Berlin

Father's Day:

First off we want to send out our Happy Father's Day wishes to our wonderful dads. We love you both and we are so thankful for all you have taught us and helped us to achieve. So here it is once more... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD HUGHES AND DAD CASALETTO!!!!

Ryan Air:

We knew going into the flight that RyanAir is a no-frills, discount airline. As soon as we boarded we understood exactly what this meant. First off you don't get seat assignments. Instead about 45 minutes before the plane boards everyone gets in a huge line. We were able to sit together though so that was good. The plane looked like something from Idiocracy (if you haven't seen that movie you should). The seat backs were orange plastic and they had an emergency procedures sticker attached to it. The reason the information was there and not in a pamphlet was because there was no pocket on the seat back for a pamphlet. There was a tray table and that's it. The overhead bins were the same orange as the seat backs and each had a different advertisement on it. The chairs do not recline and Greg could barely fit his legs. Then we were hit with the constant advertising. Commercials played on the loudspeaker until takeoff. Then they passed out menus with ridiculous food items (hot dogs, pizza, burgers, etc) because no beverage or snack was provided of course. Every five minutes the stewards were walking down the isle. Once for scratch off lottery tickets, another time for perfume and cigarettes, and again for alcohol (there was a buy one get one free vodka special at 6 AM!) Overall, great deal for 25 euros each!

At the top level of the biggest train station in Europe.

Clown Guy:

We're waiting on the subway platform and we hear a long loud clunking sound. The sound is repeated and followed by another pause and we hear laughing. We are right beside the stairs so we can't see what the fuss is about yet...and then we see him. There is a slightly overweight man in his mid-thirties dressed in a skirt, a short tight shirt, a red puffy wig, and a real BALL AND CHAIN strapped to his ankle! He is surrounded by 5 guys in tight pants, tight black t-shirts (cut at the neck for that deep v-neck effect) with dress shirts and ties underneath. They were apparently encouraging and supporting this guy. The guy with the wig would say a little speech then drag his ball and chain over to people and they (real Germans not tourists) would laugh and give him a couple Euros. After receiving the Euros his little Greaser posse would all say “Ehhhh!” and golf clap. Once on the train it got even more hilarious. He continues his little monologue and now each time the posse yells and claps a dog on the train starts to bark...which leads to more cheering and clapping, which leads to more barking...you see where this is going. I'd like to hear what you think was going on. My guesses are either a bachelor party or a dare...but it was so elaborate I am leaning towards bachelor party (especially with the whole ball and chain).

Hostel:

I just love this hostel. We got REAL towels and hot showers that stayed on! We shared a room with two other guys, one was from Montreal and had been studying philosophy for a year in Paris. Greg chatted with him for some time about philosophy and Paris. Apparently in Montreal they have this 'after high school but not quite college' school where they can take courses for two years and it is kind of like college. It had a name too...Which perhaps I will look up in Prague. The Generator has its own bar and they were having a Green Party which had drink specials on all green beer and shots. There were so many drunk kids it was ridiculous! We went to bed at 11 and it was insanely loud. I woke up at 4 (because that is when the sun comes up) and would you believe it...it was even louder! Oh and I heard some poor kid relentlessly knocking on a door, I guess he got locked out. Our last day there we came down for breakfast and there were some kids laughing and taking pictures of something. As we got closer we saw some boy passed out IN his breakfast. His 'friends' had covered him in hostel stickers and were proceeding to take pictures with him. Poor guy.

Generator Bar

In our room...hanging out by the windows, utilizing our cool tide sink sized detergent (Which actually worked GREAT)

Fat Tire Tour:

When Kaylyssa and I were in Berlin last we went on a great walking tour. I wanted to do this again but since I'd done it once and we kind of wasted our first day by sleeping we decided to do the Fat Tire City Tour. This was a 6 mile, 4.5 hour tour on beach cruisers through Berlin. IT WAS GREAT! We saw everything; the Berlin wall, Hitler's bunker (where he spent his last days), Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charley, the hotel that Michael Jackson hung his baby over the balcony at, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, the site and memorial to the Nazi book burning of over 20,000 books, two huge parks, a beer garden, Museum Island, and lots more. Our tour guide was great, she was from Texas and has been living in Berlin for 3 years. We met lots of interesting people on the tour, there was even a Kevin there! The streets are pretty bike friendly and our bikes had bells and squeak toys, which were not used sparingly.

On our sweet bikes at the start of the tour.

On Museum island, at the piece of remaining Berlin wall, and the Monument for the Murdered Jews.

'Save Our Planet' On the Berlin wall...the rounded top was donated by East Berlin as sewer pipes. Instead, they cut a slice in them and covered the top of the walls so people wouldn't have anything to grab onto to pull themselves up. The picture of grass is actually directly above the 30 room bunker that Hitler spent his last days in and eventually died in. They wanted to distroy the bunker but it was imposible to blow up and dismantaling was expensive. They ended up flooding it and filling it in to use as a parking lot.

Last remaining sniper tower from within the 'death strip' or the area between the two walls. The tower with the ball is the TV Tower.

