Tough break Michael

Greetings all!

We are in Berlin, but it is our last night. When we arrived in Berlin, Kent's friend Nick was waiting for us in the train station with a beer for each of us. It was great! Berliner Pilsner is very tasty and local. We were lucky enough to be able to crash at his place for that night. He took us to his host mom's apartment and we dropped our bags. The because it was his second to last night in Berlin, we met up with all of his friends at a bar called Dr. Pongs. Very interesting place. They did a ping pong tournament all night, Kent even won a round and we heard Michael Jackson bit the big one. We stayed there until very late/early in the morning. Then we slept in that morning and got our act together around noon. Nick showed us around Berlin. We saw parts of the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag (spelling?...), and mostly walked around. We parted ways with Nick for the evening while he went to an opera and ate some döner at a smallish shack type deal. I have had döner for my past 4 meals. It works out. Then we walked around some more and past a bar with no one in it and the owner said he would pay us to come in and have a drink. Well I'm not going to refuse discounted anything. We went in a he took one euro off any drink. I just had a beer but asked for the biggest draught beer he could give me. It was called Bitburger and tasty as anything ever. Turns out the owner had just opened the bar a week or so earlier was desparate for business. A few other people even followed us in. From there we went back to Nick's because he thought it was ok for us to stay that night too. Well that was not quite the case and at 5 this morning his host mom threw us out. What a jerk. Then we had to figure our stuff out with only three hours of sleep and nothing open. We found a coffee place open and sat there for a few hours. A crazy homeless lady sat with us and would not shut up the whole time. She smelled a little and had bad teeth. I did not enjoy her company in the slightest but though Maggie and I were married. From there we walked until we found an internet cafe. That lead to research and we found a hostel not far away and they luckily had a three bed private for 22 euro a person. Sick deal. We crashed hard for three hours and at noon left to go to the worlds biggest gay pride parade in Berlin. The parade was so much fun and hilarious. The streets were filled with gay and straight a like, although making the distinction was sometimes difficult whether it was between sexuality or gender. I didn't really care at all and neither did anybody else. I even got hit on by a gay dude and a major self esteem boost. Good back up I suppose? My butt got pinched too. I'm just too damn good looking. Settle down mom I know you're probably peeing yourself laughing right not. From the parade we got dinner and sat for a long time. Now we are back at the hostel and fighting sleepiness before our morning excursion to Amsterdam tomorrow. Sorry if this entry feels rushed but I only paid for 30 minutes and spent the first half doing emails so I'm trying to get it all in before the clock runs down. 60 seconds left! Hopefully Amsterdams hostel has free internet or it will be another day or so before an entry. Goodbye all!

Whats funny is maggie can't get her computer to not type in chinese

We shall soon depart from lovely Prague for Berlin. Last night was great. Maggie stayed in but Kent and I went to the pub and had ourselves a great meal and watched USA v. Spain in soccer. Guess who won...the USA. WOOHOO! It was pretty crazy because we were pretty sure we were going to get demolished because isn't Spain known for being notoriously good at soccer? Final score 2-0. Kent and I cheered loud for each goal and the spanish people around us were upset at their loss. The meal itself was good. I had schnitzel and kent had the back of a young pig and a lot of beer for not that much money. From there we were again offered entrance into strip clubs by the many african men around the square. When they asked us how much money we had, we told them we honestly had maybe 100 koruna between us (actually true) they said well you should probably just go buy some weed then. Kent and I then turned away and walked very quickly back to our hostel. Then it was bed time and we slept in a little bit. We checked out around 9:30 and went back to Bohemia Bagel for a bagel and unlimited coffee. We drank our weights worth of coffee for two hours and just hung out there in the shop. From there we walked to the museum of communism and spent an hour and a half there. Pretty cool little museum with all the communist propaganda and things like that. A lot of images of the police beating the crap out of people for no reason. We currently are in the hostel where we have picked up our bags and will soon head to the train station for our trian to Berlin. Free place to stay in Berlin tonight with Kents friend Nick. Good deal.

***Note***
No one has any STD of any sort as of now. We are being reasonably safe. Just kidding, totally safe.

Uncle John-The midgets may or may not have the clap. We didn't really care to find out.

Czech me out

Prague-interesting thus far.

