Epic accidental discovery in Barcelona

We get off the train in Barcelona feet dragging and bleary eyed. Suddenly Liz yells out "Jess iovannella?" yep we have a screaming girls reunion at the train station. After the excitement dies down because we didn't know they were going to be here, we head to our hostels and arrange to meet later. Do later comes and we head off to find their hotel. The streets of Barcelona are a tad crazy. Men everywhere making comments as you walk past. After about an hour of wrong turns and asking people we find their hotel. We are jealous - a gigantic shower, beautiful beds, robes, buffet breakfast... They've pt it all. It's about 1 am and we're all pretty tired but excited to see each other so we go out for some late night tapas- true spanish style. The tapas are great- calamari, chicken, potato balls, frittata, salads, oil soaked bread and proscuitto, chorizo and tandoori accompanied of course by sangria. We are leaving the next morning for Madrid so again we separate and this time it's for good...until we get back to Melbourne anyway.

Day 42: sitting on the train

I'm sitting on the train watching the beautiful French countryside drift past. It's a gorgeous sunny day and in thankful its early afternoon and daylight so I can actually see the scenery. It's not often we travel in the daylight.  This morning was gorgeous weather too and Montpellier is a gorgeous little town. It is 2 hours from Lyon in the south of France. It is also a university town with a large medical and commerce school so quite a young hip crowd and lots of trendy alley way bars and cafes. We were able to walk the city centre in about an hour so it's quite small but lovely. We stumbled upon a viewpoint where you could see the sea in the distance and the city and countryside too. However being extremely windy up there we couldn't admire for too long. We strolled the shops of course and then we found... Frog's legs! They are delicious- a bit of mix between chicken and fish and they had a lovely garlic butter sauce.  And I also purchased a dress for Fe's wedding. I wasn't even looking for a dress and I can't really fit anything else in my back pack but we saw it from outside and I tried it on and it's from France, 100% silk, on sale, it has ruffle and it has pink leopard print. It must be sounding pretty hideous at the moment but the girls let me buy it so it mustn't be too bad... 

Day 41 continued: the unexpected zoo

We decide to visit the parc de tete Lyon next. It is 100 acres and is filled with green houses, botanical gardens, joggers, zig zagging paths and surprisingly a zoo! The zoo is open air and just part of the park so it's free to view the animals. There are deer, turtles, those Madagascar animals that look a bit like raccoons and live in the trees, buffalo type animals with big horns, flamingos! and pink pelicans! Liz's fun fact for the day flamingos are pink because of the food they eat- shrimp -so the pelicans have obviously been eating too much of the flamingos dinner!  We then went in search of frogs legs for an early dinner but no success - no one is open for an early dinner. We settle for pasta in a box :( it was good though and did the job. Last time up the hill then off to Montpellier.  We meet a businessman in the train. He is an environmental engineer or "the smiling bad guy" as he puts it. He seems like the kind of person who plays the good husband at home but a bit of a party goer when he travels- just the vibe we got from some of his stories. But a good chat and a nice person all the same. The interesting thing is he never learnt English. He taught himself by reading English books and watching movies. But his English was great. So that's all I need to do- watch la vita bella without subtitles and read Italian books...

Day 41: ferviere hill

I'm sitting on top of ferviere hill overlooking lyon. The notre dame cathedral of Lyon is looming just behind me. It's a misty day so it's hard to see all of the city but most of it is visible and beautiful. The mist makes it all seem mystical and even more foreign. A short walk away are the ruins from an amphitheater that was built in 51 BC and sat about 11 000 people. Below is a path winding down through a pretty little park to the town. It's all very prettily French. 

