Croatia pt 1

We actually made our train this time! We loaded on and got our own cabin. I started writing this letter/blog, but my computer decided to go from 10-0% battery in 30 seconds so I lost my start. This also left us with no music source because we later found out that my headphones connected to my ipod are about 10 times louder than her computer speakers. So she spent some time working on her blog and just lounged. We decided to play some cards and I tought her my favorite two person game of Egyptian Rat F***, or Egyptian War. She is still yet to beat me, and quite bitter about it. So we talked, played and enjoyed some hungarian red wine called Bulls Blood, this was another easy choice for us. We finally got into Zagreb after about 6 hours and had to find an internet hot spot to make contact with Frenchy.

We eventually did and he found us quickly. He knew a friend that lived in Zagreb who was with her friend. Frenchy had been busy all day tracking down a car for us to rent to take down south. He did a great job and found one the "Hot Wheels" that the European know as actual cars. I always look for the spot below steering wheel for you to put your feet down to push the car. So we all piled in to pick up some stuff from the store and head to the apartment he had rented for us. We all drank, danced and tuckered out pretty early because none of us had eaten dinner. The next day we got our selves together and hit the road for the Plitzvice Lakes National Park. Laura's friend had told her about them, and once I had seen them on the internet immediately decided that was a must stop on our way to split. We found a nice little apartment there. This is the best and most recommended form of accommodation in Croatia. You can get a 2br-3br apartment for $50-90/night. The place we were at was very quaint. It was this old house that looked like an old farm house but the interior was brand new with a new range, tv, leather couch and big jacuzzi in the bathroom. We went to the store and checked out the entrance to the park, but you have to pay to get in so we went back to the apt to eat some dinner and watch a move. It's funny, the tv had about 500 channels but the only ones that had any english were cnn international which you can only watch for about 30 min before the loop runs out, and MTV Germany. So it was nice for us to get our Jersey Shore fix. We crashed early and got ready for a big hiking day.

We rose and had croissants for breakfast and headed out to the lakes. You have to pay about $20 entrance to the parks but then all the trams and ferries are included which makes it more worth while. They have a bunch of different 'programs' or routes, ranging from short, 2-3 hours to walking the entire park which take about 8 hours. We decided to do track 3 which sees the whole thing but uses one ferry and takes a tram back. This park is one of the most majestic places ever and we saw it on an overcast and foggy day. We could only imagine what it would be like with nice weather. Basically you can see to the bottom of every lake with no sunlight so with any it must be jaw-dropping. The main park is made of about 18 lakes all connected by varying sizes of waterfalls. I mean it is really something that I shouldn't even bother trying to explain in words. The pictures barely do it justice. If any of you ever go to Central Europe and have any interest in Nature's beauty, this is a must see! We spent the day there and then headed back to the car to get on the road to Split. We got on the road, and the drive alone was beautiful. Another fun conversion is to look down on the spedometer and see 140-160.

We got down to Split in good time and we had to find a place to stay for the night. We drove around for a while and eventually tracked down a restaurant that had internet that let us use it for purchase of a round of beers. We ended up getting some food. One of the translation snafu's I've seen was on their menu however. One of the pizzas offered a topping of 'small pox' hahahahah. I feel like someone could make a lot of money by just going around restaurants and offering a quick, accurate translation for their English menus. But alas, I think they just don't give a shit. Anyway, the internet there kinda sucked but I eventually found a great place that was the same as most single hotel rooms and 2br apartments, that had 3 full bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, which is quite a luxury. So we ventured off to find the place. I made the reservation online and followed the directions to the check-in location. When I got there, it was about 11pm at this point but the site said check in went until midnight, I rang the bell and which was answered by barely old, barely dressed Croat. We struggled through our language barrier and I eventually became sure this was the right place. His wife got out of bed and greeted me as well. They were both very nice and she showed me the way to our place. Apparently the daughter and boyfriend live there when no one is renting it, so there was a crazy scramble for them to get the place clean. We continually reitereated that we were very easy going and they could take their time. They seemed to understand but continued to work at a feverish pace. We went to get our stuff find parking. We eventually got back and they were basically finished. We decided we liked the place and hate 11am checkouts so we negotiated over 30% off for the second night. We took a while to settle in and finally got our stuff together and we were all in the mood to go out and party. When we finally got ready, around 12am, the boyfriend of the daughter was still there and we asked him what was still open. He said not much. This was the truth. Keep in mind this was the day before a three day weekend for them, because the next day was their independence day, which we later found out no one cares about other than the shortened work day. We walked around and quickly found out how great of a location we had picked for our apartment. We were literally 2 min walk from the Riva, which is the marina in Croatian.

