Thursday, May 14, 2009

Dresden, Germany

I have been in Dresden Germany the last couple of days. I hadnt really planned on coming to Dresden at the begining of the trip but it was between Prague and Hannover so I figured why not. Its a medium sized city I would say, overall pretty good though.

I went to this national park, at least i think it was... could have just been a forest marked on a map, and saw this giant rock fortress thing. It took me like an hour train ride to get there and I didnt really know which stop it was so I just got off the train when a bunch of people with back packs and walking sticks got off. Haha, turned out to be the right stop so that was good. Then I just walked between these little towns along the river, it was really pretty. Yesterday I rented a bike and rode a little out of Dresden to see some castles. When I went to rent the bike though the guy told me to test it out before I took it and I almost crashed into a tree when I very first got on, graceful I know. I hadnt rode a bike in a while and it took me a minute to remember how to balance. No worries though, I made it through the whole day with out hitting a single thing.

Tomorrow I am going to Hannover to meet up with Mandy and the Germans I know. The girl at my hostel showed me this website that is like organized hitchhiking. So I am splitting gas money with two other girls and riding with them tomorrow morning. Im kind of excited because I think most of the way there is on the autobahn (sp?) and I havent rode on that before. I hope the girl driving likes to go fast and if she had a cool car that would be nice too. :)

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Italy and Prague

The last couple weeks have been pretty fun. I just ended up leaving Italy yesterday.... I miss it already!! I went to Rome again which was ok.... it really just made me miss traveling with Jane and Peggy though, we had such crazy times there. Then up to Florence for a few days. I actually liked Florence a fair bit, but the city didnt seem to have too much going on. After that though we went down to Atrani in the Amalfi coast. This city was beautiful!! Plus we ended up making friends with the two Luigis who ran a bar restaurant. They were really great guys and we made multiple other friends while hanging out there, including the Aussi girls who became our travel mates for a few days.

While hanging out at Luigis us and the Aussis met a couple living in London and vacationing in Italy for like 4 months. They rented this really cute little villa and had us all over for a dinner party the next night. It was amazing, one of the best meals from my trip. It was a very nice quaint little night. The following night we had our first going away party at the bar. This included liters of drinks, Aussi Amy working behind the bar and making me an Acid Amy drink, and a few other shennanigans. After a few days hiking and beach going we went up to Naples.

From there we took a day trip to Pompeii. Ancient Pompeii is really neat to see, and if there werent heaps of tour groups it would be a great place to wander around for a few days. Naples was ok... not one of my favorites though. Although, Luca, from Houston, did come meet up with me here and it was nice for him to show me around for the night.

Yesterday I got into Prague. So far I love it, its such a beautiful city. Although, czech is a ridiculous language to try and speak. I took a walking tour today and learned all about the history of Prague, which I think has made me appretiate the city more. Most of its buildings werent destroyed during WWII so the old buildings are neat to see. Plus it has great views that get even better at night. I would highly recommend it to everyone.