pillaging the village

amsterdam

anabobana — Mon, 4 Feb 2008 03:20:00 GMT

So we (me and jess) arrved in amsterdam Sunday avo ... the other girls (lucy and kayley) were staying in paris for another two nights ...

As soon as we arrived, we dumped our stuff and had showers and talking to people in our rooms (by this stage it had been 24 hours since id showered – and I hadn’t slept!) ...

We jumped on the free internet for a little bit and organized all our last minute stuff/checked bank accounts/facebook etc ... and after this we went in search of coffee houses ... we asked one of the fix-it guys who had fixed jesses bathroom where the best ones were, and we visited one around the corner called 420 ...

We got a peanut butter n white chocolate hash cookies to share and a gram between us ... spent the afternoon rolling joints n mucking around at the hostel ... we stayed at the flying pig down town – its in the middle of the red light district and its famous as being the place that backpackers stay in Amsterdam ... we had to reserve about 2 weeks ahead just to get beds, and even then we were in different rooms at different times because we couldn’t always get beds together ... the hostel was really cool ... and had the cheapest beer in Amsterdam ... a few hours later at like 6 we got the munchies and wandered down to macdonalds ... there were about 3 in the street we were in, all within a km of each other!!! ... I ate two sundaes n I think they were the best icecream ive ever eaten in my life haha .. it took me about two hours to eat them because we were so hi ... it took us forever to get home because we were walking really slow (but we thought we were walking really fast ha) ... we were so wrecked we went to bed about 9 that night ...

Woke up the next day after a huge ass sleep at about 930 n went to get breakkie ... we made about 4 sandwiches eat (peanut butter, nutella and jam) to last us through the day ... the great thing about getting buffet breakfasts is u can steal enough food at breakfast to last u for lunch n din .. haha by ths stage of our trip wed all become so cheap ... we had to be back at the hostel that day by 5pm because jesses cousin (joel) and his friend (graham) were coming over from London ... they were our age and backpacking too (from queensland) ... they had been staying with jesses mum in London ...

Me n jess wandered around for a little bit n then walked across town to this other coffee shop ... I cant remember the name, but it was the coffee shop that was in Ocean’s 12 (the movie) ... we wanted to buy brownies and couldn’t find them anywhere, and we fgured this would be a touristy coffee shop because it had been in a movie , so it would have brownies ... and YAY we did find them ... best brownies in the world, sooo much icing yum ... they were more like cakes than brownies though .. spent the morning eating our brownies and then had a joint (from yesterday) and GEE .. warning to anyone who goes to Amsterdam, the weed is so much stronger than back home ... we found this out on our walk home (which I think took us all afternoon) ... at one stage we thought we were a marching band ha .. we found the best ice cream store on our way home .. it was traditional icecream store n it was made with full cream milk and real cream .. the guy wanted to open a chain in melb ... we had passed by this store yest n the queue was about 10 metres outside the store ... eventually we made it home ... but we couldn’t get into the hostel haha ... we had these electronic keys but we couldn’t find the slot ... eventually someone else let us in n we took the elevator (instead of the stairs ... I don’t think we would’ve made it up them) and found our way to my room ... it was about 2 in the avo about this tage n we fell asleep on my bed ... I was staying in a room with this group from argentina ... and they came in about an hour later n started taking magic mushrooms and we hung around for a while ... we were really out of it that avo ... at 5 went down to meet jess’ cousin and his frend ... we spent the night at the hostel having a few drinks and mucking around .. they had a dj every nght and we always met heaps of ppl

Woke up the nxt morning ... made sandwiches at breakkie n we all went to the red light district ... it took us forever to find. But finally arrived ... it was just like everyone has always said, lots of sex shops and prostitutes in the windows L ... and it wasn’t just a few, but every second window ... and all types of girls – some really pretty ones – all standing in bikinis inside these windows and dancing at every man that walks past L me felt really sad ... felt sorry for them because they must have been so cold in biknis and it was cold outside (though much warmer than everywhere else id been) .. jess pointed out that they prob had heaters ... the others wanted to see a sex show tonight but I convinced them to go on one of the nights that I wasn’t there (they were staying 2 nights longer than me and I definitely didn’t want to go to a sex show) ... so we went to the supermarket, got heaps of wine n beer and went back to the hostel ... we had wine for lunch yumyum ... and spent the afternoon bumming around the hostel ... lucy and kayley were arriving that day at about lunch time .. they ended up arriving at 1.30 when we were nicely tipsy ... we spent the whole day talking, drinking and eating hash cookies ... a dj came on that night and me and jess got free drinks at the bar from that fix-it guy that had fixed her toilet ... no idea wat time we went to bed ...

