2004.09.13 in Berlin

Went on a free walking tour of Berlin that covered the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial (in progress), Hitler's Bunker (which is now an obscure parking spot in some apartment complex), Potsdamer Platz (future downtown hub), the Wall, the SS headquarters, Checkpoint Charlie (the crucial spot during Cold War), the TV Tower and some other spots. The historical significance of the city and the differences between pre-WWII and Nazi Germany and East vs. West Berlin were eye-openers & truly fascinating. I'll admit I didn't know too much about the city but this tour was fantastic and everyone glady gave the tour guide tips (that's what the tour company works for) afterwards.

There's a long section of the Wall that's still intact without any mural paintings but original graffiti. But since tourists were chipping away at the wall for souvenirs after 1989, it started to fall apart - so, another wall/fence was erected to protect the Wall itself ironic, eh?

We waited in a long ass line to go up the Reichstag (Berlin's parliament) which had a major emphasis on security - more so than any airport or museum. For dinner we went for some German food and had some weiner schnitzel - it was good but not worth the 15 euros we paid for!

Where I am: Praha (aka Prague)

Current update: We've extended our stay in Praha for 1 more day as we discovered a small but posh casino that has Texas Hold'em in a very nice poker room last night. Texas is new to the country and this is their very first Hold'em room after opening a few months ago. Thankfully Le made up for my quick loss as we've been itching to play some poker (it's been over a month since we last played in UW). My loss was worth it though - while watching Le play some limit 100-200 Czech krowns (about $5-10 CDN), walking around I saw Jaromir Jagr! The Czech dealer said it was him and that he visits this casino a few times a week playing Roulette. Jagr wasn't winning apparently and wasn't in a good mood. Hopefully he's there tonight as we'll try to get autographs - but no pictures as he didn't want any there LOL. Miss everyone back home!

2004.09.12 in Berlin

Woke up early on Sunday morning - not from our 6am alarm, but from an encore "presentation" of a couple sharing a double bed in our 14 bed dorm room (dorm rooms consist of bunk beds generally). Yes, the presentation was rated NC-17 or whatever. This happened in a room full of strangers - I could hear many others shuffling in their bed while the show went on trying not to laugh. I write encore because Le said that this occurred the night before but I guess I slept through it. Imagine that, 25 euros for a professional theatrical show but 2 free shows in your own room!

We caught our 7:13 train to Berlin with 3 minutes to spare and checked into a hostel very close to our rail station. It's probably the nicest one we've stayed in yet but bedding isn't free (it's the A&O Hostel at Zoo Station. The trip across western Germany was mostly countryside as usual around here but there are more forests and we passed through Hannover as I saw Volkswagen factories and nothing but V-dubs on the roads.

We haven't been eating good nutritious food for past few days so we found a decent Chinese restaurant for some much needed veggies and rice for a change...

Did laundry today but not before the Deutsch laundromat did us. If only we knew what "no change returned" was in German, we wouldn't have lost $2. It's going to be an adventure figuring out how to do laundry other countries it seems. Afterwards we trained it (S-bahn) to Berlin's version of the CN Tower, the TV Tower for some pics and later found this awesome homemade ice cream shop called "Australian." German doesn't seem like a hard language to learn since all the words are very phonetically based - and most people know some English anyway.

Interesting notes: Berlin is a massive city (8 times the size of Paris) with giant buildings, lots of land area, and parks and trees all over. With the city hosting the World Cup in 2006 there's so much construction and renovation happening! Many of the old-looking buildings are actually brand new since they've had to be re-constructed after the city was bombed in WWII.

2004.09.11 in Amsterdam

We did a tour of the city's many canals for the afternoon - Amsterdam is sometimes called the Venice of the north for a reason - it was boring but learned the city's old history and facts. Its surprising that with so many vices and 'illegal' activities being tolerated in the city, crime doesn't seem rampant or that you could generally feel safe walking around.

Saturday was an even more touristy day and the RLD at night was particularly busy with onlookers and customers. After seeing the RLD 3 nights in a row, it's clear the area's like a zoo and the popular 'exhibits' develop crowds and receive more patrons.

