Wurst is the Best!

So I just realized how long its been since i posted. Ive got a lot of Germany to cover...
The next day in Berlin we went and got Doner kebabs (for 2.50euro this time) at this great place for lunch (we had breakfast in the room. mmmm cheap.) We hopped on the train to go back to the reichstag when a train official started asking for tickets...yeah, um, we hadnt bought tickets yet. None of the trains have turnstiles, its just the honor system i guess, and i totally forgot about the ticket part. So boom goes the dynamite and we both have to get off the train and pay a 40euro fine...CRAP! So now flustered and feeling poor we went and wandered for awhile, cause we didnt want to get back on the train just yet.
Then we decided we were cold so we wanted to find something inside to do, so we found a museum about the gestapo and the secret police. After some confusing train rides (with a ticket this time) precipitated by missing our stop to transfer to another line and then discovering that the direction going back the other way was under construction, we finally found it. There was a school group that looked thoroughly bored, listening to their monotone teacher, and they had looks on their faces of "Why would you ever come here voluntarily?"
Then we discovered something problematic. Everything was in german and the english guide book only told what the rooms were back when it was the office for the secret police, so figuring out the displays was purely on our own intuition. Coolest room in the place was a section on surveillance equipment. It was total spy stuff like from James Bond from the 60's and 70's. Alot of the stuff we just had to assume what it was for since we couldnt read the discription.
There was one thing that a resistance person made that looked like a big metal key with a spring and an electrical plug attached. I assumed it was meant to shock the person on the other end when they put their key in the other side, but I'm not sure.
Anyways, we wandered through that until they kicked us out. We went back to the hotel room and I took a two hour nap. It was lovely. We wanted to go dancing that night so the sleep was very much necessary since Ive turned into a baby sleep-wise. After waking up we found a place to go, got ready and headed out for dancing. The club was pretty cool. They played a mix of 80's and indierock dance music. Not bad. We danced and watched drunk germans singing in the court yard until 3:30am when we left.
And I swear Berliners never sleep (the people not the donuts). On the walk home we walked by the same doner kebab restaurant from earlier in the day. When we ate at lunch time there were three or four other people. Now at almost 4am the place is packed! Every cheap restaurant were full of drunk people eating and every corner were people getting drunk so they could eat. Hilarious.
Kristina had an early flight in the morning, so going to bed at a little past 4am, we had to wake up at 5:30am. That was fun. We hurriedly packed and i said goodbye to Kristina for the trip, since she has a conference to go to or something.
I took the train to Frankfurt and was in the new city by noon. I dropped off my bag at the hostel and wandered for a while and read until I could check in at 2pm. I got back, got my room and went out on the town.
It turns out there is some street festival going on for the week with food and music. I watched a band and then found on this tourist map that there was an english language theater (no subtitles) so I got a ticket for Terminator, and ran back to the festival and bought a currywurst, which was FANTASTIC. They covered it in curry ketchup, which i didnt know existed, but I now love the stuff. Its basically the unity of the two best things to go on food.
Anyways, I ate and ran back to the movie, watched it with some english guy who i ran into in line, and left, went back to the festival only to find a german blues band that sang all english songs (the next day I saw an german doo wop group that sang english, weird). Eventually I headed back to the hostel and and talked to another English guy in the lounge until I went to bed.
The next day I decided to go to Mainz and take a boat up the rhine. I get to the city and wander through to the port, when it begins pouring rain. I get to the dock I find that the last boat already left. Im soaked to the bone and have nothing to do so I went back to the train station and went back to frankfurt.
The rain lightened up to I went out again, only to find another festival. It was a spanish cultural festival. They had food (i had paprika wurst.mmmm) and listened to bands and watched some drunk germans dancing around in front of the stage. I went back to the other festival and saw the doowop group. I then walked to a really cool park here. Sat and read, then went back to the hostel where I talked to the same English guy and argued about comedy with him and a canadian guy. The english guy thought british comedy was superior, i thought it was all funy, and neither of us new anything about canadian comedy (except strange brew) which I could tell frustrated the canadian, but i thought it was hilarious.
We talked for a long time and I eventually went to sleep.
Im hoping to try the boat on the rhine again today. We'll see.


