My first night in Prague was pretty uneventful. As I previously mentioned I got some good food, but after that I pretty much retired for the night. I went to sleep around 2 where a night of crazy dreams of teeth falling out, vampire teeth, and other weird things floated through my head. The dreaming ended relatively quick though because to start the second day in Prague a loud banging outside the hostel commenced around 6 a.m. There was some construction going on right by the hostel, I was able to get back to sleep, but woke up every 15 minutes until finally I had enough around 9. I lounged around the hostel for a bit and then headed out.
I decided I'd just walk and see where it takes me. The day was gloomy as the threat of rain existed all day long and it was slightly chilly. It turned out my hostel does laundry so I made the wisest decision I could before leaving. I decided it'd be a no socks or underwear day so I can make sure every piece of clothing (besides the shirt and pants I was forced to wear) could be clean for at least another week. I did wear a rain jacket as well, just in case. I walked towards the main part of the city and started exploring. I checked out the astronomical clock, which is real sweet, but impossible to read. There were people taking wedding photos in front, wasn't sure if it was some sort of presentation or legit, but I didn't stick around long enough to hang out. I continued on my way towards what I thought was the Charles Bridge, but ended up in Josefov, the old Jewish quarters.
I decided since I was there and most things I've read the Jewish Quarters in Prague were with checking out I took out my student ID and bought a ticket for 200 korunas for the tour, it's like $10 US, but just fun seemingly having tons of money, when in reality they charge normal prices. First I started at the synaguoge dedicated to the holocaust. It's pretty intense, inside over 80,000 names cover the walls of victims from the Czech Republic. I looked around for a while seeing how many familiar type names I could find. Klein was unfortunately one of the most popular Czech names for victims, which was interesting to see. There were at least a couple hundred. Continuing on in that synaguoge you go upstairs to see their exhibition of drawings by children victims of concentration camps. I think I realized that it's the concept of kids in the holocaust that effects me more than anything. The drawings came from the Terezin concentration camp with the only reason for drawings being that it was a camp often used for propoganda to show children and adults had "normal" lives there. Of course most died of starvation or were shipped out quickly to the death camps after being used there. It was amazing seeing what different kids would draw. Some had pictures of people being executed, others had stuff related to their past, some getting on the trains, and much more. Some were traditional kids drawings and others were extremely well done by kids who clearly if they would have been allowed could have been artists.
After that depressing stroll I continued on the Jewish quarters tour. I walked through the oldest Jewish cemetary in Prague, but most headstones were faded with some dating back to the 1400s. I continued to check out the other displays at the various synaguoges with their different torah coverings, history, old prayer books, etc. Nothing was as nearly impactful as the first stop I made though. Afterwards I decided it was time to eat. I at first had thoughts of going to the oldest Jewish restaurant in that area, it looked like a good menu until I saw that it was also the most expensive restaurant known to man. So I did the next best thing, went to a nearby restaurant and had a traditional Czech meal. First I started with Czech Sausage advertised with a spicy and sour seasoning. It reminded me of salami, stuffed with a pickle, and peppers surrounding it. Wasn't crazy spicy, but very good. Next up I went with the classic pig knuckle (knee) for my meal. It was fantastic, best decision I made. It came with some mustard and horse radish, but the meat itself could be eaten on it's own. If it wasn't for the concept of what it was, I think people would enjoy it a lot more.
From there I decided it was time to really find the Charles Bridge and see what it's about. It's under construction, which is semi disappointing, but was nice to walk across, see people rubbing the statues for good luck and check out the other part of the city. My camera battery was getting close to dying so I told myself I'd come back tomorrow and save up my pictures for the castle I was walking to. I went to the Prague Castle area, I didn't pay for any of the exhibitions or anything as most of it is open and walked around checking it all out. The church there was huge and real nice on the inside, and the rest of the land gave a great view of the city.
Afterwards it was starting to rain and get darker so I headed back to the hostel to check train times for when I go to Vienna and maybe go book that. It would've been a pretty long walk, so I only walked about 30 minutes until I got on the metro then a tram and took it the rest of the way towards the hostel. I started to check out times, found what I wanted and then passed out. Two hours later I woke up starving as it was around 7:30, I got my laundry which was done, took a shower and decided I'd head out. Moment I stepped out the door it started to pour so I went back inside for a while. About 45 minutes later I went out and walked through the drizzle to find some food. I ended up at a bar I had previously seen in my dreams (it's like the 4th time on the trip it's happened to me with a place or moment). I got some fried cheese and fries, a healthy Czech offering as well as a beer because beer is a lot cheaper than water, so may as well drink it.
From there I walked around a bit in the rain, but I was still groggy, not in the mood to do much, and hadn't met anyone. In my room of 8 beds, I only had 2 roommates the first two nights, a younger Asian couple who seems to speak minimal English and have been in the room getting ready to sleep by 10 both nights. I read for a bit and then called it a night, exhausted from a restless night, a day I stressed my mind out with, and the rain. Throughout the night I had more nightmares, don't remember them as vividly, but there must be something with Prague and my sleeping (many myths of Prague ghosts and haunted stories do exist, so who knows).
This morning the construction wasn't as loud, I slept til about 9:30 and felt quite refreshed. I expected rain again as the weather predicted, but instead it was around 70 and sunny, a good day to explore. I took a bit of a different path than the previous day, I wanted to get to the Charles Bridge again, not rush through and rub the statues for good luck so the nightmares will stop. I grabbed a couple Czech pastries of which I can't remember the names. One was like a twisted donut and the other a donut with a nice apple filling. I also bought my train ticket to Vienna, even though getting a hostel starting tomorrow and for this weekend with it being Labor Day in Europe has not been an easy task. I think I finally found one, but I could just end up sleeping in a park tomorrow as well. From there I figured out the best path to the Bridge, passed by the astronomical clock again as a new couple were taking their wedding photos and finally made my way there.
With the gorgeous weather there were a lot more people on the bridge, but it also made the walk across more enjoyable. I rubbed the gold dog on the statue for luck and continued on. I wanted to head in the opposite direction of the castle and get lost today, as well as check out a few things. First thing I looked for was the John Lennon wall right by the bridge. It's a pretty cool wall that has tons of Beatles/Lennon quotes, drawings, amongst other things that have been written on since. After that I decided I was going to walk towards the Petrin Tower area, a bootleg version of the eiffel tower. I had no desire to go to the top of the tower, but I did have a desire to hike to where it was. It took about an hour to walk all the way to the top, well worth it with the views and scenery. As I reached the top I was starved and dehydrated so I went to the first random stand I saw and ordered a water and a hot dog. The hotdog was probably not cooked and was smothered in vegetables and ketchup, but was good enough. I then reached the tower, saw for a "student" it was only like $2 and went for it. The views up top were great and the 400 or so stairs didn't matter at that point. I took pictures of the area, then began my descent.
I considered taking the tram they offer down, but that'd be taking the easy way out. I walked down in the opposite direction I had went up, though eventually they forced me back to that path. I even tried to avoid it, but when I started going down a path I created in my mind and slipping since my gym shoes couldn't gain traction I decided I'd rather walk down than fall down to my death. On the way down I saw a woman with her jack russel playing on the giant hills/park area, it made me miss my dog, so just in case he reads this I'm letting him know. I made it down in about 35 minutes, wasn't bad and then decided to do more walking. I explored regions that didn't have anything noteworthy from a tourist perspective, but it was good to see less touristy areas for a while. I picked up some gelato on my way, wasn't the best, but I needed some sort of food so I was satisfied and headed back towards the hostel.
I got back to the hostel around 3:45, met a new roommate from Australia, he wanted to go on the pub crawl that night and get some dinner later. Then another roommate came in from England and invited us to go to some club that all his friends were planning on going to. We figured we'd join him. We hung around the hostel for a while, then the Aussie and I got dinner around 8:15 at a pretty decent restaurant, got a nice Ostrich steak and roasted fries, was very good though the meal turned out to be semi-expensive. During the meal the guy was telling me all about his life, I thought he may be BSing for a while, but nobody could make up those stories and turned out he's an international award winning graphic designer with offices in LA and Australia. I did the google check just to see what kind of awards he won, was like 2nd for designer of the year and won another category. He wasn't telling it in a way to try to impress me which I respected. After dinner we headed back and met up with all the people hangin around the hostel. We grabbed a couple beers, I wasn't in the drinking mood so I didn't even drink the ones I bought, but it's fake money here anyway. It went from a group of 30 to 8 of us who actually went out to the club. It was like 4 Australians, 2 Canadians, a dude from England and me. I talked to the 2 Canadian girls for most of the night, mainly the one with the boyfriend, but I knew she'd want to leave early so it was a well thought out plan. The other Australians outside of the guy I had dinner with were real annoying college kids, they were so enamored with the "famous" Australian that they hung on to his every word, trying to see what kind of stuff he could hook them up with in the future. We got to the club around 12:30, it was called the Cross Club, supposedly one of the most famous ones in Prague. It was the most terrifying club I'd ever been in. The building was straight out of the movie Saw with the actual mechanical devices used to kill people. It was a giant warehouse set up as a maze, had all sorts of mechanical instruments hanging on the ceiling and popping out the walls and the people inside were shady Czechs. I was glad everyone else was sufficiently freaked out by the building and it wasn't just me. We hung out for about an hour and headed back to the hostel where we split up. Four of them went to another club and got back at 6 while me and 3 others hung at the hostel. Two of them were the Canadians, and the other one was an Australian trying to get with the one without the boyfriend. The one friend wanted to get back to her hostel, she was staying at a different one, but her friend wasn't gonna go with her so I did the nice thing and walked her back. Wasn't sure how far her hostel was, but luckily only about a 7 minute walk because I didn't feel like wandering around Prague alone at 3:30 a.m.
As for now it's the morning and I'm about to leave for the train station to go to Vienna. Not sure how long I'll be there, only booked two nights, but I'll probably add a third or go to a random Austrian city in between. And now I must go.
Peace
BK
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Rest of Amsterdam, Berlin, and now in Prague
It's been a while, which may be a good thing so people had time to catch up on the extremely long posts I've been dishing out of late for those who have survived reading to this point. Last I left you I had been in Amsterdam in the midst of looming decisions; prostitutes, hallucinogens, marijuana, gouda, ferris wheels, and more.
I'll begin with me reserving my train ticket to Berlin, it was a story I accidentally omitted last time. I headed over there looking to make sure I'd be able to get out at some point. I got in line, got to the desk and then heard a giant commotion behind me. I turned around to see one guy yelling at another, in what appeared to be friends joking around. The one dude getting yelled at had the look of I just pissed my friend off, but he'll get over it as he chases me, but like a person realizing they may die his face turned to a look of terror. The other guy took a big swing nailing him in the face. I was semi-amused until the woman helping me let out a blood-curdling scream. At first I thought this was security procedure, see a fight, scream and get security, but she was visibly shaken. At that moment from behind a wall this huge Indian guy about 6'6 and 300 pounds of pure muscle got in between those two guys. The one who instigated the fight got thrown back, he thought for a brief moment to fight the Indian guy, but he quickly realized he'd be dead instantly. Within another minute security rushed over and separated the two. The woman helping me was broken down in tears (she was in her 60s, and I don't think used to violence) and I had to be helped by someone else. I stuck around for a while to watch them get interviewed. The guy who started the fight ran away before being detained and I couldn't understand the language so had no idea what happened while they spoke with the kid attacked.
As for my last day in Amsterdam, I woke up early to walk around. There was not much more to see museum-wise, and I wasn't in the mood for that stuff anyway. I read about a cool music store went there, they had thousands of records, CDs, and tapes. It was a small store and you basically had to walk around boxes on the floor of records. I spent a little time in there and then I headed on to the Pancake Bakery my sister had been telling me about. I wasn't sure if she was just stoned when she had the pancakes to make them great or if they were that good, so I thought I'd try them out myself. I got there and the place was pretty busy, but very big so was easy to get a seat. I went with a banana and chocolate syrup pancake, one of their house specialties. It was similar to a crepe, but when you got towards the middle it had a solid fluffiness to it at well. I ate it up pretty quick, it was very good and headed on my way to walk around. I decided I'd actually do something that night and once again took my sister's suggestion to see Boom Chicago so I picked up a ticket to that and headed to the hostel. There I finally met a new roommate, so we hung out for a bit, got some dinner and he went on his way. I saw Boom Chicago, it's an impromptu show with all Americans as the cast. There were definitely some funny parts and I like yelling shit out for people to do. I was the random drunk kid alone in the front row, a solid role for myself. After that I decided to meet up with the kid I had met earlier. He was only in Amsterdam for a night so he wanted to walk through the red light district and then hit up some bars. I must say on a Friday night the quality of window girls improves a lot. I was convinced, so I paid about 50 euros for the best 20 minutes of my life, kidding. We did about a 10 minute walk and then did a bit of bar hopping around the city and called it a night.
I woke up the next day with the realization it was my last few hours in Amsterdam and I had choices to make. I apologize to those I mislead into thinking I'd be snorting coke off hookers. I decided against getting high and sitting on a train for 4 hours, I figured I'd be way too panicked. I bought some cheese for the ride and headed on my way. I wanted to get to the train early because I had to switch somewhere. I got on the train and then had about an hour wait at the next track. From there Berlin was an easy ride, getting to the hostel not so much. I tried to follow the directions from online, but couldn't find what they were talking about. I decided to take a chance and start walking. Not the best decision. With my backpack gaining strength as I weakened I knew after 45 minutes of walking it was time to find a new way. I found the closest metro and after switching three times was able to find my hostel, except I went into the Circus Hotel, not the hostel. So finally after being pointed in the right direction I got in to my hostel around 9 p.m at night, and it was Saturday, so I immediately ran to get food knowing I had little time before my night began. I went to a Mexican restaurant, in Germany, I know how sad. I got a chicken fajita knowing that was hard to screw up. I engulfed my first meal of the day and set up camp back at my hostel. Saturday was the NFL draft, so I sat on my iphone skyping with my dad for a few hours and tracking the in betweens on my phone. It may not be what most people do on their first night in Berlin, but I have priorities and obsessions.
The next day I woke up feeling I should meet people. I had met my roommates, 6 people traveling together from Spain. They seemed like a fun crew and were taping a weird movie of themselves singing American pop songs, but I never really spoke with them much. I decided to go on a Sunday flea market tour with my hostel. It'd be a good way to meet people and never know what I'd find. I woke up anxious that morning unfortunately so the ability to meet people was hindered by my own mind. The goal was to fight that feeling. We got to the first market around 11:30, I had yet to talk to anyone, but decided I was gonna wander myself anyway. There were some incredible music collections at the market. It pretty much seemed like a giant garage sale, which made the feel cooler. It wasn't just crap clothing, but truly random stuff like old video games, toys, music, books, and any random thing you could think of. I even saw an Ernie doll I used to have back in the day as a kid. My real mission though was to start trying some of the 1500 kinds of "wursts" that exist in the German culture. I immediately went for one of the most famous, the curry-wurst. A brat smothered in ketchup, curry, and paprika. It was quite fantastic, I was surprised because normally I'm not a huge catchup and sausage combo person, but worked well. We were all slated to rejoin as a group shortly after so I headed over to that area, grabbed a straight up bratwurst on my way this time and sat down with the group. Finally I started meeting a few people, who were all leaving that day, but at least I was able to talk with people for a few hours along the walking. They were students studying abroad, nice girls. I didn't buy anything at the markets, decided I'd head back with the girls who had to catch a train and do some site seeing on my own. I went to the Jewish museum there to see what kind of crazy Jew stuff they would have in Germany. The architecture on the building makes it real interesting to begin with, it's a very interesting set up. The museum took a couple hours to go through, the history was stuff I remembered learning, but they had some real cool actual art, some great history, and nice dedications to the past. The holocaust tower was quite terrifying though. I didn't actually read what it was, I just walked over there, opened the door, watched it shut behind me and realized I was in a pitch black empty cement room. The only light was a sliver of sun left from the outside. It definitely had a real eery feeling and got the point across. After that I walked around the area a bit more, walked down to checkpoint Charlie, took a few pictures. Walked around other parts of Berlin, passed by the holocaust memorial, saw their famous synaguoge and church and pretty much called it night. For some reason I was exhausted, it was pretty late. I grabbed some pizza around the block for real cheap and headed to sleep. On Monday I woke up a bit early, I wanted to do a walking tour, but I didn't make it on time to the first meeting place of the one I was going to do. I went to the Potsdam area, where they have a crazy Sony Center, a giant lego giraffe in front of lego world, and an overall creative area of architecture. I explored and by the time the other walking tours would begin I was too far away. I decided to do the Reichstag, it's free and you get an awesome view of the city. From there I headed back to the hostel after walking around a bit more and met all my new roommates.
