Amsterdam

After Copenhagen I headed to Amsterdam to meet with Xy Ziemba ’12. We stayed there Sat/Sun 7 and 8 May.


The two unique things we did were:
1. See some unusual car-bike combinations

Human powered hybrid?

2. Go to a concert at the Royal Concertgebouw. My friends tell me this hall has some of the best acoustics in the world. After asking the usherers therem, evidently this was by chance rather than by design

We also met up, with Jacques, a friend from Polytechnique X2008 , currently working in the Netherlands. We went to church together and then had lunch on the great lawn in front of the Rijikmuseum

“I’m ready to be done”

I visited Delft, Netherlands (9-10 May) and Leuven, Belgium (10-11 May) to visit Xy and Jacques, respectively. Though they were both charming towns to visit, I found myself ready to be done traveling: after more than 5 weeks of railpassing/backpacking around Europe, all tourists attractions started to feel the same, all the medieval buildings equally (un)interesting, all “self-discovery” moments repetitive, and yes, even conversations with strangers became tiresome. Especially with meeting new people, I was tired of meeting people, connecting at a rather deep level for several hours, and then never seeing them again. I wanted stable relationships again.

The novelty  of traveling started wearing off in Copenhagen and had worn off completely by the time I reached Leuven, I was ready to see my friends and family, and be in a stable community for more than 2 days once again.

Luckily several things prevented me from tourist boredom. First, I was seeing my friends Xy and Jacques, whom I was sure to see in the future again!. Second, I apparently pinched my ulnar nerve, leading to an interesting adventure through hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Finally, on Wednesday, 11 May, I went to Brussels Midi station to meet up with …

My family! After almost 6 months of not seeing them!

We traveled through Belgium a few days, and came to Paris for 5 days, with me as the tour guide!

My last 2 blog posts

I have two more blog posts left in my blog. First, my brother (age 10) has agreed to be guest author and write a post about our travels in Belgium and Paris. 

Finally, I will conclude this blog, steven in france, with a list of lessons I’ve learned in the past 5 months.

Cher reader, wherever you are in the world (according to my blog stats, you exist on 3 continents), Merci beaucoup for reading this blog!