European Escapade

This one relay is just a quick update. I know I say that every time but this time I mean it.

Last few days have been spent sleeping more than usual to try and catch up, and get over a slight cold I have. The rest of the time I’ve been out and about seeing sights, or sitting in a park, catching up on my journal and planning my trip going forward. Yesterday I booked it all, so the plan going forward looks like this:

• Berlin until Saturday evening.
• Fly to London, arrive late Saturday night.
• To new hostel for one night. Call Tink. Go out and party.
• Back to Ashlee House, the first Hostel I stayed at, until the 9th when I fly out of London.

At some point in there I’m going to be making a day trip to Bath or Bristol to see Elly and Emily but I’m waiting on them to help me coordinate what day that should be. And then it’s off to Thailand, get measured for a suit, fly to Koh Samui, chill on a beach, come back, fit suit and then fly out. On the 18th I’ll be winging my way back to Australia. It seems so close!

Yesterday I went to a fantastic exhibit of Egyptian sculptures and papyrus. It was really great and all my old interest in Egypt came flooding back while i was there. It was incredible to think that the bust of Nefertiti which I was looking at was over 3000 years old and still in such impeccable condition. It really is a beautiful piece of work.

I also went inside the big cathedral here and climbed to the top. Just as I got up there it bucketed down with rain. Yup, the beautiful whether which I have been experiencing the entire time I’ve been away, has finally broken. But I waited it out and went out on the ledge and took some photos. Later that night I also went up the tallest structure in the city, which is the TV tower, and surveyed the landscape from 205m up at sunset. Got some good photos.

When I came back I could here the Spanish dudes in my room from the opposite end of the hall, as I’ve gotten used to. They are always up to something. really good guys. I stepped into the room to find all the lights out except for one, which was shining like a spot light on a table. Behind the table two of the guys sat with towels or other things obscuring their faces and head, dark glasses and caps on. The table was draped with a Spanish Flag and sitting opposite them was another guy with a camera. They were filming a mock terrorist video. I couldn’t help but laugh.

After that was done, they filmed the counter-terrorist component. They each have a SWAT shirt and they got dressed up all in black, went outside, then burst into the room with their cell phones and other things out to look like guys, and arrested… me. I think they’d all wanted to be SWAT and failed to leave someone else to arrest in the room Maybe you had to be there, but it was bloody funny.

The night before they had come in, with a new guy having just checked into the spare spot in our room, and walked over to my bed. Al stood above me and said “OK Jesse, you know what time it is” banging his fist against his other hand, as though he was going to beat someone up. The new guy looked very taken aback until we all began to laugh.

The boys are checking out today, so I’ll no longer have their antics to keep me entertained when I get back late from sight seeing. Others included playing soccer in our little dorm, or standing in a pentagonal shape and headbutting the ball to each other, around and around, like a game of hacky sack. The only different is as you head but it you have to scream as loud as you can, or say the next word in an agreed sequence or something. They really have been fun to room with, for me at least. I’m not sure that the others in the room have fallen in with their style of comedy enough to enjoy it… they just looked continually perplexed.

Anyway, today I think I will check out the new national art gallery because it’s all modern art, which I’m finding I really like. I’ll also swing by the Jewish museum if I can and maybe a few other places. My original deal with F was that I had to come at a weekend so we could see Berlin’s nightlife, which i still haven’t really done, but since today is Thursday I’m hopeful there will be something good on.

And that, my friends, is that. I’m collating a few things I wanted to write about into a separate page in my journal and will come back and write about them in the next few days probably. Other than that, I hope this finds you all happy and well, and I’ll look forward to heading from you all soon!

Love, j oxox

Aha my beautiful friends and family! How are things back home? It feels like ages since I posted last because so much has happened since Thursday. I spent almost two hours today just trying to catch up in my little pocket journal, in point form.

Right now I’m sitting in an Internet cafe and waiting for my DVD to burn. Finally found a place where I can do it for a reasonable fee and they even include the DVD, but I have about 3Gb of photos to burn off, so it’s taking a while. What better time to bring you all up to speed with what it is I’ve been doing.

For those of you who are the executive summary type, I could say it in one sentence: I’ve been having an absolute blast.

For those that want the more detailed version…
OK so my last post was before the Robbie Williams concert in Berlin. Let’s see now… One thing I didn’t mention in that post, which becomes important in this one, is that at some point at the beach bar on Wednesday I was kind of invited to a wedding. I say kind of because the invitee may have been a little inebriated at the time…

On Thursday, while all the good little boys and girls in Australia were asleep in their beds, I met up with Friederike and went to the Olympic Stadium here, which is where the soccer finals were recently held, to watch our favourite Mr Williams beat out the hits.

Unfortunately we had one allocated seating ticket and one standing ticket, and they were sticklers for where people could go with each, so something had to be done. Luckily, scalping tickets immediately outside the stadium is completely legal in Germany so I picked up another general admission ticket for a steal. Only problem was we now had three tickets and needed only two. It reminded me a little for the brain teaser in Die Hard 3: fill one of the jugs with exactly three gallons of water and place it on the scale…

We tried to move our allocated seating ticket onto people as they came to the stadium but no one wanted it. We then tried to move it (for a bargain price!) to one of the people selling one of the same, based on the logic that they could sell two at twice the price. How many people are going to show up wanting just one allocated seated ticket anyway? Friederike wasn’t having much luck, so next it was my turn. I did worse. Imagine me standing there with a ticket in my hand, trying to explain in a combination of English and extraordinarily simplistic German, that I wanted to sell a ticket to someone who was already themselves trying to sell their ticket. What I learned is that if I move to Germany, I can’t be in sales until I’ve at least learned more of the language… Seriously though, my recent experiences have helped me understand exactly how much I want to be able to speak another language, and German is it for me, so when I get back, someone force me!

Ultimately we had no luck moving our spare ticket, and it was getting hot standing in the sun, and we just couldn’t be stuffed any more, so we copped the loss and went on in. I’ve seen at the link about that this stadium holds fewer people that the MCG but I tell you, it sure doesn’t look like it from ground zero. The place is absolutely massive and really nicely architected.

We weaseled our way towards the front and found a good spot between the stage and the little pill-box where the lighting and sound technicians sit (sight in front of the main stage). It was good because it meant that when the show started, and people pushed forward, we were sheltered. It also had a little ramp over some power cables which we could stand on to get a marginally better view.

In writing up this few hours (the conceert) in my journal today I used as much space as I did for certain other full days; there was so much to take note off, so I’m going to have to try to keep it a little more brief here.

At the open end of the stadium there was a massive stage which looked a little like a set of jaws in its construction. There was a giant screen in the middle, and the rig was symmetrical about that. To the left there were three massive vertical constructions, each of which looked checkered, like massive (we’re talking 40ft high) LCD screens with really big pixels and space between each pixel. These turned out to be screens also, but they only lit up in the white parts, and the gaps remain black. It’s hard to explain but it made for a cool effect. Farther left again there was half an arc which must have been at least 50ft high, arching over the stage from left to right, to almost touch it’s twin which arched from right to left. And farther left again, another massive screen. The stage itself sat in front of, and slightly below the middle screens, flanked by those LCD-like constructions and had a tear-dropped shaped extension which came right out into the crowd, only about 10m from where we were, but crammed with more people than you can imagine.

Maybe I should just post a picture of the stage… remind me to do that before I log off , I’ve got all my photos right here OK… see it here.

