Drawing to a close.

Well, this is a strange moment for me. Blogging? Well yes i am.

I can't remember the last time i wrote. I think that it was in Amsterdam and i skimmed over most details. I can't actually believe that our trip is drawing to a close. It's the 19th here in Rome which means that there is only two nights left before our flight. Two! I couldn't even percieve leaving Europe 72 days ago as we were boarding our plane. As disappointed as i am to leave, i really am looking forward to summer. I can't wait for days lounging at the beach or swimming or eating and I definately won't miss the exchange rate.

I'll continue the story at Amsterdam. Dirty, greasy Amsterdam. I actually really enjoyed Amsty. Despite our terrible terrible Hostel, we managed to see some really interesting (and non red-light) parts of the city. It's picturesque canals can't quite rival those seen at Venice, but they certainly have their own charm. The city itself is beautiful and buzzing but i couldn't shake the feeling that my valuables were at constant risk from straying hands. It didn't help that we were hounded by shadey dealers asking if we were interested in "Charlie". "Hey you, Americans" they'd whisper "Interested..? Keen for any Charlie?"

Despite the shadey dealers, we had a really enjoyable time. Just like at the rest of the major cities, we took the NewEurope free tour which was always excellent. Although we don't remember every piece of information from every tour, they gave us a great overview of the city, where to find the best sites and the best time to visit them.
We had 3 hours of history and walking in Amsty, the only problem being the intense cold. I can't really describe to you how cold we would get (and even colder later in Berlin). As we walked out the hostel door, we could almost kid ourselves into thinking that it wouldn't be so bad today. But only 15minutes later we'd feel the creeping cold infect our toes, then hands, then nose, lips and then entire face and legs. Our stiff bodies would soon shutdown and it was hard to concentrate. But just when we would consider giving up, we'd enter a warm café or restaurant for lunch and we'd sigh with relief as the heat washed over us like we'd just slid into a warm bath. We are men though and so despite the sub zero temperatures we were out everyday exploring the different cities. The free tour in Amsty took us around all the major sights and phalic statues. It is quite hard to remember now, but we heard about stolen bicycles which fill the bottom of canals and other pieces of trivia. We walked passed the major museums and buildings of note and heard about the clever tactics used by Dutch businessmen and the Church (apparently they are quite good at getting passed laws which could be bad for business - after alcohol was banned in the live sex shows, for example, they began charging more for some tickets which offered "free" alcohol!).
In Amsty, obviously feeling very keen, we went on another tour which explored the red-light district. It really was fascinating to learn why these women spent 8 hours behind red glass every day. We had an entertaining tour guide which made it even more entertaining and we finished with a greater insight into Amsterdams not so shadey red-light area.

What really frustrated me about Amsterdam was our terrible Hostel. The supposed YOUTH hostel was occupied mainly by old freaks. The oldest freakiest freaks that i have ever come across. They leered and glared at us constantly and smoked pot 24/7 to distract themselves from their unfulfilling lives. What was even worse was the snoring. It was easily the most disgusting noise i have ever heard. Nathan probably described it best when he said it sounded like Daffy Duck choking on his own mucus. I will never forget that (the sound of a one legged man scooping and scratching at the skin folds of his leg is also not easily forgotten.)

But anyway, i was happy to get moving and get to Berlin - fascinating, beautiful, modern and ridiculously cold Berlin. After our terrible hostel experience in Amsterdam, we decided to spend a Euro more a night and go to St Christophars - easily the best chain of hostels we discovered. Berlin was awesome. I was amazed to discover that it had only been reunified 19 years previously. The collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989 is just something i knew, but never really thought about, something that i never really could put into context. Either way, it was an amazing feeling looking at the remains of the wall and learning about the iron fist which caused pain for so many for so long.

Again, we went on a free tour which was a great way to learn about the city. All my modern history lessons came flooding back as we were guided through the city, stopping at the buildings and sites which Mrs Engel drilled into us into both year 11 and 12. The Reichstag, the bookburning memorial, Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitlers bunker etc etc. It makes such a difference seeing all the places where these events took place. And conversely, each site was so much more interesting as i had a greater understanding of it's significance. As i mentioned before, the cold in Berlin was dilapidating. Im not actually sure of the temperature, but i read in the paper that in the days before our arrival it got as cold as minus 20! As you can imagine, we rugged up... but it wasn't quite enough. We were colder than ever but we survived although our limbs were burning when we finally made it back into the warm!

