We arrived at our hostel in Vienna around 6pm and quickly checked into our dorm room. After dropping our luggage we had a delicious and stomach stuffing dinner at a Turkish restaraunt nearby. After dinner we started to walk toward the city center. After we walked through the rather mundane shopping center of Vienna we came across the beautiful museum quartier. At this point we began to really like Vienna. The beauty of this city shines in its consitency, majestic buildings frame beautiful parks, gardens, and squares throughout the entire city. This beauty was enhanced by the energy of the city. As the pink sun fell below the tree line the city was buzzing. Hundreds of rollerbladers had turned one park into a roller rink as music filled the air. A chellist captivated diners, and walkers a like in a pristine square, and an orchestra performed Mozart in the beautiful Stephanson Cathedral. Vienna was clearly enjoying its Friday night and as we walked into the heart of the city we found a live band playing along the river. We listened to the band rock as Ryan impressed me with his knowledge of every type of guitar and bass imaginable. The "Gelatateria's" along the river were also packed and Ryan and were craving something sweet so we stopped for some Gelato.
Side note:
So apparently I dont like Gelato. I mean it wasnt bad, but it just wasnt everything I would hope for in a dessert. There wasnt enough thickness, richness or chunkyness. Just smooth boring and light vanilla. This dessert didnt scratch my itch for sweetness it lightly brushed it, and made me crave a huge thick chunky and cold oreo blizzard from DQ. Ryan being the wordly and adventurous guy he is ordered pistachio gelato and had no complaints.
As we headed back towards the hostel both of us began to realize how much we liked Vienna and its overall vibe. While we had planned to head for Budapest in the morning we decided to take a day off from travel and enjoy Vienna during the day.
As two close guy friends who are totally comfortable with each other there were times during our trip where Ryan and I couldve clearly been mistaken as partners. Not partners in travel, life partners. (we even met people who verbalized this misconception) This theme really kicked off during day 2 in Vienna when we spent an hour together in a Rose garden. In our defense it was a really big, and really beautiful rose garden. Red, yellow, pink, and organgish roses created a mosaic of color and many of them were the size of my face, literally. Surrounding the garden were some of the most impressive buildings in Vienna. For somereason we just couldnt get out of the garden, as we continued to snap pictures and enjoy the great weather.
Following our frolic in the garden Ryan and I headed over to a great square in Vienna adjacent too a huge clock tower. We ate some bratwurst here with a coke and enjoyed a nice break before heading to the Sigmund Freud museum. Back in college (it really seems that long ago) Ryan and I had both studied a good amount of psychology. As a result we both were interestesd in the Freud museum. Despite our intersest the Freud museum was rather dull. It really shouldve been called the Freud 2 rooms, because the museum only had 2 rooms. However, the museum was cool because it was Freuds house and office for the majority of his life. We were actually in the room were he famously analyzed people as they laid on his couch.
After the Freud museum we walked to a sqaure from a beer . From our seat along the square we enjoyed incredible break dancers performing in the street. Adjacent to them was the most pathetic street performer I have ever laid eyes on. The dude was standing/consistently falling off of a small box, in an all gold costume. I dont even know what he was trying to be. He had a gold sword which was visibly made out of paper, and two gold helmets. When someone would try to take a picture of him he simply covered his face with one helmet and pointed to his money box. At this point photographers would laugh and simply walk away. The guy made no money in 30 minutes as we had our drinks.
When we got back to the hostel we met several of our roomates. The hostel had a bar and 5 or 6 of our roomates suggested we enjoy happy hour at the bar. After a few drinks we started a game of poker and Ryan cleaned up. We really enjoyed the night in at the hostel and we met really cool people from Canada, Brasil, Ireland, France and England (this guy was not that cool, "I play rugby a real sport," get a life dude.) The bi and someitmes trilingual abilities of these kids was truly amazing. The guy from Brasil had left his home town 5 months ago with ZERO english and after one semester in London he was speaking perfect english to us. It was amazing.
CROATIA!
The following morning we woke up early and headed to the train station for the trek to Croatia. To this point train rides on the trip had never exceeded 5 hours and trips were easy and quite enjoyable. (A credit to our planning) But the croatia trip was going to be a long day. A 7 hour train into the heart of the country (the capital Zagreb) was followed by a beautiful but miserably squeezed and hot train to the coast. Croatia's landscape was truly amazing. Impressive mountains are blanketed in thick green forest and as our train climbed, cut though and swerved around this scenary I was really impressed. For hours this landscape continued and as the sun began to dip below one hilltop the Adriatic sea and the city of Split finally came into view sprawling out beneath us.
