My final day in Paris was amazing i woke up late and hungover so my day started pretty slow. I hoped on the train and started heading towards Montmartre which is just 20 minutes by train outside of Paris. So it was super easy to get there. I met Camila up there and she was one if the people i met on the first night. So it was nice to have some company to walk around with. We walked all around the city and there was this market/ arts festival going on so that was super cool to a see and it was packed so that was kinda fun.

After Montmatre we made our way towards the Louvre to grab so drinks. I have never had such a bad service experience in my life besides this bar on the river. So first of all you walk on this boat and have no idea where to go so you just head up the stairs and walk up to the bar and have a little French person yell at you. Mind you I don’t speak French so i just look at her like a deer in headlights and start speaking English asking if i can order a drink, she proceeded to point outside and point at a table. Like sorry I have never been here before and have no idea what I’m doing and trying to be nice. We grab a table and proceed to sit there for 20 min with the servers to just look at us and walk by. We eventually got smart and left to this other place near by. And could barely get a drink it was 5:30 by this time so i headed home to get some dinner. I ate dinner and got ready to go to the Eiffel Tower.

My experience to getting to the tower was phenomenal i got on a lime bike and had a bottle of wine with me it was phenomenal and just so calm i was totally in my own world it was amazing. I got into the Eiffel Tower and wanted to get a ticket to the top but they were sold out so i was kinda disappointed about that but nevertheless i bought a ticket to the second floor and I thought I could sneak my way up to the top floor by talking my way through it but the guy was not hacking any of it so i hung around the second floor and was felling bad for my self. Then I thought to myself I’m not a quitter so i walked back into line to check of it was the same guy scanning tickets and it was different so I thought this is my opportunity. I walked back into line and of course they scanned by ticket again and it came up red but i was expecting that so the guy was like this ticket doesn’t work. I proceeded to tell him in the worst Spanish known to man that I paid 40 euros for this ticket and he asked if i had a receipt but I didn’t because I paid cash so in English and Spanish i told him i paid cash and threw the receipt out. He asked if i was alone and I told him yeah so he let me to the top. JTJ strikes again

I was at the top and got a glass of champagne per Dan and Lisa’s idea. That was such a great idea it was crazy to see Paris from that high and was super cool to just be that high off the ground. And looking down everyone looked so small like aunts it was crazy.

Monday was a pretty rough day i got to the train station and was about to get on the train but couldn’t so this is where the day started to unravel. Not to mention it was so incredibly hot and this place stunk like hell it was actually hell on earth. Then i had to wait in this line to get a seat assignment. I had to pay 65 euros just for a seat even though i had a ticket so i will never understand that on top of all this it made me miss my train i had to wait another 45 minutes in this train station from hell. Paris is fun the locals are super nice but the people that i encountered at restaurants or literally any customer service was so bad and they were so rude and i was trying to be as nice as possible it was unbelievable.

I finally made it to Brussels and it was perfect weather and everyone was so helpful i was dead lost when i got off the train the sings don’t make a whole lot of sense so i was walking around lost. I asked some people where to go but little did i know i was in the right spot. I made it to the hostel at 1:30 dropped my bags off and walked around Brussels, I got the best Belgium waffle with milk chocolate strawberry’s, bananas and whipped cream. This was so good I can’t even explain it. I should have taken a picture of it because it tasted better than it looked.

I made my way to where the EU is headquartered so to speak. It was cool to see the EU’s Washington DC kinda. Apparently Belgium is famous for there fry’s i was very underwhelmed they were just large cut with ketchup and mayonnaise so that was pretty underwhelming. I can go get those same fries at the local Burger King that’s what they reminded me of. I kept walking around and found a giant park to walk around and more of the town I ran across a art garden where all the bushes and hedges were shaped it was cool but I’m not huge into all of it but nevertheless it was cool.

I looked up on chat GPT what to do in Belgium if I have one day and it gave me some ideas and a route to take to see everything. The only problem with that is it thinks i am going to spend a bunch of time admiring the garden and all the buildings. No thats not me i see them and i am happy have no desire to sit there and just stare at them. Chat tells me to be there for 30 minutes and in all reality i am their for Maybe 5 minutes so it gives me a 4-5 hour time line but i am done in 2 hours max and that is if i take a long time eating or getting lost. After my planed stops I just started wandring around to find something cool and that did not happen so i went home took a shower and was in bed by 8:30 and got some much needed sleep.

I hoped on a train Tuesday morning and headed to Amsterdam. I got to my home for the next 3 nights at 1:00 dropped my bags off and started to explore on foot it was absolutely poring all day so i was just soaked all day long even with my rain coat. I ran across Ann Franks house there wasn’t much to see but the front door I think you could have taken a tour if you paid but god knows i’m not doing that. So i just kept walking and kept walking and finally got hungry. I stoped at this pizza place to have a late lunch early dinner. It was pretty good noting to special.

i started to make my way towards the red light district and see what everyone is talking about. Here is some words of wisdom don’t go on a Tuesday at 4 if you want to experience what people are talking about. I singed up for a canal cruise for an hour and all you can drink for 35 euros. YES PLEASE but wait i only paid 25 euros and still got to drink so it was a double win for your boy. I went home and relaxed for a few hours until the cruise started. I showed up for the cruise and they were full so they put me on another one. I went to a coffee shop news flash a coffee shop in Amsterdam is NOT a normal coffee shop its is a weed bar/ shop type deal that happens to serve coffee in it. So i was quite shocked to get hit with the aroma of dank and seen people smoking in this “coffee shop” so I ordered my coffee and got the beep out of there. Of course i got hungry again and went to the local supermarket and got a tuna sandwich to hold me over until breakfast.

