Gone Travlin' - Blog

Bern En Route to Rome

Maarty at the Pools

View from one of the many Bridges

Random!

View from one of the Many Bridges

A lovley fountain in the middle of Bern - lots of Kids running through to cool off

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Tour of Zurich…

After having a really nice breakfast and getting our 24 hour public transport pass (these passes are a little expensive but oh so easy!) we headed out into town. From what we could make out the city had very functional public transport to see everything we wanted to see. Upon getting off the tram into town, we walked through the old city (do you notice a recurring theme here? Every city has an ‘old city’!) and caught another tram to the bottom of the funicular (tram like in Wellington that is designed specifically to go straight up steep hills, similar to a cable car). We checked that we could use our transport ticket, thinking that this was a tourist attraction like in Budapest, but here it’s just regular public transport and the card was fine. WE got to the top to go to the lookout that Maarty had found n the map… only to discover that it wasn’t quite so easy to find once we were actually there… we decided to make the best of it and go for a walk anyway, finding ourselves in the middle of a beautiful national park in the middle of Zurich. Giving up on the lookout, we headed back down as we had been walking for aout an hour and I kinda needed to go to the toilet, as usual (and we had seen one at the bottom). We headed to the flash looking toilet, paid the 1 Frank fee (I’m getting sick of paying every time I need to go to the toilet!!) and discovered that it was a flash self cleaning one! It even dispensed the toilet paper for you… Worth it, I thought as at the train station you pay 50 Euro cents (same amount) and it’s not even clean!

Although we hadn’t thought to bring our picnic set, we thought we’d go to the supermarket to get lunch, as there was one just opposite my new favourite loo. We grabbed the usual bread etc and caught a bus down to the China Garden to have our lunch, among the many swans and other wild life that we found there. We noticed in the map that we were only a couple of minutes walk from a jetty for the water taxi (much like a bus service, only using boats!) and as this too was covered by our pass, we decided to catch a ride. We eventually got to the city (the water bus thing isn’t as direct as the land transport, but a ‘must do’ anyway) and discovered a market. Maarty got a Swiss T-Shirt for 5 Frank, about NZ $5.50, which was a pretty good deal.

WE then headed to a second cable car, for more views of the city (hey, we wanted to get our money’s worth out of the pass! I’m pretty sure we managed to…) before returning to the old city for a bit of shopping before heading home. Fun Fact #3002: Zurich has 1030 fountains… they’re EVERYwhere!

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Zurich - Ouch, this place is expensive!

At the moment we are on the train and to be honest it’s a bit of a shitter. But at least the windows go down on the train and there is a pleasant breeze in through the cabin. The hostel flyer said ‘Easy to book, hard to leave’, and that is exactly how we felt about, Well, Germany in general really – for the most Germans are really helpful and friendly (apart from the post office in Munich but that is a whole other story really). The hostel was very good after the first night, there was a room off to the side that was for two people and the main room had another 5 beds in it. We got the 2 bed room the second night and from there it was as if we had a private room, that we had to share the bathroom with 5 other people – and believe me that’s easier than a whole floor. We both have had good feelings about dorms as you meet a lot of lovely people from all walks of life – the only people that seem to be an issue is Asians, for some reason they seem to want to dominate there whole area which is hard in dorms, and there are bathroom issues, but it makes life interesting.

So we as I said we are on the train at the moment, and it’s about lunch time so I’m going to have a beer and a bite to eat.

At the station we had to get a room somewhere, but we got to the tourist information counter only to be told that it was a long weekend because of ‘Swiss Day’, basically like turning up to Christchurch on show weekend and trying to get a room! But we managed to get separate rooms in a hostel not to far out of the city (Apparently they didn’t have mixed dorms). So after navigating the S Bahn system and getting off we noticed that the map we had only showed about a third of the streets on it and did a bad job of those. Luckily as we we’re standing on the corner of a street, a couple of Brits walked past us and said ‘are you looking for the hostel?’, they nicely gave us a really long list of complicated instructions as in Zurich there are also lots of walkways that have street names. It’s a really good system but man if you had a map with everything on it you wouldn’t be able to read the dam thing.

When we got to the hostel we found out that, they did have mixed dorms and had done a shift around to accommodate us in one. But the hostel really was in the middle of nowhere, and food was beginning to be an issue. We could eat at the hostel but it was 16 Franks per person (around NZ$18). And this is what we ended up having to do as a thunder storm hit, and we couldn’t make out the public transport system. But in fact we could see from other people’s plates that the servings were huge, so we decided to share… and with the 2 buns we had left over from lunch there was more than enough Chicken Stroganoff & Spaghetti to go around.
When we got back to the room we found that the two Brits that had helped us were in the next bunks so we started talking and before we knew it, 11:30 rolled around and it was time for bed.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 am, ,

Not a lot

We had a picnic today. It was quite pleasant really!

