long overdue backpacking entry

So this has been a long time coming but here is what we did whilst backpacking:

Paris

We all flew into Paris. Cassie and I arrived earlier then Kate and Kaitlyn so we met up and went ahead to the hostel. We have a few hours to kill before we meet K+K so we walk around and stumble upon Sacre Couer. It was amazing and basically right behind our hostel. So we took a lot of pictures there and hung out in the grass. We walked all around then met K+K in the hostel room of 6 with which we shared with 2 german girls. That night we walked to the arc de triumph and down the champ elysees and had some dinner on the way back because it started to pour. On the way back we split up so K+K could go to Sacre Couer and C and I found ourselves walking through the red light district, which included Moulin Rouge.
The next day we went to Notre Dame which was really cool but somewhat disappointing to me. It just didn’t stand out as much from everything else I’ve seen. I mean, don’t get me wrong it was impressive, but it wasn’t as impressive as I figured it would be. Then we went to the Musee d’Orsay which is all modern art so I obviously loved that. There were Monets and Manets and Van Goghs and Degases and Matisses etc etc. Then around noon Kaitlyn peaced out to go to Versaille while Kate, Cassie and I decided to stay in Paris and hang out in the city all day. We did things such as: the two palaces, the hotel del invalids (very cool), gardens outside the louver, a carnival which included a ferris wheel ride so we could see the entire city. Then we were supposed to meet up with Kaitlyn before going into the Louvre at night (free for students) but we couldn’t find her so Cassie and I went in ahead because Kate has already been in, and went and saw Mona and Venus and Winged Victory and then breezed through the other stuff. It was here we started the tradition of mimicking statues (note the webshots). It rained on and off all day.
After the Louvre C and I went to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up while K and K went home. It was amazing. The rain stopped just enough for us to sit underneath the Eiffel Tower which lit up and on the hour it sparkles for like 10 min. We self portraited and avoided vendors and basically just were content to sit there forever. It was awesome.

Amsterdam

From Paris we took a train to Brussels and were exactly perfectly and luckily timed to run to a train that was leaving for Amsterdam in about 2 min… so we made it to Amsterdam that night and checked into our sweet hostel which had about 400 other people staying in it too. As we were walking around the city that night, in a break from the rain for once, we stumbled upon this huge opera thing that was going on. There were hundreds of people lining the canals or sitting in boats all waiting for this opera. So we find this little restaurant called Noodles-to-Go and get some noodles… to go (funny, huh). We take our noodles and go sit on the side of a canal and enjoy the opera and just hanging out for once. Then we went home and changed to go out and Kaitlyn did this snowboarding thing that was in a plaza that is like a mechanical bull only a mechanical snowboard. She did pretty well. Then she took part in this breakdance show… and she was pretty out of control. We ended up at this bar called Amsterdamed and had some fun there. Then we went to bed.
The next day K+K got up early and went to the Ann Frank house. C+I were supposed to meet then for a free walking tour afterwards but it was raining (surprise?) so we all skipped that and went to the Van Gogh museum instead. Then we found a huge statue of letters spelling out I AmSterdam so we took pictures there, in the rain, then we got lost going home and walked all around Vondel Park. Then we came back and had some dinner and went to see the Red Light District before it got too dark and creepy. Kaitlyn and I actually got offered a student discount to a live porn show? Then after leaving the red light district we went back to Amsterdamed for the night and then went to bed.
The next day we got up and took the walking tour then because there was a break in the rain. Our tour guide was crazy (girl from Colorado or Wisconsin or somewhere like that) but it was a really good tour and we actually learned a lot. So that was good. Then we basically immediately got on a train to go to Brussels

Brussels

We only spent about 6 hours in Brussels. We got in, stored our stuff in a locker, walked through the rain to the plaza where all the cool buildings are, and got some chocolate. Who can resist Belgian chocolate? Then we tried to wait out some of the rain by getting some dinner. We had sandwiches and then for dessert we had Belgian waffles drizzled in Belgian chocolate. So good. Then we just went back to the train station, pretty early for our 11 pm night train. Whilst in the train station pretty much everything went to hell. We were just sitting there and then some guy came up to us and was basically yelling in English asking if we spoke French. We were just ignoring him but he kept going so we didn’t really know what to do, but he kept getting closer and louder. We were looking around wondering if anyone else saw what was going on. Then C eventually just yelled at him to leave so he did. About 3 minutes later a guy sitting near us jumped up and ran around frantically then ran to the police. So what we assumed happened was that we were a distraction for a pickpocket. Oops.
Anyways, the night train was good we had our little beds and basically passed out right away, so that was night, and we got to Berlin early in the morning.

