Munich!

After a few days in Prague it was back to Germany for a few days in Munich. Once again, I was blown away by how nice Germany is. I really really enjoyed it. But instead of just talking about it, I’m going to just cut right to the pictures.

My hostel

Marianplatz, got to love the large pedestrian streets

:)

Glockenspiel

Inside one of the churches

Came across this really cool marketplace

Loved how colourful it was

Although this was slightly more my thing

Art Museum

I've never seen stuff arranged like this before

The place was massive

A painting I liked

A

I liked the inside of the museum

Inside another museum

I just really like this picture

Ludwig Castle

Inside the castle

Inside the castle

He has a hall of beauties. Paintings of women he slept with....while married. To make it up to his wife he threw a huge party. With horse racing and everything. It became an annual event. Eventually the horse racing was discontinued but the party remained and slowly became what is now......Octoberfest!

So after the Museum I was walking around heading to the park when I stumbled upon this

Surfers! In the Park!

Weird and cool hehe

The next day I took a day trip to Dachau. The first ever concentration camp. Where everyone was trained at in order to work the other camps.

The main gate

Inside

People use to be hung up and tortured from these walls

Very gruesome. They would tie their hands behind their back. Then yank them up. Breaking their arms, shoulders, etc. And leave them like that as a warning before sending them back to work....with broken arms. Working them to death.

This was actually never used. It was merely for show when foreign diplomats or whatnot would come visit. Originally the international community liked the compound and was impressed. This was b/c it was shown as prison with strict order, very clean, and how ppl were learnign to be honest law abiding ppl. The torture and other practises were hidden.

If you managed to get past the guard towers, and the electried fence, and the moat, you'd land in the surrounding compound which was a military base. If you got through that and over another wall, you'd then have officers at most street corners asking for your papers. And if you got caught...not only you but you're entire group that you lived with would be punished.

Gas Chamber. This was disguised as a shower room so ppl never knew what was about to happen. The Nazi's became so proficient they would send in pellts through slots which would then release the gas. Later they would suck the gas out and reform the pellts so it could be reused. And the clothes of the dead ppl would also be reused.

Crematorium

It was a very sad place. You go there and you see whats happened. And its not just a dirty compound and toture. You learn about how it was an entire system in place. An entire government and global business that took part in it. Hugo Boss, BMW, Mercedes, so many other companies were involved and working with the Nazi’s. And so many members of the international community as well. A lot of the senior SS men also got away in the end. Not simply escaping in Germany but hired and sought out by other countries for their skills. Including but not limited to major roles within the CIA as well as one of the top heads of NASA. Crazy eh?

The next day I went to a more pleasant place. The castle that inspired the Disney Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle, made by Ludwig II (grandson of Ludwig)

Lake near the castle, I forget the name, but to the right of this is Swan Lake

The Castle again

Castle

Swan Lake is the one on the right

Inside the castle

What an awesome view!

Ludwig II was such a recluse he would never want to see people. He had very few friends. In some of his castles he built his dinner table so that it could be lowered to the kitchen. Dinner could be placed and then it would be raised to him so he didn't have to see anyone. He was thought to be Bi. He was known as the fairy king for some of his weird habits like going horse back riding at 2am. He loved making castles, just for the sake of building them. He never intended them to be used and actually wanted them all destroyed upon his death.

Inside

I really just love his view

For more pics my facebook album can be seen HERE

Next stop, Vienna!

Oh another interesting thing. Just think. Hitler almost went to art school instead but was rejected 3 times. He then took a job as a messenger boy in the war. A position where people usually die in months if not weeks. He got hurt but survived. He was then assigned to spy on a group. That group was the Nazi’s which he started to like, joined, and then lead. He lead 1 revolt when the Nazi’s tried to take power by force but it was foiled. During this his personal bodyguard took not 1, not 2, not 3 but 11! bullets for him. In another plot where Hitler was blackmailing some politicians someone mistakenly let them go and he almost committed suicide then. And of course there are the countless attempts on his life. Just think if any of them had succeeded….

Prague!

