Alive Inside

If somebody were to ask you to prove that you are alive, what would you do? You would run and jump and scream and shout "I'm alive!" And the evidence would be irrefutable.

And the person would respond.

"You are alive outside, but are you alive inside?"

And you would show the things you love and care about. You would show the things you've built and accomplished and collected. You would share your vision of your future. And the person would then agree that you are alive.

American Sniper

I'm sure everybody is sick of hearing about American Sniper by now, but that's exactly what motivated me to weigh in on it.

Like any movie, book, poem, painting, etc., American Sniper can and will be taken differently depending on who sees it, what mood they are in, and their own personal biases.

Let me be clear that I in no way believe that this movie "glorifies" war as some people claim.  Anyone who has seen the movie can tell you that the focus of this movie was the psychological effects of sniping and warfare that Chris Kyle had to deal with.  It was very heartfelt and every moment that Bradley Cooper portrayed Kyle on screen was filled with very strong, good emotions.  At no point was Chris Kyle celebrating the deaths of the people he killed.  Instead his focus was always on saving American lives and dealing with the pain of what he had to do.  This movie portrayed Chris Kyle as the hero he was and accurately showed what he had to deal with because of it.

Having said that, it is absolutely WRONG what people have done in theaters around the country yelling racist remarks and urging Kyle to shoot people.  Yes, I agree he should have taken those shots, but celebrating them and urging them on with racist and angry comments is evil.  Those people needed to die so that American soldiers and others could live, but that doesn't mean that those people didn't have families too.  The racists assholes in America who think it is okay to treat ANYBODY with angry hate like that should maybe try to put themselves in the shoes of those people who Chris Kyle sniped.

The movie was amazing.  I felt like it very accurately gave the viewer a sense of what it might be like to be forced to make tough decisions like that.  If you don't mind the cursing and violence and can handle the powerful emotions involved, you should definitely see it.  If you decide to let your children see it, please I BEG YOU, have a conversation with them afterwards about the emotions involved in the film.  I witnessed my uncle have this conversation with his kids (15, 13, and 12) and they absolutely understood the purpose of the film.

Rather than glorifying war, I felt like the movie actually de-glorified war and brought it very close to home for a person like me who does not have a lot of family in the military and not much personal experience to speak of either.

Go see it.

Big Hero 6

I was very excited to see Big Hero 6 from the trailers and I have to say that my expectations were probably just met.  Expect a movie that focuses more on the story of people rather than a traditional villain versus superheroes plot line (this is a plus in my opinion).  I expected it to be funny and it was, but the humor was cute funny most of the time.  I have a feeling that anyone who liked Wall-E would like this movie (I hated Wall-E by the way but I still liked this movie).  I'm guessing the movie will be popular with kids and adults, but skip the teenage crowd for the most part but I could be wrong.  There is also an obvious setup for a sequel depending on how this one does at the box office.

My favorite line in the movie was "I have to go to this nerd school."  That is exactly how I felt when I got my flyer from UCAS so many years ago and it made me laugh because I understood that kid in that moment perfectly.

In short, go see it.  Probably not a buy unless you have kids though.

The 10 Littlest Things That Have Made the Biggest Difference

I have been thinking about doing a post like this for about a week now.  To many of us (especially me) the little things can have a huge impact in our lives.  A lot of times, the person doing the little things for us probably don't even realize how much it meant to us.  This goal of this post is to figure out 10 of the little things in my life that I still remember because they impacted me so much.  Then, if possible, I want to contact each person who performed that little act and thank them for it, letting them know how much it meant to me.  I challenge anyone who reads this to do the same thing.  Note: These are in no particular order.

1.  The thank you note that I got from Jeremy at the end of the school year last year.
2.  When Roger left the play to talk to me when I really needed it.
3.  When Taylor took care of me after I got hurt in dodge ball in elementary school.
4.  When Russ showed up to my high school graduation.
5.  When dad came and picked me up from school that one day.
6.  When Sara surprised me when I was checking in to my apartment at Branbury.
7.  What Kat said about me when I first applied to Mountainville as an aide.
8.  The letter I got from the Lindstrom's when they were my Sunday School teachers.
9.  Meeting Trevor for the first time at the Spanish Fork Reservoir.
10.  My mom and Heather just for existing.

Mesa Verde/Four Corners Trip

Our trip to Mesa Verde/Four Corners started as a 2 person trip, became a 3 person trip, became a 5 person trip, then ended up just being a 2 person trip.  We had a blast though.  It was fun to go camping, hiking, get a tan, and see some history all at the same time.

On the way there we decided to stop in Monticello and get some pictures of the temple since I may not find myself down that way very often.  It was very small, but beautiful.

People may think I'm a dork (and they often do) but I love stopping at the state borders and taking pictures of by the signs.  I doubt that I will ever get all 50 states, but I don't care because it is fun anyway.

Once we hit the border we were over halfway there.  We decided to camp on BLM land for free that is about 1 mile away from the Mesa Verde park entrance.  It was a great choice, except I thought I was going to die from gnat attacks from about 6-9 every day.

I hate sleeping in sleeping bags because I am such a restless sleeper and constantly find myself in need of zipping the entire thing back up and and re-situating myself about 1,000 times a night.  Therefore I decided to sleep with just my Payson Lions blanket and froze my butt off.  It was not a pleasant night.

The next morning we headed to Mesa Verde.  The Mesa is is divided into two parts divided by a huge gorge so we decided to spend a day on one side and a day on the other side.  The side we chose to do first has the most to do and is therefore the most popular.  The first cliff dwelling that we visited was Balcony House, which turned out to be my personal favorite.  It was divided by a wall into two sections and involved 5 ladders and two tunnels.  Very fun.  And I thought I had a good front porch view.

