Prague day 3.5-5 (updated)

Again, this is not edited or reviewed very well, I am sure there are errors in grammar.  I really dislike this but I don't have a lot of time to fix them.  I will edit this blog once I finish the vacation!

Our luck continued...  We stumbled upon the university at the top of the hill after we went up the mini Eiffel Tower (petin?).   On campus there was a big festival with good music and great beer for one dollar.  There was a mid sized crowd making a lot of noise and as we approached we wondered if it was dancing or fighting because we couldn't see what was happening.  Some kind of competition based off the noise and cheering.  I kind of politely started weaving in the crowd to be able to see what was going on and slowly the scene of women mud wrestling developed.  I definitely did not expect that or even think about seeing that.  All I could think was Europe rocks. We (taylor and i) enjoyed a sausage and a beer, and just sat and listened to music talking about the army (he is in the Australian army) and our travels.  It felt nice to just be there like a local.  I'm still not sure of prague is just always this active or if its pure luck.  The students said it was a festival that happened every April 24th.

We went back and met up with Dan.  I was going to take it easy...  But the night got ahold of me and I just couldn't go home.  Prague is awesome.  I have given in to the city and my health, I'm losing the immune system battle and I kind of expect to pay for it later but hopefully I get lucky and stay strong with my vitamin c tablets.

On the morning of day 4 I met a friend of a friend who was studying in prague (but came from Slovakia) .  This girl was I guess a fairly normal prague / Slovakian but on American standards very foreign and attractive.  I didn't spend any time telling her how different she looked but I probably could have.  I just enjoyed the time and the ease of looking at her as she helped us for the next hour and talked about a lot of things.  I asked a million questions and when I realized I was asking all the questions I asked her if she had any questions.  She replied no.  A few moments later she asked a million questions, and after she finished 20 minutes later I wrote in the translator "and you said you didn't have any questions."  It was a funny moment I would like to remember.

The friend of a friend and I talked a bit longer than we realized and I missed the first train time.  She agreed to walk with us and take us across the city to our train, out of pure generosity.  What a nice nice person.

On a side note, As of this point on day four Taylor and I have probably slept a combined 7 hours (tops) each for 4 days (3 nights).  There is just too much to do here and the weather / conditions / crowds couldn't be more in our favor.

We got on our train and as we took off I looked out the window to see 3-4 naked white old men backsides...  They were skinny dipping or something... In site of the trains with kids and women on them.  Strange.  

I lost my ticket and had to repurchase another ticket on the train.  The lady tried to look at me like I was trying to break the law but I had my receipt and my train times printout from the receptionist.  Realizing we were legitimate she helped us and sold us another ticket.  We gave her a generous tip (a few dollars) and went on our way sitting in the hallway of the train.

Arriving at kutna hora was a little different than prague and Berlin.  It was very small town feeling.  We picked up a taxi and headed to the centrum.  It cost around 5-6$ for the 4 kilometer taxi which dropped us off at a nice little cafe in the centrum.  I had some pizza (7$ for a medium home made multi topping) and milk (for sustainment), water (for rehydration), and Pepsi (to sip for taste and to settle my stomach).  

After food we decided it was time to see the sites.  Taylor noted that things have been closing early and it was nearing 5pm fast.  We asked a taxi to take us to the main site we wanted to see : kostnice bone sanctuary.  They called it by a different name that started with an "O," ossuary or something...    The ride to kostnice was almost the exact ride we just took from the train station to the centrum and cost about the same.  I'm not sure if it was back tracking or if everything looked the same but it's safe to say go to the bone sanctuary prior to the centrum.  I have a picture with some info of the bone sanctuary I will eventually post (posted.  see facebook).

After the bone sanctuary I sat with Taylor to eat a 1$ ice cream cone and had to comment about eating a cone for a dollar in a local small town somewhere in east Czech Republic on a beautiful sunny day.  It was a nice reminder as the taxi pulled up to take us to our next destination: church of st Barbora.

The church of st Barbora was a good choice for the next site.  It was the first of many sites in succession on a straight walk through this pretty little town.  I felt like kutna hora was a very cozy little town and said "I am almost sure I will come back to this spot and walk these roads again."  We turned out to be too late for the last showing of the silver mine at 1530.  The silver mines are said to be what made prague the richest city in the world, and did not look like the mine I had pictured.  It was literally in the middle of town (at least I think, I did not get to see it... only stop at its doors).  After the mines we stopped by the mint and called it a day - Taylor was exhausted, and I wasn't far behind.  He said he was a 12/10 bad.

On the way out of kutna hora I stopped into a little wine and smoke shop - I wanted to buy some cigars for a friend and some wine for me.  They had Cuban cigars for 4$ and a lot of wine for roughly 10$.  I asked for the best wine under 20$ and be handed me a bottle of red wine insisting "best wine in Czech."  It was 11$ and later after tasting it - I would put it with the best wines I've ever had (pic posted. see youtube / facebook).

