Oslo

Oslo is a really cool city, though it is not so large in both size and people (550,000). I got lost for about an hour last night after I got in and went looking for a place to grab some money and quick food at about 10:30 on a Sunday night. After being lost, I looked for how to get back, ended up walking the wrong way down a street and ended up about 2 kilometers from where I wanted to be. However, that is not really so long of a walk, and I was able to get back rather quickly once getting directions from a local.
So this morning I walked out from the hostel and checked out about 3 museums (all of which were closed it turns out) and so I walked over to an old fort overlooking the harbor and the city and then headed over to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard. Then I headed back to the hostel for some washing up and doing some laundry, as I am out of clean clothes as of this morning.
A quick break from the laundromat and I am here to do some blogging. I have a free reservation for the train to Bergen on the West coast of Norway for tomorrow at 8:10 am and I also now have a free place to stay in Copenhagen thanks to couchsurfers.com.

Stockholm

Stockholm is a very friendly city and the people I me tin the hostel were very cool and very fun. A friend of a friend lives in Stockholm, and while she was not in town this weekend, she gave me some helpful advice about where to go and what to see.
So the first day, I headed over to Skansen, described as a mini-Sweden complete with animals. Imagine a 1 part petting zoo, 1 part zoo of Scandanavian animals, and 1 part farm museum/colonial Williamsburg, except Swedish. There were people dressed up in periodic costume who were answering questions about how people lived in the earlier days of Sweden, and then they were leading people in activities such as lassoing reindeer, fighting with sticks, training as the vikings did, and weaving, for starters. I walked around this place for about three hours or so, and then headed over to the Vasamuseum, the centerpiece of which is the Vasa. The Vasa was built in 1618 to fight in the Thirty Years War, but it sank about 1.5 kilometers out of the main harbor of Stockholm. In 1953 it was found and over the next 8 years it was brought on to land intact. The whole museum is a combination of exploring life on a ship in the 17th Century, the building of ships at that time, the design and decoration of these ships, and an overview of Swedish life in 1620 or so.
After that it was back to the hostel for their free pasta. It was not the best pasta I have ever eaten, however it was free, so long as you had sauce and could cook it. So I went over to the nearby supermarket, bought chicken, basil, tomatoes, and onions and then went about making a sauce for the noodles. This was the first time I had cooked in about 1 month, so it was quite cathartic. After meeting some people at dinner and then heading out to a few bars, we returned to the hostel about 2 and then I passed out about 4 or so (this became a pattern that I followed for the rest om my stay in Stockholm). The next day I headed out with a few people from the hostel to the Old Town, and we checked out the shopping district, the old town, found a pretty cool Irish pub, and then played pool for a few hours before heading back to the hostel for more free pasta.
This night we headed out to the club district and as not everyone in our group was over 23 (apparently something they do in Stockholm when the clubs are getting too crowded), we went to a pub over in the west of Stockholm, before heading over to check out a live music venue. However, the line at this venue was quite long, so we instead headed to a lounge about 2 blocks away with no cover. I am pretty sure we were the only non-Swedes there.
The next morning we headed out and grabbed some kebab for breakfast before checking out the Swedish Museum of Modern Art and the Architectural Museum. After this we headed back to the same pub from the day before for Australian Day, though it is not actually until Monday, it was celebrated on Saturday. 10 euros got us into the party, a beer, a meat pie, and entry into the pool tournament. we stayed on for a few hours and then headed back to the hostel to meet back up with other folks before heading out for the night. This time we headed to the "hip and artistic" neighborhood of Stockholm. We again ran into the issue of not everyone being 23 and then we tried 2 other bars before meeting 6 Swedish girls in McDonald's (someone had to use the toilet) and they took us to a bar that player mostly American 60's music, had no cover, and had quite cheap, especially for Scandinavia, cider. We danced there until it closed and then went back to the hostel after stopping for some 2 am kebab.
The next morning (today) I woke up, showered, typed this and will leave for the train shortly to Oslo where I will spend a few days before heading over to Bergen.

