Paris in the Rain

I spent 3 nights in Paris. I won't write much, but let the pictures speak for themselves! The city is quite pretty, with beautiful buildings, all of which seem to have window-boxes with pink flowers.. and the Eiffel Tower is pretty spectacular at night! I didn't really enjoy Paris though. It could've been the rain, or the fact that half of Paris tries to steal from you or con you out of your money or rip you off, or the fact that it's so expensive, or even the fact that the metro system is madness! So I was happy to leave.

My hostel was St. Christopher's.. and this was by far the BEST hostel I've found! It's the first purpose-built hostel in Paris, and actually sits out in one of the canals. My room was on the end of the building and had amazing views at night. Each of the beds also had its own curtain, so you almost had your own little room! And breakfast was included. I've come to really appreciate those things!

One bad thing.. I went to Montmatre, where the Moulin Rouge is. You can walk up this hill to a church called the Sacre Couer. Thankfully, I'd been warned about the people up there. These African guys are up there with these bracelets, and they'll grab your arm as you walk past and start tying it around your wrist, and a lot of people fall for it and let them. Then they'll demand 25 Euros. Ouch! That's about $40 Australian. They'll stand in your way too, so you have to push past them. I knew to say no and keep walking, but these older ladies at the hostel told me they were accosted by them and had to pay them! One of the older ladies also got pickpocketed too.

The Paris underground metro system is utter madness, if you ask me! I think they purposely try to get tourists lost. There are 2 systems, the RER and the metro, with countless lines, each with colour-coded numbers and letters. In any other city I've been to over here, the metro has been easy to use. But we got completely lost in Paris. Thankfully, the French DO NOT live up to their reputation for being slightly rude, and they were lovely and helpful, and 3 different people eventually directed us to where we needed to go. On top of the confusing system, people literally sprint for their trains and you will die if you get in their way. The next day, though, after I knew how the system actually worked, I managed to catch the 3 connecting trains to the Eiffel Tower on my own!

In other news, I lost 20 Euros by getting ripped off by a bike tour that cancelled and wouldn't refund me, and I lost more Euros at a call shop when they conned me out of my money for a phone call I didn't even get to make!! All in all, I was so frustrated with Paris by the time I left. It simply ate up all my money. I'm pretty over-budget now, so I'm spending the bare minimum for a few days. Now I'm in Bruges in Belgium. It is absolutely beautiful, and I love it.. there are sooo many chocolate shops. I'm spending 4 nights here and I'm pretty happy with the idea of that!

Southern Germany.. Munich and Stuttgart

I wasn't that keen on Munich, actually! I think I can put it down to the weather and a certain visit to a concentration camp. It was freezing and fairly wet for the 3 nights I was there, and there just didn't seem to be that much to do in the city, if you were a tourist who didn't like beer. I did like the Englischer Garten, which was absolutely huge, and which it took a couple of hours to walk through! I did stop at a beer garden for lunch. Sauerkraut is actually reeeaaally nice! I don't have much more to say about Munich. I couldn't really afford the train to get out to Neuschwanstein Castle, so I gave it a miss. But I did go out to Dachau Concentration Camp. I probably should've taken a tour, so I could get a more balanced, maybe not so full-on gruesome picture of the place. But I walked through the museum and just felt sick after that. I thought I'd heard pretty much all there is to hear about the Holocaust and anti-semitism, and I didn't think I could still be shocked by it. But I couldn't stand being in that place, and left pretty soon after arriving. I'd never really had that reaction to history before.. I felt sick.

Stuttgart was one of the stops on Busabout that was not so popular, so only 3 of us got off the bus there. It is a really nice little city, and I enjoyed it heaps! Great shopping, and amazingly good ice-cream. I only stayed 2 nights though. One one day they had a street festival type thing, with a band playing Robbie Williams and other contemporary stuff! It's funny how so many of them don't speak English, but when it comes to music, that's all they sing! I also bought a mini Eiffel Tower from a flea market here, which is kinda ironic cos I hadn't yet been to Paris. The guy laughed when I bought it and explained that I was going there tomorrow.. but it was 50c, so much cheaper than in Paris! The highlight of Stuttgart was getting my OWN ROOM the second night!! The single room was only a bit bigger than the size of a bed, but it had a TV, so I got to watch CNN and the Eurovision song contest, and actually spread out all my things and really relax. It was the best.

