Prague and Neuschwanstein Castle amazingly beautiful, night trains not so much

Before i get into the beauty of the city of prague and the neuschwanstein castle, i must discuss the long and interesting night trains. The first night train from krakow to prague consisted of the four of us stuffed in a compartment, where we schemed for any potention pickpocketing threats-basically locking all of our bags, and adam acting all tough, guarding the door-and how we were going to get some sleep. These non-reclining seats were very uncomfortable and it gave us some trouble sleeping-even me, rip vanwinkel. There was even supposed to be room for four more people in this compartment, but we contended on grabbing the first compartment available, closing the blinds, and pretending to fall asleep which pretty much told people ``we dont want you hear`` in a friendly, non-threatening way. The second night train, which was from Prague to Munich, was almost as uncomfortable-but there were reclining seats, so it helped to sleep a little more. There was some old German lady who yelled at us for being too loud at 8pm and we werent even being loud, and we also got moved once as well. So, night trains, not number 1 on our list right now, but power naps and our ambitious hearts help keep us going.

Along with Krakow, Prague is another very lively, beautiful city-in my opinion, the most beautiful city we have been to-with its beautiful buildings, facades, and bridges, it is hard to beat the city scenary of Prague. The first night, we hung out at the old towne square-like Krakow-and just chilled, drank some beers, and enjoyed the great atmosphere of the square. Following that, we headed to the Prague Castle-which i believe is the biggest castle in middle europe?-and got an awesome night view from the top, in which you can see the whole city. breathtaking. The next day, we had a free, 4 hour Prague tour-woohoo-which was nice because of the buildings we saw and the cost of the tour. You will hopefully get to see pictures of St. Charles Bridge-arguably the most famous bridge of europe-and hundreds of beautiful building, churches, paintings, facades-gorgeous. Next, following our nighttrain from prague to munich, we decided to head to neuschwanstein castle right away.

Neuschwanstein, which is replicated in disney world and i believe the castle in cinderella, was made for the view it displayed-which was freaking breathtaking. In the background were the northern part of the alps, and i a lot of beautiful trees and lakes. We also got tours of that castle and another older castle which definately made more gruling train travel time worth it.

We are in Munich right now, tired and possibly sick, but that wont stop us. We are heading to the Hofbrauhaus tonight for some german beers and awesome huge pretzels, and then tomorrow, make our way to strausbourg, france, which we will visit some of my relatives-that will be a nice visit. Until then, hope these blogs are a good and interesting read and we look forward to all your comments. aufwiedersehen.

mark

Anna, Remembering Aushwitz, and Our First Night Train Experience

Hello Hello- First of all, the speedo is black and it is very tight-kind of uncomfortable, but definately worth the purchase. But most importantly, Krakow in my opinion, has been quite wonderful-more particuarly because of the great atmosphere and beautiful women. I met this girl named Anna who gave us great service, some nice activities to attend to, but most importantly, set a spark in the ´flame´.

Moving on to Aushwitz, this place set a different tone, a different mood within all of us. Although the history of this death/concentration camp-the biggest camp in the war-was interesting and intriguing, it definately gave us a chance to contemplate what those people went through in such a magnifying way. You could just feel the difference in the air you breathed, the steps you walked on, the death cells you saw, the gas chambers and the exhibits you experienced. It is hard to put into words what you felt and how to rate the experience you had because it was so surreal and yet so impacting. We definately appreciate what we saw and it will always be a trigger to come back to whenever we feel alone, or complaining, or we feel like we lost out, because we will not be as down as those people were in the camps.

We next hit the night train to Prague, which was a long and interesting experience, but yet a great adventure nonetheless. This, and our tour of Prague which we will have today, will be told when we reach Munich tomorrow. Cheers to all those who are finding excitement and joy and hope in our adventure. thanks

Mark Who?
The Flame

Thanks, some thoughts and a quick funny story

So I know its been a while since i've blogged, but thats cause the freedom from technology has been so relaxing...

