Mike's Blog

Right, so we ended up eating on our own, which was actually quite lovely. When we got back to the hotel, bakery chick left us a message apologizing about dinner and inviting us to go to that club she was talking up at 12:30. Now you may not know J, but I’m more used to heading out somewhere at 9 to start thinking about coming home around 12:30 or 1. I mean, going out late is fun, but I’m at a point where sleeping through the morning kind of makes for a shorter day than I’d like. 

But, you’re only in Germany once, so let’s get some culture shock! Yeah! She had 3 of her friends with her, along with some shots, a bottle of champaign, and a bottle of some fruity thing. Yes, you can drink on the street in Berlin, but according to our new friends, you shouldn’t because it makes you look trashy. That didn’t stop them! I took a shot, but other than that we watched these 4 girls drink on the way to the place. We also found out that they were actually only 18 and 19. Now, neither me or J really had any ideas about these girls, really just looking to hang with some real Germans. But it was quite a shock to find out they were this young. Honestly, they acted a bit older than their age. Maybe that says something about American girls and how they act, or maybe it was just these girls. The drinking age in Germany is 16, so maybe that has something to do with it too.

So we also found out that this club we went to is regarded as an embarrassing place to go because the guys there are aggressive and just want some booty (that’s sex for all the old folks and english as a second language peeps) and all the girls are trashy ho’s. That said, I actually liked the place! Slow down, not for the above reason, give me some credit. I didn’t notice the trashy ho’s so much, I think that’s because many American girls out on the town dress like the sluts in Europe do (hey I’m just reporting here), so nothing new. And I guess none of the dudes were after dude booty. So I got to just look at the place for its actual merit and not that of the patrons. 

It’s basically like an underground street with about 8 different bars, 4 of which have music and dancing. They had a 60s/70s/80s room, a rock room, a hip hop room, and an electronic music room, so I thought it was cool to be in one bar with so many choices… basically whatever social mood you want to pursue, they have somewhere for you. And on Wednesday night they have half price drinks ( *guitar solo noise* wa nah nah weeeeooooo). We didn’t actually spend much time with the girls, just kind of wandered around people-watching and chilling out. Ended up leaving around 2:30 or so, no naked girls doing crazy things to each other. I guess they were there some other night or something… OH WELL. I’d say all in all, the place was actually pretty tame, maybe tamer than clubs in America. Maybe it was just that night 🙂

We slept in on Thursday and grabbed some pizza lunch, the pizza being quite different and felt much lighter and healthier without skimping on the amount or the tastiness. I had some ham and something or other and it was delicioso! After that we went back to some museums and in the evening we headed out to find this place called The Sage Club which supposedly had some hard rock and metal (Justin is a total metalhead and I like it as well even though I don’t really know bands and songs and stuff). Thus began our first shitty experience in Germany, but not in the way you might think. 

The place is actually in the same building as a subway stop… we found it by noticing a long line of people waiting to go through a heavily graffiti’ed entrance. Started chatting with a couple of the people in front of us, who were extremely friendly and cool, and J was chatting them up about metal. One of the dudes told us there’s a huge 4 day metal festival in Germany in July that hosts 70 bands or something, so him and J got to geek out about metal bands. So yeah, it sounded like the place would be awesome and we had some awesome new friends to hang out with, until we got to the door. After they let our new buddies in, the chick manning the door (haha that sounds funny, stupid English… chick man!) told us that by the way we are dressed we don’t look like we would fit in here.

This is the last thing we expected… I mean it’s a metal/rock concert, who gives a shit what you look or how you are dressed. We argued with her a little bit and I told her what a huge metalhead J was, and she replied, “I can’t argue with you about your taste in music, all I can see is how you are dressed… come back a little more fucked up.” So I explained we’re just traveling around from America trying to experience the place and she replied, “Ohhhh your little wonderland America where everything is perfect.” Hehe, one thing I’ve realized is that some Europeans only opinion of America is from what they see on MTV… in the end, they told us to dress more black and wear long plants with black shoes (J still had his shorts on).

So that sucked hard. I mean, one of the huge themes of the metal community, as you may or may not know, is that you don’t have to dress or look a certain way, you’re just united by your common love of the music. This is one thing I really respect about the metal community… a lot of folks look down on the fans, as many are full of tattoos and face piercings, but it’s a very welcoming community. So, this was a little shocking to us and kind of killed the night for us. Whatever. We went to a nearby neighborhood that our tour guide said might have open mics and didn’t really find any night life there. Grabbed the train and back to the hotel. Maybe she was right and we wouldn’t have fit in, but if that was the case we would have just left. Bah.

Today was a much better day… we finished out the last of our museumness and at night, drumroll……. caught the Korean Symphony Orchestra playing at the Berlin Philharmonie! Now if I had to pick which venue we’d get kicked out of because of dress code, I would have thought that jeans and t shirts wouldn’t have flown at the Philharmonie. I’ve heard that Germans look down on people who show up to breakfast in track pants and sandals, so I thought there was an outside chance we’d have a problem. I didn’t even catch a strange glance for the way we were dressed. So basically from our perspective, Philharmonie owned you Sage Club!!! 

Now I love classical music even though I don’t end up listening to much or have much familiarity with it. But I will say that the setup of this place was awesome. The stage was in the middle and the seating area surrounded it. We booked only a couple days in advance and paid 20 euros for our seats, ending up 3 rows from the orchestra and behind it. Never in my life have I been so close to a classical performance, 3 rows… and being behind the orchestra we got a good view of the front of the conducter, which was a treat to see. Very animated, you can tell he loves the music. Not only that, but we spotted 4 empty seats directly in front of the orchestra and snagged them at the intermission.

The music was just beautiful. Like my mom told me when I mentioned it to her, there is nothing like the powerful sound of a live orchestra. They played a piece with an amazing pianist who went to town on a beautiful grand without any sheet music. I think it was Mendelsohn. They also did one with a soprano… usually I don’t like the music that sopranos end up singing but the piece they chose was a goosebumper. Beautiful melody… sad part was we didn’t get to see her from the front. She looked like she was really pouring her soul into the notes. After that they had a soloist play a piri, which has a really unique sound… I’d compare it to a harmonica crossed with an flute. Didn’t really like the Korean original composition for that one, but it was still nice.