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Dachau

Today we went to Dachau, a town about 45mins from Munich. It is also the site of the first Concentration Camp of Hitler’s Reign. As it is a very sensitive topic we will not write a lot about it, and will not include any photos, this is more for our record than anything else.
Dachau was opened on March 21 1933 in an abandoned warehouse as a camp for political prisoners, mainly opponents of Hitler. For the first month or so it was run fairly well, although there was never quite enough food, but from early May 1933 it took a turn for the worse after the SS took control. It quickly became the first ‘Concentration Camp’, the one from which all others were modelled. By the time American soldiers arrived in 1945 there were 60,000 prisoners in a camp designed to hold 6,000 and over 40,000 people were recorded to have lost their lives in the 12 years it was open, though of course no-one could even hazard a guess as to how accurate this figure is.

There was a movie to watch with actual footage, which was far more graphic than either of us were prepared for but the day was a very moving experience for us both.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Free Tour of Munich

Go Germany! Once again, there was a free tour offered through the same company that ran the one in Berlin. Upon reaching the meeting point in ‘Marien Platz’ we found ourselves staring up at the famed Glockenspiel of Munich City Hall. It was completed about 100 years ago and everyday at 11am, 12pm and 5pm, as the hour strikes the Glockenspiel tells the story of Marriage and Death… unfortunately the ‘beautiful bells’ haven’t been tuned since it’s completion, and consequently has been out of tune for over 30 years… hmm, dodgy! Fortunately we didn’t have to watch the whole thing and our guides whisked us off to tell us the background of Munich.

This was explained in one of the foyers inside the town hall, and was kinda similar to the Berlin Tour opening. Then the group was then split into two, and we started the tour. First stop of the tour was at Alter Hof, to tell of a story were a monkey once stole a baby that happened to be the heir to the throne – Ludwig the Bavarian. Now it is a really nice restaurant and is close to the most expensive area in Munich. Moving on we then went to the oldest beer hall in Bavaria, Hofbrauhaus. Then to a couple of cathedrals before lunch in a really nice Beer garden. We had a bit of time in the garden as there was a huge market and man was it busy. They were just constantly pouring beer the whole time we were there. After lunch was mainly peeking in the windows of the new palace, walking through the gardens, seeing the new town hall and hearing many stories along the way. We finished up just on the other side of Dodges alley, and had a grand finally of more royal Bavarian history.

We weren’t quite ready to go home yet as on the tour the guide had pointed out a church that you could walk up to the top of its clock tower. 321 steps later we gingerly stepped out to see a fantastic panoramic view of Munich.

That was about us for the day and we headed home after yet another ice cream, only to get really lost as we didn’t have our map and it took about three times the time it should have. But we did get to see the porno part of town again – what a thrill. That’s the last time we try to follow the tram tracks home…

Our tour guides

The New Palace

The Glockenspiel

Dragon - Symbolises the plague

The really over the top cathedral

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

On the first day of Munich

After getting into Munich, our first problem was that there was no passport control on the train, and me being a bit to much of the worry wart wanted to make sure that this wouldn’t cause too many problems when leaving. As it turns out I won’t be needing my passport much at all in the EU. They only random check on the trains – sucks really because that means that I won’t get the stamps in my passport either. (Sarah doesn’t get any unless she asks for them due to her UK passport).

Anyway it was off to find our hostel, it was meant to be close to the station so we headed for the door, it was about a 10 minute walk, so not too bad. We are staying in dorm rooms now and that is really trying, it’s quite hard to sleep as well as you have to be more organised although I’m quite glad as I’ve started not to wake up at the drop of a pin. But overall it’s good as you meet heaps more people, and that’s what it’s all about really.

We both have a major clothing issue – it’s gone and decided to be cold now that we sent away our winter clothes, and a lot have been ruined by trying to save money on the 4-5 Euro washing cost and putting it altogether. So we decided to go and buy an item or two each. It was also a way of seeing what’s close to the hostel. There really wasn’t much near but we did find a cheep place, so I bought a top and Sarah bought a thin bright orange cardie. Afterwards just walking further, but decided that we must be in the really wrong place as we we’re passing more and more strip joints, so we turned back.

