M&M hit the Big E's

Two of the people on our tour were engaged so for some reason we decided to throw them a hens night/ bucks party. This one involved challenges. On the bus ride in to Prague, the girls devised 5 challenges for the guys and vice versa, to be revealed at our group dinner that night. The amount of laughter coming from the boys end of the bus had us a bit worried so perhaps we were a bit meaner with our challenges than we normally would have been.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we dumped our bags and then caught the metro back into town for a walking tour.

After the tour it was dinner time where the challenges were revealed. They included:

For the women:

• Lie down at the clock tower on the hour when the massive crowd has gathered
• Photo proof that you have met a Tom, a Dick and a Harry
• Photo behind counter of fast food joint serving food

For the men:

• Dance on a table or bar - bonus points for female partner
• Busk enough money to buy a drink
• Get 3 phone numbers... of men.

Props to the women for completing at least one of theirs. The guys did nothing. Weak.

After dinner we continued our walking tour past the clock tower and through the Jewish quarter. Heaps of people gather to watch the clock at the turn of the hour - we did as well, but apart from a group of girls lying down in front of it, nothing really happened.

It was a bit of a disappointment.

Near the clock is a square that had a tribute set up to the hockey players who lost their lives in the recent plane crash.

Our walking tour ended up at an Absinthe Bar where we had the opportunity to experience the local spirit. Apparently ther are over 100 flavours of absinthe but I don't think any of us realised this at the time as we all ordered the same thing.

First taste was encouraging - it was very strong but kind of like licorice. However it progressivly got worse the more you drank until it seemed to be the vilest thing you had ever put in your mouth. Milly only managed a few sips of hers, but I soldiered on and eventually downed all of mine. Finally we ended up at a club called "Double Trouble" for a bit of a boogie and some normal drinks.

Next day was a free day and we were feeling surprisingly good despite the activities of the night before. Milly and I headed back into the city for a look around. Now, I'm not sure what happened but even though logically we thought we should get on a particular train, we ended up getting on one going in the opposite direction. Fortunately we hadn't travelled too far in the wrong direction before we realised our mistake and swapped back to a train heading in the right way.

We walked along the bridge which has a lot of buskers and stalls. The quality of buskers seemed to be a lot higher than back home. Most of them were smartly dressed and playing classical music - they looked like they would have been just as at home on a stage somewhere.

However, if the buskers where of a higher quality, the same can not be said for some of the fashion. I really hope mullets aren't making a come-back

We continued on into the old town, and up to the castle. And of course, we had to check out the church which had some amazing stained glass windows.

(I have pictures of the church but it's doing the whole sideways thing so I can't be bothered uploading them!)

That night we met up with the gang again for a group dinner. We went to this bar where you can pour your own beers. It's set up so that all the tables compete against each other and there's a big leader board displayed so that you can see how your table is going against the others in the bar.

Our table won! Despite the fact that Milly didn't quite get the memo about it being a beer drinking competition ;-)

Next some of the group disappeared to go to a girly show, while the rest of us headed off to a pub crawl. On the way we passed the big clock again, but this time there was actually a show. It was kind of like the Northern Lights display on North Terrace during the Adelaide Festival, except this display had sound and told a story. It was really good. I take back my earlier comment about the clock.

The pub crawl was due to start about 9 and we were already late. We didn't have far to go, however there was a slight problem - there was a marathon going on (seriously who does a marathon at night!!) and the track was right across the path of where we wanted to go. Plus there were about a million spectators so it was hard to make our way anywhere. If we went around the track we were going to miss the first couple of pubs at least.

We followed the track for a little while until we came to a section that was just marked off with tape and not an actual barrier. That's when someone came up with the bright idea to just cross the track. There were actually quite a few runners and not really any gaps, so we devised a plan - we would go on to the track and run with them, slowly merging over to the side.

Brilliant! What could possibly go wrong?

