Venezzzzia part 1

Welcome back, it has been a while since Ive stopped by. I must apologize first for the lack of apostrophes that will surely irritate some grammar critics, I dont have time to worry about these annoying European keyboards, thus it wont look as nice, but Ill feel damn good not learning this keyboard. This update will also only include Venice as Im about to be done with Rome as well, but that would be way too long. Anyway, last I left you I was heading back on plane to Munich. I spent a quiet night when I returned to Germany one last time, though I did jump into one last Schnitzel and beer just for old times sake. I wandered around for a bit at night, but called it quits early and luckily had a relatively quiet room at the hostel.

The next morning I woke up and headed right to the train station to go to Venice. As soon as I got on I was pretty skeptical of the train as I entered a seating cubicle for the first time since Ive been in Europe. I was just hoping not to get stuck with some random non-English speaking smelly Euros, but it worked out as 2 college girls jumped in and just us three had the whole 7 hours together. Never once did any of us ask names, thats a weird concept to me, we talked a while, they slept for a while, I stared into the awesome views of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and we eventually made it 7 hours later. I considered asking for their name, but then I realized there was no point, I wasnt going to meet up with them in Venice so wasnt worth it. When I got off the train it was around 7 p.m, I was going to be crazy and try finding my hostel, but about 10 steps in there was no chance of that happening with my 30 pounds of luggage. I got on the Vaporetto (waterbus) and headed to San Toma. Luckily from there it was real easy to find the hostel and I checked right in. It was in a 400 year old building, and you could tell. Old school pull the chain toilet, semi-cramped room, and wireless internet access from the neighbor if you stand out on the balcony, but it turned out to be pretty good.

After checking in I headed out for an Italian meal, wasnt sure where I would end up, but I wanted pizza or pasta. I had no map since the hostel unfortunately didnt offer any so I wandered through the labryinth until I ended up at some place that looked pretty good and decently busy. It was close to the train station, but not close enough to be considered a crazy tourist place. I sat down and immediately ordered my pizza with spicy salami (essentially pepperoni) and a glass of red wine just cause I was in the mood and sick of beer. As I sat there one of the women next to me coughed and made a swine flu joke so I gave a sarcastic laugh, which prompted us to all talk throughout the whole meal. It was a mother and daughter from Vancouver, probably in their 60s and 40s, respectively. It was nice to have some company and talk through the meal. The pizza was fantastic and the wine wasnt bad for a random house wine. It was also my first real meal of the day, so that couldve made everything taste a little sweeter. I ate my meal pretty fast, per usual, but stuck around until the Canadians were done eating, semi in the hope theyd pay for my meal, but really just enjoying the conversation and being semi tipsy. Finally about an hour or so later we got up and headed our separate ways. One good thing was the placemat for the restaurant was a map, so I took my tomato stained placemat and went on my way. I again attempted to navigate the streets of Venice, this time at night, but after realizing I had no chance even with my tomatoed map without ever really looking at it I got on the night waterbus. It turned out to be a great decision as it took the long way to my stop and I got a full tour of the canals to take in the sinking beauty that is Venice.

I got back to my hostel around 10, pretty exhausted from a restless train ride. A lot of people were hanging out in the kitchen, but I wasnt in the mood. There was an Asian dude from UM who came up to the room at some point though and so I said Id come down for a bit. He was obsessed with grappo, so he wanted me to try some and that it was a good kind so you couldnt really taste the vodka. Either he has no taste buds or I shouldve gone with the dont trust anyone from UM mindset as that shit was pure vodka with a shitty grape aftertaste about 5 minutes later. Everyone luckily called it an early night there as they were emptying out in the morning, so we headed up to the room for sleep. I was excited for a possible decent night of rest even though it was slightly stuffy in the room. That lasted about 10 seconds until a massive pig emerged in my room, or some dude snoring and the fight to sleep was on. I blasted my ipod and eventually fell asleep, luckily the people left at like 5 a.m so I was able to get another couple hours in that morning.

I then went down for some breakfast and started my day. I went to St. Marks and checked out the area, I went in the church, even decided to check out the church art out of boredom and hung around that area for a while until deciding to move on to my next stop. I went through the streets of Venice until I ended up at the Guggenheim where I stayed for about an hour, it was nice, but not very big, which worked out well cause it was about the time I became starving. I grabbed some quick sandwiches from a bar, one with tuna and mozzarella and the other had mozzarella and eggplant (it was good, but I didnt actually realize I had gotten eggplant until I actually had it in my hand). It was a nice cheap meal. I was still hungry and knew I had been waiting way too long, but I finally got some gelato. I found a place away from everywhere and without the clear brandname gelato ads, so figured it was homemade. It was very good as I went with cherry and some sort of chocolate cookie gelato in a cone. I was satisfied I then figured Id find the old Jewish ghetto and realized Id have to let it find me because that is the real way to find things in Venice. I wandered up and down the streets and bam, the old gates of a Jewish ghetto and street signs indicating where I was entered my sight. I walked around checking out the small monuments and the kosher restaurants than went on the synaguoge tour. There was a guy with a Tigers hat so I thought Id strike up a conversation with him on the tour. He hadnt lived in Detroit since 1961 and was pretty conservadox so any conversation we had going did not last long. He did talk to me a few random times about other Jewish things to see in Italy, but sports were not in the picture. Him and his wife were also the question people, clearly agitating the tour guide with the same questions over and over, though it did make it more informative for everyone else. About 20 people were on the tour and the 3 synaguoges we were able to see all had some interesting looks and history, so it was worth going on. I then walked around some more doing what I do, ending up at the rialto and doing a walk through there admiring the overpriced gandolas, merchandise sellers, and crazy amounts of tourists. I then decided to get a dinner somewhere. I chose a random restaurant in an alley and made the semi mistake of going with the tourist menu. The food wasnt terrible, though the wine seemed slightly watered down and the piece of salmon I ordered, while tasty was quite tiny for my manly needs. I then did more of the walking thing finally finding out how to get back to my hostel and picking up some extra gelato on the way. I got it from the same place I did earlier in the day, not purposely, I didnt even realize it at first, but hey, was still good. Went lemon this time and some banana.

