Eating Snails

A few more hours on the bus and I arrived in the romantic, tourist-filled city of Paris. I chose to only spend one night in Paris before catching a night bus out and I do not regret my decision. 

Getting in late afternoon from Ghent, the first thing on the agenda after checking in and showering was a good meal. My American travel buddy Nelson and I found a restaurant to go eat at...

I looked at the English menu we were given and decided when in Rome .. or Paris .. or whatever .. try the local dishes - one round of snails please!

They were actually great! A little squishy but full of flavour, obviously in part to the way they were cooked and prepared. My main dish did not disappoint either, a pizza-like bread dish topped with cheese, jambon and duck breast. French cuisine ain't all that shabby...

The next day I got up early to do the necessary sightseeing - I saw some big tower thing that a few people were posing in front of like idiots ...

The best part of which is the Australia advertisement on the Embassy right outside the main train station that takes tourist there.

The one tourist thing that I was really looking forward to doing in Paris was the catacombs. Home to around six million people, it is the world largest grave - and it is a totally surreal experience walking through.

You start by descending a spiral staircase for what feels like an eternity, before reaching the start of the tunnel network, which as part of the museum spans for a few kilometres, with obviously more locked off to tourists.

Then the bone formations start..

It is a very sombre, eerie place, but I am very glad I made the effort and waited the hour in line to visit it! Definitely the highlight of Paris for me.

Paris is a city that I feel like I will probably go back to at some time, so I was not all that upset about missing visits to all its famous museums. I only had one full day in the city and I think I made the most of it while I was there!

Getting Around Ghent

Next stop on the list is Ghent, a somewhat lesser known town in Belgium. Ghent is easily the most beautifully medieval city I have been to in Europe - it is stunning.

The next best part about a stop in Belgium is of course the world-renowned beer. It does not disappoint!

All the beers are around the 8% alcohol mark and taste absolutely incredible. A favourite hangout of mine back home was the Belgian Beer Cafe... buying the same beers as there for only a few dollars is the best feeling!

Modern Holland

From Amsterdam I caught a one hour train ride south to a newer styled Dutch city, Rotterdam. While Amsterdam was largely untouched by the Germans in WW2, Rotterdam was bombed to the ground. The result of this is that a lot of the buildings are newer, and hence Rotterdam has a lot of interesting architecture.

One of the main attractions in Rotterdam is the new Market Hall. Developed recently, this combination of apartments and street-style markets is quite impressive.

A short walk from here is the cube houses. Literally a bunch of cube homes that people live in...

The city is literally full of impressive buildings.

The sculpture below depicts a man screaming at the sky with a hole in his heart, a memorial to the WW2 bombings that took place here. Ironically, the podium that the statue is standing atop was actually built by the Nazi's as a pedestal for a statue to Hitler, but the war ended prior to it being used. 

The Waters of Amsterdam

Next stop from Hamburg was the stop on everyone's Eurotrip map, Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city. It gets its name from the fact that it is totally built on reclaimed land - the city was under water prior to its settlement in the late 12th century. The name is a clear reference to the dam on the river Amstel.

An interesting fact was that houses on the canals were taxed based on their front façade - the wider the front portion of the house, the more taxes the owners paid. As a result, the houses are tall and skinny for the most part, with only the ultra-wealthy building the bigger houses.

Another fun tidbit that stems from the skinny houses is how do people move furniture..? If you look closely at the picture above, you can see an overhanging beam from the tops of each house. Rope is hooked over this and furniture is hoisted up through the windows!

One of the highlights of my time in Amsterdam was a canal cruise I went on. Seeing the scenery from the distance of the river gives a different and stunning perspective.

I decided to go on a pub crawl while I was in Amsterdam - gotta check out the party scene in a town like this. I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It was probably just due to the fact that, like all of them, the pub crawl takes people to the most touristy areas where the locals avoid. Either that or everyone was just too stoned to really party, who knows?

A visit to Amsterdam wouldn't be complete without a visit to a world-renowned coffee shop. It's hard to turn a corner without coming across one. Walking in you are instantly greeted by the sweet smell of mary-jane. People are splayed out on couches, smoking bongs and rolling joints. Soft, soothing beats are playing. The service counter has a selection of tens of different strains detailing their genetic make-up and type and effects. 

From here, you purchase your wares, head upstairs and find a spot on the couch. Waitresses are around taking drink and food orders - being a coffee shop milkshakes, cakes, pastries and more are all available at your whim. It's not the worst way to spend an afternoon or two...

Hamburg - not just hamburgers

Next stop from Copenhagen on the way to Holland was Hamburg, another seven or so hour bus ride away.

