The wait is over!!

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sorry to leave you all in suspense but finally, the wait is over!! I'm back in London, the tour is over and I have all day to fill you in on what happened the last few days!!
ok so the first night in Berlin was at the Generator hostel...the next morning we were up at 730am, on the bus and heading into town for a walking tour with a local guide. The tour went for 3hours which seems like ages but suprisingly it went quickly. The guide took us around parts of Berlin that 20 years ago you would've been shot dead if you walked through there...kind of scary when it was only 20 years ago!! Berlin is still a developing city but considering how it would've been 20 years ago, its definately a nicer city now!! so after the tour, we had the afternoon to ourselves to explore. We went into a museum called Checkpoint Charlie...anybody who knows anything about the war in Germany will know what it is. After that Ash, Bec, Alex, Lisa and I went wandering around the main parts of Berlin. We had covered pretty much everything there is to cover in the tour so it was a relaxing afternoon. We jumped on the train and headed to a town I couldn't pronounce to see a church that was bombed during the war and has been left in that state...pretty cool!! after that we somehow split up as we wandered in and out of shops and it was Alex, Bec and I left. we'd done all the sightseeing we wanted to do so we thought we'd head back to the hotel hoping that Ash and Lisa had done the same. The map we were given of Berlin and its train system wasn't the greatest..it had the main train stops but not all the little ones in between so when we got on the train, we didn't recognise the following 3 stops so we thought we might of been going in the wrong direction. we got off the train, planning on getting on another one after asking someone. We couldn't find anyone who spoke english so we got on a train going in the opposite direction to the one we had just got off. As we got on, I said to Alex and Bec that the train seemed rather empty but we figured it was just a quite time because there wasn't a huge amount of people around anyways. So on we got, sat down and tried to figure out where we were on the map. About 2 minutes later, the train started slowing down and then all of a sudden the lights went out!! So there we were somewhere in Berlin on a pitch black train stopped in the middle of nowhere...all we could see outside was trees, bushes, walls covered in graffiti and an old railway shed thing. By this point we were all looking at each other(well in the general direction because we couldn't really see each other!) in absolute shock, starting to get worried and trying to work out what we should do. I found an emergency button, ripped off the cover and started pushing it!! Then over the speakers we heard this German voice saying something...we had know idea what he was saying so we just stood there laughing because we were still stuck there!! The train started moving on again and the lights turned back on so we could breath a bit easier by that point. About 30 seconds later, we stopped at a station and this little german guy met us at the door and started saying something to us...again!! After that, i just went and asked every person i could find until I found someone that spoke english and he showed us where we had to go and what trains to catch.....what a relief that was!! haha fun times!! so we made it back to the hotel...ash and lisa had made it back as well so we were all back safe and sound and ready for a big night out in Berlin!! Tonight we were going on a pub crawl through Berlin...pubs over here arent like the ones back home. The bus dropped us off in town just near our first pub and we began the night with a shot and a toast to our group. The first pub we went to was tiny!! it was a communist bar so there were all these paintings, flags and symbols all over the walls and people dressed in communist outfits...kind of wierd but all part of the cultural experience! The first drink we got from each bar we got a free shot with it to get us going....let me just say that there were a few cadburys(people who get drunk off like 2 drinks!) in our group!! haha so we stayed there for 40mins then moved onto the next bar. The second bar was a bit nicer...more room to move anyways! There was a another room off from the main bar area which was where most of us went...it was a random room...had a few couches, a disco ball and that was it...then after about 40mins we moved on again. The 3rd pub was so crowded that u couldnt move!! We stayed there for nearly an hour because it took nearly 45mins just to get a drink from the bar! I ended up outside with a few others because it was just too crowded and gettng claustrophobic! The final bar we went to was the best of all(thank god for that!!) it was a bar but it also had a pretty big area set up like a nightclub which was sweet! There's not a real lot to tell about it because we all basically just drank and danced all night(no im not an alcoholic now that im 18!!...just want to clarify that...im a robbo, nothing else needs to be said really!haha). most people left to go to some other nigthclub but to get there u needed to get a cab which would cost about €40-€50 and it was €10 just to get in there. So by about 3am there was Ash, Lisa, Alex, Justin, Olivia, Nadia, Jay and I left...another hour later and Lisa, Alex and Jay had left for the hotel...PARTY POOPERS!!! We kept partying on until about 5am when we decided to get a cab back to the hotel because we had to be on the bus in 3hours!! We got a cab and after trying to explain to the German speaking cabby where our hotel was and getting lost twice...we got there at about 530-6am. The Generator hostel next door was having Karaoke that night until about 4-5am so we went over to see if anyone from our group was still there. It was empty so we headed back to our hotel. Justin went to bed but the 4 of us girls were hungry so we went around the corner to a 24hr take away place for a feed. With breakfast at 730am and bags to the bus by 8am, we decided that we should get some sleep so we said goodnight and went to our rooms. Suprisingly I was still standing so when i got to the room i started packing my bag so i wouldnt have to before breaky. I think i ended up in bed at about 630-7am...got woken up 30mins later and dragged myself out of bed and down to breaky. Our room mate had gone to that other nightclub and was home by about 3-4am so if it wasnt for her, i think i wouldve slept all day!! The drive that day was to Hamburg...i slept the first 3hours, then we stopped at Maccas for lunch...the next hour or so i slept and thankfully we had arrived in Hamburg!! ...only to find out that we weren't going to our hotel until later that afternoon. we had 4hours in town to explore....NOBODY wanted to explore!! well there were a few but they were the major party poopers...we just found an internet cafe and somewhere to eat. that wasted about 2 hrs but we still had 2 hrs to go...we went for a wander around town and came across a random soccer field that must of been set up for a promotional match...it wasnt anything exciting but we seen these little kids walking around with big blow up hands on so we went in search of where to get them!! haha i know im just a big kid!!! but they were hot pink and cool!! (stop shaking your head at me!!) haha anyways we found where they were and lined up with all these little german kids!! once we all got one, bec and I went back to get a photo with some random guy that looked like a famous soccer player(what?? he could be famous one day!!). So that was hamburg...we got to our hotel, had dinner downstairs and then went to bed.
