Munich & Amsterdam

So this one is going to be a little short so I can try and catch everybody up to where I am presently… After I left from Cinque Terre, Italy I headed back up to Munich, Germany. I wanted to go back because the first time I went was during Oktoberfest and needless to say I didn’t get to explore and enjoy the city as much as I wanted. So this time I took the night train to Munich and got to the city at 7:00am so I had a good start on the day. It was a surprising clear day, but extremely cold with a high of 29 degrees with the wind chill. I dropped my bag off at my hostel called Famous Youth Hostels, they are all over Europe. The hostel was probably one of the best hostels that I stayed at. After I had dropped my bags off I had a few hours before I was going on a walking tour of Munich so I just walked the streets and got some breakfast. I met up with my tour group at the Marienplatz and watched the Glockenspiel, which is ranked as one of the most over-rated sights in Europe. It’s just these figurines that go around in a circle on top of this big building in the middle of one of Munich’s largest squares. After we got our group we headed off walking around Munich. It was really interesting to learn about Munich and how much of its history is directly related to the breweries that the city and region is most famous for. After the tour I headed back to my hostel to thaw out even though I was wearing almost every pair of clothes I owned. The day went well though and was happy to see more of Munich. After I got back and took a nap in my room I had made plans with a few of the people from the tour to go on a cub crawl later on that night. It was nice because instead of bars we went to four of the most famous breweries to drink at. We ended the night conveniently at my hostel bar so I was not far from my bed at the end of the night. In the morning/afternoon I traded hostels to one next door that had more openings and was cheaper. I spent most of the day inside the hostel because the cold from the day before was traded in for a down pour of rain. It was a short night for me because I was catching the train from Munich to Amsterdam the next morning at 7:00am. The train ride to Amsterdam was of course eventful being first that my train was delayed in Frankfurt where I had to run and to the ticket counter and buy a ticket over the border into The Netherlands because my Euro-rail pass was not for that specific country. So I got to see a lot of the Frankfurt train station in a short amount of time between sprinting back and forth from train to ticket counter and back. But I got to Amsterdam just fine after that around 5pm and met up with my friend Hayden who is playing basketball overseas as well in Germany. Hayden and I played basketball together at Shasta College my 2nd year. The thing I didn’t know when I was booking my hostel was that Amsterdam was hosting one of the biggest techno/DJ event of the year the very weekend that Hayden and I decided to meet up there so it was very difficult to find rooms available. The first night that I stayed in Amsterdam I had to stay in a place that was a little ways out, but Hayden was fortunate to find a place to stay in the main area. That day we spent just walking around the Amsterdam and we also waited in line and went through the Rijks Museum. The next day I packed all my stuff up and headed back into town to find my other Hostel which was a lot more centrally located then meet back up with Hayden to do a little touring. We ended at the Van Gogh Museum which was amazing and learned a lot while we were there… That night we ate dinner at a really nice Indonesian restaurant which was amazing! The food was great and a lot of it. We could have used a little more water when we got to the spicy plates but overall it was an amazing meal. If you don’t know what Indonesian food is like it’s a little like food from India, with curry’s, chicken and beef cut up in little pieces and white and yellow rice. The taste and spice was similar to Indian food but not as spicy I don’t think, or I’m just getting used to the spice finally….. The next day Hayden and I were leaving back to Munster which is where Hayden is playing basketball in Germany. Before we left we got up somewhat early and headed over to the Ann Frank House which had been close to where we had been staying. We waited in line for a while to get in but it was nice to learn about it all over again and see what they had gone through which was really amazing. The thing that impressed me the most was the amount of space the families had was much bigger then I had imagined it was. After we had spent a good amount of time going through the house, we decided we had better go back to our hostel and grab our packs and go check in for our train which is another story on in its self. I will try and get everyone caught back up to the present.

Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre October 17-20

So it has been an amazing few days in the Cinque Terre area. The Cinque Terre is a National wildlife preserve that consists of five small towns that are spread out along the Northwest coast of Italy. On the 17th Nichole and I arrived in Riomaggiore the first of the five towns to stay the night. When we arrived the views from everywhere on the town are amazing and look out over the ocean for miles… We got to where we thought was our hostel, but were informed that we had to climb another 50 yards up the stairs to their other location, which was an interesting adventure with a 40 pound backpack on my back. Once we got up to our room it was all worth it though… Our room had a kitchen sitting room and also a terrace that over looked the whole town and ocean. We ran back down the steps to the main strip to grab a bite to eat at a little pizzeria. We bought some wine and headed back up to our room to hangout on the terrace. The next morning we headed out to hike the 5 hour trail through the five towns. The first trail led to the second town Manarola which isn’t very far hike and is the busiest stretch because it’s the easiest and for most of it you use an old WWII bunker that spans the two towns. The next town we walked to was Corniglia and is the only town of the 5 that isn’t right on the beach but is set up on a small hill right about to the edge of the cliffs that fall straight down to water below. This walk was a little bit longer about 40 minutes but on arriving to Corniglia you have to go up from the trail 400 plus steps up to the town. So this was a precursor of what the next two trails where going to look like. All of the towns that we visited are surrounded by acres of grape fields. One of Cinque Terre’s most profitable exports and what the area is known for most; other than their great beach front towns, are their wine. All the towns are surrounded by these wine fields but the walls of the city in Corniglia are literally grape vines. From Corniglia we caught a little bit of a snag on our trail. Obviously the lady at the trail head forgot to tell us that the trail from the 3rd city to the 4th was not open. So we just detoured around the trail and just walked the very scenic road for awhile. For about the first 45 minutes all we did was walk up hill. Way up above the trail. When we came almost to the very top part of the hill we found one of the other trails back down the back side of the hill. Cinque Terre has many different hiking routes to all the cities they are marked as easy, moderate, and difficult. Of course we found out about 25 yards along the trail that we were indeed on the backside of the mountain on the difficult trail. It was an interesting adventure; I think that if couples were on that trail together they might not be one by the time they reached the next town….haha. As hard as it was getting down the hill, the views and scenery were just amazing! Going into the 4th town of Vernazza it is just beautiful. We stopped in Vernazza to have lunch and of course get some gelato. After we hung out for about an hour in Vernazza we jumped back on the trail for the last leg of the journey heading to the 5th town Monterosso. By this time in the day it was getting a lot warmer, so the uphill parts seemed a little bit worse. But we got to the fifth city in about 75 minutes about 15 minutes sorter then they said it would take us, so I guess we were moving right along. The 5th city of Monterosso is more like the beach resort town, with sand beaches and a lot of hotels that are along the water front rather than the other towns which just have rocks and pebbles along the water. But it was absolutely amazing to walk into Monterosso, it is very beautiful. When we got there we walked around a bit then headed to a little lunch Café to get something to eat for dinner. I had a seafood pasta that was very delicious. After we ate we got on the train back to the first town of Riomaggiore. After our full day of hiking for over 4 hours it took about 20 minutes to get back to our first town, with stops along the way of course. Feeling pretty tired and full from dinner Nichole and I just got some wine and headed back up to our room to hang out on our terrace and shot the breeze. It ended up being a sort night because we were both fully worn out. The next morning we showered and packed our stuff up. Nicole and I ate breakfast at the place we eat most of our meals at just down the stairs from our room. After we eat we had to do a little internet surfing and planning our trips. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and we took off in our separate directions. Nichole heading to Florence, Italy and I was going to stay an extra night in Cinque Terra. After we went our separate ways I took off back to Monterosso to hangout in the sun on the beach. I was in much need to have some sun in my life after being in Poland and Austria the last 2 weeks. The weather was nice, warm when the sun was out and a little cool when the sun went behind a cloud but very nice. Whenever I got a little too hot I would just go jump in the ocean, which was cool but refreshing. After my day on the beach I headed back to Riomaggiore. That night I stayed in a 10 person dorm room which turned out to be really great. I met a few of the people staying and we sat at the kitchen table of the dorm and talked about our travels for hours tell it was finally midnight. It was great to talk to some other people that were mostly traveling alone. Again, lots of aussie’s. So the next day I spent weighing my options on where to go next I had planned out a route to Paris but the train I was going to get on was late and the connection I would have missed so I changed my trip and headed up to Munich Germany on a night train. My next blog will come shortly, I have a little more free time on my hands these days… Hope all is well….
Jason

Venice and Klagenfurt!

