Carcassone, France

Our next stop was Carcassone, France, a little town in Southern France with a medieval walled city a top a hill. (thanks for the recommendation, Nat) Our journey here was a long one - our first night train. The first train we got on was incredibly hot, almost reminded me of the days of so called ac busses in Asia, but luckily after 2 near miss transfers we were on the night train and the ac was working! Yay! We had the luxury of being in a couchette and the bunks they gave us were actually incredibly comfortable. With the help of some ear plugs, I slept the whole night, which is more than I can say for any night bus or train previously.

We arrived in Carcassone early and soon found that it was not your usual travel destination and no one spoke English. Thanks to Ms Comas' French class we were able to scrape by. Who knew how little we would actually retain from all those years of French class. Actually, it was kind of fun to try to fit in to the culture a bit more, and nice that when we tried to speak French people wouldn't automatically revert to English.

Most of Carcassone was spent strolling around the medieval village and palace, living it up like the French with our morning baguette and our evening wine and cheese or wine and mussels, my new favourite. We also did the cheesy tourist things like watching a knight's battle and going through the haunted house. It was pretty quiet at night but that gave us a good chance to rest up for the continuation of the trip!

Interlaken - Heaven in the Swiss Alps

Interlaken, Switzerland was our perfect break from the city sightseeing of Europe. Nestled in the Alps in between 2 lakes and a river, it is incredibly beautiful, we could have stayed here the whole summer.

That said, the hostel we stayed at was probably our worst. We were informed when we got there that whole backpacks had been going missing, there were no locks on the doors, and it was almost in the middle of the forest - beautiful, but slightly creepy. Neither of us have seen the movie hostel, but if we had, this probably would have been a scene right out of it. In the end, it turned out being little more than a hassle, but every back packing trip has to invlove one of these hostels, right?

One of my favourite Swiss experiences was the Jungfrao railway, the highest in Europe, up to the top of the glacier field. It was sooo beautiful- 360 degree views of mountains and glaciers, the pictures don´t really do it justice. We were also able to do an icredibly tiring hike over the glacier to a little rock climbing hut.

One morning we also tried canyoning. It was super fun, basically they show you how to get down the canyon any way possible with very little equipment. Now this is glacier water, and although they give you a wet suit, just the shock of the cold water is enough for a thrill, then they have you sliding down waterfalls, repelling down cliffs, and basically just getting rocked by the power of the rapids. A lot of fun!

The rest of our time was spent wandering around the cute little villiage and doing nearby hikes. The weather was perfect, sunny and crisp, and we even happened to be in town for an air show so the town was full of energy.

It's kind of funny how much we loved Interlaken considering it reminds me so much of the Canadian rockies but maybe home is where the heart is, or maybe we were just happy to go to a place that didn't involve the usual palaces, churches and museums!

Gina conquers Switzerland!

Kim stops before entering avalanche land

It's cheesy but every tourist had to do it

The hike

On the way home

Stopping for a COLD shower

Interlaken's river

Dinner with a view

The train

Vienna pics

Here´s some pics from Vienna!

Vienna - Still alive with the Sound of Music

As you may have noticed, the blogs have become fewer. I thought I should post one just so anyone actually keeping up to date with this knows I am still alive and kickin! My excuse for lack of updates, internet is extremely expensive here, and I guess we're just having too much fun to pay for communication!

On to Vienna! We arrived in Austria not knowing much about the country other than what we learned from the educational movie, Sound of Music, the Betoven lives upstairs soundtrackm and Arnold Schwarzenagger. On arriving we found that although the city is full of beautiful music and culture, there aren't many people yodelling in the fields and in fact, most Viennese hadn't even heard of the Sound of Music movie. As my sister had friends in Vienna we did meet a fair amount of Viennese people and found that they really are cultured and fun.

Some highlights,
Sitting in a gourmet Viennese coffee shop, famous for the many artists and writers that spend their days on that very terrace, watching the tourists flock by with their Lonely Planets. I wonder if we also look that funny.

Wandering museums quarter full of big and beautiful buildings, (only a little tired of looking at buildings) and finding a cool artsy hangout in the middle of it complete with a DJ and drinks.

The Schonberg palace was beautiful with most unusual oriental art addorning the whole thing but the best part was the maze in the back garden, that also included interesting games, water dodging, math sqares etc. Very challenging and fun to let the inner child/geek out.

The nightlife. Our hostel had a great bar that was hopping every night and the local bars were fun too with quiz nights and bizarre people to meet at every turn.

