This post is purely to describe the place Sarah and I are staying at the moment. After the shit hole we called home in prague anything would have been a welcome change. But we hit the mother load with this one.
We're staying in Vienna at this 'hostel' called 'believe it or not'... well i wouldnt have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. We arrived at this derelict building. From the front it looks like it's under construction and uninhabitable but as we climbed the stairs we realised everything was going to be o.k. We rang a buzzer and after a minute or so a voice came over the speaker telling us our keys, fresh towels and sheets were waiting on our beds. And then we were buzzed in. Buzzed into heaven. It's nothing like a hostel at all. It's basically an apartment with two bed rooms. Sarah and I have our own room at the moment and it's bliss. Each room has an animal hide rug and throw pillows and blankets and ahhhhhh. In the living room there's a board covered in tourist information with handy hints left by previous travellers. On the other side there's a little book nook where you can chill out and think about how awesome life is. Also in the lounge lives a couple laptops a television, board games and a giant book of SUDOKU. Winner. The kitchen is amazing. tea, coffee, pasta, milk, butter, fruit... and a fruit syrup bar. It's weird but amazing. I think the guy that runs this place must be obsessive compulsive cause everything has it's perfect place and is labelled and is set up in parallel lines. It's a nice change from what the other hostels are like. As I'm writing this I'm starting to realise that I'm unable to capture the amazingness of this place. I'll take photos. stay tuned.
xx
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Ahhh. So much has happened since I last wrote I'm not exactly sure where to start. I guess Amsterdam. Seems logical :)
THE CHEESE ROOM
The rest of our time in London was lovely but the 17th came around all too quickly. Our flight from LDN to Amsterdam hardly seemed worth it. The entire journey was taking off and landing. They barely had time to serve the complementary drink and pack of peanuts. When we landed it was quite the culture shock. England had been so kind to us. With the english and the relatively warm weather. But once we got off the plane I think sarah and I both had tiny internal panic attacks. It was dark. and 0 degrees. But we soon pulled our shit together and found our hostel with relatively little trouble. In Amsterdam we stayed at Cocomamas. Once a brothel, now an adorable home away from home for travellers abroad. The girls that run it greeted us with smiling faces and BEER. Once we settled in (our room was cheese themed) we pretty much just went to sleep. Although there was an hour and half in between those two things where I got sarah and I completely lost on the way to the supermarket... these things happen.
Amsterdam was pretty low key. We didn't go to any coffee shops. Or the red light district. Or any of that. We spent the days exploring and shopping and most of the nights at the hostel. We often planned to go out but everyone would generally gather in the kitchen at dinner time and staying out of the cold drinking beer and playing board games at home would inevitably replace our previous plans. We met lots of great people there. There was Caroline. This sweet Swedish girl who shared a room with Sarah and I. She was a typical Swede. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Gentle demeanour. Once she said "fuck" and I just about fell off my chair. It was like seeing a baby smoke or something. Just wrong. Then there was this American guy. Brad. Of course. He was nice. I tad arrogant but sometimes I feel people have earned the right to be arrogant. He had spent the past 2 years working in west Africa helping develop facilities for some women's group or something. pfffft. Tevs brad. Nobody likes an overachieving do-gooder. Anyway he carried around a leather satchel and wrote in a leather journal and kicked my ass at nintendo. Then there was Steve. gah. He was australian. And a pain. He had sort of moved in permanently. The girls were letting him stay in the attic because he had been there so long. He had definitely made himself far too comfortable and was sort of self appointed know-it-all of Cocomamas. I'm being harsh... He was friendly and pleasant enough. He just ALWAYS took my ipod off the dock and it drove me insane. Especially cause then he would play some obscure american folk music just to show everyone how "original" he was. wank. There were also 2 other Australians. Alex and Alex. One was male and one was female. They had falafels for breakfast one morning. I was so jealous.
