Finally...I have the internet again!!! Woohoo!!!

I apologize in advance for how long this entry will be when I’m finished. I’ve already written over 60 pages in my journal I brought with me and I’m still 4 days behind in terms of the events of the trip. In all honesty, I probably won’t finish typing today. Dinner is at 6:30pm and it’s already almost 6pm.

July 6, 2005
Dustin snored ALL night and woke up the rest of us. I was awake from 5:30am to 8:30am and I was so tired all day. Amber sat up around 7:30 in bed and said, “I’m awake too.” after realizing that we were all up except Dustin (who was snoring away and taking up WAY too much of the bed. She asked me if I could kick him and I told her that it didn’t help at all. When he finally did wake up was when we all went back to sleep and started getting some actual rest. We had discussed what time we wanted to get up the night before, and Dustin had set his alarm about a half hour earlier than ours. He knew that we needed to be up at 8:30. We were so tired that Kelsey and I were hitting “Snooze” in our sleep. Dustin didn’t even try to wake us up. He went down to breakfast, ate and then came back upstairs when we had 15 minutes to leave and told us that it was after 9. I still finished packing before he did and I was ready to go shortly after Amber. He packs worse than most girls do. Ugh! We were so angry with him.

I was so tired all day. We went on a tour of Karlstejn Castle, which was really cool. Our guide was really pretty, but she didn’t speak English as well as the guide from the day before. The castle was built by King Charles IV. It kind of reminded me of Rohan from Lord of the Rings. It was somewhat hard to picture what the rooms must have looked like because there was almost no furniture. The Austrians had even stolen the king’s bed and wouldn’t allow the Czech people to even make a copy. Rather rude, in my opinion.

After the tour, we had a traditional Czech lunch. We ate at a restaurant in the village by the castle. I had some strange Czech appetizer that was a drink. It tasted like Menthol. I didn’t really like it. We had soup that tasted like chicken broth with potatoes, herbs and carrots. I ordered goulash with dumplings. It wasn’t at all what I expected. It was chunks of meat in dark gravy with what looked like & tasted like chunks of bread but into pieces. After that they gave us yellow cake rolled with whipped cream on top. It was really good.

The tour guide announced that we had about 40 minutes to get back to the bus that would drive us back into Prague. We started down the long hill back towards the parking by the village. Every stop we made in a shop, Dustin took FOREVER! We finally made it back to the bus and it was about to pull away from the parking lot. He spent so much time shopping and didn’t really buy anything. Basically, he shops like a typical girl and we almost missed the bus.

We walked around the old town square in Prague for the remainder of the afternoon. I looked in almost every single jewellery shop along the way until I found a ring I liked. I bought a garnet and white gold ring that matched my earrings and necklace I had received for Christmas. I had to have the ring sized down about a half size, which took a ½ hour to do. We were practically running back to the hotel and we almost got lost. We picked up our bags and ran to the train station. The final destination of our train wasn’t listed, so we were somewhat confused. However, we asked a person at information and they directed us to our train.

We got to our compartment and there were already two Korean girls on the top two bunks. However, they were really nice and helped me move my backpack to the top shelf above their heads. It was really great because we didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up when we got on the train. Also, I didn’t have to sleep with my feet on my bag. The two girls were very sweet and gracious.

I felt bad because Dustin took FOREVER to settle into his bunk and he left the lights on for a long time. Both the girls wanted to go to sleep and everyone was ready for bed except him. He probably had the lights on till at least 1am. He finally turned off the overhead light and everyone went to sleep except Dustin. I woke up a couple times during the night because Dustin was snoring so loud. He also woke up the two girls above us. I know one of them tossed and turned for about 4 hours during the night. I felt like I should apologize because he was a part of our group. I don’t think they were upset with me, per say, but I could tell they were REALLY happy to get off the train.

July 7, 2005
We arrived in Munich around 6:45ish and Kelsey and I went to the bathroom to change and freshen up. It cost €1.50 to use the restroom. However, there were no mean people yelling at us. ? We both changed our clothes, washed our faces and brushed our teeth. The bathroom was really nice and clean. The toilets were completely walled in and there was a lot of room to unpack our bags and change.

