The Magnificent Vienna, Austria

For more photos, look at Whitney's photo albums labeled by city on Facebook.

When we got into Vienna, it was late afternoon and my birthday was fading fast. We needed to find the hotel that we had booked especially for my birthday (which was only slightly more than staying in our hostel).
So, just like in every other city, Collin quickly devised a public transportation plan for us and we were off. And, just like in every other city, we came out a little wary about what we saw. A lot of closed-down shops, reconstruction projects, and not a piece of beautiful architecture in sight. But, it was my birthday, and I refused to have a bad attitude.
We found our hotel, which was out of character for the neighborhood. The tables in the dining room were covered in ironed red tablecloths and the furnishings were modern and fresh.
When we got to our room, we were pleased to find that we didn't have a view of the street, but instead, the courtyard in the center of the building.
The most important part of the room, however, was the fan. There was a fan pointing directly into the center of the room, and we looked at it like someone opened the doors to a steakhouse and said, "Have at it!"
After talking a little bit about the fancy dinner we'd been planning, I realized that I would like to go to a movie. A movie in English, with characters I know and love. Somthing that would make me feel at-home on my birthday.
There was only one option: Sex and the City 2.
It was supposed to be horrible, and I guess if you are looking for a storyline and good writing, you might think it was so. But for me, it was a chance to see a few familiar faces with familiar attitudes and perspectives.
It was great. Afterward, Collin and I window shopped on our way home and talked. Just talked happily as we made our way back to our version of luxury. We had bathrobes and slippers waiting for us in the room, and a TV that offered a few shows in English.
In the morning, we feasted on the buffet breakfast they offered at the hotel, complete with fine cheeses and freshly baked croissants. Then, we shopped around the little stores that we felt lucky that we were in the less expensive part of town. We got an alarm clock--finally--so that we could be sure to make it to our bus on time, and Collin got a pair of shorts, which he needed becasue two of his pants had been destroyed in the last three weeks from the wear of traveling.
After a VERY cheap lunch of schnitzel for Collin and durun kebap for me, we made our way back to the hostel that we would be staying in for the next four nights.
We checked in and got settled after a lengthy walk from the undergroud station, and while Collin caught up on blogging, I found a pamphlet on Vienna, which we needed to tell us what we should see while we are here.
I found quite a few things that we needed to see: the Hofburg Palace, the Schonbrunn Palace, the Belvedere Palace, the Museum Quartier, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and the Freud Museum.
I also found a small train that takes people to the wine country just outside of the city. Busabout, the company we're traveling with, offers a trip like it for $65 per person, and it is centered around wine drinking, so reluctantly we passed on taking it because we weren't even going to partake in the activities that cause the high price. I was disappointed because I expect the Austrian countryside to be just beautiful, so when I read about the Vienna Heurigen Express, a wine country trainthat it only costs $10 per person, complete with narratives in English, the "romantic Vienna woods," and the beautiful coutnryside views, I was ecstatic!
After planning a few days' activities, we homed in on one more attraction: the Rathaus Annual Film Festival.
From July 3rd to September 12th, Vienna's town hall (a majestic and expansive building with spires and statues adorning its outer walls and roof) hosts thousands of Vienese and toursists while they watch recordings of ballets, operas, symphonies, and concerts.
Because we didn't want to waste the day, we decided to go. At sundown, the film would begin, so after another cheap meal, we headed to Rathaus.
We were in awe when we arrived. The buildings and public space were breathtaking. The screen was enormous, and people were mingling and eating at the nearby restaurants before the film started at 9. We found fantastic seats and waited until the show began.
When it did, we were impressed by the amazing sound quality of each instrument and voice that accompanied the National Ballet of France as it performed "Ballets Russes."
