MUNICH

We got up early yesterday morning and of course all of the bad weather was gone and we could clearly see the alps. I knew they were all around us, but had no idea how many. We only got to see them on the walk to the train station, but the scenery throughout the trip to Munich was great. It took about 6 hours to get to Munich, but we didn't notice too much. The highlight was Ajay confirming that the bathrooms on the trains empty out straight onto the tracks as the train is moving. Just what we wanted to know, and I'm sure you are very thankful I told you.

This is my first hostel experience. It is great here though. We are at Wombat's Hostel. We have 5 other roommates. Ann is the only girl in the room. I think she was at first nervous, but I think she figured out the ratio is a good thing. We all went out to the big beer hall here and ordered beer. They only come in the 1 liter sizes. My mother would not be happy with that, but when in Rome...or Munich. TR, Ajay, and I behaved properly. I got into a political conversation with another European couple. Two things are true of most Europeans:
1. They think Bush is the worst President ever.
2. They love Hillary Clinton.

Finally, Mike, one of our roomates made us end the discussion and we took part in some of the songs. The band was playing the whole night. I didnt know John Denver songs were traditional German songs, but evidently they are...

Another one of the people we met named Juan had a huge crush on the pretzel girl (the young lady that sells the biggest pretzels you have ever seen). I started telling him about the dance the pretzel and it turns out he knew it. TR was really mad though cause he though I was just pulling the guys leg. To make up for my mistake, I told Juan that the Pretzel Girls will do the Glocken Waltz with you for 2 euro if you ask. I felt sort of bad, but the guy had already pranked us so it was in self defense. TR and I go on and on about the Glocken Waltz for 10 minutes. Juan finally calls the Pretzel Girl over and whispers it in her ear. Her look was priceless. She had no idea and went on selling pretzels. He was so sad. The next song came on and everyone jumped up to dance and TR and I reassured him that this in fact was the Glocken Waltz. We have no idea what dance it actually was, but it was a great time.

Our roommate Mike showed us some ridiculous drinking. I just figured out how to put this in my blog. This is real. We did not try this and please don't try this at home! Yikes!

We walked back last night really late and did some laundry and went to bed. It is great to have clean clothes. We convinced Ann and Mike to stay another day and go touring with us.

Well I have to go. We are going to tour Dachau now. This will be really tough, but something we need to see.

Thanks for all of the comments and thoughts! They have been very helpful! Tomorrow we head to Vienna!

We're Walking We're Looking...

After a long nap yesterday afternoon we got up refreshed and ready for dinner. We went to a youth hostel here called Balmers. Our travel books told us it is THE place to be. It was a wild place. We ate some good hamburgers and paid around $4 for a beer and we met tons of other students. Most of them were from the states and we actually ran into 4 people from Austin. We had a great time and made a lot of friends and got some good advice about some of the places we are about to go to.

This morning we woke up and ate the excellent breakfast served by the very nice couple who run this hotel. They are the nicest people ever. My mother loves bed and breakfast places and I think she would have a hard time leaving this one. Every time we leave the lady, Ursula, hands us a map and asks us where we want to go and what we want to do. She is also beautiful. Her husband is really nice and very patient too.

After breakfast we slowly got ready for the day and waited a bit for the rain to settle down a bit. Finally we left and caught a train down the way a bit. We took a cable car up an alp. The clouds were very low earlier today and it was very interesting as we disappeared into the clouds. This is the same place where the Bond in the alps was filmed. I can't quite recall the name of the Bond film, but clearly remember it during the Bond Marathon on TNT. We got up to the top hoping to hike down, but there had been quite a bit of snowfall and it became evident we wouldn't be able to hike. Even the cable operator said it is impossible. Here is a picture of where the hike would start (Yeah not possible):

We took the cable back down and took a different hiking trail to the next city to see some waterfalls and just enjoy the surroundings. We walked 6 kilometers each way. It was intense but the scenery was spectacular. Halfway through the trek we came to a cave waterfall place. An elevator took us up to the top and we had to walk about a million more stairs. The water was gushing at an incredible pace. It was amazing. Here is a picture of me attempting to jump in:
I can't describe how strong this current was. We had a great time looking around.

We then began our journey back to the train to get back to Interlaken. Another six kilometers later in the cold we were ready to get back to the hotel. On the way to the hotel we went into a chocolate shop and bought some very tasty treats. Mom, I got chocolate covered caramels in honor of you and some excellent cranberry chocolates. It was expensive, but amazing. We still can't decide what is put in the chocolate here to make it so amazing.

