Irkutsk

After a skype call with my research partner and research advisor my ride came to pick me up and take me back to Irkutsk from Listvyanka, the vilage on Lake Baikal. Had a pretty chill day before catching the train at 10pm. That's where I am now, on my last leg of the Trans-Siberian :( to my last Russian town, Ulan-Ude (Mongolian for 'Red Tree' oddly enough). Today I saw some cool stuff. The Irkutsk Art Museum, and some of the original wooden architecture Irkutsk houses. The art museum even had a couple of exhibits of Mongolian and Chinese art.

The further I go east, the more Mongolian it gets. Mongolian words are slipping into street and city names, some of the foods are showing up in the cafes, and a huge percentage of people in Irkutsk are Mongolian. Of Mongolian origin that is. They don't speak Mongolian at all, they look just like they were transplanted from Choibalsan, Mongolia (Not Ulaanbaatar because UB is mostly Khalkh Mongols and Choibalsan is more Buryat ethnicity). They speak Russian because their ancestors just happened to live north when the borders were drawn. It's a little weird to me to see them and know that they wouldn't understand if I started speaking Mongolian. Siberia has an interesting biracial dynamic with the Russians and Mongolians. I think it's the most similar situation I've seen to America yet. Although, France does have a lot of people of Arab, and African descent.

Huge Juice Box

Anyway, I think it's time that I now leave you with yet another sketchy food story. I haven't even scratched the surface with these yet. For what this blog is becoming, it should be properly renamed. Or maybe turned into a book. Maybe something like, "Interesting food, I lived to tell about eating." Or maybe, "Sketchy times, sketchy people, sketchier food." Maybe you can suggest a good title. Anway, without further ado...

So, a couple of hours ago I'm thinking, "Hmm, what do I want to eat for dinner. I have a train to catch soon so maybe I'll just get something quick. Should I grab something at 'Domino Pizza?' That could be fun, or should I try and see if my equation still holds that 'Israeli Shwarma > Siberian Shwarma' (And it's not even close. Here they put this like really saucy carrot cole slaw in it, and roll it in a crepe...not cool Siberia. Not cool) ...wait, I smell something good." So I pop into this stand right next to a bus stop, and peruse the menu. As I may have mentioned, I can barely get myself water, and to the toilet in Russian, so I might as well throw darts at the menu.

But anyway I notice 'perogi,' which, if it's anything like the perogi they have in Pittsburgh, it will be a flour dumpling with some goodness in it. So I order me a Perogi. Then I get a little sketched out because the lady there puts something in the microwave. (This microwave thing has happened a couple of times the past week) Sketchy. Then she hands me this huge loaf of bread. mmm. Looks good. Smells good. It's warm. Good choice I have made. So I head close by, and sit next to the bust of Josef Stalin on Lenin street to start enjoying my perogi. Mmm, there IS some goodness in it. There's some baked onions, and some meat. Mmm. Wait. I see something shiny. This meat is fish. There's a whole fish baked into my loaf of bread. Sketchy. I was so hungry I didn't care though. Until I started to get full, and the sketchiness that was this food started to enter my brain. Luckily I was distracted by the Elders who walked by again and I shoved the rest in my mouth as I ran to go chat with them. I like to think that fish perogi would've been Jesus' favorite meal. Convenient for feeding 5,000.

Lake Baikal - Listvyanka

Recently I learned that McDonald's, KFC, and HJM have all of Europe locked DOWN. They are everywhere. Similarly it has come to my attention that the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have the city of Irkutsk locked down. They have this place scoped OUT. I only say that because I ran into them on five separate occasions in the past 3 days.

My first day in Irkutsk, my guide was just finishing showing me the city after a few hours on a walking tour and I see two white shirts running at a very swift gate ahead of me. Ha, it's the missionaries. I didn't run up to talk to them and was feeling kind of guilty. No worries though.

One of my favorite things to do is to go unrecognized. I don't know why. In Mongolia I taught an entire semester of 3 English classes not speaking a word of Mongolian. On graduation day I walked into the classrooms, wrote a message on the board in Mongolian. As everyone started whispering, hoping their worst fears weren't true (that I had understood everything they had said about me) I began to read the message to them and then added a few words of parting of my own. The looks on their faces was priceless.

Anyway, yesterday I visited the wooden architecture display on the way from Irkutsk to Lake Baikal. It has original buildings, and recreations of a lot of the original city of Irkutsk. They transplanted it to the hills so that it could be preserved. It kind of reminded me of going to Nauvoo, or Kirtland. They've got houses, the church, the blacksmith's shop etc. all built out of logs as it would've appeared in Irkutsk in the 19-20 century. As we were walking from one of the exhibits to another I see 4 elders, 2 sisters and a senior sister missionary walking across the path. They all pass in front of us as I decided to have a little fun with one of the elders. I cut off the very last elder from the group. "Hey Elder, how is the work going?" Looking a little confused he answered, "Good, a little slow though." "Too bad. Russian coming along well?" And so on until he stops me and says, "Hey wait, who ARE you?" I told them I was from U.S. No way. Utah, in fact. No way. I'm LDS. No way. I served a mission in Mongolia. No way. Anyway, I chatted with the group, the entire Irkutsk Zone, in fact before we parted ways.

A few hours later, I ran into them again at the Lake. We snapped a photo and went our separate ways. As we left I mused, "Running into the missionary's on p-day at Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia." And in the immortal words of Elder Zinger, "What are the odds?"

I stayed in a cabin a little ways off of the lake. I had some shish kebab. I told you, I'm powerless to street-meat, and a Mongolian rice and beef dish. Oh yeah, I saw a seal show too. Nope, not Heidi Klum's, but Slippy and Slappy at the dome, down just a little ways from my cabin. Lake Baikal has (among many species unique to it) the Earth's only fresh water seals. These two were found injured, by poachers, when they were taken in. Now trained, they clapped, they danced to music, they played the trumpet, they jumped out of the pool and hit the ball. They were great. The funnest part though was to watch the face of the little girl, who is about my niece's age (4 or 5-ish), in complete surprise at each new trick they did.

Irkutsk

This city has some cool history behind it. It was the capital city for the 'White Army' which was in opposition to the 'Red Army' that eventually won out during the Russian Civil War after the Revolution of 1917. It was the site of a number of conflicts between the Reds and Whites. There is a monument for Admiral Kolchak, leader of the white army, who was executed in Irkutsk in 1920. His life is the subject of the 2008 movie 'Admiral.' It got great reviews from the Ukrainian sister missionary I met here. It's definitely on my 'To Watch' list now. He received support from Japan, in the form of gold, in the civil war efforts.

