Austria and Formatting

So I managed to get a stable internet connection in Vienna for long enough to download a copy of Open Office. The power of formatting and fonts are mine! Mwoo-ha-ha! Using my preferred font (Rockwell, which I had to download separately)just feels so much nicer, even though this is going to get pasted into blogger and formatted into whatever font they use (turns out its Georgia). Oh well.

However, it does mean I can continue writing Koala Police Department. I started writing in Cesky Krumlov, but without being able to format the scripts it became a bit hard to keep track of. I've got the plotting done for around four or five more episodes, so I'll be scripting them as I travel, I'm still keen to make more episodes, at least up to episode 12, which will round out the first 'season'. Beyond that, we'll see. At this rate is will take another 6 years to get that far anyway...

Had a good time in Vienna. Its a nice place, a pretty place and yes, an expensive place. The hostel was pretty good though, a decent room and good facilities, a kitchen, lounges, nice courtyard and good enough internet for me to loose a few hours last night to wikipedia...

We went on a 'grape grazing' tour. You jump on a few trains and head out to the Wachau valley. Once there its straight into a winery for very generous 'tastes' of some wines. Then onto some bikes for a ride through the countryside. Then a stop for an awesome BBQ lunch (sausages! Pork chops! more wine!) and a bit of time for a dip in the freezing Danube river. Then more bike riding and a leisurely boat ride back to a quaint little town. We checked out the castle ruins at the top of this murderous hill climb, It was the prison where King Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned... You know, the one who rocks up at the end of Robin hood... Anyway, then you have to take three trains back get back to the city. Thing is, in most of Europe, its totally fine to drink booze on the trains. So we drank ten bottles of wine between the twenty of us on the tour.

After all that drinking we rocked back to town and decided it was a good idea to do a pub crawl. So far every stop theres been an organised pub crawl you can go on. We'd resisted thus far, but after a day of drinking we thought it might be good to chat a bit more to some of the people who we've been on the buses with for almost a month. We'll it was a good idea, but I remember now that I'm old and don't do late night drinking sessions out and about anymore. Anyway, we had to figure out how to catch a bus home at 2 in the morning, which was difficult as the drivers at that time don't speak english or don't want to make it easy for the drunks, so eventually we made it back in a cab, which turned out to be nice actually. Woke up with a hangover, not a severe one, but enough to take me a few hours to recover.

I'm having a good time right now, I was a bit worried that I'd get sick of travelling by this stage. We've still got two months before we're supposed to leave, and after a few more days we're off the bus and on our own. Kind of looking forward to loosing the 'structure' of the busabout coach. Its been fine, and its a pretty good way to get around, but I wouldn't do it again. Theres enough freedom to do what you want, but the pick up and drop off points being hostels mean that you end up staying at their accommodation for atleast one night, unless theres something else in walking distance. Its been a good introduction to Europe, but next time I'd probably do the rail pass thing. Looking forward to Italy, where we are going to make our own way around for a week or two.

More general thoughts on Europe so far:

Smoking. Lots more people seem to smoke, the smell of the smoke doesn't seem to bother me as much. The last rest stop had ashtrays in the toilet cubicles and by all the urinals. Two birds, one stone. Australia seems more progressive with its smoking restrictions, which seems strange that prohibiting something should be seen as progressive.

I miss television, but probably not as much as I thought I would. I'm keen to know what has happened to Jack Bauer (that is not an invitation for anyone to tell me...), really keen to see the rest of the Dollhouse (It got renewed for a second seaon! Awesome!) and kind of curious to see the end of Prison break (god knows why. That last season sucked). And then I think of new things that I must be missing. At least I got to see the end of Battlestar Galactica, I loved that show so much, and really enjoyed the finale

Have been thinking about work. I miss my job, I hope its still there when I get back. When I get back things will definitely have moved on without we there, so it will be interesting what kind of job I'll have when I return. Sometimes I think I'd like to move back to more of a sales role, I'd like to really get the shop floor sorted a bit better. But I think I'll probably have a lot of programming work to do. I imagine there is a three months worth of fix up work to do. There's also going to new toys to play with. I like new toys...

