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Ethan RivestEthan Rivest
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viajou para 15 países Leia mais
  • ViajanteEuro trip
    1
    Dia 35

    Budapest

    25 de abril, Hungria ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today, I made plans with my new friends to meet downstairs for breakfast at 9:00 after getting back at 630 the same morning. I made it downstairs for 9:30. Lucky for me, though, they were still in bed. I went back up to my room and jumped in shoes on and all. My shoes are really hard to take off and put back on. After laying there for 10 minutes, they called me telling me they were on their way. Through our hostel, we booked tickets for the Hungarian Spa. I guess this place we went to was a pretty famous spot in budapest. I should have skipped breakfast. I couldn't even keep my eyes open. We ended up not going to the buffet because the food didn't look anywhere near as good as yesterdays. So we went to a Café a few minutes away, where I ordered my newfound love of yogurt with granola and all of the fruits on top. Anytime I've seen it on this trip, I've ordered it. If it has honey even better. When we were all done eating, we split a taxi to the spa. We changed really quickly and jumped in the thermal poop. It was set at 38 degrees, which was perfect. There were 8 old Hungarian guys huddled up in the corner with three different chess boards set up on the tables. They were there playing the entire time I was there. After chilling in the pool for a little while, we sat in the sun just chatting and just getting to know each other. They've done a lot of cooler things than me. Indie has been all over Europe for the last 2 years, and Angus completed an Ironman marathon last year. I was pretty impressed that he was able to do an Ironman. Afterward, we went inside the "Salt inhalation chamber," which I think is just a steam room with a fancy name, but we got a sweat on in there. I think I sweated all the toxins of the past 4 weeks out of me. Just to make sure I sweated enough, we went into the sauna for a little while. I finished my water in the steam room, so I was dying in the sauna. When I stood up to leave, I got so light-headed that I thought I was gonna fall and embarrass myself. We got some more water and went back to the first pool for a while. Once we got back in the pool, all three of us we were dead tired, so we didn't stay much longer. we just took a few pictures and ubered back. I really liked the spa, though it was nice to just have a relaxing day for once instead of just go go go. When we got back to the hostel, they went for a nap, and I took a shower. The shower in the hostel was so nice. I haven't had a nice shower in so long now. I stood in there for over an hour, just soaking it up. That would be the end of my relaxation for a little while, unfortunately. When we were on the ferry from France to London, I had to pull cash out to tip Bec and Paulo. There were five Canadians on the ferry, and I was the only one who had a card that could pull cash out from the bank on the ferry. So, I helped 3 other Canadians by pulling cash out for them. They just e-transfered me the money they need, but I gave them all the email for the bank account that always needs two-factor authentication to log in. Absolute tard move on my part. I don't have access to my phone number to receive the text message to log into my bank. So I couldn't send myself the $400 that was auto deposited into this account. I used the hostel phone and called ATB, where they were able to help me change the phone number to my email. That went pretty smoothly, so I logged in and sent the money to my TD account. Guess what? The bank that never asked for two-factor authentication asked me to confirm my phone number and enter the code it sent it. So I had to call TD, which didn't go as smoothly. The two-factor had to be a phone number. TD wasn't able to change it to my email like ATB. Unfortunately, I think the person I was speaking with was slow in the head. I had to explain way too many times I didn't have any way to access this phone number. When I asked if I could change the authentication number to my mom's, he said "sure I'm just going to send a text to your number associated with the account." After I explained the situation to him 100 times. I went from relitvley relaxed to my eye, twitching from stress in an hour. He even told me "okay we can fix this. How far is your nearest TD bank? " Sir, it's thousands of miles away. It's always so frustrating dealing with shit like this. As I was getting pretty heated, my friends came downstairs because we were going to dinner together. I ended up just hanging up on the guy with all this money just sitting in my email. I told myself to forget it and enjoy my last dinner with Angus and Indie. To make things even worse on the way to the restaurant, the power button on my phone became completely unresponsive. At first, it was just annoying until I googled it and and google said, "Don't let your phone die, or you'll never be able to turn it back on again." When I read that, I began to unwind a little bit. It's funny how fast shit can pile up on your shoulders. I tried my best to push it out of my mind and enjoy dinner. Luckily, we picked a really nice authentic Hungarian restaurant, and the food was so good. Again, though, I forgot to take a picture of it before I started destroying it. Dinner was really nice. We even got a shot of schnapps on the house. After dinner, we went back to the hostel, where I made them promise they would come to visit in November, they said of course and extended their invite to Australia as well. We said goodbye for now, and I went to my room to pack for a 10 hour direct bus ride for croatia. When I got to the airport for my bus, I got frustrated and pressed the power button on my phone as hard as I could to see if that would fix it, and some how it actually did. That's one problem fixed. My bus was coming at 12:30 am but was delayed until 1 so when I was waiting I was on my phone watching videos at 12:55 am I ran out of data with no free wifi anywhere to download more data to my esim. It was a very up and down day, and now I have a long ass bus ride with nothing to do lol. At least my power button works now, though.Leia mais

