Schnitzel and strudels

We’ve seen ‘Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels’ galore and plenty of doorbells but not sleighbells. As for schnitzel with noodles, it usually comes with potato salad but ‘whatever’. It’s been 32 degrees here in Vienna and Sophie is burning to a crisp like a good little snowflake Aussie.
Yesterday we caught 3 trains to the Summer palace and explored the gardens and took a tour of the inside of the palace. The gardens were ringing with the sound of a rock band, which I would have expected to be a Mozart orchestra but apparently not. The rendition of Metallica ‘ Nothing else matters’ in German had to be heard to be believed. Shannon would have cried! Sophie couldnt wait to snap my ‘Fuji moment’ when a group if Asians asked me to join them in their photo. At first i thought they were talking to someone behind me but soon discovered i was to be ‘Wheres Wally?’ in the photo. I certainly felt like a Wally thats for sure.
Other than that, the palace was lovely and the gardens equally as lovely. Afterwards we walked over Vienna and ate Maccas and chocolate for lunch and tea. As you can see, we are on a health kick. Today we are having schnitzel and strudel. Tomorrow we diet.
We are off to Salzburg tomorrow and spend the following day on the ‘Sound of music’ tour. We have our costumes ready, created from the curtains in our room;)
So far we haven’t been thrown out of our accommodation, but with all the rules we have to follow its a wonder. No laughing or singing after 10 pm, no throwing things out the window… ‘even accidentally’ . There are 3 pages of rules and we are very afraid to breath which just results in muffled hysterics.

Getting in touch with our Krumlovs

Here we are in Cesky Kromlov which is an adorable little town where the sun is shining and the chill factor is only evident in the relaxation department. It’s more of the ‘quaint European village’ style that I know and love and we have spent our time walking and exploring the village as well as a bit of relaxation. Today we went to the castle, which is apparently the 2nd oldest in Czech. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Český_Krumlov
We are staying in Krumlov House which is about as cute as it sounds. We are in the deluxe Appartment, which may give you a vision of a sparkling palace but it’s more like a character filled bear cave. It’s a little ramshackle ‘house’ by the river with a herbal garden and rickety wooden chairs and a good old cozy feel to it. The people are really friendly too. If we go missing… Come and look for us;)

Last day in Prague

Prague is every bit as gorgeous as everyone says it is and not as packed with tourists as the narrow streets in Italy. We spent most of our time walking and walking and walking, looking over the castle and admiring the view from the bridges. Sophie managed to eat a chocolate ice-cream each day because apparently its the best she has ever had in her life! Apart from a bad experience with my credit card (fully loaded with all my travel money) which ‘went missing’, it’s been a lovely 3 days here. Its looking like Sophie will have to fully fund the holiday now. Lucky she is so rich with savings..
We are off to Cesky Krumlov tomorrow which is apparently a smaller version of Prague and every bit as pretty.

Prague, Czech Republic

Commando would be proud. We dragged our luggage 2.5km through the rain this morning, across the cobblestone higgelty piggety roads to where our bus departed for Prague. A short 4 hour bus trip and another walk to our hotel had us weary but excited to explore the much awaited Prague.
Czech doesn’t use Euro so I had to withdraw cash from the ATM. Withdrawing 4000 Czech dollars turned out to be the same as $200 so my initial fright turned to concern that I didn’t get enough!
We managed to catch a train into Prague and walked around for a while before sighti g big black storm clouds. After a very yummy meal we came back in time for the storm to hit. Here’s a pic of the sky just before we left…

Dresden, Germany

There is an odd atmosphere in old Dresden which I can only describe as similar to Gertrude st Fitzroy. Low socio economic status mixed with urban grunge, alternative trendiness, lots of graffiti, cigarette butts, dog poo and broken bottles mixed with unusual trendy cares, shops and bars. That’s on the ‘new side’. The old side over the river is quaint and full of history. It’s bigger than I expected and our rooms are further away than we thought so had to cart our luggage 2.5 km across the cobble stone roads.

Last night we went on the Dresden night walking tour, which turned out to be a little odd. The guide was an East German guy with a political agenda who took us around ‘new Dresden’ and gave us tastings of locally made herbal liqueur. We were a bit worried about the herbs for a while. Sophie and I were a bit childish and snuck away and left the others there. Ive no idea when the tour ended but we didn’t get back to our hotel until midnight as it was.
The next day we explored the ‘old Dresden’ which is like another world. Sophie likened them to Heaven and Hell but there is something exciting about both parts. Off to Prague tomorrow which I’m really looking forward to.

Please send us some vegetables. Label them as we have forgotten what they look like. We haven’t seen any for so long and are eating so many carbs we may take off like rockets. Sie sind vom Aussterben bedroht. Ich bin unterernährt.

Berlin

Just to get you in the mood for today’s blog post from Berlin… here’s a little entertainment:) If you look carefully you’ll see us in the background.

