The Hills are Alive....

Salzburg, Austria is known for 2 things. 1) It was the birthplace and home town of Wolfgang Amedeaus Mozart 2) It is where 'The Sound of Music' happened and where it was filmed.

We arrived in Salzburg on Friday afternoon. We checked in at YoHo Hostel and went on a Mozart adventure. For €12 per person you got tickets to both Mozart's birthplace & childhood home and his home in the later years (before he moved to Vienna). Overall the two museums were sort of lame. The best parts were seeing his original piano and violin that he began playing from the age of 5. The rest was mostly sheet music and letters he had written, which would have been awesome...except they were all copies!! I mean if ever there was a place to dispay Mozart's original sheet music, shouldn't it be at his house!? C'est la vie.

After the tours we rested a little bit back at the hostel. We had come across a Swedish candy shop and indulged in Swedish fish and other gummi delights. My stomach was not happy with that choice. Once I felt a little better we walked around old town and found a tiny local bar where we ate dinner.

Nestled away off the beaten path and at the base of the massive fortress that overlooks Salzburg, we found St. Paul Stub'n. Its a university bar/grill. It probably only had 15 tables (max) and most were reserved for the 'regulars'. We ate at the bar, which doesn't bother me. I had a baked potato with sour cream and chicken breast. Heather had a traditional Austrian dish of pork in beer sauce, cabbage and a bread dumpling. She really enjoyed it!

Even though it was only about 20:00 on a Friday night, everything was closed!! So we had no choice but to go back and hang out at the hostel.

We chilled in the common room and some girls put on 'Mystic River'. Our hostel had 2 flat screens with dvd players and a video library! (They also had a Wii! And daily showings of 'The Sound of Music' LOL) we ended up watching the movie before heading up to bed.

We got up and checked out yesterday morning. We left our packs in the hostel lockers then went to play at Hohensalzburg Fortress. It sits atop a large hill overlooking the city, very menacingly. It's a large castle and used to be the home of the Arch Bishop of Salzburg. The construction began in the early 1000s and the fortress that is there today wasn't finished until the 1800s.

We took an audio tour through parts of the castle, explored the 3 museums and wandered around taking in the views. The fortress is reached by a tram that climbs about an 80 degree hill! It was sort of scary on the way back down.

We left Salzburg and headed to Munich for dinner. Our love for the Höfbrahaus remains strong! The 2 hour train trip (completely out of the way) was so worth it!!

Heather was emmensely impressed that we got off the train and I took us to Höfbrauhaus without hesitation, all from memory. :)

We had dinner a couple of beers. It was super busy since it was Saturday night, but not nearly as crazy as it was during Oktoberfest. The food and beer are just as delicious though!! I think we impressed a couple of local Bavarians when we ordered the stein instead of the .5L glass. :P

We bought a Höfbrauhaus shirt to remember our favorite beer hall and vowed to return in the future. We bid Germany adieu for the last time and took a night train to Florence.

The night train was an experience! We were in a 6 bed cabin which was no bigger than the 6 seat cabin we have sat in on other trains. There are 2 triple bunks, and enough room between to BARELY walk through. The bunks aren't tall enough to sit up in, so you have to either lay down or sit completey hunched over. We had an American couple from North Carolina in our cabin that were probably 50-something. They thought they had booked a private and were not happy to find they had the 2 top bunks! We had a middle and a bottom. I was on middle, which seemed to be the most uncomfortable of all. There was one other woman on the bottom of the other bunk.

Trying to sleep was a joke. What is ironic is that I am narcoleptic when it comes to trains! I usualy sleep on 90% of our train rides no matter what the sitting position or duration. However, when laying in a bed on the train...I couldn't sleep! I maybe got 5 hours total, with a lot of tossing and turning. We were grateful to arrive in Florence!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather

The Berlin Zoo

Today we went to the zoo. Not just any zoo, the Berlin Zoo!! Known as the most diverse zoo in the world, Berlin boasts an impressive 17,000+ animals including over 2500 species!!