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  • ViajanteEuro trip
    1
    Dia 34

    Budapest

    24 de abril, Hungria ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Today, I finally had a bit of a sleep in. I got up around 10. I went downstairs for my free buffet breakfast. The food was really good and I pigged out. I had two massive plates of food. Once I was done, I started walking. I didn't know what I was going to do other than walk around until I saw something cool. It didn't take too long until I did. I ended up crossing the chain bridge and walking over to the castle district in budapest. The chain bridge is a popular bridge in Budapest. It has two statues of lions on either side, and at night, it glows orange like the rest of budapest. The castle district had so much to see. It sits on a hill above most of budapest despite the shitty weather and rain the views were amazing. I walked around the palace where all the previous Hungarian kings lived. Outside of the palace was Matthias church. It was built in 1255. I really liked the architecture on the outside, but I didn't go in because every Catholic church is pretty much the same thing. Matthias church was located right in front of the fisherman bastion. It was used as a lookout tower over Budapest from behind the castle walls. I was able to see most of it except for the 7 turrets. The turrets are just lookout points, so I don't think I was missing much taking pictures from right below them for free. There are 7 turrets for the 7 tribes who founded the Hungarian state. The fishermans bastion was built for the 1000 year anniversary of the Hungarian state. Further down the river and back on the other side is the parliament building. You can see it from the top of fishermans bastion, and it looked way too cool to skip it. Unfortunately It was pouring rain all morning, though, so I was soaked. I stopped to warm up for a little bit in a bar, had a quick beer, and stood under the hand dryer in the bathroom for a minute. I sucked it up and went back in the cold for another hour walk to the parliament building. When I got there, it was just a cool up close as from a distance. I really like the architectural style on all of the previous buildings I've mentioned, but this one was my favorite. It's probably the coolest parliament building I've seen on my trip. It reminded me of the Gothic style in prauge. Now that it was done raining, I decided to go to a grocery store for lunch and get some dry clothes. The grocery stores are so cheap that it makes me feel like I'm stealing. After some of the more expensive places on this trip, I'll definitely take it lol. When I got to the hostel, I signed up for the pub crawl and asked the guy who was going from our hostel, and he pointed out a couple of ausies so I went up and introduced myself and asked if I could join them for the night. They were really nice and told me they were gonna have drinks at the hostel before we left and to meet them there. I went and made my lupper. After chilling for a little while, I went downstairs to meet Agnus and Indie. The three of us instantly hit it off. The pub crawl took us to a few bars. The coolest one was a ruin bar where we played some connect 4 and just hung out. We ended at a club, which we shut down. We stayed there until they kicked us out. We walked back to the hostel, where we made plans to hang out tomorrow. They're traveling for almost a full year, and in November, they don't have any plans, so they're gonna come up and stay with me to take a trip to the mountains! I'm really happy I met them. Today is the second time on my trip I've been over 30000 stepsLeia mais

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  • ViajanteEuro trip
    Dia 33

    London to Budapest

    23 de abril, Hungria ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    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.Leia mais

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  • ViajanteEuro trip
    Dia 32

