Gothenburg

Dan:

Gothenburg

During our trip we decided to rejig part of it a little bit. Initially we planned to leave Stockholm near 11 in the evening via a night train, but we decided we didn't want to risk loitering around the city with our bags on if our host needed us to leave early, so we decided to take a morning train to Gothenburg so we could have a look around for a few hours, then get on the same night train much earlier.

We dumped our bags at the left luggage then headed out. We grabbed a map from a small tourist info centre and planned out a walk that would take up the time we had. After initially getting a bit lost when looking at the rather industrial harbour, we finally found the main strip and had a nice stroll around the city. We had a look around the older area and grabbed a Mcdonalds before heading back to the station.

Impressions? We were quite glad that we hadn't stayed in Gothenburg for a few days as we had previously considered before the trip. There were only a few areas that looked nice and the rest of it was a bit meh. You also had the same pricing situation as Stockholm, only without the grand appearance in every direction. The streets are also filled with people asking for money, often coming up to when you're trying to have a sit and persistently asking regardless of me saying that I don't have any change (which was true). It seems EU laws allow people to come from poorer countries such as Romania and there is no law against them begging, and with the Swedish economy being so strong the currency is much better than their home currency so you can see why they are doing it. The problem is you never know who is in genuine need of help, who is making a living out of it and who is possibly being exploited by some sort of crime organisation.

Stockholm

Dan:

We traveled from Copenhagen to Stockholm via high speed train. We were surprised at the Swedish customs people who got on board who then asked people where they were from, where they were going and what bags they owned - it was a step up from the Hungarian customs personnel who simply whizzed past while asking "anything to declare?" Annoyingly we were sat apart for the duration of the journey - somehow we had both ended up with a window seat rather than being next to each other as requested. Luckily a similarly bemused couple sat next to both of us who were happy to swap.

We arrived in Stockholm and were immediately hit by the higher prices. After a lot of confusion and help from a bloke who worked in the metro, we both bought a card that granted us 6 journeys each for about £17. It was a bit of a shock after paying much less in places like Paris and Lisbon. We traveled to our accommodation and spent the rest of the night what to do in the following few days.

On our first full day we got up relatively early (after some confusion with our host regarding breakfast time) then headed to the old part of Stockholm. We quickly realised that our preconceived ideas of the weather were way out; it was clear blue skies and almost unbearable heat. We walked to an area south east of the old town which was quite high up and gave us some great views of the city. We then ambled around the harbour and had a gigantic walk around the city's rivers. We finished up back at the old town and had a good look round before finally throwing in the towel and heading back to our accommodation.

Our second day was spent doing more of the same but on the other side of Stockholm, looking at a small island near the old town. We also had a look at the Ericsson Globe which is a large spherical arena that also represents the sun in a very large scale model of our solar system that is scattered all around the city. The weather was playing tricks on us as one minute the sky was a constant grey with no sun in sight, then in the space of about 10 minutes it all cleared up and was once again ridiculously warm. Later in the day we were held hostage by public toilets...the city is filled with coin operated public toilets that you need 5 Sec to use, only the one we used decided it didn't like our change and refused to open. I dislike paying for public toilets, especially when you are denied a piss after paying for it. We had no other change and there seems to be no such thing as a free toilet (except for small men-only urinals sparsely spread out) so we had to head back. Luckily it was late in the day anyway and we were pretty tired and had looked at everything we wanted to see.

Stockholm is a very impressive city. Much like Vienna, everywhere you look is grand and you can tell that the country's economy is doing well. The downside is that everything is so expensive so things like eating out or doing excursions are almost off limits.

Copenhagen

Dan:

We left Berlin and made our way to Copenhagen, which to our surprise included a short ferry journey! We assumed a long bridge would be involved to get to Denmark and were largely surprised when we were asked to get off the train and board a ferry that the train had already parked inside.

We arrived in Copenhagen, dumped our stuff at our accommodation (which was located down a rather 'exciting' street) then went for a walk to the famous Nyhavn canal. We got caught out by a rain shower but luckily took shelter in someone's doorway then made our way back for some much needed rest.