October 13-17 Klagenfurt/Venice

Ok, so last time we talked I was on my way to Klagenfurt, Austria. On my way to Klagenfurt I went through the Austrian alps, which would have been nice, but one of the reasons I was leaving Poland was I was getting tired of the cold and rain. So my heart sank a bit when it snowed on my train ride for about 2 hours of the trip and had show covering the mountains. My spirits lifted a bit when I got to Klagenfurt because there was no snow there just a bit over cast but the sun did come out at times. When I arrived I was pleased to meet Anna’s new addition to her team and also roommate from Canada, Kristina. She is a super nice girl and is always smiling and I also met up with Nichole one of Anna and Brody’s friend from Santa Clara and my new travel partner for the next few days. So when I got there the girls were just heading off to practice and because there is a lot of younger girls on the volleyball team that go to the University in Klagenfurt they practice really late to allow most of the Austrian girls to take the classes they need. So I spent most of the night hanging out which was nice after my 9 hour train ride from Frankfurt, Germany. Which the whole time I had had a biscuit with jelly and power bar and a water over that 9 hour span so I was very happy to finally get some food as well and stretch the legs out. The next day consisted of the girls going to the gym early for weights and so Nichole and I went to go check out some of the sights in Klagenfurt. After running around town all day we met back up with the volleyball girls before they left for their first home game of the year. So Nichole and I went to the game but it wasn’t much of one. The girls won in three straight sets with the starters not playing much of the end of the third. They also did this all without their starting setter, so the sets to the girls were a little all over the place. After the game we went back to the girls apartment and got ready and went out for the night to celebrate the win. Also joining us in the celebration was 6 of the boys from the men’s volleyball team that are all from Canada except one from Chicago. We went to this little dive bar that was having one euro drinks so that was the place for us. I had a great time in Klagenfurt once again and I am very grateful for Anna and Kristina’s hospitality again for letting me crash on the coach.
The following morning Nichole and I were catching our train from Klagenfurt to Venice at 10:23am so we had to hustle in the morning to get everything organized so we could get there on time. When we got there we were hustling but our train ended up being 30 min late anyway so it worked out for us. We arrived in Venice at about 2:45 and it was sunny but a cool out, probably high 50’s. I didn’t care though I was just happy to see the sun and a lot of it! So for the first day after we dropped off our bags we grabbed some pizza from one of the many pizzerias and set off around the city to do some exploring and hopefully get a little loss. We managed to do both really well, not surprisingly, more so the lost part than any. So we managed to do a few thinks like the Rialto Bridge which was beautiful but just took in everything that the city has to offer and the beauty of it all. Everything about Venice is one of a kind, which I really love about it. Nichole and I went to bed pretty early that night but for me I was starting to develop a bit of a cough that I think I had gotten from all the smoke in the bar the night before in Austria. The following day we got up early and ate breakfast at the hotel and took off toward Saint Marc’s Square. We had probably walked for about an hour when we came to a bridge that we had started at an hour earlier so we decided that we would just take the taxi boat through the Grand Canal and take the opportunity to see some of the sights from the boat. This was a great decision because the boat ride was beautiful and we had great views of the city. We spent a good amount of time walking around Saint Mark’s square and also going into the Saint Mark’s Basilica and also going into the Doge’s Palace. Both of which were amazing to be inside of, but just everywhere we went there were great views and new things to see. That night we went and ate at an authentic Italian restaurant which was great, we ended up spending almost 2 hours at the restaurant with the different courses and just hanging out. When we got back Nichole and I planned out next trip out, we are headed to an area called Cinque Terre. It consists of 5 small towns that run along the Northwest coastline of Italy. The towns are about 10 minutes apart from each other by train. But most people try and day hike the three cities to get the most out of the country. We are on the train there now, and this is one of the places that is at the top of my list to visit so I am very excited to start this adventure here today. As always, I hope all is well back home.

Poland Life

Life in Poland.

