Prague

Been in Prague for a couple days now, it's by far the best city we've visited. The architecture and the woman ate beautiful, the beer is cheap (1 to 3 Canadian dollars for a beer) and delicious. Everyone is friendly and speaks excellent English. There are beautiful statues and churches here, and unlike Italy where they're often made from fine white marble, in Prague it's mostly stones of dark browns and blacks, the figures are usually highlighted with a golden crown or sword, it's really amazing.

We're staying at Fusion Hotel, which is a backpackers hotel and once again a hipsters wet dream, this seems to be a common theme in hostels. It's brand new, incredibly cheap, and everything is within walking distance. We spent the first couple nights enjoying the food and beer and just exploring the city. Last night we joined a pub crawl, and it turned out to be pretty massive, there was probably 80 people. Once again more Aussies and Canadians. I'd like to meet people from other countries, but most of the Australians we've met have been cool. The pub crawl started with unlimited beer, vodka, and absinthe for an hour. We definitely had our fill. Absinthe is worse than palinka, it tastes like hairspray. The bars we went to weren't the coolest we've seen in Europe, but they were alright. One was comic book themed and during the day it has a comic book museum. The other two were in basements, they were ok. The last bar was the third largest nightclub in Europe, it's five stories tall each with its own theme. We only stuck around for 20 minutes before taking off.

Pretty hungover this morning so we went for burgers then took the bus to The Prague Castle, the grounds make it the largest castle in the world. It's more of a cathedral with some surrounding buildings, it was still pretty astounding. Bryce and Cam had absinthe ice cream this afternoon, it tastes better than the drink and still gave you a buzz.

Only two more nights here, then we head to Frankfurt, Colin and Dalton head back home and the three of us fly to Thailand.

Italy and Budapest

I'm finding it more difficult to keep up with the blog, but it's been a few days and a lot has happened.

I left Caen and met up with the guys in Milan. The train ride there was beautiful, the mountains look just like home. Milan is ok, it's not how I pictured Italy, it's very modern, the architecture isn't very old, and the streets are very wide. We went out to eat, the "Italian" restaurant we ate at was staffed by Asians. That wasn't a good sign, my pizza wasn't great. The other guys liked their pasta though. I made up for it by finding an awesome gelato place. We walked around Milan at night, there isn't much to see, some expensive boutique stores and some nice parks. We stopped at a bar located at the entrance to the park. It was just a booth and some tables with bean bag chairs. Dalton was immediately convinced it was a gay bar, I figured it just had mostly gay clientele. It was still cool sitting in the park drinking beers, made me miss patios back home.

We left Milan the next day for Venice, Italian trains so far are the worst. They're not awful, but out of the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, and France they're not the nicest. Venice is more like the Italy I imagined, it's a pretty crazy place, there's a huge bridge for trains and cars to get in, but after that it's just boats and foot traffic. We stayed in a campsite outside of Venice, we booked a cabin for 4. We were all hoping for a nice secluded cabin, with some lawn chairs, a lake or river nearby and a cooler filled with beers. Campsites in Europe suck. I now see why RVing (or caravanning as its called here) has such a negative stigma. Campsites are pretty much a place to park your rv and just sit. Our cabin was nice enough, but there was nothing to do at the site and Venice was a 25 minute bus ride away. There was a custom bike shop down the rode with some amazing Harleys though. We sat in the sun roasting, drinking, and playing games on Bryce's iPad. We spent the next day exploring Venice. The canals and pedestrian only streets are amazing, I was on a mission to find good pizza and more gelato. This can be difficult as I had one of the worst pizzas ever in Venice and one of the best. I'm also slightly disappointed that Famoso back home is still the best pizza I've had. We left Venice and headed to Vienna, Austria on a night train.

Austrian trains are really nice, but we were on a night train with no beds and the temperature in the car had to be close to 30 degrees Celsius. There's a joke somewhere in their about comparing a train ride in Austria to an oven, but I'm not sure how well Austrians dig Nazi jokes.

