7/02/17

It was so weird waking up and not seeing our Topdeck family throughout the day. We woke up early and headed for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter. We managed to navigate there quite easily and we arrived at Watford Junction and caught a Harry Potter themed double decker bus to the actual studio (ironically located in the J and K sound stages).

We were both incredibly excited, especially because we knew that all of the props on display were used in the movies. We walked through the entrance, past the cupboard under the stairs, and into a large room featuring posters of all eight movies from around the world. We were then ushered into a cinema where we watched a short film about the studio featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. After watching the film the projector screen reeled up and revealed the doors into the great hall, and  we began the official tour.

Walking through the Great Hall was probably my favourite part of the tour, it was beautiful and all four of the house animal figures were hand carved in stone. We saw all sorts of sets including; Dumbledore’s office, the Griffindor dormitory and common room, Umbridge’s office, Snape’s potion classroom, Hagrid’s hut, a ministry of magic section and both statues, a Quidditch section where you could purchase a video of yourself flying on a broom stick, and Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley was incredible, especially Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, which I’m sure the art department had fun creating!

The portrait section was great too because all of the people featured in the portraits were members of the crew in the films. The tour had lots of interesting smaller sections that informed visitors about how things were run or how things were created. The tour also had fun sections about how they trained the animals in the films, how they built the mechanised creatures used in the film, and how the concept artists provided the building blocks for the overall look of the film.

One of the most fantastic sections in the tour was the to-scale model of the entire Hogwarts castle. Even though it was only a scale, the castle was still pretty huge and was mighty impressive.

The Hogwarts Express was another highlight, it was spectacular! You could go inside the train and you could also pretend to be disappearing through Platform Nine and Three Quarters with a trolley.

We stopped for lunch halfway through the tour, after reading all the little detailed papers and flyers that were written for the movie and were only featured for a second, if that, in the movie. These papers include posters for wanted witches or wizards, Daily Prophets, and advertisements for things like broomsticks.

For lunch we had a burger and a hotdog, but the standout was the butterbeer. We were a little hesitant about how it would taste but it was fantastic, it tasted like a spider. The creamy foam even bubbled on top.

After lunch we walked to an outdoor section where we explored the Knight Bus, the Weasley’s Ford Anglia, Hagrid’s motorbike, the Dursley’s house on Privet Drive, Lily and James’s destroyed house, the rickety bridge featured in the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the chess pieces used in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’.

We visited the studio while an exhibition called ‘Directing Dobby’ was running, which provided an in depth look at how Dobby was created for the films. They even had an interactive section where Dobby would mirror your movement.

After we’d walked through the sets we looked through the gift store which was impressive in its own right. I’ve never seen so many Harry Potter things. After being sorely tempted by the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw, I bought a chocolate frog which came with a collectable wizard card (my card featured Gilderoy Lockhart). The frog itself was huge and required sporadic melting on the heater in our room at the hostel in order to be able to bite into it. We spent a little over four hours at Harry Potter World before heading back to our hostel for a little while before dinner.

We met up with a few people from our Topdeck tour for a last farewell dinner (Bec, Olivia, Zach, Claire, Sean, Sarah, Yas, and David were there). We walked through Chinatown and went to a Mexican restaurant which was pretty decent.

8/02/17

Today was incredibly luxurious! It was the first day in quite a while that we didn’t have anything planned or booked. We woke up without the annoying alarm and we read in bed for a few hours. We had tentative plans to go to the British Museum, but, on a whim, we checked the West End ticket office and found cheap tickets to the matinée showing of ‘The Book of Mormon’.

We booked the tickets at 1:30pm and the show was at 2:30pm so we hurried over towards the theatre for a quick lunch at McDonald’s before the show started. Neither of us knew anything about the storyline, I had just heard that it was a fantastic show. It surpassed our expectations completely. Since we booked our tickets so late we were prepared for less than desirable seats, but we ended up sitting in the middle of the seventh row from the stage!

The show itself was hilarious and really well done. Some of our favourite lines include; “You grasp the gay box… AND CRUSH IT!”, “I don’t know, once I baptised Neutrogena, the rest just followed.”, “Well ‘Eebowai’ means God, and ‘Hasa Diga’ means fuck you.” The ending of the show was absolutely perfect, all of the converted Mormons began door knocking, which mirrored the first song, except they preached ‘The Book of Arnold’. The villain converted to Mormonism and sang “Hello, my name is Elder Butt-Fucking-Naked.” After the show we walked around Piccadilly Circus and went to a club and ordered a few cocktails before going to TGI Fridays where we waited to be served for 25 minutes (we were never served). We left TGI Fridays and went to a burger bar near our hostel called Byron Proper Hamburgers. It was fantastic, the burgers were great, as well as my cheesy bacon fries and Alex’s nachos. We then went home and demolished the rest of my chocolate frog and the crisps from the theatre while watching ‘Catching Fire’ on Alex’s phone.

9/02/17

Sadly, today was the last full day of our holiday so we tried to pack in as much as we could! We had a little bit of a late start and finished off the cake we bought a couple of days previously for breakfast, before heading out to the Tower of London. Along the way we stopped for a breakfast wrap and some yogurt for a more substantial breakfast. On the way we made a detour to see the Monument to the Great Fire of London that engulfed London in the 17th century.

We then had a walk around the Tower and we enjoyed seeing the Tower Bridge, which was a little bit fancy. Finally, we made our way inside the Tower and joined a tour group led by a yeoman warder. He was a fantastic tour guide and made everyone laugh! He explained how they executed people in graphic detail while staring at a small child. He boomed out; “And he hacked through the skin, the bone, the spinal cord, the blood, the flesh…”. The yeoman then pointed to a tower in the distance and started to tell us about it before saying; “This tower has nothing to do with the Tower of London, I just really, really like it.”

Our guide told us that to become a beefeater you must have a fabulous beard and be incredibly handsome, which received a big laugh. He then explained, seriously, that to become a beefeater you must have reached a certain rank in the British Armed Forces, have been awarded a medal for good service during that period, and have served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of 22 years. He then exclaimed; “A yeoman of the guard lives in the Tower of London, and yes, IT IS AWESOME!” Other fantastic quotes include; “Why is it called a bell tower? THERE’S A BELL IN IT!”, “If you’re standing quite close to me and you feel droplets of water, don’t worry, it’s not raining, IT’S JUST MY SPIT!”, “Why are we called beefeaters? DON’T ASK ME THAT, I DON’T KNOW!”

We saw the housing apartments where Katherine Howard was imprisoned, and the green where Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Jane Grey were executed. We also saw the tower where Bishop Fisher and Thomas Moore were imprisoned, as well as where the two young princes, Edward and Richard, were imprisoned. We then saw the Traitor’s Entrance to the Tower, and the chapel. The tour with the yeoman ended and Alex and I walked around the Tower and visited the White Castle, the official residence of the Royal family, which has now become the armoury.

We explored the White Castle and saw many full sets of armour belonging to Henry VIII and Charles I, as well as many diplomatic gifts. We then walked through the barracks which now house the crown jewels. The crowns were pretty incredible, many featured diamonds the size of my fist. My favourite piece of jewellery was a ring belonging to Queen Victoria that was studded with diamonds, sapphires and rubies. It sort of looked like the London underground sign. Alex’s favourite piece in the collection was a huge golden punchbowl that could hold 22 litres of wine but looked about the size of a pure-gold bathtub.

We then walked through the royal menagerie and the torture museum after watching a gigantic raven vie for Alex’s cookie. Every time Alex took the cookie out of it’s plastic wrap the raven cawed and hopped forwards eagerly. When he ate a bit of cookie or put it back in the packet the raven would hop away disappointed. After visiting the Tower we walked across London Bridge and went to the Borough Markets. We sampled lots of different things, like a steak and chorizo pie, a spinach and cheese pastry, a German sausage roll, and a salted beef bagel.

After the market we went to a coffee shop to warm up a little before walking over Millennium Bridge, the bridge that the Death Eaters destroyed in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. We then walked around St Paul’s Cathedral before heading back to the hostel. The Cathedral looked spectacular at night!

We had a rest at the hostel before heading out to a pub around the corner for a quick drink with Em, Claire, and Bec. It was great to catch up with them one final time and we commemorated the occasion with a family selfie. Alex and I then raced off to find some dinner, and we were fortunate that the burger bar we went to the previous night was still open. We returned home, reluctantly packed, and set our alarm for an un-godly hour.

10/02/17 – 11/02/17

Ugh.

We woke up this morning at 4am, walked to a bus stop, then caught the bus to Paddington Station where we caught the Heathrow Express to our airport terminal. The zipper on Alex’s suitcase was a little broken so we got the suitcase glad-wrapped and checked in and went through security.

We used the rest of our pounds to buy breakfast (eggs Benedict and eggs with buttered soldiers) before boarding the plane for a rather nice first leg of the flight.

We had a quick stopover in Doha before boarding the second leg of the flight where we were predictably surrounded by screaming children and uncooperative passengers who caused the flight to leave later. We arrived back in Sydney to discover that Alex’s suitcase had been left behind in Doha. We finally made our way back to our apartment, exhausted, but filled with awesome memories from our trip.

Fantastic things we learnt/heard on our trip:

• Erin stamping her foot loudly in Orvieto and shouting “No bus pigeons” will always be a catch phrase.
• Viktor is the friendliest human you will ever come across and has an obsession with dogs. #HotViktor
• When snow hits your face really quickly it feels like the snow is betraying you by hurting you.
• Just because you love snow doesn’t mean you will automatically be incredible at skiing.
• No matter what the song is, you will always hate the wake-up song with a burning passion.
• Always drink red wine in Italy.
• Beer is cheaper than soft drink in Germany.
• Strands of Alex’s beard grow in clear.
• If you sing a line of “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” from Mulan in each place you visit, the locals will think that you’re slightly unhinged.
• Pfft, Europe’s not THAT cold in winter.
• Travelling in a group means you will get sick. No exceptions.
• Italian McDonalds is best McDonalds.
• If you’re getting natural gouda from Amsertdam, get the older, more flavoursome cheese!
• MOOOOOOO and QUACK

31/01/17

We had a nice sleep in and then headed out to explore Cesky Krumlov a bit more. The combination of snow from the previous night and rain that morning made the cobblestones exceedingly slippery so it was slow going for a while until the gravel guy drove around spraying gravel on the roads.

A group of us made our way to the castle in the hope of seeing one of the four domesticated bears that live around the moat and guard the castle (because they’re domesticated they don’t hibernate). To our delight we saw one! Many pictures later and many minutes of discussion regarding how Erin and Viktor would react to a bus bear, we left the bear and walked up a bunch of very unsafe stairs to the top of the castle to gaze at both the view and the bear again.

Alex walked through a couple of the courtyards where he took a tumble on the slippery cobblestones. We were also told of a saint who died because he was shoved into a barrel with a bunch of knives and then pushed down a hill in the Cesky Krumlov. Not a pleasant way to die.

Afterwards, we walked around the town and discovered a huge marzipan bear that weighed 16kg. We then went to a creperie for lunch because the brewery Alex wanted to go to was closed. However when we went to the brewery, we couldn’t read the sign on the front door (it was written in Czech) so Alex tentatively knocked on the door and went inside. A woman was sitting in complete darkness and then got up to shepherd him out the door, which was a bit unusual.

I ate a delicious cinnamon and butter crepe and drank a raspberry lemonade while Alex ate a spinach and prosciutto crepe and drank a choccobomb  (Bailey’s and hot chocolate). We also got a nutella chimey cake hot to go. We then walked back to the hotel before meeting up with Viktor and getting on the bus to go to Prague.

We arrived in Prague and Erin led us on a walking tour where she showed us the clock tower that is famed for it’s beauty, so much so that the man who designed it was blinded by the citizens of Prague because they didn’t want a clock tower that was more beautiful to be created.

We walked across Charles Bridge which featured many statues of saints, one of whom was a confessor for the queen. However, the king was suspicious that the queen was spending too much time with her confessor so he demanded to know what she was confessing. The priest refused to divulge that information so the king threw the priest off the bridge. It was said that right before the priest hit the water he was sainted.

We saw a beautiful Disney-like castle over the bridge which was all lit up. Decades ago ‘The Rolling Stones’ played in Prague and saw the castle during the day. They asked the president of Prague why the castle wasn’t lit up of a night and the president told them that it would cost too much money to do so. ‘The Rolling Stones’ then donated $150 000 and their own lighting technicians to install the necessary lights!

We then walked to the John Lennon wall which was created in order for a message of peace to be spread. It featured messages of peace and Beatles lyrics. While we were at the wall we saw a cute dog who chased all of the snowballs that were flying through the air. He was so confused and couldn’t work out where all the ‘balls’ were going when they hit the ground and exploded. It was extremely cute!

After the guys had exhausted themselves with their snowball fight (Alex was hit by a monstrous snowball Dave had created) we went to dinner. Alex and I sat with Andi, Callum, and another couple. We shared a huge pot of vegetable soup followed by bacon wrapped chicken and wedges, and an ice cream sundae. A few people had flaming absinthe shots in the restaurant, but that seemed a bit intense for us right after dinner. Afterwards, most people decided to go out partying with Erin.  I wasn’t up for it so I headed back to the hotel with Daniel and Natalie while Alex partied up a storm. I’m told that the highlights included Alex holding two yard-glass drinks in his sleeves (for convenience) and dancing on a stripper pole, Josh vomiting in the taxi on the way to the hotel, and Gypsy tipping the strippers at the next bar 5000 crowns. It sounded like a great night but Netflix and I were very happy together!

01/02/2017

Today was our free day in Prague so Alex and I got up for breakfast and we then hung around our hotel room until midday which was really relaxing. We caught the tram to Wenceslas square (the same guy from the Christmas carol) and headed to a restaurant for lunch where your drinks were delivered by a model train.