Day 40: meeting strangers

Our hostel is half way up the hill that overlooks the city- ferviere it's called. We have a great view of the city from our window but it is a very misty morning so not much is visible. The church below - st jean looks eerie in the grey fog but it's very beautiful inside. The city is divided by two rivers into new town and old town. We are in old town. We hike across the river and up another hill to find one of the markets. It's much colder up here. But we resist the temptation of sitting in a restaurant for lunch and instead buy a rotating roast chicken, avocado and a baguette from the market. We sit in the park, tear our chicken apart and create delicious rolls with our hands. Lucky for the invention of wet wipes. By his point we are really freakin cold so we decide to head to "Lyon's legendary indoor market". It didn't look too far away on the map I swear... The indoor market is another food market which we didn't know but it's indoors so we sit and the girls drink an entire chalice of peppermint tea out of shot glasses with a side of mini macaroons. I'm feeling a bit worse for wear at this stage so whilst the others head to a shipping centre I head home back through the fresh pretty Lyon streets and back up the dreaded St jean hill to our hostel for epic nap time. This served me well and by 7pm we were out having dinner at an apparently very recommended and good French restaurant. I ordered black pudding otherwise known as the insides of a pig in a sausage form served with apple... It was very black looking but it tasted very good. We made friends with an English lecturer who travels around Europe and Asia guest lecturing technology of behavior. When he was kicked off his table we invited him to join us and had very academic conversations over two bottles of wine. Once he left the restaurant the table next to us of about 20 people wanted to practice their English and speak to the token Aussies too. Not enough of us to go around. Through pictionary and symbols they were able to tell us where and how to order frogs legs. After the restaurant we headed next door to the Irish pub because Madrid and Barcelona were playing- the 2 top teams. Again our English conversation drew attention and more of the French wanted to speak with us. This was unexpected because all we've heard is that most French people are snobby and rude and won't have a bar of it if you don't speak French. But the times they are a changin'. 

Day 39: versailles

  Wowza. This place is beautiful. Firstly I'd like to thank Paris for putting on another beautiful sunny day for us. But the palace is grand. The roofs are so detailed and in every room too! The whole time i was there i felt i should have been wearing a corset and a puff dress. But alas I was in jeans and hiking boots. The gardens are something else. They are 3.8 km long. I got lost in them and I loved it. There are lakes, fountains, statues, trees everywhere. The French style gardens are different. They have more stones than grass and not sure if it's just cos it's winter but there are no flowers. Also the fountains were not in use because the lakes were ices over! True fact. Hannah tried to break it with her foot but no success. The funniest site was the seagulls standing on the ice- Jesus style... (insert chuckle here). Having said all that the gardens were absolutely beautiful in a different way. I loved walking around snapping away.  We were very pushed for time in the end and had to speedy walk/ run to make it back to the hostel, collect bags and back to the station to get our train to lyon. We made it and here we are now. I am finally up to date- thanks 5 hour train ride! Oh our dinner should get a spesh mention cos we took our left over big bowl of pasta, pulled it out in the carriage, added some more sauce then all dug in and gobbled it on the train. The rest of our booth were jealous I could tell. Then we pulled out a half kilo tub of cus cus and repeated the process... 

Day 38: Three - cheese fondue

Already the new hostel is in the good books- it has an elevator! But it also gives us breakfast so we fuel up for the day on croissants and coco pops. Then head around the city some more for more big impressive monuments. I love that you can turn a corner in Paris and run into a huge ancient beautiful building. We made many "accidental discoveries" which called for many accidental discovery dance performances. My fav was the pantheon for it was dedicated to me - saint Genevieve, the patron saint of France and my library was right next door- thanks ill be here until Thursday... We also revised the louvre when it got dark and it was amazing. So many snaps! That night we searched hard for fondue. We almost gave it a miss for it was pricey but decided what the hell we're in Paris baby. So three- cheese fondue was Kaye's before us sizzling, along with different meats and bread- amazing. I love melted cheese and I love Paris. 

