Brugge - The city that always sleeps
Brussels- spouting with action
Viva Colognia
and Ich Bin Ein Berlin- Tourist...

I wish I could sit here and regail you in the insanity of the past few days, but I have nineteen minutes and counting on my internet voucher, so I will be quick. I hope to update this in full tomorrow, but who knows.

Brugge is a lovely city. Is it quaint, quiet, historically gorgeous and boring. Our hostel there seemed to be the only party in town, and it was not that enthralling. We did see a gorgeous cathedral, went to a hospital museum that showed what a hospital in the 1200s was like and walked around alot. We also went to a fair, did the bumper cars and haunted hous and got trapped in a hall of mirrors. Seriously, the three of us could not for the life of us get out. Two girls sat outside and laughed histerically as we bumped our heads and got trapped. The ride actually closed down and they let us out. It was embarassing to say the least. Kowski also had an ineresting experience in Brugge. He ended up meeting up with a 19 year old daughter of a Saskachewan oil tycoon in our hostel room, trapping Fisch and I in the hall while he engaged in what turned out to be a very uncomfortable experience, or so he says. The girl was not the most visually appealing sheep of the flock (I am trying to be nice) and Kowski was drunk. So to make it short, we ended up receiving free beer from our neighbour for sitting out in the hall for a while (which was spilled for the most part and cleaned up with dirty laundry) and eventually, we made it back to the room and went to sleep. The funnier thing is the next day, a friend of this unnamed girl approached him and chastized him for ignoring the situation the next day. This girl, Marie from Newcastle, was really angry, creating a high-school style situation that both Fisch and I ignored, leading us to leaving the hostel quietly the next day. To add more icing on the cake, her name was the same as the giraffe Kowski met in San Sabastian. Perfect.

We spent the next day split in Brussels and Koln. Brussels is gorgeous, and capping off our day was a trip to a musical instrument museum, which both enthralled and angered us. The displays were great, but the way they displayed them were horrible. Instead of being able to listen to each individual instrument, they played combined pieces when discribing individual instruments, which creating a difficult listening experience. Joe would have still enjoyed it. We then walked around for a while, ate lunch in the middle of a traffic circle (we bought groceries in Brugge), went to another cathedral and hopped a train to Koln. We missed the direct train, so we had to take three local ones, but it was fun. We met a few american high school exchange students and tought them lessons on university and a Canadian dentist working in Brussels who served in Afghanistan in 2003. She actually identified, through dental records, one of the guys killed in the friendly fire incident. wow.

Okay, less than ten minutes left now on my card. Koln was INSANE. Right when you get out of the train station there is this massive cathedral called the Dom facing you. This place looks amazing and somehow escaped unscathed from world war II, even though the city was bombed to shit. We found our hostel, a nice place right downtown and ended up at a jazz club on the river. Before that, I had an episode with german phone cards, which basically sealed the deal of me not buying anymore phone cards. I have spent like 40 euros calling home and Josie, so for the next two days, email will be king.

The jazz club was great. It had the vibe of a speakeasy, with peanuts on the bar thrown all over and a very intimate atmosphere. The band was excellent, as the piano player played base using an analog foot pedal dealie that enthralled all of us. There we met three Cologne-ites, Ans, Pasquale and Valerie. The rest of the night would require another blog entry entirely. They wanted to go to a student club, so we took the tram uptown. Upon finding it overflowing with people, we ended up at another bar, which I have no idea what its called or where it is, but it was a cave in the basement of a complex, and then the night got crazy. The germans listen to horrid music, and this DJ played it all... Dirty Dancing, La Bamba, Beach Boys, Dandy Warhols, local Cologne songs including VIVA COLOGNE and other stuff. We drank alot, as their local beer, Kolsch, is very easy to drink and tastes good, and somehow 4:30AM rolled around and it was pouring, we had no idea where we were and we were exhausted. We took a cab back to the hostel. More on last nite later.

four minutes left. Today we went and sight-saw around Cologne. (It is also called Koln). We went to the Lindt Chocolate Museum, which was disappointing. Promises were made of myriad free samples and we got two small ones. Plus the museum was just poor. Useless exhibits. We should have known. We went inside the dom, walked around a bit, went by the world's largest music store (called The Saturn) and hopped a train to Berlin. Here we are now. The hostel is way on the eastern side of the city, so we decided it is best to explore tomorrow and get some sleep tonite because we are not in the centre. The guys are already asleep. I will elaborate on more later.

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Now I have seven minutes left on my internet card. We are still in Berlin. Did a lot of sight-seeing today. Much of it will be elaborated on later. Here are a few quotes instead that must be published.

`Wow, the third German word I know is a curse word' - Me after meeting some weird German girls on the train who tought me how to curse in German.

'First a giraffe, then a ogre. What is next, a man? - me again, with Fisch´s help. Kalman will understand.

'Are youse guys from America?'
'nope, we are from Canada.'
'then what part of America are youse guys from?
- The exchange between myself and Marie from Newcastle.

Also, hello to both Kalman and Lance. We miss you American idiots.