day less to spend somewhere else. It WAS pretty hard to drive through the countryside, seeing the stunning mountains, hear about the activities and walks you can do -and know that we aren't able to do them (on this trip anyway). If Tirol is sounding a little bit familiar, it's because they have hosted the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck twice! It is also home to the second tallest bridge in Europe (used to be the first until the one in the south of France was built a few years ago) and it is also home to the highest McDonald's in Europe. As the McD's is lunch pit stop we indulge ourselves in a couple of New York burgers - perfect hangover food. Problem is that it is totally crazy and after being first off the bus and in the queue we get our food with 3 minutes to eat before being back on the bus. We are not allowed hot food, drinks without a lid, dairy and basically any food that could annoy other passengers or get the bus dirty. Our only option was to scoff it all down, which we did, but we were still ten minutes late back. It was ok as the driver and guide knew that McD's was chaos and our friends Tim and Clara were with us, so the four of us were in the bad books. We did make up for it at the next stop (which was only 20 minutes to make up our lost time) by being first back on the bus! we arrive in Venice to find the pool closed (boo) and our room is tiny with very uncomfortable beds. So much for upgrading to a private room - eh! We find out that despite being told that they would show the AFL Grand Final at 6am in the morning, it was not to be. Get this, we are staying at a camping ground, but there is NO kitchen. That's right we have to eat at the restaurant on site. The food (pizza and lasagna) is ok, but we realise that Venice is going to be expensive! We call it a night after double checking that there are no mosquito's in our room...
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The "prettiest drive ever" (25th September)
Ok -so whomever said that the Germany purity means that you don't get a headache from drinking the stuff, failed to point out that you can definitely still feel a bit low the next day -as Mike finds out during the 9 1/2 hour bus ride. It's nothing serious mind you and the guts certainly don't feel anywhere near as bad as during the Zurich tummy bug incident and the ride passes with very little event. Today we head from Germany, into Austria and on our way into the north of Italy. The day stop is a small town called St Johann in the Austrian area of Tirol and our ears prick up when we hear it is a lot like Lauterbrunnen. It's not fair to kick ourselves for not staying here, because we have to remind ourselves that we can't keep the trip going forever and that every day we spend in one place is a 
day less to spend somewhere else. It WAS pretty hard to drive through the countryside, seeing the stunning mountains, hear about the activities and walks you can do -and know that we aren't able to do them (on this trip anyway). If Tirol is sounding a little bit familiar, it's because they have hosted the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck twice! It is also home to the second tallest bridge in Europe (used to be the first until the one in the south of France was built a few years ago) and it is also home to the highest McDonald's in Europe. As the McD's is lunch pit stop we indulge ourselves in a couple of New York burgers - perfect hangover food. Problem is that it is totally crazy and after being first off the bus and in the queue we get our food with 3 minutes to eat before being back on the bus. We are not allowed hot food, drinks without a lid, dairy and basically any food that could annoy other passengers or get the bus dirty. Our only option was to scoff it all down, which we did, but we were still ten minutes late back. It was ok as the driver and guide knew that McD's was chaos and our friends Tim and Clara were with us, so the four of us were in the bad books. We did make up for it at the next stop (which was only 20 minutes to make up our lost time) by being first back on the bus! we arrive in Venice to find the pool closed (boo) and our room is tiny with very uncomfortable beds. So much for upgrading to a private room - eh! We find out that despite being told that they would show the AFL Grand Final at 6am in the morning, it was not to be. Get this, we are staying at a camping ground, but there is NO kitchen. That's right we have to eat at the restaurant on site. The food (pizza and lasagna) is ok, but we realise that Venice is going to be expensive! We call it a night after double checking that there are no mosquito's in our room...
day less to spend somewhere else. It WAS pretty hard to drive through the countryside, seeing the stunning mountains, hear about the activities and walks you can do -and know that we aren't able to do them (on this trip anyway). If Tirol is sounding a little bit familiar, it's because they have hosted the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck twice! It is also home to the second tallest bridge in Europe (used to be the first until the one in the south of France was built a few years ago) and it is also home to the highest McDonald's in Europe. As the McD's is lunch pit stop we indulge ourselves in a couple of New York burgers - perfect hangover food. Problem is that it is totally crazy and after being first off the bus and in the queue we get our food with 3 minutes to eat before being back on the bus. We are not allowed hot food, drinks without a lid, dairy and basically any food that could annoy other passengers or get the bus dirty. Our only option was to scoff it all down, which we did, but we were still ten minutes late back. It was ok as the driver and guide knew that McD's was chaos and our friends Tim and Clara were with us, so the four of us were in the bad books. We did make up for it at the next stop (which was only 20 minutes to make up our lost time) by being first back on the bus! we arrive in Venice to find the pool closed (boo) and our room is tiny with very uncomfortable beds. So much for upgrading to a private room - eh! We find out that despite being told that they would show the AFL Grand Final at 6am in the morning, it was not to be. Get this, we are staying at a camping ground, but there is NO kitchen. That's right we have to eat at the restaurant on site. The food (pizza and lasagna) is ok, but we realise that Venice is going to be expensive! We call it a night after double checking that there are no mosquito's in our room...
And so we sing along -la la la la la (24th September)
We'd arranged to meet "bug control" and "dead weight" at breakfast to head over to the Oktoberfest grounds. Even though we'd slept in -they were still there so we made our way over at around 10am. We'd been told that you needed to be over there really ear
ly if you wanted to get a seat... this definitely isn't the case. The first tent we went into was pretty full -but it looked as though there speeches or something formal happening. The second tent we went into was the Paulaner tent -
which was to become our home for the next 11 hours. We had our choice of seats, so understandably took up some prime real estate right near the band area. Back home the rule is usually that it's not appropriate to have a drink until midday - but by our calculations it was 10pm back home (11am Munich time) so it was fine for us to order a round! Beer in Germany is great and the purity rule and the open market mean that all of the big brands are very good quality. This has to be the case, because when you're drinking from steins you need the last half of the litre to taste good, even when it's not as cold as the first. Everyone - give a collective shudder 
when you imagine what the dregs of a DB stein would taste like! The first hour is pretty quiet, with numbers slowly gathering as people come in for a half chicken and a beer. One huge group of grey hairs comes in and dominates one of the outer seating areas... but it isn't until 12 that things really change. Right on midday the ompa band strikes their first note and the mood goes from breakfast bar to festival. We join in with Ein Prosit the traditional German beer drinking song where you do cheers or prost with everyone (looking them in the eyes of co
urse, otherwise we are cursed with 7 years bad sex) and then take a swig of our steins. Shona even manages to make her way through three Radlers (half beer and half lemonade) throughout the day! As the hall fills up we start to appreciate that our location really IS prime real estate, some punters even shouting us a beer if we just let them sit at our table long enough for them to order one for themselves. Throughout the night our beer wenches were Rosie and Anne Marie, although sadly for Mike they definitely were not the sexy young ladies that you see on the postcards around town. They were about 50 years old, nice enough and did a good job, although you had to speak up or else the 'applestruddle' would get confused for some weird looking apple soft drink! We met some Americans, some Canadians and Shona got hit on by some French people. However the best fun was with the Germans, whether it was talking with Marcus and his friend (who left a little early, buying a candy apple for his girlfriend on the way out) or the two German couples who took their place. In fact they were more fun in their dirndls and leiderhosien teaching us the actions to the German songs. There was the one with the lasso, cowboy and the Indian (Shona's favourite) or the one where we spring, spring, spring (we are actually springing on our seats that we are now standing on) followed by the swim, swim, swim to where the chorus starts and you make up the words to be "And so we sing along - la la la la la". A couple of times the ompa band also sing English songs. The traditional YMCA made a couple of appearances, but strangely so did la bamba, I will survive, and most surprisingly Alice, where the Germans knew the interlude of Alice, Alice, who the F*** is Alice. We had a great time and at 10pm called it a night as we didn't feel the need to drink another stein or radler and we were well toasted and very happy. Luckily our roommates hadn't gone to sleep so Shona was able to pack the bags for the 6:30am start the next morning, while Mike slept!
ly if you wanted to get a seat... this definitely isn't the case. The first tent we went into was pretty full -but it looked as though there speeches or something formal happening. The second tent we went into was the Paulaner tent -
which was to become our home for the next 11 hours. We had our choice of seats, so understandably took up some prime real estate right near the band area. Back home the rule is usually that it's not appropriate to have a drink until midday - but by our calculations it was 10pm back home (11am Munich time) so it was fine for us to order a round! Beer in Germany is great and the purity rule and the open market mean that all of the big brands are very good quality. This has to be the case, because when you're drinking from steins you need the last half of the litre to taste good, even when it's not as cold as the first. Everyone - give a collective shudder 
when you imagine what the dregs of a DB stein would taste like! The first hour is pretty quiet, with numbers slowly gathering as people come in for a half chicken and a beer. One huge group of grey hairs comes in and dominates one of the outer seating areas... but it isn't until 12 that things really change. Right on midday the ompa band strikes their first note and the mood goes from breakfast bar to festival. We join in with Ein Prosit the traditional German beer drinking song where you do cheers or prost with everyone (looking them in the eyes of co
urse, otherwise we are cursed with 7 years bad sex) and then take a swig of our steins. Shona even manages to make her way through three Radlers (half beer and half lemonade) throughout the day! As the hall fills up we start to appreciate that our location really IS prime real estate, some punters even shouting us a beer if we just let them sit at our table long enough for them to order one for themselves. Throughout the night our beer wenches were Rosie and Anne Marie, although sadly for Mike they definitely were not the sexy young ladies that you see on the postcards around town. They were about 50 years old, nice enough and did a good job, although you had to speak up or else the 'applestruddle' would get confused for some weird looking apple soft drink! We met some Americans, some Canadians and Shona got hit on by some French people. However the best fun was with the Germans, whether it was talking with Marcus and his friend (who left a little early, buying a candy apple for his girlfriend on the way out) or the two German couples who took their place. In fact they were more fun in their dirndls and leiderhosien teaching us the actions to the German songs. There was the one with the lasso, cowboy and the Indian (Shona's favourite) or the one where we spring, spring, spring (we are actually springing on our seats that we are now standing on) followed by the swim, swim, swim to where the chorus starts and you make up the words to be "And so we sing along - la la la la la". A couple of times the ompa band also sing English songs. The traditional YMCA made a couple of appearances, but strangely so did la bamba, I will survive, and most surprisingly Alice, where the Germans knew the interlude of Alice, Alice, who the F*** is Alice. We had a great time and at 10pm called it a night as we didn't feel the need to drink another stein or radler and we were well toasted and very happy. Luckily our roommates hadn't gone to sleep so Shona was able to pack the bags for the 6:30am start the next morning, while Mike slept!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Budget what budget? (23rd September)
Before we left New Zealand we'd booked and paid for today's highlight so it was going to be a cheap day - or so we thought. We head to Neuschwanstein castle, which is the castle built by King Ludwig II and is famous because it is the real castle that the Disneyland castle was modelled off. We're heading to the castle with Mike's Bike Tours. It's a good system, Tex meets us in Munich and runs through the details, pops us on the bus to where we listen to a DVD 
where Brad our guide give a talk about the history of the castle. Brad lives near the castle and so meets us in the car park with our entry tickets. First up is lunch and the chance to do the alpine slide (luge) or go paragliding over the castle. Shona wants to go paragliding but there are a few issues. First up there are only 5 spots, 3 girls jumped off the bus and Brad sorted them out while everyone else was in the toilet and now there are 8 other people who want to go too. The numbers dwindle and eventually we can get another 2 spots so all in all 7 people are able to go. More hesitation as the guide then tells us that we may miss the bus to the castle, therefore missing the walk up the waterfall. 
