We beat pretty much everyone in the hostel up this morning I think and made our way to a near by Café where we knew there was WIFI and a good view of the cities ‘freedom monument’ We did this as we’d arranged to have a ‘Skype date’ with Chris’ dad and grandfather. They both grew up in Latvia and left approx. 60 years ago and have not yet returned. It was for this reason we Skype home and showed them from the window the city of Riga. It was lovely to chat to them and have them see what we were seeing!

After this we went to meet Janis and Maija who today offered to show us some of the more ‘rougher’ area of Riga. We did not get out of the car on this journey, instead did a drive by viewing of the area. They mentioned that there were ‘bad people’ who lived here and it was rough, so we stayed in the car and just had a look. To me it looked much like another slightly dodgy suburb, you know the one. Broken fence, wood planks loose on the outside of the house, weed garden, curtains a little torn.. You know the look I mean.

We didn’t spend too long with these guys today, they had another visitor coming but before leaving us they took us too the ferry terminal to pick up our tickets for tomorrows journey. It was wonderful to have someone help us with the translating and who could ask our questions for us, they were a big help!
It was sad to say goodbye to them, they said they would wait for our next visit, bless them, it could be a while away yet, but they look forward to it already. Motivates us even more to get back here to Latvia!

After this we went back to the hostel where Chris had a nap and I did a load of washing, read and relaxed. It’s so nice to be able to do that. Sometimes you just really need to be able to take a day out and do nothing for a bit. After our afternoon of nothingness we went for a stroll around the city (it doesn’t take too long) where we saw and heard many buskers, they were all rather good but the stand out busking attraction were 2 cello players who sat in a little cobble stone street under an old old arch playing their instruments beautifully! It was gorgeous! We stayed and listened for quite awhile and left chucking a few bob into their hat. It was a lovely way to end the evening before climbing the stairs and into bed once more.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 4, 2009 from Riga, Latvia
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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The Castle was in the set in very beautiful gardens that as it turns out is where Mejia and Janis got married, there is a grave in the gardens that is of a girl who “died for love” and is considered the Latvian Juliet, so many people get married in that park. The castle was very cool with a big round tower that you could climb and get a really good view of the surrounding countryside; the round tower is a Germanic feature I think as most English castles that we visited had square towers.

After the Castle we went to Mejia’s family home a farmhouse that my great grandfather lived in for several years and the home which my grandfather remembers very fondly. My grandfather remembers riding horses there and spending holidays on the farm and was proud of us for returning here and visiting.

It was sad to say goodbye but as we had an hour or so to drive it was necessary to make a move, so we hugged, kissed cheeks and waved goodbye enthusiastically as we drove away, vowing that we would send them some of the many many photos we took through out the day. It is difficult to know how to say thank you to such hospitality and friendship, words just don’t feel enough in many cases, and while we know that photographs are not so amazing as a gift, they are far more sentimental and hold a value that you can not replace, so, sending them photos of the family, of all of us together seems far more appropriate than a few ‘thanks’ said in broken Latvian!

written by  Chris and Emily on July 3, 2009 from Riga, Latvia
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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While Janis went off to a job interview and promised to meet us later in the afternoon, Mejia took us off on a tour of the old town part of Riga where we visited the old Riga Cathedral where we were able to go to the top and have amazing views over the city, Mejia pointed out various landmarks to us and explained to us where she worked and in which direction they lived. After this it was off to the old trade building which is now a museum and shows how the building once looked before all the bombings, it’s a grand old building with many interesting artifacts.

