Got up early this morning to shower and eat breakfast. We ate at the hostel, which wasn't free but halfway decent. After breakfast we had to pack up and check out of the hostel. We were able to store our luggage for free which was cool. Then we headed to the train station to depart for a tour of the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau is actually the town the camp is in, which was about 45 minutes of travel between the train and short bus ride.
Dachau was the first concentration camp built under Hitler. It was constructed in 1933, and designed to hold 6,000 prisoners. At the peak of its twelve year operation, Dachau held 76,000 prisoners. Overcrowd much? When most people (including me) think of concentration camps, they think of gas chambers, torture, and death. It wasn't until the final three years of operation when concentration camps like Dachau became places of mass death, rampant disease, and chaos. Initially, the intention of concentration camps was to portray an image of order, cleanliness, and discipline. Ok, enough with the history lesson. I remembered a lot from the tour..
It was an incredible place. I felt the blood rush from my face when walking through the gas chamber and incinerator room. The gas chamber itself had fake shower heads in the ceiling to fool entrants into thinking they were simply about to be disinfected rather than gassed to death. I asked how they chose who was gassed. The tour guide said usually the sick or too injured to work were gassed. In Auschwitz (concentration camp in Poland) however, anyone under 16 or over 45 was gassed immediately. I don't even know what to say about that.
All of the original barracks had been destroyed, but memorial foundations were put in their place. I really can't say enough to illustrate the experience. I would definitely recommend visiting Dachau if you are ever in Munich.
After the tour, we came back to walk around Munich some more. We just ate at the Augustiner Brewery, which brews the most famous beer in Bavaria. The train for Rome leaves in a few hours. We are going to have some more beer here before walking back to the hostel to pick up our luggage. Then it's off to the train station to catch our train to Rome. I'm really excited from all the hype I have heard from someone who went a few months ago (I have high expectations Laurie!).
The train ride is twelve hours so I should get lots of sleep. Looking forward to that.
Talk to you from Roma!
One final Auf Widersehen! (fyi, I spelled that from memory this time. yesssss!)
Kevin
p.s. My shins are killing me from the hike up the mountain yesterday to see the Neuschwanstein Castle!!
Posted with LifeCast
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Day Trip To Fussen
We woke up late and missed the hostel breakfast so we got pastry instead. Fine by me. One thing I forgot to mention before is how nice the Munich hostel is. It is called Wombats, and is the nicest we have stayed in so far. Very clean, and a private bathroom in the room. There are six beds in our room but there is plenty if room to move around. Random note: my towel was STINKY when I went to shower this morning. Moldy for sure. I washed it in the bathroom sink. Who knows why I didn't wash it in Amsterdam when I did laundry.
So we decided to go see the Neuschwanstein castle which required a two hour train ride to Fussen. Once we got to Fussen we had to take a bus to a smaller village where the castle was. This village was awesome. It was at the foot of mountains (Alps?) The castle itself was built right into the side of a mountain. It was a pretty long walk uphill to get to the castle, but not too bad. Gave me the chance to burn off the two pastries I had for breakfast. Oh, and the snickers bar I got right before getting tickets for the castle.
The castle was really cool looking, and the tour of the inside was interesting. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed with the history behind the castle though. It was built for a Bavarian king who died when it was only a third complete. The castle was never even used to house royalty. From what I gather, it was never used for much other than a tourist attraction. Whatever. It was worth the trip out here.
We are waiting for the train back to Munich now. Tonight will be more German food and huge beers at another beer hall. Not sure which one yet. Hofbrauhaus was awesome, but we want to try somewhere new.
The plan for tomorrow as of now is to visit the Dachau concentration camp. It will be another day trip, but a shorter one. After that we are going to walk around Munich some more. We leave for Rome tomorrow night.
I'll write again after the Dachau experience. From what I hear it is unforgettable.
Auf Widersehen,
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
So we decided to go see the Neuschwanstein castle which required a two hour train ride to Fussen. Once we got to Fussen we had to take a bus to a smaller village where the castle was. This village was awesome. It was at the foot of mountains (Alps?) The castle itself was built right into the side of a mountain. It was a pretty long walk uphill to get to the castle, but not too bad. Gave me the chance to burn off the two pastries I had for breakfast. Oh, and the snickers bar I got right before getting tickets for the castle.
The castle was really cool looking, and the tour of the inside was interesting. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed with the history behind the castle though. It was built for a Bavarian king who died when it was only a third complete. The castle was never even used to house royalty. From what I gather, it was never used for much other than a tourist attraction. Whatever. It was worth the trip out here.
