The hostel in Athens...is hot as balls, oh my gosh. 8 beds, 4 bunks in the space of Ali's rez room, crazy right. John and I aren't on the same bunk. John is in the coughing corner, everyone around him sounds like they're dying, uggh. The toilet doesn't flush...nice. But it's time to man up (Ali...disturbia "uh oh time to man up Allan" as he watches cops). So now, I've learned to just embrace the ridiculous parts of the trip. Plus I have a hotel in santorini to look forward to in a few days (actually...that is now...as I write this).
In athens, we went to the Acropolis, there's f***in' scaffolding everywhere. I try to look past the scaffolding at the beautiful greek buildings behind it, but honestly that's like trying to picture a girl naked when she's wearing a parka and snow pants. "Acropolis" turns out, is the greek word for rules, we had annoying greek ladies yelling at us a bunch of crap like 'you can't go there', 'no flash', 'no pictures with people and statues in the museum' (What!?!) and their personal favorite 'don't stop, don't stop' (I know what you're thinking and..."that's what she said".
But all in all it's still amazing to see this stuff. Mr. Kevin would probably give an amazing tour through this place full of greek myths and whatnot. Anyways, we checked out a bunch of places.
And while we were looking for the last place on the list, we got lost and ended up in downtown Calcutta, it was the scariest moment of my life. I think we wandered into the sketchiest street in greece, I think it was the Turkish quarter, I now call it "turkish delight". Let me put this into perspective, I'm walking down a street wearing boardshorts, spy sunglasses, a billabong shirt, carrying a nice camera...ughh. OUtta time more to come.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Up all night at Hopbahnhof Station
Alright folks, this was a truly original experience. So big John decided that it would be a good idea to book one of the first flights out of Berlin on Tuesday morning at 6:30 am. That's fine, I'm cool with that. But wait... let's think about this one for a second, how the hell are we gonna get from our hostel to the airport by 5am. Shit, so...why don't we just stay overnight at the airport, it wouldn't be that bad. Turns out big John has us flying out of Tegel airport, and it also turns out that Tegel closes from 10 pm to 4am. What kinda f***in' airport closes down at night!!! Wow, was I ever choked. So...after a lot of chat, we decided that the best idea is to stay at the train station. The one near us Zoologischer Gartens...sketchy as all get out, so we decide to stay at the main station Berlin Hopbahnhof.
Skip forward to midnight, we're sitting in a deserted train terminal with our huge bags, which are surprisingly girthy by the way. We decided we'd sleep in shifts, so it was John's turn first. He falls asleep pretty quickly, I'm sitting there listening to music. You know those little mini-zambonis they use to clean floors, well there were three of those guys that kept going over the same spots right in front of us for about half an hour, these guys are grade A goombas I'm telling ya. Then the police, who are roaming around this huge station, come up and actually yell at us, mostly John and proceeds to tell us we're not allowed to sleep, I guess we look like bums or something (I haven't shaved in a while but I don't think I give off the bummish vibe). This scared the shit outta me because I had my headphones on, so I guess you didn't really have to be too stealthy to sneak up on me. So from now on, John and I are trying to sleep while keeping an eye out for angry German cops who are ready to yell. Awhile later, I fall asleep for about three minutes before the old coppers wake me up...and then proceed to walk right by some other guy who was clearly asleep. T.I.E. (This is Europe (this needs to be said with a Rhodesian accent like Leo in Blood diamond incidentally) This is what we say whenever ridiculous shit goes down on our trip.
So I'm in an exhausted daze by 3 am so I decide to get up and I start dancing in front of a store called McPaper to some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club songs (Devil's Waiting, Restless Sinner). Wow that is so random. But like I said I was in a bit of a daze by then. We get up at 4 am (get up as if we were asleep ha!). Interestingly, Berlin at 4am smells like garbage...literally garbage, gosh we gotta get the hell outta Berlin.
At the airport, I needed to take some Advil to clear me up before the flight so my ears don't get blown out on the plane. So I accidentally pull 3 Advil out of my big bag and then check it. So now I have three Advil instead of two. What do I do, I ask John if he wants one...no go. Because I'm not sure if they allow liquidgel caplets on planes my options are throw one away or...take all three. So I chose the latter. I figured I'd be fine. Well...between the Advil, the altitude, and the whole being up for 24 hours thing; I was completely zonked out on the plane. I was a mess, I could not keep my eyes open, I'd wake up long enough to wipe the drool off of my face, collect the free airplane food, then pass out again. Wow, turns out I'm a huge lightweight when it comes to Advil...ya I was pretty much hammered.
Anyways that's how I ended up in Greece...
Skip forward to midnight, we're sitting in a deserted train terminal with our huge bags, which are surprisingly girthy by the way. We decided we'd sleep in shifts, so it was John's turn first. He falls asleep pretty quickly, I'm sitting there listening to music. You know those little mini-zambonis they use to clean floors, well there were three of those guys that kept going over the same spots right in front of us for about half an hour, these guys are grade A goombas I'm telling ya. Then the police, who are roaming around this huge station, come up and actually yell at us, mostly John and proceeds to tell us we're not allowed to sleep, I guess we look like bums or something (I haven't shaved in a while but I don't think I give off the bummish vibe). This scared the shit outta me because I had my headphones on, so I guess you didn't really have to be too stealthy to sneak up on me. So from now on, John and I are trying to sleep while keeping an eye out for angry German cops who are ready to yell. Awhile later, I fall asleep for about three minutes before the old coppers wake me up...and then proceed to walk right by some other guy who was clearly asleep. T.I.E. (This is Europe (this needs to be said with a Rhodesian accent like Leo in Blood diamond incidentally) This is what we say whenever ridiculous shit goes down on our trip.
So I'm in an exhausted daze by 3 am so I decide to get up and I start dancing in front of a store called McPaper to some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club songs (Devil's Waiting, Restless Sinner). Wow that is so random. But like I said I was in a bit of a daze by then. We get up at 4 am (get up as if we were asleep ha!). Interestingly, Berlin at 4am smells like garbage...literally garbage, gosh we gotta get the hell outta Berlin.
At the airport, I needed to take some Advil to clear me up before the flight so my ears don't get blown out on the plane. So I accidentally pull 3 Advil out of my big bag and then check it. So now I have three Advil instead of two. What do I do, I ask John if he wants one...no go. Because I'm not sure if they allow liquidgel caplets on planes my options are throw one away or...take all three. So I chose the latter. I figured I'd be fine. Well...between the Advil, the altitude, and the whole being up for 24 hours thing; I was completely zonked out on the plane. I was a mess, I could not keep my eyes open, I'd wake up long enough to wipe the drool off of my face, collect the free airplane food, then pass out again. Wow, turns out I'm a huge lightweight when it comes to Advil...ya I was pretty much hammered.
Anyways that's how I ended up in Greece...
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Attacking the ruins of Ancient Athens
Athens is made up of 3 general components. I will start with what you know and move towards the juicy secrets.
