I have not been thrilled at the availability of internet. Why they charge in many hostels, even for WiFi, is beyond me. It's up to about $5 an hour here, which judging by the speed of the connection is not much more than a normal deal you'd have at home, means they pay off the entire months bill within a day or two. Luckily, the hostel I'm at in Ostend has free internet (from a computer) and free WiFi for an hour or two at a time (its a weird system). Also, this is from my phone and not proofread - FYI. I'll explain how I came here and how I found some time to write this post...
I last reported that I met up with Elmar and was headed to Maastricht with him. We took his car so it was only about an hour away. Most of the places are very close now, maybe two hours max. Maastricht is in Holland (aka the Netherlands, take your pick on what to call it) in the very lower right hand corner. It's set along a river and is pretty chill. I think there is only one hostel, but its set along the river so its quite pretty. It also has an old town, squares for drinking, eating, and chilling. Elmar, who is 40+, is a big drinker, a bit too much for me. If I didn't cut myself off each evening I'd have maybe died trying to keep up with him. So, most of our days were spent visiting pubs that had seating along nice parts of town. We also managed to sneak some sightseeing in, which is good cause the town is quite green. The only thing worth mention is that, being Holland, there are pot cafes. I'm not sure really how it all works in legality terms, but these cafes can apparently get around the illegal to sell pot law. It's legal to smoke it everywhere, just not sell it, which more and more of Europe is following. However, Holland is becoming more strict while countries like Germany, France, and Belgium are getting closer to total legalization. Holland is apparently letting each city decide its rules on legality and foreigners. Maastricht was making it illegal on Oct. 1st for certain foreign countries like the US. Not sure about what Amerstam finally decided, as they have been waffling, I decided to take the opportunity to smoke a joint legally.
I must say, I wasn't all that impressed with the cafes or the weed. First off, you have to smoke in a strange designated room. Most of the cafes sell food and drink, but in a seperately quarters, so it gives a sort of quarantine feel. It's legal to smoke in public, which I'd prefered to find a park. For being legal, you'd think weed technology would be much further in the sense of growing specific types that elicit certain highs. Since I don't like being stoned (where I'm incapacitated), I asked to have one that was a happy, not stoney and not too mind oriented. What I received hardly had any affect after a full joint. To be honest, it didn't have a strong weed taste; more like it was just a big spliff. I think America and Canada, while illegal for most healthy people, the weed technology is much better though I'm only vaguely familiar with the industry.
All-in-all, it was quite a pleasant place to spend a couple days, and it was good seeing Elmar, whom paid for too many things (thanks for the generosity), again. Later Elmar went back to Germany and I headed to Belgium. My original plan was to visit a couple smaller areas that had Trappist breweries. Trappist breweries are the monks that brew beer to support their abbeys and philanthropy. There are other beers made they call abbey beers, but they are run by companies who either bought recipes or have a contract to brew in that style the abbey used to use. There are a shitload of abbey beers, but only 7 trappist in the world; 6 of which are in Belgium. I was going to go to Rochefort, Chimay, and maybe another. My plans were thwarted by the difficulty in getting to these locations. Belgium has an excellent rail system so I thought it wouldn't be a big deal. Wrong. To get to Rochefort required connecting through Brussels, plus since I couldn't prebook the hostel and since I'd get in late, I figured I'd stay in Brussels and scrap that one. Not a big deal since I can get their beers back home anyway.
Brussels is a strange town. It is a stewing pot of everything; beer, cultures, art, governments and (not government, as is the current case). I don't know how it is operating so well with not having a government in almost a year, but none the less they are doing just fine. The things I liked about Brussels was the art, music and beer scene. While most art is lost on me, I like the culture that a good art scene stirs up. One of the unique art things is that they have "comic strips". What this actually is is on some buildings a strip between the two is created. Instead of leaving it bare, some artists have painted murals. Most are of a cartoon quality, thus comics. See FB for a couple pictures. Most of my reason of coming to Belgium is to try the beer, esp the beer not available in the States, but I also did some sight seeing, attended a free concert along a canal, and made some new friends in a local pub. There were two pubs I was recommended that turned out to be of Leny's character. In one, I met quite a variety of age groups and peoples. An old Belgium guy recommended a beer to me and I'm pretty sure the drunkest French girl I've ever seen walked in on me in the men's room to examine my junk. I made friends with another American and we went out that evening to try some more beer.
