Lottes Backpack

My last trip this summer (I think!) was to A Campflight to Lowlands Paradise, also know as Lowlands, a three day music festival I've been going to for some years. This year we were a small group, just Bram, his sister Eva and myself. I won't write a full report here, as I've done so on my other journal, but I will say it was another great experience, and I'm already looking forward to going again next year!

Sooo, I had another small holiday this year, as my parents had invited me to a sailing trip. We've been doing this for three years now, so we were quite experienced, but every ship and every skipper are different.
Anyway, this time we sailed on the Isis, of which I don't know any particulars but the website is right here. The skippers were Paul and Betty, a very nice, enthusiastic and positive couple, and the other passengers were Dirk-Jan, who had sailed with them a lot and acted as a sort-of-mate, Corry and Dik, a couple who'd sailed with them before, and Ted and Attie, both travelling alone. So we were quite a small group, not counting the three dogs, Bram, Grietje and Gijs.
The first day we sailed from Zoutkamp to Lauwersoog and spend the night there, as the tide was going out and we'd never make it across the mudflats. The next day we started early and crossed all the mudflats on the upcoming tide, which brought us to Greetsiel in Germany, which is a sweet little fishermans village. The third day we had a very big storm and 9 Beaufort, so we made the trip on engine only, from Greetsiel to the small island of Juist. We walked along the beach and had great views of the thick black clouds all going around the island. The next day was great sailing weather and we travelled to a mudflat above Eemshaven, where we fell dry. We'd never done this before, and it's a great experience, having this thirty-odd metre ship all exposed on the bottom of a dry ocean. The dogs went completely crazy as we ran through the mud and threw shells and stuff. The fifth day we had to go by engine again, as the wind was very strong and very against us, and the canal we could go through very narrow. We fell dry just off Schiermonnikoog. The last day there was a really big thunderstorm with heavy rains that made it dangerous to be outside or even move the ship, so in between two showers we quickly went back to Lauwersoog. On the lake we could put up one sail, so we sailed a bit, but it wasn't much. We arrived in Zoutkamp on time and had an emotional goodbye.
I was a bit disappointed that we could only sail properly for 3 out of the 6 days, but really, it doesn't matter. You're in such a different place, the time goes very slowly though you have the feeling you've been away for months, there are no annoying televisions or computers to check your e-mail or loud noises; it's just you, the ship and the sea. And the weather ofcourse. You're totally dependent on the weather and the tides; if they're not ready, you're not going anywhere. I love this slow, easy pace of live and I'd wish I could return to it more often...

I know, I know, it's been a week and I haven't told you about our last days. But it will happen now, with a little help from my parents' cat who likes to type this with me.
I left you with my discription of the fourth of June, so we'll start at the fifth. The morning started slow, as sleep is hard to come by in a room that is in full sunshine from 5 in the morning. After talking to Simon some more we decided to do the city walking tour that was on our city map, as that would take us past a few interesting points. It was hot, we were tired, and the walk took us about an hour more than it would have under normal conditions. We relaxed for a while in a little park where the Danes were playing this game with wooden stickes and towers in the grass, that involves trying to knock your opponents' sticks over or something... If anybody knows what I'm talking about, please give me the name of the game, as I'm interested in the rules and such.
We walked past the Parliament buildings, Round tower, an "exeptionally well-perserved fortress" and The Little Mermain, who is indeed very little. It was more fun watching all the (mostly Asian) tourists trying to scramble down to get in the picture than watching the tiny statue itself.
On the way back there was a street football competition going on in the main square, and as neither of us like football it was a bit of a surprise that we spend two hours watching it. But in my opinion these matches (all boys, all between 6 and 16 I'd guess) were a lot more fun and a lot more honest than the big ones going on in Austria and Switzerland at the moment.
We had dinner at an Italian restaurant that seemed to be cheaper than it's collegue the day before but the prices on the menu suddenly were 10 Kr higher than on the blackboard outside. But we did get free champagne and Germans with funny anecdotes for company. As Simon and Leanna had both left we now had Ricardo from Portugal for a roommate, though his English at first made me think he was from the US; no accent at all, and a use of language I've never heard from somebody from those regions before. He'd been doing a semester in Amstetten and was now on the way back.
The next day we were really lazy, though the exiting point in the morning must have been Bram who knocked the floor out his locker. The people from the hostel were really nice and okay about it, though they'll have to replace the whole 4 locker block. We played some chess, went out to do our laundry in a laundromat cafe, where we also had a brunch, went back to the hostel and then went to the train station where we arrived around 16:00. We bought train tickets back to The Netherlands, which turned out to be extremely cheap as there was some kind of discount offer to specific places in Germany. With the money we saved on those train tickets we could easily have spend a few days in Aarhus, but as we already had tickets for the way back... You do the math.
We then wanted to visit some of the free museums in town, but they all closed at five and as it was 4:15 already this was going to be rush. We dicided to visit Christiana instead, which was a really looong walk, a really biiig disappointment and a really looong walk back again. Bad idea, in short. We walked back to a park we'd spend the morning in the first day, which was filled with colorfully dressed teenagers and a lot of people with mini barbeques eating outdoors, which created a really nice atmoshpere. We had dinner at a falafel place in the 'ethnic' neighborhood around the laundromat cafe. We went back to the hostel, played some more chess, tried to sneak a peak on the Roland Garros semi-final and went to bed.
The last day in Copenhagen we had to check out at 10 but couldn't take a train before 3 as the hostel reception in Lund was only open from 5-8 (it's a HI hostel, expect any idiot rule). Sooo, we played some more chess, went out, bought some cakes at the bakery and ate them in a park while discussing The Future, went back to the hostel, played some more chess and then took a bus to the train station. The train ride to Lund is fun as it involves crossing the huge bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo, and the transition between Danish and Swedish is always fun. We arrived at our hostel (an old sleeper train next to the normal train station) an hour early, so we spend that time reading in the sun. After checking in to our tiny compartment we went into the city to find an ATM to actually be able to pay the hostel, and then wandered around a bit and ate really good Italian icecream. After going back to the hostel to pay them we had dinner in a trendy Italian place with really easy going student waiters who were really unfazed by our English speaking and request for vegetarian food. We were a bit shocked by our bill; the food was about half as expensive as the stuff we had in Copenhagen, and this actually involved a dessert. Sweden turns out to be cheap, if you're in the right place.
The full day in Lund we spend hanging out in the Botanical Gardens, visiting the Kulturen park (lot's of old Swedish buildings), and sneezing. The last was mostly done by Bram, who had an weird allergic reaction to Sweden or some plant growing in it. After 17:00 we could go back to the hostel for a shower, which turned out to be a cheat as you had to pay 1 Kr for 2 minutes of luke warm water. Too bad this was the only hostel we couldn't fill a review in for, otherwise I'd have burned them to the ground.
We had a falafel dinner for 2 Euros (did I mention Sweden is cheap?) and played some more chess in the hostel, which was by now invaded by an US study group talking really loud. We took refuge outside and spend some time reading in the still very present sunlight at 22:00.
The way back was just your regular day of sitting in trains for 11 hours; from Lund to Copenhagen, from Copenhagen to Hamburg (with the ferry once again), from Hamburg to Bremen to Leer to Nieuweschans, where my parents picked us up. We got to fill in a questionnaire by two German students about international train travel (at which we are now both experts), so that was fun, and I tried to finish my book (The Lord of the Rings, it lasted 1.5 months) but failed, though Frodo did manage to throw the Ring into the mountain (actually Gollum did, ofcourse, but details...)
We spend two days at my parents house, then went to Eindhoven and visited Brams parents, my boyfriend and friends, and then I went back to my parents house for my mothers birthday. This afternoon I will make the final journey, by car as the bus drivers are on strike, and after that we will both be Home and the trip is Over.

