London

Shakespeare Globe

Tail end of the Queen's Parade

Poly Sci student's favourite attraction

London

London

Munich: Disney castle princesses don't sleep in The Tent

    We knew the 160 person, giant Tent hostel would either be our favorite or least favorite. Let me tell you, this was a tiny, hippie fairytale land. There's ping pong tables, beach volleyball, hoops, a cafeteria, giant campfire, and unfortunately for us REALLY cold temperatures. It doubles as a hangout, made lots of great friends, but absolutely froze at night even in all our layers. Throughout the day we went to outdoor markets, and saw some nice churches and old buildings. Munich is much smaller than Paris or London, but has great transit and was a nice stop. We walked through the huge English Garden park, went to some of their famous outdoor beer gardens and ate bratwurst and pretzels. Snuck (mostly accidentally) into their national history museum, and saw some Picasso and Van Gogh at a great abstract art museum, only 1 euro on Sundays! The Residenz Palace is where their royalty used to live, but wasn't anything like the size or grandeur of Versailles. It did have the Antiquarium and a huge statue that took upan entire wall, made outof seashells and other sea things. Of course we did a famous beer pub crawl, and since we were 2 of the first 3 girls on the tour we got in for free. Found Pope Benedicts favorite beer as a young man and drank it! At the end of this drunken night one person is awarded the Beer Champions Cup, a huge, heavy glass Munich beer mug; for one who was friendly, fun, and just generally an awesome drunk....drum roll... I won!

    After 4hrs of sleep we went on a day trip to Neuschwanstein and hohenschwangau castles out on a huge mountain. This is the castle that inspired the Disney castle, so I was reverted back to childhood, having never lost my fierce love for Disney. We climbed up and down the mountain, saw a raging waterfall, and walked onto the very high bridge connecting two peaks together. We did a free Sandaman tour again in town, where we visited the hall Hitler created the Nazi party in, his favorite beer garden, and other WWII historical sites of revolt and importance. Germany students have to visit 2 concentration camps as part of school, and are taught that the International community may never forgive their country for their tainted past. They also lost over 70 percent of their city that was turned to rubble, so they only have a few tall buildings left standing from before the war, and only because planes used themselves landmarks to navigate. So the moral of the tour was to ease up on Germany, they're definitely making sure their new generations know their country's past.

Paris: Eiffel Tower, Versailles, and how not to drink in the park

    And I have officially fallen in love. With this beautiful city. But first, a short story on getting there from London. We went to the train station at 7, perfect timing for our 730pm bus...If the ticket were pm. Unfortunately,we were a tad stupid and somehow got that mixed up. Lucky Canadian girls we are, we begged and apologized at the ticket office and guess what? They switched our ticket to a 8pm bus they had! Otherwise, a new ticket would have cost 190eur. Finally in Paris, after running around an extremely sketchy subway stop and getting a bit of help from the Paris police (who flirt with you even after we are a tired mess), we finally found Nitesh - our first couchsurfing host! We spent our evenings with Our very kind, accomodating host, in his residence place, a bit outside central Paris. Paris is similar to London in grandness and old architecture, squares, and easy to navigate streets. It's gardens though, they are what we were most in awe of. Huge pristine gardens and parks, with statues, lakes, and immaculate flowers; we could have spent an entire day sitting in them. Then there was the famous glass pyramid, the entrance to the Louvre. Even with half a day in the museum, we still couldnt see all of the over 35,000 pieces out of pure mental and physical exhaustion! I will tell you that this must be, by far, the most magnificent collection of art works I have ever seen. We saw the Mona Lisa there too. Notre Dame we heard the famous bells ringing and witnessed its ornate architecture, and saw Saint Chapel's beautiful stain glass windows and gothic style. Ate lots of baguettes and macaroons (not such a fan).

