Well, I was suprisingly not hungover today.  Woke up, packed, cleaned up, grabbed breakfast with Dutchman Jay from the Netherlands.  Then I checked out, and checked the train schedule.  I can liesurely make it.  I said “so long” to the Clan, got some contact info and head out to catch my train.  The almost 5 hour trip was nice.  It gave me a chance to rest up and collect my thoughts of the past 3 week’s excitement.

Happy 4th of July! Woke up today at the Clown and Bard after first afternoon/eve in Prague. The D is playing on the house stereo. Today I plan to climb some of the towers in town, including the mini Eiffel (as it was called by other hostel stayers). I was getting ready to head out for the and a guy from the walking tours came in promoting his tour. After thinking it over, I decided to go. I made friends with another American and an Australian on the tour. The tour was awesome (Paul’s Tours) and worth every Krown. He really did an excellent job of pointing out many interesting details the occasional tourist would likely miss. High points of the tour were the clock tower, buildings in old town, the Saint Charles Bridge, the castle, castle gardens, and the main chapel. I still wanted to get up to the Petrin Tower. My American friend wasn’t interested in the tower but agreed to a drink later. I made my way up to the tower, climbed it an enjoyed the view. Then I went back to the C & B to unwind and get cleaned up. My american friend and I went for a drink at Hotel A Prince (recommended by our guide) which was a nice rooftop patio with an excellent view. After that, we drank a bottle of wine on the Saint Charles Bridge enjoying. We parted and I headed back to the C & B. As I arrived there were about 15 people headed out, among them were my Irish friends from last night. Apparently everyone in the group was Irish, making it the most Irish people in the C & B at one time so they were out to celebrate. Then they made me “honorary Irish” and invited me along. While waiting for the tram, Jason from Dresden and I spotted one another. He’d been at the C & B as long as I, we just had not crossed paths. So we fired up another round of drinking with Steve, Martin, Kate, Sarah and Claire. I’m pretty sure it was getting light when I reached my stop at the top stair. Phew! Back to Berlin in a few hours.

Off to a rough start!  I had mistakenly booked an 8AM train to Prague from Dresden.  Then the crosstown tram didn’t show up to take us to the main train station.  Guess the tram driver might have been out too late like me.  What was that all about?  I ended up on a later train and made it to town about 12 noon.  When I arrived, no one spoke english.  Finally I got the underground to the Clown and Bard.  I checked in – whoa, there are 36 beds in my room.  I can’t believe it either.  Not only does the traffic around town never seem to cease, there is always something happening in our room too!  I immediately head out to see my way around town.  My stroll took me past Riegrovy Sady (Park) on my way downtown.  Then I found the museum at the top of the main steet heading into old town (Vāclavskē Namēsti) which appears to be a well established tourist mall.  I made my way into old town, then crossed the Vltava river.  I then made my way up to the castle.  I fumbled my way through all these historic buildings without knowing much about them.  I headed back to the Clown and Bard and took a light nap.  When I woke I got cleaned up, ready to head out for the evening.  I joined Lindal, Hayley, Ryan, Todd and Yo for dinner (huge plates that almost resembled fajitas + beers $4) down the street from the hostel.  After dinner we regrouped at the C & B Pub (in the basement).  It was movie night so we started drinking and were joined by Dr. Greg and Johan.  Todd and Yo did an absynth shot and soon we all did one together.  I tried to convince 3 Irish girls (Aoifa, Aelish and Sinead) to join us for a shot, however the declined saying they were travel weary.  I should have questioned if they were really Irish.  So we did our shot, and I recommended the girls not do one as I was not very pleased with mine.  It was a great day of seeing new things and meeting new/fun people.  Trying to rest also proved intersting as my room mates decided to come home at different times all night long.

Made the drive into Dresden, about 2 hours.  Saw the Frauenkirche church.  Went out for food and drinks with Paula and Cameron.  Returned to the hostel to find an invitation to join my room mates from the hostel for a drink.  Soooo, I went out again, with Jason, Shawn, Fiona, Mina & Nicole. 

I spend most of today at the Jewish Museum.  It was quite extraordinary.  They boast 2 millennia of German Jewish History and it is true!  The museum is organized nicely starting 2000 years ago, tracking the culture and major events through the holocaust.  It managed to tread the line quite well between being informative and touching.  You can absorb as much history as you are capable of on your visit.

In the evening, I met Paula, Cameron and their friend Susan for some yummy Indian food.

