B & B in B

Brugge and Brusselles in Belgium. After Amsterdam we made our way into Belgium to have real belgium waffles, fries and chocolate, and we certainly did. Our first night in Brugge we wandered into the market square and found a street vendor selling hot french fries which he then smothered in ketchup. they were very good, and accompanied our "Q" burger very well. The city was a little bit of a sleepy town so we spent the evening taking showers and relaxing. (the showers, by the way, looked like they had been stolen from a prison: simple square stalls with pull CHAINS that released water out of the large shower head above. and you just got whatever temperature water it wanted to give you because there were no controls.) Interesting.

The Brugge buildings are beautifully built--very colorful and with fun shaped rooftops. Cobblestone streets next to the little flowing rivers and chocolate shop after chocolate shop of delicate sweets. We saw the church of Holy Blood that supposedly has christ's blood as a relic, then saw the other church with Michaelangelo's Madonna and Child. The sculpture was beautiful and set in such an unassuming church. We weaved through the streets for a little while out to the grassy paths that follow along the surrounding river. Not too far down we came up to two windmills up on the little grassy knolls and got to climb up inside one. It was so fun to see windmills in Holland--the whole town is so picturesque. We shopped in the city for a while then stopped into a grocery store and got stuff to make an awesome salad back at the hostel: rocket lettuce, parmasean cheese, sundried tomatoes, croutons, pinenuts, mixed nuts, tomatoes, cucumber and chicken nuggets. it was a wonderful meal.

It started to sprinkle throughout the day so we made a night of emailing, planning our stay in london, and playing scrabble on the top bunk bed. the game was so cool...we used every letter in turn, filled up the board, and tied with a score of 201 each. And we enjoyed it with a healthy dose of gummy candy too. Brugge, although a little gloomy and rainy, was a sweet little town that we enjoyed spending time in. (oh and we had the best belgian waffles with haagen daze icecream and caramel sauce!)

Brussells was a short one night stop before Paris. We took the short train ride in the morning and were able to see parts of the city before checking into the hotel. Still raining, we meandered through the city buildings in our raincoats searching for a good cafe to snuggle up in. Well, we ended up eating at Subway (not a snuggley cafe) but then got a brownie and some coffee at a place called the coffee company. It was a cute little cafe with modern furniture and terrible music. We both had to turn our ipods on to drown out the jr. high talent show sounding singers.

Rainy days are always great days for a movie so we went to the cinema and saw Monsters vs. Aliens. we went into the 16:00 showing and realized that everything was French and wasn't going to stop being French anytime soon. So we left and were told to come back to the 18:00 showing that would be in English. Much better. It was fun to see a movie together and be able to understand it all too! The city wasn't anything terribly special, but it was cool to see anyway. Later that night we went and got dinner at a cafe by the botanical gardens and didn't realize that it was so late until our waiter brought our check over and said they were closing. it was already 11 and we felt like it was 8:30. It stays light until around 9pm so the days seem sooo long. The gardens were really pretty to walk through, and it was nice to see some green amist the towering skyscrapers. I was disappointed we didn't get to eat brussell sprouts in Brussells, but oh well!

Don't get coffee in Amsterdam

Amsterdam was one of the prettiest places we have visited. The canals that run through the city have a very Venetian quality, but hold a whole different character as well. The houses are so cute lined in a row along the canals, and they're all different colors and designs.

Funny story: our first night in Amsterdam we wandered around the city for a while to familiarize ourself with it. We came across a waffle store and both decided that we HAD to get a waffle! how could we not get a belgium waffle in belgium! it wasn't until about 5 minutes into our delicious dessert that we realized we were actually not in belgium...we were in the Netherlands! we felt very very silly. (i still dont get the whole, Netherlands, Holland, Dutch distinctions!)

Our hostel was a basic bed and bathroom--nothing fancy but it worked just fine. We took a tour of the city our first day there as to get some background and history on the city. our guide was great--British and very entertaining. He took us through the red light district (briefly), and told us about Holland's history of tolerance and "plausible deniability"policy. They hold that if something is 1) discreet, 2) not hurting anyone, and 3) makes money, than it's acceptable. An example of this is the number of "coffee shops" around the city that dont really sell coffee at all--just marajuana. But it's discreet, not "hurting" anyone, andmakes alot of money. Also on the tour we got to see the Jewish quarter, Anne Franks house, the palace, and a bunch in between.