The model train tracks criss-crossed the restaurant, going past every table, and it was pretty cool having our drinks delivered via train. We ate some pretty average pizza and then headed back to the main square in town where we went to the ‘Sex Machines Museum’, featuring many interesting contraptions used throughout history, as well as an old time erotic film. A silent film in black and white, it had light piano musical accompaniment to set a cultured tone for its sex scenes.

We then went to the ‘Chocolate Museum’ and bought some pralines, a hot chocolate, and a caramel tart which we ate while watching a hilarious chocolate making film. The film featured a man whose facial expressions were so over-exaggerated that we couldn’t stop giggling. The store ran chocolate making demonstrations which, in hindsight, we should have participated in. The store had so many different types of chocolate, in different shapes and flavours, it was incredible. They also had a pretty large section of erotic chocolate.

We were disappointed to learn that the cool library we were planning on visiting in the university was closed so we headed back to Charles Bridge to look around. We then walked around the Jewish Quarter for a while, but unfortunately it had gotten too late in the evening by then and none of the Synagogues or museums were open. Then we went to a well-known absintherie where I drank an absinth and berry cocktail while Alex tried warm Czech absinthe. They were both pretty strong! The woman at the table behind us drank an absinthe and wasabi cocktail which was served in a light bulb, which she then poured onto green fairy floss!

We then headed to ‘PUB’ (Pilsner Unique Bar) which was a pub that had beer taps on the table, which allowed you to self-serve your own pilsner beer. Each person received a pint glass and a number that tracked how much beer you drank and you competed against each person on your table. Similarly, your table competed against other tables in the pub and the pub you were in competed against the other ‘PUB’ restaurants in the Czech Republic. Our table came 9th in the country, 2nd in the restaurant, and Hayden won the individual challenge. At the end of the day we were both surprised by how much we loved Prague, we definitely want to go back.

02/02/17

We left Prague to head to Germany, and we stopped at Dresden on our way into Berlin for lunch. We had a quick walking tour but nearly all of the buildings we passed were not originals. Dresden was used as an industrial manufacturing centre pre-war, and after turning to armaments manufacturing in World War II, it was a prime target for Allied bombing and was nearly completely levelled.

The reconstructions were impressive in maintaining the appearance of older style buildings, especially because they were covered in a suitable layer of grime. The only real indicator that various buildings were not real was the gold lettering and statuettes, which shone bright and were not tarnished at all. One of the few buildings to survive had a huge tiled mural depicting German kings and prominent figures over hundreds of years. Only a few tiles were dislodged during air raids, which were easily replaced. One of the buildings to suffer the worst damage was a church which appeared to be a patchwork of light and dark stone – dark pieces were blocks recovered from the rubble of the bombed original church, while light coloured bricks were the necessary replacements added during rebuilding.

Then we went to lunch at a German restaurant. Alex ate a sausage-based schnitzel with a delicious sauce, some potatoes and sauerkraut, while Emma had breaded chicken, with creamy mushroom sauce and hot potato crisps. Other people went for a favourite German snack; currywurst, and gave it rave reviews.

Later that afternoon we arrived in Berlin, while the bus blasted “Paris to Berlin” which we all sang along to. We started straight away on a driving tour, where we learned that Germany was going through an economic boom so there was a lot of construction taking place. Due to the large amount of construction taking place around the city and the high water table that needed to be drained for laying new foundations, it was necessary for many pipes to be installed in each construction zone. Fearing that the many pipes made the city look ugly, Berlin officials went to kindergarten classes and asked students what their favourite colour was. This led to all of the brightly coloured pipes around the city. It was pretty funny to walk around and see a concentration of purple and pink pipes at some construction sites, and blue and green pipes at other sites.

Our driving tour took us past the East Side Gallery, the 1.3 kilometre stretch of the Berlin mall that serves as a memorial to freedom. One of the most eye catching paintings was Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker locked in an intimate embrace.

We also drove passed Alexanderplatz, a main square in Berlin where the communist government tried to prove it was also capable of great architecture by building a huge radio tower. The tower is sometimes called ‘The Pope’s Revenge’ because the anti-religion communists created a structure which casts a huge cross-shaped shadow over the city.

From there it was to the Hofbrauhaus for an included dinner (the same as the Royal Beer House in Munich, one of Germany’s most popular and well known brands both locally and on the export market). At the beer house there was an oompha band playing, which had a focus on the accordion and the guitar, with the addition of the drums and some singing. Every half an hour or so they’d play a special song where everyone was supposed to cheer and drink.

We ate a nice creamy vegetable soup with diced pretzels croutons, which had to be rationed because everyone wanted them. Our main was a pork knuckle which, fortunately, was not as large as the monstrosity from Andechs, and this time the pork knuckle was supplemented with sauce, sauerkraut and a potato dumpling. For dessert we all ate a deconstructed apple and sultana strudel and had a few good beers at the table with Emily, Ryan, Sarah, Sean, Jess, and Jack.

After dinner, the band started playing ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)’ by ‘The Proclaimers.’ Everyone in the beer house started to sing along really loudly and then at least half the restaurant patrons stood on top of their table, raising their steins and singing along.

After dinner we piled back onto the bus and Viktor started to blast music, including ‘We like to Party’ by ‘The Vengaboys’. At one point during the song where the band sings “The Vengabus is coming, and everybody’s jumpin’…”, Viktor stopped the song and sang into the microphone “The Viktor bus is comin’ and everybody’s jumpin’…” which received a huge laugh. Viktor also flashed the lights in the bus on and off while the songs were blaring. After Viktor pulled the bus over on the side of the road he gave some of the group a lesson in Romanian chest dancing, which was hilarious.

3/3/17

Today was a massive day in Berlin. We went for a walking tour led by a woman who moved to Germany from the USA, and studies World War II and German culture. She was absolutely fantastic and gave a really comprehensive summary of the formation of Germany, World War I and World War II.

Our guide took us to the Reichstag where we learnt about the fire in 1933, to the Brandenburg Gate, and to the Holocaust memorial. The Holocaust memorial was a memorial dedicated to all of the murdered Jews in Europe. It featured uneven ground and stone pillars of differing heights spread across the space of a city block. We walked through the memorial where the ground was incredibly icy which added to the feeling of isolation and disorientation, feelings the architect encouraged through his design.

We were then taken to the site of Hitler’s bunker (which has been turned into a carpark to prevent Neo-Nazis memorialising the sight, and to Checkpoint Charlie (the crossing point between East and West Germany).

After the tour everyone split off to explore Berlin on their own and Alex and I toured Checkpoint Charlie a bit further and read stories about people who had escaped from East Germany to West Germany.

We then went to ‘The Topography of Terror’ which was the original​ site of the SS headquarters. It’s been turned into a museum and it is the best museum I’ve ever been to, the information about the formation of the Nazis and World War II was superbly layed out and presented. They had so many documents and photos that I’ve never seen before and the museum featured special sections about the different murdered groups in the Holocaust, and a section about what happened to various Nazi officers after the war. We spent two and a half hours in the museum but we probably only got through half of it.

Afterwards, we went and tried currywurst – basically diced sausage in a pile of curry sauce, which was surprisingly delicious and Alex had an Indian curry for lunch while I had my last schnitzel.

After lunch we went to the ‘Spy Museum’ which had a timeline of when monarchs and governments first started to use spies. The museum also contained spy instruments, like rifles built in to gloves, and lots of videos you could listen to about East German agents, including a few stories from the spies themselves, which was a highlight. The museum was divided by how East Germany would have perceived the information, and how West Germany would have perceived the information. There was also a fantastic code breaker machine that we tried to play around with, but couldn’t quite work out. You could send codes out and so I sent out ‘Alex smells’, expecting the computer to generate a secret code back to me. However, the code was actually sent to the other side of the machine, where a group of Germans were mucking around with it. They read out ‘Alex smells’ and then we all had a chortle.

After the ‘Spy Museum’ we went to a chocolate shop and had a bit of a look around. You could make your own personalised flavour but it was getting late so we decided not to do that. We walked through Alexanderplatz to get to Primark to buy some “shit shirts”, which was the theme of the pub crawl that night. We both bought some hideous Pokémon shirts, which fit the theme perfectly. We also came across a wide array of onesies; one of the best was a onesie done in the style of ‘Breaking Bad’ and another was made into the shape of a lederhosen.

We realised we were running quite late for the pub crawl so I returned back to the hotel to quickly get dressed while Alex ran to a burger bar to get us dinner. Unfortunately, we realised that we mixed up the times that the bus was leaving that night with the next morning so we had to catch up with everyone by catching the train. We missed the graffiti tour around Berlin but the Irish guy running the tour and the pub crawl was excited to have us and immediately gave us a beer (it’s legal to drink on the street in Berlin).

Quite a few of the Topdecker guys were wearing the onesies we had come across at Primark and Dave and Yas matched Alex and myself with their Pokemon shirts. Olivia and Claire matched each other, wearing shirts that featured a mermaid but when you stroked the image it became a unicorn. Reese and Zak were both wearing frilly women’s shirts that they’d bought at a second hand store, which was hilarious. We made our way to a few different bars that night but we left the final bar shortly after arriving so we started to walk home. However, we accidentally walked the wrong way out of the club so we ended up walking a scenic route for half an hour, when our hotel should have only been five minutes away. We realised our mistake and decided to go back to burger bar Alex bought our dinner from for a late night snack. It was amazing and the burger bar was in an old public toilet underneath train tracks. Best day ever.

4/3/17

We left Berlin really early to make our way to Amsterdam! On the bus we watched ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember’ and ‘The Hangover’. It was a pretty long journey but we broke it up by stopping for lunch at Burger King, (everyone was so excited for the nuggets) and stopping for a cheese and clog demonstration on a farm on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

The clog boy, Milan, showed us how to carve clogs from scratch, and how to use machines to aid you when making a pair. There were so many different designs on the clogs, everything from cows to windmills and tulips. Milan’s favourite clogs were a pair that had intricate carvings on them, which is a traditional Dutch wedding day gift for a bride, made by the groom.

We then enjoyed a cheese demonstration where we learnt how cheese is made in Amsterdam. We also tasted lots of different types of cheese, including; natural, garlic and chive, nuts, taco, whiskey, and Italian herbs. They were all incredible so we bought a natural cheese wheel!

When we arrived in central Amsterdam we checked into our hotel which was actually a floating boat, made in the Amsterdam ship-yards right next door, and called a ‘botel’ which was pretty cool. To get to the main part of the city from our botel we had to take a ferry where we discovered that not only bicycles but small cars were allowed to board ferries in the same way as the pedestrians, and there are thousands of bikes stashed in the bike racks at Central Station.

We then had a walking tour around Amsterdam where Erin took us to see the National Monument, the palace, and the church. We also walked through the Red Light District, where prostitution is legalised and there are women wearing lingerie, standing behind a full-body window that they rent, beckoning to people walking by. The red lights indicated an open and available window, while blue lights were occupied by women who were previously men. After the tour most of the group headed to watch a sex show where we saw a wide range of things. Poor Josh was forced up on stage to participate and he looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

5/2/17

Today was our free day in Amsterdam and we started it off with a bit of a sleep-in while the rest of the Topdeck group went on a guided bike tour. We decided to skip breakfast and go on our own self guided culinary tour. We set off and took the ferry to ‘Centraal’ station and made our way to Febo, a fast food joint that has pre-prepared meals sitting in little letter-box windows that you pay for without talking to anyone. You insert the coins and the window just pops open. Alex ate a mini-burger that he loved and we shared a crumbed and fried cheese snack that was delicious.

We then went for a leisurely walk to the main square of Amsterdam again and looked at the palace, the church that was featuring a Marilyn Monroe exhibit, and the National Monument commemorating the wars. The monument had soil from each battlefield buried underneath the monument.

Afterwards, we walked to a cute alleyway and went to a couple of cafes where we tried delicious frites (chips) with some spiced mayonnaise, a stroopwaffle (thin biscuity waffle pieces with honey in between), and a chocolate cookie with gooey white chocolate in the centre. The shop that sold the cookies was a cute little place and they only sold that type of cookie, and nothing else, not even drinks! They were doing a roaring trade. We ate our frites while listening to an a cappella group perform in the street, which was nice background music.

We managed to dodge all of the bikes racing around and made our way to the Heineken Experience where we went on a tour and learnt about the history of the company (the current CEO’s great-grandfather founded the company in 1864) and saw lots of great big beer barrels. We learnt how Heineken is made, we viewed the horses in the stables (Heineken’s mascots), and we taste tested barley and sugar.

We then went to the interactive exhibit where they ‘made us’ into beer. The podium we stood on tilted and shook as they made us into beer and heated and cooled us. We were then able to create our own personalised label for Heineken beer, which was tempting. There were quite a few games dotted around the brewery, as well as photo booths and video booths.

We drank our three free drinks and left to go find the iconic ‘I Amsterdam’ sign. An ice rink was right next to the sign and the place was crawling with tourists so we took a picture at the back of the sign where it was less busy and the writing was back to front, but then Alex flipped the photo on his phone! We quickly headed back to ‘Centraal’ station to meet up with all of the group before heading off on a canal river cruise.

It was the last night with all of the group so it was a bit sad, but it was pretty special seeing Amsterdam by boat. Alex and I sat with Josh and Em and we dug in to the Indonesian food for dinner, which was a little spicy but included rice, beef and coconut chicken, which was delicious!

The whole group went to a pub for a quick drink before Josh, Alex, Em, Pravinni, Sam and I went to Febo again and to a frites place before catching the ferry back. We went for a quick drink at a restaurant next to our botel with Erin, and then a group of us sat in the botel’s bar to talk and sample Em’s berry vodka that she’d bought in Italy which tasted more like a cordial.