Irkutsk was a place of exile for many artists, officers, and nobles in the 1800s. Many of them were 'Decembrists,' or those who took part in the December revolt against Czar Nicholas I. They contributed a lot to the cultural and intellectual development of the area. There is a church here where many of the 'Decembrists' are buried. Many of their wooden houses still exist in the middle of the city. The houses have really decorative hand-carved outer trimming: windows, frames, shutters, and roof overhangs.

(Me and Alex III, whose contributions helped complete the Trans-Siberian)

There is also a monument for the Trans-Siberian railway. The first train arrived in Irkutsk in 1898, carrying Nicholas II. The from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok which now could be completed in days, previously took three months to do. Irkutsk was never in serfdom and thus had some wealthy entrepreneurs that helped in its development. It has always been a gateway for trade between China and Europe. The Russian writer Chekhov, compared Irkutsk to Paris, and it was nicknamed the Paris of Siberia.

Ekaterinburg

So I'm finally getting the feeling back in my tongue. (haha, that's a weird sentence to start with). The other night I got into Ekaterinburg a little late and wanted to get some food. If you want to get food 24 hrs a day the train station is always a good bet, plus I'd seen a place advertising Uzbek food, so I ventured back to the station to try it out. I didn't know I had ordered soup, but I did. OWWW, burning. That happened to me in Mongolia all of the time. I think they heat up the soup and hand it to you as soon as it's boiling. Plus, I'm pretty sure that the grease and the oil that they put in it actually boils somewhere near thousand degrees. Anyway, it was probably a good thing because the 'pizza' that I had the next night, more like pizza loaf, was pretty interesting. I won't describe it to you but I liked it.

Ekaterinburg is a pretty cool town. Our man Boris Yeltsin grew up in the outskirts and went to the Ural university to attend college. Ekaterinburg is in the Ural area, about 200km from the Ural mountains. So basically it is on the border between Europe and Asia. It's like the third capital of Russia, Moscow being the financial, St. Petersburg the cultural, and Ekaterinburg the industrial capital. They didn't allow foreigners into Ekaterinburg during the communist era so it's not what I would call a very touristy town. I visited some cool stuff though, like the Russian Orthodox church built in memorial of the family Czar Nicholas II. They were the last Russian royal (or Romanov) family. They were all murdered, in 1918, in a house where the church now stands. They were the family with the son Alex who was a hemopheliac, and daughter Anastasia. The one who either escaped, or who others claimed to be so they could claim the fortune deposited in British bank accouns. There is also a monastery about 20 min outside the city that I went to, that has about 7 different small churches built up.

The monastery is built over the mining shafts where the remains of the family were taken. Remember what I said about Russian orthodox churches being very elaborate and decorative, in general? Wrong. These churches are built out of wood, without a single nail. They're basically like one room log cabins with some icons, and candles inside.

I had a guide take me to the churches. She had red hair and kind of looked like my sister's Raggedy-Ann (no idea how to spell that) doll that she had when she was younger. In between the church trips I went to a farmer's market just off of Lenin Street, the main road. There was a guy grilling and his tent said that he was the 'Ural Master' so naturally I went and had some beef from the master. Pretty good. (Not that I could taste it completely because my tongue had melted off the night before, but I guessed that it was pretty good)

One of the more interesting things I saw was a Soviet war monument. I talked a little bit before, in Budapest, about how Soviet monuments are all very similar. Well there were a bunch that fit the standard model in Ekaterinburg, except for one, called the Black Tulip. It does have a soldier, but it's not Zhukov, or Lenin, and instead of raising his machine gun high in the air, he is sitting on the ground dejected. Around the monument are the names of local soldiers, who have died in conflicts since 1945. Definitely a different kind of memorial.

Anyway, I'm on the Trans-Siberian right now. I'll post this when I get to Irkutsk. I got on the train about 36 hours ago... I think. I'm kind of losing track of time. We stopped in Novosibirsk last night and are about 16 hours away from Irkutsk right now. I met 3 other Americans (no, 2 Americans, 1 Canadian) that are about my age. Two guys and a girl. One of the guys and girl are moving from New York City to Kansas and taking a break in between a job at Ernst and Young, and doing a PhD in accounting in Kansas. They started in St. Petersburg and are going to Mongolia for a few days, before Beijing. In Mongolia they're going to stay with a family in a ger, or yurt. They asked me about the food and said that they'd heard horror stories. I don't think my musings about horse milk, and sheep intestine blood sausage allayed any of their concerns. Haha, poor kids. They don't know what's about to hit 'em.

List of conflicts/dates pulled off of the Black Tulip Memorial

Ethiopia '77-'79

Libya '82

Mozambiqe '67-'69, '75-'79

Syria '67-'70,'72-'73,'82

Koba? '62-'89

Yemen '62-'63,'67-'69

Egypt '62-'63, '67-'72,'73-'74,'74-'76

Vietnam '61-'74

Algiers? '62-'64

Laos '60-'63,'64-'68,'69-'70

Korea '50-'53

Bengria? '56

Khalkin-gol (Mongolia?) '39

Japan '45

Spain '36-'39

Khasan? '38

Finland '39-'40

Kitae? '24-'27,'37-'44,'45,'46-'49,'50

Moscow

Do you remember the part in the new Star Trek movie (hey, make fun of the reference all you want but I know you've all seen it) where the young Russian guy, Chekov, beams someone aboard and then goes, "Yo-Mayo!"? Something like, 'Holy crap!' Well, my flight was delayed and rerouted because the airspace over Denmark was closed because all ground communications had failed there. We got to Stockholm (holla D!) 5 minutes before my connecting flight to Moscow was supposed to leave. As I'm running through the Stockholm airport to make the Moscow connection, which they were doing a last call for, there were two Russian guys running with me. We were all going as fast as we could to gate F65 when the terminal dead-ended at gate F39. As we turn around to run all the way back down the terminal one of the Russian guys, exasperated, blurts out a "Yo-Mayo!" I understood because everything I know, I learned from movies.

When I got to my hotel I ventured out to get some food. I ate at the first place I found. It had green discoball lights swirling around the room and 'America's Next Top Model' playing on a tv in the far corner. Bonus. I ordered, somehow, and was enjoying some Bulgarian Beef when the karaoke started. Double bonus.

I don't even know where to begin to start summarizing all the cool stuff I saw. I had a guide who ran me ragged physically and mentally. Yo-Mayo! This guy knows volumes about Russia and felt obligated to unload them on me. We started at the Kremlin and Red Square and the next day we took a car around to see everything else: Bolshoi Theater, former KGB headquarters, the Stalin skyscrapers, Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Tolstoy's neighborhood, Sparrow Hill, The 1980 Olympic complex, Swan lake, the Novodevichii Nunnery and cemetery where we saw the graves of Yeltsin, Khrushchev, Molotov- the minister of foreign affairs under Stalin, Mikhalkov- the Soviet national anthem lyricist (remember Rocky IV)...

