So I am sitting in the Hamburg Airport waiting another 12 hours before we take off. Sucks so bad. We have been here since midnight last night (Germany time). That was 21 hours ago. I kind of let myself go the last day or two and now I am sick. I just couldn't wait to get home. I didn't take my vitamins and wasn't getting a good night sleep. I'm sitting here with what I think is a fever with a shortsleeve shirt, longsleeve shirt, hoodie, and my windbreaker. So I am pretyt much just sitting in my own sweat. I am feeling a little better and don't have the chills anymore. I've been drinking a ton of water, eating, and taking these ricola vitamins. The airport has a shower so after I sweat the fever out a little bit more I am going to shower and change into some fairly clean clothes. Hopefully that will make me feel a little better for the 19 hour flight home. We leave here at 10:50 and arrive in Boston at 11:50pm with one stop in Dusseldorf, Germany for 4 hours and another at JFK for 6 hours.
Overall, the tour was a huge success. I had so much fun and so didn't everyone else. The guys in Heartbreak Kid were amazing. I hope we get to see them again sometime in the near future. I hope the US dollar gets better soon so I can come back, hopefully with Ashley, and not have to spend ridiculous amounts of money. I am going to go shower now because I feel like I just jumped in a pool. There is a link for my Photo Gallery below. See everyone soon!
Favorite Places We Stayed:
1. Berchtesgaden, Germany
2. Jonkoping, Sweden
3. Berlin, Germany
Favorite Shows We Played:
1. Ieperfest - Ieper, Belgium
2. Jonkoping, Sweden
3. Salzburg, Austria
Favorite Food Along the Way:
1. Yellow Sunshine - Berlin, Germany
2. Beanie's House - Berchtesgaden, Germany
3. Tacki's House - The Only Nice Place In, Poland
Favorite Bands Sets We Played With:
1. Heartbreak Kid - everynight
2. Stone Heart - First show in Poland
3. Amen Ra - Ieperfest, Belgium
http://picasaweb.google.com/cpetersonx
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Back in Germany
So a lot has happend between Poland and now. It has been amazing. Currently I am somewhere in Germany....I don't know where though. Let me start back in Poland. So after staying at that beautiful house in Poland, which was the best house I saw in all of Poland. The kid was really nice and I was kind of bummed we had to leave because him and his friends were really fun to jsut hang out with. After Poland we drove to Stuttgart, Germany to meet up with our label mates Masterpiece. It was kind of cool to meet up with some American folk. We just talked about how much we missed taco bell, bagels, and water without carbonation. The show was kind of lame but we sold some merch and played fairly well. The food was god awful. It was some kind of chili i guess but it was like soup. It actually looked and kind of tasted like someone poured in cans of tomato paste into a huge bowl and added 3 kidney beans, 5 kernels of corn, and a sliver of onion. Delicious.....
The best part of tour was about to begin though. After the show we headed to Salzburg, Austria. Right in the Austrian Alps. The drive to the venue was soooooo beautiful. The club was called the rockhaus. It was really awesome. It was a legit club but had a smaller stage in a longer narrow room. The turnout was amaying and the crowd was into everyband that played. We ended up selling a ton of merch and played extremely well. Best set of tour in the best venue so far. The show got out fairly late and luckily, the guitarist and drummer from Heartbreak Kid grew up in a place called Berchtisgaden right on the Austrian border, where Salzburg is. We ended up staying at their parents places for the night and hung out in the Alps for our day off. It was absolutely amazing. Their house was beautiful and as soon as you walked out the door to their yard there were huge mountains everywhere. Berchtesgaden is located right in a valley in the Alps. It blew me away. I had never seen anything like it.