Amsterdam is a bicycle city. Everyone rides bikes, and they're everywhere. So emily and i rented bikes for a day and navigated our way through the insane bike lanes around town and rally had a stressful time. We then took a ferry over to the other side of the river and rode into the coutnryside of holland. It was so cool. We came across a little field of sheep just chillin in the grass so we stopped and took pictures and talked with them. the babies were so cute! Then we rode through fields of green grass and tall wheat to a little town called durgerdam where we sat and had a drink on a dock overlooking the water. It was so quaint and peaceful...like an oldfashioned painting. I was so happy to get to experience both the city and the countryside of Holland.

Our next morning we rode out east of the city in search of a park but never found it. We got a little lost, ended up riding through a different park, and spent some time admiring the flowergarden in town. So many colors and kinds of flowers...especially tulips. We had planned to go to the Van Gogh museum by our hostel but it had a very pricy entrance fee so we just admired the adversement pictures on the outside. Instead of art-viewing we decided to get sandwiches at a little place called bagels and beans and it was a perfect end to our time in Amsterdam.

God speaks German

Our time in Berlin was SOOO good. We had the privilege of staying with a friend Stephanie, in Berlin who welcomed us into her home with open arms. After 4 weeks of traveling, we didn't realize how much it would mean to us to have a place to call home. It was a wonderful place to celebrate Easter and to experience what life is like living there.

Stephanie met us at the train station and escorted us back to her flat where we were able to get cleaned up and comfy and settled in. That night she cooked dinner for us (a 3 course dinner) and invited two of her friends over to join us. We had a cheese platter for an appetizer, then this grilled veggie/yogurt/pinenut thing too, and then all sat and ate salad and pasta with veggies. It was so fun just to relax and talk with her and her friends David and Steph, and enjoy each other's company. Even though it was getting late, we took the tram over to another one of Stephanies friends' houses so Emily and I could do some laundry. While the laundry was in we took a stroll to get a drink at a place that Stephanie goes to all the time. She's friends with the bartender, Andres, who was so funny. He's tall and skinny with long straggley hair and a cramer from seinfeld-type demeanor. We chatted with him and with each other then were invited to join this group of British people who were celebrating some guys birthday. The birthday boy talked with Emily and I for a while and gave us a lecture on Italian History. (He was very offended when he found out we had traveled through italy and NOT visited his mother's home town!) he had already had about a bottle of champagne, and we didn't feel the need to argue. So we had an interesting conversation, then went back to pick up our laundry and get a good night's sleep.

Sunday morning was Easter and we woke up to the smell of pancakes and tomato torte. Stephanie was so sweet--she made us breakfast and gave us chocolate kinder eggs because that's what all the kids get for Easter in Germany. It was so thoughtful and made us feel special. So we ate breakfast and got all dressed up in our Easter dresses for church. The church had a guest gospel choir come sing for the holiday, and they were from New York so we got to sing in English. It was so much fun! The church's worship band also did some german worship songs that we knew so we sang along in English while they all sang in German. It was weird to hear "Lord, I lift your name on high," "In christ alone,"and "How Great is our God" in German. It was cool to praise together even in different languages. The pastor gave his sermon, and Stephanie gave us little translated blurbs every couple of minutes so we could follow along. Then we took communion and the pastor blessed us. It was so great to be in church and surrounded by believers--we've been missing it while we've been gone.

After church we went to brunch at Andres' place, and we talked with some more of Stephanie's friends there. (she has a lot of friends). :) David said he would give us a tour of the city, so we got to see Berlin by Mercedes. He drove us around pointing out important things, giving the history behind each one. It was so fun and we enjoyed their company too. The art graffiti on the remains of the Berlin wall are so interesting so we took some pictures and walked around the area for a little bit. For dinner we had what I call German Chipotle--and it was sooo good. David had us all over to his house to watch the kite runner, which we had rented, then we went back to stephanie's to spend our last night there. Before we left the next afternoon on the train, Stephanie made sure we tried Kababs and curryworst so would have had real german food. they were interesting, but fun to try.

