March 26th to April 11th..longest spring break Ill ever be getting, and probably the best. The plan is to go from Berlin to Prague to Vienna to Budapest. Its Spanky, Peter and me the first week and then Peter ditches us for snowboarding in the Alps (right, we're so much better what is he thinking?) and we're on our own for the second week. Adventures started at 5:39am when we caught the train to the bus station. Apparently someone got hit by the train that morning so it stopped running 4 stops later, forcing us to switch to a bus, and then another bus. We got to the station 5 minutes late and sprinted to the bus (literally). Ended up making it with some slight panic (well I learned Spanky stays incredibly calm...I on the other hand, uhm).
Berlin..actually oddly reminds me of the US out of all the places Ive seen with an underground punk/metal, remnants of WWII twist. We did a walking tour of the city which was the best tour Ive ever been on...our tourguide Max has a history degree and knew everything about everything. We saw the Berlin Wall (pic
ture on the left), Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, the Brandenburger Tor, TV tower, some of the famous streets, the East Side Gallery (probably my favorite; one of the murals is on the right) and a bunch of other stuff. We also did the Pergamonmuseum and Jewish Museum...both amazing. Did a few bars and pubcrawl too which was fun. Especially the back of the first bar, Zapatas, which had rats the size of my head running around. But it actually was really sweet (minus the rats) because we found a little art gallery outside that had different sculptures, pictures etc. We stayed at Helter Skelter Hostel one of the nights which turned out to be an old club t
hat played Guns and Roses continuously the first night..great until someone stole my bed! I was not a happy camper.For the city itself, remnants of WWII are definitely visible. Huge difference remains between the East and West. I never realized just how short twenty years is for a city to be reunited and basically rejuvenated. Apparently it has the most construction in Europe and third in the world. I think its also strange just how many memorials exist for people killed during WWII by Germany but I dont think I saw a single one to the German civilians killed by the Allied bombs. There is an immense amount of memorials to WWII too, including one in the center of the city called the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe." It consists of blocks of different heights and the ground is uneven so as you walk down into it, they tower over you. Over all, I think Berlin's history is what really makes the city, and really makes you realize what a baby the US is in comparison. At some point over the four days I decided that we should make up new names for ourselves in each city so we were trying to think of names that go well together and got Mario Luigi and Peach..but I couldn't handle introducing myself as Peach so that kind of failed. Shocker, I cant lie, who would have thought?
From Berlin we took an overnight train to Prague. And by that I mean we took a train into Dresden where we sat from 2-5am, tried to go into a building since the station was closed which turned out to be a police station and we got yelled at for sitting, so we went back outside, sat in the cold, played soccer with a bottle or cup or something, then took another train to Prague. However, it was well worth the trip. The city is absolutely beautiful (if you didnt get that from the last picture) and completely filled with tourists (possibly because we were traveling over Easter which all of Europe has off for vacation). First day was mostly a very long nap (train sleep isnt real sleep) followed by wandering and watching the Arsenal game and some pub. Just to show how huge futbol is here, we went to "the place to watch it" according to one of the guys who worked at our hostel probably an hour and a half before it started and all the tables were reserved. Ended up at a pretty good place though, met some guys studying there who told us a bunch of stuff to do.
