hallo amsterdam

internet is expensive, thus no updates.

paris was perfectly paris. relaxed, carefree, inspiring, lovely. stayed in a tiny hotel room that i could imagine living in for three months while i write my novel. next door was a middle aged actor who got into dramatic fight with someone everyday we were there. eiffel tower, louvre, arc de triomphe, notre dame... cheese fondu, creme brulee, onion soup, crepes... it was hard to do anything but stroll down sidewalks and enjoy paris. its just SO. did the rodin museum and saw 'the kiss' and 'the thinker'. giggled at people lining up to buy long loaves of french bread. spent a day in montmartre and saw the studios of picasso, renoir, van gogh, and lautetre. felt cosmopolitan and smoked heavily. sigh...

brussels... two days was enough. the hostel was sub par with 800 school children and cold showers, meh. highlihgts: musical instrument museum where eac display played an automatic adiou clip in your headset (very cool medieval music) and all the chocolate you can eat... did a brewery tour of a traditional belgium brewery where they make gueze, a delicious beer that tastes as if it is spiked with champagne... but mostly wandered from chocolate shop to chocolate shop. found a shop that specialized in chocolates for coffee connasieurs (hello) and made delicious hot chocolate with cinnamin and honey... and most importantly visited the official mascot of brussels, mannequin pis - a tiny statue of a boy peeing. how embarrassing to have this as your mascot... you can buy zillions of mannequin pis souveniers, incluidng tiny statues that have an invisible thread pee stream and a t shirt that says 'mannequin pis is the name, brussels has the fame'. that says it all, really...

so now amsterdam. less than 24 hours and already better than brussels. hot showers, what a concept!! driving in saw windmills, sheep, and thousands of bicycles. amsterdam is the town of sex, drugs, and clogs. very very very cold; should probably bunk up in a smoke shop for awhile...

one of my favourite parts of the trip? the bus rides. i do my best thinking, planning, writing on the bus. dreaming...