For our day off we all drove around town in the van to see some sights and then went to a Nazi Museum where the drummer of HBK's mom worked. We all got in for free and got to see some really interesting stuff about Nazi rule in Germany and specifically in Berchtesgaden. Hitlers vacation home, the eagles nest, is at the top of one of the mountains that surround the town so there is a lot of history. Most of the stuff at the museum was boring but there was a part where you could go into a bunker that was carved into the side of the mountain. It was incredible to walk through a nazi bunker and think that at a point in time it was filled with Nazi soldiers. Apparently the whole bunker goes so far into the mountain but we only got to see a certain part which was still very cool. After the museum we were all really hot and wanted to go for a swim. The guys in HBK too us swimming in one of the few rivers that runs through town. It was awesome. The water color was this weird green color but was super clear and clean enough to drink from. I did not drink from it though so don't worry.....at least now intentionally. We went to the part of the river where there is a 20 foot waterfall or so. There we could jump from a rock on the side into the base fo the fall. The water was cold but definitely not as codl as other water I had been in. It was very refreshing. After swimming for a good while we walked to the lake that was nearby. Going to the lake you walk down this boardwalk type thing except its like a little bavarian village which is really cool. After hanging out and finding out at someone had accidentally stepped on my X watch when it fell out of my pocket after swimming, we went back to their parents place for dinner and to sleep.....I am really bummed about the watch. I don't care about not having an X watch, even though its pretty awesome, I was just bummed because Ashley gave it to me as a present and I really held that close to me.
After finally leaving Berchtesgaden against everyones desire to not to, we headed to Manheimm where we played a bumout show to maybeeeee 1 person who wasn't in a band playing that night. I ended up staying awake all night LARPING with a sweet crossbow and flaming nerf-like arrows, and talking to Ashley in a webcam party. It was kind of stupid because I couldn't see her and it was just a pic of me typing with Sean sleeping behind me on a couch. It was really nice to talk to her though. I kind of can't wait to get back to see her again. Oh, I also talked to Nicole, which was awesome. I hadn't talked to her pretty much all tour so it was really nice to just say hi even though it wasn't for too long. I miss everyone back home. Though I am really enjoying everything here and taking in everything I can, I am really excited to come back home to see everyone.
So I stayed up till 730am talking to ashley and woke up at 10am to eat and head to where I am now to hang out and have a decent place to shower and sleep. Its 1:20AM now and we are heading to Voice of Art Festival tomorrow at 9AM, I believe. I know I am leaving so much stuff out but hopefully I can explain it all better when I get back. I have a problem with time so I'll start typing stuff and then realized I left an entire adventure out so i would have to go back and place it in the right order. It's a real pain in the ass so sometimes I just leave little things out. Sorry my writing isn't superb. I have very bad story telling skills. Just wait till I get back and make you listen to everything I did......your head will explode. I'm heading to bed. I've been trying to upload my pics to a photobucket but it won't let me so next time I have a lot of time on kyles computer I will try again. I come home in less than a week. Ill write a couple more times before i get back....I hope. Goodnight.
ps....i didn't reread this so its probably sooooooo confusing. im sorry. ill clarify later.
The best part of tour was about to begin though. After the show we headed to Salzburg, Austria. Right in the Austrian Alps. The drive to the venue was soooooo beautiful. The club was called the rockhaus. It was really awesome. It was a legit club but had a smaller stage in a longer narrow room. The turnout was amaying and the crowd was into everyband that played. We ended up selling a ton of merch and played extremely well. Best set of tour in the best venue so far. The show got out fairly late and luckily, the guitarist and drummer from Heartbreak Kid grew up in a place called Berchtisgaden right on the Austrian border, where Salzburg is. We ended up staying at their parents places for the night and hung out in the Alps for our day off. It was absolutely amazing. Their house was beautiful and as soon as you walked out the door to their yard there were huge mountains everywhere. Berchtesgaden is located right in a valley in the Alps. It blew me away. I had never seen anything like it.