Day 37: Giant pomme crown cake

We headed to Paris' biggest Sunday market. It was big and had everything. Lunch was market savoury crepes all around- mine with chorizo and cheese.    The crown cakes had been everywhere eyeing us from every pastry shop window so we gave in and bought a giant pomme (apple) cake. With it came a free bottle of cider. I also couldn't let down the custard flan that was yearning at me to eat it so that was pre-cake desert. The legend behind the cake is that there is a tile hidden in it and the person who gets the tile gets to wear the crown. Liz got it. All exciting stuff. The cake is only around at this time of the year so we felt pretty spesh gobbling down our giant pomme crown cake.  Sadly it was time for Jess and Leah to leave the wolf pack (and happily for us to change hostels). The parting of the ways happened at the metro station where we went one way and they the other- tear.  That night our trio went to sacre ceur at night. Gosh Paris- why are you so damn beaut at night- sparkly big things were everywhere! 

Day 36: exploding snails

  Big day of site seeing. Arc di triumph- the monument erected in memory off all the soldiers who had fought in each of the wars the French had encountered. A delicious market where delicious choc flan was purchased and demolished by none other than myself. The Eiffel tower soon to be nicknamed the eifs. Many many photos including romantic shots for those missing their loves ones ie Jess. Then to napoleons tomb which was gold but not that impressive- in leah's words "my pastry was better than this". Then the catacombs. What an interesting place. There was an overcrowded cemetery where masses of graves were piled on top of one another so it was decided that the graves would be dug up and moved. The workers arranged the millions of bones in arrays underground. There were so so so so so many bones it is too hard to comprehend how many people were actually there. It was spooky and dank and odd. The bones dated back from the 1700s through to the 1900s and with some you could tell. They were rotting. Tunnel after tunnel after tunnel all filled with piles and rows and rows of bones.  Having had enough of that we walked on in search of herme's famous macaroons. Along the way we turned a corner and boom Paris by night in your face. The arc, the eifs, the ferris wheel, the whole city all lit up for us to wow at and wow we did. Every hour the tower sparkles it's lights and we were just in time to witness it. I could have stood there for ages but macaroons were calling... We didn't find herme but we found another just as famous apaz- they were good my fav flavour is salted caramel. We then hiked to the moulin rouge to dance and sing diamonds are a girls best friend out the front. It's pretty minute really.  Tonight was also the last night as a quintet so we went put for a French fiesta to an authentic French restaurant. We were the only English speaking customers and the life of the party really. We all had different types of duck. Mine had cheese and ham and mushrooms and scallop potatoes in a big cheesy stew and was absolutely delicious. We also had escargot. However one was evidently still alive as when the sizzling plate was put on the table it exploded and popped right out of it's dish splattering snail juice all over Liz! What an experience. We stayed in the restaurant chatting to the waiters until midnight and finally decided it was domire time. 

Day 35: Walking with philipe

We met philipe on the steps of le opera. He was touring us on theatre, fashion and history in a pink vest- need I say more? He was great. He told us stories of king Luis and Napoleon among others. The opera house was built by Napoleon and was used by the public to gather and share gossip. He showed us the street where the most expensive jewelry was sold- they didn't even have price tags on their items cos if you ask the price you can't afford it so we window shopped. We also stood in the square where the most expensive living quarters are as well as the Ritz hotel which costs 45 000 euro per night!!! Wtf? Some of the best designer lables were either side of us. We also went to the royal Gardens and learnt that back in the day these were open to the public with the exception that you had to look nice to enter them. This started a new trade- selling smart attire along the garden gates!  The gardens were lovely esp on this sunny Paris day. We frolicked and chased a man who was jogging inan orange t shirt and matching knee-highs for a photo. We looked at a beaut fountain that was ruined by the image of a man peeing in it and then drinking from it... Yes that happened. We strolled through the Louvre admiring, then to notre dame to start a second tour with philipe- the notre dame tour.  The building is impressive. It is the biggest church in Paris after all. It's interesting how due to the fact that it took do long to build, you can see the change in architecture style as you go up the building and as your eyes move over it front to back. The front of the church displays lessons regarding good and evil, virtues and velocies, heaven and hell. Women were not allowed to enter the church in the early days for they were considered the devil. The church is gothic style with gargoyles and spikes decorating the towers. Another noteworthy is that the doors were designed to be separated with a post between them so one could not enter through the middle of the doorway. Entering to one side ensures he leaves his ego behind. However a door to the side was created for the king to enter which was not separated. This door is today, ironically, is the VIP entry...