After the pause, they played Beethoven’s 7th symphony, and it was nice to be able to see the full orchestra from the front and to be so fricking close! On the last piece, the conducter was throwing his whole body into his hand motions and was also dripping with sweat. Powerful, lovely, beautiful. Did I mention that the music was beautiful? No standing ovation, just continuous applause until they played an encore, which was a different and lively piece that involved the conducter turning to the audience to induce them to clap. Never had that at a classical performance, it was so intimate. After another bout of applause, he brought the soprano back out and said, “Now we can all sing our favorite Aria together.” It was the same song they had played before, which was awesome because now we could see it from the front, but confusing to hear it again. During the chorus of the melody the conducter playfully turned around and started singing it himself, and the audience joined in as well.

So anyway, it was a moving experience, and I left feeling priveleged to have witnessed it so intimately. I also felt some level of wishing that more people could have that kind of beautiful experience. Hard to put into words, I just felt like anyone, no matter what place they had in society or what taste in music they had, they would feel touched by this art. I don’t remember feeling choked up when seeing it, but thinking back on it now is quite emotional. Justin also made a point about how music is the universal language… it requires no training of any kind to appreciate it, and after thinking about what how he said it, I would phrase it more like music is the language of the soul. Which is amazing to consider, everyone in the world is affected by it by nature no matter what occurs in their rational mind. In my opinion, music is one of the human race’s greatest assets.

Tomorrow we will take a day trip to Potsdam, which is supposed to be the place to go if you day trip from Berlin. I shall be the judge of that, mein freunds!

In case you haven’t figured it out, many of these posts have been written from memory after the fact, but as if I had been writing all along. That said, J’s visit is a bit of a blur, so I’ll do my best but may be a little less detailed than usual… I’m sure that’s a relief from some perspectives 🙂

So Monday we took it easy… woke up for the included hotel breakfast, which was actually quite delicious. Breakfast buffets in Germany are quite different, and I was surprised to find that pancakes and waffles are totally absent from the morning meal. “Lunch meat” and sandwiches are what it’s all about. And they have crazy meat (that’s what she said). There’s something that looks like a piece of bacon but is more like lunch meat in consistency and has all the fat in a linear strip on the end. There’s a few things that look like bologna but with little pieces of actual meat in it. They do salami’s and ham, not really roast beef, turkey, or chicken. They have cereal and usually take it with warm milk, but I managed to get some cold… and fresh cut fruit as well. The star of the show was Kugel Kuchen (bowl cake I think?) It was like a bundt cake that was more of a butter/vanilla cake with specs of chocolate or something in it. Outstanding. Me and J were all over it. 

After some food and laziness, we rolled out and went to check out the bombed out church, I guess they left it bombed out because they thought it looked cool. Go Berliners. After that we went to the Europa center, which is basically like a mall… but in Europe the malls are all unique and not so cookie cutter. Most of them have restaurants with tables that spill out into the mall just like it was outdoor seating. We also found a huge Best Buy type store called Saturn which had like 5-6 floors of electronics and gadgets, pretty cool. We also grabbed some ice cream… and I don’t know if it’s just an error of perception, but even with ice cream we noticed that it tastes more natural, less sweet, and better. J had some strawberry ice cream that tasted like actual strawberries and not some artificial mockup. Mmmmmmmmmm… Mmm.

After that we went to the zoo, which was actually pretty awesome. It felt more like a nature park that they turned into a zoo… the zoos I’ve been to in America have a lot more concrete and concreted enclosures. I think the main difference was just the amount of foliage. There were a lot of tree covered walkways, there were sculptures and a pond/river. Just lovely, the animals were about the same as what you’d see but they had a bunch of them. Another fun thing to note is they actually had cows there. Don’t usually see cows at the zoo, but I guess they are rarer in Europe?

After some dinner we just walked around and took it easy… Tuesday we went hardcore touristy… went to the Reichstag which is where parliament meets and also has this cool architecture including this spiral dome thing called the coopula(spelling?)… the building is huge and the line to get in was about 90 minutes, but we asked at a small information booth and the girl told us that they do a 45 minute group lecture and one of the groups attending cancelled, so if we wanted we could walk past everyone waiting and hear the lecture and then see the rest of the building after that. For free. BOOYAH SUCKA’S!! The lecture turned out to be really cool and the roof had a nice view as well. We rocked that coopula baby.

From there we walked to Brandenburg Gate to check that out, and then on to lunch where we waited for like an hour to get our food which sucked. I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but they really don’t offer you tap water at restaurants in Germany. I asked for it once and the girl actually said, “I can’t serve you tapwater.” You can buy a little glass bottle of mineral water for the same price as a beer. What a total crapshoot… we eventually learned that you can usually get tapwater after you order a real drink, but what the heck! Gah!

After lunch we did the German History museum, which had some cool stuff… I think Justin appreciated it more than I did seeing as he’s a history major and I’ve been museum’ing for a while, but it was still nice to check out. On the way out of the museum, it started to pour. And I don’t mean like a milkjug pouring, I mean complete downpour. We decided we’d give running into it a shot… and after about 3 seconds I shouted to Justin, “THIS WAS A BAD IDEA!” to which he replied “YEAH!” so we ducked into the building next door. Now I usually don’t mind walking around in rain, but in the time it took us to run one building, my shoes were soaked through and not because I stepped in a puddle or something. It was intense. Some young girls left the spot we were sheltering in to go run around in the rain… honestly I wish that I hadn’t been traveling because I would have loved to do the same… assuming I was close to home and warmth. It’s quite an awesome feeling to take a shower in the nature… and it doesn’t rain hard enough very often.

And then as if nothing had happened, it stopped after 10 minutes and the sun came out. Nutty. We grabbed a train home and didn’t do much else on Tuesday.

Wednesday we took the New Europe Free Tour in Berlin, which is awesome. They have them in a few cities and basically there’s no charge but if you think the tour was good you can tip. And the best part is, most of the guides have degrees in art history, history, architecture and seem to really just want to share their knowledge… our guide seemed like a bit of a hippy/theatre person, and was actually really cool and fun to listen to. The tour ends in the middle of Museum Island, which isn’t an island but really just a collection of museums in a cluster. We went to one called the Pergamon, which was cool.

