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.

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.

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!

Vienna was a pretty chill place. We stayed in a beautiful hotel! It was suuuch a nice change, we've been really lucky with our hotels but this one was fantastic. The night we got there we went for a swim and were very pleased when we saw the pool. It was surrounded by palm trees and lusicous green plants. We could have spent the entire night there if it wasn't for the awkward couple acting as if they were the only ones there.. luckily the trees blocked our view of them, but it was still wayyy weird. We also went to a restaurant across the road from the restaurant for diner that night and were surprised to find that you could smoke inside. Europe is a bit behind on the whole no smoking thing, but most countries have banned it inside. We later found out that Germany and some of the countries surrounding it have been tentative to establish smoking laws because Hitler was extremely against cigarettes and they do not want to be seen as following his path. We spent out day in Austria by going on a nice walking tour and then getting some world famous apple struddel paired with a great coffee. After our snack we made our way to an amusement park which was very similar to the ex. Kirsten went on this crazy ride that had a huge beam that rotated like a ferris wheel but was way faster and had two seats on either end, as the the beam span the seats around and up and down, the seats were also doing theyre own flips. She screamed the whole time and had a few euros fly out of her pockets to who knows where, but absolutely loved it!! When we'd had enough of the rides we grabbed a snitchel burger and headed for the schnapps (or shwerrps as some people call it) museum to meet up with the rest of our tour group. When we walked into the museum/ factory it felt like walking into another century.. or decade or something. Everything was extremely old fashionned and most of it had not been replaced since that factory was made, it was really cool because it was so original. The oldest, happiest (probably drunkest) man showed us how they made schnapps and told us which ones had which percentages and told us what to mix with them. We then followed him upstairs where we got to taste test as many as we wanted, (in other words, we all did a TON of shots) then spent a TON of money in the gift shop. We are both still very happy about our purchases however, so the alchohol didnt get to us too much. We each bought a bottle of Red Rocket schnapps (which is 46%) and we bought a bottle of absince together (the good stuff, which is 60%). Be ready for it when we get home guys!! Kirsten also bought a shirt saying "they told me I had a good time"... very appropriate :) After the best museum so far we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the german beer hall the next day and Kirsten's birthday. The next morning we loaded everything back onto the bus once more and were off to Munich!

Munich was much like Florence, short lived but great! We got to our hotel and left almost immediately to head into town (most of our hotels were on the outskirts of town, as they are much cheaper that way). We bought a couple of souvenirs and then made our way to the Hofprahaus, an original German beer hall. As soon as we walked in we knew it was going to be a good time, the place was packed and filled with noise and the smell of beer! There was a band playing german songs and wearing authentic german clothing (short leather shorts, suspenders and all). We grabbed a bench right in front of them and ordered our first round of one litre beers (or for some of us, half lemonade/half beer.... which tasted exactly like your deliscous drink Dave, but was a lot less strong :P).. anyways they were without a doubt the biggest beers we'd ever drank! We were only there for about half an hour before a "lovely" 80 year old man who had been asking all the young ladies to dance came up and asked Kirsten to dance. She of course agreed, who could say no to such a sweet old man, right? Well as most of the blonde girls on contiki found out Max was more of a drunk mess than a sweet old man. Everyone had a great laugh watching her face turn bright red as she awkwardly danced with him. Attack of the blondes, take one. After what felt like ages to her the song finally ended and she took her seat again, only to be harassed by a random Russian man 15 minutes later. Eventually one of the guys called the waiter over who removed him from our table and we were happy again, until we recieved our dinner.. Apparently the Hofprahaus does everything super size, because our food was just as big as the beer. We all had either schnitzel as big as a regular sized dinner plate, a pork nuckle the size of 2 fists, or a half chicken the same size. Everyone put in a great effort trying to eat it all, but no one even came close. By the time our we were finished eating everyone was a few beers in and having a great time! We were making some new friends with another contiki group and a random bunch of spaniards when our tour group was asked to leave. (apparently they didnt like us walking on the tables or the stupid amount of glasses we had broke.. really though, what do you expect when you serve litres of beer!?) Half the group decided to call it a night, but a few stayed out with Kirsten to celebrate her birthday with her (which although all 40 of them had sang to her at the beer hall, was at midnight). We made our way to a little pub down the road just in time to grab a drink for her birthday. A while later we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel in time to get a few hours of sleep before hopping on the bus again the next day.

