The final countdown (how original)

Ok so I believe the last time we spoke I was in Tirana waiting for my 5pm overnight bus to Athens? So 5 oclock rolls around and I jump on the bus expecting it, like most other buses in Eastern Europe, to be fairly empty. Not so, it would seem that since Tirana is an inaccessible place it has fuck all buses running out of it...so I was jammed into this bus like a sardine (a sardine stuck beside a really fat snoring sardine) as we headed off on what I thought was a direct bus to Athens, turns out it was in fact a touring bus for the "tour of the biggest fuck off shiny potholes in all of eastern Europe" so every time I would get close to being in some sort of doze not so far off sleep I would get a massive smack on the side of the head from a pane of glass! So this continued all the way out of Albania (which is a cool country despite this) until we reached the Greek border. Now all the buses that I have been on before you just pass you passport to the front and someone takes them away and checks them, but no not this time, we all had to climb off the bus at 2 in the morning in the middle of nowhere and go through customs, ahwell no biggy...except that as you may remember I wasnt meant to be in Albania without a Visa in the first place. Now I had assumed that although I didnt have a visa that the border guards on the way in had just pretended like I did, unfortunately not, they had just stamped my passport but never entered me into the system. So obviously this created some suspicious confusion for the Greek border controls! "How can he be leaving Albania when he has never entered in the first place?" It took a bit of explaining until I finally convinced them that the easiest way to sort it would be just to turn a blind eye and stamp me out. So by all computer records I was never in Albania, but I was..honestly. Im not sure where I was officially for those days but I suspect I was still in Macedonia. So after making it through border controls and having half the shit pulled out of my backpack I made it into Greece and we carried on some not soooo bumpy roads. After a while a few people emptied off and I was able to claim two seats to myself and have a somewhat okish sleep. Made it to Athens about 9am and thought I should probably head straight to Patras to book for the ferry since I wasnt sure what time I would be taking it. Had the same troubles with the train to Patras as Nicholas had, it seemed from speaking with the ticket person that the train was direct to Patras when infact it only went part way then you have to jump on a bus and then get another train...but made it eventually. On the way we passed all these beautiful beaches and small Greek towns and as it was quite warm I was really looking forward to arriving in Patras so I could maybe dip my feet in the sea or something. Turns out Patras is a shithole full of empty buildings and gangs of unfriendly looking people. What a shithole, but perhaps its nicer during the peak season? So booked a ferry which left at 11.59pm all the way from Patras to Venice so it was all good. However the time was only about 2.30pm when I booked so had 9 hours or so in the shittiest unfriendliest place in all of Greece. Found the info centre had free internet so spent a bit of time there but then resigned to buying some horrendously overpriced food and sleeping in the ferry terminal for a bit. Managed to make it to 11pm when we were meant to be boarding without chewing my arms all the way off only to be told that it was running late and wouldnt arrive until 1am. Fuckin Greeks. Pissed me off no end but I had no choice but to sit and argue with my thoughts for a couple of hours more. Once on the ferry I lay down my sleeping bag in the empty seated area and had a pretty good sleep which probably isnt that surprising since I hadnt slept really for quite a while. I had packed a bag of chips for my 2 day journey (I blame it on lack of sleep) so after a day I was pretty bloody starving. However I refused to buy any of the food from the restaurant because I was looking at a $30 bill for a bit of dry roast chicken and a couple of potatoes...then another $6 for a fucking coke! However eventually I gave in and ate it, a enjoyed it even less than I would of since I knew how much it cost! The rest of the ferry journey was pretty uneventful, in fact so uneventful that I shaved after more than a month of avoiding it. Got to Venice on the 28th of Jan after leaving Patras on the 26th. Found my way to the train station and jumped straight on a train to Stuttgart which cost me $65 or so just to reserve seats! However on the way to Stuttgart there was a few problems and long story short met up with Donny in Munich instead which was cool. Went and had a beer at the Hofbrauhaus which is where Hitler sort of made his very first Nazi speech thing (Im sure ill get Donny correcting me on that, dickhead) so that was pretty sweet anyway, and cost bugger all because even though for a 1litre stein it was about $20 and me and Donny had 3 each it only ended up costing us each about $10 including food since this awesome OZ (I know its a paradox(?) OZ and awesome, but he was) guy insisted on paying for most of it since we were poor travellers, so he threw down $250 and shook our hands and left! The next day Donny and I took a daytrip to Nuremberg which was the propoganda headquarters for the Nazi movement and where all the really big rallies were held and stuff, it was really awesome (once again Im sure Ill get Donny correcting me, he really is a knob) and we played on a sweet frozen lake for a bit. That night Donny headed to Berlin and I finally headed to Stuttgart and met up with Kerstin. Spent the night talking with her and her boyfriend Wolfgang then hit the hay. The next day we went for a longass bike ride which almost killed me to this castle/summer residence up a big hill which was pretty awesome and had cool views of Stuttgart. That afternoon Kerstin and I went to the Mercedes museum which was awesome and had cars all the way from ages ago right up to the car which one the Formula 1 last year. It also had a whole bunch of general history which was wicked. The following day we had a look around town and stuff and that night headed out for a beer at a local micro brewery sort of place. Stuttgart is a really nice city, sort of the same as Dunedin in that its surrounded by hills with the city in the middle. So I enjoyed my last night in Stuttgart then the next day headed to Munich again and found a hostel and spent the night getting horribly drunk on 1euro beer and chatting up all sorts of ladies haha. So the morning of the 2nd of February 2009 I bid a fond farewell to Europe for my first time and boarded a plane to the US of A! But not before making the biggest douchebag mistake ever. There was an exchange place which had the exchange rate for NZ dollars at .70 Euro which is almost twice what it really is, but instead of exploiting this and making tons of money I decided I should point out that they were wrong. Which I wasnt even thanked for! Fucking exchange places owe me shitloads of money anyway with their shitty fees and stuff! I worked out that with the $800 I had left I could have easily made $200 with 1 exchange even with their shitty markups! Ahwell we live and we learn that honesty is not always the best policy. Had a pleasant flight with Lufthansa since I seemed to be the only one on the plane with 2 seats to myself (I think its because I winked at the lady checking me in) and they had inflight entertainment which is rare for Lufthansa by the sounds of things! Ther was shitall movies still but I watched Ghosttown which was pretty good though turned quite girly! Arrived in San Fran at 7pm and spent like 2 hours going through fucking customs. (Just gave myself a fucking heart attack thinking for a second that my flight today actually left at 12pm, but its ok it does leave at 7pm like I though) American customs sucks nuts, they wanted all sorts of proof of onward journey and blah blah but made it eventually and found my way to my hostel not a problem and went to sleep. The next day was wicked it was super hot and I immediately regretted wearing jeans (which I had learnt to do in Europe even when it looked nice outside) but anyway I walked all the way from my Hostel to Fishermans Wharf/Pier 39 and then on to the Golden Gate bridge which on my map looked like it was fairly close. Turns out its about 15km away...stupid out of proportion map. But it was worth it, San Francisco is by far the most beautiful city Ive been too, it doesnt compete with Sarajevo on just plain love for it but as far as looks go its tops. Saw all the famous stuff like cable cars and Alcatraz (though only from a distance) and got some 1litre bottles of powerade for only $2nzd each which was about the only cheap thing around! By the time I arrived back at the hostel I was buggered having been up since 5.30am or something (stupid Jetlag) but it was free beer night so I figured Id just have a wee lie down and then get up and partake. Woke up at 10.30 so a bit late, went back to sleep and slept till 5.30am the next day! Went for another walk around and went to the free day at the exploratorium which was wicked, full of cool hands on sciency stuff and was inside an old castley thing in some nice gardens so was wicked for free, except that it was full of stupid american kids who have no problems pushing infront of you to play with cool stuff that you were clearly playing with first. I think theyre worse than NZ kids! After that did some shopping for souvenirs. If you do happen to get a present it will probably be from San Francisco since I now know I can buy stuff without having to lug it around for ages. Slept some weird hours again and got up yesterday and booked a trip to Alcatraz which was wicked. Not much to say about it but Ill show photos, it was cool. Had a fairly crazy night last night with icecream and coke then went to bed. For my last day I just plan to check out the shops once more and see if I want to buy anything for anyone then get some candies and stuff then head to the airport. See most of you folk shortly. And yeah San Fran rocks, if I was offered a job I would move here tomorrow!