We moved on and sat down for a light lunch and drink in the Riga centre where Janis met up with us, and we are happy to say, he got the job he went to the interview for. This made the day a very happy one! Janis and Mejia then wanted to show us the beach, so we all piled into their car and head off to the beach area, and as it was such a hot day (again) it seemed like the natural thing to do! It wasn’t a long drive but Janis took time in driving there so that we could see all the ‘rich’ houses of Latvia. These homes look like any other, you would not think too much of them to look at, they are in a nice location is the main thing, and then when I enquired of the price of one of these homes (as there were so many for sale) I was told they were worth one million Lats, which in Australian dollars is… three million dollars!!?? These people must be loaded!! As the majority of people in Latvia are struggling to make ends meet I asked “who on earth can afford such houses?” and I was told…the Russians. Typical. Russians own everything nice this side of Europe. They come in with all their money and buy up and then make it difficult for the locals to survive as the price goes up on most things. We had a nice time at the beach, then a walk along the township before jumping back into the car and taking a ‘short cut’ to the next beach… the road started off all nice and smooth, then it turned to dirt, then a few pot holes appeared and then.. The road was no longer a road. It was as if we were driving over a rubbish tip! There were broken bits of housing goods and materials, bricks, large stacks of weeds; sand... this was now the road. It was crazy! It was a tight little curvy road and we couldn’t turn around as a) there was no room and b) it was all sand so we would get stuck. So, we kept driving. This road went for a very long time and it was a very slow process as we didn’t want to damage the car. Thankfully everyone saw the funny side and we all laughed as we drove along. Then, in the distance we saw a man walking this ‘road’ we pulled up alongside him and asked him if the town was far, he had his one beer in hand and replied that we would come to the town if we just stuck to this road (there was no other road so I’m unsure where else he thought we would drive..) so, we left him and continued on. I have no idea where he was going, we were miles from anywhere, and the town that we were going too was still some time away, but he was on a journey to somewhere with his one beer.

Thankfully, we made it in one piece to the town, where we then got lost and ended back on the highway we’d originally pulled off, it’s always the way! We found another little beach, which you have to walk through a little forest to get too. It was nice and quiet with not so many visitors, there was however a little dog there that was attempting to get off the leash and chase us, this I was not so impressed with. We stayed here for a little time, dipping our feet in the gulf and looking at the shells.

We then all went back to Janis and Mejia’s home to watch a Latvian WW2 film, which I’m sure, was very good and funny, however it was all in Latvian. That was a slight problem being that we don’t speak Latvian. Janis and Mejia then had the difficult job of translating to us the plot and what was being said, and while we appreciated the effort that they went too we were all exhausted by the end of the night!

We were dropped back to our hostel later that night where we all agreed to meet up again tomorrow.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 2, 2009 from Riga, Latvia
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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Our hostel is called “The naughty squirrel” and is lovely, cozy, clean and modern! We up graded to a private room so that we could sleep, and sleep we did. We fell into bed at 9am and didn’t wake again until 5pm, then didn’t actually get up until 6. It was so wonderful!

We made a quick wander through the streets of Riga, looking at a few little stores, walked through the park which was lovely and green and homey, and then found a little coffee shop where we ordered a fresh orange juice for myself and a Macchiato for Chris… we were asked if Chris would like rum in his Macchiato. We were surprised you could have rum in this, so we said yes, we’d give it a try and then we were told you could get two for the price of 1, okie dokie, we were in!

Then the drinks arrived juice for me and two refreshing looking clear drinks with mint and lime for Chris. There was some sort of mix up when ordering obviously and despite macchiato being on the menu they didn’t understand our request. Oh well, we drank them none the less!

After this and a quick detour to the supermarket for edible goods that will last us our stay we head back to the hostel where we watched a DVD and then bed.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 1, 2009 from Riga, Latvia
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We have been searching like mad for the best travel deal too Latvia for the past few weeks, it’s been looking pretty expensive and more than that, it’s been difficult to find a way into Latvia as our Eurail pass doesn’t include Latvia and to fly it would cost us between $800 -$900, which I think we can all agree is an incredible amount!! We decided that it’d probably just be easier to go and see a travel agent in Warsaw itself as they might have more options for us, so this was our first point of call after stepping off the train.

We almost missed the travel agents. From the outside and from the front window it looked very much like a Thai restaurant. Little Asian bits and bobs decorated the window front, tradition costumes could be seen hanging, bowls of fruit and sweets were lying about… it took us a good time to be convinced it was actually an agent. The travel agent was a big help and was able to get us on the next over night bus to Latvia, which was later on tonight. It was short notice but our best bet as otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get in for another 2 days. So, we cancelled our night’s accommodation in Warsaw and then, with a few hours spare, decided to go and see a movie.

It sounds like a real cop out I know, we went and saw a movie in Warsaw, we should have been sight seeing etc, BUT with it being 38 degrees outside, sweat dripping off us like we’d just stepped out of a shower and being so tired, we just didn’t have the energy to do anything other than sit in a cool room. Thankfully there was an English movie playing, Transformers 2, which was okay, wasn’t too keen on the ‘funny’ talking robots, but it was alright none the less.

