I got up at 10:30, got ready, and met Zuzana at 12:30 for a tour! I was supposed to meet her at 12:15, but I got lost (this seems to be a theme of this trip…). I didn’t make it until 12:30, but she waited! We walked through the city until 5, then she had a hair appointment. I had fried cheese with her (typical / traditional food in Prague), saw the towers, the castle, and the chapels of Prague (and the bridge!). Learned a lot about the Czechs and the Slovaks. She was really nice! It rained a lot though 
We bought an umbrella for the rain, and afterward, I teased her and told her she should hold it up like a real tour guide (we saw a lot of guides doing this!).
Since she wasn’t from Prague, she didn’t know all of the stories or names of things, but it was fun! We made everything up as we went … and I got to compare some stuff with my roommates who went on a real tour – she had the better stories 
I should have set something up with her that night… but didn’t. We parted ways, and I went back to the hostel after buying a few post cards. I pub crawled again with the roommates – we found one that had unlimited drinks for 300 crowns. We had dinner before – chili goulash and garlic soup (more traditional dishes). There were loud annoying British guys at the pub crawl. I mostly hung out with Mark and Storms – the pub crawl ended in a club called Roxy (apparently where part of Eurotrip was filmed), but it sucked so we went back to Le Chapeau Rouge (Where I met Zuzana). No Zuzana . I gave her a $1 USD bill and signed it after the tour
I got to the Hauptbahnhof at 6:00am and bought the 60 euro ticket to Prague, then got in a Harry Potter / James Bond style train. COLD. Not comfy. At all. Had my ticket checked several times… in short, didn’t get much sleep. Got to Prague around 12:30pm. Checked Czeched into the hostel then internetted for a while, then went to the grocery store and bought ravioli, pretzels, coke, and bananas [[My feet / calves were getting cramps on the train ride, so I was trying to beef up my sodium/potassium intake]]. Ate it, then went and took a nap. Got up, internetted some more. Pub crawled. Met Mark Maccoll (Irish) and Storms (San Diego) from the hostel. Like most pub crawls, the ratio was skewed. Bided my time until the club basically… had a good time with Mark and Storms though! In the club, we met some Swedish girls, but then I saw a pretty girl all alone and went and pretended to be Australian. 15 seconds later, I had to admit I was American (haha). [[She asked where I was from in Australia. I know Australia... but I hadn't considered that myself, so I just bailed... ha!]] We really hit it off and danced all night, then wandered the streets in the rain for an hour… then I got a cab with her back home. What’s up with people paying for my cabs!? We agreed to meet up on Friday at one of the shops we had walked by and she’d give me a tour.
Her name is Zuzana – she’s from Slovakia and is studying international relations in Prague. She knows Czech, Polish, Slovak, French, Spanish, and English (wow!). And she is awesome.
I got up at 10:00am, showered, then had breakfast at the hostel. After that, I went with Chris and Andres to the Jewish museum, then came home and got a shishkebab. Afterwards, I had a 2L das boot of beer – Chris and I raced, and Chris won. If you finished it in 3 minutes, it was free… so of course we tried. And failed. We ended up doing karaoke all night in the hostel bar – Chris opened with a Rick Roll, and I followed with a really messed up cover of Bohemian Rhapsody that ended up being only half the song. After that, I did a lot of songs with some guys from the Netherlands (Laurens, Daniel, and Kelvin) [[Ended up randomly running into them in Munich]]. I ended up getting two free t-shirts for it… but they were women’s shirts. That didn’t stop me from wearing them for the night! (… I didn’t really realize that they were women’s until later…). Anyways, got told by some girls that I have a great voice. I stayed up all night to make the 6:30 train to Prague.
I got up at 11:00, and it rained all day. I did laundry with Chris and Andres, then went shopping for a bag. I bought a new bag that was still small enough to carry on [[should have gotten something larger]], then went to a department store and bought two new undershirts. I called my brother Nick and wished him a happy birthday at around 7:00am KC time, then went to the Reichstag and climbed the done on top with Chris and Andres. We went back to the hostel, then went to a microbrewery called Lemke Brauhaus and had some local beers plus a “Berlin” ham knuckle. Got to bed around 2.
