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