Last Few Days

My Europe trip is finished now and I'm back home but I need to finish writing about the last few days. We had to spend the Friday night in Rotterdam because there were no more beds left in Amsterdam. The cannabis cup was held that weekend. I think it's where all the coffeeshops compete in certain events and one of the 234 is crowned the winner at the end.

Walking towards our hostel down the streets of Rotterdam there were many modern and odd looking buildings. I, of course, was very impressed and thought they were all very cool. Holland has been, and still is, a hot spot for new architecture. But that didn't explain the fact that these buildings were everywhere. It all made sense when I found out that Rotterdam was levelled in WWII by order of Hitler. Hitler gave an ultimatum saying "give us Holland or we will bomb Rotterdam." Holland, with no other choice, handed over their country in which case Hitler bombed it anyway. Why would he do that? I don't get it. Anyway, we'll leave that for the historians to figure out

We only spent the one night in Rotterdam and really didn't need more. It was a nice city but there wasn't much to do. We did, however, have the pleasure of figuring out how to get to England. There were two options: a train, then ferry, and then train, or just a train. Sticking with our motto of cheaper is best, we chose the latter option which would take more time but was less expensive. When trying to book it though we found out that the train workers were on strike in France - they were on strike in Germany too - so we had no choice but to take the train through the Channel tunnel to London. I was excited for this because the Chunnel is a huge engineering feat and I wanted to see it. However, it was unimpressive since it was too dark inside to see anything. But at least I can saw I went through it.

Now that we made it to London we had to find our way to Kirsti's flat. She lives in Greenwich so it was a little complicated to get there. We caught the subway to a train line called the DLR but it was closed for repairs. We were upset about that but not as upset as one of the British guys we saw. He was going crazy and in the cool British accent which made it even more amusing! We took a bus to a new train and then walked to Kirsti's place after enjoying some tasty McDonald's. We met Jacki and Angela, Kirsti's friends from back home, and Kristy and Chelsea, some very cool Aussie girls. We also met the Kirtsi's flatmate Mark and his German friend Stephan. There were ten of us staying over and needless to say it was a fight for the couches to sleep on that night. Luckily, we went out to the bar that night so it didn't matter where I would be sleeping but I did manage to get the nice couch.

We basically slept the entire next day before leaving that night to go to the airport. We caught the last train from Kirsti's to the London Bridge train station where we were to catch a train to Gatwick. But the trains listed to come never came. As we were getting worried Jack called the train service and found an alternate route to the airport. Unfortunately, there were 2 trains leaving at 11:58 and we got on the wrong one. This was going to be a long night! We got off on the next stop unsure about what to do. Calling a cab was an option but instead we walked to a main road and luckily caught the last bus back to London Bridge. Now there were no trains to Gatwick left. With more luck on our side we found a bus/train worker that guided us on a train replacement bus that took us to the Blackfriar train station and from there we caught a train to Gatwick.

The story doesn't end there though. We arrived at the airport exhausted at about 2:00am and found ourselves a uncomfortable and cold nook in front of an Air Transat desk to sleep. After waking up shivering uncontrollably we eventually got our boarding passes and successfully got through security. Eight hours later we were back where we started 72 days earlier. The feeling of being back home was very wierd but it was nice to not have to carry that pack around anymore.

This will be my final post about my travels through Europe. I will still write a few more catered to people planning on going to Europe. I have had almost as much fun writing this blog as I have on the trip itself and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I like hearing people, who I didn't think were reading my blog, tell me that they've been reading it. So, for anyone wanting to hear more stories - possibly the more entertaining and better stories - about my trip I'm throwing an open invitation out there to go grab a beer or two. Send me a message on facebook, msn, or this blog. Until...I guess I can't write 'next time' here...cheers!

Sin City

Amsterdam is awesome! I can't believe how liberal this city is with pretty much everything. It seems like anything goes here. Anything you can think of in terms of sex, drugs, and gambling they have it. There are 234 coffeeshops and magic mushroom shops. Also, there are people on every street asking if you want coke, or ectasy. There are many casinos. And of course there is the red light district with it's many boths with girls in them and the numerous sex stores, stripper bars, and live sex shows.

Alright, this is where I apologize to my parents and relatives. But I'm just telling what Amsterdam has to offer. I could go into further detail but I think it's best if I leave it at that. Amsterdam has a very relaxing feel about it. There was no setting the alarm at this hostel. Well, actually I lost my alarm but I wouldn't have set it anyway. To ease any uneasiness I did visit the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum. I can only handle so much sin :)

I think that everyone needs to visit this city though. It is so different than any other city in Europe and you have to see it to believe it. I really don't have much else to say about Amsterdam except one story that I learned on the free walking tour. It is especially intriguing to me because I'm a structural engineer but I think everyone else will find it wierd.

In the picture above you can see beams with a hook at the end of it at the top of each building. This were, and still are, used for moving furniture in and out of the house because the staircases are too small and tight. But while lifting furniture they had a problem with high winds and the load swinging like a pendulum. As a result windows were regularly broken during the process. What was there solution for this problem? Well, one simple option would be to extend the beam, right? Apparently this solution was not complicated enough for them. The city decided to build all the buildings with a forward lean (you can kind of see it in the picture). This gave the movers an extra foot or so of space to avoid window smashing. Maybe it is just me but the latter option seems absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, that's the end of Amsterdam, and almost the end of my trip. I should just sell my airline ticket and stay over here. Next we are on to Rotterdam for a night and then back to London for 2 nights until we catch our flight on the 19th. This is probably the last blog entry from Europe. I hope you enjoyed it thus far.

Belgium Has The Best Beers

When I say that we went on an adventure to find the best beer in the world I really mean it. Read Jack's post named 'the holy grail of beers' and you'll understand. Briefly though, this beer, named Westvleteren, is brewed in small quantities in a monk monastary in the middle of nowhere. We had to figure out a way to get to this middle of nowhere place. Thus, our journey began.

We decided to embark on this adventure on the Friday morning. After asking some fellow beer seekers on the internet how to get there, we jumped on a 2 hour train ride to Poperinge - a small town of about 15,000 people. Once there we had a choice of renting bikes or waiting 2 hours for a bus to take us the last 20 to 30 kilometers. The weather wasn't good for biking so we decided to bus the out there. We went to the tourist office and asked the gentlemen - who I thought looked like Waldo from the Where's Waldo books - to book a bus for us. That is when he informed us that the bar was closed on Thursday and Friday.

Trying this beer was one of the top things we wanted to do on this trip, so we knew we had to return the next day. With Belgium being another 'B' country we didn't mind losing a day to come back. We probably would have gone to a bar and tried more Belgium beers anyway. So, the next day we made our way back to Poperinge and caught the bus to the monastary. The bus took us down very narrow and winding roads, while driving past fields where they grow hops for beer. After trying the first bottle of Westvletern I knew this journey was worth it. I can't decisively say that Westvleteren is the best beer in the world but it certainly was within the top 5. With the other 4 also being Belgium beers.

Our last night in Brussels we not surprisingly decided to try more Belgium beers. The easiest spot to do this was in bar that has over 2000 different beers. The bar is called Delirium and even had Molson Canadian and Moosehead. The menu of beers was larger than a school textbook.

The following day we left on an early train to Amsterdam, our final city before going back to London. For one of the first times this trip we actually had a hostel reserved before arriving in the city. It felt good not having to walk from hotel to hostel to hotel asking if they have any rooms. However, when checking in the receptionist could not find our name on the reservation list. We knew we reserved 3 beds for 4 nights but as the receptionist pointed out we did not know when we reserved for. We somehow came a day early! We fortunately were still able to get beds but I could not believe we did that. Eventually I figured out that we left a day early from Paris. We spent so many days there that we lost track of which day it was. An extra day in Amsterdam can only be a good thing though.

