Rome-as told by James

OK first day 

Great navigation

Walked around colloseum and cat carpark walked past the forum saw it from the outside

Plus went inside that awesome church with all that awesome artwork and cool ceiling 

That same day we saw the pyramid 

And the keyhole

Didn't realise we did so much that day 

Day 2

We had coffee and Introduced you to how fricken great italian croissants are

We queue jumped the f*** out of the colloseum because we are important people 

When we came out we went to the forum getting lost at first because the entrance was closed but we found it eventually 

You also danced next to this cool fountain

Also the first day I forgot to say we saw the story of jesus in near that small church thing 

Back to the 2nd day though after the forum we went back and o believe that is the day we were looking for that awesome restaurant which took ages and we were craving pasta 

But it was closed ...

So we went back had some food at that restaurant near the hostel 

And we then went to the trevi fountain where we made ate ice cream, laughed at tourists and made some Asian friends with peace signs

As you can see you are peacing out right there

We also had a lil walk to see what the colloseum was like at night

Day 3

Big day aging wake up

Treat ourselves to a coffee and croissant again

Only picture I have got but we audioguide the shit out of the dead people bones place 

And get a little bit spooky

Next thing we venture of to the search for the vatican 

Walking down all those little streets trying to make it to the river, which eventually found

After crossing so lots or little things which we arnt to sure what they are but they are there

For example

2nd one we now know is illuminati territory 

We also found the vatican and walked around an entire state

We then had a coffee and decided on booking the airbnb for a couple of night be a use we were both pretty tired 

And you were ill

We went home we did have plans that evening but I decided we should both nap and we would go for sushi after

You never woke up so I ate pizza and drank wine alone

Eventually you woke up and we booked the place 

DAY 4

Airbnb

Did some shopping 

Went for lunch and I had that lasagne

But didn't do to much mainly just relaxed

I also cooked us pasta

Day 5

We discovered the greatness of mozzarella and sam while walking the streets thought we should be a bit more productive 

Again I believe we got out of bed late 

We also rested quite a lot I believe 

You were still pretty ill

And we decided on venice and booked that

And then went for sushi in the evening

And the next day we set off on our travels to venice and the taxi driver got lost but we made it because we .... are great navigators 

And that aubree 

Is the best time line I can do for you 

Budapest

After the bus fiasco we got into Budapest late. We wandered around the bus station looking for a metro or anything to get us even just close to our hostel. I finally decided to just get an uber and go.  When we arrived the map was telling us our hostel was somewhere we couldn't possibly get to from the street so we wandered around the area searching for a way in. Looking a mess I'm sure. A random woman smoking a cigarette stopped me to ask if I was looking for a hostel. It seemed super weird but I said yes and she took us to a door with no signs for our place on it and told us it was on the 2 floor and left. Super weird but super accurate. We were finally able to check in. We met a Canadian guy named Erik in our dorm who made us laugh and asked him if he wanted to do a walking tour the next day. Then got into bed to pass out. As I was about to get into my sheets a man came in and looked so mad at me. Just staring straight into my soul like he hated me more than anything. I asked him 'what's up' and he motioned for me to go away. I asked 'is this your bed' and he once again tried to get me to leave and started yelling 'no at me over and over'. Erik looked up and said that he had been there earlier and just hadn't put any stuff down. So I told the dude I would move and he could have the bed but just chill out. He looked at the bed disgusted and picked up a hair (that was obviously not mine) and stared at me as he dropped it off the bed in the most over the top way possible. So I moved all my stuff and jumped to the next bed and passed out to the sound of him vigorously trying to clean off the bed. 

We tried to go on the walking tour but when we woke up it was crazy rainy and hard to feel like doing much. We walked to 'the meeting point' but according to the map (and me) we were not in the right place and we were too late. On our way back we stopped for some terrible coffee and chatted. 

Back home the majority of my diet consists of bean and cheese burritos and I had been craving one BAD since I had been in Europe. But they are heavily deprived of Mexican food so I had been on the look out. The night before when we had first arrived we had walked around a little to try to gain some grounding. I felt something staring and me, I turned to the right and not 2 feet away from me was a sign for burritos! I was so beyond excited but it was closed. So after a disappointing lack of walking tour we decided to cheer our selves up with burritos. It was one of the best bean and cheese burritos I've ever had. She put in as much cheese as beans and it was so big around I HAD to use two hands. Oh happy happy day. 

After a nap we decided to try the afternoon walking tour where we had and awesome spunky Hungarian guide who took us around the city and taught us soo much history. 