We only stayed in Vienna for a couple hours before heading to Budapest, everyone has recommended it so I'm excited. It'll be cheaper than everywhere else we've been. The train ride was alright, some of the Hungarian countryside is pretty behind the times. The farming communities are filled with old crumbling buildings, and small shacks. There's alot of horse drawn buggies too. Budapest is pretty cool though, it definitely feels like eastern Europe. The women are either gorgeous or hideous, and there are remnants of the communist regime, and there are some pretty old shitty looking cars, buses, and buildings. Our hostel is nice, we're in a 12 person dorm but each group of beds has its own kinda private room. Beer is incredibly cheap, and the food is great. I had some stellar goulash.

Once again we've fallen victim to a pub crawl, it was a bit of a walk from our hostel to meet everybody. So we stopped at a bunch of bars on the way. Every bar here seems pretty awesome. Many occupy the courtyard of an office or apartment building and have plenty of benches and trees, it's awesome to drink outside when the weather is so great. But this also allows everyone to smoke, my jeans still reek. Budapest seems to be the first city where the music isn't entirely western. We met more Aussies again and many more Canadians, but this pub crawl had the most variety of nationalities. Once again our obnoxious party behavior was likes by most and hated by a few. Two girls, one from Australia and one American immediately blew us off after finding out we were only 23, and not up to the level of maturity they had at 28. One German guy was also pissed when Dalton began to talk to his girlfriend. Everyone else was great though. One bar we visited had student artists come in every month and totally redecorate the whole bar, it had stuffed rabbits arcing across the ceiling. Our guide recommended we try Palinka, she compared it to schnapps and said it was a Hungarian specialty the bar had 150 different flavors, we tried grape. It was horrible, it tasted like rubbing alcohol. I immediately felt drunker and held off on any more beer.

I doubt we'll do much today, some of us are pretty hungover and after 15 hours of traveling yesterday we're still tired.

Oh, Bryce and I also bought our plane tickets to Thailand. We leave on the 4th of June. 6 and a half hours to Abu Dhabi then another 6 and a half to Bangkok, we might have a job hook up in Australia too.

May 20/21 Caen

After a 12 hour overnight train and another two hour one into Caen I finally made it. Caen is pretty modern, I found out later this is a byproduct of being 80% destroyed when Canadians and Brits liberated it. I arrived Sunday afternoon without pre booking a place to stay, there isn't a hostel here but many hotels. I ended up paying a little extra to stay at a Best Western. The budget hotels were half the price, but the good ones were full and some of the others seemed a little sketchy. It ended up being probably one of the nicest hotels I ever stayed in, the room was pretty small but had brand new and very modern furniture. The bathroom was the best yet. The people working there were incredibly helpful, I received a discount to the D Day Museum in Caen and they booked my full day tour for me.

Everything in the city seemed closed but I was assured the museum would be open. It was a pretty cool exhibit but most of it was about WWII in general and only at the very end did it focus on the invasion of Normandy. I bought the book that Band of Brothers was based on (I've already finished three books since we left Edmonton). I headed back to the hotel incredibly hungry, but it was Sunday everything was closed except Quick Burger (which made Bryce sick in Nice) so I avoided it, I ended up having just a can of Pringles for dinner.

Next morning I had to catch a train to Bayeux, about ten minutes away in order for me to be picked up for the tour. I nearly missed the train and got on just as the doors closed. If I had missed it the next one wasn't for another half hour. I didn't even have time to buy a ticket, not knowing the punishment for being a stow away I hid in the bathroom.

Bayeux is much nicer than Caen, I guess it was untouched during the war and it still has its narrow one way streets. The tour was 20 minutes late picking me up, I was getting incredibly nervous. Just as a woman offered to call the company for me a grey van pulled up and I hopped in. I was with an older couple from Colorado, a family of three from Detroit and two younger Aussie girls. Everyone was really friendly and got along great. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgable and knew more than even I did. She teased me for being the only Canadian in the van, and that she could tell I was a Canuck because of my beard and plaid shirt. Apparently she has regular customers, mostly Vets and their families, who come to Normandy every year on the anniversary. She says they drink more than the college students in town do.