From there I finally headed back to the hostel. People were hangin out in the kitchen again, but it was semi late and I headed up to the room. Up there I met a few people that had just checked in since my whole room had emptied out from the night before. I talked with them for a little while, they were a bunch of Tennessee graduates and we all went to sleep. It was cool because I thought the snoring problem had disappeared, until it doubled on that night. As one kid snored, the other waited until silence to add in his loud snore. There was one point where I flicked the lights real quick, prompting silence, probably waking them and giving me just enough time to be lulled to sleep by the ipod, jackpot! I slept a little better in the end that night though than the previous night and that was good enough for me.

The next morning I headed down to grab some breakfast and joined all the Tennessee people as well as some extras who were eating. I talked with the whole crew of them and joined along with them and another straggler like myself lookin to hang out with everyone for the day...

With that I will cut this short and reconvene at another time as the internet claims I have 7 minutes left, but I hope this short, but sweet entry has you wanting more. For those who havent seen there are actually a couple random pictures up of me on facebook, not posted by myself, if you want to see how I look bearded. Recently I did add a sunburn to my repetoire so dont be surprised when I come back black with a beard after Rome, Florence, and Athens continue to burn me to shreds.

I shall hopefully return in Florence with the rest of Venice, hopefully a seperate entry for Rome, and probably Florence and Athens when I arrive home, as well as pictures, a final entry of my thoughts for the trip, and of course love for you all.

Now I go get some food because its fantastic out here...

BK

Irishing in Dublin

On Thursday night I took my flight from Munich to Dublin and luckily made it. I waited for a while at the airport, which was fine, I really didn't have anything left to do in Munich and figured the airport would be fine. I sat around, ate some snacks and relaxed before boarding the flight. The flight itself was good until the end. We were told there were windy conditions in Dublin, never a good sign when it comes to turbulence possibilities. With about 10 minutes to go we began our rocky descent. It was one of the worst landings I've experienced, I'm pretty sure the pilot made some mistakes, which I figured would happen when I saw there was a woman pilot (kidding ladies!). In honesty though it was pretty bad, it felt like we landed on the side of the wheel when we hit the ground and took that big bounce before gaining stability. All the people surrounding me gave the sigh of relief and things were calm from there, at least for them. As for me I stood up and stretched my legs only to be met with intense stomach pains. I knew I didn't have much time to find a bathroom, but knew it may be a while. I rushed off the plane rushing past other passengers and darting ahead. I got to customs and had to enter the non-EU citizen passport line. The first window the customs agent had nobody, but was playing around with a passport seemingly left behind. The 2nd window had a man from an African country begging the customs dude to let him in Ireland, and the third was generous enough to be taking people in line. The first lady took longer than I would've liked, but from a distance it seemed like she was joking around with the customs woman, so I figured it would be an easy sail through get my stamp and go. I got to the lady and the questions began, apparently Ireland is the strictest country in the world. She badgered me for information about my visit, asked me when I planned on leaving, and required I show her my itinerary for my return flight to Munich. This led to an extra 5 minutes of me having to turn on my phone, her looking at it, and finally approving me to enter the country, only until May 11th. Really Ireland? I then ignored seeking my luggage and unloaded a barrage of body waste bombs on the Irish toilet. By the time I got out only my luggage remained on the carousel, luckily I grabbed it before they moved it to another area, grabbed a bottle of water and began to go on my way. That was until my body decided it wasn't time to go, I went back to trusty stall number one and finished the job. Hey, everyone loves a good shit story, get over it...



I had no choice but to take a taxi to the hostel, it was expensive, but the guy was a nice cab driver and who doesn't like the terrifying feeling of driving on the opposite side of the road. He didn't really know the exact hostel location, but he called up a friend who helped out and luckily I got there. We talked a little, but unfortunately I could barely understand his thick Irish accent, however, it was a nice change being some place that at least English is the chosen form of talk. I checked in and headed upstairs pretty quick, I was pretty out of it still fully clothed and passed out for the evening. The next morning I woke up feeling better, even though I slept awful, but I no longer had pains of death engulfing my body. I grabbed some free toast downstairs and began my day. I went on the free Dublin walking tour, it rained off and on for the whole tour, apparently one of the things Dublin is known for, but didn't make it less enjoyable. I talked with the tour guide (when he wasn't guiding) for most of it, he has some book about to be published and is moving to the US when he graduates college in a few weeks. I never realized the American dream still looms large for a lot of people, but I guess so. We got to see the whole U2 beginnings (the tour guide hates them though so it made it more entertaining), all the churches, the trinity college, and Dublin Castle amongst other things.

