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Paris posts Prague posts Berlin posts
Places
Paris, France
September 29, 2010 – October 1, 2010
After my flight from Tokyo via Kuala Lumpur (with a long wait at the airport), I took the train into Paris from the airport. Javid had arranged the hotel, so I made my way to there, marveling at the typical Parisian architecture. Except, the first hotel had run out of rooms and moved us to an even nicer hotel. Except, instead of having separate rooms, we were now sharing a room (poor Javid)! Still, it was good to see Javid again.
Javid already knew Paris, so we went to the Louvre to check out the Persian exhibit and some of the “big ticket” pieces, like the Mona Lisa, the Victory statue, and the statue of Aphrodite. While in line, I showed Javid some of his digital camera’s features (at least, the ones that were common with mine). After a few hours, we walked around, relaxed in a park, ate near a medical university, then hung out at the Eiffel Tower until nightfall, finishing with a dinner at a popular steak frites restaurant.
The next day, we paid our respects to Jim Morrison, Rossini, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde at the very cool Père Lachaise cemetery. Although it was dark inside, Notre Dame spoiled me for almost all other church interiors. We walked around and had dinner at Le Coupe Chou, a cool restaurant, and then wandered around the Parthenon.
The next morning, we barely made it out to the airport in time, due to confusion with the train lines. We had to run through the airport terminal to get to the Jet Blue ticket counter. Then we almost got stung by the ‘one carry-on bag’ policy, but we were able to get creative with our jacket pockets.
Prague, Czech Republic
October 1, 2010 – October 4, 2010
Arriving in Prague was interesting. After taking the shuttle bus from the airport to the nearest metro station, we were startled by the sight of police standing around in full riot gear. It turned out they were waiting for some exuberant football (soccer) fans on their way to a match. In my two years of traveling, this was one of the few times I have ever been scared. 
Prague was on Javid’s must-visit list on this trip. After getting into the city, I could see why. Shiny Wenceslas Square, the crooked streets of the Old Town, Charles Bridge, and the Lesser Town – there were architectural gems all over the place. We were blown away by the three churches in the Old Town’s central square. We visited the palace twice (the first time, partially stymied by a film crew filming in front), the awesome St. Vitus’ Cathedral, and the “Story of Prague” history museum.
The next day, we visited Henry’s Bell Tower and the Municipal Building (catching the Mucha special exhibit and learning about the “Q theory”). We caught a glimpse of the cemetery at the Jewish synagogue from the public areas of the nearby Museum of Decorative Arts, walked up the hillside Petrin Park (skipping the funicular), checked out the fort walls and Petrin Tower, then made it out to Strahov Monastery for a spectacular view of the castle, Old Town, and the river bend. We revisited the palace that evening, sharing the grounds with a small number of other tourists.
Too soon, the heavy Czech food started to get to us. In particular, we felt deceived by the use of the word “dumplings” to describe the doughy bread that accompanied the heavy sauces at every meal. I don’t know about Javid, but I had been expecting Asian-style dumplings, although I don’t know why that would have been a reasonable expectation. The day of our departure, we had a late breakfast at Café Louvre, before taking the train to Berlin.
Somewhere in the middle of that, my Dell Mini 9 A/C adapter died on me. 
Berlin, Germany
October 4, 2010 – October 7, 2010
After a pleasant ride into Berlin, we checked into a hostel (converted from a flat), getting an entire room to ourselves. Javid was understanding as we made getting a replacement A/C adapter for my netbook the next priority. We walked to Alexandreplatz and checked out the Saturn and MediaMarkt stores there. I bought an overpriced adapter and confirmed that my netbook charged from it. A huge weight lifted from my shoulders!
The next morning, there was a bit of a flap with the hostel’s wifi, in that we were actually tapping into the wifi of the hostel across the street! Nothing to do with us; we were innocent bystanders. In the end, we booked our third night at the other hostel, since the first hostel was already booked full anyway.
Javid failed to find a Deutsche Bank ATM before we visited Museum Island. We checked out the Pergamnon (it had been closed the last time Javid had been in Berlin), the Neues Museum with the outstanding Nerftiti bust, and the Berlin Dom (although we visited just before closing and didn’t get to the roof). We walked to Brandenburg Gate, visited a Mercedes showroom, and saw a random live band at Zapatas, where I got a sore throat from whooping so much.
We ended up visiting the Holocaust memorial park twice, once at night, and then during the day. We learned how close (relatively) some of the Berlin sights really were, when on the third day, Javid took us on a World War II/Cold War walking tour, starting with Checkpoint Charlie, the Topography of Terror museum and the section of Berlin Wall that had been preserved nearby, the site of Hitler’s bunker. We walked through the Tiergarten on the way to the Victory memorial, which was unfortunately covered for restoration. We passed by Embassy Row, Javid astounding me with his knowledge of national flags, on the way to Potsdamer Platz, where we browsed the new products in the Sony Center.
After nearly two weeks of traveling together, I finally saw Javid off at the Hauptbahnhof, as he went back to his cousins in western Germany before returning home.
It was the beginning of my solo travels in Europe.
