Cologne too, like Paris and Vienna, has a Gothic cathedral in the town center. Its a beautiful soothing small place, but very historical - there are remains of Roman walls and gates still in Cologne. Neo-Roman style churches abound now. Rhine river adds to the charm. Walking in the historical town center or along the river, or taking a boat cruise on Danube is probably the best way to spend your day here.
However, I was not so lucky to spend most of my day time this way. It was more financial confusion - I tried to deal with the bank-teller here to solve my problem. The bank-teller hardly new her stuff. That is when I could appreciate once more the wonderful thing about MIT - its not just a technical educational institution, it has amazingly knowledgeable, helpful and supportive staff and associated departments - in a way that can be pampering. I gave up on the bank there, called up MIT FCU, and immediately got the job done.

I stayed in a youth hostel in Cologne, and there met a Californian and an Argentinian guy, both towards the end of their n-month long travels. Both seemed very experienced in chasing girls, and were drunk enough to be eager to share their experiences. What followed was a wild night of drinking, partying, and clubbing, with me a silent passive student, watching the action, and participating as much as I need to survive.

We went to a hostel bar for the free drink for the residents. Even as we stayed on for a few drinks, there were no girls - me being guilty of scaring at least two of the few there away by trying to talk to them (not that I said anything unpleasant!) They left, I left along, the Argentinian guy went to bed because he had an interview next day, and the Californian joined me in pursuit of some nightlife, me directly, he after having some hot dogs.

After much rambling, and no success finding hot dogs or clubs, we ran into (almost literally, in my friend's drunkenness!) upon four folks (two guys, two girls) wandering about looking for nightlife as well. For those who don't already know, whenever you need a help from strangers, have a girl member in your group (if any) ask for that help. People, specially the all X-chromosome ones, are certainly more responsive to those with Y.

The club was fun, nothing architecturally amazing or gorgeous, but there were lots of people. And then, you go to clubs for people; monuments are the place to go to see architecture. People or no-people, I am, as you may have figured out so far, susceptible to losing some money and self-respect in clubs. This time, it was a bit different - I lost both not on girls but guys. No, no - I didn't make any new discovery about my sexuality here. Instead, it was me after 2 consecutive nights of barely sleeping when asked by the folks who led us to the club for drinks - I was too tired or fatigued to smart my way out.

As I walked back to my hostel, I realized the purpose of the central cathedral in many European cities - to act as a beacon for tired travelers or drunk clubbers too jaded to look at maps on their way back home.

The earliest memory I had of Berlin was when memorizing world capitals as my part of my attempt to improve my General Knowledge-- back when I was maybe in my 4th grade. It was just a name for me as late as 1989 when I saw about the fall of Berlin wall diving East and West Germanys in on news - mine was a cold-war non-aligned country, so anything related to cold war wouldn't have been as a big a news there as it must have been in United States. Still, I didn't think too much about it then.

By European standards, Berlin is a relatively young city with not too much of old or medieval history. It has clearly dominated the 20th century history though. No other city in the world has had a roller coaster ride from villain to vanquished to worn out to victim to a place with all makings of a winner of future in such a short spell. Thats to the indomitable spirit of Berliners, Berlin is now looking very good to claim 21st century entirely its own as well, and this time, for all good reasons.

Berliners haven't done this by trying to forget the past and starting afresh - a perfectly justifiable and practical approach had it been taken. Instead, under the site of former Nazi secret police headquarters - probably the most shivering address of the third Reich, where the wall stood later, in an exhibit titled "The topography of terror", telling, in chilling detail, the elements of Nazi infrastructure that unleashed the terror of WWII. If you take away the very disturbing fact that everything told actually, it had all the makings of a John Grisham or Robert Ludlum novel. There was much to learn from it - Hitler came to power by perfectly legitimate democratic means in what was till then a perfectly reasonable democracy, but built an infrastructure and unleashed an agenda that was clearly undemocratic. For those like me who had been thinking of democracy as a relatively foolproof system, it was a hard-hitting lesson - democracy works only when kept in check. I have never been a big of political and social activism, and while that is unlikely to change, I can now appreciate their utility.

