Europe (Winter Break 2004-2005)
Links to photographs:
Trip Diary (Prepared 02/13/05)
Sunday, December 26, 2004: Departed Atlanta at 5:40pm for London Gatwick.
Monday, December 27, 2004: Arrived at London Gatwick at 6:45am. Went through immigration and customs. Hung around and slept, waiting for the other 3 guys (Ben, Brandon, and Joseph) who took a later flight. They made it through at about 10:15am. We took a train to Kings Cross. Bought an all-day Metro pass, and checked into our hostel (Hostel 149). Decent hostel, breakfast was included, our room was dorm style but had a shower inside. There was a 'crazy' guy in our room...he kept saying things like "good morning gentlemen", and then would spout out something random, like "you are from New York," immediately followed by "is it true?!" That became his trademark phrase, and we joked about it for the rest of the trip. After dropping off our bags, we set out to explore the city. We stopped at the Britain Museum, had lunch at a pub at Picadilly Circus, then headed back to the hostel for a nap before dinner. We went to a pub at Leceister Square for dinner. I was not feeling well, so I headed back to the hostel, while the others went out.
Tuesday December 28, 2004: We got up for breakfast at the hostel. Cornflakes and toast, nothing special, but not bad. We bought an all day tube pass and headed out. We stopped at Buckingham Palace, unplanned, right at noon, just in time for the changing of the guard. We stopped at Harrods, the mega department store, and then stopped by the Tower of London. We crossed Tower Bridge, and had lunch at a tandoori restaurant just on the other side. Next we continued on to the British Library, which, being a bank holiday, was closed, much to Ben's chagrin. We went to Kings Cross and then Victoria to get details about getting to the Stansted airport in the morning. We had a quick dinner at a chinese restaurant at Picadilly Circus, then saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. After the play, we headed back to the hostel. On the way, we stopped to try to call a 'call girl,' whose ads are posted all over phone booths. Joseph got through to one, but she hung up on him! We were just calling as a joke anyway. At the hostel, we just stayed up until 2:30am, when we had to leave to begin our journey to the airport.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004: We left the hostel around 2:30am and began our trek to Victoria station, where we would catch a bus for Stansted airport. Turns out the walk was about 3 miles (with our bags!). We had tickets for the 3:15am bus. It turns out that we were lucky we bought them the previous day. We got to the station at 3:15, and there were a good 20-25 people waiting for that bus! The 3:15 bus did not show, but our tickets guaranteed us on the 3:30 bus. After taking the ticketed people, the driver said he had room for only 2 others, and the rest were (unhappily) left waiting for the next bus. We arrived at Stansted, rushed inside and got our tickets, and headed through security, getting there just in time for boarding our 6:10am flight to Dublin. We cut it pretty close and ended up lucky! Ben was on a flight about a half hour after ours. So Brandon, Joseph, and I got into Dublin and waited on Ben. We bought 3 day all-bus passes for Dublin. We hopped on a bus, dropped our bags off at our hostel, Abraham House, and had a big Irish breakfast at a nearby restaurant. The hostel was decent, had a bathroom and shower in our dorm-style room (albeit with no working light!). The guy at the desk pretty much epitomized the stereotypical Irishman. He swore a lot and had a funny accent :) We spent the day roaming the city. At night, we stopped by a 'locals only' type bar, and met a guy named Steven ('call me Stef'). He was pretty drunk when we got there, and at any given time, had at least three different drinks in front of him. Ben and I weren't drinking, but he insisted on buying us a round. Later that evening, Ben orders a 'baby Guinness' (half-pint), much to the laughing stock of all our drinking buddies. They said the only people who order those are grandmas!
Thursday, December 30, 2004: In the morning, we checked out of the Abraham House hostel and made our way to Citi Hostel on Charlemont. We booked our three nights in Dublin in advance, but ended up having to stay in a different hostel each night. Our room at Citi Hostel was nice - it had a bathroom and shower in the room, 110V American style outlet, and even a tv. It was probably our nicest hostel of the entire trip. Price wise, it was very reasonable (about 14 euro / person / night). We walked around Dublin and saw St. Patrick's Cathedral. We toured the Guinness Brewery. I normally do not like Guinness because of the 'bitterness', but in Dublin it was very smooth and creamy. I had several pints and definitely enjoyed them. Afterwards, we had dinner and relaxed for a bit, then went to a bar to see a tsunami relief Cabaret show. We went out afterwards with some of the participants. Joseph and I headed back early, but Ben and Brandon stayed, and ended up getting us all invited to a New Years 'house party' the next night.
