The Dutch are freaking crazy!

So I have not post for a little while now but now something interesting happened so I felt obligated to inform you. Some stuff has happened since I last blogged but it is too long ago for me to remember so I am going to just ignore that.

So the Interesting thing that happened. Me and a few friends decided to go on a short trip around Europe which took a lot of time to prepare. Firstly we wanted to see north Europe, that quickly changed to a 1500 mile trip around south-east Europe but we finally decided on the countries west of Germany (obviously).

The first part of the trip involved travelling to Hannover to collect the car, which was fucking huge (Citroen C4 Picasso) compared to cars I have previously driven but oh well. I also had the fun of getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road but that was not the worst.

The destination of the trip was Amsterdam (naturally!) which was a very long 5 hours away from Clausthal but was worth it. However, Amsterdam is a petrifying place to drive because there are hundreds of cars, trams and millions of cyclists. You can definitely tell that cannabis is legal in there because you can really smell it! The city itself is quite picturesque with many canals and classic buildings but it obviously also has another side. We spent a lot of time indulging in the local cuisine, beers and other things...

I think that one of the craziest things about Amsterdam was the shear amount of bikes. I heard somewhere that there are more bikes there than people which is ridonkulus! We visited the train station where we saw a field of bikes which from the picture you can see the extent of it and this is not even close to all of them. Also randomly I found some green cheese!

The next stop was Rotterdam which is another city close to Amsterdam.  This was apparently the biggest harbor in Europe. Again this city was very nice with a slightly more modern feel to it than Amsterdam but definitely was still a Dutch city. Here we decided to camp which was a very bad idea. Me, being an inexperienced camper did not bring a camping mat with me so I spent the entire night laying on a hard ground that sucked all my heat out. But oh well we learn by our mistakes! It was here in Rotterdam that we started our great beer tasting. We heard about a pub in Brussels that sold 2000 different types of beers and we intended to try as many as possible so we got a head start here.

We finally left Holland for Belgium, a place famous for its chocolate and beers :D. Whats not to love! The first port of call was Gent which when we first entered looked like we had somehow quantum-teleported to eastern Europe but after a long time searching for somewhere to stay, we found the city centered which looked much more like what I was expecting. I think this place must hold some sort of record for the most churches in a small area. It was great here because you did not need to walk very far and you could find a chocolate shop or pub with a great selection of beer.

Here is where we found a ridiculously cheap place to stay. We got a small hut to ourselves for only 8 Euros per night per person so we decided to stay there and travel to the next destination, Brussels. The temptation to spend so much money was too large here. There were chocolate shops, waffle stalls and pubs everywhere! So much for money! As you can see, I indulged in the best tasting waffle ever... fact! Which was followed by more chocolate covered strawberries and then by lots of beer. We visited an awesome pub with literally hundreds of different types of beer. It had 46 beers on tap!!! I definitely think that the best beer that I tried by far turned out to be a German beer called Schlenkerla which had an amazing taste. Finally I saw a great sight in the middle of Brussels. Not just one but 8 Segways randomly passed us through the street.

After all this excitement, we finally headed home back to Hannover to return the car and nearly went on the Bierbike until we found out how much it cost. They want 250 Euros for 2 hours and 11 liters of beer!!!



Overall this was an awesome trip of a lifetime and I have to thank George, Erika, Aurora and Christian for putting the trip together and for the great fun that we had. Also quote of the week: George "I'm not gay, I'm a prostitute!"