Friday, July 23, 2010
Slept in! We had 25 minutes to repack our bags which were a disaster and check out. We made it by the skin of our teeth. Pretty rushed but we made it happen. We only had a short time in Prague today as we have to catch a train in good time to get to Vienna. So we headed out to the synagogue in the Jewish quarters to find a huge cash only line. We were out of Czech money and were hoping to use card all day so we didn`t have to get any more money out. `The line was much longer than we had time for and it didn`t help that it was raining. So instead we decided to head to the Astronomical clock and see the hourly performance. The clock was built in the 12th century and was a technological wonder of its time. It has the apostles go by in a circle, the 3 patron saints of Czech who shake their head symbolic of their disapproval of time going by and then a skeleton shaking his head yes in approval of time passing. Then a trumpet player sticks his head out of the top of the clock tower and plays a tune. It was pretty impressive for the 12th century. So since we were pretty much done sightseeing in Prague and the weather wasn`t great we caught an earlier train to Vienna which turned out well as it was a 5 hour train ride. We got to our hostel in Vienna, which is a single room with a double bed. Sweet!! It was nice to have some privacy and we have it for a few nights. Only one person hot and smelly beside you and we can be messy and at home. Yeah! So we had a night in with popcorn and wine oh yes and television. MTV and CNN only!! So we got caught up on the world and the popular music world. Great day!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Prague castle
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Got up this morning and headed straight to the market. It was a huge flea market right by our hostel on our way into town so we stopped to take a peak. We really enjoyed the bartering and looking around but it was much too hot to stay for long. We wanted to go on a castle tour at 2 anyhow so we headed back to the city centre. The day we arrived, we had met a married couple in our room who are from Australia doing a yearlong world tour. They started in Asia, are in Europe, move onto Africa next and finish in North America. Pretty amazing we think!!! Anyhow, we were meeting up with them to all go on the walking tour together. To our surprise, our new Aussie friends from the pub crawl were there too. Good times!! The castle tour was slightly disappointing, the tour did a lot of the same things from the walking tour the day before and stories were definitely repeated. We were also taken to the spots we discovered on our own the day before. The castle was only about 30 mins of a 2 and a half hour “castle” tour. The guide was good as she was Czech and was able to give some personal and historical information that we may not have otherwise gotten. A lot of folklore and interesting tales. When it was over, we were craving sushi and went to a place that Barbora (the guide) heard was good. So off we went with Ari and Andrew (Aussie couple) to Mr. Sushi only to find the most expensive sushi ever. We said forget that, and Heather and I went to a cafe in the square and Ari and Andrew went and got something else. It was a really cute spot for dinner, in a quiet alleyway and was an Italian restaurant. It was our “traditional Czech” dinner. Haha! Afterwards, it was time to head back and plan the next leg of our trip. We booked 3 nights in Wien (Vienna, Austria) followed by 3 nights in Strazburg, Austria and 3 in Budapest, Hungary. It feels pretty good to have the next 9 days all planned out. Our hostel in Budapest was ridiculously cheap and we are pretty excited for that! Then from there we will be heading to Croatia, probably have a little boat ride down to Dubrovnik and from there hopefully get a cheap flight to Greece!! We spent the rest of the night, chatting with Andrew and Ari and Heather skype`d with Caitlin for a bit. Tomorrow we are going to go to the Jewish museum and head on to Austria.