For our day off we all drove around town in the van to see some sights and then went to a Nazi Museum where the drummer of HBK's mom worked. We all got in for free and got to see some really interesting stuff about Nazi rule in Germany and specifically in Berchtesgaden. Hitlers vacation home, the eagles nest, is at the top of one of the mountains that surround the town so there is a lot of history. Most of the stuff at the museum was boring but there was a part where you could go into a bunker that was carved into the side of the mountain. It was incredible to walk through a nazi bunker and think that at a point in time it was filled with Nazi soldiers. Apparently the whole bunker goes so far into the mountain but we only got to see a certain part which was still very cool. After the museum we were all really hot and wanted to go for a swim. The guys in HBK too us swimming in one of the few rivers that runs through town. It was awesome. The water color was this weird green color but was super clear and clean enough to drink from. I did not drink from it though so don't worry.....at least now intentionally. We went to the part of the river where there is a 20 foot waterfall or so. There we could jump from a rock on the side into the base fo the fall. The water was cold but definitely not as codl as other water I had been in. It was very refreshing. After swimming for a good while we walked to the lake that was nearby. Going to the lake you walk down this boardwalk type thing except its like a little bavarian village which is really cool. After hanging out and finding out at someone had accidentally stepped on my X watch when it fell out of my pocket after swimming, we went back to their parents place for dinner and to sleep.....I am really bummed about the watch. I don't care about not having an X watch, even though its pretty awesome, I was just bummed because Ashley gave it to me as a present and I really held that close to me.
After finally leaving Berchtesgaden against everyones desire to not to, we headed to Manheimm where we played a bumout show to maybeeeee 1 person who wasn't in a band playing that night. I ended up staying awake all night LARPING with a sweet crossbow and flaming nerf-like arrows, and talking to Ashley in a webcam party. It was kind of stupid because I couldn't see her and it was just a pic of me typing with Sean sleeping behind me on a couch. It was really nice to talk to her though. I kind of can't wait to get back to see her again. Oh, I also talked to Nicole, which was awesome. I hadn't talked to her pretty much all tour so it was really nice to just say hi even though it wasn't for too long. I miss everyone back home. Though I am really enjoying everything here and taking in everything I can, I am really excited to come back home to see everyone.
So I stayed up till 730am talking to ashley and woke up at 10am to eat and head to where I am now to hang out and have a decent place to shower and sleep. Its 1:20AM now and we are heading to Voice of Art Festival tomorrow at 9AM, I believe. I know I am leaving so much stuff out but hopefully I can explain it all better when I get back. I have a problem with time so I'll start typing stuff and then realized I left an entire adventure out so i would have to go back and place it in the right order. It's a real pain in the ass so sometimes I just leave little things out. Sorry my writing isn't superb. I have very bad story telling skills. Just wait till I get back and make you listen to everything I did......your head will explode. I'm heading to bed. I've been trying to upload my pics to a photobucket but it won't let me so next time I have a lot of time on kyles computer I will try again. I come home in less than a week. Ill write a couple more times before i get back....I hope. Goodnight.
ps....i didn't reread this so its probably sooooooo confusing. im sorry. ill clarify later.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
a couple of pictures.....
Jonkoping, Sweden
Downtown Jonkoping
Coast of Sweden looking in Germany's direction
Windfarm
Hi
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Hello from the good part of Poland...
Right now we are in Poland. Sean got over his little sickeness and is 98% better now. He had been sick for a little while and missed 2 shows but luckily they were the two shows that didn't really matter. He had a pretty high fever and just had no energy. It was mostly because of not sleeping for 36 hours then when he did he slept in the same sweaty clothes from the show in Jonkaping. Luckily I have been healthy all tour...besides my allergies. I've been taking 2 of my vegetarian multivitamins daily, sleeping as much as possible, and making sure I eat of pretty balanced diet while on tour. Speaking of diets, I've been able to maintain...har har...a vegan diet all tour. Every night and most of every morning the promoters will make us vegan breakfast and dinner so that is good. While we are on the road I eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly. Awesome. I've only been drinking water and high vitamin juices when I think I need it. When we stop It's kind of hard to pick out hte vegan snacks since we are in so many different countries with so many different languages. Kind of sucks but I've been doing really well. I've been eating a lot better than a lot of guys on tour. I'm just glad I haven't gotten sick....even though my allergies give me a running nose probably 20 hours of the day and I sneeze constantly.
