Day 15 - Poland

Breakfast was okay, we got free coco pops, cornflakes and toast.

Today was a girls day out of shopping and sightseeing, unfortunately I didn't buy anything, but Chrysta brought a skirt from Zara, there is a cool mall 5minutes from the Main Square, so it was easy to get to. Chrysta got yelled at by this crazy old lady for not getting out of her way, which I thought was quite funny! Polish people can be quite aggressive we have found, either really friendly or they just don't want a bar of it.

We walked around the city and came across a big castle, called the 'Wawel Royal Castle', it was incredible! It was free to explore inside and gave a great view of the city. It was an old medieval type building which is the first I've seen in Europe. Krakow is known for its gothic buildings.

We enjoyed the 27 degree afternoon with some banana and mango daiquiris with the boys in the sun at No7 Bar (in the main Market Square). The service was great and a lot of street dancers, performers (ninja picture) and horse and carriages in front of you, so always a lot going on its a really good buzz here!

There are a lot of poor people here, you will be eating your dinner and they will come up to you and ask for money, or they will play some songs and expect a tip - you kind of get over it and don't want to be bothered whilst your enjoying the afternoon and not get hassled - but this is just the norm here.

We then walked 5 minutes away to this NZ burger shop called 'Moa'. You go inside and get are playing kiwiana music, photos of kiwis and sheep on the walls, All Blacks vs South Africa rugby game playing on a flat screen with a silver fern on display. This was the most amazing burger I have ever eaten and Chrysta and the boys thought so too - Highly recommend.

We go back to the hostel and watch the Olympics. Tomorrow is when we visit the Concentration Camp!

I found a call quote in my hostel 'The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page' SO TRUE!

Day 14 - Berlin to Poland

We relaxed at our hostel on some couches with our iPhones and free wifi. Another average sleep, thanks to people constantly coming in and out of our room. We asked the receptionist for help to get to the airport which they gave us the wrong directions. We were told we only needed to catch 1x train and 1x bus, but we actually had to catch 2x trains and 1x bus.
We are all over Berlin and eager to leave this city. We have found the locals to be unhelpful, rude and it seemed like every time we asked a question or asked for help it was such a big ask.

We fly out of Berlin at 5:30pm and arrive in Krakow at 6:50pm, flying with Air Berlin ($65 AUD each), we got given a packet of biscuits and a drink of our choice which was a nice surprise plus a heart chocolate when we got off the plane. 10 out of 10 for service.

We arrived in Krakow and it was still sunny, what I noticed on the plane ride down is how green the city is, there are just fields everywhere with small clusters of houses.

Again they don't stamp out passport coming into the airport and all you have to do is collect your luggage, it's kind of annoying because we wanted stamps in our passport from Berlin and Poland.

Poland has its own currency called 'Polan' we converted €100 and got $340 return - this just needs to last us for 3 nights accommodation, 1x ticket to concentration camp and a day floating around the city.

We caught to the train to the city for ($20) then walked to our hostel, right in the centre of Market Square - this place is CENTRAL!!!! Wow and the receptionist was so helpful and lovely. I am already giving this hostel (Cracow Hostel) 10 out of 10!

Ben's mates have arrived and we all go out for a beer and enjoy Krakow!

I love this city - its so pretty. Tourist day tomorrow, stayed tuned for pics.

Day 13 - Berlin

Ahhh hate this hostel, we had people coming and going all through the night and the door is so squeaky every time someone opens it, you wake up. It's just one of the downfalls of staying in a hostel, I suppose you pay for what you get.

It's much cooler today, 22 degrees which is a nice relief from the sun!

We did a sightseeing tour bus around Berlin city for (€15 students ;) ) otherwise its €17 for adults. The tour is called 'Stadtrundfahrten Sightseeing tours'. There are a total of 20 stops and if you don't get off at any one stop then it goes for 2hrs. We visited a lot of places we had already seen on our walking tour and we ventured over into West Berlin where we saw a few old domes, a skyscraper, churches etc. I wouldn't recommend this tour at all, to be honest, all it does is make your realise there are no monuments to symbolize their history, everything is getting rebuilt so there is not much to go look at in memory of the war, it's like Germany is trying very hard to forget what happened, which is a bummer for us as we wanted to see more....in regards to the war. The walking tour was much more insightful and interactive which we did 2 days ago. Our tour bus told us useless information like 'we are coming up to a hotel on our right which will be finished in January 2013' it's kind of like.... who cares?