After Balcony House we headed over to Cliff Palace, which is the park's largest and most popular cliff dwelling.  It is definitely not hard to see why and is very impressive.

After Cliff Palace we drove a loop that included many overlooks onto cliff dwellings that are not visit-able as well as Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and others.  Then we headed to the museum which is located right next to a self guided cliff dwelling with a reconstructed Kiva that you can go down into.  This area was heavily populated with tourists (many many children) and so that is probably why Spruce Tree House does not rank that high on my favorites list.  We did see some pictographs painted in red on the walls of this house though.

After visiting Spruce Tree House, Jamie and I took on the Petroglyph Point Trail.  It was only 2.5 miles, but it was a tough hike and we were very tired by the end of it.  The famous Petroglyph panel is very near the end of the trail right before you go up on the mesa top to make the loop back.  The rest of the trail from there was very easy and if I were to ever go back to Mesa Verde with kids I would take the trail backwards instead, then backtrack once I got to the petroglyphs.  This would make the hike much easier and shorter.

To relax, we went to the museum nearby and watched their 25 minute video (which I slept through after the first five minutes).  It is a waste of time if you have already done the guided tours, because the tour guides already covered all of the information that was in the video.  We checked out the museum for about 30 minutes, got some souvenirs, then headed for the Mesa Top Loop, which is a 6 mile loop with some overlooks, a temple, and some pit houses and adobe villages that have been preserved by building huge sheds up around them.  These were very interesting to me, especially the pit houses.

We hit a few overlooks of the valley on the way out.  The best one (it is the highest point in Mesa Verde) is called Park Point Overlook.

Then it was back to camp where we fended off gnats for a few hours, ate some dinner, and went to bed.  I decided to use my sleeping bag this time and was pretty cozy most of the night.

The second day at Mesa Verde we were on the smaller, less traveled side of the Mesa.  This was nice because there were fewer people crowding the facilities, although our guided tour was a much larger group since we chose a popular time (the first one of the day is at 10:00 am and by that time many people are in the park).

We did a guided tour of Longhouse which is almost as large as Cliff Palace.  There were a lot of people on our tour and it was HOT outside.  There was very little shade except at the back of the alcove.  The cool thing about Longhouse is that there is a ceremonial plaza in the front (probably a Great Kiva without a roof) where people from many dwellings probably gathered to perform and watch important religious ceremonies.

After Longhouse we went to a few overlooks then hiked around and saw more remnants of pithouses and villages, including one that had a Great Kiva.  We followed that up with a self guided tour of Step House and a hike to another overlook.  This Mesa had far less to do than the other Mesa and we ended at about 3:00 so we decided to hit Four Corners that day instead of waking up and doing it the next morning.  Obviously we had to stop for a picture at the New Mexico border.

Mesa Verde was extremely organized and a well-oiled machine.  I can't say the same for Four Corners, but eventually we got in there and got our pictures.  One lady did a backbend across all 4 states.  I thought that was pretty cool, but did not attempt it.

We got back to camp at about 5:30 so we decided to pack up and come home that night instead of the next morning since we had done everything we set out to do (and more).  We got home around 11:30.

Tips for future travelers:
1.  Staying on the BLM land for free was a great idea and was very close to the park.
2.  If you have kids, limited time, or don't want a strenuous hike then do the Petroglyph Point Trail backwards then turn around and hike back out the way you went in once you hit the petroglyphs.
3.  Bring lots of water.  You will use it.  There is a handy spigot at the Cliff Palace picnic area on Chapin Mesa to fill up and a handy spigot at the Wetherhill Mesa Information Kiosk but other than that, there are only small drinking fountains everywhere else.
4.  Skip the museum video if you are planning on doing the guided tours.
5.  If you have limited time, just do Chapin Mesa and forget about Wetherhill Mesa.  It is cool, but a lot of the same (Keep in mind that I recommend doing both sides).
6.  If you want to do both sides, Wetherhill Mesa can be done in half a day (5 hours), but Chapin Mesa will be a full day (especially with kids).

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Ever since the the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man audiences have had a chance to fall in love all over again with our friendly neighborhood teenage superhero.  Like with the Batman reboots, The Amazing Spider-Man first chose villains who were not used in the originals (Batman used the Scarecrow and the League of Shadows, both of whom had not been done before, and The Amazing Spider-Man chose to use the Lizard which had also not been used before).  As with Batman, The sequel starts introducing more commonly known characters (aka: Green Goblin, Doc Oc's suit is visible briefly) but unlike Batman, the movie chooses to focus on yet another new villain who was given quite the makeover from how he appeared in the comics.  We are talking, of course, of our friend Max Dillon who becomes Electro.  This decision to focus on a new superhero again was a benefit in my opinion.  It seems like this franchise will continue to do this (they introduced Rhino and Vulture in this film) and I agree with their approach although I would much rather see them do the Kingpin.  I'm wondering if they are hesitating to use the Kingpin because they have created a world where Oscorp reigns supreme and they need to support two powerful criminal empires.

This movie, like its predecessor, was very funny with plenty of action.  I did feel like there was probably too much development of the relationship with Gwen, but it make sense in the end when Spidey snaps Gwen's neck at the end of the movie trying to save her.  Don't worry, they've already introduced his next love interest (Black Cat).  The movie was just as good as the first although after 5 Spider-Man films, I am hoping that they might finally be able to make one that doesn't have a funeral in it.  That scene has been very played out and is getting exhausting.