But this is sadly MY LAST FULL DAY IN EUROPE!!!
I fly out early tomorrow morning and I'll be back with ya by evening.
So this is probably my last post from europe. Im going to be relating other stories as i remember them and post pictures i took with Daniel's camera that he let me lend for the trip (Dan, you are a saint)
Tchuss!

schnitzel and concrete

So after a very long train ride and nearly no sleep on the train I arrived in Berlin (I also had three hours in Munich). Germany is very cool. We walked around and saw the Reichstag and the East side gallery, which is the longest surrviving section of the wall, which they have since turned into a sort of street art gallery. Its very cool. We also saw he Brandenburg gate, where you could get a stamp in your passport for the original checkpoint charlie\youre leaving the American sector stamp, but Im not totally sure thats legal. Oh well.
It was freezing cold so we found an exhibition of a german photographer that took pictures in Stuttegard before and after the allied bombing at a time when germany banned photography. It was really cool.
After that, we went to a friend of Kristina's apartment and had food and roiboss tea (or however you spell it. red tea, ya'know). It was good stuff.
At this point Im still running on almos now sleep so we went back to the hostel and I fell asleep. It was wonderful.
The best part of Germany is the way they talk. I find it hilarious. It makes me smile when ever I hear people talk. Yesterday I kept talking in an overly comedic and stereotype german accent (think the caterpillar from Bug's Life) and I think I offended some German, but what're you gonna do. It was too funny to stop.
Its funny, cause I can see French, Italians, and Germans getting offended if I walked around doing bad impressions of their accents, but if they did it with an american accent, i couldnt care less.
Makes ya think.
Auferderzein
ps. I know I butchered the spelling of that

Dreams and Canals

Sorry about my last post. I had two minutes before my time ran up and realized that I had completely skipped a day in Paris. I pressed send on that post just as it closed me out, so Im kinda surprised it made it. To elongate the story, we went to the picasso museum in the morning and walked around. Sadly they didnt have as much from the blue period which is my favorite of his, but it was still really cool. We then went down to the Seine and sat and watched people.


Anyways, on to the journey to Venice.
I took the night train, which was interesting. Picture six guys stuffed into a tiny little room and me trying not to make noise unsuccesfully. For those who know how overly paranoid I am of those things, it was ma bit difficult. SO I got up and went to the dining car to get more sleepy. As Im sitting there, two guys walk in and sit at a table, only to be surrounded by a bunch of police and train worker people. At first I was paniking cause they first asked for his passport and I didnt have mine cause the train official took it (which is standard for international trains at night). It turns out they were just there for him and his friend, who looked like straight mafioso types, so id like to think I witnessed a movie like mafia bust on the way to italy.
After watching this for a bit I went back to my room and fell asleep where I had the WEIRDEST dreams all night because of the motion of the train. The one i remember best involved driving a house (yes a full sized house) around the streets of kaysville until airraid sirens went off and everyone was running away from the mountains so i parked the house and started off for Mom and Dads house. This is where i woke up and realized we had stopped at a station, hence why i parked the house in my dream.
So I get to Venice I go to my hotel for the next two nights, where it turns out they had made a mistake and didnt have a dorm style bed open for me, so instead they stuck me in my own room with a big two person bed for myself. Awesome!
After dropping off my bag I set out for St.Marks square. Luckily they have signs cause there are no straight roads to anywhere here. The best you can do is pick the general direction and hope you find a landmark thats actually on a map to orient yourself. Once I got there I took some pictures and got in line for ST Marks basilica. I wasnt 100% sure i was in the right line, cause there were lots of lines, so I asked the two girls in front of me to make sure. We get talking and it turnsout they are with a school group from BYU. What are the odds?! I ended up kicking with there group for awhile, and headed over to Murano, the island where they make the famous glass. I then realized Id attached to myself to girls on an island where everyone sells jewelry. Lots and lots of shopping. Oh well. They went to the lace island, and i counted myself out of that one. I went back to my room.
I got some italian food at a cafe outside my building, which was pretty good, but everyone is right that they dont use much spices. I couldnt help but think that it could use alot fo salt and garlic, then I though to myself... wow, I am american...
After eating I sat watching people in the square, which turns out to be the night spot for the area so there were tons of people and street performers. Pretty cool.
This morning I got a piece of pizza for lunch, since that and gilatto are the only cheap things you can buy on the street here. And yes, Ive had alot of gilatto. I then made my way to a little shop that was reccomended by my guide book, which turns out is out of business. I did find a used book shop and bought Crime and Punishment since I read my other book. I went to st marks square and read and watched people.
I was kind of tired and ended up taking anap for two hours which felt wonderful. Once awake I went out to find a cybercafe I wrote here.
Tomorrow afternoon I have a train ticket for Berlin and will arrive the next morning, which means more weird dreams. And yes I cut out Cinque Terra. Ive found city hopping everyday is exhausting so i opted for two days in Venice rather than one day in each.
Thats it so far, under a week to go now.
Ciao.

my dog skip

Crap, i skipped a day.
With two mins to go, we went to the picasso museum and walked on the seine and yes ate more bread; lovely.

