The journey continues

Post Oktoberfest = 1week of recuperation! 

At this point there are only 3 of us left. We have all gone our separate ways and are starting to take our time and smell the roses. After the mayhem of Oktoberfest, it is only right to see the whole background of Germany while visiting. Originally we had planned to stay in Munich a few extra days then head to Berlin, however, plans changed minority due to expensive hostels. As a result we went straight to Berlin and spent a total of 3 days here. The hostel we stayed in was actually he biggest pain in the butt (do not stay here it's called sunflower hostel). In order to get to your room you had to ask the reception every single time for a key.... Apparently they can't copy keys and only have one for the entire room. So that sucked. It also sucked that the thing was like a maze and you had to put in a code to open the door to your floor and to get to the reception. So basically without this code your like a mouse trapped in a house. You can't get in and you can't get out. 

Other than the crappy hostel, a vey minor hiccup in the whole experience of Germany, we also had a very eye opening tour. During our few days I'm Berlin we made sure to take the time to go see checkpoint Charlie as well as a concentration camp, located just outside Berlin. I have heard a lot of information about these two areas but nothing compares to actually seeing it. 

Following Berlin it seems as though tourist season began to pick back up. As a result I decided to basically plan and book the next month of my life. I can't even tell you how much better it feels to be able to plan ahead, and only worry about where I am heading. I absolutely loved traveling with my friends, but 6 was too many and I was ready to make a little bit of a change. With just over a month and a half traveling with 6 we finally dropped it down to 3 and now 2. 

Next stop, Brussels, Belgium! After attempting to find a cheap hostel for many hours, we finally decided that it will be more worth it to stay in a hotel. In Europe many 3 star hotels will run around 30-50 euros per person per night when sharing a room with one other person. Let me tell you.... When I walked into that hotel I had nothing but the biggest smile on my face. I had my own comfy bed, a fluffy pillow, a sky light, my own bathroom and a flat screen tv. After about an hour if taking in our view, room, accomplishments so far and a little while of relaxation, we were ready to hit the town. Now in Belgium... Well at least for us... Hitting the town has a little bit of a different ... Let's say flavour to it. Basically we collected as many coupons as possible and hit every chocolate shop we had a coupon for. Before this trip chocolate was my treat. I was very very rarely the person to buy a chocolate bar, and when I did it was dark chocolate and sat in my freezer for some time. When I'm belgium though right. I was like a child in a candy store. I was getting so excited by all the amazing smells, types, flavours and crowds coming in and out of these stores. Not even lying, we didn't eat lunch. We spent all our money for the day on chocolates and beers, and I wouldn't change it for the world. It was such a blast running around and trying everything. We would literally walk into a store and pretend we were looking to buy purposely to just try all their samples... Fat kids. 

That's all for now, more to come from the next beautiful city...Amsterdam!!

Xoxo

The drunk fest... Otherwise known as Oktoberfest!

Alright, so this post obviously needed to be on its own... I mean it's Oktoberfest... There's too much to write! To start things off let's start from the base... And by the base I mean the camp... And by camp I mean teepee! 

For both la tomatina and Oktoberfest, we decided to do it with a travel group called stoke travel! What this company does is ensures you have a place to stay, sleep, a way to get into the event and a lot of beer in your hand at all times. Generally we are in a teepee for basically one person, but they squeeze two, however, for Oktoberfest we got this unreal teepee that is supposed to house 8. Thank god there were only 6 of us, we had so much more room to crash. Now, one thing you should know about this company is their slogan. This slogan claims that "if it wasn't for booze, we'd all be virgins." With this said, it's clear that the name of their game is to get you as annihilated as possible at any hour of the day. Unlimited drinking for everyone and beer served with breakfast, lunch and dinner became our daily routine.... this is just at the camp site. 

Day one Oktoberfest! 

This day was a little mellow. It's point was basically to prepare us for what was to come. We left for the beer tents at around 11 and were in shock with how many people were at this event. Kids in their 20s, parents, children, grandparents and even infants, all dressed up and ready to celebrate one of their countries biggest... Holidays?... It should be a world wide holiday! I actually saw a man drinking a beer while feeding his infant child who was strapped to his chest... pure class at this event. 