Our first stop was a German cemetery, it is one of the largest in France with over 20,000 men buried there. It doesn't look that big because the graves are so close together and each marker is for two soldiers. I spotted many 18 year olds, the guide informed me there were some younger than that. In the center was a hill with a statute on top. Under the hill is a mass grave. The bodies there were unable to be identified. Next stop was St. Mere Eglise, an objective of American paratroopers. The church in the main square has a paratrooper dummy dangling from the steeple, tangled in his chute. This actually happened to a soldier and was made famous in the film "The Longest Day". Across the street was the Airborne Museum, they had a full C-47 plane and glider inside, along with equipment used by the paratroopers. Pointe du Hoc was third. It's a cliff face in between the two American landing zones, and I thought was the coolest spot we visited. Unlike the other beaches which have been reconstructed or turned into museums restricting access to certain sections, Pointe du Hoc is almost entirely like it was during the war. The top of the cliff is still dotted with bomb craters, some do big I could fit my house in them, the bunkers that are still intact can be explored and climbed upon.

Between each of these sights there are thousands of smaller memorials and tributes. Markers where planes had crashed, plaques dedicated to those who died taking a certain town, and many others. We even drove along the coast in a section where no fighting took place and they still have bunkers lining the beach and many farms had block houses in the middle of their land.

Utah Beach was interesting, but with most of the defenses gone it wasn't as cool as Pointe du Hoc. Last was Omaha, where 2,000 men died on the first day of the invasion. More than any of the other beaches. It's easy to see why, after 200 yards of beach, the soldiers then had to climb up incredibly steep hills. Omaha is dotted with more modern beach houses, but many of the bunkers are still there. After we visited the American cemetery, it's the largest one in France in terms of size, but there's about 9000 men buried there. I found a Horne on the wall of soldiers whose bodies were never recovered and the lone Canadian buried there. The near endless rows of crosses was pretty stunning and the beauty of the cemetery was incredible. Our very last stop were some massive guns in bunkers in the British sector, the bunkers were taken without any casualties as the Germans immediately surrendered to the Brits. So they're in great condition. The tour lasted about 9 hours and was awesome, I wish I could've seen Juno, where the Canadians landed but it was still awesome.

I should be in Milan to link up with Bryce and the PG guys by the time I finish writing this. The scenery as we went through the alps is amazing, reminds me of Jasper and Banff. In trying to figure out how to make collect calls so I can phone home, email just isn't the same.

May 18/19 Nice

We spent the day on the beach here in Nice. The beaches are all made of of small round rocks, their pretty uncomfortable. However, after finding a place to lay down we quickly realized that it was a topless beach. People had warned us that nude and topless beaches in Europe were filled with old people. This is not the case in Nice. Most people on the beach were people in our demographic, and most of the girls who went topless were very pretty. We quickly put our boob gazers on and lied down. We spent the afternoon at the beach and were back at the hostel in time for happy hour. We took it a little slower this time. The hostel offers an all day yacht tour for 64 Euros, it sounded expensive but after hearing about billionaires bay, the super yachts, topless girls, tubing, and snorkeling we were convinced. Unfortunately the four of us were the only ones to sign up and we needed at least six to go. We spent the rest of the night trying to find some girls to join us, we met some from Ontario and two from Sherwood Park but they were all leaving the next day. The Aussie organizing it told us two other guys had signed up, this was good and bad. Good that we could go, bad because spending all day on a yacht with 6 guys was pretty gay. By the end of the night our guide told us it was canceled due to weather, but we could go Saturday.

