Topdeck Tour Day 22 – Amsterdam to London, UK

Our tour was almost at an end and everyone was a bit sad as we would all be going our separate ways once we got back into London. Some going back to their home countries, or back to where they were living, or off on their next adventure. We all had breakfast together and packed the bus one last time, and then we were on our way for the long bus ride back to London. We had a lot of fun on the bus ride home, laughing and making jokes and making fun of our tour leaders and Bel read out the best or stupidest quotes that people had said during the tour which she had been keeping track of. It was quite a long bus ride, and we travelled through Belgium as well, though didn’t stop anywhere to see anything, as according to Dave all the have there is beer and chocolate. Though that does sound like an excellent reason to stop there. Eventually we made it back to Calais in France to catch the ferry back to Dover. We all said our goodbyes to Irish Mark and Dave and it was on the ferry back to the UK.

The ferry ride back was good, and we sat around talking and laughing and showing each other photos, getting contact details and discussing what everyone’s next plans and adventures were. We got back into Dover, and then it was onto a bus for the ride into London, where it was a chance for everyone to say their farewells and hugs all round. It was sad but we all went away knowing we had an amazing time and now had some great new friends too. Bel and I still had our trek home, which was another hour on the tube down to Wimbledon to stop at the pub and see Dung before heading home and dragging all of our stuff up the hill to the house, completed exhausted, and ready to sleep for the next week. Although, that wasn’t really an option as in a few days, we were continuing our travels to Ireland and Scotland.

Topdeck Tour Day 21 – Amsterdam

We started the morning with a leisurely Bike Tour through the city of Amsterdam with a local guide. It was so much fun riding through the city as a big group and we got to see a lot of the city. Some of it is really beautiful, especially riding through a big park that they have. Bicycles own the road in Amsterdam, so you can even hit the pedestrians if they are on the bike lanes and that’s ok, because they were in the wrong. It was so much fun. I think I could have spent the entire day just riding around on the bike.

We wandered around after the bike tour and ended up in Dam square where there were groups of football fans singing and chanting and generally making a lot of noise. We also noticed that there was a free walking tour starting from there so Lucy and I joined onto that and went around for about an hour with the tour guide taking in the sights of Amsterdam. After spending about an hour on the walking tour though, we went back to the camp ground and chilled out for a while and so we could catch the bus into the restaurant where we would be having dinner that night as a group.

Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant called Sea Palace and we had a few big tables and had big plates of all kinds of Chinese dishes in the middle of each table and just helped ourselves to whatever we wanted. The food was quite good, but the service there was terrible. It didn’t stop us from having fun though. We sat around eating and chatting, all together for one last time before we would be leaving the next day. This was also the last time we would be spending with our trip leader Hottie, as he was catching the train early the next morning to start his next tour, and wouldn’t get to travel back with us to London which was unfortunate. So we all ate our food and then off we went for our canal cruise through Amsterdam. As we all were getting onto the boat, we said our goodbyes and gave hugs to Hottie and then waved goodbye from as we sailed off.

We didn’t really see too much on the canal cruise as we mostly just chatted and drank the free beer and wine. But it was a lot of fun, the funniest being when a few of the guys went through a tunnel and when we came out the other side they had all stripped down to their underwear and saying ‘mi scuzzi’ a la a scene from the movie ‘Eurotrip’. No one had any idea what was going on, especially the host and bartender of the cruise. No doubt it was hilarious though. After an hour or so we were done and then it was off into the city for the final time before heading back to camp.

As we were walking through the city there seemed to be a lot of noise and people around, as the football was on that night, and at one point we heard what we thought sounded like fireworks but turned out to be two shotgun shots. We also ran into another Topdeck tour group and their leader who also said that there was a fire in the city and that we should avoid that part of town. As we were walking through, our cook Mark who was with us told us to stay together and not do anything stupid, and we walked past a restaurant where the gunshots had been, and the windows had been shot out and the place was deserted and chairs and tables were everywhere and drinks smashed all over the ground. It was pretty full on. These football hooligans are crazy!

Back at the campsite we all sat around in the rain, huddling under and bit shade or trees we could find as we talked and told stories and reminisced about the tour. It was kind of a sad night, knowing that we were all going to be leaving each other the next day so we tried to prolong the night as long as we could before crawling into our tents for the last time and getting some sleep.

Topdeck Tour Day 20 – Berlin to Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We didn’t get off to such a good start in the morning. The Aussie boys and me all turning off our alarms and going back to sleep before having the loudest knock at our door at 7.40AM, when the bus was supposed to be leaving at 7.30AM. We all jumped up and frantically packed our bags before me and Tim came running out to the bus, about a second before they were about to leave without us. Luckily we made it and were on our way to Amsterdam.

