Ich bin ein Berliner! (had to do it...)

Amsterdam... was ok. Cologne, was alright. I daytripped out on suggestion and found this AMAZING park. It was like straight out of the Final Fantasy games (for you nerds out there) or would be a great place for Jedi/ninja training (for the rest of you nerds out there). There is a big waterfall which I'm told is turned on during the weekends and Wednesday afternoons. It runs through the park, fills stream beds and is a few km long. However, when it is off, there are more passages and places to explore. Small stone outposts in the woods, castles to climb and explore, buried in the forest. Straight out of lord of the rings. Many photos taken. Well, that was a few days ago. For the past two days, I've been in Berlin. Met a couple people at a cool hostel, and we went out yesterday for a free walking tour. After that, we found out that on Thursday, after 6pm, all the museums on Museum Island are free. So we hit those up. Then one of the gals got tired and went home (haha, by home, I mean the hostel), so the other one and I went out after sundown and took those cool artsy poetic night shots of busses in blurred motion with the Reichstag as the backdrop. It was a good time. Today we're going on a Third Reich tour, and seeing more of the city. Berlin is huge. I've been told it is 9 times larger than Paris. And it lacks a city center. It has about 5 city centers. We did one yesterday. I could spend a lot of time here. But, I fly out the day after tomorrow. So tomorrow I may go see a concentration camp, then get packed up. I want to get to Hamburg by midnight, when public transportation is probably still running. Then find my way to the airport (I have no idea how to actually get there) and spend the night there, since it is cheaper than a hostel, especially for only a couple hours of sleep. I fly out at 7:45 am to London, then make a connection to Detroit. I have no idea what time (or day, really) that I get in, and I honestly don't know how I'll get home at this point. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I just recently realized that my Eurail trainpass won't work in Michigan, for a variety of reasons. Any ideas, anyone? :) Well, this may or may not be my last post from Europe. We will see what happens! Later!

That time and once again, I'm bouncin' round the room.

How could I forget?

AND I play frisbee. A lot of it. More hippy points there.

Amsterdam... no catchy title needed

Yeah, I'm there. I've met a bunch of travelers in past two months, and many of them have the same response when they hear a particular bit of trivial information about myself. It usually manifests itself in the following form: "wait wait wait... you mean you've got the longest hair I've seen on a guy in a while, you wear hemp jewelery, listen to Phish, Dave Matthews and the rest of the scene, say things like 'Right on' and 'No worries', lived in a van for a summer, and you've NEVER smoked pot??" Well, that's general the response, and it's true. So what else is there to do in Amsterdam? Actually, there is some neat stuff. The Heiniken musuem, whether or not you drink beer, is a fascinating tour. The Anne Frank Haus was certainly an eye-opening and thought provoking experienece. This whole place sort of reminds me of Venice, what the canals and general beauty of the city. Until the sun goes down... the redlight district is everything that it is known to be. After walking two blocks, one feels the need for a shower (coming from me, that says a lot). So all in all, Amsterdam has been a good time. Hostel was a little slow, didn't hook up with any people to tour with, but the street performers (outside the RLD) were more than enough entertainment. After this, it's on to Cologne, then Berlin.

This one time, Jack Bower tracked down Kiefer Sutherland and killed him because he heard that Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bower. Nobody plays Jack Bower.

(thanks Mike)

Skip the Frankfurter!