The night air was the perfect temperature, and the sky was clear so that we could see the stars--even in the city. The huge screen stood just in front of the beautiful Rathaus (Town Hall), so from every angle the view was spectacular. I mean every angle. When we turned around, there was another ENORMOUS white building with a dome in the middle that was lit beautifully. And to our right and left, there was a romantically paved park where people were chatting and smoking through the evening. As we left, the building turned on the small white lights in the alcoves of the architecture in the Rathaus, which made for a splendid sight to see!
Vienna might rival Paris as the most romantic city in Europe. I can't remember a single moment when a smile wasn't on my face or a kiss on my lips. We are just so happy here, surrounded by so much rich, beautiful history.
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This morning, we woke up late and decided to hit the ground running on seeing the sights. We've learned that the best thing to do is see the main sights first. In Prauge, we would have been much more impressed with the city had we gone to see the most important sight first.
So we headed to the Hofburg Palace.
This palace was the residence of the six-century-long monarchy of the Habsburg family, which was once the most powerful empire in Europe.
There are 10 buildings that comprise the palace complex, most of which have been converted into museums.
Some of the main attractions, however, are: the family's silver collection containing hundreds of years of fine dining ware fit only for the Habsburgs; the Sisi Museum that showcases the life and personality of one of the most posthumously popular Austrian royals: Elisabeth of Bavaria; and of course, the Imperial Apartments in which the royal family spent most of their time.
We purchased our tickets to these three exhibits and grabbed hand-held audio guides. The first thing we saw were the dishes. They were made of the most exquisite gold, silver, and later, porcelain. In the beginning, the hundreds of pieces that went into each set were hand-painted. Some of the sets were inherited from family and friends in other countries, and others were made in the royal silver and porcelain shops.
When we thought we'd seen it all, TWENTY more rooms followed! There were dishes from almost every decade for hundreds of years. They were so intricate and ornate! Breathtaking! So much wealth in the dinnerware alone! We learned about the dining etiquitte that the vistitors and family used on a daily basis as well as on special occasions.
After the LONG tour through the thousands of dishes that still exsist after the monarchy fell at the end of World War I, Collin was starving, so we headed out to find lunch.
When we returned, we worried that the two exhibits we had left to see would be as in-depth.
The exibits were incredible and luckily not insufferably long.
We saw the Sisi Museum first.
Elizabeth of Bavaria was born in Munich to a somewhat royal family who tended to stay out of the formal life that other royal families lived. Elizabeth, or Sisi as everyone called her, grew up in a very carefree and unrestrained household, so when she was asked to marry the man who would become the Emporer of Austria, she did, but found herself unhappy for the rest of her life.
She felt restrained by the life of an Empress, and constantly sought refuge in other countries, poetry, horseback riding, learning other languages, and obsessive diet and exercise. She was 5'8" and approximately 100 pounds at her heaviest. She was revered for her beauty, which was complemented by her ankle-length hair.
Her very depressing life, which in the final years was clouded by the memory of her son who committed suicide, ended when an Italian anarchist assasinated her as she boarded a ship.
The exhibit was interesting because we got to see so much of such a prominent figure in Austrian history, but it was so sad. Although much was said about how her husband adored her, nothing was said about their mutual affection.
The final part of the tour was through the Imperial Apartments, which were impressive. We saw the private rooms with murals painted by famous artists, gorgeous furniture, lush red carpeting in every room, gold painted trimming on all of the doorframes and around the ceilings. We saw where the family ate their 7-14 course meals every day, and where they bathed when the day was done.
If ever there was a palace to end all palaces, this would be it. The whole experience was exactly what you would think of when you imagine the life of royalty--twofold. To be in the presence of such elegance and wealth was somewhat suffocating, but it was incredible to se that royalty like that actually exsisted!
After heading for a quick look at Museum Quartier, which is supposed to be a hip, happenin' place for young people and artists but was really a kind of boring stark area with a few restaurants, we hopped on the underground and headed back to our hostel.
Collin is watching the World Cup, and I am looking forward to the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburgs, and the St. Stephen's Cathedral tomorrow!