That morning we had met two Americans while eating breakfast. And when we got back that evening they invited us to go to the ruin bars with them and some other people. Ruin bars are essentially a bar on acid. It's and old abandoned building that they set up different drink shacks, shots over here, beers over there, ect. Then there are different rooms for dancing or sitting or rooms filled with plants and so much more. Then the entire place is filled with random graffiti, sculpture, lights, and pretty much whatever they wanted. It felt like Alice in wonderland for bars. And it was amazing! I spent the first part of the night exploring all the rooms and art and the second half talking to one of the Americans about his travels. Then broke it down on the dance floor. 2 different ruin bars and a gyro later. It had been a successful night. 

The next day we decided to explore the city ourselves. You meet so many people out here that a lot of the time you end up remember people by the place they are from and forgetting (or never knowing) their name. In Budapest we almost all called each other exclusively by our place. So Cali, salt lake(me), Oregon,  Australia, Canada, and erik(who was also from Canada) headed out to get lost in the city. We explored churches, coffee houses, underground tunnels, but mostly just the streets. 

We went for lunch at a noodle house and ended up staying there talking and making each other tinder profiles then playing match maker for each other and laughing our heads off for 3 or 4 hours before we finally decided we should give up our table. We wanted to go see a movie but after we found out they were only in Hungarian and they had no way to give us English subtitles we decided it wasn't quite worth it and got some amazing gyros.  At home pretty much everyone else had been drinking for quite a while and was already pretty whacky. After a few card games a British guy who finished a whole bottle of vodka threw up in his bed. I was over the whole drunken mess so I went to bed.  

The must do thing in Budapest is the bath houses. They pump geothermal water from the earth up into different sized and temperatured pools. They are AMAZING! The locals say they have healing powers. We went to the biggest bath house and there was SO MANY pools. 2 huge ones outdoors, one had a small lazy river in the middle (that we played in first), it was a cold morning when we got there so there was so much steam from the pools you could barely see around you. Inside there was about 30 pools. Ranging in size and temperature. There was size cold plunge pools next to jacuzzi hot pools. You were meant to go back and forth quickly between the two. Apparently at least some of the healing properties are true because I had blood blisters that completely went away during this process. They had so many warm relaxing pools that we tried all of. And multiple sauna rooms. My personal favorite was the large oval pool that had tons of jets pushing you around in a circle.  Essentially it was a whirl pool and you could zip around it so fast. We spent so long racing around. After the pools we were so hungry we got a delicious burger place right outside of the bath house. When we got back to the hostel we tried to plan stuff and get things done but we all ended up falling asleep on the table and called it a night. 

At this point in the trip I had a pretty heavy cough and cold (I guess the baths can't heal everything) and everyone had left that morning or the night before (bye Andy!) so I decided to take a rest day to try to heal. After sleeping the majority of the day my bottom bunk mate from turkey asked me if I wanted to make food with him. So we went to the market and got food that he insisted on cooking all of. We had eggs with peppers and tomatoes, bread, fries that he insisted I dip in yogurt, popcorn and a chocolate bar. I guess he took me agreeing to cook as a sign we were in love because for the rest of the night he called me 'my love', 'honey', 'babe' ect. So after telling him that was very wrong I spent the rest of the night hiding from him while packing and getting ready to leave that later night. 

I had been chatting with James and decided to meet in Rome so I purchased my ticket and left at 4 am to the airport. 

I loved the architecture and beauty of the city Bye Budapest!

Prague

OH PRAGUE! My love. I had planned to meet up with Andy, a girl I had met on a Facebook travel group at the bus station in Prague. She had arrived a few days before and because of all the problems I had experienced with getting lost previously I thought it would be easier to meet there right away. After I arrived she told me she would be a little late so I found a coffee shop to hang out for a while. Apparently we didn't communicate the name of the station properly because I quickly realized she was at a different one than me. She said she would walk over and be there in 5 minutes. About an hour later I finally heard back that she was there but we could not find each other. 1 more hours of running around search for each other it turns out we were at the same place there was just two separate parts that you couldn't see from where either of us were. After 3 hours of searching I finally found Andy and her friend James and we went to the hostel.

Our hostel was a 1 minute walk from the center square. Just a small walk down a little side street and we were there. Which was amazing because we were so close to everything!

My room was in the old side of the building that had huge painted cathedral ceilings and a great view. And as a bonus I had the place to my self. After settling in we decided to do a pub crawl to meet some new people. Where we met some Austrians boys and Irish girls and danced all night long. 