I woke up at about 10:30am (finally, sleep!) – but unfortunately the sun comes up in Berlin around 3:30am and all of the windows were open so it was on and off sleep. I went on Brewer’s free walking tour which lasted around 5 hours. It went by: Berlin Wall, Museum Island, Brandenburg Gate, Hitler’s Bunker, several memorials, the book burning square, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Reichstag (and probably more that I’ve forgotten). Afterwards, I went to Alexanderplatz in search of a new bag but didn’t get one because I had to go get home for a pub crawl at 8:00. Went with Chris, Andres, and Classic Scott. Experienced the whole underground electronic music of Berlin thing – went to Cafe Zapata and BangBang. Ended up having to watch after Classic Scott but got to dance with Swedish and Australian girls. On the way home we walked by a brothel and they tried to get us to go in. We almost lost Classic Scott at that point… Made it back around 3:30am … yay sun.
Getting out of Amsterdam now – the place doesn’t really do much for me. I had a really hard time meeting people in the hostel and in general because almost everyone was really stoned. I regret not being able to go to the Van Gogh museum, but I don’t want to spend any more time there.
On my way to Berlin today – I hear it’s really easy to meet people and that it’s a very interesting place to visit. Got 1 night in a place called The Circus which was recommended to me by a guy from Chicago in Amsterdam (Jack).
I hate slow people! This is the second time I’ve missed a train due to slow people. I missed a connection to Berlin (13:41) and now have to wait until 15:41. The people getting off the train were slow. The people on the platform were slow. It’s 14:41 right now. Not going to get to Berlin until 9pm at least… need a train pass badly – it cost 100 euros for this trip so I’m at 260 euros / $390 on train tickets in the last week. 21 day Global pass would be great right now…
I got to Berlin around 11:30pm – had a train get cancelled and then another get delayed by 75 minutes. I met Chris Colby and Andres Amerikaner while checking into the hostel (ended up hanging out with them in Berlin the whole time… [[and again in Barcelona]]) and got a kebab for dinner. Had one beer and went to bed around 2:00.
[[Looking back...]] It’s funny that I ended up being friends with Chris and Andres – they annoyed the crap out of me at first. I was behind them when checking in at 11:00. It was late – I had been traveling all day and I was tired. They kept asking where the good places to eat were, and what the good local beers were and stuff like that. Marking it on maps and the like. I was just like… HURRY UP, I WANT TO PUT MY BAGS DOWN AND RELAX. But I waited. And finally it was my turn. I heard them say something about being hungry, so I interjected that I was hungry too and asked if they’d mind if I came along. This is something that happened a few times during my trip – I got annoyed with people I didn’t know for silly reasons, then ended up being good friends! Just thought I’d throw that in there.
I got up at 10:00am, packed, then found out I’d be in the same bed so I went and unpacked again. I took a walking tour of Amsterdam from 11:00 to 3:00, then had lunch with the guide and some people from the tour group (Helen from NY and Will from London). After the tour, I went to the Anne Frank house. It was interesting – they have the original diary, and you get to walk through the actual house, hidden staircase and all.
I later met some cute girls from Athens. Then I went to the supermarket and bought some razors (I lost mine in Paris), some orange juice, some hair stuff, and some Axe. I walked home, took a shower, and shaved. Then I went to sleep.
I got up at 9:20am and checked out of St. Christopher’s, Paris and then had breakfast with Marigold (the Australian I met on the metro on day 1). I left at 9:50 to Gare du Nord to go to Amsterdam. Got tickets that left at 11:58 and got there at 16:02 with a one hour stopover in Brussels, Belgium. With the pass, it cost me 3 euros to get to the edge of France… but that’s as far as my pass goes. It cost 62 euros to get from Lille to Amsterdam. I need to look into a better rail pass and a better backpack and sunglasses and cologne and clothes. Just realized I didn’t buy anything in France .