Anyway, I didn’t know who the opening act was, and neither did Friederike I think. When we arrived there was music playing (strange but cool slightly dance versions of pop songs such as Destiny’s Child and MC hammer… And Vanilla Ice. Nice range). So we were standing there, bopping a little, trying to get our hands on the free cups of water they were passing back and back trough the crowd (the list of disallowed items at entry included any refillable, non factory sealed drinks for some ridiculous reason… and tear gas which I was really disappointed with, since it meant I had to leave my whole stash with the security guard. I’d planned on pulling it out when Robbie sang Angel, to get everyone into the correct mood; that is, teary)… Anyway, we’re standing there, when, out of the blue, there’s his awesome drum solo and the screens light up with… “Basement Jaxxx”….

Watch Jesse freak out. Wohoo! But I barely had time to freak celebrate before they stormed on stage, with three massive afro-English women and started playing Rendezvous. Now, if this were Melbourne, Basement Jaxxx would probably be big enough to draw the sort of crowd that was in attendance, by themselves. But that wasn’t the case in Berlin. In fact, while people were happy to have live music finally, the elation seemed to wear off after about two songs. The crowd went quiet. They didn’t do the clap in time thing. At the end of a song you could almost hear the wind whistling and crickets calling, as opposed to thunderous applause and calls for more… The Basement were really suffering.

As the songs went on, the singers picked up the feel of the crowd and became increasingly less interested. They tried everything to get people back into it. At one point, the main keyboard dude got down and yelled things like “I want to bloody well see you move… Hands up! Clap with me” He then proceeded to dance, no kidding, by kicking his legs in front of him, one at a time, as high as he could, and clapping his hands together under them as they went up… He looked like a marionette some kid was playing with. But it worked. The crowd got into it and started to clap along… For a bit. After a while it became apparent that this crowd only wanted Robbie. As great as Basement Jaxx are, you’ve got to question which person decided they are a good opening act for Robbie Williams, considering how different the music styles are.

Hmm so this post is crazily long and I’m still on Thursday. Time to shift gears.

Put it this way, basement Jaxx got their biggest roar when they told everyone it was their last song. And the Robbie Williams UNICEF ad which came on after they went off stage got more applause than they did for any song just because we got to see Robbie… But the Berlin crowd cheered them as they deserved when they left- I think ppl like them, they just wanted Robbie, and now!

And they got their wish. I would guess earlier than expected, Robbie’s show began in style. It was about 8pm and there was still a fair bit of daylight as the arches over the stage lit up in various combinations, in sequence with a five note melody which I immediately recognized. Anyone who has seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind would also recognize it as the music the space ships make. It started quietly, *dum dum dum, dum, dum* but I held my breath and Robbie didn’t let me down. On the third iteration, the first three notes got louder and louder and the last two were a deafening roar, accompanied with fireworks shooting out from all over the stage and the arches, huge plumes of fire and a massive roar from the crowd, although I think most of them didn’t know the music was from a film. The stage was set for a classy act.

The show went for a few hours, and was pretty much non-stop, good music. I say good, not great. He’s a showman, and it was definitely a great show but,  I’m a hard judge of male singing talent… Anyway, it was well worth the effort to get there. Highlights included:

• The appearance of Johnny Wilkinson (the UK Rugby player), who participated in a duet surprising well, then worked with Robbie to see who could kick an autographed football farthest into the crowd, and who had the lion’s share of the crowd’s adoration (no prizes for guessing who won each of those challenges).
• When Robbie jumped down into the crowd to be malled by crazed fans, and then kissed one of the girls in a pretty full on way, to have all the others scream even louder (as though it was even possible) and the girl burst into a flood of joyful tears and almost fall over.
• When the whole crowd sang Feel, with Robbie leading, and the giant screens showing the words like one massive Karaoke club.
• When Robbie sang Angel… because I knew the words
• His new track which he sang wearing a tailor made Adidas jumpsuit, looking like Eminem, with his initials (RPW) all over it… I’d like to hear the album version of this because it’s very… kinda half rapper thing and sounded a little… well bad to me, though it had a catchy hook.

Ultimately, by the end, Friederike was a complete convert and I was now comfortable with saying I quite like Robbie’s music and he’s a very good showman.

With typical German efficiency, a massive stadium full of people emptied pretty quickly and somehow evaporated onto what must of been heaps of waiting trains at the station immediately beyond the stadium. We were hardly crowded at all and even got a seat. On the way we stopped and bought a giant bratwurst each… that becomes important later on.

We made our way back into the city and chilled outside Häagen-Dazs, drinking sorbet cocktail things and watching the street performers including a guy who juggled and spat fire like nothing I’ve ever seen, and a chick with giant (and I would guess, flammable) fairy wings, standing only about 2m away singing… It was a really clear and pleasant summer evening.

Back at the hostel I chatted to some people from Amsterdam, who were super interesting and really good company, before crashing. Ultimately I was quite early to bed. We didn’t make it a big night because the next day I had to get up and… that’s right… hire a tux for the wedding!

I could tell a story there. It involves Jesse originally being told to go to number 15 something street by the hostel, only to find that place has closed down, returning to the hostel and spending 1.5 hours with the hostel owner, trying to find a suit hire place both on the net and in the phone book, calling F and saying that there seemed to not be one in all of Berlin. But, if I told that story, I would also have to tell have F called back about 10 minutes later to say she’d found one, and it was on the same street that Jesse had been on, at number 15a(!), next door, and he had an appointment in an hour for a fitting… Thanks mum

My suit was fitted by a dentist. What a great line. I should start a book like that. Anyway, this was of course because his wife, the tailor, doesn’t speak English as well as he does. She also didn’t seem to like me too much when I arrived early for my appointment (because I had heaps to do that day and didn’t think I could get it all done). Turns out I just misunderstood her manner. The dentist was a great guy, who had visited Australia and was very nice. The suit, it was in fact a smoking suit (so no tails or top hat, but the rest was like a tux) cost a bomb but looked the part and I haven’t lashed out on anything yet so I was happy to do it. Before I knew it I was strolling out with a big box complete with pleated shirt, cuff links, suspenders (Fashion Police please note: I didn’t wear them, on advice from my fashion consultant), cummerbund and shoes.

At the hostel I packed my crap in the best way I could such that I could still carry the box flat in front of me, and made my way to Friederike’s place. We killed some time then mutually agreed to risk pizza for dinner.

The place we went to was Italian. They made real pizza (I can say that now, having bean to Italy) and the waiter was a real Italian. This made for a great situation. You see, I speak English and a little German, and picked up the pieces of Italian I needed (especially for food ordering) while in Italy. Friederike speaks all three languages, as did the waiter. You can imagine the kind of multilingual slips (and fun) we had when he would say something in Italian and I would accidentally respond in German, since I’ve gotten used to it, and then he’d respond in English and Friederike would say something in Italian or German. It was like a skit from the Marx brothers. We ordered the cheese pizza… but since we’re both allergic to dairy, we got reduced cheese. No jokes. The waiter even asked us if we wanted an ambulance yet towards the end of the meal He was cool and the pizza was awesome.

Next we went to visit Vera so they could talk girls stuff. Which handbag matches which shoes and which dress. It was really nice to see her too and catch up.

Vera took us to the awesome Berlin Haupbahnhof instate train station (it really is cool looking) and onto an ICE train, just in time. The two hours to Hamburg were spent contemplating how to violently silence the group of children playing behind us on their Nintendo DSs. It wouldn’t have been necessary but they were playing a game which involved training a dog through a combination of key presses and spoken language. Imagine a little girl (whose name was also Friederike funnily enough) saying “Sitz. Sitz! SITZ! Gut hund.” for an hour… Then imagine her brother deletes all her save points when she gets up, and resets the game so she has to start over. *Shudder*

We also passed the time by talking about nuclear physics, wind farms and diamond mines. Or I did. Yup, fun to have on a long train ride, me.