We can safely say Munich kicked Kirsten's butt, and there was only more fun to come in Prague.

We arrived in Prague in one piece (barely) and had a couple hours to regain our strength before the pub crawl that night.

Contiki tour number one is now finished and we finally have time to write to you guys. We are currently in Amsterdam, but we'll start off by telling you about Venice. Venice is cool. We had to take a boat to get there, the water you travel through is pretty gross, there's tons of litter. We passed so many boats on the way too: cruise ships, motor boats and garbage boats. Once you get off the boat you are instantly attacked by pigeons. Our tour guide told us that they have ton and tons of them because the tourists come and feed them, apparently it's a cool thing to do. We personally think that pigeons smell really bad, are incredibly dirty and that there are way too many here. They are also kind of scary when there are lots (or as the aussies say: loads) so we try to stay away from them as much as possible.. which is not that easy of a task. There are flocks of pigeons everywhere in Europe, but there is a huge overload in Venice. Usually when there are heaps and heaps (another aussie word) of them in one place there is someone standing in the middle of them, with pigeons on their shoudlers, arms and hands... ssssooooo gross.
On a different note, Venice is a pretty city but there isn't lots to do. We were told that in the summer, there are so many tourists that you can barely walk around the city. The biggest attraction of Venice is that it is built on a marsh, it was built by some Italians a long long time ago as a refuge. They used tree trunks and buried the base of them deep below the water, then they did a lot of other things and eventually they had a city. Due to the fact that Venice is an island everything there is imported by boat, this makes it a really expensive place to live in. Venice is very old fashionned, all imporeted goods are delivered by men holding carriages on their backs or on their bikes. The streets are so small that it would be hard to transport many things in any other way.
Another thing Venice is known for is it's glass blowing trade. It takes an apprentice about 15 years to learn how to blow glass. It is a very dificult trade to get into, but an incredible one; glass blowing has been passed down from one Venetian to another for centuries. We got the chance to see a glass blowing demenstration, and its was amazing. In the time it would take us to make a peanut butter and jam sandwhich the man had made a vase. After the demonstration we got the chance to check out some of their incredible work, most of which was layered with a special coating which made the glass almost unbreakable. We then headed off souvenir shopping and found many beautiful masks along the way. When the masks were first made they were worn by royalty so they could gamble and have relations with prostitutes without being seen. One thing we found interesting was that prostitution was not illegal but that gambling was. Now adays, the masks are used for carnival celebrations and are e xtremely extravagant. The one last thing we had to do in Venice before leaving was go on a gondala of course. Unlike in the movies, the men paddling were not allowed to sing, however they did wear stripped shirts and hats! The ride was really nice and we shared a couple bottles a champagne with the rest of our boat. We'd say it was the best part of Venice! (obviously) After an amazing italian supper full of assorted pastas, cold cuts, soup, vegetables, seafood, gelati, wine of course and what felt like an endless amount of courses we were back on the boat and off. Next stop: Vienna Austria.

The past few days have been crazy!! .. once again. We are now on our way to Vienna, Austria, home of The Sound of Music, Redbull, nazis and schnapps.. quite the combination. Since we last wrote we've been to nice, monte carlo, piza, florence, rome vatican and venice.