We did another walking tour the next day, though this guy had nothing on Max- but he was really hard to beat. We saw the Atomic Clock, Old Town, New Town (separated b
y maybe 4 blocks?) Jewish Quarter, of course Charles Bridge (where we rubbed the left side of one of the statues for luck or love..cant really remember because almost everywhere we went youre supposed to rub one side of a statue for something). Did the zoo the next day, which may sound silly but first of all it appeals to the 5 year old in me, and its incredible. The zoo is huge and has every animal Ive ever wanted to see. I have a ridiculous video of little monkeys going crazy and playing some game where they pull each other down by their tails. We went out later and I dont know if it was just the place we were at or what, but 80s music, fashion and dancing. Good times though. We also did a Salvador
Dahli exhibition because Spanky loves him. It was really interesting, but I wish I knew more about his life and definitely want to read up on him because to come up with that kind of art you have to have something fascinating go on in your mind. Also went to a sex museum, which was..interesting. Ill leave it at that. Next day (I think?) we did the Prague Castle (on the left), Lennon Wall (much smaller than youd expect) and just the whole area around the Castle. Came back to it at night, which is very much worth it, especially with the view you get of the city from above. I feel like Im missing something in there, and Im sure I am so Ill add if I remember. Overall, the city is beautiful. A little overwhelming with all the people though.From Prague, Spanky and I were off to Vienna with a full itinerary. When we got to the hostel, we couldnt check in for a few hours so we left our bags there and went to wander and the Freud Museum. Well, to be honest, we first got food and coffee because there was no way I was making it anywhere without coffee. Walking through the city is kind of like walking through a very clean museum with intricately designed architecture. The Freud Museum was really interesting though and actually changed my opinion of him a bit- despite the fact I still dont agree with a chunk of his ideas, for his time he was brilliant and had groundbreaking contributions for psychology. Im asking Spanky what we did because Im having a bit of a hard time remembering. We wandered around the city a lot- it rained. We basically did all of the touristy stuff- walked around Ringstraße which has a lot of the main sights, went to Hofburg, checked out the area with all the museums, the Parli
ament. We took a tour of the Catacombs underneath Stephansplads (on the right)...sooo many bones!! We also went to the Zentralfriedhof Cemetery where Beethoven, Shubert, Strauss and others are buried, but all the gravestones are facing a memorial to Mozart even though he isn't buried there; actually, theyre just incredibly obsessed with Mozart. The cemetery itself is huge and beautiful. Some of the gravestones are like miniature buildings and probably worth as much. After Vienna we were off to Budapest. Except Budapest is only 3 hours away which didnt work well for our plan to overnight it there...so we went and watched the Arsenal game (they lost. we'll never talk about it again) in a South African bar, where I found a veggie burger!! First one Ive seen since getting to Europe, it was very exciting. After, we went back to our hostel, hung out and went off to the train station to catch our 6:30am train.Budapest. Which is pronounced Budapesht by the way (I got yelled at for this, so dont make my mistake). I fell head over heels in love with this city and already cannot wait to go back oneday. We were both kind of tired by this point, so this was more low key than the others, but we still saw an insane amount. Actually, looking back, we could have probably taken things a bit slower and relaxed a bit more- its always hard to balance seeing all the things you want to with actually getting some rest in. Realistically, we were more tired when we got back than when we left, but it was worth it if you ask me (hopefully Spanky agrees). We stayed on the Pest side, but what really got me were the hills of Buda. If you go up to the Fisherman's Bastion, past the Matthias Church, you get an amazing view of the city, only to be beaten by the view from the Citadell. The Parliament is either the biggest or the second biggest in Europe, but either way is gorgeous. We tried to go in the last day but the tour group was full so no luck. The Chain Bridge at night is absolutely breathtaking. I think Im running out of words to desc
ribe these places, but there's only so much I can explain. We went into St. Stephen's Basilica (on the left), which has the mummified arm of King St. Stephen, after whom the basilica is named. Apparently the arm was mummified without preservatives. The best part was probably the Turkish bath though (ones I got a bathingsuit from H&M..you never fail me!). It's the most relaxed Ive been in months, not to say that I was horribly stressed traveling, but it just pulls away all your worries. We also spent a few hours hanging out at Margaret's Island, basically a massive park. Spanky tried to get a tan...I mean he got an incredible tan :) Also got lots of souvenirs for the fam at the market..get excited guys.Overall, it was an incredible few weeks and made me realize how badly I want to travel everywhere and see everything. Not ambitious whatsoever right? The adventures continue..
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