Blogs from Europe - page 11358

Hey guys, sorry about the long time writing but the internet is not all that readily available in eastern europe (weird huh?) and the places that it is available is really expensive. Actually I was pretty suprised overall about the cost of everything here (except beer - it is more expensive to get a small soft drink than a pint of beer!!). Anyways i had all these blogs written up but since nothing is in english and i can't figure out how to edit photos in other languages i shall just publish these things and will add some photos later ... sorry but otherwise i will forget what i am wanting to write so here goes. well Turkey. ok so flew into Turkey and started my tour with Imaginative Traveller which is a tour group based ... read more

When most people think of the Czech Republic they immediately think of the wonderful majestic castles of the capital Prague. However, there is much more to this country then this tourist mad city. Decin is a small town about 30 kilometers from the German border which has the beautiful Labe ( Elbe ) river running through it. The northern area of the Czech Republic is much more rugged than the southern side with grand cliffs and great national parks filled with pristine fresh rivers and tall pine forests. The summer has not been the best I have been told but most of the days that I have spent here have been sunny with fresh cool breezes. The city itself is rather small and can easily be seen in a few hours but if you are ... read more

Our flight from Toronto to Amsterdam was relatively short, but felt much longer due to the group of 40+ teenagers who felt no need to be quiet or even sit down during the red-eye flight. Luckily, KLM’s entertainment system is fantastic and we were able to catch up on several movies each while trying to get a little sleep. We transferred planes in Amsterdam - nice airport, but since smoking is allowed at their restaurants and bars, our gate area was filled with smoke. Once we landed in Barcelona, we claimed our luggage quickly and found the train station. The train took us directly from the airport to the centre of the city… but of course, it couldn’t be that easy! We were rather directionally challenged and turned ourselves around several times before finding the right ... read more

For the geography challenge (which would include my parents) prague is the farthest east we will go on our backpacking trip. Laura's backpacking on a shoestring book told us that the Czech train conductors will often try to intimidate tourist on the train by threatening there to be a problem with the passengers ticket. So we were a bit nervous when we crossed the border and this tall man sternly asked us for our passports. The train ended up being uneventful as we spent most of our time talking to an American couple who were there for a wedding in Cesky Krumlov. This turned out to be a good train cart to sit in because the womens motherly instincts kicked in and she fed our "starving" backpacking bellys trail mix. That afternoon we arrived at our ... read more

Arrive in Prague to an awesome hostel meet heaps of other travellers and have a BBQ and drinks and head to bed. Sheree arrives and head into centre of Prague wonder around and find prague square which is pretty cool. Take a river cruise for tea and take in more sights before retiring. Up early and head to Prague castle and take a look around. Found a cheap bar so had a few drinks and meet with Guesty, Jess and Veronika. Veronika takes us out for tea and then to some localr bars and clubs get home around 2 am. Next day surface a bit worse for wear and get train with Veronika and Sheree to Chesky Krumlov. Train very old and slow weather hot and all have headaches from night before!!! Finally arrive to a ... read more