Well well well...once again, it's been a long time since the last post. I am still alive. In the past nine days, I've been to three cities: Hamburg, Berlin and Prague.
Day 40: Leaving Amsterdam for Berlin. Was woken up quite early by the Brits who had an extremely early plane to catch. Mind you, they were still quite high on weed and shrooms. Used the early wake-up call to get everything packed and was curious to see what the Brits had left behind in their sleep-deprived and high state. Looking around on the ground, I saw a few coins, which added up to about 10 euros. But my most impressive find was when I looked under one of the beds and found a phone. It was a Nokia something, designed as a music player. Looks like I got myself a new phone (albeit quite scratched). But I doubt I'll be using it since I don't have the charger plus I really want a different phone lol.
Anyways, after checking out, I was on my way to Amsterdam central station, to catch my train to Hamburg, Germany. And as has often happened on my trip, there was trackwork and trains were running out of timetable. I had to make three changes originally but now with the added trackwork, I needed to make an extra two. Luckily I was able to just make my first train by a few seconds, and was surprised to see that I had managed to get onto the train that I was originally meant to get on (since I had now jumped on at an earlier station, I no longer needed to get off to change trains). Anyways, after that train ride was done, changing at Osnabruck was a bitch. It was one of those outdoor stations (kinda like Macdonaldtown in Sydney) and it was freezing cold. Half an hour later, I was back on a warm train and on my way to Hamburg. Once I got off at Hamburg station, I immediately walked the wrong direction as usual. I don't understand why my sense of direction is so horrible. It was meant to be a ten minute walk. I somehow turned that into a half an hour walk. Anyways once I was at my hostel, it was all good. It was part hotel, part hostel, so it was really quite nice. Plus my bed had a curtain so I could get a bit more privacy. And with that, I decided to call it a night. Yes it was early, but I had had enough of travelling and I was extremely fatigued. I think I conked out by 9pm.
Day 41: As a result of my early night, I woke up at 5am. Great. Ended up just lying in bed reliving the memories of the last 40 days lol. Did the New Europe Hamburg tour. Guide was an Aussie who showed up 40 minutes late with a hangover. Not very professional, but definitely Aussie lol. Was surprised to see that Hamburg was actually quite new since everything was either burnt down in the Great Fire of 1842 or was bombed in WWII. After the tour, I went over to the Reeperbahn, which is the Red Light District, in search for the Erotic Art Museum. Sadly, it was closed on Sundays. So that was that. Headed back to the hostel for another early night, given that it was also starting to snow very heavily.
All in all, Hamburg was quite an ordinary city for me. Maybe it's because I slept for most of my time there, but Hamburg was always going to be a rest city for me. Apparently, they're remodelling the city so if you go in 20 or so years, it may be completely different and more touristy. But for now, it's quite dull and not very unique.
Day 42: Caught the 10:41am train to Berlin. Out the station, and walked in the wrong direction again. Found my way to the hostel, dumped my luggage, and headed out to the Christmas Markets for some food and wine. The food is sooooo good!! I also tried some gluhwein, which is mulled wine. Didn't particularly like it (plus I burnt my tongue cos I wasn't expecting it to be so hot), but I got to keep the mug. Well, I technically paid for it since I had to leave a deposit, but 2.50 euros is pretty good for that souvenir lol. Berlin is really cold. Even with gloves, my hands were so cold that I couldn't even write properly to fill out the forms when checking into the hostel. Night 42 was a very quiet night, with the majority of the time being spent in the Christmas Markets and a net cafe, where I found computers that read USBs and was finally able to upload photos.
This was also when I realised that dentistry would be the most probable future for me. And I didn't have much time to complete all the required tasks. Most important item on the agenda was the police check which I wouldn't have time to do once I got back to Sydney. Managed to find a way around the whole "you must do it in person" thing, and found that I could get a national check instead of a local NSW check. Filled out the forms and was ready to send it back to Oz with a money order for $43 (so much money!!). Express post to Oz is a whopping 60 euros for a letter!! No way was I gonna pay that!! Good thing I did this relatively early that I'm not desperate enough to waste that much money on a freaking letter.
Day 43: Did the New Europe Berlin tour. I found it really interesting learning about Berlin, especially since there's so much history to the place. The guide was also hilarious which made the tour even better. After the tour, I headed back to the Holocaust Memorial and the Holocaust Museum. The memorial is a big area filled with big rectangular blocks of varying heights, and you can walk in between them. Towards the middle, the blocks are quite high, and they actually block out all the noise from the street so it becomes quite eerie when you're in there. I found it quite poignant. The Holocaust Museum was definitely an eye-opener. I actually spent a few hours in there, and I read every single thing there. They had the stories of different families that were sent to the concentration camps, and also letters from those within those camps. It was so sad to read of the hopelessness and despair that those in the camps felt, but it was even sadder to see that some of them had hopes of being released. It was definitely one of my most memorable experiences on this trip.
Day 44: More sightseeing, and went to the Topography of Terrors (museum about the Nazis) and then to Checkpoint Charlie. After that, it was simply just a stroll through the massive Tiergarten park in the falling snow. I also stopped by the place where Hitler's Bunker used to be. I was standing there reading the sign, when out of nowhere, I slipped and fell over. Whilst just standing. I blame Hitler's ghost of pushing me lol. He did after all commit suicide there. After that, it was simply just back to the Christmas Markets for more great food and then back to the hostel to escape the freezing cold.