Saturday ended up being one of the best days of the trip. We convinced a group from Calgary to come, a couple from Niagara Falls, another couple from Australia and a few stragglers. The P to V ratio still wasn't great, and the most of girls who were coming had boyfriends but we had a lot of fun drinking together so it'll be a good group. There was about 15 of us. The weather was pretty shit to begin with, it was raining a bit and the sun had pissed off to warmer places. The yacht was a 60 foot sailboat with a fairly spacious cabin and several bebrooms. It was freezing cold sitting on the boat, and having sea water sprayed at you was not putting us in a good mood. Soon though the clouds started to peel off and we were getting brief moments of sun. Even with some sub par weather it was a blast, riding the sailboat in some rough waters was as thrilling as any roller coaster. Plus having nothing strapping you in adds to the excitement. Most of the time the boat is sideways at an almost 45 degree angle, and waves crashing into you only increase it. There were a few times I was lying on top of the cabin but we were at such a great angle it felt like I was standing up. One girl slide across the roof only to be saved by me and an our Aussie guide grabbing her. We pulled into "Millionaires Bay" where there are houses owned by Mercedes-Benz and Warner Brothers, the houses themselves were not that large but being on a cliff overlooking the mediterranean adds to the value. There was a hotel where the cheapest room (which was just a tiny cabana) cost 600 Euros a night. A small motorboat sat nearby with some shady looking dudes in it, the captain informed us they were paparazzi spying into the hotel. The water was pretty calm in the bay so the captain said we could take a dip. The sun was now out, but the wind still kept things cool. Bryce was the only to dive in, it is now referred to as "Peasants Bay". We then headed towards Cannes where the film festival is in full swing, some of the yachts are absolutely insane. Massive ships with there own crews, one even had a helicopter pad. We were dropped off at Cannes amongst the mega yachts. We walked past a lot of blocked of area guarded by men with clipboards. Everyone was dressed to the nines, we looked like bums in our trunks and flip flops. The festival seems cool and I wish I could stay longer, apparently they show movies for free on the beach every night. I have to rush back to the hostel pack up my shit and catch a train to Caen in Normandy. I'm leaving Bryce, Colin, and Dalton to see the D-Day beaches for a few days. I'll link up with them in Italy.

May 15/16 Paris,Marseilles,Nice

We spent our last day in Paris with our new friends from Prince George, Colin and Dalton. We've decided to join forces and travel together. We sat in the hostel trying to decide where to go next, Colin and Dalton wanted to head south. I wanted to go north and see the Normandy beaches, but after much discussion we decided to go to Nice, in southern France. I'm a little disappointed I probably won't go to Normandy but I'm having fun with these guys so it's cool. We spent hours trying to find a train, bus, plane anything to Nice but couldn't find shit. We decided to just head to the train station hoping for some help. We told the lady behind the glass of our situation and after about 30 minutes she found us a way to Nice. The 4 of us will have to take separate trains to Marseilles then stay the night, the next day we will take a train to Nice. Being spontaneous has its advantages, however being cheap isn't one of them.

We headed back to the hostel a little bummed at what we had to pay, and that our only option was to leave that night, but Colin kept saying "It's only money dudes." I have to agree. We're in France with new friends, chasing girls, drinking, seeing the sights, the last thing I want to do is worry about how much a train ticket costs.

Our hostel hosts in Paris suggested we just find a park to sleep in when we got to Marseilles. The homeless/rape jokes began to flow. We had no idea what we were going to do once we got there. Bryce and I took one train while Dalton and Colin took another, they arrived an hour after us. We stood in the station looking like shit. Not sure if we should just sleep in the station or find a hotel. We said fuck it and walked across to the French version of a holiday inn. It was about 50 Euros each for the night, we didn't care. The rooms were the nicest we've had yet, the bathrooms and air conditioning were worth the extra dough.

Next morning we boarded our train to Nice, the weather in Southern France is awesome. It's warm, but there's a light breeze. After only a few hours my face is already pretty red. As long as I don't burn my tattoo I don't care. Our train to Nice was supposed to be two hours, but after some electrical problems it took 4. We were pretty upset but after rolling through Cannes (where they have the Film Festival right now) and seeing the Mediterranean Sea our spirits were high. After a short walk we found the hostel. It's awesome, they have sail boat tours, scuba diving, cliff jumping, its only five minutes from the beach, and an in house chef. Bryce keeps calling it "French Hawaii". Plus at happy hour only 1 euro for a tall can of beer. We quickly found our room and started drinking, by 730 we were shit faced, five cans of beer on an empty stomach will do that. All the other tables around us were enjoying their supper and sipping on wine. Bryce, Colin, Dalton and I were making a pyramid out of empty beer cans. We walked through the streets looking stylish in flip flops, swim trunks, and wife beaters. But after some food we're hitting the sack. Tomorrow we're going to the beach, hopefully some of the cute girls here will join us.