6/2/17

It was a sad day today, our last day of the Topdeck tour. We left the boatel quite early, saying goodbye to some friends who were staying in Amsterdam, and we drove to Calais to catch the ferry to Dover. Along the way we watched ‘Pitch Perfect’ which was a good final movie to see. We also stopped in Belgium and attempted to get rid of our remaining Euros at a petrol station,​ which we achieved.

At the immigration port most people encountered some rude and overly inquisitive border patrol guards, however our guard was lovely and just seemed like he wanted a chat, asking about our favourite cities. We boarded the ferry and ate a truly horrendous chicken burger and pie before searching the ship to find some playing cards to distract Em from her fear of boats. We found snap cards and had an energetic few games before switching to go fish.

We disembarked from the ferry and drove from Dover to Earl’s Court, which was really sad. We blasted the wake up song one final time before saying goodbye to most of the people in our group. Many people were staying at the Earl’s Court hotel we departed from, but Alex and I left to check-in to our hostel in Oxford Circus. It was a lovely hostel, with a comfy double bed, sink, and a colourful lounge area downstairs where they ran activities for guests each day.

After we checked-in we met up with Josh, Bec and Gypsy for dinner. We went to a fantastic Italian restaurant where the portions were huge. I ate a spinach and ricotta calzone while Alex polished off a delicious pizza. Gypsy decided to turn in for the night so the four of us decided to go for a quick drink. It was quite funny comparing the drink the four of us grabbed the night before the tour started and the drink we had that night when we knew each other so much better. There was a lot more chatter and playful teasing! After our drink we went to a gelato bar to appease Em. It was a great place, I had a scoop of toffee crisp and a scoop of Jammy dodger, which was particularly good!

24/01/2017

The morning had a slow start as we needed to settle the various debts incurred from our activities – apart from the skiing and clothes hire, tobogganing and Salzburg trip, others had gone paragliding and segway-ing. Fortunately, the ski school office where we were all settling the payments was right next to Scotty’s Burger Bar, so we all grabbed the opportunity to sneak some last minute breakfast burgers as well as some cheese, ham and tomato toasties. It started to snow while we waited; the most perfect, beautiful snowflakes in traditional six pointed style drifted down, many of which landed on and lingered in Emma’s hair. We were also delayed a little waiting for Rhys, who had gone to the doctors for an X-ray after coming off his snowboard the previous day and damaging his knee. He hopped on the bus wearing a leg brace for muscle support, but with no broken bones.

Our drive out of Kirchdorf was the site of some of our best scenery yet, with even more valleys, cliffs, mountains, forests, tunnels, and bridges. It was also a showcase of exemplary driving from Viktor, negotiating the long coach around tight, snow covered towns while dodging cars and snow plows.

With a popular vote we decided to go on a detour to a small German town called Andechs to grab lunch. We went for a short walk up from the bus carpark to a church on the hill and found that there wasn’t much to the place. The primary attraction of the town, and our reason for visiting, was the Andechs brewery and beer hall, which was just below the monastery.

This brewery had a specialty winter beer, which was dark and heavy but with fruity overtones that made one think of a Christmas pudding. And they only offered small (500mL) or regular (1L) sizes for all their beer!

Ordering food was intimidating because the menu was in German and the English of the servers didn’t seem too strong. Alex took the plunge and ordered first, getting a pork knuckle. They picked up a huge knuckle from the hot counter, about the size of soccer ball, and got an electric meat carver out to cut it. Only, they didn’t cut off a slice, they just cut the whole huge thing in half and dumped it on a plate by itself, with no sauce or accompaniments in sight. It proved far too much for one person so it was passed down the long communal tables of the hall, spreading the salty pork love to all.

Later that afternoon we arrived in Munich and got dropped off near the centre of town to start our walking tour from the medieval gates into Munich. Munich is called “Munchen” in German which is a much more fun sounding name. Our walk took us down the main street where Erin ran us through some of the history, including the Bavarian purity laws introduced in the 1500s specifying what ingredients beer must be made from. The Hoff Brauhouse is one of the many beer houses in the city, but this one in particular was anointed the royal beer house.

The town hall was a centre of the SS in the lead up to, and during, World War II. It was also the site of Goebel’s declaration of Krystalnacht – the night of shattered glass, where many Jewish shops and synagogues were smashed, looted or burned.

We passed the glockenspiel, an intricate clock which roles out a series of figures when it chimes three times a day, and the Butchers Fountain in the square below, so called because apprentice butchers had to stand in it naked and eat fish guts before they could become recognised as fully qualified butchers in their own right.

One more stop before the hotel was a church that was supposedly funded by a deal with the devil, where the architect bargained that in exchange for unholy funds he would put no windows in the church so it would be a place of darkness instead of a place of light. However, he tried to get around this by putting in windows and cunningly placing large columns inside the church so that from the entranceway none of the windows could be seen. The devil was fooled at first and payed him, but then noticed the deception and spun on the spot in anger, leaving a black mark and cursing the place to have stronger winds than everywhere else.

Our walking tour finished when we were taken to the hotel, after learning that it is illegal to dress up as Elvis in Munich (or Switzerland, we can’t quite remember). We had a quick lie down before heading out to the Weissbier Haus, a beer house that specialises in wheat beer. At the beer hall Alex drank a sweet wheat beer and Emma drank an even sweeter Raddler (aka a chandy – a beer and lemonade mix). Then we went to the Argentine Haus for an optional group dinner – one organised by Erin of her own initiative, unrelated to the official Top Deck itinerary, and self funded. This was where we met our three new arrivals who would be staying with us till the end of the tour; Steph, Mollie and Karina.

At the entrance to the beer house we bumped into Dave and Yazmin who said they had already been in but couldn’t find our group and were going to go somewhere else for dinner, but we decided to double check. We found the group buried far back in the restaurant in a section you couldn’t see fromthe doorway, so Alex did a heroic run to go let Dave and Yaz know. Passers-by even yelled “Run Forest Run” as he went past at full speed in winter coat gear. Unfortunately, the mission was in vain as the menu was mostly pork which Yaz wasn’t that keen on, but it warmed him up for a drink.

After dinner we tried looking for a dessert place but most places were shutting down even though it was fairly early (around 9) so we ended up going back to the hotel unsatisfied.

25/01/2017

After this brief sojourn into Germany it was back out and on our way to Ljubljana, a city Alex had never heard of, and the capital of the equally unfamiliar country of Slovenia. Regarding the pronunciation of the city name- the first “j” is silent and the second pronounced like an “i” – “Lubliana”. It’s a small nation of only 2 million, it is also very young – having gained independence from Yugoslavia only in 1991, hence the lack of common knowledge about it.

Apparently Yugoslavia is home to good wines and some lovely landscapes. We had planned to make a detour on the way to the capital to visit the Postojna cave system. This cave system is home to white salamanders, called Ohm, which basically look like miniature dragons, and it is part of the reason for dragons being common in iconography around Slovenia. Legend says that the salamanders would grow into full size dragons if only they lived above ground and had space to grow.

However, our tour bus was made to pull over just inside the Slovenian border where we waited for over an hour while a van pulled up next to us, reading through a bunch of papers our driver Viktor produced for them. There seemed to be some phone calls as well, and Erin jumped out a few times. While waiting we watched the end of our movie, then played some ‘Heads Up’ on Alex’s phone (where you hold the phone up to your head and it shows words or phrases everyone else has to describe for you to guess). It turned out there had been a recent law change requiring additional registration and a fee for buses entering the country. At first the authorities didn’t believe that Top Deck was a proper tour company because they couldn’t find the tax number. It got sorted in the end but by that point it was too late to visit the caves so we pressed on straight in to Ljubljana.

We got off the coach in front of a seemingly abandoned building that was covered in graffiti, which was concerning, but our pleasant hotel was just around the corner. The Park Hotel was, at 11 stories, one of the tallest buildings in the city, which would assist with our navigation later that evening. After a quick bag drop we began a walking tour, starting off down a little shopping lane also covered in graffiti. The underground street art movement is apparently a big scene here – you can do whole tours about street graffiti, probably because it’s quite a university town with a young population. Of the 500,000 inhabitants a crazy 50,000 of them are students.

A bit more historic was Dragon Bridge, so named for the iconic dragons of Slovenia adorning it. This took us into a Greek style marketplace, unfortunately empty in winter, but it did contain a milk vending machine where you could purchase an empty bottle and then fill it with milk at the dispenser.

We stood outside another church with a gruesome door that depicted various bishops. The door was actually a working door of the church, and Erin had previously had very surprised people walk out of it straight into the middle of her talk. We finished by going over Triple Bridge, which was unsurprisingly named for being comprised of three pedestrian bridges of the same style all right next to each other.

We had a free evening, so some people headed for the salt store, which sold a range of exotic and flavoured salts, but most of us went straight for an ice cream place, despite the chill. The ice cream flavours were very rich, and came served with a wafer and a drizzle of chocolate which hardened while you ate. Some flavours included; strawberry cheesecake, chocolate cinnamon, and the special which had chocolate chunks.

Josh and Em accompanied us to the castle on top of the hill in the centre of, and overlooking, the whole city. We discovered Em’s hilarious pronunciation of castle as “kassel” and gave her a solid ribbing about it on the funicular ride up to the top, which seemed a lot better than the 20 minutes walk along the winding snow covered pathway. The views from the castle, especially the high clock tower, were great, and the snow covered courtyard with an open fire pit was lovely, but the best part crashing a wedding. To be fair, there was no sign posted and Alex just walked through an open doorway and saw a whole bunch of people with cameras looking down from an upper gallery, while off to the side the bride was having her dress adjusted. We quickly backed out of that room, and later found a small brass band playing in a pentagonal tower. The foundations of the castle had been extensively renovated, potentially for structural reasons, which provided a strange clash between ancient and modern.

That night we had an optional dinner at a restaurant with a Quasimodo-esque statue out the front. We tried a traditional Slovenian dessert that looked a lot like a lasagne. It was made out of pastry and had nuts and a combination of strange spices in it, as well as some cream cheese. It was pretty great!

After dinner it was on to a pub crawl which started at 10pm right after our lengthy dinner, which was a bit of a system shock. We started at a very quiet bar, scaring off the only other occupant when we arrived. Things got more lively at the next venue called Jet Bar, where we played some beer pong and flip cup. The best part of that place were all the ceiling and wall fans driven off the same motor with drive belts connecting them so they all turned in sequence. After Alex was done exclaiming over it, everyone in the group gave him a good natured withering look. While we were in that club the clock struck midnight and we all sang a loud rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Josh. Afterwards, a fantastic elderly gentleman danced very energetically with Emily and then with the rest of us.

We progressed on to an underground bar where we were given a slip of paper with a number of challenges to complete, including; ‘Swap an item of clothing with a stranger’. After that it was on to a packed club that none of us felt like staying long in and we left as a group to go back to the hotel, even though there was one more place to go on the crawl. Rhys needed a bit of help getting back with the combination of drink, his leg in its brace and the ice everywhere.

26/01/17

We left Slovenia and headed for Budapest today. Being Australia day and also Josh’s 21st birthday, we started off the morning (with everyone still a little hungover) with a blaring rendition of “Its your birthday” which woke everyone up, followed by a compilation of Australian songs. It was a pretty long bus day so we watched ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ along the way. We stopped at a service station for lunch and ended up having the most delicious creamy chicken, couscous and bruschetta. We had a bit of a driving tour around Budapest and learnt that Buda and Pest were originally separate cities, separated by the Danube River.

We stopped at a lookout point with fantastic views of the entire city and we saw the Liberty Statue, a lady holding a giant palm leaf above her head. The statue was originally a monument to the communists but after their regime it was repurposed and it now represents peace.

We arrived at the Gellert Hotel, which houses the Gellert Baths, and we went up to our room. Our room was beautiful; it was a split level with a double bedroom and bathroom upstairs, and twin beds and a roomy dining area, living room and bathroom downstairs. Our balcony looked out over the Liberty Bridge and the river, which was beautiful.

We then went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant where Alex ran outside without a jacket or jumper to get money from the ATM across the road, only to spend a while wandering around trying to find it. He then spent even longer trying to decipher the Hungry Jack’s Hungarian wifi sign-in page to put enough money on the card to make a withdrawal. By the time he got back, shivering, the goulash main course was already getting cool! Then it was a bit of a walk to a ruin bar. The ruin bar was an interesting place, combining ruins and hipsterishness. Rhys, Josh, Em, Alex and I stayed out and had one of the famous shots you can get in Budapest, a palinka shot.

We all had a raspberry palinka which burned on the way down but had a nice aftertaste. The five of us then walked home, stopping at Hungry Jack’s for cheeky nuggets before walking over the bridge again. The Danube was half frozen which made it look really pretty.

27/01/17

Free day in Budapest! Breakfast at the hotel was pretty incredible, they served chocolate mousse and cake in addition to all the usual favourites, like a well stocked hot-breakfast bar and fancy yoghurt muesli mixes. Alex, Bec, Josh and I went on a free walking tour of Budapest. It started in the centre of town, so we had a pleasant walk along the Danube watching the ice flows to get there. 

It was our guide’s first day on the job and she was a bit nervous but she was very knowledgeable. Her favourite expression was that people kept invading Hungary and kept forgetting to leave, because Hungary has had so many invaders over the years. She told us how Hungary was under occupation by Germany during World War II and was then liberated by the Soviet Union who then forgot to leave, with the Austro-Hungarian empire before all of that. After the bit of history, our next stop was near the central train station, where there was an underwater bar in the middle of the park. Originally intended as a theatre, money ran out during construction so the hole in the ground they’d already dug was repurposed to make the underground (or underwater) bar. Waste not.

