I Am(doingpretty)sterdam(well)

So fair warning, these titles are only going to get worse as this blog goes on..
As you can propably tell from my excellent title, we are now in Amsterdam. We are staying with Peter, a friend of Tim's and a gentleman who had a lot to do with the music group my father was involved in back in the early 90s. Although I think they only met a few times, it is a lot of fun to hear some of the stories and things about "The Warriors".. but that is another story (stories?) altogether. (Don't worry pops, its nothing too bad :))
What can I say about Amsterdam? Well, it is quite the city! I suppose it depends on what you're looking for, but I feel as though this is a place where it is easy to get involved in the wrong scene if you're not careful (not to say this with any disrespect), but also a place where there is a lot of good going on, especially as far as the music and art scene goes. Some of the art I've seen here has blown my mind. And there are always venues with different live music going on each night. I feel as if I had the opportunity to get to know this city properly there would definitely be a few spots I would visit regularily. Lucas and I have been to a few record stores already and bought a few more LPs (not sure how we're going to get em all around to be honest but we'll figure it out). Went to this super cool one called Concerto Music where they had several floors, and even a little cafe attached where you could order food and coffee. They had both vinyl and CD format and it seemed to be split relatively evenly. A bit more new than used for sure, and I always try to go through the second hand bins because they are always better deals.. besides spending 35 euro on a new Radiohead album seems a bit steep when I can probably get the same one in Vancouver for like 25 Canadian dollars.. sorry now I'm just nerding out on records. Where was I? Oh yes Amsterdam. What else have we done? Well I've walked around a little bit and gotten lost several times, but I suppose that's part of the fun? Photobombed a few tourists here and there which is always fun.
On our first night here we went to this one venue which I would have never found myself. I felt a bit out of place there to be honest because I didn't know what to do, but it was definitely a neat place! There were several floors and rooms with different things going on in each. On the top floor you had one room with a live jazz show going on and a bar you could order beer at - this is where we spent most of our time that night. Around the corner there was a hip-hop show going on - but I never really went inside (for those that know me this may come as a bit of a shock). In the basement there were a variety of rooms - the one we checked out had a radio show going on which was cool to see in action. The whole place had some very cool artwork on the walls as well I might add. As I mentioned before I feel like Amsterdam is crawling with cool little spots like this and if I didn't feel strange because of not knowing what to do at such venues, I think I could definitely end up enjoying some of these quite a bit.
Tomorrow Lucas and myself are going to go to a live jazz/DJ show at a place called The Sugarfactory. We were going to go to a show tonight at the Paradiso which is apparently a pretty renown place but never actually did. We'll try to maybe go there in the next few days, we still have until the 1st of April here..

Late night drunk selfie at the I Amsterdam sign. Also being super hip and taking it from the wrong side (no I wasn't THAT drunk!)

.. then on April 1st we are taking a bus to Copenhagen, Denmark. I am quite looking forward to this part of the trip to be honest! Everyone I have talked to about Copenhagen has said great things about it. (Just hope I haven't built up my expectations too high). I'm starting to think that a week there probably isn't enough? I guess I could always come back later on in the trip, seeing as I do have a fair amount of time to kill. Then from Copenhagen, I'm taking a flight to Switzerland where Patrick and his family are being fantastic individuals and letting us stay for 10 days. From there on I'm thinking maybe Germany? Maybe Italy? Maybe something else? I guess we'll see. In one sense I'd like to know, but on the other hand not knowing where I'll be after that strangely excites me as well.
I will leave you with this fun fact. There are more bicycles in Amsterdam than there are people living here. Legend has it that there were at one point 881,000 bicycles in Amsterdam and only 799,400 residents. About 100,000 bikes get stolen each year however, and a lot end up in the canals. I once had a spokesperson tell me that.

Lucas with a cat (Flip I think his name was?) This was still in Tilburg but I just like the photo and already had a lot in my last entry.

Where Have European (You Been)?

