Prague, Czech Republic

Eiffel Tower... it's much bigger in person.

Zurich, Switzerland

When I came to England, my plan was to travel during my breaks and during my spare time.  For the last 8 months, I have been quite overwhelmed with what I have experienced.  I never imagined anything like what it has become, and I think it will take me at least a year for it all to soak in.  After backpacking Italy for nearly 2 weeks during December, I quickly realized that I need to see more of Europe.  Once I got back from my Italy trip, I began to think about where I should go next, and what I should do.  Luckily, the University of Leeds has a full month break for Easter, which also separated the second semester into term 2 and 3.  After checking out dates and locations, I decided the following route: Leeds, England to Paris, France; Paris to Zurich, Switzerland; Zurich to Munich, Germany; Munich to Salzburg, Austria; Salzburg to Vienna, Austria; Vienna to Prague, Czech Republic.  These locations all had something I wanted to see, and additionally, the route laid out nicely around Europe which allowed me to see a large portion of the countryside.  My initial plan was to fly from Leeds to Paris, train between each city to Prague, and then fly back from Prague to Leeds.  Up until Prague, everything went just as planned (more on that later).  By training between cities, I was able to have the privilege to see for my own eyes a nice portion of the countryside of Europe.

View of canal next to St. Christopher's Inn (Paris)

The first day began with me catching a bus out of Leeds that would take me to the Leeds/Bradford Airport.  Everything went smoothly, and before I knew it, I was in Paris (arrived around 14:00).  I took a 45 minute train to an underground station, which I was then able to walk to my hostel.  I stayed a St. Christopher’s Inn (see review below).  Shortly after checking in, I walked to a nearby grocery store to buy some food.  I quickly noticed that the food was quite cheap.  I found a box of chocolate truffles for 0.84 EUR, which I thought was amazing (equivalent of these in the US costs ~$4).  They reminded me of the $4 boxes of milk chocolate truffles that I get to rarely eat in the US.  After grabbing some food, I went and walked all around the area near my hostel.  It was situated just next to a canal, so I was able to watch the sun go down off of a lift bridge just next to the hostel.  When the night arrived, a met a Canadian girl and 2 guys from Argentina; all of which were staying in the same hostel room as me.

I woke up the next morning planning to go on a free walking tour, but I ended up going with the Canadian (who I met the night before) to the Palace of Versailles.  It was her last day in Paris, and I had the next 3 to do the walking tour, so I figured why not.  I doubt I would have went to Versailles if I didn’t go this day, and in the end, I was very glad I went.  It took about an hour on the underground to get there from my hostel.  On the way there, we met a girl and her mom who were also traveling there, and ended up spending the entire day touring Versailles with them.  After the tour, we went to Jim

Overlooking the gardens behind Versailes.

Morrison’s grave (the cemetery was nothing like I had seen before – the gravestones were the size of small sheds, and there seemed to be no order of how/where they were placed, which made it very difficult to navigate), and then went to a museum that had an awesome overlook of the city.  It was the first time I laid eyes on the Eiffel Tower.  In the night, I ended up meeting an American who has been studying at Oxford (in England) for the last 3 years.  I also met a Scottish guy, and also a guy from Colorado Spring, Colorado (small world, eh?).

The next day, I ended up going on the walking tour that I was planned to do the day before.  I met some people in the lobby of the hostel who were also going on the walking tour, so we ended up going to the meeting point together.  The walking tour was nice – we saw all the main sites, and also got a lot of history of the city.  During the tour, I met an American who was in the Air Force and was based in Germany.  He decided to take a small break and go to the Paris for a couple nights.  After the tour, we ended up going out to eat and drink, and then Kelly and I walked to the Eiffel Tower.  Later, Kelly had to catch a train back to Germany, so I went back to the hostel.  By this time, I was ready for dinner, so I went to the store near the hostel and bought a sandwich, a drink, and some chocolate.  I brought the food back to the hostel to eat, and as I was eating I met Alvin – a Malaysian who is living San Francisco.  Apparently he came to Paris to do an audition for an opera (he is training to be an opera singer).

The next day I considered renting a bike and going around town on that, but I didn’t want to take the chance of it getting stolen or damaged (there was a fine of £600 for a lost bike, even though these bikes were like £20 bikes).  After deciding not to, I met up with Alvin and re-toured a lot of

Eiffel Tower... it's much bigger in person.

Paris.  During the walking tours, you don’t really get the chance to go into museums and look at the places much, they more-so just show you and tell you about them.  So the rest of this day, I walked a lot.  We went to the Louvre and walked inside.  It has over 350,000 pieces of artwork.  If you spent 30 seconds at each piece (to read about the history of the art piece), and you went to the Louvre everyday during its opening hours, it would take you over 30 days to see every piece.  So basically, I just walked in, checked out some of the more famous pieces (like the Mona Lisa), and left.  Since I had my international student visa, I got in free, or else I would have been inclined to stay longer (TIP: if you have an international student ID card of any sort, and you live/study in an EU country, you get in free to most museums in Paris).  After, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top of it.  It sits in the middle of the huge roundabout.  It is apparently the world’s most dangerous roundabout, with an accident every 30 minutes on average.  It had 12 huge roads coming into it, and there were no painted lanes.  It was hilarious watching traffic enter the roundabout, because it seemed like there was no order to their driving – I can definitely see why there are so many accidents.  After that, Alvin decided to go to back to the hostel and go to bed, while I went to a science museum.  It was basically a museum with old, original scientific instruments and machines, such as the world’s first calculator and original engines from the 1800’s.  It was a very interesting museum.  I then headed back to the hostel and relaxed until 8pm or so when we decided we go watch the Eiffel Tower light show (we also ended up paying to go to the top of the tower, and ended up getting to the top around midnight – it was amazing).

March 29th, 2010 – Zurich bound

I woke up around 5:00am on the next day because I had to catch a train to Zurich, Switzerland that left at 6:20am.  After showering and eating some snacks, I had to walk to the nearby underground station and then take that to the Gare de l’Est (Paris Est train station).  I arrived at the station around around 6am and printed out my reserved ticket from the self-service machine.  The train ride took just under 5 hours and before I knew it, it was 11:00am and I was at Zürich Hauptbahnhof.  I walked around for a bit and eventually found my hostel.  I arrived there and met a guy my age from Australia who was on a

Zurich, Switzerland

8-month world backpacking trip.  He had already gone through Asia, and had spent some time in Europe, and would eventually make it to the US where he would spend 3 months.  After meeting him, we made a quick run to the local store.  On the way, the girl that I met in Paris and toured Versailles with spotted me walking down the sidewalk and said hi, small world!

Later in the night, I met up with Eivind, a Norweigian cuber who is working on his PhD in Zurich – I met him on my speedsolving.com website, and he also attended the World Rubik’s Championship in Germany last year, as did I.  He showed me around the city a bit, and we went out to eat and did a bit of cube racing.  I headed back to the hostel afterward, and met an Austrian guy (in his twenties) from Vienna who was applying at a hospital in Zurich,  and an Italian guy (in his fourties) who was trying to find a job in Zurich.