Looking forward eagerly to the 3rd installment of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Ender's Game

When I first picked up Ender's Game as a kid I loved it immediately.  Ender became and continues to be my favorite character of any book or series I had read before or have since read.  Ender is so well-written that no other character in any other book even comes close.  I childishly refused to read the other books in the Ender series simply because Ender in Ender's Game was so perfect and I was scared that he would get ruined (I still haven't read them by the way, but I fully intend to at some point).

I often wondered why Ender's Game hadn't already been made into a film since it was already wildly popular both inside and outside of the sci-fi/fantasy world.  I mean, they teach it in English classes in some schools for heaven's sake.  My only thought was that Card wouldn't let them make it into a movie because he didn't want it ruined.  Well, I don't know what the reason was, but they've made a movie now.

If you want to read a fair and balanced review of Ender's Game you may want to look elsewhere.  I am clearly biased by my love for Ender as a character and unfortunately, as the IF commanders do in the book, the producers and director sacrificed Ender for the sake of an entertaining, aesthetically pleasing film that might appeal to a larger audience.  In doing this, they took away the entire purpose of the book: Ender.

There is always good news and bad news.  I've always been the type of guy who wants to hear the good news first.

The good news is that Ender and Bean were both magnificently cast.

Okay, now on to the bad news........

But seriously.

I will attempt to group my criticisms of the film into categories starting from most offensive to least offensive.

Ender Wiggin
I don't know who that was on the screen but it sure wasn't Ender Wiggin.  Don't get me wrong, Asa Butterfield did a great job and he definitely looked the part.  I was okay with them making Ender older since that's how I pictured him when I read the book in the first place.  Ender is just impossible to connect to as a 6 year old kid.  My problem was that the producers and directors sacrificed important character building of Ender for the sake of plot, which was a huge mistake since Ender is important to the book and plot is not.  The book could have been about anything, any of the details changed, as long as Ender was Ender.  The main problem was that Ender was a smart-ass, likeable (by the other boys), leader straight from the get-go.  Ender never went through the crucible of isolation that made Ender who he was.  Ender didn't get a chance to win anybody's respect, he just had it right from the start.  Even later, when Ender was meant to be a leader, the movie got it wrong again.  Ender might have had fun winning in the games, but he was still alone and somewhat depressed the whole time.  Ender's weariness never showed either.  These are some of the most emotionally charged parts of the entire book because the readers have been wondering the entire time when and how Ender will finally break.  This extends past the battle school to the final scene where he wins the war with the buggers.  At that point he literally breaks and is done, finished.  It isn't until days later that he even realizes that the games were real or the implications of any of that.  I'm not saying that Ender in the movie was a terrible character.  I think he was a great character.  It just wasn't the character Ender Wiggin.  In short, they made Ender's Game with a new character that had Ender's name and face, but few of the traits that made him the best character ever written.

All other characters
Since we have already decided that Ender's Game is a book built on characters (Ender in particular) and not plot, the other characters that they did wrong (which is all of them) were also major problems with the film.  We will take them one at a time roughly in order of appearance.

Stilson:  It is ironic that I am about to say this, but Stilson is the only character that SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN CAST OLDER!!!  Wow!  The characters that are supposed to be older are too young but LITERALLY THE ONLY CHILD WHO IS ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BE AROUND ENDER'S AGE IS A FREAKING GIANT!  That is all.

Valentine: I have few complaints about Valentine except that at first I thought Valentine looked younger than Ender.  It was just the camera angles in that first scene in the bedroom but it was okay after that.

Peter:  He was cast wrong and his character was not developed at all.  The reason this is a mistake is because you have to understand Peter and Valentine before you can even begin to understand Ender.  Valentine was developed enough, but more for her would have been nice too.

Mom and Dad: They were fine.  They are not important enough to the story for me to care although I did imagine dad as having glasses with a briefcase and newspaper (not exactly, but you get the businessman feeling from him in the book).

Graff:  As a Harrison Ford fan it plagues me to say this, but he might have been the worst of the main characters in the entire movie.  It isn't because he was cast wrong (on the contrary, he could have done Graff proud) but instead because he was so flat the entire movie.  It was hard for me to tell if he even cared about Ender or the war or anything at all.  HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT since Graff is in my inner circle of most important characters in the book.

Anderson:  Although I pictured Anderson as a white man, I was fine with Anderson being a black woman.  The complaint that I have is that Anderson was too compassionate (more about this later).  I realize that Anderson always tried to balance Graff, but Anderson always came off strong to me, as a partner with Graff, just with more of a conscience.

Dap: What the hell?  Worst casting decision of the entire film.  Nuff said.

Petra, Alai, the absence of Shen, Dink (perfect!), Fly Molo and Bernard I was okay with except for the fact that Bernard lacked an accent.  They throw in random races and accents to everyone else but Bernard doesn't get one?  That was a dumb move.

Bonzo:  Sorry, THIS is the worst casting decision of the film.  I realize that Moises Arias played a feisty Bonzo, but I seriously couldn't take him seriously with him being a whole head shorter than Ender.  Was Bean taller than him?  Just kidding.

Mazer: I was okay with it other than I pictured him with a pretty gnarly beard for some reason.

I don't care about the Strategos or any of the other guys that barely appear in the book.

Ender Scenes
This is similar to the Ender section, but I will talk about specific scenes and everything that was wrong with them, not just the Ender parts.  I will try to go chronologically.

Beating up Stilson:  We've already discussed the fact that Stilson is too big, but Ender should not have been that scared during that scene.  Ender was freaked out inside, but he wasn't like that on the surface.  If you wanted the audience to know how he was feeling, the cut scene to Valentine was a perfectly fine way to show all that.  Ender reacts logically, not emotionally and that entire scene was done wrong, including the way Ender chose to fight (grabbing random objects, not planned out, etc).

