Amsterdam/Berlin

 

Wow, where to start? The days are starting to blend together like crazy, probably because the past two nights have been long and none of us have been getting much sleep. We ended up having to leave Amsterdam earlier than we expected yesterday because the night train was completely booked. Because of that we only had time to go to the Anne Frank house, which I ended up skipping out on to go have lunch. So while Rusti Anne and Christian went to see the museum, I enjoyed a decent plate of spaghetti bolognese at a nearby lunch joint. I sat at a table outside, people watched, and wrote in my personal travel log. Then I went and sat by a canal with my legs swinging over the edge, which was pretty cool. That water was truly disgusting though. Someone would have to pay me some serious cash to swim in that. So we left Amsterdam, my favorite city so far, and spent the rest of the day on the train to Berlin. As tired as I was from the night before… The night before! I forgot to write about that! 

 

The night before we left Amsterdam, I ended up hanging out with the other backpackers that were in the hostel lounge. There was a girl from Greenland, a girl from Canada, a girl from Australia, a guy from Uruguay, and a guy from Norway. I ended up joining them at their table and they shared their wine and I shared my stroopwafel. The guy from Norway, who claimed himself to be from Scandinavia (lack of nationalistic priorities) was very opinionated but easy to talk to and hilarious. It was really cool sitting around and talking about stereotypes of each others’ countries and different things we had to deal with being from where we were from. The general consensus from the group was that Obama is very much loved, but the corruption and greed prominent in American politics is no secret to anyone. The Uruguayan and Norwegian both knew a heck of a lot more about American politics than I did, which I found surprising. They both said that keeping track of the political arena in America was a guilty pleasure comparable to indulging in melodramatic soap operas where characters are perpetually doing stupid things and screwing themselves over. As awful as it sounds, I did not take offense to this because the way the rest of the world does certain things makes a lot more sense than the way we do it. In essence, based on our discussion, the difference all comes down to personal greed and lack of care for one’s countrymen. In America, many would rather hang on to everything for themselves rather than contributing to a collective effort to make life better for everyone. We agreed that society shouldn’t necessarily lack a class system altogether, but the handicapped should be taken care of and no one should go without food in your country. If you care, you will be happy to help. I know that in America, many people argue against this ideology because it would be easy for one to take advantage of the system, live off of government funding, and contribute nothing to society. I can understand that fear. Even with this being the case, I refuse to believe that those being supported by government funding would not experience a shift in attitude when they know that they live in a society that cares. Even more importantly, it is moral and ethical for them to care right back, and I do believe that would happen. Of course there would be exceptions, but that’s life. Our country does not feel like a community of people, it feels like a “dog eat dog world”, maybe overreaching into an unhealthy spirit of competition and lack of cooperation. Anyway, that’s just my opinion and I could be wrong, but it’s my blog and I was thinking it, so I wrote it. Anyway, needless to say, I had a fantastic time with these people and I’m very glad I met them. 

 

So back to the big picture. Last night, we arrived in Berlin, got some food, and headed to our hostel, which was VERY nice. So far, our hostels have been pretty small buildings, but this place was a hotel. Nice lobby and everything. Best part.. Only 12 euros a night! So we went up to our room and met our roommates for the night.. Thus begins my second night of staying up late. Four of the guys were friends from London who were touring Europe together, and the fifth guy was from Chicago! We all ended up staying up till after 3 in the morning drinking, playing card games, and just talking. They were very cool and pretty hilarious. At around 3, a hotel employee came up to our room to tell us to be quiet, so I figured that was my queu to stop talking and go to bed. In the morning (this is today now), we had to check out of that hostel because they were already booked for the next night and we hadn’t booked the extra night in advance. So we caught the DB, which is the local metro, to our next hostel that we had found online. For breakfast, I had leftover pizza from dinner the night before. I forgot to mention.. the pizza box had a cartoon drawing of a creepy looking guy that I think is HILARIOUS. So we got to our next hostel, which is where I am now in this super comfy bed typing on my iPod. At around noon, we went to a 3.5 hour tour of Berlin that was free.. run on donations basically. The tour was very cool, but to be honest  I don’t really like this city. I was trying to find something to like about it, but really just isn’t a place i’m interested in spending time. this realization, plus the heat made me kind of grumpy but i just kept my mouth shut and listened to the tour guide. Berlin is a giant tourist trap and only about half of the people I smile at smile back. Also, maybe i’m biased with my own preconceived notions of the attitude of the general German population, but a lot of people here just don’t seem happy. Some of the coolest things we saw on the tour were a holocaust memorial, the hotel where Michael Jackson went crazy, the location of Hitler’s death, the Berlin wall, and the university where Einstein, Marx, and several other great minds studied. The university square was also the site of a nazi book burning, where the nazis burned 20,000 books from the university because they did not approve of them. Let me tell ya, this city has a dark history, and it isn’t necessarily made up for in charm or beauty. The people have triumphed over the greatest of evil, but that’s about the only rewarding quality I could convince myself of the city having. Also, the DB is reliable. We didn’t do much after the tour, just came back to the hostel for a little bit to plan out our next few days. Tomorrow, we’re off to Munich and have already booked a hostel for two nights there. I feel very blessed to be traveling with people that are as enthusiastic to see the world as I am. We get along quite well for having just met each other and we’ve agreed that no one of us is throwing off the group effort to have a great time. Well, as you can probably imagine, I’m pooped so it’s time for me to doze off! 

 

Rheinenhotsgevot! (Or however you say goodnight in German- I also find myself not appreciating this language very much. Italy and Spain are calling my name with their beautiful languages!)