As the end nears, my heart sinks. But it also makes my mild zoom with wild ideas. What should I do when I get back? What will be different when I get back? I may have new neighbours! (Hopefully another 2 good looking girls ;-). ) I'm actually eager to get on top of paying off my debt. Making me want to go out and get a better job (hopefully being able to still keep the one I have). I know it'll be lots of work to have two jobs, but I'm sure I can stand it for a couple of months. And then what will happen? Move? Stay put? Travel again? Who knows. I will be keeping this blog for my travels, even if they are around Toronto (seeing as how I rollerblade a lot). And I would definitely enjoy doing small trips to the states every once and a while. Of course, after my debt is paid.
Anyway, here goes maybe my last post (maybe not), in Europe. Hopefully I can find free internet/ cheap internet somewhere.
So our 'last' day in Barcelona we toured around for a few hours viewing 2 of the major things. First was the mosaic dragon. It wasn't as big or cool as I thought it would be, but the area around it was pretty enough that it made up for it. All behind the whatchyamacallit was beautiful forestry which seems to be rare in these parts (way to hot to keep anything green). Before we left I sat on the dragon to grab a quick pic, because I saw a bunch of little kids doing the same. I guess I was to fat for it or something because I was told to get off in Spanish. That's okay, Warren grabbed a shot of me glaring at the security dude :-P.
Next stop was the 'Sagrada Família' which is a Cathedral still in the process of being built. Apparently still has another 20 years or so to be finished. It was interesting to see the difference in the new and older part of the building. You could tell which is which because the stone walls faded from white to a kinda beige cream colour. I thought the older part was a little more epic, but maybe that was because it was the front of the building, or maybe they just aren't as artistic anymore, or they haven't finished the cool design of the new part.
Or next mission was to find an all you can eat sushi place. We walked all over the south part of Barcelona with no luck. But we did see a cool two person band (Called 2 - O) playing Didgeridoos. So far, these guys were the best music buskers we've heard. If you can check find them on the net, listen to some of the music for a bit.
We couldn't find a sushi place so we settled for an all you can eat Chinese place. After stuffing our faces, and feeling bloated, we slowly traveled up a street full of street performers. This was the most memorable part of Barcelona so far. We saw a guy underneath a sheet that used a puppet for his head, he was hilarious even without understanding what he was saying. We saw a statue guy, sitting on the john painted in all white. Whenever someone went up to take a picture with him he let on rip as they walked away. We saw a headless corpse, with the guys head on a platter on a table. He squeaked high pitch noises whenever people walked by. We saw a person dressed as an alien from the Alien movies. His little donation bucket was one of the eggs which they come out of, which I thought was sweet. And of course there were some crazy break dancers.
Wow, I guess I already posted this. A well, now you have a more in depth idea of what the buskers were.
Alright, the next little bit is pretty lame (for you readers anyway).
So we got out of Barcelona and headed to a small town called Sant Pol De Mar. We traveled around for a bit, lost without a GPS to tell us where the campsite was. Which was lucky. We ran into a festival that was happening, and people were just pitching up their tents for free. So we wandered around the small festival for a bit, eager to hear what music will be playing. Nothing happened. So we hit the hay, even though it was still lively. At around 11 or 12, the music STARTED. What partiers, eh? The first band was alright, nothing fancy. But the next one or two, played songs like; Mustang Sally, Great Balls of Fire, and an Evanescence song. But I was mid sleep, so I just listened to them, to lazy to get out.
At some point of the night some kid tried to go into our tent, but I yelled something like 'What do you think you're doing, BUDDY?'... Maybe a little more ruder than that, Iunno, I was mid sleep. So I guess it was lucky that we were in there.
Morning was filled with loud children yelling their vocal cords off until their eyes popped out. A few were slapping our tent and trying to reach our zipper, but we made some growling noises or something to scare them off. When I got up to get my towel I noticed it lying on the ground in the dirt. Great thanks a lot kids. Then I looked for warrens. UH OH! This was our first run-in with something stolen! Warrens towel go snipped. Wow. Whoever steals a towel is a REAL thug. Not to mention a wrinkly-stinky towel that hasn't been cleaned for a month and a half.
Anyway we packed up, went to the real campsite. It was cheap, but rough. Again not real camping (unless you count RVing real camping).
Next 3 days we spent on the beach. Nothing to tell really. Just found a nice shaded spot 4 feet beneath a train track. It was cool to lie under there while the train passed. The large cement blocks would actually bend against the wait. We read, tanned, napped, swam for the next few days. Or first beach day was grand. There were large waves we were running into, doing flips, flops, drops, and many dives into. We sat right near where the waves were and let them drag us through the sand. I'm sure we looked like 2 kids who escaped from the special camp, but that made it all the more fun. Second beach day (or third, the days were kinda blended together) there was a guy who had a water board (one of the things that glides along water for a short distance) and he offered for me to try. It was a lot harder than I expected. I slipped, fell on my ass, face, and belly. But it was worth the try and laughs for sure.
So, on the 20th, after the great days of beach bumming, we headed back to Barcelona to go to Paris. Trains were full, until the next day (today). Oh well, another day here :-). We found a hostel 'Alberg Oere Tarres'. We also booked everything except our last bus. So our schedule is up on our twitters. We only need to book the bus from Brussels to London, and then we only need to worry about food!
So hopefully I can post another post after or in Paris, but I'll definitely post one once I get back and get my computer.
Oh haha and a little bit of funnyness for today:
SO I woke up excited for the free breakfast, and free coffee. The breakfast wasn't all you can eat, but that's okay, the coffee was. So I drank 4 espressos and a coffee, WHIZLE WHAM BAM! Energy is STILL going after 3 hours. So I go onto my email and this is part of my horoscope I have posted '' Think about turning down that second cup of coffee today, for you'll already be buzzing without any extra caffeine ''... haha WOOPS! Guess I shoulda went online BEFORE breakfast.
Anyway, I'm gonna go out and explore some more before we leave!
Taataa
Cody
Friday, August 21, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
2 more weeks...
Alright, I left in mid post last time because I ran out of time, so hopefully that won't happen now, but I have more time so it shouldn't.
So straight to the point I guess...
Uhhh, so we got to Bologna and realized how crappy the Italian train system is. The trains are stinky, hot, and slow. Not to mention the machines that give you the tickets spit out whatevers most conviniant for them to make money. But it's better than going to the ticket sales people because they just give the most expensive way. Anyway we found out in Bologna we could have gotten a cheaper train ticket and saved 20€, thanks TrainItalia for helpen us poor tourists out...
Anyway we eventually made it to Florence, and headed to a campsite, where our misery of the day continued. We got into the campsite at dark, and got a nice little go kart ride down to where we were going to sleep. At this point I was thinking this place was high class... Then we got a feel for the ground. It was mainly hard ground with gravel shot in every which direction. This was HARDly the place for sleeping (yes that's a pun :-P). Not only was the ground hard and uncomfortable but we got some stank pizza at the campsite kitchen. Whatever, it filled my belly.
So on the 1st of August we woke up soar and sleepy, eager to get up and out of the hard ass ground. Another scorching hot day, we ended buying three 1.5L bottles of water throughout the day. We headed to the museum where Michaelangeloes David stands tall and nude. It was a lot more bigger than I ever imagined it to be, and WAY more detailed. It even had veins on his hands and extreme detail like that. There were a few other cool things, like a photography display. Whether it was worth the 10€ each is beyond me, but we had to pay to see some monumental thing at some point. Not much else to do in Florence so we just toured around sweating our balls off. We made it back to the campsite for Happy Hour, where bottles of wine were 2.50€ each. We drained 3 of them down and bought one for later. Wine hit us a LOT harder than we expected, but that was quite alright. It made it very easy to pass out on the hard gravel.
We got up feeling nice and hungover from the hardcore wine. We went into town to get our tickets and some Paninis, yum. So we took the cheap train ride down to Rome, and Warrens phone died, so we didn't have much choice of where to go or stay. Information was closed because it was around 7. Luckily this 'tourist info' guy came up to us, clearly knowing we were lost without a place. He told us there were no hostels within 30 minutes of travel time, and that they were untrustworthy anyway. So he brought us to a hotel that was only 45€ for a double. Clearly this dude worked for the hotel, and wasn't a tourist guy at all, because when we charged Warrens phone we found like 6 hostels within a 1o minute walk of the station.
