The title says it all really. I could blabber on for ever on this here blog about the things I’ve been doing since my last post (which seems like so long ago!) and probably not a lot to show for it In fact, in the aforementioned time since my last post, I’ve gained a year. That’s right, I’m now 22. “Over the hill”, as some have called me. I don’t know what that makes people who’re older than me; plummetting into the abyss? Who knows.

As I recall, Candice had just gone to America. She has since returned triumphantly, with some lovely presents for yours truly. She had a great time on their whirlwind trip, thanks for asking.

I had my birthday on 23/09, with mum and dad returning from the coast, and Bryce returning from South Africa on the 22nd. Deano came over for tea, and we went to the newly discovered (and closer) Pizza Napoli. Quite enjoyable, despite my inexplicable tiredness.

Shortly after everyone came home, they all buggered off again. Bryce went to Canberra, Mum and Dad went to Airlie Beach, and Dean went to Europe. I must smell pretty bad or something though I did have some visitors.

John and Sandra Grantham came down for their nephew’s (I think) wedding and stayed for a few days, and Jake came down from Rocky with his mum and girlfriend “Ai” pronounced “eye”. He, however, was also departing the country; off to Japan for 10 months on scholarship.

Also of note whilst on the topic of leaving the country, Sam left for South Korea, via the freshly overthrown Thailand for a week. Fortunately for him, it was peaceful.

What else happened… I dunno.

I’ve since bought a remote control radio pack, which I’m fortunate enough to get half of for my christmas present (and get to use it early), as I have taken up the hobby of remote control gliding. “Slope Soaring” to be precise, flying something called a “Zagi“. Steve (the 4th door neighbour) was kind enough to give me his old one, presumably on loan until I get my own which I’m keen as proverbial mustard to fly. We will hopefully get a chance to fly on Sunday. I can’t wait - I’m TOTALLY pumped.

Also, my friend from high school, Morgan and I are starting a band, potentially with Chris. I’ll be playing the bass, and I’ve been playing it at just about any given opportunity. Though in sadder news, Morgan’s old band is apparently in a spiral of self-destruction, leading to the formation of this new band. It’s kinda been an ambition of mine to be in a band with Morgan since about grade 9, and so for it to finally be coming to fruition, I’m pretty excited. Chris and I have also often said (with nothing ever coming of it) that we should start a band, and so it’s as though two pathways are combining. Worlds coliding! Deary me. It’s all happening.

Candice and I went to the Indy on Sunday with MANY thanks to Berny. He’d been down there since Thursday (I think) with work, and so didn’t find the spare passes that had been mailed to him until Sunday upon his return, and I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of the phone call offering them to me. So we made a brief but enjoyable journey down there with some time to see the champ cars do half a dozen laps, and then the final V8’s race. It’s quite impressive how fast they go around such small quarters.

In other news, I’ve interpreted recent personal events as life giving me a “wake-up call”, if you will, that I need to get myself an aprenticeship. So, I’ll have to start making some genuine in-roads, as opposed to the half-arsed ones that I didn’t really actually make in the first place.

I’ve only had work on Monday this week, so I’m going a little stir-crazy. I’m going to a halloween party tomorrow night after Cebs which should be fun. I’m not sure what to dress up as yet, but we’ll see. I’ve been scouring the net for some ideas, and most of em are a little boring, or if you’ve ever been to Cockeyed.com, some of em are just too dam hard for a holiday we don’t really celebrate.

I think I’ve crapped on enough for now. Part of the reason it’s been so long between blogs is becauuse I lost/forgot the password to login to write, and Dean had to reset it. Teehee. Ah well. Til next time - don’t hold your breath.

Hey y’all. I gots some mad catching up to do just for the moment, so bear with me.

First of all, yes, I am back home from Europe. I have a short “Best Of” cd of photos, and I’ve now burned Snod’s photos from the laptop (RIP) hard drive to a DVD to mail to him. Snod, I want copies of the photos that were left on the camera, k?

That was Friday. I went straight to M&D’s place from the airport, after telling them that the plane got in on Thursday and they subsequently waited for me at the airport for an hour and a half on the wrong day. :/ Sorry about that. It was nice to get home, and I had (finally) a good shower and put all my clothes through the wash. I got tacky keyrings for anyone that wants an Eiffel Tower or a Leaning Tower of Pisa keyring, mostly I think these will be used to secure the good treatment by nurses and other people that I don’t really like, but need to do their best on my behalf.

