Into the low-lying countries...

We left Malmö for the Danish capital of Copenhagen. We only had about five hours to explore the city before heading to the airport. We used the city’s free bike rental system and saw a good part of the city. It was a cold and windy day, so we headed to the airport a little early to relax before our departure. It was amazing how much the language changed just by going over the bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark. Emelie could understand some of what the Danes were saying, due to the slight similarities in the language, but had a rather tough time; imagine trying to understand what a very drunk Scotsman sounds like and you’d just as soon think he doesn’t speak the same language as you. The flight was effortless and we landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands in the late evening, finally saying goodbye to Scandinavia after two weeks.

After getting a bit lost after reaching the city proper, we took a cab to the part of town where our friend from Wheaton and hostess lived. Shoshana, a native of Amsterdam but now a resident of San Francisco, is here for half a year serving an internship in the fashion industry, which was great timing for us, as it provided us a stunning old house to stay in a quiet neighborhood. Sadly though, our time in the city fell in the middle of the week, and Shoshana was busy working ten-hour days so we didn’t get to spend as much time with her as we would have liked.

The first day was very typical Dutch weather. The country on the whole usually gets rain about 180 days per year, so there’s generally a 50/50 chance you’ll see some precipitation on any given day. We did not let this deter us though, and we walked around the city for around 8 hours, marveling at the beauty in the old streets before us. Most around the world (myself included before our arrival) think of Amsterdam as a party city with the prevalence of coffeeshops (where little coffee is served) and the infamous Red Light District. However, there is so much beauty to be found outside of those two main draws. The city is built around five semi-circular canals that all originate in the harbor and radiate outward from there, much like a radar showing distances from a central point. Along the water are old, cobblestone streets with century-old buildings with stunning architecture. Some buildings are so old they are leaning quite noticeably, though this only adds to the charm. Though the day was raining off and on from the time we left Shoshana’s place, this did not stop us at all. Rather, it was beautiful. The streets were far less crowded than we would see on subsequent days, and in a way it added to the allure to be gazing upward at the old houses from under the hood of my jacket. We got lost more times than we could count, mostly because a city that is built around semi-circles tends to not have a grid-like appearance that is more common in our younger, more planned out American cities. Getting lost when roaming a new place can be a blessing though, for you never know what lurks on the next street with a Dutch name we have no chance at pronouncing properly.

Over the next few days our legs got an amazing workout. We walked numerous times through the city’s main park, Vondelpark. Our third day we met up with Oliver again, this time joined by his Australian friend he came to town from Jonköping with. We visited the Van Gogh museum, got lost, and reveled in the sun that finally decided to emerge from the grey sky. Our last full day was the anniversary of the day we met five years ago at Wheaton, so we took it easy and rested up quite a bit, as we realized we had been going non-stop without much relaxation since we arrived in Stockholm more than two weeks ago. We had a nice picnic together along the canal that was outside our home, cooked a meal in, then had a few drinks with Shoshana when she got home. It was a nice, simple day. Hard to believe it’s been half a decade…

We rose very early the next day to catch a bus down to Bruges, Belgium. It has recently become quite the touristy place, but for good reason as we soon found out. Bruges is a Unesco World Heritage city due to its age and medieval beauty. Coincidentally, it also has some small canals that meander though the city that add to its beauty. There are also churches everywhere you look, including the 350 foot beast that lies in the center of town around the central square. Neither of us knew too much about Belgium before coming here other than it is a great place to treat yourself to the tasty things that make them so popular: chocolate, beer, and waffles. We spent two laid-back days enjoying the small-town feel of the place and left with the feelings of early cavities forming from all the sweets we ingested.

Our last day in Belgium was spent in the capital of Brussels. At first, when we got off the train at North Station, we exited to find a rather shady part of town that had a way more run-down red light district than Amsterdam. Once we got away from that street to our hotel for the night, it was much better. We ambled down to the central part of town and were amazed at what we saw--a huge central square with towering, ancient buildings, with churches and royal homes among them. We settled at a small café that served Belgium’s finest beer and enjoyed the people watching in the heavily-trafficked area. Eventually some Quebecois sat next to us and we chatted between English and French for a few hours, talking about many things, the cold Northeast weather being one of the many topics. We walked home, grabbed dinner at a small market (where Emelie ate her favorite thing in Belgium, even though it was not even close to the country’s own cuisine). We rose early, did some preparing for the coming week with some online bookings, and made our way to the bus terminal to head to the City of Lights, the one and only Paris.