Hamburg is wicked at night. The city has two lakes, one which the main CBD is right next to, and one further out which is where there is a lot of residential areas. The whole place is by the water, and people can literally ’sea buses’ to work, etc. We checked in at East Hotel, possibly one of the best interior designed places I’ve ever been inside (Kel, check it), then met up with the rest of the family (sister and partner, father, mother). They are the most friendly and welcoming people. Absolutely lovely.

That night we younger ones went to Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s red light and club district. It was packed out. We began at a more traditional kind of pub and ended up in a karaoke bar run by Thai people, singing along to the hits as our entries mysteriously got pushed farther and father down the list to make way for the friends of the DJ to have their turns. Robbie Williams was a favourite for lots of people, and I, freshly versed, was keen to participate. I actually chose a Robbie song myself, but after hours of waiting my turn was stolen by another guy who had apparently chosen the same song and was simply bigger than I was and muscled his way to the stage before I got my chance. Still, we left in very good spirits… at 5am. Oh oh, wedding today.

Despite the time, there was of course time to stop for a hot dog on the way back. Extra pickles please.

Understandably, breakfast the next morning saw us pretty tired on only about four hours of sleep. It also saw Friederike and I feeling really, really sick and not at all hungry. We decided it was the post Robbie hot dog from Thursday because no one else was feeling the same. There were a few points at which we both thought it would be an awful shame to get dressed up only to throw up everywhere, but we soldiered on.

Being a guy I wore only one outfit all day. Standing in the hallway we made a very elegant group. The ceremony started at 1.30pm and was a very nice affair: not too long, which was great because the church was sweltering and I couldn’t brin myself to take my jacket off. That didn’t help the whole “I think I’m going to be sick” thing but it passed fast enough. After the ceremony we gathered outside but it began to rain, so we ran inside and had some casual drinks and cake. Actually, we two avoided cake considering how we felt, but we watched everyone else indulge in the most delicious-looking cake.

I learned a few cool wedding customs which anyone getting married should consider doing. There was one room full of about 50 helium balloons. Each had a string and attached to the string was a stamped, addressed (to the bride and groom) post card. The concept is that you write a wish or something nice for the couple on one of the guards, then set the balloon free. If a stranger finds the card on the street (once the balloon has done its dash and landed somewhere), they pop it in a mailbox and supposedly the wish comes true. Cool concept and apparently known well enough by other Germans that anyone who does find the card, will mail it. Another was to have the photographer get a list of every pair at the wedding, take their photo, then a book goes around and you write on the page allocated you, to later have the corresponding photo stuck in under your message. Nice little touches.

That was Act I over. En route back to the hotel some of us stopped at a new … I guess you would call it theme park … in Hamburg which had just opened with a fireworks display the night before. We rode the huge ferris wheel and ate local sweets, etc. Talked about sky diving. Back at the hotel the guys took it easy and the women got dressed up into their evening outfit. Soon thereafter we were on our way to the pier to catch a ferry to the reception centre. This was another awesome experience. The harbour in Hamburg has little islands connected to the mainland which are where cargo ships are loaded and unloaded. Off to the side, on one of these little islands is a former storage warehouse or similar which has been converted (by the resident artist into a three level reception centre. Drinks are held on the roof, dinner and dancing on the second level and the whole thing eminates a combination of class and modern art. It was the perfect venue.

After photos and drinks on the roof we sat down for dinner. We were pretty much over feeling sick by this time. The five course meal was amazing and varied. At my table were a range of people, including some family and some friends, most German but some from elsewhere. Everyone was fantastically nice and put up with my complete incompetency when it comes to German; we spoke 99% English. Click here for my favourite shot from my table.

During and after dinner there were speeches by a wide variety of people, followed by several specially written comical songs, and even a play which had been put together by the bride’s family, showing how the couple met. The whole thing was fantastically entertaining even if I only understood parts. I even received a special mention from the groom, Ulrich, who said in his speech he’d had to change his wording to account for the fact that people had not just come from “far and wide”, but from the other side of the planet, to attend.

After dinner came dancing. The music was 80s and 90s English classics mixed with German hits which I of course didn’t know, but I danced as much as anyone. I was even fortunate enough to be asked to dance a few times, apparently on some perceived skilled… maybe it’s just my strange Australian style. I have an awesome video of everyone doing the YMCA song and dance actions together as well as some really great shots in general. As the night wore on, the flood lights which keep the docks and loading bays illuminated made for fantastic shots across the water, and the reception centre itself, decked out as it was in such a classy way, gave me heaps to take snaps of when I wasn’t dancing or talking to someone. See this. Everyone had a fantastic time, myself included. I was extremely lucky to be invited.

We ended up back at the hotel at about 5am…. again. The next morning we were just as bleary eyed at breakfast but luckily over all that feeling sick, so we had a massive breakfast. I was then lucky enough to travel around the city with Friederike, her farther, and mother, seeing the main sites. The entire family have been so kind and hospitable, it’s contributed massively to my enjoyment of the last few days.

Hamburg was terrible to navigate because heaps of roads were closed due to some big bike race which was going on, but we eventually made our way out of the city. in the two days that I spent there I think I saw a lot more than what I would have seen as a tourist; I saw and learned about the culture from people who live there and love it. It was a great, unplanned addition to my trip.

Another thing I got to experience the same day was the auto-bahn, in Hans’ (Friederike’s father) Mercedes at 220k/h. Woosh! We actually fell asleep after about 10 minutes the ride was so smooth.

Back in Berlin there was shocking traffic too. We had to take massive detours and the lady on the GPRS guidance system was getting increasingly annoyed at us for not turning left when she said. Imagine us all sitting in the car, her telling us to do a U-turn, and us all telling her to shut up… Maybe you had to be there :)

Last night my original hostel was full so I’m now staying at a place called The Circus which is in a more lively part of town. Last night I got to know my room-mates: one German guy waiting on keys to his apartment, and 6 Spanish guys, one of whom might win the award for most friendly person I have ever met. Within 2 minutes of me walking in he was saying things like “If there’s anything I can do to help you out, or if you need anything, just let me know. Have you eaten? Would you like some of our dinner?”. Albert is name. “But you can call me Alber, or Al, or whatever you like”. Great guy.

The Spanish guys were heading out as I checked in at about 10pm last night and I was invited but I had to do some washing and get some sleep. Unfortunately both were kind of unsuccessful. After meeting everyone and talking until about 11pm, I found myself at the laundromat which I was told is open until 1am, confronted by a German owner who speaks no English… His gestures were encouraging, so I put on a wash. But when he came back later and saw I had, he seemed frustrated. He made it clear through gestures that I couldn’t do any drying when the was was over. Turns out they close earlier than I was told by the hostel… So I brought back my wet laundry and hung it up about the room. It worked well enough. Met a couple of cool people while I watched my laundry tumble over and over.

Back in the room I crashed at about 1am, to be woken at 2am, 3am and then again later by the Spanish boys coming back in and doing anything from wrestling, to just laughing drunkenly. I don’t begrudge them their fun. Al saw me sit up in bed and immediately took to shushing them all but he was a bit drunk so his shushing was louder than they. Classic

This morning I was up bright and early to drop off my suit. The tailor lady was much nicer this time: I made sure to arrive right on time, not too early. I then went to Reichstag, to see the famour glass dome, where I haven’t yet been. See this, and this. Who should I find was also there but Friederike and her family, having lunch at the restaurant. I joined them, and we spent the afternoon at at few cafes nd parks before her parents had to depart on their trip back home. Despite 3 days of endless Jesse-exposure, they were as welcoming as ever.

And that’s it gang. I’ve spent the last… almost 4 hours… writing this and burning DVDs of my photos.

