Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Sony Center is Berlin's movie theater.

Main landmark in Berlin. Napoleon stole the horse on the top of this and brought it to Paris after his victory. It was later brought back to Berlin.

Colorful remains of the wall. Unfortunately this piece of history may be destroyed in a few years when a new apartment complex is built.

Very ugly center for the Soviets.

Marx on the left and Engle on the right.

Tours, France

Tours, France

This weekend I went to Tours, France. About a thousand years ago, Tours was huge. Actually the population of Tours one thousand years ago is greater than the current population. Although today it is small in comparison to other European cities such Paris, it is full of castles where kings once lived, reminding us of the importance of this city in early European history.

Luxemburg

Luxemburg

Luxemburg is about a fourty five minute train ride from Metz, France. It's a small city, and we were able to see all the main sites in about a few hours walking. There are also several shops that kept us busy. The history of Luxemburg is very interesting. Because of its geographical location between France, Germany, and Belgium, several countries had been in dispute over the control of this region. While conflicts have been occuring for over a thousand years, the most recent country to invade was Germany, in both WWI and WWII. However, Luxemburg has been at peace ever since the end of WWII. Nonetheless, as a result of all this, over the past hundred years one-fourth of Luxemburg's population has moved to the United States.

Brussels, Belgium

Brussels, Belgium

Upscale shopping mall.

Belgium is famous for waffles!

The peepee boy!

The grand palace.

Another angle of of the grand palace.

And another picture of the grand palace.

We stayed at the hotel Montgomery.

Paris, France

Paris, France

I left the day before Vivian came and spent the night in a hotel just outside of central Paris. The next day I woke up and met Vivian at the Charles D'Gaulle airport. We took her luggage on the RER train in order to get to from the airport to central Paris. Because it was too difficult to get a taxi, we took a subway to get closer to our hotel. Finally we took a taxi from the subway station to our hotel. The weather was extremely hot. It is also not very common for hotels in France to have air conditioning. We had to shower frequently to keep cool. But it felt really great to finally see Vivian after over a month. The next few photos highlight some of the things we did that weekend.

Every tourist must see the Eifel Tower ...

... and every tourist must also see the Mona Lisa.

Mini pastries make a great breakfast.

I'm outside of Notre Dame!

Mangos for desert!

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague, Czech Republic

Royal Palace

The cathedral is at the center of the royal palace.

Royal gardens.

Its always busy on St. Charles Bridge.

Pastel-coloured houses of either Romanesque or Gothic origin.

Another angle of the old town. This has been the main square since the 10th centuary.

Munich, Germany

Munich, Germany

Mike and I left for the train station to meet Brad. When we arrived there was an unexpected fourth person added to the group. His name is Ernie. We played hearts on the way. It was my first time playing, but Ernie was mad that I was so close to winning. If he hadn’t cheated and added our scores wrong then I probably would have beat him. We arrived in the hostel at 10pm, about six hours after we left Metz.

We spent the day touring. After an hour of trying to figure out the subway system, we made it to the central part of town. (We learned later that our subway trip would have taken less time if we walked.) On the tour we saw where Mozart lived as a child. We joined a free walking tour. Since the tour guide was very fast and did not allow us to have any time for pictures, we left the tour. We finally arrived at the famous cathedral. It was similar to other cathedrals I had seen, but it had some unique artwork and sculptures. After the cathedral we walked around the central area of town and then headed to the English Gardens via subway. The English Gardens is the place where hundreds of local Munich people enjoy bathing naked in the sun. After taking a short break to rest in the park we headed back towards a museum. Unfortunately the history museum was closed. But we ended up going to the Hafbrahaus brewing gardens. It was a huge restaurant and pub that served beer by the liter. We had some German sausages and each of us ordered a liter. It was a very filling and good tasting meal.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Beer Gardens (left to right: me, Mike, Ernie, Brad)

Me, Brad, and Mike took a two hour train ride to see some castles. We saw Neuschwanstein, a famous castle, where King Ludwig II lived. I had seen the castle in Sleeping Beauty, but never really thought it existed. The landscape around the castle was more awesome than the castle itself. Mountains, waterfalls, and lakes surround the castle to make an amazing view. The King was very unfortunate because he died unexpectedly at a young age shortly after the castle was built. He was only able to spend a little more than half a year living in the castle before he was found dead in a lake from an unknown reason.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Before leaving for Brussels we had to go to the bank to retrieve Mike’s ATM card because the machine had ate it the night before. We caught the 7pm train and arrived in Brussels around 10pm. Because Brussels is the connecting point between Metz and Amsterdam, we decided to spend the night at a hostel. After having trouble finding our way around, we ran into some Americans (from USC) who were also looking for a hostel. The locals were really nice about helping us find our way around. They spoke English really well and spent a lot of time making sure that we ended up going in the right direction. Fortunately the hostel had some openings and we checked in around 11:30pm.

An alley with several apartment buildings.

Amsterdam is famous for its beautiful canals.

We took the train from Brussels to Amsterdam and arrived early afternoon. My first impression was not very good. Parts of the city are really dirty and hundreds of people wonder the streets high on drugs. It was difficult finding a place to stay. We finally walked into a crappy hotel where some guy let us know about an opening that he had in his hotel down the street. We arrived a La Canna a few minutes later and checked in. The building was half hotel and half drugs. The front desk sold numerous types of drugs. The area we were in was very close to the infamous Red Light District. It was everything I had imagined it to be. Groups of people were singing as they walked through the streets high on drugs and alcohol. Fortunately not all of Amsterdam was this dirty. We walked around and explored some of the most amazing architecture and canals that I had ever seen. We went into the Van Gogh museum. The building was not that impressive, but the paintings were amazing. There were countless numbers of Van Gogh paintings and each one was incredible. The other paintings in the museum were mainly dedicated to the artists that had inspired Van Gogh.

Metz, France

Metz, France
Metz is a very historical city that was first inhabited around 3000 years ago. The cathedral, which is the main tourist attraction, is several hundred years old. Some other frequently visited sites throughout the city include the city park and the main shopping and eating area. However, you can see mostly everything in one day of traveling. Spending a whole summer in Metz got very boring.

The main cathedral in Metz.
Small cathedral near the river.
All my classes are located in this building.