From Berlin I went to Prague. I took a bus and it was so cheap! $20 euro! Normally I hate buses, but this one was really nice. The bus I took from Prague to Munich sucked….and it was more expensive!   but ah this posts about Prague, so lets get started.

Pic from the bus

Still on the bus

This building was next to my hostel and I thought it was really cool

There were some really cool buildings in Prague! Prague overall was really beautiful, a lot of natural beauty as well as architecture. At the same time though, you could tell they were still recovering from the cold war time period. A lot of buildings were in need of repair. When I went to the National Museum, I got out of the subway and walked the wrong way. So I walked around the back of the building. From the back, you see grafiti, and boarded windows and you’d thinkits a large abandoned building. From the front awesome! And inside, just spectacular!

Side of National Museum

Coming up to the front

The view looking forward from the museum

Entering the museum

Inside

Me inside

Inside

Giant Mammoth inside the museum

So while walking around I stumbled upon a street fair going on with a band performing.

Performing band

It was actually aimed at kids

But I'm just a big kid

View from prague castle

Big Baroque chruch on top of castle

Old Town Clock

This was voted most overrated attraction in europe

Statue that looks like Emperor Palpatine

Interesting statue I saw

Pee'ing statues. Not just pee'ing randomly, they are pee'ing the lines of famous poets.

This is how high the water went during the last flood

Inside the Baroque Church

Stainglass in the church

I’m feeling really lazy. Sorry, I’ll post the link to the pics in my facebook album.  But I’ll leave with 2 last things.

I went on a walking tour and again we learned a lot about the history of the city. One thing we learned was when Germany was invading, well the Czech didn’t have much of a force to defend with. So what did they do? They tore down all the street signs! Except those pointing the way to Moscow haha. And also, they said every city was Dupchek. So as the Germans tried to find there way to Prague, they would and ask, where are we? And the person would respond, Dupcheck! ahaha. I thought thats hilarious

And my last item, is the Dancing Tower. I thought this was a really really cool building and actually does look like a couple dancing.

Dancing Tower

For more pics, Click Here.

Next Stop, Munich!

Berlin!

I went to Germany and my preconception was that it would be a regular large city but a bit more industrial. And man, I was sooo wrong. Berlin was awesome! It had a great vibrancy to it. Large parks, many outdoor restaurants patios. Tremendous about of art and culture. Of course the history. It was also more youthful than I imagined. Although I didn’t really have any problems, in any of the cities I went to, English was used much less than I imagined. But I was mostly in tourist areas so, like I said, not really a problem.

Anyhow, I arrived in Berlin, settled into my Hostel and once again set out to explore! Oh in Berlin I met up with my friends Manpreet and her cousin Harpreet. I met Manpreet when I went backpacking 3 years ago and we kept in touch. My hostel is to the left of the yellow building.

First pic in Berlin!

So we head off towards Museum Island! Its a small area of Berlin full of Museums!

The Dom

Of course its not just Museums, there are also stores, parks, restaurants, and The Dom. A fantastic looking Cathedral right off the water.

Myself by the river and Dom in the back

One of the Musuems we went to. They were really impressive!

Front shot of the Dom

That tall building is the TV Tower

Bear - Lin

A few years ago Germany got a bunch of…..artists? well ppl from different countries to decorate a bunch of bears. They are now scattered around the city and I want to say country and world as well but I can’t recall. I took a pic with many of them

:)

As well as other silly pics hehe (Thats Harpreet in the back)

National Art Gallery

This place was just fantastic! I loved it. I’m slowly becoming and bigger and bigger art fan. Any Toronto people know of good art galleries in Toronto? I should look into that. I’ve been to the OCAD and AGO. I like the one in Ottawa. Ah, thats another post. Back to Berlin, the paintings, scultures, even the building itself. Actually I find a lot of buildings in Europe are wonderful. Incredibly decorated walls and ceilings! Actually ceilings are just crazy how much detail and art they put into them sometimes.

Front lobby of Gallery

One of the ceilings.

I think this was by Adolph Menzel

Another painting I liked

Statue I liked

Monet

Another Statue

Renoir

Painting I liked

Another I liked

These galleries make me want to decorate my house with more paintings.

