A Pinch of Prague

The fist leg of the train was ok, but afte border, the journey started to take a turn for ther we changed trains at the worse. The train was very crowded and some people ended up standing. We shared a very full compartment. Then halfway to Prague they announced something in Czech. A lot of swearing ensued, so we figured it was bad. It was and we needed to change trains again. Once off the train we maded our way to a platform where a train headed for Prague was to depart in about 15 minutes. We saw some Canadians and chatted with them for a while (two cousins from Ontario). About an hour later the train showed up. We again sat on a crowded train, but this time it was much slower and stopped at every station. At least we had some company. We finally arrived in Prague two hours late. We parted ways with the cousins as we made for opposite corners of the city. We walked (no Czech Crowns to take the metro) and made short work of it. We checked into our hostel and were pleased with it almost immediately. A private room, free breakfast, free internet, free wifi, free welcome beer and all for the same price as our Munich hostel. It was highly rated online and we see why. Unfortunately it's a bit out of the way. We made some package soup, did some internetting, had our welcome beer and then headed off to bed.

Tuesday morning we slept in a bit after letting ourselves get run down a bit over the past few days. We did breakfast again, pretty standard, but this time they had chocolate puff cereal. We both chuckled and agreed that Tom would approve. We got money, groceries, bus tickets and finally made our way out into Prague at 11am. Prague is a very nice town to stroll around in. It's huge and barely walkable, but nearly every building is nice to look at. It has the full gamut: Roman, Gothic, Baroque, Rococo, the Neo's, Cubic and Modern. Architecture through the ages, and all in one city. We headed for the castle and stopped at a very Baroque cathedral on the way. The Lonely Planet suggested this cathedral if you only see one in Prague. It was outlandish to say the very least. Extravegance at every turn but after taking it in we turned back to the dreary (by comparison) streets and continued on to the castle, but once there were disappointed with the entrance prices. 350 Crown for a full entry and 250 for an audio guide it was much more than a nights accommodation and about 33 CAD. But after humming at the price for a bit we tried the student card and got in at half price. That made the pill easier to swallow. Once in though we found the ticket not worth it, even at half price. Entrance to the castle is free as well as entrance to the huge Gothic cathedral. Those were the major sights and we found the rest of the agenda a little disappointing. It was still all pretty cool, but we could have sufficed without the ticket. The cathedral was especially good and the stained glass was excellent and the national gallery was good too. Next we walked through the park adjacent to the castle and stopped at a beer garden. The location is perfect in the middle of a huge park ontop of a steep hill overlooking the city. We had some excellent Czech beer and shared a sausage. We could have stayed longer soaking up the atmosphere, but we wanted to get back before the grocery store closed. We walked into town, took a peek at some of tomorrow's sights and caught the metro and bus back to the hostel. We then went and grabbed groceries and had salad and soup back at the hostel. The internet was clogged up by a group of rude Spanish students who didn't clean up the kitchen either, so we decided to head to bed and have an early morning.

Wednesday morning we got up early, but not too early to get free breakfast and were packed and out the door shortly after 8. We dropped our bags off at the train station and made our way to the Communism museum. It was facinating, albeit small, and we had to speed-read the last couple panels as we rushed to catch the free walking tour at 10:30. We did the tour and were disappointed with the tour guide. She was much too professional and the backstories were pretty dry. It was ok though, and we saw the last few things we wanted to see, although from the outside. An extra day would have let us see the insides too, but our schedule is getting tighter near the end and we find ourselves with only a couple of flex days. We then ran to the train station only to find out we were looking at train times we wrote down for Munich to Prague and that the next train wasn't for an hour. But it was for the better because we needed to go to a different station anyway. We made it to the station and ended up sitting around for an hour because our train was 20 minutes behind schedule. We rode second class to the border in a slightly crowded compartment and then switched to first class once in Germany and our rail passes were in effect. So here we sit excited about Berlin and the fact that Cara's friend Anna has agreed to show us around a bit. But we also wonder if the timing wasn't right to spend one of our precious flex days in Prague, especially the Czech playing a game tonight. Berlin should be great though, and Germany is playing tomorrow night, which should be awesome.

Malty Munich

We got off the train late in the afternoon and, after picking up a few things at the tourist office, made our way to the post office where we sent off some mail back home. Then we failed to locate some cheap internet place mentioned in our guide so we made our way to the hostel we booked using the Munich S Bahn. Our rail passes actually get us free passage on all S bahn (suburban rail). That's a good portion of the total metro system, so it was nice. We checked into our hotel and hung up the rest of our damp clothes. Then a nice New Zealand fellow checked into our room and we decided to go out together and see some stuff and get a bite to eat. Being in Munich we thought the best thing to do would be to check out a beer hall. It was quite the experience. The world famous Hofbrauhaus is like the Salzburg beer hall, but much wilder and it's not self service. Also for most of the beer the only option is 1L. We had a few beer each and ordered some beer hall fare. The food was authentic and pretty good. I had sausage sampler and the sauerkraut was the best I've ever had. Near the end of the night we decided to have one more round and head back. Later I realized that one more round of 1L beers, in Canadian standards, is more like 3 more. After we left the Hofbrauhaus, we had to sprint through a massive downpour of rain, and got completely soaked. We turned in and had decided that Neuschwanstein was on the agenda for tomorrow since the rain was supposed to continue the next day and we figured it would be best to be indoors somewhere.

