Sorry there were no posts about Venice and Rome, but that just means you'll have to come visit us to get our stories!
We are currently sitting in the Heathrow Airport awaiting our flight home! See everyone soon!!!
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Thursday, 8 August 2013
Long Post Concerning Prague and Vienna
We had no Internet while in Vienna, so y’all get to
experience an all-in-one post about our last days in Prague and our entire tour
of Vienna.
Following our day of hiking, we decided to each take a day
to do our own thing independently. I voyaged out to some of the shopping malls
that Prague had to offer and ate lunch at a charming little English bookstore.
Brendan walked around trying to find the same bookstore, but unfortunately
wasn’t able to find it in the end.
The subsequent day, we made our way to the Museum of
Communism. It was all about Czechoslovakia and how communism started and
declined there. There was also a tiny exhibit about North Korea and the
communism there. We both enjoyed the
museum very much. Brendan and I then walked over to the bookstore that I had
found the day before in order to browse the books and consume some lunch. The
night before, on a whim, I had sent in a request for us to tandem skydive. I
had not expected the company to get back to us in time, but they did! We were
informed that we could skydive that night at 6pm! Skipping lunch, we
immediately headed back to the hotel to change and grab some money. When we
arrived back at the hotel I checked my email once more and they told us they
had to cancel our session due to the lack of people in that time slot. I was heartbroken.
Fortunately, an hour later, they extended another invitation for 6:15pm. Brendan
and I met up at the skydiving office and headed out to an airport about an
hour’s drive away with two other guys from California (and our driver). When we
reached the airport, we suited up and received a brief tutorial on how to exit
the plane, how to free-fall and how to land. We met our jumping partners and
jumped on the airplane! My guide was remarkable, and was cracking jokes the
whole way up and throughout the fall. I was last to jump out of the plane, and
what made me most nervous was the three grown men in front of me screaming as
they jumped! The free-fall lasted for 50 seconds and was a huge adrenaline
rush! My guide twirled me around and faced me towards the breathtaking sunset.
Once the parachute opened, he let me steer a little bit and then he did all
these super fun turns. He told me that he has done over 2000 jumps in his
lifetime (12 that day)! The fall lasted 5 minutes. I then took landing position
and we landed on our butts (on purpose). All in all, it was the most thrilling
experience of my life by far and I cant wait to go again!
The next day we got on a train to Vienna! The train ride was about 6 hours, and the air-conditioning worked the whole time! We found our hotel quiet easily because it’s only a few minutes walk from a main train station. Once we got settled, we explored our neighbourhood and found a huge row of stores and cafes and restaurants just around the corner from us.
The next day we got on a train to Vienna! The train ride was about 6 hours, and the air-conditioning worked the whole time! We found our hotel quiet easily because it’s only a few minutes walk from a main train station. Once we got settled, we explored our neighbourhood and found a huge row of stores and cafes and restaurants just around the corner from us.
On Monday, we visited the Freud Museum. I loved it as I have
learned lots about him in every single psychology class I have ever taken. The
museum was located in his actual office where he saw and treated clients.
Although most of the furniture was removed during World War II, there were
still little artifacts that were left behind. We then headed to the center of
Vienna and participated in a guided walking tour. The tour lasted about 2 hours
and took us to some of the most famous Vienna sights, such as Albertina Palace
and Hero’s courtyard.
On Tuesday, we decided that we would like to revisit Hero’s courtyard and the museum quarter. First, we tried to go see the crown jewels, but the museum was closed. Then we tried to go to the largest library in Vienna, but they were charging an absurd amount for admission. We then walked over the National History Museum, which was closed as well! I guess Vienna doesn’t do much business on Tuesdays. The preceding day, our guide had told us that there were free concerts every night in Hero’s Courtyard so we decided we would saunter back to the hotel, relax for a while then attend one of the concerts. We ate dinner at a little Austrian restaurant, where we both finally tried schnitzel. It was much better than I was expecting and tasted much like a flattened out chicken strip. We then headed towards city hall. It turns out that it wasn’t concerts every night, but was a film festival that showed different ballets and operas on a large projector screen. We stayed and watched a German opera for about 30 minutes, but left, as we weren’t able to understand what was going on.
On Tuesday, we decided that we would like to revisit Hero’s courtyard and the museum quarter. First, we tried to go see the crown jewels, but the museum was closed. Then we tried to go to the largest library in Vienna, but they were charging an absurd amount for admission. We then walked over the National History Museum, which was closed as well! I guess Vienna doesn’t do much business on Tuesdays. The preceding day, our guide had told us that there were free concerts every night in Hero’s Courtyard so we decided we would saunter back to the hotel, relax for a while then attend one of the concerts. We ate dinner at a little Austrian restaurant, where we both finally tried schnitzel. It was much better than I was expecting and tasted much like a flattened out chicken strip. We then headed towards city hall. It turns out that it wasn’t concerts every night, but was a film festival that showed different ballets and operas on a large projector screen. We stayed and watched a German opera for about 30 minutes, but left, as we weren’t able to understand what was going on.