One of the new roommates mentioned a pub crawl he was planning on going on. And so me and someone else decided to join along as well. It was a solid decision to go, met some awesome people and had a real fun night for my last night in Berlin. I figured I was recovered enough from my cold 2 weeks ago now that I could drink heavily and be fine with little sleep. I even met a dude who goes to Wisconsin, I finally know someone there. We got to the meeting place around 8:15 and nobody was really there yet so we hesitated for a while. We finally joined along, got our free beer and began. I ended up with 2 beers, and by 8:45 I knew I could be in trouble. We got to the first bar around 9 and immediately someone bought jager bombs. I had never actually had one, but after about 5 attempts at taking it down I finally did. From there the crawl leader handed out our "free" shots (they were like a thimble). The first shot was some good tasting cherry thing, second one was jager, not so tasty. Being that I was sufficiently drunk already I decided not to partake in the absynth shot that took place. During that time I struck up a conversation with some girl who I ended up hanging out with for most of the rest of the night. She wasn't about taking the shot either. We headed to the next bar shortly after where I was immediately handed a "party" shot. Not sure what was in it to be exact, but I had about 3 over the 45 minutes we were there, whoops. I chatted with people, we all took a lot of pictures, and then continued on to the next bar. At the bar the girl kept saying some weird term about getting drunk, I couldn't understand her, but next thing I knew she bought my a long island iced tea, so I wasn't turning that down. With every drink you get a free shot as well, so I figured this would be my last alcoholic endeavor for the evening. I took the shot, drank the long island and was still standing, a great sign. We all headed to the next bar, some semi-beach club type set up. I don't remember much about that place. I ended up on my own for a while as I stumbled drunk into the 16 different sections of the bar/club. I danced a bit, joked a bit with some people, and time flew by. It was finally time to head to the club, so that's what I did. I do remember one of the guides for the pub crawl looked exactly like Matt Nathanson though, it freaked me out. It also allowed me to introduce more people to the wonderful world of Matt, jackpot. The 20 or so of us headed on to the tram, I reconnected with people instead of stumbling around and we made it to the club. We all got to the club, I danced for a while with the girl I met and the others from the crawl. After about an hour at the club everyone got hungry, we all took a cab back to the hostel and ate. The girl had a 5 a.m train to catch and stayed elsewhere than us, so after I bought her the meal (I wasn't gonna let someone buy me a drink and not reciprocate) she had to go. I gave her a hug goodbye, realized I had probably established myself in the all too familiar friend zone about 3 hours ago (or 10 minutes into actually meeting her), laughed at myself and went on my way. We all passed out around 4, but was definitely a fun night.
As for today I hung out with a few of the people from the night before, ate a croissant, ate some sushi and went back to the reichstag with a friend of mine. He needed to know where the train station was and we were right there so we headed on up, it's free and the views are awesome so I enjoyed going again. Afterwards I headed onto my train and took off. I arrived in Prague around 9 p.m, I was a bit nervous. Other cities at night I was fine with arriving in, but this had a weird feel to me. The language is even stranger than others and the directions from the website were a bit odd. I walked through the park they told me to head through after going on the metro, got onto a tram, and finally found the place. It was a lot easier than imagined. I dropped my stuff off, went to a bar across the street to eat. Went with some beef goulash and Czech potato soup, both very good. I liked the place because it had old St Andrews Hall poster for a few concerts as well as other music memorobilia. Anyway, the computers are shutting down here and it's late. I think this was a bit shorter than in the past, maybe I'm doing less or forgetting more. Anyway, I'll try to be back soon. Hope everyone else is well out there.
-BK
I'll begin with me reserving my train ticket to Berlin, it was a story I accidentally omitted last time. I headed over there looking to make sure I'd be able to get out at some point. I got in line, got to the desk and then heard a giant commotion behind me. I turned around to see one guy yelling at another, in what appeared to be friends joking around. The one dude getting yelled at had the look of I just pissed my friend off, but he'll get over it as he chases me, but like a person realizing they may die his face turned to a look of terror. The other guy took a big swing nailing him in the face. I was semi-amused until the woman helping me let out a blood-curdling scream. At first I thought this was security procedure, see a fight, scream and get security, but she was visibly shaken. At that moment from behind a wall this huge Indian guy about 6'6 and 300 pounds of pure muscle got in between those two guys. The one who instigated the fight got thrown back, he thought for a brief moment to fight the Indian guy, but he quickly realized he'd be dead instantly. Within another minute security rushed over and separated the two. The woman helping me was broken down in tears (she was in her 60s, and I don't think used to violence) and I had to be helped by someone else. I stuck around for a while to watch them get interviewed. The guy who started the fight ran away before being detained and I couldn't understand the language so had no idea what happened while they spoke with the kid attacked.
As for my last day in Amsterdam, I woke up early to walk around. There was not much more to see museum-wise, and I wasn't in the mood for that stuff anyway. I read about a cool music store went there, they had thousands of records, CDs, and tapes. It was a small store and you basically had to walk around boxes on the floor of records. I spent a little time in there and then I headed on to the Pancake Bakery my sister had been telling me about. I wasn't sure if she was just stoned when she had the pancakes to make them great or if they were that good, so I thought I'd try them out myself. I got there and the place was pretty busy, but very big so was easy to get a seat. I went with a banana and chocolate syrup pancake, one of their house specialties. It was similar to a crepe, but when you got towards the middle it had a solid fluffiness to it at well. I ate it up pretty quick, it was very good and headed on my way to walk around. I decided I'd actually do something that night and once again took my sister's suggestion to see Boom Chicago so I picked up a ticket to that and headed to the hostel. There I finally met a new roommate, so we hung out for a bit, got some dinner and he went on his way. I saw Boom Chicago, it's an impromptu show with all Americans as the cast. There were definitely some funny parts and I like yelling shit out for people to do. I was the random drunk kid alone in the front row, a solid role for myself. After that I decided to meet up with the kid I had met earlier. He was only in Amsterdam for a night so he wanted to walk through the red light district and then hit up some bars. I must say on a Friday night the quality of window girls improves a lot. I was convinced, so I paid about 50 euros for the best 20 minutes of my life, kidding. We did about a 10 minute walk and then did a bit of bar hopping around the city and called it a night.
I woke up the next day with the realization it was my last few hours in Amsterdam and I had choices to make. I apologize to those I mislead into thinking I'd be snorting coke off hookers. I decided against getting high and sitting on a train for 4 hours, I figured I'd be way too panicked. I bought some cheese for the ride and headed on my way. I wanted to get to the train early because I had to switch somewhere. I got on the train and then had about an hour wait at the next track. From there Berlin was an easy ride, getting to the hostel not so much. I tried to follow the directions from online, but couldn't find what they were talking about. I decided to take a chance and start walking. Not the best decision. With my backpack gaining strength as I weakened I knew after 45 minutes of walking it was time to find a new way. I found the closest metro and after switching three times was able to find my hostel, except I went into the Circus Hotel, not the hostel. So finally after being pointed in the right direction I got in to my hostel around 9 p.m at night, and it was Saturday, so I immediately ran to get food knowing I had little time before my night began. I went to a Mexican restaurant, in Germany, I know how sad. I got a chicken fajita knowing that was hard to screw up. I engulfed my first meal of the day and set up camp back at my hostel. Saturday was the NFL draft, so I sat on my iphone skyping with my dad for a few hours and tracking the in betweens on my phone. It may not be what most people do on their first night in Berlin, but I have priorities and obsessions.
The next day I woke up feeling I should meet people. I had met my roommates, 6 people traveling together from Spain. They seemed like a fun crew and were taping a weird movie of themselves singing American pop songs, but I never really spoke with them much. I decided to go on a Sunday flea market tour with my hostel. It'd be a good way to meet people and never know what I'd find. I woke up anxious that morning unfortunately so the ability to meet people was hindered by my own mind. The goal was to fight that feeling. We got to the first market around 11:30, I had yet to talk to anyone, but decided I was gonna wander myself anyway. There were some incredible music collections at the market. It pretty much seemed like a giant garage sale, which made the feel cooler. It wasn't just crap clothing, but truly random stuff like old video games, toys, music, books, and any random thing you could think of. I even saw an Ernie doll I used to have back in the day as a kid. My real mission though was to start trying some of the 1500 kinds of "wursts" that exist in the German culture. I immediately went for one of the most famous, the curry-wurst. A brat smothered in ketchup, curry, and paprika. It was quite fantastic, I was surprised because normally I'm not a huge catchup and sausage combo person, but worked well. We were all slated to rejoin as a group shortly after so I headed over to that area, grabbed a straight up bratwurst on my way this time and sat down with the group. Finally I started meeting a few people, who were all leaving that day, but at least I was able to talk with people for a few hours along the walking. They were students studying abroad, nice girls. I didn't buy anything at the markets, decided I'd head back with the girls who had to catch a train and do some site seeing on my own. I went to the Jewish museum there to see what kind of crazy Jew stuff they would have in Germany. The architecture on the building makes it real interesting to begin with, it's a very interesting set up. The museum took a couple hours to go through, the history was stuff I remembered learning, but they had some real cool actual art, some great history, and nice dedications to the past. The holocaust tower was quite terrifying though. I didn't actually read what it was, I just walked over there, opened the door, watched it shut behind me and realized I was in a pitch black empty cement room. The only light was a sliver of sun left from the outside. It definitely had a real eery feeling and got the point across. After that I walked around the area a bit more, walked down to checkpoint Charlie, took a few pictures. Walked around other parts of Berlin, passed by the holocaust memorial, saw their famous synaguoge and church and pretty much called it night. For some reason I was exhausted, it was pretty late. I grabbed some pizza around the block for real cheap and headed to sleep. On Monday I woke up a bit early, I wanted to do a walking tour, but I didn't make it on time to the first meeting place of the one I was going to do. I went to the Potsdam area, where they have a crazy Sony Center, a giant lego giraffe in front of lego world, and an overall creative area of architecture. I explored and by the time the other walking tours would begin I was too far away. I decided to do the Reichstag, it's free and you get an awesome view of the city. From there I headed back to the hostel after walking around a bit more and met all my new roommates.
One of the new roommates mentioned a pub crawl he was planning on going on. And so me and someone else decided to join along as well. It was a solid decision to go, met some awesome people and had a real fun night for my last night in Berlin. I figured I was recovered enough from my cold 2 weeks ago now that I could drink heavily and be fine with little sleep. I even met a dude who goes to Wisconsin, I finally know someone there. We got to the meeting place around 8:15 and nobody was really there yet so we hesitated for a while. We finally joined along, got our free beer and began. I ended up with 2 beers, and by 8:45 I knew I could be in trouble. We got to the first bar around 9 and immediately someone bought jager bombs. I had never actually had one, but after about 5 attempts at taking it down I finally did. From there the crawl leader handed out our "free" shots (they were like a thimble). The first shot was some good tasting cherry thing, second one was jager, not so tasty. Being that I was sufficiently drunk already I decided not to partake in the absynth shot that took place. During that time I struck up a conversation with some girl who I ended up hanging out with for most of the rest of the night. She wasn't about taking the shot either. We headed to the next bar shortly after where I was immediately handed a "party" shot. Not sure what was in it to be exact, but I had about 3 over the 45 minutes we were there, whoops. I chatted with people, we all took a lot of pictures, and then continued on to the next bar. At the bar the girl kept saying some weird term about getting drunk, I couldn't understand her, but next thing I knew she bought my a long island iced tea, so I wasn't turning that down. With every drink you get a free shot as well, so I figured this would be my last alcoholic endeavor for the evening. I took the shot, drank the long island and was still standing, a great sign. We all headed to the next bar, some semi-beach club type set up. I don't remember much about that place. I ended up on my own for a while as I stumbled drunk into the 16 different sections of the bar/club. I danced a bit, joked a bit with some people, and time flew by. It was finally time to head to the club, so that's what I did. I do remember one of the guides for the pub crawl looked exactly like Matt Nathanson though, it freaked me out. It also allowed me to introduce more people to the wonderful world of Matt, jackpot. The 20 or so of us headed on to the tram, I reconnected with people instead of stumbling around and we made it to the club. We all got to the club, I danced for a while with the girl I met and the others from the crawl. After about an hour at the club everyone got hungry, we all took a cab back to the hostel and ate. The girl had a 5 a.m train to catch and stayed elsewhere than us, so after I bought her the meal (I wasn't gonna let someone buy me a drink and not reciprocate) she had to go. I gave her a hug goodbye, realized I had probably established myself in the all too familiar friend zone about 3 hours ago (or 10 minutes into actually meeting her), laughed at myself and went on my way. We all passed out around 4, but was definitely a fun night.
As for today I hung out with a few of the people from the night before, ate a croissant, ate some sushi and went back to the reichstag with a friend of mine. He needed to know where the train station was and we were right there so we headed on up, it's free and the views are awesome so I enjoyed going again. Afterwards I headed onto my train and took off. I arrived in Prague around 9 p.m, I was a bit nervous. Other cities at night I was fine with arriving in, but this had a weird feel to me. The language is even stranger than others and the directions from the website were a bit odd. I walked through the park they told me to head through after going on the metro, got onto a tram, and finally found the place. It was a lot easier than imagined. I dropped my stuff off, went to a bar across the street to eat. Went with some beef goulash and Czech potato soup, both very good. I liked the place because it had old St Andrews Hall poster for a few concerts as well as other music memorobilia. Anyway, the computers are shutting down here and it's late. I think this was a bit shorter than in the past, maybe I'm doing less or forgetting more. Anyway, I'll try to be back soon. Hope everyone else is well out there.
-BK
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Paris and the Dam I look good.
Last I left you I was getting ready to begin some alone time in France. I was going to get myself a solid meal, walk around a bit and see where the night takes me. I decided on the consistent badgering of Josh I would finally try out Le Academie de Beire. It was only about a 10 minute walk from my hostel, so I figured if I drank a beer or two I'd still be able to make it back. I went to the place, got myself a bucket of mussels, some fries, and in the end 2 Belgian Beers. The first beer I had was a Grimbergen I think Optima ( truthfully I don't remember, but I took a picture for reference) and the second was a beer called Nostradamus (the 10% of content of the first beer left little options of what I could actually pronounce correctly without seeming drunk and what was easy to remember). The mussels, fries, and bieres were very good, I definitely enjoyed the first beer the most though. From there I stumbled back to my hostel and decided to take it easy for a bit.