Footnote: Sorry!! I HAD to say how AMAZING THE ICE CREAM IS! We were looking around, wondering why seemingly all the locals had a cone in their hands! So, around noon, which is an appropriate time to start eating ice cream in the day (not like starting to drink at 3 p.m.), we detoured into a cute and busy ice cream shop. We ordered the cones medium cones, which we found could accomodate three flavors. I got pistachio, walnut, and hazelnut (also known as walnusse and haslenusse (I was feeling nutty)), and Collin got Flor Di Basco, coffee, biscuttino. We HAVE NEVER HAD SUCH FABULOUS ICE CREAM. The flavors were so potent and so perfectly sweet. No wonder we see hundreds of people with ice cream in their hands everyday! Biscuittino ended up being my favorite. It is a really rich wafflecone flavored ice cream--it was to die for!!

Finally, a Pretty Prague!

Before leaving for Europe, when we told people which cities we were visiting a good number of them would stop us and say, "Prague is so beautiful" or "Prague is my favorite, it's so gorgeous" and even our supposedly unbiased tour guide described Prague as the "The prettiest city in Europe". However, after our first four days in Prague on the 'old' side of the city, we came away with different impressions. Whitney thought it was a run-down city with a couple neat historic things to see and although I was enjoying Prague, it was nowhere as beautiful as Amsterdam or Paris.
After our last day in Prague, we came away in agreement that Prague might indeed be the prettiest city in Europe. The book we had about Europe and the tour guide both casually mentioned that the Prague Castle is the top tourist attraction in Prague and warrants a visit. They did not mention that while the castle is gorgeous, that entire side of town (the castle sits on the opposite side of the river as central Prague) is filled with gardens, palaces, monasteries and breathtaking views of Prague due to its locatin on a big hill (think Pittock Mansion in NW Portland).
We went looking for our first stop of the day, the Wallenstein Palace but found the Czech Senate instead. The senate building was surrounded by a mini-labyrinth of shrubs that opened to a beautiful fountain and a pathway lined with statues that led to the building itself. For some reason they had a fenced in area where they kept around ten large owls. Next to the birds was a big dripstone wall that Whitney found beautiful and I found to be a little bit wierd. We left the senate area and walked around trying to find the palace, until Whitney pointed out that the picture for the Wallenstein Palace on our map looked very similar to the senate building we just saw. We realized we had just seen the Wallenstein Palace without realizing it because it wasn't written anywhere (in english anyway) that the senate actually meets in Wallenstein Palace.
We got some good exercise walking up that giant hill, and we rewarded ourselves by relaxing in the shade of a beautiful old monastery (right) and taking in the views of Prague. We walked around a little bit (Collin's euphamism for getting lost) because at that point we were off the edge of the map, but found ourselves back where we needed to be...lunch. We had our second traditional Czech lunch. Whitney had bratwurst and sauerkraut while I had a delicious pork chop with roast potatoes. The Castle was very large but surpisingly un-castle. It was fantastic for two reasons; St. Vitus' Cathedral and the gardens surrounding the castle walls. The actual castle walls had been replaced or at least filled in with tourist shops and overpriced cafes.
The cathedral was incredible. I would guess the ceiling was over 100 feet high and everywhere you turned there was incredible stained glass or a gold and silver statue. I won't write much about it because all of its magnificence was visual. Hopefully our pictures give you some idea of how beautiful it is. We then walked down the gardens that are a series of stairways and switchbacks in a 'chutes and ladders' sort of fashion, but surrounded by lavender, roses, grapes and other gorgeous plants. After descending, we walked through a really neat park where we saw a group of female Peacocks. Then we found our way to the Lennon Wall, which is where people "wrote freely" during communism because the wall was technically on embassy property. Next we walked over Charles' Bridge, the most famous and oldest bridge in Prague. There were tons of sketch artists on the bridge, all offering to draw flattering portraits or caricatures. As we stepped off the bridge, we realized that we had crossed the river away from the true beauty of Prague.
When we got back to the hostel, we were beat. We had a cheap dinner from the supermarket and watched the first 70 minutes of the Germany-Spain World Cup Semifinal game (which Germany unfortunately lost, so everyone should be rooting for The Netherlands in the championship). We wanted to get to bed early but it turned out that we were up late enough for me to sing "Happy Birthday" to Whitney a few minutes after midnight.
We felt cheated because we only got to spend one day seeing the real, beautiful Prague. I would reccomend it to anyone who comes to Europe and especially if you like old churches, towers, palaces and castles. (AND DON'T TRY TO PET THE DOGS; Whitney got violently barked at three times before she gave up on petting the pups.)

