It's all over?

Apparently after August 11th, I fell off the face of the Earth. Sorry about that. As most of you know, the infamous Eurotrip has now come to an end, and Bernard and I are safely back in Canada (and/or the United States). So, here is the last ever note on the debauchery that was ET 2007.

After Krakow we went to Vienna for a couple of days, and overall had a pretty chill time. The city itself was pretty cool, and owing to the fact we were down the street from another hostel, had a great time with the backpackers there. Highlights include running into two great Aussies that we had met in Prague, taking over Wombar and starting a dance party, and me getting free shots of Lord knows what. On our last night there, we had people from Canada, US, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Australia, all heading out to party. Backpacking at its finest! Last Vienna note: eat at SATO restaurant...best omelettes ever!

Post-Vienna, it was time to tackle Eastern Europe - by far what I was looking forward to the most. We took a little jaunt east to Bratislava, Slovakia, just an hour away, and were spoiled by all the good food and drink that came at a very low price. $3 gets you a full Slovak meal and a pint of beer. Come on! Eurotrip was right...with a nickel, I buy my own hotel!

We then went onto Budapest in Hungary, and stayed at this great place called Backpackers Guesthouse. If you ever go to Budapest...stay there. This place is unreal. It's really just a house turned into a hostel...but somehow, there are 70 people staying in it at one time? Very chill, free shisha/hookah pipe, awesome courtyard, and good people. The outdoor clubs were one thing I would bring back to Vancouver - the atmosphere is unlike anything else! On one of the days we were there, we shelled out for a Caving trip, and climbed, crawled and slid our way through these amazing caves. One of the coolest things I've ever done, by far! I got through the Winnie the Pooh hole - photos will be more helpful. We said goodbye to Budapest and made our way down to Croatia, and it's here where we met some really memorable people, and ones that I would spend the 22nd birthday with!

Split, Croatia! Two of my favourite words. Got into town and made our way to Hostel Adriatic, which happened to be owned by an ex-Vancouverite...that was 21 years old. Say what? The girl was amazing! The hostel was amazing too, probably one of the best I've stayed at, and Split was great times. Met up with Jacob and Niels (of Backpackers Guesthouse) and then met a ton of Irish kids that were staying in our hostel as well. Had a great night out including an amazing seafood dinner, drinks at a lounge and then partying at Bacvice, right on the beach. Decided to stay an extra night in Split so that we could go on the Booze Cruise, put on by two hostels in Split. You pre-drink at a cool lounge, then get on a boat and are carted off to this crazy island, where they have some concrete cliffs setup for jumping and swimming. Then you get back on the boat to the mainland. We started at 3pm. I told them it was my birthday. Oh dear. I love Split.

Rather than spend more time in Croatia, we made our way through two of the coolest countries ever, Bosnia (Sarajevo) and Serbia (Belgrade). Torn apart by war and conflict, the people there had experienced lots and it was cool to see. In Sarajevo, we wined and dined at Park Princessa, this amazing restaurant on a mountain overlooking the entire city. Beautiful. In Belgrade, we met some great people at our hostel, and went out to the splavs, which were a bunch of restaurants, cafes and clubs all on rafts floating on the river. It was so cool! During the day we checked out some killer sights and even saw some bomb sites from the 94 air raids. 30 days. Unbelievable. Then, it was time to make our way to Istanbul to see Didem!

We went through Bulgaria (as it was the least painful way to do it) and it's quite likely our entire journey through Sofia was quicker than the journey through the Turkish border. Good Lord. In total, we had to make our way through four border checkpoints. The first was a quick passport check to make sure we weren't crazy people. Then we traveled probably 5 minutes and were then told to get off the bus and show our passport again. At this point we had to get a Visa and the guy tried to rip us off. Jerk. Then we got back on the bus and had to show our passports AGAIN. For real. THEN, finally, we stop at the duty-free (1L of Absolut, 1L of gin and 1L of Jameson 12 year old whiskey...30 EUR aka 40 CAD...oh dear). Now, we think we're home free and then our bus pulls into this random area and we have to take our stuff off the bus and open them for inspection.

Wow. Turkey is intense. But we get through just fine, have a nice little metro/ferry ride to the Asia side of Budapest, and we meet up with Didem! She takes us to her house aka a ridiculous oasis, and our trip in Instanbul is on!

