Hitchhikers Guide to Galway

So I broke my hitchhiking virginity (for a lack of a better way of putting it) on April 27th, 2015 in good ol' Ireland. I (and hopefully not too many of my hostel roommates) woke up in the morning from my alarm clock at about 7:00 and hit up the all you can eat/drink breakfast in the hostel kitchen - soooooo much cereal and toast and coffee. I said goodbye to a few roommates and hit the road super caffeinated - first stop the bus stop to make my way to the outskirts of the city where it would (so I heard) be easier to hitch a ride. I took the 25B bus direction Adamstown 9 stops all the way to Lucan Road (The Oval) where the highway seemed to start, direction West. I asked the driver to let me know when the stop was, but he didn't seem to be all too familiar with the route, so I counted the stops on my fingers and got off when it seemed to make sense. I walked along the highway a little ways and stuck my thumb out at exactly 11:00AM. I stood there for a good 20 minutes with no real luck and started to have second thoughts about this whole idea. I figured maybe if I walk back a little bit in the direction of the gas station I would perhaps have better luck. This was exactly the case. Within about 5 minutes of having my thumb in the air, this Irish lady stopped and asked where I was headed. I told her Galway, but anywhere closer to that destination would help. I was hoping to make it to the next town/city on the way which I thought would be Kinnegad. Luckily enough she lived there but told me I would have better luck catching a ride from this one truck stop where traffic didn't travel to fast and where lots of people drove through. We got there in about 15 minutes and she let me off at the stop where a Russian gentleman named Nicholas took a lot of interest in my travels and offered me a free coffee. I spoke to Nicholas for about 15 minutes about life, travel, politics, work and food before sticking out my thumb again to try and make it further along my journey. I stood there for a little while and one car stopped - which ignorantly enough I thought was for me - but alas the guy was only stopping for one of Nick's coffees and sandwiches. A couple of minutes later another fellow stopped and again I had high hopes it was for me. Originally he had stopped for grub as well but he asked me where I was headed and told me if I was willing to wait for him to eat he would definitely take me to the next town on the way to Athlone. I gladly obliged and the kind gentleman took me to a decent spot where he thought I would have better luck catching a ride. He was an electrician of sorts and was actually on the clock, so him giving me a ride was fantastic! He even mentioned something when driving through one small town that one of the Jonas Brothers was from there, I told him I really couldn't care less about that - it just kind of came out of my mouth and I was afraid I had maybe offended him. But he chuckled and told me that he didn't either. 

My hitchhiking route

My next piece of ground I stood on with my thumb out was a slightly smaller road than all the others so far, and it seemed that it had gotten a lot colder and windier. Luckily enough, however, this was also the place where I probably got picked up the fastest from all of my spots. My next chauffeur was a Latvian woman who said she was happy to see me stand next to the road because it reminded her of her hitchhiking days and told me she totally understood what it was like. She was very friendly about it all, and told me that if it wasn't for the fact that she had children and a family as well now, she would still love to hitchhike again.She wasn't entirely sure where to drop me off and what my best bet would be, but she told me what she did know and gave me walking directions to where she thought would be a good spot. Although she was right, it was indeed a good spot, I think she underestimated how far away it really was. I had to walk along the highway with traffic zooming by me for about 40 minutes with both of my backpacks and my records I had picked up along my travels in my arm. This wasn't really so bad, but I didn't really know how much longer I would have to walk. I eventually reached Exit 13 which was the one she told me to go to. I didn't even bother trying to hitch on the main highway because traffic was going much too fast, and there were several signs I ¨blindly¨ strolled past that said that pedestrians were not allowed alongside the highway. This would be the part where if I got stopped I'd pretend to only speak Dutch and really hope the officer isn't also a Dutchman or Dutchwoman. Regardless to say I was never stopped and eventually made it to the little town that Exit 13 led into. The directions the Latvian woman gave me weren't exactly accurate but I was able to make sense of it all. I decided that just in front a gas station would be my best choice to try and catch a car ride. This was one of the points where I was really starting to wonder what the hell I was actually doing here. It took some time for my next driver to stop, I was hungry, my coffee was starting to wear off, my hands (especially my thumb) were getting numb, I was tired, my shoulders hurt from the weight of my backpacks, and I didn't really know exactly where I was. But I was not giving up! I had come too far. 

