germans love turkish food!!
had a 13 hour train trip today, not feeling well. at all. sat opposite another starer, (more like a gazer this time) who i didnt speak to the whole trip, but as i was leaving he said 'hey can we stay in touch? what´s your number?' which was not cool. hurry, man protector.
in austria, have phone number and onion breath. is too hot. phone number is 0681 8341 5484. dont know about area code. too tired to make friends. glad to be out of geneva. going to budapest next. proper blog tomorrow.
xoxoxo
Wednesday 30 July 2008
Monday 28 July 2008
i'm sorry how much??
hello from the world capital of neutral politics.
so munich is over and i'm in geneva, but i'll start with the rest of munich.
the hostel i stayed at was called euroyouth hostel, and it was awesome. it was the perfect vibe, loads of cool tourists in the bar and still a small, quiet, clean dorm. after i wrote the last post, i went back to the bar and had two happy hour cocktails, because happy hour in germany lasts from 6-9 (awesome!!) and met up with the americans from the night before, max and a sober and very embarrassed drew who apparently didnt love me anymore, funny how that happens. they introduced me to their other friends from seattle and some boys from hawaii and we played beer pong in their dorm, which is an awesome drinking game which i will teach you when i get home because its amazing. you have to drink beer the american way, out of cups, but its totally worth it. the boys really wanted to go to a beer garden because it was someones birthday, but they were all wearing awful clothes and thongs and i said they probably wouldn't get in, which was when they christened me 'mom'. fair enough, there were about 8 boys and i was the only girl, so i went with it. i called them my little chickens.
we went to augustiner brewery which was about 10 minutes from our hostel and ordered steins, which are litre glasses of beer. a beer wench (the technical term, therefore not sexist) could carry all 9 steins at once! it was awesome. one of the hawaiian chickens who introduced himself as 'smooth' (vomit) found some german ladies and there was a quick conference between the boys as to which one was the sexiest and who would get to try with who. of course, the german girls were terrified of a large group of drunk american boys, and fled as soon as they could. the other hawaiian, named something i'll remember later, told me about how he'd done a tour of iraq, but i was drunk and i cant remember any details.
the next day i got up in time for the walking tour, so andy (of previous post laundry buddy fame) and i got to see the sights of munich. we did a free tour, which is a farce because they bully you into tipping, with a guy called keith, a scottish guy living in germany. he showed us a really lame cuckoo clock (europe is really keen on those!) and some of the places where hitler made speeches etc. at one point he was talking about how its now illegal to make the hitler salute, this exchange occurred:
dumb american girl in east coast drawl: so is that a federal law, or is it municipal?
keith: federal? i dont know what you mean?
dagiecd: fe-der-al. for the whole country, ya know, fe-duh-ruhhhl
k: ............... (stares)
diplomatic and helpful jes: well, germany isnt a federation, so they dont call it federal. maybe you mean, is it a national law.
dagiecd: .................. (long pause as stares at jes).............. FE-DUH-RUHL.
dahj: ...ok.
keith: its for all of germany.
dagiecd: .............(rolls eyes)
americans are funny.
after the tour i walked very slowly down the expensive strip of shops and wandered in and out of gucci, louis vuitton, dolce and gabbana. they were pretty un-keen on my dunlop volleys, but i persevered.
that night i went for drinks at the famous hofbrauhaus with some canadians i met, brittany and rachel, and their friends whose names i have also forgotten, one of whom was from montreal and sees win butler around the streets. we had more steins and ENORMOUS pretzls, bigger than your head, and stumbled home at a reasonably civilised hour.
saturday was my last day in munich, so i took my book (sex and the city) and i walked to the englischer gardens. they were very beautiful, theres a big river which runs through the middle, and it has all these little rapids and waterfalls and people somehow manage to surf which is pretty cool. i sat down by the river and ate my power sandwich, and read sex and the city for about half an hour.
THEN THERE WAS A DISASTER.
is anyone still reading? that was for your benefit. all of a sudden, in the middle of my peaceful picnic, disaster struck. suddenly my left thigh was burning like fire!! i looked all around for something that could have bitten me, like a spider or a lion or something, but nothing was there. i had three distinct bites. i was about to go into end of life panic attack spiral where i imagine all the things i havent achieved, when mum called. and she said nah she'll be right, so i had a beer and was fine. crisis averted!!!
i finished sex and the city and went back to my hostel where i met two american girls (from georgia! the south!) from my dorm, and andy the laundry friend, and we went back to the hofbrauhaus, this time for dinner. i had to hold the table while they all did stuff, and i got accosted by a very VERY drunk german man, of about 55 years old who kept trying to kiss me, much to his very VERY drunk wife's chagrin. i gave up the table and ran downstairs and found the others and we got a new table. SECOND CRISIS AVERTED.
i ate some kind of cheese pasta which was pretty lame but i got a stein which was awesome.
the georgia girls, whose names are gabi and ilena really wanted to find a club, so we spent about 1o hours and used all our german skills trying to find a club called two rooms, but in the end went back to our hostel for cocktails and karaoke. i did not get involved, but there was a very rousing rendition of 'i believe in a thing called love' from smooth, and a few nice boy band numbers. madonna was calling to me, but i resisted.
SO THAT WAS MUNICH.
NOW I'M IN GENEVA. KEEP READING BECAUSE IT'S FUN TO READ!!
sunday i got up SO HEARLY and caught the 7:12 train to zurich, and connected to geneva. geneva is not nearly as pretty as i imagined. its actually quite dirty and scungey. my hostel is fine, but after munich its hard because its just not social at all. theres no bar, there are lots of families despite being called 'geneva youth hostel' and its in a really boring area with no shops. there are some shops actually, but theyre mostly brothels. which is weird. i wandered along the river instead with a brazillian guy and a guy from zurich who i met in the hostel, and the brazillian guy jumped off a 5 metre platform which was pretty cool. i was too scared. and he was too sleazy so i wanted to leave.
its also really really really french, which i wasnt expecting. i was hoping there would be some german or italian, with which im much more comfortable, but its alllll french.
today, monday, i went to the UNITED NATIONS. it was ok. me and an american guy i met at breakfast, called brian, took a guided tour, but they really dont let you see much. its a real bus in bus out mentality. the general public are not allowed in the grounds, or to observe any conferences, but i got to see some cool rooms. i also bought a UN lanyard so that made the whole thing worth it.
the red cross museum is next to the UN, so i had a look around there, but its pretty lame. so i came back to the hostel and had a long long nap because i was bored and tired and lame. this afternoon i took a walk across the river to the old town, intending to get dinner, and this was the sight of DISASTER NUMBER TWO.
DISASTER NUMBER TWO:
so, i spend about a billion hours walking around and around and around and around stupid french geneva looking for somewhere i could eat for under 50 bucks. eventually i find a packed looking restaurant (good sign), and sit down. i look at the menu for a long time. i decide on tuna carpaccio with coconut cream and lime. the cleverer among you can see where this is going. I DONT KNOW WHY BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A FILLET. yeah, it wasnt. it arrived, in all its raw pink fishy glory. i looked out at the river. a single tear rolled down my cheek (not really. the medication wouldnt allow it!) and i asked for some bread. so basically i paid 30 dollars for 5 pieces of very stale bread, about 6 pieces of lettuce and a tablespoon of coconut cream. :( i thought about forcing it down, but i thought, why punish myself twice, i have to give away 30 dollars, why should i also eat raw fish?
i would like to assure you that the above disaster is entirely the fault of lame geneva, and i was merely the innocent victim.
following 'dinner' i craved the comfort of sleep but i wandered along the river a bit. there was some kind of lame carnival happening where a white man dressed as a ninja was cutting up fruit with a samurai sword using a live chinaman as a chopping board. i watched that for a bit. then i sat on the river with my new book (lady chatterly's lover) and read for about an hour as the sun went down.
