Looking out the window at the world...

Friday, August 19, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 10)

While driving from Rome to Florence, the bus made an unexpected (to us) stop at Orvieto. It is this small town on a 'hill' (which is actually a volcanic tuff). It was actually pretty boring, we were tired and had drank too much vino the night before. We walked around, looking at the edges of the town but didn't want to wander too far in for fear of missing the bus home.

After Orvieto we continued on our way to Florence. We were anticipating Florence with great excitement -I think that we had both seen Under the Tuscan Sun one too many times. We would soon be disappointed. We arrived in Florence rather early in the day and were given time to settle in before heading into the city for the first time. We went on an unofficial (Ie. arranged by us, not Busabout) dinner with the staff. On the way to the dinner we passed by old buildings and other such touristy sites. It was a nice dinner, at a place that they go to often. It wasn't especially fancy or expensive but it was alright. This was our last night with Graeme since he was boarding a bus in the morning and heading onto Nice so we spent our time chatting and saying our good byes. We had a great few days with him and were sad to see him go.

Our first real day in Florence was hot. The pool wasn't open yet for the summer (even thought the temperature was pushing 40) and it was a Sunday so we had little to do in town. We eventually hopped on a bus and headed into the city to see some of the various sites. We were specifically interested in seeing David. We got lost finding the museum but were eventually successful. We waited in a massive line but were met with fanastic art and air conditioning once inside. It was fabulous. David was a lot different than I had expected although, I didn't exactly know what to expect in the first place.

After the museum we spent some time sitting on a grassy patch under some trees in this make shift park. The hustle and bustle of the city went on around us but we were momentarily spared the humid heat as we hid from the sun. A group of us had a picnic of food that we had purchsed at a local grocery store. Eventually we were on our way once more; dodging fast italian drivers and trying to find the right bus stop.

On our next (and last) day in Florence we went into town with hopes of entering the Duomo. Unfortunately, Lija's shoulders were uncovered and we were denied access. Oh well. Paul got in ahead of us and we ran to the exit but somehow missed him. Lija and I wandered around a bit and eventually found some fantastic markets which we spent much of the day shopping in. As we sat down for dinner on an outdoor patio at a fantastic Italian restaurant we were shocked to see Steph just ahead of us. We had not seen her since Vienna and she had since met up with her sister. We said our hellos and caught up on our seperate journies then sat down for our last dinner in Italy.

After dinner we wandered as the sun set over the city before heading back to camp where we packed our belongings back into our packs and awaited our return to France.

posted by Ashley at 10:47 AM [ ]
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 9)

We were all excited [even though we were tired] to get on the bus the next morning, afterall, our destination was ROME! The night before after my shower at 1:30 in the morning I had to climb (somewhat intoxicated) into my top bunk and because I'm an idiot I had left my pack at the end of the bed creating an obstacle. As I launched myself off the bed frame and over the bag apparently my right leg just wasn't interested in staying up and my bare knee scraped over the rough material of my pack. At the time I thought nothing of it (although I believe I mouthed "shit" in the darkness) and went to sleep, however, in the morning everytime I bent my knee and the material of my pants rubbed I felt pain. Not remembering the previous nights bedroom mishap (so not kinky) I ignored it until finally I decided to check things out and found that I had in fact taken a rather large area of skin off my knee (which brought back all memories from the previous night). Stupid bag (?) burn!

Anyways, the drive to Rome was as long as we had expected, and not nearly as exciting as the other segments had been. We did drive along the water for the first half of the trip however, which was pretty to see, and we had a stop in Ancona which was kind of dirty in my opinion. Ancona is the port at which you can take a ferry across to Greece, so there are always people there, but rarely do they stay more than the transition period.

When we finally arrived in Rome we were tired and the idea of hauling our packs up the huge hill that loomed in front of us was a scary one. Yet we did it and didn't die from it. Our accommodation in Rome was some of the best we had while traveling. Even though we stayed at a camp ground, everything was new and of the best quality. Our cabin was en suite (with shower) and we had our own bar fridge plus there was the most glorious air conditioning. Lija and I (along with everyone else) walked across the road to the grocery store to pick up supplies (in other words we just wanted to put something in our fridge haha) after throwing our bags in the room. We were sure to lock our door and as we walked past people on the street we grabbed our bags in close to us. As we were unloading from the bus there was a girl crying in reception, apparently she was pick-pocketed on the bus and everything... EVERYTHING was taken. This happens all the time on the Rome bus system so we knew to be extra careful.

After we had returned to our cabin and put our stuff away in the nice cold fridge, Lija and I headed to the campground restaurant for an authentic Italian dinner. It took forever for our food to come out, but it tasted fantastic and even though he had eaten, Graeme sat down to talk with us. We stayed there for a few hours talking about everything and anything then went into the bar to see the rest of the Eurocup Soccer Championship game.

The next day we had signed up to take a walking tour around Ancient Rome but first we headed into the city to check things out. It took about 20 minutes on a hot and sweaty (aka smelly) bus to get into downtown Rome and then to get to the other side of the city we took the underground. There are only two underground lines in Rome because everytime they go to dig another one they find parts of ancient Rome and have to stop.

We got off at the Spanish Steps, they were very disappointing. I mean they are just stairs and there isn't even anything interesting at the top. Lija and I were smart about it, we decided not to walk up and find nothing, instead someone else let us know when he got back down.

We walked around some of the Italian streets, really taking what we passed and noticing that instead of selling hotdogs the food carts sold pizzas, a nice difference in my opinion. It took us forever to walk around, probably because it was so stinking hot, maybe because everywhere you turned there were people and cars, but in any case we were a bit worried that by the time we found our meeting spot everyone would have left.

So we quickened our pace and made it on time gulping down bottles upon bottles of water. The great thing about Rome is that you can find free flowing water fountains with drinkable water all over the place. And the water coming out is even quite cold. So we avoided dehydration by filling up every chance we got over the next couple of days.

When we got to the meeting spot it was hard to miss the sea of people waiting. We took that as a good sign, if that many people are willing to turn out to a tour then it must be good... right? We talked with our friends while waiting for the okay to go, with the exception of 3 people, everyone on our bus had decided to do the tour so there were plenty of people for us to talk to. They split the sea of people in two, our half was probably 95% Busabout people whereas the other group had no Busabout people. Graeme was with us, so they had to do a good job in order to impress him. He is works for Busabout in Marketing and Publications, so if he didn't like the tour then he had the power to promote another company instead.

Our tour was around Ancient Rome, and since we started right outside the Colosseum it set the pace for the entire day. I could go into detail about what we saw, but to be honest, it would be easier to explain if you just look at the online photos, the layout of Ancient Rome is difficult to explain for anyone without a degree in the topic and so I won't even pretend to know what I'm talking about. I can however fill you in on my thoughts and feelings while touring this large part of history.

I was hot, and that sucked. But I think I approximately drank 6 gallons of water so I wasn't too dehydrated, however, I never even had to pee! I thought that just seeing how people used to live and how much we have evolved, not only meaning technology because their lives were very advanced in my opinion but meaning how much the earth has changed and moved leaving these buildings below our ground level was amazing. Archaeologists keep finding new parts of Ancient Rome, and each part has it's own history. I think it's cool how I walked down the same path that Ancient Royalty would have taken chariots down, and that I stood under arches dedicated to people who died in battle and who were respected in their own right.

After touring the ancient (and somewhat dilapidated) part of Rome we wandered more into the city, still with the tour to Venezia Square, where the guide made fun of the "wedding cake" building then we wandered over to the Pantheon. The outside of the Pantheon didn't appear to be very desirable, at least not to me, but the inside was amazing! We didn't have much time to stand inside the Pantheon, which was okay because there were people everywhere and it was a bit stifling. After the Pantheon we made our last stop at the Fountain of Four River, which has an interesting and funny story. Located in the Piazza Navona this fountain is made out of marble and travertine by the famous architects Bernini. The four allegorical figures represent the four great known rivers of the four known continents at the time of it's creation: the Danube, Ganges, Nile and the Rio della Plate from each of the major continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and America respectively.) The popular story is that of rivalry between Bernini and Borromini who built the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone which stands in front of the fountain. If you look at pictures you notice that one of the figures, Plate, is covering his face with his arm so he doesn't have to look at Borromini's horrible work.