We bought our train tickets at the station back in prague (I bought my ticket for budapest, taylor bought one for berlin) and this time I made sure to reserve a window seat - it cost 6$ and was a separate ticket.  My main train ticket was good for any train at any time on the 26th to Budapest from prague.  The assigned seating was only good for one specific train.  I bought first class seat for around 88$ (not sure what the difference is but the 2nd class was only 20$ cheaper).

Finally back at the hostel I had to do laundry, I was out of almost everything.  Dan through in his shirt and pants from a few days earlier and we started a 2 day quest on figuring out the machines at the hostel.  I've never seen machines like this - automatically put in detergent etc...  

Dan and I decided to do the pub crawl again - and I wanted to just take it easy.  I had plans to have wine with some friends and just chill out for my last night.  

While on the pub crawl somehow an australian girl no more than 100 pounds called me out on drinking.  I told her I was taking it easy and she wouldn't live it down.  I told her about the habanero alcohol that was coming up in the next bar and she was all for it.  I promoted the idea to many people but not many were very happy about it.  Getting the first few to say yes was like asking people to donate money to get pepper sprayed.  But there were random people that were just in prague to have fun and said sure without double thinking.  One of these people was a Russian named "Yuri."  "Yuri" didn't just say yes, he mistook the free welcome drink for the habanero shot and slammed it immediately.  He made weird faces and then tapped me on the shoulder.  I had no idea what he was doing but did notice he was doing odd faces.  He said "bro, this is weak," in a heavy accent.  I was impressed, true to Russian style this guy had no fear.  The language barrier introduced  problems such as this, I explained to him we were still gathering people for the drink.

Of the 15 or so that took the habanero I'm not going to lie I might have been the worst.  I really don't like spicy things and the dang Russian made me laugh as I drank so it shot up my nose.  Some people took it and had no notable reaction other then the wow (this is hot) face.  My new bunk mate later told me he is a huge spice food person having tried ghost peppers and the other hottest peppers in the world.  He confirmed that was impressively hot on a scale vs. the worlds spices.  The Australian lass took that shot like a champ and the plan to gain an advantage backfired.  I took a really explaining photo with her in which I was basically crying and she was antagonizing me.  Ah, oh well.  It was a great try but I was off for wine with Taylor (who was sleeping until now) and gang.

I had some more pizza at the end of the night - it was so delicious.  Nothing was as good as the restaurant in Berlin, but nothing else in Berlin compared to prague food (I couldn't find much good food in Berlin but its everywhere in prague).  I wouldn't say prague has any specific foods that are amazing, but I would say they have a noticeable talent of serving a lot of "good" food, of which I am extremely thankful for.  I ate so well here , for so little.  I think this is what helped me battle my lack of sleep.

Waking up in the morning was a storm of finishing laundry (the dryers were not working and we didn't spend a lot of time trying to figure them out).  I eventually got everything in order and took a taxi to the train station.  Good bye prague...  I will miss you and have so many good things to say about you.

The train ride was night and day from the entry to prague.  I took a few pictures.  I had both window seats reserved and they pulled out to make a bed.  Not as nice as you may be thinking but still pretty nice.  I slept like a champ to the views between prague and Budapest until the train filled three hours later and an older man sat down.  The last hour of the train ride I had the 6 person room to myself again as the sun was beginning to set and again made a bed.  Train rides can be really awesome.  Welcome to Budapest.

Closing on prague, there is just too much to remember.  What a time unlike any other trip I've taken.  They say Budapest is better...  I just can't believe it is, but we will see.

Prague day 1-3

I am going to copy paste this from my note pad in my phone, I haven't had much time to review or edit.  I apologize for any grammatical errors that would normally be corrected...  Prague and Budapest have been truly pleasant.  One mistake I made was not having enough time or worry to get a towel.  I used the underarmor shirts (I got pretty good with them).  I asked the front desk the last day and they said they had free towels...  This is an example of how little time I had.

The Prague train from Berlin is 66 euro when you book it the same day you want to leave, at the station.  I thought this was a bit pricey at first..  But I figured I should take the train due to great reviews of the trains to prague (and their views).  A first class ticket was only 35$ more and I decided perhaps I should try for a good experience and pay a little more as it was my first train ride.  After I pulled up the menu I realized the machine did not accept MasterCard (or visa) and I was two euro short.  I did not see an ATM and thought asking for two euro from people for a first class ticket was a bit foolish...  I just bought the second class and didn't care about my seating choosing just a normal ticket.  When I got on the train I found an empty cabin and sat next to the window.   Instantly the cabin filled up and a very polite woman said "excuse me, this is my seat." They reserved both window seats, which I thought was very smart and unfortunate for me.  I confirmed there was no seat number on my ticket and couldn't understand where I was supposed to sit... I think next time I reserve a seat?