Way back in Berlin we met an American named Chad who just came from Amsterdam. He loved Amsterdam so much that he ended up staying there 3 or 4 days longer than he originally inteneded. With all the praise he was giving Amsterdam maybe we subconsciously feel into the same trap he did. He even told us, "You guys should cut out a city and go to Amsterdam longer!" We knew we could never cut out another city but I guess we almost did. Chad, if you're reading this, the extra day is in honour of you my friend.

Amsterdam has been absolutely insane! I can't believe what goes on here. I'll leave this craziness for my next post - quite possibly my final post while in Europe. Once again, I'm sorry about the now pictures. Amsterdam has a plethora of sinful stores, shops, and activities but they have very few internet cafes of which none can upload pictures.

Finally, A Normal Keyboard

So, when I wrote that I would finish the Paris post tomorrow I meant in three days. I'm falling behind in my posts, seeing that I'm in Amsterdam now and I'm still talking about Paris. I just had too much fun in Belgium that I had no time to finish the post. Well, and their keyboards were very annoying. And the amazing Belgium beers hindered my limited opportunities to write. There actually isn't much else to say about Paris except for the food.

One of the main things I wanted to do in Paris was sit and drink a coffee at a cafe on the side of a major boulevard. Perhaps the Champs Elysses (?). I didn't find one there but after ascending the Eiffel Tower I found a cafe at the side of a roundabout with an awesome view of a palace and the tower in the background. This was one of the best, if not the best, things I did in Paris. The waiters had suits and were exceptionally good at their job. I guess for the high price for a cup of coffee and a bowl of so_p (Mitch Hedberg fans will understand). Despite the cost, every minute of sitting at that small circular table was perfect.

After the best bowl of French onion soup - and the only bowl I've ever had - we just barely boarded the train in time at one of the six Paris train stations. The train weaved through the rolling hills of the French countryside and arrived in Normandy. We stayed in the small town of Bayeux in a small hotel above a bar. The next morning we called to join a Juno Baech tour but there were no spots left so we took a bus out to the Juno Beach Center on our own. It was extremely good and it was only 5 euros. I've never felt as patriotic for Canada as I did that day.

The next day, however, gave me a similar patriotic feeling. We visited the Vimy Ridge memorial. This place was very moving emotionally because you could see the trenches, tunnels, and craters in the ground. While there I had a strong realisation about how pointless war is. There are areas cordoned off with signs everywhere saying that there could be unexploded mines and shells in the ground. The whole Vimy Ridge site was given to Canada from France as a gesture of gratitude for winning that important battle. Canada sends students to this site to work for 4 months. It was nice to meet and talk to fellow Canadians.

Well, that's all for France. Once again I was unable to upload pictures but I will get them up eventually. Now I just need to write about Belgium and I'm caught up. Belgium fell into the 'B' category of places we visited. It was a relaxing place with copious amounts of delicious beer. I will never like any other beer from now on unless it's a Belgium beer. Belgians really know how to make their beer - especially Westvleteren, the voted best beer in the world on ratebeer.com. There is a great story to go along with that beer too. So, stay tuned for that adventure. Until then, cheers!

Trqvels zithin Frqnce

I hqven't posted in qzhile qnd Belgiu, hqs presented ,e zith q uniaue zqy of zriting ,y qbout Pqris. Qs you cqn see letters on the keyboqrd qre szitched qround - zell q fez of the, qre. You ,qy or ,qy not hqve figured it out yet but here is hoz to decipher this text:

a = q
z = w
m = ,

There qre other szitches on this French/Belgiu, keyboqrd but those qre the ,qin three. I will, hozever try ,y best to not zrite zith the letterers qll szitched fro, noz on.

France was very cool! We stayed in Paris and visited Bayeux in Normandy and Vimy Ridge on the way up to Belgium. We visited all the regular Paris attractions like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Notre Dame. One of the best parts about France was usuing the limited French I know from the 10 years of learning the language. It is nice being able to speak to and understand what people are saying.

We got into the Louvre for free because we happened to go on the first Sunday of the month; talk about lucky! Thqt reminds me qbout our other lucky experience on the dqy ze arrived in Paris. Of course ze didn't book any hostel aheqd of time so ze arrived with no plqce to stay. However, we hqve experienced this many times so we knez ze zould be okqy. As we were turned down from hotels because of no beds or we sqid no because of the high prices, the night grez lqter qnd we stqrted to get zorried. Eventuqlly we did find a hotel rqn by a very nice old mqn. We were saved once again! Believe it or not we pulled this sqme move in Belgium; we zill just never leqrn.

This is where I zould tqlk qbout the crepes but I'm tired of fighting zith this keyboard so I zill continue tqlking qbout France tomorrow. That's if ze cqn even find q place to stqy in Antwerp tomorrow.

Florence to Barcelona: No More Trains!

So, the overnight train from Florence to Nice was no what we were expecting. Our previous night train had reclining seats, a pillow, sleep mask, and ear plugs; we couldn't have asked for much more other than a bed. We were given the opportunity to sleep in beds for the Nice train but that would have cost us 35 euro rather than the 5 euro seat fee. We elected to take the seats but now realize that the savings will not outweigh the Chiropractor bill. Needless to say I had one of the worst sleeps of the trip. Not to mention there were conductors coming in every once in awhile to check tickets and passports.


However, after stepping off the train in Nice, we realized that our luck had changed. The weather in Nice was incredible - at least for this time of the year. The sun was shining and it was probably about 23 degrees. Good weather and being on the Mediterranean Sea means swimming! We were throwing the frisbee on the rocky beach when I didn't realize my own power (<--) and threw it into the sea. I ran and dove to get the frisbee before it sank - luckily finding it sitting on the bottom - when I realized how freezing cold the water was. I thought it would have been warmer but instead I walked out full of goosebumps. We ended up going back in because we had to say we swam in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, we only had one day in Nice - oh so close to where an episode of Entourage was shot - and then had to leave on another long train ride to Barcelona. The first half of this train was excellent; France trains are the best. As for the second half, lets just say I got to see a 4 hour show in the seats, and throughout the car, in front of me. Two kids were talking loudly, standing on their seats, and running up and down the asile. And it seemed like the parents were encouraging this behaviour. But enough of the train complaints. We eventually arrived at the Barcelona train station after seeing the gorgeous French and Spanish countrysides.

There wasn't a lot to do in Barcelona so we made it another relax city, just like Budapest. The 'B' cities have been good to us. The hostel was similar to the Bubble in Budapest too in the way that they both are small, making it easy to meet people. We walked around the city seeing some of the weird buildings designed by the architect Gaudi. Below is a picture of the famous cathedral that he designed.


We also walked down Las Ramblas, which was basicallay a circus on the street. Lining the sides of the street were buskars and street performers dressed in ridiculous costumes and doing some of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Check my Barcelona pictures to see some of these characters. This is what happens during the day but once night rolls around the second face of Las Ramblas comes out. Once again people line the streets and try to make money but through other means. While walking down the street I could not even count how many times I heard these people say 'charlie!' or 'hashish!' And of course there's the prostitutes that don't hesitate to grab your arm and try to convince you to go with them. I have to admit though, this was a very cool side of the city that I could have only imagined about before. To me, the most interesting experiences are the ones that I would never see back home.

