African pimps and cheeky gelato salesmen...

So we're now in the Czech Republic, at the national capital of Prague. Prague is exactly like every other city that we've been to so far, completely unique and fascinating in its own way. It's completely opposite of what we were expecting, too. Amazingly, the city survived numerous religious wars and both world wars almost completely unscathed. The result is that you have a massive city that has more identities than you can count. As you walk through central city square you can honestly see the evolution of architecture over time. It's so incredible. On the top of a huge hilltop is a castle that was first built in 300 AD, and a mile away there's a building inspired by the cubist movement. It's an art history dream. We had both expected to see towering, heavy buildings made of incredible amounts of stone, but the entire place actually has a light, airy feel to it. I think the best way to describe the tone is that it feels like a movie set. It's so fluid and ever-changing that you almost don't expect it to be real.

Last night was eventful.. We started out at a Czech restaurant eating Goulash and Bohemian dumplings, got on the tram and went the wrong way, getting lost on a hilltop overlooking the entire city, finally found the center of the city where we made friends with a pimp and drug dealer from Africa (he was actually really nice), almost got into a fight with some anti-American gelato salesmen, walked along a beautiful, ornate bridge spanning the massive river surrounding the city, and watched Prague light up as the cathedrals, castles and museums all turned on their lights as the sun set. Sounds romantic, huh? Yeah.. too much "dude" on this vacation for those moments to have as much romance as it sounds. It really was so incredible though. This place isn't real.

Today we're going to go check out the main castle, go on a pub crawl (in our excitement for the beer last night we really did get on the wrong train and ended up on the other side of the city, missing last night's pub crawl. So disappointing), eat some more stuff we can't pronounce, and live it up :) there's apparently a pretty killer zoo here too.. If we can find a way to go to the zoo together without people thinking we're gay, I'm totally down for it.

One Love, Everybody

The blog where Cameron has no witty title.

First off, we are now in Krakow, Poland. It is the second largest city in the country, and does a lot to redeem our opinion of poor unfortunate Poland. It is a beautiful city, with energy, parks, buildings worth seeing, and people that actually smile. It is a very pleasant place, and somewhere I would love to come back to some day. But now, the reason for my lack of inspiration, humor, and wittiness...

Today we went out to Auschwitz. I could write at length in detail about the things that we saw and the experience, but I'd honestly rather not. Maybe James will feel the urge.
All I want to say is that we saw everything you have ever seen in a documentary. We have seen every heartbreaking photo, every other worldly story, every inhuman act. We have seen the bunks, the furnaces, and walked though the gas chambers. We have seen the stolen clothing and belongings. We have seen fabric made from the hair of corpses. We have seen the ashes.

Auschwitz is a place I don't ever want to go again. I had the opportunity to stand in the mud and personally watch the rain drip from the barbed wire. I wish I could describe it, but I can't. I have never been in a place like that before. Anything that anyone could ever tell you about it doesn't do it justice. It is literally impossible to imagine such a terrible place. If you haven't been, you just can't understand. I felt as though my humanity were slipping just by walking the grounds. We have walked the grounds of hell on earth.

Hmm...How to write a title for Warsaw..

So today is the first time so far on the trip that we've been to a new place, and from the second we stepped off of the train felt like we were in a different world. Poland, Warsaw specifically, is a place like none I've ever been. Cameron and I were saying from the second we broke into the sunlight after coming out of the pit of a train station, that it looks as though it were the movie set from the seventies.
Truly, it's a city of halves. On one hand, you have the nice district. An area that's the main tourist attraction. It's really a beautiful place, cobblestone streets and medieval styled buildings. There are numerous cathedrals and religious buildings that line the same street, all of which have striking sculpture both on the exterior as well as on the inside (side note... oddly there is absolutely no stained glass inside Polish churches.. it almost made them look half-done). It's on this same street that the president of Poland lives, as well as a massive concert hall with incredible column arcades. This half of Warsaw is beautiful.

The rest of Warsaw is not. It's striking in how different it is from the tourist attracting areas of the city. Without exaggerating, it completely feels as though the Iron Curtain were still in place. Capitalism in general feels like it's a completely new concept. The buildings, landscaping, public transport, all of it, it all feels ancient and decaying. In the part of town where our hostel is, it looks like what I would assume Bosnia or one of the eastern European war ravaged countries would look like. Most of the buildings are half finished, rusted out, or abandoned. Those that are still being used are mainly powered by generator, as they don't have reliable electric. It's so eye opening. Cameron put it well when he said that all of the building projects here look as though they ran out of funding halfway through. It's shocking. When we were walking back from the market we saw a number of homeless people sitting on a park bench by an empty and cracked fountain pool. When they asked for money, I instead tossed them an orange I had. When we walked back a few minutes later, we saw that they had eaten the whole thing. Rinds and all. It's amazing. It's so sad though that it takes moments like those to help open your eyes to what you have. We're so blessed... it's beyond belief.