Arriving in prague train station I received wifi at the Burger King for free which was extremely nice. I was able to load my map on my phone and find exactly how to get to my hostel which was one  mile away.  Walking out of the train station a taxi driver sitting at the exit said it was "50$ minimum," and that he was "sorry."  I said I think I will walk and continued to walk away. A second man then chased me down asking how much I would pay - I responded "no I think I will just walk," not wanting to deal with these people (50$ for a mile?). 

On a side note, my phone has been the best investment of my trip, in my opinion.  It's a good enough camera and I am writing all my blogs on it.  The map works with navigation almost all of the time without service, while walking through Europe.  At a castle I received a tour via wireless Internet.  I have a permanent pen and paper and I can read saved emails anywhere.  When I get wifi (which I admit is not often) I can make cheap calls from Skype.

Arriving at my hostel I had to double and triple check the address because the front looked better than I thought a hostel would.  Once inside I checked in and got my room (named "your room").  I went in and situated my stuff / clothes in my foot locker - the room looked pretty empty with only a few beds messed up out of 16. 

I had to scour the city for a padlock and found one for less than two dollars (the expensive one).  Then I met my first roommate and we went to dinner.  We had an alright dinner in a very old style restaurant where they tried to serve us shots and drinks that were very over priced.  We declined (even though they insisted, trying their best to disguise the price) and had a rather average inexpensive dinner (we said we would not go back and we didn't).   The price was about the same price as beers in America but the problem was beers in prague cost 1/4 the price.

After dinner we barely made it back in time for the pub crawl.  The pub crawl hosted by the hostel was so much fun.  We got really lucky with the people.  Someone got me a habanero shot and said it would be the worst shot I ever had...  I've heard this before and assured them I've had worse (thinking in my head about my meat head army friends who know thir torture and have been practicing horrible shots for years).  I took the shot like a champ and said that wasn't bad.....  Then it hit me slowly burning more and more until I had uncontrollable drool coming out of my nose and mouth .  It was so bad the manager was yelling at me to get out of the bar.  I answered back "you gave this to me what do you want me to do.  You have any milk what the heck!"  He kind of admitted yeah that's a bad shot (after they told him what happened) and we became friends by the end of the night.  I literally had no control of my snot.  I'm a wuss with hot stuff and I did not put two and two together.  

After the pub crawl we passed out late - like real late.  The pub crawl took us many places and we just had so much fun as a big group getting to know each other from all over the world.  I guess that's a good Monday night in pragues local pubs. 

Day two started after two hours of sleep.  We all promised to make the early starting guided tour - and we all made it (remarkable!).  

The tour was an overload of knowledge - the tour guide Javier from Spain really knew what he was talking about and made it fun.  He was a really nice person as well, explaining things really well and putting personal stories and additions into the tour.  I felt bad at times I had to walk off or just not listen - due to him knowing so much - I couldn't pay attention for four hours straight without having to go to the restroom or get water.

After the tour javi took us to his favorite restaurant and I had his favorite meal and beer.  It was very simple and very tasty.  I took a picture, chicken breast wrapped in bacon and over a cheese sauce with perfect little tater wedges.  Yum.  The beer was real laid back (easy to drink, smooth) called "unfiltered."  I could probably drink 30 of those beers and told javi the beer reminded me of his laid back personality.  It fit him.

After lunch javi left us (without drinking a beer due to fear of girlfriend) and we took to the city and the homework javi left us with.  We took a ton of pictures - and commented all the time about how great the photography was here.  Everything was a good picture - it has been this way for 48 hours.  Prague is special and I hope if you come here you have as good of luck as I did- but this is almost the luckiest arrangement possible.  I couldn't have planned it better - and I didn't plan prague at all.  Thanks to Scotty Hoang for really starting the entire trip by recommending the hostel "st Christopher's inn."  There weren't 7 Swedish women in my room like you had but there was a great time waiting for me with great people.

Prague has been so pleasant .  Just trust me and go to prague if you're in Europe and hope you get lucky with timing and people.  I think if there were too many tourists it would ruin the trip- there was literally almost no one here so we were free to go wherever we wanted as if the city was ours for the week.  Nice.

We had dinner at a really nice restaurant in the water and again it was very affordable.  It was called the marina.  And I had the most expensive thing I saw on the menu for 25$ (beautiful aged steak with a beautiful view). 