its monday night now, and im in geneva until i catch a train to vienna at about 6 on wednesday morning. my phone has no credit so i cant receive calls, but im still receiving your msgs of love (though i guess some of them are getting lost!) so keep messaging and EMAILING PLS. it makes for the highlight of my day.
not sure where after vienna. suggestions?
miss, love.
xo
so munich is over and i'm in geneva, but i'll start with the rest of munich.
the hostel i stayed at was called euroyouth hostel, and it was awesome. it was the perfect vibe, loads of cool tourists in the bar and still a small, quiet, clean dorm. after i wrote the last post, i went back to the bar and had two happy hour cocktails, because happy hour in germany lasts from 6-9 (awesome!!) and met up with the americans from the night before, max and a sober and very embarrassed drew who apparently didnt love me anymore, funny how that happens. they introduced me to their other friends from seattle and some boys from hawaii and we played beer pong in their dorm, which is an awesome drinking game which i will teach you when i get home because its amazing. you have to drink beer the american way, out of cups, but its totally worth it. the boys really wanted to go to a beer garden because it was someones birthday, but they were all wearing awful clothes and thongs and i said they probably wouldn't get in, which was when they christened me 'mom'. fair enough, there were about 8 boys and i was the only girl, so i went with it. i called them my little chickens.
we went to augustiner brewery which was about 10 minutes from our hostel and ordered steins, which are litre glasses of beer. a beer wench (the technical term, therefore not sexist) could carry all 9 steins at once! it was awesome. one of the hawaiian chickens who introduced himself as 'smooth' (vomit) found some german ladies and there was a quick conference between the boys as to which one was the sexiest and who would get to try with who. of course, the german girls were terrified of a large group of drunk american boys, and fled as soon as they could. the other hawaiian, named something i'll remember later, told me about how he'd done a tour of iraq, but i was drunk and i cant remember any details.
the next day i got up in time for the walking tour, so andy (of previous post laundry buddy fame) and i got to see the sights of munich. we did a free tour, which is a farce because they bully you into tipping, with a guy called keith, a scottish guy living in germany. he showed us a really lame cuckoo clock (europe is really keen on those!) and some of the places where hitler made speeches etc. at one point he was talking about how its now illegal to make the hitler salute, this exchange occurred:
dumb american girl in east coast drawl: so is that a federal law, or is it municipal?
keith: federal? i dont know what you mean?
dagiecd: fe-der-al. for the whole country, ya know, fe-duh-ruhhhl
k: ............... (stares)
diplomatic and helpful jes: well, germany isnt a federation, so they dont call it federal. maybe you mean, is it a national law.
dagiecd: .................. (long pause as stares at jes).............. FE-DUH-RUHL.
dahj: ...ok.
keith: its for all of germany.
dagiecd: .............(rolls eyes)
americans are funny.
after the tour i walked very slowly down the expensive strip of shops and wandered in and out of gucci, louis vuitton, dolce and gabbana. they were pretty un-keen on my dunlop volleys, but i persevered.
that night i went for drinks at the famous hofbrauhaus with some canadians i met, brittany and rachel, and their friends whose names i have also forgotten, one of whom was from montreal and sees win butler around the streets. we had more steins and ENORMOUS pretzls, bigger than your head, and stumbled home at a reasonably civilised hour.
saturday was my last day in munich, so i took my book (sex and the city) and i walked to the englischer gardens. they were very beautiful, theres a big river which runs through the middle, and it has all these little rapids and waterfalls and people somehow manage to surf which is pretty cool. i sat down by the river and ate my power sandwich, and read sex and the city for about half an hour.
THEN THERE WAS A DISASTER.
is anyone still reading? that was for your benefit. all of a sudden, in the middle of my peaceful picnic, disaster struck. suddenly my left thigh was burning like fire!! i looked all around for something that could have bitten me, like a spider or a lion or something, but nothing was there. i had three distinct bites. i was about to go into end of life panic attack spiral where i imagine all the things i havent achieved, when mum called. and she said nah she'll be right, so i had a beer and was fine. crisis averted!!!
i finished sex and the city and went back to my hostel where i met two american girls (from georgia! the south!) from my dorm, and andy the laundry friend, and we went back to the hofbrauhaus, this time for dinner. i had to hold the table while they all did stuff, and i got accosted by a very VERY drunk german man, of about 55 years old who kept trying to kiss me, much to his very VERY drunk wife's chagrin. i gave up the table and ran downstairs and found the others and we got a new table. SECOND CRISIS AVERTED.
i ate some kind of cheese pasta which was pretty lame but i got a stein which was awesome.
the georgia girls, whose names are gabi and ilena really wanted to find a club, so we spent about 1o hours and used all our german skills trying to find a club called two rooms, but in the end went back to our hostel for cocktails and karaoke. i did not get involved, but there was a very rousing rendition of 'i believe in a thing called love' from smooth, and a few nice boy band numbers. madonna was calling to me, but i resisted.
SO THAT WAS MUNICH.
NOW I'M IN GENEVA. KEEP READING BECAUSE IT'S FUN TO READ!!
sunday i got up SO HEARLY and caught the 7:12 train to zurich, and connected to geneva. geneva is not nearly as pretty as i imagined. its actually quite dirty and scungey. my hostel is fine, but after munich its hard because its just not social at all. theres no bar, there are lots of families despite being called 'geneva youth hostel' and its in a really boring area with no shops. there are some shops actually, but theyre mostly brothels. which is weird. i wandered along the river instead with a brazillian guy and a guy from zurich who i met in the hostel, and the brazillian guy jumped off a 5 metre platform which was pretty cool. i was too scared. and he was too sleazy so i wanted to leave.
its also really really really french, which i wasnt expecting. i was hoping there would be some german or italian, with which im much more comfortable, but its alllll french.
today, monday, i went to the UNITED NATIONS. it was ok. me and an american guy i met at breakfast, called brian, took a guided tour, but they really dont let you see much. its a real bus in bus out mentality. the general public are not allowed in the grounds, or to observe any conferences, but i got to see some cool rooms. i also bought a UN lanyard so that made the whole thing worth it.
the red cross museum is next to the UN, so i had a look around there, but its pretty lame. so i came back to the hostel and had a long long nap because i was bored and tired and lame. this afternoon i took a walk across the river to the old town, intending to get dinner, and this was the sight of DISASTER NUMBER TWO.
DISASTER NUMBER TWO:
so, i spend about a billion hours walking around and around and around and around stupid french geneva looking for somewhere i could eat for under 50 bucks. eventually i find a packed looking restaurant (good sign), and sit down. i look at the menu for a long time. i decide on tuna carpaccio with coconut cream and lime. the cleverer among you can see where this is going. I DONT KNOW WHY BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A FILLET. yeah, it wasnt. it arrived, in all its raw pink fishy glory. i looked out at the river. a single tear rolled down my cheek (not really. the medication wouldnt allow it!) and i asked for some bread. so basically i paid 30 dollars for 5 pieces of very stale bread, about 6 pieces of lettuce and a tablespoon of coconut cream. :( i thought about forcing it down, but i thought, why punish myself twice, i have to give away 30 dollars, why should i also eat raw fish?
i would like to assure you that the above disaster is entirely the fault of lame geneva, and i was merely the innocent victim.
following 'dinner' i craved the comfort of sleep but i wandered along the river a bit. there was some kind of lame carnival happening where a white man dressed as a ninja was cutting up fruit with a samurai sword using a live chinaman as a chopping board. i watched that for a bit. then i sat on the river with my new book (lady chatterly's lover) and read for about an hour as the sun went down.