Choosing Ender for the IF:  I just wanted to do a quick shout out because I think this scene was actually really pretty good (except why was Anderson there?  I guess it's okay.....).

The shuttle and Bernard in general:  Skipping this scene was a vital mistake because it is a huge Ender character developing moment.  Also, the decision to make Bernard an ally was idiotic.  I see why they did it (Ender brought all the kids around to his side, even Bernard), but that is not how it was supposed to work.

Ender's first battle with Salamander:  Ender's not freaking Neo from The Matrix.  What was up with those stupid moves like letting go of both guns, flipping, getting them again, shooting everybody and everything?  That was not Ender's first experiences in battle.

Ender as Dragon commander montage:  Okay, let's force all of Ender's character building moments into a 5 minute montage that focuses more on the cool tricks he is doing rather than the actual character growing that Ender is going through.

Bonzo fights Ender:  Kudos for tactfully showing this scene but it was a little laughable, mostly because of the bad casting decision for Bonzo that I already mentioned earlier.

Bonzo, Petra, and Ender with Graff:  This scene is completely unnecessary since it is not in the book AT ALL!!!  Ender doesn't give up on the game because of Bonzo.  Oh wait, I forgot you don't want to build the character of Ender, you want to build a new character that is not Ender but more Valentine than anything who definitely would not have been able to win the war with the buggers.

Ender and Valentine:  It was a bit silly but I honestly don't know how they could have done this scene without coming off really super cheesy.

Command school:  Again, where is the crucible that Ender is supposed to go through?  Why are we telling him who Mazer is right from the start?  Why are all his buddies there right from the start?

Ender fails a battle: THIS PISSED ME OFF!  ENDER DOES NOT LOSE!  ENDER NEVER LOSES!  Petra makes mistakes, not Ender.  Ender never loses.  Can I say that one more time?  Ender never loses.

Ender is upset about the war:  The way it happened in the book was perfect.  This way was really horrible.  It just makes it seem as if Ender is too much Valentine, not enough Peter.  Not enough Ender.

Miscellaneous problems of varying offensiveness

Girls at the battle school: I'm sorry that we live in a world where girls might feel offending if there aren't enough of them in the movie but suck it up.  There aren't supposed to be very many girls at the battle school (none that I know of except Petra) but the way they set this up it seemed as if there were tons of them.  There were several in Ender's launch group. 

The hook:  The hook was stupid.  I don't really know what else to say about that.

Buggers:  Why did they intentionally avoid using this phrase?  Is it offensive in some way that I am unaware of?  It was supposed to be offensive.

Petra love:  Making it seem as if there was something between Ender and Petra was bunk.  Just total bunk.

Mazer has to help Ender figure the buggers out:  Ender figures the vids out for himself while he is still at battle school.  He doesn't need Mazer to hold his hand and explain everything to him.

Mind game:  More vital character development of Ender that they cut out.  The mind game was a joke they way they presented it.

No Intelligent Progression:  They present Ender as a Launchy/Salamander/Commander all at the same time with no progression to follow.  This was a huge injustice to developing Ender's character properly.

Bean in the launch group:  I was okay with this.  I even thought that they stumbled onto genius when I thought they might combine the characters of Bean and Alai (which they didn't).  I would have liked to see a bit more of Bean's development, but oh well.

I can keep going, but what's the point?

I heard the suggestion given that they should have done this movie in two movies.  I still think it could have been done properly in one, but if they did make two movies then even an idiot should be able to get it right, just follow the book.  The details about Ender matter.  The details about everyone else doesn't matter as much.  If they did split it, I would end the first movie with Ender becoming Dragon commander.  The obvious benefits of drawing the movie out into two is that they could actually spend the correct amount of time developing Ender slowly (since that's how he develops!).  It would also let the progression of exhaustion show which I think was a major drawback in the movie.  I don't feel like Ender EVER felt exhausted, just angry or sad or some other powerful emotion.

Needless to say it was the worst book adaptation I have ever seen (you heard me right my friends, worse than Eragon) and I will not be seeing it again if I can help it.

Hiking in the Rain!

Today I had an awesome time at Ultimate Frisbee then I got together with my good friend Jamie to go hiking.  I have biked down Bennie Creek tons of times but I never thought of hiking up it!  Apparently people do it all the time.  It was a great hike and it starting raining on us on the way back.  That hike brought me back to my times backpacking and camping and biking in Young Mens.  I really need to find a way to make those things part of my adult life because they are so amazing.  It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Family Reunion 2013

I remember a time not so long ago when I was generally not excited to attend family events.  Being on the much older side of the cousins, it was not really that fun for me to hang around with all the little kids.  As I have been getting older, attending these events has become more and more fun for me and I don't mind playing with the little kids as much.  I had a great time at my family reunion this year and it was great to get to know all of my dad's cousins and their kids as well.  I can't wait to see everyone again in two more years!

Most of the time was spent game playing, as it should be!!!

Germany Trip

After an unnecessarily confusing and troublesome trip from Oslo to Germany, Heather and I finally met up and made it to our hotel.  Get ready Germany.  I don't know if you can handle the two of us together.

Day One:

I wasn't expecting eggs and bacon for breakfast, and that was probably a good thing because apparently everyone in Europe eats bread for breakfast.

After breakfast Heather and I walked down to a nearby supermarket and bought some stuff to make sandwiches with.  After Norway, I learned my lesson about eating out.  They didn't speak English there but luckily the customer in front of us did and she was very helpful (she found us peanut butter and I was SOOOOO happy that I wasn't going to have to try and stomach Nutella all week).

SIDEBAR:  People in Germany are generally super friendly and tons of people (not employees) have helped us translate between English and German in a kind and friendly attitude.

