Back in the US of A

Well, I'm back. I spent my stopover night in England with my cousin JD at Lakenheath Air Force base, which was fun. We got Burger King (which I haven't had in years) and watched movies and went to a pub for dinner. Now, when you go into a little hamlet in the countryside that consists of 6 houses ad a pub, you don't expect those few buildings to contain the extraordinary, but we found it nonetheless: The pub serves Tex-Mex. I'm talkin chips & salsa, chimichangas, the works. So my last night abroad, in the English countryside, I had chicken enchiladas for dinner. They weren't bad, either! JD and I told the server we were both from Texas and to send our compliments to the chef, and the owner himself came out all excited to meet real live Texans, hehe. It was great. I also got to see the bases where my cousin works as well, and as I'm the first family member to make it over for a visit, so I took a couple pictures of F-15s and the like.
We woke up at 4am to get me to Stansted Airport to catch a bus to Gatwick, and ended up spending 2 hours on the road barely moving because the M-11 (the equivalent of I-25 or I-35) was closed for 50miles due to an overturned lorry. I got to the airport to find that the bus wouldn't get me there on time, so I took 2 trains and the Underground but made it in good time. The flight was of course uneventful, but when we landed in Charlotte, NC for connection they confiscated the 2 bottles of Spanish wine I'd had in my checked luggage as gifts for my mom because I'm not 21. I wanted to cry or to scream at them, but settled for telling the woman it was total bullshit. She offered to let me keep the bottles, like that would make me feel better. Luckily they didn't see the scotch, because if they'd poured out a $60 bottle of scotch I would've taken someone's limbs off. Nevertheless, I was pissed for all 3 1/2 hours of layover I had there. The world looked up after that though. I bought an ice cream just before boarding and they gave me one twice the size I'd ordered, and then I got onto my next flight to discover I'd been bumped up to the extended leg-room section for free, in a window seat, so I managed to doze for a few hours. That was nice.
I met Annie and Megan at the airport, and we made the drive back to Boulder and I slept like I haven't slept in a month. It's good to be back, and I look forward to sharing more pictures and stories with all of you in the coming weeks. Thanks for all the love and support, and happy travels!

Last day in Berlin...

The title says it all. It's raining again, like it was the day I arrived, which is suitably poetic. I haven't posted in a few days because despite everything that's been going on I feel so at home here I felt like travel blogging about it would be odd, so let me catch you up:
Sunday we went to the Zoologischer Garten Berlin, which has the largest number of species of any zoo in the world. Around 14,000 animals of 1500 species. We saw most of them, including the famous baby polar bear Knut. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, Knut was born in the zoo, but his mother rejected him and there was a huge international debate on whether to let humans raise him or let him die as he would in the wild. Of course they let him live, and is now the main drawing at the zoo. Funny how nature and economy sometimes go hand in hand... Anyway, he's getting much bigger now, and while still a cub isn't the little dainty thing you see in early pictures. Adorable nonetheless. The whole layout of the zoo is to keep the animals as unconfined as possible, and when you walk in the front gates the first things you notice are an elephant 50 feet to your right and a black rhinocerous 50 feet to your left. No fences, just little 10 foot wide moats between you and them. Of course they don't do this for the big cats or birds, but you get the distinct impression that they're trying to give these animals as much freedom as possible. I liked it.
After the zoo we went to a little neighborhood festival nearby, where we watched a transvestite belly dancer, drank a couple Caipirinhas, and watched independent short films in English and Deutch. Monday I went to the second-largest mall in Europe, KaDeWe, which is really artsy for a mall. They have rotating art displays in all the atriums, and each of the 7 floors has a different theme for art. The top two floors are all gourmet food, the rest clothing, etc. Something the Europeans do that I like a lot is sort things by color. Every store, boutique, or shop orders all of their stuff by colors, and it saves a ton of time for the shopper. KaDeWe is basically a giant Neiman Marcus or Harrods, so I couldn't afford 99% of the stuff, but I did find a shirt I really loved on sale that I wore out that night to... dum dum dum... Dr Pong's!
Dr. Pong's is a great concept for a bar. There's a ping-pong table in the front room, and you get 30 or so people around it, and you all run in a circle hitting the ball one at a time. If you miss, or overshoot, you're out. It gets down to 2 people and the winner gets a shot, so all of the really good people get really bad quickly and the rest of us get a chance at glory! I didn't win any, but Ingo only didn't make the final 3 times in about 20 rounds, and won more than 10 of them, so it was fun to watch. Of course, I forgot my camera, so unless we decide to go back tonight, which is unlikely, you'll have to wait and see it either for yourself, or once I come back.
Yesterday was pretty chill, we just hung out around the apartment, making brief sojourns to the market down the street at meal times, and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail and read on the balcony. I've been trying to be as helpful as I can in exchange for my free room and board, and so have been cooking meals when I can. Not much of a burden, since as you know I love to cook. Yesterday I made vanilla pancakes from scratch for breakfast/lunch and pasta with brats (what else?) for dinner. Today I'm going to go find and have another döner kebap before I leave town. I'm don't know how I'm going to live without them... Also, yesterday was the end to the "ratty 'stache" that Ingo and his coworkers have been competing in for the last month, so I was employed to dress his up as creepily as possible to go with the frightening facial hair. Photo enclosed. And yes, he won.
Anyway, tonight will be spent hopefully at a funk/jazz dance club, and at the very least in the company of friends. Tomorrow I'll make the sojourn to the airport and thence to London for the day, and on Friday will be back in Boulder. It's hard not to be sad at the thought that my trip is coming an end. In lieu of this, I will not think at all for the next 48 hours, employing only the minimal life-sustaining functions required to eat, sleep, dance, and get on a plane. Until then, ich bin Berliner!