Our time in Berlin was so fun because of the chance to feel at home and cared for. We got to see what life was like living in the city, and had a wonderful tour guide to show us all around. Thanks Steph!

A day in Prague...

Literally...we only spent one day there. That's all the time we had before we had to be in Berlin, but it ended up being sufficient. When we arrived in Prague we checked into our hostel, dropped our bags and took the tram into town. Both of us were a little annoyed by the time we had reached the city, because getting there was for some reason a difficult task. We were tired and hungry and decided to eat something and hoped it would put us in a better mood. We got pizza and gelato then wandered around looking for points of interest. After not finding any because of our terrible map and lack of directions, we finally decided just to make for the river and hope it would be cool. Once we got to the river, our attitudes were much improved, because who could be frustrated with such a beautiful view!? We walked along the water and across the bridge to old town where we walked up a million steps to get to the palace. The climb was definitely worth it, however, because the view from the top was amazing! we saw the changing of the guard at the palace, and peeked around the little town, then made our way to the famous astronomical clock. Definitely overrated. Crowds gathered all around blocking the streets to see the amazing clock chime 8pm. If i hadn't been paying attention, i probably wouldn't have even noticed when the "show" happened. We had fun anyway though, because there was another easter festival going on, and we tried these churro things dipped in melted chocolate that were so good!! After that, we walked back to the river to see it at night with all the lights refected in the water and ate dinner at a restaurant right on the water. It was a great evening and we loved the beautiful river view.

Polish Sausage

Hello!! We are alive and well for any of you who have been worried...i know i haven't posted in a long while. My appologies--and a new post!

After Vienna, we headed to Krakow, Poland where we stayed 3 nights in Mama's hostel. The hostel was wonderful and had everything we wanted. even surprises like polish cake thursday and spiced wine wednesday. we had breakfast, and nice beds, and even got to watch movies on the dvd player! The morning we had in vienna trying to catch our train, then missing it and having to wait 4 hours for the next one was a bummer, so coming home to a nice hostel was just what we needed.

(side note: i also got news that night of my acceptance into Western State University of Law--and they're offering me an awesome academic scholarship and an invitation into the "dean's circle." it was very exciting!)

Our first day in Krakow, we took a bike tour around the city and learned much of the history of the area. We saw the main square, the church, the jewish quarter, the jewish ghetto, the park that used to be a mote around the city, the river, the castle, and schindler's factory. For lunch we had mexican food! good mexican food at a place in the middle of the square. it was so fun to have tortilla soup and fajitas while people watching in poland. the city is a fun place to walk around because of the pretty architecture and entertainment. Horse and buggies clomp by, accordion players serenade, and the church trumpeter plays every hour on the hour.

Our second day we took a train out to Auschwitz, located about 1hr 40min away. it was a very interesting trip. we've learned so much about WWII and Auschwitz in particular as an extermination camp, but to be there was something very different. The setting was strange: green grass, brick school-looking buildings and a very organized layout. If I had not known the nature of the camp, i would have guessed it was simply a quaint village. It was a shocking contrast to Dacau, the concentration camp we visited when we were in Munich. The bunkers at Auschwitz had living quarters very similar to Dacau, but some of the exhibitions of the museum were quiet jarring. A whole room filled with hair, human hair, uncovered in the Nazi collections of things to be sold, was on display. Mountains and mountains of shoes, half burned clothing, glasses, hairbrushes, and other personal items of the victims. We saw the execution sites, gallows, gas chambers and other parts of the camp. A sign across the entrance reading "work brings freedom"- the appaling deception used to keep victims calm. It's important to learn the realities of such atrocities like Auschwitz, and i'm glad we were able to go.