We woke up Saturday morning, a little groggy from the last liter of beer, but early nonetheless. As the weather report had predicted, there was a steady drizzle falling outside. Dragging our feet at breakfast led to a nice sprint to the S Bahn and then sprint to our platform once we arrived at the main train station, only to see the train pull away right before us. We estimated we were about 20 seconds too late. So with an hour to kill we went and found lots of closed shops and ended up getting nothing really accomplished. At 8:55 we got on a very packed train heading for a town called Fussen. During the ride we initially sat in 2nd class because our friend, Cameron, didn't have a 1st class pass, but ended up giving up our seats to some old lady and her daughter, so we moved to 1st class, where Cameron kept a nervous eye out for the conductor. We chatted with another older couple from Edmonton for about an hour before the conductor scared Cameron away, he eventually returned though. Finally in Fussen we hopped on a city bus to get closer to the Castles. Neuschwanstein is actually a very new Castle, and construction started in the 1870s. Ludwig II was king of Bavaria and was quite an eccentric fellow. He didn't much care about the country and instead used all his time to build fanciful castles and listen to Wagner music. He only managed to complete part of Neuschwanstein before he came to his end, under suspicious circumstances. But his family used to live in another castle about a 40 minute walk from Neuschwanstein. This castle was the first stop on our trip and is a pretty great castle in itself. After the guided tour we headed to the astounding Neuschwanstein castle. This is the model that Disney used and therefore looks exactly like what you think a fairy tale castle should look like. Cameron was especially excited - the castle was pretty up there on his to-do list of Europe. After the tour of Neuschwanstein we walked around the castle, trying to get the best angles and found some good ones, especially from the middle of a sketchy bridge, spanning a gorge. Then we took the 2 hour train back to Munich. The day trip was great and even though it took a while to get there and back, it was much better than the 50 euro package our hostel was trying to sell us. Plus the weather had cleared up by the end of the day; it stopped raining and the fog started to lift.

Euro Cup is definately on every European's mind right now and once back in Munich we decided to go catch some of the action. We were advised of a good Irish/Australian pub (?? I know), but it was packed, so we just grabbed some food at a cafe which had the game playing. We missed the Swiss game but watched Portugal secure a win against Turkey. Cara was very proud of Ronaldo... It was good times and again good beer, but this place served it in smaller portions and we made it to bed at a good time, and much less inebriated than the night before.

Sunday morning we woke up and checked out temporarily because our hostel wanted us to change rooms. We weren't excited to begin with and were even less excited when we found out we needed to be out by 10am and couldn't check back in until 2pm. We had other things on our mind though and thought to take advantage of the free walking tours offered in some major cities, including Munich. It was a really excellent tour, focusing on WWII events. Munich was the birthplace of the Nazi party and it was really surreal to stand in places that Hitler used to frequent while he was trying to gain favor. We even saw the place where he almost died in his first attempt to seize power. Instead he was thrown in jail, where he wrote his book 'My Struggle'. After his rise to power he installed a plaque on the spot to commemorate the loss of Nazi life and during his reign, it was law to salute the plaque as you walked by. Two Gestapo officers ensured this was done and failing to do so put you into a concentration

camp. Therefore anyone not wanting to salute used to use the alley just down the street, 'Dodger's Alley'. It was all really interesting and we gave our guide a good tip at the end, because he really earned it. It's a great idea and we both support it. A guide should really get payment at the end of the tour and what you feel it was worth, instead of paying up front and hoping it'll be worth it. After the tour we headed up a church tower to get a view of the city. The stairs were very narrow and even at the top there is barely room for two people to pass. 30 people easily packed the top. Cara didn't hardly seem to notice the h

eight at all, which was surprising, because I definately noticed how high and how 'after the fact' this platform actually was, but I didn't point it out to her. At this point we parted ways and Cameron went to meet up with some vacationing New Zealand family. Me and Cara headed up to the University to see a memorial of the White Rose, which was an anti-Nazi group of students, teachers and friends who were trying to show people the lies in the Nazi propoganda. Eventually the brother and sister (and several other members) were caught and put to death. The memorial was closed though because of it being Sunday, so we took in the sights of the open air festival going on around the University. Skateboarders, fruit booters, beach volleyball, astro turf soccer and bands, all made for some interesting atmosphere. The weather looked like it might turn

though and we really wanted to see the river surfers, so we got going again. After a short walk, we found them. It was cool to see people surfing on a

permanent wave in a river, but I can't help wondering if they don't get bored. Ocean surfers get a lot more variety, and I don't think I'd want to snowboard the same run day after day. At least they have tons of spectators to impress, I guess.

After watching the surfers for a bit, we headed to check out one of the most famous beer gardens in Munich, Chinesischen Turm. It was in the middle of a huge park and, as Germany was playing that night, packed with German supporters. We watched Croatia win over Austria, even though Austria had lots of support from its German neighbours. Then the real event started, Germany vs Poland. Talk about awkward, although maybe it just seemed so because we just got off a WWII history tour. It was really something and I'm going to try and jostle the trip schedule a bit so we can be in more countries while they play. We learned a few chants and joined in the celebration as Germany won 2-0. Then we snuck on the metro and took the S bahn back to our hostel. Where we finally decided to complain a bit and ended up getting half price off our last night's stay.