Just a quick message to say that we're back in the Netherlands safe and sound, and are at the moment at my parents house. The story about our last days in Copenhagen and our time in Lund will follow shortly!

So, we arrived in the Heart of Gold hostel in Germany, which had a nice HgttG theming and a fancy doorpass system. After putting our things in our room we went to have dinner at an Indian restaurant, and then we walked to Unter den Linden and the Brandenburger Tor. Then we visited the impressive Holocaust monument, which was even more frightening in the slowly fading light.
For the biggest contrast possible we then went to see the Sex and the City movie in the Sony Centre, which was in English without scary German subtitles! The movie itself wasn´t great, but the reactions of the American girls around us were a nice to listen to.
The next morning we had breakfast in the hostel and took a metro to the Jewish museum, which is really impressive, fancy (the audioguides were iPods) and a tad big. It was 15:30 by the time we were outside again. We walked through a festival area with live world music and then Bram had his first Starbucks experience. We then visited Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, which in my eyes could have been a great museum but was a bit messy and the English texts were really incomprehensable in places. Dinner we had at an organic snackbar, where I had a cauliflower burger and the best fries ever.
The next day we first went to the train station where we bought our tickets to Copenhagen all by ourself at the ticket machines. Then we went to the Berlin Zoo and visited Knut among hundreds of other animals. Though way more famous, I thought the Budapest Zoo was nicer and more animal-friendly. Dinner was at Cafe V, a vegetarian restaurant away from the city centre.
The next day we left for Copenhagen, via Hamburg. The EC to Copenhagen actually takes the ferry from Puttgarden to Rosby, so Bram had his first ferry experience. In Copenhagen we bumped into a Swiss and French guy who were going to the same hostel, so we took a bus together.
The hostel here is called Sleep in Heaven, which is a bit ironic as this is one of the worst places I´ve ever slept. The rooms are okay, and the three beds above each other you can get used to, but the LIGHT is just so annoying. I haven´t really mentioned this before but it is something Bram and I have been discussing as we went from south to north. Anyway, it is light here for a LONG time, and the intensity is all wrong, and the angle of the sun is all wrong, and it is really confusing at times.
When we arrived we had dinner at a falafel place as it was the only thing we could afford. Yesterday we went to the train station to get return tickets to Lund (as they´re cheaper the earlier you buy them, people tell us ;)), and then we went to Tivoli, which was really expensive and a tad disappointing as there is actually only one good ride. Lot´s of grandma´s gambling though!
We went back to the hostel and talked a while with our roommate Simon, an Australian guy, and Leanne, an Australian girl, both travelling solo. we then went out to eat at an Italian restaurant, but as the cheapest pizza was 15 Euros (3 times what you pay for them in Italy!) we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe, as it was in the neighborhood and cheap.
We talked some more with our roommates and had a bit better night sleep, and now they´re both leaving and were deciding where to go: the beach or do a city walk.
Here comes the bad news: yesterday the ATM refused Brams request for money. So he´s run out, and when I checked my things on the Internet turned out that I don´t have that much any more either. So we´re going to skip Arhus and go back home after Lund. We´re figuring out what train to take; a day train or a sleeper train or stay in Hamburg for a night first, but we´ll figure it out. Anyway, we´ll be back in the Netherlands earlier than we (and you probably) expected, but we find the experience was great and though we would have liked it to last forever, going home is not that bad an option. So don´t feel bad for us ;)

