Berlin, Germany: Part II (February 1st-7th)

Well, you saw the places I visited, now for what I actually did! I wasn’t even supposed to go to Berlin, but instead, to Stuttgart to visit Amy at her flat. Last minute change in plans and I ended up there for a week! I checked into the Raise a Little Smile hostel in Friedrichshain for the first 4 nights. With less than 18 beds at the time, it was sort of like hanging out at a friend’s house, which ended up being awesome. For too much of the time, I admit, I sat in the kitchen eating instant tomato soup (my new favorite variety of travel food) and sat on the internet. It was okay though, because I had a lot of planning to do for the section of my trip in Spain, hostels to book, trains to figure out, etc.

I came to Berlin alone, so my first night was a bit lonely and I was afraid the rest of my week would me more of the same. I was definitely wrong. By the end of my week, all of my 10 euros of credit on my phone was gone! My first night I got very lost trying to find a vegan fast food restaurant called Yoyo’s food world in Friedrichshain, but ended up getting lost for at least 30 minutes and taking the tram illegally. Tuesday morning I meant to catch the Alternative Berlin tour, but ended up missing it, so I wandered around by myself for awhile instead and hit up this massive second-hand shop called Humana where I got a pair of jeans for 8 euro. Then it got too cold and started snowing (the theme of my life lately). At night I went out for delicious Mexican food with Gray, Esther and Linus. Gray, from England and Esther from Germany own the hostel and Linus works there. I think that night we played a rousing game of Dutch Blitz, which I pretty much can never get enough of.

Wednesday I finally made it to the Alternative Berlin tour, which was amazing (you can read my last post for more on it). At night I met up with a guy from Berlin from couchsurfing named Patryk, his friend and another girl named Sarah from Malaysia whose currently living in Moscow. He took us to a Volksküchen, translated “People’s Kitchen”, where I got a three course vegan meal for 2.50 euro. Basically, the night before, they go to the grocery store and boy whatever’s cheapest and then whip up a meal. Everyone eats the same thing, but you get appetizer, meal and dessert for super cheap. There’s a website at http://stressfaktor.squat.net/vokue.php, where you can search for Volksküchen based on what day it is in Berlin. The night we went I had some type of broccoli cream soup, potatoes with beans and veggies and apple-almond something delicious. It was awesome.

Patryk's friend, Patryk and Sarah at the Volksküche

Afterwards the guy who took us to dinner wanted to go home, so Sarah and I wandered over to a pace called Winerei, where a couchsurfing meet-up was taking place. This was also a really cool concept. You go pay 2 euro and get a glass. After that you drink as much wine as you want from all the bottles on the table. At the end you pay as much as you think it was worth, or as much as you have, and give back the glass. Thus, I had about 5 glasses of wine for 4 euro. Win.

Sarah and I

Couchsurfers at Winerei meetup

Thursday I went on a mission to buy jeans since my others that I wore all the time developed a giant hole in the crotch. This mission I succeeded, 49 euro light and a couple hours later, although the blue dye in them is still turning me blue now. That morning I had talked to Linus about this Anti-Pub crawl that goes to some weird bars in Berlin so after a delicious dinner with everyone from the hostel me and two American girls from the hostel met up with Linus and another Australian guy from the hostel named Gavin at the first pub, Yesterday Bar, around 9:30pm.

There was a good variety of places. The first was 60s, 70s and 80s themed. The next was a goth club that used to be owned by Rammstein where Marilyn Manson apparently frequents in Berlin, an place called the King Kong Club, which was cool, an absinth bar (yes, I got to light it on fire and everything!) a place called Dr. Pong’s where the entire room plays ping-pong with each other while walking around the table and last, an indie-electro club called Magnet, that was super fun. By the end of the night, around 3-4am or so, Linus, Gavin and I were the only ones left we could find, so we went home together, trying not to die on the ice and passed the fuck out.

Linus , Geraldine and Gavin

There were the stamps for the pub crawl, obnoxiously large, but sort of hilarious.

