stockholm and berlin and amsterdam (and a bit of paris)

Highlights of two weeks trip to Stockberdam:

1. Street food: tunnbrödrulle, fried herring, curryworst, beer, falafel, FEBO, vlaamse frites. (winner: Stockholm. fried herring AND a hot dog + mashed potatoes rolled up in flatbread? No contest.)
   
2. NSA Field Station Berlin Teufelsberg: abandoned, graffitied, tons of fun.
   
3. Scientology wedding in Amsterdam:
   
4. Skansen: open-air museum/zoo in Sweden. Saw a moose with one antler, saw a bear eating an avocado, saw a sleeping seal scratch its armpit. Got to ride a boat there!
5. St. Nicolaas Boat Club of Amsterdam: got a canal tour on an old school boat, got to drink beer on the tour, got to sit next to a guy smoking weed who opened my beer with his lighter.
   
6. Brouwerij 't IJ: microbrewery in a windmill. Wow. (link)
   
7. Narrow streets: (Stockholm)
   
8. Drinking beer while reading books in a used bookstore in Berlin run by an aging transvestite. 
9. Touring the parliament building in Stockholm, and having Swedish politics explained to us by our CouchSurfing hosts, one of whom was a politician in the Christian Democrat party.
10. Graffiti: Berlin has a lot of it. Some of it is dangerous. 
11. Liquor stores in Stockholm: Controlled by the state, close at 3pm on Saturday, have a sterile vibe.
12. Haircuts: Not actually a highlight. Joe and I got free haircuts in Amsterdam from a beauty school. We were unhappy with them. Mine was still long enough to try to fix. Now it isn't. (And, unsurprisingly, the second cut was from a lady who had graduated from the first haircut beauty school. Found out mid-haircut. Aaaaaawesome.)
    
13. Food, food, food, food, food in Berlin: Joe and I ate breakfast three days in a row at three different places all with the same menu, owned by Russians. Joe and I ate a lot of hummus and falafel. Joe and I ate at an Eritrean restaurant. Joe and I ate a soup with avocado in it. All ethnic food that is non-existent in France. And, of course, a lot of beer.
    
14. Eating regional specialities at McDonalds in all three cities (see flickr for documentation). 
15. Viktoriapark in Berlin: We drank organic wine from plastic cups by a manmade waterfall, watched teenage hipsters and people walking dogs, and walked to the top of the hill for a nice view.
16. The Andy Warhol exhibit in the Grand Palais in Paris: Not only fun, but you could buy souvenir cans of Campbell's in the gift shop!
    
17. Funny crosswalk lights (the East Berlin one is the best!), no dogs allowed signs, and metro warning signs.