Dad drove me back to my place Friday afternoon, and by about 6:30 or so, I was exhausted. I don’t remember the details, but I’m pretty sure Leyton was asleep on the spare mattress when I woke up the next morning. I went to the IGA to take care of essentials (milk and bread, seemingly Blacky needs neither) and picked up 3 english breakfasts from the kebabery to bring home for Lates and Blacky.

The rest of Saturday was spent not doing much, and then another early night, even missing the final crucial minutes of the football. I’m sure nothing good happened in those final minutes, right? Right?

Sunday was the biggest Sunday Lunch Club I think we’ve ever had. Let’s see, Glara, Kristian, Charlotte and James were all in attendance, Brek, Leyton, Blacky and Me, and also late arrivals Linda and Eddy. That’s a full complement, and the Coffee Club @ West End was a pretty good choice imo. After food, the girls went shopping down the road so that the boys could scratch and belch, and then some peeps came back to my place. I demonstrated my booth construction technique, and showed some European photos. Lates also had some photos from his Whitsundays sailing trip, and we ate some icecream and watched Indy. Good times, good times.

Today I had lunch with none other than John Laird, and tomorrow lunch with Danielle from Canberra. Family night tonight, dinner with Brek on Wednesday, dinner with Rob and Nadia Thursday. Also, stupid high school reunion this weekend.

So I’m home. Tired. Speak with y’all soon.

Well I’m currently on the train from Florence to Amsterdam. Parts of this entry are by me, some parts are by Godfrey. Those reading online will have no problems working out which is which, as Godfrey’s comments are indented, but those reading via email will also have no problems, as Godfrey’s writing has a style all of its own. Without further ado, on with the blogging:

We first caught the Eurostar Italia from Florence to Milan, which was just a regular first class cabin, and then we had a sleeper car from Milan to Frankfurt. I was quite impressed by the sleeper car - it was comfortable and moderately quiet. At first it was a little difficult to sleep, esp on account of the constant slowing and speeding up which made you roll side to side with each change in speed, Fortunately we then stopped somewhere outside of Milan for long enough to fall completely, and soundly, asleep.

An early morning start this morning, being woken up at 5:30 to prepare for a 6am disembarking at Frankfurt. The sleeper then went on to Dusselforf, but we changed to a faster train - an ICE (inter city express) which also went through Dusseldorf on the way to Amsterdam, so we could’ve slept in longer, but we overtook the sleeper train somewhere long before that. The ICE reaches speeds of around 200kph from what I’ve heard.

The sleeper cars are infitely better than couchettes. If you have the option, get the sleeper car - you’ll get a good nights sleep, you won’t have to share with strangers, and the beds don’t smell of smoke.

For those interested in the timing We left florence at 1714 on Friday 13th and arrived at Milano at 2000 then left Milano at 2112 on the ShnellZug D300 overnight train to Frankfurt arriving at 0557 before leaving again on the ICE 222 to Amsterdam arriving at 1052. Basically a 17 hour train journey which is 100 x better than even a 6 hour plane flight. In Amsterdam we are staying at our most expensive hotel on the Rembrantplein which is apparently quite an upmarket area.

Which reminds me, with the inconvenience of flying, I don’t know why someone doesn’t build a super-fast train track between (say for example) Sydney and Melbourne. Actually I do know why, cost, but the train has a lot of advantages over flying. You can use the telephone the whole way - which some people we’ve travelled in the vicinity of have, it’s more comfortable, and they have a restaurant on-board. Godfrey’s promised a manifesto on the comparison between flying, training, and training with a Eurail pass when we get home, and I look forward to reading it.

Oh, for a case of the mundanes, we’re going to have to do laundry today, as we both stink and so do all our clothes. The shower in the hotel in Florence was TINY and I’m a bit suprised that the hotel was so big with tourgroups for that reason. There were people in the lobby of the hotel larger than I, and they would’ve had serious trouble navigating their massive asses into the shower cubicle if they had the same facilities we had.

On Wednesday, we caught the Eurostar Italia to Rome to check out the scene there. It was crowded and smelly, and we saw the sites with a “hop-on/hop-off” tourist bus which was E13. Saw some great sites, the collosseum, the basilica, etc, and caught the Eurostar back to Florence at the end of the day. There was a supplemental charge (in addition to our Eurail pass) to ride the Eurostar, which was E15 per person, each way, but it was far preferable to the equivalent regional trains, which would’ve taken many changes, and around 4 hours each way instead of an hour and a half each way on the Eurostar.