After this we had to make a move to the next bus station. This little jaunt was HELL. I mean it, it was hellish! We were told to wait for bus 127 that would take us to the big station… we waited and waited, we weren’t sure if the side of the road we were on was the right side, so we asked a young lady next to us, who was very nice but didn’t live in Warsaw, this didn’t deter her though, she asked someone in front of her, who nodded and told us to get on bus 157 or 152, so we decided “okay” The next bus came along and we saw written on the side of it our next destination, so we hopped on and showed our little map to the bus driver, who looked VERY VERY confused. He studied it for a long time then kept pointing to outside and saying “central, central” and we kept saying “no, central BUS station” then he would point to the outside and say “station” anyhow, we would point to the map again, which had our next destination circled and starred and said “THIS bus station, you go?” He shrugged his shoulders and then closed the doors on us, leaving us trapped on this bus that we had no idea where it was going… He drove off and from the map we knew we were going the wrong direction, we were saying “no, no” and were ready to jump off at the next station, but we needn’t have worried, he was only going around the block to where we had started and then pointed to the bus station and said “bus” OOOOHHHH it was getting frustrating and confusing. We thanked him and he again displayed to us that we would have to wait in this area for our bus… which we KNEW was wrong. We thanked him very kindly and made a move, and then around the corner back to our original standing position. We had almost reached our bus shelter and we heard these little pitter patters, the bus driver had parked his bus, leapt off and was running after us to tell us to go back to where he had left us. It was painful trying to tell him thank you, but we knew where we were going now… he looked so confused and perplexed and then he just shrugged in this way that said “you crazy, but okay”

The lady who had originally told us to catch the 152 or 157 was still at the station and when a bus arrived she motioned for us to follow her onto this already PACKED bus with our HUGE packs. We squashed in and she motioned that she would tell us where and when to hop off, we nodded and said thank you. The bus was completely and utterly jam packed. You could not fit another single person onto the bus, but somehow they kept coming, it was now hard to breathe, a) because you were so squashed and b) it seems that Eastern Europeans, with no offence, don’t seem to understand the use of deodorant. It was more than a little smelly. It was mouth breathing only.

We eventually came to our stop and after a bit of charades were able to tell people “MOVE!” the transport systems here don’t wait to long at the stops, you usually only have about 20 secs to get on and off!

Our bus to Latvia is anything but luxurious. We thought being an over night bus there might be some sort of reclining seat, nice air conditioning, little lights for reading, a clean WC… no no no. How optimistic and dreamy of us! We were crammed into our little seats, me next to a young girl and Chris next to a young man. There was a neurotic young lady in front of me, who I actually have to say, was more than a little odd, and, annoyed the crap out of me and then, a very large, very wide older man behind me. Mmmm, comfy. All set for our 13 hour over night ride. Chris, poor thing had the large man to his other side and then, the two girls in front of him were able to recline there seats, and did so, going so far back as to touch Chris’ knees. It was not comfortable.

We drove into one of the biggest storms we’ve seen yet. It was pitch black, I have no idea how the driver was able to see, lightening split the sky and danced in a zig zag formation and at one stage thunder cracked down right over us, making everyone from the bus jump like cats. It was pretty awesome; I do love a great storm, apart from the one in Venice.

The bus ride was horrendously slow and painful. Our legs cramping, our necks on odd angles, the neurotic girl had jars of marmalade or something on the rack above me that rattled against one another for the whole time, making us want to scream or throw them out the window… if they opened… We stopped every three hours for the loo and a stretch of the legs, which was nice, but just tiring. But then, as we drove into Lithuania, the sun rise was amazing, casting great pinks, reds and oranges across the green and gold paddocks, it was just gorgeous! It made it worth while and helped to erase the throbs of pain that pounded away in our legs and neck!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 30, 2009 from Warsaw, Poland
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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After all our chores were completed we headed back to the Dizzy Daisy and chilled out until our tour picked us up and we were crammed into a completely full and really small minibus for the 1 hour drive to Auschwitz.

