In Berlin

Where in the world am I? Well, I'm in Berlin. We arrived this morning after taking another night train. It was different this time though for two reasons. Firstly, there was some mix up that ended up with us being upgraded to two bed cabins (rather than the six bed ones we had paid for). Secondly, the train went on a ferry. I'd never seen anything like it. To cross over to Germany, the train drove onto a BC Ferry type ship.

We arrived here at 6AM this morning. We slept on the couch at the hostel for a while then went on another one of the free walking tours. Berlin seems like an amazing city. The fall of the wall is the first major news event I can remember happening, so to see the remains of it was quite significant for me. We are staying in quite a new hostel in Mitte (an area of Berlin) which is very convenient. We are booked here for four nights in theory, but there seems to be some confusion about that. We'll see what ends up happening.

Germany is playing Turkey tonight so there are big screens set up and they are expecting massive crowds. We'll probably go watch that and soak in some atmosphere. Stay tuned...

Two More Countries Down

I received an email today from my dealry beloved parents asking where in the world I am. I think it is time to provide some answers.

 

I am currently sitting in a 7-11 in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been a good time here. Yesterday we went to see the Vasa. I believe it has to be one of the world's best kept secrets when it comes to museums. For those who don't know, the Vasa was a war ship, completed in 1628 and it was to be the most fearsome ship in the world. Sadly it wasn't designed too well and sank thirty minutes into its maiden voyage. The thing is though, it sank in Stockholm harbour, where the mud and low salt content of the water meant it was kept quite well preserved. They found it again in the '50s and then spent the '60s and '70s raising and restoring it. It is a very impressive site now. The ship sits in its own museum and is mostly original. Even parts of the original sail were preserved. I have never seen anything like it before. You see pictures of ships like it in books, but I never thought there was a real living example of one anywhere. Later today we are off to the Nobel Museum.

 

Before this we were in Copenhagen. It was actually a nice rest stop for us. We did a walk around the city and visited the palace, but other than that we just recovered. Thanks to a friend of a friend type thing we had an apartment in the city all to ourselves. It was just what we needed.

 

Tomorrow night we hope to take a night train to Berlin to start a new adventure. Stay tuned...

Pictures of me!

Let's start off with a good tourist shot in London

And next up we have a group picture at the Guiness Storehouse. We poured those pints ourselves.

Is that a radio mast in the background?
We were too cheap to pay for a lift, so we took the stairs up to the second level.

On the train to Amsterdam.

I know I promised Lisbon Treaty pictures, but putting pictures on Blogger is a bit of a pain. I have them on Facebook and if anyone wants to see them and doesn't have Facebook, let me know and I will figure something out.

Scotland Pictures

Inside Edinburgh Castle. The Scotish have a sense of humor you see. If you took a picture in front an English sentry, you'd see that stone faced look behind you. This fine Scotsman however was pulling faces in the back of people's pictures.

Edinburgh Castle

Kyle testing out some vintage weapons on Brian

Ooooops

In my anxiousness I forgot to proof-read and spell-check my last post. Please forgive any horrible mistakes and don't lose faith in my ability to speak the English language.

Hop Holland!

I am writting this from an internet cafe in Amsterdam. We have been here for three days and will take a night train tonight to Denmark. Amsterdam has been a great experience. It started off well when we arrived the night of Holland's 4-1 win over France in Euro 2008. We arrived in the early evening, so we had time to grab some cheap orange shirts from a souvenier shop and head down to one of the town squares. Now, I have been to football matches live before, including one at Old Trafford, but I have never seen anything quite like this. The crowd was energetic yet controlled and we even had people letting off orange flares and smoke bombs. It was quite the site and a lot of fun.

 

I have to say that I really admire the dutch education system. Everyone here speaks such wonderful English. Three things highlight this to me. For one, I am not a slow talking person, yet I've never had to repeat myself. Secondly, I have never found a dutch person lost for words, their vocabulary is excellent and they always know the words they need to use. Lastly, their pronunciation is very good. Granted they have thick accents, but I have never had trouble understanding them. Someone told me that you never ask a dutch person if they speak English as in doing so you are essentially asking them if they graduated from school.

 

In terms of other things I've done while I've been here, I just got back from the Van Gogh museum. I was very impressed by it and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is the first time I have been to a museum which focuses on one artists and so I really appreciated being able to chronologically follow his work and see his development both as an artist and person. It is also always fun to realize that you are standing less than a foot from a world famous painting (such as his sunflowers). I also visited then Ann Frank house. I can't classify this as enjoyable, but I am glad I went. Walking around I felt a deep personal interest in it all knowing that members of my family lived through that time and experienced that persecution. One moving quote they have in there (I forget the exact quote or who said it) says that Ann Frank was one person who has moved so many, and then goes on to ask what would the world would be like if we had diaries for all the victims of the Nazi regime? Would there be anyone denying these terrible events then?

 

The last thing I'd like to mention is the New Europe free walking tours. To anyone travelling right now or who is going to do so, I would highly recommend these. They have them in most major cities. They operate on a tips only basis, so you pay what you feel it was worth. They are three hours long and so far have not disappointed. We have done them in Paris and here in Amsterdam. I am told the one in Berlin is the best.

