Berlin, Amsterdam & London

Frankfurt/Berlin, Germany

We stayed only the one night in Frankfurt, as all reports are that there isn’t a huge amount to do or see. I would concur, although, the area we stayed in (red light district) was somewhat amusing, and there was a small farmers festival on selling interesting food and displaying a variety of over excited barnyard animals.

We again managed to take advantage of the ride sharing program and we scored a lift from Frankfurt to Berlin. We pulled into Berlin in the afternoon and made our way to the hostel. It was a bit out of town, but in the heartland of East Berlin. We loved it. The hostel was cheap and had everything we could ask for. We had planned to stay in Berlin for 3 days, we extended our stay again and again and again and eventually stayed 8 days.

Berlin was cheap and that was such a nice change from Switzerland so we were able to live comfortably and stay under budget. We spent our days wandering the city, visiting all the tourist hot spots. We did the free walking tour and were mesmerised by the modern history of the city. It was so bizarre to think that right up until 1989 the Berlin Wall was still up.

The primary reason that we enjoyed Berlin so much was due to the alternative culture. We did the alternative walking tour which looked at street art and all things ‘alternative’.

One of the days we headed out to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The camp became the blue print for all the other camps that were built. All though it was a work camp rather than a death camp, there were still 30,000 deaths, and Sachsenhausen was where they experimented with methods of mass killing. It was an incredibly humbling experience.

Berlin was both Al and I’s favourite city in Europe and we can’t wait to head back there again. We hopped on yet another overnight bus and headed for Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, Holland

The ridiculous overnight bus dropped us off in Amsterdam at 4:00am on a Sunday morning. What on earth we were supposed to do at that time, I have no idea. So we headed to our hostel, where they reluctantly let us in and allowed us to hang out in the smoking room. We weren’t allowed to sleep though, so we sat miserably waiting for 12:00pm (check-in time) to arrive. It got to about 6:30 when we decided we were sick of inhaling second hand weed smoke and we went for a walk. It was bitterly cold, and pitch black, the streets were filled with rubbish and the occasional late night party animal. We made our way through the streets and finally found a cafe to defrost in. One of the few things that we wanted to do while in Amsterdam, was to go to Anne Frank’s house and we decided to head there early to beat the rush. We toured the house which was very interesting and I decided that one day I’ll have to read the diaries. As we left the line to get in had extended round the corner to the end of the block – lucky we did beat the rush, otherwise we’d probably still be there.

We made it back to the hostel, checked in and slept for the afternoon. In the evening we again wandered the streets, had dinner and had a quiet night. The following day we hired bikes and rode about, we made it to the sex museum, perused the red light district and tried to find quality ‘coffee shops’. In the evening we went out for dinner, again hit the red light district and found a coffee shop to test out. Our visit was brief and entertaining, and the 10min walk home took 2 and half hours.

The following day we relaxed, did some sightseeing and shopping. We said farewell to mainland Europe and hopped on an awful overnight bus and headed to London.

London, England

The bus was dreadful. Why we kept opting for overnight buses, I don’t know. The bus was smooth until we got to a pit stop, where the doors were flung open, and most people got off. There was a serious breeze blowing and at 1:00am it was probably about 4 degrees. I couldn’t wait for the doors to close and for the bus to move again. We arrived at the border, everyone got off the bus, went through customs and hopped back on the bus. It was a fairly smooth process and we were running ahead of schedule. It was quite bizarre, but we travelled across the channel, on the bus, in a train. The bus was driven on to the train, and we were taken across to England. As we were pulling onto the train, the bus driver was bragging about how early we would be, and how good a run we’d had. All of a sudden, BANG, and the whole bus shook. Our bus driver had smashed into the kerb. All was ok, we got onto the train, arrived in England, drove away, and then pulled into the first service station. The wheel was ruined. So we all had to get off the bus at about 4:00am and wait 2 hours at a service station in freezing weather. Not happy. We arrived in London 3 hours late, and again having had no sleep.

We made our way to Tom, Phoebe and Tim’s place and crashed. The following 10 days blend together in my mind, but we did lots of; lazing, catching up, drinking beer, eating pizza (one of 3 foods Tom eats), watching football, shopping and drinking beer.

I did make it to an English Premier League game, and not just any. I got to see Newcastle take on West Ham at Upton Park. It was great to watch the magpies play. However we sat in the middle of the West Ham fans, and I was told not to cheer for Newcastle if I wanted to get out alive. It was quite difficult, especially when Newcastle ended up winning.

Alison had a great time going to a few shows in the West End. She got to see Lion King one afternoon, and one evening she went to see Chicago with Phoebe. I’m not big on musicals so I gave it a miss, but by all reports they were both great shows.

We loved hanging out with Tom, Phoebe, Tim and John, and having a place of our own – even if it was on their couch. Lucky for us they are all home now (except John), and there not living in the sad cloudy land. We rushed to the airport, and we were running horribly horribly late. Made it to the check-in desk and were handed 2 business class tickets. We relaxed, made our way to the gate. Got onboard our plane and into our beautiful seats/booths. What a way to fly. The food was amazing, as was the wine. Loads of movies to watch, and the seat transformed into a flat bed. I didn’t want to get off.

It was sad leaving London as we knew our Europe travel had now truly finished, and we were nearing the end of the line.

Octoberfest - Munich, Austria; Innsbruck & Switzerland

Munich, Germany - Octoberfest

We awoke early and Bren, Alison and I farewelled Mim and Brian and headed to the airport, boarded a plane and headed to Germany. We landed in Munich and made our way to our lovely hotel. Bren was able to score a room at the Munich Novotel at a discounted rate as part of his staff travel benefits. So amongst the high flying businessmen and wealthy holiday makers, we checked into the Novotel with our backpacks. We spent the afternoon meandering through Munich checking out the city, looking for lederhosen to buy/rent and looking for a suitable spot to buy pork knuckle. Lederhosen were much to dear to buy, and we couldn’t find a rental company, so instead we bought hats (almost as good, surely). We got our pork knuckle and our Bavarian steins and headed to a beer hall in central Munich. The place was huge, several hundred people were drinking beer the way only Germans can. We met up with Helen, Tamara and Diana and drank the night away.