So far tour has been awesome. Some good shows, some amazing shows, some awful shows, some shows that we think will be good and turn out only decent, and some shows where we think are going to suck and we end up playing well and selling a lot of merch. By far my favorite city so far has been Jonkoping. I want to go back so bad. It was awesome, not just the show which was amazing also but the city was beautiful. I can't get over it. Just a little town on the tip of a giant lake. My favorite drive so far had to be the drive I did through the night from Germany through Denmark and into Sweden. I know I said this already but it was awesome. Sunrise while crossing the bridge from Denmark to Sweden. Amazing. The worst LOOKING show so far had to be Leipzig. Wow...you would have ran. First off it was on a street where there gross punk were just laying around everryyywhere and squa buildings everywhere. Through this little doorway from the street you walk through a hall that smells like urine. That is because at the end was a little urinal under the stairs where piss just sat. Ughhh....i almost puked a couple times, no lies. Once you walk out the back of the halway into a little open area outside you can see almost like jail bars on these windows to a TINY room with a brick stage which was almost impossible to NOT roll your ankle. Once the show started things went well. This was one of the shows where Sean rested and Bill and I sang a couple songs each. We ended up selling a bunch of merch and the promoter made us some awesome breakfast. By the way....I love tomatoes for breakfast. The worst drive so far was definately anything through Poland. We saw the worst of Poland I think and if it wasn't the worst I don't want to see or hear about the worst. There aren't really highways so everytime you drive through a place that isn't all farmlands you go through like 10 red lights. Makes the drive 100000000 times longer and overall horrible. The place we are now is actually awesome. The venue fell through and the singer for Stone Heart, who are awesome, let us play in his garage where we made close to like 200€ for the show and we sold a TON of merch. His place is awesome and the little part of town we saw was really cool. Everything is tiny and looks like its made for midgets.
I am really starting to miss home. I want to stay in my bed. I miss Ashley, I miss my family, I miss being able to sleep without waking up 100 times because my back kills. This tour is awesome though. I am really happy with my situation right now. I am so excited I am seeing Europe right now and want to see so much but I also have so much to look forward to when I get home. My family, my girlfriend, school and work. I think it will all be a really good fall/winter. I got to class from 11-3 only 2 days a week and have 2 online classes. All the classes are toward my major and aren't filler classes. I got all the classes I wanted and needed to take and at the best times. I can work full time and still do really well in school. I am really going to start screenprinting once I get back also. I'm sick of waiting for money to get everything I need so I am just going to outsource the screen making process. While I was first getting into screen printing I read to not stress yourself out by doing everything yourself and I never took that into consideration because I thought it would be too costly. I did the math and this all works out. I am very excited for everything at the moment. Can't wait to get back and see everyone. Hang out with Ashley, tell my parents and sisters everything, and play with my dog. This blog only lets me post 5 pics at once so I'll pic out some good ones and show you. Hope everyone is well back home. See you soon.