First stop on the final leg of the tour: Frankfurt! What is in Frankfurt: Nothing! So the full day I had there, I grabbed a train to Boppard, then took a ferry (compliments: Eurail) to Mainz. Beautiful countryside, castles and villages along the Rhine. Spent the day with two guys from California. The next day, moved on to Antwerp. While trying to make a train connection in Brussels, a lady in front of me on the escalator fell over backwards, and I attempted to catch her. Hard to do with a huge backpack on. But I slowed her down until we arrived at the bottom of the escalator. Escalator. So we were still moving up. I continued to try and steady her and finally got her to stop moving until someone finally hit the button to stop the escalator. Then a local Belgian and I got her the rest of the way up. Her foot was cut up bad, so we got it bandaged, and she missed her train to a town about 30 minutes away, so the local and I carried her bags and escorted her to her destination, to the car that her cousin had to pick her up. Then I continued on to Antwerp. Super cool hostel here, met a girl from Cali and a dude from D.C. Went to a free showing downtown of House of Flying Daggers. It was shown in the middle of a parking lot, with tons of sand brought in to make a fake beach. Really awesome. The movie was in Chinese, with subtitles in Dutch and French. We left at intermission. Today we day tripped to Brussels. It was cool. We played the classic tourists. Standard pics. Oh yeah, today's photo is from the Rhine ferry. It is Cyclops from the X-Men telling you not to enter the control room (Yes, Rostock crew, I am STILL plqying the "misinterpret the sign" game. Endless fun). That's it for now! Later all!

I will not go quietly into the night...

Unleashing the Bavarian

Turns out that Munich is really cool. Took the best tour ever. It's a free walking tour, and the guides survive on tips alone, so they do their best to make sure you enjoy the tour. Our guide's name was Ozzie (from Canada), and he is the only black man in Munich. Seriously. He was so awesome. After the tour, some people from my hostel hung out with him at a concert in the middle of town. It was cool. Ozzie went to a meeting, so Malc, Laura, Deanne, Jordan, two Austrailians and I all went to the river, where people were surfing the standing wave (much like a flo-rider). The current is extermly fast. So we all left the majority of our clothes on the bank and jumped in, and floated down about 500 yards, playing in the river, hanging from low bridges. It was really an awesome day. I did the tourist thing on the tour (Way to go Glockenspiel. As Aussie said "I'm sorry, but you will never get those 15 minutes of your life back"), and did the local thing with the friends. Later, we met Ozzie at a local pub and had dinner together. It was super cool. From here, I'm off to Frankfurt, Antwerp (and Brussels), Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Detroit, then Grand Haven. It's winding down!

My God, it's full of stars...

I'm not dead yet!

Havent been able to post in a while, and I still can't. Don't have the time right now. In any case, I#m still alive. I survived Corfu and the Pink Palace, and I'm in Munich right now. I missed Mike and Kirsten by a little, but I've got the next 15 days (aka, the rest of my trip) booked. I won't be able to make it to Rostock again (sorry Marco. I still love you). It feels like it is coming down to the wire. I still need to find an internet cafe with USB, though. I have CDs of pictures I need to burn. The Pink Palace was a lot of fun. Not as relaxing as I was led to believe, but fun nonetheless. Met some really fun people on the 14 hour bus ride there, and we rented quads as soon as we arrived and toured the island in style. The next day we rented kyaks and toured the seas in style. The next day, we relaxed at the beach in style. Then an overnight ferry, 8 hours on trains, a 2am hostel in Bern, 8 more hours on trains, and a chill out time later, and I'm ready for bed in Munich. Tomorrow is a 3 hour walking tour and then on my own for the day. Day after takes me to Frankfurt. Later all!

They never thought it would end like this.

Hip-Hop-Acropolis

I can officially say that I've done Athens. Did the Acropolis (sorry Luke our bobble-headed friend was forced into luggage-check at the bottom), Hadrian's Arch, Temple of Zeus, all that stuff. It was grand. Busy, but grand. Caught the game last night. Go Italy :) Does anyone know what Materazzi said to Zidane? Must have been pretty bad. In any case, I've been the classic tourist for the past couple of days. Tonight I'm taking an overnight bus to Corfu to relax on the beach. Following that, it's an overnight ferry to Italy, and a train (potentitally overnight) back up to Bern, to see Mike and Kirsten. From there, I plan on booking up Belgium (hopefully with Mike and Kirsten) and through Germany. With only 20 days left from today, I think that will just about finish my trip. Hopefully I can get back to Rostock for a day or two to say bye to Marco and Marat and the gang. The days are passing quicker now. The first month seemed to take a long time, but since my last stay in Bern, it just seems to cruise. I keep meeting cool people, and sometimes we day trip together, but usually just hang out each night. It's a good time. Not a whole lot else going on here, noteworthy, at least. I guess that sums it up.

fade to black

It's all Greek to me...

