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coreytravelogue · 4 years ago

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Vancouver, BC - September 7, 2020 (Part 2)

A week late or so I know, technically I was working on this last week but writing while drinking beer on a empty stomach is not a good idea. Regardless though I don’t think the words were flowing very well for me that day. I hope to rectify that today.

It is Labour Day today, one year ago I was in Berlin more than likely playing the beer stock market and feeling burnt out from my trip one week in. Not too much like i have felt the year due to the pandemic basically ruining nearly everyone’s lives. I can’t say much as most of my issues are first world problems but to say this year hasn’t been stressful for me would be a bold face lie. In all honesty last year was much more stressful for me but what has made this year stressful is because I haven’t been able to travel at all where last year I was able to. That is the topic of discussion today, basically continue where I left off from the last blog.

2019 was full of many trips in of itself, 2019 was a year of more changes for me. My girlfriend moved in with me to live with me and my room mates which caused its own set of drama but I am not going to bring it up. It was also a year where for a good portion of time I was doing the work of 3 people which lead to last year being exceedingly stressful to where if I didn’t do the travel I did do I would have probably went insane.

The first trip of the year was to Los Angeles/Anahiem, California for my Easter long weekend. This was for my girlfriend predominantly at least at the very start of it. My girlfriend has a fascination with Disneyland/Disney World and given how she isn’t as much of a lover of travel as I am I wanted to take her to a place we could agree on collectively but I am not going to lie who enjoyed this trip more could be debated.

I have been to Disneyland many times in my life most of which with my parents as a child or a teen who had no idea how to handle himself in another country. My first actual Disneyland experience as a adult without my parents was Disneyland Paris but tell you the truth it barely counts to me and it is nowhere close to the same experience. With that said coming into this I didn’t think much of this trip. As long as I could go on to Splash Mountain and Jayne hat many statues I got what I wanted out of it.

I wasn’t prepared for the child in me to come alive walking into Disneyland for the first time in 18 years. Much of it hadn’t changed for the most part but I felt like I was experiencing it for the first time in of itself given being an adult. For 4 nights we hit just about every bit of Disneyland and the California Adventure which I never got to see when I was there last but it would have been in it’s infancy at that time.

To tell you the truth the entire trip itself was just one big positive memory. Whether it was going on Splash Mountain 4 times, Jungle Cruise 3 times a least followed or more importantly seeing my girlfriend happy being in Disneyland.

I didn’t enjoy the expensive Uber rides going to and from Disneyland though but it could not be helped given how utterly useless the transit was for us there in LA which still utterly shocks me.

If I was to return to LA again I don’t think I would be going to Disneyland I would probably be spending more time on the LA side of the city going to Universal Studios and explore the downtown area more as I know there was far more places to Jayne hat that I didn’t get to go to given the short time frame with had.

LA is such a big city, it would take at least 2 weeks to full explore and even then you couldn’t get through all of it.

Kelowna was another place I hadn’t been for a very long time, longer than even Disneyland. It was a place I thought both me and my girlfriend could collectively enjoy together but to tell you the truth it wound up being more of a disappointment than a fun experience for both of us.

I wasn’t expecting this place to be as fun as it was for me as a child but even then not much of it was fun to begin with outside of going to Scandia which was on our first night. It was there where I discovered my girlfriend like shoot em ups which came from left for for me. For much of my life I always craved having someone to play games like Time Crisis 2 with but never had anyone who would. We wound up getting in the top ten there which to me is pretty impressive given how old that game is and how much use that game has gotten. Also got to watch her do her mail in vote for her home country. The worry though was trying to find another Australian witness, surprisingly she found one as I was playing go carts.

Those were the only real tangible happy memories from that trip, the rest of me basically wondering around aimlessly trying Kelowna’s beer and being for the most part disappointed.

Kelowna felt like a amalgamation of BC and Alberta which i guess I can't be surprised, much of Northern BC has always been a major playground for Albertans looking for a cheap trip.

I don’t need to come back to Kelowna anytime soon myself, not for another 20 plus years, maybe not that long because Kelowna wasn’t that bad I just don’t need to go back there anytime soon again.

The year prior I was able to go to Whitehorse; the furthest north i have ever been in Canada, this time I would go north once again to another territory but this time Northwest Territories.

I was worried that 3 days wasn’t going to be enough to explore this city if you could call it that it was probably smaller than Whitehorse. I am probably wrong but it felt very small to me and there wasn’t really anything to do there unless you wanted to came or escape the world, so I got pretty bored pretty fast here but they did have a wonderful brewery with good food. If I was to go back it would be to go to that brewery.

