The last bits

Excuse the previous lackluster update, we've both been quite tired and didn't put much effort into it.

Amsterdam was amazing.  Definitely one of our favorite cities.  It's quite small, but so, so beautiful.  Somehow it was warm-ish and sunny when we were there, which according to a friend that lives there, was quite rare!  We did A LOT of walking, ate delicious thai food, and also met up with one of the first people we met in Ireland! Our paths have crossed about three times since we left Kilkenny, it's been really nice hanging out with a familiar face.
Our overnight bus was.. an uncomfortable overnight bus, as one would expect.  We had to get off twice, once to go through customs, and again to board the ferry.  After we arrived in London, we boarded the bus once again and drove for another hour or so to get to the bus station.  From there we dropped our bags off at the hostel, freshened up, enjoyed a delicious English breakfast, then met up with our good friend Heather from high school and her wife, Charlie!  We went to the Natural History museum, got bangers n' mash (also delicious), and found books for our journey at the book store.  It was really great to catch up with them; it was like no time had passed.
The next morning we met Koby's Aunt Terri and Uncle Jeff at the airport and caught a ride back with them to their house in Wales.  We all pitched in and cooked dinner together that night; it was really great being surrounded by family again.  Yesterday, we went to the grocery store for provisions for today's journey, Koby's aunt made a fantastic chicken stew, and we all watched a couple movies together by the fire.  This morning, Koby's uncle dropped us off at the train station, and we took two two-and-a-half hour train rides (with an hour layover in between) and we are currently waiting for 1 AM, which is the earliest we can board our ferry to Dublin that arrives at 5:50 AM, where we will sleep in their airport until 8AM, go through check out, then be on our way to New York, then finally, CALIFORNIA!  In total, we had/have about 48 hours of traveling.  Not exactly how we would like to spend the last day of our journey, but we're both REALLY looking forward to In n Out, so it's kind of okay.

The Baltics and Germany!

It's been awhile! So, we last updated from Lithuania.  Since then we have been to Riga, Latvia, Tallinn, Estonia, flew to Berlin, Germany, and now we are visiting a friend in Cologne, Germany!

Riga, Latvia- The Old Town was beautiful! We spent most of our time walking around there and playing in the leaves that had changed color and fallen off the trees near the river.  I can't explain how wonderful it is to experience a real fall season!  Our hostel wasn't the best, it was difficult to socialize and in the kitchen there was only a hot plate that you COULD NOT BOIL WATER ON which made cooking very difficult.  Overall, Riga was not our favorite.

Tallinn, Estonia- BEAUTIFUL.  Oh my.  Very beautiful old town and just a generally enjoyable place to walk around.  We stayed at an awesome hostel and met some really great people!  We went on a pub crawl, had a little football party where we streamed the Niners game on a projector and watched it with fellow fans, and watched cruise ships come in from the abandoned building overlooking the Baltic Sea.

Berlin, Germany- We couch surfed for the second time! We stayed with a 21 year old  and her parents in their really nice/well decorated flat in West Berlin.  We did the four hour walking tour which was fantastic!  We also went out with our couch surfing host and her friend to a couple bars one night which was great fun.  Our last night there we had to find a hostel because our host originally told us we were only able to stay for two nights (turns out we could have stayed al three, but oh well).  Our hostel was in a nice area and we met a few people, plus there was a 2 for 1 happy hour at the hostel bar which you really can't beat!

Cologne, Germany- We took an eight hour bus ride from Berlin to Cologne. My friend, Emily,then picked us up and we stayed with her for the weekend in one of the nicest houses!  It really was like staying in a hotel. Anyhow, during the day we went to a flea market, got crepes, did a little shopping, climbed to the top of the tallest gothic cathedral  in all of Europe (quite scary), did a little more shopping, rested a bit, then we met all of Emily and her boyfriend's really awesome friends and then at like 1 AM or something we went to a club and stayed there until 5 AM or so! Everyone parties a lot later here and it's definitely hard to get used to, but we had a great time!

We are currently in a van on our way to Amsterdam and using ride share for the first time and the driver is playing a bunch of American hip hop/rap, it's funny.

So after Amsterdam, we take an overnight bus to London where we will be for a day, then we meet up with Koby's aunt the following afternoon and get a ride to Wales where we will visit for a couple days, then we have a day of travel (bus, train, ferry), and we'll arrive in Dublin at 5 AM, and fly home at 10 AM!  Our trip is quickly coming to an end and it's bittersweet.

Labas!

Greetings from Vilnius, Lithuania! So we took an overnight bus to get here from Warsaw that had little TVs on the back of each seat and we were able to watch free movies.  We had just treated ourselves to a meal beforehand (it had been about a week and a half since we had more than a quick sandwich or kebab), so on the bus we watched the same movie at the same time, so we basically had a little date night; what a treat!

