Interlaken

Since I'm waiting here for my laundry to finish (hopefully for the last time here) and I have nothing to do for the next couple of hours, I might as well post write a blog post. I'm pretty excited about this weekend, except the timings really suck. I have to take a bus from downtown Metz at 1:35 AM and wait at Frankfurt-Hahn airport for like 4 hours until our flight leaves at 10 AM. But other than that, it should be a really cool weekend in Croatia. We're planning on renting a car and driving to some cool places.

Last weekend, I went to Interlaken. It is a really pretty place. The name Interlaken roughly translates to between lakes, and that's because the city lies between two lakes. It was really fun - we met a bunch of people the US and a guy from Switzerland. I had some Swiss chocolate and some fresh Swiss cheese, both of which were really good. The highlight of the weekend was probably paragliding. It was a really cool experience, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting. It was literally like you were just floating in mid-air, relaxing in the sky, above an amazing view, for 15-20 minutes. If I ever come here again though, I'm pretty sure I want to go canyoning. And maybe, just maybe, I will go skydiving one day. We also went hiking through the mountains, but we didn't have enough time to get to a real hiking part, so it was more like a leisurely stroll with, of course, really good scenery. See for yourself below.

Oh, and the Swiss Franc is a really weird currency.

Schedule for Rest of Semester

Okay, so lately I've been trying to figure out trains and all that stuff for the rest of the semester. Here's what I have, and these are pretty close to being set in stone.

April 15-18: Croatia

April 21-25: Rome, Cinque Terre, and hopefully either Paris or Lyon (pending train reservations)

April 28-May 2: Amsterdam

May 4-5: Paris (pending train reservations) - for a city that wasn't one of my favorites, I feel like I go here way too often haha

May 5: Atlanta

Also, a couple things I forgot to mention about last weekend:
Antwerp
1) I think it's a really rich city, we saw a bunch of really nice cars while we were there.
2) It's a really relaxing city, it's kind of like a beach city with a river instead of a beach.
3) Best döner kebab place I've been to since being in Europe.
4) Met some other Americans at the Kulminator who were really cool and also bought us some relatively expensive beer.
Westvleteren
1) I got ice cream from there with some kind of beer syrup or something and it was amazing.
2) Depending on what day you go, you can bring a six pack back. We went on the wrong day.
3) Trains hate us. On the way back, we got fined for something dumb (for those of you who have Eurail, it was for not filling out the travel report at the bottom that nobody looks at). Then, we got stuck in Luxembourg and had to take a cab ride back to Metz.

Stay tuned for stuff about this past weekend.

The Beer Pilgrimage

This past weekend was pretty much dedicated to beer. What do I mean by that? Well, Belgium is a country known for having some of the best beer in the world. And, since I didn't get to go to Venice, and most people were going on trips I really didn't care to go on, I decided to go with a few of my friends, one of whom is obsessed with beer, on a trip I called 'The Beer Pilgrimage.' Basically it consisted of the following:
1) Go to a bar in Brussels (Delirium) that serves over 2500 beers.
2) Go to the number one bar in the world (in terms of beer selection), the Kulminator.
3) Go try the most rare beer in the world (12 km walking from a train station, hence why I call it a pilgrimage), a beer which was also rated the best beer in the world multiple times, Westvleteren Trappist.

While on this trip, I definitely learned a lot about beer. For instance, did you know that there are only 7 trappist beers in the world? I've tried all 7. Not many people can say that. Also, did you know you could age many types of beer and, just like wine, they get better with age? Sounds kind of gross right? Trust me, it's not. I tried three beers that were older than me (1980, 1984, 1987), and a bunch that were aged less than that. One of them was one of the best beers I've ever had - in fact, it didn't taste like beer at all. The best part? It didn't cost that much at all. For instance, the aforementioned beer goes for like $50 a bottle in the US. How much did I pay for it? 4 euro for a glass. This was all at the Kulminator; this is why it is rated the best bar in the world.

I also found out that two of the top 10 bars in the world are in Atlanta. And while in Brussels, we went to the #10 place (here is a list if you're interested). I also got to 'witness' a fight at Delirium (what I called the Brussels Bar Brawl) and meet some cool locals in Antwerp.

The owners of the Kulminator

We were very confused by this on our 12km walk to Westvleteren...

Until we saw the parade when we got back.

We asked for a chicken sandwich. This is what we got.

Also, for some reason, it feels like the Friday spring break today... not sure why. And I am going to Interlaken, Switzerland, tomorrow. As of now, my plan is to paraglide and to explore the mountains.