When we got back to Krakow, there was an easter festival going on in the square, so we got a traditional polish dinner from the booths: big brautworst sausage, potatoes, dumplings and "vegetables." The food was so heavy, and after about half we were done! we walked around windowshopping for a while and decided to try what looked like a polish waffle desert with jam on top. So having 4 zlottys left (polish currency) we got one to share between the two of us. So Emily takes a bite and chews a couple of times, then makes the worst face possible. "Oh, oh, gross, gross!" I was like, come on, it can't be that bad. so i took a bite. it was terrible. utterly terrible. What we thought was a waffley thing was instead a salted cheese mass that tasted like it had been fried in dirty sock juice and slathered with cranberry sauce. it was Naasty! worst thing we've tried yet! we threw the rest away and had to get the taste out of our mouthes with some candied almonds.

Back in the hostel we had 2 new additions to our room (which we had previously had to ourselves). Two Australian boys, Anthony and Roghan. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with them, chatting about our cultures, and enjoying the hostel. They were really fun to hang out with and made our last night really fun. In the morning we had to get up before 6 to catch our train so we tried to get as much sleep as we could.

Operetic gardens

Vienna was different than i expected it to be. very city-like. there's so much musical history, not to mention other history too, and i think i imagined it more--exciting. we did enjoy ourselves though, exploring the Stephenplatz center and doing some fun side trips.

Our train ride in was packed with people...we barely found two seats in the same compartment. i sat with my luggage pushed up against my knees while the australian girl in our compartment asked about american politics--whether we liked obama and whether emily in particular liked bush because shes from texas. our hotel room was a double bed private with its own shower and bathroom and privacy which was a nice change from the dorm atmosphere. the Ubahn was just down the street so we rode that everywhere we needed to go. that first night we went into stephenplatz square at the center of town, looked around a bit, then decided to have dinner at an Australian Pub. it was good food, and reminded me a little of TGIFridays, but with australian stuff like kangaroo and alligator meat. we also tried a drink called a snake bite (which was really just raspberry flavored beer).

The next day we spent much of our time at shonebrunne castle (i'm sure i didnt spell that right) which is famous for its extravagent gardens. the palace itself is huge and the gardens stretch as far as you can see. we had a picnic on one of the benches by a fountain and ate our peanutbutter bread, fruit and yogurt. there was a structure up on top of the hill that looked back on the gardens so we hiked up the mountain and had a beautiful view of the palace and the city of vienna. the gardens weren't fully planted yet, so there were a lot of places that were still dirt, but the patterns looked like they would have been really cool if there had been flowers there. aside from the gardens we also saw the wildly overrated ferris wheel in town that looked like a bunch of train cars strung up around a circle. needless to say, we didnt ride it. what was fun, however, was going to the opera that night. After looking at the list of theater and concert performances happening that day, we decided to attend La Boheme playing at the Volksoper. we got dressed up in our "best" attire and rushed off to the show, sneaking in right after the curtain opened. it was an interesting opera--we didnt understand a word of it (which was in German, by the way), but enjoyed it nonetheless.

We also visited the main church in the center of the square that was beautiful inside. it had one of the largest pipe organs ive ever seen and was decorated very meticulously. the outside was very gothic with pointed spires and spiky sides, yet it had a mosaic-colored roof tile pattern. the church wasnt too far from a great gelato place that was swarming with people so we figured we should probably get some! :)

The next morning we got up, packed our stuff (much of it is now strapped to the outside making us look like traveling street performers), and hurried to the train station. the hotels wifi hadnt been working so we were unable to look up train times until right before we left, so when we discovered the train left in 45 min from the station half way across town, we hightailed it out of there. we walked to the metro station, took the metro to the west trainstation, took a tram across town to the south station, only to get there 3 minutes late! the next train didnt leave until 4 hrs later and we had all of our stuff with us. so we went across the street and got lunch at a little italian place and used their wifi for a couple of hours. it really turned out to be a good thing we missed the train because the next one went all the way to krakow without any stops and got in only an hour and a half later. it was nice to relax on the 6 1/2 hour train ride, read, listen to music, watch some greys anatomy and eat dinner.