We're in the Czech Republic now, which I have to keep reminding myself not to call Czechoslovakia. The revolution that lead to separation of the two nations was called the velvet revolution, which is a good name for a revolution.

We spent a few days in Prague. My first impression was that it was a city where all the adults disappeared 15 years ago and the kids were left to figure out how to make it work themselves. Its fairly run down, in some places you can touch the walls and the limestone crumbles beneath your fingertips. But there dusting it of, restoring it and in ten years will be a bustling European metropolis.

Didn't do a lot in Prague. We had a coffee at this cubist cafe, but didn't visit the museum of cubism. Went to the castle and wandered around, but didn't go inside. Saw a museum which had a tractor exhibit, but didn't enter. We're getting pretty weary of museums and what not. It seems that every city has a torture museum, a wax museum and a Salvador Dali exhibit. And a busker playing Oasis covers.

Bought a book of Kafka stories, as when your in Prague you should be reading Kafka. It's called 'The Basic Kafka' and its one of those books that's just dense small text, when a story finishes, the next one starts below it. I like its style. I finished 'The Metamorphosis', which was good. I'll read some more of the smaller passages later. I've also finished Asimov's 'The Naked Sun', which was pretty good also.

I'm haunting any English language bookshops I can find to try to dig up a copy of 'Green Mars'. I finished 'Red Mars'  which was awesome and I bought a copy of 'Blue Mars' in a secondhand bookshop in Amsterdam, it's teasing me sitting there in my suitcase unable to be read until I find a copy of 'Green Mars'. And of course its a big book, adding extra weight to my suitcase .

We're in Cesky Krumlov now, its a small town that we're staying extra time in to relax. All this travelling (5 countries in less that two weeks) has started to be a drag, so we're being dead lazy here. We're in this great guesthouse, so we're pretty much just lazing about reading and eating. The foods been good here, and cheap. I keep saying beer is cheap everywhere I go, but a half litre of beer for a buck fifty is awesome. Good beer too, although not as good as in Belgium.

So we're here until Sunday and then onto Vienna. I'm feeling a bit more energised after two days here already and looking forward to getting back into the travelling rhythm. Still a few more weeks in continental Europe, then off to the UK, Iceland (which I'm super pumped for) and Scandinavia.

mainly Berlin

In Prague now, which is agreeable thus far. I actually really like the room we are in, its this loft, 9 flights of stairs up, with two windows that open a little. You can stand on tip-toes and strain to see a rather cool view of the city. Right now I'm sitting in an easy chair under one of the windows, the sounds of a local soccer match drifting in. Its a couple of blocks away at a small stadium, but the crowd is really belting out the tunes, Which I'm sure are the Czech equivalents of 'your going home in the back of a divvy van'.

I should talk about Berlin, I suppose. Berlins a great city, I didn't see everything I wanted to, but I saw plenty still. the Jewish museum, the memorial to murdered European Jews, the homosexual memorial, Brandenburg gate, the wall, a bunch of museums. All in all, plenty to keep you occupied (get it - occupied... groan). Didn't see the East Berlin museum, I'd really like to see that sometime.

So much has happened in the recent history of Germany, Berlin in particular, you just kind of wonder whats going to happen next. In all though I found Berlin as a city not trying to deny its shady past but to try to move forward. And its poor, apparently. "Poor, but sexy" Berlin's gay mayor likes to say. Lots of construction projects. Lots of demolition projects. Things in Berlin have been burnt down and rebuilt a lot. And the weirdest thing was this district with massive scaffolding covered in vinyl that look like buildings. Big Fake buildings. Crazy.

The Jewish museum was a real highlight, a real architectural treat. Designed by Daniel Lieberskind, its zigzag structure sets up all these really interesting spaces and voids. There's forced perspective to some of it too, and the architecture really enhances the experience, creating this disorienting uncomfortable space. There is a room called the "Memory Void', which I won't describe but you definitely see if your in Berlin.