    Amsterdam to London

    22 de abril, Inglaterra ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Today, we had to get on the bus for 730. Before we left, we had to say goodbye to a handful of people who were staying in Amsterdam instead of going to London. It was kind of sad, actually. It's quite the turnaround from where I was during the first 10 days of the trip where I really didn't like most of the people on the bus. As we were all together longer, I started to like everybody and more and ended up making a few good friends. I still dont think I would ever do another Contiki despite having fun. It's not goodbye, it's until next time. Everybody is Australian, so when I go there I'll have lots of places to stay for free. We got on the bus and left for the ferry in France. We drove through the Netherlands part of Belgium and into France all before noon. It's pretty crazy how fast you can get around in Europe. Except because the UK is no longer part of the EU, we had to go through customs. We sat stationary on the coach for almost 5 hours, waiting for the coaches ahead of us to get through. This was so painful. We actually ended up missing our ferry over to London because of the line. We weren't even close. We had to wait for another couple of hours after it left. We finally got through and took the later ferry. The ferry was massive. It's the closest vessel I've ever been on to a cruise ship. Pearse said it felt like a cruise ship. We were on it for a couple of hours, just wasting time with the remaining members from the Contiki. When we docked, we got back on the coach for the last time. We had another 3 hour drive. It was a fucking long day of travel. On the way to London, Bec passed the mic around to everyone and gave us a list of things to touch on favorite memory, favorite location, favorite bar/club, favorite added experience, and give a shoutout to somebody. It was pretty fun to hear everyone's stories and differences of opinions. I was also mentioned in quite a few stories and shouted out a couple of times, which felt pretty cool that I had a positive effect on so many people's trip. After that, we still had a little ways to go before London, but when we finally got there, everyone said their goodbyes and hugs before going their own ways. Even Pearse and I are separating for a few days, so we said bye, and I went to my hostel. On the way there, I got invited to go to dinner with some people. So we met up at a burrito restaurant just down the road from my hostel. We completely filled this burrito restaurant. There were only 2 guys there to make about 20 burritos, so I think they were a little annoyed lol. After about an hour, we all said goodbye for the last time. I went back to my dodgy little hostel for bed. I didn't take a single photo or video today.Leia mais

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    Dia 31

    Amsterdam

    21 de abril, Países Baixos ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    I woke up this morning around 9:30, but I was in no shape to get out of bed. I laid there while Nick and Pearse were still sleeping. I got up for a shower at almost noon. When I got up on the floor, beside my bed, there was a dried up mess of mucus and spit and probably vomit. I knew I didn't throw up up, but it's hard to defend that when it's right beside my bed and even a little bit of it in my shoe. After consulting with the fellas, none of them knew what it was either. I was tired of looking at it cause it was nasty, so I poured some water on it and used a towel to clean it up. Once we all got ready we went to the train station so we could head to the city for some lunch. We bought one one way tickets, scanned them, and went up to our platform just to realize it was the wrong platform. So, we had to buy another ticket and go to the other platform, but when we tried scanning it, it said invalid. Frustrated and tired, the 3 of us sat and ordered an Uber just to throw a little more money away. We stopped at a ramen restaurant where the boys ordered a bowl, but I was still pissy about the train, so I just ordered an appetizer. After lunch, the 3 of us split up and went on our own. Pearse needed a pharmacy, so he went to deal with that. I got adventurous and went to a weed cafe. I ordered a pre roll and a coffee and just chilled out. The weed in Amsterdam is a lot stronger than at home, so it didn't take me very long to just sit there and question everything that led me to this point. It wasn't fun at all, I was sweating my balls off. Pearse met me there and just sat next to me for a few minutes. When he looked at me, he noticed all the beads of sweat rolling down my face. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and cool off a little before we left. Again, when in Rome. We wondered around the city for a little while, even ending up in some sort of carnival. We had to meet the group in the afternoon because it was our last night on the Contiki so we had a nice evening planned with everybody. Getting on the bus, it was pretty obvious I wasn't the only one to check out what the cafes were all about. A few people, including me, were wearing sunglasses on the bus because even though Bec couldn't stop us technically, drugs aren't allowed at all on the Contiki so we couldn't talk to her about it or tell her. She obviously knows, though. There's a reason everyone called her mom. I also think weed was the least of her problems in Berlin and Amsterdam. A bus of thirty 20 something year olds is gonna have a couple of people looking for party drugs. We had about an hour to unwind and get ready for our last included dinner. We went to an Indonesian restaurant for dinner. Not only was it the best included dinner, but it was one of the best I've had on the trip. It was buffet style with different proteins. One was a peanut sauce skewer, and the other was beef Bolinas. Both were tasty, but the skewers were better. The beef Bolinas was really sweet it was kind of weird. It's still good, though. Even our first two drinks were included in the meal. After dinner, we had a boose cruise scheduled. It was a really wholesome time on the boat because everybody was there for our last night, and we had an awesome time socializing with each other. One of the ladies had a digital camera, and she took some pretty classic photos of everyone. I think the crew on the boat was used to older people on the boat and have a speech and teach everyone about the city but they gave up on the pretty quick because we were just there to have a good time with each other. When the ferry was docked and the bar was closed, I definitely opened the fridge and put a hieneken in each pocket for the road lol. Pearse did the same, but the goon grabbed prohibition beer, so I had to share mine. We had more than enough on the boose cruise, so I was okay with it lol. When we got off, we all met at an Australian bar called cocos because almost the entire contiki was Australian. At this bar, I was talking to my friend Cody, who gave me some pretty interesting information. He was on the top bunk across from Pearse and in our dorms. He asked me if I remember Pearse coughing all night, and I said no because I was out cold. He told me Pearse was coughing so much, and so aggressively, he leaned over the top bunk and threw up on the ground and went back to sleep. Luckily, it was just a bunch of mucus and a bit of beer because it would have stunk so bad if it was more. We finally know who did it after a whole day of it being inconclusive. I'm telling you this cold is nothing to play with. I pulled an Irish goodbye and took the train back with a guy named Dan because we had to get up at 7 for the bus the next day, and I physically couldn't handle another hungover day on the bus.Leia mais