By the time we had found our way back to the hostel it was time for dinner and somewhere along the way we had found out the brewery across the road from our hostel had really good food, and we could see from our room window that they had schnitzel and traditional potato salad for 4.50 Euro, which is way better than we can buy anything for in the supermarkets. It was called Augustiner Brau. It looked fairly small from the outside, so when we alked in and saw that it expanded out from both sides of the entrance we were quite surprised. We were even more surprised when, after requesting a table for 2 (which seemed an impossibility given how busy they were), we were directed to a bench seat at a table full of German men!!! The waiter didn’t speak any English, so it was a stilted ‘beer?’ ‘yes’, ‘big one?’ yes’ (plus a Coke for me). When the beer arrived we cracked up lauging… and so did the rest of the table! It was not your average NZ ‘large’ beer… it was a full litre of beer, twice the size of anything else on the table!! But we have become accustomed to this now – it wasn’t just to be mean to the tourists, it’s how they actually serve beer here in Barvaria! Luckily there were 2 young German guys sitting next to us, and they helped us out with our meals, even ordering them for us at the waiters’ request! The meal was fantastic, and the atmosphere was awesome. It’s a very social way of eating and completely unlike anything we had ever experienced before. On the way back to our room we stopped at the hostel bar for another drink… instantly realising that we should have stayed across the road, as it just couldn’t compete with where we had just been… and there was only a couple of people in there and it was around 11pm.

It can rain here too

In the beer hall

The Guys we met

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Have to start with that we both have really liked Austria. But because of accommodation issues we booked ahead for Munich, In hind sight we are a little gutted as on the tour around Salzburg we stumbled across tens of little places that really need more than the twenty minutes that we had to explore on our tour.
It was ‘The Sound of Music’ tour. Sarah really did want to see the whole story unfold before our eyes. It was a little pricey but hey, it’s the sound of music right! (That’s what happens when you have a wife). So off we went with a full bus load, of random singing ‘The Sound of Music’ freaks – I have know idea where they found that many people obsessed with the sound of music just queuing up to see all attractions. They couldn’t have squashed more people in the bus if they tried. As a bonus we also got to listen to the original soundtrack in between places – Oh my god, what a rush. Also we got a packet of edelweiss so we can watch it bloom and grow forever.

Our tour guide named Steve was a shining example of an American, and had an interesting way of running the tour… During the tour we got to see the Gazebo (Glass house – the song with ‘you are 16 going on 17…), The back location of the Vontrap house, the front of the Vontrap house (they where different houses), the Abby, the river, as well as going into the Lake District which was seen in the final credits of the movie. This was the bit that it got a little better for me, it was absolutely amazing and we both would have got accommodation there – but it would have cost a fortune as it was tourist central, so maybe it’s just as well we have a hostel booked for Munich, and I can’t wait to get back to Germany so far I would rate Germany as my Favourite.

We will defiantly be coming back to Salzburg, to do the Lake District. There is a cable car that goes up to the top of a massive mountain and a lake that is just crystal clear, and lots of walks to do, you could spend a week there!

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

When we got to Salzburg

We’re liking these trains in Central Europe – they’re heaps nicer and much new than the ones in Eastern Europe (well, duh!!) and they even have lap top points at all the seats we have sat in so far. Touch wood most of them are like this!

Well, more later, when we will give you the latest on what happens with our accommodation!

O.k. Well with-in five minutes of getting to the train station we had found the ‘Tourist information’ booth and sorted our hostel. We are staying at the ‘Yoho’ Hostel and so far it’s been really good. We are staying a mixed dorm with a couple of Americans, who have been travelling for a while. The pub down below is a little noisy but it really doesn’t matter as tomorrow we don’t have a tour until around two. So the whole morning we can just relax and enjoy the city. Oh dear the guys in the pub are singing on the streets… Anyway back to the story, we have seen quite a lot of the city today already just by wandering around, we left the hostel and just walked only to find ourselves back where we started two hours later by complete coincidence. On the way we stumbled across, all the things that we have been finding hard in the other city’s, i.e. Kebab places, supermarket and pubs. We also found a really nice market along the far side of the river from our hostel. Not a bad first day, all in all.

We have decided to take it much easier than in the last week as Sarah has a cold and we are both being worn down from just constant rush all the time where we don’t really need to. Getting this hostel has also made us feel better about the accommodation thing, and although dorms aren’t the best, but its ok to board with a couple of young blond American sisters…

posted by Maarty @ 1:00 pm, ,

The Hills are Alive… with the Sound of Tourists

Well, we’re currently on the train on our way to Salzburg, feeling relatively good about our accommodation predicament, mainly because we have a cabin to ourselves and lots of chocolate! I had good dreams last night that there would be accommodation available, so we’re just going to go with it.