We also decided it was a good idea to figure out how our rail passes worked so we headed down to the nearest train station with no real plans in mind of where we were going or what we were going to do that day.  After talking to one of the ladies we still didn't really have a clue so we went and found a random train and we were going to hop on it when I realized that the lady at the booth was supposed to activate our rail passes.  So we got to talk to her again.  She kind of had a bad attitude and was a little annoyed with us but she activated our passes and it turns out that riding the trains is a piece of cake.  We figured it out in a snap.

Our first real destination on the trip was Museumsinsel which basically translates as Museum Island.  Guys!  If you didn't feel the full impact of that sentence go back and read it again.  It is an island.  Full of museums.  Could Berlin make my life any easier?  It's not as great as the National Mall in D.C. but still, pretty great right?

The first museum on the list was the Bode Museum which is an Art museum.  I'm not gonna lie, it got old after a few hours.  It did have some really cool pieces though.

After walking around the Bode we worked up quite an appetite so we decided to scope out some food.  We skipped quite a few places and finally ended up at a 60s American diner place.  Before you yell at me, yes we will try some German food and we already did at that place because they served some interesting but tasty things, particularly dipping sauce.

The Museums were calling our names so we went back to Museumsinsel and took some pictures of the national art gallery (we didn't go inside because we were sick of art for the moment) and moved on to the Neues Museum which basically covers history from prehistory to the medieval times.  It also has the famous bust of Nefertiti but we weren't allowed to take pictures of that.  I was going to be sneaky but those guards watched like hawks in that room.

Our legs were hurting pretty bad after that museum so we decided to take a river tour and sit for a while but this massive cathedral was in our way.  Can't go over it.  Can't go around it.  I guess we'll go through it!  The view from the top was great.

At long last we made it to our riverboat and gave our legs their much deserved rest.  The tour was also quite informative and we learned a lot about many of the buildings in Berlin, especially many of the new buildings that were created to replace buildings that were destroyed during World War II.

After the boat tour we met up with our favorite communist Karl Marx, quite by accident I assure you.  I guess there is a statue of him in a random Berlin park?

On our way back home (we were so beat even though it was only 6 or so!) we went a different way to see a little bit more of the city.  We also picked up a few souvenirs and a charger for my computer.

SIDEBAR: Although the $30.00 adapter/converter that I bought in the U.S. has the correct connections, it is too fat to fit in the outlets because they are raised!!!  This was true in Norway as well.  Do not buy the first type of charger if you are traveling internationally because it won't fit and you'll end up buying a new one anyway.  See the black thing between my cream colored adapter and the plug?  That's the extension I had to buy so that my adapter would work.  And if you think you can get away without the extender or a better adapter, you can't.  All the outlets are inset about an inch and there's no way you are getting that bad boy in there!

Phew!  That was a long, productive day.

Day Two:

Checkout was today since our goal is to see as much of Germany as possible.  It sucked having to carry our bags with us everywhere but I was expecting it.

Our first stop was the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island which we hadn’t gotten to the previous day because of our angry, tired legs.  I’m glad we came back because it was definitely my favorite.  Right now it is being renovated so the main entrance is completely blocked off, so we had to go around the back.

The whole theme of the Pergamon is ancient history, particularly Greek, Roman, and Mesopotamian.  The first thing we saw as we entered was the reconstructed Pergamon Temple inside a huge building.  Even though a lot of pieces were missing, it was cool to know that I was walking where Alexander the Great once walked.

The museum also contained a partially reconstructed Roman temple and Umayyad dynasty castle, but the crown jewel of the reconstructions was definitely the legendary Ishtar Gate of Babylon.  It was very impressive and actually made me feel like I was in a bible story. 

The next section was enormous and represented a huge collection of Mesopotamian artifacts.  It was really neat to see the cuneiform tablets and the amazing detail that was put into the tiniest pieces.  There was also this sweet cuneiform box that I really wanted (Dad, are you reading this?).

Upstairs there was a section on the major Muslim dynasties.  I was less interested during this part of the museum but there were some beautiful prayer tablets and rugs.

After the Pergamon we had lunch in the garden outside and decided whether we wanted to go to the National Art Gallery or not.  We decided not.

Instead, Heather’s suitcase decided to break (one of the wheels) so it wouldn’t pull anymore and let me testify, it was heavy.  We finally designed a system to carry the stupid thing but the bag wasn’t designed to be carried that way and it cut my shoulders.

At the main train station where our journey to Aushcwitz would shortly begin, we decided Heather needed a new suitcase and we repacked everything right on the floor of the train station.  Heather was mildly mortified.

We had a little bit more time before our train left so we decided to go and see the Checkpoint Charlie museum.  Unfortunately, I don’t really have a lot of good things to say about this museum.  It was very small and cramped, was an information overload (everything is printed in 4 languages which I realize is a hark back to Cold War times but it means there is hardly any space of wall not covered by words and I felt that it was unnecessary), the audio guides were temporarily unavailable, and we didn’t have enough time to properly tour it.  I realize that the last reason is our fault, but the other reasons add up too.  I would really like to go back with 3 or 4 hours and read everything to really get the full experience and I think I would appreciate it more after that.  We did get to see some interesting ways that people sneaked over from East Berlin and the original hot air balloon from that famous story of the family who ballooned over the wall.

Quite by accident, on our way back from Checkpoint Charlie, we ran into an old train gate in the middle of a park.  It turns out that tracks used to run through there and that was actually one of the major Jewish deportation sites in Berlin.  It was very cool to just stumble upon that.

We finally got back to the main train station and thus began our long journey to Auschwitz which was made a lot more bearable by the appearance of two beautiful Brits who we chatted with until we had to make our first connection a few hours later.  They were around our age and didn’t have much experience with Americans so they asked us just as many questions as we did of them, probably more.  Sorry, but we didn’t get a picture.  I didn’t even think about it.

