Day 15 - 19th August

Had a really good sleep despite the karoke! We are staying in a 12bed mixed dorm with 2 geeky guys, 3 geeky girls, 2 English girls and 2 foreign girls.
We got up early to visit Ausvitcz which was very sad and moving.
We came home and had lunch, got a chinese and began pre-drinking. We met lovely Irish girls Rachel and Laura in the bar who were going out with other Irish girls - Kate.
We came back to our room to find a new arrival, some guy who was passed out asleep in bed who we later met in the bar learning he was also Irish - Barry! Clearly this party hostel just attracts the Irish!!
We drank in the hostel before heading to a club called 'Frantic' but we couldn't get in, apparently it was over 21s but apparently they also don't like letting English people in!!
We got talking to some Polish guys whos took us to an underground club which was cool! Sara left early as she was too drunk and Leanne left with her as she wasn't drinking, Rachel also left as she wasn't feeling well so I stayed out with Laura.
We met some Americans and Australians staying in some camp near by! Also met two very very dull Irish guys- one was a potato counter!!
At the end of the night the Americans wanted us to join them back at their camp for a party! Laura was up for it but can't say I was so we walked back to the hostel. We bumped into Barry in the bar who was paraletic! apparently he had been in the same club we had been in and he was pulling his own drinks!?
Got speaking to the owner of the hostel who was lovely! Finally got to bed at 6.30am!

Day 14 - 18th August

We got woken up by the police very early blowing whistles all round us to sit up! not sure why, think maybe because people were starting to goto work and didn't want to see people like us!!
We were so tired! it was 6am and still had to wait! We left the room just after 2men came in growling at us and barking! Then one man who had been sat behind me all night 'quacked' (like a duck) at me!! very weird!! We made a quick exit!! What is wrong with people?!!?
We got our train at 9 which was due into Krakow at 4pm after one connection which we nearly stood at the wrong platform for!! we were looking at the arrivals timetable instead of departures!! whoops!!
Then we witnessed a woman having a fight with a man -we reckon he was a drug dealer as she then proceeded to run after us trying to sell us her dog...great!
We arrived in Krakow exhausted! so rather then walking about trying to find the hostel we got a taxi as it was only meant to be 4euros away/10plz. The taxi drove for ages and came to 101plz!!!! £25!!!! We knew we had been ripped off and tried argueing with the guy but he pretended not to speak English!
We were absolutly raging and showed the lady in the hostel the reciept who kept it and said she would sort it out!
We had the most amazing showers definitly needed after sleeping on a grubby floor! The hostel was really nice (hostel Giraffe) but very lively! apparently we wouldn't be getting much sleep but we were wrecked!!
After our shower the receptionist told us that the police were coming to talk to us about the taxi! They took our details and said we could take the taxi to court and he would definitly loose his job but it wasn't worth the hassle of flying back to Krakow but we definitly would have won the case.
We made dinner and did some washing! -first time weve washed our towels...grose!!

Day 13- 17th August

We were meant to leave the hostel at 10am but we slept in till 11am and got woken by cleaners cleaning around us! Ryan said goodbye and left us some washing powder, bless him!
We stored our luggage at the hostel and went to the castle which we had to get the cable car upto! The views were good but not much else was, the castle was too modern. We walked back to the hostel stopping in a beautiful desert bar for icecream! We then collected out luggage and went to the train station and had a mcdonalds before our train to Vienna at 4. We got off the train at the wrong stop, one stop too early before Vienna, we only had half an hour to catch our connection at the next station so we rushed for a taxi to the next station! Pretty sure the taxi driver was stoned!! could smell weed! We got EVERY red light to the train station and just missed our connection! The next train to Krakow was at 9am!!!
We had to spend another night sleeping in the train station which looked pretty unsafe and sketchy!!
We went to the lounge on the 2nd floor which was a filthy room with seats! We got out our sleeping bag liners and kipped on the filthy floor! luckily there were 2 other girls in the room!
A homeless lady entered the room shortly after wearing hiking boots and looked mental with a binbag over her shoulder! She was talking to herself all night! very bizarre!
During the night various people came into the room luckily other backpackers too! but there were creepy men walking about all night and you could see them watching you! We were clutching onto our passport and rail tickets all night! very scary!

