I gave my best to you

I actually meant to post this on Sunday evening from Berlin, but wasn't able to get around to it until now. This is a beautiful song from Ken Burns' The War, which I kind of associate with sad, but hopeful, patriotism. Even though I generally consider this a very happy, warm sunshine- and barbecue-infused holiday, I wanted to post it anyway. Happy Memorial Day and God bless those who are gone so that I can continue to celebrate the start of summer this way.

Using chop sticks in Berlin

I arrived in Berlin this morning, and set about the task of finding my hostel, Circus. Rick was not particularly helpful, but luckily I had copied down directions from the hostel's website and was able to follow them without too much trouble. At least Rick's maps didn't actively confuse me, like they did in Dresden.

After checking in, I explored a little bit this afternoon, walking all the way down Unter den Linden, the main drag through old East Berlin. I passed by it all pretty quickly and saw the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. Tomorrow I think I'll do one of the organized walking tours, so I thought that today I would just roam around at will.

First impressions of Berlin are pretty positive. It's immediately obvious that this city dwarfs all of the others that I've visited this trip, both in size and the humming vibe of activity. There are people everywhere, and it feels very international. Most excitingly, this is reflected in the food. I had a delicious meal at a Vietnamese place tonight. Sitting outside eating soup and yellow curry chicken with coconut milk was a nice change from sausages and sauerkraut and schnitzels. And, perhaps most importantly, this tasty food went quite well with dunkles beer too.

A random aside: this morning, in Dresden, I decided that I could not wait another day before doing laundry. So I headed to a laundromat and puzzled through the German instructions. It was drizzling outside and there were about 400 lost socks hanging from the ceiling. I was listening to my ipod and watching my clothes bounce around in circles in the dryer. As much as I normally hate doing laundry, I don't think I would've wanted to spend the morning any other way.

My life in the Neustadt

I've been doing a lot of moving around the past couple of days. Yesterday morning, I left Munich, which I was kind of sad to do. Munich was a great, well-rounded city. It had a lot of beautiful, historic buildings in the Old Town, along with a vibrant, but manageable "real" area. There were several convenient nearby day trips. My hostel was within easy walking distance of both the sights and the train station, not to mention at least five Döner Kebab shops. I met a lot of people, both in the hostel and walking around with Rick. And the staff at Wombat's Hostel was fantastic - extremely friendly and helpful. It made me feel very welcome there.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon and night in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a well preserved medieval village. Rick warned that it was going to be painfully touristy, but I didn't find this to be the case at all. The streets were fairly quiet, and I really enjoyed photographing my way through the town. I stayed at a guest house called Pension Elke, run by a charming old man and his son, who also run the family grocery store down below. It was neat to stay in my own room, and a nice change from the hostels. This place was centrally located to the main town square. In fact, the facade of the store was even visible in one of the postcards I bought.

Today I took a long, early train ride to Dresden. I like it a lot so far. There are a good number of tourists roaming around in the Old Town, but it seems like most of them are other Europeans. My hostel is located in the Neustadt (new town) area, which is a lot more "real people" oriented. Architecturally, these buildings were mostly undamaged by the WWII Allied firebombing, so they're authentic (and many are covered in graffiti). There are also random, blocky communist buildings mixed in all over the place - relics from East Germany. I did some afternoon roaming and had a tasty dinner (and a liter of dark, delicious beer), but I'm looking forward to more sightseeing tomorrow. The history of this city really, really fascinates me.

Traveling alone has been ok so far. I actually prefer it in some ways, since I can do absolutely whatever I feel like at any point in time and there is no one to get exasperated with my constant picture-taking. In other cases, though, especially for dinner and beer, it would be nice to have a friend along. There are a lot of really cool looking bars here in the Neustadt. It would be fun to go out tonight. Maybe I'll meet someone at the hostel...

München on Bavarian pretzels and beer

So here's a quick internet cafe update on my life in Deutschland:

• It is no joke, German beer is delicious
• Big soft pretzels in Bavaria are also the real deal
• I have chatted extensively with four sets of people (making perhaps three potentially lasting friendships) based almost solely on the topic of Rick Steves
• Being spontaneous is working out pretty well, except that i may need to try to reserve hostels farther in advance. Last night I got stuck sleeping in an expensive hotel
  

Time is running out here, I'll write more later. Having a great time.

My next adventure

I've been toying with the idea of traveling this summer for awhile. Initially I was determined to save money for future trips by not taking a long vacation. But a couple months ago I heard a story on NPR about how the cost of airline tickets has been plummeting, and it's been a swift tumble downhill from there.

It wasn't long before I had decided that plane tickets were so cheap that there was no way I could realistically justify not taking a trip. So I checked out about eight travel guides from the library and set about trying to find a destination and a buddy. Although I strongly considered Asia (you can get just about anywhere right now for under $1000!), monsoon season and the desire to take advantage of cheap May airfare convinced me to look to Europe. Since no one was able to come with me, I picked Germany.