Monday morning we got up and checked out again. We saw Cameron down at breakfast and tried to brag about our awesome night, when we learned he was there too. Too bad we didn't see each other, but we did have better seats, so that was a good consolation. Then we all headed out to get a few sights in before me and Cara left on a train to Prague. We managed to get into the White Rose memorial this time and it was really interesting. We picked up a thick booklet to read later and had a second hand accounting of some of the events. The caretaker was really into it and told us some stories from one of the former White Rose members who comes in from time to time to talk to anyone interested. Unfortunately we lingered too long and only got in one sight, a church, before we hit the train station in a rush. We picked up our bags, got a take-out bite, and got on our train to Prague. So far so good, we used to have another passenger in our compartment, but the conductor made her move to second class after seeing her ticket. We just found out though that we need to change trains at the border, so we'll see how that pans out.

Heavenly Hallstatt

Our connections from Bled to Hallstatt worked out quite well and we had about a half hour layover at one station and we were able to phone ahead to the tourist office and make a reservation in a Gasthaus in Hallstatt. When we got to Hallstatt the boat across to Hallstatt. The weather wasn't cooperating though and it was cloudy and rainy all night. We still took a bit of a walk around and grabbed some dinner at a nice restaurant. The meal was great and Cara's spicy rice and my smokedwas waiting for us and ferried us fish were real highlights. After dinner we walked a bit and went back to the room for some sleep.

Thursday morning we woke up early and got our free breakfast. Standard fair. We got some info on the town and asked about getting a few laundry items done. Helga told us of a place but it was a bit pricey and a bit of a walk. We only had a few items to do and we only really wanted them washed, so I politely asked if we might just be able to throw them in her machine. She said ok and we agreed to pay her some euro. The weather was rainy again though so she said she'd throw them in the dryer, and I told her not to worry about folding them or anything like that. Bonus, so we went out on our day of sightseeing. Hallstatt is having some sort of exhibition on until November so we got an exhibition pass for the bargain price of 7 euro. This gives us access to pretty much everything in Hallstatt, except the salt mine, which was actually our first stop. We took the funicular up to the salt mine and once there got into our sweet jump suits with leather butts for the wooden slides in the mine. The tour was quite informative. They estimate that for 7000 years now people have been living in the region and harvesting the salt. It wasn't till about 3000 years ago that people got organized and started digging and implementing an industrial system. Initially people would chip the crumbly salt rock out with picks made from antlers (later replaced by bronze aduring the Bronze Age) and carry it down to the town. The area was really rich because salt was the white gold of the past (preservative and seasoner in one). The acheologists believe trade reached all the way to Africa. Hallstatt was such a center of economy for the Alps reagion from 800 to 400 BC that they've actually labeled that era the Hallstatt Era. Then in 400 BC there was a massive mud slide that buried many entrances and killed many people. Everyone was scared and most people left for another safer salt mine in the region. During the middle ages salt mining revived and recently, only 500 years ago, they advanced the extraction method to using water. By drilling holes into massive salt deposits they can then use water to dissolve the salt and then pump it out and use massive kettles to boil the water out and you're left with salt. They actually use this method today in the mine to extract the salt. Another interesting tidbit is that they found a man perfectly preserved in salt in 1700 and they estimate he was trapped during the mud slide. The people in the 1700s didn't have a clue though and just buried the man somewhere, yet to be found. The area is so rich in salt that they've found many graves from antiquity and even the clothing is much better preserved for it.

The tour of the mine was pretty decent and the giant wooden slides were a highlight, although next time I'll bring a silk scarf like the guide and get extra speed going down. One down point of the tour was that it was combined German and English and I could tell the Germans in the crowd were getting alot more information than us. One segment didn't even have English. Not that I'm ignorant or anything but we paid just like everyone else and they advertised English tours, so I was disappointed when we missed out on a lot of the info. After the salt mine we walked through some more stuff to do with the mine and acheology and then took the funicular back down to hit the museum. On the way to the museum we went inside a crazy soap shop, looking for a wash cloth but we couldn't find any. Cara got some homemade soap for less than 2 euro and they gave her a free washcloth with her purchase, suckers...

If we missed info at the salt mine we definately got our fill at the museum and there was tons to digest (archeology, not art museum). After the museum we saw the Catholic church and went to the bone chapel too. Hallstatt doesn't have much real estate and you only got 10 years in the graveyard before you were dug up and laid out in the sun to rot and bleach your bones. Then they painted the skulls with names and various symbolic plants and stack you up in bone chapel. Fortunately/unfortunately the prefered method of burial is now cremation and that doesn't take up much space, so now virtually nobody goes in there (permanently) anymore. One lady did in 1994, but that was rare, and only granted after special request. The whole thing was pretty morbid, but interesting nonetheless. After we went and got some food at the supermarket and dropped it off at the room. At the room we were horrified to find out that there was a problem with the dryer and Helga actually hung out all our clothes on a drying rack in our room. Horrified because she had to handle our socks and underwear and because it took her much longer, where she didn't really want to do it in the first place. We got over it though and after a full day of sights we went looking for internet and found that the going rate was 1 euro for 6 minutes so we had a hurried session at a nearby cafe (1 euro for 15 minutes) and looked for accommodation and train connections, and then got out. After that we went back to the room and eat some food (salad and soup) and had a night in because of the rain.

