Berlin - the sad side part two - the communists

Poor Berlin.  After all the destruction the Nazi's brought upon their city, the Berliners had more to come.  The Berlin wall was not originally stone, but merely barbed wire rolled out without warning in the middle of the night, with soldiers posted all along.  People woke up to go to work or school or return home to family members and found that they were now permanently separated.  Loved ones ripped from your arms while you were sleeping, and you had no idea until the next day.

Now on the east side of the wall you couldn't get near it.  There were guards with orders to shoot on site, and plenty of other traps and smaller walls.  But on the western side, the sad and angry people painted messages they had to hope that one day their loved ones on the other side might get to see.

Berlin - the sad side part one - the Nazis

I took a day trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp while I was in Berlin and deliberately did not take many pictures.  How exactly does one pose next to the barracks where human beings wasted away in hot crowded dorms?  But there were a few things that particularly struck me and I wanted to share.

Berlin - Historical love of my life, part 2

Being a city of such historical depth, Berlin is filled to the max with memorials of different types.  Given my lack of historical knowledge of basically anything, I love it.  It teaches me on all the topics the American school system failed to even mention.  /mini-rant

Berlin - Historical love of my life

My plan of attack on all new cities has become to take the local free tour, so my first day in Berlin I did just that.  
Berlin is full of crazy history that happened during the lifetime of people still living today, even during my own lifetime!  The politics behind everything really reminded me that we cannot afford to sit by and wait for change: if you do wait, you will not like the change that comes.

Paris

Today is my second full day in Paris, though it will be my third night.  Unfortunately my wifi has been startlingly bad for the last week so my posts have been nonexistant.  But the good news is that means I have a whole slew of blog entries about Berlin ready to post over the next couple days, and then I'll post about Amsterdam as well.

But for now, have some Paris!!

Top left: Notre dame at night
Top middle: super lame typical tourist photo with the pyramids at the Louvre
Top right:  Gee, I wonder what that is
Bottom left: Ummmmm, guys, I was at the Tour de France!
Bottom middle: me on the river Seine
Bottom right: the ceiling of one of the gazillion rooms in the Louvre

Adventures in Interlaken, continued

My new friends Susy and Michael left for Italy today and I am awaiting my white water rafting trip this afternoon before setting off for Berlin on the night train tomorrow night.  Interlaken has been simply ah-mazing.  Gorgeous.  A blast.

Top left: just a friendly game of giant chess where I obsessed over the "ponies"
Top right: Susy and I walked to the eastern lake (Interlaken = between lakes) and marvelled at the gorgeous colors of the water and immensity of the mountains...but were not brave enough to get into the frigid waters
Bottom left and middle: The three of us went on a hike to Schilthorn Mountain and stopped to see some waterfalls along the way
Bottom right: one of the magnificent views over one of the many lakes on the train ride into Interlaken

Interlaken: Outdoor adventures by day, party underground at night.

For the first time I met girls to hang out with!  YAY!!!  As soon as I entered my dorm room Susy was asking if anyone wanted to take a train up a mountain Friday and I was like "Yes!!" so that is the plan for tomorrow.  She also showed me the supermarket so I got to make my own food for the first time since leaving Romania (God I missed non-mass produced deliciousness), and introduced me to her friends Jill and Scott.  At dinner we also met Shannon and Michael.  Yay for meeting people!!!

The theme at the hostel bar the first night was "beach party."  Half price drinks if you were in your bathing suit.  Susy and Jill were lucky enough to score free shots, I just settled for my half-price hard cider.

Today I went on my canyoning trip: rappelling, zip-lining, jumping off of cliff edges (flash backs of Angela's accident kept me from trying one high jump), and sliding down nature-made slippery rock slides for a couple hours.  And then a nice picnic of bread, cheese and veggies (and beer, of course, I may actually come back to the States a beer drinker at this rate!) at the foot of the Alps.

Now, a walk around the eastern lake, a trip to buy wine and chocolate, and then more partying in the underground bar (the hostel's way of taking care not to break the Swiss law saying no loud noise after 10pm).

On the streets of Switzerland

Zurich!

I probably should have taken a tour because I have no idea why there is a clothesline in the water and I got so tired of hunting for cheap food in the freaking expensive city that I settled for spending over 12 USD on blasted McDonalds.  But those fries did taste like home.  Tasty, deep-fried home.

I spent a good half hour on the roof of my hostel (at which, btw, I had to climb six flights of stairs to get to my room) talking to AJ -- a guy from South Korea.  I have met sooooo many Koreans!  It's nuts!  That bottom center picture is the view from the roof.

The right bottom picture I took of the street where my hostel is located.  And right as I took it a couple guys started street fight dancing.  It was pretty cool and I managed to capture a few seconds on video before people surrounded them and made it impossible to see anymore.  There was also a random parade right by my hostel when I first got here, and a few hours ago the group providing musical entertainment for the customers started singing Sweet Home Alabama.  Which was surreal, and really funny, especially when everyone started singing along.

Tomorrow I get to put my traveler's insurance to work: Interlaken! Canyoning! Rope courses! Rafting! Climbing! Hiking! Parasailing! Bungy jumping!  NOT ENOUGH TIME MONEY TO DO THEM ALL (for which my mother is more than thankful).

Willkommen in München!!!!!

I took the train from Zagreb to Munich today.  First class baby!  (Because I am an old woman so I don't qualify for 2nd class passes)

I had the entire compartment to myself: six seats and they all could lie flat.  After spending the last couple nights in a stifling hostel with seven guys, one of whom sounds like he is actually sawing logs when he snores: this air conditioned compartment was heaven.

After we crossed into Slovenia, and thus went through my last passport check while in the EU, I took a long nap and awoke in the middle of Austria:

Farewell Tour of Zagreb

Tomorrow morning I hop a train to Munich (change of plans!) so today I -- and my belly full of food poisoning (one should not choose a tuna sandwich that's been sitting in the deli window for God knows how long, even if one is suffering from an acute hypoglycemic episode) -- took one last trek through Zagreb.

On a whim I entered the Archaeological Museum, only to find out that it was closing in 20 minutes.  Lucky for me, Sundays are free, so I took advantage of my twenty minutes and asked the museum workers for a recommendation.

"Third floor."

"Oh, third floor, yes." 

"Third floor, on your left."

Upper left: broach made with a pretty rock during the iron age
Upper middle: stone figurines that look a helluva lot like bears to me
Upper right: repeatedly patched pot
Lower left: a bunch of pendants and other jewelry
Lower middle: A doll's head?
Lower right: more broaches

Wandering around Zagreb, Croatia

I set out today with almost no agenda and was greeted with a few mini adventures in the northern part of Zagreb.

Greetings from Plitvice National Park