Day 13:

Early start again, caught the metro then the speedy Thalgo train across the border back into France. A long wait for a Carcassonne train but we eventually got there to find that our hostel was 7km away with no buses cos it was a Sunday. We took another spontaneous move and tried to book a train to Nice (screw Carcassonne!), but they were all full, so we hurridly booked a hostel in Marseille and luckily got the last two seats on a train there this evening. Arrival at Marseille is at about 11ish and our mission tomorrow is to get to Nice – Hopefully one of the 21 trains will have space.

Day 14:

Just got in at 3am from a fantastic night out in Nice. We easily found a space on a train from Marseille and the journey along the French south coast was the most picturesque trip so far. Arrived mid-afternoon and after having to find emergency accommodation (mainly because the reservation at the hotel we were booked at was for August...and it was July) we dumped our bags and walked down to the sea. Nice is sooooo lovely, its so full of life and culture. We climbed up a large hill which overlooked the city and got some brilliant pictures. We found a great place for dinner and ended up staying there till the early hours of the morning, after an ice cream and too many cocktails we headed back up to the hotel.

Day 15:

Woke later and after a quick brekkie we jumped on the train to Monaco!

We arrive in the 2^nd smallest country in the world in time to see the changing of the guard outside the royal palace (woooo!). After that we made out way to the oceanographie museum, one of the largest aquariums in the world (woooo!) and mega better than Barcelona’s bloody expensive one. Running low on cash we got some final pics of the race track and went onto Cannes!

I loved Cannes and we filled the camera up a little more before returning to Nice for a cheap dinner and a peaceful night out watching Professional Cup Skating.

Day 16:

With the night train booked for tonight from Nice to Rome, we spent the day in two seafront towns outside of Nice. We spent the morning on the beach then wandered up to the port are Beaulieu sur Mer. We headed back to say goodbye to Nice before we hopped on the roomy night train which we shared with two mega frantic scary Korean women...and not the Americans who didn’t want to sleep in our cubicle because “these are boys!”.

 

 
Day 17:

We found our hostel after arriving at Roma Termini. Then headed to an internet cafe to sort out our next few days then booked a walking tour of old Rome for tomorrow (which was €36..oh dear). We then made our own way to Vatican City visited various sights on the way.

We climbed 551 steps to the top of St Peter’s Bascilica, saw some of the Swiss Army and visited the tomb of John Paul II.

A yummy pasta dinner and an €8 Beer + Ice Cream before heading back to the hostel roof terrace to relax, then to bed for sleepies!

 
Day 18:

Woke early and took our breakfast bag with us to the station. Rushed around the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel after the longest queue in the history of mankind! Our Rome tour lasted from 2 till5 and was a really good way to see the Old ‘ Roman’ Rome. Yummy pizza for dinner then sleep.

It was at this point where I noted down everyone that we had met along our travels, we kinda had to improvise with some of the names...

Nick (an Australian we met in Luzern,Switzerland)
Ash (our roommate in Munich)
Dave,Andy,Paul (People I met on the Munich tour)
Kate or something (Myke’s Munich tour buddy)
Girls from Kendel Mint Cake land (Vienna hostel mates)
James (Scottish guy from…somewhere)
Orikaso (Canadian friend in Venice)
Frank (guy at Naples station)
Emelia (someone…in Rome)
The Gelateria Sisters (American mother and daughter in Rome)
Meriviakunalokavango (person Myke met on the train to Marseille)
Shakura (person I met on the train to Marseille)

*There were probably more…but meh, I’m sure they don’t mind not being mentioned.*

Day 19:

Hanged around the station then got the Midday train to Naples. Our compartment was full of interesting people – Mega smelly make up woman (not sure why I wrote this..). We arrived in Naples and walked down the most rubbish filled street ever (a market seemed to have exploded everywhere) to our great hostel. We set off to see Naples and by 6pm we had seen all the sites this underestimated town had to offer. We saw Vesuvius across the Bay of Naples, visited a coastal citadel and found THE most expensive bar in the whole of Naples where we could have easily have spent the rest of our entire trips budget. I had a Sweet ‘n’ Sour SoCo which was way too expensive. A divine pizza from the city that invented the Pizza was the best way to finish our day. We walked back to the hostel where I write this sitting on the balcony...Pompeii tomorrow!