But anyway, we had 4 days in Berlin (we stayed an extra night because there was just so much to see) and then caught a train to Munich. Like Berlin, Munich was fantastic. There was so much to do and see - mainly because it was the start and heart of the Nazi movement. We did the free tour as usual and got a general understanding of the city. Nathan and I were keen to see more of the places that we studied in Modern History, however, and so we took another tour which explored the sights relevant to the Third Reich. Our group was very small, only five people including nafnaf and I which meant that we got a really personal tour. Munich, thankfully, was much warmer than both Amsterdam and Berlin and although we were wearing the same amount of layers, we finally didn't feel like we were wasting away. That night we decided to discover the German beer culture with a beer tour. We started at the famous Hofbräuhaus (the beer hall where Hitler had many of his Nazi meetings and where he was almost assassinated) and went around Munich visiting others. It gets a little fuzzy after a while because we were served 1L beers. As you can imagine, the mugs were massive and their effect felt relatively quickly. We had a great time though and it was good to share it with some other travellers. We decided to stay clear from the Aussies for once and got to know the Brazilian crew.

The next day we rose bright and early to do a tour of Dachau, the first concentration camp of Nazi Germany. It probably wasn't the best idea after a big night out, but we sobered up very quickly. It was both disturbing and fascinating. Not the most fun thing to do but all three of us felt that it was neccessary. The experience was difficult. Seeing the conditions which so many people lived in was disturbing. It's hard to accurately describe the experience. We were all moved to say the least.

That afternoon we made our way to Vienna. Our modern and clean hostel was definately welcome (FIFA 07 was even more welcome!) but we were probably even more excited by the fresh snow which blanketed the world. We charged through the powder not caring about the stares that we got (we are so used to them by now).
Vienna was absolutely beautiful (can you see a trend emerging) and we were in awe of the amazing buildings seemingly around every corner. We were very disappointed to discover that there was no free tours and we definately noticed their absense. It is really hard to get the most out of a city without some sort of guide and it is too easy to let the buildings blur into each other without the stories that differentiate them. The only tour options were well out of our price range and so we resorted to pulling out the Europe travel guides. Although we saw a lot of the city, a mixture of travel fatigue and a lack of direction was lethal and we soon began to lose momentum. We cut our losses and headed for Venice. We thought that, like the rest of Europe, Vienna would have trains leaving for the other major Euro cities constantly... but we found it more dificult than normal securing a train to Venice. We arrived at the train station at around 11am only to discover that we'd only just missed the last train and the next wouldn't arrive until 730pm. What was worse was that it was a night train and we wouldn't arrive to Venice until 3am. Oh, we are good.

So, we took what we could get. We let our hotel know that we would be late and waited for our train to leave. Despite not finding the departing station in Vienna (they did not make it easy) we made it to Venice pretty easily. The train trip was expectedly uncomforatable and i managed to get a few hours sleep (despite the people in our cabin who talked ridiculously loudly for about 4 hours straight and nathan who kept the light on until 230). But we made it. But, we discovered that we weren't actually in Venice. We were one station short of the Venice mainstation which was the station we needed to get a boat from to get to our hostel. Now, as you can imagine, there arn't many trains running at 345am (our train was late). There was none actually. The few bums who were around definately couldn't speak english but after a few minutes we discovered that there was a bus. The bus driver also couldnt speak english but we eventually made it to the station. An hour boat ride later, we made it to Lido, the island on which our hotel/hostel was located. At that point we realised that the directions to the hostel didn't make sense. Long story short, we made it. It was almost 6am. Yay.
haha.

Anyway, Venice was... Venice. Canals. Water. Boats. Expensiveness. You get the idea. It was incredibly foggy on the first day and surprisingly cold, but perfectly clear on the second. Venice was beautiful, but so touristy that i felt it was a little cheapened. People sold gimmicky masks everywhere. And everything was also really really expensive.

A few days later we made it to Rome - surprisingly with no hiccups. So here I am, at Happy Days hostel. I love Rome. It has so much character and there is so much to see. Yesterday we did all the usuals... the Vatican (we saw the pope without even trying!), Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza del Popolo etc. etc. Today the Colossium. Everything was as you would expect. Grand. Beautiful. Massive!

Unless you couldn't tell i am really ready to have a break and so i will leave my last blog at that. It was an amazing experience but i'm looking forward to talking to you all properly.
See you all in only 3 days!
Love, Niiiiiiick.