Hey everyone...
Just wanted you all to know that Allison and I are just fine and enjoying our time in Norway (even though it is EX-PEN-SIV). Photos and stories will be up when I get around to it, but for now we're going to enjoy our vacation.
Check back in a week or so.
Thanks.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Items to Declare (Berlin).
I honestly didn't get out as much as I should have during my stay in Germany's capital. Reason for this include coming down with a head cold, trying to save money, trying to save energy, and finish up classes for the semester (for the most part).
Some things I did notice though:
If you're ever in Berlin while there is a soccer game, make sure you wear good shoes the next day. Apparently it's common practice for the hooligans to break bottles in the streets.
We were a little surprised when we thought we were going on the Mauer museum (the museum commemorating the Berlin wall and the separation of Germany during the cold war) guided tour, and found out that we were being given a lecture by a gentleman who spent nine years as a Stasi (the East German secret police) political prisoner. No one had any idea that that was what we were going to be seeing. Well worthwhile, to be sure, but a bit of a shock when we realized what was going on.
Rampant individualism going on in Berlin...I'm not impressed by much when it comes to people dressing up and looking stupid for fashion and their own ego's sake, but, I have seen some impressive styles in Berlin and dos create it's own culture...I guess that's what happens after a cold war and repression...people just go nuts with freedom. Kinda fun to watch (although, out of context (like in the states), I wouldn't be impressed).
On to Norway...and the wife(ish)...seriously, I've been thinking about seeing this woman again for about three months, and am honestly a bit nervous about the whole thing...but I'm sure everything will work out and everything will be great. She's the only one who could get me to use a smiley face. :)
Some things I did notice though:
If you're ever in Berlin while there is a soccer game, make sure you wear good shoes the next day. Apparently it's common practice for the hooligans to break bottles in the streets.
We were a little surprised when we thought we were going on the Mauer museum (the museum commemorating the Berlin wall and the separation of Germany during the cold war) guided tour, and found out that we were being given a lecture by a gentleman who spent nine years as a Stasi (the East German secret police) political prisoner. No one had any idea that that was what we were going to be seeing. Well worthwhile, to be sure, but a bit of a shock when we realized what was going on.
Rampant individualism going on in Berlin...I'm not impressed by much when it comes to people dressing up and looking stupid for fashion and their own ego's sake, but, I have seen some impressive styles in Berlin and dos create it's own culture...I guess that's what happens after a cold war and repression...people just go nuts with freedom. Kinda fun to watch (although, out of context (like in the states), I wouldn't be impressed).
On to Norway...and the wife(ish)...seriously, I've been thinking about seeing this woman again for about three months, and am honestly a bit nervous about the whole thing...but I'm sure everything will work out and everything will be great. She's the only one who could get me to use a smiley face. :)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Travel Advice
Apparently part of the Customs check for mail going out of Italy is to have a large person beat the hell out of the package with a baseball bat.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Berlin on a Bike.
To be honest, I was not excited about taking a bike tour through Berlin for four hours.
I was sure that someone was going to be hit by a car...not to mention I have to make plans and get plane tickets for the last two weeks (which I was able to do for fairly cheap...$150 Berlin to Oslo, $55 Oslo to London).
...but the bike tour was excellent. If you are ever going to be in Paris, London, Barcelona, or Berlin look up Fat Tire Bike Tours and have a great time...the tour guide was pretty knowledgeable but still not utterly weighing people down with fact after fact. A good time.
The oldest church in Berlin (1200's or so).
By the way...I'm staying in what used to be East Berlin...some of the monuments have been left up....BUT I SWEAR I'M NOT A COMMUNIST.
Checkpoint Charlie.
About as close to the Wall as i wanted to get.
The last Sniper Tower in Berlin.
The monument to the Murdered Jews.
The first Soviet Tank to enter Berlin.
A monument to Otto Von Bismarck's consolidation of power which pretty much paved the way for a unified Germany...until the Cold War, anyway. Side note: When U.S. troops occupied this section of Berlin they didn't know what to call this monument, so it - officially - became known as "chick on a stick."
The Riechstad: Germany's Parliamentary Building.
The Berliner Dom: The world's largest Protestant Cathedral.
