In April of 2010, three young travelers set out on a melodious journey that would forever change the fate of our world.
Our heroes find themselves in peril, and just when all hope is lost, a savior emerges from the ashes - the one and only Josee Manes. But against a dark and villainous volcano, will they be able to save themselves and make it home in time?
Shot in cities through Europe, an eclectic action-packed scenery set to a dance folk pop original.
You can totally drink your beer in the street here at age 16. You can take it in the train too. What have the states done to me? Definitely not tempt me by prolonging the legal age by 5 years thus making the whole deal more dangerous and, in many ways, moreso encouraged through rebellion. I feel giddy about this place. I must be in Berlin.
Our couch surfing host is wonderful. She doesn't hide anything and is a force not to be trifled with. Luckily, I think she likes us. Her name is Sylvia and I dig her because she is dedicated to sharing her city with us, both history and nightlife. The remains of the wall, the east-side gallery, the Brandenberg gate, the breathtaking holocaust memorial, the tallest building in Europe, and so on. It's all fascinating stuff. She quizes us, which is sometimes frustrating but I am really getting involved with this city (which is neat because my god-brother's stepbrother used to live here and he is now an up-and-coming composer). Also, she is helping film our video and has come to accept Josee Manes! On another note, I've watched the sunrise three days in a row now.
Sylvia's flatmate, Jan (Yon), took us on the local tour - skate park, park, a cool little bridge to play music on, and another park. The weather has been absolutely stunning and warm. Tidbit: apparently southern Germany is pretty catholic, but the north is mostly agnostic. A large group of agnostic people in the same place... does this exist in other places? I must find out.
On the other hand, we are somewhat stuck here for the moment. The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull has grounded pretty much everyone is Europe this weekend so the trains are jammed full and suddenly the EUrail pass is not so strong. So our plan is up in the air - we may go to Budapest, Switzerland, or back to Paris... or we may split up and travel alone for a bit. As long as I'm in Barcelona by the 27th to fly to London so I can fly back home on the 28th, all is well... assuming that planes will be in the air at all. It would be nice to make my graduation date... maybe I miss home a little bit.
So yeah, back to Berlin. I stopped by parliament to make a plea to the chancellor in hopes that she'll pass some volcano legislation in my stead, but my charm wasn't enough to meet with her. So Tim & I went and played guitar in a park.
I've never been so unaware of my surroundings. Pretty much the only thing I knew about the Czech Republic is where it is on the map. But my god, Prague is a beautiful city. After the hostel hunt, we did what we usually do - walk around excessively and find cheap food. It didn't take long to realize that our money was no good. Not that we've done any drinking on this trip, but for those interested, €50 gets you about 1200 Czech bucks, and a good pint is about 15 Czech bucks - not a bad deal...
Prague has a new drug law that in some ways is more liberal than Amsterdam's (with maybe more dignity). It's a strange one: you can possess in small amounts but you cannot sell. My guess is that the authorities are turning a blind eye to this. I admire it in some ways but at the same time it encourages something that is, by law, illegal. We three Americans had the pleasure of learning about this from a Bovarian radio journalist called Christian - and the citizens of Munich will soon be blessed with the soothing FM sounds of three American boys drunkenly squabbling on a german broadcast about how we enjoy the luxury of purchasing our exotic drugs from our southern neighbor through a very peaceful policy known as sell-guns-let-them-go-at-it-buy-drugs... and then maybe something about how we're definitely not overspending any money on a fruitless and hypocritical drug war. How do I come up with these ridiculous notions? I so crazy.
I wish I could say a lot about Amsterdam. It's not because I didn't like it, it was an amazing city. Copious debauchery in a city of sin - & around the corner? Oh its just the majesty of one of the holiest and most beautiful cathedrals washing away your mortal doubts.
We arrived in the center of the city on Saturday afternoon and found a hostel. All was well and to said plan. Then... well we spent the next 48 hours aggravatedly ambling around the same 8 blocks again and again, aimlessly confused and always without uniform destinations. We did find cheap guinness but... it was weak (O Dublin what have you done to us?).
There was a grocery store I liked. Living cheap isn't so hard; found some good focaccia bread, goat cheese with honey, and some outrageously thin & delicious ham. Oh hell yeah. Also, outside the grocery store (via some spontaneous and/or opportunistic busking) was the best money I've ever made. 15 kids, 30 parents, & 4 songs -covered my stay in the hostel : )
Other than that... a lot of walking, admiration of the architecture, & a lack of productivity. Well we did see the Anne Frank house... kind of one of those modernized letdowns... I think I saw a café in there?
I now sit on a night train bound for Moscow. We get off in Prague, but I'm the one with the alarm and a half temptation not to set it. Aren't memoirs more interesting when you accidentally wake up in Russia?
Where to begin... did you know that the Eiffel Tower turns into a billion strobe lights at night on the hour? I wasn't quite ready for that as I stepped out of the subway after a few midnight glasses of red wine (the bottle being under 2 euros : ) I confusedly analyzed an office building on which many little flashing lights were twinkling in the windows' reflection. Tim, ahead of me with our absolutely wonderful couchsurfing host Manon (thankyou for everything!) beckoned us to hurry ahead. Around the corner, my jaw dropped, there in front of me was entropy, chaos in a controlled system, beautiful lights dancing on the familiar shape I'd only seen in textbooks. The Eifell Tower at night, strobing, and completely deserted. Wha...
There was much busking to be had. Day 1 on the steps of the Sacre-Cœur overlooking the wide expanse of Paris. Beautiful and industrial in one. Parisians really like space - the sidewalk of the Champs Elysee is like 3 highway lanes wide - a bit different from the alleys of London. Astonishing stuff. Crowds came and went while a loyal handful listened for most of the day. Saw a neat French band called Fergus that night - the singer a beautiful French girl named Sacha. Gave her the old wristband - networking is tough stuff. Next time I roll through I'll try a bill with them.
The architecture in Notré Dame cathedral is outrageous. It's too bad we don't do it like that anymore. If I had any atheist friends which is tot-lly crazy, I bet they'd believe in god for a moment or two. I almost did ; ) At Centre Pompidou in front of the modern art museum, we saw yet another young beautiful parisian girl (I know, hard to believe) this time playing the didgeridoo. Gave her some change for good busking karma, especially since we did not have the shock value of playing didgeridoos. (At least we're gorgeous and clean and groomed... been wearing the same pants for 8 days). So we setup and busked there too. The cool thing about a crowd, it attracts more crowd. Our new friends (fiery & petite - pretty Lorrette, the sweetest of sweet - Manon, and Marie and Juliette and Ramón and more whose names escape me) sat around us just to hang - the weather was incredible! So curiosity built and chemical changes in peoples minds took place and before long we were playing in the round for a spontaneous crowd of fifty or sixty - ?! Made some money and went back to Lorette's to cook some coco milk noodles, chillax like the French with cigarettes and rose wine, trade music, stories, meet a beautiful French family, and so on. The best nights I've had on this trip si far are not out in the night life, but sitting at a table meeting conversation with humour, laughter, and debauchery. France, I'll be back for you.
A word to the wise, book your trains in advance. Our night train to Berlin was booked, so now I sit here on a day train to Amsterdam (slight change of plan). Apparently a lot of thought has to go into spontaneous travel - we were thinking "oh, we'll just go to Europe and just go get on some trains and just go have a swell time just going around Europe going on trains." Yeah... So now it's Amsterdam, can't say I'm complaining ; )
Also, congrats to my godbrother Ben Williams who just got accepted into Harvard onn scholarship for a PhD program inn religious studies. Hell yeah Ben! I'm so proud of you :)