This is an amazing plaza strip right on the water full of outdoor seating for cafes and restaurants. Although there are many pockets of a pretty nasty sulfurlike smell. But you get kind of used to it. So we walked towards what we thought was the more 'centar' of the town. We didn't see much. We finally bumped into some locals that told us to go to Ohara a club that was open til 4. We were tired but basically committed at this point. Our first round of directions were pretty crappy and we ended up walking in a big circle for about 20min and then found some beligerant Croats sitting and drinking in front of a gas station. We got directions that were similar to the original ones, but we didn't really trust them. We then got better directions and followed those. They still weren't great but we eventually got down to the water and could hear/see it so we just walked down that direction. We eventually got there but it was about 2am by this point. Ohara, like so many other places in Europe was playing 80's music. This is another very funny thing to me. Apparently Europe didn't get the message that the 80's were kind of a joke, and although we play 80's music and have 80's nights, they serve more as a small halloween. We look at the decade as more of a farce, but damn do they take it seriously. One of the other things I find so interesting, and a bit frustrating, is the fact that basically everywhere you go, especially in Europe, you find at least some American resentment, yet all of their music, and most pop culture comes directly from us. So to me it's kind of like, "make up your minds" do you love us or hate us. Regardless, Ohara was a pretty cool place and there were some friendly people there. We stuck around for a bit but all of us were pretty beat from a long day and decided to walk back to the apartment.

The next day Arnaud and I got up a bit earlier than Laura and decided to go get some breakfast at the Riva. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and the view from the plaza at the Riva is hard to beat. We walked all along it, but surprisingly enough there are only a couple places that actually serve food. This is very common in Croatia and many other parts of Europe, business that exist solely on sales of coffee, and beer, and sometimes small pastries. How they survive, let alone turn a profit, is hard for me to imagine. Anyway, we ate our breakfast, which was the first omlette I had had since I arrove I think. It wasn't half bad either. We decided to check out the town and started exploring. The storefronts along the Riva are actually where the Diocletian palace once was. The foundation still exists, but it has been mostly turned into businesses now. It is still a gorgeous place to just explore. We stopped in a few shops, found a place that had croatian booze in small bottles, That you have to break open to drink. KInd of like a glass stink bomb if you've ever seen one of those. We indulged and they were quite delicious.We took a trip over to the ferry building because it housed the only market that was open past 1pm on the holiday and we needed to check out the ferry schedule because we all wanted to check out the islands. We did some shopping and headed back to the apartment. Laura was there waiting and we decided to plan our our next few days.

