Prague

My, oh, my. Was Prague awesome. We arrived mid-afternoon at the Prague train station. We were all really tired because we stayed up late drinking with some hilarious Belgians our last night in Berlin. We weren't in a rush to get off the train and only Brenna, Jonny and myself got off at the stop that we should have. Everyone else was trapped on the train as the train took off. We thought they were on their way to Bratislava or some distant Eastern European city. But actually the next stop was in the central station that was right next to our hostel... just their luck.

Nick passed out waiting for the train lolz

We all took the longest nap ever once we arrived. Like 4 hours. Our hostel was a very interesting place. It is a school. Like an elementary school with their art decorating the walls. Our room was a converted classroom with all the furnature pushed to one end of the room and beds sprinkled where ever there was space. It was pretty cool actually. We were the only ones in our room so we didn't have to share it, and there was so much room for activities. We played a ton of drinking games.

The hostel was only 8 euro a night which was nice on our budget. It is called Hostel Olet and I recommend it to anyone going to Prague. We were there on the second day it opened so it was really empty. The staff was very friendly, Joseph is the man, and they have cheap beer and snacks to buy. Joseph was telling me that when late July and August comes around every guess says it is one of the most fun hostels they have ever been too.

On our first day we walked into town and it was raining the entire time. I didn't pack a jacket for the trip because I wanted to save space, but 3 weeks into my month long adventure I had to dip into the pocket and buy a sweatshirt. But at least I bought a cool one. And we also had to buy umbrellas because it would poor for 20 minutes then stop for 20.

We did another free tour and was placed with a tour lady that had a very thick accent. You had to really focus to listen to her, but there was loads of good information and was nice to know what exactly you are looking at.

That night we wanted to go out, maybe go to an absinth bar, but just go around Prague because it is supposed to be the party capital of Europe. We met up with the girls from San Diego and went to an Irish pub after so much searching. But we soon learned that Sunday nights are super dead. Like no bars were open and we ended up going home pretty early because nothing was going on.

No big deal, we needed the rest anyway because the next day was the Fourth of July!!! We woke up and just had a lazy monday. We walked around a little but it was still crappy weather out. We had a pretty chill day and I read most of the day or played games. But then! We met up with some friends from WWU. Lauren and Jill are studying in Prague this summer so we had planned to meet up, do some dinner, and hit the bars!

We went to dinner at this very, very good Asian Resturant. And headed back to their apartment to drink some more before going out to the bars. They live with a few other Americans so we show up and there is already a party going on. We have 9 kids from WWU, 2 that are from WA but went to San Fran for school, 2 from New Jersey, 2 from WA DC, and a couple others sprinkled about. This was such a fun group of people and there everyone was chill and easy to talk to.

A few of the kids from Western. We were having a little bit of fun haha

To the left is our friends from Jersey and to the right are the hand twins

(Had to mooch some pictures of facebook, I didn't upload the pictures on my computer before my camera got stolen... that story comes later though)

We partied our butts off and had the craziest adventure getting back. Lauren and Jills apartment was like a five minute walk to our hostel, so convenient. We ended up paying for an extra night in our hostel because we didn't leave until midnight on the fifth. It was only 8 Euro so it was totally worth being able to sleep in because of the night before. We met up and did dinner with Jill and Lauren before leaving.

Prague was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the city. It's so historic but has this awesome energy around the city. On the hour you can hear bells ringing from every section of town, the food is sooo good and very filling, and it is a pretty cheap city so it's good place to go on the budget. There was dirty parts of the city but you'll have that where ever. I'm jealous of Lauren and Jill for studying there. Seems like an a great place to stay for the summer. Though I'm not so sure that I would get much done.

Off to Vienna. The home of the goveranator!

Berlin... More like Burr-lin

Just a short train ride from Amsterdam is Berlin, about 4 hours. But just getting to the bus station was a problem. We woke up early and had plenty of time to get to the station. We heard there was going to be a transportation strike at 9 AM but our train left at 9 AM so we should be fine. We got to the Central Train Station, ate breakfast, chatted a bit, but our train wasn't being shown on the reader board. Finally, someone checks the ticket and realizes that we are at the wrong train station!!! How did it 7 people that long to realize that we were at the wrong train station??? ...I don't know.

We asked the taxis but they couldn't get us there in time so we were forced to use public transportation. We made it about 2 stops on the metro and then the metro stopped. Buses stopped. The only transportation running was taxis and trains. In the midst of this Brenna is near fainting so we decided that it was already too late and we would just take our time getting to the station.

We finally arrive and the ticket operator informs us that we will need to ask the train conductor if we can get on the next train or else we would have to travel to the airport to buy new international train tickets. Luckily the conductor lets us aboard and we are only 2 hours behind in our journey. Wow... lucky. But the crazy journey does not stop there!

