Thatsa nica pizza

Busing it through the Dolomites and endless vineyards from Munich to Venice was the most picturesque drives that i have seen so far. Massive mountains (Alps), a sunny day and different views around every turn, we passed the Italian border and into Venice after a 10 hour bus ride through heavy Italian traffic.

Venice being a very expensive city, my BusAbout accommodation was on the outskirts, 50m from the airport runway on a camp site where every morning you have to catch a 20min bus into the city that runs hourly. I had a great time here. Eating pizza and pasta and not feeling guilty about it felt and tasted really good (because in past countries i had the odd meal where i should be eating their national foods). Had countless Gilatos as the weather was hot, real hot. It reached 30 degrees today, no cloud and there isn't much else to do but walk around in it, so by the end of the day i was very tired. Gondoling through the canals and waterways of Venice was the number 1 thing i had planned to do here and that is what we did. Lauren, Nicole, Tori and I kicked back and took in as much as we could as our driver showed us around the main sections and back canals where you cant access by foot. Going under a few of the 400 or so bridges, seeing countless other gondolas and boats cruise past us on this Sunday afternoon made it a very relaxing ride. Took a bit out of the pocket costing 80 Euro but it was well worth it. Gondoling in Venice...tick!

Walked and walked and walked, got lost as a map is useless here, but it was fun seeing the city with no cars or bikes, just gondolas, boats and people walking around.

Athens coming up, i will write all about it when i get the chance.

Munchen on pork knuckles

All of the BusAbout buses that i have caught from city to city averages out to be between 8-10 hours each where they play movies, sitcoms, music and it's a very comfortable ride. So it was from Vienna, passing through Salzburg home of the Sound of Music (and thank god i didn't stay there as the hostel plays the movie every night! Just joking, i will have to visit one day) and onto Munich. That night a pub crawl was on the engender and with a lot of heavy drinkers (Aussies) we were off to reward our taste buds on the best beers in the world. Drinking litre steins, multiple Jagameister shots and more beer, beer and beer and drinking them in the largest beer gardens in the world holding 9,000 people... i was gone and so was the rest of the group!

Back on it the next night after touring around Munich the next day, we had Pork Knuckles at the famous Hofbrauhaus where Hitler started his regime. Packed on a Thursday night we somehow found a table for our party of 10, ate our delicious meat injection and drank our steins with a small group of Germans where one was celebrating his 18th Bithday (he looked 28). With a traditional band playing and drinking more than us in-between songs wearing traditional clothing we sang, drank and swayed, clinking every 10 seconds. I learnt a German song! Don't know the exact words but if you mumble 'Prost, Prost, Prost...In the mood lick hard' you can sing along until your throat is sore (then you keep drinking). Stayed till closing time where we continued to sing and dance outside attempting the can-can (pic-you can pick out the 4 Germans). If i didn't have a tour booked in Egypt (coming up) i would be at Oktoberfest in the next few weeks. One day i will return!

Every shop in Munich can sell beer without a liquor license, McDonalds has McBeer! Beer here is not seen as an alcoholic beverage. So Germans in Munich don't have alcoholic problems, they technically have food disorders where the average German drinks 1.5 litres a day.

Oh yeah, i also did see Munich, beautiful city. Went to the nude park, watched surfers on a river and saw the odd church. I must admit, I'm a little churched out. I also visited another concentration camp called Dachau, this was the first ever concentration camp and the hundreds of others that were built afterwards was based on this one.

Off to Venice next for 3 days, Athens for a few more days and then i join a group touring the Greek Islands and then another tour travelling through Egypt for the next month and a bit.

There are NO kangaroos in Austria

Riding a push bike through the vineyards in the Austrian countryside is another day that is one of the best i have had. Joining a grape grazing tour with most of the people i met on BusAbout we tried 10 different wines (decent tasting sizes) from the region which is also one of the best in the world, we had Schnapps tastings and homemade jam/mustard tastings as well. Biking it through perfect 24 degrees weather, full sunshine and a cool breeze. We stopped off here and there picking and eating grapes, played a bit of beach volleyball, climbed to the top of a hill where an old ruin castle once held Richard the Lionheart, swam in the freezing cold Danube river, ate a huge meaty BBQ lunch, visited many wineries and finished off the tour with unlimited wine on the hour party bus ride home. What a day, the scenery was absolutely amazing and with only 1 person falling off their bike (he was fine) we were all smashed by the end of the day.