The ancient ruins of Athens can't be captured in a picture, however at the same time part of that experience that can't translate to image has to do with other factors. Take for example the people. Neil and I visited the Acropolis at 11 o'clock in the morning (this is what you would call a "busy time"). The place was full of people (no Tourists), and as the masses grew, the people started to get all riled up. Everyone rushes around, looking for the next place to get "the right shot", regardless of who happens to be in "their spot" (Neil and I were basically attacked by wives looking to get their unwilling husbands in front of the Parthenon - thing of beauty). The human factor continues with the Rules of the Acropolis. The best part isn't even the "no FLASHES" of the Acropolis museum, or the "DON'T TOUCH, DON'T TOUCH" of the various pillars and marble structure, the best part is the Rule Enforcers. Everywhere we went people where ID tags were
patrolling their region with the enthusiasm of an office Dwight Shrute. How would an old man with a tag stop a young, athletic, charming, oh and not to mention good looking and charismatic (not necessarily me, but someone like me), he would blow his whistle. Everyone had whistles. It was like a freakin wave pool with a bunch of out of control birthday boys at their 8 year old celebration... But beyond the crowds, and the whistles, and even the scaffolding (what are they doing, just get'r done), the Acropolis and it's neighbors (the temple of olympian Zeus, the Ancient and Roman Agoras, and rest of the ruins that still stand today) must be experienced in person. The whole thing is mind blowing. I wonder if the old LBCA rec center will ever be a part of the bonavista communities ancient ruins...
Component two of Athens will also be some what familiar. The amazing streets that carve up the city's center. Like the stage of Aladdin's Arabia, the narrow winding streets hold together the ocean of tall white buildings that make up Athens' city limits. We climbed to the top of the highest hill that over looked the buildings that crawled up the surrounding mountains (not the rockies, but still decent hills). At sunset the city lit up. Seeing Athens from the top of one of these hills is the only way to experience all it has to offer.
Okay, on to the good stuff. The third aspect of this Greek city, that doesn't make the cut at the post-card stands is it's dark side. Neil and I took a wrong turn late in the day. Just like our first wrong turn in Amsterdam took us through mid-day Red Light District, a left instead of a right in Berlin sent us into the "interesting" east, well in Athens we went from the Tourist filled streets in the shadow of the Acropolis to the number 2 scariest place in the world (I have left the number one spot open for some unknown future freak out that I might have). I can't even go into detail, it is all just a blur of fear. "Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact, don't make..." was all I could think about for the 15 minutes we spent lost in the labyrinth of Athens "real world". To kill the suspense, we made it out alive (a man did bark at me, and Neil was offered drugs from a 6 and a half foot tall Greek, some of the drugs hadn't even been take in Trainspotting, that's how intense these guys are). Travel tip number 19: do not leave your "Ermou" (for us Ermou was the main tourist drag in Athens, it could be another street in another city, but what ever you do, don't be a risk taker when it comes to the ghetto of a foreign country... we don't need heroes on this trip, just talented story tellers)
We have left Athens for the Richard Lotz tour of Santorini. It is warm, sunny, and a mix between the beaches of Mexico and the streets of summer Penticton here. I would love to say "Ali you would love this place", but from there I would end up mentioning everyone I know. If I hadn't outlined a Europe Trip, after two weeks of adventure, Europe would have become just Santorini...
The ancient ruins of Athens can't be captured in a picture, however at the same time part of that experience that can't translate to image has to do with other factors. Take for example the people. Neil and I visited the Acropolis at 11 o'clock in the morning (this is what you would call a "busy time"). The place was full of people (no Tourists), and as the masses grew, the people started to get all riled up. Everyone rushes around, looking for the next place to get "the right shot", regardless of who happens to be in "their spot" (Neil and I were basically attacked by wives looking to get their unwilling husbands in front of the Parthenon - thing of beauty). The human factor continues with the Rules of the Acropolis. The best part isn't even the "no FLASHES" of the Acropolis museum, or the "DON'T TOUCH, DON'T TOUCH" of the various pillars and marble structure, the best part is the Rule Enforcers. Everywhere we went people where ID tags were
patrolling their region with the enthusiasm of an office Dwight Shrute. How would an old man with a tag stop a young, athletic, charming, oh and not to mention good looking and charismatic (not necessarily me, but someone like me), he would blow his whistle. Everyone had whistles. It was like a freakin wave pool with a bunch of out of control birthday boys at their 8 year old celebration... But beyond the crowds, and the whistles, and even the scaffolding (what are they doing, just get'r done), the Acropolis and it's neighbors (the temple of olympian Zeus, the Ancient and Roman Agoras, and rest of the ruins that still stand today) must be experienced in person. The whole thing is mind blowing. I wonder if the old LBCA rec center will ever be a part of the bonavista communities ancient ruins...
Component two of Athens will also be some what familiar. The amazing streets that carve up the city's center. Like the stage of Aladdin's Arabia, the narrow winding streets hold together the ocean of tall white buildings that make up Athens' city limits. We climbed to the top of the highest hill that over looked the buildings that crawled up the surrounding mountains (not the rockies, but still decent hills). At sunset the city lit up. Seeing Athens from the top of one of these hills is the only way to experience all it has to offer.
Okay, on to the good stuff. The third aspect of this Greek city, that doesn't make the cut at the post-card stands is it's dark side. Neil and I took a wrong turn late in the day. Just like our first wrong turn in Amsterdam took us through mid-day Red Light District, a left instead of a right in Berlin sent us into the "interesting" east, well in Athens we went from the Tourist filled streets in the shadow of the Acropolis to the number 2 scariest place in the world (I have left the number one spot open for some unknown future freak out that I might have). I can't even go into detail, it is all just a blur of fear. "Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact, don't make..." was all I could think about for the 15 minutes we spent lost in the labyrinth of Athens "real world". To kill the suspense, we made it out alive (a man did bark at me, and Neil was offered drugs from a 6 and a half foot tall Greek, some of the drugs hadn't even been take in Trainspotting, that's how intense these guys are). Travel tip number 19: do not leave your "Ermou" (for us Ermou was the main tourist drag in Athens, it could be another street in another city, but what ever you do, don't be a risk taker when it comes to the ghetto of a foreign country... we don't need heroes on this trip, just talented story tellers)
We have left Athens for the Richard Lotz tour of Santorini. It is warm, sunny, and a mix between the beaches of Mexico and the streets of summer Penticton here. I would love to say "Ali you would love this place", but from there I would end up mentioning everyone I know. If I hadn't outlined a Europe Trip, after two weeks of adventure, Europe would have become just Santorini...