After the tour Lija, Graeme and I decided to do as the Roman's do. We found a cute cafe (with a horrible disgusting Italian bathroom with no toilet seat... ICK!) and sat on the patio drinking wine and eating complimentary crackers. After that we wandered to the other side of the canal and found a cute restaurant and had dinner and a couple bottles of wine on their patio. By the time we started back to the campground we were a little bit light-headed, but then topped it off with a few more bottles when we got there. In total we had approximately 12 glasses of wine each. Lija was fading on the last couple of bottles so we drank her share probably bringing our totals to 14 glasses each. It was a great night and boy did we do as the Roman's do lol.

The next morning we were feeling surprisingly chipper. We wandered into the city with Mick while it was still early morning (okay it was around 11 when we got there) to get in line for the Vatican. The line was gigantic so we tried to join the tour group that would be jumping queue, unfortunately too many people got the same idea and there was no room for us. We got in the line, and to our surprise, it moved quickly! We got into the Vatican in about 20 minutes, give or take, and avoided purchasing anything from the many purse and sunglass vendors who line up along the route.

Once inside we had to clear numerous security checks and make our way through the hoards of tour groups. It ended up being a good thing that we could go through on our own. We were able to spend as much or as little time looking at what we were interested in.

The thing that amazed me the most I think was the art work. On every wall, ceiling, and inch of floor there was something to see. Whether it be a mosaic picture in floor tiles or a statue propped in an alcove, there was something to look at everywhere. And that was only just on the route to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel itself was incredible! I don't know if I expected it to be quite as it was. Lija and I spent nearly 30 minutes staring, trying to figure out if the drapes were real (they were painted as were the ceiling beams) and finally after being shoved around as much as we could handle, we left. I want to go back.

After leaving the Sistine Chapel we were ushered (by flowing crowd) into the gift shop where we turned down all the holy mechandise and moved outside into the court yard. We entered the basilica and apparently missed the dead body in a plexiglass case, some bishop who died hundreds of years ago and is now grey and sunken. We were oh so sad that we missed that... NOT. We followed the crowds and walked down into the crypt where they keep all the tombs of popes and bishops who have passed on. Probably the plainest of the tombs was that of Pope John Paul. Nowadays there just isn't as much talent as there used to be. Many of the Popes had tombs which were their bodies carved from marble. His just said his name. I didn't take a picture.

It smelt like fungus down there so after a quick look around we escaped to the "fresh" Roman air. We sat on some steps and watched the "changing of the [Swiss] guards," don't take the term to mean that it was some big affair as it is in London. This was just a mid-day switch and was rather unimpressive. Although the boys did look incredibly cute in their jester outfits. I bet they hate the influence of the Italian Renaissance period.

After leaving the Vatican we headed to a shop we had been to the day before while on the tour to buy some Venetian glass. We spent a lot of money and I ended up also getting some Roman glass. We ate some Gelato while sitting on the edge of the Trevi fountain, famously known as the wishing fountain, and we turned down street vendor after street vendor as they tried to sell us their merchandise (crap).

Eventually we dragged our very tired, and somewhat broke, bodies back to camp for a group dinner as we celebrated our last night in Rome. We took it easy on the wine that night, and instead just sat around talking with our new found friends as if we had known each other forever, traveling does that, makes new friends old friends very fast.

Rome may have had some magic to it, but it wasn't one of my favourite cities, probably because of the heat, the crowds and the dirt. You just shouldn't go home at the end of a normal day feeling that dirty and having black stuff under your nails!

Onto Florence in the morning, watch out Tuscany here we come!

Pictures are fully loaded at: Ashley's Travel Photos -Part 2

posted by Ashley at 3:00 PM [ ]
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Friday, July 22, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 8)

The next morning was rough for all of us who went on the pub crawl. I am a very lucky girl, I don't get hung over regardless of how much I drink, however, since I got almost zero sleep I was exhausted and dehydrated. Even if we hadn't been drinking the night before the drive from Munich to Venice was going to be a long one, and I don't think any of us were looking forward to the many hours sitting on a bus.

However, we hadn't anticipated what we would be driving through. On the way to Venice we drove through Austria again which meant we were going through the Austrian Alps. They were gorgeous. There were waterfalls coming out of tiny cracks and snow topped peaks. I spent the majority of the morning taking pictures out the window and disregarding my book. Our stop that morning was at St Johann in Triol, a very cute Austrian town surrounded by mountains and known for it's adventure sports in both the summer and winter time. They served us a BBQ Breakfast (which was great for everyone who had been drinking) of eggs, tomatoes and some sort of pork, which I didn't get. Everything was cooked on the BBQ... I didn't know you could make eggs on the BBQ!

After breakfast was over and we had unloaded/reloaded the bus we were on our way again, destination: Venice. Lija and I were excited about Italy, probably more excited than we had been for anywhere else on our trip. We kept saying, this time tomorrow we will be in Italy! As we drove through the alps we were told that we would be able to tell when we entered Italy by the mountains. Sure enough, the alps suddenly turned into the Dolomites and we were driving past acres upon acres of vineyards. They scaled the mountains covering every surface with rows upon rows of grapes. We passed castles on mountain tops and little churches centering towns. And I couldn't help but notice that every shade of green imaginable was right in front of me.

Italy had us spellbound and then we got out of the bus, boy was it hot in Italy! We didn't really know what to expect of Venice, we had been told that it smelled bad and that there was a lot of theft, but we figured it's Italy, who doesn't like Italy!

As we loaded our bags into a less than desirable cabin at the campground we had to quickly eat dinner and catch the shuttle bus into town so that we could utilize as many hours as we could before catching the last shuttle bus to the campground. Our goal was: find a gondola and sit in it.

Venice was beautiful, we happened to get there just before sun set so we were able to watch it set on the canals, however it also meant we couldn't take many pictures while on our gondola due to darkness. There were six of us sharing the boat so we hoped that the price wouldn't be too high each. We found a very nice driver... um... paddler... um... gondola man named Alex and it cost us 100 Euro (which was just over 15 each). He ended up being more of a tour guide than just a driver, showing us historical landmarks and famous buildings. He explained to us how to improve tourism the city was draining a portion of the canal once a day and letting in fresh water to clean it out. And how nobody lives in the main floor of buildings due to many instances of flooding. He pointed out the Opera House and the only church that can be seen on all four sides, he even paddled us backwards so that he could show us inside that same church.

His boat had three names, all female. And while that sounds wrong, the three women were his wife and two daughters, so really it's quite sweet. And when he turned corners he yelled funny things to warn any boats that might be ahead. I sat on the side of the boat that is closer to the water. While the bottom of the boat is flat the one side is lower to make it easier to steer and paddle. I showed us how it didn't flip no matter what, and I nearly had a heart attack thinking that I would fall into that nasty water! Everyone laughed at me as I released my girly squeal.

After we said good bye to Alex we got lost trying to find the bus, but apparently everyone gets lost in Venice so we just did what we were supposed to... right?

Upon returning to the campground it was still quite early, so we hit the bar and ended up sitting on the patio until early in the morning drinking and listening to one of our guides, Jules, play guitar.

Italy had a lot in store for us, this was only the first day of many that we would spend eating Italian food and drinking wine with friends.

Pictures so far

posted by Ashley at 4:01 PM [ ]
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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 7)

Since we needed to wake up early to catch our bus in the morning Lija and I made sure our bags were packed before going to bed. In the morning we didn't want to wake up the other 4 people in the room with excessive noise. Since that one time in Amsterdam we had never been late for catching a bus again, in fact we would show up early just in case. In Vienna this proved to be a terrible thing for us as the bus had "technical problems" and was an hour late picking us up.

Vienna was a sad city for us, we had already left behind most of our friends in Cesky Krumlov and we had to do it again. The majority of people stayed in Vienna for an extra day so they could catch the next bus to Budapest, and the rest got off to stay in Salzburg. Mick was all we had left at that point, so we were a bit bummed about arriving in Munich as a trio.

However, the drive to Munich was so breathtakingly gorgeous that we forgot about our sadness for a while. It was our first experience driving through the Austrian Alps and they were nothing to complain about.

When we arrived in Munich I had signed up to go on a Pub Crawl with Mick, but Lija still wasn't feeling well so she had decided not to come with us. So after checking in, and throwing my laundry in the machine, Lija, Mick and I headed out to see some of downtown Munich before dinner. Our main goal was to find, Frauenkirche (The Church of our Lady) which is known as the Onion Church due to it's two onion shaped domes. Another famous element of this church is the devil's foot-print.