We’re liking these trains in Central Europe – they’re heaps nicer and much new than the ones in Eastern Europe (well, duh!!) and they even have lap top points at all the seats we have sat in so far. Touch wood most of them are like this!

Well, more later, when we will give you the latest on what happens with our accommodation!

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Vienna

We got up and headed out, after marking on the map the main things that the Lonely Planet book had recommended. Got off the metro two stops early, intending to walk a bit before getting to our first stop. Only to find that we were right in the middle of stop two for the day. This was the Habsburgs summer palace, and it was amazing. They make everything massive here! Just the grounds themselves where impeccable, then the buildings completely surrounding you, I would say that the buildings look to be better cared for than in Prague. Was getting on to lunch by the time we had finished walking around the palace, so we went to the baker. We ate by the park looking towards the museum island. (there are a number of very impressive museums here).

We walked around the museums for a bit but after I saw how much it costs just to get in we decided that we would rather spend the money going up the Ferris-wheel instead. So off to the other side of the city it was to stop number three, giving up on stop number one (the cathedral) as we had seen it yesterday. The under ground makes a big difference in city’s! You just don’t have to think or wait, you just need to know what direction that you want to go, so needless to say we were on the other side of the city in less than ten minutes. And lo-and-behold as we walked up the stairs there smack in front of us was not just a Ferris-wheel but a whole amusement park! By this stage we needed more money so we went to the ATM only for it to tell us that we had ‘insufficient funds’ – not too good when you’re in the first week of a two month holiday! But we managed to scrape just enough money together to go up the Ferris-wheel. Apparently the ATM’s over here like to trick you, a joke that I thought was really funny I tell you! Anyway after walking through a really pleasant display of the Ferris-wheel and it’s history we where on our way up! I must say about now that the weather in Vienna is the coldest that we have encountered since NZ, and it was actually quite windy, this made it all the more fun though. But what a amazing view.

As we had a little money issue, we left the theme park in pursuit of a working ATM. It’s really quite hard here to check your money situation, you kinda just leave it and hope for the best - well that’s what we’ve been doing anyway, but the next ATM didn’t have a problem giving us money so I’m assuming that we still have some.

As we wanted to use our ‘CityTourPass’ to its full advantage we then decided that just jumping on a ring route tram was a good option. It took about an hour and a bit, but we did get off at one stage because we saw a supermarket and needed some supplies. It’s really nice to have a pass where you can just get on and off without thinking twice.

That was about the end of our touring day we managed to see quite a lot of the city and as Sarah has a bit of a cold we don’t really want to push it too much – especially as Munich is coming up and I fully intend to have a good time there! But after a rest we wanted to sort out some of our holiday… This is proving to be relatively difficult, on the net we couldn’t find accommodation anywhere in Salzburg. We have decided to chance it and see if there is something when we get there but not a nice thought really. We have however booked three nights for Munich. But we are feeling a little bewildered by the increasing prices through the rest of Europe, it’s been very difficult to book anything under 20 Euro per person per night even in a dorm. And in some places even booking now for a week’s time is ridiculous 40-60 Euros per person per night. This has been a real eye opener to get booking and organise our tour otherwise we will spend all our money on accommodation. Although food and general living is still pretty cheap it’s just too stressful to spend that much on a place to sleep!

The Summer Palace

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

On to Vienna

Sunflowers enroute to Vienna

We arrived at the train station, fairly confident for a change that we were at the right one. Well it had to be really, ‘cause it was the end of the line! With no accommodation booked we were happy to see a guy handing out flyers for another student accommodation. We really wanted to stay in a hostel but at this time of the year it’s getting really hard to find. After we got the flyer and found out the position of the hostel we jumped onto the net and looked for better options, just in case. Turns out that it did have the best position of any that had beds available, and it was within close walking distance. We got there and checked out the room and found it to be the nicest yet. We had bought a public transport pass from the train station so we wasted no time getting into the city (mainly to buy socks and undies! It costs 4 Euro to do washing here.)

