Juggling Mike

So today is my last day in this beautiful city. The architecture here is so mesmerizing. It may not be as nice as other places in Europe, but nonetheless, it rocks. We took so many shots. Just yesterday, I filled up about 2.5 gigabytes of pics. We found a couple of beautiful cafes and we ate some amazing food.

Last night we went to a Mozart symphony where every musician dresses up like Mozart. There were some tenor singers, and overall we had a great time. I will post some pics of that once I get a proper usb connection.. which looks like it will be at home.

Tomorrow we are waking up early to grab a train to Munich… which will bring us to Oktoberfest! I am looking forward to drinking from those humongous glass mugs. We will actually be meeting up with the Quebecer we met at the hostel here for drinks. The world is small, and yet it feels like I am barely seeing any of it.

Anyways, I have to go prepare my bag for tomorrow and take a shower. I may not be able to write anything for a while, but I can promise more updates eventually!

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So, it is still day one, but about quarter to 1am. I am in the bar writing this from another traveller`s laptop. I noticed he had a Université de Laval shirt, so I went up to him and asked him if he was from Quebec. Guess what? He was! We had a good chat, and we also met his friend, which was an Aussie. Both great guys, and a lot of fun to talk to. Too bad they are both leaving tomorrow morning.

For supper, we went to a Gaushaus in which I ordered some sausage dumplings which is essentially sausage in a dumpling on top a bed of saurkraut (not sure if any of that was spelled right.. I have over 2 litres of beer in my belly tonight), and it was good, but not exactly my cup of tea, so I did not manage to finsih all of it. One food we seem to eat a lot at every location are doners or kebabs. They fill you up and are cheap. Yay for Libanese food!

Anyways, I have to go to bed soon or else I will pass out. We spent so much time today (starting at 4:30 am) catching planes and trains that we are dead tired.

Till later!

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Well, we finally got to Vienna. We were running around all day to catch the train, then catch the plane, then catch the train, then catch the metro, then walk in the rain to our hostel. We are tired!! The only girl in our group left today to go back home (she was staying two weeks), so now we will be three for the rest of the journey.

Yesterday, we wanted to go paragliding and/or climb the glacier, but the clouds were too low and we couldn’t do anything. Instead, some of us went to visit some caves and we got some incredible shots on our way back home (we took a boat). Switzerland is really beautiful, and I will have to come back again to see it from the top.

Anyways, enough for now. I need to get some food in my belly!

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Wow, what beauty! Those were my first words when the train passed by the magestic mountains in this area. Everything looked so clean, and so pure. Nature here is not the same thing as back home. Here you have huge mountains and clean turquoise waters just screaming out beauty. We have not done much today, but tomorrow we plan on climbing to the top of one of the glaciers and hopefully, if all goes well with the temperature, I will be able to paraglide from the air (tandem though) and take pictures from the air. Lets hope the temperature stays good!

Yesterday we went down Germany and then back up north in France. We stopped by a small French village which was very pictorisque, and then we headed up into the woods into a secluded restaurant which served the best meal I have had on this trip so far. We had boar, and oh man… *drool* it was good!!!

The scenery on that trip was amazing. Perhaps not as breathtaking as Switzerland, but amazing nonetheless. I included (or tried to, since I have limited options on this pc) a pic of my travel buddies in Germany.

More updates probably tomorrow!

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Ahh, back to where I lived as a baby! We arrived yesterday where we met up with our other two travel partners (who were in Paris). We visited where my parents used to live and I saw the house where I was raised in. It was quite the sight to see, and it felt really good to finally see that house. We ended up that night going to Alsace, in France, to eat supper at a place one of us had been before.

Baden-Baden is definately the area to relax. It is a very lovely village with small roads, big spas and baths, and surrounded by the Black Forest. It is known as a relaxation getaway. Doctors actually prescribe their overstressed patients to come here and spend some time in the spas.

Speaking of the spas, we did one this morning. This was a mighty nice spa. We had the massage, plenty of mineral baths and saunas, and all in a beautiful bath house. In fact, it was so relaxed that we all had to be nude. Oh yeah, and today was mixed day, so we were surrounded by naked men and women. It was a bit awkward at first, but after a couple of minutes, you just didn’t care. You come out of there totally relaxed. I don’t know how much that would cost back home, but it wasn’t too bad here (29 euros for 3.5 hours including the massage).

We also visited a nice castle up in the mountains surrounded by the black forest. It was truely beautiful and I quickly filled up my 2gb card.