So much bread, so little time...

The keyboard is arranged strangely. Alot of the letters are switched such as the q and a are flipped and i havent yet found the apostrophe, hence its absence in the posts from here, and you have to press shift to make a period! oh well.

So to recap paris, i went to the louvre the next morning and was going to meet Kristina after to go to the pompidou. Let me tell you, there are a freaking lot of pieces of art at the louvre. There were whole wings I just did a brisk walk through to, past a thousand paintings. The best was seeing Nike Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, the crowning of Napolean (which is HUGE), and la jeune martyr, though the Mona Lisa was cool. I went early so the crowds werent too bad.
After wards there was a miscomunication and kristina and i didnt meet up, so i went and saw the arch de triomph, which happened to have about ten guards in fatigues with automatic weapons. Definitely something you dont see in the states. After that I went and grabbed some bread, a large coke, and some jam and headed to the jardin du luxembourg, which was really pretty. I had so,e french guy ask for money and when i said no, i went off on a rant about french people should stick together and help each other, but i barely understood a single word he said. I just shrugged and it seemed to surprise him his speach didnt work. After watching him annoy other people with the same speach a cop confronted him and they argued for ten minutes. It was hilarious.
Side note: top things people bug you for in France
(I listen for these key words if I cqnt understand them)
1. Money or des pieces
2. cigarettes same in french
3. a light for cigarettes or un feu
4. paper for rolling cigarettes or des papier

Anyways, I met back up with Kristina and we went to a jazz club and listened to a band then walked home. It was nice.
Now I am waiting for my train to Venice which is a night train. Kristina already left for Paris to catch a flight to Berlin. Now Ive got about two days and I head to Berlin and meet up with kristina again.
Times running out
Ciao!

From the Mustard Capital of the Universe

Im typing on q french keyboard so pardon the misspellings.
We are in Dijon France and its actually quite cool. It has an amazing church with 30 or 40 gargoyeles on the front of it. The weqther finally cleared up and its beautiful. Oh, and we went to another church that has the remains of a saint from the year 200 and the crypt was built in 6-700AD which is cool.
Im going to Venice tomorrow night cause i got a night train, then Im off to cinque terra. I am skipping switzerland for staying in but i will go through it on the way to berlin where i meet back up with kristina.
Congrats to shoeless whos having a baby! Thats amazing man.
Well, sorry this one is short, but this keyboard is really screwing me up and im running out of time. Ill probably post again tomorrow anyways.
Im now over half way over!
Bonne journee!

Return from the dead

So Kristina showed up while I was waiting to blog yesterday. She's alive which is pretty cool (as her ppost indiicated).
Before she got here I went to the rodin museum, which blew me away. I almost died. If inanimate objects could give birth I'd want the Gates of hell (aka porte d'enfer) piece to have my children. It wwas amazing. After that I went to the musee d'orsay, whiich was also amazing. It's in a very cool building that was first a palace then a train station. I saw ALOT of art that day...alot.
After leaving the d'orsay I decided to go to the hotel invalides which houses Napolean's tomb, but i didnt want to pay for the whole museum just for that so I went in and acted like I diidnt know you needed a ticket and so ii got to see it while talking to the guard dude for free :)
After leaving there I watched people at the eiffel tower for awhile and took some pictures. It was very surreal seeing it in person. I couldnt help but seee it froma stress-forcing diagram perspective from when i was an engineering student.
I had written a note to kristina in the room that I'd have dinner at six on the champs elysee and she could meet me there if sshe came in while i was out. So I went up there and looked at the obelisk and the square where they executed everyone, including the queen and marie antoinette, which was interesting walking on the samee ground as all of that. Then I walked up and down that end of the champs elysee since thats where I said I'd be in the note,, only to discover that it costs a million dollars for everything, so I just hung out for awhile and went back to the hotel when I she arrived. We then went out and walked around, lookiing for a place to eat, and found a street cafe, walked around some more and went back to the hotel. We then watched thhe sunset at sacre couer.
The next morning we got breakfast/lunch at another street cafe and went to the picasso museum, which had a thirty foot mirror outside in the courtyard of the building which was really cool.
We decided to walk around and went down to the seine and watched tourist boats go by and waved at the little kids. We found we were next to Notre Dame, so we went over there, walked inside and found out mass was starting, so we caught the beginning of it. I felt bad for the paritioners because there were a million tourists watching from the sides takiing flash bulb pictures the whole time. We skipped out after the intro part and sat in the square watching people and ended up taking pictures for groups of people.
We then wook the metro back to the hotel and got food close by and came in to post, etc.