I did go to Toronto for a second time as I pointed out in my last blog but I am not going to go into it, I only really had two nights here when I should have tried to make a long weekend out of it, with that said it would not have made a difference. I knew I had to conserve my energy for the big trip of the year, one that was 5 years in the making; Europe round 2.

The plan had always been to return to Europe, I knew within one day of coming home I needed to go back there and every plan I made from that point in on to even now involved/involves going back.

The original plan was to go back to school in 2015 and once I graduated in 2017 I would backpack Europe again, return home and start my new career however my new career came calling early. By 2016 I was already working in the department I am working for now, a student work job in 2016 that lead to a full time contract to work for all of 2017. By 2018 the plan was once my contract was up I was going to travel again but they extended my contract again and well you get the story I became a full time worker where I am today. So by 2019 it obvious that I had to return to Europe the only trick was where.

Given I wasn’t able to use all of my leave time in 2018 it granted me a significant boost in leave time in 2019 which would make it possible for me to spend 2 weeks in Europe while still being able to spend 2 weeks in Newfoundland with my folks however there is a big difference between traveling Europe for 2 weeks than it was for 2.5 months like I did in 2014.

I knew I had to be exact with where I was going, no wasted days or efforts. I needed to know exactly where I was going and for long however it is nearly impossible to pack one country in Europe for 2 weeks much less Europe itself. So I decided to focus most of my time in Germany, why? For the obvious reasons:

1) I loved it there last time I was there. It was the first true country I got explore deeply like I did last time where I hit Dusseldorf, Koln, Berlin and Munich. I could hit all four of those places again and probably have a lot of fun, and I did at least 2 of them this time around.

2) I met a lot of good people in Germany, friends whom I still keep in touch with to this day. This played into my choice for Germany big time which I will get into soon.

3) It is a very easy country to visit. Not very dangerous at all really for me at least, the transit is good and it is just a country for which I feel at home with the most tof any other country I have ever been to.

4) Beer, pretty self explanatory I think. After having true German hefenwiezen in Hahndorf, Australia I knew if i needed the best of my favourite beer style I had to get it at it’s origin.

Look without trying to ramble on though I know I will on this subject I had to make the most of my time in Europe. As much as I wanted to see new places/countries in Europe I also wanted to see old friends I had not seen in 6 years and catch up with them.

These people helped me out big time then and they would wind up helping me out again as I would basically cough surf with them again.

I knew I was going to arrive and leave from Amsterdam so it was basically about how I could fit about 2 weeks of time in to make that balance. My original plan was to go to somewhere in Belgium, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Nuremberg in Germany, Prague in Czech Republic and then find a way to get back to Amsterdam and hit back home.

I hit up 4 of my previous couch surfing hosts to see if they would host me. Look either way this is going to sound like me taking advantage of them and in a way it was but at the end of the day I came to most of those places to see them. If they said no I would totally get it and I would have tried to get an airbnb. I mean if Maria said no she had no room I would have still did an airbnb in Dusseldorf because I wanted to hang with her again and explore Dusseldorf again.

I contacted Maria first and she said yes which was great. I found out my host who saved my bacon moved from Saltcoat Scotland to Berlin so I asked her and she said yes so I had that locked down. When I looked up Katharina early on I found out she no longer lived in Koln but in Gent, Belgium so it was like hitting two birds with one stone. Not only would I get to hang with an old friend but see a new country as well. I asked her and I knew she was going to say yes and she did. So I had Gent, Belgium, Dusseldorf and Berlin, Germany locked up but what about my forth contact. I am not going to bring the person up, I don't want to shame them or anything. I was hoping that that person would say yes or at least say something and say they were interested in meeting up with me in Czech Republic. Of all the people who said they would host me again they said it the most but when I asked I got nothing. So realizing I had to nail down my locations and dates I moved along from going to Prague and decided to split that time in going to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and Leipzig, Germany. So I basically had my itinerary nailed down.

I would arrive in Amsterdam and immediately take a train to Gent where I would stay with Katharina and her boyfriend for 2 nights then go to Luxembourg City for 2 nights, go to Dusseldorf for about 2 nights, Berlin for 3 nights, Leipzig for 3 nights, Nuremberg for 3 nights then Amsterdam for 2 nights.

