Ich bin ein Berliner!

So, I left Amsterdam with mixed feelings about the place. Mostly I just felt isolated and depressed there. The city wasn't all too beautiful. The people greedy and often rude. Tourists everywhere, and most of them being obnoxious and loud. Giggling like teenage girls over a pop idol about that they can smoke weed. Oh whee, yeah, good going. Anyone anywhere can smoke weed if they want to. It's not like it actually is that hard to come by illegally.

Next time Mr. Mouse... next time...

One night, I was relaxing at the hotel, Discovery Channel on the small television, Nintendo 3DS in hand when suddenly I saw movement by the sink. It was a mouse! A honest to god tiny little mouse! I went "Eeeee!" and tried to find my camera, but it got away. The next morning I heard rusting in my plastic bag with food. I hurried to straighten it up and saw it in there. But as I went for my camera it jumped out and ran away.

For the evening, I set up a cunning trap. When I woke up the next morning, the trap was tripped! But the illusive Mr. Mouse was gone together with the crumbs of potato chips.

Yesterday night I arrived here in Berlin. A much friendlier city than Amsterdam. Sure, people are stressed here, but there aren't beggars here which when you accidentally look at them start following you around as there was in Amsterdam. Before you read on, make sure to put on this song:  Mr. Jones Machine - Vit Citroen. It will set the perfect mood. I went from my hostel this morning, singing along to this song which was set on repeat. After a while I came to The Fernsehturm, where there was a really cozy christmas market.For 3 euro I got a really large sandwich with vast amounts of feta cheese on. 

Then I strolled around a bit. I was here last summer, and I must say I like it better without all the tourists. Also, there are many small christmas markets all around. Very cozy wooden cabins with open sides where people sell hand made candy, jewellery, food, glühwein. Together with small ice skating places. Of all the christmas markets I've seen during my travels, the ones in Berlin are the best by far.

Also! Today I have been on the road for a full month! Huzzah! I wonder if my roomie miss me back home. Or if he is relishing in the fact that he got the apartment to himself. I hope for the first. Because I'm missing home myself.

Late Night at Red Light

So, today I've done a lot of walking. And by a lot I mean something near too much. about 16.2 kilometers or so (quite exactly 10 miles). Strange enough I've been walking half the day though some sort of half-depression. Just feeling "bleh" about everything. "Should I do this? ...meh. Should I do that? What's the use..." However after a bit of extra food (from Burger Bar, awesome €13 burgers. Worth every cent) I started feeling a bit better again.

I went to a museum, A Torture Museum. €7.5 and I thought "yeah! I can get interesting ideas here for item to sell in my 3D shop!". And let me tell you, meanwhile I got interesting ideas, it was the worse museum ever. Absolutely NOT worth that kind of money. All in all, reading all the texts and taking a picture of almost every single item, it took me 20-30 minutes to walk though it. The whole thing was a set of narrow corridors made to feel like a medieval dungeon. They pulled that off quite well. But the light in there was terrible, at times so bad you couldn't even see the exhibit at points. Making photography close to impossible. Most of the torture instruments were replicas. It felt a bit like looking at a children's picture book and reading a short few words of info more than going to a museum. No, not worth it in the least.

After that I drifted around a bit, then headed to a local cinema and saw "The Hobbit". Wow, I was blown away. I loved it! The only bad thing about it was that it felt too short. And that was at almost 3 hours. I liked it a lot more than Lord of The Rings, but then again, I liked the book much better too.

Last but not least I headed to the Red Light District to see what all the fuzz was all about. Though the heavy mists of cannabis smoke, hanging thick over the canal I saw lots of people and lots of naked ladies. And wow, let me tell you. There were a lot of very pretty girls with little or less clothing there. And wow, let me tell you. I do not like the sex industry. But that's a feminist discussion for another day.

Not Red Light District, but pretty =D

But, I've realized that getting a hotel room rather than a hostel room might have been a tactical mistake. I'd really have liked to have some strangers to hang around with and do things in the town with. Really, going to a coffee shop by yourself isn't really all that fun. Much like going to a bar on your own. However, on a bar you can just have one beer and think it is nice and leave. Going to get stoned alone would be like getting drunk alone. And a lone drunk is quite a sad thing. Same thing if you'd be so inclined to go to a sex show. If you go alone, you are a sad lonely person. With a group it is a fun outing. Soo, I'm staying away from the drugs and the sex during this visit. Hmm, unless I perhaps find a mushroom cookie to enjoy at the hotel room. So I can be a tourist in astral Amsterdam...

Amsterdam!

I've been a bit lazy with updating the blog lately. I've mostly just been walking around, looking at museums and things like that. The only thing with real blog substance was a zoo visit, but I spent all that day being lazy around the Hostel and picking at my bellybutton.

Yesterday afternoon I arrived in Amsterdam and locked myself into my hotel room. That's right, hotel room! It cost me only something like €160 for 5 days, and the only bad reviews were about mice. Sadly I've not seen any mice, even though I have my camera ready. I'm thinking about setting up a trap for a mouse and see if I can trap one for some nice pictures. Hrm, I should see if I can find a marcro lens.

Soo, the zoo! Let's talk a bit about it in retrospect. I walked though town, about an hour, an hour twenty and spent all the day at the zoo. I can for sure say that winter is not the season to be there. It is a bit like a post-apocalyptic landscape. No people, some animals, trees without leafs. The outdoor areas were quite commonplace. Much like you can see at any zoo. However, the indoor areas were were nice. They have 5 different buildings spread out over the area. And they show every aspect of the zoo. Turtle egg incubation, baby lizards, veterinary office. Heck, even jellyfish larvae.

The thing I didn't like about the zoo was the inconsistencies in English signs. All in all, only about 10 animals in total had English information, the rest were in Dutch alone. Hey I don't mind that there are no English signs, but it gets annoying when only a few got it. All or nothing.

Guess how I took this picture =D

The monkey area was quite dull though. And it really, really, really smelled like poop in there. Understandable since they're indoors for the winter and they don't spend as much time decorating places for the winter. What amazed me was that two other people was standing inside there, amidst all that horrible smell of urine and poop and eating. Then I heard them speak, German, and things fell into place.

Anyhow, I'll leave you with this, and head out into Amsterdam!