Berlin, Germany

I arrived in Germany at around 7pm and took the train to the main train station, Hauptbahnhof. It was really weird coming to Germany after being here back in 2000 on a high school exchange. On my exchange I was is Wurzburg which is down south near Frankfurt so i never made it to Berlin and was so excited to finally see it.

The new and very impressive Hauptbahnhof




I have not spoken German since high school but was really surprised how much I could still understand. Once at the train station I booked a train ticket to Paris using my Eurail pass. Because I wanted to leave the next night I had to upgrade to first class as the train was full. But I needed to get to Paris to Meet Haley and Pia (from High school) for Haley's birthday on the 31st July. After organising my ticket all in German might I add I went to the information desk to work out some accommodation for the night.




It is amazing how things can just fall in to place. The information woman had one place in this hostel sightly out of the city for 10 Euro a night. Which is really cheap for Western Europe! I headed out to the hostel and was meet by the lovely Canadian hostel owner. She had just moved to Berlin with her new husband to start up this hostel business. She was really friendly.



That night I had dinner with a few of the others from the hostel and then had an early one. I was exhausted after all the partying in Tallinn.


The next day I got up early and checked out and went to the train station to leave my bags for the day in a locker while I went sightseeing.


Berlin was just as I had imagined it. I went to the Bundestag, the Brandenburg Tor and Check point Charlie just to name a few sights. While at Check point Charlie I called my Dad and sister for the first time this trip. It was great to talk to them!

The Bundestag with its glass cupola, which would have had a nice view if the weather was better.



The Brandenburg Gate built as the cities gate-cum-triumphal arch but now stands at the fulcrum between the form East and West Berlin.
The very contentious Jewish Memorial.

The notorious Check point Charlie, the most infamous crossing point from West to East

After our chat it started raining and did not stop for the rest of the day. I tried to keep sight seeing and followed the path of the course of the form wall but ended up to wet and cold so called it a day early.

Some of the remaining wall

That evening I catch my train to Paris. Being First class was great!!! I shared the cabin with one other girl and slept the whole way in my comfortable bed. In the morning I was woken with a free breakfast! Yeah what service!

Tallinn, Estonia

The Medieval town wall

Welcome to the most visited Baltic cities, Tallinn Estonia. According to the poster at the International Pier this city, with a local population 400,200 people, has 7 million tourist every year!! And I can understand why. It is one of the nicest looking cities I have seen with a medieval walls enclosing most of the old Town.

Treas and I arrived in Tallinn at 11pm and got a lift to our hostel from this really nice girl from the bus. We were exhausted so went straight to bed. The next morning we went to explore the city. First we headed to Raekoja Plats, the historic centre with a lovely market place. All the girls working in Tallinn dress up as peasants clothing. And I have to say they are the most attractive woman I have ever seen. There was a running joke at our hostel that there was a machine out the back somewhere producing these prefect women.

After looking around the square, we went up the hill to see the castle and the view of the city. We did not last long as there was just too many tourist. Three of the huge cruise ships were in for the day and all their tourist were out following their tour guide around. It was amusing to watch them all following a tour guide with a flag, but I could not hanged it for long. So we went down to the Pier to look at the boats.







Treas and I walked around the Medieval wall.

Tallinn from the top of the castle hill.

From the Pier we walked over to the Kadriong Park, which is a heavily wooded area just 2km from the old town. It was so nice to find yourself in the middle of wildness right next to the city. After walking in the wooded we stumbled out to find our selves on a beach and the Baltic sea!!

On the beach watching the huge boats

The beach was a really beach like home; with white sand and everything. However the weather was not like home, it was cold and windily. Despite the weather we sat on the beach for ages watching the cruise ships and ferries take people to Helsinki and Stockholm.

That night was Treas and my last night together as Treas was flying back to London the next morning, so we decide to go on a pub crawl. And Tallinn is just the place for pub crawls.

We started the night at the Kompressor bar which has the best pancakes I have ever eaten. I had a cheese and bacon pancake. yum!!! They were so filling that I had trouble finishing it. After a wonderful meal we went to another few bars one of them was this communist bar which has not changed since the old days. It was really funny.