Today, we made our way back to the Natural History Museum.
It was open! We managed to get in for free because we said we were under 19 and
we were not asked for ID. This museum
was cool because they had the Body Worlds exhibit that I’ve wanted to see for a
long time, but is always so expensive at Science World in Vancouver. After the
museum, we took the subway out to Schonbrunn Palace (I think that’s how you
spell it). This was where the royal Austrian family lived. We walked around the
gardens which were absolutely breath taking. There were lots of fountains and
benches to sit on and admire the view. At around 5pm, we headed home!
Today, we went and walked around the Danube River on the outskirts of Vienna. We dipped our toes in the cool water and read our books (Brendan’s reading the Hunger Games and I’m reading 1984). We then tried heading to the Planetarium, but the next show was in an hour and a half and only for children and in German. So we ventured back to the center of town and were going to a museum called ‘Time Travel Vienna- the 5D experience’. When we got there it turned out to be absurdly expensive for a 50-minute experience. It was 40C today and I was feeling awfully sick from all the sun. We decided to head back to the hotel and relax in the air-conditioned lobby (we had to check out at 11am). Soon, we are going to dinner and then we catch at train to Venice at 8:45pm for 12 hours! We got a couch with beds though, so hopefully we will be able to sleep!
Today, we went and walked around the Danube River on the outskirts of Vienna. We dipped our toes in the cool water and read our books (Brendan’s reading the Hunger Games and I’m reading 1984). We then tried heading to the Planetarium, but the next show was in an hour and a half and only for children and in German. So we ventured back to the center of town and were going to a museum called ‘Time Travel Vienna- the 5D experience’. When we got there it turned out to be absurdly expensive for a 50-minute experience. It was 40C today and I was feeling awfully sick from all the sun. We decided to head back to the hotel and relax in the air-conditioned lobby (we had to check out at 11am). Soon, we are going to dinner and then we catch at train to Venice at 8:45pm for 12 hours! We got a couch with beds though, so hopefully we will be able to sleep!
Thursday, 1 August 2013
More Prague
Prague has been very wonderful so far! The day after our tour, we went back to Lesser Town- a quarter of the city that clusters around Prague Castle. There were lots of little shops and places to eat! We toured around the outside of the castle and got a fantastic view of the city. We then took a long break in a Starbucks that overlooked the city and sat and read our books while I enjoyed a hot chocolate. Next, we walked a little ways down from the castle towards Charles Bridge. This is the most famous bridge in Prague and is lined with vendors and very old statues. There is one statue in the middle of the bridge made out of bronze. Legend has it that if you touch the statue all your wishes are sure to come true. Brendan and I both made sure to squeeze our way in.
Yesterday, we made our way out to the Prague Zoo. It was quite the experience! It was a pretty massive zoo that even had Polar bears! They were very entertaining, and liked to swim up to all the tourists watching them. We also saw giraffes, elephants and much much more! Unfortunately, all the monkeys seemed to be out of their cages so we didn't get to see them.
Today, we decided to go for a hike in the southern part of Prague. The instructions online were kind of unclear, but we hopped on the metro and hoped for the best! After wandering around for about 30 minutes we finally found some sort of trail in a forest, but it definitely wasn't what we were looking for! We continued on anyways and had a nice little hike/walk through a forest and the surrounding neighbourhood. Before turning around we decided to sit and read our books for a while before heading back.
Prague is surely a lovely city, although I think we could have probably covered most of the city in about 2 days (we are here for 7). It is nice to finally relax a little and catch up on some reading and sleep in after all this busy tourist stuff! Plus, the food is so cheap here!
Yesterday, we made our way out to the Prague Zoo. It was quite the experience! It was a pretty massive zoo that even had Polar bears! They were very entertaining, and liked to swim up to all the tourists watching them. We also saw giraffes, elephants and much much more! Unfortunately, all the monkeys seemed to be out of their cages so we didn't get to see them.
Today, we decided to go for a hike in the southern part of Prague. The instructions online were kind of unclear, but we hopped on the metro and hoped for the best! After wandering around for about 30 minutes we finally found some sort of trail in a forest, but it definitely wasn't what we were looking for! We continued on anyways and had a nice little hike/walk through a forest and the surrounding neighbourhood. Before turning around we decided to sit and read our books for a while before heading back.