After a short nap at home we went to find a place for a traditional fondue dinner.

Here we are at dinner. It was again, very expensive, but so good. We sat next to two dutch men. We discussed politics and stereotypes. Needless to say, we have run into many Europeans and they are very frank about their feelings for our President. They are very well read and aware of the different issues involved. I do wish the US had a better presence in the world. It has been very educational talking to everyone here and I feel I have a better grasp on the world.
The rapper Chuck D urged students at his talk at UT to not just become US citizens, but World Citizens. Through our talks with Europeans I feel we have each understood this more and more.
This is the last night in Interlaken. Tomorrow we head for Munich. Thanks to Bob Ikel and my Dad for the tips on Munich. We have wireless internet here, but probably won't for a while so no promises on pictures and posts, but as always I will do my best.

Snow!

I have to backtrack a bit to Paris day 3...

We woke up early again and booked train tickets for the following day to Normandy and Interlaken and then headed for the Louvre. There wasnt much of a line at all. We saw the Mona Lisa and many other amazing works you have seen in your textbooks all your life.

I failed to mention due to the ridiculous French keyboards that we finally met up with Anna and Robin in Paris the morning of the second day. Anna had lost her cell phone...it could have been stolen, but we arent sure so it was impossible to reach find them. Anna has some good sleuth skills and tracked down our scent. TR was told on the Paris metro we stank. Most of the people in Paris were blunt like this. TR did not stink, but perhaps we did a little after traveling for so many hours...anyway moving on...

I should also mention these keyboards are perfect, but for one fatal flaw, the Z and Y keys are different. I apologize for the lack of punctuation and sloppiness of this e-mail, but it is the best I can do with the keyboard I have.

After the Louvre, we went to dinner at Sergent Recruiters. I highly suggest this place to anyone going to Paris. We paid around $50 each and were given a whole basket of fresh vegetables, 10 different sausages, soup, and paute-- or however it is spelled. There is no spellcheck here. Next course consisted of the main dish. I had the beef. It was excellent. The potatoes were heavenly. After the main dish we enjoyed six different cheeses and bread. I should mention it was basically all you could eat and drink. We enjoyed excellent French wines throughout the meal. We actually tried every type they had, red, white, and rose. Some drunk Norwegians were down the way singing acapella songs. They were def. drunk. We enjoyed the first song, but I think our table got annoyed after that. I somewhat enjoyed it because I thought it was really funny. In fact when two of them walked by I asked if they would take a picture of our table. The woman kept touching me and talking. She admitted to being drunk and was really funny. Anna for some reason didnt enjoy the Norwegian woman as much. Overall we had an excellent Parisian dinner.

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and rode the train to Caen in an attempt to see Normandy. Well Caen just has a museum about it, but we wanted to get to the beaches. Keep in mind normally these tours cost around $200-300, but we decided those were just toursist prices. We keep forgetting we are tourists. At Caen we make the last minute decision to go up the tracks to the next city because we find out it is closer to the US cemetary. We travel up the tracks and find out most of the tours are closed on Sundays...great. It became apparent we were within 15 miles of Normandy and we were going to be stuck in a bar until the next Paris train came at 6.30. We went to the bar and made friends with a very nice Canadian who dropped eh every 5 seconds. He spoke to the bartender in French and whala we had what must have been one of the only cabs running at the time. For less than 100 Euro--130 US dollars. We got a private tour of the US cemetary and Utah Beach. It was very sad.

There are so many graves. The memorial was very beautiful, but it is still horrific to think about all the soldiers that lost their lives...

We got back on the train later that afternoon and headed back to Paris. We got our luggage from the hotel and caught the overnight train to Interlaken. We were in a four person sleeping car. It was just us three for the first little while until ¨Old Sketch Guy¨ as we called him entered our cabin. He was with the train attendent and said he wanted the lower bed which I was in. She asked me nicely and I agreed, but I did in fact give him a look. We had after all made reservations and he had not. Anyway, sleeping on a train isnt the easiest, but we were so tired it happened. We had a connection at Basel and I must say the Swiss trains are amazing. We might have been the only passengers on the train. The scenery was breathtaking the entire ride.

