Now we're sure you've all been missing us lots, so we've decided to come back so that you can all tell us how much. What have we done since our last blog you ask, basically Copenhagen, which has been the least busy stop of our trip due to the fact that its the only place where prices are higher than the UK, and so we can't really afford to do anything. This means we've spent most of our time cooking pasta, (with onion, tomato puree and cheap cheese), which even I am now sick of, but is all we could afford (and even then only by buying onions in bulk). Oh, and for the record cheap horrible cheese here costs about the same as cheese in England. Although we have managed to save up enough money to go on a bus tour of the city seeing all the major sites and to buy an unlimited ride ticket to the Tivoli Gardens (just not quite enough to buy an entrance ticket aswell but as usual our powers of persuassion have been endlessly useful). hahaha, we were discussing today how cheeky we've been at certain points on this trip.. more of these stories when we get home... not long to wait now ;)
the tivoli gardens were awesome, definitely the highlight of copenhagen! And definitely worth not paying to get into. Lol. we are very sad to be leaving, it seems like ages since we wrote the first blog! we have decided there are far cooler places to be than England. Yes, we're not entirely sure Copenhagen is one of them (although Tivoli may swing it) but there are definatly much cooler places, e.g. Paris, Sete, Rome, Naples, Venice, Bolzano, Innsbruck train station, Ljubliana, Salzburg, Vienna, Krakow, Zilina (well the like 3 streets we saw), Prague and Berlin. And of course the many places in Italy we plan to visit next summer.
And of course the tour of the City was quite cool. We saw like all the big places by bus, Little Mermaid, the changing of the Guards (one of whom really freaked out when I walked behind him!), etc. then saw many of them again from the boat, (little mermaid etc.). All the guide books said she was "disappointingly little" but I don't get it, she's life sized, which for a statue named "LITTLE mermaid" is I'd have thought is the biggest you can expect.
well thats about it from us, for the last time this trip, a fond farewell! but this wont be the last blog you get from us! thanks for reading. lots of love dani and scott xxxxxxxxxx
Song of the Moment: Mark Owen - 4 Minute Warning
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Friday 8 August 2008
Homeward Bound
We´re in Copenhagen, we actually made it! I think I´m actually more shocked than you guys. Our train got in all of an hour and a half before our interrail ticket ran out - and it went over a Ferry!!! It was possibly one of the most exciting moments.. of my life. we had no idea until the people that were sitting next to us told us that at some point we would be going on a ferry on the train, otherwise we would have just thought they were saying "get off the train" for uh... legal reasons??!?!?! so yeah that was pretty awesome. i went to the loo on the train, and thought id missed it. turns out it was quite a long crossing. 45 minutes in fact! I thought it was quite exciting too, but to be honest more because it had a duty free, which meant we bought enough to drink for our 4 nights in Copenhagen which turns out to be a very good thing when you see the prices here. We just spent £3 on lunch - for which we got 3 coissants, from a supermarket, and like £1.50 for a bottle of Oringina, and this wasn´t in a Posh Cafe, just a corner supermarket!
we went into a second hand clothes shop and scotts eyes nearly dropped out of his head when he saw a rugby top for €16. They were 190DKK, so like £12 I think, its shocking. I could buy a new rugby to for less than that, they weren´t even like famous strips, just your average public school rugby to that some kid somewhere grew out of and his mum gave to a charity shop!
our experiences of copenhagen so far have been, mixed. our hostel has like 30 beds in one room and this was after we fell out with the first one and left, and found our new hostel at about 12.30am! they also have communal showers and a hefty charge for the internet. but hey... as scott says this mornings going to be the last morning we wake up there without a hangover! at this point he says i should mention that the point of this was because the showers were cold. which is good when you have a hangover (?!). So the Hostel may not be ideal, but it is better than the one we booked into, which despite accepting our booking, about a month ago, and confirming about 2 days ago, didn´t have our booking. In fact the room we booked didn´t even exist! when we arrived we got told they had no mixed dorms (ie you can´t stay in the same room) something of an issue given that by this point our cloths, money, and washbag are totally mixed up between the two bags, so it makes it rather an impracticallity to stay in different rooms, that aren´t even that near each other. given that boys and girls weren´t allowed in each others dorms atall we would have to meet in the hall each time we wanted to wash, clean our teeth or get dressed. so yeah, our experiences of copenhagen have been mixed, further reinforced by the fact that the last hostel we stayed in, in berlin has become the yardstick against which all hostels shall be measured. i actually want to move into it and live there forever. its also raining. very heavily. so we're sheltering in a library where there is free internet. and newspapers in english! and sofas! so thats pretty cool. and we're going to a flea market tomorrow (im a little put off by the name flea in the title) so all is good. we also have 3 litres of wine and half a litre of jagermeister!
remind us to talk about the "weinerei cafe" when we get home.. it was really awesome in berlin but have to go pretty soon so not enough time.