When the tour finished around 2 I figured I'd walk around Dublin more and slowly make my way to the concert site. It was about a 2 mile walk and with taking my time I arrived around 3, but nobody was waiting, which I was happy about so I could take time and get myself some food. I figured there would be a few people, but as long as the line wasn't crazy that early I'd be alright. I went to the College of Ireland campus nearby and grabbed a quick pasta meal since that was the only place that seemed decent. I then went to a grocery store for some snacks and went back. I got to the arena around 4 where people were beginning to wait, so I figured I'd stick around. Everyone in line was real nice and of course only one was actually from Dublin, while the rest were crazy people who travel to concerts (freaks eek). Though there were a few people that made me seem not quite as crazy as many people want to make me seem. There were people who had seen over one-hundred shows, travel to many more than I have, and just in general probably a bit crazier than me (hard to believe, I know). We waited in the off and on pouring rain and wind, one of the security guards gave us a semi-workable umbrella to fight off the downpours. Did get to see a rainbow though, in Ireland, I almost left the line to search for the gold pot, I mean it has to be here right, but decided not to. Finally around 6 the guards let us inch ahead closer to the gates. Got in around 6:30 and stood with a couple girls from the line as we waited. There were 2 opening acts, which I find irritating, at first I thought the 2nd band added was to sell more tickets since 02 is a big arena and they weren't going to sell it out (and didn't), but it was a band from America that nobody had heard of overseas. They were a decent band, a slower rock type group, even bluegrass/folk rockish in a way. The next band were a bit more known, the Hold Steady. The keyboardist was by far the most entertaining with his handlebar mustache and theatrics. The lead singer is decent, but his act of comedic gestures and awkward yelling gets old after 20 minutes. I don't mind their music, but a lot of it in concert seemed like yelling to go with their harder rock sense, seems they could have been better, but then again always tougher to sit through 2 opening acts when you anticipate the final one. Finally around 9:29 Counting Crows got on stage, I figured this meant I'd get about 1:30 of them (still more than I've seen in the states in a few years with all their co-headlining). The setlist for me was great, a lot of older songs, a couple I had been waiting to hear in concert like Another Horsedreamer's Blues and High Life and not many of the popular hits I had heard numerous times over. The concert ended around 11:10, I thought it was great, though I could hear the disappointment in much of the crowd with Mr. Jones, Round Here, and basically all of their heavily popular songs outside of Long December excluded from the setlist. As a bonus one of the employees at my hostel clearly went to the concert because Counting Crows on pandora has been playing throughout the building all weekend.

I took the 2 mile walk back with the girls I had met, I'd like to think I was escorting them for saftey on the streets of Dublin, but clearly I had no idea where I was going. They finally left me to get a taxi when I knew where I was (aka the same street my hostel was located on). I went back to the hostel, relaxed for about 5 minutes and scoured the area for late night food. I ended up at the "American burger joint" Eddie Rockets (apparently Johnny's cousin). It was a bit expensive, but I've come to realize everything in Dublin is expensive, quite possibly more so than any city I've been in thus far especially when it comes to food of any sort. Eddie definitely delivered, he was much better than Johnny's back home (either that or I was so starved and longing for a real hamburger anything would've tasted great) and having actual heinz ketchup to use with my meal added to the satisfaction. It was about 1 at that point so I headed back and read until I passed out around 2.

I woke up pretty early the next day with a new mission in mind, I'd head over to the Old Jameson Distillery for their whiskey tour after getting a bite to eat. I grabbed a bagel with lox and then headed towards the place. It was pretty hard for me to find since I didn't really read the street signs to point me in the direction, but finally arrived around 12:30, bought my ticket and waited for the tour to begin. At the beginning they had 8 people volunteer to do a whiskey taste testing in the end to compare Jameson to a scotch whiskey and American whiskey, my hand couldn't have been in the air quicker. She immediately handed me the tube to anoint me one of the participants and the tour began. We went through the different stages of the whiskey, how they put it altogether, the history of Jameson, etc. It was decent, though I don't think the tour guide really loved her job and was just going through a script she had memorized. Finally though we got to the best part. I sat with the other 7 around the table where they had the whiskeys labeled and wanted you to describe the differences and see how smooth Jameson is. First we went with the Jameson to feel the smoothness and get a sense for the flavors, then cleansed with water. Next came the Johnnie Walker black label, seeking the smokey taste it's known for and then comparing to Jameson again. Finally we came to the American whiskey and as anticipated it was my good friend Jack Daniels. I smelled the sweetness and took my sip, once again asked to compare to Jameson. Now although Jameson may have a bit smoother feel than regular Jack (I was hoping they'd be ballsy enough to put it against single barrel) I don't think it exerts as much flavor. We were then asked to try them each again and put your favorite forward. I was now left with a choice, do I stick with my roots, both familial and patriotic or do I give them what they want. I tasted them all again and looked around at my fellow participants. A few quickly put Jameson in front, I finally decided I had no choice. I proudly grabbed the Jack Daniels and placed it ahead of the other two to gasps and moans of the crowd. The others then placed Jameson ahead and I was the only one who went against the grain. The tour guide played it off to American pride and wanting to stand out, but I really do like Jack Daniels better it's what I've been bred on. We then received Irish whiskey tasting diplomas for our deeds and an extra glass of Jameson for participating. I proudly stood up after, listening to whispers of others, some who admitted the Jack was better to them as well and walked out with my chest held high. I can't deny and this may sound sad in the end I really did feel an extra sense of American pride. I walked out on to the streets and as I headed back and even past a few fellow participants I got the smile and nod, reaffirming the only choice I really had.

