While taking a break from wandering the streets of Europe we decide to offer a list if insights and musings from our travels.

Some are location specific, others not so much...

Take Your Beer for a Walk- in Europe you may puchase beer, liquor or wine and carry it about town, on the bus, on the bridge or down the street. A cold brew leads the way.

The metro system is pretty much teh same in every city and country. If you can do it in DC you can do it anywhere in Europe, the tram system is another story.

Our room is on the 5th floor, but they call it the 4th floor, apparently the 1st floor isn't really a floor, you have to climb up a story to get to the first floor. Just when you think you've arrived, keep walking. What we call the main or first floor, no idea what they call it...

"Philanthropy" of an adult nature... some call it adult entertainment, and yet it somehow seems a little too publicly available. No blacked out windows or XXX warnings here, graphic posters advertise wares better than displays at the grocery store... and oddly enough usually across from a Starbucks. Cross promotion, I think so... I'll take my uptight American surroundings anyday.

You know what they say about a girl with big feet...huge shoes. Huge men's shoes to be exact. Apparently no Czech woman wears anything larger than a 9.5 so when Jocelyn needed hiking shoes, to the mens section we went, dying a slow and mortifying death. Good thing my newly acquired AMERICAN NORTHFACE hiking shoes fit so well.

No one in Austria can make a decent pickle. Jars cost roughly $0.80, good thing because dill is unheard of and two wasted jars of pickles later, I give up....

The previously trustworthy water shake test. In Scandinavia it served us well, seltzer sucks so pick up a bottle of water adn shake it, no bubbles= good old fashioned water, no label reading necessary. Apparently here that test is no good, we ended up with 4 litres of seltzer. Good thing our newest roommate has a fail proof back up plan. Point at bottle, make bubble sounds and hand motions, laughter may insue, but bubbles will not appear in your water.

The redemption of canned corn. It's cheap, it's delicious, it makes an excellent dinner side dish and takes 2 minutes to heat. Add that to some pre-packaged pasta of some unknown flavor and you've got yourself a meal in under 10 minutes! Jana has made herself an official "Connoisseur of Convenience" when it comes to this.

Hop On/Hop Off tours- We are finding that it is a necessity to our travels. Most countries have them but all countries should. We even have them in DC! We have seen the error in our ways and will be utilizing this fantastic method of sight-seeing when we get to Budapest.

Wombats Hostel- our current digs. Yes, I do believe it's a nod to the whole Austria/Australian thing... What can be said about this place that hasn't already been said? Prime location for a supermarket, a metro station and the largest shopping strip in the city. What more could a girl ask for??? It has it's own laundry room (trust me... after 9 days of travelling... this is a God-send), it has it's own bar that you get a free drink from (should you choose) upon arrival, and each room has it's own shower and bathroom. We've stayed in hostels in the past that share a community bathroom on one floor and is reminiscent of being shacked up in college freshman year all over again. Much appreciated. And so far, this is the ONLY hostel we've been to that has it's own shirts on sale...

Gelato... Prague was MADE because of Gelato. 20Kc and you've got the makings for a great day no matter how many expectations are not met. With gelato, everything's better.

Supermarkets- an overlooked amenity... with cheap prices, you can buy all the water you need and two aisles over you can buy dinner for 1/8th the cost it'd cost to go out to eat. When backpacking, it's a match-made in heaven.

Salami- the Under-appreciated meat. Here, Salami is a staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner... and it seems to be a constant regardless of which country we've been in so far. Such a wonderful meat that we've become reaquainted with!

"Trolling for Gnomes" - Maureen, we've been looking for Gnomes. The sad truth? Europe seems to prefer Trolls to Gnomes. We will continue to keep the search alive and will hopefully find this ever-elusive Gnome!

The Wonder of A/C... we're spoiled. We know it. I won't lie, I've secretly looked for those precious few signs that boast air conditioning inside and will shamefully fall to the ploy and eagerly stand inside in the frost-bitten air for a few precious moments before braving the heat-wave outside once again. Our last tour of Europe found us searching for the sun as rain soaked us for hours un-ending... rain signifies a cold front to me... I want the rain.,

Hostels as a whole- a mecca of the friendly, exotic and familiar. Every hostel seems to hold the same friendly and informative staff as well as a multitude of different characters... here in Austria the Australians seem to be the largest group of people here... I don't think I've ever met so many Australians in my life!

We've also discovered, both through experience as well as by word-of-mouth from fellow travellers, that many have experienced the "same language barrier" wherein say... Jocelyn will speak in French to someone that speaks only French... and they don't understand. Three minutes will pass and yet they will not reach an understanding until she spells it out on paper. And then the native person will say EXACTLY what she just said... interesting affliction!

We could write more but this has already turned into a monstrously long blog. Hope you've enjoyed some of our findings and we'll be back soon!!!

J & J