The next day, I walked much of the city, checking out the infamous Swiss banks and tasting the delicious Swiss chocolate.  In the afternoon, when I was relaxing in the hostel, I met a girl my age who was from Colorado.  After talking a bit, I found out that she went to highschool with one of my good friends (who I lived with for the last 2 years).  It was absolutely crazy.  Shortly after, I went to make dinner and met 2 German girls who took a small vacation to Zurich, and a Brazilian and Czech girl, both who were on a eurotrip.  After dinner, I walked the city with the Italian guy (he had lived in Zurich before, so knew it quite well).  He was a pretty dodgy character – addicted to cigarettes and marijuana.  It wasn’t long before I found the red light district of Zurich, which I never knew it existed.  After finding my way back to the hostel, I went to sleep.

The next day was my last full day in Zurich.  During the morning and afternoon, I walked on both sides of a large lake that is beautiful and sits very close to

Some Swiss guys playing a game of chess on the big board.

the city center.  It has nice views of the Swiss Alps, and the bright sun brought everyone out to sit along the coast.  In the afternoon, I met up with Eivind again, and he brought he new camera.  It had some very nice lenses, and he let me play with it, it was amazing (and really made me want to buy a nice camera).  When it got dark, we were walking and decided to play chess on a huge board that sits at this park-like place that overlooks the city.  So with very minimal light, we set it up and played (see pictures).  In the end, Eivind ended up destroying me, but it was a fun game nonetheless.  Shortly after, Eivind had to leave, so I went back to the hostel and talked with some of the people staying in my room.

My train to Munich, Germany left the next morning.  It left just after 9am and was scheduled to arrive in Munich at 1:30pm.  However, around 1:00pm, my train came to a sudden halt.  They announced on the speakers something in German, but I didn’t know what they said.  After about 20 minutes of waiting, I asked the people next to me what they said.  They said that there was a bomb threat at the Munich train station, so all incoming trains were told to stop.  After about 20 more minutes of waiting, another guy came through discussing the situation.  The people next to me kindly translated for me: he basically said that there wasn’t a bomb threat, but that some construction workers were digging and found an old un-detonated WWI bomb – crazy to say the least.  I later found out that it shut down the entire U-Bahn (the Munich underground) as well.  After about an hour total of waiting, the train finally started going and I made it to Munich safely.  My hostel was right next to the train station, so within a short 5 minute walk I was at the hostel.

Munich, Germany

After checking in, I went to rest in my bed for a little while.  I was feeling sick when I arrived, so I decided to go to a nearby store and buy some vitamin C and some medicine.  Everything was in German, so it made buying it quite difficult.  After buying it, I went to the hostel front desk and asked them how much of each I was suggested to take, and they kindly told me.  After resting, I walked around city near the hostel.  When I came back to the hostel, there were 4 people in my room – 3 girls and 1 guy, all Americans (went to Georgetown University) who were studying in London and traveling around Europe for their break.  I met loads of Americans this trip, so I wasn’t too surprised.

The next day was April 2.  I had been traveling for over a week by this point.  I went on the walking tour during the day.  I ended up meeting up with Daniel, a friend I met in Florence, Italy back in December.  He had been traveling Europe for the last 4 months, and happened to be in Munich at the same time I was.  After going on the walking tour with him, we walked back around the stuff we saw on the tour, such as the Hofbräuhaus – one of the most famous beer halls in the world – they serve beer by the liter.

I decided to go on a tour to Neuschwanstein Castle the next day.  It cost 30EUR which included the transportation costs.  It was a 2 hour ride one way to get there, but well worth it.  This is the castle that the Disney logo is based off of, and was also seen in the movie Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, one of my favorites as a child.  We had to take a 50 minute train, then switch to a different 1 hour, 10 minute train, and then bus for about 15 minutes before getting to the village

Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany.

near the castle.  Once there, we had to hike about 20 minute up the hill to get to the main castle.  At the base of the hill, there is a smaller castle, and at the top of the hill was Neuschwanstein.  Around the castle are some trails that provide amazing views of the country side.  Around the back side of the castle is a bridge which gives people the best view of the castle.

After leaving the castle and getting back to Munich, Daniel and I walked around a bit more.  He had to leave to meet up with some other people, and one of my friends from Leeds arrived in Munich to stay for a night before leaving to Rome, so I ate dinner with him.

April 4th was my last full day in Munich, so I decided to take another tour, this time to Dachau, the site of a former concentration camp.  It cost 15EUR for the tour, which included a full 3 hour walking tour of the camp, as well as the transportation to get there (it was a 1 hour train ride + a 10 minute bus ride to get there one way).  The camp is now a memorial, and it was absolutely beyond our imaginations.  I took very few pictures, simply because I didn’t think it was appropriate.  After doing the tour, it really got me thinking.  Why are places like these still open?  I don’t think it is something that should be remembered.  Yes, all the people who went through them should be remembered, but the camp itself is such a horrid memory, I don’t see why they are still standing.  In fact, I was told that all the barracks were in such bad condition that they had to be torn down.  In order to display the barracks to the visitors of the former camp, they built a replica of the barracks.  I find that quite disappointing.  Reconstructing such a thing is absolutely ridiculous.  I must say, even though it was the first former concentration camp I went to, it is highly likely to be my last.

Yep, they sold Rubik's Cubes at the Munich train station in Germany.

After touring the camp, I ended up going to a beer hall with 2 people that were on the Dachau tour with me (we ended the tour around 3pm).  One of them was Scott from Canada (he was in his late twenties).  He was about 6′9″, and had to weigh around 375lbs – he was one of the biggest people I’ve ever seen.  I also went with Sara (about my age), an Australian who was traveling Europe.  After eating dinner and drinking some dark German beer, Sara left to go on a pub crawl, while Scott and I walked to a different beer hall.  It ended up being a fun night – drinking with a bunch of Germans and a Canadian at the beer halls.  Scott had to catch a midnight train, so he took off around midnight.

On April 5th, I took a train from Munich to Salzburg, Austria.  The train left Munich at 9:30am.  I didn’t have a seat reservation (just a ticket), so I got there early to make sure I got a seat that wasn’t already taken.  While on the train, I met a guy from Mexico who was studying in the Netherlands.  Before I knew it, I arrived in Salzburg (11am).  The hostel was about a 10 minute walk from the station, and I had no problem finding it.  After checking in, I met a guy named Todd (from Tennessee) and we walked the city together, and grabbed some delicious Chinese buffet (8EUR all you can eat).  In the night time, I ended up sitting in the hostel room BS’ing with 2 Americans who just started studying for the next 4 years at St. Andrews in Scotland.

The next day, Todd came up with the brilliant idea to take a lift into the Alps.  It cost 13EUR to take a lift up well into the Alps and overlook Salzburg and

Salzburg, Austria

many of the surrounding cities.  It was quite an experience, and well worth the 13EUR.  After hiking around there for a couple hours, we headed back down, grabbed some lunch, and then hiked around the hills in Salzburg.  After, I helped Todd buy a train ticket to another city.  I watched the sun go down that night, and then headed back to the hostel and called it a night, since I had to catch an 8am train to Vienna the next morning.

I arrived in Vienna at 10:30am or so.  I went to the hostel to check-in, and also to meet-up with my girlfriend Sophie (who flew in from London).  When I got to the hostel, she was still on her way, so I checked in.  However, the rooms ended up not being ready until 2pm.  After meeting up with Sophie, we put our stuff into a locker at the hostel, and grabbed some lunch.  After, we walked the city a bit, and then at night when out for dinner in the city center.  We ended up staying in an apartment owned by the hostel (they had very cheap, elegant apartments which were only a bit more expensive than the hostel.  They were only available to couples, who were staying minimum 4 nights, so it worked out nicely for us).  Once back at the hostel, we went to the hostel bar and met a girl from Massachusetts and a girl from the Czech Republic.