Its a similar feeling at the Jewish memorial, this sloping undulating land with all of the blocks standing upright creating something like a maze for you to wander through. The entire structure is coated in this finish that makes graffiti wipe right off (there were seven swastikas painted there in the first year...). Unfortunately, the company that makes that coating is a subsidiary of the company that manufactured the gas used to kill millions of Jews during the war. So there is a bit of resentment about it from the Jewish community.

Across the road is the homosexual memorial, to those who were killed during the war. Its a big ol' block of concrete that has a window in it. When you peer in to see whats up, its a video of two dudes kissing. I thought it was cool.

We stayed near the massive soviet built TV tower. An awesome, big phallic icon of communist might. However it backfired on the godless commies, as when the sunlight hits its massive glass bulb it refracts as a massive cross, a veritable beacon to the almighty. The locals call it the 'Popes Revenge'.

If any of the above sounds like I paid attention on a bicycle tour of the city, its because I did. As I rode around I found myself thinking of Justin a fair bit, especially when we reached the big statue of Marx and Engels. You can go sit on Uncle Karls lap and get a photo, although I didn't. I think Justin would have liked it here.

Berlin, and now in Prague, 15 or so years after the velvet revolution  have had me thinking about how different the map of Europe is now compared to a century ago. As a kid I thought maps were permanent and didn't realise they were constantly in flux. Strange to think of the changes in just my lifetime, that when I was a child this city was divided down the middle and people died trying to cross it. It makes me wonder what things will look like by the end of the century.

The crowd outside is getting really riled up now. We're going to try find a local pub to eat some goulash, or I will anyway, don't know what Liz will eat.

Moments from Berlin. Words coming later.

Germany

I started writing another entry as we left bruges, but was in a bitchy mood so I wont post what I wrote. 

We are just about to cross into Germany, having done just spent three days in Amsterdam and two days in Bruges. 

Bruges, well I liked Bruges. A fellow traveller (an aussie who was deported from the UK for having the wrong visa) had a saying amongst his friends: 'Don't go all Bruges on me'. Fair enough, I can see his point, its pretty soft, but I really enjoyed it. It was rammed with tourists, something that must annoy the locals to no end, but they seem to get on with their lives and ignore us the best they can. Had a funny little map guide written with a great sense of humour.

The beer was everything I'd been let to believe and more. It got me thinking why I stomach the piss back home. I tried to drink as widely as I could and didn't find anything disagreeable, I drank mainly things I'd never heard of, as the popular ones are exported anyway. Even Liz got into it, the Kriek or cherry beer she found enjoyable.

I was wondering how we would find Amsterdam before we got there. Its a bit of a weird one, again, very touristy, but a lot more locals a lot more intent on hitting you with their bikes. Bikes everywhere. Everywhere. Didn't get a lot of pictures in Amsterdam, having been told that a lot of the locals in the more colourful districts don't like cameras. A lot of pimps will break them or you. Fair enough.

My blistering coffee addiction hit in Amsterdam, our hostel not providing my morning cups of coffee. In fact, the entire hostel was terrible. under renovation, poorly organised, no internet, no kitchen, and the smells. We had to shift rooms, ending up in a sightly nicer one that had an en suite (6 beds though), but then we smelt the en suite. I've never been accused of being clean and therefore have known my fair share of rotten smells, but something in that bathroom was unnatural. I smell that bad can not occur conventionally, but would have to be specially manufactured by a team of evil chemists.

But back to my coffee woes, It turns out there are two kinds of coffee shop in Amsterdam. One that sells coffee (a cafe) and one that sells coffee and dope (a coffee shop). I had images of a drug fueled utopia with everyone smiling and helping each other out, wandering the streets in a stupor and eating snack food everywhere. Well, its kind of like that, but mainly its a lot of people working in cafes who keep forgetting what you ordered. But we did find a big park that was mainly full of stoners wandering around and playing frisbee. It was called Vondelpark, and its great fun adding 'Vondel' to the start of words. Try it and you'll see.

