Berlin

We came to Berlin a few days ago to switch trains. Four days later we are here to stay, until Thursday.

Prague was sweet! It is definately one of those places that doesn't come up in peoples minds about Europe but it should be. We arrived in Prague a little after dinner time on Wednesday and with not much to do for 4 days we decided to just hang out in the hostel and see where the night took us. We went out got a bottle of wine and really just hung out, after a long day of traveling and sitting on a train which smelled of really bad people. So at the hostel we hang out meet a few people and just hang out. I have said before how it is cool to meet people in hostels; listen to their travel stores and how they ended up in the same hostel as you. Every once in a while there is a story that is so strange you need to just laugh about it so here it is.

After leaving our seats for a few minutes, Me, Sam, South African Girl, and Irish guy, head back to where we were sitting and there is this older guy (around 50) sitting on the couch. Not a big deal. We then go where are you from, he answers San Francisco, and then we ask what are you doing in Prague, ( a natural answer would be "just came to see it, a lot of people said it was a really nice city, but then again I wouldn't write about it if it was a normal answer) his answer and I kid you not "to hijack a band". Wait, what the hell are you talking about, now realizing this guy had gone of the deep end. After Sam entertains the guy's story for about 15 minutes he then goes off on how he is going from a Youtube video to the Cannes Movie Festival. Again, since Sam has a great sense for bullshit and just being utterly confused Sam kindly asks, how he went from one extreme to the next. The guy proceeds to take his jacket off like he is about the throw a punch at Sam. Sam slightly inebriated, responds with "are we soposed to fight now". This sends the now completely crazy guy off to tell his sob story to the others in the hostel but for a few seconds of being friendly turned into 3 days of this guy calling out Sam of not knowing any thing. In retrospect, all we could do is laugh about if Sam didn't know any thing about "life" as this guy seemed to put it but how is he going to "hijack" a band if he can't keep a conversation without getting confused in his own bull shit. After all the jokes were made we headed upstairs for what we thought the night was over.

In hostels, for those who don't konw, the basic rule is you make a bed you sleep in it. So we get upstairs (116 steps), and there is some random girl about to fall asleep in Sam's bed. Like what the hell really, we totally think this girl is an idiot, why does she think she can just sleep in some random bed. Regardless situation was figured out we all had a bed and it worked out. The next morning Sam had one mission; to do laundry because he ran out of clean shirts about a week ago. So while he stayed back and "did laundry" I walked around Prague.

Prague is a great city not big at all but built during for the Holy Roman Empire, so the architecture is all about 1000 years old. The first thing I do is walk up a huge hill and look over the city, I could have taken the tram, but that costs money and wasn't worth it. At the top is a minature Eiffle tower, gardens which rivaled the Botanical gardens in Sydnez, and a very cool monestary which I could not even guess when it was built. After walking around more I found my self at the palace which over looks all of Prague, with the best views of the city. Walking all day in sandals was not the best idea so I started making my waz back to the Hostel. Getting back up the 116 steps I find sam taking a nap and zero laundry done....Great Success.

We plan on hanging out for another night with some of the kids we meet and we go out for a beer and an absinth shot with one girl from South Africa and other from Ireland. An absinth shot is not so much a shot but an experience. It starts with a shot and a sugar cube on a spoon looking thing. So after that, they light it all on fire, and stir the flaming sugar cube into the alcohol, and then light a second sugar cube on fire, to carmalize separately to chew on later. After putting out the fire the shot tastes a lot like mouthwash, but it is as warm as hot tea, so although it doesn't taste so bad it is just really warm and not totally enjoyable. I am certain, my green fairy days are over. We wait a little bit for the shot to settle, finish our beers and head back to the hostel.

Day 3 in Prague was an easy day. Some guy in the hostel told us to go check out some castle outside the city. Since we went to Prague on the same mentallity, sounded like a great idea. After some research, we found where we needed to go and the last thing it said was follow the crowd to the castle, and you will be fine (because you can't see it from the train station). We get up and go, make it to the train stop around 1. The idea to follow the crowd immediately fails. Not only were we the crowd but there wasn't a single sign directing us towards the castle. After looking left and right, Sam said he saw the castle for a brief moment on the train so we just wandered up to the castle and up on this hill is this giant castle. The castle is amazing, how they built all these castles, palaces, churches, etc in the 13th century is quite a miracle considering how many houses, and buildings don't last 100 years. With the hike to the castle behind us we head back to Prague, get a Big Mac and we decided to go on a pub crawl for the night.

The pub crawl was a standard pub crawl, bunch of kids going into bars getting a few free drinks and moving on. The last pub we go to was more of a 5 story dance party, again nothing too special. The even named the floors by what type of music; oldies, dance, techno, and black. Yes, one of the floors was literally named the black music floor. Everyone that was around us was shocked except for every person who was from Europe. So for the record, any type of music from Jay-z, Nelly, and little Wayne, is labeled not hip hop- but black music.

We always end up with one more day literally just enough to relax. So we met up with some canadien girls and an australian guy for a picnic in Prague and relaxed until it started raining. We found some trees to stay dry and walked around Prague the rest of the day.

There was no research at all for Prague. I reallz never thought it would work out to go there but I am really glad we did. It is not the biggest city in Europe but it is a very clean, low key city in Europe and would recommend to any one to at least go check it out (ya that's a joke because it is in the Czech Republic).

Berlin is next up. We are here until Thursday and then off to Greece.

So long,
Michael and Sam