Venice :)

Our day trip to Venice started with a boat cruise over the lagoon. This was the first summer weather we have encountered so far in the trip. We switched out our sweaters and jeans for tanks and shorts. Unfortunately I got sunburned on the cruise over. 

We did a walking tour of Venice--nothing too special. We then walked around for awhile and did some shopping. The streets there are very confusing! One of my students had told me about a pasta place to go to, and it took us about 30 mins of being lost before we found it. I got Alfredo pasta; it was delicious! 

Around 5 we met back up with the group for a gondola ride. The man on our boat found it quite funny to tip the boat back and forth. I was not amused. Our group is so large that it looked like an army of gondolas rowing through the water. 

Laura and I tried to find a gluten free place to eat at for dinner. She ended up paying €19 for a plate of thinly cut ham as it was the only gluten free thing they offered. I ordered pizza :) 

We sat on the water front until our group left at 9. We enjoyed people watching. We saw several wannabe models and many unhappy gondola couples. Overall quite amusing. 

Ljubljana (sounds nothing like it's spelled)

These might be out of order..we went from Budapest to Ljubljana to Venice 

Another travel day...meaning a short post! We drove most of the day, but we stopped at Lake Bled right after we crossed the Slovenian border. I had seen pictures of this lake on Pinterest and thought it looked cool. Our guide suggested we climb up to the castle to get a better view..he failed to mention however that this climb would have you sweating profusely, breathing heavily, and dying for water by the time you got to the top. It was a nice view though! 

(Forgot to take picture on my phone) 

We then drove on to Ljubljana. It was a small town, but still lovely. I've found like I like the smaller towns better. Matt took us on a walking tour. Here are some of pics: 

Tomorrow we are off to Venice!

Budapest

Things have slowed down for us in Budapest. We have more free time and less planned outings. We arrived in Budapest in the evening, did a quick walk around Castle Hill, and then drove up to look at the Holocaust Memorial.  Laura and I had gyros at the restaurant next to our hostel for dinner.

The next morning we woke up pretty early (our roommates were just coming in from the night before) and left to go back to Castle Hill to get some better pictures. We did not know, however, that this was a 5 mile walk almost all up hills and stairs :( 

There was a strange man there letting people take pics with this eagle for €6. 

We had made reservations at the thermal baths, so we went there next. On our way, we passed Hero Square. 

When we arrived at the spa, I decided to try the pedicure where the fish come and nibble on your feet. It surprisingly wasn't a ticklish experience. I don't think it did much though. The baths had varying temperatures to sit in, but tons of different pools to choose from. Some where inside and there was a huge one outside. Supposedly the water helps heal ailments. Laura and I decided to try the steam rooms too. 

We did a hop on hop off tour after that which took us back to the hostel. At dinner that night Laura ended up fainting and hitting her head on the table as she was collapsing. We ended up having to go to the hospital to get an X-ray done. 

Communicating at a foreign historical was an interesting experience. Also, when we walked in, we noticed that there we tons of head trauma patients with intense injuries in there. They just kept coming in. It was the weirdest thing. We finally got back to the hostel around 3am. Everything was ok. We got up around 7 to make our way to Ljubljana (no idea about this place).    

Rachel is in Italy with no internet. Emma is at the beach.

Auschwitz and Krakow

On the way to Poland, we stopped at Auschwitz concentration camp. Though it seems inappropriate to say we were excited for this visit, Laura and I were quite interested in this stop. Teaching Night and talking about the Holocaust will be an entirely different experience after seeing the actual place. Our guide quoted several passages from Night while on the tour. The words were haunting. 

Below is the "work will set you free" gate. This this is a replica since the original gate was stolen in 2006 and broken into parts. They are in the process of restoring it. 

Auschwitz I has been turned into a museum. The inside of the buildings have been renovated to show off the display cases. You went in different blocks to see different exhibits. 

The shoe display is similar to the one in DC. They also had displays of various other belongs,including the human hair they cut off and sold for textile purposes. When the Russians entired the camp at liberation, they found tons of hair remaining. 

After an hour in Auschwitz I, we drove over to Auschwtiz II (more commonly known as Birkenau). This was left in its original form. One of the strangest feelings to have while walking around this area was how lovely a day it was. 

Below you can see the entrance where the trains pulled in to drop off the cars of people. 

The picture below is of the destroyed gas chamber and crematorium. The Germans destroyed these as the Russians were closing in with hopes of destroying their evidence. 

We continued to Krakow after. We got there just in time for dinner and a quick walk around Krakow. I was impressed and liked it more than I anticipated. Below is St. Mary's church. 