May 15th Paris

Been in Paris a few days now, our hostel is tiny but it's along a canal and the neighborhood nearby is pretty nice. Paris is a little like I expected, it's loud, expensive, and really busy but it's much nicer than London. The architecture is much nicer and it's way greener. We took the metro down to the Louvre but didn't go in, we walked down the Champs Elyees all the way to the Arc Du Triomphe, the detail is incredible all of the figures and names carved into it is amazing.

Our friends from Prince George are staying at the same hostel so we joined them the next day for the open top bus tour, you get to see all the major sights and can hop on and off whenever you want. We stopped at the Eiffel Tower, which is also incredible. The line up to take the elevator up was over 90 minute wait so we took the stairs. It was pretty brutal doing all the steps to the second level, but we rested with a beer and enjoyed the view. Daulton, Colin, and Bryce were a little sketched out over the height I was fine with it, until we took the elevator which is the only way to the very top. The view is incredible though, totally worth the stairs. We hopped back on the bus and headed for our metro station. I was starting to fall asleep.

Colin's dad is here with his girlfriend so they went out for dinner, I tried to have a nap Bryce stayed at the bar. We all agreed we wouldn't drink tonight. That didn't happen. While Bryce and a girl from Ontario made dinner together I couldn't just sit and watch so naturally I ordered a pint. Soon we were joined by more people in the hostel and after a few free shots from the bartender we were drinking again. After watching Colin puke, then eat McDonald's I decided it was time to pass out.

We're going to Nice tomorrow, the hostel seems nice but it's looking like another expensive train ride.

May 12, Amsterdam to Bruges

Amsterdam is an amazing city. Automatically when I tell people I've been to Amsterdam or that I was headed for Amsterdam they give you a look. They know why some one in their early 20's is attracted by it. Don't get me wrong the drugs, partying, the girls is all really cool. But Amsterdam is absolutely stunning. It's the perfect size, you don't feel like you're suffocating as you walk down the streets like I did in London. There's hardly any vehicle traffic, everyone is on bikes or walking. The canals are really cool, lined with house boats some pretty nice, others look like shit. The people are incredibly friendly and although it's packed with tourists and other ex-pats it doesn't have that shitty touristy feel to it.

We spent 5 days in Amsterdam, our hostel Durty Nelly's was pretty awesome. It lacked some hostel essentials (a decent common area, and a kitchen forcing us to eat out) but the rooms were clean and the bathrooms were nice. The main floor was an Irish pub open to the public, it acted as the common area. We quickly started to talk to the bartender. This is my number one money saving tip, we've made a lot of friends at the hostels we've been staying at and it always pays off. We've gotten discounts on tours, free nights to stay, and free liquor. Durty Nelly's was just the same, we waited for our room to be cleaned and ordered a few pints. Our first bartender was Italian, bald head and covered in tattoos. I asked him what brought him to Amsterdam, "Drugs and prostitutes." he gave us recommendations on coffee shops, bars, and a couple tattoo parlors to check out. The other bartenders included a couple Scotsmen, some Irish girls, and a Dutch guy. After spending three nights in a row going on pub crawls, and spending several mornings staring at a full Irish breakfast wondering if I can finish without puking you tend to get really friendly with the bartenders. We were constantly given free shots of jaeger (I think I've finally beaten my stigma over the stuff) both at night and as hangover cures the morning after. We'd also get free bar food, choose the music, pretty good deal all around. We quickly earned the title "Alberta Party Kings".

