Leaving Estonia my next destination was Amsterdam via Warsaw, if only briefly. Considering then-neighbourly Latvia and Lithunia are still on my list, this has begun the strange series of bookings which make up the hilariously logistically-inefficient journey I've found myself on, greatly adding to the adventure. I arrived in the evening and spent the next day wandering about different spots with absolutely no game plan, seemingly skipping much of the tourist swarm while making sure to enjoy a few parks and the spring weather. Met up with Sergey again for a customary beer-picnic, and to return his camera gear after taking good care of it for over a month.
The canals were what I had expected, and were a great setting for a walk-about, but I could never have prepared myself for the amount of bicycles and the infrastructure to support them. It was also nearly tempting to buy a clearly stolen bike from a number of friendly-appearing homeless salesmen for only a handful of euro's, but in the end I kept to the $0 travel budget while within the city.
The free ferries were great, we boarded and disappeared slightly out of the central bustle, to what had to be an outpost colonised entirely by hipsters, sat within piles of neatly dilapidated student accommodation. An interesting spot by the outer-canals, next to a large crane remodeled to serve as a hotel, with two or so rooms priced in excess of 500 Euro a night. I'm told there is a private spa pool placed on the very top, reached privately by the external elevator which would surely ensure the start of an interesting evening to any of its decadent inhabitants.
Sitting essentially on the side of the road the next day with no route planned or accommodation booked, Belgium was shelved, and a 12 hour overnight bus was set for Munich, Germany, which quickly became the source of the most intensely stressful stretches of travel I've had so far. Hopefully the upcoming blog update for that portion appears as condensed as I'm hoping.
The canals were what I had expected, and were a great setting for a walk-about, but I could never have prepared myself for the amount of bicycles and the infrastructure to support them. It was also nearly tempting to buy a clearly stolen bike from a number of friendly-appearing homeless salesmen for only a handful of euro's, but in the end I kept to the $0 travel budget while within the city.
The free ferries were great, we boarded and disappeared slightly out of the central bustle, to what had to be an outpost colonised entirely by hipsters, sat within piles of neatly dilapidated student accommodation. An interesting spot by the outer-canals, next to a large crane remodeled to serve as a hotel, with two or so rooms priced in excess of 500 Euro a night. I'm told there is a private spa pool placed on the very top, reached privately by the external elevator which would surely ensure the start of an interesting evening to any of its decadent inhabitants.
Sitting essentially on the side of the road the next day with no route planned or accommodation booked, Belgium was shelved, and a 12 hour overnight bus was set for Munich, Germany, which quickly became the source of the most intensely stressful stretches of travel I've had so far. Hopefully the upcoming blog update for that portion appears as condensed as I'm hoping.