The next morning we made our way to the festival. Octoberfest was like a theme park for grownups. There were many rides, carnival games and food stalls selling the very best of Bavarian cuisine; surrounding tents the size of football fields filled with drunken folk from across the globe. I was in heaven. We moved from tent to tent trying to find space to sit. Most tents filled up fairly quickly, so at lunch time we were struggling to find seats. But we eventually secured a spot that was our home for the afternoon. The girls, Alison, Bren and I drank stein after stein, and made new friends throughout the day. We seemed to be the minority in the tent, as most were locals, and funnily enough, the 4 pretty girls attracted their fair share of attention. At one stage we had a huge group of Italians surrounding our table, a number of Americans, English and of course Germans. Tables usually hold 10, our group was 6, but I think we had at least 25 people (mainly guys) for most of the day. We continued to drink, we ate roast chickens, snorted minty snuff and listened to Bavarian folk bands until the ugly lights came on and they kicked everyone out.

The following day everyone was a little rough, and it took us a bit longer to get organised. We headed to the festival in the afternoon and tested out some funky rides, and inspected various tents trying to find a suitable spot. We gave up after the 8^th consecutive tent was full and went and sat with the girls and a couple of fellas they had befriended the previous day. The day unfolded much the same way as the day before. After an afternoon of sitting outside drinking we migrated inside and squished into an otherwise full table. We met some new people, learnt some German drinking songs, danced and sang until again the “man” kicked us out. We missed the last train home so we ate McDonalds and caught a cab home.

The following morning was Alison’s birthday. I was feeling a bit sickly – and I had been ill for a number of days, if not weeks. The drinking, poor diet, lack of exercise and sleep for the past few months was catching up with me, so I wasn’t much company to Al on her birthday. Bren and the girls went out for a birthday lunch and a few drinks, while I lay in bed like a sack of potatoes. I hadn’t moved when they returned 3 hours later. We had promised Alison a special treat for her birthday, and so in the afternoon we watched ‘Sex and the City 2’ in the hotel room. It was awful. In the evening I was feeling mildly better and we went out for Japanese food.

The following morning we got up, packed our bags, had lunch and headed to the train station. We sadly bid farewell to Bren as he headed north to Frankfurt to fly home, and we headed south to Innsbruck, Austria.

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Innsbruck, Austria

We arrived in Innsbruck in the afternoon and travelled to our hotel where we stayed all night still trying to recover from the previous days of madness.

The following day we met with Diana, Helen and Tam and we ventured up to the top of the Nordkette(??). The snow capped mountain was gorgeous, and the view was amazing. The snow provided entertainment for everyone as we were able to make snow men and throw snow balls. As we weren’t really wearing appropriate cold weather gear/footwear we stayed only a short while before returning to sea level. We bid farewell to the girls, and toured about Innsbruck, a truly beautiful city. Al and I caught the bus to our hotel which was 20min out of town. It was dark when we arrived, and we decided to simply eat at the hotel.

In the morning we awoke to the sound of the church bells ringing only metres from our window. I opened the blinds to reveal a stunning view from our room. The small town of Patsch encircled by bright green fields, leading to the bases’ of the looming snow capped and intimidating Austrian Alps.

We wandered the small town, and although it was blue skies and sunny, it was bitterly cold. So we lazed about, read books, watched TV, caught up on bits and pieces and before we knew it was a again night time.

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Lucerne/Interlaken, Switzerland

We awoke and travelled to the train station and boarded a train to Lucerne, Switzerland. Lucerne was a really picturesque town, and it really felt like a town rather than a city. For 2 days we toured the sights and tried our best to not spend too much money. It was some time during our time in Switzerland – amongst the cold and rain, and ludicrously overpriced goods and services, that we made the decision that we would soon need to end our time in Europe as we simply could no longer afford to stay in places like Switzerland. So we decided that we would start making our way towards to London, and then move onto South East Asia to enjoy some sun shine and cheap living. So whilst we did our best to tour and admire Switzerland, through the rain, my mind couldn’t help but wander to warmer parts of the world.

We left Lucerne and headed to Interlaken. Interlaken had a really cool vibe. It is supposedly the adventure capital of Europe, and seemed to be a popular stop off for backpackers and thrill seekers alike. We would have loved to partake in all but a few of the activities on offer; skydiving, bungy jumping, rafting, canyoning, parasailing, the list goes on. Unfortunately for us, everything was more than a little overpriced. Everything was 2 or 3 times more expensive than back home – we decided we weren’t that desperate to part with our money. So again we wandered the town and tried our best to spend as little as possible. It was time to leave Switzerland. This presented us with our next hurdle. For the life of us we couldn’t figure out how to get out of Switzerland and into Germany cheaply. A train from Interlaken to Frankfurt was around €220, flying was not much different. Buses didn’t exist, and we looked at every possibility. Finally we discovered a ridesharing program that matches up travellers with drivers, and we were able to nab a lift from Bern (Switzerland’s capital only an hour from Interlaken by train) to Frankfurt for only €15. So we were chauffeur driven to our hotel door by a cool German fella named Markus.

Malta

Unfortunately this is where Nick and I said farewell to everyone but lucky for us we were on our way to Malta to meet mum, dad and Brendan. Although it was a huge 2 day journey with no sleep and an 11 hour stop-over in Barcelona; where we went back to our favourite places to eat and re-bought some lost jewellery.

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After 5 buses, 3 flights, numerous train rides and 2 cabs we made it to Malta and got to see Mum, Dad and Bren for the first time in 9 months. We had 10 days to catch up and it flew by. We had a three bedroom apartment so it was nice to finally unpack our bags and spread out.

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Our time in Malta was action packed and there wasn’t a minute wasted. We took a day trip out to the blue lagoon and paddled about, through caves of beautifully crystal clear water and “sandy bottoms” (Nick’s joke). We climbed aboard the ancient buses and made our way into the capital Valetta where we visited the war museum and went exploring through the old town. We also did a day trip to one of the other islands Gozo which was equally beautiful. On this island is the famous blue grotto (which has been featured in some James Bond type movies) and we took a little boat ride through the grottos. Absolutely picture perfect.

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We spent a day or two lazing around on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean sea, numerous afternoons enjoying the sunset with a bottle or two of chisk (the local beer that dad loved). A couple of the nights Nick, Bren and I headed in to Paceville for a night out on the town only to be confronted by 14 year olds with awful haircuts and tight and skimpy clothes trying their best to make it inside clubs without the bouncer noticing. We had a great laugh, a great couple of night and woke up with headaches in the mornings.