I began to have this realization about museum browsing. The vast majority of these priceless artifacts of antiquity are really just people’s junk. Now don’t get me wrong, most of the sculptures and pottery I’ve seen took a lot of artistic talent to create… but frankly… it’s just stuff! I mean, someone took a lot of time to create… a pot! Or a beautiful wall, or a rug. But after looking at so many of them, I just began to think… oh cool, another wall, or wow there’s a coin. I feel like I should be sad about this realization, like I’m dead to culture or the human soul or something. But it really hit me when I was looking at this young girl studying an ornate tapestry rug thing. I thought to myself, “Of the two, I think the girl is far more interesting.” Hehe, now you might think that I mean that in a “Hey baby, what’s your name” way but frankly, any single human being’s life, and/or perspective seems much more interesting than any of the art and artifacts in these museums. Well maybe not every human being… errr… BAHNHOF!

I mean even thinking back on the Rosetta Stone, everyone crowds around the thing hoping to see the actual stone that recorded these amazing translations. But doesn’t the importance of the Rosetta Stone lie in the information on it, not the actual stone itself? I mean, how does actually seeing the physical thing make a lick of difference? Trust me, it looks like the pictures. Now that we’ve abosrbed it and enhanced our understanding of what it represents, it’s just a rock. Yet, I’m still glad that I saw the Rosetta Stone… maybe it’s like when you see the actual thing, it becomes more real to you. You can hear about a place or something famous and see pictures and video, but it is somewhat imaginary to you until you actually go there and use all your senses to absorb it. And in absorbing it, you can appreciate the humanity of it, the fact that actual human hands and minds combined their powers to create something wonderful. Maybe the stone itself is meaningless, but looking at it helps you connect with the people that created it. And the people who found it.

Ok, so I guess I lied about aiming for brevity. That’s right, I do what I want on my blog. Now we’re back at the hotel and we don’t have a message from the bakery chick about dinner. So if we don’t hear anything by 8, we’ll just grab some Vietnamese food! Take that Backermann! Ausgang your bahnhof on that!

Jelly Donuts in the house yall!

Oh my, waking up early is so fun. Not. It was kinda cool walking to the station while everyone was still sleeping. Paris Orly Airport is nice, they have Playstation 3 booths where you can play demos! Love it! I did not actually partake, wanted to hang by my gate in case they started boarding. I lost my hat on the tram to the airport! Gah! I bought that hat in North Carolina on a camping trip and I’ve worn it a lot. Yet to be honest, I wasn’t really upset at all. I’ve been thinking about it, material goods are just stuff… now there’s definitely sentimental value to certain things, but I am divorcing myself from it. I want sentimental attachment to replaceable possessions to have no value for me, because in the end, it really serves no purpose other than to clutter you with junk you don’t need. I mean, I’ll buy myself a new hat that will probably fit better and I’ll like even more. And I have a nice backup that Celia donated, so I don’t even need to find one that badly. I think the real sentimental value for me is better kept in memory, in pictures, and in writing. If something means so much to you, you shouldn’t need to be reminded of it by stuff.

Ok enough semi-rant. Berlin is niiice. I stayed in a hostel last night called Three Little Pigs, and I finally found one with free, really good internet. They also had huge lockers in the rooms for free, rock on! Too bad I was only there for one night, I had some cool roommates from Australia, Canada, Indonesia studying in Holland, and Mexico studying in Spain. So that was an interesting mix! When I got in, I grabbed some Lasagna at a real Italian restaurant down the street run by actual Italians… man was it freakin awesome! Best lasagna I’ve ever had (no offense mom, your lasagna is lovely, but these are Italians)! The waiter only spoke a little English… I asked him how to say delicious in Italian and he was like, “Me? Yes, I’m from Naples!” I guess he thought I was asking if he was Italian. Delicioso! 

I chilled out a bit at the hostel, figure I’d have plenty of touring time with the J man. Ate dinner at a hole in the wall place with gyros and stuff, but just ordered a burger since the lady didn’t speak english. I got a burger, fries, and a tall beer for just 4.50 Euros, so cheap compared with my other meals! I should probably buy some groceries and eat cheap at some point, but when else will I be able to enjoy Berlin’s restaurants!

I met Justin at the airport and we grabbed the wrong bus for our hotel… so far this is only the second time I’ve done that in Europe. Upon arrival we discovered that we booked our hotel with one double bed in it! I’m not sure if the other option was twin or single or something (J booked), but it was something confusing like that. In the end they brought us a cot for no extra charge and we got a huge room. Booyah!

First things first, we needed some food and we passed a bakery called Der Backermann, which I can’t stop saying. Der Backermann! Der Backermann in der bahnhof! Ja!!! That means the baker in the train station but it sounds badass! It’s fun speaking another language, but I always wonder what a local would thing if I walked past and was just like, “THE BAKER IN THE TRAIN STATION!” Or ausgang, which just means exit. AUSGANG DER BAHNHOF, JA!!! Anyway. J grabbed some cheesecake and I got some sort of not-so-chocolatey cake pie thing that was quite good. We also drank a liter of skim milk between us, which they didn’t have for sale but sold us one from their stock. The girl at the counter was quite nice to us and very fluent in English. Apparently she studies four languages or something and lived in Appleton, Wisconsin for a year (what the heck!).

So we invited her to dinner with us sometime and then all of the sudden, she started getting really excited and telling us about this club we have to go see on Wednesday where they have naked girls that do the most crazy things to each other but you have to get totally crazy drunk before you go there and she had been there the wednesday before and they brought some customers onto the stage with them and she really wished they had picked her so on Wednesday she was going to make sure she got up there and she thought Germans were more open than Americans but it still really shocked her and oh my god.

So that was a bit nutty, totally normal friendly conversation turned into a big sell for this crazy club where they do some naughty stuff. And it was right in the bakery where she was working, sometimes while helping a couple of customers. Nutty. We ended up making plans for dinner, not really sure if we’ll be going to the club though… I’m not the biggest drinker and J doesn’t drink at all. I’ve never been to a stripclub and I’m not sure I’d really get much out of it. But then again, one night of culture shock wouldn’t kill us… we’ll see. Oh and it turns out that she is the daughter of the woman who owns the hotel we’re staying at, nutty.

We walked around the main tourist drag in Berlin and scouted some places we can check out tomorrow… one of which is a church with bomb damage that looks pretty cool. We grabbed dinner at The Blue Flag, an awesome restaurant with mainly Italian style dishes. I had some awesome chicken something or other that came with the most amazing salad i’ve ever tasted. I never asked what the dressing was, I usually don’t like dressing but this stuff was fantastic! Stupid me! The waitress was awesome as well, and she ended up giving us some tips for hanging out in Germany and some cool places to see some good live music and “actual” Berlin instead of the touristy front. So yeah, so far we’ve already met some really friendly peoples and enjoyed some delicious foodage.