213
Next. Berlin. Once again we arrived late. Got lost. And were pretty much hating life once we finally made it to our dorm. We had planned an early night. But a bunch of loud mouthed swiss-talians woke us up when they checked in at 5am, and again when they got home from a party at 7.30am. I took great pleasure in opening the window at 9am that morning just as an ambulance drove by. Sirens here are so fucking loud it's ridiculous. We spent the first couple days wondering around. Getting our bearings. Shopping. Going to the zoo. Nothing too exciting. I think it was our second night when the "loud mouthed swiss-talians" became the "lovely, friendly swiss-talians". We walked into room 213 after our day at the zoo and bonded over our mutual love of "almost famous" as we sung along to elton john's Tiny Dancer. There was Kareoke on at the bar under the hostel and we decided that 'the 213' would have to belt out our rendition of 'tiny dancer' later that night. Also part of the 213 was a dutch girl and guy. They spent ages trying to teach me how to pronounce my last name... I still haven't quite got it down. Anyway, Unfortunately tiny dancer wasn't on the list of possibilities. We had to settle for rock and roll all night... I was disappointed. The next night we all went and saw black swan. Wow. it was intense. I really want to go to the ballet now. Go figure. On our final night in Berlin we went to have dinner with Hannah and her friends. We went to this little sushi place which we were a little apprehensive about but it was actually really delicious. Although as we were waiting for our food two guys walked in, grabbed this other dudes iphone off the table and ran. It was quite the wake up call. We all had our wallets and phones lying all over the place. After that we stuffed everything we could into our bras and walked arm in arm through the streets for the rest of the night.
THE ORANGE
Now we're in this terrible orange coffin in prague. The hostel is unwelcoming and blah. Luckily Prague is beautiful. And we're only here for 3 nights. I think I'll survive. My feet are cold. I'm going to read in bed.
xx
THE CHEESE ROOM
The rest of our time in London was lovely but the 17th came around all too quickly. Our flight from LDN to Amsterdam hardly seemed worth it. The entire journey was taking off and landing. They barely had time to serve the complementary drink and pack of peanuts. When we landed it was quite the culture shock. England had been so kind to us. With the english and the relatively warm weather. But once we got off the plane I think sarah and I both had tiny internal panic attacks. It was dark. and 0 degrees. But we soon pulled our shit together and found our hostel with relatively little trouble. In Amsterdam we stayed at Cocomamas. Once a brothel, now an adorable home away from home for travellers abroad. The girls that run it greeted us with smiling faces and BEER. Once we settled in (our room was cheese themed) we pretty much just went to sleep. Although there was an hour and half in between those two things where I got sarah and I completely lost on the way to the supermarket... these things happen.
Amsterdam was pretty low key. We didn't go to any coffee shops. Or the red light district. Or any of that. We spent the days exploring and shopping and most of the nights at the hostel. We often planned to go out but everyone would generally gather in the kitchen at dinner time and staying out of the cold drinking beer and playing board games at home would inevitably replace our previous plans. We met lots of great people there. There was Caroline. This sweet Swedish girl who shared a room with Sarah and I. She was a typical Swede. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Gentle demeanour. Once she said "fuck" and I just about fell off my chair. It was like seeing a baby smoke or something. Just wrong. Then there was this American guy. Brad. Of course. He was nice. I tad arrogant but sometimes I feel people have earned the right to be arrogant. He had spent the past 2 years working in west Africa helping develop facilities for some women's group or something. pfffft. Tevs brad. Nobody likes an overachieving do-gooder. Anyway he carried around a leather satchel and wrote in a leather journal and kicked my ass at nintendo. Then there was Steve. gah. He was australian. And a pain. He had sort of moved in permanently. The girls were letting him stay in the attic because he had been there so long. He had definitely made himself far too comfortable and was sort of self appointed know-it-all of Cocomamas. I'm being harsh... He was friendly and pleasant enough. He just ALWAYS took my ipod off the dock and it drove me insane. Especially cause then he would play some obscure american folk music just to show everyone how "original" he was. wank. There were also 2 other Australians. Alex and Alex. One was male and one was female. They had falafels for breakfast one morning. I was so jealous.