Berlin

So we drop our stuff off in the hostel and go get some pastries for breakfast then we hit up the same free walking tour that we did in Amsterdam. We get to see alllll the historic Berlin stuff including the Holocaust monument, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitlers Bunker, etc etc. Our guide there was SO GOOD and I feel like we got so much out of it. Then afterwards, since the rain had stopped for a little bit, we went back to all the places that we saw on the tour but didn’t really get to spend sufficient time at. We also went to the Reichstag and that was a really cool building too because we got to see the whole city. Then we went home and K + K tried some Berliner Beers, such as Monk beer, and we had chips and salsa in our hostel room with 4 random guys, then we went to the hostel bar and made some friends, then we passed out.
The next day we got up and walked around more and went to the stadium where the World Cup was and did more of the things we wanted to see again including the terrorism outside museum, which was really cool and interesting except for that half of it was only in German and it started to rain halfway through. So Berlin was good, although it was a huuuge city so not really one of my favorite places.

Munich

Well, here was one of, if not the, favorite place we went to. Munich was just really sweet. We, again, did that same free walking tour, we went to Olympic Stadium, Dachau (the concentration camp) met so many people in the hostel bar, and just had a lot of fun. Obviously youre probably questioning how Dachau could be fun, well… it wasn’t. It was probably the most depressing place I’ve ever been. The slight misty rain that was coming down seemed appropriate as we walked through gas chambers and ovens. The nice part was that there was a religious monument on this back path through the woods that included all religions, not just jews, which was interesting to me. I took some really cool pictures there so check them out.
But besides that, Munich was all about having a good time. Kate and I met people from Australia who run a pub crawl and we got to hang out with them… and we met some Spanish guys from near Barcelona so we actually learned a lot from them about nationalism, etc etc. It was so much fun.
The next day we went to the Residencia palace and walked through the English gardens and saw the pagoda and had pretzels bigger than my face… then we jumped on a train to

Salzburg

We got into Salzburg and our train dropped us off at the bottom of this enormous hill. It sucked. We hauled all our crap up the steepest incline and found our Haus Christine.. which is much less a hostel than a bed and breakfast. This really cute, old, grandmother took us in and showed us around and then we went back into old Salzburg for the night. We walked around and its Mozarts like 250 birthday this year so everything is Mozart. We walked through some really cool gardens and had some dinner, then we went back early to Haus Christine to sleep.
The next day we got up, had a nice breakfast from grandma and went into town to the Festung Hohensalburg… which is a castle. It was pretty cool but doesn’t rival the one from Lithuania. Then we did some shopping, got a traditional Austrian lunch, and got on our train to Vienna

Vienna

In Vienna we stayed in Wombats, one of the best hostels… we walked around and ended up eating dinner at this Turkish place. Then we walked to find a club but no dice so we went back to our hostel bar where Kate, Kaitlyn, and I hung out. We played some international foosball and some cards with some irish guys then we went to bed.
We got up the next day at 9 and went to the Stephansdome, parliament, the operahouse, churches, etc, Hapsburg palace, you get the idea. Then we wandered around some gardens, came back to the hostel and napped and then went to a film festival that was showing an opera… random but fun. Then we went back to our hostel bar and Kate and I hung out again and met some German students.
The next day we went to a huge produce market and got a real breakfast. Then we went to th Hapsburg summer palace and did a maze and a labyrinth there which was really cool. Then we went to get on the train to Venice. We ended up being crammed into this rediciulously small room with a german couple who I got to spoon with… it was nice…

Venice

Venice was amazing. We walked all along the canals and ate a lot of gelato and fought with some pigeons and then went to dinner. Basically Venice was a lot of wandering around
The next day we did a gondola ride… yay! And we had the boss of all the gondoliers as our guide so that was a lot of fun. Then we walked around more and jumped on our train to Florence

Florence

Florence… again really cool. Basically we saw so much art… including the David… which was perfect. Literally perfect. Cassie had a friend who studied in Florence so we had a lot of good tips on where to go and met a lot of cool people. At night Kate, kaitlyn, and I hung out with some gelato workers who told us where to go out… then we went to bed.
The next day was much of the same… lot of art… lot of walking… lot of gelato… and a sunset over a bridge.
The next day we jumped on our train to Rome.

Rome

Wow… Rome. The first day we went to the Colosseum and that was amazing. I loved that. It was so cool to be in there and walking around. Then we got some dinner after a pasta party at our hostel fell through. That night we basically just walked around, had some tiramisu, and went to bed.
The next day we got up early and went to the Vatican. We did all that kind of stuff… the museum, the city, the Sistine chapel (slightly disappointing) the Basillica, etc. Then we went to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps and hung out some more. We made it back in time for pasta party but it was rally spicy… then Kate, Kaitlyn, and I went on a pub crawl from the Spanish Steps… which was awesome.
The next day we got up at 9, walked around and saw some more ruins, and then got on a plane to SPAIN