No need to Czech my bag

One of my favorite photos

The country that split into two was Czechoslovakia and those two countries were the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and if you can't tell by the title I went to the Czech Republic! There was no need to check my bag because I went by train, but still I couldn't resist the title name. After leaving Berlin I travelled to Prague aka Praha! The train ride was terrible because they ran out of seats after about one stop and considering I had a 5-8 hour train ride I was not looking forward to it, I got kicked out of first class because I'm rebellious and chose to sit there when my Eurail pass didn't qualify for first class. After being told to move I relocated to a train car until the people who sat there actually showed up and told me to move. The aisles were full of people and their luggage sitting on the floor and so I resigned to the dining car to get some lunch and charge my phone for this long trip. After two hours I opted to move thinking the aisles would be more clear and alas they were not, about 90% of the bathrooms on this train were closed down so I chose to sit in front of one in the area of the train car where the doors open to get on and off the train which was where no one else was sitting. It was very peaceful and I just read some books on my phone for the duration of the trip. I had plenty of time on my hands.



I forgot how great this photo is!

The Astronomical
Clock

  After arriving in Prague I had to deicide whether to do a walking tour the day I came in or to finally have a rest day, I chose to have a nice rest day and I leisurely walked around Prague and found out where some local markets are and I decided to find out where my walking tour started the next day. The next day I did my walking tour and saw the most overrated attraction, The Astronomical Clock. It was truly overrated and I was very unimpressed. We walked around and then it poured down rain for a bit and then let up, we walked around the city and eventually to the old town where I took some pretty decent photos. We stopped off in a restaurant for 30 minutes and I chose to hit up the local market instead, which I always do anyway. My day in Prague was pretty uneventful however I made a great friend by the name of Danielle and she was awesome. I would travel back to Prague just to experience some more of what I didn't!


The next place I head to is mispronounced often

 

 

Fall Asleep in Austria, Wake up in Germany

One of the Town Halls in Munich, this one has the
Glockenspiel

I think the title says it all for this one, doesn't it? I took a train from Austria to Germany and I think I'm now a professional train rider now, pretty much a pro. I loved Austria but it was my time to move on and continue onwards. I started off in Munich which if any of you have been there previously know that it is very BAVARIAN and basically incredibly patriotic. I couch surfed while in Munich and my host was hosting a few other people there as well. One of them was incredibly nice Korean girl and I wish I would have added her on Facebook, I wish I would have added a lot more people than I did ha-ha. We arrived the same day and my host took me to an Aldi which is literally the greatest store ever and I'm waiting for them to get to Tucson! We did a walking tour that night and then I did another one in the morning. I got to see the Glockenspiel which was pretty cool and numerous other places including the ever popular Hofbrauhaus and bought my grandfather a keychain there because that man loves his beer, but I was rather unimpressed with Munich so I won't be on this topic much longer! They have two lions next to a monument, one with it's mouth open towards the king and another with it's mouth closed towards the church and that speaks for itself. Munich was pretty and the food was okay, in the end they call themselves a million person village and I get that vibe but I am clearly quite the outsider. I did go to the zoo though and I got to see sharks and I got followed by a very nosy goat.



Chocolates from the Chocolate
Factory

The sandstone Cologne Cathedral

After two nights in Munich I headed off to Cologne Germany which was highly recommended by a coworker of mine who lived in Cologne and it was a wonderful recommendation. I arrived and after searching around finally found my hostel. I ate some dinner and went on to do a walking tour early the next day, it's not a big city like Munich and it's definitely not as touristy which I loved. My walking tour consisted of a tour guide and about 5 other people compared to the 15+ in other tours I have been in recently. We walked around the city and were shown a variety of things one of which was an opera house that we were standing on and when they play there they cordon off the roof as to not mess with the acoustics. It looks like a regular road at first though! There was a cathedral that had a face with its tongue sticking out at another cathedral across the way, teasing it in it's own architectural way, which is hilarious. We ended our tour with the famous Cologne Cathedral which is beautiful and I had the hardest time getting a good photo of it! A lot of cathedrals in Europe are made of sandstone which overtime turns black due to pollution. I did the chocolate museum the next day and I know what you're thinking, yes it was great! Also I know what else you're thinking and yes cologne originated in Cologne and they have some perfume fountains. When my time in Cologne was up I headed to Berlin next.



Berlin was pretty wonderful. I am a really big history buff. So seeing how Europe especially Germany deals with the aftermath of WWII was really interesting to me in particular. They have gold plaques on the ground in front of places that were or are houses to people who were taken to concentration camps, which is very touching. They have some monuments here and there but the plaques are in the ground and made of dark brass so the more you step on them the more they shine and all of the plaques are incredibly shiny. On another note I got to see the Brandenburg gate of course and Checkpoint Charlie which I think they over glamourize now. My walking tour took us through a lot of remembrance monuments of WWII. There is a cube one to remember all those killed in the camps and then we walked over Hitlers Bunker which is now a parking lot, rightfully so. Berlin was a beautiful city and I look forward to coming back again sometime in the future to see all that I missed.

My favorite quite from the East Side Gallery, The Berlin Wall.

 In case you can't read what it says above in this photo, this is my favorite quote ever. It from the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall and says

 

'Many small people who in many small places do many small things that can alter the face of the world.'

 The thing below is a Maypole! Cities and places in Germany steal them from each other and old them ransom for something in return, usually a party!

The Maypole of a marketplace I was in


Now I am off to a country that split into two recently!

