Pictures!

Yep. All 432 of them. And that is after dropping about a hundred or so. :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/skik42

Reminders of war

People's ability to pick themselves up after devastation and rebuild is a wonderful trait that has allowed us to continue and prosper, but I think it also allows us to forget and repeat the same mistakes not once, but over and over.

To go to a memorial or view the rumble left after a war only serves as a picture into what occurred. It does not give all the emotions, the death, the loss, the sadness... the lasting imprint. A crumbling building does not give the stories of the people who lived and died there. Pictures do not show the faces or carcases of our loved ones. A memorial only seems to teach us of a specific atrocity so that it specifically is not repeated.

From these we take away who was the victim and who was the wrongdoer, we do not place both of these as part of ourselves. We take away a lesson as specific as memorizing 2 + 2 = 4, but not the concept as a whole so that later we make the same mistake and only them learn that 3 + 1 also equals 4.

Berlin (part 2)

Our first time in Berlin we stayed in the old West Berlin. This time we stayed at a hostel in the old East Berlin. There is a striking difference and maybe oddly I prefer the eastern side. It is a bit more gritty and younger. It is like a jigsaw puzzle of new and old weaved together by graffiti. A street lined with cafes and bars with outdoor tables packed so closely it is hard to determine which cafe you are sitting down to will have a building that looks like it was just put up, next to a building were only the cracks along the base give away its age, and next to that a building that looks almost the same as it did since the war, dark and gray with half of its facade gone and old brick underneath showing and signs of smoke still surrounding the windows. On all the buildings beautiful graffiti art mingles with simple tagging, broken up by posters new to years old.

Sobering moments broke up our stroll when coming upon synagogues with guards and men who look like the secret service outside who quickly stop anyone who comes with in two feet of the building or a high and thick walled Jewish cemetery with a security system of cameras, gates and guard houses. Around these it seemed even the locals stopped chatting and everything was silent.

To end the day, on our way back to the hostel we noticed streets being blocked off by police and a helicopter hovering in the distance. Enough experience has taught me that this means a happy and festive occasion or a protest. Curiosity has not bitten me enough in life so we trucked it towards the helicopter.

We came up to a protest and not seeing Bush or America on any of the signs and the punk style dress of the crowd, we felt safe enough to walk along side of it till we got to the middle. There were a few times of having to dodge fighting or riot police but it was really interesting to see the differences and similarities between this and protests at home.

I think it was a fitting end to the day and oddly an uplifting one too. While protesting sadly I don't think will ever put an end to war, oppression or discrimination, it does mean that there are always those who are willing to speak out for others and help others when it is needed.

Munich (part 2)

Not much new to talk about this time. We hung out chatting at the hostel, walked around town, ate a one inch thick slab of meat sandwiched in a tiny bun and drank beer.

We met a girl from New Zealand, a guy from Connecticut, played foosball with some guys from New York and Sweden (respectively), played pool with a guy from Switzerland, chatted with a Russian guy in town for just a couple of hours, shared a beer with two guys from Australia and kicked back a few rounds with a German couple and two brothers from Italy. And that was only one day. :)

Why am I leaving???

Ars Electronica

Ok so maybe it was cooler than I thought it was going to be...

Actually it was a lot of fun! I didn't understand how any of it worked but you could play and have fun with everything.

There was a picture taking booth that then puts someone else's face on top of yours. Lets just say that if Derrick and I had a child it would be one ugly kid.

There was a cool computer you could draw right on the screen but the "paper" you were drawing on was constantly rotating.

There was this table that if you put stuff on it, depending on how solid or soft the object was, it made a different click or thud sound so you could experiment and make beats.

The best was a massive virtual world you could make with little boxes. You put the boxes into cubby holes and either took video or made pictures and then put the boxes on this table and whatever you recorded in the box entered your virtual world that you traveled around through a camera or a scooter.

Reading back, none of this makes sense but it really is how it was. I think Derrick can better explain...

Link

Also if you would like to read his side of the story for other adventures, um, like the castle...

Link

The Danube (part 2)

The other part of the day needed to be separated from the Danube cruise because it has a completely different theme. This post should more aptly be titled "Um, Derrick?"

To explain a little, the only part of our trip that I did not read or research about was of outside of Vienna and alongside the Danube. Derrick did, and his interest revolved around old castles and an "electronica museum" in Linz.

The day started in the early morning taking a train out to Leobendorf where we had a 3/4 mile hike to an old castle. Actually, scratch that, when we arrived Derrick realized it was not 3/4 a mile but 3/4 an hour hike.

So we began our hike through the fog shrouded woods in the direction Derrick claimed the castle was. The fog of course shrouded anything natural or man made farther than 20 feet away so whether or not there was a castle at the top of the hill we were climbing was anyone's guess. All the signs were in German, which Derrick claimed to understand, and he continuously kept replying, "it is just up here," to my question of, "Um, Derrick?"

To end any suspense, yes there was a castle and seeing it while half shrouded in mist was definitely eerie and cool at the same time. Derrick only told me on the way back that he too was unsure the entire hike up though.

After this we headed to the pick up point for the cruise and experienced three hours of eye popping beauty.

Later we left the boat and walked over to a cafe and had some amazing food. Once again small towns are where its at for awesome food.

We were suppose to explore a large abbey after that but were in such a euphoric state it was too much effort so we opted to catch the train to Linz.

In Linz, Derrick had been raving about the "electronica museum," so that night I grabbed a brochure to begin excitedly reading about it for the next morning. Three sentences into the brochure I looked up at Derrick and said, "Um, Derrick? This museum.. it isn't about music, is it?"

The "electronica museum" is not in fact about electronica music, but instead about electronic arts. In fact it revolves around one of the biggest electronic arts conventions in the world.

The moment of silence after Derrick told me this, us starring at each other both stunned from across a table, and the fit of laughter after realization set in for both of us is an indescribable moment, but so hilarious it is necessary to write about.

So tomorrow instead of writing about the museum I have been anticipating for weeks I will let you know how the Ars Electronica was. :-)

The Danube

Describing yourself as speechless usually means you are so awestruck that you try and try to think of an accurate word but are so struck, you are dumb to think of anything more descriptive than basic words. There are times though that you truly are speechless. You are not so awed that you can not find the words or the ability to form a sentence, you are so taken that you don't even think to speak. You simply look. What is in front of you is such ecstasy to your senses that all else (speech included) ceases to function or matter. You can not and need not speak, eat, drink, breath too if it were not an automatic recurrence of your body.

Hiroshima was horribly and the Cinque Terra fabulously like this, but to compare them to each other or the Danube would lessen each, even if only slightly, that is just enough.

I will not try and describe my cruise up the Danube; I would only ruin it. I can only post pictures later even though they only half at best portrait the experience and proclaim (demand even) that everyone make it a necessity in life to experience this.