Au Revoir Paris :-(

Sadly, I write this from the States. I almost wish I could have come back for just a few days to see everyone and then head back over to go exploring again. But alas, I can't, so I can only find solace in the fact that I know I will be back there again soon and in the meantime, I will appreciate my warm showers, comfy bed, and television with dialogue in English!

We arrived in Paris after a very early train ride from Zurich. I slept for most of the 4 hours because at this point, we feared we had bug bites, and I couldn't sleep at night in the bed without feeling like things were crawling all over me (fortunately they weren't). We checked in at our hostel at noon and immediately set out to explore. We covered as much ground as we could before finally reaching exhaustion at the Louvre, so we turned around and headed back for a nap. Post-nap we wandered around again until reaching a lovely restaurant called Pizza Pino and enjoyed personal pizzas and their house rose wine. There are so many outside eateries to sit and relax and people watch, which is exactly how we spent our nights in Paris!

On the second day, we climbed two stories up the Eiffel Tower before taking the elevator to the very top (they don't let you climb any further, thankfully, because I just about had an asthma attack by the time I reached the second story anyway). The view was just incredible - definitely worth waiting in line for and spending the 9 euro to see! Our legs managed to hold out for the walk to the Arc de Triumph before it was time for our usual nap before dinner. We trekked into the city a bit to see what was going on on Saturday night, and met an American who lived there for 5 months and said that the Oberkampf area was the place to be. Of course it was, since that is where our hotel is located and we had just left the area to see what else was going on in Paris. By the end of the evening, I was craving french fries with mayonnaise (don't knock it till you try it), so I went into McDonald's for the only awkward language experience in Paris. Dialogue as follows:

Me: Bonjour! Frites se vous plais?
McD: uhhhh.
Me: Freeeetays?
McD: uhhhh.
Me: Fri-tayyyys?
McD: uhhhh...???
Stranger: She wants Frites.
McD: ohhh!!!!!
Me: WTF.

Sigh. Anyway, day 3 had us at the Louvre for 4 hours. The Mona Lisa was roped off so we had to stand pretty far away to take a picture of it, and other than that, there really wasn't a whole lot to see there. We enjoyed the Egyptian art and sculptures and the recreation of Napoleon's apartment, but otherwise we've seen those paintings before in other museums on the trip. We also took a cruise down the Seine river on Sunday night to see the major monuments while they were lit up. Monday took us to the Notre Dame, a garden palace, and the Pere Lachere cemetary where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and Moliere are buried. On Monday night we headed to the Eiffel Tower for a picnic to see the light show that happens every hour. People hyped up this light show, saying you had to pay 10 euro for a spot to sit, so we were fully expecting a SHOW. There was no one to pay, for good reason, since the big show consisted of flashing white Christmas lights on the tower for 5 minutes. THAT WAS IT. People got up and left and there Abbe and I sat, in shock that we spent more time traveling to the tower than we did watching any sort of "show". We sat and talked about the trip for awhile, and sure enough, the big show happened again at 11pm, lucky us!

For our last day, we split up to cater to our separate interests. Abbe wanted to see the Catacombs, which was an underground tunnel full of bones and skulls from an era when people thought dead bodies were carrying diseases. They actually dug bodies up from the cemetaries to dump them underground. Then she took a bike tour to cover more ground and get extra pictures of the city. I decided to sleep in a little and then walk down the Rue de Rivoli, Champs de Elysse, and other side streets filled with shopping opportunities. This is a bit of a tease since I couldn't fit much in my backpack, but I enjoy window shopping nonetheless. At night, we had dinner in our little Oberkampf section, and found a nice little hole in the wall bar to sit for a few hours and talk to the English speaking bartender about life in Paris.

It was sad leaving the trip that we spent so much time, effort, and money planning, but I was ready to get back to America and resume my life again. Abbe is about to start a new chapter, moving to South Carolina and beginning her career as a school psychologist. Even though it's the same old story for me, my life has decidedly changed for the better as a result of this trip. I feel more confident, independent, self-sufficient, knowledgeable, cultured, etc. Though friends may say I've always possessed those qualities, I know it took 5 weeks abroad to make me truly appreciate them.