So now heres some bitching about Eurail passes, first you pay a shiteload at home for the 15 day consecutive pass ($1500 AUD or 820 Euros), which supposedly covers you for train travel across most of Europe - Bullshit. You start paying once you arrive and you just keep paying. Our only “Free” train trip on the Eurail pass was a 7 Euro each way trip from Firenze to Pisa (woo hoo) Fuckers.

We then pay 15 each way for Supplemento Rapido (for fast trains) 6 Euros to just reserve a seat on a normal train (also on ICE trains which is a good point because they are also a fast train - 200kms/hr). We paid 30 each for a Couchette in 1st class(shared with 2 other people (total of 4) who could be strange Russains with bowel complaints as our next cabin neighbors were!. The couchette seats are amazingly hard I think on a Mohs scale even harder than concrete. Also the seats whilst being hard and having the properties of a solid also had the properties of a gas namely smoke. Everytime you got comfortable you basically had your nose jammed up against the base of the seat where many European asses have sat over the years and it appears they also smoke out of their asses as well. It was a huge relief to leave Italy for some reason they put me a bit more on edge, it felt great to arrive in Frankfurt and back to some Germany predictability. Its not that Italy is dirty - the streets were quite clean and there wasnt too much dog shit in Florence as the guidebooks warn of. BUT for somereason it felt odd, not unsafe odd, just a bit more on edge, people everywhere but not packed, not amazingly friendly i.e. no one at all said hello or even smiles. Ahh back in Germany, its clean, bright, new (of course because it was all bombed to the shitehouse so its all been rebuilt over the past 50 years of course its new. The people here are at least happier, the staff on the trains are efficient (as they were in all other countries) but here they at least make you feel welcome and confident.

Now for some Guidebook Bitching - They are a complete waste of time. Unless you find yourself in a very odd city as a result of fucking up your train journey and really want to see the ruins of an 17th century church dedicated to peat workers they are FUCKING USELESS. Anywhere they mention to eat aren’t there any more.

Also you could make a Western Europe Guidebook about 2 pages long when you look at the repition, every city you need to be careful of pickpockets etc. When looking for places to eat, anywhere near a tourist monment etc will be more expensive and shittier than those just a few lanes away. Take the hint and buy your drinks at a Supermarket otherwise like me you will pay for a 4.5 euro drink - Fucking 8 dollar powerade - I am reminded of the Pulp fiction quote about the $5 shake where it had better be a fucking good shake for $5. Unfortunately $8 powerade thats WARM *Fuckers* (cannot even understand what a cold drink is - a store in Florence even had drinks on the top shelf of their fridge that felt warmer than those outside the fridge) so back to the $8 powerade, what the fucking hell is with that everyone in Europe must either earn a fuckton of Euros or just be dirt poor after they buy their groceries.

So back to the Guidebooks, Maps in Guidebook guide suck - do yourself a favour and if you take one to cut down on weight just go through it and rip out all the maps - they are completely fucked. - also rip out those sections on History - if you wanted a history lesson the last place you would look would be a Guidebook anyway - fucking get to the point). Also rip out all their recommendations on Hotels and places to eat as 1, they are never there and 2 what was good when it was written 2-3 years ago will not be the same 2-3 years later, except Laundromats, they are often in the same place but - WHO THE FUCK CARES - Even the prices on the Laundromat will be different. In fact the only thing that the Guidebook manages to get right are the main monuments - but you want to know something - they have been in the same place for the last few hundred to thousand years so I would fucking hope they manage to get those right.

Also the climate section - WOW in Winter its Cold and in Summer its warmer great news. How about you just check the internet weather before you leave or take a combination of clothes if you are travelling in Spring/Autumn. Hey if you dont like the weather when you get to Europe - what are you going to do - go home! So thats the introduction, history, climate, places to stay/eat, the main sites are covered in the free tourists maps, Also their recommended tours also suffer from being out of date or exceedingly hard to find so cut that out as well. Getting there/away - heres a hint, you can get to most places by Plane/Train/Bus or Automobile. Most cities in Europe have great public transport that usually serves the airport. Worst case scenario you can ask at the Tourist office - just be prepared to wait. Gay/Lesbian travellers - if you arent Gay or Lesbian you can tear out these sections, they are only useful if you need to wear a blue hat or register at the local Gay/Lesbian office in the particular country you are visiting. Public transport - is expensive but cheaper than any other option. Buy a day ticket where possible, in Germany if travelling with someone else (up to 5 people on 1 ticket) their partner tickets are good value. Also think ahead and buy a 3 day ticket if you are staying for 3 days. They are usually valid for all public transport Bus, Train, Trams, U Bahn, S Bahn (just a hint your Eurail is not valid on many inner city trains except some S Bahns but you then need to change to a U Bahn anyway so you will need a ticket. The reason day tickets are better is because you dont have to work out the zones, transfers, time etc that you need to for a single journey tickets. Tourists offices are either found in the main train stations or just pester some station information people to find out where the tourist office is - this is such a common question they often have A4 bits of paper stuck up near their information office saying where it is. Also saying ONLY TRAIN INFORMATION, NO BUS TICKETS, NO TOURIST INFORMATION, NO ENGLISH INFORMATION and other helpful slogans.

