You'll find me in a Berlin bar

Just arrived in Berlin after a 6 hour train ride from Amsterdam. Got to the hostel and was pleased to discover that it is really nice! After staying in some rather dubious hostels, it's refreshing to be staying somewhere good.

Being around Christmas time, I planned to spend 10 days in Berlin so that I wasn't travelling right in the middle of the holidays and I am not sorry for it. Berlin is incredible. This city is a vibrant, lush, evolving study of culture, history and humanity. I love the Germans. In school, I remember asking the question 'Do the Germans openly teach their children about the history of their country?' and I remember the skepticsm with which the teacher replied. I would have to say now that that is unfair to the Germans. They memorialise everything. For example:

Below is a picture of a memorial to the massive book burning that occurred in the plaza where this memorial is underneath. It is a single room full on wall to wall, floor to ceiling, empty shelves as a reminder of what happened here. On the other side of the plaza is a makeshift book stall, open 365 days a year, selling a selection of books that were known to be burnt here.



So much to see here, so rich in history. The Brandenburg gate is awesome, particularly at night. The Holocaust memorial is controversial in design, but I like it - and the museum below it was tragic, in the proper sense of the word. The remants of the wall are a reminder of insanity and checkpoint charlie is a joke (not the real location - just a photo op for the tourists).

I met up with Luke from Australia and some of his travelling companians for Christmas. After 6 days of clouds, Christmas day was actually a nice sunny day! With days of continuous cloud cover, a clear day is worth a hundred back in Australia. On Boxing Day, I decided to hire a car and Anth. Driving around and out of Berlin was a little insane, what with the steering wheel being incorrectly located in the passenger side, maniacs driving on the wrong side of the road and the gear-shift being on my right. Too many times my left hand hit the window, a reflex as my left went to change gears...

We picked up some Australian girls we'd met a few days earlier and we drove to the little town of Wernigerode, located almost exactly in the middle of Germany. This little hamlet is nestled in a small valley, but it's most striking feature is huge castle circa 12th Century that stands on the mountain looking over the township. Much of the interior of the castle has been preserved or reconstructed to the time of of Otto Von Stolberg-Wernigerode.

I think I could live in a castle.

After the castle we had a glorious dinner in a tradional German restaurant in wonderful main square of the town. It was so beautiful and preserved, it looked like a movie set, or one of those fake ye-olden townships you get in theme parks. Actually, it kinda looked like the town of Duloc from Shrek!

I have the car over the next few days and aim to see some more of Germany before driving down to Munich on Friday. Blog you later.

In the port of Amsterdam...

So - left Belgium the other day for a few nights in Rotterdam and then onto Amsterdam. What can I say about this city...?

Rotterdam is not pretty. Not even remotely. Possibly the most interesting thing to see in Rotterdam are these bizarro houses called the 'cube' houses. Someone, somewhere thought, wouldn't it be cool to build houses in the shape of a cube standing on it's point. Clearly, no sane people were nearby to correct this stupid idea and there you have it - Cube houses.



I'd love to tell you more about the place - but that's about all there was to see. I wouldn't put it on my list of must see places before I die... I did meet up with some people and had a great night out at a bar in town. So, at least the people were pretty good value. I also visited a world famous coffee shop - excellent.

Amsterdam on the other hand is very beautiful. There city is covered in these amazing canals. People live on houseboats or live in the small and somewhat dodgy houses throught the city. Actually, the houses are all built on this swampland. Years ago, if you wanted to build a house they would landfill a section with whatever debris they could find - ships, wood, junk, rubbish etc and use that as the 'land' to build upon. They then sunk these huge wooden logs into the newly created 'earth' as a foundation and built a wooden house on top. Now these supports are all rotten and virtually gone and as a result, the houses are all crooked, sinking and flood etc. In Australia, these places would be condemned! The bricks on the houses are all a facade and just bolted onto the wooded frames. If a house gets too unsafe they do this trick called 'seaming' where they just poor concrete between their house and next doors house to make it more stable!



This place is just cool. Imagine a town where sex, prostitution and soft drugs are all tollerated and out in the open. Conservatives will have you believe that this is the decline of civilisation, morally corrupt and a degenerate society but in reality you get one big, free, bohemian society where people tollerate others and is safe to raise your children.

These people have it good. If you stop making a big deal out of something - it just ceases to be an issue. People walk around and it really doesn't matter what they are into. I stayed in the heart of the Red Light district. On Friday night I was out till late drinking some some American girls I met. I walked back to my hostel at 4am without any fears for my safety. You can't really say the same for similar districts in other cities. You would not walk alone there in the middle of the night. Even the dealers of more hard-core drugs (Charlie boys) that stand around in the district are respectful. They are so open about their vices that there is even a school directly opposite the infamous "Window's".

