Rick and I

I was just looking at the blog in my boredom and realized that I never put up the picture of Rick and I. So, for all you curious minds (haha), here is the picture of WHEN I MET RICK STEVES.



Pretty cool, eh? I like that you can see the world shooting by behind us. I keep this as my computer background and I don't have plans of changing it anytime soon.

Our Film Festival

Over the festival, the Chapman interns thought that the festival poster was really funny. So at the end, in a moment of utter uncoolness, we decided to take photos of ourselves jumping and begged Preston (one of the interns) to photoshop a version of the poster with us in it. I don't think any of us thought it would happen, but behold, Preston came through. You have to check out Chapman, Cannes 2007 take on the Festival poster... it gave me a good laugh.




And now the original:

Berlin Picture

Heya, just found this picture from our Berlin walking tour. The tour was great, despite the terrible rain! You can see Emily and I on the left. Oh yeah, that's the Brandenburg Gate behind us.

Rick, Rick is that You?

...
I suddenly realize that this may in fact be THE Rick Steves, in person. I am so excited, I can't wait for Emily to come back to her seat. When she does I ask her if she knows what RIck Steves looks like, she says no and I tell her that I think it may be him! I debate for a few minutes to approach him and finally decide that if I don't, I will regret not knowing for sure. So I get up, walk into his car (he is the only one in there) and say, "umm, excuse me, are you Rick Steves?" I know, I know, not the greatest opening line ever, but still, I was NERVOUS and I could have just run up to him screaming, "Rick, Rick is that you?" (jk, mom). He said, yes that he was, and I told him I was a big fan of his. We talked about a bunch of stuff including, my trip, being robbed in Provence, mom and dad meeting him in Spain last year, and the rail strike in Germany. He was such an easy guy to talk to! I got my picture with him (it's a self portrait, I hope it turns out, because we have a regular film camera) and he was just really cool. At the end of the conversation he mentioned that when I graduate I should contact him and be one of his tour guides! How AWESOME is that? Afterwards, I was so excited, I sat with a grin on my face for the rest of the day. It's funny, I've met/seen much bigger celebrity (George CLooney, Brad Pitt) and I've never been so excited as I was to meet Rick...seriously, one of the coolest moments of my life. :)

More Berlin and BIG NEWS

I am now sitting in an internet cafe in Munich. Berlin was such a blast, we went on a walking tour of the city, went to the Allies museum, went up the Reichstag, and went to the concentration camp outside the city. We spent five nights in the city and honestly weren't ready to leave. Nonetheless, we headed off at 8 in the morning for Munich. We were quickly stopped however, because the German railway workers were on strike! I think this may be the first time in history that a German train wasn't efficient. We ended up getting a taxi from the U-Bahn station to the main train station and were lucky enough to have our train be one of the only ones not to be cancelled! We got on the train with a big relief and then about an hour in were stopped on the tracks for over an hour and a half. Apparently, the person who changed the tracks was on strike and we had to wait until 11 o´clock until the strike was over. geesh! WE just barely made our connection, and had to sprint to the next train...on which the BIG NEWS happened.

Our train was about to get in (in about 20 minutes) when I see some guy walk past to the bathroom. I look closer (I can´t see very well to begin with) and...I think I see...oh my God, is that RICK STEVES!? oh my, god, I think it IS Rick Steves.

....uh oh, run out of time. To be continued...

Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a donut)

First day down in the big ßerlin (yeah German keyboard!...and yes, I know that symbol stand for double s and therefore makes no sense to pronounce)

The Reedster and I are thinking we may never leave. Berlin is such a beautiful city and so welcoming, that we are having a blast. Today we slept in (comme d´habitude) and decided to just wander the city. We took the U-Bahn, S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz and walked our way back down the city center to Museum Island, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and some other sites. The main part of the city is really well planned out, what with all of the Museums in the same area and a long, wide boulevard with important monuments and buildings to see on it. Tomorrow are going to get up and take a walking tour of the town to get a feel for it. Then maybe some museum trips later on.

Berlin

So we are finally in Berlin. We took a flight from Barcelona yesterday, which was delayed by about 3 hours, so when we finally arrived it was much later than expected. Despite this, I think both Em and I are already in the love with our hostel and the city. To start, the hostel is incredible: the nicest people, the cleanest most well-equipped facilities. It is called the Jetpack City hostel and if you are ever in Berlin and in need of a hostel, go to this one. We are probably going to take one of the free walking tours to get acquainted with the city and then see what we want to tdo from there. More to come later, when there is time.