There is only one camera, so who takes the photos? Then there is the cost. It's 135euros and our daily budget is 95euros not forgetting that we have already paid for the tour and still have to pay for lunch, souvenirs, entry into the castle (which was not in the tour) and dinner tonight. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and sometimes you have to say "it's only money!" It does mean that Mike rides the luge on his own (annoyingly there was PLENTY of time for Shona to go too, but she missed out). Paragliding is really easy - the instructor says ready you say ready, then walk two slow steps then run your heart out and into the air, helping to pull the instructor with you. The chute is laid out on the ground and lifted before you take off, so there is no free falling or plummeting to your death feeling involved. It's just one big ride where you sit there and let the instructor do the work, 
while you enjoy the scenery, take photos and become constantly amazed at how cool this feeling is. I am so totally doing it again and this time Mike is too. I'm thinking a trip to Queenstown might be on the cards... We digress. While Shona was beaming from ear to ear high in the sky Mike was watching Brad our guide do magic. Brad has been studying at the Munich school of magic for 7 years and is a member of the Magicians' Institute. Mike was fascinated by the card tricks and at one point thought he'd caught him out. Brad cut the deck, put the cards on top of each other like a plus and then picked the top card of the bottom stack. Mike said "that's cheating that was the top card". Brad responds, "you're right. How about you think of a card". "Uh jack of ... hearts". "is this your card" and he had just pulled the jack of hearts from the middle of the deck. There were other amazing tricks that Mike can talk about in more detail when we are home. All of this has 
happened and we still haven't been to the castle - but we can see it perched on the hill. To get to the castle we hike up a track beside a beautiful waterfall. It's hot work as we have a fairly fast pace because our tour time is at 3:35pm and we can not be late. King Ludwig II grew up in a castle pretty much next door to Neuschwanstein. He had a very sad upbringing as he and his brother Otto were not allowed to socialise with other children and also weren't fed very well. Leisel their nanny, had to sneak food into their room at midnight just to make sure they had enough. Not only were the King and Queen dreadful parents they also gave Ludwig no training as to how to be a King. His father passed away when he was 18 years old and he had no concept of money, politics, or how the world actually worked. Plus the country was left on his shoulders because of the strange upbringing his younger brother went mad and was eventually committed to a mental institution. The Bavarians called him Mad King Ludwig because he was estranged. He hated Munich the capital city and preferred to live secluded and away from it all. Despite being Catholic he was gay and loved to dress up in a pink tutu. His boyfriend was allegedly playwright Richard Wagner and he dedicated Neuschwanstein to his works. The funny thing is that the state tour guides are not allowed to say he was gay, they are only allowed to hint at it! He tried to get married and was engaged to his first cousin, but after pulling out three times his Uncle had the engagement annulled. Neuschwanstein means new swan stone and was never finished. King Ludwig II died in mysterious circumstances and because he owed so much money to the state six weeks after his death his three castles were opened by the government for tours. He was declared insane and therefore not fit to be King. Upon arrest for insanity King Ludwig II said, "how can you declare me insane when you've never met me" to the doctor who had signed the insanity document. King Ludwig II was moved to a hospital next to a 
lake and the next day the doctor talk a walk with the king around the lake, without any guards to protect them. The official story is that King Ludwig drowned the doctor in the lake and then drowned himself. However the conspiracy says that they were shot. This is because the cabinet heard that King Ludwig was going to get rid of all of them and so they wanted to get rid of him first. The only way to do so was to declare him insane. We'll never know the true story! The castle is beautiful and not like any other castle that we've been in. Traditionally castles have wooden panels and dark paintings on the walls and ceilings. Not this one, the colours are bright - blues, greens and red with plenty of white for light. It is extravagant however - his bed is carved in wood which took seven carpenters four years to complete. There is also a room like a grotto but without glowworms which is rather bizarre. The biggest room is the stage room, designed for performances of one of Richard Wagners plays. There are only 16 rooms finished of the 60 or so planned. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take photos inside so you'll have to take our word for this or book your own holiday :-) After the 25 minute tour we race up to the bridge to check out the south view (the Disneyland view) of the castle. Over a two year period they are cleaning the castle and as such it is covered in scaffolding. 
We still get the picture of what it looks like though. It's an amazing day we've spent well over 200 euro and dinner is yet to come. We get a movie on the way home and strangely the average age of 38 vote to watch Eurotrip. We can tell by the name it's a cheesy American movie about college kids travelling through Europe. Sure enough that is what it is and we don't think many of them were that impressed. It's actually fun for us to watch as they travel through London, Paris, Amsterdam, & Berlin. Of course there is the unreal ending but hey it killed the time. There are two drop off points Oktoberfest and back at the meeting point. We choose the meeting point because it is next door to the Hoffbrahaus otherwise known as the largest pub in the world. All the big German beers have a tent at Oktoberfest and Hoffbrahaus is the one where all the Kiwis and Aussies go. But they all have a proper pub with beergarden, ompa band a
nd traditional fare. The budget's already blown so why not have an all out dinner! We find ourselves at a table next to a group of four English people from Plymouth. Two couples about 50. One guy is trashed and repeats the same thing over and over, but they are really nice and fun to talk with. For example he kept telling us that this was Hitler's local and upstairs is where he gave his speeches to Nazi party members. What did we eat? Mike had the pork knuckle with potatoes which were spongy and weird - but good washed down with a stein. Shona had the white veal sausage with sweet mustard and a pretzel, washed down with a radler (stein, half beer, half lemonade like a shandy). Totally traditional fair. To top it off we had apfelstrudel (apple strudel) because Shona couldn't resist and it was GOOD! The perfect end to a magical day!
where Brad our guide give a talk about the history of the castle. Brad lives near the castle and so meets us in the car park with our entry tickets. First up is lunch and the chance to do the alpine slide (luge) or go paragliding over the castle. Shona wants to go paragliding but there are a few issues. First up there are only 5 spots, 3 girls jumped off the bus and Brad sorted them out while everyone else was in the toilet and now there are 8 other people who want to go too. The numbers dwindle and eventually we can get another 2 spots so all in all 7 people are able to go. More hesitation as the guide then tells us that we may miss the bus to the castle, therefore missing the walk up the waterfall. 
There is only one camera, so who takes the photos? Then there is the cost. It's 135euros and our daily budget is 95euros not forgetting that we have already paid for the tour and still have to pay for lunch, souvenirs, entry into the castle (which was not in the tour) and dinner tonight. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and sometimes you have to say "it's only money!" It does mean that Mike rides the luge on his own (annoyingly there was PLENTY of time for Shona to go too, but she missed out). Paragliding is really easy - the instructor says ready you say ready, then walk two slow steps then run your heart out and into the air, helping to pull the instructor with you. The chute is laid out on the ground and lifted before you take off, so there is no free falling or plummeting to your death feeling involved. It's just one big ride where you sit there and let the instructor do the work, 
while you enjoy the scenery, take photos and become constantly amazed at how cool this feeling is. I am so totally doing it again and this time Mike is too. I'm thinking a trip to Queenstown might be on the cards... We digress. While Shona was beaming from ear to ear high in the sky Mike was watching Brad our guide do magic. Brad has been studying at the Munich school of magic for 7 years and is a member of the Magicians' Institute. Mike was fascinated by the card tricks and at one point thought he'd caught him out. Brad cut the deck, put the cards on top of each other like a plus and then picked the top card of the bottom stack. Mike said "that's cheating that was the top card". Brad responds, "you're right. How about you think of a card". "Uh jack of ... hearts". "is this your card" and he had just pulled the jack of hearts from the middle of the deck. There were other amazing tricks that Mike can talk about in more detail when we are home. All of this has 
happened and we still haven't been to the castle - but we can see it perched on the hill. To get to the castle we hike up a track beside a beautiful waterfall. It's hot work as we have a fairly fast pace because our tour time is at 3:35pm and we can not be late. King Ludwig II grew up in a castle pretty much next door to Neuschwanstein. He had a very sad upbringing as he and his brother Otto were not allowed to socialise with other children and also weren't fed very well. Leisel their nanny, had to sneak food into their room at midnight just to make sure they had enough. Not only were the King and Queen dreadful parents they also gave Ludwig no training as to how to be a King. His father passed away when he was 18 years old and he had no concept of money, politics, or how the world actually worked. Plus the country was left on his shoulders because of the strange upbringing his younger brother went mad and was eventually committed to a mental institution. The Bavarians called him Mad King Ludwig because he was estranged. He hated Munich the capital city and preferred to live secluded and away from it all. Despite being Catholic he was gay and loved to dress up in a pink tutu. His boyfriend was allegedly playwright Richard Wagner and he dedicated Neuschwanstein to his works. The funny thing is that the state tour guides are not allowed to say he was gay, they are only allowed to hint at it! He tried to get married and was engaged to his first cousin, but after pulling out three times his Uncle had the engagement annulled. Neuschwanstein means new swan stone and was never finished. King Ludwig II died in mysterious circumstances and because he owed so much money to the state six weeks after his death his three castles were opened by the government for tours. He was declared insane and therefore not fit to be King. Upon arrest for insanity King Ludwig II said, "how can you declare me insane when you've never met me" to the doctor who had signed the insanity document. King Ludwig II was moved to a hospital next to a 
lake and the next day the doctor talk a walk with the king around the lake, without any guards to protect them. The official story is that King Ludwig drowned the doctor in the lake and then drowned himself. However the conspiracy says that they were shot. This is because the cabinet heard that King Ludwig was going to get rid of all of them and so they wanted to get rid of him first. The only way to do so was to declare him insane. We'll never know the true story! The castle is beautiful and not like any other castle that we've been in. Traditionally castles have wooden panels and dark paintings on the walls and ceilings. Not this one, the colours are bright - blues, greens and red with plenty of white for light. It is extravagant however - his bed is carved in wood which took seven carpenters four years to complete. There is also a room like a grotto but without glowworms which is rather bizarre. The biggest room is the stage room, designed for performances of one of Richard Wagners plays. There are only 16 rooms finished of the 60 or so planned. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take photos inside so you'll have to take our word for this or book your own holiday :-) After the 25 minute tour we race up to the bridge to check out the south view (the Disneyland view) of the castle. Over a two year period they are cleaning the castle and as such it is covered in scaffolding. 