Day 20:

Had breakfast with a sloppy slippy German lady then caught the special service train to Pompeii. We hung around the back of a tour for a while then I took control of the map as we finished exploring the amazing city overshadowed by fat-ass volcano, Mt Vesuvius which we later caught a bus up to the crater. (Myke takes over) Oli fell in. After we got him out, we went to Herculaneum which was great, the buildings were better preserved tham Pompeii and a good time was had by all, later we had tea and biscuits Mmmmmm. Almost got train to Turin that evening, but luckily didn’t and we prepared for another night train to Revanna. We met a nice yank, Frank (Plank) at the station.

 

Day 21:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! That train was Horrible (not that bad, really). Begrudgingly climbed off the train at Revanna and spent a few hours on the web planning the next few days. Booked..eventually our train to Brig in Switzerland then waited outside our hostel for 3 hours until 3:30, lay in the park with Lemon Jelly, then dumped our bags and looked around the Mosaic filled town till it got dark then we had what I think is the best meal so far, I had a weird sausage pizza with SoCo Lemonade which I had to make myself cos the barman didn’t understand. Then back to our hostel to sleep!

Day 22:

Woke at 5am to catch our 6:20 train – we got all ready but missed the train anyway. Luckily we caught up with our transfer at Ferrara and arrived in Venice by 10am. Ran through the town to catch our tour meeting place, two minutes before they left. The tour was great – “Gondolas are the most efficient rowing boats ever!”. We finished off the museums and stuff by ourselves and took the water bus around the wonderful city. Had a nice last Italian dinner then came back to the hostel for another early night – Switzerland tomorrow! “Bolog-neese” (I don’t know why I wrote that at the end of this entry)

 

Day 23:

Another (yes, another) early start today. Caught the water bus/bus bus to the station then took a series of trains to Zermatt...Oh...

There we go. I was horrible weather when we arrived – Low cloud and rain but by a long long way the most amazing place I’ve ever been to. We made our way to the campsite and pitches reluctantly. A wander round the fantastic town of Zermatt – with a goat parade, electric cars and the cleanest air you will ever breathe, we had a Swiss hot dog for dinner and found a cosy little bar where I had some Diebels. We didn’t see the Matterhorn which was the whole point of going to Zermatt, we didn’t even get into the Matterhorn Museum. The cheese fondue (Swiss speciality) was nice, but mega expensive and we climbed into our freezing tent for an..Interesting night’s sleep.

Day 24:

Woke at 2am to find out we were covered in snow, Myke hit it all off which sounded like a tree was falling on the tent..I went back to sleep. I woke up again...cold, before finally getting up and having frozen bread with rock solid jam, packed up the tent and got out of the horribly wet town before Midday. Another series of trains brought us to our second Swiss town, Interlaken. A larger busier place..but hey, It’s wasn’t raining!!! The whole of the town is on the brink of flooding so we did some speedy laundry, had some dinner, didn’t see the Miniature Tin Army exhibition at the town museum and called it a night.

Day 25:

Left Interlaken and took the Golden Pass Panoramic train to Luzern. It’s flooded everywhere in Central Switzerland and when we arrived in Luzern our campsite had flooded so we quickly booked a hostel and made our way there. Rushed around the town...saw The Crying Lion and the worst panorama museum based on the 700 Swiss people killed during the French Revolution I’d ever seen. Bought dinner and Myke cooked it while I chatted to Nick from Melbourne, after dinner we carried on speaking for about 2 hours with crisps and cider.

Day 26:

An early train put us on our way to Zurich! We arrived to loads of people dressed up in insane, wierd costumes and house music pumpin’ through the station. It was only the Zurich Street Parade! We caught the connecting train to our hostel and we climbed up a huge hill to find it was closed...yay! Back to Zurich to check out the parade which was crazy!! Looked around Zurich which is...really clean and full of banks. Felt kinda wierd in my thick sweater when everyone else was in crazy naked dancing outfits. Came back to Schlosslaufen which is pretty dead – Random facebook Stuttgart man was there...Munich tomorrow!

 

Day 27:

Left our hostel by 10am, destination: Rhine Falls. They were easily reachable by bus and we arrived in 15 minutes..they’re absolutely incredible! SO so vast spanning across 150m of river. We popped into some souvenir shops to look for patches but no luck. We then caught a ‘daredevil boat’ to the centre of the falls where we climbed up the rock that hangs over the edge. A few trains took us then to Winterthur where we waited for two hours for our train to Munich!