So, I think this trip is awesome. I am getting so good at just meeting people and having fun with people I haven’t know for long. Also, at remembering names. I have learned the value of doing “nothing” and I’ve learned how to move from there to mad fun on command. When I came, I just thought I’d be seeing the sights – didn’t realize it would be 5 solid weeks of partying and transforming. I literally feel happier, more confident, more charged, etc. I feel like I’ve missed out on antire side of life until now, but discovering it has given me ambition and purpose to do more than just work and have things. Now I want to live. I want to be free and do what I want. I want to do random stuff like sky drive, take guitar lessons, learn more languages, etc [[I guess I was like this already, looking back...]]. I am wondering (and hoping) that all of this stays with me once I start the daily grind of having a job and being back home.
During my stop in Brussels, I had a Belgium Waffle. Yay!
I got to Amsterdam around 6:00. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that this is two hours after I was supposed to arrive… the train got delayed in Brussels. I stayed in St. Christopher’s which was right on the edge of the red light district. I had dinner there, then went on a pub crawl and met some cool people from Chicago and Amsterdam. I walked home around 3:00am and got offered cocaine by like three dealers on the way. Oh my.
I got up at 9:00, packed up (had to check out and back into a new room) then left for Versailles. Had a baguette on the way, and the train ride ended up taking an hour and a half. Worth it? Definitely.
I spent about 1.5 hours wandering the palace with an audio guide then another 1.5 hours in the garden (unfortunately, they don’t run the fountains every day, and this wasn’t one of those days), then another 1.5 hours on a guided tour of the King’s private apartments and the chapel. On the tour, we went to the room where King Louis XVI received Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and agreed to fund the American Revolution! Awesome.
I got home at about 6:40pm and had the hostel dinner at 7. Met a Scottish girl (Mel) and ran into James again. James was going to the Eiffel tower again, but I decided I’d go on the pub crawl. [[I'm pretty sure this was my first...]] The pub crawl ended up being really fun! There were about 50 people total and probably 40 of them were from Michigan State University studying abroad – they were crazy. We went to four bars, then ended up in a club. Danced with a lot of hot girls, then I left with Tina and her friend… then on the way home, Tina started puking in the cab (wtf?) so I was like “Oh, my hostel is real close, here’s 3 euros see you later!” and got out in the middle of Paris. I started walking back to the hostel. I saw the cheap rental bikes, so I tried to get one but my credit card wouldn’t work (Europe has chip cards, and I think I needed one of those). I kept walking for about an hour and made it through one of three districts I needed to walk through to get to my hostel. At this point, I decided it would be worth dealing with Parisian cab drivers and caught a cab at 4:00am. It ended up costing less than 10 euros… which was better than I expected. In hindsight, I should have stayed at the club and met more people, but oh well.
It was a good last night in Paris
Got up at 9:30 and caught the Sandeman’s free walking tour at 10:15. It was a good tour with lots of history and lots of sights. It started in Plaza San Michel, went over Pont Neuf, by Notre Dame, by the Louvre, through the Teulieres, by the Egyptial Obelisk (site of the guillotine during the revolution), down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, within view of the Arc de Triumph, and probably more that I’ve forgotten.
After the tour, I went to the Catacombs. The Catacombs were cool – there are around 6 million people’s worth of bones down there! After the Catacombs, I headed over to the Louvre. I made it through the Louvre in about 2 hours. I made sure to see all of the big things and the things that interested me – the Mona Lisa, Hammurabi’s Code, etc. I pretty much went through every room… I even saw some rooms full of stuff by a Spanish painted named Murillo, so I had to get some pictures for Roberto – haha! After the Louvre, I walked all the way down Avenue des Champs-Élysées to le Arc de Triumph and the tomb of the unknown soldier. After all of that, I caught the metro back to the hostel and arrived around 9pm. I had a 10 euro burger (blech) with some guys from Texas (Scott & two other guys). Did the Eiffel tower again then went home and got to bed by 12:15.