Germany has actually never been on the top of my list of places to visit, but the more I read about it, the more I like it. There are castles and beer everywhere, which sounds pretty good to me. It's also close to Switzerland and Scandinavia, which are both on my list. So maybe some cross-border hopping will be in order. The venerable and hilarious Rick Steves has a book on Germany, which guarantees that I'll never be short on cheesy, witty observations and local history. Mostly, though, I think I was attracted to the $375 round trip tickets that kept popping up on kayak.com. So I'm going, alone, in 11 days.

I've never really taken a trip like this alone before. My parents are both convinced that I'll hate it. It's true, I think, that enjoying food and "biergartens" would be much more enjoyable with a friend. But I've actually always kind of been fascinated by traveling by myself. Part of it may be that lingering urge to pick up and do something spontaneous and different. Or maybe I like the idea that I'll have a lot of cool looking pictures to share afterwards that no one else will have seen yet. Certainly traveling solo allows me the flexibility to do whatever I want every day. I'm even considering not booking all of my hostels, so that I can roam on whim (so long as I make my way to Berlin the afternoon of May 25th to catch the flight home).

I hope that, journal and camera in hand and Rick-mandated money belt strapped around my waist, I'll really enjoy the experience. And if I hate it, then at least the ticket was cheap.

Catching a boat to a far-off land

Though this looks like the landing for a ferry in some exotic country, it's actually in Disney World. Which is a shame, but I still like the dusk-y colors in the photo. The gold-hued lanterns lining the wooden dock seem, for some reason, symbolic of an exciting, epic journey to me. In reality, we were "traveling" to catch the 9:00 fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom.

Our national disgrace

Yesterday the Obama administration released several Bush-era memos from the Office of Legal Counsel that detail interrogation techniques authorized for CIA use. These actions include throwing prisoners against the wall, placing them in small containers with bugs for hours at a time, sleep deprivation for more than a week, and, most infamously, waterboarding. They are, unequivocally, acts of torture and they were sanctioned by our government. Thinking about this makes me feel physically ill.

On a personal level, what is perhaps most disgusting to me is that very little of what was announced in these memos is new information. Almost all of it was already part of the public discourse about the U.S. government's use of torture under Bush and Cheney. But I have never before felt so bothered, so incensed about it. Andrew Sullivan has harped on this issue for quite some time. Though I certainly have always agreed with him that torture is evil, for some reason reading his tirades and even seeing some of the gut-wrenching photos that he has posted lacked the gravity of yesterday's news.

Government officials and most of the mainstream media have long side-stepped the full brutality of "enhanced interrogation." Having official acknowledgment forces this uncomfortable issue to the forefront of our national consciousness. This nation that I love so much and am very proud to call home has done some exceptionally terrible things. Just because I'm a Democrat and abhor, out of basic principle, much of what Bush and Cheney did to our country does not free me from this collective stain on American honor.

I was planning to write something today ridiculing the recent "tea parties" as baseless and hypocritical, but I don't have the stomach for it right now. The only comforting thing I've read all morning is Obama's statement regarding the documents' release. It is characteristically calming and to the point. Even if you disagree with his policies, I cannot see how anyone could doubt that he has good intentions and approaches each situation with the same measured pragmatism. This seems even more obvious when held in direct contrast with the despicable, pre-meditated inhumanity of the previous administration that has now been brought to light.

A real life Walker

Today is April 15. Aside from it being Kayla's birthday, and tax day, this year it also happens to be a Wednesday. And Wednesday means... Mantracker!

My roommates and I have recently become obsessed with this show. It airs at 10pm on the Science channel, which until a few months ago I did not even know existed. The premise is quite simple. I would paraphrase, but the show's official website explains it far better than I could hope to.

Terry Grant is a full-blooded cowboy living in the wrong century. This Albertan has been a full time ranch cowboy for almost 25 years. An expert horseman and wilderness professional, hunting, guiding and tracking come second nature. Whether man or beast, he will track them down. His keen instincts, intense character, and specialized skills have made him a crucial member of the Foothills Search and Rescue Team. His reputation is always on the line and he doesn’t let up for a second. A steely-eyed cowboy with a killer, never-say-die attitude, Terry Grant is MANTRACKER.

So essentially, each episode features a new pair of people - the "prey." They have 36 hours to travel 25+ miles on foot over rough terrain to the finish line. All the while, they are being stalked by Mantracker on horseback. Though he doesn't know the location of the finish line, Mantracker always has an expert local guide to help him navigate. The guide changes episode to episode, but a personal favorite of mine is Curtis, the braided, Indian horsewhisperer.

The prey frequently tries to leave false trails or to throw Mantracker off with gimmicks such as tape-recorded voices or wolf urine. Invariably, however, Terry picks up their trail and sets an ambush with the help of his guide. You know a confrontation is imminent when the camera angle switches back and forth quickly from Mantracker to prey. Even better is when the prey are shown tiptoeing around and a cowboy hat or horse nose bobs into view through the trees in the background. When Mantracker surprises his prey, he is quick to deliver a corny one-liner, like, "Hello, ladies" or "Busted!" A ragged chase then ensues, with the prey often able to slip away into dense forest.

This continues for an hour until the prey are either caught or they make it to the finish line. With Mantracker's legendary skills, though, the latter is quite rare. Basically this show is amazing. If you get the Science channel, I highly, highly recommend that you check it out.