Day 24 in Europe (Rotterdam)

The weather on Wednesday wasn't so friendly, but it did present us with a wonderful opportunity to see some windmills in action. We drove to Kinderdijk and I got uncharacteristically excited over the fact we were looking at real windmills. Yes I know, silly.

We returned to Rotterdam for a quick tour of the city centre. I was taking pictures of the Stadhuis there when a line of roller-skaters came rolling past and continued doing so, and I amusingly noted that in ten minutes I'd seen more people in Rotterdam than I had in the rest of the time I was there.

We finished off my stay with a great dinner of all-you-can-eat sushi! I don't remember seeing this in Australia. For some reason we get heaps of all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ but not Japanese sushi. Hmmmm...

Day 23 in Europe (Rotterdam)

I didn't actually do much in these two days because firstly I was really exhausted from the lack of sleep in Berlin and from the eight hour train trip, and secondly there really isn't that much to do in Rotterdam. I'm very grateful for my mate taking a couple of days off work so I could go check out some cool stuff around the place.

The Netherlands turned out a very fine day on Tuesday and the option was there to go check out Dutch beaches.  while I was in Rotterdam so we decided to drive to Scheveningen, a town next to the sea.

Australian beaches are world famous, but the beach near Scheveningen I found to be just as nice as Sydney's. The flat landscape of the Netherlands offers a beach that seems endless, and as an added bonus the Kurhuis offers a wonderful backdrop to the whole setting. There's even a bungee tower for those who find sunbathing too boring!

We spent a lazy three hours sitting at a café next to the beach, enjoying some Dutch pancakes and a beautiful summer afternoon. Choice!

Day 22 in Europe (Berlin to Rotterdam)

Another travel day, another day with very little to write about. Many hours on the train, hooray. :/

Before that, I had realised I didn't have any pics of the Reichstag so I walked out the station, took a long range pic, turned around, snapped another pic of the Hauptbahnhof, then BAM onto the train. Just had to add a couple of ticks to my checklist, y'know.

Fast forward six hours and I find myself rushing out of one train and into another. I double checked the destination of this new train. It says . Interesting. Well I need to go to Rotterdam so this should be fine right?

Wrong. Apparently the meaning was that the first two carriages were heading to Rotterdam and the latter two were heading to Den Haag. Oops.

Anyway I eventually got into Rotterdam some 40 minutes later than I expected, where I'm staying with an old friend from my Macquarie Uni days. All good, except, what was there to do in Rotterdam again?...

Day 21 in Europe (Berlin)

At this point I'd given up sightseeing in Berlin, so on Sunday I decided that at least I should head to Tiergarten for a nice relaxing day.

I have to say this place is rather amazing. It's like a forest in the middle of the city. It could be a beautiful summer day and a few steps later there's nothing but trees and shade. Absolutely wonderful.

The other thing to note were the sunbathers. I'd heard about them from people at the hostel but it was still amusing to see. I'm not sure that it was meant to be a *gay* area exactly but certainly there were only guys lying around, and in a certain area of the park they were also naked! Yep, naked men lying in the grass in the middle of Berlin! Winner!

I can deny it all I want but I suppose it was partly the reason that later in the afternoon I decided to revisit Tiergarten. Nonetheless it was very worthwhile, as I ran into a couple of the guys from the hostel, one of whom is a Tai Chi instructor, so I got an introductory lesson from him. The experience was rather magical; the yellow rays from the sunset piercing through the trees, the soft grass beneath my feet, a quiet afternoon reconnecting with my chi.

Dinner in the park followed, the venue being a beer garden that could have felt at home in some small Bavarian town. I actually forgot to take pictures but it was the perfect way to cap off my day. (Oh and I should note at this point that in the spirit of Oktoberfest I have consumed more beer in the last three days than I have in the last three years - I'm more of a wine person.)

Briefly went to a club called GMF as I was told it had some nice views from the Terrace. Took some pictures and had a drink at which point, being the lightweight I am, I got pretty drunk. Luckily one of the guys had to go leave early as well so I got home OK. All in all, a pretty damn good trip to Berlin even if there wasn't much sightseeing involved :)

Day 20 in Europe (Berlin)

I was feeling a little off-colour in the morning so I decided that the best thing to do was to have a light beer for brunch. The other fellas in the hostel found this rather amusing, and I put it down to my Aussie-ness. In all seriousness though, I find that a little bit of alcohol does wonders after a big night.

All I ended up doing on Saturday was to take a short walk through various parts of the city, before getting really tired and heading home for another quiet night in.

But of course I fail miserably at quiet nights in. A few of the guys had each individually decided they wanted to go to a club called Schwuz, so I figured that it must be pretty good and tagged along for the ride. To put it in perspective it was like Stonewall but with a much better floor plan and a better crowd. A few hours of dancing and drinking later and we were once again heading home in the daylight.

Loving it. I wonder why I don't do this in Sydney, but then I remember that I live more than an hour away from the city by public transport. What a waste :/

Day 19 in Europe (Berlin)

I fell behind a bit with my daily updates but we'll get there. My time in Berlin hasn't been much dedicated to sightseeing, as the last few days have melded together in a mix of 7am nights, beer, and dance music of various kinds.

Friday I found out that I actually needed to leave on Monday rather than Tuesday. Met up with some friends from Melbourne and we went out for dinner. Had a really bad mix of food and alcohol. Ended up throwing up in the bathroom of the restaurant. We took a good walk through the Berlin city centre, where I got some nice pics, and then we parted ways. I went back to recover at the hostel and have a quiet night in.

Some notes on the hostel:
It was a gay hostel, small and cosy so we got to know everyone at least by name. English was the language of choice but there were a variety of accents, as the backgrounds of the twelve guys who stayed there at some point over the weekend included Irish, English, American, Russian, Latino (Ecuador), Dutch, Cuban, Hungarian, Polish, and of course Aussie.

Anyway, someone suggested that at least a couple of drinks would be appropriate for a Friday night, and that turned into going to a chilled-out club on the other side of town.  The end result: drinking, dancing and getting home at 7h. Not what I expected but good times!