Our first night here in Belgium was one to be remembered... Or perhaps better forgotten. We were attempting to use Airbnb for the first time and thought everything was going smoothly until we learned in a 15 minute free wifi trial on the otherwise Internet-less bus from the Netherlands that our potential host had not approved our reservation for the night and had 24 hours to do so. Lesson learned: don't use airbnb for last minute situations! We arrived in the city homeless at 7pm and spent the next few hours emailing Couchsurfing hosts while considering the potential reality of sleeping outside on the street. Thankfully, we received two replies. One from a very nice girl who - absent from the city herself - was harassing her boyfriend to break from his night of partying to take us in. The second from another very generous girl whose profile described a "weird and free-spirited" flat with many residents. Choices.
We decided to take the second offer and exhausted at 1:30am found ourselves learning from a soft-spoken, very stoned young guy from Uruguay that all of the decor and furniture in the small living room was found on the street. Admiring the thrift and longing for sleep, we gratefully said goodnight and pulled out the couch. There we discovered a filthy sheet covering an old mattress that smelled like it was saturated in cat pee for many moons; suddenly the prospect of a good night's rest didn't look so good and thriftiness was a value to be condemned. The terrible smell, matched with the low-battery shrieks of two separate fire alarms and the crazy-making buzz of some winged insect near our ears, made us pray for morning. When it finally came, we quietly snuck out of the house to carry on our very first walk of shame in search of coffee and breakfast.
We agreed to treat ourselves to a cheap motel for the two nights following that adventure and are now well-rested, clean, and ready for the final third of our European tour!
Let me quickly fill you in on where our journey had taken us before Belgium. Back in Poland, we left Krakow for the northern port city of Gdańsk and visited the European Solidarity Center. This incredibly modern building is home to a fabulous museum honoring the Gdańsk shipyard workers who in the second half of the twentieth century started a strike that would help bring about communism's end in the country. Solidarność is the organization that rose from this strike and it was hugely influential in bringing democracy to the Eastern bloc. We also really enjoyed walking along the sandy coast of the Baltic Sea in the nearby town of Sopot and spent Halloween night walking the 13km back to Gdańsk.
From Gdańsk, we took an overnight bus to Berlin, where we stayed with an extremely generous Couchsurfing host who regularly fills her small flat with travelers. We were very interested to see the historic and political sights in the German capital. We visited the Reichstag, which was set on fire when Hitler came to power and was therefore symbolic of Germany's fallen parliamentary system. We also visited the Memorial for Europe's Murdered Jews, a striking scene that reminds you of an expansive and timeless cemetery placed directly in the city's center.
After Berlin, we spent one night in Hamburg and enjoyed the industrial strength of this historic port city. Towering cranes and large ships crowd the waterways just as tourists do the streets.
Another overnight bus later, we were in Amsterdam. Wow, what an incredible city! We were lucky to have an amazing tour guide (thanks again Koen, we love and miss you!) and really enjoyed seeing the picturesque canals and houses along with all the bikes, coffeeshops (they really do exist!), and bookstores. The red light district was a unique experience as well!
We then had the great privilege of spending a night in a smaller town on the eastern side of the country with what is probably the most wonderful family in the world. We watched as the famous Dutch trio K3 elected their replacement members on national television and walked through some beautiful forest land before taking off for Belgium, which brings us up to speed!
Maybe the most important thing we've learned from the past couple of days: Belgian waffles are a real thing and they are sooooooo delicious!!
Love to you all, thanks for reading! Xoxo