Its been a while since I've posted but all's well; to an extent.
Last I left you we were in Prague. Successfully met up with Kate and Seany and spent the next couple of nights enjoying the cheap pils, cigarettes and food the czech republic has to offer. Went on a day trip to Kutna Hora which is a shitty backwater town an hour from Prague but is home of the bone church (I'm sure its not called that in Czech but I'm far too ignorant to know what the church is actually called). The interior decorator used something like 200 human skeletons to decorate the church. The highlights were a chandelier containing at least one of every bone in the human body and four two-metre-high pyramids made up of leg bones. Prague was cool and cheap but didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I've seen much prettier places and been to cheaper places (sarajevo was both cheaper and prettier), but was still cool and worth a stop.
From prague caught a bus to Berlin. I loved Berlin. Best place I've been yet. I know my adjective use to describe cities has been limited to pretty much 5 words (with cool being way overused), but Berlin was a the epitomy of cool. Were staying in the East in a good location, went to some awesome bars and even managed to get in on a screening of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1960s) in a funky little english bookstore. Won the trivia in the hostel bar on our last night and despite having to get up at 4.30 to fly to amsterdam took advantage of our winnings and spent the evening doing shots. Bad mistake. We slept through a few alarms (to the chagrin of our roommates) woke up at 5.15 (we were planning on leaving the hostel by 5), got the the airport at 6 - hana sprained her ankle quite badly (its still swollen) running to check-in, and still made the flight after checking in at 6.10 for a 6.30 flight. The previous night caught up to me and after surviving an awful flight gave up at amsterdam airport and threw up at baggage claim..
Spent a couple of subdued days in amsterdam with Hana's sister but never really got into it - not like the last trip at least - but did a day trip to Haarlem (the globetrotters were nowhere to be found) so it wasn't a total writeoff.
From there went to Brugge. Unfortunately our time there perfectly coincided with the eurostar weekend trippers (arrived Friday night and left Sunday evening) so Brugge itself was kinda overrun - very pretty though. Spent one day on a tour of the WW1 battlegrounds around Ypres which was very good, and pretty much saved our foray into Belgium for me. Didn't count on the crowds leaving for home on Sunday night so missed a seat on the last bus to Paris so spent a night in Brussels. Seany gave up on us at this point and went from Brussels to London to meet up with Eliza.
Got the early bus to Paris, where we are now. The plan has always been to meet up with Sam in Lyon from Paris then make our way further south to get to Madrid before Christmas, but we spent our first couple of days here discovering that the French are idiots and make it far more difficult to get to Spain from the South of France than from Paris. The only train running from france to Madrid runs out of Paris, and the Bus from Avignon to Madrid takes as long and costs as much as the bus from Paris. We made the sad decision to skip over the rest of France (it was pissing us off far too much) and this afternoon we're getting a 17 hour overnight bus to Madrid. It will be grim, but I just have to get out of this fucking country. Don't get me wrong, I still love Paris, and the people aren't nearly as horrible as everyone makes out (we've met some really nice ones) but bring on spain as far as I'm concerned.
On a brighter note my UK tax refund has arrived (like 670 pounds) which is a fuckload of money and has saved me for the time being. Still debating whether to do Ireland and Scotland or Morocco after new years - comments for or against would be appreciated.
Last I left you we were in Prague. Successfully met up with Kate and Seany and spent the next couple of nights enjoying the cheap pils, cigarettes and food the czech republic has to offer. Went on a day trip to Kutna Hora which is a shitty backwater town an hour from Prague but is home of the bone church (I'm sure its not called that in Czech but I'm far too ignorant to know what the church is actually called). The interior decorator used something like 200 human skeletons to decorate the church. The highlights were a chandelier containing at least one of every bone in the human body and four two-metre-high pyramids made up of leg bones. Prague was cool and cheap but didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I've seen much prettier places and been to cheaper places (sarajevo was both cheaper and prettier), but was still cool and worth a stop.
From prague caught a bus to Berlin. I loved Berlin. Best place I've been yet. I know my adjective use to describe cities has been limited to pretty much 5 words (with cool being way overused), but Berlin was a the epitomy of cool. Were staying in the East in a good location, went to some awesome bars and even managed to get in on a screening of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1960s) in a funky little english bookstore. Won the trivia in the hostel bar on our last night and despite having to get up at 4.30 to fly to amsterdam took advantage of our winnings and spent the evening doing shots. Bad mistake. We slept through a few alarms (to the chagrin of our roommates) woke up at 5.15 (we were planning on leaving the hostel by 5), got the the airport at 6 - hana sprained her ankle quite badly (its still swollen) running to check-in, and still made the flight after checking in at 6.10 for a 6.30 flight. The previous night caught up to me and after surviving an awful flight gave up at amsterdam airport and threw up at baggage claim..
Spent a couple of subdued days in amsterdam with Hana's sister but never really got into it - not like the last trip at least - but did a day trip to Haarlem (the globetrotters were nowhere to be found) so it wasn't a total writeoff.
From there went to Brugge. Unfortunately our time there perfectly coincided with the eurostar weekend trippers (arrived Friday night and left Sunday evening) so Brugge itself was kinda overrun - very pretty though. Spent one day on a tour of the WW1 battlegrounds around Ypres which was very good, and pretty much saved our foray into Belgium for me. Didn't count on the crowds leaving for home on Sunday night so missed a seat on the last bus to Paris so spent a night in Brussels. Seany gave up on us at this point and went from Brussels to London to meet up with Eliza.
Got the early bus to Paris, where we are now. The plan has always been to meet up with Sam in Lyon from Paris then make our way further south to get to Madrid before Christmas, but we spent our first couple of days here discovering that the French are idiots and make it far more difficult to get to Spain from the South of France than from Paris. The only train running from france to Madrid runs out of Paris, and the Bus from Avignon to Madrid takes as long and costs as much as the bus from Paris. We made the sad decision to skip over the rest of France (it was pissing us off far too much) and this afternoon we're getting a 17 hour overnight bus to Madrid. It will be grim, but I just have to get out of this fucking country. Don't get me wrong, I still love Paris, and the people aren't nearly as horrible as everyone makes out (we've met some really nice ones) but bring on spain as far as I'm concerned.
On a brighter note my UK tax refund has arrived (like 670 pounds) which is a fuckload of money and has saved me for the time being. Still debating whether to do Ireland and Scotland or Morocco after new years - comments for or against would be appreciated.
posted by YT at 9:21 pm
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