Mozartland

Salzburg was a fun city. We stayed in a nice hostel in an 8 bed room with some other girls. The sheets were silky and the room clean with big lockers to use. The breakfast provided was really good with all kinds of bread, cereal, cheese, cold cuts, eggs, yogurt and this funny chocolate pear rice pudding. We spent our first night exploring and eating goulash and schnitzel then watched a little bit of the sound of music played nightly at the hostel.

The next morning we got a Salzburg card which gave us 24 he access to all of the sites around town and free bus transportation. We first took a gondola up the mountain for a beautiful view. The weather was wonderfully warm even on the snowtopped mountains. We hiked around in the snow for a while and took in the beauty then sloshed back to the gondola. Not too far away was the hellsbeunner palace with some supposed world famous trick fountains. We expected a cool watershow nut were terribly disappointed when they turned out to be silly fountains used to squirt visitors with water. We felt like we were at a kiddie show and weren't in the mood to get wet. So as soon as that was over, which was not soon enough, we headed back into town.

Salzburg houses mozarts birthplace and residence, and his face is everywhere in the city. We found his residence from when he was little and took an audioguide tour through the house. My favorite part was seeing his original piano and hearing some of the compositions from his youth composed on it. There were also pages of scores he had written and letters he had written to his family about premiers of his music. It was a very interesting visit. The mirabell werent too far so we headed over there and enjoyed the view. Salzburg is where the sound of music was set and we didnt get to see many of the places from the movie bit we did see the "do re mi steps" and the fountain.

Our last day we took a funicular up to the fortress that sits up high in the city you can see it from all around and it's one of the oldest structures there. THere wasn't much to see inside nut the grounds were interesting and we got a great view of the city. We then stopped in and saw where mozart was born then got a snack before catching our train to Vienna.

Our stay in Salzburg was packed with little sightseeing things but we also got to stroll through the shops and streets around town and even got to see a bunch of people in traditional Austrian clothing coming out of church on palm sunday which was so fun! All the families were riding bikes and playing games all dressed up in liederhosen and dresses. I'm glad we got to be a part of the Sunday celebration.

Schnitzel, Castles, and Nazis

Our last 3 nights we spent in munich, Germany, and we had a great time. Our first night there we went to a highly recommended restaurant known for having the biggest plate of schnitzel. So we each got a beer and split the turkey schnitzel which was huge and sooo good. When I say beer I should probably mention that emily got some beer mixed with sprite and I got an apple cider...but german beer nonetheless. Our hostel had a pretty nice lounge area but pretty gross rooms--I guess that's what you get for 10 euro a night. It's a 40 bed room on the -1 floor (the basement). It smells like mildew and b.o. And we were pretty much the only girls.

Our first day we took a free walking tour around the city to learn about the history and importance of Munich. It really gave me a deeper appreciation for the city and was fun too. I didn't realize Munich played such a big part in the rise of the Nazi party and hitlers popularity. It was crazy to learn about kristalnacht and other horrible events while we were standing at the site where they took place. We also saw the supposedly most famous beerhall in the world and heard stories about it's historic days. After the tour we had goulash and took a nap in the largest gardens in Europe, the English gardens. For dimmer we really wanted crepes but the stand was closed so we got pizza by the slice instead. Food has been an adventure on this trip...sometimes were pleasantly surprised and other time we wonder what possesed someone to make such horrible combinations. This night was one of the latter described. I ordered the pizza with arugala, tomato, and mozzerella on top- sort of a caprese pizza. Emily got tunafish. What looked like a nice sausage slice turned out to be tuna and onion pizza. Who puts tuna on pizza! We were both revolted by it (emily moreso because she put it in her mouth), so we ran to the trainstation store afterward for some peach gummies.