We stopped at St Stephen’s Basilica where Celine (our guide) told us how there had been a prophecy that St Stephen would die in Budapest and be buried there, however he had the gall to be buried somewhere else. So a group of Hungarians dug up his body and hid it in Budapest, entrusting it to a priest. After an earthquake no one could find his body, but it finally turned up hidden in a column at a church. When the Hungarians saw his body they found that his right hand was perfectly preserved, so he was sainted and you can now view St Stephen’s hand at the church. Celine also told us about a famous Hungarian soccer player from the 1960s who was loved by all, so when he died they cut off his left foot and preserved it in the cathedral next to St Stephen’s hand. As you do.

Next we went across the bridge back to the Buda side and had a quick morning tea break where Emma got an unfortunately cold kurtosh and Alex had a delicious hot chocolate which he didn’t share for quarantine reasons. Then we walked up castle hill, the historic palace and castle complex, a walk which had 895 steps – the year Hungary was founded. At the top a wall with seven turrets called the fisherman’s bastion surrounded a church with beautiful orange and green tiling.

Once the tour was over we managed to survive catching a bus back to the central train station near the underwater bar. There were a large number of hot food stalls nearby, however Alex was feeling pretty ill so he did not partake in eating langos, a fried dough with cream cheese and regular cheese. It was incredible.

On the way back home we went into the markets, which were in a huge two-levelled building with fresh fruit, meat and cheese below and take away food, clothes and tourist gear above. As Alex’s wallet was disintegrating from too many currencies and we’d forgotten to get a new one from the leather markets in Florence we got him a new wallet here instead, as Budapest was also known for its leather.

We all decided it was too cold to wander around any longer so we went back to the hotel where Alex collapsed into bed. I decided to take the tram to the Jewish Synagogue and walk around by myself. Everyone is still shocked that I didn’t accidentally end up in Russia. The synagogue was closed so I just had a look around and bought a fresh coconut and a cinnamon kurtosh/chimney cake. They were excellent!

I returned back to the hotel to check on Alex, who was still sick, before I went downstairs to the Gellert Baths. The entire baths were a maze. I went to the 40 degree pool first before going to the beautiful swimming pool, the 36 degree pool, and the outdoor pool. The outdoor pool was funny to see with all the steam rising off it amidst the snow. It was strange getting to it because I was dressed in my swimming costume, freezing in the -15 degree weather. All the baths were beautiful but they would have been significantly improved if Alex had of been there.

Alex elected not to come on the river cruise that night so I headed off with the rest of the group to the beautiful boat where we were served champagne and Czech wine (the Czech Republic is known for it’s wine, but everyone jokes that it’s just their marketing that is lacking with all the complicated Czech names). I sat on a table with Molly, Olivia and Zack and we had a great time, trying all the dishes from the buffet. There was a massive cheese platter, delish goulash, and some tasty chicken. The Hungarians sure love paprika, I would say that 80% of the food in the buffet was smothered in paprika. The Danube River at night was stunning because all the landmarks were lit up. The most beautiful landmark was the parliament, it looked spectacular. After returning to the hotel, Alex still wasn’t feeling great and he didn’t want to infect me so we slept in the two twin beds downstairs.

28/01/17

Today Alex was feeling slightly better, thankfully. We left Budapest to head to Krakow by cutting through Slovakia. It was a long bus day but Erin put on ‘The Pianist’ and we stopped at Tesco for lunch. Everyone bought so many cheap snacks. Alex ate a kebab which was probably a mistake given his recent sickness.

We arrived in Krakow in the evening and we then went on a walking tour. I was excited to be there, amongst all the historical sites I’d studied. The bus dropped us off near Wawel castle, and Erin told us that near the castle was a statue of a dragon that breathed real fire intermittently. This is because legend says that Krakow was founded on top of a dragon’s lair.

Next stop was the main square, one of the largest medieval market squares which has been hosting markets since the 13th century. It also contains the oldest church in Krakow, a little older than the marketplace, and the church of St Mary’s Basilica. The church included a beautiful clock tower which would play a bugle tune every hour, only to be abruptly cut off mid-song. This tradition was spawned centuries ago, when the man sounding the bugle alarm for a Mongol attack on the city was shot by an arrow and killed mid-song. The whole area around the markets was pedestrian only with the exception of many beautiful horse-drawn carriages.

After the walking tour we each had our own dinner. After doing a lap of the market square and looking at all the many restaurants to choose from, Bec, Alex and myself went to a restaurant called Cafe Art which had cute tables outside in an enclosed pagoda with heaters and blankets. We all decided to share our meal and we ordered meat pierogis (a traditional Polish dumpling) as well as cheese and onion ones, a soup called borscht consisting of egg and sausage served in a bread bowl, and a Polish tasting platter consisting of more pierogis, potatoes, ribs, cabbage rolls, goulash, stew, and token salad. The three of us managed to get through most of it, but the servings were huge. It was definitely Alex’s favourite meal we’ve eaten so far. After dinner it was back to the hotel to relax and digest.

29/01/17

I caught Alex’s bug! I was very disappointed because I was looking forward to exploring Poland and we had the whole day planned, but it was good that Alex could still have a look around. Alex still wasn’t feeling amazing in the morning so we both skipped the Wieliczka Salt Mine which was a shame because ‘The Last Supper’ was carved in salt and you could lick the walls. However, Alex was feeling well enough to go exploring in the afternoon so he went on a Jewish Walking Tour in the Jewish Quarter. He was lovely enough to diligently take lots of notes and photos, using thumbs of fury to keep up with the narration of the guide.

This is his story.

(Heavy history to follow)

The tour started at the oldest synagogue in Krakow. The guide for the tour had done his thesis for sociology on the Jewish Quarter and so he had a wealth of knowledge, starting with the fact that from the city market centre to the ghetto the whole region of Krakow was UNESCO heritage listed, one of the earliest sites to earn that title.

The Jews came to Poland after being kicked out of Western Europe. They were welcomed by Polish kings as the agricultural Poland was trying to reinvent itself with some larger cities, and Jews possessed many of the skills vital for successful cities like trading, banking and taxing. Their success – particularly as tax collectors, earned jealousy and dislike from Christians. The cultural tradition of using bath houses (once a week for men, once a month for women) also helped stop the spread of plagues and disease among the Jews. This only fostered mistrust amongst their unwashed and diseased Christian neighbours, who ironically considered bathing to be spiritually unclean from too much touching of one’s own skin. Feelings of resentment cultimated in the Jews being blamed for a fire in the city and consequently being kicked out of the city centre (around the main market square). Thus the Jewish quarter was formed.  

Despite this, Krakow was still the centre of a golden age for Jewish culture. This started with a Rabbi who translated the Torah into a simple language which could be more easily understood, and was the start of learning as well as theological discussion. For example, they considered how laws such as having no fires on the Sabbath day were appropriate for their new climate. While manageable back in Spain, it could mean death in a Polish winter, so they came up with solutions like having a Gentile to light one for you if you could afford a servant, or starting a large blaze the day before to last throughout. This golden age of enlightenment and discussion lasted from the 16th century to the mid 17th. Then a Swedish invasion of Krakow, followed by a Polish liberation both heavily taxed the Jews, forcing them to borrow from the Christian church – debts that took centuries to repay.

The tour moved on, through a street where Leopold in the movie of Schindler’s list pretended to pack suitcases in order to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. The location was wrong however, the actual ghetto was across the river Vistula. After WW2 the remnants of the Jewish Quarter were a very poor area, but ‘Schindler’s List’ brought busloads of tourists. Our guide quipped that the locals had said as the buses rolled in: “There’s too many to rob, we’ll just have to sell them alcohol”. The tourist income has now gentrified the area. For example, Nova Square in the Jewish Quarter was surrounded by pubs with an open grill pizza baguette take away store in the centre.

Next we passed the Temple Synagogue of Krakow, which had a special symbolic significance. Orthodox Jewish law said there could only be one temple, the Temple in Jerusalem built by the messiah. Calling this a temple was a symbol of the reformed movement of Jews who said that this was their new home, they would wait for messiah here. Categories of reformed Jews include a group called TechnoJews in Israel, with a focus on techno music.  

At the Jewish community centre we discussed the population levels of Jews in Krakow: from 65,000 before WW2, to 3-5,000 after it, and then down to only 200 after they were evicted by the communist government in 1968. However, some have started to return and others in hiding announced themselves, and there are now about 700. The Chief Rabbi of Poland told a story of how a pair of anti-semitic Skinheads found out their entire families were Jewish – as the families went into hiding rather than leaving.

Then we went down a street that was the scene of a famous part of Schindler’s list during the liquidation of the ghetto. Our guide also told us more ‘corrections’ to the Hollywood story (which he wasn’t very impressed with, the movie based off the book, based off actual events was like soup of a soup of a soup, very watered down). Schindler was certainly not all good, he spied for the Germans against Czechoslovakia, stealing railroad plans and he is considered a traitor there. His wife also assisted, getting medicine from the black market for the Schindler Jews, while his lover got Jewish women out of Auschwitz. Two other major Jews, apart from Isaac Stern, who were important were cut from the movie for clarity. Regarding the popularity of the name Isaac, our guide told the Jewish joke that in the Jewish Quarter: “half the people would be called Isaac, and the other half would be women”.

Going across a bridge over the River Vistula took us into the ghetto where we started to focus on WW2 history, particularly the incremental process by which Jews were deprived of rights in order to enable later extermination. It started in 1939, on September 9th with the requirement for Jews to be registered. It then led to the requirement to wear the Star of David arm-bands. This enabled public humiliation from German soldiers – little bits at first to build acceptance of such occurrences as everyday by both Poles and Jews. The first deportation of Jews from Krakow in August 1940 was friendly, German soldiers recommended they flee to the countryside as city centres were becoming Jew free. However, this was part of removing their influence on the city economy while also restricting their movement in stages, forbidding entry successively to libraries, parks, markets and then even the streets leading towards markets.

The ghettos were made to seem a good deal as they included job centres, hospitals, and child care centres, allowing Jews to avoid the threats of street violence they were now accustomed to. There was a whole month after the ghetto was declared where there was free movement both in and out to encourage Jews to enter. Then once the Germans estimated a high majority had relocated, the wall was built around them overnight during the Passover feast.

Next we went to the square where the selections were carried out. Bordering the square were two interesting buildings. One was the headquarters of the Jewish partisans – an initial rebellion effort which blew up a cafe that was full of German soldiers on Christmas day. There was also a pharmacy run by a Pole who volunteered to stay when the area was declared a ghetto, and helped save many Jews. He also survived and wrote a first hand account of the liquidation he witnessed – the ‘Krakow Ghetto Pharmacy’. The square itself was filled with a memorial for the Jews of Krakow, of whom less than 10% survived.

Our guide described some of the harrowing details of the final liquidation of the ghetto. One detail was that the hospitals immediately executed those that couldn’t get out of bed, and they made the rest run to the square where they were executed in front of their families. Healthy adults were made to run to the square, the slowest shot straight away, and the middle of the group were pulled aside for “deportation” but were actually massacred around a street corner. After the liquidation soldiers swept houses for hiding people, shooting adults instantly, and rounding up kids to the square to mass execute later. The only purpose of the mass executions were to save bullets. When lined up for shooting in multiple lines, many people at the back would receive only minor wounds, but would be pushed into mass graves to be buried alive. Our guide’s grandmother described how the ground kept moving for 15 minutes after a mass grave burial of Jews in their town.

The wall around the ghetto was built with the shapes of Jewish tombstones on top. It was not very high, with no barbed wire, so a few strong men could easily get over it. But what kept people inside was not having anywhere to go. Anyone caught hiding a Jew would be killed along with their families and sometimes their neighbours, a fear which provided incentive for people to report others.

In such circumstances there were three types of Polish people our guide described. The heroes were those who risked everything to save Jews, but it typically took a network of about 3-11 people working together and trusting each other to keep a single Jew alive (Poles were given daily rations worth 750 calories, Jews only 350, compared to German soldiers getting 3,000 – around 2,000 is typically recommended as a healthy diet today). Heroes included the likes of Schindler, and the pharmacy owner. Ordinary people were the majority – they were afraid and so they did nothing. Our guide’s grandfather told of how, out of fear for his family, he had turned away a Jew who showed up at their door begging for help. The villains were those who willingly participated in the Holocaust – such as a spurned boyfriend from before the war who dobbed in a Jewish woman who was married to a Pole, resulting in the execution of both families.

The tour finished at the museum located in Oskar Schindler’s original factory (used for real in the movie as well). The museum was much more than just about Schindler – indeed he was only a minor part of the exhibition; the focus was dedicated to the stories of many people leading up to and during WW2 and the German occupation. But the day was getting late and Alex had to leave about half way through in order to get back to the hotel for dinner.

On the way he had a bit of an experience trying to get medication for Emma. After explaining the issue to the pharmacist as best he could, he then, not entirely sure he’d gotten the right thing, had to roam up and down the streets searching for free wifi to translate the long Polish words on the packet. By this point he’d also missed the tour bus home so he had to take a taxi with a cab driver who didn’t recognise the name Hotel Apis, and with a phone battery that was rapidly dying. Fortunately it lasted until about two blocks from the hotel so he made it the rest of the way alright.

Emma didn’t come down to dinner, still feeling pretty unwell, but that wasn’t a great loss as the food was pretty average – a watery soup and some heavily processed crumbed chicken breast.

30/01/17

We had an early start today and we left our hotel to travel to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the death/concentration camps. We were the first tour group to arrive and we started with Auschwitz. Our tour guide took us through the infamous gates to various blocks, inside of which were different museums and memorials. The most sobering block was probably the one that contained human hair, it had all gone grey with age but the collective weight of it was over 900 kg. This block also contained a few items, like lampshades, that had been made with human skin.

