Almost to the end now

So, back in Brussels we had just finished up some delicious waffles and decided it was time to go. It took a few tried to get to the train station because I had utterly lost my sense of direction somehow, so we kept returning to the square we recognized and setting out in different directions. We got to the right platform and then proceeded to wait for the train, which we are pretty proficient at by now. Once aboard the train and seated, I was relaxing in the chair as other passengers scuffled around and put luggage in various places. Suddenly the Asian dude behind shouted "stop that guy!" and leaped through the line of people in the aisle. A couple seconds later he returned holding his camera. He explained that another man had helped him put his bag up, and then taken his camera, but when he ran to get it back the man had dropped it and fled. I actually saw a guy walking away down the platform who I thought looked suspicious and he matched the description when I talked to the almost-victim. So that was fun.

I also forgot to mention the exciting times on the train to Brussels! We were sitting behind a big group of Spanish kids, probably atound 18 years old maybe. They too were using passes, although for Europeans the pass is called interail. When the ticket checking lady came by, she gave them an impressive lecture because they hadn't been filling out the "Journeys Details" section, where you write the time and number and destination of every train bus and boat you ride on with your pass. The ticket isn't valid without it, I guess. Christian and I hadn't gotten such a lecture, because we've mostly been taking night trains that require reservation, so we had actual tickets, and on the few local trains we'd taken they hadn't even checked. But, being the intelligent young men we are, we'd followed the instructions and filled ours out, so when she got to us, she at first looked apprehensive as we handed over our passes, but as soon as she saw that we'd done it right, she was very relieved and waved our passes at the spanish guys as an example of how to do things right.

Anyway, back again to the return trip: we ran into technical difficulties of some sort. At one station we randomly stopped for a long time and tey never announced in english what was going on, though I gathered from other passengers that they had to fix something. Eventually we departed again, but it didn't last long, we found ourselves stopped again, this time nowhere in particular, and they did announce in several languages that there was a train broken down on the tracks ahead of us so we couldn't move...and they gave no hint as to how long it would take. I honestly don't remember how long it took. But even once we moved, we stopped at the next station for another extended amount of time, so we ended up back at Amsterdam Central sometime past 11, and got back to our hostel around midnight.

Going up to our room, I heard some exciting Dutch karaoke coming from the bar...if only we'd gotten back sooner...we immediately went to sleep.

We went out again the next day (yesterday) and took a tram to Vondelpark, which is a lovely place; its got ponds and little waterways and grassy areas full of picnicers and sunbathers and plenty of benches and tons of trees, and the paths were full of bikers and dog walkers. We ate a pitiful lunch there...our hostel was right in what seems to be the turkish district of Amsterdam, so all the markets sold turkish food, which we didn't know what to do with. Although, we did eat Doners a lot, christian ate one everyday and I ate two over the course of our three days (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner).

On the way back to Central we found a random street market, like a flea market, but with interesting stuff. We poked around but didn't purchase anything. It was a good time consumer though, since our train didn't leave until the evening and we had nothing to do. We got to the station and still had nothing to do.

So we got onto that train eventually. It was a rough ride though, the seats were uncomfortable and there was a passenger in our car who had the most ridiculously loud snore I've ever heard. I eventually just played loud music to fall asleep to, and that worked ok. There was also a huge storm partway through, though I was asleep at the beginning, it was loud enough to wake me up. Our train was stopped at a station and didn't move until the storm let up.

And so we eventually arrived in Zurich...somewhat rested and knowing that we are screwed because Zurich is an incredibly expensive city. Exactly how expensive, we would not find out until later, but first we had to find our hostel. We failed to correctly follow the directions we had, so we went back to the tourist office at the train station, where the lady behind the desk proceeded to tell us how to get to some random hostel before we'd even told her where we were trying to go. It was amazing, she heard us say hostel and immediately directed us the complete wrong way without stopping to let us correct her. Rather than try that again, we took the map and I used that to easily find the place.

We walked over, dropped off our bags at the luggage room and went out to bide time until check-in, pretty normal stuff. We went down to zurich's shopping district and were appalled at the prices of things...those of you who will be meeting us back in California, be prepared to feed us, that's all I'm saying.

Anyway, we came back to the hostel early and ate some food, and then checked-in as soon as it was ready. So here we are. Sitting around. So, basically, we'll be flying back in 2 days, and we can't afford to do anything in Zurich.