It's like a fairytale

How does this happen? It's been almost a week but I don't feel like I've done anything worth writing about. So I guess this will be a short update.
I went to St Malo. Pretty city but a less than impressive hostel (they only have the one). I did a day trip to Mont St Michel. You can really believe that besides the contents of the souvenir shops it hasn't changed in hundreds of years. I went to Bayeux where the hostel was even less impressive and the city wasn't really special enough to make up for it. And I went to Rouen with possibly the worst hostel of the lot and I don't even remember anything particular about the city. I ran out of time and didn't go to the D Day beaches. To be honest I was so sick of Normandy's idea of what youth hostels are meant to be that I was just ready to get out of there.
So I went to Belgium. I got to Brussels yesterday but only stayed the one night because the hostel options there weren't so good either. So this morning I got up early did a walk around the main sights of the city (what's with the manneken pis? Why is that even worth mentioning in passing let alone going out of the way to see?) Then checked out at the last minute and caught a train to Bruges. I walked around a lot. Ate some fries. Looked at the belfry but couldn't climb it since it was closed. Got rained on. Didn't get shot at. And now I'm on a train to Antwerp. And a much better hostel.
I suppose it's a short update mostly because I don't seem to want to go into detail. That would require effort. So I won't be surprised if I get some complaints about the uselessness of this post. Or more likely complaint. Most of you seem to just put up with me being useless at communicating.

Surfing, stones, seafood and Paris

So I guess it's been a while. Internet has been a difficulty recently. But everything else has been good. Paris was amazing. We only had about 3 days there and wanted to see as much as we could in that time so we just kept moving and ended up rather tired. The first day I think I mentioned. We saw sacre couer, champs elysee, arc de triomphe, eiffel tower, luxembourg gardens, pantheon and notre dame. The next day we went early to the louvre. It's pretty overwhelming. We wandered there until our feet hurt and we were hungry. Then after lunch we went to the shakespeare and company bookstore which was a different kind of amazing. I always love those kind of bookstores where it's so packed with books on every surface that you have to squeeze between the shelves. And then the Centre Pompidou which is kind of an awesome building. We did look at most of the art there but we also found squishy chairs and by that point it was very hard to not stay in the squishy chairs reading. Sadly they had to close and we had to make our way back to the hostel and find some dinner. The following day we went out to Versailles. I don't even know what there is to say about Versailles. The buildings were amazing in various ways and the gardens are enormous. Luckily the weather was good so we could just wander the grounds. We got back to Paris in the Afternoon and went to the Musee d'Orsay. Which was also fantastic, though slightly overheated.
And then the next day we had to leave. But not until the afternoon so we had the morning to walk around some more and see a few of the parts of Paris we hadn't gotten to yet.
By the time we got to the train station we were exhausted. We'd decided to have 2 days in the loire valley so that we could sleep and recover for one day and still have time to see some chateaux. But instead we slept and read for both days and didn't see a great deal of Blois at all. But we left much more refreshed than we had been, ready to see Carnac.
We got incredibly lucky with Carnac because we managed to couch surf with a woman who was willing to drive us all around to see the stone alignments and the sunset over they ocean and a tomb and little seaside villages and more. If we had had to do it ourselves we would have found a way but we wouldn't have seen half as much as we did because it would have taken so much time to figure out how to get places.
The stone alignments at Carnac are amazing. I took some pictures and I'll try to remember to stick one in at the end but they don't really give you any idea of the scale. These massive stones are lined up in rows
There are also a bunch of tomb things where they've put these stones standing close together, more or less in a circle, and then placed a giant one over the top. We went to see one that is in a forest area and is still contained in rock and earth. You can go inside it.
Then we went for lunch for the local speciality of galettes. Very tasty. Had a look around the port then drove out to the peninsula with a dramatic coastline where we speculated on the sanity of the surfers.
That evening our host had friends over and she fed us lobster. It's the first time I've had lobster. I decided since I was planning on eating it I should be willing to watch them prepare it. Including the part where they cut it in half alive. Almost makes me want to switch to halal but I trust that most of the meat I eat goes through slaughterhouses where the aim is efficiency meaning a quick and clean kill. I was not a fan of watching a living creature be bisected but once it was dead I had no problem just seeing it as meat. And it was tasty. Though rather hard to eat.
So that should bring you up to date. I am now on the train to St Malo where hopefully there will be decent internet for me to post this.
that go for hundreds of metres. And that's just one part. There are several different parts. Thousands of megaliths covering I don't even know how many kilometres which people purposefully placed upright in the ground. And the rocks don't even come from near there! And unlike stonehenge you can walk right in among them and reach out and touch them. Or you can in winter anyway. Apparently in summer they are closed off so the vegetation can regrow. Another advantage to travelling off season.