Yeah that just about covers it

Oh, luggage lockers are either too small, broken, full or smell like urine, or a combination of the above. Just leave your luggage at your hotel (if you are staying in hotels, they have no problems minding it all day while you are out).

One More thing take some advice from my tour guide in Borneo Froid - Froid say to prepare oneself before leaving on tour, as I was preplexed about exactly what preparations I needed, I questioned him further to find out he meant to make sure I voided and defecated before getting on the bus. Thats right, Go early and go often. There are no free public toilets that arent cesspools of primordial goo. If they dont stink it aint free. Also train toilets dont have seats, and within 5 minutes of the train leaving leaving the station (clean) someone has pissed over every surface, taken all the toilet paper, used all the water and taken the soap. So if you need to do number 2 bring your own toilet seat. Also always carry change for the Pissoir which varies in cost between 60 Euro cents and 1.10 for a number 2.

So heres my Guide to Europe

Before you leave home

1. Make sure you are bringing a backpack and a daypack (smaller pack) and a money belt for your important stuff
2. Put all your shite in the backpack, put it on and adjust it as its a bitch to do it on the Subway in your first city. If its a new backpack make sure they told you how to adjust it otherwise its fun learning what all those straps do.
3. Make sure you have comfortable shoes - i.e. buy new joggers before you leave
4. Take thick socks to prevent blisters or be prepared to double sock. Now some fucking kid is kicking the back of my seat (fucking great - fuck off you fuckers)
5. Take novels you can throw away - I recommend 2nd hand bookstores at home. Books in europe are about 14 Euros in the few english language bookstores. Magazines in Europe in english range between 9 euroes and 19 euroes for something that would cost $5-8.50 at home in AUD.
6. Train travel is 100 x better than airtravel and I bore easily- the combination of not being dry as a dead dingos donger in the desert while flying and actually being able to work/read/see scenery is without peer. Trains here are also usually perfectly on time (to the minute on the Deutch Bahn) if you have a first class pass (which I would recommend) as second class is full of second class people who play loud bollywood music and dance about whilst sitting on the floor etc.
7. Rip all the maps out of your Guidebook or just dont bring it at all .
8. Use Bookings.net or Venere to book your hotels as they seem to work quite well
9. Carry cash as it appears that most restaurants dont take credit cards
10. ATMS are everywhere so dont change any money before you leave.

Note we are travelling in a Mild October, Munich was only cold enough to wear an outer shell Goretex jacket at times (i.e. no fleece) but mostly just jeans and a T shirt, Prague was just a bit colder Jacket all the time with jeans and a T shirt underneath, there was rain in Both Munich (much heavier) than Prague (more drizzel), no rain in Italy and it was warm enough for shorts/T-shirts (25 degrees). I cannot recommend enough a comfortable pair of Chino’s. For all the sleeping on trains, planes, churches etc (that often need long pants) as well as just blending in better (as no one in Europe wears shorts except hot chicks (With patterned tights and CFMB) and tourists.

If you dont plan on eating at an expensive restaurant or going to the opera, theatre shows or going clubbing dont bother with dress shirts/pants/shoes.

I did bring two pairs of shoes, which I felt would be a waste (1 pair joggers 1 pair black work shoes (light ones)) but after getting completely drenched in Munich the second pair of shoes and long pants was a huge bonus as shoes take a while to dry out.

If I was travelling again at this time of year I would bring

1 Pair Joggers, 1 pair other light shoes as spares Or Sandles etc.
2 Pairs long pants (1 pair jeans, 1 pair chinos)
5 T Shirts
5 Underwear
5 Socks - mix of short running socks and Thick hiking socks)
1 Gore Tex outer shell
1 Light Fleece - Can be worn under GoreTex outershell
Could consider 1 x Long Sleve Shirt - make it cotton, dark in colour

Toiletries - Get a hanging toiletries bag from Kathmandu they are very good for getting your shite away from the sink/wet.