Day 34: beautiful sacre ceur

Morning stroll to sample more chocolate before leaving the country of chocolate. Then check out time to depart for Paris. We thought it would be a short way to the station but it was not so. Crush got heavier and heavier with each step. We ha to stop half way for falafals. Tots worth the journey though. This place came with a self serve salad bar so I kept topping up my falafal pita with all the different types of salads and sauces until the girls told me we had to get a move on. So off to the station with crush again- but with a lot more energy this time cos we were full!  We arrived in Paris in the afternoon and I was in love with its weather straight away. The sun was shining and I felt a bit hot walking! Imagine that!  After checking in we strolled to sacre ceur. However our hostel was not in the friendliest most beautiful part of town. So walking the streets did not feel safe even with 5 of us together! The men were standing around because no one works. They spit all the time and there is spit all over the footpath but this is all over Paris. We don't understand how they have that much phlegm!  Anyway we got to sacre ceur in one piece and what a site. The view of Paris was gorgeous. What a gigantic city with big things popping up everywhere. The church was impressive too but the guy climbing the light pole and performing soccer ball tricks up there was more impressive! We got our first glimpse of the Eiffel tower too.  Cooked up some pasta and 1 kilo of broccoli for dinner as well as a traditional French entree of cheese and bread. 

Our 1st hostel in Paris

This deserves it's own section because it was quite unique. Firstly it was atop a bar. The bar was the common room, the reception, the dining room if you please. There were no elevators. Han, Liz and I were on the top floor. That is the 7th floor. That is also 120 steps up a narrow winding staircase. Our bunk was a triple bunk and my knee banged the roof if I lifted my foot up whilst lying down. If we weren't in bed only 1 person could fit in the room. We had to turn sideways to enter the shower. But it does not end there. The hostel has a 24 hour check in so poor Leah and Jess got not 1 but 2 late night visitors who proceeded to get it on in the small room and then she vomited! Not the best hostel experience really. I say you've got to experience the shit ones to appreciate hostels cos they're all pretty scrappy really. We moved hostels. 

Day 33: bike riding

We were told that the flea market was best at 6am. So we alarmed ourselves at 6 am and walked 30 mins in the fresh (and still black) morning air to the flea market. They were still setting up the lazy things and it looked pretty poor actually- old antique treasures... Or old antique crap whichever way you want to look at it. We sat at a nearby cafe and had coffee instead. It seemed this was what all the sellers were doing too for it was full of old men. Due to the intensity of having 5 girls together all the time we decided to split for the day. The iovannellas headed off in one direction and the bass, han and gen in the other. We headed home first for a hearty bowl of muesli but unfortunately when we bought milk last night we accidentally purchased butter milk - it tasted crap basically. The muesli was ruined. I put coffee in it and ate it anyway.  We then decided a self walking tour was in order. The first place visited was unfortunately the dodgy part of town and not so pretty. It was where the shipping used to take place.  However we did happen to walk past some hire bikes so on this perfect sunny Brussels day we rode of to the other sites and found that Brussels is actually a beautiful place. We rode to some gardens which were mega and awesome and the royal palace was at the tip just to top it off. We had mass photo time on another pretty park with a lake and water feature. We got super hot riding up hills on shitty bikes. We bought delish fresh bread and salad and made rolls in the park befriending the ducks. We walked some more then to the palace of justice and a surrounding gorgeous view of Brussels. We also visited some churches of course. And dad i may have found the carpark and the cafe near the church where you and mum spent the night and ate brussel sprouts but there are so many churches that one can never be sure. Then we went back to grand square to admire it in daylight. We didn't think it could get better but it did. In the light you were able to see all the detail of the carvings and statues. A little street off grand square had numerous chocolate shops and we self chocolate toured these obtaining free and bought samples in each!  That night we went out for beer at a place famous for it's friendly service, home brew, sour beer and flavored beer. I had a peach flavored beer and it tasted sweet like cider. Me like peach beer and it came in a big glass. We also tried the sour beer- not so much like there though. It tasted like warhead lollies- the blue flavour.  After beer of course comes waffles so we found the apparent best waffles place. They were three times as much as the street vendors but they were three times better. Mine had hot choc sauce and icing sugar. 