Before getting into Amsterdam we stopped at a little farm where cheese and clogs were made. It’s one of the things that has been done for hundreds of years in the Netherlands, but isn’t done so much traditionally anymore. Even here, they don’t do them traditionally, but still can if they want to and still have the knowledge of how to do this which is good as the old ways haven’t died with technology. We had a short informational talk of how the cheeses were made and go to try some as well. It was the best cheese I have ever tasted, and I really love cheese! The guy giving us the talk was crazy, but I think everyone that worked there was as well, because next we were given a demonstration of how the clogs were made, and the guy showing us this was just as crazy, maybe more so. It was really interesting to see how it was done, even though it wasn’t the traditional way, as that takes 5 hours, compared to 3 minutes in the machine. I don’t know about wearing wooden shoes though, apparently it is really comfortable.

After our short stop, it was off to the campsite to set up our tents as quickly as possible and then head into the city for our first night in Amsterdam. Just as we got everything off the bus and began setting up the tents, it started to rain. Thanks for the weather Amsterdam. Then just to rub it in, as we had all finished and were ready to get back on the bus, no more rain. I guess after all the sun we had had so far, it was about time we experienced some shitty weather. So we made our way into the city of Amsterdam and we were all sent off to find something quick to eat before again rushing back to see a live sex show. What an interesting show it was. I don’t think it is something I really need to describe to all of you (but if you want to know just ask me) but it’s not something that I would want to go to again, and don’t think it was really worth it at all. I found it funny more than anything, especially with audience participation and some of the guys from our tour getting up on stage. We had the rest of the night to check out some of the city before heading back to the campsite to get some rest, as by this stage, most people were pretty run down, and a lot had some form of cold or flu, so we needed our rest.

Topdeck Tour Day 19 – Berlin

We got up early again for breakfast in the restaurant which was a nice change from having to do it all ourselves under the cook tent. A nice buffet breakfast before we headed off to the heart of Berlin to start our Third Reich walking tour with a local guide. We started off at the Reichstag building and went from there through the city stopping at a number of places and getting a lot of history from our guide. The walk went for about 3 hours and was really good, visiting the memorial to the Jewish people killed during the war, the Brandenburg Gate, the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out the window (and also where the penthouse suite costs 20000 Euro a night, but does come with its own chauffer which makes it worthwhile), different parts of the Berlin Wall that are still standing, the site of where Hitler’s underground bunker was, and Checkpoint Charlie. The city is so full of history, even though it is quite a young city compared to some of the other places we visited throughout Europe and I could have easily spent another couple of days there seeing the sights and learning the history.

After the walking tour we decided to go to the Berlin Zoo. Danny, Anita, Ando and I went off to find it, and figured it couldn’t be too far to walk to. About half an hour or so later we finally found it. The zoo was huge so we just started wandering. We all had a few things that we wanted to see so made sure we saw all of them. We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, bears, polar bears, a panda, gorillas, kangaroos, cows, monkeys, seals, giraffes, lions and jaguars, as well as a few more animals we weren’t really sure what they were. It was amazing, such a great place and so glad we went there. The polar bears were my favourite, they were just playing around in the water, grabbing each other and pulling them under water, then biting each other on the neck or hitting them in the face. We watched them for a long time, they were so cool. I want one as a pet. We even saw the famous one, Knut, which was born in the zoo and raised by the zoo keepers.

After the zoo it was back to the meeting point for us to all get on the bus then go get some dinner before starting our pub crawl. A few people went to a restaurant for dinner and a few of us went to this little Chinese place where we got a massive serve or fried rice and chicken for 3 Euros, then headed to the supermarket to grab a few beers before the pub crawl started.

The pub crawl was so much fun. There was another couple of TopDeck crews also doing it so it was quite big with about 100 people or so. Before it even started we were all given a beer so we all stood around in the street drinking it and after we had finished we went off to the first pub for cheap drinks. As well as drink specials everywhere we went, we also got at least 2 free shots from the pub crawl organisers which made for a cheap night. It was a Monday night and everywhere we went the places were packed, people everywhere, the music pumping and everyone dancing. We had an awesome time, drinking and dancing with the whole crew, before heading back to the campsite and sitting around the courtyard with a few more drinks until about 5.30 in the morning before finally deciding that sleep was needed.

