Pictures!!!

Alright, the time has finally come...  We are starting the process of posting pictures.  As soon as I get my camera working, I will post some videos and different things I have done. We are working backwards, so please keep checking back as photos from the beginning of our trip will be coming soon.  After we get all caught up over the next few days, it will stay current. 

The majority of our photos will be Josh's work, and can be found here: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/josh.hargrave.608

Also, the link can be found in the future on the right hand side of the page.  Just click PHOTO GALLERY.

Enjoy!

Hello to Josh's blog followers...

I just want to say a quick hello to all of Josh's friends and family who are following our journey over these couple months.  I have been blogging daily, and will continue to do so up until our return to the States.  Josh will also be posting from time to time.

The reason we are combining the blog is because Josh is going to focus on pictures, and I am going to focus on writing (and Josh really hates blogging).  It just works out better this way.  So, please follow along.  If you want to catch up, just start at the beginning of my blog.  That is where Josh left off!  

Day 15 - Prague/Vienna

I usually just wait until the end of the day to blog, but I have a 4 hour train ride to Vienna today and I chugged 2 cups of coffee before I left, so I thought I would spend a few minutes doing some mid-day writing.  Right now, I am riding through the Czech countryside.  Right now it's fairly flat, and we are right beside what looks like cornfields.  I might be a total idiot, but that's what it looks like.  Looks like I am driving up I-35 in the middle of Kansas or Nebraska.  Makes me miss good ol' midwest, USA... but that's another blog altogether.

Anyway, today is going to be a great day for a few reasons.  First of all, it started off great with a hearty breakfast at our last hours in Sir Toby's Hostel.  They have the best breakfast I have encountered so far.  It cost 100 Crowns which right now is about $6.50 USD.  They had organic, fair trade coffee, fresh pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade granola, and all sorts of breads and cereal.  It was really a great breakfast, and it's all you can eat.  I had a pancake, some eggs, granola w/ yogurt, and 2 cups of coffee.  Josh had a similar spread, but chose hot tea.

The other reason it's going to be a great day is because today is the Euro 2008 final in Vienna, and that's exactly where we are headed.  In a matter of hours, we are going to be right in the middle of the chaos.  I can't wait to watch the game with hundreds of thousands of people.  It is going to be so fun!  Can't wait!  Alright, well that's about it for now.  I will write more later tonight after the game...

... I am writing again from the train.  This time we are on the way to Budapest.  I would have finished the blog at the end of the night last night, but it ended up being a little later than I thought, and I was also pretty tired.  Alright, so we got in to Vienna, and were pleasantly surprised to see a sign for our hostel right outside the train station.  We stayed at Westend City Hostel, which was very centrally located between the train station and FanZone, where we headed to watch the game.  After a quick check-in, it was about 4:30pm or so and time to start heading toward the main area where everyone was hanging out and getting ready to watch the game.  By getting ready to watch the game I mean people were drinking lots of beer.  We decided that it would be a good idea to just grab a few beers at the mini-market before we headed in to the FanZone, and drink them on the streets (We weren't breaking any laws because it's legal to do this in Austria).  It was a good idea too, because in the mini-market they are about 1.50 Euro.  In the FanZone, they are 4.50 Euro.  So, we grabbed a quick bite (McDonalds for me and Pizza for Josh), had a couple of drinks, and headed in to the craziness.  The place was getting full hours before the game, and they had everything from games to music to food and drink.  It was a great scene with all the Spanish and German fans being cordial for the most part.

The game started around 8:45 and lasted about 2 hours.  I really loved just being in the middle of all the fans and experiencing true passion for sports.  You don't see it as much in the States, and I can't really put my finger on why.  It might just be the fact that it's so many people with so much passion for their country, paired with so much passion for the sport.  Anyway, it was really a cool event.  If you didn't watch, Spain won 1-0.  Josh and I then had to do the walk of shame back to the hostel, as we had decided before the game to buy German flags and wear them around as we rooted for Germany.  Bad decision I guess.

After a quick stop for pizza (yes, that's 2 times for Josh in about 6 hours if you are keeping score at home) we headed back the the hostel, and found that our room was about 100 degrees.  So, we went down to the lobby, grabbed a fan, and made the best of it.  Just for the record, falling asleep sweating is not the greatest feeling in the world.  

Day 14 - Prague/Kutna Hora

A quick note... please read the blog right before this one.  I have posted 2 at the same time.  So, read Day 12 before Day 13...

If you aren't careful, it's easy to just spend your time in the city everywhere you go.  I think my favorite thing about traveling to new places is getting outside the city and exploring the culture and landscape a little more...  Which is exactly what we decided to do on this day.  After a quick check with the front desk of Sir Toby's Hostel, we decided to go to a little town about an hour south of Prague called Kutna Hora.  The main reason we decided to go there is because it houses a very unique and totally random Bone Church.  What is a bone church, you might ask.  Well, I haven't ever been to any others, but this one is a church surrounded by a graveyard, which houses bones of 40,000 different human beings.  Everything in this church that isn't wall is human bones.  For example, the center of the church has a chandelier which is made up of every bone in the human body.  Obviously, the fixture uses multiple bones of the same type, but the cool part is that it uses every bone in the human body... and it's a chandelier.  Pretty interesting stuff.  I would recommend it to anyone traveling to Prague for a few days.  

