Ethan Rivest

After having a good night with a bunch of other Canadians, we all made plans to go to Brač for the day and hang out on the famous Golden Horn Beach. It was about an hour long ferry over to the island, and we found cheap tickets. €12 round trip. Once Pearse and I got up, we went to a Café near the port and met up with the Edmontonian lady. She was suffering pretty badly from a hangover, so she ended up bailing on the island to go to the beach we had already spent two days at. It turns out everyone was suffering pretty bad because Pearse and I were the only ones to make it onto the ferry. We got to the island around 2:00. We needed to take a taxi 30 minutes to the other side of the island. The taxis were asking for €80 to get to the beach, so we found a group of people and asked if they'd split a ride there with us. It worked out pretty well. It was only €10 per person. When we got off, we asked for their number so we could arrange a time we all wanted to leave so we could do the same thing later. We went our separate ways for a little while. Pearse and I grabbed a beer and set up camp on the beach. The water was beautiful here. I don't know how it was clearer and more blue than the water at the last beach, but somehow it was. It was pretty hot out, so we went for a swim and dried off on the beach. I had a little nap on the beach again. I woke up absolutely starving, so we packed our things and went for dinner. I picked a restaurant off Google maps that was about a 25 minute walk from where we were. As Pearse and I were talking about how we were worried, the group wouldn't wait for us and taxi back without us. We realized they were walking right in front of us. We stopped them and asked them not to leave without us, to which they agreed again. We continued our walk down the beautiful coast line to get to our restaurant. As soon as we got to the restaurant, I had to pee so bad, so I ran to the bathroom, which was in its own building, separate from the restaurant and used the urinal. After I flushed, I realized all my pee and water was pouring all over the floor. The pipes were completely missing, and i didn't even realize. I felt so bad. It made me feel even worse when I left the bathroom and found out the only people working in this restaurant are an old married couple who have run this restaurant themselves for almost 60 years. The lady cooked, waited, cleaned, and did everything. She was so sweet. A family next to us asked for salt and pepper, and it totally offended her. She said she had already put some on, and the family insisted. When she brought it to them, she said only a little and watched them put it on lol. She later came over to us to explain she doesn't use any electricity to cook any of the food. Everything was done over a fire. This was definitely the most authentic meal we've had on this trip. I brought it back to my childhood and ordered an entire fish with some potatoes. I remember loving it in Mexico, and if I was going to eat a fish anywhere, I think this restaurant was the place to do it. This one held up as well. It was so good. The bones weirded me out a little more than when I was a kid, though. Im so happy we ended up at this restaurant, so far thos is my favorite dining experience of the trip!While we were eating, the group of people started messaging me and rushing us. They wanted to catch the next ferry out. We told them we were about to go to dinner, and 20 minutes later, they were telling us to hurry. Pearse and i didn't even have our food yet, so we weren't going to have time. We asked if they'd be fine with taking the next ferry, which was only an hour later. They said sure but continued to rush us through our dinner. I totally thought they were gonna leave us. They had enough where the taxi would still be affordable. For just Pearse and I, it would have been extortionate. We quickly finished up and met them at the taxi where we got our ride back to the port. Stuffed from dinner and drained from the sun, Pearse and I were pretty much ready for bed. We had a really early flight the next day. We're heading to Morocco!Les mer

I was planning on a sleep in today but I still got up at 8:00 so I forced myself to get up and do the fastest walking tour of London of all time. I walked past the London museum through a park and straight to Buckingham Palace. It was pretty cool to see the gaurds marching around. What a boring job, though. I'd be terrible at it. I took a few pictures and videos of the surrounding area and started speed walking over to Big Ben. When I was in St.James park enjoying the beauty a thought crossed my mind. I realized I didn't look at what time checkout was at. I looked, and it was a 10 am check out out. It was already 945, and I was an hour walk from the hostel. So I walked past Big Ben and took a couple of photos just to say I've been there. I started speed walking back to my hostel. I got there at 1030, and I packed my shit really fast and checked out. They didn't say anything about it, so that made me feel better. My flight to Budapest was at 330, so I decided to get to the airport early because I had no idea how the tube worked in London. It was definitely a little stressful, especially when I had no reception on the first train I had to take. So I just guessed and got off at the first stop, so I didn't go too far. Luckily, I got off at the right stop. I had to completely leave the first station and go upstairs and outside over to the other station to buy my ticket to Gatwick. Once I was here, I was a lot less stressed. I got to the airport way too early, though I had so much time to kill there. I got a quick bite to eat and went to my gate. I chose to go to Budapest because I just thought there was more for me to see there, and I wanted a taste of solo traveling. In my opinion the only reason to be in England Is for Liverpool or a layover. Im in no rush to check more of it out. The flight was straightforward. It was another pretty full day of travel, though. When I got on the bus from the airport to the city, I got to see all the pretty lights on all the buildings that Budapest is known for. On the way to the hostel, we passed a huge soccer stadium with a really cool statue out front. It was a massive eagle grabbing a soccer ball with its talons. It was one of my favorite statues I've seen so far. I got to my hostel to check in. I explored the hostel for a whil. Itt was really nice and clean. I went for a quick walk around the area just to check it out. One of the first things I noticed about Budapest was how clean the streets were. It was by far the cleanest city I've been to. I was just going to walk for a few minutes until I found a convenience store selling .5l bottles of hieneken for .75 cents CAD. I can't pass that up. So I ended up walking around for almost 2 hours. When I went back to my hostel, I had a beer with the old manager of the hostel who just happened to be hammered. He bought me a couple of drinks before he passed out on the couches downstairs. I went to bed pretty soon after.Les mer

