JeremyLaDuke.com

Vienna is beautiful. But don’t expect to come here unprepared. I got lost. The train station has no maps or travel guides or any information on accomodations or hostels. I walked around and ended up in the Times Square of Vienna. Only expensive shops and four star hotels. I finally found a three star hours later and booked one night. While out looking for food I stumbled on this internet cafe.

I’ll be looking for a hostel or moving on to Salzburg.

P.S. Thanks for the emails and comments. They’ve been very encouraging. It’s good to know you have friends that care. Especially when I’m so far away. BTW, I usually reply to emails and not comments.

What an adventure. Berlin was great. I stayed in a hostel and met a ton of Canadians. Wow are they proud to be Canadian. I also met an American girl. We ended up deciding last minute to go to Prague in the Czech Republic. So we hopped on a train the next morning. Nicole and I deboarded the train and were immdiately confronted with the usual people asking for money or something in Czech. One old man asked something in Czech, then asked if we spoke German…Nicole just ignored him…not even looking at him. Then he asked if we spoke English. I said ‘Yes, we speak English’. He proceeded to tell us about a place he had for rent.

I was a bit suspicious at first, and not interested in staying longer than a few days but listened to him anyway. He was very nice. He explained he had an apartment for rent even for a few days, just a 10 minute walk from the city center. It had a shower mutliple rooms and beds, a kitchen, etc. He said it was €17 per person per night and that we could come look at it first and even had tram tickets ready for us. That’s cheaper than a majority of hostels.

It took just a few minutes to get there. It was awesome. Much better than the hostel in Berlin. And NO SHARING A ROOM WITH ANYONE! Finally some peaceful sleep. We told him we’d take it. Mr. Buzek helped us find an ATM, paid for our tram tickets, and showed us how everything worked in the apt. We had to pay in full for the 4 nights we would stay and he said if we wanted to stay longer he had another apt that wasn’t booked that he could move us into. A german couple was coming in after our stay for a month or so I think. I can see why!

The only down side was no laundry machine. Mr. Buzek explained this apt’s first floor–where the laundry machine was at–was under 2 meters of water last year and ruined it…or something. He said we cold just as easily wash our clothes in the sink and dry them on the rack provided. It took 2 days to find a laundromat. I believe I paid somewhere around $6 US for one load. Ouch. It was worth is though. Other than that Prague is pretty cheap. At least when compared to Western Europe. And it’s just as if not more beautiful. All of its old architechture is still there.

I visited Prague Castle, which was awsome. And the town square is amazing at night. Even with tourist prices things are decent. About equal with what you migh pay in the US. Out side of the tourist areas it’s even cheaper. And I imagine even cheaper ouside Prague itself.

The train ride out of Prague was amazing. Southern Czech Republic is beatiful. I have no pictures, but it wouldn’t do it justice anyway. If you want to take a beautiful cheap vacation somewhere in Europe, go to Prague, then venture out to southern Czech Republic. Simply amazing. Nicole and I parted ways as she went on to Munich back in Germany.

On to Vienna, Austria!

Today I went to the Sachsenhausen (sock-sen-house’n) Concentration Camp. There is a museum there and plenty of plaques to read about each location you visit within. All but two of the buildings that housed the inmates have been destroyed. The officers barrack, walls, and towers also remain. If you are unfortunate enough to find it you can walk down into the execution pit where inmates were hanged, shot and tortured. Unthinkable medical experiments took place there. The worst part is that the camp is literally feet away from houses in a residential area. This camp is not off in some forest in the middle of no where. It is literally at the end of residential area as if it were a neighborhood park, and the homes have been here the whole time. Most had clear views over the wall inside the camp from their top floor bedroom windows. The SS ran the camp with Deathshead Guards and SS commonly interacting with locals in town. Apparently, most people in town thought the SS soldiers’had nothing to do with the camp but were fully aware there was a camp here as they watched the inmates build it.

Unbelievable experience. I have photos I’ll post when I get an internet connection that doesn’t suck. Tomorrow I’m off to Prague in the Czech Republic by bullet train! I made a new friend who seems to be traveling a very similar route thru Europe so we may travel together for a bit.

Or at least I think that’s how you say it. Berlin is awesome! This is my first real experience in a hostel. I did it once in Dublin, but was only there for the few hours I slept. This time I’m sharing a room with 7 other people. Not exactly my cup of tea but I’m getting used to it. Everyone else seems to not think much of it. But most people are much younger than I. More 18-21 year olds with the often 16 year old class of students. Ah well. Its €14 a night. Can’t beat that. The atmosphere is a little more party oriented than I’d like but it’s tolerable. I’m have a bit of fun.

I just finished a walking tour of Berlin. It was amazing. I got some great photos before my battery died. Interesting fact #1: 6 out of 7 buildings were destroyed in WWII. So most of the architecture is new but some old stuff is still left too. AWESOME! My tour guide was terrfic. He had all these stories and dates and detailed history memorized. He’s from Scotland so his accent was intersting too. Anyways, I’m off to do a bar hopping tour with some of the kiddies. Should be interesting.

I took a bullet train to Amsterdam. It was awesome. My Eurail pass is apparently FIRST CLASS. I was served a full meal of salmon, pumpkin pate, apple crumble, bottled water, carrots and some sort of cabbage thing. I took a picture before I consumed it. Drinks were also complementary.

Amsterdam SUCKS. Unless you are a punk college kid 18-21 years old, or just a complete heathen you can’t possibly enjoy what makes Amsterdam ’so cool’… The city center is a shit-hole. The Red Light District is just full of shady people, annoying college kids, and drug-pushers. And by pushers, I mean pushers. You do not have to look for someone to sell you ANYTHING you want. They are very pushy about it as well. ‘Coffeeshops’ are like back to back on every street. Bleh… Out of the city center it’s actually very nice with little waterways between each block, boats and picturesque buildings. Forget out prices… you will go bankrupt staying here…even in a hostel. The are €25 minimum and in the WORST part of town. I can’t even image what type of people you’d share a room with at that price and location. I opted for ONE NIGHT in a four star hotel at €110 a night. It was wonderful and worth every damn penny for the peace of mind. Not too mention laundry service and a HUGE bath with HOT water.

Anyway, 2 days in Amsterdam was plenty. I hopped on a train to Berlin on a whim. Best decision I made!