We got off at Checkpoint Charlie and walked around the area and read about the history of the Berlin war (free), also we got to see what was left of the wall too.

It down pored with rain so we sprinted back to our hostel and dryed off. We went across the road for some Mexican which was yummy, the first meal we haven't been disappointed with.

We have liked Berlin, but you would only need to spend 2-3 days max here. The shopping and the walking tour were our highlights of Berlin.

Travelers Tip:
A lot of shops are closed on Sundays, even grocery stores - so do your shopping on Saturdays!

Day 12 - Berlin

Free breaky always gets us going for the day. 'Cityhostel Berlin' is quite central which is helpful for us to walk to the shops. With the hot weather we realize we don't need some of our clothes and we want to lighten the loads of our luggage, so we have sent 6kgs home to NZ for €60 (mum you will be getting a parcel in the mail xx).

We grab out daily Starbucks fix and walk around the shops, both Chrysta and I buy a few items from Zara and H&M. The shopping in Europe is just so good and much better value for your money.

It started to rain, surprisingly it's a nice feeling after the hot weather (29 degrees) we run into a McDonalds, it's so nice and modern and massive in size. The food variety is different - magnum mcflurry (yum!) Ben got a Texas Nacho chicken burger with nacho corn chips inside - he said it was really tasty. McD's need to send these flavors back to NZ and Aus.

We walked around and took pictures of Checkpoint Charlie, which was pretty cool, I didn't really know much about it but Ben. We also took pictures of the original Berlin wall.

We chilled back at the Hotel with quite a few Coronas and watched the Olympics, but it was hard to watch as everything's in German, all we know is the U.S killed it in the swimming (and the guy was kind of hot!)

We ordered a pizza and it didn't come cut up into pieces (which is apparently normal) and the pizza was pretty average tasting. So far the food in Berlin hasn't been great to be honest. Sausages are on the cards to try over the next few days.

We have found Berlin to be a cool place, but the people aren't that friendly.... That is though coming from me being a Kiwi where NZ is renowned for being a friendly country.

Day 11 - Berlin

Another scorcher of a day at 29 degrees, so we enjoyed a nice cold Starbucks drink before our walking tour of World War 2 at 1pm.

The walking tour was a cheap way to delve into the city's amazing history, from the darkest hours to the brightest moments for Berlin. The tour cost €12, which we found through travel brochures. The tour is called 'Sandemans New Berlin Free Tour' and they do them all over Europe (www.neweuropetours.com). This must have been the hottest day in the world to have to be out in the sun for that long - but we had to get out and explore the city. Our guide was very insightful and full of knowledge. We visited the following places: Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, SS Headquarters, Holocaust Memorial and above Hitler's Bunker. I already knew the basics about World War 2, but I picked up on so much more and being in the city just brought to life how real the war hit all whom was involved. I would recommend doing the walking tour, you probably only walk for 1hr the rest of the time is standing and listening to the guide - its just such a good way to get shown around the city and get to understand the different monuments and their significance to Berlin.

We found the tour to be helpful and give us a lot of insight before we visit the Concentration Camps in Poland.

Walking around the city there is so much construction happening, Berlin is having to rebuild its city due to the war. I didn't know what to expect before I arrived here, but this place is just AMAZING! So much history that changed the world and has affected Berlin and they now have to live with it everyday. It's just incredible because the history here is so recent compared to the other cities we have visited, as it touched me more because my Grandfather fought in the war.

We ended the day with a few corona's and some food and chill, tomorrow is shopping day :) (poor Ben).

Day 10 - Amsterdam to Berlin

We checked out of our hotel at 11am, but kept out luggage there until we had to leave at 4pm for our 7pm flight.

We hired bikes (€12 each) from a shop 1 minute away from the Nova hotel and rode them around the city. It can actually be quite frantic riding around as there are constantly trams and scooters riding past you or coming at you from all different directions. Luckily we had out map on us otherwise we would have gotten lost. We rode to a park, next to the Van Gogh museum and chilled out under a tree in the sun to kill some time. It's another gorgeous day in Amsterdam (27 degrees).