When we found the hostel and the wonderful women who ran it we soon realized that despite our reservation for a dorm room they were over booked. The nice women ended up giving us an apartment for the price of a dorm. These two bedroom apartments were generally reserved for couples so needless to say the Spainish couple we were rooming with gave us a solid queer eye for the strait guy look as soon as we walked in the door. Regardless they were cool, and the place was nice. (I did have to get rid of a spider in our room for Ryan although hes willing to jump out of an airplane, tiny bugs terrify him). We walked down to the water for a slice of pizza and a beer, and afterwards searched for any sort of night life. Being Sunday the city was quite but we found a guitarist performing at a bar and enjoyed his entertainment for a few songs. Split was actually a major player in the Roman ruins and the city has ruins that appear more intact than their counterparts in Rome. The bar we were at sat beside an ancient archway within the Roman palace.
The next morning we visited the thriving marketplace in split. Every concievable fruit vegtable and meat was on sale and the market was flourishing with shoppers and salesmen alike. We ate a breakfast of delicious peaches and bananas at the market took in the scene. After the market we hopped on a ferry for a quick ride to the beautiful island of Hvar.
Sitting behind us on the ferry were two good looking American girls who we began to talk to. We told them we planned to rent a boat for the afternoon for some island hopping and snorkeling. Quickly they were dropping hints and suggesting their own desire to go on a boat ride. At the time these hints went unnoticed. The scene actually reminded us of the last scene from the movie Dumb and Dumber. In this scend Lloyd and Harry are stuck in the desert walking alone. A bus full of bikini models pulls up and explains to the two friends that they need two towel boys to suncreen them up for their modeling competitions. At this point Lloyd says "you are in luck! there is a town about 3 miles that way!" In our similar situation instead of inviting the girls to take a boat out with us we pointed them in the direction of the rental office. Idiots.
That night at the bar we ran into the Americans who gave us a hard time, and literally thought we might be gay.
Despite our misconcieved image the afternoon on the boat was great. We met Igor in the harbor and Ryan quickly haggled him for a fair price for the boat. Igor was a really cool guy, a tough salesmen as well, but when Ryan began talking to him about Tony Kukoc, the Chicago Bull great from Croatia, Igor took the bait, opened up and Ryan capatalized. The boat didnt go more than 8 mph but it was still awesome. The wheather was beautiful and we explored inlets, and islands for several hours before parking and heading to a quiet beach. Ryan's park job cannot go unmentioned, as he parralled the boat on the dock alongside ominous rocks. On this island we found an intimate harbor with turquoise water and a rocky beach. Here we relaxed and swam before heading back to the boat for some more exploring. Back on Hvar island we had a delicious dinner and lounged at a bar on the harbor before running into the American girls and hearing about how lame we had been earlier. The night ended with Ryan and sleeping at opposite ends of the cozy double bed.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Chapter 4 - Prague, Vienna, Croatia
As we pulled into the Prague train station we realized something was terribly wrong. My iphone did not have service... how were we gonna ever get to our hostel without the iphone? Turn by turn directions, maps on demand, hostel numbers, and confirmation emails were all lost behind those horrible words: NO SERVICE. So Ryan and I grabbed a map and found it the old fashioned way.
As one of the few cities that survived WWII unscathed Prague is an especially colorful, old, and charming city. Cobblestone sidewalks with intricate patterns trace colorful buildings with spires, clocks and large windows. This older part of town, know as "Old Town" is very popular, and it also was right near our hostel. We figured we would check out Old Town upon our arrival and quickly found a cool looking restaurant in the most famous square in the city...we soon realized that this was the ultimate tourist trap and ate very average food for a hefty price. For the remainder of the trip we trecked a mile outside of the city for great food at extremley good prices. I even tipped a guy here because I felt like I had just stolen pizza from him.
Given our late night in Berlin and the long day of travel Ryan and I decided to take it easy for our first night in Prague. While hitting up facebook at our hostel Ryan noticed a post from one of Kelly's old college friends Amer: "in prague." Ryan quickly sent Amer a messege and 30 minutes later our night in turned into a low key night our with Amer. Amer had recently lost a match in the French Open (ya hes really good at tennis) and was taking a break from tournaments for a few days. We went to a few bars in old town before ending up at Coyotes where the girls juggled/tossed and dropped, plastic wine bottles, and blew fire out of their mouths. This was mildly entertaining and was accompanied with enjoye Amer's cool stories about pro tennis.