Anyway, that breifly sums up my Barcelona experience. Of course there was more to my stay than what I have talked about but none of them beat the craziness of Las Ramblas. As a final note, I need tips on getting off a McDonald's diet. I have been eating it too much. But there is a somewhat reasonable explanation. That being, there is no other food in Barcelona or Paris. McD's knows how to strategically place their restaurants. Also, after going through about 5 countries without Starbuck's, Barcelona and Paris have brought them back to me. The morning ritual is now to go straight to a Starbuck's and then see the attractions. Alright, that's enough blabering about my eating habits.

When In Rome

I attempted to leave you hanging last post. Did it work? I wish I could say 'we missed it' just to add a twist to the story but we jumped on the train seconds before it pulled out of the station. After weaving our way through the people asking us to stay at their hostel we left the terminal walked five minutes to our hostel. The first day we just walked around checking out a few of the many sites to see in Rome. However, we were very disappointed to see scaffolding covering about half, if not more, of the buildings and statues. I guess that is what we could for going in the off season. Below is the fountain of four rivers while under renovation.


Regardless of all the annoying scaffolding Rome was gorgeous, especially the Colleseum and Roman Forum. Being a structural engineer I was especially impressed with the size of the structures that they built over 2000 years ago. And they're still standing, well mostly. I can't help but wonder how they designed the columns and arches that long ago, when today we have complicated design procedures to follow. Have I bored you yet? Because I can keep going.


While avoiding being hit by the tons of scooters whizzing around we finally made it to Trevi Fountain. That reminds me, we forgot to go see the Spanish Steps. That's too bad. Anyway, I was standing beside Trevi Fountain just about to throw the coin when I thought 'which shoulder am I supposed to throw the coin over?' So, I chose the left because I thought the picture would look better then. I chose the wrong shoulder. An American couple informed of this apparently well known fact. The fountain got a second coin from me that day.


I almost forgot to talk about Vatican City where we had the pleasure of lining up in some of the longest queues ever. Even the womens washroom line up was huge! But we did get to see the Pope. We couldn't believe that we were going to see him because it seemed like such a rare event. But then we found out he speaks every Wednesday. So, I guess we were still lucky to see him but it made the queues for the Basilica and Vatican Museums longer.


Over 200 pictures later, we miraculously finished our tour of Rome in one and a half days. With an extra day we decided to venture outside Rome. We went to one of the mob centers of Italy and where the pickpocketers thrive. I am talking about Naples. Fortunately, we escaped with al our belongings. As much as I wanted to meet the mob, that was not my main reason for going there. I wanted to visit Pompeii and Mount Vesuvias. Our late arrival left us with choosing one or the other though. After much reluctance we chose Pompeii - an over 2000 year old city preserved under ash after the Mount Vesuvias eruption. It was very cool to walk up and down the streets of the uncovered city, that is still being dug up.

If you recall from my previous post, I mentioned that we were heading back to Florence to see the Museums that were closed on Mondays. Well, there's a new addition to this story. We came back on a Thursday to find out by a tourist information lady that the museum employees were on strike all day. As unfortunate as this was, I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the situation. I guess we were just not meant to see the statue of David. With a whole day wasting away we decided to rub the pigs nose in the Signoria Square, which is supposed to give you good luck. I'm superstitous when it comes to the Leafs but I might have to change that now. We walked by the museum where David was hiding and there were people walking in FOR FREE! Well, the later isn't true but we did get to see the statue, which was far more impressive than I could have ever imagined. Before seeing the statue I just brushed it off as any ordinary statue but I take that back. The detail and immense size blew me away.


The picture above is a rarity as you're not supposed to take pictures of the statue. But still a lot of people sneakily were. I'll never forget the look on one middle aged guy's face when his flash went off while taking the picture. He was hiding behind a pillar with the camera at stomach height. In my head I was giving him congratulations for his seemingly flawless effort until *FLASH*. Everyone turns and looks at him as he looked down at his camera with a puzzled face that spoke 'how did that just happen, I didn't do that.' While shrugging his shoulders, he nonchalantly walked backwards behind the pillar. It was gold! I feel his awkwardness though, as my camera's flash has accidently gone off while taking pictures in museums.


After buying my new camera (no more pink pictures) we caught an overnight train to Nice. I'll save that absolutely wonderful experience (how do you put sarcasm in writing?) with you in my next post. Until next time, just...just keep on truckin'.

Touring Tuscany

After my brief stay in Venice I already feel in love with Italy and touring Tuscany only increased that love. Tuscany was everything I would have expected and more! We did a bike ride through the rolling hills, and walked around Florence and Pisa. The first day we did a walking tour around the old town and then crossed the river to try to find a good view of Florence. This turned into quite the adventure. We could see the hill we wanted to walk up on but could not find the way to get to it. We were walking aimlessly until eventually we found a wall behind thick bushes that we could climb and get a decent view of the town. We could tell that others had been there because he glass on top of the wall (to prevent people from climbing it) was all broken off. So after a few hours of hiking and searching here is the result.


As you can see the picture turned out alright but there's a crane blocking the Duomo. Maybe Photoshop can remove it. The Duomo is one of the major attractions in Florence and there is a story behind it that I will tell at the end of this post. Along with the Duomo, a second major attraction is the Old Bridge. Well at least it's a major site for me; I do love my bridges, as Jack and Josh know well after travelling with me for over 40 days. Below is a picture of the Old Bridge, which I originally thought was in Venice. I searched hard for it in Venice and eventually gave up but luckily I found it in Florence. It is almost 700 years old and has survived many floods and is the only bridge in Florence to survive WWII. As you can see I haven't bought a new camera yet because the pink is still in the picture.


The second day in Florence we took a train to Pisa where we got to see the Leaning Tower. Wow, I don't understand how it is standing. It is leaning a lot, I believe 4.8 meters at the top of the structure! On the walk back to the train station we had to stop to get some Gelato as it is irresistible. We had to continue the trend of having Gelato in every Italian city. I'm still searching for the infamous whiskey flavour though. Once at the train station I had a bite of Josh's pizza so know I can say 'I have had a piece of a piece of Pisa pizza in Pisa.' Say that ten times fast.

There have been a lot of beggers and sellers on the side of roads in Pisa and Florence. All of them walking up to us trying to sell us the same stuff over and over. If it's not sunglasses, watches, or belts, it's handbags or even little toys. Luckily when we got out into the countryside there were no beggers and sellers.

We rented bikes and did a 70 km figure 8 from Florence south to Greve in Chianti. I could certainly feel that I hadn't been on a bike since the summer. My legs, arms, and neck were in pain at the end. It was well worth it though. There were a lot of vineyards and small villages along the way with plenty of gorgeous views. I tried a road bike for the first time and they really fly! I was reaching speeds over 50 km/hr on all the downhills, almost passing cars.

The next day we were planning on climbing the Duomo (460 steps). My legs were not looking forward to that but then we found out that it is closed on Mondays. That could be thought of as a good thing but the museum where the statue of David stands was closed as well. So, it turned out to not be good but we are planning on stopping back at Florence after Rome just to do those two things. That's the beauty of an unplanned trip! Instead we left to Rome early to see some of the many Roman sites.

There were 2 trains within 25 minutes of each other leaving for Rome, one at 9:09 and the other at 9:32. The time that day was 9:07 when we found out that the 9:09 train was free and the 9:32 train cost 15 Euros. The people walking through the train station then got a good laugh as we ran as fast as we could to catch the 9:09 train with our huge packs on. Did we make it on the train? You'll have to wait for the Rome post to find out.

From Salzburg To Venice

Salzburg was a lot better than I expected! We could have easily spent more than the one day there. The city is super clean and all the buildings fit in perfectly with each other. Our short stay here leaves me with very few stories other than just how nice the actual city was. There was a lot of The Sound Of Music stuff around. You could even take a bus tour to all the major sites from the movie. They were basically full of only women. I guess I should watch the move because it's a classic but we'll have to see about that. They played the movie every night in our hostel.

