The last five days

Five days. Only five. I can't believe that I have been travelling for 41 days all over Europe. I am glad I chose

this tour though. I have meet some amazing people and found out a lot more about myself along the way.
Lauterbrunnan is one of the most beautiful places in the world that I have been to date. Our campsite was set in the Alps at the basin of a series of mountains and waterfalls. The grounds were lushly green and the mountains rose up like giants around us. It was unquestionably inspiring.
We had been given upgrades into cabins while we were there so we had warmth to return to at the end of the day.
Our full day in the Alps was my favourite free day. A group of us did the Murren Loop. We walked into town, stopping to squeal and ooh and aah over the cows in the fields because they all had cow bells on, all of them chiming. We then caught a very fast moving gondola up to the top of the ridge, around 900 metres up. From there we had the choice to walk or to catch the tram. I wanted to walk as did Sam and Amber so we struck out on our own. It was a bit misty but we could still see a few of the sights. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to walk the ridge and when we reached the the town of Murren it was a ghost town. From 12 noon to 3pm they shut all the shops and cafes and restaurants. Nothing is open. And when we walked through the town there was only a handful of people on the streets and a thick fog rolling in. It was something out of a horror movie. I kept expecting a crazy Swiss man to come running down the

mountain with an axe yodelling. At the other end of the town is another gondola so we caught that one down. It moved just as fast only going down and it was a little disconcerting when it started to swing madly between rungs. We even met up with Marika, William, Josh and Nicole on the way down. When we got to the bottom of the mountain we walked back along towards Trummelbachfalles. It was a series of 11 waterfalls inside a mountain.
The waterfalls were great. We caught a rickety old lift up inside the mountain and then walked up the rest, looking at the waterfalls as we went. I have never seen anything like it. When you think that the waterfalls and caverns have formed over thousands and thousands of years, dug out from persistent waters, it is awe-worthy.
After the waterfalls, the others, except for Sam and Amber, caught a bus back, but we walked back to the campsite. I couldn't get enough of the countryside and wanted to spend as much time as I could in it.

The next day we were off again to our second of last stop. Heidelberg. We got into the town in the afternoon and had a couple of hours where I went for a walk up to the castle. It was a steep hill to get up there and we couldn't even go inside the castle, but we could see the grounds. Not to mention the views from up at the castle were fantastic. Back at the bottom I had a look in a few touristy shops before finding the most yummy icecream and sorbet shop. Mmmmm. Sorbet. We got to the campsite and I upgraded to a cabin. I had made the call to stop tents at this point. I am sick of being cold and damp and tired so cabin it was.
The next morning we were up again, bright and early, heading to our final destination of Amsterdam. We

made one brief stop at a town called St Goa on the Rhine River where I bought a stein. It is a limited edition one, stamped and with a certificate and I am treating it as an heirloom and art piece. When I saw it I instantly liked it and it was easy to spend the money. I also got to see the largest free-standing cuckoo clock in the world.
Then we were in Amsterdam. I upgraded to a caravan with Will, Marika, Felicity, Marissa and Ella. Best decision ever. It rained the entire time we were there and it was freezing when we were all wet and damp.
Our full day in Amsterdam started out with a bike ride in Edam. I was not impressed at all. It had been drizzly all morning and by the time we arrived in Edam it was pouring with rain. It should have been cancelled, but no, they went a head with it. I, at least, had my waterproof pants and jacket so I was mostly dry. Others weren't so lucky.
We piled back on the bus and went into the city. Where it rained all day.
The others were all heading off to Anne Franks house so I headed off down the shopping street, my goal to find warm dry places to stay for the day. I didn't actually do much in Amsterdam. I found an exhibition of reproductions of Rembrandts art works. I got to see all 300 pieces in one place which was cool. Next I found a cafe and had a hot chocolate and a cookie. It was one of those places where the locals hang out so it was cheap and warm and dry and tasty. The last thing that I did was go to the sex museum. It was quite funny. Not like the one in Prague where it was more gadgets and toys. This one was more photos and statues. Some of them were quite funny. There was one of a hooker whaking off a guy on a street corner. It is all done with robots and the guy is making the most hillarious sounds. There is another one that you hear first. He goes 'Pssst, hey you' and when you look over to see what it is, this robot opens his coat and flashes you. One the way up the stairs is a series of boobs and bum moulds and when you pass one of them it farts and then there is this mad chuckling.
We all went out for dinner that evening, our last night, and after that about half of us headed into town for  drinks and a dance. It was a great way to end the tour. We didn't get back in till around 3am and then we had to get up at 5.30am.
I was so tired for the whole trip back to London and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone. We have been living in each others space for a month and a half. That is a long time. Last night I slept for 12 hours. I woke up three times trying to figure out where I was. It is going to take a while to get back to normal I think.

