Dingaling, hear them ring. Soon it will be Christmas day

Sorry for the delay between posts...been a busy couple weeks. Sorry, ladies of Sir Wil (I'm told I have a fanbase there).

Budapest was great. It's a very big city, so getting around is slightly trickier than some of the smaller cities I'd just been to, but I managed. I'd heard really good things about a hostel in Budapest (from a guy who had tattooed its name on his ass – I had to at least check it out), so I gave it a try. It was definitely the friendliest hostel I've ever stayed at, with everybody knowing eachother's name, and a very social atmosphere. We went out on small pub crawl every night, which was a good way to see the nightlife, even if some of the bars were kinda crappy. The only downside was that about 95% of the hostel guests were Aussies (I'm telling you, there's none left in Australia) and younger than me, so I felt like a bit of an outsider. Nonetheless, it was a great time. One night at the pubs, I was wearing my Oakland A's ball cap and a couple Hungarian guys game up to me and told me they were the “Hungarian Baseball Freaks”. I quickly discerned this meant they just really liked baseball and wanted to talk to me about it. I haven't followed pro ball in years, but I gave it my best since they were buying the beers. I think they appreciated it. At some point on this night I also met Alice the Kiwi, another backpacker staying at a sister hostel. She said she was heading to Prague on Sunday, and that had been my rough plan too, so we decided to head there together. I met some really cool people in Budapest, and I'm very glad I went.

So, Sunday morning Alice and I met up and caught the bus to Prague, which was long but pretty comfortable. We explored the city by foot the first couple days, taking in the Christmas markets, their elaborate bridge (name escapes me), the castle, and pretty much everything in between. Our second night there we met up with my South African friends, Marcel and Anton for a pub crawl along with a couple other people from our hostel. I'd been hearing whispers of this particular pub crawl since getting to Eastern Europe. This pub crawl's claim to fame is that for the first two hours, you have unlimited access to beer, vodka, and absinthe. Yeah. Shit got messy. We weren't even in the second bar for 10 minutes before Alice said she wasn't feeling well, so I went upstairs with her for some air. As she was redecorating the side of the bar, I saw another of the girls from the hostel being thrown into a cab too, unconscious. I was feeling fine and wanted to keep pub crawling, but unfortunately responsible me took over and put Alice in the same cab and off we went back to the hostel. The cab driver dropped us off pretty far from our hostel, so I had to carry the passed-out one over my shoulder as her friend was freaking out and Alice was drunkenly screaming for an ambulance. Fun times! I had originally planned on going back to join the pub crawl once everybody was back home safe, but I was so worn out from lugging the girl around (she was dead weight...completely unconscious), that I decided I'd just call it a night. Unfortunately the next day the girls, who had left their jackets out in the common room overnight, both discovered large sums of cash missing from their pockets. It was a good reminder to be careful with your things in hostels, cause you never know.

Our final full day in Prague was fun, but chilly. We met up with the South Africans along with an Aussie (see?) from our hostel for a walking tour. This was a bit of a challenge since it was snowing hard – you've probably heard of the blizzards rocking Europe the last few days – and it was pretty cold out. To boot, the normal tour guide was sick so it was an office manager doing the tour, who was very rushed and didn't have the best grasp of English. He still had lots of interesting info to offer though, and it was cool to learn of all the different empires that have ruled Prague. Afterwords we made some dinner at the hostel and found the prague beer museum, which was really just a pub with a bunch of different beers. They weren't quite as good as the Belgian beers, but I'm now definitely a fan of the Czech beers.

The following day Alice and I parted ways and I headed for Berlin. Now there's a city for history buffs! I did another walking tour of Berlin and saw a bit of everything from the Brandenburg gate, to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the old Luftwaffe headquarters, and the hotel where MJ dangled his baby by its leg over the balcony. On the tour I met a couple cool people so we decided to meet up later for drinks. Unfortunately when we met up later I realised too late that they had a dance club in mind, not a pub. Fack! I went along with it, and actually had a decent time. It was a huge old warehouse that had been converted into a club with different styles of music on each floor. They had a rock floor, an electro floor (I'll never understand why they love techno so much), and a “blackmusic” floor. This turned out to be r&b and hip hop, but the name came off as a little politically incorrect. I mean I'm white (sorry for the shocker), and I enjoyed that floor more than the others...as did most people there from what I could tell. I dunno, just one of those cultural things I suppose.

The following day was awesome...I went to a hockey game! The Berlin Eisbaren (polar bears, but doesn't that sound cooler?) were playing Sunday afternoon, and I decided I'd been away from hockey too long. So I finally figured out how to get there (turns out it was literally right behind the club I'd been to the night before) and took off. While waiting in line at the box office, somebody came up to me and offered me a free ticket cause their friend had to cancel, so that was a bonus! I made sure to buy him a beer with some of my money saved. It was really fun being there. The quality of the hockey on the ice itself was kinda crappy compared to the NHL (or even OHL...but not Delage), but they make it lots of fun for everybody to draw the crowds. I was surprised to learn that the arena seats 15000 people, and they were just shy of being a capacity crowd – not bad for a Sunday afternoon. There were fireworks, lots of chanting, and singing. One thing I thought was really cool was when the announcer was announcing the home team line up, he would only say the player's first name and the entire crowd would should his last name back. There was even a Canadian in the line-up. Go Steve Walker! The Eisbaren ended up losing 2-1 in a shootout if you missed SportsCentre.