Ich bin ein berliner

Well no, but I ate a berliner. I'm currently on a night train from Berlin to Paris. For the first time I'm doing a night train not in the seats but on the couchette thing. There are six in a compartment which means that there is another bed about thirty centimetres from my nose. Being in the middle bunk makes it interesting getting up and down. But once here it's not too uncomfortable and hopefully I will sleep better than some other night trains I've had. But even if I don't I'm not going to let that stop me because tomorrow I will be in Paris and I'm not going to waste time napping. Once we get in and dump luggage at the hostel we're going to put on our super tourist hats (which will likely be the same hat I wear every other day) and keep prodding each other awake and possibly resorting to caffeine so that we can see as much of the city as we can. Which means I'm not expecting a lot of down time tomorrow to write this in because I expect that if I sit for long I won't stand up again. So I should write this now. But I'm kind of sleepy so might not get far. Which means you probably won't get this tomorrow. Too bad. I'll be in Paris.
Since I last wrote we have been to Dresden and Berlin. Dresden was incredible. If you didn't know that only 60 years ago it was completely destroyed and most of it's population killed you probably wouldn't guess. Parts of the resorted buildings are still blackened from the fire and you can tell which parts are new because the clean blocks stand out beside the black ones but it is a vibrant city full of history. They didn't let a little thing like total destruction get in the way of that. Unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole time we were there and on the first day when we were going to the old town to be tourists the wind was incredible. Felt like we were about to be blown off the bridge at one point. But on the plus side there weren't so many people around.
I also ate one of the best burgers I have ever had I'm my entire life. Might be worth a trip to Germany just for that.
Our next stop was Berlin. And it rain the whole time we were there too. By that point it had been raining on us for over a week and I was really sick of it.  Weather patterns of any sort don't often last a whole week in Christchurch. So we ended up spending much of the first day hunkering inside reading books. But we did make the effort to go for a walk. Saw the Brandenburg gate, the dom, the tv tower thing, the holocaust memorial and book burning square. As well as a bunch of other things along the path. It's a nice city and there's history everywhere you turn, much of it not very nice but they've managed to hold on to the not so nice past and create a nice city anyway.
Yesterday we went to 3 museums. The neues museum with it's egyptian stuff, the pergamon museum with Greek and Roman and Assyrian, and the old national gallery with all sorts of paintings and sculpture.
Right so yesterday's "today" is now today's "yesterday" so don't be confused when I follow the previous paragraph with:
Then yesterday sadly required shopping. The zipper on my pants has broken twice and while I have managed to fix it both times it's clearly not going to last all that long. So I have to find new pants before they break for good. And I really hate shopping for pants. But I did it anyway. I didn't actually buy anything though so i will have to shop again in the near future.
Since it was our last day in Germany we got pretzels and also bought bratwurst from a guy with a portable barbecue. And by that I mean he had a barbecue strapped to himself so he could walk around and sell sausages. There was an umbrella sticking out of the part on his back with the tank in it too. There were actually a whole bunch of them and I felt like I couldn't not get one.
And then the night train. Which wasn't too bad. Obviously not awesome because it was on a train but even with the lack of space it is better to be lying down.
When we got to Paris we tracked down the hostel then went to a cafe for breakfast where we sat doing got chocolates and munching croissants as we looked out at the basilique de sacre couer. Sound like a good start to the day? Well it continued in the same sort of way. First we climbed to sacre couer where we got good views of the city and happened to stumble into the church in time for a mass. With a full choir of nuns. It was interesting because of course I understood none of the words but felt like I almost knew what to say because the rhythm and patterns to the mass are the same in english. Then we walked back down the hill, stopped by the information centre for the museum pass, walked from there past the louvre, along the champs elysee to the arch de triomphe. We climbed up to the viewing platform and got a few slightly foggy photos across the city and of the eiffel tower (at which point my camera died. Lucky for you because it means I actually yolk a few with my phone so you might ever see some). Then we walked to the eiffel tower where we decided we'd had enough stairs for one day and didn't go up. Then over to the luxembourg gardens and the pantheon and finally across to notre dame. At which point we decided we had managed to fit enough into a day that started out with the tired that comes from a night train. So we headed back to the hostel.
Now it's about 9.30 and I am going to sleep. I will try to remember to post this in the morning.