Luckly our hostel is incredible. The place absolutely blew us away. Our rooms are some of the nicest we've had so far on our trip and the bathrooms/common area are perfect. You can tell that the entire place was purchased through an IKEA catalog, but it's still great accomodations. If anyone ever decides to stay in Warsaw, I totally recommend the Krokodyle hostel. That is...unless you're a single woman walking alone... or an orange peel.

Time to go eat funny named cereal and relax for a few, we're off to Krakow tomorrow, then on to Prague.

Love

Jamesy

Berlin: part... whatever post this is from Berlin, there has been a few.

First off, a disclaimer. Foreign keyboards are all jacked up. Seriously, Germans just don't place the same priority on letter and symbols that we do. So any random dots and weird symbols, blame on the country. Also, some of the letters are switched, hence I have many Zs and Ys backwards. And, to get a proper contraction written, I have to hold down three buttons at once(there is an A thing there instead). §o, zouäll just have tü deäl with it.
Today we went to the Pergamon museum. It is the biggest museum in Berlin, and cool of great roman, greek, and roman copies of greek, architecture. One of the biggest attractions is the Pergamon alter, which was moved completely inside the museum. There is a huge frieze that goes all around the alter. It tells stories about the gods warring with giants, and the stories of many of the god's lives. The best part of it though is that on the massive staircase leading up to the actual alter, the relief characters actually spill out onto the stairs in mid battle. It is an amazing effect. If haven't seen a picture before, I highly recommend taking ten seconds to google image search Pergamon Alter Staircase. It'll blow your mind.
The crown jewel of the museum is the Ishtar Gate. It was built by King Nebakanezzer (hey, I can't spell with a normal keyboard, give me a break) as a tribute to the God Ishtar, and the ultimate defense of it's time for his capitol city, Babylon. It is made of blue hand baked and painted bricks that is seven meters (about fifteen feet) thick in places. It has lions and other animals prowling in rows, and the top is covered in defensive/artistic crenallations (that is for you, Cheryl). Once again, it is without question worth your time to look up a picture. It's bigger than it looks, I promise.
Well, that is about all for today, we head to Prague tomorrow night, where I'm sure we'll find more shenanigins for you all to read about. Until then, when in Berlin, try the pizza, it's great.

Berlin: The 4th Reich... The lesser known, American College Eurotrip Reich

So it's about time that I (James) actually sit down and do one of the blog entries. It's not at all that I haven't wanted to, it's just simply that by the time I email everyone my internet time is typically gone. So, in the event that anyone has anxiously been awaiting my words, I'm sorry for the long wait.

So we're in Germany now, stop number five. So far I've been absolutely amazed with Berlin. I can't even say how much different it is than I expected. Maybe it's that all my visual knowledge comes from Indiana Jones.. but I've been shocked. It's so unexpectedly beautiful (And so much cheaper and entertaining than Copenhagen. But then again, I think Tooele puts Copenhagen to shame). It kind of feels like a more diverse version of Washington DC. The architecture and sculpture is incredible. It has so many varieties of styling that it always keeps you looking. A good amount of the city is brand new, being built since the wall fell. A good chunk of it though has classical stylistics or Baroque tones. It's so easy to just let your eyes wander, trying to soak everything in.

Today we went on a free walking tour of the city. There's a company that recruits grad students and college professors to lead tours around the big cities in Europe to show tourists all of the big sites for free. They collect tips at the end, but they give you such an awesome historical account of everything. It's so much better to actually be able to understand what something is, and why it is where it is, instead of just standing there staring at it with a dumb American look on your face. They brought us to so many awesome places today though. The Pergamon, the haulocost memorial, the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, The Berlin Wall, just to name a few. It was incredible to think of so many of the historical things that happened in the places we were standing, even as few as 19 years ago. Cameron made an interesting point while we were at the memorial.. That if Hitler had had his way, I wouldn't be there right then. Despite my charm and good Arian looks, I do have some Jewish blood.

What I thought was amazing though, and perfectly fitting, is that next to the 34 million dollar monument dedicated to the millions of lives purged during the Haulocost, was an empty parking lot. Underneith the parking lot? Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide in the waning days of the war. There's barely even a marker acknowledging its existence, let alone any sort of an attraction.

