Ich habe fünf Berlineren. Ich bin nicht ein Berliner.

This past weekend (the first in March), I made a solitary excursion to the Deutchlander capital of Berlin. This was my first time travelling alone so I was glad that I was doing it to a country I was already relatively familiar with. I got up bright and early to catch the flight, ran into Ryan at the Bahnhof so I had some company on the ride there. Got to Berlin in time for breakfast which I got when the bus dropped me off at the Brandenburg Gate. I killed a couple of hours eating, drinking coffee and taking pictures and then met up with a very informative free walking tour.

The tour took me through the Brandenburg Gate, to the Holocaust memorial, Hitler's bunker, the Luftwaffe HQ, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, Museum Island and probably several other places I've since forgotten. After the tour, I sought and checked into my hostel where I was greeted by the drunk receptionist and his drunk very tall kenyan friend who offered me warm rum and coke from a dirty looking pitcher (I declined...). After dropping off my stuff I went and explored Alexanderplatz where Berlin's famous TV tower is located. Grabbed some currywurst and a bag of 5 Berliner Donuts which I gorged on for the remainder of the weekend. That night I went for dinner to a highly recommended thai resturaunt called Monsieur Vuong's. It was a really cool place and had really cool food. Went to bed early because the hostel was empty and I didn't meet anyone :(

Next day I got up and decided to go to some museums. Went to the wall information center, the Holocaust museum (which I sincerely regret going to alone..) and the East Side Gallery. The line was too long to get into the Reichstag and I got to the Deutches History Museum 2 hours too late... Had some spätzli for lunch and for dinner I got flammkuchen in a weird bar that served weissbier and called it dark beer... Another early night.

Next day got up early to grab a bus to the airport. Flew back to Zurich where I promptly boarded a 3 hour train to Geneva to check out the car show. Not much to write home about. Much like the Frankfurt auto show except slightly smaller, less grandeur and only a few more cars than I had already seen in Frankfurt. I did however come across one little bit of inspiration for my future in a company that modifies cars so that they can be driven by the disabled. I shall have to look further into it.

All in all a good weekend but I've decided I'm not the solitary type when it comes to travelling!

There's a Weeeeeee Leprochaun in my Back Garden....

The conclusion to a very long February was a "quaint as &#!@" long weekend on the Emerald Isle. You can thank Bruce for that quote - the epitomy of eloquence that lad, I tell you... So yeah! Arrived on the friday evening, rented a trio of Ford Fiestas to be driven by myself, Steve P. and Olivia. Began with only minor setbacks. First, my handbrake was stuck and second, Steve P and the others in the gray car got lost - took the wrong turn off a roundabout. The other two cars made it Galway 3 hours later without any incident. Radio contact was maintained as we had cleverly elected to invest in some radios. This led to some very funny conversations over the course of the trip.

Friday night was relatively uneventful. After finding parking and checking in to our hostel we went looking for food. Tried to find a pub but they'd all stopped serving food so ended up getting a 4 person deal at Domino's. After this we went to the pub below our hostel and indulged in a few Guinnesses (many of which were courtesy of Bruce and Chris) as well as some well selected music.

Saturday we elected to get out of the metropolitan chaos of Galway and drive along the coast toward Doolin. This took us through some breathtaking scenery and we made a few stops along the way to take pictures and walk around. Car trips are great that way! We first stopped at an old castle, then somewhere in the middle of the burren - a giant slab of rock something like 250 square km? - then at an old jetty, then at the coast of the burren. We accidentally drove past our hostel on our way to the cliffs of Moher so we stopped in there quickly before continuing. We went down the street to one of 3 pubs in the tiny town of 500 and had a good lunch. We then drove to the cliffs, looked around (spectacular views) and took pictures. After this everyone was pretty knackered so we drove back to the hostel and parked the cars. We took a brief walk around Doolin and out to a ruined church for more photo ops. Afterwards, most of us were pretty done for and we took a nap. Upon waking, we were treated to a brief slideshow by the hostel owner giving us a good visual history of most of Ireland. We then set out to find dinner. The pubs were tooo full to accomodate 11 of us (Sondy was under the weather) so we got takeaway from the towns one italian restaurant. That was a big mistake. Disappointment with the food made us want to drink so we went to the pub and had a few drinks and talked to the locals. There were some characters haha.

On Sunday we began the long drive back to Dublin. Breakfast wouldn't be served in Doolin till too late so we took to the road and ended up getting breakfast rolls from a Spar in some town on the highway. Imagine if you will a foot-long bread roll filled with sausages, blood pudding, eggs, bacon and ketchup. And I mean filled. So good. Anyway, after 'refueling' we continued on and evenutally came to Bunratty castle. We got a nice tour from a quintessentially irish fella and had a genuinely nice time there. We hit the road again and by around 4:30, returned the cars and headed to our hostel in Dublin.

Nakul was kind enough to show me and some others a really nice restaurant and showed us some places worth checking out and where he goes to school. We then headed back to the hostel and watched Canada set a nice record on the TV.

Monday we got up early and took a stroll around Dublin. We saw a few sights, Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green being the best known, and then stopped for coffee and breakfast before taking a taxi to the airport.

One of the best trips thus far!

We came. Warsaw, We Conquered.

The third weekend in my dangerously busy February was spent with a staggeringly large group of other Canadians in Warsaw. We arrived on the Friday afternoon (in doing so, by the way, we made the weekend seem much, much longer) and proceeded directly to our hostel. After having checked in, we set out in search of food and some preliminary sight seeing around the hostel. We ended up heading for a big famous park but it happened to have just closed when we arrived. At this point the boys and girls split up so the girls could shop and the guys could throw away money on beer. After a couple of those (after a couple too many for, well, everyone except me) we met up with the others for a glorious dinner of perogies, pancakes and cabbage rolls. After dinner we went to some local bars. I headed in early because I was suffering from a bit of a stomach ache.

The next day we all got up when we got up, and headed out in search of breakfast.We then ended up walking around Warsaw's old town, visiting a gallery of portraits, eating a delicious lunch of borscht, dumplings and schnitzel in a old-school milk bar, and each taking lots of pictures of the same thing. We also made it to the park we'd intended to go to the day before and strolled around there for a bit. That night we went to a vietnamese restaurant for dinner and headed back to the hostel where we sampled some local wodka courtesy of Bianca and Arthur. This led to us deciding to go out to the club that was literally 20 paces from the front door of the hostel. (I'd neglected to mention thus far that the hostel was a mere SIX flights of stairs from the ground floor with NO elevator...). It was a pretty cool club (allegedly one of the most popular in Warsaw) but my stomach still wasn't right so I remained relatively sober. Interestingly enough, it wasn't this that led me home early but rather the unbridled consumption of alcohol of a peer who shall remain nameless...

Next day we got up and ate breakfast at the hostel. Groups sort of left as and when they came together and headed to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Museum. It was very interesting and quite well done though, at times, was hard to follow due to a lack of linearity that I find often helps in a history museum. After this we went in search of lunch and ended up in a shopping mall of all places. I wasn't too happy about it at the time, nor afterwards actually cause my food was attrocious. After spending some time in a cafe drinking too much coffee and eating too much cake, we eventually packed up and headed to the airport.