Half-term Europe 2009

Let me just give you a heads up that this blog entry will be very lengthy so you may want to get a drink or snack and put your feet up to make yourself comfortable for this read. I also would like to let you know it won't be proofread because it takes me enough time to write everything down and I am way too busy of a woman to spend the extra time proofreading when everyone reading will be able to decipher what I mean to say during any of my typos/misspellings.
First, I'd like to start by telling you the basic itinerary and outline of the trip. We left on October 19th and came back to Canterbury on October 31st but weren't able to celebrate Halloween. I think we're going to have a Halloween celebration next weekend since everyone will be back then and everything. So anyways...we visited Berlin, Prague, Munich, and Zurich spending 3 nights in each place for a total of 12 nights. It was a very long and tiring holiday but well worth it and so amazing to see everything in each city to see how different and unique they all are.
i traveled with Maddy, one of my roommates who is also working her second year for English Lacrosse, which was very nice to not travel alone anywhere. Jaclyn and Rachel, twins who are both over here doing what I'm doing, met us in Berlin after they visited Amsterdam which Maddy and I had already done. They stayed with us for Berlin, Prague, and Munich which was a blast because they are so fun and it was great to have a good group of people you love being around when you're together all day everyday for almost 2 weeks or so.
Alright so now I'll break down the trip by each place. I've already put up pictures from each place and there are over 500 on snapfish if you can get to that account. If not, ask my Mom how to access it lol.
Monday night our flight was delayed awhile so we didn't end up leaving until 9.30pm which got us into Berlin pretty late and then we had an adventure trying to find the hostel. At Gatwick London airport, I had a problem checking in because the woman asked me if I could fit my big purse into my carry-on and then make it fit into that big metal thing they have to measure the carry-ons and I was like oh yeah I know it will that's fine so she goes "ok well can you please show me?" At this point I started sweating trying to zipper my huge purse filled to the top into my carry-on which ended up not zipping all the way and I just left it. I got it into the metal thing and she was like ok push it down to make sure it goes all the way so I did. And then it was stuck. Everyone in the check-in line and at the counters were watching me try to pull it out while the lady at the counter is telling me how to do it by pushing from the bottom. Anyways, I ended up getting it out after a struggle and that's the way it began...and was followed by the flight delay. So we finally got to Berlin and struggled finding the hostel because the train we needed was having brake problems or something so we couldn't take it from the airport and went a very roundabout way but ended up at the right place and finally got to the hostel and ended up in bed at like 2am or maybe later....not good times lol.
Jaclyn and Rachel were already there and sleeping so we didn't see them until the next morning. Also, a teacher from Jaclyn's school named Steve was there and he's been all around Europe and majored in European Political History or something like that she we had our own personal tour guide around Berlin which was amazing. The first full day there we did everything we possibly could and saw all the main sights. We waited in line and saw the German Parliament which was really cool and had good views from the top then we walked around and saw the Holocaust Memorial, US and British Embassies, the New Synagogue, Reichstag, and the Opera House. I'm sure we saw more along the way but those were the main ones I jotted down in my notes:-) The next full day we had we went to Sachsenhausen concentration camp which was about 45 minutes from us so that was a full day trip. I can't even describe the day or the experience to say that it was very hard to be learning and reading about things that happened in the exact place where you're standing...the fact that humans can treat other human beings that way....I just can't get my head around it and it's one thing to learn about it in a classroom and a completely different experience to walk on the grounds where it happened. After the camp, we got back and went to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant by our hostel which was very nice. Something I noticed in Europe is that dogs go everywhere with their owners...everywhere. They are in fast food places, supermarkets, Starbucks, nice Italian restaurants, on the tube and trains...literally everywhere. It was so strange to me because they weren't just little dogs but big dogs sitting on the train and it was just so bizarre but anyways that was just something I noticed that I thought about when I mentioned the restaurant. After the restaurant, we just went back to the hostel and watched a soccer game in the lobby then went to bed. The next day we left in the afternoon for Prague so we did the Berlin Wall in the morning and learned all about that. After we saw that, we walked around a bit more and then just went to the hostel until we had to go to the train station.
