Prague

We arrived in Prague and found our way to the hostel eventually, only to discover that our room was in another building on another street entirely 10 minutes walk away!! We got there and since it was so early we had to put our stuff in a cleaning cupboard and head straight out. We made our way into the centre and met up with Mathlete Christine and her friend Rhona (I hope that's right) and had pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast. Christine and Rhona were doing a similar trip and they were leaving that afternoon for Venice or Rome (I forget which one they were going to first, I think Venice makes the most sense due to where it is but that doesn't mean anything with the sometimes illogical trains in Europe) and going up the western side. It was pretty cool to see someone we know from home in a random European city. After they left to go for their train we wandered around the shops in the drizzly rain for a bit until it was time to go back to the hostel.
This particular room was probably our favourite!! It is usually a student dorm room that is used as a hostel in the summer months. It was clean, had an en suite shower, a fridge and lots of unnecessary furniture , and Walter. That's right folks, our tap had to be named due to its freakishly over sized comedy nature :D lol. Needless to say we took lots of pictures of our room in joy at its coolness (including the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling- I know we are truly easily amused).
We chilled for a bit, had really long showers and made a plan of what to see in Prague, using the many maps and guidebooks we had. We then headed back out (via the metro, once again we are at the end of a metro line), to get some food. As usual we didn't know what we wanted but when we arrived in the main square there was a jazz festival on (a recurring theme for us) and some awesome smelling smoke.We followed the smell to where a stall was BBQ-ing chicken kebab on stick type things. Oh My Actual God (yes Laura and I do talk like each other now. in fact sometimes we don't even speak any recognisable English but we still get what the other is meaning, which is even more weird given that neither of our brains works in exactly what you would call normal ways (or however that sentence is supposed to go))!! These kebabs were heavenly!! So tasty and so cheap and so exactly what we wanted (even though we didn't know what it was we wanted)!! I cannot describe the awesomeness of them!! People walking by were clearly in awe of our awesome looking kebabs!!

We sat by the astronomical clock, enjoying our tasty dinner and the laid back jazz music in the background. We then went a-wandering around to absorb the atmosphere and check out the different things Prague has to offer. We got into a big long chat with a guy in a shop about Scotland and the fight for Independence and other such likes. Pretty random, but cool.

We were pretty knackered and it was getting late so we headed back to our room via a supermarket to get things for our fridge :D First impressions of Prague are that it is really cool and laid back despite the 9 bazillion tourists packing the place out!!

The next morning we managed to sleep through all our alarms (damned Sleepy selves were victorious!) and didn't get up till 1.33pm. Shocking I know (although we managed to justify it to ourselves as usual, lol). We finally got out and went to King Wencelas's Square, sang a quick rendition of the carol (had to be done) and went onwards to the Charles Bridge (on the way we got the worst sandwiches ever!! though the mint aero we found made up for it slightly). The bridge itself, once we finally got there, was pretty cool despite the tourists and you can see why its such a big attraction. We then continued wandering up the steepest, cobbliest hill ever made in the history of the world (me? exaggerate? never :P) We had to rest on the way up (though we did buy pretty crystal necklaces as a souvenir of the trip) and we booked Vienna's accommodation. We finally staggered to the top and the view was worth the effort of getting up the hill. We wandered around past the castle and cathedral which looked pretty cool from the outside and down the lane with little cute pastel coloured houses on it. There was a statue of a skull on a guys back, which was nothing special, but there was a big pack of Scouts there and they caused us lots of giggling when they smacked its ass and then fell about laughing themselves!!

On the way back down the hill the afore mentioned scouts and a troop of brownies were marching down, singing. Bringing up the rear of this was a teenage couple consisting of a scout and a brownie holding hands which we both simultaneously "aaaawed" at, which then caused us to burst out laughing. We had the chicken kebabs again (I'll be kinda sad not to eat them again) and watched the astronomical clock chime (not magical as the guide books say it is) and tried not to get knocked down by horses and carriages. We headed back to get an early night due to our impending early rise for the train to Vienna. Outside the room though, Laura kept dropping the key and it took us aaages to get into the room due to our hysterical laughter. It was like she had had 10 shots of Jaegermeister and 10 JD and cokes in the last 5 minutes such was her inability to unlock the door :

We managed to get up early enough to be on the train to Vienna in time for getting a good spot for our luggage, which is always a good thing!!