And one last oddity, half of the traffic signals here have this crazy little dude for walk and don’t walk… I guess he’s called the Ampelmann, you can google him to see what he looks like. Is that his arm or…

I call him der bonamann… DER BONAMANN IN DE BAHNHOF! AUSGANG!

So I’m in Paris for 5 days and I’ve already been to the police station five times… I’m not a criminal I swear! Actually, maybe it’d be  cooler if I was… yeah I’m baaaad. I, uhhh, was taken into custody for  speaking English in a French only zone and, ummmm, the theft of five  crepes, one of which had delicious nutella on it. And I scoffed at the  Mona Lisa. And I put space invader art on buildings throughout the city  without permission! Errrr, the last bit will make sense in a minute. And I’ll explain the police stations too.

The walking tour was cool, a cool chick from Australia was the  guide. Got to see the cafe and the grocery, and also a good angle of  the Sacre Couer which I missed when I visited the other night.  Apparently, the stone used to construct it has some special property  that sort of removes the dirt automagically when wet! So basically,  when it rains, the walls look like new! How cool. The rain doesn’t  actually touch a lot of places on the building, so the result is parts  of it are black with dirt and parts are nice and bright white. They  hose it down once every 9 years to make it look beautiful. Although I  didn’t see it that way, I’m glad to have seen it dirty… the contrast  made it look really cool.

Yet with all these lovely sights and history, my favorite part  of the walking tour was some small pieces of art attached to seemingly  random buildings throughout the area. Space invader art! They were  about 1 foot tall and between 1 and 3 feet long, and all pixelated,  maybe tile, space invaders. According to the guide, some vigilante  artist, under cover of night, put like 32 of these up throughout Paris.  He uses some super strong bonding material so that the only way to  remove it is to chip away part of the building! I didn’t look for it,  but there is also supposedly a website for this guy. If you plot the  Paris locations on a map, these points will also make a space invader!  He has also put them in other countries… one on the Forbidden City,  which people are upset about because it’s so historical. There’s one on  a buoy in the ocean or something somewhere… so cool!

After the tour, I grabbed some dinner with Tricia at this greek place… yum. Then we  walked around the city for some hours… I’ve decided one of the things that I love the most about Paris is that you can just randomly walk around  and find cool shit all over the place! We walked through some of the  “dodgy” parts of the city, I think it was the 18th or the 19th (Don’t  worry mom, it was still light out) and frankly, I enjoyed that more  than the rest of the city. It was a little dirtier there, but I think  most of the reason why it’s considered the unsafe part of town is the  racial difference. There were a lot more black folks in the area, and I  really think that people are just racist and also a little bit afraid  of something different. How sad. It was nice to escape from the  touristy parts… and it just seemed a lot more lively over there. We  also found a little passage full of Indian restaurants. Too bad we already ate! 

But yeah, walking around Paris with no plan or route, you’ll  see a lot of beauty. We turned one corner and found something that  looked like a mini arch de triumphe, and around another corner was an  awesome looking cathedral. Also found a MacDonalds, and I did verify  that a cheeseburger there is called a royale with cheese just like they  say in Pulp Fiction. I took a picture of the menu… yeah tourism! Who  cares, that’s why I”m here right? Right!

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned the sunlight here in Europe,  but it’s nutty! It doesn’t get dark until like 9 or 9:30, so it gets  late awful quick. What I mean is that you think that the sun went down,  so it’s probably around 7 or 8, but it’s actually much later, so the evening time is much later and shorter. So when it was a bit of a shock when I got back to the hostel and it was 11. I was also a bit shocked to discover that my ATM card, which is the primary way I get money without any international fees or ATM fees, was nowhere on my person! After a bit of a scramble looking through my stuff, I realized that it was lost.

It was one of those moments where you half-panic for about 10 minutes and then you realize that stuff like this happens, you’ll do what you can to handle it and probably forget you ever had a problem in a few days. I hightailed it back to the greek place and the waiter explained that he found my card on the floor and gave it to the police. He gave me directions to the nearest police station, but the he also told me he just gave it to one of the guys on patrol. At the station, they didn’t speak English, and surprisingly my French was understandable enough to discuss the details of what had happened. I think they spoke a little slowly for me, but it was relatively painless. They didn’t have the card, or any report of it, and apparently the police stations aren’t connected by computers or anything, so they called a couple other stations and then sent me to a different one. At the end I asked them how my French was and they said it was pretty good, so booyah!

At the next station, a couple of English speakers had had their wallet stolen on the metro, so the guy was trying hard to speak English to them. I decided to try French again and the guy seemed to appreciate this a lot. Of course, the card wasn’t there either and he called another station. When I explained when it happened, he said the dude probably needs to complete his patrol and to try back there in the morning. I also did some translating for the couple, so I felt like a total badass. Je parle francais comme les francaises! Ou peut-etre comme un fils qui a huit cinq ans… anyway…

In the morning they didn’t have it, and sent me to the Center for Lost Objects, which was actually way on the southeast side of Paris nowhere near where I was staying or the city center. The lady there was quite short with me, and when I told her how recently I had lost it, she told me there was no way it was there yet. I asked her to humor me and try, but she was right. So I decided it was about time to cancel the card, but I couldn’t make a collect call to my bank’s number from a French payphone. No big deal, I would just skype back at the hotel… but first I decided I neededto relax and get some lunch! On the way to the center, I saw a nice little cafe that advertised a sandwich, dessert, and a drink for 5 euro… which was the best deal I’d seen in Paris. The sandwich was on a long bagguette and had mayo, which I don’t like, but I told my tongue to not worry about it and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The neighborhood down there was actually really lovely and peaceful… I found a park right near the center and ate on a bench and watched the people pass me by. I got the impression that I was in the middle of a real French neighborhood, not just a tourist town. People jogged, laid in the sun, and some kids played with a soccer ball nearby, gorgeous weather. A group of schoolkids on the way to the playground for recess walked by all in cute little uniforms. They were well-behaved for the teacher on the way, but once they hit the playground it was pandemonium. Running around, screaming, goofing off, climbing on stuff… I realized that I had forgotten what recess was like. And upon remembering, I realized that these kids were just like kids in the USA… full of energy and unafraiid to act like they were bananas crazy. Lovely to see.