So the next mornign (3rd) we got up and went to a few hostels to check out their prices and such. We found a decent one, so we booked 3 nights there. We got our stuff locked up and headed out to Rome! First stop Colloseum! We didn't end up going in because it was 12€ just to get in without a tour. But the outside was legendary. A definite thing to see and walk around many times when in Rome. We walked up a street called Alessandrina where there were tons of ruins. At the end of them, in Colona Traiana, there was a cool pilar with a sort of storyline/comic going up in a spiral. Right next to this was Monumento aVittoric Emanuele. Whatever this building was it was massively epic. There were statues all along it. I could only imagin how the inside must have looked. Next stop was the Pantheon. Don't get confused by this churches crappy exterior, that looks demolished and crumbled because the inside is completly wonderful. Theres Huge marble pillars holding the front up, and inside is completely marble, except the dome ceiling I think is like concrete or something, with a big round window in the middle. Onto the Fontana di trevi now. This was by far the most beautiful fontain I have ever seen. There were winged horses and people trying to tame them, with (what I beleive is) Posiden in the middle looking out and beyond. Next we saw Piazza della Repubblica and San Carrio Quattro Fontain, not much to saw about those. We then went on a Pub Crawl, met a bunch of people, not much to say about the actual crawl.
The 4th was just a relaxing day. Sat in our beds, read, and ate. We made our best meal so far. It was Penne Rigate, with some sort of cheese sauce. Then we took some chicken boobies and cooked them in oil, tomatoes, and onions. Yummy in my tummy. We drank a little bit with 2 Americans.
The 5th we toured around more of Rome with one of the Americans. We showed him some of the main things we checked out 2 days before, then split up at the Pantheon and headed the the Vatican. The plazza just outside was amazing, with Pillars everywhere and dozens of statues on top of them. The insid of the Vatican was the most vast and epic and legendary and beautiful thing I have EVER seen. The ceilings were like 40 feet high. There were statues of a bunch of popes all along. There was a small room listing all the popes that have reigned (or whatever it is they do) I heard someone say tehre were 146.
New city time! We headed to La spieza, where we got in late, with no hostels around, UH OH! We wondered around for like 2 hours with our packs on. We saw 2 parks, one which was sketchy so we went to the more lively one and I passed out on the grass for a bit, which was a mistake. Srpinklers came on which made me jump outta my pants quite quickly. So I passed out on a bench for 3 hours. Warren was a champ and didn't sleep at all.
So on the 7th we headed to a hostel in Biassa, waited for 2 hours for them to get back from there 4 hour lunch, and found out they only had girl rooms left. Crap. Luckily we were chatting with 2 Austrailian girls while we were waiting, so they didn't mind us spklitting the room with them. Whew, saved our tired asses there. We slept for pretty much the rest of the day and night.
Cinque Terre time! This is some sort of National park with 5 small towns in between. So we found a campsite in LAvento and then went for the 5 hour hike through small mountains and through the towns. On the last stretch there were these homeless cats that you can donate to and feed. I didn't donate (had no coinage) but I did feed them. They seemed to enjoy that. Two ditsy American girls witnessed this so we started talking to them traveling back to the last town. These were the cougars Warren was mentioning in his Blog. We ate a seafood meal with them, slowly finding out they were crazy. We split at the train station. We could have followed them to there hotel that they had. We probably would have but at that point they were unsure if they actually had a place because they were supposed to check in at 6pm and it was 11pm.
No worries, they bragged about they're place the next day when we ran into them. Why did we have to be so nice and carry there massive bags everywhere through Lavento? Got nothign out of it to... Well Live and learn I guess... So we headed tto the beach for the rest of the day.
Getting out of Cinque Terre, we headed to Nice.
Nice is not Nice
We didn't book anything because we had no problems so far. Everythign was full up. Crap. We stayed at McDonalds for a while using their free WiFi and me up with 6 Russian girls who were in the same boat as us. They were only in Nice for a 2 days. They were scared to be all along with no manly figures around. So the asked if we could tag along with them to 'protect' them. I`m not sure what I would have down if something actually happened. I'm not strong enough to fend off 6 other dudes. But nothing happened, Warren and I stayed up all night while most of them slept. The beach sucked. It was all rocks. I don't know how they slept on them. We kept our minds awake by throwing rocks into the water and I built a happy face rock thing.
The next day there was still nothing available. Whatever we bought the most expensive tickets so far. 76€ each just to get out of crap city. And that was still the next day. Great another night of no sleep! Whatever, we slept all day in a park, and went back to MCdonalds where I slept on their outside benches.
BARCELONA BABY!
The train took 13 hours with 3 transfers in between. We met up with 2 Americans from Fargo, and they tagged along to the hostel we actually booked online. We got our own private room for only 20 €. We slept most of the next day away, and went downtown and night. We saw some of the most amazing buskers (street performers) we've seen so far. Lots of people dressed up, which gave us the idea of doing somethign like that the next time we travel around Europe or God knows where else.
Today I am here, alive and well. getting poorer by the day, but that's okay because Barcelona is very cheap. We plan to stay here another 5 days 4 of which are cmaping so that will be cheap. yay.
Anyway I'm almost out of time now so peace out!
2 weeks... Yikes, can't believe that's all that's left.
So straight to the point I guess...
Uhhh, so we got to Bologna and realized how crappy the Italian train system is. The trains are stinky, hot, and slow. Not to mention the machines that give you the tickets spit out whatevers most conviniant for them to make money. But it's better than going to the ticket sales people because they just give the most expensive way. Anyway we found out in Bologna we could have gotten a cheaper train ticket and saved 20€, thanks TrainItalia for helpen us poor tourists out...
Anyway we eventually made it to Florence, and headed to a campsite, where our misery of the day continued. We got into the campsite at dark, and got a nice little go kart ride down to where we were going to sleep. At this point I was thinking this place was high class... Then we got a feel for the ground. It was mainly hard ground with gravel shot in every which direction. This was HARDly the place for sleeping (yes that's a pun :-P). Not only was the ground hard and uncomfortable but we got some stank pizza at the campsite kitchen. Whatever, it filled my belly.
So on the 1st of August we woke up soar and sleepy, eager to get up and out of the hard ass ground. Another scorching hot day, we ended buying three 1.5L bottles of water throughout the day. We headed to the museum where Michaelangeloes David stands tall and nude. It was a lot more bigger than I ever imagined it to be, and WAY more detailed. It even had veins on his hands and extreme detail like that. There were a few other cool things, like a photography display. Whether it was worth the 10€ each is beyond me, but we had to pay to see some monumental thing at some point. Not much else to do in Florence so we just toured around sweating our balls off. We made it back to the campsite for Happy Hour, where bottles of wine were 2.50€ each. We drained 3 of them down and bought one for later. Wine hit us a LOT harder than we expected, but that was quite alright. It made it very easy to pass out on the hard gravel.
We got up feeling nice and hungover from the hardcore wine. We went into town to get our tickets and some Paninis, yum. So we took the cheap train ride down to Rome, and Warrens phone died, so we didn't have much choice of where to go or stay. Information was closed because it was around 7. Luckily this 'tourist info' guy came up to us, clearly knowing we were lost without a place. He told us there were no hostels within 30 minutes of travel time, and that they were untrustworthy anyway. So he brought us to a hotel that was only 45€ for a double. Clearly this dude worked for the hotel, and wasn't a tourist guy at all, because when we charged Warrens phone we found like 6 hostels within a 1o minute walk of the station.