I'm fighting jet-lag right now, but I'll be back on to post some more details for people who may want to plan a trip of their own - such as hostel and transportation recommendations, packing tips, and things to do and/or avoid in each city!

Zurich is interesting...

First let me apologize for any typos because the keyboard in France has the keys in a weird order and I only have a few minutes to type! We spent three nights in Zurich, and unfortunately alot of time was spent sleeping there. The weather was cold and rainy and we were still getting over our colds. On the nice day, we took a walking tour of the city to see the major sites. The view from the bridge looking at all the houses in the suburbs of Switzerland was gorgeous. We also took a boat ride to get further out into the river, which was a fairly cheap activity at 8.00 for such an expensive city. People there must earn two to three times as much as Americans do because the prices were jqcked up at that rate. It cost 23 dollars for a cheeseburger in a restaurant we walked past - 8.00 if you wanted that burger minus the drink and fries at McDonalds!

The best part of our stay in Zurich, other than having MTV on non-stop in the hotel room, was the two nights we spent listening to live music. On Thursday we went to a prominade on the river where a band played a mix of songs in German and English and we met two older gentleman who asked us to be their dance partners - amusing to say the least, and there is video footage of this! On Friday we went to a biergarten where a Swiss trio played some classic Swiss songs with some American ones thrown in for good measure. The worst part? Not even the steep prices, but the zillions of bug bites we got fro, walking near the river. At first we were afraid they were bug bites, having stayed in hostels for a month, but then the itch became all too familiar and we are just trying to refrain from scratching so they will go away before we get back to the States in 4 days!! More posts to follow on Paris, tips for travelers who may want a to do a similar backpacking journey, and random bits of info like lists of our favorite things and our thoughts on Americans... from an American perspective!

Biergartens in Munich

This post is coming late because Zurich has no free wi-fi and I had to buy a 5.80 tall caffe latte just to write this! More on Zurich in the next post though, this is about Munich!

We arrived at our Wombats hostel on Saturday after a 4 hour train ride from Prague. We had just enough time to unpack and shower before heading down to the hostel bar to meet our fellow travellers. Rob and Karly (from Brussles and Prague) were there, as well as Lyle who we met a few days earlier in Vienna. There are 6 major breweries that provide the goods for the biergartens and we were determined to hit all of them. Saturday night was spent with a large group from Wombats at the Augistiner Brau, where we ate pork schnitzel and french fries. On Sunday, Abbe and I split up so she could do a bike tour (I have a severe aversion to bicycles so I avoided it to spare a trip to the hospital), and I went to the museum of modern art. That night we went to the most popular biergarten, the Hofbrauhaus. It was ginormous. Rooms upon rooms, outdoors and in, lined with picnic tables and benches full of people singing along to the traditional German music. There was a live band who wore lederhosen! We were there with three of our hostel roommates, a set of brothers from Oklahoma. We ordered a gigantic pretzel so big that you could stick your whole face in it! The Hofbrauhaus was definitely a highlight of Munich for me.

On Monday, I trudged through the rain to do a walking tour of the city while Abbe went off in search of replacement flip-flops and cold medicine. We took a gigantic nap in the afternoon because (surprise, surprise) it was still raining. At night we braved the weather to try 3 more biergartebs with Lyle, and had a delicious meal of sausages and potato salad. I can't believe I've been going to Musikfest for so long and never ordered the traditional German food. I'm definitely looking forward to doing that when I get back next weekend!

That's all for now, will write about Zurich when we get to Paris tomorrow - six nights left!!

Vino in Vienna

As I write this, we are waiting for our train to Munich. It'll take about 4 hours, so I bought Eat, Love, Pray to keep me occupied, and Abbe is continuing Freakonomics, which she picked up a couple stops ago. Vienna was a fairly quick stop for us, but we got alot accomplished. On Wednesday night we went to the hostel bar for a cheap meal, and then went to The Travelers Shack, which was an Aussie hangout. I got in a political argument with a 16 year old schmuck from New Zealand who got so angry with my view of Obama and healthcare that he left! It was amusing to me because 1. I remember being stubborn in my fairly uneducated opinions when I was 16 and 2. he doesn't even live in America so I'm not sure why he was so fired up. Whaaatever.

