Bye Bye Berlin, Hello Prague

I didn't like Berlin so much. The best thing about it was the poeple I met there from the bus and the room. The city itself has a lot of history with the Berlin wall and Communism and all that - which was really interesting. I took a walking tour that was really informative and showed all the major points of interest from WWII and the Cold War. But the buildings are all so new (because the city was bombed to the ground bascially) and generic - thanks to soviet contruction. It's rather dirty and the Berliners just didn't seem all that friendly. So I'm glad to be out of there - don't think I'd go back (but never say never).

Got into Prague last night and had a chance to look around. It's seems much more my speed from a tourist standpoint. Lots of old buildings, a castle, great bridges - just what i'm looking for in a European city. Plus things are pretty cheap here, though they're still on their own currency (the Czech crown) which is weird. It's sort of like how the Lira used to be, things cost like 500 crowns but that comes out to something like $25. So I went to the ATM and got 2000 crowns out and it just gave me this one 2000 crown bill. You feel rich for a while.

I'm bound to get some great pictures here. I'll post them as soon as I can.

Welcome to Berlin

We spent the day yesterday on the bus - which was surprisingly OK. I was a bit worried about the 10 hour bus trip but it was pleasant. Got to sleep a lot and the company has a guide on it who points out different things in the city you're going about to visit. We got in around 6 PM and got checked into the hostel.

The people in the room are a bunch of Australians (apparently this Busabout thing I'm doing is big down under - even though it's an English company). They're very nice though and we ended going and grabbing dinner together. After that we just spent the night in the room talking. Nothing too exciting.

This hostel has free WiFi so I was able to get my pictures uploaded - I've put them on Flickr rather than the other place I was using as Flickr has a better upload program. The new link for pictures is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjacome/ They're all just thrown up there for now as I haven't quite figured out how to organize them just yet. I'll work on that later. London is first Amsterdam starts after that.

Until next time...

doei do Amsterdam

Apparently that's one way to say goodbye in Dutch. So today was my last day in Amsterdam as I leave early tomorrow morning for Berlin. I also need to make a correction to something I said in an earlier post. The girls in the windows are sectioned into specialties (like the supermarket). So when I said they were all unattractive and couldn't give it away for free in America, apparently I was in the "heavy set black/hispanic" girl section. I needed to go over to aisle 6 for the pretty white girls. My bad and I apologize whole heartedly to the working girls of Amsterdam - some of you are very pretty hookers.

Today was sort of gray and dreary, so I finished doing the museums I didn't have time for yesterday. After that I just sort of hung out at a cafe and had a coffee or two with these little biscuit cookies they give you.


Overall, at this point in the trip this is waht I've learned. I freakin' hate tourists. Doesn't matter if they're American or British or Pakistani - black, brown, red, green or white - I hate them all. Now that's not really a surprise since I generally loathe other people but when you become a tourist you immedately think that the whole universe revolves solely around you. Now that can't be true since it's scientific fact that the whole universe revolves around me - it's been proven again and again. So I know these people are wrong.

So don't listen to any of those stories about beastly Americans in Europe. Every tourist in Europe is beastly. They stop right in front of you while walking, the congregate on the sidewalk like they own it, they bump and push and have a complete disregard for the poeple or things around them. To combat this (and because it's fun), I've started "accidentally" walking into people when they stop in front of me. Now, I try to reserve this only for the worst offenders (and especially for repeat offenders). It's pretty effective.

The Dutch poeple, however, are very nice. In cafe's and bars they've been very friendly and everyone speaks English - so that hasn't been a problem.

I've also learned that my parent's brought me up right. I watch these kids in the hostels and all I want to do is give them a smack in the head. They're rather rude and uninterested in anything that doesn't involve liquor and/or drugs. I asked some of them how they liked the museums or the architecture and all I got were blank stares (since they get up at 3 PM everyday they haven't seen much). Seriously, I'm beginning to worry about the future of humankind. I want'everyone with kids to go give your kid a smack in the ass when you're done reading this - it's good for them.

Well that's it for me. I'll be travelling most of tomorrow so probably no blogging or emailing for me. I'm still working on getting the pictures uploaded.