I have setup a Tumblr (I have a MacBook Pro after all, it would be unhipster not to) on a URL that will be live imminently, helloyouitsme.com. I’ll be putting random stuff on there as and when I feel like it (including the odd travel blog, especially with a 3 week trip round Vietnam, Laos etc. coming up), but definitely not with the same mild OCD fueled fervor that made me post a blog daily on my past journeys. So drop in and have a butchers.

Thanks for keeping me company on my adventures, adios reader(s).

Okay so first off I need to issue a retraction; in my last post I said I had yet to see LCD Soundsystem live, this was a big fat fib as I actually saw them a few years ago at the Manchester Academy. Splendid and tremendous they were too. Right, glad we got that cleared up.

I’ve been listening to The Black Keys a fair whack lately, both new and old stuff. Dan Auberch is a serious contender to Jack White for the modern dirty blues and garage-rock crown, if not the King incumbent. Go get their stuff – all of it.

Rugby league has definitely become my sport of choice over here as I was into it as a kid and Aussie rules footy does very little for me. Sydney Roosters should probably be my team as they are the local one but I have been to a few New Zealand Warriors (formerly Auckland Warriors) games as my house-mate Red is very much a Kiwi (“Want some chips bro? Have a chip cuz”). With there being loads of Sydney teams there’s plenty of opportunities to watch them over here, I got out to see them at Manly and also against Rabbitohs at the Olympic Stadium (Manchester should have had that!) in Homebush. The season is over now but next time round I might get into it properly.

I finally had a trundle round Darling Harbour (quite touristy but impressive none the less) recently as me and Claire went on a whale watching trip. The trip itself was a bit of a washout for me personally, as I got pretty sea-sick (without actually barfing) and had to spend most of it off deck, it may have been related to being on the razz the night before though. I think I did see a tail out the window a couple of times but that was about as close as I got to Moby Dick and pals.

Surry Hills and Crown Street in-particular seems like the coolest area in Sydney (though Newtown is good too), it’s close to where I work so I have had plenty of oppurtunity to explore the vintage shops and pubs. The Cricketers and The Shakespeare are probably my favourite 2 bars in Sydney so far, the latter doing great cheap grub so fast becoming a regular haunt.

The Broken Social Scene gig at The Metro I went to with Claire a couple of weeks (well, months now actually) ago was pretty good, they certainly bring plenty of energy to the stage. It’s a decent venue too with good views and bars everywhere, I’ll be looking out for other gigs there in the future.

I ran the City2Surf 14K run a few weeks back (erm, actually thinking about it was months again), it was quite the experience. 80,000 people running from the city-centre to Bondi beach, it took me 1 hour 23 minutes which isn’t too bad considering I very much neglected the training side of things. Next year I’ll be looking to shave a fair few minutes off that.

Wandering down into Bondi Junction the other day I was greeted by a young pair of buskers playing all sorts of weird stuff with a pretty unique and individual style, the highlight being the Jungle Book medley they belted out. I dined on a Japanese pizza (very much like this one) while taking in this spectacle, a most enjoyable half hour or so it was.

My pal (and personal scooter mechanic when on British soil) Joey has asked me to mention his plumbing business here and I am very happy to oblige. If you’re in Chester, The Wirral or North Wales {basically any of those parts where they talk funny) and you need your u-bend sorting or a dog’s bollocks power-shower fitting, Joey is your man. Cavalry Plumbing – “You’ve used the cowboys, now call the Cavalry.”

The company I now work for (Nexus) have offered me sponsorship and I have accepted, all the paperwork still has to go through though so it’s not all 100% yet. What this basically means is that I won’t be coming home or going travelling next March and I will probably be here for a couple of years at least.

Never mind that though, the biggest thing I have to report in this post is that I FINALLY GOT A VESPA!!! Have a look at the beauty below, it’s a 1963 Vespa VBB and was restored about 18 months ago by Gasoline Scooters. The engine has been replaced altogether and it now has a 150 LML in, but the frame is original and that’s what matters for me. It just means I get the benefit of modern power and reliability. I did pay considerably more than I would have liked to but I should get most of it back when I come to resell and I will get plenty of joy out of it in the meantime. Saga over eh.

I had looked at a small-frame Primavera a few weeks prior to getting this one, I liked it but turned it down as it was stupidly over-priced. The test ride was great fun though as the seller was an Italian guy who worked in the movie business over at Fox Studios, I got to tear-arse around the site for 15 minutes. The casting directors must not have been about as no offers were made, my visions of being projected to fame were scuppered. I guess the remake of The Great Escape (on a Vespa) will have to wait eh.

In other news, Simon has left the house and is now mooching round Asia for a bit on his way home to Northern Ireland. Catch up with his travels and travails here.

I saw ‘Inception’ at the IMAX for my birthday, blimey it’s a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a … It’s enough to make you reach for the paracetamol.

So with the sponsorship thing making it very likely that I’m going to be here for a good while I’m going to suspend blogging for Sydney. I will however post when I visit other parts of Australia (like when I got to Adelaide next month for a wedding) and to any of the islands, I might even venture into Asia. So once more, I plead with you to sign-up to the email list to be automatically notified of all STBB updates. Dead simple it is, just whack your email address in where it says so in the sidebar at the right of your screen up near the top. Easy as peasy innit.

Summer is most definitely on it’s way and apparently Sydney really comes alive then, that should be good it should. Being English, I’ll probably just end up whinging about it being too hot though. TTFN then reader(s).

*Dyer-Rea

I’ve now (well, probably about 2 months ago) moved out and into a room that became available at Simon’s, so I’m still in Bondi Junction. It’s a lot more relaxed, I didn’t really like where I lived before as I wasn’t on the same wavelength of some of the people I lived with. All good then.

The Sydney film festival was running a while back and me liking my flicks, I’d earmarked three or four for my viewing pleasure. I only actually made it to one in the end as I had to work when some of them were showing. The one I did see was excellent though, the biopic of Ian Dury ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll’. Andy ‘gis a fish’ Serkis turns in a captivating performance and the whole thing is produced with a brilliantly stylish edge.

My Vespa hunt continues, I’ve been to see 4 or 5 and I’ve bid on some but lost out and not bid on others at all. I’m just enjoying being a bit of a nuisance and getting my 2-stroke fix on other people’s scoots. Since I’ve been here I’ve ridden a Sprint, a Super and a VBB amongst others and also have a session booked in on a wee Primavera for later this week. Magic.

One of my my new house-mates (Redster) has recently reached the big 30. Him being a Kiwi, a load of his pals and family performed the Haka at the do. Unfortunately me and Simon missed it by about 15 minutes, doh. A long night of drinking in the Oxford Street area of the city followed. Memories are hazy but I do recall having my picture taken with a Brian Fontana lookey likey.

Red convinced me and Simon into attending the Supernova pop culture exhibition the other Sunday, a festival of all things weird and geek really. We were initially sceptical and disparaging but he talked us round with promises of people dressed as Chun-Li (spinning-bird kick!!!), the chance to meet cult D-list actors from the early 80s and the opportunity to hang with the ‘R2D2 Builder’s club‘. It was ace purely for comedy value, well worth the $25 in.

I doubt I have ever been in a room with so many virgins over the height of 5’5, there were plenty of ‘individuals’ present.

The highlight was not having pictures taken with a Dalek (ooh watch out Davros’s troops, there’s some stairs over there), watching crap Australian wrestlers strut around the ring dramatically, or even seeing the original Incredible Hulk signing autographs (well sat there waiting for someone to join the queue to get his autograph). No, it was the Kamehameha contest (grown/not grown men and women pretend to force fireballs out at each other in a variety of interesting and strange ways), comfortably won in the end by someone dressed as Raiden of Mortal Kombat fame.

We couldn’t be bothered (but probably should of) hanging around another another couple of hours to see the Japanese manga girls karaoke competition or the question and answer session with the sound effects geezer from Police Academy (I can’t remember his name but I know it’s not Mahoney or High-tower).

This week I have mostly been listening to ‘This Is Happening’ by LCD Soundsystem. I thought it was good on first listen, I think it’s great now. One of the most inventive bands about and yet I’m still to see them live, this needs to change. Also been getting an airing is Metal Cares by Picastro which is very odd with strange banshee like wailing aplenty but it’s also a rewardingly cohesive album full of treasures, not one to be dipped into ad-hoc.

Blimey, Red has just bought an Xbox 360. Much hilarity was had creating derogatory wrestlers of each other in some WrestleMania lark (see this Facebook album for proof) and HD graphics have finally arrived to mine and Simon’s perpetual FIFA clashes, the beautiful game never looked so good.

So the World Cup hasn’t really been a classic has it, moments of quality here and there but little that will live long in the memory apart from those soddin’ vuvuyawatzits and shot after shot ballooned over the crossbar. England were on the whole awful too, ‘ghost goal’ ‘n’ all. There’s lot of work to be done and someone needs to convince Don Fabio that Emile Heskey is of international standard not.

Santo, Sam and Ed’s World Cup Fever has been the best bit for me, the vast majority of Australian TV programming is terrible but this show is consistently funny and entertaining. It’s like an Aussie version of Baddiel and Skinner’s Fantasy Football League.

My contract at Canon finished last Friday and luckily I have secured another one (3 months probably with another 3 extension) with these, I start next week. With that I have decided that I will be staying in Sydney and not moving Melbourne for now at least, I’d like to go but it would be a bit of a mission and it just makes most sense financially to stay here.

The best bit about the new job is that the office is in the next suburb along, Paddington. It will take me 10 minutes on a bus as opposed to a 2 hour plus round-trip in the previous one, whoo! On my daily train commute I sometimes encountered an incredibly chipper and cheesy on-board announcer. Everything is announced in a 70s radio DJ parody style. “Guuuud morning passengersaaa, the next stop is Wynyardaaaa. Please be careful when alighting from the trainaaa. Thank you for travelling with City Railaaa”. Quite funny the first few times, soul destroying 19 times in.

It occurred to me recently that it’s been ruddy ages since I’ve been to a gig so I’ve been looking out for them. I went to see Little Red at the Oxford Art Factory last weekend (ace live, they combine loads of different styles effortlessly) and Broken Social Scene is coming up in a few weeks.

I heard the awful news the other day that Chris Sievey (aka Frank Sidebottom) had passed away from cancer. He was a complete one off, taking daftness to previously untouched levels (Hit the North!). The ‘Frank Sidebottom’s Magical Tour of Timperley’ open-top bus ride I went on a few years back was possibly the funniest experience of my life, not bobbins and really ace. Cheerio Frank, I hope little Frank gets along okay without you.

Australian traffic-lights, what are they all about eh. You have to wait ruddy ages to cross and then you only get 3.7 seconds to do it. Sort it out Australia.

I caught the City vs Spuds ‘Champions League play-off’ a few weeks back in the city. To do so I had to get up at half 3 in the morning to get to the pub where Sydney’s blues hang out for 05:00 (or 20:00 in Blighty). I was tired (2 hours kip) and it was dark and unusually cold. It felt more like Manchester than Australia’s south-east coast.

I had an almighty sprint to catch the 378 bus as it was early. But catch it I did which was lucky as it was the only one for a good while. I did think to myself is all this really worth it, it transpired that it wasn’t.

City didn’t turn up in the 2nd half and consequently won’t be in the Chimps league next season. Mancini and his lovely scarf are still going to be in the hot seat though apparently.

I think I’m going to give up on that Cheers bar. For starters it’s a crap generic sports bar and I’ve also seen 2 games there and had 2 terrible results. Early morning home streaming for one is the future.

3 schooners (little drinks for big Australians) of Boag’s (quickly becoming my down under budget beer of choice) before work probably wasn’t the best idea and left me feeling a tad sleepy. A bacon and sausage butty (my phone keeps trying to put bitty, that would have been quite a different snack) from the staff canteen mitigated the drowsiness somewhat.

The Flaming Lips have recently covered Pink Floyd’s ‘Darkside Of The Moon’. As you might expect, it’s mental. Come hear for yourself here.

Another album worth a listen is ‘Horsefeathers’ by Horse Feathers. It’s along the lines of Guided By Voices with more angst in the vocals. At times it’s in danger of sounding a bit like the modern day awful generic American ‘punk’ bands catering for teens with nails clad in black nail-polish all around the World, but it always pulls itself back before doing so.

I’ve bought a 2nd hand guitar from a French geezer advertising on Gumtree. It’s a Fender Squier and he wanted 150 bucks having paid 200 for it new several months earlier. I offered him a ton and his come back was 140. I said I wasn’t paying more than 120 and a deal was struck, not bad considering it came with a capo that must be worth $20. In the words of Terry Tibbs – “Acoustic guitar, talk to me”. Terry Tibbs, he’s good isn’t he. See.

Reluctantly I got my haircut some weekends ago, something I always dread as my barnet chop explanatory skills are a bit shoddy. It’s also difficult to find somewhere that isn’t going to charge you the GDP of Suriname for the privilege or is fairly priced but the barber would have a heart attack if you didn’t ask for short-back and sides. Anyway it didn’t go too swell.

I found somewhere that looked half decent, not overly pricey and with a hair-dresser who looked reasonably stylish and like she had half a clue what she was doing. Unfortunately she was busy and I got the gay bloke from Derry who was neon-orange in skin tone, dressed like he was on a darts team and had a very dodgy comb-over despite only being about 30. The front was okay, though not what i asked for (via a pic on my phone to negate the need for my poorly articulated specification) but the back looks like a 1930s dictator effort. Ah well, it grows back eh.

The weekend before last there was a 80s Mod revival exhibition at The Powerhouse Museum as part of a larger 80s exhibition. There wasn’t that much to it really, just a few Vespas on display and a couple of items about what a Mod is. I timed it to coincide with when Sydney scooterists were due to visit though to have a look at all the scoots on display outside, including these 3 gorgeous GSs. Actually on linking to this photo it has just occurred to me that one of the said 3 GSs had ridden off prior to me taking my happy snap, what an inconsiderate bugger eh.

I’m closing in on a Vespa myself actually, more news to follow in a post shortly hopefully.

The 80s Are Back exhibition itself was pretty cool and gave me a chance for some childhood reminiscing. Commodore 64, He-Man figure complete with Battle Cat (I owned 1 headless He-Man and 4 Skeletors as a kid, a psychiatrist would have a field-day with information like that), Lost Boys poster, Stone Roses album cover etc. Brilliant stuff.

The rest of the museum was a bit dull really, but I guess it didn’t help that I’d been out the night before in Bondi and had only had 3 hours sleep. They did have an ace ‘Trainspotting’ exhibition though which contained some amazing award winning photographs from railyards and tracks around the world.

I had a quick mooch around Paddy’s Market near China Town after that. It was alright, the usual sort of hectic trading-post really. Not the best place to have a nasty hangover kick-in. I nearly bought a radio-controlled helicopter for $30 but saw sense at the key moment.

Blimey, there’s two Irish bars very close to where I live and they are constantly packed with folk from the Emerald Isle at all hours. Every-time I walk past them there’s an extremely drunk Irishman arguing/scrapping with a bouncer, his girlfriend, or another Irishman. Why not just do it all at home and save on the airfare.

The other night I finally went for a proper look The Rocks area to see the harbour bridge and Opera House (though I do go over the bridge twice a day for work). I picked (or more accurately, Claire did) the worst night weather-wise since I’ve been here for it. Awful torrential rain. Despite this I still got some good pics, it’s so much better having a decent camera.

I also had a lovely emu (don’t mention Rod Hull!) pizza at The Australian Hotel. One of the better pubs I’ve been to but I am finding that most pubs/bars here have very little charm or character.

Another place we took in was Customs House. There’s a massive model of Sydney under a glass floor that you walk over, that’s helped me get my bearings a bit.

No one told me Sydney had a monsoon season, it’s being throwing it down for 2 weeks now. Sort it out Australia.

When I said more news on the Vepsa front may follow in a future post, it has actually become this one. I went to take a look at this over in Manly. It was advertised as a 1968 Vespa Sprint, though with a bit of research I actually think it’s a Sprint Veloce (don’t mock me). I enjoyed taking it for a spin until it died when I gave it some in 3rd gear, it could be something and nothing but I’m not taking the risk. It’s a shame as if I could have knocked him down considerably on the $3500 asking price (well over what you’d pay for one in absolutely mint condition in the UK and this had a fair bit of rust) I would have definitely been interested. Still I got a nice ferry trip across the harbour and got to ride an original classic Vespa so it wasn’t a wasted trip. The search continues.

If you have any interest in the Manchester music scene you may find this interview very interesting as I did. They’ve got a point I reckon.

Sayonara for now reader. Enjoy the rub cub.

Erm, I’ve not really done that much to ‘write home about’ in the period between this post and the last one. Sorry about that. Erm, I could mention some tunes I’ve been listening to. Yes, I’ll do that.

The album ‘Listen To’ by Little Red is ace, upbeat indie/pop/punk with touches of soul and doo-wop, check out this as a fine example. Other honourable mentions go to Julian Casablancas of The Strokes fame for his first solo album ‘Phrazes For The Young’ and to Joe Gideon And The Shark for ‘Harum Scarum’. This tune is mint, bit like The Fall when they’re on their game. “Like Lars Von Trier”.

Simon’s hat party was good, full of daft hats as you might expect. There was an impromptu 11 man $22 hi-octane Pro Evolution Soccer 3 tournament held. Of course I made it to the final (with Italy, the draw out of the hat was reasonably kind) but was robbed by some git with England on pens after leathering him all game. Ah well.

When my contract finishes at the end of July I’m considering moving to Melbourne which is supposed to be more of a European style city. I wouldn’t say I don’t like Sydney but I’m not sure it’s the right sort of city for me, I haven’t really found too much on the alternate/music side that would intrigue me. There’s also not been one bar so far that has caught my interest. It could just be that I haven’t been looking in the right places though and I may feel completely different in a few months. Besides it depends on the work situation, if I don’t think I can get a decent paid job in Victoria I won’t be going but my initial research suggests the IT job market is pretty strong down there too.

Little Red are from Melbourne, could be a sign that could.

I’ve finally got round to updating my Flickr feed, it’s got the pick of the photos from my European tour and North American expedition as well as the early fruits of my Australasian adventure. Italy and Spain are probably the best from Europe. Take a look at the link on the right sidebar.

Also, I’ll encourage you once more to sign up to the mailing list also on the sidebar. Until I’m travelling full time again (roughly that’s going to be March 2011) it’s the best way to be informed when I post a new blog as they are going to be few and far between. Go on, there’s a sport.