Turkey is unbelievably beautiful. I was expecting a country that had no infrastructure, lots of conflict, and was a little dirty...very much like Morocco I suppose. But it so wasn't like that! Beautiful scenery (lots of coastline), amazing sights and really great people! And while the Muslim thing might have been an issue in Morocco, it wasn't in Istanbul so that was kind of nice.

Got the full Turkish experience with Didem - shisha, every kind of amazing Turkish food imaginable, and some serious clubs. Everything is on the water, and class. Although...not too much fun when drinks are 30 YTL (10 CAD...ish) but that's what the pre-game is for. Lots of fun, met a lot of cool people through Didem, and we were definitely really sad when we had to leave for Mykonos.

But knowing Bernard and I, there is no way that we could get anywhere (flying) without some drama...we arrive for our international flight 40 minutes before takeoff. Ooops. First words when we get to the desk - "we were waiting for you". Ahhh well, we made it on the flight, got two meals (haha we are beasts) and landed on some amazing Greek soil!

Mykonos...Paradise Beach...absolutely amazing. Blue skies, water, white sand...so much fun! We stayed right on the beach and really had no reason to leave it - a little strip mall, lots of restaurant-type deals, and tons of beachfront clubs, including Club Paradise. We end up spending Saturday night in Mykonos, and who should grace the presence of Club Paradise but...BOY GEORGE?! haha we nearly DIED when we saw the posters. We had an afternoon at Club Tropicana which is this huge open air beach bar, and where dancing on tables is kind of expected. Bernard was nursing possibly the largest night+hangover combination I have ever seen (you're a star) so we spent the day on the beach, and finally ended the night at Tropicana. Early wake-up to get to the ferries on time (7am, snap) and as we arrive at the ferry terminal, we meet these two guys who are pissed that they spent the night at the ferry and then missed their boat...ahh the pain of missing the boat. Literally.

We made friends, and turns out the guys are from Coquitlam! Had a great ferry ride with those kids talking about Vancouver in general...it made me really miss home. Turns out they might be transferring to SFU soon, so that was pretty cool. Definitely had to keep in touch with them. We arrived in Athens after some serious waves for the last two hours of the trip (I've never seen so many people run to the bathroom in such a short amount of time) - we must've been hitting 10-15 foot swells.

Athens was beautiful. Lots of fun to see the amazing ruins in the city, and eat some delicious food. Oh my. We also stumbled across a brand new pair of Raybans, still in their case and in their protective cloth...some poor soul lost them on the road to the Acropolis. Tragic. P.S. guess what? I have a new pair of Raybans...

To keep you up to date on the timeline, we were in Athens until August 28th. And we all know what was on August 29th...LA TOMATINA!! The only problem was, with the fires and the fact that everyone is flying in and out of Greece for holidays, finding a flight was unbearably difficult. We managed to find a connection to Valencia through Frankfurt. We had to fly first class (oh yeah) from Athens to Frankfurt, then catch a RyanAir flight to Valencia. Perfect. Not a problem. Wrongo. We get on our Olympic Airlines (yes, it's a real airline), first class flight to Frankfurt, and after a 30 min delay on the tarmac (just a tech difficulty, no big deal) we get word an hour later that we can't leave, nor can we fly this plane. What?! Now we are missing our flight from Frankfurt to Valencia, and have wasted money on this flight to get to Frankfurt when we don't even want to be there. Perfect. Time to bitch.

We get our money back on the Olympic flight (thankfully) but now are stuck in the Athens airport with a flight from Frankfurt to Valencia that we cannot use...oh man.

We know two things. 1 - we want to get the hell out of Athens that day. 2 - we don't want to lose the Ryan Air flight. So, we got on the phone with Ryan Air and attempted to change our flight. Problem 1 - Ryan Air does not fly to Greece. At all. So we still had to get out of Greece. Success! Easy Jet flight to Milan, and from Milan to Dublin on Ryan Air. Perfect! Wait...the Easy Jet flight only has 1 seat available. Are...you...kidding. We went at this for about an hour, with the Ryan Air lady on the phone...

Bernard: 'do you fly to this location?'
Ryan Air Lady: 'no sir, we don't. you've already asked me that'
Jess: 'keep stalling Bernard!!' *frantic online search for flights at the same time

The ending to this story is possibly the funniest part...we end up getting on the EasyJet flight because another seat opened up, but only 5 hours later. We are awesome!?