According to the legend, the architect of the Frauenkirche promised the devil you could not see a window from the inside of the church. In return, the devil would help him build the Frauenkirche. After he completed the building, the architect led the devil to the middle of the church from where you could not see a single window, although all churchgoers would sit in an area where a lot of light came through the windows. The devil would have stamped his foot with so much rage that his footprint was visible in the stone floor.(Found here)

After looking at the church and at the city in general we walked back to the hostel since the drizzle was turning into rain. We grabbed some dinner in the hostel bar and had our free wombat's drink before getting ready to head out on our pub crawl (in the rain). We had met some new people upon checking into our room, so on the pub crawl it was Sarah and her boyfriend, Graeme, Mick and I (we well as everyone else on the tour obviously).

We had a great time visiting all of the local and historic beer gardens and halls. We went to the largest inner-city beer garden as well as a beer hall that Hitler did many of his speeches at. In fact it was in that beer hall that the first threat on his life was made, unfortunately the cleaners found the bomb. As we walked from beer hall to beer hall we had two guides, one of which pulled behind him a cooler full ofalcoholl for shots and stuff like that, and one which carried a keg backpack. We never ran dry.

I was sick and it was raining, so after the tour was done Mick and I headed back to the hostel while everyone else did the "after hours" tour (they went to an afterhours club). When we got back to the hostel there was a cop car in front which was apparently called for a fight that took/was taking place justinsidee the doors, so we waited outside eating our pizza with these guys we met from the States (who we originally thought were asses but turned out to be really nice). As we are standing thereanotherr cop car pulls up and two young guys get out looking around for their cop buddy (keep in mind I'm hammered) so I say "Your friend is inside" and they smile at me, so I giggle... they so spoke English! Anyways, they come back out and start clearing out the backseat of the car which is filled with hats and clothing so I say, "don't worry, my backseat looks like that too!" They smile again and I giggle. Then they go back in and get the kid who started the fight, he was no older than 15, sad really.

After the excitement was over, I tried to get into my bedroom but had been having problems with my key even sober and couldn't handle it drunk, so Mick helped me to my room (again) and I had a nice shower to clean/sober me up. I didn't fall but Sarah had promised if I did fall she would get me out upon returning home. When Graeme got back to the room later than everyone else he woke me up so I wouldn't be worried about him (I wasn't but it was nice to hear).

We only had the one night in Munich, so drinking seemed like a great choice, when in Rome do as the Roman's do! (That expression would soon be used literally)

(And while on the pub crawl in Munich I discovered that I can actually understand German!)

Pictures so far

posted by Ashley at 12:23 PM [ ]
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 6)

We lost the majority of our group while traveling from Prague to Vienna since the stop in between was the beautiful Cesky Krumlov (still in Czech). Cesky Krumlov is known for it's adventure sports and pure absinthe. Yes, athletics and alcohol, I can't think of any instances when those two things don't mix! During our short stop as our friends got off and new people got on Lija and I decided that if we were to ever do this again we would only stop at the small spots, they had this smaller charm, at least most of them did.

The ride was rather uneventful, we cleared the boarder from Czech Republic into Austria quickly and efficiently, there were no problems as there had been going the other direction. We rocked up in Vienna just before stores should be set to close, so we quickly threw our bags down in our rooms and went to explore the main shopping strip. I counted 4 H&M stores, yes, that would be FOUR FULL SIZED stores. I was shocked! There were multiples of other stores as well, such as New Yorker and The Body Shop, I didn't expect Vienna to be so fashion capitalistic.

After a disappointing walk through a city centered around fashion, we went back to the hostel to find people for dinner. Kate had already eaten, but Steph came with us and we got authentic schnitzel... I didn't like it one bit. Apparently Lija's pork shnitzel was good, but my chicken schnitzel was very dry, although the "gravy" that was on it was delicious.

We had intended on having an early night, we had been out late for the past twelve days and needed a good rest plus Lija was sick and I was worried about getting what she had. However, plans don't always go as planned especially when on vacation. I ended up meeting up with people in the hostel bar and we drank until the wee hours of the morning, then I was escorted back to my room by a concerned Mick.

I slept like a rock and woke up bright and early for a walk to the street markets with Kate and Steph. Even though Lija had gone to bed early the night before she wasn't awake yet when I showered and headed out that morning, so I left her a note saying I would be back to pick her up for our daily excursion. Kate was feeling about as great as I was, but Steph was bright and chipper so we headed out. We never found the markets, turns out they are closed on Sundays! However, while walking we noticed a lot of people in shorts running past us. Using my training as the daughter of an athlete I decided that it must be a marathon. I as right, it was the Vienna Marathon! I text messaged my Dad to tell him about it, he seemed excited and I missed him. We sat down and ate ice cream while watching the race, it was the best gelato I had ever had! *Yumm*

After that healthy breakfast we walked back to the hostel to pick Lija up so we could go over to the Schonbrunn summer home. The gardens there were amazing, and at the back of the palace, at the end of this long row of flowers sat the Neptunor (Neptune Fountain). It was gorgeous, it glittered as the water fell over the edge and release a small amount of cool mist which cooled us all down considerably.

Also on the palace grounds you can find the Schonbrunn Tiergarten (Zoo) which is the oldest zoo in the world! It was a great day, hanging out at the zoo, seeing all the animals and generally being kids (even though none of us were).

After the zoo we walked around the grounds some more, then headed back to the hostel so we could meet up with everyone for dinner. We wanted to try this restaurant "Centimeter" that we had heard everyone rave about. We were told that you could order a "wheel barrow". You in fact could order a wheel barrow, it was well... a wheel barrow full of food. You ask, who could eat that much? Well, the four at our table who tried to share one sure couldn't. The food wasn't that great, but it was a great experience having all fourteen of us crowd around a table staring in awe at the wheel barrow in all it's shininess.

The night was meant to be an early one, as we had to get on the bus in the morning and depart for Munich, so I had a couple of drinks in the hostel bar with some friends before coming to bed. While down there however, we met this girl from Korea who was traveling all alone. She was nice but quiet and I couldn't hear most of what she said.

Overall I wasn't that impressed by Vienna, I don't think that I would go back, but I am glad that I could experience some of Austria while traveling.

Pictures so far

posted by Ashley at 12:12 PM [ ]
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Monday, July 18, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 5)

I don't really think anybody knew what to expect in Prague. We had heard so many stories about Czech Republic and the boarder security alone made us wary. When we got to the Czech boarder our guide told us to take out our passports and if the guards came online not to make eye contact, any noise or smile, just hand over our passports to them. When they came on board our bus was definitely silent, it was kind of scary actually even though the guards didn't seem all that bad. They took our passports into their little booth, we didn't think there would be any problems because we were all Canadians and Australians (we don't need visas). We waited forever for them to bring back our passports. When they finally did we had waited an hour and almost everyone had to go to the bathroom (aka more waiting). They stamped our passports, which was cool I guess but not worth the wait.

Almost as soon as we entered Czech Republic we went to the small fortress at Terezin. Originally built in the late 18th century, Terezin's Small fortress served as a prison for military and political prisoners of the Hapsburg monarchy in the early 1800s. However, when Czech lands were occupied by Nazi Germany the small fortress was used as a police prison to the Prague Gestapo (in 1940). In all, about 32,000 prisoners passed through the Small Fortress during WWII, of whom 2,500 perished due to hunger, disease, the brutality of the guards, and executions. The conditions were unbelievable there. To see where these people were forced to live made you step back. There were big rooms with a row of wooden beds where people would sleep. There were also these tiny rooms with no windows or lights. They would cram those rooms so full that people would literally have to be on top of one another and wait until they died. It was a disgusting display of inhumanity. The entire fortress was full of reminders that they just didn't give a shit about these people. They had a bunch of big bathroom areas "for the people to clean in" but they were unused and only installed in case people came through to see how the conditions were.

The weather was cold as we walked around Terezin. It seemed fitting, the sun was missing as it would have been in the lives of those who were forced into living here. There is this one gate, number 21, which you never come back through alive. It leads to the execution area. They believe that around 250 to 300 of those at Terezin were executed in this spot. The guard would stand on the "cross" made of concrete and then shoot at the individual standing against the wall. It was brutal attack on life.

Terezin was a slap in the face. It wasn't like anything I had seen before. (If you would like to know more or see more pictures than I have posted please visit this excellent website on Terezin: Small Fortress)

I was downright exhausted as we pulled into Prague. It was cold and gloomy outside and so was I.

Our hotel was on the outskirts of town but there was a bus stop right outside that took us to the metro which would then take us into the city. It was to take about 25 minutes to get to the city, which to me was fine.