Salzburg So Far... And Other Things

Salzburg is really nice. I probably should be in a better mood to right about it (I'm grumpy cos the dude next to me is still smoking, and It's making me mad).. but 'really nice' doesn't really do it justice. It is gorgeous here.. up there with the best places I've been. I'm staying 4 nights. The first day, when we got here, I intended to walk up to the fortress, but ended up walking around behind it, and getting the most breath-taking view of snow-covered mountains. It was such a foreign sight to me. Yesterday I watched Sound of Music for the first time (well I'd seen half of it before) and then went on the Sound of Music tour. At first I couldn't help but think everyone was being obscenely touristy by singing the songs and skipping through fields, but then I decided I had better be an obscenely touristy tourist too, if I was gonna really enjoy the very expensive tour! So, we danced in front of the pergola that Liesel and Rolf dance in, and took other equally touristy shots! I also went on a rodelbahn, which is a bit like tabogganing, however that's spelt. Such a fantastic view from there.. green fields, snow-capped mountains and blue lakes.. it looked just as I imagined the Austrian countryside. All in all, a good day! Then we had Wiener schnitzel last night. Mmmm.

Other things.. it's been interesting to see how the English language is perceived here. I've asked a few locals if they find it annoying to be forced to learn English, and to speak it to us tourists who don't know their language. Like I felt guilty to begin with, speaking English to Germans and therefore forcing them to speak it.. when I'm in THEIR country! So I've been trying to use German as much as possible, and just be sensitive to the fact. But one guy back in Bremen said "English is the universal language, so we just have to accept it." In Australia, I never realised that I have such an advantage, speaking English. All the non-English speakers are forced to learn a second language. Doesn't really seem fair! But I guess we're fortunate to have grown up in a country that speaks the universal language! France will be interesting. I don't think they'll agree with me about English being the universal language..

I like this lifestyle. To begin with, I wanted to be back home, in my room, with all my things.. but now, I really like this. I think I've actually forgotten what living in Hobart was like, to some extent. In a sense, I sort of get into the habit of thinking that this really isn't that different! But it is! I move every few days, and every morning when I wake up, I go exploring new places. It's really a privelege I didn't earn or anything. Having said that, I'm still really looking forward to going home, as much as I love it here! I'll probably want to be back in Europe, when I do get home, but right now I'd be happy either way. Both Europe and Hobart are very cool places, and I'm happy in either! Except Hobart has slightly more normal people. And slightly less scary individuals too. I am grateful for that!

Smoking

There is a guy next to me here at the internet cafe smoking away. This makes me REALLY mad. I don't know if smoking in indoor public places is allowed here, but even if it is, come on, do I really wanna breathe in his smoke?? Serious lack of respect. This is one thing I do NOT like about Europe!!!! The amount of smoking, and indoors, and RIGHT next to you! Grraaaaaaaaaahhhh

Wiener Schnitzels and Mozart Balls.. Yep, that's Vienna!

Vienna.. everyone seemed to think it was going to be boring there. How can any city you haven't been to before be boring, I ask?? Anyway, it wasn't all high culture and art and music.. I thought it was beautiful. A lot of white buildings and interesting architecture. One of the highlights was going to this place called the Hundertwasser Haus (top photo).. years ago they commissioned an artist to design a house. He wasn't an architect, so he didn't use standard methods of straight lines! In fact, he believed that the straight line was a godless thing, and the only shape that doesn't reflect man being created in God's image.. interesting. In other words, he didn't like straight lines, so the building is all curvy, very colourful, and covered in green plants.. I liked it. I also went to see Mozart's, Beethoven's and Strauss' graves. Vienna was nice! Mozart balls are ok, but a bit overrated. Schnitzels, on the other hand, are very very good. Oh, and the other thing, Vienna was the first place on my trip that I explored entirely on my own.. most of the time I'm with people, but I really enjoyed a bit of alone-time in Vienna!

