Tuesday 17 April 2012

Since now contiki tour was now over we were
able to go sightseeing in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a cute city but theres not tons of things to see. We planned to go and see the Anne Frank house, the heineken factory and the I AMsterdam sign. The both of us are not exactly sure why this sign is so famous but its apprently soemthing you have to see while your there. Out first day by ourselves was spent changing hotels, and then going to the Anne Frank house. But before leaving for these advetnures we first went out searching for a box big enough to send 10 kilos of belongs home. It had only been 1 month and we had already run out of room in our suitcaes and backpacks. It didnt take long to find a post office that sold boxes, but of course they were sold out of the biggest ones and our search contiuned. We were lucky enought to find a shop owner who spoke english well enough to understand what we were looking for and he gave us one. Unfortunatly the box was just the slightest amount too small, but with no other options we carried the box (overflowing) to the post office and got packing tape. Twenty minutes and 1 entire roll of packing tape later we were finally ready to send off our stuff. The next task of the day was the Anne frank house. Like usual we got lost on the way. After walking around in a long circle for roughly an hour we finally made it to the Anne Frank house. The house is now a museum where you can walk into all the rooms where they lived and you even entre the secret annex by walking behind the secret bookcase. On the main floor (the old factory) the rooms have mini movie theathers with videos of people that knew here sharing stories about the family. One of these stories was from one of her neighbours before she had to go into hiding. They had actually ended up at the same concentration camp, however her friend was a lot better off in the camp then she was. They were in two different sections of the camp and one day her friend tried to throw her a package of socks, bread and a couple other things she had collected on the "good side" over the wall, someone else caught it all though and stole it. That was the lat time she got to talk to her. Each room and all the hallways have quotes from the diary on the walls, and they are filled with poictures that were taken while they were in hidding. At the end of houseyou enter a black room with a video screen, this is the last video that playing in the house. Its her father sharing stories of anne, and how he worked so hard to get her diary published after the war. He said that after reading her diary he was surprised to find out how mature his daughter was and how you dont really know your children as well as you think you do. After you have exited the house you entre the museum portion. Here you find more videos, pages for her diary ( not real ones but photocopies) and more pictures. Our favorite video in the museum was from her neighbour. She shared a story of how she use to go sit on the other side of the concentration camp and talk to anne. She also occausionally brought her food when she could gather enough. This was one of our favorite museums that we have been to yet. We then headed back to our hotel and went straight to bed, we had lots of sleep to catch up on. 




Day two by ourselves was spent sleeping, and going to the heinekien bewery. We werent too sure what to expect, but everyone from our contiki group said that we had to go before we left. We can now say that it was our favorite part of Amsterdam. When you walk in you get your enterance ticket, which is actually a braclet, that has two small buttons on it. You then entre the bewery. The first room has a tv with a video of the man who started the beer, he explains what he wanted to model his company after and how he wanted to have the best tasting beer in the world. You next walk up about 50 stairs and come to a couple of other small rooms with more videos, pictures and awards. After the museum part is over is when the really cool part starts. Your greeting at the doors by a man who explains how the beer is made and how much of each ingredient is actually in the beer. He then leads you into a room with huge metal barels where they keep the wheat. Along the way you get to sample the beer at each stage of the production starting with the water and wheat mixture ( i dont suggest trying this one). Next is when you get to pretend to be a bottle of beer (allison's favortie part!!!!) You go into a room and stand on a platform in front of a huge tv screen and it begins. A video starts and our of nowhere your platform starting moving as if you were a bottle on the prodcution line, you also get sprayed with water when its time to fill the bottle with beer. Learning how to properly drink beer was the next stop on the tour. We learnt how to look at beer properly and also slip it with out getting to much foam. After we were done our beers we got to watch all the commercials that heinkien has ever had, some were better than others. Next you could make videos of yourself singing a traditional dutch song and then e-mail it to yourself ( we tried this but it didnt work :(). The rest of the bewery is all videos and games you can play. Before leaving you learn what they buttons are for on your braclet, 2 free beers! You have ther option of either using both tokens and learn how to pour the perfect beer or have the 2 beers. We choose to learn how to pour the perfect beer. Kirst is very proud to say that she got it on the first try, while mine had the slightest amout too much foam on the first pour. We then headed to the gift shop where we learnt that they there was a free boat ride through the cannels and you recived a free gift. Once again we headed back to our hotel to go to sleep early, beacuse the next morning we had to be up at 530 to head to dijon.