I really love this city. In fact, it has officially made my list of cities to live in someday, which makes two on this trip alone. First of all, let me tell you a bit about who I'm staying with: my friend Ingo is a native German who lived in the US for 12 years, and so is 100% fluent in both languages. He and I used to work in the same psych lab together, and he graduated from CU May of '06. He's the first American student to be accepted to an East German university since the fall of the Berlin wall, and to pay the bills he works for Fat Tire Bicycle Tours leading English-speaking tours of the city. It's 20Euros (18E for a student) and you ride around the whole city for 4.5 hours, stopping every few hundred meters to talk about the sites. I took the tour day before yesterday and it knocked my socks off. I had expected it to be touristy, but found it was really just fun and informative. Berlin is a very bike-friendly city, being as flat as it is, and I learned a lot about life during the soviet era, especially. Among other things, I saw the Berlin Wall, rode through the Brandenburg Gates (like everyone who's ever conquered Berlin), explored the Tiergarden, and a beer garden. :-)
Which brings me to the Berlin nightlife. I don't get to go to much in the way of clubs in the States, being as I am only 20, but I still know that the US has nothing to compare to the bars and clubs here. My first night in town I went with the guys from the bike shop on a pub crawl, and it seems that every nightlife venue in Berlin has a different theme! We started off at an Irish Pub (actually run my Irish folks) and listened to live music there, then went to a hookah bar (no, I didn't partake), then to a 5-storey bar with a different live band on each level. I parked myself on level 3 for an hour, where there were maybe 20 people sitting around on low sofas in the dim red light listening to a group of german guys play Bo Diddley and BB King. It was great, see picture below (had to use a flash, so it's a bit over-exposed). Night before last we went to a bar/restaurant where all the politicians go after work and saw a ton of Parliament members drinking a sweet beer (I forgot the name, it starts with a K) that comes in tiny glasses, then we went next door to a place that is a stock exchange theme. As more people order the beer, the price goes up, and the market peaks and crashes according to supply and demand. We actually arrived during a crash and so got really good .5L beers for under 2E. Tomorrow night we're going to a ping-pong bar. I really have no idea what that means, but Ingo said yes, you do actually play ping-pong there, so we'll see...
Don't get the impression, however, that all I'm doing every night is drinking. On the contrary, last night we went to the grocery store and bought brats, came back to the apartment and cooked them. We also rented and watched Citizen Kane and Young Frankenstein, hehe. Tomorrow we're going to a museum and to the zoo! I'm looking forward to seeing Knut, the famous polar bear. There's also talk of going to see the Berlin Opera, but we'll see how much that's going to cost.
I've also officially run out of room on my camera. 455 pictures and five 10sec videos. I burned them all to a CD I'm going to guard with my life until I get back to the states and then deleted them from the camera, so it's going to take a while to whittle them down to slide-show material for y'all. Anyway, the ones on here are of the Wall and the Parliament building, and that cool blues bar. I'm sure I'll be posting more soon as I see more of the city, and will have tons to show when I get home in 6 days!

Berlin

I'm in Berlin, and it's raining. I made it on the train from Schonefeld Airport to Alexanderplatz without any help, and even found the bike shop where Ingo works. I had just enough time to get a hello hug and directions to his apartment before he was off to lead a tour, so I introduced myself to all the guys in the shop, and they're already treating me like family! I'm not allowed to pay for anything in the shop, so I'm using the internet free and got a bottle of water on them. They also gave me a bike for free to ride around for my entire stay! I love Germans! I took the bike greatfully and rode around central Berlin for a few hours, pulling into the first place I saw that advertised bratwurst and had people speaking German on the porch. Where I was getting a tiny ham sandwich in Spain for €4.50, here I got a giant brat, a heaping pile of seasoned potatoes, and an even bigger scoop of fresh saurkraut, and over the top was this amazingly rich, soupy gravy. OH MY GOD it was delicious! I really could not be fuller or happier. Add that to the fact that I'm going on a pub crawl with them tonight and I'm going to gain back the 10 pounds I lost in Morocco in no time...