We also went to this bar that was modelled after Mac computers. Everything inside was white and futuristic. It really felt like you were in a Mac book or something. We tried to finish the night off with another pancake but Kompressor bar closes at 1am. Boo!

The Mac bar

The next morning we got up early, hoping for another pancake hit before Treas had to catch the bus to the airport at 9am but once again we were disappointed as Kompressor was closed. Treas and I said our final farewells and he left on the bus.

I then went back to the hostel and hung out in the common room with some Aussies and kiwi's guys . One of the Aussie guys use to live in North Fitzroy just down the street from me. How small world is that!

For lunch we went to this Estonia restaurant where one of the Aussies guys knew the waitress. She gave us the lunch special which is normally only available to locals and is heaps cheaper than the tourist menu. So we ate really well.

That night we had some more pancakes at Kompressor bar again. Then we hit the bars of Tallinn again. It was a Friday night so there were heaps of English guys out on their Bucks nights. They were all so drunk and rather disgusting.

The next morning I had a final look around town and then caught a flight in the afternoon to Berlin, Germany.

Riga and Sigulda , Latvia

We arrived in Riga really early in the morning because the bus ride from Vilnius to Riga is only 5 hours. We stayed at this really fun hostel. When you enter the hostel you are first in a bar and then you can open the bookshelf to reveal a staircase which leads to the dorm rooms. Really cute! As we were so early they let us have a nap on the floor of the kitchen. Yeah I know I am all class!

After a nap we had a look around town. When we were in Vilnius we meet this Aussie guy who told us that the exchange rate between Australian dollars and Lats was divide by 3. However we did not check which way he meant to divide by. So I was a bit shocked when I withdrew 200LS from the ATM and they came in 20LS bills. After a bit of shopping at the supermarket the penny dropped! LATS are equal to the pound! Silly of us for not checking. Needless to say i did not plan on spending all that cash in our 3 days in Latvia!

After looking around the town we went to the Occupation Museum to learn more about the history of Latvia and the other Baltic states. I could not believe how long they had been occupied for and that they only became independent 16 years ago. The Museum was really interesting and I would recommended it to everyone!

This house is next to the Guild Hall. When the owner of the house was not allowed to join the Guild Hall he turned the cats around so that their butts faced the Hall. It is now one of the big jokes of Latvia.

The Freedom Monument!

That night we went on a boat cruise down the Daugava river. Treas was conceived that the bridges over the river were used as example in our textbooks in first year uni. I have to admit my memory is not that good.

Treas and one of the bridges.

The next day wee took a bus to Sigulda to see the national park and go canoeing. The town of Sigulda is really cute and we stayed with this family in their spare granny flat. Sorry I didn't take any phones of canoeing cos I was worried about my camera getting wet.

Canoeing was great fun but it was very cold and wet. After canoeing we took a bus back to Riga and then got another one to Tallinn, Estonia. This time Treas convinced me not to take a night bus. He just wanted a really nights sleep for once. Fair enough! So we got to Tallinn at 11pm. We meet these really nice people on the bus who were coming back from some European Union teenage conference. One of them got her dad to give us a lift to the hostel! How nice is that!

Vilnius, Lithuania

Treas and Me in Vilnius

What is there not to love about Lithuania and in particular Vilnius. It has a lovely old town with cobble streets and is nicknamed the Northern Jerusalem. It also has a monument to Frank Zappa!




It also has some really weird art!

We started our day in Vilnius by seeing Frank and then visiting The Cathedral which had been rebuilt after the war and I did not like it as much as St Anne's Church. However it does have a very special tile near it. Next to the Cathedral there is a small coloured tile that say 'stebukla' (miracle). This title marks the spot where in 1989 2 million people from the Baltic states formed a human chain that stretched from this tile to Tallinn, Estonia to protest against the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States! How amazing is that! A human chain that covers three countries! The protest did not work as the Baltic states were not granted there freedom until 1991.

