Old notes to add: British guys I met in Amsterdam were Ryan, Joe, and Philip. The other ship that goes to Helgoland besides the MS Atlantis and the MS Kloar Kimming is the HSC Halunder Jet. Did I mention much about the boat? It had a restaurant and a fun kids area showing Toy Story and Toy Story II in German and bathrooms that you were supposed to pay for (of course) and was excellent.

New business: I had an exciting 4-day weekend! I'm going to spend a few hours writing all about it! Just look at the pictures if you want! Because I'm sleep-deprived and the text might all look like this! Ok, I won't be that bad, but I may be verbose and prone to segues.

I took a 6am train to Leipzig on Saturday. Despite weather forecasts, the day was cool and it began to rain as we entered Leipzig. The Leipzig train station supposedly handels more traffic than anywhere else, which I found surprising because the city isn't that big. The station has 3 subterranian stories of shopping mall, which is pretty impressive. I went to the first level and bought half a chicken, more for the warmth than the sustinance. After eating and feeling slightly better, I went and stood in the entrance, willing the rain to stop. Since my powers of willing are so advanced, it worked! So I set out to explore Leipzig for a couple of hours. Unfortunatley, Devin wasn't with me on this trip, so I began by walking in exactly the wrong direction for tourists. Which was kindof good, because I got to see some of the actual city, and a very pretty church that wasn't full of tourists. Then I turned around and went to the city center. Things I found in that area: Bach's grave, the area in which part of Faust is set, a zoo where you can pay to go on a safari, and a skatepark.

Pictures from Leipzig:

The earlier rain made the flowers very pretty:

Here is the first church that I found. I really liked its secluded setting and its patchwork look with all the stones different shades of brown and white.

The zoo where you can go on safaris. If I had kids, I would totally take them to this zoo.

This next picture was originally about the skatepark with its beautifully decorated ramps. (on the left of the picture) But then I realized that I could also fit in the Starke Frauen sign and the T-mobile phone booth. Both of these are so common. There's this ad campaign where they put up pictures of 'strong' german women with quotes and information about them. Their tagline is 'Strong Women, Strong Country.' And T-Mobile is the main phone provider, its closet competition is e plus. Calls are pretty expensive here. Sending SMSes (text messages) is more economical and therefore preferred by most people, including me. This is why people also actually use those phone booths. What are other common sights around Germany? There are lots of billboards with pictures of vegetables wearing colorful condoms and saying things like "stay strong." The train stations are always full of ads for Ritter Sport chocolate, which is delicious. All the cars are smallish, hardly any pickup trucks or SUVs. And the majority of them are stick shift. Anyways, here's the picture.

This is the church where Johann Sebastian Bach is buried. It's called St. Thomas's. Bach's buried pretty much right behind where I was standing when I took this picture. Along the walls in his niche are dozens of portraits of important people to St. Thomas's and along the outer edge is some really nice stained glass. Every Saturday from late July to early September, famous organists come to this church and give concerts.

This is just Leipzig looking impressive. My boss is from Leipzig! Oh yeah, this picture is also in the area of the setting for part of Faust. But I didn't actually go there because I wanted to leave myself enough time to get lost or shelter from rain on the way back to the train station.

There are a set of buildings near the train station painted so:

On the left face of this one are soccer players, among other things. #10 is Goethe (author of Faust) and this one also says "Free Tibet." You would think these buildings would make good landmarks. But all 12 sides look similar, so it doesn't help as much as you would think...

Around 12 I got on another train and an hour later was in Dresden, where I met Carolyn. Amusingly enough, we know each other from Chinese class at MIT. She's working for Rolls Royce in Berlin this summer. I guess I mentioned that a while ago, because this is the same Carolyn who also just happened to end up in the same row as me on the flight over. This meeting was planned, partially because we wanted to see Dresden, but also to get back the vest that I had accidentally left with Lucy in Berlin. Carolyn and I walked around and saw majestic castle grounds, lots of antique east german cars on their way to a show, and of course the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche was bombed to pieces in WWII and rebuilt with help from lots of different countries as a gesture of goodwill; they just finished in 2006. Huh. Apparently the correct English translation is "The Church of Our Lady." Who knew. (The literal translation is "WomenChurch.") Then we went to a small cafe and got some Eierschecke, the special egg-cake desert that Carolyn's grandmother had told her is particular to Dresden. It was delicious. We also had some luscious shakes. Here are some pictures from our wanderings...