Topdeck Tour Day 18 – Prague to Berlin, Germany

Feeling refreshed after the decent night’s sleep we made our way to Dresden in Germany, which is a town that was heavily bombed during World War II for no real reason, but has often tried to be justified by the British and United States, although researchers and historians are against the justifications. We went for a walking tour with Hottie as it rained, while Irish Mark and Rainbow stayed back to prepare our lunch. There are some remarkable buildings throughout the city, and a lot of them still have their charred outsides from the fire bombs that were used and ravaged the city during the war. Some of the buildings that were destroyed have even been rebuilt using the charred stones from the old building to still look like the other buildings in the city as well as a reminder of what happened during the war. A very cool and beautiful city that it would have been nice to spend some more time in, but being on such a tight schedule that we were we unfortunately couldn’t. Back on the bus and on our way to Berlin we went.

We arrived in Berlin and went straight on to our driving tour through the city, where we went along the Berlin Wall, the parts of it that were still standing, and saw all the art that had been painted along them in which is now an outdoor art gallery. Some of them have been there for a long time, but most are changed every so often with new paintings from new artists, and a lot of them represent peace and events that happened during the time when the wall was still standing or when it was coming down. We continued on through the city and saw some other amazing sites including the Reichstag, the Victory Monument, Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate which are all full of so much history from World War II and the division of East & West Germany, which we would find out the next day when we were going on  the Third Reich walking tour.

Once we had finished the driving tour, it was on to our hostel. Everyone was so excited to not have to worry about setting up and packing up the tents. The hostel was amazing and was more like a hotel. There was a pool in the basement, a restaurant, a bar, a big courtyard and rabbits running around. We had dinner in the restaurant and sat back with a few drinks before I had to get some washing done, where I had to wait for the washing machines and dryers, before finally getting to bed about 3AM.

Topdeck Tour Day 17 – Prague

Today was another free day and unfortunately I had woken up after about 2 hours and couldn’t get back to sleep because it was cold and wet and the tents weren’t the most comfy at all. So I sat around the campsite until more people surfaced and got some breakfast before sitting around and chatting with everyone for a few hours. Most people were feeling a bit worse for wear after the night before, but most were still up and about and looking forward to heading into town to check out the sights. Me and the Aussie Boys, Gerad, Joel and Tim, headed into town about 1.30PM to go have a look through the castle district and see the Prague Castle and whatever else we could find on the way. It was a long walk to the top of the steps but once there we had some amazing views straight out across the city of Prague. It was really beautiful, some of the old gothic architecture through the city is just stunning. The castle itself is something else again. It is so big and once again I am just amazed at how they managed to make these buildings so long ago and still have them standing. It really is quite astounding. We sat there for a bit being so dwarfed by it, it really is quite unreal. We also walked over the Charles Bridge, which supposedly has 12 gold coins stuck on it throughout it and if you touch all 12 you receive supernatural powers. We found what we thought might be the coins but weren’t totally convinced at all, and didn’t find 12 of them anyway. We decided that because of this, our tour leader, Hottie, must have been making it all up and then started to wonder how much of the other ‘facts’ he had told us were real or not.

We headed back to meet up with the rest of the group who had come into town and headed to a pub where the beers were 39 crowns (which is about $1.70 Australian) for a half litre (or pint). We had a couple of beers and headed off to another seedy little bar for another couple, and then back to the underground club we had been at the night before. As I was running on only 2 hours sleep, I headed back a bit before midnight with Clive and Chloe to try and get a decent night sleep, or at least as decent as possible in the conditions.

Prague is such a cheap city and is really awesome, it just would have been great to be staying somewhere with better facilities than what we had. Also, better weather would have been nice too. Definitely a place I would love to go back to, and I still love the place no matter what it was like when we were there.

Topdeck Tour Day 16 – Munich to Prague, Czech Republic

Coming into Prague I was really looking forward to it, but the weather soon put a dampener on that with it pouring with rain, and also the campsite not being that great at all. We weren’t going to let that stop us from having a good night though, and also celebrating Lucy’s 19^th birthday, and what better place to do so than in Prague and with a bottle of absinthe. We had a short walking tour through the city and finished off getting some Prague Sausage, before heading to the campsite and getting our tents setup, then having dinner, drinks and cake before making our way into town in the pouring rain (we weren’t going to let that stop us from having an amazing time) to check out the famous Prague nightlife.

It was a long, long night, but so much fun, going to a number of different clubs, including an underground club and also one that was 5 stories high with different types of music on each level! They were all really cool and better than any of the Adelaide clubs (obviously) but also any others I have been to in Australia, that’s for sure. We ended up getting back to the camp ground about 5.30 in the morning, after having more Prague Sausage (why wouldn’t you when it is so cheap?) and went to rest our weary bodies.