213
Next. Berlin. Once again we arrived late. Got lost. And were pretty much hating life once we finally made it to our dorm. We had planned an early night. But a bunch of loud mouthed swiss-talians woke us up when they checked in at 5am, and again when they got home from a party at 7.30am. I took great pleasure in opening the window at 9am that morning just as an ambulance drove by. Sirens here are so fucking loud it's ridiculous. We spent the first couple days wondering around. Getting our bearings. Shopping. Going to the zoo. Nothing too exciting. I think it was our second night when the "loud mouthed swiss-talians" became the "lovely, friendly swiss-talians". We walked into room 213 after our day at the zoo and bonded over our mutual love of "almost famous" as we sung along to elton john's Tiny Dancer. There was Kareoke on at the bar under the hostel and we decided that 'the 213' would have to belt out our rendition of 'tiny dancer' later that night. Also part of the 213 was a dutch girl and guy. They spent ages trying to teach me how to pronounce my last name... I still haven't quite got it down. Anyway, Unfortunately tiny dancer wasn't on the list of possibilities. We had to settle for rock and roll all night... I was disappointed. The next night we all went and saw black swan. Wow. it was intense. I really want to go to the ballet now. Go figure. On our final night in Berlin we went to have dinner with Hannah and her friends. We went to this little sushi place which we were a little apprehensive about but it was actually really delicious. Although as we were waiting for our food two guys walked in, grabbed this other dudes iphone off the table and ran. It was quite the wake up call. We all had our wallets and phones lying all over the place. After that we stuffed everything we could into our bras and walked arm in arm through the streets for the rest of the night.
THE ORANGE
Now we're in this terrible orange coffin in prague. The hostel is unwelcoming and blah. Luckily Prague is beautiful. And we're only here for 3 nights. I think I'll survive. My feet are cold. I'm going to read in bed.
xx
Sunday, January 16, 2011
are those your underpants or mine?
So our first stint in London has come to end. And it has been FAB.
We spent our first full day here in Camden exploring the markets. It was like heaven. The first section of markets were pretty... mediocre. It was just stall after stall of lady gaga t-shirts and big ben magnets. But once we made our way through all that rubbish and went down into the Camden stables market, things got way more interesting. It was heaven. An underground maze full of vintage stalls and boutiques. We were there for about 5 hours and we didn't even have a chance to see it all. I'm definitely going back when we return to London. There was so much I wanted to buy but I was just overwhelmed with choice. I think my favourite shop was this one that just sold vintage furs. I was in there for at LEAST 30 minutes trying on coats and shrugs and vests. so. much. fun. After that we met Lucy and tess after work and went to a local pub for some dinner and drinks. I'm getting better at drinking pints. I just need to pee ALL the time. I'm not sure how they do it. perhaps I need to train :)
The following day Lucy and tess took us to the Portobello markets at Notting Hill. Unfortunately we were a little slow getting started and didn't make it to the markets until around 4pm. It gets dark at about 4.30pm and people were already starting to pack up by the time we arrived. On the plus side we had delicious falafels for dinner and INCREDIBLE cupcakes from the hummingbird bakery for dessert. yummm. After that we went to a cocktail bar in soho. It was pretty nice. The cocktails were delicious and the bar tenders were super adorable/enthusiastic. Actually one thing I have noticed is how polite everyone is. Especially the guys. total gentlemen. Men of Australia. lift your game.
Today sarah and I went to Westminster to do the typical touristy things like Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery. I think I'll need to go back to the gallery to find my future husband. It seems to be where all the good looking cultured dudes hang out. Lucy and Tess met us at the station and we went and had Sunday roast at a local pub. It was also delicious. I predict me putting on some weight if the food continues to be this good. DANGER.