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    11
    Dia 30

    Berlin to Amsterdam

    20 de abril, Países Baixos ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    We had a pretty long drive from Berlin to Amsterdam today. It's a good thing we didn't go to bed last night, so I slept the entire time. We stopped for some Macas in some small town. I was sleep walking through the place. We got back on the coach and slept the rest of the way. Because amsterdam is the last overnight city on the contiki, we were allowed to choose our roommates for our dorm. We got our boys' Nick and Cody. Once we got settled in our room, we had an included dinner at our hostel. It was actually a lot better than the Berlin hostel dinner. There is no time for any sleep, though, because we're in Amsterdam on 4/20. After dinner, we all got right back on the coach and went straight to the red light district to a different hostels bar. Bec bought a tray of shots for everyone. Somehow, I managed to get 2 of them. There were discounts at the bar as well, so we started the night off early and strong. After a while, we decided to leave as a group to see what the red light district was like. It was unreal. Women standing naked in a window, calling you over for their services, which we poletly declined. Weed stores and cafes everywhere. Sex shops and sex shows on every corner, it was quite a sight lol. The sex show entry fee was €65 which is bonkers, but a little birdie told us if you enter as a couple, it's only €20 Pearse and I both asked different ladies to merry us on the spot and they said yes! So I guess we eloped lol. My wife Sarah and Pearse wife Eden left for the sex club with the rest of the group. When we got there, we waited in line for 20 minutes and found out it's €65 couple or single. Some people with the contiki coughed up the cash, but the more sensible and less curious ones decided that it was out of our price range. Our big group split up, and we left with 10 people or so. We went to a couple of regular bars than a strip club. When in Rome. Afterward, we tried meeting up with the rest of the group at a club called Escape, but when we got there, Nick was denied entry because he's only 20, and the minimum was 21. We didn't want to abandon Nick, so the three of us went across the street to a different club. After partying for a while, we decided the taxi back would be too much money, so we walked back. The hostel was pretty far away, so it was about 2.5 hours of stumbling back to the hostel. Along the way, we stopped for some pictures on people's boats docked along the canal. Just a quick picture, no harm done. Near the end of the walk, we were on a bike path along the canal. In the dark, I saw 2 big birds, I'm not sure what they are, but they sort of look like geese. When I pointed them out, they started to walk away from us, and all of a sudden, 10 plus babies started swarming us. Pearse Nick and I sat down on the sidewalk because all these chicks were so curious. They thought we had food, so they were nibbling on our fingers. It was pretty cute. When we finally made it back to the hostel, Pearse and Nick were making a plan to stay up all night and start early the next day. I said fuck that and went to bed, they ended up following me to bed lol. I definitely fell asleep fully clothed as soon as my head hit my pillow. Another really fun night.Leia mais

