Last days in Munich

---

Hey hey!

Its been a while since my last entry! The time has gone so fast.....its crazy! It is now one day until I fly to OZ.

Finished my travel in Norway with a couple of days back in Oslo and then in the far south in Kristiansand. Everybody told me Norway was expensive but to give you some idea....... a Big Mac combo NZ$25! The cheapest places to eat were the 7 eleven convenience stores for a quick take away or the supermarkets. Even then it was hard going! I dont think I even had a beer in a pub. The local tradition is called the "forspeilen" or "foreplay". It means you get drunk at home before you go out. But regardless of the prices, the country is fantastic and the people are even better.They can be a bit quite when you first meet them but after a while they are great fun. That is pretty much typical for all the Nordic people. The only bad side to the country is what seems like a large number of junkies. Heroin is the drug of choice from what I was told.

Next stop was Denmark again. I visited Aarlborg, Aarhus and Odense. By far the nicest place was Aarhus. A very cool student city with a great atmosphere. I stayed there for four days. The highlight of that was meeting a group of ex-pat Finns. They take their party life style very seriously so some big nights were followed by some bad head aches!

From Denmark I went back to Germany. I stayed two nights in Hamburg. That is a pretty cool place. Very big and very busy. I liked it for two days but any more would have been a pain in the arse. Next was one night in Bremen. Nothing much to write about there.

I did a quick stop back in Holland as well. I caught up with Yvette (she was there to visit her family) and then we drove to Munich. That was a cool trip. 6 hrs and we hardly went under 150kph! We need some autobanns in NZ!

I am now back in Munich. I spent a couple of days at the Oktoberfest which was amazing. It was a much bigger event than I had imagined. If you go on a weekend you have to be prepared to fight for your space and if you want a table inside a beer tent then you better get there early. There are people from all over the world and everyone seems to be in a good mood! But watch out for the Americans (loud and polite) and the poms (loud and vile)

It is very cool to be in Munich again. This is my favorite city by far, and there is so much to see and do. It is sad to be leaving. I wounder if the Germans will trade it with Auckland?

Next stop is OZ for a week. I am going to hang out on the gold coast and catch up with some friends before I finally get back to NZ. When I am back home I will upload all the best of my pics. It is way to slow and expensive to do it here!

Have fun!!

Matt

---