"Have you seen the canals?" "I am a canal!!"

Writing this a while after the fact but things went from chaos to chaos once I got back to London. From Brugge I hopped a train (make that three trains) to Amsterdam. My hostel was at the edge of the red light district right off of Dam Square one of the main plazas in Amsterdam. It was an amazing hostel with incredibly comfortable beds, two bathrooms in our room, the bar/lounge area was huge and had a leather seating area around a big-screen tv with dvds to watch or a Wii to play. There was also a pool table, cheap bar with good food and a selection of board games and such you could borrow.

First day in I wandered around the city a little bit, found a large tulip market and got a bit lost. It’s a great city to get lost in though, beautiful little house along the canals, quite quaint. When I got back to the hostel I went up to the roof terrace to have a drink and bumped in to two Americans I had met in the hostel earlier. We decided to go out for a beer and run around the city a bit, added another American to our group as we were out and about before finally crashing back in the room for an early night around midnight.

Cute graffiti I found

My second day in I decided to go on one of the free walking tours to learn about the city. Our tour guide was, surprise surprise, Australia, and incredibly enthusiastic.

that bridge is the highest point in all of Amsterdam

He told us all sorts of stories about the city including one about miracle bread that was fireproof and a pilgrimage point for many years before it was lost in a river (fireproof but not waterproof, what a shame). He told us about Amsterdam’s idea of “plausible deniability” which they use to this day as long as it is for the good of the people. Many years ago Catholicism was supposed to be wiped out but the Amsterdamers were a tolerable people and didn’t want to kick out all their catholic citizens so instead they told them they had to practice in secret, they could have secret churches to go to but not out in the open, that way Amsterdam could claim they had wiped out Catholicism. So people built churches inside their homes, these generally weren’t small churches either (see if you can spot the one on this street).

It's the one on the far left, with the crane in front
The inside sanctuary of the hidden church
They had cool markings on the window to line up with buildings in the distance and tell you
what the building you're seeing is

The one pictured above could fit 400 people inside for services. And it has the second largest pipe organ in Amsterdam inside. Well, since the organ was played during the services it wasn’t hard for nearby Protestants to hear that and figure out what was going on. They would go to the police and say “There is a Catholic church over here, you need to do something about it because it’s not allowed”. So the police would go to the street and look around, “I don’t see a church, I just see houses” and that would be it. It was better for the people and the city to do that.

Typical courtyard that the houses face on to

My favorite story though is from World War II. During the war the Nazis came into Amsterdam and took over. At first things were alright, then the Nazis starting trying to push the Jewish community in to a fight to be able to claim they were unstable and needed to be quarantined. After this happened the Nazis went one day and dragged 200 Jewish men out of their homes, through the streets and into the train cars to take them away never to be seen again, this was a Saturday. They went back the next day and did it again. However, Sundays are market days and the two biggest markets in Amsterdam are located directly at the entrances to the Jewish Quarter, so it was witnessed by many non-Jewish Amsterdamers. One of these people went and talked with some of the tram drivers, he said "I just saw the Nazis pull 200 Amsterdamers from their homes and take them away", the fact that they were Jewish was never mentioned from that point forward, the people of Amsterdam did not care if the people were Jewish or not because they were Amsterdamers. The tram drivers were outraged and decided to go on strike the next day which stopped the entire city. As people began to hear the story of why there were no trams they marched on Dam Square, how could the Nazis do something like this to Amsterdamers, it wasn't right, they were very upset. The second day of the tram strike there were over 10,000 Amsterdamers in the square protesting for the basic human rights of their fellow men, they were all Amsterdamers and should be treated the same. The Nazis were very embarresed by all of this and went to the mayor of the city and told him that he had to do something to stop the protests. The mayor simple looked at them and said "No. I am an Amsterdamer". Sadly the Nazis took things into their own hands and ended up opening fire on the crowd of protesters killing 9 in the process. But for that time they stood together and provided a united front with the simple phrase "I am an Amsterdamer", you can still see it on shirts, bags all sorts of things throughout the city. I just think it's such an amazing story, that during that time they were brave enough to stand up like that, to try and protect citizens of their city.

That's how our guided ended the tour, giving all of us chills but loving the city more than we had a few minutes before. After it was done I went with the tour guide and two kiwis I had met at breakfast in Brugge (traveling is a very small world) to have a beer at a cafe along one of the many canals. That evening I met two American guys staying in my room and we headed down to the bar for some pool, food and beer. I found that I actually get a bit better at pool when I've had a beer, strange how that works. We met another American girl who was staying in our room as well and the four of us played a few more rounds before moving over to a table to play some cards. I taught them all how to play Upstairs Downstairs (to this day one of my favorite games) and we ended up playing so many hands of it, the guys absolutely loved it although the girl bowed out after a few rounds.

My last day I spent mostly wandering the city. I saw the Van Gogh museum but I think I prefer to see Van Gogh in the Philadelphia Museum of Art where it is a lot less crowded and you can sit and just enjoy being around the work. I wandered through a neighborhood called Jordaan, full of cute little shops and cafes, much less touristy. That evening I met up with the American guys again for a few beers and a bunch more hands of Upstairs Downstairs, they were right into the game.

