Giant Lego Man found!

First order of business:

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GIANT LEGO MAN WHO WASHED UP ON THE SHORE OF THE NETHERLANDS??
check it out: http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL0787011420070807?feedType=RSS


Here we are on our last train ride. How sad, we have grown to love trains. Instead of our usual bar of chocolate and sandwich for the train, this morning we purchased a box of Dunkin Donuts. I know I know, freakin’ American chain donuts…but in Germany they’re actually really popular so we feel like it was an authentic purchase.

Okay so Berlin. Well Berlin is a massive city to only have one full day in so this automatically resulted in us attempting to squeeze everything in. We spent 12 hours in the city and I think an all around conclusion is that Berlin was a favorite. It is so rich with history and everywhere you go you’re constantly amazed that you’re standing on the spot where something so ground breaking occurred…or wall breaking that is (pun intended). There is a row of two bricks inbedded in the ground all around the city where the Berlin Wall used to stand. It was strange to see it just making it’s way around. We went to the spot where the wall actually remains—ironically it is located right next to Hitler’s headquarter remains (that is just rubble and will never be rebuilt). We also went to the Jewish Holocaust memorial that was just built in 2005. It has taken years to design and cost about 27 million euro. Basically, it’s a large area of land with 2,711 different sizes and mazes of square slabs. There isn’t any symbolism with the number or shape of slabs and in fact it is supposed to be that way. The designer said it was meant to be contemplated upon as you walk through and get lost in the slabs. We also spent a significant amount of time in the museum underneath which was a personal taste of the Holocaust. It covered personal stories and families whose lives were torn apart from hatred. It has been a rewarding experience to study the Holocaust from such a close proximity.

A few more sights we ventured upon include but are not limited to the square where Hitler held most of his rallies in Berlin, “Checkpoint Charlie” which is the famous point in the Berlin Wall and the only point where international passing through was allowed (there is now a massive picture of an American soldier), the Brandenburg Gate, and the Victory Monument (we actually climbed to the top.)

Our favorite visit of the day: The Reichstag. This is the parliament building and heart of German democracy. The Bundestag meets here (similar to US House of Reps) but most people go inside not for governmental purposes but to climb the huge glass cupola that circles around the top. Okay, so they stop letting people in at 10 pm and the line was massive in the morning so we decided to come back later that evening. Well time let go of us and we actually didn’t make it back until 9:30. Unfortunately, the line was still rather long. We decided to wait anyway…even against warning from the woman in charge that we may or may not get to the door. At first we didn’t have much hope until we figured out the system. There is a huge security room that is opened for people and then closed until emptied out again. Therefore, in 10 minute intervals rushes of people move into this room and the line moves up a lot. Now there was no turning back…we were into it. Kind of life a spectator sport where half of the excitement at the end of the game is not knowing the outcome, we began to get a thrill out of whether or not we would make it in. 20 minutes till close, 15 minutes to close…we were much closer. To our disadvantage, a lot of line cutters figured out the system as well and when the glass security door would open and the masses moved forward, it was mad chaos. We literally saw an old man and woman creep up in the line in front of us. Are you serious? I mean come on. The three or four person-wide line was now 20 people wide like a mob trickling into an entrance. Each time the door was about to open, we would prepare ourselves, grab each other’s hands so as not to get lost, and charge forward like a bull toward a red cloak. The crowd was sort of in this together. It was like a love hate relationship. When it was charging people, people were aggressive. When we all got one step closer, we were practically high fiving. So the outcome? Golden. At 9:56 the doors opened and we closed with us only inches away. However, rumors quickly spread through the line and were translated in multiple languages the door may or may not open one more time. Well it did and we made it in the very last group. People were ecstatic. So what did we do? We climbed the dome, said “there’s that” and came back down. It was all about the chase.