Another block featured pictures of the many inmates who had been killed at Auschwitz, which was confronting. A third block contained pictures of the camp that were secretly taken by the inmates, they mostly included pictures of trees. A fourth block we walked through contained the punishment cells for prisoners that had misbehaved in some way, they were 50cm wide and deep and 4 prisoners would be forced to share one cell. We were only able to tour the men’s punishment cellblock as the women’s was closed.

The last block contained empty cans of Zyklon B that had been used in the gas chambers and a few of the pellets of Zyklon B. Our guide told us quite a few interesting facts, some of which I already knew thanks to uni, but Alex enjoyed learning more details about the camps. One fact that’s stuck with me was that 23 languages and nationalities were represented in the camps, many people of different nationalities were sent to Auschwitz purely by accident. For example, a Scottish teacher taught at a Jewish school and she was sent to Auschwitz, similarly, a Chinese man was accidentally rounded up in a Jewish purge and was sent to Auschwitz. The average lifespan of someone at Auschwitz was 3 months and 1.1 million people killed in the Holocaust were children.

We then walked outside and saw the shooting wall, where over 1200 people were forced to march outside, naked, and were killed. Next to the shooting wall were the torture posts where people were hung by their hands that were tied behind their backs. They wouldn’t be able to touch the ground so their arms would become dislocated within a few minutes.

We were able to go into one of the crematoria which had survived, although no photos were allowed there, out of respect. Our guide also pointed out Rudolph Hoess’ house which was just down the road. Apparently Hoess’ wife gave an interview after the war and called living there ‘paradise’ because she had many Jewish slaves who cooked and cleaned for her.

We then made our was over to Birkenau which was a few kilometers down the road and, strangely, had hotels and restaurants opposite it. Birkenau is the second largest heritage sight in the world and the camp was never finished, but the entire original site is dedicated to the museum now. It contained 4 crematoriums but the Nazis destroyed most of them, along with most of the original wooden structures.

We stood on the site where Josef Mengele notoriously conducted the selections and we walked along the train tracks leading into Birkenau. Along the train tracks we saw a cattle cart that had been used to transport prisoners, it was tiny so it was hard to comprehend that 80-100 people were forced into one.

Lastly, we walked through one of the surviving original blocks. That block was unique because it is believed that children resided there due to a mural painted on the walls. The mural depicted happy children going to school, as well as a child playing with toys. It’s thought that this mural was painted to taunt the children, showing them what they could never have.

At the end of the tour our guide told us that her great uncle and aunt had adopted a child that had survived Auschwitz. She then led us to the bookstore. The bookstore was fantastic because it had many books that you would normally have to order online. We bought four books; the book Erin had recommended about Mengele’s Jewish assistant who was forced to conduct autopsies on fellow Jews, a book about an International Criminal Court judge who had survived Auschwitz as a child, a book about the only man who had volunteered to go to Auschwitz, and Schindler’s Ark.

We then hopped back on the bus for the drive to Cesky Krumlov, watching ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ to relieve the heaviness of the morning. Erin also gave us chocolate to cheer us up. After a quick stop for cheeky nuggets, we arrived at the outskirts of Cesky Krumlov and we took our day bags and walked to our hotel. We did this because the entire town is UNESCO heritage listed so the bus wasn’t able to drive through it. The hotel was beautiful and we were sorry that we were only staying there for one night. We had a quick walking tour around the town before going to dinner at a very small restaurant which we filled up. The restaurant had sewing tables which we sat at and they served us garlic soup and a huge meat platter for dinner. The meat platter contained a huge number of different meats which Josh, Alex, Callum and Em valiantly finished. Alex was also able to try the local specialty beer, Eggenberg, which he found a little too bitter. After dinner, I decided not to tempt fate and I went back to the hotel while Josh, Alex and Em went to a cocktail bar for a quick drink and then explored parts of the castle, before returning to the hotel.

Week 3

17/01/2017

Another morning start for a big day saw us on the way to Orvieto as a detour before Rome. Like many towns throughout Italy it was built by the Romans on a hilltop to make it more defensible. Orvieto took this to the next level, situated on a plateau 100m above the surrounding countryside with shear rock cliffs all around and only a single road leading up. This natural defensive position meant a few popes made residence there (especially during periods of unpopularity in Rome).

Getting up to the town required a funicular railway (a railcar up a very steep incline pulled or winched up) – as fun as the name implies! Inside the narrow cobblestone streets was the home to smart cars, fiat 500s and motor scooters. At the very top of the town was, of course, the cathedral, rather beautiful for the town’s size (thanks to all the popes-in-residence), and we posed for a group photo. However the highlight of pretty much the entire day was when we meandered down to admire the view from the cliff-top but found a group of un-collared but extremely friendly cats who would snuggle into your lap as soon as you sat down. In Italy, and particularly in this town, cats are highly regarded and it is a legal requirement that citizens take care of all wild cats. Failure to do so can result in six months jail time!

The local specialty was a wild boar sandwich called porchetta so we went on the hunt. The first place we tried told us they were out of stock after we had already gone in and sat down, but we were set on our goal so we awkwardly shuffled back out. The second place did have them, but they turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. There was actually nothing else in the sandwich apart from the thin slices of of boar with a little bit of pepper herb paste – it was pretty dry all up but we were glad to have tried it.

We got back on the bus for the final leg of the drive to Rome, arriving in the evening. We got right into a walking tour and were surprised to find so many great locations close together. We started with the Spanish Steps, which were impressively wide and thigh-burningly long. Then it was on to the Trevi Fountain, the endpoint for one of the original major Roman aqueducts. We drank from the water spout at the side of the fountain, which was supposed to make one as pure as a virgin. After that it was on to the Pantheon – the oldest church in Rome, originally dedicated to pagan gods, which survived by being converted into a Christian church.

Our included dinner was a pepperoni pizza and a carbonara pasta, which was followed by a trip to 150 Gelato – a store which, as it’s name implies, stocks 150 flavours of ice cream! We each got to choose three, and both of ours were creamy and uniquely flavoured. Pistachio, Nutella, Salty Peanut, Mozart (rich chocolate mousse), Snickers, and Wild Berry were just a few we had.

From gelato it was a bit of a walk on to the Vittoriano monument, also called the Triumph of Rome, a building commemorating the founding of the country of Italy – a relatively young country established in 1861. At the front of the intricate marble building was a huge bronze statue of the first king, Vittorio Emanuele II.

Next was the Trajan Column, a pillar covered with a continuous spiralling carving wrapping up around the column depicting stories of different battles in Roman history. We finished the walking tour by walking past the remains of the original Roman forum (the combined marketplace and site of public announcements and political debate), the statues of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and finally reaching the Colosseum.

18/01/2017

We were up early to get to the Vatican which surprised us by just being around the corner from our hotel. Our guide was an excitable British ex-science teacher, who chatted our way through the Pinacoteca, a painting gallery, of which the standout was ‘Adam and Eve’ by Peter Wenzel – a landscape of 240 different animals in the garden of Eden which appears to represent entirely different terrain when viewed from different angles. Another beautiful work, particularly in the detail of lighting and shadows on folded cloth was ‘The Transfiguration’ by Raphael. There was also a tapestry of Jesus who seemed to both look and point at you as you walked down the corridor, however like many tapestries in the gallery it was in need of restoration due to the use of silver thread which tarnished over time.

Each new pope commissions a new section of the galleries – the current pope, being from Argentina, installed a section about football! It included photos from a special service conducted by the pope for the Argentinian and Italian football teams, and a number of signed jerseys and balls.

In the Vatican gardens we were told about how Leonardo da Vinci had never worked with fresco art before starting the Sistine Chapel – his focus had always been sculpture. Fresco is a very difficult art form because it is not a painting, it is actually formed by injecting dyes into a layer of wet plaster so it bonds with the material. This makes it last a long time, but if the plaster dries before a region is finished it needs to be scraped off and re-done. Because of his inexperience Leonardo started at the back of the Chapel and worked forward across four years, gaining detail and speed as he went. We also learnt that when Leonardo allowed the pope and his advisors a sneak peek of the Sistine Chapel, one of the popes advisors criticised Leonardo’s work. Leonardo didn’t take this too well because he included a picture of the advisor in the Sistine Chapel, with donkey ears and surrounded by lustful temptations!

We quickly ducked into the gallery containing the pope-mobiles through the ages, which included a range of carriages from simple black to ornate gold plating, depending on the taste of the pope in question, and later cars including a Citroen and the classic bullet-proof glass tower. There was also a model of the Vatican train engine. The two Harley Davison’s donated to the Pope by the Hell’s Angels were not on display as they were donated to charity.

Next up was the so-called Hall of Wow – a glittering hallway with gold patterns and paintings on the roof, but more accurately called the Gallery of Maps as the walls of the long corridor are filled with huge, detailed maps of various regions of Italy including rivers, roads, terrain, villages and even street maps for the larger towns of Rome. The maps are all about 90% accurate which is really impressive for when it was painted.

Then it was on to the Sistine Chapel, where no photos or talking is allowed. With most of the work high up or on the ceiling it was a bit of a neck workout to look at. Leonardo’s sculptural background was definitely apparent – every single person was intensely muscled, including the women.

At this point it was the end of the tour which left us outside of St Peter’s Basilica. From the outside it was nothing special – especially compared to the Duomo of Florence or Milan, dominated by plain stone pillars, albeit at scale. But inside… wow. It was the definition of opulence and an absolute reminder of what was the spiritual centre of Europe. It has huge ceilings – the centre dome can fit the Statue of Liberty. Inside St Peter’s there was gold, mosaic paintings, red marble, statues, huge pillars, and a throne standing on huge black legs with an explosion of stained glass behind it.

We grouped up afterwards to head towards the Colosseum in order to get a group tour rate together. However, an earthquake earlier in the morning had closed both of the two tube lines in Rome (attempts to dig more tunnels keep hitting Roman ruins as the modern city is basically built on top of ancient Rome). We waited a long while for a bus apparently going to the Colosseum before being informed by a helpful local that that particular bus route was night only. We ended up flagging down cabs, and only found out afterwards that this is not generally advised in Rome – it’s recommended to call a company and wait.

Our experience with the cab was actually pretty good, if a little life threatening from speed and aggressive overtaking, but other group members had some less pleasant experiences. One had the meter tick up much faster than it should, especially when stationary and the driver revved the engine in neutral. Another stopped to talk to another cabbie in Italian, not realising one of our group members understood as he said he was taking the tourists for a few rides around the block, which was great because there were pretty girls in his cab. But we all eventually made it and snagged the last English tour.

Our tour guide for the Colosseum was a little hard to understand with her accent, but she gave us a brief history. The Colosseum was constructed to replace Nero’s palace as a gift to the people after his terrible reign, and originally it could be flooded with water to allow for naval battles before an aqueduct was diverted, thereafter it held only the blood sports – either gladiatorial, beast hunts or beast on beast. Partly damaged by earthquakes and stone robbery over time, none of the original seating or arena floor remains, but both have been partly reconstructed for demonstration. We did a loop of the upper level, bought a book on Roman history, and took lots of photos.

We had a bit of a wait before the second half of the tour which took us into the Roman Forum with a different tour guide. Our new guide was quite engaging but there wasn’t that much we covered in the forum itself, a few ruined pillars, the shells of a few houses built into a hill, and some big arches that used to be a marketplace. And we didn’t even go to pillars and ruins of the main forum itself, which you can see quite clearly from the road leading up to the Colosseum. His stories were more whimsical anecdotes than historical stories so, while they were engaging at the time, at the end we realised we hadn’t actually learnt that much. To compensate on the way out of the forum we picked up a lovely watercolour painting of some of our favourite sites around Rome.

With the day slipping away and the metro now reopened, we dashed back towards the Trevi Fountain to get a few more photos in daylight, then headed to to the Pantheon again to have a chance to go inside and look out through the oculus – the hole in the middle of the domed roof that was supposed to let spirits in or out. And we couldn’t resist going back to 150 Gelato either to cross off a few more flavours!

That evening we all journeyed to a cheap but delicious little Italian restaurant to celebrate Angela’s birthday where Emma ate the best lasagne she’s ever had and Alex ate a delicious pesto gnocchi.

19/07/2017

Today we left Rome and headed to Verona, the setting of Romeo and Juliet. Erin put on a playlist of love songs to get us in the mood for romance. “I Will Always Love You” was of course the favourite for screeching out IIIIII-E-IIIIIII will always looooove yoooooouuuuuuuu but no one else seemed to be enjoying it as much as Emma and I. Our music tastes are not what could be considered up to date with current trends, as evidenced by the music quiz held a few days ago. In the quiz, Erin played snippets of songs where the right and left sides of the bus were competing to identify the artist and song title. Apart from a few oldies that were slipped in, which we jumped on, with mostly stupid modern tunes our primary contribution was supplying the “MOO” sound which was the buzzer noise for our half of the bus – the other half yelled “QUACK”.

Verona was a small little town, but apart from it’s Shakespearean connections it has the second largest collection of Roman ruins after Rome. This includes the second biggest amphitheatre, with seating for 30,000, but unlike the Colosseum the Verona amphitheatre is still intact and is actually still in use today for plays, operas and musical performances.

Juliet’s balcony is the other major attraction in town, constructed in an old medieval courtyard with no particular historical significance, apart from being owned by a very cunning businessman who saw a great way to draw in tourist crowds. The courtyard is located at the end of the very modernised main shopping street through a short tunnel, and includes a statue of Juliet, a museum and the so-called Juliet’s balcony, representing the scene where she calls out the famous “Wherefore art my Romeo” (possibly misquoted). Tradition dictates that rubbing the right breast of the Juliet statue brings luck in love, so the statue had a bright polished breast from all the caresses. Our stop didn’t have time for visiting the museum but we did inspect the tunnel leading to the courtyard, which has been covered with countless graffiti over the years of love-hearts and the names of couples. A nearby gate was filled with locks that had couple’s names inscribed on them, it was a very fitting location for love locks.