But there's only so much drugs, alcohol, prostitution, canals, and creepy homes of Jewish hide and seek champions one can endure in a week. (Especially if your sharing a hostel with a English bachelor party that sound like they were all extras on a Guy Ritchie film.) So we're headed for Paris, but we couldn't get a room for Saturday so we're going to Bruges in Belgium.

Bruges is beautiful, it's the most European feeling city so far, more canals here but they feel different the buildings that line the water are older and the water is incredibly calm. We're only here for one night, I wish we could do more. There's more beautiful Aussie girls at our hostel and Belgian beer has been excellent. It's cool to recognize some buildings and locations from the film 'In Bruges' too, an excellent crime movie. Bruges feels a little more mature as well, the fine dining establishments definitely outnumber the bars. It seems like the kinda place you'd bring your fiancé.

Tomorrow we head for Paris, I'm worried it'll be like London (busy, loud, shitty) but French. Hopefully we find our hostel ok, the reviews were either good or bad so I'm hoping for the best. We're meeting Colin and Daulton, the guys from Prince George, over there I just wanna see the sights then piss off.

May 9th Amsterdam

We've been in Amsterdam for a few days now, a lots been going on but and Bryce and I have been having fun (mostly legal too). I'll just leave it at that. We went to the Anne Frank house two days ago luckily there wasn't much of a line like there usually is. It was really somber and a touch creepy, I never read the book but it was really interesting to see how 8 people lived for months in just a few rooms.

Yesterday two guys from Prince George moved in, we started drinking with them and two girls from Toronto. In preparation for a pub crawl. The pub crawl didn't end up happening, there wasn't enough people. The host still gave us three free bottles of vodka, and between Bryce, myself and the two guys from PG we polished off two in an hour. The ladies from Toronto helped on the third, as well as a few others. Daulton one of the guys from PG was pretty shit faced by the time we left, and we kept losing him on the street. I was amazed he made it through the night without passing out or puking. We wandered the streets of the red light district looking at the girls and constantly being asked if we needed anything special (coke, heroin, roofies). It's a pretty crazy place, coffee shops selling weed, porn stores, sex shows, and prostitutes in their booths line two canals and many alley ways. There isn't many bars here which is pretty strange, and there's only one strip club that I've seen (I guess it isn't really necessary when prostitutes line the streets). Another thing I couldn't believe is that after two nights of stumbling around the red light district drunk I saw zero police officers. There's cameras on some street corners but I didn't see one cop. But I haven't seen anyone being an asshole or overly aggressive to other tourists or the girls.

It's pretty interesting to see totally legalized prostitution in action, the Dutch are incredibly open and liberal people but we're told by our hostel staff and bartenders that it's not like it used to be. Apparently the red light district was much bigger, and in coffee shops you could get weed as well as psilocybin mushrooms. Mushrooms were made illegal awhile back (but there are still signs advertising "magic truffles" in many pharmacy windows) and by this time next year marijuana in coffee shops will only be available to Dutch citizens. I guess the politicians don't want the biggest and most famous city in The Netherlands to be just about drugs and sex. There's some benefits though, I've overheard tour guides say that in areas where sex is easily available murder rates are incredibly low. Also the girls are registered with the government and are regularly tested. If people are going to do it at least it's safe and some tax money is generated.

We've been doing a lot of wandering around here, there's a tattoo parlor nearby that does some very traditional sailor type stuff and has been around since 1955. My tattoo artist told me another guy in the shop back in Edmonton actually started there. So Bryce and I talked to the guys there about that. They had some pretty crazy stories.

I think we're off to Paris this weekend. Bryce and I really wanna hit up Thailand (flights can be as little as 500 bucks) and Australia. Cam split off again to meet his girl friend in Scotland for three weeks. I don't know where we'll meet up with him again.

May 5 Arnhem and Burger's Zoo

We slept in till about 1230 yesterday, our roommate Jose was supposed to stay two nights, but I think Bryce's snoring and my constant tossing and turning drove him off.