We visited a local winery where we could drink fresh wine by the half litre out of mugs for only 3 bucks each. Not only that but we were serenaded by a violin and an accordian playing, My Favourite Things. Getting there in the pouring rain and lightning was a bit of an adventure as was finding our way home after all the wine, but totally worth it.

Prague: love and shoes

Next stop Prague, a city we had heard rave reviews about. It certainly lived up to the reputation. The train ride running along the Vltava river was beautiful, cute villages along the hillsides and valleys. We stayed in the University residence which turned out to be a bit far away, across the river and on a huge hill, however, the area was very beautiful with rose gardens and even a little lake and it was much more quiet away from the busy tourist area. We enjoyed our hour walk in and out of the city centre each day past the castle and over the famous Charles bridge.

We found that Prague was a city for lovers and felt a bit out of place not holding hands and whispering sweet nothings in one anothers ears, but one could easily fall in love with the city just looking around at all the stunning architecture of different types, the gardens and the river, simply beautiful. We also sampled some of Prague's nightlife at "Middle Europe's biggest club" With over five levels of music there's no need to go pub crawling, and the beer is under 2 bucks a pop. We were very confused to see Budweiser on the menu but soon realized that the original Budweiser Budvar came from Czech and of course, it's far better than the American version.

Here's some pics

Stopping to smell the roses

Just another romantic night, As Kim and I sat on the river sipping beer the fireworks started going off!

Night view of the castle

Perfect place for reflection

Kim by the river

The town clock, one of the biggest tourist attractions. Everyone stands around until the clock strikes the hour and the min apostles come to the window. Afterwards the crowd says, "That was it???"

Ahh, a big Czech beer for a sunny day!

Peeking into the Jewish cemetery. Another city where the Jewish people were discriminated against, the town would only give them a small amount of land for the cemetery and thus they had to layer the grave sites and now the tombstones are crowded together at all angles

A Giant shoe, one of Pragues greatest monuments... Just kidding, apparently it is public art. We spent an enjoyable hour watching the tourist's reaction to this strange piece.

Now we're on to Vienna. Hope everyone's doing well. Internet is a little expensive here so sorry if I'm not keeping in great touch but I do miss everyone!

Berlin

Next stop, Berlin! I was really surprised by how much I loved Berlin as I really did not have too many expectations for the city. We had one absolutely gorgeous day in the middle of a string of rainy weather and that was enough to for us to have a fantastic time here. We did a walking tour of the city, and although I've never been too interested in it before, learning about the history of Berlin was amazing. The city really has cleaned up its act after starting 2 world wars, and almost a third. I was very impressed at how open the Germans are about the war and how well it was presented in the museums and monuments. The panorama of the city is very interesting, you can clearly see the differences in the East and the West and the city is still trying to unite the two sides. It was haunting to stand on the site of Hitler's bunker, and the book burning sight was cleverly marked with a quote dating back long before Hitler, "When you start by burning books, you end by burning people."

German Parliament topped now topped by a clear dome where the Germans (or thousands of tourists) can down at the progress and the congress is constantly reminded of the people as they stare down at them.

The moving memorial for the Jews - hundreds of blocks rise up at different heights. Walking though is something you have to experience first hand. The architect left the meaning of the memorial up to the individual, but after walking through it, you sure do feel lost and disoriented.

On a happier note - The Berlin Bear!

Ulbricts' Last Erection, more formally known as the Berlin TV tower

Doing Yagermeister shots like the locals!

Inside the parliament

Church ruins, one of the many reminders of war in Berlin.

That's all for now, we're moving on to Prague.

Amsterdam

I was quite suprised to find that Amsterdam is so much more than drugs and prostitutes, it's also a very beautiful city with a lot of culture and tons to do. We spent the first three days sight seeing with our parents before bidding them farewell and beginning the sister sister leg of the tour. We tried yet one more canal cruise, we love those and visited the famous Ann Frank house, our first of many World War 2 memorials to come on the trip. The red light district was a lot more showy than I thought, basically window shopping for prostitutes and peep shows. There were more coffee shops selling of weed and mushrooms than coffee. Interestingly enough, in this liberal city that allows anything including drugs and prostitution, you are not allowed to drink on the street. Go figure.

After mom and dad left we did all the things we were not able to do while they were with us. (Just kidding, do not worry guys) I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

The lethal stairs in our hostel

Home sweet home

View of one of the many canals in Amsterdam

Another blind photo

"She wears her sunglasses at night"