Got up this morning and headed straight to the market. It was a huge flea market right by our hostel on our way into town so we stopped to take a peak. We really enjoyed the bartering and looking around but it was much too hot to stay for long. We wanted to go on a castle tour at 2 anyhow so we headed back to the city centre. The day we arrived, we had met a married couple in our room who are from Australia doing a yearlong world tour. They started in Asia, are in Europe, move onto Africa next and finish in North America. Pretty amazing we think!!! Anyhow, we were meeting up with them to all go on the walking tour together. To our surprise, our new Aussie friends from the pub crawl were there too. Good times!! The castle tour was slightly disappointing, the tour did a lot of the same things from the walking tour the day before and stories were definitely repeated. We were also taken to the spots we discovered on our own the day before. The castle was only about 30 mins of a 2 and a half hour “castle” tour. The guide was good as she was Czech and was able to give some personal and historical information that we may not have otherwise gotten. A lot of folklore and interesting tales. When it was over, we were craving sushi and went to a place that Barbora (the guide) heard was good. So off we went with Ari and Andrew (Aussie couple) to Mr. Sushi only to find the most expensive sushi ever. We said forget that, and Heather and I went to a cafe in the square and Ari and Andrew went and got something else. It was a really cute spot for dinner, in a quiet alleyway and was an Italian restaurant. It was our “traditional Czech” dinner. Haha! Afterwards, it was time to head back and plan the next leg of our trip. We booked 3 nights in Wien (Vienna, Austria) followed by 3 nights in Strazburg, Austria and 3 in Budapest, Hungary. It feels pretty good to have the next 9 days all planned out. Our hostel in Budapest was ridiculously cheap and we are pretty excited for that! Then from there we will be heading to Croatia, probably have a little boat ride down to Dubrovnik and from there hopefully get a cheap flight to Greece!! We spent the rest of the night, chatting with Andrew and Ari and Heather skype`d with Caitlin for a bit. Tomorrow we are going to go to the Jewish museum and head on to Austria.
Praha with the Aussie's!!!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
First day in Prague we decided to start it out with the free walking tour. It was really good and we had a good look at Prague. It was much better to do the tour and then go to whatever interests us again after. We really liked the Jewish neighbourhood and wanted to go back to the museum, memorial and cemetery. It is supposed to be a really good site and we were told both by our guide in Berlin and the Prague one that if we have time to definitely go. After the walking tour, we went over the bridge to see the John Lennon Wall and the Charles Bridge. It was funny because the Charles bridge is a) made with eggs to make the cement more sturdy and b) is lined with statues, one of which is good luck to rub one side but not the other, so we sat there and watched people rub the back luck side. HAHA! It was pretty hilarious! We also found out that the movie Eurotrip (of which we had just watched) was mostly filmed in Prague and saw a bunch of the sites that filming took place. Pretty funny! The building used to film the Louvre was actually an Opera house and not nearly as grand and impressive as the actual Louvre. Later that day we went to the supermarket which we haven’t done in awhile, and got dinner to take back before we got ready for our pub crawl. This was a new pub crawl run by a new company but sponsored by Sandeman’s (company who does the walking tour and pub crawls in the other European cities). It started at 830 and from when you arrived until 11, it was unlimited beer, vodka, rum, shots and to our pleasant surprise, Sangria!!! It was awesome! The night was pretty good, met a few weirdo’s but every crowd has them. We met some Aussie’s who were staying at our hostel who we stuck with so we could share a cab. Our hostel was too far out of city centre to have a tram at night and we were told not to take a cab or we may get robbed. We were supposed to get the tour guides to call us a reputable cab and we were definitely better off with men. So that worked out really well, plus they were a lot of fun too. All in all, a great first day in Prague and looking forward to day 2!
First day in Prague we decided to start it out with the free walking tour. It was really good and we had a good look at Prague. It was much better to do the tour and then go to whatever interests us again after. We really liked the Jewish neighbourhood and wanted to go back to the museum, memorial and cemetery. It is supposed to be a really good site and we were told both by our guide in Berlin and the Prague one that if we have time to definitely go. After the walking tour, we went over the bridge to see the John Lennon Wall and the Charles Bridge. It was funny because the Charles bridge is a) made with eggs to make the cement more sturdy and b) is lined with statues, one of which is good luck to rub one side but not the other, so we sat there and watched people rub the back luck side. HAHA! It was pretty hilarious! We also found out that the movie Eurotrip (of which we had just watched) was mostly filmed in Prague and saw a bunch of the sites that filming took place. Pretty funny! The building used to film the Louvre was actually an Opera house and not nearly as grand and impressive as the actual Louvre. Later that day we went to the supermarket which we haven’t done in awhile, and got dinner to take back before we got ready for our pub crawl. This was a new pub crawl run by a new company but sponsored by Sandeman’s (company who does the walking tour and pub crawls in the other European cities). It started at 830 and from when you arrived until 11, it was unlimited beer, vodka, rum, shots and to our pleasant surprise, Sangria!!! It was awesome! The night was pretty good, met a few weirdo’s but every crowd has them. We met some Aussie’s who were staying at our hostel who we stuck with so we could share a cab. Our hostel was too far out of city centre to have a tram at night and we were told not to take a cab or we may get robbed. We were supposed to get the tour guides to call us a reputable cab and we were definitely better off with men. So that worked out really well, plus they were a lot of fun too. All in all, a great first day in Prague and looking forward to day 2!