We still get the picture of what it looks like though. It's an amazing day we've spent well over 200 euro and dinner is yet to come. We get a movie on the way home and strangely the average age of 38 vote to watch Eurotrip. We can tell by the name it's a cheesy American movie about college kids travelling through Europe. Sure enough that is what it is and we don't think many of them were that impressed. It's actually fun for us to watch as they travel through London, Paris, Amsterdam, & Berlin. Of course there is the unreal ending but hey it killed the time. There are two drop off points Oktoberfest and back at the meeting point. We choose the meeting point because it is next door to the Hoffbrahaus otherwise known as the largest pub in the world. All the big German beers have a tent at Oktoberfest and Hoffbrahaus is the one where all the Kiwis and Aussies go. But they all have a proper pub with beergarden, ompa band a
nd traditional fare. The budget's already blown so why not have an all out dinner! We find ourselves at a table next to a group of four English people from Plymouth. Two couples about 50. One guy is trashed and repeats the same thing over and over, but they are really nice and fun to talk with. For example he kept telling us that this was Hitler's local and upstairs is where he gave his speeches to Nazi party members. What did we eat? Mike had the pork knuckle with potatoes which were spongy and weird - but good washed down with a stein. Shona had the white veal sausage with sweet mustard and a pretzel, washed down with a radler (stein, half beer, half lemonade like a shandy). Totally traditional fair. To top it off we had apfelstrudel (apple strudel) because Shona couldn't resist and it was GOOD! The perfect end to a magical day!So Long Farewell... (22nd September)
Shona dropped her cardigan (her only warm top, unless you count the merino tops which it is too hot to wear) at the ice caves entrance, so it's got dirt on it and needs washing. Washing should be insignificant if you put your washing on at 9:30am and the machine says that it takes 25minutes. It seems a bit quick but hey, that's all good. After 25 minutes the machine says 30 minutes and it changes to 35 minutes. Not so good. We need to be on a bus at 12:15pm and no one can tell us how long the wash will take. If we could get wifi at the hostel we wouldn't mind either because then we would be able to send emails and catch up on blogs over the past few days. Not to mention that this is our last chance to buy a Christmas decoration for Austria, so we bite the bullet leave our clothes spinning and head into town where there is a Christmas shop. It has beautiful decorations and we purchase a glass heart for our tree. Lets hope it makes it home. On the way home we guess what the deal is with our washing (as by this stage we
were scared that it would still be washing when the bus arrived) and being a front loader, no way to open it and get our washing out. The good news is that it's finished so we can try and dry it over the next hour. We've only had a small croissant each so head to a cafe down the street to find breakfast/lunch and use the wifi. Hurrah wifi works and we 
can check our emails of which we wanted to do because Maryanne and Carmilo's wedding was over the weekend and we wanted photos. However there were no photos - come on guys! (at the time of writing Aunty Caryl has sent some and we've looked at Emma's on Facebook). Back at the hostel the bus has arrived and our clothes are mostly dry (we'll put the damp ones through the dryer in Munich - we've spent a fortune on laundry on this trip!) and we jump on the bus. Our guide Sheree has changed from the usual Busabout shirt into her dirndl, which is a typical Bavarian dress, in preparation for Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest was originally held to celebrate the wedding of King Ludwig to Queen Therese and then every year they seem to keep repeating the celebration which is now the 2nd largest festival in the 
world (Carnival in Brazil is the biggest). But it's September you say - well it used to always be in October, but due to the weather the festival has been brought forward into September and the last weekend of Oktoberfest is the first weekend of October. We thought Oktoberfest was all about beer, but actually it's a big fair, with some amazing rides. Think of Dreamworld everyone and then you'll know what we mean - wipeout, the claw, 3 different roller coasters, giant drop, swinging chairs etc, but with different names (e.g. wipeout is not wipeout). It's free entry to Oktoberfest, so you pay for each ride you'd like to do. Shona convinces Mike to go on a roller coaster and she gets some pretty cool pictures of Mike the grounds and the coaster as we whip around, up and down! Exhilaration over we wander through some of the beer tents to see what happens inside. They are all full of people with the ompa bands playing German music. After four tents, we can't find a table to sit at (and you can't be served beer unless you are sitting at a table) we decide to head back to the hostel after having bratwurst in a bun for dinner - YUM! We hadn't planned on drinking tonight as we have big plans for tomorrow, so it worked out for the best.
were scared that it would still be washing when the bus arrived) and being a front loader, no way to open it and get our washing out. The good news is that it's finished so we can try and dry it over the next hour. We've only had a small croissant each so head to a cafe down the street to find breakfast/lunch and use the wifi. Hurrah wifi works and we 
can check our emails of which we wanted to do because Maryanne and Carmilo's wedding was over the weekend and we wanted photos. However there were no photos - come on guys! (at the time of writing Aunty Caryl has sent some and we've looked at Emma's on Facebook). Back at the hostel the bus has arrived and our clothes are mostly dry (we'll put the damp ones through the dryer in Munich - we've spent a fortune on laundry on this trip!) and we jump on the bus. Our guide Sheree has changed from the usual Busabout shirt into her dirndl, which is a typical Bavarian dress, in preparation for Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest was originally held to celebrate the wedding of King Ludwig to Queen Therese and then every year they seem to keep repeating the celebration which is now the 2nd largest festival in the 
world (Carnival in Brazil is the biggest). But it's September you say - well it used to always be in October, but due to the weather the festival has been brought forward into September and the last weekend of Oktoberfest is the first weekend of October. We thought Oktoberfest was all about beer, but actually it's a big fair, with some amazing rides. Think of Dreamworld everyone and then you'll know what we mean - wipeout, the claw, 3 different roller coasters, giant drop, swinging chairs etc, but with different names (e.g. wipeout is not wipeout). It's free entry to Oktoberfest, so you pay for each ride you'd like to do. Shona convinces Mike to go on a roller coaster and she gets some pretty cool pictures of Mike the grounds and the coaster as we whip around, up and down! Exhilaration over we wander through some of the beer tents to see what happens inside. They are all full of people with the ompa bands playing German music. After four tents, we can't find a table to sit at (and you can't be served beer unless you are sitting at a table) we decide to head back to the hostel after having bratwurst in a bun for dinner - YUM! We hadn't planned on drinking tonight as we have big plans for tomorrow, so it worked out for the best.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
A very cool day in the mountains (21st September)
As wifi is not possible at the hostel (and no reason why) we end up at McD's for 
breakfast because they have free Wifi. We are able to get on the internet but unable to download emails, which is a real pain as we are hoping for photos from the wedding! Never the less it was almost worth breaking our "No Maccas on tour" rule because it's kinda interesting to see that the menu and the quality varies much more than we expected. Shona's nana, her twin sister (Aunty Darky) have their 80th birthday today and Shona's cousin Louise has her 21st! Happy Birthday to all the lovely ladies. Today we have paid for another tour by the same company that did the Sound of Music tour yesterday, however we have until 1pm to fill in beforehand. You'd have to be a first time reader of our blog to be at all surprised by what we found to fill in the 3 hours we had to spare. 
The Salzburg Zoo is not far out of town and isn't as well known as other zoos because it is much smaller in size. To be honest however -we are amazed by the quality of it considering that the population is only 140,000 and 
that it is snowed in during winter. Mike spent a while wondering what it'd take to set up a zoo in Dunedin considering that the city is about the same size and that the climate is probably more favourable for most animals. He then realised that Dunedin already HAS a zoo -as his father confirmed when he emailed to say that 80 students had been arrested during a cam
pus gathering gone wrong! We're not sure if we came at the wrong time -but it seemed like a disproportionate number of animals were either sleeping or shagging! Seriously -Shona has nicknamed this "the horniest zoo ever" considering the antics a lot of them were getting up to. One of the highlights of this zoo was the cheetah. We were looking at the enclosure thinking "I 
wonder if they are in there" when a female (we think) turned up, walked right near us, had a drink, jumped 2m to an island, did a bit of a show, jumped back and walked away. Shona's cousin Callum loves cheetahs and would be well and truly jealous! The squirrel monkeys and the walk through enclosures were once again highlights, as were the big cats... even though they are still in the process of getting lion to join the family. Because it's quite a small zoo, it's really easy to navigate and get through all the animals without doubling up. Perhaps we could have gone back to see the bears and the otters (to see if they had woken up) but to be fair -we've seen enough zoos on this trip that we don't feel we've missed out on either. We just miss the bus back, but luckily our 'last chance' one comes through on time and we make it back to the centre of town where today's tour departs from. We have around 20 mins before the bus departs -so Mike races to the hostel to get extra camera batteries (which of course we never end up needing -but would have if he didn't get them) and another layer for Shona, while Shona races to get medication for her nose tap and lunch. We meet back, but quickly evaluate that a quick bratwurst for the roadside stall really is 
crucial. The bus ride is around an hour and a half and takes us to the car park of the world's largest ice cave. Eisriesenwelt is a continuous limestone cave 42km long, with the unique feature of having ice in the first 1km from the bottom entrance. Water enters the cave through very small cracks in the rock (which also rusts the iron content -making the walls red in places). This water then reaches freezing point at the lower end, because the colder / heavier air decends, resulting in wind gusts of over 100km per hour on a hot summer day
! To get to the cave from the car park, we first need to walk 20mins to the bottom of the cable car. The walk isn't very far, however it's uphill and we stop every few minutes to take in a incredible Austrian scenery and the view across the valley. In the photos it looks as though there is a layer of smog, however we later learn that this is actually just very thin cloud cover, caused by the moisture coming off the lakes in the area and the lack of intense 
heat or wind at this time of year to burn it off. It definitely feels warm when you have to walk up the steep side of the Tennengebirge mountain range however! Luckily the 3min cable car ride takes us up the worst of it, leaving us with another ridiculously scenic 20min walk to the entrance to the cave. As we wait the 5mins till the next English tour, we think about how weird it is to be going from t-shirts and shorts, sweating in the midday sun, to needing to put on jerseys to go into subzero conditions. The tour starts with a hiss and a roar as all of the handheld gas lamps get blown out by the freaky ice wind that hits in only the first 2m of the cave. Once you push through this wall of air -it goes to being deadly still and the guide relights the lamps... very very spooky indeed! The tour lasts for just over an hour, goes 1km each way, up and down 
700 stairs and gets you out just before your hand freezes to the lamp that Mike is carrying. One of the wonderful things about this incredible place is that all of the ice formations are constantly changing over time. Each year the stalagmites, stalactites and ice walls recede during the autumn when the cave temperature reaches a high of around 2 degrees and they then grow in the spring in different shapes and thicknesses. The 'elephant' used to be the most famous shape -however this now looks more like a long nosed, two humped camel. At the moment the most amazing shape is the 'polar bear' which sadly we couldn't photograph as no recording is allowed in the caves. Some of the thickest ice is over 1000 years old, although the 
cave wasn't discovered until 1913. The largest ice wall was scaled several years later (the man's ashes are in a tomb in the largest room of the caves) and tours started around 30 years before the cable car was put in during 1955. The caves are only open between May and October, because they use the rest of the time to fix the walkways (remember the ice keeps changing position on them!) and to clean out the remains of the magnesium strips, which the guides use to bath the caves in white light during the tours. Once again this it the sort of thing that is hard to describe, would be impossible to do justice to even if photos were allowed -but will stick in our memories for a long time to come. We escaped the cave cold, but unharmed and invigorated... unlike the Chinese girl behind us who was silly enough to tip her gas lamp at one point and set her hand alight! The walk down the hill is as amazing as the walk up -however is has the advantage of a pit stop at the restaurant for an apfelstrudel (apple strudel)... something Shona is getting very used to eating over here! The only shame about the trip is that only 17 euros of our tickets go to the ice caves company (of which 6% goes to the forestry company that owns the land) and the remaining 33 euros go to Panorama tours... even though the "guide" barely did anything during the 3 hours of bus time -making us think it was more of a transport service than a tour. Definitely go to these caves if you get a chance -but do it by car if you have the opportunity! Kebabs for dinner and a little Mozart chocolate for dessert (mostly as a gag because we know that he hated his home town -but the locals use him to make money anyway!) before another battle with the wifi and a reasonably early night. A very cool day in the mountains.