This is the day I have been looking forward to for a VERY long time! But first, our morning in short. Woke up to sloppy roommates alarm at 7:00. And sure enough she got in the shower and was STILL in there when we got up at 8:15!! Good thing we showered yesterday! We were packing up when she came out. We made small pleasantries, found out she's Canadian. We have our packs very organized and easy to unpack/pack within a couple of minutes, keeping everything within easy access. She started picking up piles of clothes and shoving them into her pack, without rhyme nor reason. I think we figured out why there was stuff everywhere!

It was raining when we crossed the courtyard for breakfast, so no bunnies today. :( our breakfast was totally worth the €5 we paid. They had eggs, sausage, toast, jam, cereal and juices. Twas a good start to the day!

Finally we were off to the zoo! Those who know us are aware of our love for zoos and animals in general, so please imagine our excitement to go to one of the best zoos in the world!!

We got the zoo/aquarium duo ticket which was only €15/ person! It was raining most of the day, but not pouring. And it wasn't cold or windy, so it was comfortable.

Just entering the zoo you notice differences. The enclosures are very large and mostly open, with little or no bars. Most use the moat method to keep the animals in their designated areas. The first animals you see are Alpaca Llamas, which was really random.

From there we discovered a whole house of types of chickens and pigeons (in a zoo!?!), then off to the gorgeous primate house. The enclosures offer indoor/outdoor space for the animals to roam freely between the two. Most of the primates were inside, avoiding the rain so we got some great pics!

All in all the zoo portion took about 4 hours to discover. Along the way we saw animals we had never seen in real life, including: a giant panda, an aardvark, bush babies, spring hare, wallaby, sloth bear, Asiatic black bear, Fennick fox, King penguins, jaguarundi, rock hopper penguins, and more!

I cannot describe the cuteness of a panda in person. OMG!! Wow! It may be the only time in my life that I get to see one of those adorable bears in real life, and I'm so happy I did!

Also, the Berlin Zoo is a happening place for "Zoo Borns"!! Seriously! Every other enclosure had a new born animal from this year or at least one that was less than 3 years old!! We saw a baby orangutan, hippos, rhino, deer, llama, monkeys, seals, zebra, a litter of capybara and more!! It was precious!!

Other favorites included the very nice Okapi enclosure, housing 3 of my favorite animals! We saw their pack (7 total) of white wolves (which Heather was stoked about!) The gorillias were spinning in circles and doing flips on their ropes in their area! The ferry penguins were in an enclosure where they were easily pettable (though we refrained), and were swimming laps in a group of 10 or more. The polar bears were out sunbathing...in the rain. (Rest in piece, Knut. Wish we had gotten to see you!!) The lion and tiger were roaring at eachother. The hippos were swimming very gracefully around their pool (which has a underwater viewing area for visitors)

There was an amazing nocturnal exhibit that had low lighting for the animals' comfort, but still enough to see them very clearly. So we got to see the Aye-Aye!! Usually you can just see their shadow at the exhibit in Denver. Heather also saw her first live Armidillo! They also had random nocturnal animals like hedgehogs and gerbils. Haha!!

All of the animals were super active and seemed happy. I hate going to zoos with bars and the animals look depressed and just lie around. All of the Berlin animals were having a great time in the rain!

After seeing all of the mammals we went in the aquarium and found out there were more surprises to behold! The aquarium houses many beautiful fresh and salt water fish. They have a handfull of sharks, eels, rays, cichlids, jellyfish, sea horses, puffers and even an octopus!! Their tanks were very pretty with plenty of view points to see all of the fish.

The 2nd floor of the aquarium building houses the reptiles. Once again, they had huge beautiful enclosures with lots of species cohabitating. Most reptile enclosures I have seen anywhere else have one of each species in cookie-cutter glass terrariums. Not here! There were 3-5 of each species in the exhibits. It was really nifty! In the crocodile exhibit a smaller croc was being overrun by turtles! When I say overun...I mean there was a turtle sitting on the back of the croc! It was funny.

