Just kidding, but seriously, there is a limited collection of words I can use to describe the "epicness" of what I like to call "Eurotrip 2011". And to make this enjoyable for all, I will provide the best/fulfilling/dirty/rather inappropriate/fun details of Eurotrip 2011.
To start: who joined me on this adventure? Well, despite the group of 5 we are usually comprised of, I could see the pain in Courtney and Christine's eyes as their sunshine blonde hair has been constantly outnumbered by our doodie colored brown. So, as a treat, Jen's golden locks accompanied us and evened the match.
We began early Sunday morning, and with bags in tow, headed on the metro to Gare du Nord where our train awaited to ship us off to Amsterdam. We were cutting our time short and ended up having to sprint to the train to ensure not missing it. The 5-hour train was a no brainer; we slept and talked about the food we wanted to eat (obviously the #1 priority in all of our minds). Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we headed out of the station and our GPS-master Courtney led us towards where our hostel was. While looking confused on the map, a little old Dutch man approached us and offered to help us. The only explanation I can possibly give for our awkward encounter with him was that he had to have just come out of a coffee shop and gotten totally high. Otherwise, he was just a strange man telling us to go back and forth on our map. Within a few minutes, GPS Court got her bearings and led us to Durty Nelly's Inn, one of the coolest hostels in the world. With a pub located on the bottom, and a hostel on the top, we dropped off our bags immediately and went down to the pub for a 5 Euro special, a cheeseburger with fries. After some time relaxing, it was time to head out into Amsterdam and experience it head on; by that I mean wander through the Red Light District and go prostitute shopping.
Just kidding, because it was time to head to the homeland museum! AKA, the Jewish Museum, which is rated one of the best Jewish museums in all of Europe. I, myself, and not usually one to appreciate museums, but this experience completely changed my mind. It was fascinating to learn more about my peeps and all the Dutch Jewskies with our old school museum headsets. Don’t worry, after leaving the museum, the “Jew Day” was not yet over! It was time to hop, skip, and trot over to Anne Frank’s house for a tour I had been waiting forever to see. Since Jimbo is a damn near genius, we purchased our tickets before leaving for our trip and got to skip the entire line (baller status). The house was fantastic and really took Anne Frank’s story to a new level. Not only were we given visual depictions of the years Anne Frank spent while in her hiding place, we were given insight into her diaries, video interviews, and a plethora (great word, I know) of other artifacts. After spending time with one minority, it was time to head to another. With a raving recommendation from Jimbo, we went to Walk to Wok and got some delish stiry fry. After some more shopping in the Red Light District, we headed back to the hostel for an early night.
Arising to a beautiful drug-filled sun, we hurried our sluggish selves over to a walking tour and were rudely turned away. I even offered to translate the Spanish tour for my friends and the tour guide responded by looking at me like I was a complete idiot and turned me down. Anyways, we ended up not being able to take the tour and moved onto bigger and better things: the Heineken museum! We spent hours going through the maze of activities through the old Heineken brewery such as learning to pour beer from the tap, which I instantly mastered.
I learned at Heineken that there is no better way to spend your day than to experience everything there is to experience about beer. After the Heineken Experience, we walked through a flower market and across the “Skinny Bridge” which was magical, nonetheless.
After taking a plethora of pictures throughout the day and our forefingers were tired from clicking the camera, it was about that time to head to our next city: Berlin.
9 hours. That is how long it took to transport my jiggly butt from Amsterdam to Berlin. Arriving in Berlin at 4:30 A.M. was an experience in and of itself. We sat in the Berlin train station bathroom for about an hour to get away from the cold. In preparation for the frigid day, I proceeded to pull out every single article of clothing I had in my bag and put it on. To say I had on 7 shirts and 2 sweaters is not an exaggeration in the least. Once the cafes began to open up, we migrated until it was a proper time to venture into the city. A hot chocolate, tea, and a piece of apple cake later, it was time to head out into the blistering cold to the wonders that Berlin had to offer. And trust me, I do not say “blistering cold” lightly, for that day Berlin was being pummeled with 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I had never been so cold in my life. As we waddled with our many layers throughout the freezing streets of Berlin, we finally arrived at our beautiful, warm hostel and were greeted cheerfully with a 6 person private room already prepared for us. What nice German hospitality. The first thing we did when we walked through that door? We hit the beds for a nap before a quick Doner Kebab lunch and walking tour.