Day 12- 16th August

Got up early for Lake Bled but Ryan went to pick up his hire car and it took him 2hours!!
Leanne navigated us to lake Bled and it was absolutly gorgeous!! We rented a boat and rowed to the island in the middle of the lake with a castle in the middle! We swam for a while and jumped of the jetty!
We then drove to another touristy lake where we fell asleep for an hour while relaxing. I swam a bit but there were lots of wasps and fish!!
We then drove to a ski resort that Ryan wanted to see and he hiked upto a waterfall, we only had flipflops so decided to chill while he did the hiking- our excuse anyway!
We drove home via the supermarket and bought some pasta, sausage and sauce!
We got home, had showers and got ready to go out. We had a litre of cheap wine each before heading out.
We tried looking for the Irish bar but it was closed!! so we went to liquid and met lovely guys Olly, Jezz and Mark who we sat with all night, they were very amusing making fun of our holiday pics!! Ryan went home before we had drinks as he was tired.
On the way back from Lake Bled the girls were talking about a funny film 'sex-drive' about Omish people and we were discussing Mormans and it turns out that Ryan is Morman, it was really interesting hearing about his religion and he even gave us a book of Morman to read!

Day 11 - 15th August

Arrived in Ljublana (Solvinia) in the morning and tried to book our next train to Bratislava but all trains goto Vienna first and we didn't have enough stops left on our Interrail ticket so we decided that we will go straight to Krakow.
Met 3 nice guys outside the trainstation who we got talking to about Ljublana and what to do while were here.
Took us ages to find the hostel which was very modern and nice. We were in a mixed 4 bedroom dorm with one American guy- Ryan from Utah! Poor guy sharing with 3 girls!! He was absolutly lovely!
We walked to Trovili park were there was supposedly a castle....turned out just to be a pink house!! with a tanker outside! very random!! We walked about the town but everything was closed as it was a bank holiday.
We then walked MILES to a supermarket, it was so hot and we were so tired! We got some dinner and went to bed after some wine!
We got speaking to Ryan who mentioned that he was also intending on going to Lake Bled the next day but he was hiring a car and said we could go with him instead of us taking the bus!

Day 10 - 14th August

Meant to leave the apartment at 10am but needless to say we slept in and were woken up by Pera who didn't mind us leaving at 11!
We stored our luggage in the trainstation and went back to our beloved beach all day we went out for lunch and dinner before catching our overnight train to Lubljana. It was my turn for the good deal tonight and slept across 3seats. On the train we met two English guys Morgan and Matthew who we played the card games 'shit head' and 'Bullshit' with.

Day 9 - 13th August

Did the same thing today as we have for 2days - sunbathed! We spent quite a lot of money in Croatia as the food was all so cheap...but it all added up!
We went out for dinner then came home and got ready to go out! Lots of vodka consumed and many drunken antics! Pera apparently came down to tell us to be quiet...but I was at the toilet so missed her! gutted!! Played drunken uno before we went to a cafe bar where we had lots more vodka! and met 2 Croatian guys, one who kept buying us vodka all night but didn't speak any English lol!! Our last round consisted of 5vodkas and 2diet-cokes, not that we needed anymore drink and the guy insisted on paying!
Sara was sick and fell asleep at the table haha so we had to carry her down the stairs and walk her home!

Day 8- 12th August

Had such a nice sleep! Took the washing off Pera's very old fashioned washing line! We went to the beach to tan up was very busy but we found some sunloungers! We lay on the beach all day it was amazing, then walked around the town and had dinner! Very relaxing! We were treating our time in Croatia like a very relaxing beach holiday!

Day 7 - 11th August

Woke uo for our train at 6.30am which was due into Split at 12.30! 6hours train!! but was a very modern train which travelled high in the mountains so the views were amazing!
Arrived in Split to be harrased by people wanting us to come stay with them! We were a bit unsure so we went to the Tourist information and were given a number of a woman with an apartment. She picked us up and took us to her apartment, her name was 'Pera' and she was lovely although we didn't understand a work of what each other were saying! Nice apartment in great location for £20 a night. We washed our clothes and went for lunch although thunder and lighting started and very heavy rain!! We were scared as we had only came to Croatia for the sun!!ahhh!!
Pera was hilarous she didn't speak any English and kept saying 'noo problemo' 'commadish commadish' which we had no idea what she was on about!!
We were considering going out but we were all so tired we had showers, got pizza, played uno and went to bed.

Day 6 - 10th August

Woke up around 11 and we were meant to explore the 'Budda' side of town to see the bridge and the castle but we had to book our train tickets first to leave that evening but the que was over 2hours long only to be told we couldn't reserve seats so it was a complete waste of time!
We had to head straight back to the hostel and pick up our rucksacks to catch the next train in an hour to Zagreb in Croatia.
We got onto a very old train to Zagreb, we thought we would be able to catch an immediate connection to Split as we were told. We arrived in Zagreb at midnight only to be told the next train to Split was at 6.30am! So we decided rather then spending money on a hostel that we would rough it and sleep on the train station floor - marble darling!
We bought a kebab, put our luggage in a locker and made ourselves comfortable on the floor! luckily there were lots of backpackers with the same idea!