To get away from all The Sound Of Music stuff we went up to the fortress on top of a 300 meter hill and had a coffee overlooking Salzburg. The coffee was expensive but well worth it. And it was a real coffee! You know what I mean if you've been reading Jack's blog.

The mountainous scenery was very impressive from the hilltop cafe. Unfortunately, that's as close as we were getting to the Alps. Actually, that's not true because we had an hour long transfer in Innsbruck where we quickly walked around. The mountains here were almost, if not equally, as impressive as the Fjords in Norway. The train ride after Innsbruck was equally as impressive. I was taking pictures with my hands holding my camera outside a small opening in the train window. Every time a train passed in the opposite direction my camera shook in my hands, almost dropping it. But it was very worth it, as the scenery was gorgeous.

At the end of the train ride we pulled into Venice, the famous floating city. But since Venice is so expensive we had to stay at a hotel outside the city in a small town called Mirano. We got a HOTEL for 20 euros a night and were feeling great! The problem was getting out to this small town. We found a train leading out there but we did not have a map. We bought a map from an information booth but she gave us a Murano map. So, it ended up being useless and once we arrived at the dimly lit, small Mirano station there was nobody there and no map. We started walking towards some country roads and realized we were in some trouble. As we stood there contemplating what to do a super nice bus driver saved us from wandering around all night. He left his normal bus route and after much searching he found our hotel. What is this, lucky time number 20? It feels like we have been very lucky at a few points on this trip. We're definitely due for something to go wrong.

(Don't mind the pink, that's just my camera gasping it's last breath. Unfortunately I have to buy a new camera in Italy. Why couldn't it have broken in cheap Czech.)

The next morning we found a different bus that left 3 minutes away from our hotel and went right to Venice. But hey, if we found that bus the first time we would never have had that worrisome experience. This bus took us to Venice in 50 minutes. After stepping off the bus and walking for 5 minutes all I could think was WOW! I couldn't believe I was in Venice. We took a water bus down the grand canal to San Marco Plaza. We then decided to just walk around and basically get lost. Well actually, we didn't have to try to get lost; I don't know how anyone could figure out their way around the city. There's no cars or scooters anywhere on the island so the streets are super narrow and zigzag back and forth. Many times we went down a path that ended at water. There were only a few bridge crossings and they were tough to find sometimes. But we prevailed and can now say we conquered the streets of Venice.

We could only afford to spend one day in Venice but you really don't need much more time than that anyway. Next destination was Florence. Now I'm only one city behind, as I am in Rome right now. I think Jack has written about Florence though; he's always a city ahead of me. I've been trying to get pictures up but the internet is just too slow. Anyway, it's time to put myself in a Rome touring mindset by watching Gladiator. Until next time, cheers.

Relaxing Budapest

After 35 days of travelling my body finally gave in to all the walking and training. I needed a rest city; the three of us needed a rest from the constant moving around. And there is no better place than a city known for their baths and spas. Naturally we had to check a bath out. It was exactly what we needed. One of baths was basically a giant hot tub with people relaxing and playing chess.

Along with the baths we actually slept in each night too! Sleeping in has been a rarity on this trip. I think the atmosphere of the Budapest Bubble is what did it to us. The Budapest Bubble is the hostel we stayed at and I have to say that it has been, by far, the best hostel yet! It was a small, cozy hostel run by a young, and extremely nice, Hugarian girl. And when I say extremely nice, I mean you couldn't even imagine someone nicer. She went out of her way for anything that we would have needed even after we may have caused a few problems for her; one of the minor ones being the lose of our keys, which was my fault. Everyone that we met there were good too. There were a few Israeli's, American's, and Aussie's.

Anyway, that's enough about the hostel. Budapest was a very cool city. It used to be two cities, Buda and Pest, until they merged together. We walked around both sides and found the Terror Museum on the Pest side which was very interesting. It was about the widespread terror caused by the Nazi's and Communist's on Hungary during the 1940's and 1950's. Think about the book 1984 but as a reality and with less care for people's lives; that was Hungary in that time. Everyone knows about the millions killed in the Holocaust during this time but the Russian's were actually worse. They killed a lot more civilians for no reason other than inflicting terror on the community.

Other than that museum it was a very relaxing city before heading back on the move. We were convinced by the Guelph girls (Jack's friends from home) to go to Salzburg. We have to thank them for that because it was awesome there. Probably better than Vienna, our originally planned city after Budapest. Anyway, I'll talk about Salzburg tomorrow as the internet is very slow here. That also means that I didn't get many pics up. I'm sorry but I'll get them up eventually. Until next time, cheers!

Krakow and Auschwitz

Welcome to Poland! Well, at least a written version of Krakow and Auschwitz with pictures included of course. I should really have a seperate post for Auschwitz but unfortuately I don't have time for that. So be prepared for a big change of pace half way through this post.

We arrived in Krakow on Oct. 7th via another long train ride. I will definitely not want to ride trains anymore after this trip. We arrived late at night, around 9:30. If it wasn't for bad map directions we should have got to our hostel at 10. However, we wrote the wrong street name down and ended up walking up and down a street looking for this wrong street name. We tried walking down every street in the area, tried looking in parking lots, and tried finding a map. Just as we were running out of options we bumped into some Quebecers. As we were talking we found out they were staying at the same hostel as us and they gave us directions. It turned out that the hostel was at the end of a parking lot; who could have found that? Fortunately the rest of Krakow went smoothly.

Krakow is an extremely nice city that escaped bombing in WWII because, along with other reasons, Hitler liked it so much. You will have to look at my pictures to get a full sense of the beauty of this city. Most of the pictures are of the old town square and Wawel Castle.

Krakow is a very easy city to walk around and it seems that every corner you turn there is something new and interesting to look at. At night however, the story is a little different. Every corner we turned, everything was closed. Just like the rest of Europe, everything closes very early, including the pubs. One of the nights we walked around for about 45 minutes looking for somewhere to get a beer but couldn't find anything open. Eventually we found a pub deep in a basement that gave a feeling that we were in a sewer. The pub turned out to be really cool though.

The next day was a very different story though. This was the day we visited Auschwitz-Birkaneu. Before arriving there I had an idea of what to expect but never would I have guessed the magnitude and brutalness of what occured there. There were three concentration/extermination camps in Auschwitz. We walked through two of them. The smaller of the two has a museum showing the atrocities that occured in the camps. Walking on the roads/rails leading into the camps was very eerie.

Walking up and down the paths, between the row upon row of barracks, all I could think about was 'how could the Nazis do this?' The Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other minorities were unloaded/sorted and striped of all belongs. Then were sent either to the gas chambers or were used for slave labour. In the museum part, they piled up real belongings (suitcases, shoes, combs/brushes, artificial limbs, toothbrushes, and basically everything. They sold as much of the belongings as possible. They even sold women's hair that was used to make fabrics. They also removed gold fillings from the teeth of the corpses. In total, there were over 2 million people, really no different than you and I, murdered in the three camps.

I don't understand how anyone could follow orders to murder innocent people. The worst part is that the Nazi's didn't do all the work in the camps, they were basically supervisors. The Nazi's made the Jews plunder/pillage, kill, and cremate there own.

I can't give a good feeling of Auschwitz, you would have to visit it to really see and feel what happened there. It was definitely the most touching place I have been and will probably ever be. Unfortunately, I am leaving this post on a sad note but the next post will be better.

Prague, the Cheap but Amazing City!