East is still de best!

Ok...so the night that we found the wicked wee pub in Sarajevo turned out to be a pretty awesome night partying it out with the locals and had a good chat with this guy who was about 75 or something and was telling us all about Bosnian life etc..then informed us that he could snap our arms in 2 seconds, which he would do if we touched him again. He seemed to be semi-joking but we made sure not to upset him just incase :D So eventually, being rather responsible (or because the bar was closing) we decided we should head back to our hostel and get some sleep. I was awoken at 4am by a rather calm Donny who informed me that there was no way that we were going to make our 6am bus since we had no idea how to get to the bus station and our bags werent even packed! Luckily we had found out the night before that there was actually more buses leaving from a different bus stop later in the day! So we went back to sleep for a while then got up and had some stale bread and jam, which is the hostels breakfast specialty! Made our way around the town one last time and went to say goodbye to Nicks "Jersey" friend at the bank but unfortunately he wasnt there which only added to Donnys depression (you may remember he was already depressed about his fiance). Managed to make it to our busstop without too many dramas and settled in for a nice long bus ride to Belgrade. Arrived Belgrade with directions to a hostel and everything but after wandering for a bit decided on a nice cheap hostl right near the bus/train station and dropped off our bags and crap. Got some din dins, grabbed a couple of bottles of Pivo and settled in for the night to watch some Underbelly (which is actually a really good series and quite funny too so would recommend). The following day we decided that we would just go for a random adventure around the city with no real plans. First place that we stumbled upon was a rather nice Orthodox church, which was cool but really just another church. Oh and on the way we got to see first hand why you shouldnt fuck with America, half bombed out buildings in the middle of the main street. A real reminder of what happened and the fact that it wasnt all that long ago. After the church we spotted some signs pointing towards a Citadel which we had read about so were fairly interested in and started to head in the general direction of it,not really knowing how far away it was or even what a Citadel really was for that matter. We decided that it must have been a Salvation Army band like the one Sammy played for in Wellington. On the way I decided that Belgrade was a pretty cool city. Sandra found some sweet boots on the side of the road which she decided to keep and we saw a market with tanks of huge fish which were still alive though crammed together like sardines (I dont think they were Sardines). After a while of walking decided to stop for a coffee at a very suave looking cafe. Inside I felt terribly underdressed since everyone else was a business person wearing a suit. Sandra needed to toilet so buggered off for a minute and returned with a pocketfull of chocolates and a look on her face which could only mean one thing..thats right, heated toilet seats and a sprayer to wash your ass! This was all very exciting but did make me and Donny slightly concerned about whether we would be able to afford the coffees which we had ordered without looking at the prices! So to make sure that we got out moneys worth Donny and I both made (separate) trips to the toilet and filled out pockets with Chocolates and a free condom on the way out! We neednt have worried because in the end the coffees only set us back about 1euro (or less) each! We decided that the cafe was awesome and that we were the richest people in Belgrade! We continued on our merry way to the Citadel stopping for a quick see-saw and the occasional Coke (which is stupidly/addictively cheap). The citadel was awesome...basically its like a big old fortress sort of thing and we climbed around on the walls for a bit and sledded in the snow before making our way inside. There were a whole bunch of old tanks and stuff which we probably werent meant to play on (especially since we had already been told off for climbing on the walls) but we played anyway and got some sweet photos of us inside them and stuff. Twas a really cool place. Spent a while more looking around taking some photos and shit before wandering back into town. Got some roasted chestnuts which I had seen everywhere, turns out theyre shit so we gave them to a lady at the travel agencies where we asked something and probably didnt get a coherent answer to. Eventually made our way back to the hostel once again making the most of Donnys excellent