-Chris
So far tour has been awesome. Some good shows, some amazing shows, some awful shows, some shows that we think will be good and turn out only decent, and some shows where we think are going to suck and we end up playing well and selling a lot of merch. By far my favorite city so far has been Jonkoping. I want to go back so bad. It was awesome, not just the show which was amazing also but the city was beautiful. I can't get over it. Just a little town on the tip of a giant lake. My favorite drive so far had to be the drive I did through the night from Germany through Denmark and into Sweden. I know I said this already but it was awesome. Sunrise while crossing the bridge from Denmark to Sweden. Amazing. The worst LOOKING show so far had to be Leipzig. Wow...you would have ran. First off it was on a street where there gross punk were just laying around everryyywhere and squa buildings everywhere. Through this little doorway from the street you walk through a hall that smells like urine. That is because at the end was a little urinal under the stairs where piss just sat. Ughhh....i almost puked a couple times, no lies. Once you walk out the back of the halway into a little open area outside you can see almost like jail bars on these windows to a TINY room with a brick stage which was almost impossible to NOT roll your ankle. Once the show started things went well. This was one of the shows where Sean rested and Bill and I sang a couple songs each. We ended up selling a bunch of merch and the promoter made us some awesome breakfast. By the way....I love tomatoes for breakfast. The worst drive so far was definately anything through Poland. We saw the worst of Poland I think and if it wasn't the worst I don't want to see or hear about the worst. There aren't really highways so everytime you drive through a place that isn't all farmlands you go through like 10 red lights. Makes the drive 100000000 times longer and overall horrible. The place we are now is actually awesome. The venue fell through and the singer for Stone Heart, who are awesome, let us play in his garage where we made close to like 200€ for the show and we sold a TON of merch. His place is awesome and the little part of town we saw was really cool. Everything is tiny and looks like its made for midgets.
I am really starting to miss home. I want to stay in my bed. I miss Ashley, I miss my family, I miss being able to sleep without waking up 100 times because my back kills. This tour is awesome though. I am really happy with my situation right now. I am so excited I am seeing Europe right now and want to see so much but I also have so much to look forward to when I get home. My family, my girlfriend, school and work. I think it will all be a really good fall/winter. I got to class from 11-3 only 2 days a week and have 2 online classes. All the classes are toward my major and aren't filler classes. I got all the classes I wanted and needed to take and at the best times. I can work full time and still do really well in school. I am really going to start screenprinting once I get back also. I'm sick of waiting for money to get everything I need so I am just going to outsource the screen making process. While I was first getting into screen printing I read to not stress yourself out by doing everything yourself and I never took that into consideration because I thought it would be too costly. I did the math and this all works out. I am very excited for everything at the moment. Can't wait to get back and see everyone. Hang out with Ashley, tell my parents and sisters everything, and play with my dog. This blog only lets me post 5 pics at once so I'll pic out some good ones and show you. Hope everyone is well back home. See you soon.
-Chris
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Hello from a boat...
Jonkoping was amazing. Malmoe was not. Apparently it is the crime capital of Sweden. Show was really bad and the city wasn#t 1/10th of as nice as Jonkoping. We are on the ferry now back to Germany so we can head to Poland. The coastline of Denmark was awesome. Wicked windy but beautiful. I want to head back to Jonkoping so bad. I really wanted to see Stockholm also but it was wayyy too far away. As of right now, I am looking forward to playing in Vienna, Austria. I really want to see that city so bad.
My allergies have been killing me lately. Other than that I've been pretty healthy. Ive been taking my two multi vitamin pills a day and having a lot of vitamin c and water whenever I can. I haven't bought one soda since i've been in europe. waste of money if you ask me but I don't neccesarily like soda to begin with so thats a big part of it too. Computer is going to die soon so I am off. I keep saying I am going to post pictures but I never have time to. Hopefully soon. I am going to buy a phone card soon also so you'll hopefully be getting a call ver soon....I hope. The end.
-Chris
My allergies have been killing me lately. Other than that I've been pretty healthy. Ive been taking my two multi vitamin pills a day and having a lot of vitamin c and water whenever I can. I haven't bought one soda since i've been in europe. waste of money if you ask me but I don't neccesarily like soda to begin with so thats a big part of it too. Computer is going to die soon so I am off. I keep saying I am going to post pictures but I never have time to. Hopefully soon. I am going to buy a phone card soon also so you'll hopefully be getting a call ver soon....I hope. The end.