After the dinner we walked back to the room and were already too late to do the pub crawls.  We decided to go off on our own and figure out prague.  What a night.  What a culture.  We were very worried about pickpockets and weird women.  There were definitely drugs going around but nothing like Berlin.  For the most part we just had a really great night.  I had a lot of fun and when people found out I was from California they really liked that- they played hotel California, californication and all kinds I California music - I guess I was in the right bar.  We made so many friends.... It was a blast.  I am really humbled by how many people are so friendly and learn to speak English.  It opens the world.

Again we went to bed extremely late and we woke up three hours later to start the morning with big plans for site seeing...

It is just such perfect weather, so easy to stroll around in prague, and there is so much to see. 

Currently, I am sitting on top of the hillside in prague at a cafe overlooking the entire city and castles.  I can't believe the entire city is not here taking advantage of this cafe's view because it is free and it's beautiful.  I could live here...  I took a picture of an error or perhaps a johnnie walker tribute in the menu...  Gold label is sold for 5$ a glass where black label is 7.50 a glass.  I tried the gold label (which is supposed to be twice as expensive as black label) ordering two glasses for my friend and I expecting a rip off.  It was delicious.  I don't remember blue label tasting this good...  Served in a proper whiskey glass at the perfect temperature - in a nice little cafe.  I had to write this down instantly to describe my feeling as I fear I will not have time to come back and write about this for a while. There's just so much to see, and everything is open and available.  Perfect weather, affordable, and tourism hasn't started yet - this has to be the best time to visit prague and we are running into just picture after picture if great things to see...over and over again and paying McDonald's prices.  For the most part the people we meet (lots of locals but some travelers) are extremely nice.

Prague is the opposite of a let down.  I did not know it was going to be this way.  No one told me.  I spared a lot of details because I'm currently annoying my travel mate from Australia.  He wants to get moving but this is one of the nicest , simplest, places I've sat and just been able to enjoy.  For me, it's very nice to sit and just relax overlooking the city of prague and castles ... 

Berlin day 3

I was last mentioning a restaurant search... For this I decided to look on yelp.  Yelp had very few restaurants in the area that drew my interest.  I was about to give up when I saw Schneeweiß...  Schneeweiß had some reviews speaking of television shows and magazine articles...  I knew this was my choice and it was only a half mile or so away from the hostel.  

The walk had a lot of restaurants and bars I never knew existed... The Main Street was pretty obvious but these were much smaller streets with more housing units and shops opening up their doors to the streets.  Lots of people were eating and drinking in open air on the sidewalks at these restaurants.  Dedicated to finding my yelp recommendation I turned off those back streets to a residential street and thought my directions were wrong - nothing looked like a restaurant and it said bucher where I thought the restaurant should be.  There were a couple vacant stores and I thought perhaps it had closed.  Something told me to check the end of the block and when I got there I saw the restaurant- peeked my head in and saw a very classy all white restaurant with well dressed professional looking people.  I had an apple core and could not find a garbage anywhere.  I even went outside...  Then I asked the guy who greeted me if I could throw away the core...  He said why?  Give to me. It was kind of awkward I just looked at him like you're going to take the apple core I just chewed and slobbered all over?  Why not just tell me where the garbage is?  Well he stuck out his hand and so I gave him the apple core... he kind of walked away a little confused like "why did I just take that, yuck it's all wet."

Moving on - I asked if I could sit and they gave me the last seat near the bar.  I knew from the reviews that the menu was in German and asked what they recommended.  The bartender gave me some choices and I picked the grape / carrot appetizer with prime beef dinner.  He matched me with some wines and I had one of the best dinners I've ever had.  I don't think I normally would eat half the things in front of me but the way they cooked it I ate everything and had to refrain from licking the plate.  Wow.  I had asked about a couple of the bottles I've never seen before and the bartender gave me samples... So good...  I had a couple more drinks, dessert and asked for my bill.  It was 40 euros for a three course meal two glasses of wine and two drinks of the best alcohol I could find, at a fully booked top notch restaurant.  I was blown away and he said welcome to Berlin and gave me the business card.  I gave the staff my best compliments and left so full and sad I couldn't eat again.  I knew it was going to be a good night and I just felt so much better...  Refreshed and alive again.

The night went just as well.  We decided to hang out at a concert but didn't go inside.  Where the line would be in America we sat outside around a fire and drank beers.  We could have and should have brought our own beer.  I really enjoyed the company of a girl from France I sat next to - I want to say the French people I've met are making a good impression on me...  But I guess I have only known them for a few days.  I went back and was going to make some eggs when a friend came in and made some for me.  Delicious.  I like when other people cook well, and went to bed very happy with the food I had that night.