navigational skills and Sir Edmund Hillary based explainations and encouragements. I think we got some more Pivo and watched some more Underbelly before Donny jumped on a bus to escape us (which took him to Podgorica with no hostels or anything haha) Spent the rest of the night watching and drinking. The next day Sandra and I awoke to the scary realisation that we were now alone without Nick to navigate for us...but we werent worried. Enquired about buses and trains for that evening (16/1) then headed out around the city again. Bought some energy mints which are full of Caffeine and Guarana and ate a whole pack of them which seemed like a good idea at the time..and there were no warnings on them..well not in English anyways. Stumbled upon the Tessla museum. Turns out this guy was super smart and invented all sorts of stuff (which apparently youre not meant to touch, which I found out after turning on some big electric thing and getting in trouble) the tour of the museum was really interesting and oddly enough I learnt a lot. After the museum we headed off to find the sweet wee coffee shop from the day before. Had some lunch and suddenly started feeling really weird...our hearts were racing and our limbs felt numb and crazy...this is about the time we realised that a whole pack of energy pills probably wasnt the best idea. We left to get some freshair but only started feeling worse! It was like being drunk and not in control of your body ( Sandra was also getting weirdly paranoid and freaking out) decided it was time to head back to the hostel...but we didnt know which way it was. So asked a guy who proceeded to lead us for about 20 minutes through heavy traffic at a blistering pace. Was not a lot of fun when youre not feeling in control of your body. As we were walking along I suddenly lost control of my legs which freaked me out a bit as I almost collapsed in a heap on the pavement...I was getting a bit worried until I asked Sandra if she had the same thing and she had...so turns out we had stepped in an electric puddle and both having we feet and jeans had been slightly electrocuted. Sandra being in her state of mild paranoia suddenly remembered all these horror stories about people collapsing up to 24 hours after being electrocuted and tried to talk me into going to hospital haha. But eventually we caught a tram back to the hostel relaxed and watched some more underbelly without dropping dead. We decided we had bad luck since Donny left and had obviously disrespected Tessla in some way so had been punished accordingly with electricity. Managed to catch our overnight train to Thessaloniki, Greece in search of some warmer weather, relatively hassle free. During the night some lady came into our cabin and made some weird hand gestures and yelled some stuff at us while we just nodded, she later returned with a couple of big bags of stuff which she put under our seats before disappearing again. We were too afraid to touch them, thereby inciminating ourselves with fingerprints so just sat there bemused until she returned a few hours later to retrieve them. As she was doing so a train conductor turned up and questioned her, so she took out her purse and (we can only assume) paid the bugger off. We came to the conclusion that we had just helped some old lady smuggle drugs from Serbia into Greece. We had big dreams of being paid 1000 euro each for our troubles but unfortunately it was not to be. She took her bags and we never saw her again and were left to our imaginations about what had just happened...was really weird. Arrived in Thessaloniki the 17/1 and proceeded to search for a hostel...in a town where hostels dont exhist...hotel hotel hotel but no goddam hostels. Eventually Sandra decided she would watch the bags while I went looking for a net cafe to check for hostels. There were none. Though there was a Hotel with rooms for 16.50euro each so decided we could splash out for a night or 2. Though on our way to this Hotel we decided to check others and found one for 12 euro each. Checked in and then went adventuring hoping our bad luck wouldnt continue. Had some food and looked around the city which we decided wasnt too bad after all but certainly not our favourite. Had an ok sleep in the hotel (which was really just a hostel but only private rooms...they were shitter than some hostels weve stayed in). The next day we decided to head to Mt Olympus which seemed a relatively simple day trip from what we had read in Lonely Planet. Unfortunately we decided for some reason (still unknown) not to take the Lonely Planet guidebook with us. Turns out the people in Greece suck with English and even Mt Olympus has a different name and it takes a couple of changes to get