We got into Prague last night at around 10 and everything in the train station was closed except a small place to buy premade food and soda. We also had to change currency because the Czech Republic has yet to switch to the Euro. After stoping at an ATM to take out 1000 czk, the ATM spat out at me a 1000czk bill. To top it off the ticket machine didn't take any bills. Ok fine, so we bought a fanta to get some change but I got back only bills. Maggie got back a small amount of coins and we decided to just use that to buy our tickets. It only gets better. The tickets cost 26 czk and we didn't have enough for the three of us. Kent bought one at that price and maggie and I bought two children tickets for 9 czk a piece figuring we could cheat the system just this once because we are good people who would have paid full price but it was late and we had no way of getting enough coins. We validated our tickets and got on the subway to go one stop to change lines. As we are about to change lines, a man flashing some badge said he was checking tickets. Kent showed him his and he let him through. My turn. He stops me and maggie because we have child tickets. After appoligizing and offering to pay the difference he demanded our passports which we stupidly handed over. Then he pulled some ticket out and said it was a 700 czk fine per person, 1400 total. We begged to let us through saying we spoke no czech and it was an honest mistake. He didn't care and was a total ass about it. So we handed over our money and left absolutly fuming because we figured we had deffinitly been scammed. Well this put me in a great mood and Prague on my shit list immediatly. Unfair of me to make sweeping generalizations because this is a great city.

We made it to the hostel, which is right in the old town square, paid for our room and then kent and I set out for a cheap bite to eat. We walked around the square and in the wrong direction down the expensive, rich part of town. We saw names like Dior, Gucci and such. Couldn't afford that. Our next step was to backtrack to the square where many black men asked us rather dirty questions and offered us cheap entrance to a strip club. Actualy many clubs, one involving midgets. Of course we accepted and now have the clap. Or we said no and went to a kebab place where we met four really intoxicated british guys and got the clap. They were nice at least, but I couldn't really understand anything they said.

We awoke this morning to more rain. We have not seen the sun since our first day in Vienna. We had breakfast in Bohemia Bagels for very cheap and then went to a Kafka museum. The museum was only one room and in retrospect not worth the 50 czk. Water under the bridge. We left the museum walking in a general direction towards another museum we wanted to see. On the way we stopped for a beer. .5L for 33 czk was a pretty good deal. We hung out there for a little and continued on our way to the instrument museum. The second museum was entertaining, but again smaller then I expected. We walked back the long way taking the scenic route and stopped for some czech pastry type thing. It was sort of similar to a cruchy churo. We are currently at the hostel and are going to take a little nap and relax. The plan for this evening is to go a few streets down to a bar with resonably priced food and the USA v. Spain soccer (fotbal) game on tv. Tomorrow the plan is to leave about 9:30 and maybe a free walking tour of the city and then hop on a train in the afternoon to Berlin to meet up with Kents friend Nick.

***Note*** I do not really have the clap. Kent does.

End of the day in Vienna

I'm back at the hostel by myself having some quality me time because Kent and Maggie wanted to go to a classical music concert and I really had no desire to go. But it was all good because after only a day a half I am totally comfortable using the public transportation on my own, I made it back hitch free. I even made a friend with a crazy old lady on the bus. She was very nice and told me she saw Guns and Roses a few years back and then gave me candy from Vienna. I suppose candy is how child abducters get kids to get in their cars, but I threw caution to the wind and rolled those dice. Turned out fine so far and I don't think I'm hallucinating yet so I think it is ok.