Same routine the next day ... breakfast n sandwiches, but everyone felt like such shit ... we sort of walked around at one stage to see a bit of Amsterdam (well we walked to the supermarket to get more alcohol) ... and repeated yesterdays day ... this was my last night and prob our biggest night ... t was cheap tequila night at the hostel so it was vry vry busy ... made friends with a really lovely german backpacker who was working at the hostel ...

Woke up next morning at 745 ... made sandwiches n ran to get a train to paris ... stupid thing took me 8 hours n had to change over a million times ...

Things I liked about Amsterdam

- pretty city with lots of canals

- many pretty buildings n churches like paris, but not pretentious about it

- there are heaps of really cool government initiatives that make the city very friendly ... lots of policemen constantly walkng the streets ... in the trams, there are information people sitting n the middle of the train who talk to u and you can buy tickets from ... everyone speaks English (though this sn’t a gov thing) ... prostitutes actually have a union!!! Hurrah, they def need some support (again not a government thing) ...

- people are warm and friendly and very laid back

- trains actually run on time ... and customer service is incredibly efficient ... there is a no-fuss or time wasting attitude ... one example is when I was accidentally sitting in a first class carriage, the ticket inspector told me to move (I was more than happy to) and he did it in a really friendly way ... when I was in france, me and my French exchange sister maud sat in a frst class carriage on purpose, she talked her way out of it – in france u can easily talk ur way out of stuff and if u r young and pretty people oblige ... in Amsterdam it wasn’t like that ... I like how they have rules and follow them

missing photos

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 22:17:00 GMT

ive put up all the photos i have of the tri$p ... but there are still some missing because a lot of the time we only took one camera out between us .. so the girls have a lot of photos too .. they should put them up on facebook within a few days n i will add them to my collections ..

Gallery: cotswolds

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 22:14:00 GMT

Gallery: amsterdam

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 22:04:00 GMT

Gallery: venice

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 21:54:00 GMT

venice

Gallery: salsburg

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 21:41:00 GMT

birthplace of mozart n sound of music

Gallery: munich

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 21:26:00 GMT

Gallery: contiki_vienna

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 21:20:00 GMT

vienna

Gallery: contiki _ prague

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 21:08:00 GMT

prague

Gallery: contiki _ germany

anabobana — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 20:51:00 GMT

berlin and dresden

the cotswolds

anabobana — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:25:00 GMT

i nearly fell into a canal in venice ... we fuond a free gondola which wasn't being manned by anyone ... so me and jess thought itd be a great photo opportunity ... since gondola rides r so expsnive there was no way e could afford one ... so we ran down the algae covered steps to the canal and BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM i went flying down the steps, landed sliding on my ass and had to grab the gondola to stop myself falling into the canal hahaha ... i walked around for the next few hours with this green fungus covered bum hahaha .. the only reason that jess didn't fall was beacuse she was wearing gum boots ...

i was catching the overnight train from venice to paris, and then the coach from paris to london thn to the cotswolds to see aunty sue n uncle john .. so a ful 24 hours of travel, and gee waiting for the train at venice was a pain in the butt ... i checked out at 1030 and my train wasnt until 8pm that night ... a really long boring wait ... finally got on the train, and slept like a log until 8am when i had to get off in paris ... made a dash through the metro to the bus station and jumped on my coach to london ... i havent been buying train tickets when i have been using the metro in paris because there are never never never ever tickt inspectors .. it costs 1.50euro for each ride and the fine u get is like 20 euros ... but there r never ticekt inspectors!!! ...

coach to the cotswolds left at 11am and got in at around 12am ... arghh long coach trip ... spent half of it sleeping and half of it talking ./ met some really nice people also backpacking ... a venezeulan boy, a french guy and a guy and girl from new zealand ...

got to the cotswolds late that night and spent 6 nights with aunty sue and uncle john ...

we spent a lot of the days visiting near by villages like evesham and stratford (where shakespeare was born) and having lunch and pints at the pubs ... aunty sue n uncle john had friends over at night as well which was great because we had the yummiest dinner parties at night ... me and aunty sue went down to london for two nights beacuse uncle john had to go to newyork for work (lucky thing) ... so us two trodded off to london and spent the days ravaging the city ... we saw two theatre shows!!! I LOVE THE THEATRE ... id neverbeen apart from once when i was 12 years old ... we saw billy elliot ANDD THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by oscar wilde ... love love love love this play, and had read the book ...