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Mum, having lived in Malta, had family still living there, some she hadn’t seen since she was 8. So we did the rounds and made sure to meet them all and exchange stories about when mum was growing up. The majority of conversations were spoken in Maltese so Nick and Dad sat there drinking beers not knowing what was going on half the time. Mum wanted to visit where she used to live so we ventured out to Malsa on one of the days and saw her street and house that was still standing (just). Unfortunately the area was more than a little run down after all these years which was a little heartbreaking for her to see.

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We had some great meals and mum even cooked some of my favourites. We lived on pastizzis and couldn’t get enough of them – 25cents each and 3 times the size of the ones at home.

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Because we were so close we did a very long day trip to Sicily which was amazing and something mum and dad really wanted to do. We started out at 4 in morning to catch the ferry over there and didn’t return till after 12 that night. We jumped on a bus and stopped at some beautiful Sicilian towns and villages. We also drove to the top of the devastating volcano Mt Etna.

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We had an amazing time in Malta and it was so nice to see my family after all this time. I didn’t realise how much I missed them till I actually saw them. Unfortunately we had to say good bye but for not as long this time.

Turkey

After convincing Tim to pop into Turkey on his way to Egypt; Sarah, Tim and I made our way to Istanbul and landed two days earlier than everyone else, including Nick. Those two days were filled with walking around the sultanahmet (old city), Bazaar shopping, indulging in the Turkish cuisine and flavoured tea. The girls; Michelle, Katie, Tam, Diana and Monique arrived a few hours before Nick and a great deal of time was spent on the roof top bar of our hostel drinking beers and smoking shisha’s. This is where we met Henry and Piotr joined our gang.

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As a big group we explored Istanbul together and visited some of Turkey’s most famous sites ie, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofia, Istanbul’s contemporary Art Museum and the underground Basilica Cistern. We ended up in Taksim one night and experienced Istanbul’s club scene which was cool.

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From Istanbul we ventured South and caught a flight to Cappadocia. Cappadocia is such an amazingly bizarre and beautiful region due to the volcanic layers and tufa erosion that has taken place over the centuries resulting in a landscape that portrays various unusual shapes and figures formed from rock. The locals call them “fairy chimneys” due to their tuberous house like shape but to us they somewhat resembled male genitalia. Centuries ago Christians found shelter in the fairy chimneys and carved houses out from the rock. Today these caves still exist and it’s quite amazing to see that hotels etc now occupy these dwellings.

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We heard the best way to explore the fairy chimney region was to hire quad bikes to get around the rough terrain and dirt tracks. Of course Nick and Tim went a little crazy and by the end of the four hours the girls looked like they had been swimming in a pool of dirt and dust. Check out the photos no words can really describe how surreal this place actually is.

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Once again we indulged in the amazing Turkish cuisine and treated ourselves to a night of food, loads of beverages and traditional skirt dances and belly dances.

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From Cappadocia we boarded an unending overnight bus to Olympus where we stayed in tree houses close to the beach. This was our chance to relax in Turkey and finally get to the sea. The tree houses felt like they were situated in the middle of nowhere, but there was plenty to keep us busy. We did have the most epic day when we hired a boat and a driver for the day and he took us to some beautiful secluded spots, uncharted territory, natural beauties and mountains. We had a very cheeky day filled with booze and excitement. Let’s just say it would have been the best day of Nick and Tim’s life. Most of the photos from this day probably won’t be posted.

Nick's Adventure

Ljubljana/Bled, Slovenia

I left Croatia on an overnight train in 35 degree heat and no air conditioning, so it was a sleepless journey to Slovenia. I arrived in Ljubljana early in the morning and spent the day wandering the city centre. Ljubljana is not a large city but it has a great vibe about it. Divided in the middle by the Ljubljanica River, cafes and bars line the rivers shore, and there’s a great cafe culture. One of the coolest spots I found in the city, was the old barracks that had been abandoned a number of years prior and had been taken over by street artists and ‘free loaders’ and is now just a collection of graffiti, artists and bars in the evening. Very cool.

I spent the following morning in Ljubljana before heading to Bled. I got off the bus at what I thought was the bus stop, but unfortunately I was a few kilometres downhill from where I needed to be. So I trekked uphill with my backpack and arrived exhausted. I stayed at a great hostel which was basically just a huge house, the best kind, very communal. The first night after dinner I headed out with a few people I’d met in the hostel. We took a few roadies and walked down to the lake where there was a ‘tightrope’ festival taking place, very strange to see, but entertaining. After an evening of watching others defy gravity, I decided to walk home as I had an early morning. I decided to try a different route home, unfortunately I got somewhat lost. However, I found myself outside a large ice rink with crowds of people outside, team buses and beer tents – handing out free beer. I walked up to the door trying to look as at home as possible, and no questions were asked by the doormen as I walked in and discovered it was in fact a professional Austria/Hungary/Slovenia league game. So I joined in the beer drinking and toured the facility until I felt my presence was no longer welcome and headed home.

I met 2 Irish guys (Brian and Dave) in the hostel and had arranged to spend the following day doing a white water rafting and sightseeing tour. So early in the morning we were up and in the car. We went to a series of spectacular spots. Touring through the Slovenian mountains, hiking up a few different mountains, swimming in icy cold emerald green water (8 degrees) and finally landing at our white water rafting spot.

The river was cold, but it was so inviting, the colour was unbelievable. We set off downstream and to be perfectly honest, after a day of canyoning, rafting seemed relatively tame. The most exciting bits were when we stopped the raft amongst the rocks, and either used the raft as a slide/diving board, or climbed up the cliffs and jumped at height. It was a fun afternoon though, and at the right time of year, the river gets to grade 5 maybe even 6 (if the scale goes that high?), but it was a solid 3 so more of a calm paddle down the river than an adrenaline pumping experience. After the rafting we piled into the car with a few beers and started the drive home. We all went out for dinner afterwards, and went to check out the Bled nightclub scene – not so huge. A long day, but a great day, full of laughs.

The following day Brian, Dave and I decided to check out what Bled had on offer, so we walked around the lake, and made our way to the toboggans. Kind of like the ones they have at Jamberoo but so much cooler, we went down twice, and I could have done it 100 more times and not been sick of it. In the evening we went out for dinner, pizza, for probably the 16^th time in 6 days. We had a series of drinks again, and it was fairly late by the time I got to bed. I was supposed to be up at 7am for a bus that would take me to my train station, but unfortunately my watch alarm didn’t alarm me out of my sleep. Next train 8pm. So I went back to sleep. I went swimming in the lake and watched the clock tick by. In the afternoon I caught the bus to the station, and caught the train to Salzburg.