Ich bin ein berliner

Well no, but I ate a berliner. I'm currently on a night train from Berlin to Paris. For the first time I'm doing a night train not in the seats but on the couchette thing. There are six in a compartment which means that there is another bed about thirty centimetres from my nose. Being in the middle bunk makes it interesting getting up and down. But once here it's not too uncomfortable and hopefully I will sleep better than some other night trains I've had. But even if I don't I'm not going to let that stop me because tomorrow I will be in Paris and I'm not going to waste time napping. Once we get in and dump luggage at the hostel we're going to put on our super tourist hats (which will likely be the same hat I wear every other day) and keep prodding each other awake and possibly resorting to caffeine so that we can see as much of the city as we can. Which means I'm not expecting a lot of down time tomorrow to write this in because I expect that if I sit for long I won't stand up again. So I should write this now. But I'm kind of sleepy so might not get far. Which means you probably won't get this tomorrow. Too bad. I'll be in Paris.
Since I last wrote we have been to Dresden and Berlin. Dresden was incredible. If you didn't know that only 60 years ago it was completely destroyed and most of it's population killed you probably wouldn't guess. Parts of the resorted buildings are still blackened from the fire and you can tell which parts are new because the clean blocks stand out beside the black ones but it is a vibrant city full of history. They didn't let a little thing like total destruction get in the way of that. Unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole time we were there and on the first day when we were going to the old town to be tourists the wind was incredible. Felt like we were about to be blown off the bridge at one point. But on the plus side there weren't so many people around.
I also ate one of the best burgers I have ever had in my entire life. Might be worth a trip to Germany just for that.
Our next stop was Berlin. And it rained the whole time we were there too. By that point it had been raining on us for over a week and I was really sick of it.  Weather patterns of any sort don't often last a whole week in Christchurch. So we ended up spending much of the first day hunkering inside reading books. But we did make the effort to go for a walk. Saw the Brandenburg gate, the dom, the tv tower thing, the holocaust memorial and book burning square. As well as a bunch of other things along the path. It's a nice city and there's history everywhere you turn, much of it not very nice but they've managed to hold on to the not so nice past and create a nice city anyway.
Yesterday we went to 3 museums. The neues museum with it's egyptian stuff, the pergamon museum with Greek and Roman and Assyrian, and the old national gallery with all sorts of paintings and sculpture.
Right so yesterday's "today" is now today's "yesterday" so don't be confused when I follow the previous paragraph with:
Then yesterday sadly required shopping. The zipper on my pants has broken twice and while I have managed to fix it both times it's clearly not going to last all that long. So I have to find new pants before they break for good. And I really hate shopping for pants. But I did it anyway. I didn't actually buy anything though so i will have to shop again in the near future.
Since it was our last day in Germany we got pretzels and also bought bratwurst from a guy with a portable barbecue. And by that I mean he had a barbecue strapped to himself so he could walk around and sell sausages. There was an umbrella sticking out of the part on his back with the tank in it too. There were actually a whole bunch of them and I felt like I couldn't not get one.
And then the night train. Which wasn't too bad. Obviously not awesome because it was on a train but even with the lack of space it is better to be lying down.
When we got to Paris we tracked down the hostel then went to a cafe for breakfast where we sat drinking hot chocolates and munching croissants as we looked out at the basilique de sacre couer. Sound like a good start to the day? Well it continued in the same sort of way. First we climbed to sacre couer where we got good views of the city and happened to stumble into the church in time for a mass. With a full choir of nuns. It was interesting because of course I understood none of the words but felt like I almost knew what to say because the rhythm and patterns to the mass are the same in english. Then we walked back down the hill, stopped by the information centre for the museum pass, walked from there past the louvre, along the champs elysee to the arch de triomphe. We climbed up to the viewing platform and got a few slightly foggy photos across the city and of the eiffel tower (at which point my camera died. Lucky for you because it means I actually took a few with my phone so you might ever see some). Then we walked to the eiffel tower where we decided we'd had enough stairs for one day and didn't go up. Then over to the luxembourg gardens and the pantheon and finally across to notre dame. At which point we decided we had managed to fit enough into a day that started out with the tired that comes from a night train. So we headed back to the hostel.
Now it's about 9.30 and I am going to sleep. I will try to remember to post this in the morning.