once night me n aunty sue got kicked out of a pub in london hahaha ... we were havnig pints and they rang last round (at 11pm beacuse stupid london shuts so early) and at 12 they kicked us out becaue they were shutting ... we wouldve been quite happy to sit there until 3am ... we staggered into home at around 1amish ..

i got fed up so much by aunty sue ... had some of the yummiest food ... meringue cakes for desert and hungarian noodles with cheese etc etc etc ...

left on saturday morning n aunty sue n uncle john drove me to the coach stop ... arrived in paris at about 930 last night on the coach ... i left my luggage in a locker at the train tation and went to meet the girls at CAFE OZ in the chatelet area for australia day ... they had the hugggggest party ... we had a great night ... me and jess didn't sleep and we still havent slept ... we met some cute french boys who were studying surgery!!! ... we ended up dancing until about 5am n then went to jess' hostel to pick up her luggage and go wait for our 7am train to amsterdam ... somehow we ended up with this huge australian towel that i think we got from the pub ... so here is us two girls, walking down rue de rivoli in paris at 5am, with no shoes and a huge towel around us hehe ... good times ... we went n got some coffee ... and it ended up being free!!! ... the stupid waiter wouldn't let us pay kept ignoring us ... and we were asking to pay for 30 minutes and had to leave for the train .. so we just left and got fed up ...

then we took the metro to the main train station where our train was leaving at 7am ... stil hadnt slept at this stage mind u ... we went on different trains ... but mine was a 5 hour train trip to amsterdam ... i had to change trains twice ... and i remeber none of the train trip i think i p assed out n slept on the trains ...

and here we are now ... in amsterdam ... using the free internet in our hostels ... we r so tired ... had chips and mayonnaise yumyum ... going to have showers soon and then going to visit the coffee houses (weeeed cafes) ... everyone is completely stoned in amsterdam hahaha u can smell it everywhere on the streets ... our hostel is great ... bit fun place ...

much love xx

venice

anabobana — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:44:00 GMT

so this is where i am now ... sitting in the hotel and typing up the rest of my blog

for some reason hotels are much cheaper than hostels in italy ... we paid the same price for a 4 bedroom hotel room, that we would have paid for a hostel bed ... so we are staying in this gorgeous hotel in venice .. overlooking one of the hostels ..

we arrived in venice two nights ago at around 830 at night ... long 8 hour train trip from salzburg ... it was only me lou and kaylz in salsburg ... and jess >(the girls house we stayed at in london) met us in venice ... she is doing the rest of the trip with us ...

arrived in venice at night ... met the nicest three italian ladies on the train ... they were in there 60s and were all dressed fashionably ...they got on our train in innsbruk ... they live on the coast in italy and randomly travel around europe ... they leave their husbands behind haha ... they were lovely and friendly and tralked to us the whole train trip ... very funny ... kept making jokes ... very warm people ... one spoke english ... the other two only italian ... but suprisingly me and lou could understand much of their italian beacuse its so similar to french ... and kaylz could speak a bit of italian ...

VENICE IS BEAUTIUFL ... such a cool city ... it isnàt as clean as paris ... there is graffiti around ... we noticedn this about italy in general on our train trip ... and in a very diff style of architecture form paris ... paris is very gothic and classical ... venice is very renaissance architecture ... its really beautiufl though i have many photos ...

that night went back to our hotel room and got huge pizzaS ... the large is much bigger in italy than at home ... and sat in the room talking and drinking wine ...

woke up early the next morning and spent the entire day walking around venice and seeing the sites and just getting lost in general ... saw many of the churches ... lots of glass shops ... and san marco square ... fed the pigeons in san marco square!!! saw the famous church but forgotten the name ... spent the whole day out in venice ... that night we had some more pizza and wine ...

coffee is really cheap in venice!! its 80 euro cents for an espresso!!! paris is about double the price ... everything else though is very very very exnspeive

stayed up late ... the girls left this morning had a 7am train ... i slept in till about 9am and had breakfast at the hoptel ... buffeet breakfast yay .. thats the great thing about hotels buffeet breakfast is always included ...