It was strange to feel serenity during what most people would call a travel emergency. But frankly, without this happening, I would never have seen that neighborhood or the park… one thing I’ve already realized about my trip is that being “lost” is actually not a bad thing… you will find your way back and see some things you would have missed. And if I had been in a panicked hurry, I would have also missed it. So if you’re traveling, bring two methods to get money… and if you lose one, don’t freak out. Just handle it and continue to enjoy yourself… worst case you can always sell your kidney for some bus money back home 🙂

I visited a couple more police stations where they didn’t have my card and referred me back to the center for lost objects. I remembered I had gotten a French calling card from a girl who was going back to the states, used that to call the bank. There were no fraudulent charges on the account and they cancelled it easily. They also put me in touch with this kickass service through Visa called Visa911. Basically, in addition to sending me the replacement card to my address, they sent me an emergency card to an address abroad, which is basically the same thing without the bank logo on it. So I lost my card on a Thursday, reported it on Friday, and I will have a fully functional replacement in Berlin on Monday. For free. Damn, go Visa!

Back at the hostel I met up with a British gal I met the other night who I refer to as Helene of London… we had a lovely evening including dinner at a place called Indiana Grill or something, with food from the states! A fitting meal for my last night in Paris! Errr… it was still French deliciousness though… I had some lemon chicken thing with basmati rice, which you probably wouldn’t find in Indiana, so it wasn’t terribly blasphemous. We also caught the Eiffel Tower at night, which is pretty cool. Once an hour, for five minutes, it sparkles… meaning they have a bunch of white lights that turn on and off randomly. It was neat, but even when the sparkling was done, it was still beautiful all lit up.

Helene of London told me a lovely story about how she met her boyfriend… it’s amazing how most good relationships just kind of happen when least expected. Most of the good love stories I’ve heard about begin when no one is actively going out looking for love. I’ve decided that this is because when you’re looking for love, you have a tendency to be faker and put on airs, try to be cool, not act like yourself. And as a result, even if it works, you’re not selling the other person on who you really are. There are certainly exceptions to this, and I’m not advocating not trying to find someone. All I’m saying is that if you’re in a situation where you feel nervous or are not acting like yourself, you probably aint gonna find the right person. Anyway, I always like to hear about those nice and casual, relaxed meetings whether they end up working out or not.

Tomorrow I fly out of Paris on AirBerlin to… ummm… Berlin! The flight is at 9:30, which means I have the privilege of waking up at about 6:30… awwww yeah! Looking forward to meeting up with my friend Justin from the states there, hotel for 8 days! And I don’t speak any useful German, so that will be exciting! Maybe I’ll just throw jibberish at them until they understand… mein fluggenboogen ist rechtung sie dorfenschlaggen! Danke shoon!

So don’t get me wrong, the Eiffel Tower is pretty dang cool, but c’mon…. how cool is it actually? Me and my new Canadian roommate had planned to take a boat tour on the Seine yesterday (Wednesday), but when we got there through the metro, we realized that the Eiffel Tower wasn’t that far away. It ended up being a bit of a hike, but we got there around 10-11… it was a bit of a lazy morning eating croissants at the hostel and such, my sick is under control and just have congestion at this point 🙂

Seeing the Eiffel Tower looming above honestly didn’t impress me terribly much. I mean the thing is beautiful and everything, but I guess when you’re so familiar with a landmark (and you’ve seen the mini one in Vegas), it kind of underwhelms you to actually go there. Still it was neat to see, and we decided to go up… figured it only cost 12 Euro and how often are you here, right? Well, in the end it took 2-3 hours or so to get up to the top. After waiting in line and cramming into elevators, the top didn’t seem all that amazing. All that time for about 5 minutes of, wow look at the view. So yeah, it’s nice to have done it, but at the same time, I could have done so much more with the amount of time it took.

On the way down, we did meet some crazy rich dudes from America… it was three dudes of different generations, an old dude, his son, and the son’s son. These dudes were in Europe picking up a brand new BMW in Munich and touring around in it for 5 weeks. They had no hotel reservations and were just dropping in at places. They alleged that doing things that way wasn’t that bad, and they were able to find plenty of rooms with reasonable prices at 500 Euro a night. Ummmm, that is like $670 for one single night. Good night! They were pretty cost conscious though, one hotel in Venice tried to charge them 2500 Euro for a night and they refused. Nice move guys.

They were really nice though, weren’t all stuck up about their money and they had a more conversational tone than a bragging one when they were talking about their situation. Although I did learn that they had another BMW they had to ship home because they didn’t want to have to cart two of them around, and a Porsche as well. Coooool. It was interesting to meet some folks on an entirely different plane of existence and yet have a totally normal exchange with them. They were very curious and interested to hear about hostel life and the youngest one seemed to get pretty excited about the social aspect. I didn’t get the impression that he was sheltered or anything, but I’m sure that would be unlike anything he’s ever done. Yeah, nice to meet some level-headed rich dudes from Arizona!

After wandering around looking for a place to get lunch, we found a little cafe that had custom made sandwiches… I ended up with a ham tomato and mushroom sandwich on a baguette… been a while since I had no greens in a sandwich but it worked! Also had some chocolate mousse for dessert. Now, something amazing about the dessert cuisine in Europe is that everything is much less sweet than in the states, but somehow still tastes amazing! So then, I’m worried that I might return back to America and find all of the stuff to be crazy sugary and nasty. Hopefully this doesn’t happen!

Next was the Louvre, which I must say is a very cool building. Even the interior architecture there is well done. Contrary to what you may think, I found the inside kind of underwhelming… I had an experience similar to the National Gallery where most if not all of the art inside was of religious or thematic significance and just sort of blurs together. I sort of wish I could have an appreciation for that kind of art, but I guess it’s not so bad being able to burn through there in a few hours and getting my fill. I saw everyone crowding around the Mona Lisa, which is actually quite a small painting. Honestly, seeing it in person, I wondered if DaVinci actually thought it would become a world famous piece… it’s so simplistic and, bluntly, normal. Again, I guess the art is over my head… that and I’m starting to get my fill of museums.