Ferry to Stockholm

So I took a ferry to Stockholm for 50 euro, which is what 2 nights in Berlin cost. However, here I had my own cabin for 17 hours, and there was a bar, a few restaurants, and a club on board. The bar and club would probably have been more interesting had it not been a weekday, so there were only like 10 people in each of them. So I had tome to read and sleep in my own room for the first time in a while. And while I have had my own room at other people's houses, I was only a guest there, so I felt that I should check before taking a shower and not sleep in too late, etc. I had stopped by a supermarket before heading out and I had grabbed my usual dinner provisions for a train: a beer, a bottle of water, a sandwich and a side salad of some sort. It was truly amazing how dark it got out when the sun went down and the boat was traveling through the Baltic. No stars or moon out last night, so it was pitch black outside of the boat.
I slept incredibly well, with occasional alarm sounds from the engine room which was either right below me or right next door (I guess that's what "economy" means). And then woke up, grabbed a sandwich from the cafe, and headed over to the subway nearest the seaport, which was about 1.5 kilometer walk, at least the way I did it. I am now at the hostel in Stockholm, and am about to head out and explore the largest city in Scandinavia (that sound's plausible, yeah?).

Riga

In Riga I am staying with the cousin of a family friend. He speaks Latvian, Russian, and German, and I speak English, with enough German to order in a restaurant. So, I basically spend the two days trying to have a conversation with my host in elementary German, and I thank him for attempting to figure out what the heck I was saying the whole time.
The first day he met me at the airport and then drove me to his house. Though he protested that is was sparsely furnished, I slept on the most comfortable couch I have ever slept on and enjoyed a very tasty Latvian breakfast of Lox, cheese, "Latvian meat," and bread. And yogurt, if I ate it. And a whole ton of tea.
the first day His son and two of his school friends took me out for a walking tour of the Old City, and I got my bearings so that I could come back over the next few days and hit the churches and museums that I saw. We walked around, hit one of the Double Coffees, like a diner or cafe, that dot Riga for a coffee drink for me and milkshakes for them. And blintzes/filled crepes for me and burgers for them. then we hit a pool hall, and I made sure to embarrass myself in billiards; apparently I need to work on my game.
Then we headed over to my host's wife's parent's house for some Pelmeni with sour cream, bread with a beef spread (really quite tasty, despite its description), cookies and more tea. Then I headed to the gym with his son and one of his friends for some lifting, biking, running and a sauna. Now if I thought that the sauna in Germany was hot, then the 102C sauna here was REALLY hot.
I had mentioned that I played soccer to my host, which I do for fun as a hobby. He explained that his son played on the national team, which I misunderstood until I was talking to his son, and then I realized that he really does play on the U18 (under 18 years of age) Latvian team, so he trains 2-4 hours a day, every day, and goes to the gym every day. That was an impressive guy to talk with.
The next morning I got dropped off in the old city and spent the day walking around and grabbing food and drink, emailing and posting blogs that I had not yet posted, and checking out museums. I took the tram back to their suburb, though not the right stop in the suburb... so I had to call and get a ride from my host. Then it was back to his inlaws' place for more food: potatoes, mushroom sauce, chicken, a sweet and sour caraway coleslaw, pickles, cookies and even more tea. Then back to the apartment for some reading before passing out.
This morning I walked around the Old and New Towns to see the National Gallery, the Military History Museum, and the last church in the old city that I had not yet seen. I will hit the grocery store one last time before heading over to the ferry terminal to grab my bag and taking off to Stockholm on the ferry.

