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

Europe!

So quick update... were in Berlin and so far weve been to...

Paris... which was amazing. loved the eiffel tower at night... loved taking a ferris wheel with kate to see the city. loved the louve with cassie... loved the modern art museum better.

Amsterdam... surprisingly better than I expected. It was a lot of fun and still a really cool city. did a free walking tour... caught a concert... mistakenly went to a gay club called pirates... checked out the red light district... etc etc fav place so far

Brussels... only there for 5ish hours. so we had chocolate and waffles then hung out in the train station... which went to hell. we got stared down by some worker who spilled water... then 2 seconds later some guy came up and was basically yelling at us if we spoke french and obviously we didnt... then he left after cassie yelled at him then another guy next to us jumped up and ran away... we think he got pickpocketed and we were the distraction. it was so wierd

Berlin... one more day here. today we did a walking tour to see most of the city and tomorrow were going back to some places to look closer or doing some museums

its rained everyday weve been here... but were in good spirits and having fun! times up on the internet peace out

hey everyone

its wednesday and im supposed to leave london tomorrow to meet cassie, kaitlyn, and kate in paris. I doubt ill make it what with all the canceling of flights from the terrorist actions.

last night i went out with this guy andy that was in lithuania for a couple days. he showed me around london and took me places i probbbbably wouldnt have known to go to like the Tate Modern art museum where the metamorphosis of narcissus is... which is one of my favorite pieces... and hangs by my bed next to starry night by rembrant and a picasso. dali fits right in. then we met his brother and his best friend and we did a sort of pub crawl that included one bar that had a fake beach with sand and beach chairs and everything. so that was fun.

then today one of the nuns mothers came and took me around to more places i wouldn't have normally gone, such as guild hall which also had an art gallery that included a roman amphitheature where gladiators performed.

now im just trying to figure out this flight thing. keep your fingers crossed that i can make it to london and meet cassie in time

muchlove

its saturday

monday did nothing... tuesday had two meetings and moved out of my room into bettys room. wednesday flew to london, got to the hotel and passed out

thursday- did westminster, dickens house, british museum, big ben, queen marys gardens, houses of parliament, victoria tower gardens, the thames

friday- harrods, changing of the guards, buckingham palace, st james park, green park, hyde park, fcuk, natural history museum

sat- katies sick so we havent done anything

british tv... not good. lithuania was better. hotels good but really creepy. weathers slightly chilly, internet sucks so im never on, so this is short...

but other than that all is well... hope its good with you.

Today is Sunday, and I leave for London on Wednesday. Its very wierd leaving here because I've gotten so accustomed to living here and when I leave on Wednesday I know I'll never be back.

But anyways, this week was the law conference.

On Monday we got home from Russia around 9, I came home, showered, made some breakfast, then did errands all day with Max, Tara, and Betty. We rearranged the conference room, made nametags, stuffed bags with conference material... etc

this lasted until about 515 when Betty told me to go home and get ready for the opening reception because my job is to check everyone in. So I do and go to the reception and my job was pretty cool because I got to meet everyone who came. Theres some heavy hitters coming to this thing including the ex-president of lithuania, an aid to the current president, an fbi agent, top lawyers, etc

so we stayed at the reception until about 9 then I came home and passed out

Tuesday was the first day of the conference and I had to be there by 830 to finish last minute things and check everyone in and hand out the conference material. The lithuanian delegation had way more people show up than they thought so we ran out of translation headphones, which was pretty frustrating for the people attending. But whatever. We had two coffee breaks and I made friends with the caterers, and we had an amazing 3 course lunch that was so good.

The conference ended at 5 and we stayed til about 530 cleaning up, then we went home, showered, changed, and we out to dinner to celebrate how well the first day went. We went back to that really good Indian Restaurant and Betty paid so that was nice.

Wednesday- wednesday went much the same except we had enough headphones. They passed a resolution at the end so that was good. I didnt have as much work to do today so I got to listen a lot more. Then we came home around 5 again and we went to Ibish to celebrate Dave's last night. He leaves in the morning. So we did that but we were all so tired that we came home and went to bed around 1130.

Thursday- didn't do too much, slept in, basically did nothing all day. We went to Connect at night for the hip hop night, it was a slightly awkward night but it was fun. Its wierd without dave.

Friday- much the same, didn't do too much. I went to the American center to update my resume and fill out some applications. Came home, went to dinner with Brandon for zeppalini, the traditional lithuanian meal. Tried it at a new place this time and it was really good. On the way back I saw my lithuanian friend which meant his friend is DJing at broadway tonight. Brandon, Nick, and I went to Solvegas' bar first because she was working and Brandon wanted to say bye, then they went to Chili Picas and I went to Broadway to meet my friend. That was fun but saying goodbye for good is weird. I dont really like that.

Saturday- we walked around the city a lot today to take more pictures and just enjoy it before we leave. Watched donnie darko and butterfly effect, then went to bed. Not too much happened today.

Russia

So I went to Russia.

