Prague

Prague is such a beautiful city. All the buildings have so much history and make everything look so scenic. And the people here use "Ahoy" for hello like pirates making things so much more amusing.

It was also my first Eastern European country so far, so I was just a little paranoid of being pick pocketed. Or scammed.

I am also convinced we witnessed the discovery of a spy's body that had been dumped in the canal after some unfortunate situations once their cover had been blown. Why else would there have been so many emergency services crowded around that tiny strip on canal-side water?

Also, did I mention how much I like free WiFi? I will never take Internet for granted again.

Dresden

Arrived in Prague today but we stopped by Dresden for a few hours and visited the Christmas markets. I wish the Christmas markets in Australia were as wonderful. There are lights and Ferris wheels and its just so festive!

We saw the perfect site for a secret spy dead drop zone.

Berlin

This city is seriously full of so much history. Every building is so old and sandstone and a better version of Sydney university campus.

I would've taken more photos on my phone but it is so tough when it's about 10 degrees below zero and I have to take my gloves off to use the iPhone camera.

Brandenburg Gate

Jewish Memorial. Every concrete block is a different dimension representing almost 3k (German?) Jewish in WWII

The Berlin Wall

On another note, you can get jäger bombs for €3.50 here, which is about $4.30 AUD.

Amsterdam

I tried to take a few photos on my phone to let you guys see a piece of Amsterdam! Unfortunately I have no pictures of the red light district because I'm afraid of prostitutes. Apparently if you try to take pictures of them they run out and trash your camera/throw it in the canal/beat you up (or all of the above).

I did get a few pictures of the canal as well as... A MULTI STOREY BIKE PARKING COMPLEX. Speaking of which, Dutch traffic is so difficult. Not only do they have cars, they also have trams and a shitload of bikes.

From The Wild Winds Of The West

What a difference a day can make. When yesterday we were covered in a blanket of white, the snow has now melted to reveal green fields that almost manages to convince you its springtime.

I'm meeting my travel buddies in London today, but before I leave, I had time for a few more things...

The Windmills at Kinderdijk

Bamishchijf, Kroket and Frikandel Speciaal

The Legendary... Knork?

Patat met pindasaus mayonaise or chips with peanut sauce and mayonnaise

But Where Have All The Tulips Gone?

Ever wondered about Amsterdam and thought it might look a little like this?

Well, probably not. This was just a photo from the internet of Amsterdam on a particularly tulip filled day. I was told the tulips don't bloom in Winter, but even in Spring they are not so abundant. Which is a shame really because I was hoping Amsterdam might just be like a really big tulip marketplace.

I was supposed to only have a 55 minute switch, but it was delayed by an hour. The reason? It was snowing heavily in Amsterdam. I didn't mind, because this was the first thing I saw fresh out the doors of the airport.

I also had a reasonably enjoyable flight. There was a huge selection of movies and I ended up watching the first 2 LOTR movies. I also met a recent graduate from Boston heading to Helsinki for a holiday (and some snowboarding), a girl from Canada visiting her boyfriend who was attending grad school in Iceland and a couple of musicians from Boston who were headed to Amsterdam to perform - he was a pianist and she sang. I encountered the thoroughly confusing Icelandic "Kr" currency, which i think are kronos or something, and paid about 1500Kr for breakfast at 6am during my stopover.

I don't want to get arrested, but the dutch have a very relaxed customs control, especially compared to America - I guess they didn't have a major terrorist attack. And maybe because I was coming in from a flight in the EU, but they  barely glanced at us as we strolled out onto Dutch soil. Or snow.

The snow is truly incredible and literally crunches under your feet.

I probably should've taken more pictures of Amsterdam instead of just a few ghost trees on the road, but I'll be back to see Amsterdam again with my travel pals soon, so instead, here's a picture of Rotterdam. 

Maybe I would've done better if I'd worn gloves and it wasn't so difficult to take my hands out of my pockets...

PS. Blog posts are possibly gonna be out of order for a bit since we have to catch up on the period in which we had extremely limited internet access and the best we could manage was an offline travel diary.

Hollywood

Like every other person who drops by California, we felt the urge to visit Hollywood and whilst we would've loved to walk right up to the iconic sign and take a snapshot, this was the best legal shot we had. 