Us!

Sorry if some of these pictures look as though they were taken on an overcast day... I have but limited control over these things...

A castle!

And they own China! Or something...

Still pretty...

Did I mention that Dresden is very East German?

The height of the flood waters a couple of years ago. Dresden's on the Elbe river.

Yummy Eierschecke. Eier means eggs. And apparently schecke means spots of some sort? It's a slang word for cow anyways, because of the black and white spots. I'm not really sure what Eierschecke means. There were raisins hiding in it too, and an elusive taste that Carolyn was trying to figure out.

It's right behind me, isn't it??

:D Taking pictures of oneself with tall buildings and statues is harder than you might think. I took a picture of myself with a statue of Bach outside St. Thomas's, or rather many pictures, because it took a long time to figure out how to not cut off his head. Anyways, here's a picture of the Frauenkirche by itself...

There was a guy playing a didgeridoo at the foot of a statue of Martin Luther in the square beyond the Frauenkirche.

Then Carolyn headed off to go surfing! I mean, to meet Uwe, our host for the night. Uwe is a fellow member of Couchsurfing.com, an organization that I joined about 6 weeks ago. Couchsurfing is an awesome group founded by an american computer scientist a while ago. I don't have internet at the moment, or else I'd look up all sorts of impressive statistics about how many people particpate and how many languages they speak and what not. Basically, everyone makes a profile. You can offer to host people in your city, or just to meet for coffee and a drink. When people want to travel and meet locals while there, they contact each other through the website. Afterwards, everyone involved writes comments about the people you have met so that other people have a better idea what to expect from them. There is also a credit card verification system set up so that you can be sure people are who they say they are.

So, we headed over to Uwe's apartment and met him. He's always lived in Dresden, is doing graduate work in Material Science, and is going to be visiting MIT for his second conference there this fall. He is also thinking about doing some graduate work there. He likes Star Trek, which pleased Carolyn greatly! He's also got some funny posters, for instance the one about Murphy's Law. And he does Ju-Jitsu and recites poetry. So, we all sat around and talked for a while. Then we went over to his sister's apartment to borrow a movie. We were going to watch Star Trek, but we couldn't find the episode we wanted, so we watched V for Vendetta. We made some pizza and settled in to watch our movie. I didn't expect to particularly like the movie, though I didn't have any terribly good reason to feel that way. I was pleasently shocked to find that I absolutely loved it! After the movie Uwe retired to his room and Carolyn and I slept on the couch, which was L-shaped. I got the longer leg of the L, being taller. Both parts were the perfect length and we were quite comfy. Uwe had actually offered to give us the bedroom and take the couch himself! He was a great host! Here's Carolyn on the short half of the couch. Man, that thing was so comfy and spacious :) And I guess those are my legs/feet covered by the green and white blanket in the foreground...

In the morning we got up way too early so that I could catch my bus. Carolyn was going to take a train to Berlin and Uwe was going to a martial arts conference that was a ways away later that morning. Carolyn and I thanked Uwe again and left for the train/bus area. At first we didn't see my bus and were worried, since I had a meeting set up later that day. But then we saw it: The Bohemia Express. Yes, I rode the Bohemia Express to Prague! I was actually the only person besides the bus driver who bothered to show up for it at 6.25 on a Sunday, so I got the whole bus to myself. I stretched out on the back seat and slept until the border. Then the bus driver woke me so that I could show the border patrol my passport. Now, I've heard that passport checks can take a looong time on busses. But since I was the only one besides the driver, we were in The Czech Republic in no time. After that I figured that might as well stay up at the front of the bus and talk to the driver. It's so exciting how I can talk to people in German! He was really nice ... at one point he asked if I'd like to stop for coffee and just pulled the bus off at a gas station and bought us coffee. From the coolest coffee machine ever! And also, it was delicious! Later on the bus we were talking and I put on my sweatshirt, and he notieced, asked if I was cold, and turned up the heat. When in the world does that happen for anyone on a bus?? Yep, it was a good bus ride :)

We got in to Prague early, around 9. He told me I should take the Wednesday bus back, when he would be driving again. But, I had to work today :( And as it turned out, I didn't take a bus back... but we'll get to that.