The Museum wall

Alright, so after the Gallery and some other museums, I checked out the inside of the Dom and actually climbed to the top of it. And as a student i was really cheap (comparatively) I think it was only 3 euro! Coming off UK prices this was like free haha

Inside of the Dom

Ceiling of the Dom

Inside the Dom

View from the top

I kind of just wandered around the city for the rest of the day. But the next day I came back to Museum Island and went on a walking tour of the city. Some of the companies are better than others. I mostly took Sandeman tours because they were free! Although I tried to tip decently so in the end….its almost like a regular tour. Anyhow, I’d recommend them for Berlin, definitely for Prague. And for Munich it was solid, but meh, I’d try something else in Munich.

So after he talked about stuff on Museum Island we walked over to

Neue Wache

For 100 years the palace guards were based here, but in 1918 the royal family left Germany and the building changed. Today it is the German Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny. Actually this might be the picture of the building across from Neue Wache I can’t recall since the front of the buildings are very very similar. Here is the inside though. Very simple.

A statue of a mother grasping her child.

There is no roof above this really. Or theres a large opening in the roof I should say. So its entirely exposed to the elements, rain, snow, etc.

Next we went to Bebelplatz which is the site of some old and interesting buildings but more interesting to me was that it was the site of one of the big book burnings. And it also has some interesting and very understated but incredible memorial/art.

Bebelplatz

At Bebelplatz there is memorial in the ground. The memorial represents the 25,000 books burnt by the Nazis in 1933. It is an empty room with shelves for 25,000 books.

100 years before the book burning there was a poet Heinrich Heine whose books were among those burned. A few steps from the memorial there is this plaque with some words from him. The plaque can be rougly translated to read “this is just the beginning. Wherever books are burnt, people are burnt too.”

Random note, the trees in Berlin are numbered

Checkpoint Charlie

This area is largely manufactured as a tourist attraction now. As the guy in the picture, well if you go by the picture he has awards that were not invented till much after the war and he wears insignia of 3 different ranks. There is a picture of a Soviet soldier on the opposite side and similiar errors affect him.

We then started ending towards the Berlin Wall. I link my pictures from my facebook albums. I didn’t upload a large pic of the Berlin wall but just one I thought was quite cool. Ah well. But first

I am now standing in East and West Germany at the same time.

Both sides of the wall.

I think its just incredible that only 20 years ago there were guards all over the place and people struggled and died to try and reach the other side. You see so many amazing things in this city and you also see these things and I don’t know. I can’t imagine that world. I guess I’m highly fortunate I can not. But its so sad to think what those people must have gone through. Another note, its the 20th anniversay since the fall of the wall. In another part of the city part of the wall is decorated by works of artists from when it came down. Those artists are returning to touch up their work for the anniversary. So…yes, the Berlin Wall is being rennovated

Another bear

This is where Hitlers old house/apartment/office (I forget which) use to be.

We then went through this really cool Jewish Memorial. Its roughly 2400 rectangular blocks of different sizes and angles.

Jewish Memorial

Inside the memorial

This is the hotel from which Michael Jackson dangled his baby

The Branderberg Gate

We then started heading towards the Reichstag but got caught in a huge downpour. Well I was able to take shelter.

Rain rain rain

Manpreet and Harpreet were not so lucky

Reichstag

A top the Reichstag

Inside the roof thingy

A nice square we passed by

Some street performers and jewelery sellers

I think thats enough pictures for Berlin. But I want to say its just an incredible city and I had a blast there. I also really liked how they don’t shy away from the history of ww1 or ww2 but they also make a point of showing in their museums and around the city that, that is not all that Germany is about. They have a history and culture beyond that. So yeah, Berlin and Germany really impressed me and inshaAllah I’ll return some day.

For more pictures you can Click Here

Next stop, Prague!

Dublin!

Flying into Dublin! Got to love the cheap Ryanair flights

Arriving in Dublin, Ireland!