On the way back to the bus we went into Vecchi, a chocolate shop chain we’d seen in a few other cities, and got some chocolate covered strawberries and pralines. The pralines were rather nice, but the strawberries had been left out far too long and tasted fermented and slushy.

It was evening by the time we arrived in Venice, or rather the mainland town where most of the population actually lives. Currently, only about 55,000 people live in the historic island town of Venice, whereas the population of the Venice municipal region numbers around 2.5 million on the surrounding mainland. Emma was feeling ill so she didn’t come out to dinner but the restaurant graciously offered take away containers for the whole three course meal – duck spaghetti bolognese for the entre, sliced pork with gravy and potatoes for the main, and a fruit salad for dessert (minus the ice cream from the restaurant serving), although when they didn’t offer any cutlery Alex had to smuggle out out a fork. She ate the dinner in bed while reading her book which felt incredibly relaxing.

Alex stayed up with Jack, Shaun, and Rhys and played cards in the hotel restaurant after getting a few beers from the kebab shop across the road. His winning streak at Rich Man, Poor Man lasted almost the whole evening – broken by only a single game! (Rules summary: get rid of all cards, playing singles, doubles or triples of a kind, highest in the round leads the next. The loser of the game – the last to get rid of all their cards, has to give their best card in exchange for the winner’s worst card at start of next game – which does make it easier to keep the lead once you’ve got it).

20/07/2017

Getting into the historic island part of Venice in the morning required us to catch a bus. Erin wanted all 30 of us on a single bus so we wouldn’t get separated, so we squeezed on to an already busy commuter bus. There wasn’t any room to fall over, we were all pressed into each other and the other unfortunate travellers so tightly. By the time we got off we were sweating from the heat of people pressed together – having had no room to take off our coats or even validate our buss pass. But it was worth it when we pulled off the long bridge into the bus depot – the only bit of the island where there is any vehicle traffic, as immediately we saw the canals and about as many boats as cars going past.

We had a reasonably long walk through the streets of Venice, which felt like an absolute maze of narrow alleys, sharp turns, small and large bridges, and sudden openings into spacious squares with lovely churches and wells in the middle. The canal water is salt water and not drinkable, so water collected off the building roofs was fed into communal wells before the central plumbing was installed. This path eventually took us to St Mark’s Square, a broad plaza containing St Mark’s cathedral, the bell tower, and a gallery of many columns all around the square.

After a quick photo stop while we dodged pigeons – which were everywhere, even sitting on some people’s arms and heads, we went for a gondola ride. They were beautiful and intricate, black and sleek with gold decorations. The cushions, while comfortable, were a very slippery leather. Alex felt like he was going to slide off the cushion into the water whenever the gondolier stepped around a boat! Up close the canal water was a bit foul, green and murky, a little smelly, and the buildings at eye level were covered in mud and oysters. However, the water was beautiful when we pulled out into the Grand Canal. Our gondolier was whistling to himself most of the time, which was cute.

Lace making was next on the agenda, and we all piled into a small store for a short demonstration on making lace and a longer sales pitch of various lace goods including; doilies, table clothes, garters and book marks. They were all incredibly intricate and hand-made, usually made over weeks or months of work. The art mostly lives on through government grants as it is so time consuming to make lace, almost no one can afford it.

Then we were on to a glass making demonstration – Murano glass is a famous brand of glassware hand-made in Venice. A recent inductee into the ranks of master glassblowers started the demonstration with an unshaped ball of molten glass and within three minutes he turned it into a glass horse through careful stretching and bending. Then we were shown into the shop which contained absolutely lovely glassware, coloured by additives during the blowing, covered with five layers of gold leaf and painted patterns. Each glass made a different ringing sound when struck due to the slight variations of a proper hand-made object. While extremely tempting, they were also very expensive, and we were also worried about transporting it in our luggage. There were also other glass artworks, including a guitar, and various fishes with streaks of colour inside the glass.

Unfortunately, the bell tower in St Mark’s, supposed to afford great views of the city, was closed, so we took Erin’s advice and, instead of using a map, we wandered around getting lost in Venice. We found great little mask shops and a cute little back alley restaurant, where Alex had a great bacon ravioli and Emma had a nice cannelloni. Then we went for a quick walk down to the Grand Canal before heading back. Erin had said to just follow the crowd and this worked out very well – we took every turn just by looking at how many people there were and we didn’t go astray once. It seems there is just the one main walking route through Venice. On the way we went past a sweet shop with great looking displays so we bought a marzipan watermelon and tried to get a glazed donut but we ended up with a merengue after language difficulties. Unfortunately, both were foul – they were way too sugary.

To make up for the foul treats we ducked into museum of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions. Everyone talks about his paintings or frescos, but tends to just have an inkling he was an inventor with some quirky ideas of early submarines and crazy flying machines. This museum contained working versions or models from his drawings, some of the best including his spiral flying machine, and a swinging bridge. But amongst the fanciful inventions were some incredibly useful concepts in widespread use today – he came up with the worm drive gear, which uses a screw to drive a gear slowly, the ball-bearing to reduce friction between rotating parts, and the ratchet to prevent a toothed gear slipping backwards.

We spent the afternoon resting before heading out to do laundry and some snack shopping. We bumped into Emily and Ryan in the supermarket and Ryan said he wasn’t feeling great – we found out later that a few minutes later he had vomited in an aisle. This was the start of gastro which would haunt the tour group. It was Pravenni’s birthday so a bunch of us hung out in the hotel restaurant and had some drinks while playing cards against humanity. By this point we were getting sick of having delicious pasta and pizza all the time, so we went to the Macca’s right around the corner. Weirdly enough you could replace the soft drink with the local beer, and instead of French fries you could choose curly fries with herbs which were a bit fatter and delicious.

21/01/2017

It was mostly a travel day today, from Venice up to Kirchdorf in the Austrian Alps. We started strong by receiving our Top Deck clothing we’d designed a few days ago in a mini-competition on the bus. Erin had handed out pieces of paper for us to draw designs on for the back of the jumpers or shirts. Alex did a pretty good drawing that included; the unicycle guy from the cabaret, a koala on the Eiffel Tower pouring wine for the night out at the Australian bar, and Michelangelo’s David holding a microphone and cocktail jug for the karaoke in Florence. However, Erin had a bit more practice (she draws a little icon on our info sheet each day representing the city) and drew a great collage of symbols representing the trip which was pretty unanimously voted for. Although she included our MOO and QUACK music trivia sounds, the #HotViktor hashtag the bus was in favour of didn’t make the cut. Most of the group, including Alex, got a hoodie, although Em and Rhys got polo shirts. Although Alex asked for sapphire blue they must have run out and he got his second choice of a deep red. They were incredibly cozy and warm.

Very soon we were heading up into the Alps and back into the snow covered mountains and valleys. However, unlike our drive through Switzerland, this time the weather was sunny so we could appreciate the view. Even our truck stop had fantastic views down the middle of a valley covered with fresh white snow, and Alex managed to sneak a wheat beer with the bacon wrapped sausages and chicken wings we had for lunch.

On the drive Alex read some some of ‘Veni Vidi Vici’, the pop history of the Roman Empire we picked up from the Colosseum. While it was full of interesting tidbits about the influence of the Romans on our modern language and culture, including the etymology of many words, it jumped around in time between these snippets. The entire book was in sections that were only a few paragraphs long which made it hard to follow the chronology for the expansion and evolution of the Republic into the Empire. In the early afternoon we arrived in Kirchdorf – a tiny little town of some 3,000 people, two supermarkets and one ATM. Our hotel looked like the traditional ski lodge, clad with wood on the outside.

We rested for a little in the afternoon as Emma was starting to come down with the sickness that had been spreading around the group. Then we went into the hotel basement to meet Jamie, a former Top Deck tour leader now living in Kirchdorf, who would be coordinating all the optional activities on offer.

Before heading to dinner we went to hire our ski gear. Emma was a little worried she would be the only beginner skiing, as a whole bunch of other first timers on the tour switched to snowboarding at the last second. Fortunately, Diego and Angela signed up for skiing lessons for the first time as well. Only two others apart from Alex had any prior experience, Josh had skied quite regularly and Daniel was a snowboarder. Rhys had a bit of experience from Norway because he was taught by someone he met there, but no formal lessons.

Then it was on to an included dinner at a restaurant down the road. The waitress for our table seemed to be having a competition with the owner to see who could take our drink orders faster. When she asked if we wanted a “big” or a “large” beer she just did some vague hand waving to explain the size, and so some of us got big and others large, choosing randomly. Large came out a standard 500ml pint, but big turned out to be a whole 2L ceramic stein! This was very much a two handed operation to drink properly. Dinner started with a broad selection at the salad bar to compliment our main course of schnitzel and chips. By the time we got to our apple strudel for dessert we were quite full of food and beer! We tried a peach schnapps but it was foul – more rocket fuel than the flavoured liquors you get in a bottle at home.

22/01/17

Breakfast was simple this morning – although admittedly we’d been spoilt as this was the first hotel since Paris to not serve a hot breakfast! We went for a walk over to a hut at the bottom of the Kirchdorf skiing fields where our skis and boots had been dropped off for us.

Pretty much everyone had signed up for lessons which started at 10am. Josh and Alex were taking an intermediate lesson, while Emma was with Diego and Angela with British instructor Gordon. Alex also had another person in the lesson with British instructor Mark.

Alex’s Day
It was a slow start for Alex with British instructor Mark, using the rope tow to go up the very gentle beginner slope. At first it felt strange and unfamiliar after nearly six years, but the starting group of six quickly got split into a more advanced group including Josh and Alex, and a less skilled group. Our group went straight to the T-bar, to do a few practice parallel turns at a bit more speed so Mark could make sure we were up for it. Then it was up to the four seater chairlift which provided access to the main Kirchdorf runs for the rest of the day.

We stopped for lunch at a small hut at the top of the chairlift and got a hearty goulasch soup. On the TV was a live broadcast of the international slalom ski championship, which was actually taking place just a town over, down the same valley as Kirchdorf, drawing 60,000 spectators and Arnold Schwarzenegger among others. Most of our Top Deck group who weren’t skiing caught the bus over to that town to watch and partake in the festivities – markets, hot air balloons and fireworks at night.

The afternoon was for various exercises; skiing without poles, touching our knees, making teapot shapes (all to practice knee bending and body orientation), and we also tried carving for the first time. Carving is when you practice turning without losing any speed by riding the edges of the skis but digging them in hard to curve around the face of the mountain and back uphill again to slow down. It required a lot of room on the slope and a gentle incline to practice, as well as a lot of stress on the knees!

Around 2:30 our lesson was briefly interrupted when Mark got a call that the grand final for the slalom was on. We went back up to the hut on top of the chairlift, and discovered this was a special occasion. All the staff in the hut were also British like Mark, and a Brit – called Dave, was in first place after the first round, which if he managed to keep the lead, would be the first ever English win. A lot of the other Austrian, French and German instructors were there as well. throwing banter back and forth as their countries won a lot more often. It was pretty exciting, albeit strange, to have everyone cheering at this ski event (everyone was going for Dave it seemed, English or not), arguing the quality of the turns and the skier’s control.

With this interlude over the lesson ran a little longer and took us pretty much till the closing time of the lifts at 4pm. With Mark’s encouragement, Josh and I had a fun chance to ski past the snowboarders from our group still on the T bar beginners runs, and we shot past them at coordinated speed as they cautiously edged their way down the hill. Except I stuffed it right at the bottom on the flat by looking around to see where everyone was and hitting a little bump which sent me gently to the ground. Everyone was still very impressed with us though.

After that Josh, Daniel and I headed for the Aprés ski at the same restaurant hotel as last night, which meant it was time for another 2L beer. There was also an oompha band playing, the traditional Austrian / German style music of accordions, guitar and a pair of connected wooden spoons which were slapped between leg and forearm to create a rhythmic clacking beat. Alex had a try of them, although it felt pretty out of tune. After finishing the beer we headed back to the base of the ski slopes, picking Emma up on the way, to go to Scotty’s burger bar, a small shack serving burgers and toasties run by two Australians. Although they didn’t serve chips, we got some great fresh burgers for dinner and we then headed back to the restaurant for a quick (smaller) drink before heading back to the hotel for an early night.

Emma’s Day
Skiing lessons. Almost died. End of day.

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Diego, Angela, a random person and myself started out by skiing at the kid slope, complete with a soft clown and bear to break your fall at various points in the ‘track’. It also had a small escalator to take you up the small slope. We practiced at the kids track for a while while snotty three year olds showed off around us. That went fairly well, and Angela proved herself to be a ski queen by picking up skiing incredibly quickly.

We then moved on to the larger ski track which required the use of the rope pull to get to the top. The rope pull was worse than skiing down the hill because it was so slippery and whenever someone fell over they had to stop the entire thing. Well, sure enough, I fell and I kept accidentally stabbing the snow and myself with the poles so Gordon confiscated them. That was a mistake because I kept accidentally letting go of the rope to early and I would slide down the hill a little, with no way to propel myself. On one of the runs Gordon was mean and made me go down without my poles, with my hands on my knees. We reached a flatter section on the hill and Gordon slapped me on the back in congratulations while booming “Well done Emma!”. Well, that was all I needed, I shot down the rest of the hill while screaming “Gordon!” I really wish someone had of filmed it, it was hilarious once I recovered. We had schnitzel for lunch and we all sat in a group, including Gordon. After lunch, I still wasn’t feeling fantastic so I left the group and went back to the hotel for a restful nap.

