where theres a will theres a whalebone

hooray! I borrowed a SD card reader from one of the nice australians so I can show you guys some ace pictures of berlin!heres a picture of me all on my own in the airport at approximately 3am it was completely abandoned and creepy i just sat around alot and read some really bad book that I bought from an english bookshop in paris full of french authors work translated badly into English so I didn´t really get it all and in the end just went through adding full stops and apostrophes with my pen.

heres is the Brandenburg gate with our mosher tour guide haha he was seriously really good though and I learnt a load about the history of Berlin that I didn´t have a clue about before. We went around most major landmarks and at one point we were standing above the point of Hitlers bunker, theres absolutely no trace or memorial to prevent any glorification of hitler and as the guide put it ´the communists turned this land into a parking lot where the residents take their dogs to shit´

this is that weird deathstar-esque TV tower thing in Alexanderplatz it has a rotating restaurant at the top and is the second largest structure in Europe. Its funny because the Germans started to build it after the war to show the world they still had advanced technology and engineering skills but half way through they realised that the tower was sinking because they were building on a swamp and had to smuggle in some swedish engineers to help them finish it off! some journalists found out about it and it was in the papers and everyone laughed.

this is a part of the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of berlin wall which in 1990 was turned into a open air art gallery , theres some really good work there but unfortunately even though it was restored in 2000 so many tourists have decided to leave their own ´tag´ that the whole thing is covered in permanent marker saying like "STEVE WAS ERE"

I took this in the park in Kreuzburg district , often called the Little Istanbul of Berlin it has streets and streets of doner shops , turkish delicassens and shisha bars, its a really nice area and not too busy either.

the awesome thing about berlin is the amount of street art, it is everywhere, there isn´t a street in the entire city that doesn't have a work of art on the wall, that does mean there are a lot of horrible talentless tags everywhere but it evens out by all the funny, beautiful and though provoking work you see round every corner.
seriously I could post pictures all day of nothing but amazing street art and my memory card would be full if I hadn't been resisting photographing it all.
Last night I went here on the S-Bahn to see Band Of Horses play, it was a wild show and the support band 'cave singers' and 'tyler ramsey(?) also made awesome music unfortunately I couldn't have anything to drink because even a glass of water was 3euros! so I survived until I got out again then caught another S-Bahn back to near the hostel arriving back at about 12.50 the german public transport system is weird, theres are no gates or ticket guys they just trust your honesty to buy a ticket but all the machines for tickets don't work or theres a big queue so I couldnt get a ticket anyway!

today I think im going to go down to Potsdamm Platz and see some architecture and eat some schnitzel

see you guys later!

in a dunkin donuts overlooking the tv tower

sup guys im in another internet cafe above the dunkin donuts in berlin but theres no card slot for my camera here either! A lot of fun stuff has been happening !

after i posted my last blog I decided to have a wander around the city before I could check in and sleep. On the streets near KunstHaus Tacheles (this awesome alternative art and culture centre with some mad cafes and a beer garten full of bizzare sculptures and almost the whole building is covered in the best graffitti) I met this dude called Sidney from Los Angeles he´s actually one of the team working for Paul McCarthy setting up his exhibitions and installations in countries everywhere , definitely a cool job! so we wandered aimlessly together he bought me a beer and i went back to the hostel , stormed into my room and just fell asleep from about 4pm to 8am the following day hahah

Breakfast is so much better at this hostel its a big buffet of eggs and toast and salami and cheeses and teas (grüne tea being the best) and cereals and fresh fruit so I been gorging out on all that and its been good!

yesterday I took a free walking tour of berlin which left from the hostel and was like 4 hours long and I got to see so many amazing sights in Berlin (book burning memorial, brandenburg gate, memorial to the dead jews, berlin wall, reichstag, memorial to war and tyranny and of course that hotel michael jackson shook his baby out the window of haha)

heres a picture from their webpage, I look ridiculous see if you can spot me haha

the bearded floating head on the left of mine is Jeremy Parks from london he´s in an awesome band and was staying at the hostel too until this morning when he left , hes also on his gap year and travelling the globe mainly eastern europe, russia and china! anyway we hung out on the tour and then that evening I met his room mates , two nice australians and then we all went down to the koncert haüs realised we were under dressed and settled on going for a beer then climbing the glass dome on top of the reichstag which is open til midnight! we got really awesome views of the entire city at night! wish I could post the photos!

today I walked all the way down the river spree to the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall which is now the East Side Gallery a long stretch of murals and graffitti art, unfortunately so manz tourists have decided they had to leave their own graffitti on the wall and its covered and spoilt a lot of the murals, the walk itself and the amazing graffitti on the way was much better, then I went and lay on the grass near the reichstag and ate a fine lunch of bread and bannas and ice tea!

tonight Im going to see Band Of Horses play at the columbia club which i think is near the hostel theyre this american indie rock band and are pretty good! im excited!


stay safe
sam x

Gutenmörgen Berlin

I am so tired sitting around an empty airport from 11pm until check-in at 4am really wore me out, I grabbed an hour or so sleep on the plane but now im in the hostel and I can only get in my room at 2pm wahhh!

also the tube dudes are on strike so theres like no public transport running in berlin until like the day I leave which means im going to be doing a TON of walking around

first impressions are good though its such a contrast to paris not only in architecture but on the fact everything is so much cheaper, where I´d be paying about 8 euros for coffee and cake in paris its like 2.50 here! i´ve strolled around the neigbourhood and theres is street art everywhere I´ve already seen a space invader! ate breakfast in some little cafe and now im back in the hostel, german keyboards are weird the x and z keys are swapped around and you can type these ßßßßß things which are like a sss sound

theres no plugs for my camera at the hostel internet cafe though so to post pictures ill have to go further afield I think

anyway i think im going to pass out in a chair, talk to you guys ßoon!
sam x

last day in paris

ill let you guys know what goes down in berlin soon!