i chcked out this morning but left my luggage at the hotel .. spent the morning wandering around venice ... spent a few hours reading in one of the squares ... and all these italian men took photos of me!!! it was the wierdest thing in the world ... i was sitting there reading and id hear a camera snap ... and id look up and these random men would be starring at me and taking photos ... two of them asked if they could and kept saying stuff to me in italian ... this photo taking happened about 3 times!!!! i could get used to this kind of attention hahaha

had a coffee this avo and headed back to the hotel to use the free internet ... my train is at 8pm this evening so soon i will make my way over to the train station and wait there ... in venice u catch water busses everywhere ... they are just big ferries ... i really like venice!!! very pretty ... although i feel like there isnàt a huge amount to see ... just a pretty place to be for a few days ..

so tonight off to the cotswolds ... and then im meeting the girls back in paris on the 26th for australia day .. just for one night ... then amsterdam ... boy am i looking forward to amsterdam hahaha ...

salsburg

anabobana — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:41:00 GMT

spent a night in salsburg after munich ... salsburg is in austria and is the birth place of mozart ...

left munich very early and arrived in salsburg in the afternoon ... dumped our stuff at the hostel and went walking around the town ...

went and saw mozarts birth place ... and went through the mozart museum ... also saw lots of the sites where sound of music was filled ... saw some big castles too but not sure what they are ... went to the cemetry and walked through the catacombs ... scary!!!

salsburg is beautiful ... its very hilly and the castle is on a hill ... its exactly like in sound of music ... lots of little covered alley ways and pebbled pathways ...

that night went out for beer and then a quick dinner and headed back to the hostel ... got to bed earlish because we had an early morning train to venice

munich

anabobana — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:31:00 GMT

after contiki ... me lou kaylz and sara headed off to munich ... we spent two nights there ... it was a long train trip from vienna to munich ... about 4 hours ... arrived in munich that night ...

we got some dinner ... and met this australian girl called laura ... that night we came back to the hostel and there was free beer tasting going on ... so me and laura did that while lou and kaylz had an early night and went to bed ... at the beer tasting me and laura met a group of slovenia boys who were studying chemical engineering, and visiting the uni at berlin because they had a few days of courses there ... they were studying in slovenia in the capital ... all of us went our that night and had a few beers ... yes i actually drank beer<!!! i finished a whole pint wooo ... the boys were really funny ... and had some great cutlural jokes about the different nationalities in europe ..

woke up early the next day and went to the station to organise our travels ... then we went on a free walking trip of munich ... a company organises these free walking tours around europe for backpackers in ltos of the main capiltas ... they last around 3 hours and are a great way to learn the city>!!! we did a lot of ww2 history stuff ... found out that munich was the place where hitler and the nazis started!!! the tour guide showed us many memorials to the victims of the nazis ... the memorials were very discrete ... had no plaques on most of them ... one was just this gold line going down a street ... it symboised the victims that got shot trying to avoid the nazis one day ... went out to a beer hall for dinner ... the girls got 1 litre big beers ... had some german food ... i had these potato dumplings in this mushroom cream soup ...

the next day we went to dauchau concentration camp ... wont write too much about it but it was :( ...got some dinner that night and had a beer to say byte to sara who was meeting her sister that day and leaving us ... went home and had another beer with laura ... drank a half litre yay :) ... i can actually drink beer now without scrunching my face up ... really like the taste ...

next morning left munich early to go to salsburg ... realyl like germany and really like germans<!!! im hoping to go and travel there soon ... munichs a pretty city ... much of it was bombed during the war, but restored to its former condition, rather than replaced with ugly concrete buildigns ... germans are really nice as well ... really friendly people!!!!!

contiki - the longer version

anabobana — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:03:00 GMT

hi guys i have a bit of free time and its the first time in weeks that ive had free internet so im going to update my journal a bit and add in some more details

at the moment in in venice and using the free internet in our hotel ... the girls left this morning and tonight im taking the train to paris and then to england ... to stay with uncle john n aunty sue in the cotswolds

my last entry on contiki was a bit brief so im going to add some more details ...

day 1 - berlin

spent this day arriving to berlin ... caught the plane from london to berlin and made my way to the hotel ... first thing i noticed about berlin was that it wasnt as architecturally beautiful as paris ... dave our contiki tour guide explained that this was because many parts of berlin were bombed during ww2 and heaps of the city was destroyed ... when it was rebuilt it was rebuilt with lots of concrete and little detail following 1950s desgins ... there are lots of kebabs in berlin>! it is there takeaway - hang over food ... berlin looked a lot like poland to me actually ... heaps of flats where people live ... really big ones that look like the commission housing we have in melbourne ... and on the outskirts of berlin they have these holiday house things ... what they are is basically just 6 or 7 acres of land, each divided into 8 square metre plots .. people from cities build little bungalows on them and have tiny gardens ... its like a holiday house in the city ... they had heaps of these in poland too because so many people lived in flats that they holiday house things a few kms out of the city where a common getaway escape thing ... slept in the avo in the hotel ... and at dinner we met the other contiki people ... were a few cute boys ... and each of us girls called dibs on our respective ones ...that night me sarah lou and kaylz went into one of the boys rooms (juls, steve and matt) and spent the night drinking and talking to everyone ... jane and clare were there as well and the boys friends gene will and mike .. ended up nstaying up until 4am and had to get up at 7am ... we met this hilarious aussie bogan too ... we called him townsville ... hes the most annoying loudmouthed yobbo who comes from townsville and is a miner ... real idiot

