Free wifi, Paid toilets

- Copenhagen: Nov 10 to 12 -

And now I come to one of those points in the career of a blogger where I must decide how much information from other people's lives I divulge. Not that I have anything huge to divulge, and I'm using nicknames, but anyone with the slightest wits about them could simply go to my Couch Surfing profile and match up a date and place to the person in question. Anyway, no matter. I'll just say a bunch of stuff, and hopefully none of it will upset anybody.

I spent the morning with Burning Man, after getting off of the night train. This night train was much more peaceful - my bunkmates were non-snorers. Me and Burning Man walked around Copenhagen, having a look at the basic sights of a new city: the waterfront, the old town, the statues. We saw the Little Mermaid statue, built as a monument to Copenhagen's hero, Hans Christian Anderson. Crap statue, if you ask me.
I headed towards my host's place, and Burning Man went to check into a hostel. My host, the Guru, took the two of us (my host and myself) to a spa, since he got a bit of a discount. It wasn't exactly what I had expected - it was a very self-guided experience, with no real theme or goal. I guess I pictured spas as places where there were set activities. We had a decent conversation in the 100% humidity sauna room about - I don't know - meditation and happiness and stuff. Turns out his girlfriend had just broken up with him the day before. His friend at the spa had also just ended a relationship the day before. This gave the two of them something to click on. I felt a little weird, since I didn't really know either of them, and couldn't offer any specific condolences, or say anything of much significance, for that matter. And naturally, it was something they wanted to talk about. We all went to her house after closing up the spa (she, the friend of the Guru who worked there). Again, I felt a bit strange, for all the aforementioned reasons. I was also really tired by this point, and was getting up early to meet the Burning Man for a bus tour of Copenhagen. I cycled away by myself, leaving the Guru and his friend to chat, which I felt was appropriate.

Bus tours are crap. Everything in Copenhagen is expensive, sure, but this bus tour was $40. Yeesh. The unfortunate coincidental part was that the tour roughly followed our walking path from the day before. Sure, it was coloured up a little by the bizarre woman who was our tour guide giving us the history, but it wasn't anything more than we could have gotten from a free pamphlet or something. I'm not bitter about spending that money; I just won't do it again. Burning Man then went to catch his ferry into Oslo, from where he would go to Bergen. Lucky guy. That was the last time I've seen him thus far, but we may cross paths again.

I then went to get a lunch at a place that I had noticed on the way to the bus tour, where they offered free wifi. I'm so into free wifi. I think a business giving out free wifi is making a very good decision. On the contrary, a business charging to use the toilets is making a criminal decision. This is a rant that will come later. I'm so into free wifi. I'm so against paid toilets. Anyway, I spent about $17 at this place for a sandwich and a coffee - that's to give you an idea of how comparitively expensive Denmark is.
Was it a good coffee?
Yes.
Was it a good sandwich?
Yes.
Then stop complaining.
Okay.

I wandered to the Tycho Brahe planetarium, which ended up just being a crappy general-purpose educational movie theatre, and had not much scientific merit whatsoever. Then wandered back to the Guru's place to make dinner. Shepherd's pie. Worked out pretty well.

From Nov9-11

Next morning, up and on my way to Berlin. Running late, as always.

- Berlin: Nov 12 to 16 -

It's always a strange experience leaving one city and going to another; leaving behind people who you've only just grown comfortable with in order to have to introduce yourself all over again to new people in a new place. Maybe if I didn't have a generally long phase of shyness after each introduction, I'd be more comfortable with this, but I know my patterns, and I tend to follow them every time. I'm quiet, polite, and a little on-edge when I first arrive at someone's place; I'm so afraid of committing a faux-pas that would put me immediately in their bad books.

Anyway, so I go to Berlin. I pass through Hamburg Central Station, which was quite familiar to me now - I reflected on this fact briefly, with a bit of pride. I was reminded of Shigeru Miyamoto's thoughts on developing the Legend of Zelda games. Something to the effect of: When you first start, you're a frightened child in a world that's strange to you, and you have no weapons. But after you play for a while, places become familiar, and you become a little braver because of your growing familiarity. There's something to this.

Berlin was great. My host there I shall call Bio. She had a wicked flatemate and a tiny kitten, who I shall nickname Prestige. Super-cute little thing.

From Berlin_Prague

Bio took me in as a last-minute guest - me having sent an email to her just the day before. That was the closest I had yet come to surrendering to a youth hostel, which I actually kind of want to try at least once. Maybe Rome.
I checked out some Berlin stuff by walking around the city aimlessly, as I am wont to do. I always seem to find my way toward the major shopping street in every city I visit; maybe I am subconsciously drawn into the light and sound.

I was having insecurity issues about how I looked. I feel a little scummy sometimes, what with my facial hair all wild the way it is, and my clothing having been chosen for functional, not fashionable reasons. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not here to attract girls. I had it in my head that I was going to buy a new jacket. Something black, so that it wouldn't look stupid with my brown quick-dry pants. (I presently have a brown jacket, which certainly does look at least a little stupid with said pants). Then I get into an endless internal debate.