The day I left for London was fairly relaxing, I again wandered around a bit, did a bit of souvenir shopping and that was about it. London however turned to chaos which I will discuss soon, maybe after a few more days of sleep.

In Bruges

Just to confirm how bad a backpacker I am Friday was chaos for me. It didn’t start that way of course. I had breakfast and got everything pack to head to the airport. Arrived in time to join the giant queue with plenty of time before my flight to Brussels. I couldn’t find my flight on the board but figured it just wasn’t up yet. About a quarter of the way through the line my flight still wasn’t on the board, I double-checked the airport, time and day, the 21st from Schoenefeld at 1:25. At about half way though when my flight still wasn’t up I decided to study my ticket one more time. It was at this point that I read the full date, not just the day. My flight is scheduled for the 21st indeed, of October. After much grief it would have cost me 167euros to change my flight to one going to Brussels later on Friday, but considering I only spent 34euros on the first flight this didn’t appeal to me at all. I went back to my hostel and began to see what my best option was, another flight, a train, a bus or driving. I kind of had my fingers crossed for driving just because I’d get to see so much more of Germany and Europe that way, way too expensive though. Instead I booked myself on a Swiss airlines flight for Saturday morning, which put me in to Brugge around 5. The hostel in Bruges was wonderful about the whole thing went I sent them an email to explain and the rearrange my booking to two days and didn’t charge me for the night I had booked but wasn’t arriving for, this was very considerate because most hostels, I doubt, would do something like that.

Brugge was a great little city. I wandered around a bit that evening to see some of the city before grabbing a drink with an aussie named Kerry who was staying in the same room as me. She was a very nice lady living outside of Brisbane who is taking a few months to travel and clear her head after the loss of her husband. We got on well enough that we're going to try and meet up whenever one of us is near the city of the other.

One of the two main town squares

One of the old towngates with a traitors skull on it

The traitors skull

Some old bell-towers

This fountain reminds me of the "Orange Mocha Frappaccino" statue from Zoolander

Sunday in Brugge I got up early and ran around the city a bit before grabbing a bike and headed out to the countryside. Their bike trails were incredibly easy to follow leading you from point to point. I made it to the ocean in a little under 2 hours and after strolling along the boardwalk a bit I laid down to tan a bit and swim in the ocean. The bike rides were very cool, through farms, past cows and sheep and such. Monday morning I headed off to the train station to begin the journey to Amsterdam, my last stop before heading out to London.

The East Berlin Ministry of Ministries

Two posts in one day, so exciting for you guys.

Wednesday morning was more traveling, a 5 hour bus ride to be exact, out to Berlin. It didn’t take me long to realize that a day and a half in Berlin would not be long enough and for the first time I was wishing I could extend my stay by a few more days, you just can’t see and do it all in such a short time.

My first day I booked it across the city after checking in to my hostel, to make it to the last free walking tour of the day and I am so glad I did. It was over 4 hours long and our guide knew so much and was so entertaining. We saw almost every sight in Berlin and learned lots of cool stories. I found out that they do a few free walking tours in Amsterdam too so I’m going to be sure to check those out when I get there.

The TV tower that watches you from everywhere in the city, communists are creepy like that

From inside the Memorial dedicated to the death of Jews

Outside of the memorial

Inside of an abandoned buildings from the communist time

At the Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie (and no that isn't Charlie in the picture)

Summer our awesome tour guide who knew so much and was really funny

I finally dragged myself back to the hostel around 9, had some dinner and met one of the guys in my room Tom, from Byron Bay Australia. We chatted for a while exchanging stories of where we had been and craziness from the road, I had to do a few things online so I headed downstairs for that. While I was at the front desk downstairs a guy checking in claimed he knew me, he looked familiar so I was sure it was true and we tried to figure out how we knew each other (turns out it’s from Vienna, he helped me get on the internet in our hostel but I never saw him after that). The guy at the desk of our hostel was so amused by us he gave us each a token for a free drink at the bar, which we gladly accepted. Tom came down to join us and we ended up all sitting around talking until the bar closed around 1am.

Thursday I grabbed Alex, the American kid I met in Vienna, and we headed to find the bike tour. After much confusing we ended up on one that went around hitting all the sites of Berlin, most of which I had already seen. But it’s interesting to compare the stories and how different guides tell things, plus I love riding around on those cruisers. We headed through a giant park to a beer garden for lunch, along the way getting subjected to sprinkler attacks (which were very nice and cooling) and a quick ride past the nude bathing area (which was not so nice and very frightening). By the end of the bike tour I felt I had learned all I could from these type things so we headed to see the part of the Berlin Wall that is still painted/being repainted by original artists. It stretched for a very long time, probably took us 20 minutes to walk down, and looked amazing all the work that went in to some of the paintings.