Anyway, while the internet is free you are also allowed only 20 minutes, we´ve been on half an hour (since no-one was waiting) but now someone is, so we must say our goodbye´s;
Bye.
tah - rah.
Song of the Moment: Abba - Money, Money, Money
we went into a second hand clothes shop and scotts eyes nearly dropped out of his head when he saw a rugby top for €16. They were 190DKK, so like £12 I think, its shocking. I could buy a new rugby to for less than that, they weren´t even like famous strips, just your average public school rugby to that some kid somewhere grew out of and his mum gave to a charity shop!
our experiences of copenhagen so far have been, mixed. our hostel has like 30 beds in one room and this was after we fell out with the first one and left, and found our new hostel at about 12.30am! they also have communal showers and a hefty charge for the internet. but hey... as scott says this mornings going to be the last morning we wake up there without a hangover! at this point he says i should mention that the point of this was because the showers were cold. which is good when you have a hangover (?!). So the Hostel may not be ideal, but it is better than the one we booked into, which despite accepting our booking, about a month ago, and confirming about 2 days ago, didn´t have our booking. In fact the room we booked didn´t even exist! when we arrived we got told they had no mixed dorms (ie you can´t stay in the same room) something of an issue given that by this point our cloths, money, and washbag are totally mixed up between the two bags, so it makes it rather an impracticallity to stay in different rooms, that aren´t even that near each other. given that boys and girls weren´t allowed in each others dorms atall we would have to meet in the hall each time we wanted to wash, clean our teeth or get dressed. so yeah, our experiences of copenhagen have been mixed, further reinforced by the fact that the last hostel we stayed in, in berlin has become the yardstick against which all hostels shall be measured. i actually want to move into it and live there forever. its also raining. very heavily. so we're sheltering in a library where there is free internet. and newspapers in english! and sofas! so thats pretty cool. and we're going to a flea market tomorrow (im a little put off by the name flea in the title) so all is good. we also have 3 litres of wine and half a litre of jagermeister!
remind us to talk about the "weinerei cafe" when we get home.. it was really awesome in berlin but have to go pretty soon so not enough time.
Anyway, while the internet is free you are also allowed only 20 minutes, we´ve been on half an hour (since no-one was waiting) but now someone is, so we must say our goodbye´s;
Bye.
tah - rah.
Song of the Moment: Abba - Money, Money, Money
Tuesday 5 August 2008
"From Paris to Berlin, in every disco we get in..." (so close and still in one piece)
So our interrail ticket runs out in all of 11 hours and we´re just about to leave our penultimate stop, Berlin, which btw has been amazing. Before we tell you about that though I have a slight complaint. I know we´re nearly finished, and you guys have pretty much decided we´re on the home straight, and its plain sailing from here, but there´s no need to totally stop caring about us, so a little more appreciation for this blog than the last (show via well thought out and interesting comments) would be great.
scott has checked the blog for comments every day and has come off the internet saying sadly "no comments :(" you guys should be ashamed of yourselves!
Anyway, moving on from that sad note, Berlin has been awesome. yesterday we went to an... interesting museum, which would have been great except for the fact that it was written entirely in german and russian. i guess we should have realised from the name "german-russian museum" huh?! And they really didn´t like tourists foreigners (ie not German/Russians) being there - we were getting evils from the people running it the whole time, and the book we got in English said they didn´t have English titles due to a lack of space. To be honest from what i seen there was plenty of space available for a bit of english shoved on the side, i mean movable plaques or something at the very least! then they could just have got them out from their shameful positions on the side when they had english visitors and no one would have needed to know there was english there!! In short, the English were allowed in, but no welcomed.