There's heaps to do in Amsterdam. Went to the Anne Frank house, where she and her family went into hiding during the German occupation of The Netherlands. You actually walk through the rooms where they lived - even through the secret bookcase entrance... It was kind of sad.

Everyone in Amsterdam rides bikes. It's totally crazy. Couples on a date ride out for the night. Some dude attending a black tie function was riding there on his bike. Parents pick their children up from school on their bikes. If they have more than one child, they have this big wooden box at the front of their bike that they pile the kids into - crazy! Outside the main train station is a bike rack - the size of a carpark. It has three levels and would easily hold 100,000 bikes - and it is full.

Liked Amsterdam a lot. Would easily live here for a while. You can see the couple of photos I took posted on Flickr.

Favourites....

Hiya,

There are now heaps of photos on Flickr for you to look at if you are so inclined. I have sorted them into collections. There is also a new collection called "Favourites" which is a small collection of the best photos I have taken (according to me).

They are repeated in their relevant collections - I just think these are good to look at.

Buying bread from a man in Brussels...

So after about 11 days, I finally let go of Paris. Absolutely love the place and will definitely go back - maybe next time with some better French....

I booked a train and ended up in Brussels, Belgium. Didn't know much about this country before I got here other than they have waffles, chocolate and of course, awesome beer. I'm sure they have a rich, dense culture full of fascinating history and legend. Turns out they don't. They just sell, waffles, chocolate and beer.

Ok... so that's not fair. They also have the headquarters of the EU here. Nothing like a bunch of bureaucrats and politicians to get a city jumping - just look at Canberra! That place just knows how to party, doesn't it?

I did learn that Belgium has two official languages, French and Flemish (which is a dialect of Dutch). The northern half of this little country is mainly Flemish (always wondered where that was) and the other half are known as Walloons (originally from France).

I visited this little town called Brugge, which is north of Brussels and therefore in Flemish territory. Very beautiful town. Not much nightlife, but beautiful city to walk around. It’s full of these little canals and little bridges over them.



The canals of Brugge

I also met an Australian at the hostel who is mates with I guy I worked with back in Melbourne... Trippy! Should be meeting up with him again in Berlin around christmas with a few other travellers, so that should be fun.

Sitting in a park in Paris, France...

So... I have been in Paris now for a week. Before I left, talking to people there seemed to be 2 basic opinions of Paris. "It sucked" & "It was amazing". I definitely fall into the latter category.

I love this city.

I haven't once found the people rude or arrogant (someone pointed out that this could be because I am rude and arrogant, and therefore don't notice when others are). The French are great! After the initial shock of having to actually attempt to speak French to the native speaking, I am finding that I can make do with the few paltry phrases & words I have picked up. I also find that if you at least try to speak French, or politely ask them in French if they speak English - you get a positive response and a smile.

I was standing in line behind some Americans who just launched into English when served at the counter. The man serving was not impressed. I think assuming that they'll understand our pissy English language is what gets their goat.

What amazes me most about Paris is how large it is. Almost none of the buildings are above 4 or 5 stories, but almost everyone of them is gorgeous (like these below). Across the skyline there are only one or two skyscrapers, as some clever French committee decided a while ago that big buildings would ruin the beauty of the city and the existing landmarks. Good move.



The other thing you notice is how close all the cars park together. I was walking along outside Musee Rodin, and there were 20 cars parked on the side of the road, so close together that I could not even walk between them! How on earth do they get in and out? Actually, later on I watched a guy park in a spot that was only about a foot and a half bigger than his car. He took about 15 points to manouvre the car into the spot. The other thing they tend to do is 'touch park'. This is when they reverse until they hit the car behind, then go forward till they hit the car in front, then back etc...! This happens all over the city!

Speaking of driving oddities, the Arc de Triomphe is set in the middle of a roundabout at an intersection of 13 roads. There are no lane markings and basically no rules. It is one of the most insane things you'll see in Paris. It is said that there is an accident there, on average, every 6 minutes. It's so bad that no insurance company in the world covers an accident that occurs on this roundabout.

There is a section at the North West fringe of the city called La Defence which is basically the business district. This is where Paris decided to build it's big commercial buildings. It was all designed at the same time, so the area as a distinctly uninteresting feel, as the designs are all vaguely similiar. Someone told me that is like looking at what the future would look like - if you were living in 1982! The net result is that it is all a little dated. It does however, also have a modern arch called Le Grande Arche that is directly in line with the Arc de Triomphe (which is kinda cool).

I've done almost all the tourist stops now. Been to the Musee D'Orsay, Musee du Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Hotel Des Invalides, Sainte Chappelle, Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe, Champ Elysees and Napoleons Tomb to name just a few! There is just way too much to see in this city.

Well, enough for now - I'm off to pay my respects to the Lizard King...

Photos for you all

Hi All,

I have uploaded all my photos onto a website for you guys to look at.
You can access them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89852624@N00/sets/

I have also included the link on the right had side menu.
Cheers...