It sounded good. However once we got on to the track a couple of the girls panicked and just ran straight across causing a bit of a disturbance for the runners, and for our tour guide to frantically yell out "Run with them!! WITH THEM!!!" However we all made it across without any major incidents and still got to the first pub in time for our free shots which were absinthe and ulimited.

We hit a few pubs before ending up at some 5 story club where Milly was happy to find a floor playing Serbian music (despite advertising itself as Hip Hop), although she wasn't so happy to discover there is no free water in Prague clubs - you have to buy it. As she said herself so eloquently "Mother truckers!". I on the other hand discovered that absinthe shots and stairs aren't the best combination and ended up with some pretty gnarly bruises ;-)

Next day it was off to Germany....

One of the most memorable parts of our trip to Austria was our visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp. The morning of our visit was cold and overcast - the first bad weather of our trip which under the circumstances was very fitting.

When we arrived we were ushered into a 'cinema' and shown a 40 minute film about the history of the camp. Towards the end of the film were some very graphic images showing the state of the prisoners when the camp was liberated and the mass graves.

Once the film ended we were free to explore the camp. We entered through some big wooden gates into a courtyard area.

Around to the right were the dorms where the prisoners were kept and the building that housed the gas chamber.

There aren't many of the dorms left. We were told that a lot were destroyed by the Nazis when the allied forces were approaching, the others were destroyed by the camp liberators in disgust. The ones that are there now have various uses. Some contain memorials, others are decked out with bunks like they would have been back then.

In the gas chamber area are memorials to some of the victims who died there. There are also plaques describing each room.

We only had 20 minutes or so to explore the camp, which didn't seem like long enough. The last room I entered was full of displays describing various aspects of the camp and Nazi Germany. It was one of the only ones in English, however by the time I found it, it was almost time to go.

We left the camp by walking down a long cobblestone path, past a bunch of memorials that various countries have set up. Milly took the time to find the memorial dedicated to Yugoslavia.

There was an incredibly long, steep staircase at the end of the path that they used to make the prisoners climb carting heavy rocks. The staircase would be hard enough to climb when you're fit and healthy, let alone starving and lugging boulders. A lot of people died on that staircase.

The visit was very somber and moving, but I'm glad we went.

We arrived in Ljubjlana (which for those who don't know is the capital of Slovenia) for a flying visit. We arrived mid afternoon and went straight on a walking tour of the city.

And of course, what walking tour would be complete without a visit to the castle? We caught the fernacular up and nosed around a bit, but I was unimpressed. They had done up the castle so it was all modern inside. It's not as much fun.

There were some pretty good views of the city from up there though, which saved it a bit.

After the castle it was time for dinner. I don't remember what we had, but I do remember the dessert. Banana, nutella and chocolate cake. It was delicious!

Dinner over and the walking tour continued. The city was really pretty by night.

We stopped by a bar which was a bit strange - they had skeletons everywhere.

While waiting for the bus to pick us up, we visited a supermarket to buy some supplies for that night and our bus trip to Austria the next day. We had a few difficulties... Milly's addiction to soda water is second only to my addiction to coke, and she was out. She picked up a few bottles and put them in her basket - only to be stopped by a woman with a horrified expression on her face saying "No, no, no! You don't want that!" It turns out that Milly had accidentally picked up diuretic soda water. Lucky the woman was there or it would have been a very uncomfortable night for Milly!

The next morning we left early for lake Bled. The plan had been to go swimming, but unfortunately it wasn't warm enough. We didn't mind though, the scenery was absolutely stunning.

We took a boat to an island in the middle of a lake that has a church which is a popular spot for the youngsters to get married. There are 99 steps leading up to the church and it is supposed to be good luck for the groom to carry the bride up them. We had a few couples on the trip who decided to give it a crack.

It was my brothers birthday, but I had been unable to get in touch him. So in a guest book in a church on an island in a lake in Slovenia is a 30th birthday message for him

That afternoon we continued on to Salzburg, Austria, home of "The Sound of Music" (which our tour guide played for us as we entered the country). And birthplace of Mozart. We even went to the house where he was born as we started our walking tour of Salzburg.