One more thing. Our couch surfing host Caspar. He is the epitome of couch surfing. We were his 114th guests…imagine never living alone because you are constantly housing backpackers. Caspar was very sarcastic and sassy so we quickly learned that to hold our own, we had to bite back. It was a good time and we’re glad we had the opportunity to stay with him.

2 more hours and we’ll be in Prague!!

Some Pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Our BeerGarten experience in Munich:


Kathleen's Accomplishment:


What we fought in line for (the Reichstag, Berlin):

Hitch

Well, we did it.

We hitch-hiked.

Now we are true travelers, right? Our little cardboard sign, flappin on the side of the windy road... "Innsbruck or Bust!"... in a German speaking country, I'm sure the only word that really mattered was "Innsbruck". We learned a lot from our short stint on the side of the road. Number one: know which side of the road to stand on! We got a few honks and gestures, and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Afterall, we were smiling! We soon realized the drivers to Innsbruck were on the other side of the highway. It's not as easy to get on the otherside by foot.... we had to walk back to the ramp and under a bridge and back up... it's a lot slower than you think. So, we're on the right side of the road. While watching all the drivers cruise by, ten minutes passes a lot slower than you think! We tried multiple tactics: the sign, the thumb, the sign and thumb... we finally had a sweet ride pull over to find out where we were going. Now, if you're going to hitch a ride, Mercedes is the way to go. Unfortunately, they weren't going the direction of Innsbruck. At least we had our first "bite"... We hadn't lost hope yet. After another ten minutes of waiting (and deflating in hope) the same Mercedes came back around. Now, if this isn't the nicest hitch-hiking story you've heard: He came back to let us know that we wouldn't get a ride to Innsbruck from here, and we needed to be in a different spot on the highway. So he at least took us that far! About 10 minutes up he dropped us off at another interchange. No turning back now! We either had to hitch a ride to Innsbruck, or back to Salzburg!
Another slow ten minutes of finding the right place on the highway... but we had another taker! This time all the way to Innsbruck! We enjoyed our ride and getting to know Kristoph! No other way to travel...

Innsbruck was beautiful, but a little disappointing that it was, yet again, another rainy day! So we just did the normal walking (no hiking...) and hopped on our train to Munich.

Our couch surfing host in Munich was Norb Soares…aka “Norbasaurus.” This is how we would describe Norb: A computer techie so hyped up on life that he actually talks more than the three of us combined…now that’s something to say. Norb has a pseudo obsession with music but the bonus of this is he is always willing to share all of his tunes with us. Last night we actually stayed up until 3 am listening to music with Norb. Well, we didn’t actually get home until 1:15 or so because Norb was also determined to take us to his favorite outing where the DJ played so some hot stuff. Hot means two things here. One: good and/or hip music. Two: the club was so packed that the heat inhibited ones ability to dance the night away. We did cut a rug regardless…Norb is quite the dancer. Since we were unprepared to go clubbing, we all had on t-shirts, rain jackets, and even athletic pants and flip flops from walking around that day. Oh well…the door man still let us in although he did card Kathleen. Side note: you only have to be 16 according to Norb. Final conclusion: we LOVED staying with Norb. He was fun, friendly, generous (like all couch surfers) and burned us a CD with 750 of his favorite songs. He also made us a wonderful Bavarian breakfast of pretzels, sausage, and beer. Oh and speaking of beer:

Earlier in the day we headed over to the famous beer gardens where we proceeded to buy huge hot pretzels and mugs of beer. Since Kathleen is the only one who actually loves good ol brew, she ended up drinking hers and—of course we didn’t want to waste it—the rest of Noelle’s and mine as well. Oh no. Enough said.

We also strolled through the city but the highlight of our day was taking a trip outside of Munich to Dachau—a famous concentration camp. I’m not sure what we can really say about this besides what an emotionally straining yet incredible experience. To actually walk through the remains of a location where thousands upon thousands of people were tortured and imprisoned is beyond description. There was a rather detailed audioguide that really allowed us to learn in detail about the history of Dachau. Tears were shed and eyes were opened to the atrocity of Hitler. We were all very glad that we went.