Next blog on Vienna will follow soon me thinks :D

Things to Remember

Walter, the freakishly long tap :D

Shelves, bookcases, cupboards, desks, high ceilings- general luxury for £12 pppn :D

Lots of scarily steep escalators and stairs everywhere!!

random chat about Scotland and politics from a shopkeeper

pretty crystal

cheap shopping

awesome chicken kebabs

lots of amazing architecture

Laura's Crossing

laughing about sitting identically (after looking like we had fallen out) on the metro

meeting Christine and Rhona for "coffee" and discovering they laugh at the same stuff as us (such as posing as statues)

crazy maps and street signs (some streets not on the maps at all :S)

slow for the red man, building tension, then GO GO GO on green man

reception on the underground and telling location and adverts on my phone

steep hills that go on for eternity

awesomeness of the jazz festival as soundtrack to our lives

funny noises we make (eg comical screaming)- me and a small dog, Laura and a dead bird

the number of small dogs everywhere (this applies everywhere since Berlin)

weird leering guys on the bridge

the mass of brownies and scouts and the scout couple we both "aawed" at (it was so sweet)

terrible sandwiches and the awesome aero :D

the vitamins called Stupidium

Quotes

F: did that guy just cluck at us? (imitates noise repeatedly). it sounds like a horse!

C: Did that guy just call us a horse? Or, a chicken?

Oh my god, how insulting, we are horses with 1 chicken leg!!

(This prompted lots of laughter and the conversation developed into a chicken legged pogo stick with a horses head, followed by a conversation about us being bugged IE recording devices and us wanting an unedited copy (etc)

"Imagine the y=x^2 graph"
Laura describing Walter to David

"I didn't realise before but this is exactly what I wanted"

Us, about most of the food we ate

"Is that what I think it is?!!"

Us, alot

"Heeeellloooo, Ladies"

Random Guy to us

"Cluck"

Lots of random guys
"Cos we are living, in an aero world..." (singing)

Us, singing to the tune of Material Girl in the subway stations that look like they have aero bubbles on the walls

Berlin

We arrived in Berlin pretty early in the morning (I think it was around 6am) but German efficiency means everything in the train station was already open so we were able to get our Welcome Berlin cards (for unlimited travel) and find out how to get to our hostel. We stayed in the Meinenger Berlin hostel in a dorm with 3 other girls. Was an OK room and near a metro station which is always a bonus.

We headed back to the main station (which is totally awesome- clean and big) and had some tasty pizza for breakfast (nutritious, I know) while planning our first day in Berlin. Our first port of call took us past the Parliament, which looks really cool from the outside (though sadly we didn't have the time to go in), and onto the Brandenburg Gate, which is symbolic for its East/West divide of the city. Its pretty weird there, loads of tourists and yet not so long ago it was part of the divide of the city. We then continued our stroll to the Siegessaule, the Victory Statue (via the scary underpasses). We took the 9 bidillion steps of the spiral staircase to the cramped, crowded top. The view was worth the effort though :D

We headed back to our room and chilled for a bit (the night train does take a lot out of you energy wise). After relaxing for a while we headed out for dinner. We ate in a little Italian place near Checkpoint Charlie which was oddly formal and prompted Laura to remark it was like our first date. lol. The food was tasty and reasonably priced (always a bonus- not like the free salad which wasn't too fab). We then headed onto Checkpoint Charlie, a museum based where the American Checkpoint was on the Berlin Wall. It has loads of fascinating info on escapes, personal stories, political aspects of the wall and other such likes. It puts a lot of perspective on Europe and its recent history. If the wall hadn't came down I wonder how much harder a trip like this would have been. Almost impossible maybe. I am glad we came to Berlin before continuing for the chance to learn more about how the countries we visited fitted together politically.
We slept pretty late, but the tasty 50 cent breakfast we got made up for it, which we ate on our way to the East Side Gallery. This is the largest stretch of wall still standing in its original place. It's pretty cool, although there is a lot of new graffiti allot of the original graffiti is still clear which gives a good insight into peoples attitude's to the wall when it was up.