I would not, however, recommend spending a lot of time in the town.  We walked around for a few hours, thinking we might stumble upon something cool and we ended up just getting tired and bored.  For example, we sat on this bench for about 30 minutes or so, throwing rocks at a dead bird.  Then, when that got old, we noticed that there was an ice cream cone next to the bird.  Josh decided that the bird would look much cooler with a waffle cone on it's head, so he made sure that happened.  Then we threw a few more rocks at it....

We got back to the train station just in time to jump on the train before it took off back to Prague.  Just in the nick in fact.... anyway, we must have boarded the wrong train, because we stopped every 5 minutes or so.  It took an hour to get to Kutna Hora, and about 2 1/2 to get back to Prague.  Not sure what we did but that tested my patience a little bit.  Luckily the iPod was charged enough to get me all the way back... that reminds me.  One thing I have been doing on this trip is just listening to my iPod randomly.  Right now I have 2416 songs on it, and I just am hitting random whenever I get on a train.  Obviously I will skip songs, but it's been really nice to just have anything pop up.  I may sound super dorky right now talking about this, but it's something I have been doing a lot and I really like it.  I think I will keep it up.  Right now I am listening to "Lovers Side of Town" by Joe Purdy.  Another quick note.  If you haven't ever listened to Joe Purdy, do it as quickly as possible.  My friend Laurel introduced me to him a little over a year ago, and I have been hooked ever since.  Great chill music.

Ok, what a rambler I am...  After we got back, I grabbed a quick shower and we headed over for a late dinner at the pizzeria next door.  Turns out that we had one of the best pizzas I have ever had.  Since Josh is veg these days, we split a cheese pizza.  It had mozzarella, gorgonzola, parmesan, and one other.  It was really incredible.  Top 5 pizzas I have ever had.  Maybe top 3.

After dinner, we headed back and talked with some friends we made a few days earlier in the hostel kitchen.  They are from Santa Barbara.  The connection there is my sister who goes to Westmont.  Turns out, this guy is the son of the chaplain at Westmont.  Once I get around a phone, I am going to call Emily and tell her about it.  Another Santa Barbara connection is my dear friend Cara Sanders.  They didn't know her, but I thought I would give her a shout out... we talked to them and another random Aussie named Dan for a while, then headed down the the little downstairs pub with Dan to grab a bedtime brew.  We sat down and then were joined soon by a group of other cool people.  Some from Australia, some from the UK, and then a few others from the States.  I talked to a girl from Kentucky for a while named Christina.  She was a very naturally pretty girl.  She graduated from St. Louis University, and now lives in Austin in the Winter, Chicago in the Summer, and takes a month off during Christmas.  How great is that?  Anyway, we talked for a while and then I headed off to bed without getting any of her info.  Mistake?  Possibly...  

Day 13 - Prague

Our hostel in Prague was Sir Toby's Hostel.  It was definitely the best one I have stayed in, and I think Josh would agree that it was pretty solid.  The place is 4 stories tall, and also has a basement which serves at the breakfast area in the morning and the bar at night.  The next floors are all different types of rooms.  Some are 8-10 bed rooms, and others are as small as 2-5.  For those of you that aren't familiar with Hosteling, it's basically whatever you want to spend for convenience and comfort.  So, if you are a light sleeper and just want a night by yourself or with one other person, normally you can get a 2 bed room.  I really prefer staying in something larger though.  First of all it's cheaper.  Secondly, it's just a lot more fun to hang out in a room with other new and different people...  If this trip has taught me anything so far, it's that I want to continue to grow and appreciate new people, ideas, and cultures.  I think that back in the Texas Bible Belt, it's easy to get used to being "normal" or being around people that are "normal".  This trip makes me want to step outside that box even more than I already do when I get back.  

Alright, so back to Prague.  We woke up around 10am or so, wandered over to the local supermarket and grabbed some random breakfast foods.  I had a banana (like I do pretty much every day), an apple, a small loaf of bread, and a breakfast bar.  Josh did basically the same thing.  I think he might have gone crazy and grabbed some yogurt.  After breakfast we headed off to the Prague Castle.  On our way we wandered through the cool medieval streets (all uphill).  It is really cool to be able to wander through a city that has been, for the most part, completely preserved though the years.  It's just a different feel when you can be in a place where all of the buildings are still in tact, and the history is so preserved.   Ok, the Prague Castle is really a sight.  It sits up above the main part of the city, and is so intricate.  I wont bore you with the details, but just know that it's pretty incredible.  Once I get my dang camera connected somehow, I will upload pictures of it.  Another option that will be coming very soon will be a site that Josh is going to upload all his pictures to.  Once it is set up (hopefully soon) I will direct everyone toward it.  Sorry, I am getting off track.  Prague Castle houses one of the coolest churches I have ever seen.  The architecture is incredible, but the inside is what is amazing.  The stained glass is just really amazing.  Again, pictures will be available soon.

