Wrapping up

Wow, what an intense 3 weeks, some highlights off the top of my head:

• Caught up with Chris in London
• Went to the Eiffle Tower when the streets were closed due to a terror alert
• Got a selfie with the Mona Lisa
• Got horrendously drunk at a bar in Switzerland
• Saw many naked people on the beach in the French Rivera
• Lost my group during a walking tour of Monaco
• Gambled at the famous Monte Carlo casino
• Walked 5km in Florence for yogurt
• Walked 25000 steps up 52 Floors around Rome in a day 
• Saw the Sistine Chapel and the Final Judgement in Vatican City
• Didn't fall into the canals in Venice
• Brought too much candy in Croatia 
• Fell in love with Ljubljana (Slovenia)
• Got wet in Austria
• Visited a concentration camp
• Got my picture taken with a snake in Prague 
• Played Pacman on a giant joystick in Berlin
• Got white girl wasted in Amsterdam

Plus many, many more things. Of course the people that you meet along the way make the trip just that much more enjoyable. According to our tour guide we have had one of the best groups, where everyone has been great and there was no douchebaggery. Massive thanks to everyone in the group for making the trip as great as it was, and of course to our tour guide Emily and our driver Greg for making our trip as memorable as it was.

Check out those sweet dance moves

This has been one of the best experiences of my life and we went so hard in the last 3 weeks that I leave Europe with no regrets. 

A re-enactment of me returning to work.

Well thats it for me, thanks everyone for taking the time to read!

Its the final countdown.

The last day of the tour. When you start it doesnt feel like the day will come and when its finally here it is met with many mixed emotions.

Dam we are good.

We didnt really have too much planned for the day, we got up and did a bike tour around Amsterdam (do not recommend unless you have a death wish). After the bike tour a group of us kiwis headed to a kiwi cafe for some of the worlds most delicious peanut butter and banana cake. We then walked into town and checked out a Banksy exhibit (was well worth it). After that we decided to check out the tower that overlooks the canals on the way back to the hotel. Was ok.

I dont know what I love more, Banksy's art or quotes.

Probably my fav Banksy piece.

After getting ourselves cleaned up we headed out for a final dinner with the whole crew (which was on a canal boat). It was bittersweet. After the dinner Amber headed back to the hotel with another girl and I was let loose in Amsterdam. I did not make any smart decisions, and I have patchy memory. I know some point in the night I lost everyone and then got myself lost, however somehow I made it back to the botel in 1 piece (was not 1 piece in the morning).

My & my Queen 

Unfortunately my state in the morning did not allow for me to say a proper goodbye to everyone, but I did see the bus leave so theres that.

I open at the close

Wow, the end is getting pretty near right? Its funny because I was talking to Jay (another fellow tour attendee) about how in Switzerland it was like "shit its only day 4, we have an eternity to go" and then all of a sudden we are nearing the end.

Im on a boat, im on a boat, everybody look at me cause im sailing on a boat

It was a pretty long trip from Berlin to Amsterdam so the majority of the day was spent on the bus. We got to our Botel (thats right, its a boat hotel), dropped our stuff off and then headed out on our walking tour. We went to the most important of all the sites in Amsterdam, the red light district. I've got to be honest, some of those chicks in the windows are pretty damn hot (which would most likely be reflected in their prices). After partaking in some of the local 'cuisine' we attended a sex show.

Everyone eagerly awaiting the panties to drop

It was really a sex show, like actually literally a sex show. It started off with some strippers (I had a seat right infront of the stage so obviously I was going to get picked on). To be honest I got off (giggle) pretty lightly, I just had to blow out a candle, that was being stored in quite an original spot. After a few strippers the main event happened, which was a couple actually just straight up having sex on stage. It was weird man, really really weird, I can't say I am a fan.

Photo because it looks cool

After the sex show we headed back to the botel for sleepytimes.

Where Hitler was killed is now a car park

Interesting fact huh?

#notmyfurher

We got up this morning (pretty gosh darn early) to do a Third Reich walking tour. Was really interesting and we went to a bunch of cool places, the chick doing the tour was very passionate about it (albeit a bit cranky when we misbehaved).

Memorial to the slain Gypsies of Germany in WW2

Thats a pretty sweet chariot

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Quite literally the name of this monument

After the tour we plodded over to the Topography of Terror which is a free open air museum which talks all about the holocaust in detail with some pretty cool timelines and exhibitions. After that we were going to go to the spy museum (we walked over to it) but instead decided to go and make our own chocolates (to be fair, one of them is a present...).

