vienna day 2

Megan and I woke up in enough time to leave the flat by 11 (or shortly thereafter) and went to catch the orange line to schrobrumm (the castle) only to find out it was the green line we wanted- we got to the right line and headed to the castle. Bought the classic pass (I got the student discount again) and got an audiotape tour through the mansion, we then visted the garden and the panoramic view atop of the gate and the rear end of the castle overlooking the grounds. We got lost in the hedge labyrinth and then found our way to the zoo. They had 2 sorts of flamingos and polar bear, orangutans, spider monkeys, american bison and even a porcupine (they waddle as I learned in alaska). Megan grabbed fries and I just ate a protein bar! After the zoo we visited the overlook garden (and did everything we paid for) by this time it was 400 pm and we were tired of walking! We headed to the flat and found a bar with authentic austrian food on happy hour! Checked our emails (we were awaiting 2 CS replies) and were off to the restaurant. I had the weiner schnitzal and megan had turkey cordon bleu. The weiner schnitzal was quite tastey as were the 3 beverages that accompanied it. We then headed off to the city center to meet up with Luis-Alberto. He brought us to a beach bar on the canal (no oceans in vienna so they deal by bringing in fake sand and setting up next to the dirty danube canal). After meeting a couple more CSers and his roommate ralph- of LA is from Nicaragua and studying in vienna, we went to a coffee house before megan was ready to turn into bed. We both packed quickly and efficiently and passed out.

Items Megan has lost (or thought she lost)

London-- Razor (after she reminded Andrea to grab her razor) several brain cells.... Athens-- Towel--thought she was being clever by usin it for a pillow on the bus.... then never saw it again Berlin-- Combination lock for her bag 1/2 of her bed Prague-- THOUGHT--grey t-shirt ACTUALITY--Andrea packed it in her bag for her VIENNA--

vienna day 1

waking up was difficult again. i went and ran 7 miles (well, for an hour around the park) while megan picked up groceries (eggs, 2 baguettes cheese, turkey and nutella) and had a coffee (they drink them out of glasses...not mugs) at the cafe across the street. at 2 we headed into the city to meet up with max. we then did the walking tour of vienna where we saw the museums some statues, roman ruins numerous churches and then we decided to have sushi for dinner! megan and i had tempuri shrimp roll and a california-- quite tastey. now we are back at our flat after megan hadto buy 'mozart balls' hoping to hear back from another Cser to meet us for gelato. we will see! tomorrow we are doing the castle and the zoo here in vienna :-)

en route to Vienna

Slept in this morning, checked out of our hostel, waiting around for the train. upon reading our reservation for an apartment in Vienna, we may not have internet access, so it might be a few days for updates to come. We leave vienna on 7/7 for a day in salzburg then onto munich that night to stay with my friend martin. try and find some wireless somewhere! so after sitting around the train station for our train we boarded and found our reserved seats which were not close to each other. a brit dude then sat across from me and we sparked conversaton right up. megan soon joined us and we talked for a good three hours. his name is glenn and he is also touring europe this summer but doesnt have any idea of where he is going. he is also couchsurfing. he made a sign and hitchhiked from dresden germany across the border and to prague in the czech. now he is in vienna and crashed on the floor of some hostel and we dont really know what he is doing now. we told him he could surf our floor but who knows! crazy kid wicked sweet. we joked me and glenn would travel together and megan and glenns gf could travel together. upon arrival to vienna we stopped at a different stop which wasnt on the list wien mitte. i saw a sign for the U4 which was the uunderground we wanted so we were being daring hopped off the train and found a ticket thing to the u4. glenn folllowed but he was goin the other direction. this ended up being a great idea because the stop we wanted was 2 stops from the station we ewre at!! we then walked and found the front of our hostel all boarded up with a telephone number to call. no phone.... no wifi..... nothing. so we asked this nice gentleman who was walking his 2 month old black dog if he could send a message/call the place for us so we could get in. done and done. its nice apartment en suite. at 730 Cser max met us on the street and brought us to dinner at burmuda bahr. we had authentic austrian food –meat and potatoes. then we hopped a couple more pubs before we decided to walk megan home. i joined max for a few more pubs where i met a nice chap from the netherlands who wanted to practice his english (max said he was hitting on me) before venturing home at 3am.