So the next mornign (3rd) we got up and went to a few hostels to check out their prices and such. We found a decent one, so we booked 3 nights there. We got our stuff locked up and headed out to Rome! First stop Colloseum! We didn't end up going in because it was 12€ just to get in without a tour. But the outside was legendary. A definite thing to see and walk around many times when in Rome. We walked up a street called Alessandrina where there were tons of ruins. At the end of them, in Colona Traiana, there was a cool pilar with a sort of storyline/comic going up in a spiral. Right next to this was Monumento aVittoric Emanuele. Whatever this building was it was massively epic. There were statues all along it. I could only imagin how the inside must have looked. Next stop was the Pantheon. Don't get confused by this churches crappy exterior, that looks demolished and crumbled because the inside is completly wonderful. Theres Huge marble pillars holding the front up, and inside is completely marble, except the dome ceiling I think is like concrete or something, with a big round window in the middle. Onto the Fontana di trevi now. This was by far the most beautiful fontain I have ever seen. There were winged horses and people trying to tame them, with (what I beleive is) Posiden in the middle looking out and beyond. Next we saw Piazza della Repubblica and San Carrio Quattro Fontain, not much to saw about those. We then went on a Pub Crawl, met a bunch of people, not much to say about the actual crawl.
The 4th was just a relaxing day. Sat in our beds, read, and ate. We made our best meal so far. It was Penne Rigate, with some sort of cheese sauce. Then we took some chicken boobies and cooked them in oil, tomatoes, and onions. Yummy in my tummy. We drank a little bit with 2 Americans.
The 5th we toured around more of Rome with one of the Americans. We showed him some of the main things we checked out 2 days before, then split up at the Pantheon and headed the the Vatican. The plazza just outside was amazing, with Pillars everywhere and dozens of statues on top of them. The insid of the Vatican was the most vast and epic and legendary and beautiful thing I have EVER seen. The ceilings were like 40 feet high. There were statues of a bunch of popes all along. There was a small room listing all the popes that have reigned (or whatever it is they do) I heard someone say tehre were 146.
New city time! We headed to La spieza, where we got in late, with no hostels around, UH OH! We wondered around for like 2 hours with our packs on. We saw 2 parks, one which was sketchy so we went to the more lively one and I passed out on the grass for a bit, which was a mistake. Srpinklers came on which made me jump outta my pants quite quickly. So I passed out on a bench for 3 hours. Warren was a champ and didn't sleep at all.
So on the 7th we headed to a hostel in Biassa, waited for 2 hours for them to get back from there 4 hour lunch, and found out they only had girl rooms left. Crap. Luckily we were chatting with 2 Austrailian girls while we were waiting, so they didn't mind us spklitting the room with them. Whew, saved our tired asses there. We slept for pretty much the rest of the day and night.
Cinque Terre time! This is some sort of National park with 5 small towns in between. So we found a campsite in LAvento and then went for the 5 hour hike through small mountains and through the towns. On the last stretch there were these homeless cats that you can donate to and feed. I didn't donate (had no coinage) but I did feed them. They seemed to enjoy that. Two ditsy American girls witnessed this so we started talking to them traveling back to the last town. These were the cougars Warren was mentioning in his Blog. We ate a seafood meal with them, slowly finding out they were crazy. We split at the train station. We could have followed them to there hotel that they had. We probably would have but at that point they were unsure if they actually had a place because they were supposed to check in at 6pm and it was 11pm.
No worries, they bragged about they're place the next day when we ran into them. Why did we have to be so nice and carry there massive bags everywhere through Lavento? Got nothign out of it to... Well Live and learn I guess... So we headed tto the beach for the rest of the day.
Getting out of Cinque Terre, we headed to Nice.
Nice is not Nice
We didn't book anything because we had no problems so far. Everythign was full up. Crap. We stayed at McDonalds for a while using their free WiFi and me up with 6 Russian girls who were in the same boat as us. They were only in Nice for a 2 days. They were scared to be all along with no manly figures around. So the asked if we could tag along with them to 'protect' them. I`m not sure what I would have down if something actually happened. I'm not strong enough to fend off 6 other dudes. But nothing happened, Warren and I stayed up all night while most of them slept. The beach sucked. It was all rocks. I don't know how they slept on them. We kept our minds awake by throwing rocks into the water and I built a happy face rock thing.
The next day there was still nothing available. Whatever we bought the most expensive tickets so far. 76€ each just to get out of crap city. And that was still the next day. Great another night of no sleep! Whatever, we slept all day in a park, and went back to MCdonalds where I slept on their outside benches.
BARCELONA BABY!
The train took 13 hours with 3 transfers in between. We met up with 2 Americans from Fargo, and they tagged along to the hostel we actually booked online. We got our own private room for only 20 €. We slept most of the next day away, and went downtown and night. We saw some of the most amazing buskers (street performers) we've seen so far. Lots of people dressed up, which gave us the idea of doing somethign like that the next time we travel around Europe or God knows where else.
Today I am here, alive and well. getting poorer by the day, but that's okay because Barcelona is very cheap. We plan to stay here another 5 days 4 of which are cmaping so that will be cheap. yay.
Anyway I'm almost out of time now so peace out!
2 weeks... Yikes, can't believe that's all that's left.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
When in Rome!
I am alive! Do not fear!
So last time I left off we were jsut about to leave to go to Italy, and now we are at the heart of it in Roma.
So the day we left to Italy we took a dip in the pool to cool us off befoer our long travel. Then headed out to the train station. We ended up going to Milano, because it was to expensive to go anywhere else. We ended up getting in Milano after a 4 hour train ride, (which for more than half we had no idea if we were going the right way, due to how amazingly little direction there was at the Domodosilo station). So we ended up going to Piero Rosto Youth Hostel, which I was worried wold be booked considering it was like the only hostel in Milano. But we got the cheapest rooms, with a free Italian breakfast! Don't get to excited, it was actually the worst breakfast in a hostel so far. It was baguettes, crackers, jam, nutella (or some form of it anyway), and corn flakes (OH! But only if you're an early riser! They take it away after an hour, because, you know, corn flakes are SOOOO expensive). The best part of this breakfast was that the coffee was free so we just ended up drinking like 3 cups before heading out.
Anyway we just hung around for the night because it was too late to do anything.
So after getting wired off free coffee we headed out to see Milan (Milano if you're english). The first thing we did was check out the Duomo, which was spectacularly large! It could fit up to 40,000 people in it during a ceremony. Too bad there wasn't any organ playing in it. Or next stop was Castello Sforzesco, which was a decent enough castle with a big fountain inforont of it. Notmuch to see here, just a very large park behind it. We tried to go up a tower to have a high glance of Milan, but they closed for four hours between 12pm-4pm. (Hmm if only I had the luxury of that lunch break) So we headed on to the Milan Monumental Cemetery. This was epic! There were massive marble and stone statues for grave stones. There was one which was very eerie and looked like a diseased mummy\zombie looking thing, and a very odd person next to him wallowing in sorrow. Very odd. And this was only on the side of the graveyard, the central graveyard was much more baffeling, with statues\gravestones up to 2 stories high. Maybe I'll be buried here some day with a giant statue of me giving the thumbs up. We didn't tour to much around here because it was hot, and we were thirsty, beat, and soar in the feet! So we wend back to the hostel and whined about the heat.
We got loaded up on coffee once again and went to the train station to get to a famous city called Veniezza! Venice to those of Canada :-P.
We ended up getting there around 4 and were instantly baffled at the water surrounding us. We paid an a exetnsive amount (for 'bus' passes) but we could see why. There were not busses (or very few) what they called busses were actually large boats to float you to your destination. There were even taxi boats, which amused me. We made our way to the island we were staying at (Lido) and easily found our hotel. That's right! We stayed at a hotel, it feels good to say that. It only cost like 5€ more to stay there. So we ended up paying 50€ for one night for a double room, with AC (thank God), private bathroom, and cable TV. We left our nice and cool room to take a boat around Venice, and ended up just looking out the side at all the craziness. We toured the Great Canal.
It baffled us! It looked like the buildings were all just ploped there which no islands at all, it just looks like the buikldings go right down into the water. We got back to the hotel, drank a bottle of wine, and watched CNN. (There were onyl 2 english channels, both news, but we were glad to be watchign something we recognized).
After a great nights sleep, with no interruptions, in pure darkness, we headed to tour around Venice. We went to one of the churches, and took a gander around it. The line up was way too long to be standing in in the dead heat with no water. We would have fainted before getting in. So we just walked around venice (with over 1000 bridges) Each alley way heading somewhere different. Some heading into an alley way of water, which the only use (as far as I could see) would be for a pee after a drunken night trying to find your way back).
After the hot day of wondering the city we decided to go to the beach a few cheap beers. We swam there for a few hours then got some spectacular pizza and headed 'home'.
