2004.10.05 to Milan

Arrived in Bari before 09:00 - but not before some Italian police asked all the foreign (read: minority) passengers to show passport ID... Bought our reservations to Milano at the main station for only 12 euros (vs. the 20 euros from Roma to Bari on the Eurostar train) since this was a Eurostar Italia train as well. It really was a high-speed train!

The train travelled north along Italy's east coast and with a few stops along the way, it stopped at Ancona. We didn't know that Ancona was lined with endless kilometres of beaches! And with Ancona being the last stop before Milan, I noticed that the majority of the Italian passengers all of a sudden became very well-dressed...

Got into Milano Centrale at 19:00 and "tried" to buy our night train tickets to Barcelona. "Tried" because I double-checked our Eurail timetable too late - realized that there was no night train on Tuesdays! That extra day in Santorini created this setback. The cost of the supplementary fare to go to Barcelona the next day cost 59 euros shockingly. We asked about Paris which is just as far if not more so, and the supplement was only 15 euros. We decided to move ahead, to not stay in Milan, and see how the cost going to Barcelona from Paris would be later on. Before boarding our night train though, we were hungry for some real food and bought a chicken 'kebab' for dinner. It was panini bread instead of a pita but still very good. While walking around I noticed a lot of Filipinos living in this expensive Italian city. A Little Manila here?

This night train would be our first time in a couchette car and saw how cramped the 2nd-class 6-bed compartment was. The only other passenger in the compartment was an Australian woman and she was glad to be leaving "dirty and expensive" Italy as well. She was vacationing on what Aussie's receive after 10 years of work - 3 months off, with full pay! Getting some hours of decent sleep in a row was next to impossible while the train came to abrupt stops or always shook over bumps...

2004.10.04 to Patras and Bari

Got into Athens early (before 07:00) and went back towards our hostel to see if that net cafe was open. It wasn't technically open but 2 guys were in there surfing the net and let us in. We left before noon to go back to Patras by train and actually arrived on time for a change! Recall: the train from Patras to Athens arrived 2 hours late; and all the Greek ferries have been late departing and/or arriving. Our Hellas Superfast ferry back to Bari was leaving at 18:00 and was delayed for nearly 2 hours. (But it really was "Superfast" compared to other ferries as it arrived in Bari only a few minutes late). We met a Vancouverite (?) and 2 New Zealanders who had finished a Contiki group tour and were going their separate ways. The 5 of us played some card games out on the deck (which wasn't completely enclosed and this was where we were supposed to sleep?!) - the usual card games of: A-hole, Cheat, Crazy 8s, and a similar, but tougher New Zealand version called "Last Card." The Contiki backpackers had sleeping bags so they chose to sleep on the benches on the cold, windy deck. We just slept on the carpeted stairwells like some other deck-class passengers...

2004.10.03 in Santorini

After more gyros for lunch near the beach, we really checked out this time and learned the owner would be going down to the port by 15:00. He would take us so we wouldn't have to pay for the bus to get there (even though it meant a few hours of waiting until 19:00) and we killed the time out on the beach for the last time... We said goodbye to Janelle as she caught an early 15:30 ferry to the island of Paros and Le and I waited around for our ferry back to Piraeus (Athen's port).

Slight clarification on that last point: Le realized a couple days ago that the boat coming from Piraeus made some stops before arriving in Santorini; and when boarding they only check your ticket that one time and never again. So, we paid to "go" to Paros for 12 euros versus the 23+ euros to go 'direct' to Piraeus. Hey, it's not our fault if we slept through our paid destination... Turns out that we probably could have saved even more euros since the ferry actually made 2 island stops before Paros!

Well, the next few days would be the worst part of our trip - going from Santorini to Barcelona in 4 days and 3 nights of non-stop ferry and rail travelling - we weren't able to find a low airfare that would work with our plans...