By the way, it's been kinda chilly here iin Paris,, which is a far cry from Southern France which was a million degrees. I forgot what it was like to not be covered in a film of sweat.
Oh, and I've found a love for pain au chocolat, which is essentially a croissant wrapped around chocolate. Tomorrow we do the louvre,, the arc de triomphe, and pompidou. Should be good. we may go to a concert tomorrow night, but we'll see.

Paris, il pleut!

So I was on the train all day and get off, miss my metro in paris and have to wait for 40 min for the next one, then I get off the metro and it is pouring rain! I know the hotel is near by, but I have to wander for about ten minutes until I find it, which means I am soaked to the bone by the time I get there (which is now after midnight). Now the weirdest and most worrisome thing is that Kristina has not arrived yet. I am writing this after 1am and her flight should have come in at 9:50 or so. Its possible that her flight delayed because of the lightning storm(She was flying from London to here), but I hope she makes it tonight.
On a lighter note: I'M IN PARIS!! Woohhoo!
Oh and the train between Marseille and Clairmont went through these mountains that were absolutely stunning! I've never seen such beautiful scenery. It did mean we went about 10 mph, but it was worth it.
Until next time.

Oh Marseille, how I'll miss you!

So last night I actually talked to a native English speaker. It was the first one since I landed and it was kinda weird. It was some kid from Nashville. Yee-Haw!
There was also a kid from England who'd been backpacking through europe for two months and has one left. When something sounded bad he'd say "That's dirt!" instead of that sucks, which I thought was awesome.
Last night I sat at a sidewalk cafe and drank orangejuice then watched the sunset from an old fort on the coast. It was nice. Now I just have a 11 hour or so train ride. Yippee.
TO PARIS!

p.s. I love Marseille. It's definitely my favorite city down here.

"I was oh so smart, but I prefer to be oh so Nice"

So I wasn't able to get a computer with internet while in Nice so I'll have to cover it all now. I'm back in Marseille and leave tomorrow for Paris and it's going to be a very long train ride.
I had about a half hour to drop off my bag in Nice before getting on the train to Monaco, so I hurried and checked in to my room, dropped off my bag, and ran back.
I get to Monaco, thinking "Woo! Fast Cars and loud engines!"...I get off the train to find out that races were run wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Of course I went Friday. Bummer. I did get to walk on the track and walk by the finish line and see all the merchandise. There were a ton of people getting tickets and admiring all the crap they moved in for race. I've never seen so much ferrari merchandise in my life. And let me tell you, you've never seen more freaking expensive cars in one town before. I knew when I said to myself "Hey thats a maserati!" more than once within a couple blocks that there was serious money flowing through there. I walked around forever and eventually went to the aquarium up the hill and splurged on a ticket. It was really cool. And about Monaco: first-the train station looks like a James Bond villain hide out, and second-it's so clean it looks like a really expensive Disney version of itself. After walking around and exhausting myself, I went back to Nice.
In Nice I decided to walk to the beach(the first official french beach I've ever seen) and then over to Vieux Nice, which has a million restaurants that are all expensive. I ended up getting a kabab-frites for about 5 euros(yes, they've gone up in price). It was alot of food, but the fries were really chewey. I had another one yesterday and it was fantastic though. Anyways, after walking around the tiny allies of Old Town, half-expecting Bob Cratchit to walk around the corner (that's the vibe at least) I went to the beach and laid out for awhile. The water is amazingly blue, but the beach is rounded stones, not sand, but thats ok.
The next day I walked around Nice in the morning, and decided randonly to hop a train to Cannes. And what luck, I happen to be there for the last day of the Cannes Film Festival. I saw themliterally rolling out the red carpet. There were a ton of people and the beaches were sandy, beautiful and packed. I walked up and down the main boulevard area, watching the buskers and was amazed. Mom, you were totally right. The French Riviera is basically full of super models. This is what Los Angeles keeps trying to be. It's crazy. They are all incredibly stuck up though. They dont look down on you, like the Hills wanna-bes in the states. They think they're so amazing that you just plain don't exist. but I wanted to see Cannes' Vieux Port, so I trecked off to find it, thinking it was just around the bend, which it was but in the other direction. I walked about 3.6km until I came around a bend and saw a long coastline with no port. I walked all the way back, but made it in time for a concert and then documentary screening on the beach. It was about a concert held for the anniversary of the Watts' riots. It was film from the seventies and the french subtitles for the jive they were spweaking were hilarious. Issac Hayes said "Damn Right"-translated "exact!" I almost died. I caught the last train back to Nice and went to sleep.
The next day I had until three until I could catch a train back to Marseille that was free with my pass, so I went back to the beach for awhile. I eventually jump on the train, along with about a gillion other people. There were over 30 people without seats in our car alone. It was bloody HOT and a was sitting on a luggage rack that made my butt hurt and my foot fall asleep. Everyone was sweating and miserable for 2 1/2 hours. This was my tenth train, and by far the most miserable.
Now I'm back in Marseille and need to take a shower really bad so I'm going to go.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to write in Paris.
Bon Soir.

