Merry Wanderer of the Night:
backpacking

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Hello blogging world! I am officially back in my own house in Iowa City. I'm still not freshened up from my trip, there is laundry and unpacking to do, but I couldn't wait another day to write a blog post. I had every intention of posting more while I was absent, but if I'm being totally honest I loved the break from blogging. I think I really needed it. And now I'm back to bombard with you with pictures from my trip. Jason and I hit up four countries and five cities in seventeen days. It was crazy.

We landed in Amsterdam first, and that was the only place I blogged from. It was also my favorite place we visited. I loved biking around the city and how Amsterdam is a city yet really feels more like a small town.

Favorite Amsterdam moment: Absolutely everything was closed on New Year's Day, so we ended up renting bikes and just riding around all day. It was frustrating at the time because none of our plans worked out, but now that I know we got to do everything we wanted (pretty much) I look back on that day with a great fondness.

From Amsterdam we took a short day trip to Brussels where there is a comic strip museum. Count me excited! Brussels also has a ton of amazing food and was probably the best food we had over the course of our trip.

Favorite Brussels moment: My mouth is still watering over the mulled wine and scalloped potatoes with ham and cheese. What a delicious snack. The comic strip museum was a lot of fun as well, although their gift shop was a huge letdown. Their English selection was one shelf. So yeah, the food wins.

Our next stop was Berlin, which is must say is one of the strangest cities I have ever visited. There is so much street art and punk culture there, which I really loved, but I found that the people were very abrupt. Not rude, just a little harsh. The way Berlin exists today is also about as old as I am, which was weird. You can really see the history of WWII and Communism there, which only makes the city feel harsher.

Favorite Berlin moment: I really loved this particular section of the Berlin Wall, but it's not my favorite moment. I'd have to say the best thing we did in Berlin was visit this bar called Kaufbar. You could buy the vintage furniture in there and they played awesome music. It was a very relaxing environment and felt more like a normal coffeeshop in the United States than a bar.

We took a day trip to Prague from Berlin. All we really had time for was a tour of the city and then some time at bars that evening. This is where we met one thousand Australians because they are all on summer holiday right now. I've met one Australian my whole life and I go to Europe and meet all of them. Crazy.

Favorite Prague moment: We stayed a night in Prague and after having a crazy day where we tried to see everything it was really nice to wake up the next morning and just wander around. Prague is a really beautiful place and the train ride there was even more beautiful.

Our final stop was Munich. We were getting fairly tired at this point but we still did quite a bit. We visited Hofbrauhaus, Dachau, Neuschwanstein, and did some shopping. They love their beer in Munich, so it was a pretty fun place to turn 21 for an American.

Favorite Munich moment: Even though it's not in Munich, the best day we had was my birthday (at least I think it was the best day). I was super hungover but visiting Neuschwanstein was so much fun. Pictures really don't do justice to the beauty of the snow covered forest on the walk up to the castle. It was a fairy tale birthday.

So that's my trip in a tiny nutshell. I had an amazing time and got just the break I needed. Jason and I are already talking about where we want to visit next!

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I'm currently sitting at the library in Amsterdam, which is beautiful and amazing. It's white with hardwood floors and very streamlined and techno. I could defnitely get lost here for awhile. We stopped here because we found out today that they have free Internet for anyone. Jason and I both agree that this is Amsterdam's best kept secret. If you're ever here and need to use Internet it's one of the easiest places to get some-- and you don't have to buy anything. Fantastic.

Today we went on a bike tour with this place called Mike's Bike Tours. It was a great way to see the city and get some ideas for places we want to go. Since so many people ride bikes here it was obviously nice to see the city in the way a local would, except with a tour guide pointing things out along the way. Jason and I enjoyed it since we ride bikes at home quite frequently, although the style of bike we rode here is very different from what we are used to. The bike tour took up most of the day and when we got home we had leftover Indian food from last night, which was delicious.

Tomorrow we are going to try and take a day trip to Zandvoort because that is where my family is from. I'm not entirely sure what we are going to do there, probablys just see what happens. There is a sort of nature resevoir there we might try to visit. We'll still have two days left in Amsterdam after that and we only have one day of definite plans. We will try to visit Anne Frank house, go to this bar with a windmill, and a market in the area our tour guide recommended. Some of these things a little far away from where we are staying so we're considering renting bikes for at least one day yet. It's a great time to try and cycle right now because there are fewer tourists and fewer locals cycling than there are during the summer, so it's relatively safe if you're used to cycling in congested areas, which we are.

As far as reading, I fnished a whole book on the plane ride over here. It was actually a short story collection I got at the Twin Cities book festival called If You Lived Here You'd Already Be Home, which was really fantastic and quick read.

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I had a lot of good intentions about posting a review today and doing lots of blogging stuff. But... I'm leaving in three hours and I have a feeling that over the next couple of weeks this blog is going to turn into more of a travel blog. I'm just too excited about this trip to even consider writing about books right now. Maybe once I'm out there I will be in the mood since I'll probably be doing a lot of reading on planes and trains, but right now my brain is either moving at super speed or way to slow to think. It's kind of hard to tell which.

I've been to Europe before, but this is going to be an entirely different experience. No parents, no chaperones, no hard set plans. Just a backpack-- that's all. I've wanted to go backpacking ever since I was a twelve-years-old. Right now I'm somewhere between "What the hell were you thinking, Ash!?!" and "Holy shit I can't wait to go." I haven't been this simultaneously nervous and excited about something since I started college. And maybe part of me thought I wouldn't do this in college, this whole trip actually stemmed out of me wanting to study abroad, but I opted to go backpacking instead. It would be great to leave for another country for all of next semester, which was my original plan, but this seems like a better fit for me, for some reason.

Maybe this trip is what I need after two semesters that just felt completely down and out. I think I need to remember that there is more to life than school or grades. I need to be challenged by something other than staying awake in class. I need to be put out of my comfort zone in a way that doesn't involve writing a paper. And I can't think of a better time to do it or a better person to do it with. Someday I'll be able to tell my kids I celebrated the New Year in Amsterdam and spent my 21st birthday in Munich. Whenever they think their mom is totally lame I'll throw that in their face. And next semester when I'm feeling sad about school and whathaveyou, I can look back on this trip and hopefully there will be some sort of life lesson there.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.