Once we finished exploring everything we headed back to the station and caught a ride to Prague, Czech Republic. So here we are in Prague, one of the few cities that saw little/no damage during either World War. It's old town is supposed to be breath taking! We'll find out tomorrow! Until then we'll just keep chatting about that super cute panda!!!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather

Historical Berlin

Berlin. What is there to say!? What an incredible city, what an incredible history! Everything in Berlin is full of decades of conflict and brilliant history. When we arrived in the city we took the S-Bahn to our hostel and you could tell the visual difference between places in East Berlin versus West Berlin. It was an interesting trip!

We stayed at the PLUS Hostel Berlin, which was one of the best hostels we have stayed at. It was very modern inside, yet it was in a building that had survived 2 World Wars in East Berlin! They had a swimming pool, sauna, laundry, resteraunt/bar, lounge, and courtyard. Our favorite part was the courtyard, where they had bunnies!! There were just free roaming domesticated bunnies all over the place! Some baby bunnies too!! We had a field day running around the courtyard scooping up baby bunnies and cuddling them. It was precious!

When we got to our room it was a 4 bed, with ensuite bathroom! At first we thought we had 2 other roommates, but after further examination we only had one VERY messy roommate. She had clothes piled on the floor, desk and window ledge. Her things were EVERYWHERE in the bathroom and there were maps, empty bottles, and trash under her bed and around the floor!! It was by far the messiest room we've stayed at...and we have stayed in 12 bed co-ed rooms! Judging by her mess, we decided to shower before she got back....in case she was an hour-long shower type of person.

After getting freshened up we headed out to see Berlin. Our first stop was the infamous Brandenburg Gate. I choked up, standing in front of it absorbing the history. People were waving flags and singing songs about peace and Amnesty International was there! It was really powerful.

We detoured and saw the Reichstag. Which is the seat of the German federal government. Then we enjoyed parts of the "English Garden" which is essentially a giant park. It was very romantic at sunset. We took pictures of Victory Tower and headed over to see the wall.

The remains of the wall only stretch a couple of blocks, but they are a powerful reminder of Germany's rich history. All throughout the city there is a brick path where the wall once stood. And its marked on all the city maps too. We even found a spot by Check Point Charlie that had East & West painted on either side of the brick line. Its a simple reminder of the past and a pleasant outlook to the future.

I made a game of finding as many Berlin bears as I could. I'm not entirely sure of heir signifigance, but there and bear statues throughout the city painted in different ways, all with the same pose. I think I found 5 of them? But I found a postcard with about 20 of them!

We found a small Italian place called Resteraunt Edoni, attached to a hotel around the corner from the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. It was real Italian too! The waiter (possible owner) was Italian, but spoke German. We managed to point at things on the menu to order. We took a great picture of me, the American, wearing a Norway shirt, drinking German beer at an Italian resteraunt. If that's not culture, I don't know what is!

After dinner we made our way back to our hostel and spent an absurd amount of time doing a load of laundry. Seems that we had forgotten to wash some things a couple of days ago when we did laundry! We didn't finish until about 1:30.

When we got back to the room our roommate was asleep, and had actually picked up the room ( a very tiny bit).

We went to bed and prepared for a wonderful day at the Berlin Zoo!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather

Hamburg Dungeon and Hamlen

Yesterday after I met up with Heather we went to the Hambourg Dungeon, which is sort of a haunted house/ sort of a history lesson.

Essentially you go room to room and live actors recreate the horrible times of Hamburg's history. There was a room that shook and made you feel like you were going down an elevator to the 'depths of hell' at the beginning. From there we went through performances about the plague, pirates, the Inquisition, the great Hamburg fires, torture chamber, a mirror room, a 'haunted' boat ride and finally a free-fall ride which is supposed to be like the hangman's noose. Overall it was really fun, even if the entire hour and a half was in German! They offered English tours, but only Fri-Sat at 10am. Which we didn't know until we got there at about 11ish. Oh well! People dressed as ghost/zombies and yelling in German made it all the more scary! We found out they have one in London which includes recreations of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper...we are definately going there we tour the UK in a few years!!!