After having now lived a couple of months in this country, I’m now getting a grip on the general Australian psyche. They’re a simple very direct bunch, none too subtle and call a spade a spade. I mean just look what you see when you go sock shopping.

I’ve been there a few weeks now and it’s nae bad, the people I work with are quite a good laugh so that helps. The dosh isn’t too shoddy either so I should hopefully be able to save a few bob for my post Oz globe-trotting machinations. These early morning rises are quite a shock to the system though I can tell thee.

The early morning rises have been regularly supplemented by even earlier early morning rises to catch the mighty blues in action via online streams. I’ve been meaning to get down here to meet up with this lot but it hasn’t been possible due to work and lot’s of inconvenient Sunday and Monday fixtures. I’ll correct this soon.

I was in the the local K-Mart the other day in Bondi Junction when I saw this sign. I of course demanded to know what the jaffa this was all about from a checkout lady, apparently it refers to bedding. Weird these Aussies I tell thee.

The weekend before last I had my first look at Bondi Beach. It was only a quick mooch with Simon and some of his house-mates but I enjoyed it none the less, some of the world’s top surfers were there for an exhibition which was quite cool. I mean to checkout the rest of the great beaches Sydney has to offer in the coming weeks.

After that we went and had a look at an amateur rugby union tournament in Waverley which loads of Kiwis had come to play in. Blimey there were some rather large chaps knocking about and having seen ‘Once Were Warriors’ I didn’t plan on picking a fight. One of Simon’s house-mates (Red) is a Kiwi himself and I spent the rest of the day and night with him and a few of his fellow countrymen, was a good laugh.

Two albums I’ve been enjoying muchos lately are ‘Epcot Starfields’ by Windmill and ‘Teen Dream’ by Beach House. Both are very different in many ways but similar in the fact that they are immensely atmospheric. Choice.

Last Saturday I went for a 2 or 3 hour walk around Centennial Park to take a load of photos with my new camera, specifically ones at sunset. I got some good shots of all sorts of different birds, to clarify I mean ones with wings, to clarify further I’m not talking about sanitary products. I really enjoyed it. Photos will be up on my Flickr feed in a week or 2.

When I got in from the park at around 20:30 all the lights were off and 2 of my house mates, Victoria (French) and Romi (Spanish), were eating in complete darkness apart from a couple of candles. Possible reasons for this that ran through my head were: they had decided to become Luddites, World War III had been declared and blackouts were necessary, they were having a romantic meal for 2 (ay, caramba!). The real culprit was Earth Hour, a climate change awareness event that originated in Sydney a few years back and has spread around the World. This would mean that I would have to wait an hour before having a proper butchers at the $4.50 Abraham Lincoln/Jewish hat that I had just purchased for Simon’s forthcoming hat birthday party. Christ I felt like an eco-warrior, you know like Captain Planet or Swampy.

Other areas I’ve had brief visits to in the last couple of weeks are Paddington and King’s Cross (can’t these lazy flamin’ drongos think of their own names eh). I’ll withhold judgement on both though until I’ve had a proper look at them.

Search of the day ‘chum rag: hashing’. I really don’t know, you tell me.

My sister Boacher Bowen (who lives in London) came with me part of the way to Heathrow to see me off. It would be an eventful outing. First off with the taxi from Hornchurch to Romford station, after I’d put my bag in the boot the driver brought down the lid a bit too early and gave me an almighty wallop right on the top of my bonce. No concussion, mercifully as London’s biggest airport might have been a tad difficult to navigate with blurred vision.

Next up we got a National Express train (I thought they only did buses, smelly ones at that) for the 15 minute trip to Liverpool Street station. The train was pretty busy and although there were seats available there weren’t two together and there wasn’t much room for my luggage. So we went right down to the bottom of the train and in a 4 seater little cubicle which was still part of another carriage we plonked ourselves down. We then noticed a sign on the window after a minute saying first class, but didn’t think much of it as there was no difference between that and the other seats, this would prove to be a mistake. A short while later and a very official looking official was informing that we “Have committed an offence on the railways”. Sitting in a different colour seat from the one you’re supposed to isn’t exactly murder on the Leyton Orient Express is it.

Anyway, when the train came to it’s destination we were escorted to another miserable jobsworth who wanted to fine us 20 sherbets each. Jog on. Big Sis Bowen started to get a bit angry at this point where as I adopted the sarcastic approach, neither were very effective. After lots of tooing and throwing we had to give our address details or face the old bill’s top men. I informed numpty number 1 that I didn’t have an address as I was a few short hours away from moving to Australia and looking for one. He said that I needed to provide one. 10 Ramsay Street I said. He didn’t appreciate this. Eventually they let us go when Boach had given her address, though not before a solid proclamation to numpty 1 and 2 that the fine would not be getting paid.

After this little ordeal we met up with my brother-in-law (well pretty much) for some grub at O’Neill’s and what would happen to be the first background tune we hear? Only bloody this one.

Then it was goodbyes and the Piccadilly line from Kings Cross straight into the airport, nice and easy.

I’m now just spending the last bit of Blighty dosh on my person on a pint of Guinness while watching the Ireland vs Brazil game and waiting for my departure gate to be announced.

This Cathay Pacific plane I’m on is massive, I’ve never been on one of these bad boys before. It has 10 seats to a row with 2 corridors separating them. Thankfully it’s a Bowen* 747, much better than one of them iffy Airbus jobbies I reckon, ahem.

It’s 11 hours to get to Hong Kong and then I think about the same again from there to Sydney, a film marathon might well be on the cards.

One of the flight hostesses just spilt beer all over my lap, though she is very sorry as she has now assured me several dozen times and brought me enough napkins to host and impromptu origami tournament. I’m starting to think all these little slices of bad luck I’m having today are leading up to a biggy!

Over the 2 flights I wangled 4 films in in-between stuffing myself with every complimentary bit of grub and drink available and poor misguided efforts at sleeping. Un Prophète and The Damned United were both good and A Serious Man and The Invention Of Lying were not so good. As usual all my thoughts are available here.

My entrance through customs in Sydney went smoothly so here I am, made it.

I got the train down to Simon’s in Bondi Junction and now it’s time to get on with all the malarkey to make this a home for a while; Australian sim card, bank account, tax registration, flat hunt, job hunt. Blimey. Though after being up for about 50 hours, a kip might be in order.

If by a big stroke of luck I can get a well paid job here, I think I may have to get myself an old cheap Vespa if I can to get about on. This sort of weather is what scooters are made for. This is the point I meant to end this post but I never got round to it, so I may as well continue.

I’ve not really seen or done anything interesting or touristy yet (not even seen the Harbour Bridge or Opera House!) as I’ve just been trying to get the initial bobbins I mentioned sorted so I can relax and know I’ve got spondulicks coming in.

After being here the best part of a week however, I have now sorted a bank account, phone number (this lot appear to offer the best deals), applied for tax and medical registrations and rather importantly, sorted somewhere to live. I’m moving into a house-share later today in central Bondi Junction. The place seems nice and I’ll be living with an Australian, a Belgian, a Spaniard and a Frenchy. Hopefully it will work out well.

A big thank you to Mr Logan for putting me up for the last week and for taking regular beatings from me on Pro Evolution Soccer 3 on the PS2 with somewhat humility.

The last few days I’ve also been hitting the job hunt trail hard by mithering agencies and getting my CV out. The market seems pretty good, if I don’t manage to secure a preferred (and better paid) server admin role, desktop support should be easy enough to get.

I’ve not seen any snakes or spiders (of any note) yet but I did see a wee lizard running round the house the other day and when I went for a run in Centennial Park just before sunset I saw loads of massive bats (wingspans like birds of prey!) which will make for some amazing photos when I get to grips with the features on my new camera.

The pic is of a lovely old Vespa 150 that is wasted as an ornament in a restaurant just down the road from my new place. Having now had a quick look at scooters on the market over here, relieving them of this somehow may be my best option as prices are extortionate.

By the way, I thought I’d got away with it but I’ve awoke with 4 mosquito bites this morning. Damn them blighters, damn them to mosquito hell.

Lastly (honest), I’m doing a spot of scootering related blogging for my mate Dave who in involved with Armadillo Scooterwear. Not all the articles are mine but there’s a fair few which are, have a butchers here if you like. TTFN.

*Okay, I know it’s not spelt like that

First off I’ve decided against moving my site to paid for hosting so I can switch to WordPress.org as to be frank, at the moment the benefits don’t actually outweigh the ball ache of doing it. I may revise my views in the future. I have added a couple of extra widgets though, one of which is the option to sign up to an email notification list for new blog posts.

I’m also in the process of uploading selected pictures from my four months on the road/rails in Europe to my Flickr profile. This will take me a while as I’m not signed up to the pro version and therefore only have the meagre bandwidth of 100MB per month. Take a butchers if you wish via the sidebar on the right.

With regards to actual travel plans, I’m no longer going to Wellington in New Zealand as I’m not sure how easy it would be to find decently paid work in my particular field (the hugely exciting one of Information Technology). I do hope to do a month or so of touring around NZ before I leave Australasia though, all just depending on how things go with work (and the money it provides). So I’m now going straight to Sydney (hands up how many of you thought that to be the capital of the non Fosters drinking, corky hat wearing, kangaroo shooting land down under) in very early March.

The reason for the delay is I hope very much to be at this. A dedicated fan or a foolish numpty, you decide. Either way Manchester City Football Club have never been to a proper final (or semi-final for that matter) in my 27 years on the planet, so if they end up being there in less than 2 months, so will I. In the mean time I’ll be doing my best to live frugally and not spend all my remaining funds on beer.

I know a few lads out in Sydney (one being Simon, my travel buddy for the Californian leg of the USA trip) so that should make my integration a bit easier.

As planned, I finally got a netbook (this one) which is making this whole blogging lark much easier. I also invested in a decent camera to improve the quality of my snaps. I opted for this bad boy, I just need to figure out how to use the bugger properly now.

The picture is the Facebook profile picture of an Australian chap I met in Hamburg. That’s him ‘controlling’ the one on the left. It makes me howl every time I see it.

So TTFN and I’ll hope you’ll join me when I venture into a whole new hemisphere. I may post an entry before then, I may not. Sign up to the email updates and you’ll know if I do.

While on route to Montmartre some obnoxious middle-aged man had the dreaded ‘turbo folk’ blaring from his phone while swigging a can of lager with his wife next to him. Cretin.

To take my mind off the cretin and his cretinous tunes, I listened to the latest episode of ‘Matt’s Today in History’ which covers the D.B. Cooper case, an incident I was already familiar with but was glad to learn more on. I hope he is running a bar in South America somewhere with no one any the wiser.

My first stop was to the flea market that the girl on reception at the hostel had recommended, though I can’t think what possessed her to do that as it was bobbins. Maybe I was just at the wrong one though.

Then I grabbed lunch at a little bistro La Dolce Vita grill. I had lasagne and it was crap, it was actually cold in the middle and as the plate was very hot I suspect it had just been bunged in the microwave. I
didn’t have time to complain and couldn’t be bothered either. But it was a pretty disappointing €9 spent when the place looked quite nice.

After that I paid a very brief visit to the Sacré-Coeur which was nice, all very crisp and polished. It wasn’t as big as I’d have expected though.

On the way down the steps at the front of the basilica I was greeted by 7 or 8 African scammers. I knew what their game was straight away as I’d heard about the same thing in Milan. They walk up to tourists and try and place a ‘friendship’ bracelet on their wrists, then they try and demand payment for it. Anyway one of them walks up to me and starts giving it “Excusez-moi” and I just said “Not interested” several times while still walking, I could even see the bracelet in his hand. He straddled to the side and in front of me though with his hand on my chest all the while trying to block me, he had seriously overstepped the mark in terms of personal space. I wanted to give him a whack and leg it but I don’t think that would have been a very wise move with 7 of his pals behind me. He eventually got the message as I just pushed past him. They really wind me up though, get out of my face and do one.

I wasn’t overly impressed with Montmartre as a whole, I was told to expect a cool bohemian vibe and I didn’t get a whiff of it. I had very little time there though and didn’t get a chance to explore so I expect I just missed the good bits. As I often say, for another trip.

Nearly €10 to get to CDG airport on the light railway when it only takes half an hour if that. I’ve found that a lot of cities like to exploit their tourists with this sort of thing but plenty more don’t (Manchester being in the latter category). I should make a name and shame list.

Bugger, my flight is delayed an hour. All is not lost though as there is a PS3 demo unit in the departure lounge.

Ah, maybe it is as 2 annoying posh kids have caught sight of me playing it. I’m now trying to teach the pair of them FIFA 2009 but the poor sods are clueless and have no aptitude whatsoever for video games, I blame the parents. I’ve given up and left them to it, total lost causes who should never be let near a console again.

Actually my flight is delayed an hour and a half, flamin’ budget airlines. It’s not too bad I suppose though.

I take that back, what a bag of shite. The flight is now cancelled altogether apparently, though they are being pretty quiet with the information. They mentioned something about another flight at 20:35 (3 and a half hours after we were supposed to leave) but if it’s an already scheduled flight I presume they will have to source a much bigger plane. Now I’m stood in a large queue (and have been for half an hour) and I’m not really sure why.

The queue was to issue us a new boarding pass and they also gave us a €20 food voucher, that’s something I suppose. I made sure I got every cent’s worth out of it (in fact I actually went 50 cents over) and had an Italian salad with mozzarella and parma ham, a large bag of crisps, a chocolate chip muffin and pint of Heineken.

As the new departure time was approaching things weren’t looking promising as the plane wasn’t even in, one fella waiting had a WiFi connection and was checking the Manchester Airport site which was showing a new arrival time of 23:00 (which would turn out to be correct). He new more than the bloody staff who weren’t saying much at all, what a joke.

There was another FlyBe flight to Birmingham going out from the same departure lounge so I took on a few young Brummie lads on FIFA and gave them all a lesson they won’t forget for a while. Awe struck they were.

I’d been through belt off, wallet and phone in the plastic tray, security malarkey 3 times in the end as the toilets (and the cafes) were outside the lounge. “You again” said one of the officials to me at one point.

We eventually took to the skies at about 22:15, around 5 and a half hours after we should have done. Oh well, it could have been a lot worse.

So there we go, another trip reaches it’s completion. I’m now back on the ever faithful Blighty soil and ruddy glad to be so. Let’s have a look at a couple of stats for the duration of this European expedition to finish off:

- 27 countries visited
- 40 magnets collected
- 19 magnets missed (boo!)
- 2 live football matches witnessed
- 73 pizzas eaten
- 1439 pints of lager drunk*
- £15.04 AdSense revenue generated
- 8400 hits direct to this site
- 11206 hits on Lonely Planet site
- 0 Frenchmen with good sense of humour met

While you’re here you may as well have a look at my fully completed old skool analogue map below. Quite the route eh.

I’ll be back in STBB HQ at some point in January for my New Zealand jaunt, I hope you will join me. I’ll post the occasional update on my travel plans here so feel to check back in and leave some comment abuse every now and again. It’s been emotional.

* Including 1 courtesy of this lot.

Once I’d seen The Mona Lisa (which is what today’s blog title is a reference to, just in case you suspected it was to Bo Didley’s ‘I Need You Baby – Mona’ covered with some sucess by Craig McLachlan amongst others) and The Venus de Milo it was just a case of wandering around aimlessly and seeing what treats I came across.

The place is huge, I never walked in the same room twice. Well worth the €9 entry fee (though once again it would have been free with my student card if I was but a year younger). I definetely want to return for a longer look at a later date.

In fact I haven’t seen a quarter of what I wanted to. There’s at least another 3 museums I want to see and plenty of other sights besides that I haven’t had a proper look at. Paris is high up on my return to list.

I did intend for this post (as well as yesterday’s which I’ve only just had a chance to edit and upload) to be more detailed but as I’m doing most of it on my phone and it’s half 2 in the morning so it shall not be. I did some of it on the PCs here before but they are painfully slow and at €3 for an hour (most of it spent waiting for pages to load), a rip-off (as is the food and drink at this hostel). Also there was an annoying man next to me alternating between dreadful humming and a little girly snivel. Roll on netbook.

So this is the last night of this particular trip. I can’t figure out if it’s gone quickly or slowly, a bit of both perhaps. Which would surely mean that it’s actually run at your bog standard and traditional 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week time etc. time, no?).

I decided to go on a walking tour today, run by the same company as the one I went on in Berlin. I’m not overly keen on these sort of things. But when you’re pushed for time they are quite handy for packing a lot in cheaply. I’m on my way to the meeting point now. The weather is ruddy awful though, wet and windy all over. I’m anything but adequately dressed for it so it’s going to be a long 3 and a half hours trek around the sights. Shiver shiver.

It included Pont Neuf, Academie Fracaise (where men in berets spend all day trying to think of fiendish ways to stop the inferior English language creeping into their own), The Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, Place de la Concorde (the square that holds the gold-tipped obelisk that Napoleon nicked from the Egyptians), the Grand and Petit Palais, The Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Eiffel Tower and many more. It was okay but as Paris is quite spread out we didn’t really get that close at all to a lot of the sights I’ve listed. It certainly wasn’t as good as the excellent one of Germany’s capital.

A very French lunch was had imbetween the 1st and 2nd half of the tour, quiche Lorraine with a pain au chocolat afterwards to fill my stomach up a bit. After the tour had finished I was that freezing I couldn’t be arsed going off and having a more in-depth look at some of the stuff covered so I just mooched back to the hostel.

The bed in the new dorm I’ve checked into is a cosy little number. They are built into the wall in banks of 2 (one above another) and each has a little curtain for some privacy which is a nice touch. Though the large security cages on underneath look good for the job, they also make a hell of a racket when used which doesn’t bode well at all for shuteye later.

I’ve enjoyed getting to grips with the Paris underground today, the metro system that is not the crime world. It’s a chaotic affair but pretty easy to master.

The pic is of Charlie D hanging out on the Champs d’ Elysée.

Then a while later we all went for a walk up to the river which was nice, St Jean d’Angely is a lovely little town. The weather was bobbins though so I had to borrow a pair of Nimrod’s size 40 jeans (well that’s how they felt anyway) as I’ve only 1 pair with me.

After that I said my goodbyes to all and Nimrodian dropped me off at Surgeres station where I picked the TGV up direct to Paris.

That all went very smoothly. I was feeling a bit peckish when I got off so I got this hot dog thing that was a frankfurter enclosed completely in some sort of large cheese roll with mayo. It was utterly rank and I’m not sure my insides will ever be the same again.

As I was going through the ticket checker machine thingy at the metro station a dodgy French guy behind me tried to jump in on my ticket too and got caught in the barriers for 6 or 7 seconds. Plonker.