So now, we have a foolproof flight to Milan, and then from Milan we connect to get to Dublin. But the stress didn't end there. We arrive at one of three Milan airports, and our outgoing flight to Dublin leaves from the airport that is 100 km away. Beautiful. We hash out a master plan. We need to catch two buses - one from Airport1 to the city center, then from the city center to Airport2.

Bernard: 'just go see when the bus leaves'
Jess: 'i can't, if i leave i can't come back to get my stuff'
Bernard: 'okay i'll grab it for you'
Jess: *outside, seeing Bernard* THE BUS LEAVES RIGHT NOW!!
Bernard: *sprinting with two 20 kg packs on his back...you trooper*

We make the first bus. But unless the bus cuts some time off the route, we are not making our connecting bus, and will have to take a 50-75 EUR cab ride to Airport2. As we pull into the city center, we see that our bus to Airport2 is still there! Yes! We can make it...wait, the driver is shutting the carriage doors...no, you can't leave when we're this close!

Bernard: 'okay, i'll get your bag, run for that fu**in bus'
Jess: *sprinting through Italian people thinking I'm insane
Driver: oh...did you want to get on this bus?
Jess: *gasp* YES *gasp* my friend is coming right now
Driver: 'well...I don't see him...are you sure he's coming?'
Jess: 'yes, please, just let me buy two tickets'
Driver: 'he has one minute'

Bernard is at this point about 20-30 metres away, and this driver is serious about leaving in one minute. Bernard again, rolls around the corner with two 20 kg packs on his back...SPRINTING. It was one hell of a scene. I can't even handle it. He is the only reason we made that bus to Airport2.

After that, it was fine. Made it to Dublin and made another friend with a guy from Wisconsin.

Dublin was amazing!! Such a beautiful little city, with such friendly people and such a great atmosphere. Tons of pubs (obviously) and even some clubs. We stayed at Avalon House, which was interesting, but good times nonetheless. We frequented our favourite pub there, the Hairy Lemon (this obnoxious green and yellow building) with one of the best servers I've ever had. Discovered a tasty beer called Smithwicks (pronounce it Smiddicks or you'll never hear the end of it) and I fell in love with Ireland.

Decided to do a pub crawl that night and met our crawl leader Emma, this crazy Aussie girl who took us around to pubs and got us smashed. Fun group for sure on the Crawl! Found out she was going west to Galway at some point but didn't make note of it.

Bernie and I decided to try and conquer Dublin the next day, so we did most of the sights, and found...TIM HORTON'S DONUTS. No for real. We did. It was unbelievable. The sign said 'so fresh, they must be Canadian'. It was unreal.

We decided to do a day trip out to Galway, this town on the west coast, and what a beautiful place. We did a bus/walking tour and had an unbelievable time. The Irish hillsides are so gorgeous!! We start partying at our hostel when who do we see, the guy Patrick that we met at the Dublin Airport. What a crazy scene. We head out that night with some people from our hostel, and who do we see...EMMA! She is on the street with her friend and I pretty much tackle her. What a girl. We have a great night partying it up and it's a great way to end our little trip in Galway.

Last night in Dublin, we head to the Guinness and Jameson factories, and drink the day away. Head out to an awesome little pub, end it with some curry fries and hamburgers, and we are prepping for the flight to London in the morning...boo.

Make our way to Heathrow, which I've never been in, and find the bus that will take us to Gatwick for our *sigh* flight home. We make sure to take as long as possible, stalling, trying anything not to go to Gatwick. But we end up on the bus and get there in record time (damn). We check in for our flight, and play the waiting game. We eat an overpriced meal (oh London), use some overpriced Internet (oh London), and make use of the ever-prevalant duty free (oh Bernard). A litre of C. Morgan, two cans of Coke, and we're ready to get on our flight. Same Italian crew working the flight, but they are much less outgoing so Bernard and I take matters into our own hands and have a good flight home.

We are slightly delayed though and thus land on Canadian soil at 7:30pm on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007. We get off the flight...and that's it. The Euro Trip is officially over. Happy? Sad? A lot of both. It was a great time, and the best three months of my life!

EXPLORATION CAN ONLY LEAD TO DISCOVERY

Krakow!