After Prague Castle, we resorted to doing what we are really starting to do best... wandering.  We covered most of the main part of the city during the next 3-4 hours.  Let's see... I am trying to think of something exciting for this day, but honestly it was just sightseeing.  Kinda boring honestly.  I will just skip to dinner, which was easily one of the best parts of the day.  We wanted to grab a good meal since we have been eating randomly for the past while.  So, we thought the best option would be to find some internet and look up a good place online (because we have the computer now!).  Turns out the only place we could find with free wifi was the local KFC... that's right, Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Not a cool coffee shop or cafe.  Thanks America.  Anyway, we looked up some places on Frommers and found an Italian place pretty near by.  It turned out to be a really excellent decision.  This place was great, and now rivals the Vietnamese in Berlin as the best meal so far.  For me - 4 cheese penne pasta with chicken.  For Josh - spinach and cheese ravioli.  We paired that up with a few Pilsner Urquels each, and it was a great meal.  Then we waited an hour for the check.  Freaking Italians...

Day 12 - Berlin/Prague

So I said in my last post that it was the last full day in Berlin.  Actually, we ended up staying a little longer than we thought today.  I mentioned that we were waiting on the computer, and that it had, in fact, arrived.  The only problem is that they didn't drop it off.  They kept it at the main post office in Berlin because there is a tax on incoming goods.  It's an EU tax they use to make sure people aren't shipping in goods for cheap.  So, in an effort to completely plagiarize another person's blog, I am going to give you the story how Stephanie told it...

"However, the morning they left we went to pick up their laptop.  Ryan had it shipped here because they realized as they went that for what they were doing, it was needed.  It came, but because the value was written as $2000 they wouldn't deliver it (due to the 20% tax that the EU puts on all such shipped items).  I had warned them ahead of time about this, but somewhere in the chaos of it all, the message was lost.  So the German Post was definitely holding the computer hostage.

It just happened to be about an hour away from where we live by public transport, which wouldn't have been so annoying if we hadn't made the trip 1 1/2 times due to my failure to accurately read the hours of operation on the postal slip.  So, yesterday morning we began our second trip there, to find out that the U4 had been shut down and was not running past Schoneburg, and so we had to go back the way we came, catch another line, and head a different direction to end up at the same point.  I got out my phone and alerted the GPS to our whereabouts, except that I am not really good with maps or directions, so I walked us in circles.  Every time I asked anyone where we should go, they directed me through the park, including the man at the city hall with the bushiest eyebrows I had ever seen and a fantastic collection of ear and nose hair - as well as the transvestite who thought I was hitting on her man when I asked for directions, so she sent me the opposite direction that we were supposed to go (once again, through the park.)  Thankfully, Ryan was smarter than all of that and said, "Hey Steph, I think it's this building behind us."

So we get in and register to wait.  That's right, register to wait.  Then we waited.  Then they called us up and told us that the tax would be 250 Euros.  Josh maintained stunning composure the entire time (this is true to character as my cousin Jessie likes to refer to Josh as the most peaceful person she has ever met), but I could see Ryan starting to calculate the extravagant cost of convenience.  Ryan and Josh then did what they do best, discuss why it will work out and why even if the worst case scenario happens, everything will be OK... They call our number, 63.  That's when it started.  I explained that they were backpacking, had the computer shipped, it was obviously not worth $2000 but as Americans we write this kind of stuff for insurance purposes.  They then told me that this was stupid and they should have known EU tax laws before they shipped, and that the American system is stupid.  I then explained to them that as stupid as it is, that was no less the case and that it made little logical sense for two guys backpacking through Europe to send for their laptop to pay $400 in tax on it so that they didn't have to go to an internet cafe and so on and so forth.  After a lot of back and forth, they charged the minimum tax (47.25 Euros) and we were on our way.  Let me just say I was dealing with the two most patient men I have ever encountered in my life, and I was grateful."

So, that's the story of the shipped computer.  This story and many other great little excerpts can be found at cricketjohnson.blogspot.com 

The rest of the day consisted of jelly donuts for lunch, a 4 hour train ride to Prague, peanuts for dinner, and our first night's stay at Sir Toby's Hostel in Prague.  I will talk more about the hostel in the next post.  I think this is long enough.

Day 11 - Berlin

Today was the last full day we are to have had in Berlin...  You know, sometimes I don't know what tense to write these things because I can be writing a day later, but I still want to act like it happened that day.  Anyway, if my tenses are messed up, that's why.  Alrighty.  Now that we have squared that away.  Last full day in Berlin... it started off much like the other days.  It was pretty chill for the most part, but we did wake up fairly early.  Stephanie was watching their friends little boy for the morning, so we woke up on the couches pretty early.  Don't think I am upset about it though.  Sleeping in is a luxury when backpacking, and we had already done that enough.

For breakfast we made some great stuff.  Steph brought home potatoes, eggs, bread for toast, and bacon.  I helped her in the kitchen (one of my passions), and we made a pretty tasty little breakfast.  Hash browns, cheesy eggs with fresh tomato, bacon, and toast with apricot jelly was on the menu.  Everyone enjoyed it, and the 2 vegetarians (Josh and Stephanie) enjoyed the meal without the bacon.  You know, as a quick side note... I am really impressed with the whole veg lifestyle.  I will definitely not be participating any time soon, but it is really impressive.