its monday night now, and im in geneva until i catch a train to vienna at about 6 on wednesday morning. my phone has no credit so i cant receive calls, but im still receiving your msgs of love (though i guess some of them are getting lost!) so keep messaging and EMAILING PLS. it makes for the highlight of my day.
not sure where after vienna. suggestions?
miss, love.
xo
Thursday 24 July 2008
just like john marsden pretending to be a teenage girl in jail, i have so much to tell you
hey melbuddies
how's it going? i haven't written since prague sucked, so i'll start there and move forward. prague began to not suck, happily. as dan/the story stealer has already told you, we had some awesome fun with svickova, free shots from crazy czech people, possible war zone experiences (i'm still pretty sure it was a bomb. you guys just don't get it on the news because of the iron curtain). but Usudu was awesome, the little bar recommended by sarah of ukranian-fearing pubcrawl fame. cocktails for 100 kroner, about 7aud, made specially by the bartender from secret ingredients that were probably a healthy mix of legal and illegal substances, but they were sweet and cheap so we rolled on happily. the czech republic is not a good place to be a vegetarian, but i did manage to find some jalapeno poppers (an american phenomenon, deep fried cheddar and bits of jalapeno) and bread dumplings which are so delicious and deadly.
on our last night we saw get smart, the fourth movie of the czech republic meaning that we had only spent two nights not at the cinema. it was average. anne hathaway's mouth is too big. the rock is hot but.
yesterday morning we had our teary farewell at the hostel. i didn't have too many tears on account of the mood stabilising drugs, but i think that somewhere deep inside me i may have some repressed sadness. hopefully it stays repressed. dan left at about 7am, making the record for the earliest morning of his entire trip, so i stayed around at ate breakfast and practised being courageous and strong. ha! i also tried to steal some bread rolls for lunch but got shouted at by the czech breakfast lady. but she didn't see the cheese triangles i'd already pocketed so she loses.
the train to munich was really nice, other than the loud scary argument between the train conductors and the czech police which went for about 45 minutes and we didn't move. this train was in little carriages, which was nice, and i didn't have to share with any creeps, which was even nicer. i think i might actually have been the carriage creep though, which is not so nice. i kept peering at people over my book and making comments in english, to which they nodded politely and looked away because they were all either czech or german. you know that person? i was that person. i was lonely shutup.
munich is really lovely, the weather has been beautiful and sunny, my hostel is great and i've talked to lots of people. last night i thought about going on the pub crawl but i don't like them at all so i just drank cocktails at the bar by myself while it was happy hour and talked to the bartenders. turns out they know the czech pub crawlers and know all about the mafia intimidation, so at least they've got some back up i guess? then i went to dinner with two jewish doctors who live off bambra rd, about 5 minutes from my house (depressing!) and an american male model who was about 8 feet tall and pretty into himself. the jewish doctors really freaked me out. they're real doctor people, they've been working for 2 years as junior doctors and they can already afford to take 9 months off work just to travel. and not cheaply either. and some awkward conversations happened about some moral issues and we disagreed and i made an excuse and walked home alone because they are weird. but they're nice i guess.
it took me about an hour to get home because i was listening to wicked and got lost in the back streets, and none of the atms would take my card, so by the time i got back to the hostel the bar was pretty packed. i thought, i can either go to bed and listen to wicked and everything will be joyous, or i can be brave. so i fought it and i was brave! i said to two boys, "hi i'm jes, i don't know anyone" and they said fair enough, and we played drinking games. one of them was wrecked and told me that he loved me so i went away from them for a while and played drinking games with some other people and eventually ended up quite drunk which was nice. an american called max kept mocking me for ordering half pints, the same as a melbourne pot, because apparently we're the only people in the world who drink beer like that. he kept asking me if i wanted a sippy cup, or if i needed a straw, or if i felt like a shot of beer next. what a tool. but you guys are getting teased when i come home because i'm so trans-national now!! har har
i slept through my alarm today and missed the walking tour so i went on my own walking tour, mostly touring the 5 different h&m stores they have in the central street but looking out the windows occasionally too. and i saw the residenz, which, i'm not sure because i don't have a guidebook but i think is the palace of a king or was or a duke or something. the specifics aren't important because the best thing ever was in the middle of the park, in a little rotunda. there was a man playing clarinet along with a jazz cd of swingy/dixie esque songs, busking, which is pretty common here, but there were about, oh at least 15 kids there, all from different familys, all under 5 years old, and they were dancing the shit out of that music. busting moves like you would not believe! swinging around, star jumps, the works. there was one little boy probably about 1 year old, whose only move was bending over and touching the ground and looking at the band through his legs, but he did it with such committment! for minutes on end! i wanted to take photos but you know how parents get about that kind of thing.
i also ate a bad sandwich and had a hot chocolate made of real chocolate (yum!!) and then i met another guy from my dorm and we did laundry. so it's been a pretty sweet first day alone. and i got a fanta which is great but the budget is blown.
anyway, that was a very boring and sequential post but i'm just letting you know i'm still alive if you're wondering, i know you are you crazy cats. you'll be getting the daniele back soon so make sure you make a fuss, he'll be in the euro-withdrawal for a few days at least.
miss u guyz, send me emails. xo
how's it going? i haven't written since prague sucked, so i'll start there and move forward. prague began to not suck, happily. as dan/the story stealer has already told you, we had some awesome fun with svickova, free shots from crazy czech people, possible war zone experiences (i'm still pretty sure it was a bomb. you guys just don't get it on the news because of the iron curtain). but Usudu was awesome, the little bar recommended by sarah of ukranian-fearing pubcrawl fame. cocktails for 100 kroner, about 7aud, made specially by the bartender from secret ingredients that were probably a healthy mix of legal and illegal substances, but they were sweet and cheap so we rolled on happily. the czech republic is not a good place to be a vegetarian, but i did manage to find some jalapeno poppers (an american phenomenon, deep fried cheddar and bits of jalapeno) and bread dumplings which are so delicious and deadly.
on our last night we saw get smart, the fourth movie of the czech republic meaning that we had only spent two nights not at the cinema. it was average. anne hathaway's mouth is too big. the rock is hot but.
yesterday morning we had our teary farewell at the hostel. i didn't have too many tears on account of the mood stabilising drugs, but i think that somewhere deep inside me i may have some repressed sadness. hopefully it stays repressed. dan left at about 7am, making the record for the earliest morning of his entire trip, so i stayed around at ate breakfast and practised being courageous and strong. ha! i also tried to steal some bread rolls for lunch but got shouted at by the czech breakfast lady. but she didn't see the cheese triangles i'd already pocketed so she loses.
the train to munich was really nice, other than the loud scary argument between the train conductors and the czech police which went for about 45 minutes and we didn't move. this train was in little carriages, which was nice, and i didn't have to share with any creeps, which was even nicer. i think i might actually have been the carriage creep though, which is not so nice. i kept peering at people over my book and making comments in english, to which they nodded politely and looked away because they were all either czech or german. you know that person? i was that person. i was lonely shutup.
munich is really lovely, the weather has been beautiful and sunny, my hostel is great and i've talked to lots of people. last night i thought about going on the pub crawl but i don't like them at all so i just drank cocktails at the bar by myself while it was happy hour and talked to the bartenders. turns out they know the czech pub crawlers and know all about the mafia intimidation, so at least they've got some back up i guess? then i went to dinner with two jewish doctors who live off bambra rd, about 5 minutes from my house (depressing!) and an american male model who was about 8 feet tall and pretty into himself. the jewish doctors really freaked me out. they're real doctor people, they've been working for 2 years as junior doctors and they can already afford to take 9 months off work just to travel. and not cheaply either. and some awkward conversations happened about some moral issues and we disagreed and i made an excuse and walked home alone because they are weird. but they're nice i guess.