After the chocolates we went to the retro video game museum (which was fortunately on the way back to our hotel) and it was totally 100% all Ambers idea. Had a good look & play on the exhibits and brought some stuff from the store. We then left and went to the east side gallery, which is an open air art museum done on a surviving portion of the Berlin wall. Very cool (and sometimes controversial) pieces.

The most well known piece from the gallery

Definitely my favourite piece

From there we strode back to the hotel, what are we going to do tonight? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS THATS WHAT.

Czech'ing out to berl-in

I didn't get to have one last chimney cake before leaving for Germany. This made me a sad panda.

We left silly early in the morning because our tour guide hates our faces and headed into Germany, first stop: Dresden. Was really nice in Dresden, we had a look around at the historic buildings (and the ones that had been reconstructed) had some lunch (currywurst, I recommend) then headed towards Berlin.

We arrived at the hotel late afternoon, dumped our stuff off and went for a driving tour around the city. The driving tour stopped us at our dinner destination, we had pork knuckle for dinner and watched some old people dance (some of the group got in on that action, not me though im far too old and grumpy for that kind of carry on). 

Soviet statue fucking up a swastika 

Pretty sweet chariot

We then went back to the hotel where some of us went to sleep, while others literally got wasted and climbed out on our hotels scaffolding at 4am in the morning.

Snake, its a snake!!

I love Prague, I thought it was going to be nigh on impossible to top Switzerland for me but I am truly and deeply in love with Prague (well, maybe just a sheepish crush). For anyone wanting to do Europe for travel, put Prague on your list, you will not regret it.

Amber did some light shopping in Prague

We actually had a pretty decent sleep in this morning, which was a nice change of pace. We got up and headed into town at around 10am. Once in town we looked around at the shops and then headed up to the castle. We didn't end up going in (the line for security checks was massive). We then went and got one of the chimney cakes (seriously delish), checked out the sex toy museum and went to the park to chill and take photos with giant faceless babies.

Slapping dat ass

Amber headed back to the hotel for some R&R and I went to a beer tasting. Was pretty cool (started off in a 1000 year old basement, was spoopy), got to sample some nice (and not so nice) local beers. After the beer tasting a couple of us went to a bar that serves you beers from a model train. Was ok but the service was pretty atrocious which kinda put a down buzz on it. Amber came back into town and we headed out for our medieval dinner. Ah-maze-zing. The food was just too much but the entertainment was spectacular.

ITS SO FLUFFY IM GONNA DIE

Ah yes, may I order the 1/2 a pig for dinner please?

After dinner we headed back to the tram, where some smelly drunk homeless people were yelling muffled jargon at us.

Auf Wiedersehen

After a very brief time in Austria we said goodbye, but not before quite a sobering visit to Mauthausen (concentration camp). Walking in, the air almost felt colder and there was something in the air, something that you cant quite explain. We watched a 45min documentary of Mauthausen before entering the concentration camp. To put it in perspective 90,000 innocent people were murdered in this concentration camp alone (the largest one in Austria). When you walk through it it is hard to imagine that 180,000 people were sent here because the camp just isnt that big (which again makes you imagine what the conditions must of been like.

After Mauthausen we headed into the Czech Republic and towards Prague, once we got to the hotel (was actually really nice, and next to the tram station, Hotel Apollon I recommend it) and dropped off our stuff we headed on the tram into central Prague, destination Old Town. Wow, just wow. Prague has to be the prettiest city we have been to yet. I had high hopes for Prague and on day 1 it already delivered. We did a bit of a walking tour to see the sites (including the John Lennon wall) then we to dinner (really nice spinach stuffed chicken).

Where sleeping beauty lives

and this is where the seven dwarves live

God dammit Emma, why you gotta photo bomb me?

Oh I see, Amber doesnt get photo bombed

After dinner we meandered around a bit then caught the tram back to the hotel.

The hills are alive with the sound of music

We (regretfully) left Slovenia early in the morning (honestly I could of stayed there longer, probably my 2nd fav so far after Engleberg in Switzerland) and headed for Lake Bled. It is exceedingly beautiful, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We checked out Bled castle and had some lake Bled cake (like a custard square, but 2342394872 times the size). After mincing around there for a while we got back on the bus and headed to the movie set for the Sound of Music (Salzburg, Austria).