 Arrived there and found a hostel which was nice and close to the station. Chatted to the 3 guys in our room then wandered round Munich which was amazing, until we plonked down at a beer hall named Augustine for the rest of the night.

Day 28

After what was left of our included breakfast, we went to Marienplatz where our free tour was to begin. We joined the free tour group with guide, Dave and we had the best tour of the whole trip of the town. Myke chatted to someone (name unknown..played Myke) while I chatted to Andy from Manchester who’s doing a geography PhD! Paul from New York and Man from Melbourne. The tour ended at 3pm and we finished off the city by seeing the Olympic Village and the English Garden where we shared a pretzel and a beer with Dave, our tour guide who we found again. After a few more pints, we wandered back to the hostel to bed.

Day 29:

Train day today as we left Munich at 1pm after seeing the MASSIVE Detusches Museum to get a train for Salzburg, Austria...

...then some smaller stations, a bus ride and a walk before we arrived at Hallstatt, a village in the Salzkammergut (one of the most picturesque places on Earth). Arrived late and after a dinner and a few pints we were uncomfortably back where backpackers belong, in a tent. Oh and played the worst game of giant chess ever..it wasn’t the game, it was the outcome...I’ll end this story now, Myke knows why...

 

Day 30:

Woke up to blue sky all around! Had a bakery breakfast then to the lake! Myke captained the beastly 500W boat across the lake for a brilliant view of the town. No time for ice caves, Vienna was waiting for us a 4 hour train journey away! We found our hostel and Patrick showed us round (by far the coolest guy and accommodation of the whole trip), he gave us a map which he drew! A quick look around Vienna before getting some beers and heading back for a chilled evening at the hostel.

Day 31:

This hostel is SO COOL! Woke early to find my exam results which I was pleased with...Hopped onto the circle train to see Vienna in a nutshell before going round the town hall and parliament buildings (...yawn). Moved onto Schonbrunn, a MASSIVE out of town palace where we went round the frankly disappointing labyrinth...then to the Teschnisches Museum which was brill! Best museum so far, even the torture pong was fun! Had BK for dinner then chilled at the now busy hostel and had some crazy Austrian liqueur (courtesy of Patrick)! Oh...and then found the famous Ferris wheel by accident.

Day 32:

Sadly leaving Vienna today L. Said bye to Patrick and climbed aboard the 6 hour train to Prague. Myke’s been ill which is unlucky – I hope he’s better soon. Arrived in...

...Prague and booked train to Berlin before being fined 1000 Kr for not having a ticket being validated when we didn’t even need to get it validated...Meh...1000 Kr is like...£13.We followed the arrows on the floor to the hostel which is an old school...bit wierd. Had a huge meal for €9..Man I love this place! Myke is in bed cos he’s ill L. I’m bored..Tour tomorrow!!!

Day 33:

Myke’s feeling a litter better today. We found out way to the Main Square where the tour would begin, after a hunt for a place for breakfast we set off. Our group was small (in more ways that one) and there was nobody really to talk to. Wandering round Prague was great and full of different architectural styles, it was really like no other place we’ve been to so far. After the Jewish Quarter we stepped over the tourist filled Charles Bridge and into Europe’s largest castle. I ‘had to buy something!’ in McDonalds to go to the toilet and that moment (which is explained below) was Myke’s favourite moment of the entire trip for some reason. We saw the less impressive Changing of the Guard, made our way to the station and by 11pm we we’re in Berlin to catch a midnight meal with Vivi and Milos. (our cousins)

I needed the loo before we got the tram up to the castle so I pulled away from the group while the guide was buying the tickets. I went to McDonalds cos they always have toilets...In most European toilets you have to pay to go in, you just have to give a tip to the cleaner in her little basket, it can be any amount. All I had in my wallet was 2000kr which is like...£55, I wanted to give 5kr (20p or so), so I ran into McDonalds and bought a Happy Meal so as to get change from the 2000kr, I got the change and relived myself. I ran back to the group with a bright red face, a plush Penguin and a Happy Meal box in my hand, when I reached the group I was out of breath so I just said “I had to BUY something” in a typical Oli way – Myke cracked up and didn’t stop laughing till we got the castle.