After the dungeon we made the trek to Hamlen, home of the pied-piper. For those who don't know the tale, in 1284 Hamlen was overrun by rats. In an effort to get rid of the infestation the town hired a piper who was said to have the ability to lure the rats away with his flute. He played his flute and all of the rats followed him out of town. But the town did not pay the piper as promised so on June 26th 1284, he played his flute and lured 130 children as young as age 4 out of their houses while everyone else was at church. The children followed the piper out of town and into the mountains and were never seen again. Only 2 children returned, because they had been held up. One was mute and the other blind and neither could tell what had happened.

Through the summer months everyday at noon the town puts on a parade with a man dressed as the piper and 130 children dressed as rats. Even though we didn't get to see the play, the image of the pied piper is everywhere! We really enjoyed Hamlen. Its a really small,quite town. Its perfect for a day trip to just walk around and hang out.

We got back to our hell-hostel last night. I had Heather escort me to the frat party to collect my things, then we went back to her dorm. We just shared the twin size bunk last night. Even though it wasn't the most comfortable night's sleep, it was better than the shinanigans in my room!!

We got up with the sun this morning and are currently on our way to Copenhagen, Denmark!!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather

Hamburg Sucks

So Hamburg is off to a crappy start. We got in last night about 7:30, which is probably the earliest we've gotten to any of our hostels! We checked in and the lady is like "You know you are in seperate rooms right?" And I replied "umm, no...."

Apparently even though we booked 2 beds for 2 nights this place just puts you in ANY 2 beds. This is the same booking procedure we have used the whole trip and we are always in the same room, most of the time sharing the same bunk. So right off the bat I was pissed.

Then we went to my room (we are also on seperate floors!) And there was luggage and things everywhere. Its a 9 bed room, 3 bunks, 2 beds put together as a double, and an extra cot. Unlike any of the other hostels we've stayed at, this place doesn't assign your actually bed. So I took the only available bed which was a top bunk.

We went to Heather's room and found out not only did hers have TWO open beds, one person had checked in yesterday and leaves when we do, and they were travelling alone. So umm, why did they not get 301 and I get to stay in 513 with Heather??

We went to ask reception if I could switch to 513 since there was still an extra bunk. But the girl simply said "No we're full" and didn't even offer to look in the computer or anything!

We ended up staying in last night and just sat in the lobby for a while. We went to bed about 12:30a which is early for this trip. And planned to meet in the lobby at 10:00am (sleeping in!).

When I got to my room there was no one there, so I went to sleep easily. Then about 2am 4 loud, drunk girls came in. They were stumbling around in the dark and tripping over stuff. The one in the bunk next to me (the headboards touch) found my head in the dark and exclaimed "I found a bunny!" Then I shoved her and she screamed, followed by promptly passing out.

Back to sleep. Then at 4am someones phone started ringing. It rang for a good 15 minutes before I heard a guy answer it. He then started shouting obscenities and ran out of the room. Probably 20 minutes later he returned with 3 drunk guys, one of which was being drug on his back and was completely passed out.

The 4 of them drug the one guy over to the corner and he started throwing up on the floor, and himself. Another guy threw up in the bathroom. They loudly discussed whether the passed out guy was breathing or if he had alcohol poisioning...I suspect he did...

They finally shut up about 5ish. Then back to sleep. At 8am I awoke to the sound of one of the guys peeing on the floor by his bed. He simply sat up, dropped his pants and peed on the floor. He then passed out, sprawled across his bed, with his pants around his ankles. His junk in full view.

At this point I said "Screw it" and got up and got ready. I had my towel hanging up to dry from my shower last night, but I didn't want them to use it today for "clean up" so I hid it before leaving the room.