Finally, I have the chance to get on the internet here in Budapest to talk about Prague. Budapest is our place of relaxation so I can upload a lot of pictures and write a few posts here. We arrived in Prague 9 days (Oct. 4) and stayed there for 3 nights, but could have easily stayed longer. There was a lot to do there and the city is extremely nice. The people weren't too nice but the architecture and landscape were beautiful. This was the first city that we started having language problems, which may have exacerbated the unhelpfulness of the people. We rarely could find someone who could speak English. However, The language barrier was a very cool experience despite how frustrating it got.

One particular incident occured when we were trying to get to Plzen, about 2 hours west of Prague, for a day trip. We asked the lady for bus tickets, then paid thinking everything was good. So, then we tried to find the bus but was unsuccessful. We asked someone where the bus leaves from and the guy gave us a confused look as he told us it was a train ticket, go to the train station. Eventually we made it to Plzen where we walked around the city and did the Pilsner Irquell brewery tour. The city was full of people because we happened to be there while Pilsner Fest was on. There was a band playing in the market square playing English songs but with Czech lyrics, which made for a good time since we had to sing along in English.


While in the market square we climbed over 300 steps to the top of the church. You could see the entire city from the top of the tower. Upon our arrival back to Prague we went out to dinner with friends from Guelph. I have to say I was not impressed with Czech food but they did have an Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks hockey game on the TV. That definitely makes up for the bad food!! Speaking of hockey, I wish I could watch the Pittsburgh/Leafs game tonight but Hungary isn't as big a fan of hockey as the Czech Republic. We're hoping to see a Raptors game in Italy or Spain, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Things to do in Prague. As I said before there is a lot but most of it is walking around. Speaking of walking, you would definitely want to take a walking tour. We've been doing them in a lot of the cities and they are always well worth it! While walking around we saw Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock, the castle hill where the cathedral stands, Peltin hill, old town square, and many other buildings. We went through the Communism Museum, which I thought was really good. Walking down the streets and seeing the buildings that were built with communist ideals is very strange but interesting. We walked through Wenceless Square where all the riots and resistance against communism occured.

Overall Prague has been my favourite city so far and it's extremely cheap!! We're able to go out for dinner every night. A pint of Pilsner Urquell (the main Czech beer) is $1.50 CDN. Poland and Hungary are our next stops and they are equally as cheap. Finally I can be under budget. I got some pictures of Prague up but the internet is very slow here so you'll have to wait a few more days for the rest. Until next time, ______ (I can't remember what cheers in Czech is).

Oktoberfest!!

As I said in my last post, the time has come to talk about Oktoberfest, or at least what I remember of it. Unfortuantely, I can't remember any of the songs anymore since it was so long ago that I was there. I didn't know what to expect of Oktoberfest until I saw the mass of people inside and outside the beer tents. Take the Milton fair and time it by...a lot. There were rides and games but we were most concerned about the beer tents. That's where the fun occurs.

When we stepped into the tent we couldn't believe our eyes. There was row upon row of tables. As the day went along people starting singing and standing on the benches. But by the end of the night everyone was singing, what they know, and standing on the benches while swaying the liter steins in the air. We learned most of the songs from the many Germans there. Who also loved Oktoberfest, which debunks the rumour that Germans hate Oktoberfest. A lot of people told me that Germans didn't like it because there were too many tourists. But there were probably just as many Germans as tourists on the day that we went.

We happened to go on Reunification Day so that could have been why there were a lot of Germans. When going to the bar at home, usually we would try to beat the line up by getting there before 10:30pm but here we were rushing to get there before 10:30am, and we still barely found a sit. There were about 5 or 6 tents that held a total of 100,000 people!! Over 6 million litres of beer are drank in the 5 week long Oktoberfest. I contributed my fair share to that number. Josh and I were so fixated on the good times that we forgot to eat lunch and dinner; that's especially unbelievabe for Josh.

Anyway, I have to leave this post short because I don't have anymore internet time. I just finished uploading pictures of the German countryside, which are some of the best yet. Until next post about beautiful Prague, prost!

Don't Miss the German Countryside!

I haven't been able to get on the internet until here in Prague. There's too much to write about right now so I'm just going to talk about everything leading up to Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest deserves it's own post. I'm currently doing laundry so I will be typing very quickly so don't mind the spelling mistakes, not to mention that this keyboard is in Czech. Anyway, the German countryside was absolutely beutiful; way nicer than Berlin!

We visited Nuremburg, Wurzberg, and were supposed to visit Rothenberg but we missed our stop so we stayed in Treulingen. If I was able to upload pictures here you would see just how picturesque these towns are. In Nuremburg the Old Town was good but the highlight here was the Nazi Rally Grounds. There was a very eerie atmosphere here. I stood on the podium where Hitler gave his speeches; that was very weird. The history of the Nazi party was extremely interesting and I will have to read a book about it when I get home. I recommend you do the same if you haven't already. In Nuremburg we also visited the courthouse where the Nazi leaders were tried and convicted.

From Nuremburg we travelled to Wurzberg where once again we were lucky to find a hostel. We really need to start booking hostels before arriving in the town. But that is half the experience of backpacking, right? Wurzberg looked veryt historic despite being completely demolished in less than 24 hours in WWII. We decided to rent bikes here so that we could see all the city in as little time possible. Upon arrival to the top of the largest hill overlooking the city, we realized that there was no other way to see the city.

After leaving Wurzberg we were supposed to go to Rothenburg, an old town of 12,000 people. We actually booked a hostel for this place but never ended up there. Instead we went right through the station where we were supposed to transfer, but didn't know enough German to realize this, and ended up at the end of line, which was Treulingen. Fortunately, we were able to find a hotel, which was a nice change from hostels, and talk the lady down to letting us stay for 20 Euros. We're starting to enter places where we need to negotiate a little. This was a nice relaxing town. The weird part was that these past 3 cites/towns we visited shut down at around 8pm. Everything closes.

The next stop was Munich. The train was full of people dressed up in the German outfits (I can't remember what they are called) and ready to spend a whole day at Oktoberfest. I'll leave Oktoberfest fot my next post but I will say this: I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life until this day. I also learned a lot of German songs and sayings here, which you will learn in my next post. Anyway, I better go get my laundry. Until next time, salute!

Copenhagen and Berlin

As I mentioned before, I am in Berlin right now and I have to end a rumour that I was hearing before arriving here. I was told by many that Berlin doesn't have much to do attraction wise and is boring. That is completely false from my point of view! There really is a lot to do and the city is absolutely gorgeuos. The contrast of West and East Berlin was the main thing that caught my eye.

Anyway, before talking about Berlin I have to mention my brief stay in Copenhagen. The train was so long from Oslo to Berlin that we couldn't do it in one day so we spent a night in Copenhagen. All I have to say is that I wish I could have spent more time here. But that'll have to be for another trip. Copenhagen was a really nice city with a lot of bikers! It seemed like everyone was either walking or riding their bike to where ever they had to go. Toronto should be more like this. Even Berlin is the same. There are designated paths between the road and sidewalks for bikers.

I have to admit though, that I did eat at the BK Lounge (Burger King); in fact I did twice in two days. But that will be it!! I shouldn't be eating at places that I already have eaten at at home. Until Berlin the food really hasn't been too much different than home. Berlin at least offers a variety of sausages that are absolutely delicious!

A highlight of Copenhagen was Christiania. I learned about this area in a class at university and it was really cool to actually see it in person. Christiania is basically a town within the city where there are no laws and anything goes. That being drugs, mobs, prostitution, etc. I have to admit I was scared walking through there but it had to be done. Christiania is a social experiment started by the government and has been near to closing. Inside there is tons of graffiti and the buildings are all falling apart. It was very cool walking through an anarchist town and making it out alive (i'm just kidding, there wasn't any worry of that).

