Beers, baguettes and a 21st birthday

Have been quite surprised at the demand for another blog post from my eager audience! I thought most people would appreciate the silence!

We're in the south of France now, staying in Aix-en-Provence, but will keep this post to our travels through Berlin and Northern France.

Berlin

Berlin was awesome, although the weather wasn't so good. We spent our first day relaxing in our hostel, St Christophers, which is a private chain of hostels, the one in Berlin happens to be run by an Aussie, so lots of Australian music and their bar had Fosters on tap (eugh...) The bar also served very cheap food, so we ate there most nights as the weather was foul. Berlin is incredibly cheap, for everything and the pints of beer are a 1/2 litre!

We took one of the free New Berlin tours around the city, with an English guy called Nick, who kept everyone entertained despite the constant rain. I highly recommend it if you ever visit Berlin.
We visited the main sights (without our camera - doh!) including the site of Hitler's bunker, which lies unnoticed under a dirt carpark! The most interesting site is the monument to the European Jews murdered during WWII, will post a photo when I get a chance.

The following day we visited the museum below the monument, which just blew my mind, I had no idea the Nazi's killed over 1 million Jewish people from Poland alone! In one room they play audio loops of individual stories (each about 2 minutes long, played in German and English), apparently if they had each person's story recorded it would take 6 years for the loop to play once!

We also took the New Berlin pub crawl, which was a little disappointing, but more due to our age and the rain than the tour company - the majority of the group were 18 - 21 years and were more interested in getting wasted then talking to fellow travellers. We did meet a fellow Australian who was our age, she had just quit her day job to learn shoe-making!


The monument to the murdered European Jews

Koln

From Berlin we took the train to Koln to meet up with Jo (Jay's brother) and to visit Jay's cousin. Also our first YHI - pretty good, it reeked of organised fun though... Koln is very pretty and they have a chocolate museum! In the centre of the museum is a river of molten chocolate and a mini factory making Lindt truffles. Needless to say, after our visit I felt quite queasy!


Cute houses along the river

Rouen

After our night in Koln the three of us took the Thalys through to Paris and then onto Rouen, which is interesting, but not particularly nice. The following day we visited Bayeux to see the famous tapestry depicting the battle of Hastings in 1066 and met a Canadian couple (Loni and Raynor) from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan! Had a good day wondering around the town together, had lunch etc...


Bayuex Cathedral

Paris!

Paris is amazing, I could spend 3 months alone just in Paris! We spent most of our time ticking off the main monuments and museums. I spent an entire day at the Louvre and muscled my way to the front of the line to see the Mona Lisa, although the other Da Vinci paintings were more interesting as I could get right up close. It's hard to see the Mona Lisa as a painting, standing 3 metres away! We also saw a proper Egyptian Mummy at the Louvre and hilariously found the curators had covered it's nether regions with a cloth!

I wont list everything for Paris, except to say we visited the Eiffel tower at night, all lit up and watched it sparkle at 11pm, which was magic.

Said goodbye to Jo, who set off on his own to Germany.


Jay, Jo and Lucy underneath the Eiffel Tower

Finding the Mt Saint Michel

Not the easiest place to get to unless you have a car and actually took us three attempts to get to!

The first night we stayed in St Malo at the YHI where we met an American guy celebrating his 21st Birthday alone with his mum (who was there with a summer camp group), so along with a Canadian girl, we took him out to this very tame pub and helped him celebrate his birthday properly (or as best we could)!

Finally managed to get to Mt Saint Michel and the sun came out! The views from the top of the Monastery were fantastic and the old abbey was interesting to explore, but man there were a lot of tourists!


View of Mount Saint Michel

The next day we took the train to Bordeaux, which is where I'll finish...

Hope everyone is well, I hear Canberra is also getting rain!

Welcome back Karen V and congratulations - can't wait to catch up you! Good luck to Gwyn!

