Day 38: Brussels

Friday, September 20

I am...really glad i left Paris, actually.
    Amanda and i spent two days there, out of the twenty years we were together, but i still feel her pull all over that city. We made some powerful core memories there.
    When i was planning this trip, i always said i was going to reserve a whole week for Paris. This was both because it was special to Amanda and i, and also because i've been learning French for three years. But as i got going, with as heavy as i felt in Stockholm and Helsinki, and i started thinking i might go home after Paris, i had begun to say to a few friends that i might not stay in Paris the full week. It would depend on my emotional state, and how i felt while i was there.
    While i was in Paris, i had those few days where getting up and doing things was difficult. The day i did L'Arc de Triomphe, that ended up being all i did, due to [excuses excuses] but mostly due to the weight of it all on my mind. I kept telling myself, and writing in my log, it's not so bad, in Paris. I'm dealing with everything just fine.
    I didn't realize how heavy it actually was.
    Once i was across the Belgian border, i felt that weight lift. I felt lighter. I wasn't sure i wanted to admit it, at first.
    After that first day in Brussels, though, when i got up and got out and did so many things, i knew it was true, though.
    I've still got a lot of baggage in Paris.
    I think there's also something to be said about how i finally came to that decision to continue the trip, and not go home. Knowing that i'm riding it out, and knowing that i've still got so much travel time ahead of me, kind of galvanized me into accepting and rolling with it.
    I've said many times, and i apologize for repeating myself yet again, but i'm saying it to reassure myself as much as or more than i'm telling it to you: yes, this trip was reckless and irresponsible. But this was a huge, huge bucket list item. I may never have a chance to do this again. I may never even see Europe again. At the very least, it's extremely unlikely that i will see all of these countries or cities again. I can hope that there's a film fest run in my future, which could bring me to France and Germany and Spain, but will i ever see Lithuania again? I don't know. It may not be likely.
    Keep going. It's worth it.

---

I checked out of the hostel, sat in the commissary for a while having my electrolytes, and planning my day. I put my bag in an automated locker, similar to what i used at the last hostel in Paris, except this one made me pay upfront for a certain number of hours. The Paris one just charged me based on the final total, which made more sense to me. It was 10:50. I was planning to be on a train to Amsterdam at 16:45, so i'd need to retrieve the bag before that. The options were two hours, six hours, or 24 hours. I went with six. So i had to retrieve my stuff by 16:50. Shouldn't be a problem.
    I wanted to follow Liz's other suggestion while i was here, and get that life-changing waffle from TradiNatura. Google Maps said it was a 49 minute walk from the hostel, about 3.3 kilometers. Or i could jump on the train and save...eight minutes.
    C'mon.
    On the way there, i passed Porte de Hal, a Belgian history museum inside of a medieval city gate. The museum wasn't open, and i probably wouldn't have stopped anyway, but it was a cool tower to look at.
    I also found a fountain in the middle of a roundabout called L'Homme de L'Atlantide, the Man from Atlantis. It looked, to me, like an anthropomorphic duck wearing a jetpack. The water streamed out of the jetpack at irregular intervals. I don't know if i was supposed to go right up to it, there were no crosswalks leading into the center of the roundabout, but there was a flat cobblestone path around it, so i did.
    Getting back on track, the Man from Atlantis overlooks an Apple store, which had a long line outside. Must be new iPhone day.
    It was a nice walk! I got to see quite a bit of Brussels that i otherwise wouldn't have.
    TradiNatura is a nice little café with open walls facing a public park. The man at the counter didn't speak English very well, and i don't speak French very well, but in using as much as we could of each others' languages and filling in the rest with our stronger suits, we were able to communicate pretty well, actually.
    I ordered a Brusselwafel called the Aux Amandes, both because of the name, and because it came with a scoop of ice cream on the waffle, which appealed to me in that moment. "Aux Amandes" translates to "with almonds." It also included a caramel sauce.
    To drink, i got a latté macchiato. On this trip, i've been working on finding beers i like, so i'm gently dipping into coffees as well, i guess.
    I sat outside, facing the park, letting the gentle breeze of this perfect day charge me up. The man brought me the latté on a small tray, which also held a small spoon, two packets of brown sugar, and a small square of Belgian chocolate. I tried to sip the latté, but it was still much too hot for me.
    The waffle came out minutes later. That was a much larger scoop of ice cream than i was expecting. The whole thing was dusted in a thicker-than-expected layer of powdered sugar.
    The whole presentation was gorgeous. And yeah, that waffle was incredible. The Belgians know their waffles, who'd have known??