There were pretty gardens and fountains everywhere.

I love that even the McDonalds sign is fancy

We stopped by the cathedral to have a look at all the beautiful artwork. Adelaide churches sure could learn something from this. Just saying.

And what visit to a European city would be complete without going up to the castle? We took the fernacular up and this castle was better than the one in Slovenia, even if it did happen to be mostly closed. It also offered some spectacular views of the city.

That night at dinner I think I made a waitress cry. It wasn't my fault, she served me substandard coke. The nerve!! It was ok though, we were leaving the next day...

Ah, Croatia! We arrived at the ferry dock and had to join a massive queue to get to the island. It was quite a wait, but we had a good vantage point to see the island we would be calling home for the next few days. It looked pretty barren - which it turns out it was, however it looked pretty in the sunset.

Once on the island we drove to the hotel - or at least we tried to. There was a boom gate between the main street and where the hotel was, and the gate keeper was on a bit of a power trip and wouldn't let the bus through. As a result our driver had to do a 168 point turn to try to get the bus out of there and find somewhere to park - much to the amusement of the locals. Quite a crowd gathered to watch us. It also meant we had to lug our suitcases and backpacks a fair way down the road, past the gatekeeper guy who I'm sure was smirking as we trundled past.

Our hotel had big rooms and was a nice change from the one we just left in Venice. The air conditioning didn't work, but the view from the balcony more than made up for it.

One of the first questions we all ask when we get to each hotel is if they had wi-fi. This one did (which you had to pay for), but no one bothered with it since there was free wi-fi all through the city and you could connect as soon as you left the hotel. It was a bit of a dodgy connection, but better than paying!!

After a buffet dinner, we headed out to sample the Croatian night life. First stop, Cocomo. It looked ok, if a bit quiet, but they didn't seem too happy to see us and basically were quite rude until we left. Milly wondered if they recognised her Serbian accent when she tried to order for us and had a problem with it. Didn't matter though, because the place we ended up, 'El Faro' was wonderful. They were really nice, had better music and best of all kept bringing us free shots!

After a number of drinks, we decided a midnight swim was in order so wandered down to the beach. However it turned in to more of a midnight paddle.

The next day there were no 'official' activities planned so we went for a wander along the beach front checking out the shops until we all decided to rent scooters and explore the island.

First it was off to the proper beach. The water was absolutely amazing, although I did miss the sandy beaches from home - the pebble beaches aren't quite as comfortable.

Swimming over, we hit the road. We probably drove for about half an hour through some pretty barren landscape before heading down a little roadway trying to get back to the coast.

We ended up at this little cove with amazingly clear water and a restaurant that served the most delicious food (and lots of it!)

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a birthday party. Our tour leader had organised a cake for one of the girls who was celebrating her birthday so we all got dolled up and surprised her with another little "patio party" before heading out for dinner.

Dinner that night was at a seafood place quite close to the hotel. Not being much of a seafood person, I decided to play safe and order the fish. When the meal came I was not prepared for what I got - the fish still had a face. In fact it looked like someone had just gotten a fish from the ocean and plonked it on my plate. No neat little fillets here. No matter, I did my best. (But I haven't been game to order fish anywhere since!)

To continue on with the birthday celebrations, we headed back to El Faro's for a few drinks before going for a boogie at a night club on the beach. Milly decided to try to kill us all with her special "rocket fuel" shots. She, having been drinking the stuff (rakija) since she was a toddler downed it like it was water. The rest of us, who had been brought up on milk and apple juice, had a harder time of it, but fortunately everyone managed to keep it down.

The next day we had an early start on our way to Slovenia.

Rome was the last stop for approximately half of our tour group, so the bus felt quite empty as we set off on Saturday morning on our way to Venice. However, before we arrived in the canal city, we had a stop in Verona, the setting for the famous play "Romeo and Juliet".