For all of these - dont bring more than whats left at home as you can buy everything, everywhere in Europe it really is true.
Deoderant
Tweezers, Nail Clippers
Asprin, Paracetamol, Immodium, Anti-Histamine for runny noses etc

Also everyone speaks English unless proven otherwise, just speak slowly and add in pidgen Italian, German, Czech until you get your point across. My mOtto has ever been if someone doesnt understand english just speak louder and through the force of my voice echoing inside their skull they will suddenly be able to understand. (Its a trick I learnt from all the American tourists) Other tricks are “Hey what tree is that? - Who the fuck cares its a tree dont you have trees at home?, “Coversation with Dean - American “What do you do” Dean “I am a computer programmer” American “I thought so” Dean “Yeah thats because I am fat with glasses” American ” No, I work in computers so I could tell” SURE FUCKWHIT, Dean isnt even a computer programmer he is a LIAR and you got sucked into his big lie. Dean is a Sumo Wrestler and we will be trying that on future Americans.

Shaving Oil - seems to work well even though its clear and light - it lasts a while, isnt pressurised and is very small/light.
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Deoderant

Electrical related bullshit - Which you carry round just in case - I only used my MP3 player once, it seems I prefer just sitting and thinking, reading or sleeping than actually listening to Music - Weird isnt it.

Camera
Charger
Spare battery for Camera
USB cable for Camera
Mobile
Mobile Phone Charger
MP3 Player
Noice cancelling Headphones - Which work to cut out that lower frequency drone in the plane but dont block sound 100% or even close. Creative HN 101 from Pricepoint of course
Power to USB adapter
Powerpoint adapter - a smart addition is a powerboard if you intend to bring a laptop as it saves on multiple adapters

A huge bonus for me this trip has been using face moisturiser - it has prevented my skin feeling completely shite like it used to after flying. Also drinking nothing but water/juice on the flight and not eating too much made the flight much more pleasant NB the flight attendants on Emirates flights are not all hotties however they are very helpful and I could not fault their service. However Dubai airport is something to experience with hundreds of people in Arab dress sleeping just everywhere even though there werent any obvious delays.

Step 1: Arrive at train station
Step 2: Find tourist office and get free map - avoid information offices that say NO Tourist Information ETC which seems fairly commong - In Italy it appears the train information people only offered advice about where to go within the train station to get better advice FFS.
Step 3: Find the metro and get to your hotel - Ignore all Taxis (they are a rip off everywhere and there is no point)

On Thursday we caught the Regional train to Pisa and saw the leaning tower. It was quite impressive actually, I was suprised. Again, the Guidebook was a source of disappointment with its out-of-date or incorrect information - the metro bus it told us to catch to the tower no longer existed, but we worked it out, after our now traditional “at least one stop in the wrong direction” method of bus travel. We found the tower, took the obligitory photos, but that was the extent of our desire to see Pisa, which is small enough that we decided to walk back to the Stazzione, stopping at a small cafe for lunch. I had parpadelle with wild boar, which was delicious, but after ordering I realized there was actually no way to confirm its “wild” status, it was probably just regular old pork.

Yesterday Godfrey made us go on a massive walk around Florence, to serve 3 purposes: the first, to see Florence which we hadn’t really done yet; the second, to fill in the day until it was time to leave; the third, to make us tired enough to sleep on the train that evening. The first step to this plan was stealing as much food as possible from the breakfast buffet to sustain us for the train trip that evening - a challenge we relished. That was actually the second time stealing from that hotel, when we arrived some days ago and were unable to checkin until after midday, we killed some of that time helping ourselves to their breakfast buffet. Back to the walk: We went up to Piazza Michelangelo, which was a climb to a hilltop lookout, and presented quite good views over the city. We criss-crossed our way up the hill, but found a direct massive staircase down, which would’ve been hundreds of uneven steps in the direction of the city wall. The second stop on the grand walking tour was Palazzo Pitti, which was a big old palace, and now apparently a museum of some sort. I’m disinclined to pay the ridiculous entry fees for some of these museums, and Godfrey is also modererately touriested-out, mainly due to the cost, so we took a brief pause and then pushed on across the Arno river to the Stazione. There’s an internet cafe at the Stazzione that we still had credit at, so we used the remainder of our credit and then headed out for lunch. We found a cafe just past the Duomo that offered first and second courses for E10 total, so that, with a jug of house wine and an espresso for afterwards, was the perfect final lunch in Florence.