Day 5 - 9th August

Arrived in Budapest around 9am and got the metro to 'Blaha' to find our hopstel 'Casa de la musica' although we did not have a booking until 3days time! We eventually found it and luckily they were able to put us up! The hostel was really cool painted all stripey colours with a nice bar area and rooms!
We left our rucksacks off and walked for miles to 'Hige park' where we spent the whole day in the 'Scenzy' thermal baths which had 3 different pools, hot, cold and roasting and a lazy river. It was amazing, we lay there all day. Inside were hundreds of smaller thermal baths all different sizes and temperatures.
We went back to the hostel and had our first shower in 3days - nice!
Met 2 girls staying in our room -Izzy and Sarah from England and had drinks with them before meeting everyone else in our room - 4 Irish guys and 1 Irish girl who were all lovely.
We went out for drinks with everyone that night, but by the time we got out all the clubs had shut and the English girls had left the club we were meeting them at so we went to another bar but we were all so tired we left early to sleep. When we got back we met the spanish couple staying in our room who had told us while we were pre-drinking that they wanted to GOTO BED IMMEDIATELY as they were cycling the next day, how rude! They went absolutly balistic at Izzy when she came in and turned the light on haha!
We all slept like babies that night!

Day Four - 8th August

We arrived in Munich at 7.30am very tired! We booked an overnight train to Budapest for tonight at 11.40pm (going even further off route- our new moto was 'lets wing it')
We put our luggage into lockers and freshened up in the train station toilets which were really nice but we had to pay to use them :(
We walked around Munich and went to the English gardens a huge park where we were sunbathed. I thought I saw a huge rock, and was asking 'What is that, is it sand or a rock?' realising it was moving...then realising everyone around us was naked!!! and it was a naked man NOT a rock!!! OH NO we were in a nudist park and the ONLY people dressed!!!!
A man jogged past us saying 'give me more' haha very funny! Also watched a naked man doing yoga!! We walked back to the centre for some lunch and lay on a strip of grass with a take away sald where we fell asleep again! was so relaxing! I got very burnt! typical! We went for a drink and Leanne posted her beloved postcards which she was determined to send from every location!!
We then went to a german beer hall for dinner! was very funny!!! We had HUGE beers and all the staff were in costume, doing German dances and yoddling about the place! actually hilarous!
We couldn't really understand the menu, Leanne ordered a sausage which came in a bowl of cold water and was white!!! What on earth!!! she still ate it!
I bumped into a guy from Uni who lived in my court last year in the beer hall, very random! especially as we weren't even meant to be in Munich!!
We walked to the train station and eventually got on the train after getting on the wrong cart and getting stuck behind fellow backpackers in a corridor only fit for one small person haha!
We were in a cabin with 2 nice women and a big huge romanian man who Sara refused to sit beside or near so I took on for the team and sat oppostie him, however both of us had long legs and he was moohassive! I was literally straddling him all night! very embarrasing! The Romanian man left early I think something to do with security and that we wasn't in the EU, they were treating him quite badly checking through all his luggage when ours didn't get questioned!
We got loads of sleep anyway :)

Day Three- 7th August

We got up at 10, showered and checked out at 12 then we got the metro to the Louvre.
We wondered around the Louvre for ages! it was gorgeous, lots of stairs! We spent ages looking for the Mona Lisa, there was alot of anticipation, really was not as exciting as we thought!!
After we stopped for a crepe and coffee and went onto Sacre Couer, walked up a million stairs and sweated alot haha! Beautiful church and walked to the square (which I remember from my childhood visit with the family) there were lots of artists around the main square. We bought some icecream and some french postcards and came back to Barbes to collect our rucksacks.
We then departed for our first overnight train journey, 1 of many to come! Oh bumped into those creepy french harrasing men, even better this time we had rucksacks with us! Would not recommend staying in this area only because of the creeps hanging around the metro station!!
Sara's metro ticket hadn't been working numurous times while getting the metro for some bizarre reason! So she had to jump over the barrier before these men ate her!!!
We got on our overnight train, hoping for our own cabin, but we were joined by two chinese girls and it was a bit cramped!
Later that night we were joined by another girl making 5 in the 6seater cabin but it was very cramped especially with everyones luggage! Typical Leanne was able to sleep anyway! but Sara and I decided to retire to the bar, the best choice we could have made!!
In the bar we met 'Marcus Strudel' (absolute legend) an older man from Berlin who bought everyone drinks 'the party crew' We also got talking to a very amusing german boy while sticking our heads out the train window! when sara 'got something up her nose' haha!
The train splits in half during the journey and 1 half would goto Munich and the other to Berlin, the bar cart was going to Berlin (sad times), so Sara and I were worried the cart would depart with us on the wrong side as there was no warning of when the train was going to depart! We didn't want to strand Leanne in Munich with 3rucksacks while we went to Berlin with the 'Party crew'.
We got NO sleep that night!