Prague

This morning (again was a hard morning), but by 11 am megan and I were off to walk through the streets of prague. We were on a mission to see the Prague Castle before 200. We found our way through the streets to the river, across the charles bridge and up to the castle. we checked out the cathedral, the old royal palace, and the basillica while we were there. It was raining slightly hard too which made walking on the cobblestone very difficult. at 2pm we decided to head back to our hostel because megan made plans for us to meet up with Lucy & Mark. Mark was a teacher at the school megan taught at when seh was teaching english in the czech a few years ago. we met at "friends cafe" and i had a hot cocoa and carrot cake. we talked to them for 2 hours before their six month old started getting fussy. megan and i then meandered the streets of prague. I got my mom a gift (haha its a surprise) and we found a legit czech restaurant to eat dinner and had some beverages for 300 crowns (20$$)then we decided to walk the streets to the river and see the castle/charles bridge lit up at night. gorgeous. after that we meandered our way back through the streets to our hostel. tomorrow we leave for vienna!

En route to Prague

So the coordinate bbq was a BLAST!! we grabbed brats at the local grocery store, hopped the metro a few stops, walked through this dark central park like place up to the top of some hill in the dark following the music to an open gated field like place where there was a DJ and bar and grills set up and people. Megan and I met some nice local berliners including Max. Marian set up the grill and we socialized as best we could. it was our fourth of july celebration. at about two am we left and headed back to our hostel where we passed out. Saturday morning we had to wake up way too early pack quick and hop to the train station to catch our train to prague. we ended up boarding the wrong car (on the right train) and made this old couple rather unhappy. we were in the right seats, the wrong car. so we then had to hop a couple cars to find our 2nd class seat. i slept for most of the journey while megan stayed awake. when we got to the Praha main station, we went to the vodaphone store where our CSer Dan was going to meet us. sure enough he was there, and lead us slightly astray en route to our hostel. we have bunk beds (its like when we shared the room in orlando a couple years ago!). then dan took us on a walking tour of all of prague. we say old downtown the cathedral and many other interesting places. we are saving the castle for tomorrow. We then (okay we stopped by our hostel like 4 times the people must think we are crazy, and they wanted to check that we only had bed for 2 people cause dan was with us... and they were confused) went to karoake at globe bar. it was hilarious there was a boy group and they did a couple backstreet boy songs well. Our friend dan did american woman for us. met some nice irish folk--well see if i meet up with them in ireland they live on the northwest side of the island three hours drive from dublin. then at about eleven we dropped megan off so she can sleep and dan took me on the nighttime walking tour of prague. i had a deep fried cheese on a sandwich and continued to walk another few miles in an attempt to burn it off. its now three am here and i'm about to go to sleep. megan and i are finishing the walking tour and meeting herfriend lucy for coffee/drinks at 3pm. tomorrow is our one full day in prague then we leave the next for vienna.

Berlin

marian—my couchsurfer met me at our hostel at 10pm megan decided to go to sleep so marian and i went to mojito for a coupe beverages then grbbed 2.50 euro pizza. we walkd to a unferground club scene area then sat amd enjoyed nightlife ouside of 'suicide circus' where we met a couple guys looking for their friend joe who had a sign. about ten minutes later joe appeared and was making enemy with the homeless CW on the street. she stole joes sign and was beating him with it just because he wanted to pet her dog. it was slightly funny because she was yyellng at him in german and he only knew english. Marian and i then went to the harbor where we watched the sunrise. Friday aM started way too early (1030) because Marian was picking me and megan up for a private fat tire bike tour (the company that charges 40 euro for the day) throughout Berlin. We rented our own bikes from plus berlin (our hostel) for 12 euro a piece then hit the sites of berlin—berlin wall, checkpoint charlie, we went up to the top of the cathedral, brandenburg gate, marienkirche, red town hall, palace of the republic, nazi topography of terror, soviet war memorial, deathstrip, museum island (which is where the cathedral we went up in is located), and reichstag. on the three mile bike back, megan decided it would be a good idea to bike trhough oncoming traffic (marian and i were already off our bikes to wait for her and the traffic light) she narrowly escaped without a scratch..... but was definitely honked at.... now we are relaxing in our hostel before going to a 'coordinate' BBQ (you get the location in coordinates have to enter it to google and figure out where the location is) at 1030pm tonight. yup, should be a good night. we are off to prague tomorrow!