The Hague --> Breda

The weekend finally came. We finally got to see the man, the legend, the most famous DJ in the world...Tiesto. The performance was definately worth the wait. We also got to see a couple of nice Dutch cities that weekend.

We got into the Hague pretty late and walked around a bit until finding our nearly empty hostel. The Hague isn't exactly the biggest tourist place in Netherlands if you didn't know before. After a few drinks we were ready to hit Asta where Tiesto was playing.

Man does this guy know how to put on a show. The music was pumping, awesome tracks all night and a great light show. You could tell how much the Dutch love this guy. Check out some of the video's at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Canucks1000. By 5AM though Alex and I were ready to crash...

The next day we checked out some of the Hague. Unfortunately, it was raining so we didn't check out as much as we wanted to. The Hague is a nice city which looks quite similar to Rotterdam. It has many modern buildings including the UN headquarters and the International Court of Justice.

We then headed over to Breda where Alex's family was from and where...Tiesto was from. This city was similar to Maastricht but with a lot more parks. We checked out a museum of Breda's history and checked out there giant church. By the time it got dark we decided to head back to Maastricht.

Overall, a good weekend and a great time at the Tiesto show. Only one more month to go on this exchange. It's scary, only 3 more big trips to go...

Weekend 1: Berlin
Weekend 2: Zurich --> Interlocken (Possibly snowboarding the Swiss Alps)
Weekend 3: Paris
Weekend 4: Amsterdam to head back to good ol' Canada...

Kean

Roma --> Brussels

What a trip this was! I would have to say it was the best trip so far. What an incredible city with the incredible sites, the vibrant culture, the magnificent architecture and a nightlife that keeps you up till the early hours of the morning.

We flew in from Belgium and arrived Tuesday night. Once we got settled in we decided to check out the other hostel's bar for a few drinks. We had a few with a couple British girls and decided to end the night early because we had to be at Vatican city bright and early.

After getting through the Vatican line that stretched down the block and around the corner we finally got in. What an incredible place this was. I haven't ever seen so many sculptures under one roof. Check out the photo's for yourself, the place is beautiful. Now I know why this Michelangelo guy is so famous...

Once we finished checking out the Vatican we went to the Vatican square (Or should I say circle?). We were wondering why there were camera's, giant tv screens and a large crowd forming in the front. We went to check it out and it turned out the Pope was doing a service! Haha, we just happened walk into it. Talk about dumb luck or what.

The rest of the day we walked around the Northern part of Rome central. We saw a lot of cool cathedrals, castles and bridges. It's easy to tell these Romans are all about the aesthetics. After we were done walking around for the whole day we decided to get some free pasta at the hostel and have some drinks with some Aussie's we met.

Thursday we unexpectedly slept in but we were still able to see the Colloseum. What a cool monument this is. Not only the Colloseum but the whole area around it. The old government buildings, Circus Maximus, Fountain Di Trevi, the Pantheon, some of the first Christian churches and the Ruins. Just to imagine everything that happened in that little area is hard to take at once.

That night we decided to check out the different bars around Rome. What better way to do this than an pub crawl? And no surprise here, the pub crawl did not disappoint. We started out with all the beer you can drink in an hour. By the time we were heading to the next bar there was this huge fight that broke out between some Americans guys (Surprise, surprise) and some Italian guys. Ended up with an Italian guy through a window. Overall, quite entertaining...oh and poor Italian guy....fighting's bad... *cough* *cough*

We went out to two other really cool bars. The bars are definately a lot smaller in Rome but are still a lot of fun. We partied with some fun girls from Waterloo. Looks like East Canada can knock 'em back too...

The next day we planned to check out a few more sights we hadn't seen yet. As we were walking there we happened to run into a giant Italian student riot. Cool! There had to be a good 5,000 students protesting about a whole bunch 'o stuff. Seemed more like an excuse to drink during the day but gay rights and saving Tibet is important too. There were a whole bunch of riot police on both sides of the riot pretty much making sure nothing gets out of control. They had big cannisters of tear gas but it didn't look like they were going to use 'em. They even had the chopper over the riot which seemed a little unnecessary but you can never trust those Italian youth....

That night we met some really cool Swedish guys. We went with them to meet some people in the student area of Rome. Now this is a great place to party. It's pretty much a square full of student bars and this place was all students. Tons of Americans too. Seemed like the majority were American. No caomplaints, just thought it was a little weird. We checked some really cool bars and the Swedish guys showcased us their 'different' dance moves. I never knew someone's back could bend that way...