Keeping in step with the rest of the trip though, yes, it did downpour on us again today. Word to the wise... next time you're in Europe, BRING AN UMBRELLA. Hell, bring a big plastic bubble you can walk in. It's nuts. The day started out so beautifully too. On the bright side, the rain gives an incredible effect to some of the more emotionally driven sculpture.

Today is also a German holiday apparently.. So, happy Assumption (I think that's what they said...) Day, everyone! Go out and... assume some things?

We may be leaving Berlin as early as tomorrow night, we only booked our hostel for two nights not knowing that most of the hostels in town were sold out for Saturday and Sunday night. If that's the case, I guess we're on to Warsaw. If not, more rain and beer drinking! Pub Crawl tonight, oh yeah ;)

Happy Thursday to everyone, stay dry!

Love,

James and Cameron

Copenhagen: the city of, well, it's at least a city!

Okay, so let's be frank here. Paris, amazing. Brugge, preserved and beautiful and full of beer. Amsterdam, has everything you could ever want or need to make you happy or give you a reason to pray for someone. Copenhagen, well.... its Copenhagen! It has a kind of chew named after it? It's old?
Well, we got into town this morning after an 11 hour train ride during which we slept and travelled to the Czech, Poland, and Germany. When we booked our tickets here, James asked me, somewhat rhetorically, what there is to do in Copenhagen. And, well, we haven't exactly figured out the answer yet. But we are working on it. It is a pleasant enough city, not well preserved (at least for anything built after the 70's) with a nice museum and city center. It was kind of telling when the walking tour guide we got at the tourist office listed seeing the canals as a major activity. Not, the historic buildings near the canals, or the site where something happened, but the canal itself.

Wait, on further reflection, I have found something interesting about Copenhagen. There is a wonderful museum with dozens of original Greek and Roman sculptures and numerous Rodins. We spent a good amount of time there and enjoyed it greatly. Also, it hasn't rained. That seems like no big deal until you have to carry your entire life on your back on a daily basis. Hooray for no rain!

Amsterdam: the city of no shame.

We've been in Amsterdam for a couple days now. The most striking thing about this city is that no one ever really feels any shame, for anything. Obviously, there is the red light district where you can shop for prostitutes in public, and the coffee shops were you can buy pot and then smoke it on the street right in front of a cop. But the level of personal reservation on a person to person level is unlike anything I've ever seen.
See, there are these public urinals, in the middle of the street. They are divided into fourths, so four dudes can use them at the same time. That's not just a phenomen in the bar district though. They are all over the city, even in mostly residential neighborhoods (although these are single person models, but the fact remains that I can pee and watch people ride past on bicycles).
Second, we went to a rugby tournament yesterday for about five hours to watch international teams play sevens rugby and one group play tens (Zac, you are welcome to boil in jealousy right now. But we thought about you the whole time). There was two groups of streakers during the tournament. The first was a single guy from a team that had lost out of the tournament. The best part was that as he ran around the field and kicked the ball and danced (and James took pictures), no one really cared. In fact, he literally ran around for at least three minutes before anyone realized that security should probably make him stop, and even then they were exceedingly lazy about it. The second group was an entire team that came out to congradulate the womens sevens team that won their tournament. Needless, to say, both occasions were met with riotous applause and witty remarks from the announcer.

As we sit here waiting for our train to copenhagen, I can't help but think what a beautiful city Amsterdam is. The canals, cathedrals, and old houses and buildings are better than any post card or picture can do justice. Despite the cold and rain, this is an exceedingly beautiful place with a kind of fun and energy that I've rarely felt anywhere else. I can't even say how glad I am that we came here.

Brugge: beer, bars,and buckets of chocolately rain

First off, let me apologize for the last hasty post. I was typing with a timer literally ticking down my time above my text. I kinda just barfed facts and thoughts while trying to be witty, and I'm pretty sure I failed on all accounts.

Well, we are currently in Brugge, Belgium. From what I've seen, Brugge is west flemish (the random and endless strange dialect spoken here) for rain and old churches. The town is only a half hour walk from one end to the other, and its an endless maze of west flemish street names. But I digress, first a little about brugge...

It is the best preserved mideval city in Eurppe. There are computer shops in four hundred year old buildings.
It is ridiculously expensive. Even the bruggians (bruggers? bruggites? brugs?) bitch about it.
It is the epicenter of belgian chocolate and beer and other finery. You can literally buy over five hundred kinds of beer in a single bar. Most of them on tap.

