From Turkey With Love

Hey all! I've finally arrived in a hostel that has free Internet! Sorry I've been incommunicado for so long, but the bill really starts to add up when you've got to pay Euro for blogging privileges. Life's been awesome - Oktoberfest, Prague, Vienna and Salzburg were all delightful in their own rights, and I can fill you in on them later. But all that can wait, because yesterday we arrived in the crown jewel of the trip - Istanbul.

The world's greatest (and only) intercontinental city and not ceased to delight me since the moment we made it through customs. Even before touching down on the runway I got shivers of excitement down my spine as the approach to the tarmac revealed a massive city peppered with countless minarets rising from the ground like arrows caught just before their vault into the sky. Our hostel is situated only a few blocks from the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque (more on those later) and from the rooftop bar we can see across the Bosporus to Asia. Today we went to the former Ottoman Topkapi Palace and took a stroll through the Emperor's old harem. The beautiful women are gone today, but the gorgeous frescos, mosaics and furniture have survived. After a Kebab lunch (awesome, cheap and incredibly unhealthy) we ventured into the subterranean Bassilica Cistern built by Justinian in Roman times to hold the city's drinking water. It's not a reservoir any longer, but instead a massive underground room with a ceiling 30 feet above the floor held up by more than 300 columns. As we walked along the catwalks (there's sill a few feet of water kept down there so the carp and trout can stay alive) I could hardly believe my eyes. To finish the day off right, we went to the Aya Sophia, an almost unfathomably large cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum. Inside her massive belly, I filled my mind (and SD memory card) with gorgeous frescos, calligraphy, columns, arches and domes that I truly hope to never forget. This building is without a doubt the most impressive place I've ever been. If you don't believe me, google it. The photos might help you understand a little, but in all honesty you should probably just fly over here at some point in your life.

More later, time to grab a drink and play cards on the roof. Cheers!

Czeching In

Hey all,

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! We've been having a great time in Eastern Europe and there are loads of stories to share, but the internet's been a little dodgy here, so I've got to be brief. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I'll have more time and a better computer to use, but know that we are all loving life and having a ball in Prague. Off to Vienna on Sunday!

Cheers.

Money For Nothing

Our first day in Berlin was absolutely spectacular. We slept in and awoke to a crystal-clear sky. After sipping coffee and taking our time to get ready, we hopped on the metro line and rode down to the Brandenberg Gate. From there, we met up with a free walking tour that took us through the city for more than five hours, explaining the significance of each special building and location we came across. In a word, it rocked. Afterward, we wandered the city streets (as is now habit) and eventually came across a pub that promised "Live Music Tonight @ 22:00." We decided to duck in and check it out. In no way was this worth the wait. Eventually, two men stood before us with guitars and a bass/drum track player to lead each song for them. The opening song on the setlist was an overly cheesey and canned version of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits. The lyricist sounded as if he knew the way the song sounded, but was not actually aware of what any of the sounds (words) he was singing meant. Aaron and I could not stop laughing - in fact, it got so bad we had to leave. Horrible music, but great times. Love you all!

I thought our flight left at 8:45...

We almost got to spend another night in London.  The story is far to long and complicated to adequately convey here, but know that we somehow made it onto a train that delivered us to the airport 5 minutes before check-in closed, ran through the terminal, got hasseled by security, I got lost and stranded (literally) in a part of the airport that had no public exit and had to be shuttled across the tarmack by security in a van, and still made our (thankfully delayed) flight to Berlin.  I woke up this morning and remembered immediately that I was in Germany when I saw the framed David Hasselhoff album hanging opposite my bed.  Delightful.  That's all for now, but I'll try to type up the whole Stansted Airport debacle later today.  Cheers!

This is Stonehenge

Just track with me for a minute. Let's say that there is some other race of highly intelligent, technologically advanced creatures living somewhere in relatively close proximity to the planet Earth. Now let's suspend reality further and imagine that these people (or martians, or whatever you want to call them) were able to out-engineer the harsh vacuum of outer space and somehow overcome the massive power demands necessary to travel between the stars. We can assume that of all the countless dots in their nighttime sky, they arbitrarily picked our sun and traveled for several (probably even hundreds of) years to our little blue planet. Assuming all of this had come to pass, I simply cannot believe that the only thumbprint these super-advanced people would leave here is Stonehenge. It's truly just a bunch of rocks. I'm glad I saw these stones with my own two eyes, but if aliens ever do visit this planet, they better leave something way cooler than the Henge.
We also went to the City of Bath, which was remarkably nice. Almost all the buildings are built out of a beautiful honey-colored rock called, aptly enough, Bathstone. There is a lot of Roman history here and the whole town has a very nice, relaxed feel. Today, I'm off to find Wembley Stadium, a guitar, and a plane ride to Berlin. Cheers!

Make It Mine

Based upon my activities today, I can only hypothesise that the English have a very unique look at history, which goes something like this: 'If our stories are not interesting enough, we'll just liberated those which belong someone else and use them as our own.' I came to this conclusion while walking through the British Museum this afternoon. Britain's largest and surely most impressive gallery is filled to the teeth with gorgeous antiquities and relics of human history - there are mummies from ancient Egypt, Buddhas from all over East and Southeast Asia, The Rosetta Stone itself, and even nearly every surviving fresco and statue from the original Parthenon in Athens. Each of these pieces is interesting in their own right, yet it seemed almost as interesting to me that they could all be found under one roof. In London. It seems that in years past, Her Majesty's Royal Navy was privy to pack and ship anything that was not mortared into the bedrock back to the archives in London to ensure "preservation and care taking for the sake of mankind." All sarcasm aside, I was humbled and amazed time and again as I browsed through the serpentine corridors of this massive structure. The best part?...free admission (but the mummies were a close second).
Oh yeah, we went to a Jason Mraz concert tonight too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Off to Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow, and we just might be able to meet up with Winston's mom and dad. Brilliant!

The Bard

Big Ben and the Tower Bridge were both very cool, and I'm glad we saw them both, but today's most brilliant star shone from the stage. After a fantastic day of touring and shopping, we sat down for an authentic English pub Fish & Chips Dinner before heading down the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for an evening of civilized entertainment. Our bellies satisfied whit deep-fried fantasies, we waddled into the circular theatre and took our standing positions in the general admission section (5 Quid for tickets - the best value of our trip!). For the next 3 hours, our minds bounced to the iambic pentameter of Timon of Athens, a play I knew nothing about before but thoroughly enjoyed. The actor playing the lead in this uplifting tale of greed, deceit, bitterness and murder was a both incredibly talented and uncannily similar in appearance to James Taylor. For those unfamiliar with the play, Timon spends the entire second act wearing nothing but a loincloth, so as I watched part of me kept hoping I would get to see a performance of 'You've Got a Friend' by a grown man wearing a diaper. If only all my dreams came true...