I flirted with the notion of couch surfing this time again but given the short periods of time I would be staying in each place and how little time I knew I would have in each place I felt like I could do without the hassle of spending so much time, time I did not have basically pitching to strangers to hopefully let me stay with them for 2-3 nights. Even if they said yes to me what if they suddenly backed out on me last minute? Thankfully that never happened to me but if it did that would seriously fuck up my trip so I felt like you know what I have had lots of good experiences with airbnb I am just going to use it this time as well. So I decided to airbnb Leipzig and Nuremberg. Luxembourg City and Amsterdam were too expensive to airbnb plus most of the more affordable places were too far from the city centre so i decided to go to a hostel for that one. I thought about maybe camping in Amsterdam again but looking back I am thankful I did not especially with what I had to do during my last night in Amsterdam.

I had everything set all I needed to do was just get there.

Flying to Europe this time was much different than I did the first time but not without it’s own level of stress. When I flew in 2014 I landed in London and had to figure out a way to get from Heathrow to Luton. I had to figure out how one would do that within two hours and thankfully I was able to get on my flight to Amsterdam. This time however I was flying from Vancouver to Chicago then to Amsterdam.

Chicago has always been a city I was interested in seeing but this time around I could only see the airport. I am not going to lie as I was jogging to my gate I wanted to hope to see the semblance of the Home Alone 1 and 2 scenes of the family running to their gate but I seen very little of that (it was from 1990-92 so I don't know what I was thinking). My original plan was to start drinking and hope to knock myself out but given the last few other trips I had made of similar length that trick didn’t seem to work out anymore so instead I took a melatonin and night time NyQuil instead. For the 9 hour flight I probably only got 4 hours of sleep and spotty at best.

When I finally arrived in Amsterdam my time there was much more smoother than I thought it would be. I over analyzed this part of my trip when I should have done more of that for getting from Luxembourg City to Dusseldorf though that bit could not have been planned for. When I came to Amsterdam I had to show my print out to the ticket people but I could not get a straight answer from them as to how this ticket to Gent was going to work. I was so used to tickets really just being one way and that is that. You go on a train and show them your ticket and you sit on that train till you get to your destinations, any transfers required a secondary ticket and so on, this was different. When I went to the Amsterdam ticket person they basically told me that my ticket is like a day pass for Belgium rail; meaning even though I am just going to Gent in theory I could have gone anywhere in Belgium on that ticket for the day. So with their assurances I waiting and inevitably boarded my train to Gent which was two hours and allowed me to basically map out more of what I was going to be doing.

I tried to take the lessons I learned in Europe the first time and apply them to this and I am so glad I did this time because if I didn’t I would have been so fucked. The main lesson I learned backpacking in Europe which I learned early was to always have your entry and exit plans mapped out before hand jus tin case you needed to leave sooner than expected. So I was completely expecting to have to find my way to Katharina’s place when I arrived and know how I was going to find my way back. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about that as they were going to meet me at Starbucks. Ahh Starbucks as it was in 2014 it remained and was my wifi beacon to the rest of the world in keeping in contact with people back home.

The positive memories as it would be for when I would meet up with Maria was hanging out with Katharina and her new boyfriend Dirk who would up being a pretty cool dude to hang out with. Of course the greatest memory of this part of the trip was betting my shoe to drink bad or I should say strong Belgian ale which nearly fucked me up, so much that i needed Dirk’s help to finish it. By the end of it I felt like such a light weight. I made sure I ate quite a bit before this point so I felt like maybe it was me being weak but then when 5 Dutch men came in and ordered 2 of the same large ass drinks and drank it all themselves and got shit faced it mad eye feel a helluva lot better about myself especially since i had two beer before that big as beer and one more after.

However the other great memories I would have would be just hanging with Kat and Dirk either around the city or at their home having vegan food or playing boardgames with them. These sort of trips are always best spent with friends and those who want to go with you. They gave me more than enough time to do my own exploring while still coming around to hang when they could.

I wish I spent one more day here but not because of the city, the city itself wasn’t all that impressive it was more that I wanted to hang with Kat and Dirk more because I knew it would be another long time before I would see them again.

They joined me for a third of the way to Luxembourg as they had to go somewhere else along the way. While I did not cry this time saying goodbye to Katharina I was sad. I don't have very many friends in my life. My friends are few and far between and those I feel like I can just hang my hat with and be nothing more than just a chum with even rarer for me especially now.

This longing would hit me in Luxembourg City.