Vienna is a really nice city, super modern but with the old buildings and LOTS of green. They have the most public gardens and trees of any city I’ve seen so far. There seems to be a lot of money in the city, as it’s well kept and grandiose. We didn’t spend all our time shopping although it would have been very easy to, it’s the first real shopping that we’ve seen since home. Not that we bought anything but our socks and undies but was nice to finally see an EMI and Sarah was relieved to see some clothes shops. Anyway as I was saying we didn’t spend all of our time shopping as there is a lot to see just in the streets, there are buskers everywhere. Sarah gave money to a ‘statue’ as he was really good at standing still and suddenly he came alive! Wanting to kiss her hand and letting me take a photo. It was really nice, you could watch them for hours. This was right beside St Stephen’s Cathedral, which is pretty much the middle of the city. After walking done the main street and getting another of Europe’s wonderful ice creams (I’ve become quite addicted, will have to lose some weight when I find a home), we came to a lovely fountain, where we took some photos and rested our weary legs. Then headed back to the hostel for an early night to prepare for tomorrow’s sightseeing

Maarty Enjoying a beer at the hostel

The Summer Palace Gardens

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Tour of Budapest

After getting up at a leisurely 9.30am, we slowly made our way into the Castle district of Buda. We decided that we wanted to go to the main Budapest castle. It looked like a long way up from where we were standing but luckily they have nicely put up a funicular (cable car) for us to get to the top. Unfortunately it cost a bomb so we had to make a detour to a Bankomat (ATM). It was nice really that we couldn’t just go up because we got to go through a tunnel and into another part of Buda, and the Bankomat was attached to a supermarket so we decided to buy some lunch and sit in the park for a bit.
Going up the funicular wasn’t too special, but it was a really fast way of getting up to the top, as opposed to walking up in this heat! At the top we could see panoramic views of the city from all directions, it was breathtaking, and we both love just hanging around castles. This was a particularly good castle as you could just walk around it going into the gardens and up the turrets and over the…, and under the..., you get the idea. It was really nice in Buda that the tourist industry seems to be much smaller than Prague, and you get to see a hell of a lot more because of it. As well as just being nicer to walk the streets and have a bit of room to ‘be’.
Anyway after the castle we headed over to Pest on a bus, going over the ‘Adam Clark’ bridge (it’s called something different but this is the guy that built it several hundred years ago) it’s a very famous old bridge, Sarah has found the name… it’s the Szechenyi Lanchid. The bus took us all the way to the end of Andrassy Street, which is kind of the main entertainment street with bars, café’s and shops all down it. Towards the end there are a lot of old palaces and the road leads to Millennium monument. This is the begging of a huge park with a Castle in the middle that has a moat. We wandered around the park for the better half of an hour, ending up at the spa complex which is apparently largest in Europe. Was stunning. From there we took the underground (this is the oldest functioning underground in Europe, and was nicely done up but the train itself was pretty crusty) back into the centre of Pest and got the worlds most expensive ice cream before heading home… Tomorrow we intend to head out early to the train station and find our way to Austria…

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

So anyway, things we have learnt so far:

* European keyboards suck, but we now know how to change them

* We need to check what the MAIN STAION is of each town before we catch the train

* We must stay in the centre of all things touristy and food-like, to make the most of our time

* Our favourite place overall so far is Berlin, but love the fairytail feeling of Prague...

* Talk to as many people as possible because they are the best source of knowledge - we talked to the American / Hungarian owner of a Subway last night and he told us all the main things to do and what not to bother with - I then checked our Lonely Planet and it was almost exactly as he had said

* There's no point in being here if we don't spend the money to see the sights etc. Who cares if the money only lasts a month if we see heaps and feel satisfied - it's not as if we'll be far away to come back!!

* It's really hard to find water that is 'no gas' ie plain drinking water as opposed to carbonated water - even some of the stuff that says it is still water is slightly carbonated!

* Make sure the accomodation is nice and in the right place because it totally influences the overall feeling of a place - we have talked to so many people who didn't like Berlin, but coincidentally they also didn't like their hostels

* Go with Maarty's gut instinct - it's probably right...

Hope you're enjoying reading our website as much as we're enjoying creating it!

posted by Maarty @ 1:00 pm, ,

Life is a lesson - better learn quick!!

My biggest piece of advice to any traveller is to have a spare couple of hundred dollars in a strong currency, ie the Euro! It has helped us out of some really interesting situations so far but none more than today… We had tickets to Budapest from Prague, only problem is that in the train stations don't cater for English in the slightest. There for you are on your own, which is fine but when it comes to international train trips it’s a bit ‘make it up as you go’.

We managed to get on the train ok, we met a couple of young guys and talked about strategies on how to get a cabin to yourself for sleeping. As we have a second class ticket we aren’t allowed to sleep in the actual sleeper compartments, which is fine because they aren’t much better anyway on Czech Trains. As the train pulls up it honestly is a race, as simple as that, absolute bedlam. Sarah ran to the front of a carriage and I ran to the back, lucky that we had seen the train early as we were watching out for it, because behind us a storm was brewing, lots of pushing and shoving as everyone realised that they might miss out!! Sarah found a room quick as I had the bags, and we settled in nicely – Pulling the curtains, locking the door and turning out the light…

Overall I would give the train a pretty good rating, but was really lucky that we had a cabin to ourselves, there was only just enough room to lie down, but was fairly comfortable. Only issue is that as you go over the border the passport control comes thru the train and stamps your passport, so you get woken up every few hours. But really it’s quick and painless.