The Cathedral, everyone in the right corner is standing around the stebuklas tile.

St Anne's church!

I am not the only one who likes St Anne's, apparently Napoleon wanted to take this little church with him back to Paris. It is made out of something like 30 different types of brick! That means the pretty little patterns on it where not cut into the brick after it was built but the bricks were made like that. WOW!

After looking at churches we went to the Upper castle for a view of the city. It took us a while to find a way up the hill but the view was wroth it.

The next day we took a bus to Trakai. It was the former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and wroth a visit. It is located on a peninsula between two lakes. It is home to two castles the better of the two being the Island Castle. It was great. We spent the day looking around Trakai and the island castle and timed it perfectly to get our bus back!However everyone else also decided to take that same bus so we could not get on.

The Island Castle

I swear I didn't do it

Both Treas and I had been talking about how much we wanted to go hitching and how eastern Europe seems like a good place for it so we hitched a ride with these two guys in a five seater Ute. The younger one spoke a bit of English and we chatted to him for most of the ride. They then dropped us off in the city and told us the best places to go and see in Vilnius. They were so nice!

After our ride back to town we went to see the old Russian church. I still love the look of Onion domes.

That night we took another night bus this time to Riga, Latvia!!

Warsaw, Poland

I was so excited when I got to my hostel that I would be meeting Treasure (Paul Treasure a friend from uni) soon! I was standing out the front of my hostel sending him a message to see where he was and then just as I pressed send I hear someone yelling. It was Treas! Yeah!

Treasure had booked himself in to a different hostel as he was not sure this crazy plan would work out. So we spent the day together sightseeing in Krakow and I told him about my amazing train ride and meeting the girl who knew Dr Krodkiewski. He filled me in on his travels for the past 9 months and I told him about all the gossip at Connell Wagner. Treas worked at CW before me.

Everyone had told me that Warsaw was ugly but I really liked it. The city has its communist block housing but with a bit of exploring you can look around the stunning old town and climb up to the green roof on top of the University Library. And like every city in Europe it has a Castle! Unfortunately this castle is used as the now so you can not walk around everywhere.

Treas at the Castle

The University Library

The green roof at the University Library. It is the best Green roof I have seen. I would have hung out here heaps if I went to uni in Poland.

My favourite building in Krakow. I just love the bubble look! If you see it up close you can see that the glass colour changes with the bubbles adding to the effect!

The next day we had a culture day with a capital K! Well that was the name Treas came up with. We went to the Nozyk Synagogue. I had never been inside a synagogue so jumped at the chance. The Nozyk Synagogue was the only Synagogue in Warsaw to survive the war. They had a small museum which showed how everything else in Warsaw was flattened during the war. It was really interesting. After visiting the Synagogue we had lunch at the Kosher restaurant next door. There we meet this really nice couple from Paris David and Sarah. They invited us both to visit them in Paris anytime. They were so friendly.

That evening we took a night bus to Vilnius Lithuania! Poor Treas had to put up with my obsession with using night public transport to save money on accommodation.

Krakow, Poland

The train from Bratislava to Krakow has to go through Czech so it I did not make my trip easier by going to Slovakia but I was glad I got to see the other half of the previous Czechoslovakia. The train took 10 hours and I had to chance trains 3 times but eventually I made it to Krakow! On the last train to Krakow I made friends with this English guy and Canadian guy. We were all staying at different places but said we would try to meet up at the Information centre in the town square. There appeared to be only one on our map so should not be a problem.

One of the trains I took!

I stayed at a hostel called Bling Bling which was a nice relief after Orange Hostel! I put my stuff away and then made it down to the town square to meet the others. Unfortunately there was several information offices and I never found them. Instead I went sightseeing. As I was getting further north and it was summer it stayed light for ages so sightseeing was possible.

The streets of Krakow

Wawel Castle

Mariacki Church. Legend has it that during one of the Tatar raids a guard watching from the tower saw invaders approaching and took up this trumpet to warn the others however his alarm was cut short by an arrow through his throat. Since then every hour a trumpeter will play from one of the towers and stops suddenly in the song where the original trumpeter was apparently shot.