At the connection we only had about 10 minutes to find our correct station, which had us a little stressed (Heather a lot more than I).  We found the train and ended up getting on 16 cars away from where we were supposed to be.  We tried to go through the train while it was moving (that was an adventure!) but we only made it about four cars before we reached a place where the next car had no inside connection.  We just picked an empty car and when the ticket lady came by she didn’t seem to mind.  Once in the train Heather was able to de-stress a little with some head-out-of-the-window, tongue-lolling fun.

We did get some sleep on the train.  I’m not going to lie, it was very far from the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.  Tomorrow, Auschwitz!

Day Three:

The train ride to Poland (the overnight part) was terrible.  Sleeping on the train was not fun.  Once the sun rose, we did get some nice pictures of rural Poland though.  After arriving in town we tried to get some directions and ended up walking about 1.5 miles.  The Auschwitz Museum was not open yet so we went across the street to a kind of tourist center and mooched their wifi for a bit.  By the way, they had a Dr. Pepper.  Germany and Poland have Dr. Pepper, what’s the deal with Norway? (They also had Mt. Dew by the way).

When Auschwitz opened we headed over there and signed up for a guided tour.  You can walk around unguided if you want to which is probably what I will do the next time I go, but I highly recommend the guided tour.  Our guide was great.  They know a lot of information and many of the guides reside in the nearby town and grew up here their whole lives so Auschwitz is really a part of their history.  The only reason that I would go unguided next time is because there are some places where the guided tour didn’t take us (because of time we couldn’t visit every barrack).

The tour begins at the famous gates of Auschwitz I where the misleading and flat out untrue sign Albrecht Macht Frei marks the entrance to the camp.  I don’t want to type a novel, so I will be leaving good descriptions of all the pictures I put up later, but let me just say that it was quite sobering walking the streets where SS men marched, tortured, experimented on, worked to death, and just plain shot for fun the Jews and others.  

The tour leads through nearly all of the barracks (which are original for the most part but some reconstruction has been done to the inside walls in most of them) which gives the museum a lot of space.  I like this, especially after Checkpoint Charlie which was cramped and crowded.  They have a lot of original artifacts like shoes, combs and brushes, hair, suitcases, etc. of many of the victims housed in these barracks.  Some of them we were not allowed to take pictures of (like the hair for example).

After that we saw where roll was called, the kitchens, where executions took place, and the one crematorium that was in Aushwitz I.  The tour was extremely informative and lasted about 1.5 hours.  My body was begging to be done but I wanted to see Aushwitz II (the actual killing center), so we pressed on.

Auschwitz II is a little bit up the road from Aushwitz I (maybe 5 miles or more) so we took a shuttle with our guide.  Auschwitze II is much larger and it had 4 crematoriums which were all destroyed by the Nazis prior to their abandonment of the camp to try and cover up what had happened there.  Many of the barracks (those made of wood) are also destroyed.  The ruins of the crematoriums, the brick barracks, the railroad tracks, and a modern monument are there for visitors to see.  I was tired by the end of it and sat down for about 2 or 3 hours afterwards at lunch, but it was definitely worth it.  Auschwitz was an amazing experience.

 

We took showers (it was about $3.00) because we were super stinky.  We hadn’t showered in a day and had done two full days of walking around in the hot sun.  Those showers felt great!  Hold on to that positivity because the next 24 hours probably rank in the top 5 worst 24 hours periods that I’ve ever had.  Heather and I have began referring to Poland as The Country That Should Not Be Named.  It’s a tale filled with frustration, desperation, sadness, a few miracles, and an eventual happyish ending.

The first think to go wrong was that we were eating lunch and we heard a huge pop from where Heather’s phone was charging.  We were a little fearful to actually go check to see if her phone died but we did and luckily it was just the charger.  Frustrating, but only slightly.  That was only the beginning.

We walked the long walk back to the train station and it started raining.  Luckily, we got inside before it got bad.  We wanted to buy a ticket on an overnight train that was going to Prague and stopping at that station, but apparently only certain stations can sell international tickets even though the train stops at their station, they can’t sell tickets for it.  Please someone explain this to me.  Anyway, we bought a ticket to head back to Krakow so we could buy the international ticket to Prague.

DISCLAIMER: A LOT OF THESE PROBLEMS WERE BROUGHT UPON OURSELVES AND I REALIZE THAT.  NEVERTHELESS, THEY ARE NO LESS FRUSTRATING.  IN FACT, THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY ARE SELF-INFLICTED PROBABLY MAKES IT MORE FRUSTRATING.

We missed the train because the wrong station was printed on the ticket and we weren’t really paying attention to the signs.  I’ll take credit for that one.  So our options at this point became slim.  I won’t take you through our whole decision making process but we eventually decide to take a taxi to Krakow so we can make this train to Prague and not lose a day.  I guess the taxi ride was fun, but it was a lot more expensive that the train (which we already wasted money on if you recall).  Our taxi driver was nice though, even though she didn’t speak much English.

SIDEBAR: NOBODY IN POLAND SPEAKS ENGLISH.  NOBODY.   At least, it seemed that way.

In Krakow (which is the largest station we ever went to.  It’s huge!) we finally made our way over to the place where they sell international tickets thanks to help from a tourist information guy who actually spoke great English (one of two exceptions to my above sidebar).  We were informed by the very mean woman that there were no more trips to Prague that night which were not full. 

