Berlin, Amsterdam and Prague

Hello,

The weeks have literally flown by. People in hostels always make fun of each other because no one knows what day it is. This is not an exaggeration folks. I could not tell you what today is, but I do know that this is day 1 of 4 in Prague and that it's June now. Most time I don't even know what time it is most of the time since my watch was stolen and I kind of prefer it that way. Life is relaxed and life is good (for the most part). Life on the road is great with the exception of having to lug a backpack all over the Europe and not having someone to make sure I wake up in time for my train or have my fly zipped up, etc.

Anyway, Berlin...wow. I was not expecting it to be the way it was. When I think of Germany, images of clean streets and order, in general, come to mind. First, it is enormous (two cities merged together). Three days was absolutely not enough time to see everything, unfortunately. Some people at my hostel went to see a concentration camp an hour away and reported that almost all of them threw up because of the stentch that still hovers over the camp. I decided not to go there because I didn't have enough time to spare. Instead, I joined a walking tour with a friend from my hostel. We both noticed how much grafitti there is. Almost every single building is covered in amazing artwork. Another interesting sight was the Berlin Wall which is not as tall as I expected. There are only a few parts left standing, but some of the original grafitti is left.

Amsterdam. I spent too much time here. Two days is sufficient to cover the entire city and the museums, but I had four. However, it was nice to see the city again 9 years later. Dutch people are extremely friendly and most of them speak English fluently. People constantly spoke to me Dutch, so maybe the family has some Dutch roots from way back when? Took a stroll through the Red Light District at night. It was extremely entertaining to see the type of people who walkout out of live porn shows.

Just arrived in Prague and had a hellish first two hours. The Czech Rep. is not on the Euro so I had to take out some money to pay for a bus ride. The ATM only gave out 1000czh bills which is about 20 bucks. The bus drivers would not give me change for that large a bill and nothing was open to buy something to get change because it was 10pm so I had to take a taxi which cost me as much as three nights at a hostel costs. Arrrrr!

Ciao