Marx and Engles statue and me at Museum island.

Greg doing tricks as we ride through a field by Berlin's parlament building.

Final Thoughts on Berlin:

We loved this city. It was huge but we had the easiest time on the subway and trains (way easier than NY... and the signs are in English there!). Greg really liked it and said he would like to spend a week here, me too! The sun in the summer time is intense, it rises around 4 AM and sets at 11PM. The weather was still pretty cool 18-20 degrees Celsius or around 60 F. The punks are really great to. There were a whole bunch of punk kids playing in the fountain...their green mohawks all soggy and sagging! They were also doing a dance that Greg mistook for playing hacky sack. It resembled a mix of Irish dancing and two stepping. Playing and swimming in fountains is perfectly legal in Berlin! The begging was also not too bad just some gypsies at the main tourist places that would say' “speak English?” and then hand you a letter about their life. Not bad though. The Mayor of Berlin is pretty great too. He is the first homosexual major and his campaign was famous for saying “Berlin is poor, but sexy.” We're on the Eurail to Prague now and we'll post again when we leave Prague. I am shooting for one post per city...Cheers!

At Brandenburg Gate

'Sand Island'

Berlin Teaser Post

We have had so much fun in Berlin...and we've been very busy. We're taking our first Eurail train to Prague tomrrow (5 hrs) and we'll post the rest of Berlin then.

The Generator hostel is wonderful...Kaylyssa and I stayed in it last time we were here. Here are a few more quick pictures. We're watching a soccer game in the lounge now so gotta go!

In the hostel lobby...yea it all looks like that!

Free breakfast! I believe that's Coco Crisps I have there!

PS. I just tried to spell check but since we're in Germany every word came up except so, Berlin, and Generator!!

Flight and Dublin

On the plane...with surprise breakfast!

6-17-09

The flight to Dublin was great. Great temperature, we got TWO meals, and no turbulence. We were next to a lovely old man who had dual citizenship between Ireland and the USA. He spends half his time in Connecticut and then the other half on his farm in Ireland.

We got into Dublin at 6:45 AM. It was 59 degrees and rainy so we got a wee bit wet walking to our hostel. We are staying at Patty's Palace hostel which has been great thus far. We couldn't check in until 12 so we decided to go tour the Guinness factory. Fun fact: Albert Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for 45 pounds a year!

Peace Corps update: We got an email from the person who will be in charge of all the new recruits in Belize and she is going to have a teleconference with us at the end of June. Thank goodness we have Skype! She said it would be about an hour and hopefully we'll get an even better picture of what we'll be doing and what staging/training will be like!

Hostel Life:

We made friends with a Canadian couple and a German girl at dinner in the hostel kitchen. We chatted for some time over coffee and tea about different things we thought the other should see. The German girl helped me understand why new years in Berlin was so crazy (I was telling her about when I went with Kaylyssa and we got hit numerous times by fireworks). She said that you're not allowed to touch fireworks until you're 18 and that once they're legal age they all just go crazy and shoot them at each other. She also said any crowd (20+ people) is crazy and a bad idea in Germany :) Greg took a shower before bed and he said it is like the sinks in airports, as in, you press the push valve and you get rewarded with 8-10 seconds of water. I bet that conserves a TON of water at a hostel. Ireland is just so GREEN! :) (You know you like that play on words!)

Potato Famine sculptures

Greg with the 'Linesman' sculpture

So it's 1AM Dublin time and we're sitting outside out sold out hostel room (8 bed mixed dorm) wide awake. It was funny when I woke up at around 12 something it was to a girl talking in her sleep in Swedish. We're going to go try to sleep until breakfast opens at 6. Yay free breakfast!!

Me yawning for the thousandth time in our dorm, and Greg's fortune from his farewell lunch with the tugboat crew.

6/18/09

We walked for 5 hours straight! We had so much fun today (we couldn't help but dance, as seen above). For the most part the rain stayed away so we had some great weather. We went to the National Museum at Collins Barracks (established in 1704) and learned about Ireland's bloody past and the IRA (Irish Republic Army). There was a fifteen year old volunteer (he started volunteering at 6) who died taking messages back and forth on the front lines, his last words were said to be 'god bless the volunteers.'

We then had a lovely time walking all over the city and stumbled upon a beautiful park called St. Stephen's Green. There were people laying all over the neon green grass and swans and ponds too! Dublin in general seemed to be in a wonderful mood. We walked around in the Temple Bar area and took almost an hour to find the Street Performance World Championships 2009 in Merrion Square. We watched three acts, the American break-dancers being by far the best! The Australian contortionist wasn't too bad either.

While we were walking around we were hunting for a travel alarm clock. We went into around 10 stores and NO one had one. Finally we found an outdoor company which was awesome!!! We played in there for almost 45 minutes and came out with a travel alarm AND two breathable, packable raincoats which we needed for Belize anyway!

So we just arranged for our 4 o'clock taxi to go off to Berlin. Gotta go shower and pack and then perhaps we'll sleep?

Kaylyssa this last picture is for you. This was a preschool group, in uniforms, walking by twos...remind you of anything??