We are off to Vienna, and if it's as beautiful as everyone says it is, then we will have plenty to write about and plenty of pictures to share. Thanks for reading.

The Underground City of Prauge

After a couple of days in Prague, we were persuaded yet again that the best idea is to take a tour. Without tours, cities are just confusing combinations of oddly named streets and beautiful, unidentifiable buildings.
While Collin was blogging, I wandered around the lobby of our hostel. I poked my head into the corner where the vending machines ask for 35 Czech Crowns for a soda (which is about $1.25, but it is shocking to see a number in the tens). I perked up my ears to listen to the differnt languages people were mumbling to each other in, and finally, I took a look at the wall of brocures, lazily thinking that nothing would spark my interest.
Luckily, I was wrong.
I found a flier that said "Prague Undergroud Tour." I looked a little closer to find out that there are in fact remnants of the first streets of Prague, or "Praha" as the Czech refer to it, two stories below what is now ground level.
The tour was 400 Czech Crowns, which is 20 dollars, but the flier advertised a 33% discount, and since we had been saving so much money staying in Prague, it sounded like the perfect tour. It included a tour of the underground, a city history (which we desparately needed), and a drink afterward.
We met in Old Town Square, which is one of the main tourist attractions. The streets of Old Town and the east side of the river were somewhat scummy and filled with closed-down shops from ten to fifteen years ago. But the Old Town Square had some gorgeous architecture including the Town Hall that proudly wears the famous and beautiful Astrological Clock (which we later learned was celebrated by burning the eyes out of its creator so that he couldn't make a similar clock for another city. Stories of barbaric Czech violence like these color the rest of the tour's tales blood red.)
When we started the tour, Collin handed the money to the man, who promptly prepared our change, and instead of placing it in my open-faced palm, he brushed past me to find Collin's. I was offended, but then I realized that we were in a different culture and that maybe Czech men would be outraged if a salesman gave the change to his girlfriend.
Much to my delight, this man was not the tour guide. Instead it was a girl who had a very lackluster sense of humor that was monotone, dry, and sarcastic and presented in a Czech accent--it was fabulous. I laughed out loud at her jokes, which sounded like they came out of a How to Give an Underground Tour of Prague tape, because I couldn't help but find her serious, dry voice to be exactly what I expected from a post-teen Czech tour guide!
For what I could understand of the tour, which was most things but a few things still fell through the cracks of her murmured second-language, Prague started at the castle. There is a folktale that says that there was once a princess who had a vision of the city that would one day become Prague, and as she pointed to the region where the city would someday stand, a man was in the forest chopping down a tree for a threshold for his door--hence the name Prague, which loosely means threshold, comes from the correlation between the princess and the guy in the woods. The more likely scenario is the second version we heard, which was that when people would cross the Vltava river, they would go through what would become Prague because it it is the most shallow point in the river, thus, a threshold.

(The photo is of a mosaic showing the princess pointing toward what would someday be Prague that is on the ceiling of the Town Hall building that leads to the undergournd remnants.)