Random lightbulbs in the trees outside Parliament

Alex and I in front of Parliament

At the colorful part of the Berlin Wall

Back at the hostel I got ready to do an alternative pub-crawl with Tom while Alex went out with a native Berliner to be shown some of the sites. Tom and I headed down to this little bar where I almost jumped when I realized the people at the end of the bar were so still because they were mannequins, freaky. It wasn’t a huge group, 15 at the most. Our first stop was a dungeon like bar which was known to play host to the likes of Rammstein (a German heavy metal band) so it was a bit weird when they played Blink 182, but oh well, good atmosphere none-the-less.

After that we were taken to a hole in the wall bar that probably only existed a few times a week, ping-pong was the game at this place. Everyone started by walking around the table and volleying the ball back and forth, if you screwed up you were out and sat in one of the chairs around the wall, this kept going until it was down to two people who played an actual game of ping-pong before it all started again. My skills are legendary for the fact that I’m known to hit balls 90degrees to the side, so I sat it out, but Tom managed to make it down to the top 6 at one point.

Our final “bar” was an abandoned industrial complex with a bar outside and trance/house music playing inside. We danced ourselves silly before deciding we should probably find our way home to get a bit of sleep. We got quiet a shock when our tour guide informed us that we should be able to get the tram easily as it had just started running for the day, we had no idea it was so late, 4am to be exact. It is very understandable now why Berlin nightlife goes on for so long. We managed to make it back to the hostel a bit before 5 and fall into bed for a bit of sleep.

The second pub, all dungeon like and creepy

Tom and me on the crawl

Tom made it through the second round

Czech me out

Sunday I caught a bus from Cesky Krumlov to Prague. It was a long day of traveling and the hostel isn’t right in the city center so I decided to relax in the hostel for the remainder of the day. A quick grocery trip and shower later and I was feeling pretty good, although I was a little sad because I was put into an 8 bed girlie room but there is no one else in here, a little lonely although kind of nice to not have to make small talk and can relax however I’d like, which includes watching a movie without headphones, luxury J

Monday I went on a couple hour bike tour to see the sites of Prague and figure out what I wanted to go back and see. After the tour I walked back around the city a bit, up through the castle complex. I finally had to head to the shopping district to see if I could find a dress or skirt because the heat was way way too much, up in the 90s the past two days. Luckily our hostel has a swimming pool so I used that to cool down before dinner and getting ready to go on a pub-crawl.

Part of the main square in Old Town Prague

Astrological clock tower

Statues of two guys peeing on the Czech Republic, don't ask me, I don't get it either

Creepy baby art

The cathedral

random street art I thought was cool

I bumped into a guy, Owen, at the front desk while I was getting ready to go to the pub-crawl and he and his friend were thinking about going but since I still left the hostel along I didn’t have too high of expectations but Owen and his friend Pete joined me at the tram stop and we formed a little group for the evening. They’re both from Birmingham England in university right now, very nice kids.

The pub-crawl is what I kind of expected, a loud American tour guide who told everyone their job for the night was to drink and get messed up. The first bar they gave us free beer for the first hour and a half and shoved shots at us every chance they got. I tried one of the shots, vodka mixed with fanta, and realized it tasted horrible so I stuck to the beer. The three of us formed a pretty powerful little group as we kept pulling people in and make friends left and right. However about the 3^rd bar I was exhausted and Owen was drunk so we decided to call it quits for the night and head back to get some sleep.

Owen, me and Pete

Owen and Guy

Me and Pete

Tuesday was my final day in Prague and I spent it mostly wandering aimlessly. I started with a side trip to a market down the street from my hostel, a black market it turns out. It was a very strange experience, they sell everything there from underwear to brass knuckles. I wasn't the biggest fan, there were tons of people around but the stall owners kept bothering you and trying to touch you or whatever to get you into their stall and buy there stuff so I didn't stay there very long. After that I went up to the top of the park where they had replaced a giant statue of Stalin first with one of Michael Jackson for his “History” tour back in 1996 and then a giant metronome, which is up there to this day. Around that is a skatepark, it was fairly easy to get distracted by the view from up there and all the chaos of the park. I slowly moved towards the castle to visit the cathedral, which is beautiful inside. I love European cathedrals because they are so light and generally very white inside; it just makes for an amazing contrast to the grit and dirt outside.

part of the old platform for the Stalin statue

The cathedral

Birds of prey in the castle complex

I wandered from the castle in to the park next door to get a nice view of the city including the castle. Along the way hidden in the woods were these little caves with seating. I'm not entirely sure what they were for but they are pretty old, one of them had graffiti carving on it from 1916.

One of the weird little carved out areas I found, so random

From there I wandered down through a few parks, to Lennon’s Wall, called that because people could write what they want down there during communism and Lennon was seen as a beacon of the west and freedom. I also crossed over this bridge covered in locks. It is a tradition that when a couple gets married in Prague that they attach a lock to this bridge and throw the key in the river. Most of the locks were from this year besides some significantly old ones so I think they must cut most down at the end of the year to allow people to continue this tradition.

After wandering for a while longer I headed to a beer garden in the park to meet an aussie couple from my bike tour. After a nice meal and great conversation we part ways agreeing we should meet up when they move to Melbourne in a few months, it’s nice that I can make friends for my time in Australia now.