The next day, we walked around the northern part of Vienna and found a huge park.  In the park, there was a small theme park.  So we decided to get on a

Mary-go-round with real horses in Vienna, Austria

roller coaster and a drop-tower.  We also saw a mary-go-round with real horses, it was crazy (see pictures).  We ended up renting a pedal carriage to check out more of the park – it was awesome, but tiring.  It had a steering wheel on one side, but pedals on both.  We ate lunch near the theme park, which was expensive for what you get, but was relaxing. After messing around there all day, we went back to the hostel, and met a guy from Bozeman, Montana who was traveling Europe by himself.

The next day was the last full day of our time in Vienna.  The previous days had gone by ridiculously fast, and this day was no different.  We decided to to walk to the Schönbrunn Palace that was quite close to our hostel.  The palace was quite large, and the garden behind it was massive as well, with loads of nice fountains and statues.  There were also nice views overlooking the palace and the city once we climbed up to the top of the hill.  Additionally, there was a zoo in the garden, which we spent much of our time at.  It was 14 EUR to get in, but it was well worth it.  We ate some snacks for lunch at the zoo, and then had a couple drinks at the biergarten (Beer Garden) in the zoo.  After leaving the zoo, we walked more of the garden, and then left the palace back to the hostel (it was a 10 minute walk).  After relaxing there for a bit, we went to the city center for dinner.

April 11 was our last day in Vienna, as I had to catch a train at 2:30pm to Prague.  We woke up somewhat early, and then went to the Belvedere Garden.  The

Belvedere Garden in Vienna, Austria

garden had a palace on it, with a huge open area around it, similar to Schönbrunn Palace, but not quite as large.  After that, we ate lunch near the train station.  At 2:15pm, we headed to the train station and I got on my 5 hour train to Prague, Czech Republic.  Sophie had a flight later in the day back to London.  I arrived in Prague at 7:25pm or so, and then took the metro (the underground) in Prague for about 30 minutes out to a stop near my friend Martina’s house.  She met me there and drove us back to her house.  Martina currently lives in the same flat as me in Leeds, England, and she is a student at the University of Leeds as well.

The next day, I woke up to a nice breakfast with Martina, and her mom and dad.  Then Martina and I took the bus from her village to the closest metro stop, and then took the metro into downtown Prague.  We walked around until about 4:30pm, and then took the metro toward her house, where we met up with her mom and dad who gave us a ride back to their house.  They provided dinner, and I talked with her family about a vast range of cool things (both of her parents grew up during the communist era, when Czech was still together with Slovakia).  It was fascinating to talk to people who lived through the era first hand.

On April 13th, I woke up, caught the bus to the metro (takes about 20 minutes), and then took the metro into downtown again (about 20 minutes more).

Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic

Once downtown, I grabbed some quick breakfast, and then went to the Old Town Square to join a free walking tour.  The walking was once again a good one.  We walked for about 3 hours, learned some nice history about the city, and also got used to the layout of the city.  Oddly enough though, this was the first walking tour I’ve ever done where I didn’t meet anyone.  Everyone in the tour seemed to simply mind their own business.  Like with most tours, I always go back and re-walk, but spend more time as each place, such as going into a museum we learned a bit about.  After the tour, I went to the top of a hill that had a massive metronome on it.  Apparently there used to be a huge statue of Joseph Stalin, but when that was torn down, the metronome was put up.  The tour guide told us there was a biergarten up there, but when I went up, I didn’t see it.  After hiking up there, I walked back down and went to a pub near the Old Town Square.  Prague is the beer capital of the world, and it was apparent.  Not only do they have some of the best beer in the world, it is also very cheap.  Pints were roughly 1EUR, which is less than half of what beer costs in England.

On the 14th, I basically did the same as I did the previous day, except walked to different places in the city.  I wanted to check out a hill that had some really cool buildings at the top, and also had a tower that had a similar appearance as the Eiffel Tower.  Martina’s mom told me that the person who built it tried to replicate the Eiffel Tower somehow.  It took me a couple hours to walk to the top, but it provided some nice views of Prague.  I took this video when I was about half way down after spending several hours walking around the top of it.  After walking down, I grabbed some chocolate and some drinks at the store and then went to walked around the Old Town Square some more.  At night, I ate some dinner, and then headed back to Martina’s house and called it a night.  I ended up watching some Czech TV with Martina’s dad.

The final day (or the expected final day) in Prague began with a morning breakfast.  Martina’s mom was explaining how she saw on the news that a volcano

Prague, Czech Republic

was erupting in Iceland and that some of the Scottish flights were being canceled due to it.  Shortly after, the news came on saying that most flights into the UK were going to be canceled.  So I went on my airlines website to see what they said, and it said that all flights had been canceled until the next day (the 16th), which was Friday.  I tried calling the airline help center to setup a new flight, but had no luck.  After failing to be able to rebook online nor over the phone during the day, I decided I would wake up the at 3am the next day to see if the phones weren’t as busy; I still had no luck.

So, the next day, I woke up, tried calling some more with no luck.  I also checked the airline website to see that all flights this day were canceled as well.  So Martina took me to a really cool castle that was like a 30 minute drive from her house in the hills.  We did a small tour there, and then went back to her house.  After, I decided to go into Prague again to tour it a bit more while I could.  In town, I went to a cafe and tried calling the airline company to rebook about 50 times over a period of about 3 hours, and had no luck.  After getting back to Martina’s house at night, I talked with her dad about possible options.  Her dad and mom were going to fly out to India the next morning, so he suggested I go to the airport with them to I could talk to a real person and not have to wait on the phone.

So the next morning, Martina drove her parents and I to the airport.  I walked all over looking for the Jet2 counter, but had no luck.  I finally asked someone, and they pointed me to some desk that wasn’t Jet2.  After waiting in the queue there for about 30 minutes, a woman (who worked fro Jet2 and was talking to people who were in the queue) came up and told me that there were no flights available until Thursday (this day was a Friday).  Right there and then, I told Martina (who was kindly waiting in the line with me) that I had no option but to take a train or bus back to England (I had class on Monday, and I suspected if I waited until Thursday that I’d have more problems than if I just let ASAP).

A castle near Martina's house outside of Prague, Czech Republic

Once getting back to Martina’s house, we both searched everywhere for buses and trains to London.  Pretty much all of them were booked.  With no luck, we took a break to rest and think about the situation.  A couple hours later, Martina ended up finding a bus that was starting in Slovakia, but would stop in Prague on Saturday afternoon, and would eventually make it to London on Sunday (she had to call some woman and speak Slovakian to her).  I told her to book it, and she pulled it up online and I got it reserved (thanks so much to Martina!).