We are currently writing this from our train en route to Berlin…a nice 5 1/2 hours. We’ll be in Berlin for a few days before we head to Prague…our last stop before London. We’re all a little anxious about our next couch surfing host, Caspar, who happens to be the Berlin’s couch surfing ambassador. This is a big deal guys. On top of that it’s heard that he’s not a fan of America. Here we go!

Are we proud of it?

Confession. We went on a sound of music tour through Salzburg, Austria. Are we proud of it? No. Did we do it? Yes.

Okay so there’s all this talk about the infamous Sound of Music tour. Clearly an event created solely for tourists considering most locals haven’t even seen the Sound of Music…yes we checked. So initially we just made fun of it leading up into our arrival in Austria. I mean, why would 3 totally immersed travelers ever want to go on this tourist scam? We’re so beyond that. We like to experience the culture from a local perspective. Or, do we? Shortly after arriving in Salzburg one of us bravely admitted that we actually did want to go on the tour and the other two quickly confessed as well. Next thing you know we’re on a yellow van with a Bob’s Tours logo on the outside bouncing around through Austria. Actually, we never bounced…this van was very high tech. It even included a microphone.

Our freakin rad tour guide, let’s call her “Maria” was an ideal fit. She had somewhat of a side mullet, spiky combover, in which she topped off with a headband. It was sweet. (definitely not the first we’ve seen in Europe.) She also had a somewhat of a Nazi approach to this tour. (side note: NOTE TO SELF: Americans have a bad bad habit of using the word Nazi in a light manner. DON’T DO THIS IN A PREDOMINANTLY GERMAN COUNTRY…NOT FUNNY.) Anyway, she was pretty strict. She told Kathleen to be quiet at least 3 times. People, this is Kathleen were talking about so you can only imagine the intensity of Maria. As we cruised from site to site, the three of us and two sisters we met and dragged along sung along with the CD to every hit song from the movie. We covered them all.

Another example of Maria’s intense attitude. We pulled over to get the best apple strudel in the area and as Maria was pointing out the different types, the new waiter kindly came up to offer his assistance. We all awkwardly stood there as Maria curtly snapped back that she knew the flavors and didn’t need any help.

Maria took us to several sites. I need to clarify, however, most of the movie was filmed on a set and these sites only inspired the film. But, we did get to see a lot of the authentic ones as well. The “sixteen going on seventeen gazebo,” the church where the marriage is held, etc. etc. If you aren’t a Sound of Music fan, I’ve already lost you.

Special bonus: we got to stop and go on a luge ride down a massive mountain. Luging is freakin awesome. We were determined to go 9 miles outside of Salzburg where the largest luge ride (over 7000 ft. long) is located but it rained today so it wasn’t in operation. Boo.

Final observation. It was cheesy but fun. There’s really no other way to be able to travel around Salzburg and the surrounding areas with a rad chick from Austria while singing the Sound of Music…a movie set in Salzburg.

Enough of the tour. Lets talk about Salzburg. It’s so wonderful. Did I tell you it’s where the Sound of Music took place? Just kidding. But seriously, this is a picturesque town. The hills are truly alive (with the sound of music.) Okay okay I’m done. It was just so tempting. Salzburg is about the size of Columbia or a little bigger and maintains that small town love found throughout Europe. Most of the old city sits on a side of the river beneath a huge castle like fortress on the mountainside. It’s very clean, colorful, and sociable. There are also tons of great gardens and parks. Unfortunately, it rained later in the day but we did get to cruise most of the morning. We are currently couch surfing with a great girl, Virginia, but we hardly see her because she has to work. Therefore, it’s like having the apartment to ourselves and we came back here in the afternoon to take a nap. Of course, we brought three massive pretzels on the way home. One chocolate, one sugar, one strudel.