As you walk around the streets you are literally bombarded with the amount of people, rides, AMAZING smells, food, and who can forget BEER tents! There is literally some form of beer drinking something every other shop, majority of which hold thousands of people and an insane amount of beer mugs. Incase you haven't seen an advertisement for Oktoberfest, it is literally a requirement for these servers to be able to hold at least 5 litre beer glasses in one hand! I literally need two hands just to hold mine up! 

After dodging all the amazing smells we finally found 1 tent that for some amazing reason had no line and still space to stand and drink. Essentially what happens at these things is 1. You enter the tent (this can take no time at all, or all day depending on the beer tent)' 2. Grab a giant beer 3. Attempt to get your ass on a bench 4. Find something small to eat that's cheap aka pretzels 5. Try not to puke 6. Attempt to make it home... This one usually doesn't work so well. So, we got into the tent got ourselves a beer and got too excited, I think we downed it in like 3 minutes! So we grabbed another one and coincidently found a seat at the same time! I grabbed a pretzel that was the size of my face and we were ready to get the party started! Problem was, the boys found out there was a football aka soccer game going on and we might be able to find a scalper to get tickets. Second beers were finished and out the door we were. We ended up following a crowd of drunken football fans in our attempt to get to the stadium. After reaching the stadium we were slapped with the sad reality that scalpels were selling for about 100€... We were hoping for 20€. As a result, we head back to our camp for some unlimited drinking, only to realize we should prob call it quits early to make it into Oktoberfest early the next day. 

Day 2... The biggest wreck 

Ok first... Don't judge me, it was Oktoberfest... I blame their excessively big beers and their stupidly high percentage. 

It is officially the last day of Oktoberfest! Apparently at the end of the night on this day they do some fancy thing... I don't know what it is but basically it's a big party. We didn't think we'd last that long so we didn't pay too much attention to the details. We arrived at our tent at around 11 (this time there's only 4 of us) so we immediately squeeze our way into the first table we see leaving. Beer are grabbed and introductions are made. Apparently the men beside us were all about 50 and were getting as buckled as we were. 

Beer 1 comes around and we have learned... Grab that pretzel ASAP and get something in our bodies to absorb alcohol. Pretzel is grabbed and my friends and I split it 4 ways... Our first mistake. Beer two comes one of our friends realizes he isn't feeling too well and heads home. Wih it being our last day and the last official day of Oktoberfest, the decision is made that we should do the table chugs. End of beer 2 is chugged on the table, round 3 on its way. Now, just to let you know, I have a go pro on my wrist this whole time... I decide it's smart to record myself after every beer to see how stupid I get.. Worst idea ever... Do not do this! Plus I'm pretty sure after beer 2 I forgot to keep filming until beer 4. Yes, I said it, beer 4.  Now for those of you yelling pussy at your screen right now.. These aren't just beers... They're litres and they're a minimum of 6 percent (god knows what mine was but I was a disaster). 

Anyways, back to beer 2. I see a guy passing with a kcco shirt on .. Don't know it go to the site right now (www.thechive.com), your life will forever be changed. Obviously after a big kcco cheers fest he joins our table along with his buddy. These guys are around 30 and are army men! Woo woo! At this point we realize we should maybe eat a little more. When a menu is opened at these restaurants, jaws automatically drop. I'm talking French fries and ketchup at 5€ jaw dropping style. However, this doesn't stop my friend and I. We've had our eye on a pork knee since yesterday and that is getting in our mouth ASAP. So for the low cost of 20€, the pork knee is ordered. This is split between the two of us and is probably the size of my fist in terms of food that can actually be consumed. Clearly, not enough food in us to keep drinking, does that stop us... NO! Third round is ordered, and then forth. At this point I don't know my name. 

Apparently I fell asleep at the table (only reason we know is my friend took a picture)... I'm a sleepy drunk sorry :s after this it just started to rain with disasters. 

I went to the bathroom and was supposed to meet my friend outside, apparently I never ended up going to meet him so he went on a hunt to find me. Now it was either in the bathroom, while leaving the tent after the bathroom or at some point in between my friend trying to find me and the bathroom .. But basically I puked. In my hand... I clearly finished puking somewhere (I think it was outside, because I then wiped my hand on my sweater ... From this point on known as my puke bucket) ... Sorry for the details, but that's life. 