After breakfast we headed down the the post office to grab my computer.  Luckily we didn't read the slip that was left at the door, which mentioned that the post office is closed at noon on wednesdays.  We had already been heading that way for about 30min (it's an hour each way), so needless to say, we were all a little frustrated... So, what do you do with that frustration?  Eat gelato!  We went to Stephanie's favorite place in Berlin and grabbed some fresh gelato to calm our nerves.

After the wild goose chase and gelato we headed back to get ready for the Germany v. Turkey game.  The fact that Berlin is the largest city in Germany, paired with the fact that Berlin also houses the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey in the world, made this a really big event.  We attended of course.  Not the game.  We went to this huge gathering where thousands of people were watching on multiple projector screens.  It was a crazy scene.  I mean, it gives me chills just thinking about it.  It's what I am all about.  I love the sport and the competition so much... so it was great to be there for the game.

Germany won 3-2!  It was a great game.  They scored at the last minute to win, and everybody went insane.  It really was a perfect ending to the game.  After we left the streets were crazy.  Flares, singing, shaking cars in the street, etc.  Absolutely nuts!  I will post video soon, but I actually got on top of a car with some other random German guy in the middle of this crowd of thousands.  It was intense.  Like I said, I will post video when I can figure out this stupid camera.  Dinner was late night pizza for me and falafel for Josh.  After staying up and telling Stephanie how much we were going to miss her and her we got to bed.  I think it was after 3, but I am not certain... Overall, a great last day in Berlin!

Day 10 - Berlin

Originally we thought we would be in Berlin for only 1 day. There are a few factors that we didn't see before arriving here though. The main issue is the fact that my computer still hasn't arrived... Ok, this is super weird. Literally just as I was typing that, the computer arrived. I am not joking. WEIRD! Ok, other factors for an extended stay include a free place to stay, amazingly cool people to hang out with, and the Germany-Turkey game tomorrow night!

Today was a pretty chill day for the most part. We stayed last night at one of Stephanie's good friend's place. We slept in for a change, and then made our way over to her place which is in the same cool neighborhood. Since Stephanie didn't get off work until 3 or so, the majority of our morning / early afternoon was filled with pastries for breakfast, catching up on emails, blogs, etc and watching episodes of season 3 of The Office. I am pretty obsessed with that show, so it was a great afternoon. Once Stephanie got back, we took off to grab a cup of coffee at an awesome little place called Bonanza (www.bonanzacoffee.de)

The reason I liked this place so much is because they have a very similar vision as ours. They spent about 3-4 years just researching, practicing, and training before opening up. Our timeline for Green Door Coffee is much faster than that, but they seem to have the same goal, at least coffeewise... To make a truly great cup of coffee! Our vision, of course, stretches even farther than that. We also desire to create a community and culture that adapts to our vision of being a green, organic, and sustainable business... So, it was a great little place with an even better flat white. Please take a minute to check out their website. You will see a picture of them working on the machine we are most likely going to use (Synesso).

What else, what else, what else..... next, we moved on Mauerpark. This is a really unique place that is covered in graffiti. It's hard to explain without actually seeing it, but the park is right next to some remains of the Berlin Wall (Mauer = Wall). You should take a minute and wiki Mauerpark. It's a really cool place where graffiti is quite the art form.

Just about the time we left Mauerpark, I was feeling the caffine from the coffee kicking in. I am not sure if I mentioned this, but they made an amazing flat white. For those of you that aren't super familiar, a flat white is the New Zealand / Australian version of espresso and milk. It has proportionally less milk than a latte, which I think makes it a little better. Ok... enough of the coffee talk, because I am sure there will be more in the future.

The final stop for the night was an incredible Vietnamese restaurant called Monsieur Vuong's. We ate here with everyone (7 of us total). I can't really put in to words how great this place was, but it was by far the best meal we have had... yes, even better than the peanuts I had for dinner on the train to Berlin. You basically have 2 options which change daily. Last night was either pork with rice noodles or chicken with rice. I did chicken, and was not disappointed. Josh did the same dish, but they did tofu for him. A few of us paired that with some white wine, and it was pretty dang perfect. Alright... after dinner we came back to the apartment for a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit (which I totally dominated) and then hit the sack. Josh and I are now staying on Stephanie's newly acquired couches (newly acquired meaning earlier in the day). I had the small couch. Apparently I am short... who knew. Bedtime = 2:30.

Day 9 - Berlin

I didn't talk at all about the night train in my last post, so I will do that real quick. We opted to take a sleeper car, which basically means we pay a little bit more (even with a Eurail Pass) but we both got full beds in a separate area on the train. The space isn't big at all. It had just enough room for a sink, 2 beds, and a little bit of floor space to move around. The beds are actually stacked and the room fits up to 3 people. We, however, got the place to ourselves because the 3rd bed hadn't been booked, so it was a little more spacious and a lot less awkward than it could have been.

After an 10 hour ride that was only supposed to be 8, we arrived in Berlin. Of course Josh and I hadn't contacted Stephanie in enough time to grab directions, so once we got to the train station, we had to wing it. Immediately the internet cafe was the next stop. I got an hour and had recieved an email from Stephanie saying that she would come meet us. We arrived late, though, so I had to email her back and wait for her response. Luckily she has a blackberry (because what church planter doesn't have a blackberry), so it was a quick process.