Today we got up for breakfast early to make sure we ate more then our fair share and put some in our pockets to save for later. Serves them right for giving us breakfast. Tomorrow morning will be the same routine. After breakfast we relaxed back in the room for a little and did some laundry, but we had to wait for it all to dry and didn't get out until 11-ish which wasn't too bad. We headed to where the museums are and started with natural history. That museum was soooo cool. It had all kinds of stuffed dead animals for us to look at. Literally everything from the little worms through what they evolved into ending at gorillas and lions and big animals like that. There was also pre-human and early human rooms and I almost pooped myself when I saw the section on ützi the iceman because I learned so much about him in archaeology, cultural anthropology and newsworthy anthropology. However to my dissapointment they only had replicas of his tools. We also saw some rock type things and it was sort of cool and then my hear sunk because I'm not very excited for my geology class next semester. From there we crossed the street to a modern/contemporary/other kinds of art. It was ok, but I was kind of tired and hungry and not that impressed by some of the art we saw. There was a lot of good stuff but my stomach convinced my brain that I was having less fun then I thought. We also were not allowed to eat the food we brought in the museum cafeteria. Lame. So from the art museum we walked to a coffee shop and put some coffee in us to wake us up. Then we tried to go to the catacombs under the big gothic church in the center of vienna but it was closed. It was there Kent and Maggie bought tickets to the show they are currently at and I bought weiner something, which was really a hot dog, and ate. It was really good despite the fact that I was eating like a 8 year old. Then I struck out on my own back to the hostel. It's relaxing and I'm probably going to read for a little before kent and maggie return here, about 45 minutes from now, and we go to the beir garten (three guesses as to what that is in english and the first two don't count) for dinner. Vienna is a beautiful city and I'm sorry to be leaving it tomorrow. It is clean, the people are very friendly, I don't stick out like a sore thumb as much as Italy and Greece, and I cannot possibly do it justice with pictures although I'm trying really hard.

The two guys on the computer next to me think they can do Rome in a day. They could not be more wrong and stupid. Until next time (tomorrow morning), bye bye.

Correction

Wait, is jefries Jef or uncle John? And Amy I will respond to your email when I get to a computer that lets me do so.

Note: the identity as to the jefries has been solved and if I use the other computer I can send email. Also, mom I lost the connection with our call ealier but I would have said goodbye. Linda I took your advice and showered and washed my clothes. Results are inconclusive as of yet but should be promising.

From Vienna

Hello all!

This comes from Vienna because the internet in Venice was way too expensive. The train ride from Rome to Venice was uneventful. I do think our body odor was offensive enough to make the couple we sat next to change seats. I wish I could say that was the first time that has happened to me...such is life I suppose. Our train was delayed about an hour and a half, so we got in about 1 in the morning. We actually found a hostel for 25 euro a night on Venice in Santa Margharita square. It had beds and that was about it. What more could we ask for, right? Very nice man ran it who seemed like he had a lot on his plate. We only had two days and we spent them walking everywhere. The first day was to St. Marks square and a few churchs on the way. We got lost everytime we tried to go anywhere. After St. Marks square and basilica we made our way back and crashed in our hostel. Day two was pretty similar but instead we went in the direction of the old Jewish Ghetto. We got really lost trying to find that and circled around it a few times. The ghetto was interesting and full of the Chabad style Jews who prayed the whole time we were there. We wanted to go inside the synagogue and the museum but it was Saturday and of course closed. You think Kent and I would have seen that coming. On the way back from the Ghetto we made a stop in another church which I cannot remember the name of. I think it was the friars church? The long and short of it was it was really nice. Again we got lost trying to find it and lost again trying to get back to the hostel. We contemplated taking a ferry to Murano to see glass blowing but we did not have enough time. Once we made it back we had to grab our bags and head for the train station.

First overnight train of the trip and it was fine thanks to tylenol pm. We had to share a six person little cabin type deal with some kids on a school trip. Originaly it was three 14 year old girls sitting with us who then became three 14 year old boys. I am pretty intimidating so it was understandable as to why they switched. They were actually good company and I didn't mind having them there. Can't say that I slept all that well and I am exhausted now. We got here in Vienna at about 8:30 this morning. Vienna is amazing. Our hostel is crazy cheap at 15 euro a night. We also have a private room, free breakfast and this stupid computer with a messed up key board. And to top it all off, an amazing view of Vienna. Interestingly enough it is an HI hostel so I may have to widthdraw my previous statement. Check out the pictures on the website by searching "Palace Hostel Vienna."I also plan to take a million pictures while here so no worries.

Don't worry Jef we drink espresso every morning. And Mom I need to refill the minutes on the phone because it is out from the time we kind of lost Maggie in Rome. I'll get you back later on that. For some reason this computer won't let me send any emails. Happy fathers day to the dads reading this, mainly my own.

The Vatican is bit "gaudy"

I'm pretty sure the title of this one is hilarious, yes? A strong rival for the previous title.