-Chris
Monday, August 11, 2008
Hello from Sweden
So after traveling from through Germany, Belgium, and Denmark, we finally arrived in Sweden. I've been looking forward to this part of the tour the most. The drive from Osnabruke, Germany to Jonkaping, Sweden was just about 10 hours so we decided to drive through the night last night and get to sweden early where we can just hang out. Sean drove for the first couple of hours and I drove for the next 5 or 6. All of the cars over here are mostly manual so I had to learn stick on our 3 hour drive from Berlin to Hamburg last week. I knew the mechanics just didn't put it into use. I did fine, stalled out a couple of times but everything was cool. So last night I drove through the night to Sweden. It was amazzzzinggggggg. Our show in Denmark got cancelled that night so I only saw Denmark in the dark which sucked but it was still pretty cool. As we were coming over the bridge from Denmark to Sweden the sun was rising and it was the most amazing thing I've seen. The country is beautiful. The drive went by really fast since I was so taken back by everything. There were tons of deer in the farm lands on the sides of the highway which was really cool. I didn't get to see any moose and I only saw one Ikea which I thought were both sad and surprising.
We got to the city we were playing in and walked around for a little bit. It was absolutely amazing. Jonkoping is located right at the tip of a big lake in the southern part of Sweden so it is right on the water. The city is beautiful with a great landscape looking over the water and into the hills. The venue is located right in an area of town were there is a good amount of shops and restaurants. Its almost like a Downtown Crossing kind of thing but smaller, cleaner, nicer, better smelling, etc, etc. So I guess it is nothing like Downtown crossing besides its a closed off street with stores. I wish this place was closer to home. It is amazing. I am so siked we stopped here.
We are staying the night here tonight so tomorrow we can either hang out in the town again or we can head back a couple hours to Malmoe which is right over the bridge from Denmark. I don't really care either way because im sure that city will be just as nice. Heartbreak kid is starting to play now so hopefully ill be able to write some more soon.....and post tons of pictures because they rule.
-Chris
We got to the city we were playing in and walked around for a little bit. It was absolutely amazing. Jonkoping is located right at the tip of a big lake in the southern part of Sweden so it is right on the water. The city is beautiful with a great landscape looking over the water and into the hills. The venue is located right in an area of town were there is a good amount of shops and restaurants. Its almost like a Downtown Crossing kind of thing but smaller, cleaner, nicer, better smelling, etc, etc. So I guess it is nothing like Downtown crossing besides its a closed off street with stores. I wish this place was closer to home. It is amazing. I am so siked we stopped here.
We are staying the night here tonight so tomorrow we can either hang out in the town again or we can head back a couple hours to Malmoe which is right over the bridge from Denmark. I don't really care either way because im sure that city will be just as nice. Heartbreak kid is starting to play now so hopefully ill be able to write some more soon.....and post tons of pictures because they rule.
-Chris
Monday, August 4, 2008
BERLIN!
Berlin is awesome. Everything is so different. First day we got here we saw some drunk dudes just fighting on the street and people were just walking by like nothing was wrong. It was pretty hilarious. Just two dudes kicking each others boots and not landing any punches. There's also tons of places with vegetarian and vegan options. The hostel has a bar below it and they have a bunch of vegan and vegetarian options. The hostel is pretty cool. Its just run by some punk kids but its actually very clean to my surprise. Today we got free breakfast which was really cool because everything here is so expensive...atleast for us. Everywhere you look you see signs and menus that say vegetarian (in german obviously, but the word is easily recognizable) which is good because I can't actually read the menus. Except for this place down the street called yellow sunshine which is vegetarian dining. It is awesome. I got the "Double Chicken Burger" and the "Double Chicken Hawaii Burger" which are both around 4€. Which is kind of expensive for me but it is delicious.