So, the long awaited update on our trip!
The Sissi museum was really nice and we had lunch in a great pavillion in a park afterwards. After that we just laid in the park as it was 30 C and we had no motivation to do anything. We did go to the opera to check on free tickets, but there were none so we decided to go to a cinema showing The Third Man every day. This is a black and white movie set in Prague, a really weird story but nice movie.
Afterwards we had a really late dinner at a vegetarian Taiwanes restaurant where the waitress was really grateful and trying to give us more food and shaking our hands at the tip and everything.
The day afterwards we went to the KunstHausWien and the Hundertwasserhaus, both by the artist Hundertwasser. These are really nice buildings with a colorful and peaceful admosphere, though the photo exhibition by another artist was a bit gross to my taste.
Afterwards we visited the family crypt of Sissi and we went to the lomo shop to buy a lomo for Bram. A lomo is a really crappy camera and appearently a cult. After spending the rest of the afternoon in another park we had dinner in a vegetarian India restaurants where we were the only guests but the old lady there didn´t seem to mind.
The next day we took the train back to Prague, where everything was familiar but the subway map had merged with the Vienna one in our head. We checked in in our hostel and walked into the park (please remind, it was STILL 30 degrees, all you CAN do is go to a park) with a great view of Prague and really cute dogs. Then we had dinner and cocktails at Club FX, where we were the last time also. Back in the hostel we were joined by Saxen (?) and Shawn, two American guys.
The next morning (30/5) we had breakfast in the hotel and then we went again to the park as we were to hot and tired to do anything else. Then we went into the city to visit a museum, but first we tried to book some hostels. Everything was either full or really expensive, so we changed our (that time) travel plans AGAIN, to visit Copenhagen first. After that was settled we were hungry as lions so we had lunch in the Subway at 15:00 and then went to the Museum of Communism, which was really impressive. After this we went to the suburbs again to visit our beloved park once more, and then we had some dinner at 21:30 because neither of us were hungry but we had to sit in a train the whole next day so it would be a good idea to at least have SOME food in our stomachs.
Then back to the hostel and the next morning the train to Berlin, which had a delay of 1.5 hours. Our hostel in Berlin is in the middle of the centre and really nice admosphere, great staff and great HGttG theming. I´ll tell you more about it next time, as our Internet time is almost up and there are people waiting.
I will however tell you where we are going next: yesterday we did some reservation requests and today we found out that we could get a hostel in Lund for two nights (actually no, I just read in my inbox that they think it is one night, so we still have to clear that up, but they probably wont respond before we are in Copenhagen, welcome to the frustrating world of online hostel booking...), which meant we needed one extra night in Copenhagen, and we could stay for five nights in (get the atlas ready, you´ll need it!) Aarhus, which you´ve never heard of before. So, we will be in Copenhagen from the 3rd to the 7th, then in Lund for two nights, and then in Aarhus from the 9th to the 14th. Don´t know what we will do after that, wether it is time to go home (I checked my bank account and we are spending WAY more than our budget) or that we can squeze in a bit of Sweden or Roskilde or something. We´ll see. Scandinavia is REALLY expensive though!

We are alive! This is just to let you know we arrived in Berlin after a great time in Vienna and a lazy-due-to-heat-wave time in Prague during our second stay. Yesterday we took the train to Berlin, and with a delay of 1.5 we arrived.
We are staying in a Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy hostel and are currently trying to figure out the rest of the trip, as Scandinavia turns out to be really expensive and everything is booked on weekends.
I´ll (try to) keep you posted!

I've found out how to get comments from you guys; just don't post anything for a while!
Anyway, we've left Budapest, we found out that this Australian woman Nicola was going to Prague on the same train as we did so we shared a compartment. The journey was really nice, though the train was a bit full and there was a lot of luggage.
Arriving in Prague, we found an ATM, bought a transport card, took a metro to our hostel and found our hostel all within a few minutes. It was getting a bit to easy, where is the adventure in just walking straight to where you want to go in a short time! Our roommates turned out to be a German brother and sister, Tomas and Julia (?), just visiting for the weekend.
We walked into the city and did some sight seeing, but we were very hungry so we quickly went to Cafe FX, a trendy all-vegetarian club/restaurant where we spend the evening, really lovely food.
The next day we had to organise some things first, as we heard that the hostel in Salzburg had no more room. We decided to go back to Prague after leaving Vienna, and stay some more nights, and then go on to Berlin. This is a way cheaper way of getting there than taking a train to Berlin directly from Vienna. We booked a second hostel in Prague and a hostel in Berlin. Then we had to get train tickets from Prague to Vienna, which turned out to be a hunt through the entire city, from ticket office to train station to another train station, but we got them in the end. And it was actually nice that this didn't go as easy as the rest of it.
It was 14:30 by then, and we decided not to go to the Castle as that needed more attention, so we wandered to the Jewish quarter, though we never got there as there was a really nice folk dancing/costume/music festival going on in the main square which kept us there for three more hours. We then went to Charles bridge and ate a pizza at a touristy place. On the way back we were drawn into this live music/jazz club called Akord, and we stayed there for a couple of hours listening to a jazz/blues band.
The next day we finally did visit the Castle, which has a really nice cathedral. We then had a very late lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon in the grass of the hill we were planning to climb, though Bram actually walked to the top at some point, I never made it.
We ate a falafel dinner as we were still full from the late lunch and went to bed early as the next day (yesterday) we had to get up early to get to Vienna.
Arriving at the train station we found out that we needed seat reservations on top of our normal train tickets, so we bought those, and spend the rest of the morning on the train. In Vienna everything was in German, which we can actually understand, and we checked into our very nice and clean and organized hostel (all things the last one wasn't). We wandered into the city and ate dinner in a very fancy vegetarian restaurant before going back to go on the Internet, but all the computers were taken. Our roommates turned out to be a Japanese couple we haven't really talked to yet.
This morning we're doing laundry and keeping you up to date before going off into the city to visit some weird museums and Sissi's place...

