Backpacking around Europe

Wow almost a month since my last post. Time has flown, and I've been having a great time here in Europe. Let me quickly recap what has happened since I left Hyères early on the morning of Monday February 27th... I took trains from Toulon all the way to Milan, boarding my first train at 7 am and arriving at my hostel at 8 pm. The hostel there, Ostello Bello, was great with a fun staff and a really rad music selection. Milan was pretty nice, a city of fashion and finance and I felt a little out of place, with my fraying coat and country bumpkin-esque demeanour but what are you gonna do. The Duomo or Cathedral was gigantic, can seat up to 40 000 people plus it had a few sarcophagi of past Archbishops that I found cool but kind of creepy. From Milan I moved on to Verona for an afternoon, where Romeo and Juliet is set by Shakespeare, and by nightfall I was in Venice. Turns out Venice is not a city you should try and find your way in at night if you don't know where you're going. Not because of crime or anything, but because the city is a maze without street signs. I was able to find my hostel through sheer dumb luck, kind of a long story but I was grateful to stumble upon it. I spent a few days there, my roommate was an Argentinian named Juliàn who could speak Italian and several other languages, and also knew Venice from being there for 4 days, so I really lucked out in meeting him. I enjoyed Venice and its lack of automobiles, the churches and a late-night run in with some drunk old Scots at San Marco's. After Venice I took the train down to Florence. We went south through miles and miles of tunnels through some mountain range, and when we came out we were not in Veneto anymore but Romagna, then Tuscany. Ah. Now Florence is a great city. Extremely friendly and walkable, Florence was on my list to see and it did not disappoint. The first night there, I met a bunch of people from different countries and we went out to several bars and clubs, closing out the night with a couple bottles of wine on the steps of the Duomo there. This was Friday night for those keeping track, March 2nd. On the Saturday I went and saw the statue David by Michelangelo, walked around the city and sat in a square in the sun. Saturday night I took it a little easier and prepared for my journey to Rome the next day. I took the slow train down to Rome from Florence and enjoyed the Italian countryside. Arriving in Rome around 5, I waited for James to arrive around 9. Our hostel didn't seem that lively that night but on Monday night we met some good friends, closed out the bar and drank wine in the cellar until late. We spent our time walking and seeing the sights, including the Colosseum, Palatino, the Roman Forum, Vittoria monument, Spanish steps and the Pantheon. Rome was a cool place, I'm glad it was sunny for most of our days there because I hear it rains a lot. I had some really good pizza and pasta when I was in Italy, which comes as no surprise considering but I wanted to verify the claims of authentic Italian cuisine for myself. On Tuesday James and I as well as our new friend Elias from Brooklyn went and saw the Vatican museum,the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Very cool place, and interesting to be in the world's smallest state. That night we did a pub crawl with a bunch of us from the hostel and had a lot of fun. On Wednesday I recovered from the pub crawl and did some more exploring, while on Thursday my friend Daisy and I rented bikes and commenced to bike around Rome... Now that was an experience. I'm not experienced at biking in cities at all, so Rome was a bit of a baptism by fire. Stressful at first, but gave me a rush by the end of the afternoon. You kinda just gotta dive right into traffic with your bike and rely on those Italians and their brakes to hold up! Soon enough it was time for James and I to board our bus to Ciampino airport, bound for Sweden. A friendly piece of advice to anyone visiting Rome: don't fly back via Ciampino. Fly from Fiumicino (Leonardo da Vinci).  A worse-organized airport I cannot imagine. Flying with Ryanair is an experience I hope I don't have to go through again. But we got to Skavsda airport in Sweden and for those of you that also read my brother's blog, you know what happened next. Arrival in Stockholm, 1 am. Arrival at a 7/11 in Stockholm, 130 am. Bus to Märsta, arrival 3 am. Taxi to Uppsala, arrival 5 am. But we made it. I spent the next 5 days with James in Uppsala and experienced a week in the life of a ERASMUS student (minus the schoolwork). Seemed pretty sweet to me. Sweden was cold compared to sunny Italy, though. Besides that, I found it to be a very nice place, clean, well-maintained streets and a lot of young people. The nations are a brilliant idea too, I'm thinking the same general concept exists in North America with fraternities and sororities but going to Värmlands nation to drink and dance with a bunch of internationals  is so much less cliché. On Wednesday, March 14th I left Sweden via a southward train bound for Copenhagen, Denmark. My train was late arriving do I missed my direct train to Hamburg, Germany and had to take three local trains to get there, arriving at 10:30 pm. That was a long day. When I arrived in Hamburg I was ready to collapse but then I met a couple Spaniards in my hostel room, Alberto and Rafa, and we ended up going out on the town. That was a fun time. I spent the following day walking around Hamburg, which I quite enjoyed. The next day I took a train to Amsterdam, Netherlands via Insabrück and met up with my friends I had met in Rome, Elias and Daisy. Amsterdam was such a cool city. I was a huge fan of the dedicated bike paths and the light reflecting off the canals at night, the friendly demeanor of the Dutch (who are all enormously tall) and the quality of the food. I mean the meals we had there were top notch and didn't break your wallet. Definitely my favorite city so far. We celebrated St. Patty's day and Elias' birthday on the 17th, we wanted to go to the zoo but decided €20 was too much. I left Amsterdam on Monday the 19th and went to Brussels, Belgium. Brussels was nice too, and I met a great couple in my hostel from Seattle, Kelly and Tia. We went to a bar that was away from the street down this long dark tunnel, and inside was like a funeral parlor-themed place with black lights. Definitely takes the award for Coolest Bar Yet Visited. I left Brussels on Wednesday, March 21st and took the Eurostar train through the Chunnel to London, England. This is getting to be a really long post so I think I will cap it off here. I plan to be in England for the next week and a half meeting several friends and a long-lost relative, plan to do the tourist bit in Paris, then finally return to Hyères for a week more tutoring, then home to Canada. I will update all of yous on how that goes. Hope everyone is doing well, Europe is certainly treating me just dandy. A bientôt mes amis, William.