Notes to myself about Copenhagen

I'm not sure what I expected visiting all these Northern European countries but it's interesting how they are all similar and yet all distinct. I guess that's the same as any cities but they're more distinct than say 2 US cities which generally have more similar cultures.

Berlin

So far I like Berlin a lot. I can't really put my finger on why? Maybe the other cities seemed too clean? Not like there is such a thing as too clean but I guess by that I mean I felt like people had to conform more in Stockholm and Belgium? That probably makes no sense to the people that live there.

Brugge is about an hour and a half from either Antwerp or Brussels. It's a great day trip. Head over to Brugge around 10, have lunch over there. Walk around, have some dessert, then head back. There's trains from the central stations of either city and they head directly there. No need to switch trains.

Notes to self on Brussels

As I have a friend living in Brussels and it's only an hour by train from Antwerp I checked it out. Brussels feels quite a lot bigger than Antwerp. It also feels very different, probably because it's more French than Dutch influenced. Brussels is one of the centers for the EU which I'm sure makes them proud.

Some notes to myself on Antwerp.

Honestly although I'm sure I'd heard the name before I don't think I'd ever really thought about Antwerp. When I mentioned to a friend I was visiting Europe she invited me to her wedding party in Antwerp so I headed on over.

Antwerp is a pretty nice place to visit for a few days. It's relatively small. You can pretty much walk all of it with no transportation although there are trams, subways, and busses if you'd prefer not to walk too far.

Another note to self post of just random thoughts while in Stockholm.

Being from California I don't have a lot of experience with subways I suppose but I have used Tokyo's subways for 7 years and so when trying to use the subways in Stockholm it's obvious I'm going to compare them.

Sweden is supposedly known for design but apparently that's only visual design and not functional design because the subways are sorely lacking in functional design.

Just random notes to myself about trip to Helsinki. If you're from Helsinki feel free to correct anything. Sorry this isn't much of a "Here's my impressions of Helsinki as a tourist destination" type of post. It's just a random stream of thoughts added to over a couple of days.

I'm mostly writing this for myself.

I quit my job recently because it felt like I was just spinning my wheels. It felt like I was doing nothing of interest, just working 9 to 6 and growing older week by week. So, as scary as it is I quit. I decided to try traveling to see if that helped. I have no idea if it will help or if I'm just blowing money.

How I ate Shanghai.

I was really incredibly lucky. I was going to Tokyo and decided I should also go somewhere I hadn't been while I was out. I was deciding between Taiwan and Shanghai and invited my friend Alan and we settled on Shanghai because it just seemed a little more exotic than Taiwan. I just pretty much randomly picked to go first week in October but it turned out Alan was between semesters for his school so he had that week off and it was also golden week for China and most people are off that week. That included my friend Dennis who recently moved to Shanghai and so Dennis showed us around the entire time.