Yesterday the weather was better and we took a metro to Buda (Budapest actually consists of two cities; Buda and (surprise!) Pest) and visited the castle and a museum on the history of Hungary. We had a falafel lunch and then visited some obscure galleries as Buda is appearently an arty district.
We went back to our hostel, changed into something more chique and bought a supermarket dinner of chips and pastry. We ate this sitting on a bench in a busy street, and then walked to the hundred year old opera house to see Tosca. A bigger contrast could not have been possible.
To visit an opera is a thing we've been wanting to do the whole trip, and here we could do so for 400 Huf (2 Euros) per person. It was really nice, though because of our cheap seats we could only see the right part of the stage, and it was all in Italian, though there were Hungarian subtitles.
Afterwards we talked into the night with our new roommates, Heater and Sissi (?), a Canadian and Norwegian girl working for a Chrisitan missionary school.
This morning we did another part of our laundry and met the first other Dutch travellers since we left the Netherlands; three guys traveling through Eastern Europe, mostly camping. Then we went out and visited the Synagoge and Jewish Memorial. As we've been seeing these "sight-seeing" busses go by in every city we've been to and I wanted to find out if they were nice, we walked to the big square Deak ter after our Subway lunch. It turned out to be really expensive, but it brought us to the idea to visit the local zoo, as this was on the busses route.
The zoo turned out to be really modern and nice and we spend the entire afternoon there, buying ice cream that was nearly more expensive than our entry ticket (which was 4 Euros). I scared Bram by sneaking up on him in the labyrinth, and we were interviewed by an RTL person (with a camera!) about our animal knowlegde. I got 3 out of 4 questions right, and as we walked away I remembered the answer to the last question, and it has been bugging me ever since that I couldn't remember it at the right moment. Who knows what I might have won!
We took a metro back, did some groceries shopping as we will be on the train to Prague from 9:30 to 16:30 and are now waiting for an answer from a hostel in Salzburg wether we can stay there.
Now we are going out to a fancy and expensive restaurant, as we still have way to many Hungarian Florints, which will be of no use at all in any other country...

We are in Budapest!
Eventually the rains stopped and we could walk around a bit, we had a dinner at Brek and then got on the train. It was way smaller and older than the one we had from Munich to Rome, but it did the job and the steward was real nice. An old Hungarian lady boarded with us in Venice, and in Mestre we were joined by Rickie and Katie, two alto Americans with whom we talked well into the night, really nice people.
When we finally went to sleep we were brutally woken by the first border guard, who wanted to check our passports, and after that they were back every hour, as we passed the Slovenian - Croatian - Hungarian border. I was tempted to yell "Shengen!" at the top of my voice every time they woke us.
Rickie and Katie left us at Zagreb and we left the train at Keleti in Budapest, where an Indian guy talked to us and helped us to an ATM and a metro station, as that was his job, helping out travellers.
We got to the hostel quickly due to the perfect directions provided by the hostel, and some help of an American guy. We were really tired, but went outside anyway, and sat in the Deak ter square comtemplating where to have lunch when we saw a guy with a "vegetarian restaurant" sandwich sign. We took a flyer and ended up in a just-opened vegetarian restaurant called Veggie Express in the middle of Budapest.
We then visited the central basilic (they have those here as well, though not as many as in Italy) and the parliament buildings. Still tired, we had dinner at the Veggie Express again and went to sleep.
This morning we had breakfast at the hostel, which is do-it-yourself and clean-up-after-yourself but really nice. We took a shower and went to the Keleti train station, as we now have learned a lesson and want to book our tickets in advance. We got two hand-written (!) train tickets and helped out some desperate Croatian guy who had lost his ticket and had no money.
We then went to the Horror House, which is a really impressive museum about the Nazi and Communist occupation of Hungary. After a sandwich at Subway we went to Heroes square where we had to wait for some military parade to end before we could actually visit the monument.
We bought some new Lonely Planets, as we discovered a shop where they actually have all the titles, and got to packets of LP playing cards for free, with really nice pictures from destinations around the world.
We wanted to have dinner at an Indian/Japanese restaurant, but it was changed into this strange club, so we ended up eating Italian instead, really bad, but hey. At the moment we are still tired from our non-sleeper train, so we are sitting at the hostel, which is a really cosy and friendly place, before going to bed. We are trying to visit a classical music, ballet or jazz event tomorrow night, as these are things Budapest is famous for.
The weather here was really nice yesterday, hot and sunny, today there was rain until around five, and it has been dry and warm since then, so hopefully we can visit the Castle tomorrow, as this is all open-air...