OUur next trip was supposed to be to Rome, but we ended up going to Florence because it was cheaper. Doing this is when we learned that the train system in Italy stinks major skunk ass. We tried goign to the ticke salesman, but it was cheaper to go to the machines (why? I have no idea) We bought our tickets with a transfer in Bolgna
Ran outta time will post later...
So last time I left off we were jsut about to leave to go to Italy, and now we are at the heart of it in Roma.
So the day we left to Italy we took a dip in the pool to cool us off befoer our long travel. Then headed out to the train station. We ended up going to Milano, because it was to expensive to go anywhere else. We ended up getting in Milano after a 4 hour train ride, (which for more than half we had no idea if we were going the right way, due to how amazingly little direction there was at the Domodosilo station). So we ended up going to Piero Rosto Youth Hostel, which I was worried wold be booked considering it was like the only hostel in Milano. But we got the cheapest rooms, with a free Italian breakfast! Don't get to excited, it was actually the worst breakfast in a hostel so far. It was baguettes, crackers, jam, nutella (or some form of it anyway), and corn flakes (OH! But only if you're an early riser! They take it away after an hour, because, you know, corn flakes are SOOOO expensive). The best part of this breakfast was that the coffee was free so we just ended up drinking like 3 cups before heading out.
Anyway we just hung around for the night because it was too late to do anything.
So after getting wired off free coffee we headed out to see Milan (Milano if you're english). The first thing we did was check out the Duomo, which was spectacularly large! It could fit up to 40,000 people in it during a ceremony. Too bad there wasn't any organ playing in it. Or next stop was Castello Sforzesco, which was a decent enough castle with a big fountain inforont of it. Notmuch to see here, just a very large park behind it. We tried to go up a tower to have a high glance of Milan, but they closed for four hours between 12pm-4pm. (Hmm if only I had the luxury of that lunch break) So we headed on to the Milan Monumental Cemetery. This was epic! There were massive marble and stone statues for grave stones. There was one which was very eerie and looked like a diseased mummy\zombie looking thing, and a very odd person next to him wallowing in sorrow. Very odd. And this was only on the side of the graveyard, the central graveyard was much more baffeling, with statues\gravestones up to 2 stories high. Maybe I'll be buried here some day with a giant statue of me giving the thumbs up. We didn't tour to much around here because it was hot, and we were thirsty, beat, and soar in the feet! So we wend back to the hostel and whined about the heat.
We got loaded up on coffee once again and went to the train station to get to a famous city called Veniezza! Venice to those of Canada :-P.
We ended up getting there around 4 and were instantly baffled at the water surrounding us. We paid an a exetnsive amount (for 'bus' passes) but we could see why. There were not busses (or very few) what they called busses were actually large boats to float you to your destination. There were even taxi boats, which amused me. We made our way to the island we were staying at (Lido) and easily found our hotel. That's right! We stayed at a hotel, it feels good to say that. It only cost like 5€ more to stay there. So we ended up paying 50€ for one night for a double room, with AC (thank God), private bathroom, and cable TV. We left our nice and cool room to take a boat around Venice, and ended up just looking out the side at all the craziness. We toured the Great Canal.
It baffled us! It looked like the buildings were all just ploped there which no islands at all, it just looks like the buikldings go right down into the water. We got back to the hotel, drank a bottle of wine, and watched CNN. (There were onyl 2 english channels, both news, but we were glad to be watchign something we recognized).
After a great nights sleep, with no interruptions, in pure darkness, we headed to tour around Venice. We went to one of the churches, and took a gander around it. The line up was way too long to be standing in in the dead heat with no water. We would have fainted before getting in. So we just walked around venice (with over 1000 bridges) Each alley way heading somewhere different. Some heading into an alley way of water, which the only use (as far as I could see) would be for a pee after a drunken night trying to find your way back).
After the hot day of wondering the city we decided to go to the beach a few cheap beers. We swam there for a few hours then got some spectacular pizza and headed 'home'.
OUur next trip was supposed to be to Rome, but we ended up going to Florence because it was cheaper. Doing this is when we learned that the train system in Italy stinks major skunk ass. We tried goign to the ticke salesman, but it was cheaper to go to the machines (why? I have no idea) We bought our tickets with a transfer in Bolgna
Ran outta time will post later...
Sunday, July 26, 2009
4 weeks down! 4 weeks to go!!!
FINALLY found some free internet, and funny enough it's at a camp site.
So I last left off in the Czech region, and I forgot to mention how our tent held up for the first two nights! On the second night it started to poor an outrageous amount. Unfortunatly our 17 dollar tent wasn't made for this type of weather. We quickly learned that the zippers weren't weather proof. So for a bit we sat there with a cloth trying to soak up the water. We eventually gave up and just through a towel there and fell asleep.
Anyway, let's skip the boring 10 hour ride to Zerich.
SO we get to Zerich and quickly realiye how expensive this place is. The Swiss Franc is almost exactly the same as the Canadian dollar so it wasn't to hard to convert anything. (Funny thing, Mcdonalds was 12 dollars for a BigMac meal)
So we headed to City Backpackers and booked two nights. First night there was the first night that Warren and I were in a different room. The rest of the day was mostly spent on a lake cruise on a boat touring around Zurich river. The country side was beautiful. It was all sloped downwards towrads the water so almost everyone within 2 km of the lake had a lakeside view. Once we got back we split up and did our own thing. I ended up walking along side the East side of the lake and just watche dpeople go by. I headed back to the hostel, talked to a guy from Netherlands who has been diong a different city every day ( I couldn't imagin doing that, this is exhausting enough).
The following day (which would be the 19th) we headed up a small mountain (Utilberg) to the highest point in Zurich. Once zou got there, there was a tower that you could climb and see for dozens of km in each direction. We walked a path down the moutain for around 2 hours, and took one of those hanging rides down to the bottom.
We were supposed to go on a river tour and go for a swim, but the water level was too high so we ended up just waiting there for 30 minutes until we actually read the sign. We headed back and met up with another Torontonian and 3 austrians and started drinking! (The beer here was 60 cents for a tall boy!) We tried to go to a few clubs but just ended up going to the East side of the lake and meeting 2 other Canadians (Montrealers) and 2 Americans. After being outside and drinking for a while we decided to head back and crash. SO we gave the 4 extra people sleeping bags and pillows out of generosity since all there accomadations fell through. Little did we know this would cost us 50 francs. We tried to argue this against the guy, but he was being an ass, and said we should have just left them on the street. How nice of him.
Anyway, feeling gross but not unhappy we headed to a campsite. We didn¨t want to stay in a place that wasn't nice enough to let bedless poeple sleep. We (or I should say I) napped once we got to the campsite because they were closed from 12 to 3 (just like everwhere in swityerland for some reason). After checking in we headed to the art musuem and looked around for around an hour. Interesting stuff, but I'm glad that we didn't pay. (We had 3 day travel pass). Everything was closed so we just ate a meal of Rostii (A traditional Swiss meal), got our tickets to Bern, and went back to the campsite.
On our way to the bus station we checked out 3 different churches looking for a demonic dark church, (recomended by the other Torontonian) but we didn't gind it. There was oen church with the largest clockface in Europe, and more amazingly, one wit a HUGE Organ that was beautiful. There was gold winglike figures on each end of the pipes. We were fortunate to acutally here it being played.
Once we got to Bern we headed to a hostel to chuck our bags. Unfortunatly (actually fortunatly because it saved us money) the hostel was full, so we ended walking alongside Aare river down to a campsite. The campsite was right next to the river. So we locked up our tent and went into town, but not the regular way! Aare river was moving so fast we just jumped in and barely had to swim, the current just took us. Don't worry this is a comen thing to do in Bern. There are railings with stairs all down the river. We tried getting out to rest once but it was way more work to get out than to just ride the water. I ended up smashing my toe, and bonking my knee. Stupid thing is though they don't really warn you of the waterfall that's down the river a bit. The sign looks more like a bridge than a waterfall . But we got out safe and sound the second time. We went to check out the 2 main things in Bern we were told to see. First was the bear pits, which was more of just pits. The Bears have been moved due to the death of one last year so they were rebuilding the pits and the area surrounding it. We then went to check out one of the many hundreds of fountains that they have pooring out water constantly. This fountain was special because there was an ogre on top of it eating small children. Mmmm, makes me want to drink the water even more!