I was sure that someone was going to be hit by a car...not to mention I have to make plans and get plane tickets for the last two weeks (which I was able to do for fairly cheap...$150 Berlin to Oslo, $55 Oslo to London).
...but the bike tour was excellent. If you are ever going to be in Paris, London, Barcelona, or Berlin look up Fat Tire Bike Tours and have a great time...the tour guide was pretty knowledgeable but still not utterly weighing people down with fact after fact. A good time.
The oldest church in Berlin (1200's or so).
By the way...I'm staying in what used to be East Berlin...some of the monuments have been left up....BUT I SWEAR I'M NOT A COMMUNIST.
Checkpoint Charlie.
About as close to the Wall as i wanted to get.
The last Sniper Tower in Berlin.
The monument to the Murdered Jews.
The first Soviet Tank to enter Berlin.
A monument to Otto Von Bismarck's consolidation of power which pretty much paved the way for a unified Germany...until the Cold War, anyway. Side note: When U.S. troops occupied this section of Berlin they didn't know what to call this monument, so it - officially - became known as "chick on a stick."
The Riechstad: Germany's Parliamentary Building.
The Berliner Dom: The world's largest Protestant Cathedral.
Nothing to do with Europe....
Sorry, but I'm getting political again...
http://therealmccain.com/gibill/
If you want to, please sign, if you don't want to...I understand. I've never seen a petition ever do anything either.
http://therealmccain.com/gibill/
If you want to, please sign, if you don't want to...I understand. I've never seen a petition ever do anything either.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Prague to Dresden, Dresden To Frankfurt; Frankfurt to Burg Eltz (Round Two) and back; Frankfurt to Berlin
I’ll be honest; I’m getting tired of traveling. I have a pretty high capacity for spending time going somewhere (especially on a train), but the constant barrage of having to be on the move is starting to get to me. I starting to wonder if I’ve used up all that good karma that I built up driving the old ladies to church in the taxi…oh well, the wife(ish) is coming soon: she’s all the karma I need.
It might seem redundant to have gone back to Frankfurt, maybe even a waste of time, but I have figured out how to get to Burg Eltz castle in the meantime and being that I missed it last time I was in the area, it was calling to me, like, “You know where I’m at, you know how to get here, why not come and visit. You might never get a chance to again.”
As always the Siren song wins every time.
Stayed in Frankfurt for the night and headed out the next day to find this place. Leaving the rural train station after arriving in the small town, I started with the map that was displayed at the station…the thought did occur to me at the time that the map might not be to scale, but I figured that I might as well go since I had come all this way.
The map was not to scale…and the first route I took ended up taking about two and a half hours going up through the foot hills of the Rhine Valley only to plateau on a vast prairie farmland with expansive fields.
The deceptively distance-less signs kept on pointing the way, and on and on I went, through the farmlands and back onto a different hiking trail. I eventually found it, and it was amazingly well preserved due to never having been sacked or destroyed. The reason for this fact as near as I can tell is that it’s such a pain to get to and in such an un-strategic spot that no one ever felt the need to try and take it.
It was fun to see, but the tour was all in German (which I had been misinformed about), and I was realizing that I wasn’t going to get back in time to get as much homework done as I wanted.
On the two hour hike back to the train station the karma completely seemed to putter out as the downpour began.
Soaked the three hour train rides back to Frankfurt were less than enjoyable.
Now I’m on the train to Berlin. After seeing all the recent history in the Czech Republic involving the Holocaust and the end of the Cold War, I’m ready to slow down on the history…oh wait…Berlin…the center of conflict and contention in the world for the last half of the 20th century…whew. I’ll make it, and please don’t take this to mean that I’m not happy and blessed to be here, I am; however, ready for a little bit of normalcy with the wife(ish) in an English-speaking, Dollar-using, Mt. Dew-producing country.
“Mama, I’m coming home.”
-Ozzy Osborne
It might seem redundant to have gone back to Frankfurt, maybe even a waste of time, but I have figured out how to get to Burg Eltz castle in the meantime and being that I missed it last time I was in the area, it was calling to me, like, “You know where I’m at, you know how to get here, why not come and visit. You might never get a chance to again.”
As always the Siren song wins every time.