My friend finds me! I'm in some other tent eating.. I don't know what but that's my second favourite thing to do while drunk. Then the suggestion comes out. Let's go on a ride!! So off we go to this ride that is almost like psyclone from wonderland but better. We're on these 2 seater things and basically there's 8 seats on each claw. If you kick your legs on this ride you can basically flip your two seater over. Being 4 liters deep this has become the best idea in the word! So we literally go on the ride twice, both times the ride conductor man takes my "puke bucket" and puts it on the side for me to collect later... My life! 

That is the end of crazy drinking for me... At leat until Ireland! 

I'm sorry for the little delay, but set least this ones a long one... I'll try to get better at posting about my travels. Some days just aren't as interesting as others! 

Keep an eye out for more crazy euro trip fun! 

Xoxo 

Feeding infant chind... Look center 

She's back!

Ok... I think the partying is finally done... Which means I can finally make my rain function! Woohoo! We'll hopefully enough to form some sort of sentence. If I start talking nonsense just blame it on the lack of brain cells left after all the beer I have consumed in the past week and a half.

Following the mayhem of the pink palace, we found ourselves in Prague, Czech Republic for 2 days. I can tell you from those 2 days though, that you most definitely need at least a week! I could literally spend hours just walking around and staring at all the architecture, roaming the shops, smelling the amazing aroma of sweet bread and just people watching! My parents coming to visit me in about a month and I insisted that we go to prague! I haven't seen enough of the beautiful city. During our time in Prague, I finally got to make one more mark off of the good old bucket list... We got fifth pedicures!! Warning: if you are ticklish (I have no clue how to spell haha) you might have a panic attack haha. I was sitting beside my friend Scott, and I swear I stopped the blood in his arm from circulating, I was grabbing it so tightly. Also a warning, if you have a cut, like I did (I was a moron and fell through some shitty rotting wood flooring and scratched up my whole leg haha), these fish will attack that cut and show no mercy. No matter how much you squirm your foot to get them off they stay glued on there. Other than this amazing experience, we spent the rest of the day eating and getting ready for the nighttime craziness!

In prague there is one of the most famous bars in Central Europe and that is because it is the biggest bar with 5 floors! Each floor of this building has a different theme, from 80s to electronic, there is even an ice bar in the basement! So naturally, we go on a pub crawl that includes this bar. I was doing well, as in I could walk straight and I could understand my surroundings.. All until we hit one bar. I wish I could tell you the name of it because it was hilarious, but basically at this bar the themeish thing seemed to be people drinking out of fish bowls. Now when you think of a fish bowl, most bars serve them as like a hand grid individual drink that is generally one or two shots and a lot if juice or pop. This bar served them and they were more like a giant flower vase that could hold 6 dozen flowers, rather than a fish bowl. It had go knows how many shots in it, along with an entire litre of coke... My life. To top it all off there were 6 of us splitting it, in 40 minutes, while most people had 8-10 people sharing it and over an hour to drink it. Needless to say we barely stopped to breathe and finished the whole thing! This was then followed by the giant 5 bars and later by a strip club. No the strip club was not apart of the crawl, but at 3am what's better than a bunch of strippers?! I've been to strip clubs before but most of them were pretty lame, so obviously for this one I was front row center! The best part of the night is that, I was so in awe by one of the strippers that I decided she deserved a tip.. So out comes the wallet and in slips the bills to her giant hooker heels... Obviously since she had nowhere else to put it. This was followed by a kiss on the cheek and then up pops the next dancer. At this point I'm literally dying laughing, a. Because I'm so excited with myself that I tipped a stripper and b. because the new girl who has taken over the stage is literally pregnant. I couldn't believe it! She was a skinny girl with a belly that was way to hard looking to be fat and in proportion to her body there was no other explanation for it. I immediately turned to my friend and told him and we literally could do nothing else but stare. 

Needless to say, it was quite an adventurous night. 

Up next, Budapest, Hungary! 

For those looking to party there is a hostel right in the center of town ... Not like you're really going to see the town. It is such a shitshow that as soon as you manage to get your butt out of bed from your hangover, there is already at least 2 tables of beer pong going on and a couple of funnels as well. As a result, this is the way the next 3 days went. 