When we got there you could see the barbwire fences from the bus, to get to the main camp you go through a really empty and bleak building that serves as their reception and office building then we met up with a guide, got our headsets so he didn’t have to speak up and headed out to the camp. The first thing that you see is the gate, it’s pretty intimidating and you can’t help but imagine what it would be like for the inmates of the death camp when they first walked through that gate! It has writing on it that says in Nazi “work will set you free” kind of ironic as it was the inhumane working conditions that killed so many of the people that where imprisoned in the camp. The Guide showed us around the camp and took us into three buildings that had been setup as part of the museum. One was full of photos showing what the camp and it’s prisoners where like, this was pretty full on, the picture that I (Chris) remember the most was of a trainload of people who had just arrived at the camp and a Nazi “medical” officer stood arm outstretched pointing an old man to the right, this we were told meant that as he wasn’t well enough to be put to work he was going directly to the gas chamber. I (Em) am haunted by many of the photos we saw that day but a few that stand out are the ones of the children. It ripped my heart out seeing the photos of these children, just skin and bone, their eyes filled with fear and tears, their shaved heads, their number tattoos. I just wanted the photo to come alive to a degree so that I could jump into and rescue all these poor innocent babies from such horror. There were also photos taken of children being used for medical experiments, and the pain in their faces was too much for me to take. I couldn’t look, but then, I couldn’t turn away either. There was a family of triplets, all girls, and being used for medical experimentation, the little girl was 3 and looked as if she were 1, so tiny and so incredibly thin, just screaming. I know it’s horrible to read about and believe me, it’s hard to write about, as I type tears are welling and I feel such hate rising for those who inflicted such tremendous pain to these innocent people. There were also buildings here where they kept young women and did many many gynecological experiments on them. It is said that many died of the pain, many of the experiment its self and those who lived did so in pain for the rest of their lives and were never able to have children. Again, I feel so much hate for the ‘doctors’ who would do this.

The next building was full of things that were found in the camp when the Russians “liberated” the camp in 1945 there was rooms full of thousands of shoes, reading glasses and suitcases but the most horrible part was the massive room full of tones of human hair, the Russians found bags and bags of it in the camp. They shaved the heads of all the inmates and kept the long hair of the woman and sent it back to Germany for recycling, this was truly disgusting. The smell also was rather gut turning. You can smell this room long before you see it and as you walk up the stairs you can’t help but think “ohhh god, that’s a horrible moth ball smell” because that’s what it reminds you of, but then, as you get closer it begins to smell more musty, dusty and old, and then you see all this hair, it really is repulsive. The hair is obviously all very old now and decaying and it is all one colour which is like a dirty brown/grey colour. It is a sight that I think will stay with us for a long time.

The last building we went into in Auschwitz 1 was kept original and was the building used for punishment and solitary confinement, it had some pretty nasty cells in the basement that where very much like what we witnessed at the “House of Terror” museum in Budapest which is all pretty nasty stuff. In the court yard of this building was the ‘execution’ wall. Here they would execute many many people by shooting. They would always start with the women first apparently. They would make all those being executed strip off, wash down, shave their heads and then march them out to the wall. They would often make two people face one another and then shoot them at point blank range, killing both inmates with one bullet. Some times they would kill whole families as well. Making them line up, all naked and shaved and they would start by shooting the youngest to the oldest in turn. It was very difficult to be in this court yard and to see the ‘preparation’ room.

The final part of your Auschwitz 1 tour is a visit to the original gas chamber and as we walked down into this I felt my heart rate rise and I clung to Chris tightly. While it is not so much scary it is completely overwhelming and you can’t help but put yourself in the prisoners’ shoes. How they must have felt being marched into this large room naked and with a shaved head, being herded into the room until you were being crushed, in pitch darkness, then this confusion as they waited for their ‘shower’ (this was often what they were told they were off to have) then having this gas come over you, the panic they must have felt, the crush that must have happened as they raced in the darkness to the direction of the door they remembered coming in through, but not being able to make it, the fear, the screams, the pain, the crying… it’s all too much to think of. You then walk through into the crematorium where there are large clay ovens deep enough and big enough for up to 5 people to be burnt in there together. There were often too many bodies though and not enough ovens so there was also a ‘storing room’ where they kept the bodies until they could be burnt and then forgotten. It was horrible and while I wanted to run from there, I wanted to stay and just say “I’m so sorry” to the room and to remember and pay respect to those who came into, but not out of, that room.