Another troubled period in Berlin's history was during the Wall. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum exhibits the ingenious and brave attempts by East Berliners to flee across the wall - some techniques they used were redesigning cars so that humans could fit in the drunk, home made parachutes and balloons, tunnels dug from East Berlin into West, in a boat under a hail of bullets, climbing the wall on a rope held by folks on the West, and home made Soviet war uniforms!

The corridor and pillars outside the museum of natural history still carry the damages from the WWII fighting. Its difficult to believe that a site that one can now walk through enjoying the scenic beauty was where men were struggling to kill each other in "Saving Private Ryan" kind of setting. Then, there is the church on Ku'dam that hasn't been repaired after WWII damages - striving to keep the memory of war fresh in minds of people.

If you want to avoid this troubling history, take a stroll on Friedrichstrasse. Its a famous shopping street, but I was attracted by something I clearly wasn't going to shop-- cars! There are showrooms lined with trendiest, jazziest, and the newest of them - I just wasn't sure if I would be allowed to gawk through them; in my battered clothes and my unshaven look, by no means I looked like a potential customer. I shouldn't have worried - when I walked in, though the sales agents didn't seem interested in helping me, they weren't bothered by my presence enough to throw me out! Plus, the Volkswagen showroom has free toilets on the 2nd floor :-)

Walking along further, I came across a "kabaret" sign. I had heard the street to be famous pre-war for its cabarets. I hadn't seen one and was interested. I recalled the not-so-fond memory of having to strip down to an underwear, wear a towel over, and perform what seemed like a cabaret in my 11th grade as part of ritualistic "ragging". If there was anyway to kill the ghost of that memory, it would be by actually watching one, I told myself. I walked in.

The show was to start in a few minutes. The ticket woman barely spoke English but managed to convey that the kabaret was in German. No problem, I thought; I was there to see more than understand. I bought the ticket. I was surprised to see many old German couples in the performance seating area - cabaret hardly seemed like of interest to couples, much less older ones - I was expecting to see more young guys. But hey, this is Germany, maybe things are different here.

My seat was on a front row table, with a fairly attractive 30-ish young woman as my table mate. We started a conversation in English.
"I from a radio station", she said, taking out a mike and a voice recorder, "and I am recording the show".
"I am a tourist, and I don't speak German", I replied.
"You don't speak German, and are watching a kabaret", she seemed surprised.
"Ummm... yeah, should be interesting to see how much I can make out without the language", I said trying to look confident, while still surprised by her surprise. Maybe she doesn't know what guys look for, I told myself.

The lights went dim, and on-stage walked two male artists acting. More surprise for me, but maybe it was just an appetizer before the real show. Scene two, still similar: my hopes were failing me. Scene three, and I had given up. I wanted to leave, but couldn't - I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of my table mate overly my stupidity after acting so much in control earlier. Plus, what if the performers picked on me leaving - I won't even be in the position to respond!

Next scene was particularly testing. One of the actors was dressed like a beggar, with a bowl in his hand, and somewhere in the middle of the scene, started bowing before some visitors, rattling the coins in the bowl as if asking for money. On no response, he persisted, even haggled, till he got his coin. I was scared - what if he came to me? I didn't have to wait long - he did, and did the same gesture. I was reluctant to part with any useful money, and didn't want to throw in a small denomination in case he reacted adversely to it. I quietly took out my wallet, and as a gamble, took out a quarter (most currency exchanges don't exchange coins), and tossed it in. Whether he picked me up because I looked least German and so he could have fun easiest at my expense, or whether it was just coincidence, I do not know. All I know is that I was very relieved when he walked back. I exchanged a few glances with my table mate immediately after, and she smiled at me, as to say "Good job!" In spite of the encouragement, I left at the interval.

"cabaret (show); (satirical) show" is what an the German-English dictionary had for "kabaret", confirming what I had taken more than an hour to learn that evening while still giving me the comfort that my common sense wasn't totally off!

Let this fiasco have no one believe that there is no real young nightlife in Berlin. On the contrary, a big chunk of Berlin's population is young, and the clubs here have far more impressive designs than anything I have seen in Boston - the kind that will put our Avalons and Axises to shame. Honestly! And then, all the new stylish construction happening - take a walk around Potsdamer platz, where Berlin wall run through not very long ago, and you will see what I mean!