The serious and the fun

I have been looking forward to Octoberfest for some time, not for the drinking, oh no, but for the fact that I get to wear the beer-wench outfit.
After leaving Prague, we made a brief stop off at Dachau concentration camp. 30,000 Jews and political

prisoners were killed there. They had a the gas chambers but they were never used. Most of the prisoners there died from hangings or from poor living conditions. If someone was found to have scabies the treatment was to strip them down to their underwear and have them stand in the cold and to keep them confined in one room with other affected people. They were basically left to starve.
It was not as big as Mathausen, where I had been two years ago and the atmosphere was less oppressive. I am not sure why. Maybe it was that I had been to one before and was more able to comprehend it, or maybe it was just different. There was lots of different churches built on the site as well to all the different religious groups who had suffered. From what I understand, in Dachau and the surrounding areas, Jews were pretty much wiped out.

After a wee bit of quiet reflection we arrived into Munich to set up camp. The campsite was so busy. I have never seen so many tents backed in so closely. I spent the first night getting some washing done so that tomorrow I could enjoy the day without worrying about clean clothing.
However, the next morning it was all on. First step, get dressed. I wore my durndel and plaited my hair in pig tails. I was so excited. Next step, head into Munich for a bike ride around the city. I hadn't been on a bike in  at least a year and a half but after a few practice wobbles I was off.
We went around the city first then biked into the park where we stopped for a bit of early lunch and for some, an early stein. We jumped back on the bikes and headed out to the Nudists meadow where two of our group bared all, almost all, and frolicked in the field. We then got the bike tour guide to strip down and ride his bike around. I was tempted to do the same but couldn't quite bring myself to do it. Oh well. There is always next time.
From the bike ride we jumped back on the coach and we were finally off to Octoberfest. We were off to Octoberfest for the following hour and half when the driver got lost. A small group of us ended up having a tipple of schnapps from a hip flask. We are not actually supposed to drink on the bus but what they don't see they don't know.

Drinking a litre Radler (Shandy)

We eventually got into the grounds. I always thought the festival was just a bunch of beer tents but it is so much more. There is a full carnival too with street food, touristy stuff and a rides AND a lot of beer halls.
We headed into the HB hall and it was PACKED. We managed to find a seated spot after some serious scouring but were kicked off it at three when they cleaned that section. It was insane to watch them cleaning. Those men and women work fast and hard. They deserved every tip they get.
It was getting a bit stuffy inside so Marissa, Felicity and I went for a walk around the festival grounds before heading back. By the time we got back it was heaving with people. I have never been somewhere I have been pushed and shoved, having people touching me as I moved past, having people move past in all directions. You know in those movies where the actor is standing still and everyone is moving and the noise is loud, they are looking around everywhere, unable to focus - that was me. It was so bad that at one point I plastered my back up against the wall and looked at the ceiling and practised my calm, deep breathing, because all I wanted to do was cry uncontrollably, I was panicked. I had to get out of there. But I didn't leave. This is one of those things that I have to work on and so I stuck it out, moved back into the crowds, surrounded myself with Contikians and stayed for another hour before I had had enough.
Felicity and I headed back out and by then it was dark. We grabbed a german sausage in a bun and had a walk around the grounds before calling it quits and heading back to the campsite.

The next morning, some people with a tender heads, we were off again, leaving Germany to go to Switzerland. Before we crossed the border into Switzerland we stopped off in the wee country of Lichtenstein, fourth smallest country in the world. I have now been to three of the four (Vatican and Monaco).
We then stopped off at Lucerne on our way where we checked out the Swiss Army knives and chocolates. I am giving some serious thoughts to finding a position teaching at an international school in Switzerland. I really do like it there and it is very pretty.
It is even more pretty up in the Swiss Alps where we stayed for the next two days.

The end is closing in...

We left Croatia and journeyed into Hungary, heading straight to Budapest. I never knew this but apparently Budapest is actually two separate places: Buda and Pest. Buda is the hilly side of the river and on the opposite side is Pest which is flat.
I actually quite liked Budapest and wouldn't mind going back for a few days to explore in a little more detail. I didn't really feel we had enough time. Especially as our bus driver got us a bit lost and we spent a lot longer on the bus than we should have. Not for the first time either.
We went up to Fisherman's Bastion where we got some photos of the city from above then we were