I arrived in Dublin and the weather was fantastic! After dropping my stuff off at the hostel I set out to explore. One thing I noticed quite quickly was an awesome reminder of home. Its the only one in town that I spotted so it was just sheer luck I found it

A little bit of home

Yum!

So while walking around I came across some large pedestrian only streets. I love that! And Dublin had many of them! Actually, Europe in general had many of them as you’ll see in pics to come. So on the these streets there are restaurants, pubs & bars (I was in Ireland afterall ), shops, theatres, and of course buskers!

Large pedestrian street

Street Artist

Street Puppeteer

I came across the Art Gallery and decided to check it out. Other than the lobby I wasnt allowed to take pictures inside, but I must say it was fantastic! If you go to Dublin, make sure you check it out. They had some amazing pieces in there. You know, I’m not a huge art person, but I’m slowly getting more and more into it. At the least I’m really liking the great masters. Oh oh and they had some old drawings that were done for a really old copy of some fairytales, not the brothers grimm stories but …..ah I can’t remember who. But it was great too

Lobby of Art Gallery

Watching a rehearsal for a performance later that night. It was really good!

Another thing that was really good in Dublin was

The Chocolate!

Love the big pedestrian streets

How low can you go?

That was too easy, lets lower it and set it on fire!

Even lower!

I kind of Dublin as a smaller, cleaner, less diverse London. And like London, it had some nice parks and areas to just sit down and relax. Enjoy the weather and just chill.

I don't remember the name of the church, but very nice area

Part of the old city and old city wall

Now Dublin really does have a lot of pubs and bars and whatnot. And most ppl tend to go to those at night. At least the other ppl at the hostels. Since thats not my thing, I looked around for what I could do. And I found this! I’m a big theatre fan and I’m a bit Shawshank Redemption fan so it turned out great!

Gaiety Theatre

Inside the theatre

Dublin also has one of the oldest universities in Europe so, I don’t know. The geek in me had to go check it out. Plus it was like a 5min walk away from my hostel.

Trinity College. Very nice campus!

Another thing I really like in cities is when they have rivers flowing through them. They make the cities look so nice!

Nice eh?

Another street artist

So I stopped for a minute somewhere to get my bearings. It was a particularly hot day and then I looked down and the cement was melting underneath me! It was just this one small area, so I don’t know what kind of weird cement they used there, but eh, I guess I left a mark in the city now

My right food

So my UK trip was just amazing. Although my time was limited I feel I packed in a ton. The people everywhere were friendly and the cities were beautiful. AND UK weather was incredibly kind to me.

Next stop, Berlin! That will have to be a big post because Berlin was one of my favourite cities, I absolutely loved it!

In the meantime, for more Dublin pictures Click Here

Edinburgh!

After London, I took a flight to Edinburgh, Scotland! I had no idea what to expect here but people told me it was a beautiful city and a wonderful place to visit. And just taking the bus from the airport to the city centre I could tell! It was much much smaller than London but it seemed very clean, peaceful, and a lot of greenery

National Gallery of Scotland

Just walking to my hostel from the city centre I could easily see the biggest tourist attraction of the city, Edinburgh Castle!

Edinburgh Castle

My early morning flight had really tired me out though since I hadn’t really slept at night (I was worried I wouldn’t get up for the flight). So I kinda just fell asleep for almost the whole day. I woke up in the evening and set out to explore though. The city at night is also just amazing!

The walk up the street from my Hostel. And 1 of my favourite pics from Edinburgh

The Bank...I think

St. Giles Cathedral

The main tourist street, High Street aka the Royal Mile was cool. It led to the castle on one side and the palace on the other, had the cathedral, restaurants, attractions, of course the latest fashions.

Latest Fashions

My hostel was nicely located just down the street from it.

My hostel

Anyhow, so the first thing to check out, the castle! I head there and was right in time for the changing of the guards!

Changing of the Guards

Entering the Castle

Its a huge castle

One of the great halls within the castle

As I was walking around, you’d never guess who I ran into. None other than Mel Gibson!