Got there late, decided to just eat and figure out the next day... So the next day begins, and we are at the zoo... But in Budapest you can't just be at the zoo... So were at the zoo with a bottle of vodka! We saw some pretty cool animals, although I was pretty sad I didn't get to hold a sloth (no mark off the bucket list there). This was then followed by more drinking at the hostel and continued to a night at the Sparty. Now, a Sparty is a little confusing to explain other than a giant pool orgi... Yes orgi.... So what happens is, it's fucking freezing, and bar tenders don't want to have to deal with money so instead you prepay for a card that you just tap. So you run from the pool to the bar sceam beer me, tap the car, and before you know it your drunk ass is back in the hot pool. Now when I say pool, it's more like 3 giant pools combined into one giant circle. The whole pool is about 4.5 feet deep, and the entire surrounds of the pool as well as the insides are basically people having sex. You literally have to dodge them.... Oh and you really don't want to put anything in the water, especially not your head, because bathrooms only exist in the pool. So that warmth, is probably a combination of pool heating and pee... But who can really tell. It sounds nasty but it's definitely something you need to do... Preferably when young. 

The following day there was no such thing as a hangover. Instead there was something called a beer bike. Again something that is kind of hard to picture so refer to the actual pictures below. Essentially it's a bike that seats probably 12 or so people. All of the seats are facing towards the center and in the center is the bar. There is a keg at the front of the bike, a guide (he's sober don't worry... Or so we hope), and a security guy who is basically just there to make sure you don't fall off the bike and die. Now the bike literally doesn't move if you don't move the wheels, so as you can imagine it doesn't go all that fast... That doesn't stop us from going on the road. People literally hated us. Men and woman attempting to go to work or run errands or what not are literally stuck behind this "vehicle" filled with drunk kids drinking beer. Before you start to question this, it is legal. We passed by many police officers and literally held out our beer and yelled cheers and they continued about their day. 

Us, being the drunks that we are ordered 30 litres for 9 people, which was supposed to last us the 2 hour bike trip. That lasted all of 45 minutes... So we filled her back up with another 20 litres and continued about our way. It's safe to say we weren't so sober by the end. By the time we got back we had a quick power nap before the jäger train and hostel party that was taking place that night. 

Last but not least Vienna, Austria! 

Phewf were almost caught up. Vienna was literally put in place as a break before the ultimate shitshow known as Oktoberfest. We had 4 days before this big event and therefore these days were spent exploring and sleeping! I spoke with one of my friends before I left to travel the city and she explained that it is one of the most beautiful cities! I could literally walk around and just fall in love because of the architecture. Essentially you stare at a building and just saw wow that's a beautiful building, only to realize its nothing special and is just a mcdonalds! She was not wrong, I literally sat in the middle of town took a picture of the building infront of me that was stunning, sent it to my dad with the caption... This is h and m! I was so happy that we were there for 4 days because I could literally spend a whole day just walking around staring at buildings, definitely another one of my favourite cities. The worst part is, one of my favourite buildings, that I literally ran to because I saw it from afar and fell in love, had its beautiful view ruined by a damn circus... Who puts a circus infront of the biggest most beautiful building in Vienna! 

Alright, I will leave you with that super quick, but still decently long update. Once I get some sleep I will write you a novel on its own about oktoberfest! As for right now I'm going to continue to ride out this hangover on this train, chug some water and eat my burger! 

More stories to come, so keep an eye out! 

Xoxo

A quick update

Hello my lovelies
It seems all I have been doing lately is apologizing for not writing...  So here you are... Yet another apology!  I have had a little more time in each city I have been in,  so this is no excuse for my lack of writing,  however,  most of these days have been spent heavily drinking and recovering...  Not my favourite thing in the world.
As a result this post will basically be a quick update as to where I have been over the past basically 3 weeks...  Eek I just realized how behind I am!
So last that I posted was about Calibria,  the most amazing place obviously (since it's my grandparents home town). Following Italy we did a big and annoying jump over to Kefalonia, Greece. For those of you planning to do a Europe trip including Greece,  please do it during the summer. It is the biggest pain to get from Italy to Greece and then back out of Greece during the off season...  Nothing is running!
Essentially Kefalonia was just a straight week of relaxing in our Villa. We chose to have a Villa at this point in our trip because it's basically halfway through and was most definitely needed after the mass amount of travelling we had done. Following Kefalonia,  we took a ferry over to Corfu...  Again not the easiest to get to during off season. The reason for trip to Corfu was for a little something called the pink palace...  Get off my site now and look it up. Basically it's the biggest party hostel... I'm going to say in the world haha. This hostel houses and feeds over 800 people during peak season.  Not only do they do all that,  they also create these amazing parties including beer pong tournis,  quad salaries,  beer boats and so much more. Unfortunately whole we were there it wasn't this magnificent peak season but it was definitely still a blast! We met so many great people and I will definitely coming back for that peak season!

