Rest of the tour & Berlin.

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Sorry that I've been so slack in updating this, but I've had very limited internet access while I was on tour. My tour ended in Berlin on Sunday (15th). I'm now in Vienna and taking things very easy! Here are details of the rest of my tour in Europe.

Rome (6th-7th June)
Once we arrived in Rome mid afternoon, we took a very graffiti train into the city centre. Lozza (our tour group leader) took us on a walking tour around the main sites of this city. We visted the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain (I threw 2 coins in, except I forgot to make a wish..opps). The other sites that we visted were the Pantheon, the Roman forum, the colloseum and many more. While we were visiting the Pantheon we stopped to have pizza and gelati (I ordered the TopDeck special..4 different flavours). The pizza I ordered was served cold (it was meant to be.. it had tuna & rocket). It was perfect for a hot summers afternoon.

The next day we had to get up very early so we could arrive at the Vatican museum in time for our tour. Once we reached the Vatican Museum, we understood why we paid in advance for the Vatican musuem tour because the queues were massive! It was only 8.30am in the morning! We saw heaps of paintings during this tour, including Michelangelo's that was on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was interesting listening to the guide's interpretation of Michelangelo's work. Once the tour ended we explored St Peter's Basilica, which is the largest church in the world! A few people that I met on tour and myself visted the tombs of all the Popes. I saw John Paul II's tomb and it was very simple compared to all of the other tombs. Once we walked through St Peter's Square we headed towards the Colloseum stopping for coffee and pasta/pizza on the way. The coffee in Rome is fantastic! It's much better than the coffee that I tried in Florence. We consumed more gelati once we visited the colloseum.

Verona & Venice (8th-9th June)
Today we travelled to Venice via Verona, the home of Romeo and Giulietta. I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare's work however we did visit Giulietta's balcony and the graffiti walls. Some members of our tour group tried their luck by placing their hands on the statue of Giulietta :P. Verona is a beautiful town, it was a refreshing change from crazy Roma. I would love to visit this city again just to chill out. We continued our journey into Venice and arrived our mosquito infested campsite. I was sharing a cabin with some girls who were petrified of anything that crawled (including flies).

The next morning I knew I got a cold that was spreading around the tour group. I wasn't feeling that great but I still managed to visit Venice. This town was hot, from all the concrete and the still lagoons. Lozza walked us through the streets of this city towards St Marco's Square. We watched a lace demonstration, had a walking tour with a local guide. At this point of time I had a throbbing headache so I didn't absorb any information:P We also had a gondola ride through the canals. I really enjoyed the ride except there was a fear of being capsized into the stinking lagoon. During the ride we floated past another gondola that had a guy playing an archodian and there was singing! What a great atmosphere!

Tyrol region, Austria (10th June)
Today I got bronchitis and really bad hayfever, so bad my antihistamines are not working! We left Venice at 7am (yes that early) and travelled though the beautiful mountain ranges towards the Tyrol region in Austria. Once we arrived at the lodge the majority of us hired mountain bikes and cycled down a quiet road, a busy road (some people were petrified) and some off-road tracks. It was strange riding without a helmet and on the right hand side of the road. The handbrakes were also different! I'm just relieved that I usually use my right hand brake at home. We cycled to stop for icecreams at nearby town. There was a self serve icecream machine outside a bakery. It was fantastic! Vanilla & chocolate soft serve icecream in one cone, no wonder "Everybody loves icecream". After a BBQ dinner at the lodge we watched a DVD of two pple that went skydiving! It was hilarious listening to their comments and watching their facial expressions!

Prague (11th-12th June)
We left the Tyrol region and travelled to Prague via the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. This visit was very morbid but it was very moving. When I visited the gas chambers it sent shivers down my spine. It is unbelievable that tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of prisoners died here!
Once we arrived in Prague and had dinner I was frustrated that the hostel staff presumed I was vegetarian because I don't eat pork. Another girl had the same problem but she was lactose intolerant. Lozza took us on a walking tour and showed us some of the main sites of Prague. The view over Charles Bridge is beautiful at dusk.

The next day free day in Prague. We visited the Hradcany Castle in the morning, had a very long lunch (it took 45 min to get our food!) and browsed though the shops and markets in the afternoon.

Berlin (13th-15th June)
We travelled to Berlin via Dresden. Once we arrived in Dresden, it was very cold and windy. Once we took some photos of the palace, we quicky ran to the nearby shopping centre to get some lunch. It was the first of many occasions that I was mistaken as a German (I wish I knew how to speak it!). I just had to say "sorry but I don't speak German". Once we arrived in Berlin we had a bus tour of the city that pointed out some of the major sites. We also visited the Berlin wall. Although I haven't done any proper sightseeing yet, I really like this city! It is among my favorite cities, along with Paris and Florence.

The next day we had the optional Berlin walking tour. Sam, our guide was very informative and provided heaps of info on Germany's history. We visted the Jewish memorial to remember the 6 million Jews that perished during the holocaust. Hitler's bunker and Charlie Checkpoint were the other places that we visited. During the afternoon, a few of us visited the Jewish museum. This museum was like a maze. It was massive so unfortunately I didn't have enough time to look through it all. That evening we wore "I love Berlin" t-shirts for the pub crawl around a number of bars in Berlin.

This morning I had to say goodbye to everyone that I met on tour. They were all heading to Amsterdam. I spent the day wandering the streets of central Berlin, where I visited Parizer Platz, Brandenburger, walked though Tiergarten towards Sieges-saule and had a look at Scholob Bellevue. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, however suddenly the weather changed and there was a thunderstorm! The weather in Berlin is just as unpredictable as in Melbourne!

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