So, here I am, stuck in Prague for the last 2 days, now having to take a bus (that was scheduled to be around 19 hours) across Europe, pay about £150 more than I should have, and spend 19 hours just to get to London (instead of flying out 2 days earlier, spending 2 hours, and saving £150).  Nonetheless, Martina gave me all the directions and maps I needed to find the coach station in Prague.  The bus was scheduled to arrive in London at 7:15am.  I debated with myself whether I should book a coach from London to Leeds ahead of time or not.  I figured if I booked ahead, I may miss it, but if I didn’t book, I could be stuck at London Victoria Coach Station again for a long time (all domestic flights in the UK were also canceled, so buses/trains would be busy too). I booked my coach back to Leeds from London for 9:30am.

The next day (Saturday), I went into Prague around 9am, walked the city, and around 1pm walked to the coach station.  The bus was scheduled to stop there around 2:15pm.  After waiting for a couple hours, it finally showed up at 3:30pm.  I ended up getting placed next to a very friendly woman from Czech, but the guy in front of me had his seat pushed back, so I had very little room to even move.  It was horrible.  So we started going, and I figured, heck, I’m already 1 hour and 15 minutes off schedule, but it shouldn’t be a problem to make my 9:30am bus out of London.  About 3 hours after riding on the bus, we get pulled over by the German police.  Apparently the German police pull over buses like this all the time, because there are often people riding across borders illegally.  2 German officers came in, looked at everyone’s passports, and then left.  We started going again, and then about 10 minutes later I see the bus pulling off the highway again.  We were following the German police back to the police station….

The police wanted the bus to get back to the station so they could scan many of the passports that seemed fishy.  So we sit there for about an hour (just

Canceled flights at Prague airport due to the volcano in Iceland

sitting in the bus), and then the officers come back on, hand the passports back, and we get on our way.   So another hour behind schedule.  The Czech woman next to me said the German police are real jerks about buses from Slovakia, and she said she wouldn’t be surprised if the bus got pulled over again in Germany while we were passing through it.

Several hours later, we get to Calais, France, where the bus will get onto a ferry to cross the english channel.  But before we do that, we need to pass through the UK Border Agency.  So everyone gets off the bus, and we all have to go through passport control (this is at like 6:30am on Sunday).  After going through passport control, I get back on the bus and begin waiting.  The guy who was sitting in front of me was apparently being denied, and this was causing the entire bus to delay before getting on the ferry.  Oddly enough, the ferry was just about to start going so we had to get on it, or else we’d have to wait for an hour until the next one started.  Low and behold, we start going, and we see the ferry pulling away.  So here we are, missing the ferry by 5 minutes, and having to wait another hour for the next.  So I tried to relax on the bus, and hope that I can make it to London by 9:15am.  The guy who was having problems was left in Calais, France (who knows what happened to him).

After an hour, we got onto the ferry and were finally on our way to England.  The ferry took about 1 hour and 40 minutes, and shortly after, we docked in Dover, England at around 8:30am.  The bus to London was scheduled to arrive in Leeds around 9:30am (just in time for my bus to Leeds).  Low and behold, we show up at 9:35am and by the time I get into the station, I had missed my bus to Leeds by 10 minutes.  If the bus had arrived in Prague on time, or if we

Watching the sun go down from the bus; somewhere in Germany

wouldn’t have been pulled over by the German police, or if the guy didn’t delay us in Calais so we could have made the ferry, I would have made my bus.  So, here I am, stuck at London Victoria again because I missed my bus by 10 minutes after busing for the last 19 hours (the timezone change allowed us to gain an hour).

London Victoria Coach Station was very crowded, and the queue for tickets was massive.  But I started waiting.  Luckily, it was moving quite quickly, and I waited for about 20 minutes before reaching the ticket counter.  I told the guy at the desk that I missed by bus due to a late bus, and that I wanted to get on the next bus to Leeds.  Luckily, he was able to get me a spot on a 10:30am bus, and I had to pay £6 additional to move it.  Fine by me.

At 10:30am, I caught my 4 hour, 15 minute bus back to Leeds.  The bus was practically empty, with open seats all around me, which was really nice considering I was squeezed in a bus for the previous 19 hours.  I arrived back in Leeds around 2:45pm, and took a taxi back to my residence.  Home at last!

Disregarding the issue at the very end of my trip, the rest of the trip went amazingly smooth.  It was an amazing experience, and certainly changed the way I look at the rest of Europe.  There are so many beautiful places in the world that you hear about a lot, but seeing them in person is a completely different experience that can’t be described in pictures or words.  I’d highly suggest doing a eurotrip to anyone,

The ferry arriving back into England

even if you don’t like to travel.  In the end, I pretty much guarantee you won’t regret it.  This experience has really made me want to travel even more – check out more of eastern Europe, some of Asia, and of course Australia.  People have asked me what my favorite place I visited was, and I can’t really just say one, because they were all amazing – Paris and the Eiffel Tower, Zurich and the banks/the Alps, Munich and the history, Salzburg and the elegance, Vienna and meeting my girlfriend there was amazing, and lastly, Prague and seeing how beautiful it really is and spending time with a good friend and local there.

This experience made my time living in Europe that much better.

Hostel Reviews

St. Christopher’s Inn Hostel (Paris, France): This hostel was nice.  It was quite expensive, at around 29 EUR average a night (included 2 week days and 2 weekends).  It has checkin open 24/7, and a bar connected to the main lobby.  It has many, many computers for getting online, but it costs a couple EUR to use.  In the same area as the computers, there are 2 big screen TV’s where you can sit and watch TV on the couches they have, which was a relaxing way to meet new people. There is a grocery store just down the road (with cheap food and drinks), and there is a canal and lift bridge right next to the hostel.  The rooms are somewhat large, and each bed has a curtain (which I really liked).  There were also wooden floors, and huge lockers in each room.  It can be reached easily by 2 underground stops.  Overall, I would suggest this hostel (it is in a nice part of the city, and seemed to be in the same price range as all the other hostels in Paris).

Backpackers Hostel (Zurich, Switzerland): If you want to stay in a hostel in Zurich, you really only have 2 options, and this is the cheaper of the 2.  It was a nice and cheap place to stay, and the people at the front desk were nice.  You have to hike like 4 stories in order to just reach the front desk, which was quite tiring about about 3 times.  There were kitchens on each floor, which made eating relatively cheap (Zurich was incredibly expensive, and eating out will definitely kill your budget).  The location of this hostel was very nice.  It was a 10 minute walk from the train station, and was positioned nicely to stores and the old town of the city.  The old town of Zurich is relatively small, and I’d definitely suggest spending a couple nights at this hostel.  It cost around 35 Swiss franks/night.

Euro Youth Hostel (Munich, Germany): This hostel sits next right next to 2 other big hostels, which are all a 2 minute walk from the train station.  Euro Youth Hostel is very good for the price.  There is a bar which has 2EUR pints, and there is also free WiFi and computers to use for guests (which cost like 1EUR for 30 minutes).  The rooms are quite nice.  The first room I was in had a bathroom ensuite (it had 5 beds), but then I was switched to a place that had like 10 beds, and the bathroom was shared for like 30 people.  This hostel is in a perfect location, the price is good, the staff were friendly, and it is really clean.

YoHo International Youth Hostel (Salzburg, Austria): This has to be the only hostel in Salzburg.  It was about a 10 minute walk from the train station.  It was situated nicely in the town.  The receptionist was very nice.  There were computers available to use (1EUR for 45 min I think), and free WiFi.  The rooms were nice and clean, and the lockers in the rooms were quite nice and big as well.  There was a bar, and they served breakfast and lunch there (both were quite expensive, and weren’t too great).  The price was very cheap, and I’d suggest it if you’re backpacking through Salzburg.