dropped off into the city. Marika, Will, Amber, Sam, Josh, Nicole and I all went for quite a long walk but before we got started on it we were stopped in the most beautiful Christmas shop. I could have bought so much but I behaved. It helped that everything was so expensive, but I think if I travel in the winter again that will be the thing that I collect - ornaments from around the world for my tree.
We forced ourselves out of the shop and then went along the Chain bridge which during the war was completely destroyed. When you see the pictures of what is looked like after the war and what is looks like today, the destruction is really brought home to you. We then walked along the Buda side of the river so that we could look back at Pest and see the Parliament houses. The building is stunning. Very fairytale like I thought. We continued along to the Margaret bridge, crossed back and then walked up through town to Heroes square where we chilled out at a cafe for a few hours while waiting for the bus. I had the best tea there. It was Lemon and Ginger tea, fresh made. It was two wedges of lemon, one of lime and one of orange, two tablespoons of crushed ginger and honey and hot water. Wow is the only word.
That night we had a boat cruise down the Danube river. We got dressed up-ish and jumped on the boat for a buffet meal and cruise. I tried all sorts of different dishes but they only one I liked was the chicken in paprika and sauce. Everything else was just was to liberally sprinkled with paprikia. Waaaaaay to liberally.
After dinner we all jumped back on the bus and got dropped in the centre of town for a pretend hen and stag night. The aim of the game was to get the "bride" as many free shots as we could. It was great fun but I had had enough by midnight-ish so a bunch of us taxied back to the site where it was quite chilly.

The next day, bright and early we left the camp site, all packed up, but instead of heading straight out we stopped off at the Museum of Terror. It is a museum about the history of Hungary and Budapest. The building that houses the museum was once used by the government as a place to take political prisoners during the war and torture them for information. We were only given an hour there and it is one of those places where you really need more like three. We couldn't have gone on Monday, the day before, as the museum was closed, so the pushed back our departure time in order for us to at least see some of it. The museum had information sheets in each room though, so what we did was to look at all the pictures and watch a few of the videos and collect the sheets to read later. Budapest and Hungary has a very dark, very sad history.

From the museum we headed off to Austria. On the way there we crossed over into Slovakia, stopping in Bratislava for lunch. I was quite excited to be back and it is even more pretty during the day time. It is such a Christmasy-town sort of place with lots of coloured windows and markets, not to mention the range of statues, including my favourite 'Man in an a manhole'.

We re-crossed the border out of Slovakia and into Austria where we headed to Vienna. After a freezing cold couple of nights my time in Vienna was spent shopping for warmer clothes and a Durndel for Octoberfest as it was cheaper to get one there than in Munich. I still got to see a bit of Vienna but I was more interested in getting the dress. It was 80 euros but it is a traditional one and I saved 20 euros on it. I had put money aside for it so I didn't feel bad about spending 160 NZ dollars on the dress. I know I will wear it again. It is me. I love to dress up.

Prague was our next stop. I love Prague with a passion. We crossed borders again, this time into the

Cechz Republic. My first priority was, after another cold night, hunting out a new sleeping bag with more warmth. I managed to accomplish that task quite early on so I spent the rest of my day pottering around the city until 4.30ish when I met up with the group and we headed out to one of the old bomb shelters which has recently been re-opened as a museum. We went down 60 metres and walked around only about 25% of the bunkers, the rest being closed off. It was interesting to hear about the cold war and the fear of nuclear bombings. I didn't know that once a month they set off the emergency sirens at the exact same time and day to test them out. Also, apparently all the underground train tunnels double as bomb shelters with huge nuclear strength doors that can shut in sections. Albania has the most, but no longer has the population to need all of them. Not that that is a shock, after being in to Albania. It is not a shock that there was a mass exodus from that country. At the end of the tour we got to try on the gas masks. I think I look quite fetching. I am sure I could get me a fella if I wore one of these every day. Hahaha.

Eastern Europe on Speed

It has been so busy and fast paced that actually finding time to write about my travels is becoming increasingly difficult. Eastern Europe passed in a blur, partially because a lot of the time we were merely passing through and other times I was just too sick to enjoy it.
However, in the interests of keeping up with the blog I will outline each place and my impressions.

First up after Istanbul (bye bye Turkey) was a quick trip into Bulgaria where we just stayed the night. I have

never been so grateful for a hotel room as I was sick as a dog and vomited off and on most of the night. I would have hated to be in a camp site in the freezing toilets worshiping the porcelain seat. I did get to see a few things in Bulgari before the hotel. We were staying in a place called Struga. There was the most beautiful and humble church there. I have been to a lot of churches this year but that is by far my favourite because of the simplicity and peacefulness of the place. It was not opulent or gaudy, it just was what it was. I am gutted that I couldn't take any photos inside. Out on the streets in Bulgaria was interesting for another reason. There was protests on the streets and a lot of closed streets which we avoided. I know for certain that my insurance does not cover me if I blithely walk into a protest.

