home sweet home

hello all! I have to apologise for not updating in a few days, I got back home on Sunday evening and I literally have barely been online since then cause I've been catching up with people from home and just relaxing, I only remembered I hadn't blogged about the last two days of the trip five minutes ago! So yeah I think the last thing I wrote about was the thursday night of the trip. After finishing that really weird boardgame thingy that basically just consisted of Jess and I insulting each other for an hour or so, we went to bed cause it was late and Sonni, Jess and I stayed up for a bit chatting in bed. On the Friday we slept kinda late I think and then we got up and ate some mexican food for lunch which was really good. I literally for the life of me cannot remember what we did in the middle of the day but I know that that evening we went for running sushi which is when the sushi goes by on a conveyor belt thingy and it's all you can eat. That was totally awesome. Jess ate like twenty million plates of watermelon and Sonni probably broke the world record for noodle eating. We then went to the other home of Princess Sisi this famous Austrian Princess Jess' mum likes, it was a gorgeous palace and the sky was all pretty and red. On the way home "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. came on and we all sang along in the car, it felt like one of those "moments" in life lol. We watched Parent Trap back at the house and I fell asleep half way through because I'm a fader and when I went up to brush my teeth I couldn't resist the call of my comfy bed. Our last full day in Vienna was the Saturday. Sonni woke us up at like 10.3o or so I think and we got ready to go to this rotating cafe that looks out over all of Vienna. Unfortunately the cafe was closed so we couldn't get lunch there but we still went out on the deck and it was really pretty from up there. We went for Japanese for lunch in the centre of Vienna and obsessed about a couple sitting opposite us who were there with another girl (the girl's friend) because we had seen them outside and it really looked like a blind internet date so we spent all of the lunch imagining what was going on. It looked like a bad date. And the guy was gross. After lunch Jess dragged us to see this statue of the composer Strauss that her mum likes, it was okay though because the park it was in was nice and we got to hear stories about Jess' prom drama lol. We stopped for ice cream in Sonni's favourite ice cream store on the way back, it was really good, almost as good as Italy. The hill up to Sonni's house was hideous and then when we got up Sonni's mum made us this Austrian dish called Schnitzel which is pork fried in something (butter? NO lol). It was good. That evening we went swimming in the pool as it was finally the right kind of temperature for that (although it was still freezing!) and then we watched Enchanted which was pure awesome. I adore James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey. I got up early the next day for the airport, Jess and I had flights with in an hour of each other which was handy so when we got to the airport we said goodbye to Sonni, her mum and her sister and went on through. Jess and I got starbucks and then said our own goodbye which consisted of "you'll miss me" "no I wont" "yes you will" "see you again?" "yeah" and then a hug lol. The flight was fairly uneventful except for a forty five minute delay and the bus journey was easy peasy so before I knew it I was home safe and sound. The trip was fantastic and I regret to inform you that this will therefore be my last blog on this account as my wonderful little adventure has now come to an end. I demand that you go interrailing at some point in your lives, I'll hopefully be doing it again in the future.

Love and hugs,

Sarah xoox

the day I spent fifteen euros on Mozart chocolate...

Hello all, so, breaking news: the night train wasn't that bad. It was actually quite cool when the train wasn't stopped and this time we had another girl from Montrael and an English guy in our cabin. We arrived in Vienna the following morning glad to be done with travelling for a while and met Sonni's sister Lisa and her dad in the train station. We basically chillaxed all day Wednesday therefore cause we were so freakin tired. But Sonni and Lisa taught Jess and I to play singstar (I rock at Torn by Natalie Imbruglia and suck at Love Shack fyi) and we watched High School Musical 2 (for which I succumbed and bought a tee shirt for in the disney store in Rome- get over it.). Jess and I are staying in the attic in Sonni's house which is actually a freakin huge room with an en suite, her house is gorgeous and her family are lovely. We got to sleep this morning with no alarm which was brill, what was not good was Jessie rolling half on top of me in her sleep. She is a ho. Not. Okay so I should stop bashing because she's right behind me doing god knows what with my piece of the boardgame, I think she's cheating. Slag. Not. Kidding. No not really. Jess is saying "I'm not reeaaadding" but really she cares, because she's in love with me. Francis watch out. Right okay so I'll continue, we went into Vienna downtown today after we finally got around to getting out of bed and I lost my Hannah Montana virginity. Good times. In Vienna I saw pretty buildings such as City Hall, the palace, the opera house etc. Pretty. And we ate lovely Austrian desert specialties which I can't spell. We went to Mozart Shops (the Austrian term for gift shops) and I bought 15 euros worth of Mozart chocolate and a teddy wearing lederhosen like a typical tourist. Sonni's mum gave us a lift up from the station thank goodness cause my feet were wet. We got to the house and ate dinner and then watched Hairspray and now they are playing some sort of evil game which involves Jess writing whore-ish bitchy things about me which I will soon outmaster her at because I am the king. Must go and beat her.

love to you all xoox

P.S. Ed is NOT a child molester.