The following day we had an amble around the town to take it all in then went on a guided boat trip that was recommended by our host. It was only about £4 each and lasted an hour, plus there were barely any other people on it which was a bonus as most of the tour boats seemed to be packed. We continued to amble around the town then headed back late once we were knackered for the day.

On our final full day we climbed up the Church of Our Saviour. The church has a large spire at the top which is surrounded by a spiral staircase. You can walk right to the top which I did, not a great idea when you're not too good with heights! As you climb nearer the top the steps get smaller, the railing gets lower, the wind gets stronger and my pants get browner! I gave up after feeling queasy then we took a stroll to Cristiania, which used to be a military area that was deserted and then occupied by squatters. The squatters had set up their own houses and turned the area in to a so called 'free city' which was a very interesting idea, but you couldn't help feel uneasy walking through it with the many people sat selling weed in the 'Green Light district'. We spent the rest of the day loosely following a self guided tour that was marked on a map we collected from tourist info. The weather started to turn again but luckily it didn't develop into anything more than light rain. We once again headed back after tiring ourselves out.

It was always nice to return to our apartment as our host had two friendly cats who liked to get on your knee and pop in for some fuss in the mornings. Our host was lovely and we had a chat about what to do in Copenhagen as well as having a good moan about public transport.

Copenhagen is a very good looking place and not too big which makes it easy to navigate if you ignore the common barrages of cyclists (or psycholists as I liked to call them!)

Berlin

Berlin 17-21st June

Berlin was very, very cool.

When we arrived, we decided to go straight to Checkpoint Charlie after dumping our bags. We spent a while there reading the exhibition wall about the area. We then went for a massive walk, stopping at Topography of Terror, then another section of the wall near Tiergarten, the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag building and the Holocaust memorial.

On Tuesday the weather was really hot, so we headed for the Berlin Wall memorial and then did little else other than eat ice cream because of the heat.

Obama's visit meant that a lot of stuff was cordoned off on Wednesday so we didn't really want to stay in Berlin. The weather was ridiculously hot (33 degrees) so we decided to head for Stranbadd Wannsee, which is a lake outside the city centre with imported sand from the Baltic to make it into a beach. The only problem was that everyone else in Berlin seemed to have the same idea and we were queuing for a good 30 minutes, glaring at the queue jumpers... Anyway, it was really good even if a bit faffy as we couldn't find changing rooms or a free locker for ages.

On Thursday we couldn't do much because of the heat so we went to the station to get our InterRail reservations sorted for the later part of our trip and then went to the Victory Column. One of the problems we had was that places don't seem to accept card, and we always run out of cash. In the end we only had enough change for Dan to go up the tower - I sat on the steps and read instead. We stopped by Curry 36 for a currywurst in the late afternoon and then headed back for cold showers.

Dresden

Dresden 14th-17th June

Our Dresden train initially starts in Budapest, terminating at Hamburg. It was 20 mins late arriving in Prague hl n, and we arrived in Dresden well over an hour after we should have - the first time that the flooding had affected our journey. People on the train were a bit mardy about it but we didn't mind, although Dan had the window seat so I was running out of places to look without accidentally making eye-contact with the girl sat opposite me. Anyway, apparently the flooding is still affecting a lot of this region.

We spent the next day walking around Dresden. It was pretty much flattened during WW2, and the blackened buildings are those that remained standing but were scorched by the bombing. Most of it is rebuilt. Our host told us there was a lot of parties and festival stuff going on. The town got a bit rowdy, with a lot of drunk blokes in groups around shouting at everyone - it ended up looking a bit rough so we headed back.

We planned to go to Saxon-Switzerland on Sunday, but all the S-bahns were cancelled due to the flooding. The were only about 4 trains that day passing through the area, and they were the long distance trains similar to the one we arrived on - all with a 40min delay. In the end we gave it a miss as those trains weren't well timed for returning home. Annoyingly, when we went into the station late afternoon to buy our seat reservations for later in the journey, we discovered those S-bahns were in fact running - annoyed!