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    Dia 29

    Berlin

    19 de abril, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    We got up early today for our walking tour of Berlin. It was cold and rainy for it, of course. We just can't escape rain. The rain didn't make the tour any worse for me, though. We got to learn so much about WWII history, which has always been so interesting to me. We started at a building where Hitler used to hold all his speeches. On either side of the staircase were two huge statues of men killing lions. Hitler liked this staircase for speeches because the lions were meant to symbolize the power the Nazi party had. He would do these speeches standing by himself because he was a short, angry little man and didn't want people to see how small he was lol. On this building, there were patched up bullet holes and patched areas from shrapnel. It was really cool to see that less than 100 years ago, something so chaotic and devastating happened right where I was standing. Now, it's a peaceful city still trying to find its identity. There were a few more stops that were really interesting to me, like an entire building for just one statue of a mother holding her dead son. It was used as a war monument. Afterward we went to the empty library. The empty library is another monument that represents the burning of the books. When Hitler first took over, he ordered all books by Jewish authors or in Hebrew to be burned in this square. Thousands of books were burned here. We carried on to the Brandenburg Gate. To get there, we had to walk down a street called Unter Den Linden. The Nazis used to March here, and in Hitlers classic antics, he told people hundreds of thousands were marching. It looked like it, but only because they marched around the block in a circle lol. In reality, there was about 50000 nazis marching. The Brandenburg Gate was built by the Greeks hundreds of years ago. On top of the gate was a statue of a lady on a horse carrige. This statue is called "the statue of victory." Everybody loved it, even Napoliean. Napoliean ended up stealing it and dragging it back to France, where he displayed it for a short amount of time before it was taken back to Berlin. Funnily when they put it back on top of the gate they repositioned the statue of victory to face and point at the French embassy building as a fuck you to the French. I thought that was pretty funny. We went to the "memorial for the murdered jews of europe," which was opened about 20 years ago. It's very abstract with grey concrete blocks in all different shapes. I think the grey rainy sky was the perfect setting for the plain grey blocks representing a grey Era. Unfortunately, the artist used concrete for these blocks, so it's had to be repaired a couple of times already. The last stop was Hitlers bunker, which is just a parking lot now. The tour guide told us how Hitler spent his last days here, suffering from schizophrenia from the opiods and meth his doctor was prescribing him. When he finally realized he was circled and the war was over he married his girlfriend of 18 years and they killed themselves. Hitler was shaky from the drugs so he was scared if he shot himself, he'd miss. So he took cyanide and shot himself. He ordered his generals to burn his dead body so they couldn't humiliate his dead body. The only known remains ever found of the little rat was a small jaw bone with two teeth on it. They were able to use dental records to confirm it was him. Not only did we get to learn lots about WWII, but the tour guide knew lots about the Cold War as well he told us about the Berlin wall. Everybody went to bed one night, and when they woke up, construction had started, and chainlink fences went up. People lost their jobs and were separated from their family's. Even one unlucky family had the border go right through their house. I have no idea what the rules were for them. After 31 years, the government held a conference saying they were reuniting east and west Berlin, and people could freely go back and forth. When the man reading the news to people was asked when this rule was coming into effect, he panicked and read the date of the meeting instead of the planned date 2 weeks in the future. So, people rushed to the borders excited to see their family members and friends. The city had a few choices, open fire on the citizens, open the border, or do nothing and let this angry mob get angrier by making them wait till the original date. They decided to let everyone in. For a city that's been caught up in a lot shitty history, they made the right choice for once. I really loved this walking tour it was right up my alley. A little bit of an extra was the tour guide pointed out the hotel Micheal Jackson held his baby over the balcony of his hotel. After we went to get food and warm up. Pearses cousin Amanda lives in Berlin and she wanted to go out to a club with us later that night. She told us the clubs have an all black dress code. Pearse needed some black clothes so we went to the mall and did a bit of shopping for our night out. We met up with Amanda for some ramen before the club. When I got my bowl, I added all the spices I saw in front of me and made an inferno on accident, but it was still so good. We went to a techno club called Kater Blau with Amanda. I have never seen anything like it in my life. It was by far the coolest club we've been to. As soon as you walk in the club they make you put stickers on your phone cameras. It felt pretty serious. We stayed till past 5 and got back to the hostel at almost 7. We had to be on the bus at 745 lol. I shut my eyes on the couch for about 30 minutes but it didn't help me lol. Overall it was an amazing dayLeia mais