Hostel Ruthensteiner (Vienna, Austria): The hostel was a bit hard to find at first.  I ended up not staying in the dorm rooms here, so I can’t speak for them.  But the main lobby and the sitting areas were very nice and clean.  There was a bar, and there were gardens where you could sit outside, which was nice.  The apartments that this hostel had were incredible for 28EUR/night (per person).  There was a private kitchen and bathroom, and was very comfortable.  The apartments sat directly across the street from the hostel.  In order to get to the apartment, you have to go through like 4 sets of locked doors, which made it very secure.  The location of the hostel was nice – it was a 10 minute walk from the main train station.  There was a U-bahn at the main station, and it was about a 5 minute ride to the city center.  Overall, I’d recommend this hostel.

Picture Albums:

624 pics of my trip (on Facebook – you must login to view):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

A brief paper I wrote recently on the basics of carbon nanotubes; a fascinating idea to use them in electronics:

New discoveries are always exciting.  Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) nearly 20 years ago, we have learned a great deal about the characteristics and applications of them.  The precise history of CNT is a bit grey, but Sumio Iigima from Japan has been credited with discovering them in 1991 (‘History of…’).  However, some say that Morinoby Endo had prepared samples of carbon nanotubes for his PhD in the 1970’s in the United States (Davies, A.G., PPT).  At the time, Iigima and others knew very little about the implications of CNTs.  Regardless, the characteristics that they carry are very interesting and may eventually have a significant impact on the way we live our lives.

Carbon nanotubes are basically made of folded graphene (a single graphite layer) layers, which are sheets of carbon atoms arranged into a hexagonal lattice.  They are considered to be 1D conductors, which means the electrons passed through them only move in the direction of the tubes axis, and the momentum is quantized as they move around the tube.  Because of this, the electrons experience many quantum effects.  CNTs have periodic boundary conditions in the circumferential direction, meaning that the electron wave functions match up nicely as you go once around a tube.  Additionally, CNTs can be single-walled (SWNT) or multi-walled (MWNT).  As the names suggest, SWNT consist of one layer folded into a tube, while MWNT consist of multiple shells.  Depending on the way the layers are folded together, as well as the size (diameter) of the CNT, the electrical properties will vary significantly (see below).  The CNTs are capped with fullerene (made entirely of carbon) sphere-like structures.  These structures that cap the CNTs are known as ‘buckyballs’ (Harris, Carbon…).  Since the way CNTs are folded can be controlled, we have great control over the electrical properties that a specific CNT will have. This is what makes the CNT so interesting and powerful.  Additionally, the CNTs are quite strong, hard, and elastic.  Since CNTs are on a nanometer (1×10^-9) scale, it is hard for us to put their strength into perspective.  Assuming that a CNT was blown up to have a cross-sectional area of 1 square milimetetr, it would be able to withstand a tensile force of over 13,000lbs (MenFeng, Yu). The facinating part of this is that even though they have this strength, they can still be manipulated to their desired positions, which is incredibly powerful and intriguing to physics and electronic engineers around the world.

A key characteristic of CNTs is that they are made of only one kind of atom, carbon.  Additionally, they are made of only one kind of bond, sp², and CNTs have a simple periodic lattice (stacked hexagons) in which each atom is joined to three neighbours (graphite) (Harris, Carbon…).

One of the most powerful things about CNTs is that we can manually change the way the tube conducts, based off the way the CNT was created.  Conductivity depends on orientation of nanotube, the wrapping angle of the nanotube, and the size of the nanotube.  In order to describe the way this works, we must first introduce a notation which allows us to discuss the orientations of folded CNTs (the way the a CNT is wrapped).  By looking at one hexagonal graphene lattice, you can define 2 vectors which are equal in length, but point in different directions (see Figure 1 below).  These allow any lattice point to be referenced with respect to any other by a vector <A, B> (assume 2-dimensional).

Figure 1: Vectors A and B are used to denote the different types of CNTs that can be made, and allow for analysis of its electrical properties.
These vectors can then be used as a coordinate system to locate different locations on the nanotube.  When a sheet is wrapped into a tube, a point of contact between the 2 ends of the sheet is picked.  Now image unwrapping the tube into a sheet.  This notation basically references the point on a tube into 2 points on the sheet.  Using these 2 vectors, you can determine how the CNT was wrapped, and hence determine its electrical properites.  These are 3 types of vectors which are used to describe a CNT, and they each have different electrical properties (Saito, Dresselhaus, M. Dresselhaus, 39-41).

The first type of vector is called a zigzag.  Zigzag vectors take the form <A,0>, meaning there are ‘A’ carbon hexagons around the circumference of the tube, but no helicity.  In other words, since the B component of the vector is 0, the 2 points are perfectly horizontal to each other (see Zigzag in Figure 2 below).  For example, <11,0> represents the zigzag below: 

Figure 2 (above): Shows the different types of vectors used to reference 2 points on a “unrolled” nanotube. (image taken from {Davies, A.G., PPT})

Because of the way we defined our vectors A and B, the <A,B> profile carries a “zig zag” shape (as shown in Figure 2), hence why that <A,0> vector is called a zigzag.

Another type of vector used which analyzing CNTs is called an armchair.  An armchair vector takes the form <A,B>, where A=B.  As shown in Figure 2, an armchair vector also has no helicity, and is called an “armchair” because of the way the lattices appear when the vector takes the armchair form.  The angle between the zigzag and armchair vectors is 30 degrees, which is phi+theta in Figure 2.

The last type of vector is a vector that is neither a zigzag or armchair, and it is called a chiral vector.  It carries a form of simply <A,B>, where B does not equal 0 and A does not equal B.  Unlike the zigzag or armchair vectors, a tube that has a chiral vector profile is somewhat of a helix.

In order to determine whether a CNT is a metal or a semiconductor, we need to analyze the characteristics of the vectors that define them (armchair, zigzag, or chiral).  Armchair (A=B) CNTs have electron states at the Fermi Energy, and are therefore metallic (Davies, A.G., PPT).  Chiral and zigzag tubes will be metallic if A-B is a multiple of 3 (i.e. <9,6>, which represents a chiral vector).  Similarly, chiral and zigzag tubes are semiconducting if A-B is not a multiple of 3 (i.e. chiral vector <4,5>).

The energy gap (distance between top of valance band and bottom of conduction band) of CNTs is dependent only on the tube diameter, as shown in the equation below:
Energy Gap = (2*X*Y)/D , where X is a constant representing the carbon tight-binding overlap energy, Y is the distance to the nearest neighbour (roughly 1.42 angstroms), and D is the tube diameter (Davies, A.G., PPT).  For CNT semiconductors, there energy gaps are typically quite small (~0.5 eV).

To put these conductivity characteristics into perspective, armchair and other metallic CNTs can have a current density upwards of 4×10^9 amps per square centimeter.  Since one amp is roughly 6.24×10^18 electrons passing through a point in one second, this means that CNTs can pass nearly 2.5×10^28 electrons per second through them.  This is roughly 1,000 more than that of copper (Meo, S.B.).