 

Venice or Vienna

I'm obsessed with taking photos of road ways

Horses from a carriage ride

In my previous post I went to Venice and then after Venice I headed off to Vienna, Austria which was amazing and is definitely high up on my favorites list. At this time in my trip everyone I met and the things I did started to meld together. I couldn't remember exactly which city I met who in and while I was in Vienna I kept accidentally calling it Venice, which was pretty funny considering I loved Vienna and not Venice. I really miss food from my city, mainly Mexican food and I just really miss food, someone send me Spanish rice please. All the buildings are very similar and Austria yet so Unique and beautiful which you can see by some of my photos, They were rebuilt after the war perfectly. In almost every country so far there has been carriage rides, I love it!





I love this building so much

Vienna was amazing and it may not have breathtaking but it did leave me speechless a few times whether it was the buildings which I loved or some of the statues of even Mozart's grave. The buildings were very pretty and I loved just sitting and staring at them, even when it was raining. I may not be a pro in the classical music world but I do love classical music and I had the honour of being near Mozart's grave. See when he died he was poor so he was buried randomly which means he was basically buried in a poppers grave and they only know where he is within a 100 meter area so I hope I was near him. They have a beautiful statue dedicated to him and many of his plays and a garden with a treble cleft sign made of flowers in the middle, imagine the upkeep on that?


Hey Mozart!

To see how Europe has coped with the after math of WWII is truly a wonder in itself. I started to see this after I entered Vienna. They had a few statues dedicated to never forgetting the events of WWII and fascism. One of them that truly struck me was a stone sculpture showing the horrors of war from starvation to medical experiments, it was a sobering experience.




Mozart's Treble Cleft

Truly Vienna was an excellent place to visit and I did enjoy it very much and I found the people to be such a delight! I will be back Austria.




 

 

 

 

Now I'm off to a land some call Bavaria




Pasta, Pizza and Gelato



Taken from a fortress in Florence

In case you didn't figure out where I was by this title it was Italy! Of course I have been neglecting my blog lately so I was there like forever ago however it was an unforgettable experience. I traveled from Barcelona to Firenze! Which if you didn't know is Florence which was rather nice. I had my first taste of ah-mazing gelato and one of the girls from my hostel and I went out to dinner and got 100% freshly made and organic pizza which was truly unforgettable, I still dream of it. Florence was super pretty and had this one cathedral, the name escapes me now but it was literally breathtaking. It was so beautiful I could have basked under it for hours, which I did! I walked around and along the river and eventually up a fortress where I got a beautiful overview of the whole city and beyond and it was amazing. I loved Florence even if it was pricey!

 

Fresh, organic Italian pizza



My favorite Chocolate Chip
Gelato!



Here is some of the foods I

  sampled throughout Florence aka my favorites aka everything I did eat

more pizza than I have every before.

 I miss gelato so much now

  

 



 

The Coliseum looks amazing!

After Florence I went onwards to Rome which was an experience in itself. I stayed in a lovely hostel nestled in the forest with tons of bamboo and a very friendly staff. I made two friends and the next day we went off to see Rome. Which is cheaper than Florence BTW! I saw the Colosseum which was amazing and it was a honor to be in the vicinity of a piece of architecture that might as well be as old as time. We walked around for hours and saw the Trivi  fountain (if I get names wrong, which I know I am, I will be correcting them when I have access to a real computer and not just my phone when I'm home and I'll also be adding photos), we say the Pantheon too and a few other things I can't remember at the moment but it was all truly great. I loved it to bits and I will go back one day because I couldn't do Rome in just a day and I'm fast paced so if you go, do two days. Unless you have a jet pack or you can fly, that might help you see more. I did have gelato here as well which was equally amazing! While I was in Rome I headed to Vatican City by walking (I walked everywhere and on this day I walked about 25km). I was with two other people who somehow convinced me to go up to the top of St peters? Basilica. It was 550 stairs, never again. I paid like €6 to walk up stairs, the view was nice (see photo) but it was not worth that many stairs and I swear I better have the most beautiful legs ever. I want an award! I was trying to find a trophy emoji and I couldn't. Then to end the day we watched the sun set over Rome from a beautiful hill.

 

Gondola resting in the water in Venice

On my way to Lido Beach
in Venice

When I said ciao to home I headed to Venice which I don't have a popular opinion on. I decided since I don't get to camp often, why not camp in Venice!? So I did and it was an unforgettable experience. I had to take a bus from my hostel to a form of transportation called the people mover, it is actually called that too, I took a photo of the sign and I'll be posting it. After that I would be pretty close to everything in the city. It is pretty but not life changing. I got some great photos which you'll be seeing and the people were nice but there is really not much to do in the city so I headed off to Lido Beach! The beach was great and the fun part was I got to take a boat from Venice to get there, I love boats and water soooo much. The beach was great and it had to many seashells it was great, I collected a decent amount and I have a plan for them when I get back home for work! I'm sure you're wondering why the word pasta is in the title if I haven't had any, well I couldn't find any that I would particularly enjoy so I had more pizza and gelato ;) I had some mind blowing good vanilla gelato when I left the beach and I swear it was life changing.

 

All in all I did enjoy Italy and I look back on it fondly, however it is not my favorite country so far but it was a good experience even if I had to climb 550 stairs!

 

 

 

Florence Cathedral

 

Photo of Rome from the top of St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City, Italy

 

Now I'm off to another city and the name of that is V-