Salzburg/Vienna, Austria

I wandered through the streets at midnight in Salzburg trying to find my way to the hostel. I eventually made it and was standing at the check in counter when Alison and Sarah turned up out of the blue. I was supposed to meet them the following day, but they decided to continue their travels to Salzburg from Vienna a day early. So we shared stories, dinner and a beer before heading to bed.

The following day, I was the envy of every man, woman and child when I had the privilege of undertaking the ‘Sound of Music’ tour. We travelled from place to place, learning about where various scenes were shot etc. It wasn’t too bad, the scenery around Salzburg was quite spectacular. Mid-way through the trip the guide announced that the bar on the bus was now open. In unison, 13 men stood up (myself included) and made our way to the front to fight over the beers.

The following day wasn’t so feminine. We decided to give Austrian canyoning ago. We travelled into the wilderness with our free loving hippy guide and descended upon a pristine creek area with an enormous dam at one end that looked rather threatening. We made our way down the creek jumping off cliffs, and sliding down waterfalls. It was amazing. Working our way up to larger and larger cliffs. I kept asking for higher and more difficult, and he said it was coming. We made our way to a spot that was tall on both sides and very narrow at the bottom. We climbed to the top of the rocks and were told where we could land – and live. 11m, it was a little daunting but I jumped almost straight away. Sarah hesitated a little more, but she did it. Alison was a little worried that the area we had to clear beneath her, was too far for her little legs to make it. So after a brief hesitation she ran and over compensated. She landed about a foot short of the rock face and was none the wiser. All those looking on were a little nervous to say the least. It was pretty scary and the guide almost had a heart attack.

We made it out alive though, so we headed to Salzburg’s biggest beer garden to celebrate. We had a few beers outside until we were too cold and we returned to the hostel.

The following day we wandered the old town, visited Mozart’s house (and were kicked out for trying to look around without tickets), and wandered through the park where some of the Sound of Music scenes were filmed. In the afternoon we caught the bus to the Bavarian Alps to tour Hitler’s ‘Eagles Nest’. The location of the building is phenomenal, at the summit of one of the mountains, it overlook’s Austria, Switzerland and German Alps. The view was amazing, apparently it was visited only a handful of times by Hitler and hence it wasn’t significant enough to destroy, however the grandeur of the structure emphasised for me, the money and the power that he had – the building was a 50^th birthday present. We returned to Salzburg in the evening and boarded a train to Vienna.

The weather in Vienna was less than impressive, but we thought we’d take our chances and hire bikes for the day. We rode around the city ducking in and out of shelter as the day went on and the rain fell down. We came across a large international food market that kept us entertained for a while. We perused the buildings, and tried to stay dry but without much luck. We ate Wiener Schnitzel and sampled some local beers in the evening before retiring.

Bratislava, Slovakia

The following day we boarded a train to Bratislava, Slovakia. We arrived in town and made our way to the hostel. We decided to do the walking tour of the city and find out a bit of information. Bratislava itself wasn’t the most exciting city I’ve been to by any means, the buildings were fairly bland, many built during the communist era, much of the old town was destroyed during WW2, but the walking tour was by far the most interesting I’ve experienced. The aussie guide had a double degree in history and law and he had everyone hanging onto every word. I think I learnt more in a 2 hour tour than I did in 6 years of history in high school.

We lapped up the cafe culture in Bratislava, we relaxed and I once again said farewell to Alison and Sarah and they headed back to Vienna to fly to Greece, and I boarded a train to Budapest.

Budapest, Hungary

I arrived in Budapest and checked into the hostel. Tiger Tim’s – very cool if you’re in the area. They organise outings with the whole hostel every night, every night except the first night I was there. So I took the time updating photos etc, my roommates thought I was a bit of a geek because I sat on the laptop for about 4 hours that night.

In the morning I headed out to do the free walking tour, I was early so I wandered the streets and enjoyed a traditional Hungarian Goulash and a beer before kicking off. The tour was interesting, but it rained, lightly at first and super hard towards the end, which was disappointing, and cold. We saw most of the cities sights in the tour, and I spent a bit of time prior and post tour to continue looking about. I met a few people on the walking tour from the hostel and we headed back to the hostel, had dinner and started pre-drinking. The whole hostel went out to a dingy bar nearby that was absolutely packed with travellers. It was a Monday night, and you can’t move inside this place it was so packed. It was a cheap messy evening. I remember beers being about $1AU which is about as cheap as you’ll find them in Europe. The bar was smoky and the music was triple M’s playlist from 2002, but it was unpretentious and the company was good. Everyone disappeared at different time during the night, but eventually I was the last man standing so I made the walk home.

Feeling less than gracious, I awoke at about 10am. With 2 English guys (Alex and Will) from the hostel, I walked to one of the famous Budapest thermal baths. The baths was a series of pools/spas at varying temperatures, from 16 degrees to 40 degrees, plus saunas and steam rooms that reached 100 degrees. We spent the day moving from pool to pool, relaxing and unhangovering. We spent a majority of the day in an outside pool sitting in the warmth, the cool rain falling on our heads – the best hangover cure. When the pool was closing and with skin like mushrooms we wandered home, went out for dinner and prepared for the next evening on the town. We headed out this time to a club that somewhat resembled a jungle. There was vines and flowers hanging from the ceiling, along with a variety of other bricka-brack mounted on the walls, floor and ceiling. Much more chilled vibe but more expensive.

Again I awoke in the morning feeling not so sharp. Unfortunately I had to check out. Our dorm room had 6 people, 4 of which had been staying for the 3 nights I was there, 1 had been there 2 nights, and the other was me. Everyone was relatively friendly with everyone, so we weren’t too concerned with keeping our stuff contained in a locker, or in our backpacks. I had stuff hanging from 3 different beds, I found shirts on top and beneath other peoples bags, I even found some of my things in the fridge. It took 1 and half painful hours to organise myself and finally have everything packed. It was a real struggle, and I think I learnt a few life lessons, temporarily. I’m sure I probably lost some things in Budapest, I haven’t worked out what yet though.

I had already missed 3 trains by the time I was ready to leave the hostel. I was almost out the door when an English guy chucked on a DVD of Summer Heights High, so I had to stick around for at least one episode. I’d missed 4 trains when I arrived at the train station. I had 20minutes to catch the next one, unfortunately it seemed they had the ‘Special Ed’ class controlling the ticket booths that day, and so I missed that train, and had to wait another hour and half. I caught train number 6, farewelled Hungary and headed back to Austria briefly in an attempt to get to the Czech Republic.

