Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

Munich was awesome.  My favorite city thus far for sure.  Everyone is insanely friendly, the food is fantastic, the beer is flowing, and everything is affordable.  We went to beer halls every night and sometimes at lunch.  A beer hall is basically a big place, sometimes outdoors and sometimes indoors, where parties share tables and most people, old and young, order large quantities of beer.  Typically you can only get the beer that the particular house brews, but one thing is always for sure, it’s all good.  Apart from the beer halls, we visited a concentration camp, Dachau, and a gangster castle, Neuschwanstein.

Despite all that has already been mentioned, the best part of Munich is the people.  The locals are insanely friendly, and lots of cool people flock to the capital of Bavaria.  We met a 40-year-old local named Biernhard, two patent lawyers, a ton of Australians, more Germans, some Canadians, some Spanish, a few Americans, etc.  I love it.

After five nights in Munich we left today for Prague.  The first impression is good — half liter beers for around $1, cool sights, and an insane hostel.  I’m super excited for the days to come.

Bonus story: China is being ridiculous with their visa policies now that the Olympics are coming up.  More information to come soon.

We hung out at our hostel bar, and two good looking girls sat next to me.  I started talking to them.  I find out they are bi-sexual sixteen-year-olds.  We got the hell out of there and went to get some food at a beer garden.  Food was fantastic — pork, pork, pork.    Our waiter told us we could steal the liter glasses; we did not even initiate the conversation!  We tipped him really, really well and left with the mugs under our coats.  Two blocks down his buddy shows up on a bike and takes the mugs back.  Shit.  We met two Irish dudes and did not understand a word they were saying.  All of us tried to get into three different clubs and got rejected to all of them.  Bitches.  Went back to the hostel bar and saw the sixteen-year-olds again.  Duuuuuuuude.

Munich is rad so far, but we have not seen nothing yet.

I don’t have much time, but Salzburg deserves its own quick post.  Located in the Austrian Alps, nearly bordering Germany, Salzburg is absolutely stunning to say the least.  It’s surrounded by green mountains, ski resorts, and ice caves, making it quite a unique scene.  The city is very authentic and lacking tourists and the traps that follow them.  The food is fantastic, mostly meat, dumplings, and soup, and the beer gardens are BEER HEAVEN — liters for 5 euro, wonderful, greasy food for cheap, everyone sharing tables, cheers being made left and right.  I’m loving it here.

Salzburg is the first place I’ve come across in Europe that I could totally live at.  I want to return sometime in the Winter to see what the city really has to offer.

I’m going to make this a quick one.  Italy is unbelievable.  The sights in Rome, the food and feeling in Florence, and the uniqueness of Venice.  I loved each city, Florence being my favorite.  Dust and I split a 1.2 kilo Florentine steak, and it was the best steak I have ever had.

I have been super bad about blogging lately; I blame this primarily on my lack of internet cafe visits but also on strange foreign keyboards. French keyboards are especially strange, but Spanish keyboards are not so bad. You will notice that I will not use single apostrophes, because I cannot find them on this keyboard :). I plan to write thorough posts for each of the cities we visit once I am back in the states, so for now I will just give some quick updates.

Paris
Paris is awesome. We spent a few days there and saw most of the sights. I think the Louvre was the highlight, along with wonderful food and wine. The locals are very unfriendly and very hesitant to help.

Caen and Bayeux
We stayed in Caen because we thought it was the gateway to the WW2 Normandy beaches, but once we arrived we realized we should have stayed in Bayeux. Caen does not have much character, but Bayeux is a wonderful little town with an insanely impressive cathedral. We took a 6 hour tour to different places along Normandy, including Omaha Beach and the US cemetery. Seeing Omaha was eerie to say the least, but I am grateful to have visited such a historic place. Overall Caen and Bayeux were wonderful.

Nice
At the center of the French Riviera, Nice is a little city with a large, topless, pebble beach. We spent nearly all 6 days on the beach only leaving to eat some of the wonderful local food. We also ran into an old high school friend of mine from soccer, Cara, which is totally rad. Besides the beach we each rented a scooter and scooted the 25km to Monaco, a.k.a. Smug City. We nick-named the haze above Monaco the “smug layer.” Let us just say that Monaco has the highest density of insane cars to people that I have ever seen. Bentlies, Rolls, Bugatis, Porches, etc. Ridiculous and also a pretty cool little city.

Barcelona
Where do I begin. We have only been here 2 days, but we have already topped most of our prior experiences. So far Barcelona has had the best food, the best sights, the best beaches, the best locals, and the friendliest inhabitants. Seriously. Tapas, small plates that make up one meal, are insanely good. All of the Gaudi architecture is absolutely insane. And I think I have made a total of 10 new friends.

All in all Europe is a blast. We have met some great people, enjoyed some wonderful food and drinks, and seen some incredible sites. Lovin it.

Bonus keyboard fun: ñ纪¬¿´

This is going to be fast because French keyboards are super weird:

• London was awesome; good to see Dan
• Slept on the streets in Amsterdam because our hostel fell through — awesome
• Ate waffles and drank beer in Brussels.  Mmmmm

More to come when I have a normal computer.

I’m hopping on a plane in less than 12 hours, and I’m all packed up and ready to go.

Vows I’m making to myself:

1. No feed reader
2. No internet browsing
3. Email only when necessary or during downtime
4. Blogging only during downtime
5. At least six hours spent at the Delirium Cafe in Brussels

Stuff I’ve packed:

1. 5 shirts
2. 5 boxers
3. 5 pairs of socks
4. 2 pairs of shorts
5. 1 pair of jeans
6. 1 raincoat
7. 1 beach towel
8. 1 sleep sack (sheet sewn into a sack)
9. 1 pillow case
10. Misc. electronics, gadgets, documents, etc

I’m insanely excited!  Stay tuned for some thoughts, city reviews, etc.

I’ve bought everything I need, booked a few hostels, booked my plane tickets, stocked up on Advil, and done just about everything I have to do in preparation for my Europe trip.  All that’s left is to squeeze everything into a backpack.

I’m surprisly calm given that I’ll be backpacking through most of Western Europe for seven weeks starting in two days.  Stay tuned for some notes on eats, destinations, hostels, etc :).

When will they end?  Not yet.  I still need a better pair of shoes.

• Canon Rebel XTi Digital SLR (body only) - $509 from Dell
• SanDisk 4GB Compact Flash Card - $28 from Dell

I’ll be using my dad’s lenses from his 35mm SLR that he never uses anymore.  I believe he has a 75-300mm lense and a 28-105mm lense.

The travel purchases never end.

• Traveler’s health insurance - $66 for all seven weeks of Europe
• International Student Identity Card - $25
• International Phone and SIM Card - $39 (includes $10 of talk credit)

I’m not even finished yet.  In other news, my mom and I sewed an old sheet into a sheet bag for the hostels that don’t have bedding.

Bonus purchase: my team and I won our Google APM scavenger hunt, so I got a $50 gift certificate to the Google Store.  I bought a Google bike jersey.  Now all I need to buy to make my outfit complete is a nice pair of tight, short bike pants.  Mmmmm.