So I know it’s been a little while since everyone has heard from me but not much has been happening. I have spent the last 9 days in Poland at both Brody’s place in Starogard and also 2 separate trips to Gdansk (the big city). The days in Starogard usually start with Brody’s alarm going off 3 separate times (sometimes more) around 8am to get up. I usually get up with him, but sometimes I managed to push through the alarms. Mostly I get up with him though. Depending on what we had for dinner and how late it was when we ate, depends on what we have for breakfast. When we are hungry Brody or I cook up some eggs with cut up sausage in it with bread and jam (this has become one of our favorites). It’s usually a big breakfast and we don’t eat again tell well after lunch. Other days we just mix some yogurt and granola, or have some cereal. They have some pretty good knock off Honey nut Cheerios at the store that we buy bags of at a time. Brody then heads off to morning practice were he lifts and does shooting drills. I hangout and watch movies or try and stream TV shows and movies online. Brody and I have become professionals at finding websites to steam movies and TV shows on, but I also have to give credit to the help of my tech friendly friends back at the University of Phoenix as well for helping out. When Brody gets back we usually either go to the store to pick up things for us to eat for the next few days. We usually have to watch what we buy because everything we buy we also have to carry back to his apartment so we can’t just stock up like we are coming back from Costco or anything. This is usually why we make 2 to 3 trips a week to grab things. We are doing a pretty good job of making dinner every night as well. I have been doing a good amount of cooking for the both of us while he goes to practice in the evenings. Most days we usually do a good 2-3 hours of watching movies and surfing the internet during the afternoon. I also typically go and watch Brody’s evening practices as well. They are to the point now in the season were they aren’t doing as many drills but doing a lot of 2 on 3, 3 on 3, 4 on 4, and 5 on 5 and a mix of just about everything. They do it in a way that keeps competition high, were the same people remain on the same team and they play it to whoever scores a certain amount of points first. It is very fun to watch and I have caught onto the games in practices that they play and it’s very entertaining to watch the teams compete during practice. Then Brody and I walk back to his apartment after practice which is about a 10-15 min walk. After practice we usually just eat dinner (which has been very good as of lately), we have been trying some different things but the last few days I made beef and potato stew, hamburgers, a pasta noodle lasagna, and of course just pasta itself. The best so far was the beef and potato stew. Even Brody’s teammate Tony couldn’t stop talking about it. Then we either try and stream some more TV shows and also do some skyping (webcam calling) with family and friends or we go over to Tony’s and play some video games, mostly Halo. I try and keep the games close so that Tony and Brody will still want to play with me but we can just say I haven’t lost in my nine days back. As Brody wrote in his blog I came out sniping like I was Mark Walberg in the movie “Shooter” (my dad might not get that reference, so he’s like Matt Quigley AKA Roy). Other than that I try and call my family when I can and I miss everyone back home very much. But one of the first things I did when I got back to Poland was get a Euro cell phone finally! One of my first weeks back to Poland Brody and I went to Gdansk with 2 of Brody’s teammates one of them being the other American Tony from Chicago and one of his Serbian teammates, Uros. Both are great guys and a lot of fun to hang out with. We took the train from Starogard to Sopot which is a suburb of Gdansk, but is right on the beach of the Baltic Sea. It is more of the tourist destination in that area. We went out that night and had a great time, some more than others! The next morning we meet up with our friend Karoline who is the daughter of the café owner that is right next to Brody’s apartment that we always go to. Brody and the rest of the guys from the team had become good friends with the family so when we left Starogard the day before Karoline was leaving as well to go back to school in Gdansk. So it worked out that she then became our tour guide the following day and took us all around Old Town Gdansk as a Tour guide but the weather was not as good as we wished. The one thing about Poland is that the wind is always blowing and makes it so the weather is unpredictable. For example one day while Brody and I made or 12 minute walk to the store it was sunny, then rained on us then not a cloud in the sky all just in a 12 minute span, but rain or shine it never got over 55 degrees the whole 9 days I was in Poland. One of the main highlights of the time in Europe so far was going and watching my first European basketball game. I was fortunate enough that Brody was able to get me on the bus with the team to travel to the game with them and go through all of their pregame. We started off with a walk though in Starogard then went and ate a big Polish lunch that could have feed a small family! We then took the team bus a little over 2 hours south to the town where they were playing. When we got there we stopped and had coffee and this carrot cake with ice cream. Then walked around for about 15 min then headed off to the gym. While the guys got ready I went to the gym and shagged balls for the guys shooting as they came out. As the game got closer I went and claimed a seat in the team section for guests which was front row on the baseline just an isle away from the team bench. I was on the corner of the baseline and sideline (it was the best seat in the house). I was wearing one of Brody’s practice jerseys that sported his number the whole game! The game was good, Polpharmer went up and stayed up by 10-15 all game tell the 4th quarter when the other team made a late run coming within 2 points, which they could have tied and taken the lead, but missed 4 straight free throws that were huge. While Polpharmer had some big stops at the end and some big offensive rebounds topped off by 2 big steals at the end that lead to consecutive dunks to put the game away! By far this was a great win and it was great to experience it all with Brody and the whole team. I am leaving now it is Tuesday, October 13. I few into Frankfurt, Germany last night at midnight and stayed at a hostel across the street from the main train station. My train left at 8:20am this morning and I didn’t get much sleep last night because there was a guy in my 8 person room that sounded like he was sawing logs right next to my ear last night. Which is something that I have just come to realize that is just a part of the traveling and it’s going to happen no matter what. I am headed right now back to Klagenfurt, Austria to see my friend Anna again but also pick up another solo traveler my friend Nicole from Santa Clara to do some traveling together. So now there are 2 of us in my wolf pack! I am very excited as well about getting back to Klagenfurt because Anna is also having one of her first volleyball games at home on Wednesday, so I am thrilled to see my first European Volleyball game as well this week. Again hope all is well back home and if you see a weird number calling it’s probably me trying to call you from my phone or computer… :)

