Fiona and Claire's Travel Blog

Day 9: Prague to Budapest We managed to wake up relatively early today and were packed and fed by 9 o'clock. We then chilled in the lovely Advantage hostel lounge for a couple of hours and used their free Internet to plan our route a bit more and to book some further accommodation. Last night we also confirmed dates with the two friends that we'll be staying with. We are a very excited to see  Zoe in Switzerland and David in Italy and explore their beautiful countries with a couple of locals!  But for now, goodbye Czech Repubic, we are heading to Hungary!!  After we checked out of the hostel we had a wonderful stroll through a local park (Riegrovysady) as we headed to the train station. We grabbed some food for the train and had lunch at a European classic ;)  (Last nights dinner was a bit expensive so today we're allowed to  be cheapskates!!!)        After fighting with a cash machine at the train station trying to figure out this new money ...

Queue George Exra please.... ;) we've come ...."miles to Budapest, our hidden treasure chest!"  First of all, I will never stop being surprised by how magnificently beautiful and colourful these old European cities are! Budapest is no different! As always we did another free align tour first thing this morning and here are some things we learnt about the colourful history of this beautiful city.   After the world wars and the communist reigne here in Hungary and the consequent economic crisis that these brought to the country many of the building a are privately owned. But because of this many people can therefore not afford the upkeep or the renovations of these old houses. Combine this with the post war/post soviet re-building of the city and you get a mix (similar to that in Berlin and a wee bit of Prague thrown in) of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and more traditional architecture , with some brutalist soviet buildings thrown into the mix.   Because of that, I feel that most...

Day 7: Berlin to Prague We had time to play about with in the morning before we left Berlin so we walked to the German parliament building not far from the train station. This building is quite something else, it's defining feature is the glass dome on top in which the public are invited to walk about inside. There you get a nice view over the city but also a view down into the debating chambers of parliament, this is to convey the transparency of the government and also a way of reminding members who they work for, all they have to do it look up and see the people of Germany (or the tourists of Germany) to know that they are there to serve those people. Unfortunately we didn't get to go in, you need to book in advance or wait in a long queue on the day and our train would not wait for us! But I can assure you it's worth it based off a distant memory of going up it when I was on a school trip.    So then the majority of the day was spent travelling to Prague, we reserved ou...

Where we stayed   We were tired today! Alto ought we were relaxing out in the countryside with Kati we squeezed a lot in and we also did a fair bit of exercise too! So, a combination of that and the hostel dorm being too warm!! It was warmer in that room than it was outside!! A cold shower in the morning and at night helped us keep cool (and smelling relatively nice!).  What we explored We got the train into town and headed straight to the Brandenburg Gate where our walking tour was setting off from. There we met 'tall posh Rob' from Durham and he was our tour guide for the following three hours!! We learnt a lot about Berlin's history, some of which we already knew but a lot that was new to us and very interesting! We saw some of the key sites along the way too....another fantastic thing about these free walking tours! The Holocaust memorial Check point Charlie Hitlers bunker (not the actual thing as it was destroyed and is now noting more than a 'glorified' car p...

Day 5 Relaxed breakfast with Willie and Kati before we packed as much activities as we could be four our train to Berlin. This is why Germans always have so much energy and hard work ethic, they start their days right :)   Then as we headed to the mountain we were going to climb we drove along the river 'ah' through steep valleys lined with countless vinyards. Miles and miles of grape vines that would make all of our parents jealous.  We then had a very hurried climb up dragon mountain...(German name coming soon). The sun was a sweltering 32 degrees but luckily we were in the shadow of the trees for most of the way! It took us about an hour tot the top but w e got the monorail back down before rushing off again to make it to the train. Made it in time ...but oh BOY, busy train! Reminded to self...if a train is longer than 1 hour...BOOK A SEAT!! (Even if the advise says not to bother!!) we stood for approx 30 minutes but final,y after one of th busier stops we got a seat till B...

Where we stayed: So as we mentioned yesterday we are currently staying with Kati at her parents home in Kaltenborg. A BEAUTIFUL home and an even more beautiful family!! Willi, Johannas and Mama Petra (and of course Kati) could not have made us feel more at home! We were taken under their wing as one of their own. Our ouchie Dutch mossie bites were soon being treated and, as you saw last night, our bellies were filled with some of the best German food and German beer we could have asked for! Claire and I resided in the very top floor of their gorgeous wooden house, a house built by Kati's grandfather. The house was situated in the small village of Kaltenborg, situated in a green valley surrounded by hills and trees and miles of green!  In the evenings while we ate our bbq meals we looked out to an clear sky and the silence reminded us very much of our homes on the wee isle of Lewis!  (Images below of their garden)       (Pictures to follow ) Food we ate: Each mor...

Hello! We have lots to tell you about our day in Amsterdam, we tried the food, visited many places and learned a lot about the history of this liberal city.  Where we stayed: It had been suggested that we tried the lucky lake hostel, and it was certainly worth the pennies (perhaps one of the more expensive hostels we'll be staying in during this trip). The cheerful decor and helpful staff really made us feel at home, we're already dreaming of coming back some day. Our highlight was sitting in the hammocks holding a nice cold Amsterdam beer.  (Pictures to follow ) Places we explored: We managed to cover so much of Amsterdam in one day! The beauty of this place is that it's so easy to get around on foot (just watch for the cyclists, they will not  stop for you). As it was such a nice day we spent a lot of time visiting the outside attractions. We were lucky enough to stumble across a free walking tour, lead by a lovely guide called Karen.  (Pictures to follow ) Food we...

Day 3: We had an early start today, quite sad to be leaving the lucky lake hostel behind...but quickly we were looking onwards and eager to get to our next stop...Bonn in Germany!!  Claires lovely friend Kati lives in Kaltenborn just south of Bonn, where we'll be staying for the next couple of nights...so, we got the train quite early from Amsterdam central and headed eastward towards Cologne where we them got a train to Bonn. Kati met us there and we had a walk around the town (in 30 degree plus weather!!) En route we got some beer (which you're allowed to drink in the streets here!) and sat in a lovely park next tithe Rhein river for a few hours, chatting , napping, catching some sun!  (Images to follow)  By let afternoon we were tired and a bit hungry so we headed to Katis house where her family had prepared a lovely BBQ for us! YUMM!! "Jummy jummy!!" Her parents are lovely as is her brother! Trying very hard to speak English to us and there's ...

Hello lovely people who decided to read our blog!!  Some of you may have followed the other travel blog that I do with my little sister Catriona...this one will be relatively the same but the writing will be shared with one of my best friends in the world, the lovely Claire (@Claireabella7 on Instagram if your interested). (Photo of us here) As we both graduated this July we decided to spend the remaining money that fourth year left us with (and some hard earned poker money form various jobs) on a special celebratory trip!! We had been talking about doing an interail trip for some time now ...but as usual either time, money or energy have been working against us... So since we finally had some  time  we thought "Hey! When else are we going to have anonymity chance to travel for a month without any disruptions or work commitments to rush back to!!" So here we are!!  Doing a big circular loop around Europe, starting in Amsterdam and fin...