We spent Sunday afternoon walking through Großer Garten park where we bought hotdogs then lazed around on the grass reading.

Prague

Prague 11-14th June

We've been to Prague before, and when we arrived decided to reacquaint ourselves with the old town, taking a sunset walk on the Charles Bridge - which is reopened what with all that flooding malarky last week. The river is still quite high and there were still a few flood defenses up and police barriers, but it was nothing like it was the other week when the river peaked.

Last time we were in Prague we wanted to go to Kutna Hora, which is this little village that has a church decorated with human bones. We didn't go as we weren't sure how to get there, so we made sure it was on the agenda this time. So, on Weds, we got the train from Prague hl station which took about an hour and cost a tenner return for the both of us. We walked from the station to the town which was pretty dead, and were just congratulating ourselves on getting the place to ourselves when two coach loads of people turned up/ Nevermind. Anyway, we went in and it was very, very weird. It might have been a bit more spooky if it wasn't full of people all happily ignoring the 'silence, prosim' sign but never mind - it was still really cool. It felt like it ought to be horrible looking around at these skulls decorating the place but I just felt detached from it. I quite like the idea of someone using my skeleton for artistic purposes.

When we got back we went up to the park for some beer and to watch the sunset. We headed back through the new town to district 2 where we were staying. There's a lot of dodgy people knocking around on the main strip, you get the impression they're sizing you up to try and a. rob you or b. sell you drugs. Bit dodgy but nevermind.

On Thursday we walked around the old town again, crossing the Charles Bridge in the day (chaos) and then walked up to Prague castle to look at the views. Last time we did this is was barely above freezing, this time it was pushing 30 degrees. We went back to the town square in the evening to meet some friends from home who were visiting, had some drinks and then went our separate ways. We grabbed a curry and ate it in the park to watch the sunset - people kept looking really jealous. I felt pretty sad to be leaving Prague.

Vienna

It only took an hour to get from Bratislava to Vienna, although we still managed to cock it up slightly - by getting Westbahnhof and Hauptbahnhof confused - but no matter, the metro is efficient and easy to understand. We dropped our bags off at our host's and went straight to Vienna zoo - I was determined to cram lots of stuff into our three-ish days there. The weather continued gloriously and we spent the afternoon walking around the zoo and got to see some very cool, lazy, fat pandas.

We crashed that eve as were both a bit knackered. On Sunday we went on a self-guided tour around the old district, using the directions in one of the guides our host leant us. We had a gander at all the fancy buildings, all v.posh. Everything seems very clean and efficient, you definitely felt the change in the way things were run from Slovakia. Naturally prices jumped, too...  We spent the evening lazing in one of the city parks.

On Monday we went to the Natural History museum as it's meant to be one of the best in Europe. Yes, it was nice but I still managed to get annoyed: We weren't allowed to put our rucksack and umbrella in the left luggage bit as we didn't have any money on us (we paid by card for the entry). What's that all about? You pay to get in, it seems arsey to make you pay to leave your bag, especially when signs say you're not allowed bags/umbrellas. Fair enough if the lockers are coin operated, but they wouldn't even let me leave my umbrella - like it's really making a difference? Sort of like over-efficient ridged rule following to the point of being a pain in the arse. But anyway, the museum was pretty funky, big mineral and meteorite exhibition and all the dinosaur stuff. There was also a Neanderthal section that had the same film playing that we watched in the Neanderthal museum in Croatia - did they nick it?

I liked Vienna, it was pretty and posh - but I also felt like it was out of my reach price-wise... A definite jump from Slovakia and Hungary.