September 26-28 Rome, Italy

So I got to Rome safe and sound around about 9:30am. I walked out of the train station and followed my directions I had written out for myself earlier the day before. I got to my Hostel and dropped off my backpack and locked some of my personal stuff up in their lockers and asked the lady at the front desk what she would recommend me doing since I had the whole day to start my adventure. She advised me about the many different types of tour buses that go around the city to all the sights. I had already planned on doing it from friends I had met in Vienna had told me that is was a great way to go. So I jumped on one of the buses that she recommended with a bunch of people. They give you little ear pieces to listen to the commentary of the trip because they have them in 8 different languages so it works out pretty well. I decided that I would first go all the way around the loop which takes about 2 hours to see all the sights and to stop on and off. I sat on the top of the two story bus, which is also roofless, so that you can get great shots of all the places we pass by. I got to see all the big sites like: The Coliseum, The Vatican, and many others. After I went all the way around I stopped at the Coliseum first which I was most excited about and took a guided tour through in and the ancient ruins along with it. After going through it I decided to walk back to my Hostel to go check in. I had a 24 hour pass on my bus ticket that I could use tomorrow as well. So I went back to the Hostel Alexandor. I have to say so far though that Rome is one of the hardest cities to navigate by map because every 2 blocks you walk the street that you are on turns into a different name and the their signs aren’t really the best in letting a person know where they are. So needless to say I took a little different route back then I had planned but it worked out because I got to see a little more of the city and find a nice little park that I would go to the following day. So I got back to the Hostel checked into my 8 bedroom hostel and showered because it had been extremely warm but mostly humid in Rome that day. So I showered up and jumped online to see what to do for the night ahead. I was considering a pub crawl but when I got back to my room a few of the people in my room were headed to an MTV international concert that they had invited me to go with. So I ended up going out with 3 people all from the England, one from Canada and one from Brazil and me… So we were all quite a group. So we took the Subway to the front of a historic building where there were thousands of people. We stopped on your way to get dinner and some beer and wine. So when we got there we just found a place to sit and watch because none of us knew what they were saying but the girl from Brazil who spoke about 5-6 languages. So we sat and ate and drank and listened to the music, some of the songs they would play we knew so it was a great time.
The next morning I got up and ate breakfast at the hostel which consisted of cereal with room temperature milk and a biscuit with jam which is pretty basic breakfast, nothing like the Carpenter breakfasts that my parents do, that’s for sure…. I did my laundry because I was in the stage of reusing clothes. So for laundry in consists of my going to the sink in the bathroom and washing each article of clothing by hand and wringing it out. I hung up my clothes up afterwards and went on my way to do some more traveling. I wanted to go to the Vatican just to say I had done it, but the weekend I went was a free weekend to get in. So needless to say the line was about 3+ hours long. So I decided to just walk around and see some more sites around Rome by foot. Let’s just say Rome is a BIG city….haha I spent most of the day walking around and when I got back to my Hostel later that evening I was pretty tired of walking with some good sized blisters to go along with it. So I headed off to the park that I had found the day before to relax and read my book while my clothes dried. I wasn’t sure when I got there but there was some big party going on in the park when I got there. I think it was for “Yom Kippur” maybe, its some Jewish holiday I know, but that’s all I could think of what they were doing. So I found a quite spot and read for a few hours which was nice because I was starting to get into a sightseeing overload with everything looking the same. So that ended my day in Rome. The next day I was off to Florence.