k bye!

sam

whatzzzz goinnnn onnnnn

space invader at montremarte (http://www.space-invaders.com/) I've seen a ton around paris where he's from and they're all so good!

hey guys! long time no blog, I've been really busy but also the internet at the place has been busted and everywhere else is riduculously priced, I dont have time to tell you everything I've been doing but ill post some photos and tell you about them! k?

ok so on the 4th I went to Musee D'Orsay (the one that is a converted railway station with the big clock (above)) and saw a lot more influential art including a whole room full of Monets impressionism work which he did in Giverny, repainting the same scene in a range of seasons observing how they had changed, next to that was a room full of van goghs (that mental dude who sent an ear to a prostitute as a sign of his love)

monets bridge in his garden at Givernyone of my fav van goghs

then at night I ate at this really nice french bistro on the corner of rue de la roquette I had roast chicken with a creamed mushroom sauce a dressed salad and roast potatos it was yummy then I think I fell asleep really early because I had walked so far during the day.

on the 5th I caught the metro as far as I could out of central paris to Porte Dauphine and spent the morning reading , strolling and picnicking in Bois de Boulogne (this big park kinda thing) it was sunny and good to be able to breathe some air that didn't smell like perfume, car exhaust or urine.

in the afternoon I checked out the opera house at the bastille and then walked down promenade plantee an old 4.5km stretch of raised metro line converted into a garden giving awesome views of all the streets below and all the stuff going on it was pretty epic and relaxing even though my feet were sore at the end of it!

that evening was the night opening of the pompidou centre which houses the modern art mueseum and is a building with no exterior skin, its all glass and the cables which are usually inside the building all run along the outside meaning that riding the elevators up to the gallery gives you amazing views of the city!

inside the mueseum I joined a big group of american art school students for their tour I even got a green sticker off one of the american guys to show I was an official member of the tour group I got told about all the periods of art with plenty of great examples, I saw some amazing picassos and some of his cubist stuff which I didn't dig as much as his earlier stuff anyway so it was quite late by the time the tour was over (it was led by this well spoken eccentric english guy who was mental) I got back to the hostel on some busy metros and helped like some chinese dude get off at the right stop!

then today (6th March) I tried to hunt down a market or two, had a coffee in the cafe which amelie was filmed, bought some provisions in a supermarche and walked all the way from the bastille to my hostel (thats quite a long way) but it started to rain so this afternoon i've been relaxing in the hostel reading up on my next destination and napping about on the sofas its a really good relaxed place and everyone is really friendly, I would definitely stay here again when im next in paris! maybe you guys should all come down and we could have a ball!

tommorow im going to breakfast with the californians , meet my new room mates (i just went in and they were all asleep so i think they are more jetlagged americans haha) check out and stow my bags in a locker and then probably have quite a chilled day, maybe get a coffee by the canal , ride the metro around and then ill have to get to the airport and nap around until about 4am when I can check in for my flight to Berlin!

stay safe

Sam x

tu es beautiful

hey guyz today I had another ace day but I only have 20 minutes to tell you about it! haha ok it started off quite cloudy so I chilled in the hostel until about 10.30 and then it started to clear up and I caught a metro to Chatelet , walked around some of the big department stores and les halles (this big underground shopping centre thing) by then it was really sunny again, I called in at the pompidou centre but theres an evening opening on wednesday from 6pm and its free for 18-25 year olds :)

I bought some fresh spiced olives and a big baguette for lunch and walked all the way through paris from the seine all the way up to montemarte stopping to soak up some rays along the way.

montemarte is like a village which slowly got consumed by an ever expanding paris, its where all the starving artists like picasso and da vinci used to squat and exchange paintings for food, it also houses the last vineyard in paris

I climbed the steps of the sacre couer first of all and from the top was some amazing views of paris then I wandered around the upmost part of montremarte where all the artists paint your portrait and sell their art, theres also a ton of traditional french cafe's all packed with tourists.

after a long time wandering the sun was starting to set and I walked back to the steps of the sacre couer that I started on where some cool dudes were now performing for the crowd on their guitars playing mostly reggae , alot of marley but then also an actually good rendition of that bad james blunt song haha I put a euro or two in their guitar case and walked back down to boulevard rochquart toward the moulin rouge and the red light district.

some horrible woman tried to drag me into the most appalling brothel in the world no joke! its so terrifying having a super skinny woman in too much make up grab your hand and try and lead you somewhere that looks super gross haha I then got to the free night tours start point outside moulin rouge and went on a awesome tour of montremarte and the red light district by the crazy mexican new yorker , it was all english and everyone was really nice and welcoming and I didn't get robbed! the tour was 2 hours altogether and really informative and ace

ok I've got to go now i have one minute left on the timer!

speak soon

sam

after

after posting that last blog I had a drink with some really cool texan called matt who is studying in france and has been doing some travelling himself, he reccomended a few places to go and see while im here and also some stuff to do in milan then i got to talk on the phone to my bestest buddy for a bit before passing out in my warm bed :)

its actually quite cloudy this morning so i might leave the bike hire to another day and just mooch around the big shopping centres and maybe see a movie in an independent cinema.