St. Christopher’s Hostel is where I’m crashing for the next 3 nights. I like the name as St. Christopher is the patron saint of travellers, I even have a little medallion of him glued to the headset of my Vespa.

It seems alright, it’s a large scale operation and a bit more commercial than I like but the facillities are decent and it will meet my needs nicely. One thing that is a pain though is that I had to make 2 seperate bookings as the 16 bed dorm (about €20 a night) is full tonight so I’m in a 6 bed one (at €40 a night) meaning I have to check-out at around 10 in the morning and can’t check-in again until 14:00. As I’ve not been to bed before 02:00am for the last 4 or 5 nights a lie-in would be useful.

This will likely be the last hostel I stay in for quite some time. This may be an issue for me as I’ve stayed in that many now I think I’ve become instituionalised.

There’s actually an awful lot I want to see in Paris, much more than in most of the places I’ve been. I don’t really have very long though so I reckon I’ll have to settle for half of it for now.

Today’s photo is of a cool painting they had up in the subway corridor, there were lots of different ones. This one reminded me a bit of the artwork of a Radiohead record sleeve.

My hosting quandary for this site has been answered too, as my mate Dave is in the game and can sort it out gratis for me while also giving me the weighty benefit of his experience in the field. Jobs a good ‘n.

This evening we were joined by an old friend of Liz’s and her husband who are visiting for the weekend. To celebrate the occasion Liz made a cracker fish pie. Prawns, haddock and another couple of fishy related things that I can’t remember were all included. Beaut, beltin’ and all round yumtastic was the verdict. Here’s the recipe.

Grub was followed up with plenty of beer and wine, a bit of whiskey and some shockingly poor games of Jenga, Trivial Pursuit and The Game of Knowledge, ‘the entertaining trivia game for children’.

So tomorrow I’ll be heading to my final destination of this trip, Paris. This blog may well begin to resemble a travel one once more.

The photo is of a war monument in Tiraspol, Transinistra.

Hopefully the new STBB banner at the top of the site has caught your eye and if not, why not? Nimrod’s significantly better other half Liz, very kindly helped me create it. When I say helped I mean she pretty much done it by instructing my every click in the overwhelmingly powerful Adobe Photoshop. Check out her site as she is an excellent illustrator too.

Chip and Camembert tortillas with salad and sweet-chilli sauce was for tea, lovely. Erm, then for a change we watched ‘Celebrity Come Dine With Me’, that pap is seriously addictive and funny.

The photo is off some street art I liked in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. There was quite a lot of it knocking about.

My train ticket to Paris for Saturday has been booked and printed out. €30 on the TGV which takes about 3 hours. Luckily there is some sort of promotion on at the moment or I’d have been paying twice that.

Me and Nimrod made pizzas from scratch for pre-pub evening grub. A cheesy meat-feast with scandalously hot peppers was my effort, yumarama. Then it was off to the said pub (Ellis Park) which Nimrod’s mate happens to own, it’s quite handy having a mate who owns a pub. The obligatory girafe à bière was of course had, 2 of them actually as a French doctor was helping us sup them.

Today’s photo is of the River Nervion in Bilbao.

The photo is from Zaragoza.

So the entries until I depart for Paris on Saturday may (will) be somewhat more banal and mundane than usual, the silver lining they will also be much shorter.

When I get over to New Zealand (and beyond) there will be a much larger gap between posts (1 or 2 a week maybe) when stationed in one place and then when I’m on the move I”ll revert to the one a day plan that has served me since the beginning of April.

Today I’ve printed off my NZ visa, researched netbooks (this is looking likely), ate homemade chocolate and beetroot cake for lunch and homemade meatballs with spaghetti for tea, drank a little wine and beer and watched ‘Come Dine With Me’ on the Channel 4 on demand web channel. It’s been all go really.

The photo is from somewhere between Madrid and Bilbao. Stop by this time tomorrow folks for another exciting entry of STBB.

This new ‘gîte’ I’m crashing at is pretty good. Excellent character, security, location, facillities etc. I’m not to sure about the staff though, especially the shifty looking one who is like a cross between Fred Elliott and Gareth Gates.

It’s been nice to see Liz again and little baby Olive, the most inquisitive tiny character I’ve ever seen.

Roast pork with rosemary and potatoes, cauliflower cheese, broccoli and gravy was for tea. Yum. Followed by a bit of vanilla and chocolate ice cream later. I could get use to this.

So it’s obviously been a pretty uneventful day of just lazing about today. Probably more of the same to follow tomorrow.

The first half was all pretty standard stuff and then begun the 2nd half, oh dear. As I’d not seen Nimrod in nearly a year he kept distracting me with involved conversation, then when I was glancing up at the screen it looked like Adebayor had nicked a goal so I shouted “Yeah, get in!!!” only to realise seconds later that it was actually Skrtel behind Adebayor who had put Liverpool ahead. I then sunk to my seat in utter shame much to the amusement of Nimrod. This was all worsened by the fact that I was wearing a City shirt and the pub had plenty of City and Liverpool fans in it. Slightly embarrassing eh. The only sort of defence I’ve got is that the game had only just kicked off again pretty much (accounting for them shooting the opposite direction), there had been 6 minutes injury times in the previous half (meaning, erm, I don’t know what), I was utterly distracted and finally I was very fatigued from 7 months of travelling. Actually I don’t have any defense at all. 2-2 was the final result.

After that we nipped back to the hostel to freshen up before going back out on the lash and to the Bordeaux vs Valenciennes game.

€12 was the price for the game, how good is that. Unfortunately it was a very bobbins game though and Bordeaux went down 0-1. The great bit though was that you can drink in your seat, how good is that.

Then we went to another host of bars before having the best meal I’ve had on this trip. I forgot to take the name of the joint (that might have been down to the amount of bars we visited before). €20 for frog legs (taste like chicken, quite nice actually) with salad, steak (beaut) with fries and finally creme brulée (delicious) for desert. It was an ace looking place too. The only thing not ace about it was the very rude and mincey French waiter.

After another bar or 2 we could only find one club knocking about and it was awful but at that time of night awful is better than nothing. We got the impression we were being charged more to get in once they realised we were English which is quite funny.

We turned it at around 05:00am.

My good pal Steven dropped me a text while I was feasting, offering me a free ticket for Spurs away in mid December, accommodation included too I think. That’s purely belter as I want to get to as many City matches as possible when I’m back as it could be 2 years before I see them again. We could be the new ‘World’s Greatest Team TM’ by then.

I had my first decent lie-in ages this morning, magic.

Having scanned my rough guide and ripped a map out the back of a magazine in the hostel, there looks to be quite a lot worth seeing in San Sebastian. Ideally I’d have another day but this is another spot that would make for an ace inclusion on the itinerary of a summer scootering trip.

This morning the first thing I need to do though is sort out my transport to Bordeaux. I want to try and get there in time to make the Liverpool vs City match at 13:45 but that will be tough. A quick scan of the German rail site suggests it would involve a train at around 6 in the morning, ouch. I’ll get down the station and check it all out shortly.

It took ages to figure out the train thing as I had to go to 2 different stations and I checked several websites in umpteen languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Basque). There was various contrasting information but the best bet looks to be the 09:15 to Hendaye just across the border and then from there I’ll pickup the TGV direct to Bordeaux getting in at about quarter to 1, an hour before KO, champion.

So by the time I got out properly it was already dark and the things I wanted to see would be better for the daytime. I just walked around for a couple of hours, it looks a pretty cool place. I’m looking forward to returning one day.

Then I went back to the hostel and picked up a couple of 1 litre bottles of Keler 18 and spent most of the night with a very smart New Yorker who was teaching me the finer point of poker. Such a simple game on the surface but exceptionally complex underneath.

I had a later than intended one last night, there’s a Dutch guy who works here who I was having a few drinks with. A very clever and interesting bloke though also quite weird. He is either a compulsive liar or has had a Forrest Gump/Benjamin Button style life in his short 23 years on this rock. I’m not sure which it is.

The weather is great here today, it’s in the mid 20s. So it will make for a good day of wandering about.

The first place I went to was the San Mamés Stadium. They do a tour but once again I had more or less hit siesta time. I saw the outside at least and I’ll see how I’m doing for time later and maybe take a proper look then, I’m not really that bothered though if I have to leave it.

The main bus station is right next to the ground so I had a look at the bus times to San Sebastian. Pretty much every half hour, so that’s nice and easy.

While walking down the main shopping street on my way to the Guggenheim I nipped into the Lacoste shop as I always do. I don’t know why I bother as even though they have some mega threads, their stuff is so expensive. I saw a nice jacket. €310. I didn’t have to mull that one over for too long.

As much as I like Spain, it will be a bit of a relief to get into France as I’ve found it pretty difficult trying to order food, very difficult at times in fact. Before my next visit a crash course in Spanish might be in order.

The Guggenheim was good. It cost me €11 to get in though if I was 26 rather than 27 my student card would have got me in for €6.50. Doh.

There isn’t actually that much in there, I managed to get s decent look at eveything in 2 hours. Some of the stuff seems very pretentious to me. Mainly some of the video installations on the ground floor, ‘Zidane’ being a good example.

I really enjoyed the massive exhibition of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. I’m hardly very well up on architecture but I could appreciate how amazing some of his designs are, about half of which were actually realised.

I liked the abstract and surrealism stuff too, that sort of thing appeals to me. The works they have by Kandinsky and Gottlieb is particularly good.

The building itself is also very impressive. If you’re in Bilbao and you don’t intend to go inside the Guggenheim, you should at least take a walk down the river to it just to see the exterior.

Crikey it’s a strange bus infrastructure in Basque country. I got to the bus station at about 18:15 with the intention of getting the 18:30. I then bought a ticket from the automated machine for €7, all hunky dory so far. When at 18:35 my bus still hadn’t turned up at platform 2, 3 or 4 (as the screen stated) I was a touch concerned and begun to check the destinations on the other buses nearby and show my ticket to the drivers just in case. It was lucky I did as with the 2nd one I tried it was my bus apparently, even though it had Santander (which is in the opposite direction) as the destination and was parked at platform 8. Barmy these Basque lot.

The hostel (Olga’s Place) is okay, nothing special, but it will do for a few nights. It’s located on Zabaleta Street strangely enough.

There’s nothing on the agenda for tonight, just get some grub then take it easy. Over.

PS One last thing, as I type this on the PC at the hostel I’m being forced to listen to a conversation between the most boring couple you could possibly imagine, as dull as it gets. I’m not sure I want to go to New Zealand anymore.

I’m off to the launderette now, clad in a bit of a strange outfit that I don’t really have much choice about. Converse trainers, no socks, short jeans, t-shirt and erm, no gruds. In November too. Though the weather is quite nice today.

Grrr, the bloody Spanish and their ‘little lie downs’. The gaff doesn’t re-open until half 4, I’ve been traipsing around Bilbao with a stinkin’ smeggy fast drying (it seems to have lost that quality now, I think it needs slinging) towel over my arm for nowt.

So by the time I’ve done my washing today will have been and gone which is annoying as I had 2 or 3 things I wanted to see (San Mamés Stadium, Guggenheim Museum, etc.). I’ll just have to get a much later than intended bus to San Sebastian tomorrow so that I can actually see Bilbao.

I’ll at least have a walk up to the old town this evening to try and recover something from the day.

On the way back from my fruitless laundrette trip I paid a visit to Lidl and got myself another 6 pack of Perlenbacher a 100g bar of white chocolate (which was gorgeous), a bottle of water and a double pack of microwavable burgers. This isn’t the tea I’d envisioned but as there’s no cooker here it will be considerably cheaper than eating out.

I’m just sneaking one of the beers in now while I wait to go back.

Reet, that was quite easy. Just under €10 is what it will cost and I’ve to go back at 7 when it should all be waiting for me. Skanky towel no more I hopes.

As I was leaving to go and pickup the washing I had a bit of a strange incident. I had just walked out the door and when I was moving out of the doorway onto the street I noticed a mobile phone ringing, it was actually in the doorway but anyone walking past would have noticed it easily and it’s a busy street too. So I took it back into the hostel to see if it was anyone’s and the staff were checking it wasn’t one of theirs when my room-mate (one of 2 in a 10 bed dorm) came over and said it was his (which it was as I recognised it then from seeing it in the room). I think he is Spanish and his English isn’t great but he’s friendly enough. Anyway he said he had put it there because there was a phone call he didn’t want to answer. Erm, okay, that makes sense. I wouldn’t try that in Manchester pal!

The old woman at the launderette was lovely and I’ve never seen my threads looking so well folded and clean. I went to pay in change but didn’t have enough so then went to give her a 20 Euro note but she just took the change anyway, even though it was at least a Euro short. It was a pain having to use a launderette, but at least it was a good one.

In other clothing related news, my brand new Mod t-shirt has somehow acquired a very large sort of red powder stain on it. I’ve no idea how it got there, I’ve barely been anywhere! On it’s maiden voyage too, like the ruddy Titanic.

By the time I got back, packed my bag, had grub etc. it was well after 9 and it looks like it’s maybe an hour walk to where I want to go on the map (and I want to walk it to). So I couldn’t be bothered. I’ll just get an even later bus tomorrow eh.

Every Spanish hostel I’ve been in so far seems to always have Manu Chao playing, which is no bad thing really but it can get a tad repetitive.

Today’s photo is actually from Madrid. Funnily enough it relates to the mustard incident referred to a few posts back.

The last few days events have caught up with me at last and I’m completely knackered so as the kids and scrotes are partial to saying these days, I’m
gonna chillax. After I’ve done my washing anyway, that’s something I sorely need to do.

I really liked Madrid, it’s up there with Berlin as my favourite city of the trip, with Napoli not far behind.

The journey actually isn’t going too bad as the bus isn’t packed and the landscape is interesting. It looks like a wild west set but then a small field of vivid green will pop up unexpectedly and then a little village with a church spire protruding much higher than the rest of the rooftops. So I’m doing this blog post (and finishing yesterday’s) while listening to some of my favourite folk tunes, I’ve certainly had worse legs of this trip.

One thing I need to achieve before I leave the lands of Spain; eat paella. I’ve not seen it about much at all, Topiary was telling me it’s actually more popular in the south which considering I’m heading for the north coast doesn’t bode overly well.

Now the scenery has changed again and we are passing through some mountain range with the clouds being ominously close to the top of the bus roof.

On the other side of the hills now and to my left is the sharpest pink sky I’ve ever seen. I wish I had a decent camera to get proper pictures.

I’m there now and the Akelarre Hostel is nice. The only problem is there are no laundry facillities and also there is no proper cooker so I’m going to have to eat out.

The laundry thing is the real ball ache though as that means I’m going to have to spend a bug chunk of tomorrow (my only proper day in Bilbao) in a laundrette. Apparently there is one somewhere in the area, it will set me back nearly a tenner though. Bugger.

The photo is of the square in Madrid with the Don Quixote statue in.

Dan – 3
James – 0
Pekka – 2
Topi – 3

Remember also that jolly Pekka and Topman arrived a day after me and Jimbo. Poor show Jimbo, poor show.

Pekka and James checked out this morning but as both of their flights weren’t until late afternoon we would have time to visit Real Madrid’s ground.

When checking my email this morning I discovered that my NZ visa has been approved, phew. Now I just need to sort a flight and do a bit of research on the IT job market over there. Work, can’t say I’m looking forward to that.

Despite 3 months stateside, today I had my first Dunkin’ Donuts experience. It will be my last, very average.

So anyway, the Santiago Bernabeu. It cost €15 which is more expensive than the San Siro one but the tour and museum is much more impressive and you spend 2 or 3 times as long there.

It was good to see things like Zidane’s Ballon d’Or and Ronaldo’s (the real one) FIFA World Player of the Year trophies as well as Kaka’s boots and di Stéfano’s shirt. The stadium itself is also very impressive. What I don’t like about the place is the atmosphere of supreme arrogance, at literally every single turn there is some sort of sign proclaiming that Real Madrid is the greatest team there is, ever was and ever will be. This may well be the case but even if it is, a little humility wouldn’t go amiss.

I think if I was a Madridite, Atletico would be my team.

After that 2 of our party got their flights and I met Topper (he didn’t go on the tour as he’d already been before) to go to a shopping district with mainly alternate sort of stuff, like the Northern Quarter (Ancoats!) in Manchester. The main street is called Fuencarral and there’s a really cool shopping centre called Mercado de Fuencarral which is very much along the lines as Affleck’s Palace.

Though I saw plenty of stuff I liked, I’m not really in a position at the moment to be buying clothes I don’t really need. I did make a modest purchase of a plain white t-shirt with a mod badge in the centre though, a bit like this. It was €20 for 1 or €30 for 2 so Topcat got one as well.

When we got back to the hostel later we were on our way out to get some grub when one of the staff mentioned that they were going to be having drinking games with free sangria shortly. For financial reasons (and the fact that we’re getting on a bit now!) we weren’t planning a big night and were just going to buy a couple of beers from the supermarket and have them in anyway, so it sounded good to us.

We had a pizza and then picked up a 6 pack from Lidl and made our way back. I knew they run a pub crawl (€10 for a few bars and then entrance to
a club) from the hostel so the freebies were likely a precursor to and enticer for this.

The drinking game was basically everyone taking turns to pick a random playing card and each value had a different rule with various consequences. It was a good laugh and as me and Topias weren’t much good at it we ended up drinking a lot more than our fair share of sangria but we provided a lot of comedy value for the other 6 or 7 random people playing while doing it.

As Topshot got the last King in the deck he’d of actually got the pub crawl for free but as we didn’t want to go anyway (nor did anyone else for that matter) it was a bit of a hollow prize. It was a decent and cheap night though.

So Bilbao tomorrow. It will be a case of a quiet (and inexpensive!) 4 days in the north of Spain before heading into France to meet Nimrod. Knowing Nimrod well, our night in Bordeaux on Saturday will be anything but quiet.

First up it was time to replenish our energy levels and tapas was on the menu again, literally obviously. I wanted a ‘touch’ of mustard but unfortuneatly got considerably more than that. The hole was clogged so I was squeezing quite hard when the whole top blew off with a loud bang and covered my plate, the bottom of my pint glass and a bit of mine and Topi’s jeans in the yellow gunk. Great.

Topster and Jimbo then went of to watch AD Alcorcón play in the Spanish third division, there is a bit of hype round them at the moment as they recently knocked Real Madrid out of the cup, so Topi is doing a story on them for work.