I knew nothing about Luxembourg for the longest time, it wasn’t till 2017 that I started becoming very interested in going to this spec of a country. In 2017 while I was working cataloging records which is a rather mind numbing job to do most of the time but to tell you the truth I loved it because it allowed me to escape into music, audio books, talk radio, podcasts or whatever but one of the others was listening to vlogs on different countries. In all honesty I never got much from them that I didn’t already sort of know. Most vlogs really don’t give you a gauge of what it is like being there. Or maybe they just don’t give me the Information I want to know like how are the people to tourists, where is the good beer, where is the cheap places to go or where are the hidden gem areas to go to get away from the tourist traps?

I stumbled upon Luxembourg City and everything about it seemed cool and beautiful and the bet part about it is everyone said it can be explored quickly so for someone like me who knew the next time he would be in Europe he would have a very short amount of time there found a appeal in a place like this. I am glad I took that plunge because Luxembourg City was a pretty cool place to go to.

From the moment I saw this city I was immediately smitten as I have said last year with this city. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen period. It has such a mix of natural scenery mixed with old school architecture. With that said I knew I had 2 nights here and I had to make the most of it. For the most part I do feel like I did.

This city can be done in two full days but with that said 3-4 days would be enough to get everything.

The strongest memories I have of this part of the trip was all in the first night to tell you the truth. By this point I was coming to realize that Europe doesn’t have a craft brewing scene I had to figure out where the good bars were that could give me a clue of what kind of beer this place produced. I thankfully found a place called Craft Corner where I was able to not only try beer from the country but from places I would not get to try this time around like from Estonia, Denmark, Ukraine and even from the USA weirdly enough. I drank like a fish that night but the real adventure of this part of the trip was trying to find a way home.

It was during this time where I missed my girlfriend whom for the first time since January this was the longest I had went without being around her and I missed her. I would up getting lost in the “downtown” area of Luxembourg City because I was too drunk to know where I was going at night that I inevitably caved and took a bus back only to realize if I had just gone straight in a certain direction I would have gotten back to the hostel. I also ate McDs for the first time in years but I also got to have Luxembourg wheat beer which was surprisingly good.

The worst memory however was leaving Luxembourg and how I nearly fucked myself over because I much rather have gone on time with my train rides than early when I could and I should have.

I would definitely go back to Luxembourg City as I am sure there are places I haven’t Jayne hatted and I wouldn’t mind trying their wheat beer again but with that said I would only come back if it is on the way to something and if there is time so when I do come back it is unknown.

Dusseldorf was easily the highlight of the entire trip but also my biggest regret, regret because I didn’t put more time here than I should have.

More time may as well have been my biggest regret even though I was very short of it. I will try and save my hindsights and lessons for the end of this blog but I really do wish I spent more time in Dusseldorf.

I would even say I enjoyed my time in Dusseldorf this time around more than I did the first time which says something. Dusseldorf was the city that introduced me to Germany and its culture.

While I didn’t get to meet as many people here as I did the first time around I did get to hang with Maria, her boyfriend and her friends. I even go to be interviewed for the first time for a article (https://www.wz.de/nrw/duesseldorf/wie-couchsurfer-die-welt-und-duesseldorf-entdecken_aid-46027727?output=amp&fbclid=IwAR24SDFtbEt_lGkKdADxxq5MY3hDoDHutYcPbRrRX1nMSS9NOLzaeys_ul8).

From the translations I found she did get a few things wrong about me and Maria’s story but at the end of the day its meh just cool that me and Maria got to be interviewed with how we met through couch surfing.

The best memories were playing Mario Kart with her and her boyfriend, going to Frida which was a cafe in Dusseldorf on top of just having German beer here there and everywhere.

I could have and should have spent an extra day or two but I didn’t. Why didn’t I? Well the reason I had back then was that I didn’t want to put them out for long. I didn’t want to make it seem like I was taking advantage of their hospitality by staying at their place for a long period of time. By the time I got to Dusseldorf I came to realize that I wasn’t inconveniencing either Katharina or Maria at least that is what I got from them both of them. If anything both Maria and Kat seemed to enjoy having me around because it meant someone new to hang out with. Someone to show their world to and such. That being said I like to consider myself a pretty good guest I have always tried to be neat, tidy, quiet (when needed) and respectful of the spaces I occupy. Whenever i could i tried to pay for any food we all ordered together, any groceries I would try to pay even though they always refused.

