Hallo! Wow I have put doing this off for so long... And as aconsequence, this will most likely be very long too!
27th BUDAPEST (HUNGARY) to LJUBLJANA (SLOVENIA): Oh this was a whileago... Oh yeah! I've pushed it out of my mind because it was a horridHORRID train trip... Train was late, then changed platforms but wasonly announced in Hungarian, then 2 hours of sleep (that I hadn't hadat all the night before) before being rudely awoken by a conductortelling me I had to change trains. Turns out that they're ripping upsome of the track, and it just happened to coincide with our train...So on a run down bus that would give India a run for its money for 2more hours, back onto a completely different train, 5 more hours andthen got in at 11ish. And I couldn't even pronounce this place's NAME,nonetheless navigate myself around it in the dark! Luckily I met 2human compasses in the form of some very gay, Chinese tenors fromCanada. They were a hoot, eh! Got to the hostel and crashed...
28th LJUBLJANA: Woke up and did the touristy thing and SUCCEEDED thistime as opposed to ending up in art galleries... Climbed a big hillwith a big castle (obligatory in every city in Eastern Europe...),walked along a river for awhile, had a coffee, bought a jumper fromH&M, you know. Normal touristy stuff. I just couldn't get over howbeautiful the city was. If you've seen photos on my facebook, you'llbe able to see why I could just wander around doing nothing all day...I took the choir boys from the night before out for salads to thankthem for helping me out, and then met up with some hostel for a drink.But I just drank coffee because I was still getting over Budapest! Hada cup of tea with 2 Scottish lads back at the hostel and was in bed by1.
29th LJUBLJANA with a day trip to LAKE BLED: Decided to spend the dayon the banks of one of the world's most beautiful UNESCO sights.Definitely worth it. Despite the fact that the movie they played onthe bus was a Russian one that is about a bus that gets blown up. Verycomforting... Read Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and dared toeat local peaches. There was another big castle on another big hill,so I climbed that too. Rested and rejuvenated, I was ready for anotherbig night out. Luckily the girl who did the night shift at the hostel,Anna, was an awesome pocket rocket type person who took us all outlocal clubbing when she finished her shift! It was a club in agallery, and there was apparently some famous Turkish DJ on thatnight, so it was PACKED. Drank and danced and spoke to the locals.Even recall sitting in a circle with about 6 other people and boucninga tennis ball around! Just like one of my first days with the tribalfamilies in India! Bouncy balls transcend borders. At about 3, I wastalking to some random guy for about 10 minutes, and when he left awhole bunch of girls flocked to me squealing in Slovenian. Turns outthe guy I was talking to was the DJ that I mentioned earlier and he'snormally a social recluse! Spent the rest of the night til the clubclosed with those girls talking about music...
30th LJUBLJANA to SALZBURG (AUSTRIA): Mostly shady day until about9pm... Market in the morning, train during the day and then gothopelessly lost as per usual when I got to the translation. Walkedaround a little bit when I got in there, but I couldn't really bebothered seeing any sights. But then... I was wandering back along theriver to get an early night when a fantastically dressed man walked infront of me. And I recognised him. A lot. Well, I didn't believe itmyself for the first while, but it was the New Yorker from Prague!!Remember way back to the first email?? The group of Yankees who wereliving in Berlin that were th first people I spoke to outside India,and I tried to catch up with them but it didn't work and I ended up atthat grungy club? Well 3 weeks and 8 countries later, I end up walkingside by side to Sam. He's just about the male version of me - I don'tthink I've ever met someone who has as many of the same personalitytraits as myself... We went out for a few beers, and it turns out helives about 2 streets away from where I'll be living in NY! So he'staking me under his wing and calling me his new Australian best friend:)
31st SALZBURG: Got up early intending to see the sights. Ended up atthe contemporary art gallery. Again. Go figure. Also saw a classicalMozart, Beethoven and Brahms concert. That's about it! Early nightwhilst I could get them...