After 9 hours on a bus we arrived in Berlin at 6pm. On the way, we were entertained by the history of Germany AND Sophie winning the grand German speaking competition. The prize was a chula chip which she never received.
We had decided to get separate hotel rooms rather than stay in the hostel as we have 5 nights here. Somehow we managed to carry our luggage up and down several flights of stairs and get a train to our hotel room. The rooms are like luxury after the Amsterdam experience although we have separation anxiety being in different rooms. There is much excitement as we have TV! woo hoo! Now we can hear about Prince Phillips bladder infection over and over again because CNN is the only English speaking channel.
The next day was very very chilly but being the tough stock we are we went on a 4 hour walking tour of Berlin and afterwards we walked the 8 km back to the hotel room. We managed to see the Berlin wall, Hitlers bunker and place of death, the holocaust memorial and many other interesting places. Our tour guide was a very tall pommie guy named Barnaby, who was both funny and knowledgeable PLUS easy to find in a crowd, being tall as a bean pole.
On returning back at the hotel, we went out for Thai food and had to order it off a German menu with German speaking Thai waiters. That was pretty challenging but we managed to get our order in successfully and it was delicious!
Sophie is hoping to catch up with her. Good friend Sophie H who she has known since school and is German.

Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam at 6pm and set off with the Tomtom app on my iPhone to find our accommodation. Up until now we have been staying in the backpackers hostels with the other Busabout folk but Sophie suggested we should stay in a different hostel this time because it looked safer. Somehow we overlooked that our new choice was planted smack in the middle of the red light district! We manoeuvred our luggage 2 kilometres through the streets dodging the 1000’s of bicycles, trams, cars and other obstacles to find ourselves in ‘ferrel’ town, surrounded with condom shops, hash bars, magic mushroom shops, strip clubs and other ‘interesting’ options for purchase. The tourists are all on a high and totally wild. At least we can outrun them in their stoned state ha ha!
When we arrived the reception is through a bar which is very LOUD and full of pot smoking, drinking and partying backpackers. The reception guy asked us if we wanted the room with the nude men or the random one. I figured he was joking but Sophie wasn’t so sure. On a good note, our beds are SOFT and comfy, we have our own bathroom and the shower is HOT and strong. Soph thought we should just lock ourselves in the room and not come out for 3 days but instead we went off and got some tea and bought some hoponhopoff bus tickets for the next day and some dinner. We found a swan making a nest our of rubbish, some very very odd people and groups of men on bucks nights. Strangely enough, we feel more safe than we did at the hostel in Paris where we were more isolated and the area was a bit ‘ghetto’ like. Sophie has the best evil stare on earth. She has frightened away many a man on our trip so far with her ‘don’t even think about it’ look. Yay for the evil stare!
We went to bed at about 9.30pm and watched a movie. Party girls! This hostel supplies you with ear plugs which dulls the noise to a medium level. The roar never stopped all night until about 8 am when we woke up to the smell of weed wafting through our window . Could that be breakfast cooking?
I’m glad Col won’t get to read this until he returns from his fishing trip and we are already safely in Belgium, as for Dad and Jason…. don’t worry, we have Sophie’s evil stare happening and mostly nobody is in any condition to bother us.

Bruges, Belgium

Today we arrived in Bruges which is quaint and full of chocolate, waffles and bicycles. I got an unexpected surprise when the waiter at a restaurant at lunchtime presented me with a giant beer in a test tube. Needless to say I didn’t drink it all.
We lugged our backpacks up 2 flights of stairs today so the muscles are getting a workout!
31/5/2012
Today we climbed the bell tower which was 366 steps up a narrow winding stairwell. The view was spectacular and I’m hoping it burnt up a few calories too. There are whole streets full of chocolate shops and gorgeous waffles with chocolate topping. We also went to the chocolate museum and watched them make chocolate and then on a boat cruise down all the canals. We returned to our usual 4pm onwards fit of giggles and silliness to do the. One mundane tasks of washing and organising our bags for our departure tomorrow. A bird pooped on my cardigan today and since I only bought one with me and the weather is cool here I figured the extra splodge on my shoulder was the last straw.
Our first taste of rain has just arrived so i am trapped in a small room with Sophie having a chocolate high. Argghh!

3 days in Paris

A little drawing from my travel sketchbook Paris day one, two and three

;

After the long and entertaining flight with crying babies and random meals we managed to get our shuttle bus organised and into our accommodation. The Busabout hoponhopoff bus leaves from St Christopher’s hostel so this is where we chose to stay. We have our own ‘ penthouse room’ which looks over the river and being in the 19th district means we have many a sight out of the window and 24/7 music and partying. We crashed at 6pm the first night and managed to stay up until 8.30pm the second!

Our first real day was spent getting sunburn, blisters feet and the usual jet lag but we had a fantastic day getting lost and found and discovering the Paris treasures. So far we’ve eaten hot dogs and chips which is a bit Western so hopefully we can find some French food soon!

