roused out of bed for our 10 am check out by the dutch blonde in the red satin shirt i packed my stuff and went down to breakfast. sitting at a table of food stuffs that looked as if it had been raided by vikings was the satin shirted girl and one of her sorority sisters. her lovely golden curls had become matted and unfurled, her make-up made her eyes dark and broody; she sipped a coffee. as i sat down and rummaged through empty bread bags, empty meat tins, and empty cheese packages her friend said to me: "we played circle of death last night." "oh, now i understand" i said knowing the bad things that can happen from that particular drinking game. as i found two mismatched pieces of bread i began making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, both dutch girls wretched in disgust as if it was the grossiest thing they had ever seen (in fact in 6 months i have only meet one european who likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) Finished eating, on my way out the door i could hear the satin shirted girl throwing up in the bathroom. at the train station i checked my bags into a locker and went out to explore the town. first i visited the art museum and after that i went on an architecture tour that included the Netherlands Institute of Architecture, Erasmus Bridge, Natural Hisotry Museum, Overblaak Development, and Museum Park amongst many other things. i was very pleased to have learned about and seen the many good examples of modern and contemperary architecture. I also stoped at erasmus bridge to listen to a live jazz band as i just so happened to be in rotterdam on the weekend of the north sea jazz festival, the largest such festival in europe.
that evening in brussels belgium i took an ice cold shower and sat in the hostel courtyard meeting other travelers.
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