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!