As an Indian, I always took pride in development in India since Independence in 1947. While still wishing for fast development, I believed what I actually happened to be the theoretical limit in the constraints of democracy. Now, after visiting Berlin, there is no doubt in my mind that we could have done much better. As to how, ask the beer guzzling Germans!

Munich brings to most people's mind the picture of happy jolly beer guzzling people. To a certain extent, that is true - you can see people drinking beer on streets, in parks, on the subway, or whatever place you can think of, in evenings or on weekends; it is even difficult to find beer bottles less than 1/2 liters. (I dared to inquire about smaller bottles somewhere, only to be told that its unmanly to drink off smaller ones!) I betcha that 9 out of 10 pictures you may have seen in ads of bartenders carrying big dozen glasses or so of beer are from some bar in Munich or somewhere else in Bavaria!

I decided to become a part of this Munich-o-rama for my only night in Munich. I went out partying, had one 1/2 L thing before leaving, two at the party, and two more at a bar post-party. I rarely drink, and this was, by some distance, both in terms of volume as well as volume per hour, the max I been. Even the native Muncheners were impressed, even encouraging me on, like "Frank the tank" chant for Will Farrelly's character in "Old School". Thankfully, the similarity didn't go farther than that - I definitely didn't go streaking from there. I was, however, barely in control of my limbs, and came the closest I had been to throwing up. I don't remember too much of that night - I will have to sync up with folks I was with that night to make sure I didn't do anything embarrassing! The lesson: one learns to be a Munchener over a lifetime; one can't become one overnight.

Its difficult to say what makes Munich stand out otherwise. It does have a more than a fair share of history, museums and buildings, and a very impressive nightlife (something I was too drunk to explore). A very interesting place is the collection of paintings of the most beautiful women of time as ordered by King Ludwig. A ingenious concept-- probably that was royalty's pretense for getting to hang out with the world's beauties. Lesser creatures like me have to work harder to get to do that.

Trust me, after seeing as much of art and buildings as I had seen by the time I got to Munich, technical whizzes (what are you doing at MIT mister/mam, if you are not? :) are bound to long for something more technical. Its sort of like being a fish which has been out of water for a while, and enjoying learning to live out of water, being returned fleetingly to the comfort of water.

The Deutsche science museum is arguably the best science museum in the world, and I would have been able to testify on the claim if the exhibits were labeled in English as well. For the car aficionados, there is the BMW museum.

The visit to these two museums was comforting. As a guy I met later in Cologne on his way back to California after traveling and spending a bit too much time with hot Eastern European blondes said: "If after having had or seen as much as I had recently, I am excited about returning to my girlfriend, I must have made the right choice in life".

I stopped in Salzburg for about three hours on my way to Munich from Vienna. I must have been carrying some bad omen with me as I went around - bad weather left Vienna along with me. Thankfully for me, Salzburg is not too far from Vienna - so its difficult for nature to conspire against me to have warm and sunny weather in Vienna, yet cold and damp in Salzburg without defying its own laws and probability. The Alps could have played foul, perhaps, but they backed out of any such misadventure against me.

Salzburg is a very small calm serene place, the kind that the moment you see, you say to yourself, "If there is paradise on Earth, it is". I maybe quoting a Mughal emperor on a different place, but I am sure he would say the same he saw Salzburg as well. Quite frankly, there is not much to the town center other than coffee shops and some buildings connected to Mozart. But you don't go to Salzburg to see the buildings; you go to enjoy the setting.

The entire experience is very healing - if there weren't a thing like naturopathy, Salzburg would have forced people to invent it. My dream work day: sitting outside a Salzburg cafe working. For evening exercise, throw in a run to Hohensalzburg fortress. I promise, I won't ask for anything more in life!

I was already getting burnt out and was low on sleep by the time I got to Vienna from wanting to do too much in too little time. Vacation time it hardly had been, and though never was the concentration as intense, the busy hectic schedule very much reflected that during the problem set days. By now, I had enough of museums - I needed some time to chew on art I had already seen; any more immediately will only confuse me. So, in a way, I was relieved at less work to do--taking the problem sets analogy, its like resigning to your current grade and deciding to do no more work in a no final-exam class, or dropping a class altogether.