Ok we're at the bit now that we get into trouble. We have been reading our lonely planet guide and it told us that money and hostel information would be very easy to organise at the train station so we weren’t stressing about any of this. Possibly not the best way to travel but we were very disappointed in our Prague hostel and thought that this time we would do the tourist information thing and check the hostel before paying. Our tickets had a train station printed on them and we asked a local if this was the right stop as the train pulled up to it. Yes it was the right stop, but unfortunately the ticket didn’t have the main station on it. It was the border station of Budapest. I guess most places in the world this wouldn’t be to much of a problem but we’re in eastern Europe.

We didn't realise this, as it looked like a big station from the inside of the train. But as we got off the platform and saw the station from a better angle, we realised it was a bit of a shitter. And to make it worse NO ONE spoke English - not even Engrish! (See Engrish.com if you're not sure what we mean!) We spent over an hour trying to find out just where the hell in Budapest we were, but to no avail. Also there was no way of getting money so we couldn't get on any public transport. Finally we gave up and started walking, first down a mainish looking street then deciding that it was a really long street with not a lot on it, turned back to the beginning and followed the tram tracks hoping that we would stumble onto something.

After a short distance we found a hotel in the middle of nowhere, and it really didnt look like much from a distance, but we kept walking anyway - it was the best shot we had. As we got closer we could see that it actually wasn't a small hotel and we both started to get the feeling that we had finally done something right.

Do you speak English?

A little, was the reply and from there we were sorted. The Hotel receptionist actually did have good english and we managed to get a 48 hour pass for all public transport. Thank god I had Euro's on me otherwise we would have been stuffed as Visa seemed to be a bit too advanced for them.

So three and a half hours after we first got off the train we were standing in the main station. Within the time that we had walked in and tried to read the signs to see about accomodation, someone had approached us from Hostelling International. Needless to say we booked a hostel, (which provided a free shuttle to there and then), we paid for a couple of nights and promptly fell asleep.

We went for a little walk to see our immediate surroundings after our little sleep and had dinner. Nothing to 'out there' but tomorrow we will do the big sight seeing. We have decided that we won't do anymore organised tours as they cost too much, we're just going to get the appropriate brochure and do the walk ourselves. Will give it a go anyway.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

Screw this, let's go to Budapest!!

After getting up early & checking out of our hostel, we headed into town to try & find a new hostel. On our way to tracking down the hostel that Karina had been staying at, we came across a tourist information centre that included last minute accommodation bookings. We popped in there and quickly sorted out a hotel for the night. We both felt a little uneasy about the location, as it looked to us like it was a long way away from the city centre again, which was the primary reason for leaving the first hostel, but the guy assured us it was a 15 minute walk at most, 100m along this street, 150 along that street and there you are. Well after we had been walking for about 15 minutes and realising we were less than half way there we started feeling more uneasy. We have decided that when Czechs say 100 metres they mean more like 1km, as even the McDonald’s signs seemed to be like this. After continuing up a hill, and still only 2/3rds there, we stood and debated with ourselves for a good 10 minutes. We fortunately hadn’t paid anything at the booking agent, and they didn’t have our names or credit card details, so decided that we would hang out for the day & head to Budapest instead. We both felt far more comfortable with this so headed down to the nearest McDonald’s to bide some time. Well actually we spent 2 hours there, eating lunch very slowly, updating the website & reading the Lonely Planet. We then headed to the train station & discovered that it was REALLY cheap to check our bags for the day, before heading back to the town centre. Spent the afternoon wandering through medieval alleyways, browsing shops and people watching in the square. Really pleasant actually! At around 9pm we headed back to the station for our 11.30pm train.

