Hamburgers, Berliners, and Munchkins (HERMANY)

Hi! We are horrible bloggers. We apologize.
So, Hamburg.
We arrived at Claudia's bright and early, she was thrilled to see us. That day, Claudia took us for a nice driving tour around Hamburg - nice for Toya the Auslander to see Aley's digs. That night we cosied up to Germany's Next Top Model with Heidi Kluuum followed by a well needed good nights sleep. Next day, we explored a bit downtown Hamburg, went to the harbour to celebrate its birthday (who knew?) and got to see a bunch of handsome sailors come in. Amazing. Also, Switzerland had a very cool choreographed jet party in the sky which was pretty cool. We had front row seats along the water and befriended a duck!
That night we had a nice white spargel (delicious asparagus) dinner with Jaki, Pia and Claudia followed by a few wine spritzers with Claudia and friends. Toll. Afterwards, we checked out the Reeperbahn but were honestly just too tired to participate. Another well needed good night's sleep.
In the morgen, we had a nice breaky with the whole Munzner family, including Maggie and Schokie. We like them. Claudia set up a drive to Berlin with a nice gent which was economical and lovely. So, on to Berliner!!

Berlin.
Moritz greeted us at the station and took us to his apartment - very nice place. We went for coffee and chatted. Afterwards, we met up with his parents for a drink in a cool garden restaurant place (it is close to the ZOO! Knut lives there. google him). Moritz's parents are super sweet and invited us to have dinner with them the next night. Wunderbar!
That night, we were invited to Moritz's friends birthday party and Moritz was making a ginormous soup. The party was really fun and the soup (which turned to stew) was delicious. We met a lot of really cool people from all over the place and we were well liked (CANADA! - Our name for the night). After a spot of sleep, Moritz took us on a driving tour of Berlin followed by a beer at a super cool pub/dock on the water. That night, we went for a really nice dinner with Moritz's parents, they were very sweet. We were all exhausted and had a chill night. Next day, we took a train to Munich - Moritz drove us to the station, how sweet.

Munich.
First night there we went to a restaurant and enjoyed white sausage with dumplings, pretzels and beer. Apparently you eat the sausage and pretzels around brunch. Who knew? The next day, we went on a free walking tour - very informative, loads of history, learnt a lot about Munich and Germany in general. It rained (booo!) We met some Canadians, and then went to a beerhall that night. It was fun.

Bis gleich!

Amsterdammer

Did you know that marijuana is decriminalized there? Hahahahahaha. We stayed at a hostel called The Flying Pig... very cool, had a bar inside the hostel. Met so many cool people from all around the world. Also, there were SO MANY Canadians. Someone from almost every province.... ridiculous. We went on a really great walking tour, loads of history and stories. Red Light District: we saw the ladies in the windows... shocking but hilarious. Apparently all the Brits are hiding in Amsterdam... we met some really great ones there. We also met up with Toya's friend Paula and went on a great biking tour. Biking in Amsterdam is NUTS but sooooo much fun. "If you hear the bell, run like hell" and always assume that you are the one in the way! Always check for Bike, Tram, Car, Bike, Tram and then cross in through the madness. All in all, great time, great city. We shall add more details soooooon.
Love, puff the magic dragon

Paris, hon hon hon hon hon

Paris, c'est magnifique!

To start, the flight was more or less dreadful! It was too short to have a proper nap and was.... just annoying! Toya slept through landing and was basically asleep the entire walk through customs. Yuk. Aside from that, we enjoyed the bus ride to Gare de Lyon (located near our hostel) and got some shut eye. At the station, the French were very helpful with directions. We easily made it to the Blue Planet Hostel.

- Must go shopping with Claudia - to be continued.... (sorry for the teaser!)

WE'RE BAAAAACK!
To continue...
After checking in we went and got fresh bread and tasty fruit from a nearby market which we ended up doing everyday. We made it to the Louvre but was closed because it was the first of May... who knew. Sooo, we hung out in the Tuilerie garden in the sunshine. We ended up taking a nice loooong nap in the lounge chairs near the trees. Toya has racoon eyes (but not anymore). We walked allllll the way to the Eiffel tower to kill time until we could actually use our room. Long but enjoyable walk. We hung out in the garden near the tower, took photos, hung out with the ducks and partially debated climbing the stairs up the Eiffel Tower... NOT! It's ridiculous how people line up all day for it.
Finally we napped (oh so good), and then got dinner at the grocery store and made yummy brie baguettes. We met a really cool Australian girl who told us about a few sightseeing places. Afterwards, we got dressed and headed over to La Bastille (down the road) for some wine. It was PACKED! We checked out a few bars and finally found a quieter place which was consistent with our budget. Good wine, good atmosphere and then back to bed.