Anyway, like I said, Prague started as at the Prague Castle. First, there was St. Vitus' church around which a castle and community were built. As the community outgrew the castle village, the king ordered that fortifications be built around the settlements that were forming beyond the castle walls.
As they built the fortifications, they dug up so much earth that they were presented with the dilemma of what to do with it. (Now the specific time scale of all of this gets a little hazy, but this is what I could make of what she said.) They then had two problems: a flooding river and excess earth.
They then decided that they should raise the ground level of Prague so as to prevent floods and to do it with the excess dirt they had. After that, what was once street-level became basements and cellars as a new city was built on top of the old.
It was amazing to stand between walls that were built in the 1200s and then covered as the new Prague went on above it.
There were these incredible wells all around the underground village, and the tour guide explained that the archaeologists were able to go in and sift through the refuse that was once tossed into a well that was no longer used for water to uncover specifics about how the people who lived in the original Prage went about their daily lives.
There were statues lining the walls that represented families that had killed each other

to climb the social totem pole. There were tales of people being thrown down holes in the ground as punishment and left there to die. There were names carved in stones in a room that served as 27 men's final living space before they were executed in the 1600s for exiling a reformer who came back to seek revenge. They were all thrown out the window the next day.
Garlic was hung to represent the culture's superstition in vampires, and animal bones in the walls because the people believed that it would fend off evil spirits. (Collin is standing next to what was once an oven that has animal bones in the area above the brick.) It was amazing! This was such a beautiful tour that showed us so much about the history of Prague and the people who have inhabited it for so long. Collin will tell you about the beautiful things we saw the next day, and aside from those things, this tour was the best part of our trip to Prague!

Blague from Prog

Hello all!
We are now in Prague, and although we haven't done a ton, it has been beautiful and distinct from the rest of Europe. The hostel we are staying in is quite nice, with pool tables, a swimming pool and sauna and free internet, its own restaurant and bar with 20-something televisions and a beach volleyball court to boot. All this and we paid 84 dollars total for the two of us for five days!
Before I get going on beautiful Prague, I would just like to say that I have formally changed my international soccer allegiance. I am an American and will always root for them first, but because they usually aren't around when it matters, I have rooted for Germany for the last eight years ever since I watched them in the World cup in 2002 while I was in Costa Rica. However, after watching them destroy Argentina 4-0 two days ago, a funny thing happened; I didn't get up and hoot and holler like the rest of the people in the bar, and even wearing my "Deutschland" t-shirt, I didn't feel a sense of pride or happiness. I realized that my allegiance lies with Argentina. After living there for 5 weeks last summer and seeing how every single Argentine citizen lived and breathed soccer (my 50-something host mom explained the scoring system for the playoffs in international soccer to me), for the first time I understood how passionate a nation can be for a sport or a team, and I will be rooting for Argentina from now on.
Anyway, after getting into Prague and watching the end of that monstrosity of a game, we settled in, had an OK dinner at the hostel pub, and went to bed early. We roomed with three Kiwis or New Zealanders (one couple and a stray all travelling together), a Canadian girl whom we haven't seen much of, and the mysterious Ricardo, a giant of a young man from Venezuela who now lives in Tuscany and goes to bed routinely at 9 a.m. I say mysterious because he is friendly but quiet and has a sense of humor that takes some patience.
After a good breakfast at the hostel, we decided we were going to take the tram into town because I have a double blister (when the original blister pops but another forms underneath it) and didn't want to walk far. However, my feet were feeling good and we ended up walking all the way into town, which took about an hour. We saw some old towers and buildings, which were beautiful, and we had a delicious, but overpriced, Czech lunch of goulash, dumplings, sauerkraut and roast pork (between the two of us of course).
However, right before lunch, we saw a sign at a theater for a ballet-opera of “Carmen” and Whitney went wild. I had heard of “Carmen” and knew it was a classic, but I didn't know the story and could have done without the opera portion. However, Whitney was ecstatic, and we thought it would be a cool thing to do so we bought tickets for the evening. The presentation was interesting. For each character there were two individuals, an opera singer and a ballet dancer, both on the stage at the same time. Because the orchestra (about 12 people led by the pianist/conductor) was on stage and there were only six dancers and four singers, it was an intimate and interesting setting. The performance was decent; the singers were very talented, and the ballet dancers were good but a little out of sync.
After that, we needed to find a cheap dinner and went to a Chinese place where dinner was $5.50 and $4.50 for each of us, but they "didn't have tap water" and charged for each bottle that barely filled a glass. Regardless, we saw a little of Prague, ate the local food, took in some culture, and met some nice fellow travelers. Tomorrow, we will see much more of Prague and the famous Prague castle awaits us. Thank you for reading.