September 28-30 Florence, Italy
After how amazing Rome had been I was excited to see what Florence in store for me. When I arrived it was a little past 2pm and the lady at the front desk advised that it would just be a little longer tell my room was ready so I dropped off my backpack and set off to a authentic italino restauranta that the front desk lady had mapped out for me. So I went and it was very good. I ended up going back a couple of times. So I checked into my hostel and went off again exploring. When I got back I met a couple that were also Americans that where in the same room as me. They were great but they had to stick me with the only Americans in all of Europe that were Vikings fans from Minnesota, right after they got lucky beating the 49ers with 2 seconds left. I told them right away I didn’t want to talk about the game, because it would instantly make me mad… (just kidding) But they were really great and we ended up going to dinner the 3 of us. They had been traveling for about 3 weeks coming back from South Korea where they had taught English for a year and saved up to travel when they were done. They were great people. The next day at 8am I headed off to the train station where I had looked up earlier that they were having a guided tour of Tuscany that went all over the place which I wanted to do. It was a little expensive but by the end of the trip it was all well worth it. The first stop we had we went to Sienna were we had a guided tour and also got to go to a church of all things if you can believe that, haha. But Sienna was really interesting learning about its yearly horse race that they have in the middle of town. After that we went to an organic winery were they showed us around there winery and also farm that they have. After the short tour we had lunch and the best part, wine tasting! So we got to try a few different versions of the different types of wine that they made on their winery. All the wine was really good and the best part was you could try as much as you wanted. Let’s just say everyone got a little more talkative on the tour after lunch. After lunch we headed over to a castle and spent some time walking around and at the castle they had a gelato ice cream store that had been the world’s best gelato for the last 2 years. I feel like I am a pretty good judge in this area and it was pretty good. Then from there we were off to the leaning tower of Pisa. It took a while so I got a good nap in which was much needed. I got some great pictures of the whole trip and will have them posted along with my new blog. After the tour of Tuscany with was a 12 hour day I headed back to the Hostel and started planning my trip back to Poland. I am headed back to Poland for a week and a half to stay with Brody and just hangout for a bit. Before I go back and hit the tourist scene again. I trip back to Poland is 25 ½ hours with 3 train changes in Vienna, Warsaw and another small town in Poland. Hope all is well and I’ll try and keep everyone up to date on my travel plans…