When I got out of the room I noticed there is a trail of vomit all the way down the hall and to the elevator.

I went to reception and told them about my night and begged to switch rooms. To which she said "oh wow, that is not right! But we're full."

So I have just beeing waiting around the lobby until Heather comes down at 10. Meanwhile I'll be looking for another place to stay, even if we loose what we already paid for tonight.

Welcome to Hamburg!

Safe Travels,
- Kit

Paris in a Day

"We arrived in Paris one year ago, it was the turn of the century and..." Wait, sorry wrong story! We arrived in Paris two evenings ago. But first we stopped in Frankfurt, Germany. We had a couple of hours to kill so we left the station and wandered around until we found an interesting place for dinner. It was an Australian bar/grill called Kakadu. When I say Australian, I mean it! Heather had kangaroo for dinner!! I went for the Frankenfurter braut (yay Rocky Horror!). I tried the kangaroo too, it was pretty good! I will never see a kangaroo in the same way...

We arrived in Paris just before reception closed at our hostel. It was a 440 bed hostel (biggest in France!) It had a cafeteria area and tv lounge on the main floor, bar/ dance club, laundry room, lockers, and movie theatre in the basement and 10 floors of dorms!! As usual, we arrived and everyone in our room was asleep. We rumaged around in the dark and found our beds, got changed and went to sleep. Heather always sleeps on the top bunk, but I think its harder to dress your bed that way. I'm good on the bottom bunk :)

In the morning we got ready, had breakfast (hostel breakfast: cereal, deli slices and bread), did a load of laundry and headed out to tour the city. We started our site seeing tour in Montmarte. Its just north of central Paris and is home to my favorite place! As soon as we got off the Metro I started singing 'Complait de la Butte' and as we rounded a corner to the Sacre Couer a street performer was playing that song on the accordian! I tipped her for her obvious great taste in music. The Sacre Couer was as beautiful as I remembered. The view of Paris from atop the infamous steps is stunning. We sat and ate some snacks, taking in the view, then it was off to my favorite destination!!

We had to ask for directions because it wasn't marked on the map, but as soon as I had a visual of the red windmill I went run-walking down the street, dragging H behind me. Yes, the Moulin Rouge is awesome in real life. I took a few pictures (or 20) and we sat and admired the view for a while. When I first came to Paris I was 15 and with a school group, so the Moulin Rouge was NOT on our tour. But this time I even went inside!! (To the box office area, not the stage area) Then my amazing wifey took me to the official Moulin Rouge boutique!! I looked around for about 30 minutes until I decided on a red coffee mug with the famous windmill logo on it. (OMG I want coffee now!)

From the Moulin Rouge we left Montmarte and went to the catacombes deep below the city streets. I had never been, and nothing could have prepared me for the emensity of the crypts! The catacombes are gorgeous/eerie and enourmous. There are bones stacked floor to ceiling, room after room, corridor after corridor. We couldn't find a figure of how many corpses there are but we over heard a man saying it was over a million. No matter how many there are, its insane. I'd never touched a human skull before, but if I continue with Forensic Anthropology I will be doing it for a living!! Heather and I, of course, we looking at skull ridges, bone size, type of bone, etc. A very anthropological-scientific approach. The catacombes are so big that we walked straight through at an average pace and it took 50 minutes!

From the crypts we went to Notre Dame to take pictures, play with gargoyles, ring the bells, fall in love with a Gypsy princess...the usual. From there it was on to L'Opera! Made famous by 'The Phantom of the Opera' the actual opera house is just stunning. We missed the last tour of the day so we walked the perimeter and admired all of the sculptures and what not. Continuing on our ridiculous site-seeing extravaganza we went to the Champs-Elysses. Starting from the Obelisque we tried to snap shots of the Louvre but it was closed for the night. So we bought some crepes (sugar/butter for me, Nutella and banana for H) and began our  meandering.