The night before we had decided to  do a walking tour the next morning. After a breakfast of huge crepes and some of the best fresh juice I've had we met up with our group. James was going to come with us but some how ended up in another. A super tiny group but we saw a lot of Prague. The old city, new city and Jewish quarters. Learned a lot, saw beautiful stuff. What more could you ask for? 

Prague in my opinion is one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Cobble stone streets and maintained old architecture. (Not like other places where there is only buildings mixed in with new architecture.) And I absolutely love it. 

James (we finally met up with him after he ditched us forever. Apparently he didn't know we were supposed to be best friends) had heard rumor of a monastery where monks made the best beer. So we trekked up the hill to find them. 

In a beautiful, peaceful monastery we found the small pub and enjoyed the drink we had been looking for. 

James again had heard rumor of the best goulash in Prague, and possibly all of the Czech Republic. It was on our way down the hil so we had no choice but to go. And it was amazing. 

We decided to take James to one of the clubs we had been to on our pub crawl. We had been jokingly terribly dancing all day long and when we got to the club it carried on. It was a Tuesday so the club wasn't bumpin too hard and we were the first ones on the dance floor. A lot of passionate fist pumps and arm flails later we were tearing up the dance floor. And as it turns out we all could actually dance very well. So about 50% terrible dancing mixed with 50% throwing down hard core moves made for an incredible evening of dance offs. 

The next morning it was snowing when we woke up. INCREDIBLE. It looked like a snow globe. 

We made snow angels and a snow baby named Henry and got in a snow ball fight with a 4 year old who ambushed me and James. 

The snow made all the cobble stones slippery which made everything more exciting. But trying to slide down an uneven street is a lot easier said then done. 

We started in the Jewish quarters looking at all the museums and the cemetery. 

(A old synagogue that has all the names of the Jews in the area that were killed in the holocaust) 

(The Jewish cemetery is above ground now because they wouldn't give them any more land. So the people had to start burying bodies on top of others. There is now 12 layers of bodies in the cemetery.)

(Ceiling of an old synagogue   That is now a Jewish history museum)

Next we wanted to explore the castle. James convinced me we didn't need a map and we just wandered the streets until we found one that looked good. And we actually found it. 

(James running to show size comparison)

(James standing the middle right next to the castle)

We paid to go to the top and took the  spiral stairs. 

We decided to find a traditional Czech meal and wandered around and wouldn't stop till we found a small restaurant with a menu that we couldnt understand the menu. We went back and met up with Andy and strolled through the streets at night. We found a bar that was 3 floors underground and just got more and more man cave the deeper you went. The very bottom was like a cave and every once of space was covered in taxidermied animals. The only other people in there were men over the age of 50. Andy was sick and decided to head out after we finished there so we went bar close to my hostel where we could sit and chat and just BS for a little while. And we did until we were the only ones in there and they had put up all be chairs and locked the doors. Once we were kicked out we danced (very literally) through the streets. 

 

Andy had to go to Budapest next because she was flying from there to Paris in a few days. So I decided to buy a bus ticket and go with her. The next morning walked back to the bus station that I had been dropped off but that wasn't the right one so we had to very quickly walk 2 miles to the right station where we made our bus with about 20 seconds to spare. 

High point: The most beautiful city. Also great company that made everything more interesting. 

Low point: Uhh...leaving! Also being at the bus station alone trying to find people I had never met for 3 hours and it getting dark and wondering if I would ever find anyone ever again. 

Vienna

We were only supposed to have a short 2 hour stop in Vienna inbetween busses but while trying to find the international terminal of the station, Google maps took us on a 30 minute walk in the completely wrong direction and by the time we ran back we had completely missed out bus. So after trying to speak very rough English with the woman at the bus station we had to buy a new ticket for a bus that would be leaving later. We spent the next few hours just throwing ourselves about the station to try to stay entertained until we left. There was no way we would miss our bus again. Haha that's all of Vienna. 

Berlin

Let me tell you, a 16 hour bus trip when you have the flu and the only seat left is the very back middle and you have no one to sleep on is not the most glamorous experience in the world. )Like you were definitely expecting a 16 hour bus ride to be. Sorry for dropping that harsh reality on you.) After that excruciating bus adventure I got to Berlin and only had a few hours to walk around. But it turns out the bus station was about a 2 hour walk from the city center so I had to make due with what I had. Which was gardens and the radio tower. I walked around to get an idea of the architecture And the street art. 

Then made my way to a cafe for some food and coffee. After wards I checked out the couple stops on my list and then headed back to the bust station to head on to Prague. I got just a little peak into the beauty of Berlin. 

So not a lot to report on Berlin. However so many people I have met RAVE about it so I guess I'll just have to go back one day. 