there...so after trying for a couple of hours to figure out how to get there we decided to head back to the hotel and try again the next day. So for the rest of that day we explored Thessaloniki and checked out the art museums and galleries which were suprisingly cool and had a pretty cool day after the shitty start. The next day we decided to head to Skopje in the F.Y.R.O.M (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia). Arrived at a good time and had directions to a hostel all written down. Wandered away from the train station for a bit before flagging a cab..only to realise we had no Macedonian money. We were left with no option but to wander in the direction of the city to find an exchange place. We had arrived on a fucking public holiday and everywhere was closed..except good old Maccas. I had no choice but to pay $8 to withdraw money from the ATM and buy some McDs so we could use their free internet before taking a taxi to our hostel. The first taxi couldnt find the place we asked for so dropped us in the middle of nowhere for only 1euro. Luckily the second taxi took us straight to our hostel which was awesome and had hot showers (which I was beginning to need rather desperately) and free food. We chilled for a bit, grabbed some Pivo and drunk the night away. Spent the next day exploring the city which was really nice and sort of reminded me of Sarajevo. Headed out that night and had a beer and a coffee with a guy called Mohammed who we met at a bar. He was a Muslim and explained to us all about his religion and about how extremists are notreal Muslims etc. Was really really interesting. The next day we caught the bus to Ohrid still in Macedonia and checked into a nice we hostel which was amazingly cheap and was more like a hotel. Our own tv, free wireless internet and all round just a really nice place. The 22nd of Jan we walked around Ohrid with me feeling a bit shitty from a minor cold/runny nose. The town is really beautiful and situated on the edge of a lake which is half in Macedonia and half Albania. Walked up a big hill and visited some wee churches (of which there are 365 in Ohrid, with a population of sweet bugger all) Visited the former residence of Tsar someone arather on the top of the hill which was really cool and old castley thing. Went out for a bit that night and had a drink but a rather early night. The 23rd we headed from Ohrid to Tirana in Albania. The bus ride was going really well and we were seeing some really cool stuff until we got to the border and were made to get off the bus as apparently (despite what Lonely Planet says) New Zealanders absolutely must have a visa to get into Albania. I was pretty much packing myself as talk of 50euro taxi rides circulated. I guess our worried looks were too much for the mean border guards to handle and eventually they made a phone call and told us to get back on the bus...not really knowing whether we were in or out we hopped on and just sat and hoped. Eventually the bus started off, both Sandra and I still passportless. Luckily the passports were returned and we were now allowed into Albania. God knows why but I was just happy to make it to Tirana with my 50euros and passport intact. Checked into another really good hostel in Tirana with a private room with TV and free wireless again. Spent yesterday (24/1) checking out the city, after failing to find the buses to Kruje for a day trip, because once again for some unknown reason we figured we could remember the way to the bus stop without Lonely Planet (we really should learn) the city is quite ugly and the park is by far the ugliest and unkept I have ever seen but for some reason I still like it here. We saw a couple of toads bamming by the ugly artificial lake in the ugly park which was sort of cool. Spent last night just having some drinks and watching a movie then tried to work out where we would go after Albania. Turns out there isnt really buses or trains to anywhere decent out of Albania without changing a number of times. So we stressed a bit about where we would go since I need to get to Stuttgart and then Munich before the 2/2. After spending about half of today at the few travel agencies which are open on Sundays, Sandra settled on a bus to Montengro with one change and Im heading to Athens so that I can get a train to Patras and ferry to Venice. So that pretty much brings me to where I am now. Soaking wet (its been raining) sitting in a netcafe in Albania, happy as Larry and waiting for my bus to Athens at 5pm. Had some weird chocolate custard out of a coffee cup. Ive missed a lot of stuff out of this but I can tell you it all when I see you in person. See ya all in a couple of weeks (shit!)

If in doubt, go East!!

