Budapest

We arrived in Budapest and made it to our hostel with relative ease. Their currency is the HUF which is roughly $1 = 186Huf, so the math can get a bit confusing. The walk into the area our hostel was located was a bit sketchy. It was behind these two large wooden doors off the main street and up a flight of unlit stairs. Sketchy at first but really cool when we got there. The hostel was more like a apartment converted into a small hotel for about 15 people, no bunk beds, a loft in each bedroom (6 people), a real bathroom, kitchen and living room. Also we just so happened to show up on the night that the owner cooks everyone a traditional Hungarian meal for free. That was served around 8pm and we got there at around 7:15 and had not eaten all day so it was great. It was pieces of chicken with rice with a side of pickles and bread. It was very good and filling.
The following morning we headed out to do the free tour with some of the people from our hostel. The city was very nice and had some great views. A lot of the city had been rebuilt to original standards after it was destroyed in WW2. Budapest is divided into two areas, Buda and Pest. The Danube river divides the two and on the Buda side sits all the old castles, while on the pest side there is more modern buildings and living areas.
Later that day we headed down to the hot spring Baths. We were not sure what to expect at this place, but had heard good things. We must have looked very much like tourist walking down the street with our towel and bathing suite in our hands. The lady at the hostel actually laughed at us a little bit, but we didn't really care, because that's what we are... Tourists. The bath setting was very nice, but not exactly what we had expected. It was mainly elderly people floating around and the all the men wearing speedos. The water was warm and it was relaxing none the less and we got to use our bathing suites at least once this trip!
For dinner we went to a Hungarian restaurant with our new friends Rodrigo (from Chile) and Gavin (from Australia). We had Goulash and Chicken Liver wrapped in Bacon...which wasn't exactly what i expected but it did the job. Rodrigo just ran the Berlin Marathon and decided to travel while he was over here. so we had some good conversations about running so that was pretty cool. He stayed up till about 4am watching Chile play some big soccer match, drinking Coke and pisco (probably not spelled right).
The next morning was the first time we got scammed while in Europe. The subways are pretty messed up in Hungary. You have to buy tickets for every 3 stops you go, but at the time, we didn't know this. After the first 3 stops and heading to the next train we asked a worker here if we were all set to go through to the next train and he said we could go. They don't have subways like at home where as gate will open if u have the right pass. You can just walk on the train not knowing you have the right ticket or not. So we get to the train station and there were workers checking tickets so immediately they see our huge backpacks and ask to see our tickets. We show them the tickets and they start going nuts. Saying we need to pay 12000 HUF because we didn't pay 220 earlier. We told them the story about how a guy lets us through but they didn't want to hear it. So we told them we didn't have any money and they said they would call the police if we didn't pay, so we finally knocked them down to 6000 HUF for the both of us AND when we asked for some type of receipt they said they wouldn't give it to us (because they obviously ended up pocketing it). I'm not trying to knock Europe but this really pissed us off. No one in the US would give 2 innocent tourists that much trouble...most likely because we have more advanced subways that wouldn't let anything like that even happen. But either way Europe gets a downgrade for that move. Gotta Love the US of A. (This is Rodrigo from Chile and his Coke and Pesco...)

Prague

We arrived in Prague on Sunday night. We both got a bad impression the first few hours of Prague due to a screwed up currency and the worst meal we have ever experienced in our lives. We got to the currency exchange and exchange about $20 and got 3800 Koruna... It took us a while to figure out what we were actually paying for things. We got to the hostel at about 8ish and everything was closed and we were starving. We stumbled across a Chinese food restaurant. Withering away due to lack of nutririon we decided we could make an exception for that one time....worst decision ever. The noodles we got tasted like they were boiled in a fish tank and I swear some of the managers teeth were in my meal. The process of ordering our meal was like trying to communicate.