2004.10.02 in Santorini

I had the brillian notion of 'why not catch the sunset on Santorini as well?' before going to bed and so I'd wake up to watch the sun come up on the other side of the island. I asked if Janelle or Le would wake up early as well but they declined. Well, I awoke at an early 05:45 and Janelle ended up waking, too - with Le eventually coming along. The eastern view from Perissa's beach had another island on the horizon 'in the way' it seemed. A sunrise takes a lot longer to happen compared to a sunset it seems. While the two had went back some 20 minutes earlier thinking the sun arose behind the distant island (since it was already bright anyway), their lack of patience was their loss. It was about 07:15 when the sun finally cracked the horizon to the right of that island... I then went back to sleep of course.

Today was check-out for us and reception wasn't yet open at 11:00. We went to a nearby travel agency and actually find out that we couldn't leave the island tonight, as planned! The Saturday ferry schedule is different from the Thursday one we thought was a daily one. The three of us can't leave until Sunday night so we had to stay an extra night. The hotel owners finally woke up (past noon) and they offered us 10 euros each for the extra night which was fine with us.

Went back to Fira for some lunch (gyros again!), shopping, and to do some exploring of the capital. We chillaxed at Perissa's beach again for a short while which was noticeably busier and louder. A travel group from Croatia was partying it up along the boardwalk's pubs...For dinner, I again made that spaghettini & meatballs & baked beans. It really was good, I must humbly say. Over dinner we discovered that Janelle knew one of Le's computer engineering classmates from junior high. Talk about a small world!

2004.10.01 in Santorini

Our brunch was some of Le's scrambled eggs & tuna - with left over white bread and tzatziki sauce from Athens. Not bad at all since the restaurants on this island aren't exactly cheap. The public transit consists of posh coach buses with A/C. We're still not sure if they were exactly for the "public" as we only noticed tourists paying to ride in them. We boarded a bus from Perissa to the island's capital of Fira and see much of the southern part of this beautiful island. Perissa is located on the southeast coast of Santorini, while Oia ("ee-ya") is on the complete opposite end. See map. Le and I buy some kebabs for lunch and end up being jacked an extra few euros thinking that the potatoes and bread are part of the skewers... From Fira we eventually find the path heading to Oia after taking some pictures of -literally- breathtaking views. Now, the walk to Oia is about 2 hours along the coastline but we take over 3 hours because of all the pictures we end up taking...

We walk into Oia with time to spare for its famous sunsets. The sun sets right at the sea's horizon and all the town's best hotels have fantastic west-facing views. The three of us ate dinner in Oia and again end up getting jammed on the bill. The waiter had put bread on the table (as normally expected at a decent sit-down restaurant) after we gave our orders, and we gladly ate it waiting for our meals to arrive. They charged us nearly 3 euros for a few slices of bread - which is about what a 10+% tip would have been - and so we paid just the exact bill and left...

Beer Rating of the Day: Mystos = 2.5 out of 5 stars

2004.09.30 in Santorini

The two of us have primarily been saving money by bringing basic foods on all our rail or ferry trips - foods like: bread, fruit, jam, canned fish, deli meats, sausages, and sometimes even Nutella. A 100g bar each of chocolate always finds a way on our list as well. Chocolate's a good quick energy snack and those 100g bars are better value here in Europe it seems. BTW, if you'll be taking the ferry and are in "deck class," having a sleeping bag is a back-saver and more comfortable than contorting to a reclining seat or waking up to a sore back.

On this one ferry going to Santorini, the lounge area was non-smoking, while just in the other half of the room was a bar and smoking area. It's basically useless designating the lounge as non-smoking!