    I am still gonna place this waffle behind Waffle Love, though. I might just be nostalgic for Los Angeles, but god damn, there's a reason we ate there like every other week, at least.
    The latté was still too coffee-flavored for my tastes, though. Don't take this as a complaint, i knew what i was getting myself into, i'm just testing to see how my tastes have changed recently. After i'd drank enough of it to have a good handle on how the thing was supposed to taste, i put one packet of brown sugar in. This was an improvement. I added the second. Better, but still very coffee.
    By about the halfway point of the drink, though, i found i was enjoying it. The end of that macchiato really grew on me.
    Definitely worth the walk.
    TradiNatura is also not far from Audrey Hepburn's birthplace. This is a landmark i was interested in seeing, but probably would not have come this far out for on its own.
    The house that actress Audrey Hepburn was born in is otherwise pretty nondescript. There's a plaque about eight feet off the ground designating the brick building's historical importance, just a little too high to get a straight photo of, even with my arms stretched all the way above my head. There were also building permits attached to the door, so it looks like the current owners are having some work done. Maybe they're turning it into a museum, i don't know. Or maybe just renovating their house, i think it's still an occupied residence. Many of these kinds of landmarks are.
    Alright. Now on to the main attraction for the day.
    For once, public transportation was going to save me a significant amount of time. It would've been a two hour walk north from there, but the train would only take 39 minutes. Of course, that includes a half-mile walk to the nearest train station, all the way back past the duck man and the Apple store.
    I was to ride 16 stops down metro line 6. At the second stop, the train opened its doors, and there was a long announcement in French. The English was much shorter, but said something about the tracks being inaccessible between two stations. No one else in the train moved, so i just stayed put, waiting. After several minutes of the train not moving, a woman came in and shouted something in French. Everyone else in my car got up and exited the train. No one in any of the other cars did, though; curious.
    Once on the platform, i saw a digital sign overhead that read, "DEFECTIVE TRAIN." I started looking for a way around this issue, but it seemed complicated. I just about gave up, scuttled my plans, and looked for something else to do nearby. I was literally pulling up the Atlas Obscura page, when there was a whistle, and everyone standing on the platform dove back into the train. So i followed them.
    The doors closed, and the train zoomed on.
    Huh.
    Shortly before we reached the 14th stop, the engineer slammed on the brakes, and the train came to an abrupt, forceful stop, hard enough that everyone pitched forward. No one said a word. There were no announcements. We stayed at a dead stop, in the middle of a dark subway tunnel, for several minutes.
    And then we started going again.
    When the doors opened at the next station, i heard the announcement about the defective train again. But people were staying on, so i did too, and the train started moving again.
    When i got off at my final destination, that station's PA was also playing the same defective train announcement.
    I don't know what was going on there, but in the end, it barely impacted my journey.
    Alright. I'm at a train station far from the city center. Now i just need to find a giant, shiny, metal molecule...
    Oh. There it is. Right outside the train station.
    The Atomium is a 102-meter tall iron crystal, made of shiny steel, magnified 165 billion times the size of an actual iron crystal. I'm gonna trust Atlas Obscura for some science jargon here: "It is formed by nine spheres arranged in the the shape that iron atoms take in their delta and alpha allotropes."
    Like the Eiffel Tower before it, the Atomium was constructed for a World's Fair, in 1958. It was intended to be a temporary exhibit, but after the fair, the citizens of Brussels decided they liked it too much, and wanted to keep it.

    Going inside the Atomium is a fascinating experience. The tour begins with an elevator ride to the top of the highest sphere, in what was, up until the late 1980s, the fastest elevator in the world, at five meters per second. From the top, you are afforded incredible scenic views of Belgium. You can also get a pretty good look at the Mini Europe exhibit, which is located across the street from the Atomium; it's a collection of small versions of iconic European landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower (which the Atomium isn't jealous of at all), Big Ben, Mount Vesuvius, and many more. You can buy a combo ticket to see both attractions, but i decided to skip the Mini Europe, due to time constraints.
    Looking down at the other spheres, i could see two guys rappelling across the side of one of them. At first, i thought maybe the outside of this thing was available for climbers, but on closer inspection, they were cleaning it. There's a hatch in the top of the sphere they were on, which their safety lines were running out from.