Friday morning we woke up and did breakfast again, where we saw Helga and thanked her profusely for the laundry. Then we went to the last major stop on the exhibition a local art/technology school. It was pretty good and they had stuff from the students on display, so really funky and quality furniture, art, sculptures and instruments as well. I was particularily impressed with the instruments. Then we went on a walk up the valley and took in some nature before heading back to the room to get our bags. Then we took the boat across the lake to the train. After two changes on progressively speedier and direct trains we are on our way to Munich. Actually on the same train from Lesce/Bled that we rode a few days ago. Salzburg station was decked out in Austria flags because the Euro cup is being held in Switzerland and Austria right now. Luckily we already did Austria, because I'm not sure accommodations are readily available in the major cities right now. We look forward to Munich though and hope that 3 nights is enough to see all we want.

Breathtaking Bled

We got off the train in Lesce, because Bled is accessible only by road, and our luck immediately turned around when we met a very nice and eager to please tourism lady at the train station. She helped us decide what train to take out of Lesce to get to Hallstatt, how to find our Hostel and where to catch the bus to Bled. We could have figured most of it out ourselves I think, except the train part, but we weren't about to turn down her awesome help. We got a bus to Bled and made a short hike up the hill to the hostel. We checked in and discovered that the awesome deal Cara had thought she heard on the phone was not 7 euro but 27 euro each. We kinda figured it was too good to be true. We immediately dropped our bags and were out the door to see a bit of Bled before the sun went down. We made it to the castle just before 8pm and since the ticket booth was closed we got free entry and enjoyed the awesome scenery for the remaining time the castle was open. We then headed down to the lake and satisfied we had squeezed in some sight seeing headed back to the hostel looking at a couple restaurants on the way. During our browsing we walked past a house and were surprised to see a horse and two colts. They were still really wobbly and I asked the owner how long ago they were born, he said 6 days. After admiring the guy's fine twins, we decided our Hostel offered the best looking food and reasonable prices. We were right; my pasta was awesome and Cara got a huge selection on the tourist plate for 9 euro and she needed help finishing it. After our meal we headed to our room and finished the movie on TV that was playing in the restaurant during dinner. Pretty much the fist TV we watched that wasn't soccer. It was in English (Slovanian subs) and apparently I was so starved of TV, I was willing to watch a pretty crummy movie.

Wednesday morning Cara's alarm got us up at 6am. She had set it the night before wanting to get some hiking in before our 11am train. Morning changed her mind and she decided to catch up on some sleep so she wouldn't get sick. I wasn't feeling too run down though and decided to do the walk anyway. I packed up my camera gear and hiked back up the Castle for a morning view of the lake. The sun rises around 5:15 now, so I missed that, but the view was still great and it had rained during the night and was still drizzling a bit, which offered a misty and cloudy effect. Then I went down the lakes edge and walked around the entire lake. It was very peaceful and I saw only a few morning joggers and people fishing besides the water fowl. Swans and ducks aplenty and many of them had little ones tagging along. After about 2 and a half hours I found myself back at the hostel and joined Cara for breakfast. She told me she had a good morning and slept mostly while I was out. Standard breakfast again and after breakfast I went to pack up. Cara had already packed up, so she went to the market to see if she could find some deodorant and shampoo. We then checked out and went to the bus stop. We got to the bus stop about 20 minutes early, so I sat with the bags and told Cara where to find a nice park so she could see some more of Bled. We made the very short journey to Lesce and waited around for our train to depart. We now sit on a train headed for Munich, but we'll be getting off in St. Veit and after a few connections should be in Hallstatt by 5:31pm.

Picturesque Plitvice

We got off the bus at Plitvice but we actually needed to go down the road about 5 km, so we hopped back on the bus, much to the ire of our bus attendant, and after a short ride arrived at our true destination. Once at the camp ground we checked in, checked out the facilities and hit the market for some drinks. We got a couple beer and sat down at a picnic table right outside our cabin. There was another couple there and we got to talking after a bit. The guy was obviously not too impressed by the lack of partying going on at the campsite. Apparently he wasn't aware that it was Sunday and campsites are not exactly party central. He was Irish though and gave us some great tips about sight seeing in Ireland. We also got a little insight into the UK phsychy and learned that he absolutley hates it when other countries call garbage "garbage" in their English translations. I guess he figures if they're going to translate it they might as well translate it for the English speaking folk that live on the same continent and call it "rubbish". He also had a problem about how the Swedish pronounce tomato. A funny guy for sure, and after a bit of chatting and beers we hit the hay.

Monday morning we woke up pretty early and went for our included breakfast at the restaurant. It was pretty standard really, and after breakfast we got ready and caught the 9 am bus to Plitvice. We paid the entrance fees and started hiking. We love hiking and it was a really great day, although we had to deal with European crowds again. For whatever reason (I'm guessing overpopulation and constant crowds), people will simply not get out of your way here. After a while you kinda get tired of jumping off the trail for everyone who comes by and you decide to just stand your ground. That works umost of the time but you occasionally get sholder checked by people who are even more resolute than you. This happened to Cara while passing a school group of 10 year olds, almost knocking her into the lake. They were walking 3 people side by side on a trail meant for 1.5 people... Luckily they weren't any older or bigger or else she might have gone for a swim. The crowds weren't too bad though, not as busy as Cinque Terre and I'm sure it's much busier here in high season.

