Berlin and Paris

Besides Vienna Berlin is probably my favorite city with Prague and Barcelona trailing behind. What did it for me was the free walking tour, the beer, and the hostel. The hostels in Berlin are regulated by the government so they were really nice and had the most comfortable beds I had slept in since I left home. We had two days in Berlin and one of the days we checked out the East Side Gallery which had the largest section of the remains of the Berlin Wall. We heard the night life was great so we tried to go out but got lost (again) and ended up at this gothic-like club that looked like a cross between an opium den and a vampire hideout. We left about 2 minutes later. The next day we did a free walking tour where the guides only work for tips. They took us around all the sights including more Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Hitler's Bunker, Holocaust Memorial, etc. Hitler's Bunker was pretty funny; it was essentially covered up by a place where you take your dogs out to crap. There is however a small sign that tells you what you are actually standing on. I felt that it was an appropriately for a fascist leader to die because around the bunker was old communist housing (the bunker is in East Berlin), the Holocaust Memorial, and a gay bar across the street. This walking tour company also does pub crawls at night. They usually go 5 nights a week but they said because its Berlin they go all 7 nights. Since we struck out the night before we entrusted the night to them, and they came through for us big. We went to 6 bars and clubs with about 50 other people through the night and had a blast. We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning and managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before our train to Frankfurt. At the last club I befriended a guy from Dublin and we took tequila shots all night (WITH LIMES!!). I forgot to mention my camera had died by this point so no pictures for this post. Frankfurt was more of a layover because we were only staying for a night. Remember when I said my dorm was in the Vienna red light district? I kind of exaggerated. I live near the red light district. But Frankfurt's hostel....was definitely IN the red light district. Our hostel was above an adult video store. We had a nice last dinner and drank the local apfelwein (apple wine) and called it a night and returned back home the next day.

I thought Paris was going to be overrated but it was actually pretty cool. The Louvre was HUGE. You can spend days in there. For those of you who are were wondering no I was not allowed to check and see if Mary Magdeline's sarcophagus was buried underneath the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa but I was shocked at how small it was. We took the free walking tour from the same company but opted out of the pub crawl because we met friends there who took us out. The guy staying there named Jake made me try this beer that actually is 12 percent alcohol by volume called Amsterdam Maximator. Jake likes to describe the taste as "drinking a bottle of SKOL vodka and pissing it out into a can". I'll leave it at that. Of course we went up to the Eiffel Tower. We went at night and it was absolutely freezing. Its a good thing I brought my jacket on this trip.
We also saw the Arc de Triumph which is the finish line for the Tour de France. It is also the memorial to the soldiers who fought for France and even has a tomb of the unknown soldier. At the base of the arch is the eternal flame, which has never gone out...except once. On the walking tour the guide told us that when France won the World Cup in 1998 they were celebrating around the arch and some drunk mexican pissed it out. oops. So there was this huge international crisis between Mexico and France and the Mexican Ambassador had to come over and take part in the re-lighting ceremony. Oh and btw the culprit is banned from ever returning to France. The last day we saw the Notre Dame and the Palace of Versailles. From then I've sworn off traveling to gigantic cities because frankly I'm getting tired of the whole tourist thing. And also the metro line sucked in Paris.

I'm heading to Salzburg for the weekend with about 12 people. We are going to check out the Stiegl Brewery and do the Sound of Music Tour (great). The hostel apparently plays the movie on a loop constantly so I should have a good grip on the songs while we are frolicking in the hills (sigh).

For those of you who want a funny story a guy on our program got a letter from the police yesterday saying he was due in court next week for property damage. The problem is he doesn't remember damaging any property nor does he remember talking to the police. There were witnesses of him talking to about 10 cops (and no he wasn't looking for Chipitos). Now would be a good time to start learning to EU Laws...

I just realized that people are actually commenting on this blog thing. That made me happy to see people actually read this thing. Keep it up.

the end.