ALL OF IT, LUXEMBOURG

2016-01-21, 23:00, JASON

STAY: YOUTH HOSTEL, LUXEMBOURG CITY

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From Amsterdam, to Brussels, then finally the great country of Luxembourg. Why Luxembourg, of all places? Yes, admittedly it's a bit hipster chic to go, but the main reason was because it was 14 pounds return to Gatwick. Can't beat that!

We get in. It's early, so the work rush is in. Most people commute in via France, Germany, or Belgium, making Luxembourg different by day and night. The city itself is geographically stunning: there is a canyon of sorts in the main city center, that you can descend into and take a walk, but the rest of the business area is very sanitized: a bunch of high end shops, standard, gridded stuff, with people in businses suits walking around. Apparently, you can get by speaking French fine, but the Luxembourgers prefer either Luxembourgish or English, because, well, *they are not France.* As a result, our bonjours went only so far as bonjour before we autocorrected.

On the first day, we walked around and took a look at some of the architecture. All the roofs (is the plural rooves? shoot.. English..) are a charcoaly black and there's no real order to the city, as goes for most European old cities. It's a very modern and clean city, so there's not so much emphasis on grand buildings, but it's still constructed with a European air. One thing that was cool was that they maintained a lot of green spaces throughout the town, so although the country is developed, it still feels like you're out in the woods all the time. If you've ever been to Shasta City or any mountain town (what I imagine Denver would be like?), then you know what I mean: there's development, but you're just surrounded by awesome nature. It's really a nooked city: there's lots of small trails along rivers you can find, random houses dispersed through, and also small nature spots that you can walk down to. Of course, you got your fair share of churches, too. Our hostel consequently was located in this 'valley' or 'depression' with a large wall surrounding it due to the change in elevation. What's the word for that? It's not quite a valley.. but imagine you're standing there and you see a high, sharp rise of some rock, and the hostel is at the base of it. Calling all geologists.. Anyway, it felt like I was in summer camp, about to bust out on a tuneless "tan-oak tan-oak" song. The pictures from the first day:

So, that night, we are in our hostel. We are the only ones in there. Then, this man comes in, he's older than your normal hostel crowd, probably around 50 or 60. He comes in and then starts having a conversation with us. Eager to entertain or follow along, we get talking. He says he is coming in from North Dakota (Oh God, this should've been a sign. But, it gets good..), and this was his Eurotrip that he's been planning for a while. He recently got divorced with his wife, but remembered having a good time in Italy and so wanted to do the trip again, so he rented a car and somehow chose to start in Luxembourg of all places. Overall, he was pretty friendly and easygoing. Wasn't too high maintenance, wasn't too polished, and easygoing, which was just our style.

As we're getting ready for bed, Thorin and I are looking through a book of castles in Luxembourg provided by the front desk. Luxembourg is known for its castles, actually, and you can reach the biggest ones via bus, so we thought of going to see the main castle. When the man sees what we're reading, he asks what that is, and we tell him about the castles, and how they're well known here. And then, you'll never guess what happened next, this mother fucker asks us whether or not we want to go to with him!! He offered to drive us around Luxembourg, which, if you know, is small enough to do in a day. What a blessing! You guys, it doesn't hurt to make friends with everyone in your hostel when you travel no matter how much you hate them. Why? They might come in handy sometime. More importantly, they may end up being really cool, good friends. So, with that said, we agreed to depart the next morning at 7 and planned about 4 or 5 castles along the way. I mean, it barely scratches the surface of castle-touring in Luxembourg, but, we thought we'd hit up the big ones.

Afterwards, we decided to drive around and find something to eat. It was this weird, small suburban bit to Luxembourg. And, somehow we ended up in Portuguese sandwich shop. I asked her if she spoke English, she said no. Then, I asked her if she spoke Spanish, and she's like no. I doubt she spoke Chinese, so I had to do it: I just busted out my Portuguese that I'd only been learning for a few months, and managed to order all 3 of us a decent sandwich. Around the place, there was castle ruins as well as a cemetery, so we just walked around that. Pretty cool, quiet place. Actual, rural Luxembourg (I'll call it rural) was calm and relaxing. Really nice! Imagine it's a bit like Geneva.

It's funny, the memories that stick into your mind when you travel. That man from North Dakota was a bit of a redneck, but he's made our Luxembourg trip memorable, and I have to thank him for taking us around. After we viewed the castles and took our bags, he even drove us to the airport to see us off. I shook his hand, Thorin did too, and he said: "Good luck with your degrees, you both will go far, I know it."