aHHH Berlin.

Spent today at the Botanical Gardens. A lot different than Kew, but quite impressive nonetheless. There was a cross section of a redwood tree there, donated by Simpson Lumber and the Eureka, CA chamber of commerce! There were also a few redwoods in the North American section of the Arboretum.

The hostel I´m staying in is in Friedrichshain, sort of the new Kreuzberg. Kreuzberg was the alternative area of town before the wall fell, now it´s mostly Turks and aging hippies, lot´s of "Yuppies Out!" Graffiti. Friedricshain has lots of old turn of the century buildings and most have been restored and it´s dirt cheap to live here. A nice 2 bedroom apartment can be had for about $600 a month, unlike central London where the same would cost over $3000.

The room I´m in has six beds and I´ve yet to meet any of my roommates. I´m up early, they´re in late so all I´ve seen is their sleeping forms. The interesting thing is that they all seem to be female, although it´s possible that one is a guy, or else a girl with very large feet. Although I´m not the oldest one there I´m by far in a minority age group. I don´t feel old though.....

Yesterday I went to Potsdam and rented a bike. It was really heavy and had these weird handle bars and would only shift into 1st gear when it wanted to. I had a blast though, I was getting tired of hoofing it. Wanting to see as much as I could, I didn´t stop very much just took pictures over my shoulder. We´ll see how they turn out!

The weather has been truly amazing. With the exception of one day in London, it´s been sunny and warm. When I packed I was prepared for blasts of cold weather from Siberia but nothing so far and Krakow is supposed to be enjoying the same weather as well.

I haven´t been able to post any photos yet. I might have to have them burnt to cd and then post them from that. I´ll probably wait until I get to Krakow. Hopefully it will be cheaper.

´Til next time,

Lyle