RyanEMuise

Day 017, Monday July 4 WORST SLEEP EVER! I thought the Krakow beds were bad, No. The train beds were just some stiff plank of material I guess they figured people would be fine sleeping on. NO! And the constant rocking of the train which I figured would put me to sleep. NO!!! kept me awake, and it made ^plenty of stops with more people getting on and noisily settling in, then for some unknown reason we stopped somewhere for the sole purpose of keeping us all awake with a single constant tone of horror, a loud never ending banshee scream! But we arrived in Prague around 8amand I couldn't be happier! Prague is easily the most beautiful place I've ever seen! You turn a corner and find yourself assaulted with stunning beauty in each direction, ... read more

Day 016, Sunday July 3 Still in Krakow, heavy rain, as the forecast was predicting the day before , thank god for the new rain coats! We indulged in the free breakfast, we had purchased disgusting, but very healthy, crackers a few days ago and the breakfast at this hostel served little slivers of wrapped cream cheese, perfect! We took our time strolling through the old town making our way to a castle at the base of the old town. It was very cool, and very old, but the best was a statue of Smok, a dragon who is fabled to come to life and aid the castle, and by extension the city, when attacked. He was cool and fire came shooting from his mouth twice while we stood there taking photos. Continuing our chilled out ... read more

Day 013, Thursday July 1 Our first stop in Poland was in Warsaw at night Wednesday June 29, the man we shared a cabin with on the train (we had to book seats, thus couldn’t exile ourselves from the world in our own cabin) went on and on about how great Krakow is, and how Warsaw was entirely not. When we arrived our first impression was a gorgeous bright sun peering over the spires of an incredibly HUGE complex, apparently this place holds a cinema, a stage for musical productions, a shopping complex, a church, everything all extending out from this one towering center. We arrived a very late in the day as our train was late by an hour and a half, just the start of consistently late schedule for everything we participated in during ... read more

Day 012, Wednesday June 29 Got up too early, not in a sense that we had time on our hands, we were rushed all day, but rather we didn’t get to sleep until late and had to wake up at 6:30 and be out by 7:00 in order to make our train at 7:30. Thus, as I didn't want to be up at that time, due to lack of sleep, it was too early. We made our train without issue and settled in, got to go on a ferry again, good times. Now, we were supposed to arrive in Berlin at 14:27 and had to catch the connecting train at 14:41. 14 minutes, more than enough time to get off the platforms, find our next platform, find a post office to mail postcards, find a souvenir ... read more

Day 011, Tuesday June 28 We started the day off right, with danishes (get it, in Denmark, the Danish people eat danishes!). It goes without saying that they are far superior to Tim Horton’s, and I truly don’t think anyone fully understands to what degree I mean when I say “far superior” that is the most succinct wording in all its glory, the little shop even made the chocolate themselves and, naturally, baked them there. We got 3, and split each one at various intervals throughout the day, purposefully aligning the eating of the Danish with the sightseeing of the Danish country. Our first stop was a cemetery where we found the grave of Hans Christian Andersen, and Soren Kierkegaard, we then continued on to Tivoli, an amusement park, an old amusement park, but very beautiful ... read more

Day 008, Saturday June 25 This is a big one, covering a lot of time, so try and keep up :) I write this on the 5 hour train ride from Cologne to Berlin, we have been going non stop! It literally feels like we’ve done a weeks worth in mere days. The crowds don’t end, like London and Bruges, Amsterdam and Cologne are insane tourist hubs, I think I should start expecting massive crowds in almost every city we go to, then I’ll stop being shocked each time I step put of the main train station to find myself overwhelmed by the massive amounts of people occupying the main city center. We arrived in Amsterdam late Thursday night, we immediately went grocery shopping, which included uncooked pasta noodles, and tomato sauce, first thing we did ... read more

Day 006, Thursday June 23 1630 (4:30 pm) Cows, everywhere, left Bruges, now on the train from Antwerp to Amsterdam, incredibly comfortable private seating in first class. Antwerp was only a 30 minute stop over from Bruges, which I think I’ll miss as much as London. Despite being extremely small in size, Bruges seemed as equally full of tourists as London, and just as beautiful and rich, culturally, and far more densely packed. With a population of 20,000 it is likely, at any given time, that there are most tourists in the city than locals. All the streets were cobble stone and could really only fit one vehicle in any given direction, additionally there were never any street signs indicating which way traffic would be flowing. Thus leading to multiple occasions where I found myself pondering ... read more

Day 004, Tuesday June 21 10:45, on the train from Salisbury back to London, only as a stop over to another train to Brussels, Belgium. There was a man, our age, leaving the same hostel at the same time as us, says he's been travelling Europe for 6 weeks, with tussed up hair under a baseball cap, oakley sunglasses, headphones connected to an ipod he was clicking away at, he looked luke a cool young traveller, though he also walked slowly, with a slight limp, a full dark tan, and had litterally everything hanging off his very large back pack. Alyssa and I had the same thought, wondering if we will look as worn out as him at the end of our 8 weeks. I told her we already do, and pointed out that my towel, ... read more