Busy, Busy, Busy

December 28, 2013

17:31 Paris, France

09:31 Edmonton, Canada

Oh boy. It’s been a while since I wrote. I have been super busy. I have been staying at a party hostel in Paris and well; I have been busy doing that. Explore by day and party by night. I loved the hostel. It was possibly the best hostel I have ever stayed in. Doesn’t really say much considering I haven’t stayed in many yet. But everything was perfect. I loved it. But because of that it was fairly expensive. You drink every night. There is no kitchen so you are forced to buy all your meals. Makes it pretty expensive but with the hostel having their own restaurant/ bar. You get discounts on all your meals. It was also great because if you tip the waiters well they really help you out and give back to you. A couple of the nights I was getting most of my drinks at discounted prices because the bartenders and people who work at the hostel are just awesome. Awesome people helping out awesome people. I have to say I will really miss them. I met so many people who are so open and just amazing. It’s just sad I have to leave. But I’ll meet many more awesome people to come. I have roughly 10 days left in Europe. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown. Long term travel really is the best ever. You still have to create a schedule for yourself and make sure you have a direction you want to go. It’s sort of like a mini job. Sure you can party every day. But you really do have to stop and relax, not go anywhere and just sort of stay in for a bit. Time for yourself is good. Paris was just not that. The next hostel that I will be heading to next will be different. It’s not a party hostel which I’m actually looking forward to. I’m sure Amsterdam is full of parties and excitement. But I will for sure just be taking a day or part of a day to just relax and catch up. I need to contact some people and have a chat and let them know I’m doing fine. Paris was just so busy. It’s a massive city with just so much to see. It’s incredible. I learned so much there. Heard a lot of stories and talked about other backpacker’s travels. Listened to their hardships and epiphanies. It really was the weirdest thing though, staying in a hostel for 5 days or so like I did in Paris; you got to see people come and go. The hostel slow switches over roughly every 3 days or so. You see people you haven’t seen before, which makes for new friends and great conversations. But it’s so hard to remember who you met and who you didn’t meet and what their name is. Makes it so tough. With couch surfing you just have yourself and your host. You get to know them really well. You can trust them and you don’t have to worry about running into bad characters that don’t get along well with you or other people. That’s also another thing I didn’t like about the party hostel. You get those hard core party goers that just over do it. Those people who are way too rowdy and think that their shit doesn’t stink. There were 3 really rowdy guys in the hostel and 2 were just horrible. The 3rd one from New Zealand wasn’t too bad. The 2 guys took other’s drinks and they called people names, they broke some of the Christmas decorations, they are so disrespectful it’s not even fun. Even to go as far as taking a shit in a urinal and on the floor in the bathroom. No one knows who did it but we are all sure it was them. So disgusting. Oh well. Now I’m gone and I’m off to Amsterdam. I booked my hostel since my couch surfer host bailed on me. But that’s ok. I kind of feel like just having a nice chill hostel anyways. It’s very expensive especially with New Year’s so close. Almost everyone in my hostel is going to Amsterdam. The train to Amsterdam would have taken only 3 hours but now I will collectively take me 18 and a half hours to get to Amsterdam because I forgot to book my train reservation in advance and now the train is full. So I have to take a slower train with many connections and a nice long 6 hour break in Brussels. Not cool bro. Oh well you live and learn and I’m not too worried. Taking the train and spending so much time on a train lets me get good use out of my pass. Makes it worth it. I think I’m also coming down with a slight cold. All this drinking and eating shitty food isn’t helping at all. Hopefully I can get some rest soon so I can finally heal. I would hate to come home and have to deal with a nasty sickness in the cold. It’s been fairly warm in Paris with it being around +13 during the day to +5 during the night. But with that said it’s been very windy, gloomy and just raining all the time. Hopefully Amsterdam is nice. I’m actually super glad I decided to just travel around instead of snowboarding. I’m better off snowboarding in Canada. Well I’m probably going to take a nap because I’m not sure if there is a hostel close to the train station in Brussels so I might have to stay awake in the train station. Keep being awesome!! Over and out!