Wifi is pretty flakey at the hostel and we are having problems with our phone sim cards so my apologies if we haven’t replied to messages.

On our second day we went to the Louvre and walked endlessly around the magnificent art and then to buy Sophie an exotic scarf from the cheapo shop because her hat flew off the bus and she was getting sunburned. Now she looks either Arabic or like an exotic French woman who ought to be sitting in an expensive convertible.

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On the way home the bus didn’t stop where expected so we took a long long walk and got lost (again) but finally arrived at our supermarket where we created chaos and ran out of there laughing. I’m glad the French are so tolerant or we would surely be sent home.

On the third day we took the metro system and eventually found the train to Versailles and our tour group. The group were a wonderful mix of Aussies, Americans and Canadians who we spent the day with buying lunch at the market and eating it in the palace gardens. It was lovely to be entertained by the fountains which only happens for 2 hours a week.

I’ve decided to redesign the house and garden based on Versailles. Anyone know where I can get 1000 litres of gold paint?

Apart from the punnet of squashed strawberries in the backpack and a bit more sunburn and blistered feet we had a surprisingly chaos free day! We had to get 4 trains to get to our accommodation so that was pretty remarkable.

I seem to have come down with a nasty head cold, the first in 5 years, but hopefully I’ll shake it off soon. Lucky I’ve got the contents of a pharmaceutical shop in my backpack!

Off to Bruges, Belgium in the morning so it’s time to do some much needed washing and repacking of the bags.

Here’s a pic of the leaning tower of Eiffel! Thanks to a random French woman who needs photography lessons;)

Chick trip itinerary 2012

On May the 25th Sophie and I will hit Europe for 7.5 weeks to celebrate her finishing Uni. Nice excuse hey?

This trip will be more of a backpacking trip on the ‘hop on hop off’ Europe bus. With this bus travel we can choose how long we stay in each place and have the safety of traveling with a tour guide on the Busabout bus. We have the freedom of ‘doing our own thing’ once we arrive at the destinations which is much better than having to hang about with a tour group. Since I’m now a ‘seasoned’ traveler I cant stand the thought of going on a tour so with the safety of the bus travel it’s a good compromise. Although I’ve been to half of these places before, I will enjoy returning and seeing them through the eyes of my daughter… instead of the Dishmop;)

We are packing lightly (aren’t we Sophie?) and taking backpacks with wheels (as opposed to a suitcase). Afterwards, Sophie continues on to the USA with a friend so she will be gone for 3 months all up.

The MOTH is going to learn how to use email and if we progress well through the lessons, Skype as well. Otherwise we will resort to courier pigeons.

Here’s our map and itinerary…

ITINERARY

25/5/12 Melbourne to Paris

26/05/12    Paris (sleepy sleepy time)
27/05/12     Paris
28/05/12     Paris
29/05/12     Paris

30/05/12 Bruges, Belgium 6pm
31/05/12 Bruges

1/6/12     Amsterdam, Holland 6pm
2/6/12     Amsterdam
3/6/12     Amsterdam

4/6/12     Berlin, Germany 6pm
5/6/12      Berlin
6/6/12      Berlin
7/6/12      Berlin
8/6/12     Berlin

9/6/12 Dresden Germany 3.30pm
10/6/12 Dresden

11/6/12      Prague Czech Republic
12/6/12      Prague
13/06/12     Prague

14/06/12 Cesky Krumlov Czech Republic
15/06/12 Cesky Krumlov

16/06/12     Vienna Austria
17/06/12     Vienna
18/06/12     Vienna

19/06/12 Salzburg Austria
20/06/12 Salzburg (Sound of music tour) ‘High on the hills was a lonely goat herd’…

21/06/12     Munich 5pm
22/06/12     Munich
23/06/12     Munich Day trip to Neuschwanstein castle

24/06/12 Innsbruck Austria
25/06/12 Innsbruck

26/06/12     Venice, Italy 13.30
27/06/12     Venice
28/06/12     Venice

29/06/12    Rome, Italy
30/06/12    Rome
1/7/12     Rome
2/7/12     Rome Pompeii day trip
3/7/12     Rome

4/7/12 Siena, Italy
5/7/12 Siena

6/7/12     Florence, Italy
7/7/12      Florence
8/7/12      Florence

9/7/12     Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore) , Italy
10/7/12   Cinque Terre
11/7/12   Cinque Terre
12/7/12   Cinque Terre
13/07/12 Cinque Terre
14/07/12 Cinque Terre

15/07/12 Nice, France

16/07/12     Barcelona arrive late, Spain
17/07/12     Barcelona
18/07/12     Barcelona
19/07/12     Barcelona > Fly out (Jenny home and Sophie to USA)

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Through the eyes of a dishmop

Dishmoptop's blog about travel and other exciting stuff.