Anyways, enough for now. Ciao!

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Alright, so tonight is my last night at the hostel. Tomorrow I will be taking the ICE train to Baden Baden to check out the area where I was raised as a baby. It will definately be more relaxed than my time here or in Ireland. It has pretty been touristing during the day with a lot of walking, and party at night. I have ingested more alcohol than I have all year.

Speaking of, we did the Heineken experience today. The tour comes with three glasses of beer (guess which kind), as well as a free gift. We decided to drink the last two quite quickly before heading out, which was, umm, fun… heh heh

I bought myself some Heineken sunglasses since I forgot my pair at my friend Jason’s place.. which is a shipping container. Hopefully he will be able to bring them back to me when he returns to Canada in a year (or earlier, if he visits). We also did the Amsterdam Dungeon, which is a sort of live actors/interactive tour of medieval Amsterdam. That was ok… but some of the actors overacted, and some of the crowd were jerks… but overall, we had fun.

I had really really wanted to go see the Hague today, but my camera battery was dead, and we would not have that much time, so we decided to skip it. It was a bit hard of a decision from my part since I really wanted to go, but it gives me a reason to come back to this awesome country.

Anyways, it is nearly 1am here and I need towake up ataround 4:30am to go catch my train. I may not have the net in Baden-Baden, so we’ll see when I post again!

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It is raining today…
I want to go see The Hague!
Go away stupid rain!

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Ok, so me again. Nathan and I decided to chill at the Hostel tonight and take it easy. We will try to get some Losing Chess on and maybe also some Backgammon. Tomorrow, we should be going to the Hague where they have a miniature city. Everybody has told me that it is beautiful.

Today, we walked around a lot (again), and we checked out Madame Tousseau. It is a pretty nifty tour, and the wax sculptures are pretty accurate. I will have pics eventually, when I get USB access somewhere… I muct have taken around 500 pictures so far…

Anyways, I will write more later. Tomorrow is our last full day in Amsterdam, and Friday noon we will be meeting up with our two other travel mates in Baden Baden.

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Ok, so quick update on my status, since I have free Internet access here. We spent the day walking around Amsterdam. Well, we woke up late and then chilled around the hostel for a bit. I took pictures of the park which is right beside. It is beautiful with lots of various birds. I saw Herons, lots of ducks, and some other birds I cannot identify. It was actually not raining, with a bright blue sky, so it was a nice way to start the morning. Afterwards, we chilled downstairs where they were showing a Spaced marathon. I actually bought the box set of Spaced in Ireland, which I’m not sure will work properly on my tv. We shall see.

We also visited the Red Light again, but late at night. It is quite a busy area, with people constantly going in and out of the windowed doors. The, umm, selection is a lot better at night than during the day. I wouldn’t pay for that kind of thing, but there definately was a nice bunch of girls winking at me. Oh, and there are a lot of pickpockets and crack cocaine dealers. At least when they offer you drugs, you just say no and they let you go. It doesn’t seem very dangerous to be honest, and as long as you check your pockets, you should be fine.

I also met my friend Jason who is spending a year studying here. His dorm is actually a shipping crate! It looks trendy, but is not very big. I took pics which I will hopefully post once I get usb access, if not at home. Tomorrow I will meet up with him again, and I will also see another friend which moved here a couple of months ago. If all goes well, we should also go see The Hague, which is a miniature city.

Anyways, my buddy is waiting for me to kick his ass in Losing Chess again, and we need to go to bed soon. I love this hostel, and this city as well

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Ok, so it is morning, and we are taking it easy today. We had to leave Cork at 3am in order to catch the plane to Amsterdam, and the fact that we spent all day walking, we were really tired last night (which affected my spelling.. thank you Dave for pointing that out). Today, I will try to get in touch with my friends who are in this city and hopefully go see them. We saw a juggling store yesterday, so I am definately going there to check it out. We shared a room with 8 english dudes who were pretty fun and crazy, but they got inlate and had to leave early, so we were awoken quite a bit, but we still managed to get our rest.

One of the crazy things about Europe is that although I am in a hostel which has cats, writing this in the basement bar which is full of smoke, I have not needed to use my asthma pump once. Back home, I would be dead this morning.. here I am quite alright. Perhaps it is the long walks we take outside which is helping, but I think overall, the air here is different than back home and doing me good.

Anyways, till next time!

P.S. - Congrats dad on the job.

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