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

The Real Disneyland

Sunday 17th July

Today we went on the ‘Ultimate Tour’ of Prague which combined all the best aspects of Prague. We meet our guide at the ‘Astronomical Clock, & after an explanation of what was to come we headed off down the road to the river, where we boarded a boat for a 1 hour cruise up the Vltava River, & get a commentary of what we saw. The guide had a very monotone voice though, so we looked at the sights instead & ended up talking to a Canadian girl Karina who is living in Sweden for a few months. She had a few days off work so flew to Prague for the weekend – that is so cool! Anyway, she started telling us all these amazing places that we have to visit & fortunately we had been organised enough to bring pen & notebook for exactly this sort of occasion, so we wrote all these places down! After the boat ride & refreshments Karina left us (she just did the boat ride) & we headed off to the Jewish Quarter of the Old Town. We found out that for 500 years until the mid18th Century there was a wall built around the Ghetto & the Jewish people were not allowed to leave – much like the West Berliners in more recent history! From here we walked around the Old Town & had various sights pointed out to us. We then walked across the Charles Bridge which is just the most amazing ‘medieval’ bridge – just as you would imagine! It had fortification towers at each end, statues all along it & is just amazing. We then caught the tram up the hill to the New Town, where we had our lunch stop. After a 3 course Czech meal we headed off to the Prague Castle – this is the most gimonstrous collection of buildings you can possibly imagine – you walk through the guarded entrance, walk through the courtyard & through another archway where you think it ends. But no, this is the archway into another courtyard (& when we say courtyard we mean a cobbled area about the size of a rugby field, complete with fountains, statues & everything else you would expect to find in a nobility residence. After a quick peak through the castle cathedral our tour ended at the top of the hill looking out over Prague. It is a beautiful city. As part of our tour we also got free tickets to the Old Town Ghost Trail. We decided to go on the 8.30pm one & found that Karina was there as well. We started talking & decided it wasn’t dark enough so thought we would hang out at until the 10pm tour instead. Found a little out of the way garden bar which was lovely & quiet. Ahh, just whet we needed after a 6 hour walking tour & another 5 hours hanging out in central Prague!! The tour at 10pm was much darker so can imagine was heaps better, then finished at a bar in the middle of the Old Town. Hung out here with Karina for another 3 hours or so & had a fantastic night! We hope to catch up with her when she moves to Wales in September.

After seeing Prague by day & by night I have decided that I now know where Disneyland gets it’s inspiration from for it’s castles etc – Prague is absolutely magical!

My God its easy to drink way too much in Europe, its ridiculously cheap. So far most nights have been just hanging out in pubs or clubs… What a life a.

posted by Maarty @ 2:41 am, ,

Travel to Prague

Saturday 16 July

4 hours by train to Prague meet young guys and talked the whole way – got to hostel but was a shiter. Found a supermarket close by got the essentials and had dinner in a lovely little pub quite a way out of the city. Just as we were contemplating going into town it started to rain so we stayed in.

posted by Maarty @ 2:40 am, ,

Hangover Maybe...

Friday 15th July

Woke up in a bit of a state this morning, the mixed vodka that was free on the pub crawl was really strong so to be honest we got really hideously drunk!! We we’re out for the whole night getting home around half four drinking at al the pubs meeting lots of really nice people and only spent 20 euro.

For the rest of today we plan to sort our selves out – find out about the train to Prague, doing a little washing and sending a little box of stuff to Lesley. – Sorry Lesley, it’s a little bigger than we thought…

This city would have to be the most amazing city I have ever been to! I know that this is just the beginning but I can’t believe the difference between this culture and ours…So diverse. Unfortunately there is definitely a huge amount of the population smoking and you can smell it everywhere. It’s really odd going into McDonalds and people are smoking away. Alcohol is really, really cheap here and you can buy it everywhere, beers here cost around 2 Euro for the large size – being 750mls. And that’s from a pub!!! I really think that the city is fascinating there is so much history, Sarah and I both find it hard to come to terms with that we are just floating in the wind and can do just what ever we want but so far it’s worked out, we have had the free tour, the pub crawl as well as doing our own thing. Meeting people is really easy to, as everyone is in the same boat it’s very easy to strike up a conversation about the last place that they or you have been to. And as we are doing the opposite direction to a lot of people we can get good ideas off them for the next town!