On a brighter note, the other museum and the tour we did were both awesome. The tour covered all the major sites in Berlin, checkpoint charlie and one of the last sections of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Quarter and Museum Island. Along with lots of cool stories about the History of Germany (its formation, how WWI started, how it lead to WWII and then the divide of Berlin and eventual fall of the Berlin wall). I learnt more than I have in years of History lessons. It really put the stuff in other countries into context, since for obvious reasons Berlin is at the centre of European History over the last 100 years. Its where world history was changed forever with two words - "effective immediatly"! (ask when we get home)
The other museum was the "Museum of everyday life in the DDR" Deutchland Democratic Republic - not as Democratic as it sounds, it was the name of Communist, Dictatorship east Germany! ok so gotta be quick coz we have a train to catch, but yeah this museum was awesome. its really interactive so they have a wardrobe of clothes that were available for east germans at that time which you could try on. Dont ask to see pictures when we get home, theyre never leaving my pc. but more on that when we get home. we must be off now folks, we will blog again before we see you again. Yes must rush, we have a train to catch - that if we miss leaves us far from our flight home (127€ each to be precise) and that we havn´t technically booked as such. So may be an idea to get there in plenty of time. :p
lots of love dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment (by popular demand, but we'd already thought of it anyway) : Infernal - From Paris to Berlin
scott has checked the blog for comments every day and has come off the internet saying sadly "no comments :(" you guys should be ashamed of yourselves!
Anyway, moving on from that sad note, Berlin has been awesome. yesterday we went to an... interesting museum, which would have been great except for the fact that it was written entirely in german and russian. i guess we should have realised from the name "german-russian museum" huh?! And they really didn´t like tourists foreigners (ie not German/Russians) being there - we were getting evils from the people running it the whole time, and the book we got in English said they didn´t have English titles due to a lack of space. To be honest from what i seen there was plenty of space available for a bit of english shoved on the side, i mean movable plaques or something at the very least! then they could just have got them out from their shameful positions on the side when they had english visitors and no one would have needed to know there was english there!! In short, the English were allowed in, but no welcomed.
On a brighter note, the other museum and the tour we did were both awesome. The tour covered all the major sites in Berlin, checkpoint charlie and one of the last sections of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Quarter and Museum Island. Along with lots of cool stories about the History of Germany (its formation, how WWI started, how it lead to WWII and then the divide of Berlin and eventual fall of the Berlin wall). I learnt more than I have in years of History lessons. It really put the stuff in other countries into context, since for obvious reasons Berlin is at the centre of European History over the last 100 years. Its where world history was changed forever with two words - "effective immediatly"! (ask when we get home)
The other museum was the "Museum of everyday life in the DDR" Deutchland Democratic Republic - not as Democratic as it sounds, it was the name of Communist, Dictatorship east Germany! ok so gotta be quick coz we have a train to catch, but yeah this museum was awesome. its really interactive so they have a wardrobe of clothes that were available for east germans at that time which you could try on. Dont ask to see pictures when we get home, theyre never leaving my pc. but more on that when we get home. we must be off now folks, we will blog again before we see you again. Yes must rush, we have a train to catch - that if we miss leaves us far from our flight home (127€ each to be precise) and that we havn´t technically booked as such. So may be an idea to get there in plenty of time. :p
lots of love dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment (by popular demand, but we'd already thought of it anyway) : Infernal - From Paris to Berlin
Saturday 2 August 2008
We're In Prague Czech Us Out!!
Just got to Prague, which is awesome, staying in a great place and city is awesome. We had a very near miss when we first got here, but we'll save that story for when we get home, lets just say we very nearly became worse off than many communist refugees. But other than that prague is awesome, went to a jazz bar last night. scott wants to talk about krakow first though, so over and out for now. Basically last thing before leaving Krakow we went to Auchwitz and Burkenheim (spelling couretsy of Dani coz i didn't have a clue) and I don't think I should say it was good, in fact all the normal verbs to describte tourist attractions are out, but I think awesome (not in a "it was great" way but a literal, but a shocking scale of it way) is the best I can find. it really was shocking, we watched a film after (in polish coz we missed the english version) but the general jist was pretty clear, graphic is the least i can say. ive got to say though, the worst thing about it was the smell, like a hospital. i dont know if that was psycho-sematic though. I think basically all we can tell you is things you already know from TV documentories and History lessons, but its totally different to see the sheer size of the place, and the piles of shoes etc. that they found when they liberated the camp - just to think each pair of shoes is one person. If Shindlers list made you cry then it'll blow you mind to see it in reality.