Plitvice is quite the natural phenomenon; the waters that supply Plitvice come mostly from underground springs where the water has become rich with calcium bicarbonate, by dissolving underground limestone. Then, because of the change in temperature, calcium bicarbonate recrystalizes and is picked up by the moss growing in the park. Over time this forms Travertine stone. It's a very hard and porous stone and was used by the Romans to make the Colusseum and other monuments. In Plitvice this has the effect of making tons of water falls. Because instead of eating away where the water spills out, it actually deposits stone and so waterfalls become more and more spread out and what once was a river is now a series of lakes. It's quite amazing and there are literally hundreds of water falls in the tiny park, and dozens of lakes too. For more information on the chemistry behind the rock, please e-mail Adam McLean at adammclean_485@hotmail.com. (Ha ha ha).

After a full day of hiking and lots of photo taking, we called it a rest and had a beer while we waited for our bus back to the campground. Once back at the campground we enjoyed dinner at the fully equiped campground restaurant (camping isn't so rough over here). Then we grabbed a bottle of wine and sat outside for a bit of relaxing. Staying two days in Plitvice was great because we had nothing but the one day of hiking and therfore forced us to slow down, take a break and do some relaxing. After sitting outside for a bit we corked the wine and went to bed.

Tuesday morning we got up and did the breakfast thing again. This time we came prepared with ziploc bags and a purse and packed ourselves a nice lunch for our day of traveling. We hoped to be in Bled sometime around 3 in the afternoon. After breakfast we packed up and checked and, after double checking the bus schedule, we waited on the side of the highway for the bus heading for Zagreb. We showed up 20 minutes early and after an hour and a half we finally got on a bus. After about a two hour bus ride we got to Zagreb and made the walk to the train station. We knew a train was leaving within 5 minutes of our bus getting to Zagreb so we walked fast. We thought about a taxi, but with the traffic, walking was probably best. Our only hope was that the train was late, it was not. We asked around and our next best option was to take a train to Sevnica. We did that and found that we missed the connecting train by 2 minutes. So after waiting another hour we got a slow train to Ljubljana. Finally in Ljubjana we ran to the track for Bled and missed another train (our train arrived 3 minutes after our connecting train left, grr...). Another 45 minutes wasted. Finally we are on our way to Bled and expect to arrive in Bled 4 hours late. A travel day from hell, and we can only hope we have enough time to appreciate Bled.

Sunny Split

We got off the most uncomfortable train yet around 9pm and then tried to find our hotel. With a broken GPS and no detailed maps of Croatia we needed to go the old fashioned route. We obtained a really crappy map, displaying only about 10% of the streets and then got a few directions from locals. After heading out and going in the wrong direction we met a lady who knows the lady who runs the place we were staying at and she used her cell to call Nina (our hostess) and we even got to talk to her. She told us to take bus 18 and go three stops. We waited for the bus for about 10 minutes and decided it wasn't that far and that we could walk. We got there after a half hour walk and met Nina. She appologized for not realizing that bus 18 wasn't running this late. Oh well we got settled in our surprisingly big room and went to bed.

Saturday morning we got up and hit the supermarket for a bit of breakfast, which we brought back to our room. Then we changed rooms, because we were actually staying in Nina's room (a little overbooked I guess). No big deal and the new room was even nicer. Then we hit the old town for a little sight seeing. Unfortunately it was stinking hot and after about an hour we decided to change our plans, so we walked back to the hotel and hit the beach. The beach was rocky, but nonetheless busy. Complete with water soccer, there were a lot of locals at the beach. We relaxed and read for a few hours and then decided to get back to sight seeing. Now evening and much cooler, we went to the old town and overpaid for some internet in order to book accomodations for Plitvice. We also went and saw the roman palace. It was interesting because, since its birth as a roman palace, it has been converted to domestic use and a number of citizens, bars, gift shops and restaurants now call it home. After a bit of sights we went for dinner at a delicious seafood place, where we tried not to think about the pollutants we were ingesting. The Mediterranean isn't exactly the cleanest ocean, in case you didn't know. After dinner we grabbed some gelato and made our way home through some more interesting parts of town.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit, packed up and ended up skipping breakfast. We headed down towards the beach again and went to a supermarket and grabbed some food. We enjoyed a drinkable yogurt while watching some very good amateur tennis at the park. The 10 year old girls even impressed me and I'm sure they might have beaten me in a match. After a bit of tennis we walked along the water front to a used book store where Cara got her latest book (6th book since Greece and she can't read on trains because of motion sickness, so she reads like crazy in the evenings). With the purchase of a book we got some free internet and we booked some accomodations for our return to Slovania. We liked it so much and heard good things about Bled. After internet we walked along the water some more and eventually turned in for some lunch, bags and all. Lunch was pretty decent and after that we headed to the bus depot. We boarded a bus for Plitvice and after a few minutes were on our way. So now we sit hoping the internet is wrong and the reception doesn't close at 6pm, because we aren't going to arrive until 7pm.

Lovin'it in Ljubljana

We got off the train in Ljubljana around 1pm and made our way to our hostel we booked the night before, but after we checked on trains going to Zagreb and Split at the information window. It was a great walk along a river that winds through the town. Slovenia might sound a bit sketchy if you don't know much about it, I mean it was part of Yugoslavia right. But it's really nice. It borders with Italy and Austria and has a little bit of the Alps and everything was really clean and all round I prefer Slovenia to Italy really, but Italy has more historic stuff, so you gotta go there I guess. Slovenia is really industial though; when it was part of Yugoslavia it only made up 8% of the population and probably less than that in land mass, but they cranked out 20% of the GDP. Slovenia was first to break away from Yugoslavia too and only suffered 10 days of war and 66 deaths. Enough history though back to talking about us, haha.