Kremlin

The Kremlin is the place where the original fortress of Moscow was founded in 1147 out of logs of pine. St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia before the revolution of 1917, which was moved because Moscow was a more secure location. Russia itself had foundations much earlier than Moscow, in the 9th century by Swedish prince Rurik (holla D!). Apparently 'Rus' is a word of Swedish origin that means 'army,' and more particularly the army which defended the area. Thus the name of the country was born.

Russia became Christian in 988 when Prince Vladimir converted and outlawed paganism. In 1054 the Russians split with the Catholic church and have not recognized each other since. Unlike the Catholic church which has a pope, considered to be the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Russian Orthodox church has a Metropolitan, who is elected. In several cases the Metropolitan has been voted out of office. Russian cathedrals have a little different feel than Roman catholic. In Roman Catholic cathedrals, in my experience it is common to see plenty of undecorated stone which gives a very rustic feel. Russian orthodox churches however have walls and columns are completely covered, decorated with figures and scenes. For example, the columns of the Dormitian Cathedral are painted with images of martyrs, the 'pillars' of the church.

In Russian history among the Czars (a Russian take on 'Caesar') there were three rulers who stand out among them all.

• Ivan the Terrible 1532-1584
• Peter the Great 1696 - 1725
• Stalin 1924-1953

In 1953 Moscow had a population of about 500,000. When the Passport regime was abolished, which allowed citizens to move within the country, the population grew to about 7 million by 1980. Now there are about 20 million inhabitants, about 10 million of which are migrants from former soviet states, the largest influx being from Azerbaijan.

Anyway, the Kremlin is walled in on a hill and contains:

• The Ex Palace of the Congress of the Communist Party, now a concert hall
• The Senate, or Yellow House, where Lenin used to live, and where the President now works
• The Square of Cathedrals:

Dormitian Cathedral, where coronations and the Holy Virgin of Vladimir painted in Constantinople used to reside. They say that as the Germans approached Moscow in December of 1941 that Stalin had all of his troops blessed by the icon. Shortly thereafter the Germans began to retreat, and the story goes that the war wasn't won by a change in strategy or tactic, but by Stalin's change of attitude.

Cathedral of Michael the Archangel, housing 48 tombs of former Russian religious and political figures including Ivan the Terrible

The Cathedral of the Annunciation, where Czars used to baptize their children

• The Monastery of the Miracle, now the President's administration building
• The Armory, one of the richest museums in Russia

The Armory is amazing. Catherine the Great's wedding gown. Original horse carriages of the Czars. Priestly robes. Carl Faberge jewelry eggs. Elaborately decorated Cathedral scriptures decorated with sapphires, rubies, and emeralds the size of golf balls. (Apparently Ivan the Terrible had a thing for blue sapphires. Although banned by the church, he felt that they could keep nightmares away, and help him foresee enemy conspiracies) Gifts from foreign emissaries for hundreds of years: medieval suits of armor, Persian swords, Swedish (holla D!) drinking bowls, French dishes (Catherine the Great loved France, and it became common for nobles to hire French nannies so their children would grow up speaking French)

Red Square

This is where the famous Cathedral of St. Besil stands, with the elaborate colors, and spires in the shape of bulbs patterned after the flame of a candle. On the sides of the square you have a cemetery with the graves of Lenin and Stalin and other heroes. Behind it you have the National history museum. And on the other side, there is the GUM Department Store/Shopping mall. Three levels, and three different legs. Quite a nice place. At the entry to Red Square you have 'Kilometer Zero.' The point from which all distances in Russia are measured. There is also a huge statue of Zhukov, the Russian WWII general, then promoted to Marshall. There are two men who have been awarded Russia's highest military medal of honor twice- Zhukov and Stalin.

Metro

Moscow's metro system is pretty amazing. It is the world's third largest behind New York, and London. They say if you just line up all the escalators on top of each other it would go 37km high. The largest metro station has platforms with total length of 850m. There are a number of metro stations that have statues, or mosaics and paintings. For example the Kiev station was built in 1954 to commemorate 300 years since the unification of Russia and Ukraine. On the walls there are scenes depicting Ukrainian life. One of the main stations is finished with white marble to make it look like a palace. Stalin believed that it's the workers of the country that should be able to feel like they're in a palace.

Vodka

I told my guide that when I was in Mongolia, the Mongolians said that they learned to drink from the Russians. According to my guide, Finish people drink even more than Russians do. Interesting. He also said that before Peter the Great, drinking was only allowed two times per year, Christmas and Easter. But Peter the Great allowed drinking. He was also the first to introduce museums to Russia. He even offered free vodka to museum goers.

Wow, I really want to keep going but this is getting kind of ridiculous. I will have you know that the Trans-Siberian is treating me well. On my way to Yekaterinburg.

Eastward

On my way from Belgium to Stockholm (holla D!), I decided to pen a little poem.

Ode To My Joy

Goodbye strudel. Auf wiedersehen bratwurst. God speed English breakfast with your baked beans. Goodbye dough-like stuff called dumplings by Czech people. Farewell Hungarian beef. Bye bye schnitzel. Ciao gelato. Ciao pizza. Goodbye Belgian waffles and that goodness they put inside of you. Good riddance crepes, and my all my hopes that you have crushed. Au revoir French bakeries and your sweet, sweet smells. Goodbye chocolate of all lands and denominations, especially you Belgian- you have been the one for me.

Paris

Let me impart an impression or two (since, I'm an impressionist now--wah wah) about the non-sight seeing part of the trip. Firstly, if you ever come across the 'Agile Hostel of Paris,' don't be fooled. It is actually a 'Comfort Inn.' That was a pleasant surprise. Unpleasant surprise- to read the sign on the door at midnight our first night that said, 'Outer doors lock at 10pm. Use the key code to get in.' I stood dumbfounded for a while before realizing it was written on our key card.

Another pleasant surprise is that the metros stop running at 1am. Hey, don't blame me for being out so late, it was free museum night until midnight. You would've done the same. Can't get enough Van Gogh and Monet. Lastly, what's the deal with crepes? I still think people who like crepes have been sold a bill of goods. Feel free to weigh-in. French pastries on the other hand, that's something I can get behind. When you can make an entire metro station smell like a bakery, instead of a Manhattan urinal, now that's something to center a Sunday night gathering in Provo around.

Now for my fun facts of Paris:

Versailles

Treaties, kings, Marie Antoinette, need I say more? Probably. Before Louis XIV got his hands on this place it was his father's hunting lodge. The hall of mirrors- one of the most famous rooms in the world. The gardens- amazing. The French are very skilled at planting trees in straight lines. And now I know why gold is so precious. The gold on the facade and gates make this place look like a painting.