So yeah I agree that terrible attempt at a witty title was a bit of a stretch, but at least I'm trying. Anyhow I figured its been a bit too long since I updated this thing. However that is a good thing because it means we are actually busy doing fun things as opposed to sitting around and updating this blog nobody reads.
If memory serves me correct, we were still in Brussels the last time I updated this blog and all of you lovely people who are reading this? We are now in Tilburg, my hometown. I honestly love being back here and feeling all nostalgic. Seeing sights I had totally forgotten about and the sounds I haven't heard in a long time!

Third house down, that was the place to be!

My hood during childhood.

Tim has been a phenomenal friend and has given up his apartment for us to stay in for however long we want/require. We arrived here on Saturday and it is now Wednesday (well technically Thursday if I want to be specific (its past midnight)). So far we have been to Rotterdam where Tim accompanied us like the gracious host he has been this entire time and we met with Peter who was so kind I can't even describe it in words. He showed us around the town, bought us coffee, bought us some proper Indian food - which he as a local knew all of the good food spots -, showed us his place, showed us his record collection, showed us his amazing music recording setup in his attic, and offered us a few beers and food in his flat. I honestly couldn't have had a better view of Rotterdam than what you showed us as foreigners, so Peter if you are reading this thank you!

Buttplug gnome in Rotterdam

I have also met up with an old friend from back in the day - Machteld, whom I hadn't seen in much too long! I was kind of worried to see her again because I thought I may not know what to say, but it wasn't an issue at all. She is still as awesome as she's ever been! Thank you for showing us around Tilburg properly! And a huge shoutout to the Zoontjens family for all of the hospitality you have shown us! We very much appreciate it! I hope to see you all soon. And Machteld you had better come visit us in Amsterdam while we are there! :)
Lastly I would like to thank Tim Freeman so so SO much! Honestly your kindness and hospitality have been massive for both Lucas and myself! I don't know what we would have done had it not been for how easy you made it for us to feel comfortable and welcome in the Netherlands! I have very much enjoyed the time we got to spend with you and thank you for also seeing that we had things to do as well and being so understanding and patient with us. Hope we weren't too much of an inconvenience for you!? :)
Also sorry (good grief I still sound so darn Canadian) to make this sound like a thank you letter for everybody else who is still (hopefully?) reading this.

My sweet ride in Tilburg.

This will be our last night in Tilburg, and we are heading to Amsterdam tomorrow at around 2:00PM (or 14:00 if you want to be super cool and hip about it) where we will be staying with Peter (a different one that the Rotterdam Peter) and Bart and anybody else we can find a spot at (this could potentially include a hostel if need be). If our plan goes as planned (not to sound unoriginal for a lack of better term) we will be in Amsterdam until April 1st, and from there we plan to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark. Here we will spend about a week, until April 8th when we will head over to Laussane in Switzerland to meet up with my very good friend Patrick. We should (if they don't get sick of us by then) be there until the 18th of April, where we need to figure out what we want to do next. To be honest if we like Copenhagen I might want to head back there for a while, but this is still something we need to talk about and I don't want to say anything too prematurely.
I just wanted to let everybody know I've had a great time in Tilburg and the whole trip in general so far and want to make everybody as jealous as I can. <3 (:
Also I'm not sure if this is the best of my blog entries but I am currently slightly intoxicated from some Dutch beers so to make it up to you all, I will leave you with this awful pun: I would like to go to Holland one day, wooden shoe?

Machteld kicking our asses in a game of Sjoelbak

Can't Complane

See what I did there?
So its been a couple of days, but I figured its about time I update this thing.
The flight from Vancouver to Montreal wasn't all too bad. At YVR we started talking to two sisters who were in Vancouver to visit their mother and were on their way back to Montreal. They were very friendly and once they started talking it was hard to get them to stop. But it was a definite good way to kick off our travels! Unfortunately (or luckily, depending on how you look at it I suppose) neither of us were seated next to them for the flight. Also there was this one guy who started swearing at this lady in front of him because her seat was slightly tilted back, and then he claimed she had no manners... What?
We are currently sitting in Brussels in our hostel. We've had a variety of roommates already which has been an interesting experience. This one guy (who luckily was only there for our first night) was the loudest snorer of anybody I had seen (heard). I'm just relieved I'm such a heavy sleeper, I just feel bad for Lucas and my other roommates that night (especially his friends that have/had to travel with him).
So far we've just been chillin in Brussels getting to know our way around. Went to this one super cool bar where they happened to have a live jazz show going on that night. We have both noticed though that people tend to be a lot less patient (for a lack of a better term) than in Vancouver. Its like "oh you don't speak our language, buy my stuff and get out", but maybe that's just us being silly?
Our plan at the moment is to stay here until Saturday and then head up to Tilburg probably via train and bus. We'd both like to go to Bruges as well but are thinking we may do that at the end of our trip instead.
It honestly feels like the time is already flying by very fast and there isn't enough time to see all the things and do all the stuff.
Also why is dental floss so expensive here?