Home stretch now, that’s for sure, and looking forward to getting back home. I get a limo transfer from the airport, so I don’t need to be met at the airport, thanks anyway M&D&C. We have three nights at Amsterdam, meeting up with Rob B on Monday, and then we’re off to Paris overnight, and then a limo to the Paris airport to home.

So we are leaving Florence today, so I thought I would whip up a quick description of the last few days.

So before we left Vienne, we experienced SCHNITZELMAX, and each ate enormous schnitzels bigger than a standard dinner plate. We had a coffee in one of the famous Viennese coffe houses, and then caught our train to Florence.

The couchettes suck a bit - it wasn’t the worst night I’d ever had (any night on a plane is worse), but it was a long way from the hopeful idea - replacing hotel rooms with couchettes around Europe. If you did that, you’d be a very tired traveller.

So since arriving in Florence, we’ve done day-trips to Rome and Pisa. Rome was polluted and not that great, Pisa was excellent. Today we’re walking walking walking around Flornece before our proper ’sleeper’ train to Amsterdam. Meeting Rob B Monday night, the cunning little weasel.

ok, currently in our hotel room in Vienna, continuing on from last entry.

So, yesterday we went to Kutna Hora. This tour was selected exclusively on the basis of price, and was some crowns cheaper than other companies running the same tour. We were picked up from our hotel in a minivan and taken to pick up more tourists (and our guide Ludmilla) from the company’s office at Wenceslavs Square. We then had another stop at another hotel for more attendees and then another stop at another hotel further out for more guests. This is where things started to go pear-shaped: the final guests weren’t at their hotel, but at the tour company’s office, where we’d just came from. A flurry of mobile phone conversations occurred between our tour guide and (we presume) her office, and it was explained that the last two guests were on their way back to the hotel in a taxi, and would be only a matter of moments.

Half an hour later, they still hadn’t arrived, and the compulsory American, and a bunch of Israelis were getting irritated and started complaining more loudly. The driver then made a decision that we would leave, and within seconds of this decision finally being made we were on the road again. The funniest part of this whole thing was a) the crazy American chick (who may’ve actually been slightly crazy) muttering to herself the whole time, and b) the tour guide trying to keep things interesting, by basically talking about whatever she could see: “on the left you will see a train. In czech Republic all trains are manufactured in Prague …” etc, which while a good attempt at keeping the peace, were pretty weak.

Yeah I’d say it took about an hour and a half to get to the Kutna Hora Ossuary, a church decorated with thousands of human bones, mostly from victims of the last plague, around 300 years ago. It was quite interesting, google it for pictures if you’re interested. (no photos were allowed) Along the way heard some interesting facts, average wage in Praha-4 (a suburb of Prague) is 25,000 crowns per month (14 crowns to the Aussie dollar) and the rent of an apartment there is 19,000 crowns per month. Purchasing a 2-3 bedroom apartment there is about 2 million crowns, in Wenceslas square, more like 5-10 million crowns. Interesting.

Then we went to some church, and toured it, the Kutna Hora mint and King’s palace, and then headed back to Prague. The American and the Israelis then protested the tour not dropping them back at their respective hotels, although in this at least Ludmilla was covered - the brochure specifically said that all tours ended at their office at Wenceslavs Square. Godfrey and I were wishing that they’d either shut up, or be let out to find their own way back, and most importantly, that we wouldn’t be recognized as fellow rabble-rousers.

We ate at the same Italian restaurant featured on a previous night’s dinner, and it again performed admirably, although we wer mortified somewhat to see the crazy American chick from the tour sitting on the other side of the restaurant. If she was actually crazy and paranoid, I’m afraid we wouldn’t've helped her there.

We walked home in drizzle, and today we caught the train to Vienna. It took about 4 hours, and unbelievably we had two Australians seated behind us. The trip went smoothly and we got our passports “czeched” by customs. Ba-doom-tish.

To get to the hotel in Vienna took a tram and another train from the train station, but we made it here fairly easily. We’ve just finished a quick walk around Stephansplatz, with it’s impressive Viennese buildings, but not much else going on. Actually we’re kinda wondering how to fill our day tomorrow in Vienna … we’ve kinda had our fill of cathedrals and old buildings. We’ll have to see. Tomorrow we’re on an overnight train to Florence, in a 1st Class couchette. That should be interesting. All we can hope is there are old Americans who want to talk loudly to each other all night in the upper bunks.

Ok so I don’t know where my last entry finished - this update is being written without the benifit of internet, from my hotel room in Prague - so I’ll recap from the last most interesting point.