Sukiennice or Cloth hall in the centre of the town square.

Some of the lovely churches in Krakow

The next day I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I went with the tour at the hostel because the woman there told me it was good and would work out the same price otherwise. It took 1.5 hours to reach Auschwitz from Krakow. Once there I felt really ill. It was just one of those places everyone has to see for themselves. I had learnt so much about Auschwitz at school but nothing can really prepare you for the really thing. It was just such a huge factory of death. I almost cried when we went into the crematorium. The whole thing was just so depressing. The guide was really good and really passionate about the camp so it added to the experience.

That night when I got back to the hostel I could not do anything. I was just shocked! While sitting on the couch looking exhausted I made friends with this guy called Richard from England. Richard informed me that he went to Auschwitz-Birkenau but only paid $14 compared to my $50 by doing it himself. That was a huge saving but I did like having a guide.

That night I was booked onto a train to Warsaw and felt like some home cook food for a change so I cooked some spaghetti for Richard, who was broke, myself and some others at the hostel. Finally after chatting with everyone in the hostel for several hours I left for my train at 1am.

Just before I left for my train some people at the hostel had been telling me horror stories about night trains. Just what I needed. thanks guys!! Anyway for the first time in ages I was a bit nervous about the train. But these nerves were all gone when I meet this girl from Warsaw. We started talking and it ended up she had just had a meeting with Dr Janusz Krodkiewski, who was a lecture from Melbourne Uni and had taught me for 4 years at university. What a small world!!! So we spent most of the ride talking about Engineering and Janusz. it was soon funny!

As the train pulled up in Warsaw I turned my mobile on. Then I got a message from Paul Treasure (a friend from uni who I did my final year project with), who I had told to meet me in Warsaw and then travel with me to the Baltic states but never thought he would come. The message said he would be arriving in Warsaw at 10am and where should we meet!!!How exciting!!

Bratislava, Slovakia

I took the night train to Bratislava from Prague. It took around 7 hours and I planned on sleeping all of it. When I got on I got a room to myself. By the way gone are the days of comfortable beds on trains I can only afford to ride seat class in Europe, so have learnt to sleep while seated these days.

Anyway i had my room to myself which contains 6 seats. However at the next stop my dream of getting a good night sleep was lost. The cabin was packed. There was two woman and their two children and a man from Bratislava. I started talking to the guy from Bratislava and it turned out he was on his way home after just completing the Trans Siberian, the other way!! What are the odds. So we talked for a bit about how great Mongolia was and our favourite places in each town. Finally the women and their kids got off and I got some sleep.

The blue Church near my hostel.


When we reached Bratislava I had to find my hostel called 'Orange Hostel'. The guy from the train helped me and then offered to show me around his town. He said that he did not want his holiday to end and by showing me around the town he could feel like a tourist even at home. So I got my own guided tour to Bratislava. Which was very helpful as it was a Sunday and nothing as open including the information centre.

A statue of Napoleon who came here too!

The Old Town Hall


I just like this building!

Cathedral of St Martin. The top of this steeple has a gold crown on it which is so heavy it is causing it to tip.

The Bratislava Castle

After touring the town We took a bus to a near by Castle ruin at Devin. It was lovely

That night I said farewell to my new found friend and went back to my hostel. If you ever go to Bratislava do not stay at Orange Hostel. It was the worst place I have ever stayed and that includes the night Taz, Nick and I slept in the common room of a hostel.


It looked like an old psychiatric hospital. With levels and levels of floors that looked the same. Each room had four 'beds'. The beds consisted of three cushions as a mattress over a blank of wood. The rooms had no fan or air conditioning and it was 38 degrees that day so we had to sleep with the windows open. I woke up several time to find cockroach crawling over me. It was really bad and I had booked to stay there for two nights!!! The photos below do not do it justice. Trust me do not stay there!

The beds

The long corridors or Orange Hostel

The next day I just looked around town, updated my blog and got my train ticket to Krakow, Poland!