Another new country today! Today was supposed to be the Eagles' nest tour, but unfortunately, it's closed. Bec and Paulo decided we should go see a concentration camp instead. We drove for a little while through austria before we got to Mauthausen concentration camp. They gave us a free audio guide link so we could go do it on our own. I've always been really interested in WWII history, so i was happy I had the opportunity to do this even though it was tough. Pearse and I left and did it at our own pace. immediately as you walk through the front gate, also the only gate, you can feel the weight of the seriousness and sadness of everything that happened here. Mauthausen concentration camp was a level 3 camp, making it one of the wost camps to be sent to. Awswitz was a level 2 camp. More people died in Awswitz, but you were more likely to die if you were sent to Mauthausen. Over 190,000 people died in the 7 years it was open. People were forced to work while malnourished and sick. If you became too sick to work and "useless," you would be executed. The prisoners would be stripped shaved and showered when they first arrived at the camp. That's the only shower they would be allowed to have. Except for once in a while, you might be escorted to shower. One of the most fucked up facts was sometimes the gaurds would escort the prisoners to have a shower and the prisoners would be excited but they didn't know they were being escorted into a gas chamber. The gas chambers and showers were designed very similarly. The prisoners wouldn't even know until the gas was already pouring in. At one point, Pearse and I stopped and looked down to read a sign. It was talking about the weak inmates being hung instead of being gassed, then it told us we were standing under the apparatus used. We both looked up at the same time, absolutely speechless. Around the corner were some gas chambers. It just gives you the chills looking around inside of them. We made it to the crematorium, where they had an incinerator still set up. It had flowers laid out on the stretcher with pictures and letters to all the people. Pearse and I just looked at each other silently. Both of us had tears welled up in our eyes when we saw this. Walking through this section of the camp was so difficult, you really see how terrible these camps were. Of course, we knew camps were bad, but walking through this one just puts it into a whole other perspective for me. After we toured the camp there was a museum with some really cool artifacts there. There was officers' clothing and prisoners' clothing as well. There was lots to read about how Mauthausen was built and how the Americans liberated it. As well as old videos of survivors talking about their experiences. It was a lot less common, but there was also a camp for women. This lady managed to survive 3 different camps every time she was transferred. One of her friends just happened to be transferred as well. This clip I was watching was from an American talk show. The host was asking the former prisoner about how long its been since she saw her friend. She said it had been about 4 years, and then the show brought her out, they hugged and cried a little bit and after a few minutes the host asked how long it had been since she had seen her brother. They had been separated for over 10 years and she didn't even know if he was alive. They brought him out as well, and her reaction was so hard to watch. I actually just staright up stopped watching because I was about to start crying. I couldn't even imagine how that must feel for her. Before we left the museum, we had one room in the basement of the museum to check out. We walked into a room with no lights except for a huge long black table with everyone's name illuminated white. They had every person's name who died on this table. For the final nail in the coffin to put it into perspective on how terrible these camps are, we had to look at all the names laid out. This camp wasn't just used for Jewish people. It was used for anyone who wasn't hitlers ideal human. They executed homosexuals, handicaps, Spanish, Jews, and anyone against the 3rd Reich. Jews were just treated worse than anybody else. The last story we heard about Mauthausen was that one day, 500 Russian POWs tried to escape at once. They put wet blankets on the electric fence to short them and ran into the foggy night. 20 of the sick prisoners who stayed behind were killed immediately by the SS. After that, the 500 escapees were hunted like animals. Apparently, prisoners from the prison could hear gunshots in the surrounding trees and mountains for days afterward. Of the 500 escapees, only 11 survived. It was just disgusting. This is only one of the camps in this area as well. There are lots of Mauthausen sub camps. Pearse and I slowly made our way back to the bus where it was the first time I've seen the bus dead quiet. Nobody said a word. The only noise being made was a few people crying. I showed up thinking I would leave thinking "wow that was really cool to see that history," but I left thinking, "what the fuck" it was a lot to take in. The bus ride for the next 2 hours was silent. After everybody had some time to reflect on the bus, we stopped at a McDonald's just inside of the czechia border. After eating, I managed to get a little shut eye. I'm gonna be honest, the countryside was so plain and boring to look at. It's like driving Edmonton to Red Deer with a couple of hills once in a while. When I woke up, we were pretty much just outside the hostel, and still, I was like, this place blows its ugly and cold. We dropped our shit in the room and had a quick power nap because we are still really sick. It's never ending. When I woke up, I could feel Pearse's snoring shake the entire hostel, so I figured he probably needed some more rest. Cass told me to come meet at a bar she was at, which was an hour walk from the hostel. I decided to walk so I could see some more of the city. Im glad I did because I realized prauge was actually beautiful. Plus I just put my music in and had some alone time which is much needed right now. A couple of other people from the contiki ended up at the same bar as us, and we all go a flight of shots. 6 full shots lined up lol. How are they even allowed to sell those. After downing them, we went to a 5 story club with only 2 floors open. It was actually a lot busier than I thought it would be. I'm glad it wasn't dead because even though Prauge is cheap, it still costs almost €15 or 250 Czech krone just to get in the door. Lots of people from contiki came in and danced there all night. The bottom floor was dance music and the second floor was oldies. We stayed till closing at 4:00 and took some electric scooters back to the hostel. Their pretty fun when you're sauced up lol. Looking ahead at the next few nights, we have a party night tomorrow here in prauge, and for the next 4 nights, we are in some of the biggest party cities in Europe before the end of the contiki tour. I only took a picture of the outside of the Mauthausen concentration camp.Les mer