Had dinner at an interesting restaurant called Hippopotamus, which the French awesomely pronounce ee poh poh tah moose… try saying that without enthusiasm! Good luck! The place kind of had the feel of a Damens or O’Charleys back home, but decorated as if a little kids birthday party was there. You can imagine how confusing this was, to be in a seemingly nice restaurant with balloons and confetti tablecloths. I had the best tilapia I’ve ever had, which tasted like it was freshly caught but I don’t think there’s any place nearby it could have been. Go french food! The Canadian and my new Australian roommate were my company, and to be honest, it could have been more interesting…

After dinner. I left my roomies to go to The Highlander, a bar that has open mic every Wednesday, which was flat out awesome. I’m always amazed going to open mic nights, and this one was especially good. Everyone that played was really talented. It’s nuts how much talent you’ll find at an open mic… it’s free and there’s so much variety. The atmosphere is so nice too, so welcoming. I ended up playing after Tricia, which was such a tough act to follow… I really enjoyed it though, forgot how much I like playing at those things! I broke a string on the house guitar, Tricia let me play hers so it was no biggy. I guess people enjoyed my musics, so that was nice as well!

By the time we left, the metro had stopped running… Tricia’s friend knew all about some buses that run all through the night, so they got me all set up with the right night bus to get me back to my hostel. It was just a short walk and I don’t think I disturbed my roomies too much more than the drunken idiots that were stumbling to their beds… one dude tried to make an international call from the hostel phone in the hall with no success. I ended up going to sleep at 4… woke up for breakfast and then back to bed… today I plan to go on a walking tour through the Montmartre area in Paris, which covers some of the places they filmed Amelie… should be awesome!

Maybe I should Nino Quincampoix some pictures at the metro photobooths!

So the first speed bump, I am a tad sick. I first noticed it in Windsor on Sunday morning, a little throat irritation. I was hoping it was just due to sleeping with my mouth open or something, but upon arrival at Gare du Nord on Monday, I had some congestion as well. It wasn’t terrible, but I had a feeling I might have a little cold or something.

I made it to the hostel, which has only 4 beds to a room but crappy crappy internet. The bathrooms here are fantastic… it’s interesting how many different flavors these hostels have! And to think I’m only getting a small slice of each city! There are dozens of these things in every city… I wonder if there are any reasonably priced ones in the USA…

Despite my maladie, I decided I would go balls out and try to eat in a French restaurant on the first night. I took French in high school and have used it jokingly every now and then… I must say that I have a new appreciation for people who travel without knowing the local language. I’m an outgoing kind of person, unafraid to talk to strangers, and yet the language barrier experience at dinner made me feel quite the opposite. I’ve heard that the French are very particular about using French, and attempting to begin the conversation in French is a must… so I’ve been having a problem where I start an exchange and then have no idea what response I get. So they respond in French and I have no idea. Mon dieu!

So yes, L’Ecrin was the nice little bistro I ate at… a google translate of L’Ecrin helpfully yields “The Ecrin.” The weather was beautiful, on the verge of shorts weather with a slight dusk breeze. The front of the restaurant was open to the air and my table was just inside. In any case, the rumors about French cuisine are true… I was quite hungry, but the chicken there was marvelous. In France, it’s common to order une carafe d’eau with water, which just means pitcher of water but the containers are all very unique. This one was more like a wide bodied glass flask with a very skinny neck.

Anyway, I felt like chatting it up with the waiter and asking him about his lovely little bistro, but I couldnt! In fact, I felt timid and afraid to sound stupid or silly. It was kind of silly, after the waiter figured out I spoke English he spoke it without losing his friendliness. He was a cool dude, and he said “Bonjour!” enthusiastically and quite baritone to everyone that came in.

It was really nice. After bustling around on trains all day and feeling crappy, it was just nice to sit there in the perfect weather and listen to Paris. The quaint little bistro somehow set a very pleasant and serene atmosphere right on the edge of a very touristy part of the city. When I told the waiter that the food was delicious, he flashed me a charming smile and said, “Of course, you are in France!” French folks say France more like Fronse, which has some sort of endearing quality to it. I felt as if the same restaurant could have been in a quiet sleepy town by the ocean or something with the same charm and serenity.

So yeah, nice quiet time to myself… after my meal I walked around for a while… and had my first negative difficulty speaking English. I stopped at a busy little grocery just to see prices… as I left, a man with no sort of uniform or anything near the door stopped me and spoke to me… I told him in French that I didn’t understand so he repeated himself. Finally he said, rather irritated, “I need to look in your bag!” Sheesh. It ended up being no biggy.

My friend Tricia is studying abroad over here, so we decided to meet up for a drink… so that was a nice excuse to get myself familiar with the metro. I bought a Carte Orange hebdomadaire (hon hon hon), which is unlimited public transport access for one week costing me about 20 euro. Not bad at all!!! I mean, it’s 4 US dollars a day, but unlimited on and off. Booyah. The pass is a little crazy though, they make you buy a little transit identity card for another 5 euro, on which you have to put a little photo and sign. The carte orange goes inside and then you can reuse the sleeve if you change cards. I guess they don’t want people to share the passes, which is both bogus and sensible to me… on the one hand, if I loan my pass to my friend why is that a problem!? But then with the internet these days, I’m sure people would set up pass passing (nice) schedules and stuff. Anyway, it was a bit of a hassle to set up… Tricia mentioned that they stop you sometimes to check it so I just took care of it.

The metro in paris is great, if you don’t mind changing lines 2 or 3 times no matter where you’re trying to go. The trains come every 5 minutes though, so that is amazing. And they have digital readouts that explain how long until the next train. Great. So yeah, not too hard to navigate… grabbing a beer with an old friend was nice times as well. I guess I only have one roommate so far, he didn’t wake up when I came in.

Today I feel a little more sick, although breakfast here is great. You get a croissant, cereal, and juice… they ran out of cocoa crispies but I’m getting mine tomorrow for sho! MMMMmmm. It’s really interesting trying to speak this language I used to study 10 years ago, it’s coming along though. I met my roommate, an eccentric Indian fellow  who is studying in the states. He’s quite interesting… very well spoken and I could tell immediately that he was very cultured and interested in culture as well. He recommended about 6 places to check out in Paris; he was here for the last 12 days. I was determined to get out despite feeling a bit under the weather and went to L’Hotel des Invalides.