More posts coming your way about last week, but for now my butt will be a tourist in Vienna!

See you soon

Xo

Back to the roots

First things first, I'm sorry but a lot of these posts may be delayed by a few days due to lack of wifi. I tend to write about the location I am levying on route to my next location, and if there I no wifi while I m there, then my posts become a little behind. 

As for this post, be prepared for a long story... I'll try to condense it as much as possible for both your sake and mine. My thumbs may break if I write all the details, because too many memories were created in such a short time. 

The reason for the title is because the last few days of our euro trip were broken up into based on our roots into two families (due famiglia). 3 of the people in our group of European travellers have roots that track back to Calabria, Italy (imcluding myself). However, because mio famiglia is coming to see my home town in November, we divided up 3 and 3 into 2 different home towns in Calabria. The division was basically mangicakes and manigcakes who are trying their hardest to be pure-breds. As a result my last few days were spent in the beautiful town of Angoli. In order to sum up this town in a few words, I have come up with the following: 

1. Beautiful

2. Family 

3. Food 

4. Wine 

5. Piccolo (only 300 people) 

6. Experience 

Angoli is basically a little town that sits ontop of a mountain and overlooks both the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic sea on either side. It is such a small town that all you can hear throughout the day is honking. The reason for this, is because when the locals recognize the car that is passing them, they honk as a way to say hello.... This happens to pretty much every car that you pass. 

If you are ever going to have a meal with an Italian family for whatever reason, I suggest you prep your body for it and make your stomach as expandable as possible. Coming to Angoli after traveling Europe for a few weeks and eating only 2 small meals a day was the worst! The food was unlike anything I've ever tasted and I did not want to stop eating. My body kept freaking out because even though there was no space left in my stomach, I literally was not allowed to stop eating. If you ever try to resist the "manga manga manga" in an Italian household, be prepared to basically be force fed. 

Now the reason I said this food was unlike anything I've ever tasted is because everything... And I mean everything, is either grown or produced in someway in this families backyard. From the vegetables all the way up to the sausages and capicola made from the pigs they raise. It was mind blowing and mouthwatering all at the same time. 

Other than the amazing food and company, this trip was amazing because we finally got to relax. We made no plans, all plans were made for us and we were taken everywhere by car. This meant no grabbing 6 people and waiting for everyone to be ready, no trains to figure out and no drama! 

We went to see so,me of the most beautiful beaches that were surrounded by the most clear water I have ever seen. For those visiting Calabria make sure you go to tropea and pizzo, and do not leave pizzo until you have tried their Tartufo! They are known for this and the portions are massive! 

Can you keep up with this pace yet?

I start this post with the question can you keep up with this pace yet? A lough this question is directed towards you, it's primarily a question for myself. So far we are on day 18 of 90 and have seen (including our layover) 9 cities (on our way to the 10th), and 4 countries (on our way to our 5th tomorrow)!!! So the question is raised. Can a: my body handle this much moving and while wrapping 60 pounds around my pack in 35 degree weather, and b: I my brain stay calm and not go mental from all the hours spent planning our routes to all these destinations! I hate it, but I love it. Based on this information, it seems as though my relationship with this trip is like most relationships: rocky, heart felt, beautiful and ugly, yet totally worth it. Interpret his as you may! 

Anyways, down to the nitty gritty... Aka what my crazy butt has been up to the last few days. First of all I'd like to apologize for the delay in this post, u hadn't uploaded any pictures or had much time to rest and type until this train ride. So here we go... 