The big, the wonderful...Dresdan!!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wake up was 930 that morning!! Not fun! However, we needed to go see Dresdan in all of it’s glory. We started out looking for something to eat and did a little shopping. We just wondered around Dresdan, which isn’t very big, thank goodness! We didn’t see a whole lot in Dresdan but did see the sights that were there. The day pretty much consisted of shopping and walking the town. Afterwards we hit the train station to head to Praha!!! Onto to Czech we go!! We arrived in Prague at around 8pm and met our roommates, had dinner and went to bed. Not a big day, but a good travel day. I skyped my family that night and got to see Campbell!!! Well Mom, Dad, Brandon and Chantelle too but most importantly, CAMPBELL!!! She’s getting so big and still as beautiful as ever!!
Wake up was 930 that morning!! Not fun! However, we needed to go see Dresdan in all of it’s glory. We started out looking for something to eat and did a little shopping. We just wondered around Dresdan, which isn’t very big, thank goodness! We didn’t see a whole lot in Dresdan but did see the sights that were there. The day pretty much consisted of shopping and walking the town. Afterwards we hit the train station to head to Praha!!! Onto to Czech we go!! We arrived in Prague at around 8pm and met our roommates, had dinner and went to bed. Not a big day, but a good travel day. I skyped my family that night and got to see Campbell!!! Well Mom, Dad, Brandon and Chantelle too but most importantly, CAMPBELL!!! She’s getting so big and still as beautiful as ever!!
Train jumping
Monday, July 19, 2010
We checked out this morning and headed to the Hauptbahnhof (central station) to put our bags away and doing the free walking tour of Berlin. We had been just getting on the subway and not buying tickets. Our rail pass says we get free travel in major German cities for the underground. I am sure we are still supposed to get a ticket but nobody checks so we have just been going with it. Of course on our last day, a guy comes around and we don’t have a ticket. So we jumped off the train at the wrong stop and waited the few minutes for the next one. Hehe. We are tired of waiting in lines and not always making headway. Anyhow, we made it to the tour meeting spot just in time and were off to see Berlin. What an amazing city. We saw the Brandenburg gate (we are seeing an ongoing trend that Napolean likes to steal statues and monuments), the jewish holocaust memorial, Hitler’s bunker, the berlin wall, checkpoint Charlie, the SS headquarters, museum island and more. It made us want to stay longer and see so much more. However, there is simply no time. We had already booked our next hostels in Dresdan and Prague. We definitely want to come back at the end of the trip if there is time before Munich. We are coming back to Germany anyhow, so we shall see. So much more history and holocaust museums that we would like to check out. Anyhow, we are off to Dresdan for the night. We arrived, took a short train ride to the Kangaroo stop (that’s the name of the hostel) and checked in. It was a really quiet spot with a really cool vibe. The bathroom was hippie flowers and earthy while the common room had hammocks and comfy furniture. We met a couple of people in the hostel from Australia, Canada and the US. So we were chatting and whatever and decided to probably check out the town that night. We were starving and really wanted our sauerkraut...so we went to this local spot and had sausage and sauerkraut. It’s funny, German’s are kind of particular about their sauerkraut...they will not let you put it on just anything. They only had bockwurst not bratwurst so he didn’t want us to put sauerkraut on it but did give us a side of sauerkraut. Perfect!!! Esquisito (in Spanish)!! Anyhow, afterwards we grabbed a few beers headed back to the hostel and started to get ready. Heather and I had our first group shower with one other non-english speaking girl. It was a new experience that is for sure!!! So we went back into the quiet room and hung out with our new buddies. Everyone was quite chill and most of us had only one night in Dresdan. We all decided to go out to the local hot spots and they played really good music and had cheap beer. It was a crazy late night but a whole lot of fun. We didn’t get in and to bed until 5ish. We even went to the big lebowski bar...pretty hilarious!!! Next day, check out Dresdan!!