September 18-20 Munich, Germany (Oktoberfest)
Ok, so it seems like forever since I was last on my train ride to Munich. But it has been a great few days of traveling meeting up with new and old friends. So first when I arrived in Munich it was about 3:30pm so I went straight to my hostel to check in and drop my backpack off. All the hotels and hostels are on one side of the train station in a 3 block square, so it was easy to find. I got all checked in and the first thing I did was shower and shave and take a nap because I still had not slept for 2 days. So after an amazing 3 hour recharge of the batteries I was good to go again. My hostel was very nice and I meet up with my new friends (Monica and Anna) from Santa Clara that I personally had never met before but they were friends of Brody’s and both girls ended up being amazing people. So around 9pm the three of us went to go explore Munich for our first night out. We went to a brewery that was over by our place that must have had over a hundred picnic tables out on the side of the brewery full of people having a good time eating and drinking…. So we went and sat down and started meeting people all around us from Ireland one table of guys and another table of people from the US and Europe. So we started there but it stopped serving around 11, but we hung around and didn’t end up leaving until a little after midnight. After that we went out with one of our new friends from another table that took us to a few bars but just ended up landing at a sports bar of all places. It was already late by that time and we all didn’t get back to our hostels tell around 4am. The next morning the plan was to wake up early so that we could get a table at one of the Beer tents at the official start of Oktoberfest. That didn’t quite happen…. We didn’t get to the tents tell around 11 so by that time it was completely full and huge lines to get in so we just went and ate and went back to our hostels to take a nap and take a go at it later that night. Later that night we didn’t get going again tell later so we just made a pact that we would make sure we got up early and got to the tents early. So we ate and went to old town Munich to look around and find a place to hang for a bit of the night, so we did. We found this really busy bar that looked fun, and of all things it was called Sosalitos. The DJ was playing about half American music that we could understand so it worked out well, plus we learned some new German songs too. We ended up meeting 3 other Europeans that were next to us and started talking more and more with them and had a great time. Nothing to crazy but we got back to our beds around 1am. That next morning we woke up at 7 and met and left at 8am to get to the tents early and we did they opened the doors around 8:30am which we had no problem finding a table. So we started talking to the people around us and there were a few guys from Texas and California also an Australian couple and a party of Korean guys. So we had a good mix at our table but there were so many more people that we met that day at other surrounding tables it was amazing. I had more fun just meeting new people than anything else (almost). So to start the day before we heard they didn’t start serving tell noon so we had brought in a few beers each so that we could do that but to our surprise they started serving at 9am Sunday so we started right in there with the rest of them nice and early. By the way one of the guys from Texas next to us at the end of Saturday at the same tent the day before blew the 2nd highest BAL (Blood Alcohol Level) in all of Oktoberfest and won a certificate from the police. If you want to know he blew a .46!!! They say that a person should be in a comma after a .40 which is truly amazing! Anyways so we started having a great time and a few hours into the festivities I have had 3 stines which are about a liter each so was doing good and I still need to get my bag because I was going to be taking the train from Munich to Klagenfurt, Austria later that night to meet up with another friend Anna. So around 1pm I had been going around talking with people and meeting new people around I couldn’t find Monica and Anna , so I hung out at our table for another hour and decided to say my goodbyes to all my new friends and leave because I don’t think I could have done a 6th stine. So I got my gear and made my way to the train station which is an obstacle in itself plus my 40 pound backpack. So I got to the train station and asked what platform the next train to Klagenfurt was and they advised me to one of them, but the lady instead of Klagenfurt tried to send me to Frankfurt Germany. Which is the opposite direction and I didn’t realize tell I was already on the train, so I had to get off the train and hope on another train back to Munich to take another train which was the night train to Klagenfurt, Austria.
September 21-23 Klagenfurt, Austria.
So I arrived in Klagenfurt at about 5am in the morning and I had not been able to get a hold of my friend Anna that is there playing professional volleyball since a couple days before so my idea was that I was just going arrive, connect to the internet there in the train station, and call her. But I couldn’t connect to any of the networks in the station and none of the internet cafés were open tell 9am so I just checked my backpack in a locker and started exploring. After a few hours and a couple of cups of coffee I was able to get into one of the internet cafés and use their internet to get a hold of Anna and she we finally met up. So after I got all situated at her place, which is very nice, we took off together around the town to do a little exploring. I didn’t know this before, but Klagenfurt is one of the main vacation getaways for all the wealthy Austrians. We ended up at the “Worther See”, which is the lake that borders the town. It is a little smaller then Whiskey town lake but very very beautiful. It is surrounded by big and beautiful luxury resorts and personal Villas that line the lake; it is an amazing sight to see. Anna and I walked around the lake for about a mile and had coffee at a little café that had a dock right on the water. When we walked back we met up with 2 of her teammates Sophie and Birgit, who are only 20 but both Austrian from other towns but both speak English pretty well and both go to the University there in Klagenfurt. After we soaked up some sun we headed back to Anna’s and took a nap, then went to dinner with 3 or her teammates and a few friends which concluded the night. I had such an amazing time in Klagenfurt and I am so grateful for Anna letting me stay, she was such a great host and is always so amazingly friendly and fun to be around. Also Sophie and Birgit were a great surprise to meet as well and hopefully we will meet up again later on in our travels. I am on my way now to Vienna, Austria which is the capital of Austria. I am arriving around 11:30pm and then off to my hostel for the night. Hope all is well back home….

September 24-25 Vienna, Austria
Well when I got to Vienna it was already late around about midnight, so most of the information booths were closed so I couldn’t really get directions on how to get a map or get to my Hostel. So I had to grab a cab to take me to the Hostel which was luckily not too far from the train station. I ended up in a 4 bedroom dorm with 2 girls from Canada and another guy from Slosberg, Austria. But everyone was asleep when I got in so I followed suit. The next morning I got up and had breakfast which was at the hostel and planed out my trip for the day and then set off walking around Vienna. Vienna is very beautiful and has a lot of big old buildings. I think the thing that amazed me the most was that all the buildings in the whole city were between 5-7 stories high. Everything was just so big and the architecture that went along with it was just impressive. I walked around Vienna for about 6 hours taking my own self-guided tour going to museums, but it’s expensive to get into the museums. So I snuck into a few. When I got back to my hostel I showered and got ready to go on a pub crawl that was going on just a few blocks away from my hostel so I got ready and a little before nine I went down to go check it out. The only thing was when I got there they were not having it for the next few weeks because of Oktoberfest. So I just went back to my hostel and decided to play some pool with some of my roommates and we played for a few hours and drank then they had to plan the next day of travel so they left and I found 3 more friends from Germany that were on a break from their med school classes so we got to playing and drinking and had a great time also in the middle of it we added another wolf to our wolf pack. An Aussi named Chuck that was also traveling alone. So we sent the night drinking and playing pool and just shooting shit tell about 3am when we all went to bed because they were closing the pool table. The next morning I got up again packed and checked my bag downstairs as I checked out so I could do some more exploring. I had a few places on the map that I wanted to check out still so I took off to go do that because my night train didn’t take off tell 7:30. So I walked around for another good 6 hours came back to the hotel to plan my trip the next day because when I get to Rome it will be 9am. So I scheduled my trip and booked my hostel, this time with a map in hand and the directions on how to get there from the train station. So that’s about it to now. I just slept almost about 10 hours. They don’t quite make these sleepers for people over 5’10 I don’t think, but it was fine and I slept steady. So I am ready for Rome. Hope is well back in the states……..