Day 32: waffles and beer

A morning stroll was in order so han and I strolled through the gardens. Three of us found an "accidental discovery" market on morning stroll number 2. We left for Brussels then but our journey was interrupted when the Belgium train staff decided to go on strike. Thus we had time to walk the main street of Antwerp - unfortunately with the accompaniment of crush (and the other packs). An hour later we were back on the train to Brussels.  Brussels is cool. We wasted no time in exploring. It was night time the first time we saw grand square but it was grand all the same and we were super impressed being encased by looming grand buildings. It was not an uncomfortable encasing nor intimidating, just awing and impressive. The next thing we saw (and couldn't pass off) were Belgium waffles. Warm, fresh, scrumptious. Then it was dinner time. It was difficult to miss the Lygon street - style eateries and too much to pass up the offer of a 12.50 three-course meal with a bargained deal of including extra desert, a glass of vino and a coffee. Entree was prawns, main grilled fish and desert waffles again but with hot choc sauce and cream + choc mousse. Delightful way to end the day. Liz and Jess were sleepy as but the rest of us went across the road to a pub that had 25 beers on tap. Pretty impressive and a difficult choice! 

Day 31: Rotterdam

Up early to walky walk. It was still dark at 7 am so walking past the old beautiful museum with the moon shining through the naked trees added an eerie medieval feel. I walked for about 45 mins admiring the sites i hadn't yet seen and accidentally discovered.  We then went to Rotterdam for the day- the second largest city of the Netherlands. Rotterdam was hit very heavily during the war and the city has to be rebuilt. In stark contrast to all the other European cities we had visited, it was extremely new and modern. There was interesting architecture all over the place. We did a self walking tour and played (again like 4 yr olds) on the boats. We shopped too of course and then headed back to amsty. On the way home we had apple flavoured sheesha at a cafe. 

Day 30: heineken- you do it to us every time

Today we get up late and hannah and i go out for an epic bacon, eggs/ the lot brekky which lead to much happiness. Then we all went on the Heineken tour. This is something I recommend doing in amsterdam. The heineken family were/ are very environmentally and economically conscious. It seems they are very aware of the well being of their company employees and there were so many government awards displayed- they just seem like genuinely good people so of course we're going to go out and buy some heineken now- good marketing I say. We were taught how to appreciate and drink beer properly- you need to take a big gulp rather than a sip so you don't taste the bitterness of the froth first up. We also learnt the main components of beer and how to vary the process to get different brews. All very interesting. The best part was the 'ride' where we got the chance to be 'brewed' like beer. It was a 4d movie and it was epic fun being churned and sprayed and bubbled! We were definitely behaving like 4 year olds on red cordial. Oh and the coasters that popped up on the electronic tables when you put your glass on it- heineken you do it to us every time!  That night we went out to a local restaurant for dinner and pointed to what we wanted. I had a delicious pork in gravy roll. The owners were adorable. After that it was desert time of course and then a stroll around the canals- super romantic. Love Amsty. 

