First of all, my apologies for dropping off the face of the earth. Well, not literally, but kinda. Since my last entries I've been from Berlin to Warsaw to Krakow to Prague to Rome (seen my sister!)... and have spent the last two weeks exploring Italy. So what happened? Well, I LOST my 8 GB memory card with a lot of photos from Berlin, all from Poland and Prague and most from Rome. I arrived in Assisi on Oct 24th to stay at the Franciscan Guesthouse MacK told me all about (yes, nuns!) I told the sisters about my missing memory [View Full Entry]

---

---

I have loft aspirations of posting the rest of my Berlin photos today (all backdated, of course), but before anything, so pictures of what I awoke to this morning... [View Full Entry]

---

---

I left Boston a month ago today. I'm always aware of how long I've been gone because this is a question I am asked constantly when meeting a new person. At home, you shake hands with a stranger and within a few minutes you're usually asked about your occupation. Here, it's a question of the length of your travel. But in reality, does it feel like a month? When I think about the places I've been - from Iceland to Norway to Sweden to Denmark and now, in Germany - I suppose it should. But in reality, it feels like just [View Full Entry]

---

---

As I mentioned in another post, I went on the most excellent free tour of Berlin. FREE! Sure, the guide plugged some of the other pay-for-em tours the company offers, but it was at a minimum. So, for nearly 4 hours we walked all over the center, most touristy parts of the city. I will say more as I post the pictures because right now all I can think about is the snow I'm watching fall as I sit here in Warsaw... and how I know that at some point today I will wish I put that second application of waterproofing [View Full Entry]

---

---

Here I am, still in Berlin (disregard the "entry date" of this post.) I intended to only stay for 3 or 4 days but have been here for over a week. Needless to say, I've sort of fallen in love. Or, more likely, we're just in that honeymoon phase of infatuation. Either way, I'm not going to question things at this point. When I first arrived in Berlin, the train station was huge in comparison to those of other cities, it was dark, there were millions of people rushing from one place to another. I was ready to leave before I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Picture this. A place where people are all extremely proper, polite and almost distant; to the point of seeming a little cold, but polite nonetheless. It took the city of Boston hours of nonstop scraping, scrubbing and painting to make Brigham Circle look presentable enough to host the president and hoards "dignitaries" for Ted Kennedy's funeral. In Scandinavia, however, Norway especially, crews of men wearing HazMat-esque suits occupy trucks filled with cover-up paint and window cleaning power washers! (I can see my mom's eyes lighting up at the very thought.) Picture a place where alcoho [View Full Entry]

---

---

Not unfortunately, I spent most of my time away from the city, but here are some of the pictures I did take. Oh well, guess I'll just have to go back someday... [View Full Entry]

---

---

After dropping everyone off back in Gothemcity, Sweden, I spent the rest of the weekend with Katie and her family in Oxevik. It's quite odd to be someplace and have absolutely no idea where you are. I mean, since I left JP this has been the case, but usually I can at least think, 'okay, I'm on the train between X and Y.' But that weekend, if you had handed me a map of Sweden, I would have had no clue where to point. I did make some observations, however: 1. Saunas make jumping into a cold ocean possible. Awesome people [View Full Entry]

---

---

So, what was the reason behind going to some burial ground in the middle of who-knows-where Sweden? Well, as mentioned before, Katie makes documentaries and such. Under the naked man we were joined by some of her classmates who specialized in performance arts. The point was to film them doing some improve at this park (Katie, feel free to correct me on my likely non PC interpretation of what we were doing there :) Anyhow, it was a great idea. After the sunset, we headed up to Oxevik, Sweden to sleep the night, then head back down for the improve performance. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just got an email from my mother who pointed out that I haven't posted a blog in a while. I'm guessing mz mom was just telling me this on Fred's behalf, since I know he logs onto his computer as soon as he gets home. Since the last time I posted anything, there have been a few adventures. As I write (and roll back the date on this entry), I've made it to Berlin... via Copenhagen, Denmark, via Göteborg, Sweden. Truth is, a lot of the internet connections are less-than-stellar and it can take quite a while to upload the photos. [View Full Entry]

---

---