We took the train from Berlin to Prague and that was fairly straight forward and not difficult. We checked in and just walked around that night for a bit getting to know the area and then went to bed. For our first full day, we woke up to catch the free walking tour which was 3 hrs but definitely worth it. Prague is amazing and it was so interesting to learn about and also sooo beautiful! We saw the main sites on the tour like the national theater, astronomical clock in the old town square and we learned about alot of the history and different stories they have there. After the tour, we walked over the Charles Bridge which is like one big market and we got over to the other side to walk around the Prague Castle which is huge but beautiful. We didn't pay for the tour so we just walked around it and got pictures. On our way to the castle, we bought hot wine from a little stand on the street and the guy ended up being a national ballerina and was telling us all about his days and where he traveled and it was very interesting!
That night, we did a bar crawl which was fun but I didn't drink enough where it was actually worth the money for me but it was still a good experience and it was a good thing to do because we enjoyed it. They take you to one bar and then 3 clubs and we barely made it to the second club before just going home and going to sleep because the second club we went to wasn't fun and way too smokey so we were ready to call it a night. It was very interesting how many Americans there were in Prague...I'm not sure I met any Czech people lol. Alot of them worked for the bar crawl companies just living abroad and having various other jobs and just living over there and traveling which was interesting. We met alot of people along the way just living abroad doing whatever and enjoying time over there and also people backpacking around Europe for however long. We met 3 guys who actually quit their jobs and planned a huge trip to travel indefinately around Europe and they are from England and wanted to hang out with us whenever they got back from traveling lol. Everyone we met was very nice though and we had so much fun but anyways...:-)
So the next day in Prague, we slept late and then went to Bohemian Bagel and sat there for awhile eating lunch. It was very very very American and the food was amazing and cheap so we loved it there! Then we walked around and went to the other side of town to see things and then went back for a nap because we were still tired. We ate dinner at a local little place in Old Town Square and got various things and it was very good. Then we just hung out with bar crawl people riding on their 7-seater bike which was awesome and soo fun! There were so many people taking pictures of it and we were in many of those peoples' pictures so that was fun lol. Then we just went back to the room and went to bed.
We left for Munich in the afternoon the next day so we got up to check out and see some things before we left. We went to Petrin Hill to see the tower which apparently is supposed to be like the Eiffel Tower. We didn't go up it but got some good pictures from the hill and got good exercise getting up there! It was gorgeous with beautiful views and it was a pretty day so it was nice to be outside and doing that. We also saw a memorial of the communist rule after the Holocaust which was interesting...I have pictures of that on snapfish as well. Then of course we went to lunch at Bohemian Bagel and sat there until we had to leave for the train station. This was the worst journey by far but it was made fun by the people we met along the way which is what it's all about right? I guess so....lol
So when we found out the train times in Prague, the lady said the ones from Prague to Munich on the day we were leaving were complicated because of railway work and such so there were buses involved in the journey but the one at 5pm was direct so we were like oh great let's get that one!
Well....we get on the train and a woman came by and told us that we had to get off at blah blah stop to change so we asked our new German friend that we just met to translate and he said it wasn't direct and then told us what we had to do. Well thankfully we met Achim and Maria who were our German friends on the trip and they didn't know each other before us. Achim spoke English and German and Maria only spoke German so he translate to her for us which was comical but she loved us of course:-) Achim had just been married by law and the next week was having a Church wedding "to be wed by God"....a bit different than America but interesting. We were confused because he kept saying he was married but he was planning things for his wedding...so then he explained. So anyways, we ended up having to take 2 trains then a bus with everyone packed on it and all our bags on our laps and then another 2 trains before getting to Munich. It was miserable and ended up being a 7 1/2 journey. We had to race off the train at one of the stops to the vending machines to stock up on whatever we could find which ended up being gummy bears, vitamin c throat things, pretzels and a snickers lol oh and some kind of carbonated apple juice drink which was strange. So the trip to Munich....not the best.