We hopped on our bus at about 8am, little did we know that our 14 hour bus ride was about to turn into an excruitiating 19 hour one. When we stopped at the french border they pulled us over to check the bus because we were going from amsterdam to barcelona and theres usually drugs on buses in that route... sure enough there was. but not just a couple grams of weed, a whole huge brick of cocaine. they had dogs search the whole bus and everyones stuff and they couldnt figure out whos it was so we had to go to the police station and they took everyones finger prints. after 3 hours they let us go.. were not sure if they found the person or wat cuz no one on the bus spoke french or english, they only spoke spanish. after those shinanigans our stupid bus driver got lost and we finally got to dijon at 345 am (wed been up since 530, it sucked) ronnies exchange student from gr 11 (gaelle) was supposed to pick us up, but our bus was so late and we had no way of contacting her so obviously she wasnt there. so we started walking down the street with our lives in our suitcases trying to find a hotel. we went to 7 and they were all full (by this time it was 440) and we had just decided to find a park to go sit in till 6 when things would open when we heard a honk and there was
gaelle. she had been driving around the streets and asking hotels if theyd seen us and somehow found us. it truly was a miracle; we had no where to go,we didnt know her address and the phone number she gave us didnt work. she saved us; we were soo happy!!! So we loaded our stuff into her car and headed to her house where we all instantly fell asleep.

The next day Gaelle let us sleep in and around noon we left her house to go explore Dijon! We walked a couple blocks and found le centre ville which was full of great shopping! We also found MacDonalds and ended up grabbing a coffee there and stealing their wifi for a bit. After our day out we went and picked up some grocerries with Gaelle and then headed back to her house for a get together with her friends! It was really fun, everyone was so nice and made an effort to speak a little slower than usual for us.
Gaelles apartment was really cool, it was much different than a Canadian one, obvisously.. To get there you had to go through a garage then down a bit then up two steep flights of stairs. She shares her apartment with three other girls and they each have their room then theres a kitchen/ dining and a double bathroom. It was very cute and were so happy to finally be in a house and not a hotel!
Our second day in Dijon Gaelle skipped school for us and showed us around! We went and saw their Notre Dame Cathedral, which we found out most cities in France have. We also saw le hotel de ville (where the mayor lives), a really nice fountain and of course Gallerie Lafayette (a huge french department store). That night we packed up our things and jumped on the bus to a town called Les Greys which is where she used to live and where her Mom still does. When we got there we were greeted with one of the best meals to date! Her mom had baked a deliscious fish/casserolish dish and we had a great salad and fresh bread as well. Afterwards we had what I'd been waiting for our entire trip, more bread, wine and an assortment of french cheeses! I was in heaven, I literally had been waiting for this since we decided we were going to Europe. Cheese in North America doesnt even compare to cheese in France. Allison on the other hand, being gluten sensitive, lactose and having acid reflex tried a bit but wasnt as overjoyed as myself. That night was the most luxurious sleep we'd had so far. We had an awesome guest room all to ourselves (the same one ronnie had when she was there) with the comfiest bed that you just sunk into and a really good pull out couch, we had so much room too it was great!
When we awoke the next day we went into town and Gaelle gave us an awesome historical tour. We learned that the symbol of the town is three torches because it was burned down three times. After our tour we went back to her house and had lunch. Meals are really important in french culture. They are a time for family to come together and missing one is unheard of, its pretty cool. That afternoon we went to another larger town called Besancon with Gaelle and her brother Louique. We saw a castle, went shopping and had a couple of drinks at this little cafe. Allison got some fruit juice that tasted sooo real and I got tea. My tea came in the hugest tea pot it was so funny. On the way home we stopped at their Dads house. He was a really funny guy, he started discussing Anglophone vs Francophone Canadian politics with us. Politics are neither mine nor Allisons forte, but discussing them in french was even more difficult! That night we hung out with her brother, boyfriend and neighbour and had a chill night exchanging stories and laughing at French and Canadian stereotypes. Apparently french people think that all of our police wear RCMP uniforms, they also think we say eh all the time (obviously) and that there are beavers everywhere.


