Pretty much been the theme of our trip.  We completely lucked out in Berlin with John and Nikki being on spring break the week we stayed with them.  We had incredible tour guides and an awesome week getting to see remains of the wall (East Side Gallery - like a bunch of murals along the remains of the wall), der Moma art museum (some Picasso (even a goat sculpture...mmm...goat...), Monet's enormous Water Lillies, some Pollock, Van Gough's Starry Night, a killer Dali, and tons more), the Pergamon Museum on museum island, little local Imbisses, Nazi architecture, foquheilas(sp) [mullet auf Deutsch], Checkpoint Charlie (total tourist attraction and totally lame), the Jewish museum (I highly recommend), great graffiti everywhere, as well as getting a taste of tequila shots with a slice of orange and cinnamon ground (any bartenders out there heard of this?  is it a european thing?), German schnopps called Kuemmerling, Turkish hard alcohol called Yeni Raki, and Russian beer in a 2 liter plastic bottle which was of course the reason for it's purchase, though it is THE MOST DISGUSTING BEER EVER.  Seriously.  Bud's got nothin' on that donkey urine flavored beer.  It tasted like the smell of Logan's dirty Tevas...

I woke up earlier than the other 4 people in this small apartment this morning, stumbled into the kitchen to get a glass of multi, saw that there werent any clean glasses and decided to be a good houseguest and do the dishes.  Halfway through doing the dishes, one of my contacts pops out because its so dry.  I take off my glasses that I put on before doing the dishes, put my contact back in, and proceed with the dishes.  Yeah, we had fun last night.

Internet access has been limited since we left Prague but I've been trying to keep some record of what has gone on.  Logan and I met some girls from Dresden the night before we left for there, so we got their numbers, fully knowing that we would probably never call them, but with vague promises of meeting up for a funk show that weekend.  After Logan's first train ride ever (eyes as wide as a 4 year olds staring out the window the whole way - incredibly adorable), we get to Dresden and see the sights.  Since we're trying to save money for Berlin, we go to the market for bread, erdnussbuter, und beer and who do we stand next to in line but the girls from the night before.  SMALL world.  We grab a cup of coffee with them then go on our merry ways.  I seem to be skipping over the fact that Dresden is coolest city in Germany and I want to live there some day.  The Altstadt is lame, but the Neustadt is like a clean, uncorrupted EugeneSantaCruzHawaiiBerkeley.  Tons of art and beloved dreddies at coffee shops, fruit and vegetable stands galore and mostly friendly english speakers to help you.  Downtown, the Altmarkt has tons of beautiful historic buildings, churches, museums, you name it.  Anyway, I'm quite taken with that city and want to go back and kick it with the locals when my German gets better.  Not like I could before, but I'm really having trouble thinking in English, so bust out babblefish if you can't read my posts.

We left Monday morgen for a short trainride to Berlin and my old roommate Nikki and her boyfriend John picked us up at the station.  They're incredibly kind to let us stay at their small apartment as they already have another guest from Holland.  We've repayed them with massive amounts of beer.  It's been madness jeden tag.  Letzt night we got a case of beer and hung out in John's Zimmer before going out to an english pub and closing the place down.  Logan and I somehow must have been certified as psychatrists whe we weren't paying attention because last night we were helping bartenders with their relationship problems left and right.  It was really strange - isn't it supposed to be the other way around?  Anyway, Nikki and I stuck around for a while after the boys left and got more free drinks before finally getting away from crazy russian men.  Long story, but all in all we've had a great time in Berlin.  More later.

sidenote: this was written on Thursday morning and much more is coming...

I've never seen so many KFC's in my life.  They're on every damn corner, like Starbucks in San Francisco...okay, maybe not that many.

We had to leave our hostel yesterday because we didn't reserve the room any nights in advance and it was full, which usually would suck, but it turned out to our advantage and we went to another, better place with more people, nicer faculities, and a better price, plus you have to walk through the bathroom to get to our room, which is an inconvenience, so even though there are 4 beds, we get the room to ourselves (what up runon sentence...)  It has 2 skylight windows that you can open and stick your head out so you get an awesome view of the town.  I'm quite pleased...we hiked up to the castle today and wandered around, and it's really cool being able to look over the town from up there and see places you can see from your hostel.  This morning we got some train tickets to Dresden (checked out prices and times at both the train and bus stations) so already it's been quite a productive day.