Bottom line is I miss Maria as a friend the same as Katharina. Just having a friend to just travel around with, have a few beers and games with and feel like I don’t have to be anything but their friend. Not a doctor, moving company or anything. I feel like that is unfair to those friends and family who confide in me and see me as a rock in their life but honesty there are times where it exhaust me having to be the parents or the rock for people when all I want to do is just be an equal and sometimes just be friends. Talk about video games, movies, travel beer, our relationships etc etc without feeling like we need to cry on the others shoulder or be the shoulder. That is part of friendship and part of being a good friend but how can say it......sometimes i just want a friend I can have fun with and not have to worry about anything else but that. It was refreshing to be able to do that with people. I don’t get to do that with anyone very often, if ever anymore. Which also depresses me when I think of it.

Leaving Dusseldorf made me sad and it also made me angry because I wanted to spend more time there but I couldn’t and I wasn’t entirely sure if I was ready for Berlin but it didn’t matter whether I was ready for Berlin I had to go.

I hit a wall in Berlin and I should have seen it coming but then this is a hindsight moment now and it was a lesson I learned pretty quickly. It had been 5 years since I did this kind of traveling and even when I did do this kind of travel I always tried to give myself time to take my time in places. When I did my 2 months in 2014 I didn’t hit my first wall till I hit Dublin which was one month into the trip but the thing is I would give myself 3-7 days in most places and then I would move on. I was also 5 years younger at that point. So here I was barely one week into my trip and I was already feeling travel fatigue and it kind of turned me into an asshole for a little bit. Thankfully my 3rd and last host for the trip Missy understood or at least I think she understood.

I think it stemmed from something as small as not being able to purchase multi day transit passes like i did in Berlin last. When I was in Berlin in 2014 I am very sure I was able to purchase 48 hour transit passes which would allow me to use the transit anytime I wanted to for that 48 hour span. Now I couldn’t even find day passes which angered the fuck out of me.

The biggest regret from my first time in Berlin was not being able to experience the night life and to tell you the truth I still wasn’t able to this time but that is my fault both times. I didn’t want to be the one coming back to Missy’s place smashed from partying and to tell you the truth by the time I was in Berlin I had no interest in that anyway. I still wanted to try more German beer but by this point I was getting somewhat jaded. I came to Germany assuming that I would going to get a real good education in beer and swim in it. Instead I barely got to enjoy it the way I wanted to. Maybe it was better this way because I knew my body wasn’t able to handle it the way it used to.

I did get to hit the places I enjoyed going to the first time around again all while Jayne hatting anywhere I could. To tell you the truth if I spent another few days in Berlin I could probably Jayne hat enough statues to use as my FB profile pic for a year or two.

Biggest memories from this visit to Berlin was the night I went bar hoping. I started at this place called Berliner Republik which had this beer stock exchange one would play which I did. I had curry pizza which wasn’t very good but it was enough to carry me over the night. I followed it by going to two micro breweries in the area, neither impressed me much to tell you the truth.

On my way back home that night I at least got to buy the beer that really opened my eyes to German beer especially hefenwiezens; Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen. It tasted a lot like the Summerwiezen here in Canada but just better in a way. I had it again this time cold and in a bottle but it just didn’t taste the same. it could have been because it was in a bottle and not on tap (I am that picky now) or maybe my tastes have just become more refined now. I mean one of my favourite beers used to be White Bark witbier from Driftwood but the last few times I have had that beer I could not be bothered with it at all. Regardless though Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen is the reason why I am a Hefeweizen alcoholic.

The last good memory was on my last night, I was just so frustrated that I wasn’t finding the beer I wanted to have this time around that i just decided to just go to the nearest bar and just try something. Thankfully there was a hostel/slash craft beer bar not far from where I stayed that I didn’t even know was a craft beer place till I went in. I was pleasantly surprised and tried their beer. The place was called The Circus.

The less than pleasant memories of Berlin was trying to figure out Berlin’s transit system. It was confusing as fuck for me at first but once I figured it out it made more sense. I think looking back I was just so frustrated that it clouded my thoughts in dealing with Berlin, I wasn’t ready for Berlin the first time I went there and I wasn’t ready for it again this time sadly.

I don’t know if I will go back to Berlin anytime soon, if I do it will be with my girlfriend and it will be at a hostel, airbnb or hotel. I feel now I have expectations of what to expect and how to look for what I need in Berlin to have more fun there. Every time I go I feel like I know what I am looking for and each time I get it wrong. I am hoping the 3rd time I go someday I will be more prepared but I think it starts with staying in a place where I am not inconveniencing someone or myself.

Missy was as always a great host but I could tell her husband was not keen on the idea of couch surfing and letting strangers stay with them which I totally understood. It felt very awkward for me hearing how angry he was as the situation, he was nice to me but I knew he wasn’t happy with Missy about this. I feel like I should just avoid this altogether next time. These are the things I wanted to avoid with couchsurfing this time around.