Me and Pekka didn’t really fancy it though so we went for a wander around the city instead. One place we took-in was the Plaza de España which I enjoyed as I got to see the famous Don Quixote (and Sancho Panza of course) statue, relevant to me as I’ve been reading that ruddy monster of a book for ages now. To be fair though, I do go weeks at a time without touching it.

We also had a look at the exterior of the Royal Palace in the and trundled through a nice park nearby that gave good vistas of Madrid.

As Topi is going to be here in Madrid for 2 more nights (because of the story he is doing) I’m staying an extra one as well now. I’m only really going to Bilbao and San Sebastian as that’s the general direction I need to head it so I’d rather have one more night here and only 2 in Bilbao. I’ve made the necessary hostel amendments without issue.

While walking around earlier I’d spotted a few curry houses that looked okay close by. It was a good call as the meal was spot on and up to scratch with what you’d get back home. Yumbo yumertons.

We were then all that knackered that we just had a couple of cheeky pints and made our way back to the hostel.

Sleep. Good.

We were discussing what to do with the day/evening and we fancied maybe watching the Republic of Ireland vs France World Cup qualifier somewhere. Then Topi realised that the Spain vs Argentina friendly was on at the Vicente Calderón Stadium so we thought we’d have a go at getting tickets for that and made our way down there.

There were plenty of touts knocking about and we managed to get 4 seats together off one for €35 each, that was as low as I could get him after his initial price was €40. It wasn’t too bad when they were €20 face, especially considering we would get to watch the likes of Iniesta, Messi, Villa and Aguero and the cheapest tickets they had left in the official office were €55.

The stadium is a little bit dishevelled but it has plenty of character and we had a really good view, it was fun soaking up the carnival like atmosphere.

The game itself wasn’t a classic but Spain showed glimpses of what a brilliant side they are, without doubt the best national team in the world for my money. It’s scary how comfortable on the ball they are and how easily they move it about, they were good value for their 2-1 win. Messi didn’t do much for the Argies but I got to see him score (from the spot) which considering he is the best player on the planet, feels like an acheivement. It was also good to see Tevez come on, though he didn’t get a kick, which isn’t suprising with players like Iniesta (who was awesome all night) on the opposing side.

After the game we went out in the Malasaña district of Madrid which has loads of cool bars playing music we like, The Clash and The Decemberists for instance. We met a few English folks who live in Madrid in one bar and went back to their gaff for an impromptu party. The handy thing is, in Madrid you get loads of people (mainly Chinese) selling cans of beer on the streets at cheap prices so that made things easy.

It was a very very late night and I don’t think we got back until about half 8 in the morning, still we all had a good time though. I like Madrid.

I was mid-way through an epic solo in ‘Debaser’ by Pixies on Rock Band (seriously the best iPhone game I’ve played by a mile) when the chair in front of me come flying back at supernatural speed nearly taking my nose clean off in the process (thank Moses for my ‘Matrix’ like reactions). So now I was left with leg-room your average Baggins would struggle with just so the geezer could lie back a bit.

I never recline when someone is behind me, it just seems so rude. I’m very close to placing my left hand flat on the top of this guy’s bonce and smacking down hard with my right hand as my Dad used to do to me as a kid but as I now do to him as I’m the one in possession of the height advantage these days.

Actually my subtle and occasional sharp knees into the back of the chair appear to have had the desired effect as the seat is now back at the angle it should be at. Victory.

As you may have gathered I’m on the bus to the heart of Spain and the nation’s capital, Madrid. A few hours after I arrive so will rainman (aka Jimbo Tierney). Then tomorrow the Finnish are arriving, Topster and Peckster.

Motherducker, he’s done it again. Grrrr. Breath, breath. His scalp is now that close to my eyes that I know what shampoo he uses. Stupid bloody reclining seats, I bet it was the French who came up with ‘em. Bloody French.

Right, I’m in Madrid and at now at Las Musas Residence. Seems decent enough.

The Canadian bloke on the PC next to me is eating an entire jar of peanut butter with a spoon. It’s just occurred to me that I haven’t had that pleasure in over 6 months and I used to do it at least once a week. I shall have to correct this sometime soon.

For tea I had sausage, eggs and chips which was worse than the stuff you’d get at one of the greasey spoons on the aprroach to Piccadilly train station in Manchester. I should have gone for the cannelloni like Jimbo.

Then we were straight out on the bars. One that I remember being good was La Tabernita de San Juan where we had nice ice cold pints of Mahou.

While in one bar a clip of goals by the very highly rated (so I’ve read and heard in the channels I monitor) Bordeaux and France player Yoann Gourcuff. Check out this one for instance. Corr blimey, I can’t wait for the Bordeaux vs Valenciennes Ligue1 game I’m going to see next Saturday with my good pal Nimrod. The new Zidane is an over used term for many up and coming French players, but the touches this fella shows look worthy.

I’d be a right fatty if I lived in Spain. Part of the bar and tapas culture is that you either get given nuts, crisps or whatever with every flamin’ pint. Sometimes they give you proper little snacks too, like mini pasties and stuff. Very nice but us Brits tend to drink more than our Spanish friends so as a consequence you end up eating a lot more too.

We were back in at about 3 in the morning to save ourselves for the following night. My first impressions of Madrid were good.

After a bit more lazing about I done a fair bit of walking this afternoon. The highlight was a visit in the Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar. I suppose it is no more impressive (that’s not to say that it isn’t impressive) than many of the other Cathedrals I’ve seen on this trip but this one affected me in the same manner that the one in Napoli did. I think the difference is the lack of tourists. The overall grandeur, power and atmosphere resonates much more in such buildings without a huge Japanese tour group clicking away at anything and everything. I’m obviously a tourist myself so that sounds hypocritical and I suppose it is, it doesn’t make it any less true though.

The pattern on the exterior of the Cathedral turrets remind me very much of the Brazil flag, here is the best example I can find for you to judge for yourselves.

I’m absolutely dying to watch a decent film now, when I get back in Blighty in December there will be a full on cinematic blitz on the go in the Bowen household. To ease my cravings I found the street in Zaragoza’s city centre that I thought most likely to have a cinema on it and proceeded to walk down it, my instincts proved correct as within a quarter mile I’d found one.

‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ was the only thing that I remotely fancied. I queued up for a ticket and then enquired if the film was dubbed or with subtitles, dubbed! Philistines! Just like the French and the Italians! I don’t understand why anyone would want to watch a film in that capacity, it completely ruins it. I thought we were supposed to be the uncultured ones.

I once bought a cheap copy of the ‘The Seventh Seal’ not realising it was dubbed, some dodgy American accent not remotely in sync with lip movement of the Swedish dialogue kind of spoilt the mood just a tab. Just say no!

Anyway, as much as I’m curious to see Heath Ledger’s last film, it was propably a lucky escape. I’m not that big a fan, ‘Brazil’ never done it for me and I think ‘Twelve Monkeys’ is overrated.

I had a €5 spaghetti carbonara at a little joint on the same street as the hostel called El Papeo. It was standard fare really but nice enough.

The authentic Tapas experience I’m after can wait until Madrid where I will have mates to share the embarassment of making a complete pig’s ear of the order (though you can probably actually order pig’s ears). I’ve been tempted a few times but not that many people seem to speak English so I never know how much anything is and it’s bad hobo style to just point and order without knowing the price of stuff, that path leads to early flights home. My mate Topi used to go out with a Spanish girl so he must know the score, I hereby appoint him the ‘Tapas Sheriff’ for the Madrid trip.

Dr. Dog (who I first discovered earlier in the year when I saw them at a free festival in Brooklyn) have been providing my musical enjoyment today. Specifically the 2006 EP ‘Takers and Leavers’ and their 3rd full lentgh album from 2005, ‘Easy Beat’. The mood, style and tone are all pretty similar in both and though from what I’ve read they see to be have been received pretty poorly in the music press, I like them. The Beatles influence is obvious but there’s more to it than that, it’s just good time rock ‘n roll with a bit of Americana and psychedelia mixed in for good measure. For my money they do the Ben Folds Five thing better than Ben Folds Five themselves. I’ve another 2 albums of theirs to listen to and I will do so with relish.

Oh yes, I discovered that the large group of Germans I suspected of being some sort of youth group are actually an amateur theatre group here to learn Spanish. The way they seem to learn Spanish is by hanging about the hostel all day acting like tools while talking in German to each other. I’ve met some very slick Germans in my time, but I have to say that no one does uncool and gimpy quite like the folks from the Deutsche-Land.

Search of the day: ‘jewish boy eating a sausage’. Come one Google, what’s that about!?!

The photo is of the Cathedral which I took from a bridge overlooking the River Ebro.

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I bought Rock Band on the iPhone earlier as it was on sale for 4 notes. It’s the most complete game I’ve played on the platform so far, a very polished console like experience. The iPhone makes a suprisingly good ‘axe’.

Today has been another washout really, I’m still knackered from the journey to get here and I think 3 months in one go on your own is enough travelling when it’s not semi-permanent (i.e. stopping at destinations for a couple of weeks or so). I’m all sight-see’d out. Also with the time of year, the hostels aren’t very busy so it’s a bit boring.

Still the next final few weeks should be good as I’m meeting mates in different places so it will be much more fun. I’m looking forward to my next destination, Madrid.

I will lull myself back into happy chappy mode and actually see Zaragoza properly tomorrow though as it’s a bit daft to come here and not. Nothing has really caught my imagination in the literature I’ve read about the city so it will just be a case of wandering about and seeing what happens.

I’ll have a little wander into town tonight too and see if I can find decent tapas or something. I like Spanish grub.

Wellington flight hunting isn’t going too well, they’re all so expensive. I might just build a raft. I think I’ve paid the 120 NZ$ for my working visa (though the status hasn’t updated to paid yet) though, I’m not sure what happens now.

While wandering around looking for scran tonight I was listening to the latest Doves album, ‘Kingdom of Rust’. I’ve listened to it twice now and am in the process of listening to it a third time round as I compose this, I’m liking it more with each airing. It’s very much a quintessenitial Doves album and as busy musically as their output always is. It probably doesn’t have the stand out singles of previous albuma but when taken as a whole, it might just be their strongest full length yet for me. Quite something when you consider their previous 3 efforts.

It didn’t work out on the food front. I really fancied seafood paella but I couldn’t find anywhere that I could make it out on the menu. I gave up in the end after a few failed efforts at trying to figure out if places were still serving food or not, I wish I could speak a bit of Spanish. I had pasta back at the hostel that I was going to have tomorrow night, so I’ll just have another bash at trying to get some genuine Spanish cusine then instead.

With regards to the photo; what it doesn’t mention is the fact that the pathetic measure you get is something a borrower would turn his snout up at.

The hostel is okay, the massive building has bags of character and the facillities are good. The people staying here are a bit odd though. Lot’s of funny looking young Germans sporting a variety of horrific styles and odd behaviour. I think they’re some sort of youth group, though some of them seem quite old for that. It’s like Byker Grove gone wrong, they’re freaking me out a bit.

After I checked in I was told my room wouldn’t be ready for a few hours so I went down the supermarket for supplies. It took me ages, the layout was barmy. Pasta on one aisle and then the pasta sauces on a complete different wing. You think you might get apple juice near the soft drinks section, nope, you have to navigate the toiletries, pets, dairy and meat sections first. There were many more examples of rudimentary supermarket planning practises ignored. Bloody Spanish.

There was also some bloke shoplifting away blatantly in front of me, 2 paella ready meals down the front of his jacket without a care in the world. Bloody Spanish.

I think the lack of sleep is making me cranky (ier than usual), I have been up for around 35 hours though now (unless you count a couple of 20 minute power naps on the bus).

I’m relieved though as I’m here for 3 nights so I can afford to take my time a bit. I don’t plan on doing anything but carrying on with my New Zealand visa and flight scouting tonight, then some much needed shuteye.

One thing I don’t need to sort anymore now is hostels, I booked ahead for them all while in Milan as most of the places I am visiting now only have 1 or 2 hostels that have dorms and if they fill up that spells problems for me. The only one I haven’t booked yet is Paris as there’s plenty there, though for some reason several people had previously told me there’s none in Paris. Wrong they were.

I’m likely to leave visiting Normandy on this trip now, I’d pretty much need to hire a car to visit the D-Day beaches properly which is an expense I could do without at this point. I’ll see though, but at worst it’s marked down for a scooter trip for a later date.

Some heavy duty Zaragoza exploring is in store for tomorrow, what I’ve seen so far is extremely unimpressive, but that was just on the half hour walk from the station through estates full of hightower blocks. I expect everything the other side of the hostel to be very different.

PS I actually didn’t get a chance to do any NZ stuff or sort out my bus or train ticket for Madrid. I’m not really sure where the day has gone, I think I’ve just zombied my way through it at a terribly slow pace. As it’s half 12 and I’m closing in on having been up for close to 40 hours, I think it’s time to finish my Ambar beer and go to bed. It won’t take me long to finish it though as the measure at the hostel bar is 0,2l. That’s not even half a pint, on that bombshell I’ll say TTFN.

I got my ticket for Zaragoza okay, €65 though, ouch. I ordered it in French and confirmed what time it left and got in at and if it was direct. But it’s never like in the text books, she was rattling on about all sorts and I wasn’t getting it all so I had to ask her if she spoke English as I didn’t fancy missing crucial information just to improve my French. Anyway, I have to check-in at least half an hour before it departs, which is crucial information as I often board seconds before they depart.

She said I can leave my bag there for the day which is handy as it will save me €4 and mean I can get the bus to Monaco, which at 40 minutes takes twice the time as the train but is more scenic and another €4 cheaper for the round trip. I need to make sure I’m back by 16:00 to pick it up though.

Crikey, there is some money knocking about here. I’ve been walking up and down the marina trying to figure out which boat I’m going to get when I get home. This was my number one choice but due to space considerations on the Stretford passage of the Bridgewater canal I’ve opted for this instead.

For lunch I ate at a place called Le Botticelli. €9.50 for moules marinières avec frites, not bad at all considering where I was. It does however mean a baguette for tea.

If I’d have had more time I’d have got the boat over from Monte Carlo to Monaco Ville to have a good look round but as it was I only had a bit under 2 hours, which was enough to at least get a feel for the place.

I was a little bit worried when getting back from Monaco as the bus stop that I thought was on the correct road didn’t have my bus number (100) listed and the station name didn’t appear on the Nice to Monaco bus leaflet I had either. There wasn’t any margin for error or else I would likely find my bag impounded for the night and me up little brown river.

I was quited pleased that I managed to ask the driver of a different bus “Excusez-moi, le linge cent pour Nice, c’est arret ici?”. I’m sure there’s plenty of errors in there but it was good enough to get the info I needed which is the important thing, 2 minutes later and I was on the bus.

My long haul bus journey preparation hasn’t gone very well. I’m dying for a waz as the bus station toilets are out of order and my supplies are not what I’d hoped for. I’d planned on getting a ’4 cheese’ baguette that I saw last night but I couldn’t find the place again and didn’t really have time to. Then it was too late to find anything else so all I have is a large bottle of water, which I can’t really drink because as I just stated, I’m dying for a waz. Also, because of yesterday’s dog dung incident, I’ve no pen to mark out stuff I want to see in Spain in my rough guide.

It’s going to be a long 18 hours, I hope the first stop is soon and is at a well stocked outpost.

One thing I meant to say is that I was probably a bit harsh on Nice yesterday, after going through different parts on the bus today and then rushing around looking for grub at a different time of day, it actually looks fairly interesting. The Côte d’Azur will make a good scooter trip at some point in the future.

Phew, pee had.

Phew, food had. Well, a bag of crisps anyway.

We just passed through Marseille, it looks a pretty lively city. Am I right in thinking it’s where ‘The French Connection II’ was set? One Google search later and it seems I am.

Later, we also stopped at Barcelona. It seems daft going through a city like that and not staying for a night or 2, but I’m short of time now and I’ve been twice before anyway. It’s always a cheap flight away in the future though.

On the bus I listened to the Super Furry Animal’s latest 2 albums via Spotify. Now I’m very reluctant to critisice this band as I love their entire back catalogue (well maybe not ‘Guerilla’), they’ve been putting out great stuff for years. But these latest 2 (2007′s ‘Hey Venus!’ and this year’s ‘Dark Days/Light Years’), while still full of ideas as ever, they just don’t have the tunes for me. A shame. This is only IMHO mind, the reviews in the media have been good for both. I’ll still be very interested in what comes next, I can’t write a band as inventive as that off.

Right I’m finally in Zaragoza. It was a pretty horrible journey really as it was such a busy route the bus was forever stopping and the lights coming on, also all the seats were taken so it was very cramped. 9 hours in and my back knew about it, it was a very sore and uncomfortable 2nd half of the ride. That’s the last monster leg of the journey I have to do now though I think, it should be relatively straight-forward from here on in (hopefully!).

I’ll have a quick look at the train and bus tickets while I’m in the depot and then it’s off to the hostel to collapse.

Anyway he didn’t use a headset so I could here it all, though oddly him and the other guy didn’t speak to each other that much but typed messages while being able to see each other on video.

The really funny bit though was that the guy he was speaking (of sorts) to had some loud cheesy pop ballads in English playing and was singing along to them happily. It was most difficult not to waz myself laughing.

My plan for today is to SSS and then head into town to see if I can sort my bus ticket to Zaragoza for tomorrow night. It’s an 18 hour journey, gulp. Then I’ll check if there’s somewhere I can store my bag tomorrow day in the station as I think I might do a little day trip to Monaco, it’s only a half hour away. After that I’ll have a butchers round Nice and maybe take in the Chelsea vs Rags match. I’ve got 3 Chelsea in my fantasy team you see.

To get a feel for the city I walked the hour or so to the bus station (via the train station). The feeling I got was dog crap, right under my left Converse Allstar. I spent the next half hour scrubbing and digging canine doodoo out of crevices with a pen I’ve had since Lake Ohrid. Not a pleasant task.

After that I was very much on the lookout to prevent a repeat occurrence. I must have dodged twenty turds, it was everywhere. Bloody French.

I discovered lockers at the station are €4 so if I go to Monaco for a few hours tomorrow morning that will do for my bag, it will be easier than having to go all the way back to the hostel. I also discovered that the ticket office at the bus station must shut pretty early on Sunday. Bloody French.

So the first thing I will do in the morning is get a tram back down to the station and get the ticket straight away. I’m a bit anxious as I’ve only checked on a website all in French, that the bus I think I’m getting actually exists. If it doesn’t the butterfly effect won’t be pretty.

I’m just watching the match now in Mc Mahon’s Irish bar, after that I’ll go and have a proper look round the old town and on the main promenade.