Prague is surely a lovely city, although I think we could have probably covered most of the city in about 2 days (we are here for 7). It is nice to finally relax a little and catch up on some reading and sleep in after all this busy tourist stuff! Plus, the food is so cheap here!
Monday, 29 July 2013
Berlin and Prague
Sorry for not writing for a while, but we've been busy!
After our tour of the concentration camp we went on an Berlin bike tour. Our guide was great and super funny! The next day, Brendan went on a Third Reich bike tour and I went on a Raw Berlin tour. My tour showed the night clubs and street art parts of Berlin. It was okay, but not really my thing. Brendan then went to the zoo and I went shopping (and bought a book)! On our last day, we walked to a shopping district (we both bought a pair of Birkenstocks) and Brendan visited the Natural History museum while I read in the park. The next day, we headed onto the 6 hour train to Prague!
We accidentally got off a stop too early, so we had to catch a subway into the main station right off the bat. To further complicate things, when we had looked up the directions the night before it apparently showed us the night bus directions and not the day bus that we needed. We walked all around the train station trying to ask people how to get to our hotel. It was super frustrating. Finally, someone told us how to get there! The directions were a little off though, and we ended up walking for a while with our big backpacks. When we got to the hotel and asked to check in, they sent us across the parking lot to the sister hotel. This other hotel was absolutely terrible. The room had 2 cots and thats about it. Since we had booked through Hotwire and told we would be staying in the nice, big hotel we went to complain. They told us that Hotwire tries to do this with a lot of guests, and that we could pay 20 euros a night to upgrade and then send the receipt back to hotwire for a reimbursement. After all the hassle, we finally made it to our lovely room! It has two bathrooms, a king sized bed, a mini fridge and lots of space! The biggest room we've had so far (including the hostels that fit 10 people in them).
Today, we went on a Prague bus tour which briefly showed us all the major sites. Tomorrow we will be taking a closer look at some of the stops that interested us most!
Miss everyone at home!
After our tour of the concentration camp we went on an Berlin bike tour. Our guide was great and super funny! The next day, Brendan went on a Third Reich bike tour and I went on a Raw Berlin tour. My tour showed the night clubs and street art parts of Berlin. It was okay, but not really my thing. Brendan then went to the zoo and I went shopping (and bought a book)! On our last day, we walked to a shopping district (we both bought a pair of Birkenstocks) and Brendan visited the Natural History museum while I read in the park. The next day, we headed onto the 6 hour train to Prague!
We accidentally got off a stop too early, so we had to catch a subway into the main station right off the bat. To further complicate things, when we had looked up the directions the night before it apparently showed us the night bus directions and not the day bus that we needed. We walked all around the train station trying to ask people how to get to our hotel. It was super frustrating. Finally, someone told us how to get there! The directions were a little off though, and we ended up walking for a while with our big backpacks. When we got to the hotel and asked to check in, they sent us across the parking lot to the sister hotel. This other hotel was absolutely terrible. The room had 2 cots and thats about it. Since we had booked through Hotwire and told we would be staying in the nice, big hotel we went to complain. They told us that Hotwire tries to do this with a lot of guests, and that we could pay 20 euros a night to upgrade and then send the receipt back to hotwire for a reimbursement. After all the hassle, we finally made it to our lovely room! It has two bathrooms, a king sized bed, a mini fridge and lots of space! The biggest room we've had so far (including the hostels that fit 10 people in them).
Today, we went on a Prague bus tour which briefly showed us all the major sites. Tomorrow we will be taking a closer look at some of the stops that interested us most!
Miss everyone at home!
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Tour of Sachsenhausen
Hello everyone!
Brendan here! Today we went on a guided tour of the
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum. In the morning, we picked
up some Subway sandwiches from around the corner of the hotel. It is very
interesting to see what different ingredients they have in each city compared
to the ones we have in Canada. After that, we walked to Berlin HBF where we
bought a 3-day Welcome Pass. This includes access to all modes of
transportation and discounts to pretty much everything in the city. After
getting lost for a little while and not knowing which train we needed to take
we finally made it to the meeting spot for the tour. With a fairly large group
and a good guide we took the train to the Concentration Camp. This particular
camp was one of the very first to be set up when Hitler came to power in 1933.
A lot of it has been demolished due to things such as rotting wood after its
abandonment after the war. There are some reconstructed barracks and the
original gates, hospital, kitchen, and most of the walls. It was very creepy to
see the operating tables where dead prisoners were operated on and the old
torture devices. There were also parts of the 4 crematoriums that they used and
the storage rooms where bodies were kept. It was very depressing and eye
opening to think about and see all the horrible things that happened right where
we walked.
