DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately this site is dumb and has no pictures from Germany to choose from for this post cover. Forgive me, this is a picture of Prague, Czech Republic - it really was the BEST I could do. =)

Time for update number 2!

I left off last time in Florence, the rest of the girls leaving to go back to Paris and me starting my journey on my own. After going back to the hostel, I met a couple girls from New Orleans while in line for the internet and ended up going back out wandering the city with Leah while Allison read and rested. The weather was great for a late night stroll and I was glad I skipped doing my laundry =) .

On the road again.... after a very long day on the train, I arrived in Innsbruck, Austria and while waiting for the bus to my hostel I ran into Dave from Australia, also headed to the hostel so we dropped our stuff off and came back to the city center. I have one thing to say about my very brief stop in Austria: DAMN it's beautiful!!!! I've seen mountains and all before, but it's just so peaceful and gorgeous. Sorry Colorado, you've got nothing on the Alps. Highlights of the evening were: 3Euro Brats at an outdoor fair, wandering through the most adorable shops and finding Settlers of Catan, 2Euro ice cream, a drunk passed out on the edge of a bridge where he could easily kill himself by rolling over, and finally, listening to a bald bandana wearing 40 something Austrian guy singing "Achey Breaky Heart" and "Way Down Yonder on the Chatanooga". Oh yes. It was even better when he'd break in during the song and encourage the crowd in German. LOVE IT.

On the 16th I had breakfast in the hostel before saying good-bye to Austria (temporarily) and headed for Liechtenstein. After taking a train, then bus, then train, and another bus, I finally arrived in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. I stopped there pretty much long enough just to grab a few postcards and get them sent out and have lunch, then I barreled on to Zurich, Switzerland for the night. Absolutely nothing to report from Zurich other than the train station around 5:30 PM was jam packed of business people walking with a purpose and that they were setting up a sand volleyball arena INSIDE the train station.

In the morning on the 17th I left for another long train ride to Brussels, Belgium (after transferring 3 times). The youth hostel I stayed at there was pretty nice, but was in a not-so-nice area so upon arrival I decided if I didn't find someone else to go back out with that I would just skip dinner and go to bed early (since I had gotten sick in Florence and was still battling it). Luckily after using the internet for a little while I went back up to my room and a girl from Canada came in and was an absolute sweetheart. She (Emma) had had the same idea about just skipping going back out if she didn't run into anyone so we were both excited. We ate at a "Thai" restaurant that was really much more chinese food than anything else but still tasted great. We had such a great time together though that I had convinced her to go to Brugge with me the next day.

Brugge is MUCH nicer than what I saw of Brussels, but to be fair, I didn't really see much of it. Brugge is the tourism capital of Belgium and rightfully so. Very provincial and unique and of course has great chocolatiers as well as canals, flower lined windowsills, etc. Belgium is famous for their fries, chocolates, waffles, beer, and lace, so I had to check out all of them. We stopped in a cute little fry shop for lunch and the sweet old guy running the place was very excited to show us a picture of him with Collin Farrel in his store. Famous fries. After that we went to Da Vinci's ice cream parlor where our guide map said we could find "Viagra" ice cream but our searching was in vain because they didn't have it. The rest of the day was just wandering through a beautiful park and feeding swans, tourist watching (and man I got some great shots of Europe's worst dressed). The hot waffle with real whipped cream and strawberries we split for dinner was to die for... drool.... Emma left to go back to Brugge and I wandered a bit more, taking some night shots of the church and palace and back to bed. At 4:30 in the morning though I got a nice awakening. The Aussie girl that had gone out partying came back and there was some random guy sleeping in her bed. Apparently the hostel over-booked as since she didn't have anything ON the bed but her pajamas, they just gave it to the guy. Lesson learned - spead ALL of your crap over your bed on Saturday nights so there's NO mistake someone is sleeping there.

On the 19th I wandered around town, did laundry, bought some chocolates and some Kriek (a special cherry lambic they make) and went out to the Windmills to catch up on my journal and nap, dreaming of dueling monsters in the sky...

Early 8 AM train to Amsterdam on the 20th and met some cool girls from the hostel and really just chilled the entire time we were there. That night we took a walking tour through the red light district and laughed at the people getting chased for taking pictures. That's a BIG no-no. The 21st was spent reading by the canals and wandering a little more. I needed to get over my cold!!

Yesterday afternoon I came to Berlin and just wandered a bit getting oriented since Berlin is such a huge city. Today I spent the late morning and early afternoon on a walking tour to get an overview of the city and historical background of all of the sights. I got to see one of the few sections of the Berlin wall that is still standing, where Hitler killed himself, a bombed out church that has been kept that way as a reminder of what war does, and a lot of other great sites. I also met a really sweet girl from Boston on the tour and we spent the rest of the day and night walking around together. Tomorrow we (Aimee and I) are going to Potsdam which is only about half an hour away from here and is a very glitzy city, filled with palaces and well manicured gardens, etc. I promise I will get pictures posted soon, but not while in Berlin unfortunately! So until next time.... Tschuss!!!

For those of you scratching your head, Tschuss is a German way of saying "later"