Day 15 was not the best day because we had to get up at 5:30am to pack, have breaky and be at the bus by 6:30 and then head for the internation port to catch our 24hour ferry up the Adriatic Sea to Venice. When we arrived at the port at 7am our tour guide went in to collect our tickets to find that the ferry was running 5hours late so we had to wait on the bus until 1pm to catch the ferry and we weren't very happy with that because it meant instead of getting to Venice at 9am the next morning we wouldn't be getting there until 2:30pm and that was meant to be our day with Gerard and Mineke. Once we were finally on the ferry it wasn't too bad and we passed the time by playing cards and even had cabins with our own showers.

Day16 we were still on the ferry and eagerly awaiting seeing some sort of land in the hope of finally getting to Venice. We made it to the port around 2:30pm and Jesse and I left the rest of the group and caught a boat to St Marks Square where we finally met up with Gerard and Mineke and had an amazing day walking around Venice to see the beautiful old buildings, little streets, canals and markets. It was great to catch up with them and a little sad when we had to say goodbye at 9:30pm to catch the ferry to our campsite. That night at the campsite we had a sailor hat party with two other Contiki groups and ours was by far the best group although I went to bed pretty early because I hadn't had much sleep on the boat.

Day 17 was a long day on the bus travelling from Venice across the border into Austria and finally made it to Vienna around 5:30pm. It was great on the bus though because we got to see how beautiful the Austrian countryside is and catch up on some much needed sleep. Sarah, Dave(whose foot is much better), Jesse and I were sharing a room so we all went out to dinner together and were very impressed with how cheap the food was and ended up ordering heaps of different chinese dishes and then had Gelato on the way back to the hostel. That night we stayed in and played cards for a few hours which was very enjoyable. I really enjoy trying to speak and understand German here and I think the language is much better than french or italian.

Day 18 was beautiful and our tour guide took us on a driving tour of Vienna's ring road which shows almost all there is to see. We then hopped off the bus and did a walking tour where we were shown the best food places and some ideas of things we might want to do for the day. We then went to Swarovski crystal and were given a tour and information on the crystals because the store is the biggest Swarovski crystal store in the world. Jesse and I then went to the Spanish Riding school where you could see them doing their morning practice and for the most part they were just doing dressage but a few times they got the horses to stand up on their back legs. After the riding school we shopped for a few hours and then met the bus to be taken to the Schnapps museum tour which was hilarious and the old man who's family has owned the company for centuries was very entertaining and then we were given free taste testers of absinth and different Schnaps. After the Schnaps museum we headed for Schonnbronn Palace and walked around a section of the gardens that are part of the 500acre estate which was amazing, there were squirrels everywhere so we spent most of the time trying to get photos of them. To finish off the day we were taken to a restaurant where we had a traditional Viennese dinner and finally tasted their favourite meal of Wiener Schnitzel and it did not disappoint. By the time we got back to the hostel it was 11pm so it had been a massive day of experiencing Vienna and I am glad we are doing Europe through Contiki because we probably wouldn't have chosen to do Vienna ourselves but it was great.

Day 19 consisted of a long bus ride across Austria and over the boarder into the Czech republic where we stopped for lunch and some quick site seeing in Cesky Krumlov which is a world heritage listed medieval town and it was interesting to see the old architecture. The best thing about leaving Italy is that this part of Europe loves their meat and we had an amazing goulash with dumplings for lunch. After Cesky Krumlov we continued on to Prague where we checked into our hostel, had dinner and headed into the city for a 1hour walking tour where we got some great photos of the city in the evening and walked from the Prague Palace to the old town square and met up with an organised pub crawl. For 20Euro we got unlimited drinks for the first hour, a t-shirt, two entry drinks at two other pubs and free VIP entry into a five story night club where each level had different types of music so lets just say it was a fantastic night.

On day 20 we slept in until 9, had breaky and hung out at the hostel until 11am when we all took the tram into Prague and went on a 2hour boat cruise which had an awesome lunch buffet and we were told about the Prague way of life, their history and traditions. After the boat cruise we walked around Prague for a few hours exploring the city and then went to the museum of medieval torture instruments which was probably the most interesting museum I have ever been to although it was slightly disturbing. We then made our way back to the hostel, caught up on some washing and went to Mexican for dinner with Sarah and Dave and played a few hours of cards.

Day 21 was another bus day headed from Prague to Munich stopping off at Dachau for a few hours along the way. Dachau Concentration Camp was slightly disturbing but very interesting. It was not the biggest camp but it was the first concentration camp to be opened in Germany in 1933 and the structural basis from which all other camps were built. As we were just about to exit the highway into Dachau we all heard a massive 'pop' and one of the tires had blown so we had to wait a couple of hours for a mechanic to come and fix the tyre which delayed our arrival to Munich until 5pm. After settling in at the hostel we were then driven back to central Munich for a few hours free time and to get some dinner before heading back to the hostel around 10:30pm.