We found information and asked how to get to Dachau. We put our stuff in the lockers and got a map of the subway. There were 2 lines: the S-Ban and the U-Ban. We figured out that we needed to use the S-Ban to get to Dachau and then use the bus system to get to the concentration camp.

We were just about to leave when Dustin asked if he needed his Eurail pass. The woman at the information had told us that the Eurail pass would work on the subways and he had locked it in the train station locker because he wasn’t paying attention to her. It cost another €4 to unlock it and lock it again. He paid to open the locker again and got his Eurail pass.

We found the S-Ban we needed and took it to Dachau. It was really cold outside for summer and I regretted not bringing my sweatshirt. We arrived at the Dachau station and found the busses. We couldn’t figure out where to buy tickets, but fortunately we found a girl who spoke English and she told us we just had to pay the bus driver if we needed to. We waited for him to arrive and then got onto the bus. We rode the bus to Dachau and got off. We were about a ½ hour early for the camp to open so we had to sit and wait.

About ten minutes before it opened, a huge group of German high-school students showed up. We got up and stood in line so we wouldn’t have to wait after them. We paid for the audio guides and went in a few minutes after it opened. It was HUGE and almost empty. There were foundations of the former dormitories, but other than that, it was mostly empty. They had reconstructed just two towards the entrance.

We walked around and looked at the various statues and plaques near the museum. One in particular stands out in my mind. It was designed by a former prisoner, who survived Dachau. He then submitted the statue design in a contest after WWII. It’s completely black but there are bodies intertwining and the pain and anguish in their faces is unmistakable. Each and every person in the statue seems to be in their own world of terror.

When the prisoners checked into Dachau, they were required to write a letter to their family saying that all was well and they were safe (wholly untrue). Then, all communication and reminder of the outside world was cut off. They lived in a dormitory where there was row after row of beds. No person was more than two feet from another while they slept. The photos show broken and exhausted men.

For days they were required to move one pile of dirt from one side of the camp to the other. The old and the weak often collapsed. If anyone tried to help them they were punished along with the one who collapsed. People were hung until they came close to dying and then cut down to go to bed until the next day’s work started.

If they didn’t have perfectly straight corners that aligned with the meter-stick provided to them during check-in, they were punished. If someone in their dorm died during the night and they didn’t show up for role-call in the morning, the entire dorm would be punished. People would drag the dead and the weak to role-call in the mornings.

There was no concern for anyone. In memos between high-ranking German officers, their comments were: “The more who die, the better.” German officers were encouraged and rewarded for cruelty.

Many prisoners committed suicide because they couldn’t take it anymore. I can’t even imagine the complete and utter despair of being in the camp. They arrested everyone from Jews to Poles, Austrians, homosexuals, women, children, Hungarians, and anyone who even seemed remotely opposed to the Nazis.

There were pictures of prisoners. You could see so deep between the bones. I don’t know how many of them could even stand up. There were also pictures of the piles upon piles of bodies on the ground. It was so heartbreaking!

We saw the crematorium and the gas showers. They made the prisoners believe that they would finally receive a shower and they eve made the room look like a shower room. The next room over was full of piles of bodies and they would put four into the cremators at a time. The only reason they stopped cremating the bodies was because there was a coal shortage.

The entire place was so incredibly depressing. It made my heart hurt for those people. I can’t even imagine what they went through.

The doctors also performed operations on prisoners (especially the new, healthy ones) with no anaesthesia and no pain medication. Just thinking about it made me want to cry.

We also visited the many chapels in the camp, erected after the war. I sat and watched the memory candles burn for a while. It was such a moving place. It just made your heart hurt so much. Thinking about all the families torn apart and all the lives ruined. Even if they survived, I can’t imagine the psychological damage. It would be irreparable.

When we left the camp, we got back on the bus, then we went back to the train station. We stopped at an apothecary to try and find nose strips for Dustin, but we had no luck.

We went back to the main train station and looked u p the art museum with the old art and then looked up the German palace. We got subway tickets and took the subway to the stop near the museum. We got a little lost, but found another apothecary and asked for directions there. Dustin also purchased nose strips (THANK GOD!!!)

We walked to the museum and went through the entire thing. Some of the artwork was simply magnificent. The colours were so beautiful and the paintings seemed alive.