Our best shot, it's even better in it's original sizing

Our best shot through the telescope lens thingy cause we're too lazy to pay to view it properly...

Yeah... I don't know what to say about this cause there's not much to say...

Following this we, to put it delicately, WERE ATTACKED BY THE TWO HUSTLERS OR AT LEAST I THINK THATS WHAT YOU CALL THEM. They were scary and they said things and wouldn't let us leave and it was frightening and things like that don't happen in Australia.

I believe they made the right decision...

HARRY POTTER!

Well who touched where Harry Potter cast touched?

Well Hello Matt Damon ;P

It's IRONMAN!

And yes, in case you were wondering, these hand and foot prints of stars were outside the Chinese Theatre.

The Legendary American Black Friday Sales

A universally acknowledged fact is that shopping sometimes makes a girl go crazy. Doubly so for when there are sales. Then when there are massive sales in a foreign country? Well then that's a whole other matter entirely.

The black mass is actually the line for Michael Kors.

Upon first going to the sales many of which began at 9pm ON Thanksgiving day, my sibling and I were unimpressed. But upon further consideration we realised our folly. The sales were not at a singular location, they were everywhere as opposed to boxing day sales where every citizens with the will to shop is herded towards the CBD.

MAC Lipstick because HOLY SHIT THEY ONLY COST $16 WHICH IS LESS THAN HALF PRICE IN AUSTRALIA

Dior Mascara cause it's the best out there. And the Limited Edition Vintage nail polish.

Samples which may or may not be given out in Australia because we're too poor to buy Designer brands in Australia.

All our bags from the 24 hour shopping period.

Because instead of throwing cash in the air in joy, we throw the receipts of our recent expensive purchases.

And perhaps this post can be amended in the future, cause we're too busy enjoying ourselves right now. We'll alert you.

Thanksgiving

Contrary to the popular opinion of Thanksgiving on American TV, our was much less festive, familial and picturesque.

What we thought Thanksgiving would be like

We had two dinners and both of them weren't quite what we'd hoped for. The first was before Thanksgiving with our mother's friend's family as they were all quite busy the next day. There was of course a turkey which they actually cooked. Unfortunately, we only got a glimpse of it and when next we saw the turkey, it it was already carved out in slices. There was also cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and ham.

The second was truly on Thanksgiving day with our cousins and their family and involved a turkey from a catering company which was then stripped of it's meat and shredded up. Half the meat placed in an Asian stir fry and the other half left to be eaten, accompanied by some sort of salad. This meal was a little less like Thanksgiving than the early Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos of the food. Perhaps we had a chance when we first glimpsed the whole turkey, but what was there to see anyway if we didn't see the great carving of the turkey?

Thanksgiving is however quite the momentous affair for the Americans. Much like an Australian Christmas, everyone takes the day off and all shops are closed... until the sale of the year of course.

2 pieces for $1

On the other hand before thanksgiving we went to collect cake and spontaneously decided to feast on chicken.

Delicious chicken.

Deliciously cheap chicken.

Oh what a wonderful (and probably fat) life it would be if Australia had as much cheap and available food sources. 

The happiest place on Earth

We were pretty excited to visit Disneyland, but we found that we may have outgrown the place. Although we had expected lots of tots around, there were a lot more than we'd expected. 

However, we still got a good nostalgic dose from all the characters we grew up with. Unfortunately we didn't seek out that many characters, but the ones we did see were swarmed with kids who had barely grown past our waist.

Of the rides, every single one of them were safe enough to take our bags with us. The most "dangerous" had a height limit of 102cm (or as they say, 40 inches) and all the little tots were perfectly content on them. 

We'd would recount our entire day, but we've quickly realised our goal to blog our experiences everyday is rather unrealistic, and they say a picture tells a thousand words...

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

People being eaten by the whale in the Peter pan ride

A fake tribe 

Our first corn dogs! They were a little greasy for our liking, but we felt it was a staple "American food" to sample.

Small World - probably one of the most iconic attractions in Disneyland

Holiday themed boat ride inside Small World - Christmas starts in November!

A duck trying to race our boat

The extremely well designed waiting area for the Star Wars ride

Got our license for Autopia!

Disneyland at night

Some other castle we didn't notice until it got dark and everything lit up