Tonight we plan on exploring more of the town or just watching a movie and resting before our departure early in the morning. Tomorrow were heading to Innsbruck, an even smaller town in Austria where there is nothing to do but hike around…our favorite types of towns!

We’ll be in touch. Until then, auf wiedersehen!!!!

Did I mention this town is so great we think someone should produce a movie here? Just a thought.

Are we proud of it....?


Did we do it...?

Expectations...

Note to self: Always stay with David Klein when traveling to Budapest. Time of your life. We have decided that our time with David is beyond description. The following are our collaborative efforts to summarize the past few days:

When sleeping in a Mongolian Yurt, expect the following:
-One room. No corners.
-Late night philosophical discussions.
-Open the door to any European travelers for communal living.
(the key is kept with “the place” rules, available on the desktop)

When taking a road trip from Budapest with David Klein (spending 32 straight hours), expect the following:
-Cooking dinner over an open fire, it IS the only way (don’t think that a bottle of sunflower oil is water, like Kristen)
-“We’re still determined to go to the lake” actually means: going to the lake, even when its cloudy, and swimming in 50 degree water
-Sleep outside, under the star (with a tent available only in case of rain)
-Watermelon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (only served in one pound wedges)

When traveling in David Klein’s 1970 “Loto”, expect the following:
-A frequent stop to pour water over the engine to cool it down
-A frequent stop to check the map, after passing off to Kathleen who doesn’t know where we are in the country
-David’s encouragement for the worst driver in the car (who isn’t even allowed to drive in Columbia, Missouri) to learn to drive a stick shift, on Hungarian roads
--here’s a visual: Kristen and I laughing as hard as we can in the back, holding each other with each jolting sputter for fear of the clutch going out.
-Picking up a hitch-hiker…. You can’t expect any less, after all, if this is your main mode of transportation(we’re pretty sure David has never actually driven to this lake before, he usually hitch-hikes. Keep in mind, we did stay at David’s family’s lake house where he had just been to one week prior)

When engaging in conversation with David Klein, expect the following:
-“Dear Lover” – only the kindest reference used mainly for sexual partners, acceptable for romantic interests, used out of detachment for worldly relational perspectives.
-“Trust the process” – you can never control the outcome, just rely on the experience. There’s no room for worry, just enjoy what happens in life.
-The lack of the word “my” – everything is communal. We share.“I don’t tell you where the trash can is because it is mine, I tell you where it is so you can share it with me, and tell other travelers where it is as well.”

We obviously enjoyed our time in Budapest. We haven’t laughed so hard in one day, been scared out of our minds that we were going to be lost in the middle of Hungary, and been more “trusting of the process” as we spent time with David Klein. We loved the conversations and time with a famous Hungarian mountain climber…. apparently even the tabloids follow him!

Now, a few highlights from Vienna, Austria:
1. A 24-hour transportation pass apparently doesn’t cover everything, as we honestly anticipated. Austrian trains are strict about their passengers, and we almost got kicked off for not having the right ticket. We saved 60 euro by politely explaining that we had no idea.
2. A nice afternoon rest in the park… and a fight. We were just resting in the grass, when a nearby outbreak of fighting between two locals turned into a brawl with a man almost thrown into the lake, and 4 police cars showing up to break it up (according to our host, Martin, this is highly unusual for Vienna. We picked a good day, hiuh?)
3. The first disappointing tower climb of the trip. We climbed 365 steps to the top of the St. Stephen’s south tower, only to be enclosed by fenced windows. Not as impressive as the others we’ve seen, but St. Stephen’s was beautiful.
4. Zanoni Zanoni. Even though we left Italy, we did find an extraordinary gelato place (owned by an Italian family) and enjoyed a big cone! We’ll be back tomorrow.
5. A 2 hour train ride home… maybe reminiscent of our bus ride in Valencia… but we promise it’s not our fault. We got on the train (to catch a train and another train) but it stopped and turned around at the next stop. So we got off where we started, and ended up taking another metro line (maybe a little out of the way) and switched two trains, and made it to our last stop. Perfect, right? Well, Kristen turned and asked “Hey, Who’s got Rick? (our best friend and travel guide) but neither one of us had it… So we retraced our steps and realized it was either on the last train we were on (now headed to the outskirts of Vienna) or in the bathroom at the last train stop. After sulking with a gyro and pomme-frites, we got back on the train, walked the entire train end to end, but no sight of Rick. We got off at the previous station… and were reunited with Rick in the bathroom! He waited for us, and we are excited to have a guide for the rest of the trip. Kristen apologized and made up with Rick, after he graciously accepted her apology. Thanks, Rick.

