Cabin fever

We arrived in Split at 7am on Saturday morning, spending the morning sitting on the dock waiting to board our sailing ship. The plan was to spend eight days sunning, swimming and exploring Croatia by sea. The reality was quite different!

Apparently it never rains in Croatia, except for the week we came. The first three days were a blur of thunder, lightening, torrential rain and card games. We are both pros at Texas Hold´em poker and Uno, thanks to the group of travellers on our boat.

Its a mixture of young people from Australia, the UK, Ireland, the States and New Zealand (we are two of the three kiwis). Lucky for us they are all good sorts and we have all been getting on pretty well.

The last couple of days have been beautiful, and more like what we were expecting. Today we have just arrived in Makaska and are going to a Pirates and Sailors themed party in a cave bar tonight. Then its back to Split tomorrow where we will spend the night before catching the ferry over to Ancona in Italy.

The plan is to spend eight days there before heading to Greece and Turkey, we just need to work out the finer details.

"Mluvite Anglicky?"

"Do you speak english?" has been our catch phrase for the last few stops on the big adventure.

Prague, the city of tourists was our next stop on the trip, and our favourite so far. We may have been a little biased because we found the sun, but the romantic cobbled streets and amazing architecture certainly helped. Not to mention the delicious honey cake and other local cuisine we tried.

Our first day in Prague was spent walking up the hill to Prague Castle looking back over the city. The next day we took advantage of the free walking again, with Mike born in Canada, raised in Switzerland, living in Prague. Mike showed us a lot of different architecture and a had a few good stories including the liberation of Prague in 1945. That afternoon we tried the local food - Lauren had smoked pork neck with bacon dumplings and stewed cabbage, while Kim had Goulash.

The next morning we left Prague at 8am for Vienna, and wandered around the city aimlessly. We stumbled accross the Hoffburg, aka (to us) the "Hoffburger" or "the Hoff". This is where the royal palaces, parliament and gardens are, but all we could think about was David Hasselhoff.

We made a friend back at the hostel called Siven from New York, who took us to Centimetre for some Austrian chow. the weiner schnitzel was as big as the plate. It was definitely value for money. Tonight was laundry night, so it was like going to the movies as we ate chocolate and watched Vienna's finest weirdos wash their clothes.

When we got back to the hostel we made some more friends called Scott and Claire from Essex. So we made a plan to go to the opera the next night at the Vienna Opera House. Fraust was on for 3 euros standing room only. Great experience, but great experience = sore legs! We had a bus to catch the next morning to Budapest.

Budapest is a funky city, made from 2 regions called Buda and Pest linked by several bridges accross the Danube. It is known for its caves, thermal baths and history, so we're glad we've paid it a visit when it was really just a convenient stop to get to Split in Croatia.

Tomorrow we head to Split for our eight day sailing trip. We are looking forward to lazing around in the sun and eating up large with our pre-paid 2 for 1 deal.

Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin

We left you in Brussels where we'd just had our mussels and chips. We didn't spend a lot of time here based on recommendations, but what we did see we liked. We visted the Grand Place, the Manneken Pis and St Katherine's Cathedral before jumping on a bus to Amsterdam.

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 3pm and wandered around the canals and had an indonesian dinner (because it was a Dutch colony you can get the best Indonesian outside of Indonesia in Holland).

The next day we took advantage of the free walking tour, which was the best thing we could have done. Our tour guide was Kevin from Boston, who knew Amsterdam inside out, after living there for 3 years - his specialty was the red light district. Kevin showed us the origins of the Dutch East India Shipping Co, the narrowest house in Holland, the Anne Frank Annex and the local Coffee Shops. The best thing about Kevin's tour was he knew something about everything and had a story for every question someone asked. That afternoon we visited the Anne Frank house, where she and her family spent 2 years hiding from the Nazi's during WWII.

It seems Amsterdam is the city of bikes, so we thought we'd better hire some and do it like the locals do. We ventured out to the suburbs and stopped off at a couple of local markets, then had to have a rest because bike bum got the better of us! That night we jumped on a bus to Berlin, arriving the next morning.