Erm, well, I suppose nice is okay. I didn’t feel obliged to walk around for very long though. Maybe it’s better in the summer.

I finished ‘The Road’ a little over 24 hours after starting it. It’s a proper page turner but quite depressing really. I reckon the film will be really good, I think John Hillcoat is an excellent choice as director as the stark no nonsense style of ‘The Proposition’ is just what’s needed.

As I edit this I’m just in the process of applying for my New Zealand working visa. Then it will be time to start looking for flights, if anyone know’s of budget one to those parts from the UK then please get in touch.

A special prize is on offer today readers, the author of the first comment to be added to this post will find themselves receiving a lovely genuine Macedonian pen. This is a straight up offer, no $hit.

The pic is from, well, you probably know where it’s from. No nice pictures taken today you see.

I had planned to get it yesterday but didn’t get a chance and as it’s an international journey I can’t use the ticket machines that I’ve become a dab hand at. So that means I need to wait in a queue (which are usually rather hefty).

As I knew I didn’t have time I just mooched back to the hostel to hang out there while waiting for the 15:10 train.

The worst bit is though that I’d sourced a bar in Nice that is showing the City vs Burnley game, now I’ll get there much too late for it. Boo.

France will bring me up to country number 26, the bad news is there will be no completely new countries for me now that I’m not going to Andorra or Portugal. Boo.

I made the 15:10 without issue. €30, not too bad for a 5 hours journey.

‘To Lose My Life’ by White Lies starts with a good opening track and then goes downhill rapidly, very dull stuff.

My mate Jimbo is texting me the City score, it’s now nearly half time and we are 2-0 down. I’m glad I got the late train. Unless there is a magnificent 2nd half comeback it will be a disastrous result. As I type SWP has just pulled one back.

It finished 3 a piece in the end apparently. Not quite disastrous but certainly not very bloody good.

While on the train some crazy Italian fella who was with his wife and daughter was grilling me indirectly via a Russian girl who speaks Italian and English. He was asking banal questions like “Have you ever had lasagna?”, “What do you like and dislike about Italy?” and “What do people drink in England?”. He was driving the poor girl mad.

The Villa Sant Exupery is where I’m staying in Nice. My first impressions are very good, a nice big bar with loads of free internet terminals and cans of Ottweiler Pils at €1. Goodo.

Actually it’s just occurred to me that I will likely go to Monaco at some point tomorrow, that counts as a new country. Whoo!

The pic is of the pet reptile thingy at the hostel in Milan, a right vicious little bugger when worms are dropped in he is.

When I awoke this morning it transpired that my drinking buddy had barfed in the bidet during the night. His story was that he woke up in the early hours and was that dying for a waz that it made him physically sick, an unlikely tale if you ask me and the hostel staff weren’t buying it either.

I was going to go to Lake Como today but the weather is pretty grim and to be honest I’m quite happy to just have a really lazy day in the hostel for once. I know I’m going to have a pretty hectic week coming up so it will be nice to relax.

I plan to nip out for some supplies later and I’ll do the hour round trip walk to the station to get my ticket to Nice so I don’t have to rush in the morning, but that’ll be it I think.

I’ll finally have a proper opportunity to figure out my ruddy route to Madrid and back to France from there too, that will be a relief.

Ryland (the Canadian barfer) gave me ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy (who wrote ‘No Country For Old Men’) earlier. I’d already heard of it as it’s had a lot of press and I think there is a film adaptation to be released shortly. I like the post apocalypse survival sort of stuff and it looks an easy and short read so I’ll give it a go along side the mammoth ‘Don Quixote’. It will be nice to read a book in the traditional way for a change.

I’ve just booked a flight from Paris to Manchester on December 1st with FlyBe, not too bad at about 60 quid. I can’t wait to see The Citizens in action properly again. Oh yes, it will be alright to see family and friends aswell.

What is making it really difficult to work out my route is lack of hostels, or at least ones with dorms. I keep coming up with a path that works time and transport wise but then have to start again because of lack of suitable budget accommodation. It would be okay if I wasn’t by myself as there is usually somewhere with cheap private rooms for 2-4 people, but obviously I’d have to pay the lot myself as it stands which brings the cost up to hotel prices. Grrr.

I’ve had to cut Andorra out altogether (man, that was a whole new country!) and Marseille, Montpellier, Carcassone, Perpignan, Toulouse, Valencia, Seville, Biarritz were all being considered as destinations but are not feasible for one reason or another.

Anyway, after a full day and evening’s toil, here is my latest route:

Sat 7 – Nice
Sun 8 – Nice (Monaco)
Mon 9 – Overnight bus
Tues 10 – Zaragoza
Wed 11 – Zaragoza
Thurs 12 – Zaragosa
Fri 13 – Madrid
Sat 14 – Madrid
Sun 15 – Madrid
Mon 16 – Bilbao
Tues 17 – Bilbao
Wed 18 – Bilbao
Thurs 19 – San Sebastian
Fri 20 – San Sebastian
Sat 21 – Bordeaux
Sun 22 – St. Jean D’Angely
Mon 23 – St. Jean D’Angely
Tues 24 – St. Jean D’Angely
Wed 25 – St. Jean D’Angely
Thurs 26 – St. Jean D’Angely
Fri 27 – Paris
Sat 28 – Paris
Sun 29 – Paris
Mon 30 – Paris

I will hopefully be able to have less days in St. Jean D’Angely and Paris and fit Normandy inbetween, it just depends if I can find somewhere cheap to stay really.

Me and Craig (the Aussie bloke who works here) had a pizza for tea. I’ve had quite a few diavolas on this trip but this was my first super diavola. I’m not really sure what the difference is though, the only thing I noticed on the ingredients list that was extra was some mysterious element known as ‘zola’.

We then got some beers in at the hostel again and there was also a load of different shots and vodkas on the go as previous guests had left various stuff in the freezer. These shots (such as this one) would prove to be a mistake as when we went to the pub for a last couple of pints I felt completely ill during the 2nd one and had to leave it and do a bunk. Larry lightweight eh.

Another tie on the search front today; ‘New England buggering’ and ‘David Ginola bulge’. Oho err missus eh.

I’ve now booked 2 nights in Nice instead of the 3 I’d originally planned. I may well book an extra one but it just depends on the what I figure out route wise. I’m looking forward to a rest from the constant planning when I get home!

Now I’m waiting for a tram into the city centre where I will get a connecting one to the San Siro. I should be able to see the joint AC/Inter Milan museum at least but I’m hoping to get on the stadium tour as well.

There’s a fella from Perth working at the hostel who is an interesting guy and looks like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. He’s done 14,000 miles in a battered old Leyland van and had plenty of adventures along the way.

There’s also another strange bloke who does the cleaning. He walks round like a druid with his head permanently facing the floor. Even when cooking or using the laptop (which he tilts and stands over while typing). A weird one he is.

Last night I cracked my travel mirror. Now believe this if you will but the last time I broke a mirror was 7 years ago. Great eh.

I just saw a shop called ‘Fugazzi’, not the best name considering it’s selling jewellery! Donnie Brasco fans will know what I’m on about.

I did to get on the San Siro tour, €12.50 with museum access. It was okay. The museum is quite small and annoyingly you’re not allowed to take pictures and the tour basically consists of the dressing rooms and the pitch. The Nou Camp tour is much better as is the Eastlands one.

Still, it was good to have a proper look at one of the World’s great football arenas. Sitting in Paulo Maldini’s old seat in the AC dressing room was fun and I also had a little word with Jose to give him a few pointers for improving Inter’s Champions League form, I think he appreciated it.

Before I was playing around with the iConvert app and I discovered I’m 1.933084e-16 lightyears tall. Or if you prefer 0.009090909 furlongs, 1.288e+10 angstroms, 0.3636364 rods, 0.000987473 nautical miles, 1 fathom, 0.06666667 shackles, 1.8288e+09 nanometres, 2 yards. Blimey.

The Cathedral of Milan is perhaps the most impressive Duomo I’ve seen in Italy and that is saying something. The intricate detail in the huge stained glass panes is stunning. This is a must see when here, though the massive oriental tour groups are a bit of a pain.

Milan is well known as a world centre of fashion and I saw plenty of evidence to support that today. To be honest though, victim was a word that sprang to mind often.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ Fresco will not be on the menu after all. You have to book a month in advance for a viewing! I’d already read this was the case but had hoped that with it being out of season I might be able to wangle in. Not so, as a lad from Vancouver who tried today confirmed for me.

I actually saw a Lambretta today for the first time in the trip never mind just Italy. It was well ahead of me so I didn’t get the model but it was in immaculate condition with a gloss blue/silver paint job. Lovely stuff.

Back at the hostel now but I’ll save my further route planning for the morning, really can’t be arsed at the moment.

I fancied going to see a flick but after checking the listings they’re all dubbed. Philistines! Just say no (to dubbing).

So now I’m drinking a large bottle of Birra Moretti and it’s going down well. The bloke from Perth is a dab hand in the kitchen and is making a big vat of pasta with more ingredients than you can shake a big wooden spoon at, jobs a good’ n. After the grub there is the lad in my room from Vancouver who fancies checking out the local so I’ll have a little mooch with him.

The head-down fella came into the kitchen while we were having a drink. He seriously will not lift his head above a 90 degree angle, he had a glass of juice but used a straw just to avoid raising his swede. Craig (the Perth lad) shares a large room with him and says he even sleeps like that. It’s actually quite sad as it must be a mental thing, but even if that were to be sorted his posture would probably be a permanent mess by now.

TTFN.

There are two things I want to try and do in Milan. One is to see the San Siro and the other is to get out to Lake Como, which is where George Clooney lives (a lot of the time). Now I’m not just going to see George, don’t get me wrong we get on well enough, I just figure if he lives there it will be a nice place.

Oh, there’s also some ‘last bit of grub’ fresco by a bloke named Leo that’s supposed to be worth a look. I’ll keep an eye out for that.

On the train I’ve had a listen to Kid Adrift’s ‘L.E.D. Illusions’ EP. There’s a bit of Alaska in Winter going on in the background with angst-ridden vocals and electronica over the top. I’ll be curious to see if he comes up with more ideas for a full album as although I like all 3 songs here, they are all very similar and the vocal style certainly wears a bit thin very quickly.

When I got into Milan it was time for a late lunch. I saw a sign advertising curry for the first time in quite a while, it was only a fast food place and not a proper Indian but I was in the mood for a Ruby so went with it anyway. It was okay considering it wasn’t a real curry house but the first thing I’ll be doing when back in Manchester is nipping down The Moon (number 4) in Withington for a mixed grill karahi (that’s not curry with a Brummy accent by the way). Umm, I can taste it already.

The hostel I’m in is alright. It’s pretty quiet as it’s out of season but there’s a kitchen and brekkie is included so that will save me a few quid. The Wi-Fi is decent for a change too.

Tonight I need to get to grips with my rough guide and do some research on Google. I have to confirm my route so that I can make sure I’m in Madrid come the 13th to meet some mates. I’m thinking I might give Turin a miss too and go straight to France. I’ll see though.

Eliminate Pro has provided an hour or so entertainment for me today. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch get hold of it (it’s free) and then add me (devo-mcduff) so I can blast you to pieces online, a nice little Doom style shooter.

No chance for a Milan photo yet so this one is all the way back from Kotor in Montenegro.

Ruddy starving I am, but I won’t be eating until 15:47. 1 minute after my train gets into Verona.

I didn’t sleep very well last night so I was in a bit of a go slow mode this morning and I had a bit of stuff to sort out too. So consequently I didn’t leave until 13:25 and then when I got to the train station the next one was in a few minutes so no time for some nosebag.

I think I might have pizza for a change, ahem.

I did just that too and it was one of the finest I’d ever had. If you find yourself in Verona, drop by the Primavera Cafe. I knew it was a good sign that it shares it’s name with a particularly nice Vespa model (the one pictured below that I saw earlier actually). It means ‘Spring’ in Italian, as in the season.

Verona didn’t really do that much for me, it’s a nice enough looking place but it didn’t really warrant the trip. I had a look in the ampitheatre and I’m sure it makes a great atmospheric venue for the modern theatre productions it now hosts, but as a tourist there’s not really any reason to spend more than 5 or 10 minutes in the interior. The other thing I was going to have a look at was the famous Romeo and Juilet balcony but I didn’t know where’s it was, diddums. Can’t say I’m that fussed.

To be fair to the city, I may have missed other things worth seeing as I didn’t have a map so it was just a case of stumbling around.

When I get back to Venice I might go on one of the ferry boat things just for the experience. At €6.50 it’s a touch cheaper than the €100 or so for a gondala. It’s also a considerably easier way of getting about than on foot, the narrow Venezian streets together basically add up to one very large maze.

I’ve got my train ticket to Milan sorted for tomorrow morning as well as the hostel booked, all tickety boo.

‘Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon’ is the last Devendra Banhart album I had to get to grips with. I love it. Warm and rich songs full of inventiveness. Nice one Dev.

Actually, I can’t be bothered with the boating idea. It’s cold and I’ve still got one. I’m heading straight in for some hot pasta and a hot shower.

Christ, I don’t half get myself in some pickles train wise. I had to wait an hour for the one back to Venice so then when I did get on I forgot to stamp the card. The machines are really discreet and it’s not a natural thought to do it when you don’t do it at home or have not had to do it in the 24 countries or so prior (I need a recount soon, losing track). Still, I’m a numpty.

Anyway I didn’t realise this until the inspector came around with only 15 minutes or so to go when to the main Venice station. Rather than just say I forgot I thought the ignorant tourist number would be a better approach (as it was last time). This fella was a ball buster though and wasn’t budging even though he acknowledged that as I’m not going to be in Verona again anytime soon I’d have had nothing to gain by not stamping the ticket on purpose.

He wanted a €50 on the spot fine from me, I didn’t have it and even if I had I wouldn’t have give it him anyway. So then he was murmuring about a €2000 fine (good luck getting that one out of me matey!) and that I needed to produce ID or he would have to call the Police. I called his bluff and said he’d have to call the Police then, a bluff it was ‘n all.

PS No matter how famished I am, you wouldn’t get me anyway near a purple plum, or any shade of plum for that matter. I’d probably give the 15 pickles a miss too.

I eventually met up with those Irish lads again in the Piazza San Marco. It’s a shame they are off to Vienna tonight (I gave then a few pointers of course) as they’re a good laugh.

We had a butchers round St Mark’s Basilica and as usual, very grand and impressive. The Pala d’Oro is considered an obligatory view I think but I can’t say I was overly moved by it.

The weather here is absolutely abysmal so all we were then doing was trying to find creative ways to get off the streets and out if the rain. A visit round the Puma shop (as in the sports brand, we weren’t weighing up whether to purchase a large and deadly cat or not), a gander at a very dull (but free) violin exhibition and a 2 hour squat in Burger King were the best we could muster.

An air raid style siren just went off which apparently is a flood warning. There’s some old geezer with a beard outside shepherding 2 penguins onto a gondala with a pair of hedgehogs behind them and a couple of wallabees in turn behind them. That’s not a good sign is it?

So there won’t be much I the agenda at all for tonight, just a bit of lazing round the hostel I reckon. That actually suits me perfectly at the moment. My day trip to Verona tomorrow might well be in jeopardy with all this funny weather malarkey.

We have a tie for search of the day this time round folks. Take your pick between ‘iggy pop the idiot’ and ‘man thinks that rat is dog’.

The 1st leg of my train journey has been successful, granted it was only a 5 minute ride from the main station in Firenze to a smaller one where I could pick up a Milan bound train to get off at in Bolonga. It’s left 5 minutes late though so now I’ve only got 10 minutes or so to get a feel for Bolonga, probably not long enough to eradicate or illuminate my spaghetti and communists pre-conceptions.

Glasvegas’s self-titled album is what I’ve been listening to on the train. After ignoring them (or is just him?) for ages because I don’t like the name, I gave it a listen when at my friend’s in Brussels a whole 3 months back and now I’ve gave it a good few more.

I like it but it’s far from perfect. The pluses are his great voice with Scotts accent fully present and the the rousing tunes that back it. The negatives are the lyrics that don’t stand up very well by themselves and a lack of variety in the songs, cohesion in an album is good but repetitiveness is not. It gets the thumbs up from me overall though.

Beggars on the trains in Italy is something that appears to be common. They walk down the corridors distributing little square print-outs with sob stories on, then a few minutes later they will walk back, pick them up and plead for money. I decided long ago never to give to beggars, I’d rather give directly to charities.

I’m a bit excited now as I just discovered that I’ll be back in Manchester in time for City’s Carling Cup quarter final agaist Arsenal, whoo!

Speaking of City, my first task in Venice will be to locate a bar of mock Irishness to try and catch the game agaist Brum.

This hostel isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, in fact it’s quite nice with plenty of character. There’s quite a few stealth fees that they whack on top of the base fee but I already knew that would be the case from reviews I’d read.

The staff are a bit mental. There’s a lively Irish woman constantly bickering with a young fella named Michael, at least that’s what she calls him, he doesn’t look like a Michael, more like a Manuel really.

Also the WiFi doesn’t work here (and never will do with the ridiculous way they have it setup, I won’t bore you with the details) so it may be a while before I post this and subsequent blogs for the next few days.

Within a few minutes of checking-in I’d met a few Irish lads who wanted to come along with me in my quest (which would turn out to be futile) to find a bar showing the game.

They were good fellas and I spent the rest of the night with them and got a carry-out from the offy. We did have a look at finding somewhere to go out but the Venice nightlife seems a bit lacking.

We got stung for our evening meal. €17 for a tiny lasanga and a pint, ouch. This hostel has a kitchen though so I’ll be able to save a few quid for the next couple of nights.

Search of the day – ‘Komode in etc. Kosova’. Now how the rubber duck does Google work out that a search like that should end up here? It’s a thinker readers, a real thinker.

The photo is from San Gimignano, not took any Venice snaps yet!

When I arrived I had to have a little power nap on a bench in an attempt to recover some vitality, a bit of a jakey thing to do but necessary regardless.

Sienna really is very pretty, it was well worth the visit and ideally I’d have spent a night or 2 here. As it was I only got a couple of hours but I squeezed a fair bit in during that time whole just trundling round the narrow streets.

Piazza del Campo is sometimes described as the most beautiful main square on the continent, I don’t think I’d go that far but it’s certainly very nice.

I’m stuggling to find different way to express all the different Cathedrals I keep seeing, Italy must easily have the best in the world. This one is no exception. Apparently upon first seeing it, Richard Wagner couldn’t hold back the tears. Get a grip soft lad.

