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
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Damn Man! On the Beach in Amsterdam!
Where to start, where to start?
The beginning shall we:
Well June 27th was an interesting day indeed. I should have listened to my mothers advice and taken Friday night lightly. Instead I indulged way too much into drinking. I ended up waking in the living room with a swollen fist and a swollen brain. All I'm going to say is that June 27th marks the worst hangover I've ever had, maybe on the verge of some sort of alcohol poisoning. Fear not, by the time Warren and I reached the airport I was back on my feet ready for the 7 our flight.
The flight was not fun however. It was cramped, but I survived.
So we land at Gatwik airport all revved up about starting our Euro trip! Unfortunately our housing plans went into the garbage. Which Is odd because for some reason there are NO dumpsters in London. I have no idea how they keep the city so nice and clean with no garbage cans.
Anyway, we managed to figure out how the Tube system works and started visiting some remarkable sites. We first went to Big Ben, headed to Westminster Abbey, then we randomly wandered the city trying to find somewhere to stay and or find somewhere to stay. (Our GPS system was dead and no plugins to be found). Exhausted, aggravated, and flustered we found ourselves in Buckingham Palace. Which was way beautiful, but we were to tired to take any pictures (don't worry we return again later). Luckily we ran into another Canadian and he recommended we stay at a hostel called St Christopher Inn. So we took the tube to London Bridge and found a wonderful place to stay for the night.
I slept for good 11 hours, and woke up feeling refreshed and pumped up! So we locked away our 20 kilos backpacks and ended up going back to Buckingham Palace to take a few pictures and fortunately caught a glimpse of the changing of the guards. After that we headed to a Cartoon museum, but unfortunately it was closed on mondays :-(. So we just ended up going to the british Museum, which to our wonderful surprise was free. After that we just wanted to get our packs and head to a new (and less pricy) hostel. So we had to go a little bit more south down to Greenwich. Bad idea. The hostel was hot, and VERY smelly. The rooms weren't so bad, but the 'chill room' smelled like an explosion of outhouse happened and now one bothered cleaning it up for a decade. But we ended up staying here for 2 nights.
Next day was mainly spent sulking around doing whatever we could for free, (like the London Science Museum, but the Toronto one is so much better). This is when we came to the conclusion we may not be able to make a full 2 months wandering around on the fly. CouchSurfers isn't working for us because we don't have boobs, and no experience, so no one wants us. So we booked an overnight bus to the Amsterdam and went to bed.
CANADA DAY!!!
We woke up, got charged and feeling better we went to Trafalgar Square where there was a Canada celebration. There was hockey being played (not on ice :-P), and some concerts after the hockey. Prices were still damn expensive. 5 pound burgers and 5 Pounds beers. what a rip off, you could get acase of burgers and a 6 packs of beer for that price in Canada. Anyway we were spent by the end of the day so we went on our bus to Amsterdam!
I'll continue this later, some people are luring around waiting to use the only computer in this hostel.
Taataa for now!
Cody
The beginning shall we:
Well June 27th was an interesting day indeed. I should have listened to my mothers advice and taken Friday night lightly. Instead I indulged way too much into drinking. I ended up waking in the living room with a swollen fist and a swollen brain. All I'm going to say is that June 27th marks the worst hangover I've ever had, maybe on the verge of some sort of alcohol poisoning. Fear not, by the time Warren and I reached the airport I was back on my feet ready for the 7 our flight.
The flight was not fun however. It was cramped, but I survived.
So we land at Gatwik airport all revved up about starting our Euro trip! Unfortunately our housing plans went into the garbage. Which Is odd because for some reason there are NO dumpsters in London. I have no idea how they keep the city so nice and clean with no garbage cans.
Anyway, we managed to figure out how the Tube system works and started visiting some remarkable sites. We first went to Big Ben, headed to Westminster Abbey, then we randomly wandered the city trying to find somewhere to stay and or find somewhere to stay. (Our GPS system was dead and no plugins to be found). Exhausted, aggravated, and flustered we found ourselves in Buckingham Palace. Which was way beautiful, but we were to tired to take any pictures (don't worry we return again later). Luckily we ran into another Canadian and he recommended we stay at a hostel called St Christopher Inn. So we took the tube to London Bridge and found a wonderful place to stay for the night.
I slept for good 11 hours, and woke up feeling refreshed and pumped up! So we locked away our 20 kilos backpacks and ended up going back to Buckingham Palace to take a few pictures and fortunately caught a glimpse of the changing of the guards. After that we headed to a Cartoon museum, but unfortunately it was closed on mondays :-(. So we just ended up going to the british Museum, which to our wonderful surprise was free. After that we just wanted to get our packs and head to a new (and less pricy) hostel. So we had to go a little bit more south down to Greenwich. Bad idea. The hostel was hot, and VERY smelly. The rooms weren't so bad, but the 'chill room' smelled like an explosion of outhouse happened and now one bothered cleaning it up for a decade. But we ended up staying here for 2 nights.
Next day was mainly spent sulking around doing whatever we could for free, (like the London Science Museum, but the Toronto one is so much better). This is when we came to the conclusion we may not be able to make a full 2 months wandering around on the fly. CouchSurfers isn't working for us because we don't have boobs, and no experience, so no one wants us. So we booked an overnight bus to the Amsterdam and went to bed.
CANADA DAY!!!
We woke up, got charged and feeling better we went to Trafalgar Square where there was a Canada celebration. There was hockey being played (not on ice :-P), and some concerts after the hockey. Prices were still damn expensive. 5 pound burgers and 5 Pounds beers. what a rip off, you could get acase of burgers and a 6 packs of beer for that price in Canada. Anyway we were spent by the end of the day so we went on our bus to Amsterdam!
I'll continue this later, some people are luring around waiting to use the only computer in this hostel.
Taataa for now!
Cody
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