Nice (pronounced neece) was a nice place.. stupid pun i know but thats really the best way to descrribe it. It was little and quiet and had beautiful beaches. There was decent shopping but we were there on a sunday so we didnt get to experience. (in case we havent already mentionned this, all of europe shuts down on sundays, soooo annoying!) We spent our day there by sleeping in, going for a couple of walks and taking a ride on the ferris wheel at the fair which was there at the same time as us. That evening however we drove to Monte Carlo to see the casino! That was cool, its exactly like in James Bonde; there were bentleys, mercedes and ferarris everywhere. Kirsten lost 10 euros on the roulette and then 5 in the vlts, but taught two people how to play (which she was very proud of, as one girl who she was showing won 15$!!) Allison lost 10 in the vlts but had fun learning how to play.. until half way through when she just started picking random things so she could finish more quickly. She wanted to cash out at 5 but was told shed probably be laughed at considering there were pepole all around them blowing thousands of dollars like it was nothing. Eventually we drove back to Nice and spent the night in before our terribly long drive to italy the next day.

Our first impression of Italy was Piza... which was not a very good one. To completely honest Piza is a dump and the leaning tower is nothing amazing. It was nice to say we'd seen it, but both of us decided along with most of our group that we'd never go back again. It was crowded and dirty and the italian guys were.. not the most polite. We spent about an hour there before getting back onto the bus the finish our journey to florence.

Once again we lucked our with our hotel room, managing to snag a room with a balconny, a double and a queen size bed! We dumped our bags, got changed and were off to a traditional tuscan dinner! The dinner was very italian, there was an old man singing and playing the piano and the biggest bottles of wine we'd ever seen on the table. We started with brushetta, an olive spread and a bunch of cold cuts (Dad, Spence and Mac: salami is EVERYWHERE there). We then had some type of pasta followed by more pasta and then roast chicken,potatoes and vegetables. After that we had salad and then gelati, which hardly anyone ate as we were all stuffed and drunk. We went from the restaurant to this club called space electronic disco, one of the biggest bars in Florence. It was massive and there were lights everywhere and tons of people even though it was a monday. We had a great night there and then headed back to the hotel at what we thought was give 520 (our friend's watch was on backwards and there were no numbers on it).We realised afterwards it was luckily onlt 120. The next morning we got up waaay to early and headed to this beautiful hilltop in florence the get a group photo taken by a proffessional photographer. After that we had the afternoon to do what we wanted in florence. We went to an old florentine leather shop to learn how they make leather goods and how to tell real from fake. Kirsten volunteered for the demonstration and got to stamp the 24carrot gold finish onto the leather. After the demo we headed off the go shopping. Allison found a really cute shirt that Kirsten loved so much she bought in another colour. (of course, just cuz we're in europe doesnt mean we cant still do the same stupid things) After our short visit in Florence we got back on the coach around 2 and headed to rome.

Rome was aaaamazing! The architecture and the history is unbelievable. Once upon a time the romans basically had control over all of europe and they were incredibly rich, the remains of their empire are mostly still there today (ancient rome). We drove past all the big sites when we arrived and then went on an hour long walking tour passing the colleseum, pantheon, roman forum and many other important buildings. On the wall of the forum there were 4 maps, the first showing what europe was like before the roman emprie and the last showing the territory which the romas occupied before the 2nd world war. We were told there used to be a fith map which showed what they would have if they joined hitler, but it was removed after the nazis were defeated in WWII. Our next day was completely free so we headed to the colleseum with a few other members of our tour group where we purchased a guided tour through the colleseum, palletine hills and forum. The begginning of the tour started off well, our tour guide spoke decent english and she told us the legend of how rome became... it went south soon after though when she started talking about dates and small details no one cared about. We suffered through it for a while so we could see the inside of the colleseum but ended up leaving an hour early deciding it was worse to waste our time then our money. We grabbed some pizza, pasta and wine for lunch and then met up with the group to get into the forum. Again we left before the tour was finished as our guide told the exact same story as the first one. A long long time ago the God Mars transformed himself into a beautiful man and impregnated one of the sacred virgins. She gave birth to twins and named the romelus and remius. Because she had comitted a terrible crime as her body was holy, she was buried alive and her babies were put into a basket in the river and sent to find their own destiny. A shewolf (which is now the symbol of rome) found them and raised them, then when they became older they started to build civilization on the palatine hill. Romelus killed remius for some reason (we zoned out during this part) and thats why the city was called Rome. This is only a legend but we later found out that shewolf and prostitute mean the same thing in latin, so no one knows whether it was a shewolf or a prostitute that raised them. That night we went out to a bar that was 20euros unlimited drinks and had.. a really fun time. ... and an even better morning. After that Rome was over and we were on to Venice! (which by now was like 5 days ago, sorry for the delay guys!)