Today we got to sleep in some and explore the city at our leisure. Laura and I found some great souvenirs at The Cloth Hall, a market that has been there since the 13th century. We then continued down to Wawel Castle. There were so many children on field trips here. There is a legend about the castle being built after the defeat of a dragon who lived in Krakow before settlers. 

In the afternoon we went to the salt mines. It wasn't the best tour, but still interesting to see all the statues they have made out of salt. Below is a cathedral carved out of salt. The only things that aren't salt are the electric part of the light fixtures and the seats/benches. 

The pope is everywhere in Poland, as they are predominantly Catholic. Here he is carved out of salt. 

Tomorrow we are off to Budapest!

Prague.Is.Beautiful.

So, Prague is definitely the most beatiful place we have been so far! I didn't even put that many pictures in here because my phone could in no way capture the scenary. 

We started today with another bike tour. Laura believes they set us up by letting us go on a nice, peaceful bike tour in Amsterdam, hoping we would all sign up for the one in Prague (which is exactly what happened.) HOWEVER, this was the worst part of my day.....

They separated us into 3 smaller groups. Our bike guide immediately starts peddling himself away, leaving the rest of us to peddle into huge intersections, around street corners, and through massive crowds of people...all without even glancing back once to make sure we are there. I didn't even have a chance to look around me because I could barely steer through the people and cobble stone roads. Then, after about 5 minutes of the ride, my bike chain keeps jerking. The bike guide eventually fixes it...then it only happens 3 more times. It wasn't embarrassing at all to continually stop the tour because I looked like I was on a bucking bronco...

This is how I felt halfway through the bike tour...

One of our stops was the John Lennon Wall. This is right by the Charles Bridge. One of my students had told me to make sure to check out the wall. Our guide brought a marker for us to write on it. There was a guy playing songs infront, but the wall basically contained lyrics, pictures, etc.

After the bike tour, we spent the rest of the day walking around Prague and taking in the scenery. I went back and visited the astronomical clock a few times, but you've already seen a picture of that. We walked down the Charles Bridge, which has painters and vendors on it. After doing some shopping, we went back to the hostel for awhile.  

We went out for a ghost tour of Prague later that night. Our guide for that was funny, but the tour itself wasn't that awesome. 

Bonus photo: 

Found these puppies. Each one opens up to the different Bonds. I didn't buy them however because they were 500 crowns. It was a pain to shop in the Czech Republic because we had to transfer our Euros over to Czech crowns. About 27 crowns equals 1 euro.

Our Contiki guide warned us not to mess with exchanging money with certain peeople/at certain places, but Laura and I walked up to one of the guys on our tour as he was finishing up what looked like a shady deal. We asked him what he was doing and he told us he exchanged money. He went through and told us basically EVERYTHING Matt had told us would be part of a scam. This guy was so sure that his deal had been legit though. The 3 of us go to eat dinner..and as he tries to pay...the waiter tells him that he can't accept Patrick's russian money. The man have given Patrick large Russian bills, but smaller Czech ones, so that he didn't notice. Bummer for him. The Russian money wasn't worth nearly as much. 

The Hills Are Alive...in Vienna

I definitely thought I was going to walk into the Sound of Music when we got to Vienna...turns out I would have to drive to Salzburg for that. 

Vienna is lovely too, but I believe that it is starting to all a bit the same. I definitely noticed a drop in picture taking today. 

Before we crossed the border, they stopped in this small town called Kutnahora to take us to this bone church (Sedlec Ossuary). It was the weirdest thing! The entire church was decorated in actual bones. 

We drove through back roads to get to Vienna, which provided an awesome view. Once we arrived in Vienna, they drove us quickly through the town so that we knew where everything was and then headed to the hostel. For dinner they took us to a fun park. It had several rides and fair food. 

Today, we started out with a walking tour of Vienna with Matt. He is just as good, if not better, than a paid tour guide! However, a good part of our group is in no way interested in hearing his info....they are usually searching for the nearest pub. It's hard not to bring out the teacher voice and to tell them all to be quiet! 

We went by several landmarks before splitting up. We did stop at the Swardoski shop (apparently that was founded in Austria). I tried the Sacher Original cake, an Austrian dessert. It was delicious! 

Laura, Patrick, and I went to a clock museum that Matt had suggested. It was unique. They had a clock there that could fit inside a thimble. We opted not to go to the national history museum, as we heard it was very similar to the one in DC. 

We did however take selfies with Athena...

The last thing we did in Vienna was stop at the Schonbrunn Palace. This place was HUGE! We only had an hour to walk around, but could have easily spent an entire day there. They gardens behind the palace go on for miles!

We now are back at the hostel, exhausted. We should be eating dinner soon, and then probably going to bed. Tomorrow we are off to Krakow, Poland. 