posted by Maarty @ 2:38 am, ,

Tour Berlin

Thursday 14 July

With wanting to see all the sites in Berlin we thought the best idea would be to go on a tour, and as it turned out our hostel was the meeting point for a free walking tour. We were a bit dubious about it, as nothing is ever ‘free’ but went along with it anyway, as it seemed to go to all the sites as the paying ones. We started out at ‘Brandenburg Gate’ which was amazing, such a huge dominating structure. Our tour guide began with moving us into the shade to give us Berlin’s history in ten minutes – needless to say we were there for about twenty minutes, but he was really good at telling a story and was just fascinating t watch and listen to. Just outside the gate is the Prussian Forest where nobility gone by used to go hunting. From here we could see the ‘Reichstag’ – this is the German parliament building which was burnt to the ground, sparking a series of events that ultimately brought Hitler to power in 1933. We walked from here through the park near to the site of to the ‘Jewish memorial’. This is brand new and was very interesting - it’s basically a large amount of different sized rectangular concrete pillars – which reminded us both of coffins. They are all uneven and the ground isn’t flat, so as you’re walking through you get the feeling of them falling or closing in on you, which is how the Jew’s must have felt. From here we walked to Hitler’s Bunker, there’s nothing there but an unsealed car park – quite fitting really. Apparently the government doesn’t want to make a big deal about the site as there is still a Hitler following, and they don’t want to turn it into a religious site, as well as for other reasons. We walked from here up the road looking back toward POTSDAMA PLATZ toward the current tax department, as it was once Hitler’s Government Building. This is some building, taking up an entire block and is in very stark, square style. There isn’t a single curve on the entire building. On the opposite side of the building we got to see the last of the Berlin wall. We were thinking along the lines of ‘Great Wall of China’ which the Berlin wall clearly isn’t, its really not that big but I didn’t realise there was a ‘death strip’ on either side made up of mines, armed soldiers & barbed wire. It was rather hilarious to see that they have built a fence around the wall as it was being damaged, mainly by tourist - so they have quite literally built a wall to keep people out from the wall that used to keep people in! From here we walked along for a bit to Cheakpoint Chalire, not really stoping but got a quick overview and then there was a short walk to lunch. After lunch we walked out and down the main street of shopping in Berlin including a little stop at a well known Chocolate Shop – it was amazing they had large replicas of major German icons, the Brandenburg Gate, Mercedes Benz etc. this was just down the road form Church Square. There are two identical churches separated by a common courtyard. One church is Catholic and the other Protestant, and the idea was that they although they had separate religions they still came together as one outside the church. From here we walked to the Hamburg University Buildings, where we were told the story of the book burnings that happened when Hitler came into power. Last of all we had a short walk to Museum Island for a ‘Grand Finale’ as our tour guide kept saying, of how the Berlin wall came to fall in Nov 10th 1989, after a series of accidents and misinformation by people in power.
Just when you thought that we couldn’t possibly do anymore in one day, we decided that a pub crawl was in order! The tour was 10 Euros each, and included all you can drink vodka and entries to 4 bars and two clubs. WHAT A NIGHT.

posted by Maarty @ 2:36 am, ,

Guten Tag

Wednesday 13 July

Arrive Heathrow – think ‘what the hell have we done?’! Everything really expensive & it suddenly hits us what we are doing. Catch another international flight to Tegel airport in Berlin but after such huge flights previously it feels like a domestic. Arrive at Tegel airport, AND OUR BAGS ARRIVE!!! We honestly can’t believe that we checked our bags in Phuket & 35 or so hours later they turn up exactly where they are supposed to be. Not even a feeling of relief, but a feeling of wonder! The customs officers were even really nice & he laughed at me when I asked for a stamp in my pass port (using my UK passport now so don’t get stamps unless I ask). Apparently we can both go through the ‘EU Passport Holder’ queue, which is great ‘cause they seem to be shorter so far. Arrived at our Hostel to find that the room we have booked (private twin with ensuite) is just fabulous – dinky little room, no air conditioning but huge windows & the cutest little bathroom – but every time I go in there I feel like I’m still on the plane ‘cause it’s so little! Fantastic though… Think we will continue with the private room thing, as it’s only a couple of Euro more & it’s really nice to be able to have our own space – also if we use the dorms, we will have to stay in mixed dorms if we want to be together.
The public transport system is absolutely amazing, with in ten or so minutes we had figured we’re we were and we’re we wanted to be, as well as how to get there! As well as being really cheep there isn’t anywhere that we can’t get to on our ‘CityTourCard’ at less than 15 euros. We spent a lot of the afternoon just wondering around Berlin, it really is a festinating place – very modern with so much history to go with it.
Went to bed at around 9pm (well we had been travelling for over 30 hours!!) & although we were constantly woken up by people outside (we slept with the windows open for air) we both woke up feeling relaxed & ready for action!)

posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm, ,

There's a lot to be said for Sleeping Pills!

12 July 2005

WEll thank god for the first time ever I managed to Sleep on the plane. Made the time fly by I tell you. We borded around 11pm after waiting in the transit area in Bangkok airport since 3pm! The flight was really smooth, landing a bit early in London we're we waited for our connecting flight to Berlin. Landed saftly in Berlin around mid day Berlin time so about 1am NZ time. And we hsve been around the city but will tell you about that tomorrow as we are both shattered, and need a good sleep for our tour tomorrow...

posted by Maarty @ 7:15 am, ,

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