-- There are two more posts about Bolzano and Venice beneath this one! --

Yesterday we took a train to Verona. We had wanted to see Kyle and Tamara before they left for London where they'll start a new job soon, as they said they wanted to go to Lowlands and visit the Netherlands, but we never found out where they were and they didn't come by as we had expected. I had a feeling that we weren't done with them yet and that we'd meet them again...
In Verona it was raining really hard, so we decided to get some food first. We both needed something warm and decided to go to MacDonald's, where I haven't eaten for five years. We walked in and guess who were there!
We were all happy to see each other one last time and we shared our disgusting fast food. We exchanged e-mail adresses to make to whole Lowlands thing happen, and then we found out that Kyle was actually named Carl! I wonder how many other names you just get wrong the first time and then never correct.
After they left for Milan we took a bus to the Roman Arena. As was our faith, we once again had the wrong bus stop. As we were looking around helplessly a friendly Italian girl approached us and asked if we needed help. In really hesitantly and bad English she explained where we needed to go.
We visited the arena, and as the rain finally stopped also went to Piazza del Erbe, Casa di Guilietta (where the Capulet family supposedly lived) and remains of an old city gate. Nearby there were letters and flowers for one Nicole, who had apparently been killed by racists.
As we walked back to the bus, we saw a big gathering of people talking about freedom and no facism and no racism. There was a parade with a lot of communist and peace flags, and a lot of police.
We walked back to the train station as all the roads were blocked for other traffic, and took a train back to our camping. We ate again at the camping restaurant, where they served really nice pizza, and shared our cabin with four Brazilian guys who knew ten English words between them.
This morning we woke up to the sound of thunder and it has been raining straight and hard from eight till now, with one small break in which we checked out and ran for the bus.
So, we've been held up at Venezia Santa Lucia train station for hours now, and were getting a bit tired of sitting inside doing nothing. We still have until 21:27 before our train to Budapest leaves, and although the weather seems to be clearing up a bit, there are still very dark clouds. The thunderstorm passed a while ago, luckily. If the weather clears up a bit we'll maybe visit something, otherwise this will be a bit of a lost day.
Our 'hostel' in Venice was the worst we've ever had, but the people were the nicest, so maybe there is a connection. Also, we're never again taking a sleeping place far from the city center, as it is a huge hassle to get there, especially if you don't speak the language, and it takes at least an hour of every day getting there and getting back.
I don't know what Budapest will be like, we'll see when we get there. We're thinking of going to Vienna afterwards (if we can find accomodation and transport), and then Prague, but as it turned out, you can't always expect to be able to get somewhere when you want to.
So, two travel lessons learned, I wonder how much more there will follow.

-- There is one more post about Bolzano and Venice beneath this one! --

So, we got of the bus and walked to the campsite. These directions were correct, but the distances on the signs kept saying 20 m, so we must have walked -120 meters before we got there.
There proofed to be a campsite where they also rented out some 'bungalows' and 'mobile homes'. We were in no. 106, a small and ancient bungalow with the smallest bathroom you'd ever see, the shower was above the toilet, and two bunk beds (actually, two metal frames mounted on top of each other) and two single beds of different height. The real depressing state of this all will become clear once we put our photos online. The real irony is that the campsite is called Camping Jolly, but everything there is far from it.
Bram and I were both really unhappy with our sleeping arrangements, but this all changed when our roommates arrived. First there were Adam and Lee, our neighbors, completely crazy Americans who invited us for a drink. Before we could make up our minds Dan and Kate arrived, two Americans from NYC who had done a semester in London and were now traveling Europe before going home. Then arrived Tamara and Kyle, Aussies on a trip around the world. We ended up having dinner with the latter couple, and talked and drank for hours.
The next morning we were up first and went on our way. We took bus 25 from the bus stop, as it said it would go to the station, but this turned out to be the Mestre train station and not the Santa Lucia station. We took a bus to the place we wanted to go. Arriving in Venice we had our breakfast in a little park next to the bus station and then we took a ferry to San Marco. We visited the basilica and wandered the backstreets until we got to the Rialto, and then took another ferry to the Peggy Gugenheim collection, with sadly just one Dali and one Chagall, while those were the artists I went there for.
We walked back to the train station and ate our dinner at Brek, which has a disgusting name but really nice and cheap food. As we came outside it started to rain so we ran back to our bus and took line 6 back. Kyle and Tamara came in shortly after we arrived back and we talked for a while with Tamara while Kyle was outside with some friends of theirs that had also come. We then went to sleep and they went to their friends tent.
On Friday we got up quite late and went (with bus 15 this time, it was just not possible to get to Santa Lucia from our campsite) to the train station in Mestre to get tickets to Ljubjana. We only got a weird result so we tried again at Santa Lucia. We got the same result there so we went to the ticket desk, where they told us we could leave at 21:27 and arrive at 1:53 in the morning. We thought this a bad idea, as our hostel was far from the train station and walking around at night in a strange country without speaking the language sounded bad all together. We went to an Internet place (accidentely, the same I'm in now) and cancelled our hostels in Ljubjana and Zagreb, and booked a hostel in Budapest, as this was where the 21:27 train was going. We then went back to the train station and booked two beds on the sleeper train of the 18th.
After all this travelling hassle and panic we needed a break so we took the walking tour in the Lonely Planet to the quiet Jewish quarter and it was really nice to be free of other people and crowded streets for a while. We went to the Galleria di Academia as Bram thought there was an exposition there, but it turned out to be somewhere else.
We ate a salad and chocolate cake (good combination) at Brek and went back to our home. Kyle and Tamara had had to leave our house because other people were coming in and they only had a reservation for two nights, but nobody showed up, it was just the two of us.