To start where I left off, after we made pasta everyone in the hostel was hanging out in the common room and we joined in. Talking and laughing ensued for a while before we decided to go for a walk to the Trevi fountain. The whole group of us walked to the fountain but Tom and I needed to urinate and stopped to do so. Slight communication with the group and they kept walking leaving Tom and I peeing behind a dumpster. Who is Tom you may ask? A nice guy from Canada (C-eh? N-eh? D-eh?). Anyways, using my Italian speaking skills I actually sort of communicated with a local and got us to the Trevi fountain and to the rest of the group.

The next morning Kent and I left Maggie in Rome to visit Pompeii for the day. The trip to Pompeii was longer then the actual time at Pompeii but it was totally worth it. The ruins at Pompeii were awesome allowing us to spend the afternoon there and I took about another 100 pictures before my batteries died. Yes I left a change of batteries at the hostel but everything was ok. The flaw in the whole day was not making a plan to meet back up. The thought process behind that was to meet back at the hostel, however they told us it was most likely booked for that night and we would need to find another place to stay. I left Maggie with my phone and Kent and I had his to let us call each other but my phone turned off in Maggie's purse and we couldn't get ahold of her. When we returned to the hostel the guy working told us it was booked so we made reservations at an HI hostel, which was a really crappy hostel. I was also panicking about losing Maggie, even though as Kent and I were in the hostel so was Maggie just in another room. We assumed she would call us eventually so we headed a mile down the road for the night. HI hostels allow people up to 65 stay there. This allows for cheap, sketchy people to stay there. There were four other men in our room and they all wore very small underwear to bed. One man told me I had to move because I was in his bed, even though I put clean new sheets on a bare mattress. I looked at him and said "are you serious?" and he certainly was. I said a bed is a bed and you are being ridiculous and some other guy backed me up. I left my sweaty sheets on his bed, got a new clean set and slept in another bed. I think I was the winner in the long run. In the morning we went back to the original hostel to find Maggie and all was good and right with the world.

Our next move was to the Vatican where we saw St. Peter's basilica, sistine chapel and some other art and I took another set of hundreds of pictures. Nothing too funny or special to report from there. We now are back at Happy Days Hostel, our original hostel, because the staff is really nice and lets us hang out here. We have a train at 6:50 to venice. That may be all to report on.

Yes mom we went to that market and are probably in your old stomping grounds. Literally I could throw a football to the Vatican from our hostel. Ok, Maybe not that close but if I was stronger that would be a true statement.

Forum or Against 'em?

Ok so let me appoligize for the last entry because it was an email I sent earlier. I just copied and pasted it because we were in a rush to get out. So here are the past events in more detail and then some.

It all starts three-ish days ago. We made reservations from Athens to Patras for the 11 a.m. train, however on our tickets it said 12:37 which was actually the time we arrived to switch trains. We took that to mean that the train was really at 12:37. Wrong. Instead we took the train at 1 and got to Patras at 6:30. Our ferry to Bari left at 6. As a result we got a hotel room for the three of us for one night in Patras which was suprisingly nice. I had a gyro for dinner and it was delicious. That night Kent was the lucky one to have his own bed and Maggie and I shared the double bed. It was really cold in the room and Maggie literally took up the entire bed. I tried sleeping at the foot of the bed and floor but was having none of it. So, I just said "Maggie move" and she did and then I got some sleep. Patras was significantly cleaner then Athens and overall a more pleasant environment (no prostitutes).

The next day our ferry wasn't until 6. To keep ourselves entertained we hung out in a park on the water and visited the largest Greek Orthodox church in Greece. It was beautiful and painted all over on the inside. It also housed the head of saint Andrew and part of the cross he was crucified on. I have tons of pictures don't worry. 6 finally rolled around and we got on our ferry. For 18 euro we got air seats. Air seats are similar to airplane seats and in an air conditioned room with 2 tvs. There we met a group of 3 guys who were total bros and kind of nice. Chad, bro number 1, some how could hook his ipod up to the tv and we watched a few movies. After the movies we played some card games and just hung out. By the way, the Greeks drink ouzo and it is terrible. I was fortunate enough to fall asleep across a row of seats and in the morning I woke up in Bari.

