Mark Hoffmann is a bigger man than both of us...

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The whirlwind tour of Europe continues, and this time we've had an African along for the ride. So after staying in Milan with Frank Morris, Jordan and Dave made the short train journey down into Florence. Florence itself was incredible, it has to be the most medieval town in Europe. After a couple of days of culture, David met David and realised there must be something in the name David and having outrageously chiselled bods. For anyone that goes to Florence any time soon we also strongly recommend going to the Michaelangelo Piazzale at night there, one of the best views we've seen so far on the trip. Well aware of the fact that Florence would be the calm before the storm we had a couple of early nights and made the trip Northeast to Venice.

Venice is the once city that we've been to so far that really just didn't make sense. If you ever go there, there's no point in getting a map because theres more streets than there are roadsigns. Not taking anything away from it though it is an incredible city, even more so if you can afford the 150 euro gondola rides, which we didn't, so we made our way around on the water bus. After one day of seeing the sights, Dave's friend from Belgium and England Mark met us in Venice. After a few glasses of wine and some catching up on old memories, the boys made the trip to the island of Lido, a recommendation of Mark's Italian colleagues at work and spent a day at the beach drinking wine from juice cartons, while the one that happens to be a banker (Mark) relaxed the only way he knew how by getting a Thai massage on the beach, we offered to hold up towels around him but unfortunately he declined the offer. That evening we went to a beach bar and ended up meeting some friendly Mexicans and Jord and Dave were left scratching their heads wondering what it is with Mexicans in Italy that always makes them run into us. We really enjoyed Venice and the next day we caught a flight on Wizz Air, the airline that actually smells like it's name, to Dave's home in Budapest to see his Dad.

That evening there were a few quiet beers, nothing too crazy, not anything like jagermeister, or palinka, or wine being drunk throughout predinner drinks, dinner drinks, postdinner drinks, bar drinks, or nightclub drinks which Harold 'four more shots' Kunas had anything to do with. Anyways after a big meal we somehow made it into Rio and met some of the friendlist Hungarians you'd ever want to meet, Western passports??? The next day Harold took us all golfing and we had a bit of a quiet evening. The next day Dave took the boys on a tour of Budapest, going down the Andrassy Ut to Heroes Square, walking up Castle Hill, and going to the Budapest Zoo.

Our last stop was Balaton, after a recommendation from Laura, and it was amazing. If you've never heard of Balaton, it's the largest lake in Europe and is kind of a resort for the whole of Holland, Germany and Hungary. After numerous beers on the beach, we made our way into the many nightclubs that Balaton has to offer, enjoying how ridiculous Germans look when they dance, how little english Hungarians can speak, and how Mark managed to convice a bunch of Austrians that he too was from Canada and that in Alberta Madonna is the biggest thing since sliced bread. We also found out that in Hungary, if you're dancing with a girl, every man in the bar will try and elbow you in the ribs, and all three of us have the bruises on our sides to prove it. Anyways we drove back home today laughing the whole way about the ridiculous things Zee Germans told us and playing country music to entertain the locals. Tonight we're off to Bratislava to give Mark a strong sendoff before he returns to the corporate world and hopefully will be meeting up with some of his Slovakian friends. We also heard that Kevin Lowe has been named as President and Steve Tambellini as GM (thanks so much Kristen), and yes we're both happy about it. Miss you all and love you, phone calls will be made on Sunday from Budapest so keep your phones close by. And if you see a man named Dieter dancing with his shirt tied in a knot, and wearing sunglasses, please buy a drink for him.

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