Frankfurt

We arrived in the station at the Frankfurt Airport after only about 1 hour of travel on the train. We then took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. After some watching TV, a little sink laundry, and some card games we headed down to play in the pool and sweat in the sauna. I realized it was a co-ed German style sauna after lying down for a few minutes then being joined by a German couple who walked in, said hello, and took off their towels and sat down. After getting over my surprise we talked for a but before the 90 degree heat drove me from the sauna.
After returning from the sauna, we decided to order some food. The flyer given to us by the front desk showed a restaurant that "specialized in pizza, schnitzel, Italian, Mexican, sandwiches, Indian and Chinese," which I suppose is impressive. In fact the place was both cheap and tasty. I had schnitzel, someone else got an "enchilada" (but not quite there), and the last guy got an Indian chicken dish.
We watched some more TV, played some more cards, and then passed out. I took off first to make the flight to Riga from the airport, which was earlier than the flight back to Chicago for the other guys.
On the trip to Riga which was about 2 hours, I had a lunch of a ham baguette, 100 g of dark Lindt chocolate, a glass of red wine and a glass of tea, all for free. American domestic airlines could learn from this. Also, not bad for a $69 flight.
I am about to land in Riga and will be travelling by myself for the next 20 days.

the rest of cologne

A quick word about German beer.
Every single German city makes their own beer and you are supposed to drink only that (if you can actually get anything else) while in the bars and restaurants in the city. I liked the Munich weiss beers quite a bit. I really liked the Viennese Stiegel beer. The Czech pils were much better than what I had been used to in the US. The Berlin beers I could do without, as they are big into the Beck's style of beer, and that is not really that good of a beer in my opinion. They also serve weiss beers in Berlin, but they can be harder to find. What surprised me was how much I liked Koelsch (the Koeln beer). It is described as a light and slightly bitter beer, which sounded to me like Coors Light (not a beer I am big into). However, it is actually a very tasty bright beer that is less carbonated than many other German beers that I have drank. It is very refreshing and has a bit of a bite-read alcohol content-that can sneak up on you. If i can ever find a Frueh Koelsch in a bar near me, I will get a nice cool 200 mL glass (as that's the size you order these in).

Cologne

We arrived in Cologne at about 7 pm on a Friday, dropped off our stuff at my friend's father's place, then we headed out to the restaurant "Curry Express," which is obviously a German wurst and frites place (sausage and fries with a gravy over them). At this point it is clear that I need to find out more about the German naming schemes.
Regardless, the food was fantastic. The Netherlands-style frites were better than the fries I had eaten in the Netherlands. The sauces and the wurst were also quite tasty.
After shopping for a few gifts to take home and a new sweater and shirt to replace the two I had destroyed with curry stains while in Amsterdam and Prague, We stopped for a lunch buffet of the all-you-can-eat variety full of Italian food. After which we headed out and checked out the dome, Koeln's most famous landmark. crossed over the Rhein and then wandered around on its shores for a few hours.
After returning to our host's apartment and checking out the TV offerings before heading out to one of the restaurants in one of the lots-of-restaurants-and-bars areas of the city for a quick grab-and-go dinner, and a few Koelsch beers from a supermarket to drink while we wandered around the city. We found my type of bar with 1.60-4 euro drinks (beers on the 1.60 side of things). and we sang along with the jukebox (OK that was me) and then headed back to the apartment at about 1am, which is early for Koeln.
OK running out of time o my Internet ticket, more later.

Amsterdam (Part III)

So everyone I talked to said that they stayed in Amsterdam far longer than they had intended, and I must admit that I did as well. First you get the Red light district and tourist areas in, then you start hitting the different bars in Ledensplien and Rembrandtsplien and then you talk to a few bartenders who give you a few recommendations for some really good bars and clubs off the beaten path. This is what my travel mates had been up to while I was down in Heidelberg.
We had moved hotels from the depressing and smelly hotel that we had been in to a Marriott using the guys' points. After dropping off my bags, we headed out to one of the clubs that had been recommended by pretty much everyone that they had talked to. We checked out this venue called Paradisio which had a pretty cool concert going on that night. They had a mix of electro, techno, reggeton, and the weird electronic noise music that was playing as we left. Add in 2 more helpings of croquettes at dinner and at 3 am, and I was good.
Some hotel buffet breakfast and then it was off to the train station for Cologne.