Hamburg is very different to Berlin; Berlin was held in a state of disarray following WWII and the shared occupation by the Allies and Soviets, while Hamburg was a thriving independent city. Despite the name, the Hamburgers were better in Berlin.

While there I did a walking tour and explored some of the city. One of the more notable buildings is the Chilehaus building from the 1920's; designed to look like a sailboat to show homage to Hamburg's port city roots.

Following this I climbed the St Michaelis church tower to get a perspective of the size of the city. The large tower you can see in the photo below is St Nikolai's church, unfortunately most of which had been bombed out during WWII and was in scaffolding today. This church was easily the biggest I'd seen in Europe to date. 

Next up was a walk to the warehouse district. These warehouses were used as storage for trade goods when Hamburg was a major European trading town. Built outside the main city walls they offered a way to avoid taxes on goods at the time!

It's worth noting that Hamburg was the first German city to be bombed outside of gaining military advantage - it was targeted as a civilian city. The town was fire bombed by the RAF and USAAF in an effort dubbed Operation Gomorrah  - due to the proximity to the water and the town being a windy city, the result was a fireball inferno in the town centre.

Over 42,000 causalities resulted from the week-long Allied bombing run. The site of the St Nikolai's church has been set up as a memorial to those who died during WWII. 

Putting a Denmark on the map

Next stop from Berlin was the rich port city of Copenhagen in Denmark. I originally hadn't planned to visit Copenhagen, however a friend I dived with had just moved there and offered to put me up!

After an eight hour bus/ferry ride across from Berlin I arrived.

Copenhagen is notoriously ridiculously expensive - and it held up to that reputation. Average prices for anything was higher than we'd pay back in Australia - crazy! The reasons for this is purely taxes; the country has a great education and health care system. University is free for citizens of the EU.

Like England and other European countries, Denmark has a monarchy. I visited the square in which the heads of state live and saw a changing of the guard much like those performed in London.

Copenhagen has quite a number of free museums, one of which I visited on a rainy afternoon was the National Gallery of Denmark, featuring both contemporary and classic art from the past and today. 

I also visited the Nikolaj contemporary art centre in an old church. The exhibition was totally shit with only two pieces, but I got to climb the church tower and get a view of the city at least.

The most bizarre thing about Copenhagen is Christiania. Situated minutes walk from the main square, Christiania has its own laws and government. It's more or less a giant hippy commune inside the city, with the thousand-odd inhabitants suited to an alternative lifestyle. The law's are so different in fact that one street is known as the 'Green Light District' where the open sale of weed is permitted. 

Wie Gehts Berlin

Berlin, a town with so much history it is almost too much to take in.

I went on another walking tour to check out the main sights on offer in Berlin, starting at the Brandenburg Gate.

An interesting tidbit I picked up from the tour was the significance of the statue sat atop the gate. The gate was built as a sign of peace, in Pariser Platz (Paris Square), with the goddess of Victory and her chariot on top. In the late 1700's Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Berlin and took the statue to be returned it to Paris. It was then retaken in the 1800's following a military defeat. Great sign of peace.

From here we walked over to check out one of the remaining sites of the Berlin wall. The guide explained how this was the third iteration of the "wall", originally it was simply a roll of razor wire dividing the East and West. 

Not far from here was a commemorative memorial to those Jews that suffered under Hitler's regime. Thousands of stone pillars of varying sizes are marked to represent those that died.

Below is a French cathedral in Berlin, with services only being given in French. 

The tour was an overload on information. Lead by an English history PHD student, the guy really knew his stuff and was very passionate about it. The biggest thing that he tried to make us take away from the tour is how well Germany deals with its past, and how other societies can learn from it. 

The following day I went on a different tour altogether, an alternative walking tour. This was aimed at the underground street art scene which thrives in Berlin, starting from the American occupation of the South West quadrant of Berlin. 

The Australian girl leading the tour explained how the street art scene came to be in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. She explained how certain pieces were created and took us to a few of the more notable ones. 

Following this tour, I took a walk along the East Side Gallery, probably my favourite tourist stop in Berlin. It is a stretch of the Berlin wall that has been covered in sanctioned murals depicting peace and social commentaries surrounding the wall. 

What I found most interesting about Berlin is its economic state. The city is in severe debt - some 60 billion dollars - higher than even Detroit in the US who declared bankruptcy a few years ago. The city is kept alive through both tourism and the thriving Western Germany cities such as Frankfurt. Berlin's population has been on the decline as a result. The city is massive but eerily quiet.

Berlin has a great nightlife scene; it is a youth city after all. Living costs are relatively cheap, laws are a little more relaxed and creativity rules. It will be interesting to see how it progresses in the future - the wall only dropped and reunited the divided Berlin 26 years ago in 1989!