Lost in winding lanes

Histories pulse throbs

My heart soars 

Prague, gasp. It is so unbelievably beautiful. Every street is stunning, the architecture is mind blowing. It is like being in a fairytale, or maybe that is the absinthe. Walking across 600 year old bridges to go and see castles and palaces that were built a millenium ago. It is just mind blowing.

I want to find a medieval dress and float across turrets, ride horses through tiny lanes and be wooed from castle windows. I want to rent a room and write great novels above a smoky bar looking out on the Old Town Square. I want to sit in the streets and paint every season. I want to dress in black and roam the streets photographing every tiny detail. I am enchanted by this pace, it is stunning. I also want to yell at tourists but Prague is so beautiful even my rage has been diminshed.

The lives of thousands of people echo through every cobblestoned street, history is right here, buildings unchanged for hundreds of years. How many people have walked the lanes I am walking How many stories must be contained in every bar, around every corner and in every house. There are whispers of a past that is still being formed, a story whose thread is still being woven. 

This a city where revolutions start and great art is inspired. The Velvet revolution began here in 1989, the German invasion of the Czech Republic prompted the start of WWII. A city of stories, ghosts and history. It is amazing. Thankfully it was not destroyed in the second World War like so many other cities, at least somehting was unscathed. Although the extermination of Jews was diabolical, so in a way it was as destructive as anywhere else for the people living here.

If I don't come back, look for me in Prague, I will be here mouth agape between sips of absinthe, caught in the spell of this jewel, infatuauted with my surroundings and in love with its romance.

I toured around on a bike

Found some people I look like

A bar of people I now know

But it is time to go

I have a party in the land of the dike

PS Yes this is really terrible, but give me time, it is only the second limerick I have ever written. If you would like to see summaries in different forms of poetry, provide suggestions in the comments and I will endavour to try hand at any challenge you may provide. I accept no liability for mental aguish caused a result of my awful poetry....

Today I leave for Prague, having actually quite enjoyed Berlin despite a rocky start. I found a very cool bar in this awesome art space that has been reclaimed by a group of artist activist types. It was an abandonded building which they moved into and set up as a gallery/workshop. The artwok is amazing, the grafitti impressive and the bar is fabulous. I found myself there many nights hanging out with Germans, Americans, Brits, Russians and all sorts of different people. I had the pleasure of meeting George a crazy New York poet philospher, who used his mental prowess to make random accusations about peoples social behaviour (usually abuse when they didn´t listen to him play guitar). It was a very entertaining night.

Yesterday I did a bike tour of where the Berlin Wall used to be. It was amazing, normally they don´t take the tour out unless 4 people show up. I was the only person who came for the English tour and the guide took me out anyway and did a private tour with me. The tour is normally 2 hours, I spent 4.5 hours riding around Berlin getting all sorts of information about the sites we were at, a refresher in early twentieth century Eurpoean politics and seeing first hand the history I studied once upon a time. It was very sad, imagining the lives of people in East Berlin from 1961 to 1989. We saw the last gaurd post left of 190 towers, fragments of the wall that have been left (or ressurected) and a relpica of the death strip. It was well worth it. If you find yourself in Berlin go and do the tour, it was amazing ( www.berlinonbike.com.de ). Even riding a bike on the road was fine despite me being immensely crap at bike riding, the streets are all flat and cars give way to cyclists.

I think the tour combined with lots of talks about the World Wars helped me to come to terms with the fact that Germans are really strange. it would be so difficult to live with their history. Trying to imagine what was effectively just under a century of mis-treating its peoples so severely, not to mention the rest of Eurpoe feeling the effects of its economic and military might. Being German everyone wants to talk about the wall or the world wars and Hilter, no wonder it breeds a national character that is very strange.

I´m definitely descended from Europeans. I have seen people who are identical to members of my family, and been asked for directions several times a day by Germans who assume I am a native. I suppose me appearing so blatantly Anglo-Saxon and being so close to Saxony and all it is not suprising. I do have German ancestors and a large part of my geneaology is definitely a throw back to somewhere around here. I´m tempted to go to somewhere nordic and check out my distant relatives, but I have seen enough tall blonde people here and I know they are everywhere across Europe.

So I am off to get a train to Prague. I´m looking forward to speeding through picturesque country side and arriving in a city that I have been assured mutiple times I wil love. I will see some of my new friends in 2 weeks when I have a party in Amsterdam for my birthday. I am very pleased to have some Germans along with me (and so many others have piked!) and I am looking forward to a grab bag of nationalities getting messy in that great city.

I just thought I`d let you all know there are more photos up, a whole new Central Park section and the Manhattan photos have been added to extensively.

I have discovered that raspberries are a whole new world of delicious in this hemisphere. I have never tasted raspberries so good, both in the States and Germany. I may have to move to the Northern hemisphere just so I can eat them whenever I want. The ones we have in Australia are horrible bland tart little things compared to their Northern cousins. I guess cold snowy places have their worth after all! I have vowed to eat them daily while I am here, but maybe not as many as yesterday when I gave myself a stomach ache. Raspberries; worth the plane ticket. Oh and all the stone fruit is still around being the end of summer and all, it is amazing also. Australians are better at stone fruit then berries, but not - from what I hear - so plentiful after the Golbourn Valley disaster.