I then decided to celebrate with some food, I was feeling good, though not drunk and grabbed some fish and chips around the corner from my hostel. It's one of the more famous fish/chips places in Dublin, Leo Burrdocks, I looked at the wall of fame before entering and realized one day my name will be added to that list (okay, maybe I was a little drunk) and then got my fish and chips. It was very good, though I couldn't finish the whole thing, just way too much food. I had dreams of heading to guiness after, but it was getting later in the afternoon and I wanted not to have to rush through there. I ended up walking around the city, finding the Guinness storehouse for reference for the next day and exploring much of Dublin. I then walked to St. Stephens Green where I enjoyed the awesome park. I laid down on the grass for a while, but apparently it was the wrong grass since police quickly asked me (and others) to move to other sections of the park. I decided to walk instead of sit and gazed at the kids chasing peacocks, the beautiful swans being fed in the ponds, the flowers and the numerous statues spread throughout. I really enjoyed it and made the mental note to come back there the next day.

I then headed back to my hostel and figured it about time to find some dinner. I went to the Temple Bar area right by my hostel and searched for some Irish food. Every restaurant I entered I was refused. Some had legit waits and were nice about it, others blatantly lied so they wouldn't "waste" a table on a busy Saturday night to one person. I was pissed, hungry and didn't like the solo discrimination I had encountered. I stalked around the places that clearly could have sat me watching to see if the magical customers were to appear, they didn't and that was satisfying enough. I then walked around a little bit longer until I was so famished that no choice existed, but to find any sort of restaurant to eat at. Luckily the place next to my hostel was open, a decent enough Irish place where I enjoyed some Irish lamb stew. I even got to hear a fight with some drunk on the street and the restaurant manager as the guy tried to stumble in. I then headed back to the hostel around 11 and decided I'd see if I could meet anyone since it was a Saturday night in Dublin and I should take advantage of the city. This, however, turned in to passing out immediately when I went to my room to lay down for a minute and not waking up until 9 the next morning, apparently I had finally hit a wall.

On Sunday I decided it be about time to go to Guinness. I woke up at 9 as I said, but didn't really realize it until I found a place to eat breakfast. I rushed to go some place since a lot stop serving at 11 and I really wanted an Irish breakfast. I got there, ordered my food and looked at my watch realizing it wasn't even 10 a.m yet. I got my poached egg, breakfast sausage, canadian style bacon (I know, 2 more pig products, however, different varieties than Germany so it actually excited my taste buds), some potato thing, some toast, and some other random crap as well as free tea and orange juice. I ate it all and even drank both the tea and orange juice (I despise orange juice, but I need a cooler drink, didn't want to ask for water and it wasn't awful until the pulp irritated me). I then began walking around taking my time since it was so early and finally headed to Guinness.

I had pre-ordered my ticket since there was no service charge and I could still get the "student" discount online without a problem. It saved me about a 15 minute line wait and I got right in there. It's a huge building with seven stories. It takes you through the beer making process with some cool rooms and examples including a tasting room. I think the tour itself, which is self guided, is slightly overrated as to what they take you through. I understand why being the volume of people the places sees on a daily basis, but outside of the first 2 floors not much interaction exists and it's a lot of reading. Of course they make up for it all at the very end of the tour where you have a variety of options of where to enjoy your pint. I wanted to do the pour your own pint, but there was nobody at the stand and there was a line, so I decided not to wait and just went straight to the gravity bar where they do it for you. It's on the 7th level and it's an awesome place with a 360 degree view of all of Dublin, which makes the price of admission worth it right there. I took some pictures and then got my "free" pint where they poured it to perfection with the clover on the head of the beer. I enjoyed the visual for a few minutes and went to work on the pint. I drank it relatively slowly, but the final result ended up in me definitely feeling tipsy by the end.

I left the Guinness storehouse and enjoyed the first day with no rain at all around Dublin by just walking around. I got hungry around three and knew it was time to satisfy my Mexican urge. Many Mexican restaurants are in the area and I had read about one, so I headed over there for a reuniting with myself and the world of burritos. It was pretty good, the tortilla sucked, but overall the chicken, salsa, sour cream, beans, jalapenos, all hit the spot pretty well. I was glad I finally made the plunge for it. I then headed back to the park from the previous day to sit on a bench, people watch, and relax. I did get to see one of my favorite things as well there. I like to watch people take pictures, but not to see what they are taking of or who, but to watch the people who try avoiding "ruining" the picture as if there is no turning back. I'm at fault for doing this too, but when you see someone taking a picture and it's too late you have a few options. Lot of people stop and let them take the picture with the awkward you can go through, no just take the picture exchange. Then there are people who run through quickly hoping that didn't ruin the shot, respectable. And then my favorite, the people who feel that the camera will kill them so they either block their face in horror or duck real quick so the "bullet" doesn't hit them. I then headed off as the sun went down and it was cold.

I got back to the hostel, did a bunch of a laundry, grabbed some cheap pizza since I had been spending tons of money here and with Italy coming up only more will be spent. I pretty much laid low the rest of Sunday night, as did most people in the hostel it seems. I never really met anyone in this hostel, I talked to a couple people, but I think with me not being around much the first couple days I was behind on the curve so they probably thought I was anti-social, ah well. I went to my room around 12, surprisingly everyone was already a sleep in the room when I went in there, fell asleep around 2 and here I am before my flight back to Munich in a few hours. I'll spend one night in Munich, leave on a train early the next morning for Venice and start my Italian tour. It'll be weird going back to languages I don't know, just as I was getting used to some sembelance of English again. Only 16 days left, well 15 really since I leave at 7 a.m May 27th, good luck to me making it to the airport that day.