Cesky Krumlov

Hi there. I'm not doing a great job of updating this blog, cos there's always Facebook and Bubbleshare to update as well! But I will try to remember! Cesky is a little town in Czech Republic, south of Prague. Not that many Busabout people stopped there, but a few of us did. It was such a beautiful town.. kind of surreal actually. The river ran in a circle around part of the town, and a castle stood above it. You could walk across the whole town in about 15 minutes. Three of us went rafting! It was SO peaceful and slow. But, it was our first rafting experience, so we still got kinda worried when we saw the (small) rapids coming up. It was great. Czech Republic is so cheap. I miss it, cos Austria is incredibly expensive. Well, hope you like the pics..

PRAGUE - The Best of Europe So Far

Prague is beautiful. There is the old town and new town on one side of the river, then the Charles Bridge crosses over to the other side, above which is Prague Castle. Pretty impressive! You have to walk up all these mazey cobblestone streets to get to the Castle. Up there, more impressive than the castle, is the view. My favourite photos of Prague are shots of the Charles Bridge at dawn, empty except for a few people. I didn't quite get one at dawn, but I did get some good night shots. The hostel we stayed at here was luxury for what it was.. there was a swimming pool, beach volleyball, a big bar, and free breakfast and internet! I spent hours wandering around the city, for the most part with three girls from Busabout, all Australian, and another Australian guy. One of the highlights was going out to a club on Friday night, which I hadn't yet done in Europe. It was just near the Charles Bridge, and the biggest nightclub in Central Europe! There were 5 floors, each with a different music style. My favourite by far was the retro floor, where they played 70s, 80s, and some 90s music! It was great. We danced for hours and got back to the hostel at 4am. I couldn't believe they played such good music.. The next day we ended up walking up to the castle in the late afternoon, and the light was so beautiful on all of the buildings. Just perfect. Now I'm in Cesky Krumlov, a tiny medieval town 3 hours south of Prague, with a flowing river and a castle. More on that later! I'm really appreciating Europe right now and the opportunity I was given (for some reason) to be here. Take care..

Dresden

I stayed here 2 nights. The main touristy part is very small, and I guess much like any old European city. The old part was quite beautiful, but I was surprised that there was no mention of its history. People back home have mentioned there was a documentary on Dresden recently on tv about 90% of the city being bombed or something. Well there was no obvious focus on that in Dresden.. strange. The highlight: the ice-cream was really, really good.

Berlin, Berlin, Berlin

I LOVED Berlin! I've been there for the past 6 nights, although I'm now in Dresden.. a little LESS happening here funnily enough!

In Berlin, I met a girl from Canada and we went on one of the famous Insider Walking Tours, which went for 4 hours and all around the main sites. There we met 2 Canadian guys, and the 4 of us spent the next couple days together. We went on another tour the next day - the Third Reich tour. And a few day later, Cold War Berlin. So fascinating.. I thought I knew my German history, but I have learnt so much.

One interesting thing on one of the tours was going to an empty carpark near some apartment blocks. Beneath the carpark was Hitler's bunker, where he shot himself. There's only a small sign to mark the spot. They don't want to draw any more attention to it in case the neo-Nazis make it a shrine and start gathering there.

Another interesting thing! TV Tower is the big spiky building with the sphere up near the top. This was built in East Berlin, as sort of an attempt by the Communist East to say 'hey life is good here, we're actually really advanced'. And it does really stand out on the skyline. It was huge, so it could be seen easily from the West and make a statement. But they soon found out that when the sun shines on the big sphere it creates a cross shape. The Communist East was anti-religion. They desperately tried to make it less shiny, etc to get rid of this cross image. But the West simply said 'what you're trying to deny is staring you in the face.' I have a photo of it where you can see the cross.

So what else did we do in Berlin.. well it's super easy to walk around without a map. I like the Brandenburg Gate area and I went up the top of the Reichstag. We also happened to be there on May 1, when everyone comes out and demonstrates/riots, so there was a big street festival and bands. Oh, and we ate a lot of German wurst.

So now I'm in Dresden, and it's the first day of Busabout. The hostel is really quiet! There were only 5 of us on the bus, but it'll pick up later in the season, we're told. Dresden has an old town and a new town, separate by the River Elbe. I'll wander over to the old town tomorrow I think. But it'll have to do reeeeaaaally well to top Berlin!

If you go to my Bubbleshare album on Berlin, there are more REALLY GOOD, expertly taken photos. :P

Oh wait, PS: did I mention that there's really cheap Kinder chocolate in Germany? Well today we discovered Kinder icecreams!! Oh wow.