The rain followed us to Berlin, which made it all the more gray because of it's turbulent history. Once again we took advantage of the free tour, this time with Maria (a Japanese/Sweed). Maria took us to the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (home of German Parliament), the Holocaust Memorial (the pic with the concrete blocks), the location of Hitler's Bunker, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, plus "Old Berlin" which managed to survive WWII bombings. That afternoon we climbed up the Reichstag dome which has an amazing view of the city.

Today we took the train out to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (the pic with the chimney). The weather was abismal, which fitted the general feel of the camp. We did an audio tour to get the full background of what went on there for the 17 years it was in operation. On the way back to Berlin we stopped for some strudel to lift our mood. We had some extra time so went back into the city and headed to the Holocaust memorial museum in the city centre. It gave an excellent overview of how it personally affected individuals and families.

We've got an early start in the morning, heading to Prague for a couple of nights. Hopefully we'll start to see some sun!

Paris - the city of love?

Paris started off with a bit of a glitch. After walking the streets of Highgate in London at 3am, we eventually gave up on the night bus and caught a cab to the Eurostar station. A few hours later we arrived in Paris.

Our hostel - the Auberge - is best described as basic. We had a four bed dorm and shared it with a variety of people over our three nights. Our first day in Paris we climbed the Notre Dame towers, and went into the Cathedral itself. We spent the afternoon in the Lourve and got the mandatory photo of the Mona Lisa.

The next morning we got up early to beat the queues to the Eiffel Tower, but the Metro got the better of us and we ended up taking a tiki tour to the outskirts of Paris. When we finally made it to the tower we opted for the shorter queue which meant we were taking the stairs. The view was worth the climb. We walked underneath the crazy chaotic roundabout to reach the Arc de triomphe and then carried on down the Champs-Elysees. That afternoon we caught the metro out to Montmartre to see the Moulin Rouge, Sacre-Coeur and the set of the film Amélie.

Paris turned on the rain for day three, so we spent much of it wandering around the city visiting Saturday markets, Pompidou Centre and the Pere-Lachaise Cemetary where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Chopin are burried. After it got dark we went back to the Eiffel Tower at night. It turned out Obama was visiting that night for the DDAY 65th anniversary, so Paris put on a show with twinkle lights all over the tower.

Today we caught the bus to Brussels, and have treated ourselves to a pot of mussels and fries - Belgium´s national dish. Next stop is Belgian chocolate!

Loving the land of high tea and double deckers

We've had an eventful couple of touristy days here in Englands capital.

On Monday we arrived early and waited paitiently at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. The highlight was when the band played the James Bond theme song while waiting for the guards to do their thing. Afterwards we wandered through London's streets to Trafalgar Square and Lecister square, then took a look at Westminster Abbey, No. 10 Downing Street and the Paliamentary Buildings.

Yesterday we headed to Hyde Park and walked down to Kensington Palace where Diana and our future husbands used to live. Then we popped in for a spot of "shopping" at Harrods (Lauren bought a fur coat and matching handbag, Kim a diamond bracelet) then wore our new purchases to the NZ memorial at Hyde Park corner. Afterwards we caught a double decker to Oxford Circus and wandered through Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street on our way to the British Museum. Then last night we had a drink of cider at the Clapham local - the windmill - with Lauren's cousin Emma and some of her friends.

Today we payed a visit to the Tower of London, enjoying the tour led by a beef eater. We espcially liked the big stones in the crown jewels display, and the wee stories our guide threw in for free. This afternoon we caught a ferry to Greenwich and stood on the meridian line and took the token photo.

We like London, there's heaps to do, but its probably a bit easier when we're earning the pound. We usually enjoy the subway sub of the day bargain - 2 pounds for a sandwich! - which is a steal. Lauren is into the habit of saying "innit" and "spiffing" which almost makes us look like Londoners. And the weather's just starting to get colder again so we're leaving just in time.

We're off to Paris tomorrow for 3 nights, catching the Eurostar at 5.20 am, which should be great. We have also booked a "2 for one" (love the credit crunch) 8 day sail tour of Croatia departing Split 20 June, which we're very excited about. It will be our holiday on holiday as all meals and transport are included, and we even get an ensuite. We're living the high life!