We are waiting for the train back to Munich now. Tonight will be more German food and huge beers at another beer hall. Not sure which one yet. Hofbrauhaus was awesome, but we want to try somewhere new.
The plan for tomorrow as of now is to visit the Dachau concentration camp. It will be another day trip, but a shorter one. After that we are going to walk around Munich some more. We leave for Rome tomorrow night.
I'll write again after the Dachau experience. From what I hear it is unforgettable.
Auf Widersehen,
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I Love Munich
First things first. I don't know if it is European food in general, or if it is all of the beer and Bavarian sausage I had today, but my stomach is NOT happy. I'll spare you the details.
Ok, now for the non-disgusting stuff. Munich is awesome. Definitely my fav so far. We went on the bike tour and it was great despite the fact I was still in the stuff I wore most of the day prior and slept in that night. The American tour guide turned out to be an awesome guy with a lot if knowledge about Munich.
We saw a lot of the major sites including a nudist park and the English garden. Sorry, but I can't remember the names of most of the sites. German is a funky language. We also went to the second largest beer garden in the world that 9,000 people. We had a beer chugging contest and my team lost. I hold Mark solely responsible. I also at some German sausage and chips. So good.
Ugh, there are just so many great things about this city. I definitely can't do justice in a blog. Sorry for that. Side note: it was HOT today. I felt sweat dripping all over me. That on top of no shower in over a day. GROSS. My poor tour mates. It was ok though. If they looked at me funny I planned on just pointing at Mark.
After the bike tour we had to go back to the hostel to finally check in and shower. We were about to head to Hofbrauhaus (huge, world famous beer hall) when a guy who worked at the hostel asked me to help him bring DJ equipment up from the basement? I'm Ron Burgundy? I complied. He was cool and promised me a free drink at the hostel bar later during the Cuba party. Random. Anyway, we ended up going to the beer hall with two girls who we met on the bike tour. It turned out they are staying at our same hostel.
Apparently they have been traveling since June around Europe, and didn't plan on going to Munich. There was some issue with of the girls' Colombian passport so they ended up here for a night. They are cool. So we went to Hofbrauhaus to drink huuuge beers and eat. I ate more sausage, but with sauerkraut this time. So good, but my poor stomach! After that we headed back to the hostel bar to join the fun of the Cuba Party.
The hostel guy kept his word on the free drink for helping him with the DJ equipment. They had jagermeister on tap!! Mark suggested we do a jagerbomb but I said they probably don't have red bull. Mark points behind the bar and behold, basically a pallet of red bull (no joke, there was a stack of like 500 cans). Niiiiice. It was fun, but didn't stay to long because I'm super tired. I must have drank a gallon of beer today. When in Rome... er, when in Munich. Rome is Sunday!
So now I'm blogging before bed. My mom emailed me today saying she is addicted to my blogs, but I don't update enough. So sorry to all of you who feel that way! I happen to think my blogs are quite timely AND informative. So there.
Tomorrow will be a long day I'm sure. We plan to take a bus ride to Neuschwanstein Castle and the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. If it is nice out, I also want to get back to the English Garden for more beer garden fun.
Talk to you again soon.
Auf widersehen,
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
Ok, now for the non-disgusting stuff. Munich is awesome. Definitely my fav so far. We went on the bike tour and it was great despite the fact I was still in the stuff I wore most of the day prior and slept in that night. The American tour guide turned out to be an awesome guy with a lot if knowledge about Munich.
We saw a lot of the major sites including a nudist park and the English garden. Sorry, but I can't remember the names of most of the sites. German is a funky language. We also went to the second largest beer garden in the world that 9,000 people. We had a beer chugging contest and my team lost. I hold Mark solely responsible. I also at some German sausage and chips. So good.
Ugh, there are just so many great things about this city. I definitely can't do justice in a blog. Sorry for that. Side note: it was HOT today. I felt sweat dripping all over me. That on top of no shower in over a day. GROSS. My poor tour mates. It was ok though. If they looked at me funny I planned on just pointing at Mark.
After the bike tour we had to go back to the hostel to finally check in and shower. We were about to head to Hofbrauhaus (huge, world famous beer hall) when a guy who worked at the hostel asked me to help him bring DJ equipment up from the basement? I'm Ron Burgundy? I complied. He was cool and promised me a free drink at the hostel bar later during the Cuba party. Random. Anyway, we ended up going to the beer hall with two girls who we met on the bike tour. It turned out they are staying at our same hostel.