The next day was mainly bummin around waiting for our train to leave for Interlaken. We were lucky enough to book a hostel last minute before we left for the Happy Days Inn in INterlaken. We got in late (around 10) so we just ate and went to sleep.
We woke up early and headed straight for a cmapsite right near the water. It was small but suited us perfectly. Only 6 tents at most could fit on this small hillside. We went back into the city to get some groceries and once we got back it started to rain. (Luckily the rain was against the back so we didnt have trouble getting drowned in rain water! There was a Polka concert going on down at the campsite reception are. We didn't check it out but we could hear the polka loud and clear even through the rain. It was really upbeat, and everyone was having a ball. They went on for the best of 3 hours, so it's a shame we never made it down.
Now we're on the 24th. We got up and headed to a self catering BBQ/firepit place to cook our sausages. Unfortunatly I was a doofus and forgot a lighter. and we weren't going to pay 3 dollars for a small dinky one. So we ended up eating them raw :-O. We didn't get sick, don't worry. After that we made the biggest hike of the trip (so far). We went up a 2000 meter mountain. UNfortunatly we ran out of water once we got to the 2060 meter point, so we couldn't make it (well without dehydrating ourselves we couldn't) to the 2300 meter point. The whole trip there and back took us about 4 hours and a bit. We were exhausted and had Jell-o like legs. We made it back to the bus station and found out we missed our last bus by 5 minutes. Great, here comes another 5 km of walking! SO we ate up, got some energy (a little but some) and went for the 5 km walk in the DARK, along a very narrow street. But we made it alive, and passed right out.
Now I'm onto today! We didn't do much (actually nothing at all). We were planning on going Kayaking, but we were too slow. So here I am typing my blog (for free luckily).
Well today marks the 4 week mark. Halfway done!
Hope you are all enjoying the blog!
Taataa
So I last left off in the Czech region, and I forgot to mention how our tent held up for the first two nights! On the second night it started to poor an outrageous amount. Unfortunatly our 17 dollar tent wasn't made for this type of weather. We quickly learned that the zippers weren't weather proof. So for a bit we sat there with a cloth trying to soak up the water. We eventually gave up and just through a towel there and fell asleep.
Anyway, let's skip the boring 10 hour ride to Zerich.
SO we get to Zerich and quickly realiye how expensive this place is. The Swiss Franc is almost exactly the same as the Canadian dollar so it wasn't to hard to convert anything. (Funny thing, Mcdonalds was 12 dollars for a BigMac meal)
So we headed to City Backpackers and booked two nights. First night there was the first night that Warren and I were in a different room. The rest of the day was mostly spent on a lake cruise on a boat touring around Zurich river. The country side was beautiful. It was all sloped downwards towrads the water so almost everyone within 2 km of the lake had a lakeside view. Once we got back we split up and did our own thing. I ended up walking along side the East side of the lake and just watche dpeople go by. I headed back to the hostel, talked to a guy from Netherlands who has been diong a different city every day ( I couldn't imagin doing that, this is exhausting enough).
The following day (which would be the 19th) we headed up a small mountain (Utilberg) to the highest point in Zurich. Once zou got there, there was a tower that you could climb and see for dozens of km in each direction. We walked a path down the moutain for around 2 hours, and took one of those hanging rides down to the bottom.
We were supposed to go on a river tour and go for a swim, but the water level was too high so we ended up just waiting there for 30 minutes until we actually read the sign. We headed back and met up with another Torontonian and 3 austrians and started drinking! (The beer here was 60 cents for a tall boy!) We tried to go to a few clubs but just ended up going to the East side of the lake and meeting 2 other Canadians (Montrealers) and 2 Americans. After being outside and drinking for a while we decided to head back and crash. SO we gave the 4 extra people sleeping bags and pillows out of generosity since all there accomadations fell through. Little did we know this would cost us 50 francs. We tried to argue this against the guy, but he was being an ass, and said we should have just left them on the street. How nice of him.
Anyway, feeling gross but not unhappy we headed to a campsite. We didn¨t want to stay in a place that wasn't nice enough to let bedless poeple sleep. We (or I should say I) napped once we got to the campsite because they were closed from 12 to 3 (just like everwhere in swityerland for some reason). After checking in we headed to the art musuem and looked around for around an hour. Interesting stuff, but I'm glad that we didn't pay. (We had 3 day travel pass). Everything was closed so we just ate a meal of Rostii (A traditional Swiss meal), got our tickets to Bern, and went back to the campsite.
On our way to the bus station we checked out 3 different churches looking for a demonic dark church, (recomended by the other Torontonian) but we didn't gind it. There was oen church with the largest clockface in Europe, and more amazingly, one wit a HUGE Organ that was beautiful. There was gold winglike figures on each end of the pipes. We were fortunate to acutally here it being played.
Once we got to Bern we headed to a hostel to chuck our bags. Unfortunatly (actually fortunatly because it saved us money) the hostel was full, so we ended walking alongside Aare river down to a campsite. The campsite was right next to the river. So we locked up our tent and went into town, but not the regular way! Aare river was moving so fast we just jumped in and barely had to swim, the current just took us. Don't worry this is a comen thing to do in Bern. There are railings with stairs all down the river. We tried getting out to rest once but it was way more work to get out than to just ride the water. I ended up smashing my toe, and bonking my knee. Stupid thing is though they don't really warn you of the waterfall that's down the river a bit. The sign looks more like a bridge than a waterfall . But we got out safe and sound the second time. We went to check out the 2 main things in Bern we were told to see. First was the bear pits, which was more of just pits. The Bears have been moved due to the death of one last year so they were rebuilding the pits and the area surrounding it. We then went to check out one of the many hundreds of fountains that they have pooring out water constantly. This fountain was special because there was an ogre on top of it eating small children. Mmmm, makes me want to drink the water even more!
The next day was mainly bummin around waiting for our train to leave for Interlaken. We were lucky enough to book a hostel last minute before we left for the Happy Days Inn in INterlaken. We got in late (around 10) so we just ate and went to sleep.
We woke up early and headed straight for a cmapsite right near the water. It was small but suited us perfectly. Only 6 tents at most could fit on this small hillside. We went back into the city to get some groceries and once we got back it started to rain. (Luckily the rain was against the back so we didnt have trouble getting drowned in rain water! There was a Polka concert going on down at the campsite reception are. We didn't check it out but we could hear the polka loud and clear even through the rain. It was really upbeat, and everyone was having a ball. They went on for the best of 3 hours, so it's a shame we never made it down.
Now we're on the 24th. We got up and headed to a self catering BBQ/firepit place to cook our sausages. Unfortunatly I was a doofus and forgot a lighter. and we weren't going to pay 3 dollars for a small dinky one. So we ended up eating them raw :-O. We didn't get sick, don't worry. After that we made the biggest hike of the trip (so far). We went up a 2000 meter mountain. UNfortunatly we ran out of water once we got to the 2060 meter point, so we couldn't make it (well without dehydrating ourselves we couldn't) to the 2300 meter point. The whole trip there and back took us about 4 hours and a bit. We were exhausted and had Jell-o like legs. We made it back to the bus station and found out we missed our last bus by 5 minutes. Great, here comes another 5 km of walking! SO we ate up, got some energy (a little but some) and went for the 5 km walk in the DARK, along a very narrow street. But we made it alive, and passed right out.
Now I'm onto today! We didn't do much (actually nothing at all). We were planning on going Kayaking, but we were too slow. So here I am typing my blog (for free luckily).
Well today marks the 4 week mark. Halfway done!
Hope you are all enjoying the blog!
Taataa
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Still alive and kickin!
Alllllright! I haven't had internet (or atleast FREE internet) for a while so I that's why I haven't updated. But today I had to break and pay so I don't get too far behind.
RIght now we are currently in Zurich, Switzerland. The last I posted was right before we left for Prague.
The night before our bus we ended up going to Kat's bar and drinking the night away. Warren was the smart one and went to bed while I stayed upall night and talked to Kat and Saioa (Kat's roomy).