Ok, so after I left you last I was still in Aachen right? Met up with Marie that afternoon which was really good (Marie Couchsurfed with us in NZ) and just grabbed a $8 coffee and had a bit of a look around, it was bloody freezing so I bought a sweet hat..which I left at Annas (it wasnt that sweet)! On the 7/1 I think I just chilled out and enjoyed my last day in Aachen. On the 8/1 Anna was awesome and woke up super early along with me to take me to the train station to catch my train to Budapest to meet up with Nicholas. Train journey didnt start great, my train was delayed which meant that I would miss my connection for the next train...so a 15 minute delay was going to infact cost me 2 hours!! Luckily the train which I was meant to be connecting with was also delayed which I didnt find out until I stepped off the train and my other one was right there waiting for me..perfect! The rest of the trip to Budapest was pretty uneventful but some really nice sights! Donny picked me up from the train station which was great because it meant I didnt have to think at all about where I was going or anything. Dropped the stuff at the Hostel and then grabbed some din dins from BK. Had this really cool 6 mini burger meal which was really cheap compared to the rest of Europe so far! The bums in Hungary live such a sweet life, just chilling in the underground walking areas with their mattresses blankets and bottles of meth, just like a never-ending slumber party with your mates...and meths! That night we just chilled with a few beers, exchanged stories and just caught up on general. Because Donny had already had one day in the Pest it meant that I would only be spending one day there, but it also meant that this was ok because Donny knew his way around pretty well so we went and saw all the sights, cruised round on this frozen moat for a bit and visited a heated duck pond. We figured they heated it to attract ducks from around Europe because a city without ducks is like...umm a duckless city, which isnt cool. It was a good day and we decided to head to Zagreb, Croatia that night. Train trip was pretty good, played some Kings and Assholes trying to relive good ol' school days and Donny lost almost the entire remaining trip budget to me in Poker. Arrived in Zagreb quite late at night and wandered round following Donnys terrible sense of directions to a hostel while constantly being reminded that 'Sir Edmund Hillary didnt need to ask for directions/take a rest/drink anything/wear shoes/breathe in order to make it to the top of Mt Everest' so neither should we. Finally gave up on the noon-exhistent hostel advertised in the train station and headed towards our original hostel. Found it no problem thanks to the awesome directions I had written down! Checked in, internetted it up for a bit and then hit the hay. Got up quite early the next morning and headed towards town. Zagreb is the city of Supermarkets...theyre everywhere, not big but everywhere. Was a really nice town and just checked out the usual sights and sounds. A weird lady stopped me and Nick and started rifling through her purse for something, I was sure she was about to stab us (being new to the East) but Donny was relaxed so I played it cool. Turns out she just wanted to randomly give us lollies, we later figured this was because Donny wouldnt stop sniffing! Spent the rest of the day just looking around then headed back towards the hostel and grabbed some beer and some dinner. This was my first encounter with 2 litre plastic bottles of beer at about $3 each! Watched a couple of dvds (remind me to watch 'rise of a foot soldier' again). Chilled out while trying to ignore the arrogant OZ pricks playing their 'trance' through their shitty Ipod speakers. Hit the hay, got up in the morning and took a day trip to Ljubljana, it was a Sunday so the place was really dead, but really nice all the same. Walked up this hill to an old castle which had a sweet platform "not for the faint hearted"...unforunately it was closed for repair...but the castle was nice anyways! Played with some of Donnys sweet firecrackers/mini sticks of dynamite and had some lunch then headed back to Zagreb to grab our bags and sneak out of the hostel without paying (which Donny says we had to do because he had good karma from somewhere else where he was forced to pay for an extra night or some shit, who am I to argue?) So we took the night bus from Zagreb to Sarajevo (in Bosnia for those of you less well travelled :D) Arrived at 5am and just headed through half blowed up buildings and buildings with bullet holes in the direction of what we thought was the city. Took about half an hour walking before we started to see some life. Found a 24hr cafe and sat down and relaxed for a bit with some food. Asked the guy where a net cafe was and he mumbled something in Bosnian and pointed down the street. So we wandered