Still going in the right direction

..soon enough a very kind Irish gentleman stopped and offered me a ride to the next town I was headed which if memory serves me correctly was Ballinasloe. I'd also like to take this moment here to mention that when people driving in their cars indicate that they are continuing on and not actually giving me a ride by pointing forward, to be extremely confusing. Several times I thought somebody was stopping up ahead (hence why they were pointing), and I would turn around with a big smile on my face because it seemed like my next ride had finally arrived. However like 5 or 6 people did this and just continued on. Maybe they were just messing with me in which case that's just not very friendly at all.
Where was I? Oh yes kind Irish gentleman giving me a ride. So this man's accent was quite thick and he talked at altered volumes and speeds which made it slightly difficult to always understand what he was saying, and at one point I had him talking about country music which I don't know the first thing about. Not that I necessarily have anything against it, or that I don't respect the genre of music, I simply just don't know anything about it other than that I like a few Johnny Cash songs. Anyhow, he keeps asking me if I know any of these Canadian country singers and I felt kind of bad saying no like 4 or 5 times in a row, because he was getting quite excited simply talking about them, so I just started saying things like ¨oh yeah that name rings a bell¨, or ¨I know the name but not really his/her music¨. I figured that I could just start being super pretentious about 90's hip-hop music or 50/60s jazz musicians, but I did after all enjoy the fact that I had a free ride and didn't want to do anything to spoil it. He was also very opinionated about the Irish government and politics and once I got him going on that, all I had to do was sit back and listen to him rant, which saved me from doing any of the talking. I also think I should mention that this was without a doubt, the messiest vehicle I had ridden in, not only just in my hitchhiking day, but probably in any ride ever that I have gotten in my life. But a free ride's a free ride right?
Come to think of it, I don't think he dropped me off in Ballinasloe but it was another small town/city/area/suburb/whateveryouwanttocallit which was along the way and this would be my last location where I had to stick my thumb in the air. I was getting so close, but I still had a ways to go to Galway. I waited around for a little while but not all too long before a Polish man named Lucas picked me up in his car. I opened the passenger door and out came the sounds of Notorious BIG. I knew right away this would be a good ride. Lucas and I spoke a bit about what we were currently doing for work and school and all that good stuff. Lucas had studied music/sound engineering or something along those lines and this was exciting for me because it is something I have been glancing at as a potential future study subject. He was telling me that it was hard for him to find work in this area, and was saying that if I do go back to school when back in Vancouver that I should take courses as opposed to general studies. Say what you want about that, everybody has their own opinions, but I think it is good to hear what different people have to say, and this was one of the reasons I came on this trip in the first place. And I feel that only the individual can really know what is best for him/her. Anyhow I talked with Lucas some more, and he was telling me of his current work which was kind of being a salesman for this very good alternative energy drink called John Lemon (loving bad puns, I already liked this drink before trying it). He gave me one to try (which was very good) and told me that he would take me all the way to Galway if I was okay with him stopping at a few locations along the way to go into some cafes and restaurants to deliver some of these drinks. I told him that was fantastic and also much too generous of him, but he insisted. He later told me that he was 29 years old and just had a baby girl who is currently 3 months old. Lucas was just in general such a genuine friendly human being and a very good final chauffeur to have on this whole experience. As I was getting out of his car in Galway, he noticed that I was carrying around some vinyl. This seemed to impress him, and he told me of his collection before saying, ¨keep it real brotha¨ and giving me a firm handshake. I simply replied with, ¨heck yeah man¨.
So quick summary. 1) took bus from Dublin to Lucan Road (The Oval). 2) walked around for a bit trying to find optimal hitchhiking pickup spot then got a ride to somewhere close to Kinnegad. 3) got a ride to Kinnegad. 4) made at least halfway to Athlone. 5) made it to Athlone. 6) veered off of my planned route little and made it somewhere close to Ballinasloe. 7) got a ride which I forgot to write about beforehand to somewhere outside of Athenry. 8) got my final ride to Galway. 9) arrived at my hostel at about 6:30PM (18:30). I've already gotten the order of events and the exact locations and names mixed up a little bit, but that pretty accurately describes my day.
What did I learn from all of this? Well let me just start by saying that I was very nervous to try hitchhiking, especially in a foreign country where I did not know the bus routes at all. But this Europe trip for me is all about trying new things and pushing the limits of my comfort zone. I don't think I would have done it, but several people I know really pushed me to the idea (respectfully of course - for the most part :p) and I can't say thank you enough! It really opened up my mind a lot, and it made me realize certain things about myself and others. Not that I am a cynic per say, but I am often not very fast to trust people, or not when it comes to them driving me places where I ma not be able to get out if I need to. Thus I sometimes catch myself making very unfair judgments about people before really even giving them a chance. So if this can at times be my state of mind, how can I expect anybody to stop for a complete stranger on the road who is carrying a load that is much too heavy? How is that fair? But having hitchhiked, it really put me in check - it was a good reminder I guess you could say. The reminder that I need to be more open minded and not really care that much what other's perceptions of me are or what my perceptions are of others, because when I let go of all of that, magic happens. This may sound corny as all heck, but really though, I do mean it. It has also taught me and really solidified the idea that it is okay to get out of my comfort zone more often. It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay to look like a complete fool. It is okay if things don't happen right away. It is okay if things don't happen the right way. Things are okay. Sometimes all I need to do is just slow down and take it all in. Slow down talk to the truck stop guy selling coffee and sandwiches. Slow down and find a square foot of shade to eat lunch in because my feat are sore from walking. Slow down and look at the sights. Slow down and listen to the sounds. Slow down and smell the smells. Why are we always in such a rush? I could have taken a bus to Galway and been there in about 2.5 hours - if that. But would I have experienced the same things I did when hitchhiking? Absolutely not (or I highly doubt it). Then again, maybe I would have met a good friend on that bus ride, but hey this way I met at least 7. What I'm trying to say is, do things differently. Try things, but be responsible. I have been letting myself get stuck in cycles for a while and it is, in my opinion, more often than not, not a great thing to be in. Go do things, go life life! Even if it means inconveniencing yourself or your pride, or your honour. I guarantee you you will learn and experience something phenomenal.