Another thing that is cool around the city is the recycling program. For one, they have these big mound looking things on the sidewalk every so often where you can throw your recyclables. Then for the redemption program you get .15€ for the smaller bottles and .25€ for larger liter bottles as long as they have a certain symbol on them. Instead of having to bring them to a redemption center or one of those machines at a grocery store (which they do have also) you can bring it to any store as long sa they have the same product and the cashier will give you the deposit back. It is awesome and very easy. The US should have a program like that. Way more people would recycle then since it is ridiculously easy but the businesses would HATTEEE it.
The train and bus system here is awesome too. We paid 4€ each for a bus and train pass for the day which isn't too bad seeing that one train ride in Boston is $2 which is ridiculous. They kind of have a system like the Charlie card with the ticket but you get this ticket and then when you get to the station or bus they have these machines that stamp it with the date and time. Then, supposidly, someone on the train will come and check the ticket but so far we haven't seen one person check tickets. The system is kind of confusing for us but I think it would be a lot easier if we were here a little longer. the U-bahn is the underground train, the S-bahn is the above ground train and the bus is...the bus. At every station and bus stop they have little signs that tell the bus number and when it is arriving. It will say U1 arriving in 2 minutes and they are very accurate which is awesome.
Yesterday was our day to actually explore the city and see alot of historic Germany. First we took the train to Alexanderplatz which kind of reminds me of a larger Government Center in Boston. From there we saw the huge TV tower and a fountain of Poseidon. I can't remember the actual names of things but we saw a very old cathedral which was amazing and then we walked down this long street that reminded me of Newbury or Boylston. At the end is where part of the Berlin wall was. Right on the other side in West Germany is the REichstag which was beautiful. You could walk right up the front steps of it. It was awesome. From there we walked over to the part of the Berlin wall that is still up. You couldn't touch it or go near it because it was fenced off but you could see it from the other side of the street. On the other side was the Topography of Terror which told the history of the Gestapo I belive. It was so messed up. We were wicked tired so I didn't get to read all the poster because there were soooo many of them but the pictures pretty much told the story kind of. They crazy pictures of just a hold in the ground with dead bodies and the gestapo would take people to the edge and just shoot them then they would just fall into the hole. After that we walked over to the Holocaust memorial which was just a bunch of rectangular blocks of stones scattered around this piece of land. I didn't get the significance but it was really cool. Well as cool as a Holocaust Memorial could be I guess.
The others are itching to get out of here so I think I am going to end it for now. Today we are going to the Zoologica Gartens (sp?) which is across town. I've picked up a little German since I've been here so I can have a little conversation when I get back. I don't know how to write it though. Well, Im off.
Another thing that is cool around the city is the recycling program. For one, they have these big mound looking things on the sidewalk every so often where you can throw your recyclables. Then for the redemption program you get .15€ for the smaller bottles and .25€ for larger liter bottles as long as they have a certain symbol on them. Instead of having to bring them to a redemption center or one of those machines at a grocery store (which they do have also) you can bring it to any store as long sa they have the same product and the cashier will give you the deposit back. It is awesome and very easy. The US should have a program like that. Way more people would recycle then since it is ridiculously easy but the businesses would HATTEEE it.
The train and bus system here is awesome too. We paid 4€ each for a bus and train pass for the day which isn't too bad seeing that one train ride in Boston is $2 which is ridiculous. They kind of have a system like the Charlie card with the ticket but you get this ticket and then when you get to the station or bus they have these machines that stamp it with the date and time. Then, supposidly, someone on the train will come and check the ticket but so far we haven't seen one person check tickets. The system is kind of confusing for us but I think it would be a lot easier if we were here a little longer. the U-bahn is the underground train, the S-bahn is the above ground train and the bus is...the bus. At every station and bus stop they have little signs that tell the bus number and when it is arriving. It will say U1 arriving in 2 minutes and they are very accurate which is awesome.