for a bit in the freezing cold with huge backpacks before stumbling upon a 24 hr hostel reception. Enquired about the price and then headed back out into the cold (not sure why, maybe we didnt like the guy, cant remember) wandered for a bit more before grabbing a coffee. I thought I would be nice and uncomplicated so I just ordered a coffee while Donny got a hot chocolate. I was very tired very cold and choking on the smoke of some business people stupid enough to be in a cafe that early. Then they bought me a fucking short black of all the different coffees I would have prefered they choose a goddam short black (Im sounding like a real Aucklander or something eh, but it was bloody early). So my morning was not going well. We headed back to the hostel with 24hr reception as it seemed to be the best deal and checked in. Were shown to our rooms and got the bags down and decided to shower. It was cold...I wont go into how angry I was and what words I may have said but it was cold and I hadnt showered for a couple of days. Met a few cool people in the hostel including Sandra the ozzie who becomes a bit of a feature. Donny and I spent the day exploring and visiting the famous spots of Sarajevo which are actually quite cool. For example the spot where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated sparking the beginning of WW1. Including a little museum with the actual gun used and the clothes worn by the assassin etc. By the end of the day I had fallen in love with Sarajevo. A capital city with so much history. Bullet holes covered every wall, Sarajevo roses where grenades had made holes in the pavements which had since been filled with red glass like stuff. And not a single McDonalds or other fast food restaurant. It really is like another world. The night of the 12/1 after having been awake since 5am (after not much sleep on an overnight bus) we grabbed a few bottles of Pivo (beer) of the 2litre plastic varieties and drunk the night away with Sandra and a couple of other hostel patrons. Visiting a cool cheap bar and getting the worst kebab ever which we suspect may have been cooked using a hairdryer...which broke halfway through. On the 13/1 Donny and I spent the day exploring the suburbs and walked up the hills around the town and stuff, visited some graveyards filled with graves from the Bosnian war..only 10-15 years ago so really interesting! That night we once again hit the plastic bottles (Donny with the intention of getting up at 4am to catch a bus to Belgrade) we were lured to a small local pub next door to our hostel up a small alleyway completely hidden away by some shocking, albeit traditional music. The place was fantastic, filled with friendly locals and a few cool foreigners. This is also where Donny met and subsequently un-met his Bosnian fiance (which he was depressed out for the next few days). ***Unfortunately due to time constraints made necessary because of the incredible number of fun things to do, I am unable to continue my blog at this stage, therefor this is the end of part one, but stay tuned. There will be more!***

Aaaaachen

Ok so I went to B9 on the 30th right? So the next day must have been New Years eve, didnt really doo all that much during the day as far as I can remember except get ready for the evening! Come 8 oclock or so we sat down and had dinner with Annas friends, it was awesome, I love Raclette it really needs to catch on in NZ except for cheese is too bloody expensive! Had dinner and then started to have a few drinks, was pretty chilled and I had somehow forgotten to buy beer (buggered if I know how) so instead I was drinking shots of Jagermeister which went down easy but didnt seem to be doing a lot in the way of getting me drunk... chilled at home for a while listening to some bad music before heading downtown (or somewhere, not exactly sure where) to watch the fireworks, it was pretty sweet! Everyone has their own fireworks and theyre going off in all directions, I really wonder how many people lose their eyesight every NYs over here! And come midnight the real show started it was really awesome...cant really describe it without it sounding just like any other fireworks display...so I wont. With Germanys lax drinking laws everyone cracks out the booze in the middle of the street and celebrated for a bit with some stupidly annoying NYs songs! 