Krakow is one of the coolest cities ever! Another Berlin-esque place, where there is lots of history but also lots of nightlife. Great combination.

It was great as soon as we arrived. We found our hostel, which had just recently opened and whose main goal was to give backpackers everything they want in one hostel (which is really uncommon, trust me). Since it was called Mundo, meaning world, every room in the hotel was themed after a country. We stayed in the India room and it had all these cool decorations - wicker furniture, wall hangings, rich paint tones, dark wood bunks - a giant leap from the sterile hostels we normally stay in. We had free internet, laundry, bike rentals, a home-cooked breakfast by the lady that owns the hostel - it was fantastic.

Bernard and I made our way out to this club called Prozzak, and had a great night. Seriously bringing back this drink I had involving vodka, Coke and grapefruit juice. For real. Try it. Met two Irish girls that introduced me to this drink involving apple juice and vodka, but in the end it tastes like apple pie. Dangerous. You Polaks know what I'm talking about. Zubrowska vodka, you will be the death of me. Also ran into a bunch of rowdy English boys in Krakow on a stag. Everyone in Great Britain takes off to a party city and host these unbelievable stags that last like a week. They know how to do it. Because of them, it's illegal to drink in public in Krakow (which for Europe is obscene!). They happened to be staying at the same hotel as the Irish girls, which was all pretty swank.

The next morning saw Bernard and I do a bike tour of Krakow to take in all the sights (look at us being touristy and not just killing our livers, what a novel concept). Probably one of the coolest groups of people we met since Munich (legendary). There was this one girl Yvonne, which was a crazy story. She said she was Canadian, then from Vancouver (cool), then said she went to SFU and THEN said she was in Kinesiology. How nuts is that?! I meet someone from my faculty in freakin' Poland. Yeah. Right. It gets even better, boys and girls! She is best friends with one of my good friends, and went to high school with my coworker of the last two years. WTF.

Also met an awesome guy named Jason, who served in Iraq for the American Army. Regardless of your stance on the war, etc. some of the stories he told me were unbelievable. We spent most of the bike tour just talking about random things - one of the coolest people I've ever met, definitely. He breaks every stereotype of an American soldier I've ever encountered (not to say they should exist, but you know). Made plans to meet up with most of our bike tour at another club later that night.

Ended up at Frantic, this really awesome club. It had a few rooms, but spun mostly hip-hop and R&B and techno. Great mix actually. Totally had the underground cave thing going for it, which is what a lot of places in Krakow are like. Met with Yvonne and Jason and a bunch of Aussies from the tour, and had a great time. The night ended with Yvonne and I going to the only open convenience store in Krakow near our hostel, and us buying bread, cheese and meat, and smoked salmon...? The pictures are there to prove it, but I still don't know what the hell we were thinking.

We ended our trip in Krakow with the only thing you should do while you're there - a tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau. There isn't much to say about these two places, except that it is definitely worth it to go. Not that it is expensive in the first place, but just trust me, don't do Krakow without doing A-B. Possibly one of the most depressing and frustrating things I've seen, but in an enlightening way. Kind of makes you wonder why such atrocities even occurred in this world, but that's a whole new ballgame. The grounds themselves are so well-preserved (what was left after the Nazi retreat, anyways) and so the atmosphere is heavy with history. On a lighter note, getting home was the biggest pain in the ass! The museum itself has a bus schedule and a map of where the buses leave for Krakow, and so we narrowly miss the last bus, and queue up for the next with a bunch of other people. Apparently queues don't really exist in Poland, as the next bus arrived, almost full, and people started climbing in the back doors, front doors, you name it. Half the people were standing all the way back to Krakow, which was almost 1.5 hours. Nutters. We finally got smart and found the origin of the bus route (we're genius) and so we were the ones sitting while the rest of the people clamored to get onto our bus. Sweet, sweet revenge.

A night train to Vienna and we were out of Eastern Europe for a bit.

Berlin

After Prague we made our way back to Germany to experience all that Berlin had to offer. We were anticipating three very full days - tons of sights to take in during the day, and tons of nightlife to take in during the night. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Berlin has to be one of the coolest cities. The whole Berlin Wall thing is still so evident (we stayed in East Berlin, and it was a world of difference compared to the West). Lots of history that I never actually knew about, but it gave me a newfound appreciation for it all. As always, we did a free bike tour (haha we are so cheap!) and our guide was really cool. Told us all we needed to know about the history of Berlin in about 4 hours. More on that later.