Unfortunately we ended up missing the bus , not because we were late though! We were actually 3 minutes early! But apparently that's why they tell you to arrive 30 minutes before hand. A well, serves us right for trying to make an early morning bus! We ended catching a bus 2 hours laterthat was actuall 20 dollars cheaper, so another booboo to add onto the list.
Funny story. I was waiting to get on to the bus to go to the washroom because I didn't want to pay a Euro to take a dump.So 10 minutes into the ride I decide to take a load off. When I came I was faced with the stewardess asking what I did in there, and apparently I wasn't supposed to take craps in the toilet. She wasn't pleased. I don't see why, I mean I was the one who had to clean it. She said some stuff Like why I didn't listen to the video, clearly she doesn't I'm a dumb tourist who only knows English, not crazy Czech.
Any way we finally get to PRague safe and sound and headto a hostel called CLown and Bard. CHeapest hostel bso far! We had a dorm with 28 people, but it was still fun.
On the 13th we took Pauls free tour and walked for 3 hours all around Prague, seeing everything the town ahs to offer. Froma clock tower that rings and has a bunch of active puppets and stuff like askeleton ringing a bell and random people popping out the windows. We saw a huge Cathedral that was made in something like the 12th century and the 14th century it was finally finished.
We ended up meeting up with 2 other Canadians, 2 New Zealanders and an American. We wwent out for some chinese and then went straight to the drinking games!
The next day consisted of us looking for campsites in Prague and napping to cure our weak handovers (well mainly me ;-P)
We went to a guy called Fabios house and couchsurfed there for two nights.
In the todays we were there we went to an akll you can eat sushii pLace called Samurai. We had our own personal cook who did that Terrinaki and we ate a wide variety of things like duck, beef, chicken, pork, prawn, and egg fired rice! This was our most expensive and most delicious meal so far!
The next day we had our first taste of Czech food (Golosh or something) which was good but mainly a bunch of sauce so it wasn't vvery filling. We ended goign to a 'club'which was more of a bar. It's called Cross Club and if you're ever in Prague this a need to go place. The first 2 floors and outside are plastered with car parts and all sorts of stuff from scrapyards! Everything was ether moving or had lights on it. Everything in this place was created from scratch (so I was told). There was a fooseball room with 2 playable tables,and one on the ceiling that looked like it was playing itself. THe top floor was much more chill and everything was made of wood and twine and such. Amaying!
THe following two days we went 'camping'.THis is a laughable term. Definitelynotthe Canadian way of camping. It looked like it was someones backyard filled with RVs and tents. But it was cheap so I'm not going to complain!
ANyways hopefully more will be posted tomorrow once we go to Bern, but my time is running out.
Taataa!
Cody
PS this may not be readible because I was quick typing on a horrible keyboard
RIght now we are currently in Zurich, Switzerland. The last I posted was right before we left for Prague.
The night before our bus we ended up going to Kat's bar and drinking the night away. Warren was the smart one and went to bed while I stayed upall night and talked to Kat and Saioa (Kat's roomy).
Unfortunately we ended up missing the bus , not because we were late though! We were actually 3 minutes early! But apparently that's why they tell you to arrive 30 minutes before hand. A well, serves us right for trying to make an early morning bus! We ended catching a bus 2 hours laterthat was actuall 20 dollars cheaper, so another booboo to add onto the list.
Funny story. I was waiting to get on to the bus to go to the washroom because I didn't want to pay a Euro to take a dump.So 10 minutes into the ride I decide to take a load off. When I came I was faced with the stewardess asking what I did in there, and apparently I wasn't supposed to take craps in the toilet. She wasn't pleased. I don't see why, I mean I was the one who had to clean it. She said some stuff Like why I didn't listen to the video, clearly she doesn't I'm a dumb tourist who only knows English, not crazy Czech.
Any way we finally get to PRague safe and sound and headto a hostel called CLown and Bard. CHeapest hostel bso far! We had a dorm with 28 people, but it was still fun.
On the 13th we took Pauls free tour and walked for 3 hours all around Prague, seeing everything the town ahs to offer. Froma clock tower that rings and has a bunch of active puppets and stuff like askeleton ringing a bell and random people popping out the windows. We saw a huge Cathedral that was made in something like the 12th century and the 14th century it was finally finished.
We ended up meeting up with 2 other Canadians, 2 New Zealanders and an American. We wwent out for some chinese and then went straight to the drinking games!
The next day consisted of us looking for campsites in Prague and napping to cure our weak handovers (well mainly me ;-P)
We went to a guy called Fabios house and couchsurfed there for two nights.
In the todays we were there we went to an akll you can eat sushii pLace called Samurai. We had our own personal cook who did that Terrinaki and we ate a wide variety of things like duck, beef, chicken, pork, prawn, and egg fired rice! This was our most expensive and most delicious meal so far!
The next day we had our first taste of Czech food (Golosh or something) which was good but mainly a bunch of sauce so it wasn't vvery filling. We ended goign to a 'club'which was more of a bar. It's called Cross Club and if you're ever in Prague this a need to go place. The first 2 floors and outside are plastered with car parts and all sorts of stuff from scrapyards! Everything was ether moving or had lights on it. Everything in this place was created from scratch (so I was told). There was a fooseball room with 2 playable tables,and one on the ceiling that looked like it was playing itself. THe top floor was much more chill and everything was made of wood and twine and such. Amaying!
THe following two days we went 'camping'.THis is a laughable term. Definitelynotthe Canadian way of camping. It looked like it was someones backyard filled with RVs and tents. But it was cheap so I'm not going to complain!
ANyways hopefully more will be posted tomorrow once we go to Bern, but my time is running out.
Taataa!
Cody
PS this may not be readible because I was quick typing on a horrible keyboard
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Next stop Prague!
Allllright! Now where did I last leave you guys? (Typing on a German keyboard is weird)
So the bus ride to Berlin was a little better than the one to Amsterdam. The crowd was a lot less rowdy, so we ended up sleeping most of the way. (Well as much sleep as you can get on a cramped bus). The odd thing was that when we crossed the border there was no checking of the passports so we didn#t get a German stamp in our passports.
Anyway, we got off th ebus a little bit more energiyed than we thought, and just sat around for a few minutes waiting to call our host Katyrzina, seeing as we didn't want to wake her. A few calls led us to believe she was still asleep so we decided to head to her house. Trying to figure out the subway here was actually a lot more complicated than in London (believe it or not). There was no one at all around to help us on what tickets to buy or what. So we just ok the short trip ticket, which aparantly was wrong. We got stopped by a civilian dressed officer womn dealy and she said we had the wrong tickets. Her english was as good as my german. She was going to charge us 40€ but we said we#d buy a 5 day ticket. So she let us off, whether it was because we're dumb Canadian tourists or offered to buy a bigger ticket, I don#t know. I think she only gave us the 3 day ticket, but that's not my fault. She held up 5 fingers, so I'm assuming that meant 5 dazs. Anyway, we eventually got a hold of Kat and were able to put our stuff inside and safe! We didn't end up doing much, just had a lazy day and hung out with Kat, eatnig some piyya and watching a movie.
The next day was a little more eventful. We went out and toured around town seeing what#s up with Berlin. Our first stop was the Berlin wall. Te first bit of the wall was still the original painting, but the more we moved down the wall the more it was being updated. Some parts of the wall were even white for the next people who will paint on it. One of the most interestign things is just seeing parts of the wall all over Berlin. So chunks were found in a museum by Checkpoint Charlie. Some were at a corner near the sony centre. These ones people found it a good idea to stick their gum to the side of it so there was like an inch thick layer of gum, yum yum. But I guess itäs better than the street.
After seeing the wall we decided to go to a mesuem. The best one we've gone to far, (this'll make my dad jealous) the Ramones museum!
The musuem was just like their shows, a ton of stuff crammed into a small space. There was cool stuff like Joeys pants he wore (signed by him), Johnnys guitar ( I think it was just a model or whatever zou call those, signedby him), Markys Cons that he wore, along with his drumsticks (cons signed by him and sticks signed by everyone). There was also wicked stuff like the original papers that the lyrics were written down on, like Blitzkrieg bop, I wanna be your Boyfriend, Today your love Tomorrow the world, and many others.
