The wild East - Czech Republic and Budapest

Howdy partners and welcome to the first update from our wild Eastern Euro adventures. Due to some shortfalls in internet supply, this update is a little late but nevertheless awesome. We left you last time with us departing from the mind blowing Amsterdam heading to one of Europe's gems, Prague.

Although Edwina had previously been, Prague remained a trip must-do. The gothic architecture and pumping nightlife makes for huge draw cards. We had a few days to enjoy the city and based ourselves near the Old Town. We ended up taking a few local tours and this gave us great in sight into the amazing history of the city. I was particularly interested in the recent communist regime and how this shaped the not so friendly demeanour of the locals that has made them the long-standing uncontested winner of the World Worst Customer Service Award. To summarise how many changes the city has gone through, our guide told us a story about her grandmother. She was over 80 years old and has lived in eight different countries. Ironically, she still lives in the same house she was born in, the country has just changed that many times and been under both Nazi and Communist rule. Very interesting stuff.

From here we followed a friends hot tip and travelled south to the small town of Chesky Krumlov. This cute town is something out of a fairy tail with a Castle surrounded by a beautiful winding river. This river would be the setting for one of our coolest activities in the Czech Republic - rafting pub crawl!

Our hostel hooked us up with three rafts full of like-minded young people, drove us out of town and wished us luck. What followed was about 7 hours of relaxing, fun-filled, riverside bar-hoping adventures. We finished up sailing into the centre of town, taking on the last of a few man made "shoot rapids", and disembarked. Awesome time complete.

From Chesky we had to double back up to Prague to make our way to our next destination, Budapest. Again this former communist city proves to be amazingly intriguing, fascinating, shocking and amazing. The city which is split into both the Buda and the Pest sides, turned out to be a Euro-trip favourite! (so far way too many favourites)  We spent our days busily checked out the historical Buda, complete with amazing views over the rest of the city, and the pumping Pest. Highlights included the Terror Museum, housed in the infamous torture headquarters of both the Nazi and Communist parties, the beautiful turkish style baths and the pumping nighlife. Again the shocking recent history of the city made for a fascinating visit. The city is still very much recovering from the strangle hold of the former Iron Curtain. After World War Two, many Hungarians went on to be further punished by the new Communist leaders. The wounds are still fresh with the last Hungarian person transferred to the Russian Gulags (forced labour camps) returning in 2000. This mix of beauty and tragedy gives the city an amazing feel.

To balance all this serious thought provoking business, we also partied hard with our hostel buddies and even managed to bust out a little karaoke! Before you even ask... of course I did my famous song, "I don't wanna miss a thing" - Aerosmith. Lets just say... it is now a truly international hit!

We departed Budapest with a heavy heart after declining countless requests to take my karaoke act on a national tour. It was time to get our "brown bear" on (our tan) and sail the seven seas in Croatia. No fear, our next QDU update is just around the corner.

Euro trip stage one - Tour de France and Amsterdam

As the saying goes, time really does fly when you are having fun. Our arrival in Nice signalled the beginning of our final stage of our World concurring exploration, and possibly our biggest adventure to-date, Euro trip 2011!

I left you last time with the sweet image of me living it up on the French Rivera, cruel I know. We spent our first few days in sunny Nice where we also celebrated my 24th Birthday. We spent my birthday eve hitting the town which resulted in us spending a very relaxing birthday in bed, followed by a lovely French dinner. We tried to catch some rays, but unfortunately pebble beaches are as comfortable as they sound.

From Nice we headed north to one of France's biggest cities, Lyon. It was in Lyon that we tried our hand at Couch Surfing for the first time on the trip. Edwina had previously "surfed" last time she was in Europe, so we thought we would give it a shot. We stayed with a lovely young French couple with a super awesome cat who kept us company. Lyon was a lovely city with the highlight being the awesome park complete with free zoo! (including a bear - just for you Scrim)

From Lyon we continued our Tour de France and travelled to Bourne the capital of wine country! Those that know me realise my experience with wine is limited to a bladder and a clothes line. However, Edwina and I definitely got into the spirit and did a few tasting in and around the town. On our second day we hired bikes and rode out of town and visited a few surrounding villages and local wine makers. The scenery was amazing and the tastings made the ride home easier.

We continued our French culinary crusade from wine country to mustard country - Dijon. We again chose to couch surf and stayed with another lovely couple Toni and Lea, who was a chef! Toni was on holidays so he played the perfect tour guide. We even got to attend a wine/ food appreciation event at Lea's restaurant - oh so French.  We hung out with their friends and were able to experience a local's view of the city. I know it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but our experiences with couch surfing so far have definitely inspired me to do more!

After farewelling our new friends it was time to hit up the big smoke, the city of love and lights - Paris! This was my first time visiting (Edwina's second), but unfortunately we got off to a bit of a rough start. On arriving at the accommodation we'd booked, and confirmed, we were told there wasn't any beds left! Gah! Of course finding alternative accommodation in Paris at 9pm on a Saturday night is very easy...  not. We did manage to strike it lucky and Edwina convinced a hotel to give us their "Penthouse suite" for less than half price. Score!

After the rough start, Paris really had to earn our love back. The following days we got our super tourist on and smashed through all the sites including the Eiffel Tower, Louve, Notre Dame, Catecombes, Pompidou Centre, Champs Elysees (it is a busy street - thank you Art Vs Science) and Galleries Lafayette. With the long summer days we also had plenty of time to just wonder the streets and enjoy the Parisian way of life. Many of the nicest moments were spent enjoying a drink or French meal and watching the people walk by. These moments were definitely more enjoyable than the hours spent lining up for almost all the attractions, the price we pay for a European summer holiday.

Our next destination was Amsterdam and a rendezvous with some friends from home Sammy "Messy Vessy" and Rachel "Little G".  It was really good to have some familiar faces around and to swap travel tales. Amsterdam is definitely all that you've imagined and probably a little bit more. My poor innocent eyes were constantly set to "WOW". Good times were had - AmsterDamage. Enough said. PG highlights included the Heineken brewery tour, Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank house.

So unfortunately that brings to end the first stage of our EuroTrip adventure. Before you ask about the name, we have not been able to catch any of the Tour de France live. I can't express the hurt this causes me but you simply can't do it all! At least this way it gives us another good reason to come back one day. Stay tuned for our next adventure in the wild East of Europe!