And plans going forward? I have no idea. I don’t have time to do Amsterdam, Paris and London any more. I don’t even have time to do Paris and London properly I think, since I can’t leave until tomorrow (1st) at the earliest and I have to leave London on the 9th. I can’t believe how fast the last week or more has gone. I’ll be on my way back soon! That’s a good and a bad thing.

I think I might just chill here in Berlin another few days, then go straight to London and do Paris another time rather than rush it. That is what I will figure out tonight based on prices for airfares, accommodation availability, etc.

Anyway, after that ridiculously long entry I’m going to go get something to eat. Congratulations for making it through and I hope you enjoyed it. I’m sure I’ve left out some great stories in every single post, but if I told it all, I’d not be out experiencing it.

Hope this finds you all well. Lots of love, jess oxox

PS - I think I almost have a new favourite photo. This one, of the view from the beach bar, late at night on Wednesday.

Ahoy there my avid readers! I’ve managed to catch a few of you via instant messenger or SMS in the last few days and it’s been good to hear that lots of ppl are following along with my travels every now and then at least.

Despite having posted just yesterday, it’s been a few days since I actually said anything, as the last two posts have been mainly historical pictures, so here’s a bit of an update for you all. I somehow seem to resort to posting whenever I’m too tired to face the heat outside and do anything real, so please forgive my tired ramblings.

On Monday I caught my train to Berlin. The best part of that story is probably the train itself; it was one of those high-speed ICE trains. They are so high-tech, it’s worth talking about them a little for my nerd friends back home. Imagine a plane which runs on train-tracks and you’ll have a good idea. There’s a hostess who walks up and back serving food and the like. My seat had a fixed little wooden table in front of it, which I used for reading, etc. The doors between carriages are all automated infra-red sensor style and make a really great Star Trek kind of sound as they open and shut. The bathrooms are just like those on a big Boeing aircraft.

One of the most interesting parts of the train is that not all the passenger carriages connect directly to each-other. As a passenger, you can walk between certain parts of the train, but not to others. The reason for this is that, rather than being one engine unit, with a whole lot of little carriages, the train actually has an engine carriage, then a few passenger carriages, then another engine carriage, and so on. Why? Because the train splits into multiple different trains as the journey progresses. It’s really cool. Passengers bound for different destinations all get on their corresponding carriages and the train travels as one unit for a few hours to the first major hub at which time it stops and the middle section breaks off and heads off in another direction, leaving my section to continue on its merry way.

This happened a few times throughout the trip and I was thoroughly impressed with how efficient it makes the whole system. Think about it- everyone travels on the one train for as long as possible, then as our journey’s diverge, the train splits up. It’s brutally efficient and I was really impressed. Of course, the main downfall of it is that if you accidentally get one the wrong carriage, or mistakenly assume you can get on at one end, and walk to the other, you’re going to find yourself arriving in a different city or country to that which you may have expected. But that’s easily enough dealt with by the projection screens in each carriage which say where that carriage (as opposed to the whole train) is going. And each allocated seat has a little LCD which displays the seat’s occupant’s destination too The only other downfall is that you can’t pick a seat which faces “forwards” because for the first leg the train drives one way, then it switches, then it switches back.

I expected Monday to be a bit of a write-off in terms of sight-seeing, and it was. By the time I got into Berlin, and to the hostel at about 8pm, I was pretty tired and everything was shut. Everything except for the beer gardens that is, so off we went. There were two different groups of American guys staying here so we teamed up with them and headed down towards the nearest beer garden. Actually it wasn’t close at all, but it was a nice enough walk. So Monday night was spent drinking, talking about rappers, movies and US politics.

Tuesday some of the US guys left, and two others came with me and Caleb to a free walking tour conducted by Neue Berlin, the sister group to those who ran the free tour in Munich. This one went for about 4 hours and had, no exaggeration, about 150 people in it. They must be rolling in money from these tours because at the end, everyone gives a tip of 5 - 10 euro. They split the group in two and staggered our starts. It went for about 4 hours and comprised about 50% history lesson, and 50% seeing sights. The English guy, Nick, who ran it was an absolute bible in terms of German history and clearly loves Berlin more than anywhere else. His passion for the history and way of telling the story in terms of personal stories of impacted families, separate by the wall, etc. was contagious and by the end of the tour I was much more aware of the significance of Berlin than I had been from reading the same history in my little travel book on the way up in the train. This little city has played an amazing part in shaping what the world is like today, and is still very unsure of what it will itself become.

The size of the group made taking photos a little impossible, so I decided to go out again yesterday and follow pretty much the same path, alone, and take some happy snaps.

Tuesday afternoon the US boys had to move to another hostel, so we planned to meet up later in the evening at a park. The place we’re staying at is really quite small and homely, but awesome. I would think that in total it holds about 15 people. The bunks are custom-made, and I have a double med in a kind of mezzanine area in the main living quarters. Tis cool. Everyone gets a key, the staff are hear each morning and each evening for check-in only. The rest of the time we just pop in and out and sometimes stop to talk to the others who we bump into. It’s a really alternative kind of environment which matches Berlin to a tee.

That brings me to talking about Berlin, and boy, this place is bohemian beyond belief. Every single person you see walking down the street (who isn’t a tourist) has their own fashion going on. There are punks, and crazy looking or sounding, scary people everywhere, but at the same time it feels incredibly safe. It’s kind of in fashion for the kids to walk down the street with your MP3 playing mobile, and play the music they like so that everyone can hear it. Standing at a station is a funny experience sometimes. 10 different groups of young kids, each with a different swing on the style they are reppin’, each with music blaring from a tiny speaker in one of their mobiles.

Berlin was painted in our tour, as a melting pot of multi-culturalism, and individualism, and it really is that. But at the same time, the city has a really unified kind of feel to it. It’s also a very young city and absolutely bustling with tourists at this time of year. I’m liking it and beginning to see why some i know say it’s the best city in the world. You get the feeling you can really be what you want and people will judge you entirely on who you are, not what you look like, or what you do for a living. It’s very liberal and encouraging of free speech. Strangers will talk to you about politics from the word go, and aren’t scared to lay their opinion out on the line. I think that’s where people get the wrong impression- it could be quite confronting if you weren’t ready for it.

Tuesday night we went to this park as agreed, and couldn’t find the American guys, since we were pretty late. We had a nice walk around the park though. Lots of groups of people teaching themselves or others different musical instruments. Over there is a group of hippies playing drums. There’s a young mum with her two little kids paddling in the small flow of water which runs through the park… I know these are all the sorts of things which you might see in Melbourne, but there is really something very different about this place. At first I didn’t like it, but the trip to the park started me on a path toward appreciating it I think, and in the last 24 hours I’ve really come to like Berlin a lot.

Wednesday I got up late and spent some time on the computer. I then went out on my own and followed a tour from my Berlin book, which took me to the same destinations as the Neue Berlin tour from Tuesday, plus a few, in a different order. Got some good photos but really just enjoyed looking around at the city. The eclectic nature of the place is evident, if in nothing else, in the architecture. Half the city is old, half is new. Half was built under communist rule, half not. Half is poor, half is richer. Residents are young and old, from all over the world, speaking all different languages. And none of these halves are the same. They overlap each other so you end up with patches which are poor and old, or poor and new. Kel, if you’re reading this, you have to come here man. You will absolutely love it. Even I am being really taken in by the variance in the architecture. It’s a great city.

In the afternoon Caleb and I were dying to chill out, both mentally and physically. We decided the best way to do that would be to go to the Sony Centre here where they have an awesome cinema complex, and watch a mentally stimulating and deep movie. So we chose Fast and the Furious 3, Tokyo Drift. I’d give it 3.5 stars. If you take out the beautiful cars and women… Can a film get a negative ranking? Seriously though, it was nice to just chill out in a cinema and watch a total no-brainer film, while occasionally exclaiming about how awesome a car chase scene was.