Many studies have been done on the current and voltage characteristics of CNTs.  As shown in figure on the left, the current/voltage curves fit into 3 categories based off their current/voltage forms.  The plots labeled no. 1-4 show a small level-off at 0V, and range from 0.40-1.0 nanoAmps (nA – 10x-9 amps).  Plots 5, 6, and 7 show a more linear system near 0V, with 7 being the most linear of the 3.  Plot no. 8 shows a the most linear of them all.  As stated in the figure, plots 1-6 are chiral, 7 is zigzag, and 8 is classified as armchair (based on its vector representation).  The CNTs used in plots 1-4 are semiconductors, while plots 5-8 are metallic.  The more plateaued the plot is near 0V, the more ohmic the CNT is, and hence it is likely to be metallic.  Conversely, non-ohmic plots, such as 1-4 are likely to be semiconductors.

Contrary to what you may think, we cannot use V=IR to determine the resistance of these nanotubes.  Perfect metallic CNTs can experience ballistic conduction in which the electrons have no impedance (electrons don’t scatter along the tube) (Davies, A.G., PPT).  They are not quite superconductive however due to the Meissner Effect (no magnetic field in the superconductor) not occuring in the CNT material (Rohlf, Modern Physics).  The resistance is therefore determined by the contacts to the 1-dimensional system (Davies, A.G., PPT).

The potential of CNTs is endless.  In one experiment, a SWNT was used to create a transistor in which a single electron was used to create the digital swtich ((Postma, Teepen, Yao, Gifonia, and Dekker 76-79).  This was done at room temperature, which makes it application much more realistic.  Simply by attaching leads to CNTs which have specific properties (semiconducting/metallic), electronic devices can be created.  Metallic and semiconducting CNTs have been made into transistors (McEuen 15,17) (Martel, 2447-449).

In Trans et al., Nature 393 (Davies, A.G., PPT), researchers used a gate electrode to alter whether the CNT was metallic or semiconducting.  To create this, a semiconducting SWNT was placed on three Pt electrodes, and the the three electrodes were placed on a silicone dioxide substrate.  The silicone acted as a gate electrode which altered the electronic properties (current/voltage characteristics) between the tube and the contacts (Davies, A.G., PPT).

Additionally, CNTs have been used to create solar cells (New Jersey Institute of Technology).  The CNTs capped with buckyballs trapped electrons, and then sunlight was added to excite polymers around the CNT which made the electrons in the CNT flow (creating current).

Researchers at MIT used CNTs to create batteries, which could potentially power cars and other electronic devices (Trafton 1,5).  Utilizing these CNTs made the batteries more efficient (much lighter, and allowed energy to transfer faster).

There is no doubt that CNTs have a significant place in the electronic engineering industry.  The 21st century may very well be shaping up to be a carbon electronic based century as electronics begin to go quantum.

Works Cited:

Davies, A.G. , Molecular Electronics, ppt, Univeristy of Leeds, February, 2010.

Harris, Peter. “Carbon nanotube science and technology.” Carbon Nanotube Page. Centre for Advanced Microscopy, 01 Mar 2007. Web. 15 Mar 2010. <http://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~scsharip/tubes.htm>.

Martel, R., T. Schmidt, H.R. Shea, T. Hertel, and Ph. Avouris. “Single- and multi-wall carbon nanotube field-effect transistors.” Applied Physics Letters. 73.17 (1998): 2447-449. Print.

McEuen, Paul. “Carbon-based Electronics.” Nature 07 May 1998: 15,17. Print.

Meo, S.B.; Andrews, Rodney (2001). “Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications”. Crit. Rev. Solid State Mater. Sci. 26: 145. doi:10.1080/20014091104189.

New Jersey Institute of Technology. “New Flexible Plastic Solar Panels Are Inexpensive And Easy To Make.” ScienceDaily 19 July 2007. 21 March 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/07/070719011151.htm>.

Postma, Henk, Tijs Teepen, Zhen Yao, Milena Gifonia, and Cees Dekker. “Carbon Nanotube Single-Electron Transistors at Room Temperature .” Science Magazine 293.5527 (2001): 76-79. Web. 21 Mar 2010. <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/293/5527/76>.

Rohlf, James William, Modern Physics from a to Z0, Wiley 1994

Saito, Riichiro, G. Dresselhaus, and M.S. Dresselhaus. Physical properties of carbon nanotubes. Illustrated, reprint. 1. London, UK: Imperial College Press, 1998. 39-41. Print.

“The History of Carbon Nanotubes.” Intro to Nanotechnology. DigitalNature, 17 Jun 2009. Web. 15 Mar 2010. <http://nanogloss.com/nanotubes/the-history-of-carbon-nanotubes-who-invented-the-nanotube/>.

Trafton, Anne. “New virus-built battery could power cars, electronic devices.” MIT Tech Talk 53.21 (2009): 1,5. Web. 15 Mar 2010. <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/virus-battery-0402.html>.

Yu, Min-Feng; Lourie, O; Dyer, MJ; Moloni, K; Kelly, TF; Ruoff, RS (2000). “Strength and Breaking Mechanism of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Under Tensile Load”. Science 287 (5453): 637–640. doi:10.1126/science.287.5453.637. PMID 10649994

If you use Adwords for advertising, and if you’re not using Google Conversion Optimizer, you should be.  The results may be quite surprising.

On average, campaigns adopting the Conversion Optimizer achieve a 21% increase in conversions while decreasing their CPA by 14%

How it Works:

Observes: Conversion Optimizer studies your conversion tracking data to figure out how often each type of auction leads to a conversion.

Builds: Based on observed past performance, Conversion Optimizer creates a prediction model to guess which auctions will perform best for you in the future.

Optimizes: Adjusts your bids on an ongoing basis, so your money is efficiently invested in the best auctions. It generates an ad rank by your CPA bid, quality score and predicted conversion rate.

You only need 15 conversions to enable it on your Adwords campaigns, and the sooner you implement it, the sooner it can start collecting data to analyze.  Basically instead of bidding CPC or CPM, you bid a max. CPA.  It literally tripled (+300%) my conversion rate on some of my campaigns, simply by enabling it on my account.  In a worse case scenario, test it out for a day or two, and if it doesn’t work, simply turn it off. You may want to mess around with varying the max. CPA to see how Google takes the data and utilizes it to increase the conversion rate.

To enable it on your account, check out this post.  Have fun!

It is March 20th, and I am sitting in my room in my flat in Leeds thinking about all the great memories I have had over the last 7 months, and all the great memories yet to come.  It is absolutely crazy to think that it is already March 20th.  Since mid-February, I have been thinking about time a lot, and it seems the more I think about it, the faster it goes.  This is strange since I’ve always thought that if you think about time, it goes by slower.  “Time flies when you’re having fun” I thought was always true since when you’re having fun, you’re not thinking about time.  Now I am left unsure why time seems to go by faster/slower sometimes.

Perhaps I am thinking about it more because I realize that the end is near.  I leave for Spring break in 5 days, and when I get back, April will be more than half way over.  Class starts shortly after, and 3 weeks later, it is time to study for finals.  After finals, the semester is over.  Once the semester is over, I will most likely have 1 month to do as I please, but many of my friends in Leeds will have left home.  I plan to travel a bit of the UK and Europe with my family in June.  By the time July comes, my time in England will come to an end.

