FootprintsOnTheGlobe

So I’ve been back at home for a week or so and there’s been an emergency. My sister moved to New Zealand a month or so earlier and things didn’t really go as planned so a rescue / extraction operation was in order.Being the only one in the family with a current passport, I was assigned the mission. So the mission was to infiltrate the land of the long white cloud, locate my sister, take collection, and evacuate immediately. Like hell!!! If I’m heading to New Zealand I’m at least booking a few nights to have a bit of a holiday whilst I’m there :-). So anyway, after a flight to Cairns, 8 hour stopover, then a flight to Auckland, New Zealand which is only like a 2 hour flight but because of the time zones ... read more

So it was back to Budapest, then just narrowly making my flight I was in Warsaw. I had about 4 hours in Warsaw so I figured I’d check it out a bit. Couldn’t get my hands on a map though so I just jumped a bus and asked a local (who told me to change busses ha ha ha), but I made it to the city, although it wasn’t the ‘old town’ I was looking for, but it had a really cool memorial park, and I stopped for dinner at this little grill place, and the girl spoke no English at all, but we worked it out :-). I was actually surprised, with Warsaw, no one spoke much English at all. Anyway back on the plane to London and I’m sitting next to this Polish guy, ... read more

So it’s off to Bratislava. Firstly I will admit, although I knew that Bratislava would be nothing like it appears on Eurotrip, that movie is still the primary reason I came here. I sad goodbye to Sal and Corrina at the train station which was really sad as they were heading to Salisbury. So I get on the train and I’m sharing the cabin with this Polish girl, and for the next 2 and a half hour trip we talked and talked and talked. About everything, religion, history, politics, war, traditions, people, travels, it was really an amazing time, and she was really an awesome chick. Milana I think her name was. I had been having one of the best trips anywhere but it was one of those things where you walk away knowing you’ll never ... read more

The next day on the way to Vienna we stopped in at Dachau concentration camp. Not a good combination, an Oktoberfest hangover with a concentration camp, but it sobers you up in a hurry that’s for sure. Dachau was eerie, made worse by a thick fog that came in that morning, and the movie they show there it truly shocking. I won’t go on too much about it because my feelings and emotions are similar to that expressed after visiting Mauthausen, but again, an experience everyone needs to undergo at some stage to truly appreciate the horrific nature of the holocaust. So Vienna was relatively uneventful, so after that it was one bus ride, 6 hands of asshole, 2 magic tricks, 3 rounds of guessing countries (like Waziristan)and discussions of fat people and Jerry Springer, and ... read more

The next morning had us on a 50 mile hike to the bus terminal (which turned out to be around the corner from where we started), but then it was on to Munich …. Again :-) Once in Munich, it was a quick costume change (combined with stories of space dodging) then to the halls. We got there later than the camping crew so there was a bit of catch up to be done, and I actually ran into Tom there which was good. After we’d had a bit of a skin full a group of us went to do the rides and fun house which was excellent fun (it’s the fun house with the glasses, give it a go after a few steins :-) ). On the way home that night I ran into ... read more

After Berlin it was on to Prague. Caught up with Tom from the tour and me him and his mate all we went to dinner at a traditional Czech place. I wanted to try a few local beers and they had a beer sampler with 8 half beers of different types. There were beers like ‘banana beer’ and ‘coffee beer’, but after some careful consideration there weren’t many winners, about 2 out of the 8. From there it was on to the ‘pour your own beer’ pub where there’s just 4 taps in the centre of the table and you literally pour your own beers and it tallies up the litres drank, and you pay by the litre at the end of the night. Top idea for a few beers, and a few riddles :-), a ... read more

Well, one major flight stuff up, 4 hours and 400 pound later I made it to Berlin and wow!! I love this place! So I’m back on my own again, and it actually feels really good. So I get to my hostel, check in and after a bit of Facebooking I find out that Olly’s in town, so we decided to catch up for an ‘alternative’ pub crawl. We saw some really cool places, a club that Rammstein used to own, a pub where there’s a constant game of circular ping pong, and of course, and absinthe bar. I ended up having way too many absinthes with the other guys on the crawl. Mary, Rose and I can’t remember the name of Mary’s brother, but such great people, and luckily this other guys from Seattle was ... read more

Back in London for a couple of much needed recharge days. I decided to do a trip to Stonehenge & bath, and I managed to talk Jackie (the girl I met in Vienna) into coming along. It was so much fun, way better than doing it myself which was the original plan. Stonehenge surprised me a little, it really is just a bunch of rocks in a paddock ha ha, I’ll have to do some research on it when I get home and gain a better understanding of it. Although it would be pretty cool to see it during solstice. And well Bath surprised me in the opposite way, I was just expecting just a couple of Roman baths but the whole town is really cool, kinda like being back in Europe again. It’s actually ... read more

The bus ride to Amsterdam was electric; half the bus was standing everyone was walking around like they were in a club, talking, mingling, having pringle eating contests (I believe the record was 24), you could actually feel the energy. After a brief stop at a clog and cheese factory we rolled into Amsterdam; and what a dump! Really, it was just dirty, but I guess we were in the outer, dodgey, suburbs. Nevertheless we found a “coffee shop” just around the corner so we all made a dash for it. So funny, we’d been in town an hour and half our tour was baked, and by the time we got on the bus to go to the sex show that night probably 40 of the 42 of us were half-baked. Now admittedly, I expected ... read more

The next night was just an overnighter in the Rhine Valley, in Germany. We did some wine tasting and from someone that actually appreciates good wine it was really good, and we tried Ice Wine which was an absolute pleasure, it was really good. It was an early one for everyone in preparation of the Amsterdamage. In saying that, it was actually a great night, we sat up till midnight playing Asshole in this quaint little pub essentially in the middle of nowhere, as if we were back home. It was just one of those pinch yourself moments you know when you think where you are. Just a short one, see you in AMSTERDAM :-D... read more