Terezin POW Camp

On our way from Berlin to Prague, the Busabout tour had scheduled a day trip to a POW camp that was built in the 18th century but used primarily during the Second World War.

Collin's blisters are still horrible, so he couldn't manage a 50 minute walk in the sweltering heat. But I decided to go ahead and bring him the information that he missed.

Terezin was not a concentration camp; it was used to house prisoners of war as well as people who were part of the resistance.

Although it wasn't a death camp, it still operated with horrible conditions for its prisoners. Many of the prisoners were Jews who resisted or "criminals" from the nearby ghetto.

About 2,600 people died in this camp becasue of the disease and hard work they were subjected to as part of their imprisonment.

A bit of good news is that the information packet listed several people who were tried and executed for running the camp, which is probaby not a harsh enough punishment, but makes you feel a little better that someone paid even just a little bit for these injustices.

We walked through the wooden bunks once covered in vermin that the prisoners slept in. We saw the "morgue" where people were placed after they died. We saw the places where people were executed by shooting as well as a gallows that was used to hang Polish people in particular.

There was a one-room "hospital" on site where one doctor worked on the thousands of sick people. Of course one isn't enough, so other prisoners were enlisted to help care for the others. After the war, when they were trying all of the authority figures from the camp, the doctor was pardoned because so many people testified in his favor for his compassion for the prisoners.

We also saw the tiny rooms where the Jewish people were crammed into. The woman guiding the tour said that even though this wasn't a concentration camp, the Jewish people were still treated the worst and died at the highest rates. Many people who came through Terezin were later moved to Death Camps.

One great story from within the walls is the tale of three prisoners who escaped successfully from the prison. They somehow had a few materials, including wire-cutters, and overnight cut through the barbed-wire and climbed over a low wall to get to the expansive fields that lay beyond. By the time the guards found out, the escapees were long-gone. After that, the guards cut a piece of cement off of the wall to prevent further escape, but it is such a miracle that even three people were able to escape successfully.

Outside of the grounds, there is a beautiful cemetery with red roses among all of the graves. There is a Star of David that stands boldly above.

By the way, today is the Fourth of July! Happy Birthday America!

Last night we were in a conversation with people from New Zealand about corruption--namely in the US, and I found myself making a rather brilliant point about corruption. I said that if there is one thing I have learned from traveling it is that almost every single place is corrupt in one way or another. And it is corrupt because people are running it. The whole world has something in common, and that is that sick, twisted, power-hungry, corrupt-natured human beings are running it.

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

After traveling, I feel better as an American. I know that we are hated for being too powerful, too greedy, too fat, too stupid, and all sorts of other things. But I think that we are easy to hate. The other corrupt nations of the world have to point the finger at someone, and we are the sore thumb of a crippled hand--we just stick out further.

Traveling has taught me, or rather solidified my understanding, that we are all equal as humans. Good or bad, we are all innately the same.

Berlin Baby!