We checked out this morning and headed to the Hauptbahnhof (central station) to put our bags away and doing the free walking tour of Berlin. We had been just getting on the subway and not buying tickets. Our rail pass says we get free travel in major German cities for the underground. I am sure we are still supposed to get a ticket but nobody checks so we have just been going with it. Of course on our last day, a guy comes around and we don’t have a ticket. So we jumped off the train at the wrong stop and waited the few minutes for the next one. Hehe. We are tired of waiting in lines and not always making headway. Anyhow, we made it to the tour meeting spot just in time and were off to see Berlin. What an amazing city. We saw the Brandenburg gate (we are seeing an ongoing trend that Napolean likes to steal statues and monuments), the jewish holocaust memorial, Hitler’s bunker, the berlin wall, checkpoint Charlie, the SS headquarters, museum island and more. It made us want to stay longer and see so much more. However, there is simply no time. We had already booked our next hostels in Dresdan and Prague. We definitely want to come back at the end of the trip if there is time before Munich. We are coming back to Germany anyhow, so we shall see. So much more history and holocaust museums that we would like to check out. Anyhow, we are off to Dresdan for the night. We arrived, took a short train ride to the Kangaroo stop (that’s the name of the hostel) and checked in. It was a really quiet spot with a really cool vibe. The bathroom was hippie flowers and earthy while the common room had hammocks and comfy furniture. We met a couple of people in the hostel from Australia, Canada and the US. So we were chatting and whatever and decided to probably check out the town that night. We were starving and really wanted our sauerkraut...so we went to this local spot and had sausage and sauerkraut. It’s funny, German’s are kind of particular about their sauerkraut...they will not let you put it on just anything. They only had bockwurst not bratwurst so he didn’t want us to put sauerkraut on it but did give us a side of sauerkraut. Perfect!!! Esquisito (in Spanish)!! Anyhow, afterwards we grabbed a few beers headed back to the hostel and started to get ready. Heather and I had our first group shower with one other non-english speaking girl. It was a new experience that is for sure!!! So we went back into the quiet room and hung out with our new buddies. Everyone was quite chill and most of us had only one night in Dresdan. We all decided to go out to the local hot spots and they played really good music and had cheap beer. It was a crazy late night but a whole lot of fun. We didn’t get in and to bed until 5ish. We even went to the big lebowski bar...pretty hilarious!!! Next day, check out Dresdan!!
Sachsenhausen
Sunday, July 18, 2010
We had decided the previous day that we would go on a free tour to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was about 40 mins north of Berlin city centre and we took the train up. It was a really good tour. The camp was actually a work camp, then concentration camp and was used during the holocaust for political prisoners, homosexuals, gypsies and Jews and also used by the soviets later. It was the model camp and although wasn’t a death camp, was a really good experience. It was one of the first camps built using the triangle design that was later used all over Germany and Poland through the Holocaust. The tour had a lot of history and was really well done. It was a long journey since we had to travel so far but was a really humbling experience. We got back around 730 and went to explore a bit of a different area of Berlin for dinner. We accidentally came across a squat area for local artists. It was kind of sketchy was we had a quick peak (looking for shoes) and were off to dinner. Another traditional German meal...Thai haha!! We had then planned to go back to our hostel and go to a “world renowned club”. The dress code is strict so we were looking for some flat shoes instead of our flip flops. However, when we got back to the hostel, we discovered that the club isn’t open on Sunday’s. Bummer!! We decided to stay in instead and catch up on blogs, pictures and family. Heather skype’d with her family and we ended the night watching the movie Eurotrip in bed. Haha funny!! The next day we were heading to Dresdan later in the day.