The next morning we had made plans to go to mauer park (spelling) and see the big flea market and the Berlin Wall.  There was also supposed to be performances etc and a type of mini amphitheater where amateurs performed and were encouraged every Sunday.  I saw one of the coolest basketball half courts I've ever seen.  It was kind of in the ground a little with the amphitheater directly behind it and two ledges acting as large stairs or seats.  The edge was packed with people and the amphitheater behind had around a few hundred more.  I asked one of the guys if anyone could play and to my surprise he spoke perfect English.  We shot for teams and won like 6-10 games in a row.  Basketball in Berlin....  In pants.  I said good bye and rejoined my friends for a while- the flea market was alright but didn't have any good food.  I had a weird beef ethnic wrap and sat with my French friends for a few hours listening to music.  It got pretty cold out and I knew I had to do laundry so I said good bye to my French friends and headed home to the hostel alone - also still had to look at train tickets to prague for tomorrow (Monday).  Along the way home I stopped at one of those street side restaurants and had a good, authentic dinner.  I haven't seen any normal restaurants other than subway McDonald's Burger King (if you call those restaurants) - no olive gardens or familiar names that I saw/remembered.  I'm ready to get out of Berlin and move on with my trip - ps train tickets are double the price if you buy same day which is a minor pain...  Super tired and looking forward to 8 hours of sleep tonight - Prague in the morning (I think)...

Berlin day 2

Instead of resting I joined Ben, Simon, Matt and Roland to go to a museum.  I don't speak French so I tried my best to just follow them around and use universal language (like pointing and laughing).  This turned out to be a great decision - they took me to see everything.  Roland lives in Germany and acted as a guide- we effortlessly navigated each train and they did it all free.  I paid 2.40 euro for a two hour pass and Roland said "you are so American."  Made me laugh.  I'm glad though that America has a good reputation for actually following the law.  Nikki would have loved the museum we went to - naturkunde...  Dinosaur bones and recreations - all kinds of evolution and things to see.  I really was fascinated and enjoyed the trip.  The museum was huge, kind of felt like the dang louvre - I guess it's better to have too much than too little but I was ready to get out of there by the time I walked the 30 rooms or so of things to look at.  They had a room full of fermeldahyde with dead species in jars to look at... It was neat.

We walked all around the city and when we were done I asked, "what did I miss?"  He replied, "not much," and that we would ride bikes tomorrow to catch the rest.  After the tour we headed back I tried to take a quick nap without much success then woke up and showered.  I headed downstairs and the guys were already starting their night- soon we had a combined group of over 10 people and I met Tomas a pretty cool French guy who really let me know deeper about French type of lifestyle.  I got pretty sick due to lack of sleep and food (I haven't even seen a normal restaurant here yet).  We went to a house techno place that I didn't really like too much - Canada had better.  Then we agreed to head to "Tresor" which I thought had to be better.  Tresor turned out to be a really dark and weird underground club where you couldn't really see anything except strobe lights and the bass was extremely loud.  I took in the experience and then let the guys know I was heading home early.

I decided to fight my weakness brought on by lack of food and bought a dozen eggs (they only had one type of egg that came in 6 packs for 2 euro).  I made myself 7 or so eggs and enjoyed milk, eggs, and cheese - knowing this was the best meal I've had in a long time.  I then went to sleep for about 10 hours and woke up to write this.  I am going to seek out a good restaurant I think...   No bikes for me today.

Berlin day one

Arriving in Berlin was the first time I didn't really need a passport.  No customs (I assume because it was from France).

It took me a bit to figure out where my stop was on the bus from the airport.  I was looking for the txl line and found out it departed every 5 minutes or so.  In order to board I needed to buy a ticket but the machines did not take any credit card from America.  I had to go inside the airport again to purchase a ticket as I had only a 50euro bill, which was too large for the machines outside.  Once on the bus i kept asking people where the alexanderplatts stop was- they just kept saying stay on the bus (I had to again kind of "go with it" as I really had no idea where my stop was).  When the bus ended , conveniently, I was at the right stop (I guess that's what stay on the bus means).

There was some construction and it was difficult to find my hostel.  Once I figured it out the first thing I did was meet my roommates and then go for a run.  Berlin kind of reminded me of Minnesota when I was running.  It was a lot like i thought it would be (in a good way).  Though I found myself kind of checking over my shoulder more than usual, there is graffiti everywhere and it has a very "underground" feeling and look to it (probably more so the area of where my hostel was in Berlin).  Other than that- The weather was great, I enjoyed a good run.  The city skyline is pretty neat, some Russian type influence perhaps, and something I think I will remember about Berlin for years to come.

After the run I showered up and started some laundry.  A Roomate - "Mauritius Maxi" was waiting for me to head to dinner- we ended up grabbing stuff at the local supermarket to which I will say I had no idea what I was buying.  Everything was in German, there were no real familiar brands.  I kept reminding myself I was in Berlin, jumping on a plane doesn't always give you the correct feeling of distance and change.  This is a new feeling to me hopping planes - Europe - etc...  Trying to keep up with the changes and the information going through my head is a lot of processing.  I am doing my best to take in everything I see, and not just end up 38 days later with a blur.