... We arrived at Santorini's port still under the cover of darkness and found our host waiting for us - along with many other hotel owners hawking their deals. 12 euros for a 3-bed room with kitchenette and bathroom is the best deal we've ever had, but we suspect that there were even better deals had we looked. Leaving the port requires driving up a treacherously narrow, zig-zagging road to reach the top of the cliffs and onto main roads. Driving this route is skillful to say the least - seeing our host maneuvre to avoid getting hit by the huge coach buses that share the climb or descent was sort of exciting. It's just past 07:00 when we reach the hotel after passing a shopping area (just a stretch of road) and some restaurants nearby. The entire room is small but everything is all there and still doesn't feel cramped. It's nice and clean and we notice that there's 2 single beds and 1 double bed to choose from. After some Rock-Paper-Scissors match-ups, Le ends up with the double, Janelle got to shower first, and I got the better single bed. Everyone won something. We sleep in until noon and for lunch we go out and walk along the (only) main road in our town of Perissa to have some gyros. Later chilled out on the black sand beach for the rest of the afternoon, where 3 beach chairs cost 7 euros. The beach is <5 minutes from our room but we're near the beginning of the 8km beach. Yes, we were definitely embracing the near 30C warmth and sunny weather on a September 30th.

We bought a bottle of Santorini wine to go with our pasta dinner, which I cook up. Just across from the wine store was a small grocer and so we bought spaghettini noodles, some bolognese pasta sauce, some canned meatballs (hey, it had 37% beef - the other 63% was ?), and a can of baked beans. Wow! We don't know if it was the bolognese sauce, or addition of the beans, or if we were really hungry, but we were proclaiming how damn good this spaghetti meal was! (Recipe requests can be had for the low, low price of $5 each. -Thank you) The wine was a non-dry wine and turned out to be a very sweet wine - almost like grapejuice - and that was all good. We rest early for our big walking trip from Fira to Oia tomorrow!

2004.09.29 in Athens

I forgot to change the time on our alarm ahead 1 hour now that we were in Greece - so we actually woke up later than planned. My bad! Instead of going on Gary's walking tour for 15 euros we decided to explore Athens ourselves (we already missed the tour's start time anyway). We took the city's brand new metro system which is very nice for such a ghetto-looking city. The stations and trains are all very clean and advertisement-free! Before every station stop, you can hear automated English & Greek notifications. Thanks to a tip Gary told us the night before at the train station, we were able to enter the ancient Greek monuments and attractions for free! Show your ISIC card and say that you're studying in the UK - EU students are entitled to free admission! And "University of Waterloo" as written on my ISIC sounds like a bre-ish school, too! So we saved a bit of money by not going on a tour and avoiding admission fees. Coincidentally, we later ran into Gary giving his tour as his group went up to explore the Acropolis. He's a funny South African guy who lived in Australia (we thought he was an Aussie based on his accent) and he entertained us for a bit on what to do when the locals can't help but stare at you...

After a few hours of walking around in the hot sun (feels like 30 degrees C here) we were basically able to visit all the major attractions of Athens. They're situated in close proximity so it doesn't take a lot of time or effort to see them in a day. We ventured towards the main urban shopping district and had some good souvlaki pitas at a nice chain restaurant called Pita Pan Souvlaki. It was just past 16:00 and Janelle and I wanted to go to the nearby AmEx office to exchange some travellers cheques. We got there and it was already closed! 4pm on a Wednesday! They weren't the only ones as we noticed a lot of other retailers were closed, too. Craziness.

Walked back to the hostel by 17:00 and Le finally got our pictures burned while I got my head shaved and Janelle picked up our Santorini accomodation package... BTW, finding a place to get our pictures burned for a reasonable price was the most ridiculous in this city. Photo CD burning shops around town were charging from 7 euros to 10 euros PER memory card - our 3 memory cards could fit onto 1 700MB CD - instead of charging per disc. Le had a frustrating time getting our pics burned at the net cafe near our hostel - but at least it was only 2 euro PER CD. It was funny how I had to explain to this hair salon assistant that I wanted my hair to be trimmed really short (but not Bic'd). He explained that this type of hair cut (for 11 euros!) isn't normal around here and I noticed the hairdresser having a fun time shaving off my hair. I was in good spirits as some Black Eyed Peas, Outkast, and other American exports blared in the background...

FYI: Get used to seeing stray dogs and cats roaming the city - they're everywhere along with their feces.

Boarded our ferry (operated by Hellas Flying Dolphins) to Santorini (aka Thira) at 20:00. The three of us along with two American girls (also recent grads) who had also stayed in our hostel rented a DVD & a portable player for 10 euros (2 each) to kill some time...

