RichardItaly: Week 6-Break Week!!

Well, this is the 6th week and it was considered our break week. We were given a 10 day break and would pretty much do anything that we wanted. We were forced to leave the villa and go and find someplace else or some other people to bug for the next 10 days. Everyone else already had their lame trips planned; while Nick, Evan and I had our awesome trip planned out.

So, this was the basic layout of our plan. We were to get a ride to the biggest local city, Perugia, and we would take a flight to Brussels, Belgium. We would hang out there and check it out and stay for only one night. We would then take a train to Amsterdam and stay there for 2 nights. Take another train to Berlin and stay there for another 2 nights. Take a train to Prague, Czech and stay there for 2 nights. Fly to Milan, Italy and stay there for 2 nights, and then make our way back to the villa.

So, the beginning of the trip, we never really had any problems; or through the whole trip at all. We got a ride to the airport from one of people that work at the villas, husband. We left early, paid him and just waited around in the airport and checked it. The flight was good and we got into Brussels. As soon as we arrived, it was pretty damn cold and I was glad that I had brought a coat. The weather reminded me of home and I was a bit happy.

We got out of the airport and found a hot dog. It was pretty damn great to have some food like that! Just being in Italy, I’ve been getting tired of the food and it always being pasta! So, having some good old fashion hot dogs was great. We had to wait in a bunch of lines trying to figure out how the hell to get to intercity Brussels. Found out, there were buses, and a couple hour ride, we were there and walked to the hotel.

We left and went to this really nice restaurant, where the food was really good. I started out by getting this beer called kreik. Its a red beer that smells like licorice, and tastes like cherry. Its a cherry beer, and Brussels is well known for it. It was pretty damn good. We ordered some food, and got all meat. We all took great advantage of the fact that we could get some pretty good food that wasn’t Italian.

After, we just kind of went back to the hotel, rested, and check out the church square, which was pretty cool. We went to a couple bars and checked out the local places. Got food at this restaurant which turns into a club after 11. The food was good and a got a huge liter glass of beer. Then, we just went back to the hotel, slept, and went and caught the train to Amsterdam the next morning.

We got to Amsterdam and there were a lot of people. Its a really huge tourist spot because of things. But, we walked around and got to the hostel, which was supposed to be the best in the city. It was pretty nice. There are 8 bed rooms that you stay in and it has a bar with food in the lobby area.

The first day, we just pretty much walked around all day and saw a lot of random things. They had a carnival that was going on for some reason and it was huge! The food they had there was good. But, we walked around and saw that and walked around for most of the day. That night, we walked around and got to see a zombie walk/parade that they had going on for Halloween. We got back to the hostel and they had a huge party going on in the bar that was black light and paint, which was a lot of fun. Then we went next door and saw a bunch of old guys, dressed up in suits and they were covering old western songs with their band. The first night there was a lot of fun.

Not much happened the second day. We walked around a lot and saw the basic things. We checked out the red light district, and saw some girls. Then we pretty much just went to the hostel and hung out there. We got up the next day and made our way to Berlin on the train...first class by the way! ;)

We got there pretty late on the first night and didn’t do too much. We just got some food and went back to the hostel. The hostel was a lot like the last one, it was the most popular in Berlin and had a cafe and bar at the bottom. It was a lot bigger and the 3 of us got a room to ourselves.

The next day, Nick went on a tour to a concentration camp, while me and Evan just kinda walked around the city and walked to Checkpoint Charlie. That is a point for checkpoints while the Berlin wall use to be up during WWII and caused a lot of problems with Russia. It was up for a really long time and taken down I think sometime in 80’s.

My thoughts of Berlin after this walking around was that it had a very western feel to it. It felt a lot like the United States because the architecture was very similar and the streets were actually normal. Italy is a lot different in building style because they’re so old and what you think are ally’s are actually streets. So, I wasn’t too impressed with Berlin.

That night in Berlin, we were sitting at a table in the lobby getting on the internet, and there were other people around us. It was a circle of us and we were just kind of keeping to ourselves. Some of the people starting talking to each other because they knew one another, and they said something and I just kind of randomly jumped in the conversation with them. There were about 7 of us sitting around and we all got to talking with each other. We found out that we were all American and I met someone that was actually living in Billings. We started talking and ended up going to this pub crawl. The last night in Berlin was definitely one to remember because it was so much fun!

The next day, we got a train to Prague and checked that out. We just got a hotel this time, so, we weren’t really social with people. After the night in Berlin, I had really come to like hostels because of meeting new people and having fun with them.

But, we just walked around Prague and we hoped to do something for Halloween. But, we couldn’t find a single thing and ended up walking the whole night and checking out the scene.

The next day, Nick and I decided to do a 6 hour walking tour. It wasn’t too expensive, and we just walked around and the tour guide told us about the history of Czech and of some of the buildings. We walked around, got some food that was included in fee, got on a boat and a free drink for an hour. Then we Czeched out a huge gothic church. All that probably ended up being the highlight for Prague, because we didn’t to do much after that and ended up catching a flight to Milan the next day.

We didn’t nothing in Milan, almost. We got to the hostel, and it was supposed to the most popular...again. It was a bit sketchy though. It just seemed that it was dirty, but it was still kind of cool. We got there late and I just kind of sat out in the lobby on my phone and randomly started talking to people. I met a guy from the states and a girl that was from the Netherlands. Both were pretty interesting and fun to talk to. I also met a woman from Australia that travels for her job because she does photography for some charitable thing.

the next day, Nick didn’t really like the hostel and got his own hotel room; but, he was also getting sick and he slept all day I guess. Me and Evan walked around and checked out a huge gothic church. The outside had spires that went up really high while the inside had some nice paintings. We just sat around at the hostel the rest of the day and made our way back to Perugia.

The entire trip was really fun and I thought it would have been pretty intense because of checking out 5 different countries in only 10 days. But, it wasn’t really that bad and I got my backpacking through Europe experience done. I was gonna do it again after I got done with classes here in Italy, but, I really miss home and my friends and decided to put it off and just come home when I was supposed to. I do recommend that if it ever crosses someones mind to backpack through Europe; do it! Its a lot of fun and you don’t get too many opportunities in life like that. I do plan on doing it again sometime, but it would be longer. Its actually not that bad either if you’re by yourself. I met quite a few people that were doing it by themselves and they never had any problems. Any stories that you here about people hating Americans, or pickpocketing or things like that are bullshit. People have actually been very friendly to us and you just can’t put yourself in stupid situations where you might get pickpocketed. Communication with foreign people is not that hard either. Most people in Eastern Europe speak English, and even if they don’t, its still not hard to communicate. But, definitely backpack through Europe!!