The next day we were up and off to Macedonia. We stopped in the capital city of Scopja which was a work in progress. Parts of the city looked to be still being built. What had been built though was lovely and the bridges were decorated in statues. There was also this huge statue of Alexander the Great in the main square with a fountain at the base that shot jets of water up in the sky in a uniform fashion. I could appreciate it but I was still feeling like crap, given that I didn't finish throwing up till 4am that day. I was on a strict diet of dry bread and sips of water.

From Macedonia we crossed borders again into Albania this time. Albania is unlike anything I have ever experienced and I didn't feel entirely safe while I was there. The children are feral and a lot of them seem to travel in packs. We stopped in a small town in Albania which was not great and we had to scoff our meals down as they arrived 5 minutes before we needed to be back on the bus. Some of the kids hanging around the bus (they only looked to about 10) had tattoos and were brandishing fake (we could only hope) guns.  In the end some of the local male adults that were at the restaurant actually came up to the the kids and told them off.
The other thing that there was a lot of in Albania was stolen Mercedes Benz cars. They were everywhere. Inb Albania, to register a car as yours you don't actually need to a VIN number so there were a lot of stolen cars driving around with UK plates. I even saw a Porsche like Uncle Jim's. Hope his is still in the Lakes otherwise I know where it is in Albania. I couldn't believe how many car-strip shops were just blatently out on the streets either.
Albania also has a lot of unfinished houses and roads. They just have no money, so a lot of the time the road
we were travelling down was the main street and that was the only one with tarmac on top, the rest being a series of potholes and gravel and dirt.
Driving in and out of Albania I also noticed how many of the farmers do everything by hand. They were out getting in their crops with scythes and horses with wagons. I think in the entire drive I only saw one farm that actually had a machine tractor for the crops. It was another world all together. It is safe to say that we had no intentions of staying in a camp ground in Albania. We stayed in a hotel on top of a hill in a place called Stirna with high walls and security guards and guard dogs on the grounds at all times.

Leaving Albania the next morning we left Albania and travelled through Montenegro which was so different from Albania it was amazing. As soon as we crossed the border the houses were built and finished, the place safer and cleaner and the roads completed. We didn't actually stop in Montenegro that night, but travelled on to Dubrovnik where we set up camp.

Dubrovnik at night

Finally, after a lot of single night stops we were in Croatia, in Dubrovnik where we stayed for three nights. It was so refreshing to stay in one place. The weather was still warm and apart from a torretial down pour on
the first morning, the heat staying up.
Dubrovnik is a very cool place. We arrived in the evening and headed back out after dinner to a few bars for a bit of a crawl. We started in a bar called the Sky Bar which is also called a Bucket Bar because you can buy your cocktails in a beach sand bucket. HUGE! We didn't end up actually crawling that far and I wasn't drinking so it was just fun watching everyone else go crazy and I just danced.
Dubrovnik is a UNESCO world heritage site too so I can tick another one of the list. It is also where they
shot the series Game of Thrones. How cool is that! The town is a walled city made of smooth lime stone. It is something out of a fantasy book with the white stone streets and buildings. On the first day in town, I went for a look around the town and got caught out in the down pour. I managed to stay mostly dry by ducking into a couple of shops. I ended up buying a handmade bracelet in one of them because it was so pretty. I also had lunch in town with Marissa and Felicity. Fish and chips. It was fresh and not battered. Panfried and crispy bottom, cooked with garlic and olive oil. Mmmmmm.
That afternoon I bought a ticket for the walls and walked the 2kms, stopping often to take photos and do the odd sketch. It was incredibly hot on the walls and I ended up stripping off my shirt on the wall and wrapping a scarf around my self like a halterneck because it was so much cooler.
That next day we were out on a boat cruise to a few of the islands off the coast. It was a bit cooler today
and while I had intentions of going swimming, it didn't happen. The waters are cooling. One cool thing I did do while on the cruise though was to buy a little back with a necklace and an oyster. I had to crack open the oyster with a knive and get out the pearl which is now in a little basket of metal. I got a cream one with means happiness.
What I found interesting about the city itself was the history of the place and they way it portrays its version of history in the war with Serbia. Basically, it is all Serbia's fault and Croatia were not at fault at all. I bet if I went to Serbia I would hear another version of history. I went to a museum room that had pictures of what Dubrovnik looked like after the bombings.All the roofing on the buildings is pretty new when you look at the photos. None of the buildings have roofs there.

We left Dubrovnik reluctantly and stopped off at another UNESCO city called Split in Croatia. Split is very unique. We went to the Diocleasian palace which was built a looooong time ago by the emperor Diocleasian but he never saw it completed and the locals didn't really want to live in it as it was too big to heat etc. The locals only moved into it to defend themselves when they were being raided by other countries. Now there are heaps of markets and shops inside but they cannot be changed as when it gained heritage status it had to stay as it was. Neat.