On the way home a desperate women made a feeble pickpocketing attempt on all three of us, which we easily avoided. A few minutes later we heard a whiny, high pitched male voice screaming: Give me back my camera. We assumed the women had snagged his camera, and from the sounds of it she was tangling it in front of his face like he was a small child. Needless to say Ryan and I imitated this kid for the rest of the trip.
For our first full day in Prague, we found another free tour (from the same company as the one in Berlin). Like Berlin this tour was very good, and we saw the astronomical clock (The biggest tourist let down in the world besides the liberty bell in Philly, the crack is just not that cool, sorry Sam) the golden gate to the city, the Jewish Quartier Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle. Between stops I struck up a conversation with our tour guide. I asked him the typical questions and then I asked him where he went to school. He explained, "I went to a small school in Virginia, maybe youve heard of it, University of Richmond." I couldnt believe it and asked him how long ago he graduate. Apparently he was in my class. Wierd. The tour ended with a short story from the tour guide in a park along the river. Tired from the 3 hour tour Ryan and I stretched out during the story, and following it we quickly agreed that a nap would be awesome. We woke up unecessarily close together but highly refreshed. Night 2 in Prague was spent in making calls home and surfing the web.
The next day we woke up early to rent bikes. We rode to a huge, but very disapointing market. Every stand had the exact, litterally exact, same items. Purses, knives, watches and tee shirts and brass knuckles...? We rode along the river later and planned to grab some cheap food outside of the city when I heard a wierd sound coming from what was once my fully functioning tire. Yup, the rent a bike had blown a flat. Luckily we werent too far from the rental office and we dropped the bikes off tired of riding. At this point we headed for a park at the end of the city, to climb a hill, and eventually the mini (and terrible recreation of) the eiffel tower. This walk was exauhsting. Despite the crappyness of the eiffel tower rip off the view was spectacular. The color of Prague, and its beautiful bridges really made the city look great.
That night we met up with two of Ryan's friends from Iowa for a Prague pub crawl. The girls had eaten and we hadnt so one our way to the first bar we grabbed Subway to eat. This may seem like a minor detail, but amazing things have been happening to Ryan and I at subway. This marked our 3 visit to subway on our trip, and on our first 2 visits, the promotional sub of the day was turkey and ham (sidenote: turkey and ham is both of our personal favorites from subway, although Ryan goes for jalepanos, while im all about the pickles). Anyways the Prague subway offered the same promotion, and on this random thursday night the sub of the day was sure enough turkey and ham, amazing.
The pub crawl was very enjoyable, and kicked off at a small restaurant in town. This was a nice change from the typical bar, because we could play some beer pong and enjoy a more relaxing atmosphere. No one could handle Ryan's rusty arm as he went 3-0 on the night. Following the restraunt we went to 3 other cool bars, and ended a the five story night club on the river. Here we had our selection of 80's music, techno, or pop, and we cycled through them all. It was a fun night, and unlike the Berlin pub crawl this one ended very close to our hostel.
We woke up the next day and headed for Vienna.
As one of the few cities that survived WWII unscathed Prague is an especially colorful, old, and charming city. Cobblestone sidewalks with intricate patterns trace colorful buildings with spires, clocks and large windows. This older part of town, know as "Old Town" is very popular, and it also was right near our hostel. We figured we would check out Old Town upon our arrival and quickly found a cool looking restaurant in the most famous square in the city...we soon realized that this was the ultimate tourist trap and ate very average food for a hefty price. For the remainder of the trip we trecked a mile outside of the city for great food at extremley good prices. I even tipped a guy here because I felt like I had just stolen pizza from him.
Given our late night in Berlin and the long day of travel Ryan and I decided to take it easy for our first night in Prague. While hitting up facebook at our hostel Ryan noticed a post from one of Kelly's old college friends Amer: "in prague." Ryan quickly sent Amer a messege and 30 minutes later our night in turned into a low key night our with Amer. Amer had recently lost a match in the French Open (ya hes really good at tennis) and was taking a break from tournaments for a few days. We went to a few bars in old town before ending up at Coyotes where the girls juggled/tossed and dropped, plastic wine bottles, and blew fire out of their mouths. This was mildly entertaining and was accompanied with enjoye Amer's cool stories about pro tennis.