Thursday was spent walking all over the city to see the major touristy spots like the Schonbrunn Palace, Parliament, and some churches. We were really disappointed that we paid admission to see the Sigmund Freud museum because it was just a bunch of his manuscripts and family photos on the walls. We were hoping to see more of his findings in psychology presented so it was a bit of a bust. That night we each had a delicious meal at Bermuda Brau - Abbe got the beef goulash, and I went with a salmon au gratin baked potato. We are so spoiled with our meals here, I can't imagine going back to freezer dinners when we get home!

Our favorite part of Vienna was our trip to Grinzing yesterday. We took a tram about 30 minutes just outside the city to a little Austrian village known for its wine. We stopped in a few heuringers (wine houses) try their vinos, and had a lovely day walking around in the sunshine. We were pretty tired when we got back, so we mustered up a little energy to find some dinner before heading to bed. Our hostel (Wombats) was quite nice, and we are staying there again in Munich. Off to catch the train now!

Prague is so pretty!

We arrived in Prague late afternoon on Sunday with our Aussie friend Sarah in tow. Since she decided to tag along with us at the last minute, we weren't sure if she could get a bed in our hostel. The front desk said they had no room in the 6 person dorms that we had booked, but they were willing to give us a private 4 person apartment for the same price as the dorm. I couldn't believe our good luck! The apartment was beautiful, situated on a busy street near Charles Bridge, complete with kitchen and living room with tv! Of course the only channels we could understand were CNN, MTV, and the God Network. Abbe and I missed falling asleep to tv at night, so we volunteered to sleep in the living room and watch the popular music videos of Europe. They are definitely ahead of us in terms of music trends, so I wrote down good songs so I can download them in the states!

We got the traditional Czech dishes on our first night- I got Beef Goulsh and Abbe got the Pork Filet. Neither of us were feeling our best, I've been battling a bit of a sore throat, and Abbe picked up a stomach bug, so we decided to call it a night when Ashley and Sarah wanted to go out to a club. This happened after we got lost in the city for over an hour though, as the streets in Prague are ridiculously hard to navigate. The names change ever block and there are no straight roads. Everytime we had to pick which way to go, we always managed to pick the wrong one! Some people say that Prague is unsafe, but you just need to carry your stuff in a zipped purse and hold it tight. The creepy people weren't even that bothersome because they were no worse than The Poetry Man and his comrades in North Philly. One guy pointed at people's crotches and laughed, and another got in Ashley and Sarah's faces and yelled "Licky, Licky, Licky!" There are no words to describe this further, so I'll just move on...

We did a walking tour on the second day to cover the basic sites and then attempted to do a pub crawl at night but it was really lame.( Note: if you ever go to Prague, do not go on the crawl sponsored by New Europe tours!) The only redeeming part of the evening was running into Rob and Karly, our Candian friends that we met in Brussels. We met up with them again the next day to cross the Charl3es Bridge and see the Prague Castle. The view was phenomenal!! It really was the most beautiful city we have seen so far. It was quite a hike up to the castle but it was well worth it. For our last night, we went to a place called The Beer Factory, which had taps of beer right on the table and it measures how much you drink electronically and bills you when you are done. It was pretty cool.

Today we got up at 6:30am to pack up and catch a 4 hour bus to Vienna. We are staying in Wombats Hostel and it is pretty good. We put laundry in and are waiting for it to finish so we can start exploring our next destination. Only 2 weeks and 3 more stops to go!

Bumpin' Berlin!

Berlin has taught me alot about myself and my ability to adapt and survive in strange conditions. After taking a horrible overnight bus here from Amsterdam on Thursday morning, we found our hostel. It is very nice and clean and in a quirky area that is a bit of a distance from the center of the city. Our first night we stumbled upon a lovely restaurant on the river, and got to see the East Side Gallery, which is a string of beautiful paintings on one section of the Berlin Wall. When I got home that evening, I accidently locked my key in my locker.... with ALL of my belongings. I had to spend all of Thursday walking around Berlin in my pajamas. Yes, that really happened. I had to borrow flip flops from Ashley, and deodorant from Abbe, and then we went to a mall and I put make up on in a store that had testers. I thought the hostel worker would be here at 8 to break the lock, but he didn't come until midnight, and I was getting very panicky. If he couldn't fix it, I would have had to pay 100 Euro for a locksmith, not to mention I would have ruined an entire day and night by waiting on the hostel worker to do it for free. We went out for a nice dinner down the street (I am wearing my Phillies t-shirt and pajama bottoms at La Pizzeria Romantica. Obviously it was very romantic...), and then came back in time for the hostel worker's arrival! He busted open my lock with ease and I cried tears of joy and gave him a kiss. The Brazilian boys and Aussie girls we met here waited for me to get ready, and then we went out for the night - people here don't go out sometimes until after midnight because places will stay open until the sunrises!!