After the museum, we went to the Residenze (the palace). We walked through over 60 rooms covered in lush tapestries and gold mouldings on the walls. Amber and I both agreed that we wanted to live in a palace. We also saw the theatre which had cherubs moulded into the walls and gold accenting. It was simply a fairytale.

It was raining when we finished going through the Residenze so we decided to hang out in the garden and sat under a marble dome in the middle. It was beautiful outside, even with the rain. We met a guy named Yassine who was from Morocco and working in Germany. He was drinking a beer and smoking before he went to work for the evening. He suggested a nice restaurant for us to go have dinner. We tried to find it and when we finally did, we found that it was rather expensive so we decided to go to the square to have a meal. We found a café and we all had crepes for dinner.

After dinner, we went to find an Internet café and spent about an hour e-mailing our friends and looking stuff up. I spend almost the entire hour typing directly out of my journal to my web log (hence, the last time I posted).

After we were done at the Internet café, we went back to the train station and got ready to go on our night train. I changed into my pj’s and, fortunately, the train came early and we got on.

The beds were MUCH nicer on this train. They were really soft and the mattresses were a lot thicker than the previous trains. I slept SO much better on this train than all the rest.

July 8, 2005
We arrived in Venice around 8am and changed in the bathroom, then checked our luggage in with the luggage station. We went outside and got a bus pass for the day and got onto the waterbus.

We went to Plaza dell San Marco and saw Palazzo Ducale. The Palazzo Ducale was the Venetian royalty’s palace. It was so incredible! There were paintings all over the walls and ceilings. It was simply beautiful. In one room, they had two large globes from the early middle ages. Another room showed the date on the wall using dials like clocks. One dial showed the month using the astrological symbols and the other showed the day by roman numerals. Everything was bordered in gold.

The palace was also attached to the prison, which we walked through. I know I wouldn’t have wanted to be in prison back then. Not that I would now…but hey, I’m sure you understand. There was VERY little space in the cells and the doors were so short! Also, there didn’t seem to be anywhere to go to the bathroom. I can’t even imagine the smell. It would not have been a pleasant experience.

After we saw the palace, we went to the Basilica. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, but I bought a few postcards with pictures I wanted to take. They still have church there every Sunday. I don’t know how I would feel about attending a church that was a tourist attraction. I’m not sure I’d want to.

Kelsey, Amber and I all wanted to buy Venetian masks, so we wondered around looking in all the shops along the way for masks we liked. Amber found one first. She bought a silver mask with red accents and black and red feathers. It covered only her eyes and had a black ribbon to tie to hold it on. I found one I really liked and bought it. It was a full-face mask that was red and black with a hint of gold, but not too much gold. Kelsey bought a black one with black glitter. It was very simple, but elegant.

I think it would be so much fun to live in Italy and be able to go to Carnival every year. I would have so much fun trying to pick out a mask and costume for the festival.

We bought some gelato and tried to find the bus stop so we could get some lunch. We found a really nice place by the square with a lot of street vendors. There was a very nice couple from California who gave us some tips on where to go in Venice to shop and other fun things to do. The woman also translated the menu for us. Kelsey, Amber and I all shared a pizza. After we were done, we wondered around more. The city had absolutely NO cars. Whatever “street” wasn’t a waterway was like a back alley. No one except the tourists seemed to be in a hurry.

There were many people taking gondola rides down the streets of Venice. No boat seemed to go faster than 10 mph, so the rides were very safe. Most of the boats were very flat and wide. I was surprised to see that they carried ALL the cargo in boats. They even had a UPS boat.

We decided to get on the waterbus and take it all around the city and back to where we started. We got on the boat and managed to get seats at the front. We just sat down and relaxed. The entire city was simply magnificent. It was nothing short of amazing. Each turn we took around the main street seemed to be more beautiful than the one before. I took SO many pictures.

About three stops before we had to get off, we met a man from Mexico. He spoke impeccable English (he had learned from visiting his aunt in Los Angeles). We talked about the city and his vacation with his father. He said he was a lawyer back in Mexico. His father was very pleasant, although he didn’t seem to understand English. He just smiled nodded a lot.

