Young, hip and adventurous

I'm not exactly sure what I expected out of Europe. Traveling Europe is so romanticized; it's 'the thing to do' when you're young, hip and adventurous. Since I am, after all, each of these things, it should seem only natural that I find myself hopping on that shiny shiny bandwagon. But I don't think I ever expected to 'do Europe', as they say. I originally wanted to go on an international study exchange to Singapore, but my fellow exchangee Mark felt that a country which, until recently, outlawed chewing gum, might be a little too restrictive for someone who enjoys person freedom as much as he does. For some reason the exchange office at Waterloo ruled out Australia, and that didn't leave too many countries which offered courses in English. From this point onward, I think Denmark was more or less chosen at random from a small group of other European countries including England and Sweden.

For me, the adventure begins in Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt is a hub of several things.. European culture is not one of them. Airports are. This is where I met up with Mohini and had the opportunity to sample the famous Frankfurt Apfelwein (¨Appelvine¨ - feel free to imagine a German accent at this point).


Apfelwein in Frankfurt

The next day we took a train to a small town on the Rheine River where we hopped on a ferry for a couple hours, looked at the gorgeous castles and vinyards and tried to stay awake (I was still a little jetlagged at this point).




Castles and towns along the Rheine River

After our little float down the river, we caught a train to Brussels, Belgium. My first impression was that Brussels looked more like I imagined Eastern Europe to look, but this may have just been the area near the train station. The streets were dominated by Middle Eastern people, there was a carnival happening and little markets dominated the street. Later we made it into the city centre with all the touristy things one hopes to find in Belgium including waffles, beer and the infamous statue of the little boy peeing (which is also infamously overrated).


Moh checking out the waffles in Belgium

After a night in Belgium, Moh and I made our way to Den Haag, the Netherlands where we stayed with Jenia and Dennis. Moh had met Dennis on an earlier trip to Austria, and he invited us to come and stay with him and Jenia while we were in the Netherlands. 'Couch Surfing' has become extremely popular in Europe, either officially through the website couchsurfing.org or as a simple invitation between fellow travellers or friends of friends of friends. Jenia and Dennis's hospitatlity turned out to be rather limitless and we ended up staying twice as long as we had intended. While in Den Haag we took day trips to Leiden and Amsterdam. My favourite parts were the architecture as well as the Dutch cheeses.




Architecture in Den Haag


Cheese in Leiden

From the Netherlands we took the train back to Leipzig in Eastern Germany where Moh had been working for the summer. This was my first taste of Eastern Europe and also a great opportunity to meet some of the friends Moh had made and get a taste of her life over the summer.


An amazing dinner with some of Moh's friends in Leipzig


A bike trip, cut short by the impending rain

Several days later, we caught the train to Berlin to meet Mark at the airport. Here the three of us stayed with Josh, another friend Moh had made on an earlier trip. Located in East Berlin, Josh's apartment was amazing and his hospitality was again phenominal. In Berlin I was most interested in the Berlin Wall and World War II.




One of the few remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall


The Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

At this point Moh had to catch her flight home (well actually to Egypt for a short tour, before flying back to Canada) and Mark and I were alone in Europe for the first time. Next stop, Prague!