Mel Gibson aka William Wallace

I did learn that Wallace was from the low lands though and he would never have dressed like this. Also he was a really brutal guy. 6′3 guy that once skinned one of his enemies and made a belt from the skin. Brutal!

One of the other atractions I stopped at was Camera Obscura. A cool place with all sorts of optical illusions and other stuff. It has nothing to do with Edinburgh really, but it was a lot of fun anyhow

Tall Geeki

Short Geeki

Geeki Everywhere

Walking to the other side of the Royal Mile (which although they say its a mile, it felt like more) was the parliament.

The Parliament

Now you look at the building and you’re like that looks pretty new. And you’d be correct. The Scotlish parliament is less than 20 years old (I forget exactly, maybe 10-15?). Before that everything was done by the British Government. It was only recently that more local matters were transferred to Scotish parliament.

Across from that is the Palace

Holyroodhouse Palace

Behind that was this huge hill/mountain. And since it was there, I decided to climb it hehe. I didn’t go all the way to the top cause there were no lights up there and I didn’t want to be stuck there when the sunset. Of course later I realized I shouldn’t have worried cause the sun didn’t set till like 945 or so!

Really big hill

View from near the top

Afterwards back in town I was pretty hungry so I walked around and settled on an all you can eat Chinese restaurant. Omg, one of the worst restaurants I’ve ever been to. Service was fine but the food….blah! I did however notice this on my way out.

Kinda cool

The following day I decided, I’m in Scotland I have to go see the Highlands! So off I went!

Hammish, the highland cow!

Highlands!

Saw this in the parking lot and just had to take a pic

Highlands!

Now while heading up to the highlands, I’m like…ok I’m here. Why not go try and find the Loch Ness monster!

Loch Ness

I tried hard, even using radar to see what the Loch looks like under the water

I looked everywhere!

But Nessie was no where to be found. Ah well, the Loch was still beautiful. We passed by a lot of other great scenary as well.

Like this

It was a long long day, but it was fun and I made some cool friends

Amy, Ashley, Myself, Russian dude

My last night in Edinburgh the town was FULL of people! Everywhere, apparently they just totally love their rugby and everyone from everywhere came to town to watch the big match the next day. It was cool to see the crowd and busy streets and restaurants BUT it meant my hostel and everyone other place was full! Ack! Ah well, I spent the day and much of the night strolling around checking out stuff and then went to the airport. I actually slept fairly well taking over an entire bench

For more Edinburgh pictures, click -> Here.

Next stop, Dublin!

London!

On my trip there were a few countries I was going to that required my passport to be valid for more than 3 months. It was expiring in August so I got it renewed. I told them I’d pick it up b/c I didn’t want to worry about trouble with the mail. The planning was tight though. The pick-up date was the 15th. I was flying out the night of the 15th. Yes, I have tight schedules hehe. So I go to pick it up and the girl goes into the back to look for it. And then comes back sans passport and says…I can’t find it. Ack, my heart stops. She checks her computer. It should be here she says. I start to breath deeply. She goes and comes back, hmm can’t find it. Omg this is not happening. I start to pray. Another guy comes and goes to look for it. He finds it! Oh thank goodness! Phew….I can go! And man, my parents would never let me hear the end of it if my last minute/tight schedule didn’t work out.

Anyhow. I started my trip but just hopping across the pond and visit Great Britain and the wonderful city of London. The flight was quite pleasant, the movies were good, and I made some friends on it. The girl beside me was from UoT traveling to London and Spain.

I got to London and I was like wow, this is very British! I got to the hostel and was exhausted. Setting out for a short walk and to get some food I ended up walking for hours just looking at stuff.

My first picture in London

St. Pauls Cathedral

Front of the Cathedral

Cleopatra's Needle

After walking around for hours, I was like I dont’ want to go to sleep now. If I do I’ll end up waking up in the middle of the night. What to do, what to do. And then I saw tickets on sale for Wicked! A theatre show on the Westend! Awesome!

Wicked!

My seats were good, but for 50 pence you could use these and I just had to try it out and get a pic hehe

I have to say the show is just awesome. I particularly like the Defying Gravity song! It was excellently done and I like the idea behind it as well. That is, not letting ppl dictating the limits of what you’re capable of.

