Karaoke Nights

It would not be right to not speak of the four days we spent with Adam; and I’ll do my best, but it’s a little hard since it all sort of blurs together.
Stuttgart:
Short and simply stated, we had a really great night (and early morning) welcoming Adam to his new hometown. Most of the night was spent at an Irish Pub near a castle with liters of beer and some very forgettable karaoke. Adam informed us that the German like American karaoke singers because we know English and know how to say all the words which makes the songs more fun. Our choice: Garth Brooks, Friends in Low Places. Classic and PERFECT bar song. All three of us went up, a little anxious not knowing how we would be perceived, and sang our hearts out. Only to be looked upon with some very interesting glares. It didn’t go over well, but like I said, it was forgettable. A little tail between the legs, but it doesn’t matter too much, right? Jason and I will most likely never be back there again. Adam, on the other hand, will probably make a few more appearances before his three years are up. Sorry Adam.
Düsseldorf:
In the morning after Stuttgart we headed to the train station en route to Düsseldorf. Nothing of note there, but we thought it sounded like a fun place to go based solely on the city’s name itself.
In Düsseldorf, completely worn out from our excursions the night before, we headed out to find the city center that is situated near the river. Like any other old European town there was an “old town” - the oldest part of the city center that was done up nicely for the tourists. We grabbed some authentic German food for dinner (shnitzel and bratwurst) and hit up some beir gardens before wandering around the town. Nothing really seemed interesting on our wander and we were so tired by this point we decided to take it easy and head back to our hotel. On our way back to our hotel we saw a sign: “Live Jazz”….hmm….intriguing. We decided to check it out and indeed there was live jazz. But not blues, or bluegrass, the jazz being played was solely Dixie. We could have been in the heart of New Orleans and not known the difference. It was awesome and we saw one of the best banjo players we have ever seen ever! They certainly deserved a few euros from our pocket. After an hour or so the band stopped playing and we decided again to head back to our hotel. Only this time we were distracted by the karaoke singing coming from yet another Irish pub. Redemption time!!! And redeem ourselves we did!!! We all selected different songs for ourselves. Adam picked some “Ms. Jackson” song for me (the one that goes: sorry Ms. Jackson ooohhhh, I am for reeaaaall) and Total Eclipse of the Heart for Jason. If only you were there. Jason did a great job!! That is, he did a great job singing the chorus “turn around” and not singing ANY of the other words. Adam and I went up and helped him out and we hit it off!!! However, nothing will compare to the amazing job Adam did with the song Jason picked out for him. Have you ever heard of the song “Mr. Disco”??? Me either, and honestly, even more surprised it was in Pilipino; but Adam did a great job nonetheless and earned tons of karaoke points. We think he probably would have won the DVD player at the end of the night, but we were wiped out and wanted to leave the pub on a high note. No pun intended.
Brussels:
From Düsseldorf we headed to Brussels, Belgium where we would be spending only one night. So for our one night there would be three objectives: 1- Beer, 2 – Chocolate, 3 – waffles. We would be successful mainly in objective number 1. The night in Brussels is quite easy to sum up: drink as many different Belgium beers as you possibly can. And that is what we did. Our routine to reach this goal was simple: 1) select beer not selected by anyone else in company 2) taste beer 3) rotate and taste beers selected by friends 4) finish your own beer 5) select new beer not previously selected or tasted.
This was a pretty successful routine until I really couldn’t drink any more. At which point we took an American’s recommendation and headed to a place in the heart of the nightlife called Delirium. This is where you could probably drink as many different Belgium beers as possible before your next birthday and still not drink them all. I decided to go with just a pint of a normal Belgium beer. Nothing fancy. This pint would be impressive for at this point of the night only Jason and Adam decided to get 2-liter glass boots of beer which made my little pint seems bite-sized. It took the rest of the night for the guys to finish up their boots. Thank goodness…I am not sure how much more of this I can handle.
Amsterdam:
I am going to tell you a little bit about Amsterdam. Here I am going to tell you about the Amsterdam we experienced with Adam; and tomorrow (or next blog) you get the rest of our Amsterdam experience. Our six-week European experience ends with three night in Amsterdam at a super-nice hotel not including the one night we spend with Adam. Since Adam’s weekend ends in Amsterdam before heading back to Stuttgart, we figure one more night on the town couldn’t hurt. Or could it???
After finding a place to stay and grabbing some Dutch-style Spanish tapas, we set out for the night. We walked up and down every narrow street and sketch cobble-stoned ally looking for the best places to take a seat and enjoy another cold one. Amsterdam, at least the Amsterdam experienced with Adam, was quite interesting. It’s dirty, smelly, and crowded mostly with either beer-soaked males or older tourists who find themselves lost in the Red Light District. The souvenir shops carry raunchy postcards and prost*tutes pose in windows like mannequins at The Gap. Only the windows at The Gap aren’t outlined with florescent red lights and the mannequins aren’t wearing glow-in-the-dark panties. It definitely puts another meaning to Window Shopping.
The Red Light District - every guy wants to see the Red Light District in Amsterdam, and since I don’t want to be left alone in our sketch hotel, I went along. No comment.
Our night was quite benign considering everyone else’s state. The first place we headed was into the Red Light Bar. Not as bad as it sounds and the only naked person there was a bachelor who was part of bachelor party who lost a bet and had to take off his dress. Uh, again, no comment. The rest of the night was actually pretty fun, however, I feel like we were in the calm center of a wild hurricane. Everyone around us was at their absolute limit and we were just rolling along, enjoying our beers as we had in the three previous towns.
Adam had to catch an early train so the night didn’t last too long. We found our way to our hotel and passed out. Four nights on the town was way past any limit of mine. I am certainly looking forward to spending a night in the Dutch countryside before heading back to Amsterdam for our last three nights in Europe. Apparently there are some beautiful tulip fields in a small town called Lisse (lovingly pronounced Lisa). Adam left in what felt like the wee hours of the morning. Actually, because we had the view of a brick wall and no light let in, it was actually 8:30. We gave hugs to Adam and wished him luck in his new job and town. For us, a few more hours of sleep before catching our next train.


