I was fairly excited about coming to Poland as this is where my Mum's side of the family comes from. I especially couldn't wait to try all the Polish food that my Nanna cooks and Krakow didn't disappoint me here. I had traditional Polish food including Peirogi (dumplings that can be stuffed with anything from potato to meat and mushroom), golobki (cabbage rolls stuffed with meat and rice with a mushroom gravy sauce) and borsh (beetroot soup). It was all so yum! But of course not as good as my Nanna's.

Krakow is a pretty small city. The main part of town is a huge medievil style square with a huge 'cloth' hall in the centre which sells traditional Polish things which make for good souveniers. Its surrounded by lovely park land and cute streets with plenty of restaurants. There is also a huge castle on top of Wawel Hill, but it looked a little less impressive than some of the castles I've seen so far so we gave an inside tour a miss.

A highlight of Krakow was Aushwitz, the concentration camp about 3 hours out of the city used in World War Two. This really was facinating. Most parts of the camp were left in their original condition so you could see the buildings and beds where the prisoners slept. We saw some original prison cells too, including a standing cell which was completely surrounded by brick walls and four people had to stand in it for an entire night. It really was so sad. What got to me the most though was seeing original clothing, suitcases and hair that was taken from the Jewish people as they arrived. One of the buildings has become a museum that stores all of this. About 3mins down the road is the Birkenau camp, the bigger 'death' camp where the gas chambers were. Here there was the ruins of the gas chambers, all left in original condition when the Nazis attempted to destroy them to erase evidence of their crimes. The whole experience was unbelievable and I still get so upset when I think that such a terrible thing could take place here.

Aushwitz

Next destination was Budapest in Hungary, which was a beautiful city. The Buda side consists of big hills with a Cittadel on the highest point, a Palace, a church and a Fishermans Bastian surrounding the church, all of which made for great lookout points to the Pest side over the Danube river. Walking along the Danube at night is extraordinary, Everything is lit up and the lights reflecting on the water as you walk across the Chain Bridge is amazing. The Parliament building in particular was awesome. It's a gothic style building and the biggest in Budapest. It's a great city to do some chilling out, as it has a huge park with beautiful surroundings and statues on every corner. My favourite thing though, was the food market in a huge hall. It had so many fresh fruit and vegies, meats and pastries. One of the best strudels I have tasted was made fresh on the spot. Such a great place!

The Palace on the Danube River

Next we arrive back in Western Europe, which I think will be a welcome change. Italy is first on the agenda so you will hear lots about Gelato, Pizza and Pasta!

The Old Town of Prague is absolutely gorgeous. The town was built in something like the tenth century and maintains most of its charm. Of course there are now commerical shops running the main streets but the buildings are lovely, as well as the churches and clock towers. Looking out over the river running through the town is a sight in itself. The Charles Bridge is the main bridge over the river and has about 18 statues running the course of the bridge. If you see in the photo below it really is quite beautiful. A glance upwards towards the mountain shows the huge cathedral, which is of course exquisite inside, and the castle overlooking Prague.

All this dazzled me so much on the first couple of days, but once you step outside the old town Prague wasn't the most appealing city on the trip. The main train station in particular was so filthy and full of bums and the stenches coming from the building were putrid. Not to mention the rude staff! The city outside of the Old Town had really nothing to see but sparse, dirty areas. It was almost like they have tried really hard to keep all the tourists in one spot, The Old Town, and totally neglected everything else. And for me, this is why Prague seemed really fake once you took it upon yourself to explore outside the comforts of the Old Town.

There were tourists in the thousands too! It was the Easter weekend so the place was swarming with tourists. It was so packed sometimes that you couldn't move anywhere! To escape this we went on a pretty cheesy paddle boat ride along the river and bathed in the sun and chilled in a park along the river. It was a fun relaxation!

It was good to leave bustling Prague on Sunday and wind down in Cesky Krumlov, a small town about 3 hours away on a lovely little river that weaves its way through the town. The place was gorgeous and there was nothing scummy about it! It was, however, overun by tourists but I have to remember that I am one myself! There were so many cute little streets and restuarants, including the fantastic Medievil style place that cooked as much meat as you wanted on a huge open fire grill! I had a feast! We also went on a bike ride 9km away to some caslte ruins. The ruins were great but the bike ride not so much - I now know how unfit I am!!

The link below has pictures of Fussen, Berlin and Prague. I have added them to the London and Paris set, they are the first 21 photos. Enjoy!

