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Published: August 7th 2009
Eastern Road Contiki tour
Saturday 11th July (Berlin).
Today we had a look around Berlin, and used the time to wash our clothes prior to starting the Contiki tour at 6pm. We had the introduction meeting and met everyone else that was doing the tour. Our Contiki manager Dean seemed a bit over the top with rules etc, but as it turned out he had certain things he had to say at this intro meeting, and most of the rules didn't end up applying anyway. We had dinner at a place nearby the hotel, and it was a good chance to meet a couple of people. Later in the evening, we went to an Irish pub.
Sunday 12th July (Berlin).
We started the day with a long walking tour with a guide (about 3 hours). This was very interesting as the guide knew heaps about the history of the city. We also seen the remaining parts of the Berlin wall and heard stories about escape attempts, and the problems the wall caused. In the evening we had our first 1 litre steins with dinner, and then had a 'spy game' pub crawl, which was supposed to involve us finding clues and passing information over the Berlin wall. The game didn't work out really well, as nobody was too interested, and it was basically just a pub crawl. I talked to lots of people from the tour and had a really good night, but felt pretty average in the morning.
Monday 13th July (Berlin to Prague).
Today we woke up pretty early, packed in a hurry and got onto the Contiki bus. We arrive in Prague in the afternoon and Dean took us on a walking tour around the city and to the town centre where their was an old clock tower which was pretty cool (on the hour little puppet men came out and danced around and went back in). We got back to the hotel at 8pm and the girls and Theo went with the group to an underground nightclub that the locals go to. Pat and I stayed in because we were both pretty tired from the night before. The girls were back within an hour or so, because the place was pretty average and the locals did not seem very impressed that a Contiki tour showed up!
Tuesday 14th July (Prague).
The morning consisted of a tour of the city with a professional tour guide, which went for about 3 hours. It was very interesting, and the city was very old fashioned and quite unique (very different to anything I had seen before). In the afternoon the girls went shopping so Pat, Theo and I had a walk around, and had a local beer in the cheapest places we could find (which included tiny pubs on the outskirts of the city, and youth hostel pubs etc). The beers were pretty reasonably priced, but not as cheap as I was expecting for Eastern Europe (which is starting to get quite a lot of tourists compared to maybe 10 years ago). Later that night, we had a traditional czech dinner which commenced with shot of some sort of alcohol, which is supposed to help you digest your meal. We then headed to a pub and Simone convinced us to have a shot of Absinthe since it was a traditional drink. We agreed and it tasted awful, and I stopped drinking for the rest of the night. Later on we went to a 5 story high nightclub which had different music on each level, it had something for everyone.
Wednesday 15th July (Prague to Vienna).
Another early start for the bus trip to Vienna. We stopped on the Czech/Austrian border at a place called Excalibur. It was like a weird amusement park in the middle of nowhere. Clare and I had lunch in a hollowed out plane (which was a restaurant!). We didn't go out in Vienna that night, we stayed in at the hotel and walked over to the shops early in the evening to get dinner. Everything was closed so we had to get McDonalds, and we also got rained on in the process.
Thursday 16th July (Vienna to Budapest).
In the morning we walked around Vienna and seen the crypt under the church and the palace. Clare noticed that the zoo had giant panda's in it (which she really wanted to see) so we had to run around the zoo in 20 minutes so that we could get back to the bus before departing for Budapest at midday. We basically ran the whole way around the zoo, got lost trying to find the exit, and then had to run back to get the bus. When we got to Budapest, we did a tour around the city (half on the bus, half walking) and seen the castle district as well (which gave a pretty amazing view of the city as it was on a hill). In the evening, we had a dinner cruise, and had a huge feast of food. I drank almost a whole bottle of red wine as it was complementary (and this was basically the first time I had ever drank red wine). Later that night we went to an outdoor nightclub called 'Rio' and I danced the night away (with extra confidence due to the wine)
Friday 17th July (Budapest).
Today we didn't have to get on a bus in the morning, so we slept in until 11:30 (although we were up pretty late the night before, so it still wasn't a very big sleep). We went on a walking tour of the city with Dean, and then we split up and went to the 'Terror Museum' (which showed the hardship of the Hungarian people, mostly Jewish, during WW2) and wasn't a very nice experience. We had dinner at the hotel this night, and then stayed in and had a few drinks with the rest of the Contiki group.
Saturday 18th July (Budapest to Slovakia to Krakow).