On the way home a desperate women made a feeble pickpocketing attempt on all three of us, which we easily avoided. A few minutes later we heard a whiny, high pitched male voice screaming: Give me back my camera. We assumed the women had snagged his camera, and from the sounds of it she was tangling it in front of his face like he was a small child. Needless to say Ryan and I imitated this kid for the rest of the trip.
For our first full day in Prague, we found another free tour (from the same company as the one in Berlin). Like Berlin this tour was very good, and we saw the astronomical clock (The biggest tourist let down in the world besides the liberty bell in Philly, the crack is just not that cool, sorry Sam) the golden gate to the city, the Jewish Quartier Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle. Between stops I struck up a conversation with our tour guide. I asked him the typical questions and then I asked him where he went to school. He explained, "I went to a small school in Virginia, maybe youve heard of it, University of Richmond." I couldnt believe it and asked him how long ago he graduate. Apparently he was in my class. Wierd. The tour ended with a short story from the tour guide in a park along the river. Tired from the 3 hour tour Ryan and I stretched out during the story, and following it we quickly agreed that a nap would be awesome. We woke up unecessarily close together but highly refreshed. Night 2 in Prague was spent in making calls home and surfing the web.
The next day we woke up early to rent bikes. We rode to a huge, but very disapointing market. Every stand had the exact, litterally exact, same items. Purses, knives, watches and tee shirts and brass knuckles...? We rode along the river later and planned to grab some cheap food outside of the city when I heard a wierd sound coming from what was once my fully functioning tire. Yup, the rent a bike had blown a flat. Luckily we werent too far from the rental office and we dropped the bikes off tired of riding. At this point we headed for a park at the end of the city, to climb a hill, and eventually the mini (and terrible recreation of) the eiffel tower. This walk was exauhsting. Despite the crappyness of the eiffel tower rip off the view was spectacular. The color of Prague, and its beautiful bridges really made the city look great.
That night we met up with two of Ryan's friends from Iowa for a Prague pub crawl. The girls had eaten and we hadnt so one our way to the first bar we grabbed Subway to eat. This may seem like a minor detail, but amazing things have been happening to Ryan and I at subway. This marked our 3 visit to subway on our trip, and on our first 2 visits, the promotional sub of the day was turkey and ham (sidenote: turkey and ham is both of our personal favorites from subway, although Ryan goes for jalepanos, while im all about the pickles). Anyways the Prague subway offered the same promotion, and on this random thursday night the sub of the day was sure enough turkey and ham, amazing.
The pub crawl was very enjoyable, and kicked off at a small restaurant in town. This was a nice change from the typical bar, because we could play some beer pong and enjoy a more relaxing atmosphere. No one could handle Ryan's rusty arm as he went 3-0 on the night. Following the restraunt we went to 3 other cool bars, and ended a the five story night club on the river. Here we had our selection of 80's music, techno, or pop, and we cycled through them all. It was a fun night, and unlike the Berlin pub crawl this one ended very close to our hostel.
We woke up the next day and headed for Vienna.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Chapter 3 Amsterdam and Berlin
After a peaceful train ride from Brussles we arrived at Amsterdam central to a bustling city. After an hour long walk dodging bikes (they are everywhere!) trams, honking police cars, canals, and hookers we arrived at our hostel near the quiet but beautiful Vondel park. Sweaty and exhausted we told the receptionist our names. He gave us a perplexed look and then told us we had only booked one bed for the two nights. Ryan asked if we could share the one bed, (without checking with me first) but the receptionist said no. Luckily he let us use his computer and we found a hostel in an incredible location...right next to the train station. We opted for a cab and made our made back to hostel cosmos.
While our dorm room was packed and cramped the location was truly great and the dorm allowed us to meet some other guys. We met 3 guys traveling together from Mexico Venezuala and Puerto Rico respectivley. Two of the guys went to University of Texas and after Ryan discussed the hieghts, weights and 40 yard dash times, and eye color of Texas' next 5 best recruits we had made some friends. We spent the night with these guys exploring local pubs and viewing some of "Amsterdam's finest." We finished the night watching some NBA at an Irish pub.
The next day Ryan and I saw the entire city. It was a holiday weekend in Amsterdam and everyone was outside enjoying perfect weather. Parks were packed, and the canals were loaded with boats lazily floating along. We rented bikes for 3 hours and toured Vondel park which was PACKED with sunbathers, pinic-ers and athletes alike. After that we rode through the crazy streets of Amsterdam. The Dutch love their bikes and the city reflects this. Paths line almost every rode and throngs of riders barge through pedistirans ringing their childish bells. We quickly learned the rules of the road and enjoyed the ride.