Brockhursts are an uber tasty, cheap meal. Love them!! We then headed over to Alexanderplatz and went up to the top of the TV tower, where we had expensive daiquiris (not like the usual kind but OK I guess). But the view was cool, and no stairs required due to the super fast lift :D The area around the TV tower is really cool, lots of pretty buildings which we didn't get to see due to the time of night but still admired from outside. We then went to Potsdammer Platz for one of the best eating experiences ever. The Hagen-Dazs Cafe!! The most amazing chocolate brownie explosions. Soooo awesome. Chocolate chip and vanilla ice cream over bits of brownie, smothered in chocolate sauce. Man I want some just thinking about it now!!

We impressively made it up for 10am the next morning (impressive given how much we suck at early morning rising. It often involved a 20 minute debate over what time to set our 5 alarms for). We dumped our cases at the train station we were leaving from and headed to Charlottenberg Palace after writing postcards. It was so sunny when we got there we opted to sit outside in the sun for a while :D

Inside it was spectacular. I loved the way some of the rooms were decorated. I could definitely see myself living in a palace (as long as I also had cleaners). They were strict about visitors though, especially about photograph taking, which kinda took away from the experience a little bit. When we finally left we found ourselves in the middle of a storm!! So we found our way to somewhere we could eat indoors, Andy's diner. We had pizza and non-alcoholic cocktails. After dinner we got a few bits and pieces for the upcoming train journey.

We arrived at the station and realized we had forgotten to buy stamps for our postcards. While we were getting some in the newsagents this guy overheard our accent and started talking away to us about when he lived in Scotland. Turns out he was a Brazilian, who was now working in Germany but had lived in Clydebank a few years ago. We chatted with Kaiser for a while and he gave us his details in case we were ever stuck for somewhere to stay in Berlin. The station itself, by the way, is so freaking dodgy. Its full of drug users, drunks and people begging and felt so unsafe. We were glad to get on the night train.

Or so we thought. It was horrible!! No electricity which means no lights or toilets. And no head room. So the choice was sitting in the dark or standing in the dark. Not fun. In our room was 2 polish women who said nothing to us (well one laughed cruelly when I hit my head) and 2 Irish guys travelling as a group of 9 who chatted to us for a bit before finding their friends elsewhere on the train and getting a bit drunk.

The train wasn't so bad once we actually fell asleep and we arrived in Krakow. Although we couldn't get into our room straight away they were nice and let us use the showers. (Night train means sleeping in your clothes, and Krakow was freaking roasting!!). The Hostel Yellow was really cool, laid back and our room was really big and airy, verging on luxurious considering what we paid for it.

Wandering around in the sun took us to Walwet Hill, where the cathedral and such likes is located. We got the tastiest ice lollies (we were really hot and thirsty so they tasted especially good) and we soaked up the sun in the courtyard. This is one of the things I love doing best. Museums and such likes are all good and interesting, but I really love just wandering around a city and taking in its atmosphere.



For dinner we got hot dogs. Now, here that would be a sausage inside a roll. Not in Poland. It was also filled with cabbage, beetroot, sweetcorn, onion and peppers. A crazy combo that tasted OK, although there is only so much cabbage a person can eat in one go!! We followed up with chocolate chip and mint ice cream while waking back to the main square. (Food here is so cheap!! All the above mentioned food as well as drinks during the day cost a grand total of £7.50. Bargainous!!)

While we were there the international folk festival was on. There was an elaborate puppet theatre which used ABBA and Queen songs with their own Polish lyrics to tell a story that had something to do with Angels. Then we saw "Elastic", a Belgian mime/comedian/magician/juggler. He was so funny and had such an expressionate face. We then watched a performance by the Polish Theatre of Dance called "The Battle Between Carnival and Lent". It was dramatic music intertwined with techno/dance and modern ballet, narrated by people on stilts who also controlled audience and artists movements (it started on four small stages which the dancers moved between and then became one big stage for the finale). The whole thing was amazing, totally enthralled you from start to finish. I especially loved the classical music to techno dance music changes that took place, along with the way the dancers interacted with the audience. And all for free!!

We had a long lie and longer showers before packing up and checking out. With a bit of palaver with our cases we got them into left luggage at the station and jumped on the bus to Auschwitz (after having breakfast which led us into the most awesome shopping mall- no idea how we didn't discover it the day before).