As I have said before probably, I put Leipzig here as basically my do nothing point. I remember telling Missy I was going here and she asked me why since there was nothing there. Well there was stuff here, at least I thought there was but to tell you the truth I didn’t even care if there wasn’t. All I knew was that I needed to relax, I needed a vacation from my vacation and Leipzig was basically that.

I chose Leipzig because it was the birthplace of Gose beer which I have noticed has been trending as beer as of late here in BC but I remember when it was only Driftwood who did in in BC and it was my introduction to it so I thought that its source must have it the best. I was wrong for the most part, the oldest brewery in the city that bragged about having it made it way too syrupy and it just didn’t taste right to me.

It didn’t matter though I knew this city didn’t have much which I felt is knocking it it when I don’t mean to me. It is a nice city, it has a great mix of new and old architecture in it that makes it unique to any place I have ever been to. However I just wanted to sleep in and get drunk which I did. I mean I already found my go to German hefenweizen but it was here that I really just sat in my room at my airbnb and just drank Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse. I am sure it is not my favourite German hefe however it was the most excessible of all of the hefes I found in Germany.

My memories were really just that, doing nothing and sleeping in because I needed to. I got much needed rest during those 2-3 nights I was there which allowed me to get through the last two cities.

I expected more from Nuremberg than what I got from it to tell you the truth, I was expecting a mini Berlin chalk full of museums and culture. I didn’t get that, in fact I barely found any good museums there which I found disappointing. Realizing this and knowing I was going to spend my last 3 nights in Germany here was very depressing for me. I felt like if I knew this I would have just split my 6 days in Leipzig and Nuremberg in with Gent and Dusseldorf.

My first night in Nuremberg was when my depression decided to pop in and attack me because I was lonely missing my girlfriend, I was lonely missing having friends I could have fun with, I was depressed knowing full well that this was going to be my last time in Germany for some time and I chose poorly. I went to the only craft beer place I could find in old town and tried their beer and even then I wasn’t really impressed. I still got sufficiently drunk but still depressed that everything was coming to an end and I wasn’t satisfied with my experience. So I made my way from north old town and tried to find my way out of it in my drunken depressed haze. The whole moment in time for me would be comparable to the double guitar solo moment of the Hotel California or the last half of that song.

I came to Germany for craft beer I also came to experience beer gardens the way I experienced them or I should say stumbled upon them in Koln which was how I fell in love in hefenwiezens. Nuremberg was my last stop in Germany and I had not found any beer gardens. The best experience i had with beer in Germany up to that point was with Maria in Dusseldorf mainly because Dusseldorf was one of those places where most of the breweries we all around the same area, close enough to try them all in succession and have fun with. Everywhere else the only times I could have true on tap beer was from micro breweries who would not serve the hefes I wanted to begin with. the Hefe nirvana I hoped for was nowhere to be found.

It was in this dark cloud that I stumbled up Old Town Festival of Nuremberg. Thankfully I came to Nuremberg at the right time as they were celebrating their old town’s anniversary. Sadly however that night I was way too drunk to even take part in it. I was so drunk that I know many were looking at me like some drunk dumb ass who had too much. I thankfully got home and spent the rest of my night submitting to my depression as it took hold of me for the rest of the night.

The next two nights however were the polar opposite as I would have huge breakfasts followed by pint after pint after pint after pint of hefenweizen from Spalter, Glosser, Augustine, Paulaner, Ludwig Konig and every other German brand out there. As though the German beer gods felt sorry for me knew my love was true gave me what I wished to send me off from Deutschland.

I even got to hang out with a group of older German men and talk about craft beer with them.

That was really the best memory from my time here. Would i go back to Nurmberg? Only if there is a celebration of sorts where the beer gardens are brought out. If so I am there but if not I don't need to come back here.

On Sept 15 I left Nuremberg, Sept 15 was basically a travel day and one that reminded me of how big Germany really was because it was a 8 hour trip from Nuremberg to Amsterdam. By the time I got to Amsterdam it was too late to really do anything there unless I wanted to party and after the last two nights in Nuremberg I wasn’t interested, I also knew that I needed to get some sleep because I knew I wouldn’t get any for the last night I was going to be in Europe.