Apparently they have been traveling since June around Europe, and didn't plan on going to Munich. There was some issue with of the girls' Colombian passport so they ended up here for a night. They are cool. So we went to Hofbrauhaus to drink huuuge beers and eat. I ate more sausage, but with sauerkraut this time. So good, but my poor stomach! After that we headed back to the hostel bar to join the fun of the Cuba Party.
The hostel guy kept his word on the free drink for helping him with the DJ equipment. They had jagermeister on tap!! Mark suggested we do a jagerbomb but I said they probably don't have red bull. Mark points behind the bar and behold, basically a pallet of red bull (no joke, there was a stack of like 500 cans). Niiiiice. It was fun, but didn't stay to long because I'm super tired. I must have drank a gallon of beer today. When in Rome... er, when in Munich. Rome is Sunday!
So now I'm blogging before bed. My mom emailed me today saying she is addicted to my blogs, but I don't update enough. So sorry to all of you who feel that way! I happen to think my blogs are quite timely AND informative. So there.
Tomorrow will be a long day I'm sure. We plan to take a bus ride to Neuschwanstein Castle and the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. If it is nice out, I also want to get back to the English Garden for more beer garden fun.
Talk to you again soon.
Auf widersehen,
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
Guten Tag
Made it to Munich. The train ride wasn't too bad. We shared a six bed coach with two Asian girls who didn't speak English, and some random guy who was traveling alone. Talk about close quarters. It was basically two sets of three beds stacked on each other with little room in between. Luckily we had the bottom two bunks. I planned on going to bed right away but I started reading The Kite Runner and couldn't stop. I got about eighty pages in and decided it was time to sleep. The stupid light kept going off anyway. It seemed like they were cutting power at every stop.
It was kind of hard to sleep because there was this constant and incredibly loud screeching noise. The train arrived in Munich on time at about 7:15am. We found the hostel easily, but found out check in isn't until 2:00pm. Wonderful. I am very dirty, and pretty much in pajamas because I am wearing the clothes I did laundry in yesterday. I wanted to shower!!! The hostel let us store our luggage, gave us a map, and pretty much said get out until 2pm. So we found a place for breakfast and started studying the map. I wanted Weisswurst (traditional Bavarian breakfast) but ended up with a strussel pastry thing. I'll find Weisswurst tomorrow morning.
We ran into this American who runs a free bike tour. An American running a tour of Munich? You get what you pay for... It goes from 11-3:30 which works out because we can check into the hostel after. The tour meets in the Marienpiatz (main square) by the glockenspiel (big huge cuckoo clock, maybe the biggest in the world?). The clock goes of next pretty soon. It's supposed to be pretty crazy.
So for now we are chilling out here until the bike tour, then checking into the hostel. Tonight we are getting traditional Bavarian food for dinner and the going to Hofbrauhaus. It is supposed to be the most famous beer hall in the world. Can't wait!
Auf Widersehen! (I've been saying that the whole trip and now I'm finally in the right country!)
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
It was kind of hard to sleep because there was this constant and incredibly loud screeching noise. The train arrived in Munich on time at about 7:15am. We found the hostel easily, but found out check in isn't until 2:00pm. Wonderful. I am very dirty, and pretty much in pajamas because I am wearing the clothes I did laundry in yesterday. I wanted to shower!!! The hostel let us store our luggage, gave us a map, and pretty much said get out until 2pm. So we found a place for breakfast and started studying the map. I wanted Weisswurst (traditional Bavarian breakfast) but ended up with a strussel pastry thing. I'll find Weisswurst tomorrow morning.
We ran into this American who runs a free bike tour. An American running a tour of Munich? You get what you pay for... It goes from 11-3:30 which works out because we can check into the hostel after. The tour meets in the Marienpiatz (main square) by the glockenspiel (big huge cuckoo clock, maybe the biggest in the world?). The clock goes of next pretty soon. It's supposed to be pretty crazy.
So for now we are chilling out here until the bike tour, then checking into the hostel. Tonight we are getting traditional Bavarian food for dinner and the going to Hofbrauhaus. It is supposed to be the most famous beer hall in the world. Can't wait!
Auf Widersehen! (I've been saying that the whole trip and now I'm finally in the right country!)
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Leaving Amsterdam Tonight
Didn't do much last night. Walked around the red light district a little more then went to bed.
