Hello all! It's been a while but I have finally found some
(expensive) time to write about my travels from Berlin, Germany to
where Monique and I are now: Greystones, Ireland.
~sigh~
So, Berlin. Ya. It was rainy and our hostel was shit cuz it was
full of stupid teenagers and it was expensive and sheets & breakies
was extra money and the bunk beds were so creeky. So I didn't
really get a good vibe from Berlin and all I wanted to do was go
back to AMSTERDAM! Can you really blame me? But, since we were
there, we thought we might as well see the city and decided to take
a bike tour! Yay! Mike's Bike Tours. Our guide was this greesy
aussie with SUPER long and wonderful dread locks. He was pretty
funny and showed us some pretty interesting and of course historical sites. Let me see if I can remember some of them... The Berlin Wall - or rather, what's left of it cuz in most places it's just a stone line in the ground and in others it's the actual wall with the gap in between the 2 sides of it are still kinda there. It's all graffitied to shit now too and stupid tourists would go out at night and ram into it (with their vehicles, yes) to make chunks fall so they could take home a piece of it. Checkpoint Charlie of course, which is where the old American and the East Germany borders met. The University where all those books were burned, the old palace, museums, Marienplatz (where all the political rallies and such were held... pretty cool... there are statues of Karl Marx and Staline we got pictures with), the hotel from where Wacko Jacko dangled his baby and nearby from where Pink Floyd played and from where David Hasselhoff (AKA: The Hoff) performs. haha Kinda funny. But uh, so Berlin was almost all restored cuz so much of it was destroyed in WWII and so you can see the covered bullet holes in so many of the buildings. It was pretty neat riding our bikes in a huge tour around the city. It was definitly a highlight.
Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic! Uhm... I have a feeling I already wrote about Prague... So, I'll skip it and say that we stayed 6 nights there and I loved every minute of it and the beer was DELISCIOUS and so was the food! haha Let me know if I didn't send a mass on Prague...
Prague to Munich, Germany! Munich was beautiful, sunny, and the vibe was great. We spent the better part of our first 'day' visiting the 1st Nazi Germany concentration camp... we went to
Dachau (pronounced: da-how, with a sort of phlegmy sound for the H)
and got a tour of what's left of the camp today. So eery. Our
first stop on the tour was inside where the SS would hang 'the
undesirables' from the beams by their wrists - BEHIND their backs -
and so their shoulders would pop out and they would be in so much
pain and the only way to avoid the pain is to hang as still as
possible - find the centre of gravity - except, thing is, since they weren't considered people from the moment they walked through the gates, they were already dead to the SS and so the SS would push them and hang off them and whip them until they died the most
excrutiating death... I'm sorry for the vivid description, but I
really want to emphasize how the guide described it to us... I
cried so much that day... To NOT be considered a PERSON, a HUMAN
BEING and to be treated in such a horrible manner, more horrible
than anything you can imagine... as horrible as the Christians
described Hell. And it wasn't just the Jews who were treated this
way, but germans, homosexuals, anti-socials, catholic priests, the
Roma and the gypsies... this happened all over Europe and because of one man... So ya. The whole tour was just indredibly somber and
Monique and I hardly spoke the whole time. The Gas Chambers were
well, very REAL and I was almost sick with sadness... If you ask me
about it some time, I'll tell you, but I'm not gonna write this
stuff here... it's too disturbing. I'm glad I experienced that
place though. We are both glad.
The next day we took a free walking tour of Munich and so that was
MUCH more lighthearted. I loved it!! Bavaria... The famous clock
was really nothing special, but everything else was pretty cool.
The cobblestone roads, the nice people, the YUMMY beer, the
history... Munich, much cooler than Berlin! I have pics and so
I'll post them soon. They'll tell the story. I'm going to try and
add captions to them so you can understand what you're looking at.
Munich to Frankfurt, in a car pool we discovered through one of the
girls from the hostel! Awesome ride! Nice dude for sure and he
drove us right to the city centre where we could catch our shuttle
to the cheap-ass airport Ryanair flies out of. Listened to some
great music!! We had a beer in Frankfurt which means we were
OFFICIALLY in Frankurt. It's a lot more modern than any other city
in Germany, full of skyscrapers and cutting edge technology. We
only spent a few hours there before we flew out to Dublin that night.
Frankfurt to Dublin, Ireland!!! Ahhhhh... Dublin. We are
definitly liking it here, except for the rain andthe cold though!!!
We walked all over the city pretty much, well the centre part
anyhow. We caught a Tracy Chapman gig last night!! That was so
cool! Greystones is so cute and I will write more on that another
time cuz my internet time is expensive and... well... I'll be here
til Christmas! Yay!
Until next time, (sorry I just cut off like that) take care of
yourselves and know you are all in my thouhts and in my heart. I
hope your're enjoying the photos!!! yay!