Days Traveled: 32
Distance Traveled: 20,111km/12,570mi
Countries Visited: 13
Desperately wanting: a mani/pedi, a haircut, and a Charlie hug.

Heavy Lifting

It is interesting how sometimes I have so much to say, then, I have nothing much to say at all. Last I had written we were leaving Somebathely, Hungry getting some R&R and on our way to Wein, Austria. We spent one night in Vienna before spending one night in Prague, Czech. We had a really great time in both cities and did a few more of our “run, run, run, and barely catch our train” dances before heading to Berlin, Germany. We decided to spend three nights in Berlin since we had some much needed laundry to do and it would probably take a good portion of the day.
I thought I would have lots to say about Berlin, and in many ways I did. Berlin turned out to be a really cool city to visit and spend time in (both East and West parts). But there are so many obvious remnants of the war, it was also very heavy hearted and overwhelming. I wasn’t sure how to share it, or if it would even be worth reading; and honestly there isn’t really much to say that we all don’t already know.
If you don’t remember exactly, it has been almost 20 years since the fall of The Berlin Wall, Die Berliner Maurer. The evening of November 9th of this year will mark the anniversary to the date. Standing before the wall and placing your hand to the cool cement you could only imagine the very surreal experience. Just twenty years ago was an end to the absurdity that was this wall. There was so much history exactly where I was standing, a brutal history of repression and war. It was enough to make your heart hurt for the whole rest of the day. The wall may have been made of concrete, steel, and barb-filled wire, but it soaked up every human moment like a sponge. Standing there in its shadow you can still feel the sharp despair it held within itself and the overwhelming joy it exuded when it was beaten down with fists and hammers.
On our last day we went for a jog and visited the Holocaust Memorial- yet another magnificent and heavy moment. The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin was designed by an American-Jewish architect and was erected to honor the six million Jews murdered during the war. We didn’t get a picture of the memorial; and to be honest, no picture could ever capture it justly - but the image has forever been burned in my brain. If the memorial was supposed to inspire grief and humility it certainly succeeded. The memorial itself is comprised of approximately 2,700 dark concrete tomb-like structures on approximately an acre of land. Some structures are very short, and some over ten feet high. The ground the memorial is situated on was not paved to be flat, and so as you look out at it or walk among its narrow paths, it seems like a rolling sea of dark tombs and makes you try, I mean really try, to imagine just how many people six million is. And then again, your heart hurts.
Our time in Berlin ended with a long walk along the border of where the Berlin wall divided the city. Some pieces still stand and where the wall was torn down there is a line embedded in the ground made of stones that goes throughout the city and is marked Die Berliner Maurer 1961-1989. On our walk we ‘crossed’ over the wall several, several times, each time feeling stunned by how easy it was knowing that just over twenty years ago, that was not the case.

From Berlin we headed to Nürnberg, just a few hours away by train. In honor of Cinco De Mayo, we went in search of Mexican food and margaritas! We knew that this could quite possibly be impossible in a small random town in Germany, but in the most random course of events, we bumped into a placed called Enchiladas (where of course they had no idea it Mexican Independence Day). We celebrated with some margaritas (yum) and burritos (yuck) and toasted our friends back in San Diego who we knew would be celebrating this holiday rightly. Afterwards we, as George would put it, “stumbled in” to George’s Tavern English Pub to watch Manchester United beat Arsenal for the Champions League semi-finals. We had a blast at George’s, drinking beer, watching futball, and holding conversations in English (something we hadn’t done in a long time). It was great. So great in fact that we decided to stay when all the others left to catch the last metro ride home. Since our hotel was close enough to walk to we decided to close down the bar around 2am with farewell shots from George; Jason to the tequila, me to Sambuca. Sambuca doesn’t actually taste bad it you take it at the end of a long night. ;)
We would spend only one night in Nürnberg before heading to Stuttgart to meet up with one of Jason’s rugby friends from college, Adam. Adam is moving here from home for the next three years on a work assignment and is going to join us on our travels through the weekend. I believe the weekend will be spent bouncing from Stuttgart, to Düsseldorf, to Brussels, then Amsterdam. This is going to be very interesting. I’ll let you know how it goes!!!!

Days Traveled: 29
Distance Traveled: 19, 034km/11,896.25mi
Countries visited: 12
Out of: Advil