Amsterdam had this unmistakably cool charm, Kael & I were drawn in from the minute we landed & the weather was beautiful. I'm not sure if it was because everyone was stoned or if the people are just simply relaxed but everything just felt calm & laid back, a nice change from the hustle & bustle of most cities and something Kael & I dig very much. We checked into our hostel in the the early afternoon, it was about a 15 minute bike ride from the red light district & we went straight out to explore. We were starving & our first stop was a street vendor selling baguettes & waffles! Kael had been on about waffles for at least 3 weeks so having them finally was a relief & they were delicious! And not to mention the unexpected good luck of a pigeon s***ting on Kael's head while he was eating... Haha Yes this made my day ;D We spent the afternoon relaxing in the park & soaking up some much needed vitamin D from our friend the sun.. The evening called for sushi & bar hoping; where we got our first experience of other tourists that had taken up the offer of what Amsterdam has on offer 'legally' for party time & it was quite entertaining to say the least!
Everyone rides bikes to get around & I was more than up for the challenge so we hired bikes and headed for the city centre & to check out the all famous red light district.... The city winds around rivers with a serious of bridges and little cobbled streets, I followed my internal compass & I'm never far off getting us where we need to be! They have a lane for the bike riders and your own mini traffic lights which I thought was great, every city should have this! We were in search of the Sex museum, which was kind of like a porno magazine through the ages.... Very strange indeed! Not sure what we expected but for 4€ it was a laugh! Taking in the street performers is always a cool part of any city as well as getting lost and ending up in red light district with hookers trying to woo you in to their 'bedroom' was eye opening.. The hookers come in all shapes, colors & sizes (naturally) and they just hang in the streets in their lingerie trying to get you into their 'bed' it was a new experience alright, I didn't know where to look & just found myself blatantly staring!!
And of course the famous 'Coffee shops' where you can buy marijuana from a menu to suit your highs needs.. And right by them are a serious of munchie food venues like you wouldn't believe! This city is like none other. Everything was backwards infact coffee shop meant marijuana shop, cafe meant bar and bar means club!?

Right next to our hostel was a beautiful park where everyone would cook BBQs listen to music and spend the afternoons relaxing (and smoking no doubt) it was beautiful & you would always find something entertaining!
Saturday evening began in our hostel cafè (bar) and would end up at Sugar Bar (club) with about 6 or so of our new hostel buddies and go until the wee hours of Sunday morning dancing the night away.
With less than 4 hours sleep we were up and waiting at the Van Gogh museum before it opened on Sunday morning, in hope of beating the crowds..... Seems everyone had the same idea, go figure! But the line moved quickly and we were in, in no time. Kael was almost instantly bored, almost like taking your 5 yr old along with you.. I took a little longer, I found the history of it all quite amazing & it was cool to see some of his very famous paintings in person.
A picnic in the park was the perfect way to harness a hangover along with an afternoon siesta in the sun.. Life doesn't get much better than that!!
We were going to go to the hienikin brewery as we'd been told it was good but after the disapointment of the guinness brewery, we were doubtful and our hangovers won us over in favor of sleep & hair of the dog ;) back to our hostel bar where met another Aussie ( for something different) and had way more than the one or two drinks we were supposed to.... As usual.
Morning comes and it's Brussels for the next stop.. Bye Amsterdam :(

Brussels was our first experience in a really full on non English speaking country & to say we were unprepared is an understatement!! On the train I decided to do some light reading on Brussels & thought hmmm what language do they speak!? We'd better learn the basics so I started reading up on Bulgarian after all we are going to Belgium.............. After about 10 -15 minutes the bleach must of subsided from my brain momentarily and it occurred to me they would speak Bulgarian in Bolivia. Well if I ever go there I know a few words.... Retard. Belgium, Belgium... Hmm I think they speak French!? And thank god we did some practice they don't speak much English at all! We arrived early afternoon & my google maps sent us 15minutes in the complete wrong direction to find our hostel so we were walking around lost in hope of someone that could understand us for far too long. The heat beaming down on us our backpacks weighing us down & it doesn't take long before you find yourself disheartened..
We eventually found our hostel & our first impressions of Brussels were not good ones. The hostel was crap & we found ourselves wishing away the next 2 days.. Dinner time came along & we were hungry & wondering how we would order for me vegetarian and Kael no dairy without being able to understand the menus.. After we got over our English speaking selves and started getting into being in a real foreign country speaking a bit of French got a lot easier & we started enjoying ourselves,(as long as you try to say the words most people are nice & will help you out)
We only had one full day in Brussels so we made sure we saw the mannekin pis (little boy doing a wee) and the grand place which is like the town square all the buildings surrounding are ancient and about 8 -10 stories tall it was really impressive, the architecture was beautiful. With the buildings being soo big it makes you feel like a tiny ant! We also went to a museum in grand place for something to do.... Boring! The best thing in there was a 20yr old documentary they were showing about mannekin pis & that was just strange. We took to just wandering around the city to see what we can find, my favorite part of a new city is getting to know the streets and where they all lead and how they all intertwine. It's so nice to walk around with unknowing and discover new cool places or even just familiar ones to help get your bearings!

The Brussels summer festival was running the week we were in town & from about 7pm-11pm every night they would close the main street and the concert would start, we found some steps to sit on and listen to the music while having a few drinks.. Nothing like a free street concert!

Bonjour Paris!!