Vienna is a small town - the best way to get a sense of the town was to take a tram that went around the inner city. The town center was marked by St. Stephen's Gothic cathedral. There seems to be a trend of Gothic cathedral in all reasonably old European cities - you have Notre Dame in Paris, Dome in Cologne I saw later, and in Amsterdam - there are so many Gothic buildings, its difficult to make out what is what. Probably back in the middle ages, the size and grandeur of the cathedral was supposed to reflect on the city's pride - the way the gadgets one carries today does so on individual pride today.

There are museums galore in Vienna, but as I already explained, they were out of my list. Vienna was for a quite some time the capital of a powerful Austro-Hungarian empire, and that shows in the quality of palaces and numbers - palaces were often gifted away to the siblings who didn't ascend the throne. Sort of like giving a crying younger child getting a small toy car when the older child gets a full fledged remote controlled car set on his 12th birthday. It would have be interesting to see the royalty's reaction when Austria became a republic, monarchy was dissolved, and palaces were annexed from them - from my experience with snatching children's toys, I don't think it would have been pleasant.

Unlike Amsterdam, where the Dutch food mostly of potatoes, rice, and red meat (I am not stereotyping, but quoting a Dutch friend living in Amsterdam), and Paris, where the local food was too expensive to try, Viennese food was inexpensive, varied, and rich vegetarian options as well. This probably explains why McDonald's and Burger Kings were not very common - they realized they didn't stand a chance against good inexpensive food! The pastries I had there are the best I ever had. And there is Naschemarkt. Here, you will find an impressive array of stalls and small restaurants selling all kinds of food - sea food, cheese, fruits, pastries, Austrian, from rest of Europe, Indian food, Asian food, you name it! A lot of the delicacies are just lined up there seducingly, waiting to seize upon your attention. If you go there and not taste at least a dozen different things, let me tell you mate, you need to get your taste buds checked!

There is more to Vienna, I am sure, but I was too relaxed to try more.
One reason I do know for I sure I want to go back to Vienna is food!

Paris is probably the most romanticized and fantasized about city in the world. That translates into practice too, for it is also the most visited city in the world as well. Deeply rich in history, art, and today - fashion, lifestyle, the city has been a trend setter for the rest of the world for centuries. Think art, and you think of Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. Think buildings, and you think of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and Eiffel tower. I can go on, but I am already sounding like I a reading out Paris tourism promotional guide. Its practically impossible to talk about Paris without going overboard in praising her!

No, I am not in the position to give a first hand report on the head-scarf controversy, though it didn't seem to be a big issue there.
I could be wrong though. The first thing that struck me when I got here from Amsterdam was the lack of English speaking skills - Amsterdam spoiled me into believing that all Europeans speak better English than I myself. Another barrier, with those that spoke English or when asking about places, is the very different pronunciation in French. A lot of alphabets sound so similar in French - I wonder why designed a language that uses so little of their vocal facilities!

I have been told that many French who know English well refuse to speak it in France. Soon after I landed, a French non-English speaker attempted to give me the subway directions to my destination - he had to write down "RER" and "rue" because I wasn't familiar with French pronunciation of "r". The difficulty he went through explaining it to me in all French - its hard to believe he will go through this pain just for the language pride. I will dismiss those stories as another example of French leg-pulling that we all so very much like to indulge in.

I landed in Paris around 11pm, and reached my friend's metro station about midnight. While getting out of the station, I noticed a pleasant-looking non-East-Indian girl in an Saree--a traditionally Indian dress. Its pretty likely that she is an Indo-phile, and if I am lucky, I may get her to show me a bit of the city. Besides, I didn't have anything to lose - I can always pretend to have lost my way, always easy to do in a new place. I got out and followed her, semi-running to catch up with her. She must have been scared at the thought of kinda being chased on a very deserted street on Sunday midnight, for she kept looking behind her back. As I caught up her, she turned right into a street. I termed following her further as too risky, turned back, and headed towards my destination.