Many exciting stories of silliness in strange lands coming, too hungover to write about anything other then fruit. Off to Prague tomorrow, looking forward to absinthe and stupidly cheap beer. Goodbye Oranienburgerstraße, it has been excellent, you will always hold a place in my liver.

Limericks are hard I suppose

Haiku; we're getting sick of those

Let me try my hand

At something quite grand

And better then boring old prose

Ok, thanks to some good tips from Bizarro, last night I went out and found the Berlin I had been loking for!! I went to the awesome squats and met some great people and had a blast. Friday I am off to a party with some new friends, and they have hooked me up for this tour thing tomorrow, but it has started to rain so we will see what happens. I now also have lots of ideas thanks to Bsharp, cheers darlng will check it out and let you know how it goes.

I discovered the beautiful bits of Berlin, that they had been hiding from me. My poilcy of wandering aimlessly (with map in bag for when I get completely lost) paid off yesterday and I found meself some lovely things to look at. I am a bit museum/art galleried out for the moment but if I want to enrage myself while being inspired then I can go and check out the Guggenheim and the Egyptian Gallery as I now know where they are.

I think the hatred of Berlin stemmed from being sad and suddenly isolated after having such an awesome time in America and effortlessly finding like minded people and having such an amazing time (Burning Man, Dead Kennedys etc). This time of year kind of sucks for me and finding myself on my own in a non-english speaking country was a shock to the system. You all know I am a social butterfly (or maybe moth as I tend to go out more at night) and it was - for the first time on this trip - hard to meet people. All sorted now, I know where to go and I have made friends so I am a much happier chicken!

Apologies Berlin I judged you too soon! I am glad we made up and I think we are giong to get along famously from now on.

I arrived in Berlin four days ago and despite the very lovely tran trip from Frankfurt, I hate it here! The train went through beautiful picturesque countryside, very pretty. It was also impressively fast travelling on average 250kms an hour and clean and cool. Berling public transport rocks, it is easy to use, comprehensive and relatively cheap.

Berlin is ugly and rude. I do not like it here at all. It is not helped by staying in the Greenpeace apartment, great for my budget but nót so good for meeting people. It is wonderful to have access to real food again. good bread, which does not exist in America apart from bagels. Cheap beer which is always grand! The beer situation is one of the things that has helped me put on heaps of weight in America (that and living on crap food for long streches of time) but hopefully access to reasonably priced tasty fruit, vegetables and food in general will help all that!

Germany is experiencing its hottest September on record, so despite bringing thermals and buying warm stuff I am sweltering in 30 degree heat and wishing I had access to a Sydney beach or any beach for that matter. I have been assured by  the lying weather site that it will get cooler soon but I have stopped believig them. It is nice to be warm, but I did expect a Eurpoean Autumn.

So if anyone can suggest somewhere on Berlin that I should go please do. I am going to leave for Prague ASAP so make it snappy. Off to do a bike trip where the wall used to be.

Sprawling intense fun

Dead Kennedys blew my mind

I'll miss you NY

Let me just preface this update with the following; this is long but I am massively behind in entries so get comfortable, grab a beverage and settle in for lots of stories.

Brooklyn

I scored the coolest place to stay while I was in New York, Tim hooked me up with good friends of his Jeremy, Cricket and Sam in Brooklyn. When I first arrived I was worried that I was going to be killed, but I think that is just to much crap American popular culture eating my brain, I did stand out like a very sore blonde thumb though. Turns out I was staying in an extremely cool apartment with some awesome people! The place I was in was a studio that Jeremy, Cricket and Sam had built rooms into, it was very cool, my bed was on this raised platform (I only hit my head on the ceiling once which was a minor miracle). The view form the roof was spectacular, the entire east side of Manhattan Island and the skyline, brilliant, check photos!

I was very sad to leave New York and America in general, I had such a good time and met so many seriously cool people. Everyone was so good to me, I really appreciated being looked after by so many beautiful people ( you know who you are!) 

CBGB & OMFUG

So on my last night in New York I wanted to go to to CBGB & OMFUG (if you don't know what this is go here to learn more www.cbgb.com and shame on you!). So after a few warm up drinks at Botanica off we headed. We had previously checked the web and could not figure out who was playing, imagine my excitement when we rocked up and found out the DEAD KENNEDYS were headlining!!!!! I could not believe my luck once again everything had fallen into place so perfectly, I cannot think of a better band to see at CBGB the home of Punk and underground rock in America.. It was such an awesome show, I am so lucky! And to think I could have rocked up on any of the other nights I intended to go and seen some no name band, would have been good yes, but it would not have been THE DEAD KENNEDYS! Who by the way rocked out, I have video which I will be posting as soon as I figure out how. It was truly one of the best gigs of my life. (By the way OMFUG does not stand for Oh My Fucking Unbelievable Genitalia as I decided it does, but it should).