Pretty Fly For a Stupid Guy

I booked my flight to Geneva on May 29th, not April 29th. I was able to change it at the airport, but it cost me 58 euro. I'm an idiot. That is all.

I Couldn't Have Liked Those Cliffs Any Mohor

CLIFFS!

Before I talk about my experience hitchhiking from Dublin to Galway, I will first share my tales of Dublin and Galway and the Cliffs of Mohor - yes I've had an exciting last couple of days. So where do I start? Dublin? Long story short Dublin was fantastic. But long story long: my time in Dublin was a lot of fun. I explored a little bit and saw some parks, streets, pubs, went on a literary pub crawl (yes that's a thing), ate some ice cream at Dun Laoghaire (already forget how to pronounce that) and of course saw some live Irish folk music (which I didn't even know I liked until I saw it live). My first two nights in Dublin were spent in a hostel called Abrahams. I wasn't supposed to even have stayed there at all to begin with because I thought I had all my nights booked at The Spire hostel (my second hostel). Buuuut as it turned out I messed up my booking (which I may have mentioned earlier? - so my apologies if I'm becoming redundant), and I was either going to be homeless in Dublin for two nights, or book another hostel. I was to be honest kind of keen of the idea of being a Dublin bum for two nights, buuuut in hindsight I am very happy I opted not to do that.

My pub crawl homies Meredith, Matteo (Matthew?) and Jolene

I met some very cool people at Abrahams including my 60 something year old secret agent homeboy David Strauss and his 13 languages, a few Canadians, some other guy who's name I forget, some French person who kindly helped me finish my pasta the first night because I made entirely too much, Matteo, Jolene, and last but definitely not least Meredith - if you are reading this, thanks so much for hanging out with me practically every day, and it was such a pleasure meeting you and getting to know you! So far so good! Then I moved to my next hostel which was right around the corner. This was a 22 bed dorm and I figured with 22 beds, surely I would have a few people to talk to and get to know. However, that was not exactly the case. Nobody really talked to each other at all, only the people they already knew. So yeah hostel #2 wasn't exactly a win for the first few nights. Only on my second to last night there did I meet two more Canadians (can't seem to get away from them) Gillian and Ally who were very friendly! Dublin overall was a total blast! I will definitely try to make my way back there at some point.

I found a Timmys in Dublin.. why!?

From Dublin on the 27th I hitchhiked to Galway, Ireland (which you'll be able to read about in the next blog entry I make - because that is an experience on its own). Galway itself is quite neat. To be fully honest I didn't really get a very good chance to look around there. because I arrived on the evening of the 27th, went out for drinks and dinner with a few of my hostel roomies, then went to the Cliffs of Mohor today (the 28th) and then had to keep travelling. I will say however, that being in a slightly smaller city was quite refreshing, because for the last little while I have been in a fair amount of larger cities, which to be fully honest, all tend to be a little bit the same (good grief, how pretentious do I sound right now?) I had heard a lot of very good things about The Cliffs of Mohor and had originally thought that they were a lot closer to Galway than they actually are. But that didn't stop me from seeing them. I set my alarm for 9:30 this morning and had the breakfast the hostel provided (toast, cereal and coffee, yum yum) and looked into how to get to the cliffs. Unfortunately there isn't really a whole lot of transport out there on a Tuesday morning, however there was a tour bus that took people there, so I opted for that choice and bit the bullet by paying 20 euro for the tourbus. Frankly I felt a little bit weird being on a tour bus by myself when pretty much everybody else on the bus was travelling with at least one other person, but oh well, screw that noise, I just wanted to see the cliffs okay?! It was a bit of a trek out there through some very small windy roads in a very large bus, and there were points where I wondered whether the bus would make it up Corkscrew Hill or past a tractor that was coming in the other direction in the same lane as we were. Clearly we did, otherwise I don't think I'd currently be writing this blog entry.

Talk aboot a cliff hanger eh

It was windy (note: no toque)

Once we got to the cliffs I was absolutely stunned! They are such a phenomenal sight. I took a few photos with my phone camera but they are almost insulting when you compare them to actually being there. We had two hours to look around before the bus left, which sounds like a long time, but at the end I didn't think it was enough. The cliffs are very tall and the pathway along them is set quite far back from the edge for the safety of dumb tourists. However the further along you go along the path, the less secure it becomes and the less the fence is any longer a thing. But I needed to see this sight away from all the hustle and bustle and camera shots and pointing fingers, so I treked out a little ways down the pathway where things started to deteriorate. Maybe I wasn't supposed to be there, but at one point along the ¨pathway¨ the wind started to REALLY pick up. It was without a doubt the strongest gust of wind I had ever experienced, it actually almost picked me up and blew me over and I was knocked to my side. At this point I start to wonder how safe it really was where I was standing and it didn't help that this was also the exact moment that I realized there were no other ¨ignorant¨ tourists around me. I kind of just lay down and let the wind blow through my clothes. Wow. Just wow! What an experience. I haven't felt that alive for a while.

