reading week part 2: munich/prague/venice

So i last left off meeting up with my friends to go to Germany. We made our way to the florence train station and JUST made our night train to germany. We hadn't booked the tickets all together, so we realized we were all spread out in different cabins. We tried to move our seats so we could all be together, but the very strict german lady in charge said no way. So, drew was alone, Sami was alone, and colin and i were luckily in the same room. The rooms were tiny and fit 6 bunk beds, though there were only 4 people in each room. The beds themselves were fine, it was just very crammed in the room- there was only enough space for one person to stand at a time. There was an older couple in the top beds, but they were asleep when we got there. I slept as much as I could but woke up whenever the train stopped at a station. Apparently as we were going through Austria in the middle of the night it was snowing, but I missed that.

At 5:45am we were woken up and told the train would get to munich in 30 minutes. We got our stuff together and the hostel was right around the corner when we arrived. Overall, the night train wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't do it again. We got tp the Wombats hostel where we would be staying around 6:30am. This hostel was awesome- everything was really clean, the interior was decorated really nicely, and the people at the front desk were really helpful. This has been my favorite hostel so far. We couldn't get to our rooms, so we just crashed on the couch for a while until breakfast. At around 1030, drew, sami and I went for a walk while Colin was meeting a friend of his for breakfast. We found an awesome toy store- it was huge, think toys r us but 10 times better. I got a stuffed animal monkey (couldn't resist). we went to a few more stores before going to meet colin and his friend Chris. they met on vacation one year any have been good friends ever since, so we were all really excited to have a tour guide who was from munich. our first stop was the BMW museum. I wasn't really interested, but some of the cars were cool looking. I figured if I was going to drag the boys shopping, they should get to see the car museum. after this, we went to the Hofbra house to eat and drink some czech beer. we each had a liter and i ordered some traditional pork and sticky potatoes. it was great. next we bought some souveniers and postcards, walked around an outdoor market, and made our way back ot the hostel to see our room. the room was great too- really big and had a table and nice shower. there was one other girl staying there, but she was nice and talkative. we got ready and had a couple beers before going out. Chris met up with us again and took us to an area of the city where a lot of bars are. first, we got some realllyyy good kebabs. kebabs were huge there, and are actually pretty popular in dublin as well. the first bar we went to was packed though. so much so that we could barely move, so after a beer we went looking for another. the second one we went in because we saw people drinking out of massive buckets and straws. this looked fun. we ordered a bucket of a tropical mix drink. it was delicious. after finishing this the boys ordered another,but i knew this was a bad idea. they couldn't finish it all, and we went looking for a taxi home.

the next morning we woke up, got breakfast at the hostel, and decided to go to Dachau concentration camp for the day before our bus to prague. we took a train, then a bus to the camp, and rented an audio guide. this place was creepy. it was also really foggy out the day we went, which set the mood even more. the museum was actually very big and had a lot of information in it. we didnt even read everything and we spent at least a little over an hour there. it would have been better to have a real tour guide, but i was still really glad we went. when we realized we were out of time and needed to get back to the city, we caught the bus and train back, and got another kebab for lunch. we picked up our bags from the hostel, and took the metro to the bus station.

when we had booked the bus to prague, we realized it may be really sketchy. it was actually the cheapest and shortest option, and ended up working out really well. we each had our own aisle since the bus was not crowded at all, and it got us to prague earlier than expected. once there, we found a taxi to our hostel, which was also like a hotel. it was really nice- huge showers, comfy beds, and really clean. this was arguably the nicest one we stayed in, but i still liked the one in munich better. once we had settled in, we got a pizza from around the corner. we werent in a very nice area, but the tram was pretty easy to figure out. the front desk told us of a bar we could go to that night, so we tried that out. we got a little lost once we got off the tram, but found the bar and hung out for a bit and had a couple drinks. everything in prague is SO CHEAP. but the exchange rate is kind of confusing so its really hard to keep track of how much money you are actually spending. it is also hard to find legit taxis in prague. there is one company that we were told to use but we couldnt figure out how to call one and didnt see any on the street, so we ended up walking home. it was cold, but we didn't want to take a random taxi company and get ripped off or kidnapped. the bar was dead but it was still an ok night.

the next morning we slept a little late and took off to wander the city. it was a relaxed day, just walking around old city center and made our way to prague castle. we missed the last english tour so we walked around on our own. here is a picture of me in front of the castle:

it was really cold but pretty. i got some hot wine and a waffle, which was really just a thin sugar cookie thing. i didnt really like the wine but im still glad i tried it. our next stop was an outdoor christmas market. they had these amazing cinnamon rolls for really cheap, so of course i got one. delicious. we were all pretty tired so we went back to the hostel for some down time before going out. we had planned to do a pub crawl that night, so we wandered around the main city square to find dinner before this. we all had really good dinners, but when we showed up for the pub crawl we were literally the only ones there. we decided it wasn't worth it to go by ourselves, and went back to the hostel. at the bar in the hostel we met a couple of british guys. one of them was cool, but the other i did not like. he started talking about american politics, obama, etc. with a condescnding attitude. i did not like this. side note- a lot of us have noticed that even though a lot of europeans don't like america, they still take a lot of our culture. they listen to our music, watch our movies, and follow many parts of our way of life, but complain about us. doesn't really make sense. (i realize that is controversial but all of us here have noticed it and agree). anyway, these random guys decided to come out with us and we wanted to try the 5-story club prague is known for. it was a sunday night so our expectations weren't high, and it was pretty dead. there were some weird people there. we danced for a bit then got a cab home.

the next morning we wanted to do a walking tour of the city but slept way too late. instead, we headed to town and got some lunch. we then signed up for a short bus tour but had some time to kill first. this was our time for gift shopping, and i found a scarf i liked. the bus tour was kind of a waste but we saw some parts of the city we hadn't seen before. i would have felt weird not doing anything touristy the whole time i was in prague. after this we took a walk to the charles bridge again, then found a place to eat. our meals at this restaurant were HUGE. it was great. we then set off to find the Lenon wall that has all the grafitti on it. this was really cool- the entire wall has saying and pictures and stuff. we took some pictures then finally headed home. since we had an early flight the next morning we stayed in and had a couple drinks at the hostel. we met a girl from australia who is a flight attendant. she told us some funny stories and things she hates about customers, it was really interesting actually. we went to bed early since our taxi was getting us at 730am. that morning we got up and moving and made it to the airport as it was starting to snow. we were right on time for our flight to venice, where we would hvae a 5 hour layover.

during the flight we flew over the swiss alps, which was an awesome view. we landed in venice and found a cheap bus that would take us into the city. from the bus stop in venice, we took a water taxi to another stop near the san marco square. we had enough time to walk around, grab a sandwich, some pastires, and do more gift shopping. we were in the city for about 2 and a half hours, which was pretty cool. venice is a lot of fun to just walk around, but it can be confusing since there are a lot of dead ends. we were a little nervous about time, but the bus we took back to the airport ended up being very quick and we were a little early for our flight to dublin. i have a paranoia about misssing flights, especially in another country, so I was a little stressed throughout the day making sure we got back on time, but it all worked out. from venice we flew to dublin, and our trip was over!