On a random side note - I wish I could remember more names but meeting way too many people...  I have a thing where I like to remember people's names especially if they expect me to forget it.  This has been said to be the best practice of successful people - and I believe it is fairly true.

I am excited to see my friend Alain who is driving up from a city three hours south of Berlin.  Neither of us have been here before, and I have a couple plans including a visit to the reichstagg and I really want to see some of the World War Two time frame sites.  But right now I'm tired- real tired.  Site seeing may have to take a break. 

Paris

Paris was quite a trip.  Leaving the airport was a bit confusing due to the subway/metro system being quite extensive.  There is one main metro line leaving degaull airport and another line within degaull airport.  i made my way quite easily out of the airport but I could see how someone could be confused.  The people were extremely helpful (I think having a big backpack on and a smile helps) and directed me very professionally and efficiently.  I made my way through the metro system in route to my tour of the louvre.  I didn't really grasp this concept of lines or what I was looking for and thought I had jumped on the correct train but quickly found out I was headed back to the airport...    There were tunnels everywhere opening up to other lines and subway entrances.  People walked super fast, but made it look normal.  I thought I was walking fast by all normal standards but people were pushing past me- I mean everyone even old ladies.  Paris people walk fast in the metro, at 7 am - perhaps for work. 

I'd like to say again that not many people spoke English, it was quite surprising - though each public place had at least one person who could.  The airport staff all spoke excellent English but the everyday people were lost.  I asked about 5 people "louvre?"  "Loover?" "Loove?"  "Museum?" "Lurve?" In the metro And they were really working with me but couldn't figure out what I meant.  I then thought well if I get near the Eiffel tower at least I can take a taxi to the louvre...  So I switched my name game to Eiffel Tower.  "Eiffel?"  "Tower?"  "Big pointy thing(with hand signals)". Nope no luck.  I gave up local assistance and decided to rough it- couldn't believe they didn't get my hand signals.   Eventually I found louvre on the list of stops and pointed at it just to hear how the locals said it because I was obviously doing something wrong -  they said it exactly how I said it and from that point on everyone I talked to knew what I was saying, weird.  By pointing I figured out the louvre on that line was not the museum, confusing again - I had to take the line 1 I was talking about earlier to go to another louvre stop.  

Near the transfer point at chatlet a girl sat next to me and I asked if she spoke English.  she replied yes and I had my first conversation with a local- (she was actually from bogota) and she said she would walk me to the next line as she was going that way.  (Very nice of her)

I really gained an appreciation for the people of Paris, a different kind of nice.

I had two omlettes one each day- they were really good - I almost never get omlettes so I wondered why I had two in Paris in two days, perhaps Paris likes omlettes?.  The people were all very nice.  I only had a 10 euro bill and was in a hurry so I left a 10 euro tip rather than be a foreigner that just ran out like a jerk.  The waiter said oh no way that is way too much (this is downtown Paris by the way).  He wouldn't accept and couldn't believe it...  I heard him telling his coworkers about it kind of in disbelief of his good luck as I was leaving...  This was kind of a significant "tell" or insight to how tipping works in Paris.  Similar with dubai tips are not like America where the waiter complains about a crappy tip to the point where it actually ruins their day. 

I had a 930 meeting I was right on time for.  I couldn't find the tour guide anywhere; she or he was supposed to be holding a sign...  I couldn't tell if the tour group I passed on the way in was my group or not.  There were groups everywhere...  I didn't know if 930 meeting time and 945 start time meant I was late as I showed up at 931.  To combat this usually I show up ten minutes early but I am on vacation and didn't want to stress about a few minutes - I ended up getting more stress but I quickly resolved the stress and just cleared my thoughts, reset and followed logical steps.  I found a contact number and tried calling from wifi but could not get a connection.  I then asked a few people if they had a working cell phone and the third person I asked said there was a tour guide over there pointing at a lady, it was my tour guide.  There was some kind of assembly taking place and the tour was pushed back indefinitely.  We ended up starting around an hour late and the tour lasted until around 1.  The louvre was quite extensive and during the tour I befriended a nice Australian (who ended up teaching me about the housing market in America) and her mother on a trip together back to where her mom was from.  The louvre was really big, afterwards I was arts'd out and left for notre dame.   The walks through Paris were really nice- again I had lucked out everyone told me how crappy the weather was the days before I arrived but it was blue skies - not too hot not too cold - perfect weather for site seeing in a tshirt.