We had already signed up to take a walking tour followed by authentic dinner that night, and since our bus got in pretty late there was only enough time to run upstairs and put on some warmer layers before running back downstairs. The hotel wasn't one of the greatest places but it seemed pretty clean and had beds and a shower so I was happy. Lija and I had the room to ourselves although there were two empty beds so we figured we wouldn't be alone for long.

As we made our way into the city with our trusty guide we began to discover the charm of Prague. The public transit was nothing to boast about, it was as all public transit seems to be, dirty and crowded. However, the city was gorgeous. The roads were cobblestone and the buildings are of Romanesque and Renaissance styles. A lot of history was preserved since the city avoided heavy war damage so Prague has become an architect's dream come true.

We toured the city seeing the more important historic sites on our half sized tour, we walked down the Charles Bridge which is lined with 30 sculptures and rests on 16 arches. We came upon the statue of St. John Nepomuk who they believe was thrown over the bridge for refusing to betray the Queen's confessions to King Wenceslaus IV. On his statue you see these shiny spots where people touch the statue believing it will bring them good luck. I touched the statue, and think things are going pretty well so far.

After he told us about the major damage that has happened in Prague from a terrible flood in 2002. To us the worse damage occurred at the zoo, where many animals died. They had to shoot Kadir, a 35 year old Indian elephant who refused to leave his pen as water levels rose. Pong a six year old gorilla went missing even though the other four gorillas successfully reached higher ground before their house was submerged. Also missing were four hippos and while one of the two sealions were captured five miles away the other died on it's way home.

After hearing that grim news we continued back to the other side of the bridge where we were shown the five story club where you are supposed to start at the top with your first shot of Absinthe and make it to the bottom taking a shot per floor as you go.

Dinner was nice, it was steak, which I suppose could be authentic Czech food, but then again it could be authentic Canadian food too. We drank beers, yes that's right we had meat and beer, we were men. Well actually half of 'us' were men... but that isn't the point.

Our hostel was attached to a five star luxury hotel and spa which had a bar and casino in it that we were allowed to use, so after the restaurant we went back there. I didn't stay long, the smell of cigarette smoke was getting to me and my head hurt. Back at the room I struggled with the lock, finally getting it open I realized the reason it had been so difficult was that the new people had left it unlocked for us and I had locked it before unlocking it again. When I opened the door and saw that there were two new bodies in the empty beds I was a little taken back, mostly because one of them looked at me and seemed to be a guy, which was confusing about an all girls dorm room. He was a guy, Sean turned out to be a great guy as was his girlfriend Stacy. We became great friends actually over the course of the trip however they were already getting ready for bed since they had been traveling all day from Munich so we didn't get to talk very much.

The next morning we experienced our buffet breakfast for the first time. It was incredible. They had some of the "normal" breakfast things such as cereal and eggs, some bread (but no toaster, never a toaster!) and orange juice and coffee/tea. However, they also had a large selection of desserts. Yes, desserts. Strange. Apparently Czech people will usually have a coffee for breakfast then a sweet snack at 10:00 am.

We spent our day walking around the city, first stop: Praha Castle. The castle was at the top of this big hill, which wasn't too bad because the climb was gradual and the view was magnificent. As you walk into the grounds and down this roadway it opens up into a larger area where St. Vitus Cathedral stands in all it's glory. I think St. Vitus is one of those places that you need to see to understand it's beauty, since due to sheer size you cannot capture it's beauty on a camera. There were sculptures, intricate designs, gold finishing and that was just the outside. Inside there were panel upon panel of stained glass window, there was an amazing organ and rows of wooden pews.

After leaving the church we continued walking around the grounds finding ourselves in the middle square. As we stood in front of this huge bird cage like structure a bunch of unmarked black cars pulled into the square flanking a limousine. Out of those cars steps multiple body guards (the Czech Special Forces?) and from the limo steps the President of Czech Republic and the First Lady. Cool.

Since to get to the castle we had to walk up a hill it was only fitting that we had to walk back down said hill to return to the city, however, one of the people I was traveling with thought it would be a brilliant idea to walk halfway down that hill and up a hill at least twice it's size in order to get a great aerial view from the Petrin Tower. Yes, I admit that the view was amazing, but lugging my out of shape already exhausted body up that hill was a killer and a half! The part that fails to be mentioned when you are at the bottom of the hill is that once you're up there, you still have to climb the tower, all 299 steps. The actual climb wasn't the hard part, going up was rather easy, although somewhat tiring after all that other climbing. The hard part was coming back down the spiraling stair case, around and around and around you went. Very dizzy experience! However, I will admit that the view was very nice especially since the sky was so crystal clear.

There wasn't much else to see while up there, but they did have a funnicular to take you back down so we didn't have to risk tripping and tumbling down the hill.

We did some more walking (you would think with all the walking that we would be losing weight, but alas, we ate too much and gained some!) exploring the city on both sides of the Vltava River and ducked into some stores to look at Bohemian crystal and yellow sapphire (the kind with bugs in it, ick). As we were walking down a charming street (as all streets in Prague seemed to be) we see this pickup truck with people standing in the back of it, being Canadian and from the suburbs the first thing I thought was "How Dangerous!". However, on second take it appeared as though they too were taking a "take" and pulling a car in which seemed to sit P. Diddy. Yes, those people standing in the pickup truck were in fact filming him in a movie. I didn't want to say "Cool, P. Diddy" in case I was wrong, and it seemed that all my fellow travelers felt the same way. Miranda finally said, "was that who I thought it was" to which we all exclaimed, "P DIDDY!?". So that was pretty cool.

As we walked around the city we made sure to stop by some key tourists spots in the Old Town Square, which is where you can find the Astronomical clock. For those of you who aren't familiar with the history of the Astronomical clock let me fill you in, it has had a spot in Old Town Square for over 6 centuries and it even still works (now that's craftmanship)! The clock shows three individual sets of data. It shows the revolutions of the Sun, the revolutions of the moon, and the revolutions of the stars. The clock is divided into red and blue halves representing day and night. It's quite an amazing thing to see, considering the relatively low technology they had in those times. On the hour (until I believe 9pm) tourists line up below the clock in order to see the famous Procession of Apostles as they one by one pass by the small doors at the top of the clock. It is said that gouged out the creator's eyes so that he could never create something so beautiful ever again. Also in Old Town Square you can find the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn (also known as the Tyn church) and Old Town Hall. The Tyn church is built in baroque Gothic style and if you look close enough at it you can see that the spires are actually asymmetrical representing the masculine and feminine sides of the world, a common element in Gothic architecture.

We had already made plans to meet at this restaurant for dinner with everyone (14 of us give or take). A couple of our friends had been to Prague previously and recommended this steak house, saying they had the best food in Prague. I don't eat red meat on a regular basis, but decided that if it's the best steak I could do it a second day in a row. After a delicious (and affordable) meal, I can safely recommend the Titanic Steakhouse (sorry it is in Czech but you can convert it if you really want.)

With our dinner we had a few beers then stumbled back to our hostel during the late hours of night (on our way to the underground we walked past some very obvious prostitutes).

The next morning we decided that since we had already seen the majority of the city the day before that we would take the train into Kutna Hora to visit the Bone Church (Sedlec Ossuary ). The best description you could get is by visiting that website and while on the English setting selecting "Ossuary". Also, you can visit many other websites giving fantastic history's of this fascinating church by Googling "Bone Church".
The Bone Church creeped me out. It is a room full of bones. Yes, human skeletal bones. I thought the whole concept was dark and morbid, just being in the room gave me the shivers. And while everyone else reached out to touch the bones, I kept my hands firmly at my sides, there was not a chance in you know where that I would be touching one of THOSE bones!

After leaving the church there wasn't anything else to see in Kutna Hora, but our train didn't come for a couple more hours so we walked into town, found ourselves a bar and had some beers with the locals. The bar was dirty, as were the locals, but the weather was fantastic and the bar had an outdoor patio, so we were happy. The train ride to Kutna Hora had been an experience in itself, we had to stand the whole way because there wasn't enough room for any of us to sit down and since we were up against the windows, every time a train would come towards us someone would yell "lean back!" so we didn't get our heads taken off. The ride home was a bit better, there was more room in the aisle for us to stand however, there was a girl in one of the carriages with a rat on her shoulder... yes, a rat.