day 2 - berlin again

we had to wake up at 7am aggghh and had a huge buffet breakfast ... i ate eggs!!!! so crazy ... after 10 years of not eating eggs i ate scrambled eggs on contiki ... im not sure whether ive suddenly changed taste buds or whether i was just so hungover all of contiki ... but something changed my pattern ... that morning we took a bus trip and got shown all the historical sites of berlin like the berlin wall ... checkpoint charlie ... reichstag and the brandenberg gate ... the funniest thing happened ... as we were visiting the berlin wall the bus tried to get through this narrow alley way ... the roads were all glazed with ice, and the bus started slipping sideways into the cars hahah and the driver couldnàt control it because the bus was slipping on the ice so all the boys had to rush out of the bus and push the bus so it didnt crush the cars hahaha ... we spent about 2 hours getting out of this alley way ... i have some funny pictures of all the boys ppushing the bus ... our tour guide dave explained the history of berlin and we had that afternoon free ... us girls spent a few hours playing in the snow yayayay yes it snowede in berlin!!! so beautiful ... and then we went and revisited the reichstage and brandenberg gate and went to a museum ... that avo we all came home ... and we had an organised pub crawl and a german dinner... dinner was apple strudel and potatoes ... and some random meat thing for the others ... the germans are huge on potatoes ... all over berlin there are stalls selling potatoes and sauerkraut and wurst - wurst are german sausages ... then some cool german girl with hot pink tights took us on the pub crawl ... we drank apple schnapps in the streets ... beacuse drinking in the streets is legal in germany and very common ... u always see people with beers on the train or streets ... we went to three pubs which i mentioned in the other blog and then a club ... big night ... late night again ... ....

day 3 - berlin

we woke up earlish and had a free day ... the bus took us from our hotel to the centre of berlin ... we went to starbucks got some cofffees and did a free walking tour of berlin ... catually we started the tour ... did about 10 minutes of it ... then it started raining n snowing n it was minus 2 degrees so we thought screw that and left the tour ... way too cold ... that avo the girls went home to sleep and i went to the train station to organise some stuff re transport ... then went to checkpoint charlie ... this was a booth during the cold war through which people could pass from east to west berlin ... went into the museum and saw some crazy stuff that peolpe did in trying to cross the wall ... walked around berlin for a few hours and even now there is such a diff between east and west berlin ... east was the russian part and west was the allied part ... west berlin is still where all the designer stores are and looks a lot wealthier ... the bus was picking us up at 4pm so i went home with all the boys ... the girls had gone home much earlie r... were meant to go to a beer hall but it was shut so me and lou had kebabs and beer ... this was the first time i have ever actually bought a beer!!! i even drank most of it!!!! i have spent this trip trying to teach myself to drink bee r ... we sat around our rooms again at night and had a few quiet drinks ... went to bed around 1ish

day 4 - berlin to prague

big bustrip day ... took us about 6 hours ... i have some funny photos of everyone sleeping on the bus ... stopped at dresden for lunch, german down near the border which got almost totally destroyed by ww2 bombings ... had dinner at the hotel in prague and then went bar hopping with everyone from the trip that night around prague ... had absinthe!!!the absinthe in the czech republic has worm wood ... this is the stuff that makes u hallucinate<!!! we had a few shots of this and some drinks ... another late one ...