After taking it easy I got real bored, so I thought why not wander the streets of Paris drunk! I started going down side streets I had yet to truly discover, probably not the best idea. I wasn't really lost, but as I was walking around a man started yelling at me. I thought it was just another you're a tourist let me sell you something deal, so I crossed the street. The man did the same and I kept walking faster, he came right up to me and all I could do was say no to everything he said. I don't know French and I wasn't in the mood to deal with him. He finally went away screaming at me for coming to Paris and not speaking any French, unfortunately for him there are quite a bit of my types around that city. After that awkward exchange I felt it best to find my way back to the hostel. It was about 10 and I figured I could pass out, but instead I got a call from the people I had met earlier in France. So I decided to do the next best thing, run to the metro and meet up with them. It was about a 25 minute metro to their part of town, the plan was to find the Moulin Rouge to just check it out (from the outside, 150 euros is a lot for a show). I met up with them and 2 Aussie friends they had met from their hostel. We walked around, as the man from Sydney claimed he knew where it was. About 15 minutes later we realized that the man did not know where to go. Finally after looking at a map and seeing the direction to somewhat head in we began a trek. We started walking when finally we were able to ask for some semblance of directions from a local. He sent us to the nearby metro. On our walk we noticed something strange, police in riot gear and a very quiet town. I hadn't seen police in riot gear since my days at MSU, but these cops seemed a little more intimidating as to not be here when whatever was to happen was going down. We quickly shot up to the metro station, watched nothing happen from a distance and got out of there to the sex district of Paris. We walked up the street, passing all sorts of sex shows until we reached Moulin Rouge. Many people were gathered outside doing the picture thing as we all did as well. We got back on the metro around midnight, got off at the riot stop where the clear smell of burning suffocated the air and got on our respective metro changes as we all parted ways for the last time as they were headed back to their studyin abroad.
The next day in Paris I was determined to get myself some solid French food and go to the Orsay. I immediately headed down to the Orsay and got myself a crepe before I waited in line for about 30 minutes. It was worth the wait, I really enjoyed the it there, it's more modern art and a lot of stuff I know. I did wonder though, how the man "guarding" the painting titled "The origin of the world" feels about his life. I mean it's a very well done painting, but having to stare at it all day has to make him a little disturbed (the painting is very famous and also of a hairy vagina for those wondering). After spending a couple hours there I decided my next stop was to get lunch. I had read about a place called L'as du Fallafel, it was written in one of my books (for real this time) and supposedly is pretty famous. They had all sorts of celebrity pictures on the wall and are known to be the best fallafel in France and possibly Europe. I'm not a huge fallafel fan normally, but decided why not. I got the fallafel special and it was awesome. It was fallafel in a pita with a lot of radishes, some sauce I put on it, and some other stuff that I can't remember now. I accompanied it with fries and an orange fanta, both excellent choices by myself.
After the meal was complete I realized I had stumbled into the Jewish quarters of France. Surrounding me were delis, kosher pastry shops, and orthodox Jews walking up and down the street. I hung around the area checking it out and taking a bunch of pictures. I continued my trek through the neighborhood when I stumbled upon the Jewish art history museum. I wasn't gonna go in, but I was intrigued. Then I looked and it was gonna cost me 5 euros and I definitely didn't want to go in, however, I felt like a bad Jew cause I could pay money to these other art museums in France and this could go to a smaller place. Plus I was wondering what kind of art history, would there be paintings? sculptures? just old torah dressings? So finally I went in. After the strenuous security check point I finally got inside to pay. I went to pay and jackpot, it was free in the end. I walked around for about an hour, the traditional Jewish known pieces of art (seder plates, torah stuff, a special section on a bris in which I will never be the same) reigned supreme. I was slightly disappointed in that regard because I had seen much of that stuff before, however, the scarce paintings and drawings that did exist by Jewish artists were quite awesome. In the biographies of a lot of the painters they didn't seem to make Judaism a huge part of their lives, thus I think part of the reason they didn't feature stuff by them more so, but what can you do.
After that it was already getting late, I walked back and hung out at my hostel for a bit. Then I decided it was time for my meal. I had discovered a great restaurant area when I had been wandering around earlier in the day so figured I would head back. Of course I never actually do that and took a chance by getting off at a different metro stop. It worked out well, I was in the Bastille area where plenty of restaurants garnished the area. I finally found what I was looking for, stepped in and took a seat. I ordered a ravioli dish with foie gras... I figured if I was spending 20 euros on the very off chance I don't like it, I'd at least have some additional substance with my meal. I got myself a glass of red wine, toasted the night and went to eat. The foie gras was good, it melts in your mouth, which is always fun for food. I'm sure as an actual meal it's prepared a bit differently, but there was a good amount and it was all on top of the ravioli, so I was able to taste before mixing anything else with it. During my meal Ben and Jerrys were passing out mini tubs of ice cream to people, but I unfortunately didn't make it to them in time. I was going to get something else after my meal, but headed back to the hostel and realized the red wine I had was telling me it was time to go to sleep so I passed out for an early night (it was 11 at the time, so not that early).
The next morning I woke up, got myself one last pastry (some chocolate filled thing) and headed to the train station. I decided to mix things up on my train ride this time, watch some Boy Meets World on my ipod instead since I missed out seeing French Topanga while I was there, thought why not watch the episode. I was slated to switch trains in Belgium, my ticket was for the fast train there and a slow train back or I could try to pay to stay on the fast train. Instead I acted lost, met a nice conducter type dude, and he let me stay on the train for free. I got to Amsterdam a couple hours earlier than anticipated, walked 10 minutes from the train station, smelled an aroma in the air making me check to see if certain friends of mine had actually met me (realized it's just the way the city smells) and ended up at my hostel (which also happens to be a coffee shop).
I decided I'd explore the city, one thing I really liked was although they may not have a specialization of their own food tons of restaurants, cheese shops and street vendors exist here. After walking around for about an hour I realized I had only eaten some pringles and a chocolate thing that day so I stopped by a restaurant called Oorf. I ordered a club sandwich and cheese sticks. Now I figured they wouldn't be normal cheese sticks so I wanted to see their take. It was the best decision of my life. I'm not sure the cheese it was filled with (tasted like kaseri, the saganaki cheese) and the fried outside was the spring roll/egg roll/tempura type filling. It was 6 sticks of heaven, who needs to smoke when you can have shit like that here! After I decided to wander the streets some more, it wasn't dark yet, but was beginning. I walked pretty far away from my hostel, the streets are easy to navigate though. As I walked I had a flashback to the French dude on the streets. This time it was 2 punk kids hanging out who started yelling at me. I was sober this time and just left as they called me a motherfucker for not taking a second to chat with them.
I finally headed back to the hostel as the darkness set in and the red lights of the city shined brightly. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the evening, hadn't really met anyone, but decided to walk the red light district. I wasn't sure how people would react to the kid with the black hoodie walking by himself. I tried to join along with the old people tours (so many of them, kind of insane) that would go up and down the alleys with amusement. There were some beautiful women, lots of them smoking or on their cellphones in the window. There were also some really ugly women and most just stood there. Every once in a while you'd see a man slide up secretly to negotiate some prices, but not too much. After an hour I got hungry again, decided to hit up some "New York Style" pizza joint on the street, was pretty good and walked around some more til I was tired. Went to bed around midnight after mapping out the next day.
I woke up this morning with the intent of getting some breakfast and then to go straight to the Anne Frank house. I stopped at the cheese shop next to my hostel, grabbed 3 euros worth of gouda (which turned out well, I ate about 3/4 throughout the day until I realized by 6 p.m it probably was not good to still be eating from my pocket). I wasn't sure how I'd react to Anne Frank, especially by myself. I got there in the cold weather in about 15 minutes after walking from my hostel. I waited in line for about 15 more minutes and got in there. I was hit pretty hard by it, I read the book as a kid and the holocaust has always had some effect on me (I still remember my most terrifying dream in 8th grade after reading that book of being taken by the Nazis), but I was a kid so it's not the same. I walked through looking at what remained, the quotes, and the steep staircases to walk through. I didn't cry (I don't do that in front of people), but something definitely hit me emotionally. It was an awesome place though, I recommend it to anyone. I feel like maybe I should read it again, but I don't know if I could handle it mentally to be honest, it was pretty intense in there. I decided to go to the Van Gogh museum afterwards, it was about a 30 minute walk, but much needed and worked out great. By the time I was there my mind was cleared, I had thought through everything and made it to the museum.
I wasn't gonna go to the Van Gogh, but then I saw the adds for a special exhibition of Colours of the Night of Van Gogh. They had borrowed Starry Night from New York and had a special exhibit of how he built up to that painting. The whole museum as a whole was great, I really enjoy his art, but the exhibit made it more than worth the price of admission. I had always wanted to see Starry Night (with the whole Boy Meets World connection of course) and it was pretty awesome. After the hour or so I spent there it was off to the Rijksmuseum. It's under heavy construction so it was actually a pretty short trip as to what you could actually see. It did have some amazing paintings, but worked out well with the amount since I had just been in another art museum anyway.
I grabbed a hot dog on the street (decent, not great) and headed what I assumed was either for real lunch or the hostel. Instead I bumped right into the Heinekin brewery and thought what better time than now with a pretty empty stomach to get free alcohol. It was a pretty sweet tour, taking you through their history, tasting the beer in different steps, tasting the barley, getting a couple free drinks, stealing a free coaster (I was drunk, nobody noticed) and they even had a motion ride of the beer making process. Afterwards I headed up the street, grabbed a bagel with tuna (I thought I was at Brueggers I guess), they put capers and olives on those sandwiches, was good tuna on it's own, it don't need that stuff! I quickly sobered up with food and finally headed back to my hostel. It wasn't too hard to find, I used previous places I ate at to guide my way back.
As for the smoking, the brownies, the spacecakes, I'm still undecided. I have one more day here. I think if I was with someone else or had met more than the one guy in my hostel (he's just staying here to look for a place to live in Haarlem) maybe I'd do it and I still may. It's not a lack of knowledge or afraid of what I may accidentally put in my body, I'd like to think I actually know a decent amount about the stuff for someone who doesn't smoke thanks to unnamed people, but it just doesn't have that same feel by myself. Of course tomorrow, a day I basically have of freedom maybe I'll mix things up and go for it, we shall see. Anyway, it was a long one, but hope you enjoyed what you read. Berlin on Saturday, Amsterdam tomorrow, and who knows whereelse I'll be headed.
I be out (and yes I'm in a coffee shop using their internet and probably am high off the 2nd hand smoke cause I just started smiling randomly, eeeeeekers)
B K
After taking it easy I got real bored, so I thought why not wander the streets of Paris drunk! I started going down side streets I had yet to truly discover, probably not the best idea. I wasn't really lost, but as I was walking around a man started yelling at me. I thought it was just another you're a tourist let me sell you something deal, so I crossed the street. The man did the same and I kept walking faster, he came right up to me and all I could do was say no to everything he said. I don't know French and I wasn't in the mood to deal with him. He finally went away screaming at me for coming to Paris and not speaking any French, unfortunately for him there are quite a bit of my types around that city. After that awkward exchange I felt it best to find my way back to the hostel. It was about 10 and I figured I could pass out, but instead I got a call from the people I had met earlier in France. So I decided to do the next best thing, run to the metro and meet up with them. It was about a 25 minute metro to their part of town, the plan was to find the Moulin Rouge to just check it out (from the outside, 150 euros is a lot for a show). I met up with them and 2 Aussie friends they had met from their hostel. We walked around, as the man from Sydney claimed he knew where it was. About 15 minutes later we realized that the man did not know where to go. Finally after looking at a map and seeing the direction to somewhat head in we began a trek. We started walking when finally we were able to ask for some semblance of directions from a local. He sent us to the nearby metro. On our walk we noticed something strange, police in riot gear and a very quiet town. I hadn't seen police in riot gear since my days at MSU, but these cops seemed a little more intimidating as to not be here when whatever was to happen was going down. We quickly shot up to the metro station, watched nothing happen from a distance and got out of there to the sex district of Paris. We walked up the street, passing all sorts of sex shows until we reached Moulin Rouge. Many people were gathered outside doing the picture thing as we all did as well. We got back on the metro around midnight, got off at the riot stop where the clear smell of burning suffocated the air and got on our respective metro changes as we all parted ways for the last time as they were headed back to their studyin abroad.
The next day in Paris I was determined to get myself some solid French food and go to the Orsay. I immediately headed down to the Orsay and got myself a crepe before I waited in line for about 30 minutes. It was worth the wait, I really enjoyed the it there, it's more modern art and a lot of stuff I know. I did wonder though, how the man "guarding" the painting titled "The origin of the world" feels about his life. I mean it's a very well done painting, but having to stare at it all day has to make him a little disturbed (the painting is very famous and also of a hairy vagina for those wondering). After spending a couple hours there I decided my next stop was to get lunch. I had read about a place called L'as du Fallafel, it was written in one of my books (for real this time) and supposedly is pretty famous. They had all sorts of celebrity pictures on the wall and are known to be the best fallafel in France and possibly Europe. I'm not a huge fallafel fan normally, but decided why not. I got the fallafel special and it was awesome. It was fallafel in a pita with a lot of radishes, some sauce I put on it, and some other stuff that I can't remember now. I accompanied it with fries and an orange fanta, both excellent choices by myself.
After the meal was complete I realized I had stumbled into the Jewish quarters of France. Surrounding me were delis, kosher pastry shops, and orthodox Jews walking up and down the street. I hung around the area checking it out and taking a bunch of pictures. I continued my trek through the neighborhood when I stumbled upon the Jewish art history museum. I wasn't gonna go in, but I was intrigued. Then I looked and it was gonna cost me 5 euros and I definitely didn't want to go in, however, I felt like a bad Jew cause I could pay money to these other art museums in France and this could go to a smaller place. Plus I was wondering what kind of art history, would there be paintings? sculptures? just old torah dressings? So finally I went in. After the strenuous security check point I finally got inside to pay. I went to pay and jackpot, it was free in the end. I walked around for about an hour, the traditional Jewish known pieces of art (seder plates, torah stuff, a special section on a bris in which I will never be the same) reigned supreme. I was slightly disappointed in that regard because I had seen much of that stuff before, however, the scarce paintings and drawings that did exist by Jewish artists were quite awesome. In the biographies of a lot of the painters they didn't seem to make Judaism a huge part of their lives, thus I think part of the reason they didn't feature stuff by them more so, but what can you do.
After that it was already getting late, I walked back and hung out at my hostel for a bit. Then I decided it was time for my meal. I had discovered a great restaurant area when I had been wandering around earlier in the day so figured I would head back. Of course I never actually do that and took a chance by getting off at a different metro stop. It worked out well, I was in the Bastille area where plenty of restaurants garnished the area. I finally found what I was looking for, stepped in and took a seat. I ordered a ravioli dish with foie gras... I figured if I was spending 20 euros on the very off chance I don't like it, I'd at least have some additional substance with my meal. I got myself a glass of red wine, toasted the night and went to eat. The foie gras was good, it melts in your mouth, which is always fun for food. I'm sure as an actual meal it's prepared a bit differently, but there was a good amount and it was all on top of the ravioli, so I was able to taste before mixing anything else with it. During my meal Ben and Jerrys were passing out mini tubs of ice cream to people, but I unfortunately didn't make it to them in time. I was going to get something else after my meal, but headed back to the hostel and realized the red wine I had was telling me it was time to go to sleep so I passed out for an early night (it was 11 at the time, so not that early).
The next morning I woke up, got myself one last pastry (some chocolate filled thing) and headed to the train station. I decided to mix things up on my train ride this time, watch some Boy Meets World on my ipod instead since I missed out seeing French Topanga while I was there, thought why not watch the episode. I was slated to switch trains in Belgium, my ticket was for the fast train there and a slow train back or I could try to pay to stay on the fast train. Instead I acted lost, met a nice conducter type dude, and he let me stay on the train for free. I got to Amsterdam a couple hours earlier than anticipated, walked 10 minutes from the train station, smelled an aroma in the air making me check to see if certain friends of mine had actually met me (realized it's just the way the city smells) and ended up at my hostel (which also happens to be a coffee shop).
