Bratislava what a surprise.

I arrived in Bratislava yesterday morning expecting a dirty smaller version of Budapest or Prague but I have been surprised and impressed. Apart from the difficulty at navigating the public transport system, the city is pretty swish. It is obviously still getting it together after communism, and the divorce from the Czech Republic, but with its new status as an EU member it is on the up and up. The streets are clean and free of bums. The buildings and streets in the old town almost look new they have been so carefully looked after. In some ways the city looks like it has been constructed in the last few years for Disneyland tourists who can't be bothered going to Paris. But compared to Budapest or some areas of Prague, this is a good thing. There also seems to be a higher proportion of English speakers, although this is still pretty low, but at least they don't get pissed when you politely ask if they speak English.

Last night I stayed at a University which lets out its rooms in the holidays to unsuspecting foreign backpackers like yours truly. I knew I was in for a bit of trouble just from reading the reviews on hostelworld.com, things such as "Staff speak nothing other than slovakian" and "This place is the pits. Each dilapitated room comes with its own graffiti, old WW2 blankets for curtains and furniture falling apart at the seams. Do not be attracted by the price - you have been forewarned." But I love a challenge and figued it couldn't be too bad. And to be fair, it wasn't any worse than I'd been warned. I paid equivalent to 8 euros and I had my own room with an ensuite. But there were loads of bugs and the sheets were dirty. However, the main problem, which should never be underestimated while travelling, especially on your own, was that it was boring there and it was far out of the centre of town. Consequently, I woke reasonably early and left there and headed to a more expensive hostel in town. I didn't have a reservation but figued at the least I could leave my bag there and ask them where there was a laundry because my clothes are all very smelly and dirty (including what I am wearing today). After navigating the painful tram system, I found the hostel and they were pretty helpful there. They didn't have room but told me to drop in at 6pm and see them, in the meantime they put my washing on for more, for about 5 euros, and I headed into the city releived. So soon I will find out whether I have accom for tonight, but I have a feeling it will be okay. Worst case I find another hostel or something. Anyway, so I put a review on the hostel world website for my experience with summer hostel last night. It went like this: "Although cheap it is not worth it because it is so far out, and complicated, that you end up spending the extra money working it all out. They don't speak any english and the rooms are a little dirty. Stay in a hostel in town and you'll love this cool city." Pretty good advice I think.

On Bratislava itself, as you might have guessed so far, I am impressed and surprised. I have spent today seeing the sights in town such as St Micheal's tower which has some great views of the city, a Franciscan Monestry with a real monk sitting in the cloisters reading, the Primate's Palace, and the Municipal Museum which has a torture dungeon. Tomorrow my train for Poland leaves in the evening, so I am going to spend the day at the Bratislava Castle.

It has been a while since I've been able to do a real post like this one. It is very difficult to find some alone time to write a proper post when you are travelling with someone. The irony is that now that I am by myself I almost have nothing else to do except write stuff down and see tourist things. I had some grand plans to go further east, but sadly they cannot occur this trip. I will have to be happy with a week in Poland which I think should suffice for the time being. I am looking forward to getting back to Paris and taking advantage of this working visa for France. My money situation is going to be in dire straights if I can't start working asap. I'll keep you posted of whatever happens. Stay cool everyone cos its bloody hot here. And if you are interested there is a new album of me here.

Vienna gonna call me?

So much has been happening i have hardly had time to get on the internet, let alone recount in a large post. I am now in Vienna, Austria and it is my second day here, having arrived yesterday in the evening. The city is pretty much what i expected: it is similar to Germany, but more cultured and parisian. The people are very friendly and i can see how it shares the number one spot as the most livable city with Melbourne. I could easily live here, it is very peaceful but still feels alive.

Today Steve and I slet in due to a late night out. We then had a long casual walk around the city and visited a few museums and palaces. This place is chocked with museums. They are everywhere. It is some weird parallel universe of a city, where culture is encouraged and enjoyed instead of shunned, but it could just be for the tourists. Along with Museums everywhere there is also loads of classical music being pushed. In Melbourne we have people walking around with clipboards trying to sign people up for paintballing. Here they are offering opera or classical music, and there are lots of them doing it. Last night at the club I turned around on the dancefloor and there was a guy standing there in full Mozart getup. It was intense.

Czech urself B4 U wreck urself.

For those of you who dont know where i am then now i will tell you. i am in Brno. How cool. Where is Brno you might ask. It is in Morovia you idiot. We left Berlin and had high hopes for Prague and the Czech Republic. It has been interesting to find what is true and what is false about the city and the country. It is much more livable than i expected. Less dirty, even though it is dirty and poor. It is basically not as extreme as I had expected. And more beautiful. It is still a bit too poor and old than I would like and when we left after 3 days we felt like it had been enough time. Steve and I said goodbye to our travel buddies, lucie and laura, and headed south to Brno. Brno is a little town of 400 thousand on the way to Vienna.