We took a quick tram over to where she and her team were helping a family pack up for a move back to the States. We were happy to help them for an hour or so, and then we headed off to lunch, which the family was happy to provide for us. We ate at this great Indian restaurant. I had chicken with peanut sauce and josh had fish curry. Both were exceptional. It was probably the first really good, hearty meal I have had since arriving. After lunch, we headed back to Stephanie's place to drop off our stuff, and turned right around to go back out for a walking tour of the city...

Who was our tour guide you might ask? I will tell you. One Stephanie Johnson. you might ask, is she also a tour guide? Well, at this point I guess you could say that, considering she gives about one tour per week (this is according to her obviously). Honestly, her tour was really amazing. We went on a walking tour in Amsterdam and this was just as informative and definitely more entertaining. Some interesting highlights include... waving at all tour buses no matter what, extremely loud human siren sounds (I will post video soon), and a group picture with a statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. We also some some cool historically significant sites such as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews and the Reichstag.

After the amazing tour, we showered up, grabbed a bite at an awesome pizza place which had a signature with fresh mozzarella which is one of my favorite things, and headed out for a night on the town. I guess I should explain who we is real quick. Stephanie always has visitors and right now she has several guests from the states whom we are hanging out with. They are all girls and include various friends, family and coworkers... Ok, we went first to a beer garden (the oldest in Berlin) and grabbed a quick beer before they closed. Next, we stopped at a more trendy bar where we grabbed some cocktails. This would be the point in the night where Josh hit a glass of beer which broke and somehow cut one of my knuckles while also soaking April, one of the girls we were out with. It was a funny moment, though, and the bleeding stopped soon enough. After drinks, we grabbed a quick bite at a local late night food place (honestly not sure what I ate, but it included some sort of hanging cooked meat, lettuce, tomato, and some white sauce. It reminded me of a gyro. Maybe it was a gyro. Who knows. 3:00am or so was bedtime. Another day in Berlin awaits tomorrow... which is actually today because I am writing it the next afternoon.

Day 8 - Brussels

For those of you that think Brussels is the greatest city ever, please be prepared to move on to the next section of this blog. I am not going to sit here and bash it, but honestly, it kinda sucked. I am willing to say that maybe I had a bad experience or maybe it's just the fact that I don't enjoy walking through piles of trash... one or the other.

Alright, so we woke up around 9:00, just in time to grab the 2 pieces of bread, 1 slice of american chesse, and corn flakes that were provided for us. I am not complaining, so please don't think that. I am super thankful for any free food, and this breakfast was no different. So, filled with carbs for the day, we started walking... and walking... and finally decided we would take the Metro system which was free since nobody ever checks. So, equipped with our map, trusty compass compass (which we use all the time by the way), and a never ending metro pass we found ourselves in city center about 3 hours after we left the Hostel. Not an efficient morning. Anyway, once we got there it was time for a few more carbs, so we grabbed Belgian waffles. They started at about 3.5 Euros and went up from there. It's funny because we are both sitting there just calculating what kind of effect adding strawberries or chocolate will have on our bottom line. I decided that chocolate was worth the investment. Josh decided that it wasn't.

Next we wandered around the city. Pretty ordinary. We found a park that we thought would be super cool. It was right next to the Royal Palace. We thought, awesome, a cool big park. We can just chill here... maybe read or journal or something... The minute we got in there, piles of trash everywhere. In fact, the first fountain we got to was literally filled with trash. So, we left and headed off to other parts of the city. Among the sites were a cool square like the one in St. Mark's in Venice, a little statue of a peeing boy, and a really cool indoor mall.

After the super exciting fun day we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our belongings, waited 3 more hours, and grabbed the night train which would take us to Berlin, where our fabulous tour guide and friend Stephanie, would make us move furniture 45 minutes after we arrived...

Day 7 - Amsterdam / Brussels

Alright, I am writing day 7, 8 and 9 posts right now, from Stephanie Johnson's place in Berlin. I will do my best to keep current from this point forward, but trust me, I have been trying. Ok, a quick note about something that is going on that I haven't addressed. Before I left, I was debating on whether to take my computer (a brand new macbook I got before I left) and at the last minute I decided not to bring it. Well, the minute I showed up in London without it, Josh wasn't too happy about it. In typical Josh form he was super cool about it, though. I knew right away that I had made a mistake, as I too was regreting it. I mean, it's pretty obvious that it's hard to blog randomly from random places without a computer. Ok, so the point? My computer is on the way. It is being Mailed to Berlin. So, we wait until it shows up. Originally we were only supposed to be here 2 days, but it might stretch out farther now.

Alright, Day 7... Meetingpoint Hostel in central Amsterdam was not the best sleeping environment. For example, I woke up for the first time at some point in the middle of the night to a horribly smelly guy wandering in late. His stench was a mix of BO, weed, and alcohol. Then, just when it smells bad enough, the dude decides to let out a horribly loud fart... please keep in mind that this dude was 3 or 4 feet from my face. I know that's super gross, but it's just an example of the night of sleep I got. So, I woke up, and Josh and I put our stuff in the luggage storage and took off to a free walking tour of the city. The dude that took us on the tour was really awesome. He is a student that goes to the university of Amsterdam and is one of the bunch of tour guides they have. Alright, so it was a super informative tour and was probably one of the cooler things we did in Amsterdam. It was quite a walk (about 4 hours), but totally worth it.