Dutch (Canadian) tilt

Less wind here - hence normal[ish] expression

All of my senses were heightened and the adrenaline was pumping! Suddenly the strong winds decide that the ocean is a better place for me toque (or ¨beanie¨ for you non-Canucks), and it blew it off of my head. I hadn't lost it yet but it was rapidly making its way towards the edge of the cliffs. I wasn't sure whether I should run after it or not but it was still far enough away from the edge and I am too proud to lose my warm toque so I galloped along the rocks to go fetch it, and it was definitely playing keep away. Eventually I got back my hat, and at this point really had the blood flowing. I decided that this was a good opportunity to just yell at the top of my lungs, just 'cause. Best idea ever! Not even kidding. So there I am standing near the edge of a cliff, wind trying to blow me around, yelling as loud as I possibly can, and luckily nobody around to witness my mental episode. From here I decide it may be wiser to head closer to the other people in case something does actually happen. So I make it back to a place where the wind isn't as violent and just sit down basking in the sunshine and watching the seagulls struggle to fly over the cliffs in the wind. What an experience though! Totally worth the 20 euro and the awful humour of the tour guide.

So now I am sitting on a bus that is equiped with wifi at 3:18AM, on the way to Dublin airport to head back to Patrick in Switzerland to catch my 6:50 flight. Next entry I will write - soonish - will be my hitchhiking day. 

Also there are SO MANY SHEEP in Ireland! And for anybody who has ever played Settlers of Catan with me, knows how much this excites me. 

Until soon :)

Photo #1 (unedited)

Photo #2 (edited)

PS. Alright so a little explanation about these last two photos here. Meredith, Gillian, Ally (some of my awesome roomies) and myself went to this Irish pub to drink beer and witness some of that excellent Irish folk music I was mentioning earlier. I asked Gillian if she could take a couple of photos of us to look back on later. As you can see, they did not turn out very well. My phone camera is absolute garbage when it comes to any form of low lighting. So I thought I would attempt to make photo #1 visable a little bit by going into the photo options on my phone and playing with the settings and turning up the brightness (I really didn't think it would work, but I figured no harm in trying..) As you can also see, it only turned up the brightness on Photo #2 on one section.. my face. When I saw the outcome that resulted from playing with the settings I burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a good 3 minutes. I was in the Spire hostel kitchen when I did this, and I think the people around me thought I was having a mental breakdown. And the harder I tried not to laugh the harder I laughed. This may not be amusing to anybody else, but at the very least I will put it up here so that I can have a good laugh later on when I look back at it.

One more, 'cause why not?

I'm Dublin My Chances of Getting Lost

Guess what? I'm in Ireland.
The trip from Munich to here was an interesting one. Nothing all too eventful I suppose, however the flight I had booked for some reason didn't take into account that I also had a large backpack I couldn't take onto carry-on due to its weight and size. Apparently I needed to do that separately from the flight itself, so when I got to the airport I had two options: leave my backpack behind, or pay 40 euro to get it onto the plane. Guess which one I took?

Some weirdo in Dublin

Some building in Dublin

What can I say about Munich? Munich was interesting (?) I don't think I really gave myself enough time there to really explore the city and get to know it. I walked around a little bit, explored some record stores, spent way too much on some records (I did however find a few I had been looking for for a while), explored the Oktoberfest fest (I think they missed the memo that it is April already) among some other things. I did however meet a fellow Canuck who seemed to be as lost and unsure about what he was doing there as I was (haha sorry Alex :P) so we spent some time together and just hung out. This was probably the highlight. It was nice having a fellow Canadian accompany me whilst doing some super touristy sightseeing, it would have just felt weird if I had done it by myself - especially in the Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest I have to write a little bit more about. I'm not entirely sure what it was all about to be honest. There were just a bunch of amusement park rides and stalls and beer tents set up in this one area. Alex and I decided to go take a look and hit up the main beer tent where everybody inside was quite drunk in their lederhosen and those other strange outfits. I think this is probably the place where I felt the most like a stupid tourist in all my travels. We wanted to go get a few beers but had no idea what the procedure was to do so. So Alex and I walked to where we thought we could buy a beer and this one lady working there violently yanks me aside and starts to fill up two liter pints with beer from the tap after shouting something in German at me. Alex decides to ask the guy behind the counter if we can have two beers and the guy shouts something in German back at him. At this point we were no less confused than when we first walked in. Then this lady walks down the side of the tent and everybody stands up and claps and cheers like absolute hooligans. At this point I realize that I am standing right in her pathway and figure that its probably a wise choice to get out of the way. Regardless to say Alex and myself probably photobombed like 50% of the pictures of this lady, standing in the back looking super confused. This is definitely a win in my opinion! In the end we left this hellhole of a tent and grabbed a pint on this one strange outdoor bar that was spinning in a circle. I might sound weird when I speak English or something because I asked the lady at this bar if we can have two beers and she says they don't have any. So Alex points at two beers that the people standing next to us were drinking and soon after we are handed two beers.. All in all Munich was pretty decent though.