Then Caleb decide to go home and I went to the beach to meet Friederike. Well, not exactly. Those who are up to date with their geography will know that Berlin is completely and utterly landlocked, so they have no real beaches. That hasn’t stopped the residents from having them though. I had heard about these beach parties before I came. Imagine taking a piece of real-estate - this was was near the river but I hear most are on the top of parking garages, or just in other open areas - and filling it with sand. Add a 5m diameter inflatable pool in one corner with a fountain-like hose spraying everywhere, heaps of beach chairs, some chilled music and a bar serving massive cocktails and you have yourself a great recipe for a good day or night out!

We sat around drinking - damn strong, but good - cocktails and chatting the night away. It was really nice to catch up with someone I knew already over here. I’m looking forward to doing the same in London even more now.

Today has been a complete bludge day. I slept right in and woke up without even a sign of a hang-over, which I was pretty impressed with since I ended up pretty drunk last night. Went out for a big brunch with Caleb and ate up big. Then came back here and just crashed on my bed, thinking and listening to music. Then Friederike called saying she has a spare ticket for Robbie Williams tonight… so guess where I’m, going.

*Clears throat*
“And through it all, she offers me protection, a lot of love and affection, whether I’, right or wrong.” - Angel

Man, I hope he sings that song a few times because I swear it’s the only one of “our Robbie’s” songs which I actually know. Nonetheless it should be heaps of fun. It’s also at this massive stadium which I was told can’t be missed, so I’m looking forward to seeing that.

Anyway, that’s my lazy catch up post people. I feel like it’s Christmas Sunday afternoon; really kinda sleepy but content. It’s a good way to be. I hope everyone back home is staying happy and healthy. Stay in touch and I’ll post again soon.

Love to all, j xoxo

OK my 2Gb card is now full. But the good news is this place I’m staying will let me back-up on CD so I can continue to be snap happy. Below are a few photos I prepared earlier but didn’t get a chance to upload until now. Just doing this to clear my card. We’re about to go out again so I’ll post a text update soon…

So far Berlin is… hmm ok.

Little kids playing outside the Modern Art Museum in Munich, in these spinning top things as part of a circus games exhibit being run by the city. One of my favourite shots of the whole trip.

Another photo from within that ultra-violet room. Sorry, I like them.

Me at the Neuschwanstein castle.

The fountains in full swing at Karlyplatz in Munich.

A map of Munich for the blind, complete with all street names in brail.

Munich

 
Munich’s Neo-Gothic Architecture is a bit creapy at night.

Drinking with locals at the Hofbrauhaus

Surfing … the river… in the park.

More surfing.

At the Modern Gallery they have an ultraviolet room where YOU are the art. Tis cool.

A litre of beer anyone? Don’t worry, because of the Purity Law it has almost no crap in it and you really DON’T get a hangover… or at least, not as bad as you would be used to.

The Neo-Gothic Cathedral during the day is still impressive.

The ceiling of the Duomo in Florence as I climb near to the top. Amazing.

The preservation of Florence’s skyline is clearly visble from the roof of the Duomo.

A shot I took of David before everyone was told no photos are allowed… I swear it!

Munich’s Neo-Gothic Architecture is a bit creapy at night.

Rome

Mmmm sorbetti

Inside the Coloseum. Everyone has already seen the outside…

Trevi fountain. Couldn’t get any shots of all the little kids trying to lean in an collect the coins ppl toss as they make wishes.

St Peter’s in Rome. The whole place is this amazing or more.

View from the top of the dome at St Peter’s.

My lunch of meat, artichokes and olive oil. To die for.

One of the halls on the way to the Sistine Chappen in the Vatican Museum. Again, the whole place is almost this amazing. This was probably my favourite hall though.

London

“Mind the gap!”. You have to have visited London to get this.

Trafalga Sq, looking out.

Back towards the Thames from the St James Gardens just before Buckingham Palace

The Eye from The Ground

The top of St Paul’s offers a great view of London…

Greetings everyone,

Before I begin, I would like to dedicate this post to Kirsten who is getting married next week. The title comes from my encounter with her Hen’s night party just a moment ago. When walking through the square today I noticed a bunch of German girls, dressed in the same clothes which all had some slogan on them, and assumed they were a frat party of some sort, or something of that nature.

As I walked back the way I came, one of them jumped out in front of me and started trying to convince me to buy a CD from her, in German. I’m finding that happens a lot. Apparently I look German enough to warrant people just talking to me in the assumption that I speak it. Often enough I can decipher what they are saying (my audio comprehension is higher than I would have expected), but I can’t fathom how to reply to them in German so I have to either say that I only speak English, or do my best “what the?” dumb tourist look.

Anyway, I told this chick I didn’t speak much German, in German. By this time she’d been joined by a few of the others and, in their best English they tried to convince me to buy either the CD, some condoms, or a variety of other random things from them. When I asked what it was for, one of them, wearing a crown of flowers, approached and explained, in better English than all the others, that she was to be married in a few days, and they were raising money for her Hen’s night party. I must have looked like I wasn’t interested because at that point, she made the best offer yet: a kiss from any of the girls present, for one Euro. Now imagine Jesse, standing in the main square of München, surrounded by Germans girls in their 20s, all encouraging me to take a kiss for one Euro.

Stupid idiot that I am, I said no thank you to the kisses, but gave her a few Euro to celebrate her last night of freedom with. Maybe you had to be there, but I found it very funny indeed. So here’s to Kirsten and her new husband!

Today was a day of Museums, and I am sorry to admit it, I think I’m all art-ed out. Actually, I’ll take that back. I’m over Renaissance art. Almost completely. There are three museums in one street nearby where I’m staying. One is full of Renaissance stuff, the next is work since the 1800s and finally there is a Gallery of Modern Art. We did them all today and I really enjoyed some parts of the last one. If nothing else, the building itself was awesome. But in addition, some modern art really appeals to me. Mainly simple things with bright colors… I wonder what that says about me.

My lack of enthusiasm art was shared today by KC from Vancouver, and Jeff, from Kentucky. Jeff is in my room as of yesterday, along with two English boys, Chris and Joe, who are both good guys, and two New Jersey brothers who seem pretty nice too. Jeff and I both planned to go today because museums are just €1 on Sundays, and we bumped into KC along the way.

Since I last posted I’ve been really quite social. Caleb, the guy I spent some time with over the last few days, is going to arrive in Berlin on Monday, same as me, so we’ve booked into the same hostel. Jeff and KC will probably both book the same one as well, so during my days in Berlin I should have a little group to hang out with. Everyone’s plans are pretty flexible though, so we’ll just wait and see.

Berlin is where I’ll be late tomorrow. I  have a 6-hour super-fast train ride from about mid-day, which I managed to get reasonably cheap. It feels almost a shame to be leaving Munich, even though I’ve kind of exhausted it from a tourist perspective. The feeling of “wow, I LIKE this place” which hit me on day one is still there, and I could really see myself living here for a few months at least if it wasn’t so terribly expensive. Great city. A must for anyone reading this blog to plan their own itinerary.

Yesterday I went to Disney Land. Well, not exactly. I went to the real castle that Walt Disney based his Disney Land Castle on. It’s called Neuschweinstein and it’s about 3 hours out of Munich. I travelled with about 9 others, and we bought a big group transport ticket to keep the costs down. In the group were 4 Mexicans, a couple from the US, 2 Aussies living in England straight out of high-school, a kiwi girl doing the same, and me. It was a really good group to travel with.