Already we have come and gone from Berlin.
On our way, we decided that we needed a little sleep and a little relaxation after getting almost everything we could out of Amsterdam, so after almost a full day of travel from there to Berlin, we figured out a new city's public transportation system yet again to find our way to our hostel.
When we arrived in Berlin, we thought we would just pop over to our hostel, but we didn't realize that our destination was about 40 minutes outside of the city center!
After trying to figure something else out, we gave in and set out to find our way.
For the first time in our trip, we were presented with the challenge of being in a place where we didn't speak the language. We couldn't make out a single word on the ticket purchasing booths, and when we went to the teller, she said that she didn't speak English.
Somehow we managed to communicate our needs and embarked on a half mile walk through the bowels of the underground station to the line we needed.
After 15 stops, we emerged on what we worried would be a rerun of our arrival in Paris. And although things were a little rough around the edges, the area was pretty safe and our hostel was only a few blocks from the station.
The hostel wasn't beautiful, but at least we could talk to the people behind the desk. A few young people inhabited the lobby space, using the computers, and playing chess. The girl behind the desk escorted us to a small room with bright orange walls and IKEA furniture and showed us the showers and toilets down the hall.
We were sweaty and cranky from a long day of hot, humid traveling, but more importantly, we were hungry and on a budget.
It turns out we were in the perfect place for such conditions. We left our doorstep and turned the corner to find an Italian restaurant with personal pizzas for EUR 3.50.
We were the only ones in the restaurant and there was a candle burning at our table. It was sort of romantic in a very "budget" sort of way, and finally we were able to relax a little bit.
As the waiter was making change for us out of a wallet at our table, I noticed that he had blue and white nail polish on his thumbnail. I pointed to it (because we had already established that neither of us spoke the other's language) and he grinned from ear-to-ear and said "Argentina!"
We did what we could to say that we liked Argentina too and smiled at our cheerful waiter.
The next day, Whitney slept until 3 p.m. and Collin explored the small neighborhood we were staying in--finding similarly low-priced meals along the way. In the evening, we watched animal bloopers on YouTube and headed to bed early.
Because the Busabout trip was leaving from the city center, though, we had to find a way to spend our third night as close to the pick-up point as possible. So we booked a hostel as close as we could and set out the next day to check into it and acutally see a few sights before we left.
After a mini-crisis of forgetting that we tucked our debit card into a "safe place," we decided that the things we wanted to see most were the Holocaust Memorial (left) and the East Side Gallery, which is the longest stretch of what is left of the Berlin wall.
The Memorial was breathtaking. The first portion is a long wall that gives the history year-by-year of the persecution of Jews and other holocaust victims. Then we moved into a room with backlighted excerpts taken from letters and notes written during the war that were glowing from the floor. We navigated around all 20 3x5 templates and read about the most appaling and frightening things that happened to the victims of the Holocaust in their own words.
It was so moving to learn in such detail all of the disgusting things that happened. What was even more amazing was the geographical span of German occupation. While I was growing up and learning about the Holocaust, I was somehow under the impression that these horrors occured mostly in Germany and a little bit in the surrounding areas. I had no idea that the Germans occupied almost every country in Europe and put into practice their terrible scheme as far as northern Africa.
That experience was worth traveling to Berlin for, if nothing else. After we moved away from the memorial, we saw the Brandenburg Gate, which is where people crossed from East to West Berlin; the Teirgarten, a massive park in the middle of the city; Unter den Linden, which is a street of lime trees that was a place of luxury before the wall was erected but was neglected while the wall was still standing and has now been restored; and finally, we went over to the East Side Gallery, like I said, the longest stretch of the Wall left standing. It is now covered in art that promotes peace and freedom.
After all of this, we were hot, sticky, and aching from all of the walking (both of us have blisters covering our feet that you wouldn't believe), so we decided that it was time to find a cheap dinner and head toward our new, much better hostel.
The hostel was just fabulous! It had a ton of bright colors covering every surface and all of the furniture was modern and clean. They provided sheets, free Wi Fi, a storage closet, free lockers, and bathrooms in the dorm rooms. There was a bar and a terrace on the top floor and each guest was given a free drink coupon.
We had the greatest roommates! Two guys were from England, one girl was from Canada, and the other girl was from Australia. The girl from Canada went off and did her own thing, but the the five of us sat in the dorm and talked for two hours before heading up to the bar to take advantage of the free drinks (you would not believe how expensive a Diet Coke is here).
We talked about entertainment, school, politics, economics, animals, the things we've seen along our travels, the things we'd like to do in our lives, and all of the history we'd learned while in Berlin.
We could have talked all night with them, but we had to be up at 6:30 to catch the Busabout Coach at 8, so we all headed to bed. It was so safe and nice to be in a room with people we'd gotten to know, and it felt strange leaving them behind in the morning. It felt like we'd made some good friends, but when I thought about facebooking them, I knew that in a matter of months, i would be removing them from my friends list because there would be nothing left to say.
The experience was in-the-moment. It was wonderful. And it ended quickly--the way it is supposed to be on trips like these I suppose.
Now we are moving on to Prague for 5 nights at EUR 6.50 per person per night. We are PUMPED to see how much money we can save in this new city!