    Then you go back down the former fastest elevator, and can take the former longest escalators in the world up into some of the lower spheres. The first three spheres contain memorabilia and artifacts from the 1958 World's Fair, ranging from promotional items to a scale model of the grounds, with a three-inch-tall Atomium right at its center. There are also many of the original sketches, showing concept art for a few different ideas on how to build the thing before they settled on a final blueprint. I clearly remember one poster, from the fair, for a food stand, which depicted the Atomium made of meatballs.
    The next two spheres have had their retro-futuristic metal beams and structural supports outfitted with an incredible LED light display, which pulse and chase and change colors in time with an atmospheric soundtrack, evoking a strong emotional response. What response that is, i think, largely depends on you. You take out of it what you bring into it.

    It reminded me of Astra Lumina, an outdoor light-and-sound display Amanda, Alyssa, and i had gone to with our friends Cal and Marc when they were visiting LA early last year. Amanda had gotten ferociously stoned beforehand, and moved slowly through the exhibit, catching lasers in her hands, feeling at one with the fabric of the universe. She later described it to me as a "sensual, spiritual experience."
    I'd been the only person not to take edibles that night, because someone needed to be able to drive home. I've never regretted that, i throughly enjoyed watching Amanda diffuse herself into the bindings of reality, and i was happy to be there to help guide her physical form through the material world as she did it.
    But being up in that molecule, man. With the power of public transportation at my side, this was the first time on this trip...hell, the first time in maybe a year...that i kind of wished i'd had some form of mind-altering substance available. Just so i could finally feel what she felt that night. But this time, inside what looked like a spaceship. Amanda got nature, i got spaceship. That seems correct.
    Even sober, i could've spent hours in there, watching the lights, feeling to the music. But i had to move on.
    There was one more ball with a small exhibit in it, but i'm not 100% sure what it was. Something about a sustainable future, but there were few words, just a lot of pictures, and i don't feel like the message came across.
    The hatch was open at the top of this sphere. When i entered, one of the cleaners i'd noted earlier was dangling from the rope, just a couple feet from the open sky, futzing with tools and doing something to the ceiling. As i looked around at the photo boards, trying to pick up on their theme, he released the lock on his pulley, and zoomed down toward the floor, coming to a stop just inches above the cement. Expert shit. Must be fun as hell.
    I'm really happy i made it out to the Atomium. I would never have known what i'd have missed if i'd given up while the train was parked at that subway station. Nothing in the Atlas Obscura or the little bits of the Atomium's main page i had looked at said anything about the light show. But i loved it.