I decided I'd explore the city, one thing I really liked was although they may not have a specialization of their own food tons of restaurants, cheese shops and street vendors exist here. After walking around for about an hour I realized I had only eaten some pringles and a chocolate thing that day so I stopped by a restaurant called Oorf. I ordered a club sandwich and cheese sticks. Now I figured they wouldn't be normal cheese sticks so I wanted to see their take. It was the best decision of my life. I'm not sure the cheese it was filled with (tasted like kaseri, the saganaki cheese) and the fried outside was the spring roll/egg roll/tempura type filling. It was 6 sticks of heaven, who needs to smoke when you can have shit like that here! After I decided to wander the streets some more, it wasn't dark yet, but was beginning. I walked pretty far away from my hostel, the streets are easy to navigate though. As I walked I had a flashback to the French dude on the streets. This time it was 2 punk kids hanging out who started yelling at me. I was sober this time and just left as they called me a motherfucker for not taking a second to chat with them.
I finally headed back to the hostel as the darkness set in and the red lights of the city shined brightly. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the evening, hadn't really met anyone, but decided to walk the red light district. I wasn't sure how people would react to the kid with the black hoodie walking by himself. I tried to join along with the old people tours (so many of them, kind of insane) that would go up and down the alleys with amusement. There were some beautiful women, lots of them smoking or on their cellphones in the window. There were also some really ugly women and most just stood there. Every once in a while you'd see a man slide up secretly to negotiate some prices, but not too much. After an hour I got hungry again, decided to hit up some "New York Style" pizza joint on the street, was pretty good and walked around some more til I was tired. Went to bed around midnight after mapping out the next day.
I woke up this morning with the intent of getting some breakfast and then to go straight to the Anne Frank house. I stopped at the cheese shop next to my hostel, grabbed 3 euros worth of gouda (which turned out well, I ate about 3/4 throughout the day until I realized by 6 p.m it probably was not good to still be eating from my pocket). I wasn't sure how I'd react to Anne Frank, especially by myself. I got there in the cold weather in about 15 minutes after walking from my hostel. I waited in line for about 15 more minutes and got in there. I was hit pretty hard by it, I read the book as a kid and the holocaust has always had some effect on me (I still remember my most terrifying dream in 8th grade after reading that book of being taken by the Nazis), but I was a kid so it's not the same. I walked through looking at what remained, the quotes, and the steep staircases to walk through. I didn't cry (I don't do that in front of people), but something definitely hit me emotionally. It was an awesome place though, I recommend it to anyone. I feel like maybe I should read it again, but I don't know if I could handle it mentally to be honest, it was pretty intense in there. I decided to go to the Van Gogh museum afterwards, it was about a 30 minute walk, but much needed and worked out great. By the time I was there my mind was cleared, I had thought through everything and made it to the museum.
I wasn't gonna go to the Van Gogh, but then I saw the adds for a special exhibition of Colours of the Night of Van Gogh. They had borrowed Starry Night from New York and had a special exhibit of how he built up to that painting. The whole museum as a whole was great, I really enjoy his art, but the exhibit made it more than worth the price of admission. I had always wanted to see Starry Night (with the whole Boy Meets World connection of course) and it was pretty awesome. After the hour or so I spent there it was off to the Rijksmuseum. It's under heavy construction so it was actually a pretty short trip as to what you could actually see. It did have some amazing paintings, but worked out well with the amount since I had just been in another art museum anyway.
I grabbed a hot dog on the street (decent, not great) and headed what I assumed was either for real lunch or the hostel. Instead I bumped right into the Heinekin brewery and thought what better time than now with a pretty empty stomach to get free alcohol. It was a pretty sweet tour, taking you through their history, tasting the beer in different steps, tasting the barley, getting a couple free drinks, stealing a free coaster (I was drunk, nobody noticed) and they even had a motion ride of the beer making process. Afterwards I headed up the street, grabbed a bagel with tuna (I thought I was at Brueggers I guess), they put capers and olives on those sandwiches, was good tuna on it's own, it don't need that stuff! I quickly sobered up with food and finally headed back to my hostel. It wasn't too hard to find, I used previous places I ate at to guide my way back.
As for the smoking, the brownies, the spacecakes, I'm still undecided. I have one more day here. I think if I was with someone else or had met more than the one guy in my hostel (he's just staying here to look for a place to live in Haarlem) maybe I'd do it and I still may. It's not a lack of knowledge or afraid of what I may accidentally put in my body, I'd like to think I actually know a decent amount about the stuff for someone who doesn't smoke thanks to unnamed people, but it just doesn't have that same feel by myself. Of course tomorrow, a day I basically have of freedom maybe I'll mix things up and go for it, we shall see. Anyway, it was a long one, but hope you enjoyed what you read. Berlin on Saturday, Amsterdam tomorrow, and who knows whereelse I'll be headed.
I be out (and yes I'm in a coffee shop using their internet and probably am high off the 2nd hand smoke cause I just started smiling randomly, eeeeeekers)
B K
Monday, April 20, 2009
Barcelona to Paris
Well, I have about twenty minutes to attempt an update (the computers here are timed), so I will see what I can do. My final days in Barcelona were good, but more of an attempt to get healthy and relax more than anything. I probably missed out on a few things, but I also got to walk around, doing my own thing, and sleeping to get healthy. I went to the Sagrada Familia one of those days, walked around the outside. I didn't feel like paying to go in, I'll probably doing that at enough churches, plus the mystique of the project not being completed I think adds to it more than anything. It does make me wonder if they ever do actually finish it in 15 years, I think that would take something away from the attraction that's been created. After that I walked around Las Ramblas, had a solid meal of fried boquarones and some meat thing that I once again didn't know what I was getting, but was fine. I must admit by the end of all the random pig, I was ready to move on to other animal meats. Afterwards I headed back to my hostel for a nap since I was still sick (on Friday). I got to my room where new roommates existed. A girl was passed out cold on the top bunk, so it looked like a good idea and I took a siesta on my own (it would've been awkward to hop in the bed with her). Later on I woke up, met her, she had just arrived from New York and traveling on her own. My other roommates were the Belgians that had already been there previous nights, but had a room change. We all went to dinner, got some more paella and talked. Everyone was going out that night, but there was no way with the smoke and the 5 a.m nights of Barcelona I could've survived. I did enjoy one of the receptionists trying to get me to come out. Heavily reminded me of Hank Azaria playing Claude in the movie Along Came Polly. Every time he'd see me he'd say the same thing, "You go party Benjie" "nah not tonight" okay then, you should party. About 20 minutes later the same exact conversation, just subsitute party for scuba and you have your character. Another thing I found entertaining, however, was the story the girl told at dinner before coming to Europe. She said a big reason was she freaked out when her boyfriend asked her to move in. She regrets it and think she made a huge mistake, but just didn't want to move in so didn't know how to react. Fast forward to 5 a.m when people are getting back from the bar and you can clearly hear her drunk in the hall being hit on and making out with the irritating English dude down the hall. Irritating because it was 5, I was trying to sleep and dude was loud as hell trying to get in the room, luckily she did have enough respect for me to say there is a sick kid in the room. I know things happen, people get drunk, but for some reason I think girls like that (and the drunk English guy who wouldn't take no) are the ones who make it hard for a normal guy like myself to get a girl in this world. For the dude who is probably depressed at home, I hope she doesn't try to get back with him and he is able to do his own thing. To end my time in Spain I decided to check out all the local markets open on Saturday. There is a Catalunyan one (basically I was semi-lost and stumbled into it) that was big time for the locals. Lots of meats, cheeses, less touristy restaurants inside the market, solid fish and seafood, as well as a lot less people who could speak English. I wanted to get some cheese from there, but being that I barely speak Spanish, don't speak any Cataylun (or whatever the hell they want to call their own language in a country that already has a language), I was unable to get past people to actually attempt to order. I decided I'd walk around some more and stumbled into the Las ramblas food market. It was semi for tourists and semi for locals. Probably a bit more pricey than the other one, but a lot more stands and options overall, plus more English. I walked around, gazing at the goat brains, whole pig heads, hearts, eye balls and what I think were skinned rabbits. I wasn't able to find really any of that stuff at restaurants, but probably for the better. I finally found a place with a nice cheese stand that I figured I should order, I found a cheap mini garroxta wheel, bout a kg worth of cheese for 10 euros. Figured it'd be a nice treat for the overnight train. I headed back, got some dinner and then the next train ride began.
I didn't have a sleeper car this time, just a reclining seat on the train. I was fine with that, assuming it'd make things better and I wouldn't get freaked out. I wasn't freaked out in the sense of the people around me, but once again I was doomed with nightmares. The movement on the train apparently rattles my mind (and probably eating a ton of cheese before sleeping didn't help) as dreams of being chased, stormy weather, and girls of my past (semi-kidding, I mean they were in some of the nightmares, but I just found it funny to add in that in a nightmare way, clearly taking away from it with this long explanation). I was able to get more sleep this time in a regular seat than sleeper car, so hopefully any remaining overnight trains can be taken in this manner. I arrived in Paris at around 8 a.m, pretty tired, but with a feeling that my cold was nearing its end point. I jumped on the metro, headed right to my hostel and found it with ease. I checked in, but there is a policy of not being in the building from 11-4, so I immediately had to store my bags and depart from the vicinity.
I decided I'd go on a walking tour that I saw posted. They're free and they were offered in other cities I had been in, so I went for it this time. It worked out well, an Australian chick led the way on the tour, which lasted about 4 hours. On the tour we all had to mention where we were from, 2 people said Detroit or so I thought, but I was too far away to hear and the tour guide thought they said Sweden so I ignored that. Finally like 20 minutes later she asked them again and this time Detroit was correct. It turned out there were EMU students studying abroad. I ended up striking up a conversation with them and after the tour we all hung out around Paris. We started at the Louvre to check out the Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo and other historical pieces there. I enjoyed the place (the 1/4 of art work that I probably actually saw) and we continued on from there. We walked around, got some ice cream and finally made the trek over to the Eiffel tour. I was really excited to climb it. We got in line, only about a 30 minute wait (not bad at all). In line we met a woman from the UK, I had never heard someone talk so much in my life. She was extremely nice and had good stories, but nobody else was able to get a word in for much of the next four hours. On the way through the line we got to the security checkpoint. Everyone got through, except me. I started beeping like crazy. First I took out my phone, then my camera, still went off, then took off my watch and took some change out, still went off, took off my glasses and finally didn;t go off. The best part of the whole thing is the swiss army knife in my pocket that did not beep. I had been using it to cut cheese and forgot it was in there til after. I'm glad a camera and phone will go off, but not a knife. We got our ticket and turned out we were in the wrong line to walk. I tried to convince the others to walk up, but to no avail we took the lift up. We went up, took pictures, went up some more, took some more pictures. It is a pretty incredible view and I was satisfied with seeing it and being up there. I'm glad I had a few people with me, although it'd be fun on my own as well, it was good having some company. By the end I definitely made sure we would at the very least walk down. We did it, didn't take long at all. The English girl went her way after another 30 minutes of conversation. The good thing about her talking so much was the ability to witness a rare feat. With so many people trying to sell shit and follow you on the streets, she was able to out talk them to the point where they ran away from her. She started telling the man to sell condoms, I've never seen someone more terrified in my life. The Persian ran away and it wasn't from the cops. Afterwards I walked back to the main city with the others. We got to watch the Eiffel tower light up, see all the other monuments lit up at night and went to get some food. Unfortunately it was late, we were all together and once again I gave in to peer pressure, we went to mcdonalds. Now although the burger was more real beef and tasted fine, I was still disappointed in the end result. After that we hung out some more, walked the fancy streets, and called it a night.
Today I met up with them for a bit, went to the Arc de Triumphe with a nice view from top. I did the Notre Dame, very nice on the inside (I didn't want to go to the top, wasn't worth it). We walked by the Statue of Liberty the French one, nothing special, but semi-entertaining to look at. A few museums we intended to go to today were unfortunately closed (I'll do them tomorrow), but on the way my glasses randomly broke. The screw fell out, into a bunch of dirt and I was pissed. We were walking, first tried a mall pharmacy, but although they had glasses no screw. From there I saw a high end glasses shop. I went in and the guy could not understand what I was saying. Finally I pointed to the 2 screw holes and showed him one was missing. He fixed it immediately and I was semi shocked there was no charge. I also finally got an ipod/phone charger from a local store that has an "Apple in-store area" which worked out well. Afterwards they got some fast food again, a place called Quick, essentially a French mcdonalds with a different name, I refused this time. I picked up a croissant and after we broke up I got some solid French onion soup (which irritates me that some places actually call it French Onion soup here, just call it onion soup, we know it's yours!) and a solid lemon citrus crepe. It was expensive, but so worth it. Tonight I envision myself splurging on a good meal, I can't be in France and not start eating random good shit even if nobody else will do it with me and even if it costs a ton. Not sure if I'm going to meet up with them again or do my own thing. I kind of want to be on my own and explore places at night, so we shall see if I'm able to reject them.
Anyway I extended my internet time, stole an extra password and luckily they haven't noticed it's been 45 minutes, but now I must go. I'm gonna head to the train station, book my dream train right to the land of drugs and hoes for Wednesday and then see where the night takes me, hopefully to a world with lots of food.
Hollerin-
BK
I didn't have a sleeper car this time, just a reclining seat on the train. I was fine with that, assuming it'd make things better and I wouldn't get freaked out. I wasn't freaked out in the sense of the people around me, but once again I was doomed with nightmares. The movement on the train apparently rattles my mind (and probably eating a ton of cheese before sleeping didn't help) as dreams of being chased, stormy weather, and girls of my past (semi-kidding, I mean they were in some of the nightmares, but I just found it funny to add in that in a nightmare way, clearly taking away from it with this long explanation). I was able to get more sleep this time in a regular seat than sleeper car, so hopefully any remaining overnight trains can be taken in this manner. I arrived in Paris at around 8 a.m, pretty tired, but with a feeling that my cold was nearing its end point. I jumped on the metro, headed right to my hostel and found it with ease. I checked in, but there is a policy of not being in the building from 11-4, so I immediately had to store my bags and depart from the vicinity.
I decided I'd go on a walking tour that I saw posted. They're free and they were offered in other cities I had been in, so I went for it this time. It worked out well, an Australian chick led the way on the tour, which lasted about 4 hours. On the tour we all had to mention where we were from, 2 people said Detroit or so I thought, but I was too far away to hear and the tour guide thought they said Sweden so I ignored that. Finally like 20 minutes later she asked them again and this time Detroit was correct. It turned out there were EMU students studying abroad. I ended up striking up a conversation with them and after the tour we all hung out around Paris. We started at the Louvre to check out the Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo and other historical pieces there. I enjoyed the place (the 1/4 of art work that I probably actually saw) and we continued on from there. We walked around, got some ice cream and finally made the trek over to the Eiffel tour. I was really excited to climb it. We got in line, only about a 30 minute wait (not bad at all). In line we met a woman from the UK, I had never heard someone talk so much in my life. She was extremely nice and had good stories, but nobody else was able to get a word in for much of the next four hours. On the way through the line we got to the security checkpoint. Everyone got through, except me. I started beeping like crazy. First I took out my phone, then my camera, still went off, then took off my watch and took some change out, still went off, took off my glasses and finally didn;t go off. The best part of the whole thing is the swiss army knife in my pocket that did not beep. I had been using it to cut cheese and forgot it was in there til after. I'm glad a camera and phone will go off, but not a knife. We got our ticket and turned out we were in the wrong line to walk. I tried to convince the others to walk up, but to no avail we took the lift up. We went up, took pictures, went up some more, took some more pictures. It is a pretty incredible view and I was satisfied with seeing it and being up there. I'm glad I had a few people with me, although it'd be fun on my own as well, it was good having some company. By the end I definitely made sure we would at the very least walk down. We did it, didn't take long at all. The English girl went her way after another 30 minutes of conversation. The good thing about her talking so much was the ability to witness a rare feat. With so many people trying to sell shit and follow you on the streets, she was able to out talk them to the point where they ran away from her. She started telling the man to sell condoms, I've never seen someone more terrified in my life. The Persian ran away and it wasn't from the cops. Afterwards I walked back to the main city with the others. We got to watch the Eiffel tower light up, see all the other monuments lit up at night and went to get some food. Unfortunately it was late, we were all together and once again I gave in to peer pressure, we went to mcdonalds. Now although the burger was more real beef and tasted fine, I was still disappointed in the end result. After that we hung out some more, walked the fancy streets, and called it a night.