Point: You are at dis-ease with your present jacket, therefore you should just buy a new one and then you will be happy.

Counter-Point: Appeasing your feeling of dis-ease will only send you into a habit pattern of trying to solve all your problems by buying something. Instead, come to peace with your appearance, then the feeling will go away naturally.

Since I'm such a practical guy, my counter-point voice won the day. But it may come up again before the end of the trip.

I went to another CS meetup in Berlin. This one was huge. I get there and start talking to the first people I see: an attractive female, and a male, who I barely see, because he is in the company of the attractive female. Again, I'm totally not here to attract girls or anything, but I was confronted with a sudden and distinct mind-freeze when I tried to talk to them (her). I noticed this quickly, and used the opportunity to use the bathroom. This is what happens; this is why I am bad with girls. I can't push my attraction out of the way in order to hold regular conversations. This would happen again a few nights later in Prague. I can say this now, because though it is in the future of the present narrative, it is in the past to myself, who is now in Vienna. More to come on that.
Anyway, beyond the initial hiccup, the night goes very well. I talk with lots of people, including another Canadian girl - who I'd meet up with the next night - and another really cool girl who basically shared every single fundamental value with me. I call it a night, and head back to Bio's place.

I spend more time wandering Berlin the next day - nothing eventful to report.

I caught my train toward Prague on the 16th. I had planned to make a day trip to Dresden, then head to Prague in the early evening, but I'm much to lazy to be ready to go first thing in the morning like that. I'm always just on time for the train I need to catch. On the one hand, phew, I always make it; but on the other hand, I hate that state of anxiety associated with never knowing if you're gonna make it this time. If I were cooler, I'd be able to handle it.

- Prague: Nov 16 to 20 -

Prague's different, man. I felt a little bad about the homogeneity of all the cities I'd been to before - and, okay, Prague still has its McDonald's's and H&M's like the rest of them - but Prague was different somehow. I got on the subway and went straight to my host's place. I contacted this host because he is quite prolific on the CS discussion boards, and clearly takes much interest in Couch Surfing - I was hoping to gain some insight on this matter by staying with him. In fact, I don't know if I would have even gone to Prague if he couldn't host me; it wasn't included in my rail pass (though it was cheap enough to get in and out).

I arrived, and we headed out to a pub. My host, Monster (an affectionate title - unrelated to behaviour or appearance), took me on a walking tour the next morning, during and after which we met up with a few of his friends in the Prague Couch Surfing community. Some cool blokes. I feel like sometimes I meet cool people, and when describing them here, I just kind of brush over them. Fact is, I found these people really interesting. No great stories here, just wanted to emphasize that.

Toured Prague alone the next day. Late start. Took photos of the nearby soviet tower decorated with babies. (That's what I mean when I say Prague is different. There are babies on the soviet ex-TV tower.)

From Berlin_Prague

Checked out the main castle in the area of Prague's first district. The castle town reminded me of Ocarina of Time. Huh, that's the second Zelda reference...

The next day, I went to do what I've been waiting to do for a long time. That's right: It's the cathedral decorated with bones! It's in a town just outside of Prague (about an hour by train), called Kutna Hora. Again, had a late start that day. Oh, but first I went to the cemetery just outside my host's place - apparently one Mr. Franz Kafka is buried there. I had a look around, but couldn't find him. Still, a really cool cemetery.

From Berlin_Prague

Anyway, on to the Ossuary of Doom! Kutna Hora. This is the town that, of all those visited so far, most reminds me of Resident Evil 4. (Okay, that's too many video-game references now.) This was a creepy place. Farmers out toiling in their run-down-looking yards, dark sky... I made my way to the Ossuary. It was easy to find - there's basically one main road into the town. It was a small place, but very cool. Totally worth the trip out. Loads of pictures. Feel free to check them out.

From Berlin_Prague

On the way back, I shared a room on the train with four Welsh travlers, roughly between the ages of 30 and 60 - two young, two older. They made for a very entertaining ride, the way they jokingly bickered back and forth. They each had their role - there was the smart-ass, the know-it-all, the silent-one and the wise-one. Their argument for most of the ride - mainly between the smart-ass and the know-it-all, since they were best-equipped to riff off each other - was about whether train wheels skid on the tracks when the brakes are pulled in an emergency situation.

Got back to Prague, went out to a meetup that night with Monster. The CS'ers I'd met the other night were there, as well as many others now. Very good meetup. Again, there was an incredibly attractive girl there, and I just felt stupefied by her presence - totally unable to say anything intelligent in front of her. This is a serious defect, y'all. Again - it's not like I have any designs on picking up women, but I'd like to be able to be myself in front of people. I don't know - whatever.
Unfortunately, when we were leaving, a few people had mistakenly skipped out on their portion of the bill, and Monster was stuck bearing the brunt of the extra cost, since he organized the whole thing. Bummer.

I had to be up early the next morning - this morning now (all caught up!) - to get into my next stop, Vienna. Woke up, got ready, and made it to the train with barely any time to spare, as usual.

SNEAK PREVIEW ABOUT VIENNA:
So far, so good.