I arrived in Vienna hopeful of catching a bus or a train to Cesky Krumlov. Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as I’d planned. I visited the train ticket office first, they said that the next train leaving for there, was a night train – it left at 2:30am and arrived at 5:00am. I argued with the man that this was in no way a night train, rather just an extremely inconveniently timed train. So I opted against that train. I thought I’d follow the Lonely Planet’s instructions and catch a bus, so I followed the handy map, which led me on a wild goose chase around Vienna. 2 separate bus stations were shown on the map, and I couldn’t find either, and when I asked various people, they told me that there was no bus station in either area. Awesome. So it was 9pm and I was getting a little frustrated that it had taken 3 hours to get that far. So I wandered back to the train station, bought tickets to the 6:00am train and checked into a hostel.

It was like death waking up at 5am, especially because I hadn’t had a decent sleep in a number of days. However it was going to be an easy journey. 5 hours, on 2 different trains, I could sleep on both. It didn’t turn out that way though. Half way through the 1^st train leg the conductor woke me and started prattling on in German, I couldn’t understand a word but the hand gestures indicated I had to get off the train. So I got off and he pointed to a single train carriage with only a driver on board. I showed him my ticket, a single nod, and I climbed aboard. We drove one stop, maybe 3min, and the driver stopped, and said ‘boose’. ?? Excuse me ??’ Boose, boose’. Bus? ‘Yes, boose’. So I got off the train, walked around by myself and eventually found a bus, and hopped on hoping it was the right one. Luckily it was, and the journey was back on track. I arrived at the next station. I boarded yet another train and finally after 5 hours of non sleep, I arrived at Cesky Krumlov.

Cesky Krumlov/Prague, Czech Republic

Cesky Krumlov is a small town, they call it a mini Prague, and I think it’s a very fitting name. I stayed in a hostel nice and close to the edge of the old town, which was awesome, as it meant I didn’t have to walk too far. I crashed for a few hours in the room and explored the town in the afternoon. I was super excited by the bears they had in the mote outside the castle, so I sat and watched them go about the lives for quite some time. I took it easy in the evening, I was drained.

The old town is split by a winding running river, and part of the attraction of visiting Cesky Krumlov is the pub crawls that they offer – with a difference. A group of people from the hostel were driven upstream 4 or 5 km’s and let loose in a small inflatable raft, the idea is that you then bar hop down the river, stopping at several of the bars set up along the shore. It was dangerous, mixing alcohol with boats, especially when a flowing river is involved. As the day rolled on, people got more and more confident. The pinnacle of that being when myself and 2 other lads built up the courage to paddle our little raft off a 6 foot waterfall, because I had mentioned that I did a canoe course and had done it many times before (10% of which was true). We paddled hard and had quite an audience built up on a nearby bridge. As we neared the edge of the waterfall I could see the submerged rocks below arranged in an extremely hazardous manner. I saw my life flash before eyes, as we nosed over the edge. The front just escaped nose diving and digging in, and we landed safely and professionally. We continued paddling downstream without missing a beat to a plethora of applause. Dutch courage can make you do bizarre things. The day continued with more and more drinking before we made it home. We changed and all went out for dinner and partying. The rest of the night more or less blurs together, but I remember it fondly and so did everyone else, so that’s positive.

A number of the people (all except me and one other guy) at the hostel were from busabout, and they spoke flippantly about the ‘busabout bug’. I dismissed it as purely myth. The cold, poor diet, lack of sleep and constant inflow of alcohol may have contributed to my immune system failing me and I was hit with this so called ‘busabout bug’. Unfortunately it took longer than I’d like to admit to shake it. However, the morning after the raft crawl, I slept in, then walked about the town again before boarding a bus for Prague.

I checked into the hostel, inquired about a suitable place to eat. They directed me to a place that was an absolute gem. Huge pork knuckle served on a chopping board with several types of mustard, a starter and a beer = $8AU. I loved Prague straight away. They say Prague is a city where beer is cheaper than water. My bug sent me to bed early.

I woke in the morning and headed into town to check out some sights. I wandered the old town checking out the sights. I was lucky enough to catch the Astronomical Clock strike 12:00pm – wow, what an anti-climax. I wandered across the Charles Bridge and there was a small market going on, complete with miming clown, so I was entertained silently for as long as a miming clown can hold your attention. In the afternoon I visited the Salvador Dali exhibition before wandering back to the hostel. I was supposed to meet Diana and Monique at the hostel at about 3:00pm, unfortunately their flight was delayed and they didn’t get in till about 6:30. So we settled in and headed out to the same restaurant as the previous night. The girls were tired and the bug was draining me, so we called it a night early.

The following morning we all went for breakfast before heading into town, checking out some more of the sights, heading up to the Prague castle and then doing the free walking tour. After the tour we visited the Communism museum, got in some shopping and returned to the hostel. Again we headed out to the same restaurant then we headed to a couple bars/clubs in the evening. The first was one that was recommended to me, and it was a bar made entirely from junk yard scraps. Very interesting. I think we caught it on a bad night though, it was hardcore rave night, and we didn’t quite fit the demographic. So we headed to another bar in town that was recommended, however I don’t think we found the right place. this bar was a little more ‘risqué’ than I was used to, and again myself, Diana and Monique did not really fit the demographic – older married men. However we pushed on and drank the night away and had a number of laughs.

The following morning I had to checkout, I hate 10am checkout. I had breakfast with Diana and Monique before bidding them farewell and catching a train to Frankfurt. I checked into a hotel near the train station, and crashed. The following morning I went and saw the sights of Frankfurt (nothing) before I headed to the airport . I left 11 degree and rainy Germany and flew to Turkey where it was 28 and bitchin’!

Alison's Adventure

Prague

After bidding farewell to Nick and Tim and the warm Croatian sunshine Sarah and I were off on our own adventure. Stopping initially in picturesque Prague. We stayed here three nights and filled our time with the best beer I’ve ever tasted and endless meals of pork knuckle, roasted duck, dumplings, hearty soups, and pretzels. We were in Heaven. During the day we explored the old town by the Danube River, we walked across the Charles Bridge to the Castle and got stuck with two Irishmen and for the life of us could not understand a word that came out of their mouths’ no matter how hard we tried. We witnessed the medieval astronomical clock that performs every hour on the hour. All in all Prague, its people and it’s food were gorgeous.