Friday, December 31, 2004: Today we slept in until about 11am. Then we got up and walked around Dublin. This was pretty much a rest and catchup day. That evening, we went to a New Years 'house party.' We go there about 11pm and were the first ones there. Apparently in Ireland, the custom is to spend time with your family until midnight, and then go partying afterwards. We sat around, talked, drank, and sang a few Irish songs. A little after midnight, people and music started arriving, and things started picking up. I tried about a half shot of Absinthe. My highlight of the evening was seeing a 'granny' smoking a joint! We left about 2:30am.
Saturday, January 1, 2005: This was a travel day. We got up and set off for the airport for our noon flight. We waited for a bus, and time was getting close, so we decided to catch a taxi. Since there was no traffic and it was split among 4 of us, the taxi ended up not being that much more than taking the bus. Our flight left at noon for Glasgow Preswick airport. There, we had a 3 hour layover, then a flight to Brussels Charleroi airport. From there, we caught a bus into the city, and found our hostel for the evening, the Vincent Van Gogh hostel. The hostel had breakfast and keycards for the door, which made it seem somewhat upsacale. We checked in and found our room, a 4 person. However, the mattresses offered about as much padding as a blanket, and sleeping on a metal bunk, that did not fare so well. The pillows weren't much better! Ben was feeling sick, so he stayed in while the rest of us went to find dinner. We walked around for a bit, but most places were closed, since it was fairly late. We did find a corner sandwich shop and stopped in. Here we encountered, for the first time this trip, someone who did not speak English, but rather French. We managed to place our order, primarily by pointing! It was good and cheap. Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel to get some rest.
Sunday, January 2, 2005: We had breakfast at the hostel, which was primarily bread! We walked to Grand Place and admired the architecture. We toured the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate, and bought Belgian chocolate. We also saw 'Mannequin Pis', a doll-sized statue fountain of a boy peeing. It is a big tourist thing, and I got a kick out of a group of about 30 Chinese people stopping and stereotypically taking pictures, all at the same time. Apparently, the statue gets dressed up for various holidays and occasions. The way it was referred to, I thought it was going to be some huge statue, and was somewhat disappointed to find out that it was only the size of a large doll. About a block away, we stopped for Belgian waffles. I had one with just powdered sugar on it - delicious! We stopped for lunch in a Turkish section of town. Ben tried to impress us with his French, however it was a little rusty. This became evident when he tried to ask for the check, only to have a beer served! But it was a valiant effort nonetheless. In the evening, we caught a train to Amsterdam. We did not have a hostel reserved, but we had a few possibilities we had found on the Internet. However, as we were walking out of the station, we were approached by a guy who was offering a room. He said it was nearby, so we decided to take a look. We negotiated a hotel room, with 4 beds, a tv, phone, bathroom, and breakfast for 20 euro / person. We probably would have paid at least that at a hostel. After dropping off our bags, we took a walk through the infamous Red Light District. The red fluorescent lights cast a captivating pink glow. In the windows, the girls are literally offering their wares, clad in scanty lingerie. Inside each room is a bed and a curtain over the window. So, apparently you just walk in off the street, they pull the curtain, and you get busy! The alleys are small and narrow, and barely fit two people walking shoulder-to-shoulder. We did not partake in anything, but it was sort of neat just to walk through. Elsewhere, on the street, we were offered pot, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy (all of which we declined!). Ben got in touch with a friend of a friend of his, and she brought us to the nightlife. I stuck around for a bit, but finally headed back to the hotel around 2am, and the others followed suit sometime later.
Monday, January 3, 2005: We got up and two of us managed to get down in time for the included breakfast. It was quite an impressive buffet. We got the others, and walked to the Anne Frank house. We toured the house, then walked around Amsterdam. We got sandwiches at a small cheese stop. We walked past the various canals and buildings. The afternoon, we picked up our bags and caught a train to Berlin. In Berlin, we checked into the 'Heart of Gold' hostel. We were assigned to a male room, but there were girls already in the room. They didn't care, so we stayed there. The most talkative one was a solo British traveler, and we just by chance happened to run into her on the street the next day!