So, I walked from the bus terminal into Prague and turned into the first youth hostel that I found. I got a map and asked the friendly deskworker to write down the Czech for Hello, Thank you, Do you speak English, the numbers, etc. And I thougt to use their bathroom. Use free bathrooms when you find them! At least, do this in Europe. Other advice I've been meaning to convey is Stay at Ibis Hotels in Europe. Because they're clean and reasonable and everywhere. Also, when you're in Prague, Look Up. Otherwise you'll miss half the architecture.

---

Intermission! (At this point I got tired and stopped writing. It is also an excellent point for you to take a break from reading if you want, since this is such a long entry!)

Ok, right. So I was in Prague. I walked around for a while, heading in the approximate direction of my meeting at 11 with my next host. I randomly met 4 guys from Poland in town for a 9 Inch Nails concert and we travelled on together. Between the 4 of them they spoke Polish, German, English, and Spanish. Yay, speaking many languages! Look, we found some art! It's a bunch of scrap stuff fused together and spraypainted silver.

And they were planning to go to the Bodies exhibition. Which, despite the fact that we could communicate fairly well in English/German (depending which of the guys I was talking to), was a rather difficult concept to explain clearly. ("We're going to go see some cut-up bodies." "Really? Err... who cut them up?" "I dunno.... a doctor, maybe? It's like a dissection of a lot of people!" "Umm, great?") It was one of those times where you just have to make a few allowances for language skills and not get prematurely freaked out by strangers. And eventually I understood what they meant. (The exhibition has been through Boston as well, although I didn't get a chance to go.) Anyways, we eventually parted ways and I wandered back and forth for a while, because I kept missing the side street I was supposed to take. It was smaller than I expected. Eventually I found this place:

Wenceslas Square. I was supposed to meet Clabbe at the statue at 11am. The big building behind it is the National Museum, I think. So I sheltered under some trees that are out of the picture to the left because it was sort of on-and-off drizzling. And then I met up with Clabbe :D I guess his real name is Claus... he's from Sweden, spent most of his life in Stockholm until deciding to see the world and moving to Prague 13 months ago. After this he plans to work in China for a while, and then South America or Canada. And then the other one. The US is apparently too much of a hassle to get into, what with Visas and paperwork and all. And I asked him where to get some Czech money and then got some. In case you ever go to Prague, or were just wondering, use the ATMs as opposed to the money changers, you'll get better rates. (Money changers of both varieties are everywhere) Right now the rate's a little bit above 20 Koruns to a US dollar. So, here's the equivalent of $5 bill. European money is so much prettier than American money!

And then we went out to breakfast at a great little Czech place. Here's Clabbe making a face at me:

The white things on the left of my plate that you can't see that well were these really delicious potato crepe things that I had a couple of times in Prague. And on the right side of my plate, under the gravy stuff and cream and raspberry sauce is some meat, I forget what sort. The beer was delicious! The original Budweiser comes from the Czech Republic. And I have to say, Czech beer is the best I've had, better than German! My beer at this place that we ate breakfast, specifically, was the best beer I've ever had. I haven't had American beer, but most people here say it's terrible. For instance, Herr Foth, my boss, who just got back this week from a trip to the States. I had some of Clabbe's corn, which was also really good. I hadn't realized until just then that we don't eat much corn in Germany. Lots of potato products though. And then we went on a walk around Prague to see stuff. Clabbe's a great tour guide, probably knows more about Prague than many natives! So, here are some excerpts from the tour:

Me posing like an explosion in front of the Powder Tower, where they used to store gunpowder. We walked on and as we stopped on a street corner, a girl came up to us and said, "you're couchsurfers, aren't you!" We said yes. She had recognized Clabbe from his profile picture, since she had been looking for a place to stay in Prague while touring Europe. She's from California, I don't recall her name. She was really hungry, but was having trouble finding somewhere to eat vegetarian. And then she recognized Clabbe and he showed her what she was looking for, and we continued on.