While Amsterdam certainly has its tourist attractions (Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank museum, and the red light district) Ryan and I found it more fun to just enjoy the city and the people on a beatiful day. We finsihed our bike ride with a beer and delicious apple pie. (Thanks for the suggestion Anna).
After realizing we were bleeding money on local food we grabbed some Subway for dinner and went to a pub. There we met some middle aged brits who were taking in all the activities out the pub window. Ryan and I quickly realized they were gambling on (i have no idea how to say this nicely)... how quicky embarrassed men would return from escapades with "Amsterdams finest". The Brits were loving it and it was really hilarious. Already embarrassed men were coming out of doors too the cheers and boos of the rowdy Brits. We later found an "aussie bar" down the street and finished the day there.
The next day we planned to have a liesurly breakfest and walk down Amsterdam's main shopping street. Being sunday the streets were quiet and we decided to catch and early train to Berlin. Upon arrival at the station we found a nice lady who quickly gave us a route to Berlin. We would have to connect once we crossed the German border and what we thought was our train was leaving in two minutes from platform 14. We sprinted to the platform and jumped on the train. 45 minutes and 60 miles later we realized our actual platform was 14B. Embarrsed we asked the conducter our options, as she loudly reminded us how far we had gone in the wrong direction. We jumped off at some random station and went back to the ticket desk to start over. Here we found an easy connection through Duisburg and we had smooth sailing the rest of the way. The German trains were incredible and we spent most of the ride in a modern comfortable and increadibly quiet car traveling at 165 mph.
We arrived in Berlin that evening and found our way to a really nice hostel. Once again our location was great and we found a Kebab stand nearby and ate some sweet Egyptian food for cheap. Berlin has a great alternative arts community and there are entire studios desginated for art and night life. These studios have outdoor seating amongst really cool art, and Ryan and I had a rather low key night at this place.
In the morning we walked to the Brandenberg gate for a free walking tour of Berlin. Our tour guide was really good and Ryan and I both enjoyed learning about the history of the city. Berlin is so unique from most European cities because only 10% of the physical city survived WWII and the cold war. The city has really emerged since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and is a nice modern city. On the tour we saw Hitler's bunker, the Memorial to the Jews, checkpoint Charlie (where American and Soviet tanks sat face to face for the duration of the cold war seperating east from west Berlin. Also on the tour we saw the Berlin wall itself, the Nazi luftwafte headquaters, and some beatiful churches. (Because whats a European tour without beautiful churches). After the tour we went to the capital building which managed to survive WWII. After the cold war the Germans added a huge glass dome to the top of the building. Citizens can walk up the sides of the dome and look in on their government. This archetectural masterpiece also serves to symbolize a goverment that is watched over by the people. Ryan and I decided to skip the 2 hour wait to go inside the dome and opted for some photos from the outside.
The company who ran the free tour through Berlin also ran a pub crawl at night. Ryan and I decided to go on this pub crawl and for 12 euros we earned ourselves free drinks at the first pub and one free shot at ever bay thereafter. We visited 3 bars in the heart of Berlin and finished the night at a cool club in an unused subway station. On the crawl we met some Australians, and a guy from Florida. It was a great way to see the hotspots of the city for cheap.
There was one drawback to the bar crawl...after several long walks between bars, and a 10 minute train ride we had managed to put ourselves very far away from the Hostel. Upon leaving the last bar at around 330 Ryan and I realized this predicament. Throughout this trip we have attacked long walks, climbs, getting on the wrong train, and getting lost with a "roll with the punches, lets make this fun attitude." This situation was no different. So we spotted the Berlin TV tower off in the distance (a giant disco ball on a pole, topped with a candy cane) and we headed towards it. By now the sun was rising and we were starting to get tired. After 30 minutes of trecking we were sweaty, and the TV tower was still the size of my thumb. We reluctantly gave up an hailed a cab, slept in and then headed off for Prague!
While our dorm room was packed and cramped the location was truly great and the dorm allowed us to meet some other guys. We met 3 guys traveling together from Mexico Venezuala and Puerto Rico respectivley. Two of the guys went to University of Texas and after Ryan discussed the hieghts, weights and 40 yard dash times, and eye color of Texas' next 5 best recruits we had made some friends. We spent the night with these guys exploring local pubs and viewing some of "Amsterdam's finest." We finished the night watching some NBA at an Irish pub.
