Long Journeys and the End of it all!

Prague was beautiful. We did a lot of Church and Chapel touring and finally left for Fussen, Germany, to see the Castle Neuschwanstein. For the uninitiated, it is the castle which inspired disneys castle logo. Very beautiful and nestled in the mountains. After the castle and some excellent bavarian dinner, we headed out to Stuttgart, the automobile capital of europe. The Mercedes benz museum was a masterpiece and it was thouroughly enjoyable! All of us loved the discounts students got at every place in germany.
After Stuttgart, we headed out to Cologne, another beautiful city nestled on the banks of the Rhine. The DOM Cathedral, one of the oldest and most revered church in christianity took our breaths away. Their treasury was even better and we had a chance to see the remains of the Magi.
Cologne gave way to Amsterdam. The hostel was clean and neat and we had a fun time walking around the city. The Ann Frank museum served another grim reminder of history and a family's failed struggle to get out of Nazi supremacy.

From Amsterdam, we moved to Paris via Antwerp and Brussels. Paris was AMAZING in all aspects. A Big city with a BIG History. Too many things here to describe, but the city was worth the visit! From Paris, we moved to Barcelona which is where I am writing this post from. Thanks to Bertha, our host, we had a flash tour of the city including the Campnou, Cathedral and the Pier. Tomorrow, we head out to Marseille from where we catch our flight to London. IF everything goes well, I should be in Minneapolis on Thursday morning :). Hope youve found this blog a BIT useful. Thanks again for the patience and have a great week ahead.

Avani

Mans greatest mistake. And some memories

People say eastern Europe is Scary and not as beautiful as the other parts. Although I should agree there are strong remnants of the War in Slovakia, the slovak countryside is one of the most beautiful scenes ever! The country is slowly making progress although movies like Hostel and Eurotrip have not helped it a lot :D From Bratislava it was a 4 hour drive to Budapest, Hungary. I HAVE to say it is one of the most americanised cities in Eastern Europe. There are 94 McDonald outlets in Budapest alone! Like every other European city, Budapest is BEAUTIFUL at night. We spent an entire day roaming around the city on the banks of the Danube and taking some awesome night shots of the bridge and the Buda Castle. Some of them will be up on my Flickr page shortly.

From budapest, we moved on to beautiful Krakow and met some of the friendliest people inside and outside of our hostel. Another night later, we headed out to the auschwitz and birkenau holocaust museums close to Krakow. I have to say they were the most depressing moments of the entire trip. I guess everyone who knows about the horrors faced by the almost 1.3 million who perished there would feel the same way. Every inch of the camp still bears testimony to the anguish faced by the inmates, right from the tons of human hair to Spectacles and Gas chambers. One cannot help but feel anger and disappointment towards our own race for committing such a horrendous crime against humanity, against our own kind.

Once done with krakow, our next destination was Prague, Czech Republic, which is where I am writing from now. It is the 2nd of June, 3 years since I lost one of my closest friends in a Motorbike accident. Looks like depression hits all at once :). Rest in peace Siddharth. Your loss becomes painful by the day dude. My deepest condolences to your family.

More on the trip in the coming days. Sayonara