Tuesday, January 4, 2005: We got up and walked around Berlin. We saw the Brandenburg Gate and part of the Berlin Wall. While walking around, we also ran into the girl from the hostel from the previous night. We had lunch at a local-type restaurant. Then, we collected our bags and headed for the train station. We hopped on a train to Prague. On the train, while conducting passport checks, the police saw Ben's passport and started laughing at his picture. It was rather amusing. We got into Prague rather late, and while walking out of the train station came across a lady offering an apartment. We negotiated a rate of 10 euro / person, and she took us to the apartment. We needed to take the subway, but the ticket machines only accepted coins, which we did not have. The lady said that they do not check at night, so we just went into the station. Besides, the 'fine' for not having a ticket was the equivalent of about $30, so it wouldn't be a huge deal anyway. We got to her apartment, which was definitely in a 'non-touristy' part of town! The elevator held a maximum of two people, if you crammed in! Her apartment was on the top floor. Ben and Brandon stayed in a bedroom, and Joseph and I slept in the living room. There was another guy already sleeping there (Czech), and two others in an adjacent bedroom (Americans).
Wednesday, January 5, 2005: I woke up about 3am or so to someone asking for a cigarette. It was the two Americans. I told him I didn't have any, and so did Joseph. He came back again about 2 minutes later, same thing. Joseph said something like, we don't smoke, we don't have any cigarettes, go away. This guy leans over Joseph's bed and starts hitting his feet, and is like, 'Oh an American, where are you from, Alabama?' Then he says 'Come on, you wanna dance?'...as though he was in New York about 10 years ago! Next thing I know, this guy tries to hit Joseph, and Joseph brings him down. The guy murmured something then left. That was the last we heard or saw of them. That morning, we packed up and headed for a hostel. I was catching a train that evening, but the others got checked in, and we found a place for lunch. The amusing thing during lunch is that there was a dog walking around, and it stopped at every table and stool and lifted its leg! After lunch we took the subway to Prague Castle. It is up on a hill, so we got some amazing views of the city. We spent some time touring the castle, and then walked across Charles Bridge. Across the bridge we found the Astronomical Clock, and waited for the hour to see its show. My camera battery finally died at this point, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures after the Astronomical Clock. Let that be a lesson to bring a voltage converter and/or spare charged battery! We had a decent dinner, then Joseph and I headed to the hostel to collect our bags and go to the train station. I had a flight to catch on Friday, and Joseph decided to cut his stay a few days short. Ben and Brandon stayed an extra night in Prague, then traveled to Paris before heading home. Joseph and I arrived at the train station to catch an overnight train to Munich. We had a bit of a challenge finding the right train at first, as there were cars with several different locations on the same train. We finally found the correct destination and settled in. While we did have a little 'compartment,' the seats did not recline at all, although there were two sets of seats three abreast with armrests that lifted up, so we made the most of it! At some point, the police came in to do a passport check. As we fished for our passports, they asked if we were American, we said yes, and one of them said 'thank you' and left. So much for a passport!
Thursday, January 6, 2005: We got into Munich a little before 6am. We found something for breakfast, put our bags in a locker, and got oriented. We rode the train to Dachau. We spent a couple of hours touring the concentration camp. The weather really set the mood...it was drizzly and overcast. Afterwards, we went to the Hofbrauhouse and had lunch and a beer. We caught a mid-afternoon train to Frankfurt. From the station in Frankfurt, we hopped on a bus to take us to the Frankfurt Hahn airport, where our flight departed from. Joseph and I parted ways at the airport. I got on my flight, and got into Stansted a little after 11pm. There was a long line for buses to Victoria station due to some 'engineering works' on the train lines. My return ticket that I held offered me no priority in line, so I hung out for a few hours, rather than waiting in line and packing onto a bus. Several others had the same idea.
Friday, January 7, 2005: Around 1:30am or so the line finally thinned, and the final people in line packed onto the bus. Literally packed. Knowing that they run buses every 30 minutes, I decided to wait for the next one, as did the few others who sat to the side of the line. So we hopped on a bus about 2:30am, and with only about 5 of us, managed to spread out and get some sleep. Needless to say, the bus driver was not happy at making a trip for 5 people, but hey, the timetable indicated regular bus service, and we decided to wait until it was less crowded! Got to Victoria station about 3:30am or so, and caught a train to London Gatwick airport. Once at the airport, I napped for a while, then got up and found a bathroom with a shower. I bought a few new books for the flight home, since I already read the five I brought with me! I met up with Kathryn, we got a bite to eat and hung out until her flight. Then I made my way to my plane, and was soon on my way back to Atlanta.