This experience has been so amazing so far that I don’t want it to end.  Leeds is the perfect place for university; everything about it – the people and how liberated they are, the culture, and scenary, and just the overall quality of the life here.  I will writeup a nice post before I leave.

It’s time to enjoy the remaining months I have.  Expect some nice pictures of my euro-trip when I get back (21 days of straight travel, all around Europe).  The trip is as follows:

Leeds, England >> Paris, France >> Zurich, Switzerland >> Munich, Germany >> Salzburg, Austria >> Vienna (Wein), Austria >> Prague (Praha), Czech Republic >> Leeds, England

This was basically a charity event – meaning we did it for charity.  At Leeds University, I am part of a group called Raise & Give (RAG).  Students join this group and raise money for selected charities across the world.  In return for students raising money, RAG organizes adventures for the students.  For example, you can go skydiving if you raise £300 for a selected charity, or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro during the summer if you can raise £2,100.  The whole point of doing these is to raise money, or else you could easily go on these adventures at a much cheaper price.  For the Amsterdam hitch, I needed to raise £150 for a charity based in Amsterdam which develops parts of Guatemala.  The charity is called Ninos De Guatemala.  In the end, around £13,000 was raised for Ninos de Guatemala during this Amsterdam hitch alone.

Day 1 (leaving England): On Thursday (Feb 4, 2010), I set off to hitchhike to Amsterdam.  We were split into groups of 3.  Basically they wanted at least 1 male in each group.  Since I joined RAG by myself without other

Ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge

friends, I got paired up with 2 girls who needed a male in their group.  So the 3 of us all hitchhiked together.  We needed to be in Hull, England by 5pm on Thursday.  Our initial plan was to drive to the east side of Leeds, and try hitching from there.  Unable to find a ride there, we decided to take a train to Hull and begin our hitch when we arrived in Belgium.  So we took a train from Leeds to Hull at 2:40pm, and got to the Hull ferry port by 5pm.  The ferry would take us from Hull, England to Zeebrugge, Belgium.

The ferry ended up leaving around 7pm that night, and it was about a 12 hour ride to Zeebrugge.  The ferry had several bars, a dance floor, many restaurants and shops, a casino and game room, and quite a few people.  It was quite a nice ferry from what I expected.  I ended up playing Bingo that night, listening to some great music, and then dancing the night away.

Day 2 (The hitch): We arrived at the ferry port in Zeebrugge, Belgium around 7am, but it took us about an hour to get packed up and to finally get off the ferry.  When we got off the ferry, about 120 people from the RAG group began to walk out of the ferry port and to begin hitching.  We walked to an intersection where many cars would be heading toward Antwarpen (the next city we wanted to hitch from).  After standing there for around 3.5 hours, we walk to a service station about 0.50 miles away to take a break from

Hitching out of Zeebrugge, Belgium

the cold, the rain, and to finally sit.  After about 30 minutes there, we walked around to all the people at the service station to see if any of them were heading toward Antwarpen.  One guy told us that the place we were standing wasn’t the best place, and gave us directions of where to stand next.  So we walked back to the intersection where we previously stood, and then proceeded to walk to where the guy suggested.  He suggested to walk about 0.75 miles toward the train station, and then there would be a large round-about.  He said after the round-about, there would be a sign to Antwarpen, and he said 90% of the vehicles traveling there would indeed be going to Antwarpen.  A different group of hitchers said that the round-about was around an hour walk away (as they were told by a police officer), so we weren’t sure if we’d ever make it to the round-about, but it was worth a shot.

So, here we are, at 1:30pm, almost 6 hours after we docked in Zeebrugge, and we hadn’t even left the ferry port, even though we had to be in north Holland eventually by the end of the night (we had a hostel booked for this night).  We contemplated just getting a train out of Zeebrugge so at least we could try hitching elsewhere.  However, I was determined to get a hitch to Antwarpen, especially because we hadn’t even tried to hitch out of this brilliant place.  So we started to walk toward the round-about that the guy at the service station told us about.  After about a 15 minute walk, I could see the roundabout in sight.  I realized that it was indeed about a 0.75 mile walk, and not an hour walk as we were also told.  So we get to the round-about, and on the opposite side I see a sign pointing to Antwarpen.  We talked near the sign, and down the road a bit more to get a clear place to stand which would also allow potential drivers to pull over and pick us up.  After about 10 minutes of hitching there, we truck driver pulled over to give a hitch.

This truck driver was driving a semi for P&O Ferries (the company that provided the ferry ride over to Zeebrugge in the first place).  He was a Dutch guy, in his older 20’s, and was a real nice guy.  We told him we wanted to go to Antwarpen and eventually get to to Amsterdam.  He said, “well, if you’re going to Amsterdam, I can lift you past Oosterhout.”  He was carrying a load that was going clear into Holland, and just south east of Utrecht.  After about an hour of riding with him, he said he needed to break at a service station and meet someone in around 45 minutes.  So we stopped at the station for a break.  We were more than willing to wait here, since he was lifting us about 75% of the distance we needed to go.  He was really polite, and offered to get drinks, and food for us.  He even called his boss to see if he could potentially take the load to Amsterdam and pickup a new load – this would enable us to get clear to Amsterdam with him.  He said if that didn’t work, he’d be willing to take us to his company, and then drive his own car to Amsterdam to lift us there.  It was amazing how much work he wanted to go through simply to get us to our destination (but we didn’t want him to go that far out of his way, he was already doing us a big favor).  After the break, he took us up near Hardinxveld-Giessendam (near an intersecton where he was heading east when we needed to head north).  He tried once again to convince his boss to let him go to Amsterdam, but he had no luck.  So he dropped us off at this service station and went on his way.  He was an absolutely amazing person, and very generous to give us a lift.

Aviengo Hostel in Amsterdam

We began to hitch out of this service station, and after about 20 minutes, we found a guy who was heading to Diemen (just east of Amsterdam).  He offered to take us up there, or drop us off in Utrecht where we could most likely catch an easy lift from there to Amsterdam.  We decided to have him drop us off there.

After about 20 minutes of hitching at this new service station just north of Utecht, we met a guy who told us that almost all the traffic going near this service station was not going to Amsterdam (apparently the previous guy who lifted us to this place dropped us off at a bad spot).  This guy told us that he was heading to Bussum (just south east of Amsterdam) and that he could drop us off near the correct highway that would enable us to get to Amsterdam.  He was a really nice guy as well – he was a 20 something male, who is a pilot for some small airline company in the Netherlands.

After dropping us off at a petro station in Bussum around 6:45pm, we began to ask people to see if anyone was heading to Amsterdam.  While the 2 girls asked around, I held a sign (that said “Amsterdam) near the road to try hitching.  After about 25 minutes with no luck, a guy told us to walk about 100 meters up the road and try hitching from there.  So we did, and in about 5 minutes,

Amsterdam at the night of arrival

someone stopped to pick us up.  This guy that picked us up has lived in Amsterdam since the mid-90’s, and was telling us all about it.  He asked where we were staying, and drove us right up to our hostel.  On the way, he showed us all around city and gave us suggestions on what to see.  Once again, a very friendly, generous, and polite guy.  Every person I’ve met from the Netherlands has been this way, it is incredible.