Day 29: Self touring Amsty

I got up nice an early (surprise) and strolled up to the floating flower markets - not impressive at all really. Then purchased breakfast goods from the supermarket for the masses. After brekky we walked to meet the free city tour guides but were too late and missed the tour so instead we downloaded an amsterdam app that had a guided walking tour- it was brills, super informative. Amsterdam is a great city. There are so many bridges and canals it reminded me of venice without the ridiculously narrow dead-ended confusing streets. The vibe is cool and reminded me a bit of melbourne- esp brunswick st. Everyone rides bikes and dresses a little indie. There is a ridiculous number of bikes thrown into the canals and left at the bottom each year... Among other things. I think I could live in Amsterdam. It's full of tourists but most of the time I felt quite safe and welcomed and everyone spoke English which is always helpful. After our tour of the main attractions including statues and churches of course, we shopped around and then headed back to get ready for Hannah's second birthday- the red light district pub crawl. This was fun. The red light district is interesting. We didn't expect the women to be so young and attractive but the ones with the window positions definitely were. Who knows what lies behind the scenes though... We learnt that the red lights were for women and the blue lights were lady boys- take your pick! The funniest scene was when a man walked out of one of the clubs and was cheered by absolutely everyone in the street! Apart from that there's not that much I remember from the night. Oh actually I might have had a dance off at some stage... 

Day 28: Hannah's birthday

Late checkout = 12pm sleep in oh dear. Then present time and breakfast time and mini shop time for train goodies and cake. Then on to Amsterdam!  That night we ate cake and sang happy birthday (not in that order) an then roamed the streets. We were a bit tired from last night and the travel so decided Hannah could have another birthday tomorrow. We slept very well that night... My muscles felt... unattached...

Day 27: Ham bao bao land

We headed to the main square to do the free walking tour of course. What a lovely city. It has more bridges than Amsterdam and Venice put together. A lot of the city was destroyed in a great fire in the 1800s. The fire was deliberately lit but the arsonist was never identified. Hamburg was also bombed heavily during WWII and much of the city has to be rebuilt so the buildings that look ancient an preserved are actually remakes of the originals. The city is also in a lot of debt but they don't seem to be doing anything about it because they started building a very very large grand concert hall. The building began about ten years ago but It has taken so long because they blew most of the budget just on the planning. They then decided that "oh well we've spent this much we may as well keep going with it- it will be ready by 2009... Then 2012..." It's still not even close to being finished but they do have a nice little replica of what it is going to look like in a little glass room overlooking the river (like they hadn't spentf enough on the thing already). Unfortunately it was a really shit day weather-wise so after the tour we headed to the shopping centre to shop for a few hours. It was then time to get ready for Hannah's night -before- birthday party. We pre'd some wine and wodka from Toom and headed to a bar full of locals on Thursday night uni night. So naturally we met some German students and partied with them until wee hours of the morn. We got home to a lovely surprise on the door - Jess (who had come home a little earlier) had given the gift of a late check out! Thank you!

Day 26: giant Turkish plate

We wandered Berlin and admired the part of the wall that remained. Artwork from all different countries decorated the wall each conveying individual messages about peace, love, unity, suffering, rejoicing... On the way back we shopped and we couldn't go past the burrito place so we got delicious burritos again and enjoyed them immensely again.  We then caught the train to hamburg. Arriving late in hamburg we went out for a late giant Turkish plate of kebab and salad and rice. It was absolutely enormous but delish. Tonight was the night found Toom. Omg what a giant supermarket. It has rows and rows and rows of everything you could possible need. Oh Toom you do it to us every time...

Day 25: the concentration camp

We visited sachenhouse concentration camp. It was a horrible raining windy cold cold dark day. The camp had housed 600 000 prisoners over its course. The stories were horrifying. The Jews were forced to be involved in the hanging of their friends. They were forced to work out in the cold all day without jackets. They were ridiculed and starved. It wasn't only Jewish people at the camp. There were also soldiers and people who stood against and those who got in the way.  We walked around separately trying to absorb all the horrors the place carried. We needed lone time, thought time.  That evening we cooked up another storm and then headed to a beer hall with a few Aussie friends from the hostel. It was large beer hall and we ordered a litre of beer each- for those of us who's biceps could handle it :) and some traditional German dishes - currywurst and sourkrout (not sure how you spell that)! 

