29/06 Germany to Czech to Bavaria Germany to austria and finally to Hungary!

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Sorry that we haven't written in so long. We went to post a weeks worth of stories, but i accidentally deleted it. 

After berlin we spent a day at the sauxenhausen concentration camp. This was a big eyeopener within knowing so many peoples who knew there fait was slim of surviving and it also involved trying to beat so many school excursions to each site to have silence within the building or compound.

Afterwards We headed south to Dresden, where we decided to do the sly thing and park in a truck bay right next to the city centre for 6€ per night. That evening  we decided to go out and see the nightlife of Dresden. So we got dressed up, which means that Luke found a top which doesn't smell too much, and amiralee puts on a pair of shoes instead of thongs, and had a few drinks with the hoot. Once it was about 8.00 we decided it was time to wonder to the train station. We caught a train, making note that we were leaving from the cotta station, and started our night out. We didnt know the name of the area with the pubs and clubs, so we were just wondering around when we bumped into some guys on a school camp. They were heading to the local supermarket the buy alcohol (and yes they were over 18) so we decided to tag along. Long story short, we spent the evening sitting on park benches near the supermarket, learnt some new drinking games, and had lots of vodka and oj. When it came time to go home, we went to the train station however there was no stops called cotta. We asked the train drivers, but English was a major problem, so we were on our own. Unfortunately the trains stop at 12.00 so we had just missed them all (not that we knew which one to get). So we decided to try the trams. We jumped on a few, but they didn't go the right direction. It wasn't till after 1.00 when we decided to walk towards the different bridges, .....thats when Luke realized that he had lost the car keys!!  😞

 we eventually made it back to the train station, where everything is closed and a lot of people where sleeping on the foyer benches within the station. We ran to the platform and started looking. Luckily Luke found them in the middle of the platform and we were able to start the next search, looking for the hoot. In the end we caught a taxi, but it took us 20minutes and 6 other other taxi drivers to determine where Cotta station was..... thankfully we passed the mercury hotel and was  able to be dropped off there.

The following day we had a lazy morning looking our finest while making breakfast in front of a lot of truckers and eventually made it to the city. It's a beautiful city with so many grand old buildings and quarter of the tourists compared to Berlin. We are now able to say we have had awesome German beer and food including lots of bratwusrts and 1 side dish of sourkraat.

The following day we hit Prague. We went from beautiful roads with considerate drivers to the czech republic, which has pot holes bigger than the hoot, and drivers who drive old boms and aren't afraid of crashing into you compared to Germanys bmw's and mercs.

we decided to spend the time in a caravan park. We rocked up and there were 3 camper vans and 20 tents. Little did we know that there was a year 7 camp on, and we were surrounded by kids. The camp site was four times as expensive as the truck bay, and yet had no facilities. The camp was situated on it's own island very close to the centre, so to get off the island we either had to walk a few km, or catch a ferry.

 the first night we decided to go into town and join a beer challenge, Effectively a pub crawl where you learn all about the different Beers including the history and how to make them. However when we arrived the tour guide called in sick, so it was cancelled. two other Canadians (gabby and meredith) were also going to go on the pub crawl, so we joined forces and did our own pub crawel. Gabby's family was originally from the Czech so she could speak the language fluently, which came in very handy as we got lost a lot. We first went to a pub, which was extremely weird, it had everything you could imagine preserved in jars situated in the windows. After a few rounds we decided it was time to move on, and ended up at a pub where you poor your own beers. We ended up drinking more head than beer. It got so bad, that Luke started blaming the taps, and not his pour.

The following day we did the normal touristy stuff which included a walking tour and eating the local cuisine. We were really lucky as a food festival was taking place in the middle of the city. During the day we learnt all about the velvet revolution and the part which the students played. 

The nice thing about Prague is that everything was cheap apart the petrol and water. You could buy a 500ml beer for $1, but a small water was $2. We spent most of the time eating from street vendors! So by the time we left, we were completely sick and tired of sausages.

We found out about a medieval festival in a small town called cesky kurmlov, so we packed up the hoot and made our way south.  We arrived just in time to see a parade with hundreds of people dressed up in medieval clothing. We followed the parade and found ourselves surrounded by people fencing and dualing, juggulers performing, roasts being cooked on the spit and music. The atmosphere was amazing, the only issue was that it was pouring with rain. Everyone was huddled  under umbrellas, or whatever shelter they could find. After a few hours of wondering around Luke and I found a pub and decide it was time for food. We were lucky as we managed to sit on the second floor of the building in a window which looked out onto the main square so we could still enjoy the entertainment. 