After Auschwitz 1 we hopped back on the bus and drove the 2-3km’s to Auschwitz 2 or Bireme as it’s also known. This was the concentration camp that was ‘home’ to millions and millions of Jews and prisoners. It is completely over whelming here, there are sheds that housed these people, little look out towers and barb wire fences as far as the eye can see, and running through all this are train tracks. The train tracks that brought millions upon millions of innocent people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to their death.

To the left of this camp is where they housed the women prisoners, which apparently was never as full as the right side (the men’s side) as a) most women were sentenced to the gas chamber within hours of arriving as they were either, too old, too frail, pregnant or a mother (meaning the children were also sentenced straight to the gas chamber) and b) because the women that were allowed to ‘live’ were put to hard work and due to the combination of hard labour work and no food would become more frail than the men more quickly and therefore pass away sooner. Apparently in the evenings when the women were coming back from working in the fields all day with no food or water, the soldiers would hold a stick at a certain height and make the prisoners ‘jump’ over this and if they could not make it they were taken to ‘another camp’ never to be seen again. The women’s side was also vastly emptier as the women just didn’t have any ‘fight’ in them as the guide said. He (the tour guide) asked us to look at the photos of the men prisoners and the women prisoners, and asked us to look into their eyes. He asked us if we saw the difference, and you do straight away. The men all seem to have this ‘determination and pride’ in their eyes, they do not look as if they are going to be beaten, no matter how skinny, or frail or physically beaten they are, they will not give up, they still have spirit. However the women, their eyes seemed to be filled with fear, sadness, depression, tears, terror and it just looks, in their eyes, as if they’ve given up. There are a exceptions to this though, their were at least 6 photos of women that I saw where they had that same look in their eye as the men and everything about me said “good on you girl” but I know in my heart that these women, no matter how much spirit they had, most probably went the same way the others did.

The men’s side of the camp, to the right, is much much larger and here we had a tour inside the sheds. These sheds were originally built to house 52 horses, they were stables for pure breeds, but they were taken over and turned into the ‘homes’ for millions of prisoners. As I said, they were meant to house 52 horses and instead, they housed 400 men. We were taken into one of these sheds that had been left the way it was when liberated (albeit a bit cleaner) but the ‘beds’ and stove etc were all left, and the ‘toilet’ in the corner. While in their you again can’t help but look about and instantly start thinking “right, how would I break out? Where would I hide the ‘illegal’ contraband? How and where would I have made a hole for more airflow? And it is so easy for us today, who are well and educated and who have never experienced the horror of war, to stand there and say “well, why didn’t they just cause a mutiny and rebel and take on the guards? There were millions of them and only a few hundred guards, what was wrong with them, why did they give up?” and “If I were here I would have done this, that or the other…” but no one today, of our generation, will never understand, nor I hope ever experience first hand such terror, horror and fear. Visiting this place has opened our eyes to how lucky and blessed we are, how we take things for granted on a daily basis and just how much freedom we have, so while it was a sad and hard visit to make and it was emotionally and spiritually depressing, it was an experience that I feel was a necessary one and a good one, to help us realize the history and how blessed we are.

It also has to be mentioned, that while taking these tours the sky was completely jet black and lighting zig zagged across the sky in regular intervals, as we had taken a later tour it was getting darker and darker also, and by the time we got to part 2 of our tour the gates had closed to regular tourists, and our group was the only one walking around the camp, which was a little spooky! It was so quiet and still and all you could hear was the rumble of thunder before a crack of lightening, it all added to the spookiness of the experience!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 29, 2009 from Krakow, Poland
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We went onto the castle that wasn’t as big or as impressive as I thought it might be, but I was told it didn’t have to be as it was situated on a hill and therefore it had its own natural defense, it didn’t need such huge walls etc.

We watched as a procession of police cars, limousines, and armed looking vehicles hurtled through the streets past us. I don’t know who was in the car but obviously someone vaguely popular and important I imagine. We walked through parks and watched as a plane flew low over head and we moved on to the shopping centre where we brought some essential summer clothing. We only have warm stuff and believe me; Europe does NOT require anything remotely warm this time of year, toooo hot here!