Day 45: Over breakfast, I met two other Aussies and found out that they were also planning on heading to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. I really think that there's something about the whole Holocaust event that really intrigues me, and I'm just forever fascinated by anything associated with it. The stories that they told us about the place were really chilling, and it's amazing to think that people could really be that cruel, or that brainwashed to commit such acts. After such a solemn day, I was definitely in need of a more positive night. Met a few other people in the hostel and we all headed out on a pubcrawl. It was an alternative pubcrawl which led us to bars that one might not normally know about or even go to. Most interesting pub we went to was a goth pub. Gargoyles and skulls line the walls, and the whole place is dark, and the bartender is all goth. Mighty weird place. Anyways, it was definitely a great night drinking with all these new people I had met, and we ended the night at an electro place (I hear that electro is quite big in Europe). I still have no idea how to dance to that type of music lol. By the time we got out of there, trains had stopped and trams were quite rare, so a few of us decided to walk back whilst the others tried their luck waiting for a tram. We got back to hostel after 45 minutes of walking. Turns out the others got back 5 minutes earlier. Maybe I should have waited lol.
Day 46: Woke up feeling quite OK. Most of the others were still asleep so I didn't get to say goodbye to them before I had to leave. I've got them all on Facebook now, so it's all good lol. I'm slowly expanding my network of friends to those around the world lol. Definitely loved Berlin. The history of the place really intrigues me, and to see everything that Berlin has gone through and what it is today just shows what an awesome city it is. Plus, ending my time in Berlin with a pubcrawl with such awesome people makes me miss Berlin even more. Will definitely be coming back here one day!!
Caught the 10:36am train from Berlin to Prague, and it was so full!! Luckily I managed to get a seat, because otherwise I would have had to stand for two hours before the majority of people got off at Dresden in Germany. From there, it was more relaxed with me being the only person left in the carriage. Got to Prague, and made sure not to make eye contact with any of the dodgy people at and around the station trying to exchange money. I still got approached though. It's cos my Asian-ness makes me stick out lol. Surprisingly, I managed to find my way to my hostel without too many problems. I actually walked in the right direction!! Once I was done checking in, I headed out towards the Old Square for their Christmas Markets and also to exchange some money (100 euros for 2450 Czech crowns). I went and bought some food, and was actually shocked at how cheap everything was. Although what shocked me most (and I'm still not used to it), was giving away a 100 note and getting back coins. It's really an odd feeling.
Day 47: Woke up pretty early to a breakfast of toast, cereal and an egg. Headed out, and since it was still too early for the New Europe Prague tour, I headed up the Astronomical Clock Tower to check out the view of Prague. It really is beautiful. Prague is an amazing city with amazing architecture. There are actually so many styles of architecture here, and for some reason, they all seem to look good together. Did the tour. More Holocaust stories, to the point that the tour guide was crying because he was just that emotional about it. And he was German too. Interesting note: the Nazi uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss. After the free tour, I signed up for the tour of Prague Castle, which took up my time til 5pm. After the tour, we stopped at a brewery which had won the "Best Beer in the World" award for 2008. It was actually quite good. Expensive though by Czech standards (cheap by Aussie standards). Ended up having a traditional Czech dinner with a girl I met on the tour at a pub/restaurant which only locals seem to frequent. The potato soup is amazing!! I love it so much!!
The rest of the night was pretty much walking around, and then back to the hostel for some internet time. But what happened next was absolutely chilling. It was 1:30am, and quite a few of us were still up just doing our own things. Suddenly we hear a female screaming at the top of her lungs from out in the stairway (the hostel is on the third floor). Immediately everyone runs out of the hostel and runs downstairs. We hear a door slam and the screaming stops but there are sobs. We find the girl and she tells us that some guy just attacked her and had tried to rape her. I guess our stampeding down the stairs scared him off, but it's scary to think of what would have happened had we all been asleep already. It seems he had been following her back to the hostel. But yeah, the girl is OK now. This is the kind of thing that you don't really ever expect to happen. It's a chilling reminder to always be on the lookout and be careful when you're out and about, especially when you're alone, guy or girl.
Day 48: Today. Was planning on doing the New Europe tour of Kutna Hora and the Bone Chapel today but they weren't running it, so I had to go it alone. I guess it was a good thing, since I really only wanted to see the Bone Chapel. Everything else was simply padding. It was an hour's train ride away, and then a further ten minute walk. It was a really interesting place, with the bones being used so decoratively. The place actually looked quite nice had it not also looked so grim. But it was a small place, and I was done in ten minutes. Walked back to the station and found that I needed to wait another hour for the next train since trains only ran every two hours. So annoying. It was like Rosslyn Chapel all over again. Complete waste of my time. So much travel time for only ten minutes of sight-seeing. On the train ride back, it was also so packed, and I was forced to stand for the whole journey. Hoping that the rest of my trains aren't like this. I don't think I could stand for five hours from Prague to Vienna.
As a result of all that travel time, I got back quite late and everything else that I had wanted to see was closed. Instead I just went out to a traditional Czech restaurant and ordered up a feast. Potato soup again!! Plus a massive platter of all the traditional Czech foods, and a massive Pislner. By the end of it all, I was uncomfortably full, but so satisfied. And the whole meal only cost me 18 euros including tip!! I love how cheap food is here. Anyways, today was meant to be my last day and night in Prague, but I found that there was so much more that I needed to see and do that I booked another night with the hostel. Vienna will now be cut down another day (although I don't really mind lol). Prague is just so amazing and cheap that I feel as if I could stay here for another month.
But that's all for now. This post took me so long to write lol. I've been hogging this computer for so long, but no one else seems to need it so I'm good lol. It's currently 11:30pm. I should prob go to sleep so I can wake up early to make the most of my extended stay in Prague tomorrow.
HBL signing out from Prague, Czech Repulic. Díky za čtení!!
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