We stayed in this crazy hostel called the Generator - 900 beds, not a big deal. This place was unbelievably huge. We were in a dorm with four Italians, one German and one Romanian (and a partridge in a pear tree). The minute we got to Berlin, we literally had dinner and were approached about a pub crawl - of course we jumped all over that. Met some very cool people along the way, and reunited with some of the boys we met in Interlaken (and saw again in Prague!). Events included free shots everywhere, 1 EUR shots of Jaeger (trouble...) and yours truly not spending a single dime all night - absolute mayhem. We ended up at this pretty cool club called Matrix, and stumbled home eventually.

The next morning I was missing my partner in crime (haha longggg story), so I decided to trek out with this guy Nick from Australia, who was also staying in the hostel. Did that cool bike tour again, and met some very cool people from Cali. By the time I got home, I found Bernard (yes!) and we then proceeded to meet up with Nick, this guy Adam from London and this cool chica Tatiana from Brazil. After searching for this one club for awhile, we ended up at this lounge with one of the best DJs I've heard in a long time, wish I could've gotten some audio on it. Anyone who can mix Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake and still keep people on the dance floor is in my good books. Add another sunrise to my list of accomplishments after this night (oh dear).

On the last day we had in Berlin, we took in some pretty crazy sights. Checkpoint Charlie told stories of ridiculous escape attempts over the wall and the history behind it all. I then checked out this museum (I know, who goes to museums) that had a lookout onto the next block, which had an entire section of the Berlin wall preserved, death strip and all. It was all very surreal thinking that this object kept people separated for so long - I can't imagine the fact that anyone actually traversed the whole thing. It was a perfect pre-cursor for the East Side Gallery, which is a section of the wall decorated by artists and graffiti artists alike. Some very cool interpretations going on there.

Another night out in Berlin and all of a sudden we were leaving for Krakow the next morning.

Berlin: a true test of a backpacker's ability to get ripped and still get up at a reasonable time to see the sights the next day. Good lord.

End of July - Beautiful, Beautiful Prague

Prague is one of those cities that floors you the second you get to it, and we got in at 11:30pm off a nasty ass train. Pretty impressive, I'm telling you, after all that happened to us on the train. Somehow, on a train with ten or so compartments, the air conditioning stops working, and lucky for us, it is absolutely pouring rain so opening the windows isn't an option. Delicious. The train was so full that people were sitting on the floor...I'm glad we had seats.

We end up meeting this American guy Kevin and a German guy on the train, the latter being a German businessman that travels every weekend. Turns out the American is from Bellingham (what!?) and that all Germans think that Bavarian beer is actually the worst. Cool bits of information there, I guess.

We (Kevin, Bernard and I) are all on our way to Praha, and at some point we stop at a German train station (where lots of people get off) and they start removing the cart we're in from the rest of the train. Hmm...that's good, right? We luckily get onto the rest of the train that is actually leaving that station, and otherwise have a decent trip to Praha. Long, but decent.

Our hostel more than made up for it when we got there! Plus Prague, I'm telling you guys...amazing place. It had a pool, sauna, huge bar and restaurant, free internet, breakfast, ensuite bathrooms even in the dorms, kitchen, its own market...it was sheer insanity. My favourite part might very well have been the fact that they had a Girl Zone, where they gave you fluffy towels, hair dryers and big cosmetic mirrors to get ready in front of. Straight up awesome. We had a quiet night drinking overpriced beer in the bar (1 EUR for 0.5L of beer, just awful) since we were so beat.

The next morning was crazy - we go to breakfast and who do we see but Lucia and Frank, of the Munich crew. Just happened to end up at our hostel. We spent the day doing this sick walking tour (Paul's Walking Tour, if you're ever in Prague) with an awesome guide named Mikael. For the rest of you Canadians, we had a heated yet hilarious debate as to why Canadians are so much better than the Czechs at ice hockey...it was glorious. Went to this bar called the Cross Club, which is made entirely of car parts...for serious. It was kind of obscene, and the crowd was pretty rough but it was a fun time. An air-conditioning appreciation session took place, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful. Kind of wish I got an audio clip of the music they were playing in the club, kind of like untz, untz, untz. For four hours. Great times.