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Berlin Battles Back
The city hit us with its secret weapon on the day of our departure; Merlin from Berlin. Merlin (although not a magician, I check) was an expert on the West end of Berlin. His tour was unique to most of the walking tours offered, as it considered "the East" to be 'obvious'. He led a group of three of us passed all the secret sites in the modern wing of Berlin... at least secret to a kid from Cal town. Merlin's tales of 20th century Berlin kept us captivated as we passed through the center of the "Golden 20's", explored the special memorial signs of the Jewish quarter (over 180 signs with different decrees outlining the absurdity of Nazi Germany). Merlin called his tour "the Jelly Donut Tour" (any history buffs out there, or people older than me, or people who have studied any US cold war history), after the famous JFK speech where his reassuring "I am a Berliner" shout to the people of West Berlin, was interpreted as Americans as a bad translation: "I am a Jelly Donut". Merlin stopped part way through the 5 hour tour (a little long, but he was enthusiastic, so we got lost in the excitement) for a lunch break (something we don't normally get into). He knew a guy, this guy owned a place, this place sold pizzas for less then 3euro, these pizzas were what I was all about. (Travel tip number 12: Pepperoni in Germany is not pepperoni, nor is it any other kind of meat that one would put anywhere near a pizza, it is in fact a pepper. Luck for me it was not a HOT pepper, but none the less, a nice thing to know.) The only down side to "Berlin with Merlin" was the left us at the most unbelievably scary U-bahn station in the city. We're talking midday Red Light district kind of scary. I not only tried not to make eye contact with anyone (I did at one point, it wasn't pretty, the guy looked like he wanted to eat me, then let his dog snack on my remains), I kept moving, never stopping, so that no one could sidle up to me. Merlin is a force to be reckoned with, I don't know if Canada is ready for him...Part way through our walking tour one of those moments happened. It was one of those 'hey look at your life, it's being lived'. One of those 'man I can't believe this' moments. It was my first double decker bus ride. Should I feel disappointed that it didn't happen in London? I guess it's all the same excitement. I did find that the ceiling on the second level was not designed for my kind, it was more accommodating for an old German lady, or a hobbit, like Frodo.
So some idiot... it may have been me, but I will neither confirm or deny such a detail... fine it was definitely me... I came up with the idea of departing from Berlin at 6:30... AM!! It never occurred to me that it might be difficult to travel across the city at 4 in the morning. But I have seen the Amazing Race, and I am a man of adventure, so I came up with a plan (as it would turn out, it was the same idiot who booked the flight that came up with the following idea). The plan was to check out of the hostel (which we did), explore West Berlin (see above's Berlin with Merlin), get dinner (dinner and lunch, what a luxury), pick up our bags from the hostels storage (no problems there), then make our way to the airport, and spend the night (just like the Amazing Race teams, right? WRONG?) Turns out Berlin-Tegel closes. We found this out in time for me (remember the idiot) to come up with yet another plan: spend the night at the central train station in Berlin. This idea was working well until about 2 o'clock when a large, very German, "police commander" in a ridiculous uniform told me in one of those voices they use for 'Demons' in bad horror movies "NO SLEEP HERE! NO SLEEP, HERE". I ended up grabbing 2 shotty hours of sleep (which would last me for over 36 hours, well into Athens). That's it right? That's the end of the excitement for Travel day Berlin-to-Athens... right? WRONG!
The 6:35am flight was set to board at 5:50am. Neil and I were at the gate at 5:15, conservative? Maybe. But none of that mattered, because we didn't board at 5:50, we didn't board at 6, we didn't even board at 6:30... we got on the plan at 6:35am. This happened only because we had a connecting flight in Nurnberg that we needed to catch at 8:25. So why the delay? I have no idea, it's all in German, no one speaks freakin English, all I know is we didn't have a plane. Planes were taking off all over the airport, but our gate couldn't get a hold of one of these bad boys. We finally started to taxi out. The captain then explained that we were 7th in line. WHAT? Who is running this airport where a plan that is 30 minutes late has to wait in line for another 25. I was freaking out (to myself of course, no one likes a party pooper on the Red Eye). It was the most nerve racking 45 minutes I have experienced all trip (it would later be out done by a certain 15 minutes in Athens, but that's still to come). We landed at 8:10. We were in the middle of the plane, and people could care less if we needed to connect, "We all have places to be" (queue German accent). 8:20 we were in our seats, on plan two, 10 minutes later we finally said good-bye to Germany. It was a fun little Tuesday.
This approach to travel may not be suitable for all travelers. Proceed with caution, and a few contingency plans.So, next up Athens. All Greek myths, and ancient ruins? Well, not quite...
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Blitz through Berlin
As we closed in on Berlin, our train was commandiered by what appeared to be hoards of football fans (slightly overweight, wearing colourful scraves, drinking as much beer as they breath air, and chanting loudly). It was great, the closer we got, the drunker they were, until our ICE was a huge party-train (traveler's tip: when in Berlin, find a party-train). As it turns out, we arrived just in time for Stuttgart to face Nurnberg in the German Cup final. The only thing that made the massive Hauptbahnhof station more impressive then the dozen or so criss-crossing levels of train tracks, was the echoing cheers and football chants that filled the building. We wasted no time, and got right into it. We adopted the underdog squad, Nurnburg as our own, and joined the locals in oooing and ahhhing at every chance. The first 90 left the two teams tied at 2, an extra 15 accomplished nothing aside from allowing the fans to get more wired. Half way through the second half of extra time a silver goal was scored by Nurnburg. The pub we were in exploded, crazy germans broke out into song and dance. It was all exhausting; being a football fan takes a lot out of you. When in doubt of what to do on a Saturday night, meander on over to Berlin for a little national epic...
The Jetpak hostel that we are staying at is really impressive. The biggest plus has been the owners who have managed to make all the other operation we have been involved with seem like prisons (okay, minimum security, white-colour lock-ups, but still nothing compared to the clean, comfortable, free-internet providing Jetpak). However, the no free breakfast has forced us to change our routin a little though (mom, we are still eating though... just not lots... I miss the Mom's-all-inclusive). The place seems to attract a lot of Canucks too. And where there are Canadians, there's bound to a little unpredictable excitment.
After touring the city's central sites on the S-Bahn (which is an amazing use of public transit), we spent the day charging through Berlin's east side. Although, before we were able to see any of the hot spots, Neil and I were surrounded by crazy Gypsy Ladies peddling their one baby as bate for cash. Not only were these wiley women experienced with this scheme, but they were persistant. Neil and I had to drop the gloves with one of the big ones... okay actually we just tore into them verbally after their third attack on us... the truth is they scared the crap out of us, so we booked it and never looked back.
Fast forward passed the post card pics (which are all amazing architectural structures), passed the Fernsehturm (bizzare TV Tower), the Marienkirche (old gothic relic of a church), the Berlin Dom (a true sight to see), the Museumsinsel (Museum Island, five separate museums of Berlin's best), down Unter Den Linden, passed the Russian Embassy, towards the Brandenburger tor (the spectacular Berlin wall gates, through the Reichstag (worth the wait in the queue, great vistas from the dome), passed Ptsdamer Platz (with it's Sony Center, and Imax with Pirates 3... we almost stopped in... for the popcorn), passed Checkpoint Charlie. and here begins our East Side Gallery adventure. On the map, the distance between Checkpoint Charlie and the artistic history of the East Side Gallery "appears" to be about 10 or 15 minutes. I emphasis "appears" for dramatic purposes. I will also add that the light drizzle that had been going on all day is now a down pour, the sun has been swallowed up by the dark (ominous) clouds, the streets are empty, and Neil and I are following a small brick line that represents the old wall through the ghetto of East Berlin. Since we survived I can now say that it was a great experience, at the time we were both wishing we were back with the Gypsy ladies... This area of Berlin is neither the new and flashy West end, or the scenic pre-war city center, this is the real deal Berlin, the area that makes a 6 foot 3, 23 year-old MAN, want his mommy. We followed the wall line for 45 minutes and just as a crazy bum started to follow our lead, we found it. Neil and I may have actually hugged each other... or a least exchanged nods of satisfaction. We walked the East side Gallery, but it wasn't even the art work that was most amazing, it was the camera crew that was filming the dude from Super Size Me, that really blow our minds. Of all the walls in all of Berlin...