Wow, I haven't been here in quite a while. I'll separate these posts by location, to make it a bit easier to look up.
When I left you, I said we would be visiting Otzi the next day. Well, that's what we did, we had breakfast at the hostel and walked to the museum. It is a really nice museum, though only the part about Otzi is also in English. His find must have been really amazing; he still had all his clothes and tools and everything!
Afterwards we rented some bikes and biked along the river, until we realised that this would mean biking up the hills the whole way back, so we left the river and went into the hills. The way back was really nice, just gliding down hill real fast, and we lay in the grass next to the river for some time before going back to the hostel.
We took a shower and ate pizza and afterwards a really tasty icecream (we've eaten ice cream every day in Italy so far), from a nice guy who wanted to visit Amsterdam. We had a couple of sporty Canadians as room mates, who went to bed earlier then we did and left at six the next morning.
That day, 14 May, we checked out, left our bags at the hostel and went to the Spar for some needed groceries. Then we went to a really nice interactive nature museum, where my little fox character beat Brams rabbit.
We picked up our bags and said goodbye to Veronika, the girl at the reception that helped us with everything. We took a train to Verona and then a train to Venice. Arriving in Venice we bought bus/ferry tickets and tried to find the right bus according to the campings directions, but we couldn't. When we asked at the info stand they told us we had to take line six, and the driver of line six said he'd stop for us at the road we were going. After a while Bram got up and asked him if our stop was still ahead, and he said we had to get of then and there. When we got of the bus we looked around and an old man asked if we where lost. We asked him where our street was and he explained that it was about a kilometre back, so the bus driver just forgot about us. He helped us get on the right bus back, and that driver was really nice and let us get out exactly where we needed to get.
We then came to our campsite, but I'll put that in another post, as it deserves the full attention.

Long time no post!
We´ve been without Internet for a while, and I´ve now paid a Euro to update my journal and check my email, so I better make them last!
On our second day in Florance we visited a museum, sat on the steps of the Santa Cusce watching the street sellers being chased by the police and then we went to the Bogoli gardens where we spend a whole relaxed afternoon. These are great gardens with statues and a nature trail and a lot of nice grassy places to just lie down.
We tried to get dinner at Ruths, a kosher and vegetarian restaurant, but it was closed because of sabbath, so we went to Il Vegetariano instead, a great vegetarian restaurant in the universitz area. Mostly frequented by students and other outlandish people, it made for great admosphere and more than twelve vegetarian dishes!
Walking back to our hostel we were adressed by a Jesus look-alike who told us there was a concert going on in the church next to our house, by the choir of the Colorado state university. The guy turned out to be Flemish and was very happy to talk Dutch. Back in our hostel we got a ´fruit latte´ from Franco, the care taker, and talked a bit with an American exchange student.
The next day we made a trip to Pisa, but actually visiting all the (not to great looking) buildings was too expensive in our opinion, so we went back quite early (also because it was very crowded). Back in Florance there was a flag competition (never heard of it before either) going on on the Piazza di Signori and we watched for a while, then we walked to Piazza di Cosce where there was a jazz performance. We ate something at a very touristy joint near the piazza and walked back to the hostel while looking at various street performers (these are always around in Florance); musicians, a stand up comedian and the people that make paintings with chalk on the street.
Back at the hostel it was taken over by Brazilians in various groups and Franco was rearranging our room to fit in two more beds. He himself had to sleep somewhere else that night as his bed was also needed.
Yesterday we spend sitting on trains (a Eurostar from Florence to Bologna and a regional train to Bolzano). The youth hostel is very sterile and compact, but the people are really really friendly. Last night our room was shared by a strange Italian couple who had no bags and slept in the same one person bed and left without cleaning and smoked in the room.
Today we had our included breakfast, did laundry, walked into town to find the tourist information closed, and all the museums as well, walked back, got a map from the very nice girl at the reception and went out to walk. We took a cable train to San Giovanni and walked for about three hours, with a total height difference of 400 m. Quite though for my untrained legs.
Tomorrow we will visit the museums here (Otzi is in one of them) and if the weather keeps up we will rent bikes and tour the castle route next to the river.
The day after that, Wednesday, we go to Venice, and we are staying at some sort of camping/hostel combination that wastn´t rated very well online, but it was cheap and we had to find something. We will stay there for four nights, which gives us two days to visit Venice and one day for a trip to Verona. On Sunday we will take the train to Ljubjana (sp?) the capital of Slovenia, where we have a reservation all ready.
After that we will probably go to Zagreb, Budapest and Prague, but we might put in another nature/mountain piece...