We found the hostel with no problems and it was only a 15 minute walk away. The hostel had free internet so we took advantage of that and I updated the blog for Lille and Salzburg and checked on the Stanley Cup. Still can't believe the Penguins are in the final. I know I'm asking to have my cake and eat it too, but I wish I could have watched the playoffs this year. Anyway, after internet we went out to sight see, as we only were planning about 8 hours in Ljubljana. So we walked up to the top and checked out the cool castle, although after Salzburg it wasn't really too impressive. The castle was pretty progressive though and has plexiglass windows, a funicular and plays host to lots of exhibitions. We checked out one of the exhibitions, the entries for the EU architecture competition. It was actually really interesting and my favorite was Mercedes Benz building and Cara's was the organ steps in Zadar, Croatia. The steps were really interesting. They built steps decending into the ocean and as the waves crash they force air through tubes under the steps and play a tune on a wave powered organ. Apparently it's a big crowd draw to a once neglected area of the waterfront. But enough about architecture, back to us, hehe. After the exhibit we payed a couple euro to go to the top tower of the castle and watch a little video on the history of Ljubljana. The video was good and the view from the top was quite amazing. After the Castle we headed down to the main square of Ljubljana. The town is really vibrant and there are tons of busy cafe lining the river, it was really nice to walk through. The river flows pretty fast too, so it's not gross looking like Venice's or Bruges' canals. We wandered around a bit more and checked out a couple churches and checked out a city planning exhibition... boring, but you really see that they have big plans for Ljubljana and me and Cara both agree this place will be big pretty soon. So far it seems most of the tourists here are from eastern europe, and we've only seen a few western europeans and backpackers. It really felt like we got a little bit of the beaten track. We weren't about to visit Bosnia this trip though, so we hit a Bosnian restaurant for some food. It was quite a heavy meal though, consisting of sausages, bread, onions and a creamy butter sauce. It was cheap though and definately different. After all that meat we bought an ice cream cone at a stall and wandered along the river towards our hostel. We turned in early because we were anticipating a long day tomorrow. We figured we catch the train to Zagreb early and take another overnight train to Split after a day of sightseeing in Zagreb.

Friday morning we woke up and Cara told me she hadn't slept well, so taking the overnight train was out of the question. So I showered up and Cara booked a hostel for Split for the night. We then made our way to the train station and caught a 2 hour train to Zagreb, Croatia, where we had our rail pass checked 3 times and had our passports stamped twice.

We arrived in Zagreb a little behind schedule and taking the afternoon train instead of the overnight, only gave us about 4 hours to spend in Zagreb, but that proved to be enough for us. We wandered around and looked at the very cool cathedral with a painted tile roof that, unfortunately, was completely covered in scaffolding. Then we bought some food and made a picnic in one of the beautifully flowered parks. After having lunch we decided to kill the rest of our time in a museum, the archeological museum. This proved to be a great activity for Cara as she loves ancient Egypt and they had a lot of artifacts. I liked the photography exhibit on one of the lower floors. We enjoyed Zagreb but wondered what staying there would be like. Anyway, we then caught a train to Split. 6 hours on a city bus is what I would liken it too. It was reserve seating so we couldn't move and it looks like I'm going to sit facing and sharing leg room with another commuter for the whole journey. The scenery is amazing, but the ride is extremely unfomfortable. We plan on taking the bus back up, and I hear they are better, so here's to hoping.

Salty Salzburg

The ride from Munich to Salzburg was quick and soon we were in Salzburg trying to figure out where to stay. We headed to the tourist information office, but it looked more like a place to get info on tours and stuff and a sign said that 2.50 would be charged for booking accomodations. So we grabbed some info on Sound of Music tours and went to a pay phone. We figured we'd phone a couple places in the Lonley Planet first. The first place we phoned had a room, so we took it. By the description it looked to be the best and it had breakfast all for about 30 euro a night. After we hung up the phone we realised we didn't really know where it was. So we asked and were told to get on the S2 train. We looked at the board and saw it was leaving in 2 minutes, so we ran over and hopped on. We got off on the first stop and I booted up my GPS, only to find that it isn't working for some reason. It turns on and connects to bluetooth, but no satellite reception... crappy. So we still used the GPS maps and navigated the old fashioned way. It wasn't too far actually, but it was up a pretty steep hill. Once there we found that nobody was home, which was really strange, because I had talked to the lady not 10 minutes ago. Within a few minutes they pulled up in a car though; I guess they went to grab some groceries. After we settled in and grabbed a shower, we hit the short 5 minute train ride back to Salzburg to do some sight seeing in the sweltering heat. Neither of us was expecting Austria to be this humid and hot and in May too.

Salzburg literally means salt castle and with good reason. The area is very rich with salt, which made Salzburg virtually impenetrable. During a seige, back before canons were invented, all the cards lay with the defenders; the attackers would waste many times more men to take a castle, so the most effective way to take a well fortified castle was to camp out and set up an embargo to starve them out. Salzburg was rich with salt, which was a preservative, so starving them out would take years. So nobody really bothered trying and anyone who did lost. The only time Salzburg was taken was during Napolean's reign and the people of Salzburg just surrendered, not being interested in opposing Napolean's hordes. Other than having a very cool fortress, Salzburg is a very beautiful city with lots of gardens, has great shopping and has a brewery run by monks.