Once in Bari we somehow managed to skirt around passport control by accident but I hope not a big deal. I kind of wanted the Italy stamp though. We made train reservations for Bari to Rome but not until 4:30. More time to kill. There is not much to do in Bari so we sat in a park and watched the goings on until our train. The train ride was boring an uneventful. However, our tickets were printed wrong and we technically should have got off at a stop 2 hours south of Rome. We managed to remain on the train.

Once in Rome we went right to the hostel and bed. The hostel is so much nicer then the one in Athens complete with kitchen and common room. Today we woke up and headed for the open air market to pick up delicious fruit, bread, cheese and olives. Then we walked to the pantheon. We had lunch on the steps and took many many pictures of the outside with the millions of tourists. Then we went inside the Pantheon. Way too crowded but amazing none the less. I took pictures of the inside every fifteen feet or so and could probably reconstruct the pantheon in picture form. From the pantheon we headed to the Forum via the Trevi fountain. I threw the coin over my shoulder so looks like I'm coming back. Sick dude. After some pictures there it was off the Forum. Obviously the Forum was amazing and incredible and I took about a 100 pictures. We walked behind a tour that cost about 30 euro and didn't pay a cent for it. Oh how great it is to be a backpacker. The next logical step was to go into the Coliseum and there shockingly was no line putting us right in there. By that time is was about 6 in the afternoon and we walked back to our hostel from there. The plan for tonight is to make ourselves pasta, hang out and then go for gelato. We thought about doing a pub crawl but decided against it. Ourlives are too rough. Until probably tomorrow, good night and good luck.

Holy lord we finaly made it to Italy

We missed our train leaving Greece so we had to take a later one which meant we missed our ferry from Greece to Italy. We left Athens and went to Patras, a port city and spent the night there. Patras was way nicer and cleaner. The people were also way nicer. Which was a plus. We got a cheap hotel for the three of us with a double bed and single. Kent won the lottery and got the single. I shared the double with Maggie and she took all the room so I slept at the foot of the bed and floor over the course of the night. We went out for dinner in Patras at a small cheap place. It was great.
That morning we checked out and had the whole day in Patras because our ferry was not until six. We slept in a park and then walked over to the largest Orthodox church in Greece and walked around that for a while. We then had wasted enough time to board our ferry. The ferry was by far the nicest accomodations we have had on the trip. It was sort of like a cruise ship. We only paid for air seats, meaning we had chairs in a room with a ton of other people. We met a set of bros named chad, cam, and ruddy who were entertaining if nothing else.
The ferry got in at 9 the next morning and we had all day to spend in Bari while we waited for our train. Not much to do in Bari so we sat in a park and talked. The train came at 4:30 and it was six hours long and very boring. We got our hostel around 12. Now we are going to see all the old things in Rome, which is unbelievably beautiful with amazing people and smoking hot women. The beard is coming along nicely.

Goodbye Athens!

We are departing from Athens in a little while. Kent and Maggie are still preping the functions to head out so I grabed a computer while it was available. We are going to walk to the market for some bread and cheese and then take a train to a place I can do no justice in spelling. From there we have a few hours to kill then our ferry for Bari leaves at 6 and is overnight. Upon arrival in Bari we still have a few hours to kill before a train to Rome. I'm going to see if I can find a camera store or something so I can document Italy and everything else. I may not be able to log onto the internet until Sunday, which means you will have to wait in suspense for me to tell more tales of travel.

Scandal! Chocolate Orgy!

Refering to the title, it's a flavor of ice cream so calm down. I just thought it was funny. However, I did meet one of the prostitutes and fell in love with her and together we are eloping and will start our lives over as fishermen here in Greece. Just kidding. There are tons of prostitutes out and I get a kick out of it.

Anyway, today we went to Aegina via ferry and spent the day swimming in the Adriatic sea. It was that beautiful clear blue color you see on tv commercials. I bet the weather where all of you are isn't even close to being nice or anywhere close to a nice ocean. I even got a nice sun burn. Yes mom I was wearing sun screen, and a lot of it. Fairly uneventful day. Tomorrow is crazy with a train ride, overnight ferry, and yet another train ride before our arrival in Rome where we will post up for three nights. Much love and thanks to all who leave comments, I appreciate it greatly.

Why is it so hot?