Alright, before this post turns into a novel I'll start talking about Berlin now. If you're ever in Germany, you have to see Berlin. we have spent 2 and half days here and we could have spent more. The highlight of Berlin is definitely the free walking tour (tips are given at the end). It was almost 4 hours long and took us around the major sites of Berlin. Most major cities in Europe have these free walking tours. Of the sites we saw the most interesting is the Berlin Wall. It's hard to believe there was a wall encircling West Berlin. The escape stories are very interesting too.

In the first years following the erection of the wall (about 1964) a man one day decided he was going to walk through one of the checkpoints and move to the west side. He had no plan except just to walk right through. Once seeing the enforcement at the gate he decided that was a bad idea. Upon arrival to the gate an officer stopped him and asked for his passport. The man said that when he cam from the west side earlier that week the other checkpoint took and held on to his passport. The officer was hesitant to believe this so he went to the phone to check with the other gate. While inside, a second officer came up to the man and asked what was going on. The man said "I'm trying to get to the east side but I forgot my passport in my apartment on the west side." The second officer then let him go ´back´ to the west side to get his passport.

After the wall was torn down in 1989 a lot of development came to Berlin. I personallyfound this very interesting, seeing the contrast between svoiet style architecture and capitalist buildings. Above is a picture of the Sony Center, one of the 10 billion dollars worth of developments at the time. Along with the Sony Center, we went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum today. This was more about the Berlin Wall and is good for a quick visit.

The nightlife in Berlin is one of the best in Europe so we couldn't pass up a pub crawl that happened last night. It was lot of fun until toady when I was super tired but it was worth it. We met a some people from Richmond Hill and a guy from Florida (the Amsterdam guy). He loved Amsterdam so much that all he talked about was Amsterdam. But he was a good guy.

I'm so tired right now that I can't remember anything else to say about Berlin. This is probably a good spot to stop anyway. My next post probably won't be until after Munich. Tomorrow we leave to Nuremburg, then Wuryberg, then Rothenberg, and finally Fussen before arriving at Oktoberfest. I'm looking forward to seeing the German countryside. Anyway, until next time, cheers!

Breath Taking Norway

So much moving around lately! There has not been much internet access available these past 4 days or so, not to mention the ridiculous prices I would have to pay for it in Norway. Norway was cool but it was pricey. Right now I'm in Berlin; we just arrived this afternoon. There is so much to talk about that I don't even know where to start. I'll probably forget about some stuff too but those stories can be saved until I get back home. I need to keep you guys wanting more for when I return.

We left Dublin airport on a Boeing 737 and arrived at Stanjford. We thought it was supposed to be a 3 hour flight but we forgot about the time zone and only had to sit in the cramped Ryanair seats for 2 hours. Stanjford is almost 2 hours outside Oslo so we then took a bus. Before I continue to the next part of the journey I have to write about the hostel situation. I believe at the end of my last post I said we would be fine finding a hostel despite the short time. Well, I was wrong! There were no beds left in Oslo; possibly because it was the weekend but it certainly made it interesting. So, we had to sleep on benches in park. Actually, that was our last plan. Instead, we managed to get an overnight train to Bergen and that was our bed for the night. First scare averted.

Do you think we learned our lesson there. I know our parents would like to think so but we did not. Almost the same thing happened in Berlin. That story is for another post though. Right now I have to talk about beautiful Norway. And when I say beautiful I mean...absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly gorgeous. Words really can't describe Norway, you need to just see it for yourself. If you have looked at my pictures (i've never taken that many pictures, in such a short time, in my life) you can get an idea of what I mean.

We took the overnight train to Bergen where we spent 2 nights. The first day was really a relaxing day. Mostly just to find a good Fjord tour for the next day, thank you for tourist info centers! They helped us find possibly the best Fjord tour in this area. Not only were the tourist info staff friendly and helpful, Norwegians in general were very friendly and helpful. As we left the train station a man from Bergen noticed us three fumbling with the streets and a map and basically walked us right to our hostel. This is just one of a few experiences but it certainly put Norwegians high on the friendly pole.

That's enough about the first day in Bergen. Lets get to the Fjords. Wow! Just look at my pictures and multiply what you see by...a lot. The pictures donät show the immense size of these Fjords. The tallest one we stopped by was 1600 meter almost straight up cliff above sea level. It completely blew me away. There were a lot of waterfalls flowing down the cliffswith houses in the most precarious postions. The houses, and villages for that matter, were prestine. Everything was so clean and so picturesque. After he boat ride we had to take a few trains back to Bergen. One went from Fläm to Myrdal, the steepest adhesion track in the world. This hour train ride is also undescribable. I could only dream about living in a place like this.

The final morning in Bergen we woke up early to walk up, need to save money in this expensive country, the main mountain (almost 400 meters high). With all the rain (everyday it rained for at least half the day) this was our only opportunity to get a goof view of the city. And it was worth it! The view with the lights and the sunrising was incredible. Unfortunately, one of my biggest fears was realized about half way up. My camera somehow stopped working. At the most inopportune time the digital sensor died. I thought I was going to be forced to buy a new camera over here, which would have had it's up side; that being I would get a new camera!! However, I lucked out and about 6 hours later it started working again. It better not do that again!

The next few day were used as travel days to Berlin with overnight stops in Oslo and Copenhagen. I will leave those places for another post though. Until next time, cheers!

Final Day In Ireland

Last night and today have been for relaxing. We have finally caught up on missed sleep and are resting our sore legs. We actually went on saw Superbad last night! It was a very cool experience. We were assigned seats in the cinema and the ads before the movie were much different than what I would expect at home. It was a great cultural experience, not to mention the hilarity of the movie.


We did a little more walking around Dublin today but there really isn't a lot to do here. However, we did find a Tim Horton's!! I was excited to have a coffee but it only had baked goods. How can you call it a Tim's if it doesn't sell coffee?

Also, I have uploaded all my pictures so feel free to check them out and leave me comments.

As a final note, Ireland has easily taken the gold medal for the best place I've seen, so far. The next destination, Norway, will put up a good fight for first place. We're basically skipping over Oslo because there doesn't seem to be much to do there. That leaves us with 3 days or so in Bergen. I can't wait to go on a boat trip through the fjords. Anyway we have to book a hostel for tomorrow night now. Yes, we are cutting it close but we'll find a spot. Until next time, slainte.

The Bus Tour Was A Good Craic

The past 4 days have been great for authentic Irish craic. Almost too much craic. Craic is the Irish word for having a good time, or having fun. We went on this bus tour and had a good craic. PaddyWagon was the tour group we went with and they were awesome. The driver (Gab) was absolutely hilarious and by the end of the tour almost everyone on the bus was friends with each other. The Irish really know how to have a good time.

The first leg of our journey took us through many small towns with a stop at a whiskey tour. By late afternoon we made it to Galway, where we spent the night. 60% of the population in Galway is less than 23 years old, so we knew we were in for a good night. And a good night it was. There's no better way to get to know people than at the pub with a few pints. We met mostly Australians, with a few Germans, Canadians, and Americans. The best had to be the Irish folk. They showed us good craic at the pub.


The second day bus ride was very entertaining, courtesy of some singing, or attempts at singing, by Gab. Before arriving at Killarney for the second night, we stopped at the Cliffs of Mohr. The were absolutely beautiful. The pictures I have unfortunately don't give the full feel of the immense size of the cliffs. After some history about Ireland, which was extremely interesting, we made it to Killarney. Jack recommends to read the book Trinity by Leon Uris for Irish history. I never realized before how much hatred there is between the Irish and the English. The British, led by Cromwell, caused so many problems for the Irish that it really is no wonder why the Irish hate the British so much. The hatred at least makes for some good football and rugby games!