Click here for photos of Germany and Czech Republic

My first taste of cheap German beer was in Bavaria in a small town called Fussen. An overnight train from paris was very uneventful (not to mention uncomfortable) until we started rolling towards the town, where huge snow-covered mountain tops came into view. This really excited me. The whole town is surrounded by these mountain tops where two amazing castles hide (not so well from tourists though..). The two castles are Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, the latter being what the famous Walt Disney castle is based on. Here the kings of Bavaria resided, Maximillian and his son Ludwig who later on in his life went crazy and was found dead in a lake. They sure had a lot of ego. After the castles we decided to follow a walking trail up a mountain but failed to take someones advice to not go to far and got ourselves a foot deep in snow in some parts. The views were incredible but they soon became a bit scarey when we realised we would never make it to the top and hurried back down to the bottom!

Fussen was also wonderful for the food! My blog entry would not be complete without a food listing so here goes. Traditional Bavarian food was to be found everywhere and at cheap prices! We ate huge schnitzel's covered with mushroom sauce, beef rollups with gravy, dumplings and lots and lots of saurkraut. And the beer was so cheap! Never before have I chugged down a pint so fast, European beer is fantastic. I now know that the only reason I struggle with beer in Australia is because it aint so great (but not as bad as American beer...)!

Berlin was a mixture of amazing historical sights and cutting edge culture. We thought the best way to get all of the history was to go on an all day walking tour with a geeky American guide who knew absolutely everything about German history. We saw everything from the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie (where everything is unfortunately a replica), The Reichstag, Hitlers bunker and of course The Berlin Wall. We went to the East Side Gallery which is a section of the wall that still remains and has been graffitied, some parts by famous artists. It really is amazing to think that the wall still existed and that Germany was so divided up until 1989.

The shopping was also great, as was the night life. There were so many places to choose where to go out. We danced to indie music, saw a band and of course drank a lot of beer! There were a lot of cool boutique stores to shop in and the cafe scene was great for a beer break.

It was also so much fun hanging out with my good friend Deanna and Melissa in Berlin - I had so much fun guys!

Would have loved to have put some photos up but I can't from this computer so they will come next time, when you read about my first Eastern European adventures in the Czech Republic.

I could only be referring to one place: Paris. As soon as I arrived I fell in love with the city. It is just simply gorgeous. There are cafes and patisseries on every corner filled with the most incredible looking cakes that you have ever seen. The streets are so cute and each corner you turn is a mystery. The wine is cheap and delicious! And of course there is the most amazing Eiffel Tower. So many reasons I love this city!

One of my favourite areas was Montmarte, where traditionally a lot artists used to live and work. Here at the highest point in Paris is the Sacre Coeur, which is a beautiful church overlooking the city. Below this is the Montmarte area which has lovely narrow streets filled with cafes and so many different surprises. Here we past just another patisserie (which was their slogan) and saw a huge line to get in. We though that it had to be good so we lined up stared at the most amazing cakes, narrowed it down to three and gobbled them down in a nearby park. Later we stopped and ate and lovely cheese and met platter with red wine outside a cafe on the pavement in traditional Parisien style.

This post wont all be about food, I promise. Of course we did the usual tourist things and in Paris there are a lot of them. We took a day explored the amazing Notre Dame Cathedral, The Arc de Triomphe, the busy concord intersection and the Eiffel Tower. You see so many photos of it but it really is stunning. We went to the very top and saw a spectacular view of Paris, decided to wait an hour for the sun to set and saw the city lit up by night. As we came down a little light show went off: lights started flickering up and down the tower and it really was the most amazing thing to see.

We of course went to the Lourve, probably the most famous museum in the world. It is absolutely enormous. We spent about 3 hours in their and got about two thirds done, after rushing through some parts! The Mona Lisa was behind thick glass with two guards standing each side of her. It wasn't the most amazing thing to be seen. The building was wonderful. Another museum of sorts was one that housed human bones: The Catacombs. We walked through dark tunnels with so many bones, some belonging to famous French people. It was so spooky and I freaked out when I came face to face with them!

Other than that Paris was all about exploring cool areas, like The Marais, The Latin Quarter and St Germaine Du Prais, the later being a very expensive cafe scene where I paid about $7 AU for a cup of coffee (I did sit outside which caused the price to rise!). It was also about eating $12 Euro 3 course lunches at really cool cafes and having picnics on the banks of the Seine with a baguette and a bottle of red.

Click here for photos