After a full night's sleep

So to answer the comments I just saw from the firt post:
I am meeting a friend in Paris and then again in Berlin. Ask Nate about her.
I took your backpack sis. It was bigger. the only problem is that i packed ALOT and the waist strap isnt too good at taking the weight off so I may be tossing some clothes at the next stop to shed weight.
And yes I would consider it if I didnt know any french. Im going to be in Germany and Italy and I dont speak any German or French. I'm sure it'll be fine. In fact, last night my roommates at the hostel were three German girls and they said everyone in Germany speaks and English and are happy to help. In France, people are sometimes more reluctant to speak English and here the french does come in handy, but I think it'd still be fine.

Anyways, my times running up and I've got only an hour till my train to nice and then Monaco.
a bientot

Oh the places you'll see!

So the adventures have started and it's only a couple days into the trip.
I decided to not spend money on a night train and so I took a regular train (or actually a whole lot of them) and stay in Lyon last night. With alot of help from an intensly German girl at the ticket counter, I went from Franfurt to Mannheim (I looked for steamrollers, but didn't see any)and then from there I hopped another train to Offenburg(that might be wrong wrong, I have it written down some where) then another train to Strasbourg. All of these were about 1/2 to one hour. At Strasbourg I worked out going to Lyon where I stayed for the night. With the help of the Lonely Planet guide that I got from my Mom (which is saving my butt left and right) I found a room at a hostel looking over old Lyon.
After dropping off my bag that weighs a half ton, I wandered around Old (aka Vieux) Lyon for a few hours. It's amazing. It is straight out of a movie with cobblestone streets, tight alleys, and red tile roofs crowded around a big cathedral. At about 1:30am a got back to the hostel which is up a very steep hill. I slept until 5:30 and couldnt get back to sleep, either from jetlag or the guy snoring who got in at 5:25. I was getting up at six anyways to catch an early train.
I woke up early and had cereal and bread for breakfast, which was amazing! I hadnt eaten hardly at all before that cause I'd been travelling and so it hit the spot. I had to get to the station for a 7:30 train to Marseille but when I got to the metro station I had only paper money and the ticket machine only accepts coins. And guess what, NO ONE is open is Vieux Lyon that early to make change for me. I ended up walking to the next station and on the way bought a coke to get coins. After all of this I missed my train, but was able to get on at 8:35.
This worked out since my room in Marseille wasnt ready yet so I dropped off my bag and wandered Marseille until 6:30, when I went back to the hostel and got on the internet. The only problem here is that it happens to be pentecost and everywhere is closed except for the markets in the Arab neighborhoods and the businesses around the Vieux Port. There are tons of French people though because it's a holiday and they're all on vacation just like me.
Tomorrow I go to Monaco and the then Nice for the two nights, then back to Marseille.
That's the adventure so far.



By the way, there are a ton of freaking Nuclear power plants here. Our train was right across the river from one, and I've seen at least three others.

The Night Before

So this is my new blog. I'll do my best to post as often as I can while I'm across the pond. This is partly so my parents can see I'm doing ok and to give the rest of you a chance to live vicariously through me (and more honestly, for me to brag). Muahahaha!!!

But seriously, if you want to post, you need a blog on this site(which is easy to make), or you can email me as well, and I will do my best to check my hotmail account throughout the trip.

Anyways, back to folding socks and underwear...