When we last left our hero, the sun was rising on another day, with dreams of volcanic cities and Jedi's returning flowing through his head. Here's what actually happened. I'm using the Let's Go 2006 guide book as my permanent traveling companion. I went to Caserta to see the waterfall (Dave, I believe it is in the Ewok scene, at the early stages of the party, perhaps when the X-Wings are flying overhead with the fireworks, but potentially with written over with the newscenes after the re-releases and you may have to go back to the originals to see it, but it's ok because the palace in front of the gardens are also the setting for Amadala's palace so it's cool anyway), but the palace and gardens were closed on Tuesday. Let's Go said they were open Tuesday-Sunday, which is odd. So I didn't see them. I trained back to Naples and hopped a train for Pompeii. Go there at 6:00, which is fine because Let's Go says they close the excavation at 7:30. Walk to the entrance, get there at 6:05. Last tickets are sold at 6:00. No go on the Pompeii. So, a defeated tourist returned to the Hostel in Naples. I met traveler from Norway, and we went to a bar to celebrate my country's independance as well as watch the Italy-Germany game. Italy won, and there were fireworks on the 4th of July :) How classic. The city erupted with horns, sirens, people flying flags from houses, cars, and mopeds. I loved it. We wandered the choas until late in the morning and eventually packed our bags and went our seperate ways. I headed for Brindisi, and was fortunate enough to get a 4 hour layover in Caserta. So I did get to see the Palace, the Gardens, and the waterfall. Famous. Nabbed the train to Brindisi, slept most of the way. In Bari, I woke up and started talking to this Italian lady sitting across from me. She's from Brindisi and is meeting her boyfriend at the station. She offers to drive me to the hostel, and I accept. Her boyfriend is a windsurfer, and gives me his cell # in case the wind is up tomorrow (which it wasn't). They take me around town, show me the port, the beach, take me to the supermarket and drop me at the hostel. Right on Italy! We part ways, and I check in and rack out after dinner. In the morning, I meet two Irish gals over breakfast who are also going to Athens. After our individual tours of Chaotic touring, we all just realax at this super cool hostel all day, lounging in the sun, in the inflatable kiddy pool out back, journal, read, Sudoku, and the like. Around 5, we all get a ride from the hostel owner down to the port and get on a 16 hour ferry from Brindisi to Patras. Slept well, sunned on the deck, and relaxed a bit on the way. Got in, got to the train station, and took the train to Athens. I got in to my hostel, met a couple from Kansas City and a gal from France, who were my roommates last night, and crashed. Today, I'm off to see the Parthenon, Acropolis and other Atheny sights. Dang these things get long. Congrats to those who made it this far. Your intrepid reading skills are masterful and should be rewarded. I'm giving Ron a run for his money...

And they were never to be heard from again.

Your Naples are showing...