After notre dame I was pretty tired and decided to head to the hostel.  Contemplating a bus or taxi I kind of walked like Forrest Gump and just kept walking...  Lots to see.  The main thing I really wanted to see was when the buildings would end (there were 6-7 story huge buildings fronting the streets...  I am convinced this is Paris ...  They were everywhere and I never saw an end). I walked probably 5-10 miles and eventually arrived at my hostel "Oops! Hostel".  I checked in and got to my fourth floor room after a 20 minute wait in the lobby for "lockout cleaning time."  I had noticed a kind of creepy dirty looking guy in the lobby who had left a sort of a mess...  Guess who my Roomate was.  I was really kind of sad at my luck but decided to make the most of it and be polite.  He turned out to have a wealth of knowledge and make pretty good conversation - though we were definitely two different people we got along pretty well.  I didn't get any sleep though and wished I did...  

As the night was quickly passing I decided to skip the Eiffel Tower - I caught a metro for dinner and had a beer at an Irish pub.  I sat in a corner at a good cafe called cafe oz and made friends with the bartender.  The night was flying by and I met people from all over (again).  Lots of singers and musicians few people from Norway and a lot of French people.  

I took a cab back to the hostel to see a girl passed out at the keyboard of the public computers (lol).  After some face booking (there were many computers) I went upstairs and passed out.  

The next morning I woke up and took off for breakfast on my way to the airport.  I felt like I had a good understanding of the metro as I was leaving - it's extremely affordable - 2 euros gets you anywhere in Paris, one way. 

Leaving Paris I just have a soft spot in my heart for the people of Paris that I met.  A different kind of happy and kindness.  Thank you for a lovely time in Paris - especially the waiter at the restaurant for my second omlette.  He said "this is Paris on a plate, you will love."  And I did 

Dubai 2

Waiting for my flight I met with a few couch surfers at their weekly meeting.  I didn't really think it was going to be much but it was quite a conversation between educated and fluent English speaking representatives from Iran Iraq Pakistan and other middle eastern countries.  I listened as they explained their history and how the Middle East was connected.  I was surprised to learn the royal families were very poor (I have yet to research this but I'm assuming they are correct) and then the British and Americans started developing the oil which made them very rich.

Also I forgot to note that when I was in the mall I had to connect to the Internet so I stopped at a cafe and sat down.  The mall started to shake and I thought it was normal but then one by one people started asking me if the room was shaking.  It felt pretty cool but how could I know what was normal or not.  Apparently there was an earthquake - my first one that I remember anyway.  Not sure how big it was as I have nothing to compare to, mild shaking, for 20 seconds or so.  Good thing I was sitting perfectly still, I had to look at my water to double check.

Paris degaull airport is not as English friendly.  It didn't seem obvious at first but it is now, there's a lot of French people here.  Though I sat next to a couple from San Diego that went to a travel convention in dubai.  Nothing out of the ordinary here in degaull - the bathrooms were very nice...  The passport line was quick (though its like 5 am).

The conversion rate was a little bad..  It's 1.3 usd to euro but they buy dollars for 1.14 and sell them for 1.4 something.  I think I just got it at my banks cost by pulling out of the ATM.

Heading to the room.

Dubai

I am using my iPhone to post this...

Entering dubai looking out of the airplane I saw a typical middle eastern city outskirts, with a lot of desert and sand.  I couldn't even see the ocean or the palm islands because I'm assuming we flew in from the wrong angle or I was on the wrong window.  The first thing I noticed at the airport was that everything said emirates.  The name didn't extend out of the airport, I did not see emirates much after I left however the monopolistic type dominance is very clear.  Jumeriah is everywhere and they said it means its owned by the royal family.

I was impressed by the airport.  Parts of it were really pretty.  I suppose I am easily impressed but it was very nice and well done.  The little details like the walkways or the maps , elevators etc all were noticeably nice (smooth, clean, operating very well).  They even had a little artificial creek with real dirt, plants and sprinklers in the airport between the walkways with a spot in the middle to sit and enjoy actual nature.

Once I had a beer with my flight compadre and said my farewell, I quickly headed to the first exit and waited in long lines to get through passport control.  It took about an hour to completely leave the airport (you don't need a visa with a US passport).  Once outside I got an immediate cab... Lexus with leather seats.  I asked "is this more expensive?". Thinking they were taking advantage of a well dressed tourist...  He replied only a few dollars...   Trusting my intuition off of how he said it I jumped in.  We arrived at my hotel 20-30 minutes later and it was indeed barely more expensive than what my friend said it would cost.  I had to enter through the back of the hotel because of construction and to find the check in I had to follow sign after sign like going through a maze.  Once checked in I used the Internet and called a friend for some prearranged site seeing (this was awesome!).  I had bought a bottle of wine as a gift from the airport because I knew it was illegal to buy alcohol anywhere else without a license.  You are allowed a personal limit of 4 liters of alcohol.