I feel like we did it better

Not a whole lot on the menu for Salzburg, we did a walking tour, saw the birthplace of Mozart, minced around a bit, looked inside the 700 christmas stores (seriously, so many Christmas stores). We then went out for dinner with some of the gang, had some Schnitzel (I had curry because I am a special snowflake and need to be different). We then went to have a traditional Austrian desert (called Nockrel). It was giant so I am glad we got 2 between 7 of us. After that we taxi'ed back to the hotel where I am catching up on my blogging, then Netflix I think (since I have decent WIFI).

Giant dessert

Slovenia is awesome

Seriously, what a lovely place, we left Croatia pretty early in the morning and headed to Slovenia, destination Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia). We arrived pretty early in the day and did our walking tour, and then we were free to explore (and by explore I mean we went to H&M to buy some shirts lol).  We headed back to the hotel pretty early for some R&R and then headed out for a food tour.

The dragon bridge, because regular bridges don't cut it

The food tour took us round to a bunch of eateries around the city and all the food was pretty good (bar the vacuum cleaner sludge / grey flour goop we had at one place). We went back to the hotel to chill again ( I was meant to go up to the castle, but had a nap instead).

6 popes frozen in carbonite #juststarwarsthings

Last part of the day was the pub crawl. I lasted a whooping 2 hrs before deciding that I am WAY too old to be doing a pub crawl, so I went back to the hotel (3rd times a charm).

Hey, its that thing!

Doing bugger all in Croatia

As the title suggests, today we did bugger all, and it was everything I dreamed it would be (we have been going pretty solid for almost 2 weeks now, it was nice to have some down time). We did stroll into town for lunch (Croatian McDonalds is best McDonalds), and brought 13 cubic tons of candy.

Croatian beach at sunset best beach at sunset.

We went down to the beach and just walked around, but thats about it. Lazy day.

Italy, Slovenia and Croatia oh my

We finally said goodbye to Italy and headed towards Slovenia, specifically the Postojna Caves. We get inside the caves and take a seat on this dinky little train thing. Once it got going I was constantly ducking to try to keep my head on its shoulders. Once the train stopped we were guided through the cave system by a tour guide who was telling us all about the system and how it formed.

Like real life minecraft

After the caves we headed towards Croatia (the border security was a lot tighter than any of the other boarders between countries so far). Once we got into Pula we did another walking tour, including climbing to the top of a hill to see an old fort once held for a couple of hundred years by the Ventians.

Roman ruin #XXXIVVCC

#myqueen

Forts and such

We got back down into the township (with at least half of our group) and made our way back to the bus. Once we got to the hotel it was dinner, then with beers costing about $4 NZD I got far drunker than I should have!

The damage is still there the morning after

Venice smells like weed and wee

Early start again, as we crammed onto a local metro bus like sardines (much to the dismay of the locals). There reaction was something like the picture below.

Babi de boopi!

We got into Venice just as the weather turned to custard and we did our walking tour of Venice, completely saturated. Venice is just as crazy as you would imagine it to be, all the roads being made of water. We got to St Mark's Basilica which was at this point just a giant swimming pool. We stopped off at a place that did Lace for a demo (I've gotta be honest, machines can do all that now so hand made lace that costs 120 Euro just doesnt do it for me). We then had our gondola ride (I got told off by the boat man for touching the sides). It was ok, felt like the boat was going to tip over at any point (and you would NOT want to land in that water, trust me). 

What lies behind those smiles is a nervous terror of falling into the bog of eternal stench.

After the ride we had some lunch and then went back to the Basilica for a swim. 

Amber was getting a bit tuckered out so we made our way through the streets to get back to the metro station. I needed to pee so bad at this point that I had to duck down an ally while Amber spotted for me (thats right, I pissed on a street in Venice, deal with it). We navigated our way back to the hotel with relative ease and by this time it was dinner time, we went over to a really nice Japanese restaurant for dinner (seriously delicious Tiramisu there, zomg). Then we went back to the hotel for sleeps.

Theres that nervous terror again

Playing in the massive rain puddles was fun, despite the cigarette butts and used heroin needles.

When I saw you in Verona

Holy moly we finally have decent internets where I can actually do some blogging. Was time to saw goodbye to Rome, and also goodbye to some of our tripmates, many of which were going to other places in Europe. We got up, had the breakfasts and then hopped on the coach and headed to Verona. There was more Roman ruins and we also went to the Balcony that Shakespear used as he envisioned Romulo and Julianne (reference).

Pretty sweet statue with no context 

Shakespear's balcony, yep...

After more gelato in Verona we headed into Venice. It was a pretty lazy night to be honest, not too much went on and after a group dinner we headed to bed.

We are so gangsta, we are about to drop a phat beat