The Louvre

Home to 350,000 artifacts, only a fraction of which are on display. The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Code of Hammurabi (Holla Dad!). On the outside, Voltaire's nose is falling off. So there's a big net cast over him until they decide what to do with it. Now I know where Apple Inc. got the idea for their 5th Avenue underground store.

Arc du Carousel

Built by Napoleon in 1808, out of line with the axis of Paris. Chariots 'gifted' from St. Mark's cathedral in Venice, and figures from the Brandenburg gate in Berlin. Now Brandenburg gate is said to have figures positioned to keep one eye pointed towards the French embassy.

Notre Dame

The story goes that an impatient Napoleon took the crown right out of the Pope's hands and put it on himself during the coronation ceremony. The building, in disrepair, was planned for demolition, but saved (at least in part) by the fame of Victor Hugo's book about the hunchback.

Pont Neuf

Of 'Bourne Identity' fame. Built by Henry IV. Had the first raised pedestrian sidewalk. Great idea for travelers who usually had to walk through an open sewage system. The sides are lined with sculptures of faces. They are said to come from the party celebrating the finishing of the bridge when Henry IV got his royal sketchers to draw 300 of his present associates. One has a guy sticking his tongue out. Another looks like he's about to barf.

Institute of France

Inside which one of the academies houses 'the immortals,' defenders of the French language, from outside impurities. Win - French uses its own word for 'computer.' Fail - 'Le weekend.' Also, the gender of the 'ipod' is male.

Bridge of Arts

Does anyone know the film that started the tradition of putting a lock on a bridge with your significant other, and throwing away the key into the river? More importantly, does anyone ever read this far?

Gardens of the Royal Palace

Where the French revolution began with a citizen jumping on a table, and shouting, "Citizens, no time to lose, the firing of Nicer is the ringing of bells..." and two days they storm the Bastille on the 14th of July. Only to find there is no ammo there and only 7 prisoners. They later storm the army hospital and get 30,000 muskets.

Opera House

Of the novel 'Phantom of the Opera' fame.

The Eiffel Tower

Is actually painted three different colors to give the appearance of one. Built in 1889- commemorating 100 year anniversary of Bastille day as the entrance to the World's Fair. only intended to stay up 20 years but a radio antenna made it quite useful during wartime. Was the tallest structure until 1930 when the Chrysler building beat it.

The Obelisk

Around 3300 years old from Luxor. By the Champs-Élysées, and next to the fountain from 'The Devil Wears Prada.' (Holla...anyone who has seen that). The gold on the tip was actually donated by Yves Saint Laurent.

Arc de Triomphe

Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier and the eternal flame. Wasn't so eternal in 1998 when Mexicans did an old fashioned 'Boy Scout-put out' on it after Brazil lost the world cup to France.

Musée d'Orsay

Also built for the World's Fair. I really liked this one. Van Gogh, Rodin, Monet. Impressionism amazes me. (Holla Sister Fischer).

Montmartre

Molin Rouge

Means 'Red Windmill.' Built same year as Eiffel Tower. Currently 80% of the dancers are Australian.

Van Gogh's House

Strange guy. Great paintings. They said he cleaned his brushes by sucking the paint off.

The Windmill of Montmartre

When Russians laid seige to Paris they destroyed the 15 of the 16 windmills so the people wouldn't be able to make wheat. Site of Renoir's windmill painting.

The Nimble Bunny Cafe

Where Picasso would trade art for food. The owner later became a very rich man.

Church of the Sacred Heart

Built as thanks to God for not being wiped off of the map by the Prussians in 1871. Has Roman, Byzantine, and Gothic architecture. Separate bell towers, domes, and gargoyles.

Le Bateau Lavoir

Where Picasso lived with Modigliani. Picasso was enraged when a robber came in thrashed their apt and stole some of Modigliani's work and not his own. Picasso and Modigliani had a falling out and later Modigliani broke into Picasso's home and stole his work.

Milan

The train to Milan was super crowded. I sat knee to knee with a businessman the whole way. I had to do some spidermanning to use the on-board restroom to avoid the two inches of *ahem* water on the floor. We got into the Milan central station and went to our hostel. The 'Sweet Hostel.' Sweet Hostel my *ahem* foot. That place was a piece. So I did what anyone would do at 11pm in Milan. I left to get some pizza. It was a family style Italian restaurant. There were a couple of families finishing dinner. Probably the Corleones, arranging their 'business' affairs. The past couple of restaurants I've been to have had a flat screen TV playing. I'm used to seeing sports playing in a restaurant, but not just any station. Travel tip: do not watch TV at 11pm in Europe. Family restaurant my !@#$#...foot.

It was good to spend a day in Milan and get a small taste of Italy. We saw the Duomo, the second largest Catholic church. I even caught the 5pm Rosary too. The Sforza Castle is pretty impressive as well. We hit up the Milan fashion district and I spent €745 on a jacket. It is awesome. Ok really, no way. In the evening we caught a happy hour special. Free buffet when you order one drink. Easy. 'One Fanta Orange please.' So we had some interesting appetizers, and pastas. And we had as much as we wanted. We went to see if we could sneak in to see Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' but you have to book to see it a few weeks in advance so we weren't surprised when we were turned away. Seeing as how we didn't even decide to go to Milan until a couple days before, we couldn't complain. Let's just say it got put on the list of things to do on a later trip.

My travel buddy G$ is kind of a fly by the seat of the pants guy. I've been teasing him about it quite a bit. It even makes me nervous sometimes, which I think is saying a lot. He didn't want to buy train tickets to Paris until he was sure he wanted to leave Milan. We checked out of our not so 'Sweet' hostel, and put our bags in a locker at the train station, so we didn't have any place planned to stay for the evening. I was surprised he could go so far without making a decision and not be bothered by it. Intrigued by this little spitting match I agreed that we wouldn't book a train, or a hostel until we knew whether we wanted to stay, or go to Paris. I think the movie is 'Men in Black' where there is an alien spaceship that crashes in front of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith and they don't move out of the way while it skids to a halt. Anyway, while the ship is plowing up the earth in front of them Will Smith keeps looking nervously back at TLJ to see if he's going to get out of the way. I was Will Smith today. About 9pm I put my cards down and said that if we'd seen enough of Milan, we should probably check on train tickets to Paris.

So we headed back to the station, and found out that since the Paris-bound train was already en route to Milan, there was no way to know if there were open seats (or beds, in this case). So we had to show up at 11:35 pm to see if we could get on standby. In the mean time I looked for an internet cafe in vain to see if we might be able to book a hostel just in case the train was full. So we showed up at 11:35, and we were actually able to get on second class. We even saved like €20 by going second class, and it wasn't even bad at all. Nice. We got the train we wanted and even saved some cash. I was stoked. That is, until the ticket checker came by and asked for our tickets and passports. He stamped our tickets, looked at our passports, gathered them up and said something in French and then, "You. Passport. Morning." What?! Ughhhhhhh. Everything had worked out so well. I guess we had just flown a little to close to the sun, on chicken wings and crappy bar food. So we shared a 6 bed bunk with 3 other French guys that night. Two of them were speaking Arabic as well. None of them spoke English and my combined Arabic+French vocabulary consists of about 6 words, so we didn't have much interaction with them. Anyway, it was ok because we slept on the train and got our passports in the morning and all was well in Paris.