The following day we went to Gaelles Moms boyfriends house for an amazing last meal together and then her Dad picked us up to head back to Dijon to catch our train to Paris! After saying our goodbyes and Gaelle promising she would come visit us soon we headed downstairs to our gate where we found out our train was delayed undefinetely. Furthermore, to add yet another twist to our travel plans we had accidently booked a hotel with a reception that closed at 9pm. We were supposed to arrive in Paris at 820 and catch a cab to our hotel which was a 25minute drive away, and were worried about cutting it close, but as soon as we saw our train we late we knew we were in trouble. We sat down at a cafe and started to discuss our options, eventually we came up with a plan to book another hotel for that night with 24 hour reception and just suck it up and pay the price. After our night in Dijon we did not want to risk wandering around with no where to sleep again. So we sat in this cafe for a couple of hours looking for cheap places to sleep that night and just as we were about to book our hotel Allison noticed that our train was no longer on the screen anymore. Panicked, we packed up and sprinted towards our gate. I climbed up the stairs as Allison waited below with our suitcases and found no train awaitng us. Luckily we were in France still so I asked one of the men working what had happened, he had no clue but said there was another train going to Paris in three minutes and he would try and put us on it. I ran downstairs to get Allison and we made it up just as the train was arriving, luckily there was room and we hopped on! When we got on the train we realised we hadnt had the chance to book our hotel yet and instantly went into trouble solving mode again! Thats when the conductor made his welcome announcement and told us that we would be arriving in Paris at 830 but at a different train station, a little further away from our hotel than the original one. Relieved we started making our game plan and decided that we would just have to book and do our best to make it there on time. So when the train stopped we were the first to jump off and we started running at full speed through the train station and to the taxi pick up zone. We hopped into the first one there was and told the driver we needed to go fast or we wouldnt have anywhere to sleep. He said he would do what he could, changed the radio to some latina racing music then floored it. We whipped in and out of traffic on the freeway, noticeable speeding and by yet another miracle we made it to our hotel with only 8 minutes to spare. We made it to our room and both stood there looking at each other in disbelief, we had yet again just barely escaped a lot of trouble.

Friday 13 April 2012

Our final stop with the contiki winter wanderer tour was amsterdam! Warning this is not a G rated blog, parental supervision is advised. We got there in the evening, had supper and then headed out straight away to let the fun begin. We hopped onto the bus and were greeted with a wonderful soundtrack themed for night, songs included: sexy and i know it, cuz i got high, sexual healing and a clip from pulp fiction. We passed by a couple of cool things on our way to the redlight district, one of which was a bike rack that held 6 thousand bikes! It was crazy big. When we got off the bus our tour guide Mike pointed out a few things to us such as the three person urinals placed on corners at night so guys dont pee on the streets. Kirsten thought it was like a porta potty but then realised there were no doors or anything, they just walk up to it and start peeing. Allison who clearly has superior knowledge about modes of relieving oneself knew exactly what it was. We also saw a statue of a lady called belle, she was the first prostitute we saw. We then walked down the streets of the district and were suprised to find that it was FULL of red light windows, they were everywhere . For those of you who dont know, a red light window is a huge window a hooker stands in front of flaunting herself and inviting guys in. They are all individual rooms with beds but we thought that it was probably a big building owned by the pimps because all of the rooms were connected. Prostitution is very popular, its really weird (but we've learned that most of europe is). There are actually places girls can go to learn how to be a proper prostitute and how to be safe while doing it. The other thing that was everywhere was coffee shops. These are not regular cafes, but coffee shops where when you order a coffee you are offered a special brownie or cookie as well. People smoke weed everywhere, we smelt it the second we got off the bus! Its so strange, people smoke joints like they do ciagarettes and they are the fattest joints I've ever seen, so huge. Eventually we got to our destination, Casa Rossa. To be blunt Cassa Rossa is a sex show. Kirsten can say it was easily the weirdest thing she's ever seen and was very glad she was not chosen to go up on stage to help the "dancers", unlike some people. After the unbelievably long hour we headed straight for the bar to drink away the awkwardness. In the bar there was a smoking room, similar to many european bars, this one was of course different. Basically you could get high just by sitting in there. We definitely got to see the Amsterdam culture that night.

The next morning was a little rough, we hopped on the bus at about 9 to go to a clog/ cheese place but didnt make it much further than that. We walked into this little house like building to see the cheese making demonstration and were instantly overthrown by the smell. It smelt like dead stuff and were so hungover it sucked. We learned that cmoked cheese is actually old cheese that they add water to and melt down then smoke but thats about it. After the cheese we moved next door to see a clog making demonstration, that was really cool! The guy made a clog right in front of us! He started a with a block of wood and cut it down with a big long knife until it turned into a clog it was really old fashionned and really interesting. He told us that all the clogs are hand painted and in the olden days a man would hand carve intricate designs into them for his bride. Now adays many dutch people still wear clogs, they are used for gardening and factory work. They are not that uncomfortable considering that they're just wood and they are perfect for working in a factory because they act like steel toe boots, if you drop something on your foot you are protected. I cant remember why they are used for gardening but Im pretty sure you can basically supsitute clogs for crocs, they're kicking around the house shoes. After we'd looked at all of the different clogs (there are a lot, all different sizes colours designs etc) we went outside and sat down at this table. Beside the table there was a really big bird, which we never decided whether it was a duck or a goose so we ended up calling it a guck. Anyways, we were a little nervous sitting next to it because it was so big and it kept coming closer to us but we were so tired we just wanted to sit so we did. Well, this goose decided to jump onto the picnic table (lucikly on the opposite side of us) and allison and i both screamed and jumped away from the table simultaneously. Our friend Byrn wasnt so lucky though and just about fell off the bench when the guck jumped up beside him. Then there was Connor the Canadian who just stood there laughing at us, Im sure it was pretty funny to watch. After everyone had finished buying clogs and cheese we got back on the bus and headed back into central amsterdam. We did a little bit of shopping but then decided that fighting the exhaustion and hangover wasnt worth it and headed back to the hotel. We slept the afternoon away and woke up in the evening to get up for our last group dinner and night out together.