Got up early this morning, showered, packed up, and checked out of the hostel. We were able to leave our luggage there in a storage room while we got breakfast and shopped for souvenirs. After that we got our luggage from the hostel, and dropped off our dirty clothes at a laundromat. While that is washing we are chilling out in an internet cafe for a bit. I am worn out from the last few days in this crazy city.
Pretty soon will be time for lunch, and then back to the laundromat to pick up our clothes. Our train for Munich doesn't leave until 8:32pm tonight so I don't know what we are going to do until then. I'm tired and don't really want to spend any more money here. I still have three cities to go! It's over a ten hour train ride to Munich so hopefully I can get a lot of rest. We opted for beds on the train so that should be a big help.
Talk to you next time,
Kevin
Got up early this morning, showered, packed up, and checked out of the hostel. We were able to leave our luggage there in a storage room while we got breakfast and shopped for souvenirs. After that we got our luggage from the hostel, and dropped off our dirty clothes at a laundromat. While that is washing we are chilling out in an internet cafe for a bit. I am worn out from the last few days in this crazy city.
Pretty soon will be time for lunch, and then back to the laundromat to pick up our clothes. Our train for Munich doesn't leave until 8:32pm tonight so I don't know what we are going to do until then. I'm tired and don't really want to spend any more money here. I still have three cities to go! It's over a ten hour train ride to Munich so hopefully I can get a lot of rest. We opted for beds on the train so that should be a big help.
Talk to you next time,
Kevin
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Amsterdam Cont.
I have eaten waaaaay too much Dutch bakery. Sorry, that was random.
Last night we went to the red light district. I don't even know what to say about it in a blog with such a wide audience that includes my mother and my boss, so I am opting to discuss it with you individually on a case by case basis. Sorry! To ease the curiosity, I did window look (there are so many it is impossible not to. Not that I was trying not to), but did not buy.
This morning we had free breakfast at the hostel which was little more than cereal. We set out for the day without much of a plan. We originally wanted to tour the Heineken plant, but it isn't open for tours due to renovations. Lame. We eventually ended up at the Van Gogh museum after a nice ride on the Tram (Amsterdam's public transit street car thing) . It was incredible. They had over two hundred original Van Gogh paintings. Other works included Monet and Manet. I personally think Monet is better... Yeah, because I know art.
Honestly, in some of the paintings I felt like the artist put more there than the picture itself. Hard to explain. My favorite was Van Gogh's White Orchard. Google it. There was an awesome video that showed xray images of a famous Van Gogh painting. These xrays uncovered three separate images underneath the painting itself. Apparently these other images were painted over due to the high cost of canvass. How cool is that? Imagine how many original works by famous artists there are that they themselves have painted over. If only they had known their art would one day be worth millions...
After the Van Gogh museum we wondered around the museum square. There was a cool park with awesome surrounding buildings. Took a lot of pictures. We are so cool. We got back on the tram and headed back toward the hostel. We stopped at a Dutch bakery where I got this waffle thing that was sooo good. I also got a donut. I might be getting fat.
Then was time for a nap. Could not sleep though so I got on the Internet for a while in the hostel. I then realized my blog entry from yesterday got cut off halfway through (as you might have read about in my previous entry). I promptly fixed that so none of you thought I got murdered mid-blog. Got dinner after that at McDonalds. Whatever. Food is expensive here. And yeah, they charged for ketchup too.
Then it was back to the hostel bar for a few beers. Now we are sitting at another pub outside with Amstels. Not sure what else we will do tonight. It has been an action packed last few days. Tomorrow we leave for Munich. The train doesn't leave until 8:00pm, so we might look for souvenirs, do laundry, and wonder around more before then.
That's all I got for now. Talk to you again soon!
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
Last night we went to the red light district. I don't even know what to say about it in a blog with such a wide audience that includes my mother and my boss, so I am opting to discuss it with you individually on a case by case basis. Sorry! To ease the curiosity, I did window look (there are so many it is impossible not to. Not that I was trying not to), but did not buy.
This morning we had free breakfast at the hostel which was little more than cereal. We set out for the day without much of a plan. We originally wanted to tour the Heineken plant, but it isn't open for tours due to renovations. Lame. We eventually ended up at the Van Gogh museum after a nice ride on the Tram (Amsterdam's public transit street car thing) . It was incredible. They had over two hundred original Van Gogh paintings. Other works included Monet and Manet. I personally think Monet is better... Yeah, because I know art.