Ok, so after the walk, we were pretty tired and decided to just take it easy. We spent some time walking around a bit more, went and grabbed our bags, and took a train to Brussels around 6:00...

8:45... we arrived in Brussels and were lucky enough to have a pretty quick and painless transit system that took us only a few blocks from Van Gogh Hostel. I realize now that I spelled Van Gogh wrong in the previous blog. I don't really care too much, but for those people like David who care about grammar, I am sorry. Alright, so we arrive at the hostel, which was super nice. It was clean and we finally were able to sit and chill with some cool people. We met some folks from Philly, a girl from Columbia, and a few others. We all stayed up until late playing pool and sampling Belgian beers.

2:30am... bedtime.

In Berlin - New posts soon!

I will be posting for the last few days later on tonight. An update though... Brussels is really dirty, the Y and Z are switched on the German keyboard, and I am now in Berlin. More coming very soon...

A Quick Note from Brussels...

I knew there would be a day when I would have trouble finding a place to post and that time has come. I am sitting in a random internet place in a sketchy area in Brussels right now and the keyboards here are way different so its taking me a while to even type this. I will post Day 7 and 8 when I can find a normal keyboard. Stay with me daily readers... I will be back on track later today or early tomorrow.Wow, that just took 15 minutes.

Day 6 - Amsterdam

As this day draws to a close, I am sitting here at a computer terminal at our Hostel. Last night we stayed at Lucky Lake Hostel. Tonight is Meetingpoint Youth Hostel. Two very different worlds to say the least. This place is located right in the center of the craziest part of the city, and I guess you could say it has a little bit different smell... and by different smell I mean it smells like I am locked in a car with Cheech and Chong. It's crazy how much people smoke here, but more on that in a bit.

So, I started the day off actually getting some sleep. I probably slept 12 hours actually. So, I my system is stay awake 48 hours, and then sleep 12. It's working ok, but I would really appreciate a normal sleeping schedule, so I am crossing my fingers that tonight I break the trend and just get a normal night. Ok, so woke up around 10, left the hostel by 11:30 after a surprisingly hot and fairly clean shower. We headed back over to the metro, then came to Meetingpoint to check in and stow our stuff for the day. Next was the tram to the museum area... that process only took abot 2 hours. 30 minutes to find out where we were supposed to freaking go, 1 hour more taking the completely wrong tram, and then another 30 to finally get there. All I have to say, is it wasn't our fault. You can blame the horrible visitor center guide for that. She was nice, but not very helpful to visitors... which is her job... anyway...

We got to the Vincent Van Gough and payed 10 Euro to get in and another 4 Euro for the audio headphone tour (Right now the Euro is about 1.6 to 1 US Dollar) At first I was a little anoyed that I was paying another 4, but it turns out that it was a great decision (which I credit Josh with). I really enjoyed my time there, and it was so cool to be able to see up close how many amazing works Van Gough did in such a short time. For those of you that aren't familiar (like me only a few hours ago), he did the bulk of his artwork for 10 years or so and he did over 800 paintings, plus tons of writings. Huge bad ass. Huge bad ass who killed himself in his mid thirties, but nontheless... Anyway, it was a great exprience, and by far the most history I have taken in while here.

I guess I forgot to put this post in order, as I forgot lunch. Lunch was grocery store food. Ham and Cheese sando, apples, doritos (which I am finishing right now actually), and twix for me... I know very american. Josh opted for pesto pasta, cheese and crackers, and a couple plums.

After the Museum it was pretty much wandering. We walked all the way back, so I bet we got a good hour and a half walk in on the way back. I need to lose a few, so sometimes public transport isn't going to happen. Need to keep active. Anyway, tonight we ventured over to the Red Light District which was completely sureal. We were the a couple of minutes and that's all it took to get the idea. This place is like Vegas on crack. It's really insane. No worries parents and people who care... I am sticking to my values.

Ok, so for dinner Doritos for both of us. I think Josh may have had some cheese and crackers. Hopefully I will be able to write about some great restaurants soon. Alright, 3 minutes until I get kicked off. Until next time...

Day 5 - Amsterdam

I am writing this on the morning of DAy 6 actually, and that's because we don't have a computer anymore. So, this one will probably be a little shorter than the others, simply because as it stands right now, I have exactly 11 minutes left, and I am trying not to have to spend another dollar. Ok, so what did we do yesterday...

Well, for me it was another night of barely any sleep. We had to take a flight to Amsterdam at 6am, which meant not much sleep anyway. I, however, was again unable to fall asleep for longer than 30 minutes, so again I just stayed up and utilized the last few hours I would have with a computer that doesn't take coins. After Josh was up, we headed off to Liverpool St. to catch a bus out to the airport. We took RyanAir, which I think is pretty cool. It's an airline similar to Southwest. It's actually super efficient, and they load passengers from the front and back of the plane. So, we boarded fast, got to Eindhoven even faster... 45 minutes total... and then had to find a bus, to take us to a train to Amsterdam. Once there we had to take the metro to another bus and finally arrrived at our Hostel. We stayed last night at a place called Lucky Lake Hostel which is about 30 minutes from City Center. It's a great little place. The only weird thing is that it's a bunch of little trailers for 2 people. So, Josh and I shared a bed in this tiny little camper which was maybe a little akward. All in all, though, it's a nice place. We are actually spending our second night at a Youth Hostel down right in the mix of things near city center. So, that should be a whole different experience which I will write about tomorrow.