it took me about an hour to get home because i was listening to wicked and got lost in the back streets, and none of the atms would take my card, so by the time i got back to the hostel the bar was pretty packed. i thought, i can either go to bed and listen to wicked and everything will be joyous, or i can be brave. so i fought it and i was brave! i said to two boys, "hi i'm jes, i don't know anyone" and they said fair enough, and we played drinking games. one of them was wrecked and told me that he loved me so i went away from them for a while and played drinking games with some other people and eventually ended up quite drunk which was nice. an american called max kept mocking me for ordering half pints, the same as a melbourne pot, because apparently we're the only people in the world who drink beer like that. he kept asking me if i wanted a sippy cup, or if i needed a straw, or if i felt like a shot of beer next. what a tool. but you guys are getting teased when i come home because i'm so trans-national now!! har har
i slept through my alarm today and missed the walking tour so i went on my own walking tour, mostly touring the 5 different h&m stores they have in the central street but looking out the windows occasionally too. and i saw the residenz, which, i'm not sure because i don't have a guidebook but i think is the palace of a king or was or a duke or something. the specifics aren't important because the best thing ever was in the middle of the park, in a little rotunda. there was a man playing clarinet along with a jazz cd of swingy/dixie esque songs, busking, which is pretty common here, but there were about, oh at least 15 kids there, all from different familys, all under 5 years old, and they were dancing the shit out of that music. busting moves like you would not believe! swinging around, star jumps, the works. there was one little boy probably about 1 year old, whose only move was bending over and touching the ground and looking at the band through his legs, but he did it with such committment! for minutes on end! i wanted to take photos but you know how parents get about that kind of thing.
i also ate a bad sandwich and had a hot chocolate made of real chocolate (yum!!) and then i met another guy from my dorm and we did laundry. so it's been a pretty sweet first day alone. and i got a fanta which is great but the budget is blown.
anyway, that was a very boring and sequential post but i'm just letting you know i'm still alive if you're wondering, i know you are you crazy cats. you'll be getting the daniele back soon so make sure you make a fuss, he'll be in the euro-withdrawal for a few days at least.
miss u guyz, send me emails. xo
Monday 21 July 2008
uh=ohhhh
cant type much as keyboard is all wrong and punctuation all missing.
guyz, prague is almost over and dan is almost gone, which means on wednesday i hit munich as a strong solo star woman. arrgh! im excited and scared. ive got 4 nights in munich followed by 3 nights in geneva at a boring looking hostel which is apparently very close to the UN (argh again, but in a different better way) and then two nights in vienna before hopefully a contiki which hasnt contacted me yet... not really sure whats going on with that. if anybody knows anything about contiki let me know. there might be a place i can book it in munich i guess.
dan is writing this same story but im sick of him stealing our good stories so IMA tell it too. hockay SO. ze other night we decided to make the same mistake twice, because its fun to break proverbs, and go on a pub crawl. excitingly named "the crawl" we were ready for some seriously gross fun. except it was more gross than fun, and the people were ugly men, so we ended up talking to the people who run the pub crawl. they were american and english mostly, and one of the american girls had just come to prague after spending a year in WA and NT which was pretty cool because she said "darwin" properly like an australian and kept accidentally saying mate. she was really cross-national and i dug it. but thats a side note.
more interestingly, the main guy who ran it was sitting outside looking massively bummed, his name was isaac, and he said to sara his sister, "the mafia is real, we have to get out" and sara said "oh no, what now" and we said "yes WHAT u talkin bout willis" and they told us that apparently here in relatively unstable eastern europe the ukranian mafia have a pretty tight hold on things. and because the three pub crawls in prague are now making so much money the mafia want in on it. so this guy isaac, who is like 25, his sister and his two friends who built this crawl from scratch and are the entire staff, have been receiving death threats from the ukranian mafia if they dont get out of the business. the mafia have started their own company called praha bike, and have hired some americans to start up a pub crawl, and these americans of course have no idea who they are dealing with, but theyre having trouble getting it off the ground so the bosses have decided to stamp out to competition. watch the news, kids, this shit is real down behind the iron curtain.
so that was weird. but the people were really cool and sara told us some places to go where we could get away from tourists so hopefully we will go to a bar tonight and a good czech restaurant tomorrow. yesterday we also ate a lot of thai food, which seems mentionable because it was really nice and made our tummies hurt a bit, and saw sex and the city which we talked about at length today. putting our university educations to use. mmhmm.
today we went to old prague castle which was pretty lame as there were about a billion tourists there who walk slowly and are lame. its all rebuilt for the tourists too, and has barely any historical significance. looked alright though. then we ate ryvitas with peanut butter and jam (the best idea to come out of america) under the eiffel tower. you heard right, folks, the eiffel tower is actually in prague, not france. the french did it wrong, according to some old czech architect, so he made it better and more structurally sound in the middle of prague. cool guy. then dan went to the toilet for a really long time and i got sunburnt waiting for him. and we thought about going in a mirror maze but didnt want to pay 50 koruny so we just peered in from the outside. best way to travel.
the coolest thing we saw today was the john lennon wall, which is this huge wall the velvet revolutionaries used to show their admiration for john lennons peace efforts in the 70s while they were oppressed by communism. now its this huge colourful wall of graffiti and its really beautiful, and everyone leaves their little comment. dan wrote "imagine" and i wrote "my boyfriend loves you guys!!" under a picture of the four of them. we are not very profound.
now we are going to make a dinner of porridge, sundried tomatoes and peanut butter and then hopefully get some cocktails later. more cocktail adventure photos to come.
i leave prague on wednesday at 9.20 and arrive in munich at about 3.30. i will go back to my german number so text or call that if you need me, or if you need the number leave a comment and i will text you.
hope you are all well, send me emails and write on my wall if you are lazy. buh bye xo
guyz, prague is almost over and dan is almost gone, which means on wednesday i hit munich as a strong solo star woman. arrgh! im excited and scared. ive got 4 nights in munich followed by 3 nights in geneva at a boring looking hostel which is apparently very close to the UN (argh again, but in a different better way) and then two nights in vienna before hopefully a contiki which hasnt contacted me yet... not really sure whats going on with that. if anybody knows anything about contiki let me know. there might be a place i can book it in munich i guess.
dan is writing this same story but im sick of him stealing our good stories so IMA tell it too. hockay SO. ze other night we decided to make the same mistake twice, because its fun to break proverbs, and go on a pub crawl. excitingly named "the crawl" we were ready for some seriously gross fun. except it was more gross than fun, and the people were ugly men, so we ended up talking to the people who run the pub crawl. they were american and english mostly, and one of the american girls had just come to prague after spending a year in WA and NT which was pretty cool because she said "darwin" properly like an australian and kept accidentally saying mate. she was really cross-national and i dug it. but thats a side note.
more interestingly, the main guy who ran it was sitting outside looking massively bummed, his name was isaac, and he said to sara his sister, "the mafia is real, we have to get out" and sara said "oh no, what now" and we said "yes WHAT u talkin bout willis" and they told us that apparently here in relatively unstable eastern europe the ukranian mafia have a pretty tight hold on things. and because the three pub crawls in prague are now making so much money the mafia want in on it. so this guy isaac, who is like 25, his sister and his two friends who built this crawl from scratch and are the entire staff, have been receiving death threats from the ukranian mafia if they dont get out of the business. the mafia have started their own company called praha bike, and have hired some americans to start up a pub crawl, and these americans of course have no idea who they are dealing with, but theyre having trouble getting it off the ground so the bosses have decided to stamp out to competition. watch the news, kids, this shit is real down behind the iron curtain.
so that was weird. but the people were really cool and sara told us some places to go where we could get away from tourists so hopefully we will go to a bar tonight and a good czech restaurant tomorrow. yesterday we also ate a lot of thai food, which seems mentionable because it was really nice and made our tummies hurt a bit, and saw sex and the city which we talked about at length today. putting our university educations to use. mmhmm.