Flyin away

BK

The tales of Munich

I was planning on having a quiet do nothing night on my first night in Munich when I first arrived, but it didn't quite work out that way. I met a few people in my hostel when I went back to my room. Two people from California, a girl and guy who I'm not sure if they were dating, best friends or just random friends who decided to come to Europe together were in the room. There was also a guy from Japan whom none of us could figure out his name in there as well. We all talked for a while. I realized I have a very hard time understanding Asian's directly from that region of the world and their English. It was the 2nd straight stop on my tour I've had at least a 10 minute conversation with an Asian, but could barely make out. Seemed like a nice guy, and he did confirm a belief longheld in the world. He was talking about how he went to the museum that afternoon and it was nice, but one of the problems was every 5 feet an Asian person would be taking a picture or ask him to take one of them. If anyone has seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall with the breakfast scene and the Asian couple taking pictures of their silverware and different breakfast poses, this does happen. It's entertaining to watch and now that this fellow from Japan confirmed the existence, I can no longer brush away those thoughts that maybe I'm just stereotyping, jackpot!

He left the room after a while, I hung out upstairs for a bit and then headed to the bar with the Cali peeps. They were real nice and good people to hang out with, we got our free drinks offered by the hostel at their bar, had another drink and headed off. I didn't really have dinner that night, just a late lunch, so the beer hit me rather quickly. We went down to a bierhaus, got some more beer and had some Brez'n (pretzels). The beers were good, I remember the place we went, but couldn't tell you what kind of beer I had. We then went to another place, just a regular bar endulged in another drink, and then came back for one more beer at the hostel. I was sufficiently drunk, though I don't think either of them really realized it, I've become good at hiding my lightweight drinking abilities. Finally around 12:30 headed up and passed out around 1:30.

I woke up around 8:30 the next day with the goal of heading off to the Dachau tour, I was a bit tired, but I got myself out of bed and headed to the meeting place. I arrived and saw a group of people, gathered around so figured it was the best area to go. The tour guide told everyone to grab a bit of food if they didn't have any because there would be nowhere to get food til after around 3:30. I grabbed a couple croissants, one vanilla stuffed the other chocolate and joined back up. We had about 20 people told on the tour, a solid group. I was a little worried about the tour guide because he did show up with a hangover, a scratchy voice, and didn't seem to want to be there, but as the day began he woke up a bit. First we had to take the train over to the camp, when we got to the station the ticket machine wouldn't take big bills, leaving the guide kind of screwed. I decided to be the nice guy, I offered him to use my money and he can get me back after, so it worked out and we were finally on our way. I also gave the guide one of my croissants since he clearly needed food, guess I just felt like being nice. Once at the train station we had to take a bus and then we arrived.

Getting off the bus and taking the walk right towards the camp doors definitely had a creepy feel. It was a cold gloomy day, something I just kind of expected when visiting a place so demonized from it's history. We stopped at remaining train tracks where the guide gave us an introduction into Dachau. It was the first concentration camp in Germany and used as a model for many thereafter. The grounds were also used heavily for the training/brainwashing of impressionable youths and how to use cruel tactics. He then told us the speech prisoners would hear upon entrance and we headed through the door. The land in front of us was wide open meant to have that sense of nothingness. We then started going into the first few buildings where the people slept, were checked in, and were punished. Many of them have been redone, but some original frameworks, items, tables and other things still exist. We first glanced at the table where people were stripped of their names and reduced to a number and then walked through looking at the cruel ways of punishment. The guide was good, let us look at the right moments, explained things well, and took us around. After seeing the tiny beds or boxes people slept in we walked around a few of the memorial signs. The "Never Again" signs always effect me for some reason, I didn't cry or anything, I don't know how to do that in public, but everytime something clicks with that and gives me chills. We had just missed Survivors day by a few days at the camp, but extra mini memorials and flowers were set up around portions of the camp. After that we went inside to get ready to watch the camp movie. I got kind of angry though cause I saw 2 kids kind of fighting inside there on what seemed to be a middle school tour, and I understand the comprehension at that age is impossible as to where you actuall are, but it made me really angry, which is rare. Finally the kids went on their way and we got to watch the very creepy 20 minute camp movie with movies of what the camp was like, the dead bodies, and the liberation. From there we headed to the crematories and gas chamber. There is a myth with Dachau that the gas chambers were never used according to the Germans at the time, but survivors claimed use, plus Jews and others starting in 1942 weren't deemed worthy enough to even be registered as prisoners anymore, so I have a hard time believing the never used story. Dachau technically wasn't a death camp, though over 30,000 regisitered prisoners died from starvation, disease, or cruel death again not counting three years of unregistered members. All that stuff was real eery to see and there wasn't much else to say after seeing that. I'm definitely glad I went and although it can never be described as a fun time, it was very interesting and I would have a desire to see other camps as strange as that may seem.