After checking into the hostel, we relaxed for about an hour, before meeting up with some other friends who had arrived in Amsterdam (and were staying at a nearby hostel).  Considering how long it took us to get out of the ferry port in Zeebrugge, we were fortunate enough to arrive in Amsterdam quite early, and were able to explore a lot of the city that night.  We ended up going out to a coffeeshop, and then explored the Red Light District, and lastly ate dinner (a very late dinner, but it was the second meal I had in about 24 hours, so it was very tasty).  We decided to sleep until about 9am the next morning and meet at around 10am.  So that was the end of that day – a very exciting, productive day, and an amazing experience.

Day 3 (Exploring Amsterdam): After meeting up, we went out to breakfast together.  It was me, my 2 girls, another group of a guy and 2 girls, and lastly a guy and a girl who hitched together.  So 8 of us in total.  I ate an omelette for breakfast and it was delicious.  I ended up paying 2.50 EUR for a bottle of water there since I was very thirsty (and they don’t give free water

It was foggy, but was able to snap a decent pic of a nice building

anywhere).  Everyone else had a glass of orange juice which was 3.75 EUR.  The omelette itself ended up costing 6 EUR.

After breakfast we began to walk the city for the rest of the day.  Amsterdam is full of really beautiful buildings, canals, and bridges.  We went into many souvenir shops and miscellaneous museums, such as the Amsterdam Sex Museum.  It basically has everything you could think of related to sex over the past 200 years.  Use your imagination.  About mid-day we walked to the Anne Frank museum, but there was a line wrapping around the street, so we decided to postpone that until the early morning the next day. Late in the night, we went to a gathering organized by the charity we raised for, Ninos de Guatemala.  We stayed there for about 3 hours, before heading back to a pub near our hostel.  On the way to the pub, we realized that the streets near our hostel and the pub were lined with prostitutes in all the windows.  Just a little surprise you get used to in Amsterdam! The pub was called “Doors” and they played a bunch of Doors music, as well as Jimi Hendrix and many other old classics.  It was awesome.  Before we left, we played a couple games of foosball at the table they had there.  After that, we headed back to our hostel and called it a night.

Day 4 (more Amsterdam before departure): this Sunday was our last day in Amsterdam.  We had to be at the central station by 5pm to catch a coach to Rotterdam which would bring us to our ferry back to Hull, England.  We decided to wake up early to tour the Anne Frank museum before it got too crowded.

The group in front of one of the crazy museums

It opened at 9:00am, so we decided to get there around 8:40am.  Once we got there, there was no line at all and we payed the 8.50 EUR to get in.  This building was where Anne Frank and here family lived during the time of the Holocaust, and it is now a museum.  I thought it was decent, but nothing too impressive.

After that, went to eat breakfast at a pancake house.  I ended up getting a pancake with banana and peanut butter and it was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had.  It cost 9 EUR for that alone, but it was delicious and well worth the 9 EUR.  We then walked toward some museums, and after seeing long lines, we decided to go to the Heineken brewery and tour it.  We were recommended it by many different people, so we definitely wanted to check it out.  It cost 15 EUR to get in, but it is a suggested 1.5 hour self-guided tour.  The first part is basically just posters and history, and eventually you get to a room which the floor moves and they show you how they make the beer (as if you were the beer yourself).  It was quite cool.  Shortly after, you go to a bar where they tell you a bit about the beer color, etc., and then they give everyone a half pint.  Then after going through a few more rooms (which have comfortable chairs and videos playing everywhere), you get to the official bar where you get 2 more half pints for free.  They have tables with virtual beermat’s on them, which was really cool.  After drinking there, we went to the Heineken shop before leaving to eat.  Even though the estimated time of the tour is 1.5 hours, we ended up spending around 3 hours, and it made the 15 EUR worth the price.

Since the brewery took much longer than expected, we had to hurry a bit.  We had to pickup our bags from the hostel, as well as get a quick meal before we got on the bus (dinner selection on the ferry is very limited and very expensive).  We ended up getting

In the Heineken brewery

some chips (or french fries) for dinner (they give you a mass amount of chips and spread ketchup or mayo across them, and give you a toothpick to eat them).  From there, we had to find our way to the central station and find where the bus was at.  Once at the station, we looked for restrooms, and they all cost 0.50 EUR to use (absolutely ridiculous).

Finally, the two coaches arrived and took us to our ferry port in Rotterdam.  Once we finally boarded, we dropped off our stuff in our room, and went to check out the ferry.  This was a different kind of ferry than the one we came across on, but they were similar.  This one was much larger, and had many more people.  It did have the standard casino, game room, dance floor, restaurants, bars, etc.  The rest of the night we basically just played some Bingo, danced and sang, and watched some people sing on stage, it was a great night.  We also checked out the deck at 1am in the middle of the English Channel – it was cold to say the least.

Day 5 (arriving home): I woke up Monday to see the ferry was getting ready to dock.  I had slept about 4 hours the previous night, but I didn’t have too hard of a time getting up (I think I’m getting used to it).  After packing up, we got off the ferry and waited to board our coach from Hull to Leeds.

A guy performing "Piano Man" on the ferry home

The coach was scheduled to leave around 9:00am, but it ended up being delayed an hour so we sat at the ferry port and played cards (with a deck of cards from Amsterdam that was crazy).  Once we finally boarded the coach, it took around an hour and a half to arrive in Leeds.  I had class from 9:00am until 6:00pm that day, and was determined to attend all of them.  Since we arrived late in Leeds, I missed my first class, but I did indeed attend all the remaining classes, and was glad I did.  I arrived back home around 7:00pm that night to make dinner and then sleep.

Overall, the trip was incredible.  I met many awesome people on this trip, and by the end of the trip I felt like I knew them so well even though I had never met them before the trip.  It was an amazing experience, and I’d highly suggest you check out Amsterdam at least once in your life.  It is a place like nothing else in the world (as far as I know, and from what I’ve been told).

As shoemoney has brought up many times, Adsense is typically not the most efficient option to generate revenue on your website (simply follow the money and you’ll know why).  However, it is nice for people who aren’t used to internet advertising because Google allows you to setup advertising in minutes and you can generate revenue right away.  On a couple of my smaller sites, I still use Adsense, simply because I haven’t found anything that compares to it for the size of my site.  For example, last month with Adsense, I averaged well over $50 CPM on one of my sites.  I’ve tried affiliate marketing on it, and am yet to have any luck.  But with the return that Adsense is giving, I can’t complain.

Recently, I’ve been integrating Ad Manager into all of my sites, simply because Ad Manager is amazing.  If you run a website and aren’t using Ad Manager, you’re missing out.  Anyways, with Ad Manager, any ad slots that aren’t purchased by an advertiser can be filled with Adsense.  Even slots that have competing advertisers rotating can have Adsense rotated in so that Ad Manager can find out which type of ad will give you the best CPM value (between competing all of the advertisers, as well as Adsense).

So the other day I integrated Ad Manager into one particular site and set it up so that the slots just filled with Adsense (since I have no direct advertisers for this site).  I assumed the earning results would be no different than just using the standard script from Google Adsense itself.  After a couple days of testing, I realized that for some reason, the Ad Manager script that was filling slots with Adsense was performing at nearly half the value that the standard Adsense was.  I’m not sure why this is (the CTR on the ads was cut in half, which leads me to believe that the ads that were being displayed weren’t targetted as well).

Does anyone know why the Ad Manager would return different ads than the standard Adsense code?