The site seeing went well we had a water at 360 which had great views of the burj al Arab and jumeriah beach hotel.  The burj is the 7 star hotel - some few thousand dollars a night.  I booked three nights.  Jk.  Then we headed off to dinner at "the meat co" - a great spot where we sat outside and enjoyed our food with a beautiful waterfront river way type thing that felt like what I thought Venice would be like.  There were very few bugs by the way and it was just so nice and great weather.  It felt like a perfect setting - peaceful and elegant.  (Also want to make a point to say America had a very very obvious influence on this city.  You see huge billboards of American products and celebrities everywhere).

After dinner we headed to Atlantis on the furthest point of the jumeriah palm islands (man made palm tree looking island which can be seen from space).  The palm tree does not directly connect to the outer ring surrounding it, you have to go under the water in a normal underwater tunnel.

After that I went to a pub a friend recommended -alone,  (my friend had work).  It was a great evening.  I asked the guy at the entrance for a spot at the bar and he smiled, walked around the whole bar and found a spot next to a couple of ladies and brought me a chair to sit next to them, I think he was trying to set me up.  I kept to myself for the most part and watched many men hit on these girls but didn't have any intention on doing it as well.  It ended up we were going to the same place anyway and we shared a taxi.  The whole crowd was a lot of fun the entire night - everyone was there to have fun.  I don't know who was telling the truth and who was making up stories but everyone seemed to be a foreigner.  I met people from all over the place - a lot of the people worked for the emirate airline. As the night went on I grew extremely tired, left the scene, went to my room and passed out.

I woke up early and walked downstairs for a cheap massage.  Lounged by the pool at the hotel which was just what the doctor ordered...  I was again amazed by the construction and skyline in dubai.  It's a feast for the eyes.  There are probably three main areas of skyscrapers in dubai spread out a good distance apart from each other.   Marina, Khalifa, and one other district that I am not familiar with which are all connected by a really nice metro system. I ended up taking this metro system to the Khalifa - the tallest building in the world.  To build this building they needed to make a foundation way bigger than the building taking up a lot of acres.  They basically made a city around the Khalifa which includes the dubai mall.

The dubai mall was intense.  I can't even decompress what I saw there into words ...  Typical really nice mall, like the mall of America, but felt like more.  Really expensive looking touches everywhere you turn including ice rinks aquariums waterfalls and fountains made from the same people that made the fountains at bellagio in Vegas.  And everything was free to roam and look at.

After a nice and cheap lunch of lamb chicken and rice I went to sit outside the tallest building in the world and sat by the fountains which were set to go off at 6pm (it was 430pm).  I just sat and looked around.  It was really nice.  I was told several times this is perfect weather, soon it will be too hot.   I thought to myself... "This is people watching..."  I saw types of people I don't think I've seen before.  There were no dominant races ...  Maybe a few more Thai and Arabic but mostly an even mix of every walk of life and every language.  The night prior, I remember my friend telling me where they were from by their language.  Russia, Germany, brazil, china, India, Iran, Canada, Africa, diverse...

I wanted to keep these posts short, and it looks really lengthy on this small iPhone screen so I'm just going to close and get back to my dinner here at crown plaza.  In a couple hours ill take a taxi or metro to the airport and head to the next stop.  I hope this gave a good insight to my time in dubai, it was very nice.  I knew it was going to be nice but I didn't think it would be as enjoyable and nice as it was, I got lucky with the timing - pleasant surprise.

Update...  Shortly after writing this I saw in the news, am watching now, the bombings in Boston... 

1 Day Out

Tonight is the last night to prepare and tomorrow my travel starts bright and early at 6 am.  It was nice to see a familiar face on the roster flying to Dubai (though he is connecting to another flight in Dubai).  Everything has gone very smooth, and the weather is perfect, couldn't have asked for a better feeling as I get ready to go... You know that feeling when everything is done, and you just have time to kill?

I convinced myself somehow to eat a ton of deserts tonight...  My logic was sound at the time but I'm really beginning to question that logic as I explain it on here....  It went something along the lines of...  "I haven't eaten a desert in a long time, and I might as well just get em out of the way now rather than eat it on my trip..."  I don't know what the reason was anymore but am I ever happy...  That craving for fat and sugar has been met and I'm ready to pass out with a smile on my face...  I've been eyeballing these deserts for the last three weeks without even so much as a crumb.

From this point forward I've decided (or rather my backpack has decided) to leave my laptop and only bring my little tablet thing (which I've used about two times).  So, my future posts will have no pictures...  very plain and boring... unless I figure out how to use that thing...  I am of course going to try to take a lot of pictures and hope to put some kind of video together at the end...

I'm excited, and ready to watch some tv and fall asleep.  I hope your ribs are feeling alright Merle, and pray everyone is healthy, happy, and warm.  Let the 38 days begin.