After the tour I did get my money from there train ride back for those worried ha and got myself a quick lunch. The day was still pretty cold, but I decided to do what anyone in Munich would do, go and find the Apple Store. I saw they were having a live in-store concert that night so I kept that in mind, it was a real nice store (as expected). I then walked around discovering more areas of Munich until finally getting hungry enough to delve into a meal. I had a German restaurant in mind and made my way there. The place was packed as most restaurants around here are basically beer halls and restaurants. I found one open table and ordered a giant wheat beer. It was actually good, I then decided to go with the Ox for dinner and see what this meat would taste like since I was getting pretty tired of pig. As I waited for my meal a German woman came up to my table, said some crazy German and pointed to the chair. I assumed this meant can I use this chair over at my table, but I was incorrect, she took a seat. I thought alright, this is fine, she can barely speak English and looks kind of old so should be safe. About two minutes later this huge younger German dude laced in tattoos comes and takes a seat to join us. I felt a variety of scenarios existed at this point, either I could get stuck with their bill (bad, but not the worst thing), they could be so grateful I let them sit and pay for my meal (I was a tad drunk from my beer), nothing could happen, or they could savagely stalk and kill me after the meal (what can I say, I'm an optimist). The Ox finally came, they ordered their stuff and I began to eat as they spoke German with each other. The Ox was good, some parts tough and others tender, but had a very brisket like taste to it. I finished rather quickly hoping to beat them to at least the bill and get out, but they ate their meals relatively fast. It turned out they were co-workers and were eating before heading off to work and needed to eat quickly. I made it out safe and stumbled my way back down the block.

I saw the line grow in front of the Apple store and felt I have nothing else to do, why not see the free concert. I got in line, was one of the final 10 remaining allowed in (felt semi-bad for those who were probably really interested) and headed up to stairs to the concert. I looked up and saw it was $amy Delight, German hip hop/reggae star (I looked up implies that actually knew who this Samy Delight was, but in fact I just saw a sign). One perk was getting 10 free songs from the German itunes store for being there, no idea if it will work when I'm home, but worth a shot. I stayed for the whole thing, it was pretty packed and besides the Deutsch words when he did more of the actual reggae style of song him and his band weren't bad at all. Apparently he's really successful in Germany, so was worth checking out. I then headed back for the night and tried to call it an early night. I got in early, didn't go out, but slept awfully for some reason, ah well.

The next day I woke up and reunited with the Californians. They were leaving in the afternoon, but we had time to go for a real german breakfast. For the 3rd straight day it was cold and rainy as we walked to the breakfast location. I had Weiß-wurst, the breakfast sausage made with cream and eggs. It was very good, though the skin must be removed before eating so that part was a little annoying. Both of them went with the traditional breakfast wheat beers with their meal, but I decided it wasn't for me and beer in the morning never has and probably never will go well with my body. Afterwards we headed back and then parted ways.

I originally wanted to go to the BMW open that was going on since I had never been to a pro tennis match, but with the colder weather and rain I decided not to. Instead I walked around the city, ended up at the Deutsches Museum and spent a few hours there. This is basically their science and technolgy museum. Half of the place has English, the other half not so much. I didn't feel like an audio tour though and could figure out most of what I was looking at. The place was huge and pretty impressive. From car technology, engines, aeronautics, astronomics, a planetarium, to musical instruments, sexual pharmaceutical technology, computer science and random chemistry experiments it had it all. I didn't plan on spending that long there, but so many rooms existed and it was easy to get trapped on the way to looking for an exit. I left there, got my train ticket for when I return to Munich on my flight to head to Venice the next day, and then searched for food. I was sick of German food, which has pretty much consumed me for 2 weeks now and felt it about time to change up. I longed for a burrito, it's been over 30 days now, I rarely go more than 3 meals without a burrito. There was a recommendation for the best tex-mex restaurant in the area so I went there. Apparently it's the best restaurant in the world because inside and out every seat was filled, the bar was filled, and people were waiting on the streets. I decided I couldn't wait any longer to eat so I let that dream die and got some decent spicy chinese food (it was actually really good, but I say decent due to the results of the following morning where the toilet ate my meal). I headed off and walked down the street. I decided to try Haagen Daas in Germany, I could've went gelado, but figured I'll be in Italy in a week anyway. It was good, I finished it and walked past the Apple store where another concert event was being held. I wasn't gonna go this time, for real, but the security guards were handing out stuff on the street to get in, it was a different person this time, and I was hoping this would mean 10 more free songs, which it did (if it'll work in the US). This time it was Cassandra Steen, not nearly as popular as the other dude. She was just a regular singing type. Not terrible, but I thought her backup singer had a better voice. I went back to the hostel, talked with my Japanese roommate for a bit, and went to sleep early, though again did not sleep well.

Today I got up around 7:45, I was gonna go back to sleep, the other guy had left to checkout and I had until 10, but apparently the cleaning crew here is real irritating. The guy knocked on my door at 8 a.m telling me I had to be out at 10, at first I thought maybe the 6 different sources of time I had were all incorrect, but turns out he was just a dick, especially since he came back an hour later and said it again. Instead I showered and got ready for my day. I finally checked out at 9:55 just because I was pissed and could. The day has good weather for the first time in Munich so I headed off to the English Gartens, walked around the gigantic park (its twice the size of Central Park) for about 2 hours observing my surroundings. I checked out the little surfing area in the park they had (a mini rapid by a bridge where people have a decent wave and actually surf, it's kind of cool) and then walked back. When I went in the morning I took the metro, but saw I had plenty of time so took the hour walk back. I grabbed a gigantic pretzel for lunch and then headed back to the hostel. On the walk back I also noticed a big Israeli concert/rally thing and checked it out for a minute and that was about it.

