Apparently Spain Won?

This Morning, I felt more at home In Vienna than I had in any other City on our travels so far.
Perhaps it was because of all the one way streets so the cars could easily be mistaken for being on the right side of the road? Maybe...
Perhaps the air smelt of Soap and we were near an awful lifeless river? No.
I felt so at home this morning because when we got up and left the hostel, It was pissing it down.

Anyway yes, we are now In Vienna and thought we would enjoy the amazing cultural activities of another City. So Yea.. Vienna... What is there? After Much searching through tourist information leaflets we discovered the answer to be.... An Aquarium type zoo thing. Where you can see some tiny Monkey like creature that seemed curious about my Pocket, whether it wanted to have away with my Passport or to escape we do not know.

Toga party

As we sat, practically naked, surrounded by a handful of old men in a similar state of undress, we suddenly realised the flannel on a string was infact not compulsory attire..

Yes so today.
Followed directly on from yesterday, when we went crawling around in the caves below budapest for just over 2 and a 1/2 hours with this fine group of people we had just met that you at approximately 50 metres below ground, which happens to only be the second lowest point of the tour. This was an interesting way to spend the afternoon, especially considering I am a little claustrophobic, I don't freak out in lifts or anything, but I don't like gaps that look like you could get stuck in them, gaps like this one, and my light kept dying. Joy.

So Today, we felt as though we deserved to relax, to unwind and chill out, and we felt as though we deserved this even more, after a mammoth hike up a hill, to get to a thermal baths, that we were under the impression were at the top of said hill. Turned out we were wrong and they weren't. Damn. So right back down to the bottom of the hill, where we did find this building, and after much confusion with staff that didn't understand us, we found ourselves in a locker room with a piece of cloth resembling a small apron and right back at the story i started at the beginning of the blog entry, before going off on a Tangent.

It wasn't until we saw someone enter the baths in their shorts did we actually realise we didn't need to wear the toga's and could have worn our shorts as originally planned. damn.
But after you get past the wearing practically nothing, and being surrounded by old men wearing practically nothing and the strong smell of rotten eggs that seems to be coming from the running parts of the water, its actually really relaxing. Click here if you would like to see pictures.

Apart from that, we went to a cinema that shows films in English at certain times of day, and watched Wanted. Which is fantastic by the way.

Zou'd Think wouldn't zou....

Well, 9 dazy since the last blog, so zou'd think there would be something interesting and exciting to post about bz now? Well I would hate to disappoint, but am going to anzwaz!

Oh before I write anzmore, I'd like to point out that, being the barbaric warmongers thez are the huns have thez're [z's] and thez're [y's] the wrong waz round, so rather than be carefull i'm going to tzpe as though i'm at an english kezboard, so z means y and vice versa!

So zea the blog, well as zou maz be able to tell from the previous paragraph when I completlez failed to apologise for tzping like a spay, we are now in Hungarz! Go us, we arrived here zesterdaz, before we came here we spent 2 nights in Burgas while we waited for our train out to these parts, where we went out on both nights, the first night with some bulgarian chappzs we did not know, but who invited us out anzwaz, and were nice enough to leave us with our kidnezs as well,.

Here zou can see Titch and Kiril singing when I come around

Here zou can see Me and Titch absolutelz butchering Don't stop me now

Here zou can see the 2 Bulgarian lads actuallz doing a good job on the karaoke

On the second night in Burgas, we went out with some of the friendlz regulars of the London Pub (Which does a great English Breakfast bz the waz!) some of who are included in these pictures, since I know everzone loves pictures

The rest zou can prettz much guess, we had a laugh, Titch got drunk and I laughed heartilz when he woke up feeling rough.

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So then Saturdaz we embarked on our Journez from Burgas to Budapest. 24 hours! now thats a train Journez, that is a daz of mz life I would never get back, whz I would want it back i don't know, a lot of it was quite dull.

But we were smart. we had the amaying foresight to book the fold out sleepers, thez were supposedlz for up to 6 people, though we ended up with the entire carriage to ourselves, its nice to have the room to stretch out and to leave zour things without worrzing about people stealing zour valuables, but we wouldn't have minded some more companz!

Although. Best room ever, check out....

