Thank you all again for having us. It was meet everyone, and see some faces that I hadn't seen in forever. I hope to see you all again soon.

Finally

We are in Amsterdam now. This city is absolutly beautiful, and having bikes makes this trip so much better. Jerry and Loes, the two who I am staying with, own an amazing fitness center and cafe on the northern part of town. Yesterday, they threw together an impromtu family reunion and invited alot of family from all over Holland to the cafe. I got to meet so many new people. We've been hanging out with my cousin Jordy a good bit. He took us to a cafe for a friends birthday party, then we went up to a club. I finally got to meet Jeffry and Zoe, two of my other cousins. I had no idea that there were so many relatives over here that I did not even know. Anyways, it is awesome here. The real reason for this post: Pictures, so here they are...

This is the first thing that we saw when we arrived in Dresden. It is a bombed out theater that is attached to the train station. It's completely out of place, but cool as hell none the less.

Next up is a picture of one of the funniest people on Earth... The German, AKA Sandra. She was a foreign exchange student at Brown a couple years back, and made a reputation for being crude as hell. She was our tour guide of Dresden. Sorry for the dark picture, I was having some problems with the metering on my camera.

This is a really cool courtyard in Dresden. I guess it is a palace of some sort. I don't know, Sandra just refered to things at "That famous old thing." Ha.

Another shot of said palace.

This was one of the highlights of our trip. Right around the corner from our hostel was the COOLEST bar ever. It was completly themed off of "The Big Lebowski." It was freaking awesome.

Another very cool thing in Dresden was a Science Museam. They had everything from the first steam engines to a 1:1 replica of Sputnik. The coolest thing was an electricity demonstration in which they produced model lightning with a huge bank of capacitors.

Next up, in Munich, is a shot of one of the best meals ever: 1L of the best beer on earth + 1 of the biggest pretzels I have ever seen.

Our next stop was Milan... but that city freaking sucked. So much so that I didn't even feel it necessary to take out my camera while I was there. So, the next pictures are of quite the opposite, one of the most beautiful places on Earth: Cinque Terra Italy. It is a group of five cities connected by a number of hiking paths. It lies RIGHT on the Mediterranian. First up is a shot of Pawl in our "hostel." It was more like a honey moon suite with a bunk bed thrown in the corner. We shared this place with a couple of cool Kiwi's.

This is a shot from the window of our "hostel."

Here's one for mom. You can see a "Pace" flag hanging out a window in the distance.

A larger shot of the city we were in.

The Sea

This is a beach that almost killed me. I went swimming out here... it wasn't easy. The beach isn't really a beach like you would normally think of. Instead of sand, it had boulders. I went out, and was doing fine. It was when I decided to swim out to a large rock in the distance that my troubles started. It was a bitch to get out to, and when I got to it, it was covered with barnicles that cut me like crazy. I had to get on it to rest though. After sitting on it for a couple of minutes, a mammoth wave came up and tossed me off, so I started to swim back to shore. Getting back on to land was harder than getting off, because the waves just slam you into these rocks. After a good bit of struggling, I got back up. My reward, an eye full of some fat old lady taking off her shirt as soon as I get my head out of the water. Great.

An awesome shot that Schwartz got from another path while I was swimming.

The Pier at night. We met some cool people out here.

This is officially the best long exposure shot I have EVER taken.

Our city from the start of the path.

The path led all the way to that bit of land jutting out to the left of this picture... we followed it all the way. My feet still hate me for it.

Of course, the rickety old bridge.


A shot of the second city from the trail.


The third city


The third city... from the trail.

The "HI MOM!" picture. I am an idiot for not wearing a shirt when we were hiking. I still have two straps from my backpack burned onto my back.

Schwartz's "HI MOM!" shot. He's smart, notice the shirt.


Good sunset picture on the pier.


Wine was cheaper than water here, and those rocks were such a good meeting place.



Another rediculous sunset shot, with random guy in the distance.


DRUNK PEOPLE + Pawl.

On to Cologne. This is a picture of the oldest building I have ever seen. It was build by the Romans in 50AD. It was eventually just turned into a public bathroom.

The Dom.

More photos to come. I have been leaving my camera at home in Amsterdam because the weather is kinda shitty right now. I'll probably put up some pictures from here when I get home.

Köln

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated. We have been in Köln for the past two nights. This city is beautiful, and we met some very cool people. And awesome Aussie, a meathead Canadian, a Louisvillian, a Hoosier, and another engineer (so geeky he made me look like fuckin' Fonzie). We kind of got here on the wrong day though. Apparently, every four years, that cookey group that calls themselves protistants have a church week in a different city. Well, this year it landed in Köln... THE DAY WE GOT HERE. So, there have been crowds of crazy cult-like people trying to pass of pamphlets on us the whole time we were here. It was also here, that I was discriminated against for being an american. We went to a hookah bar that I guess was only ever frequented by people of the middle eastern persuasian. Well, when we asked if we could rent a hookah, they said they didn't sell them. At the same time, someone came out carrying two lit and stoked hookahs to a nearby table. So, we downed our beers, finished some pool, and the group that we were with all left with our tails between our legs. Meh, 360 was cooler anyways.