Just a quick post from our hostel in Firenze, to let you know that we arrived well and are in a twin private room in Florence, looking out over the main street near the Ponte Vecchio. We booked this hostel very last minute but it lookes like a real find.
We had our breakfast early yesterday, then said a (bit) emotional goodbye to Mabri, who is one of the nicest people I've ever met. We walked to Termini, took the first train to Florance (a Eurostar) and walked to our hostel. We left our bags there as we couldn't get to our beds until after 15:00, so we walked into the city, ate a calzone, and visited the Duomo (we climbed all 461 steps to the top), ate an icecream, visited the Piazza Signario, Ponte Vecchio and Chiesa di Santa Spirito.
Back at our hostel we found out we had to move, so we walked to this new place I'm sitting now. We took a shower and went out to eat at a really small and cozy "persian" restaurant, where we ate persian, greek, libian and maroccan dishes, and finished with sambuca for Bram and orange-ginger tea for me. It sounds weird, but it tasted really good. There were only local Italians in the place, so our not-touristy and up-for-new-things metres pinged.
We had a bit of trouble finding a hostel in Venice or Verona, so we are now planning on visiting the Dolomites first, we have a reservation pending for a youth hostel in Bolonza, and hoping that there will be rooms in Venice when we book a week ahead. It will also be nice to get away from the tourist crowds and walk/bike through nature.
I'm hoping the reservation will come through today, so we will know for sure we have a place to go after we have to leave here (on Sunday).

Another quick update. First of all, the comments don't seem to work for some people, just to see who it does work for, could people just leave a random (or not so random) comment, so I can check if it works.
To follow up where I left you, yesterday we went to the park around Villa Borghese (after reserving a hostel in Florence) where we hung out for a couple of hours. I was quite tired and really needed some nature around me. Around 14:00 we walked back into the city via Piazza del Popolo and into the first eatery we saw as we were starving. It turned out to serve the cheapest lunch we've had so far, so it was a real find.
We then contiuned to the museum (I've lost the name for the moment, but it will turn up again) which was really really good. As it was close to the Time Elevator and we were up for a bit of action we went in, and it was just as cheesy and horrible as we expected, though the screaming American women behind us made it fun.
We then walked to our dinner, which was at the Hard Rock cafe we stumbled upon walking towards Villa Borghese. The food was really good and there was al lot, and we sat underneath John Lennons rain coat, and there was a gitar from Counting Crows David. Back in the hostel the American guy we shared our room with started talking and we had a realy nice conversation.
This morning we got up late, walked to a church (no, it was a basilic, but I've forgotten the name), and then to the three churches built on top of eachother, and then to the Circo Maximus, which is really just a sorry stretch of grass. We then walked to Capital Hill and visited the museum there, and back to the hostel for a shower, and a heartly discussion of where to go next. Our American friend joined us for some time, and our forth roommate turned up, a German guy who speaks no English.
We went out for dinner, but first popped into a supemarket to get some more food. We had dinner in a really touristy place just of the Trevi fountain, but this was totally planned. Unfortunately Bram left our groceries at the restaurant, so he can buy the new ones tomorrow.
Tomorrow it's packing, breakfast, checking out and the first train to Florance. Rome was great, I hope Florence will be the same!

So, we've been in Rome for quite a while now, and some people wee starting to complain that there were no updates coming in. As I don't have the Internet for that long and we're also trying to get a hostel in Florance, I'll sum it up briefly.
The journey to Rome went well, though every train was delayed. We almost missed our connecting train in Dusseldorf, and got in Rome at least half an hour later than we were supposed to. Our hostel was just a short walk from the station and we entered into a busy, chaotic washing/Internet place (where I am sitting now). The hostel owner, Mabri, explained us about Rome and planned our whole trip from day to day, where to walk and what to see. He is a very nice guy, he also gave us tickets for a free breakfast around the corner.
We then walked to the Fora and the Colloseum, and visited the Monument for Victore Emanuelle. We went back to the hostel, took a shower, and walked to an African restaurant for dinner. We shared our room with an American couple who were leaving to take a cruise to Greece, and I slept quite well the first night, though there was some noise.
The next morning we had an Italian style breakfast and walked the route Mabri had proposed, visiting the Spanish steps and the Piazza del Popolo and the Trevi fountain, Pantheon and every piazza and church in between. A very nice walk. We had a drink in a small cafe next to the Temple of Antonius and dinner in a stylish Italian restaurant.
Yesterday we woke up later, took a bus to Vatican City and spend our whole day there, visiting first the Vatican musea as the lines were shorter, and then the Basilisc itself. The museum was a bit of a disappointment in my eyes, and the church was really big, but not really very special.
Back to our hostel, we now had Igor, an architect student from Florance, sharing our room, and we talked for a while. We then went out to an Indian restaurant where we ate very nice vegetarian curry and samosas. Back to the hostel, where we opened our welcome bottle of whine and played some games.
This morning we tried to get into Villa Borghese, but it is all booked, so we'll find some other things to do. We first went down here to get a hostel in Florence and have our laundry done. The weather is very nice here, though we had a bit of rain yesterday.
Well, that's all for now, I'll write some more when we have another Internet oppertunity!