Vilnius is BEAUTIFUL! It's so clean and has such a old, small town feel.  We tried some traditional Lithuanian food.  Lithuanian beans with crackling, their version of potatoes gratin, and also zeppelins, which are potatoes with meat inside.  It was all very delicious and Koby is extremely happy with all the potatoes.  I, on the other hand, have been trying to stock up on the fruits and veggies because this European diet is killing me!  I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong, but it's not what my body is used to.

Tomorrow we head to Riga, Latvia!

P.S. Krakow was krakin.  But really, another favorite city.  Eastern Europe, I love you; I wish we had more time with you.

Oktoberfest and more

After we left Budapest, we took a bus back to Vienna for a few hours, then took an overnight train to Munich on Friday.  We camped for Oktoberfest, using Topdeck Travel, which I wouldn't suggest to anyone.  It's not that it was terrible, and we were able to book it fairly last minute, but they made it sound better than it was, and the campsite was freezing.  That aside, Oktoberfest was AWESOME! Really, really awesome.  So the first day we got there at about 8:30AM, got in line for a tent, got inside and got a table by about 9:30.  We ended up at a table with some awesome Italians and we're drunk by about 10:15.  German beer is strong, easy to drink, and there is A LOT of it.  At noon a band started playing, and then it turned into a shit show.  But in the best possible way.  More and more people joined out table, we sang songs(Ein Prosit), ate half chickens and pretzels.  Every couple minutes someone would stand on their table, everyone would cheer them on, and they would attempt to chug the rest of the beer.  Most were successful, some weren't, and those that weren't were incessantly boo'd and I also heard they were supposed to dump the rest of the beer on their head, but unfortunately we didn't see that.  We somehow made it out of the tent at about 1 PM totally plastered and made it back to our campsite around 2 PM, passed out until about 7 PM, woke up with a gnarly hangover, nursed that, and went back to bed a couple hours later.  Next morning, we head to the campgrounds at 8AM again.  We decided to actually enjoy the festival that day, who knew that Oktoberfest had rides and games and wasn't just beer? No us.  So we walked around for a bit, went into a tent for a stein, walked around a bit more, got bratwursts, rode the swings(yes in that order, no it wasn't a good idea), then we went to multiple tents looking for a seat and we finally found a table and we sat with a bunch of Germans, which was really cool! Koby immediately started drinking, I needed some time.  We talked and sang more songs, then we both started drinking more and singing German drinking songs with appropriate dance moves and had a fantastic time.  You really feel like family at Oktoberfest.  It's serious drinking business, even for serious beer drinkers, Oktoberfest is no joke, but now having been I think everyone should go.  It's truly a once in a lifetime experience and definitely one of the best we've had on our trip! "Pacing yourself" is really difficult, so just get drunk and wake up with mysterious bratwurst wrappers in your pockets like we did!

Our lovely, lovely campsite apparently had the flu virus going around, and who gets it? Me. Inevitably, Koby got it as well.  That made our five hour bus ride to Prague really, really great.  Once we were in Prague, we both needed to do nothing.  So we did exactly that. Our second day in Prague, we walked around the city for a few hours, made some really basic soup, went for a walk at night, and went to bed.  It definitely sucked that we couldn't explore Prague more.  It's SUCH a beautiful city with a magical feel, I'm glad we visited, but I would love to go back.  On Wednesday, we took a train and a bus to Krakow, Poland, which is where we are now!  We're staying at the best hostel, free breakfast, free dinner, free drinks, free laundry, and more.

Yesterday we did Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.  It was a lot.  It's hard to explain how you feel when you're there, it's like a combination of sad, depressed, shock, and disgust.  But visiting the camp was one of the main reasons I wanted to take this trip, and I'm really glad we went and I think it's an essential trip for everyone else as well.
On another note, as I recovered from the flu, I managed to get a cold.  Being sick while traveling sucks, but I'm still so happy to be here.  Today we're going to do a free walking tour through the Jewish quarter, and also explore the city.  Then tomorrow evening we travel to Warsaw and catch a connecting bus to Vilnius, Lithuania!  Then the other two Baltic states, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Scotland(hopefully), Wales, then home! I think the rest of our time here is going to go quickly, which makes me quite sad, but it'll be so great to see everyone and not have to carry out backpacks anymore!

A few last words:
I wish I packed for winter, I'm SO cold.
Also, we will figure out how to upload all our photos to a website for everyone to view! Sorry I know we should be better about that, but there are so many pictures and we're usually exhausted at night and don't want to bother with it.
Also, so.many.Australians. I'm getting really sick of the 'c***' word being used so liberally.