Yesterday was much better. We took a walking tour of Berlin which allowed us to see all of the sites that we previously had difficulty locating. We went into the Holocaust Museum, Topography of Terror museum, and attempted to go into the Reichstag to get a 360 degree view of Berlin, but the line was long and we were hungry. We went back to the same Italian restaurant for dinner and hurried to get ready in time for the pub crawl. There is a group that organizes these things in every city, and we heard they were alot of fun, so we decided to try it. We had a great time, and will definitely do it again in Prague. We had to be super quiet when coming home last night because there is a guy in our room who complained to the hostel staff about how loud we are - which is totally untrue, and besides, he snores all night and Ashley has a hard time sleeping because of it, so really, he's the loud one. I got in a match of wits with him (he used the word "modicom" thinking I wouldn't know what it meant. Too bad that's on the 10th grade vocab list I teach, sucker) and I think he asked to switch rooms. Bottom line is that this is a hostel, and if you don't like the communal atmosphere, don't stay here. Sometimes people come in late and they are loud trying to get ready for bed, but you just have to deal with it because you are only paying about 25 dollars a night for a clean bed and hot shower. I personally don't mind this environment because you get to make friends with people from all over the world!

Right now we are waiting for our Aussie friend Sarah to get ready and then we are taking a bus about an hour out of Berlin to see the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. I'm looking forward to using all of the pictures I've taken of sites relating to the Holocaust in my lessons this year when we read Night by Elie Wiesel. Berlin is just steeped in culture from WWI, WWII and The Cold War, and it is just so impressive to know you are standing on historical ground. It's a great mix of old and new, as the nightlife here is very vibrant and the people are friendly and fun - just don't ask them for directions, they have no clue where they are going or how to help you either!! Off to Prague tomorrow morning - this marks the half way point of the trip. 2.5 weeks to go :-)

Speechless

There are no words to properly describe Amsterdam. We arrived with little to no expectations simply because people kept telling us how "crazy" it was, or that it was "awesome", and quite frankly, we were just ready to get out of Brussels. We arrived by train at 6pm and found our way to The Flying Pig Hostel. It was a very nice place with lockers underneath the bed and a bar in the lobby that people hung out in. This is where we met Abbe's friend Ashley, who flew in to join us for Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague. I wish there was more that we could tell you about Amsterdam, but quite honestly, there really isn't much to do. Unlike London, all the museums cost Euros, and when you are out for 5 weeks seeing museums in every city for free, the idea of paying to see Van Gogh's missing ear seems idiotic. We did pay to see the Anne Frank House, which was a personal high point for me because I have loved her story ever since I was her age. It was very sad to stand in the small room that she hid in, and to see the pages she ripped out of magazines to decorate her barren walls. Aside from this, the only other touristy thing we did in Amsterdam was to see the Heineken Experience. We did hang out in Vondelpark for an afternoon, and found some time to enjoy the sun that we were craving since arriving in Dublin two weeks ago. It was quite a sight to see as we walked through the red light district, and one that I will be happy to never return to again! Amsterdam was fun for a short period of time, but we were definitely ready to get on the overnight bus last night and head to Berlin. It was pretty horrendous trying to sleep on a coach bus for 10 hours, so now that we are at our hostel (the Jetpak Alternative is GORGEOUS) we are going to take a nap before heading out to see Berlin at night. I can already say that there is graffiti EVERYWHERE but these people are actually talented artists as opposed to the "taggers" that think they are cool writing their initials all over Philly.

2 weeks down... 3 to go!!