23/01/17

Austrian Alps, day two! This is the longest amount of time we’ve spent in a place, having two full days here. Today Alex and I did our own things.

Emma’s Day
I went with a small group on a day trip to Salzburg. We took taxis and arrived in Salzburg at 10am, slightly too late to go on a Sound of Music tour. As soon as we left the taxis we realised we’d all underestimated how cold it was. It was -15 degrees and it was bitter. Nine of us stuck together that day and we all decided that we needed a hot drink before venturing out for an extended period of time. We went to Cafe Mozart and had a hot chocolate, which was delicious.

We then attempted to make our way to the glockenspiel in time to watch it ring, however we got a little lost so we missed out, we heard it ring though. We walked past the statue of Mozart and saw the pretty town square. We made our way to the Dom (the cathedral), which was lovely. However, in front of it was a gigantic golden ball with a man on top of it. I figured that it was supposed to be Mozart, considering he lived in Salzburg, however it was not. Upon closer inspection we read a plaque that said that the sculpture was a modern art installation and the man on top of the sphere was someone completely random, a bit disappointing.

We then took the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Castle. We explored parts of the castle, taking pictures of the view, which was amazing but slightly foggy. We then had an audio tour around the inside of the castle, looking at models of how the castle developed over the centuries. We went to the torture room that was never used as a torture room (they never had the occasion), and through the the massive museum part of the castle. This part of the castle was huge because it featured displays of Salzburg life throughout various centuries and weapons used during World War I. Touring the castle took quite a few hours so we had to rush back to the stretch of restaurants, after stopping at a chocolate and marzipan store for Pravinni.

We had lunch at cafe Mozart again and I ate beef goulash with an egg cracked on top, served with a bread dumpling. We wandered to Mozart’s house and went in it’s courtyard. Afterwards, we walked through the Mirabell Gardens that were featured in ‘The Sound of Music’ when the children were singing ‘Do Re Mi’. Disappointingly, Julie Andrews was not conjured from my glorious rendition of ‘Do Re Mi’ and we did no such duet. We then hopped back into the taxis and were driven back to Kirchdorf. On the way back we all managed to fall asleep leaning on each other’s shoulders.

Alex’s Day
Josh and I got going early to catch the first bus to Steinplatte, a much larger ski field about 15 minutes down the road. Only when we arrived at the town, there were no ski slopes in sight, only densely forested cliffs. To get to the slopes took a 10 minute gondola ride over nearly 3km and up 900m.

(Gondola up the mountain from below)

This ski field presented a much greater variety of runs with about a dozen lifts, mostly 4+ seater chairlifts, servicing gentle and broad to narrow, steep and icy down from the peak of the mountain. One of the harder runs came when we invaded Germany – the Austria-Germany border runs between two sections of the ski field, not because the run was steep but because it was so very flat it was being used by dozens of beginner lessons that needed to be avoided.

Crossing the border was a disappointingly unceremonious affair, with no marking or indication (none that we could read anyway since everything was in German), just the Optus text message welcoming you to the country and advising of the local roaming rates. Although, on the run back to Austria we were surprised to find half way down a run that ticket barriers were installed to get back to the Australian section, and we wondered what you were supposed to do if you got down there without a ticket as we’d already skied quite a long way along a narrow cliff track to get to the barricade.

One of the biggest problems we faced was unfamiliarity with the gradients of the terrain, so we got caught out a few times entering long flat traversal straights without enough speed so we came to a stop and had to pole along, but if we’d known about the flat part before going around the corner we would have had enough speed to shoot through. The upside of these slow traverses was time to appreciate beautiful pine-tree lined tracks, the branches still heavy with snow

Just before lunch we stopped to take some photos at the Panorama Cafe, a restaurant built on the edge of and partially overhanging the cliff which our initial gondola ride ascended.

We stopped for lunch at what felt an out of the way restaurant, which must have had a hundred tables outside, pretty empty when we arrived at 12:30. But after we finished burgers and beers you couldn’t get a seat and we were happy to be getting back on the slopes.

By mid afternoon moguls were starting to form in between patches of ice as the sun set behind the tall mountain, and our legs were aching – we’d been skiing a lot harder down much longer runs than the previous day, and with far fewer breaks for technique evaluation, and we needed to get back for tobogganing. We caught the gondola, then bus back to Kirchdorf, and although tempted by a final run there, couldn’t be bothered in the end and so left our gear in the shed and went back to the hotel.

Reunited
Most of our group were signed up for tobogganing this evening so Viktor picked us up in the coach to take us to a 2km toboggan track. Each person sat on a toboggan and we were dragged up the track by a tractor. Jamie told us that there was a rule that you had to yodel as you went down the track, which was pretty funny. I was a little uncertain of speeding downhill at first, but it turned out to be great fun! It was hard to slow yourself down but going fast made it better. We were pulled up the track a second time and Viktor was behind us, whooping and encouraging the tractor to go faster which was funny. At the top of the track was a little cafe so we got a drink to warm us up before going on our second run.

We drank hot chocolate with rum in it and a gluhwein, which was hot mulled wine. On the second run I went quite quickly and tried to overtake Christie and Claire who were sharing a toboggan. Unfortunately, I had very little control over my toboggan so I was forced to overtake them on the only 90 degree turn. I went up the wall a little and for a moment I thought I was going to make it, however I fell off. The snow had a nice cushioning effect!

After tobogganing we went to a little ale house and had some salty ribs and a huge potato. After dinner we went back to the ski slopes and watched a ski musical show that was put on by all of the ski instructors. Groups of them skiied to various musical numbers and the announcers, dressed as Maria and Captain Von Trapp, made us guess each musical. The instructors were all incredibly talented, there was a number done to ‘Time Warp’, ‘Eye of the Tiger’, and to bits from the ‘Frozen’ soundtrack. My instructor, Gordon, skiied on stilts to ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’ from ‘Mary Poppins’. We drank some delicious apple cider that was served warm. At the end of the show all the instructors performed ‘So Long, Farewell’ from ‘The Sound of Music’ and presented some of us with cool burning torches. My torch definitely aided in helping us see the slippery patches of ice!

10/01/2017

The first day of our Top Deck Winter Expedition tour! Both of us were pretty nervous – first about meeting new people and also about travelling in France, where we’d heard about the expectation of using the French language.

It was an early morning assembly, and much like most first meetings of a bunch of unacquainted people, it was a bit quiet and awkward at first apart from a few outgoing people striking up conversation. We were loaded up on the bus pretty quickly and we spent a few hours in traffic on the way to Dover. We were taking the coach on a ferry across the English Channel to Calais. We saw the cliffs of Dover from the back of the ferry, and the huge numbers of seagulls following in the wake of the ferries. The cliffs were beautiful and white, you can see why Shakespeare wrote about them!

The ferry ride gave us a better chance to start getting acquainted with our fellow travellers, especially to commiserate on the disappointment of lunch. An initial walk around the large ferry revealed a breakfast buffet that was being served, but no-one felt like breakfast. Yet, upon our return, breakfast had been packed up and the lunch kitchen wouldn’t fire up until the ferry’s return journey, so it was pre-packaged sandwiches for all.

After the ferry ride there was still a lot more driving to Paris, but our tour guide, Erin, started to give us a short European history and then a more detailed French history. Erin was Canadian who had been working for Top Deck for seven years, all on European trips. Our driver, Viktor, was a cheerful Romanian who loved dogs and had previously won the Romanian firefighting competition.

We arrived in Paris around 7pm after several truck stop breaks (bus drivers in Europe must take at least a 15min break every two hours or so) and headed straight to dinner at a little restaurant across the road. Here we all got to try a snail with our French onion soup. Personally, while the garlic butter was tasty, the texture of the snail was quite off-putting when you started to chew it. Emma didn’t manage to keep her snail down!

By this point we’d pretty much met all 22 of our fellow travellers. We were sitting at an all couples table for dinner – the group included seven couples (including us), two single guys, and eight women. Only two other people were from Sydney but everyone, bar one, was currently living in Australia.

After the snails we ate an extremely tender beef fillet with potatoes. The sauvignon bordeaux wine was delicious and extremely drinkable!

After dinner we went on a driving tour around Paris and stopped to take pictures of the Eiffel tower from the Palais de Chaillot in the Trocadero Gardens, built to face the Eiffel tower across the Seine.

11/01/2017

Today was a free day in Paris and we started the day with delicious croissants and cheese from the hotel breakfast buffet. We caught a lift to the Eiffel Tower with a bunch of people on the tour who were going on a bike ride around the city. We were pretty nervous about all the scams and pickpockets we’d heard about and the language barrier but we were able to avoid the scams and muddle through the language barrier with the odd bonjour, merci, and a few “C’est combien le kilo de fromage?” (The most helpful line in our French quick reference phrase book – “how much is a kilo of cheese?”). Unfortunately, the top level of the Eiffel Tower was closed for maintenance but we went to the second level which offered fantastic views of the city. Walking down from the second to the first level, we were not envious of painters or electricians having to work on the outside of the structure.

Afterwards we walked around the streets – avoiding a strike in progress, and checked out the Arc de Triomphe. All the cobblestone streets and the architecture was very pretty. We then walked down the Champs Elysees to the Louvre and strolled through the Tuileries Gardens, although they too were disappointingly dead this time of year, but they did contain some interesting statues to make up for it.

We were feeling pretty cold so we went to this fancy cafe called Angelina’s and ordered hot chocolates and a mont blanc – a chocolate cake filled with cream and meringue. Both the cake and the hot chocolate were extremely rich and delicious. Angelina’s was filled with paintings, ornate carvings and waiters wearing tuxedos.

We then met up with the rest of our Top Deck group and went on a river cruise down the Seine which provided great views of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and other buildings on the waterfront. The guide narration alternated between seven different languages so we had to constantly listen out for the English parts!

We managed to see the Eiffel tower light show which was beautifully psychedelic. We then walked to Notre Dame and wandered around inside while a service was on.

For dinner all us Top Deckers went to a little restaurant where we ate the largest French onion soup that was filled with cheese and bread. For mains we ate delicious steak fillet with chips and a creme caramel for dessert.

After dinner we went to see a cabaret which was conducted mostly in French with a side of English. The cabaret was incredible and all of the audience became really involved. Many of the women were mostly naked, as were the men. One act consisted of an 80s style dance which was basically an extended porno, where the women worked out, the men practiced karate and then they all went into the change room, it was hilarious! Another act consisted of a woman singing ‘ooh la la’ over and over again while being carried and passed around by five buff shirtless guys. There was a man who did a great trapeze act, swinging from the ceiling, followed by a fantastic magician / pickpocket. He went around greeting members of the audience and stole a watch, wallet or phone from everyone, then got an audience member to come up on stage, and, while chatting away in French got the lot off him including the tie around his neck! The best act was the unicycling bartender. He managed to flip an entire tea set, including three cups and saucers and the teapot, from his foot onto his head in a stack. He also held a stick in his mouth, balanced a balloon on that and an open bottle of champagne on top of that, then popped the balloon without spilling a drop and caught the champagne on the stick without spilling a drop.

Then a bunch of us went to a bar for drinks, ironically to the Australian themed bar called Cafe Oz, right around the corner from our hotel, which had VB and James Squire to give us a taste of home. We danced lots and Hayden was conned into buying a bunch of roses so he gave us all one, but in return we convinced a group of horrified Frenchman we regularly dealt with huntsman spiders the size of dinner plates. Our one concession to being in France for the evening was; instead of doing a kebab run we went for 2am crepes on the way home – getting a delicious Nutella and strawberry filled concoction.

12/01/17

We didn’t do too much today thanks to a long drive to Switzerland and awful traffic out of Paris due to an accident. Erin was cruel and made us watch the movie Everest (about a 1996 blizzard on the mountain leaving many climbers dead) which freaked everyone out a little about going up into snowy mountains. We got our history segment on Switzerland and Erin specifically discussed their neutrality, maintained for over 500 years despite having one of the highest regarded armies in the world and compulsory military service. We finally arrived in the cute little town of Engelberg.

We ate the most eclectic and multicoloured salad for our entrè – surprisingly delicious for a salad, and then had veal stew with gravy surrounded by mashed potatoes in a love heart shape.

For dessert we were served a humongous sundae. The rooms at our hotel were massive and beautiful and each room was slightly different. Our room had a huge balcony while Angela and Diego had a spa bath.

13/01/2017

We had a free day in Switzerland and most of us went up to Mount Titlis (pronounced exactly as it looks). It took three gondolas to get from 1000m above sea level (Engelberg) to the top station at 3020m – 200m shy of the peak of the mountain. Outside it was -18 degrees and blowing a blizzard. There was so much wind and snow that visibility was down to about 10m in front of you. A bunch of Chinese tourists and then a few guys from our tour group took off their shirts and ran through the snow. There was also an ice cave dug into the glacier that was kept at a constant -1.5 degees which was surprisingly grippy to walk on.

Due to the weather lots of the activities were closed, however when we went back down the mountain there was still tobogganing which was incredible fun. You’d slide down quickly and a bunch of snow would always rise up and fly in your face. We tried to use the blow up doughnuts but the snow was too powdery.

After drinking a hot chocolate we went down the mountain, then the group walked through the town and had a bit of a snowball fight. We accidentally lost the group so Alex and I went to a cute bakery and ordered quiche that looked like pizza.  We had a quick rest at the hotel and then went out in search of raclette.  We went to a monastery that made cheese and we ate fondue with bread, potatoes, and pear. A friendly Swiss woman was excited that we liked it so much and that we didn’t make the mistake of putting all the bread in the cheese at once. She also told us we were lucky to get the snow – there hadn’t been any two days before we arrived and it was now six inches deep everywhere! We also saw a raclette cart drawn by a horse which was amazing.