The only real Dutch people we met in Amsterdam were retail employees since everyone else was a tourist.

Other notes: At night in the RLD, we got accosted many times from shady characters who roam looking to sell you X or 'coco' - it's funny because sometimes they walk right by you whispering "x or coke" and you don't know what you just heard or what's the point of whispering these drugs around there. Whenever we felt our daypack being touched we got paranoid; everyone smokes something around here, so you better be able to tolerate some type of second hand smoke in a restaurant or bar. Unfortunately, we can't stay another day as food is becoming a major expense here!

Questions to ponder: What's the point of the Dutch language when all the ads, music, and natives know English fluently? Why does a lighter's flame always burn upwards? What state of matter is fire? An unseen RLD souvenir: baseball cap with a red glow on brim

2004.09.10 in Amsterdam

We had to switch rooms at the Flying Pig & didn't leave until 1pm looking for some cheap grub. Had shoarma for the 1st time and it was a decent meal. Shoarma and falafel huts are all over this city and Europe apparently. Visited the Cannabis College's Garden (see pics later!), watched masses of pigeons at the main square, and chilled out at a coffeeshop called Amnesia. Hard to remember but they had really good shakes there ;)

Walked the streets again and had more frites - a major heart stopper we knew - but they're a $2.50 cheap "dinner" around here; we also had these amazing Belgian/Dutch (?) snacks made of mini waffles with syrup in between. We decided to just chill at our hostel's bar but we got hungry again (always hungry in Amsterdam? what's up with that?) so I ended up buying more frites down the street. I asked for the largest size, Obelisk, with mayo (it's grown on me) for 2.95 euros. I wasn't expecting what I received as this was the largest amount of fries i've ever had to carry - it was 1 Kg of frites!

2004.09.09 in Amsterdam

Arrived in London just past midnight trying to catch the very last tube trains to the city's international rail station, Waterloo. We caught the last one which was delayed but we missed our transfer line so we trekked around to catch a bus instead. Stupidly, we wanted to get rid of all our British pounds coins back in Edinburgh and we forgot we needed them to buy bus tickets. Good thing a Boots (UK's Shoppers Drug Mart equivalent) was open near Piccadilly Circus. When we got into Waterloo station, the Eurostar terminal was closed until 4:45am so we had a few hours to kill/sleep off. Instead we went searching for a WC (public toilet) outside and found one at a hospital. Fortunately, this led to some awesome night pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye (now I know why all my night time pics were blurry - get a tripod!). We left London at 6:30am and arrived into Brussels by 10am without much sleep all night. We weren't staying in Brussels anymore so we waited for our Amsterdam train.

Checked into the Flying Pig hostel in Amsterdam before 3pm and luckily got what seemed to be the last available beds for the next few days. Explored central downtown including the infamous Red Light District (RLD) and coffeeshops... Everyone here speaks English well even though they'll revert to their native Dutch/Flemish language. The food is pricey but everyone's relaxed and enjoying themselves either by shopping, eating, or other means. ;)

Being here presented many opportunities to do things you'd never see in other cities - while in the RLD we noticed a huge queue full of tourists for a real live sex show. We got into the queue for Casa Russo's 5 'shows' lasting almost an hour... just imagine watching a play with different scenes - it's just not your average Les Miz.

Interesting notes: I thought the Eurostar was going to be a hi-speed train but it didn't seem like we went anywhere over 200km/h; bikes outnumber cars in Amsterdam and there are huge dedicated bike lanes all over the city; the RLD isn't as seedy as I imagined - only tourists are all around it seemed