Ok, so I've been really slack on taking pictures (gimme a break, it's freezing out), and just as slack at posting them. So, here are some pictures from Amalfi, Venice, Prague, Budapest, and Berlin.

My Christmas plea:

I hope everybody has a very merry Christmas and get to spend it with the people they love. Being away from everybody I care about is going to be tough for me. It really makes me realise how much family and friends mean over the holidays, and how little everything else (gifts, money, etc) does. So I've got a favour to ask from you. Send me a Christmas email. Let me know how things are going with you. Do you have any questions about my trip? I'll write you back. How desperate does that all sound? I dunno, I'd just love to hear from everybody, so if you're reading this, drop me a line!

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

I've been up to lots since last checking in, so I may as well get right to it. Venice was beautiful when it wasn't raining. It's a very cool town to explore, and very easy to get lost in since the streets are very windy and confusing. When I say streets, I of course mean walkways, because Venice has zero streets and cars. The canals are beautiful, but because I was there during the rainy season, they would flood some of the sidewalks during high tide, so people would have to walk on elevated platforms along some routes. Definitely makes it tricky to get around! I didn't do much besides walk and explore since Venice is a very expensive city, and doesn't have much of a nightlife. But I'm really glad I stopped by...really cool town.

After a few days in Venice, I trained over to Ljubljana, Slovenia. This was my first time in Eastern Europe, and it was another beautiful city. The only train going into Ljubljana from Venice though was a night train, so imagine my surprise when I woke up from a nap on the train to look outside in the dark and see everything covered in nearly a foot of snow! This did not make finding my hostel at 2:00 am more enjoyable. I've got nothing but great things to say about Ljubljana though. The hostel I stayed at was great, the town is beautiful, the people there are really friendly, and everything was cheap! What more could you ask for? My first day there was pretty quiet as I did some much needed laundry and caught up on sleep. After that though I had fun walking the city for hours, exploring the different parts of town. Ljubljana is a very young town, and this is reflected in the culture, art, shops, etc. I also bought myself a winter jacket since my sweater/rain jacket combo would clearly no longer cut it. On my second night there I joined the hostel's get together party in order to meet some people. It ended up being pretty fun...we had a few drinks, and I met some cool people from different parts of the world. Over a shared bucket of mojitos (don't ask), I agreed with a couple of South African guys and an American to go find a certain restaurant, the hot horse, the following day. So the next day, we trekked out in the freezing rain and ate at the hot horse. This isn't so much a restaurant as it is a shack in the park. And their claim to fame is their burgers, which are not made of beef, but rather...horse. It was rather tasty...very big bun with lots of fixins...all in all, not a bad meal! So now if anybody ever tells me they're so hungry they could eat a horse, I can tell them what they're in for. That night we ended up going out for some drinks, which was an interesting experience. I tried absinthe for the first time, which I enjoyed. We also got a random bricolage of multiculturalism, as we went to an irish pub, listening to a kilt-clad slovenian band that was playing irish folk music. Met lots of the locals there, which was a great time since they're so friendly. One lady grabbed me from the bar and insisted I waltz with her...it didn't seem to matter to her that I had no idea how. Ah well, I got a crash course in the Vienna waltz, and everybody had fun.

I took off on Friday to Vienna, which was a long train ride. I was disappointed to learn that there were no hostels available for the Saturday night for some reason, so I only stayed in Vienna one night. I got some schnitzel, which was very tasty.

On saturday I took off to Bratislava, Slovakia. Its claim to backpacker fame is that it is the location where the torture-porn flick Hostel takes place. My hostel has even photoshopped their name into a couple movie posters and had them professionally printed, so at least they've got a sense of humour about it. Well I'm glad to say I've been here 4 days and have yet to be dismembered, so that's good. I think that if you really wanted to make a movie about hostels that scares people, make a documentary! Bratislava's kinda small, so there are only so many things to do, especially in the offseason. My favourite part (besides the beautiful women) is the christmas markets in the old part of town. It's kind of got a Winterlude vibe to it, except instead of skating and activities, it's all just eating fantastically unhealthy fried foods from different stands and drinking gluwine, which is wine that has been sweetened and spiced, and then served hot. Great for clearing up the sinuses on a cool day! My South African friends ended up arriving a couple days after me, so we met up again for some food and drinks, which was good times as always. One interesting anecdote... I had a crazy lady in my room the first night. Not just kinda weird, she was legit crazy. She couldn't sleep because of the noise from outside of the room, so every hour or so she would scream that she couldn't sleep, which I thought was really thoughtful. Other highlights included her trying to sell her passport to me for 200 euros, her asking me to stay in the room for the whole day to watch her clothes so that they didn't get stolen, and my personal favourite - her saying the hostel was just like a concentration camp because there was a draft from the window by her bed. Luckily she moved to a different room the following night, and then got kicked out altogether the followind day.

So, next up is Budapest. I'm just killing time for the moment, waiting for my train there. I hear great things about that too, so I'm looking forward to exploring what it has to offer. Til next time.