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Amsterdam is a city of legalized prostitution, decriminalized marijuana, lots of canals, and many, many bikes. So many bikes! More bikes than cars. I’m told the number of bikers in the city daily reaches into the hundreds of thousands. I totally believe it.

The stoner culture is interesting. You can only legally have something like 1/6 of an once of pot at any time. There are “coffee shops” that really don’t sell any coffee, and the smell can be found almost anywhere in the city.

The red light district itself is an experience just to walk through. Girls in bikinis are beckoning from behind windows, while tourists and mounted police abound. We grabbed a beer and just people watched for a while. The whole area is full of such foreign social interactions to me.

Amsterdam also felt pretty expensive, all things considered. And definitely a good place to be a tourist in. Moving on was bittersweet as I had the better part of 7 hours to spend on a train heading to Berlin and Carli and I split for her trip back to the states.

But next I get a new friend to travel around with: Joe!

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Antwerp is sort of like a miniature version of Brussels. It has a more well-defined shopping district, and feels a bit more centralized, but generally there are just fewer people and places to go. All the shops closed at 6 in the evening, which is so early that it started to seem like a ghost town.

It was still a fun place to hang out, and I continued my tour of Belgium beers. I didn’t spend much time staring at the diamonds though, which is what Antwerp is known for.

Well, that’s all for now folks. Hopefully you’ll get a nice batch of pictures soon.

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Belgium is sweet. It’s full of waffles that are more like funnel cake than breakfast food, homemade mouth-watering chocolate, fries traditionally eaten with mayonaise, and really good beer.

San Francisco definitely spoiled me in terms of taste for alcohol. The first restaurant in Brussels that we went to I realized I had already had over half of the local beers on the menu! Thank you Monk’s Kettle. Thank you Inner Mission.

It’s a more walkable city than most I’ve been in recently, which is a nice change of pace. The actual current city-life culture also just resonated with me more than most of the other European cities.

Brussels itself seems like a really fun city to live in. We caught an outdoor movie playing near a pond where young people were just drinking outside while taking in and enjoying the cool night breeze.

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Le Tour Eiffel, L’Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge…there’s just so much to see in Paris. It was sort of a whirlwind, especially with the European summer July sales (“soldes”) going into full swing, we were far from the only tourists in town.

We avoided lines at the Eiffel Tower and the L’ouvre by going in the evening. It was all very impressive and historical, though the city felt more old-fashioned and less modern than I was expecting.

I really felt like Paris was somehow the center of my trip (time-wise I hit the 50% mark on July 3rd). There’s just so much history there. But I was left wondering if that’s all it was. Is there anything moving forward in Europe anymore? Where are the European startup companies? New technologies and inventions? Or, is everyone just content with the way things are?

The unexpected highlight was definitely a restaurant recommendation from Andrea: Le Refuge des Fondues - a fondue place in Montmarte where wine is served in baby bottles and the clientale seems to all be expats and English-speaking tourists. Really fun!

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Hello, friends. Since Switzerland it has been increasingly difficult to find a decent internet cafe. Even the one I decided on today after seeing 5 or 6 doesn’t seem to want to let me upload pictures. Frustrating.

Geneva itself is the home of the UN, and a pleasant change from France in both weather and culture. It is cooler, and more international: asian restaurants abound, and there are a large variety of languages spoken. Once we got the hang of the bus/tram system it was also easy enough to get around.

Sadly, it was kind of a blur, as the only train that we could use the EuRail passes on left at 5:30 AM the next morning. So, I was only in Switzerland for something like 12 hours (though conscious for at least 8 of them). I’d like to spend more time there, especially in cities like Zurich and Interlocken, both of which I’ve heard a lot about.

The strangest part about travels into and out of the country is that despite not being a part of the EU, I never had my passport checked either arriving or departing. I’ll have very few stamps at the end of this trip.

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