5 Star stzle accomodation

Complete with Gzm

And a Happz Ending

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So Zea, Hungarz, whz Hungarz, whats In Hungarz zou maz ask? or perhaps zou're asking when I'm going to stop tzping, or whether i'm just doing the z/y thing on purpose to annoz everzone?

Well I reallz don't care what zou're asking, I'm going to answer mz question, its mz blog, click the comment button to ask questions.

The answer so far is. A bridge

Exciting. I know.

Staz tuned

Oh And I'm aware there arent anz links for the embarassing karaoke video, but I can assure zou I have everz intention of Zoutube-ing it up at some point:)

Row Row Row your boat

Its amazing! We've done something, not only that but something we consider worthwhile sharing with you, not only that but we had the amazing foresight to take pictures! The fact that I forgot my camera and all photographs were taken on ann's camera is a mere technicality, something photographable happened in the world of us. And yes photographable is infact a word.

But I digress, we were on a boat trip on a river today, as you can see from the photo on the right, we are looking extremely happy with the situation, well actually titch looks like he's caught something in his mouth and doesn't want to let it escape and I look as though i've spotted something out the corner of my eye and have started staring in that general direction to see if it comes back, leave us alone we're not very photogenic, this was the best one!
As you can see it was all very scenic en route and we saw all the cool wildlife, like this stork fellar, and turtles sat on logs, by the side of the river, in much the same way as condogs sit on sticks, except without the impaling, unfortunately due to the size of the turtles, coupled with the movement of the boat and the distance from the side of the river with the turtles, it was difficult to get a quality shot, as demonstrated by/presented in this conveniently placed graph, but we can assure you it is cool. As we're nice, here's a photo of a turtle close up and larking about in the water. enjoy you "no turtles in the wild" folk.





















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Other items of interest from the days escapades, include the magic disappearing hat:














For optimum enjoyment, save both photo's to your computer and flick between them.








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If I concentrate really hard, I can smash this sprite bottle using only my mind








Thats odd, I swear I was doing it right....








A'ha your turn for the punishment mr Jug.

2008... and. Go!

Yeeaa. I was sat stroking my chin pondering how to start my blog, this is the first post of 2008, so whatever I said had to have some kind of meaning, be profound and raise a smirk in some kind of inside Joke way to someone somewhere. But Titch said the word 'yeeaa' so I went with that instead.

This time round as many people know Titch is here with me aswell, here being bulgaria, having spent a night in Sofia, we are now in Rosen (I think, its somewhere near Bourgas) at Titches dads house, Getting here was an ordeal in itself, as we wound up somewhere 20 odd miles outside bourgas where no-one could understand us to answer the simple question "where are we?"

Well, these things happen, having done next to nothing but sleep and make use of public transportation (sometimes both at the same time) there are no amazing photos of us to share so I will leave you with this label from a carton of pineapple juice

The end/beginning

As it stands right now, my journey is at something of a crossroads, well I say a Crossroads, more of a T-Junction, with Car-parks either side, as I cannot just carry on as my funding is all but gone, so as you may know I am currently in the middle of a Job hunt.. In Rome!! But failing that, I'll be home by the weekend...ish.

I've been to see some parts of this city, yesterday myself and mike, he being a new zealand-er from the place where I'm staying, went to visit the vatican city and the cistine chapel, just because we were told it was impressive, maybe we would have been more impressed if either of us were religious, which it turned out, we weren't, so you can imagine how stupid we sounded walking into most rooms on the vatican museum tour saying "is this one the cistine chapel?", turns out this one one the left is the cistine chapel, its a bit blurry but don't complain, there were guys walking round saying "no photo, no photo" our personal theory is that they don't want people who haven't been to see how unimpressive it actually is so they can still sell tickets... bastards!

Then today I took a trip down to the Colosseum to watch a fight to the bloody death... turned out I was a little late and they outlawed that kind of thing a good few hundred years back, but I was able to wander round and see where this kind of activity used to take place.. or at least whats left of it.