Honestly, in some of the paintings I felt like the artist put more there than the picture itself. Hard to explain. My favorite was Van Gogh's White Orchard. Google it. There was an awesome video that showed xray images of a famous Van Gogh painting. These xrays uncovered three separate images underneath the painting itself. Apparently these other images were painted over due to the high cost of canvass. How cool is that? Imagine how many original works by famous artists there are that they themselves have painted over. If only they had known their art would one day be worth millions...
After the Van Gogh museum we wondered around the museum square. There was a cool park with awesome surrounding buildings. Took a lot of pictures. We are so cool. We got back on the tram and headed back toward the hostel. We stopped at a Dutch bakery where I got this waffle thing that was sooo good. I also got a donut. I might be getting fat.
Then was time for a nap. Could not sleep though so I got on the Internet for a while in the hostel. I then realized my blog entry from yesterday got cut off halfway through (as you might have read about in my previous entry). I promptly fixed that so none of you thought I got murdered mid-blog. Got dinner after that at McDonalds. Whatever. Food is expensive here. And yeah, they charged for ketchup too.
Then it was back to the hostel bar for a few beers. Now we are sitting at another pub outside with Amstels. Not sure what else we will do tonight. It has been an action packed last few days. Tomorrow we leave for Munich. The train doesn't leave until 8:00pm, so we might look for souvenirs, do laundry, and wonder around more before then.
That's all I got for now. Talk to you again soon!
Kevin
Posted with LifeCast
Monday, August 4, 2008
Amsterdam
I have to say that I am really liking Amsterdam. It feels even more foreign than London. When we got to the Amsterdam train station we waited in a super long line to validate our rail passes. The funny thing is that they would have expired if we didn't validate them by 8/6, which happens to be the day we leave for Munich. Apparently you must validate rail passes within six months of their purchase. It is a complete coincidence that we bought them 6 months to the day prior to when we would first use them. Even I am not that organized. Ok, maybe I am. Just not on purpose this time.
We validated them when arriving in Amsterdam instead of when we leave for Munich on 8/6 to get it out of the way. The passes are good for only 15 days after validation, but we will be home by then. Side note: we haven't had to validate our rail passes until now because they aren't valid in the UK. Am I getting too detailed? Too bad. You know me...
We found our way to the hostel pretty easily. Amsterdam streets are crazy. Narrow, and lined with never ending pubs, shops, restaurants, Dutch bakeries, etc. Ohhhhh I forgot to mention "coffee shops" every twenty feet. You can smell the "coffee" in the street. There are also plenty of "smartshops" which sell "magic mushrooms." They must be realllllly nutritious or something... Maybe I'll try some. How different from American mushrooms can they be??
The hostel itself is far better than the one in London. Much nicer, cleaner, and friendlier. It also has free breakfast and Internet. We are staying in a fourteen bunk room. We will see how that goes. After checking in and dropping our stuff in the room we headed out to explore.
Amsterdam is an incredible city. The narrow streets have even narrower alleys that have just as many bars and coffee shops. We wondered around for a while and eventually found the house where Anne Frank and her family hid during WWII. Google Anne Frank if you don't know who she is. Also, please let me know so that I can ridicule you. Even I know who she is and I got through college without one history course. The line was super long so we decided to get lunch before waiting in it.
We found this place that claimed to have the best sandwiches in Amsterdam. I had one with roast beef, pork, rolled veal? lettuce, and pepper sauce. It was really good. To drink I had a Coke Light. Yeah, their version of Diet Coke is Coke Light. The taste is pretty similar, but I'm convinced it isn't as carbonated.
After eating we made our way back to the line for Anne Frank's house. We waited over two hours, but it was well worth it. Seeing the house and the secret annex where Anne Frank and her family hid was a memorable experience. Being half Jewish, I think I appreciated it 50% more than people who are 0% Jewish. Walking through the house, reading the diary entries, and watching video clips telling the story ALMOST got me misty eyed. I know you can't tell how serious I am right now and I apologize. It sincerely was a great experience that I will never forget.
After we left Anne Frank's house, we walked back to the hostel to take a quick nap before dinner. We got up and started walking around the streets again to find a place to eat. We found this Argentinean restaurant that was advertising all you can eat spareribs. That's what we got and definitely had all we can eat. It was very tasty, but they charged extra for everything! No free refills on Coke Light which I can understand (kind of), but to charge for ketchup? I mean come on, you're serving chips, at least give me some ketchup. And the way they ask if you want it like it's included. In reality they are making a sales pitch. More to drink? Ketchup? Sneaky sneaky. Ok, done ranting.