The river cruise was cool, once again I didn’t know this was a smoking cruise so that was kinda brutal but it was cool to see the city at night and the boat we were on was pretty nice and the caption/ guide was nice and spoke really good English so it was very easy to understand him. We saw some housed called the dancing houses (2nd photo) apparently they were build on wood hundreds of years ago and as you could imagine the wood shifted so theses houses started to lean so that’s how they get the name the dancing houses. The picture doesn’t really do it justice but one of them looks like a snake its crazy. And it looks like they can fall over at any moment the guide says they were secured but it sure doesn’t look like it.

On my first full day in Amsterdam was quite the relaxing day. I got up got some breakfast went back to bed and got up around 10:30 and started to walk around. I was trying to find a DHL to ship a few thing home, but the first one i went to I could not find. I think it was shut down or something I’m not sure. But i did find a grocery store to get something to drink and a snack. The day before i texted Immanuel and asked him where are some good places to go, he sent me this Indiana restaurant to go to. But it was a 45 minute walk so i got smart and decided to rent a bike. I tried to find that place but there is no official location for it because it’s a whole in the wall type deal. So long story short i never found it. So i just kept riding around and it was super pleasant to just explore the city at my own pace and go where ever i wanted. I eventually returned the bike and walked back home.

Later that night i met some people from my hostel at a bar we had a few drinks, played pool and walked around the city for a good 30 minutes. I was so tired and went home to get some rest because i had a big day ahead of me tomorrow.

I woke up at 7:30 to get breakfast early and get on a train to head to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The Solheim cup is a woman’s golf team event where they have 12 of the best US players and 12 of the best European players play head to head. It’s the same as the Ryder cup for men. Mind you i got on this train with no ticket to the event. So i was just hoping that when i got there I could just buy a ticket. Luckily I was right if not I would of just taken a very scenic train route but i got in and walked around a for a few hours, sat by a few holes and just soaked up the sun on a great golf course.

I finally decided to head home around 4. I didn’t get to the train station until 4:30 my direct train was canceled so I got on a train 10 minutes after and it was a completely nightmare. The train was so busy i couldn’t believe how busy it was. I got home and had to do laundry. This was the first time i did laundry at the laundromat this trip and it was quite the experience. I was so lost at this place i was looking around and had no idea what to do because everything was in Dutch. I finally got it figured out and got my laundry done and went to bed.

I hoped on the train from Amsterdam to Cologne. I got to cologne around 1:30 and got checked in to my place. I hopped on the train and headed to downtown because my place is a little far from the main area but still a nice place nonetheless. I walked around downtown for a good three hours. I stopped at this one restaurant bar type deal and I was looking for food, but they did not have food so I has one does when they’re in Jeremy they get a Steine of beer. This beer was so good and refreshing, especially when you walk around all day. I made it back to my hotel and put the bed around 8:30. I had the room to myself until about 11 o’clock. These two fellas walked in as much more as you possibly could waking me up, I was not happy with them by any means.

my first folder cologne I decided to rent a bike and bike all around the town. I was biking for good hours. I ran across this little market way out of town in a different little city and I stopped and got a bratwurst was so good and it was only 3 euros so that was ideal. I eventually started to make way towards the main city. I got pretty thirsty so i stoped at a bar and had a few Steins of beer. I made my way back and was hungry so i went to the grocery store and got a little snack to eat. I went back to my room and i met my new roommate he was from England and we started talking and eventually decided to hit the town.

We signed up for a pub crawl and it didn’t start until 9:15 so we just walked around town and decided to do our own pub crawl before the actual one. Let me tell you this pub crawl was literally 3 of us and the tour guide. So it was quite lame however it was still fun and we made the most of it. I got home around 4 in the am we were at this club for hours they were playing great music and we were having a great time. I had to start heading home because it takes about 30 minutes to get home from down town so i figured it would be in my best interest to get home.

Stock up stock down

Stock down the people that woke me, not only are they loud but they stink dirty. Stock down my roommate in Amsterdam just a dirty individual. Stock up the people of Amsterdam and Brussels just so nice and helpful. Stock down the people of Paris just so rude for literally no reason. They really make it hard to like Paris. Stock down most hostels because they are so hot it’s literally an oven in rooms. Stock up the grocery stores where there is an English tab at the register so you know what you are doing and not just guessing. Stock down the Paris train station just an absolute joke of place that stinks so badly. Stock up the people at the laundromat that helped me figure out how to use the machine if it wasn’t for them I don’t think I would have ever gotten my laundry done.

What’s next?

I’m not really sure I know I am going to be in Germany for the next few weeks but im not exactly sure where I am going to go. So it will be a bit of an adventure for the next few weeks.