Heidelberg

Steak and macaroni and cheese never tasted so good. Just enough home to make me feel good. So the day after arriving at my cousin's house, he had a goodbye luncheon from his old job at a really good Chinese buffet/Mongolian barbecue type place. Afterward i headed over to the summer castle of a duke or earl or king of some sort in the next town over and walked around the gardens for about 3 hours. The palace was closed but the grounds were absolutely huge. What I really found pretty interesting was that there was a pretty big and ornate mosque int he back of the grounds. After this point I met up with my cousin and we headed over to the auto craft shop on the arm base in town to change the pads and rotors on his brakes. At this shop army personnel, military contractors and civil servants can go in and have help (as in guidance and checking from the mechanics, though the car owner must do the actual work) and rent tools so long as the owner brings in the parts. When all was said and done after about 2 hours, it was only about $20, so not bad.
The next day my cousin and I went into town in the morning and I walked around and checked out the old town and shopping areas of Heidelberg. My cousin joined me about 11:00 and we walked up to the castle overlooking the city, took a few pictures, saw the worlds largest wine cask (150,000 Liters?), and then walked back to the car, headed over to the train station to grab a quick lunch and then I headed back to Amsterdam to meet up with my friends in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam (part 2)

So at least some of your take on a city must be based upon where you are staying in that city. For example, when we were staying in Prague, our experience must have been colored by the swanky hotel with access to the Executive Lounge and cheap booze. The hostel in Berlin was very cool and fun, thus my view of Berlin is skewed toward the fun and cool. Likewise, our place in Amsterdam must effect my view somewhat, as it truly is one of the dirtiest, most dimly lit places that I have stayed. It turns out the no smoking rule was not enforced, for either kind of smoke, and as the other guys didn't want the maid going through our room when we ere out, they didn't clean the bathroom. Since it wasn't ventilated, the room got a bit of a tinge of mildew before I took off to more southern (though oddly enough colder and snowier) climes.
Don't get me wrong, overall Amsterdam is an amazing city. All of the places I have been to here: the museums, the restaurants, the bars have all been nice, fun, and friendly, and I simply cannot express how many bikes there are around the city.
We have tried some Indonesian food, which is supposed to be amazing here, and I found it to be fine, although my travel companions were less than impressed. On a side note, I have become addicted to these croquette things they have here. Basically make a tater tot about 1" by 4" and then fill it with pot pie filling, and then buy it out of a wall full of coin slots and drop down doors with a dude behind the wall keeping the different things stocked. Seriously cool. My favorite was FEBO. And I personally recommend the veal, the veggie, the cheese, and the beef.
Now I have not done any laundry since Prague. So no laundry in Berlin or Amsterdam. Hopefully, my cousin will not mind the smell too much until I get caught up on the laundry.
He hasn't mentioned anything about my personal hygiene yet, though he did offer the use of the laundry machines. I think he was being nice, though he may have been giving some helpful advice.
Back to Amsterdam: Museums I have hit are the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Heineken experience (brewery and museum), the House of Bols (original exporters of Gin, and thanks for that by the way), and we tried to hit the Houseboat Museum, but it is closed until 30 January. I can't remember if I mentioned seeing the Chicago-style (sketch/improv) comedy show in Amsterdam at Boom Chicago, but it was really quite funny. And, as I had picked up a flier outside of the door, they gave us each 5 euros off admission (from 20) and a free drink. Not bad for picking up crap off the street.
The next day we did some boat touring of the canals, though the stop we were planning on getting off at was closed due to ice in the canals (which somehow didn't get mentioned until after we had bought the 18 euro day pass), so it was about a 10 minute walk from the City Hall. Unfortunately, the zoo cost about $25 to enter, so we decided to hit up the botanical gardens for the much nicer price of 7 euro. There was a palm tree house, a greenhouse with 3 different climates in it and a butterfly house. Add on a little all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, finding the Simpsons in English on Dutch TV and some free OJ and toast for breakfast, and my day is going pretty well so far. My thanks again to my cousin and his family to putting me up for the next two nights.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is really friendly, far warmer than Berlin, and very clean. Although this is the dirtiest hotel we have stayed at so far. Yesterday and today we have run around and found pretty fun things to see and eat and drink. Last night we found an incredibly friendly bartender at a bar that had a NBA game on, so we decided to stop in, and he ended up giving us maps and a bunch of advice on what to see and do in the city. Dinner last night of a lamb burger and fries for about 3 euros, and a decent amount of pretty goof Dutch beer from a few neighborhood bars about 1 km from our hotel.
Today we checked out the Heineken brewery and got tickets to a Chicago-style sketch comedy club in English f0r after dinner.
Oh yeah, and our hotel is above a Brazilian style steakhouse, with entry to the hotel through the edge fop the restaurant kitchen. hopefully we will wake up before 10:30am and get some free breakfast at the hotel tomorrow.