Contrary to the implications of this blog entry, we really do love Vienna. It is beautiful, very clean and we are excited to spend the day here tomorrow. We are staying with our host Martin, who lent us bikes to get the train station. We definitely felt fraulein-esque (just like Maria) as we biked around Austria this morning to the train station.

and now.... picture update:
Our Watermelon Breakfast


Kathleen's Driving...


Flashback from Venice: Feeding Pigeons in St.Mark's Square


More Pigeons!

DAVID. KLEIN. authentic yurt man.

we'll post more later but this just couldnt wait. david klein is post worthy.

we are now in budapest. well, actually were in erd which is a small suburb of a suburb outside of budapest. it took us one metro and three buses to get here but its all worth it. we arrive at our new couch surfing host, david klein's, at about 8 pm. it was just getting to get darker but as we walk up the rock path there it was. an unusual white circular tent structure in the middle of a property. this my friends is also know as a mongolian yurt. yes david chose to have his yurt built in mongolia and shipped to hungary..it is the type of man that he is. we are convinced that we are staying with a famous hungarian mountain climber, philosopher, and indian guru on the side. thats right folks, david walked around india for 6 months with no shoes and no access to food. he now has guru status in that country. there's that.

after he built a bonfire, he gave us a quick tour of the yurt--one room so it's not that difficult but amazing nonetheless!--and the house which includes the study where this computer is located along with a tank of turtles and a massive quantity of books, a shower, toilet, and kitchen. so basically he owns a house but chooses to call the yurt home. we think its cool that even though he owns a house he sleeps and lives in the yurt. a slumber party occured last night.

we sat up for quite some time on blankets around the fire discussing a variety of topics. david claims his english isnt that good but considering he came to the US at the age of 15 to hitchhike across country, he speaks better english than we do. we covered a large amount of philosophy, including a few of his personal theories, marx and communism, hungarian history, human fears and several of david's adventure stories which we kept begging for more. we just need to share our favorite. david mountain climbs and once in alaska he basically got lost in a snow storm in which the other climbers had already pronounced him dead. for 3 days he and a fellow climber layed in their tent under the sleepingbags to protect themselves from the wind. there were no other options and he admitted it was a sudden realization of approaching death. as they realized the wind would soon blow off the top of the tent, they needed a new plan. the plan was to run as fast as they could towards an area where a crevice was located (usually crevices are avoided ya know) hoping to actually fall into the crevice. if they survived the fall, they would go from there but at least they wouldnt die from the wind. if they didnt survive, well...

these types of stories and more are what we are looking forward to for the next couple of days. basically we love it here in our mongolian yurt!!


a few of our favorite pics from david's many adventures

David at Burning Man


David in India

Does it rain here frequently?

Venice…came and went too quickly. Wer’e about to get on a plane for Budapest but a quick recap of the last couple of days.