Getting to Munich, Germany from Poland

Wednesday, September 16
So it’s been an interesting last few days over here with not a lot of sleep going on. First off I left off just getting to Brody’s place in Poland. After that night Brody didn't have practice tell late in the day so we had all morning to cruise the town and for him to show me where everything is. He informed me that it would take that long... haha. Well we started off making a list of things that we thought that we would want for the next couple days because I was leaving in the next day for who knows how long and Brody for the weekend of basketball on the coast. So we started by going to the supermarket which is surprisingly easy and has lots of US products. The good thing about Poland I have to say is that everything is really cheap. From there he showed me where to exchange my money for Zloty (which is Polish dollars) they don't have the euro yet in Poland. After that we cruised around town and Brody showed me all his other hot spots he visits. From there I started getting used to the layout of the town; it is small but busy during the days. The weather has been nice low 70's for the highs and drops in the 50's at night.

The next day was Thursday September 17th:

Brody and I got up early like we always do. I impressed in the fact of how easy my transition has been with the time zone changes. Brody had a double day of practice that day so I spent most of the morning packing my Backpack for the first time and I managed to make everything fit in it that I needed with a little extra room. So at 2pm I left for Gdansk to catch the train to Munich. That when everything went a little crazy. First off Polish rail lines are very very slow and don't have fast rails like the ones the rest of Europe has. Second Poland isn't even included with the Euro-rail its completely different so my Euro-rail pass didn't work there either so I had to wait tell I got to Berlin before I could use it to its fullest. My Euro-rail pass works that I get 10 days of Travel within 2 months anywhere I like in, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. Sorry got a little side tracked but back to the Gdansk Train station. I got to the Gdansk train station around 4pm and the next train out wasn't tell 6:15 so I had to wait around tell then. I proceeded then to take 3 different trains and a 45min bus ride to change stations and about 1am I stopped in a little place called (Szczecin Gowny, Poland) I was supposed to trade trains at that point at 3am but when I went to check. The information people informed me that there was no train at that time and re-routed me to Berlin on the next train at 5:17am. Sooo I got to stay in this whole in the wall train station with about 15 other people which I think 10 were every nighters there (homeless). With saying that those 5 hours might have been the most eventful of my trip thus far. It started off with all the bums sleeping on the chairs while the Security Guard would come in every 30 minutes and run out the 10 or so homeless guys which they left then 5 min later they would be back and another 30-45 min later the Security guard was back kicking them out again. This went on for the entire 5 hours. That was it either, I could fall asleep so I was up watching this charades while this was going on another homeless man came in with a German Sheppard and tied it up where else, but 3 seats down from me. So this new guy I think took something from another bum that was sleeping and all out war broke loose. I was reading my book (Catcher in the Rye) when this all went down so I didn't really see or understand what was going on. So the two men started running around like they were playing a game of tag. The guy would try and come back in the room and the other man would run him out. This went on for the last 2 hours and I was so out of it I didn't know what to do, so I just watched with amazement on how I got myself to this point...hahaha So after that I got on my train and it was a very easy travel over to Berlin. There I booked my train to Munich, Germany and I am writing these last few days on my way there now on my mini notebook. After going through Poland rail way I feel like everything else here is easy as can be. So my next adventure will be Munich for Oktoberfest. I was going to make my trip and Oktoberfest one entry but just had so much that has happened over the last 24 hours I couldn't wait to let everyone know. PS I have not gotten any sleep for the last 24 hours and I don't think I will so it should be an interesting night... I think there is going to be a lot of coffee in my near future....