Thursday Amy arrived in Berlin to move into her new flat, so I checked out of the hostel and headed over. I was a jerk and missed most of the moving, however. We went out with two of her friends from Stuttgart for delicious Vietnamese food and then to a really cool super queer bar called Silver Future in Neukölln, the area of Berlin where Amy lives.

My last full day I met up with Sarah again to go to the medical museum and see weird shit. Then we tried to go to an Irish bar to see a rugby game with some other people from couchsurfing, but it was too full so we ended up just wandering around Tacheles again and going to a bar/café called Zapata. We met up with the other couchsurfers after the game and all went for dinner together in Friedrichshain—to a place that had like 800 types of burgers, fries and sauces (and vegan ones!). It was sort of like Local Burger, for all of my readers from Northampton. After dinner I went up to their flat with Sarah for some tea and biscuits, then caught the U-Bahn back to Amy’s to go with them to sushi and head out for the night.

At the burger place for dinner

First Amy, her friends and I went out to a bar for a couple beers and then headed to this party at a club. It was a big lesbian night at this club, in a warehouse, called Female Attacken and it was amazing. It’s also where I met Marlen, which is the reason I ended up in Berlin again a week later, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We danced until 7:30am, tried to go to another club that was just closing and then got some drunk munchies as the sun came up. By the time Amy and I got back to hers it was completely bright out and I had to get up in an hour and a half to catch a 5+ hour train back to Prague. I was definitely tired the next day, but it was worth it.

Amy and Susii

Me and Marlen

Hamburg, Germany and the Adventures Within

On Tuesday the 12th of January, Kassia had class so I was off to explore Hamburg on my own. Without much of an idea where I was going, I hopped on 2 buses in search of a vegetarian restaurant called Hin & Veg. I texted someone from couchsurfing, Torben, a guy originally from Berlin who had moved to Hamburg in October, who met up with me for lunch. We talked about ourselves over veggie hamburgers (in Hamburg!), went to another place for tea and coffee and then boarded the U-Bahn so he could show me a bit of downtown Hamburg, including the Town Hall and the River Elbe. Did I mention how awesome couchsurfing is? It’s basically a great excuse to meet and hangout with people from whatever city you’re in, anywhere in the world. It’s definitely nice to hangout with someone who knows the area rather than doing the tourist thing, and Torben was a great host! Regardless, anything that makes it socially acceptable to hangout with strangers and make new friends is fine by me.

Me outside of the Hamburg town hall (Rathaus)

Torben and I

I just had to take a picture of this because I think it's hilarious. This is apparently the most liberal party in Germany. Does anyone else see a large proportion of The Gay?

After Torben left, I got myself a German SIM card from Vodafone and met back up with Kassia, Stephanie and another Smithie studying in Hamburg named Liz at Hin & Veg again. It was definitely strange spending time with Smithies after so long. It honestly feels like I graduated 10 years ago sometimes! I enjoyed some delicious tomato soup this time and a vegetarian currywurst.

In the evening, we headed to a bar I heard about from Gulliver called 3 Zimmer Wohnung (3 room flat). This place was set up like it was somebody’s flat, bed, fride and all! It’s now up there on my list of favorite bars. Once there we met up with Torben again and another couchsurfer named Misha who’s a student from Jordan doing an internship in Germany for his degree. We chatted for a bit about life, visas and our travels and once Misha and I discovered our mutual love of hummus and falafel, he mentioned a place in Hamburg that had amazing versions of both. Convinced, we layered up and set off on a walk through the freezing Hamburg streets back to the Schanze area for falafel. He did not let us down. That night I consumed the best falafel of my life, and it had all sorts of goodies included in the pita, including beets, my newfound love! We all hungout until after midnight and then parted ways. Rock on couchsurfing.

Torben, Kassia, Stephanie and Misha on the bed at 3 Zimmer Wohnung

Having a little cat nap at the bar

Okay, so on the way to the bar we had to walk through the red light district, but this was especially funny to me, if you can see, because on one side it says "Gay Kino, Sex Kino" and on the other it says "Jesus Lebt (Lives)".