The end of the first leg of our tour is coming with our flight to Athens. The London-to-Berlin stretch has been full of excitement... and everything else that can't quite be filed under "a great time" (see also: crazy gypsies, see also: old german as dorm neighbour). Part 1 of 4 has been a life time of experiences, time to head south and explore the Greek sun...
The Jetpak hostel that we are staying at is really impressive. The biggest plus has been the owners who have managed to make all the other operation we have been involved with seem like prisons (okay, minimum security, white-colour lock-ups, but still nothing compared to the clean, comfortable, free-internet providing Jetpak). However, the no free breakfast has forced us to change our routin a little though (mom, we are still eating though... just not lots... I miss the Mom's-all-inclusive). The place seems to attract a lot of Canucks too. And where there are Canadians, there's bound to a little unpredictable excitment.
After touring the city's central sites on the S-Bahn (which is an amazing use of public transit), we spent the day charging through Berlin's east side. Although, before we were able to see any of the hot spots, Neil and I were surrounded by crazy Gypsy Ladies peddling their one baby as bate for cash. Not only were these wiley women experienced with this scheme, but they were persistant. Neil and I had to drop the gloves with one of the big ones... okay actually we just tore into them verbally after their third attack on us... the truth is they scared the crap out of us, so we booked it and never looked back.
Fast forward passed the post card pics (which are all amazing architectural structures), passed the Fernsehturm (bizzare TV Tower), the Marienkirche (old gothic relic of a church), the Berlin Dom (a true sight to see), the Museumsinsel (Museum Island, five separate museums of Berlin's best), down Unter Den Linden, passed the Russian Embassy, towards the Brandenburger tor (the spectacular Berlin wall gates, through the Reichstag (worth the wait in the queue, great vistas from the dome), passed Ptsdamer Platz (with it's Sony Center, and Imax with Pirates 3... we almost stopped in... for the popcorn), passed Checkpoint Charlie. and here begins our East Side Gallery adventure. On the map, the distance between Checkpoint Charlie and the artistic history of the East Side Gallery "appears" to be about 10 or 15 minutes. I emphasis "appears" for dramatic purposes. I will also add that the light drizzle that had been going on all day is now a down pour, the sun has been swallowed up by the dark (ominous) clouds, the streets are empty, and Neil and I are following a small brick line that represents the old wall through the ghetto of East Berlin. Since we survived I can now say that it was a great experience, at the time we were both wishing we were back with the Gypsy ladies... This area of Berlin is neither the new and flashy West end, or the scenic pre-war city center, this is the real deal Berlin, the area that makes a 6 foot 3, 23 year-old MAN, want his mommy. We followed the wall line for 45 minutes and just as a crazy bum started to follow our lead, we found it. Neil and I may have actually hugged each other... or a least exchanged nods of satisfaction. We walked the East side Gallery, but it wasn't even the art work that was most amazing, it was the camera crew that was filming the dude from Super Size Me, that really blow our minds. Of all the walls in all of Berlin...
The end of the first leg of our tour is coming with our flight to Athens. The London-to-Berlin stretch has been full of excitement... and everything else that can't quite be filed under "a great time" (see also: crazy gypsies, see also: old german as dorm neighbour). Part 1 of 4 has been a life time of experiences, time to head south and explore the Greek sun...
Friday, May 25, 2007
Mexican Standoff in Germania
This entry will be mostly about one subject which i'll get to in a minute but first a quick prologue.
To get to koblenz germania our next stop we take a train, and on this train in a group of about ten dutch ladies and one dutch guy wearing something of an ascott. My guess was this was a group of nurses or flight attendants on some kind of weekend trip...in the middle of the week (I'm not trying to be sexist or anything but this is what came to mind... i still don't know by the way). Anyways in the empty train car, they just happened to be all surrounding our seats. Thank goodness they got off like an hour later or I would have lost it......again.
In koblenz, turns out, our hostel is in a fortress. Yeah like a big, old, german, fortress. This is very cool, but it takes us 20 minutes to hike, literally hike, up a switch back trail to get up to the top of this mountain (or large hill) to our fortress. We checked in and did all that good stuff and then wandered through our fortress. This place was cool, it reminded be something of the tower of london, that kinda thing. So were walking around this place taking pictures and there are these tunnels, maybe 15 feet tall and 15 feet wide with cobblestone ground. And as were walking through here I take one or two pictures of john. I tried to set up this picture so that john's face could still be seen in the dark stone tunnel, the result was that the opening of the tunnel was hugely bright and all blown out, which looked really crazy. So then I told John to walk out the tunnel while I still had the tunnel entry overexposed, and this time I filmed it on the movie setting on my camera. I thought this was awesome, so I just mentioned without really thinking about it that I should film my short movie here. The short movie I'm refering to of course is my mexican standoff movie that I had wanted to film while at the resort in mexico, but was foiled by the pesky security guards at the hotel. So I kind of make this comment about making the short movie without thinking that it would really happen. We then continued our day, went to the supermarket, ate some dinner and talked to some of our hostel mates as John I' m sure has described. Then as I was going to sleep I started to think about it more and how that tunnel thing would be a great place to film my mexican standoff movie. So I let John know, I said "John, I'm pretty sure we should film my movie here for real". Before John could say anything I gave it the old "you know, if we have time and if we've seen all the sights tomorrow...so just mull it over" I wasn't sure if it would happen but now I was sure I wanted it to.
Next day, we get goin early and spend four or five hours walking around koblenz seeing the sights, which was very cool. At this point I'd pretty much forgotten about the movie because of all the cool places we saw in the old town in koblenz. But we got back to the hostel around 4pm and we did our normal wind down thing, write in our journals, read, listen to music. Then I noticed that there weren't many people outside the hostel so I thought what the heck let's do it. And John (a little bit to my surprise was on board), so we looked over the lines again grabbed the camera and headed over to the tunnel.