Just a quick goodbye message. We will take the 12:32 train from Eindhoven station, but we have to do some snack buying and bag repacking fist, so I'll probably won't have any other updating time. I have no idea how often I will update this journal, but as I have to check some other things online from time to time, it'll probably be once a week at the least.
I have no idea how many people actually read this journal, but for what it's worth I just want to say again that comments are encouraged, and that you don't have to be a Livejournal member to comment on posts. And you don't have to write it in English, my Dutch is still pretty good... You're probably reading this to hear something from me, and I would be happy to hear something back!

So, I came back from Paris, ran around franticly to unpack my bag, get my laundry done, get through a pile of (e-)mail, upload photos, call my parents and everything, slept for a loooong time and woke up to do more of the same.
Then I tried to activate my credit card, which went horribly wrong, I called the help desk, a very nice lady there saved me and now I have a working piece of plastic. Then Bram arrived, and we talked about Paris, and we went into the city to do the Last Preparations in Groningen. Which consisted of Bram getting a ISIC card (the store was closed), me getting rid of all my library books (the library was closed, but thankfully they made this box where you can dump your books in), and the both of us buying some last essential stuff (padlocks, flashlights, cute keychains with purple metal lizards). We got through the outdoor gear stuff just fine, but our Italian language game was nowhere to be found. Also, Bram doesn't have his ISIC yet...
On Sunday we packed my backpack together, Bram went home, my parents came to transport my plants, aquarium, bag and me to their house, where I am typing this. There are just some final things that still need to be done or bought, and them I am ready. My to do list consists of: getting money from my *&W^$#% savings account to my normal account, make copies of passport and the like, e-mail these to my webmail, finish post on Paris trip, upload and sort out all my parents photos from Mexico (as I need their camera, and they need this done), buy painkillers, stomach medicine, shampoo, batteries and the Italian language game...
As this Wednesday and Thursday are public holidays in the Netherlands I have to do the bank and shop stuff today (or tomorrow, but I'd rather do it today), but it has been pouring with rain since daybreak and there doesn't seem to be an end to it. O well, to put my fried nerves to rest, I'll just go out and run my errands, no good ever came of me delaying stuff...

Well, I've tried, but I couldn't finish the entire piece before leaving for Italy, so Day 4 will be written out and linked and pictured when I get back!

Monday 21 April
On Monday we took the train from Eindhoven to Rotterdam, the Thalys from Rotterdam to Paris and then the metro to our hotel. We then went to Musee Carnavalet, but as it was closed we went to Musee Picasso instead. We visited the Centre Pompidou, a church and ate a pizza on the banks of the Seine. We then went to the Eiffel Tower, but as the lines were to long we headed back for the hotel instead.
( The full and detailed story of Day 1, including links and pictures! )


Tuesday 22 April
On Tuesday we visited the Cemetiere du Pere Lachaise, with the graves of Jim Morisson and Oscar Wilde. We visited Parc des Buttes Chaumont, ate lunch there, went to Montmatre and visited the Sacre Coeur and the Musee Dali. When then visited the Musee Carnavalet, got a wild idea into our heads, went to Theatre Mogador and saw the Lion King musical (in French) there. Went back to the hotel in the dead of the night.
( The full and detailed story of Day 2, including links and pictures! )


Wednesday 23 April
On Wednesday we visited Musee du Quai Branly and the Eiffel Tower. We went to Place de la Concore and checked out the Musee l'Orangerie, but the waiting lines were too long. We also went to Musee Rodin, but it was the same. We therefor visited Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle, with an exhibition about evolution. We spent the last of the afternoon in Jardin des Plantes next to the museum, after which we went back to our hotel. We ate our dinner at an Indian restaurant close to the hotel.
( I think you know what to find here about Day 3, including links and pictures! )


Thursday 24 April
On Thursday we got out of bed early to visit Musee du Louvre. There were almost no lines and we walked straight to the Mona Lisa. We looked at the Greek and Egyptian and Mesopotanian sections, and wanted to look at the Dutch and 19th century French, but those wings were closed off.
As the weather was way better than on Wednesday we lined up for Musee de l'Orangerie, where we looked at Monets Waterlilies and other great painters. We took a metro to Musee Rodin and had lunch in a restaurant on the other side of the street. Then we visited the museum, where we stood in line for more than half an hour also.
After all those lines and people we just wanted to relax, so we went to the Notre Dame and sat in the square before it, just watching people and having fun and relaxing. There were other people (mostly French) just sitting and watching, while all the tourist were being rushed past by their tourleaders.
After actually going into the Notre Dame we went back to the hotel to pack our bags a bit, and as it was still early we played a game. When it was around half past eight we went outside in search of a restaurant and we ended up in a crazy little Italian restaurant with funny waiters. We then went back to the hotel to pack some more stuff and sleep our last night in the hotel.


Friday 25 April
On the last day we packed our bags, went out for a souvenir hunt, which didn't succeed. We then had tea at Paul, went back to the hotel and checked out. We went to Gare du Nord by metro, waited, took the Thalys to Rotterdam and went our separate ways there, me to Groningen and Admar to Eindhoven.
( The not so much longer story of Day 5, including links and pictures! )


Looking back on it, I didn't think it was possible to visit that many sights and do that many things in just 4 days, but it appearently is. I was really tired by the end though, and I had too many blisters to count, so in Rome, I will try to take an easier pace, just visiting the main attractions and coming back there a few extra times to see all the rest. I can't guarentee this will actually happen, I might be running around like crazy within a few hours, but the intentions are good...