Now we are just sitting around watching television. Boring but we all need to be up bright and early tomorrow. Lucy and tess to go to work and Sarah and I to go to AMSTERDAM! weow! I'm so glad we're coming back though. We still have so much to see. And we can't get enough of Lucy and Tess. They have been the perfect hosts :) when they're not bickering. As I write this Tess is covering Lucy in laundry. I better intervene.
Au Revoir.
p.s. the title of this post merely refers to when sarah and I realised after doing a load of washing together that we have exactly the same underwear... It's a tad awkward. But I think we learned a valuable lesson.
We spent our first full day here in Camden exploring the markets. It was like heaven. The first section of markets were pretty... mediocre. It was just stall after stall of lady gaga t-shirts and big ben magnets. But once we made our way through all that rubbish and went down into the Camden stables market, things got way more interesting. It was heaven. An underground maze full of vintage stalls and boutiques. We were there for about 5 hours and we didn't even have a chance to see it all. I'm definitely going back when we return to London. There was so much I wanted to buy but I was just overwhelmed with choice. I think my favourite shop was this one that just sold vintage furs. I was in there for at LEAST 30 minutes trying on coats and shrugs and vests. so. much. fun. After that we met Lucy and tess after work and went to a local pub for some dinner and drinks. I'm getting better at drinking pints. I just need to pee ALL the time. I'm not sure how they do it. perhaps I need to train :)
The following day Lucy and tess took us to the Portobello markets at Notting Hill. Unfortunately we were a little slow getting started and didn't make it to the markets until around 4pm. It gets dark at about 4.30pm and people were already starting to pack up by the time we arrived. On the plus side we had delicious falafels for dinner and INCREDIBLE cupcakes from the hummingbird bakery for dessert. yummm. After that we went to a cocktail bar in soho. It was pretty nice. The cocktails were delicious and the bar tenders were super adorable/enthusiastic. Actually one thing I have noticed is how polite everyone is. Especially the guys. total gentlemen. Men of Australia. lift your game.
Today sarah and I went to Westminster to do the typical touristy things like Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery. I think I'll need to go back to the gallery to find my future husband. It seems to be where all the good looking cultured dudes hang out. Lucy and Tess met us at the station and we went and had Sunday roast at a local pub. It was also delicious. I predict me putting on some weight if the food continues to be this good. DANGER.
Now we are just sitting around watching television. Boring but we all need to be up bright and early tomorrow. Lucy and tess to go to work and Sarah and I to go to AMSTERDAM! weow! I'm so glad we're coming back though. We still have so much to see. And we can't get enough of Lucy and Tess. They have been the perfect hosts :) when they're not bickering. As I write this Tess is covering Lucy in laundry. I better intervene.
Au Revoir.
p.s. the title of this post merely refers to when sarah and I realised after doing a load of washing together that we have exactly the same underwear... It's a tad awkward. But I think we learned a valuable lesson.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Reasons why I like London so far...
1) The clothes. I die
2) The boys. Who said chivalry is dead? I especially like it when they say darling.
3) Lucy and Tess
4) Cheap beer
5) Prets. those folks sure know how to make a sandwich
6) When people say quid.
7) Being foreign. I have an accent. Who knew?
8) The weather. I really love the cold. I'm going to buy a fur coat. nom nom nom.
9) Double Decker buses. I haven't been on one yet but seeing them is still fun.
10) The tube. Now there's an efficient public transport system.
2) The boys. Who said chivalry is dead? I especially like it when they say darling.
3) Lucy and Tess
4) Cheap beer
5) Prets. those folks sure know how to make a sandwich
6) When people say quid.
7) Being foreign. I have an accent. Who knew?
8) The weather. I really love the cold. I'm going to buy a fur coat. nom nom nom.
9) Double Decker buses. I haven't been on one yet but seeing them is still fun.
10) The tube. Now there's an efficient public transport system.