Throughout the bus ride, I couldn't believe how green everything was. All the fields were bright green and were divided by old stone walls, which were about 3 feet tall. I figure they must be that green because of how much rain they get. The weather here is very weird; one hour it will be blue sky and sunny and the next will be cloudy and rainy. Fortunately, the rain never lasted long.


On the road back to Dublin we stopped at Blarney Castle to kiss the blarney stone. However, there was a huge line up so I will not get the 'gift of the gab' for 7 years. It was known to give people the gift of the gab because the king who lived in the castle could talk his way out of any situation. From Blarney Castle we stopped at 2 other castles before arriving back at Dublin. This telling of the Irish countryside is very brief because, to be honest, we did so much that I can't remember it all. I highly recommend this bus tour to anyone planning a trip to Ireland.

More Pictures!

I have finally found a good internet cafe just down te street from my hostel. So, I am trying to upload as many pictures as I can right now. I will finish uploading London right now and by the end of this week Edinburgh and Ireland should be up.

We finished touring Dublin today and yes it did only take one day. There really wasn't much to do here. However, the main attraction here could be one of the best on the trip. That is the Guiness Storehouse tour!! Despite drinking the freshest Guiness possible, the tour was very interesting. One little fact was that Arhtur Guiness signed a 9000 year lease for 45 pounds per month.

Other than that we visited Trinity College and plan on visinting Temple Bar later in the week. Starting tomorrow we are going on a 3 day bus tour around the Irsih countryside. It basically goes out to the Atlantic Coast and then back. Unfortunately, we're not 25 so we couldn't rent a car to get out there. However, the PaddyWagon bus tour company has saved us. These tours are supposed to be a lot of fun too so it has worked out for the best that we aren't 25.

Well I better get ready for the early morning tomorrow. I will post on 3 or 4 days from now. Cheers!

Fastest Flight Ever!

The three of us are taking a relaxing day today so I'll write about the flight to Dublin. The airport in Edinburgh is really small so we had to go out on to the tarmack to board our plane. We were up in the air just long enough for our ears to pop at 7000 meters and then we began our decent to Dublin. The flight only took about 35 minutes!

We found our hostel pretty easily here and it is unbelievably nice. For the price we pay or hostels it is surprising how nice they are. Anyway that's everything for here. I'm trying to get some pictures up right now. Check under pictures and click London to see them. I'm out to get pint of Guiness now. Cheers.

Eerie Edinburgh

I am here in Edinburgh right now and have just finished a ghosthunter tour. So, this post may have a frightening feel to it! The tour took us through the underground and graveyards and was a little creepy. Edinburgh is supposed to be full of ghosts and ghouls.

Despite the being scared in the tour, Edinburgh has been absolutely amazing! I wish we could spend a few more days here. The people I have met (a lot of Canadians) here are a lot fun. We were fortunate enough to go on a pub crawl last night with everyone. I believe by saying pub crawl implies a great time! Us 8 or 10 Canadians sang 'Oh Canada' at the top of our lungs in one of the pubs.

Also, 3 of Jack's Guelph friends are on a backpacking trip around Europe and we were able to meet up and go out a few times together. I have to admit it is nice hanging around with fellow Canadians. Sometimes it can be tough having a conversation when the other person doesn't know English well.

Just like the people the sites here are awesome! We walked up and down the Royal Mile, trekked up Arthur's Seat (a 800 to 1000 foot tall highland/hill/escarpment with an amazing view of the city), visited Edinburgh Castle (where they hid the crown jewels in a cellar during WWII and entrusted the Governor of Canada with it's location), stumbled through the Whisky tour (maybe I don't like real scotch as much as I thought, they were very different), and tasted haggis (it really isn't as bad as it sounds, it's kind of like meatloaf.

With all the good times comes bad though; for the past 2 and half days I have been sick. Mostly likely from the tiredness, lack of good food, and not drinking enough water. However, now I'm better and ready spend more money in Edinburgh, about as expensive to London. Tomorrow we fly to cheaper Dublin for some good Irish fun.

That's about it for Edinburgh. I didn't say too much about it, but it is awesome here. I would certainly come back, possibly with a lighter backpack. The pack has been a little heavy but I figure in a week or two it should be no problem. On that note I better go pack it up so that I'm ready for the long haul to the train/bus to the airport tomorrow.

I promise I'll have pictures next time. These hostel computers don't allow to upload anything. Until next time, slainte mhath! (cheers in Scottish).

The Sights And Sounds of London

Here I am, finally with some free time. We have been unbelievably busy and tired for the past 3 days. The jet lag has hit us pretty hard but we have still managed. Just looking around and knowing that we are in London is keeping us awake. The flight seemed really fast at about 6.5 hours where I got no sleep. Upon arrival to London we were questioned pretty intensely by the customs agents but made it through eventually. We actually stumbled upon Buckingham Palace on the way to our hostel. Unlike later in the day there was nobody there and we snapped some good pictures.

Anyway to try to make this post a little less boring, I'm finding the London experience to be very similar to a Toronto trip. Except that the wealth in this city is evident everywhere we go. Bentley's, Rolls Royce, Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari's are seen everywhere. Unfortunately, I can upload any pictures of the cars right now as this computer is not a PC and is not running Windows. It is interesting seeing the same movies that came out last month in North America, coming out this month here. We can't even go see Superbad right now even if we wanted to.

Along with Buckingham Palace, over the 3 days we have seen the Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (where I got to stand on Charles Darwin's grave), Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the British Museum, and St. Paul's Cathedral just to name a few. These attractions were very interesting but I found wandering around the alley ways and the maze of streets to be the most interesting. It is amazing how much there is to see and do. Even though I got to see everything I wanted to, it is too bad we are leaving tomorrow.

The food here is nothing special as there is no distinct London flavor. However, they are known for there fish and chips and I have to say they were excellent. Despite, how expensive everything is here we have done pretty well. Basically everything here is the same price as in Canada except in Pounds (or Quid?). The beer over here is still reasonably priced and is absolutely delicious. The pints are served right of wooden kegs and has to be pumped by hand.

The hostel we are staying at is really nice and we have met many people. People from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaris, Austria, Brazil, and Italy. We went out to a club called Walkabout 2 nights ago with about 8 others from our hostel, including the staff. It was converted from an old chapel and was a lot of fun.

Before I end this post I have to mention the Canada Memorial near Buckingham Palace. It was built about 10 years ago from the generous donations of many Canadians, including the one and only Conrad Black. At least he put his fraudulent money to a good use!

I could probably continue for another few pages but I am running out of time with this Internet. I will write again in 2 or 3 days; hopefully with pictures. Leave me comments if there's something I forgot to mention that you want to hear about. Until next time, Cheers.

Day -7

Only one more week to wait! Everyday my excitement grows and I wish this week would be over so I can finally be in Europe. The latest addition to our trip is Eastern Europe. I am super pumped about this!! I didn't think we would make it out to Poland, Austria, or Hungary but now they are most likely going to happen. This is exactly our open, flexible plan is good. We can change the cities we want to visit at anytime. Unfortunately, we will have to cut out other cities (most likely Stockholm and Barcelona) to allow us to visit Krakow, Vienna, and Budapest. I would much rather have it this way though.

This has presented me with another planning opportunity. Our train pass doesn't work in Poland, Czech, or Slovakia. However, individual tickets seem to be relatively cheap and shouldn't be a problem to get over there. Rail Europe offers a European East pass that is about $230 for 5 days of travel. This option seems pretty good to me too except that you have to buy the pass before going over to Europe. Seeing that we still aren't fully sure where we want to go, we will wait to buy train tickets while in Europe.