1st SALZBURG to MUNICH (GERMANY): ALLY DAY!! Was so restless on thetrain I couldn't even read. Got to the hostel (without getting lost,for once) and she was dead asleep on the bed with her shoes still on.I quietly put down my bags and pounced on her! Lots of yelling, lotsof hugs, lots of crying, and then LOTS of talking... We sat in thehostel for about 3 hours before we ventured as far as the pizza barnext door to share some dinner. As Munich is the beer drinking capitalof the world, there was a free beer tasting at the hostel bar (yes.Hostels have BARS in them in Germany) so we thought we'd tag along tothat. Well. We ended up having more than just the free beer in a nightthat was going to set the bar for the rest of our time in Munich...Became friendly with some Londoners, and planned to do a proper,organised pub crawl the next night with them. Went to bed at 1am. Thiswould be the earliest Ally and I go to bed in about a week.
2nd MUNICH: Do what is called a 'Free Walking Tour' that we'd heardabout. And it's about one of the best things I have done so far. Ifyou ever go to Europe, check these guys out! They work on tips basis,so it means that they are CRAZY!!! For someone who doesn't likehistory, I can recite to you all the ins and outs of Munich afterthat... Plenty of funny stories, like the fact that there isn't anAustralian embassy in Munich, but during Oktoberfest, there is atemporary one for 2 weeks with the presumption that there will be alot of plastered Australians loosing their passports... Climbedanother tower (my calf muscles are becoming quite angular!) beforeheading back to the hostel to meet the Poms. And then it started. 'TheOriginal Munich Pub Crawl: The Best Night That You Will NeverRemember'. Oh god. Free beer for the first hour, and then 3 beergardens that only serve litre glasses... I can proudly say that wedid those mugs justice... Met some real Aussie blokes and tried tokeep up with them. Organised to do ANOTHER pub crawl with them thenext night. This is how Munich makes it's money, I swear! Got home at4.
3rd MUNICH: Woke up surprisingly dandy, if not very very late and wentour separate directions. Ally to the Palace, and me to, yep youguessed it. The contemporary art gallery... Planned to go and havelunch, but everywhere was closed. Europe just literally seems to boardup on Sundays! You can't do anything aside from drink coffee, go tomarkets and write emails... Which is exactly what I've done today! Hada quick nap before rushing off reluctantly to the second pub crawl.Except we got the wrong meeting point plaza... So we decided to makeour own! We went to the most famous beer garden in Germany, assumingthat the crawl would end up there and we could apologise to the Aussieboys then. but we never got that far... About 3 sips into the first ofwhat was to be many litres of beer, I recognised a guy sitting about 2tables away. But I couldn't remember who he was. I just knew that Iknew him! So I went through all the countries I'd been to, and finallygot to Slovenia. He was one of the 2 Scots that I had that cup of teawith in Slovenia! I ALWAYS run back into people!!! Ally and I joinedthem and the 4 of us clicked immediately. What ensued was probably thebest night I've had so far. No clubs, no bars, no fancy outfits...Just me and Ally, two hilarious Scottish guys, my ipod speakers,pretzels and a whole lot of beer. I mean, A LOT of beer. More beerthan what I thought that could expand my stomach... And when theystopped serving us beer when they closed, we went back to the hosteland drank more beer. And when they stopped serving us beer when THEYclosed we bought a couple more and sat on the stairwell drinking morebeer... They ran off to catch a train at 4am (thus the purposefulattempt to stay up) and we went to bed. I'm going to hopefully go andstay with them in Glasgow! But not drink that much beer...
4th MUNICH: Got up really late. REALLY late. Past lunchtime type late.Again, no hangover! Ally wasn't as lucky. We heard that there was anice park in the top part of the city, so we went and sat in it. Well.By sat I mean that we fell asleep for another 6 hours! Went out forsome Thai with a French Canadian guy in our dorm. Put our weary headsto bed as soon as we could.
And I'm going to stop there for now. This is enough for you to processmethinks! All I'll say about Berlin so far is that I'm sorry if Inever come back home!!
I'll send the Berliner escapades in a few days...
Gutentag!
Xx
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