    Running short on time, now. I wasn't sure if i could still squeeze it in, but i was getting hungry, and i'd seen a thing on Google Maps this morning called "Wolf Sharing Food Market."
    "Wolf Sharing???"
    I'd really like to check this out.
    There's a long story i'm gonna basically omit here, but i got really lost in the subway at this point. This is partly due to my own misunderstanding of things, but also has a lot to do with the very unintuitive and confusing way that Brussels has laid out its subway lines.
    Coming from the Atomium, i could have stayed on metro line 6 all the way to my destination. However, this would add about 20 unnecessary stops, as line 6 forms a loop around most of the city. Instead, Maps was telling me to get off at the Simonis station, walk three minutes to the Elisabeth station, and get on either the 6 or the 2 going the other direction, since it would only be 3 stops that way.
    This looks fine and dandy, except...
    Simonis and Elisabeth are the same station.
    There's no way to know that from the inside. I left the station, walked down the street, only to find i was in the wrong place, and couldn't get to Elisabeth no matter which way i walked. Then i returned to the station, to find both names on the top of the building. The way from one to the other is only underground. It only matters which direction you turn after you've entered from the Simonis/Elisabeth entry point. Maps cannot show you that.
    And then i got on the 6 going the wrong direction, anyway. Somehow.
    I got off two stops later, intending to take a 6 or a 2 back to Simonis and figure out what i'd done wrong from there, but fortunately, i had the thought to re-run it through Maps and see if there was a different way from where i was.
    And it worked. I could take the 5 just three stops from here.
    That was, arguably, easier than the original directions, anyway.
    I've truncated that story quite a bit. It was one of the most frustrating things i've dealt with this whole trip.
    Up from the subway, i found myself in a familiar location. The ancient building facades with construction scaffolding for obvious restoration and preservation work...the wide open cobblestone courtyard...the street filled with restaurants. I'd walked through here yesterday, on the way to the comic book museum!
    But today i will be going in the opposite direction, according to Google Maps. I walked away from that open courtyard, down the street lined with restaurants, but did not give into any temptations! I'm saving myself for Wolf Share!
    Oh. Maps says i'm going the wrong direction? I do need to go the same way as yesterday, through that courtyard? Uh. Okay. I'll turn around.
    Almost to the courtyard now, and...
    How is this also the wrong direction? I've now gone just as far off course, but in a different way! Okay. I'll turn around again.
    Oh, i need to go a third direction, perpendicular to the other two.
    FINE.
    How, honestly how, has Google Maps gotten this bad? I swear it's been leading me astray for like a year or two at this point. Usually it's just kind of annoying, but the potential is always there for it to get me into serious trouble.
    I arrived. This is clearly a very old building, with intricate carved figures in the walls outside. Four banner flags were arranged just before the entrance.
    Oh, holy shit, i recognize that logo! It's an angular cartoon wolf face, with its tongue hanging out. I'd seen that yesterday, and wondered about it, but had no way to investigate! It's the logo for this food hall!

    The sign above the building just says WOLF. Underneath that, #craftbeer #sharingfood. I walked through the main doors, and was greeted by a wide food court with a plethora of options. Everything was pretty well labeled for what ethnicity the food hailed from. The center of the room was dominated by a large bar with many available beers on display.
    I made a couple laps around the room, trying to decide what i wanted. None of it appeared to be Belgian, which was unfortunate, but i could go ahead and get something else, for the experience of eating at Wolf Share. Besides, sometimes these kind of places are more of a local spin on the cuisines of other cultures, or are foods reinvented by immigrants from those countries, so they can be unique to this area.
    The Greek place had a dish called, "The Wolfie."
    Um. Of course i'm going to order that.
    It's a pork gyro, which is a new one to me. Gyros are typically made with lamb, sometimes beef; i've never heard of a pork gyro.
    I approached the counter.
    "Yeah, we're closed," the clerk said roughly, before i could speak.
    Oh.
    I looked around, suddenly realizing that most of the restaurants did not have employees at all, and the ones that did seemed to be cleaning. There were definitely people sitting at tables, eating, but i do not know where they got their food from. As i glanced around, i saw a few other people being turned away from the various establishments.
    Well. Since i'm here. I guess i'll get a beer.
    I got one of their house-brewed beers, called The Blonde Wolf. Appropriate.