Belgium beer has a way of wormholing time. As in we got to a certain bar at about 9 and when I checked my watch, hoping to be in bed by 11:30, it was almost 1am. I was hoping to visit Chimay the next day and go to the abbey so this didn't help. As is also the case, more than just a couple will give you a hangover. So, I tried to sleep in a bit but not too much that my day would be shot. I rose at 11, hungover, and didn't get on a train till 1. With missed connections and limited buses, I didn't get into Chimay until 4pm. I was concerned about the bus schedule so I found out the last bus left at 7pm. The monetary is 9k out of the town and I failed, due to lack of French ability, to rent q bike. I'd have considered walking if it wasn't so late in the day. Luckily, Chimay is about 2 hours interesting. I walked around the town and found a place serving Chimay's red cap on tap. I was hoping to try the blue cap on tap, but that may only be capable at the abbey cafe. Still, I've never seen the red on tap, so it was definitely cool anyway, and awesome. After coming home in defeat, I vowed to make it to at least one and set my sites on Westvleteren.
Westvleteren is in the upper left corner, so I figured Bruges was the best bet as a base. Bruges is a funny town. They hate the fact that it was ranked as the most romantic town in Europe a few years back. It's not that they hate tourists, just that they are bit different and like it. Bruges is certainly one of the best preserved medieval cities and have very unique qwerks. They are called Bruges Zots, like the beer of the same name and origin, because they threw a party for a prince, several hundred years ago, as an apology for rebelling and chopping off the tax collector's head. They filled the streets with clowns, mimes, and jesters. When they thought it was time to talk to the king they asked for him to build them an asylum for their "fools" (some apology). The prince then replied, "I've seen almost only fools in Bruges today, just close the gates of the city." referring to the clowns and jesters, if you didn't catch that.
Another thing is the swans. The city has a annual allocation in the budget for the hundreds of swans found throughout the city's canals. This was somehow related to the rebellion too. After cutting off the tax collector's head, they were called something like long necks and somehow swans got associated with a reminder of this punishment. There are plenty mote stories, but the gist is, they're a bit different, but in a goofy likable way. And the really funny thing is that occasionally someone will call the place a shithole (see most recent case of "In Bruges". I think the quote goes, "if I was retarded and lived on a farm, Bruges might impress me. But I wasn't, and it doesn't") the more people come to it.
I spent a couple days in Bruges, bikes around to the sites and to be honest, I lean more to the quote above. There's a couple cool things, and the huge bell tower is leaning slightly, but mostly it's unimpressive. I tried to see the only Michelangelo sculpture outside Italy, but they wanted $8 to see it and I told it was free. Also, I wanted to see Jesus's blood. Some priests came back from the crusades with a vile of what they claimed was Jesus's blood. Obviously, being 1,200 years after his supposed life, and having no lab equipment or way to get blood, assuming there was any dried Jesus blood laying around, the only way this could be true was if it was from a blood defendant of Jesus. Meaning, that if that they believe this vile of liquid is the blood of Christ, than it must be that they acquired it from his long lost offspring. Anyhow, I'll never know cause the vile was not anywhere visible, though I was told it was (and for free), but I didn't checked the paid parts of the church.
My best day in Belgium though was going to Westvleteren. I made an early start and got to a town called Poperinge around 12 missed connections again. It's not a town to write about really, but the fortunate thing was at least there were English speakers here. The abbey is 9km out of the city near a village called Westvleteren. I had some trouble getting a bike because shops close for lunch and some places were totally closed for the season. I did end up renting one and luckily they didn't even ask for a passport or deposit, neither of which I would've been able to supply. Instead they just told me they'd shoot me if I didn't bring the bike back. I was hoping they meant shoot as in flesh wound or minor injuries, and not fatally. The actual name of the abbey is S.t Sixtus, but the breweries are often named after towns. The special thing about this abbey is that they are so small that they don't distribute and limit the amount of cases that can be purchased to one per person. In other words, you can only buy the beer from the abbey's cafe (where it's on tap). According to my friend Jordan, there 12° beer is ranked #1 in the world by the magazine Beer Advocate, though I didn't know that at the time. The people in the state if Flanders believe that to be true, however, and were happy to claim it as the world's when any mention of it is made. The 12° was quite good, but I'm not a huge fan of the syrupy, alcoholy taste of some of the higher percentage beers, and that was my only qualm with this beer. A truly good beer can have all the complexity that this one did, but mask that affect I mentioned. I found that I still like Chimay's blue cap better for a dark Belgium beer.