Budapest

So we finally arrived in Budapest, Hungary in the morning and went our separate ways. I had already made contact with a hostel, upon my brother's recommendation. So now I just had to find my way there., They had given me directions in the email exchange that were pretty direct and simple. Take the 7 or 173 bus, to the station right after going under the grey bridge, walk back under the bridge make a left and we are the third street on the right. What they didn't mention was it was really TWO lefts. Left under the bridge, and then left again. So before I figured that out I walked around for 30-45min trying to find this place. Finally I went to a cafe and asked nicely to use their internet, I had no money to buy anything at this point. I was able to bring up a map and find my way. Which reitereated the fact that if you give me a map I can basically find my way anywhere, but give my crap directions and not so much. But from the second I walked in I knew that this place was a great place. Thanks again Jonas for the amazing recommendation. The hostel, Backpack Budapest, or guesthouse as they like to call it was exactly what I had needed. Maybe not the cleanest or high tech place, but very family. From the second you walk in everyone, staff and guests all want to know who you are, where you're from, where you've been and where you're going. There's a very cool common room and kitchen. I had been staying in pretty nice hostels but none of them were very communal and I had had problems meeting people. Which has never been a problem for me in my life, so I was definitely a bit lost. But this really brightened up my European experience and it has been getting better ever since. So I immediately made a whole group of friends. The nice part about this place is the fact that almost all of the staff were guests at one point. It's just like being an involved customer before being a server or any other service job, it really brings an essential element to the service cycle. This place was so cool. All the different rooms had themes and murals. They had a backyard with a yurt and other sleeping areas, a campfire and a zen pond. They also had a great book and movie library, as well as acoustic guitars. Apparently every Aussie traveller knows how to play. Also they let you put your own music on or make requests for the sound system. I started speaking with a super friendly young welschman, Derry, and his new friend Melanie, an Aussie. They were both so nice and cute, I don't feel bad about saying that becasue they were both 19. God I'm old! We all went out to check out the amazing market open Mon-Sat right by the metro stop. I figured it would be nice to pick up and cook dinner for everyone so I made my specialty, pasta, with mushroom cream sauce with chicken and pancetta. Basically a carbanara without the egg yolk. We proceeded to pick up tickets to the Royal Hungarian Ballet's performance of Gone With The Wind. Yes that's right, I said I BOUGHT tickets to go see the ballet. A group of people from the hostel were all going and the tickets were only $5 so, why not. By the way, $5 is 1,000 furhint, the Hungarian currency. It takes a bit of getting used to when you get $4000, bar tabs etc. Sometimes dinner could be upwards of 10000 between a few people. We went to the ballet, which was at the National Opera house, which is gorgeous, my view on ballet was not changed, and considering the performance I feel no better way to articulate it by saying "Frankly my dear, I couldn't give a damn." I dozed a bit but fought through most of it. We went to a very cool art bar afterwards called Instant. It was a few differrent rooms with a larger more open room in the middle with many installations hanging from it. But it wasn't actually open air at all. Which brings me to another gripe with Europe, smokey bars and restaurants. I can't say I didn't know this was going to be the case, and even though it has some novelty, it wears off pretty quickly. As someone that's been known to enjoy a smoke or 4 when out drinking, I am so glad that you can't in bars in California. I mean, really, how hard is it to just go outside? I even prefer it, and that way you and everyone else, doesn't smell like an ashtray, can see and can breath next day. Eh, cost of doing business I guess, but seems pretty rational to me, at least during the non-winter months. Enough bitching, I have found that the more you concetrate on the bad elements the worse your entire trip seems. Well, I left instant a bit earlier, because the past two nights hadn't been sleep filled. Keep in mind, in Europe, leaving early is around 2-4am. I did decide to leave during the 3 hour window the Budapest metros don't run. So I trusted my sense of direction and started walking back towards the main stop by the market not too far from the hostel. My sense of direction is better than my since of distance because I arreved there probably about 45 minutes later and by that time just hailed a cab. Thankfully they have meters there, but mine seemed to be moving pretty fast. The important thing is, I got back home. I crashed. The next morning, most of my hostel mates were later to rise than I because they were out until 6 or so. I was very glad to have gotten some good sleep. We had decided the day before to go check out the City Park Baths. But after the nights activities only Derry, Melanie, and I made it out. Budapest is an amazing place. A gorgeous, friendly city. My favorite in Europe so far. Things are reasonably priced, and for the most part people are friendly. We got to the baths, and they were amazing. They are the largest public baths in all of Europe. They were built in and within a fortified building during the war in case budapest was attacked the citizens would have a place to bathe. They have a great 'proxy watch' system to get in and out and access and lock your lockers. It's a plastic band that has a chip in it that allows you to choose a locker, lock it and a display in the locker room to tell you which locker is yours in case you forget. Now most of you that know me well know about my dire oppostion to any type of public pool, hot tub, bath etc, but for I wasn't about to let that get in the way of this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am glad it didn't. The baths were wonderful. Within in the building there are probably over 25 different baths of different shape, size and temperature. They also house about 15 steam rooms and saunas. The temperature of some of the steam rooms would never be legal in the states. I LOVE steam rooms and I could barely last for 5 minutes in some of them. But man do you feel great coming out of them. Take a quck splash in the cold pool for a bit and then back to the lovely thermal warmth of the other baths. The you go outside to the massive courtyard with has 3 huge baths. The middle one was under construction but looked as if when it was functional would have been magnificent. We spent most of our time in the pool closer to the back. This was due to one amazing feature. The whirlpool, and I mean that in the literal sense. The pool basically had three main features. A great statue that had a continuous waterfall flowing from the base, large square jets that would push a strong stream of bubbles up from the floor of the pool, and the whirl pool. To imagine the whirlpool, picture a large