Now I get ready to head to the airport for Dublin. I'll be there for 4 days, see the Counting Crows tomorrow night, explore the whole place and then head back to Munich for a night before Italy and Greece to end the trip. I'm a little antsy about this flight ahead, but it'll be a good test run at a non-English speaking airport a few weeks before the trip home. I get to Dublin around 10:15 p.m on an Aer Lingus flight so I'll probably take a cab to the hostel since the directions the other way includes a bunch of buses and walking, which I don't think I'm wanting to deal with tonight. Tomorrow I'll probably explore Dublin, although 50s and rain is expected all weekend and I'm sure about 10 hours before the concert tomorrow I'll just start waiting in the general admission line (just kidding, I'm not that big of a fan or that crazy, uh). Anyway, maybe I'll see you in Dublin.

Dahnke Shan

BK

Wieeeeeen

I've just arrived in München where it's cold, rainy, and gloomy so thought what better chance to update about my stop in Vienna. I arrived Friday late afternoon in Vienna where I was exhausted from the previous night in Prague. It was a bit rainy that day as well and I didnt want to do much that day. I met one of my roommates and then headed to walk the streets and check out the downtown area and get a quick lunch. I was starved and knew I'd be hungry again in an hour, but figured Id go cheap. I grabbed some pizza from one of the million fast food pizza type joints. I thought I was going for chicken, onions, and green peppers when i selected the pizza in the window, but turned out to be tuna. It was good, and I'm fine with it, but I could see some people being not happy. Afterwards I thought I knew where I was going, but I walked quite far away from the city center and my hostel. None of the areas seemed shady, which was nice, but definitely a very German feel based on how the outskirts of Berlin felt. It makes sense since Austria is a German speaking country.
Eventually I headed back to my hostel to figure out what to eat for dinner. I had done pretty well sticking to traditional Czech meals in Prague so figured I'd at least attempt that path early in Vienna.

The hostel I stayed at had a bunch of restaurant recommendations so I decided not to walk this time and take their Ubahn metro which seemed quite basic compared to some of the other cities I had been to. I got off at the real downtown this time and scoured the area for some of the restaurants I had remembered. I looked at some of the nice places around in the area, but had yet to research what anything actually was so it was semi meaningless and with the shitty weather I cared even less. After about 15 minutes I made it to a place that was said to have the best Schnitzel in town, apparently that was no lie because the wait was over an hour, first legit wait Ive encountered in any restaurant in Europe, wasn't a fancy place either so was semi surprised. At that point I was starving, so I walked around some more, lots of places were closed for May Day and the rest were busy. I headed back to the hostel, found a local bar/restaurant that was in one of my books and had some schnitzel and rice. It was very good, also got myself some sort of beer and headed back to the hostel. I got back there, ran into a person who was in Berlin on the pub crawl with me, he was all excited to see me, but unfortunately I had no recollection of ever meeting the person being that I was quite inebriated that particular night. I think he picked up on that, but what can you do. Afterwards I decided to do some research on what I wanted to see, circled some things on a map and went to sleep a few hours later.

I woke up semi refreshed the next day and thought it'd be a good time to explore, the weather was a little cool, but no rain and it was supposed to warm up later in the day. I walked about 25 minutes down to Schoenberg Palace, its away from the main city, but it was unbelievable. I spent about 3 hours walking around the gardens, "climbing" to the top of the hill that overlooked the palace and whole city as well as getting a bite to eat. I went to the restaurant on the grounds on top of the hill, but it wasnt too overpriced so i was fine with it. I got a potato pancake with spinach and baked mozzarella on top with some earl grey tea just to act like a member of a royal family (or I was cold).

From there I headed down and saw my next challenge in the gardens. I could either head inside the actual palace or head to the labryinth and maze area. Not a hard decision. I paid the 2 euros to join the families with kids, a few random old people, and some adventerous tweeners who didn't fit in either category. I decided I'd start with one of the labrynths filled with weird obsticles. There was some math problem to solve, but too many people were standing around, but then I stopped my new goal. There were three climbing poles with bells on top. I knew there could be no proof of me actually climbing because I couldnt take a picture of myself on top and I dont trust people, but I was determined anyway. I watched a few people try and then stepped up myself. I had no idea if I could do it, but I made it to the top with ease, I felt like a spider monkey on top of his game. I rang the bell and tried to grab for my camera and that officially ended my climb as I had to jump off or risk sliding down getting "iron burn." After completing that it was maze time. I entered it and was quickly lost inside the world of paths that lead nowhere. I dodged left only to be stopped by the irritating bush, follow kids thinking they should be better at that only to realize they're taking me to where I had already been. Finally I found another opening, started taking that around and saw the glorious ending in front. I climbed up the steps to the platform to overlook the maze and took a victorious picture of myself to weird gawkers. I took the short way out, did another labrynth with some crazy human kaleidoscope and a mario-esque avoid the fire balls (or water) by jumping on to different platforms. I completed my mission dryly and felt it about time to see inside.