Day 24: walking Berlin

The walking tour= really good except it rained all day :( Berlin has had a history. My gosh from hitler to stalin to communism and the wall. Ill relay a little story that rob (our guide) entertained us with: there once lived a couple who were very much so in love. When the Berlin wall was built they were separated as she was from the east and him the west. One day the man was walking the streets of the west when he saw a woman that looked exactly like his ex girlfriend. He approached her and asked her out for a drink. They start hanging out a lot and become an 'item'. After a few months the man asks his new girlfriend if she would like to go with him to see their families who were left behind in the east. For the west side were allowed to visit the east if they had passports/ enough money but the east were strictly not allowed to cross to the west. The girl thought this was a wonderful idea so when they had saves enough money, they go their passports and went for a trip over to the east. As they were driving around the man opened the passenger car door and pushed the woman out of the car, swung the car around and picked up his old girlfriend from the street and sailed back over the border with their passports! Romantic or an asshole? That night i set up a bit of a physio clinic for the injured, weary travellers. Then we cooked up a storm and chilled out with a pack of cards. 

Day 23: new years day

Oh what a sleep in and oh so necessary considering we didn't get home until 6.30 am. We went out for brills hamburgers and they hit the spot! We then got lost in the streets for 2 hours. Berlin is certainly not a pretty place but it has vibe. It's trendy and it attracts a certain crowd- the artsy, indie, Brunswick st type. I like it. I like all the bikes too. And I like the art on the wall. Then it was back home to nap. Zzzz... Vital. We woke up and went for another stroll. For dinner we found noodle box- the only restaurant that wasn't full! But it was pretty delicious. We then went for dessert- finding a shop selling only onesies along the way! The best part is I saw someone strutting his stuff in a onesie the next morning! Anyway back to dessert- Dutch pancakes, apple strudel, poppyseed cake and lemon cake yum yum yum. Back at the hostel we decided to go out for a dancy dance to a club called matrix. It played a mix of German and western music. We enjoyed our dance and playing "foam roll as a prop" but did not enjoy the sweat of the place. We were dressed for winter outing not sweaty club outing- a little unfortunate...

Day 22: new years eve

Rise and shine at 5 am. Lucky we have Tom with us because i struggle every time i have to get crush into the overhead luggage but he swung it up as though it were full of feathers. We played tunes and sang along and slept until we arrived in Berlin. Yay. Tom is maybe not a very good navigator for we arced many circles before finding the hostel that was actually a five minute walk from the station. Lunch was the next item on the agenda and we stumbled across a delicious Mexican place for epic burritos. Then it was time to meet Jess and Leah and Annabelle woo hoo. We were very loud and excited for a long time as expected from a group of six girls. So the shopping expedition was fun. 5 bottles of vodka and snacks and mixers: done. Then it was get ready time, card game/drinking game time and downstairs to meet people time. The bar up on the roof of the hostel is where everyone congregated to watch the fireworks. They lasted forever and they came from ever direction. It's not illegal to make your own fireworks so people were setting them off on the rooftop bar too. They were flying way too close to our faces but they were brilliant. When the rooftop bar shut we walked to a club. Unfortunately the place was full of Aussies but it was fun. We danced the night away until the early hours of the morning. Leah was a super sleuth. She sneaked in to the VIP lounge and took half a bottle of vodka. And when that ran out she did it again but this time got caught and was told to leave the VIP section (he still managed to have a bottle of vodka in her grasp though). After the fourth steal  she was kicked out. But super sleuthy Leah sneaked back in and managed to steal a final fifth bottle of vodka. For these efforts Leah bassett is awarded the sleuth award in the honor of vodka. 