Topdeck Tour Day 15 – Vienna to Munich, Germany

We had a bit of a sombre stop to start the day at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp from which was used during World War II by the Nazis. It was quite strange wandering around the camp and learning of some of the things that the prisoners were made to do while in the camps. I don’t really know how to explain it r if my explanations of it would do it any justice at all. I think it is something that needs to be seen for yourself to be able to take it in and understand what went on there, although none of us would ever be able to truly understand, just the people that were made to suffer there. In saying that though, I did think that it would have been more graphic that what we had seen. This camp in particular was mainly used as a work camp, and not as much as an execution camp like some of the other ones were, which is why it may not have been so graphic, but there was still over 100000 people that were executed there.

Once we arrived in Munich we went on a walking tour before heading to the Hofbrau Haus, which is giant beer hall. It was hard to find a seat in there for the group of us but we managed to get a table and ordered a round of steins for the table. 11 steins in total, and they were all brought out by one waiter, just using his two hands to carry them all. It was remarkable. In addition to the beers we had some food, including sausages and pork knuckles, all of which was amazing.

After the food and another round of steins we started to get a bit rowdy and started playing a few drinking games, but no matter how loud we were it didn’t really matter because the place is such a loud atmosphere. I think one of the funniest sights for everyone would have been our whole table standing up singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ as we finished it off with a big group ‘cheers’ (which were a common occurrence). This also led to 3 of the steins getting cracked in one go, just after I had told everyone that they must be unbreakable as you could put a lot of force into the ‘cheers’. After my third stein, I headed back to camp early on the bus with a few others to get a good night’s sleep as I needed it with all the partying and full on days we had ahead of us.

Topdeck Tour Day 14 – Vienna

We started the day with a walking tour through the city of Vienna visiting the palaces and other monuments and museums. Most things are all within a short walk of each other, all around what’s called the ring road, which is just a big circle and has all the famous places around it. Once we had finished the walking tour we had the rest of the day to explore the city for ourselves.

A group of us wandered the main street with a couple of the girls wanting to shop and it was a good place for it. We had a nice relaxing walk, got some ice cream before we found a place to have lunch so we could get some schnitzel. I had a wiener schnitzel, as they called it, topped with ham, cheese and a white wine sauce and it was delicious. Closest thing I could find to a chicken parmi! After lunch it was time to head back and meet up with the rest of the tour for our visit to a local Schnapps museum/factory.

The Schnapps Museum was really interesting and we had a short tour and some explanations of how the schnapps was made and the different types they made there. The owner gave us the tour and was quite funny and gave us a lot of information about it, like that it had been in his family for generations making the schnapps and that it is all still original including the cash register which is nearly 100 years old and has never failed or needed to be repaired. After the tour we had the opportunity to sample some of the schnapps and also buy some if we wanted. I tried a few different shots, including the absinthe, which was very strong, but still quite nice and not too much of a burning sensation either. Then I tried what they call Rocket Fuel, a 56% alcohol drink, but surprisingly doesn’t taste that strong at all. They recommend that if you have a cough to have a shot of it before anything else and it will get rid of the cough. I also tried the Schonbrunner Gold, which is an orange flavoured drink, about 40% alcohol and has little gold flakes in the bottle. They were all really nice and went down a lot easier than their alcohol content would suggest.

After the schnapps there was a group going to a traditional Viennese Chamber Orchestra performance and the rest of us were going to Prater Park, an amusement park with one of the largest and oldest Ferris wheels in the world. We mostly just sat around and had some food, and a few of us went off and on a couple of the rides. Bel, Rainbow (our bus driver), Ando, Tommy & I headed off to go on a chair swing ride, when it spins around and the chairs fly off to the sides. Not scary at all, the face it is 117 metres in the air could make it seem a bit scarier I suppose. This is exactly what happened to Tom, as once he saw the tower he was having no part in it at all, being that he is afraid of heights. So the rest went up there and it was definitely worth it. The views were amazing. The lights were all starting to come on through the city and through the park on all the other rides as well. It looked really spectacular and I even took my camera up with me and took some photos while spinning around. There wasn’t much else to do, so we sat around a bit longer and chatted before going to pick up the rest of the group from their performance and then back to the campsite for the night.

Topdeck Tour Day 13 – Venice to Vienna, Austria

After arriving in Vienna the first thing we did was go straight to the Hofburg Palace which used to be just the summer residence for the family. The Palace was huge in itself but then the entire grounds of the place were about another 20 times bigger. We could have spent hours there looking around with all the gardens, statues, fountains and even a maze! Unfortunately we only had about an hour before we had to be back on the bus to get to the campsite.

We had a fairly quiet night at the campgrounds after dinner and sat round with a few drinks and kicked the football around, and got attacked by mosquitos. They were everywhere and it didn’t even matter that we were covered in repellents, they were relentless and just kept attacking.