Other random encounters with the people in our hostel, including drinking beer in the pool and sauna with one of the staff members, who later invited us all to her massive house in the city to party it up. Sick times in Prague.

Off to Berlin, where the liver keeps getting tested, more on that later!

Oops...Morocco and Madrid!

Missed a few posts, sorry about that. After Lagos we were attempting to make our way to Morocco, so we figured we would bus to Sevilla, bus to Algeciras, and then leave on a ferry from there. Problem was getting to Sevilla was so not happening. We tried to leave on a Sunday and every bus was booked. All the trains made us backtrack about 18 hours, so that wasn't a option. What now? Hitchhike of course!

We parked ourselves in front of a gas station and had a few close calls but no dice. Apparently hitchhiking isn't so easy in Portugal. We got screwed over by too few seats various times, and then once by a large tent that took up the backseat. That was the closest call, and it was at the end of the day too so it was pretty crushing.

We decided to give up and just sit at a cafe until we were tired, then sleep in the bus station until our bus left at 5:30am the next morning. Actually a pretty cool move on our part. The cafe we were at was actually hosting some dance party so all of these old, Portuguese locals came out for some traditional dancing. I got picked up by an old Portuguese man (jealous?) and we had a lot of fun until he tried to serenade me in French. Sal enjoyed that one. All in all, a good time.

Our sleep in the station was eventful. A bus was leaving at around 1am, and when the security guard woke us up, thinking we were on that bus, he told us to get a hotel room! If it wasn't at 1am, it would have been a lot funnier. Anyways, it was all well and good, we just slept and got on our bus.

Made our way to Algeciras, and decided to get on a 6pm ferry. Turns out we picked the shitty ferry company that was always delayed, so the port lady was nice enough to tell us to get a refund and catch the 7pm with a reliable company. Best call ever. The 6pm ferry wouldn't have left until 8:30pm. We met some crazy American girls along the way who were getting hassled with their reservations, but we all got to Tangier in the end, and then proceeded to get the hell out of there.

Caught a night train to Marrakech, but there was only one couchette left, so we let Bernard have it since he was sick. The other four of us piled into an empty cart and were ready for a nice long sleep. No dice. First stop, a family of four crams into our cart with us! Damn, why did we not pretend to sleep?! It was the most uncomfortable 10 hour train ride ever. It was hot, and it was a Moroccan train. Bad news.

Marrakech however was kind of cool. The air is so dirty there though that it made me sick. We stayed in a great hotel, and really, the only cool things about Marrakech are the souks (marketplace), freshly squeezed orange juice (3 dirham, or about 30 EUR cents, or about 50 CAD cents!), and these great food stands. We made great friends with food stand 25, so if you are ever in the marketplace, eat there! Tariq, Abdul and Mustaffa (Borat) would be happy to serve you. We sat there for hours eating great food and drinking unlimited sweet mint tea, which is amazing!

After Marrakech, we caught a cheap, cheap, CHEAP flight to Madrid, where we parted ways with Sally boy. Beginning of a new era - Bernard and I actually traveling alone. No friends, no family. So stoked.

Madrid was pretty cool, after we found a hostel to stay in. Everything was unusually booked, and later we found out it was because the International Deaf Convention was happening in the city. Great! We conquered the Madrid sights in a day, and found ourselves out a Madrid club into the early morning. I love how Spain parties. It's free entry until 2 or 3am most times, which in Canada is like going to the bar at 9pm. So a normal time to hit the bars is 3 or 4am...LOVE IT!

Then, as you all know, we made our way to Switzerland. Hoping to get to Interlaken to meet Kristina, we tried to book tickets in Madrid. No dice. Madrid doesn't sell international train tickets. What? So messed. So we had to go to Barcelona and hope for tickets.

Poor choice. Not only had we backtracked (something B and I said we'd never do), but we found out the direct train was going to cost 46 EUR, but those seats were taken, so we had to pay 71 EUR for a sleeper. Hell no! We took four separate trains in our stealthy ways, and paid 5 EUR to get to Interlaken. I loves it.

This goes sort of before La Suisse post, so continue on for more Tang stories!

Newest post will be from Prague or Berlin! Later!

Munich = Beer.

