update from Munich

Oh my gosh, I didn't realize I'd left it this long to post. This post will be a lot about the people we've met lately on our trip, as it I have loved every second of meeting new friends and catching up with other travellers.

At the moment I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Munich, about to have our last night here. We've been up to heaps over the last week or so and I was just trying to give a bit of room for the postcards to arrive before detailing too much else here...well that's my excuse anyway!

When we left Berlin, we said goodbye to Erica (Canadian), who we had spent a fair bit of time with in Amsterdam - but met with Sophie, Katie and Donna who were also going on to Prague. We made a stop at Terazin first, and saw one of the camps where they held people during the wars. Ugly places, and very moving to see - but kind of feel bad visiting as a tourist in a place like that. I suppose that's how people feel visiting the concentration camps. I really do regret not spending more time in Berlin, our stay was very brief and not time at all to see any memorials or war sites.

We met Kim (who is from NSW) at Terazin, and then when we arrived at Prague met Afton and Brendan (Canadians) who'd also been travelling on the bus through to Prague.
Prague was brilliant. Mostly because we had so much fun hanging out there with so many great people. Rodrigo (Brazil/Sydney) who we met on our first trip from Paris to Amsterdam was also there. We last saw him on the Pub crawl in Amsterdam and it was just luck that we saw him again as he'd stopped travelling on the buses. We will likely also meet up with him in a few days in Rome and then our flights from Athens to London also coincide.
Funny how many people we keep meeting again and again, even when our routes change. It's really great fun and makes the whole travelling experience around Europe so much richer. In Prague, we also met Sam (America) and Andrew who were in our dorm. Andrew is travelling around with his sister, Mel, (Australians) also on the busabout loops with us and they are also here in Munich.
Sam, however, is travelling on his own and left Prague the day before we did. As Sam had already been wandering around Prague for a bit, he was gracious enough to hang with us for a while and show us around. This was a good thing, as at one stage Donna and I vagued out a little and headed in the complete wrong direction and were able to contact him for help!

We did a walking tour around the main city area which was very informative. It has such an incredible style of architecture, different than so much else that we've seen around so far. Very beautiful, but still the streets somewhat grimy. The only really bad thing about Prague was all the tourists - and of course we were contributing to that. We ventured out the next day to do a bike tour, but it wasn't as different to the walking tour as it had promised to be plus it poured with rain which added a complete other dimension to our tour. Ever tried bike riding (when you're already saddle sore from previous rides) in the rain on cobblestones? They should announce it as a new extreme sport. Poor Afton came a cropper more than once.
Still, one of my favourite memories of prague will be coming out from under a bridge (where we sheltered for a while) in the rain with the sounds of a french band playing the theme from Amelie. It was such a perfect space in time.

While we were there, Sam introduced us to a locally distilled liquor that tastes like Christmas! Otherwise known in Prague and the rest of the world as Bercherovka. Cloves, cinnamon and similar herbs stand out - I fell in love with the flavour at first taste, definitely my new favourite (Move over Mojito!). I even went so far as to purchase a bottle to bring home, only to leave it in our next stop, Vienna. I was so disappointed! I swear the cleaner found it and kept it for herself. Grrr. (bought the bottle in Prague for only about 5.70 pounds for a 750ml!! Will have to go back some time soon ;)

After Prague, we moved on to Vienna, saying a sad goodbye to Donna who we won't see again and a few others that we might see at various points. I did get to catch up with Kim briefly on our last night in Vienna, so that was really great.

When we arrived in Vienna, we met up with Bisade (aka 'B', from Nigeria/Texas) who we've seen on about 3 stages of our trip so far. Afton, Brendon and Tash went shopping around Vienna (shops were all very high street/label around us, so they had a ball) and I hung out with B and Andrew (Newcastle) and we did our own night tour of the city! Unfortunately I did the bike tour the next morning and found out that our approximations of the sites weren't exactly accurate...but I have a few crazy photos anyway. We did find a secret tunnel to the Greek islands that not many people know about. Oh, and ancient Rome, but I think that one's pretty much in the open. :)

moving on (sorry about such a long post this time!)...well, Tash and I opted to do the Grape Grazing tour on the last day - such a blast! We took about 2 hours to get out to the countryside where our tour began. We met some great people there as well, Sarah, Erika and Derek - 3 more Canadians(seem to pop up everywhere! Almost as much as Aussies, and that's saying something!) who we went out to dinner with afterwards and will also catch up with in Venice as we happen to be staying in the same accommodation. The tour was great, and I did purchase a desert wine and some Apricot Chilli Chutney during the trip. It was amazing just to get out of the city area and enjoy the countryside of Austria. We sampled many wines, stopped for a bbq lunch, tried some heartattack sausages (filled with cheese, wrapped in bacon! Would you believe I'm normally a vegetarian? Good thing I relented before starting this trip. Kind of, ahem.) and checked out the tower where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned for a year. Ok, well the ruins of it. And we worked all that wine off on the hike up there and consequent bike rides. It was a really great day weather wise as well which was great considering our whole trip so far has been oscillating between sunny and pouring with rain.

Ok, well now that brings me to Munich. We have been here for a couple of days, and leave tomorrow morning. Met up with Katie and Sophie again and Bisade for a night, as well as Troy, Kate, Andrew and Mel that we met while in Vienna. I've been out to the Hofbräuhaus both nights we've been here so far, with other busabout crew and other random people that we've met. Might just have a quieter night at the hostel with some mates tonight as we're getting up early for the next day's ride to Venice.

Now for the news you've been waiting for.
Yesterday we woke early to get ready to go on our tour to Neuschwanstein Castle

It was a really mild day though it did rain for a bit later on. Before that we had the opportunity to go on the Alpine slide which zig zagged down a small hill and looked kind of like a metal luge. We also took a bike ride to Swan Lake (not quite the famous one in Russia, but beautiful none the less) and then...we were given the option to Parasail! Tash and I jumped at the chance, and went along with our roommate Bill. It was extraordinary to say the least. I lead the charge, but when we got to the top...have to admit that I did have slightly shaky legs. One step at a time, a few quick ones over the edge, and then, what can I say - I was floating on air. I'm sorry that I'm not posting any pics, will just have to include them afterwards as it's too akward to get them off my camera. If I was travelling for longer I'd work out a better system, but hey I'm giving enough detail here, yeah?!

Phew. If you read through this, thanks. If not...well, it's not like you can hear me. :P