shops. Then this afternoon...wow, I found the crystal shops. It was really incredible looking at what they had.

I started out today by taking lots of pictures at the Botanical Gardens. They had some very nice displays. I then walked up along the river into one of the main areas (tons of tourists). Walking around this area is where I found the crystal. I also found the former Jewish area. However by this time it was getting late so I decided I would go back there another day.

I figured out why I was having so much trouble converting from Canadian dollars to Czech Crowns. They don't have any cents. One crown is worth about 20 cents Canadian, but they do not have an equivalent to our penny. I think I am now starting to get the hang of it.

This morning I went back to the former Jewish quarter of the city. I went around to a number of synagogues. One of them had rooms where the walls were full of names of people who were taken away during the war and never made it back. I think it was about 10 000 of 118 000 made it back after the war. Behind this synagogues was a very old cemetery. I think someone said they stopped using it in the 1700s. Many of the grave stones are still readable.

Before coming back to the hostel I went to the national museum. I found the building more worth while then a couple of the exhibits, but that may have been partly because of the lack of english. The displays on animals were cool as well as one of the geology display.

I spent yesterday at Prague Castle. It is a very large complex with a ton of history. The first settlement on the site dates back from around 970 B.C.E..

One of the coolest things I did there was climb up to the top of the cathedral. 287 stairs in a tight spiral staircase that has two way traffic. It was quite a climb, but worth it for the view. The castle is in a great strategic place (on a hill) so the view from the top was great.

I am looking forward to coming home. Its been a good trip, but I ready to come back and get myself set up. Five more days.

The place I have been staying I have been on a day to day basis. The problem with that is that you can get into trouble if they get full. Tonight, the hostel is full. As such, I had to scramble a bit to find a place to stay for tonight. I thought I might head back to London a day earlier then planned but I could not change my ticket. I am about to move to another place right now which I don't think has internet. As such, this might be my last post until I get to London.

Yesterday was nice and relaxing, I went to a park, walked up a hill to a lookout tower, and just relaxed in the park for a couple of hours. I then went to the Medieval Torture Museum. They made quite the science about how to inflict pain.

Today the place is to do a bit of shopping. I think it is going to be an expensive day.

Well, I'm almost done. I've made it back to London after spending a day at the airport in Prague. I had nothing left to do in the city and the weather was not supposed to be nice (rain) so I just went to the airport in the morning. Tomorrow I am going to Stonehenge but for now I am off to bed.

Well, this is the end. I am almost all packed up and will be on my way to the airport in less then an hour. On the way here the flight arrived an hour early due to good winds, I hope this does not mean the winds will make us an hour late coming back. The flight is supposed to be almost 8 hour. Anyways, off to finish packing...

Well, I made it back. I have not updated in a couple of days as I've been trying to get myself back into this time zone. I am almost caught up in all my e-mails.

I am busy making plans to head back to Kingston. I still need some things for my new place, notably kitchen chairs and a microwave. I am also looking at getting a new bed.

It feels great to be home and I am really looking forward to getting back to Kingston. This weekend is homecoming so there will be tons of parties and things happening. I'm excited about seeing everyone again.

I have tons of pictures from the trip. That can be a problem with a digital camera, you just keep clicking because it does not cost you anything to take pictures. I have selected just under 50 I want to print out for starters.