Once back in Prague, we were early for our dinner plans (once more at Titanic Steakhouse) so some of our group (14 again) went shopping and the rest of us went to a bar. After our dinner the owner brought us free shots of Schnapps... pure 70% Schnapps, we think he was trying to kill us. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever had in my life, I thought that I would be throwing up blood due to my stomach lining rotting away. It was a generous thought however, so we said thank you while leaving pretty sure that they were all snickering in the back at the stupid tourists that drank that shit.

Prague was a gorgeous place, it took top spot as number one on my list. I would recommend Prague to anyone.

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posted by Ashley at 12:38 PM [ ]
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Thursday, July 14, 2005

Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 4)

Suddenly I felt Lija sit straight up in bed, I could feel the urgency in her movement.

"What time is it?!" she asked me with panic in her voice.

"I don't know!" I rolled over to go back to sleep.

"I think we slept through the alarm"

I looked at my watch, "SHIT... shit... shit... it's 7:43!" We had to be at the bus by 7:45 and it was to leave at 8:00. We both jump out of bed and mindlessly throw on our clothing, stuffing out pjs in our thankfully packed packs. "Shit.. shit.. shit!"

We ran out the door by 7:48 and started our penguin run to the meeting spot, "shit... shit... shit!" As we waddled closer we could see a herd of people in front of the hostel still waiting. I slowed down and tried to catch my breath, when Lija caught up I raised a shaky hand to point and say, "they *gasp* are still *gasp* there!" We slowly walked towards the bus our hearts racing. We quickly explained to everyone our disheveled appearance while we waited for the bus. Five minutes later the bus still hadn't showed up, but the busabout guide came out to tell us that there was a little delay and it was on it's way. Fine. Fifteen minutes after that still no bus and I'm thinking "So.. I could have showered!??" Finally, twenty five minutes late we get ushered into the bus, the explanation for the delay? None.

Lija and I never really woke up that morning, I didn't have a shower, which I had badly needed, and we were in such a rush we didn't get a chance to relax before hoping on the bus. The drive to Berlin was long yet uneventful. We didn't have any pickup/drop offs and there was nothing really along the way planned except truck stops, so it was rather boring and I got a lot of reading done. We got into Berlin about 30 minutes late and had to go through this big check in talk at the hostel. They told us that the next day (we arrived on a Sunday) was a bank holiday, so upon paying (the full amount in cash since the promised credit card machine wasn't set up yet) I asked if there would be somewhere I could exchange travellers cheques the next day. They assured me that there would be somewhere, and if I had any problems finding somewhere they would point me in the right direction. I smiled, thanked them and paid my whole amount then ran upstairs to our room so I could quickly jump in the shower.

The hostel was fantastic, brand new and clean! It had only been open for a month and a half when we got there and besides being up to date it was also spacious which allowed some privacy regardless of the dorm room conditions. I wanted more than anything a shower, nice hot water warming me up, cleaning me up, and waking me up. I ran down to the shower, jumped in and was surprised to see no divider between where my clothes went and where the water would hit. Oh well, I wasn't putting those clothes back on anyways. That was just the first issue with the shower, not that there were many, but it was hardly a relaxing experience. The showers had a timer on them so the water would only come out for 30 seconds before you had to push the knob in again. This meant that it took two pushes to get my hair wet and about 15 to get the soap out. It was incredibly annoying and the last thing I needed that night. Nonetheless I was in a rush, we had to meet downstairs for our pub crawl very shortly and I didn't want to be late for any free drinks they might have been handing out before hand.

When we got to the magic meeting spot there were two guys holding bottles of alcohol pouring them into plastic cups and handing them out. We of course grabbed one and drank it down, I discovered that I don't like prune schnapps. Our pub crawl entailed a lot of drinking, as you would expect at a pub crawl I suppose. We drank for about 15 minutes on the street waiting for everyone to show up before heading to our first bar, considering it was a Sunday night I was wondering where all they would take us and how busy these places would be.

The first place was rather small, we filled the bar so luckily there weren't many customers already in there. I didn't much like that place, the atmosphere was very rich and we were just looking to have a good time without the snootiness that richness brings. At each bar we went to we were given a shot, so I didn't purchase anything right off the bat, I was on a rather tight budget and planned on drinking as much between bars as I could so that I wouldn't have to spend a lot of money. It was at the first bar that our guides made us play an introductory game with one another, I hate those games because they usually involve memory (and at this point I had already had 3 drinks) but this one was just a silly game in which you said your name, where you were from and which celebrity you would like to sleep with. I picked Chad Michael Murray.

We had two Canadian girls with us (Miranda and Celeste), we had met them on the bus and then they happened to be in the same room as us at the hostel, so I was instantly drawn to them, at this point we had been travelling for a week and I had yet to meet anyone that wasn't Australian.

At the second bar, which was just two doors down from the first, the atmosphere was a lot friendlier. We felt as though we could be loud and have fun, there was youthful music playing and beers being served. I bought a beer and accompanying it was another free shot. Generally I go with the "Beer before liqueur never been sicker, liqueur before beer and you're in the clear" saying but this night I just didn't care. Lija mixed her shot with her drink, it was pineapple with vodka I believe so it was just a lot more vodka than anticipated.

I should probably just sum the night up, it involved a lot of drinking and included Lija and I taking a picture of ourselves in the most disgusting bathroom at one of the bars. At the end of the night I remember walking to Mick's hotel where three of us got our pictures taken, but I don't remember walking from his hotel to our hostel through any of the many secure doors with swipe card access, nor do I remember changing into my pajamas but I do remember changing the batteries in my MP3 player.

I woke up the next morning in my sleep sheet on the mattress because I hadn't made my bed the night before, and my hair a mess because not only did I sleep intoxicated but it had rained while we were out bar hopping. Despite the late night, we woke up rather early, it wasn't as early as we had been getting up previously, but it was still pretty good considering how we were feeling. Lija hadn't drank very much the night before, so she was up at the crack of a god-forsaken hour doing her laundry. When I woke up I was planning on doing the same, but the way it worked at the hostel was you paid them and they did it for you, wash and dry. Fantastic! Well, no. I didn't want a large majority of my clothing to go in the dryer, and since I couldn't stipulate which clothes were and were not to go in I decided against using their service.

We had decided the day before to do a walking tour through Berlin which took place in the afternoon, so while everyone else in our room was still asleep, Steph, Lija and I took off into the city to visit Checkpoint Charlie. On our way we searched for a cash converters, we found about six, none of them were open, they lied to me, I had exactly 26.15 euros in my wallet and a full day to go, Lija said she would lend me money but I was determined to somehow make it work.

The walk to Checkpoint Charlie was kind of long (for anyone familiar with Berlin our hostel was right by the TV Tower) but very nice, the weather was perfect, not too hot yet not cold with a nice breeze. We stopped to get some breakfast first off, I got a .99 euro cent croissant and about an hour later when I was dizzy from dehydration an iced tea. Everyone else had these delicious looking baked goods with cappuccino and orange juice, but I was happy with my cheap selection. Checkpoint Charlie is said to make people step back and say "Wow" and while I did find it very interesting it also had a very museum-ey feel so you didn't quite get the suffering that these people were going through. For anyone who isn't aware, Checkpoint Charlie was one of three gates in the Berlin wall (which was erected in 1961 to separate East and West Germany) named with the NATO phonetic alphabet. Checkpoint Alpha was situated at Helmstedt which is the autoban checkpoint passing from West Germany to East Germany. Checkpoint Bravo was at Dreilinden where the motor vehicles left East Germany and entered West Germany. And Checkpoint Charlie which for residents meant separation but also for Easterners freedom. It was through Checkpoint Charlie that many tried to escape, some were successful but many not. Inside the museum they show different ways that people tried to escape, inside guitar amps, under trunk covers, everything really.

On either side of the street just outside the entrance to Checkpoint Charlie is an art installment of crosses. There are rows upon rows of these crosses all reaching over 6 feet tall and adorned to them a little sign with a name and how that person passed away while trying to escape. I found that with things marking situations like this you need to almost block out emotions or else they will overwhelm you.

After Checkpoint Charlie we walked back to the hostel, Lija and Steph got lunch but my budget just didn't allow for it. The walk covered pretty much everything there was to see in Berlin, it was 4 and a 1/2 hours long so we hiked a good distance. Half way through I had to get some food because I was a little dizzy and still had a lot more walking to go. We passed all the historic landmarks, the buildings, and monuments that make Berlin's history. We were told that all the black we could see on the buildings was caused not from pollution, but from nearby explosions during the war. A very disappointing thing about Berlin is that while authentic looking, many of the buildings had to be recreated after being blown up.