built-in hot tub in the middle of the larger pool. The tub has a small entrance so as not to be a complete circle. Surrounding the inner area is a much larger ring also with a small entrance. About every fifteen minutes the jets would switch between the squares and the whirlpool and that is when the magic happened. The outer circle had about 8 jets that would pump high pressure water all in the same directions so if you just picked your feet up and floated it would fling you around circle. It's like the spa version of an astonaut's centrifuge training. It might not sound like that much fun, but when you saw the faces of all the adults that had the gall to step up and into the circle you would think otherwise. During one of the breaks I started a conversation with a woman traveller from Chicago, Laura. We instantly hit it off and soon after realized that we had just about identical travel routes both past and future. Although she is doing a full year and including the western part of the globe. We spent the next 4 hours acting childish while conversing like adults. It was an amazing day. By the time we got out we looked like prunes. Or my friend Mike Watson might call us the human version of Shrivels. We exchanged info and vowed to meet again down the line, which was basically inevitable because we were already going to be in the same place at the same time so often. Derry, Mel and I headed back to the hostel to figure out dinner. While we all said we wanted to go out, by the time we got back we were all so drained we decided to just stay in. Derry started a campfire and we just took it easy for the night. I crashed pretty early. Got up the next morning and headed out to the city to explore some more. I needed to try some of this amazing goulyas or goulash I had heard about. I went to the place the hostel recommended and was met with more amazing service. The waiter refused to serve me if all I was getting was the appatizer portion of the soup. I told him to fuck off and took my business elsewhere. I went and bought some various gifts for people and asked the nice lady there where she recommended. Ended up at a place called "For Sale." This was my kind of place. Big bowls of peanuts on the tables and ground littered with shells. Business cards, photos, brocures and other materials plastered the walls held up by tacks, tape and staples. They were more than happy to serve me the goulash, and for the equivilent of about $5.50 I was presented with a huge basket of bread, fresh paprika powder and spread, and a huge bowl of goulash with a ladel to serve into my smaller bowl. Easily a meal for two or three. It was delicious and I was left with another full meal. Laura decided to switch over to our hostel because we had spoke so highly about it and her's was a bit too crazy for her liking. So I headed back to meet her, coincidentally enough we ended up on the same train and headed over together. I got her settled and we both ended up taking a nap and catching up on emails etc. When we finally awoke our other dormmates had returned and we all wanted to go somewhere to try the Chicken Paprikash we had heard about. So we got ready and hit the town. We eventually settled on a place and 3/4 of us got the paprikash. It was very good, not amazing but maybe from a different place it would have been better. We were all feeling a bit under the weather so we decided to head back to the hostel for another quiet night. For Sophie (the dormmate) and myself that didn't end up happening. There were a bunch of people hanging out in the common room and we all were in the mood to have some fun. I decided to teach them the American drinking game of Kings. (old people you can google that one too). It got pretty heated and one of my new favorite rules is that you must end all or most sentences with "in my pants," give it a try for a second you'll see what all the fuss is about; in my pants. The next day I was planning on heading to Croatia to meet my highschool friend Arnaud, or Frenchy as he known outside of his home country. Our plan was to spend a night or two in Zagreb, and then head south to the beaches of Split and surrounding islands. He was coming from his current and original hometown of Paris. Laura was planning on going to Montenegro and then Croatia. Her directional and map-reading skills aren't the best and I informed her that it made more sense to do Croatia first becasue comng from the north it's on the way to Montenegro, she agreed and decided to tag along, and we both had new travel buddies. We went to the train station to catch the 1:30 train to Zagreb, we were cutting it close and had to scramble to get there on time, but it ended up the train was actually a 1 o'clock train not 1:30 so it didn't really matter. We decided we would just catch the 5pm train and walk around the city some more. We made sure we got back to the station with plenty of lead time just to be safe. We got back early enough that Laura decided to challenge one of the chess masters at the train station. I think we all know how this was going to end up, but she only lost 200, which is $1usd. Meanwhile I was keeping a close eye on the board to see which platform our train was on. Usually they tell you 20 min before hand yet our 5:00 train still didn't have a platform at 4:50. Finally they put Track 7 up on the board and we hustled over there. The train had a Budapest-Zagreb sign on it. So we got on, we quickly found out that train had just come from Zagreb and we had somehow missed the one that just left for Zagreb. This one was really not our fault, and got me very bitter towards the train system I had grown to love. Anyway, we were both pretty fed up and frustrated at that point we decided to just find a place close to the train station to make the next day easier. Our budgets vary slightly, her's is a bit bigger, but she has a longer trip. She is a bit older and used to nice accommodations so she was somewhat hosteled-out. So we agreed to go the boutique hotel we found, she would treat to hotel, I would treat to dinner. I definitely came out a bit ahead. So we got settled in. It was kind of funny because our respective beds were even smaller than the hostel beds, anywhere. But it's always nice being able to take a shower without your sandals on. We spent that evening getting to know each other better. She is a great person we have very similar travel interests. The funny thing is, is that likely in our normal lives we are two completely different people. She's 34 and got fed up with her coporate lawyer job, and it's demanding hours, and decided to travel the world for a year. I'm a 24 year-old recent grad, basically a slacker that said F*** it why not? But it's worked out really well because we both have a lot to learn from eachother and offer as far as travel skills go. We spoke with reception about dinner options and he gave us two close options. One of them was a very Jewish name, so us both being MOTC had an easy decision, and a great decision it was. We had one of the best meals of either of our trips. I had a wild boar ragu that was out of this world and she had.... I'll add later, something that was served with bacon wrapped grean beans. Both stuffed we headed back to the room to call it a night. We decided to make full use of the room and catch the second train to Zagreb instead of getting up around 6am.