Berlin to Prague

Another travel day....

We left this morning for Prague. We stopped in Dresden on the way for lunch. This city was very beautiful. Laura and I have kept our spot at the front of the bus because it has the best view! We ate a Candanian restaurant because we could actually read the menu. Our tour manager informed us that Dresden is known for tourism, but it is usually German tourists. 

We continued on to Prague. Matt took us around Prague Castle. It is the largest castle in Europe. There is almost an entire town within it's walls! 

I have been looking forward to seeing the Astronomical Clock for quite sometime. I always thought it looked amazing. When I told this to our guide, both him and our bus driver Adian responded that is is ranked #5 of the list of most disappointing European attractions. I still thought it looked cool when we went by it--I guess most people expected it to do something really cool on the hour. I plan to go back to it tomorrow. 

We have now arrived in the hostel. We plan to go to sleep early tonight!

History of Berlin

So, I wrote all of this last night and it was deleted before I posted :(  This post should obviously go before the previous post, but I put off rewriting it. 

Side note: It has been an interesting experience being in Europe during the World Cup. Business owners will rent large TVs and post them outside their business for people to watch. There are couches in the middle of sidewalks with people intently watching the games. Cheers can be heard all over..people will drive by and honk every place they see the World Cup being showed. It's definitely been interesting. 

Apparently one of the girls on our tour decided it would be funny to draw a Hitler mustache on her face after the Germany game (must have been heavily intoxicated). We heard the bartender came up to her yelling and kicked her out/banned her from the bar. She did not show up the next morning for the walking tour of Berlin history...no one was surprised. 

Now for some history...

Our tour guide was awesome..very funny. We started by the Karl Marxx statue where she went over an overview of WW2 history and the separation of Berlin. 

Our next stop was the Altes Museum and the Berlin Cathedral. She told us how Berlin was desperate to have a cathedral that could be as great as St. Peter's Basilica (didn't happen). They also created the TV tower in hopes to become equal in the technology advancement department as other countries. The tower was designed by an atheist, and ironically, upon completion, when the sun shines on the tower you can see a crucifix shine from any part of th city. She said they called this the pope's revenge. 

You can see it shining below. 

 

We then traveled over to Humboldt University. Einstein taught here briefly. This was also the site for the burning of books in Berlin. There is a plaque on the ground with a quote written 100 years before the Holocaust, stating: "that was only the prelude; where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people" There is a cool memorial created in the ground that allows you to look down and see several empty bookshelves. There are enough empty bookshelves to hold the 20,000 burned books. 

Next was the Bradenburg Gate. This use to have th Berlin Wall on both sides. It was th gate to travel from the east to the west. You can currently see a huge set up behind it where they have been showing the World Cup every night. 

About halfway through the tour we stopped at the remains of the Berlin Wall. Our guide told us an interesting story of a family that got over the wall by ziplining from the Ministry of Magic..oops I mean Ministry of Ministries (behind the wall) over to the other side. The night guards saw them, but they though they were sent by the government so they didn't shoot them. That was the one positive story of the day. 

We walked over to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial has no explanation of the interpretation of it. Apparently there was controversy over this, as many people didn't feel like they understood it. You would be surprised at the number of people taking selfies at this memorial...

Our last stop was Checkpoint Charlie. Not much is left of this checkpoint. 

We also stopped at Hitler's bunker (where he committed suicide), which is now a car park. We thought it was strange that it was unmarked and turned into a parking lot, but our guide told us that they did not want people to turn it into a shrine for Hitler. Makes sense. 

Bonus pictures: 

The hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby over the balcony. 

They had painted bears all over Berlin. Bears are part of the Berlin flag. 

From Amsterdam to Berlin

We spent most of the day traveling, but I posted yesterday before our evening cruise, so here is a last minute Amsterdam picture: 

We met an interesting bum sitting by the sign that was not too excited to find out we were from America. He kept telling us that the US is leading everyone into a world war. He then proceeded to find some Russians and continue to yell at them. Very interesting experience. As I was walking away he yelled that I better "say hello to North Carolina from Amsterdam"... He said it about five different times, each time louder than the other. We were almost at a run at that point haha. 

We left at 8am this morning, and after 2 stops we arrived in Berlin at 6pm. One of the stops was a border checkpoint at the outskirts of Germany. You could still see the watch tower. 

Once we arrived in Berlin, we had a traditional Germany dinner at the hostel restaurant. 

Our tour manager, Matt, took us on a short walking tour to look at part of the Berlin Wall. Tomorrow we start with a historical walking tour. Laura's cousin is suppose to take us out to some places tomorrow evening since she lives here. The Germany v Portugal game is going on today. We were advised to join the fun if they win but to stay inside if they lose...