2022 Europe Trip

publish The result of Traveling after leaving Cloud SQL. I solo traveled Europe between 2022-05-04 and 2022-05-25.

California Bay Area (Day 0)

Wednesday, May 4

  • Packed my bags for London.
  • 8pm: Caught my plane!

London (Days 1-4)

Thursday, May 5

  • 2pm: Landed.
  • Took the tube to Wombat’s City Hostel.
  • Ran for 3 miles.
  • 9pm: Called it an early night.

Friday, May 6

  • 4am: Woke up, played Pokemon, and fell back asleep.
  • 8am: Woke again.
  • Got an English breakfast.
  • Felt horribly sick.
  • Got a negative COVID test.
  • Visited Denmark St.
  • Got lunch at a Google office.
  • 7pm: Slept early again.

Saturday, May 7

  • 6am: Woke feeling much better.
  • Walked to:
    • London Bridge.
    • St. Paul’s Cathedral.
    • British Museum.
    • Borough Market.
  • Got a meat pie for lunch from the Market.
  • 2pm: Saw Julius Caesar in the Globe Theatre.
  • Visited Tate Modern.
  • 6:30pm: Dinner at the Mudlark.
  • Laundry.
  • Bought Eurostar tickets to Paris.

Sunday, May 8

  • 7:30am: Woke up.
  • Stored my luggage at the hostel.
  • Tube to Baker St.
  • Lovely breakfast at the Potting Shed.
  • Walk-biked to Abbey Rd.
  • Walk-tubed to:
    • Big Ben.
    • London Eye.
  • Dropped by Tate Modern to buy a souvenir mug.
  • Picked up my bags from Wombat’s.
  • Went to St. Pancras International Station.
  • Changed my ticket from the 7pm train to the 4:30pm train.
  • 8:30pm: Arrived in Gare du Nord, Paris.
  • 9:30pm: Arrived at Hotel Madrigal.
  • Met Wit! He invited me to stay at his place in Warsaw.

Paris (Days 5-7)

Monday, May 9

  • 9am: Woke up.
  • Best meal of my whole trip at Coutume.
  • Walked to:
    • The Louvre.
    • Centre Pompidou.
    • Marche des enfants rouges (which was closed).
    • 5pm: McDonalds.
    • Iles du cite.
      • Saint-Chapelle (which was closed).
      • Notre Dame (which was closed due to having been on fire).
  • Second best meal of my trip at Cafe Louise.
  • Scooped my stuff from Hotel Madrigal.
  • 10:30pm: Arrived at Karl’s place in Boulogne-Billancourt.

Tuesday, May 10

  • 9am: Woke up.
  • 11am: Nice cafe near Karl’s place.
  • Went to the Musée d’Orsay.
  • Coffee in the Jardin des Tuileries.
  • Macarons at Angeline.
  • More coffee at Boulangerie Eric Kayser.
  • Returned to Saint-Chapelle in time to see the interior.
  • Watched the sunset over the Seine.
  • 8:30pm: Worst meal of my trip at Café Varenne.
  • 10pm: Arrived at Karl’s place and slept.

Wednesday, May 11

  • 8:30am: Woke up.
  • Delphine kindly brought me some tea and pastries.
  • Bought tickets to Brussels, Bruges, and Brussels again so I could make a theoretical flight to Copenhagen/Prague/Warsaw.
  • 12pm: Went into the Jardin area with Karl via electric scooter.
  • 1pm: Lunch at Google Paris.
  • Went to the Musée de l’Orangerie.
  • Got coffee.
  • Made this page!
  • Got a souvenir shirt at Printemps.
  • Touristy trap French onion soup for dinner.
  • Dessert with Karl and Delphine.
  • 12am: Slept.

Brussels (Days 7-8)

Thursday, May 12

  • 6am: Woke up to travel to Gare du Nord.
  • Got a sandwich and chocolate bread from Paul at the station.
  • Caught my train to Brussels.
  • 12:30pm: Arrived at the Latroupe Grand Place hostel and dropped my bags.
  • Walked to:
    • Église Saint-Nicolas.
    • The Grand-Place.
    • Musée de la ville de Bruxelles (Grand-Place museum).
    • Garde Robe Manneken Pis (pissing statue museum).
    • Manneken Pis (the boy himself).
    • Poechenellekelder (beer garden).
    • Le Roy d’Espagne (restaurant in the Grand-Place).
    • The red light district OOPS.
  • 8pm: Slept early.

