We arrived in Krakow at 7am after having an entire cabin to ourselves on the train! Love itttt! However, due to the lost cell phone in Budapest, I had no way of contacting my cousin Luis in order to meet up with him! OOPS!
Fortunately a thing called Facebook exists, so we had posted on his wall or messaged him (something like that) and things EVENTUALLY worked out... a pay phone was involved too. Using one of those kinda felt like 2001 or something.
We met with Luis just after 9am and went to his apartment where we could settle in, shower, and change our underwear (required). Some of Luis' Portuguese friends came over and we all ended up going to the Auschwitz concentration camp - all 6 of us... in a 5 person car. April had to sit on my lap for the 90 minute ride - COMFY!
Auschwitz, like Dachau near Munich, was a sad experience, but important nonetheless. Luis and his friend left us there with 2 Portuguese guys our age and the four of us wandered around 2 of the 3 camps taking photos and taking everything in. It was very unreal and shocking while we weer there as we ventured around in silence taking photos and recording videos. Hard to believe that something like that could have happened :(
But enough depressing things, we caught the mini bus/van back to Krakow that afternoon. We thought the car was full coming in - we ended up having 30 people in a 20-seater van.... a little stuffy and awkward, with an old dirty man almost sitting on my knee - he almost made me cry.
That evening, back in Krakow, Luis and Kateryna (gf) treated us and some friends to a barbecue at their apartment. We ate mounds of meat and beer and afterwards, everyone but April and I went to the bar - yes, we're old ladies.. but we spent the night before on a train (excuuuuuuuuuse us haha). Apes 'n I passed out on the couch/bed to tackle the next day.
Day 2
We spent the next day at the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of Krakow. Of course, there were 6 of us in the car again, but we found a more comfortable position for April to sit in on my lap. It was better for everyone.
The mines were cool.. 14 degrees cool to be exact - and we went on a THREE hour tour of the mines. The tours were mandatory... Apes 'n I don't have attention spans that last that long, but we tried our best. There were salt sculptures all over the place, many made by the miners themselves which was really neat. The best thing that we saw though was the huge church inside! There were salt chandeliers, salt sculptures of religious figures, and best of all - a 3-D salt sculpture/painting of the Last Supper... so good! Of all the churches that we've seen on our travels (trust me, there have been A LOT), the salt mine one was the coolest!
The tour finally ended and we took the elevator back up to the top as the sunlight melted my buttery skin... always.
Once back to the city, we ventured near the centre to grab some Polish food at a cheap place near te train station. I think the two meals plus drinks that April and I got cost a grand total of something like 5-7 euros.... AND we were stuffed by the end!
We went back to Luis' after getting our train tickets and scrambled to get our bags packed and board our sketchy sketchy sketchy Polish overnight train to Berlin!! YAY!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Home sweet home
Just letting everyone out there know that Apes 'n Ju have landed safely back in Canada and returned to their respective homes in London and Belleville.
Sorry for the long waiting period for the next set of blog posts - they should be up tomorrow. Like we've said many times before - Internet time is precious and when you're at the end of a 6 week stint of traveling, you don't really want to spend so much time on the computer.
Until then - ciao bellas!
Sorry for the long waiting period for the next set of blog posts - they should be up tomorrow. Like we've said many times before - Internet time is precious and when you're at the end of a 6 week stint of traveling, you don't really want to spend so much time on the computer.
Until then - ciao bellas!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Budapest, Hungary; July 31- August 2, 2009
A train to Budapest after a leisurely morning and then a walk through the Ghetto to get to our hostel - WHAT THE HECK? Ya, so worst hostel to date hands down goes to Budapest. Oh well at 8€ a night I guess you can't be too picky. So we leave to explore, get tired and fall asleep in a park. When we finally get up, we do some exploring...they have some really cool buildings on the Pest side! In true Hungarian style, we eat goulash for dinner and meet our new friend John - an old man from England. He shares lots of stories with us, tells us jokes and pretty much just chats our ears off for the entire meal. We head back early thanks to the fact that we're staying in the Ghetto and neither one of us wants to die on this particular evening.
Traveler's burnout hits us hard on day 2. We don't want to do anything, we don't want to see anything, but we do anyways. Taking in the rest of Pest and then over to Buda to see the castle, we see enough, eat dinner and head back...aren't we exciting!? We do however get treated to a Brian Adam's concert off in the distance once back to our room! HEY!!!