Best coffee and carrot cake ever!

So now I am in Dublin, Ireland. To be honest, it is nice to be able to speak English to people and not have them look back at you in utter disgust. Also the accents here are so goshdarn fantastic!! I sat down today at a coffee shop, ordered a coffee and carrot cake (which was one of the best slices of carrot cake I have ever eaten) and just sat down next to some people and listened to them converse in their Irish accents (not creepy at all).
Originally I was intending to be homeless for my first two nights here, but looking at it now, I am so happy I booked a different hostel for my first two nights. Thanks for the advice everyone. :) The hostel here is quite nice. Met a few fellow travelers who have all been very friendly. Today has been my first full day here and already I am liking the vibe here. Ar first I got super lost and was quite frustrated, and was wondering what on earth I am doing here by myself so far from home. Let me say that getting lost as a diabetic is not fun at all.. You may wonder what differentiates it from not being a diabetic and being lost? But if I wasn't I honestly wouldn't really care [that much] about how long I'd be lost for. However when I need to constantly worry about blood sugar and food and doing insulin in public and having people think I am shooting heroin, it can add a level of stress to my travels. But I soon found my way and things started looking up. I decided to just sit down on a bench and relax for about an hour and it did me a lot of good. I kind of realized I am rushing through things too fast and just need to take some time to slow down and experience things as they are happening.
I am also quite proud of myself. I hit up like 3 or 4 record stores today here in Dublin and didn't buy a single record! That's quite impressive if I may say so myself.

Plans for tomorrow? Not really sure. I definitely want to make it to the coast at some point, and one of my roommates was just telling me about how she went and it was fantastic. She said she'd go again and asked if I wanted to come along so I'm definitely going to try and do that at some point. I also am thinking I may hitchhike to Cork. I have a hostel booked until the 27th but have nothing booked or specifically planned for after that, so maybe I'll spend a little bit more time in Dublin and just get lost. I spoke to these two Russian people in the Hostel at Munich who were hitchhiking their entire Europe trip and it was very inspiring!
Also I happened to let in two people in the kitchen who said at first they had forgotten their key. Once I had talked to them for about 20 minutes one of them goes, ¨I'm going to be totally honest, we're not actually staying at this hostel, we just needed a kitchen to use¨, to which I replied, ¨Fuckin' eh!¨.
PS. There are entirely too many pubs here.

Things are looking up

Feeling Kind of Hostel

Hostel life if much harder than the thug life yo. Or so it can be.

I'm in Munich (Munchen) now and have spent one night in the hostel I'm in now. Before I get to that, let me just mention that the bus ride from Lyon to here was about 13.5 hours and was overnight. I couldn't really sleep very well knowing I had to transfer buses at some point so I only really had a couple of hours of sleep. Once I got to the hostel I wasn't able to go into the room until 3:00 so I had a bit of time to kill. Decided to walk around a little bit and kill some time. I felt like a zombie so I decided to totally live life on the edge and wait in the lobby. Once I finally got into the room I passed out for quite a while. The room I was in clearly had people staying in it but nobody was there so it was a nice opportunity to catch some Zzzzzs. I did notice that the other beds were filled with wigs and plastic bats and ferry costumers and handcuffs and police hats and all that fun stuff. Next thing I know there is some drunk guy banging on the hostel door room trying to get in. For all I knew it could have been any drunk fool trying to get into the room and I didn't really feel like dealing with that, so I didn't open the door (very un-Canadian of me I know). Several minutes later the door opens and I hear ¨which one of you fuckers didn't open the door for me?¨.. this was the point where I pretended very hard to be asleep. My bed was around a small corner so I'm not even sure he saw me or not, but a few seconds later I heard him mutter, ¨none of you [insert bad words here] are even in here¨. I figured I'd leave the introductions for another time.. Later that same evening two more people come in, some American guy and some British girl he had evidently just ¨picked up¨. They then proceeded to get it on and it was very clear that she was just not into it at all. I'll leave the rest of the details out.. but ugh... Then later all of the first guy's bro's came back in being super drunk and loud and started giving the other bro major props for getting with this one girl. Also like 4 people in my room snored super loud.

This morning they had all checked out so that was kind of nice. My antisocial butt didn't even meet any of them. I've met a few of my roommates for this night and they seemed friendly. 

Also sorry if it seems like this entire entry was just me complaining, I just want to document it for later amusement.

I kid you not, this is the only photo I got in Munich, and its a blurry one. Incredible jazz show though to say the least. It was at this place called Unterfahrt, and my stupid immature Canadian butt thought the name was slightly amusing.