2004.09.28 to Patras and Athens

There were two Ryerson grads on the ferry also going to Athens but we started chatting with Janelle, another grad from Calgary. Janelle suggested we had to at least visit this one island, Santorini, as she was going Greek island hopping by herself. We weren't sure at this point and told her we'd consider it if Athens didn't have much to offer...

Janelle asked if she could tag along with us going to Athens and we didn't mind the new company. So from the nice little port town of Patras, we (now a trio) took another train to Athens. This 4 hour train ride ended up arriving in Athens 2 hours late and it was already nighttime as we got off the train disoriented. Fortunately at the station, we were asked by some dude, named Gary, if we had accomodation. Since we didn't and had no idea where to go from here, we ended up staying at "Hostel Aphrodite" for about 15 euros each. The three of us had a 6-bed dorm room all to ourselves and we went out looking for some cheap gyros for dinner. We were very hungry and ate at two different shops nearby, noticing they put fries inside as well!

Le and I decided we'd go to Santorini with Janelle after checking out Athens the next day. She was pretty convincing and we had an entertaining time chatting with the hostel's receptionist, Elias, to find out how to get to the island. Elias was a big Greek dude who just happened to be born in Toronto but moved here when he was very young. Janelle also got Elias to tell her how to say 'Nice shoes. Wanna f--k?' in Greek, as this was a pickup line she jokingly wanted to know in as many languages possible. Janelle already knew the line in Spanish, Portugese, French, and Dutch...

2004.09.27 in Rome to Bari

Apparently today is World Tourism Day and the Vatican museums are free for the second day in a row, lucky for us! Yesterday was also free as it was the last Sunday of the month. We got up early and left our bags at Stargate's reception promising to be back by 10:00 to checkout (very unlikely). We walked all the way to the museums in an hour, taking longer than we expected. We got there at 8:30 (15 minutes before opening) and encountered a queue half as long as Sunday's. We chose to wait it out and Le went and grabbed some needed Italian pastries for breakfast. Snaked our way to head straight for the Sistine Chapel (not knowing I was skipping some of Raphael's masterpieces elsewhere in the museums). It was definitely magnificent but not as awe-inspiring as I thought it was going to be. No photography was allowed in the dark chapel packed with ceiling-gazers, but there was always the random camera flash as tourists sneaked a shot in. Stayed for about half an hour and picked up our bags at 11:00 without a problem. We got lost for 30 minutes looking for the supermarket we went to a couple of nights ago - my bad, we took a wrong turn (for the 1st time) LOL. Before leaving Roma Termini, we ate some good pizza by the kilo again for lunch. Boarded our Eurostar Italia train to Bari and had to pay a 20 euros supplement fee to the conductor. It may have been much less if we bought tickets before boarding...

I don't think of mountains when I think of Italy, but after going to Firenze, Roma, and now approaching Bari, Italy is a very mountainous country with beautiful scenery. The port isn't near the train station so we bused it from Bari Centrale making sure to catch the first one. The ferry leaves at 19:00 and we had less than an hour to get there so we wanted to be sure to not miss it! Buying our two public transit tickets somehow came out to 1.50 euro even though one ticket costs 0.74 cents. While on the bus we met a girl, Janelle, with a very similar blue MEC pack as mine except hers had a zippered compartment on the bottom. Jam! That's a feature we wish we had for shoes, laundry, or a sleeping bag! Not knowing what to expect, the Blue Star Ferries ship to Patras was pretty nice. We had deck class tickets meaning we could sleep on the reclining seats on deck level (not outside of course). It was noisy and the structure shook a lot on the level but I explored other decks of the ship and they were more comfortable. Getting an actual bed would have cost at least 90 euros! They showed a movie on board - "Das Boot" Director's Cut - that was over 3 hours long and didn't seem suitable while travelling by boat for over 15 hours. It was a good movie even though some of the dubbing wasn't always audible. It ain't easy sleeping across two reclining captain's chairs but everyone had to adapt to the discomfort and the droning sound of the ship's engines.