Yesterday we went out to an italian place for dinner (lots of italian places here) and ended up at this crazy beer hall for drinks after.  Lots of loud tourists, a cute little german band, and great beer...though the place closes at 11pm, Logan tells me it's pretty much always crowded and entertaining.  When you arrive and get your first beer, the server dudes DO NOT let you get away without taking at least one shot of this weird cinnamon schnopps (or that was our guess).  It goes surprisingly well with the dark beer but still, the last thing I can think of wanting with a beer is a shot of sweet schnopps.  It's a strange beer hall but we got to chat with some nice girls from D.C.

It seems I've been to all the touristy places I need to be so the next day or so before hitting the road are pretty relaxed.  I have to admit that my feet will be quite excited to wander roads of a beautiful thing called concrete.  Asphalt.  Anything but cobblestone....mmmm...even ground...

Not much more to tell you about other than that Prague totally kicks ass.  This place is gorgeous and everyone has awesome shoes.  Did I mention the Pink Floyd covers in Czech?  The music is way outdated but entertaining if you accept that every culture is different.  I wonder if I can get another stamp on  my passport when I enter Germany (ie Europe proper).  More later.  I think we're trying absinth tonight, so I may have an interesting story or 2...

Everything in Prague, or at least everything downtown with all the beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets, is old-fashioned.  Almost everywhere you go, you have to shut the door behind you, something which I'm not used to and keep forgetting (pissing off the store owners).  The lights all have really weird switches and every toilet I've run into flushes differently.  The coolest thing though is that I'm pretty sure all the toilet paper and paper towels in the bathrooms are recycled...either that or they're really really really cheap and scratch the hell out of your ass (and nose should you attempt to blow it).  I'd like to think option A so I know the dry skin on my bum is towards a good cause...

Took a stroll along the Charles Bridge at night with Logan on Saturday and damn.  Damn.  Walking among amazing statues of saints and historical figures towards a castle isn't something you get to do every day in California.  The entire city, especially classic downtown, is absolutely breathtaking.  There are way too many tourists, especially on the weekends, and a few too many mullets for my taste, but if you give the city some decent viewing time at night, you'll understand why (okay, so you still may not understand the mullets).  I'm staying in a hostel downtown so everything cool is no more than a 20 minute stroll....like last night, 3 words: GUINESS ON TAP.  Dear god, it's heaven in a glass.  Probably only second to actually having it in a pub in Ireland, but at least I got to enjoy it with a stereotypical potty-mouthed curly-haired Irish girl (one of Logan's classmates).  Wow, I transitioned pretty fast there between beautiful Prague and beautiful guiness.  Yeah.

The language sounds funny, the people are stuck in the eighties, and I can never remember to shut the damn door in a cafe, but I'm quite in love with Praha.  I should be here for another 2 nights and then leave for Dresden on Wednesday.  I can't wait to brush up on my german and see how fast my bank account is drained switching to the euro.  More later, though I have to leave you with a fun picture in your head:

Kat and Logan, after a late night out with friends and 3 hours sleep, get up early to take showers and move out of the flat by noon to do some laundry.  Laundry finished, we repack our bags and decide we'll leave a bag or so of stuff at a friend's once we get to Berlin, but that's 1.5 weeks away so we still are carrying all our crap.  Coolness...all we have to do is hop a metro downtown and find a hostel to throw our crap in before stuffing our grumbling tummies.  We take the (underground) metro to our destination and start the trek towards downtown, which is up a set of stairs and 2 sets of escalators...only 1/3 of the way up the REALLY LONG, regularly crowded escalator, it stops.  Everyone waits for a minute to see if it will go back on or if we are given instructions as to what to do.  It says in czech and then repeats in english "the escalators will be turned back on once everyone has cleared them."  That's all good, but everyone already on the damn thing decideds to go UP.  Oh joy.  So here's Kat and Logan both with monster not-very-well-packed backpacks on our backs as well as overstuffed day packs carried in front (like we're pregnant women or something) hiking 2/3 the way up this insanely high escalator.  People were clapping when we got to the top.  We were hungry.  It's good to be youthful, let me tell you.

Okay, I know I told you all "check back here for updates" and have been totally lame about writing ANYTHING since I got here.  I've been asleep.  And then busy.  And then asleep.

I somehow got from the airport to downtown and met Logan in a bar, fearing for my life that I was in the wrong bar and it wasn't the one in the pictures he sent.  It was and it's been madness ever since.