The next day was a lot better. No tour this time. We headed out on our own and wondered around. Prague has a lot of really good views with just castles in the skyline. We went to see the Prague castle, downtown Prague, Charles Bridge and, from what we just learned, the #1 most overated tourist attraction in Europe...the astronomical clock. Everything was really cheap here. We hit up a Pastry shop and got a bunch of stuff for about 2 USD and they were just scrumptious. For dinner we had a typical Czech meal of duck, dumplings and cabbage. It was a ton of food and it did the job. After that we went downtown and got a little lost on the way back. We had to walk back in this sketchy part of town but nothing that good old Clint and Steve couldn't handle.

Sorry the posts are delayed and somewhat short. some hostels dont have free internet so its tough to wite these things.




















Budahpest next....

It's Berlin Baby

We arrived in Berlin Thursday night at about 6:00, this train ride was a lot smoother than the last few we have taken. Getting to the hostel was much easier too. First stop was this local pizza place that was delicious and cheap. It seems very popular because it had a plethora of American bands sign their wall, probably after concerts. So after that, we went back to the hostel and hung out in the lounge area where we met the 2 Australian girls. Australian's here all have the same story...they are backpacking for about 6 months then they plan to go back to work and do the same thing over and over. The hostel was selling beers for 1.50 euro...and they were 16oz...so we couldn't afford not to drink. We know a deal when we see one. The Aussie's taught us how to skull beers and we taught them how to play a bunch of drinking games with playing cards.

That next morning we woke up for the free tour. Once again, it was an amazing tour enriched with a ton of information that we were never taught in high school. We saw the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitlers Bunker (where he killed himself), the Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg gate, Humboldt University (where Einstein used to teach and the notorious book burning took place) and a ton of other stuff. We had to change hostels for the next two nights so we brought our stuff over there before we went to get dinner. For dinner we had a German meal called "schnitzel." It was muy bueno. Similar to chicken parm, but with scallop potatoes on the side.

Next morning we went to a concentration camp called "Sachsenhausen" This is something everyone needs to visit at some point. One thing we didn't know was concentration camps differ from death camps. Although thousands died at this camp, it wasn't near as much as Auscwitz (a death camp). This tour guide was telling us that there are many concentration camp deniers that believe that this was propaganda and over exagerated. The tour was very infromative and it was interesting that at this camp it was not only jews that were persacuted, but communists, foreign nationals, homosexuals and Roma (Gypsies).

That night our 4 roommates from London convinced us to go to this club in Berlin that is very popular called Watergate. We went to the bar on top of the hostel first which was really cool. You can see a skyline view of Berlin out on this patio/rooftop lounge. So when we go to this "watergate" club we figured out it was was a techno club. The songs consisted of three beats: bass, a loud ticking noise, and a bird tweet. Wasn't exactly our scene but it was a funny experience. The cool thing about this club was that it was on the river so there was a lounge outside on the water. We had great company too with our roommates. Really good kids and hilarious to say the least.

This is a picture of us next to a piece of the Berlin wall. Ironically it is now surrounded by a gate so people don't take pieces of it home.

Thanks
Clint & Stephen

Amsterdam

Meet Francesco:


Francesco is from Roma. He is our roommate in Amsterdam. Francesco speaks very little English and is especially creepy. This guy looks like Mike Ambra Sr. and acts just like Screech. You probably think we get a bunch of creepers in our hostile, but no...we just take a picture of them regardless if they want us to or not for your entertainment. And yes...that is a spliff he has in his mouth.

Amsterdam is a very interesting city. More bikes we have ever seen in one place. We got a free guided tour that took us from the Red light District to Anne Franks house. The tours are great because we actually learn a ton of things about the history of the city. That canals are really what makes the city too..they wrap around the city in a spiral which separates certain sections of the place.

We got another guided tour of the Red Light District at night by the gem himself, Francesco. This guy knew every nook and cranny of the place. With the little English he knew he was a pretty funny guy. Homeboy goes to the bar and orders a Heineken Cold and comes back with a coke. Enough said. He even gave us his number so we could stay at his place in Rome, but I think we are going to pass.