The train out to this place is over two hours and there were no seats for the first hour, so we sat in the aisles, or in the covered area between the carriages, getting to know one-another. After the long train ride, we all crammed onto buses, which go to the foot of the mountain. It was an early start so while we waited in line for tickets, the boys went to buy food for everyone and we hungrily devoured some sausages as we bought our tour tickets. The castle can only be entered as part of a tour. Tours have limited numbers and start and finish at really strict times, like a lot of things here in Germany.

We then had to catch another bus, and walk a way. By the time we got to the actual castle we’d been travelling almost 4 hours, but it was worth it. The place is completely surreal. It looks like Beauty and The Beast should be dancing in the corridors, and Cinderella waiving at you from a window somewhere. It was built as one of three by ‘mad’ King Ludwig II, who was famed for spending Bavaria’s coin on these exorbitant constructions in the middle of nowhere. As exemplified by the amount of travel it took us to get there, the place is indeed in the middle of nowhere, but this particular nowhere is the perfect setting for a castle such as this. Imagine the most amazing cliff faces, the Bavarian ‘black’ forest (so called due to its density), rolling fields, a massive, crystal clear lake, and sitting on the crest of a big hill, right in the middle of all the other mountains, a big, fairy tale castle. Now imagine me waiving from the top of the tallest tower

Anyway, the castle trip was a great thing to do, although with all the commuting I was pretty exhausted. Came back, at something, then met a whole bunch of Aussies by accident. Melbournians in fact. They were going to some local House club, which is exactly what I was up for, so I opted to join them. Only thing was, on my way to get changed, I bumped in to Caleb who was madly packing his stuff with a handful of minutes until his train left. I grabbed his spare bag and sprinted with him to the station, just a block away and helped him find his train. It was fun.

When I got back to the hostel the Aussies had disappeared so unfortunately my night ended there. But in going back to my room I got a chance to meet those who had just checked in, and hang out with them a little. I also bumped into the Aussies today and we may meet up tonight.

In some spare time today I used my camera to prepare some images for uploading. it took ages but they are ready. I plugged it into this computer just before but it’s not letting me get at them… I’ll keep trying, but hopefully soon I’ll find one which will let me throw a few images up and give you an idea of what I’ve been seeing. If not, I have over 800 photos already, and plenty of space left on my cards, so never fear: there’ll be plenty of time for long-winded slide shows when I return…

Well, there might be. If I don’t decide upon my return to pack up and move over there. I’ve been playing with that again a bit recently. Now really seems like as good a time to do it as I’m going to find. I think I’ll have a more serious chat to the boys in London about it and that’ll help me make my mind up a bit more. I’ll keep you all posted.

Anyway gang, I’m going to sign off now. Want to head back to the hostel and get as packed as I can so if anything is going on tonight I can go out and party, and just come back to a packed bag, and check out tomorrow without an early morning rush. Before I leave this internet place I’ll check to see if I can’t find another computer which lets me use USB. If I can, I’ll post some photos, but if there are none attached to this article, I’ve had no luck.

Looking forward to hearing from you all soon. From tomorrow I’ll be in Berlin, and I hear that’s a bit of a party city, and a bit expensive, so posts may be less frequent. We’ll see.

Take care, love jess oxox

Hello my vicarious travel companions,After my post last night I rushed back to the hostel, got changed, then joined Ben and 40-od others on the street corner in preparation for the Insomniac Bar Crawl. It’s funny how things work here in Munich, or more particularly, how the tourist industry works. There are only so many services which you can offer, and each of them is oferred by a number of groups (e.g. walking tours, pub crawls, etc). Most of the groups in fact offer the entire suite, and encourage you as you attend each event to attend their equivalent pub-crawl, etc.

Each of these companies is of course very aware of their competeition but the are all pretty fun about it really. A good example is the pub-crawls. There are three which are major players, and they all meet at the same junction, at the same time. The junction of course has four corners, and so at 8pm each of the corners is filled to overflowing with people rip-roaring and ready to get drunk. The tour organizers shout accross the little side-street to the people waiting to sign up for their competitions’ pub-crawl. Everyone mills around and lots of people ‘cross the street’ to join a different tour on the basis of what is being yelled (e.g. this one is cheaper, or you get more free shots in that one). The whole situation is really quite funny to watch.

Of course, one of the main drivers is how many women there are in any one group. Sorry ladies, but boys will be boys, and girls are a rare commodity on pub-crawls. Had I been just any guy I would have joined the oposition forces as soon as I reached the corner, because they had about 40% women, but because I can see past that sort of thing, I opted to stay where I had originally committed… OK, OK, I actually opted to stay where I was because I’d been forwarned that the tour with all the girls actually didn’t have that many girls- it’s a tactic employed by the organizers to get all their female staff to join them right at the start, but they leave after a short while.

So Ben and I chose Insomniac and stuck with it. As I say, about 40 people made up the group, all under about 25, with about 10 girls total, and a fair mix of people from all around the world. I immediately took to talking to everyone I could in order to try and make some new friends. It ultimately worked very well. There are so many interesting people who are backpacking. A good number of people I have met recently have actually just finished one or other exchange program, studying somewhere in Europe, and are now travelling around a bit before they have to return to their various homes (mainly US, Canada, etc.) So many of them are my age or about a year younger. It really makes me wonder whether I should just be packing up shop and working and travelling overseas while I can, because I’m sure later it becomes much more difficult. For one thing, it sure is cheaper doing it while you’re under 26- many places in Europe give cheaper rates for lots of things if you’re uder 26.

Anyway, back to the alcohol. The trip is run by a South African guy. It starts at a bar somewhere accross town. In chatting to him, he let me in on a secret; he’s just bought that bar and it will soon be called Insomniac Bar. I tell you what, the pub-crawl business must do well. But this brings me back to the point I was making above about how things are done here. It’s not just the jovial rivalry and half-baked competition, it’s the backroom deals which are really interesting. I feel like I’m in Asia, but it’s just a little more advanced. Many of you will recall that in my Asian adventures I was enticed onto one of those super-cheap city tours where you stop at a variety of dodgy locations and either eat, or buy something, and the tuk-tuk guy gets kick-backs.

The whole tourist industry here seems to work on the same principle. Even our free walking tour, etc. stops at places which, while world-famous, and the sort of place you would go to anyway, obviously have a relationship with the company which means, at the very least, the tour leader gets free food or drinks. All the groups put out little pamphlets about their services too, and each of them will have a little section on “Must Do” things while in Munich. This is of course, loosely veiled advertising for the companies which give them kick-backs when you go. The concept isn’t at all original, but the thing I like about it is, it’s so blatant and everyone knows it, but at the same time it’s completely harmless and just works. I know I’m probably sounding like a comunist but it’s like someone has taken the “Let’s exploit the stupid tourists” angle you find around Asia, and refined it to a real win-win situation.

The first location included unlimited free beer for an hour. For me that’s two 500mL beers. Gotta pace myself. Immediately after that came Jägermeister shots. Then onto bar two. This one is more of a club and it was, as we were forewarned, a little empty when we got there, but small enough for us to pretty much fill the whole thing. I began with a strawberry margeritta, and continued with the same for the next hour. The beats being pumped were the first I had heaard in quite some time, so I found myself up on the dancefloor getting jiggy before long. I was well recieved by the locals

The rest of the night, as you can imagine was spent getting more and more intoxicaated at various locations. I lost Ben at one point and haven’t seen him since, but I’m pretty sure he’s OK. Besides that, I recall eating not only a huge slice of pizza but also a full donner-kebab. This morning… felt fantastic. Well, no worse than I have done the last few days with this slight head-cold I’ve got.

Today I took super-dooper easy. Didn’t leave the hostel until after 1pm. Spent the morning sleeping, reading about the city and trying to identify if I want to stay longer. Also looked into my remainin days and how long I have to go, in an effort to think about where I should go when. My thoughts are that I’ll move on to Berlin, as planned, via a really long train trip on Sunday day or night depending on the prices. Many of the fares are crazily expensive. I’m fairly far ahead of schedule so I think I’ll do quite a while in Berlin, in anticipation of loving it, and then head quickly through Amsterdam to Paris for a bit, then back to London.