Yesterday was our day to actually explore the city and see alot of historic Germany. First we took the train to Alexanderplatz which kind of reminds me of a larger Government Center in Boston. From there we saw the huge TV tower and a fountain of Poseidon. I can't remember the actual names of things but we saw a very old cathedral which was amazing and then we walked down this long street that reminded me of Newbury or Boylston. At the end is where part of the Berlin wall was. Right on the other side in West Germany is the REichstag which was beautiful. You could walk right up the front steps of it. It was awesome. From there we walked over to the part of the Berlin wall that is still up. You couldn't touch it or go near it because it was fenced off but you could see it from the other side of the street. On the other side was the Topography of Terror which told the history of the Gestapo I belive. It was so messed up. We were wicked tired so I didn't get to read all the poster because there were soooo many of them but the pictures pretty much told the story kind of. They crazy pictures of just a hold in the ground with dead bodies and the gestapo would take people to the edge and just shoot them then they would just fall into the hole. After that we walked over to the Holocaust memorial which was just a bunch of rectangular blocks of stones scattered around this piece of land. I didn't get the significance but it was really cool. Well as cool as a Holocaust Memorial could be I guess.
The others are itching to get out of here so I think I am going to end it for now. Today we are going to the Zoologica Gartens (sp?) which is across town. I've picked up a little German since I've been here so I can have a little conversation when I get back. I don't know how to write it though. Well, Im off.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Almost there...kind of
So we are on our way over to Germany with possibly a couple stops elsewhere. Getting through security was rather easy. The only thing was that Kyle had to put his power converter in his bag because his check in bag was too heavy. So security said that they are going to have to scan it and we could be on our way. We were thinking this was going to take forever and that they were going to have to look through all of our bags but apparently a "scan" is just the guy holding it in his hand and looking at it like he has X-Ray vision. So after we watched the security guy "scan" the converter we heading over to meet with Dave's mom who works for Delta. Right now we are just hanging out in the "Crown Room" at Logan waiting for our 1:30PM flight. Since we ride with a buddy pass under Dave we get to go first class, hence us waiting in the VIP room. Kind of cool...A lot of business dudes talking on phones and typing on computers. Best part is the free massage chair. I just got off of it to let the other guys use it. So close to just passing out. I think I'm just going to stay here and sit in that. Way better than Germans.
Hello Europe......
I leave for you in less than 12 hours. I think I am forgetting a lot of stuff but I can't remember what exactly I'm forgetting. I'll hang out in Berlin and then on the 6th I'll meet up with my homies and explore the rest of you.
Aug 7 - Merksplas, Belgium
Aug 8 - Vilvoorde, Belgium
Aug 9 - Osnabrück, Germany
Aug 10 - Frederica, Denmark
Aug 11 - Jönköping, Sweden
Aug 12 -Malmoe, Sweden
Aug 13 - Berlin, Germany
Aug 14 - Berlin, Germany
Aug 15 - Gdynia, Poland
Aug 16 - Mikolów, Poland
Aug 17 - Stuttgart, Germany
Aug 18 - Salzburg, Austria
Aug 19 - München, Germany
Aug 20 - Mannheim, Germany
Aug 21 - TBA, ?????
Aug 22 - Hohenstein, Germany
Aug 23 - Ieper, Belgium
Aug 24 - Walsrode, Germany
FIN
Aug 7 - Merksplas, Belgium
Aug 8 - Vilvoorde, Belgium
Aug 9 - Osnabrück, Germany
Aug 10 - Frederica, Denmark
Aug 11 - Jönköping, Sweden
Aug 12 -Malmoe, Sweden
Aug 13 - Berlin, Germany
Aug 14 - Berlin, Germany
Aug 15 - Gdynia, Poland
Aug 16 - Mikolów, Poland
Aug 17 - Stuttgart, Germany
Aug 18 - Salzburg, Austria
Aug 19 - München, Germany
Aug 20 - Mannheim, Germany
Aug 21 - TBA, ?????
Aug 22 - Hohenstein, Germany
Aug 23 - Ieper, Belgium
Aug 24 - Walsrode, Germany
FIN
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