Just as we arrived at Auschwitz the sun disappeared and storm clouds took over. It felt appropriate for what the whole place stands for. The whole experience is one I am glad we did, but I am in no hurry to repeat it. As Laura said: it was horrific and before now I didn't really know what horrific was. Now I do.

Horrific doesn't even begin to cover it. What my brain did let me imagine was harrowing but I can't comprehend what those people went through. It was less than 100 years ago, so recent history, and it terrifies me that it happened at all. What mankind does to each other for differences that some people believe to be evil or inhuman is soul destroying. And I am not trying to be dramatic. There is no need for that. Differences should unite us, and yet often they tear us apart.

The displays in the cabinets and bunk houses that make up the museum were simple,informative and effective without over dramatising what happened, it let the facts speak for themselves. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully process what happened but I will always remember. One of the quotes I read said (in effect) that those who forget will see it repeated. Everyone should see Auschwitz so that those who died there did not do so in vain.

(We didn't take any pictures in Auschwitz for what we felt were obvious reasons, though most people there seemed to take loads, which I can sort of understand but at the same time can't. Sorry if that makes no sense.)

Its hard to move on from such a downer, but I think since I have the freedom to do so I have to. So sorry for depressing you.

We got the bus back which took forever, I think we saw almost all of Poland on the way back for the night train!! Though some of the passing scenery was beautiful!! We got back and did some window shopping before getting train food and making our way onto the train.

The cabin, which had lights but less headroom than before, we had 4 Americans (Laura and Jared from Ohio, Alex from NY and a guy from LA whose name we didn't catch). They were really cool and while chatting we discovered they were returning to Prague, where they are attending summer school, after spending the weekend in Krakow. The conductor came round to get tickets and to warn us to lock the doors and keep our passports on us when we were sleeping, as there are Banditos around!! Way to go to freak us out late at night on a train we can't get off!!

I loved Berlin and Krakow so much!! i will definitely be returning to both at some stage in the future!! This has been a lot longer than I expected so I'll wait a few days before doing the next one.

Things to remember

Berlin-

German efficiency

cool traffic light dudes

lots of street signs and directions to things

cheaper than Scandinavia

bear statues (like the Edinburgh cows)

shadows=sun=smiles

the city of nipples (on statues, top of telephone boxes etc)

city of contrasts: history and now

the badness of the night train to Krakow

Kaiser and his funny handshake

the funny Irish guys

Krakow

cheap to eat and drink

cabbage

roasting hot!

awesome atmosphere/buzz

they love the popes, in particular JP2 since he was born there

easy to navigate

the cool, massive shopping centre

the horror of Auschwitz

the fun Americans on the train to Prague

the performances in the international folk festival

me falling on my ass on the bus

weird almond pastries

teaching the Americans Scottish words like manky

the train announcers during the night in the station we "rested" at (resting is what night trains do, we think something to do with scheduling)). These particular announcers were loud, in Czech and English and giving useless information an hour and a half to late to no-one in particular!

Quotes

"Its like a date"....."so what do you do?"

Laura to me in the Italian restaurant

"That's what you would look like pregnant"

Me to Laura about her money belt erection (under her dress) which

provoked excessive laughter

"Why would your condoms need hair? I mean hair need condoms?"

Me to Laura after she thought she saw a sign that said hair condoms.

"We have a lot of conversations about condoms, but never about their actual use"

Me to Laura after we saw a poster of a strawberry with a condom in it

"The saying, "I'd rather have a bowl of coco pops" is timeless"

Laura to me, over our daiquiris in the TV tower

"Oh My God! My heads shrunk!! I didn't even know that was possible!"

Me to Laura in the Carlottensbergen when I realised my sunglasses were to big for my head all of a sudden

"I wonder what happens if I put that in there"

Laura

"That's how Adam and Eve conceived"

Me

Laura to me(about putting some food into some other food it doesn't normally go with, in this case chips in her pasta sauce)

"I look like a red bike?!! Aah Meg White, that makes more sense"

Me to James after I asked if he remembered what I looked like

"Show me your sole"

Laura to me about my feet, that always somehow get dirty

"Bandito"

The train conductor

Scandanavia

Over the next few blogs I will be writing a brief bit about the places Laura and I visited in our tour of Europe. While travelling I kept a journal, a section of things to remember and funny/memorable quotes from every location we visited. I will put these last 2 parts at the end of each blog for the places covered. It will probably take me a bit of time to get everywhere done (mainly cos I get bored typing after a while). I will also probably forget to add some stuff which Laura will probably remind me of so I will add these in a final blog at the end. I hope you enjoy reading, and laugh as much as we did at some of the silly goings on. The pictures here will be significant ones, all of our rooms we stayed in as well as pictures of some of the places I mention in particular. Otherwise, loads of the pictures can be found on bebo, or I just won't put them all on.

