woooh so tons to catch up on!

in short, since i last posted we spent a few days in Paris (which was... a little better than i expected, but surprisingly boring and very hot), went to Switzerland (Lucerne, Bern, Lausanne for a short break, and Geneva) for a few days, to Amsterdam (which was also surprisingly dull, even though that was where we saw the final of the world cup... not to mention that we were rooming with 3 french girls who weren't happy about the outcome at all, haha), to Cologne which was great, and now we are in Berlin which is also very fun and interesting.

High- and low- lights...:
Paris - walked up the Eiffel Tower, which was fun but tiring, saw Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, had a very rude waiter in a restaurant with really bad food, ate lots of picnics and drank lots of wine in parks which was nice and ate tons of cherries


Switzerland - we had a car here, which turned out really well for the most part, except for some trouble in Lausanne, and the fact that the underground parking is disturbingly expensive.

Lucerne - gorgeous city, spent part of the day at a pay beach (which is pretty ridiculous in my opinion... who pays to be at the beach??? also, the staff played dumb when we asked them if there was any non-paying beach in the area, because there was a little bit right next to it.) loved it, except for the fact that there were bed bugs in one of the two beds we used. also, saw the germany/italy game at the central station, which was very fun and high-energy. incidentally, the stockholm central station also had a tv set up for the world cup matches, which i think is a really cool idea. we only stayed in Lucerne for one night, because while it is stunning, there really isn't a whole lot to do there.

Bern
we drove to Bern thru Interlaken, which should have been a very beautiful city. sadly, interlaken has been ruined by tourism: it is simply store after store of clothing and things. i have nowhere to put any more clothing, so shopping would have been stupid. also, the fact that my allergies were seriously acting up there, didn't help a tiny bit. we stopped for lunch in a cute little town called Lungern (they have a website -- there was a sign on a bench for it --i haven't checked it, but i think it was lungern.se). this is the kind of place that only has one butcher, one bakery, a general store, 2 restaurants, and a hotel, and is on a mountain in switzerland. very pretty and cute.

Bern was also beautiful. we were there for 2 nights and we stayed in acute little cottage on a camp ground. basically it was a cozy 4-person chalet with 2 beds on the main floor, and then 2 more in a loft. very basic, but very nice. our first night it rained, so we mostly relaxed in our room. the next day, we went to see the downtown where we saw their bear pit. although it was sad to see the bears all cramped up in the small amount of space, but there was a trainer there (i think) that was getting one of the bears to basically do tricks for the crowd, which was very cute. we also saw their famous clock, which wasn't that amazing really, and tracked down a fountain with a statue of an ogre eating children. again, could've been better.

after taht, we headed off to Lausanne, which was basically just a big city that brought us much disappointment. basically we had lunch, made it to a tourism office, were heading over to a museum in the car (after paying waaaay too much for parking of course) when we caught the side of the car on the wall in the ramp up. that put a serious damper on things, so we decided to head straight to Geneva because we definately weren't enchanted with Lausanne at that point.

Once in Geneva and annoyed by the driving (super frustrating especially because so many things simply aren't marked on the maps... such as streets ending because of markets that have clearly been there for years and the such), we promptly got a parking ticket. after that was paid, we headed over to our accomodation at L'Universite de la Cite de Geneve. the accomodation was excellent, although it was extremely sketchy because basically one guy was running the hostel out of his backpack where he held a binder and a money box. but i can't really complain because it was cheap, comfortable, and the parking was free.

the next night was our final night and we opted to sleep at the airport in our spiffy car (a Leon Seat... haven't mentioned that yet, but apparantly it's the same thing as a VW Golf) before flying into amsterdam.

amsterdam was, as i mentioned earlier, lame. i've heard really great things about the city about how it's so much fun and not to miss... but to be honest, it's dirty, cramped, and really not that special. i'm happy we went, but would i go back? probably not. our hostel was surprisingly nice, although i felt a little old (old! at 22! wtf!!!) but once we settled in, it was comfortable, clean, with a good breakfast, and clean sheets. our first day was spent walking around in a tired daze, and our second day was spent essentially revisiting all the places we really didn't notice because of our tired daze. i should mention that my first thought when we left the central station was that it looks like toronto, but more cramped. the only really compelling thing was the Anne Frank House, which was very interesting and worth visiting.

We headed to Cologne by train (yes, our first train of the vacation, haha!) and went to bed soon after that. we had 4 days in Cologne, which was... basically sufficient. there was more to be seen, but we covered the essentials. most of our time was spent exploring the Cathedral (Dom), which is massive and filled with history. we went on a guided tour of the cathedral, which was very informative and interesting, where the guide discussed the history of the building, the significance, the architecture, the artwork... well, everything. after that we headed up to the top (509 steps i hear) to see the view, which was impressive. we also went to the roman-germanic museum, which was a waste of time since we don't speak german and the displays are almost exclusively in german, saw a fountain of a girl with a lantern which relates to a legend from Cologne, went to 4711 (where they make the famous cologne) where we saw their clock which was very cute (and nicer than the one in Bern!), and went to the Chocolate Museum which was awesome. we also walked around their pedestrian shopping district and spent some time sampling their local beer, Kolsch. we stayed in Cologne at my parents' friends' place, which was very pleasant. they took excellent care of us - explained the public transit, fed and bathed us, gave us a comfortable place to sleep, picked us up at the train station, dropped us off at the airport, let us use their computers... really very sweet.

We are now inBerlin and while there is still more to mention, the internet may not be working right now so i don't even know if this will end up making it online so there's no point in going any further!