Inside of the actual palace was nice, but way too crowded with tours and people to make it truly enjoyable. Some nice art, royal bedrooms etc., but the rooms were somewhat tiny and not good with hundred people per room. I finally made it out of there after an hour and was going to walk back to my hostel, but decided to head downtown to the museum quarter to see if anything intrigued me. I decided I didnt want to go into any actual museums, it was already 3 and most would close shortly anyway, but for the next day i'd keep stuff in mind. I took tons of pictures of the architecture, walked through the parks and gardens snapping photos of ducks, couples taking wedding photos, and random shots of myself being fantastic. I was also hungry again around this time so i found one of the markets, got some semi-cheap japanese food (which turned out to be ramen noodles with chicken, its hard enough ordering food in German, but Japanese food in german may as well just be written in hieroglyphics). I then walked past Hofburg Palace to see if anything intrigued me there, I found one thing I wanted to save for tomorrow so i checked that off in my mind and headed back to the hostel.

At the hostel I got back to my room and met a new roommate, he seemed like a cool guy, we talked for a bit and told him I'd see him down there. I hung out in my room for a bit eating a random chocolate bar I had bought and relaxing. I headed down to the lobby/bar area, grabbed myself a large beer for happy hour and sat around for a few minutes. From there I ran into another person from a previous hostel, this time in Prague, who I actually did remember this time probably cause it was only 2 nights before and i stayed mostly sober that night. Him and his lady friend knew a few people they had met at a different hostel staying there as well so everyone merged together with a few others to form a large group. We all hung out drinking in the hostel's garden. Around 11 the hostel shut down the bar and garden. From there the eclectic group from Liverpool, New Zealand, Australia, US, Netherlands and probably a few more places headed off to a club suggested to us. It was of the electronica/techno type clubs, clearly the kind I rarely go to. Being that I hadnt had a real dinner either I was feeling the 3 beers I had. We got there and headed down to the main club part. About half the group went down there, not many people were dancing at first, but finally the place got busy. I decided that was the best time to show my techno moves. Not sure if people were making fun or impressed by my style, but some healthy imitating of my moves commenced. I personally think my style is where its at for that music, but who knows. After a while the smoke caught up with a bunch of us and we went to the outside bar area. I retired from dancing for the night and hung out up there until people were ready to go. I also realized that I talked to the (British) girl with the boyfriend a lot too, I don't know how I keep doing that, it's strange. I mean Im personally not looking for anything, but come on. About 8 of us left the rest stayed at the club. We grabbed some pizza across the street, this time went the safer route, though still strange as hell by getting a pepperoni (it was actually salami) and sweet corn pizza. For how starving I was though it was the best pizza ever. We ate and then we were determined to try and make it back. We were told to take 2 night buses. We got on the first one we saw, got off where we were supposed to, and then got on a second. The 2nd bus driver probably didn't want us on the bus as the directions he gave us put us on the right street we needed, but 30 minutes away. We all trekked back and finally went to sleep.

The next day I slept in a bit, took a quick shower, and decided I wanted to explore the city some more. It was slated to be 70s and sunny so I just walked. I grabbed some breakfast on the way, a cheap omelet and the first place that gave me water for free. I got back on the road and stopped at the Hofburg palace area. The day before I had looked at the treasury as a place of possible interest. I decided why not check out the royal jewels. I went inside and it was well worth it. It was a nice change from normal art with crazy golden jeweled crowns, fantastic swords, and royal scepters. I picked out what I wanted from when I'm king in the future and went on my way. I decided to go Forrest Gump for the rest of the day, every time I would get to a place on the map I decided to keep going. I went to the canals, walked up and down that area, cut through side streets outside of the main city area, went back to the canals, passed by the end of some marathon that had just taken place, walked past an art museum and then decided I was good. Of course I was about 6 kms away at that point from the hostel. I walked back, grabbed some quick gelato which was very good. I was still and hungry and thought why not get a street dog. And yes, in that order. I got one of those where it's stuffed in a baguette and looks fantastic. I took a bite and the juices burned the hell out of my mouth, but I continued on. For about 2 minutes I fought with the heat taking out about half the hot dog when I decided to look down. Inside the hot dog grease/lard freakiness was oozing out of the dog. I was done at that point. It freaked me out, a lot, it was quite disgusting. I continued walking and cutting through parks, taking a quick breather in front of Mozarts statue to recover from the oozing lard incident and then finished back at the hostel. I took a 20 minute nap and headed to the bar where I hung out with the people from the other night. I had a train to catch the next day so i was not looking to go out, luckily nobody else was either. We played cards, a game called Shithead, it was like a real weird bootleg version of the card came asshole and then called it a night. Most people were heading to Budapest the next day anyway so we all had the early 10 a.m checkout to get up for.

Today I woke up exhausted around 8 after a pretty sleepless night with lots of weird dreams again, I packed up and headed to the train station. The train was delayed like 20 minutes, first time that has happened. It wasn't that long of a train ride, about 4 hours though i wasn't able to fall back asleep unfortuantely after the ticket guy woke me up for the 5th straight train ride leaving me tired and agitated. i got to Munich where it's cold and rainy, I grabbed a quick bite, went with a hamburger cause it was the first normal restaurant I could find as this place is swarming with the doner kebab and pizza places, which aren't bad in moderation, but it's the majority of what I ate in Vienna. And now here I sit. Tonight I'm going to try to relax, grab some dinner in a bit, and scour the city for random shit. Tomorrow I plan on going to Dachau and we shall see from there. Thursday night I leave for Dublin for 4 days to enjoy an English speaking country and see Counting Crows while I am out there, weird how they are there the same time.

I be gone

BK

It's already May! Prague and onto Vienna

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

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

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