So to combat burnout we decide to sit by the pool all day at a Turkish Bath. Hot water, warm water or cool water the choice is yours and there are about a million different pools to choose from. To cool down we head to the....hot pool...SO not refreshing, but definitely funny. The afternoon sun is so hot that you can't stay out of the pool for longer than 15 minutes without thinking that you're going to overheat. When we've had enough sun, we head to the train station to pick up some dinner and catch our overnight train to Krakow. During this time we also discover that Julie's cellphone has gone missing and no one can seem to locate it.
Once on the train, everyone sweats to death as they wait for it to head out of the station, where we can finally catch a breeze. Oh well, can't complain too much, we have beds on this train for the FIRST TIME during our travels! YEAH for a little sleep!
Traveler's burnout hits us hard on day 2. We don't want to do anything, we don't want to see anything, but we do anyways. Taking in the rest of Pest and then over to Buda to see the castle, we see enough, eat dinner and head back...aren't we exciting!? We do however get treated to a Brian Adam's concert off in the distance once back to our room! HEY!!!
So to combat burnout we decide to sit by the pool all day at a Turkish Bath. Hot water, warm water or cool water the choice is yours and there are about a million different pools to choose from. To cool down we head to the....hot pool...SO not refreshing, but definitely funny. The afternoon sun is so hot that you can't stay out of the pool for longer than 15 minutes without thinking that you're going to overheat. When we've had enough sun, we head to the train station to pick up some dinner and catch our overnight train to Krakow. During this time we also discover that Julie's cellphone has gone missing and no one can seem to locate it.
Once on the train, everyone sweats to death as they wait for it to head out of the station, where we can finally catch a breeze. Oh well, can't complain too much, we have beds on this train for the FIRST TIME during our travels! YEAH for a little sleep!
Vienna, Austria: July 29-30,2009
Up and breakfast at the hostel. We also had the priviledge of being yelled at in German for making sandwiches for lunch. Well if you didn't want people making food for later maybe you should eat regular breakfast foods instead of having soup and sandwiches at 7am...don't we think that would be a wise decision? Anyways, then we get on a train to Vienna. Fast forward a few hours and we've dropped our bags off at the hostel (yeah for getting a 2 bedroom instead of a 3 cause they were out!) and we've headed into town to see the sights...well at least we think we're headed into the city. We're actually headed in the wrong direction, Julie and her directions are a little off these days. Oh well, we finally see some sights, make dinner back at the hostel, and attempt to score our free internet time. No such luck the internet is out, so like old ladies we head to bed early. Oh did I forget to mention that Julie managed to spill her Sbux coffee ALL over herself? She did. Oh, and she was wearing a white shirt.
Day 2. We're woken up by a jackhammer outside our window at exactly 7 am - not my favourite thing in the world. So when we finally get sick of hearing all this noise we get up and do some more exploring. We take a tour of the Spanish Riding School, find some crazy architecture that Julie is still talking about to date. Dinner and bedtime come early once again, and our time in Austria has come to an end.
Day 2. We're woken up by a jackhammer outside our window at exactly 7 am - not my favourite thing in the world. So when we finally get sick of hearing all this noise we get up and do some more exploring. We take a tour of the Spanish Riding School, find some crazy architecture that Julie is still talking about to date. Dinner and bedtime come early once again, and our time in Austria has come to an end.
Salzburg, Austria: July 27-28,2009
An early morning indeed, we hit up the bakery and got on our 8 hour train to Salzburg. Lots of sleep was had on this train. When we arrived, we got the directions to our hostel and got on the bus. 45 minutes later, we're still riding the bus and realize that we have missed our stop...a LONG time ago. You'd think the mountains getting closer would have tipped us off a little sooner, but we're tired ok! So we finally get to where we're supposed to be, check in AND...you guessed it, start our laundry. You didn't guess that? Well why not? So ya - laundry in, we head into town to find some pizza. What we end up finding is the best pizza we've ever had! Italy pay attention, you've got some work to do. Anyways we split a pizza cause we're being cheap and then get coffee (apparently being cheap went out the window). Oh well, Lemoncello on the house made up for it.
Day 2. We rent bikes and head out to Hellbrun, and yes we pay the ridiculous fee to see the Trick Fountains. The guy who had these fountains put in is hilarious - look them up. Then we tour around the rest of the grounds and see the Sound of Music Gazebo. On the way back into town it POURS and we're looking like drowned rats by the time we make it back to the hostel. Lunch and a nap is enough time to get rid of the rain pain and we're back out to explore the city. We end up back at the Italian place for pizza and then we return to the hostel for more laundry and a viewing of the Sound of Music. When in Salzburg....
Special mention goes to the creepy Asian girl who actually chained her bags to the bed with a bike lock. We didn't have the heart to tell her that you can just lift up the bed.
