Ich Liebe Berlin!

Berlin Berlin Berlin! Where to begin...This place felt so modern, efficient, and well, German. We arrived with no place to call our home for four days. We found another Wombats hostel and asked if they had vacancies; they did not. So we ended up at another nice hostel called St. Christopher´s; Problem was, they only had a vacancy for one day...which meant we spent our time in Berlin in a different hostel each day since other hostels had the same problem. No worries. It felt like a different Berlin each time.

On our first official day we went on a Free Tour. The deal is this: You meet up with someone from the company that takes you to the meeting point where you are with other budget minders, and then paired up with your tour guide. The guide takes you to all the interesting spots Berlin has to offer ( Jewish Memorial, Berlin Wall, Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, etc.) and is also entertaining along the way. At the end, you decide how much to pay the guide since he ultimately works on tips. We had a really cool guy named Ben who was so much in love with Berlin he wanted to marry it if he could...

I also have to mention we ended up going to a pub crawl later that evening hosted by the same company. It was pretty much a group of people (some from the tour earlier that day) that venture d to five different bars and then a dance club. There was limitless supply of vodka-orange for everyone! It pretty much got Nat and I good and drunk and we danced the night away to crazy German pop music.

The next day (afternoon?) we awoke to Natalie being officially sick; she was coming down with something earlier but it hit her the day after we drank too much remedy (beer) the day before...oops. So we spent the day at the Museum Quarter where we laid out on the grass and ate Pho noodle soup from a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. We thought about Lisa and how this soup was really pronounced...

On our last day we visited the Bauhaus Museum, where an important design movement occured in art history; I was actually not as impressed as I thought I would be. There was more furniture and building design than the others aspects they covered in class ( posters, paintings, packaging) but it was still informative. We then headed north to the outskirts of Berlin to see the model concentration camp Sachsenhausen...it was spooky being there when no one was around ( we kinda got there late, but the place still left an impact).

We ended our last night in Berlin with a Krugerl (huge pint of beer) and said goodbye to this crazy town.

Czech it- Praha!

Ahh...Prague. There was so many, shall we say, contradictions to this enchanting city. We arrived in the hot afternoon to a place that we really didn't know much of; mind you, there was only so much Monet could tell us about this place, but seeing the train station signs in Czech made us slightly more worried...There was a load of people at the train station and the first person we spoke to wasn't very accomodating. I'm not sure if it was just the way they spoke/ cultural difference, but they spoke to you in such a tone as if they were mad at every one that even looked in their direction. It might also be the bunch of tourists who have arrived and taken over in August to this town that might make them a little hostile.

The first night we arrived we met this really cool chick named Gayle from Atlanta with whom we decided to take the "Ghost and Beer Tour" with; wow. When we got to the meeting place, we were met by this very old man named Milan. This was not good. We felt bad for the old man, but we figured we'd give him a chance. He spoke slow and with a strong accent. After the tour Natalie wanted ice cream so we headed to the nearest stand; the ice man preceded to not only jipp Nat but then decided to deny his shortchangings...we later went to a local eatery/ bar where they took our order but then told us the kitchen was closed; that would've been fine except they kept serving everyone else well after they had told us that (?!).

It's not like I'm bagging poor Prague, but it did have its quirks...the winding roads and the great art noveau everywhere made it a very interesting town. There was the Prague Castle ( what a climb!) the Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock, and the Jewish Cemetery in the old Jewish Quarter. We went to the Mucha museum (my favorite artist...hint hint) and then to the Franz Kafka museum which was kooky in its own sense..(lets just say Nat got freaked out and wanted to leave the place but couldn't).


PS- Its been a while with the posting, but internet is scarce and very expensive; oh, and people don't believe in USB drives or something, because I haven't found one to post some neat photos; Oh well.

Vienna

So much to do in Vienna! This capital was such a bustling city that we felt there was still stuff we didn't get to do; But we did do a lot. The first night we arrived we tried to be lucky again and tried to find a hostel nearby. We stumbled upon this lovely place called Wombats that had a single room that overlooked the city.

We ended up going to the Reisengrad, a giant ferris wheel and a permanent carnival scene. As a side note, we should mention that the transit system is so freakin efficent that it boggles the mind; there was always a tram arriving every 5 minutes. However, they seem to stop at some point at night because we didn't have a tram back home. Mind you, we did have another stop at a bar named Flex located by the river, but we missed the last tram by ten minutes. We ultimately ended up taking a taxi, which made us realize how far away we really were. This made for a very grumpy little sis...anywho, the next morning we awoke to a gloomy morning and headed back into the Old Town. Our first stop was St. Stephen's Cathedral which was busting from the seams from so many visitors. We also visited the Hopsburg Palace and went to two art museums- the Albertina and the Leopold, before it began to pour...

The Hills Are Alive!!!

Hallo!

Well, Austria has been very interesting so far...at least Salzburg. A couple of things: One, people really love the Mozarts, and Two, people really love "The Sound of Music". Anywho, we arrived on Monday to this quaint place from an 8 hour train ride to figure out where we were staying...we were lucky enough to not only find a hostel at walking distance, but a very nice one at that. Tuesday we walked through the Old Town to see Mozart's birthplace and some of the 80 churches they have here. We also ventured up to the Fortress for a lovely overview of Salzburg.

Today we will be venturing into the capital, Vienna (Wien). There will be lots to do, so we will keep you posted! Auf Wiedersehen!

And so it begins!

Hi everyone!

I've arrived across the Pond to Milan and now to lovely Austria. Oddly enough, even without seeing or using my mad German skills for about three years, I've somehow acquired them all back...perhaps due to necessity. Anywho, I will be updating soon with pics as soon as I can..

Auf Wiedersehen!