Alright other than the little camper, I don't have anything else really funny to tell about. It was a pretty chill day, since we were tired from no sleep. Went to bed pretty early, to gear up for all the stuff we are going to go see today. The only meal other than Bagels for breakfast yesterday, was at this place called Wok to Walk. It's a really cool stir fry place that makes everything super fast to go. It was excellent. I had chicken terriaki and I am honestly not sure what Josh had. Alright, 2 minutes until I get kicked off... I better go. If there are any grammatical errors in this post, please excuse them. Alright, off to the city...

Day 4 - London

Great news... at least for me - I finally was able to sleep longer than 4 hours!  So, now that I am caught up on sleep, everything should feel a little more normal.  Alright, so what I did today... well the day started of course at the bagel shop again.  I know I have eaten there a bunch, but it's super cheap and in London that is extremely rare.   For example, my breakfast the other day with gratuity was 8.5 pounds, which is $16 and change US.  This morning, I had a apple pastry and Josh had something similar and it was 80 pence total, which is about $1.50.  So, bagel shop, then to the Underground to head towards an area called SOHO. 

The main reason we are in Europe is just because we want to see new places and take a "holiday" to travel.  There are other small things, though, that we want to accomplish here and one of those is checking out some coffee shops in Europe.  I mentioned before that Josh, David and I are going to be opening a coffee shop.  We are going to be opening it up at the end of the year, and have already done a good portion of the leg work (business plan, established relationships with vendors, etc).  Once Josh and I get back, David will be about a week from getting married.  After that, it's going to be full speed ahead opening up the shop.  So, all that to say... while we are here we want to see some coffee shops and get a feel for what they are like in this part of the world.  I know I keep saying this, but I will be posting pictures just as soon as I can get my camera hooked up and working... and these pictures will include some coffee shops.

Alright, so in SOHO we found a few really great places.  While in the city, all I have mostly seen is your basic chain type places and of course Starbucks.  Most of them are overpriced, and none of them really serve a great cup of coffee - unless you think Starbucks is great coffee...  Anyway, today, was quite the opposite.  We found some really great places with really great coffee.  We went to 3 places total.  First, before we got to SOHO we stopped at a place called Scooterworks.  Aparantly this place was created by someone who loves Vespas and really scooters of all kinds.  It was alright, but definately not the best.  Pretty interesting place actually... the walls look like one big scooter ad.  Next, was a trip to what had the best atmosphere.  Sacred Cafe (www.sacredcafe.co.uk) is owned by a couple Kiwis (New Zealanders) and the place definitely has that feel.  The place has two floors and a great patio area outside the front doors.  We were able to chat with the owner for a little while and talk about coffee for a little bit.  This place was awesome, though, and I would recommend it to you next time you are in London.  It's worth the trip from wherever you are.  The third place we went had, in my opinion, the best coffee for sure.  It's a place called Flat White (www.flat-white.co.uk)  This place is also owned by a couple of Kiwis.  They actually own 2 different shops in SOHO.  It's a great place, with great espresso, and once again, extremely friendly owners.  Check out the website if you have some time.  It is such a great place.

Alright, I will make the rest quick since I just rambled on about coffee.  We grabbed a bite at a local British restaurant.  I had one of the best Cheeseburgers I have ever had, and Josh had some pretty rockin' Brocolli Bleu Cheese Soup.  Water to drink of course.  Don't think I have mentioned this, but I am going to try my best to not drink any soft drinks while I am here.  Finished the night watching Euro '08 in a bar close to the house, and then headed home... well to Nick's home, which is where I am right now.  I am going to bed early tonight because we have to be up around 3am to catch our plane to Amsterdam.  My next post will be from there...

Day 3 - London

Today was a day filled with sightseeing and roaming around the city. The day started with a very early morning for me. In London this time of year, the sun starts to rise very early. So, when 5am rolled around, the sun automatically woke me up. It's weird, because normally I can sleep through anything. I guess if it's not dark, I can't go back to bed. So, seeing that my 4 hours of sleep was all I was going to get, I went for an early morning jog. Concerned that I might lose my way, I decided to stick to one main road. Off that road, I found a great little park to finish my run in.

20 min later...
Yes, 20 minutes is about all I could handle after a night of Vietnameese food, beer and football... I arrived back to find everyone else still asleep. I decided to kill a few hours on ESPN.com, and once everyone was up, we went to the bagel shop for breakfast.

Today we said adios to Nick. He is off to go sailing with his new boss off the coast of Italy... must be nice. He does have to wear a blue blazer and khaki shorts the whole time though, so maybe not so lucky. Anyway, after parting ways, we made our way to central London. We walked down the Thames river for a while, and just before we arrived at the Tate Modern Museum, we came upon a crowd of people. After a few minutes, we realized that they were all looking at a dead body. You heard me right, a freaking dead body. Apparently a car had been found at the bottom of the river with a dead body in it. It had been decomposing for a while, so it was pretty nasty. I will post pictures as soon as I get them.