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Cesky Kromlov

Following Prague we jumped on a bus and headed south to Cesky Kromlov. We picked this destination based on word of mouth from other travellers that Cesky was where the famous river pub crawl took place. We arrived at our hostel at 11.50am by 12pm we had commenced the pub crawl. Of course it was full of bogan “bus a-about” aussies which initially put a dampner on our expectations but as the day progressed we were quite amused by their company.

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Basically the pub crawl involves a group of willing people, a raft, some spare pocket change for the copious amounts of cheap beer about to be consumed and the less rafting knowledge you have the better the experience. We started at one end of the river after some very brief instructions outlining that the pubs will be situated on the side of the river, when you see one you need to paddle really hard to get over to it otherwise the current will take you down and there’s no turning back, it’s impossible to paddle against the current. Seems easy enough but with a few beers under your belt the task can prove to be quite difficult. Sarah and I opted for the raft with the most male presence we figured that the more man power we had the less paddling we had to do. It turned out to be a very messy day.

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Budapest

From Cesky we hopped on a 7 hour bus ride, and headed to Budapest for three days. Our time was spent wandering the streets and strolling along the Danube. We spent one day at the bath’s which was amazing. The buildings were a canary yellow which was a beautiful contrast against the blue pools. We jumped in and out of 40 degree waters and soaked up some sun and treated ourselves to a massage. That night we embarked on a wine tasting tour with the kids from our hostel and jumped on a boat that sailed down the Danube. We ended up at a club that resembled a jungle inside.

After Budpest we met Nick in Salzburg where he’ll fill you in on.....

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Greece

After Bratislava Sarah and I once again left Nicholas behind and went back to the Mediterranean to soak up the sun in Greece. From Bratislava to Athens and from Athens to our first island Mykonos. Excited about the warm weather we spent the days bathing at the beach and checking out the greasy Greek men. Our hostel had a great pool area with a Dj playing constantly so we spent a lot of time there. Mykonos was okay but it wasn’t great, unfortunately my camera got stolen and the Greek police were fairly incompetent so it put a dampner on things. We did have a funny night that involved a few drinks, a trek over a mountain of rocks to find the night club, not finding the night club but running into five Frenchmen that were not only unable to speak English but were deaf. They asked us to take a photo of them swimming in the dark, we agreed and were shocked when at the last minute they pulled their pants down and we were faced with 5 naked Frenchmen in the middle of nowhere at 2am. They turned out to be really nice guys. Are conversations didn’t really go anywhere, Sarah claimed to know some sign langue and decided to try it out. Her sign langue capabilities were poor and only knew “hi my name’s Sarah” and “do you want to have sex with me”. Two phrases that didn’t come in so handy.

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From Mykonos to Ios, where we finally came to learn what the Greek Islands were all about. Once again we stayed at an awesome hostel and met up with Tim who was friends with some handsome fellows. No words can describe how awesome Ios was but we spent our days hung over at the beach and our nights dancing on bars and tables. It was truely epic and we met some awesome people there.

Santorini was a little less crazy and a little more laid back. We hired quad bikes and cruised the terrain of the Island ending up at some beautiful beaches. Tim, Sarah, Matt and I witnessed some magical sunsets and tasted some delicious Greek meals that were to die for.

Croatia

We flew into Dubrovnik on Friday afternoon, and were super excited. We organised a transfer to our hostel so it was nice and trouble free getting to our place. We booked a 4 bed room which turned out to be a 4 bed apartment with views over Dubrovnik harbour. Alison and I made ourselves at home and waited for Sarah and Omit. Omit was due about 5, and Sarah at about 7. We decided to cook dinner, and stock up the fridge and get ready for their arrival. 5 came and went. 6 came and went. 7 came and went. 10 came and went and still no sign of them. At about 11 we were a little concerned that we hadn’t heard from either. Just after 11 Sarah almost busted down the door and it was a happy reunion for all. PLUS Sarah came carrying our laptop, fixed and now back online after 8 weeks off line (thanks dad, and Sarah). Still no sign of Tim though. Not 5 minutes after Sarah’s arrival Tim came trudging up the stairs, beer in hand, looking like death. The story goes that Sarah’s plane was delayed, and her transfer was nowhere to be seen, so she had to catch a bus, and had little to no idea where she was – and of course we didn’t have a phone. Tim, well his 8 hour bus – took 15 hours. Sorted. We drank away the evening catching up on all sorts, and finally when it hit 2:30 we thought we should head to bed.

We spent the following few days hanging out on the beach in Dubrovnik and drinking heavily. The hostel owner had let us know that there was “big party” on the beach on Saturday night. So after an afternoon of relaxing seaside with several pints, and dinner and drinks at home, we walked down to rock out with the Croatian pop stars along the beach. Omit and I stood nursing our beers admiring the singers and dancers and watching as 400 Croatians sang along to all songs, bar one, which was by Whitney Houston, and 400 Croatians watched on in silence as the pop star, one American and one Australian belted out the tune. After our performance we thought that the girls had been gone for quite a while. We found them chatting at a table nearby. We drank a few more beers. End scene. Next scene, 4 naked tourists in the water only metres from the pop concert. End scene. Next scene, somehow at home.

We had a slow afternoon but made our way into the old town, which was really beautiful. We took it easy, and had an early evening. We had decided that the best way to see Croatia was to take a cruise around the Islands. So we searched hard around Dubrovnik, around the marina, asked people in the know – and got nowhere. So we hopped on a bus and made the journey to Split, where we thought we’d have more luck getting a cruise.

The hostel was terrible, and Split didn’t really appeal to us much. We searched and searched for 2 days for cruises, but to no avail. So we decided to just head out and island hop ourselves. We caught the ferry from Split to Korcula, one of the larger islands off the coast of Croatia. We landed, and the hostel was directly in front of the port, which was ideal. Super cool hostel run by a South African guy. We noticed that we could hire a boat through the hostel for 400 kuna which is about $50 AU, split between 4, included all fuel, snorkelling gear, and we could have it till the sun went down. Bargain. So we locked it in for the following day.

KO-315

KO-315 was the name of our boat, and our relationship with the boat spanned 2 days.