Train to Budapest

I went to the Prague train station early because the Eurorail guide said I needed a reservation, and if you want a sleeper cabin you have to pay extra/reserve it anyway. I told the woman I had a Eurorail pass and she said I just needed a reservation. So I bought the sleeper space and walked around Prague for the rest of the day. Went back to the train station around 10 or 11, and got on my train and started a very interesting journey. First of all, like most people in the service industry in Europe, our 'attendant' didn't quite get the concept of service. I don't know what they call it out here, but it seems to me that unless you are at a very high-end place, the idea of service with a smile does not exist. Anyway, our attendant, who did later become more helpful, was basically one of the shadiest looking guys you could possibly imagine. We later dubbed him igor or quasimoto. He literally had chameleon eyes, by that I mean they operated individually from eachother. I got put in three person sleeper cabin with two other Ameicans from around Cincinatti. We all had Eurorail passes, but what the woman didn't tell me, and what Eurorail didn't tell them was that the overnight from Prague to Budapest went through Slovakia, which doesn't accept Eurorail passes. So as we are all trying to just get a straight answer from anyone about what we needed to do to make sure we didn't get kicked off the train in Bratislava at 3am in the rain, with no avail, we were met with answers of, "I don't know" and "moment please." By the time we could finally get some attention the train had already taken off and we were along for the ride regardless. Also, this was made more hectic by my brothers experience of being robbed on the same train route, and the fact that conductors will rip you off. So all we want to do is at least find out how much it was supposed to cost so we didn't get taken. And like I said earlier, if you saw our attendant on the street, you wouldn't let him watch your pet rock even if it was locked up. So we just kinda figured at least we were all in the same boat and worst case scenario we'd all be safe. We met another very forward woman, who apparently was much a more seasoned traveller. She some how managed to get a full cabin with a full bathroom and shower to her self. We had a few beers and she professed her love of removable showerheads and that we might not see her all trib because she had one in her cabin... NIce to meet you too. A bit later, Igor, who now that everyone was boarded and settled became a bit friendlier and helpful. This could also have been due to the fact that we tipped him for the beers though. He came buy and told us that our tickets should cost about 30 euro, and we could buy them at the station in Bratislava even though it would be the middle of the night. One of the guys in my cabin didn't quite get the concept that when people buy an overnight train they are likely trying to sleep with some peace and quiet, but he eventually settled down, and we were all able to doze off for a bit. It wasn't the best sleep ever because I basically woke up every stop wondering if now was the time to get tickets. We finally got to Bratislava and Igor was nice enough to come get us, walk us down to the ticket desk and translate for us. So all in all I could've caught the day train and spent less money for a hostel, but it wasn't the end of the world. What really struck all of us, which goes back to the lack of service, and willingness to help I've encountered in Europe, is the fact that none of the people working on the train had any idea what was going on. Or they just didn't want to tell us. But I mean, come on, are you telling me you've never encounterd this problem before on the train you work on? We just wanted to know, what are options were and whether there was a chance we would be kicked off. None of us had cash, only card, and I had travellers checks. By the way, the rumors are true, only old people use travellers checks, and they are more trouble than they are worth if you are mindful of your belonings.

Prague

I hopped on my train to Prague which was set up in 6 person cabins, 2 rows of 3 seats facing eachother. I walked most of the train looking for an empty or mostly empty one and eventually found one with only one other person in it. On trains like this it's actually a calculated decision, because sometimes it's better to look for other travellers or meet people heading to the same city as you. At this point i felt I would rather keep to myself and try to fully recover from Oktoberfest. We ended up having one other person in our cabin, but for the last two hours of my journey I had it to myself. However, on an old train in the dark, heading to central Europe this can be a little creepy.

Anyway, I made it to Prague in one piece. I guess I should've checked the weather report because it was raining there and I was still wearing my shorts. It was about 11:30pm by this point. The Prague train station is not the nicest or most welcoming place at night. In fact I kind of felt that way about much of Prague. It is a fairly dark city, with lots of gothic or neo gothic architecture. I had only booked a hostel for the next night because I thought there was still a chance that I would travel with Erin and Kim around Germany for a bit longer, but they left before I could get a hold of them, which also left me lugging around my trachten.


Anyway, I actually found my hostel, which was on a side street, and I had no idea where in relation to everything else at this point. It ended up I was quite close to the main areas of the city, which is actually quite small. THANKFULLY, someone was still at reception because they usually leave at 10pm and it was 11:30ish at this point. He did have an extra bed for me at the same good rate so I took that one and went to sleep. The next day I got up, got myself acquainted with the city, and eventually met up with Bill and Katie. We walked the St. Charles bridge and headed up to the Prague Castle. Both of which are full of amazing statues and architecture. We decided we'd do the Prague pub crawl that night, so we went back to our respective lodgings and got changed and ready.