CBGB is amazing, the toilets need to be seen for themselves (I did take photos but I suspect they will be too big to fit on this blog, like everything overwhelmingly colourful that I photograph, especially since the walls are kind of like flyer/sticker vomit) I had the fortune of being there when the ladies was flooded, extra double bonus fun. The walls of the entire place are pretty much held together with flyers and stickers. The floor is as far from level as you can get and not legally                       be called a ramp, there was a pair of (Mens) underpants hanging from the ceiling above where I was watching (on a chair, convinced that I was going to plummet to the ground very suddenly at any moment, but I didn't - did obtain mysterious and impressive bruise to the left calf though). It was in summary everything a music venue should be in my humble opinion! Rocking! I can't believe it is closing, this is a travesty of epic proportions especially for everyone who has not had the chance to go yet...

Metropolitan Art Museum

Amazing art museums have this awful ability to make me angry. The main problem is jealousy and rage, I get so pissed off that most of the stunning art collections are all held in Western, overpriced monoliths, why can't they share? I love art, so I love the chance to view works that I would otherwise never have seen, but why should I - and the rest of the people in the world who do not live in large cities in America or Europe - have to pay thousands of dollars in Airfares to get to see them? More sharing please, and maybe you know tour them in poor countries. And yes I am aware that most of the artists on display are European American etc but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be made more accessible to the rest of the world. Everyone I know should get the chance to see what I was privileged enough to view, without having to spend what I did on airfares.

I got to see a fantastic Cezanne to Picasso exhibition my highlights were; Gaugin`s etchings (much prefer them to his paintings), Picasso's sketches (I had never seen any sketches before and they are spectacular), paintings from Picasso's blue phase, Van Gogh and Renoir (2 of my favourites).

I spent about 3 hours in the Egyptian section, where I was simultaneously blown away and enraged. they have entire sections of tombs that have been removed from Egypt (angry!), massive sarcophaguses (sarcophagi ?), perfectly preserved linen from 4000 years ago, tiny miniature statues and vessels (the Egyptians believed that the dead could use the miniatures, I suspect it was because they got sick o f making massive full sized things to be left in tombs forever, I would). The collection spans pretty much oll of the dynasties so it includes stuff from 4000BC right up to about 1000BC, incredible. I was enamoured.

The Met also has an awe inspiring collection of Greco Roman statues. And most likely a while lot of other cool stuff that would have made me upset while I appreciated it.

Body Exhibition

This is one of the coolest, weirdest, most interesting things I have ever seen, it is coming to Australia next and I strongly recommend you see it for yourself. Basically the artist uses a process called plastination to preserve cadavers. The bodies are posed in different positions so you can see various parts at work, you get to see the cardio-vascular system, muscle groups, the spine and much more, all up close and personal. There is also an entire body sliced horizontally into 1cm peices. It is a little confronting (these are actual bodies of people who died and donated their bodies to be exhibited so the people knew what was going to be done, the artist has been doing this since 1975), but it is very cool, especially for someone who studied anatomy and physiology.

Central Park

I love Central park, it is stunning, such a beautiful break from crazy overwhelming Manhattan. It is massive and has so many different sections, woods, strawberry fields, lakes, ponds, pines, playgrounds and much much more. I roamed over most of it and it took me all day, I think I walked about 20 kms and loved every section of it. The only downside is the roads that run through it, meaning traffic sounds in many parts of it, but the woods are tranquil and quiet. It is full of wildlife (squirrels!!) and tourists. But for a tree hugger like myself it is a must see.

The entire park was once owned by some dude who donated it to the city on he condition that it remain a park forever, I like very much.

Roubelad

Apparently when it is at home in Brooklyn Roubélad is this awesome party with nakedness, art installations, absinthe bars and hash brownies. Unfortunately when it is Manhattan it is not quite so cool. I still had a great time, saw the fire people, appreciated the art and drank overpriced gross beer. It was a cool party but I kind of wish I had seen it in Manhattan.

After the party we went back to the flat in Brooklyn and I watched the sun come up, very pretty. Pollution does make for some amazing sunrises.

General Impressions of New York

New York is great, I almost stayed for months, but my budget wouldn't allow it (and America made me fatter, which was a little annoying and probably my fault). It was good to have the buffer of Philadelphia to ease me back into huge crazy sprawling cities, after San Francisco, Burning Man, Seattle and New Orleans, it was a shock to the system. The subway rocks, it is cheap and unbelievably comprehensive (you can get everywhere and it runs on time, take note cityrail). There is heaps of awesome food and so much to see and do. I had a blast. The weather was really warm and lovely even though I was there in autumn (fall!), without the stupid intensity of Australian sun to deal with. People are generally lovely and helpful (I did have a traumatic experience buying shoes but I think that is more about shoe shops then New Yorkers and eventually I discovered the Discount Shoe Warehouse and finally replaced my crocs with something that did not destroy my feet utterly, yay!). New York = lots of fun.