We were escorted to our boat, and frankly thought it looked like a piece of junk. We loaded it up with booze, were given brief instruction, we were asked whether we had experience boating – of course we had (of course we hadn’t), and we set off towards the islands. Omit and I had purchased Captains hats and so naturally we took charge. We set off at full power, and we could feel all 4 horses propelling as along. Our first stop was about 30min from Korcula. It was a small barren island with only one bald fat naked man sitting on his beach chair, and other than him, it was just us. The water was crystal clear, a picture straight from a postcard. We were all alone (almost), in calm waters, surrounded by a huge amount of fish and sea urchin. The sun was shining, and there was nowhere else in the world I’d rather have been. We snorkelled around, swam about, went diving for sea urchin, sun baked, relaxed – and cracked our first beers. After a couple of hours, we decided to set sail to somewhere new. The freedom was amazing, no one else in sight, hopping from island to island, no way a cruise could have been better than this. A number of times during our journey, we were cruising along at full speed and we decided to just dive off the boat. We found a new spot, anchored, ate lunch, and just kept doing what we did best. We hopped and hopped all day. Gradually getting more and more drunk as the day went on. At one point the boat ran into the rocks slightly and all of a sudden the motor wasn’t right. In fact it was stuffed. But we continued on. The sun was starting to drop, along with our co-ordination and motor skills. We were heading back towards Korcula harbour, but we decided to stop somewhere about 15min out and watch as the sun set. So we watched in awe, jumped in and out of the boat continued to drink then drive the boat back. When we arrived back in the harbour, it was well and truly dark. The motor was stuffed such that when full throttle was applied, the propeller would spin freely, and the engine would SCREAM. So with me at the controls, we tried to discreetly pull in the boat without drawing attention to the broken motor. No such luck. I can count the number of times I’ve driven a boat on one hand, in fact, on one finger. So pulling the boat in to a mariner, dark, motor stuffed, and 4 litres of beer and ample vodka in the system, did not go so well. I almost smashed into about 46 luxury cruisers (albeit at 1.5km/h) motor screaming, everyone else screaming, and everyone emerged from their cabins to see what all the commotion was about. Eventually another boat had to tow us in. The ultimate moment of shame. We confessed to the boat owner (let’s call him Nikola) that we ‘may’ have had some trouble with the engine. But we played dumb. What took place next will stick with me as some of the most awkward and yet hilarious moments of my life. Omit and I helped Nikola remove the motor from the boat. He had unscrewed it and commanded us to ‘lift’, and as we did, we may or may not have crushed his hand (and sliced it open) oops. But we took it inside the mechanic shop and set it up. Nikola told us that we had busted the propeller, and we would need to pay to replace the part. We were drunk, stubborn and in no mood. So we started to debate the point that we felt the product was faulty when he gave it to us, and it was merely wear and tear that caused it to break, and we therefore didn’t feel that we should be required to pay for the damages. We were inside the mechanic shop when the shop owners wife came out with a broom and chased us out telling us to have our arguments outside. So we went outside. Nikola was starting to get a little worked up, and he all of a sudden started changing his tune. He said “I have a family” and “this makes me very sad”. We watched as Nikola started to breath heavily, start to tear up, and then turn around and start coughing. “Are you ok Nikola?” “Yes, I’m just very sad of this.” He then proceeded to throw up in front of us, several times. What would you do in this situation? Very awkwardly I gave him a pat on the back and said “........it’s ok, everything’s fine”. It worked though on his part. We paid up, fixed the boat, shook hands and said “same time tomorrow Nikola?”

The following day we rocked up at 11am and there was KO-315 sitting in all her glory fixed and ready to go. Plus we got a 50% off discount. So again we loaded her up and made our way out to sea. The day started a little slower than the day before, we headed to our first spot from the previous day, and unfortunately there was a bunch of boats sitting there, slowly we muscled our way into the little cove and the other boats gradually began to leave. We had learnt from the previous day that we needed a knife to go diving for Sea Urchin, plus we brought along some lemon to accompany. Not really my thing, but Omit gutted one sea urchin, whom became the KO-315 mascot ‘JOE’.

The day followed the same basic pattern as the previous day, and we somehow managed to get ourselves as drunk, if not more so then the previous day. I remember at one stage drinking vodka shots out of Joe. The day came to an end as we slowly, slowly cruised back into the harbour, docked perfectly and tied up the boat. I don’t recall but I’m told as I was standing on the edge of the boat, unpacking it, I started to ever so slightly lean back towards the water, in slow motion my arms started to wave, then wave faster and gradually I tumbled backwards into the water. I climbed out, beer still in hand, hat still on, being yelled at by the harbour master for swimming in the mariner. I don’t recall this.

We sadly bid farewell to Joe and to KO-315. Much of the evening was a blur from here, we went for dinner somewhere. We have footage of Omit and I riding around on toy cars. We apparently offended an elderly Croatian man enough for him to call the police (at least he pretended to). My recollection was that we were talking to loud. Old people.

The worst part was the 6am ferry we had to catch the next morning. Sarah came to wake us at 5:30 and simply from the smell of Omit and I, it caused her to be physically sick in the toilet. The boat ride was rough, crowded and the longest hour of my life. We arrived in Hvar, made our way to the hostel, where we passed out on beach chairs all morning. We spent the whole day getting our lives back in order, and having an evening without alcohol.

Hvar is generally known as the party island in Croatia, but we definitely treated Korcula as our party island. So in Hvar we lazed on the beach, roamed the old town and the castle, visited a couple of the islands during the day on a water taxi and just enjoyed the hot weather. We did one evening decide to take a trip to Carpe Diem – a club on an island; the only thing on the island. Unfortunately for us, boats didn’t even start heading over there till 1:30am. So we had some drinks with dinner, and tried to maintain a high level of excitement but all were a little too relaxed. However, it hit 1:30 and we walked down to the wharf and made our way over to the island. It was really cool, to be on an island, and have a huge outdoor club, swimming pool in the middle etc. We spent a few hours there before deciding we didn’t have the energy to keep going, so we headed home.

We enjoyed some great times in Croatia and it is definitely one of my favourite countries. I decided after Croatia to go off and travel by myself for a few weeks, and let Sarah and Al do their thing. So early in the morning Alison and Sarah caught a bus, a ferry and a plane to arrive in Prague. Omit and I slept in, caught a ferry in the afternoon, then I caught an overnight train to Slovenia, and Omit an overnight ferry to Italy. So we had all gone our separate ways, and started our next chapter.

Italia

Rome: Nick and I spent 3 days in beautiful Roma and it blew our minds. Having heard so much about Rome we were expecting the ancient city to be ruined and overrun by tourism but we were surprised at how taken back we were with its beauty, history and relevance.