We got in late and went to bed and then we ended up sleeping late into the next day and missing the tour we were meant to get so we just walked around ourselves and saw alot of the city and then went to a beer hall for dinner around 5 or 6pm and very unexpectedly stayed until it closed at midnight lol. It was the best night of the whole trip and we met lots of interesting people and drank German beer by the liter which was quite the experience but what Munich is known for so that was fun. Needless to say...we slept in the next day as well lol. The one thing I looooved about Munich was that our hostel had a free breakfast and it was actually really good! Our Berlin one did as well or maybe Prague I don't remember but the Munich one was really good and we were able to make sandwiches for lunches to take with us during the day...it was great!
On Tuesday, the second full day in Munich, we did Dachau another concentration camp. I think the more you go to, the more it affects you and you really begin to not only understand what these people went through but you can also actually feel it when you're there...it's terrible but also something that everyone should experience at some point in their lives to truly understand it. So anyways, we did that and then we ended up spending the day with the boys I mentioned above who quit their jobs to travel from England. They went to the camp with us and then we hung out all night in the hostel with them and they were really fun.
The next day, Maddy and I left around 12:30 for Zurich and Jaclyn and Rachel left later at night to go back to London. We got up and did some of the free tour but Maddy and I had to leave for the train station so I'll need to get Rachel's pictures from that. We had a pretty easy train ride into Zurich and then got to the hostel around dinnertime so we checked in and then walked around. Little did we know that Zurich's one of the most expensive cities in the world! We couldn't even afford McDonald's...it was terrible! Although we make pounds, the franc is equal to the american dollar so that's what we compared everything to when we saw prices. A meal at McDonalds was 12 francs which was like $12 to us and we were like oh wow! We did alot of window shopping and just walked around looking at what we couldn't afford. We went to the supermarket every morning and got brie and bread to eat during the day and would splurge on Starbucks lol. We bought pasta, pesto sauce and tomato sauce at the supermarket along with a head of lettuce and single packets of dressing for dinner the nights we were there which worked out well. We didn't go out because it was way too expensive but we walked around alot and just learned about the city which was gorgeous. Switzerland in general is beautiful and has beautiful residents. Everyone in Zurich is just amazingly gorgeous and we would stare at them all-girls and boys lol. We could easily pick out locals and visitors. People would guess that we were Americans and we'd be offended since Swiss people are so pretty and they didn't think we looked like we were from there lol.
Alright, so the first full day we were there we got up early and took the 10am train 2 hours to Interlaken which is the huge home of extreme sports and a big tourist attraction. It was gorgeous and I didn't want to leave there. The weather was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a better day. We walked around and took lots of pictures and sat at a little cafe and then headed back on the 4pm train and got back for dinner to make some pasta and salad at the hostel. We hung out and just went to bed after walking around the city at night after dinner and it was just so pretty there. The next day we slept in because we had the worst hostel nights there sleeping-wise with girls getting in at 3am then people waking up at 7am...it was just terrible trying to sleep. We woke up and then walked around the city but it was a gloomy day and not great for pictures. We took a Zurich guide and did the walking tour they take you through in there and that was nice because we learned about things as we saw them. Then we went back to the hostel, made dinner and just relaxed again that night. We went to McDonalds at night for ice cream and ran into a guy we met at the beer hall in Munich who works for some aviation company and is quitting his job at 30 to get a 50% pay cut to join the US Army. Interesting guy and weird that we saw him again but he was traveling for business and was on our train to Zurich so we thought maybe we'd see him somewhere...embarassing that it was in McDonalds though lol.
Last day in Zurich....we checked out and walked around in the morning and took lots more pictures lol and then went to the train station to get to the airport and make our way back to Canterbury. Our train from Gatwick had 2 changes and we actually ended up on the same train as Emma, one of our other roommates and Jill, the other American lax coach...small world because they didn't even plan on running into each other and then we all met up on the same train into Canterbury for the home stretch of the trip lol.
It was a great experience, good fun and good people, beautiful pictures, so much history and information to learn everywhere. We could have easily spent 2 weeks in all of these places going into all the museums and just learned everything there is to know but it's nice to even be able to visit them and catch a glimpse of the city for a few days. I feel very lucky and fortunate to have had this opportunity and I'm looknig forward to my next trip....to America for Christmas!!!:-) I can't wait to go home for awhile and see everyone and especially since it's Christmas! I miss everyone and I'm sorry for the typos but I'm tired and wanted to write this while it was still pretty fresh in my mind. I love you all!!!!!! xxxx