Off to the side we discussed our options (which were not looking good) and toyed with the idea of flying from Krakow to Prague, Vienna, or even Nuremberg.  By the way, we didn’t know this at the time but that would have been the overall cheapest, best option.  We decided instead to see if we could get an overnight train to anywhere closer to Germany and hopefully get out of Poland.  The lady said there were no overnight trains to any city but when pressed she got us a train to a different station which did have overnight international trains to Vienna available.  Why couldn’t she just have offered us that in the first place?  Anyway, the thing that made us frustrated was that the train left in 10 minutes at it was on the other side of the huge station.  The lady just took her sweet time about handing us our tickets and I literally sprinted to try and get to the train and hold it while Heather caught up.  We barely made the train and needless to say, Heather and I were not in the greatest spirits.  Then it got worse.

The station we needed to get off at in order to connect to our train to Vienna was called Katowice.  I was paranoid about missing our stop so I had my head out the window for a good 15 or 20 minutes so I wouldn’t miss any of the station signs (It was pitch dark outside so you couldn’t see anything through the train windows).  When the Katowice station came up, we got off along with some other people.  It was the most Podunk station I have ever seen.  Things were falling to pieces, it was heavily graffitied, and on the other side I couldn’t even find any train schedules posted (we found one later).  I was wondering how this could possibly have international trains.  When we couldn’t figure it out, we ventured away from the station a bit to see if we could find someone to help.  Remember that we are in Poland around 11:00 pm at a Podunk station in the middle of a ghetto section of town.  We were definitely scared and all I could think about was that I forget to write a sticky note that says dad gets everything if I die on this trip.  Consider this post that sticky note.  

We saw three people up ahead, alcohol on the ground next them.  I didn’t want to talk to them but I figured I had no choice so I did.  One of the three spoke broken English and he explained that there are 3 Katowice stations and we got off on the first one instead of the third one.  My question is why aren’t the stations labeled differently on the tickets?  How could we possibly have known that there were three stations or which one to take?  With that bad news we headed back up to the station to jump on any train heading the direction we needed to go.  We figured with only two stops nobody would care or check for tickets.  Well, there was only 1 more train scheduled to pass through that station that night at about 11:15 pm.  Our connecting train to Vienna was scheduled for 12:03.  Even if we caught this train, it was possible we wouldn’t make it in time to connect.  Well, it was our best option.  So we waited.  And we waited.  And we waited.  The train never came.  

We waited until 11:30 because we figured by that point we would not be able to make our connection anyway.  A lot of praying was involved at this point for me (Heather had gotten started earlier I later found out).  I didn’t care about the connection to Vienna anymore, just to get out of this station to the central station and we could worry about getting a train in the morning.  The guy we had talked to told us the central station was about 10 kilometers away so walking was out of the question.  Our plan was to find a taxi in a rundown section of town, at practically midnight, in a town we don’t know, where they don’t speak our language.  On top of that it was raining.

Now things start getting better.

I think Heavenly Father finally took pity on our self-inflicted, very painful experience because we were walked and we happened to walk past those same guys we met earlier coming out of a bar in a different part of the town.  I wasn’t even paying attention but the guy who spoke some English stopped us and wondered why we hadn’t caught a train to the central station.  We explained.  He offered us a ride to the station.  I felt a little spike of fear, but I felt like it was going to be okay.  I have no idea what Heather was feeling like.  To make this story slightly shorter, one of the Poles drove us like a crazy person to the central station in about 8 minutes, parked and just left his car in the middle of the drop-off zone out front, and ran with us to our train.  We did show up about 2 minutes late, but the train was still there and it literally left when we stepped on.  Wow.  Another long, overnight train ride with horrible sleeping conditions but Heather and I didn’t even care.  Somehow we weren’t dead, and we were actually on the train we needed to be on and would have to buy another international ticket (those are expensive).  And one of the longest days of my life finally ended somewhere around the Polish border.

 Day Four:

Readers must be thinking by now that I am writing a book about this trip.  Sorry.

Heather and I arrived in Vienna around 6:30 in the morning.  The only thing open was a McDonald’s, so we had that.  They also had free wifi, so I took the opportunity let everyone know we had reached Vienna and get some tips from my dad on what to see since he was there on his mission.  He gave some great suggestions but unfortunately, we weren’t able to do any of them.  By the time we figured out where to buy our international ticket and how to get there, we only had a few hours of time in the city left since we wanted to be gone by about 2:00 pm.  We wasted probably another hour on trains trying to get to the city center until we realized that the only way to get there is by the metro, not the trains.  

When we finally got to the main part of the city we took a bus tour that showed us a lot of the cool, beautiful buildings in Austria.  When that tour was over, we had barely enough time to get back to our departure station before our train to Nuremberg left.  I would like to come back to Austria some day since I feel like I didn’t have enough time there.  I did get some Milka chocolate from a vending machine though.  Hopefully it still tastes okay after the vacation and the planes home are done with it.

Being in Germany again felt so blessedly right.  The stress just sluiced off me because I knew that if I missed a train, I could just get another one a few minutes later and they are all free because of our rail passes.  We found our hotel without much of a problem and showered (we were pretty stinky again after all that running to catch trains).  Since tomorrow is Sunday, not a lot is open, so we will see what tomorrow has in store for us.

On the Vienna train Heather and I watched Zombieland and decided that the rules of Zombieland also apply to foreign countries:

#1 Cardio – If you don’t run, you WILL miss your train (if you are dumb like us and can’t figure things out fast enough or plan ahead)

#2 Double Tap – Always check AT LEAST twice to make sure you have the right ticket and that you are on the correct station.  It helps to check with other people who are also traveling on that same train.

#3 Beware of Bathrooms – In Poland they all cost.  It’s not a lot, but still.

#4 Limber up – There is a lot of walking, so it might be a good idea to stretch a little at the beginning and end of each day.  Also, take care of your feet or you will suffer.

