Gone for good

We have been slack on the email front for a little while. There are two incredibly legitimate reasons for this - we are lazy and we wanted to surprise Jen and Stephen by arriving in London early (therefore our trip has been hurried to say the least!). I think the last chapter involved Dirty Colin so that must have been . . .let me think . . .Latvia . . . ok on with the story. . .

Adam left Latvia with a heavy heart - it was hard for him to say goodbye to Dirty Colin, but he soldiered on, bless him. We arrived in Lithuania by bus and it was a really warm day. In fact it was the warmest weather for us since SE Asia. We found the guesthouse and then wandered around the city. Vilnius was very cool - a lot more grungy than Riga and Tallinn, it seemed to be full of real people. And it had a memorial to Frank Zappa . . . .not quite sure where that fitted in . . . .

Frank's Wall

We only spent one night there because we were going to Warsaw on the overnight bus the next day. As it turned out, one night with our Australian room mate was quite enough. At about 5am he stumbled home (that's all cool - no problem) with a lady friend in tow (that is not cool - grande problemo) and . . . do I need to tell the rest of the story? Needless to say, it was an emotionally disturbing experience for me and the dude who was on the top bunk. Adam, of course, slept through the whole ordeal, and then wouldn't let me have a show down with this fella the next day!! How good are Australians?

We arrived in Warsaw after a very unrestful night on the bus - but no phantom shaggers in sight. Instead of staying there, we caught a bus through to Krakow to visit our Polish friends that we met in China. We were completely exhausted but so excited to be seeing some familiar faces. Ela, Darek and Cornelia (their daughter) were fabulous hosts and showed us all of the sights in Krakow. We managed to take a trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau which was profoundly disturbing but very interesting. We ate some traditional Polish food and beer both of which were fantastic and Darek cooked up a Chinese dinner on our last night. It was a beautiful city and we were beautifully looked after by our friends. We are looking forward to catching up with them again soon.

After Krakow we headed to Prague - again to catch up with an old friend. We stayed at Martin's house (a friend from Uni in Bendigo) and he took us around Prague, showed us the cheap places to drink, taught us how to fare evade (unsuccessfully) and took us to some live Czech music. It was a very busy four days and we were exhausted at the end of it - not to mention a little hungover. Martin really looked after us and threw a few free history lessons in there for good measure. We can highly recommend him as a tour guide, it was fantastic!! Prague is a really beautiful city but there were so many tourists it was amazing. We can't wait to get back and explore a little more of the Czech Republic.

The next stop on the mad dash for London was Berlin. Now that is a real city! The first day we arrived, we stumbled on an African / Asian cultural celebration that involved lots of alcohol, great food and live music - and it was about 5 min walk from our hostel. It was super cool and a lovely way to spend our first night in Germany. The next day we just wandered around the city, soaking up the sights - all the usuals - The Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, truly amazing. Checkpoint Charlie was really amazing, the narrative on the walls around the location is very moving and puts everything into perspective. Really great and probably our highlight in Berlin.

We left Berlin hoping to get through to Groningen (Netherlands) in one day. We had a little wager and needless to say, Adam is glad we didn't wager anything important. I was convinced we would get there in one day which we did quite easily. We were going to Groningen to catch up with Louwrens and Marianne - the Dutch people that we shared our Gobi epic with - and we were so excited. We arrived in Groningen after changing trains 1000 times to be met by Louwrens at the train station. He did state previously that staying at their "castle" included free train station pick up so we shouldn't have expected anything less! Groningen is a student city up North and is small but very cool. We really enjoyed our short time there and can't wait to go back for another visit. It was so great to catch up with Louwrens and Marianne and we definitely enjoyed their Dutch hospitality . . .except for the raw herring episode . . . . . actually it wasn't that bad . . .the photo turned out really well . . .Speaking of culture shocks (we were weren't we?) we did a late night tour of the Red Light District. Lucky, because it prepared us for Amsterdam, sort of. There are actually red lights and the women stand in windows with not much on looking for customers. It pays to advertise right? Anyway, it is a very interesting part of cities in the Netherlands and strolling by is a must do!

After an all too short stay, we headed to Amsterdam, the bike capital of the world. Louwrens delivered us to our campsite (just North of the city centre) which was far too kind of him!! The camp ground was great actually. Much cheaper than hostels and it was about a 5 min bus ride from the centre of town. . .and it was called Vliegenbos which sounds cool, especially with a fake Dutch accent! Amsterdam was a happening place. We cannot wait to get back, we had such a great time. Again, the Red Light District is a must see - you can even take tours through there and find out about the history of prostitution from an ex-worker. Plenty of people in fishing vests and socks and sandals were soaking up that one!! Of course, another Amsterdam (and Dutch) institution is the Coffeeshop. It isn't a Coffeeshop but more of a "Coffeeshop". It specialises in marijuana and hash and can be ordered off an extensive menu. Some "Coffeeshops" even sell coffee, but of course, no food!! And that is Amsterdam in a nutshell. The city is quite beautiful with old buildings and canals everywhere and it is very much alive!!! After two nights of non stop action we headed to Hoek Van Holland to catch our final transport to England. We caught an overnight ferry and it was very comfortable and great value . . . . for Europe. . .god this place is expensive!!!!!

And so here we are in London - waiting for Jen and Stephen to get home from work. We haven't seen them yet and we are very excited. We surprised them by coming early so Jen has already made excuses for the messy house. . .haha. Have seen red double decker buses and dudes from The Bill but no Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. That will be tomorrow's adventure. . .

Stay tuned for chapter one of "Buying the Van" saga. Unmissable . . . .

Love

two people who are very tired of carrying their backpacks everywhere