Today I met up with them for a bit, went to the Arc de Triumphe with a nice view from top. I did the Notre Dame, very nice on the inside (I didn't want to go to the top, wasn't worth it). We walked by the Statue of Liberty the French one, nothing special, but semi-entertaining to look at. A few museums we intended to go to today were unfortunately closed (I'll do them tomorrow), but on the way my glasses randomly broke. The screw fell out, into a bunch of dirt and I was pissed. We were walking, first tried a mall pharmacy, but although they had glasses no screw. From there I saw a high end glasses shop. I went in and the guy could not understand what I was saying. Finally I pointed to the 2 screw holes and showed him one was missing. He fixed it immediately and I was semi shocked there was no charge. I also finally got an ipod/phone charger from a local store that has an "Apple in-store area" which worked out well. Afterwards they got some fast food again, a place called Quick, essentially a French mcdonalds with a different name, I refused this time. I picked up a croissant and after we broke up I got some solid French onion soup (which irritates me that some places actually call it French Onion soup here, just call it onion soup, we know it's yours!) and a solid lemon citrus crepe. It was expensive, but so worth it. Tonight I envision myself splurging on a good meal, I can't be in France and not start eating random good shit even if nobody else will do it with me and even if it costs a ton. Not sure if I'm going to meet up with them again or do my own thing. I kind of want to be on my own and explore places at night, so we shall see if I'm able to reject them.
Anyway I extended my internet time, stole an extra password and luckily they haven't noticed it's been 45 minutes, but now I must go. I'm gonna head to the train station, book my dream train right to the land of drugs and hoes for Wednesday and then see where the night takes me, hopefully to a world with lots of food.
Hollerin-
BK
Friday, April 17, 2009
Barcelonaaaa
What up my people. I am in currently in Barcelona, I arrived on Wednesday evening after leaving Madrid. The train was great, it's one of those bullet trains, goes 300 km per hour. The scenery on the train ride was incredible though in the open country. They were showing High School Musical 3, shockingly the one Ive never seen, but I resisted watching it and wouldnt have understood it in Spanish anyway. I listened to my ipod, tried to sleep a little and take in the atmosphere.
When I got to Barcelona I came straight to my hostel. It's a little far out from the main portions of Barcelona, but not terrible. Its definitely the worst of the hostels so far, but not even that bad, rooms are tiny and not great lockers to store stuff in, but what can you do. I immediately went and got some food after checking in because I was starved at that point. I went to this BraCafe (I thought it meant all the waitresses would be in bras, not that it was a Brazillian Cafe!). It was good, I ordered something random, turned out to be an omelet, with a side of some sort of ham, potatoes, and bruschetta. Not bad at all. Afterwards came back to the hostel and there were signs for a party that night where the hostel was taking everyone out to a club and bar. I figured I'd go because it'd be a good way to meet people.
I met my roommates who were all going to this club thing before we left. I wasnt a huge fan, they were nice, but typical college I want to get fucked up type kids, not my crowd as many of you know. They were all about "pregaming" and I knew at that point they just werent going to be my style. I showed up around 10:30, we all headed out around 11. I met a bunch of people from Belgium who were real nice, some guy from the UK, I think he was Malaysian, and one more guy who I had no idea what country he was from, maybe Russia/I had no idea what he was saying (and we talked for about 3 hours that night, high comedy for me). We went to this first bar called el Gato Negro (the black cat), it specializes in over 500 different types of shots, including many flaming ones. It was entertaining. I took 2 shots. First shot I took I looked randomly and picked one. I went with Casper, hes a friendly ghost and I figured shot wise itd be pretty easy. It was very easy, however, I think at that point it was determined I may be gay by the whip cream on top of the shot. It was easy though and thats all I cared about. I did have one other shot after with the dude who couldnt speak English. I had him order it (not the best idea) and when I went to pay for mine, the woman thought I had paid for both, so essentially I bought this dude a shot and I was stuck. I think he set me up! I have no idea what the shot was, mixed some kind of red and blue thing together. Then you swish it in your mouth for 10 seconds like mouth wash and suck it in, making you cough. Ouch. That shit burned and luckily at that point we were heading to the club.
We got to the club around 12:30, but everyone kept saying it was early. There were Spanisher rappers up on stage, one wearing a tshirt saying I'm the new black, pretty funny. They were whatever, nobody enjoyed them and when they left and the DJ started the place started "bumping." I had a drink when I got there cause we all got free drinks. Made the same mistake again, however, as I let the Belgium kids just get me a drink so I didnt have to cut through. They got me what they were drinking, vodka and pepsi. It was fucking sick, what kind of animals are they! Afterwards everyone wanted to dance, so I went to the floor, danced for a while, talked to the dude from the UK and the one I didnt understand a word he was saying. I thought to myself if I cant pick up a girl in the US, no chance could I pick up one where I dont speak their language. I was right, every time I'd even get remotely close to a girl as I danced she moved away and I wasn't even trying to dance with them, I'm not that outgoing yet! I always enjoyed that form of rejection though, it happens often. I was getting pretty tired, the dude from the UK was almost passed out, and the dude who couldnt speak English said he wanted to go at 3:30. So we planned on that. Around 3:30 I left with the UK guy, the non-English speaking dude was having fun again I guess. We got back around 3:45, I was exhausted. My roommates werent back yet and so I knew I'd be woken up at some point soon. I passed out and starting at about 5:30 a.m until 8 a.m they kept coming in and out of the room. Finally they went to sleep at 8, I slept for another hour, looked at my watch and thought it was 4 p.m. I freaked out, then I realized I'm an idiot and saw what I thought was 11, so a little better, but not much. I immediately got up to start my day and turns out it was only like 9:30, whoops.
I decided first to buy soap since I had left it at the last hostel and figured I should shower at some point here. I went to the drug places right next to here, bought a random soap and then figured Id walk to Las Ramblas. Its 5.3 kms away, if I knew this I probably would not have walked. It was sunny the whole time at least, I had to make it the train station to get my ticket for Paris. I did that and it was perfect because as soon as I got inside a huge hail/thunderstorm came crashing down. I waited it out for a little and then headed on my way to get lunch. I had read somewhere about a great Paella place, so I walked around Las Ramblas, took some photos and ended up at La Fonda. I had the special 3 course menu del dia with some paella, some pork and potato thing I ordered (I took a guess, was still good), and some chocolate pie. The Paella was great, lots of fresh seafood, good rice and good vegetables. It also came with a drink so I got a glass of red wine. Wasnt bad at all. I had a nice relaxing meal, went on my way and headed around the area. I stumbled to the picasso museum (I was slightly drunk), decided why not go in since it was still raining off and on and checked it out. About 10 minutes in though I started feeling sick. A cold was coming on strong. I started sneezing out of control, semi-rushed through the rest and tried to figure out the quickest way back. In the end, I walked about 6 kms back to the hostel, not the best idea for someone who is sick. I made it back and immediately tried to take a nap. That didnt last long with the roommates coming in and out constantly. I decided I'd do laundry for 5 euros, but turns out they do it for you, so that was a bonus. I pretty much laid in bed the rest of the day, got a quick dinner next to the hostel (a bacon bocadillo and a plate of manchego cheese). Got back to the hostel and laid around. Finally my rommates left around 12 to go out. I turned off the light and slept until they got back and did the in and out thing at around 6 again. Luckily they were checking out so they were gone by 8. I slept til 10, then the housecleaning woke me to clean up their beds for the next person, oh well.
I still have a cold this morning and dont feel the best, but I'm going to try to see a few more things to make Barcelona more worth it. I do like it better than madrid, lot more room on streets and overall a nice city. I'd rather rest and not be sick for the rest of the trip though than ruin it all on Barcelona. Hopefully one more good nights sleep and I'll be fine to explore on Saturday (I have all day until my train at 10 at night, so at least I should sneak a few things in without killing myself). I won't walk today though, try to take buses and metros.
Anyway, I will see you in Paris!
BK
When I got to Barcelona I came straight to my hostel. It's a little far out from the main portions of Barcelona, but not terrible. Its definitely the worst of the hostels so far, but not even that bad, rooms are tiny and not great lockers to store stuff in, but what can you do. I immediately went and got some food after checking in because I was starved at that point. I went to this BraCafe (I thought it meant all the waitresses would be in bras, not that it was a Brazillian Cafe!). It was good, I ordered something random, turned out to be an omelet, with a side of some sort of ham, potatoes, and bruschetta. Not bad at all. Afterwards came back to the hostel and there were signs for a party that night where the hostel was taking everyone out to a club and bar. I figured I'd go because it'd be a good way to meet people.
I met my roommates who were all going to this club thing before we left. I wasnt a huge fan, they were nice, but typical college I want to get fucked up type kids, not my crowd as many of you know. They were all about "pregaming" and I knew at that point they just werent going to be my style. I showed up around 10:30, we all headed out around 11. I met a bunch of people from Belgium who were real nice, some guy from the UK, I think he was Malaysian, and one more guy who I had no idea what country he was from, maybe Russia/I had no idea what he was saying (and we talked for about 3 hours that night, high comedy for me). We went to this first bar called el Gato Negro (the black cat), it specializes in over 500 different types of shots, including many flaming ones. It was entertaining. I took 2 shots. First shot I took I looked randomly and picked one. I went with Casper, hes a friendly ghost and I figured shot wise itd be pretty easy. It was very easy, however, I think at that point it was determined I may be gay by the whip cream on top of the shot. It was easy though and thats all I cared about. I did have one other shot after with the dude who couldnt speak English. I had him order it (not the best idea) and when I went to pay for mine, the woman thought I had paid for both, so essentially I bought this dude a shot and I was stuck. I think he set me up! I have no idea what the shot was, mixed some kind of red and blue thing together. Then you swish it in your mouth for 10 seconds like mouth wash and suck it in, making you cough. Ouch. That shit burned and luckily at that point we were heading to the club.
We got to the club around 12:30, but everyone kept saying it was early. There were Spanisher rappers up on stage, one wearing a tshirt saying I'm the new black, pretty funny. They were whatever, nobody enjoyed them and when they left and the DJ started the place started "bumping." I had a drink when I got there cause we all got free drinks. Made the same mistake again, however, as I let the Belgium kids just get me a drink so I didnt have to cut through. They got me what they were drinking, vodka and pepsi. It was fucking sick, what kind of animals are they! Afterwards everyone wanted to dance, so I went to the floor, danced for a while, talked to the dude from the UK and the one I didnt understand a word he was saying. I thought to myself if I cant pick up a girl in the US, no chance could I pick up one where I dont speak their language. I was right, every time I'd even get remotely close to a girl as I danced she moved away and I wasn't even trying to dance with them, I'm not that outgoing yet! I always enjoyed that form of rejection though, it happens often. I was getting pretty tired, the dude from the UK was almost passed out, and the dude who couldnt speak English said he wanted to go at 3:30. So we planned on that. Around 3:30 I left with the UK guy, the non-English speaking dude was having fun again I guess. We got back around 3:45, I was exhausted. My roommates werent back yet and so I knew I'd be woken up at some point soon. I passed out and starting at about 5:30 a.m until 8 a.m they kept coming in and out of the room. Finally they went to sleep at 8, I slept for another hour, looked at my watch and thought it was 4 p.m. I freaked out, then I realized I'm an idiot and saw what I thought was 11, so a little better, but not much. I immediately got up to start my day and turns out it was only like 9:30, whoops.
I decided first to buy soap since I had left it at the last hostel and figured I should shower at some point here. I went to the drug places right next to here, bought a random soap and then figured Id walk to Las Ramblas. Its 5.3 kms away, if I knew this I probably would not have walked. It was sunny the whole time at least, I had to make it the train station to get my ticket for Paris. I did that and it was perfect because as soon as I got inside a huge hail/thunderstorm came crashing down. I waited it out for a little and then headed on my way to get lunch. I had read somewhere about a great Paella place, so I walked around Las Ramblas, took some photos and ended up at La Fonda. I had the special 3 course menu del dia with some paella, some pork and potato thing I ordered (I took a guess, was still good), and some chocolate pie. The Paella was great, lots of fresh seafood, good rice and good vegetables. It also came with a drink so I got a glass of red wine. Wasnt bad at all. I had a nice relaxing meal, went on my way and headed around the area. I stumbled to the picasso museum (I was slightly drunk), decided why not go in since it was still raining off and on and checked it out. About 10 minutes in though I started feeling sick. A cold was coming on strong. I started sneezing out of control, semi-rushed through the rest and tried to figure out the quickest way back. In the end, I walked about 6 kms back to the hostel, not the best idea for someone who is sick. I made it back and immediately tried to take a nap. That didnt last long with the roommates coming in and out constantly. I decided I'd do laundry for 5 euros, but turns out they do it for you, so that was a bonus. I pretty much laid in bed the rest of the day, got a quick dinner next to the hostel (a bacon bocadillo and a plate of manchego cheese). Got back to the hostel and laid around. Finally my rommates left around 12 to go out. I turned off the light and slept until they got back and did the in and out thing at around 6 again. Luckily they were checking out so they were gone by 8. I slept til 10, then the housecleaning woke me to clean up their beds for the next person, oh well.
I still have a cold this morning and dont feel the best, but I'm going to try to see a few more things to make Barcelona more worth it. I do like it better than madrid, lot more room on streets and overall a nice city. I'd rather rest and not be sick for the rest of the trip though than ruin it all on Barcelona. Hopefully one more good nights sleep and I'll be fine to explore on Saturday (I have all day until my train at 10 at night, so at least I should sneak a few things in without killing myself). I won't walk today though, try to take buses and metros.
Anyway, I will see you in Paris!
BK
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Madridito
My last night in Madrid is for the most part complete, so I thought why not update on the past couple days. You'll be glad to know that this will be my first semi-drunk post of the tour (three beers is a lot), but hey if I can make it back to my hostel after getting lost semi-drunk, then I think I can get through this as well! Before posting I gotta say, I love listening to people try and hit on girls in hostels. Oh the movie 13 days, that's my favorite! You're from New Mexico, I've never been, but I heard it's just so incredible around there. It's cute.