We met back up got a quick bite and started on the crawl, which I enjoyed much more than the Amsterdam one. We apparently had two different Contiki (a young person's travel agency) groups with us that were mostly Aussies and boy do they get rowdy. I did meet a pretty tame one named Tim, and we plan to meet when I head down to Sydney. I will say, Prague did live up to its reputation of having an amazing night life. I would be even more curious to see it on a weekend or in the summer. There are literally bars on every block. Even more than starbucks in the states. We finished the crawl at the 'largest club in Central Europe', a five story dance club right next to the St. Charles bridge. I was tired at this point being very used to the 2am cut off of California, and only stayed for until 3 or 4, and headed home.

Woke up and had to decide to whether to stay in Prague for another night or head to my next destination which was likely Budapest or Vienna. I had to check out by 11 and my hostel had a very nice lobby with WiFi and a big tv, so I actually got caught up on some world news. I also didn't feel too bad about staying in because I had walked around Prague for basically all of the last two days. The nice part was I met two guys from Boston while sitting there. They were spending their last night in Prague before heading to Munich for the last weekend of Oktoberfest. I gave them a bunch of pointers and recommendations which they appreciated, and they asked if I wanted to tag along with them for the day. I obliged considering I hadn't been doing a great job of meeting other travelers. Bill and Katie offered for me to stay with them as well, bc they were in a nicer hotel that had a futon. I was planning on doing that but Derrick and (oops I kinda forgot his name) we'll call him Jeff, offered to let me crash on the cot they had in their room in the hostel, which other than the dorm I was in was mostly private rooms. I accepted, met them up there and dropped my stuff off. We went out to some shopping. We asked the girl at reception where a good place a bit out of the city was to do some shopping and she gave us a few ideas.

Apparently she was unclear on the concept of wanting to shop for stuff you couldn't get in states and sent us to a shopping mall full of american stores. Anyway, it gave a good amount of time to get acquainted with eachother, and they were both really good guys and were a lot of fun to party with. I we exchanged stories about our travels leading up the there and I told them about the pub crawl I had done the night before. and the one bar I had really liked because it had everything, a dance club, multiple lounges and even a room with girls dancing on the bar. Their ears perked up like excited puppies and we had a plan for the night. We got some food and did some more shopping, we all ended up getting some cool canvas prints of St. Charles bridge and cityscape. We ended up negotiating about a 30% discount from what was originally asked, but somehow in Europe you always walk away feeling like you got ripped off.

Anyway, As we got to know eachother over many drinks, I thought of a different plan for my trachten because Dennis wasn't sure he was going to buy any, whereas Jeff was. Jeff was much smaller than me and Dennis a bit taller but pretty similar build. When I had originally met them I offered to sell them to him because I didn't care that much and I could already tell that Europe was going to kill my budget. But I figured there was a way for us to both come out ahead. So I offered to let him use my outfit for his trip, if he was willing to ship it and the painting back to SF for me which would be much cheaper than me shipping it from Europe or him buying his own, so it was a win-win. We ended up having a pretty late night, which was worse for them because they had a 7am train to catch, but I was able to sleep in because I was taking the overnight train to Budapest. Now I just have to hope he follows through... I spent the rest of the day hanging out and walking around Prague for the last time.

Munich

I arrived in Munich or Munchen, after a long train ride, my first international one, which was a learning experience. We transfered in Frankfurt and my second leg was spent next to a very nice German banker.I got into Munich pretty late and was pretty tired from the train, so I headed to my hostle/hotel (beause I had a private room, but was still my least favorite so far. I wanted to get a good rest in for a long day of Oktoberfest the next day. I was meeting my friend Erin from SF in Munich for the festivities as well. She was travelling with her sister who is currently living in Sweden.

Friday was a bit hectic in the morning. I ran around trying to find some good trachten (lederhosen) for Ok'fest, which I figured would be much cheaper in Munich where they are made and the only place they are really worn. This is not the case, they are all incredibly expensive starting at 165Euro accross the board. I ended up talking the guy I ended up buying them from down a lot, but still was much more than I had planned. My other concern was getting them back home, because they are quite bulky and heavy. But I spoke with Erin and she said she could take them back with her in her suitcase. So I figured I could either try to sell them to another traveler expecting the same thing as I, or they will make a good a costume for years to come, and when I eventually return to Ok'fest which is definitely happening. Anyway, I finally got my hosen, changed and headed to the fair.