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  • ViajanteEuro trip
    Dia 28

    Prauge to Berlin

    18 de abril, Alemanha ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    After feeling not bad the last 2 days in Prauge, my cold is back better than ever just in time for another travel day. I was so miserable this morning. I was actually pretty sad to leave Prauge. We got on the bus, and I pretty much just shut my eyes as soon as I got on. We're off to Berlin today, though, and I've been pretty excited about it from the start. We stopped for lunch in dresden. We were only there for an hour and a half, but it seemed like a really nice city. We went into a lutheran church that is a sight of a war crime from WWII. The English were bombing Dresden because it had a very established railway system. Residents started taking shelter in their churches, especially this lutheran one. Sir Winston Churchill knew this, so he ordered the air force to start bombing the churches with civillians in it. Lots of people died, and the church was almost completely destroyed. It was rebuilt afterward with parts of the old church. After a quick visit, six of us walked around to find some food, and we settled on a pizza joint. When we sat down, we realized we had 30 minutes till we had to be on the bus, so it was a little rushed. I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't get anything, but everyone's pizzas looked so good. They were massive, too. The pizzas were flopping over the side of the plates lol. Everyone had to eat really fast, so Nick and Pearse cut them in half and started rolling them up them up into a burrito. It was pretty entertaining to watch. We got back on the bus to go straight to the hostel. We had enough time to check in, go to the bathroom, and get back on the coach. Beck and Paulo wanted to give us a coach tour of Berlin, where we drove past some pretty cool things. They only gave brief descriptions because we will be doing a walking tour that sees most of this stuff tomorrow. We got off at the Eastside gallery on the Berlin wall. I thought this was so cool, the art work seemed so creative and random. There was an included dinner at the hostel tonight, but it was pretty trash. The stuffed chicken breast was good, but everything else was wack. A good handful of people went to kfc right after dinner lol. I wanted to go clubbing or check out the night life scene in one of the biggest party cities around, but I felt so shitty and ended up passing out at 8 for some much needed rest.Leia mais