Spent the day before walking around exploring Vienna. Cobble stones and grand buildings everywhere. Only got to explore half a day as it started to rain pretty hard so what a better time to have a Nana nap during a Vienna thunderstorm.

Czechin' out Prague

On the bus ride to Praha we stopped off at a concentration camp called Terezin where harsh fates were given out for the Jewish prisoners. Most of them were arrested for different signs of resistance to the Nazi regime where 5,500 of them perished. 2,600 died due to harsh living conditions, diseases and torture, and at the end of the war, a typhoid epidemic broke out in the overcrowded working (not extermination) prison. This was a very informative and sad day.

By far Praha is the most beautiful city that i have seen in my travels so far. Went on another walking tour which took us around the old town, the largest castle in the world and many other odd spots. Shot some really cool photos at Kutna Hora church and learnt that during the Hussite wars there were many victims and with the plague that killed thousands of people, the church wasn't able to completely take in all the victims at that time. So an idea that one of the powerful families had at the time was to use the bones of the 40,000 people and decorate the church including a large chandelier (pic). Also went clubbing in the largest club in the Czech Republic, Karlovy Lazne. 5 floors playing different types of music. If you didn't like a song or DJ, you just had to walk up or down to the next level. With shots of full strength Absinthe it was a memorable night...just.

Hoff to Berlin

Started off with a walking tour of Berlin, walking through Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Book Burning Square, East Side Gallery (pic) (Berlin Wall), the spot where Hitler committed suicide (it is basically just a car park where there nothing to say this is where his bunker was. There is a patch of grass in the car park that supposedly has the most amount of dog shits on it in all of Berlin when people walk their dogs past), the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (pic), singing with the Hoff on the bus as we entered Germany and visited heaps of other places where i learnt about all the recent history about this rebuilding city that i paid no attention to back at school. It was hard to take all the information in especially only having 2 full days here. Walked a lot, drank a lot of good German beer and had a blood and liver sausage...yuk! Made sure i went clubbing in a town known for its nightlife which was fantastic as we danced to German techno, hip hop and AC/DC with a very lively German crowd.

Off to Nether Netherland

Amsterdam, wow... this small, smokey, ultra relaxed town has certainly opened my eyes to a world that i only had heard about. I was greeted by the hostel receptionist at Hotel StayOkay after a 10 hour bus ride from Paris to the Netherlands, stoned, pupils wider than a 5 cent coin, he sent me accidentally to the wrong room 3 times in a row and spent 10 minutes trying to replace the roll of paper in the credit card machine... he he he. With a group i met on the bus, we had an awesome time exploring the Red Light District during the day and at night as it is a completely different atmosphere, the sex museums, coffee shops, Heineken brewery and all the many other places and nooks and cranny's that make Amsterdam... well Amsterdam.

Collect $200 when you pass go

London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Venice and Athens. This was my target in the month of August. Regretfully this is my most rushed part of my entire trip spending 3-4 days in each city, but it was still enough time to understand what each city and culture was all about. Travelling by bus between each city, BusAbout is fantastic, meeting new people, hopping on and off wherever i choose to stay and booking accommodation through them has made it very easy to plan this month, giving more time to enjoy myself. Haven't had a dry day in Europe yet, there are party's and people to meet everyday in the hostels. How long can my liver keep it up?... I don't know.

London is one cool city, with so much to see and do and a transport system that's very easy to follow, the only real downside is that it is bloody expensive. Spent a lot of time wandering around seeing all the major stuff as well as joining a free walking tour where our guide explained all about the history of the city as well as telling us quirky stories which made it a great afternoon. I learnt that London Bridge is NOT the one with the two towers on it, that's Tower Bridge (pic) and that Big Ben is referring to the bell inside the tower above the clock (pic). Yes i felt like the stupid uneducated tourist. With perfect weather and visiting most of the spaces on a traditional Monopoly board, i left London travelling by the Eurail train (under the water) to Paris which only took about 3 hours.

Spent 15 hours in Paris (where i would return again in December) and was off again to Amsterdam on BusAbout.

From Russia with love

Borsch, Salyanka, Pelmeni, Perishki, Kakleti, Porridge etc. All the foods that i grew up on at both of my grandparents place back in Australia i ate, and it all tasted and smelt exactly the same with bucket loads of the herb 'dill' on everything, even French Fries.
I loved Russia, it is so different to any of the other places i have been to so far and there is so much to see. I pretty much saw all the major sites but needed to spend a lot more time at each one. Going to the Red Square, the Kremlin, clubbing and many other places in Moscow, seeing and swimming in the largest, freshest and cleanest lake in the world - Lake Baikal, trying to take in as much as i could at the Hermitage in St. Petersberg, growing a Russian moustache and having a traditional Russian sauna.