Copenhagen Alone

Being half way around the world and realizing for the first time you are alone out there is a very bizzare feeling. I wanted to freak out and have a melt down because it was so terrifying, but at the same time it was so empowering and I felt so free. 

I started my freedom with a day filled with walking tours and cozy bars drinking warm beverages and escaping the cold. I wanted to have some chill days dedicated to recovering from the frenzy of jumping around from country to country the last week. So I spent time wandering down amazing streets looking for food and coffee cafes and bars. 

My roommate the day before Valentine's Day was a Swedish girl named Jasmine. She declared that we would be celebrating the holiday together because her friend wouldn't be able to make it. So we spent the evening over a Valentine's Day treat feast that she had purchased for her friend. Talking about American and Sweden and boys and life. She has so much to say and I loved it. Then came the Bollywood dancing and throw back music. We must have danced alone in our room for at least 3 hours. We went down stairs and met some Italian guys that were headed out to Christiania for a Bob Marley tribute concert that we had wanted to go to and we all headed out that way. We danced to reggae all night long. 

The next night the English man living in Copenhagen who I met in London invited me over for home made Thai food. How can you turn that down? Amazing food and a scary movie.

I bought my self a one way bus ticket to Prague (to meet up with Andrea, a girl I had started talking to in a travelfor a Valentine's Day present to my self and headed out that evening. 

I got to the area where my bus was supposed to be but no one seemed to know where I was supposed to be. The man on the green bus told me to go to the white bus and the man on the white bus told me to go to the green bus. I wouldn't have found it if it hadn't of been for a guy running past screaming "BERLIN". I just jumped off the bus I was on and ran after him. We were the last ones on the bus and it left 30 seconds after. 

(Apparently the start of my solo traveling led to a lack of pictures. Oops!)

Back to Copenhagen

Disclaimer: there is sensitive information in this post that may not be shared with certain people. Specifically my grandparents. If you know George and Gerry or Dixie and Arthur, please do not share the information contained in this post. It is better for them this way. Thanks in advance.


Our flight took us back to where we had started. Copenhagen! from being there before we knew what we wanted to do. First stop, Christiania. Walking out of airport security we we're approached by a guy our age from Canada who was solo traveling and asked if he could tag along with us. With it being mine and Mickalyas last day together (here is where the sensitive info starts) we hesitated a little bit, but in the end we decided to let him come along. We took the bus into town that seemed to take forever. And got back to city center. It was nice to be in a place that felt familiar. We wandered our way down to Christiania taking our Canadian friends down the streets that we loved. We had visited Christiania before but only at night and my biggest draw to it was the art, which we couldn't see very well at night. So I was very excited to soak it all in during the day. We walked in and it was like a whole other place from when we had been before. Art covers basically every inch of everything there. Which is like a dream land for me. (However there is a no photography rule so we didn't get many pictures) 

We had been told that occasionally the police try to crack down on the drug selling in Christinia (rumor has it you can get anything you want there. Not just the weed. The police use the "other" category to be able to confiscate and make arrests) but it doesn't happen very often. While we were walking through the streets we saw a group of guys take off running down the the street away from the center but didn't think much of it until we saw a huge group of police in raid gear running through the main streets. The people of Christiania were filming the police and the police were filming the people of Christiania. We saw one man and at least 6 big paper bags being carried away. 

After going to the top Christiansborg Palace to check out the view. 

Through the streets of Copenhagen you see carts selling varietys of hot dogs. We decided it was time to try them. They poke a hole into a long roll and fill it with condiments then goes the bacon wrapped sausages we ordered. 

We spent our remaining hours wandering Strøget and drinking coffee watching the people walk by. 

As we got back to my hostel we sat and talked about our trip together and how amazing everything had been. The hardest times mixed with the beyond best of the best. I wouldn't change a thing. I hugged mick good bye as she got into her taxi. I was alone. (Sensitive info alert) I then celebrated by proceeding to pass out from pure exhaustion for the next 12 hours. 

High point: Christiania art work

Low point: saying good bye to Mickalya 

Brussels And Bruges

(Photo in Bruges)

High point: waffles?

Low point: where he hell are we?