Ok so the next morning after recovering from the big night before we were once again on the bus and driving down to Amsterdam. Anybody know what Amsterdam is famous for??? By day its famous for the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank museum and a few other things like the amount of bikes they have!!!! get this...they have multi-story bike parks!!! just like our car parks but for bikes!!! there's thousands of them EVERYWHERE!!!!. But by night it is famous for having the biggest red light district in all of europe...drugs in all forms...i have never seen anything like it!! Im glad ive seen amsterdam for what it is but i would never go back!! At night you walk down the streets of the red light district and there's chicks in windows dancing in basically nothing...coffee shops everywhere, live sex shows, and random guys walking around mumbling under their breath "cocaine anybody want cocaine"....the coffee shop seems harmless but in amsterdam there are cafes where you can get coffee and tea or there's coffee shops where you can legally smoke weed, eat space cakes or drink spaceshakes. It was an experience to go there but like i said, i wouldnt go back. So our first night in Amsterdam was spent in town on our "cultural evening" as our tour manager, Dean, liked to call it! The next day we headed into town to explore the "day sites".. we went to the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank museum(where Anne and her family hid out during the war) and onto the Heineken museum! The Heineken museum was good..when you buy your tickets, you get 4 tokens. 1 for a drink in the first bar, 2 for the two drinks in the next bar and the last 1 was for a free gift you got at the end of it. The free gift was a Heineken glass which was pretty cool. We didnt allow enough time to get through it all so we oly got to have the first drink....shame i know!! haha so once again we were back on the bus and heading out to our hotel in the middle of nowhere. oh and i just remembered....when we first arrived in Amsterdam, we were taken to a diamond shop thing where they showed us how to work out the value of diamonds and stuff like that...nothing too exciting when you cant buy any of it!! After that we were taken to a little cheese and clog place near our hotel. Here they explained to us how cheese is made and then made a pair of clogs...we got to taste heaps of different cheeses so that was cool!! ....ok so back to our 2nd night after the Heineken museum....we got back to the hotel and had to get ready for that night because we were going on a canal cruise and then dinner. It was also our last night together as a group. The dinner was beautiful!!! we had...wait for it.....STEAK!!!!!!!!!! i hadn't eaten steak since i left home which was a month ago!!!!!!! it wasnt as good as how dad cooks it but it was steak so cooked or not i was going to enjoy it!!! haha the rest of the food was alright but the steak just made my night...and everyone elses too!! so after dinner we headed down to our canal which was going to cruise us around Amsterdam for an hour and half. On board was free beer, wine and soft drink....by this point there were a few people that we struggling to stand up after drinking at the Heineken museum, free drinks at dinner and free drinks on the cruise!! The cruise was pretty good...we were all crammed in and there was a little bit of room to dance but most people were just taking photos and drinking! When the cruise finished we all walked back to the bus and went back to the hotel. The hotel had a bar downstairs that they kept open for us until 1am so we kept partying on once again!! it was another great night and seeing as we had to be up early again to drive back to London, it was probably a smart idea to close the bar at 1am!!
So from Amsterdam we drove through to Belgium, stopped there for lunch, then through to Calais, France where we boarded the ship to take us to Dover, England. When we arrived in Calais, the weather was pretty bad so the ships were delayed until further notice...about an hour later we boarded the ship and then had an hour and half before we arrived in Dover. The seas were rough as and so as we were sitting down having something to eat, our plates were sliding back and forth and walking around became one of the most difficult(and funniest) thing we did!! haha but i guess you had to be there! From Dover, it was a 2hr drive to London but there was a fair bit of traffic on the roads so it ended up nearly 3hrs. Once we arrived at the Royal National Hotel(Contiki headquarters), we got all our bags of the bus and said goodbye to anyone that wasnt staying overnight. For everyone that was staying overnight, we organised for all of us to meet up at the Pub next door. Dean(tour manager) and Luke(tour driver) had to take the bus to the depot and clean it out so they didnt meet up with us until about 9pm.
So Contiki is over..i had an absolute ball!! i met so many great people and made some great friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime!!

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