My apologies for taking so long to post, things have been pretty hectic and this is the first chance I have had! I also apologise for the lack of pictures - finding an internet cafe has been easy, but finding one that has a working USB port is not so easy....
Amsterdam
We had an early start on the last day in Paris and took the Eurostar to Amsterdam. Nothing can prepare you for Amsterdam. We got there and it started raining pretty heavily but nevertheless found the place to be very beautiful. There are canals everywhere and its easy to see why its known as the "Venice of the North". The people were friendly as well, and we were relieved to find that they spoke better English than most of us. That afternoon we went to Anne Frank's House, which was surprisingly large and surprisingly interesting. You can see why it took the Nazi's a few years to find the place: in the house you go up some incredibly steep stairs to the attic, then there is a false book case which takes you to a further attic upstairs again.
Half way through the house we bumped into a few others on our tour who were fresh from a coffee house (in Amsterdam the places where you buy marijuana are called coffee houses). They were swaying a bit but looked to be enjoying the house much more than we were, haha.
So after the house we decided to meet up with some others at a coffee house called the Grasshopper (which is apparently one of the most famous coffee houses in Amsterdam).
[Pic: me outside the Grasshopper]It was surreal: you can literally ask for a cafe latte, a sandwhich and some hash!
Things got even more surreal when one in our group got told off for smoking a tobacco cigarette! Apparently mariujuana is fine but tobacco is a no no!
Amsterdam changes completely at night. Its like it has a split personality - beautiful and funny by day, sleazy and aggressive by night.
That night we got taken for a tour of the red light district (prostitution is legal in Amsterdam as well). The prostitutes hire a window and pose in a bikini as the punters walk by in narrow alley ways. We got told not to take any pictures as pimps have been known to take the cameras and throw them (along with the picture taker in some circumstances) into the canals! Walking through the alleys you got a sense that trouble was not far away, and I was constantly looking over my shoulder. This is despite the fact that we were in a group of about 40 and I never once actually saw any trouble.
For those of you that are interested, the prostitutes were (by and large) incredibly goodlooking! Think not quite as cute as an FHM model but not far away...certainly not what I was expecting. We were also told that they are all trained in martial arts and have a panic button - so if they feel threatened they push the panic button and their Dutch pimps come running to beat you up...
Of course having a split personality every Dutch person we ran into that night was incredibly rude and aggressive...way worse than the French...
The next night we had a canal cruise (with unlimited alcohol) and then had a night on the town.
[pic: canal cruise before we all got too boozed!]Things got pretty crazy as you could imagine - being a Contiki Tour we did have a reputation to keep up so everyone in our group was either high, drunk or both....and for the record I was only drunk...haha
[pic: after the canal cruise when everyone was paralytic; note how this picture is blurry - I wasn't even able to hold the camera steady!]
My opinion of Amsterdam is its a fun place to spend a day or two but I don't think I'll be back for a while. Its a little to out-there for me!
Berlin
After our massive night we went on a 10 hour bus trip to Berlin. As you can imagine this was pretty tough. The autobans in Germany are a lot of fun though. Our bus had a speed limit of 100 but every once and a while you would see a porsche hoon past at about 180ish...
We got told on the bus ride that the German's are actually nice people but we are not to mention the war at all! Naturally I thought our tour guide was kidding so laughed and she gave me a very serious look...
Berlin is very different to Amsterdam. Its not a pretty place at all (90% was destroyed after WW2 and the Soviets tore down a lot of what was remaining to build drab, god awful buildings) but the Germans certainly like order and efficiency. You could set your watch to the metro and you felt a lot safer than in Amsterdam.
The history of the place was very interesting. The Berliners are building a lot back to look like it did before the War and the city is changing all the time. On our first day we did a walking tour and found it to be really interesting. Our guide was a very knowledgable German/American who was a dead ringer for Matt Damon. When we told him this he replied that he gets that all the time and his wife even told him that he looks like Matt Damon from the talented Mr Ripley - apparently he told her that of all the Matt Damon movies she had to pick the one where he plays a gay psychopath...