Roma! Ciao!

Hi, so it's our last night in Rome now as I write to you and it's been a busy three days. Our first day we arrived on the high speed train into Rome having left behind our beloved Florence. We found our hostel and it proved to be the most unusual one we have stayed at so far. Our hostel is owned by a man named Francesco and he seems extremely chilled, he told us our three roommates were out but two were from Chile and one from America. We decided for an easy first day to go see the Trevi Fountain and so we set out into what was vastly seeming an unbearable heat. We checked out the fountain and threw a penny backward into it which is meant to bring you back to Rome again if you want it :) We then went for dinner in a really good restaurant recommended by our chum the Let's Go Western Europe Guide. In this restaurant we witnessed a scene where we literally felt Ashton Kutcher was going to jump out and shout "PUNK'D" because we were seated near two little American boys eating dinner in a fairly nice restaurant who proceeded to ask for bread, go demand more bread, ask for their own pizza cutter, ask if they could take home the water since they had to pay for it and ask the waiter if the tip was included. Insane. We went back to our hostel pretty early that night because of pure exhaustion to discover our roommates weren't home and they didn't arrive back at all that night (which we later found out was due to being on a pub crawl that became extended lol). The following morning we got up and headed out fairly early to the Ancient City to see the Forum Romanum on the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. We went to the Forum Romanum first and it was really cool to see the House of Augustus etc but annoyingly we didn't have a tour guide and there weren't many signs so it was hard to know what was what. We went to the Colosseum and signed up for a tour of both places there. The Colosseum tour was really good and was led by a funny Italian man but unfortunately we couldn't go on the Forum Romanum part of the tour because our ticket wouldn't work twice. We then came back to our hostel where we ate and I had a nap (lol). Our roommates still weren't there so we thought maybe they were passed out in a gutter somewhere haha. We went out again to go see Colosseum all lit up at night and went for a walk in the Domus Aurea park that Nero set up. We went for dinner and gelatos and then came back to our hostel where we finally met our wandering roommates who were very nice. One of them taught me swear words in Spanish, unfortunately due to my lack of linguistic ability I cannot remember any of them. Today we got up early to go to Vatican City. We queued for quite a while to get into the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapels but they were very impressive. We went for lunch in kind of a gross touristy restaurant nearby because it was easier not to leave the area and we were starved so we then went to St Peter's Basilica. The church was huge and stunning but my favourite part was sitting afterwards with Jess and Sonni watching the underdressed people get denied entry by the guards. So fun. One girl tried covering her shoulders with toilet paper. We came back to our hostel and napped again haha (but to be fair we'd been up really late the night before hanging out with our roommates this time! we aren't grannies!) and then went to a restaurant near the river Tiber that Sonni found using the Let's Go guide. My salad was amazing but the toilets in the restaurant were gross beyond words. We walked down and took photos by the Tiber and then journied back to our hostel and got gelatos on the way. We just met our new roommate Victor from Brazil who joins our new two American girl roommates to make up the six beds in our room. That's about all I have to blog to you about now, I'd better let the others on the computer. I'll write again from Vienna, dreading going on the night train tomorrow night :(

xoox

birthday!

Well hello there, I write to you now at the grand old age of 19. Yesterday was my birthday. We got up yesterday and went down to breakfast to discover another brilliant aspect of our amazing hostel- cooked breakfast :) We then got ready to take the train to Pisa for the morning to see the Leaning Tower. Those of you who know me know that I had not heard of this famous tower until about 6 months ago causing great amusement to my friends as apparently it's very "famous". Well I saw the tower and we did the really touristy pics where you pretend to be holding it up, Jess and I even did one with her giving me a piggy back while I held her up, needless to say that was not easy. The heat was intense so we went for lunch and then went to get the train (Sonni and Jess insisted on paying for lunch- which was sweet but not neccessary!). We got back to our hostel and I went into the bathroom to put sun lotion on and when I came out Jess told me Sonni went out to use the other bathroom. Meanwhile of course she did not think to warn me to put on some shorts or whatever (I was in my underwear and a jammie top) before Sonni bursts in with a cake and candles all lit up! Numerous embarrassing pics were taken. Sonni got me an amazing Tim Riggins tee shirt and Ed Westwick calendar- so cool. We went out for dinner in a lovely restaurant beside the Dome and then to the Piazzo Michaelangelo for the sunset view which was amazing but majorly too hard work to climb up to. We went for gelatos in what is supposedly the place where you'll be talking about the gelatos for the next 50 years. They were really good. We then went back to our hostel room and messed around for a few hours and played card games, several amusing/embarrassing photos were taken which I'm sure you'll see eventually. Anyways I'll write again soon! Off to Roma!

