Parlez-vous engles?

The Parisians are an interesting bunch. I have met some really amazing, really friendly, really helpful people that go out of their way to make sure that this poor American boy find’s his way. But the shop owners, the only people that really have anything to gain by my presence, are so rude! They really don’t appreciate me being there. I always ask “Parlez-vous engles?” And they respond “No, do you speak French?” They have really weird rules too -- I can buy a coke for 3 euro, but if I want to sit, it will cost 5.

But France has been good. I went to the Eiffel Tower (of course), walked Champs-Elissez(sp?) and went to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Ferdinand and I ran into an extremely famous soap opera actress/sex symbol from Brazillian television. At least that’s what Ferdinand told me, he was really excited to meet her.

Ferdinand is growing on me, he is such a nice guy, but he still gets on my nerves a little bit. That kid will not stop talking! Jesus Christ, I know his entire life story from one full day of hanging out, even stuff he says that nobody knows back home. Brazilians definitely get a little smothering, and he takes so long to do anything. I do really appreciate his company though.

Today, my hostel was overbooked by 19 people, so I have to change places. The new hostel will be close to Notre Dam, so that will be cool. I haven’t had a chance to see what any bars are like in Paris though, I just hope I get a chance to have a few beers before moving on to a new city.

Brazil

Wow, Brazilians are f*ing intense. I feel so bad -- Fernando, my brazilian friend, is such a nice, sweet, friendly guy. I definitely couldn't make it through paris without him, and he's really a cool guy. But I am just feeling so damn smuthered. Brazilian people are just sooooooo touchy feely and its really just kind of getting on my nerves.

Viva La France

Little change of plans -- I'm in Paris now. Its amazing! The Eiffel Tower was hands down one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Much better than the statue of liberty, as my brazillian friend put it.

Anyways, I was on a train heading to Bruges, and I started talking to this Brazillian guy and this local girl who was heading to Ghent. The were both like "What the hell are you doing in Bruges? You should just go to paris instead." Seemed like they had a good point, so here I am in France! Paris is a huge, confusing city, luckily this smelly French girl helped us find the metro line to get to our hotel. All the locals have been suprisingly nice and helpful so far.

Anyways, I am sleeping at a place called the Aloha Hostel. I am using their public computer and its really difficult for me to type on the QWERTY keyboard and I don't want to rack up too much of a bill on this thing, so I'll have to write more later.

aNether day

My new hotel room is an extremely nice change from the squeaky bunk bed that I spent the previous week on. Usually the hotel charges 200 euro a night for that room, but with the deal that I found online and with Jessie covering some extra cost, I am only paying 35.

I decided to leave for Bruges on Thursday morning. There isn't a whole lot more I want to do here, but I am really starting to get into the groove of things. Amsterdam is really an amazingly beautiful city. Some of the dutch rules are a little funky though. Last night I was hanging out in a coffeeshop, and I went to grab a snack and came back. The bartender got majorly pissed at me, and it weirded me out because they are cool with people smoking marijuana and doing mushrooms in there, but eating falafel is totally crossing the line.

I think that today I am going to spend the afternoon in Vondelpark reading. I plan on reading a lot on this trip, so if anyone has any good book recommendations, please let me know!

I also want to sample as much beer and food as possible before I move on, maybe I'll try to meet some more locals too. I still can't believe how many attractive people there are in this town! I mean, I've really been trying to keep a mental tally, and I swear there are more attractive women in this town than unattractive. Everyone is in such good shape from riding their bikes everywhere, it's such a change coming from an overweight country like America.

Capoeira

Today was totally rad. I met up with Roxanne, who was working at my first hotel, and Jessie. We hung out for a while, went to a chineese place and then played a couple games of pool. We had to drop off Roxanne at the train station and then stopped at a coffee shop where we hung out with a street musician from Bostond and then some Capoeira performers stopped by.

Anyways, Jessie is passed out and snoring across the room and I am freaking tired myself, so I'll write more tomorrow.

More europe

Wow, I guess you can't talk about Ireland as being part of the UK or the British Isles lol. I was talking to this Irishman over breakfast and totally offended him. He got frustrated but then patiently explained it to me, so that's cool.

I'm not sure what I am going to do today. I booked a new hotel for the next three days with Jessie, which is a lot nicer than the dorm style bunk beds I was living in this past week. I'm also going to head down to the train station to see about getting the Eurail Flexi-Pass. Maybe I'll head down to Vondelpark or a cafe and read a bit. I don't know, I am kind of getting tired of the Netherlands! I think I am going to cut this leg of the trip a little short and move on to Belgium on Wednesday. There isn't a whole lot here for a guy like me. I met a guy who came to Amsterdam for the drugs and prostitution, and even he is starting to get bored of the place.