So far Berlin is really cool, I rode around the city for 2 hours on my bike and without even trying stumbled across Humbolt college (where Einstein taught), the canal, 2 beautiful churches, and the parliamentary buildings. I'm going to have to take one of these bike tours, everyone who's come back from one is smiling and happy, and it's a 4.5 hour tour for €15 since I'm a student and now a friend :-) .

And now for those pictures I promised! The first is of a fountain in Granada, which as I said are EVERYWHERE. The second is Megan and I on the beach in Malaga, the third is from the tapas festival in Malaga that night. The one after that is of the market in Barcelona. I'm sure I'll have more to come with Berlin...

Barcelona... still.

Well I´m still in Barcelona because 1, Lonely Planet dídn´t mention that train prices are twice the estimates they give if not bought 4 or more weeks in advance, and 2, France´s rail workers decided to go on strike today, so I wouldn´t be able to get a train out until that is over. In light of these setbacks, I´ve decided to fly straight to Berlin and spend the next 9 days before I leave there. I´m sad to be missing out on France, as it´s the place in Europe I have been most looking forward to for so many years, but I don´t think 9 days would do her justice anyway. So chin up, lads and lassies, I´ll go hiking in Germany, and see another beautiful city and France will still be there in a year or two.
Once again I can´t post pictures because the hostel computers won´t let me, but my friend Ingo that I´ll be staying with in Berlin has a laptop that I can use to my heart´s content, so perhaps tomorrow. Sigh, and the world goes on...

Barcelona

I have to say that after the beauties of Ronda, Granada, and Málaga, Barcelona is ringing pretty hollow. The city´s park with all the sculptures by Gaudi is cool, we saw beautiful fountains next to funky industrial art, but the main city walk, La Rambla, is shop after shop selling flowers and animals. I mean birds, chipmunks, chickens, rabbits. I find it very depressing. Megan and I were also very surprised to find it hot and humid here. After a week much further South encountering nothing this warm we weren´t expecting it. Speaking of Megan, this is her last day of the trip! We´ve had such a great time, I´m sad to see her go. Travel is the ultimate test of patience and understanding between people, and she´s been a saint in that department. When I get back to the States we´re going to compile one CD of our photos in chrono-order to pass around to friends and family so you get both perspectives (she´s an awesome photographer, so look forward to that).
As for me, I stay in Barcelona again tonight, at the youth hostel I´m writing from now, then catch a train to France in the morning. Ah, France. My goal is to head to Montpellier first, which sounds like the French Boulder by all accounts, and from there into the Alps. I want to climb one. :-) And yes, I´ll be careful and not do anything I´m not properly equiped for. Then I´m planning on heading up through wine country into Paris and then it´s the cheapest mode I can find from there to Berlin. I can´t even describe how excited I am to head out into France on my own.
I know I said I´d post pictures, but I can´t find a way to work them on this computer, so they´ll have to wait til tomorrow, sorry. Montpellier´s a college town, and I already know there´s internet near my hostel there. Wish me luck crossing the border, I need to find a shipping place so I can unload all of the wine and spices I´ve picked up so far... À bientôt!

Málaga

I love the sea. We made it to Málaga, Spain, along the Costa del Sol. Turns out tonight is a huge festival all along the beaches here, called Bonfires of San Juan. It´s just what it sounds like, there will be bonfires and fireworks all down the coast tonight at midnight. We found a beautiful hostel for only 20€ apiece that looks out over the harbor and is less than a 10min walk to the beach. Across the street is a series of tents in a plaza that turned out to be a 5-day long tapas festival! We dropped our packs immediately, changed into swimsuits, and headed down. Fish croquettes, pasta, rice pudding and of course iced Sangria. Mmmm. We´re going back for a mohito and dinner in a few hours.
Then came the beach! I have to say that we were unsure of what to expect of the Costa del Sol. Would it be all old British guys in yellow banana-hammocks? Or worse, a never-ending clip from an MTV summer special? In the end, we found neither! Lots of families, everyone enjoying the sun and surf, no mob scenes. The only thing distinguishing it from an American beach was the total lack of insecurity in people of all body types, and lots of people without tops. Wepulled up chairs in the sun near a family with a radio,and I figured, what the hell? I´m not going to have this chance again for a long time. So Megan and I shed our cloaks of insecurity and sun-bathed topless. It was odd at first, we kept expecting to get disdainful looks or creepy stares, but none came. There were old women and young women all around us doing the same thing! It really emphasizes the culture gap between Europe and America. In the end it was excellent, and we´re looking forward to the bonfires tonight. We took a couple pictures at the beach, and will take more this evening, so I´ll post those when we get to Barcelona day after tomorrow, since tomorrow´s the 10-hour train ride there. Viva del Sol!