Yes I’m still alive… Wish I could say as much for my laptop though! I’m now carrying around huge paper weight… So I guess this means I wont be able to upload any photos now until I get home sorry…

short version

For those of you without much time on their hands:

Flew to Dublin took some photos, saw the Guinness factory decided it was a boring city so flew to Hamburg. Did a English harbour tour that turned out to be in German, took some photos.. Ran in to Sebastian went for some beers, stayed out late. He did a uni exam with a hangover.. Pretty city but nothing left to take photos of so caught a bus to Berlin.. Took some photos of some wall.. saw very few Germans.. thought we’d stumble upon a snuff film in our hostel.. went out drinking with Lino, met a German girl who though I was ‘pretty’ ? haha.. Took some more photos of a wall, decided we had enough photos of walls and caught the train to Prague.. Ended up in Praha apparently the same place? Turned out to be the most beautiful city so far, but lost points for also being the filthiest (outskirts).. took heaps of photos.. drank heaps of cheap beer.. went clubbing with some Americans from Ireland.. saw way too many tourists, and souvenir shops with Russian dolls (bought one anyway) so came back to Hamburg to see Sebastian. Need to double check we didn’t miss anything in Amsterdam and London next.. then flying to Italy to take some photos..

long version

Since the last update we flew from Edinburgh to Dublin and stayed there a few nights… the city was about as exciting as the Halloween celebrations in Australia.. i.e. pretty much non-existent! We did a bit of a day bus tour of which the highlight was the drivers comedic commentary. We also stopped off and did the Guinness Factory tour (couldn’t very well go to Ireland and not)… Also did a tour of an old jail then had a Guinness pie in an old Irish pub. Not quite the pie an Australian might expect it was a beef stew in bowl with a piece of puffed pasty on the side.. Might have been a more interesting city if we’d gone out for a drink as there are pubs everywhere but only little ones by the look of it…

After Dublin we flew to Hamburg, Germany which was a pretty city but there wasn’t a great deal to see… It has a massive harbour and a lot of massive old red brick store houses which are still used to this day. We did a boat tour through the harbour didn’t learn too much though… It was suppose to be an English tour but as we were the only English speaking people on it the captain only gave a commentary in German. An older guy from New Zealand offered to translate for us, he’d been living in over here for the past 30 years.. When translating 3min of German apparent it just meant in English “he’s just saying a lot stuff that isn’t interesting”.. Haha..

One interesting things we did find out though was that a lot of the rectangular ‘islands’ were land that had been reclaimed hundreds of years ago by driving thousands of wooden stumps under then water.. to this day there are heaps of MASSIVE red brick warehouses still standing and in use on top of this…

We also walked under one of the wider parts of the harbour… there is a long tunnel under the harbour with two shafts either side with both pedestrian and get this CAR ELEVATORS… I guess that’s one way to do it? Do imagine waiting for an elevator would help Brisbane’s road congestion though ;)

We also caught up briefly with Sebastian who until days prior we didn’t realise was living in Hamburg.. And we had only planned booked a few days there, which is why we’re back now (but I’ll get to that).. But anyway, he had a uni exam the next day and I think we all had a few too many drinks and stayed out a bit late.. but turns out he passed despite the hang over.. Haha!

From Hamburg we caught a bus down to Berlin which was pretty cheap, only about €25… We’d booked 6 nights in Berlin and probably could have found a nicer hostel and area.. but we managed… To get to our room from the street you caught a lift up 2 levels, then walked up another 2 levels via a fire escape stairwell, then walked down two long corridors through 3 fire doors, and majority of the time it was so eerily silent you felt like you might stumble upon a snuff film in progress if you opened the wrong door! The rest of the time there were large groups of French school students running up and down the halls and slamming doors morning and night… Our room was quite large and clean though, and for some reason had four beds? There was also practically no usefully shops in the area as well, but it was only 15mins underground to a civilisation.

We did the main tourist attractions in Berlin including the Brandenburger Gate, and saw some of the still standing parts of the Berlin wall. The longest part is only a kilometer or two and did have art all long it, now mostly ruined by graffiti.. the other side of it which is a bit hidden has all big pieces of graffiti some of which were really impressive!! Also went to Checkpoint Charlie which was probably more of an American tourist thing… I didn’t entirely understand its historical significance… Saw some other touristy stuff not worth mentioning without photos…

While in Berlin we caught with with Lino another German guy we’d met in Australia.. went drinking with him and his mates a couple of times which was entertaining! He’d only just moved to Berlin couldn’t help much with the history of the city, so taught us some useful German instead.. Like how to tell someone to eat their own bi-products.. Haha

We caught a train to Prague on the 10th and then stayed for 6 nights in one of the best Hostels we’ve been in so far - I’d highly recommend it (Sir Toby’s) to anyone.. It had a massive kitchen so we prepared a huge banquet as soon as we arrive, since we’d been deprived of one for a little while at that stage…

Prague was a very beautiful city both day and night with the castle all lit up on the mountain which can be seen from the city centre. The city centre is just a maze of little old cobble stone street with beautiful old buildings everywhere, and very few cars with such narrow little lane ways… Everything was really cheap a nice restaurant was prices comparable to a cheaper one back home.. The city is really beautiful to see from the surrounding mountains as well (we climbed a few)… An massive old monastery was at the top of one which had a gallery with oldest painting we saw dating back to 1340.

I also caught up with a friend from Brisbane who just happened to be in Prague for the weekend. Second time on this trip (other was in Amsterdam) - Are you stalking me Heidi? haha.. Was good to see her because won’t see much of her back home now that she’s based herself in Ireland.

Right now where back in Hamburg after arriving yesterday by train… Sebastian has kindly put us up a couple of nights and his mate has offered the same.. After the weekend we’re going back to Amsterdam to meet Lawrie who’ll be joining us for the rest of the tour.. Then back to London again for the weekend… bit of back tracking, but maybe we missed something? Hahaha.. Then next week we fly to Venice, Italy with a couple of friends in London for ones Birthday….

Those of you who know me well would be proud to hear that I’ve been drinking a fair bit of beer for a changed… never quite acquired the taste back home, but when in Rome.. I.e. Germany, Czech Republic both renowned for their beer!