There really isn't much to say about Brussels, as we didn't spend much time there. We got in late afternoon and we're both pretty exhausted from bouncing around from place to place so fast and lack of sleep. Travel can be exhausting.  We had decided on an Airbnb apartment close to city center. From the point we arrived to the apartment we had about a 45 minute walk. In which our Airbnb host called us multiple times to find out where we were. So we just tried to get there as quickly as possible. Brussels had a very different vibe to it and definitely didn't feel as safe to me. And was a lot more dirty then other places we had been. We did make time to stop at a market to get bread, salami and cheese. Our apartment was a nice loft style place with a huge deck and incredible view. We ate our makeshift dinner and decided that a bath sounded nice. We took turns using a lush bubble bar and relaxing in the tub. Afterwards we passed out really quickly. In the morning we decided to take the recommendation of the Australians from Milan and not spend much time in Brussels itself but to head out to Bruges instead. We took the time to look at the center square in Brussels which was very nice.

At the train station a man helped us buy our tickets and told us where to go. I asked him how many stops it would take and he told me to calm down. We went tot the platform he told us and jumped on the train. After about 2 hours we started to wonder if we had missed our stop. We started to wander around the train looking for a map. As we did the train pulled to a stop. It was the end of the line, and there was nothing around. It was pretty obvious at this point something was wrong. Our location on google maps showed we were no where close to Bruges. We wandered up the platform looking for the ticketstation to try to figure out where to go. There were no tickets to Bruges so we figured it was best to just jump on a train going back to Brussels central where we had come from. 2 hours back we couldn't figure out which station was the one we started on and ended up going one too far. It was a much bigger station and one we weren't familiar with. We talked to an attendant who told us we had a little bit of time before the next train left. We got coffee and found a phone charger because we were both out of juice. We went back to see if it was time for our train and...we missed it. The attendant told us when the next train would be and we went down to the platform. But the words above the platform did not look like the one for our train. We asked someone else waitin if it was for Bruges and she said NO. We ran back upstairs to check with the attendant who told us it was correct and we ran back down.....missed it. Back up the stairs and back down to barely miss another train. We asked the attendant to give us a train that wasn't leaving as soon and finally got one where we would have plenty of time. We didn't leave the platform until it came. And then we jumped on. Finally we were on our way to Bruges. After a little over an hour we pulled into the right station and headed off to explore! Bruges is like a little story book town. 

Looks wise it was one of my favorite places. Small cobblestone streets lined with rows of cottages and unique architecture. Of course we wanted to have two things while we were here. Frites and waffles. We started with frites in a little shop that it was all they sold. The man who helped us also seemed like he was out of a story book with big eyes and a super excitable personality. We sat down and plugged in our phones. The frites were pretty amazing. But it could have partly been because we hadn't eaten all day. After we wandered around the square at night to look at all the lights. We set our sites on waffles and tried to find a place that was still open. It was a very posh place and we looked pretty homeless and we could tell that they weren't very excited to help us. 2 Belgian waffles with ice cream. Oh..my....gosh. The best waffle I have ever had. We devoured them. 

We had two options at this point. Try to find a place to stay in Bruges but it was already late and there didn't look like many options, plus we had an early flight and would barely be able to sleep if we did stay there. Next option, go back to Brussels and try to find a place to stay there, closer to the airport. We chose neither and ended up deciding to stay at the airport so we didn't have to pay for a place at all. At the train station we got help getting the right ticket that would get us back to Charleroi airport, and they told us we would have to get off and get onto another train. Back to where we first started. We saw a bus that was the same one we had taken from the airport and battled if we wanted to t to take that or take the train they told us to. We opted to once again trust the locals. Supposedly once we got to the next stop there would be a bus that would take us right to the airport. This second train ended up taking us further away from the airport and when we arrived to the bus station we were told no busses would be coming for about 6 hours. Well....we made the wrong choice. 

Wait in the freezing cold, get a taxi or walk for at least 1 hour at 1am through. We thought taxi was our best bet. 

Our taxi deprived was crazy! Blaring French rap music and cruzing through lanes. He gave us a French lesson and told us about his family. We got there very quickly. We walked in and there were people laying everywhere. Security was closed. The only area we had was the arrival waiting area and there was about 60 people competing for space and plugs. We settled in next the girls bathroom where there was a plug inside that we could plug into and watch from outside. We had at least 5 hours before we would be the airport would open. It was going to be a long night. Between cold hard floors and the fear of our stuff being stolen. Sleep didn't go to well. However as the time for the airport to open got closer I did finally pass out out. Sprawled out across the floor, drool all over my face I was woke up by Someone kicking my foot. In a sleep drunk haze I look up and see four gaurds all in uniform carrying ak47s. That woke me up very quick. They told me I had to get up and get off the floor then moved on to wake up others. Needless to say I wouldn't be sleeping anymore. Finally when the airport opened we hurried in and grabbed food just after security and bought gifts from the store. After relaxing in the cafeteria area for another couple of hours it was finally time for us to leave Belgium.