The Stadio Comunale Artemio Franchi is right next to the bus station and strangely you can just walk around it freely, it’s only a tiddler but imagine seeing AC Milan playing there. Wowzers.

When I got back to Firenze I purchased my train ticket, I managed to find a regional route that saved me about €20. I have to change a couple of times, go via Bolongna and it will take 90 minutes or so longer but it’s still worth it I reckon.

I duly spent the 20 Euros saved plus another 10 on a plain v-neck blue jumper from United ColoUrs of Benetton. It’s getting mighty nippy now at night and I’ve very little warn clothing. France in late November should be fun!

The agenda for tonight is to try to stay awake while swimming and then give this Turkish bath lark another whirl.

Prior to some front crawl action I had a salami and peppers pizza in the canteen, though I wish I’d gone for the lasanga the girls on the table next to me had, looked amazing.

I like Florence but with the day tips I’ve been on I haven’t actually seen that much of it, it gives me a good excuse to come back to Tuscany again though which is no hardship.

Venice tomorrow, fingers crossed my hostel won’t be as bad as I reckon it will be.

I’m not having a very good day, I’ve wasted most of it trying to sort out a hostel for Venice. It’s pretty much impossible on my phone so I had to pay for proper access. Unless you want to pay through the nose though, there’s very little on offer. So much so that I was actually thinking about just leaving going to Venice altogether but this would have meant loads more fresh planning to figure out a different route and schedule and I just couldn’t face it.

So I’ve had to book a hostel that is pricey and has rubbish reviews, I can’t say I’m looking forward to it much!

It’s a good thing that I had a lot of cheap days in The Balkans as Italy is proving to be very expensive in general.

San Marino is off my trip list (damn, that’d have been a whole new country scalp) as to get three I’d have to go via Bologna and I haven’t the time or again, the inclination to make more route changes.

I was going to go to Sienna today but there just isn’t time now so I’m going to San Gimignano. I have to change buses but I couldn’t hear the bloke on the other side of the glass so I had to try and decipher the pamflet he gave me, I figured it out just in time to watch the bus I needed going past me and I was only metres from the right platform. Very frustrating as I’ve got to wait an hour now and then I’ll be on the bus for an hour before another half hour wait and finally another half hour bus ride. With my late start to the day by the time I get there it’s going to be a waste of time, grrrr.

Can you tell I’m tired and grumpy? I’ll stop moaning now.

When/if I get to San Gimignano I think I will neck a bottle of chianti, th th th th th th. That’s my Hannibal Lecter impression.

I only stayed in the small and pretty walled town for about an hour and a half but I enjoyed that time. The surrounding Tuscan countryside is beautiful, if I was a millionaire I think I’d get a 2nd home there, I’d probably get a 1st home in Manchester while I was at it too.

I managed to grab a glass of chianti at the wine museum overlooking a sweeping landscape. I’m a bit of a philistine and clueless on such matters but this is what I paid for, ‘Colli Senesi Docg Selezione/Riserva’.

The joyous melodies of Devendra Banhart were a good choice to go with the Tuscany scenery, first up was his latest offering ‘What we will be’. It’s got more if a soul and funk vibe to his previous work, but it’s still has all the voice warbling and acoustic guitar trickery that is his trademark. There’s a bit too much filler for it to make my purchase list but I will be listening to it again.

‘Rejoicing in the Hands’ is an album from much earlier in his career and it doesn’t really do it for me, far too much filler. I can forgive him though as his next album was ‘Niño Rojo’ which is stunningly brilliant.

Before I left the town I treated myself to some world class ice-cream, literally. Pluripremiata Gelateria has twice won the World Championships in recent years and after tasting their gear I can see why. Yum.

I’m not feeling too well, this seems to happen every 3 or 4 weeks when I’m travelling. The lack of sleep catches up with me, I get run dow , I get a cold and then feel rotten. It passes pretty quickly though and I’m going to go out with Jukka anyway, I’ll be home soon enough and can rest up then.

He was kind enough to make me some sphaghetti at his gaff then we went to a few bars and ultimately back to Foco where we were the other night. It’s a really cool place but they need to sort out the tunes, some woeful stuff was coming out. Still, a good night was had.

I’m now on route to Pontedera, I know it’s quite sad but I’m pretty excited about seeing the Piaggio Museum It’s free admission ‘n all.

I only spent an hour there but I enjoyed it immensely, there’s some right beauts and rarities on display. There’s also some proper shockers.

Amazingly, Jukka spent more than me in the shop and he’s not even a fan. A quality Vespa bag for €38 was his purchase while I spent €13 on a little notepad, magnet and 2 very small scale models (Primavera ET3 and GS 150 both scooters I hope to own one day, or slight variations of anyway). Actually, I think I may already have at least one of those models somewhere already, so a bit of a numpty purchase really.

We are just on our way to Pisa now to checkout that tower that Clark Kent is always messing about with, see.

Man, I’m absolutely knackered. This evening I plan to relax and have a swim and a sauna and do a bit of planning for the next week or so. Then hopefully an early night. My intentions rarely work out though.

Pisa was not bad, the city itself is pretty average but the Cathedral is nice and the tower is, well, weird. I looked at it for 10 minutes just thinking, well why hasn’t that fallen over then. We didn’t bother going up, at €15 they can do one.

Ravioli al pomodoro was my tea tonight from the hostel, pretty nice but again not enough to fill my belson. That’s why pizzas are so tempting as they are relatively cheap and get the job done. I can’t wait for my breakfast already.

I did manage to go for a swim in the end, that’s the first time I have swam in years literally. I done 100 lengths using front crawl (I can’t do breast-stroke!), though I should probably point out it was no way near a full size pool.

Then I had a Turkish bath (finally) and a sauna afterwards. I don’t think either of them were as hot as they should be though, plus there was a large group of loud Americans ruining the mood. I’ll give it another go tomorrow probably.

So there has been a few more changes to my travel plans. I want to visit Verona so I am going to spend 3 nights in Venice after all and then use 1 of them for a day-trip to fair Verona. To accomodate this I’ve chopped off Monaco and Montpellier, though I’ve also added an extra night in Nice so I can do Monaco as a day-trip too.

Right I’m just going to try and find a hostel for Venice and figure out if it’s easy to get to San Marino and back from Florence in a day, then it will be time for some much needed shut-eye.

A day-trip to Sienna is likely on the cards tomorrow folks.

Actually I hope I’m right in thinking Firenze is Florence otherwise I’ve no idea where I’m going to but I’ll be 4 hours away from Rome anyway.

My pal Topi has a mate studying in Florence so I’m meeting up with him later I think. As I’ve said before, always good to have an inside man.

What’s the chances of me finding a bar tonight that is showing the sexy football that is Manchester City’s encounter with Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup. Probably a bit shabby and even more so with Fiorentina being away at at Genoa. Maybe due to public demand and uproar it will be featured on a large screen erected in one of the main piazzas. Maybe not.

Florence will be something of a base for me really. Tomorrow I plan to go to Pisa and Pontedera and I may also fit in trips to Sienna and San Marino. I’ll have to see though as I need to allow sometime to see Florence itself.

There’s a lad sat opposite me who I think hasn’t stamped his ticket and looks to be on the end of a hefty fine. He’s doing the praying/pleading action to the inspector that Italian footballers so often do to referees to try and get out of bookings. I think it might have worked ‘n all. Crafty.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to grab any more albums on Spotify while in Rome. So I’ve been forced to go all retro and actually listen to tunes on the iPod. I love it when you get a passage of 30 seconds or so in a song that just seems musically perfect, like this from 1:40 to 2:20.

I just reprimanded (though I’m not sure he understood me in the least) the lad who had the ticket incident. He seems like a whoopsy (it’s difficult to tell with Italian fashion and mannerisms!) but for the last 5 minutes he has been rubbing himself rather too often and vigorously for it to be a token scratch and it’s disturbing me. I believe I said something along the lines of “Do ya want to stop doing that ya freak”. What a weirdo.

I’m in Florence now and I’m bursting for a waz. €1 to use the train station bogs though! I’d rather walk in pain the 1 kilometre to the hostel on a matter of principle, 1 smeggin’ Euro for a basic human right.

The hostel where I’m staying seems excellent. It’s huge with 450 beds. It has a swimming pool, mini-gym, sauna, bar, disco, games room, restaurant and more. On the downside there’s no kitchen, probably to get you to buy their stuff (which while not exactly cheap, it will be less expensive than eating at proper restaurants every night). Another negative is that it just cost me a whopping €7.50 to do my washing (that’s the most expensive I’ve seen in 70+ hostels) though as I’ve not done any since Montenegro it’s a necessary expense. Also this bunk-bed is the noisiest contraption I’ve ever known. Still, it’s a good hostel.

Right, I’m off to meet Jukka (Topi’s mate) now for a wee tour of the city.

Based on my brief night-time tour I’d say Firenze looks a nice place, some epic architecture and pretty streets.

Jukka knew a place where it was €6 for a pint and pizza. I’ve had far too much pizza lately but a deal like that round these parts should not have a back turned upon it.

Then we went to another bar to watch the Genoa (no, not really … bad joke, sorry) vs Fiorentina (I’d faced facts and conceded that I wouldn’t get to watch City’s 5-1 victory, ahem). It was a great game featuring one of the most brilliantly blatant dives (seriously a desert of daylight between the defender and attacker) you will ever see and an amazing Palladino back-heel. YouTube clips may be available by the time you read this. Genoa went down 2-1 in the end though.

Then they switched the idioto boxo over to injury time of the game in which Napoli trailed AC Milan by 2 goals to 0. I’d already decided that Napoli would be my team well before (when in Napoli really) they brought it back to 2-2. Great scenes.

Italian football appears to be played at a lot faster pace than I thought it was going off all I’ve seen so far. I’m impressed.

I should mention that the best bit about this pub was that they served 2 pinters (formidables in France) at €6 a piece, goodo.

After that we went to a really cool bar/club called Foco (fire). I had to pay€5 to join but I didn’t really mind as the place had a really interesting left wing vibe to it. I reckon I’ll return to get my money’s worth before I leave.

Me and Jukka got on well and it looks like he is coming to Pisa with me tomorrow. Though as I post this at half 3 in the morning, I’m not sure I’m going myself.

I need to reiterate what I said last night though, these roads are chaos! The riding style for 2 wheels is completely different. In the UK you are taught to dominate your area, so act like a car and drive in the centre of the road to discourage cars from over/undertaking you in the same lane. Here sccoters and motorbikes just fill any channel or gap instantly and filter at mental speeds, you just have to go with it. The thing is you can ride like that but from personal experience I know you won’t get away with it forever.

Don’t get me started on roundabouts. I think my new tactic for them might just to be close my eyes, it can’t be any more deadly surely?

Is there any point in mentioning that I’ve been blitzed by mosquitoes once more? Probably not.

St. Peter’s Basilica is ruddy massive. It’s also very grand and beautifully built. I was going to go into la cupola (upstairs!) too but the queues were huge.

Next on my list was the Vatican Museums and thanks to my trusty ISIC I got in for €8 rather than the normal €14. A lot of people do this on a guided tour and it does make sense to do it that way but I think that would have been around €40 (that’s what someone told me they paid) and it doesn’t make that much sense.

I still got a lot out of it just going round by myself, I was in there for a good 2 hours. All I can say is crikey, there’s some amount of money gone into the Catholic church over the centuries, the collection they have is most extensive and impressive.

The Sistine Chapel (which is part of the Vatican Museums) is pretty amazing but I can’t say I was blown away by it. I think it’s because a lot of churches I’ve been to in the last few months have had similar frescos but not quite on the same scale. Still, there’s no getting away from the fact that it is very impressive.

After that I nipped over to the Pantheon again to see the inside, very nice too.

My guide-book reckons The Colosseum closes at sun-down. Nope, is actually 15:30, which is round about when I got there. It was still worth the trip though as I found thr view from the day better than in the evening.

Then I still had 2 or 3 hours to kill before I had to hand in the Vespa so I just cruised around randomly. It’s quite liberating to ride about in Rome as there don’t really seem to be any rules and people just do what they want, but because everyone does it there’s no need for road rage or anything. I got right in to it and was darting in an out with the best of them and giving out the occasional toot on the horn (though that’s more of a Neopolitan thing to do). I felt like stopping for a cappuccino, I don’t even like cappuccino. Like I said though, if you ride like this all the time your chances of coming a cropper rise significantly. There are a lot of Vespas with dented side panels knocking about.

It then occured to me to go back to the Vatican to try and see the upstairs of St. Peters, so I did. I queued and got in but by the law of St. Sod it was the only part of the basilica that had already closed.

I’ve made another travel plan decision, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to go to Cuba now. As much as I’d like to the money would be better used to set myself up in New Zealand. I’ve no idea how long it will take me to get a job so if I still have a few quid in the bank it will take some of the pressure off me. So I plan to be back in England for all of December and will then look to get a flight to Auckland in early January.

Not going to Cuba should also mean I can get a new camera, that Samsung thing I got in Vienna is a waste of space and the Sony one I broke in Bratislava wasn’t much better. I’ll be looking to get something maybe not quite at SLR levels but at least capable of taking a bloody picture at night!

Hiring the Vespa was definitely the best way to cram everything into a day. The only thing I really wanted to see that I’ve missed was the interior of The Colosseum so that’s not bad.

I’ve now ridden 2-strokes in places as far apart as the Orkney Isles, Boston in The States, The Isle of Wight and now Rome. I hope to add to this on a large scale in the future.

I think today’s efforts have warranted a great big dirty pizza so TTFN.

One last thing, the pizza I had was the best value meal I’ve had in Rome so if you come this way yourself lonely pilgrims, you may want to drop in at Taverna Pretoriana. They give you a 10% off card if you speak to them and there’s no service, cover or ‘linen fee’. €10 for a massive pizza, a beer and some bread.

With all the train travel today was a good opportunity for a Black Lips marathon, as I had 4 albums to give a listen, first up was the eponymously titled debut (that’d be Black Lips! then). It shows the great promise they had at the time as a garage-rock blues and punk outfit, but it’s just too erratic and the production is awful.

‘Let it Bloom’ is basically more of the same. Some half decent tunes but the it’s sounds like it was recorded in a trash can.

Next up was ‘Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo’ and, erm, same again. Except this is a live album, but with the production value of the other two I’ve mentioned so far, they may as well have been also.

Lastly, ‘We Did Not Know the Forest Spirit Made The Flowers Grow’ is just rubbish. There’s maybe a few tunes that are okay but on the whole it’s pointless. I do like Black Lips, the time i saw them live at The Deaf Institute was brilliant, but the only album of their’s I’d have any real interest in listening to again is ‘Good Bad Not Evil’.

Christ, what a complete and utter stress that was and it’s not over yet. The important thing though is that I have my passport back.

Getting it was a bit of a nightmare mind. My train to Napoli just had to be 15 minutes late didn’t it, meaning I had around 55 minutes to get to the hostel (which is probably at least a half hour walk each way at normal pace), pick up the passport and get back in time to make the train to Rome. If I missed that one the next one my ticket was valid for wouldn’t be for 3 or 4 hours meaning I’d be much too late to hire the scooter later and wouldn’t even get any evening at all in Rome.

So this meant I had to combine some serious power walking with sprints when there was enough room (space isn’t something you get much of in Napoli) and then run up the 6 flights of stairs to the hostel and do same all over again on the way back.

When I got into the main square where the station was it looked like I’d be okay for time and I even managed to spare 30 seconds to pick-up a Naples butty for lunch. Then when looking at my ticket I realised that in the usual tired and and stressed state this morning I’d stamped the Napoli – Rome ticket rather than the Rome – Napoli one. I thought well if I can show the other ticket and the stamps it’s pretty obvious what has happened and shouldn’t really be an issue.

Here is where the next problem arose, I could see the train on platform 11 and I had a good 3 minutes before it departed. What I couldn’t see were the little yellow boxes that you use to stamp the tickets, they are on every platform in Rome. I looked about but none were in view so I asked a group of staff and rather than just pointing me in the right direction the guy put his hand out for my ticket and asked where I was going, he would have seen that it was the wrong ticket and with only about 2 minutes left I didn’t really have time to explain so I ran off to look further myself. I found one but it was out of order, arghhh! I found 2 more opposite but there were some girls dawdling and when I did try to use the first one it made the right noises but didn’t print anything. The 2nd one just about printed something but it was barely ledgilble. It would have to do though as I then sprinted and only made the train by about 20 seconds. Napoli station is bobbins!

So now it makes it a lot harder to explain what happened with the tickets. I’ll just play dumb and handover the one I’ve just stamped and see how it goes, if the the inspector does say anything I’ll try to explain and if he does try to fine me I’ll just outright refuse to pay and take it from there. That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it! Maybe my ticket won’t even get checked, it wasn’t on the way here and there were inspectors on board then too.

I can’t wait to get on that Vespa later and ease the tension of today. It will be like a radox on wheels. Even if it is on the mental Roman roads.

Phew, just about got away with it. I thought I was okay as I gave him the ticket and he put it between the clipper before doing a double take and putting his glasses on. He was checking the stamp that you could hardly read, I don’t think he noticed that the from and to points were the wrong way round. He eventually clipped it so crisis over and €50 fine averted.

I picked up the scooter without a problem, a sky blue PX. The clutch is a bit off so I have to watch out for wheelies but it idles and runs well so that will do nicely for the next 24 hours.

So I spent the next 3 hours or so racing round Rome, quite the terrifying experience really. I wanted to visit (at least to see the exteriors, if I’ve time tomorrow I’ll try for the interiors, but the queues can get pretty big and the stuff in Vatican City is priority number one) The Pantheon and The Colosseum (see pic below) and I did, eventually. The problem is that I’d work out a route on the map and then that would rendered obsolete within a turn or two by one way streets, it was also hard to check for the right junction while dealing with the truly crazy Rome traffic. So this often led to me ending up in scary and bendy high speed dual carriageway tunnels and such like, miles from where I actually wanted to be. I did get to see a lot of the city though and I had good fun doing it. Tomorrow will be even better in the day time.

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The stop where we needed to get off the metro and grab a bus is right near the Vatican and as it was 11:45 on a Sunday, The Big P was in the middle of his stuff. So we went and had a butchers at that.

On the way down there was a nun with a massive arse in front of us and as I pointed this out to my Australian pal, I tripped over and nearly went flying. Divine intervention? Who knows but I wasn’t risking any further wrath in case a vilolent thunderbolt with my name on it was next up.

I’m not religous (agnostic as it happens) but it was pretty special to see The Pope in a place as powerful as that. I’ll go back to Vatican City on Tuesday and see the Cathedral, museum etc. then.

