Germany 2008: Part 2

Hi,

Yes I am still alive. Germany has not eaten me yet, although there were some close calls. So I havent written in awhile first because nothing noteworthy was happening (ex. "so today I lounged around and read, again. Just like yesterday. Just like tomorrow...") and then when things did happen I just was too lazy to sit down and document them. But once again here is a brief recap of my adventures so far:

So never go to Europe without your travel plans booked. I figured I could do everything in Europe which is NOT A GOOD IDEA. I decided to get a railpass for the whole of the Europe's train systems that was good for 15 consecutive days. Getting any sort of rail pass (as opposed to individual tickets) is the way to go if you want to see Europe: it cuts down on price significantly and you have the flexibility to see what you want, when you want. BUT because I wasn't a European but wanted to buy the pass in Europe, I was going to have to pay almost double (as opposed to a European or if I had bought it in America). End of story my family had to buy it and have the company send it to Germany. That was the first crazy thing.

Finally with a way to leave the small town I live in I hit the rails, seeing Berlin and Hanover. Berlin is really just a huge shopping district at this point with a lot of gardens -- an interesting twist considering the dark history of the place. Hanover is just beautiful and has the mecca of modern art museums the Sprengel museum. (That is one of the projects I've been pursuing -- reading about modern art and going around and seeing modern art museums in Germany -- along with reading about my family history, and getting to know Germany via traveling around.)

My most recent news is this: I just came back from a two day trip to Brussels and Amsterdam -- staying in a hostel in Brussels along the way where I met some great people from Argentina. Brussels, famous for their naked peeing statue, is such a university town with guitar and east asian trinket shops everywhere you look. Very trendy. In fact all of Europe is "trendy" -- as in people seem to only own designer clothes. It's really strange because I feel so poor and untrendy here. Amsterdam was interesting. I went to a sex museum (which was like 3 floors of photographic porn at 3 Euros a person) and the Anne Frank House (where she hid with her family when she wrote her diary. I SAW her diary. Pretty moving and sad. Amsterdam did have a strange feeling to it -- lots of groups of men wandering around. I was glad to leave before it got dark as I am doing these trips alone.

Tonight I leave for my second major trip -- Vienna, Munich and Soll (for snowboarding yay). I hope your Januarys' are going superbly, Ray