We had decided the previous day that we would go on a free tour to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was about 40 mins north of Berlin city centre and we took the train up. It was a really good tour. The camp was actually a work camp, then concentration camp and was used during the holocaust for political prisoners, homosexuals, gypsies and Jews and also used by the soviets later. It was the model camp and although wasn’t a death camp, was a really good experience. It was one of the first camps built using the triangle design that was later used all over Germany and Poland through the Holocaust. The tour had a lot of history and was really well done. It was a long journey since we had to travel so far but was a really humbling experience. We got back around 730 and went to explore a bit of a different area of Berlin for dinner. We accidentally came across a squat area for local artists. It was kind of sketchy was we had a quick peak (looking for shoes) and were off to dinner. Another traditional German meal...Thai haha!! We had then planned to go back to our hostel and go to a “world renowned club”. The dress code is strict so we were looking for some flat shoes instead of our flip flops. However, when we got back to the hostel, we discovered that the club isn’t open on Sunday’s. Bummer!! We decided to stay in instead and catch up on blogs, pictures and family. Heather skype’d with her family and we ended the night watching the movie Eurotrip in bed. Haha funny!! The next day we were heading to Dresdan later in the day.
Berlin Day 1
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Today we went to see Hamburg, which draws most in the harbour area of town. It did however, have a few markets and walking areas that we went to check out first. The first thing we saw once we got off of the subway was a triathlon finish line. So the streets were pretty busy and lots of cheering so we just wondered around for awhile and walked in the general direction of the harbour. Once we arrived at the harbour, it was a pretty dodgy area of town, we found a beach bar that overlooked the harbour to sit and grab a drink at (No worries it was 11am by then). The bar had sand and lounge chairs and we got to see the boats coming and going from the harbour. The next big attraction in Hamburg is a building shaped like a ship. It comes to a point at the front of the building like a ship and had balcony’s that we supposed to look like decks. The building was pretty disappointing to say the least. It vaguely looked like a ship but was in the middle of nowhere (merchant’s district) and wasn’t very exciting. It was kind of a letdown. Needless to say Hamburg didn’t have a whole lot to see although we didn’t do the free walking tour here so we probably missed a few things but all in all was just pretty chill. We had noticed that a lot of people were dressed up all day and there were a lot of 70’s costumes and luau gear. So we grabbed someone to ask what was going on...it was Hamburg Day!!! Ahaha...well not really...but it was a major German holiday and Hamburg is famous for their celebration. Too bad we were leaving for Berlin but oh well...can’t win them all. We were pretty amped about heading to Berlin though so we got ourselves to the train station and off we went. Berlin here we come!!! We arrived around 7 or so to our hostel (again just on the edge of central Berlin) had a shower, got dressed, grabbed some pamphlets and were ready to paint the town. We decided to grab a quite bite to eat and hit the pub crawl. We found this outdoor restaurant with German food and sauerkraut (which is not easy to find) so we sat down and asked for an English menu, decided and the server came to take our order. So he had said something to us in German and I asked I am sorry what does that mean in English. He didn’t understand what I said so asked me to repeat it. So I did, and with a confused look just asked “food or drink” of which Heather responded with “both”. AND THAT WAS IT!! He stormed off and was mad about something. We weren’t sure what happened and thought we may be grabbing someone else to come talk to us as we couldn’t understand each other. Oh no!! He just walked away and completely ignored us. We tried to wave him down a few times but it became clear that he was angry about something or perhaps we somehow offended him. Who knows? So we decided to leave and eat elsewhere. Anyways, back to the pub crawl... Berlin had an alternative pub crawl though that took you to more local spots and different bars than the typical club pub crawls. We decided to do something different and give it a try. Why not? We started at a hippy bar, with mushrooms on the ceiling, and 70’s tunes and was just a strange decor, but the beer was cheap !! We met some Irish boys and one from L.A. that we ended up hanging out with the rest of the night. Next we went to a “goth” bar that was playing Bryan Adams when we arrived...hehe. The decor was definitely goth and the music did get a little more rock with some Motley Crue but that was the extent of that. We also met some girls originally from Vancouver and now teaching overseas in Cairo, South East Asia and Germany. They were pretty chill. The next bar and the most unusual was the Ping pong bar. HILARIOUS!! It’s a round robin game of ping pong, so you walk around and hit the ball on your turn and once out leave until the game has been won. Then it starts again! It was pretty fun although we weren’t great with our coordination! A lot of locals were pretty into it but we still had a good time. The next place was pretty chill, not sure what kind of bar is was, pub like I guess. This is where the drunk L.A. guy broke his glass into Heather’s glass. That was about the time we lost him and presumed he went home. Oh well! We had a dance party at the next bar with crazy lights and some good tunes and finished at a “club” which was half Karaoke. The karaoke was a hit, the club, not so much! It was a ton of fun though and definitely not your typical night out. All in all, a good first night in Berlin!
