madrid and san sebastian

we left from barcelona on the 24th and decided to fit madrid and san sebastian into 4days. 2 days is not enough time to see either city. madrid was better than expected. most people said it was just another big city, but the museums, parks, and nightlife are pretty nice. had a little trouble leaving madrid however. we only allowed about half an hour to catch our train in the morning. this would have been fine if we had went to the correct train station. strange thing is that the ticket clerk sold us the ticket and afterwards, told us that we could make it to the other station in time. she was 20 minutes wrong. we ended up taking a bus to san sebastian...about a 40 euro mistake. coming to san sebastian was worth the money though. it's like spain's panama city but cooler weather and surrounded by large hills (or small mountains). overall, spain may be the best country i've visited for a number of reasons. our hostel has 5 euro all-you-can-drink, so i'm going to go join jeff on the terrace.

the rest of rome and barcelona

the best part about going out in rome is walking past 1000+ year old buildings on the way home. partying in rome is similar to berlin in that you need to know where to go. apparently, the people of rome don't really drink too much, so all the bars and clubs are kind of tucked away. partly due to this, jeff and i ended up about a 45 minute walk from our hostel. we had a pretty good time talking with some columbians and portugeuse; two places i previously knew very little about. on our last day, jeff and i took a walk down to the vatican but refused to pay the entrance fee to the vatican museum on principal. we were planning on going to florence, but jeff noticed that we could catch the last night of the sonar music festival, possibly barcelona's biggest party, if we hopped on a ferry the next day....so we did. i would be surprised if anywhere parties harder than barcelona because i don't think it is possible. we went out at 10 and the last band went on at 5:30 in the morning. hordes of starting-to-be hungover people walking past people heading to work...is barcelona. one night of partying here essentially takes up two days time. not sure where we are headed to next, but i think we are all content killing more time here.

interlaken, switzerland

we took a train through the alps to interlaken, switzerland, the "extreme" sports capital of the world. what i took this to mean is the swiss people charging rich kids exhorbitant amounts of money for 20 minutes of fun. sandwiches from the supermarket were barely in the budget. though the alps were amazing, the prices and crowd made it hard to enjoy. our first hostel was real nice on account of being at a remote location on the briensee (nearby lake) 15 minutes from interlaken. our second hostel was mostly filled with rich kids sporting their greek letters and mentality that they havent been able part with yet. regardless, we spent a couple good days mountain biking, hiking, and camping in the alps. the alps are notable in that they rise almost 2000 meters nearly straight up from the valley. should have plenty of pictures up in a little while.
we took a night train from bern, switzerland to rome today. walked around the palatine hill, forum, and colloseum. as ive said about most places, rome is an interesting place. the history here probably outdoes the rest on account of the endless ruins, temples, and monuments. if my grammar is off, i blame it on the availability of very cheap wine that a tourist like myself cant help but drink.

munich, germany

beer capital of the world. probably the best beer i've had and the greatest quantity. they drink out of a mass, which is a 1L stein of beer. in the old days, they put drains in the floor under the table so that they wouldn't have to leave the table to urinate. the monks considered beer food and received a daily regiment of 5L. on a more serious note, we took a tour of the dachau concentration camp. everyone hears about the concentration camps in class, but it takes on a new meaning once you see where it happened. dachau has one of the only original remaining gas chambers. most of our tours and learning of germany have focused on the devastation caused by WWII. 90% of munich was levelled, and the people have a hard time dealing with what the rest of the world blames them for. still, munich is a good place to visit. we arrived in the swiss alps yesterday but have yet to do anything interesting...mostly because it is too expensive.

prague, czech republic

Prague rivals amsterdam and edinburgh as nicest cities and amsterdam as the best nightliving. in contrast with berlin, this place got through the wars without much damage. even new town has buildings from the 1400's. we did the pub crawl last night which entailed free beer, wine, vodka, and absinthe for the first hour. the clubs are enormous and filled with drunk tourists...i fit in ok. i ran into a couple of people who grew up an hour from me, and jeff and our tour guide grew up in the same city. quite the small world. we developed a protocol once we get to a new town of: wander around the first day, free tour and pub crawl the second day, and visit remaining sights and bars on the third...not a great deal of time for anything else. we are heading for munich and then interlaken, switzerland for hiking in the alps. apparently, we were supposed to reserve the night train from bern to rome already, so we may be camping out for a bit in the alps. a tip: don't ride the berlin metro without a ticket (you may get a 40 euro fine). a thank you to the amsterdam pub crawl guide who literally ran across amsterdam with me to get the coat i left at the previous bar.

amsterdam and berlin

we got into berlin yesterday after spending 3 nights in amsterdam. Amsterdam is a genuinely great place to visit even without the plethora of coffeeshops and prostitutes on window display. we stayed at the best hostel yet (flying pig central)...had chill rooms, smoke rooms, and a lot of cool people. some bathrooms were mixed though, so i had to take showers in the women's bathroom. I would recommend everyone visit this place at least once.
Berlin is obviously a little more rough, but has a good amount of historical stuff to see. the grafitti on every building and the amount of trash make it apparent that this place is still in some way recovering. our hostel is full of high school kids it seems, and everyone is into the latest and greatest clubbing and hip hop streetwear. its pretty different. the language barrier is much more obvious here as well. we were planning on doing the pub crawl, but either we are bad with directions or the germans are not punctual. so jeff and i are off to try to find some sort of party or casino.