One other thing I did today was a whole lot of shopping. Window shopping only. They have fantastic fashions in this place, and all the people are beautiful, so just walking around admiring the shops and shoppers is an afternoon in itself I found. There is heaps of stuff I’m just itching to buy from a clothing perspective, but I want to keep my pack light and I figure I’ll pick up most of what I do ultimately buy in Thailand on the return trip. Snuck into the huge mens’ designer labels department store they have here and collected a few ideas for my suits to be made in Asia

The one thing I did buy is a SIM for my phone, so you can now SMS and call me. I can call you too, but you know I’m not going to via my mobile. I will be making a few calls home in the next little while I imagine, because I’ve found a cheap calling card place right where I use the net. Anyway, my mobile number ins Germany is 0173 471 1693. I don’t know what the international prefix is, people will have to figure that out themselves… Sorry

Anyway gang, time for me to head back. Tomorrow I have a really early start. have signed up with a group of ppl at the hostel to share a travel ticket to the famous fairy-tail castle outside of Munich. The transit system here has these group tickets and people get together to make best use of them. Dunno any of these ppl yet but looking forward to making new friends.

Photos coming soon… I think.

Love you all lots, stay in touch. jess oxox

Meine Damen und Herren,

What can I say? Munich has me, and is holding me hard. This place is awesome. And if you had asked me after only 6 hours yesterday I would have said the same. It’s simply an amazing city.

Yesterday, I went to watch the Glockenspiel (which is a dancing clock, kinda like the one in Melbourne central but with more class and heritage… same number of Japanese tourists though, and a few Aussies to boot) before the bike tour. The tour starts about 20 minutes later so I had some time to kill. I walked. While walking I noticed a bunch of people following a guy in a red shirt labelled “Free Tour”, so I followed them.

The guy’s name is Jamie, he’s originally Irish, and he’s one of a bunch of young people who run amazing free tours around this beautiful city. They are actually part of a chain which does the same in Berlin and Amsterdam. The tour went for almost four hours, covered most of the inner city and was not only immensely informative (the guy knew his stuff) but also an absolute riot because he had a very dry sense of humor which the crowd really appreciated. At the end, if you wish to, you can tip him, and everyone did because he’d done such a great job.

On the way I met a few people. A Kiwi called Ben who has been living in London the last few years and is now travelling. A Hong-Kong Chinese, French speaking Canadian called Tiffany (sorry Tiff, I had to write it like that because it points out the strange mix) who has just finished studying in France and living in Berlin. An Aussie from the Gold Coast who has been working as a Project Manager in Europe and told me I should definitely come and do the same. A bunch of great people.

Immediately after the tour, I returned to the hostel that I would be checking into today (Wombat, the Aussie one) and checked to see if they had any vacancies due to cancellations. The did, so I snapped them up fast. And lucky I did, because immediately after doing so the Bus About bus arrived, full of backpackers needing accommodation. The place is now full to capacity. Anyway, I’m now going to be here until Sunday, at least. I may end up wanting to stay on further…

I agreed to meet Ben, Tiffany and Kieren (the Aussie) for the Bike Tour I had originally heard about. It covers many of the same places as the walking tour but we wanted to do it anyway because it also goes to some places farther afield, such as the Englischer Garten. The start was a bit rough; basically, the American guy who ran it had a sense of humor which didn’t really appeal too much to any of us… it was very crass. The rest of the tour was actually American (for the most part) but even they seemed a little put off. I mean, he’s a good guy, but he tries to make everything relate to alcohol (quite literally, he tells all the history in terms of it) and drugs and prostitution, and it just got a little much after a few minutes.

Despite our moral issues with some elements of his commentary, he also knew his stuff, and more importantly, the places we visited were amazing. Especially the English Garden and everything around it. The nudist area is simply a small part of a MASSIVE park which is right in the heart of the city (10 minutes by California Cruiser bike, at a very leisurely pace) and it (the park as a whole) is absolutely spectacular. There were plenty of nudists about, but most of them kept off to one side and we didn’t bother going too close.

The bikes we rode were those ones which came into fashion recently, which look like a non-motorized Harley Davidson. They have the same sort of body, really big wheels, just one gear, and handlebars which are really wide and only just below shoulder level. The word “Cruiser” fits them perfectly and the ride was blissfully easy for everyone.

In the middle of the extended park is the second largest beer garden in the world. It holds up to 9500 people, although when we were there, there was probably less than 1000. Nonetheless, it was a great experience. All these Germans, sitting around, drinking beer, eating, and listening to the band who sit atop this giant Japanese tea house thing (one of those with the tiered structure, where each tier is round and they get smaller and smaller as they approach the top). With the weather as nice as it was, a plate of the best German food you can think of, and a giant 1L beer to wash it down with, I was in a very good place.

After the beer I was in just as good a place… it was just getting to any other place that was a little difficult Seriously though, we were all a little tipsy, so we jumped on our bikes and rode slowly, like the responsible citizens we are, back through the park, past a few more sites, and back to square one. By this time it was almost 8pm and I’d been touring all day, on very little sleep, so I was tired, and famished; I’ve been eating heaps.

The tour ends a bar with ridiculously large and cheap cocktails which I have heard horror stories about, and it was full of non-locals, so we decided to ditch that. A few of us went to the biggest Beer Garden in the city to have a chat. Our next litre of beer arrived at the same time as that of the German group sitting next to us and we all toasted each other, and got to talking. They were great people. Tiff, Ben and I continued to talk for quite some time. I was comfortably tipsy for the next hour or so off that one litre and didn’t feel the need to order anything more.

We returned to the hostel (theirs, soon to be mine), and met some more people at the bar, which was in the midst of happy hour. At about midnight I made my excuses, returned to my own hostel, and crashed. Exhausted with a spinning head but having had a fantastic day.

Today it began again at about 9am. I struggled to get access to the bathroom which I share with the 7 others in my room, but when I did I was in and out like lightning, and downstairs to meet the gang. Our plan today was to return to the English Garden and just do some chilling out. After a little bit of a delay (we’d none of us had breakfast, were all hungry, and couldn’t find Be), and after I’d foolishly grabbed a couple of pieces of normal white-bread toast for breakfast because I was starving, we set off.

My first experience of the German train system was a good enough one. Once you have your ticket it’s fantastic. Selecting the ticket is also fantastically easy and can be done in any of about 8 languages. The only problem is paying for the ticket. My fist full of change was systematically rejected by the machines we tried, and others experienced the same issues. Anyway, eventually we were on-board and heading to the University station, which is the closest to the Garden. The Uni students just pop accross between classes; thez are so lucky!

One thing I didn’t mention above, but should have, is that the river runs the whole length of the park. It’s alpine water which is flowing down from the nearby Alps (I might try and make time to see them) but it’s controlled in such a way that, at one point, it flows into the park with waves big enough to surf on. And with no beach nearby, guess what people do. That’s right, they surf the river. It’s fantastic to watch. Because the waves are actually just a result of the water flowing over a little damn, the wave itself never really moves. It’s like heaven for a surfer I’m sure. They take it in turns to jump off the embankment, land on their boards, and then go sideways, back and forth from one bank to the other, pulling tricks at either end. It’s like surfing in one of those Infinity Pools. In fact it’s an awful lot like skate-boarding on a ramp.