2004.09.08 in Edinburgh

While we waited for our 1-day tour bus to arrive, we had a quick chat with an Aussie about his recent Euro travels and hostels he stayed at. We've met a couple of Aussies who have been travelling for at least a year and plan on working in the UK. We had a very enthusiastic tour guide/bus driver, Laura, who explained many of the inaccuracies in the Braveheart and Rob Roy films. Our first stop was in Stirling where the real battle between Edward I (spit!) and William Wallace took place on Stirling Bridge. Shortly after we stopped in a tiny vilage known for its "hairy coo," Hamish. He's a big hairy cow that's become a tourist attraction - you'll see why once my pics are up. Found out the true story of Rob Roy and the origins of the word "blackmail" - it was money given to Roy by the English government for the protection of (black) cows that were being stolen in Dunblane - while Roy was in fact the unknown thieving ring leader. We then stopped in a 'waterfall' town, Killin, for some lunch - had really good chips once again! Saw a supposed 5000 year old yew tree (ooooh) but our final stop was at the Famous Grouse Scottish Whiskey Distillery in the town of Crieff (where Ewan McGregor is from). We learned how this single malt scotch is made and finished with a good tasting and appreciation of this fine liquor made of barley, water, yeast, and many years. We got back into Edinburgh and were able to burn our photos before boarding our very delayed 7p train back into London...

2004.09.07 in Edinburgh

We left King's Cross rail station for the 10am trip and passed through northern England. Passed by lots of farmland and sheep but the eastern coast of this island was a nice sight to see for a change. As usual we headed for the "i" in Edinburgh Waverley station for some maps and tourist info. We found a nearby hostel for 11 pounds which was cheap but you do get what you pay for here. As our Highlands tourguide would say (the next day), it was a "manky" place to stay. Later checked out the park and Edinburgh (pronounced "Edin-borough" like "scar-borough") Castle to kill some time. Found a day tour for the next day which allowed us to leave right afterwards saving a night's stay in Edinburgh.

I have to mention the weather. The 5 days we were in London were unbelievably sunny and warmer than usual. Edinburgh was sunny too but cooler - the locals considered it to be like summer here.

We ate haggis for dinner - officially, "haggis, neeps, and tatties" (meat that was cooked inside a sheep's stomach, turnips, and mashed potatoes) - it was good and very filling. I tried some Carling beer and it wasn't bad - I give it 2.5 stars (out of 5).

Notes from London: Where are the drinking fountains? Garbage bins? and public toilets?? Drivers are more polite here and they really do pay attention to pedestrians at crosswalks. Roundabouts are efficient ways to move cars at an intersection - it's all about yielding!

Where I am: Berlin

Just an update on where we are: we´re in Berlin right now after a few days in crazy Amsterdam... haven´t had time to update the blog but will try to in coming days. We´re off to Warsaw, Poland where we have absolutely no info on the city or country so the next few days will be adventurous to say the least... times up gotta go

2004.09.06 to Stonehenge

Today's our Stonehenge trip. It took about 2 hrs to get there from Waterloo Station in London by rail and local Salisbury bus. Lots of photos were taken and it was great seeing this historical and mysterious site in person! They had free audio guides to listen to about the World Heritage Site and when we arrived to the Salisbury rail station we could've opted for a £12 guided tour which was a rip-off we saw.

Getting back into Salisbury, we had some time for lunch before our train back to London so we found a local pub. I'm not sure if I had real Salisbury steak of if that dish exists, but I had some steak on a bun there anyway.

After getting back to London, we walked around Covent Garden market and walked even more in the areas around Trafalgar Square... We bought some ice cream sandwiches (at a cheap 0.82 pence) for dinner's dessert but we were walking over to a local internet cafe when we realized we weren't going to finish off 5 bars each so we tried to give them away to strangers. Free food from kind Canadians - got turned down a few times but found some hungry people to finish off the rest...

Interesting notes: From 2 out of 2 English pubs we've visited, both make awesome chips and Kronenberg beer is a damn good beer here

2004.09.05 in London

Had our usual free breakfast again and headed off to Buckingham Palace. All these major London attractions are asking for admission fees of about £10 each - that would severely cut into our budget so we just couldn't go into these places. Instead, hopefully our pictures will say enough about them... While at the Palace, we were looking for those Royal Guards with the big black hat but they were far behind a fence so we went looking for other locations - we found one outside St. James' Palace but you wouldn't want to test out the theory of doing something stupid to the guy - he was carrying an M-16 it looked like. Afterwards we walked over to Piccadilly Circus to check out the British Visitor Centre and we then spent an hour at the free National Gallery museum. This was located at Trafalgar Square and we saw some riders in the Tour of Britain race that went by. Then we tried to go to Harrod's but it was closed (on Sunday!) so we went to the Natural History Museum and then back to Victoria (our home base) for some real fish and chips and pints of Stella Artois. After a late lunch we went to this thing called the Marble Arch but it wasn't anything special so we chilled out at nearby Hyde Park for the rest of the afternoon.