One thing I found is that I vastly prefer the Belgium blondes. They can have just as much complexity in the taste and up to 12% alcohol as well (though most are around 7%), but are generally lighter, crisper, and have a good amount of bitter (I love hoppy beers) or not as sweet as their dark counterparts, yet can still be quite complex in tastes like their darker counterparts. In this instance I think drinkability comes into play. Can I drink these at anytime of year or temperature? Can I drink them at any speed? Can I drink several of them? I can say that the dark Belgium's answers are no, no, and no. The blondes are the opposite. They are not only limited to summer, some can be consumed quick, and some can be had in severals. This was definitely true of the Westvleteren blonde (5.8%). It was the best Belgium blonde I had. In fact, next to some IPAs I love, this may be the best beer I've ever had. It may even beat those IPAs if you take into the refreshment/drinkability part (oh, and some German lagers are not far behind, but lack the complexity and hop that this ones does). After having a few of those, I hopped (pun) on my bike and made it back to Bruges safe and sound.
The beer at Westvleteren was worth the trip, but so was just spending the perfect sunny afternoon riding around lost in the countryside. It's times like those where you really appreciate how wonderful life is and that spending my time lost in my head and in reality, doing what most would consider as nothing or as a waste (and doing it slowly), was a considerably better use of my time than earning a few bucks. I even realized at one point I totally had forgotten, or maybe lost track is a better word, that I was abroad. All of a sudden, I realised I'd been biking for 20 minutes and had no worries in the world. Not where I was going, not where I was in the world, not how the world was doing, it was a complete peace with everything that had me. In a way, it was spiritual. Yes, it cost money to rent the bike and obviously you need money to survive these days, but how much of it do we really need. Isn't the best times in your life the ones not at work? Maybe lost in your mind in your garden or hiking up the side of a river? How much do those cost? Wouldn't it make sense to have more of these PRICELESS moments and less getting moments getting paid? If anyone says its impossible, they are a fool and a coward. Why is it that the happiest, and most generous, people I've ever met are generally those who don't work hard and those who are the poorest? seriously, figure out what really makes you feel at peace. Now, quit making excuses like kids, homes, careers, etc. Those will always be available for you later and the kids can actually enhance some of, or be an integral part of some of, your dreams.
If I can, I'll link a free dream timeline from Tim Ferris (if you don't know what it is, it is a chart that helps you figure out what your dreams are, puts them in practical terms with steps to get there, gives you ways to budget, and gives you a timeline). I've decided that from now on, instead of making new years resolutions, I will fill out a new dream timeline. I really suggest everyone do the same.
Anyway, so that day was magical. More so, it reminded me I was trying to do to much. I didn't have one second to write or to spend leisurely for the past week. I realized i needed some downtime, so I left the next day for the coast. Unfortunately, my incredible luck with the weather in Europe may have come to an end. I've been blessed with only about five days of rain or clouds since July 18 in what most Europeans have told me is the worst summer they've ever had. It didn't rain on me, and it did have about 3 hours of sun for me to sit on the beach, but now it's looking like clouds and rain to the end. That's fine with me cause I'm used to it from home and because of how unbelievablely lucky I've been this whole year. In a way, it's sort of fitting. I left rain and now I'll be reacclimated back to it.
The one story of note here is that of the creepy German at the hostel. I was lucky enough to get a super creepy German dude. First off, he is biking western Europe at the wrong time of year. Next, he looks creepy; he was wearing a hospital scrubs top 4 sizes too big and missing a tooth. He also mumbled things in German with a really deep rough voice. Lastly, he seemed way to interested in where I was going next and how long I was staying here. I mean, he legitimately freaked me out. I tried to lose him a few times, but I didn't want to leave the hostel cause I had business to attend to on the internet. when I finally went to bed, thankfully he was already in bed, but a new problem arose. A basker (professional street performer) moved in to my room. I didn't trust him for second though he was personable. Eventually, he let someone into our room who was not staying at our hostel, or at least hadn't been able to check in. He was around a good part of the day and talking to reception, so he may have been on the level. Still, I didn't know that then. I used my bag cage for the first time since South America. I was hoping to sleep with one eye open the whole night, but didn't need to. At 5 in the morning the German started clearing his throat, hacking, and talking to himself every 30 seconds. I let this go on about 20 minutes and realised I wasn't going back to sleep, so I got up and had time to write this post.
