> *This series will go country by country through my two-year trip. I plan on sharing some experiences, thoughts, and photos of those countries.*
# <center> Country by Country 04: Germany </center> #
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I left Carcassonne France by train and had to change train stations in Paris. From Paris, it only took about 3 hours by train to get to my town of Kaiserslautern.
I spent a couple of days at home. I wanted to swap out a few of the things that I had packed a month earlier, and I wanted to use my lovely washing machine and dryer. I also wanted to spend a whole day in my underwear, doing nothing but drinking beer and using my computer. I accomplished all of my tasks.
I had missed my apartment, and I still do. It was on the top floor of the building, and it had a penthouse style elevator that went directly into my apartment. It was also huge. One thing I don't miss is my neighbor.
> *My neighbor in Kaiserslautern.*
You wouldn't think having a big, beautiful church as a neighbor would be a problem, but it is. This is why.
https://youtu.be/hKF6MAirC7w
> *Bells at midnight? On Sunday night? Luckily this wasn't very common, but the bells are their own form of hell on earth.*
I shouldn't be too ungrateful. I think the noise pollution from the church is why my apartment was so cheap. I think I paid less than $800 a month for it.
While I was back home, I treated myself to one of the greatest things ever invented in Germany. It's called the "Donor Box" and it is glorious!
> *Donor box!*
It's got all the best stuff from a doner kebab, but without all the bread bullshit. It's got rotisserie meat, vegetables, Turkish spices, yogurt sauce, and french fries on top and bottom. I can't imagine a better meal at 04:00 in the morning after a hard night's drinking.
Some of you weirdos might be interested in what I packed in my backpack, so here's what it looked like.
> *My new loadout.*
From top to bottom, I've got a kit that's basically my kitchen junk drawer. You know the drawer that you keep your rubber bands and old Taco Bell hot sauce in? Yeah, it's like that. I've got my day backpack. Some clothes and a rain cover for my backpack. A bottle of Tobasco sauce, because most Europeans wouldn't know spicy food from a pickled beet. More clothes, some body wash, and some laundry detergent. And finally my main backpack with a laptop and first-aid kit.
On one morning I went to one of my favorite restaurants, Brauhaus. It's on the other side of the church that I lived by. On the weekends they have a brunch buffet that's pretty good. I brought my Tobasco and enjoyed a last taste of "home".
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> *Is Germany the only place where cheese and salad is a breakfast food? Doesn't matter, the meal was great.*
After a couple of days, I knew it was time to get back on the road. I found a guy offering cheap train tickets on blablacar.com and worked out a time to meet him at the train station. He had some sort of group pass, so I sat with the guy (along with a couple other people) and I was able to get to Berlin at half price.
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This was my first visit to this city, so I went to a lot of the tourist spots for photos. Here are some of my standard tourist pictures of **Berlin**.
> *Holocaust memorial*
> *Brandenburg Gate*
> *A building that I don't know anything about. The Jesus statue makes me think it's a church.*
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> *Another building that I don't know about. This one is next to a river.*
> *Columns!*
> *Neptunbrunnen. I love this fountain.*
> *One of the four women surrounding Neptune. They represent the 4 main rivers in the area. This lady represents the Oder river.*
I liked Berlin, but I ran out of things to see pretty quickly. I went to a reggae bar that was pretty fun, I also spent some time doing what the locals do. Sitting around drinking beer.
> *An evening beer in the grass.*
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I had been posting on Facebook while I was in Berlin, and an old friend, Bernie, reached out to me. I had met him through my ex-girlfriend and we occasionally got in contact on Facebook. He told me that he had an extra ticket to an electronic music festival and he wanted to know if I wanted to join him and his friends. I'm not a very big fan of music festivals, but for the sake of adventure, I said yes.
> *Bernie directing camp setup.*
The event was pretty awesome. I grew up going to raves in L.A. and Southern California. I'm used to the production quality of illegal warehouse parties. This party had the kind of production quality that you'd expect from German engineers. The lights, the sound, the decorations, the food, the showers, everything was top notch, and nothing seemed half-assed or neglected.
It was summertime, and the weather was hot hot hot! There was a small pond that looked very refreshing, but someone warned me not to go in the water.
> *A pond at the party.*
I wasn't really sure why I'd been warned about the water. At night, the reason revealed itself to me. I went into the woods to take a leak, and there were a ton of other people pissing in the woods. I looked down and there was an actual river of piss flowing right into the pond. No swimming for me!
Here are some of my pictures from the party.
> *Dancing in the daytime. I can't dance in the daytime without drugs, and I didn't take any drugs at this event.*
> *Hanging out at camp. The woman on the right was kind enough to let me sleep on her couch after the party. It saved me from having to find a hotel room. I don't remember her name, but thank you!*
> *Bernie at dusk.*
> *Bernie and a friend.*
> *Random night scene in the woods.*
I had fun at the festival, but I was glad when it was over. It was super hot during the day, and my allergies were acting up from the dried grass and dust. It was a fun, serendipitous adventure. Thanks again, Bernie!
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After the festival, I spent one night in Berlin. Bernie's friend was kind enough to let me use her couch. She had a really cool apartment with all this old printing press equipment. It was also in a great neighborhood that had an awesome Lebanese restaurant in it.
> *Weird little workshop in the apartment.*
After waking up, I packed my stuff and headed to the train station. I settled in for a long train ride and wondered what Poland would be like.
> *Next stop, Gdansk Poland!*
Stay tuned for the next episode! I'll be exploring **Poland** starting in the northern coastal city of Gdansk and ending in Krakow.