Day 19-24: Prague, Berlin, and Letmathe

Sorry everyone, I had spotty internet in Prague and limited use in Berlin, so this is the first time in a few day's I've been able to update this.  I have boon busy though.  I was in Prague for one very cold day, walked around a bit, saw the St. Charles bridge (check facebook albums 1, 2, 3, and 4 for pictures) and a few other very cool parts of the city.  Met some Brazilians at the hostel.  One gave me a bunch of cool Brazilian music and told me about his hometown of Curitiba, a little ways south of San Paulo.  He studies medicine there and was in the Czech Republic studying for a few months.  Anyway, the next day I headed to Berlin, but had to stop first at Furth im Wald because the last time my family and I were in Germany, we had our first Kebap, or gyros, in Furth im Wald.  So i had to go back to the Sultan's Doner.  Then I hopped on the train to Berlin and lost my directions to the hostel, so I had to wander for about an hour in the cold, but I found it and finally got to sleep.  Next day i went into Berlin, it wasn't to cold thankfully, and saw the famous Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the East Side Gallery (the portion of the Berlin Wall that is still standing).  It was a good, but long day.  Then Yesterday, i got on the train bound for Hagen, or so I thought.  Apparently I got on the wrong train.  There were 2 leaving at the same time, both bound for Cologne, but one was taking the Northern route.  I got on that one and was supposed to be on the Southern route that goes through Hagen.  Anyway i had to get off at Bochom and had to get on a train back to Dortmund then to Hagen about an hour and a half late.  But it all got figured out in the end and I met up with Phillip and Thomas and Inge Knoeppel, friends of my Mother.  I was feeling a bit queasy at the end of the day, ended up waking up in the middle of the night and losing my dinner, but I feel a lot better today.  Phillip took me to the yearly retreat of their church's youth group.  They were all very hospitable and tried their best to speak English, but it was really cool to listen to the fluent German.  It's really cool, because I can't even accidentally hear other people's conversations, so it really all becomes just random voices.  But it was fun.  We put a rudimentary zipline up between 2 trees, which was fun, and i learned a cool rope trick and a song that Phillip's band plays.  Anyway, it was overall a really good day, and tomorrow looks to be just as good.  Stay tuned for More of Iserlohn, Venice and Rome.  

     -Dan