day 5 - prague

early start this morning again arggh the 7am wake ups were really taking a toll ... had an organised walking toour with this awesome czech lady and saw some things like hrdcany castle, st vitus catherdrale , st charles bridge and the old town square ... the old town sqaure has a famous astrological clock built in the 15the century ... really pretty clock with all these dancing figures etc ... dave our tour guidew warned us how dodge prague was ... he warned us to count our change and to check receipts from purchases on credit to make sure extra 0s werent added ... apparently fake cops even walk the streets of prague and us to check peoples money to see whether it is counterfeit and then they just steal it ... we had a cruise that afternoon for lunch ... had traditional czech food ... potatoe dumplings etc ... and lots of meat and some cool cakes ... potatoe dumplings arent like the polish perogi ...they are these huge doughy things that are really yuky ... just big balls that are a bit like raw dough ... awful ...it was good to be in prague because i could understand a lot of the menus and a lot of what people saidbecause it was so similar to polish ... that night we went out to this awesome club that wasw 5 stories and each level played a different kind of music ... the bartenders were really dodgy ... just before they gave u your change, they would try n take it and say TIP ... if u said yes then they would take ur change ... we are really lucky we went trhough prague on an organised tour and had an informed guide to tell us all about this!!!

day 6 - prague

930 wakeup ... free day so we went awlking around ... went through the jewish quarter and the havelska markets ... that night we were so tired we didnt do anything ... us girls just went out and had a cheap czech dinner...

prague was very beautiful but a lot different from berlin ... the people in rpague were always trying to rip off tourists ... dave explained that this was because after the poverty of communism, heaps of dumb tourists would come into prague and because of the poverty, the locals took advtange of them ... berlin was very diff so were the people ... they lacked the haughtineess of the french ... dave said this had something to do with the fact that germans were still so ashamed of their history ... they are not arrogant at all ... much warmer people

day 7 - trip to vienna

stoped at some down for lunch ... dont remembr where ... arrived in vienna late ... most ofthe boys were too tired to go out so us girls went out with matt and gene ... that night after dinner at the hotel we had an organised night bus tour of vienna ... then us girls and matt and gene and the american hank went to the bermuda triangle area ... thats where all the good bars are in vienna ... drinks were so cheap before 10pm!! all half price ... a really funny touristy bar and they had pole dancing ... have some really funny and stupid photos of that night ..

day 8 ' vienna

last day for us ... we woke up early and had a bus tour ... saw the bofburg palace and stephensdome ... had the aftenroon free so walked around saw some sites ... went shopping at zara and bought prtty red shoes yay ... we had a schniztel lunch and i had some traditional potato salad from vienna yum ... that avo went to a famous cafe where trostky beethoven and mozart used to go .. and had apple strudel ... apparently vienna has a huge cafe culture where people sit around for hours drinking coffee .. sort of like melbourne ... that avo the whole tour went to a schnapps museum ... the son of the owner took us around the factory and we got free schanpps tasting yaya ... there was this gold schnapps with real bits of gold ... and absinte too .. real schnapps is not what we have back home ... its more like vodka ... its about 50% ... i think we all had about 8 shots haha and then that night lou and kaylez went to some mozart concert ... me and sare went back to the hotel and had some pre drinks with the boys ... we all went out that night and met lou and kaylz at the bermuda triangle ... had a big farewell for our last night ...

contikiand munich

anabobana — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:05:00 GMT

been so lon\ggggg since ive written

sorry guys

BUT CONTIKI WAS THE BEST TIME IN THE WORLD ...

im going to write a longer blog when i can but here is a quick summary

we did berlin prague and vienna and we finished the contiki this morning and now im sitting in our hostel in munich ...

it was such an awesome time ... so good to have everything organised for u ... such a huge party ... me and lou drank minimum half a bottle of vodka every night ... we would get 3 hours sleep and spend the whole day sight seeing and doing tours

so we started off in berlin ..

day 1 - didn't do much ... had dinner and met the group ... awesome bunch of people ...

we hung around in the boys room fdirnking this night ... met a fun group of boys that we spent most of the nights going out with ... went to bed around 4 ish

day 2 - went sight seeing around wberiln ... was really fun ... got driven around and did a quick bus tour ... and then we saw some museums etc and the brandenburg gate and in the avo we came home and we went out that night on a huge pub crawl ... some local took us to all the big hot spots in berlin ... we went to a shisha bar n smoked these starwberry flavoured pipes ... and had a traditional german dinner .. and went to a club afterwards ..

day 3 - we spent the day sight seeing again ... visited checkpoint charlie - this was a booth which was a checkpoint between west and east berlin and the wall ... will post photos soon ... went out that night tooo ...

day 4 - we went to prague ... big bus trip ... stopped at dresden ...a city which was bombed during the war ... then we went our in prague to some pubs and bars around the area ...\

day 5 - had a walking tour of prague and then had a boat cruise with traditional food in the avo... went out at night

day 6 - prague , saw some museums went to a local market as well and slept that night

day 7 - headed off to vienna ... big bus trip .. went out to clubs that night in vienna

day 8 - spent the day in vienna ... went to a schnapps museum \yayayayayy got so much fre schnapps and absinthe ... i brought some absinthe to bring home ... dad it has worm wood which makes u hallucinate ... im making u try this when i get home!!

went out at night ... was our last night!!!

day 9 - last day ..

some random thoughts ..