On Monday (after posting to the blog) I went right to the Reina Sofia (modern art museum) in Spain. It was quite mind blowing. I decided to get fancy and even go with a headset to find out what I was actually looking at. (quick note: it's now Wednesday, they closed the computer room last night for some reason so I couldn't finish, so here is the rest, in completely sober and rested form). I really enjoyed the museum, I had my ipod going for most of it taking breaks in between the paintings that had talks about them. The special exhibitions they had weren't anything special, but the building itself and the permanent collections were very much worth seeing. Afterwards I decided to get my first meal, there was a small restaurant across from the art museum. I went with a jamon iberico sandwich, was a fantastic choice if I must say. From there I just walked the streets, went back to the hostel to take a shower since I had been on that train and couldn't check in when I got here at that point. I met a few people in my room and then did some more walking. Went to Plaza Mayor, a big touristy area, but was nice to see. The weather was pretty decent Monday so I wanted to take advantage. I went back to the hostel after a while to look up a good place to eat. I ran into one of the people staying in my hostel who was also going to grab some dinner, so I asked her if she wanted to join me. No idea how old she is, but she is from Argentina as well as a Jew, so we went to one of the places that serve Doner Kebabs. Basically just cheap kebabs and middle eastern type food. We had a good conversation talked about our respective countries, a little bit of Judaism (and how neither of us could even consider keeping passover in Europe, more specifically Spain where it's 100% pig, bread, and cheese around here). After eating we just headed back to the hostel. I was exhausted from the train etc. so I was just going to hang out. I went and sat on the couches in the main room where I started talking to a couple Americans who were here. One was studying abroad, the other quit her job and was traveling (it's extremely common apparently, I've met numerous people who are doing that and even a tour guide from America who did that). We all talked, watched some TV, which is pretty funny all in Spanish. Then we started flipping through channels more and the disney channel was showing the best show ever, in Spanish, but I know it well enough that I was able to describe and even say some lines as to what was happening on Boy Meets World! I was a little too excited, they didn't understand. One of the kids was like 20, so BMW is before his time.
On Tuesday I woke up excited to go to the Prado, I got there around 10, the line for the permanent collection wasn't too terrible, but the special Francis Bacon exhibit line was already around the corner so I decided I'd be skipping that. I went to get my student ticket and the guy asked to see my ID, showed him it, then he asked for my passport. Looked at my age and refused to let me have the student discount, saying only students 24 or under get the discount, such a fucking lie! I was so pissed, it kind of put a tamper on my experience. I didn't get the headphones this time, which was fine, they have a lot more English descriptions of important pieces around there. I walked around for a little over 2 hours, I was impressed with a lot of the paintings and real old sculptures, though I think I may have enjoyed the Reina Sofia a little more for my tastes. After that I went and got some food. Went with a morcilla de burgos bocadilla or a blood sausage (with rice mixed in) sub sandwich and a beer. It was good, I liked the rice and whole concotion they had with it. Afterwards I headed back to the hostel for a few and decided I better book my train ride to Barcelona and also my hostel since I was planning on going the next day. I went to the train station, got my reservation (it cost me 10 euros, but the actual train ride is 110 euros, so I'm glad I got this rail pass or it'd be bus riding for me!). From there I decided I wanted to go on a tapas tour offered. I went to the subway cause no way could I walk in time, got on and didn't pay close enough attention so I started heading the opposite way. I quickly changed directions got to the Tapas tour and it was just me and one other person, who turned out was staying at my hostel. The tour guide said he'd take us around for an hour instead of the full tour (saved me 14 euros). We got some beers, tapas, and got a small tour of the city for free (outside of the beer).
When I got back I had an email from a person from Lisbon as to where to meet up. So I got ready for that an headed to an Irish pub to watch the Liverpool vs. Chelsea soccer game. It was actually a pretty entertaining game. We had a few beers and talked for a while. It was a real good conversation, he's one of the UM people, but not a bad person at all. We had seemingly been through similar situations in different aspects of life and had a good understanding of each other, I always enjoy meeting genuinely nice people. So maybe I'll hang out with him when we're both back in Michigan or something. Afterwards I knew where I was going, but I realized that was during the day. It was pouring rain so I got soaked, kept venturing around and finally arrived at my hostel after a few turns here and there. I knew I'd be fine though, it's not that big of a city umm. Anyway, I must check out and get ready to explore for a few hours before Barcelona. Have a good one all!
'BK
On Monday (after posting to the blog) I went right to the Reina Sofia (modern art museum) in Spain. It was quite mind blowing. I decided to get fancy and even go with a headset to find out what I was actually looking at. (quick note: it's now Wednesday, they closed the computer room last night for some reason so I couldn't finish, so here is the rest, in completely sober and rested form). I really enjoyed the museum, I had my ipod going for most of it taking breaks in between the paintings that had talks about them. The special exhibitions they had weren't anything special, but the building itself and the permanent collections were very much worth seeing. Afterwards I decided to get my first meal, there was a small restaurant across from the art museum. I went with a jamon iberico sandwich, was a fantastic choice if I must say. From there I just walked the streets, went back to the hostel to take a shower since I had been on that train and couldn't check in when I got here at that point. I met a few people in my room and then did some more walking. Went to Plaza Mayor, a big touristy area, but was nice to see. The weather was pretty decent Monday so I wanted to take advantage. I went back to the hostel after a while to look up a good place to eat. I ran into one of the people staying in my hostel who was also going to grab some dinner, so I asked her if she wanted to join me. No idea how old she is, but she is from Argentina as well as a Jew, so we went to one of the places that serve Doner Kebabs. Basically just cheap kebabs and middle eastern type food. We had a good conversation talked about our respective countries, a little bit of Judaism (and how neither of us could even consider keeping passover in Europe, more specifically Spain where it's 100% pig, bread, and cheese around here). After eating we just headed back to the hostel. I was exhausted from the train etc. so I was just going to hang out. I went and sat on the couches in the main room where I started talking to a couple Americans who were here. One was studying abroad, the other quit her job and was traveling (it's extremely common apparently, I've met numerous people who are doing that and even a tour guide from America who did that). We all talked, watched some TV, which is pretty funny all in Spanish. Then we started flipping through channels more and the disney channel was showing the best show ever, in Spanish, but I know it well enough that I was able to describe and even say some lines as to what was happening on Boy Meets World! I was a little too excited, they didn't understand. One of the kids was like 20, so BMW is before his time.
On Tuesday I woke up excited to go to the Prado, I got there around 10, the line for the permanent collection wasn't too terrible, but the special Francis Bacon exhibit line was already around the corner so I decided I'd be skipping that. I went to get my student ticket and the guy asked to see my ID, showed him it, then he asked for my passport. Looked at my age and refused to let me have the student discount, saying only students 24 or under get the discount, such a fucking lie! I was so pissed, it kind of put a tamper on my experience. I didn't get the headphones this time, which was fine, they have a lot more English descriptions of important pieces around there. I walked around for a little over 2 hours, I was impressed with a lot of the paintings and real old sculptures, though I think I may have enjoyed the Reina Sofia a little more for my tastes. After that I went and got some food. Went with a morcilla de burgos bocadilla or a blood sausage (with rice mixed in) sub sandwich and a beer. It was good, I liked the rice and whole concotion they had with it. Afterwards I headed back to the hostel for a few and decided I better book my train ride to Barcelona and also my hostel since I was planning on going the next day. I went to the train station, got my reservation (it cost me 10 euros, but the actual train ride is 110 euros, so I'm glad I got this rail pass or it'd be bus riding for me!). From there I decided I wanted to go on a tapas tour offered. I went to the subway cause no way could I walk in time, got on and didn't pay close enough attention so I started heading the opposite way. I quickly changed directions got to the Tapas tour and it was just me and one other person, who turned out was staying at my hostel. The tour guide said he'd take us around for an hour instead of the full tour (saved me 14 euros). We got some beers, tapas, and got a small tour of the city for free (outside of the beer).
When I got back I had an email from a person from Lisbon as to where to meet up. So I got ready for that an headed to an Irish pub to watch the Liverpool vs. Chelsea soccer game. It was actually a pretty entertaining game. We had a few beers and talked for a while. It was a real good conversation, he's one of the UM people, but not a bad person at all. We had seemingly been through similar situations in different aspects of life and had a good understanding of each other, I always enjoy meeting genuinely nice people. So maybe I'll hang out with him when we're both back in Michigan or something. Afterwards I knew where I was going, but I realized that was during the day. It was pouring rain so I got soaked, kept venturing around and finally arrived at my hostel after a few turns here and there. I knew I'd be fine though, it's not that big of a city umm. Anyway, I must check out and get ready to explore for a few hours before Barcelona. Have a good one all!
'BK
Monday, April 13, 2009
Holiday in Spain
I arrived in Spain this morning and thought I'd give a quick update about the final two days in Lisbon and the train ride here before I begin my day. Saturday I was planning on going to Sintra, but unfortunately that tour got cancelled. For some reason I woke up semi-depressed and was not sure what I was going to do with my day. Since I was planning on going to Sintra on Saturday, some of the college students I met left the morning, and the English and Swiss girls were already gone for the day I was on my own. It worked out well, I went to Sao Sebastio a different part of Lisboa where there are a lot of parks, a huge mall, and the Calouste Gulbenkian museum consisting of his art collection, a temporary Darwin Exhibit, and a modern art museum attached. I took the metro over to the area, thought it was about time I get used to public transportation. It was pretty simple getting there and Lisbon's metro is very clean and not very busy. It drops you off in the mall in Sao Sebastio, which is great, but with 20 exits possible it was tough to find where I was going. So tough in fact that I got lost walking to the museums and instead ended up at a couple different parks and by a couple different parks I mean the same park, just different ends of it (which worked out besides the rain with amazing views of the city and river). Finally after about an hour of wandering the world I broke it down on the map as to where I had to go. I made it back to the mall and got to the museums. The modern art museum was small and for the most part unnoteworthy, but cheap to see with a "student" discount. The actual Gulbenkian was real nice. I put on my ipod and just looked at art all day. By the end of my art exploration I was feeling better about myself and where I was. Since it was already 3 and I still hadn't eaten due to not knowing what time museums closed on a holiday weekend I went to the mall and ate in their food court at "Sopa." I realize I have fun with ordering food because I don't have any idea what it is I'm ordering. I pointed to a soup that a couple people in front of me got, then to a piece of quiche with Spinach and tomatoes (turned out they were weird lookin carrots), and a bottle of water and paid. I found a place to sit. The soup was fine, pretty plain, but seemed to have a slight seafood base, but no actual seafood. The quiche caught me off guard cause it was pretty cold and after hot soup it was unexpected. Finally after about the 6th switch between soup and quiche I got the temp change down. Then I got back on the metro and headed back.
I got back around 6:30, knocked on the room of the girls I knew were still there and we planned on eating dinner at 9. We went to some Italian place, it was close, one of them was sick, and it was semi-cold out. The food was pretty good, though we all forgot about the classic Portugees move of putting down bread and appetizers on the table in what would in anywhere else appear to be free, instead you eat you pay. We all some bread, but what can you do, we knew for the next night. My food was good, just some Wild mushroom risotta (they were out of what I originally ordered) and a nice cheese appetizer that I can't remember the name of right now with tomato sauce etc. Afterwards we went back to the hostel, started hangin out and then we saw a bunch of new people hanging out at the hostel. Turns out it was a bunch of University of Michigan kids. They seemed very excited to hear I was from (the state of) Michigan. All were real nice down to earth kids so we all hung out the rest of the night. Most the city was shutdown with Easter preparations the next day and we just watched a movie. Went to bed after and the next day was set to begin.
I knew I had a long day ahead of me on Sunday so no clue what I was going to do. I just had to be at the train station by 10:30 p.m to get to Madrid. I got downstairs in the morning and saw the UM kids and asked what they were up to for the day. Everyone was planning on heading to Sintra. There were a lot of us who ended up going. The girl from Switzerland, about 5 UM kids, myself and 2 girls I met in the morning from St. Johns University. We got to Sintra around 12:45, bout a 40 minute train ride outside of Lisbon. The city was full of what were presumably tourists. We started walking and heading towards the castles and palaces the city was known for. After finding a small palace first, and walking around the area we were split on what to do next. The main Castle and Palace are on mountains, we looked up and I've never seen something that seemed further away in my life. You think Everest is bad, try walking to the top of Castelo de Mouros or Palacia Pena! We got some food, the group ended up getting split up afterwards and we went our own ways. It was me, St Johns, one UM kid separated from his crew, and the Swiss. I had a lot of fun walking to the top and learning about each person. After a little more than an hour walk or swim if you consider the sweat I was drenched in we reached the castle. And then realized we needed a ticket. Instead of just going to the door to see if we could buy a ticket we asked a random tourists. They sent us to a ticket office about 10 minutes away. We were able to buy both Palace and Castle tickets from there. We met back up with the other part of the group, and then quickly got separated into our mini groups again once we reached the castle. We realized there was only one more thing to do, conquer the castle. Just like Mario, I wanted though 5,000 points to get on top of the flag pole! I kept climbing higher until we all reached the pinnacle. There were incredible views of the city, the Palace across on a totally other mountain just leading to a feeling of not again, and the look down of what could only be considered a terrifying 50,000 foot fall or like 3,000. We all took pictures, walked around and then headed to the Palace. We were told it was about 10 minutes away. We arrived to the entrance, and they were about right. The true walk, however, was about 15 more minutes of step climbing and paths to walk up the mountain to get there. We arrived at this Palace that looked pretty incredible with a multi-colored outside, awesome architecture, great statues, and more incredible views. We took some more pictures, went inside to look at the history (no pictures allowed in there) and felt relieved that we completed the journey. Afterwards we decided maybe we would take the bus down, but after a while we knew the true feeling of accomplishment wouldn't be the same without getting lost in Sintra for over an hour trying to find a way back to the train station. Random dogs popped up scaring the shit out of me, cars came flying down winding roads we were walking on with no sidewalks, and thinking we remembered walking past a certain house when we clearly did not led to an enjoyable, yet nerve racking time. It was already 6, the last train leaves at 8, we were hungry, I had to get to Madrid and we didn't know where we were. Finally though after just sticking to the belief of keep going down the mountain and we'd be golden, we saw familiar structures in the distance.
We got back to Lisboa, I was drenched in sweat still (technically still am), and relaxed for about 5 minutes. It was almost 8 so we went to eat before I left. The restaurant was okay, had some grilled sole and tomato soup. It took a long time though so by 9:15 I asked for my check separately, paid, took a picture of the table, and said my goodbyes. I headed right to the hostel to pick up my luggage and knew I could take the metro two stops down to the train station. I ran down the steps, walked to the station, knew I had little cash or the rest was in my bag I couldn't go through a the moment, but it shouldn't cost me much I thought. I got my ticket and try to scan my metro pass and look up and see crazy lines and lots of x's. Apparently the metro got shutdown for the night. I was freaked out. I had about 45 minutes still, rushed back to the hostel, asked if she could get me a cab and how much it'd be. She said it'd be about $5 euros. I had about 9 on me. I was a little terrified because being not from there I knew it was possible I'd get ripped off. After about 10 minutes the taxi showed up, I get in and immediately the total on the meter was already 5 euros from some $2.40 service charge. Didn't care to ask just hoped I had enough to make it. Luckily it only was about 7.40 in the end so I was okay for that and the metro in Madrid when I'd make it.
The train was interesting, I had a small bed on the top of a bunk type deal. There were 3 others in my room, though only 2 others seemingly were in there the whole night. I finished my book, one of the men asked to turn off the lights and I tried to get some sleep. I passed out pretty easily, which led to some crazy nightmares. I think all the movement and noises of the train really got my mind going. I dreamt of being on falling planes and of all sorts of random people. I woke up a lot, including one point where I thought my future killer was staring at me. It was pitch black and all I could see were eyes looking in my direction. In the dark, with no glasses, I couldn't tell if it was one of my normal cabin mates so I decided if I close my eyes he'd go away. About 10 minutes later I opened them and he was thankfully gone. I slept on and off for the rest of the night, but no more killers. The cabin crew woke us with 30 minutes to go and I had officially arrived in Spain.
The metro was very easy, finding the hostel when I got off was not. It took a solid 30 minutes of walking in circles to finally find Jesus y Maria, the street I was staying on. Got in, met some people who were leaving from my room and now I'm about to head off to eat, get some money, and visit the art museum open today (the others are closed on Monday).
Thanks for reading, thanks for email, have a good one, I will update soon
'BK
p.s I'll try to get a few pictures up soon if I can.
