And on to Queenstown...

I didn’t want to spend anymore time in my hostel than necessary today, so when I woke up on my own at 7:30 because of a combination of the noise outside and the couple in my room, I took a shower and packed up.

I ended up getting to the Auckland airport three hours early, which was kind of a bummer because it turns out that they don’t have free wifi in the domestic terminal. I should have just hung out in the city and McDonald’s or something.

My flight to Queenstown was pretty unmentionable. There was quite a bit of turbulence but I slept through it and anything else that might have happened. I caught the Super Shuttle into town for $20, which was more than double what I was expecting for transport here. My hostel is right in the center of town though and it’s very charming. I was given a tour right after checking in around all of the facilties. Minus the fact that they’re shared, the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedroom are all nicer than my place in Sydney and I’m paying less than $30 a night to stay here. There’s also free international calling during reception hours and free wireless internet. It’s like someone realized I needed to hear the word free and decided to indulge me.

I, of course, called Adam right away. I haven’t spoken to him on the phone since Fiji, so it was pretty weird at first. It’s so nice not to have to deal with the issues of skype. I was worried about hogging the phone for too long though, so we didn’t chat for long.

I wasn’t really hungry, even though it was way passed lunch, so I decided to walk around the city and explore. I bought some bread, peanut butter, and apples so that I would have breakfast food in the kitchen and I got a couple of souveneirs from the cute touristy stores. Queenstown seems to be primarily touristic, but that suits me. I could imagine owning a lake house here, set at the foot of the mountains. It’s really beautiful.

I stopped at Patagonia Chocolates for a snack of ice cream. The waffle cone looked burnt but somehow managed to taste amazing with the ice cream in it. The chocolate was a little rich for me though. It started to drizzle and I pretty much walked the whole town including along part of the lakefront, so I headed back to the hostel.

I spent my afternoon reconnecting with the internet before heading out for a late dinner at Fergburger, a well-known burger joint in New Zealand. Luckily for me, there menu includes options for people who don’t eat beef burgers. I settled on the Sweet Julie minus the “salad” plus cheese. It turned out pretty good. There was some kind of chili sauce on it, so it was a little bit spicy, but I really liked the bun and actually ended up eating it like a burger instead of tearing it all apart. I passed out immediately after getting back. Contiki exhausted me.

(Also, I'm out of photo space on my blog, so for photos, check out my facebook!)

Our European Adventure, Day 4

Once we checked out of the hostel and stored our luggage, we walked around the city. We went back to the church we visited on our first day in Amsterdam and walked through the red light district during the daylight so that Matt could take pictures.

After our walk around the city, we picked up our bags from the hostel and headed to the train station to catch our train to Berlin. We bought dinner at a small grocery store, Hema, that was inside the station. Everything was actually pretty reasonably priced, so it worked out well.

I screwed up through and got the train for the train wrong. I thought we were supposed to leave at 5:19, but that’s actually when we’re supposed to arrive. I got so confused with military time.

It’s a good thing that we got the station early though because we had to ask to find out where our train would be leaving from. We also had to get our passes validated at the ticket agent since this is the first time we’re travelling by train. We had a minor heart attack though when Ben couldn’t find his rail pass. We had to run across the train station to try and buy another before our train came. It turns out he had just dropped it on the floor when I asked where to get on the train though. Relieved, we had his pass validated and raced over to the platform only to realize that I had the time wrong and we still had twenty-five minutes before our train arrived.

The train is rather cute. It’s cramped quarters, but we have four beds in a six-bed room. I have one of the top bunks, which is nice because I get to look out the window and watch the scenery go by.

Our train cabin
Ours was the first stop of the train on its journey through Europe, but we met our two roommates when we picked them up in Cologne. Zack is from Nebraska and travelling on weekends while working in Europe. Jean is from the northern part of France and going to Berlin to learn German. They’re pretty cool, both were very considerate when they got here since we completely rearranged the cabin, taking out the bunk ladder and putting up the table.