today we went to old prague castle which was pretty lame as there were about a billion tourists there who walk slowly and are lame. its all rebuilt for the tourists too, and has barely any historical significance. looked alright though. then we ate ryvitas with peanut butter and jam (the best idea to come out of america) under the eiffel tower. you heard right, folks, the eiffel tower is actually in prague, not france. the french did it wrong, according to some old czech architect, so he made it better and more structurally sound in the middle of prague. cool guy. then dan went to the toilet for a really long time and i got sunburnt waiting for him. and we thought about going in a mirror maze but didnt want to pay 50 koruny so we just peered in from the outside. best way to travel.
the coolest thing we saw today was the john lennon wall, which is this huge wall the velvet revolutionaries used to show their admiration for john lennons peace efforts in the 70s while they were oppressed by communism. now its this huge colourful wall of graffiti and its really beautiful, and everyone leaves their little comment. dan wrote "imagine" and i wrote "my boyfriend loves you guys!!" under a picture of the four of them. we are not very profound.
now we are going to make a dinner of porridge, sundried tomatoes and peanut butter and then hopefully get some cocktails later. more cocktail adventure photos to come.
i leave prague on wednesday at 9.20 and arrive in munich at about 3.30. i will go back to my german number so text or call that if you need me, or if you need the number leave a comment and i will text you.
hope you are all well, send me emails and write on my wall if you are lazy. buh bye xo
Saturday 19 July 2008
i heard he killed 18 czechoslovakians!
hello friends and family.
it's saturday july 19 and i'm in prague, czech republic. it's pretty shit really. i want to send you pictures but this computer is 8 seconds away from having a heart attack and my hair has grown long and thin and i look like a mongoloid so i won't.
let me see, i haven't written since i was in germany, and dan's doing a pretty comprehensive blog over there because he loves writing, so i'll just do the main high and low points. first, we went to a concentration camp. it was pretty sparse and there's not much to see there because the russians hulk smashed it all in the cold war and then the germans rebuilt it so we would give them 10 euros. it's pretty grim. it was haunting because it's something you dedicate entire semesters to studying, but it's something i'm very willing not to do again. there was the typical bus in, walk around a bit, put a stone on a grave in honour of the deaths, watch a movie and get bussed out again before it all gets too real/far away from mcdonalds for the fat australian and british tourists. and they are fat, and obnoxious. americans are, on the other hand, cultured, slim and can speak other languages. we r lame.
then because we happily conform to our fat australian stereotype, we followed a series of misleading german signs that claimed to be taking us to mcdonalds. for about an hour. seriously. we couldn't find it!! it kept saying, oh just take this strasse, and now that strasse, and behind that big german flag and it's under that rock. but we couldn't find it so we went back to the stations looking like this ( ) in our bellies and like this :( on our faces. then of course it was in the station. we suck. so we ate mcKshickens which apparently suck in germany and fries with mayo and got attacked by automatic doors on the way out. i can't remember anything after that except i know i had half a beer then through up for about an hour, which was AMAZING. do you know how good it feels after you throw up??? i didn't. i'm definitely going to do that more often.
there were some drinking games with some cool canadians, steph, shannon and sam, it's a rule in canada yes, garth and andrew the americans (andrew was reading how to make friends and influence people the hostellers version, which is how he knew it is still cool to put gel in your hair and spike it up neatly every morning with a comb and get in peoples personal spaces. more freaks to come in this blog).
the next day i stayed in bed because i had a fever and felt sick so i read all of catcher in the rye, which i didn't love that much because i'm too much of an emotionally intelligent woman and have nothing of the emotionally demented teenage boy with which to connect. i just wanted to sit him down and have a serious talk about his issues and make him go for psychoanalysis. boys! really.
then the next day we stole our last breakfast and got frowned at by the heart of gold hostel staff for the last time, and took a train from berlin haptbahnhof in the direction of budapest to prague. it was ok, there was another staring man and a very hideous hulk-like man and an american man who gave me a book about ghosts for no reason which was ok i guess. and a kid with a mcKSHICken who despite our awful shicken experience still managed to make mayonnaise face look overly tempting and we thought about pulling him into pieces and eating him.
when we got to prague we had this disastrous experience of not being able to use our 1000 kroner notes (about 70AUD, and the only ones you could get from the atm) becuase nobody would change them, which you can read about on dan's blog, and the witch who kept doing a smile that was more like baring teeth at hansel and gretel as she fattens them in the cage. all detailed in dan's blog.
we're at a hostel called hostel advantage, which is ok, nice beds and nice big lockers but FULL OF FREAKS. we're sharing a dorm with 3 forty-five plus year old scottish men who all CAME SEPARATELY but SHARE A LOVE OF TALKING ON AND ON AND ON AND ON ABOUT SUPERMARKETS AND SOUP AND OTHER THINGS THAT START WITH SU AND SUCK AT 7AM AND SNORE ALL NIGHT AND GET TOO CLOSE. and there's a man who stays awake on his laptop all night and sometimes watches me while i sleep because i'm the only girl in the dorm. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH. czechoslovakian freaks. which made me have a panic attack and demand steve come here right now and be my man protector when dan leaves. but no! i will be strong and an ambassador for feminism.
we've been too digestively fucked and tired to do anything here so we've walked around shops, looked in h&ms, and seen movies. and paid $8 for hot chocolate. it's not cheap at all here. we saw hancock on our first night, which was not good, don't see it. then we saw the incredible hulk. which was incredible. HULK SMASH!!! ed norton is beautiful. i don't care what any reviewer says. it's awesome.
tonight we're going on a pub crawl we think, get some absinthe etc, but we could really just buy one and go see hulk smash again which i would like better actually, green liquid, green fairy, green monster you can just see how that would be a good night.
it's too touristy and boring to bother writing about prague. i wouldn't come here again. the architecture is cool but boy do they know it, it's basically 500 kroner everytime you look at a building. i'm not keen.
gotta run, this internet is more expensive than anywhere else in europe.
love you all homies, everyone comment!!!!!!!! tell me about your lives and what's happening and when my blog is boring. xoxoxoxo
it's saturday july 19 and i'm in prague, czech republic. it's pretty shit really. i want to send you pictures but this computer is 8 seconds away from having a heart attack and my hair has grown long and thin and i look like a mongoloid so i won't.
let me see, i haven't written since i was in germany, and dan's doing a pretty comprehensive blog over there because he loves writing, so i'll just do the main high and low points. first, we went to a concentration camp. it was pretty sparse and there's not much to see there because the russians hulk smashed it all in the cold war and then the germans rebuilt it so we would give them 10 euros. it's pretty grim. it was haunting because it's something you dedicate entire semesters to studying, but it's something i'm very willing not to do again. there was the typical bus in, walk around a bit, put a stone on a grave in honour of the deaths, watch a movie and get bussed out again before it all gets too real/far away from mcdonalds for the fat australian and british tourists. and they are fat, and obnoxious. americans are, on the other hand, cultured, slim and can speak other languages. we r lame.
then because we happily conform to our fat australian stereotype, we followed a series of misleading german signs that claimed to be taking us to mcdonalds. for about an hour. seriously. we couldn't find it!! it kept saying, oh just take this strasse, and now that strasse, and behind that big german flag and it's under that rock. but we couldn't find it so we went back to the stations looking like this ( ) in our bellies and like this :( on our faces. then of course it was in the station. we suck. so we ate mcKshickens which apparently suck in germany and fries with mayo and got attacked by automatic doors on the way out. i can't remember anything after that except i know i had half a beer then through up for about an hour, which was AMAZING. do you know how good it feels after you throw up??? i didn't. i'm definitely going to do that more often.
