The Night Train.

From Berlin to Amsterdam.

Berlin was a mistake, raining. I did go walk to Poland as a side trip, so at least that's something. But my train leaving Berlin wasn't until 12:30 at night, so in the end I spent about 5 hours in the train station, where it was cold. I put on every piece of clothing I had with and slept on a bench for a while, but was woken up by the cops. We talked for a minute or so, but I was mostly still asleep. Thinking back, I have no idea what was said.
Then the train was packed. I managed to get a few hours sleep in the bike storage area before nearly everyone got off in Dortmund at 4am. Then I slept a few more hours in the floor of my compartment. It was cold, and, still wearing every item of clothes I had, I still had to get up and walk briskly to warm up every hour or two. I survived the night and got enough sleep to last me through another day. I think I'll get a real bed in Amsterdam though.


The Polish Border

3 Hours in Zurich

3 rainy hours in Zurich have totally changed my perspective on life. From what and to what, i have no idea.
Highlights include:
Some sort of traditional swiss parade which culminated in burning a giant snowman in effigy. I don't know why or what it's called, frankly, I don't want to know. Bottom line though, it was a pretty big deal.


Some lunatic swimming 100 yards across the river, which can't possibly be about 40 degrees. This kid is my new hero, or at least he would be if he didn't look like Dave Zub*ricki. I didn't actually see him get in, but noticed him about halfway through, still going strong. He started to struggle at about 3/4 of the way, and for a few moments I started to wonder whether I would survive if I had to go in after him. But he rallied and made it through to his friend waiting with a towel on the other side. Almost no one noticed this happen, but to those of us that did he was like a folk hero.


People were even taking pictures with him. I just shook his hand, told him he was an inspiration, and moved on.


This group of kids hung this ridiculous sign over a billboard. I stood there, taking pictures as they clamored down and tried to walk away casually while loudly congratulating each other. Two of them saw me standing there taking pictures and walked over to me. "What's it supposed to mean?" I asked them in German. They looked at each other and shrugged. I walked on.


Then it started raining and I sat in the train station for an hour before catching the overnight to berlin.


The post parade wreckage.

Flashbacks

My spring break this year is 6 weeks long. I maniacally trained around europe for the last two weeks of it, for which I have a running diary, but that leaves 4 weeks to account for. So I'm going to intersperse my running diary, which was written live and is just being transcribed online, word for word, with flashbacks from the other 4 weeks. Despite these flashbacks being written with the perspective of time, I'm attempting to make them just as bizarre and in-your-face as the live entries. And remember, this is all 100% true. (which, of course, you'll have no trouble believing, because nothing out of the ordinary really happened [sorry to give away the ending ( I mean, you already know I survive, what else is there?)]).


This ain't no disco, and it ain't no country club either.

4.14.08 13:28
Thus begins my train odyssey. As I write this, I'm on the 12:34 from Munich to Zürich. The train is full and I'm one of the lucky few who got an unreserved seat (reservations cost extra). There was a crazy Japanese guy next to me for a while, but he got kicked out by a crazy, nose-ringed German with a reservation. It's too bad, the Japanese guy was good people. I'll go find him later. probably in a vestibule somewhere. To be honest, I'd probably be happier and more comfortable sitting on the floor somewhere, but I worked hard for this seat, damn it.
My train car has 40 Canadian high school students. I hate Canadians.


(Note the Canadian Flag)

I'm back for good.

I know I've promised that before that I would start updating this thing regularly. I can count 5 promises I've made, off the top of my head. But things are gonna be different this time. Why, you ask? Because I have a secret weapon. I traveled for a couple of weeks earlier this month, and kept a running, wildly inconsistent diary. Now, I'm going to transcribe that diary and put it up here, in a wildly inconsistent basis. hopefully it'll be great, with pictures and everything. Mostly though, it will make no sense, flashing forward and back with no regard for trains of thought or even basic human decency. Or maybe it won't. We'll see, now won't we? Anyway, by tomorrow at this time, I'll have the beginning of my trip online.

meanwhile, here's a picture of some Thai food I had in Zurich to whet your appetite. (if you're like me, you probably don't whet anything nearly enough, nor do you pronounce the 'h' in 'wh' quite as distinctly as you should)