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!