Saw a couple of good museums. The Rijkmuseum was pretty cool, lots of stuff about the powerful Dutch navy and traders whom I respect from to many hours playing as them in Sid Meiers Pirates. Also a bunch of Rembrandts. I didn't realise how awesome Rembrandt was before, but he kicks arse. Also some of his students were cool, and Vermeer was also excellent. I much preferred the Dutch masters to a lot of the Italian and French Renaissance pieces I saw in the Lourve.

The sexmusuem was cheap, both in euros and in general. A musuem full of pornography from the  last century, exactly as good as it sounds.

Anne Franks house was very moving. Wandering around those rooms really gets into your stomach and twists it in a very emotional way. I've not read the book (Liz is reading a copy next to me right now) but I knew the story and to really have it played out in front of you like that was saddening. Its just one story out of millions of the tragedy of world war two.

Well, I didn't think I'd write that much about Amsterdam, but there you have it. We've just crossed into Germany now and for some reason they've put a DVD of Greys Anatomy episodes on the bus. So I guess this is as good a place as any to stop writing. Read into that what you will.

Told you so.

I want this on a postcard.

Is this thing on?

Hmm.  So it seems that I didn't bother to put open office onto this laptop. Not really a problem, as I prefer notepad in many ways. anyway, I'm writing this offline as I'm on the bus on the way to Bruges, currently we are passing through the La Somme region in France. I'm still not sure if this will be a blog, a group email, maybe a private one (or a group one that I personalise. But anyway, here are things I have learned.

European hand drying technology is superior to Australian hand drying technology. The hand sensors actually work. your hands dry quicker. amazing. The most amazing is the Dyson air blade, I've only seen it in airports, but its like drying your hands with a thermo-nuclear weapon.

Coffee is affordable, or at least if you drink espresso. really, the rest of a cup of coffee is just filler anyway. An espresso is between 1 - 1.5 Euro, where as a flat white, cappuccino, etc is double that. Its always struck me as odd that in Australia, a short black is only slightly cheaper than a flat white, despite all that extra milk and labour to heat and pour. I need to check the price of a cup of tea, as it annoys me back home when you pay the same as for a coffee and get given a cup of water and a tea bag.

I found the tackiest urinal in the world. And it was right at our first hostel! Picture to follow.

Paris was spectacular. The entire city is built to beat you over the head with a sense of history and culture. My gosh the money that has flowed through those streets. It seems like if something was worth building, it was worth building to excess. Its probably just that those places are the ones that are preserved, restored and expanded upon. The scale of places like theMusee de Louvre and Chateau de Versailles we're quite unbelievable. No wonder the peasants revolted (I really don't understand the French revolution, but I'm sure I'm going to look it up on wikipedia at some point.)

I have no cohesive wi-fi strategy at this point. I guess I'll just latch onto as much free wi-fi as I can at hostels and pay for access when I need to. That combined with my crippling laziness will mean sporadic updates at best, which is probably fine, as I'm sure you don't need daily updates on how much fun I am having. Pictures will follow too as I figure out a flickr account or some such.

My coffee addiction is quite bad. The first two hours of this trip I was surly and uninspired, a mood I am blaming on breakfast coffee at the hostel which I am convinced was decaf. I guess I am going to have to carry a jar of instant and a spoon for the duration of the trip.

On speaking french. After being told that its a good idea to try to speak a little of the language as a gesture of good faith, I now think its not worth the effort. Every bonjour gets me nowhere. I wait in line to say 'Bonjour, Un Cafe' S'il vous plait?", and every time I'm greeted by a "hello". I know think its just a waste of both our times waiting for me butcher the french language, so from here on I'm going to open all conversations with "g'day".

Drinks here come in centilitres. I remember being told by a builder that centimetres are a unit of measure taught to children as they can't grasp the more accurate millimetre. Not that I'm commenting on European education standards.

Anyway, We are almost in Belgium now, headed across the border in a coach filled 95% with Australians. I hoped to see less of them on this trip, we have plenty back home. So I'll end this here, hopefully I'll have some access to post it in the near future. Otherwise this all becomes some bastard journal, to be read back after my trip is over, highlights mixed with photos and set to music and burnt to DVD. No, that's a bit too much.

-Troy