Since my Journey has now all but ended, having been to 8 different countries, stayed in 6 different hotels, 6 different hostels and a campsite, been in 6 different airports and having spent around a day and a half on various trains across the continent, I want to take a moment to discuss... hotdogs, yep hotdogs, now back in the UK you have found yourself a quality vendor if you get a real sausage in your elongated bun and personally I find myself lucky if I can stop them in time before they desecrate my beautiful lump of pig fat and gristle with a mountain of fried onions, but across the continent I have found, many different ideas of what a hotdog is, so I felt like running through them for my own personal amusement really, and I'm going to rate them out of 5, wait no 6, since thats the average length in inches for one of these badboys.
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The Prague Dog

What is it?
Something of a baguette with a hole with a sausage dropped inside, with whatever sauces you want filling the space
Where you get it?
From a shed in the middle of any good pavement
What you think?
Good. very edible and because of currency conversion rates and whatnot it will only set you back 40 kurons (a little under a quid:)



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The Krakow Dog

What is it?
An oversized bun, with a tiny sausage and a mountain of lettuce and other assorted entire packets of vegetation they like to throw on top
Where you get it?
From a dirty window covered in signs with a fat lady sat behind it
What you think?
Awful, absolutely awful, when I order a hotdog I want something that fills me with cholesterol and will help me towards an early heart attack, it almost seems like a wasted when half of what she gave you is on the floor and your left with a dry lump of bread with sausage.

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The Wieliczka Dog

What is it?
Krakow being a tiny town just 10km SW of Krakow, but its sausage based food earns a mention all of its own, take the Baguette with a hole idea, but absolutely stuff it with pieces of sausage meat occasionally stopping to add sauces
Where you get it?
From a window like in Krakow, but bigger just to near a park thingy
What you think?
Fantastic, better than anything ever, worth returning to Poland for on its own, I want to give it more than 6 pints, but that would mean changing the image, which takes effort. Only 4zl50 aswell!! (less than a pound)



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The Dortmund Dog

What is it?
I didn't but any hotdogs in Dortmund, come to think of it I don't recall seeing anywhere selling hotdogs at all
Where you get it?
You don't, for the sake of argument they don't sell hotdogs in germany, which I find kind of Ironic to say the least
What you think?
It gets no points. don't buy food in Germany!





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The Dam Dog

What is it?
I also didn't buy any hotdogs in Amsterdam, but now I think is a good time to mention the kemer chicken kebab, anyone who has ever had one will know they are worth continually eating until you get ill, I never have but a trip that way is not complete unless you eat one
Where you get it?
Kemer kebab shop about 5/20 minute walk from the flying pig depending on your state of mind
What you think?
Amazing, it gets as many points as it likes, The kind of food that if I found out one day was made from rats in the cellar, I wouldn't care as long as they kept killing the rats in the cellar!


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The Brussels Dog

What is it?
I was handed my sausage in a burger bun, its not even as though he didn't have the right buns there, but I got a burger bun
Where you get it?
From a man with a grill under a canopy in a row of canopied stalls, the rest sold clothes, maybe he should do the same
What you think?
Not impressed, my dog didn't fit my bun





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The Paris Dog

What is it?
Its a nice big baguette, with a nice big sausage, covered in a layer of melted cheese. mmm
Where you get it?
From a food shop by a road I walked down while slightly lost. I'll take you someday!
What you think?
Excellent! the best thing about France! nay the only good thing about france, knock down the eiffel tower and replace it with a huge cheesy hotdog stand says I!



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The Madrid Dog

What is it?
I also did not eat a dog in this country, though I think they get a point for giving me food with my drinks
Where you get it?
Tapas bars!!
What you think?
I like the little bread and the chorizo. nice touch





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The Rome Dog

What is it?
Something of an oddity, seems to be more of a sausage sandwich in kebab bread. good though:)
Where you get it?
From a hotdog man bear the colloseum
What you think?
Was nice, he put a single leaf of lettuce on it, so it was edible unlike the krakow attempt!

Changes

I realised something about myself today, Something Profound and Interesting. Something I did not consider possible until today. Something that both shocked and appalled me.....

I have a chin.


I feel Cold and naked now, me and my beard(s) did everything together.

Alas. Me and me chin are going on a job hunt.

If you want to really amuse yourself, save both of these pictures to your computer, then open them with whichever picture viewing program you use and flick between them, its like the hair magically disappears... and the door moves.