Today we had a long bus trip to Poland, with a stop in Slovakia for lunch. We didn't get to Krakow until later in the afternoon and then we had dinner at the hotel. We had a few drinks with dinner, and were all so happy to get off the bus. We went out with Dean on a pub crawl and we were having shots of vodka to drink (trying to enjoy the local customs). Unfortunately the vodka was quite strong, Clare and I got pretty drunk. I went for a walk around the club, and got lost in the maze of different rooms and staircases, and then a bouncer must have seen me wondering around looking lost and drunk, and asked me to leave the club (this turned out to be quite embarrassing as Dean was at the door on the way out!). I don't remember too much about getting home that night....
Sunday 19th July (Krakow).
Dean was talking the group out for a tour around Krakow, but Clare and I skipped the tour to stay in bed. We got a bus into the city ourselves and when we walked over to the group at the afternoon meeting time, it was very embarrassing as Dean had told everyone what happened, so everyone was laughing and clapping. Apparently I went up to Dean the night before and shook my head and said 'Paul plus vodka = bad time!'. We then took the bus to go to a thousand year old underground salt mine, and went down a few hundred metres for the tour. This was pretty interesting, but also very dark and stuffy, not what I needed with a hangover. We got back to the city about 8pm and Clare and I got dinner, and then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Monday 20th July (Krakow to Auschwitz to Warsaw).
We had a quiet night the night before because today was going to be very intense, as we had our trip to Auschwitz concentration camp. The experience was something that I will never forget, the things that will stay with me forever was seeing the thousands of suitcases which were collected from the Jewish who thought they were getting a train to start a new life, but actually ended up in the gas chambers. The suitcases had the names and addresses of individuals and families, which made it seem very ...... real. We also seen entire rooms full of hair from the women sent to the gas chambers (as they had their hair cut first). Their was literally tonnes of actual hair, which the Nazi's would use to make mattress stuffing and other fabrics. After this, we got back on the bus to go to Warsaw (everyone in a fairly somber mood) and we had dinner at the hotel that night. We went up to the bar at the Mariott hotel (which had a good view of the city) and I paid AUD $12.50 per beer for me and the 2 guys, which was a crazy price for Poland. We left the bar quite early, and I quickly jumped on the internet in the underground shopping area, which resulted in me getting a bit lost looking for a toilet!
Tuesday 21st July (Warsaw).
In the morning we did a walking/bus tour around the city. We learned about the war history and seen the former Jewish Ghetto site. We then had some free time and we watched a 15 minute video showing how the city was 85% destroyed during WW2 and how a lot of it was rebuilt within 10 years, an amazing story. We then had a traditional polish meal for lunch (meat dumplings) and I got a hot raspberry beer (something I will never have again, but had to give it a try). The girls then did a bit of shopping and as we were walking around, we seen a large protest. There were heaps of riot police on standby, and then they charged into the crowd of protesters. We thought we should run after the mass of people to see what was happening, and then the crowd changed direction, and we had everyone running back towards us. We had to turn and run, but didn't want to look like we were part of the protest, scary at the time, but funny to look back on! After this we seen a 'Chopin' piano recital, the lady playing had her hands moving so fast it was amazing. This was our last night on the tour, so we had a farewell dinner. The restaurant had 3 or 5 litre beer dispensers that you could buy for the table, and in true Contiki fashion, we ordered 2 of the 3 litre beers for the table (which consisted of only 4 guys). This meant that a lot of beer was consumed with dinner. We went out to a nightclub for the final time, and we all had a good time.
Wednesday 22nd July (Warsaw to Berlin)
We had what was termed the 'bus trip from hell'. This was a trip basically from 7:30am til 6:00pm on some of the worst roads in Eastern Europe, but we did get to stop a few times. Contiki was now over, so we checked into the A&O hostel in Berlin (a 6 person mixed dorm). There were a lot of people from the Contiki staying in Berlin for the night, so we arranged to meet up for a very final drink. The girls didn't want to come as they had to do some laundry, so Pat, Theo and I thought we would go for a couple of hours (casually dressed in shorts and thongs). Four steins and two pints of Guinness later, Pat and I were very drunk (I thought Contiki was supposed to be over..... why was this happening again!).
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Roberta
non-member comment
beer beer and more beer
Your blog makes for very interesting reading Paul. I must remember to get a few beers in for your visit. I would hate you and your friends to run into bad health. Seriously though you sound as if you are all having a brilliant time which is as it should be. I would like to visit the concentration camps myself. I imagine the experience would stay with you a long time.