So, we've been here for a couple days and are planning to leave tomorrow. We did pretty much everything to do in Paris the first day we were there. The second day we went to sacre coeur, almost got in a fight with a "souvenier selling" pickpocket that seemed much more interested in Juliet than James and I (imagine that, more attracted to a gorgeous brunette french speaking canadian girl than two smelly american dudes...) and got hopelessly lost.

In Brugge, there is a town hall building that is amazing. It is dripping with High Gothic architecture, and more gold and family shields than I have ever seen on a building before. Attached to it is a tiny cathedral that is obviously Romanesque, but had some strange windows and faces carved in the walls. I've never seen anything like it and it definitely doesn't fit any style I or James know. Cheryl, help!
There are also two town squares full of wretchedly overpriced shops and restaurants that sell all manor of chocolates and pasteries and of course, beer. (for example, some of the best beer here is brewed by monks. and it'll run you 4.5 euros a glass) I'd love to bring everyone lots of chocolate and stuff, but I'd rather eat as much of it as possible myself :)
It has rained both days we have been here. Actually, let me rephrase that, it has poured for both days we have been here. In Belgium, it gives you about ten minutes of warning rain, and then just breaks loose. It only comes a couple hours at a time though, so at least the entire day isn't trashed.

Today's fun visual for the people that know us best:
Being full of chocolate and such, James and I both desperately needed a workout. After asking directions from our friendly bartender/hostel employee/resident badass, we walked to continental fitness.
It is a gym that looks like it was built in an old barn, although the inside is quite nice. It had three rooms on two levels and quite a bit of good equipment By good, I mean a step above what was in the weight room in our middle school. It felt very old school, but was a good experience and we got a good workout.
(for the record, europeans have a strange obsession with early nineties music and eighties rock ballads, even while they lift weights, i.e. Meatloaf's paradise by the dashboard light and some Hootie and the Blowfish..)

Well, I have almost run out the battery on the computer I borrowed from a lovely australian woman named Andrea, so I must go. I'll leave you with a visual though.
I'm sitting in a dark back corner of a Belgian bar. It is fairly warm, with dark wood, barely functioning lights, and leather chairs so old Noah saw that animals that used to wear it. There are twenty people speaking thrity languages at once, and they are all enjoying a pint of something you can't get anywhere else, even if you tried. It is raining like the apocolypse outside. The candle holders have held flames for so many conversations, pounds of wax have dripped down and covered the handles almost completely. You can see the knife marks where the bartenders have cut it away so that they can move the holder without coloring their hands red. I just caught a wiff of chocolate, cigarette smoke, and cherry beer all at the same time. The table I'm sitting at was obviously hand built and looks older than the brick and wood plank ceiling over me.
Life is good.

Paris, the City of Light, Love, and Bodily Secretions...

So, we are finishing our second day in Paris. We got in about 10:00, and after a trip that would put Moses and crew to shame, walked to our hostel. This place is much nicer than anything I ever imagined. Our beds are clean, changed regularly, and the security for our smelly dirty stuff left behind is great.
We spent yesterday heading to the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, almost all by foot. It was just as amazing as the first time. James said that he could sit and watch the sun set on the Eiffel Tower everyday for the rest of his life and never get bored with it, I'd definitely have to agree.
After our desperately needed sleep and showering (there is not words for the smells that came from my feet) we went to Sacre Coeur today. We enjoyed the sights, artists, and beautiful part of the city. We then proceeded to get lost in an industrial graveyard part of town that was wretched and ugly as hell.
The best part of this whole city has been a nice Canadian girl we met in our hostel. Her name is Juilet, and her infinitely better-than-mine french and good looks have gotten us out of more than one jam and probably better prices.

So, Paris is stilll the same. Gorgeous, amazing, and covered in visible and non visible human excrement.

Holy Merciful Crap

It's official, we've entered full "freakout because we are about to leave the country and everything we've ever known and loved for a quarter of a year" mode.  It is surreal to be a day away from what we have worked for and dreamed about for six months.

James spent months dragging himself out of bed early enough to open Starbucks, and his afternoons getting cried on, cried at, cried about, cried with, farted on, concussed,and punched in the stones by utterly unapologetic seven year olds.

I was in my desk ( how I got there at times is still open to speculation ) at Discover Card at 6:00 AM, telling the world one person at a time that yes, you do in fact have to pay your bills.  And no, I can't excuse half your debt if you pay what you owed last month. And yes,it is legal to take your stuff for not paying up.  But at least I learned some creative new expletives and never got hit in the nads (although I was threatened with much worse).

So here we are, in a kind of brutal limbo where we can't cash in a half year's effort, but our bags are literally packed and waiting to be slept on under a belgian viaduct.