After a little shop we decided that as we haven’t had our hair cut in 6 months or more, we should really get it done. Both of us have long, straw like locks at the moment that is driving us mad. So, finding a hair dresser we went in and managed, through a lengthy game of charades to convey what we would like to have happen to our locks. Chris came away saying his hair dresser had been brutal on him and very very rough while I came away with my hair looking a tad shorter than I’d hoped, but lucky to have it at all as they were going to give me a fringe… noooo thank you! They were nice enough though and it was cheap so we shouldn’t really complain too much! Normally you’d get a cuppa and a mag while getting your hair done, they don’t do that here in Poland, and I didn’t ask as I thought the game of charades might take too long.

After dinner in a swanky traditional Polish food restaurant we made our way back to the hostel where, when watching the news, we discovered that the little plane we’d seen flying about the park we’d walked in early, had crashed and quite literally, burnt. Wow. So glad we weren’t there!! Very sorry for the pilot’s family, it’s awful news.

Have booked ourselves in for a tour of Aulswitch tomorrow. It will be hard emotionally on the both of us, but worth it I imagine. Will let you know!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 28, 2009 from Krakow, Poland
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We spent all day on the train again giving us a chance to relax and try to catch up on some well needed sleep, but with the seats not being so great, nor the carriage being so clean, we had trouble drifting off to nap.

After arriving, checking in (and finding that I didn’t have a bed for the night and would have to sleep on a mattress on the floor!) we head out to discover the beauty of the town centre, and it is not only beautiful, but it is also wonderful!

Cobbled streets, old churches and buildings surrounding the town square, little sparrows darting about in the sun set, old horse carriages the only mode of transport allowed in the square centre, and people relaxed and happy lazing about the many cafes that line the streets. It is so relaxed, I am so happy we came here!!

We walked about for a time before coming back and realizing that not only do WE smell from the lack of shower facilities all day, but our clothes also do and are need in of a wash. Thank goodness the hostel offers free laundry services!! (normally cost 10 Euros a load… that’s $20 Aus) so we whacked a large load on… and waited 4 hours for it to get done… and even then it was wet when we pulled it out! I just couldn’t be bothered waiting any longer, it was now 1am! Not caring any longer we stumbled into our dorm room and settled down for a nights sleep in one creaky bunk and musty mattress on the floor.

written by  Chris and Emily on June 27, 2009 from Krakow, Poland
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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As our train was now running an hour and a half late, we got into Prague at 10.30pm, and not only did we get in later but the train just stopped at some random station that was NOT the one we were meant to get off at. It was as if the driver just went “You know what? I’m beat, this is a good a place than any, I’m going to just call it a night at this station” I am thankful that this station was in Prague, but it still was NOT the station we were told it’d go to, and we did not have instructions on how to get to our hostel from here… things weren’t looking bright. We got off the train along with everyone else (who looked just as perplexed as us) and we went off to see what we could do about getting to our hostel. We looked about, avoided the huge puddles that smelt of nothing but urine (SOOOOOO gross, and smelly!!!) but could not see anything that suggested an easy way to move on, so we went and lined up in the information line, only to be told by the harsh woman in a gruff voice “not help you, he will” and pointed to a shady looking character who lurked near the counter wearing an official looking uniform. I have to say, I didn’t like the ‘feel’ he gave off, it was a little creepy, but we went and spoke to him regardless, asking him to show us on the map where our hostel was, we were happy to walk it… He shook his head and said “not on map, you will need to take taxi, it is far” and walked us to a taxi man, who, once told where we were going, through our bags into the back of his dodgy looking beat up automobile, opened the rusty, creaky doors for us and ushered us in. Chris and I were looking at one another, not sure, not feeling this was right, but going with it… The man took off at the speed of sound, our heads jerking back and me clinging to the door as we whipped around a corner. We fumbled for our seat belts, only to find there was no connecting clicky bit. In the dark Chris jabbed himself on something sharp down the side of the seat (no side effects as yet to anything, we hope it was nothing serious…) We drive past a dodgy looking part of town and my spirits were sinking further and further… then we hear it “tap tap tap tap, bang, bang” and I think “s#*t, this mans car is falling apart as we drive, and it’s on my side, I’m going to fall out of the bloody car, the door’s falling off or something!” and then it happens again, this time louder and Chris and I look at one another with serious “OH MY GOD” faces, thinking “we’re being shot at!!” but then, up in the sky, colors of red, blue and yellow are exploding, and we realize that for some reason, the dodgy part of town are letting off fire works (probably stolen and have to get rid of the evidence… sorry to be so cynical) Happy to be wrong in this instance we both breathed a sigh of relief and 2 minutes later pulled up at our hostel… and the cabbie asked for what was 70 Australian dollars for a whole 4 minute cab ride.