breakfast because they have free Wifi. We are able to get on the internet but unable to download emails, which is a real pain as we are hoping for photos from the wedding! Never the less it was almost worth breaking our "No Maccas on tour" rule because it's kinda interesting to see that the menu and the quality varies much more than we expected. Shona's nana, her twin sister (Aunty Darky) have their 80th birthday today and Shona's cousin Louise has her 21st! Happy Birthday to all the lovely ladies. Today we have paid for another tour by the same company that did the Sound of Music tour yesterday, however we have until 1pm to fill in beforehand. You'd have to be a first time reader of our blog to be at all surprised by what we found to fill in the 3 hours we had to spare. 
The Salzburg Zoo is not far out of town and isn't as well known as other zoos because it is much smaller in size. To be honest however -we are amazed by the quality of it considering that the population is only 140,000 and 
that it is snowed in during winter. Mike spent a while wondering what it'd take to set up a zoo in Dunedin considering that the city is about the same size and that the climate is probably more favourable for most animals. He then realised that Dunedin already HAS a zoo -as his father confirmed when he emailed to say that 80 students had been arrested during a cam
pus gathering gone wrong! We're not sure if we came at the wrong time -but it seemed like a disproportionate number of animals were either sleeping or shagging! Seriously -Shona has nicknamed this "the horniest zoo ever" considering the antics a lot of them were getting up to. One of the highlights of this zoo was the cheetah. We were looking at the enclosure thinking "I 
wonder if they are in there" when a female (we think) turned up, walked right near us, had a drink, jumped 2m to an island, did a bit of a show, jumped back and walked away. Shona's cousin Callum loves cheetahs and would be well and truly jealous! The squirrel monkeys and the walk through enclosures were once again highlights, as were the big cats... even though they are still in the process of getting lion to join the family. Because it's quite a small zoo, it's really easy to navigate and get through all the animals without doubling up. Perhaps we could have gone back to see the bears and the otters (to see if they had woken up) but to be fair -we've seen enough zoos on this trip that we don't feel we've missed out on either. We just miss the bus back, but luckily our 'last chance' one comes through on time and we make it back to the centre of town where today's tour departs from. We have around 20 mins before the bus departs -so Mike races to the hostel to get extra camera batteries (which of course we never end up needing -but would have if he didn't get them) and another layer for Shona, while Shona races to get medication for her nose tap and lunch. We meet back, but quickly evaluate that a quick bratwurst for the roadside stall really is 
crucial. The bus ride is around an hour and a half and takes us to the car park of the world's largest ice cave. Eisriesenwelt is a continuous limestone cave 42km long, with the unique feature of having ice in the first 1km from the bottom entrance. Water enters the cave through very small cracks in the rock (which also rusts the iron content -making the walls red in places). This water then reaches freezing point at the lower end, because the colder / heavier air decends, resulting in wind gusts of over 100km per hour on a hot summer day
! To get to the cave from the car park, we first need to walk 20mins to the bottom of the cable car. The walk isn't very far, however it's uphill and we stop every few minutes to take in a incredible Austrian scenery and the view across the valley. In the photos it looks as though there is a layer of smog, however we later learn that this is actually just very thin cloud cover, caused by the moisture coming off the lakes in the area and the lack of intense 
heat or wind at this time of year to burn it off. It definitely feels warm when you have to walk up the steep side of the Tennengebirge mountain range however! Luckily the 3min cable car ride takes us up the worst of it, leaving us with another ridiculously scenic 20min walk to the entrance to the cave. As we wait the 5mins till the next English tour, we think about how weird it is to be going from t-shirts and shorts, sweating in the midday sun, to needing to put on jerseys to go into subzero conditions. The tour starts with a hiss and a roar as all of the handheld gas lamps get blown out by the freaky ice wind that hits in only the first 2m of the cave. Once you push through this wall of air -it goes to being deadly still and the guide relights the lamps... very very spooky indeed! The tour lasts for just over an hour, goes 1km each way, up and down 
700 stairs and gets you out just before your hand freezes to the lamp that Mike is carrying. One of the wonderful things about this incredible place is that all of the ice formations are constantly changing over time. Each year the stalagmites, stalactites and ice walls recede during the autumn when the cave temperature reaches a high of around 2 degrees and they then grow in the spring in different shapes and thicknesses. The 'elephant' used to be the most famous shape -however this now looks more like a long nosed, two humped camel. At the moment the most amazing shape is the 'polar bear' which sadly we couldn't photograph as no recording is allowed in the caves. Some of the thickest ice is over 1000 years old, although the 
cave wasn't discovered until 1913. The largest ice wall was scaled several years later (the man's ashes are in a tomb in the largest room of the caves) and tours started around 30 years before the cable car was put in during 1955. The caves are only open between May and October, because they use the rest of the time to fix the walkways (remember the ice keeps changing position on them!) and to clean out the remains of the magnesium strips, which the guides use to bath the caves in white light during the tours. Once again this it the sort of thing that is hard to describe, would be impossible to do justice to even if photos were allowed -but will stick in our memories for a long time to come. We escaped the cave cold, but unharmed and invigorated... unlike the Chinese girl behind us who was silly enough to tip her gas lamp at one point and set her hand alight! The walk down the hill is as amazing as the walk up -however is has the advantage of a pit stop at the restaurant for an apfelstrudel (apple strudel)... something Shona is getting very used to eating over here! The only shame about the trip is that only 17 euros of our tickets go to the ice caves company (of which 6% goes to the forestry company that owns the land) and the remaining 33 euros go to Panorama tours... even though the "guide" barely did anything during the 3 hours of bus time -making us think it was more of a transport service than a tour. Definitely go to these caves if you get a chance -but do it by car if you have the opportunity! Kebabs for dinner and a little Mozart chocolate for dessert (mostly as a gag because we know that he hated his home town -but the locals use him to make money anyway!) before another battle with the wifi and a reasonably early night. A very cool day in the mountains.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Let's start at the very beginning... (20th September)
Mike isn't feeling too great this morning and is not looking forward to the bus ride. However we get on and try to get some sleep as it drives us through to Salzburg. We are pleased that we are on time for an early arrival of 12noon (should be 12:30pm) because we want to do the Sound of Music tour this afternoon at 2pm. We listen to the songs on our iPods to get us in the mood. The tour picks us up at our hostel and we board the bus. By the time everyone is on, it is packed and with a much older crowd to what we are used to. It's an old enough crowd that when the tour guide tells us where we may know one of the original stage show performers from, he says "the younger people on the bus might know her from the show Dallas". To put it in perspective, Shona's mum was in and out of hospital to give birth to Shona between Dallas episodes... we felt REALLY young when he said that! The tour took in some
of the most important scenes of the movie, we saw the back of the house (including the very impressive man made lake behind it), the front of the house which is a different building in reality, the glass house from "I am 16 going on 17" and the church where Maria and the Captain got married. Between locations we also had a chance to take in some of the Austrian scen
ery and have our first taste of authentic apple strudel. Mike had already been told that the tour is a must for fans of the movie -but that it isn't the best tour because you don't see as much as you hope to see. Being an optimist -Shona thought that this might not be the case and that the tour might still blow her out of the water. In this case the slightly pessimistic Mike had a better experience, as his expectations were met while Shona left slightly disappointed. The good thing was that the music was playing for almost all of the second half of the trip -shame that no one on the bus had the guts to pipe up and sing out loud, because everyone would presumably have joined in! The most interesting thing that we learnt was that during the scene where the children and Maria fall out of the boat, the crew had planned all but one important detail. They hadn't taken into account that the girl playing Gretel couldn't swim! She sank like a rock 
but luckily wasn't hurt! We also happened to drive past the massive headquarters of Red Bull -the Austrian energy drink giant. After the tour had ended, we walked through the gardens and found another scene that the tour guide had recommended we check out (the unicorns and the fountain that the children danced around) then headed back to the hostel to catch up on emails etc. We spent an hour trying to connect to wifi at our hostel and did not succeed. That's part of the fun of traveling to have completely differing qualities of facilities at each hostel we stay at! For those of you that have been checking on our web page most days -we apologise for the periods of AWOL, but hope that you understand that WIFI is not always a guarantee at a hostel.