I got back around 6:30, knocked on the room of the girls I knew were still there and we planned on eating dinner at 9. We went to some Italian place, it was close, one of them was sick, and it was semi-cold out. The food was pretty good, though we all forgot about the classic Portugees move of putting down bread and appetizers on the table in what would in anywhere else appear to be free, instead you eat you pay. We all some bread, but what can you do, we knew for the next night. My food was good, just some Wild mushroom risotta (they were out of what I originally ordered) and a nice cheese appetizer that I can't remember the name of right now with tomato sauce etc. Afterwards we went back to the hostel, started hangin out and then we saw a bunch of new people hanging out at the hostel. Turns out it was a bunch of University of Michigan kids. They seemed very excited to hear I was from (the state of) Michigan. All were real nice down to earth kids so we all hung out the rest of the night. Most the city was shutdown with Easter preparations the next day and we just watched a movie. Went to bed after and the next day was set to begin.
I knew I had a long day ahead of me on Sunday so no clue what I was going to do. I just had to be at the train station by 10:30 p.m to get to Madrid. I got downstairs in the morning and saw the UM kids and asked what they were up to for the day. Everyone was planning on heading to Sintra. There were a lot of us who ended up going. The girl from Switzerland, about 5 UM kids, myself and 2 girls I met in the morning from St. Johns University. We got to Sintra around 12:45, bout a 40 minute train ride outside of Lisbon. The city was full of what were presumably tourists. We started walking and heading towards the castles and palaces the city was known for. After finding a small palace first, and walking around the area we were split on what to do next. The main Castle and Palace are on mountains, we looked up and I've never seen something that seemed further away in my life. You think Everest is bad, try walking to the top of Castelo de Mouros or Palacia Pena! We got some food, the group ended up getting split up afterwards and we went our own ways. It was me, St Johns, one UM kid separated from his crew, and the Swiss. I had a lot of fun walking to the top and learning about each person. After a little more than an hour walk or swim if you consider the sweat I was drenched in we reached the castle. And then realized we needed a ticket. Instead of just going to the door to see if we could buy a ticket we asked a random tourists. They sent us to a ticket office about 10 minutes away. We were able to buy both Palace and Castle tickets from there. We met back up with the other part of the group, and then quickly got separated into our mini groups again once we reached the castle. We realized there was only one more thing to do, conquer the castle. Just like Mario, I wanted though 5,000 points to get on top of the flag pole! I kept climbing higher until we all reached the pinnacle. There were incredible views of the city, the Palace across on a totally other mountain just leading to a feeling of not again, and the look down of what could only be considered a terrifying 50,000 foot fall or like 3,000. We all took pictures, walked around and then headed to the Palace. We were told it was about 10 minutes away. We arrived to the entrance, and they were about right. The true walk, however, was about 15 more minutes of step climbing and paths to walk up the mountain to get there. We arrived at this Palace that looked pretty incredible with a multi-colored outside, awesome architecture, great statues, and more incredible views. We took some more pictures, went inside to look at the history (no pictures allowed in there) and felt relieved that we completed the journey. Afterwards we decided maybe we would take the bus down, but after a while we knew the true feeling of accomplishment wouldn't be the same without getting lost in Sintra for over an hour trying to find a way back to the train station. Random dogs popped up scaring the shit out of me, cars came flying down winding roads we were walking on with no sidewalks, and thinking we remembered walking past a certain house when we clearly did not led to an enjoyable, yet nerve racking time. It was already 6, the last train leaves at 8, we were hungry, I had to get to Madrid and we didn't know where we were. Finally though after just sticking to the belief of keep going down the mountain and we'd be golden, we saw familiar structures in the distance.
We got back to Lisboa, I was drenched in sweat still (technically still am), and relaxed for about 5 minutes. It was almost 8 so we went to eat before I left. The restaurant was okay, had some grilled sole and tomato soup. It took a long time though so by 9:15 I asked for my check separately, paid, took a picture of the table, and said my goodbyes. I headed right to the hostel to pick up my luggage and knew I could take the metro two stops down to the train station. I ran down the steps, walked to the station, knew I had little cash or the rest was in my bag I couldn't go through a the moment, but it shouldn't cost me much I thought. I got my ticket and try to scan my metro pass and look up and see crazy lines and lots of x's. Apparently the metro got shutdown for the night. I was freaked out. I had about 45 minutes still, rushed back to the hostel, asked if she could get me a cab and how much it'd be. She said it'd be about $5 euros. I had about 9 on me. I was a little terrified because being not from there I knew it was possible I'd get ripped off. After about 10 minutes the taxi showed up, I get in and immediately the total on the meter was already 5 euros from some $2.40 service charge. Didn't care to ask just hoped I had enough to make it. Luckily it only was about 7.40 in the end so I was okay for that and the metro in Madrid when I'd make it.
The train was interesting, I had a small bed on the top of a bunk type deal. There were 3 others in my room, though only 2 others seemingly were in there the whole night. I finished my book, one of the men asked to turn off the lights and I tried to get some sleep. I passed out pretty easily, which led to some crazy nightmares. I think all the movement and noises of the train really got my mind going. I dreamt of being on falling planes and of all sorts of random people. I woke up a lot, including one point where I thought my future killer was staring at me. It was pitch black and all I could see were eyes looking in my direction. In the dark, with no glasses, I couldn't tell if it was one of my normal cabin mates so I decided if I close my eyes he'd go away. About 10 minutes later I opened them and he was thankfully gone. I slept on and off for the rest of the night, but no more killers. The cabin crew woke us with 30 minutes to go and I had officially arrived in Spain.
The metro was very easy, finding the hostel when I got off was not. It took a solid 30 minutes of walking in circles to finally find Jesus y Maria, the street I was staying on. Got in, met some people who were leaving from my room and now I'm about to head off to eat, get some money, and visit the art museum open today (the others are closed on Monday).
Thanks for reading, thanks for email, have a good one, I will update soon
'BK
p.s I'll try to get a few pictures up soon if I can.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Pick a language!
I just got back from a small Lisbon city tour via the hostel and figured while it rains a bit (and it's only in the 50s, false advertising Lisbon!) I'd attempt to navigate through this European keyboard and update my journey thus far. The day I left got off to a hectic start, I wasn't sure if they were tiny signs to delay my trip or just an example of the trials and tribulations ahead. Starting from the beginning where I got out of my mom's car and left my cell phone to being told my flight to New Jersey was supposed to be delayed until 5 p.m the nerves were kicking. I was switched to the flight before mine, slated to take off at 1:02 (it was already 1:20) and felt a little uneasy about that whole thing. They assured me the flight wouldn't be taking off anytime soon. I took a little gander at the departure screen and did not see my flight, I did a mildly-fast paced walk to the C gate at McNamara, find the gate and I hear "final call for all rows." So instead of taking my time, eating something, I rush on to the plane only to sit for over an hour after leaving the gate. We took off at 3:15 (my regularly scheduled flight time) and got to Lisbon with tons of time to kill and for me to finally eat. Got on the plane around 8:15 for Lisbon, passed out immediately and woke up 20 minutes later yet to take off. There was no real delay besides the fact that it was New Jersey and they are always delayed there. The 20 minute nap meant only one thing, that would probably be the only 20 minutes I'd sleep for the whole day.
The plane ride was fine, a few bumps, but nothing insane. I first watched Yes Man and Bedtime Stories, two movies that I thought were real good, especially Yes Man. I kind of used it as mini inspiration to take as many chances and say yes to pretty much everything. I feel there may be some foreshadowing with that movie in the future in my own story. After those movies I watched Harry Potter for about an hour, felt I could get to sleep and bam I was out cold. Only problem was 10 minutes later the lights came back on and we were an hour away.
We landed in Lisbon at 8 a.m, customs took over an hour to get through the line, then the line for the informational desk and aerobus to the hostel took another hour, and finally around 11 I arrived. I wasn't able to check in til 2 (probably a good thing), so it forced me to walk through the city and stay awake. I was extremely dehydrated and had to pee, so I found a Mcdonalds to pee in (I have a non-American food and especially no fast food rule while here) and grabbed a water. I walked to the river, started taking some pictures and immediately got offered hash by 3 different men selling glasses. Being that I felt the need to say yes to everything, I quickly nixed that plan and got away from them. The architecture, statues, and general art around the city are real awesome. It is not hard to navigate either at least for me. The only bad part about coming now is with Easter it's high travel season leading to the city being a lot more crowded (public transportation during the day near impossible without waiting 20 minutes), places to visit having strange hours or being closed like most places will be on Sunday. I got myself some lunch around 1 knowing it'd go slowly and I had one more hour to kill. I went to a restaurant nearby and went with a seafood salad full of shrimp, clams, snails, octopus, crab some kind of cooked potato, lettuce and a million carrots. I was a fan, though I did get a weird look from the waitress. The problem is portugees is too much like Spanish, but they try so hard not to be that only half the words are actually Spanish. So the minimal Spanish I try speakin with people just get me a confused and dirty look. What's the point of stealing half a language??? Just use Spanish, you don't need a language! I did finally get down "Obrigado" for thanks, but I'm positive in 2 days that will just mess me up more.
The hostel itself is extremely nice, I'm expecting this to be the nicest of them all, it's nicer than some hotels, the beds are surprisingly comfortable and the bathrooms are clean. The location itself is right around the Rossio downtown area, one of the more popular places for restaurants etc. When I finally was able to check in around 2 p.m I came back so I could get more of a tour, use the bathroom, and get situated. I got to the room, tried to use the locker I was given, but it was impossible to lock. I wasn't going anywhere so I took a break from trying and decided to plug in my phone to charge. I take out my trust international plugs, do it up and eeek crazy spark. It wouldn't work and the light seemed to not turn on anymore. I assume the fuse blew in the room, my bad, I told the guy the lights weren't working and he fixed it about 5 minutes later so nobody has to know. From there I did more walking, I read the train station I needed to get to was 100m off the map I had. Apparently that map is for overweight people who need deception to force them to exercise. Forty minutes later and now knowing I will not be walking to this train station when I leave, I made a reservation to head to Madrid overnight on Sunday since it's real busy everywhere (and people get Monday off after Easter still). I started my walk back but after another 40 minutes started getting extremely hungry. I looked out for the best possible foods and right there in front of me with a bakery featuring these pastries with baked custard on top. They were called natas, worth trying. I knew that would hold me over until dinner. It was 6 p.m at that point, but dinner is a late night affair round these parts.
Got back to the hostel went to my room and finally had people in it to talk too. Spoke briefly with the 2 girls in the room, both on Spring Break while they study abroad. One goes to PSU, the other Southwestern, nice people, was good having a legit conversation with someone after 24 hours almost. They left after, I began to read for a bit. The hostel offers a cheap dinner each night and I figured it'd be a good way to meet people and may not be that bad of a meal. I read for about 20 minutes until I literally almost fell asleep on the seat I was reading. I knew there was only one resort to attempt to stay awake, espresso. I figured the shaking from the coffee would keep me going throughout the night, I just may scare everyone off. I ran to the nearest coffee house, too a shot of espresso and headed back. I was definitely shaky. Dinner came, I met a bunch of people, but mainly spoke with this woman from Switzerland with a British accent (she's never been there before, but even the people from London here thought she was, so I'm not just bad with accent guessing). We spoke a lot, she thought I was 18, I thought she was like 26. Turns out I'm 25 and she's 37. I then thought if my cousin Jordan can go for an older woman, I can too! Just kiddin. She challenged me to trivial pursuit, I thought I'd have a chance, but she's a law clerk in Zurich and apparently smarter, even in the American version. It was good to have real socialization though, stayed up with her and her friend she came with (who is 38, but also looks in her 20s, maybe they're lying). I went up talked with the two people actually in the room who weren't out, attempted to write in my personal journal and passed out while writing.
I won't bore you with too much more, I swear. Today I went on the tour with the Hostel of Lisbon. City was too busy to do things they intended, but was a good one nonetheless. I hung out with the people I met last night and spoke with this girl and her brother from the UK for most of it, very nice, and closer to my age. I had a full octopus for lunch (it was great, best I've had). The head semi-freaked me out, but I got over it and Octopi brains ain't bad. Went to a port tasting after and then the weather went downhill. Lisbon got cold and rainy, so we rushed back. Got some great photos from amazing highpoints in the city and saw the outside of one of their big castles. After the tour, came back here and then went out with the Swiss and her English friend from the night before. We went to a recommended Austrian coffee/cake place, then walked to a mini bar that specializes in a cherry drink called Ginja (a portuguese cherry brandy type deal) and had some seni-hard goat cheese from Portugal (I tried to find out the name, but the old women just kept saying it's goat cheese). After 2 drinks of the Ginja (took it as a shot the first time, apparently you sip it. Tasted like robitussin, semi disappointed I didn't start hallucinating to confirm it actually was). Went to dinner, had sting ray, it was good, but very boney. Then just headed back to the hostel where I'm bout to watch a movie with a couple of people. I'm still exhausted, jet laggin a bit. Longest update ever, going to Sintra tomorrow for the day (small city outside of Lisbon) and then Madrid Sunday night. Maybe I'll see you on Sunday when the city is shutdown before Madrid.
Thanks for stopping by and if you made it to the end, I know you really are a fan!
'BK
The plane ride was fine, a few bumps, but nothing insane. I first watched Yes Man and Bedtime Stories, two movies that I thought were real good, especially Yes Man. I kind of used it as mini inspiration to take as many chances and say yes to pretty much everything. I feel there may be some foreshadowing with that movie in the future in my own story. After those movies I watched Harry Potter for about an hour, felt I could get to sleep and bam I was out cold. Only problem was 10 minutes later the lights came back on and we were an hour away.
We landed in Lisbon at 8 a.m, customs took over an hour to get through the line, then the line for the informational desk and aerobus to the hostel took another hour, and finally around 11 I arrived. I wasn't able to check in til 2 (probably a good thing), so it forced me to walk through the city and stay awake. I was extremely dehydrated and had to pee, so I found a Mcdonalds to pee in (I have a non-American food and especially no fast food rule while here) and grabbed a water. I walked to the river, started taking some pictures and immediately got offered hash by 3 different men selling glasses. Being that I felt the need to say yes to everything, I quickly nixed that plan and got away from them. The architecture, statues, and general art around the city are real awesome. It is not hard to navigate either at least for me. The only bad part about coming now is with Easter it's high travel season leading to the city being a lot more crowded (public transportation during the day near impossible without waiting 20 minutes), places to visit having strange hours or being closed like most places will be on Sunday. I got myself some lunch around 1 knowing it'd go slowly and I had one more hour to kill. I went to a restaurant nearby and went with a seafood salad full of shrimp, clams, snails, octopus, crab some kind of cooked potato, lettuce and a million carrots. I was a fan, though I did get a weird look from the waitress. The problem is portugees is too much like Spanish, but they try so hard not to be that only half the words are actually Spanish. So the minimal Spanish I try speakin with people just get me a confused and dirty look. What's the point of stealing half a language??? Just use Spanish, you don't need a language! I did finally get down "Obrigado" for thanks, but I'm positive in 2 days that will just mess me up more.
The hostel itself is extremely nice, I'm expecting this to be the nicest of them all, it's nicer than some hotels, the beds are surprisingly comfortable and the bathrooms are clean. The location itself is right around the Rossio downtown area, one of the more popular places for restaurants etc. When I finally was able to check in around 2 p.m I came back so I could get more of a tour, use the bathroom, and get situated. I got to the room, tried to use the locker I was given, but it was impossible to lock. I wasn't going anywhere so I took a break from trying and decided to plug in my phone to charge. I take out my trust international plugs, do it up and eeek crazy spark. It wouldn't work and the light seemed to not turn on anymore. I assume the fuse blew in the room, my bad, I told the guy the lights weren't working and he fixed it about 5 minutes later so nobody has to know. From there I did more walking, I read the train station I needed to get to was 100m off the map I had. Apparently that map is for overweight people who need deception to force them to exercise. Forty minutes later and now knowing I will not be walking to this train station when I leave, I made a reservation to head to Madrid overnight on Sunday since it's real busy everywhere (and people get Monday off after Easter still). I started my walk back but after another 40 minutes started getting extremely hungry. I looked out for the best possible foods and right there in front of me with a bakery featuring these pastries with baked custard on top. They were called natas, worth trying. I knew that would hold me over until dinner. It was 6 p.m at that point, but dinner is a late night affair round these parts.