We walked past the Berlin wall, there is so little of it left yet it had such an impact on the lives of thousands of people. I don't know if there is anything you can say about the Berlin wall besides historical facts, which you can find online easily. The main emotion you feel when looking at the wall is anger. Anger that this could have happened and that people let it happen. Anger that so many people died trying to escape, anger that it is even part of their history. Now the wall is just this small piece of concrete covered in spray paint and exposed metal.

On the walk we went by where Hitler killed himself. He had a lair underground which he lived in and it is where him and his wife died. The spot is now a parking lot, they try not to advertise it because they don't want scary people coming and doing bad things. We went past another tribute this one for those who were killed in and those who survived the Holocaust. Past the Brandenburg gate and to the Parliament building.

It was already dinner time by the time we finished the tour, so after getting back to the hostel we went to a restaurant in the "square" near by. We went to this large restaurant that doubled in size by it's outdoor patio, it was full so we were lucky to get a table for all 13 of us.

We realized that with such a large crowd expecting fast service was asking too much, however we did expect some service. After being seated (we asked if they would rather us split into smaller tables but they said no) we waited about 20 minutes before our drinks orders were taken, which was still fine, we saw that it was busy and understood the delay. When we had eventually ordered our food we figured it would take longer than normal but not too long. We waited 50 minutes for the fist batch of food to come out, but the other 6 never came. Never. After everyone had finished and it was 2 hours since we had been there we finally got a manager out since the waitress didn't seem to understand the problem (again, the language barrier was something that we expected). The manager told us, too bad that they still had to pay for their drinks but the food had never been imputed into the system. If they wanted to wait another 40 minutes for meals to be re-ordered they could, but there wouldn't be any sort of discount nor apology. We were absolutely floored by the lack of service. Those who had not eaten (Lija was included in this group) decided that they would rather leave and got food at a local Thai restaurant. This was our first meal in Germany, and we were very disappointed.

Those of us who had eaten went back to the hostel bar to hang out, we played some Euchre (my team won.. I think..) But mostly chatted.

The next day the first thing I did was exchange money, I had somehow managed to live off my 26.15 Euros for the Monday but needed more for the Tuesday. Also, we had to exchange money into Czech as the next day we left for Prague.

We had decided to go to the outskirts of town to Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) which was supposed to be incredible. It was just a big house and to be honest, it wasn't that great. We were really disappointed, especially since you weren't even allowed to enter without a paid guide and the gardens were closed because of rain. We didn't stick around long because of the above.

It took about 35 minutes to get to the palace via public transportation and our tickets were only good for 90 minutes so we really had to hurry to get back without having to purchase anything else (which we didn't want to do). My feet were absolutely killing me, I realized while walking around that they had zero insole left and no support, they were so painful that it felt as though my feet were bleeding. Nonetheless we still walked a ways from the train station to the Jewish Museum. It was very big, and because of my pain I am sure I wasn't attentive enough. One of the girls ended up spending like 4 hours there, we spent around 1.5. They had pictures on the walls with stories under them about the people, how they lived and often how they died. It was very sad to read some of the stories, especially those about children.

On the way to the museum we had stopped and gotten some food as well as picked up some shopping items, which for myself was a new pair of insoles. The second I got back to the hostel, and I mean the second, I cut them to fit my shoes... *ahh heaven*. Okay so my feet were still sore from everything else I had been doing but it was a large improvement.

We decided to avoid going to a restaurant for dinner that night, it had gone so poorly the night before that Lija and I just went to the Thai place she had been to already and got some dinner. After, we did as we usually did, and went back to the hostel for some drinks in their bar.

Berlin was by far one of my favourite cities, while there it was my favourite but that was only the start of the trip, things would change but Berlin would always be special to me. Berlin is so clean, while it is a big city you would almost be able to eat off the sidewalk. The streets are wide, so you don't feel cluttered and there are trees everywhere. It is definitely a place I would recommend for someone to visit. Once you get over the shortness that many German people have you can live to love it, they are very abrupt but very intelligent.

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posted by Ashley at 12:31 PM [ ]
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Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 3)

We didn't have time to get breakfast before catching our bus in the morning, so every time we drove past a fruit stand or bakery, our mouths were watering. Lija and I had run for our bus, we weren't late but we didn't want to miss it, this was our first day after all. The bus wasn't there when we got there, but there was a huge crowd of people with packs on so we figured we were in the right spot. This girl in a busabout shirt told us that the bus would be picking us up down a bit further so we waddled down to where she pointed to wait. When the bus pulled up it was rather unimpressive, big and white but nothing like they had raved it would be, they advertise that you can see their buses from miles away. When we were on board, Jules explained that we were on an old bus and that the new bus would meet us in Berlin but wasn't ready yet.

Jules was nice. It was his first time doing a trip on the bus and he had the bluest eyes. With Busabout it isn't a tour company but there are on board tour guides, they tell you a bit of information as you pull into a city but the main purpose of the bus is to be a transportation network, like Eurail. The drop-off/pick-up between Paris and Amsterdam is Brugge, Belgium, we got off for about 45 minutes and fell in love. It's the most adorable little medieval town with cobblestone streets and big churches. It was an incredible place to see, and would have been a great place to spend some time. People talked about going out to WW1 battlefields and the amazing effect it had on them, just seeing how many people had died in such a small confined area and being shocked at how many of those were Australians (most of them were Aussies on the trip) and Canadians. On our way back to the bus we stopped in a little chocolate shop and got the most delicious truffles... they. made. me. drool!

The drive to Amsterdam was rather uneventful. We watched a movie, and had a bunch of rest stops, upon entering Holland we saw a bunch of windmills in the distance and a ton of cows, but it was just a drive. We didn't know anyone on the bus yet so we didn't have anyone to laugh with, we just chatted with each other and I wrote in my journal. Jules had informed us that the area our accommodation was in was a bit "sketchy" (it was located in the heart of the red light district) so we checked into a recommended hostel with everyone else and went on a mission to find an authentic coffeehouse. I don't think we looked for five minutes before we saw 15, but we picked one (just because it was there) and walked down the rickety staircase to the basement lair. You could see the smoke sitting heaving along the ceiling, and the guy behind the bar was openly smoking a joint. The boys bought a big bag and sat down to roll, I had my first authentic Dutch beer (Heineken!) and we sat back to relax. The atmosphere down there was strange, I don't know that I would want to go in alone, yet it didn't feel dangerous. It was dark because it was underground and the happenings were of the darkened room nature. You could buy all sorts of grown drugs from the bar, but they don't sell anything that isn't natural, that stuff isn't legal (although very easy to get from one of the many pushy drug dealers you walk past on the streets).

After we left the coffeehouse we had to find somewhere to sleep on our last night in Amsterdam. The place we were checked into only had room for us the first two nights, then they were kicking us out on our butts and I was not about to sleep on an Amsterdam street corner. We went everywhere, and I mean everywhere in that area to find somewhere to stay and every. single. place. told us that we couldn't book for one night on weekends they only accepted two or more nights. We were cursing our current accommodation because they would have known that we wouldn't be able to get somewhere but didn't recommend that we only book one night with them so that we could get in elsewhere for the other two. We finally found one place willing to give us a bed, we had to pay way more than we had wanted, but it was clean (hopefully) and available (thankfully). It happened to be at a gay hotel, which didn't bother us, but when we made our booking they awkwardly informed us expecting, I believe, that we would back out and run scared down the street. We didn't care, although we were a bit offended that we couldn't pass as a lesbian couple... I mean I know we aren't, but why couldn't we be! Apparently gaydar is better than we expected.

The actual search for somewhere to stay took literal hours, about 3.5 maybe 4 hours. By the time we were done it was almost dark and we were hungry. With limited options of things that could get us food fast we chose Burger King, a huge mistake. It was our first fast food on the trip thus far and it tasted terrible. We ate about half each and even that was too much. The cool thing about the Burger King in Amsterdam however was that the garbage cans had a spot where you pour out your drink before throwing the cup away, it was really cool, and a pretty good idea if you think about it. Another cool thing in Amsterdam were their garbage/cigarette butt can cleaners. The big truck would drive down the street and one guy would be walking beside it leading this huge Snuffleupagus hose which he would proceed to put into each can and suck out the trash/cigarette butts! It was really cool and kept the garbage stink to a minimum... the canals still smell... but the cans were good :)

After dinner we walked around a little bit, but being two girls in a strange city at night was slightly frightening. The thing about Amsterdam, as most people know and as I have already somewhat mentioned, is that smoking grown substances is completely normal regardless of where you are, as is prostitution. When tourists come to Amsterdam they get high, drunk and cat call women, it's quite demeaning, you don't even have to be in the red light district for it to happen. It is a scary place to walk around at night, besides the cat calling there are also the locals standing on street corners selling illegal drugs and they have no problem coming up to you telling you what they are doing. It'd intimidating. So because we were chicken... and it was quite late, around 11:00, we headed back to the hostel bar and met up with some people there for a couple of drinks.