there were some drinking games with some cool canadians, steph, shannon and sam, it's a rule in canada yes, garth and andrew the americans (andrew was reading how to make friends and influence people the hostellers version, which is how he knew it is still cool to put gel in your hair and spike it up neatly every morning with a comb and get in peoples personal spaces. more freaks to come in this blog).
the next day i stayed in bed because i had a fever and felt sick so i read all of catcher in the rye, which i didn't love that much because i'm too much of an emotionally intelligent woman and have nothing of the emotionally demented teenage boy with which to connect. i just wanted to sit him down and have a serious talk about his issues and make him go for psychoanalysis. boys! really.
then the next day we stole our last breakfast and got frowned at by the heart of gold hostel staff for the last time, and took a train from berlin haptbahnhof in the direction of budapest to prague. it was ok, there was another staring man and a very hideous hulk-like man and an american man who gave me a book about ghosts for no reason which was ok i guess. and a kid with a mcKSHICken who despite our awful shicken experience still managed to make mayonnaise face look overly tempting and we thought about pulling him into pieces and eating him.
when we got to prague we had this disastrous experience of not being able to use our 1000 kroner notes (about 70AUD, and the only ones you could get from the atm) becuase nobody would change them, which you can read about on dan's blog, and the witch who kept doing a smile that was more like baring teeth at hansel and gretel as she fattens them in the cage. all detailed in dan's blog.
we're at a hostel called hostel advantage, which is ok, nice beds and nice big lockers but FULL OF FREAKS. we're sharing a dorm with 3 forty-five plus year old scottish men who all CAME SEPARATELY but SHARE A LOVE OF TALKING ON AND ON AND ON AND ON ABOUT SUPERMARKETS AND SOUP AND OTHER THINGS THAT START WITH SU AND SUCK AT 7AM AND SNORE ALL NIGHT AND GET TOO CLOSE. and there's a man who stays awake on his laptop all night and sometimes watches me while i sleep because i'm the only girl in the dorm. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH. czechoslovakian freaks. which made me have a panic attack and demand steve come here right now and be my man protector when dan leaves. but no! i will be strong and an ambassador for feminism.
we've been too digestively fucked and tired to do anything here so we've walked around shops, looked in h&ms, and seen movies. and paid $8 for hot chocolate. it's not cheap at all here. we saw hancock on our first night, which was not good, don't see it. then we saw the incredible hulk. which was incredible. HULK SMASH!!! ed norton is beautiful. i don't care what any reviewer says. it's awesome.
tonight we're going on a pub crawl we think, get some absinthe etc, but we could really just buy one and go see hulk smash again which i would like better actually, green liquid, green fairy, green monster you can just see how that would be a good night.
it's too touristy and boring to bother writing about prague. i wouldn't come here again. the architecture is cool but boy do they know it, it's basically 500 kroner everytime you look at a building. i'm not keen.
gotta run, this internet is more expensive than anywhere else in europe.
love you all homies, everyone comment!!!!!!!! tell me about your lives and what's happening and when my blog is boring. xoxoxoxo
Sunday 13 July 2008
ich bin ein berliner?
hello loyal readers; parents, steve, mietta, eliza, perhaps others? unlikely, but hopeful.
well, it's sunday afternoon in berlin and EVERYTHING IS CLOSED. seriously. it's one of the major-est european cities and it has the same attitude towards consumerism as the fricking tasmanians. so at 2:35pm, while you're all tucked up in your bedsies, or having a party for a boy who now lives under the stairs, i am listening to german punk rock (an inexplicable favourite of this hostel) and writing a blog.
dan has mostly caught you up with the end of the netherlands, i didn't do anything different other than fall asleep at the ICC (see below, turn head sideways for full effect) and get shouted at
by a guard and frowned at by a judge, which is pretty cool because hopefully that will happen a lot in my future when i become an ICC prosecutor who is still cool enough to turn up to work hungover and accidentally have a bit of a nap during some very boring evidence.
seriously though, it was really amazing to see it in real life. last year at uni in my first year international studies subject i wrote an oversimplified and vague essay on how the ICC could never be effective, and now i'm here seeing all these people and all this scholarship and the complexities of the statute and i'm so overwhelmed. the court only has jurisdiction (bad law language, don't get involved law graduate boyfriend) over three crimes so far, genocide, war crimes (mostly stuff that involves death and torture of civillians) and crimes against humanity, so they're really serious cases. we didn't see any of the accuseds, but it was still so sombre and scary. really is an awesome place to be.
we did a little bit of last minute shopping/throwing money at dutch people and receiving stuff we don't need because utrecht was a great place to be, and we watched our last episodes of ally mcbeal with ding ding, and on friday morning we did the WORST WALK EVER to the train station. don't mistake me, i know all walking is bad, but walking in an enormous downpour with all your worldly possessions dragging through puddles behind you just sucks. i would show you a photo but it's decided to stop working sorry bye.
the train to berlin was sweaty and smelly as usual, and we sat too close to some chronic stare-ers as usual, and some old people fought with some other old people about seats and wine gums as usual, but otherwise it was a smooth trip.
our hostel is amazing, "heart of gold" hostel which is themed like the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy which is cool. we met some awesome kids in our room, kelsey from seattle is a sweet girl who helpfully speaks german and stopped the polizei at the train station from setting their muzzled alsations on us when we tried to use the elevator.
this is us trying to climb a bear, obviously i am not really trying because my arse is as big as the car tyre behind it but she did a pretty decent job. again for best results turn head to side.
she's gone now which sucks, but we've still got steph from canada who's working as an au pair in switzerland, who is leaving her job in september and asked me if i'd be interested (!!) har har never coming home. there's also the norwegian girls who we hated for the 4am light on penchant and nipple baring you've already heard about, but they joined us on the pub crawl last night and were vaguely tolerable. they pub crawl, on the other hand, was not tolerable, i didn't take my camera as i was ashamed and didn't need evidence of the disgustery, it was mostly GROSS australians kissing GROSS british people and doing shots straight out of the jagermeister bottle because after all, if you've got herpes, why keep it to yourself? share the blistering love.
so we bailed on that after too many free apple schnapps and went home, proud that we survived and ashamed that we parted with ten euro (almost 20 bucks!!) for the experience.
other than that interesting time, we haven't gone very crazy in berlin which is a pity because we won't get another weekend here. we went on a walking tour around the east and a screechy little lady called jessy told us about the history of berlin. it's amazing to think that less than 20 years ago the city was still divided into the rich western side and the poor, strong communist satellite city east berlin. the east seems to be much more interesting now, edgier and artier while the west is full of mean chanel ladies who frown at poor people who just want to try their glasses on for a second...
this is a building, possibly an old palace or something, i have forgotten because i am lame. it's a really nice example of the architecture though, and you can climb it apparently, which would be pretty cool. the gothic (?) style is really amazing and a lot of the city is really beautiful like that. there's also a lot of revisionism in the cityscape, for example, there used to be an imperial palace in the east from back in the days of the monarchy, and when communism came into fashion they pulled it down and made a "people's palace" where everyone could come and be buddies with the government. that palace got bombed by the allies, and years after the war towards the end of the cold war they started to rebuild it, but found out it was made of asbestos, so they sat around for a bit, then when the wall came down and communism went out of fashion they decided they'd rebuild the imperial palace. which they're still trying to do 20 years later. it feels a bit like they sort of switch on, switch off phases of their history.
we've done a bit of holocaust memorial stuff, there's this statue called "a mother holding a dying son", and beneath it is buried the remains of a german soldier and a murdered jew, so they can commemorate all the horrors of war, which is pretty cool. the roof is open, so when it rains she gets rained on, and when it snows the whole room powders over, which must be pretty moving.