..anyways, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of your birthday wishes and prayers, they are truely apprecaited and i feel so blessed to have som many amazing people in my life who truely care for me like you all do. On trips like this i find that it reall opens your eyes to the rest of the world. in the US we live in such a bubble and our society is so self centered it soemtimes sickens me, but that is for another blog.

my birthday was uneventful. we spent from noon til midnight travelling. the bus out of london was stop and go traffic for over an hour, just to get out of the city. and then waiting in lines at the airport for 3 hrs due to a delay. and then the flight and trying to figure out where our hostel in krakow was and how to get there at 11 at night when we can't even pronounce, let alone understand, any polish...but thats really fine with me. i dont know why but ive come to not like the attention and expectations that come with birthdays. it seems like our society places so much pressure on 'having a good day' and 'getting what you want' on your birthday. but i think that is only setting ourselves up for dissapointment because its really no different than any other day, and on any given day we could get what we want or not get what we want; we could have a 'good' day, we could have a 'bad' day. but again i digress as this is not what this blog is for.

that said, we are headed to auschwitz soon. but before the mood gets quite sullen i'd like to share a quick funny story.

monday when we were going through security at the airport in london, the buzzer went off on the items that mark had on him which he had placed in the bucket and then on the conveyor belt. well if you remember from earlier, mark bought a speedo. what you may not know is that he has been carrying it around with him in the pocket of his jacket since he bought it. so when i saw that the security woman was going to go through all of his stuff in front of him cause they thought he had a sharp object, i grabbed adam and we watched from a distance...watching...waiting...hoping...sure enough she strated checking the pockets on his jacket and when she came to the one with the speedo in it...oh man, priceless. i only wish i knew what she was thinking...haha

Pictures Round 2 (DWA)

Heres a few more pictures for you to check out, we'd post more but it takes forever to transfer them on these computers for whatever reason. Enjoy!

Wow, I could really come back here...for a while

Krakow is a gorgeous, old city city. Not to be cliche but you can "feel" the history in it's stones and buildings. We took a walking tour of the city today, it cost us 42 zoltys which is approximately 17 dollars for a three hour tour with our own guide, well there were 3 other people on it but close enough. Our tour guide Lukas, who looked just like Adam and Andrew's friend Timmy Smith, was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of very interesting information with us. The city has a center square which is a great place to sit and have a few Zywiec and Warka, Polish beers, and watch the world go by. We all really wish we had similar places in the states to enjoy but I guess thats what makes Europe so special to us Yankees. Poland has been the most friendly place we have been, at least in my opinion, the people are willing to share their language with you and more than willing to give you their opinions. I really wish we could stay here more than two days the city is gorgeous and it feels like we have stepped back into time. Tomorrow we are going to Auschwitz for a 6 hour tour, which cost us 80 zolty. And despite our American jokes about Polish people, they are very intelligent, politics, history, language its amazing. We appreciate all your comments, keep them coming, we love reading them. Peace out.

-The Fab Four

Wake up in London, 18 hours later being followed in a grocery store by some Polish police guy

Hello everyone from Krakow Poland, where we are no longer on the pound and we can no longer speak the native language. Even our blog site is in weird letters like.......Zamieszczanie postow??????? Anyways we made it finally to Poland after a long day of travel that started out in London and a 2 hour bus ride to Stansted a 3 hour wait to get on the plane, 2 hours plane ride, an hour waiting for a bus in the middle of Poland and a 15 minute walk to the Hostel. We went to a grocery store where I couldn't tell you anything name wise, and we were followed like hawks by a police man. Then when we checked out the loaf of bread didn't register so the guy just gave us a different one, not nearly as tasty looking. But its now a 7 hour time difference making this post at 1:15 in the morning, thank goodness we don't have to be up early.

But i bet you want to hear about London. In a nutshell we saw: the London Bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Trafalgar's Square, Piccadily Circus, rode around on the tube, Big Ben and Parliament at night, The London eye and Millennium Bridge at night, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, The changing of the guard, walked down the Mall, St. James Park. I think thats it, all in less than 24 hours. Needless to say we are tired and excited for our next adventure. Talk to you soon!