Turns out, 4pm is busy tourist time, and although were not in the main tunnel we still need to stop fiming every time tourists come through the main tunnel. We do all the dialogue first because without that we have nothing. So we do all of John's dialogue first and have to stop abunch of times for looud germanian tourists in our tunnel. Then we did mine, same stoppages. So that was done, sweet, but now I need every other shot that I need...and it turned out there were a lot. We did a couple more shots and then.....my camera ran out of friggin batteries. So we go back to the room and figure that twenty minutes of charging should do the trick to get all of the other important shots and a few insert shot. So we go back out twenty minutes later, and now were on a deadline because we have to go dinner at the hostel during a scheduled time. So out we go, got some great stuff, and becuase of all of the frickin tourist delays the camera battery ran out AGAIN!!!!! Unbelievable. We had like three shots to go ugggh. Dinner. Camera charge. Back at it. OUt we go for the last couple, and now the light is fading so we gotta be quick. Got all the shots we needed in that go. That's a wrap!! great right. Can't believe it actually happened. Then laying in bed I realised we didn't get the most important insert shot of the movie. So after breakfast it was back to the tunnel round number 4. Took our time got the shots and wrapped filming for real!!! Awesome.
My pictures and videos are trapped on the camera ( just I can't transfer them on to this computer) so John's below average outta focus grainy shots will have to do for now.
More to come...
To get to koblenz germania our next stop we take a train, and on this train in a group of about ten dutch ladies and one dutch guy wearing something of an ascott. My guess was this was a group of nurses or flight attendants on some kind of weekend trip...in the middle of the week (I'm not trying to be sexist or anything but this is what came to mind... i still don't know by the way). Anyways in the empty train car, they just happened to be all surrounding our seats. Thank goodness they got off like an hour later or I would have lost it......again.
In koblenz, turns out, our hostel is in a fortress. Yeah like a big, old, german, fortress. This is very cool, but it takes us 20 minutes to hike, literally hike, up a switch back trail to get up to the top of this mountain (or large hill) to our fortress. We checked in and did all that good stuff and then wandered through our fortress. This place was cool, it reminded be something of the tower of london, that kinda thing. So were walking around this place taking pictures and there are these tunnels, maybe 15 feet tall and 15 feet wide with cobblestone ground. And as were walking through here I take one or two pictures of john. I tried to set up this picture so that john's face could still be seen in the dark stone tunnel, the result was that the opening of the tunnel was hugely bright and all blown out, which looked really crazy. So then I told John to walk out the tunnel while I still had the tunnel entry overexposed, and this time I filmed it on the movie setting on my camera. I thought this was awesome, so I just mentioned without really thinking about it that I should film my short movie here. The short movie I'm refering to of course is my mexican standoff movie that I had wanted to film while at the resort in mexico, but was foiled by the pesky security guards at the hotel. So I kind of make this comment about making the short movie without thinking that it would really happen. We then continued our day, went to the supermarket, ate some dinner and talked to some of our hostel mates as John I' m sure has described. Then as I was going to sleep I started to think about it more and how that tunnel thing would be a great place to film my mexican standoff movie. So I let John know, I said "John, I'm pretty sure we should film my movie here for real". Before John could say anything I gave it the old "you know, if we have time and if we've seen all the sights tomorrow...so just mull it over" I wasn't sure if it would happen but now I was sure I wanted it to.
Next day, we get goin early and spend four or five hours walking around koblenz seeing the sights, which was very cool. At this point I'd pretty much forgotten about the movie because of all the cool places we saw in the old town in koblenz. But we got back to the hostel around 4pm and we did our normal wind down thing, write in our journals, read, listen to music. Then I noticed that there weren't many people outside the hostel so I thought what the heck let's do it. And John (a little bit to my surprise was on board), so we looked over the lines again grabbed the camera and headed over to the tunnel.
Turns out, 4pm is busy tourist time, and although were not in the main tunnel we still need to stop fiming every time tourists come through the main tunnel. We do all the dialogue first because without that we have nothing. So we do all of John's dialogue first and have to stop abunch of times for looud germanian tourists in our tunnel. Then we did mine, same stoppages. So that was done, sweet, but now I need every other shot that I need...and it turned out there were a lot. We did a couple more shots and then.....my camera ran out of friggin batteries. So we go back to the room and figure that twenty minutes of charging should do the trick to get all of the other important shots and a few insert shot. So we go back out twenty minutes later, and now were on a deadline because we have to go dinner at the hostel during a scheduled time. So out we go, got some great stuff, and becuase of all of the frickin tourist delays the camera battery ran out AGAIN!!!!! Unbelievable. We had like three shots to go ugggh. Dinner. Camera charge. Back at it. OUt we go for the last couple, and now the light is fading so we gotta be quick. Got all the shots we needed in that go. That's a wrap!! great right. Can't believe it actually happened. Then laying in bed I realised we didn't get the most important insert shot of the movie. So after breakfast it was back to the tunnel round number 4. Took our time got the shots and wrapped filming for real!!! Awesome.
My pictures and videos are trapped on the camera ( just I can't transfer them on to this computer) so John's below average outta focus grainy shots will have to do for now.
More to come...
Owned by amsterdam continued
Sorry, ran outta time last time so I'll continue. The next morning (in amsterdam) I woke up super sick, and I was through being quiet washing my face and gathering my stuff up. I was done trying to accomodate for the spanish inquisition. Then down at breakfast I got some very outstanding and hilarious news from John. Apparently at around 5 in the morning (probably an hour and a half after falling asleep in a homicidal rage) I busted out an really loud evil laugh that went on for about 5 seconds and woke everyone in the room up...but me of course. This laugh, this evil laugh was followed by two words........."Get 'em" Then I thought back and remembered I was having a cool dream where I hired Jason Statham (of Snatch, Transporter and Crank fame) (and with a full head of hair) to kill someone...obviously the spanish inquisition. Reading what I just wrote over again it seems a little heavy but it's actually pretty hilarious payback- me laughing so loud it woke all of them up - so I don't feel too bad about it.
That day we went to the van gogh museum, I ate a whole green pepper like it was an apple, John ate a bag of salad, we bought sparkling water instead of regular water which sucked cuz then we needed to buy real water, we longed eat pfaankhaaken (pancakes) at the pfaankhaaken huis but it was too expensive, walked through town and almost got hit by trams and garbage trucks (everyday in the city we're in seems to have its garbage day the day we're there), went to get grilled sandwiches but the place closed at 7pm......on a Monday! out other options were chinese food, argentinian steakhouse (there was one of these every half a block in Amsterdam, plus it was too expensive), a vegetarian falafel place (but I'd already eaten my green pepper, remember), Wok to Walk the chinese food joint (buzy as hell and too pricy (remember people we can't be blowin all our money on food in the first week)), so.....what option does that leave us with....any guesses....that's right McDonalds, where supersized = regular sized in Canada, and the guy asked me if I wanted ketchup I said sure... 35 cents later I got me some ketchup... what a sham. But the best part of the M C 's trip was what John ordered. Well what'd he order?...a Paris Royal with cheese... I know, awesome right. A paris royale is basically a big mac that's been tossed into a pita along with tomatoes. We had a laugh about that.
we figured- we're only in amsterdam once and it's 9pm so what should we do but visit the red light district once more, only this time we took a wrong turn at the end of our favorite street Leidsestraat (which sounds like the greek character Lysistrata, which is why I remembered it) and we ended up lost in amsterdam at night... Don't worry it was only for like half an hour til we found our way back, but this time we were just happy we made it to the red light district. Walked around got caught in a dead end alley in the district but got the hell outta there quick. We figured we pushed our luck for tonight so we headed back to the hostel, stopping briefly to look at the public displays at Mme Tussaud's wax museum, saw one of Jenna Jamieson and one of Johnny depp, they were so good I started to wig out. back to the hostel. Off to germany...