    And half day trip to the Palace of Versailles is well worth the trek. King Louis XlV and Marie Antoinette both lives in palaces and houses we visited there. The Hall of Mirrors wth its numerous diamond chandeliers above it, and  75m ballroom wall of mirrors was breathtaking. That, and the perfectly created gardens and statues that look better than anything I've ever seen in movies. After that we climbed the Eiffel Tower by day and the champs design mars park below it, then to the nightlife and saw Moulin Rouge by night. It's legal to drink the cheapest 1.6eur bottle of wine in the park there, and get buzzed with your new couchsurfing buddy, with lots of drunken solo French men around doing the same. One skinny man in glasses kept coming over to tell us not to leave our couchsurfing friend, we need a guy, it can be dangerous. We brushed it off politely until we tried to leave and this huge drunk lug stumbles over demanding my number. After numerous attempts of "no cell", and "really just NO", and a vice like arm grip; I got a giant hug and slobber kisses all over my face before our pushes worked. City of not-so-much-returned love. At night, the Eiffel Tower glitters in gold and twinkling crystal lights and the city came alive for Fete de la Musique - a Paris-wide celebration of live music and concerts for free. The Paris club we went to had a crazy vibe! Fluorescent lighting and loud electro beats, mixed with brightly painted and dressed bartenders that get up and dance wildly on the counters. As morning came round they even sprayed liquor onto the dancing crowd, having us collapse home at 5am sticky, tired, and very satisfied.

London: Raining on the Queens Parade

    First day in London was an 8am arrival after a restless night aboard the bus. Found our hostel, ontop a great little pub, and set out. London gives off the grandest, most majestic aura of anywhere I've ever been. Each building is old, intricately designed, and solid heavy stone. We started off by doing a Sandaman tour: a free 3hr tour by kids in their 20s that highlights the city and gives great knowledge. They operate in many euro major cities. Through this we learnt of the drunken homeless man that managed to scale the buckingham palace wall (which is alarmingly low), set off every alarm, drink wine, and get into the one bed out of over a hundred that held the queen. They just chatted until she could get security. Apparently the top security official thought there must be a malfunction when ALL the alarms go off, so he just unplugged the whole thing. We went into Pollock - the biggest toy store in the world, saw the changing of the guard, went to Hyde Park, the national portrait museum, and saw Big Ben, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar square, and the Horse Guards. There are castles, churches, and actual palaces every corner you turn, with beautiful statues commemorating I'm pretty sure every war hero of England. Made friends with the girls in the 18 person hostel and drank and listened to live music downstairs for the evening. And of course, borrowed the bars only deck of cards to teach the gang Sociables;)

    Why yes your majesty, we would love to accept your informal invitation to your royal birthday party! Our thoughts when we realized we were in town for the 87 year olders royal birthday. Military helicopters and fighter jets streamed red, white and blue across the sky in a spectacular display. There was a royal parade with William and Kate, as well as the royal family - too bad we were a bit late for it! We've had 3 days of the London Pass, and went absolutely crazy with it.

    One thing about London- even the Londoners say not to trust the news weatherman. It rains at some point everyday, and the temperature is all over the place. We regularly duck into pubs or cafes when it rains (in addition to the one or 2 coffees we've already had to fuel our body for our daily activities), and one day ducked into Londons very impressive Chinatown for lunch. Westminister Abbey is one of the best things I've ever seen. Huge cathedral filled with the most elaborate marble and stone carvings that make up the enormous tombs and memorials to Londons finest. War heroes, past leaders, and a number of prominent Henry and Edwards. The unknown soldier was a beautiful grave representing all those who lost their lives fighting in the war, and was surrounded by flowers and a beautiful poem that hit the heart hard. Tate modern gallery and Shakespeares Globe Theater were pretty amazing displays of art and literature. We took a canal boat cruise where we got to the base of the London Eye ferris wheel, and went under all of Londons famous bridges. After that got terrified by the London Bridge Experience - a horror house that features the bloody murderous history of the London bridge, with such bright characters as Jack the Ripper. Tower London is a huge castle where we saw the royal armoury and the invaluable Royal Crown Jewels. Hundreds of karats of diamonds on just one crown!! I literally shivered to be in the presence of it all. And huge collections of gold and jewel encrusted kitchenware for feasts. Saw and climbed the looong way up St. Pauls Cathedral and walked through the crypts below. During the 1666 fire that we've learnt burnt down a huge amount of londons prides and joys, the first thing the royals ordered to be saved was St. Pauls. Churchill War rooms were really cool, and kept as similar as possible to the time.  Learnt that for fun, the great politicians would roll toilet paper down the halls in races. And Churchill could be funny. Secretary says "you sir, are drunk!" churchill says "and you ma'am are ugly. But in the morning I will be sober."