On Tuesday night we took an overnight train to St. Petersburg, about 14 hours. Now that would seem pretty horrific but we had beds and I had a 101.4 fever so I passed out about 30 minutes into the ride and only woke up when the border guards came in to check out passports and visas at the border of Lithuania, Latvia, and then into Russia. That went well, no problems with the guards. The Russian one was kind of insane. They had two separate people come check our passports, two separate people come check our luggage, and they had german shepards and other things to intimidate us. But being delirious, I didn't really care

We got into St. Petersburg around 830 am and were completely lost. There are no signs in English in this train station and no one speaks it. We stood around trying to find maps and whatnot to get to our hotel. Finally some nice lady just started talking to us in Russian and we followed her to the subway and she showed us the right train to get on. The subway is down literally hundreds of feet. The escaltor went on FOREVER, no lie. We're not sure why... either a) to go underneath the canals and marshes or b) doubles as a bomb shelter. Both are highly probable. So we get to our hostel and have to get driven to a different hostel because we have a private room. Remember that this hostel for tonight was booked last minute because we got kicked out of our other hostel because of the G8 Summit. So a guy comes a drives us to the other branch of the hostel and interestingly enough the steering wheel was on the other side. I thought that was interesting and didn't realize Russia was like England. Then as we were driving I realized that our van was the only one on the road with the steering wheel on the wrong side... I was very confused.
So we got to ur hostel around 11 and couldn't get into our room til 12 so we left and walked to the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood. Typical Russia Orthodox church... simply breathtaking. It had the onion shaped tops and beautifully brillant colors. The sides were all hand painted with individual portraits and was just amazing. Right next to the church was an open air market where the people finally spoke english... and took money in dollars... that was kind of wierd. I have absolutley no dollars on me so we kept having to ask them how much in rubles. Then we went back to the hostel and took a nap and I started to feel like crap again with the fever and it got reallllllly cold while we were sleeping. Like, really cold. As in I had one jeans, a t shirt, a sweater, and the huge comforter and I was shaking. When we got up we made dinner and decided to check out some of the bars from the guide book. Its so hard to find things because the guidebooks say the street names in English, or how you would pronounce it, while the street signs are in syrillic and Russian. So eventually we found some places to try and then were home by 11. I showered and we met some volleyball players from Canada who are here for the swatch international tournament. That was pretty cool. Then we passed out.

On Thursday we moved into our normal hostel. Its called Hotel California and is a hostel for musicians. Turns out the workers are all anarchists fighting the government... and then we finally figured out why the Russian government wouldn't let us stay there during the G8. So we got there by cab and finally found the place and decided, thanks to Nick, to check out the aquarium. So we went to the aquarium which was alright... and then we came back and bought food and then we took a boat ride through all the canals so we could see the entire city. After that we went back, cooked dinner, watched 28 days later with Dmitri the worker, and slowly but surely everyone in the hostel came into the tiny kitchen with us and we all just hung out. Theres Beth and Aaron from Britain who are touring the world for a year (start in russia, go through asia, work in australia for a few months, hit up phoenix in the summer, work way to nwe york then home) then theres 3 guys from the netherlands who made a website called 1milliondolarcamper.com or something and made enough money off of it to buy a camper and travel around. Theres 2 girls from France, one is writing her thesis on the American fraternity system... very cool. Theres 3 kindergarden teachers (1 canadien, 1 from vietnam, 1 german) among other people. theyre all pretty fun

Friday we went to the Hermitage- which was the winter palace of the czars and is now a history and art museum. it was so crowded that we didnt really get to see much (had picassos and da vinci etc) we just stumbled around and left after about 2 or 3 hours. Then we went back to the market and bought some stuff... came home, ate, and went out to a club with the other people from the hostel. The workers brought us to the club so it was a real russian underground club, not for tourists. it was interesting. they had alive band recording and then it switched to a dj later. Team USA didn't stay long because we didnt want to be out too late in Russia...

Saturday- got up and went to Peter and Paul's fortress. Had a nice chuch with like... Peter the greats grave, etc. Lots to do there but we just mostly walked around the grounds. We're not really museum people. Then we got back and started up foosball which became the obsession for the rest of the trip. Team USA pretty much sucked. Team Russia was good but they liked to playu spinners. Team France wouldn't play, Team England was mia, and Team Holland was the cinderella story. So that was fun. Then we just hung out and drank in the hostel again instead of going out.

Sunday- Sunday we went to a Food not Bombs ralley with the anarchist workers. They made a ton of food to give out to homeless people. We went because we thought it would be funny and interesting. Brandon played his guitar on the street to make them money and I blew bubbles? Nick peaced out because he thought it was too sketchy to be hanging out with anarchists on the street... and it was sketchy, but it was fun.
After we went back, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the train station. I wasnt delirious this time so it was slightly more difficult to sleep, but not a problem.

ill add pictures when i get home, but check out the webshots.

This work week was pretty uneventful. Monday I started working at Vilnius University reorganazing and catalouging their career resource center. I'm mostly dealing with all the info they have on studying in foreign schools. Tuesday was the same only I brought Nick with me. We got fined on the bus for not having a bus ticket as we were buying our bus tickets... not cool. Tuesday night I went out with the Germans to this concert by the cathedral. They had an indian band, cuban, two lithuanian, and one from kazakistan. then we went to broadway. Wednesday was the same... Thursday I didn't have to go into work because I had finished it all so I worked a lot on the embassy website. We went to Connect at night, which plays american hip hop on thursdays. Friday is always off, so I finished the embassy website and we went to pabo latina, a salsa club at night. there were a lot more older people there, and a lot of bachelor parties. Saturday I went to the independent republic of uzipio with dave and hung out and then at night went to galaxy, then to broadway.

So its been a pretty uneventful week... I finished projects at two different internships so I got to basically just relax for awhile. We leave to Russia on Tuesday night so that will be a lot of fun hopefully. We had some issues booking hostels because the G8 summit is going on in St Petersburg and we're seen as a security threat. Oh well.