Well that was a complete waste of time, half the day pretty much gone and I won’t be seeing Roma vs Livorno. After loads of messing about walking around the ground and surrounding areas and getting conflicting views from various people (official and otherwise) about where and if you can get tickets, it finally seems that for security reasons tickets are only in sale to Rome residents. Boo. I hope Livorno leather you Roma (which as it transpired is what happened, well Livorno won 1-0 anyway).

I can’t say I’m enjoying my Rome experience overly so far, I’m not having much luck. Though there’s that much to see I’m sure I’ll have enjoyed it a lot more by the time I leave.

Now I’m going to take a few sights in on my way to a bar that is supposed to be showing the City vs Fulham game.

Castel Sant Angelo, Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish steps (not very impressive) and the Fontana di Trevi (very impressive) were all gazed upon. The bigger stuff like the Pantheon (this trip has been enlightening as I used to think that and the Parthenon were one in the same which always had me confused) and the Colosseum will all be done properly on Tuesday, hopefully with transit between them being via a hired PX125.

I found the pub, an Irish one (of course) named Scholars Lounge and it was absolutely heaving because of the Liverpool vs Rags game. 85% of them were Scousers (well, it sounded like 0.3% of them were actual Scousers, but they were supporting Liverpool anyway). The bar staff ensured me that the City match would be on the other big screen and indeed it was, I however was the only person in a completely full pub glancing that way.

At 5 and a half € a pint I felt it wise to do my best student impression and nursed one for the whole game.

It was annoying to only come away with 1 point when we were cruising easily to 3, it was a very sloppy way to surrender the 2 extra points. But other results weren’t too bad so it’s still very tight at the top.

Today while mooching around Rome I’ve been listening to ‘How it Ends’, which is an earlier album by DeVotchKa than the one I mentioned yesterday. It’s very much with the same dark film score vibe, haunting and rewarding. I’m going to have to try and get hold of the rest or their stuff because it seems right up my cul-de-sac.

I’ve just purchased my train tickets for tomorrow, the return train is just over an hour after I get to Napoli but that should be more than long enough to pick-up my documents and get back to the station. What a ball ache though.

Now I’ve just ordered gnocchi alla Bolognese from a cafe near the hostel, €7. I won’t mind so much if it’s nice and a decent portion. It’s a shame the hostel doesn’t have a kitchen or I’d save a decent wedge. The days of a drink with my tea are long gone, Western Europe is a different beast.

It was pretty nice but I’m still starving, it felt like a starter.

Rome certainly is a place full of historical wonders and amazing architecture, but it is a bit too touristy for my liking, in terms of the tourists themselves and the ecosystem set up around them. I think I would hate it in the peak season. I much prefer the naturalness of Naples.

As per usual I just made the train, after getting my ticket via the machine and my cash card. I noticed it said remember to stamp the ticket before boarding, I didn’t see anywhere to do this though and as it was about to leave I just got on anyway. I played the dumb tourist (rather too well) and the inspector explained the process to me but let me off the €50 fine. Phew.

First task when I get to Rome, get a ticket for the match tomorrow. I’ve compiled a list of places that sell them, now I’ve got to hope one of them is close enough to the hostel for me to get there before it closes. Wish me luck readers.

On the train I’ve been listening to DeVotchKa who I’d heard of but never heard anything by before. An American girl in Montenegro recommended them so I looked them up on Spotify.

‘A Mad and Faithful Telling’ is an album that won’t be for everyone but it’s bewildering mix of styles and dark film score qualities appeal to me greatly. It’s a strange fusion of Balkans (the good kind!), Mariachi, French accordion, Russian folk, gypsy jazz (I may have just made that term up) and sweeping strings all fronted by someone sounding like a Feargal Sharkey. It’s blended together with magnificent results.

When I arrived in Rome my day begun to take a turn for the worse. As I checked into the hostel they asked for my passport and it then dawned on me that it was sat safely in the locker (together with my spare cash card and the paper part of my driving license) that I had handed the key over in the morning at my last hostel in Napoli. Brilliant.

It was lucky I had the card part of my license as I wouldn’t have even been able to check in to this one. I’ve spoken to the bloke at the one in Napoli and he has it waiting for me so I will have to get the train there and back again on Monday which will pretty much take most of the day leaving me only 1 proper full day (if I get to go to the footy tomorrow) to see Rome. It will also cost me another 20 odd Euros in fares.

Oh well, it could be a lot worse as at least I know where it is. That’s the problem when you’re tired trying and constantly organising loads of stuff though, at some point you are bound to make a mistake.

So by the time I’d sorted all this out it was too late to attempt to get a ticket for Roma vs Livorno. Now I have to hope that you can get them on the day from somewhere.

As was expected with the way things were going, my evening eating ventures didn’t work out too swell. Me and a lad from Australia (an Aussie in a hostel, fancy that) went looking for some cheap grub but with all the tourists about there aren’t too many places that fit the bill and you have to pay just to sit down in most of them. Eventually we found a little bistro doing spinach, ricotta and meat ravioli at a decent price (about €6 I think). What came was a tiny portion of pasta in a bit of cheese sauce and drowned in peas, I’m not a big peas fan. Not very filling or satisfying at all really.

So I got a slice of pizza on the way back and I even managed to bugger that up, what I pointed look like a meaty mother. It was actually meaty looking tomatoes, now I’m not keen on pees but I positively despise tomatoes that aren’t in a paste or liquid format. Mingin’. One of those days eh.

This hostel will be comfortable enough but I don’t really like it. It’s one of those that you can see that it’s more about the bottom line than a good hostel experience. Fair enough they are businesses but I’ve seen enough of them to know that they can be successful and offer a nice service too.

What I really feel like doing now is getting on a scooter and tearing round Rome on it. And with the help of these fellas that is just what I intend to do sometime soon. They do a 3 hour tour of Rome on classic scooters (some even from the 50s) but at €120 it’s well out of my price range. You can rent a PX though and I will try and do this for Tuesday, then I can get round all the sights quicker and have a good time doing it. It’s also quite pricey at €60 for 24 hours but I’d love to do it. I just hope I can get one on the day as they don’t have many and I’m not riding one of those ‘orrible automatics.

One good thing about this hostel though, I saw the below on one of the walls. It’s the very same picture I once used for a custom t-shirt I had made.

I checked in to my new hostel this morning without any trouble. It seems not bad as well, very similar in setup to the other one.

So now I’m just hanging about waiting for my bus to Pompeii in 45 minutes. I doubt I’ll get to go up to Mount Vesuvius though as it’s another shocker on the weather front here in Naples, you weren’t allowed up when it was like this yesterday.

I think it should be about €10 to get into the Ponpeii site but a girl from my last hostel went yesterday and she stumbled in via the exit by accident so got in for free. I shall be attempting to stumble in via the exit on purpose.

Pompeii is without doubt worth visiting, it’s unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. The site is really really big, I spent aobut 3 and a half hours walking round it and there was still plenty I missed. I’d just had enough by then though and the rain was very heavy once more.

Of course I picked up my obligatory fridge magnet outside the grounds. I got one for €3 after laughing at a vendor who wanted €5. The daft thing was that while I was looking he actually said in all seriousness “€5, not bad price huh”. €5 is the most expensive magnet I’ve seen on all my travels since the start of April. I’ve seen a lot of motherflippin’ fridge magnets in that time too. Then he said “Better quality than the rest though” at which point I went to the adjacent stall and bought the very same magnet for €3. I made a point of mentioning this to him as I walked past, well someone needed to give the chap a wee economics lesson.

When I get back to Napoli (I’m on a train now) I’ll try and suss out the trains/buses for Rome tomorrow (it’s a quiet little town in the middle) while I’m at the station. Then a mammoth plate of pasta is needed from somewhere, I’ve not had lunch as everything round Pompeii was rip-off tourist prices, like €5 for a tiny panini.

So there are 3 options for the train and not any as far as I can tell on the bus front. €45ish, €19.50 and €10.50 are the choices on offer with it very roughly being that the most expensive taking 1 hour, the middle 2 and the cheapest 3. I’ll likely go for the regional one at €9.50 as for the sake of an hour or two it’s well worth the saving.

Amazingly I struggled to find a restaurant serving pasta and I didn’t fancy another pizza. So I stopped into one of the many bakeries about and picked up a couple of these soft rolls with a little bit of cheese in them and loads of diced ham cubes. Very tasty, very cheap and very filling.

I’ve started to enjoy the ridiculous manner in which you have to cross the road round these parts. Half the time it’s just a blind leap of faith but it’s not without an element of skill attached to it. Modern art at it’s best.

This evening I conducted my first ever technical support case involiving a Apple Mac, successfully ‘n all. I sorted the wireless internet TCP/IP settings out for some lad in my dorm. I feel a bit dirty now.

Napoli is definitely a city I will return to one day as for one I’m very much enamoured with the city, but there’s also plenty I’ve not been able to see. Things that come to mind are Mount Vesuvius, the catacombs and a mafia hit.

I’ve also ascertained that Roma vs Livorno on Sunday is the only Serie A game that fits with my route and dates. I’ve sent a few email enquiries about getting tickets, Livorno are a small side so hopefully I will be alright. I’ve booked my Rome hostel for 4 nights, that took quite a while as the good decent priced ones are already booked up. The place I’ve got looks reasonable though.

One thing that is a bit of a pain is that this hostel in Naples is fully booked tomorrow night so I’ll have to change hostels in the morning (I’ve just booked one they’ve vouched for) so I’ll have to be up and about early (I’m not very good at that) to give myself time for Mount Vesuvius (I keep wanting to saying Vesuvio, it’s Artie Bucco’s fault) and Pompeii, which is supposed to be massive.

Man, I’ve got a really sore back. I’m not sure if it’s down to sleeping on the ferry floor, lugging my bag around all day yesterday, or a combination of the 2. I’ll have to be careful though, if any rival button men out on the street spot my disadvatage, they might well try and use it to theirs.

Being in Italy has made me think of this film, I’m nearly blubbering already. Great movie.

Reet, let’s be havin’ ya Napoli.

Ahh, maybe not. It’s raining very heavily, I’ll give it a little while and see if it eases off.

This is very very frustrating, I want to go out and see stuff but like in Pogoricia (though I wasn’t really bothered then) it’s torrential. If you go out out for a minute you will be saturated never mind walking round for hours. Bored, bored, bored.

Eventually there was nothing to do but brave it, a bit risky with just uno pair of jeans available to me. I did get caught in a few nasty downpours but while still being rainy, it wasn’t too bad later in the afternoon. I’d bought an umbrella by this time as well, a distinctly unmasculine one with flower motifs all over it. I just thought it was navy blue until I opened it. Real coolio.

The first place I visited was Quartietri Spagnoli which is supposed to be okay to walk about in the day of you’re discreet but better avoided at night. I loved it, countless winding uphill narrow streets with the natives talking ridiculously loud, scooters constantly nipping at your heels and laundry dangling everywhere. It had bags of character.

Then I walked down one of the main shopping streets over to the Spaccanapoli area in the heart of the old town. There’s loads of grand old churches round there and it’s a very intriguing place to knock about.

There was one shop called Amodio that unfortunately appeared to be the only one closed, I saw some beltin’ good quality and cheaply priced Vespa souvenirs in the window. So close yet so far readers, I could have bawled like a little rugrat I could.

Another street had a whole load of music (instruments I mean, not CDs and your ye olde vinyl) shops on it, maybe 20 or so. I’m never sure how they can all compete when it’s like that.

Next up was a visit to the Duomo. I found the interior to be stunning, the only building I’ve been more amazed by in my life is the Sagrada Familia. I find it incomprehendable how humans can create such things, the sheer level of craftmanship and dedication that must be required to create such intiricate detail on that large a scale is completely staggering. I remember seeing a documentary years ago on San Gennaro and how passionite are lot of Neapolitans are about the legend, which is why I really wanted to see the Cathedral and the crypt within it for myself.

I’m now just killing 90 minutes in Caffe Delle Muse as there’s a pizzeria I really want to go to which is not open to 19:00. I asked the bloke in the furniture shop opposite what time it opened by pointing at my watch and then at the restaurant, he responded with “sette”. To be fair to myself I did ask if he spoke English (in Italian) or French (as my basic French is just about good enough to ask what time somewhere opens) first.

This cafe is a basic but nice little gaff, I’ve been here for an hour now and everyone else who’s been in and out has been a local which I like. It’s only €1.20 for a Peroni which gets a thumbs up from me, especially as they are €2 in the hostel. My golden rule of hostelling is that they should always have the cheapest beer in a 15 mile radius.

So I was waiting outside the restaurant (Gino Sorbillo) for it to open when I bumped into an American couple (well one is German, but he sounds American) who were part of a handful of people who’d been in the airplane style seating area with me on the ferry from Greece, I’d spoken to them very briefly after we’d got off the ferry. Quite the coincidence. So I got talking to them and we shared a table. Then there was an Aussie (what else!) girl from my room in the hostel by herself so she ate with us too, I’d say that was a big coincidence as well but the hostel recommend the place as being the best pizza house in Naloli to their guests so it wasn’t really.

It’s hard to say if it was the best pizza I’ve ever had but it was certainly well up there. Massive and really good value at a bit over €4. It must be a good place as the locals were queuing to get in when we left.

On the way back we had a glimpse of the shadier side of Naples. I’m not sure entirely what happened but some woman was screaming like a demon (really) and then a long haired man was sprinting and went flying into a car (which had luckily braked nearly completely) and a dog which I think was his was darting about somewhere amongst all this too. Then a nasty looking bloke who had been chasing the other guy gave him a beating for 20 seconds or so until a few other people convinced him to stop. I think the first guy might have tried to rob the demon screamer lady’s bag but I’m far from sure. Madness.

Completely unrelated to anything but I watched this before. Ali Benarbia is one of the finest footballers I’ve ever seen (and I don’t care what level it was at, genius is genius). I think he won French footballer of the year twice and still no one had heard of him, he should have been a world star.

Am now just back at the hostel now and spending the age it takes to do this ruddy blog, it will be infinitely easier when I get a netbook and don’t have to do it on a phone. You should notice a huge reduction in typos and spelling errors too!

I like the staff here. Very friendly and animated in a way that only Italians can be. Luca is a character. Apparently I’ve restored his faith in Englishmen after a bad experience with a bloke from Leeds being a bit of a drunken plonker when they were out.

In fact I really like Napoli in general (and I expect that will extend to all of Italy, though I get the feeling Naples is a different beast). Despite it’s loudness, erraticness and all the grime, it’s a very pretty place underneath. There’s a lot of beautiful architecture. It’s definetely one of my favourite cities so far.

Search of the day – ‘it buggers the mother of his pot’.

PS For some reason this post from when I was in Turkey/Bulgaria never made it to the site properly. Have a look if the fancy takes you, it’s only a liccle ‘n.

I was initially told when I got my ticket that the ferry would get in at 09:00am. So I presumed this to be local (Italian) time (like it would be for a flight). Last night I double checked with reception and he told me that it actually gets in at 08:30am Greek time. Greece is an extra hour ahead so this would be 07:30am Italian. It actually got in at 08:05am local. Confused? Join the club.

Before disembarking, I sneaked a quick ham and cheese omlette in, €4.

So, Italy and with it country number 23. This is the nation I’ve been looking forward to most, there’s just so much to see and I’m only going to be tackling a small fraction of it. One thing I do need to get on when I get net access, is to check the Serie A fixtures, would be great to take a game in.

Right now though I need to figure out where one would find Bari’s main bus station, or at worse, train station. Though I already know that there isn’t a train I can take until about 5 hours off, I hope to be well on my way to Naples by then.

It was well sign-posted to the train station (I know I wanted a bus but I thought there would be a good place to find info) up until the point where the signs stopped without said station and a road splitting 3 ways. I made my best guess and 10 minutes later with a couple more turns I stumbled upon the station and the tourist info point outside it.

The bus takes about the same amount of time as the train but at €19, it’s nearly half the price, plus it leaves an hour earlier (at 12:50, getting in at 16:30). So that was an easy decision.

So as I’ve got the best part of 3 hours to kill before my bus, I may as well have a look at Bari. From what I’ve seen so far (I’ve pretty much done 2 hours walking already, bag ‘n all) it seems quite interesting. I’ve seen a sign for the a football stadium (Bari’s I presume) so I might go and have a look at that.

I’ve been putting my extremely basic Italian into practise this morning. ‘Mi scusi’, ‘Parla Inglese?’, ‘Buongiorno’, ‘Grazie’ and ‘Ciao’ have all had an airing, I’ve even been on the receiving end of a couple of ‘Pregos’. I expect when I get to Naples it won’t be long before I get a couple of ‘Consigliere’ job offers. You may well say but you’re not Italian, two words for ya: Tom Hagen.

Long dark hair with big sunglasses and a scarf appears to be the Italian look this October, male or female.

There’s Vespas absolutely everywhere, I’ve seen some right crackers. I’m yet to spot a Lammy though. I can’t wait to get back on my scoot, though December isn’t exactly going to be the ideal month to do it.

There are actually signs for 2 different football stadiums and I’m not sure which is the right one, plus I’ve been heading the way one of them says for quite a bit with no luck. They’re quite vague directionally and there’s no indication of distance so I’m giving up on that plan. In fact I’m just going to go and sit and wait for the bus now. 4 hours is enough of walking around with my bag on in a busy city, not to mention the fact that there appear to be a lot of Italians who dawdle and are spacially unaware, a poor combo.

I remembered why I don’t use the GPS on my phone, it appears to only track you when you have input the direction query while you previously had data access (like I did for the cinema the other night). So unless I pay the ridiculous roaming fees (seriously scandalous, iPhones are only usable data wise when abroad, for the rich) it’s no good for on the fly when you’re lost.

On the bus now, I can’t wait to get to the hostel. Athens feels like weeks ago.

Strangely, the fella from Adelaide sat next to me on the bus has been in my hostel room at both Sofia and Skopje.

On the way into Naples you go right past Mount Vesuvius very cool (or hot even). You can see little clouds of smoke coming out the ground for quite a while before you get there, is that normal? I’m going to try and get up there tomorrow.

That Australian bloke was going to the same hostel as me and I know this doesn’t sound very nice, but he gets on my nerves. Everything you say he is pretty much contrary to and he’s just quite aggravating in general. Like he asked about 4 people the way to the hostel even though we had pretty simple directions to follow then he asked me if I was in a hurry as I was walking slightly fast and missing the city, well after about 30 hours straight travelling and with a large backpack on, I thought getting to the hostel for a shower and that might be a decent idea. He still just dripped about so I walked at my own pace withot paying heed to where he was and arrived at the hostel 5 or 10 minutes earlier than him.