The next day I set off for a full day of sightseeing starting with…

The British Museum!

The Rosetta Stone!

I learned they used this to figure out how to read Egyptian Hieroglyphics. I.e if Egptians wrote the word ‘cat’ they would write the symbols for c, a, t, and then a 4th symbol which is the picture of a cat. Interesting eh!

London Bridge is nothing like I imagined...

Tower Bridge is so much cooler!

Entering the Tower of London

One of the buildings within the Tower of London compound

Queen Victoria's old crown

They wouldn't let me try the crown....so I tried this

Typical London pic

Tower Bridge letting a ship through

While in London I made plans to meet up with a fellow blogger, Sofi. Unfortunately she wasn’t feeling well but she reminded me there was another blogger there, Mash. I met up with Mash and 5mins later, I was at a house party haha. It was cool meeting a bunch of local Londoners and they were all really cool people. It was fun, but I have to admit, as much as I love the British accent, it did make me feel slow. Someone would say something and it’d take a sec for me to register what they said b/c of the accent and by that time someone else had said something and…ah well. It was fun

Fuad, Lily, Mash, Rachel

Lily, Osman, Pete, and....can't remember

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

London Eye

Just a pic that I like

Tate Museum

Tate Museum had some awesome works of art!

Buckingham Palace

Hyde Park

Another from Hyde Park

The Londoners introduced me to this cool Turkish restaurant. It was far from downtown and I'd never have discovered it within out them

The Hostel I was at. Well technically its the building behind this one.

I stumbled upon some red carpet movie premiere...no idea who these ppl were though or even what movie

Leicester Square at Night

Alright, I think thats enough pics for now. For more pics you check out my London album on facebook

Overall, I really enjoyed London. It was soooo much bigger of a city than I thought. Theres a ton to do and see. Theres a lot of really cool chill spots to just sit down and relax. The weather was I guess typical London weather but it was weird! Like 1 min I’m hot and need to take my jacket off, the next its raining, then its super windy, then its cold. Seriously, I felt I had to take off/put on my jacket every 20mins. Theres also a ton of stuff flying around in the air, thank goodness I don’t have allergies! Indian restaurants are all over the place AND they’re really good! Of course its freaking pricy! Like I knew it was going to be expensive, but oh man, was it ever! I did soooo soo much in my few days there but I will definitely have to return b/c theres still so much more. And yes, the ppl there are pretty cool I did end up meeting with Sofi finally as well as Mash once more before leaving and it was cool. They’re both really nice and helped make my London trip an awesome experience!

Next stop, Edinburgh Scotland!

Convocation!

I got in Thursday night and then Friday morning was Convocation! At first I was like….oh man…so tired, I wish I could just stay home. But I go there and it was great to see everyone again. And dressed up in our robes and sitting there, it really felt great. Wow how time has gone. It was an incredible 2 years where I learned a lot but also made many many great friends.

The ceremony itself was kept to a reasonable length. Everyone got their moment. And one of the highlights was Michael Porter speaking there. He was given an honourary PHD degree. I suppose most ppl don’t know who he is. But in the MBA world, heck the world of business, strategy, and well many many other areas. He is THE MAN. One of his books written over 30 years ago has 2 editions printed every year and is used absolutely everywhere from intro to advanced courses. His current work is no less important and well I could go on but essentially, everyone was totally geeked out about him being there hehe.

Anyhow, I’m feeling tired so here are some pics (theres more on fb). And travel pics will be blogged soon but I’ll try to put up London pics on fb today. Cheers!

Going to get my robes

Convocation Hall

Walking to our seats

The class of 2009

Michael Porter

Posing on stage

With my parents

Fiona & I, graduated from Waterloo together and now Rotman together

Bonnie & I

Aloysius & I

Takuro, Joey, Dave, Myself, Lynn, Fiona, Edmun

Adi, Ajay, Arjun, Myself

Jaspreet & I

Ah, its good to be done

For a few more pictures you can check out -> this

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38607770&l=92de1a457b&id=122613775