Oh, and the basker used my shower gel that I put in a cubby with my contacts and toothbrush shit. Glad, I locked my bag.
I last reported that I met up with Elmar and was headed to Maastricht with him. We took his car so it was only about an hour away. Most of the places are very close now, maybe two hours max. Maastricht is in Holland (aka the Netherlands, take your pick on what to call it) in the very lower right hand corner. It's set along a river and is pretty chill. I think there is only one hostel, but its set along the river so its quite pretty. It also has an old town, squares for drinking, eating, and chilling. Elmar, who is 40+, is a big drinker, a bit too much for me. If I didn't cut myself off each evening I'd have maybe died trying to keep up with him. So, most of our days were spent visiting pubs that had seating along nice parts of town. We also managed to sneak some sightseeing in, which is good cause the town is quite green. The only thing worth mention is that, being Holland, there are pot cafes. I'm not sure really how it all works in legality terms, but these cafes can apparently get around the illegal to sell pot law. It's legal to smoke it everywhere, just not sell it, which more and more of Europe is following. However, Holland is becoming more strict while countries like Germany, France, and Belgium are getting closer to total legalization. Holland is apparently letting each city decide its rules on legality and foreigners. Maastricht was making it illegal on Oct. 1st for certain foreign countries like the US. Not sure about what Amerstam finally decided, as they have been waffling, I decided to take the opportunity to smoke a joint legally.
I must say, I wasn't all that impressed with the cafes or the weed. First off, you have to smoke in a strange designated room. Most of the cafes sell food and drink, but in a seperately quarters, so it gives a sort of quarantine feel. It's legal to smoke in public, which I'd prefered to find a park. For being legal, you'd think weed technology would be much further in the sense of growing specific types that elicit certain highs. Since I don't like being stoned (where I'm incapacitated), I asked to have one that was a happy, not stoney and not too mind oriented. What I received hardly had any affect after a full joint. To be honest, it didn't have a strong weed taste; more like it was just a big spliff. I think America and Canada, while illegal for most healthy people, the weed technology is much better though I'm only vaguely familiar with the industry.
All-in-all, it was quite a pleasant place to spend a couple days, and it was good seeing Elmar, whom paid for too many things (thanks for the generosity), again. Later Elmar went back to Germany and I headed to Belgium. My original plan was to visit a couple smaller areas that had Trappist breweries. Trappist breweries are the monks that brew beer to support their abbeys and philanthropy. There are other beers made they call abbey beers, but they are run by companies who either bought recipes or have a contract to brew in that style the abbey used to use. There are a shitload of abbey beers, but only 7 trappist in the world; 6 of which are in Belgium. I was going to go to Rochefort, Chimay, and maybe another. My plans were thwarted by the difficulty in getting to these locations. Belgium has an excellent rail system so I thought it wouldn't be a big deal. Wrong. To get to Rochefort required connecting through Brussels, plus since I couldn't prebook the hostel and since I'd get in late, I figured I'd stay in Brussels and scrap that one. Not a big deal since I can get their beers back home anyway.
Brussels is a strange town. It is a stewing pot of everything; beer, cultures, art, governments and (not government, as is the current case). I don't know how it is operating so well with not having a government in almost a year, but none the less they are doing just fine. The things I liked about Brussels was the art, music and beer scene. While most art is lost on me, I like the culture that a good art scene stirs up. One of the unique art things is that they have "comic strips". What this actually is is on some buildings a strip between the two is created. Instead of leaving it bare, some artists have painted murals. Most are of a cartoon quality, thus comics. See FB for a couple pictures. Most of my reason of coming to Belgium is to try the beer, esp the beer not available in the States, but I also did some sight seeing, attended a free concert along a canal, and made some new friends in a local pub. There were two pubs I was recommended that turned out to be of Leny's character. In one, I met quite a variety of age groups and peoples. An old Belgium guy recommended a beer to me and I'm pretty sure the drunkest French girl I've ever seen walked in on me in the men's room to examine my junk. I made friends with another American and we went out that evening to try some more beer.