Paris... again
Arriving in Paris, we thought it would be a good idea to book our trains out of there at the same time so to save us the hassle of dealing with it on Sunday. Concurrent with our previous luck with trains, this was no different. All trains to Austria on Sunday night were packed full so we were forced to stay another night in Paris - no worries, we'll sleep in the train station.
We eventually arrived at the hostel where there was a room mixup and we didn't get to share our room with April's friends - kind of a bum deal, but we managed (you see, Apes 'n I are very good at managing during tough times, we've had enough of them by now).
We decided to go and visit the basilica of Sacre Coeur since it was just up the road from us and we hadn't seen it on our last visit. We sat and enjoyed the view while listening to some extremely entertaining music. However, while taking the obligatory photos, a sketch artist approached us and immediately fell in love with our eyes (of course, right?). After making some comments about April's hands, he proceeded to explain his views on meeting strangers etc. I could go into more detail here, but I won't.
We met with April's friend Alex and her friend Erin, ate dinner and then proceeded to get some wine and have a classy night under the Eiffel Tower. So typical, I know... but it was necessary. The night eventually took a turn for the worse when April had to pee. Refusing to go in the bushes like everyone else, Apes and I ended up going on a hunt for a potty. Unfortunately, there aren't too many avaiable at 1am, so she sucked it up and gave in to Mother Nature. Phew!
While Apes 'n I headed back to the hostel for a sleep, Alex and Erin wandered from the hostel in search of a bar. Once 4am hit and Erin was mistakenly offered 10 euros for her "services", they decided to do as we did and go to bed.
The next day arrived as we prepared ourselves for the TOUR DE FRANCE - oolala. Big woop, we already saw it hahaha. We ended up getting some nice seats on "borrowed" metal chairs. Don't worry Nance, we were following everyone else's lead. 3 long, hot hours later, the riders came speeding through as people cheered and clapped and wooted and tooted all the livelong day. Then they came around again, and the audience repeated. And again.... and well, that's when we were like, "Alright time to go!"
That evening, we tried our hands at a Scottish pub quiz - nothing in comparison to Ma Nolan's back in Nice... we miss it! Needless to say, we sucked the big one and went back to grab our packs.
Upon our return to the hostel, we were ready to go to the train station for a mediocre night's sleep, when all of a sudden, a kind gentleman from Tennessee offered us an extra bed in his room. A bed? For free? Okay! So we slept in our clothes and got up at 6am ready to catch our train to Salzburg!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
We eventually arrived at the hostel where there was a room mixup and we didn't get to share our room with April's friends - kind of a bum deal, but we managed (you see, Apes 'n I are very good at managing during tough times, we've had enough of them by now).
We decided to go and visit the basilica of Sacre Coeur since it was just up the road from us and we hadn't seen it on our last visit. We sat and enjoyed the view while listening to some extremely entertaining music. However, while taking the obligatory photos, a sketch artist approached us and immediately fell in love with our eyes (of course, right?). After making some comments about April's hands, he proceeded to explain his views on meeting strangers etc. I could go into more detail here, but I won't.
We met with April's friend Alex and her friend Erin, ate dinner and then proceeded to get some wine and have a classy night under the Eiffel Tower. So typical, I know... but it was necessary. The night eventually took a turn for the worse when April had to pee. Refusing to go in the bushes like everyone else, Apes and I ended up going on a hunt for a potty. Unfortunately, there aren't too many avaiable at 1am, so she sucked it up and gave in to Mother Nature. Phew!
While Apes 'n I headed back to the hostel for a sleep, Alex and Erin wandered from the hostel in search of a bar. Once 4am hit and Erin was mistakenly offered 10 euros for her "services", they decided to do as we did and go to bed.
The next day arrived as we prepared ourselves for the TOUR DE FRANCE - oolala. Big woop, we already saw it hahaha. We ended up getting some nice seats on "borrowed" metal chairs. Don't worry Nance, we were following everyone else's lead. 3 long, hot hours later, the riders came speeding through as people cheered and clapped and wooted and tooted all the livelong day. Then they came around again, and the audience repeated. And again.... and well, that's when we were like, "Alright time to go!"
That evening, we tried our hands at a Scottish pub quiz - nothing in comparison to Ma Nolan's back in Nice... we miss it! Needless to say, we sucked the big one and went back to grab our packs.
Upon our return to the hostel, we were ready to go to the train station for a mediocre night's sleep, when all of a sudden, a kind gentleman from Tennessee offered us an extra bed in his room. A bed? For free? Okay! So we slept in our clothes and got up at 6am ready to catch our train to Salzburg!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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