I made it here just fine, followed the usual routine of checking in, getting maps, finding the supermarket. I then decided to see downtown Naples, since it was only early afternoon. Took the Metro back in to the main station and started walking to some of the more well known Piazzas. Naples is human chaos. People everywhere, cars everywhere, cars going the wrong way on one way streets, running reds, people wandering out into traffic, horns honking. Total chaos! So I started just walking with no real direction. Somehow, I hit the cost, and so I turned south. I just walked along the beautful shoreline and just kept going. I ended up walking past the area where my hostel is (about two city sections from the main station) and walked the entire Bay of Naples. Got to the southern point, sat on a bench, let the sun set behind me and watched the city light up. It was really cool. Then I walked back north to where my hostel was, got lost trying to find the metro station (the only landmark I know in the Mergellina city section, eventually located it and found the hostel. It was an awesome day :) Today I'm planning on checking out Pompeii and Caserta. I know Sarah suggested Herculeam, but I hear that it is less excavated than Pompeii. I want to Caserta, because there's this 75m man-made waterfall there. If you want to see a picture of it, watch the last scene of Return of the Jedi. I hope I have time to go to both places, because honestly, I'm a nerd, and I don't know which one I really want to see more... On a side note, I keep looking for internet cafes with USB or SD connections so I can keep posting pictures, but these are harder to come by than one may think.

May the force be with you.

No Logins Allowed

So at this place, I can't actually log in to my blogger account, so
hopefully this email comes through ok. In any case, today was really
awesome. I spent the morning moving from one hostel to another, due to
booking issues a bit ago. After that, I went out and walked across the
entire toursity part of the city. The place I wanted to go was a park
just off of one of the maps I had, and covered by advertisements on
the other map I had. And every tourist information place I stopped at
(including the one right outside the park) didn't have a map with the
park, let along a map OF the park (it's a big park). And I was trying
to get to a specific place within the park. In any case, I found the
park and it was amazing. And huge. Two hours walking to the park, and
another two walking around IN the park. Had some lunch, and felt
comfortable that I had found the spot I was looking for. Right around
5pm, a couple (later to be known as Kim and Shannon) started walking
across a field, frisbee in hand. Sure enough, they were also here for
the ultimate game. Eventually more people showed up. A few locals,
plus Kim (formerly the head of the Catholic Camps Fellowship at
Northern Michigan University), Shannon, Wade (Formerly the head of
Campus Crusade for Christ at a school in Ohio) and two of Wade's
friends from Ohio, were all here for the game. It was a ton of fun. It
was good to run and jump, catch and throw again. Quality times. I
skinned both my knees on an aborted layout, but they'll be ok :) All
around, it was awesome. To top it off, Kim invited me over to his
place for dinner with Shannon. They made pasta and salad and spinach,
and it was awesome. It was super cool because we got to talk about
faith stuff, and I had some of my questions about the Catholic faith
answered. We got along really well. Tomorrow I'm heading out for
Naples. I look forward to that. On a side note, I'm told that there's
a newsletter about the Germany Mission Trip from earlier available at
www.hhcf.org. It is written by Adam, one of the guys from the trip. I
can't read it here, though, because you need Adobe Reader, and this
computer does not have it. I hear from reliable sources that it is
quite enthralling.

And they lived happily ever after.

Across the city, back and forth

Day two of Rome was also productive. I went back to the places that I just saw the exterior of, namely two of the Churches from Angels and Demons, and the Colloseum. I went inside this time. And was impressed on every count. Most breathtaking, however, was my blunder at the Vatican. I intended to simply go into St. Peter's Cathedral. I got in the wrong line, however. Apparently, there is no line to simply go in, as it is huge enough to house a house. The line I got in ended up being the line to climb 550 stairs to the TOP of the dome. As in, on top, outside, looking over the smallest country in the world. It was super cool. And many photos were taken. I did end up back downstairs and inside the dome, and it was also impressive. Breathtaking. I wanted to go to the Sistine Chapel, but to do so involved paying some extra euros and taking a longer tour of the museums. I may get swayed into tomorrow, since I don't have a lot planned. In fact, the only thing I have planned for tomorrow is finding this particular park just south of the Vatican where people apparently play ultimate at 5pm. Other than that, I'm looking at a pretty relaxed day, just letting my legs rest a bit, since I've noticed that they have been getting more tired more quickly. I think a day of rest is in order. Again, I'm at a loss on how to conclude this post. I'm bad at this part. If I ever write a book, I'll have someone else write the last chapter. And he rode off into the sunset.