Last day in Amsterdam

Well, after thoroughly enjoying our last day in Amsterdam we are moving on to Berlin, but first, a look back at our final day in Holland.
The Country Tour was amazing. The scenery was beautiful and the countryside was peaceful and charming. The tour was four hours long, and even on a bike one would not expect to be able to travel from a major metropolitan area to the "countryside" and back, but because the country is so small, that is exactly what we did. We rode out of Amsterdam along the Amstel River (the namesake of the city) and enjoyed the old mansions that were built so the rich could get away from the city center in the summer when the canals started to stink. Now, of course, they are inhabited year-round and are only a 10-15 minute drive from the city, but the beautiful views of the river and the countryside still make them high-value properties.
We first went to a windmill that was somehow used to pump water out of the wetlands (I am not an engineering student, but it sounded complicated). Next, we went to a cheese farm and clog, or wooden shoe, factory. The farm’s production of the cheese is not enough to export but the cheese is shipped throughout the Netherlands. The owner told us they made Gouda and sometimes put some flavor into it, Whitney asked if they made any other types of cheese and with a somewhat confused look said "uh... no, but if you wait long enough, it turns into Parmesan," because according to this farmer, Gouda is the real cheese. Then, we watched him make a shoe out of a block of wood, which took about 4 minutes and used some impressive machinery. My favorite part was that the owners/farmers were all wearing wooden shoes, which at first I believed to be a tourist gimmick, but when he took off one of his shoes and said "after four years, they wear through a bit," showing us a hole in the heel, I turned to Whitney and said "you know you are Dutch when you wear through a pair of wooden shoes."
We got some souvenirs and moved on, riding peacefully through the wetlands and forests of the "countryside" and learning that nothing is truly wilderness in Holland because every bit of land was under water or covered with Peat and then funneled into canals and chipped away and sold as fuel--making every inch somewhat man-made.
After returning, we relaxed for a while and got ready to go to the Red-Light District, the most anticipated part of our stay in Amsterdam. I won't go into any details, but only because there weren't any. While we were expecting the atmosphere of a sin-filled freak-show, the most shocking thing we saw was what appeared to be tourists from every country of the world, ages 10-80. All the women were clothed (at the very least in underwear and bras) and although the opportunity to go crazy was just around the corner, it was never in your face. Bored and underwhelmed, we returned our bicycles to the rental shop and went home to get some sleep before crossing town to meet up with our group and head to Berlin.
Amsterdam and Holland in general might have been the most beautiful, serene, enjoyable place we've been so far and is really the opposite of its stereotype in many ways. A relaxed, beautiful European town with tons of history and friendly locals of every nationality, Amsterdam is a place everyone should visit.
Thanks for reading and we should have a blog about Berlin coming before the end of the day.