The AC in our room likes to turn off early in the morning while we sleep, so I keep waking up drenched in sweat. Yesterday we hit up the local market to buy bread, cheese and sausage all for under 5 euro and it lasted us two meals. After the market adventure we walked to the national archaeololigcal museum where we saw all sorts of artifacts from ancient greece including the death mask of Agememnon. From the museum we walked to a hill southwest of the Acropolis and went to the top where there was an amazing view of all of Athens. Consequently there was a little road you could drive up to get to the top making it a little annoying to see all the people in high heels walking around up there. There was also a small cafe. From there we walked back to the Hostel and made reservations for our hostels in Rome and Venice. It's not at easy to find hostels in either of those places for less then 20 euros which caused me to have a minor panic attack about the amount of money I have. I think I'm over it though. Once the booking was done we decided to head out to see if we could find a place to hang out. Maggies guide book lied to us and sent us down a street full of prostitutes which was nothing new considering there are prostitutes outside of our hostel at the corner. We seem to live on the crappy street in Athens because any street around us is way more pleasant. Although Athens seems a little dirty over all...

Right now we are currently waiting on Maggie to get ready so we can leave to catch a ferry to Aigina for the day. Another not so cheap investment but told it's totally worth it.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

I see my following has grown, glad to see that. Because Kent hogged the computer yesterday I didn't get a chance to share my day yesterday. So here it is.

We started the day by getting food from a small cafe and heading to the Acropolis. We were able to get in for free and see the Parthenon which was crowded with people from everywhere. It was also at the Parthenon where I discovered that my camera battery was low and being the incredibly smart peron I am forgot the battery charger for it. Yes this means I can no longer take any pictures. I will make Kent and Maggie take twice as much to compensate for my idiocy. The acropolis was beautiful and from there we headed to the temple of Olympian Zeus which was on the way to the Byzanntine and Christian Museum. Both places were really interesting and not close but seeing as we are young and fit we walked it all. It was also really hot and still is really hot. Funny story while at the Acropolis to back track for one second. I bumped into a little girl who I thought was speaking spanish and I appoligized in english and then thought to myself I know spanish so I said it in spanish. She looked at me and said something I did not understand and then went "Hello!" I think she may have been mocking me. Anyways, from the museum we walked back to the hostel for a nap. Post nap we showered, and by we I mean Kent and Maggie, and then headed back out to get some dinner. We ate outside at a small restaurant for about 6 euros each. From there we walked to Omonia square to see what was happening and talked for a short time with two men. One was Afghani and the other Iraqi. They told us to leave for fear of getting robbed. So we left and went to get gelato. First real gelato since I was in Italy many years ago. From there we headed back to the hostel and hung out with some of our fellow travelers. We went to bed very late and woke up at 1 this afternoon.

Today we are kicking ourselves for sleeping so late and will hit some museums this afternoon. The plan for tomorrow is to day trip to an island and leave the following morning. That's it for now.

I made it!

My dear cult followers-
I have made it to Athens! The flights were great across the board. Nice and smooth, always a plus. We had to take a cab from the airport to our hostel which was slightly on the more expensive side. The cabi drove like a pissed off teenager, but so did everyone else. It was crazy. The girl working behind the front desk was frmo Portland, OR and very friendly. We had our welcome shots at the bar and each bought a drink and are on our way to pass out because we have not slept in many hours. I did manage to grab a fews hours of sleep in the Dublin airport on a few chairs and then a bench. Athens appears to be beautiful so far. The plan for tomorrow is to go down the street to the local market and buy enough food for a picnic, which we will eat in the main square a block from here. Then we are going to venture over to the parthenon. I think we also plan to head out to a Greek Island for day at a beach durring our stay here. Internet in this hostel is free so I'll try to make one more entry before we leave.

Also, the bartender is playing music straight out of the 90s. It's a rockin' party over here.

Twas the night before Europe

Hello all. At the suggestion of my hetero life partner Kent, I'm starting this blog to keep everybody updated on my escapades through Europe. This first post is being done from my bedroom in Acton, MA which means nothing exciting...yet. Worry not because tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. I will make moves to Logan Airport and board a flight to Athens. So far I have done no packing. However, I do have everything I need. I hope. The next post may not be for a few days because I won't actually make it to Athens until Tuesday morning. Should be a fun journey. Lets make some memories.