xoox

gelatos, medicis and the world's best hostel EVER

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v707/sonni89/Interrail/

This is a link to images from our trip that Sonni has uploaded from the greatest hostel known to man a.k.a. our hostel in Florence. Sonni has asked me to inform you that the images aren't completely up to date yet (although I'd say they might be in a couple of hours). I took the night train for the first time last night and it was the WORST night ever. seriously. I had the middle bunk which Sonni and Jess made me take because they had the middle their last time and they seemed to think the top bunks would be better. They weren't. Thus they have proceeded to whine that I had it so much better than they did. I can assure you that half a metre below them was not particularly cooler nor comfortable considering I still had sunburn from Geneva and the noise from the compartment next to ours was horrific. Got all of two hours sleep so we were basically like zombies when we arrived in Florence at 6.30am. In Florence we got to our hostel but couldn't check into our room until the afternoon so we went to the bank so I could cash my traveller's checks and then went on the three hour walking tour our hostel provided which was taken by this really nice Italian girl who told us all about the buildings and their significance (most of them were related to the Medici family). When we got back to the hostel we were able to check into our room only to discover that it was *so* worth it to pay the extra ten euros or so that it cost to upgrade our room. We have a private room which is freakin huge (twice the size of our hotel room in Paris) and very florentine with high cielings, wooden doors and shutters. It has air conditioning, a computer with free internet (yay!) and a tv. It is the greatest thing ever. I love it. We napped for a few hours and then Sonni went out to buy me some aftersun and got lost cause she didn't bring a map poor girl lol. She found her way back after twenty minutes or so though and then we got ready for dinner. We had dinner in an Italian restaurant (duh) where I got a starter portion of pasta and then split a thin pizza with Sonni. For future reference I know that that is too much food now lol. But we weren't sure cause the pasta was a starter type thing so we didn't know if it'd be big enough. We're going out tonight (after we pick up our laundry from the tumble drier) to the Palazzo Michaelangelo to see the sunset view of the city I think. We are then going for gelatos. Yum.

I'll write again tomorrow (my birthday!), enjoy the pics.

xoox

the city where backpackers came to die...

Hello again, the reason I write to you so soon (only one night later- aren't you lucky!) is that I am currently in Geneva and we have discovered that the best thing about Geneva is our amazing freakishly clean hostel that has about every facility you could possibly ask for- free public transport passes, free laundry facilities, computers, I could go on and on. So here we are, it's not even late in Geneva and I'm on the computers because there isn't much else going on in the city except rich bankers doing their rich banking. But it is rather pretty by the Geneva lake I have to admit. So today's tale shall be short since it basically consisted of the 3 hour train journey on which I was seated beside an Austrailian semi-emo kid who proceeded to rock out with his headphones on during the journey- I slept most of it anyways- and the rest of the day was filled with this: went to the UN building (the most exciting part of which was probably when I realised on the bus that I had forgotten my transport pass and got rather freaked out- luckily they didn't check), saw a pretty but boring cathedral, went to a really really nice restaurant and got one of the best salads I've had in ages, went to a replica "Central Perk" cafe for ice cream, walked to the Geneva fountian (the largest in Europe) which a pretty walk although Sonni and Jess are the slowest walkers ever! (that's for you Jessie- I shall be calling "carry moi" and you shall be taking me for a piggy back ride every time you do it in future my canadian dork) and then ran under the fountain. Sonni is a weakling who needed to take a taxi back to our hostel (lazybones!) so we came back, I showered, and then we all went on the computers. We know how to enjoy ourselves. I reiterate: thank goodness we are only here for one night lol. Looking forwards to going to the Geneva waterpark however as the weather is supposed to be really nice (although it was rather nice today as well) and my first ever experience on a night train. I say "experience" because according to Sonni and Jess it will be one to be remembered. Hopefully it's more comfortable than their ride from Vienna to Amsterdam :S

I'll update you on Thursday or Friday (my birthday!)

xoox

Gay Paris!