On a happier note, we plan to spend the rest of our night at
a park with some snacks and enjoy the Berlin evening.
Miss you lots,
Brendan and Sam
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Our Terrible Train Ride and First Day in Berlin
Yesterday, after checking out of our hotel at 12pm we headed
down to Amsterdam Central station to catch our train that was meant to arrive
at 5:45pm. It was a long, hot wait in the station, but the train managed to
arrive and depart relatively on time. Unfortunately, around 7pm, the train came
to a stop in the middle of nowhere with the conductor claiming that there was a
problem with the electricity and that he would keep us informed. Brendan and I
were in a room with beds that we were sharing with a mother and her young
daughter. Tragically, the air conditioning in the room was not working and the
window was not to be rolled down so the tiny room reached extremely hot
temperatures (I thought Brendan may faint). After about 2 hours of being stuck,
we started moving again! To our dismay, we stopped about 10 minutes later at
the next train station. Although we were still trapped on the train, the
terminal at least had free wifi so I could order a book off amazon (Cuckoo’s
Calling) and send out some emails. We
finally got rolling again about an hour later and it was smooth sailing until
morning! The train cooled down drastically and I managed to sleep a bit
(Brendan slept like a log as always).
Once we arrived at Berlin HBF, we walked to our hotel that
is located about two blocks away from the station. Our room is pretty tiny and
has no fridge, but is still much nicer than our hostels. After a quick nap, I
went and walked around the neighbourhood for a bit, then Brendan and I walked
back to the train station where we purchased a reservation for our train to
Prague and bought some groceries (fruit and ramen noodles basically).
Tomorrow, we are planning on going on a tour of the
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and the day after that we will be
doing an ‘all-in-one city bike tour’. We are still undecided about our other
two days!
Just as a warning… wifi is not free at this hotel and we only have access to it in the hotel lobby so there may not be much communication with all those at home, but don’t fret! Miss you all lots!
Just as a warning… wifi is not free at this hotel and we only have access to it in the hotel lobby so there may not be much communication with all those at home, but don’t fret! Miss you all lots!
Sunday, 21 July 2013
Amsterdam #2
Hello dear friends and family,
Tonight marks our last night in the absolutely gorgeous city of Amsterdam. Brendan and I have adored our visit so very much. This is by far the most beautiful city I have ever laid my eyes on (besides Vancouver of course). There are canals that course throughout the city, blooming flowers of all varieties and the native Amsterdamers (yes, that’s the proper term for an Amsterdam native) are so tourist friendly. On our third day, we bought tickets to a hop on, hop off canal tour. Originally we wanted to see the Anne Frank museum, but we had a bit of later start than intended and decided the line was too long upon our arrival. With our ticket, we had access to as many rides as we wanted around the city canals on these long and flat boats. We visited two street markets that reminded me of the Richmond night markets. The canal had a pre-recorded ‘tour guide’ giving out random facts and information about the sights we were passing as we floated along in the sun. We met a lady from the States that we sailed with to the Hard Rock Café (we wanted dinner and she wanted a shot glass for her collection). It’s interesting briefly meeting new people as we voyage through different cities.
The next day, we rented bikes to cycle in to town (about 9km). We saw the Van Gogh museum (which they pronounce ‘Van Hoff’ here) and the Anne Frank house. I quite enjoy the paintings and style of Van Gogh, whereas Brendan says he prefers more realistic and life-like art. Afterwards, we cycled over to a café that offered us a free drink (beer, pop, tea or coffee) when we showed our Van Gogh ticket. I got an Earl Grey tea and Brendan got a coke (how typical of us). As we were about to depart to the Anne Frank house we FINALLY found a bookstore with more than a few books written in English. Three whole floors of pure joy in which we spent an hour searching for something new to read. I chose the Diary of Anne Frank, 1984 and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and Brendan chose two fantasy books. We then headed to Anne Frank, which was an utterly gut-wrenching, heart breaking experience. The museum is a walkthrough of the actual house she lived in while she was in hiding during the war. It was quite a different experience than all the other museums we have seen over the course of this trip. Lastly, we headed to the infamous red light district. Since it was a Saturday night, the place was packed! We walked around the streets for about an hour then decided to head home. The ride home was quite the experience because we got lost multiple times on the bikes and couldn’t seem to position ourselves in the right direction. Finally, by about 1am we made it home where we promptly fell asleep.