I was supposed to meet Erin and her sister around noon or one, but they ended up deciding to wait for the person they were staying with to get off work. This was also made much more difficult by not having a cell phone. I looked around for one, but apparently it's not as easy to get a quick, prepaid phone in Germany as it is in the US. I will definitely be getting one while I am in SE Asia and Australia though. It's kind of ridiculous for such a new technology, but it's very hard to live without especially if you are trying to meet people you are not staying with. But on to the fun part. I headed to the fair grounds and WOW, Oktoberfest is like a whole other world. Probably the greatest party in the whole world. Imagine Great America (or whatever your best local amusement park is), on steroids and crack, where literls of beer flow like polar ice caps into the ocean in Al Gore's wettest dream. I found some room at a table with a mix of people and proceded to enjoy the Augustiner beer and oompah versions of Country Roads, Que Sirah Sirah, and other classics, including the official cheersing song that is played basically between and during every song. Suffice to say I 'prosted' more people than Woody, Sam, and Norm all combined, (all you young people reading this, google it). But it's such a fun-loving environment and everyone at a table and any surrounding table basically immediately becomes family. Oh, and the food is amazing. The chicken, yes the chicken, is literally some of the best I've ever had (I said some of the best,mom). You can get whole roast duck, pig knuckle, weisswurst (veal sausage), oh and did I mention, one liter beers? By noon or one basically everyone is three sheets to the wind, dancing on tables and hugging everyone in sight. Eventually Erin, and her companions made it to the party and we found eachother after some missed connections. By that time basically all the table even more full than my stomach with brau. We hung around the side of the table section and after some convincing and tipping, I convinced the waitress to serve us (usually you have to be at a table).

Speaking of the waitresses, they put American cocktail waitresses to SHAME. Most the ladies in the States pull attitude if one person is kind of in their way and they have two drinks on their tray. The fraulines, most of which are over 30 or 40,some even in their 50's or 60's, walk around with anywhere from 7-12 steins of beer fighting their way through drunken Germans and tourists alike. Keep in mind, the steins themselves are heavy and when full of beer they likely way 2-4 pounds each. Like I said, step up your game cocktailers... I only lasted til about 8 or 9, and headed back to my room and instantly fell asleep.

Saturday was rainy and was supposed to be crazy because it's the biggest day of the weekend because no one has work the next day or has to come from work like on Friday. That and it was Italian weekend, and no one likes Italians... So I decided take it easy and spent most of the day in my room and walking around the Bayern Strasse area. I did meet a very cool couple from Toronto while doing some much needed laundry. They were enjoying the festivities and heading to Prague next as well. We exchanged info and planned on meeting up the next day to get an early start on Ok'fest so we could good table. I took it easy and went to sleep early. The streets of Munich late after Oktoberfest is winding down are definitely a sight to see in themselves.

Sunday we headed off to the party around 10:30am and got an awesome table right in front of the stage in the Spaten tent. Oh, one thing I haven't mentioned, is that this was the 200th Anniversary of Oktoberfest, which made it that much more memorable and crazy. The spaten tent was much more lively than the Augstiner tent and the band played some great renditions of some classics. One of my favorites was 'Alice" and old Irish drinking song (do they have any other kind, well U2 I guess). "Who the fuck is Alice?" You might ask, well you all can google that one. We were joined by a group of Germans at our table one was a very nice guy named Christian. Seeing as we started at 10:30 in the morning I only lasted til about 9pm this day as well. Well actually, the Canadian couple, Bill and Katie, and I went to look for a bar in the Marienplatz area known as the "international porn cow." Can you blame us? Seeing as none of had really been anywhere other than the fair grounds we had some trouble finding it, ended up walking in circles for a bit, and then giving up. We headed back towards our hotels and I called it a night.

I woke up the next morning feeling like, hmmmmm, well what's the opposite of a million bucks, the american economy I guess.... Anyway, I realized quickly that replacing your water intake with 7-9 liters of beer doesn't lead to the most fun mornings. I eventually got myself together, paritally because I had to check out. My train didn't leave til the afternoon and I decided to try to make something of my last day in Munich. I really should have done this on my first day in the city.

I found one of the "pay as you wish" walking tours. Basically these guys work completely off tips so you can pay as much as you think the tour was worth. I'm not sure about all the other tour guides, but my guy defintely earned his money. He was a Scot named Iian. He was, fun, informative and an all around nice guy. He did a great job of mixing the history in with tips for your current stay. But it made me realize that doing a walking tour is a good idea to do on the first day or beginning of your stay in a particular city because there was tons of information I could have used during my stage. It also made me realize, that other than its less than friendly past (it was the birthplace/headquarters of the third reich), Munich is an amazing and gorgeous city. So I did the tour, got an amazing pork sandwich from the market and headed back to the train station.