Interesting notes: Hyde Park is ginormous and a popular place for people to chillax, roller skate/blade, play football, and people-watch; there were 2 lines of the Tube (London Underground) that were down all weekend but the other routes were able to handle them; in every 'circus' or 'square' we saw, people were just relaxing and doing nothing - it was great!

2004.09.04 in London

Had a buffet breakfast at our hostel - cereal and bread - this is amazing considering how much food costs here. This morning we went to the Monument - a giant -surprise- monument to remember the fire of 1666 that burned down the city. We then walked down the London Bridge, bought postcards, and walked down the riverside (of the Thames River) to find our lunch that day - a seafood fair in Hay's Galleria. That was some great fresh seafood and and area to just chill. Then we walked further down the riverside to walk onto the Tower Bridge which is close to the Tower of London (where the crown jewels are!) but we didn't go into either attraction as the admission prices are insane. We bused it over to the British Airways London Eye which at first looks like a giant ferris wheel but is a very slow moving observation attraction. From here, Big Ben and the parliament buildings are very visible and we crossed over to them and Westminster Abbey. It was Sunday so many of these were closed or closed early that day. We walked past the New Scotland Yard where we saw the first London police officer with a gun. This guy not only had a gun but also some automatic machine gun protecting the back of the building apparently. We were pretty close to our hostel so we got back and napped while my dying digital camera's battery recharged... For dinner we decided to check out London's Chinatown and when we got there realized that food there wasn't any cheaper and walked around to Piccadilly Circus again. We tried to find some famous bar called Wag but it either closed down or was renamed to something else as we couldn't find it on the street it was supposed to be on. Walked on further down Oxford Street to Oxford Circus but it was late so this other shopping district wasn't busy and the locals were becoming drunk and London police sirens were busy. It wasn't even 10pm yet!

Interesting notes: We stumbled upon a large grocery store called Sainsbury's and it had a better wine selection than your local LCBO; Starbucks are everywhere here; it appears that Burger King is more popular than McDs; and car windshields carry either the driver's insurance or permit of some kind...

Learning the Language: sidewalk = footpath; take out = take away; yield = give way

Eurotrip 2004 begins!

Got to YYZ and we had to check-in our main pack since it was over the 5Kg limit... Air Transat was a nice flight and we got to London earlier than scheduled even though we left late.

Arrived at Gatwick and were lost for a moment. But we got our bearings and took a train to London Victoria station - a popular destination in London. We were still lost as to what to do but we quickly found a nearby hostel and signed in. Jet lag was a major problem as we were walking around at noon local time but used to 7am time (with only 2-3hrs of sleep on the plane)...

London is Expen$ive! The prices are the same numbers but the the currency is not! We're talking over 2x more! We found a supermarket and bought some bread and deli meat for a cheap lunch at under £4.

Later on we took a bus to Liverpool Station for a mini tour and then went to Picadilly Circus via the London Underground (UG) subway system. At PC, we went into the Virgin Megastore where Velvet Underground was going to be signing CDs. We then walked around this major shopping district and after getting tired we headed home via the UG.

Interesting notes: London transit is amazing! fast, efficient, and takes you everywhere! There are so many cool small cars here that North American roads would be better off with... The downtown (Central London) is very, very clean; there are no skyscrapers as land use is very spread out; there are no gas stations to been so far in Central London; the cops don't carry guns; supermarkets have security guards; traffic lights show red+yellow before changing to green; the prices don't show taxes...

Learning the Language: lease = let; rent = hire; exit = way out