The last day in Rome we checked out some smaller sites and we did some shopping. Nothing really to eventful. We flew into Brussels that night and checked into our hostel. We were dead tired and decieded to hit up some sleep despite it being a Saturday night. Sad yes, I know.

The next day we bought some infamous Belgian chocolates and checked some of the nice Belgian cathedrals and the old town square. Brussels is a beautiful city but the rain wasn't giving us much incentive to stick around that long. Especially being used to 20+ degree weather for the past 4 days. So we headed back to Maastricht to cap off another eventful trip...

Kean

Leiden --> Rotterdam

The lead up to an incredible party. This trip was a bit of a tour through Netherlands. First to the North East of Netherlands in Leiden and then to a giant rave in Rotterdam.

Leiden was a nice little city similar to Maastricht. The only difference is they have a giant windmill in the middle. We stayed with my Calfornian friend's friend. We arrived that night and went out to an Erasmus (International student association) party. It was definately interesting partying in a bar that looked like a Elementary school gym. Kooky Dutch! After a good night of drinking we were off to Rotterdam the next morning.

Rotterdam is arguably the most modern city in the Netherlands. After being ransacked in WW2 by the Germans it was completely rebuilt into a modern city. It is the second largest city and is definately easy on the eye. But enough about Rotterdam, we're here for the rave!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Armin Van Buuren, he is the #2 DJ in the world. He is from the Netherlands and he holds 'Armin Only' once a year. It is his biggest show of the year which holds over 12,000 people. This type of rave is the epitomy of raves. And boy did I ever find that out!

Armin started out behind a screen which only showed his silhouette. Kinda weird for you non-electronica fans but Dj's are all about building up the tension. At the beginning he played more chill mixes and was easy on all the effects. Around midnight he came out and all pandemiom let loose. Lasers everywhere, sparks falling from the rafters, fireballs from the stage, confetti coming from the roof. And then the music! You haven't heard a track till you heard in a rave. It's uncomparable, simply brilliant. Dont' take my word for it though, watch some of the videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Canucks1000

Armin played for a total of 9.5 hours. You might wonder how people can stay till the very end but you absolutely have to stay till the end. This is when the DJ bumps it up a notch and plays the best tracks. The last 2hrs was unbelievable! Armin was just given'er on the tables. We were all running on adrenaline and didn't care it was 7AM at the time. by the end of the show we were still buzzing from the incredible show. That lasted till the train back to Maastricht for another one of those Sundays....

Kean

Salzburg --> Prague

What a trip this was. Probably the most intense trip just from all the things we saw and all the travelling we did in such a short time. The one thing we didn't manage to do was sleep. But that seems to be the growing trend throughout these trips.

So we flew into Salzburg, Austria from Belgium. We had directions to the hostel we reserved from the train station, so we planned on taking the bus to the train station of coarse. Haha, turned out there was a bomb in the train station! Didn't really see that one coming. There was a WW2 bomb that they found in the train station and they had to deactivate it. Pretty weird, but we still managed to get to the hostel.

The plan for that night was to go to this club were heard about inside a cave. Strangely enough it was called Cave Club. This place was really cool. It was an old WW2 bunker. The bar and drinks were inside a jail cell and they had really cool WW2 stuff all over the club. We also met some crazy Austians that night and a couple DJ's. It was good times and they bought us drinks because we're Canadian, can't complain.

The next day the train station was in use again and we were off to Prague. Nine hours later we finally arrived and we met up with our UVic friend April, and her Norwegian friend. We started the night with some cheap Italian cuisine. One great thing about Czech Republic is everything is cheap. Purchasing power goes through the roof, it's nice. After that we went to a large club called the Roxy. Unfortunately this place was full of British dudes on stags. Not to appealing so we left and went to a cocktail bar. It was nothing special but we had some good laughs.

The next day was the tourist day for us. We checked out the infamous Charles bridge which has to be the nicest bridge of scene. It is littered with beautiful sculptures throughout the whole bridge and it has a great view of the city. We also checked the amazing castle at the top of the hill. We were able to climb to the top of the castle and check out the amazing view of Prague. There are so many churches and cathedrals in Prague. I'd have to say they are the most extravagent cathedrals I've seen as well. Amazing sculptures, beautiful paintings and incredible architecture. After we pretty much saw everything in Prague we decided to eat some traditional Czech food. And man did we ever. We found this great place by the train station. We ate beef goulash, roast duck, pork neck and leg and two giant pints each. I felt like I just had thanksgiving dinner after that feast.