So that’s really cool but the astute of you will have picked up that waves big enough to surf mean significant current in the river, and that is indeed the case. At some points we simply couldn’t have swum around unless we fancied being washed down shore. It was for this reason we found ourselves with the nudists at the English Garden. In fact, I think people accumulate there simply because it’s the point of lowest current. Another high point is near a little waterfall but we weren’t game to try that on our first day.

As a kind of rule, the nudists sit on one side of the bank, and the clothed people on the other, it seems. There were some exceptions to the rule and really only about 25% of people would have gone nude. Most of them had skin like a rhinoceros from heaps of sun exposure; thick and dark. We originally sat in one point, but, as was to be expected, a nudist “beach” isn’t without it odd-ball weirdos, and we soon moved to get away from a guy on the opposite bank. His attention wasn’t on us, but it was kinda unpleasant sitting opposite him

When we found our spot, me and Ben jumped in. You have to jump because if you put a foot in you remember it’s alpine water and think “Hmm maybe I’ll come back tomorrow”. Of the four of us (we’d been joined by a guy from the US called Caleb) I think I was most obsessed with it´s a definite current, I walked all the way up to the top of the strip which is the English Garden (about 100m), hopped in and floated leisurely down in the water, past my friends, to the end of the strip, hopped out and did it again. I must have gone down half a dozen times. It was a really pleasant ride, and the water was beautifully revitalizing after a week of temperatures in the 30s.

This was followed by some serious sun-baking, and talking crap. Then it was time for us to move on. Tiff and Caleb went back to the hostel, and Ben and I got ourselves mentally ready, then hopped a train to Dachau Concentration Camp, which is about 40 minutes out of the city. Check it out on Wikipedia for more. I’ve no time to go into detail on this trip and I don’t think I would either. Suffice to say that the tour is unmissable, and incredibly informative, but at the same time I was on the brink of screaming with outrage and bursting into tears several times. The atrocities of the Nazis are not something this country shuns away from. They have monuments everywhere making public apologies and take their school children on fgield trips to this same concentration camp. The motto is Never Again, and may God see it is so.

I’ve now returned to the city, checked into Wombat where I’ll be until Sunday at least, as I say. The last 36 hours have really shown me that Germany is somewhere I really love. I can’t say it matches what I expected, because I can’t qualify what it was that I was actually expecting, but I’m positive that, if I could recruit a few of my closer friends and family for company, I could live in this city in an instant. I may yet make good on that idea; it’s come to the forefront of my mind again over the last 24 hours having met lots of people from our side of the world who have done it.

Anyway gang, I’m going to sign off. That was a long one, and the Internet time is costing me a bunch. Tonight we’re thinking of doing the pub crawl in order to get past some of the atrocities we heard about today, and that starts soon, but BOY do I ever need another shower.

Love you all, take care, be safe!

Jess oxox

Oh baby! I’m here. I love it already! Well, that’s probably an overstatement as I have literally been here only two hours and done nothing but read so far, but the city has a lot to offer from what I’ve read. But before we get into all of that…

Thanks to Marco and Dave who run Emerald Fields hostel in Firenze. That’s where I was until yesterday. It was awesome- the hostel I mean. It was more like living in someone’s house than staying at a hostel. It was the best experience I’ve had so far in terms of meeting people and having fun in a group. If things continue in that manner, I’ll be very glad.

Yesterday was a full day of site-seeing (Ponte Vecchio, Medicci House, Museums, Galleries, just the city itself) in an attempt to tire myself out enough to sleep on the 9pm train ride to Münich via Austria. It worked well. I saw heaps and spent plenty of Euros, but I can honestly say I think I got the best out of Firenze considering the length of my stay. A beautiful place, as I say. An absolute must-see for anyone planning a Europe trip any time soon.

While I Florence I met heaps of cool people, many of whom have done a trip very similar to my own, but in reverse order. The one thing I learned from them is that Prague, while awesome and cheap, is a little difficult to navigate sometimes because very few people speak English and none of the signs, announcement,s or anything like that are made available in my native tongue. For this reason I’m thinking I might leave that to another time, like when I come back with friends, so I at least have someone to be lost with. That’s much more fun than being lost by one’s self I find

Just as an aside, this keyboard is absolutely killing me. It’s identical to those back home except that the Z is where the Y should be and vice-versa. And all the punctuation is all over the place, but I’m used to that from Italy. The annoying thing is that I only just got used to the Italian version and now it looks like I have to learn a whole new set…. Actually I’m just typing this up as though Y is where is should be, then I’ll do a bulk find and replacem but please forgive any issues…

So anyways, I got into Munich at 6.45am this morning after really quite a comfortable overnight train trip. I’m tired because I kept waking up every time the train stopped or anyone in my 6 sleeper cabin moves. Yes, I opted for a sleeping cabin (2nd class) rather than a seat because I wanted to be able to get something out of today. My plan at the moment from reading I’ve done, and speaking with this crazy guy at my hostel, is to this free bike tour which runs every day. Yup. Free. It’s run by crazy-guy and friends and is based on a tip structure, so I figure if it’s gotta be good. It comes highly recommended.

One of the stops is the 2nd biggest beer garden in the world - some 9500 people on a normal day - so that should be interesting. Another stop is the Englischer Garden. It’s apparently a botanical garden with a twist. The twist being that naked swimming in the lake is the norm, so people just strip their clothes off and go for a dip… That should be … interesting. I’m not sure if it comes before or after copious drinking at the beer garden, but I’m guessing the latter (And just to clarify, this is actually mentioned at great length in my Lonely Planet, so it’s all above board and quite ‘normal’ apparently….)

The culture here seems to be all about partying hard and heaps of drinking from the little I have seen. All the brochures are for pub crawls which cost something like 12 Euro and include unlimited free shots… So if you don’t get a post from me tomorrow, imagine me lying in bed, holding my head and begging for the world to stop spinning. I think I’ll take it easy though, as after all my Pizza escapades in Italy I’m a little under the weather at the moment. Although I hear drinking is quite good for that

Sleeping in tomorrow is not likely at all because I couldn’t get one hostel for two consecutive nights! That’s right, I’ve currently booked two night’s accommodation and they are in two different hostels. Luckily, they both come highly recommended and are almost immediately next-door to each other.

Tonight I’ve booked a 10-bed dorm because I didn’t think I could handle the 40-bed version which this place offers… imagine that. Tomorrow I move onto Wombat hostel (I know, in Germany!) which was voted 5th best hostel in the world last year, and I’ve heard really good things. Unfortunately they have only tomorrow night free. The place I’m at tonight is filling up fast so I think I might end up moving back to the first place for the third night. While they are only next door to each other, check in time is like 2pm and checkout is 10am so I’ll be doing some getting up early whether I want to or not

Anyway, the plan for today is to take the free bike tour and try to make some buddies in hostel 1, then rest I think because I’m pretty tired, and after 3 hours of riding, drinking and… well I probably won’t but … skinny-dipping, I imagine I’ll be a bit of a wreck. The tour finishes just in time for me to go back to my room and have a rest before going out to party, assuming I meet some cool people.

In summary, things are good. I get this real rush whenever I move onto a new place, but I think from here on in I’m going to slow things down a bit and spend more nights in each city so I can do a bit of late night partying, and sleeping in on subsequent days. I’m definately missing you all, and it still feels strange that I’ve only been away for just over a week, but I’m focussing on enjoying this experience because I know it’s a rare opportunity.

Hope everyone back home is going great. Loving hearing from you all via email and comments. Just so you know, I haven’t gotten a mobile because, despite Europe being one big place, they can’t get their mobile system in order, so anz SIM you buy in any one country is charged at roaming rates in any other. I also can’t get MSN working for for some reason… I’ll keep trying.

Until next post (tomorrow or the next day), in the words of the immortal Jerry Springer, “take care of  yourselves, and each other”.

Aufwiedersehen,