After dinner we came back to the hostel to change into jeans since it is getting colder. We also wanted to drop off our day backpacks (omg that sounds SO lame out loud) before going out tonight. At least I'm not wearing the money belt yet. Good call Ivy.
We had a few beers at the hostel bar and then headed out to find a cool place to drink outside and write a blog. We found a place with outside seating and got some Amstels, which I am drinking right now as I write this blog. The owner is awesome. He saw me with my iPhone and was like "are you writing your friends back home saying 'ahhhh I'm in Amsterdam!!'" I was like, yeah pretty much. haha. It was at this point the iPhone application I was using to write my blog crashed and erased half of the entry. (it is actually 6:00pm the next day right now and I'm recreating the half of the blog that got erased. SO much has happened since then, but I'll create another entry later to discuss. Until then, please bear with me as I try to finish this blog in the present tense even though it happened yesterday)
After we leave this bar we are heading to the Red Light District. Duh. I'm sure this will be a very interesting night...
We validated them when arriving in Amsterdam instead of when we leave for Munich on 8/6 to get it out of the way. The passes are good for only 15 days after validation, but we will be home by then. Side note: we haven't had to validate our rail passes until now because they aren't valid in the UK. Am I getting too detailed? Too bad. You know me...
We found our way to the hostel pretty easily. Amsterdam streets are crazy. Narrow, and lined with never ending pubs, shops, restaurants, Dutch bakeries, etc. Ohhhhh I forgot to mention "coffee shops" every twenty feet. You can smell the "coffee" in the street. There are also plenty of "smartshops" which sell "magic mushrooms." They must be realllllly nutritious or something... Maybe I'll try some. How different from American mushrooms can they be??
The hostel itself is far better than the one in London. Much nicer, cleaner, and friendlier. It also has free breakfast and Internet. We are staying in a fourteen bunk room. We will see how that goes. After checking in and dropping our stuff in the room we headed out to explore.
Amsterdam is an incredible city. The narrow streets have even narrower alleys that have just as many bars and coffee shops. We wondered around for a while and eventually found the house where Anne Frank and her family hid during WWII. Google Anne Frank if you don't know who she is. Also, please let me know so that I can ridicule you. Even I know who she is and I got through college without one history course. The line was super long so we decided to get lunch before waiting in it.
We found this place that claimed to have the best sandwiches in Amsterdam. I had one with roast beef, pork, rolled veal? lettuce, and pepper sauce. It was really good. To drink I had a Coke Light. Yeah, their version of Diet Coke is Coke Light. The taste is pretty similar, but I'm convinced it isn't as carbonated.
After eating we made our way back to the line for Anne Frank's house. We waited over two hours, but it was well worth it. Seeing the house and the secret annex where Anne Frank and her family hid was a memorable experience. Being half Jewish, I think I appreciated it 50% more than people who are 0% Jewish. Walking through the house, reading the diary entries, and watching video clips telling the story ALMOST got me misty eyed. I know you can't tell how serious I am right now and I apologize. It sincerely was a great experience that I will never forget.
After we left Anne Frank's house, we walked back to the hostel to take a quick nap before dinner. We got up and started walking around the streets again to find a place to eat. We found this Argentinean restaurant that was advertising all you can eat spareribs. That's what we got and definitely had all we can eat. It was very tasty, but they charged extra for everything! No free refills on Coke Light which I can understand (kind of), but to charge for ketchup? I mean come on, you're serving chips, at least give me some ketchup. And the way they ask if you want it like it's included. In reality they are making a sales pitch. More to drink? Ketchup? Sneaky sneaky. Ok, done ranting.
After dinner we came back to the hostel to change into jeans since it is getting colder. We also wanted to drop off our day backpacks (omg that sounds SO lame out loud) before going out tonight. At least I'm not wearing the money belt yet. Good call Ivy.
We had a few beers at the hostel bar and then headed out to find a cool place to drink outside and write a blog. We found a place with outside seating and got some Amstels, which I am drinking right now as I write this blog. The owner is awesome. He saw me with my iPhone and was like "are you writing your friends back home saying 'ahhhh I'm in Amsterdam!!'" I was like, yeah pretty much. haha. It was at this point the iPhone application I was using to write my blog crashed and erased half of the entry. (it is actually 6:00pm the next day right now and I'm recreating the half of the blog that got erased. SO much has happened since then, but I'll create another entry later to discuss. Until then, please bear with me as I try to finish this blog in the present tense even though it happened yesterday)
After we leave this bar we are heading to the Red Light District. Duh. I'm sure this will be a very interesting night...
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