The next morning, after "sleeping" through a night of people screaming in the halls and outside the bedroom window, we made plans to go on the infamous Mike's Bike Tour. But that didn't start until later in the day and it was only just morning so we walked over to the "museum area" where you can find the Rijksmuseum (pronounced Rykes-museum) and the Van Gogh Museum, while the Rijks is architecturally an amazing building and is world renowned for it's exhibits, it's currently under construction and a lot of it is closed right now, so leaning more towards my interests we went to the Van Gogh museum.

It was this modern building with a rather open concept and a staircase right up the middle. Only two and a half floors were of Van Gogh, the rest were of people who influenced him, which was alright, but I had wanted to specifically see him! I saw some of my favourite Van Gogh paintings which was great, but some of the ones I was interested in were not there. We only had about two hours in the museum, which ended up being more than enough time since we really only intently stared at two and a half floors, and spent about 20 minutes in the gift store picking postcards. I got this set of four which I plan on framing and putting in a series in my bedroom next year. They aren't one of the official series but I liked the way they looked together, kind of haphazard yet flowing. I also got a postcard of his sunflower painting, which happens to be one of my favourite so that made me happy, I'll probably put that up somewhere too.

After the museum we had some time to wait around. As I was sitting on a bench waiting for Lija to get her ice cream this homeless man came up to me asking if I had any cigarettes, I didn't, but felt sad that even though he had no money for food he was still addicted to nicotine. The square between the two museums is amazing with trees and a big long man made fountain/pond. It's very clean looking and quite still, with a big edge to sit on. I was watching everyone around me, for a while there were these kids playing on the other side of the water, jumping up and down on a music maker and laughing. It doesn't matter where you go in the world, kids are the same.

Our bike tour took us through the city part of Amsterdam and into the country. We started by biking to Dam square which is physically and geographically the centre of Amsterdam. In the middle of the square is a big monument erected to honour Dutch soldiers who died in WW2, also in Dam Square you can find the Koninklijk Palace (Royal Palace) and Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). From there we made our way into the start of the red light district where the Old Church stands and has stood for many years. We continued along the canals stopping on bridges and street corners to learn about the city. The reason the canals are so dirty isn't pollution like you might think, no, it's from faeces, yes shit. All of the canals are filled with houseboats and before modern technology these unplumbed houseboats would flush their toilets right into the canal. Today, they still flush their toilets into the canal, but first everything is held in a tank which uses chemicals to clean it before emptying into the water. Regardless, I wouldn't be swimming in any of those canals.

We also learnt that the reason houses lean forward is because they are so narrow that in order to move furniture into them they were built with a big long rod a pulley sticking out of the roof, you attach your furniture to that and pull it up the front of the house into a window which is designed to pop out. The houses are titled forward so that if a couch or sofa or grand piano were to sway while lifting there would be less of a chance that it would hit the exterior of the building. Now the houses that are titled sideways are bad. That is because Amsterdam was built on stilts and some of the wood is rotting, so the houses are slowly leaning whichever way is worse. Eventually when a house gets too bad the government decides to evacuate and tears it down building a new one on metal stilts.

As we made our way into the country looming ahead of us was a big windmill. Yeah that's right, they really do have windmills in Holland and they are 100% functional! The people who live in them are paid by the government to keep them authentic looking and working, which is a nice little deal, except that you have tourists in front of your "house" all the time taking dorky pictures. At the end of the tour (which was really the middle because you still had to go back to the start) we reached a farm that specialized in cheese and clog making.. yes that's right, CLOG! We got to learn how they made both and at the end they had free samples (of the cheese not clogs). I bought some cheese for my Mom (goat) and some for myself (normal) and we were on our merry way, into the wind back to the start. It was painful and it took forever and we wanted to curl up and die! At the end of the tour it was already arranged that we go to this bar and have some drinks, I had one, but to be honest, was just ready for bed! But sleep was not the point of this trip, so after we had returned our bikes we went to get tickets for Boom! Chicago comedy show the next night and some dinner. They told us that the show was cheaper tonight, so we bought tickets for then deciding that we would just have to find something else to do our last night in Amsterdam. We grabbed some delicious Italian food for dinner, (I love Italian food!) and then walked around the red light district since the comedy show was late.

The red light district was absolutely appalling. There were all of these women in windows prostituting themselves, which was fine, if that's how you want to make money then it works, what was disgusting was the way the men outside the windows carried on. Yelling rude comments, not only to the window women, but also to any woman who happened to be on the street. Grabbing the butts of random people passing by and just demoralizing women in such a disgusting way. I wanted to leave about five minutes after we got there, but nobody else wanted to and I sure as hell wasn't making my way out of that place alone. As we walked by this open door a big burly man stepped to the side of us, "See the biggest dicks of your life" he promoted. I couldn't believe a place like this existed and was completely legal!

The comedy show was good after everything, they were a bunch of American's so at least it was in English, but it was improv and some of the audience's suggestions were less than stellar. Overall though I enjoyed the show so it was a good way to spend the night.

On our last day in Amsterdam we had already seen a lot of the city that we would normally walk around in while on bike so it was just a matter of seeing the remaining museums on our figurative list. We had heard from many people before us that the Anne Frank House gets a really long line up, so we went nice and early to avoid the rush. Even though we were there before the doors had opened the line was still wrapped around the corner but only took about 20 minutes once able to go inside. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there so explaining what I saw is going to be very difficult. Check out this website, it has a graphic reconstruction of the house. The rooms were just so small, you could barely turn in them and they didn't even have furniture, I can't imagine what it would be like with furniture and people. I suppose it would be better than a concentration camp, but just knowing that people had to live there as a better alternative was heart wrenching. I couldn't imagine being a young girl growing up like that.

I think we were all effected by what we had seen, after we left we just kind of wandered around for a bit thinking, not saying much. Lija and I decided to get some lunch after a while and the guy who was with us went back to the hostel. The afternoon held for us big plans, at least for me it did. We made our way towards the greatness that is the Heineken Brewery for our tour. Yes, we toured a brewery :) With the tour you get three drinks (if you don't drink alcohol then you can get orange soda but otherwise it's beer) and at the end a free gift, which is this really nice tin holding a Heineken beer glass. It was an awesome tour, very interactive and informative. It was interesting to learn that Heineken, in all it's splendour has only been operated by three people, all in the same family, of course.

After the tour we went back to our hotel, I was feeling great (but three beers in an hour will do that) but we didn't want to carry around our glasses all night. For our last night in Amsterdam Lija wanted some traditional food, we couldn't find any, so we had Italian again (yay!). It wasn't as good as the first place, but still very yummy. We didn't have anything to do for the night so we kind of wandered around hoping to bump into someone we knew, luckily we did and went to a bar with them on the other side of town. While sitting down in the bar, which was also a hostel upabove, this girl runs downstairs screaming to call an ambulance. One of the girls with us is a nurse but she was in the bathroom, so Lija ran and got her while Mick went upstairs to try and help the person who needed an ambulance. It turns out this girl had taken too many shrooms and was unconsious-not breathing (according to her friend.) When Mick came down he told the guy behind the bar that he could cancel the ambulance the girl was in face consious with her eyes open and hadn't stopped breathing at any point, she had just fallen off a chair. Crisis adverted... lesson learnt... DON'T DO SHROOMS!

Mick walked us back to our accomodation because we were near the red light district and he didn't want anything happening to us, he is a great guy and we found out that we would be traveling with him until Florence which was almost the end of our trip, so that made us happy. I slept like a rock that night, the hotel had a fabulous duvet comforter which I just melted into. So much nicer than hostel bunk.

Pictures so far

posted by Ashley at 12:31 PM [ ]
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Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 2)

The pigeons were swarming the happy tourists as they gawked upwards at the mass that is Notre Dame. Little kids were throwing them croissant and chips as they progressed forwards menacingly. One dove towards my head and I ducked left and right just narrowly avoiding death by bird, I would later discover that this would be a common trend in my trip. We sat down on the edge of a statue platform, we weren't quite ready to move on, yet we knew there was only so long we could sit in one spot. We moved to the Archeological Crypt which contains remains of buildings dating back as far as pre-Roman times. We tried to be interested, I'm sure to some people it was a great museum-type-thing, but to us, it was just a lot of rocks and it smelt bad. We walked around there for a bit, taking advantage of our free admission then escaped pretending we had enjoyed ourselves.