#5 Enjoy the little things – In this case, showers are a little thing that makes a HUGE difference in how you feel and how your day goes.

#6 Always Check the Backseat – The only thing we have accidentally left on a train was a bottle of water and we are hoping to keep it that way.

Day 5:

We had a great night's sleep and decided to sleep in today to rest up from the first half of our trip.  We stayed in bed until about 11:30 or so and it was so nice.

I didn't know we are in Utah but apparently we are because everything is closed on Sunday.  None of the markets were open so we could make some breakfast and a lot of the stores were closed too.  First stop on the list was the whole reason we came to Nuremberg in the first place: The Nuremberg Castle.

After some unsuccessful navigation due to a lack of a city map, we finally found a tourist spot that not only had a city map with points of interest marked on it and almost every street named, but we also found rail/tram/metro/etc map that corresponded with the city map so we could see where every single station was for all forms of public transit.  Plus the guy was also nice enough to highlight the best route to the castle.  The walk to the castle was pretty long and the elevation gain was a lot but eventually we made it there.

On the way to the castle we passed a statue of Albrecht Durer and his house that he lived in.  He is a famous artist.  I didn't much care for it but Heather enjoyed seeing it since she was an art major in college originally.  We also passed a building with a sundial mounted to the side of it.  I thought that was pretty cool.

We finally arrived to the castle and walked around the beautiful grounds.  When we went to go inside we learned that it was closed for construction (Heather was mad) but at least we got some great pictures around the castle!

On the way back we stopped for a bathroom break and to plan out the route for the rest of the day.  Using the maps in unison was a cinch and I wish it was always this easy to travel.

On the way to the first stop I accidentally navigated us to dark blue 6 point of interest instead of light blue 6 points of interest and that was a pain, but we eventually arrived to our destination at the Nazi Rally Grounds in Nuremberg which had been converted to an archives and museum about Nazi Germany and Nuremberg specifically.  All that walking around earlier to the wrong location killed a lot of our time and we were only there for 1 hour before it closed and had to speed through.  We probably saw around 1/2 to 3/4 of it though and it was fantastic.  I loved it and I would love to go back for more sometime if I ever visit Nuremberg again.

Since everything in Nuremberg was closed at this point, we went to the main station to get some tickets for later days and eat.  We decided to try some local food called doner.  It was meat and fries with this sauce and it was very good, and for only 3 euro.

Back at the hotel Heather called her mom, I blogged, and we watched some funny videos before hitting the sack at a decent hour for once, wanting to get another good night's sleep.

Day Six:

We decided to go to Venice for a side trip since there was not much else we wanted to do in Nuremberg.  We ended up booking an awesome hotel for really cheap and spent all day today on the train, arriving around 8:00 pm or so.  After figuring out the way to our hotel with no wifi we finally got there and loved it!  Tomorrow we hit the city. 

Day Seven:

We missed the last morning train to the city (apparently they only run until 9:00, then resume running at about 1:00) so we had to take the hotel shuttle.  This ended up working out great because of the people we met on the shuttle.  We talked to an older British couple who had been in Venice for a few days already and they gave us tips on where to go, what to see, and how to get there in our limited time.  They were very  kind.  As we were getting out of the shuttle one of the other passengers said that he had been listening to our conversation and offered us two vaporetto (water bus) passes that he didn't need anymore and were good all day.  All of this added up to two people who knew exactly where to go and got there for free when we finally got into the city.

The city was simply gorgeous so I'm going to try and do less talking and more showing.  The first step was getting on the vaporetto.

 We saw A LOT of boats, gondolas, vaporettos, etc. on the river.  It was refreshing to be in a city with no cars.  None.  However, it was summer and it was really hot and really humid.  We wanted to take a gondola but it was about 80-100 euros so we thought eh . . . better not.

The main place we saw in Venice was St. Mark's Square which houses a huge market, a cathedral/museum, and a really large tower that I decided to go up in.

We also got some real traditional Italian gelatto which was mostly delicious.

All in all, Heather and I both agreed that Venice was the most beautiful city we have been to (and the hottest).  We would love to go back during Carnival or at night.  Venice, we shall return!

Day Eight:

Today was the most boring day of the trip to write about.  We spent over 10 hours on a train from Italy to Munich.  We sprang for the couchettes (beds) but I think I would have preferred the seats.  Except for the people we met, it was a horrible experience.  

When we arrived in Munich we went straight to our hotel and went to bed.  I only slept for a few hours but Heather slept for 6 hours!  We went down to the supermarket to stock up and made some dinner and watched The Two Towers, extended.  We didn't see a bit of the city.  As our vacation is winding down, we both needed this lazy day to just do nothing.  We are getting tired and the United States is becoming more and more enticing.

Day Nine:

Today we went into the city.  We wanted to get to our hotel in Berlin that night at a reasonable time so we didn't have all day in Munich.  We decided to do a bus tour like we did in Vienna.  We took the long bus tour and got to see a bunch of the city.  We also got to look for a new suitcase for me at the local mall since my zippers busted.

 It was late when we got to Berlin because our train was delayed but we finally got there.  Heather and I both agree that this trip is winding down.  Our bodies are tired, we are tired of nobody speaking English, and we getting tired with each other.  One more day, then back to home sweet home. 

Day Ten: 

We slept in again today since we didn't have a lot planned for the day.  The main attraction was the Brandenburg Gate.  There were a few little things I would have liked to have seen that I didn't get the chance to see but hey, it will give me a reason to go back!

We also decided to go out to dinner that night (Heather's idea) so that Heather could wear the dress that she brought.  The food was good and the price wasn't that bad either.  Thus ends our German vacation.