Happy 21st to Stephie! Hope you have a brilliant party and a very special birthday. We have your present, but will bring it home rather than post it as it's fragile.

Love to all,

Lucy

How time flies!

Hey!

Well it´s been a while since my last post and we´re now in Berlin, having arrived at lunchtime.

After our two nights in Dubrovnik we moved onto Split, originally staying for 3 nights, but we decided to stay 4 nights as it was really lovely and we were enjoying being near the beach.

The old area of Split is centered around the Roman ruins of Dioclecian´s Palace, which has buildings added to it in adhoc fashion and Dioclecian´s Palace has been turned into a huge cathedral - odd since Dioclecian persecuted the christians - I guess it´s a case of he who laughs last...

Like Dubrovnik, Split´s pedestrian streets are made of polished marble, so it´s sunglasses territory during the day and it glows at night. We visited some beaches around Split, which were a bit dissapointing and dirty, but we took the ferry over to Hvar Island where the water is clear like crystal and really cool. Have decided that next time we go back we´ll do an organised boat tour around the Croation coastline as you don´t have to deal with unpredictable public transport! The night/bar life in Split is pretty cool, you just have to wander off the main square and there are so many bars and the beer is cold and cheap! Was also great to catch up with Kat and Steve, if only for the morning! Wish we had booked the tour with yu guys, we´re so tempted to climb onto the boat behind you!


Me sitting at an outdoor cafe, I think I had just been served up the strangest looking cheeseburger I have ever seen!

We took the train up to Zagreb and spent the night in our first dorm room, which wasn´t to bad, except the hostel was pretty grotty - the mould in the bathroom was something to behold! Zagreb´s a really nice city and I wish we´d given it more time. It´s even more of a fairy tale than Prague and much quieter. There´s a hole street dedicated to pubs - it´s quite a trek - would take a full week of pub crawls!


Soo many berries! Fruit and Veg Markets, Zagreb

From Zagreb we took the train north to Budapest, which is a really pretty journey. It´s interesting to watch the styles of houses and buildings change as you go north.

Budapest is an amazing city, so beautiful and lots of fun! Unfortunately the first place we stayed in was a real dive and we had to pay up front without any chance of a refund - talk about shafted! So we decided to cut and run... downstairs! Where there were nicer flats run by a different lady that were the same price.

We packed a lot into our 2 1/2 sightseeing days in Budapest, visiting heroe´s square, the markets, the large Synagogue, the Statue Park (Statues from the Soviet era), the castle, Fisherman´s Bastion and the exterior of Pariament building (one of the best buildings so far) which was closed because the orchestra, choir and opera singers were giving a dress rehearsal, which we were allowed to sit and watch! We also had some great food and beer in Budapest - better than Italy - probably because it was quite different to Australia.


Parliament House, Budapest. Photo by Jay

After two whirl wind days in Hungry we took the train to Prague, for two more whirl wind days in Prague! We shared our train compartment with an Irish guy, his Slovakian girlfriend and her sister, who were all living in Germany - so it was a great train ride and we chatted the whole way to Prague.

We took a walking tour on the first day, which covered most of the important sites, then on the second day we visited ST Nicholas Cathedral and the Mucha Museum, which has been one of my highlights, getting more ideas for my masters and I bought lots of postcards. I´d like to see Prague during the low season as in summer it´s just packed and was a bit exhausting like Florence. On the last night we decided to relax and see Pirates 3 - what a dissapointment! Was a mixture of Godzilla and Braveheart! Jack Sparrow and Borbossa were great though - as usual...


Jay sheepishly patting the bronze dog.

So that´s a potted version of the last week or so - once again no photos - this computer doesn´t have a USB or CD drive - sorry! Will post some later.

Congrats to Basil and Penny for the new addition to your family - lovely news!

Nathalie - have been collecting charms - can´t wait to show you them!

Will send postcards now we´re in Germany, looking forward to experiencing their world famous efficient service!

Love to all - missing everyone and getting a little homesick!

Lucy