We are about 2 hours into our 6 hour train ride and then the conductor comes over the intercom and informs us that there is a train accident and we must get on the tracks immediately. And there would be around a 2 hour delay. The first thought that comes to my mind is are we on some sort of Final Destination senario? Did I just cheat death? Is death going to follow me? What are the chances that I could meet Ali Lalter?

We are delayed in some Eastern Dutch city for a few hours until we hope aboard our train and continue our journey to Berlin. We finally arrive a few hours later and what should have been a 6 hour train ride turned into a 12+ hour ordeal with death close behind.

We slept well that night and the next day we were set to go on a Free Walking Tour. Well actually it was about a 4 hour tour around the city to visit some awesome monuments and sites. Our tour guide was a young english fellow who was getting his History Doctorate at Humbolt University which is not in Northern California as I previously thought.

So what is the first thing we do when we get to Berlin's most historic plaza?

...We Ice Jonny!

The free tour was awesome (actually it's not free but you tip like ten bucks when you're done). We had an awesome tour guide who was English and pretty funny. It was about 3 hours long and we traveled in the most historical part of the city. 90% of the city was destroyed during WWII so only a few historical buildings actually remain. So it is actually the most American looking city we were in. Everything is new and from the 1970s or earlier. But there were still a few monuments and buildings, the coolest ones are from the imperial age in my opinion.

Berlin is such an interesting city. A very large portion of it was under Soviet control until the fall of the Berlin wall. And yes, it is actually true and well known that he was there the night of the collapse and did sing and was well liked. I mean I know I'm love history, but I found everything to be so interesting and so cool.

All traffic lights in East Berlin are different from West Berlin. They all have a guy with a hat on but in every other part of the city it is the same one as every other traffic guy in America.

We actually like the tour so much that the next day we went on another tour. We went to a concentration camp about 45 minutes outside of Berlin. Our tour guide was not as like able as the day before but it was still a great experience. This tour costed 12 euros to go on. It was a totally new experience. It was a concentration camp at one time that held every minority group the Nazi's were after... good thing Brad Pitt was around.

Not sure why they are smiling before going into a concentration camp... pshh! Americans

The camps name was Sachzenhausen and was primarily a labor camp for the Nazi's. It wasn't strictly a death camp like Auschwitz but there was a death section of the camp that did kill thousands during its operation. Once it was shut down when the Soviets came to Germany after the war, they used it as a military training center for many years. So only just recently has the old camp been open for tourism. They are just starting to get facilities and put money into the memorial, so in a few years time I think it will be an even better.

We all were craving Authentic german food and really wanted to go to a huge Beer House and drink some oversized beer. It was so good, wieners and schnitelzs and sauerkraut and potatoes and beer. I love German food! Best dinner decision up to this point of our trip.

The hostel we stayed in Berlin was.... interesting. We stayed in the GENERATOR HOSTEL. And our first impression of the place was on the subway. Brenna is chatting it up with some old people on the Metro... typical Brenna. And they end up getting off at the same stop as us. Now I'm in the back of the group and just see us following some old people so I assume that they are just showing us the way. Turns out they are staying at our hostel, which isn't to weird as I write this but I literally havent seen anyone above the age of 25 in a hostel yet.

(This is just a preview to thee interesting Eastern European Hostels we stay at, just wait for more posts).

But the old people weren't the crazy part. It was the massive amounts of 16 year olds that were drinking and chain smoking all around the hostel. Like crazy amounts. All German teenagers that were on a class trip to Berlin or something. Sounds like no class trip that I've ever been on. But it was so weird seeing all the teenagers drinking, I mean I am going to school to learn how to teach this age group. I don't want to drink with them!

The way the rooms got spit up was actually pretty funny. We were supposed to be in a room with each other but we ended up having to get split up in a group of three and a group of four. So the guys and girls split up. The girls were put in a room with 3 to possibly 4 Italians. They were all 18 and named Leonardo, Lapo, Fabio and some other name haha. And they absolutely loved the girls. It was hilarious because the girls just ate it up. Their little Italian Stallions ;)

We ended up with these two girls from San Diego. They were super fun girls with great senses of humor. Like the girl who called Nick- Gay, twice within just the first two hours of meeting him... haha purrfect! But they were heading to Prague next as well and we decided that we had to meet up to celebrate the Fourth of July as real Americans.

Our time in Berlin was short but it was a great experience. I learned so much of history from different perspective than an American version and everyone enjoyed themselves. I could definetely live in Berlin. It is actually a pretty young city and is pretty cheap place that is affordible to right near the fun and historical parts. It is not a very historically Bravarian city like Munich is but it offers something different. Its hard to explain but I know the next time I come to Germany it will not be for three days in one city. I would spend like 2 weeks in a few different cities. So much to see and do and try. I want to go to Octoberfest so if you are reading this and wanna make plans to go with me next September, lets start planning!

Off to Prague, Czech ya later!