Friday, May 13

  • 8am: Woke up.
  • Subway to Atomium.
  • Walk-subwayed to:
    • Suburban Brussels.
    • Some grill place.
    • Palace of Justice.
    • Notre Dame cathedral.
  • Ate crepes and fries for dinner… too much food.
  • Booked tickets for Bruges hostel, Brussels hostel, and flights to Prague.
  • 11:30pm: Slept.

Bruges (Days 9-10)

Saturday, May 14

  • 7:30am: Woke up.
  • 9am: Caught a train to Bruges.
  • 10am: Arrived and walked 30 min to the St. Christopher’s Bauhaus hostel where I stored my bags for a 2pm check-in.
  • Wandered around on foot and saw incredibly beautiful sights:
    • Pop-up arts stand selling ceramics.
    • Waffle shop.
    • Church bells eventually leading to the Grote Markt (market square) next to the Belfry.
    • A shop just for little kids shoes.
    • 2 pop-up music stages next to the Church of the Holy Blood.
  • 2:30pm: Checked into the hostel and rested a bit where I met Waell.
  • Walked around more:
    • Windmills on the outskirts of Bruges.
    • Riverside cafe with a beer I liked a lot.
    • Misc outskirts of the city where I caught a Shellos.
  • 10:30pm: Slept.

Sunday, May 15

  • 8am: Woke due to Waell’s mumbling.
  • Had the second worst shower of my life.
  • 10:40am: Climbed the Belfry.
  • Dipped into Elisabeth to buy chocolates.
  • 12:30pm: Went to a super cute brunch restaurant called That’s Toast.
  • Walked around a lot of the city catching Pokemon for the water festival mega energy quests.
  • 9pm: Caught a train back to Brussels with a painful amount of PDA across from me.
  • Train back to Brussels at 9pm, crashing in the hostel in order to catch a plane the next day.

Prague (Days 11-13)

Monday, May 16

  • 8:30am: Woke up.
  • Multithreaded laundry with shower and breakfast.
    • Just kidding. This was the worst meal of the trip.
    • Plus the shower flooded my room.
  • Took an Uber to the airport.
  • While in the airport I booked a hotel. After the flooding I am so done with living in hostels.
  • 2:40pm: Caught a plane to Prague.
  • 4pm: Arrived in Prague airport.
  • 5pm: Arrived at Hotel Atos.
  • Potatoed.
  • 7:30pm: Got food at Luka Li.
  • Potatoed until 1am.
  • 1am: Slept.

Tuesday, May 17

  • 9:30am: Woke up.
  • 11am: Breakfast at Bella Vida Café.
  • Took some ritalin and worked by the riverbank near the hotel.
    • Put together an album of the food I’d eaten.
    • Messaged Cloud SQL about my adventures.
  • Wandered back to my hotel eventually.
  • 6pm: Wandered outside past:
    • A shopping mall.
    • The Státní operahouse.
    • A tall black tower I can’t find the name of (Senovážné Square building?).
    • The Prašná brána tower gate.
    • Čech Bridge.
    • Climbed up to the Vyhlídka na Letné (View of Letné) / Prague Metronome.
  • 8:30pm: Dinner at U Pivrnce.
  • Walked through:
    • Staroměstská Mostecká Věž (Old Town Bridge Tower).
    • Karlův most (Charles Bridge).
    • Caught a brief glimpse of Prague Castle.
  • 10pm: Back at the hotel.
  • 3am: Slept after procrastinating playing LoR.

Wednesday, May 18

  • chill in Prague
  • Got lunch at the Google office.
  • Visited the national museum.
  • Visited Prague Castle.
  • Souvenir: Bought crystal glasses.

Warsaw (Day 14)

Thursday, May 19

  • Fly to Warsaw in the morning at 9:55am-11:15am.
  • Crash at Wit’s place in the evening.

Riga (Day 15-18)

Friday, May 20

  • Hang in Warsaw for the morning / partial afternoon
  • Plane in the afternoon to Riga at

Saturday, May 21

  • chill in riga

Sunday, May 22

  • chill in riga

Monday, May 23

  • catch a plane back home to SF

Tuesday, May 24

  • chill in riga

Wednesday, May 25

  • Plane to SF in the morning… need to work this out

(Ok the following isn’t really the Europe trip anymore)

California Bay Area

Thursday, May 26

  • asdf

Friday, May 27

  • Flight to Boston in the evening.

Boston

Wednesday, May 28

  • First day in Boston.

Wednesday, May 29

  • Etc.