Bern

Be forewarned, I'm a little off my rocker tonight.

We caught an early train to Bern that put us there in the early afternoon. Hostels were a little more expensive in Bern than in Milan, so we hoped to see as much as we could in a day and catch an evening train to Milan. So we cruised around the city of the bear as fast as we could. We got a map from the info desk at the train station that planned out a little walking tour with some things to see. We rented a locker where we threw our bags and took off. I really wanted to see the Einstein museum (world's first) so we headed down through town to check it out. After the museum it was pouring rain outside. Hmmm. Undeterred we continued to tour Bern in the pouring rain for the next couple of hours. We saw a bear, Einstein's home, the rose garden that overlooks the city, the clock tower, and a couple of other churches and such. There are large number of fountains in the city of Bern, along with statues that commemorate different rulers, saints, etc. Since the 16th century the city has had a bear pit. So we went and saw the bear at the bear holding. I bought a green mango powerade to get me ready for the rest of the hike. Liquid gold my friends.

On the way to the Einstein museum there was a little old lady walking across the Kirchenfeldbrücke bridge and she stops us and says pointing to where we'd come from, "Blah blah blah blah Bundesgasse, blah blah blah blah. Das ist richtig?" Without missing a beat I say "Bundesgasse?" Then I pull out my map and point to Bundesgasse and then point her to where she needs to go. She thanks me and then walks away. My buddy looks at me like, 'ummm, what just happened and since when did you know German?' Then I made up some crap about understanding her because it wasn't Swiss German (which actually is way weird btw). I probably totally sent her in the wrong direction. Haha, poor lady. I thought it was a good language moment though. Later I learned that where she stopped us was the bridge that Einstein walked on everyday to get to the patent office. That's just how Einstein and I are similar- we get stuff. Let me give you some more similarities, here we go:

Striking similarities between me and Einstein

• Einstein renounced his German citizenship. I am not a German citizen either.
• Einstein was exempted from military service because of varicose veins, flat feet, and foot perspiration. My feet perspire too.
• Einstein still couldn't speak much at age 3. At age 3 I couldn't speak Swabian German either.
• Einstein lived in Munich where his father's business 'Einstein and Co.' did the lighting for Oktoberfest in 1885. I visited Munich in 2010, not quite exactly 125 years later.
• Einstein's family moved to Italy after living in Munich, then he lived in Bern. I moved by train from Munich to Bern to Italy.
• Einstein had an illegitimate child that he never met. I have never met any of the children I don't have.
• Einstein was failed admission to the university of his choice because of a lack of language proficiency. I only applied to two schools for undergrad, so I was denied to a whole bunch of schools I didn't apply to.
• Einstein wrote a letter to the president warning him of the danger of a potential nuclear weapon, and it wasn't taken very seriously. I wrote to Orrin Hatch in 6th grade for Boy Scouts, advising him to vote for the 'Brady Bill.' Sen. Hatch did not take me seriously either, and voted against it.
• Einstein's fourth major hypothesis of gravitational waves, still hasn't been proved. None of my theories has ever been proved.
• Einstein declined after being offered the presidency of Israel. I took my name out of the running for Senior class president when I found out my friend Cody was running, and I became the secretary instead.

I'm on the path.

Munich

Wow, what to say about Munich. The beer capital of the world.

So on our walking tour we had these two girls from Michigan. They were both chemical engineers in college, and just graduated. They, both being chemical engineers, and quite cute, I had to ask myself what alternate reality I had entered. One-- understandable. An anomaly. Two? Ridiculous. This is ridiculous.

Later in the evening we stopped to grab some food in the middle of a downpour. We went to this cafeteria style place. It was pretty cool, because I got the house dish of the evening: potatoes, cabbage, and a huge slab of meat. My buddy asked me how it was, and I said, "Typical German food." (Meaning, how I expected typical German food to taste). This lady then looks over at me and proceeds to tell me her life story. She's from Bastan (Boston, for the rest of us), and moved to Germany when she married an old boyfriend, after her husband died, and his wife died. She now has her grandchildren and his teenagers at the same time, Germany has labor equality issues with women, German healthcare and retirement benefits stink...and btw Germans can't cook. ha. (According to her. I, however like many German foods like Leberkäse)

Munich is an interesting town. Unlike Berlin, and Frankfurt which have been largely rebuilt anew, after the war is reconstructed from 1930's Munich. A large amount of catalogues, recorded before the war, contain information that have helped rebuild the city as it once was.

When we visited the Neuschwanstein Castle we had a tour guide named Herr Rauch Korinia. He sounded a little bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Actually, he sounded like someone making fun of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our tour group was huge inside the castle so he was shouting so everyone could hear. "It took 40 woodcarvers over 4 years to complete the king's bedchamber." When he started to give his spiel in the first room on the tour, this little old lady in front of me, not expecting him to shout so loudly jumped a full 2 inches in the air, it scared her so much.

We also visited the BMW headquarters, right next to the Olympic Park, and the displays in the main showroom. German engineering. Snap. In other news, we had a full room in our hostel. That hasn't happened to us often. There was this (I assume German) old dude in our room who snored louder than you can possibly imagine. Remember Grandpa Corbridge's imfamous snore? Amateur hour. Trust me, I was lucky enough to be in the bunk right above him. It was an unearthly, even inhuman sound. It was on a 7 tone reapeating scale of increasing volume. I can't even imitate it, at least without risk of monumental injury. Sweet fancy Moses, it was loud. I fell asleep with my index fingers plugged into my ears.

I'm going to jump into some history stuff that I found interesting. I am by no means a historian so you're going to have to brace yourselves. You're allowed to cringe as I give improper treatment to, and unintentionally butcher the facts.
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Some early... stuff.

The name Munich comes from the word 'monk' from when people used to live 'next to the monks.' The outline of a monk is one of the symbols you can find all around the city. The other symbol you can find is that of a lion. Bavarian land including Munich was granted to Henry the Lion knight.

He got the citizens of Munich in a bit of trouble when he burned down the town's toll bridge and built his own. As reparation the church determined the citizens would pay a 30% tax to the church for 150 years. However, the tax remained in place until 1934, when it was finally taken off of the books. Only 740 years too long.

The Frauenkirch, built from 1468-1488, is one of only a couple of buildings that lasted WWII bombings. The church is thought to have survived because its twin spires served as a landmark to bombers of the center of the city. Inside the church there is a little statue/plaque to Pope Benedikt XVL, who was from Munich. Over 3,000 Catholic priests were killed in WWII mainly for aiding Jews.