Next day...
Breakfast: pain au chocolat - all we can say is delicious. We went to the Louvre AGAIN and found it way too busy. We went to the Arc de the Triomphe, which was beautiful; made our way to Pont Neuf and then to the Notre Dame. We later went to Eglise St. Etienne (I think) and saw that it was right beside the Bomb (Katie knows what we're talking about)and went for a quick beer. We then went to the Pantheon and Rue Mouffetard (which was really cool) and then made our way to Jardin Luxembourg. We sat momentarily in the sun and then realized that we needed a nap! Later that night we went to L'Ecurie for dinner - delicious steak and frites served with AMAZING Rocquefort and Pepper sauce (boys, wouldn't that be cool for Poutini's?). We sat beside a really cool Irish couple who were so funny and had many great stories. All in all, a great atmosphere and fun to be in a stable. We then headed to Pomme d'Eve across the street for some beer. We sat, listened to some music and quickly made friends. That is, the entire Rugby team to be exact. We also met a German guy who spoke 5 languages, really interesting and schön (oh la la). The night went by fast, once we surfaced, we realized that it was daylight! Just in time to catch the first metro... very good night (Thanks Katie!!!!)
We went to "bed" and were kicked out at 11:30. We shocked the cleaning crew. We went one last time to the Louvre and the line up was even more ridiculous than last time. It would take a full day to get in. Forget it. So we made our way to the "tall ugly skyscraper", as Laura called it, and got to see a magnificant view of Paris. We were pretty tired and thirsty.... mmmmmm Fanta. That night we went to the Sacre Coeur... absolutely beautiful, so glad that we went. Toya took amazing photos. Will show you in the near future (give or take a year). That night, we went to bed early and got up to catch our train to Amsterdam! All went smoothly with the Rail passes.... love them.

A bientot!

Day 2?

Hello Hello.  So sorry we haven't been keeping up to date on the blogging - Internet is either expensive or super slow if it's free.  To continue...

LONDON

London was awesome, although we only met 2 brits - weird.  On our arrival we were quite jet lagged but absolutely excited to be in the city. We found our hostel, dropped off our bags and went straight to Buckingham Palace which is a 15 minute walk from our hostel (did you know that the Queen lives there? Apparently she was home when we came to call). We mostly just wandered around, a little delusional from the lack of sleep. We then found an excellent Vietnamese restaurant (recommended by the Bible), and had Asian soup! Once checked in we took a well needed nap and then headed to a pub for some fish and chips. Yummmm. Without knowing what to do, we hung around the hostel and found the staff to be way cooler than the hostellers. We got to know each other and had a few drinks. Brilliant.

 

The next day, we decided to embark on a walking tour (it's FREE, tips accepted) which turned out to be very informative. We had a very animated guide who knew her history quite well (she was Brit 1 of 2). We really fell in love with the parks in London; Hyde Park is huge and gorgeous. Later we painfully made our way through the National Art Gallery (yes it's nice, but NOT after a walking tour - day 1 of tortured feet, and of course we were smart to walk back to the hostel! Ouch kabibble.) Again, we napped and then went to check out the Soho nightlife - went to about 4 bars and were 99% positive one of them was a gay bar. Next time we'll take a guide.

On the third day we met Brit 2 (Chloe), who was very cool and took us to the cheapest shopping outlets in London - total madness but so much fun. As the true Harry Potter fans that we are, we went to King's Cross to experience Platform 9 3/4 (pictures to follow). Later that night we went out for a warm and bitter British pint which was surprisingly delicious. We stayed up with really cool French guys until we could catch our 3am bus to the airport for our flight to PARIS!

chip chip what what

Day One

Hello hello!
We have arrived in London and found our way to our hostel. The streets are beauteous and traffic is on the wrong side of the road. Eek. Toya already got stuck in the subway ticket area... who's surprised?
To backtrack... Yesterday we arrived at the airport and flew through customs, browsed for a camera case, sat on squeaky airplane chairs and enjoyed the frequent "Your plane is about to leave without you" voice memos on the speaker (haha). We sat in the airport bar and enjoyed some tasty cold Coors Light (no judgement!) and got buzzed. Good times in the airport.
Now we are about to embark on our first solo journey through London!!
You know you love me, xoxo