We needed to do some laundry today so we dropped our clothes off in a locker at the train station (2 euro is much better than the 5 in Paris). Then we headed off to the old town, where Cara got to scratch her shopping itch again. H&M, Zara, and a few more local shops. Then we went and checked out a couple of the churches, squares and fountains. Then we headed to the Catacombs, where we were surprised by the amazing 1 euro entry fee. After a few mintes we realized why though, they were tiny and not even any bones (the poster had bones). It was getting to be supper time and so we headed to the Monk brewery for a little barley dinner.

The brewery was huge and there was no less than 4 beer halls, all with 100-200 person capacities. It was a little less than half full this day (Tuesday) and most people where in the court yard hall. We sat out there too after grabbing a couple half litre steins. You could get half litre, full litre or boxes of beer. You pay, grab the appropriate glass,

rinse it out in the fountain and pass it to a guy who pours you a beer out of a wooden keg. I'm sure the wooden kegs are for show, but it looks good. After we sat around taking it all in for a few minutes we went and grabbed some beer hall food, 2 Salzburgers and a weird cooked bologna thing. I saw a bunch of Austrian guys lining up for the bologna thing, so we gave it a whirl, not too bad. After another couple of beers we headed

back towards the newer part of town, which took us through the Schloss Mirabell gardens. Built in the 1600s by an archbishop, they are very well kept. After picking up our clothes at the train station we went to a laundromat and dumped our clothes in a machine, where we used soap from Barcelona (thanks Mom). Then we went to kill a half hour on the internet where I posted the Brussels blog and we looked at getting to Croatia. It started looking like we might have a stop over on the way. Slovenia looks nice. So we picked up our wet laundry and hopped a train back to the B&B where we hung it out and went to bed.

Thursday morning we got up early and had the breakfast. I was a little disappointed, only a couple of buns and some jam, meat and cheese. Oh well we decided to hit a supermarket sometime during the day to get some fruit and veggies. Then we headed out on the...... Sound of Music Tour. Cara was extremely excited, but I was finding it hard to get excited since I've never seen the movie. Fortunately Cara's excitement was infectious. This is definately something bigger budget travels do, 33 euro each, but they picked us up at the B&B, so that was alright. Once on the bus, my suspisions were confirmed; it was filled with Japanese tourists, seniors and Americans. We met a cool older couple from New Zeland though and had a good talk about pine beatle and termites. The tour started up and our guide was pretty funny. She definately had a British sense of humor, but we both like British humor. After seeing a few of the houses and scenery used in the movie we headed to the lake district to see the church used in the marriage scene. After an hour of wandering around in the small town on the lake we headed back to Salzburg. The tour was pretty good, but I felt a bit rushed and most of the four hours were spent on a bus. But we got some good behind the scenes info, and Cara enjoyed it, which is what counts. The tour ended at the gardens, so we checked those out again and saw another couple props from the movie. Then we headed off to the fortress. Now I was in my element, cool castles and medieval warfare antiques. After the castle, we hit one more shopping stop. C&A where Cara's short search came to an end and I got a Swiss soccer jersey (I really like Switzerland). Then we rushed back towards the train station. We only had a half hour before our train left so we split up. Cara went to get groceries and I went to get internet to find out about trains and buses in Croatia. When we met up we decided that, because of the connections, we're going to stop in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Then, with only a few minutes left, we rushed to catch the train. On the train we realised we forgot to get money out and our B&B didn't do visa, so we had to get off and wait an hour for the next train. We got cash and ate some crackers and pudding, brooding about forgetting to stop at a bank. Stuff happens though and you can't really get down, because who wants to be down on vacation. When we finally got to the B&B we made dinner and then packed up a bit, anticipating an early departure the next morning.

Thursday morning we got up and had the skimpy breakfast again. This time we packed up and checked out to catch a train to the station. Once at the station we found our platform for our train to Ljubljana and waited. After about 20 minutes the train arrived and we got on. We were sitting in the Austrian part of the train and when we asked the conductor, we found that the train was going to split somewhere near the border and we needed to move to the rear of the train. We moved and found the Slovenian part of the train quite a bit less swanky. After Slovenia we plan to go all the way to Split then catch a bus to Plitvice and then another bus and a couple of trains to Munich, but that's not for a whole 5 days from now. Amazing how much you can get done in such a short time armed with a Eurail Pass. We are definately liking Germany and Austria (hardly ever are reservation fees required). So here we sit wondering what Slovenia will have in store for us.