We headed back to the hotel to rest our feet a little bit, then decided to see if the Opera was still open, it wasn't, but on our way up from the metro the woman ahead of me let the door slam in my face, as I was turning to Lija to say how rude the woman had been the door swung back the other way and went right over my big toe ripping off the nail. At first it was alright, it didn't hurt it just stung and it wasn't bleeding, I took a couple of steps and it started to bleed a little bit, then a couple more steps and the blood was oozing out into my sandal filling it up quickly. There weren't any washrooms so I could clean it off, and the first aid "kit" that I brought was back in the hotel... so I wrapped a kleenex around my toe and tied it on with a plastic bag handle, and I was ready to go. It still didn't hurt, only stung, and the kleenex, while tacky was working fine. [Eventually I fixed it up at the hotel with Polysporin and guaze]

I was getting hungry by that point, the only food I had eaten since landing in Paris was that crepe, so we wandered around the Latin Quarter looking for the best deal and ended up in this dodgy looking restaurant that had excellent food! Although it's debatable whether or not that chicken was actually chicken or if it was those pigeons that had pissed me off earlier. We had a 3 course meal, and French wine and when we came outside expected it to be night time. Apparently the sun doesn't set until 10:00 in Paris, so we were able to explore a lot more before calling it an early night.

Bright eyed we woke up the next morning, happy to still be alive after a night in our sketchy hotel room and were greeted (by going downstairs) with a complimentary breakfast -croissant, baguette and orange juice -served to us by a rude French woman. Lija had never been to Paris before, to me it was old news, but as every tourist must do at least once (in my case twice) we lined up for the Eiffel Tower. I remembered from last time how windy and cold it was up there, so I was prepared this time. The scenery hadn't changed since the last time I was up there, but it was nice to see Lija gape at the new. We got our picture taken, another tourist must, and checked out the gift shop before getting bored and heading back down. As we were walking under the tower I noticed these ropes dangling in front of me, the little voice inside my head said, "SWING ON IT!"... the voice of reason said, "Don't be an idiot! Look up." Hanging from the tower were these little firemen, they were climbing up and down practicing... COOL! I like firemen ;).

Following the loop that are tourist sites our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe. It was just after VE Day so they still had all of the flowers laid out. It made me think about all those that were being honored. Not just those who died at war but also those who came back, scarred by what they had seen, their lives were never the same again and neither were the lies of their families. I'm glad that "my generation" hasn't had a war, some may argue with me because of Iraq but as a youth in Canada, it hasn't become part of my life. I don't know anyone at war, I don't even know someone who knows someone at war, not a Canadian. Anyways, we decided not to go to the top of the Arch, a panoramic bird's eye view from the Eiffel Tower was enough. As we were walking back through the tunnel to the "right" side of the street (the arch is in the middle of a round about) some woman came up to us pointing to the ticket booth asking if we knew how to speak English. We assumed that she needed help in getting her ticket... wrong. As I pointed to the ticket booth as well she grabbed my finger and started tying strings around it, twisting them up. She then takes it off and ties it on my wrist before I can even pull my hand back. "Now you buy," she tells me... "No thank you." I respond. "Yes!" Clearly I wasn't getting through to this woman! "No, thank you." I reply once more. "Why not?!" Geez! "Well," I say, "I have no money." And just as fast as she tied it on she cut it off and gave us a nasty look. Serves her right.

Next we headed to the Louvre, finally. The trick to the Louvre is to go in through the underground and buy your tickets from one of the machines, then there is no line up... so we were cruising among some of arts greatest within minutes. We made a bee-line for the Mona Lisa, Lija isn't really into art so she didn't care to be there, but I wanted to see some of what I had learnt about up close. The size and magnitude of the works were enough to make me speechless... yes, ME SPEECHLESS!

We did see the Mona Lisa, and I will be honest, it wasn't that great. It's small and I didn't think her eyes followed me across the room. I was happy seeing the postcard that Mike sent me last year instead. I think Lija was a bit disappointed as well, I mean, this was the whole reason we had come here and the painting on the other side of the wall was just as if not more remarkable. We ended up spending a couple of hours in the museum, just looking around and checking things out. They say that you could spend a week in there, but I think your feet would get too sore :)

By this point Lija and I were dying, of hunger and foot pain. So we went and grabbed some crepes (with ice cream and nuts... not very lunchy) and sat for a while. While we were at our outside table this car was trying to park in a spot too small for them, so they hit the car in front and behind them until they moved enough that he could squeeze in, then he just left! I laughed, Lija was appalled. It was great. Energized and rested we headed to the Opera to look around then made it to Sacre Coure... only to find that it was at the top of a very big hill... we took pictures from below. We did go half way up the hill by the funicular to the "square on the hill" this adorable part of Paris that is old and secluded so it's quiet and peaceful. Up there we visited the Salvador Dali exhibit, spending more time in the gift shop than the museum. Reluctantly we went down to the bottom of the hill for dinner, everything up top was so expensive, we couldn't afford anything substantial. By the time dinner was done it was already dark so we went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up, then got scared of the creepy men and ran back (by metro) to the hotel for the night. In the morning we would get on our bus destined for Amsterdam, our journey would officially begin on Busabout.

Pictures up to now

posted by Ashley at 12:30 PM [ ]
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Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 1)

As I hugged my Mom good bye it was all I could do to stop the tears from welling up in my eyes, "I am a big girl, big girls don't cry when saying good bye to their Mom!" It wasn't that I was worried about missing home, it was more the apprehension of leaving for a month to travel around unknown countries, the worry about running out of money, and the concern that I wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone all the while not having my parents to rely on. I've done this before, it wasn't as if it was the first time, but I have never been good at good byes.

As I wandered around the airport, trying to kill the remaining 2 hours of my 3 hour wait I found myself constantly taking out my phone to check the time, but my phone was off, solution: buy a watch. I can't believe I was planning on traveling around the world without a watch! My flight boarded on time, so that was already a good start, and the layover in Montreal wasn't that bad. I called my Mom from the airport and she was already telling me stuff about home that I had missed in the 5 hours since I'd been there. As we got the airplane for our final destination I noticed a nun seated two rows in front of me, I knew my plane wouldn't crash. I'm not a nervous flyer, but that was still nice to see.

The flight was long and filled with anticipation and apprehension as I wondered what Lija would be like, would she look the same? Would I recognize her? Would she recognize me? What if we had changed so much that we didn't get along? What if we ended up hating each other? Needless to say my concerns were unnecessary. Lija was exactly the same, except she had dyed her hair blonde so we didn't look very similar anymore. While we could still pass as sisters you had to ignore the haircolour and look at our faces. We had an awkward hug, I was wearing my pack with the day pack on the front. She looked well rested, I looked like shit, I had just flown all night and landed in Paris at 10am, she flew for 21 hours and slept for 11 just before landing in Paris.

We sweated our way to the hotel, carrying packs in the underground is not easy, in fact it's down right difficult. We checked into our hotels, showered, and made our way into the city by noon, destination: Louvre. Well newsflash travelers! The Louvre is actually closed on Tuesdays! So that deflated our big first day plan, we needed a new plan, fast. Lija insisted we look at a map, me, being the vetran Parisan that I am decided we should just wing it... well we made it to the other museum then ate a yummy crepe smothered with Nutella, yes, Nutella. Talk about ruining my French heritage! My Mom was shocked when I came home and told her about it, she said our ancestors are rolling over in their graves. Anyways, we decided that our big plans for the day should become visiting Notre Dame.

Last time I was in Paris I decided against going inside the church, there are a wide range of reasons. This time however, I felt I had something to prove to myself, and to other people in my life, plus, I was curious. I think I took 3 steps before I was completely won over. The light warmed me as it streamed through the windows in every colour imaginable while rays of sun danced around the floor. We sat down in the pews, just staring at what was around us, taking it in. Before I left I lit a candle and said a prayer. "I'm not a religious person, I don't go to church, but if you're listening please watch out for my family while I'm over here, and little Savannah, and please let my Grandma know I miss her."

When we stepped outside of the church we were met by overwhelming sunshine and we once more had to face reality of the world.