On our way to the city our tour guide Stacy gave us a bit of a spiel saying that the play was based on 2 families who had political differences; one family supported the pope, the other some politician. We were going to see the famous balcony. I can't really remember too much about the story because it was all fake - he admitted it on the way out. The balcony isn't the 'real' balcony, because it doesn't actually exist. It's just a publicity/tourist thing they've set up. The fact that we stopped there shows it works.

The outskirts of the city, like most of the ones we've seen, was quite industrial and boring. However the old city itself was charming. They also have a colosseum, but this one is still in use.

We went to the "balcony" site which was quite packed with tourists. The walls leading to the balcony are completely covered with graffiti by people declaring their undying love for each other.

The balcony is pretty I guess, and there is a statue of Juliet underneath it (shouldn't it really be Romeo????) that is said to bring good luck if you rub her breast. You can also go on the balcony. We declined to do both, feeling that it was just too touristy. Plus, we've rubbed enough statues on our journey!

Back on the bus and we drove to Venice. We were staying on the outskirts of the city so we didn't get to see any canals on the first night. We did, however get to view the oldest working computer I've ever seen! At the place where we had dinner was this ancient artifact from computer days gone by (I think he said 1974), which the owner still uses. All the geeks of the group flocked to take a photo.

Despite the fact that we were staying in what turned out to be the worst hotel of the trip (there was a funky mouldy smell to the room which was quite nasty), we had an early night. The cold I had picked up in Rome was still with me and I was hoping that a good nights sleep would cure me.

It didn't.

The next day I woke feeling awful, but I dragged myself out of bed to go look at the sites of Venice. We caught the bus in and went on a bit of a walking tour, which included a look at the mask shop that supplied the masks for "Eyes Wide Shut". Apparently masks are a bit of a big thing in Venice as they were selling them everywhere.

We also found out that there was going to be a regatta later that day, which is why the streets were pretty packed despite the fact it looked like it was going to rain. Luckily it stayed nice for our walk.

We stumbled across an art museum which was displaying some interesting 'artwork'.

Guess they're not pop culture fans.

After walking around for a while and checking out some of the sites, we went to a glass blowing demonstration where the "master" made a glass horse in about 1 minute. It was an impressive display.

He'd obviously done this thousands of times before, and the little horse he made which we thought was so good went straight back into the furnace as we were walking out in to the shop area. Everything in the shop was beautiful but reeeeally expensive. I might have bought something if it wasn't for the fact that I would be carrying it around for several more weeks in a backpack.

Glass making display finished, and it was on to the lace display. Venice is renown for it's lace and the lace factory is subsidised by the government so they don't have to charge exhorbitant prices for their products. It seems the government wants to preserve the lace making knowledge and skills so has set up funding to protect it. Good for them

Demonstrations over it was time for what most of us had been looking forward to - the gondola ride!! It was a bit like gridlock, there were gondolas everywhere. The drivers, whose uniforms were disturbingly like the top I was wearing, were very skilled. Several times I thought we were going to crash into a wall, but they saved it at the last minute. I say 'saved', but they were going exactly where they wanted to. Apparently the gondola trade is very 'in-house'- you can only operate one if you're in 'the family'.

Once our ride was finished we had 'free time'. Milly and I wandered the city for a while, spending way too much money before heading back to the hotel. We started back just in time - just after we left the regatta got underway and the place turned in to a mad house.

The next day we left Venice and headed to Croatia - but first we had a stop in Slovenia to see the famous Postojna caves. This is a 21km cave system that was discovered about 200 years ago. The cave system is a bit of a national treasure, and got electricity even before the capital of Slovenia.

You reach the caves by an underground train. It was very "Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom". Without the guns.

It was absolutely enourmous. There were several signs at the entrance to the caves which outlined acceptable cave behaviour:

This included not taking photographs, but everyone seemed to ignore this directive and people were clicking away madly. They didn't seem to be getting in trouble so Milly and I took some shots too - although we were at least respectful enough to turn the flash off!

As a result my shots were a bit dark, but Milly's camera is great at taking low light photos so she was able to capture it better.

We emerged from the cave at least an hour later, then it was back on the bus and off to Pag Island, Croatia!