Before

After

PS. I'm a total noob when is comes to blogging so if you'd like to see some photos of our trip I'll attempt to keep my super hip instagram profile more updated (never thought I'd say those words..)
instagram.com/doryanheijnen (EDITL As you can see my super tech-savvy self figured it out!)

Peace for now everybody.

PSS. European keyboards are super confusing!

Bucketlist

I figured that having a bucket list for things we should/could/shouldn't do is always fun. James and I did a similar thing when we went for our road trip down to Cali and back up to Van (which you can read all about at vantovaninavan.blogspot.ca ).

- Have a pint in every country we visit
- Have somebody hate us because they think we're American (let me clarify that I don't have anything against Americans, I've just heard that many others do)
- Eat a pannenkoek
- Watch a minor league hockey game
- Buy at least one vinyl record
- Attempt a conversation with my (our) minimalistic French speaking abilities
- Eat an open face sandwich (Smørrebrød) in Copenhagen
- Visit at least 7 countries
- Hitchhike
- Don't get kidnapped
- Couchsurf
- Don't lose passport
- Take a train
- Take a plane
- Bike around the Netherlands
- Convince Lucas to get on the drums at La Fontaine
- See two seas meet at Skagen
- Entice a premature mid life crisis
- Ruin friendship forever, only to realize 2 months later that we are brothers until and after the grave

So yeah it needs work.. but its a start.

Introduction (I'm Bad with Titles)

Well hi there.
I figured since my good friend Lucas (AKA The Philosorapper) and myself are going for some epic adventures, I'd do my best to write about them here. Not only to make others jealous about how much fun we're having, but also so we can reflect on it later.
The two of us will be heading to Europe from Vancouver, BC leaving on the 16th of March 2015. If all goes well we should arrive in Brussels on the 17th with a short layover in Quebec. We have our first hostel booked there to kind of get acclimatized and get things up and running. Unfortunately we are unable to find the credit card that the hostel was booked on two days before we are actually leaving - but I'll leave that story for another time.
Our loose plan (which is very likely to change) is to fly into Brussels and spend 4-5 nights there and then to explore Belgium during that time, maybe heading up to Bruges and/or Antwerp for a bit. From there we plan to head to my hometown of Tilburg where we already have several places we can crash at thanks to very generous friends and family! (You guys are the best!) We will then spend a bit of time in the Netherlands being as Dutch as we can possibly be, Lucas clearly having the disadvantage here. From there the plan is to head to Laussane in Switzerland where my good friend Patrick and his family are being fantastic people by letting us stay there for a little while. From here we are planning on exploring the Southern part of Germany before heading over to Austria, potentially down to Italy, maybe over to France and then back into Switzerland. If we haven't run out of money at this point yet, the plan is likely to head back up North traveling through Germany and then back into the Netherlands for a couple of nights. Maybe we will head over to the UK and see how things are over there. That would be before we head up to Denmark and maybe Norway and Sweden, if time and money allows us. As long as we end up back in Brussels for our return flight on May 14 (?) we should be good.
As I mentioned this is our plan at the moment and knowing us it is likely to change. Heck, with the minimal travel experience the two of us have combined I'd be pretty proud if we even made it out of the YVR airport alright.
Also I absolutely love hearing suggestions of places to go and to see and to visit and to hear and to smell! So if you know of any killer spots don't hesitate to let me know. :) Not guaranteed that we will actually have the time to go see them all, but I enjoy hearing about them none the less and it gives us some options.
Until next time.