Next was the Tate. It's a great modern museum filled with works by Picasso and the like. After leaving there, we wanered over to St. Paul's Cathedral. Lunch on the steps of this great building was grocery store fare. For me - Chicken Caesar Wrap, a banana, and chocolate chip cookie. Josh - Veggie pasta, banana, and yogurt.

Hyde park was next. That is where I wrote most of this blog entry. Huge amazing park where I was most impressed with the rollerbladers weaving through cones. Although it was probably the most dorky thing I have seen, it was very impressive. If I can get video of these guys, I will post it. After Hyde Park was dinner. Pizza for me and Fish & Chips for Josh. After that, we came back and crashed pretty early. It was a long day. Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight, although I am nervous that 5am will wake me up once again...

An introduction, Day 1, and Day 2

Hello Everyone. Greetings from Europe. If you know me well at all, you know that sometimes I have a tendency to procrastinate. So, it should come as no surprise that I have taken a few days to get this blog set up. It is now ready to go, though, and I have every intention of writing on it as much as possible. For those of you that don't know what I am doing, I will tell you right now. I am traveling around Europe for the next six weeks with a good friend, Josh Hargrave. We are roommates in Dallas, and also are going to be opening up a coffee shop when we get back with another great friend David Johnson. I am going to be keeping all of you up to date on what we are doing, what we are eating, what random things are happening, and hopefully will be posting as many pictures as possible. If you would like to take a look at Josh's blog at any point, go to joshhargrave.blogspot.com

So, without further ado...


June 15, Day 1 - The trip across the pond
I am going to combine days 1 and 2 together in this posting since the basically ran together. From here on out, I will do my best to post every day or at least every other day. So, today was an interesting and exhausting day. Since my flight was leaving at 6:00am, I decided that it would be a bad idea to even try to sleep. So, I got a nice American fast food meal (Jack in the Box in case anyone is wondering) around midnight, and then finished packing. Of course, I had all night to get to the airport, but somehow decided to arrive about 45 minutes before an international flight. Anyway, boarded the plane around 6am, and I was off. One nice thing about having a job in the past where I traveled is having hoards of miles. So, I went ahead and booked the flight on business class. This turned out to be an excellent decision for a number of reasons, but mainly because the seats turn in to beds.

Once I arrived in London around 12:30am, I referred to the directions Nick (my American friend in London) gave me before I left. I was told to take the tube in to the city, and then go from there. One problem... the tube was closed. So, after doing a little research, I found that I had only one option... the bus. Having only 2 credit cards and a passport, I was screwed. The buses only take cash, and I couldn't find a money exchange. Finally, I found a place to get some cash, and once 1:30am rolled around, I was finally on a bus to Central London. After finally finding my way to Liverpool street, the only other thing I knew was to find Swanfield Street. Since I had no map, and it was 3:00am by now, it was getting fairly ridiculous. Luckily, I randomly ran in to a construction worker who happened to have a huge map of London (thank you God for that random blessing) who was able to point me in the right direction. So, here I was, a 25 year old American dude, walking down the streets of London with a brand new, huge North Face backpack on just asking to be robbed. All I knew at this point, was I needed to find Nick's place pretty quick. So, after a few stops along the way to hotels and convenience stores, an hour of wandering, and a pay phone call to Nick I arrived. Safe and dead freaking tired, I said hello to Josh and went to bed for a few hours.

Day 2, June 16
Today was a pretty chill day by most accounts. It started with a brunch at a place called Giraffe. I am not sure how many of you are reading Josh's blog, but he is, at least for the time being, a vegetarian. I, however, am definately not, so I went with the tortilla with cheese, chorizo, black beans, and avocado. Josh got waffles.

After a good breakfast/lunch, we made a trip to the key cutter, so Nick could make us a copy of his key (which of course didn't work when we got back to his flat later on). After the key cutting adventure, I opted for a long nap, since I had only slept about 5 hours in the past 48 or so. After the nap, we had dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant. Nick and I had beef and Josh had rice. We all shared some veggie spring rolls, and the best thing on the menu - fried squid. I know it sounds awful to some of you, but it was amazing. After dinner, we went to Watch a Euro '08 match at a bar nearby. If you don't know this about me already, you will soon learn that I am a pretty big sports fan, and even more so, a Soccer fan (Football over here). Anyway, I am thrilled that our trip fell right during one of the biggest tournaments in the World - Euro 2008. Basically, the 16 European teams that qualified, compete in a tournament which concludes on June 29 in Vienna, Austria. I am pumped about this, because we are going to be in Vienna on that day. It should be an amazing time, but I will wait until then to write any more about it.

So, after a few beers at dinner and a few more at the bar, we were feeling pretty saucy. Next was a trip to a 24hr bagel shop to sober up a little bit. This place sells, in addition to great bagels, tons of amazing pastries. For those of you that know the Czech Stop in West, TX - just imagine that but a lot smaller without Dr. Pepper or A&M and UT paraphernalia. After a good Apple Turnover and some cheesecake we are off to bed.