That would have to be … dinner with Edward and Godez on Monday the 2nd. We’d agreed to meet up with Eddy (who had graciously offered to shout us dinner and drinks) at Augistiner Biergarten near the Munich Hauptbahnhof. It was a good meal - we each had pork knuckle and potato salad - and several huge MaB of beer. The waitress, upon learning that I could speak bad-to-moderate German, and the others in the party could not, shared jokes with me in secret. When Eddy refused a second beer, and Snod and I eagerly ordered a second, Edward was astounded at our voracious appetite for the sweet amber fluid. He proclaimed that he could not drink another. The waitress confirmed that it was a beer for me, a beer for him (pointing at Andrew) “und nichts fur die princessen” … Edward took only a second to twig: “did she just call me a princess?” to much merriment.

Tuesday, I woke a bit sorry for myself after the 5 MaB of beer I’d consumed the night before, but still made it to the stand on time for the morning. I’d made friends with a waiter working there, and he asked how I was, and I fumbled through the German for not feeling well due to beer consumption. He nodded and asked if I would like some Coke to help, which I gladly accepted. Another guy saw me with the coke, and asked (in english) if he could also have some coke? The waiter didn’t speak English, so I had to translate his reply: “He is sick, you are not sick.” I thought that was funny.

Eddy insisted on an LCD monitor being purchased, and bought a BenQ 19″ for E250. This was stolen while we packed the taxi after packing up the show, so that was a pita. We joined the GWAVACon group for the Oktoberfest - we each had vouchers for a 1/2 chicken, and 2 MaB of beer, which constituted dinner. Ah, another meal with no vegetables. :/ It was really good though - the chicken was as salty as I’ve tasted, but the beer kept flowing. We ended up walking back to the train station, and then from the train station to the hotel, in pouring rain, and getting drenched through. Shoes included.

Wednesday was a washing day, so we went into town to organize our train tickets for the rest of Europe, and do our washing. We agreed to meet Edward at Marienplatz for lunch, and enjoyed Pretzel soup, followed by sausages, potatos and sauerkraut. We walked a little in Marienplatz with some icecream cones before heading home. Godez and I had to pack, before we enjoyed one last hurrah - Eddy again buying us dinner at the hotel next door’s restaurant - Sud and Co.

It was awful, hilariously awful. Their meals seemed to be microwaved, Edward had the salmon and spinach (spinach from a can, salmon microwaved and placed on top), I had the pasta (penne with sauce from a jar and no meat), and Snod had the lasagne (reheated from frozen). Just awful. The beer helped, and we moved onto some digestifs in our own bar, with intelligent converstaion about business etc.

Thursday we caught the train from Munich to Prague, with changes at Regensburg and Schwandorf. We actually had first-class seats, which made no difference on the Schwandorf - Prague train, which was all second class. It took about 6 hours for the entire journey.

When we arrived in Prague, it was a bit overwhelmingly foreign. We quickly discovered that the taxi drivers were in the market of ripping off tourists, so we figured out the metro train system, and caught a metro train to a stop near our hotel. We walked around for a while looking for our hotel, and when we finally found it, expressed a whoop of joy.

Godfrey’s a recent convert of the organized tour. He ridiculed the idea of spending E10 on a walking tour of Munich, until I persuaded him (sure sure) it was the easiest and most efficient way to see things, and then he did one in Munich, and really enjoyed it.
We grabbed a bunch of tour brochures from the front desk of the hotel, and went up to our room to cram-study them.

There were a lot of brochures for “Kabaret” which looked fun, so we decided to go to one of those before dinner. In Wenceslas Square there were heaps of touts for the Kabarets, and we eventually found our way to our selected venue: Darling’s.
When we got in (and were appalled by the price of drinks cheapest can of beer was 99K) there were girls everywhere. On the small stage, a girl was stripping to disco-type music. I was a little disappointed, hoping for something higher-class, but not sure what exactly - more like a Vegas show I guess. One of the bazillion girls there (most of them 9.5’s to 10’s btw) explained the private dance scene, which is obviously different from the way it works in Brisbane, in that you can shag any of the girls in the room if your budget can stretch to it. Apparently the Czech Kabaret is particularly popular with English stag parties, judging by the clientele. Seems a little dangerous for the groom-to-be, the ladies are gorgeous and the temptation great, particularly if you’re powered by Pounds Sterling. Godfrey and I were only powered by Australian dollars, however, so we called it quits after two beers and found a restaurant for dinner.

The Czech Replubilic has quite a large Italian population, and the Italian food here is fantastic and affordable. Most meals here in Prague would come to be Italian, but from what I hear we won’t be able to eat Italian food in Italy, so this is near enough (Pizza 140K, Pasta 120K, Beer 40K Ice-Cream Sundae 85K).