    It was alright!
    Although it was hitting me hard, again. Because, once again, i'm having a beer several hours after eating only a sugary breakfast, and then doing a lot of walking, burning off all the calories. I needed some food.
    I was out of time though.
    I'd already decided i wasn't getting on that 4:45 train. There was no way i could make it in time, i'd known that since i'd left the Atomium. The same route ran again at 5:45, though, so that should be fine.
    The question at this point, i thought, as i was walking out of the Wolf Share Food Hall, can i still make it back to the hostel before the timer runs out on my locker?
    I was booking it to the nearest train station, which happened to be Bruxelles Centraal. From there, i could take a train to Bruxelles Midi, the train station three minutes from the Meininger Hostel, the train station i'd come into and needed to depart from.
    It was a 12 minute walk to Bruxelles Centraal from Wolf Share. By the time i got there, i was already feeling mostly steady again, the anxiety burning off the alcohol from a single beer. I had quite a bit of difficulty finding the train that i needed, though. I thought this was gonna be another subway, which would be the third non-transfer subway ride on my day pass, the one that made it worth buying the day pass instead of individual tickets.
    It was not a subway.
    I was jumping on a long-haul train, and just taking it one stop.
    This could have been a huge issue. Google, i do not think commuter rail works that way, buddy.
    But, fortunately, it was covered by my Eurail pass. Which is great, and also was not guaranteed; when looking for the train to Amsterdam, i kept getting messages that "a supplement is required for this route." But then, when you click through, it tells you that the supplement is covered on international trains, implying that domestic trains within Belgium would still require you to purchase the supplement. That message did not come up for this route, so i assumed it was okay.
    It was only a four-minute train ride anyway. No one came to check my ticket.
    Okay. I'm back at Bruxelles Midi, i've got like fifteen minutes, it should be fine.
    From inside the train station, i'm not sure which way i need to go to get to the hostel. Maps is not updating my location, and it's just a dot, it won't turn into the arrow. I just need to get outside, and then i'll reorient myself.
    I don't know what door i popped out of, but it was not the same one i used when i arrived in Brussels. Maps was showing my waypoint as an arrow now. I took off down the street in the indicated direction.
    I checked it again a minute later.
    I was going the wrong way.
    Google. You fuckin. Pile. Of poop.
    I spun around and angrily marched back the other way.
    I had eleven minutes. It was showing an eleven minute walk.
    I was frustrated, sure, but i also told myself, what's the worst that's gonna happen here, anyway? You already gave up that 4:45 train, it's leaving in a few minutes here anyway. If you're not there at 16:50 when that locker expires, what's it gonna do? It's probably not gonna pop open and leave your bag available for anyone to take, that would be a stupid business model. It's probably just gonna charge you like two extra euros.
    Which. Sure. Two euros, whatever.
    But i'm gonna be upset on principle alone if i get charged two euros for fifteen extra seconds of locker time, just because Google Maps led me in the wrong direction at the last minute.
    As i do naturally walk much faster than Google estimates the regular human pace, i made it to the hostel at 4:47. Straight to the locker room, punched in my code, and...
    My locker expired at 16:58.
    I don't know why i had those extra eight minutes. I clearly calculated something wrong, or misread the clock when i checked it in, or something. Or maybe it just always gives an eight-minute grace period. I don't know.
    The point is, all my worrying was for nothing.
    My bag is safe. I'm free to leave.
    Still pretty cranky with Maps, though. Just for the annoyance.