Got back to the hostel went to my room and finally had people in it to talk too. Spoke briefly with the 2 girls in the room, both on Spring Break while they study abroad. One goes to PSU, the other Southwestern, nice people, was good having a legit conversation with someone after 24 hours almost. They left after, I began to read for a bit. The hostel offers a cheap dinner each night and I figured it'd be a good way to meet people and may not be that bad of a meal. I read for about 20 minutes until I literally almost fell asleep on the seat I was reading. I knew there was only one resort to attempt to stay awake, espresso. I figured the shaking from the coffee would keep me going throughout the night, I just may scare everyone off. I ran to the nearest coffee house, too a shot of espresso and headed back. I was definitely shaky. Dinner came, I met a bunch of people, but mainly spoke with this woman from Switzerland with a British accent (she's never been there before, but even the people from London here thought she was, so I'm not just bad with accent guessing). We spoke a lot, she thought I was 18, I thought she was like 26. Turns out I'm 25 and she's 37. I then thought if my cousin Jordan can go for an older woman, I can too! Just kiddin. She challenged me to trivial pursuit, I thought I'd have a chance, but she's a law clerk in Zurich and apparently smarter, even in the American version. It was good to have real socialization though, stayed up with her and her friend she came with (who is 38, but also looks in her 20s, maybe they're lying). I went up talked with the two people actually in the room who weren't out, attempted to write in my personal journal and passed out while writing.
I won't bore you with too much more, I swear. Today I went on the tour with the Hostel of Lisbon. City was too busy to do things they intended, but was a good one nonetheless. I hung out with the people I met last night and spoke with this girl and her brother from the UK for most of it, very nice, and closer to my age. I had a full octopus for lunch (it was great, best I've had). The head semi-freaked me out, but I got over it and Octopi brains ain't bad. Went to a port tasting after and then the weather went downhill. Lisbon got cold and rainy, so we rushed back. Got some great photos from amazing highpoints in the city and saw the outside of one of their big castles. After the tour, came back here and then went out with the Swiss and her English friend from the night before. We went to a recommended Austrian coffee/cake place, then walked to a mini bar that specializes in a cherry drink called Ginja (a portuguese cherry brandy type deal) and had some seni-hard goat cheese from Portugal (I tried to find out the name, but the old women just kept saying it's goat cheese). After 2 drinks of the Ginja (took it as a shot the first time, apparently you sip it. Tasted like robitussin, semi disappointed I didn't start hallucinating to confirm it actually was). Went to dinner, had sting ray, it was good, but very boney. Then just headed back to the hostel where I'm bout to watch a movie with a couple of people. I'm still exhausted, jet laggin a bit. Longest update ever, going to Sintra tomorrow for the day (small city outside of Lisbon) and then Madrid Sunday night. Maybe I'll see you on Sunday when the city is shutdown before Madrid.
Thanks for stopping by and if you made it to the end, I know you really are a fan!
'BK
Monday, April 6, 2009
And now, I'm gone...
In less than 12 hours I'll be headed to New Jersey for a 3 hour layover en route to Lisbon to begin a journey of challenges, enlightenment, highs, and (hopefully minimal) lows. This was an extremely busy week filled with more goodbyes, attempts to pack, and thoughts racing through my mind. On Friday night there was a going away party, to all who were there thank you, it meant a lot. For the second time in my life I had a going away party, one was when I left my job at the Tigers and in both instances more people showed up than I could ever imagine. Makes me wonder, do people genuinely like and appreciate me or just love to see me leave. Just kidding, who doesn't love me. Over the weekend the final four commenced and although the final game result wasn't what I hoped for, the entire experience meant a lot to me. I've been to every major pro sporting event, but the environment, the Saturday game, and most importantly a weekend spent with my dad before I go puts it near the top.
And now here I am, a little more than 12 hours to go before heading off on the journey of a lifetime. I've had many mental ups and downs throughout the day including a solid case of IBS. I woke up with a terrified feeling of how real this is about to be. I think with the final four, and consistently being busy for the past 2 months I haven't had a day to truly grasp the concept of my journey. As the day went on and the shock began to wear off I became more comfortable with what lies ahead. As I spoke to people throughout the day and said more and more goodbyes I realized this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. From the beginning I'll be doing something I wouldn't have envisioned doing as little as 6 months ago. Life takes you on many small journeys that you can't control, but I finally know the ones you have the opportunity to create yourself shouldn't even be questioned.
I purchased a book of mainly poetry by singer/songwriter Ryan Adams for my journey, I've only read the foreword, but it's an explanation of why I enjoy writing.
"Once in a life, if a person chooses to go through these things, then maybe the act of writing them down could be a gift, so that others might know that should they suffer their romancers or their love of things, they're not alone."
As much as I want people to read what I'm doing, if you can take something out of this with me, the trip can only mean more. One of the greatest compliments I ever received was 5 years ago when someone randomly stumbled upon an old blog of mine and sent me an email telling me they never knew people felt the same in certain aspects of life. You just never know what is out there.
I'm very comfortable with my decision to take this chance, today went by slowly, but in a good way. The whole picture slowed down and now there's little to do, but get ready to step on that plane. I'm all packed (yet don't really know if it's too much or too little yet), have my travel books, notes, and information from those who have experienced firsthand traveling printed or memorized. I know I'll have forgotten something, probably minor that I won't even notice for a week, but I'm sure Europe can sell me whatever I lack. I bought my ticket to the Counting Crows concert in Dublin, no clue if I'll be able to make it there or not, but why not go for it.
I arrive in Lisbon 8:20 a.m on Thursday April 9th. No idea what time that is in other parts in the world, but that's when it all officially begins. Tomorrow will be a day full of flying, probably recycling many nervous thoughts in my mind throughout the day. I figure since I can barely sleep at home, the plane ride won't be much better. I intend on hitting the ground running, go to the hostel and begin seeing all that I can see. It probably won't be a late night, but no use getting off to a slow start. From Lisbon I'll head to Spain, then France, Amsterdam, Germany, and depending on timing places like Prague, Vienna, Switzerland, other parts of southern France, or Dublin will be explored. I finish in Italy and Greece, when I fly home May 27th.
I'll leave you with a picture of what I look like as I take on the world and go off the leash...
Maybe my face will age, maybe the 2 month beard and long hair will make me look like Donnie Whalberg in Saw IV, or maybe I'll just come back lookin the same, but I can't envision things being the same again.
And now here I am, a little more than 12 hours to go before heading off on the journey of a lifetime. I've had many mental ups and downs throughout the day including a solid case of IBS. I woke up with a terrified feeling of how real this is about to be. I think with the final four, and consistently being busy for the past 2 months I haven't had a day to truly grasp the concept of my journey. As the day went on and the shock began to wear off I became more comfortable with what lies ahead. As I spoke to people throughout the day and said more and more goodbyes I realized this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. From the beginning I'll be doing something I wouldn't have envisioned doing as little as 6 months ago. Life takes you on many small journeys that you can't control, but I finally know the ones you have the opportunity to create yourself shouldn't even be questioned.
I purchased a book of mainly poetry by singer/songwriter Ryan Adams for my journey, I've only read the foreword, but it's an explanation of why I enjoy writing.
"Once in a life, if a person chooses to go through these things, then maybe the act of writing them down could be a gift, so that others might know that should they suffer their romancers or their love of things, they're not alone."
As much as I want people to read what I'm doing, if you can take something out of this with me, the trip can only mean more. One of the greatest compliments I ever received was 5 years ago when someone randomly stumbled upon an old blog of mine and sent me an email telling me they never knew people felt the same in certain aspects of life. You just never know what is out there.
I'm very comfortable with my decision to take this chance, today went by slowly, but in a good way. The whole picture slowed down and now there's little to do, but get ready to step on that plane. I'm all packed (yet don't really know if it's too much or too little yet), have my travel books, notes, and information from those who have experienced firsthand traveling printed or memorized. I know I'll have forgotten something, probably minor that I won't even notice for a week, but I'm sure Europe can sell me whatever I lack. I bought my ticket to the Counting Crows concert in Dublin, no clue if I'll be able to make it there or not, but why not go for it.
I arrive in Lisbon 8:20 a.m on Thursday April 9th. No idea what time that is in other parts in the world, but that's when it all officially begins. Tomorrow will be a day full of flying, probably recycling many nervous thoughts in my mind throughout the day. I figure since I can barely sleep at home, the plane ride won't be much better. I intend on hitting the ground running, go to the hostel and begin seeing all that I can see. It probably won't be a late night, but no use getting off to a slow start. From Lisbon I'll head to Spain, then France, Amsterdam, Germany, and depending on timing places like Prague, Vienna, Switzerland, other parts of southern France, or Dublin will be explored. I finish in Italy and Greece, when I fly home May 27th.
I'll leave you with a picture of what I look like as I take on the world and go off the leash...
Maybe my face will age, maybe the 2 month beard and long hair will make me look like Donnie Whalberg in Saw IV, or maybe I'll just come back lookin the same, but I can't envision things being the same again.
I will try to be as honest as possible with events in the blog, so for those adults like my parents who aren't sure if they should be reading at certain points, maybe I'll throw in a disclaimer. Not that there's anything wrong with doin drugs, hookers, and sleepin on the street.
I asked the magic eight ball if this will be the best experience of my life, the response "It is certain."
Email me at BK5000@gmail.com, leave comments, or read silently, but I hope you enjoy yourselves as much as I.
-BK
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
One week to go
The goodbyes have begun, the anxiety levels have rapidly increased, and the amount of time originally free of obligations now throbs for extra minutes. This time next week I'll be panicking on a plane wondering if skipping Passover Seder was really worth flying to Europe for. Just kidding about that part, but foreign languages, unfamiliar transportation, and being alone for 2 months with only my thoughts (the scariest of all) may be crossing my mind over the Atlantic. I'm still not packed, but have taken a trip around the neighborhood with 20 pounds of weights loaded into a backpack. I've come up with a list of the top 4 hostels per city that I will attempt to stay at, and come up with a rough sketch of things I'd like to see in each city. I have become more fearful of the limited amount of time I have to see everything I want. On paper the idea of 13 cities in 50 days sounds fantastic, but train times, sites, day trips, the people, the costs, and the truly unknown may shrink the list. I want to see as much as possible, but I want to prevent the trapped and structured feeling that I have to see certain things or go to certain cities before the end.
There are only two definite places, Lisbon because I start there and Athens because I fly home from there. The goal is to see definitely see the following cities in addition to those two: Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome. With those cities I hope to have at least one day trip to a nearby smaller town while visiting that particular area.
Additional cities at the top of my list include: Dublin, Venice, Florence, Prague, Vienna. These cities are also part of the main plan and may include day trips themselves. They are up there on the high priority list and if the rarity of plans actually seems to sail smoothly these all should be destinations at some point.
Additional cities and places I'd like to/would consider venturing to based on time, people I've met with, and mood of the day: Interlaken, Greek Isles, Sevilla, Nice.
I believe some cities that don't appear above will be added, while others disappear from all lists as the trip continues. My want to explore different styles of European life, escape certain areas, try the suggested food of an obscure small town, or following the path of a cute girl I met at a hostel (kidding, probably) will all factor into the final outline.
I've begun the process of toughening up my thoughts, preparing myself for challenges, and focusing on the task ahead. It's not that I don't think I can survive, but I feel in a situation like this I can be my best friend, worst enemy, and guide. Whether it's a coincidence or something more I'm the dude who has been able to use sports to help gain the proper tough mindset as the Michigan State basketball team with all their talk has helped mold my mind with a clearer look at the focus necessary to make things great. It may sound cheesy, but their run to the final four coinciding with my preparation has been a tremendous aid. Of course my final few days here could only be garnered perfect with the National Championship, but it's been an incredible journey that I'm glad I could take additional lessons.
Speaking of universities I have officially let the University of Wisconsin know they have a new student in fall 2009. I probably won't be able to find a place until June, move until August, or meet more than a few people til October, but it's what I had to do. I never heard from Maryland or Colorado, which doesn't bother me at all, helping me think I made the right decision.
As for the new design of this blog, I have received complaints that the white writing on black background has caused hallucinations and the ability to see my blog at all times during the day so I decided to be a man of the people and change it, but just this once. Depending on how many drugs I do in Amsterdam, however, the color scheme may change for my enjoyment (j slash k). Anyway, although this is another short entry, I don't envision getting used to them. I plan on extensive food reviews, city and sight reviews, the pontifications of Benjie Klein, and whatever else pops in my head. I'll mention this again next week in my final before I leave entry, but please email me while I am gone, BK5000@gmail.com. I will respond to you personally, however, I will not be initiating any email conversations, so if you want to talk to me drop me a line there or leave a comment here and if you need something I'll let you know.
Hope you all enjoy the new background if you complain again I hunt you down.
Benjamin Klein
There are only two definite places, Lisbon because I start there and Athens because I fly home from there. The goal is to see definitely see the following cities in addition to those two: Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome. With those cities I hope to have at least one day trip to a nearby smaller town while visiting that particular area.
Additional cities at the top of my list include: Dublin, Venice, Florence, Prague, Vienna. These cities are also part of the main plan and may include day trips themselves. They are up there on the high priority list and if the rarity of plans actually seems to sail smoothly these all should be destinations at some point.
Additional cities and places I'd like to/would consider venturing to based on time, people I've met with, and mood of the day: Interlaken, Greek Isles, Sevilla, Nice.
I believe some cities that don't appear above will be added, while others disappear from all lists as the trip continues. My want to explore different styles of European life, escape certain areas, try the suggested food of an obscure small town, or following the path of a cute girl I met at a hostel (kidding, probably) will all factor into the final outline.
I've begun the process of toughening up my thoughts, preparing myself for challenges, and focusing on the task ahead. It's not that I don't think I can survive, but I feel in a situation like this I can be my best friend, worst enemy, and guide. Whether it's a coincidence or something more I'm the dude who has been able to use sports to help gain the proper tough mindset as the Michigan State basketball team with all their talk has helped mold my mind with a clearer look at the focus necessary to make things great. It may sound cheesy, but their run to the final four coinciding with my preparation has been a tremendous aid. Of course my final few days here could only be garnered perfect with the National Championship, but it's been an incredible journey that I'm glad I could take additional lessons.
Speaking of universities I have officially let the University of Wisconsin know they have a new student in fall 2009. I probably won't be able to find a place until June, move until August, or meet more than a few people til October, but it's what I had to do. I never heard from Maryland or Colorado, which doesn't bother me at all, helping me think I made the right decision.
As for the new design of this blog, I have received complaints that the white writing on black background has caused hallucinations and the ability to see my blog at all times during the day so I decided to be a man of the people and change it, but just this once. Depending on how many drugs I do in Amsterdam, however, the color scheme may change for my enjoyment (j slash k). Anyway, although this is another short entry, I don't envision getting used to them. I plan on extensive food reviews, city and sight reviews, the pontifications of Benjie Klein, and whatever else pops in my head. I'll mention this again next week in my final before I leave entry, but please email me while I am gone, BK5000@gmail.com. I will respond to you personally, however, I will not be initiating any email conversations, so if you want to talk to me drop me a line there or leave a comment here and if you need something I'll let you know.
Hope you all enjoy the new background if you complain again I hunt you down.
Benjamin Klein
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