Busy in my last few days in Europe

Hey all,

I have done so much since last time I posted, but I haven't had time to write. We are also thinking about taking a trip today to a famous island in the far north of Germany, the Island of Sylt on the North Sea. Wiebke's mom, who I met along with Wiebke's sister last night, owns an apartment that she rents out on the island. She's offered us a place to stay if we decide to make the trip. We're checking the weather right now and will be making our decision shortly. Stay tuned for the decision and more pictures and messages from Europe - though they may have to wait to go up until I get get home since I leave on Thursday morning!

See you in a couple days! Hopefully I will find some time to post between now and then!

New post, this time with pictures!

Guten Tag!!!

After a long dry spell of picture posting, I will now make up for such a terrible thing to do to you. I cannot tell you how much I loved Warsaw, though I certainly did try to. Berlin was really cool as well. I got to Berlin on Thursday evening, was amazed at the huge and beautifully efficient train station, had a little bit of a frustrating time figuring out which S Bahn (tram) line to take to get to my hostel, and eventually got to Wombat's Hostel in the City Center (though it was East Berlin before The Wall came down). I highly recommend this hostel if you ever visit Berlin. I had a great first night - went up to the in-house bar on the top floor of the hostel, which also had a beautiful outdoor deck, watched the sunset, drank some beer, and met some new friends that were also traveling alone - one from Australia another from the Netherlands, and another from Malaysia. They were great to hang out with. I met more people from many other places, including another guy from New Zealand that we had beers with that night, but hung out with those three the most. The next day we all met up for breakfast and the dude from the Netherlands and I set out for a walk through the huge park in Berlin after visiting Karl-Marx Allee, including a climb up the Victory Statute Tower where we got great views of Berlin. Not only this, though, we stumbled across a section of the park that I suppose was a nudist section. I don't have an issue with people that want to be naked, but it just seemed a little odd to me that they would choose to do so in the middle of the largest park in the middle of a city of 3.2 million people. I totally understand the beach, but this was a little weird. And no, I did not take pictures.

Bar/Deck at top of the Hostel:

The Victory Statue Tower:

After the park, which we walked through for quite a while since it was so large, we had a late lunch of Currywurst (sausage covered in a tomato-curry sauce) with french fries and a beer and then walked over to the Brandenburg Gate, where we would meet a tour guide for a walking tour of Berlin. Before the tour could begin, however, we had a quick downpour for about 30 min, where we all (all meaning all the people waiting for the tour) got soaked. After that delay, we finally got started on the tour at 4:30pm. The tour was awesome, included the big sights of Berlin, including the Berlin Wall, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (that's really the name), and Bebelplatz where the Nazi book burnings took place, and ended with the story of how the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago. Yes, I also realized that I had the great luck to be able to visit Berlin on the 20 year anniversary of the falling of the Wall earlier in the day when I saw all of the outdoor exhibits all over the city comemorating the event. It was an incredible experience to be able to be in the city.

The "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe":

Me and The Berlin Wall:

Humboldt University:

My friends and I all met up at the bar later and toasted to Berlin and our newfound friendship, and in the morning I got up, checked out, had breakfast and headed for the train station.

Above: Friends! Except, we didn't know that chick, she just jumped in the picture from nowhere. All I know is she was a little drunk and from Italy.

I arrived in Luneburg yesterday and had dinner with Wiebke (my friend I'm visiting here) in the city center, along with a walk and a beer in a brewery in town. This place is adorable! I'll be visiting it in earnest tomorrow - I have several things I'm planning to see and will certainly post pictures of that as well. Today, Wiebke's best friend Janine was wonderful enough to show me around Hamburg - all three of us got up super early (Wiebke and I got up earlier as we had to take a 30 min. train ride into the city) , we met Janine at the train station and then took the S Bahn to the Fischmarkt (fish market). This was not just a fish market, but the largest farmer's/merchant's market you've ever seen! It was almost like a carnival, and this happens every Sunday starting at 5am and going until after 10am. There were people wandering around, some of them drinking and/or still drunk from last night's partying (did you know that Hamburg has a red light district?!), looking at all the people shouting trying to sell whatever they had: produce, flowers, souveniers, clothes, fish, cheese, and countless other things. My favorite ones were guys at a house plant stand that were extremely excited about their house plants - yelling and shouting to try to sell them and doing all sorts of ridiculous things. The whole event was awesome!