of the most important scenes of the movie, we saw the back of the house (including the very impressive man made lake behind it), the front of the house which is a different building in reality, the glass house from "I am 16 going on 17" and the church where Maria and the Captain got married. Between locations we also had a chance to take in some of the Austrian scen
ery and have our first taste of authentic apple strudel. Mike had already been told that the tour is a must for fans of the movie -but that it isn't the best tour because you don't see as much as you hope to see. Being an optimist -Shona thought that this might not be the case and that the tour might still blow her out of the water. In this case the slightly pessimistic Mike had a better experience, as his expectations were met while Shona left slightly disappointed. The good thing was that the music was playing for almost all of the second half of the trip -shame that no one on the bus had the guts to pipe up and sing out loud, because everyone would presumably have joined in! The most interesting thing that we learnt was that during the scene where the children and Maria fall out of the boat, the crew had planned all but one important detail. They hadn't taken into account that the girl playing Gretel couldn't swim! She sank like a rock 
but luckily wasn't hurt! We also happened to drive past the massive headquarters of Red Bull -the Austrian energy drink giant. After the tour had ended, we walked through the gardens and found another scene that the tour guide had recommended we check out (the unicorns and the fountain that the children danced around) then headed back to the hostel to catch up on emails etc. We spent an hour trying to connect to wifi at our hostel and did not succeed. That's part of the fun of traveling to have completely differing qualities of facilities at each hostel we stay at! For those of you that have been checking on our web page most days -we apologise for the periods of AWOL, but hope that you understand that WIFI is not always a guarantee at a hostel.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Another Bus Day (19th September)
We have a big sleep in rising at 9:40am to have a shower. Then we realise that we are supposed to check out at 10am - uh oh. A crazy 40 minutes follows which includes us showering, packing our bags (which includes folding all the washing that the hostel did for us yesterday). Strangely the hostel didn't seem to care that we were 20 minutes late checking out. Oh well. We spend the next 10 minutes in the bathroom cleaning our teeth and doing our hair in order to prepare for the day ahead. It's a travel day which means that the bus is rolling in at 12pm for our 12:30pm departure to Vienna. It leaves time for a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and potato hash for Shona, add in baked beans on toast and some sausages and you have Mike's meal. Wash it down with orange juice and best of all, it's only 5euro when converted back. Sweet! While we eat we think about the festivities going on back in Auckland to celebrate Maryanne and Carmilo's wedding. It would be 9pm at home, so probably time for speeches? We finish eating and the bus arrives so we walk down to where it's parked and jump on with the usual strategy. Shona gets to the door queue first with the day packs, her busabout card and passport ready to be checked before entering the bus. Mike waits with the two backpacks and puts them in the under coach storage last. Then he jumps on. It means Shona can get our preferred seats on 
the bus next to the chargers for our laptop and by putting our bags on last we are usually first in queue to check in at the other end. We only have one night in Vienna and so we head out to the palace to check out the gardens. They are manicured and totally stunning. There are lots of Viennese runners running through them. There is also a zoo, but it is closed and we wish we were here one more day in order to be able to check it out. Our Austrian friends from San Sebastian said that we need to have a Sachertorte which is a rich chocolate cake and of course it needs to be accompanied by coffee. The Austrians were the first to introduce Europe to coffee. The Turks brought it with 
them when they invaded and left it behind when they were overthrown. We navigate the subway to a place recommended by the hostel but were disappointed by both the coffee and the cake. Sachertorte is not that rich (rather like a chocolate sponge with chocolate icing) and the coffee was better in Amsterdam - but at least we've tried them. Another recommendation by our Austrian friends was the Travelshack - an Australian bar in Vienna owned by Andrea's brother. He ends us serving us our first drink (midori and pineapple and a stein to prep Mike for Oktoberfest) and is rather stunned when we ask do you have a sister called Andrea. Our explanation goes down well and it turns out that their sister is also working behind the bar. She comes and talks to us about her crazy life. She is a vocalist and her boyfriend is out of town at the moment. He is one of the top 5 bass players in the world. He has toured with Elton John, Madonna and other famous names. He was asked to tour with Christina Aguliera but turned her down because all she needs is a sore arm and she will cancel her concert, not making it worth the effort. So he is currently in Brazil travelling with a popular performer. Catherine also brings us a shot of weiner blut (pronounced vienna blood) which is a popular Austrian schnapps. It smells of pure alcohol and tastes like it, but the after taste is lovely. Next up is a shared shot of Schonbrunner Gold beca
use it has bits of gold in it. It's delicious! Needless to say we are feeling good after the shots and as other busabouters walk into the bar we have a good time trying to hammer nails into a piece of wood with the wrong side of the hammer. The shots and beer send Mike to a very happy place, whilst the midori isn't strong enough to get to Shona so she navigates us home safely. Oh point on the walk between the cake and the bar - we see the Austrian sports stars walk of fame. Shona only recognises the first person - Thomas Muster a tennis player, but it's fun to see all the hands and feet in the concrete.
the bus next to the chargers for our laptop and by putting our bags on last we are usually first in queue to check in at the other end. We only have one night in Vienna and so we head out to the palace to check out the gardens. They are manicured and totally stunning. There are lots of Viennese runners running through them. There is also a zoo, but it is closed and we wish we were here one more day in order to be able to check it out. Our Austrian friends from San Sebastian said that we need to have a Sachertorte which is a rich chocolate cake and of course it needs to be accompanied by coffee. The Austrians were the first to introduce Europe to coffee. The Turks brought it with 
them when they invaded and left it behind when they were overthrown. We navigate the subway to a place recommended by the hostel but were disappointed by both the coffee and the cake. Sachertorte is not that rich (rather like a chocolate sponge with chocolate icing) and the coffee was better in Amsterdam - but at least we've tried them. Another recommendation by our Austrian friends was the Travelshack - an Australian bar in Vienna owned by Andrea's brother. He ends us serving us our first drink (midori and pineapple and a stein to prep Mike for Oktoberfest) and is rather stunned when we ask do you have a sister called Andrea. Our explanation goes down well and it turns out that their sister is also working behind the bar. She comes and talks to us about her crazy life. She is a vocalist and her boyfriend is out of town at the moment. He is one of the top 5 bass players in the world. He has toured with Elton John, Madonna and other famous names. He was asked to tour with Christina Aguliera but turned her down because all she needs is a sore arm and she will cancel her concert, not making it worth the effort. So he is currently in Brazil travelling with a popular performer. Catherine also brings us a shot of weiner blut (pronounced vienna blood) which is a popular Austrian schnapps. It smells of pure alcohol and tastes like it, but the after taste is lovely. Next up is a shared shot of Schonbrunner Gold beca
use it has bits of gold in it. It's delicious! Needless to say we are feeling good after the shots and as other busabouters walk into the bar we have a good time trying to hammer nails into a piece of wood with the wrong side of the hammer. The shots and beer send Mike to a very happy place, whilst the midori isn't strong enough to get to Shona so she navigates us home safely. Oh point on the walk between the cake and the bar - we see the Austrian sports stars walk of fame. Shona only recognises the first person - Thomas Muster a tennis player, but it's fun to see all the hands and feet in the concrete.
River cruise (18th September)
We wake up to a slightly improved outlook, the view out the window definitely gives us a good chance of predicting the showers. We fill the morning by ringing John and Margaret at 10am followed by exploring the castle gardens, which includes a revolving theatre, a pond and an oak tree that we can each fit into! On our way out, one of the brown bears is hiding, but we enjoy seeing the other two feeding (on a very weird vegetarian diet). We look after dietary requirements by stopping at the Coop and getting a couple of bottles of Sprite and some Peach Schnapps to spice it up for our afternoon adventure. By the time we make it to the hostel, the courtyard has been taken over by table tennis playing pirates. Our numbers grow to bursting point and we have to abandon ship into the lifeboats... three inflatable rafts set aside by the hostel for the infamous "river pub crawl". SO many people rave about CK -and pretty much everyone that does, does so because of this one activity. We are joined by a forth boat of people we know who have hired their own raft further upstream. They have already been on the water for half an hour and within 50m of passing us, they capsize on a rock, cut up one crewman's foot, lose 12 beers, a Swiss Swiss army knife, a camera and basically make us all second guess how sensible this 5 hour cruise will be! Don't worry mum - I can tell you now that the only person that went overboard on our boat for the rest of the trip was "Trophy" Dani, who was stolen by force by another pirate boat. Basically it's a pub crawl, except that instead of crawling from pub to pub you float down the river and stop at little riverside bars. I think we missed the first one (no neon signs to direct you in the wilderness) but we made up for it w
ith the 25 crown beers at the next one! It's surreal to jump out of the boat, order a beer, get a sausage cooked for you, then sit beside the campfire to enjoy it. Shona even got a wine, not from a bottle, but from a 25l plastic catering container, just like the ones for the raro at school camp! It's pretty hard to explain how cool this cruise is - and we have to remind ourselves we didn't even do it in peak season when all 6 bars are open and the weather is so hot that you WANT to jump in. Along the side of the river there are also numerous apple trees, which provide 
great ammunition for the canons (Mike). Mike was also named "Cap'in" (probably because he started calling directions when paddling was required to avoid the bank) which meant that Shona became "First Lady". She lived up to the name by being the only person that didn't need a natural pit stop, but only because a local from a closed bar ran back to the house to get the key just for her! Chris was "The rudder", Ange was "the Moon leader", James was "bug control" and Matt was "dead weight". Basically a totally hilarious afternoon - and the scenery was appreciated as well! We were stoked when we heard 
that some of the people on the other boats wished they were on ours... and noticed that the pirate in the budgie smugglers wasn't in the best state by the end of the trip! For dinner we'd been told by Chad, Karine, Ben and Lauren that the Bavarian feast at 2 Maries was worth a look. It was! We had the chicken, with sauerkraut, dumplings, grated potato fritter with herbs, roast potatoes, steamed meat, peas and salad. Luckily -the one plate had heaps of food so we didn't need to fight over anything (and we had favourites as well).
ith the 25 crown beers at the next one! It's surreal to jump out of the boat, order a beer, get a sausage cooked for you, then sit beside the campfire to enjoy it. Shona even got a wine, not from a bottle, but from a 25l plastic catering container, just like the ones for the raro at school camp! It's pretty hard to explain how cool this cruise is - and we have to remind ourselves we didn't even do it in peak season when all 6 bars are open and the weather is so hot that you WANT to jump in. Along the side of the river there are also numerous apple trees, which provide 
great ammunition for the canons (Mike). Mike was also named "Cap'in" (probably because he started calling directions when paddling was required to avoid the bank) which meant that Shona became "First Lady". She lived up to the name by being the only person that didn't need a natural pit stop, but only because a local from a closed bar ran back to the house to get the key just for her! Chris was "The rudder", Ange was "the Moon leader", James was "bug control" and Matt was "dead weight". Basically a totally hilarious afternoon - and the scenery was appreciated as well! We were stoked when we heard 
that some of the people on the other boats wished they were on ours... and noticed that the pirate in the budgie smugglers wasn't in the best state by the end of the trip! For dinner we'd been told by Chad, Karine, Ben and Lauren that the Bavarian feast at 2 Maries was worth a look. It was! We had the chicken, with sauerkraut, dumplings, grated potato fritter with herbs, roast potatoes, steamed meat, peas and salad. Luckily -the one plate had heaps of food so we didn't need to fight over anything (and we had favourites as well).