After that excitement we headed to CHeckpoint Charlie. Not much really here, just a major historical point so we decided to visit. After that we headed to Kats bar and had some Brews.
Yesterday, Warrens birthday, (HAPPY BDAY WARREN!) we went on an underground bunker tour that took up an hour and a half of our day. The tour was filled with fun facts of how they used to cram a bunch of people in these bunkers during the air rides, and how some people used to use these bunkers to try an d escape to the West side during the cold war. They were linked to the subway tunnels so people used to jump down by the rails and wait for the train to pass and then run behind it. Finally the police or whatever realiyed what was happening so they put these beds down that were covered in inch long nails. There was also cool glow in the dark arrows that were aparantly once toxic because of what they were made of. We were warned not to lick the walls, Bummer! just what I came to Berlin for!
Afterthat we came backto the house and waited outside for a few hours waiting for someone to open the door to the building. Don#t worry, we werent bored. Here it's legal to drink on the streets. Not only that but a HALF Litre bottle of beer is worth .60€. Thatäs like a little over a dollar for abeer twice the size of a regular canadian beer! Bless the germans for their cheap awesome beer! Evenetually we ended hadnig to a club called the Matrix at like 12;30. I was like thinking by the time we got there the party was giong to be just starting to get dispursed. I was dead wrong! We ended up partying and dancing until about 4;30 in the morning. And we only left because we were getting dehydrated from dancing and drinking. They weren't even giving anyone water (or atleast not me, but maybe that's because I don't have boobs). Anyway the nightlife isn't really nightlife here, it#s more of a morning life because people party until it's light out!
So here I am typing out what happened waiting for my laundry to be done. Lazy day today, since we have to get up at 6 tomorrow. We haven't found a CouchSurfer for Prague yet... but I'm sure one will come up!
Anyway I'm gonna head, my fingers hurt.
Oh; and here are some things I miss about canada:
Not having to pay to pee (Almost all places here you have to pay atleast .50€ to do a normal human bodily function. That#s like paying to Breathe, I'd rather pee on the streets for free thank you)
Getting free tap water. (Aparantly there's no such thing as being generous enough to give you a glass of shitty tap water)
Not having to pay attention of getting run over by crazy kamikazi bicyclests.
Byebye for now!
Cody
So the bus ride to Berlin was a little better than the one to Amsterdam. The crowd was a lot less rowdy, so we ended up sleeping most of the way. (Well as much sleep as you can get on a cramped bus). The odd thing was that when we crossed the border there was no checking of the passports so we didn#t get a German stamp in our passports.
Anyway, we got off th ebus a little bit more energiyed than we thought, and just sat around for a few minutes waiting to call our host Katyrzina, seeing as we didn't want to wake her. A few calls led us to believe she was still asleep so we decided to head to her house. Trying to figure out the subway here was actually a lot more complicated than in London (believe it or not). There was no one at all around to help us on what tickets to buy or what. So we just ok the short trip ticket, which aparantly was wrong. We got stopped by a civilian dressed officer womn dealy and she said we had the wrong tickets. Her english was as good as my german. She was going to charge us 40€ but we said we#d buy a 5 day ticket. So she let us off, whether it was because we're dumb Canadian tourists or offered to buy a bigger ticket, I don#t know. I think she only gave us the 3 day ticket, but that's not my fault. She held up 5 fingers, so I'm assuming that meant 5 dazs. Anyway, we eventually got a hold of Kat and were able to put our stuff inside and safe! We didn't end up doing much, just had a lazy day and hung out with Kat, eatnig some piyya and watching a movie.
The next day was a little more eventful. We went out and toured around town seeing what#s up with Berlin. Our first stop was the Berlin wall. Te first bit of the wall was still the original painting, but the more we moved down the wall the more it was being updated. Some parts of the wall were even white for the next people who will paint on it. One of the most interestign things is just seeing parts of the wall all over Berlin. So chunks were found in a museum by Checkpoint Charlie. Some were at a corner near the sony centre. These ones people found it a good idea to stick their gum to the side of it so there was like an inch thick layer of gum, yum yum. But I guess itäs better than the street.
After seeing the wall we decided to go to a mesuem. The best one we've gone to far, (this'll make my dad jealous) the Ramones museum!
The musuem was just like their shows, a ton of stuff crammed into a small space. There was cool stuff like Joeys pants he wore (signed by him), Johnnys guitar ( I think it was just a model or whatever zou call those, signedby him), Markys Cons that he wore, along with his drumsticks (cons signed by him and sticks signed by everyone). There was also wicked stuff like the original papers that the lyrics were written down on, like Blitzkrieg bop, I wanna be your Boyfriend, Today your love Tomorrow the world, and many others.
After that excitement we headed to CHeckpoint Charlie. Not much really here, just a major historical point so we decided to visit. After that we headed to Kats bar and had some Brews.
Yesterday, Warrens birthday, (HAPPY BDAY WARREN!) we went on an underground bunker tour that took up an hour and a half of our day. The tour was filled with fun facts of how they used to cram a bunch of people in these bunkers during the air rides, and how some people used to use these bunkers to try an d escape to the West side during the cold war. They were linked to the subway tunnels so people used to jump down by the rails and wait for the train to pass and then run behind it. Finally the police or whatever realiyed what was happening so they put these beds down that were covered in inch long nails. There was also cool glow in the dark arrows that were aparantly once toxic because of what they were made of. We were warned not to lick the walls, Bummer! just what I came to Berlin for!
Afterthat we came backto the house and waited outside for a few hours waiting for someone to open the door to the building. Don#t worry, we werent bored. Here it's legal to drink on the streets. Not only that but a HALF Litre bottle of beer is worth .60€. Thatäs like a little over a dollar for abeer twice the size of a regular canadian beer! Bless the germans for their cheap awesome beer! Evenetually we ended hadnig to a club called the Matrix at like 12;30. I was like thinking by the time we got there the party was giong to be just starting to get dispursed. I was dead wrong! We ended up partying and dancing until about 4;30 in the morning. And we only left because we were getting dehydrated from dancing and drinking. They weren't even giving anyone water (or atleast not me, but maybe that's because I don't have boobs). Anyway the nightlife isn't really nightlife here, it#s more of a morning life because people party until it's light out!
So here I am typing out what happened waiting for my laundry to be done. Lazy day today, since we have to get up at 6 tomorrow. We haven't found a CouchSurfer for Prague yet... but I'm sure one will come up!
Anyway I'm gonna head, my fingers hurt.
Oh; and here are some things I miss about canada:
Not having to pay to pee (Almost all places here you have to pay atleast .50€ to do a normal human bodily function. That#s like paying to Breathe, I'd rather pee on the streets for free thank you)
Getting free tap water. (Aparantly there's no such thing as being generous enough to give you a glass of shitty tap water)
Not having to pay attention of getting run over by crazy kamikazi bicyclests.
Byebye for now!
Cody
Monday, July 6, 2009
We'll be in Berlin by next mornin'!
Allo allo fellow readers!
When we last left off I was a little woozy from a sleepless 9 hour overnight bus ride. Not a whole lot has happened but here we go.
So the hostel we've been staying in the last 4 nights is called 'The Flying Pig', which is actually located in Noordwijk, about 30 km outside of Amsterdam. We didn't realize it was actually this far out of amsterdam, but it's well worth the travel. Besides we only really went into Amsterdam once.
Our first day we just spent touring around Noordwijk, which is an amazingly beautiful small town of about 22,000. There's beautiful landscape everywhere. ALl aorund the round-abouts they have flowers, trees, and what have you. Almost every window here has a pot of flowers in it for some reason. And EVERYONE bikes! Matter of fact the bikers have the right of way in these parts. there's bike lanes on almost every road, and if not, than the roads themselves can only be used by bikes or motorcycles, or mopeds.
Our second day was a beach day, because someone warned us it was going to rain. So we just relaxed, toured around again, and went to the beach. The beach was wonderful even when it was windy. There were kyte surfers out riding the waves and air. Some of them could get about 8 feet of air, I can't even imagin how much air they'd get on a really windy day with huge waves.