Belgium beer has a way of wormholing time. As in we got to a certain bar at about 9 and when I checked my watch, hoping to be in bed by 11:30, it was almost 1am. I was hoping to visit Chimay the next day and go to the abbey so this didn't help. As is also the case, more than just a couple will give you a hangover. So, I tried to sleep in a bit but not too much that my day would be shot. I rose at 11, hungover, and didn't get on a train till 1. With missed connections and limited buses, I didn't get into Chimay until 4pm. I was concerned about the bus schedule so I found out the last bus left at 7pm. The monetary is 9k out of the town and I failed, due to lack of French ability, to rent q bike. I'd have considered walking if it wasn't so late in the day. Luckily, Chimay is about 2 hours interesting. I walked around the town and found a place serving Chimay's red cap on tap. I was hoping to try the blue cap on tap, but that may only be capable at the abbey cafe. Still, I've never seen the red on tap, so it was definitely cool anyway, and awesome. After coming home in defeat, I vowed to make it to at least one and set my sites on Westvleteren.
Westvleteren is in the upper left corner, so I figured Bruges was the best bet as a base. Bruges is a funny town. They hate the fact that it was ranked as the most romantic town in Europe a few years back. It's not that they hate tourists, just that they are bit different and like it. Bruges is certainly one of the best preserved medieval cities and have very unique qwerks. They are called Bruges Zots, like the beer of the same name and origin, because they threw a party for a prince, several hundred years ago, as an apology for rebelling and chopping off the tax collector's head. They filled the streets with clowns, mimes, and jesters. When they thought it was time to talk to the king they asked for him to build them an asylum for their "fools" (some apology). The prince then replied, "I've seen almost only fools in Bruges today, just close the gates of the city." referring to the clowns and jesters, if you didn't catch that.
Another thing is the swans. The city has a annual allocation in the budget for the hundreds of swans found throughout the city's canals. This was somehow related to the rebellion too. After cutting off the tax collector's head, they were called something like long necks and somehow swans got associated with a reminder of this punishment. There are plenty mote stories, but the gist is, they're a bit different, but in a goofy likable way. And the really funny thing is that occasionally someone will call the place a shithole (see most recent case of "In Bruges". I think the quote goes, "if I was retarded and lived on a farm, Bruges might impress me. But I wasn't, and it doesn't") the more people come to it.
I spent a couple days in Bruges, bikes around to the sites and to be honest, I lean more to the quote above. There's a couple cool things, and the huge bell tower is leaning slightly, but mostly it's unimpressive. I tried to see the only Michelangelo sculpture outside Italy, but they wanted $8 to see it and I told it was free. Also, I wanted to see Jesus's blood. Some priests came back from the crusades with a vile of what they claimed was Jesus's blood. Obviously, being 1,200 years after his supposed life, and having no lab equipment or way to get blood, assuming there was any dried Jesus blood laying around, the only way this could be true was if it was from a blood defendant of Jesus. Meaning, that if that they believe this vile of liquid is the blood of Christ, than it must be that they acquired it from his long lost offspring. Anyhow, I'll never know cause the vile was not anywhere visible, though I was told it was (and for free), but I didn't checked the paid parts of the church.
My best day in Belgium though was going to Westvleteren. I made an early start and got to a town called Poperinge around 12 missed connections again. It's not a town to write about really, but the fortunate thing was at least there were English speakers here. The abbey is 9km out of the city near a village called Westvleteren. I had some trouble getting a bike because shops close for lunch and some places were totally closed for the season. I did end up renting one and luckily they didn't even ask for a passport or deposit, neither of which I would've been able to supply. Instead they just told me they'd shoot me if I didn't bring the bike back. I was hoping they meant shoot as in flesh wound or minor injuries, and not fatally. The actual name of the abbey is S.t Sixtus, but the breweries are often named after towns. The special thing about this abbey is that they are so small that they don't distribute and limit the amount of cases that can be purchased to one per person. In other words, you can only buy the beer from the abbey's cafe (where it's on tap). According to my friend Jordan, there 12° beer is ranked #1 in the world by the magazine Beer Advocate, though I didn't know that at the time. The people in the state if Flanders believe that to be true, however, and were happy to claim it as the world's when any mention of it is made. The 12° was quite good, but I'm not a huge fan of the syrupy, alcoholy taste of some of the higher percentage beers, and that was my only qualm with this beer. A truly good beer can have all the complexity that this one did, but mask that affect I mentioned. I found that I still like Chimay's blue cap better for a dark Belgium beer.