Ask me how it feels to be stuck in one of the prettiest places of the world as a tourist, but instead of going about admiring, spending one of the three days there running around the banks and shelling out a fortune talking to your bank in Boston. My credit card payments online hadn't yet been processed due to the weekend, and I was stuck with my credit card close to the credit limit and my having practically no cash - whatever I had was spent on getting those phone cards, that in addition to ripping me apart, blackened my finger nails from peeling the code on them. If you ever see me with dirty nails, its not because I am untidy - its stupid Paris that you must blame!

In the hindsight, I could have spent the day walking through wonderful Parisian streets - but god knows who invented the word "hindsight" and gave us so much more to feel sorry or guilty for. Seriously though, there is lot to watch on the streets of Paris - shops and showrooms flaunting latest fashion products, cars, and anything that makes you look or feel cool. And there are buildings, pillars, capitals, statues, and gardens that are littered all over the city but diminished in stature by their sheer abundance - each of them such that practically any other city in the world would love to have it and gladly put it on top of tourist's-to-see list!

Other than getting a crash course on International Banking 101 that day, there is only one other positive thing that came out - I saw a theater performance in arguably the grandest opera house in the world for free on the opening night. It was in French, and I didn't understand a single line of conversation, but to my credit (or simplicity of French stories lacking Shakespearean melodrama?), I understood the story. And, in my battered jeans, t-shirt, and shoes, I got to hang out among the who-is-who of Paris, all impeccably groomed and dressed.

Let it be known to all ye travelers - no amount of travel book reading can replace the experiences of local resident in enjoying the best of a place. It was the Parisian friend of mine who know about the cheap student tickets to the shows in Opera house; it turned out to be a premiere night, the attendance was by invitation only, and since there were seats still left, we got in for free. All we had to do was to pretend we were students of some local Lecoq drama school - pretty easy to do if you don't understand what others ask or say to you, and you are dependent on someone else to guide you and translate things for you.

My credit card balance was restored the next day, I was ready to do the normal touristy things. I began with Notre Dame Cathedral. It was impressive and huge, no doubt, but the lesson of the hour for me was not its grandeur, but the concept of renovating/ adding on to historical monuments. Let me try to explain.

I had thought of historical monuments as being almost untouched since the time of their construction - that was my idea of antiquity. But the cathedral, like many other monuments, had undergone many renovations since then, and as I write, was undergoing another one. It begged question whether its reasonable to start the age of the monument as when it was first built. The case in favor of making the monument look it was first built or envisioned of instead of letting it fall apart is strong enough.

The majesty of Notre Dame cathedral is easy to see, but to see what lay underneath, go underneath (sorry for being trite) to the archaeological museum. There you can see remains of walls that lay at the site from the Roman period to pre-cathedral times - man, that was too much history for too little land, sort of like Jerusalem having sacred places for about 70% of world population. At least, the Parisians managed to let all the history co-exist peacefully, even if they had to dig out space to do that. As an engineer, it is disappointing to see how similar the walls 2000 years ago are to those in present times - no wonder the monuments from those times are still regarded as master pieces today, while no one will give a damn to the science or technological knowledge of those times!

There are comedy movies on lack of communication due to language mismatch. Something similar happened to me in the park behind the cathedral. As I stay there munching bananas (I had learned to do carry them around - food, like everything else in Paris, was expensive), an old man enjoying the sun on a bench, his hand and chin resting on staff said something in French that I didn't understand, but by the way he said it, must have been something pleasant.
"No parles francais", I tried to reply.
An attempt or two, later, I got the point across that I spoke no French, and he, that he spoke no English. Now, our conversation broke in a one-word question and answers, sort of what babies in early stage learn, or what George W. Bush is only getting to get hold of.
"Tourist?", he asked.
"Oui", I said.
"American?".
"No, Indian"
He looked puzzled.
"Indisches", I tried again, then immediately realizing that was Dutch, not French.
"Indien", I said again, this time carefully.
He signaled me to join him on the bench. He seemed to be nice, but I feared taking up the offer to join on the bench - it will be difficult to get up, and that would mean a few more minutes of this unproductive conversation. I made a walking signs with my fingers, mumbled something like "to go", turned back, and left, avoiding looking at him again as his eyes followed me leave.