Leslie Live in Lille

The unofficial title of this blog is "Feisty in France" as per Cara's suggestion, but Feist's first name is apparently Leslie and we stayed in Lille. Anyway, we hopped off the train in Lille and then went about figuring out the metro in Lille and that was pretty simple, only 2 lines. This time we had made reservations well in advance since we knew we would be in Lille on the 25th of May. We got to our hotel and checked in. There was definately some confusion here as there was another guest named Carre and he/she was not getting the same rate on the room as us. We eventually straightened it out and got our 18 euro discount. The room was ok, nothing special, but it was a bit of a walk to the metro (800 meters). Once at the hotel I read while Cara gussied up for the concert, then we made for the concert. Once at the concert we were separated in the line (guys and girls needed different friskers) and they made me check my camera, as photos are not allowed in the concert. He might have told that to the other few hundred people taking pictures. Anyway, because of the coat check and Cara taking a washroom break, we got separated. After about 10 minutes of running around we finally found each other. By now a few hundred more poeple had come in and all the good spots were taken. Eventually we plopped down on a set of stairs. There were more people on the stairs already, but there was room for people to walk up. The opening act was pretty good, an English group, I think, called "Lawrence of Arabia". During the half hour intermission 4 people decided it was about time to clog up the stairs completely. This caused some major problems and everyone coming up or going down the stairs was not impressed. It amazed me that these 4 people could just sit there and ignore the obvious problem they were causing. The idiot next to us was especially rude, he wouldn't even move when people tried to get by and so me and Cara did most of the moving. He wouldn't even keep the aisle clear during intermission. I eventually started tapping him on the shoulder anytime someone wanted by, and I think he wanted to take me outside by the end of the show. There was also a pillar that was obstucting his girlfriends view, so he continually moved closer to us and blocked the passage even more. He obviously wasn't even enjoying the show and why he didn't change spots with his girlfriend, I have no idea. Me, Cara and most of the people around us agreed this guy was the most moronic person in existence. We didn't let it get us down and we enjoyed the show nonetheless. Cara especially was excited and can't stop giving Feist enough compliments. Things that stuck out about the show: A group of Canadians (Quebequois) brought a flag which Fiest held up for a brief time. The light/projector show was all done live with a couple of girls and a projector and various paints, leaves, flashlights and glitter and was quite good. She tried to speak french, which the crowd liked, but wasn't fooling anyone. And finally she did 2 encores which was great and about a third of the poeple left before the 2nd encore, including the rude people, so it was awesome and we had some of the best seats in the house.

After the show we tried our luck at a nicer looking kebab place. Cara picked it, so apparently her frugal sense is stronger than her common sense, hehe. But she ordered the vegetarian plate, so all was well. After a short wander around Lille we headed back on the metro to our hotel.

Monday morning we got up and checked out of the hotel. Then after a metro ride to the train station we found that all the spots for Eurail passengers were taken on the next few TGV's to Paris, so we had to wait for the noon train. That wasn't so bad though, because it gave us a chance to go to a supermaket (biggest one yet) and get some breakfast and other supplies. It also gave us plenty of time to arrange tickets on the night train to Munich from Paris. We did miss having lunch with Cara's friend Manon in Paris though. We were a bit concerned when we were telling the agent how expensive and horrible the Elipsos train was and he responded by saying from what he understands it's a very nice train. Oh well I figured we'd be able to judge ourselves after this trip. We ate some pastries and yogurt at the station for breakfast while waiting for our train. After the quick jaunt to Paris we made the short yet confusing walk to the other station, where our train to Munich was leaving from. We checked our bags at this station (most expensive yet at 5 euro per bag) and then went about deciding what to do with our day in Paris. Our guide book said that the catacombs were closed as well as the museum Cara wanted to visit. We double checked this info and it was correct. So despite the rain forecast we decided to check out the Montmarte area. After determining that our map was really crappy and getting lost, we made our way (through some really interesting areas filled with discount shops and guys selling smokes out of their pockets) to Montmatre and the church of the Sacre Coeur. The church is quite impressive and has some modern art stained glass, but it was just build in 1870, so it's not really too historic. The view from the steps out front is quite good though. After the church it started raining in earnest and we decided that our 5 euro umbrella, that we bought on the way to the Eiffel tower the last time we were in Paris, wasn't going to make it through the trip and we should probably look for something else. We wandered around Montmatre, checked out some cool art galleries, awed at the amazingly expensive menus, and got soaking wet. We weren't into getting any more drenched so we hit the metro and went to basically the other side of town. The Lonely Planet listed a pretty good sounding Vietnamese restaurant called Paris Hanoi, so we went there. It wasn't open for a few more minutes to we wandered around and found another Monoprix (Walmart to the French) and bought a decent umbrella. Then we made it back to the restaurant, which was now almost packed (popular place). We sat down at a 6 person table with 2 other groups of 2 at it. The restaurant might be tiny with no room to move, but the food was great and the prices pretty agreeable. After dinner we still had a bit of time to kill so we made our way slowly to the station. At the station we found a bunch of machine guns (complete with army guys) and a bunch of flagging tape. We eventually asked someone what was going on and he pointed to a piece of baggage next to a cafe and said "someone forgot their baggage." Shortly after, a bomb squad guy (with no armour) rifled through the bag and declared it safe. It was about time to board our train by now and so we got on. It's true that the Elipsos train was nicer, but not by much. The Elipsos had already made beds, a tiny sink, and, when the beds weren't down, seats. But this train was 23 euro for our reservation and Elipsos was just over 143, so I think I'll take this one thanks. We had a nice chat with a German lady that spoke French, but little English. So that was good to practice with someone who didn't really care at our butchery of the language. I slept pretty well, but Cara said she didn't get much sleep again. Once in Munich we transfered to a train for Budapest...... that stops in Salzburg (had you going didn't I?). Nothing online looked great so we're going to try and find accommodations once we get there. So here we sit in first class on a pretty posh train headed for Salzburg.