The next day Ryan and I saw the entire city. It was a holiday weekend in Amsterdam and everyone was outside enjoying perfect weather. Parks were packed, and the canals were loaded with boats lazily floating along. We rented bikes for 3 hours and toured Vondel park which was PACKED with sunbathers, pinic-ers and athletes alike. After that we rode through the crazy streets of Amsterdam. The Dutch love their bikes and the city reflects this. Paths line almost every rode and throngs of riders barge through pedistirans ringing their childish bells. We quickly learned the rules of the road and enjoyed the ride.
While Amsterdam certainly has its tourist attractions (Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank museum, and the red light district) Ryan and I found it more fun to just enjoy the city and the people on a beatiful day. We finsihed our bike ride with a beer and delicious apple pie. (Thanks for the suggestion Anna).
After realizing we were bleeding money on local food we grabbed some Subway for dinner and went to a pub. There we met some middle aged brits who were taking in all the activities out the pub window. Ryan and I quickly realized they were gambling on (i have no idea how to say this nicely)... how quicky embarrassed men would return from escapades with "Amsterdams finest". The Brits were loving it and it was really hilarious. Already embarrassed men were coming out of doors too the cheers and boos of the rowdy Brits. We later found an "aussie bar" down the street and finished the day there.
The next day we planned to have a liesurly breakfest and walk down Amsterdam's main shopping street. Being sunday the streets were quiet and we decided to catch and early train to Berlin. Upon arrival at the station we found a nice lady who quickly gave us a route to Berlin. We would have to connect once we crossed the German border and what we thought was our train was leaving in two minutes from platform 14. We sprinted to the platform and jumped on the train. 45 minutes and 60 miles later we realized our actual platform was 14B. Embarrsed we asked the conducter our options, as she loudly reminded us how far we had gone in the wrong direction. We jumped off at some random station and went back to the ticket desk to start over. Here we found an easy connection through Duisburg and we had smooth sailing the rest of the way. The German trains were incredible and we spent most of the ride in a modern comfortable and increadibly quiet car traveling at 165 mph.
We arrived in Berlin that evening and found our way to a really nice hostel. Once again our location was great and we found a Kebab stand nearby and ate some sweet Egyptian food for cheap. Berlin has a great alternative arts community and there are entire studios desginated for art and night life. These studios have outdoor seating amongst really cool art, and Ryan and I had a rather low key night at this place.
In the morning we walked to the Brandenberg gate for a free walking tour of Berlin. Our tour guide was really good and Ryan and I both enjoyed learning about the history of the city. Berlin is so unique from most European cities because only 10% of the physical city survived WWII and the cold war. The city has really emerged since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and is a nice modern city. On the tour we saw Hitler's bunker, the Memorial to the Jews, checkpoint Charlie (where American and Soviet tanks sat face to face for the duration of the cold war seperating east from west Berlin. Also on the tour we saw the Berlin wall itself, the Nazi luftwafte headquaters, and some beatiful churches. (Because whats a European tour without beautiful churches). After the tour we went to the capital building which managed to survive WWII. After the cold war the Germans added a huge glass dome to the top of the building. Citizens can walk up the sides of the dome and look in on their government. This archetectural masterpiece also serves to symbolize a goverment that is watched over by the people. Ryan and I decided to skip the 2 hour wait to go inside the dome and opted for some photos from the outside.
The company who ran the free tour through Berlin also ran a pub crawl at night. Ryan and I decided to go on this pub crawl and for 12 euros we earned ourselves free drinks at the first pub and one free shot at ever bay thereafter. We visited 3 bars in the heart of Berlin and finished the night at a cool club in an unused subway station. On the crawl we met some Australians, and a guy from Florida. It was a great way to see the hotspots of the city for cheap.
There was one drawback to the bar crawl...after several long walks between bars, and a 10 minute train ride we had managed to put ourselves very far away from the Hostel. Upon leaving the last bar at around 330 Ryan and I realized this predicament. Throughout this trip we have attacked long walks, climbs, getting on the wrong train, and getting lost with a "roll with the punches, lets make this fun attitude." This situation was no different. So we spotted the Berlin TV tower off in the distance (a giant disco ball on a pole, topped with a candy cane) and we headed towards it. By now the sun was rising and we were starting to get tired. After 30 minutes of trecking we were sweaty, and the TV tower was still the size of my thumb. We reluctantly gave up an hailed a cab, slept in and then headed off for Prague!
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