We purused shops here and there, then while walking out of the Disney store we heard screaming from across the street. Come to find out, the French premiere of 'Abduction' was taking place at the movie theatre on the other side of the street! We darted over to join the screaming tweens and sure enough, about 15 minutes later Taylor Lautner himself arrived and went strolling down the red carpet!! We took some great pictures, seeing as we were maybe 20 yards away!! Heather was overly excited because she had never seen a celebrity in real life before. I'm glad coincidence put us in the right spot at the right time! Heather was giddy the rest of the night. Taylor is just as adorable (if not more so) in person!

We finished our celebrity tour of the Champs-Elysee at the Arc de Triomphe. By this time it was lit up and we sat on a bench admiring it from outside the scariest traffic circle I know. After our feet were rested we found a Metro stop and went to our final site...Le Tour de Eiffel. The tower is one of the most beautiful monuments at night. I re-created my "falling off the tower" picture from last trip! And we sat and watched the tour sparkle on the hour. What a wonderful way to end our whirl-wind tour. (Can I please note that we did everything on our site-seeing tour in eight hours!!! Most people take 3 days for all of these sites. It was exhausting!)

We got back to our hostel and passed out! What a great day in gay Paris!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather

Bears, Chocolate and Beer!

Yesterday we left the hostel and headed on a walking tour of Bern. With our handy map we visited Bern's bear garden first! The bears weren't out yet so we watched the keepers and listened to the bears throw themselves againt their cage doors. When the keepers let them our into the enclosures the cubs came barreling out at full speed with momma close behind. The male had his own enclosure and he came out and immediately started eating all the apples he could find from his variety of foods. We ended up spending much longer watching the bears than we meant to!

Next stop was the clock tower, which was lack-luster from what our guide book described. We walked through the old town passing the parliment building and fountains galore. Then headed to Zurich.

In Zurich we had to go on a hot chocolate treasure hunt for this tiny cafe Sam Brown went to on "Sam Brown Europe". It supposedly had amazing hot chocolate, the best in Switzerland! So we grabbed a city map from the tourist office circled the street we needed and started the expedition.

Luckily the city's main street was closed for a bicycle festival! So it made our walking time super quick. We took a few side streets and back allies then tucked away in a corner was Chocolatier Shober. We order 2 of their classic hot chocolates with cream. They were GREAT! BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER. We both were making those little "yummy" noises the whole time! Totally worth the hunt!

From Zurich we spent 4 hours on a train to Munich. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Munich because all of the hostels were booked for Oktoberfest. It was ok though, because our hotel was very nice! We tried to go to Oktoberfest, but silly us...it was the weekend. All of the beer tents were booked up. So we settled for the next best thing, the beer hall of Hofbrauhaus! (Also a Sam Brown reccomendation) the beer hall can hold 3500 people and esentially is set up like Hogwarts' main hall. Long wooden tables and benches, where you slide in anywhere there is room. We each ordered a stein of beer (1.5 litres!), Heather had the Radler (lemonade beer) and I had the Weiss Radler (white lemonade). We also had some typical German foods: brautwurst, potato salad, bavarian pretzels, and strudel!

We made some Spanish friends at the table next to us, they named Other Bunny "Joseph" and took a picture with him. Then some nice Polish guys sat next to us, who didn't speak a lick of English. We got along fine though and had lots of toasts and laughs and an overall good time. We got pictures with them too. As far as we could tell they were on a man-cation. They both had wedding rings on, but no wives to be found (but possibly they were married to each other?). I taught the guy next to me to spell my name and he taught me his (which I have since forgotten). We joined in the beer hall singing and table banging. And it was just an amazing experience!!

After we were thouroughly buzzed we went back to our hotel and slept the best sleep of the trip. We didn't get up until 9:00 today!!!! We showered and got to the station by noon. We had some lunch and booked tickets to Paris. We sat outside Starbucks for a while and used their wi-fi, and now we're on the train to Frankfurt. Final destination, Paris. (And yes I did make that joke on purpose)

Safe Travels!
- Kit & Heather