You see a painted sign on the side of the road... (17th September)
Back onto the bus again and another short day as we travel the short distance to the small small city of Cesky Krumlov. Just outside CK is another small place that has been brewing Budweiser for the last 500 years or so (as it is a local name). Of course most of you will know that there is an American company also produces a beer like substitute that also goes by the name of Budweiser. This obviously causes some controversy because the American company put an international trademark on the name a few years ago and Americans like to sue people. So when the original Czech company found that they weren't able to legalise the name they'd been using for the last half a millennium -a court suit ensued. Apparently there has been a compromise and neither company has to stop using the name - however the Czech beer now has "Budvar" added to the end of the name. You could say that the Americans won the battle - but if you taste both beers, you'll see that the Czechs are well and truly winning the war. We roll into town around midday and have to contend with an issue that we didn't consider much on our holiday - a wet, grey rainy day. It is positively awful with consistent drizzle. Mike 
changes out of the world's most slippery jandals as soon as we get into our private room. It's appropriately named - The Love Shack! (It's a little old place where we can get together...) Bizarrely, we have to walk through the Gang of Four room to get to our room, but that's what you get when you modernise a 500 year old building. The rain is not going to get us down, the 40 minute wait for our lunch might, but after the sandwiches we head down the cobbled streets with our raincoats and appropriate footwear to check out the town. We find the cathedral, which was worth a look but definitely not a must do if you've seen any other cathedral on your travels (and by the time you get to central Europe you'll have seen many!) Exploring Europe is thirsty work even on a dreary day, so we stop and have a real Bud (0.5l) and a Sprite (0.3l). Mike loves the fact that the smaller fizzy drink costs more than the beer and also that the beer is so good over here! Apparently the castle IS a must do when you go 
to CK, but when you get up close, you find that the ornate statues and detailing are actually very budget paintings! The view is ok, but the highlight is well and truly the moat, where there are 3 bears (Shona sings "a mama and a papa and a wee bear" for the rest of our time in CK). We stop and Czech them out for a while and like that they don't seem too bored and definitely don't seem starved! The town square is the next stop, seems like it would be a good spot for a drink on a hot day. We make our way back to the hostel past the touristy shops, they are all worth a look but none really grab the imagination. Dinner at the hostel is good value - pasta and quesadilla, two beers & two wines, because we may as well make use of the affordable country while it lasts! The movie at the hostel is Beerfest. Mike convinces Shona that it will be good research for Munich and she falls for it, so we watch it together before falling asleep in the Love Shack.
changes out of the world's most slippery jandals as soon as we get into our private room. It's appropriately named - The Love Shack! (It's a little old place where we can get together...) Bizarrely, we have to walk through the Gang of Four room to get to our room, but that's what you get when you modernise a 500 year old building. The rain is not going to get us down, the 40 minute wait for our lunch might, but after the sandwiches we head down the cobbled streets with our raincoats and appropriate footwear to check out the town. We find the cathedral, which was worth a look but definitely not a must do if you've seen any other cathedral on your travels (and by the time you get to central Europe you'll have seen many!) Exploring Europe is thirsty work even on a dreary day, so we stop and have a real Bud (0.5l) and a Sprite (0.3l). Mike loves the fact that the smaller fizzy drink costs more than the beer and also that the beer is so good over here! Apparently the castle IS a must do when you go 
to CK, but when you get up close, you find that the ornate statues and detailing are actually very budget paintings! The view is ok, but the highlight is well and truly the moat, where there are 3 bears (Shona sings "a mama and a papa and a wee bear" for the rest of our time in CK). We stop and Czech them out for a while and like that they don't seem too bored and definitely don't seem starved! The town square is the next stop, seems like it would be a good spot for a drink on a hot day. We make our way back to the hostel past the touristy shops, they are all worth a look but none really grab the imagination. Dinner at the hostel is good value - pasta and quesadilla, two beers & two wines, because we may as well make use of the affordable country while it lasts! The movie at the hostel is Beerfest. Mike convinces Shona that it will be good research for Munich and she falls for it, so we watch it together before falling asleep in the Love Shack.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
We're going to the zoo (16th September)
OK, so we thought we'd get up early and try fit in both the zoo and Prague castle today. However by the time we get to the supermarket and back we realise it's not going to happen. 
Our choice - visit the largest castle in Europe or go to one of the top 5 zoos in the world. Of course we would choose the zoo and it didn't disappoint! Part of the reason for this decision was because we'd heard that the majority of the castle isn't particularly amazing and another part of the decision is because we totally love zoos! We get the tram out there and spend the whole afternoon exploring the impressively large zoo grounds. The layout is great because it's divided in half by a long stretch of cliffs, with a chair lift joining the two sections. You might think that this area is not usable, however they have done a brilliant job of utilising the space to hold the Himalayan goats and the monkeys that are used to that sort of terrain. The zoo was very extensively flooded in 2002 and resulted in the loss of a 
lot of animals and facilities. The only way you'd be able to tell this as a visitor are the display boards set up to record the event. Initially we'd taken some marks off for not supplying maps, however we found a kiosk where they could be purchased for next to nothing, so we reinstated the marks on the basis of environmentally. The information boards 
were generally in Czech (understandably), however the ones that also have English were good and sometimes even had audio buttons to hear the animal's noises. Highlights (and there were many of them) included the best polar bear enclosure we've seen, feeding time for all the big cats, the jumping squirrel monkeys and bush babies, the wooden viewing platform overlooking the city (flying ants unfortunately included) and the 
walk through the lemur enclosure. Yes that's right - a walk in enclosure where Mike touched the lemur! Pretty much all of the enclosures are generously sized -perhaps with the exception of the owls, who can only fly a few metres before having to U-turn back. Another plus is that the food there isn't overpriced and average quality, as can happen when you're stuck in a facility. We had an enchilada and a pasta, which only cost around 230 crown. All in all it's a wonderful zoo (although it's a little sad that there's only 3 elephants) and even tops Mike's list of favourite zoos. By the time the zoo closed and we reluctantly left, it was time to go to our new favourite restaurant for a dinner of salmon with garlic butter, olive and 
prosciutto pizza and of course a side of beans. We'd already checked and found out that most of the shops in town were open till 10pm, so we trammed into the tourist trap area and picked up so
me tacky mementos - as you do when you're a tourist!
Our choice - visit the largest castle in Europe or go to one of the top 5 zoos in the world. Of course we would choose the zoo and it didn't disappoint! Part of the reason for this decision was because we'd heard that the majority of the castle isn't particularly amazing and another part of the decision is because we totally love zoos! We get the tram out there and spend the whole afternoon exploring the impressively large zoo grounds. The layout is great because it's divided in half by a long stretch of cliffs, with a chair lift joining the two sections. You might think that this area is not usable, however they have done a brilliant job of utilising the space to hold the Himalayan goats and the monkeys that are used to that sort of terrain. The zoo was very extensively flooded in 2002 and resulted in the loss of a 
lot of animals and facilities. The only way you'd be able to tell this as a visitor are the display boards set up to record the event. Initially we'd taken some marks off for not supplying maps, however we found a kiosk where they could be purchased for next to nothing, so we reinstated the marks on the basis of environmentally. The information boards 
were generally in Czech (understandably), however the ones that also have English were good and sometimes even had audio buttons to hear the animal's noises. Highlights (and there were many of them) included the best polar bear enclosure we've seen, feeding time for all the big cats, the jumping squirrel monkeys and bush babies, the wooden viewing platform overlooking the city (flying ants unfortunately included) and the 
walk through the lemur enclosure. Yes that's right - a walk in enclosure where Mike touched the lemur! Pretty much all of the enclosures are generously sized -perhaps with the exception of the owls, who can only fly a few metres before having to U-turn back. Another plus is that the food there isn't overpriced and average quality, as can happen when you're stuck in a facility. We had an enchilada and a pasta, which only cost around 230 crown. All in all it's a wonderful zoo (although it's a little sad that there's only 3 elephants) and even tops Mike's list of favourite zoos. By the time the zoo closed and we reluctantly left, it was time to go to our new favourite restaurant for a dinner of salmon with garlic butter, olive and 
prosciutto pizza and of course a side of beans. We'd already checked and found out that most of the shops in town were open till 10pm, so we trammed into the tourist trap area and picked up so
me tacky mementos - as you do when you're a tourist! Eiffel Tower revisited (15th September)
We're up at a respectable time, but that doesn't always mean that we leave the hostel at an early time! But we munch on more cheese, get out, figure out the tram system and get into the heart of Prague by lunch time. This is good timing because while wandering the city we come across a fair, selling traditional charcoal cooked sausages in Wenceslas square (remember the Good King from the Christmas caro
l?). After a small amount of Christmas shopping we make it to the town square in time for the free walking tour of the city. As always, these tours depend very very highly on the guide -and our one isn't too bad at all. He's only been in the city for 7 months, but he seems to have learnt the New Europe script pretty well and leads us around some of the important city buildings. The Czech people have a very chequered past (sorry - couldn't resist the pun) and have frequently been taken over by a large power, that ultimately ends up capitulating and then being taken over by another large power. This is partially because the country is in a central part of Europe with large powers all around it. An interesting piece of trivia is that officially "Central Europe" is now made up of only one country - Czech Republic! Our guide loves this fact and often refers to things as being 'the best example in all of central Europe'. The guide also bemoans the fact that Czech people never get the recognition they deserve for their inventions. These include the microwave, contact lenses and the word robot. The didn't invent robots... just the word for them! Prague also has two buildings of cubist architecture - the only place in the world where you will see it because it's quite ugly and as such never took off! Prague is quite unique in that it never got bombed in any of the many wars in the area. Everyone wanted Prague for themselves and as such they never bombed it. We also went 
past the Museum of Communism, Karl Marx would turn in his grave if he knew that it was next next to McDonalds and under a casino!! The tour ended with the story of the Prague uprising, the only time they've fought for something. At the end of WWII the Nazi's were loosing badly and the Czech's gave them a kick in the butt on the way out by taking on the remaining might of the SS and SA with only 3,000 civilians and home made weapons. The Nazi's had surrounded the city and the people of Prague were loosing the battle. They heard that the US/British army was only 90km away at a town with one of the oldest breweries! The called for help, but were refused, because of a predetermined "line of liberation" agreed between the allies and the soviets. The allies knew that the soviets really wanted Prague, luckily the red army arrived 2 days later. After the walking tour we wandered back into the the old town square to watch the famous astronomical clock. On cue and exactly as the walking tour described it, we witnessed on of the lamest tourist attractions of the modern world. The show starts dramatically with the skeleton moving it's arm slightly (ringing a bell) which is followed by 3 other figures rotating their heads a very very small amount. The display isn't even close to over at this point however, as two windows open and 6 apostles move past each window and you can just see what they are holding. This is the 'procession of the apostles' and is what this clock is world famous for. Awesome times. The astronomical clock does have an interesting feature. On it are the day names. In the Czech Republic you can't just pick any name like Laura or Lawson you have to name your child the name of the day. For example: 1 January could be Shona or Michael. They have extended the list so that now there are 1,000 names but you still have to pick from the list. Prague is famous for the Charles bridge and so after the walking tour we wandered along looking at the various market type shops that were there, the statues on the bridge and river flowing beneath us. Across the bridge is Petrin Hill which we find out was set up as park by the Czech Recreation Club many years ago. We catc
h the funicular to the top and as the sun is setting we climb up the mini Eiffel Tower to get an amazing view over Prague. It's not quite like the Paris one as the lift is broken so it means walking up heaps of stairs while Mike who is afraid of heights tries not to look at the ground getting further and further below us. The view is well worth the climb and it's cool to watch all the lights of fairyland starting to turn on in the city. Mike thinks that the view is actually better than the Eiffel Tower because the height of the hill gives a great aspect over the old roofs of the city, the castle starts to get lit up just nearby and in the other direction you're looking out into the countryside. We pop under the tower to use the toilets and find a remarkably interesting mini museum dedicated to the works of Jara Cimrman. We'd never heard of him either, but he turns out 
to be a creative, diverse and very nutty inventor! For example, he invented car washes before cars had roofs, taught Amundsen to telemark ski and told Eiffel to change the legs of the tower in Paris to stop it falling over. We try to find our way down the hill (we figure we'd walk down for the exercise) we happen upon another attraction the mirror maze. We figure why not and pay the entry fee 75pp. Unfortunately the maze was totally lame and even Shona who is 
not good with glass and mirrors could easily navigate her way around. However the concave and convex mirrors at the end meant we could get heaps of funny photos of extra long legs, big heads and us as ompalompas. The journey back to the hostel was not so simple. We find the tram stop easily, however there is no ticket machine to purchase the ticket on. We could just run the risk of using the tram without paying, but if a collector comes to check, then we have to pay a fine, so we decide to wander along the tracks to find a ticket machine. Finally at the 3rd stop we ask someone who points us to the subway station next door. We'd never have known that! It's all good though because the tram takes us to our favourite Prague restaurant where we order pizza, pasta and Mikes favourite side of beans. The perfect way to end the day!
