David and Bobby's Excellent Adventure

I thought I'd provide a parking place for David and Bobby's European emails.

February 13

We are in Frankfurt after what seemed like the longest flight ever recorded. Neither of us slept, so we are both a little tired right now. However, despite this lack of sleep, we managed to come to this conclusion...it would really be beneficial if we knew how to speak German. The language barrier is kicking our asses. Thankfully, once we made it to the hostel, we were able to speak English without receiving any dirty looks. This keyboard is insanely difficult to type on, so we will make this short. But we just wanted to let you all know we made it here safe and sound. Once we buy a phone card, you'll be hearing the soothing sound of our voices...until then, guttentag.

February 14

After waking up this morning at 4am we decided to get out of Frankfurt and head to Berlin.

Validating our ticket and reserving a seat was very easy since the lady spoke English and was very helpful in pointing out the correct platform. The trains in Germany are very nice. 2nd class has about twice the legroom as our plane ride. However a bottle of water cost 3 Euro, so thats where they get ya.

Speaking of water, evidently Europeans drink nothing but sparkling water. We got the first hint on the plane when they kept asking if we wanted still or sparkling water. We need to find the German word for still water because every bottle we buy is carbonated.

We are in Berlin for three days and tomorrow we are taking a free walking tour that takes us to all the major sightseeing areas. We are staying is a hostel that has 32 beds in the room but other than that it is great, especially for 10 Euro each.. we'ĺl use the saved money on a private room for at least one night in Amsterdam.

February 15

Well, today we finally got to see what Berlin is all about.

Bobby woke up at about 4 am and I woke up at 5 partly because of the time change but mostly because of a middle aged German man who snores louder than all the Clark men combined. He had woken everyone in the 32 person room at one point or another, and I'm pretty sure he was cursed in at least 4 different languages. Here's hoping he is not staying again tonight.

After the early start we set out to catch the free tour that happens twice a day and 365 days a year. It's a company called New Europe and they provide free tours in about 6 locations and after our experience today we plan on making them our first order of business in Amsterdam, Paris, and Munich. At 1st we were a little skeptical about the tour and wondered if we would be the only ones that would show up. After all it was about 35 degrees and the middle of February. All the pictures on the flyers were taken in the summer. Nevertheless we set out for Brandenburg Gate to meet in front of the historical Starbucks. While waiting we peeked into the Kennedy Museum. Evidently the Kennedys are wildly popular in Berlin and they just opened up a museum devoted to the family. As for the tour, by 11 o clock when the tour started there were 100 plus people waiting. So I guess it is a popular event. There were another 60 or so people there for the Spanish version and the concentration camp tours. The tour was amazing to say the least, we were split into groups of 30 and our lady was very knowledgeable and entertaining. The 3 1/2 hr walking tour covered everything from Hitler's bunker to the TV tower and everything in between. It was worth it just for the fact that we got to spend a day with fellow Americans and Aussies that the guides said packed the hostels but we had yet to see.

Now that the weekend has arrived I've noticed a lot of kids studying abroad that have come out for the weekend. Anyways, tomorrow we plan on doing the concentration camp tour for 12 bucks and then their infamous pub crawl that they constantly promote. Will report back in a couple days probably from Amsterdam.


February 17

After a long day on the trains we finally arrived in Amsterdam. Our hostel is kinda on the outskirts, but we just went and walked around the town and it is definitely like no where else. Both of us aren't feeling too hot after a few days of walking around for hours in 30 degree weather, so we are taking it easy tonight and plan on doing the free tour tomorrow.

We had quite the day yesterday in Berlin. After another sleepless night we went to the the tour of the concentration camp. It a pretty depressing afternoon, but it was a good experience. After that we went to an Irish pub to eat dinner and watch the Manchester United vs Arsenal game. That was a lot of fun as the bar was packed with rowdy Man U fans. We were planning on heading out on the pub crawl after but both of us were beat and we went to bed instead.