2004.09.26 in Rome

Headed out for the Vatican museums to see the Sistine Chapel - only to encounter the F'g longest line I've ever seen. The queue wrapped around a couple of blocks outside the musuem walls all the way to St. Peter's Square. So we instead jumped into the security check queue for St. Peter's Basilica and got into another queue for some "Cupula." We had no idea what a Cupula was but with a long line-up it must be good, right? After a few more queues of waiting we paid $5US each for the "no lift" option; apparently whatever we were paying for involved climbing some 320 steps the warning signs indicated. We were able to skip the queue for the elevator going up so we climbed and climbed. Ahh... we reached the top of the staircase outside and walked into the massive dome of St. Peter's Basilica looking down at the ant-sized people. But just wait a minute. We haven't climbed those 320 steps yet. As we left the inner walkway of the dome, there was a narrow staircase pointing to the Cupula and so we climbed. I climbed the narrow steps as sharply angled ceilings brushed against my head. I climbed as the steps seemed to become smaller and more steeper. I climbed as the last tiny spiral staircase led outside. To the top of the cupula. To the top of St. Peter's Basilica and a breathtaking 360 degree view of Vatican City and Rome. (Don't bother taking pictures through the grated windows as you climb) This was worth the 1 hour wait and exhaustive workout. We skipped an afternoon walking tour to save some 15 euros and so I led the way as usual to explore famous sights I heard about. We saw Castel Sant'Angelo, the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, the Vittoriale, the Roman Forum, and of course, the Colosseum. All these major sights are walking distance from St. Peter's - just follow Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

We ate at this small pizzeria and realized they served pizza by the kilogram - we ate some awesome freshly baked 'za and roasted chicken for less than last night's dinner. The pizza was fantastic. It's like thin, airy bread toasted on the bottom and covered with cheese and whatever toppings they offered. There was also no tomato sauce on the varieties we chose - we didn't miss it at all. Pizzas are not round (they're square) and when usually ordered as a quick meal on the run, they cut out 2 rectangular portions and serve them as a sandwich.

At night we took the metro to Spagna station where we passed by the Spanish Steps and all the people chillaxing on them. On the subway train, Le witnessed a pickpocket attempt to rob a woman's purse. Le was suspicious as the guy slotted in between himself and the target when he got on. The thief had a jacket around his arm and was using it to hide his hand as he tried to lift open her bag. He didn't get far as Le was eyeing him the whole time and a possible undercover police officer boarded alerting the thief's other partner. They both quickly got off at Spagna and Le couldn't see where they disappeared to... Fontain de Trevi was our destination and it is truly a spectacular sight to behold at nighttime. Also, we were accosted for random "directions" by these suspect Italians on the streets near the Fontain twice. We ignored them and kept on walking.

2004.09.25 to Florence and Rome

Left our main pack at the Firenze rail station and did our own walking tour of the city. Hit the nearby "i" for a (good) free city map! We were going to go up the Duomo but there was a massive queue outside the colourful cathedral. It was free that day for some reason so that helped explain the trail of people. Saw what we thought was Michelangelo's actual "David" sculpture outside of Palazzo Vecchio being renovated but it's really just a replica. The actual masterpiece is in Galleria dell'Accademia according to my guidebook. The Uffizi Gallery was also free and had an insanely long queue trailing outside. This museum has a lot of famous Italian artwork but we can't wait for hours as we have limited time and had to explore more of the city. We easily reach the city's famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio, that's lined with jewellery shops. I also noticed a shorthanded dragon boat crew practicing in the river below - this was so cool seeing some dragon boating in Italy! We crossed over this bridge to head to a large garden called Giardino di Boboli. It's behind the Palazzo Pitti, another art gallery that happened to be free today as well. The garden provided great city views - reached only through a lot of outdoor stairclimbing. Also, get used to all these scooters and motorbikes zooming by you - IS true here in Italy. Before we left for Rome, I splurged and spent 4 euros (about $6CDN) for a ginormous two-scoop cone of gelato...