On the way to the airport there were some minor money dramas relating to our post office cards which did eventually get sorted after some angry phone calls on our parts but other than that the flight to Oslo was uneventful as was the bus to the centre. We got checked into our room in a hostel, which seemed OK at first glance. Then we went out exploring. Oslo is really cool and laid back, although really expensive (it was a good thing I brought a box of bran flakes with me- the first morning we ate them directly out of the box but we then had a McD's sundae, from which we kept the container and spoons as makeshift bowls and eating utensils).

The highlights in Oslo were seeing a Viking ship and, my personal favourite, the Vigetsland Parken. This is a big park with loads of statues in funny poses leading up to a phallic monument made up of lots of bodies. There are people just hanging out having BBQs. Its really chilled out and cool.

Our room was not as OK as we thought. On our first night we discovered it was smack bang in the middle of the red light district. There were hookers on the door step and a soup kitchen for the homeless directly across from us. We had to pass a sex shop on the way to the hostel. Not only that, we were the only girls in the whole hostel, and people IE guys, could see directly into our room!!! Needless to say we went to the toilet in pairs and didn't use the shared shower facilities. Luckily we were only there for a couple of nights and it was the only semi bad bit about Oslo.

Our next port of call was Copenhagen, which we got to via an overnight stay on a ferry. It was a cute little room, with an awesome shower and no hookers!! There was a thunderstorm while we were on the ferry, which looked pretty cool even if a little bit scary. It was a pleasant night on the ferry and we arrived clean and refreshed in Copenhagen.

Finding our room was not that hard, despite taking the wrong path at first. We were shown to our "garden house" by the owner, Linda, who was lovely. Our room was really just a glorified shed in the middle of the garden. Although it was nice and airy it had no way to be locked from the inside (on the outside it was a padlock) and we had to devise one using an extension lead we found in the room. Once again, to get to the bathroom we had to go together at night along the scary dark path with no lights to a manky shared bathroom in the basement of the house.

Copenhagen itself is OK. A bit of a disappointment. I had high expectations from things I had read. Tivoli Gardens was expensive since you have to pay to get in even if you are not going on the rides and was mostly filled with expensive shops and rides. So unimpressive really. I mean it was OK but wasn't worth the money. The rest of Copenhagen was OK. Christiania was pretty weird and kinda scary, glad we didn't go at night. The little mermaid was cool, although we did get stalked by a couple of older Pakistani men (they told us that's where they were from), who we had to run away from without it being too obvious that's what we were doing.

We couldn't get the night train the night we wanted to so we had to stay another night in Copenhagen. The only room we could get was in an expensive hotel. The bonus was it included breakfast (as well as having showers in the room so we could get clean again) and we took full advantage of the buffet style eat all you can. We ate what we could manage and then took some food in Laura's bag and my pockets for lunch. You can't beat a free lunch :D

We ate our free lunch in Malmo (which is where we had to get the train from). It was wet and everything closes at 4, if it was open to start with. I mean, what is that all about?! Yep, I wasn't in love with Malmo. We got the night train from there to Berlin. There was a nice guy in our Couchettes who helped put our stupidly heavy luggage up onto the overhead bit. It was also weird as the train went on a boat. Its weird to feel like you are moving but the train is making no noise. Otherwise fairly uneventful journey to Berlin.

