Extreme Technical Problems and Berlin Saga Kickoff

I had a host for Berlin, but no phone number. I was packing frantically as always when I went to turn my computer on to see if I got a reply with the number.

My computer would not turn on.

WTF.

I was fucking scared! What was wrong? It was working the day before! I hadn't dropped it or done anything to it! Why?!?! Why now?!!?

I was stressed.

I was really tight for time catching the bus too - like I would arrive three minutes early or something, but while on the underground the train decided to not move for ten minutes! $%%#$%# There was problems with the system. I arrived ten minutes late after being stuck in the stupid underground. The next bus wasn't leaving until the next morning, and super early. Ugh.

I was in a bit of a mood between computer issues and bus issues, so I was not feeling like giving up and just staying another night. We went to the train station and there was one leaving in about an hour, for 20 euro more than the bus. I sucked it up and said yes. I didn't want to sit around all day freaking out about my computer...

I arrived in Berlin around 10:30 pm. Not bad at all... my host was at a bar with some friends so I met them and had a beer. His friend offered to let me drop my stuff at his house nearby since we were going to a drum n bass party that night.

We went over and hung out at his flat for a while pre-drinking. After a while, we headed out to this party - it was in this rad warehouse-looking area in East Berlin. Lots of graffiti, interesting people, and really good music. I hadn't danced to dnb for a long time since my fixation on dubstep is pretty bad. It took me a bit to get used to it, but once I found my groove it was awesome! I was really energized when I left that place - I already really really really liked this city :)

I had totally forgotten about my computer - that's how awesome things were.

Moving House to Benny's

I was moving again, but only for one night.

I arrived in the afternoon, and dropped off my stuff.

It was so hot out I was in need of a shower after five minutes of being outside with my pack, even in a halter dress! I threw some laundry in and I was feeling much better. We were going for dinner again that night and I didn't want to be super smelly. I got myself settled and we went to the city center this time. There was an Indian place that looked good so we tried it out. I love Indian food, so I was happy! There was a street blocked off with police trucks everywhere - the result of a football match fight. Over 20 people went into the trucks...

I was taught a little about the history of some of the building finally! Benny doesn't drink at all normally but he ended up having a glass of wine with dinner mwahaha. After walking around for a while, coffee was had at an outdoor cafe thing. Altogether really pleasant :) It was a relaxing evening - good change of pace for me, and I was leaving for Berlin the next day and I knew that place was going to be INSANE PARTY TIME so I was enjoying the stasis :)

Willpower Wins for a Day

I woke up still desiring a healthy streak. I had been partying so much I wanted to do something good for myself. Also, having hung out with Olive whom had been spending almost no money on her trip really made me realize how much money I am burning through unnecessarily. I had thought I was doing well, but really there is so much that I am buying that are not really needed.

I was invited to dinner, but I decided I was not going to drink today. It was going to be interesting since drinking beer is the pastime of choice in Prague. Danilo was going to the gym, so we walked together until our directions of choice differed... and of course within five minutes I was lost.



I had been to this beer garden at least three times now, and I still managed to do it. Luckily I had a map... I ran into a girl on the way there too so I stopped to chat. I arrived late but it didn't really matter because people were socializing... they finished beer (I resisted yeahhh!) and we went to another place for dinner.

This was my excursion for the day I think, because Danilo was receiving different guests the next day and I had to move house again tomorrow. I had to pack etc, plus I was in a bit of a funky mood. Not really feeling super social.

I can't remember but I think I just went back to the house?

I had a new game to play on the computer too so that may have influenced hehe :)

An Attempt at Being Healthy in Prague

Okay so I slept in. I know I always sleep in, but I woke up after over 11 hours of sleep and I still felt tired. This wasn't the first occurrence of this either. I had been waking up after more than eight hours of sleep still exhausted; I know oversleep can do this, but why was I sleeping so much in the first place? I was so tired.

I thought about what I have been doing to my body for the past while. My diet had been TERRIBLE, and you are what you eat... I had been eating pastry for breakfast quite a bit, and easy-to-make high-carb food most of the time otherwise. Hmmmm.

So today instead of getting pastry at the supermarket, I looked for healthy alternatives for breakfast. I bought, yogurt, healthy granola cereal, and banana's. I was going to meet Olive and Calvin to possibly go to this bone church, so I hopped on the tram to Calvin's.