Friday we hit a walking tour of Prague. We chose the Walks of Prague tour called “The Grand Tour of Prague” @ 450 crowns. We met our guide, Petra, at the Astronomical clock on the Old Town Square. Godez and I were the only people to show at the 11am start time, so we had the guide to ourself, and got a much more personalized tour (oh yeah) than normal. We learnt some Czech history, then walked through the old city, crossed a historic bridge to the new city, walked through the castle, through the cathedral and then our guide told us to meet back at the Town Square at 2pm, and buy some lunch in the meantime. The second half of the tour was the Jewish Ghetto (”In the Ghetto”), and more people joined us for this tour. Unfortunately in a group, Petra’s english got worse, and the stupid Americans slowed us down and kept adding their own 2 cents. My personal highlight of the Jewish Ghetto tour was the oldest synagogue in Europe. When it was originally built it was called “The New Synagogue”. Now that it’s the oldest synagogue in Europe, it’s called “The Old New Synagogue”. Crazy czechs. Also of interest was the Hebrew clock which was upside down and back to front (i.e. Completely Fucked). While we were trying to figure it out, Petra asked: “what do we know about Hebrew?” to which I replied “nothing” to great reception from the rest of the party. Walked slowly back to the hotel - I had blisters the size of czech dumplings on my feet - and had an early night.

Today we’re off to Kutna Hora. More on this later.

As they say in Bavaria, GruB Gott. (cheating, of course … using a capital B instead of the German symbol for “ss”)

So it’s been a busy few days. Let me break it down for y’all.

Wednesday night flew out of Brisbane at 8pm. Arrived Singapore around 2am, and then arrived Dubai around 6am. All times are local, don’t make me convert them. The flight on Emirates was good … the food was a highlight. I even got Moet with and before each meal. Fabulous. The Emirates lounge is far better than the Qantas lounge too, it’s a really nice place, both in Brisbane and in Dubai.

Left Dubai at around 8:30 and arrived in Munich around midday on Thursday. Customs was a short process, and Godez and I caught the UBahn to the Hauptbahnhof.

Our one-night-only hotel was in the city centre, near the Hauptbahnhoff and the Oktoberfest arena, so was fairly well positioned. We lugged our bags up to our room, giggled stupidly at the smallness of it, and then went off to Oktoberfest.

It’s bizarre, but I recommend Oktoberfest. It’s a bit like the atmosphere of the Ekka, but with heaps of drunk people, and heaps of hotties wearing the bavarian costume. It can be hard to find a seat in a bear hall (you can only get served if you’re sitting) but you soon make friends with the wierdos on your table. A liter stein of beer (called a MaB - again, cheating with a capital B instead of the German symbol that means “ss”) costs EU$ 7.50, which makes a beer worth around $14-15 but it’s an unavoidable expense unfortunately.

We had a few MaB and were pretty tipsy, mainly because of the jetlag, I think. Bought a 1/2 metre hotdog, and a gingerbread heart and headed home. Went to sleep while it was still light, much to Godfrey’s disgust. He slept just as soundly and long as I did, he just loves a whinge.

Next day we had to change hotels, which was more difficult than we imagined. The new hotel was in Schwabing, which must be German for “the sticks”. Eventually we worked it out, and found a map on the internet, which we transcribed in true mud map fashion. We worked out we needed to catch two trains, an S-Bahn and a U-Bahn so that was it’s own brand of fun. Eventually we got to Alte Heide station, and realized our map was useless. So we wandered until we saw the hotel. Put that in the “extremely lucky” category.

We took a (long) walk through the Englische Garten, which is studded with little Biergartens at this time of year. We had planned to stop for lunch at the See Haus (Lake House - interestingly, See is German for “lake”) which was situated on a beautiful lake with swans and fish etc. Unfortunately meals were around EU$20-30 range, so we skipped that and caught the UBahn back to the hotel, by way of a supermarket.

Another early night, with much complaining by Godfrey, but again, he slept soundly.

Yesterday we saw Castle Neuschwanstein, the fairy-tale caslte from the Disney symbol. It was pretty good, but exhausting. Godfrey opted for the (difficult) walk up the mountain with the tourguide, I took the bus. It was great, but a long day - about 2 hours by train each way.

Today I’m at the show, and hope to soon be cheering on the Broncos at either of the two Australian bars we know of showing the football … The Ark and Ned Kelly’s. Go the boncos!