Stephanie and I set out to take the U-Bahn home, but unfortunately only made it halfway before it shut for the night due to our internet addictions, leaving us to take an epic trek home through an unfamiliar city without a good map, having been guided slightly by a very friendly construction worker in the U-Bahn tunnel. At least I got to use my small amount of German, (“Wo ist?”or “Where is?”) before getting horribly lost near Kassia’s street and making her come and get us at 1 am. Oops.

Stephanie in the U-Bahn tunnel waiting for the train

I only had one full day in Hamburg, but good times were had and I hope to go back eventually for more exploration. It was great to see Kassia, however briefly, and chill in this pretty rockin’ city to start off my German adventures. Speaking of, it’s always crazy to hear a friend bust out language skills I didn’t even know they had in front of me. I am always so impressed by this. Mostly I think of other languages as passwords to get the things you want.

There's a Christmas tree floating in the middle of the water and I think that's pretty nifty.

Krakow, Poland, Part II: Pierogies, Wawel Castle, the Dragon and Friends!

After our busy first day, we decided to take it easy the second. So we wandered around Krakow looking for the sex machine. It seems the locals couldn't find it either. It says, "Wait! Where is the sex machine?" The sex machines are in Prague, apparently, but that's for a later post.

But we got cold and hungry, so we made pierogie stop number one. These were mushroom and cabbage pierogies. Mmmmm.

After filling our tummies, we went back to the hostel. Did I mention we stayed at the best hostel I've ever been to, possibly the best in existence? If you go to Krakow, stay at Greg & Tom's Junior Hostel. Anyway, we hungout in the living room with our other hostel mates for most of the night. Kt convinced this guy from Australia, Max, to stuff 16 Polish cheetos in his mouth. It didn't take much persuasion...

This is Steffen, not sure of the spelling. He was from Germany (Frankfurt?) and told me he knew how to cook vegan food. Nom. I'm still constantly embarrassed that everyone in our hostel (and in my life now in general) can speak on average 2-3 languages, while I still come in at about 1.4. I'm working on it!

The second bar we went to in the Kazimierz, the Old Jewish district of Krakow (a where all the chill, eclectic stuff was), was a indoor beach! I made a sand angel.

Bryan on the right was confused? He later came to visit us in Prague a few times as the next stop on his journey. Yay friends!

We're such hotties.

Craig, from New Zealand, and I. There was some deal where you get a free shot with a pint, so I partook in the free part. Craig came to visit us in Prague later and we took him out to Bukowski's. Traveling is awesome.

This Aussie was out for the count. There's Kt in the background with this dude we picked up on the street whose an English teacher in Krakow from the UK. Those English teachers are everywhere!


This is the Wawel (pronounced Vah-vel) Castle. Much more modern-looking than a lot of the castles I've seen in Europe, but still pretty! Like Kt said, it looks like it's actually still in use rather than just existing to be pretty.


This is the dragon! It used to eat sheep and young virgins, until some dude named Krakus or Krac got some sheep and mixed a thick, yellow paste from sulfur to smear all over them. Then fed them to the dragon who got really thirsty and drank so much water from the river that he exploded! Dragon-problem solved.

Then we ate more pierogies at a Polisn Milk Bar that was super cheap. Everything on the menu was Polish, so the only words I could read were "onion, soup, meat, cheese, borscht and beverage" thanks to my Czech. Somehow it worked out. I got pierogies, some breaded, fried eggroll and borscht. Kt got some type of meat dumpling.

That night, we went on the hostel pu crawl. The first stop was a vodka bar, where we sampled 4 different shots of vodka. There was also this gem of a photograph behind Kt. Boobies!

This is Marek. He worked at our hostel and led the pub-crawl. He was really nice and pretty awesome. Also one of the ones that put up with one of my 5000 "How do you say *word* in *insert language here*?" questions. I probably should stop quizzing native speakers of any language other than my own incessantly, but I want to know how to say everything! Especially the dirty words.

Here are some other hostel-mates on the crawl and a French guy we met off couchsurfing.com named Aziz whose living in Krakow (2nd from the right).