Hello again my lovelies. Here is your resident blogger. I write at the moment from a little internet cafe in Paris. It's almost midnight and we leave our hotel tomorrow for Geneva but it's been a wonderful stay. Our first night in Paris was amazing because we went for dinner in a restaurant near our hotel then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and went up it at midnight :D It sparkled blue and was so stunning. Our first full day was spent going to the ticket office to book our Geneva tickets and standing in the LONGEST QUEUE EVER. Like it was literally sas long as the Eiffel Tower. Then going to Notre Dame, seeing the Mona Lisa etc in the Louvre (it really is tiny!), getting absolutely starving and exhausted from walking thus collapsing with a subway sandwich in the luxembourg gardens (it was the foot long "man sandwich" as I like to call it- aka the meatball sub). We then went to Monmartre and saw the Moulin Rouge (surrounded by many lovely sex shops where Sonni and Jess proceeded to explain the concept of the "video" booth to me- ew). We climbed up to the Sacre Couer which was beautiful and had the longest walk ever before we found a restaurant we liked. We then returned to our hotel and collapsed into sleep (although not before I mixed Sonni's weird toothpaste up with the laundry detergent which made Jess and Sonni roll on the bed in fits of laughter while they made fun of me for the next half hour). Today was a little less tiring. We got up and went to Versailles in the morning which was incredible looking but spoiled slightly because the weather was so changable. Jess was particularly cold due to the cute dress that Paris had to see lol. We had a picnic overlooking the gardens. Then we came back to the city and went to the Champs Elysees and Galleries Lafayette for some shopping. Sonni very sweetly took us out for a really nice dinner just off the Champs Elysees and then we went for Hagandaas before climbing the Arc de Triomphe (the walk up the spiral staircase nearly killed me. I kid you not). Right so that basically takes me up to where we are now and my internet time is running out- Jess has just reminded me we forgot to eat Crepes while we were here- aww. I'll blog again soon, hopefully from Geneva but if not then sunny Florence! (It better be sunny- I promised Jess Italy would have flawless sunshine lol).

byeee xoox

from the laaand of chocolate...

Hello all! I write to you now from Brussels in Belgium on the computer in the lobby of our hotel which Sonni and Jess have dubbed "the most annoying computer ever to exist" and they are right. They wouldn't let me leave our hostel here before I'd tried it and I can safely attest to its level of annoyingness. On our second day in Amsterdam we met up with Sonni's Dutch friends Cilla and Manon who are twins who live a couple of hours from Amsterdam. As they aren't actually from the city they weren't totally familiar with it but more so than us so they took us around and bought us Dutch candy to try etc. We pretty much alked the length of the whole city that day so by the evening we were really glad to go on our night time canal cruise that we'd booked to go on. The cruise was good cause you got to see parts of the city you never would have otherwise and we got to see the famous Red Light District hookers in their windows from a safe distance from their scary pimps which was a plus haha. We then went to a bar in Amsterdam and back to our hostel. We took the train to Brussels yesterday which was surprisingly easy and a very short journey. We wandered around Brussels and saw the Mannekin Pis which is this famous monument they have of a little boy pissing water which gets dressed up in different outfits for special occasions... random. We went to the Grand Place which is this really impressive square, we went to the Royal Palace and the Parc de Bruxelles which was beautiful. We ate dinner in a nice restaurant that looked out on to the busy streets and then we went for Belgian waffles which were probably one of the best things I've ever tasted- yum. Jess adores it here because they mostly speak French and it's cool cause it has a totally different feel to Amsterdam. We have a slightly bizarre Japanese roommate here who sleeps all the time and is travelling alone, but she's not annoying which is good. The receptionist in our hotel is as bitchy as the reviews said she was barking "I said say your name not spell it!" upon our first meeting with her, but aside from that it's a nice hostel. Anyways I shall leave you now but I'll post again soon- we are off to Paris today where we get to stay in a proper hotel! joy!

Au revoir! xoox

Hello from Amsterdam!

Hello my dears, this is Sarah reporting from our awesome hostel outside the Vondelpark in Amsterdam! I got here around 12 today by the time I figured out the trains and stuff and it's really nice. Sonni and Jess got here at like 1 and our reunion consisted of excited squeals (mostly on my part- I'm rather excitable). But we got pretty much stuck straight into sight seeing (although we stopped for pizza as we were all starved)- went all around the Van Gogh museum which was awesome and then we went to the Anne Frank House. Got some lighter food like sandwiches and fruit in the evening and ate it just outside the Vondelpark which is so beautiful. We are all totally jet lagged and exhausted tonight so we're gonna crash soon and then go tomorrow to the Central Canal Ring and maybe check out Leidseiplen (buzzing nightlife area near our hostel) tomorrow night (if mum and dad are reading this- chill- we'll be careful!). Anyways I'll try and post again soon!

Sarah, xoox

Before we go...

Hello there, this is a blog I have created to document our little interrailing experience :) At the moment it's a day and a half to go for me and I'm super excited. My name is Sarah and the girls I'm traveling with are my friends Sonni and Jess. We are going to Amsterdam (2 nights), Brussels (1 night), Paris (3 nights), Geneva (1 night), Florence (2 nights), Rome (3 nights) and Vienna (4 nights) and then we're all back home again. It should be a fantastic trip so I've set up this blog to let you see how we are getting on in our travels. I will be your resident blogger but if friends of Sonni or Jess want to comment on this blog then they should go ahead! Please leave a comment if you are reading this blog and warm our little travelers' hearts :D

let's go!