Before we came to Köln, we were in Cinque Terra Italy. It was easily one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is a group of five small cities all connected by a series of rediculous footpaths. It took about 3 hours to get from one far city to the other. The whole path runs RIGHT along the Medeterranian. I was a bit of an idiot and did it shirtless, with my backpack on though. Needless to say, I look like a fucking strawberry with two white stripes. Apparently the city we stayed in was the birthplace of pesto. I don't doubt it after tasting some that they had. I am bringing a jar back for the curious. We spent the majority of our time in the rocks at the beach drinking amazing wine (2€ a fuckin bottle!!). We were roomates with a Kiwi couple that were freaking hilarous. All in all, this was probably one of the higher points of the trip.

We are leaving for Amsterdam in an hour. I can't wait. They are actually having an impromtu family reunion upon my arrival. Ha! Awesome.

Milan

We arrived in Milan last night. The weather was crap. Nasty muggy rain, and the temperature dropped like crazy. Even at that, I decided I'd give it another chance. Well, when we got back to the hostel, this city blew it. This place is terrible. There is nothing to do, everything is dirty and broken, and the hostel feels like a mix between atherton and a mental institution. People were turning lights on and off and making all kinds of noise until four in the morning... check out was at 9:30. This place sucks. Tomorrow will be better though. We are headed to cinque terra, and from what I hear, it is one of the most beautiful groups of cities in the world. There are five cities, all right on the edge of the ocean. There is a sea side path between each one. It should be pretty fucking cool. We'll be heading back to germany (cologne) on the 6th, then it is off to Amsterdam.

Munich

We arrived in Munich last night. We had origionally planned on comming here just to stay the night on our way to Italy, but the hostel ended up being so cool that we are going to stay another night. The whole place has a living room atmosphere. Last night, I decided to do some drinking... this of course led to me yelling at a TV with a bunch of Canadians watching hockey. Good times. We met someone last night that told us to see Cinqua Terra when we are in Italy. We saw some of the pictures from there and decided that Italy was definitly our next stop. I'll keep you all updated with fun happenings in Munich.

Dresden

So, today is our third day in Dresden. This city is very beautiful, even though, as Sandra said when she first introduced herself, they're still rebuilding. The area that we have been in is kinda like Chicago on crack. There are awesome little shops everywhere. The best part though, and I never thought I'd be saying this, are the bars. There is such a huge range of places here. The ABSOLUTE coolest we found was a place called "Lebowski." Yup. That is a bar, themed entirely on The Big Lebowski. There were murals all over the place, bowling shoes hanging from the ceiling, and the movie was playing with english and german subtitles. Great place... but they didn't have any good sasporilla.

We finally got to see the German again too. For those of you who don't know her, Sandra (the german) was a foreign exchange student at Brown a couple of years ago. To sum it up, she is one of the most rediculous people ever, while at the same time being one of the COOLEST. She brought the stereotype that Germans are obsessed with sex to America. Every other sentence she says is about... buttsex. She is the only girl that still has an outstanding strike at Robin's.

First, Sandra gave us a pretty funny tour of the city. Since there really aren't many historical buildings here anymore, she just took us through the city center. The tour basically consisted of "There's that one famous church, and that is a palace, and that is an opera... that is all we have." She also took us to see the local VW factory, and the Botanical gardens. It was fuckin' cool, and amazing to be able to see her again.

Pictures later. Per usual, this computer isn't capable of uploading them.

P.s. We might be going to England or Ireland.

I finally found a decent computer

...so here are some updated pictures:

First up, is this club that we found near our hostel. You all have no idea how absolutely amazing this place is. We've been back for two nights already and will probably do so again tonight. Basically, it is an old warehouse that a Jewish family stored their business stuff in before the war. It is HUGE. Well, needless to say, Berlin was FUCKED UP during the war by the allied bombings. This warehouse was no exception. It was sheered in half. What is left was recently turned into an art squat and a club. The courtyard is filled with sand and huge sitting rocks. All around is trash art that is freaking awesome (I'm talking halves of helicopters and shit), and alright techno coming from all directions. There are six bars throughout the place, one of which is on the top of the warehouse in a converted balcony. I love this place.

Next up is all of the tourist stuff.

First at bat is Checkpoint Charlie. This was the entrance way between East and West Berlin. Often the point of conflict. it has since turned into one of the biggest tourist traps in the world.

Next up is the Berlin Wall... or what is left of it. Ironically they had to erect a fence to prevent people from taking the wall apart piece by piece.

This is one of the sniper watch towers that were in place along the wall.

This is one of the many memorials the Soviets built for themselves after they breached Berlin in WWII. What makes this site very interesting is, to either side are the first and second soviet tanks to enter the city, and under the stairs are 20,000 soviet soldiers that died in the invasion. The plaques show the names of all of them.

This structure easily has the coolest story out of anything in the city. It was erected to celebrate the German and Persian victory over France. The cool part is what it is constructed of. Obviously the base and the tower itself are constructed of concrete... but the decorations and the angel on top are all made of melted down French cannons from the war. How fucking burley is that??

Here is a good shot of the German parlimentary building, the Reichstag. It is very beautiful. The glass dome on top is supposed to represent the transparency of the new German government.

Last, is something I thought was just totally bizzare. We have had beautiful weather for the whole time we were here, until of course I actually said something about how lucky we are. Well almost right after I did, the wind picked up, and all hell broke loose. This is a picture of torrential downpours in addition to a dust storm created by the high winds. It was INSANE!