We visited St. Mary's square and the old town hall. In the middle of St. Mary's square there is a statue of a half chicken-half lizard which was thought to carry the plague. The plague was later attributed to cats. So they killed all of the cats. Woops. When the rat population exploded , they imported cats from outlying areas.


Oktoberfest

In 1871 Germany was formed out of three countries: Bavaria, Saxony, and Prussia. Otto von Bismark of Prussia was the driving force behind the union. Bavaria still remained a kingdom until after WWI in 1918. Bavarian kings came into power in 1806 when Napoleon reached Bavaria and installed Max Joseph Platz as king. The main stipulations were that Napoleon's daughter was to marry Max's son, and Bavaria was to give up 36,000 troops. In 1810, Joseph's son Ludwig I bought his bride to be a field, Teresa's meadow. In order to liven up the wedding gift they threw a huge wedding party there, with a horse race to commemorate the occasion. It was such a success that they did it again in 1811 and it became an annual tradition. By 1818, people began to sell beer at the race and Oktoberfest was born. Later instead of banning jockeys from drinking, they got rid of the horserace altogether. During Oktoberfest Munich's population swells fom 1.3 million to 6.5-7 million people in the 2 weeks of the festival. Local beer companies, make ~30% of their yearly profits in those 2 weeks. The Australian embassy, normally in Berlin, even rents out space in Britain's embassy for 2 weeks (supposedly to help all the Aussie partyers who have lost their passports after having one too many).


Bavaria's Michael Jackson

After the Franco-Prussian war, Germany signed its constitution in 1871 in the hall of mirrors in the palace at Versaille. Ironically, there they would sign the treaty of Versaille there years later. Around this time the state of Bavaria had a king named Ludwig II. He inherited the throne at age 18, passed down from when his great grandfather was installed as king by Napoleon in 1806. He had a love for the composer Richard Wagner, and brought him to Bavaria to work. Ludwig II never married, and was said to have sought escape in his castles. His third castle, which was never completed, sits about two hours outside of Munich by train. It is called the Neushwanstein Castle and is said to be the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Ludwig would only spend 172 days there. After Ludwig spent his family fortune in his building projects, he was overthrown in a plot where he was declared insane by a doctor he'd never met. He was taken prisoner and exported to another castle. He disappeared with one of the doctors during an evening stroll the day after he was taken prisoner. Both his, and the body of the doctor were found underwater. Ludwig's watch had stopped at 6:54pm and the doctor's read 8pm. Years later notes from a fisherman, and friend of Ludwig, commented that he had plans to help Ludwig escape that night, but when he heard shots, he left. Ludwig's death remains a mystery.

The Hofbräuhaus and Odeonsplatz

It is very interesting to see how Germany chooses to commemorate its past. There is an inconspicuous line of gold colored bricks in the middle of the road that serve as a WWII memorial and the march of the beer hall putsch. After the events, Göring publicized that 20 Nazis had been honorably killed during the event (even though 5 of them weren't Nazis). They had placards placed at Odeonsplatz with the names of those who had died for the Nazi cause, guarded by Nazi soldiers. Each passerby was required to give the Nazi salute as they passed. It became known as 'dodger's alley.' Names were taken of passersby on nearby streets, and if anyone was suspected of avoiding the obligatory Nazi salute they could be sent to Dachau. You can still see dark square discolored blotches on the wall nearby, where the placards hung.
Odeonsplatz has a large building with two lion statues that line the steps in front. One has its mouth open, and the other has its closed. They symbolize silence before God, and an open mouth towards government. Hitler gave many speeches between these two lions. Ironic.
You can go have a drink in the visit the Hofbräuhaus at the center of town. The world famous beer hall was founded in 1589 by Wilhelm V, and is still state owned. It started as the royal brewery. It was here that many events occured that shaped the Third Reich. Hitler held many propaganda events that promoted the Nazi party at the Munich Hofbrahaus. It was there that he was elected head of the Nazis in 1921. In a nearby beer hall called the Bürgerbräukeller, Hitler staged the famous Beer Hall Putsch on 9 Nov 1923. Hitler had planned to overthrow the government and loaded a gun with a bullet intended for three leaders: the Bavarian Commissioner, the cheif of police, the cheif of the army, and one for himself in case the plan failed. He and his associates marched to the Bürgerbräukeller where the Bavarian Commissioner was giving a speech.
They fired a shot into the air and yelled that the national revolution had begun. At this point the three leaders were captured and taken into a sideroom while Hitler and his associates tried to win them to their point of view.
In the meantime Göring was giving a speach to the audience who were not allowed to leave the beer hall. Hitler grew annoyed with the Bavarian Commissioner and returned to the main hall to give a speech. With his public speaking skills Hitler won over the hostile crowd to loud applause. Eventually the crowd was allowed to leave, and Hitler left to deal with a crisis elsewhere. Shortly thereafter Hitlers associate, Ludendorff released the Bavarian officials. The rest of the night went on in confusion and not knowing what to do, around midmorning Luendorff shouted "We will march," and they began to march with their approximately 2000 supporters to Odeonsplatz. They met with a group of about 100 soldiers, and began to retreat. Shots were fired killing 15 Nazis, 4 police, and a bystander, a waiter from a nearby restaurant. Hitler's bodyguard took 11 bullets. He fled the scene, which caused a rift between him and Luendorff and they rarely spoke after that. Hitler then began a myth that only he could take his life.
Each year, at the Bürgerbräukeller, the Nazis commemorated the beer hall putsch. On the fifth aniversary, they received word that a young Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, living in France had shot and killed a German diplomat. He did this because of persecution Jews had been facing, and since his parents, living in Germany were deported back to Poland even though they were no longer considered Polish citizens. Thus they were refugees at the border, and wrote to their son for help. When the Nazis received word of the assasination, Joseph Goebbels is reported to have announced, 'We now have the answer to the Jewish question.' A night of persecution began known as the 'night of broken glass.'

We also visited the New Synagogue. It opened in 9 Nov 2006, the 68th aniversary of the beer hall putsch. The synagogue has been a gathering point of Neo-Nazi attention. However, when the Neo-Nazis stage protests, other protesters stage their own protest in protest of the protest. They have been known to make it so loud nearby that nothing can be heard where the Neo-Nazi event is taking place. On at least one occassion, on the day of a Neo-Nazi gathering, churchbells throughout the city rang for 45 minutes, drowning out any message to be heard.