We stayed at a camping ground approximately 30 minutes outside the city which was a nice retreat away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. Our days were spent walking for hours to fit in all the sites, only stopping for some of the worlds tastiest pizzas and pastas. We spent hours inside the Vatican city and was blown away by St Peter’s Basilica. The church stands 120 metres high and no words can describe its architectural brilliance so I won’t go on. The colosseum, the Vatican museum, and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel are just a few of the things we can cross off our “things we must see before we die” list.

We spent hours wondering in and out of Piazza’s and ended up eating gelato’s on the Spanish steps. Many gelato’s were consumed at the Trevi Fountain (our favourite people watching spot in Rome). We jumped on the band wagon and threw a coin over our shoulder to ensure we would make it back to Rome some day. At this very point Nick and I came to the conclusion that Italians produce some of the finest looking men and women in the world.

Amalfi coast: Sorrento: From Roma we caught a train to the Godfather’s playground Napolia and jumped straight on a boat to Sorrento. We left gloomy, sad looking Naples and floated into Sorrento’s beautiful harbour with the sun shining and everything looking up. We made our way to our hostel, a little B&B and settled in. It was a great little spot because we were outside of the touristy area and in amongst the locals – so we were able to sample real Italian food and real Italian culture – bellisimo.

We made our way on the bus to the most famous town of the Amalfi Coast – Positano. A beautiful town on the side of a mountain stretching down to the beach below. We wandered down through the winding pathways admiring the sights and smells. Eventually when we hit the beach, the view was spectacular. Pastel buildings perched on the mountain overlooking crystal clear blue water. The price of everything and the designer labels surrounding us, ensured we couldn’t get to comfortable and sadly had to return to Sorrento but we enjoyed Positano for a short while.

We’d originally planned to make it to Capri, but our laziness mixed with disorganisation meant that we weren’t ready in time. So instead we decided to head to Pompeii.

Pompeii was a bit of a letdown for me. Nick was only slightly more interested than I was but he pushed on while I waited for him in a beautiful garden with a great book. Unless you’re interested in archaeology or a huge history buff Pompeii can look like a huge rock pile. I understand the significance of the site but it didn’t tickle my fancy. The site itself didn’t offer any information that described what was being looked at and the boring audio guide needed a massive update, so to us it looked all the same. I did end up finishing my book so it wasn’t such a waste of time.

Florence: From Sorrento we caught a train to Naples and from Naples another train to Florence. We spent three days in Florence wandering around the city and leather markets, taking in the architecture and admiring the culture and cuisine. We stayed at a very social hostel so we got to met some great people. Another “thing to see before we die” was crossed off our list when we went to see the western world’s most famous sculpture, Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria Dell’Accademia. The marble sculpture was flawless to our eyes, once again we were taken back by it’s beauty.

The next day in Florence we indulged in a wine and food tasting tour where we got to sample some of Tuscany’s finest drops and devour delicious cold meats, olive oils, jams and cheeses. We got to see some of the beautiful Tuscan country side and visit gorgeous chateaus.

Pisa: From Florence we hopped on a train with another couple (John and Amy) we met in Florence. We were here only for a few hours as Pisa doesn’t have a whole lot to offer besides the leaning tower and it was on our way to our next destination. We had seen numerous photographs of the tower and wasn’t at all expected to be surprised at the sight of it. Once we came closer the building looked more and more out of place. Construction of the building began in 1173 and was never complete because of the layer of shifting soil beneath the tower. The tower continued to shift at a rate of 1mm per year, in 1990 it had reached 5.5 degrees beyond critical point. In 1998, 8 years later, the Italian’s decided to do something about it so today it is stable at almost 4.1m off the perpendicular.

We spent a good hour trying to take ridiculous photos in all sorts of positions. It’s quite an amusing scene watching hundreds of other people doing the same.

Cinque Terre: A train ride later on the same day we ended up in Cinque Terre. The most picturesque dramatic stretch of coast line Nick and I have seen in Europe. We spent most of our time in the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre a national park that contains five towns (hence the name... Cinque meaning five, Terre meaning town) all linked together by a mildly challenging trail that allows you to hike between the towns (takes approx 5 hours). In between the towns to cool off we stopped for a swim and sunbaked and took in the beautiful surroundings and blue water. Words can’t describe the beauty of this place, so again, I’ll stop here.

Venice: We arrived in Venice via train and stayed at a camping site on the outskirts of the main city. Venice is a beautiful, surreal city catered mainly for tourists. When Venice was built it wasn’t designed for the 20 million visitors that come every year so flooding is a common problem and we could see why. The architecture and grand canal were gorgeous, we opted against the 70 euro 15 minute gondola ride but watched in ore from the bridges as the gondola drivers manoeuvred around missing each other by millimetres. Most of Venice was sightseeing and walking around trying to avoid the copious amounts of hustlers, tourists and dirty pigeons which was impossible.

Canyoning: In the middle of our Venice trip we hired a car for the day and headed two hours east to Slovenia for the day. A fellow traveller had recommended that we give canyoning a try. We arrived in small little town called Kobarid, had a small bite to eat, was handed a steamer wetsuit, a pair of booties and a helmet. We drove a little out of town and ended up at the bottom of a mountain. After a half hour trek up the mountain with all our gear we made it to the top, looked down and saw a beautiful canyon. The only way to go from here was down but not the same way we came. After suiting up and a little instruction that went something like this... step carefully and slowly some of the rocks are deceiving you could slip and break your leg or worse you could fall over a ledge and die.... we were off sliding down waterfalls and jumping off rocks. We were definitely pushed to our limits when we jumped 12 metres from a cliff edge into what seemed like a small pond. It would have been less threatening if we were in a diving pool and we knew we probably wouldn’t die if we stuff up the jump, but in this case we were told if we landed an inch too far one way or the other we would seriously hurt ourselves, oh, and make sure you take a big enough jump over the edge because there’s a bit that protrudes and you can’t see it from here. All in all we had a great day, probably one of the most memorable days of our trip so far.

Milan: From Venice we ended up in Milan for a night for a flight the next day to Croatia. Not a very exciting place unless you had thousands of euros to spend on designer clothes. We did wander around the expensive shops and window shop and took some photos outside the famous Milan Cathedral. Within an hour we had seen all that Milan had to offer. The next morning we said goodbye to Italy and the beautiful people and was excited for our next destination.