Anyway, after this made a move for Prague, which has been awesome. We found a really good, authentic czech pub with a really cheap menu (like 100 Kc or less for a main course). Only problem was when the bill came it was getting on for twice what we expected. He had charged us 4 times the cost of my dumplings (because there where 4 on the plate), a service charge of 60 Kc (not mentioned on the menu), for my beer the more expensive not the cheaper one (like 8 Kc extra)and had ontop of that put a 10% or 15% tip. We dicussed this with him, explaining that its common practice to charge the price stated on the menu. He then dropped everything bar the 60 Kc service charge and extra 8 Kc for beer, which works out to just under 3 euro's over what he should have charged us, so i gave up arguing and paid at this point - still the cheapest meal we've had in Prague, and one of the better ones other than the service.
Lol scott was very angry, it was quite amusing. nearly as angry as when this hostel in prague gave away our rooms, so he told them that maybe they should train their staff to take names for reservations and not give away rooms in future. hahahahahaha. To be fair, we had a reservation, the lady on the phone said that unless she had our name written down we didn't, I explained we had offered to give a name but been told there was no need, so prehaps if they need names for booking staff should be told to take names for bookings, seems logical to me. it was very logical, but also very funny!
anyway, i cant believe we only have 2 places left to go, it makes me very sad. although very surprised as our bags are still almost in 1 piece!! we're just hoping they come off the plane like that aswell! Lol..
ok.. next thing.. free walking tour! scott made us get up really early to go on this walking tour which actually turned out to be quite good. (though i will never admit he was right) I'm pretty sure you just did but I'll be the bigger man and let it go. i should hope you'd be the bigger man seeing as im a girl! he admitted i was right and always am last night though, so i might let him have this one.
Anyway, what did we do in Prague - ummm, went out to Jazz Bars (one just round the corner from the one we went to last time, then the bar, not the actuall show, of the one we went to last time), drank lots of beer, and are just about to go to a Communism museum on our last day.
over and out chaps. we have to go as theres someone else waiting for the pc, plus we have a lot more beer to drink before we can leave!
Next stop Berlin.
lots of love to you all... dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment; Dont Stop Me Now - Queen
Anyway, after this made a move for Prague, which has been awesome. We found a really good, authentic czech pub with a really cheap menu (like 100 Kc or less for a main course). Only problem was when the bill came it was getting on for twice what we expected. He had charged us 4 times the cost of my dumplings (because there where 4 on the plate), a service charge of 60 Kc (not mentioned on the menu), for my beer the more expensive not the cheaper one (like 8 Kc extra)and had ontop of that put a 10% or 15% tip. We dicussed this with him, explaining that its common practice to charge the price stated on the menu. He then dropped everything bar the 60 Kc service charge and extra 8 Kc for beer, which works out to just under 3 euro's over what he should have charged us, so i gave up arguing and paid at this point - still the cheapest meal we've had in Prague, and one of the better ones other than the service.
Lol scott was very angry, it was quite amusing. nearly as angry as when this hostel in prague gave away our rooms, so he told them that maybe they should train their staff to take names for reservations and not give away rooms in future. hahahahahaha. To be fair, we had a reservation, the lady on the phone said that unless she had our name written down we didn't, I explained we had offered to give a name but been told there was no need, so prehaps if they need names for booking staff should be told to take names for bookings, seems logical to me. it was very logical, but also very funny!
anyway, i cant believe we only have 2 places left to go, it makes me very sad. although very surprised as our bags are still almost in 1 piece!! we're just hoping they come off the plane like that aswell! Lol..
ok.. next thing.. free walking tour! scott made us get up really early to go on this walking tour which actually turned out to be quite good. (though i will never admit he was right) I'm pretty sure you just did but I'll be the bigger man and let it go. i should hope you'd be the bigger man seeing as im a girl! he admitted i was right and always am last night though, so i might let him have this one.
Anyway, what did we do in Prague - ummm, went out to Jazz Bars (one just round the corner from the one we went to last time, then the bar, not the actuall show, of the one we went to last time), drank lots of beer, and are just about to go to a Communism museum on our last day.
over and out chaps. we have to go as theres someone else waiting for the pc, plus we have a lot more beer to drink before we can leave!
Next stop Berlin.
lots of love to you all... dani and scott xxx
Song of the Moment; Dont Stop Me Now - Queen
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