We got off the waterbus and walked back to the Plaza dell San Marco. Amber, Kelsey and Dustin decided to walk up to the top of the clock tower. I took a picture of three of the gondola men. They were sitting together and chatting. Then, one of them took a picture of me with the other two.

I waited at the bottom of the clock. A group of Venetian police officers gathered to talk. One of them was looking at me. I really liked the uniforms (can’t help thinking a guy in uniform is cute!). I asked to take a picture of the group and the officer who had been looking at me asked if I wanted a picture of only him or of him and all his friends. I took both. Amber took a picture of him and me and he introduced himself to us as Dario. Dustin asked for suggestions for a good restaurant. When he asked his friends, they started making fun of him because they apparently thought he was taking me out to dinner. There was a lot of laughing and a few awkward moments. It was really funny. His friend Vincenzo finally suggested a restaurant called Angelo’s. We thanked him for the suggestion.

As we were saying goodbye, Dario said he got off work at 1am, but I told him I would be sleeping, however, it was nice to meet him. When he shook my hand, he also did the le bis (kissed the air next to both cheeks). I kind of wish Americans did that. All the Italians did that with their friends (or so it seemed). I think Americans are so reserved with our emotions and we keep our emotions in check when it comes to our friends. I think the Italian culture is much more warm and open.

We found Angelo’s and had a nice dinner. At first we were confused as to whether or not to leave a tip, but we notices that service was included, so we paid the written amount on the bill.

After dinner, we caught the waterbus back to the train station. We got on the train to go back to the mainland. When we got off, we tried to use the directions to the hostel from the train station provided by the hostel staff.

We got lost twice and stopped in a hotel to ask the concierge for directions. He laughed and asked if the hotel was famous because he ALWAYS had people our age looking for it. He gave us directions and we were on our way.

We weren’t sure if we were getting close or if we were lost again, so we turned to ask some guys standing outside a local bar if they knew, but before we could ask anything they said “Hotel Belvedere?” We nodded and they started laughing and pointed us down the street. Apparently the hostel is known for having bad direction. It won’t be getting a good review from us!

Dustin and I paid for the night and we checked in. The room was weird. It had a tiny bathroom in it and a king-size bed with a set of bunk beds. We all took a shower and then went to bed because we had to get up around 5am.

July 9, 2005
We got up early and booked it to the train station. We got on a train to Rome. The train ride took about 2 ½ hours. I slept for most of the way. When we arrived in Rome, we walked to our hostel. I was surprised at how dirty the city was. Whenever we walked by dumpsters, it smelled like it hadn’t been picked up in weeks. They were all overflowing too. There were mopeds and motorcycles parked all the way down the streets. That’s what most people drove.

We found the hostel easily, which was nice after the previous night. The people at the hostel were very helpful. We couldn’t check into our room till after 2pm, so we decided to go find food. Phil (the guy at the front desk) suggested a place called Alfredo’s. He gave us directions to the restaurant and the ATM. We went outside to find the ATM and walked right by it. We walked all the way down the street and then went around the block. No one saw it the first time.

After we found the ATM, we tried to find the restaurant called Alfredo’s. We were SO lost. It ended up being less than a block from the hostel. The waiter even gave us all free dessert because it was Amber’s birthday. I took a nap after we picked and paid for a tour of Rome back at the hostel. Amber, Kelsey and Dustin went to an Internet café.

Amber woke me up when they got back from the Internet café and I went downstairs for the tour. We had a large group of people going with us. Our guide, Lauren, looked REALLY tan. At first sight, I would have guessed that she was from Rome, but it turned out that she was from the U.S. and went to college in Washington D.C. She was very informed in terms of the tour information. It was really interesting.

A guy that we had run into at the hostel and the ATM was on our tour. His name was Dave (and he was really cool!!!) and he said he was from South Africa. His accent sounded like a cross between Australian and British. He was really nice and talked with all of us on the tour.

We finished the ancient city tour and we were informed that we had free drink tokens at the Alessandro Palace (sister hostel to ours). We decided to go there with Dave and redeem the tokens and get the free pizza that was supposed to be on its way.

We got to the bar and got our free drinks. Amber and I had white wine, Kelsey had a beer and Dustin had a large beer. Dave couldn’t find his token, so he bought a beer. We found a place to sit in the back and sat around talking with Dave until the pizza came.