Probably the highlight of the tour was the Holocaust memorial and Hitler's bunker. The holocaust memorial is pretty drab, and surprisingly there are no plaques that mark that state that it is a holocaust memorial. Even more surprisingly, the pillars are coated with a special chemical so that any graffiti washes off with water. After the memorial was completed it came out that the company that supplied this chemical was the same company that manufactured the gas that the Nazi's used on the Jews!
wtf?
[pic: our tour guide (see, I told you he looks like Matt Damon!) at the Holocaust Memorial]
Hitler's bunker is about 80 metres away from the memorial. Its nothing special at all and is infact a rundown parking lot outside a Soviet era apartment building. The site above the room where Hitler killed himself is unceremoniously marked with a green bin
[pic: The green bin that marks the spot where Hitler killed himself]
Berlin itself is dominated by the TV Tower in East Berlin. This was built by the Soviets to show the West that they were technilogically superior. The only problem was they weren't technologically superior at all and the Tower was actually designed by Swedish engineers (something that the West found quite funny!).
We also checked out Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall.
[pic: me posing infront of one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall]
On our second night we learnt a bit more about East and West Berlin, and finished with a Cold War pub crawl (where you weren't told which bar you were going to but had to decipher some (pretty easily decipherable) clues). My team won and we ended up at the Matrix club which is a 7 room super club. Was pretty awesome.
Prague
We then drove to Prague via Dresden, which is a picturesque (sp?) place that was obliterated in WW2.
Prague is very beautiful as well. It was largely untouched during WW2 (only bombed by mistake when some USAF bombers got lost on the way to Dresden), and is home to the famous astronomocal clock. This clock was so beautiful that when it was made its designer had his eyes poked out to ensure that he wouldn't make a similar clock anywhere else in the world.
That's gratitude for you...
It is an impressive clock considering it was made 500 years ago but frankly I've seen better clocks. So personally I would have let the designer keep his eyes!
[pic: the beautiful clock: see what I mean? Its nice, but not "poke your eyes out" nice...]
Prague really is stunning and rich in history. I would recommend this place to anyone.
[pic: Prague in all its glory!]
Being Eastern Europe the safety rules (and in particular the "drink responsibly" rules) aren't that advanced and we got a taste for that on our last night we went to a bar called the Beer Factory. Each table at this bar is set up with 4 taps, so the patrons can pour their own beers. On the big screen you can see which table has drunk the most.
Naturally this called for a drinking competition and Team ANZAC (Australia, New Zealand and a few Canadians) took on Team America. National pride was on the line and things got testy at one stage when the Americans kept stuffing up their pours (ie, they had 1/4 beer and 3/4 foam). The Americans said it was because the taps were malfunctioning and the Aussies said it was because they were retarded.
By the time I left Team ANZAC was in the lead and had consumed over 26 litres of beer (between 7 people that's a fricken lot!) whereas Team America has consumed 25.5 litres. Our tables were one and two respectively on the score board.
The next day I tried to find out who won in the end and funnily enough no-one could remember! Because Team ANZAC was ahead at the last time people could remember we claimed a victory though!
Rome
I'm now in Rome and have just had a tiring day at the Vatican. Last night we had a walking tour of the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain and a few other places. At the Trevi fountain we were told that if you throw a coin over your right shoulder it means you will return to Rome but if you throw it over your left shoulder you will be lucky in love. I decided to throw it over my left shoulder and got one of the girls to take a picture of me doing so. Now this isn't as easy as it sounds and it took three attempts before we finally got a satisfactory picture. I think this means I'm going to be REALLY lucky in love, haha
[pic: me at the Trevi fountain take 3!]
Apart from that not much to report for Rome as the readers of this blog (ie, Mum and Jemma, haha) have been here before. Except to say there is a terrific pizza place just down the road from the Vatican with delicious (and cheap) pizza. it was easily the best pizza I've ever had in my life.
Oh, also I have a room to myself here which is terrific, so my snoring room mate problem has resolved itself. Last night was the first decent nights sleep since London!
That's all for now - will be in touch soon
Anthony
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