Stayed in Frankfurt for the night and headed out the next day to find this place. Leaving the rural train station after arriving in the small town, I started with the map that was displayed at the station…the thought did occur to me at the time that the map might not be to scale, but I figured that I might as well go since I had come all this way.
The map was not to scale…and the first route I took ended up taking about two and a half hours going up through the foot hills of the Rhine Valley only to plateau on a vast prairie farmland with expansive fields.
The deceptively distance-less signs kept on pointing the way, and on and on I went, through the farmlands and back onto a different hiking trail. I eventually found it, and it was amazingly well preserved due to never having been sacked or destroyed. The reason for this fact as near as I can tell is that it’s such a pain to get to and in such an un-strategic spot that no one ever felt the need to try and take it.
It was fun to see, but the tour was all in German (which I had been misinformed about), and I was realizing that I wasn’t going to get back in time to get as much homework done as I wanted.
On the two hour hike back to the train station the karma completely seemed to putter out as the downpour began.
Soaked the three hour train rides back to Frankfurt were less than enjoyable.
Now I’m on the train to Berlin. After seeing all the recent history in the Czech Republic involving the Holocaust and the end of the Cold War, I’m ready to slow down on the history…oh wait…Berlin…the center of conflict and contention in the world for the last half of the 20th century…whew. I’ll make it, and please don’t take this to mean that I’m not happy and blessed to be here, I am; however, ready for a little bit of normalcy with the wife(ish) in an English-speaking, Dollar-using, Mt. Dew-producing country.
“Mama, I’m coming home.”
-Ozzy Osborne
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Items to Declare (Czech Republic)
-First off, there is a reason why Czech people drink more beer than any other nation in the world per capita...they make the best. I don't want to sound like some boozy spring-breaker whose out on a whirlwind party through Europe, but I would like to address this fact:
I would always notice with students, sailors, soldiers, and whoever else had made it over to Europe for what ever reason, that they would always scorn American beer (the wife(ish) included). I always thought it was some kind of vague snobbery (no offense). I was wrong, because, between Germany and the Czech Republic, I am ruined for (North) American beer. I almost wish that everybody...non-drinkers included, could at least have half a taste of this stuff, because it really is as good - and better - than everybody said it would be.
-If you know to look for it, you can see signs that this used to be a Communist state all over. Some of the most beautiful architecture in the world is in Prague, as well as the Brutilist tenements that were so typical of Warsaw pact countries. On top of that, you can see it in the older people...maybe it was the neighborhood we were staying in being a bit cheaper, but there were more disabled people than I am used to seeing on an average street...legs lopped off, mental problems, and all kinds of crutches, limps, and skin problems. It says more to me about the transition and people all of the sudden not given the support by the government that they had before, but maybe I just noticed it more here because I was looking for it. Who knows.
-It's interesting to be in a place where the water is truly suspect. I've never been in a situation where I bought bottled water for the pure fact that the municipal water may have more pollutants than I want. This might be just my ignorance, but Prague is part of "The Dirty Triangle" and I didn't feel like taking any chances.
I would always notice with students, sailors, soldiers, and whoever else had made it over to Europe for what ever reason, that they would always scorn American beer (the wife(ish) included). I always thought it was some kind of vague snobbery (no offense). I was wrong, because, between Germany and the Czech Republic, I am ruined for (North) American beer. I almost wish that everybody...non-drinkers included, could at least have half a taste of this stuff, because it really is as good - and better - than everybody said it would be.
-If you know to look for it, you can see signs that this used to be a Communist state all over. Some of the most beautiful architecture in the world is in Prague, as well as the Brutilist tenements that were so typical of Warsaw pact countries. On top of that, you can see it in the older people...maybe it was the neighborhood we were staying in being a bit cheaper, but there were more disabled people than I am used to seeing on an average street...legs lopped off, mental problems, and all kinds of crutches, limps, and skin problems. It says more to me about the transition and people all of the sudden not given the support by the government that they had before, but maybe I just noticed it more here because I was looking for it. Who knows.
-It's interesting to be in a place where the water is truly suspect. I've never been in a situation where I bought bottled water for the pure fact that the municipal water may have more pollutants than I want. This might be just my ignorance, but Prague is part of "The Dirty Triangle" and I didn't feel like taking any chances.
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