Then we spent the whole day seeing the sights of Hamburg - what a cool city! And it slightly reminds me of Seattle too as it is a port city on the water. Additionally, I think we used every mode of transportation possible today, except for a plane. The weather was nice and cool in the morning, a welcome break from the heat and humidity of Berlin, and then cleared up around midday - sunny and warm all afternoon. Here are pictures to show you what I mean:

The girls showed my so much that I can't possibly cover it all here - you'll have to wait to see all the pictures when I get home - and we ended the day with a trip up the tower in St. Nicolai's Cathedral for a panoramic view of the city - beautiful!

I'm leaving so much stuff out, but this blog can't become a novel. Oh well. Can't wait to see more of extremely charming Luneburg - Auf Wiedersehen!

Brief synopsis of the past few days in short sentences....

Ok, so my last day in Warsaw I spent touring teh Warsaw Uprising Museum, which was amazing. Then, had dinner with Candace at a Bulgarian restaurant - amazing! The next morning I put on my bags and headed for the train station.

After about 5 1/2 hours I arrived in Berlin! I was initially frustrated because I couldn't figure out which S Bahn line to take to get to my hostel, but finaly figured it out. Hostel is awesome. Clean, comfortable, and full of amazingly cool people. Spent all night in the bar drinking beers and meeting people from Malaysia, the Nederlands and New Zealand, to name a few. Very fun. .Then, had breakfasst with a couple friends this morning, then set out to run around the giant park in the center of the city with a new friend from the Nederlands. Then, after hours of walking around the park and climbing the vitory column, we got caught in the rain before taking a free walking tour of Berlin. The walking tour was awesome - saw Brandeburg Gate, Babelplatz, the Berlin Wall, and so many cool places! Seriously cool - will try to post pics soon.

Gotta run!

More Warsaw....

Here's the breakdown from yesterday (the very abbreviated version):
I spent all day walking around Warsaw, went up to the "Old Town" and "New Town" squares, saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, walked through at least 3 of the numerous (and huge!) parks in the city (every city could learn something from the Varsovians), ate the most delicious and heavy lunch - goulash in a giant potato pancake thing topped with sour cream and green onions accompanied by a beer - went to an awesome art exhibit and to the Palace of Culture. The Palace of Culture is actually a Communist skyscraper, which was cool to see, and I'm sure my friend Ben McGreevy would like to know I visited. It was a great day, and was only dampened slightly by a little rain and thunder in the late afternoon, which passed quickly. However, we've been having some interesting weather here, for sure! Can't wait to post the video we took when we got stuck in a bar because of the storm the day before yesterday.

Last night I had the luck and privilege of attending an amazing concert. It was an event to give an award named after and dedicated to a woman (forgetting her name just now) who worked with the Home Army (a resistance group in WWII Poland) to save Jewish children from perishing in the Holocaust. The award is given to an outstanding educator every year, as the woman the award is named after believed that education was a key component to changing the world. The concert featured traditional Jewish music and Cantorers (sp?) and was such an incredible experience. Just thinking about it right now gives me goosebumps. It took place in the National Opera House downtown Warsaw as well, which was a fantastic experience for me. Tons of Jewish people came in from the U.S. and Israel to winess this prestigious event, and the former presient of Poland, the current president's wife and twin brother, and the last remaining member of the underground group to save the Jewish children during WWII attended. Candace managed to snag us some tickets (she was kind enough to have me tag along) to this invitation only event and I got to sit up in the U.S. Embassy's private box - way cool! I'm seriously racking my brain for ways that I might be able to thank her for this amazing stay in such a beautiful city. She really has been a tremendous host. I am so lucky to have such wonderful and gracious people in my life.

This trip has been full of some of the most fabulous experiences in my life, and I still have a week left. Tomorrow I will catch the 11:35am train to Berlin and then will head to Hamburg on Saturday to wrap up this European Experience. 6 weeks has gone by so fast!