How to Return from Abroad in Style

Leaving Japan sucked, and as I walked away from Airi and the rest of the sem2 crew and boarded a bus then train and then a shinkansen to Hiroshima I had plenty to think about. I had finishing my semester, my missing credits, the fate of northern half of Honshu, and how I was ever going to make things work out for me weighing heavy on my mind. Luckily enough I managed to push off those worries with the most epic of distractions: traveling around the world.

I did so, quite literally actually. Flying west out of Philadelphia I transferred in DC and Tokyo before landing in Osaka. Eventually I took a train to Hiroshima where I boarded a plane and flew west, transferring in Seoul (leaving me with a few unused Won) and landing finally back in Deutschland! Where this awaited me:


That's right, the crazy swede known as Hampus would be my guide to Europe. We wandered Frankfurt, crashed with our friend Chris in Mannheim, played it cheap in Luxembourg, had an embarrasingly awesome drunken night of debauchery in Brussels, got the best walking tour of Amsterdam ever and chilled in the Hague all in one go. I even got to stop off in Heidelberg and visit my friend Cory!


"Drink Faxe or Scandinavians will plunder your towns and destroy everything you hold dear" is probably the best beer ad campaign yet!


Mannheim was great, but the story surrounding this taxi sign involves one scared German taxi driver and one drunk Swede who thought he was the hulk. It was an interesting evening...


Go to Heidelberg. Seriously, do it. It's fairytale levels of beautiful.


Plus who doesn't want to see graffiti in clever German rhyme from over a century ago?


Travel tip 34 however, is to avoid the town of Karthaus. It was scary shit dude.


Luxembourg was beautiful, but we were beautifuler, hence all the awesome vanity shots here.




Look at all the shits Hampus doesn't give about the beauty of Luxembourg. It's impressive really.


Luxembourg also showed me that I truly desire to become a Renaissance spice trader, mostly because this scale is awesome and I need a reason to use it.

From Luxembourg we headed Northwest to Brussels where we met up with Anna! She showed us around and we had an amazing time. They introduced me to Tequila and Absinthe. We drank lots and lots. Because of this my memory is about as fuzzy as the photos from that evening, so hopefully they speak for themselves.


Yep. That's mario...



Opera just got more interesting?


Time for Tequila and discussions on EU politics!




The night was awesome. I can't begin to describe it. Unfortunately we had to part, for we were off to Amsterdam!




Sherwin showed us an awesome time there and in The Hague. I didn't take as many decent pics there we were so busy being awesome 'n all.





In the end Hampus and I took the train south to Brussels where he headed for home in the frigid north and I headed West to step foot in an English-speaking country for the first time in 8 months and finally see some small part of the UK.

That for the next post since I took lots of pics as I wandered alone through the streets of London. Plus I'm getting tired. Lemme know what you think and thanks a million to every awesome person who made my wanderings through Europe a total blast. You're all awesome every last one of you.

Stay stoked,
DeLue