- love berlin ... laid back, not pretentious like other cities because berlin isn't beauitful much more industrial

- prague was really dodgy ... we really had to count our change and watch our money because tourists are really taken advantage of ..

- vienna prety ... didn't spend much time there ... apparently vienese people are really conseverative socially

\i loved contiki had the best time in my life ... met a great group of boys that we spent heaps of time with ... was awesome spending heaps of time in hotels and having free buffet breakfasts yumyumyumyumyum

so fun ...

yayayayayayayayayay

last few days in london ... CONTIKI!!!

anabobana — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 23:00:00 GMT

its been forever since ive written

reallq hard to get net access ... and im not going to put up photos for a while because i cant put up photos using a net cafe!!!

at the moment im sitting in a net cafe to berlin ... just booked my tickets from paris to london whre im going to stay with aunty sue and uncle john for a few days in the cotswalds

im going to finish off what we did in london and then tell zou all about the contiki sorry if my typing gets a bit funny the keyboards in berlin are a bit diff

last few days of london ... we did a huge monopoly pub crawl .. me jess and luce ... we visited one pub from each colour and started at about 2pm and finished at 11 pm ... we wouldve styed out later but all the stupid pubs in central london close at 11pm because of ridiculouslz strict liquor liceness!!! ... how annoying for all pubs to have to shut at 11pm!!! this is onlz in central london thugh ...

we didnt finish all the monpoly board but got around to most way ... to leicester square is where we finished ... visited heaps of famous pubs where writers etc went and even some where shakespeare went!!

I DRANK BEER!!! well not really .... onlz sort of ... i have cider haha which <lookslike beer but is really apple tasting n a lot sweeter ... but i ordered it in pints!!!!!! and drank huge pints!!! WOOOOO hahaha ...

any ways leicester square is soo cool lit up and like times square in new york ... its no wayx as big but sort of the same

we spent friday packing n bumming around n watching movies n baking and then on sat morning i caught the plane to berlin at 9am to start the contiki ...

i loved london am dying to go back and live ... i think its more a city ud live rather than travel for touristy things ..

and now im on the contiki and man this is the best time in the worldc

its like schoolies but everyones older and its the best time in the world .. arrived in berlin and in our hotel at around 2ish ... the hotel is awesome its huge rooms and big bathrooms so nice to be livign in a room rather than out of a suitcase ...

im sharing aroom with goose lucy ... sat night we had dinner with the group and then a bunch of us sat around rdinking and talking in one of the rooms ... we were up until about 4am and me and luce got through a bottle of vodka between us ... WOOPS ahahaha .. the boys got through 4.5 bottles of vodka shite... and there was only 7 of them haha ... funnest night evcer ..

sundaz morning we woke up and we took this random bus tour of berlin in th ee us ... the tour guide is reallz young n so is the bus driver and everyon was so hung over and they play the funniest music so its like a big party .. that avo we had free and we went trhough a museum in berlin ...

yest night we had a huge pub crawl .. oh and it snowed yest day in berlin!!!! <so prettz and so fcukin cold ... its abut minus 2 ... but the snow is aweeose ... have lots of coo.l pics

anyway did the pub crawl

had dinner organised by the contiki in this german restaurant ... i love cabbage ... potatos not so much .. and then we had this pub crawl

we started in one of those turkish bars with those shiesha pips ... i think i spelt shiesha wrong ... but they are thse huge aladin looking glass pretty bottles where u smoke from big pipes and its apple flavoured n strawberry flavour n tastes like lolly ops ... they have them in lygon street in melb n also alumbra .. shots were 2 euro and we got free shots of schnapps with every drink we had

then we drank some apple schnapps in the street ... drinking in the street is really popula in berlin .. then we went to antoher bar i forgot that one but it was like a house-eletro kinda scene reallz cool as well all this antique forniture

then we went to this old comunist bar n then some club .. i think we staggereed into home aroun4 am n didnt sleep for ages still ..

its the funnest time in the world ... the ppl r awseome its amayinfg fun ... im on like 6 hours sleep over 3 days n feel a bit shit right now haha but so excited because we r going to a beer hall toinght

woooooo i hope they have cider

this is the <bESTTTT TIME IN THE WORLD .. heading over to prague tomorrow morning ...