Thinking about this now is even more painful given the pain of my fantasy hockey team sucking last year on top of this pandemic basically ruining the greatest chance I would ever get to win but the thing is I had to do my hockey draft 5 hours before flying out of Amsterdam. I begged the guys to reschedule it even a day after but they refused and I got stuck with having to do my most important draft ever at 4 am at a hostel in Amsterdam.

Thankfully I had what is called a Ginger shot specifically for this. Maria works for a company that deals with health foods and drinks. She gave me two of these. One to try which I did before I left Dusseldorf, it definitely helped with my hang over that morning but this time I did not have a hang over I just needed to stay away and thankfully this did the trick and I was as ready to go as Freddie Mercury during Live Aid. Despite only having 2 hours of sleep after that ginger shot I was ready to go and had the best draft I ever. A team that nearly won best in season though I spent most of the season in first place, my team was primed for the playoffs built specifically for it but sadly due to the pandemic that never happened.

If I ever came back o Amsterdam I would definitely go to Camp Zeeburg in Amsterdam, I really missed going to that place. Outside of that I don't know if I would go back to Amsterdam, maybe for my girlfriend because of the museums but Amsterdam I don’t think is my kind of place. I definitely think it is a great introduction to Europe travel. If I was to recommend a place for someone who had never traveled to Europe before Amsterdam would definitely be a good primer but there are too many better placed to go.

So Sept 17 came and it was time to go, outside of some useless stress getting on the train to the airport checking in and getting on the plane was painless. The flight back however was slightly painful as I don’t think I slept much on my way back to Canada either. I remember stopping off in Toronto and having witbier and and a stour from Mill Street which was good followed by another 4.5 hour flight back to Vancouver where I got back to real life again.

Me and my girlfriend did go to Seattle but I have already talked about that for the most part, my trip to Newfoundland is self explanatory as I have done that so many times.

So what have I learned this time around?

I think when I do return to Europe I need to have a travel cell phone for starters. I was able to get away with it 2014 on my tablet however even then and especially now I feel like i missed out on so many good things I could have found if I had just had a travel cell phone to use to navigate me through Europe. I never bothered because I always felt like it was more trouble than it was worth to do that and even now I have no idea how I would be able to do it but I do not I need to start considering it for the next time I travel outside of the country. I feel as though I need to buy myself a travel phone that doesn't have anything linked or synced to it so I can use sim cards from anywhere and use that phone for travel because relying on just my tablet and starbucks barely got me around this time around.

If I go back to Germany I am not going to go after the craft beer areas but the actual traditional breweries next time. This may be much harder than finding craft breweries given many of these places are in lesser known cities in Germany but at least I would be able to get what I want from them. I know i have to start in Munich since many of the breweries i love seem to gravitate around there. Bottom line is I really need to do more digging up and studying of actual breweries in Europe because craft beer is just not at the level there as it is here and you know what I am fine with it. If I am in Germany I just want the hefes and I feel if I do return to Germany again it will be on a full on beer tour that is if my brain and my innards are still functional by then.

When I finished my trip I felt I was now tired of Germany but I am not going to lie I still would like to go back and if I could only go back there I would have no problem but with that said there are way to many other places to see in Europe that I need to see, I can't spend all my time in Germany no matter how much I love it. I will just have to apply my beer brewery search I have learned to the next countries I have seen.

Another thing I have learned is that I have to slow down, as much as seeing a much as possible would be great I can't go about doing 2 nights in a place then move for 2 weeks straight. I doubt I would have been able to do it at 29 and i know and I can't do it at 35. I feel as though 3-4 days in each place is optimal and always give myself a city or a point in time where I can do something if I wanted but I don't need to and I can just sleep in. Adamooka was that for me in Australia though I didn’t need it so much there, Leipzig was that this time around as well.

Not going to lie I feel my second trip to Europe wasn’t as good as my first but that was a tall order to being with with expectations that could never have been met and i knew that coming in.

When I went to Europe the first time I really had free reign to go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. If I wanted to spend a week in Koln I could have. If I hated being in Inverness and wanted to leave the next day I could and did. I was able to pace myself where this time around I did not have that luxury.

The more I think about it now the more it makes me think about whether it is worth it taking leave without pay just to do it again. All I can ever think about it trying to make the most of my life and my youth while I have it. I am often thinking of my dad and how the love of travel was instilled in me through him in how he would drag me and my family cross Canada multiple times on top of other places. I only rediscover that love when I went to Seattle the first time and cemented it in Europe. It makes me wonder if it would be possible by the time I am about to turn 40 when I have gotten 7 years into my pension if I can request leave on top of leave without pay and get away with it. I doubt I could to tell you the truth but it is something I want to look into.