Bratislava

Dan: We arrived in Bratislava after quite a pleasant journey on a posh train but we weren't too impressed with the area immediately surrounding the station as it looked a bit rough. After a short walk to our accommodation we reached a pedestrian area within the main city which looks much nicer. After getting settled the first thing we did was nip to the river to see how high it was due to the recent central Europe floods. The river is usually 4 metres deep but we were told it was currently 10 metres. Luckily there were some pretty nifty flood defense barriers in place, but they didn't stop a lower portion on the river side being flooded which made for some quite surreal sights seeing benches and trees half submerged. We've been keeping a close eye on the news and it's got us a bit worried since our planned route takes us to Prague and Dresden which are either already flooded or at high risk of it.

We did some shopping (almost relieved to go back to converting Euros rather than dividing by 350 to calculate a pound) and bought some tea and snacks at decent prices while we still can.

On our first full day we decided to take a walk up to the castle. We were very pleased that the sun complete with blue sky decided to make an appearance, which we haven't been familiar with for about 3 weeks. A good day up to this point usually consisted of overcast cloud with slight drizzle. After sitting around the castle grounds looking at the views and absorbing the sun we had a walk across one of the large bridges across the river and sat in a park that had been spared by flooding to eat some snacks and get a better look of the flooded riverside.

We decided to eat out in the evening as we had a recommendation to go to a Slovak pub just down the road from where we were staying. Sally ate a garlic soup in a bowl made out of bread while I had some potato dumplings with some sort of strong-flavoured sausage which was good considering it cost less than 5 euros. We each had a beer which also came recommended, even though my general opinion is that it tastes like feet sweat mixed with fags; to be fair it was relatively good. I then decided to order something with pork which turned out to be strips of pork battered and topped off with lemon which also went down well.

We spend our second day looking at a memorial dedicated to fallen Soviet soldiers of World War 2. After the treacherous hill climb in the heat we decided to chill out in a nearby park and read while further enjoying the weather.

We cooked in again for our evening meal then went for one last stroll around the historic centre, then one last look at the swollen river.

I like it here as it's a nice looking place with quite a lot to see, but it's not bustling with people like the larger and more well known cities.

Budapest

Budapest is a bit brilliant...

It was a relief to get off the train away from the irritating woman in our compartment who spent the last 2 hours on and off the phone with her super loud phone voice. I considered suggesting she open the window, so she could simply shout to them as they'd probably hear her... Anyway, the train was a bit late in and we followed the Americans we met earlier in search of a cash machine so we could get the metro. We weren't sure of the exchange rate so seeing an option of 9000 forints is a bit daunting - turns out it's about £25. When we got to our place it started weeing it down so we cooked tea and stayed in.

On Sunday we went for a walk to look at the market building, then went to the fortress hill and got caught in the middle of a thunderstorm. We went out for a cheap dinner then went for a walk around the parliament building, and mooched back to have a look at the Holocaust memorial on the banks of the Danube (which by the way was already looking dangerously high) and sat and watched the sun set.

On Monday we spent the day in the Szechenyi baths. It was about 4500 forints each for the day and a cabin to change in - about £12. There are about 16/17 pools, with three of them outside, with temperatures ranging from about 20c-40c - awesome stuff. It was a bit daunting as we weren't really sure what to do, and without my glasses I'm practically blind - it made trying to find the women's showers a bit interesting. The inside pools are all quite small with varying temperatures and you just sit around ignoring the eggy smell. The outside ones are more swimming pool like, but one is about 30c and one 38c.

On Tuesday we went to have a look at the castle and then the Fisherman's Bastion. I'm getting sick of people asking me to take pictures for them with fancy cameras and iphones - as though I have a clue how to use them. Anyway, the sun came out again and it was really nice, and we got another view of the rising river. Later, we went to one of the fancy cafes and had a cake and coffee and later we went out to dinner at a Hungarian restaurant. In the evening we nipped back down to the river to see the water level rising and coming over the lower pathways.

We traveled to Bratislava on Wednesday. The women gave us 2 return tickets instead of two singles, but as it was only about 16 euros each I'm not bothered - besides, if this flooding malarky gets worse we might have to return and reroute our journey north. We got a view of some flooded roads and swollen rivers on the way...