Got into Roma Termini main station and raised our terror alert to red. We could just feel our packs and pockets were being eyed as we walked around the busy station and out. Yeah, we were paranoid, but it seemed necessary. Our first 2 hostel choices were booked full but thankfully Hotel Alessandro Downtown (our #1) recommended another nearby hostel (Stargate Hostel) which had vacancy and cost less, too! For dinner, we settled for some cafe/restaurant for a personal pizza (rock-hard, stale, and sparsely covered with toppings) and ravioli (child-sized portion and staleness galore). Each 'entree' cost about 5 euros which was ridicurously expensive! We bought some groceries after that because I was still hungry and we'd save money for tomorrow's lunch. Our 6-bed mixed dorm was shared with 4 Swedes (we first thought they were German but they hear that confusion between their languages all the time) and late that night one of them threw up on the floor but Le nor I noticed anything until they told us as they left the next morning...

2004.09.24 in Munich

Woke up early for a hearty breakfast of hot dogs, assorted breads, deli meats, and a mix of potatoes, eggs, and cheese dish. Tony then made us sandwiches from the leftovers for us to take which was totally unexpected, and we'd later enjoy the next day. George was on his way to Munchen so he offered to show us around the city and this allowed us to actually go to Oktoberfest after all! From Munchen, we'd catch a night train into Florence instead of Rome; Tony suggested we could visit Florence for a few hours and still get into Rome before evening.

Welcoming the change of transportation, George drove myself and Le to Munchen as we cruised along the Autobahn. At one point, we hit 180km/h! We could've gone faster but even congestion builds up on the two-lane freeway. There are sections of the Autobahn where there are posted speed limits - typically, 120 km/h - otherwise, it's as fast as you can go. The Autobahn from Stuttgart to Munchen was the very first portion built in Germany during World War II and Hitler created it to transport Nazi tanks and supplies. It was a fun and interesting 2 hour drive - of note: Along the way, we were stuck in major traffic and we happened to be inside a tunnel when we heard sirens from behind us. The Autobahn is generally 2 lanes in both directions and I could not see how an ambulance was going to get through the traffic in this tunnel since there are no shoulders either. Ah, but what ended up happening (and I doubt I'd ever see this in North America) was that all the cars in the left lane moved as far left as they could and all the cars in the right lane did the same to move far right. This created more than enough space for the emergency vehicle to proceed down the middle of the road and help in the accident many kilometres down the way.

Munchen is Bavaria's capital - a must-visit region of German culture and history - and it's unfortunate we would not be able to explore this region any further than this city. We had "Weisswurst" for lunch - it's a white sausage where you suck in the meat from its outer skin. This is the traditional method but we opted for the modern way of cutting the sausage lengthwise and then spooning out the meat. You don't eat the skin. Wandered around Marienplatz looking for Fournier cards and a Swiss Army knife (for Le) amongst all the shops and restaurants. After enough exploring we finally made our way over to the CNE - uh, I mean Oktoberfest. Okay so at first it looks like any other giant fair. But then you see people leaving completely hammered and it's only 16:00! And then you see some men and women wearing traditional Bavarian Lederhosen. And while you make your way around the fairgrounds, you're finding it hard to actually get past the entrances to the enormous and jam-packed beer tents. We met up with George and a couple of his coworkers at the Augustiner beer tent - each tent serves just that type of beer - and WOW, is this the best beer we've ever tasted! It's a very smooth lager with just about no aftertaste - definitely chuggable. I enjoyed drinking out of my Augustiner 1L glass stein so much that I decided to take it as a souvenir. George and friends encouraged me to stuff it into my daypack while Le decided he wouldn't want the extra weight to carry. He would later regret making that decision.