The morning before we left, we had another wander (and got more pierogies at a 24-hour pierogie joint....rock on Poland!). These are a lot of really cold pidgeons, cuddling. You'll get the theme in a minute...

In the train station, I made the mistake of feeding one pidgeon part of a chip. Which made all of them ATTACK MY FACE. Inside! I have hereby learned my lesson, let it be stated.

My nemesis.

After our first train brought us from Krakow to Bohumim, back in the Czech Republic. We went on a quick wander for some food. I thought this sign was funny because I'm a 5 year old boy. Guess why.

On the second train Kt was trying to demonstrate something to me. I'm not sure what it was, but it sort of looks like she's brushing her teeth while jump-roping. Yes!

That's all there is for Krakow! It was such a freaking amazing trip and we met so many amazing people and partook in lots of shenanigans. Pictures on Facebook eventually, but my internet may be limited from here on out. Currently in Hamburg and heading to the first farm today!

Šťastný Nový Rok (Happy New Year)!

Reasons New Years was amazing, number one: There was a cute dog at the party.

Two: I went on a wandering adventure to Riegrovy sady (a park) to watch fireworks, lanterns and be really excited. I lost my voice by screaming things such as, "Mám ráda všechno!" "Mám ráda přátelé!" "Mám ráda stromy!" "Mám ráda Nový rok!" all night. To translate, "I like everything!" 'I like friends!" "I like trees!" "I like New Year!" What can I say? My Czech vocabulary is fairly limited and I had consumed a bit of alcohol. More importantly, these things are all pretty wonderful.

We tried to represent what we felt 2009 was like with one face each:

I believe Kt thinks there have been better years.

Ashley's year was apparently slightly sideways and somewhat happy.

Jess was really excited....while sleeping...with pretty red booze. All year.

Excited, confused and somewhat angry? Or getting pummeled up the ass. You choose.

I don't know what this is. But I like it. The ghost of 2009 is trying to drink Jess's booze.

We had fireworks! Well, Ashley did.

They are PUMPED for explosions in the sky. And I'm apparently having an orgasm. Or a seizure. Hope you all wanted to see my O-face. It's going to be a good year.

We said a lot of "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!"'s. Friends! Fireworks! Living in a beautiful European city! Being outside! Everything is wonderful!

There were these really cool lanterns everyone had that I'd never seen before. You light a candle in the bottom of the lantern, let it fill up like a hot air balloon, then let them float up into the sky bein' all pretty! Sometimes they even light trees on fire. That's when it gets really exciting. Poor stromy.

I wish I could take a picture with my eyes for you, because up on the hill you could see fireworks coming from miles and miles away in every direction in the distance. It was beautiful. I felt like all of the Czech Republic was celebrating right there with me. Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Austria, too.

Here's one of the lanterns in action, being lit by some people and held until it's filled up by air.

Ashley, Donal, Jess, me and this dude who photobombed my picture rather fantastically.

I don't remember what we were spelling, but I bet it's mind-blowingly awesome!

Brian and his dog (re: adorable animal above), suited with a glow stick for the occasion.

There was free sangria for ladies at Bukowski's after midnight. We really like free sangria. And Bukowski's. We were all too opilý already to drink more than a pitcher though.

Kt is doing something shifty? That dude with the curly hair in the background was wearing bunny ears and staring at me intensely the entire night.

There was a dance party?! Tancovat!

Josh came later to play with Kt and I and help us fail at drinking free sangria. This is Swordicorn.


I can honestly say my life since graduation has been pretty amazing. If you had told me this is who I'd be a year ago I would've told you it wasn't possible, that I didn't have the balls. My mind is constantly being blown, expectations met and surpassed and I'm loving every second of it. I've never met so many crazy, determined and exciting people and I'm only at the tip of the iceberg of my travels. I can truly say I'm "living the dream" and I am stoked for what's to come!

I hope every one of you that reads this has a happy, fulfilling, and inspiring 2010! Thanks to all of you who played a part in the last one, for it's all of you who've made my life that extra bit fabulous. Just think of all the potential this year holds...