For dinner we went to this nice little restaurant by "the ocean" as some people thought.. netherlands (the country guys, not amsterdam!) is surrounded by land, there is no ocean. Dinner (not supper) was really nice and we had the best apple pie for dessert! Afterwards we hopped on a boat and went for another canal cruise! This was the best one yet, mainly because it was an hour and a half of unlimited drinks! We took lots of pictures, had some good laughs and used the unbelievably awkward stool toilet and eventually it was time to get off. We then moved to this bar called the bulldog (which apparently we have in Canada) and onto another with cheaper drinks afterwards. The bar was awesome and everyone had a blast but the best part of the night was the bar we found afterwards. At about two five of us verntured off to find somewhere new and ended up finding the sweetest bar ever. Imagine the best social you've ever been to, the kind where you know everyone there an everyones silly drunk but its in a bar. Then add confetti, pot and crazy sick music, that was this place. It was the coolest thing, and everyone was having the best time the vibe was awesome. We left close to five and were quite dissapointed to find out that Mackers (McDicks) closed at 4, when asked someone where we could get food and he said the only place you could eat at that time in the morning was home, to which we replied we don;t have a home, but then settled for vending machine food when we got back to the hotel. The five of us then proceeded to take pictures with all of our roomates sleeping, of course waking them up the process, liuckily allison was spared. By the time I got to bed I was very happy that The two of us were not getting on the bus the next morning.. A couple of hours later we awoke to Byrn banging on the door and yelling at us to get up, we slept through our wake up call and were about to miss our chance to say goodbye to everyone! We dragged our still drunk buts out of bed and ran downstairs where we just got the chance to see everyone off. It was sad saying goodbye but we didnt have much time to be sad because when we got back upstairs we were greeted with 2 bottles of ice sitting outside our door (good one Tyler and Craig). After that we passed out until about 12 when we had to pack up and head to our next (much more affordable) hotel.

Thursday 5 April 2012

On March 20th (kirstens birthday) we started Prague off by going on one of it's famous pub crawls. The first bar we went to pretty much sucked.. except that shots of vodka and beer were unlimited and included, we also all got pub crawl tshirts which was really fun. The second bar we went to was better, except that all it played was hardcore rap in some unknown language.. probably czech. Finally the third bar was lots of fun! It was underground, had an awesome dancefloor and good music. Eventually we left to go to our final destination, the five story club. When we walked in the first thing we noticed was that you were allowed to smoke and that the club was packed... weird since it was a monday. We got a drink and headed up to the stairs to check everything out. We found that the basement was top40 regular club music and everyone was dancing their faces off. There wasnt much on the ground floor but the first floor was Bob FM stuff, the second was oldies.. to us (including s-club)and the third was a balcony, unfortanetly for summer only. After we got bored of the smoke and the sweat we went back to the main floor to hang out and found an ice bar! At first we thought that 6 euros was a little bit high of a cover price but one of our friends dished out the cash for us and about 5 of us entered. We can say without a doubt it was one of the most awesome, if not the most awesome bar we've ever been to! The entire thing was made of ice, from the tables to the chairs, walls and cups. We also got to wear this sweet heineken down jackets, hats and gloves. All four aussies we were with thought the -5 temperature was freezing but allison and had our jackets unzipped. After our time in there was up we decided we'd had enough of the bar and went back to the hotel where allison passed out instantly and Kirsten had a lovely 2 hour drunk skype.. which she paid for in the morning.