On the 4th we went into Amsterdam on the shuttle that the hostel has, (although it's more of a crappy van from the 80s). But it was only 3Euro so I'm not complaining. So we first got dropped off almost right beside central station and went straight into wandering the city aimlessly. We walked down a kinda strip mall that ran for several blocks. The odd thing was, was that they were all american stores. and multiple ones of the same! We saw atleast 3 H&Ms, 3 Levi stores, 2 Footlockers, 2 McDonalds, 2 Burger Kinds, and so many more. And that was all within a span of 4 or 5 blocks. I have no idea how these stores manage to thrive when there all clumped together. After wandering for about 3 hours we decided we should actually do something. So we tried to find our way to the Sex Museum. Wahooo!
Once we got there we realized how close our drop off point was to the musuem. We practically walked completly around the outskirts of the RedLight District. Typical of us. So we paid our 3 Euro to see some of the most kcufed up things I've seen. There we're asses on the wall of the stairs that farted on you on your way up. There were hardcor pictures dating back to the 1900-1920s, even gay pictures going back that far, which surprised me. There was a large stone penis dating back to the Roman era. There were to fairly large displays imitating the Manroe skirt shot, as well as her first nude shoot. There was a whole section of fairly descent manakins, one that was of a sailor and shot 'cum' at you once you looked into the window. One of some hideous ass prostitute that reached out and grabbed you. And right before you left there was a flasher in the a dark corner that whispered to you, then came out ripping off his coat, showing you his demented penis. There was also some naughty comics ranging from Popeye, to Batman!
After the museum we went and ate, and than toured around the hardcore part of the RLDistrict.
The RLDistrict is a lot smaller than I would have thought, but it has been slowly been getting smaller and smaller. I guess the people that live there don't like half naked women standing in the doors riught in the middle of the street, clearly there something wrong with them :-P. So of the prostitutes were pretty hot, but then again there were some doozies where you wonder how they made it in this business. Ones that looked like a dog mauled some of there face, and ones that looked like they ate the girl who was actually supposed to be in the window. We even walked down a fairly deserted alley and found us in the Tranny part of the RLD, great, smooth move Cody. But who knows, maybe the ugly, large, and manlys' give a discount or something.
Our last day was another beach day. Parents, you may want to skip the next part :-P.
We had bought some mushrooms in Amsterdam since we weren't so much bent on smoking pot. So we took the mushrooms and went to the beach. The day was filled with laughter and staring at the clouds. That's pretty much it. Or abs had a good workout that day considering we couldn't go 5 minutes wihtout bursting into giggles and laughs. On our way to the beach warren snagged his arm on some barbed wirre that was wrapped around a post. God only knows why they would put barbed wire so close to the entry of such a beautiful place. Don't worry, it wasn't deep, just long.
At night there were two lives bands playing IN the hostel. Which baffled me. I never thought they;d be able to get a band in a hostel. Especially one this size. It was actually pretty crowded in here and everyone was having a blasty blast. There were 2 scottish ladies (one about 50, the other about 30) who were there before the banned started, and they were the life of the party. I could only understand half of what they were saying, and some people couldn't understand anything. But whatever came out of there mouths was a hoot, understandable or not!
Anyway that's pretty muh all I have to say, I've gotta go check out now and head back to Amsterdam for the bus!
Cheers!
Cody
Oh, and PS:
We're not so worried about our money situation anymore. We've calculated it out, and so far we're only about 4 days over budget. Which is mainly because we've been staying in hostels the whole time. But we've found Couchsurfer hosts for all of Berlin, and hopefully we'll be able to do the same with Czech Republic! So we're sure that after this next week we'll be back on track!
Have a good time in Canada :-P
When we last left off I was a little woozy from a sleepless 9 hour overnight bus ride. Not a whole lot has happened but here we go.
So the hostel we've been staying in the last 4 nights is called 'The Flying Pig', which is actually located in Noordwijk, about 30 km outside of Amsterdam. We didn't realize it was actually this far out of amsterdam, but it's well worth the travel. Besides we only really went into Amsterdam once.
Our first day we just spent touring around Noordwijk, which is an amazingly beautiful small town of about 22,000. There's beautiful landscape everywhere. ALl aorund the round-abouts they have flowers, trees, and what have you. Almost every window here has a pot of flowers in it for some reason. And EVERYONE bikes! Matter of fact the bikers have the right of way in these parts. there's bike lanes on almost every road, and if not, than the roads themselves can only be used by bikes or motorcycles, or mopeds.
Our second day was a beach day, because someone warned us it was going to rain. So we just relaxed, toured around again, and went to the beach. The beach was wonderful even when it was windy. There were kyte surfers out riding the waves and air. Some of them could get about 8 feet of air, I can't even imagin how much air they'd get on a really windy day with huge waves.
On the 4th we went into Amsterdam on the shuttle that the hostel has, (although it's more of a crappy van from the 80s). But it was only 3Euro so I'm not complaining. So we first got dropped off almost right beside central station and went straight into wandering the city aimlessly. We walked down a kinda strip mall that ran for several blocks. The odd thing was, was that they were all american stores. and multiple ones of the same! We saw atleast 3 H&Ms, 3 Levi stores, 2 Footlockers, 2 McDonalds, 2 Burger Kinds, and so many more. And that was all within a span of 4 or 5 blocks. I have no idea how these stores manage to thrive when there all clumped together. After wandering for about 3 hours we decided we should actually do something. So we tried to find our way to the Sex Museum. Wahooo!
Once we got there we realized how close our drop off point was to the musuem. We practically walked completly around the outskirts of the RedLight District. Typical of us. So we paid our 3 Euro to see some of the most kcufed up things I've seen. There we're asses on the wall of the stairs that farted on you on your way up. There were hardcor pictures dating back to the 1900-1920s, even gay pictures going back that far, which surprised me. There was a large stone penis dating back to the Roman era. There were to fairly large displays imitating the Manroe skirt shot, as well as her first nude shoot. There was a whole section of fairly descent manakins, one that was of a sailor and shot 'cum' at you once you looked into the window. One of some hideous ass prostitute that reached out and grabbed you. And right before you left there was a flasher in the a dark corner that whispered to you, then came out ripping off his coat, showing you his demented penis. There was also some naughty comics ranging from Popeye, to Batman!
After the museum we went and ate, and than toured around the hardcore part of the RLDistrict.
The RLDistrict is a lot smaller than I would have thought, but it has been slowly been getting smaller and smaller. I guess the people that live there don't like half naked women standing in the doors riught in the middle of the street, clearly there something wrong with them :-P. So of the prostitutes were pretty hot, but then again there were some doozies where you wonder how they made it in this business. Ones that looked like a dog mauled some of there face, and ones that looked like they ate the girl who was actually supposed to be in the window. We even walked down a fairly deserted alley and found us in the Tranny part of the RLD, great, smooth move Cody. But who knows, maybe the ugly, large, and manlys' give a discount or something.
Our last day was another beach day. Parents, you may want to skip the next part :-P.
We had bought some mushrooms in Amsterdam since we weren't so much bent on smoking pot. So we took the mushrooms and went to the beach. The day was filled with laughter and staring at the clouds. That's pretty much it. Or abs had a good workout that day considering we couldn't go 5 minutes wihtout bursting into giggles and laughs. On our way to the beach warren snagged his arm on some barbed wirre that was wrapped around a post. God only knows why they would put barbed wire so close to the entry of such a beautiful place. Don't worry, it wasn't deep, just long.
At night there were two lives bands playing IN the hostel. Which baffled me. I never thought they;d be able to get a band in a hostel. Especially one this size. It was actually pretty crowded in here and everyone was having a blasty blast. There were 2 scottish ladies (one about 50, the other about 30) who were there before the banned started, and they were the life of the party. I could only understand half of what they were saying, and some people couldn't understand anything. But whatever came out of there mouths was a hoot, understandable or not!
Anyway that's pretty muh all I have to say, I've gotta go check out now and head back to Amsterdam for the bus!
Cheers!
Cody
Oh, and PS:
We're not so worried about our money situation anymore. We've calculated it out, and so far we're only about 4 days over budget. Which is mainly because we've been staying in hostels the whole time. But we've found Couchsurfer hosts for all of Berlin, and hopefully we'll be able to do the same with Czech Republic! So we're sure that after this next week we'll be back on track!
Have a good time in Canada :-P
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