WILL WRITE SOON

oh and theres some really cute boys on this trip ;)

the next few days in london ..

anabobana — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 00:52:00 GMT

hihi

sorry its been so long since ive posted ... we have been heaps busy ...

i willl start with sunday ...

we went to this club called Church on sunday ... it starts at 12 midday and finishes at 4pm ... we started predrinkkng at about 10am and thennn went to Church ... it was so so mmuch fun ... a whole bunch of tourists and also londonders and peolpe dressed up ... very much pub music -- alll these old favourites and was heaps of fun ...

you had to buy drinks in groups of three and you got them given to you in a plastic sac and had to strap the sack to u!!

they had middway these girl n guy strip shows on stage .... i accidentally volunteeered myself for a boat race!!! OOPSY AND I DONT DRINK BEER AT ALL ... we were going in groups of four in different countries ... so in my team was this other girl and two guys ... but three out of four of us didnt drink beer and couldn't skull hahaha but when they were asking for volunteers they didn't tell us that it was a boat race ... sooo anyway, we tried sculling and it didn't work so we poured the beer over our heads ... us aussies got led off stage for being too 'drunk' to finish the boat race (really we just didnt like beer .. haha what crap patriots we r if we dont drink beer)

the girls went out to an aussie pub at like 5pm in Shepards Bush clled the walk about ... i didnt go out after Church because i have a cold and was exhausted from the last two nights ... so i caught the tube home ... had vegetarian lasange with jesses mum and brother and went to sleep for 16 hours ... the girls came hoem around 10pm

woke up the next day early (:new years eve) and did a free walking tour called New London Tour .. these free tours take place in all the capitals and are a really good way to be introduced to the city!!! i did the Old London tour on monday morning and it was great!!! met lots of aussies ... the tour guidfe was lovely n fun andgot to see heaps of tourist sites in a good 3 hour walk!!!

got home around lunch time and the girls had just woken up ....we all went out and got maccas and then jess and kayley went to get tattoos ... they had been wanting them for a few years now and had been planning them for a while ... we went to this place called Camden Town and the Camden Markets, its the hippy area of ondon ... jess got her tat saying 'Curioser and Curioser' its a quote from alice and wonderland and kayley got a trebleclef ...

we headed home mondayyyy night and cooked up a big new years eve feast for dinner ...

we had :

- scallopped potatoes with cream and cheese

- roast vegies with rosemary thyme n garlic

- big yummy salad

- chicken parmas

anddd haagez daas for desert

we had some champagne and some vodka/cokes at home and headed out about 1030 to some local pubs ...

went to Soho area - which is sort of like Brunswick street in melbourne ... had a few bottles of sparkling between us to bring in the new year ..

jess and sar headed home about 230ish and me n kayley n luce headed home about 4ish ... LONDON CLOSES SOO EARLY!!! we wanted to stay out n dance but everywhere closed at 3am on new years eve!!! even maccas and hungry jacks!!! how crazy!!!!!!!!!!! ... melbourne is open later than london on new years eve night ... its crazy crzy how early this city shuts ... all the pubs shut at 3am ... and on normal nights they shut at 11pm/12am ... the liquor licensing laws here are apparently strict ... i thought london would be a 24 hour city just because its so big ... but at night its quieter than melbourne!! ... so its true when backpackers always say that melbourne is renowned for its pub scene and cheap drinks etc ...

new years eve day we didnt end up doing muc h just bumming around the house and watching movie s... we went out to Brick lane again at night and got some indian and came home n watched the devil wears prada ..

this morning i went out and did the royal tour of london ... say bckingham palace etc etc it was another one of those free lonon tours ... its 2pm here and i just got back ... i left the tour about halfa early because its bloody freezing outside and 0 degrees and im a sook in the cold ... so icame home n made warm mushroom soup n toast for lunch yumyum ... jess and luce went to tate modern art museum this morning n will be back any minute ..

not sure what we are doing tonight .. we might have a tea party and bake heaps of yummy things!!!

thurs - tomorrow, we have a monopoly pub crawl planned ... but its meant to snow tomorrow, lightly anyway ... so if its too cold that wont go ahead

im leaving london on sat morning - flying to berlin at about 9am ... and from then on the contiki starts (berlin/prague/vienna)

loving london :)

i cant believe in o nly a month im coming home!!!!!

love u lots

Gallery: london

anabobana — Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:19:00 GMT

my week in london ..

Gallery: last photos in les avenieres

anabobana — Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:12:00 GMT