That day we went to the van gogh museum, I ate a whole green pepper like it was an apple, John ate a bag of salad, we bought sparkling water instead of regular water which sucked cuz then we needed to buy real water, we longed eat pfaankhaaken (pancakes) at the pfaankhaaken huis but it was too expensive, walked through town and almost got hit by trams and garbage trucks (everyday in the city we're in seems to have its garbage day the day we're there), went to get grilled sandwiches but the place closed at 7pm......on a Monday! out other options were chinese food, argentinian steakhouse (there was one of these every half a block in Amsterdam, plus it was too expensive), a vegetarian falafel place (but I'd already eaten my green pepper, remember), Wok to Walk the chinese food joint (buzy as hell and too pricy (remember people we can't be blowin all our money on food in the first week)), so.....what option does that leave us with....any guesses....that's right McDonalds, where supersized = regular sized in Canada, and the guy asked me if I wanted ketchup I said sure... 35 cents later I got me some ketchup... what a sham. But the best part of the M C 's trip was what John ordered. Well what'd he order?...a Paris Royal with cheese... I know, awesome right. A paris royale is basically a big mac that's been tossed into a pita along with tomatoes. We had a laugh about that.
we figured- we're only in amsterdam once and it's 9pm so what should we do but visit the red light district once more, only this time we took a wrong turn at the end of our favorite street Leidsestraat (which sounds like the greek character Lysistrata, which is why I remembered it) and we ended up lost in amsterdam at night... Don't worry it was only for like half an hour til we found our way back, but this time we were just happy we made it to the red light district. Walked around got caught in a dead end alley in the district but got the hell outta there quick. We figured we pushed our luck for tonight so we headed back to the hostel, stopping briefly to look at the public displays at Mme Tussaud's wax museum, saw one of Jenna Jamieson and one of Johnny depp, they were so good I started to wig out. back to the hostel. Off to germany...
Ripping up the Rhine Valley
We left Amsterdam on a cloud covered, rainy morning. The spanish inquisition had been replaced by a group of friendly stoner Frenchies, who had passed out the night before and didn't move when we left.The train ride took us across the green plains of the Netherlands towards the forested hills of West Germany. We left the fog and the rain in Holland, and were hit hard with the hot, humid climate of Koblenz. After trying to be the innocent, naive English speaking tourists trying to make it to their accomodations, and getting only hostility from the very local, very German-only speaking people of Koblenz, we pulled out the trusty Let's Go Europe travel guide and made our way to the Jugendherberge at the Festung Ehrenbretstein... or Fortress Hostel.
I have been reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road during our travels, and have decided that although Jack's On the Road was not in Europe, Neil and I are also looking for our very own Dean Moriarty. We found him in Koblenz. Felix was on a work term from Dusseldorf and was the first English speaking person we had run into since leaving Holland. (everything is in German here, I mean no translations, this friggin key board is German, why do I want this ö, or this ä...) Felix had spent a year in the states on an exchange program for school. He was just one of many interesting passers-through that stayed in the 12 bed dorm in the Fortress.
After hours of exploring this huge medieval strong hold on top of the hill that over looked Koblenz, we made our way to the Altstadt (old town, look at me, using German words), that fell between the Rhine and the Mosel. We wandered the streets and took in the old churches and town houses. Unfortunately the highlight of the daz was digging into a couple of Bratwurst (do not miss out on these bad boys).
From Koblenz we ventured south along the western side of the Rhine (if you take the train on the Eastern side, you get to Mainz faster, but you miss the entire "oh there's a Castle, and oh there's another one, and ooo another..." Aside from the great sites and amazing landscape that makes up the Rhine's picturesq back drop, we got to ride the train with a group of german high school kids doing sing-along to Limp Bizkit, Sum 41, and the Offspring; they were quite good.
Mainz has been similar to Koblenz with an Old Town, that we explored extensively (this means they had narrower streets and we got lost more often), but it is definitely a different Rhine city.
This trip through the Rhine has been very relaxing. Neil and I have decided that the landscape is similar to an interior BC with the humidity of southern Ontario (30 degrees today, I'm not built for this, but comparing it to snow in Calgary... okay I won't go there). Training it through the area has been a great way to see a completely unique region.
Eating... eating?, no worries mom, we have been eating... sort of. Our routine has been to have 2 meals, with a mid day snack. This has heavily relied on the Included breakfast at the hostels and hotels (buffets, I mean Neil and I really take care of business here, and we're pretty much good until dinner... this is also why it has been good to only stay at each place for a couple of days, they start to recognize us as 'those guys' who eat Everything!)
Next stop is Berlin. We will leave the comfort and privacy of the Hotel scene, and return to the dorms. Will we meet the next Dean Moriarty? I'm sure. Will we repeat the Hostel (the movie) experience? If I post again we are still around.
We may have also made a movie in the dark tunnels of the Fortress in Koblenz, but that's Neil's scene.
Oh and also, the Spanish Inquisition have new competition, as Koblenz introduced us to the crazy-old-German-who-does-what-ever-the-f&%k-he-wants. The guy would actually just bang the door of his locker for up to 3 minutes (3 minutes is a long time to listen to a crazy German bang a locker door)... oh and this letter ß, this has been fun.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Amsterdam hits us with a furious Red left hook
Neil and I were still making jokes about the London bridge when we started our decent into Amsterdam ("wait, that's the 'London Bridge', that's was they call it? Really? because I think it would be more fitting to call it 'Bridge'. Now Tower Bridge, that's worth naming."). We were in the air for half an hour, got on the wrong train and spent 40 minutes on the scenic route around the city, wandered the streets outside the Centraal station for 15 before finally figuring out the Tram situation. My travel guide book says about 'Orientation' for Amsterdam: "Familiarize yourself with the 4 major canals that cut through the central region of amsterdam". The book said nothing about the other dozens of canals, the narrow alley-ways, the circular roads, with not two lanes of traffic but 6! (cars, trams, and bikes).The streets of Amsterdam are out of control, and yet no one seems to be concerned about it. Neil and I toured the city on bikes our first day. This activity is both highly exciting and extremely dangerous (riding bikes down the narrow streets of Amsterdam with Trams, bikes, tourists, cars, buses, and dogs all trying to scare the crap out of you before barely avoiding you, makes our plane rides, train trips and even our attempts to cross the London street (look left or look right), seem like childs play). We managed to get lost a few time, even with two maps, but what an adventure.