Amsterdam: Heineken-washed, our first conning, and Anne Franks Birthday

    We are officially Heineken -washed.  I can't remember if we loved Heineken. Before this day but we do now! The Heineken Experience took us through the sole 4 ingredients in a hugely active and entertaining way, let us dance and sing to dutch music on a music video, gave us a mini beer testing lesson, and then free beer. Socially responsible, cheap, and tastes good! We traveller's to see the West India house, Jordaan market, but the best by far was the Cheese Museum. A quaint little shop with sooo many free samples of all kinds of cheese tastes. Given by a funny old man who has.a way with the ladies. Went to the Anne Frank House as well, and thought man this is a big line. Turned out it was her birthday the day we went. The house is left very bare with lots of pictures and videos that take you through the journey of her childhood and her diary. Beautiful portrayal of a girl losing her childhood to the holocaust, with a huge emphasis on her representing every child that went through those dark times.

    We also got conned for the first time in the bikers paradise of Amsterdam. The Electric Ladyland museum was a must see on some list I found, but a mini collection of fluorescent rocks and sculptures on someone's main floor and basement?? Not quite 5 euro worthy. We were told some info, took our shoes off, and the 2 of us were hustled into the basement for the "main exhibition." After the first section of the room, our eldery-hemp dressed-clearly high guide walked upstairs, turned off the lights, and said the next part would start in a minute. In pitch black, after a minute or 2 "Taken" begins running through my mind and I determine that keelin can totally take him on if necessary. I walk up to try the handle and...no handle. Just a flat door. But eventually lights come back on, our group gets a bit bigger, and we walk away learning a bit more about cons. Where was our second hostel located? Smack dab in the middle of the red light district. Only we did it the Jessica and Keelin way, which does not involve gazing intently at the dancers in the windows, but casually strolling around the place eating icecream. 10hr megabus through the night, and these 2 cheap hostelers are out of amsterdam and onto London!

Amsterdam: Green Light District

    Whoever (my parents) said "Icelandic air?? Never heard of it. Oh dear god help give our children common sense on their Europe journey..." we would like to set the record straight. Iceland air you may want to hire us for your promo team. The flight was so smooth the entire time! Zero turbulence; we got a wooly blanket and a pillow with an icelandic lullaby written on it, PLUS our own individual tvs with about 20 movies and 40 or so current tv show episodes! In Iceland air we trust.

    It took only a few days in this beautiful, canal filled city to figure out that you can walk to most of the main attractions. For others, we are masters of the tram! ME. For all you out there who know my sense of direction. The only unfortunate direction mishap occurred rushing from my 10 person bedroom in the flying pig to the "unisex" bathroom...which in fact was just a closet with a very high urinal, that I proceeded to jump, literally jump, upon and hold onto the walls for dear life to try and pee into it. Dad I knew I shouldv've bought the female pee contraption at the travel store in TO. We have travelled through vondelpark, huge museums, squares bustling with people that are surrounded by bars and restaurants, monuments, a vast sex museum, and are about to do the heineken experience. In other news, by god we are going to take over the world with drinking games!!! Sociables in amsterdam? Check. In one of the biggest European hostel lounges were once small pockets of people who were bombarded by 2 howling Canadian girls playing drinking card games, urging bystanders to join until we moved the tables to create a solid group of 12 or so. Stayed up till the wee hours there and then at Sweetland club!  Oh damn. Also just found a mouse scurrying in our hostel. Don't worry mom! We won't keep it as a travel pet.