The walking tour deserves a paragraph of its own. First and foremost, we made some new friends upon the beginning of the trip, two of which go to Illinois! We took part in being the group photographers for each other and got to know each other on the most personal level possible in 15-degree weather. Those 4 hours were by far some of the most interesting, yet freezing, hours of my life. Our tour guide was extremely intelligent and clearly knew everything there was to know about Berlin, yet it was nearly impossible to pay attention with the frigid cold and my near-frostbit limbs. Berlin was a much more metropolitan European city compared to the ones I have thus far experienced. We witnessed many of the footprints Nazi Germany left behind. For example, we stood in front of the Museum where Hitler would deliver many speeches, where several of the book burnings took place, and where the Memorial stands for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The “Museum”, as it is simply called, was once the set for a Holocaust film. In response to the several large swastikas being portrayed throughout the giant square, the film crew calmed the nerves of many German citizens by posting “THIS IS JUST A FILM” signs throughout the set. The location of the book burnings was a fascinating place that had an underground empty library to represent all the books that were burned. Finally, the memorial for the Jewish victims is comprised of a sea of plain cement blocks with graffiti-proof paint. We were also given a great view of one of the last main pieces of the Berlin wall.
We topped off the tour with viewing one of the most famous and expensive hotels in Germany. It is particularly famous, however, because it is the sight where Michael Jackson playfully dangled his baby over the edge of the balcony. Finally, we hit our wits end with the cold and went to eat our feelings in bratwurst. It wasn’t as magical as I had expected, such as the explosive feelings of ecstasy that I felt when biting my pearly whites into the heavenly Brussels fries. Yet, it was satisfying enough.
We ended our night going to a bar called Zapata, which was filled with strobe lights, lots of smoke, and a sketchy crowd. I was exhausted and not feeling well so Courtney and I opted to head back early for an even EARLIER train to Prague!
The train to Prague was a mixture of sleepiness and epic beauty. The landscape was breathtaking and made me resist falling back asleep (which was a true shocker). After arriving in the Praha train station, we all exchanged our Euros to the infamous Czech Krona. Think paying for things with the Euro is like Monopoly money? The Krona is a whole new level of the game. The 1600 Crown I withdrew was worth 60 Euro and it was sure to last me the entire day. While opting out of the Prague walking tour, due to the even more frigid cold, we hopped on a little bus for a 2-hour tour around Prague which showed us the main sights and stopped at the Castle to allow us to walk around for 45 minutes.
Prague was by far the most amazing and most disappointing city I had been to on our trip; disappointing because we only got to spend 18 hours there.
After the bus tour, we headed to our hostel and found not only a private room, but also individual beds for our slumbers! We were in high hopes for the Prague Pub Crawl we were preparing to embark on. We headed to the location for the pub-crawl to start and ordered pastas and pizza before we began the night of heavy binge drinking.
Long story short….
I drank 1 beer. Had 1 absinth shot. Within 2 hours I was back in the hostel alone. I suck.
But don’t worry! Once we awoke, it was time to go on another train ride to our fourth and final stop, Vienna! A refreshing warm breeze took us over as we hopped off the train onto the platform. It was calming and gave us a rush of excitement for what was to come. Not only we were in Austria, but also we had loads of friends awaiting our arrival and we knew this combination was bound to leave us with a good time. Kelsey, Courtney and Christine’s bestie, met us at the train station and led us to their dorm where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. We met up with all the Illinois-Vienna kids and began a walking tour around the main sights of the city.
After experiencing a 25,000 euro bottle of champagne, rum chocolate, and freshly made potato chips, we headed to a grocery store and collected the ingredients for chicken parmesan in preparation to cook a feast! After a great dinner, we all got ready to head to a school-hosted boat party, which probably ended up being one of my favorite nights in Europe. I don’t know if it was the combination of alcohol, the people I was with, or the general atmosphere of the party, but I had the time of my life. Leaving the boat party was sad yet left me wondering what was next to come. The next day, we took a tour of the Schonbruun palace and the surrounding areas, which left us with an incredible view of Vienna and some photo moments!
At the top of the hill, which left us with the stunning view, we headed into a café for some Austrian Apple Strudel drenched in a vanilla sauce that I could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the rest of my life. However, as travels go, one classic Austrian dish led us to another one for dinner: Schnitzel! My eyes must have been too big for my stomach, because I ordered enough food for 3 adult men. But that didn’t stop me. It’s a marathon, not a sprint…right? After dinner, we went to a bar with the entire Illinois-Vienna crew called the Travel Shack. After many shots with inappropriate names, it was nearing 3 A.M. and about that time to go to the airport for our flight home.
Moral of the story, I don’t remember much of my time in the Vienna airport. However, arriving at our beds at about 9 A.M. was probably one of the best feelings I have ever experienced in the world. Sleeping until early evening was no issue as I awoke feeling refreshed and accomplished, knowing we mastered 4 cities in 6 days. It was both tiring, yet exhilarating. I would not trade this week of travels for anything!!
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