Vienna

We went to church at the English speaking branch. I could barely stay awake, we'd gotten up pretty early to get the train from Budapest to Vienna. The YSAs had their own Sunday school class taught by the Bishop, an Aussie. I suspect he hadn't called anyone else to be their Sunday school teacher because he likes clowning around with them too much. He was a pretty laid back funny guy. He even passed out some lollys. The class was about tripple in size with us and some BYU girls studying in Vienna for the semester. Those girls cracked me up. "Hi I'm Brittany, I'm from ____ and I'm studying to be a nurse, so I came to Vienna to learn German for no reason." Gotta give 'em credit for seeking to expand horizons. Actually, one of the girls did mention studying international relations and wanting to work for the UN. Then the bishop (working for the UN) chimes in, "Well I think I could probably convince you don't actually want to do that... Unless you're interested in arguing for a whole day whether a document should read, 'We urge you...,' 'We request that you...', 'It is suggested that you...', 'We kindly advise that you...,'" and on and on.

The coolest character of the day however, was a 70ish year old guy I sat next to in Priesthood. "I sink ouah Fahzah vahnts us to pray so ve kahn see vaht hes vill ees foah ahs." He asked me about our trip and I said that our next stop was Munich. "Ah you goeen to see ze Neuschwanstein Castle?" I didn't really know what he was talking about, so I just said, "I hope so." (That's the supposed inspiration for the Disneyland Castle) And yes we did end up seeing it.

We spent the rest of the day seeing Vienna. They even had a live feed on the wall of the opera house showing 'Carmen' being performed inside. I made a Mothers' Day card for my mom at the Schönbrunn palace. At the end of the day we stopped in a cafe, and my travel buddy Greg, channeling all of his suave starts to strike up a conversation with our waitress. I tried to say something in German then she says, "That's ok, but it's not something that you can use....How about this- 'Ein bier bitte.' Easy as that.

Budapest

We rode into Budapest on a midnight train from Prague. Our sleeper car is a room with a door, 3 bunks, that all fold up into the wall, and a window that you can crack open. You can only book one of these trains if you have an overnight trip, otherwise the trains just have seating arranged on an aisle with four seats on both sides, i.e. groups of two that face each other with a little table in the middle that folds out from the wall. There wasn't a third person so the top bed remained locked up. For some reason I like sleeping in the bunks on the trains. I think it reminds me of my mission, and travelling with other elders to and from zone conferences. It can be super noisy and shove you around, but that's actually what you're paying for.

For only spending a day there, we got to see a lot. We had some previous suggestions, and we had our hostel clerk circle a few sites on a map and we set off to see the first one. It was a communist monument overlooking the whole city, from the west side. Budapest is built on the banks of the Danube river. The west side was the former city of Buda, and the east side the city of Pesht. The west side is quite a bit higher than the east, on which the Soviet monument, and castle hill reside. Castle hill, built in 1248, is a few km north, north of the monument and is home to national museums and a number of restaurants built into the battlements that line the cliff. The castle is incredible, and looks straight across the Danube at the parliament building on the east side. The parliament building is beautiful (3rd largest in the world), and was built by the winner of an architectural contest to design it. The second and third place winners of the contest got their designs put into other gov't buildings close by. Also, on the east side is the synagogue, which is the second largest in the world.

Anyone who has been to a former Soviet country will spot a Soviet monument a mile away. The formula is simple: A cement statue, usually of a soldier or leader, that stands quite high, maybe 50 feet, and overlooks the city. Prague had a ginormous statue of Stallin that overlooked the city, which is now the site of their giant metronome (supposedly marking the time of oppression, or time since freedom, or something like that). They blew the Stallin statue all to hell when they became a free nation. There's a picture of the detonation in the museum of communism, in Prague. It looks like they used about 10 times the necessary explosives to blow that thing up. Anyway, Budapest still has their monument overlooking the city. We climbed to the top to overlook the city. Budapest is huge. It sprawls in every direction as far as the eye can see.

We caught one of those hop on-off sight seeing busses to the castle and some of the other sites. You put on headphones and a lady with poor grammar and a wierd accent narrates what you are seeing. I felt like I could relate to the city not only because of Soviet rule, but because Budapest was sacked by the Mongols in 1241. They have a spot that is called something like Nobel road, where a lot of famous composers, economists, and John von Neumann (father of the computer) once studied.

When I went home I chatted with the hostel owner named Sechiey. He spoke English really well, which he had learned in Canada. I asked him about Canada and the Hostel business and he had quite an interesting story. One job he had had out of high school was working construction in Siberia. Later he decided to move to Canada. Travel must be easier to Canada as an EU citizen. He didn't have any plans, and didn't speak a word of English. He went with $1500 in his pocket -- that's it. He got off the plane in Toronto, went to a taxi and said, "Hotel." So the driver takes him to like the Ritz, where he spends $300 in two nights. Woops. $600 gone. On something like his 2nd or 3rd day he was eating in a cafe and spots a Hungarian girl. He said he knew by her look, and accent. So he starts chatting with her, and comes to find out she has a friend that can hook him up with a job at a factory. He gets a job there, and finds an apartment not speaking English. He said there was a lot of pointing and motioning on the job when he got instructions. He works there for a while until he catches wind of an opportunity in construction. So a few months later he starts his own aluminum siding business. Of course, he had never done aluminum siding, he just knew that the foreman said, if you can finish this house in a day I will contract you for more homes. He said, he'd seen it done before so he was confident he could do it. He finished the home, the boss checked his work the next day, and he won a contract to do the aluminum siding for 300 homes. He made a bunch of money, but wanted to come back home, so that's when he started 'The Leanback Hostel' on Erzebet (Elizabeth) street in Budapest.

Prague

Part I

We took another one of these free city walking tours today. Not too bad. Our guide was a pretty funny Irishman. He and I connected by quoting 'The IT Crowd,' a British comedy that only went two seasons.
Prague has a really interesting look and feel. It's history is amazing. I think my next trip is going to involve a number of Bohemian and Slavic countries. This area of the world with all of its mythical past and traditions is so intriguing to me. My new favorite character from history is Good King Wenceslas. Maybe I'll name a kid Wenceslas and call him or her 'Whence' for short. Good King Wenceslas Skinner.
I'm going to try and download some Czech music that I heard in the Museum of Communism (fittingly located behind Prague's largest McDonald's). The song I heard was a lot about the struggles living in and desires to be free during communism.

As it turned out, towards the end of WWII when the Russians along with the Americans and Brits started closing in on Prague, the city was ecstatic. However, even though the Americans were only an hour away, it had already been decided that the Russians, who were 4 days away, would liberate Prague. The Czechs fought with the Germans for 4 days until relief came. After Czech was liberated it began to be subject to Russian influence and became a communist state. There are a lot of Czech heroes that helped the cause of a free Czech people. Their leader Dubcek was influential in allowing greater expression in speech, a precursor to glasnost and perestroika under Gorbachev.

Another hero was a 19 year old student who, poured gasoline on himself and burned himself near the university and national theater in protest of communism. He died 5 days later. One million people attended his funeral procession.

