Technical Difficulties

So apparently two posts I thought were published weren't...so now they're out of order. Whoops sorry!

Riding Camels and Tel Aviv

As tacky as it sounds, riding camels in the desert was actually the coolest thing ever. It didn't feel real, riding huge-ass ugly creatures and feeling their muscles move under my butt. I had the honor of sharing the experience with my wonderful friend Mallory, who named our camel Humphrey. 

We stopped at a hydroponic greenhouse farm place that produces the majority of Israel's fruit and vegetables, a major feat considering it's smack in the middle of the dessert. We tasted tomatoes, herbs, strawberries, and lemons, which provided a much-needed vitamin boost. 

Tel Aviv was the next major stop, the biggest city in Israel. It's full of cute artsy shops and a a great Saturday market.

Now it's the morning of our departure, and I can't help being sad it's over. I made so many great friends and learned so much on this trip. I'm off to Prague early tomorrow morning for a whole other adventure.

Outdoors Day

As Birthright has continued I've noticed they like to clump activities by category. Yesterday was sad day, spending time in a soldiers' graveyard and taking a tour of the Holocaust museum. The day was moving and powerful and deeply somber.

Today took on a new theme - the outdoors. We started by hiking the Masada, expansive Roman ruins in the middle of the desert. 

In the spirit of Romanness, we had a push-up competition in the ancient baths.

Next was a hike through waterfalls. The scenery was beautiful but the falls were largely dried up. Finally, we went to the much-awaited Dead Sea. This was probably my favorite part of the trip this far. It feels hilarious to be in such salty water. You can bounce up and down like a yo-yo without touching the ground and float without paddling. We took a quick falafel break and then slathered ourselves with mud. I'm now the softest I've ever been, and I can't stop stroking my face. 

 

So Many Hamburgers

Our Germany adventures started with a day in Dresden, where we met up with a friend of mine who's studying there. Having a native with us made all the difference. She took us to a great restaurant, showed us the fun, non-touristy area of the city, and found us cheap bus tickets on an all-German website. Dresden felt a little like Boston, full of students and great shopping. After a day of wandering, we got back to the station just in time to hop on the bus to Berlin.

Berlin wins most interesting city award, at least in my book. The complicated politics and history make for a city you can't simply stroll around in and get a feel for. It took two walking tours and a long visit to the German History Museum for me to begin to grasp what Berlin is all about. We took the classic walking tour, led by an ex-history teacher oozing with love of sharing history with us. He took us mainly to major sites of the Holocaust. I stood over the bunker in which Hitler committed suicide, and a few steps later saw the site where his body was burned. Ironically, a child's slide now sits in that very spot.

We also took a tour called Alternative Berlin that explored the street culture and graffiti art that began largely after World War II. Much of the artwork is spectacular and easily missed without a guide to point it out.

The torrential downpour made it tough to take lots of pictures, but I promise it was really cool. 

If you're ever in Berlin, go to a place called White Trash Fast Food (WTFF). This bar/restaurant/music venue couldn't even be called a room - it's more like a large covered space lit with vintage chandeliers and candles held in liquer bottles. We ate awesome veggie burgers, drank much beer, and listened to a band described as "pop/funk/theater." As strange as that sounds, it's exactly what they were. 

Alana and I left the hostel early the next morning, her for the airport and me for the bus station. I slept most of the way to Hamburg, and was greeted by my good friend Jan as I stepped off the bus. He goes to university a little ways outside the city but came home to Hamburg for the weekend to hang out with yours truly. Despite the wind nearly blowing us away, we managed to hit most of the major sites in Hamburg. 

The best part, though, was realizing that the name for one who lives in Hamburg is legitimately Hamburger. I couldn't stop picturing the food kind of hamburgers hobbling around the streets. 

The awful weather eventually scared us away. We spent the evening drinking wine I can't pronounce, sharing music, and reminiscing about New Zealand. His wonderful mom went out of her way to make sure I had everything I needed, and it felt so nice to be in a home instead of a hostel. Now I'm off to Amsterdam for five nights. The forecast looks very wet, so I see a lot of hiding inside in my future. 

Czech It Out

I arrived in Prague after pulling an all-nighter, with only a few measly hours of plane sleep in me. My wonderful friend Alana was waiting for me outside of customs, just arrived from Dublin. We navigated our way to the hostel, which looks like it could be in Animal Kingdom in Disney World. As we speak I'm staring at a grinning giraffe painted above my bed. It took us about a day to get our bearings, since old town of Prague was apparently designed before the invention of straight lines. The windy cobblestone roads, while not conducive to efficient navigation, create the charming European feel of rich history and architecture.



Juxtaposed onto the old city is graffiti of all shapes, color, and sizes. Most notable of the graffitis would be the John Lennon wall. During the communist rule, civilians would paint Lennon quotes on the wall each day, and officials would paint over them each night. This back-and-forth created a space for silent, peaceful protest until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Today the wall flourishes with layers of John Lennon-themed graffiti art.

Alana and I took both the general walking tour and the castle walking tour, getting a pretty solid overview of Prague's major sites. It houses the world's largest ancient castle, an impressively huge astronomical clock, and an extremely well-preserved Jewish quarter. Apparently Hitler was very fond of Prague and had intended to retire here. He forbade destruction of the major synagogues, planning to use them to house a museum of an extinct people. I know, freaky, right?!

The other thing one must note about Prague is the beer. People love to shoot out the statistic that the people of Prague drink the most beer per capita of any city in the world, averaging over a liter of beer per person per day (this includes babies). Beer is cheaper than water in most places, and I'm starting to wonder how Czech people don't all suffer from dehydration. There's also this...I don't know what it is but it can't be bad.

Alana and I took advantage of this on a pub crawl on our second night and met a mob of drunken Irish students along the way. Our night out was a blast and involved a burrito, which is all a girl could ever want.

For our last night we went to a Black Light Theater show, recommended to me by a guy on the plane. Apparently very Czech, this type of theater involves very strange effects and very little plot. I'm not sure what else to say about it except that we left at intermission and will probably never attend another one of these shows.

All in all Prague seems like a great city with much beauty, color, and alcoholism. Hopefully I'll come back some day to spend more than three days, but we're off to Dresden in the morning. Czech-out is at 11:00!