Today we decided we would embark on a day trip to some of Amsterdam’s surrounding villages. We first headed to Broek in Waterland which is a town that literally consisted of houses, a café, a physio, a lake and a pancake house. It was undeniably stunning though. We ate our lunch by the lake with the locals and then headed to the pancake house where we each got a pancake (they call crepes pancakes here though). Next we caught a bus to a place which we thought was Volendam, but ended up being (basically) the side of highway with a cheese/clog shop. As we were about the hop on another bus, a man in a 70’s, convertible, Volkswagen Beetle (Brendan’s description), pulls up and asks if we would like a ride in his cool car. He took us to Volendam and showed us around the market and gave us a little tour of the town. He was a very nice older man that moved to Amsterdam on his own when he was 16, met his wife at 17 and is now living with her in one of the small villages. In his broken English he told us that he likes to cruise around the villages in his newly restored car on nice sunny days when he’s not working. After walking around the village, Brendan and I bussed back to our hotel. Tomorrow, we will check out at 12 and slowly make our way to the train station. Our train for Berlin leaves at 5:41pm and arrives at around 4:30am. We have beds on this train and there are no transfers so hopefully we sleep right through it!
Hope everyone at home is safe and having fun without us (although it must be hard)!
Tonight marks our last night in the absolutely gorgeous city of Amsterdam. Brendan and I have adored our visit so very much. This is by far the most beautiful city I have ever laid my eyes on (besides Vancouver of course). There are canals that course throughout the city, blooming flowers of all varieties and the native Amsterdamers (yes, that’s the proper term for an Amsterdam native) are so tourist friendly. On our third day, we bought tickets to a hop on, hop off canal tour. Originally we wanted to see the Anne Frank museum, but we had a bit of later start than intended and decided the line was too long upon our arrival. With our ticket, we had access to as many rides as we wanted around the city canals on these long and flat boats. We visited two street markets that reminded me of the Richmond night markets. The canal had a pre-recorded ‘tour guide’ giving out random facts and information about the sights we were passing as we floated along in the sun. We met a lady from the States that we sailed with to the Hard Rock Café (we wanted dinner and she wanted a shot glass for her collection). It’s interesting briefly meeting new people as we voyage through different cities.
The next day, we rented bikes to cycle in to town (about 9km). We saw the Van Gogh museum (which they pronounce ‘Van Hoff’ here) and the Anne Frank house. I quite enjoy the paintings and style of Van Gogh, whereas Brendan says he prefers more realistic and life-like art. Afterwards, we cycled over to a café that offered us a free drink (beer, pop, tea or coffee) when we showed our Van Gogh ticket. I got an Earl Grey tea and Brendan got a coke (how typical of us). As we were about to depart to the Anne Frank house we FINALLY found a bookstore with more than a few books written in English. Three whole floors of pure joy in which we spent an hour searching for something new to read. I chose the Diary of Anne Frank, 1984 and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and Brendan chose two fantasy books. We then headed to Anne Frank, which was an utterly gut-wrenching, heart breaking experience. The museum is a walkthrough of the actual house she lived in while she was in hiding during the war. It was quite a different experience than all the other museums we have seen over the course of this trip. Lastly, we headed to the infamous red light district. Since it was a Saturday night, the place was packed! We walked around the streets for about an hour then decided to head home. The ride home was quite the experience because we got lost multiple times on the bikes and couldn’t seem to position ourselves in the right direction. Finally, by about 1am we made it home where we promptly fell asleep.
Today we decided we would embark on a day trip to some of Amsterdam’s surrounding villages. We first headed to Broek in Waterland which is a town that literally consisted of houses, a café, a physio, a lake and a pancake house. It was undeniably stunning though. We ate our lunch by the lake with the locals and then headed to the pancake house where we each got a pancake (they call crepes pancakes here though). Next we caught a bus to a place which we thought was Volendam, but ended up being (basically) the side of highway with a cheese/clog shop. As we were about the hop on another bus, a man in a 70’s, convertible, Volkswagen Beetle (Brendan’s description), pulls up and asks if we would like a ride in his cool car. He took us to Volendam and showed us around the market and gave us a little tour of the town. He was a very nice older man that moved to Amsterdam on his own when he was 16, met his wife at 17 and is now living with her in one of the small villages. In his broken English he told us that he likes to cruise around the villages in his newly restored car on nice sunny days when he’s not working. After walking around the village, Brendan and I bussed back to our hotel. Tomorrow, we will check out at 12 and slowly make our way to the train station. Our train for Berlin leaves at 5:41pm and arrives at around 4:30am. We have beds on this train and there are no transfers so hopefully we sleep right through it!
Hope everyone at home is safe and having fun without us (although it must be hard)!
Cheese and Clog store/town
Lunch in Broek in Waterland at the lake
Lake in Volendam
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