(expensive) time to write about my travels from Berlin, Germany to
where Monique and I are now: Greystones, Ireland.
~sigh~
So, Berlin. Ya. It was rainy and our hostel was shit cuz it was
full of stupid teenagers and it was expensive and sheets & breakies
was extra money and the bunk beds were so creeky. So I didn't
really get a good vibe from Berlin and all I wanted to do was go
back to AMSTERDAM! Can you really blame me? But, since we were
there, we thought we might as well see the city and decided to take
a bike tour! Yay! Mike's Bike Tours. Our guide was this greesy
aussie with SUPER long and wonderful dread locks. He was pretty
funny and showed us some pretty interesting and of course historical sites. Let me see if I can remember some of them... The Berlin Wall - or rather, what's left of it cuz in most places it's just a stone line in the ground and in others it's the actual wall with the gap in between the 2 sides of it are still kinda there. It's all graffitied to shit now too and stupid tourists would go out at night and ram into it (with their vehicles, yes) to make chunks fall so they could take home a piece of it. Checkpoint Charlie of course, which is where the old American and the East Germany borders met. The University where all those books were burned, the old palace, museums, Marienplatz (where all the political rallies and such were held... pretty cool... there are statues of Karl Marx and Staline we got pictures with), the hotel from where Wacko Jacko dangled his baby and nearby from where Pink Floyd played and from where David Hasselhoff (AKA: The Hoff) performs. haha Kinda funny. But uh, so Berlin was almost all restored cuz so much of it was destroyed in WWII and so you can see the covered bullet holes in so many of the buildings. It was pretty neat riding our bikes in a huge tour around the city. It was definitly a highlight.
Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic! Uhm... I have a feeling I already wrote about Prague... So, I'll skip it and say that we stayed 6 nights there and I loved every minute of it and the beer was DELISCIOUS and so was the food! haha Let me know if I didn't send a mass on Prague...
Prague to Munich, Germany! Munich was beautiful, sunny, and the vibe was great. We spent the better part of our first 'day' visiting the 1st Nazi Germany concentration camp... we went to
Dachau (pronounced: da-how, with a sort of phlegmy sound for the H)
and got a tour of what's left of the camp today. So eery. Our
first stop on the tour was inside where the SS would hang 'the
undesirables' from the beams by their wrists - BEHIND their backs -
and so their shoulders would pop out and they would be in so much
pain and the only way to avoid the pain is to hang as still as
possible - find the centre of gravity - except, thing is, since they weren't considered people from the moment they walked through the gates, they were already dead to the SS and so the SS would push them and hang off them and whip them until they died the most
excrutiating death... I'm sorry for the vivid description, but I
really want to emphasize how the guide described it to us... I
cried so much that day... To NOT be considered a PERSON, a HUMAN
BEING and to be treated in such a horrible manner, more horrible
than anything you can imagine... as horrible as the Christians
described Hell. And it wasn't just the Jews who were treated this
way, but germans, homosexuals, anti-socials, catholic priests, the
Roma and the gypsies... this happened all over Europe and because of one man... So ya. The whole tour was just indredibly somber and
Monique and I hardly spoke the whole time. The Gas Chambers were
well, very REAL and I was almost sick with sadness... If you ask me
about it some time, I'll tell you, but I'm not gonna write this
stuff here... it's too disturbing. I'm glad I experienced that
place though. We are both glad.
The next day we took a free walking tour of Munich and so that was
MUCH more lighthearted. I loved it!! Bavaria... The famous clock
was really nothing special, but everything else was pretty cool.
The cobblestone roads, the nice people, the YUMMY beer, the
history... Munich, much cooler than Berlin! I have pics and so
I'll post them soon. They'll tell the story. I'm going to try and
add captions to them so you can understand what you're looking at.
Munich to Frankfurt, in a car pool we discovered through one of the
girls from the hostel! Awesome ride! Nice dude for sure and he
drove us right to the city centre where we could catch our shuttle
to the cheap-ass airport Ryanair flies out of. Listened to some
great music!! We had a beer in Frankfurt which means we were
OFFICIALLY in Frankurt. It's a lot more modern than any other city
in Germany, full of skyscrapers and cutting edge technology. We
only spent a few hours there before we flew out to Dublin that night.
Frankfurt to Dublin, Ireland!!! Ahhhhh... Dublin. We are
definitly liking it here, except for the rain andthe cold though!!!
We walked all over the city pretty much, well the centre part
anyhow. We caught a Tracy Chapman gig last night!! That was so
cool! Greystones is so cute and I will write more on that another
time cuz my internet time is expensive and... well... I'll be here
til Christmas! Yay!
Until next time, (sorry I just cut off like that) take care of
yourselves and know you are all in my thouhts and in my heart. I
hope your're enjoying the photos!!! yay!