there's also the modern jewish memorial which i don't have a great photo of, but it's basically these blocks, all of the same length and width but different heights, getting taller as you walk into it. its pretty big, maybe 200 square metres, and as you go you just get deeper and deeper into these blocks that are about the same size as graves. i really like the symbolism, because it's so stark and neat yet overpowering at th
e same time, it really communicates the fascist feeling, and how all consuming it must have been to be in germany at the time. and as you walk, the graves get taller, as though you can't understand how easily and rapidly the slaughtering occurred. very spooky and definitely haunted.
anyway, that's most of the interesting things about berlin, we're being lazy today because our bodies are sore from weird beds and pillows. we went to the markets this morning, i'm slowly knocking off souvenirs but really struggling, so if there's anything european you've always wanted that does not cost more than one euro feel free to make an application in writing to the heart of gold hostel berlin and you will receive a response within 4 to 6 weeks thanks bye.
hope you're all well, keep emailing as i check most days because i am a chump, i miss you but still don't miss melbourne so all of you just c'mere and we'll have a big partay. xxxxooooo
ps this is a bin. turn your head to the side. trust me it's pretty cool.
well, it's sunday afternoon in berlin and EVERYTHING IS CLOSED. seriously. it's one of the major-est european cities and it has the same attitude towards consumerism as the fricking tasmanians. so at 2:35pm, while you're all tucked up in your bedsies, or having a party for a boy who now lives under the stairs, i am listening to german punk rock (an inexplicable favourite of this hostel) and writing a blog.
dan has mostly caught you up with the end of the netherlands, i didn't do anything different other than fall asleep at the ICC (see below, turn head sideways for full effect) and get shouted at
by a guard and frowned at by a judge, which is pretty cool because hopefully that will happen a lot in my future when i become an ICC prosecutor who is still cool enough to turn up to work hungover and accidentally have a bit of a nap during some very boring evidence.seriously though, it was really amazing to see it in real life. last year at uni in my first year international studies subject i wrote an oversimplified and vague essay on how the ICC could never be effective, and now i'm here seeing all these people and all this scholarship and the complexities of the statute and i'm so overwhelmed. the court only has jurisdiction (bad law language, don't get involved law graduate boyfriend) over three crimes so far, genocide, war crimes (mostly stuff that involves death and torture of civillians) and crimes against humanity, so they're really serious cases. we didn't see any of the accuseds, but it was still so sombre and scary. really is an awesome place to be.
we did a little bit of last minute shopping/throwing money at dutch people and receiving stuff we don't need because utrecht was a great place to be, and we watched our last episodes of ally mcbeal with ding ding, and on friday morning we did the WORST WALK EVER to the train station. don't mistake me, i know all walking is bad, but walking in an enormous downpour with all your worldly possessions dragging through puddles behind you just sucks. i would show you a photo but it's decided to stop working sorry bye.
the train to berlin was sweaty and smelly as usual, and we sat too close to some chronic stare-ers as usual, and some old people fought with some other old people about seats and wine gums as usual, but otherwise it was a smooth trip.
our hostel is amazing, "heart of gold" hostel which is themed like the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy which is cool. we met some awesome kids in our room, kelsey from seattle is a sweet girl who helpfully speaks german and stopped the polizei at the train station from setting their muzzled alsations on us when we tried to use the elevator.
this is us trying to climb a bear, obviously i am not really trying because my arse is as big as the car tyre behind it but she did a pretty decent job. again for best results turn head to side.she's gone now which sucks, but we've still got steph from canada who's working as an au pair in switzerland, who is leaving her job in september and asked me if i'd be interested (!!) har har never coming home. there's also the norwegian girls who we hated for the 4am light on penchant and nipple baring you've already heard about, but they joined us on the pub crawl last night and were vaguely tolerable. they pub crawl, on the other hand, was not tolerable, i didn't take my camera as i was ashamed and didn't need evidence of the disgustery, it was mostly GROSS australians kissing GROSS british people and doing shots straight out of the jagermeister bottle because after all, if you've got herpes, why keep it to yourself? share the blistering love.
so we bailed on that after too many free apple schnapps and went home, proud that we survived and ashamed that we parted with ten euro (almost 20 bucks!!) for the experience.
other than that interesting time, we haven't gone very crazy in berlin which is a pity because we won't get another weekend here. we went on a walking tour around the east and a screechy little lady called jessy told us about the history of berlin. it's amazing to think that less than 20 years ago the city was still divided into the rich western side and the poor, strong communist satellite city east berlin. the east seems to be much more interesting now, edgier and artier while the west is full of mean chanel ladies who frown at poor people who just want to try their glasses on for a second...
this is a building, possibly an old palace or something, i have forgotten because i am lame. it's a really nice example of the architecture though, and you can climb it apparently, which would be pretty cool. the gothic (?) style is really amazing and a lot of the city is really beautiful like that. there's also a lot of revisionism in the cityscape, for example, there used to be an imperial palace in the east from back in the days of the monarchy, and when communism came into fashion they pulled it down and made a "people's palace" where everyone could come and be buddies with the government. that palace got bombed by the allies, and years after the war towards the end of the cold war they started to rebuild it, but found out it was made of asbestos, so they sat around for a bit, then when the wall came down and communism went out of fashion they decided they'd rebuild the imperial palace. which they're still trying to do 20 years later. it feels a bit like they sort of switch on, switch off phases of their history.we've done a bit of holocaust memorial stuff, there's this statue called "a mother holding a dying son", and beneath it is buried the remains of a german soldier and a murdered jew, so they can commemorate all the horrors of war, which is pretty cool. the roof is open, so when it rains she gets rained on, and when it snows the whole room powders over, which must be pretty moving.
there's also the modern jewish memorial which i don't have a great photo of, but it's basically these blocks, all of the same length and width but different heights, getting taller as you walk into it. its pretty big, maybe 200 square metres, and as you go you just get deeper and deeper into these blocks that are about the same size as graves. i really like the symbolism, because it's so stark and neat yet overpowering at th
e same time, it really communicates the fascist feeling, and how all consuming it must have been to be in germany at the time. and as you walk, the graves get taller, as though you can't understand how easily and rapidly the slaughtering occurred. very spooky and definitely haunted.anyway, that's most of the interesting things about berlin, we're being lazy today because our bodies are sore from weird beds and pillows. we went to the markets this morning, i'm slowly knocking off souvenirs but really struggling, so if there's anything european you've always wanted that does not cost more than one euro feel free to make an application in writing to the heart of gold hostel berlin and you will receive a response within 4 to 6 weeks thanks bye.
hope you're all well, keep emailing as i check most days because i am a chump, i miss you but still don't miss melbourne so all of you just c'mere and we'll have a big partay. xxxxooooo
ps this is a bin. turn your head to the side. trust me it's pretty cool.
