Berlin and beyond

Wednesday June 2nd

I am currently sitting on a bench in Berlin wearing my down jacket! Wow temperature shock. Why did I decide to go to Berlin again?

Flights and everything went smoothly yesterday and I enjoyed my whole 20 minutes in Latvia! Can’t say I saw much but a small airport. On the plane I met a Egyptian/Greek who lives in Berlin and kindly helped me find the bus to my hostel. Because it was after 8 I could travel for free on his pass which was a bonus. Feels like Holland here with grey skies and more understandable street signs. Ahh my fingers are freezing! I better keep walking and seeing some of this town!

Thursday 3rd June

Last night I arrived at Claudia s house who had cooked me White asparagus, which had been 6 years. After dinner she took me to Krottsberg which is also known as little Istanbul! It was cool being able to recognize certain foods and names; it already made me miss Istanbul. We also saw a football riot while we were in the car. This is definitely not something I have missed while living in nz. Today I have caught a bit of a cold so I am taking it slow. I am currently sitting in front of the Charlottenburg palace enjoying the sun, listening to music and wondering when I should get of my ass to go and see some more of Berlin. Well I am here for like 5 more days so what’s the rush?

Monday 7 th of June

Well those 5 days went pretty quickly as I am currently sitting on the bus to Prague, absolutely shattered. I’m so lucky that I am sitting here as several events today could have made me miss it; the bus was about to leave when I arrived running with my big pack. Before I tell you why this happened I am going to tell you about the rest of my time in Berlin.

On Thursday evening I went to the national gallery and after this I met Imken, a German woman who had lived in nz. We went out for dinner and she showed me some of the town. She also told me some shocking stories to do with the murdering of mentally ill people and the covering up for 40 years after WWII. on Friday I met Claudia’s brother who told me about the social development community project he was working which was very interesting. The weather had luckily gone back to hot now, 27 degrees, but I was left with a bit of a cold from my first day on Berlin. In the afternoon I went to the wall monument museum and then picked Audrey, a girl from Paris who was coming to the zouk festval with me, from the airport.

The zouk festival began on friday night with a workshop and a party. And wow it was just amazing; a whole night of dancing with nothing and I mean nothing but zouk!!! And the level was so high! This was slightly in intimidating but very inspiring. I got to dance with Kadu. Daniel and heaps of other good people, so I was super happy.

The whole congress was just fantastic, but 6 workshops a day and getting to bed at 4 every night, to get 4 hours of sleep has got to me a bit now. I did also  meet some awesome people from Holland, who I hope to catch up with for some dances when I get there!

So this morning I managed to bang my head really hard against the metal bunk bed; my roommate thought I might have broken my skull. I had to sit on the ground for about 10 minutes till I could move again. I felt shaky for about 3 hours after, but I feel better now I have had a little sleep on the bus. So being quite out of it, the lady from the hostel told me it would only take 30 min to get to the bus station, so I gave myself an hour. Turns out that an hour gave me 10 sec to spare!! But I am on the bus now, with a massive bruise on my head, but onto my next adventure: Prague!

Tuesday June 8 th

YesI made it to Prague! I have a massive bump at the back of my head, ridden on the same bus up and down 3 times to get to where I was staying, I don’t understand a word what people are saying, the money is the most confusing thing, but now it’s great! I am walking through the most awesome old little streets and absolutely love it. I could live here, so many old buildings and green spaces. It is interesting how adaptable humans can be; you get used to almost anything! And the weather has also decided to turn nice on me! 33 degrees again! Though we did have some tropical downpours before. This trip is really just getting better and better. I just love the freedom I have now and meeting the local people!

Friday June 11th

Wow it is so hot! I have been in Vienna for 1.5 days now and it has been so so hot, but somehow I don’t think going to Budapest tomorrow is going to help with the temperature!

So on Wednesday I went along with Dana for one of her tours of Prague. This was very good. We finished at the castle where we had the most leisurely lunch at this very cool spot under the trees with a view over Prague. We then went to visit the castle insight.

In the evening, I met Vini, who I had met in Berlin. We went to see the Charles bridge, had dinner and tried some Czech beer= Perfect evening.

Sun 13 june

Ok so I had my very brief time in hot Vienna. Cool city, feels very Royal with all the huge buildings! It was hot so I was a bit slow and tired but saw all the main buildings and the Hunterwasser house. This provided a great spot for a quick nap on the stones!

Yesterday morning I met Rienke at Vienna train station, to go to Budapest. This all went smoothly and it was so good to see her again after 6 years! She hasn’t really changed much I think and we still have a great time together. So we went to Budapest on this super fancy train and then tried to figure out the public transport! Once we got our tickets this went smoothly and we met Phil, a friend of Simons, who we are staying with. Late afternoon We went with Phil and another friend to check out the castle area. This was super cool, there was one castle that looked like the Disney castle and was an awesome place to take pictures.

Today we went to a big square, a big park and my future home (fairytale castle). I am trying to find out on the map what this was called but it is a bit hard to make out any names. But the castle was amazing! It just had so many different styles, which all fitted together in a very harmonic but unique way. After this we went to the main shopping area and walked through the old but touristy shopping streets, where we had lunch. After lunch we visited the parliament building, which is just amazing and one of the most impressive and powerful buildings I have seen. After dinner we power walked up the mountain to see the Citadela and the beautiful view of the city at sunset. So romantic, me and Rienke together, hehe.

Mon 14 June

Holland – Denmark 2-0 yes!. Watched the game with our orange feather boa’s (thanks to Rienke). Also visited a basilica, ate some more awesome pancakes and bought train ticket to Zagreb! Need to get off our lazy butts and explore the island.

Wednesday 16 th of June

So yesterday we got up at 5 in the morning to catch the train to Zagreb. This was a long and slow train trip, and one point the train even started going backwards, which had us a bit worried! Surprisingly we did arrive in Zagreb with only 1 hour delay. It took us about 6.30 hrs in total, but we were not really bored. It’s funny to think that we haven’t seen each other in 6 years but it was as if I hadn’t seen her last week! Which is very cool.

So we decided to shorten our stay in Zagreb to one night, because we are a bit over cities and it didn’t appear to be the most interesting city. We found a cute double room in someone’s backyard, but very convenient to the town and bus station.

Zagreb was nice enough, but not too exciting. It really didn’t feel like a big city, but had some very nice terraces for eating. We are now on the bus to Plitvice National park.