Another motivation for switching to the later train was just to have extra padding for the international route. I know i haven't had any reason to believe an international train would be any different, other than when France is involved, but that whole "supplement" thing was bothering me, and if it was going to become an issue, i'd like to have time to resolve it.
    I was at the train station 45 minutes early. I came in through a side door, which led straight to a bare corridor that had staircases off of it leading up to the tracks, rather than the central waiting area with all the shops. There were screens all around, but the ones showing the main timetable didn't have my train yet.
    The Eurail app doesn't show which platform these trains leave from, but often Google Maps does. I pulled it up on there, and it showed i was on Platform 16. That was convenient, because i was currently standing by 14. I moved to the next staircase, and looked up at the monitor for Platform 16...
    CANCELED.
    Um. Okay, what do i do with this?
    There was a small note on the bottom of the screen indicating the next train to use this track, which was scheduled for something like 5:15. So...is this canceled train something that was supposed to be in within the next 15 minutes? Unclear.
    I went up to the platform anyway, just to cut across to the main area. From up there, the platform was completely clear, no people, no trains, no indication of use. Just more monitors showing the train as canceled.
    I got to the main area, and checked the big board. My train was on there, in the very bottom right corner, one of the furthest future trains to show up. Man, a lot of trains leave out of this station. It still said Platform 16. With that reassurance, i decided to go find some food.
    Train station food. Usually more expensive and less fulfilling than other food. But, for the way i'm living my life right now, sometimes it's just what i get.
    There was an O'Tacos Original French Tacos in the station. I've tried that, wasn't fond of it, but next to it was a place called Quick. I've been seeing this fast food chain recently as well. Definitely in Paris, can't remember if i saw it in Berlin. Don't think i saw it before that, though.
    Alright, might as well try this. Looks like a burger joint.
    The lobby was full of self-service, touchscreen kiosks. They were advertising a new item, cheesy roquefort bites. That's an awful fancy cheese to find at a greasy fast food place in a train station. So i had to try them.
    I ordered Le Formidable, which seemed to be their equivalent to a Whopper. And i went ahead and upgraded my fries to include fondue passendale & bacon.
    Everything was pretty okay. Very comparable to Burger King. So, you know, acceptable in a pinch, don't go out of your way for it. The roquefort bites were interesting. The "fondue" on the fries seemed to be basically nacho cheese sauce, and the bacon was...not as i picture bacon. More like thin, tiny shavings of pork. Very soft.
    I took my bag of food up to the platform to eat. The screen still said canceled, but it listed my train in the tiny print on the bottom. The big board still said 16, i'd glanced on my way. It was only 5:20 though, so i figured i'd just check again at 5:30, and try to keep on top of the situation.
    There were a few convenient waiting rooms up there, with benches inside, and glass walls so you can see your train coming. But if the weather's bad, you don't have to wait outside. The weather was good, but there weren't any benches outside. The room i went into was completely empty.
    No sooner than i had set out my boxes and eaten a couple fries, the train appeared. So i shoved everything back into the bag and boarded.
    I was done eating before the train moved. When we left Bruxelles Midi, there were only two other people with me in first class. I've never seen a first class car that empty.
    We picked up more people at Bruxelles Centraal, but still probably three-quarters of the car was open. As we got moving again, i looked around. I wasn't sure why, without a seat reservation, i'd picked a window with another seat next to me, when the other side of the car was all single seats with no partner. On that side, i would have had both the window and the aisle, no worries of having a rando drop in next to me.
    It was also at this time that i noticed i'd chosen a seat that's meant to be saved for pregnant mothers.
    I don't know, man, i had just taken the first open seat i'd seen. Literally, it's the first seat from the door where i came in. I put absolutely no thought into this.
    When they came through to scan my ticket, they said nothing about either the pregnancy-preferred seating, or about the supplement. I rode all the way to Amsterdam in that seat with no issues.
    However, the couple who had sat in the pair of seats ahead of me at Bruxelles Centraal were asked to move. They had second-class tickets, and the conductor had to explain to them that this meant they needed to be in a second-class car. "We will have a full first-class car on this journey," he explained.
    In the moment, i thought, oh shit, that means someone will definitely need to sit next to me. Should i move to one of those single seats on the other side? That seems inconvenient, i already have my laptop set up, and i don't want to move my bag, and all that. Maybe i'll just plan to do it if a pregnant mother comes aboard, or if a couple wants to sit together and i can accommodate that.
    In retrospect, though...how could he have known that? There were no seat reservations on this train. No one would have known i would even be aboard until i climbed in and sat down.
    The first class car never did become anywhere near full. But still, yeah, those people had to move. There's no way to know if more first-class passengers would board at any point.

I really wish i'd taken three days for Brussels. I left so many cool things on the table that i had been interested in, and just didn't have time for with what i gave myself. Like that largely ignored cemetery that's being slowly reclaimed by nature, except for the graves of famous people like Herge, Cemetery Deiweg. I'd have stopped by Herge's grave. Or that other cemetery that had a bad case of exploding mausoleums a few decades ago, Laeken Cemetery. Or that good luck statue that i wanted to rub, since i've rubbed every other good luck monument i've been aware of across this whole continent. There's a bar called The Coffin that seemed cool.
    Oh. That's a lot of death stuff, huh? Piss and death. That's Brussels.
    I guess i was just feeling the impending deadline of needing to be in Barcelona/Sitges by October 2nd, and still wanting to hit a few more cities on the way. I don't know. I think i still could have afforded one more day.

Alright! I've arrived in Amsterdam! I've heard so much about this city, i'm so excited to explore and experience it!
    So France was the first place that i needed to scan my subway ticket again in order to leave the subway, which caught me off guard and i walked face first into a closed plexiglas door a couple times because of it. Brussels was like this also. But Amsterdam is the first place that i've needed to scan my ticket to get out of the big, main train station after disembarking a long haul train.
    At first i didn't know what to do, since i didn't have a physical ticket. But after a moment, i reasoned, well, i guess i probably can scan the QR code for my Eurail pass? And that worked. Which seems really weird, but, okay, i guess.
    The train station opened up directly onto one of Amsterdam's famous canals. It was well past dark. The lights of the city across the open water were beautiful. I took note of a tall building just on the other side of the water that looked like it was having a wild party on the rooftop. Even from here, i could see some kind of a swing up there, going back and forth, almost over the edge of the roof.
    I took a moment to stare at the canal and appreciate it. I walked up to a concrete barrier by the water's edge, which had graffiti across it that simply read, "SOUP!"