Next city we post about is Berlin...we are actually in Prague right now but don't have a lot of time to be on the internet.

Paris-Amsterdam

Not really knowing how the train schedule worked, we headed to the train station. We went up to the ticket booth and showed the lady our Eurail pass and told her where we wanted to go. She said that all the trains were full to Amsterdam because of some delay yesterday, but she could get us there in an alternate route. We would have to make three connections in Northern France and two stops in Belgium. This meant switching trains in a five minute window between the trains arriving and leaving again. With the help of some nice people and our natural athletic speed, dodging people we made it. We may have pushed a few people down a flight of stairs and up and down stairs, people pointing here, there in different languages. It was very stressful, but we did finally make it..... but that wasn't the only problem.

When we finally got to Amsterdam around 9:30 and stupid us we had forgot to write down the address, directions or even the name of our hostel. We were banking on being able to find an internet cafe to go online so we could figure it out. Sounded like a plan until we realized we were wondering aimlessly down the streets of Amsterdam looking like we. We finally ran into another hostel and went inside. We explained to the guy what our situation was and he said he could go online for us and get us the info. Homeboy came through and we promised ourselves we would return the favor of coming back to get a drink. So after we made it to our hostel at around 1030 we were needless to say very worn out since we had been traveling for about 8 hours.

Paris (cont.)

We are on the train to Berlin right now and going to catch you up on where we last left off.

We woke up at about 9:00 and planned on heading to the free tour of Paris. Clint nailed it right on the head comparing the smell to our room to a hampster cage. The tour was really informative and took us around the whole city giving us the history and facts about everything we asked about the day before. There we some obnoxious Canadians just making stupid jokes the whole time trying to act cool...apparently they didn't know they were Canadian.. ZINGGG. After the tour we went to the Arc de Triomphe which has the busiest roundabout (rotary) in the world. It is 8 lanes wide, connects 13 different roads and apparently if you get in an accident the insurance companies won't cover you due to the craziness of it.

The third day in Paris We had to switch hostels so we left our current hostels with our bags and on the way, we got another banana nutella crepe which was scrum-didily-umptious. On the way to the next hostel we had to go through the ghetto of Paris. Much like lawrence or lowell but we didn't feel safe due to the fact everyone was staring at the 2 white kids with huge backpacks on. The only thing cool about this hostel was that the guy that worked there was from Springfield mass.

That night we went on a pub crawl that went to four bars and gave free shots at random parts of the night. We grabbed something to eat right before we started so we had something in out stomach. It was called a hotdog de fromage, but it was not your average hot dog, It was garlic bread with cheese on it with a 2 hot dogs wedeged in the middle. It was the best hot dog we've ever had. The pub crawl wasn't too crazy because it was a Monday night, but it was a good time. Some Canadian bought everyone on the pub crawl (about 20 of us) shots of jager which was cool. We ended up getting our free shots on the bridge over the Sen Canal which i don't think many people can say they have done. Apparently, we were allowed to do that.

The next day we decided to hit up the Musee de O'rsay before we left. It has a lot more art and sculptures by artist that most people would know like Monet, Van Gogh and Cezzane. We had a tough time getting into the museum because we had our bags on. The security guard told us we would be ok, but when we got through the doors they told us we couldn't bring the bags in because they were to big. So we decided to go back to the store where I(Clint) had just bought a postcard and ask the lady to hold our bags. She was more than willing to help us, which has seemed to be the going theme. We went back to the Museum and we were not waiting in the 35 minute line again so we just went up to the door man and he let us right in. Our favorite painting was this one, called Divine Tragedy with angels and demons at war:














Amsterdam coming soon.

Amsterdam

We made it to Amsterdam...the last few hostile charged rediculous amounts of money to use the internet so we haven't blogged in a while. Getting to Amsterdam was an insane process so we will give the story when we get to Berlin tomorrow.