Day 21: deep fried bread, goulash and roast duck

We have a little but vital sleep in then get up and peruse markets. Hannah visits the Jewish museum whilst liz and I looked at the amazing 5-level shopping centre with over 2000 shops. It was not that impressive. Whilst Liz enjoyed a siesta han and I ate a dish from the Christmas markets that everyone was having. It was a huge piece of deep fried bread with ketchup, cheese and garlic sauce on top and it was delightful. Later Hannah siested while Liz and Tom and I went out for deep fried bread and Christmas market musical entertainment- which was a live band rapping in Dutch. Then we went out for dinner purely to indulge in the local dish of goulash and roast duck. It was indulgent. The pub/restaurant we chose was pretty empty and the waitress was in fishnets and had tattoos up and down her arms but the goulash was delish. We were to leave very early in the morning so the 4 of us spent all our left over cheque money on food and drink at the supermarket and lounged at the hostel with a pair of american travellers drinking wine and eating ice cream. Too much ice cream later I was in bed with a belly ache. 

Prague and the big friendly Brit

We wake up very early and wonder but nothing is really open. There is a free walking tour- that you actually pay for in tips at the end. But it was definitely worth it. We visited the astronomical clock tower which was built by a man to tell not only the time but also the sun and moon patterns, the date, the season- everything you'd want to know from a clock and more. People came from far and wide to see this amazingly accurate clock so the government officials decided they had to prevent the clock maker from creating anything similar. They went to his home one night and burnt his eyes so he could no longer see- A bit drastic I think. The clockmaker then decided to retaliate. He, with the help of an ally, pulled out a major component from the clock's mechanics and it stopped working. Years later someone was able to fix the clock but it was out of action, and rightly so, for about 100 years. One of he churches we visited has a mimicked arm strung up from the roof. Legend has it that a man tried to steal a golden ring off a statue of mary in the church. She came to life for a brief second and grabbed his arm then without letting go of the thief's arm she became statue again. When the priest came and found the man, he confessed and pleaded for the priest to cut him loose. The priest. And back with a saw and made to saw off the thief's arm. "what are you doing? Cut Mary's arm, not mine!" "no way I saw what she did to you when you tried to take her ring. Imagine what she'd do to me if I tried to saw off her arm!" so the priest sawed off the thief's arm and it is now hung in the church... The tour was very interesting and Prague has a very interesting history. But it was very cold. I was in struggle town by he end- my toes were numb after 3 hours of standing out in the cold so it was definitely coffee and cake time.  After the tour we headed to Prague castle. On the way up we ate delicious giant sausages. When we got to the top the view of prague was spectacular. The castle itself was enormous with a great medieval cathedral in the centre. We walked and got lost and found our way home.  After nap time we decided to head out to sample the infamous Prague beer with our new mate uTom the Brit. We pub hopped tasting pilsner, dark beer and cider before settling at a dark busy local bar with a slightly smokey crowd, a pack of cards and some vodka shots. 

Day 19: to praha

Day 19: to Praha  Woke up early and let the sickies sleep in. I wandered yet again and enjoyed the feeling of not needing to go... People were walking with purpose and haste as they  made their way to work in their coats and gloves and scarves. I meandered through the quaint alleyways embracing the pace of a holiday. When I returned I cooked porridge for the patients and we packed up. Leaving just Hannah behind on the couch asleep, Liz and I went to visit st Stephan's church and hunt for goodies for the train ride. Poor Hannah could barely walk and we had to hike with our packs from station to station to find the right one to depart from. We got to Prague at about 7pm and Hannah was feeling slightly more spritzy after sprawling across 3 train seats to sleep for the whole trip. We got lost trying to find the hostel of course but got there in the end... an hour later. By the time we were ready to find something to eat, everything was pretty much shut so we settled for a fast food baguette place a bit like subway- they were pretty damn good.