    After the moment passed, i carried on toward the hostel. First of all, i needed to take a ferry across this canal. It was just a few more meters away, on the other side of this pancake stand right here by the water.
    Oh, it's loading right now! Perfect.
    I walked onto the ferry, and within ten seconds, the gate closed behind me, and we were off. Perfect timing.
    This hostel, ClinkNoord, is also less than a ten minute journey from the train station, including the ferry. And i walked around the base of that tall party building i'd just seen. My hostel is just on the other side of it.
    ClinkNoord was a really good choice for me. This is another of those modern, hip, young people hostels, partying at all hours of the night. I could hear the DJ at the bar downstairs as soon as i approached the desk. Next to the check-in desk, there's a claw machine full of rubber ducks, which guarantees a prize with every play! Interesting. I used to collect those. They also have a Pac-Man cabinet, and several other interesting features around the lobby.
    I got checked in no problem, and headed up to the room, to drop off my bag. It's a four-bed room again, and when i entered around 9:30pm, it was vacant. All four beds were made fresh by housekeeping, no indication of tenancy. I climbed up to my top bunk, got some batteries on the charger, and went to put my bag in my locker...
    ...only to find my locker already had a lock on it.
    It used the same type of handle/lock situation as the last hostel did. Whoever had put this lock on here had locked it open. I pulled the handle, to reveal an empty locker. At least someone else wasn't trying to use it right now. However, this would prevent me from putting my own lock on it.
    I tossed my backpack up on the bed and threw the comforter over it. I took my laptop and headed back downstairs. I reported the situation, and they said they'd send someone up to cut the lock off.
    "Thank you, i hoped you'd still be able to do that at this time of night," i said. "No huge rush though, i'm gonna hang out down here for a while."
    I went downstairs, following the thump thump thump of loud techno, and approached the bar, examining the cocktail menu.
    "What's in a 'New Amsterdam'?" i asked.
    "Um. Good question!" the bartender replied. "Let's find out!" She turned around and grabbed a clipboard with a laminated spreadsheet. "Well, it's one of our house-made creations, and it includes..." She listed off the ingredients, but i couldn't hear her very well, and i've forgotten everything. I didn't parse anything objectionable, though.
    "Can i try one of those?"
    "Yes! Uh, she'll make it for you, though," she said, taking my money and pointing at the other bartender, who was already busy mixing my drink.
    It came in a fancy glass with a stem. I took it away from the crowded bar and over to a bank of open tables in a slightly less noisy corner. From here, i could observe the crowd, enjoy their music, and still work on writing my log, uninterrupted.
    The New Amsterdam tasted like drinking a fresh slice of apple pie. Truly, a drink made for my particular sensibilities.

    I just had the one, savoring it slowly over a period of a few hours while i wrote.
    When i returned to the room around midnight, the lock was gone, the lights were on, and a single person was curled up into a tiny ball on the bunk below mine. I did my best to move my bag into the locker and get myself into the bed quietly, turning the lights off as soon as i could. The bunk creaked a lot, and i did hear them stir a bit. Hopefully i didn't fully wake them. They certainly could have and should have turned the lights off themselves when they went to bed, i'm surprised they didn't.
    I had been horizontal for no more than five minutes when the door opened again, and two people came in with full luggage, noisily moving around the room, trying to get their shit in order. They seemed like they were trying to be quiet, they were just really bad at it. At one point, one of them hit the overhead lights accidentally, turning them back off just as quickly. These two were trying, they were just clumsy. At one point, they both left the room, and it was quiet for maybe ten minutes, but then they clambered right on back in, and still took a while to get bedded down.
    I ended up laying there, awake, for a long time. I was still a day behind on my log when i'd wrapped up for the night, and for as long as i lay there, with my mind churning in the dark, i thought, i may as well have stayed up and written another entry. (This entry right here!) But i thought i was going to get some sleep. My eyes had been heavy and i almost felt like nodding off while i was still in the loud bar. It seemed like it was time.
    But it wasn't.
    My brain just wouldn't shut off.