The zoo here is supposed to be pretty good and it's within walking distance so we headed out around 2, after we ate some contraband sandwiches in our room (no outside food allowed at this hostel). The zoo was actually pretty awesome, I've only been to the zoos in Edmonton (sucks), Calgary (alright), and San Diego (amazing). Arnhem is a big step above Calgary and a step behind San Diego. They had penguins, elephants, leopards, cheetahs, lions, turtles, snakes, giraffes, rhinos, and a bunch more. It was raining a bit so some of the animals were hiding but we got to see most of them. Most of the cages were pretty huge too, I still felt bad for the animals.

There was also an aquarium in the zoo which was pretty amazing, some of the tanks were enormous. Filled with fish, sharks, sting rays, and other cool stuff. The only down side was that all of the signs were in Dutch and therefore we couldn't read about the animals.

We headed back and chilled in our room eating junk food and watching The Inbetweeners Movie (I've lost count as to how many times we watched it on this trip). We headed down to the bar to predrink, it wasn't empty like the previous night but being the only westerners at this hostel we didn't make any friends. We took a bus down town and headed to where the bars were. It's really an awesome location, picture Whyte Ave but all wrapped around in a square and only foot traffic. All of the bars seemed exactly the same though, night clubs with outdoor patios. We picked one with a terrible piano player and sat outside to drink. We met a Dutch girl and her boyfriend and did the usual talk of back home. She seemed very keen to tell us about the red light district in Amsterdam. It was cool to meet some locals instead of just other backpackers. By 12 we were pretty inebriated, doing what you normally do we jumped into the nearest donair shop. So far donairs in Europe are far superior to those back home, they have the usual mystery meat cylinder spinning against the heat lamps. You can also get lamb, chicken, or beef. And they top them with cabbage, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, pickles, and all sorts of sauces instead of the typical onions, lettuce, and tomatoes back home. It was quite funny though, we couldn't read the Dutch menu, one of the cooks saw our puzzles faces and just said "I make you guys best donair!", even the immigrants here are multilingual.

The busses stopped running so we grabbed a cab, worth the extra euros in my mind. The closest bus stop to our hostel is still a bit of a walk, and all up hill.

May 5 Arnhem

There's no hostels in Nijmegen, but Arnhem (20 minutes by train) has a really nice one. We got off the train and headed to a tourism office to ask for directions. The girl working there, like 75% of the girls in Arnhem was stunning. It's unreal how many gorgeous girl live here.

The hostel is out in the suburbs, and after a short bus ride and a walk we found it. We had no reservations and this was the only hostel in town. Luckily they had room for us and we got a 4 person dorm with only one roommate. Jose from Colombia we haven't seen much of him.

It's pretty cool having a hostel out in the suburbs, we're surrounded by beautiful homes, and lots of trees. It may suck to have to take the bus into town, but I don't hear bottles being smashed outside my window.

We showered up and headed into the city center. The whole downtown area is for pedestrians only, I wish we had more places like that back home. Everyone here rides a bike, there are bike racks everywhere and every sidewalk is accompanied by a bike path.

We sat at a cafe and tried our best to order in Dutch, which is impossible. But people hear us and immediately speak English. We ordered to rose beers which came in pink bottles, we looked like two bear gays (we later found out rose beer is for girls). I finished mine as quickly as possible and ordered something manlier. Don't get me wrong, the rose beer was delicious. However, we already stick out enough here and drinking red beer wasn't helping. We sat for a few hours and just watched stunning girl after stunning girl walk by, it's just unreal.

We took the bus back (they still have those buses here that run on the overhead wires) and hung out in our room for a bit. Our hostel, despite not being a youth hostel and filled with people in their late 20's and 30's had a bar in it. So we decided to stay in and drink, the bar was totally empty so Bryce and I just sat and talked to the bartender. He was a younger guy working part time at the hostel while finishing his masters in Tax Law. We got pretty shitfaced on some good Dutch beer, which is much better than anything Ireland or the UK had to offer. We did the usual chat about the differences between our countries, talked about music, tattoos (he had an MC Escher drawing on his leg), he told us when he was a kid the winters got cold enough that everyone would go ice skating on the rivers and lakes for a few weeks. But he said because of climate change it never got cold enough and rarely snowed. We went to bed around midnight once the bar closed, were planning on going to the zoo tomorrow.