Berlin

We got in last night on the train about 7:00pm and headed over to the hostel. We had a cabin all to ourselves on the train, so that was pretty good. After checking in we walked around to find a place to eat some dinner (I suppose I felt OK with paying for food after eating breakfast and appetizers for brunch and dinner for the last few days in the executive lounge of the Prague Marriott and thus paying nothing) at a place called Hot Dog and Hamburger, which was basically a kebab place with hot dogs and burgers.
We then headed down to the hostel bar to get to know some of the folks there and get started on the night. Hostel folk are pretty cool, pretty relaxed, and very talkative and friendly. We got some tips on which clubs would be best to go to, and so we headed upstairs to change and then dance until dawn.
However, after being denied entry to 2 different clubs within walking distance of each other, we headed back to the hostel for drinking and singing and darts at the weekly Karaoke night at the bar. It was quite a good time, and I was the first to call it a night at about 3:45am (the bar is open til dawn).
This morning we grabbed a spinach croissant from a bakery and headed out to do our own sightseeing around Berlin. We checked out the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to European Jews, and Checkpoint Charlie (the primary crossing point form East Berlin into the US-controlled zone of West Berlin) and the remains of the Berlin Wall. We grabbed some Chinese food at a restaurant that was much better than the Chinese we got the first night in Prague and headed back to the hostel. People are doing laundry and taking naps, so I figured I´d head out to catch up on email and blogging.
Tomorrow afternoon, it´s off to Amsterdam.

Prague (part 2)

We spent the morning yesterday basically playing in the pool. We have a pool, jacuzzi, steam room, and sauna, and we have decided to take full advantage of this, especially yesterday, until we bothered the Czech ladies who were there for some R and R, and we interrupted this by playing Marco polo.
Ran around to check out all the shopping that Prague has to offer as museums and marionette theater (puppets) were closed for January 6 (which is the Epiphany I think). We found an English-language bookstore and I decided to try to get through all 1100 pages of Cryptonomicon, again, but this time I have hours of train riding to do it in.
Prague also seems to have a pretty serious Jazz scene, so we went out to the "best Jazz club within walking distance," and as we are within walking distance of Old Town, we figured it would be pretty good, and it was.
The club was in an old converted basement-looking thing that reminded me of a much smaller version of the kellers we went into to drink in Munich. The beer was good and pretty cheap, as has become the norm for Prague.
Berlin here we come.

Prague

Prague in daylight is really quite a beautiful city, and it is relatively cheap, though not as cheap as it apparently once was. Our first day in Prague, we checked out the Old Town Square with its 2 cathedrals and town hall, which has an astrometric clock from the 1400s, which still appears to be accurate. From there we walked over to the Charles Bridge and wandered around there before heading over to the Old Jewish Quarter. In one of the 3 synagogues is the location of the Golem of Prague of legend, and according to the guide books the quarter, complete with its wall to keep everyone in, was preserved on order of Hitler to keep "a museum of an extinct race." We walk back to once end of the Charles bridge to grab some food and Czech beer before returning to the hotel to warm up in the steam room. We then head back out to see a classical music concert at the Municipal Hall (though we are in a side room and not the main hall), then grab a few beers (for about a dollar each) at a local pub and head back at midnight when the bar closes.
We run into a few gypsies on the way back to our hotel, and in the commotion of them bumping into us while proposing some non-PG activities, I am relieved of the money in my pocket (though it is only about $50), and I only notice this as we are walking away. So I am now more alert for this type of shenanigans and glad it was only 50 bucks.
The next day we head out to the Prague Castle complex, the seat of Czech Government for pretty much as long as there has been a Prague and country around it, since about 800 or so according to the museum. There is a cathedral, castle, basilica, a few museums and an armory display, all of which were pretty good.
We walk back to the hotel area after spending the better part of a day up there, grab some pizza from a Czech Italian restaurant and then check out the night life before heading back for the night at a rather late hour. One last full day in Prague before we head back West into Berlin tomorrow.