I am not an art connoisseur - in fact, I consider myself incapable of admiring art. But to visit Paris and not see Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo is like visiting MIT but not seeing the dome or the Stata center (in spite of all people may say, I say "Thank you, Mr Gehry"!) So, went my remaining 1 ½ days in Louvre museum and Museum de Orsay.

I was expecting to be lovestruck after seeing Mona Lisa, expecting to see her in my dreams when I get back the way I see Hollywood women. I felt a bit letdown - the small sized (stop giggling, I am talking of the painting and not anything about the figure depicted) painting, if I didn't have a short wall all for itself, would have hardly stood out in the midst of large impressive paintings abounding around it. Someone next to me mentioned about how the woman's bust the in painting formed a perfect triangle, and how Leonardo da Vinci regarded it was his only completed work, etc etc - but I preferred to move on.

Venus de Milo, on the other hand, was easier to admire - the three dimensionality helped. The subtle soft figure, the broad hips... maybe I will have dreams about the this sometime :) Looking at other Greek and Roman sculptures, I made any etymological discovery for myself-- the origin for the word hermaphrodite - its from hermes + aphrodite, or the son of hermes and aphrodite, who united with a nymph to get his bisexual nature. Though not good enough a discovery to get me my PhD, I was, like the five year old boy who discovered that blue and yellow when mixed make green, proud of myself! Next stop, Museum de Orsay - art is much easier to understand if seen chronologically, looking at gentle evolution through different times.

Talking about beauty in the context of Paris, its difficult to leave out Parisian women. Non-Parisian French women, please be not offended - I haven't seen the rest of, or any bit of the rest of, France, so I am not qualified to comment on that. I do hereby proclaim it loud and far - Parisian women are, and are so by quite some margin, the most beautiful women I have ever seen. There is something very classy about them, their looks, the way they carry themselves - they look classy even in the jazziest sleaziest club attire. My travel-worn look and language handicap didn't really give me any chance with them, and given my Amsterdam misadventures, I didn't get too adventurous with them.

In the evening, I went to the Eiffel tower and Arc of Triumph. The last time I checked, Eiffel tower was the most visited monument in the world, and I knew what to expect - that and overcrowding took away some fun of it. Arc of Triumph was a pleasant surprise, however. Not very crowded but the terrace still offering a great view of the city - a perfect place to come with friends with food or drinks and party till the 10pm closing time. A little bit of history and future history about the Arc - Napoleon built it to commemorate a major victory, the Allied troops marched through it after liberating Paris from the Nazis, and in a few years, George W. Bush will march underneath it after liberating Paris from French as part of his War on Terror.

Checking out French live music scene was also on my agenda. So, I picked up a local event guide and the mean miserly student that I am, picked up a no-cover jazz place. As if I hadn't enough surprises already, all singers there sang in English as they sat about joking and chatting about in French, probably sneering at the lyrics of the sang they just sang. They were very few people there - I felt noticed, and hence compelled to order some drink when asked. I asked for Coca-cola, but my inflated ego on saving money by doing so was burst when I saw the bill-- 5 euros for a freaking bottle of coca-cola. I felt like someone just slapped me, and then mocking at me, held up a sign saying "Welcome to Paris, you broke moron". Thankfully, the subway had stopped running when I came out - I was saved of 1 euro and 40 cents that I would have spent on the ticket instead of walking back.

I could go on and on - even a week in Paris will not be sufficient to explore her (no, I am confusing Paris with a women; I am just using a feminine gender to emphasize Paris' beauty). There are streets and shops, there are museums monuments, there are bars and clubs - the best each of their kind, and I will end with the suggestion to anyone thinking about going to Paris - don't think, just go!

I recently traveled to places in Western Europe - Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Berlin, and Cologne. Here is a detailed travelogue of my experiences there. I do not intend this to be a complete comprehensive travel guide - I didn't spend enough time in each of the places to write one, besides, there are many good travel guides available. I will instead try to focus on my own thoughts and experiences.

25, Indian, student in Boston MA/USA, pretending to be techie, but loves to travel!