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Salzburg
Sound of music bus!
Do a deer...Here we are with only a month and half before we come home and I can't believe how quickly these past few weeks have come and gone. I feel like ever since we arrived in Europe (and I guess while we were traveling around Asia) the cities have been flying by and every time we arrive in a new city, we can't seem to believe that we are already there. It's a very funny feeling. We are both starting to think about home alot more now that it is so close, but we're still enjoying everything we see because once we're home for a few days we're probably only going to miss the traveling life.
Since leaving our friends in Bamberg, we've been moving around quite abit. We left Germany (temporarily) and jumped on a train to Austria. We've been traveling by train all over Europe and we're still amazed at how well our Eurorail passes have been working out for us. Most of the time, we can simply jump on a train without a reservation and without having to pay a cent. The only place we had to pay was in France, but only on the high speed trains.
Vienna
A really beautiful city Anyways, Helena dropped us off at the train station in Bamberg in the morning after taking us to a hair dresser where Alexis was hoping to get his haircut. We thought that Bamberg would be a good spot to get this done because we had translators that could make sure the Alexis got what he wanted...very short hair, almost shaved, but not shaved. He was very concerned that he would end up with...I'm not exactly sure what he thought his hair was going to look like. Unfortunately, the lady working that morning couldn't take Alexis and we didn't really have time to wait around for the next appointment, so Alexis was stuck with his long locks for another little while.
Our first stop was a little Austrian town called Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart. To be honest we weren't really sure what there was to see and do in Salzburg. The only thing I knew was that Salzburg was where they filmed the Sound of Music and that there were Sound of Music tours that ran everyday. We spent the night in a nice hotel and got up early to book our spot on the Sound of Music Tour. Of
Vienna
Checking the map...again and again. course, I had to 'drag' Alexis on the tour (that's going to be our story...but I'll show you the video of him singing on the bus). Fortunately for Alexis, once we got on the giant, Sound of Music painted bus we realized that Alexis wasn't the only boyfriend to get 'dragged' on the tour. Nor was he the only one enjoying it either. The whole thing was cheesy, kitchy and very touristy, but we both had a really good time. We saw the different places where they filmed the various scenes of the movie and got some inside scoop on some of the behind the scenes stuff. The only downside was that it rained (more like poured) the whole day! I think we're both glad we did the tour anyways. We sang Sound of Music songs for the whole week following the tour.
That night we jumped on another train and arrived in Vienna in the late afternoon. Our hostel was about a 40 minute walk from the downtown area, but we walked it everyday, twice a day. We always opt to walk rather than to take the metro or the bus. It's always a good way to see
Vienna
Music museum. as much of the city as we can. Vienna was BEAUTIFUL! I don't really know what we were expecting of the city, but it was totally different and absolutely beautiful! We had visited so many little Germanic cities that, although they were all beautiful, they all started to look the same. Vienna was more imperialistic and grand, with imposing buildings and colourful gardens all over town. It reminded us more of Paris than any other city we'd seen. We spent about 3 days in Vienna and didn't want to leave. Of course it helped that the weather great and sunny. After Vienna, we were off to the Czech Republic to visit Prague for a few days.
As soon as we arrived in Prague, we could feel that we were no longer in Western Europe. Although we didn't feel unsafe, Eastern Europe was just a little different. Our hostel, on the other had, was the best hostel we'd stayed in. It was like we had our own little apartment with our own bathroom and everything. Sometimes having a nice room isn't a good thing because we are tempted to stay in, but we still managed to enjoy Prague. We spent
Prague
Creepy church two days walking around visiting the main square and the surrounding areas. Though it was rainy, we still managed to do alot of exploring and relaxing. It was perfect. Though we were ready to explore a new city, we were very sad to say goodbye to our nice room.
We weren't really sure what to expect of Berlin but we had heard so many great things about the city and we knew there was alot of history there to keep us busy for a few days. Someone had told us that the Free Walking tour of Berlin was a must, so it's the first thing we did once we were all settled in to our hostel. There's a company run by an American guy that offers free walking tours of most European cities guided by people that work on a tips-only basis and give really excellent tours. We started taking advantage of them because they are really well done and are very informative tours. We walked around Berlin for just over 4 hours guided by a very enthusiastic Brit who took us to the all the main sites giving us the history and stories behind the various areas. We
got to see buildings once occupied by Nazis, we stood on the area above Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide, and walked along where the Berlin Wall once stood separating East and West Berlin. Simply put, the 4 hours were fascinating and incredible. To add to our excitement, who did we see biking along the way but CNN's Anderson Cooper looking quite cool. Of course, Alexis and I seemed to be the only ones to have noticed (or maybe no one else found it quite as exciting). I think he was stocking us because he biked by us more than once, though he probably though the same about us. It was our first day in Berlin and we were already exhausted. Our hostel was quite unique, but nice. When we arrived, we were told by another guest that we had to ask the bar next door to call the owner because there was no check-in area in the hostel. We waited for a few minutes before the owner, an Ali G look alike, came speeding around the corner on a BMX bike (google Ali G if you don't know who he is...you'll better understand why we found it funny). He
Berlin
TV Tower was very nice and the place was very clean so we were happy. One thing we have learned during our time in hostels is that just because a place is expensive, doesn't mean it will be nice and vice versa. We've become expert users of the Hostel World website, and if I never have to use that site again, I will be a very happy person.
We had 4 really nice days in Berlin and by the time we left our brains were mush due to all of our different history lessons. It was nice to have seen all the sites in person and to be able to picture the areas when we hear about them now. Overall, it was an excellent stop. Our next destination was Amsterdam and we weren't really sure what to expect of it. We took a direct train from Berlin and had to say goodbye to Germany for the last time on this trip. We had some really great times in Germany and were happy that we got to spend more than a couple of days in the country. Unfortunately we weren't able to say the same about Holland because we only visited the
one city and though we liked it, I don't think it really represents the true Dutch culture. Whoever, Amsterdam was a truly beautiful city with the many different canals and green spaces. Our hotel was about 20 minutes outside the downtown core which we were quite happy about. We had a couple of really nice evenings sitting by a canal drinking beer and chatting about our trip so far and about home. We had some of our best nights in Amsterdam and I'll remember them for a long time..
We did another free tour of the city, which was really good because we didn't know much about the history of Holland. We walked around the various canals, passed by many 'cafes' filled with dirty, hippy looking people smoking weed (all tourist of course) and walked through the famous Red Light District (again, all tourists). Though it was interesting to see the different areas Amsterdam is famous for, I think they are now way too touristy and quite dirty. It was something to see though. Another beautiful city visited and before we knew it we were off to discover a new country.
Hope everyone is well at home! We
Berlin
Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon!!
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Shalini
non-member comment
Ooh wow! Europe is sounding so lovely! We are missing you guys! One more month! Yay!! Love ya, Shal