First, just wanted to give you all an idea of what our train time looks like. We wrote down a few things from our Florence to Venice train we found rather amusing…
1.Note to self: please do not title a Christian song “All I need.” We discovered that Noelle’s ipod had 7 songs titled this and they were all by Christian artists. Seriously now.
2.If you play me puff the magic dragon I will cry…guaranteed.
3.Muffins from the train station that appear to be scrumptious and chocolately taste like cardboard and are hard as a rock. We ate it nonetheless.
4.If Noelle wants you to like a particular song, she will do all in her willpower to make this happen. As I started to hand her back her earphone (I wasn’t a fan of the music choice) she looked at me and eagerly asked if I at least wanted her to fastforward to the bridge. No Noelle, that’s okay.
5.Our new found obsession…fig fruit from Manfredi’s tree. He packed us up 7 figs for the train ride…we ate them all. Side note, figs are amazing and we cant find them anywhere else. What the heck?
6.After I introduced Noelle to the actual ipod identification game included with every ipod, her pride quickly began to swell as she guessed every song correctly and scored over 10000 points.
Basically, we listen to a lot of music and amuse ourselves with anything we can. We do love the trains though.

Okay back to Venice. Venice is incredible and it’s like a dream city you never really think is real or logical to exist. As most of you probably know, it’s an island but not what you imagine. None of the buildings are really on land, they are all just on water and the entire island is full of canals, bridges, and water transportation. No cars! It’s probably the best city to just wander around and get lost in -which was good for us considering that’s what we end up doing in every city we visit.

From everything we heard about Venice, the top 2 most popular warnings were: it’s really hot there and there is no air movement. Okay, so it was the windiest city we’ve been to—at least in italy—and there was a rainy day which actually made the city chilly. I think this went in our favor considering how everyone said it was dreadfully hot. To avoid the rain, we snuck into a cheap and wonderfully delicious pizza parlor small enough to only hold 4 people. In an honest effort to make conversation with the pizza guy who spoke not one lick of English, Noelle asked him if the rain was normal. Her first wording was “does it rain here a lot?” and after a blank stare she reworded here question to “does it rain here frequently?” oh of course if this man didn’t understand the first question he surely wasn’t going to get the second. I had to give Noelle a minor lecture on her avoidance of using large words with those who don’t even understand the small ones. She is not allowed to use words over four letters big now. No more “frequently’s”.

We met some wonderful Canadian girls here in Venice who we ended up spending most of our time with. They are a little younger than us and doing the same Europe trip. We loved them. It’s so fun to instantly connect with people who you can naturally be yourself around. I mean they actually got to see the real Kristen…most of you reading that are close friends are probably laughing right now because you know they had quite some entertainment with that. Today we got up really early and took a train to Bolzano, which is a small village in the Dolomites, essentially the Italian alps. Wasn’t much to do there but stare at all the beauty and hike around. We paid a visit to “the earth pyramids” which were pretty interesting. I can’t tell you how they got there because all the descriptions were in German…boo. I like to think they literally erupted out of the earth considering they look exactly like stalagmites. But then again, I don’t even know how stalagmites are formed so what do I know. In our attempt to find a new path to take, we actually began to hike down the mountain until we realized it was an outrageously long hike (we took a gondola to the top) so what do we do instead? Hitch a ride with a little old Italian man who spoke no English either. He let us hop in his car and we cruised down the mountain. He asked us lots of questions, which disappointingly enough we failed to understand and stared at him blankly. But we got down the mountain so success!

Once again, our luck with transportation evidenced itself again. One. We got on the wrong train going home. It was headed to Venice but it took twice as long because it made twice as many stops. Whoops. Two. I forgot my eurail pass today…not a good day to forget it considering we ended up taking four lengthy trains all day long to get from Bolzano and back. We did come up with a brilliant plan that involved intense lookouts for the pass checker and a quick run to my hideout (the bathroom) to avoid getting a fee at all costs. To our advantage, we didn’t have to use this risky ploy. Our passes were never checked and I paid no fines!

Tonight is probably going to be our last night in a hostel for the rest of the trip…more couch surfing baby! It’s so sad that we’re leaving Italy considering we’ve been here two weeks and covered just about every region. Really grown to love this place but we’re pumped to meet up with Kathleen tomorrow. Yay.

Until Budapest…ciao ciao!