Alex and I then made a snowman at the park, nicknamed Olaf, before viciously destroying him and returning to the hotel for dinner. We ate more fondue for our entrè, had pork chops with baked potatoes and vegetables for mains, and finished with another ice cream sundae for dessert. In a great victory we managed to sneak in a load of laundry before bed (competition was fierce with our fellow travellers to use the single machine) and we only lost four socks in the process.

14/01/2017

Our socks were found! They ended up with Rhys’ clothes – he wondered where four odd socks suddenly came from. Today we left Switzerland after eating bircher museli, fruit, yoghurt, eggs, and bacon, and drove to Lichtenstein where we walked around the entire capital of Vaduz in an hour. Afterwards we had lunch at a truck stop in Italy and ate paninis and a lemony doughnut – the beginning of a series of excellent quality truck stop food – the Italians take their cooking seriously everywhere it seems.

Once we were in Milan Erin showed us around this beautiful square by the Duomo (cathedral) where there were lots of fashion stores, as Milan has become the headquarters for many top fashion labels like Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, and Prada (even if they started elsewhere they were drawn in to Milan by low labour costs). The whole shopping precinct was flooded with people – you could be rubbing shoulders down boulevards 12m wide.

With a bit of free time we tried panzerroti – a delightful take away snack which is basically a deep fried mini calzone pizza with ham, salami and cheese, before going to a gelato store. The gelato was incredible and my gelato consisted of a waffle cone with a a Nutella crepe inside, then a fresh mixed berry gelato with whipped cream on top. Alex’s wasn’t that special by comparison, poor guy. Then Alex, myself, Em and Pravenni went out for an aperol spritz at a cute family owned restaurant. The aperol was bright orange and was extremely bitter, but it was good to try it (so we know to avoid it from now on) (Alex lies, it was pretty decent).

We then met up with the rest of the Top Deck gang and travelled to San Siro stadium where the soccer match between Inter Milan (one of their two top teams) and Verona was being held. We had good seats that were quite high up but there was no one else around so we had room to move about. The soccer match was so much fun, a whole bunch of random flags were constantly being waved and whenever Milan scored a goal the stadium exploded with cheers and even a few flares. When Verona scored there was complete silence except for a small band of Verona fans sitting up the back of the stadium. Whenever something went wrong for the Milan team all the Italians made emphatic gestures which was fun to watch. Milan ended up winning 3-1, breaking a 1-1 tie only in the last 10 minutes.

15/01/2017

Today we had a sleep-in and an easy going morning because we both got into our books the previous night. We left at 11:30 for Florence via Pisa. We stopped at a petrol station for lunch and ate cheesy pasta with baked potatoes for lunch. We then stopped in Pisa for an hour and took all sorts of silly photos with the Leaning Tower. Afterwards, we travelled to Florence and we all went out to dinner and ate crusty bread with olive oil and salt followed by some delicious pasta and some pork. We had a panna cotta with chocolate sauce which was washed down with wine served in a cool flask.

All of us then went out to an American style karaoke bar where a man on guitar accompanied the singers. We were warned that in Italy free pouring drinks were common so they could be pretty strong. Indeed, we only had a few cocktails because they had a significant capacity for the knocking off of socks. Alex brought the house down by volunteering to sing first, he and Hayden sang Britney’s “Oops I Did It Again” to roaring applause, then mellowed it out later with Bohemian Rhapsody. We all danced and had lots of fun!

Our enthusiasm apparently scared off an American tour group, but then some locals got up and started singing properly in perfect English so we went back to our cocktails.

16/01/17

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed to attend a walking tour around Florence where we saw a replica of the David made in 1900, a statue of Poseidon, some pretty squares in town and the Ponte Vecchio – the only bridge to survive the German bombing in 1943 (to stop the US coming through) which included about 15 jewellery stores on the bridge itself. The bridge also included a private passageway used by the Medici family to get from their home to their offices. We then attended a quick leather workshop – the other specialty of Florence apart from jewellery, and then went back to the hotel for a nap.

After napping we walked through the leather markets in an attempt to find the food market. We were unsuccessful so we went to a little cafe for pizza. However, after stopping at the Lindt store, we saw Em and Pravenni who told us we’d walked right past the food markets, they were in an abandoned looking building we’d done an entire loop around. We went back to the markets and ate a delicious Margherita pizza that was made fresh in front of us in a wood fired pizza oven.

Unfortunately, the Academia Gallery that houses Michelangelo’s David was closed so we couldn’t see it.  We walked around the Medici Chapels before going to the Duomo and walking through the incredibly ornate and detailed cathedral. It was made in a gothic style, like Notre Dame, and it was probably even more decadent and definitely more colourful thanks to painted frescos and the use of green marble. We walked through the crypt where there were relics from 1000 AD and the ruins of previous churches on which the current was built.

Alex climbed 460 stairs up 92m to get to the top of the bell tower, just in time to be alarmed by the sudden cacophony of the 6pm ringing of the bells. He was provided with a beautiful view of the double dome, the largest in the world at time of construction, with the inner one built first to provide support for the outer.

We then went out to dinner where we tried a very nice red wine, ate some delicious meaty pasta for our entrè, had a huge hunk of meat with roasted potatoes for a main and some ice cream for dessert.

02/01/17-03/01/17

Here we come Europe! We were very excited to get to Reykjavik but we dreaded the flights a little. The first leg from Sydney to Doha was around 15 hours and we spent the time napping and watching movies. We had a seven hour stop-over in Doha so we walked the length of the airport, which was no small feat. The airport had it’s own train- that’s how big the airport was! We had a lamb and a falafel wrap for breakfast and then passed the time by reading.

The second flight, from Doha to Heathrow, wasn’t particularly pleasant because the flight was delayed and we were surrounded by four screaming infants. This flight took seven and a half hours. We flew with Qatar and were surprised by how good the food was! At Heathrow we changed some money over and ate a sandwich before hopping on the plane to Reykjavik. This flight took three hours and we landed at 11:45pm on the 3rd. We soon realised that our luggage had gone missing which was pretty disheartening but IcelandicAir provided us with a cute toiletry set, which was thoughtful. We caught a shuttle bus to the Best Western Foss Hotel and promptly collapsed into bed.

04/01/17

First day in Iceland!

It’s really beautiful in Reykjavik and although it’s cold, it’s not as cold as everyone made it out to be, which is good considering we don’t have our layers, hats, or gloves. It’s life affirming cold, and dark (the sun rose at 10am and set at 3:30pm) – I may never leave.

Today we had breakfast at the hotel where the buffet included fish. We went for a long walk around the harbour and culture centre (the Harpa), Old Reykjavik, and the main street before having some warm tomato and mushroom soup and a sandwich at a bakery. We had a hot chocolate to warm up and it was one of the most delicious hot chocolates we’ve ever had. I believe that it had Skyr on top of it (a protein filled yoghurt that’s extremely popular). We also grabbed a hot dog from a famous hot dog stand where Bill Clinton also purchased a hot dog (in the early 2000s). The hot dog was delicious and had three different types of sauces on it and some crunchy stuff on the bottom of the bun! For a while measured currency in terms of hot dogs because the conversion rate with kronas got confusing.

After lunch we went to Hallgrímskirkja, which is a 73 metre church that also has a huge pipe organ. We caught a lift to the top of it and were treated to an excellent view of Reykjavik. The architecture here is amazing!

After that were went to The Icelandic Phallological Museum. It was… interesting. They had all kinds of preserved specimens but after a while we became a little squeamish.

We then went to the supermarket round the corner from our hotel for some snacks (Iceland has proper Pringles!) and then had a nap and went out again and had chicken noodles for dinner. The smell from the noodle shop tended to hit you in the face with all the different spices and the portions were huge, it was hard to get through half of it!

Our Northern Lights was supposed to be today but it was cancelled due to bad weather which we didn’t particularly mind because we were pretty tired.

05/01/17

We were still getting used to the four or five hours of sunlight, so it was still a bit dark when we got to our first destination; Skógarfoss, which was a pretty waterfall. The weather took a turn for the worse and it was raining and was -13 degrees. Unfortunately our luggage hadn’t arrived yet so we didn’t have our thermals, gloves, scarves, or hats. We were drenched by both the rain and the waterfall and we both now have a new appreciation of the word ‘cold’. We were able to climb up a bunch of stairs to get to the top of the waterfall, which was pretty.

Our tour then proceeded to Reynisfjara which is a black sand beach. it was very windy and cold so we didn’t stay out for too long because our fingers became numb. However, there were cool cliffs and a rock structure which was the influence for the church we saw yesterday. it’s impossible to swim in the surf because the current is always too strong and unpredictable. However, we admired the beach from the inside of a cafeteria style cafe, while eating lamb soup and mozzarella sticks with some bread. I will never become sick of Icelandic butter.

Next, we visited Sólheimajökul, a blue glacier which was the highlight of the tour. It was spectacular, as was the frozen lake surrounding it and the snow covered mountains. We spent an hour there until the wind caused snow to hit our faces quite hard. The snow betrayed us. We then had an $11 hot chocolate to warm ourselves up in the little cafe next to the glacier.

The tour finished and we returned to our hotel where, to our delight, our luggage was waiting for us. After an extremely long and hot shower we walked down the main street of Reykjavik and had dinner at a little cafe. Alex ate a kebab focaccia and I ate a mozzarella, tomato, and basil focaccia. We then raced back to the hotel in time for our Northern Lights Tour which had been rescheduled from yesterday. It was a bigger tour group this time and we both fell asleep on the bus. We arrived at our destination and spent an hour and a half wandering around in the snow. We were so thankful that our luggage had arrived so we were nice and warm in all of our layers. It was a bit cloudy but we managed to see the lights. They were a little disappointing, maybe it was the cloud cover. Everyone else on the tour kept cheering and raving about how magnificent they were. Ah well, it was still cool, our expectations might have been too high.

06/01/17

07/01/2017

Another action-packed tour today, this one heading in-land to the Golden Circle. We almost missed our tour when it arrived early, but Ulvor, our guide, came in to find us at breakfast so we did a croissant runner. One of the best things Ulvor told us was that if you ever become lost in a forest in Iceland, all you have to do is stand up to find your way again (the forests in Iceland are mostly shrubbery).

Iceland sits on top of the mid Atlantic Ridge, and is being pulled apart by the European and North American tectonic plates. The Golden Circle is where land falls into the middle like toppings slipping off a carelessly removed pizza slice. Two mountain ridges flank an undulating plain and Iceland’s largest lake.

We arrived in darkness at the European side, at the site where ancient parliament was held and where Iceland’s independence was declared in 1941. We started in a natural crevice providing welcome shelter from the wind, hence the parliament location, but then we went up to a viewing platform with a spectacular outlook.

Next stop was Geysir – a hot spring region which provides the original namesake for the word geyser, where 90°C water bubbles out of the ground from dozens of pools, and the geyser erupts every eight minutes. The souvenir shop at the lunch place sold cans of fresh Icelandic air which was funny. We ate some burgers, chips and had some of the malt soft drink we’d tried on the tour with Kevin.

Then on to Gullfoss – the golden waterfall (a bit of a golden day today). This was an impressive waterfall of a wide river falling into a deep canyon it was carving out for itself. Unfortunately the trail out to a viewing platform right by the waters edge was iced over and closed.

The last stop on the tour was a volcanic crater. It was a huge cone shaped hole in the ground, with a frozen lake in the centre, green moss, and dark red stone everywhere formed by cooling lava. It did have a pretty colour palette. It’s just that the”volcanic” tag in there had me expecting some  fireworks – lava or smoking rocks at least.

Then on to the blue lagoon. This huge hot spring lagoon has silica in the water which made the visibility through it about 5cm deep and gave it a rich blue colour. Or so it is claimed anyway – arriving at night it looked more like soy milk under the spotlights. Now moderated to a toasty 38°C, there were definite hot spots which went up much higher in temperature. It was very relaxing wading around the waist deep waters between the drinks bar and the face mask bar, (with algae and mud varieties) but it was a strange feeling when it started snowing to be so warm below and so chilled above. We were able to get some drinks from the in pool bar which felt very decadent.

We went out for soup in a bread bowl, but we were devastated to arrive and find out that they were out of bread bowls. We had to make up for this disappointment with a hot chocolate and some pastries from the bakery, then we had an early night for the early flight

08/01/2017

09/01/2017

We had a leisurely start with a croissant and apple turnover for breakfast, then we started walking on a highlights reel walking tour of London. We started with the Wellington Arch and Green Park (though those cheeky  deciduous trees made it more of a brown park). Then it was on to Buckingham, where we saw with jealousy the puny size of the Australia gate leading up to Buckingham compared to the grandiose Canada gate! We were disappointed to realise that the winter schedule meant we wouldn’t be able to see a changing of the guard ceremony on our trip.

The Churchill War Rooms were next, although a little hard to find with a discrete entrance (appropriate for a secret bunker, I suppose) which turned out much larger than we expected. Not only did it contain a labyrinthine network of original rooms filled with either restorations or original equipment unmoved since WW2, it also included a fascinating and extensive exhibit purely about Churchill himself. It chronicled 70 years of his life in a number of phases; from army service to fluctuating political favour, to World War II leadership, a writing and painting phase, before coming back into power.

After the long information digestion session we felt the need to get back on the move, doing drive by photo-shoots of
Westminster Abbey, the houses of parliament, Big Ben, No 10. Downing Street (we only caught a glimpse by peering through heavily armed police barricades), Trafalgar Square (home of a great no-lion riding sign) and Piccadilly Circus.

We also passed the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers buildings near parliament. Both had lovely buildings of marble pillars and gold engraved lettering which the brick and concrete of Sydney University engineering could take some pointers from.