Being spanked by a Russian.
Traditional Russian sauna's are like no other. The sauna's that i have experienced in the past have just been a hot room where you sit and sweat in a temperature that is around 80-90 degrees. Well a Russian sauna is similar but a completely different experience. First of all it is 120 degrees and you are lying naked breathing through your mouth as your nose burns if any air goes in. Once you are sizzling in your own juices, 'Eugene' our Honcho (tour guide) slaps and spanks your body with your choice of a Birch or a Pine tree branch that has been soaking in hot water. The first few hits you tense up not knowing where or how hard the next slap will be, but you then relax and it is actually quite soothing until it is time to turn over where all my concentration was making sure my hands were covering every inch downstairs as the beating continued. Dehydrated, soothed and smelling like a Christmas tree, you then stumble out meeting a huge bucket of cold water that is tipped all over you. (In winter you jump in the snow outside).

Clubbing in Moscow.
With everyone ready and pumped to go out, our Honcho in Moscow 'Andrew' took us to a club called 'Prison'. After showing your ID to 2 huge Russian bouncers, you then go through a metal detector, patted down then have your wallet checked in every compartment for drugs and knives before entering. With a mixture of Russian and western trance and techno, i was in heaven as i Melbourne shuffled it up on the dancefloor half drunk and in my own little world. Along the top of the bar were topless female strippers showing their goods to paying patrons and with drinks flowing and a male toilet where you look out onto the crowd thanks to a two-way mirror, it was one of the best clubbing experiences i've had. Sightseeing the next day was hard as we got back at 5 or 6am.

A few people would like to know if i liked Moscow or St. Petersberg better. And i would have to say i liked Moscow better as i spent more time there and saw a lot more than St. Petersberg. Although The Hermitage in the 'Berg was the most impressive site i have ever seen.

I am now in London for 4-5 days then off to Belgium, Netherlands and Germany until the end of the month. I hope everyone is well back home.

VodkaTrain

From one side of the Great Wall i have now continued on the Mongolian side training it from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. For the next 3 weeks i joined a tour through Mongolia and Russia called the VodkaTrain and boy did it live up to its name. We all drank litres of the stuff as well as beer that you could buy on most train platforms that is considered a soft-drink and is cheaper than water. Over 200 hours were spent on the 4 trains throughout the 3 weeks. The longest being 4 days and 3 nights with a 12 hour border crossing where you can't go to the toilet. Many finished water bottles and empty vodka bottles were used! I started to get used to Wet Wipe showers and with limited aircon and sealed windows during the longest part, we stank, especially our room which seemed to always be the party room. However with a really positive and fun group, we had an awesome time with drinks flowing and the days and scenery just whizzing by.

"Walking through the desert on a horse with no name".
I had no idea what to expect in Mongolia and it ended up being one of my favorite places. Waking up one morning on the train, i looked out the window and saw nothing but sand and the flattest landscape i have ever seen in every direction. I asked Charles "Where do you think we are?" and his response pretty much summed it up by replying "In the middle of f**king nowhere."
Once reaching Ulaanbaatar we travelled a further 2 hours by bus to our Ger camp where we would be spending the next 2 nights in a valley of rolling green hills. It was like a painting that a simple photograph could never capture. This is where we hopped on our horses with no names and trekked for 2-3 hours across the country side...wow! As well as a rocky and foresty climb to a lookout half way through the day, this was one of my favorite days in Mongolia.
Dressing up as a Mongolian wrestler (without the tight underpants) and wrestling a Mongolian was also a highlight. Him being a professional wrestler knowing 200-300 techniques, he won pretty convincingly but hey i lasted a good 10 seconds. All the boys got to wrestle each other as well where my first bout with Tim ended up being a draw (pic) but he got me on the second bout with his sneaky Kiwi rugby tactics. With just a candle, drinking games and a sky full of stars, both nights spent here were really memorable. The Ger camps were comfortable and our Honcho 'Sunna' was a top bloke making sure we got the most out of Mongolia where i have many other stories to tell.
From Ulaanbaatar we now travelled North to Russia.