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.

The Republic that is Czech

I took a shuttle from Vienna to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic on Friday. The hostel I was in was so great, very relaxed and friendly like the other ones in small towns I’ve been enjoying. I was tired and since I got there late in the day I joined the group that was settled in the living room to watch the end of Edward Scissorhands and then do a few things for school. Some of the kids went out to dinner but there were a few of us who stayed behind to eat at the hostel and relax in the living room. By the time everyone was back we had a large group of aussie and kiwis sitting around chatting, eventually we took on a large game of Uno which was fun.

Saturday I got up and wandered into town. It’s not a very big town but it is a very old one so that made it interesting to figure out how to get around. After getting lost once I finally managed to find my way up to the castle complex. I wandered all the way to the other side, through the castle gardens and on to the castle pond, which was so smooth that it reflected everything around it.

I went to a place called Deli 99 for lunch because going there is the main reason I went to Cesky Krumlov. Andrew went there while he was backpacking and kept talking about how amazing the sandwiches are and how I had to try them. They were quiet tasty indeed and totally worth it.

The rest of my day was spent wandering, watching the bears at the castle, watching the people who were rafting and kayaking fall coming off this one little waterfall. The rafting and such looked like so much fun, I wish I had more people with me so I could have gone too. There were lots of people congregating on the bridge near the one waterfall and around the sides and cheers would go up whenever someone made it down the waterfall without falling out, although a lot of times a groan would be heard soon after because if the kayak didn’t tip it would generally sink or turn over soon after the waterfall. It was an amazingly entertaining way to spend some time.

I found this great old Lomo 35mm camera in an antique store, it was only 8# and seems to be in working condition so I’m going to play with it more when I get home, I love new cameras. I picked up a book in the local English bookstore, apparently the largest one in the Czech Republic. The shop girl was tried to direct me to a set of ruins outside the town but I got a bit confused I think unless this was it.

She referred to it as “the castle for birds” because it was all ruins. I walked down several country roads in the area she told me to look and that was all I found, even after speaking to a very nice little old Czech woman gathering dried hay, crazy times.