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    Dia 27

    Prauge

    17 de abril, República Checa ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Another late night and early morning turn around. Bec took us up to the castle district to look around. Last night, when Pearse and I were power napping, Bec handed out our 24 hour metro passes. She gave ours to our roommate, Dan. Dan gave them to Pearse because he stayed in last night, so he was up earlier than me. I had about 5 minutes to get myself ready and get to the meeting spot. At this point, I still had no idea our metro cards were handed out. I got down to the meeting point where we walked about 5 minutes up the road to the train. This is when I realized I didn't have a card and everyone else did. So I asked Bec she told me she gave it to Dan, I asked Dan who told me he gave it to Pearse, so I asked Pearse where it was and he said "oh you didn't see it?" The train we were taking was arriving in 2 minutes, so I just decided I'd get on the next train. I ran back to the hostel and looked at the table Pearse said he put it on and said I should have seen it on. It was just covered in all his shit lol. So I moved everything and there it was. Under his toiletrie bag lol. All good. I grabbed it and ran back to see everyone still waiting at the stop for me. It turns out they put it to a vote, to wait for me or not. I guess they like me lol. A couple of them went into the coffee shop while waiting for me, and unfortunately, it was busy in there. The next train pulled up, and we were instructed by Bec to get on. No vote for them. We just left them behind lol. I did feel guilty but better them than me. When we finally got there, it was so cool to see this castle that can be seen all across the city up close. It's massive. It kind of reminded me of a super mini Sagrada Familia. Outside, there was a cage sitting next to a fountain. We learned the cage was a "shame cage" so if a lady was accused of being a witch, they'd put her in there for people throw things at or shame her in any way they could. Pearse and a group wanted to go inside the castle, but I left to go tour some other stuff. I walked across Charles Bridge and through the city with a different group of people. The group I was with stopped for a classic Czech dessert, trdelník. It looked so good, but I wasn't feeling like straight sugar and ice cream at 11 am. It's a pastry cone that's coated in sugars and stuffed with ice cream, cream, and berries. That's the one I thought about getting anyway. My group met back up with Pearses group for lunch. We decided on a Czech BBQ spot. Even though it was pricey for lunch, it was the best lunch I've had so far. There were 11 of us, and 10 of us ordered 1kg of pork knuckle. All the flavors sounded so good as well. There was a lemon grass, honey mustard, spicy, or BBQ flavors. I got the spicy. I tried the honey mustard one, though, and i think it was better. The meat on my knuckle was falling off the bone and so tender. I was the only one to eat the whole thing lol. I regretted it after cause I was so full and so tired. We walked around for a little while and ended up at the astronomical clock for the turning of the hour by pure chance. The clock itself is beautiful, and the show at the top of the hour was pretty silly, actually. We all got a little laugh out of it. I needed a nap so bad after that pork knuckle, and we had a walking tour called Hidden Prauge, so we trained back to the hostel, and I passed out. It was a weird sleep because I was having really strange dreams as well as sleep talking to our roommate, but I was aware of everything while that was happening, at least I thought I was because Pearse basically had to assault me to wake me up lol. Again, after getting ready and to the meeting spot 5 minutes after waking up, I was on time. We met our tour guide, Bruno, by far the best tour guide we have had on this trip. We started out in a restaurant with a couple of charcuterie boards laid out and did a Czech brandy tasting. Two brandy shots, one was 48% and the other was 34%. I think the stronger one went straight to everyone's dome, even Bruno. After we went to one of the only parks in Prauge, of course it was beautiful. There were bee houses set up with cool engraving on them and more peacocks walking around. We even did a peacock ritual dance just for funsies. There was a random plaque on a wall almost 4 meters up. That was the marking of the great flood that occurred in 2001. The next stop was the river bed so we could look at Charles Bridge and also see where previous floods have risen to. The longer this tour went on for the more I was falling in love with Prauge. It was such a beautiful city. After their biggest flood ever in 2001 they installed flood gates near the river but since they haven't been used lol. After the river, he took us to a traditional pub. It was traditional because it was in a cellar because that's where beer was aged back in the days, it was the only way to keep it cool. We've been playing a drinking game called Buffalo, if you drink with your dominant hand and someone yells Buffalo, you have to finish your drink. Pearse was learning the proper Czech cheers with Bruno, and half the group yelled Buffalo, so he slammed his beer. We were only supposed to stop for one beer, but when I saw Pearse get a fresh one, I had to get one as well. Everyone was chugging their beers, and Bruno just kept bringing them for us. He ended up bringing Pearse and I 3L of beer in 45 minutes lol. We stayed longer than we were supposed to, but even Bruno was loving it. Eventually, we had to leave. We all kinda stumbled down to the Lennon wall next. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. Lots of us lifted Pearse up as high as we could, and he wrote "Contiki 2024" right under the lip of the wall. After we were all given sharpies to right our names on this wall covered in graffiti. I sat on pearses shoulders to write our names up, then he got on mine to add a little love letter under it lol. We got an alright selfie, too. The tour ended after walking across Charles Bridge and going to an underground bar. The bar had this stupid system where you upload your money on a blank card and you scan it when you want drinks. The first thing we were told was don't lose this card because you won't just lose what you put on it, you have to pay for it when you leave. I think I lost mine in the first hour. There was no money on it, luckily. I really didn't want to pay for the card, though, so I made sure to leave with a big group, and I gave the bouncer my hostel key card, which is identical. He took it and said nothing, I saw him try and scan it to verify, so I rushed outside and mixed in with the group. A couple minutes later, the bouncer came back out, yelling about somebody key card. Who could that be? We left and went to the same club I was at last night. Again, prauge is one of my favorite places I've been. It's so hard to choose.Leia mais

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  • ViajanteEuro trip
    2
    Dia 26

    Salzberg to Prauge

    16 de abril, República Checa ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    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.Leia mais

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