Monday 7 July 2008
ik spreek geen nederlands, ik spreek geen nederlands
i love the netherlands!!
utrecht is, as we expected from the first hour, completely amazing. we love our house. excuse the bad bad bad photography, but this is a picture of the artyness of the house:
i have a quick question for all of you out there who are more arty than me, yes, all of you, why are all my pictures blurry? especially with the flash off? and please don't say "try to hold the camera still" because i have actually tried that.
a quick reflection on the week so far:
we arrived on wednesday from paris, it took about 4 hours on the train which was really good, trains rock because you can see all this countryside that you obviously miss from the air. except they're bad because freaky staring people sit opposite you and no matter how obvious the "stop looking at me!" return stare is, they just keep gazing. we saw belgium for about 48 seconds, it looked industrial and grey so we looked away again and just waited for amsterdam.
we caught a connecting train from amsterdam to utrecht, navigated our way out of the station, and sat on the footpath like hobos for about an hour while we waited for maud who we're staying with, this is her:
i don't know why i took such a wide picture either, see above re bad photography.
maud is so busy with interplay, the big european playwriting festival, that we've hardly seen her which sucks. last night she got in at about 4:30am and left again at 8ish this morning. and yet she's never grumpy. amazing.
so anyway, we met her and resumed our laziness at her house, eating wok2go and watching telly. boring boring.
thursday we met with anna barnes who is a playwrite from melbourne here for interplay, and florian who lives in delft (nl) who dan knew from interplay last year. we got sammiches and i discovered my love for kahlua and milk, which goes for about euro3.50 and is amazing. they have a h&m in utrecht too, which leads to equal portions of joy and despair as my suitcase fills and my bank account empties...
that night maud brought some friends around and dan and i cooked a very stingey meal of pasta and bread, which everyone hated but politely ate. erik, yorit, maud, anna and florian, dan and jes, and ding ding the adorable 13 year old cat sat around the table and shouted in english and dutch, here they are in their top-hatted glory:
after dinner maud went to get a meat-ball fryer. which is as much as we know about that. dan and i did the typical tourist coffee-shop expedition, no questions!! and maud met up with us to show us some dutch drinks, i had a red martini which was the most disgusting thing in all of the netherlands, and then we went home because there was a frasier marathon.
friday we finally hit up amsterdam and it was yuk. i'm so glad we're staying outside the city because it's so awful. tacky tourists buying huge dildoes and talking about "spliffs" makes you want to run for the utrecht hills. there were nice canals but they are nicer in in utrecht anyway. we hung out with florian, anna and her friend eliza and they talked about exploitation of women and how sweden is the best country in the world (free education!!). we wandered through the red light district and felt uncomfortable around the women undulating from the red curtained windows. i really thought a sex show would be funny, but it's just not. it's weird and you feel bad for the 15 year olds, the 55 year olds and the women with slight mental issues who end up in this work. not to mention the porn lined walls in the shops which include animal sex and the apparently very popular "terror of rape" series. eugh.
so that was a bit lame.
saturday we woke up and dan decided he would stay in his pyjamas eating chocolate mousse and watching ally mcbeal, which incidentally is the worst show ever made in its unique combination of low quality production, unoriginality, hideous calista flockhart and offensive morality. i caught a train to den haag because the water sign in me was desperately craving the beach. it was too cold to swim but i paddled, though heaps of crazy dutch people were swimming. i found some awesome statues of fairy tales and other stories, this one is pinocchio being held by gepetto, and on gepetto's hand if you look closely is little jiminy cricket. pretty cool.
i came home with wok2go to entice dan off the couch, and of course it worked, he ate all of his before peering into mine hopefully with his puppy dog eyes. stupid labrador owners have skills we'll never know. then we went out to the interplay festival bar where we consumed inappropriate amounts of fried cheese and chatted with the wanky play delegates for a few hours.
sunday florian took us to rotterdam music festival. rotterdam is about an hour out of utrecht, but the huge free festival was worth the trek. the only big name was devotchka, but we saw some other up&comings including emmy the great, blood red shoes and harry merry and the must. it was pretty nuts, there are loads of dutch punks and scenesters in rotterdam which reminded me a bit too much of melbourne, but it was still fun. devotchka were absolutely amazing. i wish i had a non-blurry picture but i can't find one, will post if i do.
anyway, so now it's monday, i apologise for this boring list/post but hopefully we'll become funny again soon. looking everyday for a cheap vespa and a free course to do in utrecht. might have found one in den haag. see you never har har har har har xoxoxoxo
Wednesday 2 July 2008
utrecht, me-trecht too
oh real internet with english keyboards for no monies. the little things!!
so we bailed on paris early. i know i know. who would have thought that the most romantic city in the world would charge you 300AUD for a croissant? while laughing at your french and spitting on the ground? the french, in their berets and stripy shirts with their baguettes and gerard depardieu. you've gotta love them.
there's so many bikes here, it's like an old world. i love it already. it's muggy though, and really really sweaty.
someone stole my thongs from the paris hostel!! very lame. other than that we've been very lucky, haven't lost much at all. we're eating an inappropriate amount of cheese, which seems to be all we can afford, and muller rice will never be allowed in our presence again.
what have i missed?
in the france hostel, 3ducks, we met some americans called mike and sara (just like zac and sara!!) who give america a good name. they were pretty introverted and intelligent but good value and had lots of interesting stuff to say about america at the moment. it sucked when they left because new roommates were lame and weird (spanish nicole richie!!)
we went to the louvre on monday, not that great. saw mona in all her a3 glory, and some other old pictures mostly of baby jesus or inexplicably naked women looking helpless. it was ok i guess. dan bailed to have a sleep in the sun and of course woke up with sunstroke, but we still went on a gravitron which was happily sitting next to the louvre! then he got sick. but it was worth it.
i think that's everything worth mentioning. i'm sorry my blog has no structure and not much interest value, but to repay your loyal reading family and steve i will try to include some pictures. waiiiit.....
that is mr eiffel on a rainy day, us drinking cocktails out of parisian desperation,
i look away for one second... why can't he get his own stuff...
marion kemp, the only other female kemp... and the gay pride parade she told us to go to
sacre coeur and the moulin rouge
the gates of buckingham palace and the arc du triomphe
the view from notre dame, and everything in its right place
hope you enjoyed. lots of love, jessenia xoxoxo
so we bailed on paris early. i know i know. who would have thought that the most romantic city in the world would charge you 300AUD for a croissant? while laughing at your french and spitting on the ground? the french, in their berets and stripy shirts with their baguettes and gerard depardieu. you've gotta love them.anyway, this morning we jumped a eurail for amsterdam. we stayed up til 2am packing, mostly to spite spanish nicole richie (read about her in dan's blog www.airplaneoverthesea.blogspot.com), and then woke at 4:15 to get the first train from felix faure to gare du nord. the train was great, apart from the 20 spanish students all sporting piercings, one mess of a dreadlock and stinky feet who had no concept of personal space. we sped through france, belgium and arrived in amsterdam at about 10:30 this morning. we're staying with dan's friend maud, though, and she lives outside of amsterdam in a town called utrecht, so we got another train there and waited in the rain on the footpath like homeless people until she could sneak out of work to bring us back. now we're hanging out in her office using her internet while she has a meeting with a terrifying man called hubert who leers through his curls and invites us to workshops (?!) and a
girl who is almost definitely stoned. amsterdam rocks!!
girl who is almost definitely stoned. amsterdam rocks!!there's so many bikes here, it's like an old world. i love it already. it's muggy though, and really really sweaty.
someone stole my thongs from the paris hostel!! very lame. other than that we've been very lucky, haven't lost much at all. we're eating an inappropriate amount of cheese, which seems to be all we can afford, and muller rice will never be allowed in our presence again.
what have i missed?
in the france hostel, 3ducks, we met some americans called mike and sara (just like zac and sara!!) who give america a good name. they were pretty introverted and intelligent but good value and had lots of interesting stuff to say about america at the moment. it sucked when they left because new roommates were lame and weird (spanish nicole richie!!)
we went to the louvre on monday, not that great. saw mona in all her a3 glory, and some other old pictures mostly of baby jesus or inexplicably naked women looking helpless. it was ok i guess. dan bailed to have a sleep in the sun and of course woke up with sunstroke, but we still went on a gravitron which was happily sitting next to the louvre! then he got sick. but it was worth it.
i think that's everything worth mentioning. i'm sorry my blog has no structure and not much interest value, but to repay your loyal reading family and steve i will try to include some pictures. waiiiit.....
that is mr eiffel on a rainy day, us drinking cocktails out of parisian desperation,
i look away for one second... why can't he get his own stuff...
marion kemp, the only other female kemp... and the gay pride parade she told us to go to
sacre coeur and the moulin rouge
the gates of buckingham palace and the arc du triomphe
the view from notre dame, and everything in its right place
hope you enjoyed. lots of love, jessenia xoxoxo
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