Post from the Road

So, I'm a few days into my Spring Break and it's been a lot of fun so far. Currently I'm in my Hostel in Berlin. We arrived today by train and had an interesting time finding the place. However, there's some vacation to catch up on first.

Austin flew in Friday morning. I got him at the airport before class and got him settled in. Friday night and Saturday we stayed in Paris. He got to meet Alix, Cao, and Adam. It was a lot of fun. We saw some of the sites like l'Arc de Triomphe and la Tour Eiffel, plus we spent some time in the Louvre.

Sunday morning we headed to the Netherlands and Amsterdam through Brussels. There was some oversleeping involved and we nearly made our train. However, after some running and cutting in lines we got our tickets sprinted onto the train. Unfortunately, we didn't get the other tickets for the trip and that caused some problems today. It looks like everything is going to be fine, but we had to seek remboursement today.

Amsterdam was a lot of fun. There's a carnaval going on in Dam Square so it felt like the whole place was just one big party. The main mode of transportation in the city seems to be the bike. We each rented one for the two full days we were there and it made getting around much easier. We went by the Anne Frank house, but didn't go in. Most of the museums in the city seemed to be 10 euros, so we only went to the Van Gogh Museum and The Rembrandt House. Both were awesome. The Rembrandt house had many of his works plus those of other artists. There were many different prints, paintings, and illustrations which were all really cool. The detail in the illustrations of insects and flowers was just insane. We found ourselves staring at the works for minutes and minutes because there was just so many small details to look at.

Today we made our way to the train station to come to Berlin. We had trouble with the ticket situation, but made it on the train in the end. The train ride was fairly long and I didn't get to catch up on sleep like I was hoping. However, we made it. The only problem was we are both drained and a little downtrodden because we had to rebuy tickets. On top of it, we spent a bunch of time searching for our hostel so it was mostly a day lost to traveling. However, we're here until Sunday, so there will be plenty of time for sightseeing, and sampling German beers and sausages.

Once I've finished my voyages I'll try to recap some with pictures, to make it more interesting around here. Sunday I head to Warsaw, Poland to kick off the second week of vacation. I believe I mentioned it before, but the second week consists of Eastern Europe: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. So, I hope to have plenty of photos to share of all of these places. So, check back to see that. I'm not sure if I'll have any more updates while on my trip, but I hope to get started again shortly after I get back to Paris.