Surprise! You're in Switzerland!

So Germany of all places doesn't do free wifi. Or at least this black forest part doesn't. We thought Frieburg was weird but Baden-Baden might even be worse. Not only do the hostels not have wifi (the only other places I've run into that didn't have wifi were in Greece and didn't seem to know about the internet at all. They didn't even have email. These places have whole websites) but the cafes and restaurants don't either (which most did in Greece). And this is Germany which makes a lot use of the internet. Unlike Greece where it was very difficult to get information online sometimes. I guess maybe it's another way for them to get more money out of you but I can live without internet for a few days or even handle sitting in starbucks for a few hours rather than pay money. Which means you are just going to have to make do without an update for a few more days. Of course by the time you read this that will be more of a past tense statement. And look! You made it those extra few days without an update! Well done.
So what have I been up to? I'm not really sure. Doesn't feel like I've done that much. Made it to Germany. Which is so far not my favourite place. Not that there's anything wrong with it (apart from the weird internet systems) but most countries by this point I would be thinking that I wished I had more time and that there was so much I was missing out on because I can't see everything. I just don't feel that way about Germany. I am looking forward to Dresden and Berlin but might even decide not to bother with Hamburg and just have more time in France instead. But maybe northern Germany will suddenly click for me.
So far we have been to Munich (where I got to see some classical statuary that I studied at uni), Fussen (where we did the tour of Ludwig II's elaborate and unfinished castle), Freiburg (where we explored the Munster and listened to fireworks) and Baden-Baden (where we didn't actually do a whole lot because it rained a lot and one of the days was a holiday so everything was closed). Right now we are still in Baden-Baden but I won't have internet until we get to Stuttgart tomorrow.
Germany is odd. It has what is generally accepted as the best website for the train system in all Europe and is well known for those trains always being on time so I expected the train system to be good. That seemed the logical conclusion. But it's either very expensive or very convoluted. To get from Fussen to Frieburg we had to take 5 different trains. Take a look at a map and you'll see that they're not that far apart. There are mountains in the way so they can't go straight there but the way we went was rather circuitous. We could only take the regional trains which meant we had to sort of zigzag. And as we were waiting for our last train to depart I decided to go to the vending machine because it was the first chance we'd had all day since at all the other stops we'd had about 5 minutes to get from one train to the next (once only 3). And I was rather surprised when it gave me back change that was not euros. It was Swiss francs. Because the cheapest way to get from Fussen to Frieburg is on regional trains which for some reason go via Switzerland.
So I can add another country to the list of paces I've been to on this trip. I hadn't planned on going to Switzerland but I spent about as much time there as I did in Monaco so I think it counts anyway.