The next morning allison and i ventured out on our own.. which was a little difficult as czech is one of the weirdest languages in the world. After going in the complete opposite direction and about half an hour out of our way we made it to our meeting spot just in time for our lunchtime cruise! We got on the boat and were given drink tokens... exactly what we wanted. The cruise was very nice, there are a ton of canals in prague so we got to see the whole city. Our guide was awesome too she had many random funny facts about czech republic. After the cruise we went souvenir shopping and found lots of cool stuff! We also bought some smirnoff which we later iced some aussies with, starting a never ending battle. The next day we awoke at the crack of dawn to go to Berlin!

Before we got to our hotel we went to the east side gallery which is a section of the Berlin was which has been preserved and now is covered with beautiful murals. Although the paintings were awesome we both thought the wall was going to be a little highger. As we learned the wall was only 3 metres high, but it was the area b/w the 2 walls (i think its called death strip and allison thinks its called no mans land) that stopped everyone from getting to the other side. It was loaded with mines and tons of armed officers, as well in case you werent shot before getting over the wall it was all sand so that even if you tried to book it was impossible. On the drive to the hotel we both decided berlin reminded us of home moreso than anywhere else in europe. It was flat and because it was destroyed by WWII most of the buildings were pretty modern.

Across from our hotel there was a little convenient store which sold really cheap booze so we grabbed a few beers and a couple of coolers and spent the night in the lobby booking flights, buses and accomodations for our first few days on our own. Kirsten also bought an extra large bottle of blush for 3euros, she was so happy. To make things a little more interesting while attempting to book our bus there were 3 italian boys (who were there on a school trip) trying to talk to us. The funny thing was, only one of them could speak english so they all hit on us through him. I ignored them as i was in the middle of buying bus tickets but allison unfortantely had no out and had to endure the lovely 16 year old boys who clearly hadnt seen such a beautiful canadian girl ever before. As soon as we had tickets we booked to our room to escape the children. We stopped by a friends room to have a couple drinks and found it packed with half of our tour. It was a legit room party, full of stolen 10year old bottles of wine, free vending machine beer and weird Japanese games invloving eating catfood.

The next morning we awoke ready to hit the streets of the historical city. We started off by going on a 3 hour walking tour. We thought we were defintely going to leave part way through but it was the best tour we've had so far! Our guide was hilarious and he gave us the important history as well as interesting celebrity info ( he even pointed out the window of a hotel that mj dangled his baby out of). We got to see where hitlers lasts minutes were, the university that einstein and the grim brothers graduated from, the jewish memorial and the library where "unfit" authors books were first burned. While at the library he showed us un underground window which had many empty bookshelves, representing the book shelves that were emptied and buried after one of Hitlers first speaches. He also pointed out the book sale happening across the street and explained that it happens everyday in honour of the jewish, deaf, and other nazi targeted authors. We thought it was really cool that the booksale sold only books that were burned, and other books by the same authors. The jewish memorial was also really interesting. Its hard to explain what it looked like but basically it was just a huge space with a bunch of cement blocks heights and widths. We learned that everyone has a different view on what the blocks represent. As most of the blocks are all randomly placed and in many places you cant see around them, it is like a maze; many people think the memorial represents how the jews could never see what was coming in the holocaust, how they were always lost. Our tour finished outisde of checkpoint charlie which is was the only legal crossing of the berlin wall. Inside the museum they had lots of exhibits showing all the different methods that people used to get across the wall. In one case an american pilot smuggled about saved about 30 people from east berlin by entering at checkpoint charlie for "tourist reasons" and when then drive to czech republic and fly them out of there! We also went to a jewish memorial museum which was really cool and had tons of stories from Jewish families in the war. The other really interesting thing we did was see a terrorist museum. In there we learned all about how the nazis treated people who weren't "up to their standards". It was quite a lot to take in in one day but we learned so much and were reminded how recent that part of history is!

Once we were beat from walking around the city the entire day and soaking up as much info as possible we headed back to the hotel for some schnitzel and amazing dark bread before heading out for our "eye spy" pub crawl. To make the pub crawl unique we were divided into 2 groups, east and west berliners. We then had to find clues hidden around the walk to the next pubs to see where we had to go, it dispose of the information so that people from the other side of the wall couldnt track us. It was kinda cool but kinda weird at the same time. We had a good time though and eventually got back to the hotel for a few hours of rest. The next morning we left berlin for our final stop with conitki, Amsterdam!!

We have lots to write about still, lots of stories from amsterdam, dijon france, paris take 2 and athens. However we are starting our greek/turkish island hopping cruise tomorrow (jealous? you should be :P) and we will not have interent for about a week! After our cruise we are heading back to Rome and will update all of you on our lives then! So dont worry if none of you hear from us before then! Enjoy cold winnipeg or hot australia or where ever you are from and matt get corn rows :)

bye friends!