We walked to our hotel this morning in the cold rain and were greated at 7.30 am by the owner of the bed and breakfast with orange juice and a full Swiss breakfast. The people in our room were still there and didnt leave until 11. After breakfast this left us to walk around town. As we were walking the weather got worse and worse. Huge globs of snow began pouring onto us. I was still in shorts so people were giving us the funniest looks. We walked a couple of miles and saw different stuff in the town and finally returned to our beautiful room for a 4 hour nap. We hadnt told them we were going to be here until 5 pm. We have a room with 4 beds and bathrooms and showers are down the hall. We have a balcony that overlooks the Alps. This place is absolutely incredible. We are now rested and about to venture out for food, drink, and to meet people.

We are always moving and seeing new things, but I think this and Munich will be great places to sit back and enjoy the culture. I hope everyone is well in the States!

Paris Day 2

We are in Paris for Day 2. The internet cafe is about to close. We have walked and seen so much we have no time to e-mail anyone, but just to let you all know we went to the top of the eiffel tower today, walked to notre dame, toured the basilica, walked by the moulin rouge (very interesting...out of our comfort zone), the National Opera, Montmartre, etc. Our legs are hurting, but spirits are still up.

We have enjoyed the excellent, food, wine, and met many people from all over.

Tomorrow we go on to the Louvre, perhaps, Versailles and a first class dinner... I hope everyone is well in the US.

Funny quote of yesterday: the old Finnish woman hitting on Ajay asking him to come to the Caberet with her on Monday night. She said it was a good deal. 95 euros with half a bottle of champagne... hmmm...we might be missing Ajay on Monday. Evidently her son (WHO WAS THERE) doesn't like going to the caberet with his mom.

Anyway, we are having a great time and are looking forward to a full night sleep and relaxing in Interlaken in two days.

French Keyboards are The Worst

So these silly French computers wont let me turn the image. I will fix it later!

I am in Paris late at night quickly updating this. I will type more soon, but the French have created a horrible keyboard with the keys all mixed up. We had an excellent dinner tonight and dinner with a Finnish family near the Arch.

T Minus 4 Hours

Here is the calendar for the first 2.5 weeks. The only change to it is that I will be in Milan where it says Venice.


So I really don't have time to update this, but I need to take a short break from packing and to do lists.

I have been home for three days and haven't slept more than eleven hours the whole time. My grandmother's friend calls it being "journey proud." A disease that is only supposed to occur the night before a big trip. Unfortunately I have endured this for a week.

A quick story from yesterday...
I went to get a haircut from the best place in town, Sports Clips. I'm not one for getting fancy haircuts or anything, but I really felt like spoiling myself. Crystal was my "stylist" and I asked for a minor trim. We talked about traveling and we got along quite well. I told her about my trip. She then decided I needed to know the truth about hostels. Crystal went through the horror movie "Hostel" for me scene by scene. After multiple gruesome details, always accompanied by a lesson I should keep in mind when staying in hostels, she finally spun me towards the mirror and almost all of my hair was gone. Perhaps she got a bit carried away with her story and the minor trim turned into an almost buzz. A fantastic start to the trip, not much hair and plenty of good advice for how to avoid psychos in hostels carrying various weapons in the middle of the night. Before I left she imparted her final bit of advice: Beware of the insane women, they are even more gruesome killers than the men. Crystal is a lifesaver.

With that I advice I journey forth and look forward to long restful nights in various hostels all over Europe.

Last night I enjoyed a nice long talk with my high school comparative government teacher. He studied in London and worked for a Member of Parliament. One trimester in is class and i was sold. I have been trying to find a way to do the same since. Six years later and thanks to Fellowships, working all year, and family, I'm jumping the pond.

Well I have spent too much time here and I need to finish up packing and make sure everything is together.

It's time for the journey to begin. Goodbye America. See you in three months.

My First Entry...

So I’m about to leave for Europe for the whole summer and thought this might be a good excuse to attempt a blog of some sort. So here goes. I will hopefully have the opportunity to post pictures and stories from the summer here and I hope friends and family will comment on them.

The basic itinerary as of now is:

May 23: Fly from Dallas to London

May 24-June 8: Travel all over Europe with two good friends, TR and Ajay.

June 8-11: Prepare for work

June 11-August 18: Intern for Member of Parliament Tom Brake

August 18: Return to Dallas

This has been a dream of mine for a long time and I am very excited about the opportunity.

Because I am a dork and enjoy Google Earth immensely I have put together a little map to see exactly how far my place in London will be from Parliament.

Click the picture to see it.

More to come soon…