Day two - 6th August

We got up early, had breakfast from the supermarket and bought a metro to head into Paris. We dandered about for a while and found some pretty place- no idea what it was but there was a giant monument of a big face so we continued to take our pictures with this giant face while some french woman was becoming impatient and irratated and took a physco...ha!
We were trying to look for the louvre but instead found a shopping centre called 'porte du louvre' which we did think was the entrance to the louvre, apparently not!
We stumbled across the Notre dam but the que was huge so we decided we would admire it from the outside, and then went for lunch! We spent the day walking along the Sienne and around the Latin quarter which was very pretty!
We then headed to the train station to book our next train to Rome for tomorrow. We asked for our tickets when the ticket man informed us that the train to Rome was fully booked, this was a bit of a disaster at the time as we had a set route...so we continued to ask him for other trains to say Venice or other locations that we could take a detour too then get back onto route...but he politely told us that all the trains were fully booked!! 'Well you must have something...anything??' after long minutes of checking his computer he told us there was a train to Munich....'MUNICH!?!?!? ....really?' so we thought right stuff it off to Munich it is!
We booked the train and bought a bottle of wine on the way home to celebrate/commiserate our new direction! Although we were excited about going off route!
Wine tasted like vinegar...shocking for 2Euros! GUTTED! needless to say we still drank it! Sadly, I fell asleep while Sara and Leanne got drunk haha!
We had another repulsive Mcdonalds for dinner and then got the metro to the 'Arc De Triumph' but we got harrased by men at the metro, it was disgusting! We must have stood out like complete tourists, shook us up a bit but carried on!
We took pictures at the Arc de Triump then walked along the Champs E'elyse, which was amazing (Car dealers on the street!?!) We then went to the Eiffel Tower which was very busy but we met some guys from Bangor! and briefly chatted! Don't you love being in France and hearing a BROAD Norn Irish accent beside you haha!
We qued for an hour to goto the 2nd floor of the Eiffel tower, it was amazing!!!
We then went home very tired to bed!

Day one - 5th August

Mum left us to the airport with our huge rucksacks where we kept panicking we had forgotten something!! We were flying directly to Paris.
Had our first Burger King of the holiday in the airport, I tried queing executively but failed miserably!! and we had the joy of a screaming baby on the plane - Brillant!
We landed in Paris at 9pm and walked the length of the airport trying to find the train station when we finally found it, it took us forever trying to find where to buy tickets and then we 'hmmd' and 'haad' about getting on the train but we eventually did! We got the train to Gare du Nord (the central train station) and then the metro to 'Barbes' Where we were staying! (Can't say I would recommend it).
Stepping of the metro we had no idea where our hotel 'montmatre clignancourt' was! The directions given by the hostel were very breif! It was late, we were tired and a bit scared of the locals! We rang the hotel who spoke very little english and really did not help, my GCSE french wasn't helping either!!
In the end 2 lovely ladies showed us the way (we think they must have been prostitutes).
Our room was very basic but not too bad for our tight budget! We walked to the shop for some food then headed to bed knowing we would have a busy day tomorrow- sleep was vital!
Oh but then the fire alarm went off THREE times in the middle of the night between 2.20 and 3.40 and we all had to evacuate - people were smoking in their rooms - fabulous!

Europe 09'

Have been promising myself to write up my travel journal from last summer, for my own memoirs as my shocking memory will forget some of the amazing times we had! This blog has been a long time coming as my journal has been packed away while moving house! but this is the first week in the new house so I have no excuses now!!
Leanne, Sara and I set off for interrailing in Europe on 5/08/09 with an organised route and plan of action. Our route was to be Paris- Rome- Venice- Budapest- Krakow- Prague- Berlin- Amsterdam- Home. We had all our hostels booked and knew what sites we wanted to see and what trains we were to catch...very organised! This was soon to change!!!