Deutsch must also somehow translate into drunk, because that's all we've been here in Munich! We stayed at this hostel called Jaeger's, and it was full of Jaegermeister and cheap beer. Oh dear. We were in a 40 person dorm that was actually way cleaner than some of the other dumps we've stayed in, which was my first indicator that it was going to be a great couple of days here. Our first stop was a brewhouse (brauhaus), one of the best in Munich for food, Weisses Bierhaus. Amazing! We sat down outside and this cool girl asked if she could share our table because it was so busy. We all enjoyed some half-liters of wheat beer (weiss beer) which was so dangerously delicious. If you're ever in Munich, get the Weiss Kristall beer...awesome! Also made our way through the Hofbrauhaus, which was sheer insanity. Liter beers splashing all over, as this traditional German band rips it up. Loves it.

We made friends with these two crazy Norwegians from our dorm room, who had met a bunch of Americans and Swedes on a bike tour, so we all headed out to this wicked place called Kultfabrik. Along the way we somehow picked up this weird Jordanian businessman, but Team Scandinadian (Swedes, Norwegians, Canadians...oh yeah) ditched him on the Americans. Anyways, Kultfabrik is basically Munich's club district, but the best part is that there are 25 clubs/bars/lounges all in one place! Again, something every city should have. It was Granville Street but with way more variety, and no cover at most of the places. A different vibe in every place. We walked out of the clubs and into a cab and the sun was definitely coming up - oh Munich! Had this really intense American girl tell us how the weird Jordanian guy changed her life or something...kind of weird, but we were all ready for bed anyways so we just left.

We had made plans to go see the Neuschwanstein castle at 9am, but would have had to stay up for another day in order to make it back for the free bike tour at 4pm. 0/1 on the Castle (more on that later). The bike tour was absolute craziness! This American/German guy decided to start up this company, where he provides free bike tours of the city, and even gives you the bike. We stopped at all the major landmarks, got some cool history on Hitler and Munich, and got taken to the second largest beer garden in Munich, which seated 9500 people. The Chinese Tower garden (in English Gardens...like a Central Park) was an awesome place, where beer flowed like water. Some chugging contests took place, and Bernard being the awesome drinker he is, demolished everyone and got praised left and right for his insane ability to chug. One of his finer moments which I'm sure you will hear about endlessly (kidding!). We'll hopefully get the video up soon, it was a pretty sick chug. Nisha if you're reading this...I want to see you two go head to head still! Also in the English Gardens is a place called the Nudist Meadows...you can guess what goes down there. Nekked sunbathers everywhere, and apparently there are two regulars they call Tripod and RoboCock. Hilarious stories, probably not meant for everyone's ears, so I'll tell you if you want to hear about it.

We all left the biergarten slightly tipsy, and got told that the German police don't take too kindly to PUI (pedalling under the influence). And it's for real! You can get fined for bicycling drunk. Ash, you'd better watch yourself here! Anyways, our bike tour was crazy packed - we had Canadians (Otown, Tdot, MISSION!), Americans, Aussies. Great fun. Most of us were staying at the same hostel so we all hit a pub crawl afterwards and got freakishly ripped. I don't think anyone made it to the last bar. Great fun with some great kids.

Signing off from Germany for a bit. Off to Prague (Praha) then into Berlin, then eastern europe. So excited!

Lots of love!

La Suisse!

We made it out of the Swiss Alps alive. Interlaken was one of the best places I've been to so far - just a small town surrounded by beautiful mountains and cool people. We stayed at this crazy hostel called Balmer's, one of the most famous in the area, and it was awesome.

On the last night we even met up with Kristina, although it took like five tries! Sorry about that Pulkks. But it was so worth it! For you C.D. Howers...we had a little TIWA rendition, that's RIGHT! Look out for those wicked photos.

Bernie and I made our way to Zurich which was also a great place. We had heard some poor reviews on the place, but in the end found more to do than we had time for. When we arrived at our hostel we met this crazy girl named June who had run into some boy drama and was looking to escape it in Switzerland. Hung out with her for the duration of our trip, and tackled Zurich in one huge day. Got some free bikes (best idea ever) and hauled around the city, and biked up to this (very high) lookout point. Finished the day with a lake cruise that was somehow free. I love free days!

Overall Switzerland was a wicked place. Don't know if it was the weather I liked or if it was just because it was different...but it was awesome. Now we're off into Germany. Oh, Deutschland. Beer, pretzels, and wurst is pretty much what I'm expecting.