They had looked up this place online and decided that it wasn't really as interesting as it sounded. I was kind of disappointed, but it turned out not really to be a bone church but a church with a few objects in it made from bones. Cool, but possibly not worth the money plus I woke up really late so it was already afternoon.

I ate my healthy breakfast... Felt a little better but still wanted more energy. Decided to go for a god coffee. WE found a place that actually had excellent coffee - it will be SO hard to go back to the CRAP we have in Canada for coffee... the good stuff doesn't make me sick or anything!

Coffee ended and it was back to the house for dinner! It took a while to buy food and cook it, so by the time I was finished eating it was time to go to the CS meeting...

This meeting was luckily really close by to Calvin's as well, so I could pretty much walk there. I had been talking to my friend from Vancovuer, Lance, because he had been in Prague since a day after my arrival, but we still hadn't met up! Between my phone running out of credit and me always being out somewhere with a bunch of people from CS, I was hard to reach. Finally, we met up at this meeting!

Olive and Calvin came a bit later, but most of the crew was already there. I met up with Roberto too, whom I had met in Munich as well! Turns out, he was going to Berlin next too... plus three other people at that meeting. Small world. It was cool though that I was going to see someone in three consecutive cities completely by chance. I was stoked on that!

I gave in and had a beer or two. I had been healthy all day and this was an occasion for me seeing Lance and Roberto etc. The meeting continued to this place I had been hearing about for quite a while: Cross Club (no idea if that's how you spell it at all.. might be Kross Klub or something). It was made of a lot of recycled machine parts, and the people that made the club live in it I think... really unusual. If you are curious look it up on Google or something - I didn't have my camera.

We walked in and I immediately liked it.... They were playing dubstep!!!!!! Wahoooooooo!!!!!!!! I was so so so happy - I dropped off some stuff and went to dance until it switched DJs and there was no more dubstep. Here is Calvin and Olive!



It was the usual thing after that... talk, meet people, dance, toilet, talk, meet people dance, etc. Good times! Eventually it was time to go, so I took off to the city center with a few people to catch a night tram back to Danilo's.

Unfortunately, Lance lived in the center, and was not going near the night tram place. I didn't really know where the night tram stop was in relation to where I was, so I ate a burger with him and took an educated guess. It was sort-of right. It wasn't the start, but it was along the route so I followed the track line. I had missed the tram by about three minutes, so I had half an hour until the next one. It was really late/early morning so it was debatable if it had already switched to daytime trams lol.

Either way I followed the tracks checking at the stops that I was still going in the right direction and following the right way when they split... I didn't take any wrong turns and a tram rolled up when I was two stops away from the house! It was a daytime number haha. I appreciated the two stops of resting, and rolled into the house to sleeeeepppppppppppp.

Olive and A View

so this day got interesting while sitting on a bridge. I had taken a tram into town, found earring making supplies, and looked around at some sights like the Jewish Quarter...










and was sitting looking at my map deciding where to go next. It was very hot out as usual, but the pool was looking really far away. I thought and thought, and then this girl walked by. She looked like people back home I know, so I stared. She looked at me walking by as well. I did the back glance while she was at the lights, and she did the same to me. It was very obvious we were staring at each other, and she walked straight up to me and introduced herself.

She was a Western-North-America person like myself, and her boyfriend had just left a couple days ago back to the States. She was en route to Greece but the person she was going to go to Greece with had already left Prague for some reason. She lived in a squat, and was an anarchist. Super interesting!

We grabbed some food and went on a pier. We walked around and talked for quite a while... went to get warmer clothes... and in the evening went and met up with Calvin who was having a beer with friends in the city center.

These friends turned out to be an EXTREMELY drunk Aussie and an older woman that didn't really speak English. We left to a beer garden where there was a view of the city... the barely understandable Aussie came with us unfortunately.