Am I Lyon to Myself?

View of Lyon

So my solo travels have officially started. Not sure how I feel about them yet, but I need to give it a little more time to sink in I think. I left by train from Switzerland (Bern I think it was) and headed off to Lyon, France which is where I am currently residing. The train ride wasn't all too bad actually. A few things to note though, definitely set an alarm before the estimated time of arrival for the next time I travel by bus or train. Luckily I didn't miss my stop though. Also it was slightly confusing when I got on, because I had a designated section and seat number for the train ride, but when I got to that spot there was a kid crying his eyes out in my seat so I figured that asking him to get out of my damn seat wouldn't be a very nice thing to do. I thought I was all smart and stuff before I left by writing down the directions from the train station to the hostel but I clearly missed the first step or two because it took me a while to find the street I needed to be on. It was hot as all hell and having a heavy backpack on my back didn't help. I asked a few people for directions and everybody was very friendly (I honestly don't know what people talk about when they say that the French can be snobby.. they have all been so polite to me). This one lady who spoke very broken English even offered to walk me to the street I needed to be on which was incredibly helpful. It made me wish I could actually speak French a little better, because we were trying to talk to one another but the language barrier was very evident. So after walking around for about an hour - which should have been maybe 15 minutes from the station - I finally arrived at my destination.. or did I? When I reached the address of the hostel all it was was a large wooden door that was locked. There was absolutely no signage of the hostel anywhere to be found. As you can imagine this was a little bit worrisome. I gave Patrick a call and asked him to double check the address and see if he could maybe find a phone number of the place. He was very helpful but unfortunately none of the info got me any closer to solving the problem. After asking several locals (nobody had even heard of the place) I decided to just sit around outside and see if anybody would come in or out of that door. About an hour later somebody finally come out and I did not hesitate to catch the door before it shut again. Once inside I still thought I had the wrong place. It seemed very residential.. After going up 4 flights of stairs I was pleasantly greeted by one of the hostel workers. I had found it!! I was warmly welcomed with a glass of wine and given a little tour of the location. It is a very small hostel but it is quite nice. A lot of people my age are staying here who are pretty much all doing what I am doing and some are just as lost as I am so that's kind of nice I suppose? As nice as it is here in the hostel its kind of a hassle as well. The first night I was here, people went out relatively late and came back late as well. And the concept of other people might be something they can work on (not to sound like an ass or anything..) It was pretty noisy and apparently a couple of the people staying here got stuck in the tiny elevator for about 45 minutes. It holds like 4 people maximum but they squeezed in 6 and it got stuck.. So other people thought it would be a good idea to entertain them while they were in there by blasting Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier followed by a compilation of Abba songs. Lucky I'm a heavy sleeper so it wasn't much of an issue.

The dessert I had after the veggie burger.
Not sure what the ¨freedom¨ is all about though.
Maybe they thought I was American?

Lyon itself is quite nice though, and apparently has the best food in all of France. As a vegetarian that might be harder to prove, however this one veggie burger I had last night was phenomenal (..and expensive). I've already done a tour of the local record stores and found a few sweet records. One which I had been looking for for some time. The hostel I'm staying at is located right in between Le Rhone and La Saone rivers.
The other people in the hostel must think I'm an old man or something because while everybody else is going out I've been hitting the sack pretty early every night. I'm going to try my best to stay up tonight though and go out with some of the people here. I've just been unbelievably exhausted these last few days. Hopefully I can find my next wind though.
Also why is it so warm!? Its 27 °C already and its not even May yet..
So I was going to end this entry with a bad pun about France, none really came to mind so I looked up French jokes in google.. oooooooh boy.. is all that I will say.

I love lamp.

Went up and down these stairs several times
with Leon - my hostel friend - because we
got lost.. 

I Jus Swiss I Could Come Up with Better Titles

This picture doesn't really do the view justice, but still you get the idea

Have another picture

Switzerland, oh Switzerland. This place is beautiful! The spot I'm staying at with Patrick and his family in Yens is astonishing! Its got an incredible view of France, another section of Switzerland, Lac Leman and of course the Alps. So far it has been a nice stay and Patrick has shown me around Switzerland a little bit. Unfortunately, I will be leaving already on Monday due to circumstances I won't get into. But I may be coming back to Switzerland to hang out with Patrick a little bit later on in the month, around the 27th or so. In the meantime I did manage to plan out my trip until that date. So next stop? Lyon, France. Why Lyon you might ask? Well it was quite close to where I am in Switzerland right now and I have always wanted to see France a little better than the one and only other time I was there - the part I remember from last time was being at the Eiffel Tower at 3:00AM on a Wednesday night. Not that that was bad in any sense, I just don't feel as that really accurately summarizes France very well. To be honest I don't know much about the city of Lyon but I feel that in a way, that can be more exciting because I don't really know what to expect.