Today we went to see Hamburg, which draws most in the harbour area of town. It did however, have a few markets and walking areas that we went to check out first. The first thing we saw once we got off of the subway was a triathlon finish line. So the streets were pretty busy and lots of cheering so we just wondered around for awhile and walked in the general direction of the harbour. Once we arrived at the harbour, it was a pretty dodgy area of town, we found a beach bar that overlooked the harbour to sit and grab a drink at (No worries it was 11am by then). The bar had sand and lounge chairs and we got to see the boats coming and going from the harbour. The next big attraction in Hamburg is a building shaped like a ship. It comes to a point at the front of the building like a ship and had balcony’s that we supposed to look like decks. The building was pretty disappointing to say the least. It vaguely looked like a ship but was in the middle of nowhere (merchant’s district) and wasn’t very exciting. It was kind of a letdown. Needless to say Hamburg didn’t have a whole lot to see although we didn’t do the free walking tour here so we probably missed a few things but all in all was just pretty chill. We had noticed that a lot of people were dressed up all day and there were a lot of 70’s costumes and luau gear. So we grabbed someone to ask what was going on...it was Hamburg Day!!! Ahaha...well not really...but it was a major German holiday and Hamburg is famous for their celebration. Too bad we were leaving for Berlin but oh well...can’t win them all. We were pretty amped about heading to Berlin though so we got ourselves to the train station and off we went. Berlin here we come!!! We arrived around 7 or so to our hostel (again just on the edge of central Berlin) had a shower, got dressed, grabbed some pamphlets and were ready to paint the town. We decided to grab a quite bite to eat and hit the pub crawl. We found this outdoor restaurant with German food and sauerkraut (which is not easy to find) so we sat down and asked for an English menu, decided and the server came to take our order. So he had said something to us in German and I asked I am sorry what does that mean in English. He didn’t understand what I said so asked me to repeat it. So I did, and with a confused look just asked “food or drink” of which Heather responded with “both”. AND THAT WAS IT!! He stormed off and was mad about something. We weren’t sure what happened and thought we may be grabbing someone else to come talk to us as we couldn’t understand each other. Oh no!! He just walked away and completely ignored us. We tried to wave him down a few times but it became clear that he was angry about something or perhaps we somehow offended him. Who knows? So we decided to leave and eat elsewhere. Anyways, back to the pub crawl... Berlin had an alternative pub crawl though that took you to more local spots and different bars than the typical club pub crawls. We decided to do something different and give it a try. Why not? We started at a hippy bar, with mushrooms on the ceiling, and 70’s tunes and was just a strange decor, but the beer was cheap !! We met some Irish boys and one from L.A. that we ended up hanging out with the rest of the night. Next we went to a “goth” bar that was playing Bryan Adams when we arrived...hehe. The decor was definitely goth and the music did get a little more rock with some Motley Crue but that was the extent of that. We also met some girls originally from Vancouver and now teaching overseas in Cairo, South East Asia and Germany. They were pretty chill. The next bar and the most unusual was the Ping pong bar. HILARIOUS!! It’s a round robin game of ping pong, so you walk around and hit the ball on your turn and once out leave until the game has been won. Then it starts again! It was pretty fun although we weren’t great with our coordination! A lot of locals were pretty into it but we still had a good time. The next place was pretty chill, not sure what kind of bar is was, pub like I guess. This is where the drunk L.A. guy broke his glass into Heather’s glass. That was about the time we lost him and presumed he went home. Oh well! We had a dance party at the next bar with crazy lights and some good tunes and finished at a “club” which was half Karaoke. The karaoke was a hit, the club, not so much! It was a ton of fun though and definitely not your typical night out. All in all, a good first night in Berlin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