Back In the room we got ready for bed and I asked myself, "would you rather sleep with your head by the awkward cuddling couple on the bed to the left or by the creepy guy in his 30s to the right. But this seemed so trivial when at 4am I woke up to something very strange indeed. "wake up. Come on man wake up. Do you know what you just did?" I look up, or rather down from the top bunk to see one of the hostel workers shining a light in a sleeping guys face in the bunk to diginal from us. "you just pissed on the floor." sure enough I look at the wood floor and there sits a giant puddle--disgusting. Apparently this guy had had too much to drink, undressed, peed all over the floor and passed out on his bed. Questioning whether this was really happening I climbed down and picked up my backpack and shoes up off the floor away from the danger zone and watched the hostel staff deal with the situation. They mopped the floor and got him to wake up and move out of the soaked bed that wasn't even his then told him to take a shower. We found out in the morning he was fined 60 euro for the mess. Poor emily was freaked out the whole night and barely slept. If we thought the room smelled bad before it was terrible now! Let's just say this beats out our Rome hostel for worst accompdation experience so far! We were scared to use the showers too, especially since the dirty shower curtains sported pictures of "Biff" and "Brad" in speedos at the beach. So weird.

Despite the weird hostel we really enjoyed Munich. We took a day trip to the Neuwenschuine castle which was built in the beautiful alps and was the inspiration for cinderellas castle at Disneyland. It was really fun to see and all around us were snow covered mountains and scenic views. Our last day we also got to visit Dachau, the first concentration camp and model for the others built during the war. It was a very moving experience and it was especially powerful learning about what went on there as we were standing in the specific locations.

Bavaria has beautiful sights and rich culture--we had bratworst and pretzels that were great and savory crepes that weren't so savory. I got the chili and cheese crepe which turned out to be chili POWDER and cheese with tons of crushed black pepper. It almost made me sick. I think I'll stick to the nutella ones! Oh and we both got spinach and tomato quiche for lunch after Dachau and it happened to have salmon inside! We were ready to leave when our three nights in Munich were up and enjoyed the scenery on the train on the way to Salzburg where the hills are alive with the sound of music.

Dairyland Not to be confused with Disneyland

Our last night in interlaken was busied with Swiss chocolate and late night selecta (their vending machine brand) run. We had to have something to dip in our nutella and sour gummy fries were just that. In the morning we packed up,ate breakfast and hopped on the train to Bern. About 25 min later we hopped back off the train and waited for the next one back to interlaken because emily left her blanket and sheet in the room. When we got back I took a nice refreshing jog in the cold sprinkley air and retrieved the sleep stuff. Fortunately the scenery between interlaken is beautiful so we didn't mind seeing it 3 times. Except our seat the last time happened to be next to the only seats on the train without a window view!

Our time in Bern, the capitol of Switzerland, was short and tiring. Because we
weren't staying the night we had to carry our luggage with us along the tour of the city. As soon as we walked out of the station there stood before us the American embassy to brighten our day...well it was actually starbucks, and it made us feel like we were at home. After warming up inside away from the bitter cold we walked to the parliament building (did you know the Swiss have 7 presidents), the big funny clock tower, and the bear pits. Yes, bear pits. Bern is german for bear so I hear and the city is named after them so they have a pit with live bears in the city. The bear was really cute and smaller than I expected. We felt like our 2 hours. there were sufficient and caught the next train to lucerne.
Lucerne was a beautiful city with a huge lake, picturesque mountains and a castle. wall. Our hostel/hotel was very nice and clean and we ended up having a 4 bed room to ourselves. We made a wonderful dinner with stuff we bought at the grocery store and chatted in our room. The next day we visited the pride of the city--a lion sxulpturecarved into a mountain. We took a picture and walked away...not too exciting. We did get find a path that led up to a spot where you can see the whole city and lake which was really pretty. There's not all that much to do in lucerne we found out, especially at night. So we went for a run through the town in 40 degree weather, ran past the lion again just in case the first time wasn't exciting enough, and crossed all 5 bridges back and forth that go over the river. It was a great night and and we got to see a castle wall that goes around a part of the city.

Our time there was relaxing and slow paced--we fed bread to the French swans, ate more Swiss truffles, made sure to eat dairy products even though we couldn't find any lucerne brand and indulged in 2 American treats: starbucks and mcdonalds. Oh and I paid with American dollars at mcdonalds which was so weird. Switzerland was beutiful and expensive, and was everything I hoped for. Except I didn't see any men in liederhosen yodelling and playing the digerydoo. I have no clue how that's spelled but it seems like it belongs in Switzerland.