Stories about Venice, Vienna, Munich and Prague to come soon :)

Were on the bus on our way to Nice. The past couple of days have been crazy. We left Lucern to go stay in an old castle, which was in the middle of nowhere in France. Our room was massive it had Four beds. Everyone on the tour has been complaining about how there rooms are so tiny, but Kirst and myself have been exteremly lucky. We some how alway seem to get the nicest room. The castle was so cool, in summer time we can only imagine what the courtyard and pool area would look it. Inside the castle there was men in armour, old painting and the hallways had green lights like sleeping beauty. That night out entire group stayed in, and we played battle of the sexes. We split up and we made question that we thought the men or women wont be able to answer. Our question ranged from who was the first female pilot to questions about the Bachelorette. The guys questions ranged from what was on magnum IP licence plate to sports questions. They thought they could sneak one past us asking a question about hockey, it took allison 3 seconds to come up with the correct answer and after the game was over corrected them on dates of when it happened. Kirst knew that answer to who has the fastest train system in the world. We also knew the 2 other answers to the questions our team got right. The girl team ended up winning 8 bottles of wine and what we thought was going to be a relaxing night turned out not to be. We left early the next morning for Barcelonia, which is by far our favorite place we've been to yet.

Barcelona.. to say the least, the culture is amazing!! The beaches, mountains, architecture, street artists, souvenir shops and restaurants are all great. Knowing that we were definetley coming back Allison and I decided to take our day there easy and just soak up the sun. Instead of running around the city all day trying to see everything we walked down a street called Las Ramblas and then went to the beach. Las Ramblas is a street which runs down the center of Barcelona and is always packed with people eating, drinking or shopping. In the morning we checked out a bunch of its souvenir shops and had some amazing coffee. We eventually made our way down the street and to the christoper columbus monument, from there we had the most amazing view! I literrally stood there and took a picture of everything around me. On one side was the monument, on another was mountains, on another was the mediteranian see and the other side was the parliament buildings. We walked toward the water and spent some time on the boardwalk checking out the boats then found the beach. It was gorgeous, not quite warm enough to go swimming.. but as Allison had only ever been to BC seeing this kind of beach was really cool for her. I also loved it so we sat down there with a couple of people from our tour and before we new it, over an hour had gone by. We started working our way back up the street and found even more cool things, we decided that it was the kind of thing you had to do mulitple times before you got the full experience and decided we'd definately be back there. At about 230 we stopped at a patio restaurant for lunch (a very spanish thing to do) and I had spaghetti with seafood, Allison had tortellini... of course. We then continued walking, attempting to find a store that would sell a hair straightener, but failed. We got back on the bus and headed for the hotel to freshen up for the evening ahead.

Once again, we were incredibly lucky with our room! We had a huge bathroom and a huge balcony, our room even had a fridge. I had a nap on the lounge chair on the balcony and Allison skyped for a couple hours. While the rest of the group went to see a flamenco show we went out for a 9pm dinner and... then enjoyed a subway ride to the bar at which we were meeting up with everyone. As we had found out the night before, Spanish people have their own lifestyle and own time schedule. Lunch is long and late, dinner is small and late and most bars dont open till midnight, but dont even start to get busy until 130. Also, the spanish are alchoholics, they dont measure mixed drinks, they free pour. To make matters more interesting, they dont free pour about a shot, they fill up half the glass with booze and then top it off with mix. We learned quickly that one drink in Barcelona is not the same as one drink in Canada. After a great night out, we took a taxi back to the hotel and had a nice nap before breakfast. We then threw our remaining possesions into our bags and headed for the coach.

Now here we are, on our way to Nice. Tomorrow night we are going to the Monte Carlo Casino. Can't wait!!

Enjoy the snow Winnipeg :)