Do widzenia, Auf Wiedersehen, Farvel, Tot ziens, and Näkemiin, Europe: Some thoughts on my time in Central and Northern European cities

The month in Europe has had a different flow from that of the first three in Asia and the Middle East. Instead of two to three weeks in a place, it was more like four to seven days. So my reflections are a bit more numerous and pull from aspects seen in some, but not all, of the places I was in July.

The food can be quite tasty but it can also be wretched: My European destinations were, to put it nicely, not well known for being culinary destinations. But I had some great meals over the course of the month! For example, really tasty German food that was hearty and fresh at the same time (I'm looking at you, Gugelhof). And most of the meals didn't suck. But there were a couple that did (stop feeding me, you bad bad restaurant of U Babci Maliny!)

Lots of the good food has been imported: The flip side of shaky food cultures is that there's room for more. And, with centuries of exploration and contact beyond Central Europe under their respective belts, these places had managed to import some decent food. The Turkish food in Berlin, ah, I would love more doner kebab in my life. The Surinamese food in Amsterdam, a new treat that would get even better the more it was explored. And the list goes on.

World War II has left many scars and they're everywhere: Though I purposely went to Hiroshima at the beginning of my trip, I wasn't expecting World War II to be such a present theme. Yet it was. The unmistakable absence of Jews in Krakow. The horrible terror at Auschwitz. The memorials, some very recent, in Berlin, Prague, and Munich. Even in Amsterdam, where Anne Frank's house serves as a daily reminder to those bicycling the canals.

Cities so livable it hurts: In many ways it was a very urban month. Yet I didn't get any asphalt dreariness. A big part of that comes from the fact that these cities were just so nice to be in. Berlin and Amsterdam, in particular, bring well-rounded places just dying to be explored in depth. I won't soon forget the joys of bicycling Amsterdam. Or the ease of doing so in Copenhagen. These places have put effort into making the human scale the right scale for life in the city and it shows.

The roots of the English language become more clear: Knowing only a bit of Spanish in addition to English, I've been confused before as to the origin of much of English. Sure, some come from Romance languages, but others...? Now it is much more clear, having been exposed to German and Dutch especially. Even when it doesn't look like it, it sounds like, just with a very strange accent and some awfully unfamiliar words in between.