The photos are the view from our room, the Rhine river, and the bridge in Arnhem made famous from the A Bridge Too Far.

May 3rd Dublin to Nijmegen

We got up at 345 to catch a shuttle to the airport, we went to bed at 10, but I only slept an hour or so. Our hostel of right around the corner from the busiest pubs on Dublin. So the street is constantly filled with loud drunks, broken bottles, and other annoyances. We flew with Ryanair. A major discount airline, if you but flights in advance you can get a flight just about anywhere in Europe for less than 40 Euros. I have no idea how they make any money. The airline isn't half bad, it's a normal plane, no tvs or any free food or drinks on board but we got to Eindhoven ok. Bryce and I struck up a conversation with a girl with dual Irish/Dutch citizenship she told us there was nothing to do in Eindhoven, but Nijmegen was nice. So we caught a train, unfortunately we didn't really plan ahead. There are zero hostels in Nijmegen, so we have to pay extra for a B&B. Across the river in Arnhem however there is a hostel, so we might head there tomorrow. Holland, especially Nijmegen is filled with beautiful girls all riding around on bikes. There are sidewalks and bike lanes side by side everywhere here, alot of pedestrian only roads too, something I wish we had back home.

Cams girl friend is in Scotland so he's peeling off again to spend a few weeks with her. We just have to kill the weekend here in Nijmegen and Arnhem, Monday were going to Amsterdam. Accommodations in Holland are expensive but beer and food are fairly cheap, so I guess it evens out.

Bryce and I are trying to figure out some Australian work visas,, were not sure how to obtain them while overseas.

April 30 Dublin & Guinness Brewery

Well after sleeping until 2 yesterday, some new people moved into our room. There's two Americans and a younger couple from Vancouver, we weren't going to drink tonight but the American was persuaded us into joining the pub crawl. We joined him and his group for dinner it included more Americans, and a dude from Brazil. One of the American girls immediately pissed me off, it's normal for backpackers to tease each other on where they're from. But this girl was pretty arrogant, and it's pretty ballsy for an American to make fun of other countries. I avoided her for the rest of the night.

It was a typical pub crawl, we met some cool people. A local Irish guy was going to play rugby in Sherwood Park, met some people from Texas, and North Carolina. Every American so far had been cool, except for the one we met at dinner.

A particularly embarrassing moment was when Bryce for some reason was wearing a girls sequin tank top and Cam in his infinite wisdom walked over and ripped one of the straps. I had no idea what he was thinking, I would've started laughing but it was incredibly embarrassing. The girl and her friend were horrified, I ran out the front door so I could let out a burst of laughter. Cam gave the girl some money and spent the rest of the night apologizing.

I left the crawl early, I was completely bagged. After wandering around the neighborhood looking for some food I settled on a shitty looking burger place. I headed into the hostel to eat in the kitchen, it was locked. So I headed back to the room. I opened the door only to see one of the guys from Vancouver pissing on the fucking floor. I was blown away and had no idea what to say. I locked myself in the bathroom and ate my burger. I opened the door only to see two hostel employees questioning the culprit. He was beyond shit faced, couldn't even put two words together. They were threatening that if he couldn't produce his key they would throw him out. I tried to tip toe into my bed without stepping in the puddle. I made every step clean, except for the last one. I threw my socks in the garbage. I drifted to sleep listening to the hostel employee continue to talk to the drunken idiot. I heard some mopping, and some puking, but other than that I slept ok. It's now almost 6pm the next day and the dude and his travel companion are still asleep. I'm thinking of buying adult diapers and putting them on his bed.

We went to the Guinness brewery today, it was a little disappointing. I was hoping to actually see some beer being brewed but it was just displays and some cool old Guinness ads and bottles. The free pint at the very top in the glass bar was cool, but it's rainy here so you couldn't see much.

Cam is once again going to do some traveling on his own, he wants to see more of Ireland. I think we're headed to Amsterdam on the third.