living out of a bag

Well its been a while since I've updated.  I am trying to think of the best way to talk about the places I've been lately without boring you too much so I am just going to list the cities and what I thought of them.  Berlin was awesome, really wish I was there longer.  There were tons of things to do and it was really easy to get around, not to mention that the people were also pretty nice.  Met some guys from the southwest of Germany who I hung out in the hostel bar with for a bit. They were cool and told me how I shouldn't go to Munich.  I should have listened to them because Munich was kind of a downer.  My hostel, like the city, was kind of worn down.  Berlin was a modern city built in conjunction with the older parts while Munich was like an odd town that just doesn't seem to have changed.  Seemed like a tourist trap to me but who knows. Maybe it would have been better if I had been with someone else because it seemed like the only things to do were get really drunk and eat a lot.  I tried to do some things but it was rainy and expensive so I ended my nights early and hung out at the bar in the hostel or watched German MTV at the hotel.  

I happily left Munich for Vienna even though doing so was hard.  Literally almost missed my train by jumping on while the doors were closing.  I got my foot stuck in the door and had to be helped up because my huge backpack was holding me down. The train ride to Vienna was amazing because I went through the mountains but it started raining and by the time I got to Vienna it was cold and rainy.  That kept up the whole time I was there but Vienna had a lot of museums and indoor things for me to do so even though I got soaked, I did dry off while walking around.  Did lots of stuff in Vienna, the museum of modern art was pretty cool, but St. Stephan's catacombs was the weirdest most interesting part.  I also ate tuna pizza which I don't recommend.  I think Vienna would have been a lot better had it not been raining the whole time but I still had a good two days there.  

Milan was my next stop.  The hotel was really nice but the city wasn't my favorite. There wasn't a lot to do there, it was expensive, the people seemed overly annoyed by everything, and it was still raining.  Best parts were watching the Champion's League final at a bar with a bunch of guys and the police.  The waiter and I became friends, ate some pizza, and Manchester United won an amazing game. Other than that going to the top of the Duomo, I think the first church or something, was awesome.  Probably not the safest thing but it had the best views of the city, plus the whole church was beautiful.  While  I love fashion and Milan is the fashion capital of the world, the shopping was boring.  Same shops you can find in any major city just more compact.  I ate gelato, had a panini, and wore lots of black.  Milan had its good moments but just didn't seem to pick up from them.

Left Milan this morning for Bern.  Missed my train, got on one an hour later that dropped me off in some small town in Switzerland and caught another one to Bern.  The rain is gone and the train ride was amazing, better than going through Austria to Italy.  The Mountains were never ending with huge lakes and cute houses and villages in between.  Bern is amazing.  Its like a make believe town where everyone is smiling and walking around or riding bikes.  Its such a small city that you can walk from one end to the other in fifteen minutes or so.  But so far I've gone to Albert Einstein's house, walked around, and hung out at a cafes, and went to two pretty neat art museums.  It rained today but got sunny. I was asked if I was a professional photographer which was weird and some other odd things have happened too but its been a good laugh. If you ever have a chance to go to Bern, do it.  This place is like a breath of fresh air from all the huge grey cities that I've been in lately. Plus my hostel has laundry facilities so I did my laundry for the first time in...two weeks? ha, sorry. 

I am getting eager to get back to Dublin and even more so to get back to KC/Chicago.  It will be nice to stop living out of a bag and have a roommates that aren't lame.  Paris is next, then Madrid, and lastly Barcelona to visit Vern.  Hopefully I'll have the internet for the rest of my time so that I can update this more often.  This post was hard! phew!

Pictures aren't uploading so the next post will be just pictures, hopefully up tomorrow.