I wrote such a good post our way to Pamplona today but it disappeared before posting. I'll try to put the last few days in such elegant prose once again but I can't guarantee anything. Here goes nothing....
No one noticed us as we wandered around the airport attempting to figure out dutch transport. No one tried to sell us anything, no children yelled "how are you" repeatedly, and no one tried to take advantage of our plight. In fact no one really cared. Our celebrity status had been revoked as we returned to our lowly place as poor college grads seeking adventure.
Our first European experience was a monday night in Amsterdam. We did very little and by that I mean almost nothing and by that I mean we walked for close to four hours, found out the city has more waterways then Venice and that beer in Europe is both plentiful and cheap. The biggest shock of the night however was sitting down to a beer at a cafe at 10 and having daylight. TEN? Daylight? It got dark around 6:30 everyday in Africa. To top it off we had HOT water in our hostel (but we seemed to have forgotten our towels :( ) and didn't have to worry about being targeted for mugging because of our skin color. We blended.
The next day we travelled to Brussels where we spent the early afternoon trying to interpret some more dutch and some french in an effort to find our hostel. After some hiccups and stumbling upon some beautiful sights we found our hostel situated right in the center of historic old town. We spent the rest of the day sampling local cuisine and by that I mean beer, fries, and waffles. We visited the Delerium Bar known for having more beers at any one time then anywhere else in the world. It set the Guiness world record in 200r for offering 2004 beers at once. It was insane. Some of the best beers in the world for less than the price you'd pay for them in a store in the US. Capped off with a nice Carl made breakfast of ham, bacon and eggs our stay in Brussels was short but sweet.
Onward to Zaragoza where we had our first couch surfing experience (www.couchsurfing.com check it out). We stayed with a guy named Angel in his small but very centrally located apartment. The night we got in he took us out with his friends to some tapas bars for some food and cerveza. As we walked back to his apartment that night we passed all of the major sights we would see the next day. He lived a stones throw away from Zaragoza's central plaza that houses remnants of a roman wall, two major cathedrals (one in the renowned mudejar style and the other gothic) as well as several museums housing paintings of Goya. The river Ebro weaves through town one block from the square creating a picaresque landscape complete witha old stone bridges and parks along the water. As the capital of the Spanish region of Arragon and only two hours from the major cities of Barcelona and Madrid it would seem that Zaragoza would see quite a few tourists. However this gem of Aragon is definitely worth the visit. It's low prices, location and friendly people make it a great place to spend a day or two. As for couch surfing, its the best way to travel. Getting an overview of town from locals proved most beneficial and we managed to make a few new friends along the way. Check that out too....
Here's some pictures of these cities in no real order:
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