 

Lastly, for those wondering about the subject line of this post, it means "Go Holland". You see it all over the place here. All for now, I hope to be able to do my next update from Copenhagen. Unfortunately we will not be making it to Legoland, but I am told the city itself is worth the visit. I'll let you know, stay tuned.

Dublin

Writting from Paris this time, but going to do an update of my time in Dublin.

 

Dublin was an interesting city. It doesn't call out to tourists as much as London or Edinburgh but I feel like they are working on that. The city itself is filled with quite a lot of contrast: the old with the new, the run down with the fresh, the poor with the wealthy. It is also, and I suppose this applies to the country as a whole, divided. Today the population is casting ballots on the Lisbon Treaty which would bring closer integration to the EU. The polls are too close to call and the campaiging was like nothing I have seen since back in Colombia. I took pictures of some of the campaign signs which I promise to try and post as they are quite interesting.

 

In terms of the tourist thing with visited the Guiness Factory, the Old Jameson Distillery, Trinity College and the northern coast (including Malahide Castle). Possibly the most interesting experience of all though was the taxi ride to the airport (the bus never showed up). We were lucky enough to have a most friendly and well read driver named Anthony. I learned more about Ireland today from that 40 minute ride than I did from anything else. I wish I had had the chance to sit down and chat with him longer.

 

Got to go! Stay tuned!

Dublin Attempt Number 2

Hello everyone! It looks like a lot more people are reading this than I expected, so I'll keep updating whenever I can.

 

I am writing this update from Dublin. This is actually the second attempt. I wrote one yesterday but the internet where we are staying is very spotty and it cut out before I managed to post. This time I am at an internet cafe, so it *should* work.

 

We arrived here yesterday on Ryanair. It was my first Ryanair experience. For those who don't know, Ryanair is an Irish airline which runs the lowest cost operation possible. It is so much so that often the base price of their flights is £1 or less. Fees and all bring this up a fair bit, but I would say in general it is still cheaper than even Southwest airlines. I had heard some horror stories about their service, but my experience was fine. They board from the front and rear of the aircraft simultaneously, so they use the old stairs rather than jetways. YVR of course has double jetways, but I suppose they aren't too common yet. Interestingly enough, we arrived at the new terminal in Dublin which didn't even have any jetways at some gates.

 

Edinburgh was fun. I found it interesting as it didn't really feel like a big city. We stayed at a nice hostel right behind the castle. It was very clean and well equipped and had very friendly people. The castle itself is well preserved and very well set up for tourists. I found it better than the Tower of London actually (dare I say it?). We also went to a place called the Scotch Whisky Experience. I am not a big scotch drinker, but it was still quite interesting to learn the history of the drink and see how it is all made. I didn't cave in and buy the £1700 bottle of scotch from the gift shop, but I thought about it (yeah, right).

 

Yesterday was our first day in Dublin and it was a bit of a wash. I think the constant on the go caught up to us as we spent all afternoon asleep. We ventured out and found a Tesco to buy some dinner. Later in the evening we walked around Temple Bar which is a the big restaurant/pub neighbourhood. I've never seen anything quite like it. The place was packed and not just with tourists. There must also be a lot of weddings today as there were celebrations wherever you looked. I suppose this is Dublin on a Saturday night.

 

We're not sure what we'll get up to today. Thoughts are maybe the Guinness factory or a bus tour. Stay tuned...

Two Pictures

I will no longer complain about my feet hurting at the end of the day

The London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben. In true London fashion it was quite a gloomy day

London is done

Today was our last day in London and we will soon start our 9 hour bus ride to Edinburgh. We went to the Tate Modern (modern art museum) today. I learned one thing, I am not crazy.

London

Two days in and so far the trip has not disappointed. We are staying with a highschool friend of Brian's in Stratford (right by the police station so all is good). We spent yesterday walking around and ignoring our jet-lag. We did the whole tourist thing and visited the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace (saw the changing of the guard), Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London and a bunch of other stuff along the way. Despite still trying to remember which way to look when crossing the road we only really had one close encounter.

Today we went with our host, Kat, around Soho and then up to Camden. Camden was an interesting place to see. I had always wondered where people who dress like "that" get their clothes. If anyone I know is ever in need of fishnet tights attached to fluorescent tutus I will know where to send them. In the evening we went to watch King Lear at The Globe. It was the full experience. We paid 5 pounds and stood in the yard... in the rain (by the way, my new Columbia jacket is awesome). Brian and Kyle are currently in the market for more waterproof garments.

One thing we've learned so far is that Translink is cheap, even though I still think it could be cheaper.

Tomorrow we will probably go tour the Tate Modern and then enjoy some Fish and Chips. After that we will jump on a bus and nine hours later get off in Edinburgh. Should be good. Stay tuned...

In London, finally

We arrived in London only about 21 hours after first checking in at YVR. Thanks to some bizarre delays I can elaborate on when I have more time (but think, are these people only pretending to be an airline?) it really was a long trip. Anyway, staying with a friend of a friend. The London touring begins tomorrow! Stay tuned...