At the train station when trying to buy tickets to get down to Brno the Czech train people didnt make it easy for steve and I. We knew the train we wanted to get on at 7:47am but needed two tickets. This simple thing turned out to be much more troublesome then one would expect. I started by waiting in line for tickets and when I finally got to the front, the woman told me "No English, no credit card". So I walked away and wondered if it was possible at all to pay with credit. I went to the Information to find this out and he informed me that it was only certain windows: 16, 20 and 24. So i headed to 16 cos it was the only one open of those three. Finally upon making it to the front the lady informed me in very broken english that "Only International, no Brno". She told me to go to windows 2, 4, or 6. So I headed back to where steve was sitting because it was around the low numbers. However it was just 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. No even numbers! So I walked back up the station and found 2, 4, 6, etc in another section and lined up. Finally upon getting to the front the woman told me "No English", I said okay but i need a ticket to Brno, she said "International, over there" and pointed. I said that Brno is in Czech Republic. I then wrote it on my hand and showed her. She grunted. Then started speaking czech to me about the times and the amount of money. I said 2 and wrote it on my hand. Somehow we got the correct tickets, cheaper than they'd been quoted the day before. 400 crown to go to Brno, equivalent to 12 euros/AU$23 total, for both tickets. This kind of thing seems to happen more often then it probably should but we're getting very good at charades.

We went to the Capuchin Crypt in Brno today. This is the only crypt in Europe where the bodies of the dead were not embalmed and decomposed naturally. Therefore some of the mummies still have their nails and teeth and reseblance of humanity 250 years after death. It was very freaky. Check out a picture here. There I saw a great quote on the wall: SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI - Thus passes away the glory of the world.

We are leaving Brno today for Vienna. I am excited.

Ich bin ein Berliner

Today is my last day in Berlin and in Germany. We head to Prague today in the Czech Republic. It is very exciting to be going to a new country and I have high hopes for Prague. Berlin has been an interesting city to visit as it is a city of contrasts, obviously because of the wall. The dual occupation of the city and the subsequent cold war has meant the city is two cities next to each other and trying to integrate together. There are two of most of the things that most cities have one of, such as town squares, libraries, etc. It is strange because you know that the city in a historical city with hundreds and hundreds of years of history, yet at times it feels like you are walking through Geelong. The streets are wide and all the buildings are only 50 years old or less. Unlike Paris, the buildings look like they were built in the 60s, except for the buildings that are only 5 years old, of which there are many. If you didnt know about the city, you would think that it is like Canberra, having been built for the purpose of being a capital. I dont have enough time to write as much as I would like about Berlin or other things so im gonna write a quick list of what i need to write more about - Berlin, Pub Crawl, Love Parade, Third Reich tour, Reichstag, Night Rollarbladers. On to Prague!

Munchen to Dresden

Munich was a great city and I am a little sadned tohave left it, although I am happy to be moving again. While in Munich we saw all the famous sites and drank our fair share of steins. I'm very much looking forward to drinking more on the rest of my trip.

But now we are in Dresden. The train trip was a bit of a pain because the carriage was incredibly cold and I couldn't sleep sitting up. I had a spare seat next to me but there was a metal divider between the seats so it was difficult to stretch out. I ended up sleeping for a while with my legs bent over the divider. The train trip from Munich to Dresden took about 9 hours and we took it overnight so as not to waste time.

Dresden is a beautiful city which is still recovering from the carpet bombing during the second world war. The city is a natural city with trees and a beautiful river lined with parks. It is a mix of pre-war development and post-war rebuilding. It has some great sites but we are limited to one day here. Tomorrow we take a short 2 hour train to Berlin for our major German destination, and the event that has somewhat shaped the order of our trip - Love Parade.

I have tonnes of pictures to upload, and i hope to do it before i leave Dresden so keep a lookout at Flickr.

Deutshland! Wilkommen!

Well I have been a bit tardz to the partz for a while, having not left a blog entrz due to a lot happening and being layz. The kezboards in Germanz are the same as australian except for one little difference. i am going to tzpe normallz because i am layz and see if zou can tell the different kez.

I´m now travelling with steve and lucie and we have started the next part of mz trip. we are heading east and right now i am in the first citz on our trip - munich. it is cool. verz different to paris - more relaxed, fun, cheaper, cleaner, wider, wilder, and german. the food is good but verz different, and the steins of beer are extraordinarz. we had 3 steins each last night then went to a night club which was outside and positioned over two small man made rivers. it was verz cool. todaz we are visiting a castle or two.

a few dazs ago we went to the north to Le Havre. it was great in the north. i didnt much like le havre, but the other towns we went to were verz nice. i think i will return on weekends when i go back to paris. mz time is almost up on the computer so i am starting to panic and rattle on. everzthing is going well. i am healthz. i hope zou are healthz too.

Goodbye Old Temple

It has been a big week or so with many events all happening at the same time. Only now do I have the time to post about them and clear my head as well as reply to some emails and do some other jobs which i havne't had a chance to do.