Day 34:

10 Days left and we had an intense Bike Tour of Berlin to do. A speedy breakfast then wandered to Alexander Platz where we met Ingo, our tour guide. He has from Hamburg and he had an American accent but anyway, he took us everywhere the tourist needs to go to in Berlin and more! (like the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his kid from). A currywurst and scabby Beer mixed with Sprite (which I ordered by accident) for lunch and then I became the tour guide as we visited Berlin Zoo – which is incredible, there are no fences just hidden moats, its hard to describe but the zoo is amazing, we saw the silly polar bear Knut that everyone is obsessing about and then went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, Charlottenburg and the Sony Centre and...Oh My God! Look at the time! (I can’t believe I wrote that) it was 12 midnight and we reluctantly rung the bell back at Vivi’s flat, greeted by a tired Milos and went to bed feeling guilty (cos they have a baby that would’ve got to bed aggges ago).

Day 35:

Another..eughrr...early start as we suddenly realised we had one less hour to get the train than we thought. We caught the ICE with 3 minutes to spare and a few hours later we were meeting Vally (Aunt) on the platform at Kiel, North Germany. We had a lovely cooked lunch and then major panic...my Interrail wasn’t in my money belt...I knew exactly where it was, it was on a train bound for Hamburg, too bad we were 100 miles from Hamburg with no hope of getting the ticket back, it seemed as if we were stuck in Kiel without the budget to continue our trip. Luckily...Vally was our lifeline and used her Germanic skill to get me a 10 Day pass at Kiel!! Thanks Valllly!!! We then went ot the beach! Had a nice cold beer and then into the not so nice freezing Baltic see! I bashed by knee while jumping in hehe. Then when Herbert came home, he generously treated us to a fantastic meal at the Strande Hotel (very posh) Mmmmm...Back home then a nice chat with them in their new lunge after collapsing in Bed...Copenhagen tomorrow!

Day 36:

BIG Lie in and a BIGGER Cooked breakfast greeted us on the rainy day in Kiel where I’m writing this now.

We arrived in Copenhagen at 6pm and had one night booked at DANHostel – Europe’s largest...whatever. We have Copenhagen Sightseeing and Malmø sightseeing (Google it) to fit in tomorrow before a train should take us to Stockholm..hopefully. Rented some bikes (same method as getting trolleys at supermarket) after making a pointless trip to Malmø to try to get a ticket, turns out both offices were closed...yes, we travelled to another country to get a ticket to find out the office was closed. All that happened is that we were greeted by the HUGE Malmø Festival...we wandered round that for hours on end but we sadly missed the Klaxxons, the only UK Band performing.

Day 37:

Woke at 7am and got tickets out the way, reserved our way to Fläm which is really good! Biked around the sites of Copenhagen and the surreal Christiania – a wierd sorta..hippie town separate from the city itself. Saw the overrated Mermaid and eat a mega nice fresh pizza with many ducks...AND COOTS...We didn’t eat the ducks..they were there with us in the Park. Malmø Festival occupied us from 6pm till we climbed onto our night trail at 10pm bound for Stockholm. Middle bunks...smelly dangly feet...hand cramp and its hot...yay for night trains!

Day 38:

PHEW! What a day! Arrived at 7am in Sunny sunny Stockholm and after beooking tickets and a quick breakfast we hit the town. The town hall, the palace, ye olde towne and the crazy Slo-Mo running used in the Changing of the Guard (see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6oa1W_a5Ig). Time seemed to be moving so slowly and by lunchtime we had seen a huge photo exhibition and made our way to a huge ship that capsized 20 minutes after its maiden voyage, it had been fully restored and was humungous. We accidently left the museum and wandered round the huge park housing the overprices Skalsen or something...which we didn’t go in. Missed out on a city view and followed the shouty band and the Jamaican Chess man to a nice restaurant for dinner before another night train. The carriage was full with some Spanish and Swedish people.

Day 39:

Day full o’ trains today, we arrived in Oslo at 10ish and by 10:30 we were on the most comfortable train so far to Myrdal. We each got our own little sofa basically, this trip was incredible..the best of the entire trip. We passed valleys, glaciers, lakes and mountain stations on the 6 hour journey to the station at Myrdal, where we boarded the Flåm Railway, one of the steepest in the world as we descended 800m down the Flåm valley floor. After a midway stop in the middle of a huge waterfall with a crazy woman on a protruding rock dancing round to Enya music we arrived in Flåm. We pitched our tent at the large campsite and after having Reindeer for dinner we got back to the campsite for some cold pear ciders and wierd malty beers. Woke a few hours later to immense winds and very cold feet.