The pizza arrived and was gone in about 15 seconds. There was a mad rush toward the box and since we were seated in the back of the room, we totally got the shaft in terms of the food retrieval. We ended up with mostly bread, sadly.

We sat around talking for awhile and then Amber brought up the subject of shots (because it was an option for a free drink). Kelsey and I started listing various shots we had liked: kamikaze, jager-bombs, car bombs, Alizé, Hypnotic, blow jobs, etc. Amber asked what was in some of them, but we couldn’t remember all of them. She was also disgusted by the blow job (or at least the name…not that I’m too fond of the name either). Kelsey and I started laughing and explained how it had whipped cream at the top and you were supposed to take it with no hands. (Although, I’ve personally never had one, I have seen someone else take one) We were both wearing our sunglasses on our heads and we tipped our heads back really fast to explain how you’re supposed to take a shot with no hands. Both our sunglasses fell on the floor and we leaned over to pick them up (Kelsey straight back and me to the side). Kelsey fell over and then I fell over a second later. The chairs came out from under us because we had leaned too far in one direction on the slick tile floor. We toppled to the floor and looked at each other for a second and burst out laughing. We sat there for about a minute laughing and then stood up and put our chairs back and sat back down.

Amber, Dustin, Dave, Kelsey and I were still laughing when two guys who had been on our tour walked in with a girl. They sat down at our table and introduces themselves: Markus and his brother Ryan along with Ryan’s girlfriend Siobhan (pronounce shuh-vahn – it’s Irish apparently). Siobhan had already been to Rome, so she didn’t go on the tour.

They asked where the free pizza was and we informed them that it was all gone. We decided to go find food for the three of them and somewhere to sit and hang out where it was quieter and we could talk. We walked out the door and across the street to a pizza place where they each got a piece of pizza.

We wondered around for a while and then found a bar that had a nice place to sit outside. Dave, Dustin, Ryan and Markus all wanted a beer so they bought one and I got a Bacardi Breezer (lime). We “met” a really crazy Mexican man who was rude, loud and obnoxious. The Italian guys at the bar said they were a part of the Military Police. Then, about five minutes later, they started talking about smoking pot. Who knows? It was quite the experience, to say the least.

Several of them were hitting on Amber, Kelsey and me. They wanted to meet us for drinks the next morning around 10am, but we told them no.

We finally wondered back to the hostel and Amber, Kelsey and I all took showers and went to bed. We also made plans to hand out with Dave, Ryan, Siobhan and Markus the next day.

July 10, 2005
We woke up around 8:30ish and got ready to go. We had breakfast downstairs on the main floor of the hostel. They had HUGE (like 10x10”) pieces of bread with butter and jelly as well as cereal. We met up with Dave, Markus, Ryan and Siobhan at breakfast. After we ate, everyone went up to finish getting ready for the day.

We met again on the main floor, then left to go exploring. We went to the Palatine hill, the coliseum, and the surrounding areas. Siobhan had made lunch for Ryan and Markus while we were all gone, so they ate with her. Kelsey, Dustin, Amber and I went to the grocery store. However, when we opened the croissants we had purchased, we realized they had peach jelly inside them. It made for an interesting sandwich. Kelsey refused to eat them though. She had some of the bread Dustin had purchased.

We started our laundry after we finished with lunch. Amber, Kelsey and I shared a load. Markus, Ryan and Siobhan did theirs after ours finished. When their laundry was done, we all met to go exploring again. We went to the pantheon, the Spanish stairs, and the Trevi fountain. As usual, we bought gelato during the afternoon.

In the evening, we found a place to eat and sat and talked for a couple hours. I had pasta with salmon (very good!).

After dinner, we walked to the Alessandro Palace for drinks. I had a couple Bacardi Breezers and a “Sex on the Beach.” We sat around talking and everyone exchanged e-mail addresses. We planned to see Dave in London (if possible) and Markus, Ryan and Siobhan in Paris (hopefully).

We walked back to the hostel, took showers and went to bed.

I will try to type more later, but I want to get this posted so I don’t lose everything I’ve typed. Plus, it’s almost dinner time and my hands are getting tired from typing.