Unfortunately, we hadn't decided where to park the hoot for the night, so when we finally finished dinner we still had to organize a place to stay. The town was packed full of cars, so we decided to park in a truck bay on the way into town. we rocked up and we were the only ones there, it had
piles of garbage where people had dumped them. we weren't too keen to stay there, but we had no choice. Amiralee was convinced that a serial killer was going to attack us.

The Following day we decided to go canoeing down the river which runs through the town center. The canoeing people thought that we were crazy as it was raining, but we went anyway. We got dropped off 18km up the river, and started paddling. We had the nicest weather, until we decided to stop for lunch. That's when we looked back and saw a massive storm coming down on us. So we skulled our beers and jumped into the caneos and started paddling for dear life. We kept in front of the weather all the way till the last 20 minutes. By the end, we were wet, cold and miserable. But it was totally worthwhile as the trip was so peaceful and beautiful.

Amiralee didn't want to spend another night at the creepy truck bay, so we decided to move onto Munich. We did our research and found a place called the tent, which was close to the centre of town, and considered the international party zone. We rocked up, quite late in the afternoon, we were exhausted, as it had been a massive day canoeing. That's when we realized that it was only for tents, and no caravans were allowed. We were devastated, but then we realized that we could just stay on the street out the front. We spent 3days free camping, and found a hospital just around the corner where we payed visits to when ever we needed to go to the toilets.  

Munich was amazing, we spent our time drinking steins of beer and walking around the city. Luke was amazed at the fact that they have a vomitrom in ther beer halls. Before you ask, a vomitrom, is handles placed above a wide birth sink, so that you can throw up with ease. This luxury was only available in the boys toilets, however, if a girl wishes to spew, they can inform the security and they will be escorted into the boys toilet and blocked from view. Unfortunately neither Luke nor amiralee had the pleasure of trying one out. 

The people of munich consider the beer to be blessed by the catholic church. The current pope was originally from munich, and has a keg sent over monthly for his personnel consumption. As a result, beer is to be enjoyed by all.

From Munich we travelled south to a little town called bad tolz. This is were Ed and his family spent a few years, so we had to go and check it out. It was great getting back in to a country atmosphere, although it was a very big country town.

From bad tolz we hit salzburg, where we went on the sound of music tour. Much to lukes dismay, Amiralee spent the entire time singing songs from the sound of music and pointing out where scenes took place.... Much to my dismay, Luke hadn't done his pre-research and at least seen the movie. Shock horror.

The tour guide was a bit of a dick. With a irritating voice and no personality, and actually laughed at his own jokes, and then announced that he was only joking (I'll pay that one). 

And then it was onto Vienna. After rocking up we found outthatt they had 1 of europes biggest free festival called the island festival was on.

We caught public transport and headed to the island not knowing what we are in for. After arriving we realised what it was all about. Just a great day out with a heap of live music, dancing, side show alleys, Extreme sports, comedians and something for every body. We realized early on that every body had a drink in there hand and was shocked to pay 9€ for two beers so we did the Lee and Luke thing and went to the supermarket. We managed to pick up a bottle of jäger and 10 red bulls for 20€ and saved a pretty penny and had a cheap drinking afternoon.

The next morning we followed the lonely planets top tip and hopped on the trams to see the city.
The city was absolutely beautiful. Gothic buildings were every where. We loved it so much that we decided to stay a few extra nights. Although we did decide to go and see Kung foo panda 2. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to see a English speaking movie in a foreign language country..... ok, maybe I am a little unrealistic seeing as though they don't speak the language but still, We only had the choice of one cinema and it only seated 100 people.

Kung Fu panda 2 restored our faith in 3d movies compared to our previous experiences of Thor and pirates number 4. 

The following day we made our way to Budapest where our gps led us astray and made our trip a little longer than we expected. We early on decided that we are craving a little more living space and will try a hostel knowing that it is a cheap country. To our surprise the lonely planets recommendation looked like a true flop with rocking up and was instantly reminded by the horror of amsterdams hostel. We asked if they have any free parking and was told we can park our van a few kms away at the central park for free so we decided that our van looked more appealing than the hostel and to free camp next to a beautiful park.

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