The famous clock tower. Lots and lots of tourists come to see. The skeleton to the right of the clock face rings the bell and then there's a little show. A bunch of saints are shown through the two doors at the top. It's mostly famous because it was done in 1410 and is still so accurate. Moving along:

This place doesn't look very important at first glance. In fact, I had walked over it a couple of times earlier that day. But a long time ago there was an attempted coup and some people threw the king out of the window of the building adjascent. But he survived! Needless to say, he was a bit upset about being thrown out a window. So he tracked down all 29 people involved and had them killed here. Each white cross represents one of the conspirators. There's a plaque nearby with their names and professions, and it includes a Michalovic.

Can you find the over 100 intentional differences in these two towers? It was an artistic statement.

This made me think of Preeya and her chocolatiers.

This is a model of the Golum. Here are someone else's online notes about the Golum (there are many accepted spellings of 'Golum.')

The history of the golem goes back in recorded history to the time of the Talmud, which mentions several instances of Rabbis creating a manlike creature and using him to conduct errands. The most famous golem is the golem of Rabbi Yehuda Leow, the famous Maharal of Prague, who created a golem and after using him to prevent a blood libel, hid him in the attic of the famed synagogue of Prague. Legend has it that the golem is still hidden somewhere in the synagogue which still stands, having escaped miraculously the destruction of the Nazis. A statue of the golem stands at the entrance to the former Jewish area in Prague.

So there you have it. Sorry, rushing.

Behind me is the Charles Bridge

And here I am on the Charles bridge.

This is vandalism. Really really old vandalism. We're now on the far side of the Charles bridge where the Swedish army waited hundreds of years ago, trying to access the inner city of Prague but being repelled. And here is where they sharpened their spears.

This is an officially condoned wall of graffiti, called The Peace Wall or something like that. See John Lennon's head on the right? The city reserves the right to paint over obscene things.

This is a memorial 'To the victims of Communism'

This is the poster over my bed. Ms. Koth would be so pleased! Right, speaking of sleeping arrangements. Clabbe hosts a steady stream of couchsurfers at his place which has 3 beds! It's so excellent. And the 2 spares are even in their own room. AND he has internet. What more could you want? Ooh, I know what! Richard Cheese, the amazing singer whose music Clabbe introduced me to :)

The place we went for dinner Sunday night.

Dinner. Including more of the delicous white things. Oh, I remember. They call them dumplings. The first time I ordered dumplings and got that, I was surprised!

Oh man. We're only through Sunday. I can't help it, there are just so many good pictures... I'm really not even showing you all off them... but I did buy a new memory stick in Dresden, so I can take so many... Ok. We can do it. Moving on to Monday.

Clabbe had to work at 8.30, so I think he woke me up around 7.30 or 8. Then I went out to explore Prague. And WOW the day was beautiful! Here's the Charles Bridge around 9am, before it's full of tourists.

And now it's behind me...

But then I crossed back again and walked up a hill or two...

And saw this. Then turned left and walked a tad farther and saw the castle. Outside are some guards, they do a changing of the guard every hour, best show's at noon if you want to see. I took the classic tourist picture with a guard. It's not worth showing :)

This is though, because it made me think of Holli's birdcage. Turns out it's an old well. (The thing on the left. The right is clearly a fountain :D) This is in the second courtyard, if you begin numbering outside the first gates. Going in again, you are confronted by this:

(these pictures from West, South, and East. I walked around the whole thing.) Yep. Notre Dame's flying buttresses have nothing on this place. To the south of the cathedral are many other castle-related buildings. This castle's ground are more extensive than any other in Europe, or something. Here's me in one that was converted into a toy museum, including lots of barbies and European toys.