Day 40:

Woke at 8am and after watching sunrise we packed up, had showers and left the site by 10. We needed to hang around till 3pm to catch the boat to Balestrand so we did some internety things, made our own ham and mega cheese rolls, which were really nice until we had a few too many (BURGRHRHGRHRGRGH!!!), we sat on a bench looking out over the Fjord with some more cool beers (kept cool by dipping them in the Fjord), I wrote some postcards and before we knew it we were on the boat. 2 hours later we arrived in Balestrand, it was pouring so we checked if the hostel had any rooms, it didn’t. We pitched our tent again then spent about 5 hours seeing all the sights of the town..which are basically A burial mound, a Spar, and a cake shop. We filled up on cake and cheeseburgers before going to bed in our cold, wet tent.

Day 41:

Woke today to rain so stayed in bed till 12 before finally getting up. We both agreed seeing the Glacier can wait till next Eurotrip and we booked 2 seats on a boat bound..for Bergen! We hung around till 5pm, eating more cake and looking at past photos.  The ferry trip was god-like, sooo many little islands with one house on and a pier with a motor boat...We arrived at Bergen and it was raining so we agreed like brave men that camping is a bad idea, we hurried to the MASSIVE Tourist office and the dude there who looked like my cousin booked us in at the cheapest place he could find. So nice to finally be back in a bed again, the last time it was like this was 2 countries ago, in Copenhagen.

Day 42:

The bed was so comfy it was tricky to move hostels this morning. We checked into Dorm.No – a new chain of super stylish hostels on the other side of Bergen. We took the funicular up to Mt Fløyen where we did a mountain walk with views so amazing it could have been a dream (about amazing views). We hiked back down through bogs and heather to Bryggen, the old Bergen which was...old and colourful! We had a wierd pasta dinner which we cooked ourselves and talked briefly to a German guy travelling Norway by car! We popped back to the Net Cafe to backup photos and the same guy was there that was there this morning at 11am, playing the same game...Bed Now!

Day 43:

Dumped the bags in lockers at the station then went around Natural History/Culture museums and the sleepy maritime museum before having 2 horrible McShakes for Lunch. Went around the stupidly expensive Bryggen museum...which was awful and walked to the shore where the aquarium was 9we didn’t go in cos we had no money to do so). We waited for 5 hours at Bergen Station for the night train to Olso. Just had station-made Ham, philly and crisp burgers for dinner...Sitting upright to sleep tonight...woo!

Day 44:

Woke, kinda with my feet sticking to the floor, the night train was comfy but a bed would’ve been nice. After buying an Oslo Card for 48 hours – we made our way by ferry to Bygdøy Peninsula where we visited a flurry interesting places..Kon-tiki being the best! Saw ‘The World’s Strongest Ship!’ and a crappy maritime museum. Back onto the mainland and gained free entry into the moving Nobel Museum, went round to the coastal fort and the HUGE Revolution museum, saw a HEOWGE Cruise liner pull out of the port then headed to the large out of town hostel before heading back into Oslo, buying dinner, cooking it then settling down for the night.

Day 45:

Our final day today! We would be making our way to the airport that evening to get the Ryanair flight back into Stansted. Today was the souvenir and goodbye day, we just tried to get anyone we knew souvenirs...we failed so badly, we ended up buying nothing at all. We’d kept a little fund behind for a final meal of the trip which we had at a really nice Italian Restaurant with random begger man wanting some pasta. We had MEGA Panic cos we wanted to get a train to Oslo Airport but we had no money for a ticket because our Interrail had run out, so we tried to get a bus but that was just as expensive...We had to call Dad who saved our skin once again and wired us a final bit of cash to get some food and actually to get us out of Norway. We contemplated life and the true meaning of time on the bus to the airport and after a speedy check in and long wait at the airport, we said bye to Oslo, to Norway and to Europe 2007...The trip...was over.

So it’s done...we did it..

12 countries

20 cities

13 towns

2 villages

1 airport

3 ports

and 49 stations.

EUROPE...DONE!