Vienna and to Prague

So our train from Munich to Vienna was pretty nice. We had a whole first class cabin all to ourselves. We got into Vienna and walked over to one of the two Wombat (company name) Hostels and hoped that the one we had picked was the correct one. Luckily for us, it was.
We checked in and went up to our room and found a French Canadian asleep in one of the four beds. He woke up, welcomed us to Vienna, then went back to sleep.
So we unpacked quickly and went out in search of Viennese food.
We found a "late night cafe" (read 'diner') recommended by the woman behind the desk and headed over there for some Steigl beer and wienerschnitzel the size of your head.
It was quite good.
We passed out and booked our trip to Prague before dropping our bags off at a second station, the one from which we would leave for Prague. From there we headed to the palace grounds for a viewing of the Botanical gardens and the palaces and artwork which they contained. We spend a good part of the afternoon walking around the palace grounds, grabbing some Middle eastern food and a few beers before it was time for our trip to Prague.
Upon arriving, we checked into our hotel, after deftly avoiding at least 2 cabbies hellbent on getting us to take their cabs the 4 blocks from the train station to the hotel, and we walked out on the town to find a place to get some food from with a block or two of our hotel.
We find a place that served Chinese and had a pretty filling dinner with drinks for about $30.
We pass out and get ready for the next day in Prague, this time with daylight.

Munich

The train ride up to Munich was long but pretty cool.
My sleeping compartment for about 11 hours of the trip was split with an Italian family and an Italian girl who spoke very little English. Though the family after dinner wouldn´t take no for an answer when offering me some homemade biscotti.
The trip from northern Italy up to Munich was quieter for most of the trip, though a bunch of Italian snowboarders were picked up on the edge of the Italian Alps and traveled up to Innsbruck on the train. At which point 2 Americans from Oklahoma sat across from me. It was fun to speak English with someone who was not Miriam for the first time in about 2 weeks (not that there is anything wrong with talking to my little sister, but it was fun to talk to others).
The train stopped in Munich and I walked to 2 blocks to the hotel and met up with my travelling companions for the next 19 days, Dar and Beanz. We called and met up with a friend of my former roommate Cindy, named Michel, who showed us through the main City center of Munich, and gave us a quick tour of some of the outlying bars, restaurants and shops.
Dinner at Augistiner brewery of 1 liter beers and a roasted 1/2 of a pig´s leg and potato dumplings for me, and it was time to pass out.
For New Year´s Eve we went down to the city center and wandered around some shops, bought a 2€ hat at H&M and then headed back to the hotel bar to start off the festivities. We took what appeared to be a short walk on the map that took about 40 minutes or so over to the strip where the best fireworks apparently took place, and we bar hopped a bit before sitting down in an Indian restaurant at about 11:45pm.
For New Year´s in Munich, there are fireworks all over the city, and Leopoldstraße certainly appeared to be the epicenter. I have never seen anything like it in the states, with fireworks going off all over the place, from the sidewalks, streets and rooftops.
Some New Year shots from the owner of the restaurant and some good Indian food, and we headed back to a hostel bar about 1 block from our hotel to finish out eh night a little after 3.
New Year´s Day most of the places were closed, so we had our free hotel breakfast and headed out to the English Gardens, which is sort of like the Central Park of Munich. We hit a college bar for a sandwich on the way back to the hotel before taking a break before heading out to see what is open tonight.
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope yours was as fun as mine.
Tomorrow, it is off to Vienna.