Backup Your Pictures

I have talked about storing pictures on my iPod in a previous post but I no longer feel safe with this idea. The iPod is very reliable but is it 72 days straight reliable? The last thing I want is my iPod breaking or being stolen on the trip and losing thousands of pictures. So, to ease my nerves I have found a second way to store my pictures, Picasa Web Albums.

Picasa Web Albums is a Google product for storing and sharing pictures online. I checked other photo sharing websites but Web Albums seemed to be the best. It doesn't reduce the quality or resolution of pictures. You can easily organize your photos and share them with friends. As you may have noticed I have a pictures section in the sidebar of my blog. I found it cool how you can embed a slide show. I will be using this feature to show pictures from different cities throughout my trip.

With all these good things said about Web Albums, there is a down fall to using this alternative. The time and nuisance to upload photos. The website allows uploading of 5 pictures at a time, which can take up to a few minutes. If you have 70 pictures, that will take while. Fortunately, Google has given a second option; this is to download their Picasa program, install it, and then upload entire folders worth of photos at one time. Perfect! Except that you must be aware that some computers in hostels or internet cafes may restrict the installation of this program. A second issue, that I was concerned about, was the program only being able to run using Windows. However, I have debunked this; the program can run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

Of course when it comes to storing thousands of pictures (talking many gigabytes) on a website they can only offer so much free storage. Web Albums allows up to 1 gig free but you can buy extra storage. There are levels of storage that you can buy and for pictures the 6 gig level is good. This will cost $20 US for one year. Note: 6 gigs should hold almost 4000 photos at best quality from a 3.1 mega pixel camera. I have bought the extra 6 gigs and if needed I will buy another 6 when in Europe.

As a final note, I did a test to see how long it would take to upload 66 pictures (total of about 80 megabytes) using the Picasa downloaded program. I did this on a DSL connection (my internet connection has been slow lately) and the upload took about 27 minutes. An average of about 30 seconds per photo. Reasonable, but I would expect the internet in the hostels and cafes to be about twice as fast. In the end I am convinced that Picasa Web Albums is a great alternative for storing pictures. Now that my pictures will be on Web Albums with backup copies on my iPod I will have peace of mind that I won't lose any precious moments.

Note: You do need a Google account to use Web Albums. Sign up for one here.

Once again, too much writing. Hope you enjoy this video.

Plugging TripAdvisor...It's That Good!

Yes! I am putting a plug on my blog for TripAdvisor.com without them knowing (I hope they don't get mad :)). The site is really that good! I first heard about this website through The Amateur Traveller Podcast, which is useful for tips and travel advice. Despite, the interviews being a little boring and awkward, they are informative.

Anyway, I was, and still am, very impressed with TripAdvisor.com. It has every attraction, a lot of hotels (and some hostels), a lot of restaurants and bars, and useful travel tips from around the world. I know what you're saying, "Well, there are many sites like that." However, this one is different. It has all the above rated and reviewed by fellow travellers, which is great for picking what to do and where to stay. In addition, there are candid pictures and videos uploaded from other users.

Other than the great community feel of the site, users can save any attraction, hotel, restaurant, or review in an organized way. I apologize for my poor description of the capabilities of the website but once you try it out, you will understand its potential. Finally, it has goLists, which are users' trips for anyone to view and possibly replicate. To be honest, I have only scratched the surface of what this site is capable of.

Before ending this post I want to fill you in on the changes to our trip. Recently we have cut out Greece, Austria, and possibly the French Riviera. We felt we were travelling to much and not giving certain cities the time they deserved. Therefore, we have given a few extra days to some of the originally planned cities. This will help keep our trip a vacation, more relaxed. I can only imagine that other travellers try to pack too much into a trip and I advise against it. Take the 'pack your suitcase and then take out half' advice and apply it to travel destinations (maybe half would be too much but you know what I mean).

This post and the last have been too much writing. Here is a brief video of a similar trip to mine.

Getting Around The UK

The Eurail pass is incredibly handy for travelling from city to city in Europe. However, the United Kingdom likes to be difficult and has presented travellers with a problem; what is the best way to get around the UK? Well, the answer didn't come easily but the three of us believe we have found the best way. Actually, the truth is that we can't take full credit; a good friend told us about the 'secret' rail line that runs in the UK. He lived in London for a year and thus, is always full of great tips.

The original thought was that we would take a train from London to Edinburgh, a train from Edinburgh to the coast, a ferry to Northern Ireland, and then a train to Dublin. In addition to the complexity of this plan, it is very expensive. A Britrail pass and ferry ride would have cost us about $350 each.

We knew there had to be a better option. Fortunately, there is one; the 'secret' rail line! The GNER (Great North Eastern Railway) offers discount trains from southern England to northern Scotland. A ticket from London to Edinburgh is going to cost us less than 20 GBP (~$40 CAD). We were ecstatic until we found out the train does not run to any cities that have ferries to Ireland.

To solve this problem we are taking a Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Dublin. I highly recommend this to everyone. Not only would our original plan have cost us a lot more but we would have lost precious time. By taking a flight we are giving ourselves more time and money; it is an $80 CAD, one-hour flight. All I have to say now is "nice try UK, but we have cracked your travel dilemma."

By solving the UK travel dilemma we are nearly finished planning our trip. Despite my desire to start my trip, I am saddened by the fact that the planning process is almost over. Don't get me wrong, I have been eagerly awaiting this trip for years but the planning process has been a great experience. It has presented challenges, fun, debates, and most certainly rewards, like saving over $200 in UK travel. All in all, every part of this trip has been extremely rewarding and I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience this.

Update (22/08/07): I booked the GNER train tickets today but I had to do it over the phone because the internet booking seems to only be for UK residents. It took me awhile to figure out how to make an international call but eventually I figured it out. If you're calling from Canada the number is 011-44-#. 011 is for an international call. 44 is the UK 'area code'. Finally, # is the phone number for the business you want to call; however, if the number starts with a 0, remove the 0. I may have just made it more complicated but it's not too bad.

European Electricity

Wow! European electricity is crazy! Well not really; I just needed a powerful first line to entice you to continue reading. But don't worry, I'll keep this post short. Despite how boring this topic is, and how much time I wasted researching, it is useful information for if you are bringing any electronics to Europe.

I'll start off by briefly talking about electricity. Around the world, electricity is classified by a voltage and a frequency. For residential purposes the voltage is between 100V and 240V at 50Hz to 60Hz. North America is 120V at 60Hz and Europe is generally 220V to 240V at 50Hz. Check the following link for a listing of all countries:

Voltage, Frequency, and Socket

It may sound complicated but a lot of electronic companies make their products compatible with a range of voltages and frequencies. You will need to check the power label on your electronics and compare it to the requirements of the countries you are visiting. For example, the picture below shows that my Canon battery charger will work on 100V to 240V and 50Hz to 60Hz. If an electronic fails you will need to buy a power converter.

Note: my iPod, Canon camera, and electric shaver do not need a power converter. However, I will still need socket adapters. Refer to the top link for the list of countries and their respective sockets.

Well, that's about all you need to know about European electricity. Here is another website that I found useful:

Electricity in Europe by About.com

Update (29/07/07): I just bought my adapters and it was a lot easier than I expected. I came in with a printout of each adapter I would be needing for each country. However, it turns out that there is really only 2 types needed for European travel; 1 for the UK and 1 for the rest of Europe. So, basically I was worrying about these adapters for no reason. I bought it from The Source (used to be Radio Shacks) and it comes in a nice light and compact set with 3 adapters (the other for North America/Australia).