Today I visited both the Berlin Technical Museum and Checkpoint Charlie Museum. 

The technical museum was pretty cool.  Covering planes, trains, automobiles, ships/boats, bicycles and everything in between.  Some raw science exhibits were good for getting the immagination going as well as seeing some of historical travel machines.  I managed to get a photo of a model of the Vasa Ship (seen in Sweden recently) when my camera was out of batteries.

The Checkpoint Charlie Museum had a lot of history about the Berlin Wall, helping to give an understanding of what it must have been like living there.  The most fascinating exhibits here had to do with the all the various escape attempts which were made. 

Today took until pretty early in the AM. Got some “mid trip items” taken care of, then went walking to get the feel of town. I left Paula’s place in Shonhauser Allee and walked up to Pankow. At one point I tried ordering some food from a street vendor, after a few seconds it was painfully clear that we could not understand each other. That evening I rallied for the pub tour that my new friends had invited me on. It was some solid drinking. I might have even had 10 shots before the tour started. This German girl showed up in the lobby of the youth hostel with a back pack full of booze. She was leading us to the tour. After handing out plastic shot glasses, she filled them for us, a whole bunch of times. This continued on the train across town to the area we were “touring”. At this point, I was feeling pretty good AND had 4 bars and 2 clubs to go – WOOHOO! This night was quite a ruckus. We were much closer to a car accident as it happened than I’d like to admit. And I do remember for a short time thinking it would be better to follow the train tracks home to Paula’s than to take the train.

Walked from Shönhauser Allee to Pankow. Tried to order food from a street vendor – we could not understand each other at all.  Went on a pub tour with the Philly kids I met on yesterday’s walking tour.  This was some solid drinking.  If I remember correctly, most of the damage was done before the tour really started.  The tour guide showed up in the lobby of the Generator youth hostel, and started pouring shots of vodka and juice.  Then she led us to the train station, we boarded, and she poured more shots as we rode to the begining of the tour. I think I might have had about 10 shots before the tour started, but who’s counting.  Well, we hit 4 pubs and 2 clubs after that.  Somehow I made it home, walking, trains, and listening to noisey people in the train station.  Paula checked on me the next morning, I told her I’d been home for 3 hours.  She replied “guess you don’t want a ride into the city today.”  Tota, if you are reading this, the Denver pub tours need to step it up.

Well, first let me comment that I unfortunately thought I’d be able to just show up with my camera and that I could get the photos onto the computer when I was here in Berlin. This is not the case. Yous guys looking for photos will have to wait until I get home, and then there will be a bunch. On to today’s excitement!

The day started off hitching a ride to Unter der Linden with Paula and Cameron. I walked around and checked things out while waiting for my free Berlin walking tour. I have to say that I was pretty impressed. So impressed that I would highly recommend this tour to anyone, you can find them here: NEW BERLIN TOURS. The tour started at the Brandenberg Gate and covered the Holocaust Memorial, the only remaining section of the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Reichstag, Hitler’s Bunker, the Air Defense Ministries Building, museums and galleries, finishing with the fall of the Berlin Wall story.

Next, some new friends (Jeff, BJ & Lindsay) and I grabbed a bite to each. We tried to go the the Guggenheim, however I failed to navigate us at that moment. We parted ways so they could see the Holocaust Memorial in its entirety. I looked into the Berlin Welcome Card so I can knock out a bunch of musems, then took a stroll through Tiergarten. Afterwards I backtracked to find the water bottle I misplaced at lunch and managed to find the Guggenheim. After some time there I went to the Reichstag, up into the observation dome. I finally was done and wanted to make sure I could find Checkpoint Charlie tomorrow so I went for another stroll. For a while I thought I was lost, then I was found. Once I figured out where I was and how to get where I wanted I headed for the Bahn for the trip back to Paula’s at 10PM (these long days are killing me).

So, go out all night (5:30 AM and I just made it back to the youth hostel), know you have a plane to catch, and start a post because you are scared to miss your plane if you go to sleep. I figure that staying awake is the best way to be up when Im supposed to meet Paula and Cameron to go to the airport at 10 AM. Unfortunately, breakfast does not start for another 2 hours, and Ill have to wait until then for some coffee. I guess that power nap yesterday afternoon and the red bull/vodkas really do keep you awake.

We did see the castle yesterday and it was pretty cool. Quite modernized, still cool. I cannot quite do it justice with words so I?ll commit to the pics later.