The night train was bad. We were at Hauptbahnhof early and got our own 6-seat compartment. But the doors don't lock and before the train actually departed we were kicked out by these German students with 'reservations' that we didn't bother asking to see. None of the compartments indicated any reservations and we assumed it was first-come-first-serve. We settled for a filled 6-seat compartment where I ended up having to sit next to this monstrousity who snored all freakin night. I couldn't sleep at all on these upright seats with no leg room. It was about past 03:00 and we were already passing through Italy when I couldn't take it anymore and just wandered down the carriage. I found a deserted compartment and we moved into there for some off and on sleep on our way to Firenze (Florence)...
Beer Rating of the Day: Augustiner: 5 out of 5 stars!

2004.09.23 in Stuttgart

We left Wien and passed through Salzburg to make a transfer to Stuttgart from Munchen (Munich). The scenery greatly improved by rail as we approached the Bavarian region. While our train pulled out of Salzburg's main station, we missed out on an incredible photo of the city - an old bridge over a wide river with some picturesque architecture in the background... Salzburg was on my list of cities to visit, but Mozart's birthplace and the Sound of Music's Von Trapp mansion will have to wait for another time.

BTW, we were on our way to Stuttgart to stay at a family friend's home for a change. The arrangements were made while back in Toronto and I confirmed them while we were still in Vienna. Tony Basilio was a childhood best friend of my father's and his family visited us in 1987 while we were still living in California. It was a long time ago and I could barely recall Tony or his family. At Stuttgart's Hauptbahnhof, Tony's wife, Ursula, and his oldest son, Hans George were waiting for us. I didn't know what any of them looked like but George informed me to look for a 6' Filipino with his German mother. Fair enough, they should not be hard to spot at all! We gladly accepted their hospitality and were grateful for all their generousity. The Basilio's cozy home was 20 minutes away from downtown and we chatted all evening about our travels, German news and events, various cultural differences, and other topics on Europe and North America. Had a great home-cooked meal (Tony's own pancit (a Filipino noodles and vegetables dish)) and Ursula's dessert (vanilla ice cream and plain yogourt topped with a wafer - an amazing mix!) After dinner they busted out all these finger food snacks along with a steady flow of apple juice and sparkling water. Mix these two beverages for instant cider! Funny, Tony mentioned how dinner was the least important meal of the day for Germans (and most Europeans) while for North Americans, it's normally the largest - and they were stuffing us with all this food and drink! Making dinner a smaller meal is the better way anyway - we should be going to bed slightly hungry - our bodies won't have to absorb a heavy meal without being able to properly burn off the calories and fat. No wonder we hardly saw along our trip the obesity levels we see everyday in North America. Then came the highlight of the night - finally, after 5 years of knowing Le, we got to share the same air mattress. At least it was queen-sized LOL!

2004.09.22 in Vienna

We intended on doing a city walking tour early in the morning but couldn't find the meeting spot or the guide at Westbahnhof! However, this allowed us to buy some amazing, large apple strudels and sweet cheese pastries for breakfast (5 for 5+ euros). With a very useful city map from our hostel and some suggestions from the receptionist, I take over the role of tour guide. Of course I'm no history or art major and so we head first to the Hofburg (Imperial Palace) in the old town and take pictures from there. We wander around Stephensplatz admiring its shops, cafes, street buskers, and Gothic to Habsburg dynasty architecture. Besides museums and more palaces, we're wondering what else is there to see in this ancient city. I'd say we arrived here without knowing anything and our ignorance is not paying off. We felt like we could have skipped Wien altogether as it wasn't very impressive.

However, one cool aspect to our visit was eating at this restaurant/pub called "Centimeter" which had huge portions of food for reasonable prices. It's a good thing. Ate wiener schnitzel that was way better than the overpriced one we had in Berlin - this was also only under 6 euros and provided more carbs (a huge bed of fries) and a good salad. Another Poker-in-Prague inspiration was to find the same plastic playing cards used in their casino. Branded as Fournier, they're made in Spain and supposedly available in Austria (probably because of that Concord Card Casino mentioned previously). This quest was not fulfilled and we ended up buying some Austrian deck of poker cards that had B for the Jack and D for the Queen. I thought Le would have brought one of his plastic decks but we'll use this on our long train rides for practice - the plan was to go back to Prague again to finish our tour since we could shave off a few days from other cities!