I must say, I’ve never seen so much Medieval armor and weaponry in one place! They have this polished, full suits of armor just standing in rows and rows, and cases upon cases full of swords and crossbows and things. Even suits of armor for kids, like maybe 10 year olds or something. The helmets really struck me as well, many different styles and some of them I’m not sure how they had any kind of visibility. Pretty neat.

It also had a section for the World Wars, keeping my thought that Europe keeps the war memory close alive. Similar to the Winston Churchill museum, they had one for Charles de Galle, which was really neat to see since I had no idea really what he was all about. Sounds like another inspiring guy who had passion for his country and tried to make it better for all people. Although I spent the least time there, the main attraction of the place is Napoleon’s Tomb, which has a huge golden chapel dome which must have been really friggin expensive. There’s a giant sarcophagus for Napoleon himself, which is about the size of a small house! It’s like he’s the opposite of fat man in a little coat. Never mind. I’m surprised the French are that proud of him, I don’t know my history, but I’m pretty sure he failed to take over the world. I guess I should look it up…

The museum wore me out a bit… shouldn’t have, but I think my condition made me a little weaker than normal. I had chinese food for dinner and then chilled out back at the hostel. I ended up meeting some cool folks and hung out with them down in the lounge. One was a girl who was heading back home to DC the next day, and she gave me her calling card that she was never going to use. Score! Arvind showed up as well and had a seemingly rousing culture rich conversation with an interesting British girl from London. Man, every night in this place is an experience!

I’m starting to feel better, I think one more night of good sleep will put me back in normal operating condition! Hope I don’t get anyone else sick…

Well, I have now done number two on a train just entering France through the Chunnel. Booyah! That’s how I like to enter a country! Wapow!

Ahem. Staying with my buddy in Windsor was lovely and relaxing, the town is a bit dull but I relished the rest. Got some clean clothes on, I’m well-fed, and it was nice to reminisce with an old friend. Not much else to say, just relaxed all weekend. I do need to mention some ridiculousness about booking this Eurostar train that I’m on. So a one-way from London to Paris for today was no less than 176 pounds, or about 270 US. I paid only 100 pounds for a roundtrip ticket going out at the same time and returning sometime in late June. So I saved $100+ by buying a return ticket that I have no intention of using. Sorry, but what the freaking hell! I’m racking my brain to figure out, how does a return ticket reduce the one way cost by that much, the only thing I can think of is on-board purchases, but I can’t believe my expected on-board purchases would be that much… in other words, that shit’s broken yall!

So far France looks pretty similar to the Midwest… some farms and some forests with highways every once in a while. I bought some pain au chocolat on the way though, basically a croissant with chocolate chunks in it. That was healthy of me! Mmmmmmm. I remember au meaning “at the” or something similar… if I’m right, direct translation yields bread at the chocolate! That would be a good band name!

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to mention my new favorite town in the world. I passed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllanty on the train on the way to Llandudno. I would hate to have a relative there, their envelopes must be like 20 inches long!

Ok Paris, let’s see if you really hate Americans!

Another train, this one is taking me to Windsor to visit an old friend of mine who is working out here for HP. 

Well London wasn’t quite as unfriendly as I was led to believe… I had heard that there’s no English folks in London, just immigrants and travelers. I don’t know that that is so true either… I’m also realizing that I have a hard time distinguishing Australians from Brits. I took a walk in Hyde Park on the way to Buckingham Palace today… it was a nice day and the park is pretty. I’d still take Dublin parks if I had to choose. The walk was nice though, quite serene and I had a nice little river next to me. The long, drawn out changing of the guards was just about starting when I arrived. I didn’t finish it. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was just dull! I bet right after I left, the juggling monkeys showed up and the queen did a backflip or something. Maybe Blue Man Group came floating in on parachutes while Hugh Grant popped a wheely on a motorcycle and hopped the gates. Probably not, I’m glad I left early.

From there I went to the Churchill Museum, some Canadians had recommended it. Now that place was cool. Small enough to really examine the place and the location was in the actual bunker that he used in the war. Everything else I’d been to was free, but this cost admission. Oh well. I’ve never been much into history, and I always get Churchill mixed up with Chamberlain, but this man was friggin cool. I felt quite inspired to read about the legendary prime minister. If you ever chance to be in London, check it out! It’s a bit out of the spotlight, but the content was quite interesting. I also toured Westminster Abbey, a couple people told me it was great, but I found it kind of boring. Sure it was beautiful, but most of it was just tombs with old religious figures and royalty. Although the place was a sight to behold, I couldn’t help but feel that the grandeur was extravagant.

I ended up back in Trafalgar Square… although the place is a bit of a tourist trap, it’s a great spot! It’s basically a couple of fountains and a large monument, and a set of stairs leading up to the National Gallery. I loved the communal feeling there. I enjoyed sitting on the steps people watching while taking lunch or a snack. I remember one of my coworkers back at Havi telling me how so many cities in Europe have this idea of a town square that we’ve pretty much abandoned in America… I think this is what he meant. A nice public place where people come to gather, socialize, and enjoy the weather. I’m trying to determine how Millenium Park in Chicago isn’t like that, maybe it’s jus t the location? There’s just a different feeling to the place, can’t put my finger on it. Weird!

One last thing that was amazing to me, the place I’m staying is 1 European block from the tube station in a very affluent part of London minutes from Hyde Park, and I’m paying about 22 US dollars a night to stay here. Which includes a minimal breakfast and free crappy internet. Nutty.

I liked London, but it didn’t feel like a place to stay in for too long… onward! Windsor and then maybe Paris!

So London. I got in on Wednesday to London Euston and I must say, London was quite different than the sleepy town of llandudno! Apparently the rumors of public toilet charges are true, 30p (about 50 cents) for one use. Pee at home folks! Urine removal is a good racket to be in… they’re never going to outsource that one! If your computer job isn’t working out, start making toilets.

London was pretty intimidating at first… the station was huge and full of people busily running about. If you’re ever in London, buy an Oyster card. It’s a 3 pound deposit and it cuts your public transit costs in half or more. Plus it’s got a FOB or something in it, so you just put it in your wallet and then touch your wallet to the turnstyle. Pass the turnstyle with style! The subway, or Tube, is pretty much spaghetti style. If you Google london tube map, you can see what I mean.