Amsterdam

My flight to Amsterdam was delayed an hour and one of the beligerantly drunk Englishmen (somewhat redundant I know) wasn't allowed the board the plane. Flight went smoothly and I arrived at the Am'dam airport around noon. Took the train to the main city train station. I fouund my way to my hostel which was very large and well maintianed. The one thing I noticed about the hostel was that there were so many young kids. Apparently there were a few school trips there, which to us would be like taking a field trip to Las Vegas, which likely wouldn't fly in the States. I went out on my own for a bit, got some food and headed back to the hostel. I met some cool travelers around my age at the hostel bar. They were all doing a eurotrip from Rhode Island. We all hit the town, and made it a very 'Amsterdam' night. I'll leave it at that.The next day they had all taken off for their next destination so I walked around the city a bit and ended up doing a guided pub crawl that night. It was fun, but nothing special, I met a couple girls from Canada, but ended my night prety early because I had to make an afternoon train to Munich. I woke up, checked out and headed to the train station, but had to stop and have some of Amsterdam's famous fries and mayo. If I could compare any European city that I have been to, to San Francisco, for obvious and more nuanced reasons.

London

I started my journey flying into Heathrow Airport in London. I immediately got introduced with European public transportation, which for the most part, puts American municipal transport to shame. I found my way close to my friend Mikey's neighborhood. Mikey is a friend of my good friend Molly, and she was kind enough to host me for my time in London (including my originally planned return) which was so nice of her, considering lodging and just about everything in London is very expensive. Her and her husband Peter have a cute one bedroom apartment not far from the main downtown area of London, I forget the area's name right now, something that ends in a 'worth I think. They made my first night abroad a memorable one.

We met up with Peter's sister Hanka (they are both Norwegian, I think.....), we went and got some food and proceded to finish a couple bottles of delish wine. We wasted little time and went out to hit the town. We ended up on Brick Lane, which is an Indian or Middle Eastern neighborhood with a lot of cool shops and bars. In introduced Hanka and Mikey to getting 'Iced' (all you old people reading this, google it). We proceded to different club where one of Mikey's friend was hosting a fashion show. Someone not raised in San Francisco would have likely found this show a bit shocking, but being having seen a few pride parades, and foslcom street fairs, I'm well versed in leather and latex. The rest of the night continued in about the same nature it started, suffice to say it was not a short night, and Peter didn't make it to work the next day.

The next day was spent mostly recovering on the couch and adjusting to the time difference. I did manage to get up later to meet my Mom's colleague and someone I consider a freind now, Vic. She is probably my Mom's 'hippest' friend, and is always a blast to hang out with although this was much more of tame night than we have had in the past. I met her closer to her house, in the area of Wapping Wall. We ate dinner at a water treatment plant, which doesn't sound great to begin with but this an old one that had been remolded and turned into a restaurant and art gallery. It was one of the most amazing interior designs of a restaurant I have seen. The food, Vic said, was not quite up to its usual standards but was still quite good and free so that's always a plus. We both decided to take it easy that night and I headed back home on London's amazing train shead tystem. The next day, Peter and Mikey both headed to work early and I headed off to London City Airport to head to Amsterdam.

Precursor

I know I have been slacking on keeping people updated on my travels thus far. For that I apologize. I figured I would be spending more time on trains, and during those times I would feel like writing email/blogs. As it turns out, both of those assumptions were wrong. I have been on five trains so far, Amsterdam-Munich-Prague-Budapest-Zagreb. Honestly, on the trains I spend most of my time trying to sleep, talking with other people, or enjoying the scenery. So now I have an opportunity to take some time to give a longer update, so here goes.

First of all, as many of you have heard, I am leaving Europe a few weeks early. I have truly enjoyed almost every minute of my time out here, but Europe is not the cheapest of places and my budget is quickly depleting. Also, from the start of my planning, I was always most excited for the SE Asia and Australia leg anyway. This is also upon the referal of many friends, colleages etc. As the GM of my restaurant put it, Europe is not going to change much over the next few years, however, SE Asia's tourism economy has steadily grown which will likely affect the land and culture immensely over the next decade or so. So when I have time and money soon, my first trip will likely be back to my favorite parts of Europe and the places I didn't make it to, especially France and Spain.

Europe was a good warm up for the rest of my travels too. I have never done any serious travelijng before and figured the idea was to see as many places as possible. I have since realized that, although that may work for other people, I find it much more enjoyable to find a place and make it my home for a week or so. I am so excited to find a nice beach and bungalow in Thailand and spend a good chunk of time doing as little as possible. Enough about the future, let me review my travels thus far.