l?). After a small amount of Christmas shopping we make it to the town square in time for the free walking tour of the city. As always, these tours depend very very highly on the guide -and our one isn't too bad at all. He's only been in the city for 7 months, but he seems to have learnt the New Europe script pretty well and leads us around some of the important city buildings. The Czech people have a very chequered past (sorry - couldn't resist the pun) and have frequently been taken over by a large power, that ultimately ends up capitulating and then being taken over by another large power. This is partially because the country is in a central part of Europe with large powers all around it. An interesting piece of trivia is that officially "Central Europe" is now made up of only one country - Czech Republic! Our guide loves this fact and often refers to things as being 'the best example in all of central Europe'. The guide also bemoans the fact that Czech people never get the recognition they deserve for their inventions. These include the microwave, contact lenses and the word robot. The didn't invent robots... just the word for them! Prague also has two buildings of cubist architecture - the only place in the world where you will see it because it's quite ugly and as such never took off! Prague is quite unique in that it never got bombed in any of the many wars in the area. Everyone wanted Prague for themselves and as such they never bombed it. We also went 
past the Museum of Communism, Karl Marx would turn in his grave if he knew that it was next next to McDonalds and under a casino!! The tour ended with the story of the Prague uprising, the only time they've fought for something. At the end of WWII the Nazi's were loosing badly and the Czech's gave them a kick in the butt on the way out by taking on the remaining might of the SS and SA with only 3,000 civilians and home made weapons. The Nazi's had surrounded the city and the people of Prague were loosing the battle. They heard that the US/British army was only 90km away at a town with one of the oldest breweries! The called for help, but were refused, because of a predetermined "line of liberation" agreed between the allies and the soviets. The allies knew that the soviets really wanted Prague, luckily the red army arrived 2 days later. After the walking tour we wandered back into the the old town square to watch the famous astronomical clock. On cue and exactly as the walking tour described it, we witnessed on of the lamest tourist attractions of the modern world. The show starts dramatically with the skeleton moving it's arm slightly (ringing a bell) which is followed by 3 other figures rotating their heads a very very small amount. The display isn't even close to over at this point however, as two windows open and 6 apostles move past each window and you can just see what they are holding. This is the 'procession of the apostles' and is what this clock is world famous for. Awesome times. The astronomical clock does have an interesting feature. On it are the day names. In the Czech Republic you can't just pick any name like Laura or Lawson you have to name your child the name of the day. For example: 1 January could be Shona or Michael. They have extended the list so that now there are 1,000 names but you still have to pick from the list. Prague is famous for the Charles bridge and so after the walking tour we wandered along looking at the various market type shops that were there, the statues on the bridge and river flowing beneath us. Across the bridge is Petrin Hill which we find out was set up as park by the Czech Recreation Club many years ago. We catc
h the funicular to the top and as the sun is setting we climb up the mini Eiffel Tower to get an amazing view over Prague. It's not quite like the Paris one as the lift is broken so it means walking up heaps of stairs while Mike who is afraid of heights tries not to look at the ground getting further and further below us. The view is well worth the climb and it's cool to watch all the lights of fairyland starting to turn on in the city. Mike thinks that the view is actually better than the Eiffel Tower because the height of the hill gives a great aspect over the old roofs of the city, the castle starts to get lit up just nearby and in the other direction you're looking out into the countryside. We pop under the tower to use the toilets and find a remarkably interesting mini museum dedicated to the works of Jara Cimrman. We'd never heard of him either, but he turns out 
to be a creative, diverse and very nutty inventor! For example, he invented car washes before cars had roofs, taught Amundsen to telemark ski and told Eiffel to change the legs of the tower in Paris to stop it falling over. We try to find our way down the hill (we figure we'd walk down for the exercise) we happen upon another attraction the mirror maze. We figure why not and pay the entry fee 75pp. Unfortunately the maze was totally lame and even Shona who is 
not good with glass and mirrors could easily navigate her way around. However the concave and convex mirrors at the end meant we could get heaps of funny photos of extra long legs, big heads and us as ompalompas. The journey back to the hostel was not so simple. We find the tram stop easily, however there is no ticket machine to purchase the ticket on. We could just run the risk of using the tram without paying, but if a collector comes to check, then we have to pay a fine, so we decide to wander along the tracks to find a ticket machine. Finally at the 3rd stop we ask someone who points us to the subway station next door. We'd never have known that! It's all good though because the tram takes us to our favourite Prague restaurant where we order pizza, pasta and Mikes favourite side of beans. The perfect way to end the day!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Steak? Czech! (14th September)
Yay -it's another travel day and therefore another 8am departure from the hostel. We're feeling great after the big day yesterday and the drinks in the beer tent. We're definitely feeling a lot
better than the Aussie guy Peter, who gets on, then rushes off to be sick all over the park right eside the bus. He was able to multitask mind you, as he talked to his dad back home while being ill. We can't understand why you'd come all the way to the other side of the world to stare at the bottom of a glass, sleep off a hangover in the hostel and then sober up on the bus ride to your next drinking city... but each to their own I guess! 
One of our stops today is a lot more interesting than the normal auto grill. We go to the Terizin prison camp, another of the 2000 camps throughout the Nazi zone of influence during WWII. This was a prison long before the Nazi used it sort out captives and was even used later as a prison for the Nazi commandant before his trial for war crimes. We liked the fact that he had to sleep in the same cells he stuffed dozens of innocent people into, although he wouldn't have been treated as barbarically as those under his guard. Our group of 32 people filed into a cell and felt claustrophobic, thinking there wasn't any room for any other people. We were then told that up to 60 people would be held there, with the large window boarded, leaving only an A5 sized hole for 'fresh air' to come in. No one was exterminated here... but the conditions resulted in massive numbers of deaths -murder in our books. The tour was a condensed version because of the Busabout timetable, but it's great that those people that couldn't get to the bigger camps had a glimpse at the atrocities. In the car park was a booth for us to change our remaining US dollars (!) for Czech Crowns -because today we had crossed yet another boarder to Prague, the capital of Czech Republic. We're not staying at the Busabout accommodation this time, so we told to "get off" the bus by the Plus receptionist and we find our way a very short distance to our much smaller Hostel Spoas. It's a pretty cosy spot and one of the first things we do is launch into our wheel of Dutch cheese with Mike's 
Swiss knife and enjoy it's quality (and quantity!). The hostel has very comfy beds -and the traveling has caught up with Mike a little, but luckily a nana nap takes care of this while Shona types and types and types. The guide Nicole on the bus had VERY highly recommended a little restaurant 10 mins walk from where everyone else is based. Unfortunately we're a little late to meet her as she walks there, so instead we're left to wander this (slightly ghettoish) area of Prague looking for food by ourselves. We pass the restaurant with the bowling lanes (!) that she also mentioned, get a little turned around and finally find a place that looks pretty good. We very quickly realise that it's the place she's recommended, because inside it's chocka full of Aussies. We see why it's Nicole's favourite as we each launch into a decent sized, brilliantly cooked, steak with pepper sauce. The local beer is wonderful, the wine is great and the bean / bacon / meat sauce side dish is a real highlight. Best of all the total meal cost 720 crown, less than half of what the Berlin steakhouse would have stung us!