I made it to the hostel with a tired back… as I mentioned in my earlier post, the place was a zoo! There were little adolescents running around making noise… it’s strange how loud young folks talk given that their hearing is better. Oh well. The other hostels I’ve been in has been occupied mostly with 20 somethings and everyone has been quite friendly and personal, saying hello in the hall and whatnot. Here, it’s more like the grocery store where everyone looks for a way to get past you without really thinking of you as a person. Kind of like the difference between walking in a suburban neighborhood and walking in a city. I guess it’s nothing surprising… crowded places become much more impersonal. I’ve often thought the reason is just because you don’t have time to be personal to so many people. Walking in a suburb, you may liesurely pass a couple or someone walking a dog… saying hello when there’s just you and them is totally normal. In a crowd of people, you can’t possibly greet everyone. I guess another dimension of it is the fact that walking in the suburbs is usually recreational, whereas most people in the city who are walking are going somewhere or doing something. It’s not like you wave to strangers while you’re driving your car to the grocery store, why would it be any different.

Anyway, it is interesting to be reminded of my age here. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel all that old or anything… but knowing that some of the people staying here are half my age is kind of different. The guy in the bed next to me is actually living at the hostel. He was about my age, living there for a year… I guess he grew up in Glasgow where he made it sound like he was living in poverty. Apparently, the hostel I’m staying in is located in one of the safest areas of London, very close to a super rich neighborhood. He was telling me that a little way down the street were houses with 20-30 bedrooms. Wow. I was surprised to learn that he felt immensely culture shocked moving there… I usually think of culture shock as an international phenomenon, but it makes sense from the way he told it. Coming from an area where people have nothing and being exposed to people who live in total excess would be pretty unnerving. I felt a little strange talking to him given the nature of what I’m doing and my situation… not too strange mind you 🙂

So the place was my first real hostel experience. Honestly I didn’t think it was too bad… my biggest  complaint was the internet. The fire alarm went off right as I was getting in bed the first night… now that thing was loud! I’m not joking when I say, I could actually feel the sound waves in parts of the room. I guess they don’t want you to sleep through it! It shut off before I got out of the room, probably someone in a school group. Just glad I wasn’t already sleepin!

I ended up talking with a Pakistani guy in a coffee shop while we were both looking to get on the net, the shop had some problems as well. He ran the chic women’s clothing store across the street and had been living there for 20 years or something. If I had to describe him briefly, I’d say he was as superficial as his shop was! By his own admission, he had a hard time holding on to his money because he blew it all improving his image. He was originally from Mancester and used to make the 200 something kilometer drive to London just to drive around in his new car and pick up chicks. I guess at this point he’s resorted to picking them up on the internet… he told me I could jump in some chatrooms and have a nice hotty next to me in 30 minutes. Some people never grow up I guess. He was ok with who he was though, if it works for you man, go for it. He did recommend me a good bus tour as well.

I took the bus in the morning, nice deal. Hop on and off for 24 hours with your ticket, and it went to pretty much all of the touristy spots. I decided I’d spend a day or two doing the tourist thing. I walked through the whole of the National Gallery… I’m really not one for art. I think I went through the whole place and only found a few paintings that really struck me. I think what I appreciate is interesting and beautiful colors and natural beauty. Most of the art there was themed and wrought with symbolism… I don’t view art as a puzzle to figure out. Or displaying historical scenes, there were tons of those. Honestly, my sister has a picture hanging up her apartment of a pier with some beautiful colored sky and water, I don’t even remember it now but I think it’s a lovely mix of green and red and orange. That’s the kind of stuff I like. Not friggin depictions of a faun flirting with a nymph while Cupid restrings his bow, boring! I think east asian art really coincides with what I like. More of trying to convey a feeling using beauty as the device more than communicating rational topics.

I did also go to the British Museum, now that was something. My friend Graham told me it was a fantastic place and it lived up to his description and more! I was overwhelmed… as Graham said, they looted the entire world of artifacts, crafts, trinkets, and treasures and they all ended up in the British Museum. They have a room, the theme of it is Enlightenment or something, with ceiling high glass cases chock full of things from everywhere. It’s like they have something from every era and every place. I realized in this first room that there was no way I could reallly appreciate everything in the place. I decided to walk through the entire place without lingering too much or reading too much, my head was full after that first room. I’d need a week straight in there to really absorb a good portion of the content. In another room, they have the actual Rosetta Stone… that was cool. It’s right next to age old Egyptian statues and walls of hieroglyphics they had transported. 

One of the more modern exhibits was a long glass case filled with a typical man and typical woman’s lifetime medication regiment, side by side. Alledgedly, each contained over 14,000 pills. There were arranged in an expansive grid of cells with fabric on top and bottom. Cool! Anyway, a history buff could plan a whole trip to London just to explore that place, I saw the whole place in about 3 hours and I don’t know that I’d go back without some company 🙂

The bus tour included a boat ride on the Thames, but I skipped it to make it back to Trafalgar Square to get on a walking tour called Ghosts of London by Gaslight or something, also included. On the bus on the way there, I saw a glaring example of cultural difference between America and Europe. Displayed billboard style across a stadium was an advertisement of a muscle blound black rugby player with long dreads diving superman style to catch the ball… butt ass naked. Sure the junk was cleverly hidden by the angle, but he had no clothes on! Even the bus guide was surprised, and he remarked hilariously, “Oh gee that bloke’s got no clothes on! I hope he’s got a soft landing…” I couldn’t stop laughing when I digested what he meant about the soft landing. Ah London.

The walking tour was decent, the guide was great but the content was a bit weak… afterwards I ate Thai with someone from the tour, an odd fellow stopping in London on his way to Madrid. London daylight throws you off… the sun sets around 8:30 this time of year, so it gets late quick. It’s strange getting back to the hostel just a bit after dark and realizing it’s 11. So it goes!

Walking around with my backpack all day makes for some gooooood sleepin 🙂

Well, the hostel I’m at in London is a bit of a zoo. Lot’s of school groups, which basically means that there are groups of 40 highschoolers on school trips where they stay in the hostel and go to museums. Yeah.

Internet is terrible here, I’ve had to use public computers until now. I had some blog posts saved to hard drive, I’ve posted them below withapproximate completion dates. Apparently I still have a lot to say…  but I’m considering this thing more of a journal that I’m allowing you to read, so if you’re bored with the babble… then… ummm… piffle wiffle hobnobbery to you!

I’m in London now, did some touristy things today that I’ll ellaborate on later. For now, I have to go navigate my room in the dark so I don’t wake my roommates!