'Zwei Tousand Neun, Ole ole ole'...I know, what the fuck! After this we went to some party and spent the rest of the night speaking bad English and worse German with people and just chilling out. At the end of the party I was made to pay €5 for this party which apparently had included free beer and food but since I didnt realise that I hadnt had any free beer or food but ahwell it was only €5! NYs day we slept until some random hour of the afternoon then got up and went for a drive to Dreipunkt or something where you can be in 3 countries at once. It seemed like a nice place but thanks to the stupid GPS by the time we got there it was dark! It was pretty cool being in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany all at once though! Had another good sleep that night so that we could get up nice and early and go to Amsterdam wooh! Left at about 8am and drove for a couple of hours and arrived in Amsterdam. Parked in the first parking place we saw unsure how far from the city we were...then paid 85 fucking dollars to park there for the day! I was really against paying that much but unfortunately didnt really have a lot of choice. That put a bit of a shit start to the day but hey. Wandered towards where we thought the city centre might be for a bit before I asked 'just out of curiosity, did anyone pay attention to where we parked?' turns out noone had so we wrote down the street name we were on and then figured at the end of the day we might be able to figure our way back from there...anyways while in Amsterdam we did the typical Amsterdam stuff and then decided to find the car before it got dark...managed to find it quite easily which was anticlimatic, turns out the guy we were with has a really good memory/sense of direction. We then went and got a coffee from McD's. I thought Id grab a wee bite while there and ordered a crispy chicken wrap for like $4 (McDs in Europe is expensive) unfortunately the crispy wrap machine (it exists apparently) was broken so they gave me a McChicken and 6 Nuggets instead, best day of my life! After this we decided to check out a sex show which was fucking expensive but had to be done! It was much the same as in Thailand except with a lot more crowd participation, like they would pull people up on stage and put a dildo in their mouth and then bounce up and down on this poor persons face while dripping herpes, aids, chlymidia (havent had a lot of experience with spelling that, oddly enough) and whatever other filthy things happen to call their vaginas home. It was interesting but as usual suprisingly unarousing! At the end of the show I felt a bit sick, not that the show was that bad...but Im beginning to think that iif you are ever told the Crispy wrap 'machine' is broken at McDs they are just wanting to get rid of the shit they have had sitting around for the entire day! So they drive back to Aachen wasnt a lot of fun feeling like I was going to throw up every 5 minutes, but I did get to drive for a bit which was sweet until we came up to a whole bunch of police, so I shat myself (almost literally, goddam McDs) wondering whether I was even allowed to drive in Europe. Luckily (depending on whose perspective you look at it from) they were just diverting people around what was left of a car and I would imagine a few stray body parts. From my experience in Europe I would imagine the car was probably travelling at atleast 150kmh, wasnt pretty but never mind. Got back to Aachen, emptied my entire body into Annas poor toilet including 3 lungs and a transformer toy I swallowed when I was 6. Slept ok apart from the occasional toilet break. Spent the next couple of days not doing a lot except feeling like shit. Went for a wee trip to Maastricht in the Netherlands which is only about 40 mins away which was really nice, and bought a new MP3 player which is so great to be able to listen to music again! Woke up on the 5th of Jan to find the whole place covered in snow and it was still falling, decent 10-20cm of snow, so I went outside in my barefeet annd started a snowball fight with a couple of wee kids, not a good idea. Retreated fairly quickly and put some shows on and socks over my hands since I lost mein handschuhe. Got Anna to help and went out and got them pretty good but fell over a couple of times and now have a very sore chest from winding myself atleast twice! Went for a wander in the snow thought about walking on a frozen lake but decided against it when I took one step and heard a big crack! In the afternoon we went for a ride with Annas mums boyfriend to Cologne to drop Annas Opa at thee airport. Cologne was pretty cool from what I saw, a massive Cathedral (one of the 2 most visited buildings in Germany) which could seat 40,000 people!! It was undescibably huge! I love churches because theyre always free! After this we went to the Kölsch brewery (best beer in Germany) and had a few beers, wonderful marketing technique...when you finish your beer you dont order another one they just automatically replace it! Bought some sweet beer glasses which hopefully make it to NZ unbroken and stole a couple aswell! Had a look around the shopping area and then cruised home...autobahn...150-180kmh...it aint no thang! Seriously, people were still passing us! It feels relatively safe aswell! Slept last night, got up today..all good. Going to meet up with Marie this avo (jealous aye Sammy). Peace and love.