The view from this place was gorgeous! I ran into a couple Couchsurfers there too, so we all hung out for a while until thunder and lightning and raiiin forced us to consider indoor options. The lightning was so cool to see on the top of a hill. Calvin lived super close to this beer garden though so Olive, Calvin, and I went to chill there. We made food and eventually decided to go get a beer in the center. Calvin had a crush on this bartender so we went to that bar for a beer or two :)

After this I was getting tired, so I went to the night tram and caught one home :)

Bikes and Converstation

Jimmi was leaving the next day, so Lidwin, Jimmi and I met up in town and had all-you-can-eat-sushi in a landlocked country. Sounds strange, but it was yummmmmy. It was running sushi where you just pick up what you want to eat. They had this milky mango juice that I loved :)



The day before I had talked to Jimmy's host - Calvin - and he had offered to give me a free tour of the city on this spider bike... he's from Texas and had just started working as a tour guide through Prague. Jimmi and Lidwin were going back to Munich, so I walked them to the underground. I was given a mission to get a hockey scarf for Jimmy, and possibly mail it to him. I took the money and was excited for this mission! I started walking away...






I went to visit Calvin in the main square then, and saw what he was "driving". The bike was just silly.... it's a circle with a little table etc the middle... the "driver" had to steer with a steering wheel while all the others pedaling were making it easier to be pedaling this crazy heavy bike thing. Everyone would face center.... fuck I should just find a picture online or something...



it was fun. The tour was more hanging out with people on the bike riding around the city. Not too much history or anything, but that's okay. Calvin invited me to hang out after work, and I agreed. I had some time and some stuff to shop for, so I left on my mission.

I found a scarf for Jimmi! I also found my backpack patch, postcard, cheap sunglasses (I had stepped on mine in Luxembourg), and shopped some more! I felt very productive! I headed back just in time... Calvin dropped the bike off and we walked to his house, he made food food for himself, and we hung out for a few hours talking away. I was going to dinner with another Couchsurfer that evening, so I didn't want to ruin dinner!

It's a good thing I didn't... it was excellent :) We had an interesting conversation about language (this is an Irishman that knows eight languages fluently wtfff) but eventually after hanging out for a little while afterwards I had to go to move my stuff.

Danny is an extremely active host, so there were a bunch of Kiwi's showing up at his house that night. I had been booked in only for the weekend, so now there was no room for me to stay... Danilo had offered to host me next and he lived five minutes walk down the street, so I was moving there. The place where I had dinner (Benny's) was five minutes from Danilo, so I was walking for ten to Danny's, packing my stuff, and walking five minutes to Danilo's. Easiest move EVER! Soooooo many people live in this one little neighborhood!

When I arrived at Danilo's, I was not in the mood to go out partying really. I was full of good sober conversation, so I downloaded this game that I've wanted for aaaaggeesss and hung out watching Youtube and How I Met Your Mother with Danilo :)

Beer Garden Hooping

so the major thing I did on this day was go to another CS meeting. It was at a beer garden near Danny's house, and I got some photos of the creepy babies climbing up the TV tower... they are made by a famous czech artist whos name escapes me and yes the big babies from the day before are from the same guy. They apparently moved those babies with no faces around in the night to mess with people haha!






I brought my hula's to the meeting, which was again a very impressive turnout! We took over quite a few tables and a decent amount of standing/hooping space! Jimmy, a French guy I met in Munich, was there (crazy!! small world!) and also someone I was emailing from Belgium was there! The hula hoops were almost constantly in use... I was teaching, playing, drinking beer, and socializing - normal CS meeting. Jimmi was in need of a host but I found one for him! Another surfer also arrived at Danny's (named Lidwin) that oddly knew Jimmi - small world!

Eventually we were hungry so the crowd moved to dinner. We went to a traditional Czech place and I tried beer ice cream for the first time. It was really gross.

I was fading after all the food. There was a lengthy discussion about where to go next, but in the end I was too tired and took a tram home.

Prague Explorations and More Dancing

I went exploring, here are some photos...








































I am happy I took a fair amount of photos on this day...

After wandering about lost hopping on trams and walking into buildings, there was a birthday dinner thing going on for a CS person. Danny and I arrived a little late, but that's normal apparently for Prague :) There were sooo many people there we took over the entire first floor of the bar in the end! I had a couple beers and dinner, tried some czech drink and then we were off to another birthday...

This one was in a less traditional place, very modern with a dj and mirrors etc. We hung out there for a while, but then Danny had to go back for a reason I can't remember. It was me and two girls, one of them the birthday girl, so we went to a place that might have better dancing. The music was okay for a while, but it was trance and I get sick of trance after a while. The girls were also on e and I was not so I was feeding them water and making sure they didn't start doing anything crazy haha. By four I was getting tired, I have no idea what time I actually left but eventually I made my way to the house in a cab with one of the girls. The other one had her roommate to look after her.