I'm oPUN to Suggestions but They Might be a BUSt?

Aaaaaah I'm really starting to struggle on these titles here. I sincerely apologize!
Where am I at now? Back in my hometown of Tilburg. Home sweet home! Tim is being an awesome individual once again and allowing me to crash here until my flight back home on the 14th. Thank you Tim! In the meantime, allow me to bore you with my last couple of days.

Some homemade quinoa salad and veggie soup. Yum yum!

Switzerland was great! Thank you so so much to Patrick and his family and their homestay students who made my stay very pleasant! Didn't do a whole bunch of things in my last couple of days in Switzerland, but to be honest that is exactly what I was looking for. Hung out with Patrick and looked around a little bit. I've been sick for the past couple of days (I'm thinking that run in the rain may have done it - not that I regret doing it though) so I've been a little bit low energy and unenthusiastic. I did however get a chance to look around Lausanne in the rain for a little bit. Patrick and I did also do some one on one airsofting which was a LOT of fun! We had one pistol each and played the best of 5 - he won 3 and I won 2. Its hard to explain, but there is something oddly fun about running around in the woods trying not to be spotted or heard (or smelt if its that bad haha) and shooting at one another - all in good spirit though of course. Also Switzerland is definitely where I had the best tasting food from all of my travels. They say Lyon is the food capitol of France and most of Europe, but the people who say this clearly have not tasted the food that Christina (Patrick's mother) is capable of making. Good grief was I ever spoiled.

Rusty the Trusty

Also to note, its interesting traveling as a vegetarian - I always feel as though I'm inconveniencing people when I go to visit and they make me food or we go out to eat. I have been able to do it without any problems so far, and I feel that it is much easier in a place such as Europe? Patrick's family was very nice about it as well, and it was never an issue, so I appreciate that very much!

So!.. Much!.. Cheese!..

Just a little description and explanation of that picture on the left to insert here. On my last night in Switzerland it was Patrick's turn to cook dinner and he made some ¨proper¨ Swiss fondue. It was quite good and I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, however the entertainment value of it all was what made the meal so great. Turns out not enough wine was added to the fondue so the cheese was EXTREMELY stringy and hard to break off. It was quite the texture and we all joked about how sick we might be the next day if we finished it all. This was kind of funny at first but then concerning considering I had a long bus ride ahead of me. All in all it was very good :) So thank you Patrick! (Peep the video at the end of this post for a better idea of it all).
Whilst still in Switzerland I had messaged Tim and he mentioned that he would be in Rotterdam for a few days visiting Peter (who we had also met up with previously on this trip). He also said that I was welcome to come over for a night as well if I was up for that. I loved the idea, so I made sure it was alright then booked my bus ticket from Geneva to Rotterdam. The strange thing about this ticket, is that it gave me a departure time and date, but not a time or date for my estimated time of arrival. So for all I know it could have driven to Russia before making its way back to Western Europe - the chances of this were obviously extremely low, however it worried me none the less. I looked on good ol' trustworthy google maps to see how long it would take from Geneva to Rotterdam by car and figured I'd add on a little bit of time due to stops the bus would take, and also considered that the bus would travel a bit slower than a normal car. Google told me roughly 10 hours, so I thought that 11 would be a safe bet. Good grief am I ignorant sometimes. Let me just rewind a little bit first. Once I had taken to train to Geneva it took me about 15 minutes to find the bus station but when I got there all it was was a parking lot with 1 vacant bus in it and a small office on the side that was closed. I was a little worried at first, but slowly other travelers started showing up so this was a little re-assuring. Soon the office opened and I gave my bus ticket to the guy behind the kiosk. He told me, ¨enjoy the trip¨ (these people sure do have a sense of humour). The bus was supposed to leave at 11:00 but it didn't get there until at least 11:30. Once I was on the bus I sat next to one of the only open seats on the bus - little did I know, the man sitting next to me (who's name was Allen) was a fellow Vancouverite who recognized my Canadian-ness from the Vancouver Canucks cap I was rocking. Small world - big Canada. So I talked to Allen for a little while about Canada and our lives back home. He was taking a bus to Paris to catch a flight back home then head out the next day to go tree-planting for another season (this would be his 7th). It was nice to actually talk to somebody on this long trip because it sure made the time go by faster. I swear that each bus I get into, they keep getting progressively smaller and smaller. I couldn't even fit my legs into the section where said legs are supposed to ¨rest¨ so I had to put them into the aisle, but most passengers were asleep so it wasn't much of an issue. The guy sitting on the other side of the aisle eventually just lay down on the ground to catch a snooze because it was clear that he was fed up with the limited leg room as well. I wanted to take a picture of some of the awkward positions he was in because I thought they were amusing, however I really didn't want to get caught snapping photos of strangers whilst on a bus filled with strangers.

Graffiti in Lausanne

I did manage to get a bit of sleep on the bus ride, but would often violently wake up thinking I had overslept and potentially missed my stop - this was never the case.
So a good 17 hours later - after many stops, and many snoozes, and many sips of water, and many people snoring, and a limited amount of food (I forgot to bring Euros so I couldn't buy any) - I finally reached Rotterdam! Hoorah! So I had told Tim and Peter I might be there at 9:00. I got there at 4:00. I felt like an utter asshole. And my phone didn't work so I had no way of contacting them to let them know I would be a ¨bit¨ on the late side. But Tim was at the stop to greet me like the total champ that he is. Luckily enough he was able to ask the lady at the desk when the bus was expected to arrive and came back later to meet me.

Peter's wicked studio space! (I am slightly jealous)

Peter once again was such a gracious host. He ordered some Indian food for all of us and we hung out at his flat listening to some good music, having good conversations, eating good food, watching the Bayern Munchen vs Barcelona football match, playing around in his music studio and watching some movie about an ice hockey player (made me a little homesick haha). Tim went back to Tilburg that evening, but Peter kindly enough told me I could spend the night there if I wished and that is exactly what I did. In the morning he showed me around Rotterdam a little bit and took me to a few of his favorite record stores. In the afternoon he dropped me off at the train station and I headed to Tilburg, which is where I am now.

SOOOOO MAAAAANY

BIIIIIIIIIIKES!!!

I may just take a few slow days of not doing a whole lot to be fully honest. I know its supposedly all about going out and meeting people and doing things that are edgy, however I think I need a few slow days to get myself gathered a little bit. Was thinking of maybe still making my way out to Germany once more, however I don't think I'll have the time to do that.
So here I am, listening to some of my recently bought vinyl records (totally digging this one track Ta-Ku - Steady Goes), drinking a Kasteel Bier Tripel, and updating this blog. The Montreal vs Tampa Bay hockey game is in about an hour or two I believe and I'm contemplating staying up to see it.