A trip to Europe without Amsterdam is like going to Alberta and not seeing Edmonton (you may have heard stories about the place, but until you actually see it, you can't believe it's all true - this statement is accurate for the canals, architecture, museums, and Red Light District of Amsterdam, as well as the interesting 'character' of Edmonton). The narrow crooked building seem to thrive in their defiance of right angles, the many canals provide post-card style photo-ops everywhere you turn, the colourful, neon lite streets have everything from fast-food to fashion, to coffee-shops-sans-the-coffee. Just walking the streets for a day, is enough to fill a memory card in you camera.
Neil and I visited the Red Light district last night... and we are still alive. What a place! We went in with a plan; I had a map, I had figured out the best escape routs, and we were going to move with groups. Over kill? Maybe, but when the guys in suits started trying to draw us into the red-curtained rooms, and the packs of drug dealers began to come out from the back alleys whispering "crack, extacy, cocain, hash..." into our ears, I was glad we had found a strong group of hooligans (drunken rugby players wanting to take their shirts off for the girls in the windows) to mix in with. Neil and I had screamed through this central location of Amsterdam on our bikes earlier in the day. The narrow lane-ways suddenly became much colder and the sun seemed to disappear altogether. At night the darkness is chased away by the glow of red that pours out of every building's curtained windows. I can't believe this place excites! The best part was seening the guys who were "in the market", it was like watching an experienced Value Village shopper move through the racks. Then there were the new-comers to the district who weren't afraid to show their excitement: "these girls are fantastic! No really, I love this place!" It like the Red Mile... on the same crack it's trying to sell.Some of the other highlights of our trip have definitely been the Van Gogh museum, the Vondel Park, Dam Square, and our favorite dutch street, Leidsestraat (it's colour full [not just red, or rainbowy], has plenty of shops, room to walk [so relatively safe from bikes and trams], and gives great canal vistas.
Part way through day 1, Neil kicked out his Goldmember impression... it's been a laugh, the dutch are crazy, and I love it.
So far the trip has been full of adventure. Europe has punch back pretty hard with new sights, strange culture, and hostel fun (Neil was really happy with our four room mates, who he named the Spanish Inquisition, something about tourture...).
Red Light District... unbelievable. Everyone needs to see that there is a place on earth where people, young and old, can view... well you'll have to see it for yourself.
(pictures to come, I'm sure there will be a computer somewhere on our trip that has a USB, come man Universal...)
Neil gets owned by Amsterdam
hey what's happening everyone, it's my first entry, so I here it goes...
Oh by the way, there's no usb port on the old amsterdamian computers so still no pictures...I know it's ridiculous.
So we got to amsterdam two days ago on a whopping 35 minute plane ride, which should have felt like no time at all right...wrong. Turns out our plane was a sit whereever you can find a seat plane and every single seat was filled. I am stuck in between my big big brother and a large black man in the back row of the plane. This large black man beside me felt he needed to take up half of my leg space as well as his own, which... you know is fine I guess - except this guy had a very suspicious looking stain on his leg, an x-rated stain on his leg, if you will. So I spend this entire flight trying desperately to avoid coming into contact with the x-rated stain on this guy's leg. So needless to say, this flight felt like about four hours.
But, it just gets better from there. (By the way, don't get me wrong the trip is going well so far, but who wants to hear all the great things about the trip, you'll hear those from John). So we get off the plain and end up on the wrong train which takes us about half an hour outside Amsterdam. At this point for some reason I keep thinking about all those lost travellers movies I've seen like hostel. Anyways we end up back on the right train and into amsterdam. the dutch language by the way...ridiculous. It sounds like an american doing a bad german impression. So we're in Amsterdam now and what do we do? we do what any tourist in amsterdam would do, we went to a traditional Irish pub for dinner which was stew and a beer. I'm going to point out right now, that was the last real 'meal' we've had since then.
Next day, we went on a bike tour for three hours, got lost big time and ended up in some real sketchy areas. Cruised through the red light district which could be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. In the red light district, everything seems a little darker, the streets are a little narrower, and everything reeks of dope, various kinds of dope. Very creepy place. So after being lost and off the map, we get back to the bike rental place with 2 minutes to spare. That was a nice panic attack being completely lost in Holland "ischin't dat veird" I pretty glad I remembered to bust out the goldmember quote when I'm actually in holland.
Later that night we got a slice of New York pizza for dinner. I know it sounds like we're just eating normal food that you can get anywhere, but we can't figure out what traditional dutch food is, the only thing we could think of was there's a bunch of pancake places, which look pretty cool, but 7 euro for pancakes, forgetaboutit. So after the pizza we went to the red light district aggain this time at night to see how creepy the place can actually get (very!) But I can see right now that John is beside me writing his own entry about it right now so I'll leave it. But I have to say one thing, the eastern european guys absolutely love that shit...they were all in the market for various 'transactions' Ha!
The last thing I'll mention, is that hostels are amazing (the sarcasm here is just piled on as thick as possible). So we have a room with 6 beds, 3 bunkbeads (the top bunk by the way...about 10 degrees warmer than everywhere else in the room. Even this doesn't bother me that much...was puts me into a murderous rage howerver, were my roommates; 4 spanish girls I now refer to as the Spanish Inquisition, because the tortured me to no end. I'm sick right now by the way, very very sick. And it was made much worse by the spanish inquisition. THey stroll into the room last night at 2 in the morning, and talk so f#&$in loud I was so choked out of time more to come
Oh by the way, there's no usb port on the old amsterdamian computers so still no pictures...I know it's ridiculous.
So we got to amsterdam two days ago on a whopping 35 minute plane ride, which should have felt like no time at all right...wrong. Turns out our plane was a sit whereever you can find a seat plane and every single seat was filled. I am stuck in between my big big brother and a large black man in the back row of the plane. This large black man beside me felt he needed to take up half of my leg space as well as his own, which... you know is fine I guess - except this guy had a very suspicious looking stain on his leg, an x-rated stain on his leg, if you will. So I spend this entire flight trying desperately to avoid coming into contact with the x-rated stain on this guy's leg. So needless to say, this flight felt like about four hours.
But, it just gets better from there. (By the way, don't get me wrong the trip is going well so far, but who wants to hear all the great things about the trip, you'll hear those from John). So we get off the plain and end up on the wrong train which takes us about half an hour outside Amsterdam. At this point for some reason I keep thinking about all those lost travellers movies I've seen like hostel. Anyways we end up back on the right train and into amsterdam. the dutch language by the way...ridiculous. It sounds like an american doing a bad german impression. So we're in Amsterdam now and what do we do? we do what any tourist in amsterdam would do, we went to a traditional Irish pub for dinner which was stew and a beer. I'm going to point out right now, that was the last real 'meal' we've had since then.
Next day, we went on a bike tour for three hours, got lost big time and ended up in some real sketchy areas. Cruised through the red light district which could be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. In the red light district, everything seems a little darker, the streets are a little narrower, and everything reeks of dope, various kinds of dope. Very creepy place. So after being lost and off the map, we get back to the bike rental place with 2 minutes to spare. That was a nice panic attack being completely lost in Holland "ischin't dat veird" I pretty glad I remembered to bust out the goldmember quote when I'm actually in holland.