...went out Thursday with Logan, his classmates, and some of the students they've been teaching...it was alright, and I got to sleep all Friday while Logan was having his interview to pass the course.  Friday night we went pub hopping with little success - found this loud place with a bunch of Swiss and Brit teens and laughed at them dancing to BAD 80s and early ninties pop.  The music really sucks here.  Anyway, I don't have time to write any more, but Logan and I found a hostel for the night and need to go stroll over the beautiful Charles bridge in the moonlight.  The plane didn't crash, all is well.  PROMISE more later.

Peace

Alright, I saw pictures.  I smell like a sidewalk in the Tenderloin.  I have less than a week to go and start hyperventilating if there isn't a clock within 3 feet of me...luckily I have a lot to do this week and weekend to keep the time passing rather quickly.  I keep thinking every day is Monday, which will be nice until it's next Monday (the day before I leave) and the time will pass more slowly than a galapagos tortoise.  Actually, I just really wanted to say galapagos tortoise...say it out loud, all the sssss's make you sound like a snake...

My life fits neatly into boxes (and, more importantly, the backpack I'm taking).  The plans keep changing for what I will actually be doing once I arrive in Prague, so check back here for updates.  For those of you who don't know, I'm relocating to Europe for a bit.  To answer your questions: because it's beautiful, full of history, and I haven't seen it yet...and to answer your big question: I don't know, get the hell off my back.  I figure I've had this blog going for 2 weeks am writing to myself, so it's about time others hear my inner monologue.  I'm special.  Damn special!  You know you care about what I have to say...

And now I'm out of things to say.  I blame it on you.  Don't expect much more before I leave, but I'll let y'all know that the plane didn't crash.

Peace.


*editor's note - the average speed of a galapagos tortoise is 0.16mph

Well this week has flown by quite successfully...I could swear Sunday was yesterday.  My bag is in it's 5th or 6th design of being packed, and I think I'll only pack it once more before I leave as it's pretty comfortable and as light as I'm going to get it.  I've managed to put everything I'm bringing into the large pack and attatch my daypack if I need to do that while wandering, which I very likely will.  I've also been jogging in the mornings to gain up some strength and endurance and let me tell you, I'M WEAK.  That's right, I'm a string bean little OliveOyl-type creature.  In 2 months, I'll be a rock, but for now, I want to lay down.

In a blog entry, which, strangely enough, I looked back to and it's dated exactly a month ago, Logan wrote "Never in my life have I been so acutely aware of the time."  He was 3 weeks exactly from leaving the country, and I'm just under that right now.  I only remembered that phrase when I said it out loud today and thought it sounded familiar. 

I'm stuck in the waiting period, and I'm having trouble coming to grips with the fact that this isn't waiting.  I'm living.  Always.  I'm learning about myself: how I plan and prepare, what I do daily to pass the hours, how my emotions react to different stimuli, whether it be getting cut off on the freeway in these last few weeks of driving before I stop driving for a long time, or whether I get excited, scared, sad, or jealous reading a blog from a friend abroad.  I'm growing, taking in everything around me be it beautiful or less than perfect in my eyes, and accepting the reality I view as it presents itself.  There is no waiting to be filled.  It is already full (perpetually filling), because that's what living in the now, being present, truly is. 

...yet it's so difficult to appreciate what's going on around you RIGHT NOW if all you consume your thoughts with is something that has not come yet...that will very likely (anything can change at any given moment) be here after some more living/loving/growing/learning/experiencing (space, time, whatever you wish to call it) has occured...or if you only dwell on the past.

I believe that nothing should go unacknowledged (or at least shouldn't be thoughtlessly underestimated) because everything effects everything.  Every experience you've had has given you more knowledge about something - it has been important no matter how insignificant it seems.  I know and appreciate that since I am in a space where I'm "waiting" to be somewhere else in the not-too-distant future, I have learned to pay attention to time instead of letting it fly by like I usually do (not like I won't let it fly by again in the future)...I can sit and pay attention to the passing of 5 minutes on a clock doing nothing but grokking (for lack of an english word) how long and short and boring and interesting and everything that passing is.  In fact, I've never been better at paying attention to the passing of space being filled, hating it worse than needless, all-to-common violence, and loving it more than cheese.  I feel like everything can be described as a love-hate relationship because of the horrific beauty everything contains.  Life is just one giant oxymoron.

Anyway, I'm ranting and I don't know what I was trying to point out beyond the fact that I hate anticipating anything so much that I forget to enjoy the present....while loving the fact that I have something beautiful and new to look forward to.

I am a moron of the oxy variety.  I am a rock.  Quit making so much noise up there.

(just a side note referring to my previous post, I wrote this, saved it in my draft box, and forgot about it)