One thing I found is that I vastly prefer the Belgium blondes. They can have just as much complexity in the taste and up to 12% alcohol as well (though most are around 7%), but are generally lighter, crisper, and have a good amount of bitter (I love hoppy beers) or not as sweet as their dark counterparts, yet can still be quite complex in tastes like their darker counterparts. In this instance I think drinkability comes into play. Can I drink these at anytime of year or temperature? Can I drink them at any speed? Can I drink several of them? I can say that the dark Belgium's answers are no, no, and no. The blondes are the opposite. They are not only limited to summer, some can be consumed quick, and some can be had in severals. This was definitely true of the Westvleteren blonde (5.8%). It was the best Belgium blonde I had. In fact, next to some IPAs I love, this may be the best beer I've ever had. It may even beat those IPAs if you take into the refreshment/drinkability part (oh, and some German lagers are not far behind, but lack the complexity and hop that this ones does). After having a few of those, I hopped (pun) on my bike and made it back to Bruges safe and sound.
The beer at Westvleteren was worth the trip, but so was just spending the perfect sunny afternoon riding around lost in the countryside. It's times like those where you really appreciate how wonderful life is and that spending my time lost in my head and in reality, doing what most would consider as nothing or as a waste (and doing it slowly), was a considerably better use of my time than earning a few bucks. I even realized at one point I totally had forgotten, or maybe lost track is a better word, that I was abroad. All of a sudden, I realised I'd been biking for 20 minutes and had no worries in the world. Not where I was going, not where I was in the world, not how the world was doing, it was a complete peace with everything that had me. In a way, it was spiritual. Yes, it cost money to rent the bike and obviously you need money to survive these days, but how much of it do we really need. Isn't the best times in your life the ones not at work? Maybe lost in your mind in your garden or hiking up the side of a river? How much do those cost? Wouldn't it make sense to have more of these PRICELESS moments and less getting moments getting paid? If anyone says its impossible, they are a fool and a coward. Why is it that the happiest, and most generous, people I've ever met are generally those who don't work hard and those who are the poorest? seriously, figure out what really makes you feel at peace. Now, quit making excuses like kids, homes, careers, etc. Those will always be available for you later and the kids can actually enhance some of, or be an integral part of some of, your dreams.
If I can, I'll link a free dream timeline from Tim Ferris (if you don't know what it is, it is a chart that helps you figure out what your dreams are, puts them in practical terms with steps to get there, gives you ways to budget, and gives you a timeline). I've decided that from now on, instead of making new years resolutions, I will fill out a new dream timeline. I really suggest everyone do the same.
Anyway, so that day was magical. More so, it reminded me I was trying to do to much. I didn't have one second to write or to spend leisurely for the past week. I realized i needed some downtime, so I left the next day for the coast. Unfortunately, my incredible luck with the weather in Europe may have come to an end. I've been blessed with only about five days of rain or clouds since July 18 in what most Europeans have told me is the worst summer they've ever had. It didn't rain on me, and it did have about 3 hours of sun for me to sit on the beach, but now it's looking like clouds and rain to the end. That's fine with me cause I'm used to it from home and because of how unbelievablely lucky I've been this whole year. In a way, it's sort of fitting. I left rain and now I'll be reacclimated back to it.
The one story of note here is that of the creepy German at the hostel. I was lucky enough to get a super creepy German dude. First off, he is biking western Europe at the wrong time of year. Next, he looks creepy; he was wearing a hospital scrubs top 4 sizes too big and missing a tooth. He also mumbled things in German with a really deep rough voice. Lastly, he seemed way to interested in where I was going next and how long I was staying here. I mean, he legitimately freaked me out. I tried to lose him a few times, but I didn't want to leave the hostel cause I had business to attend to on the internet. when I finally went to bed, thankfully he was already in bed, but a new problem arose. A basker (professional street performer) moved in to my room. I didn't trust him for second though he was personable. Eventually, he let someone into our room who was not staying at our hostel, or at least hadn't been able to check in. He was around a good part of the day and talking to reception, so he may have been on the level. Still, I didn't know that then. I used my bag cage for the first time since South America. I was hoping to sleep with one eye open the whole night, but didn't need to. At 5 in the morning the German started clearing his throat, hacking, and talking to himself every 30 seconds. I let this go on about 20 minutes and realised I wasn't going back to sleep, so I got up and had time to write this post.
Oh, and the basker used my shower gel that I put in a cubby with my contacts and toothbrush shit. Glad, I locked my bag.
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