The homie Patio AKA Patrick AKA The Smoother Operator, and myself

And if worst comes to worst I can probably find a record store or two to get lost in. So I will be there until April 16th which is when I take another 14 hour bus ride to Munich (Munchen). I've got a hostel booked here for a couple of nights and I'm just hoping to meet some individuals when I'm there and to just see the sights and smell the smells and hear the sounds. I will be there from the 16th until the 22nd, which is when I will take a flight to Dublin. Even though I keep hearing people say Dublin is expensive, the cheapest hostel I have booked so far has easily got to be in Dublin. I'm not sure if this is something I should be pleased or worried about? Also I did all of the flights, buses, and hostel bookings today in consecutive order so that was a little stressful especially when the bus ticket decided it wasn't going to accept my credit card.. but its all good and done now and I don't have [that much] to worry [about]. I did however realize later that my bus ride from Lyon was from 9:30 (21:30) until 10:45 the next day, which means I could have shaved off an extra day at the hostel, so I'm going to attempt to get that sorted because there really isn't any use in paying for a room when I'm not even there. Also I might be homeless in Dublin for my first night or two due to me being cheap and not thinking things through very well. So if anybody knows anybody who can host a po' Canadian for a night or two, let me (them?) know :)
I suppose this means I will be thrown into the deep end of the pool sooner than I had thought, and for those that know me, I'm not a very experienced swimmer. But I try to look at my motivation and curiosity to learn and expand as my live vest. I am quite excited for these next few weeks to be fully honest. Although I'm going to do my best to go into them with no expectations.

All decked out

All of this traveling should bring me up until April 27th as I mentioned before, and I would like to be able to spend a bit more time with Patrick, so I may stay here for a week at that point which would bring me all the way to the last week and a bit of my trip. I kind of want to leave a bit of time unplanned as well though because having that freedom makes me feel nice and unrestricted.
Tomorrow will be my last full day here in Switzerland (for now at least) and Patrick and myself are going to play airsoft at Patrick's local/usual spot which should be a lot of fun! I'm actually kinda worried I will be utterly destroyed by all the regulars, but busting some caps with my homie will never be a bad time!
Peace for now homies.

Also the flag here in Switzerland is a big plus..

How Unre[Den]markable

Might be a bit too soon for another update, but I've got some time to kill so why not?

Slowly stepping my selfie game up. Had the room to myself so why not?

I am currently sitting in my 8 dorm hostel suite all by myself. To be honest its kind of nice having a room to myself. Not to say that any of my roommates have been super rude or anything, but I can be as noisy as I'd like to be and I don't have to worry about anybody else (or myself for that matter) snoring. This also gives me the chance to set my alarm for 4:00AM to wake up on time to watch the Vancouver Canucks play the LA Kings in a good ol' game of hockey. (Yes I'm a little bit homesick).
So the pub crawl the other night was a whole lot of fun! The pubs themselves were utter crap to be fully honest, but the alcohol was cheap (there was one spot where they had jaggerbombs for roughly $1.50 Canadian). And after a few pints and shots everybody got more social (good grief that sounds horrible) and I talked to a few other travelers and a few locals as well. We were almost not going to do it, because to be honest Lucas and myself and Ben (my awesome British hostel roommate) aren't really the types to go pub crawling. I think we all had fun though, and I even saw Lucas dance for probably the first time ever, so big success I'd say! :) The day after we went out for a stroll around and found our way back to Christiania. It was a beautiful day so the walk in the sun did us all some good!

These guys killed it at La Fontaine!

We have also been back to La Fontaine twice since the last update. Both nights being fantastic! Saturday night was a proper jazz show with one organist, one drummer, and two saxophonists. The size and vibe of the venue are great though! I wish we had one back in Vancouver. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places?
Lucas and myself also got our hands on some rental bikes today and biked around a little. We managed to find the Little Mermaid (De Kleine Zeemeermin) statue (not really all that exciting to be honest) and just rode around the city a little bit (not like we got lost or anything..) Then I went for a bike ride myself after dinner time just for the sake of riding around and seeing parts of the city I hadn't been to yet (again - just to clarify - I never got lost..) Now maybe its because we went to one of the city's cheap (and good too apparently) bike rental places, but so far one bike pedal has detached from one of the bikes, and the chain came loose on the other. I can usually fix the chain quite easily, but this strange hybrid of a bicycle had SO much lube on the chain that by the time I thought I had almost fixed the problem my hands were absolutely stained with grease! So regardless, we need to bring the one bikes back tomorrow and try to have one with two functional pedals that aren't at risk of falling off unexpectedly. So the plan for tomorrow is to see a few things we have been meaning to but haven't gotten around to yet, and seeing as we'll (hopefully) have bicycles it should be much faster getting from place to place - assuming we don't (not like we have) get lost.

My Copenhagen love affair.

Tomorrow is my last full day in this lovely city so I'm hoping it'll be a good one. It was also be my last full day with Lucas on this trip because I am flying to Geneva on the 8th and Lucas is flying back to Vancouver on the 9th.
Anyways the puck drop for the hockey game is in about three and a half hours so I should probably try to get some sleep in before then.
Also just to keep this bad joke/pun theme going: Q. Why can't a bike stand on its own? A. Because its too (two) tired.