Back to Wombat's City - while the hostel set up was nice, we had trouble sleeping both nights because of a really loud snorer. Some Malaysian who was taking a vacation away from his Swiss college studying produced enough bass during the night that it was more like Wombat's Club. Based on this and that superb Amsterdam experience, some advice: get ear plugs if sleeping in hostels!

Beer Rating of the Day: Hirter = 3.5 out of 5 stars

2004.09.21 in Vienna

Again we woke up talking about poker and how great it was to play with so many different people. We've learned a lot and these poker experiences were unforgettable. Jagr didn't show up but playing hold'em with an Irish, ex-pat Canadian, American, Serbian, Czech, Brit, Israeli, and Italian dealer was all worth it. We hurry to catch our morning train to Wien (Vienna) realizing it's at a different metro/rail station than the one we arrived from - we were running up stairs with our full packs on and that's damn tiring, considering Prague's metro stations seem to be a kilometre underground!

From Wien's Sudbahnhof rail station, we tram it over to Westbahnhof. Austria's metro system is very similar to Germany's and it doesn't take long to adjust. Westbahnhof is the closest station to where Wombat's City hostel is located. Wombat's is another Europe's Famous recommended hostel and so far so good - they have dorm beds available and it's a well-organized, clean hostel, as expected. It was late afternoon and since we're tired, we choose to stay for 2 nights since today seems pretty shot in terms of exploring the city...

We chat with our roommates Bob and Emma who are from New Zealand and Australia, respectively. Not surprisingly, they've been traveling for months and have worked in the UK to pay for more travelling. They suggest these good turkey schnitzel burgers down the street - they become our dinner for only 2 euros each. We wander around a nearby shopping district along Mariahilfer Str and with the poker itch still on our minds we end up looking for Casino Vienna. Turns out they have strict dress code and don't even have hold'em. (*EDIT: it's the Concord Card Casino that has hold'em and is where that Italian dealer from Prague used to deal.)

2004.09.20 in Prague

We woke up still talking poker from the night before and I'm still 'steaming' after losing just about all my chips in under 10 minutes. After coming back last night we paid for another night to Vera our nice landlady who speaks no English at all. Obviously our plan was to go back to the casino (Banco) tonight. Went back to the usual net cafe to do some surfing and I finally updated some of this blog. Pravek was for dinner once again and this time I went for the roasted kangaroo with potato cakes and peaches/pears. This exotic meat was almost like beef but slightly tougher and had a unique aftertaste. I had questioned where a Czech restaurant gets kangaroo meat and Le mentioned that kangaroos are a pest in Australia and they can't get rid of them fast enough. Crazy! After taking out some more Czech korunas (Kc) we found out that some postcards we sent home had insufficient postage on them. Sheeyit. We didn't want to risk not sending any cards home so we rebought postcards and stamps.

(Warning: extensive hold'em poker jargon below)
Got to Banco by 21:30 and a 50-100 PL (pot limit) game is going on with most of the same guys from last night. Le starts playing while I later join in just before 23:00. A few high rollers are at the table dropping 10 000 Kc for their buy-in (we buy-in for the minimum 2000 Kc) and we have to play tight since they have much more chips to push us around with. ... Long night short, I'm down 4000 Kc and Le is down 2000 Kc. I was up 5000 Kc at one point and Le had reached 10 000 after the game became shorthanded. I had lost my original buy-in on a ridiculous all-in call with top pair & Ace kicker - not realizing I was against a real tight player who had bet and re-raised me on the turn card. I had AT and the flop was T, 6, and a rag. I believe I bet pot while he just called. Another 6 came on the turn and he check-raised me. I didn't even consider that he could have a 6 and beating me with his set already. Or that he could be holding an overpair. I was practically all-in at the river and so he bet and I reluctantly call without having anything close to the best hand. I was drawing dead as he revealed his 'sixes over tens' full house! Argh!