Since cinque terre we were in Rome for 2 days and Napoli for 1. Rome I found particularly interesting to visit, because much like cinque terre I had already been there, so it was interesting to see what I remembered and what I didn't. The first day there began with a quick treck over to the colosseum. No this beautiful piece I have probably seen 3 times, 2 of which I remember and one I was just a little too young to fully recall. Although I have come to this amazing historical city many times in my life, the views have yet to lose their beauty and still take my breath away. The following day we went to see the beautiful Vatican museum, and all it made me want to do is hire some amazingly talented artist to paint my ceiling! The art work surrounding all areas of each room was unbelievable! I can't even imagine the amount of work that has been not only put into the original work, but maintaining it and making sure over the years nothing changes about them! 

Yes, we obviously took the time to visit all of these amazing areas in Rome, but it isn't a visit to Rome without a pub crawl haha! When I went 6 years ago, it was the first time I had ever been on a pub crawl and I had such an amazing time that I had to do it again the next day! This being said, as soon as I found out we were going to Rome, the first thing out of my mouth was "WE'RE DOING A PUB CRAWL!" So off we went to the Colosseum pub crawl and of course it was a disaster of a night, and I loved every minute of it. 

Next stop Napoli! 

This was originally supposed to be the time we stayed in sorrento or somewhere a little closer to amalfi coast, but due to lact of hostels and lack of good planing we changed our course to the closest thing to this area, Napoli! Now, who I'm the right mind can complain, when the change of plans takes you to the one area that is known for their pizza! There were so many choices of both restaurants and flavours that I had to get one of my friends to do a quick pick! My mind was racing and my mouth was watering at everything I read, it was nearly impossible to choose! 

Although we had a short time in this city, we decided to make the best of it and take a quick trip over to Pompeii and take a peek at the ruins. This was both the most disturbing and scary thing to see. For those who don't know, and I could be a little off when I say this (so don't hold me to it.. Sorry lack of internet to double check my facts), but essentially what happened in this area is a volcano called volsuveus (if that's how you spell it)  and some time in around the 70's AD the volcano erupted and took over the whole town. Could you imagine! The volcanic ash was the first to hit the town, and just when they though they had seen the most of it, the volcano started to flow down to the town at a rate of 60km/h. Many tried to out run it or hide in different areas but unfortunately nothing helped. The sad and most disturbing part in the ruins was that there were actual bodies of those they found following the eruption, stuck forever in the position they held while they were covered in the ash and lava. Definitely a site to see for those visiting around the amalfi coast! 

As for right now we are off to get some of Nonnas amazing cooking from my friends extended families living in Calabria! I can't wait! 

Keep an eye out for more posts to come... Hopefully this time I'll be a little quicker. 

Xoxo

Please bring proper apparel

We just finished seeing the beautiful cinque terre and I swear the boys could have killed me. I went to cinque terre about 6 years ago and absolutely loved it! It was the weirdest thing going back to the same places, my mind just started flooding with the most random memories... I actually remembered this one specific train track at one of the train stations because of a picture I took of it 6 years ago (obviously I recreated it hehe). Since I had been to this destination before and told the boys that there is a way to walk through all the towns (how I remembered going through it when I was 16) they decided to follow me.  Now for those of you reading this that do jnot know me, I am the most directionally challenged person, but I figured if I just follow the paths we'll be fine. I was wrong. We got to a booth and the lady informed us that flip flops are normally not allowed, but we can continue at our own risk. Me, being out of it and just in pure excitement from remembering everything, I took this information and kept going without thinking about what she meant. Turns out we were headed in the direction of the hiking path, not the walking path. Now keep in mind, we were just In Interlaken where we hiked literally only up hill for 2.5 hours and our bodies were still sore. Also keep in mind the fact that although we conquered Interlaken, it was probably 15 degrees hotter in Italy. 

So we walked and the first thing we were faced with was a wall of stairs... And I swear there was a million. We were about halfway up them when we ran into an English speaking group and asked them the one question you should never ask on a hike - how long until the top? Or in this case, until the next city. At this point we were informed that it is about a 2 hour hike... Fuck my life right? Good news was, they said that the stairs were the worst part. They were right. We conquered the stairs and the rest was fairly flat. An hour and a half later we were in the next town, covered in dirt and sweat and in awe of our view. Too bad all the looks we received on the way there were bad ones... But what can you expect when a hiker with walking sticks and mountain boots runs into a girl doing the same treck I'm a pair of flip flops and a dress haha. 

Safe to say we will not be doing that again, and the boys will never out me in charge of leading (thank god)

More to come my loves 

Xoxo