Later that night we decided to check the famous 4 story club right by the Charles bridge. If you ever go to Prague definately go to Karlovy Lazne. It's the biggest club in central Europe. They have different music for each floor. There's a trance floor, house floor, hip hop and R&B floor and a rock floor. Really cool place but we went there on the wrong night. Hate to say it but not too many people go out on a Sunday night. Ya I know, crazy Czech's! Anyway, I was still able to drink the best beer I've had in Czech Republic. It's called Krosovice and it's definately one of my top favourites. We also checked out a bar called the Cross Club. What a weird place that is! It's full of car parts like engines, carberators, doors and chairs all over the place. If that's not weird enough they were all rotating too. Definately a deviation from the norm. Check out the photo's I don't think you can find to many bars like this.

The next day we were off to go back to Salzburg. But before that we wanted to check out the liquor store for absinth. Pretty much half the liquor store was full of it. But the real stuff was really expensive. There was one with Van Gogh on the label. I'm sure he'd be happy about that one. But there was another with a 4" beetle inside of it! I have a picture of it but people would have to drink the absinth and eat this lil critter. I really don't think I could do that. But all the power to ya if that's what your into. We then set off for Salzburg to catch our plane. We had sometime to sight see a bit in Salzburg and then we headed back to Belgium and then Maatricht. Another great trip in the books with many more on the sched. I really don't want this exchange to come to an end...

Kean

Utrecht --> Amsterdam

Hello again,

After a long break from travelling due to the rediculous amount of catch up work after Barcelona we managed to get some travelling in. Another Uviccian who's studying in Sweden, Andrew, stayed with us for a couple nights in Maastricht. He was lucky enough to stick around for the night of our's as well as most other's last exam. It seemed like everyone was partying that night and after shots of absenth it turned out to be one of the craziest and fun nights in Maastricht.

The next day Andrew decided to join Alex and I for our trip to Utrecht and Amsterdam (Both in the Netherlands). We were able to stay with my friend I met back at UVic, Paul, who lives in Utrecht. Upon our arrival in Utrecht, we were greeted with beer upon more beer. Great hospitality in this country ;). We played some Irish drinking games and learned some Dutch in the process.

Paul and his friends were great guys to party with and showed us a bunch of bars around Utrecht. You could definately tell Utrecht was a student city with students filling up the rediculous amount of bars. We checked out around four bars with one having over 200 beer on tap. Sure beats ol' Felicita's. After two months I got to have delicious Canadian beer again. Liquid gold I tells ya. After our many shanigans and acting like Austrian thugs the whole night we were ready to hit the sack.

The next morning we set for Amsterdam for, yes, the third time. But this time it was to see a famous house DJ Axwell. We decided to pre-drink on one of our favourite places in Amsterdam; the grass roof of the Alber Heijn. We then met up with some French friends to head out to a house party. Unfortunately, they map skills weren't as good as their ability to parade around in a pink scarf. But that's ok, we decided to head to Escape anyways, to go see Axwell. What a show that was! They sure know how to make a show in Amsterdam. This was the second time I was at this club but they really rigged it up this time. Good music, drinks, light shows and ladies until 5:30AM. Once the show was over we head to head to the train station and had to wait for the train for a couple hours. Not having slept that night really made the two hours plus the three hours back that much more enjoyable but it was definately worth it.

All in all, Amsterdam delivered yet again and we were able to check out another cool Dutch town. After a day and a half re-cooperation my roomate and I were Terrance and Phillip for Halloween. It really is ture, fart jokes never do get old, haha. This weekend is the start to a crazy month:

Weekend 1: Salzburg --> Prague
Weekend 2: Leiden --> Giant Armin Van Buuren rave in Rotterdam
Weekend 3: Rome for 4 days --> Brussels
Weekend 4: Tiesto in De Haag!
Weekend 5: Berlin or Paris
Weekend 6: Zurich, Switzerland

We're halfway through and there's no slowing down. Going to have to bump it up a notch to really take advantage. Farewell for now, hope you all are enjoying yourselfs!

Kean