Things to remember

Oslo:

BBQ's in the park

it costs 25% more to eat in places

there are prostitutes and stuff relating to sex everywhere!!

the awesomeness of Vigetsland paarken

the big burly hot men (for Helen)

the expense of it all

the water from the tap is OK to drink (thank goodness- saved us a fortune)

the traffic crossing has 2 red men, as if to emphasise the importance of stopping

unexpected rain and a cool thunderstorm

Copenhagen:

charges in the public toilets if you brush your hair or re-apply makeup or whatever

lack of street signs

lots of strip clubs

sunglasses make cool photos

there are a lot of towers

the "safe" and "unsafe" areas seems to cross over with almost no warning

crazy Asian stalker guys

sunsets are a lot earlier than in Oslo

the people are slightly cold and abrupt

weather changes almost as fast as in Scotland

we are good at "stealing" lunch

our extension wire locking device for our garden shed room

Malmo: expensive

wet

everything closes really early

the pocky like chocolate and the rolls of Haribo

we will always appreciate our waterproofs

Quotes

"Is this a slow disco?"

A random woman to us in the queue in Burger King is Oslo (fast food places were usually the only places we could afford to eat)

"Do you have a condom?"

Man to hooker outside our hostel

"This is a whorehouse!"

Us upon realising that is what we were staying in

A late night conversation we had, I am marked with a C and Laura with an F:

C: What else could you use condoms for?

F: Carrying stuff I guess

C: Yeah, I guess so

F: But you couldn't use it after*

C: Laughter

F: I didn't mean the condom

C: I don't think it would fit, you'd have to be massive- like a giraffe

B: Laughter

C: I meant a giraffe with a condom on its head

F: I know

B: Laughter

(other stuff in the series included water balloons, carrying drugs and clothes- hence *)

"Is there a map of Oslo on my ass?"

Laura to me after using her map to protect her bare legs from grass in the statue park.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Us to each other, all the time about many things

F: I have a song in my head. It goes "All that she wants..."

C: Wow, I have the same song. Weird!

B: wonderment and laughter

"Did you notice that man beside us on deck? He had really bad flatulence. It was so loud!!"

Laura to me about a guy on the deck of the ferry

"Damn you Laura for being so hot!!"

Me to Laura about the stalker guys

"Is it just you two then?"

The stalker guys at the Little Mermaid to us

"What was that noise? Oh, its me."

Laura to me about a random noise it turned out she was making.

"I forgot how big my mouth is"

Laura to me while applying Vaseline

"Is it getting darker then lighter in here? Oh wait, its me half opening and closing my eyes"

Me to Laura, lying in bed

"God damned Malmo!!"

Us, about many annoying things in Malmo

"Maybe its exercising"

Laura to everyone on the night train about the train reversing and going forwards on the same piece of track

Always Playing Catch Up

Well a lot has certainly happened since the last time I wrote so I am going to do this blog in a few parts. This first part is about some of the major things that have happened since the last time I wrote and the next couple will be about the month long trip Laura and I went on round Europe. So I hope you enjoy whats coming as much as I have enjoyed them as they were happening.

The last time I wrote my sister was still heavily pregnant- and in fact 2 days later on July 15th at 8.45am my awesome sister gave birth to my gorgeous nephew- Patrick Thomas. They were both healthy and happy which is fantastic. Patrick is now 7 weeks old and one of the happiest babies I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is always smiling and alert- he is going to be one smart boy.

The next day I found out that I had not only passed my exams but done pretty well considering how bad I felt they went. So now I have a 2:1 degree in Mathematics from Glasgow Uni. High five to all the Mathletes too- they all kicked those evil exams asses and are all now Bachelors of Science with Honours (except Laura who was registered in the Arts faculty so she is a Master of Arts instead).

The next few weeks passed by fairly uneventful, with Laura and I preparing for our trip and generally enjoying being free from exams and stress of worrying about exam results. Then it was time for graduation day itself. Despite the rain it was a great day. The ceremony felt appropriately sombre with all the Latin and what have you. Felt so great to be graduating from such an old university with lots of tradition and history.

It was a hectic day, after graduation we went for dinner in the Loft, which took ages but was otherwise good. Finally I was home and knackered. But the next day wasn't any quieter. We went to get photos taken at the QM then up to my grans for a bit then finally home to pack. Not my strongest skill I have to say. You just never know what you might not take that you really need. Finally I got it packed (turned out I was only 4 kilos over, ,which is a true achievement for me) and early-ish the next morning (July 3rd) we were off to Oslo. The first installment of the Europe trip will follow shortly.

Thanks for reading :D