Later that night we got a slice of New York pizza for dinner. I know it sounds like we're just eating normal food that you can get anywhere, but we can't figure out what traditional dutch food is, the only thing we could think of was there's a bunch of pancake places, which look pretty cool, but 7 euro for pancakes, forgetaboutit. So after the pizza we went to the red light district aggain this time at night to see how creepy the place can actually get (very!) But I can see right now that John is beside me writing his own entry about it right now so I'll leave it. But I have to say one thing, the eastern european guys absolutely love that shit...they were all in the market for various 'transactions' Ha!
The last thing I'll mention, is that hostels are amazing (the sarcasm here is just piled on as thick as possible). So we have a room with 6 beds, 3 bunkbeads (the top bunk by the way...about 10 degrees warmer than everywhere else in the room. Even this doesn't bother me that much...was puts me into a murderous rage howerver, were my roommates; 4 spanish girls I now refer to as the Spanish Inquisition, because the tortured me to no end. I'm sick right now by the way, very very sick. And it was made much worse by the spanish inquisition. THey stroll into the room last night at 2 in the morning, and talk so f#&$in loud I was so choked out of time more to come
Friday, May 18, 2007
London Punches back with Blood and Tears
As the streets emptied and the darkness flooded the back alleys of London, we followed a local expert on the evils of London. From Grave-Robbers to Jack the Ripper, Declan McHugh creeped the hell out of us as he guided us passed the sights of London's dark history. He also shared some more recent tales with us, about tourist that disappeared...
We're camping out at the Cranley Gardens Hotel in the South Kensington part of London. After exploring the surrounding streets Neil and I have decided that Kensington and Chelsea is the place to be, with nice flats, spacious 'gardens' and great shops and pubs (the Stanhope Arms dishes out a great round of Fish and Chips with their pints).
At all the intersections pedestrians at greeted with a 'Look Left' or a 'Look Right'. This may sound ridiculous, but it has saved my life a dozen times.
Today we fought our way passed thousands of tourists and hit all the top postcard shots. While doing so we also picked up a bit of a sunburn (in London? I know, strange!). Big Ben is, well, Big, the Parliament building was four wall of picturesque architecture, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tate Britain, and Trafalgar square kept us busy for hours.
The trip has punched back hard with Jet Leg. Neil and I stayed up for over thirty hours before hitting the sack last night, only sleep for four or five hours and suddenly run into insomnia. But this is the only way to go; there is too much to see in London. Every street is different from the last, and the 'character' of the city is without comparison.
Tomorrow we are heading across to Amsterdam to continue the adventure. So far our 2 days away from home have felt like a week (definitely a little homesick, but also lost in London's endless world of exploration. This is the Amazing Race with a shot of Epinephrine...
(our pictures are too out of control to post, the computer will have no part of "Webbs meet London"... we'll have some new shots in the next few days)
We're camping out at the Cranley Gardens Hotel in the South Kensington part of London. After exploring the surrounding streets Neil and I have decided that Kensington and Chelsea is the place to be, with nice flats, spacious 'gardens' and great shops and pubs (the Stanhope Arms dishes out a great round of Fish and Chips with their pints).
At all the intersections pedestrians at greeted with a 'Look Left' or a 'Look Right'. This may sound ridiculous, but it has saved my life a dozen times.
Today we fought our way passed thousands of tourists and hit all the top postcard shots. While doing so we also picked up a bit of a sunburn (in London? I know, strange!). Big Ben is, well, Big, the Parliament building was four wall of picturesque architecture, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tate Britain, and Trafalgar square kept us busy for hours.
The trip has punched back hard with Jet Leg. Neil and I stayed up for over thirty hours before hitting the sack last night, only sleep for four or five hours and suddenly run into insomnia. But this is the only way to go; there is too much to see in London. Every street is different from the last, and the 'character' of the city is without comparison.
Tomorrow we are heading across to Amsterdam to continue the adventure. So far our 2 days away from home have felt like a week (definitely a little homesick, but also lost in London's endless world of exploration. This is the Amazing Race with a shot of Epinephrine...
(our pictures are too out of control to post, the computer will have no part of "Webbs meet London"... we'll have some new shots in the next few days)
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Before the Opening Bell
Planes, Trains, and Hostels. With close to 2 decades of school behind me, I decided it was time to explore the world outside the class room, and that world begins with Western Europe. I’m ready to live out of a back pack, sleep on sailing TGVs, plan my days around discovering architecture older then the country I live in, and most of all discover the Discovery Channel without the TV.
I’ve outlined Dates and Times, but after the arrivals and before the departures the adventure hasn’t been written. My preparation consisted of the excited obsession of someone counting down the days to their trip months in advance. From the rails of Europe’s country side to the character rich hostels that cover the continent, I powered through the internet and got lost in guide books for hours as I “researched” my trip (as a university student the word ‘research’ is usually attached to the negative connotations of deadlines and procrastination, but not this time). I wanted to be that guy that gets on a plane, lands in a foreign country and then just survives, but I’m a planner. The good news is, for the next month and a half I have planned for some spontaneity...
My partner in crime is my younger brother. Our background: he crashed my ‘only-child party’ when I was 2, but we’ve been pretty tight ever since. He is not a planner. He heard whispers of a summer Europe journey, liked summer, had heard of Europe, so he joined the team.
Beyond mapping out our Eurail path, and scouting out potential accommodations, we focused on the most important kind of travel ground work; cinematic preparation. As a twenty-something backpacker the following films must be watched… and lessons must be learned: Hostel, Turistas, Midnight Express, Return to Paradise, the Beach, and Victor’s 3 minute tour in Rules of Attraction.
The fight begins tomorrow with our 8 hour flight into London. From there it’s Neil and I vs Europa, punch for punch, for all 12 rounds. Stay tuned, this reality doesn’t fit on your TV.
I’ve outlined Dates and Times, but after the arrivals and before the departures the adventure hasn’t been written. My preparation consisted of the excited obsession of someone counting down the days to their trip months in advance. From the rails of Europe’s country side to the character rich hostels that cover the continent, I powered through the internet and got lost in guide books for hours as I “researched” my trip (as a university student the word ‘research’ is usually attached to the negative connotations of deadlines and procrastination, but not this time). I wanted to be that guy that gets on a plane, lands in a foreign country and then just survives, but I’m a planner. The good news is, for the next month and a half I have planned for some spontaneity...
My partner in crime is my younger brother. Our background: he crashed my ‘only-child party’ when I was 2, but we’ve been pretty tight ever since. He is not a planner. He heard whispers of a summer Europe journey, liked summer, had heard of Europe, so he joined the team.
Beyond mapping out our Eurail path, and scouting out potential accommodations, we focused on the most important kind of travel ground work; cinematic preparation. As a twenty-something backpacker the following films must be watched… and lessons must be learned: Hostel, Turistas, Midnight Express, Return to Paradise, the Beach, and Victor’s 3 minute tour in Rules of Attraction.
The fight begins tomorrow with our 8 hour flight into London. From there it’s Neil and I vs Europa, punch for punch, for all 12 rounds. Stay tuned, this reality doesn’t fit on your TV.
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