We were FURIOUS, not just at him but also at ourselves. We KNEW we shouldn’t have got in, but we did. We really have to learn to follow our instincts more. We gave him the money we had and then became even more angry as he made a big ‘show’ of trying to find the correct change for us as he claimed in broken English “I not have enough” and then short changed us. Bloody bloody BLOODY rude man!!! We were more than just a little angry. We left him in a furious state, at him, at one another and at ourselves. Not a nice start.

We climbed into bed and slept for a solid time before awaking this morning, where we then heard the news of Michael Jacksons death. I’m not a fan of the man really, I like a few of his songs and will admit that I thought he was quite a talented dancer, but the news didn’t shock me some how. Anyhow, it was an ice breaker for all of us in our dorm, we all got chatting and it was nice to meet the others!

We then went on a free walking tour of the old Prague city with an American guide named Ben. He reminded me of Chris Rock, the manner in which we spoke and the sound of his voice. He was very informative, funny and made history fun. Prague is an amazing old city with such history and charm. I have to say that back in the day I wouldn’t have gone to war against the Prague lot, they were crafty, ballsy fighters!

During WW2 there was news that the Germans were coming. They (the Prague lot) knew they couldn’t out number them or stop them easily, but came up with a quick “make -do –buy- us some –time” plan. They took down all the town signs and road markings that lead to the towns and cities and replaced them with another, a sign that read “Dubcek” So then, the Germans made their way into the towns, the Prague lot fleeing before hand the best they could, and the Germans were radioing one another “so, I’m in Dubcek where are you?” And the other would be saying “but we’re in Dubcek.” and the conversation would go on “well, you can’t be. Where are you? We’re by a river” “but we’re by the river, we can’t see you…” it caused HUGE confusion for the Germans all being at the same town, on the same road as one another but not being able to find one another. I thought it was a very funny, very bright plan by the Praguarians! Then as time went on and Prague went under the communist law there was a time when it was decided that the Prague radio tower must be brought down as it was informing the citizens of too much, so off a few soldiers went to do so. However, word had got out and a call was made for every man who was able, to go and defend this tower. So, picking up many many a lethal kitchen utensil the Prague people went off to the tower, where they defended it the best they could, in the end, the communists were holed up in the basement of the tower.

The tour was really great and really really informative. Our room mates were on this tour too, so, after this we all went over the Charles Bridge where we rubbed the lady statue that is meant to bring good luck, before going for a cheap lunch. The girls from Glasgow were all lovely and it was nice to meet them and have a chat before they caught there train to Munich that afternoon.

We went to the train station to book our next lot of train tickets to Krakow (Poland) and then JUMPED into the pool. It was SOOO hot today. Sweltering, sticky hot. The pool was so nice and refreshing! But, then as we swam in the (indoor) pool, a thunderstorm started and it POURED down once more. Typical Eastern Europe weather we’ve come to know.

Deciding to have a quiet night in as we have to move on tomorrow, we thought we’d make use of our ‘free welcome drink card’ that we received when we arrived, for the pub next door. We honestly thought to have the one and then be back to pack and sleep, but it didn’t work out that way.

We met a hilarious Australian bloke named Jack, who had us in stitches all night with his funny stories and quick wit and from here our new group of friends grew, meeting another beautiful Australian girl Bonnie and an amazingly gorgeous British lass Izzy. We had a lovely night, laughing, dancing, chatting, playing cards and drinking way too much beer, but it was FUN and it was just what we needed after our bad start to Prague!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 26, 2009 from Prague, Czech Republic
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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Back at the station (and safely avoiding the storm) we realized that there was a train leaving in a few minutes. It was a HUGE rush but we made it onto the 3pm train safe and sound and just in the nick of time.

Will write and let you know of Prague and its expensive tomorrow!

written by  Chris and Emily on June 25, 2009 from Vienna, Austria
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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