We had our first set of hostel roommates. Two girls going to Drexel, doing a study abroad in London. Some of their favorite parts of Prague, Absinthe and shots of mouthwash. They came home at 4am, just as I was going to bed (old habits die hard I suppose).

Part II

So we met a girl on one of our tours that is going to Budapest. We thought that sounded cool. So we're going to Budapest. In other news, I missed meeting up with my Prague Castle tour group because I was visiting the Oldest Synagogue in Prague (like I said, old habits die hard..visiting synagogues. Not being late, Mom. :)). So they left without me. I later met up with my buddy at the Dvorak concert at the Museum of natural history. In the mean time I found a free castle tour in the old town square from this Czech lady who sounded like she learned English by watching the evening news. Her intonation was so weird. It was like Chinese+Swedish spoken by Carol Mikitta. On my tour was a guy that plays basketball in the European league, along with his hottie Czech girlfriend who is also a basketball player. Interesting times in Prague.

Sachsenhausen

Remember me wishing to have understood German for 30 seconds? Forget it. Some cat calls made it into english tonight. So, wish granted. Congratulations. I am now clawing my ears out.

We did a tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp today. It actually wasn't as heavy, for lack of a better word, as other holocaust memorials I have been to (i.e. Jerusalem, and D.C.). However, it was an entirely different thing to actually walk on the same ground and visualize these horrific events. Three thoughts:

The iron gate, at the front of the camp, that prisoners had to march through upon entering the camp for the first time, like other camps has the words "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work makes you free." Sadly, the freedom usually came through death.

Roll Call. Happened every morning and evening. Thousands of prisoners being accounted for. At one point around 30,000. The director of the camp was known for his meticulous roll call. Sometimes making it last 14 or 15 hours. Standing still in below freezing weather for hours, in a thin uniform. You had to be on time, as well as any friends you may have. Or you were beaten or tortured. Sometimes as many as 500 people lived in the 150 capacity bunks. When they awoke they had to dress, tidy the room, wash, use the one bathroom, with hundreds of other people. Sometimes the guards would even go into the bunks and create obstacles: tripping, beating people etc. and even drowning people in the toilet. After roll call you were assigned a duty. Brick making, or other tasks. The worst job was boot duty. Usually assigned to accused homosexuals. The job: testing German boots. The requirements: run. All day. The life expectancy of someone newly assigned to boot duty: 14 days.

The Fence. In the late 30's there was an electric fence surrounding the camp. Prisoners eventually used it to kill themselves. If they were seen running towards it they were shot in the legs. Eventually it was taken down. Prisoners did not even have the option of committing suicide.

Berlin

Man is this town cool. What town has had more happen in it in the last 100 years than Berlin? We took a great walking tour in the late afternoon for a few hours from a free tour company. They advertise at all of the Hostels and work off of tips. Genius idea really. Sadly, I probably wouldn't pay for a tour like this. I especially wouldn't pay the money that I actually did pay. But since it was free...??? Yet, makes so much sense. I was very interested to see how the city of Berlin has chosen to represent its past. Top 3 things.
3- The Jewish memorial. Near the Brandenburg gate. Great big stones, all different heights, with the length and width of a coffin. A quote by Joseph Stalin. "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is just a statistic." Sadly true. The memorial center in the middle of these huge stones is dedicated to collecting the stories of Holocaust victims.

2- The old Nazi Air Force headquarters. Now the National Tax offices (makes sense). The building remained largely unscathed from bombings. Perhaps since it was a landmark for opposing pilots to orient themselves, or as legend has it, a gentleman's agreement between England and Germany's air force chief, Hermann Goering,

The front of the building has a communist mural. I saw lots of these in Mongolia. These murals show pictures of young and old people working together, officials and commoners shaking hands, and everyone working together. The mural still stands as it was painted in the 50's in East Berlin. This building was the site of the first anti-communist uprising June 17, 1953 when workers protested that work demands increased as wages remained flat. Those who lost their lives are commemorated in a black and white photo, to the same scale, and about 15 yards in front of the mural. The photo that has the faces of these people protesting was taken on this occassion.

1- In the town square across from Humboldt University over 20,000 books were burned that contained ideas incongruent with Nazi ideology. In the middle of the square, the cobblestone stops at a square piece of glass about 4'x4'. When you look down into the glass you see that the cobblestone you are standing on is part of the top of a room about 40'x40' and 20' high, and the glass forms the center of the room. The empty room contains bookshelves from ceiling to floor, all empty- room enough for about 20,000 books. A few feet across the square in the ground is a metal plaque with the words "First comes the burning of books. And then comes the burning of people." The quote, referencing the Spanish Inquisition, was written in a book published in 1820, one of the very books burned during the Humboldt book burnings in 1936 (i think).

We ended the tour on the steps of one of the museums on 'museum island.' Something talking about how the Berlin wall came down. After the tour we ate some amazing cake at the Opera House cafe. The lady that took my order complimented my German accent. At least I think she did. It was kind of a surprised look, like 'You said it right'... and then a bunch of words that I didn't understand except 'good.' That made my day.

But then what REALLY made my day happened walking home after dinner. We were propositioned by 4 hookers. One right after the other, within about a 30 second time span. Rapid fire. One of them pinched my left cheek. Nope, not the face.

Oh to have only been able to understand 30 seconds' worth of German.

Brussels

Another day, another hassle at Heathrow. I missed my flight to Brussels partly due to a 'bank holiday.' I don't really want to talk about it. I got the next flight out which was two hours after the original, plus a little delay. I had planned to meet my old roommate at BRU since he was arriving from Philadelphia less than an hour before my flight was to arrive at about 9am. So the last we spoke, before we left, we realized that we wouldn't have cell phones so we struggled to come up with a back up plan in case we needed to get ahold of one another. Email was the best we could think of. So as I waited for my flight I sent an email at a little pay-by-coin internet computer. I also went to the British Airways service desk to see if they could send a message to my old roommate waiting at BRU. The kid who helped me was like 16, and it must've been one of his first days on the job. He seemed a little nervous, and there was a great big Scottish man looking over his shoulder telling him what to hit on his keyboard to send the message. So I dictated to him "I'm now on flight 932..."
"903?"
"932."
Then the scottsman chimes in. "Nyoo. Nyane thairt-ty tooa"

Anyway, my old roommate luckily checked his email in the internet cafe at BRU. I think he may be more of a fly by the seat of his pants traveler than even me. We got online and booked a hostel. The lovely Manhattan hostel in the heart of town. It is a rundown hotel. Pretty fancy for a hostel. There were a bunch of teenagers running around the halls until pretty late. Those crazy kids.

Brussels was a pretty cool town. Good chocolate. We checked out a few of the main parts and had some dinner in one of the restaurant alleys near the Gallery.