More specifically, the picture is me deciding whether to pay the equivalent of 5 dollars and see some toys inside or go back out to the beautiful day behind me. The decision was not all that hard!

I went out across the moat where they used to keep the game. And took the obscure path no one else wanted. And then even left that. Yay :)

An excellent spot for an apple...

Before heading into a tunnel that I found. It wasn't clear whether entrance was forbidden.

Above is a picture of me in the tunnel. I am greatly amused by increasing the amount of light in the picture using Picasa and seeing my face appear. At one point I found a side turn-off in the pitch-dark tunnel. I began to explore it, chickened out and moved on, chided myself for chickening out and went back, and saw all of it. It was thrilling. And then I emerged to lots and lots of land.

After I while I tried to get out. But my way was blocked by lots of pointy fence :( BUT, luckily the door in the far left of the following picture was unlocked.

And I followed some curving stairs to this place:

Which was completely unexpected and seemed Edenic. I thought I made that word up, but thefreedictionary.com says otherwise. Those are grapes growing along the sides.

And then I explored that area for a bit and determined that I couldn't get out that way. So I went back towards the moat. I had changed into sparkly gold sandals. I scrambled down a hill, which was sort of tricky given the sandals. I pulled it off, but was entirely focused on keeping my footing. I landed on the gravel road below, looked up, and was staring at a guard. Not one of the pretty blue-uniformed guards that they post at the gates for the tourists to take photos with. This one was wearing green fatigues and a green beret. And looked sort of armed, dangerous, and as surprised to see me as I was to see him. Surprising dangerous people is generally a bad plan. After we stared at each other for a second he motioned me over, but in a way that indicated that he had decided that I didn't seem to be too threatening and therefore probably wasn't in trouble. For some reason their guards don't tend to speak any languages besides Czech. But I got him to tell me how to get out anyways. The way led past these old dungeons. Fountain conveniently located outside the bars.

And here.

And then I found my way to the West gate of the castle and joined the tourists going to the gardens and collection of (live) hawks, eagles, and owls.

After that I went to a huge park on a hill. And found many nice views of Prague, as well as a beautiful park full of green.

This giant metronome stands where there used to be the world's largest statue of Stalin:

And behind it is a skatepark.

I wandered around, saw some museums, which were closed because for some reason they always close on Mondays in Europe. I got a sandwich and a chocolate almond ice cream bar. Then I wandered down along the river. I had to go in a tunnel under a major road at one point, which stunk. But everything else was great.

Then I went to the Vietnamese market:

You know the seagulls in Finding Nemo and how they go "Mine? Mine? Mine?" When you walk away from someone selling purses or wallets, they always call out "Gucci? Gucci? Gucci?" to try to lure you back, and they sound just like the seagulls. Many of them bargain by punching their offer into a calculator and then shoving it in your face to encourage you to do the same. I ended up making friends with one called Tiom, who was not like the others. He was friendly and spoke some English, too! He has a wife and daughter and has been in Prague for 10 years now. He gave me one trinket for free. I bought a couple from him too, just because they amused me. I enjoyed the vietnamese market :)

Prague advertising confuses me. This one is apparently for apartments...

Eventually I headed back to Wenceslas Square to meet Clabbe and Richard, a guy from Germany who was going to stay a couple of nights with Clabbe.

That night we went out to see an Alfred Hitchcock movie, since it was the anniversary of his birth. It was in a park, and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The next morning I tried to catch a bus to Poland, but missed it. So I caught a train to Nürnberg instead. Nürnberg bratwurst are supposed to be the best anywhere, so I had some for dinner. Afterwards I had a grand total of 5 cents left. Here it is, evening in Nürnberg:

And then I went back to Kassel, got in at 11pm on one of the last trains.

And I worked for 2 days, and tomorrow I am off travelling again. What a life!