One of our stops today is a lot more interesting than the normal auto grill. We go to the Terizin prison camp, another of the 2000 camps throughout the Nazi zone of influence during WWII. This was a prison long before the Nazi used it sort out captives and was even used later as a prison for the Nazi commandant before his trial for war crimes. We liked the fact that he had to sleep in the same cells he stuffed dozens of innocent people into, although he wouldn't have been treated as barbarically as those under his guard. Our group of 32 people filed into a cell and felt claustrophobic, thinking there wasn't any room for any other people. We were then told that up to 60 people would be held there, with the large window boarded, leaving only an A5 sized hole for 'fresh air' to come in. No one was exterminated here... but the conditions resulted in massive numbers of deaths -murder in our books. The tour was a condensed version because of the Busabout timetable, but it's great that those people that couldn't get to the bigger camps had a glimpse at the atrocities. In the car park was a booth for us to change our remaining US dollars (!) for Czech Crowns -because today we had crossed yet another boarder to Prague, the capital of Czech Republic. We're not staying at the Busabout accommodation this time, so we told to "get off" the bus by the Plus receptionist and we find our way a very short distance to our much smaller Hostel Spoas. It's a pretty cosy spot and one of the first things we do is launch into our wheel of Dutch cheese with Mike's 
Swiss knife and enjoy it's quality (and quantity!). The hostel has very comfy beds -and the traveling has caught up with Mike a little, but luckily a nana nap takes care of this while Shona types and types and types. The guide Nicole on the bus had VERY highly recommended a little restaurant 10 mins walk from where everyone else is based. Unfortunately we're a little late to meet her as she walks there, so instead we're left to wander this (slightly ghettoish) area of Prague looking for food by ourselves. We pass the restaurant with the bowling lanes (!) that she also mentioned, get a little turned around and finally find a place that looks pretty good. We very quickly realise that it's the place she's recommended, because inside it's chocka full of Aussies. We see why it's Nicole's favourite as we each launch into a decent sized, brilliantly cooked, steak with pepper sauce. The local beer is wonderful, the wine is great and the bean / bacon / meat sauce side dish is a real highlight. Best of all the total meal cost 720 crown, less than half of what the Berlin steakhouse would have stung us!
Sachsenhausen (13th September)
Despite the pub crawl last night we're up early (well, for us travelling it is) at 8am in order to make the 9:55am meeting time for the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp tour. When coming to Germany Shona really wanted to visit a camp to understand what actually happened. Our guide is Nigel, a Scotsman who was part of the British army for many years and was even stationed in East Germany during the cold war. He is very knowledgeable about the Holocaust and has spoken to many people who lived through it to get a real understanding of just what happened. He is very factual about how he delivers the information and while it chills to the bone sometimes you don't get too upset. To get to the camp we catch the train (it is actually working which is a good start). This is the same train line and our stop is the same one that all the inhabitants took. One of the interesting facts is that two days after the Nazi party came to power they opened Sachsenhausen. It was originally in an old brewery and they used it to round up all their political opponents to train them to like the Nazis. Many of these people were even released in the next two years. However by this time there was change and they had decided that a proper camp would be needed to house the Jews, Roma, Cinti (both Gypsies) and gays. They didn't actually know what to do with lesbians. In fact it wasn't until 1944 that they started to round them up and the rationale was that it was bad for public viewing. The persecution was all about mind games. Jews etc would arrive on the train and be walked to the camp (carrying the dead of course, as numbers had to be accounted for and they had been crammed in trains for up to 3 days). The SS would say "you're late, you were supposed to arrive 2 days ago. So 2 people are going to die and you need to choose who it is. So which 2 people will it be?" The inhabitants would think 'how are we late?' they'd done as they were told and were too frightened to push anyone
forward. So after a short space of time the SS would say "you're pathetic! You can't even pick two people, so we'll choose them for you and we are going to choose 4." This gets in their minds as if they'd only said something then 2 other people wouldn't have died. From there the prisoners would be asked what their skills were in order to be divided up. Sachsenhausen was mainly a working camp not an extermination camp (more on that later). 
As such the words Arbeit Macht Frei -which stand for 'work makes you free' are inscribed on the gate. The prisoners would make up anything if they thought it would save their lives. So they'd say they were plumbers and builders etc when actually they had no idea. They were then tasked with building certain parts of the camp. A classic example is the big green monster or the old SS social building. It housed their kitchens, dining hall and some recreation rooms. The big green monster is now falling over in a heap as parts have caved in and the foundations have fallen in around them. It shows just how desperate these people were.Additionally the Nazis had everything worked out using statistics. So based on the time of year and the work a prisoner was doing they knew how many calories they would burn during the day. So if it was 1500 calories they would only feed them 1200 calories, then take off any extras that the SS would take for themselves (not that they were supposed to) and basically they were underfeeding them to the point where they would die of starvation and other illnesses. The food was like cabbage soup and so people were mainly bags of bones. This also meant that they could fit three people to a bed. The best way was for the middle person to put 
their head between the others feet. These beds were 3 high bunks and people would move throughout the night (silently) to get away from the heat on the top, or the damp of urine etc on the bottom. Sachsenhausen was tough, one survivor of both Auswich and Sachsenhausen told Nigel that Auswich for most people was easier. At Auswich you arrived, walked to the gas chamber and within a few hours you were dead. Whereas at Sachsenhausen they worked you into the ground. When the Nazi's decided that they wanted to step up the extermination programme they trialled possibilities at Sachsenhausen. The prisoners built the extermination building and the original plan was to use the Zyclon B in it's usual form which was a liquid. They actually used it all over the camps as a diluted cleaning product. However the SS doctors put a stop to this because they were concerned of the concentrated amounts getting into the water supply. Instead they came up with the gas concept. If prisoners didn't die of starvation and exhaustion they could also be taken into the other rooms on the pretence of a medical exam. They would be measured for height and at this point a .22 gun would be put on the back of their necks from the secret room behind and they'd be shot dead. The residents of town around Sachsenhausen knew what was happening because there was a dreadful smell in the air and thick black ash, from the crematory where dead prisoners would be stuffed into an industrial oven. However they couldn't say anything or do anything because if they did then they would end up in there with the same fate. We can tell you many other horrific and graphic stories if you are interested in understanding more. On the way home our guide tells us that we will catch the 3:35pm train, which is already waiting (it's about 3:20pm at this point). We head up and get on the far carriage (with Kiwis Megan and Grant and an Aussie couple) as discussed. At 3:27pm there's an announcement in German, the doors close and the train starts to move. Uh-oh, we all realise that the train has left way early and Nigel and others of our group were still at the station. Oh well we know what station to get off at. Not that simple, remember that the German trains are having issues at the moment? We are taken 5 stops and then we have to get off and catch a bus two stops, and get back on a different train. We had no idea, but a lovely German girl could hear us talking English and helped us out. She was actually getting off at our stop too, so she stayed with us like a new tour guide the whole way. She was so sweet, but w
e didn't end up getting her name. It had been a rough day in terms of understanding but we still needed to eat and get on with the present. Berlin is supposed to be cheap so we took ourselves off to the steak house as we haven't had proper red meat in ages. It was not so cheap, upon looking at the menu we realised it would be 75 euros for dinner and instead we walked out to purchase two 3 euro kebabs instead. A much better price for the backpacker and they were delicious. Oktoberfest is coming up in Munich, but Berlin has it's own version on now. With other busabouters 
we head to the beer tent to join in the festivities. They even have small steins of wine for Shona and we learn the German beer drinking song "Ein Prosit" which the band plays at fairly regular intervals.
forward. So after a short space of time the SS would say "you're pathetic! You can't even pick two people, so we'll choose them for you and we are going to choose 4." This gets in their minds as if they'd only said something then 2 other people wouldn't have died. From there the prisoners would be asked what their skills were in order to be divided up. Sachsenhausen was mainly a working camp not an extermination camp (more on that later). 
As such the words Arbeit Macht Frei -which stand for 'work makes you free' are inscribed on the gate. The prisoners would make up anything if they thought it would save their lives. So they'd say they were plumbers and builders etc when actually they had no idea. They were then tasked with building certain parts of the camp. A classic example is the big green monster or the old SS social building. It housed their kitchens, dining hall and some recreation rooms. The big green monster is now falling over in a heap as parts have caved in and the foundations have fallen in around them. It shows just how desperate these people were.Additionally the Nazis had everything worked out using statistics. So based on the time of year and the work a prisoner was doing they knew how many calories they would burn during the day. So if it was 1500 calories they would only feed them 1200 calories, then take off any extras that the SS would take for themselves (not that they were supposed to) and basically they were underfeeding them to the point where they would die of starvation and other illnesses. The food was like cabbage soup and so people were mainly bags of bones. This also meant that they could fit three people to a bed. The best way was for the middle person to put 
their head between the others feet. These beds were 3 high bunks and people would move throughout the night (silently) to get away from the heat on the top, or the damp of urine etc on the bottom. Sachsenhausen was tough, one survivor of both Auswich and Sachsenhausen told Nigel that Auswich for most people was easier. At Auswich you arrived, walked to the gas chamber and within a few hours you were dead. Whereas at Sachsenhausen they worked you into the ground. When the Nazi's decided that they wanted to step up the extermination programme they trialled possibilities at Sachsenhausen. The prisoners built the extermination building and the original plan was to use the Zyclon B in it's usual form which was a liquid. They actually used it all over the camps as a diluted cleaning product. However the SS doctors put a stop to this because they were concerned of the concentrated amounts getting into the water supply. Instead they came up with the gas concept. If prisoners didn't die of starvation and exhaustion they could also be taken into the other rooms on the pretence of a medical exam. They would be measured for height and at this point a .22 gun would be put on the back of their necks from the secret room behind and they'd be shot dead. The residents of town around Sachsenhausen knew what was happening because there was a dreadful smell in the air and thick black ash, from the crematory where dead prisoners would be stuffed into an industrial oven. However they couldn't say anything or do anything because if they did then they would end up in there with the same fate. We can tell you many other horrific and graphic stories if you are interested in understanding more. On the way home our guide tells us that we will catch the 3:35pm train, which is already waiting (it's about 3:20pm at this point). We head up and get on the far carriage (with Kiwis Megan and Grant and an Aussie couple) as discussed. At 3:27pm there's an announcement in German, the doors close and the train starts to move. Uh-oh, we all realise that the train has left way early and Nigel and others of our group were still at the station. Oh well we know what station to get off at. Not that simple, remember that the German trains are having issues at the moment? We are taken 5 stops and then we have to get off and catch a bus two stops, and get back on a different train. We had no idea, but a lovely German girl could hear us talking English and helped us out. She was actually getting off at our stop too, so she stayed with us like a new tour guide the whole way. She was so sweet, but w
e didn't end up getting her name. It had been a rough day in terms of understanding but we still needed to eat and get on with the present. Berlin is supposed to be cheap so we took ourselves off to the steak house as we haven't had proper red meat in ages. It was not so cheap, upon looking at the menu we realised it would be 75 euros for dinner and instead we walked out to purchase two 3 euro kebabs instead. A much better price for the backpacker and they were delicious. Oktoberfest is coming up in Munich, but Berlin has it's own version on now. With other busabouters 
we head to the beer tent to join in the festivities. They even have small steins of wine for Shona and we learn the German beer drinking song "Ein Prosit" which the band plays at fairly regular intervals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)