I can’t help but think about how I could and would do 2.5 months in Europe this time and how much I long for it. In a way I feel as though I would nearly do the same itinerary but maybe a few changes. Nothing gets my hopes up anymore than actually looking at a map and plotting where to go on it, there is a reason why I own about 4 world maps, well three as the forth is more just showing the planet as it doesn’t should cities or places.

I can look at it for hours plotting where I would go.For shits and giggles lets go into two scenarios if I was to do 76 days again.

If I redid my first tour I would actually hit up more museums in Amsterdam, do it for 3 days this time. Go to Koln and Dusseldorf but probably spend a week in Dusseldorf hanging with Marie and her boyfriend so that is 10 days (3 in Koln, 7 in Dusseldorf), 1 week in Berlin this time in the city not outside it or with a family and 3 days in Munich to get the whole Oktoberfest vibe but I would not be around it much. I would spent a week in Istanbul even though I think that area is tense right now, there is just so much one could see there that I didn’t see before. 3 days in Dublin followed by 3 or maybe 4 days in Gallway depending on how my liver is holding out. Oh Gallway was such a moment in time for me that is for sure. I would not go to Cork this time.

4 days in Belfast spending less time looking for vinyl records and more just exploring the place. 3 days in Glasgow and 3 days in Edinburgh, 4 days in Cardiff and 4 days in Paris.

I got 20 days left now, I don’t want to deviate too much from the original itinerary so i feel the rest of these days should be spent giving the UK my full attention. 3 days in Inverness to give it a chance but this time make sure I have a place booked this time, 3 days in Aberdeen, 3 days in Liverpool, 3 days in Manchester and 7 days in London. I am leaving 3-4 days of a buffer for this trip so I would be able to use that in case I hit a wall of it I felt i needed more time in one or two places or not. I feel as though I may risk burning out again with this trip but there is a reason why I am doing a week in many places. I mean a week in Dusseldorf should be stress free, week in Berlin won't but at least I could go at my own pace this time, a week in Istanbul should be pretty good though I wouldn’t have the same host i did this time around which sucks. Plus 7 days in London feel is more than enough for me.

If I was to use the 76 days now however without using the same itinerary? London, Paris or Amsterdam are often the cheapest starting destinations but I feel as though Amsterdam would make the most sense for me again. I would stay 3 days there, 5 days in Dusseldorf, 3 days in Hamburg (Germany), 4 days in Copenhagen (Denmark), 4 days in Gothenburg (Sweden), 4 days in Oslo (Norway), 4 days in Stockholm (Sweden), 1 travel day to get to Helsinki (Finland) then spend 4 days there. 4 days in Tallinn (Estonia), 4 days in Riga (Latvia), 4 days in Vilnius, 4 days in Warsaw, 4 days in Prague and 4 days in Bratislava.

I got around 19 days left now. So 4 days in Vienna, 4 days in Zurich, 1 day of travel to Catania where I will spend 3 days there before getting a ferry to Malta where I will spend 5 days on that island. This will leave me 2 days to find a way to get to Amsterdam.

Mind you this would probably be another exhausting trip and I would probably make some chances that would allow me more time to relax. If so I would be fine with cutting the last bit of my travel in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Malta in order to make sure the rest of the trip is good. The main mission of this trip is to hit the nordic region hard.

To tell you the truth if it were not for COVID-19 me and my girlfriend would probably be in Australia right now, If that was the case we would have stayed in Adelaide while travelling to Perth, Adamooka, Tasmania and maybe if there was time Sydney or Brisbane but that ain’t happening and it is looking like Newfoundland won’t happen either. A trip during Thanksgiving as well as my birthday even less likely but it is what it is. All I do know if I will have more leave time next year than I did in 2019 when I did go to Europe. Where I will go I have no fucking clue at this time and I don’t think it is ever worth thinking about till a cure for COVID 19 is found. I only know that half of it will be for Newfoundland to se my parents and the other half somewhere else. Either Australia or Japan depending on how things go. Best case scenario I will return to Europe in 2023 which is 4 years later, still better than 5 years but it is still a long time between visits.

I have been working on this blog now for about 6 hours so I think I have overstayed my welcome. I do not know when my next blog will be. Maybe during Thanksgiving when I talk about what I would have done if COVID did not happen. Probably Quebec City or even Montreal again.

Fuck these times suck but it could be worse I guess. First world problems for me that I have no right to complain about. Stay safe out there people, shazbot nanu nanu.

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