Friday, January 14, 2011
And I think that's pretty cool.
So I'm in London. Finally.
We arrived yesterday around 1.30pm after many many hours of flying. I was actually quite surprised with how pleasant the journey was. Everyone had warned me about how horrible it would be but apart from my butt falling asleep every couple hours and the lines for the toilet, it wasn't too bad. Mini food. Movies. Tetris. People wearing ridiculous matching uniforms... It was all good.
Our flight to Doha was delayed an hour so once we landed we pretty much went straight to our connecting flight which, in the end, also ended up being delayed an hour. At least we were sitting on the plane. The airport was kinda... dirty. And they didn't have those amazing hand dryers Melbourne Airport had so Sarah and I pretty much lost interest immediately. When we arrived in Gatwick we had no idea what we were doing. But it didn't take us long to spot the lovely man holding a whiteboard with "Sarah Bregu" written on it. phew. A short cab ride later we arrived in TOOTING BROADWAY (yes, we can now confirm that this actually a suburb) and let ourselves in to Lucy & tess' adorable little home. Expecting to be alone, we almost wet ourselves when they girls came running down the hall at us in matching cow print onesies. They had both called in sick so they could welcome us when we arrived. What dolls. The next few minutes consisted of much screaming and hugging and screaming. It was nice.
After we had freshened up we went for a stroll around the neighbourhood and finished up at the local pub for some food and drinks. Once we had finished eating we stealthily snuck our pints home from the pub so we could have a onesie party in the kichen instead. Wise decision. Unfortunately sarah and I didn't last long. We had passed out by 9pm... but man oh man we sure did get drunk in those 2 hours. hopefully I have now defeated my jetlag and will put in a better effort tonight. Here is a taste of our onesie party.
Today we are going to Camden and then to meet Lucy and Tess for drinks when they finish work. It's now 7.30am and I'm too excited to sleep. I should probably try and have a nap though. Last night I got a taste of how much and how quickly tess can drink and I'll need to be on my A-GAME to keep up tonight.
xx
We arrived yesterday around 1.30pm after many many hours of flying. I was actually quite surprised with how pleasant the journey was. Everyone had warned me about how horrible it would be but apart from my butt falling asleep every couple hours and the lines for the toilet, it wasn't too bad. Mini food. Movies. Tetris. People wearing ridiculous matching uniforms... It was all good.
Our flight to Doha was delayed an hour so once we landed we pretty much went straight to our connecting flight which, in the end, also ended up being delayed an hour. At least we were sitting on the plane. The airport was kinda... dirty. And they didn't have those amazing hand dryers Melbourne Airport had so Sarah and I pretty much lost interest immediately. When we arrived in Gatwick we had no idea what we were doing. But it didn't take us long to spot the lovely man holding a whiteboard with "Sarah Bregu" written on it. phew. A short cab ride later we arrived in TOOTING BROADWAY (yes, we can now confirm that this actually a suburb) and let ourselves in to Lucy & tess' adorable little home. Expecting to be alone, we almost wet ourselves when they girls came running down the hall at us in matching cow print onesies. They had both called in sick so they could welcome us when we arrived. What dolls. The next few minutes consisted of much screaming and hugging and screaming. It was nice.
After we had freshened up we went for a stroll around the neighbourhood and finished up at the local pub for some food and drinks. Once we had finished eating we stealthily snuck our pints home from the pub so we could have a onesie party in the kichen instead. Wise decision. Unfortunately sarah and I didn't last long. We had passed out by 9pm... but man oh man we sure did get drunk in those 2 hours. hopefully I have now defeated my jetlag and will put in a better effort tonight. Here is a taste of our onesie party.
Today we are going to Camden and then to meet Lucy and Tess for drinks when they finish work. It's now 7.30am and I'm too excited to sleep. I should probably try and have a nap though. Last night I got a taste of how much and how quickly tess can drink and I'll need to be on my A-GAME to keep up tonight.
xx
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