Probably the best worst coffee I've had on this trip.

Bang for the Bucketlist

So I figured I'd show you all the progress so far of things I've been able to check off. A smiley face means its been checked off (in case that wasn't obvious?)

- Have a pint in every country we visit :) (so far so good)
- 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 (apparently the Tilburg Trappers are like THE team in the Netherlands, but we're just here in the offseason)
- 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 :D
- Take a train - :)
- Take a plane :)
- Take a bus :)
- 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 (its a work in progress ;)) 

I'm Copen(hagen) Very Well

View of Copenhagen (and Lucas' back) from The Roundtower.

Didn't think I could make these titles and worse than they have been, but I surprise myself from time to time.
Where did I leave off the last entry? Oh yes, we were still in Amsterdam. I did end up going to that show at The Sugarfactory. I went solo, which in a foreign city - and considering I don't exactly ¨go out¨ a whole lot as it is - was a little strange to say the least, but I am quite happy I did go out. Once I got to the venue I had to stand in the line outside for about 5 minutes and inside I could hear the DJ spinning some of my favorite funk and soul records like More Bounce to the Ounce by Zapp and The Champ by The Mohawks. I already knew I wanted to go inside and make a fool of myself with my dancing ¨skills¨. The venue itself was quite cool, a little bit crowded but nothing all too bad. I felt awkward being ¨that foreign guy¨ standing by the wall sipping beer from a pint. But the music that was played was pretty good so I decided - a few beers later - to show Amsterdam how we boogie in Canada. Immediately after getting out of my comfort zone I got this massive muscly guy in a tight shirt hitting on me and trying to dance with me, but luckily I was saved by a few other people who came and joined us. All things aside the guy was super friendly, but it just wasn't quiiiiiite what I was looking for.. By the end of the night I had talked to a few locals and a few travelers and shared stories and experiences, and even learned a new dance move - which to be fully honest, is a pretty bad one.
Amsterdam was definitely a cool city and I also want to give a MASSIVE shoutout to Peter (and his two cats) for letting us stay at his place and doing so much research and hooking us up with all these different contacts. His hospitality was immense! I had such a good time hearing his stories and talking to him about life. Thank you Peter!
We are now in Copenhagen, Denmark staying at a hostel called Urban House. Its relatively new and is located right in the middle of it all which is very convenient. Its relatively new I think and it definitely shows. Not that its a bad or sketchy place, but there's a few things that could have gone smoother like the payment. Turns out we got charged for 3 rooms for a week when really we had only booked 2. So now I've had to email this one person who is supposed to give me a refund for the one room for a week. As long as I get my money back it really isn't a big issue though.
So far we've strolled around a little bit and seen a few sights. Went to the botanical garden but arrived slightly too late, because they apparently close at 3:00 which seems early, but what do I know? So I'm definitely going to try and go back one of these days. We then stopped at this art museum which was pretty decent, but I don't really know the first thing about old French paintings from the 17th century. Still cool to see anyhow, and it was free so why not right? Last night we went to this one super cool jazz bar called La Fontaine (thank you Paige for the suggestion) but unfortunately there was no live music going on that night. But these next 3 nights there will be so I'm going to make sure we go back at some point. The venue had a very cozy, or as the Dutch would say ¨gezellig¨ vibe to it, and apparently it can get jam packed on some nights so we'll try to go early.

Christiania households.

Smorrebrod.

Today we strolled around a little and found our way to Christiania which is basically this part of town that is self run, totally separate from the EU. It may sound sketchy but really its as safe as anywhere else because the people there know that if anything happens all of the sudden the city has a right to come intervene and crack down everything which wouldn't be good for anybody's sake. Christiania itself was very neat though! The art and architecture inside was phenomenal, and to some extent reminded me a little bit of places like Tofino or Hornby Island back in British Columbia. Also the purchasing and smoking of marijuana there is allowed, so there are all of these stalls there where people can just walk up buy a little bit and sit down at a bench a few metres away and smoke it. Although pictures on Pusher St. this section of Christiania are not allowed and there are signs everywhere warning people of that. I really wish I could have snapped a few shots of a few of the things there, but really I didn't want to be ¨that guy¨. We are definitely planning on going back there as well to maybe take a longer look around.

Even the statues drink in public.

Some neat Copenhagen architecture.

So here I am now sitting in my hostel updating this blog. The plan for tonight? Apparently is to go pub crawling with a few of our hostel roommates. I honestly don't think I've had the amount of beer I've already had in Europe, in like a full year in Canada. So don't be too shocked if I come back as a total alcoholic.
Also I still have no idea how to upload photos (EDIT: I figured it out yo!!) to this silly thing but I do have a few up on instagram @ instagram.com/doryanheijnen (REEDIT: still check out the super hip instagram though)



Also this is an opportune time for another joke. Q. How much does a hipster weigh. A. An instagram.
Until next time :)

The view once more.

Artsy photo and stuff. 

     

Behind bars. Ain't no joke on the streets of Copenhagen.