We have loved staying here, but to be honest you can do this place in 3x days / 2x nights. We have found the locals to be super friendly and so far the best looking people of the cities we have been to. Amsterdam is such a unique place with the canals, constant smell of weed, red light district and bikes and trams everywhere.

We are still not use to being in such hot weather without being able to be at the beach. So we are counting down the days until we hit Croatia!

We arrived at the airport and learnt that Amsterdam is voted best airport in Europe. The security guys were so lovely and chatty to us. It will be sad to say goodbye to such a friendly city!

We fly out at 7pm with easyJet and arrive in Berlin at 8:30pm, we found it weird though that we didn't have to go through customs, we just hope there isn't a problem when we have to leave the city.

We asked a lady at information for help to get to the train station - she was a sour puss, we hope not all Germans are like this! We trained to the centre of the city (€3) and taxi to our hostel as we think this was the easiest way to get there since we are traveling at night, it was only €7 to get there which was fine.

We are staying in 'Cityhostel Berlin' in a 6x shared dorm for the duration of our stay. The hostel is your typical hostel room and we have to share a bathroom with our floor (gross). I am missing the hotels already!!! We actually feel old at this hostel to and this creepy guy tried to hit on Chrysta when we were checking in - he asked her for her room number she brushed him off - Stalker!!!

We have some pizza and look at tourist brochures and decide what we are going to do tomorrow. There's a lot to do. Tomorrow we are going to check out everything World War 2.

Day 9 - Amsterdam

Finally our first sleep in this whole trip, we enjoyed a continental breakfast free of charge - just one of the perks with saying at the Nova hotel.

26 degrees today, so another day of lots of sunblock and water!

We visited Madame Tussauds wax museum (€22). We got to see a lot of cool wax icons such as: Anne Frank, Sir Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, Robbie Williams, Johnny Depp, Angelina and Brad, Jennifer Lopez, Pierce Brosnan Daniel Craig, Gandhi, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Marilyn Munroe, George Bush, DJ Tiesto, Nelson Mandela and the list just goes on. I would recommend travelers to check this place out, there are a lot of cool photo opportunities.

We walked down Kalverstraat St (main rd) and it was filled with cool clothing stores where we brought a few things from H&M, I brought a bikini for €6 it makes you realize how expensive things are to buy in NZ and Aus.

The only way to cool down was to have an ice cream, snickers flavor - it really tasted like a snickers chocolate bar!

We walked around the city admiring the canals, houses, churches and enjoying the chilled out atmosphere of Amsterdam - we noticed the streets are quite littered, but the canals and buildings make up for it in their beauty.

We walked to the Van Gogh museum which wasn't to far away from the centre. It was an amazing museum to learn about Van Gogh and the inspirations in his life. He made over 900 paintings, but we only got to see 200 of them. It was great to see the famous 'sunflower' and 'portrait' paintings which I had learnt about growing up as a child. Unfortunately you can't take photos in the museum, but I took a sneaky one inside ;).

We ate at the 'Lapampa Argentijns Restaurant' a 2 minute walk from our hotel and got a 3 course meal for €15 each. Ben got the steak and Chrysta and I got the salmon. The food was delicious and the spot was a great people watch area. We sat in the sun and enjoyed watching the world go by.

After dinner we headed off to the famous 'Red Light District'. It's best to go at night time when the red lights are on and there is more happening. Wow - my eyes have never seen anything like that before, I was honestly gobsmacked that girls do that. They were hot, not so hot, great body's, fake boobs, quite trashy and pretty desperate looking. The amount of people doing what we were doing - checking out the district is astonishing, its just packed with people everywhere. It's just such a thing to do in Amsterdam as there is no where else in the world that would let that be legal. The girls are all in their own rooms in next to nothing and they try and grab the attention of people walking past, to get their business. Unfortunately you can't take photos. But this is definitely a MUST see when you come to Amsterdam - you just can't believe it till you see it!

We have found this city can be a mission to get around, everywhere is just flat and there are no famous monuments. A map is essential!

We were thinking how good it would be to live in a city where everyone rides their bikes everywhere! As a pedestrian you don't have to really look out for the trams or cars it's just the people on bikes - as you don't hear them coming.

Travelers tip:
A hair straightener is a great iron especially when your clothes are packed tightly away and you need to get the creases out.