He’s the same bloke I avoided having to go exploring with in a ‘group’ in Skopje because I knew he would rub me up the wrong way, it’s always best to just try and stay clear of people who have that affect on you I reckon.

My first impressions of Naples, complete chaos. What I was expecting really.

The Hostel of the Sun where I’m staying seems pretty good, well apart from the older America guy in my room sat talking to himself (I mean properly as well), I don’t think he’s noticed I’m here. I’ve just informed him of my presence and I think he’s a touch embarrassed.

Nothing much on the agenda tonight as I’m reet banjaxed. A big fat authentic pizza might be worked in though.

As it happens I didn’t get the early night or the real deal pizza as I was up until very late sorting out technical problems with the blog. They’re finally resolved now so I’ll say goodnight, apart from one last thing. I’ve changed my route yet again, the travelling has been pretty hard going lately and I’m not getting enough time to relax or enjoy places and I really want to savour Italy. Also after looking in a bit more detail at distances between destinations, I think it would still have been a bit challenging to fit it all in. So here’s the latest:

Wed 21 – Napoli
Thurs 22 – Napoli
Fri 23 – Napoli
Sat 24 – Rome
Sun 24 – Rome
Mon 26 – Rome
Tues 27 – Rome
Wed 28 – Florence
Thurs 29 – Florence
Fri 30 – San Marino
Sat 31 – Venice
Sun 1 – Venice
Mon 2 – Venice
Tues 3 – Milan
Wed 4 – Milan
Thurs 5 – Turin
Fri 6 – Turin
Sat 7 – Monaco
Sun 8 – Nice
Mon 9 – Nice
Tues 10 – Montpellier
Wed 11 – Andorra
Thurs 12 – Andorra
Fri 13 – Madrid
Sat 14 – Madrid
Sun 15 – Madrid
Mon 16 – Seville
Tues 17 – Seville
Wed 18 – Lisbon
Thurs 19 – Lisbon
Fri 20 – Bilbao
Sat 21 – Bilbao
Sun 22 – St. Jean D’Angely
Mon 23 – St. Jean D’Angely
Tues 24 – St. Jean D’Angely
Wed 25 – St. Jean D’Angely
Thurs 26 – Bayeux
Fri 27 – Bayeux
Sat 28 – Paris
Sun 29 – Paris
Mon 30 – Paris

Next up I had to squeeze a visit to the Acropolis in. It should cost €12 but EU students get in for nowt. So my student card has already saved me 20 odd € today, belter. Getting hold of that card is in my top 5 best scams ever.

The Acropolis and the various structures within it are very impressive, obviously the Parthenon being the most so. It was worth the rushing around.

I then grabbed an early lunch before I set out on my marathon (Greek that) journey to Italy. Grilled meatballs with rice and potatoes for €8 (though the cheeksters stung me for an extra euro for bread that I didn’t ask for, bang goes the tip cheeksters) from a nice place called Tabepna then lots of letters I don’t understand, they look a bit like wingdings. Yummerty yum.

Speaking of the marathon journey, it should go thus: pick bag up and leave hostel at around 12:30, walk to the metro station, get a metro to the bus stop, get a bus to the main bus terminal, get a bus which should take around 3 and a half hours to Patra, walk to ferry terminal, board ferry that should leave for Bari at 18:00 and arrive at 09:00 (no cabin!), find out where bus terminal is in Bari and try to get bus to Napoli, figure out how to get to hostel from bus/train station, check in to hostel at Napoli well over 24 hours after I first set out and finally, eat some pizza from it’s birth-place with local mafiosos.

I missed the bus to the main bus depot by a few seconds, which meant I missed the 13:30 bus to Patra by a few minutes. It was quite annoying as I was on the bus and then had to get off to buy a ticket from the booth, they were messing about there and said to get one from the shop opposite which I did only to see the bus pull off with me only feet away trying to cross the road, grrrr. So I’ve now got a ticket for the 14:00 but luckily it’s an express which takes between 2 and a half and 3 hours, otherwise I’d be pushing it a bit to make the ferry.

Just on the ferry now, I’m already knackered and it doesn’t even leave for another hour, that doesn’t bode well. It’s not bad though, there are shelves where I can leave my bag (I reckon it will be okay but I’ve my phone, wallet and passport on me, they’re the main things) and the seats are pretty comfy. I’m not actually sure if I should be in this room as there was another class ticket for €20ish on top where you got airplane like seats (which is what these are) but I think it’s the direction the rather snooty (once he found out I didn’t have a cabin) attendent ushered me in. Until someone says different this is my temporary home, it’s pretty quiet though so I don’t reckon they’ll be bothered.

I just listened to the Maximo Park album, ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’ It’s okay but apart from a few killer choruses it’s a bit mundane and lacking in invention. I’ve found this to be the case a lot with this band.

For my tea I just had lamb shank and chips, 8 and a half Euros with a bottle of water. Par for the course on a ferry but it was nice at least.

I’m now officially bored. You can rent a portable DVD player but with a movie it’s €15 in total, jog on. I might treat myself to a single beer as a nightcap later. You’ve got to have somet to look forward to haven’t you eh.

After a quick power nap I heard the Champions League theme tune from the Greek side of the room (it’s split in two with a partition, one side with Italian TV and one with Greek) so I switched allegiances and moved over to watch the footy. Olympiacos vs Standard was all that was on offer and the standard certainly wasn’t Olympic. After the 1st half I couldn’t be bothered with it and headed off for my pint.

Nightcap gulped, time to turn-in.

The damn mosquitoes have got at me again, buggers. Are there any hot countries where you don’t get them? I have a fiendish plan for long term revenge though; I’m going to be become a Buddhist and have a word with Buddha so that I come back as a sharp eyed eagle and spend my days (how long do eagles live?) hunting down the minuscule menaces. I reckon I can wipe-out at least 10,000 of them for every bite I’ve ever received, 27 years (which is my guesstimate on your average eagle’s lifespan) will be plenty of time to do it.

I just had a bit of a doings with a member of staff at the hostel. I’d put 70 cents in a vending machine (on the premises) to get a bottle of water, when I pressed the button it took the money but didn’t give me the goods. As you would do I went to query it at the desk. The guy’s attitude was awful, he insulted my intelligence by suggesting I wasn’t doing it right, to try again, or to press the money return button. Arse. I told him that it was just clearly broken but he wouldn’t refund. I asked him if he was going to put an out of order sign up but he wasn’t even going to do that. I’d I lost my temper with him in the end and called him a “f*****g amateur”, which I shouldn’t have done, but after all, he was.

The Vespa P200 I just passed had the key in the ignition (in the top of the headset, never seen that on a PX before) with no one about. He’s (or she’s) a very trusting fella/fellette, I thought about taking it for a wee spin myself. It’s good to be somewhere where there are lots of Vespas knocking about again, but I’m really hoping to see some proper classics when I get to their homeland in the next couple of days. That reminds me, there is actually a Vespa museum somewhere in Italy, I’ll need to check if I’m going anywhere near it.

The only thing on my list to see in Athens is the Acropolis and I’ve managed to mess that up by getting there 10 minutes before closing time today. It’s the Frank Zappa Vilnius statue scenario all over again. It’s right round the corner though so hopefully I’ll have time to have a look in the morning before I get the bus to Patra (I’m not sure if that should have an ‘s’ on the end, I’ve seen it spelled both ways) to get my ferry.

For dinner I ate at Ta Youvetsakia. I had roast veal with pasta and tomato sauce (youvetsi). At €10 it was a bit pricey for a pasta dish but that’s the going rate in Plaka and it was very tasty. With it being €5 a bottle, I didn’t bother with my usual liquid dinner mate.

Nothing was on the agenda for tonight and I really fancied catching a flick so I checked the listings, I liked the sound of ‘Carriers’. I found a cinema showing it about a 20 minute walk away and got myself there with Google Maps on the iPhone, I keep forgetting how damn useful that native app is, if I’d only remember I have a GPS in my pocket I could have saved myself a lot of stress on more than one occasion on this trip. The cinema ticket was a whopping €9, if I’d have just stumbled in on a whim I’d have stumbled back out again but as I’d walked there and was in the mood I thought what the hell.

I just saw (pun intended) a trailer for ‘Saw 6′. Talk about flogging a dead horse … and then burning it’s mane off with a blowtorch, spiking it with HIV infected needles, dousing it in sulphuric acid and finally cutting it’s front legs off with a stanley knife.

I just saw (no pun to intend) another one for ‘Avatar’, that looks promising.

The film was actually pretty good, it was like an American ’28 Days Later’ (though wouldn’t that be ’28 Weeks Later’) only without the zombies (though if you’re going to be pedantic, 28 Days/Weeks Later aren’t actually zombie movies), it had a touch of Stephen King about it. It’s quite depressing mind, can’t say I left the cinema with a spring in my step. Also, it was only about 90 minutes long, for the mathematically challenged amongst you that equates to one whole € for every 10 minutes viewing time. Scandalous.

Oooh, on the way back I walked past a couple of Piaggio related shops. One of them appeared to have a collection of classic Vespas on the top floor. Reckon I might well have little lookey in there tomorrow morning I does.

The photo was taken from Areopagus Hill, just next to the Acropolis.

I just saw the Sunderland ‘beach ball goal’, hilarious. It’s even worse than this one.

Okay I’ve been sat planning for getting to Italy for hours now and I’ve figured out how to get to the port at Patra from here (€15 on the bus) and also what ferries are available to Bari and prices (my ISIC should save me a nice few bob, though as cabins are really expensive I’ll just get a deck pass which will mean that will be a long night!). After that I’d intended to go to Sicily but reluctantly, I don’t think I’m going to anymore.

The main reason is that once in Bari, Sicily is not very easy to get to. I’d have to change about 4 times on a train (one of them being at Napoli where I was going to get a ferry to after Sicily) and it takes ages and gets me in at daft o’clock in the morning meaning another day lost (which I can’t really afford) plus I’d have been in transit for nearly 2 straight days by then. And all this is if there’s no delays and missed trains etc.

Another reason is that it would free up an extra 4 days which would give me a lot more breathing space with the rest of my hectic schedule.

But the main reason I can justify this is that my original Europe trip plan was to go from Manchester to Palermo on my Vespa so this gives me a huge incentive to still do that trip on a much smaller scale (maybe 4 weeks or so) in the future. I really want to see Taormina, Syracuse, Mount Etna, Palermo etc. and to do it all on an Italian scooter is still my dream. One day I assure you.

So my revised rough plan is:

Sun 18 – Athens
Mon 19 – Athens
Tues 20 – Night ferry
Wed 21 – Napoli
Thurs 22 – Napoli
Fri 23 – Rome
Sat 24 – Rome
Sun 24 – Rome
Mon 26 – Florence
Tues 27 – Florence
Wed 28 – San Marino
Thurs 29 – Venice
Fri 30 – Venice
Sat 31 – Milan
Sun 1 – Milan
Mon 2 – Vaduz
Tues 3 – Munich
Wed 4 – Munich
Thurs 5 – Zurich
Fri 6 – Zurich
Sat 7 – Bern
Sun 8 – Geneva
Mon 9 – Geneva
Tues 10- Monaco
Wed 11 – Andorra
Thurs 12 – Andorra
Fri 13 – Madrid
Sat 14 – Madrid
Sun 15 – Madrid
Mon 16 – Lisbon
Tues 17 – Lisbon
Wed 18 – Seville
Thurs 19 – Seville
Fri 20 – Valenicia
Sat 21 – Valenicia
Sun 22 – St Jean D’ Angely
Mon 23 – St Jean D’ Angely
Tues 24 – St Jean D’ Angely
Wed 25 – St Jean D’ Angely
Thurs 26 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Fri 27 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Sat 28 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Sun 29 – Paris
Mon 30 – Paris

That looks a lot more managable than my first draft.

I’ve booked a hostel for Napoli and figured out which train to get there from Bari though a bus would probably be better, there’s no info online so I’ll see if I can find out once I’m actually there. The train is plan beta (Greek that is).

I should really go eat and have a shower and shave now, it’s been a long day/night and I’m starting to resemble some what of a waif. Then my next task (and most important of the day by a country mile) will be to find somewhere to watch the Pie Eaters vs City game. Might have a butchers at this ancient Greek stuff knocking about as well at some point.

Well I’ve got the warmth I was after, it’s not boiling but it’s okay to wear shorts. It’s a nice change compared to the last few places I’ve been.

I’ve found a boozer showing the match, is Sky as well and not just a foreign feed. Though with David Platt being one of the ‘pundits’ I think I’d rather it was Bulgarian telly being piped in.

As part of my regular pre-match schedule (dependent on Skype when abroad), I gave the old man a ring. After about 5 minutes he started giggling like a little school girl after I said something innocuous, every few years or so this happens with him. The last great one was when we were fishing (it’s a loose term) on the Bridgewater Canal when I was 14 and for whatever angling related mishap, he was off. The problem is that within 0.4 seconds I end up in the same state. I had to hang up.

The beer I’m drinking (Mythos) is shockingly bad, flatter than the Netherlands. But it’s €3 a pint as opposed to €4 (which would get me 4 or 5 pints in Albania) for the Carlsberg. I think I’ll nurse this one for the 1st half and then treat myself to the Danish stuff at HT.

There’s an American fella here in a Fulham shirt, bit strange that. If I remember rightly, Michael Jackson was a Fulham fan. I do, see here for details. Diheard he was too, it was said that he outright refused to miss a Fulham youth team under 13s game. Crikey.

Argh the American guy has Dempsey on the back of his shirt. They've had quite a few American players in the the last few years. That explains it.

I learnt to stomach the Greek stuff in the end, hobo style 'n all. €1 extra a pint adds up. What do euros make? prizes?, bankers happy?, modern art when strewn across the floor?. Negative to all, more pints is the answer.

Chris Kirkland just dislocated his finger, ouch. His tough guy reaction alone has pushed him ahead of Ben Fester in the England goalkeeping queue for me. Not quite Bert Trautmann levels of heroism mind, that man deserved a 3rd Iron Cross for the '56 FA Cup Final.

When Santa Cruz came on for the injured Adebayor it, did anyone spot the strange knee support things he was wearing? They looked like stockings and suspenders. Unfortunately I can’t find a picture but you could say it was a proper ‘Roque Horror Show’. I should really work for The Sun, their editor would commit patricide for that sort of back page pun.

So a point is probably a fair result, we certainly didn't deserve 3. When you consider that Wigan would more than likely take everyone of our starting 11 in place of theirs, you have to give them a lot of credit. They played proper football throughout. Definitely our bogey team though, I've had some very grim days at the JJB (or whatever it's called these now).

I had 2 gyros (insert Scouser joke here) when the barman was asking about as he was ringing for a delivery, at less than 2 sherbs each I thought these a better idea than the €12 meal facing me otherwise (from a glance at menus in the area). I got one chicken and one pork, nicety nice.

I had one more pint for the road and then some lad from Bath sat down at my table and I was talking to him but I didn’t really like him to be honest. He’d been working on some Greek island for the last 4 months and had a really annoying intonation when speaking, it was like he was talking to you like you were foreign, a bit like this. He also insisted on constantly boasting about his bedroom antics in Greece, I had no interest in hearing this. The problem was he bought me a pint so I was obliged to do likewise. Then he done it again, after I finished the 4th pint with him I made sure I was off before a 5th was got. I’d had more than enough of this toff by then.

So with all the planning and then the football I’ve not really seen Athens yet. I expected that to be the case though. Tomorrow I will correct this.

Today’s snap, like yesterday’s, is from Ohrid.

So I’m just off to begin my trip to Athens via a bus to Skopje (that I’m still gutted I have to get), I’ll be picking up a big juicy burek on route to the station don’t you worry.

That was a bit scary. Only 5 minutes from the bus station in the centre of Ohrid the bus stopped and a moody looking policeman got on, I didn’t realise at first as I was busy making haunting synth music on Bebot, ahem. Anyway he was checking passports but mine was in my bag as I’m not going to be crossing a border on this leg of the journey.

To make me sweat a bit more he put some lad in handcuffs (behind his back too) before me, gulp. I showed him my driving license and asked if he wanted me to ask the driver to let me get to my bag, luckily he wasn’t really interested though.

Not so for the guy on the seats adjacent to me, who he handcuffed to felon number 1. In all he took 4 people off the bus, I presume they were immigrants of some kind, they did have a more eastern look to them than everyone else.

Currently we’re driving through the mountains and there’s snow and a thick mist everywhere, it just looks like a great white abyss to both sides of the road.

The album ‘Hold on now, Youngster‘ by Los Campesinos! has been listened to today. Its breezy indie-pop with elements of art-punk and there are some pretty good tunes, but ultimately it’s low on backbone and won’t hold your attention very long at all. This also applies to their mini-album ‘Sticking Fingers into Sockets’.

We’re in a bus depot in some town now and there’s a fat kid singing his heart out on a bench with very animated features. I’m still on the bus so I don’t know what he’s singing to (though if anything, I’d hazard a guess it’s one of the tunes I despise so much). He’s spotted me laughing at him and started laughing himself, highly amusing.

When I got to Skopje it was time to find the train station. It’s the mankiest, most decrepit, inaccessible, unhelpful station I’ve ever been at. It’s a good thing I didn’t get the later bus as I considered as that only left me an hour before the train out, it took me more than an hour to sort the ticket.

The ‘information’ desk was named poorly really. There was one of those little speaker-holes in the window bur the bloke on the other side was sat slouching and reading his paper about a metre away from it (as were the other 2 ‘workers’ in the room) so when he did bother to speak you couldn’t hear a word, not that it mattered as he didn’t speak English. I showed him the train(s) I wanted to book on my phone and said billet (French for ticket but I think they use a very similar word here) he just repeatedly said “Skopje, Thessaloniki, okay” and I couldn’t get anything else out of him. Thanks for that D’Artagnan.

I found a ticket office after a bit of wandering and the woman spoke a bit of English, eventually we got there and I got my ticket for about €27 with my ISIC but for a long time it was looking like I could only get a ticket to Thessaloniki which would be a problem as I wouldn’t have had time to get the ticket to Athens. Phew.

Then I had an hour or so to find some grub. Irish Pub St. Patrick (genius stuff naming wise) looked a good bet and the bacon cheese-burger and chips I got were proper beaut, the burger was massive as well. At under a fiver including a pint, it was just what the Doc ordered.

I also got to catch the last few minutes of the Villa vs Chelsea game (our draw at Villa Park looks even better now) and the first half hour of the Rags vs Wanderers game, what a flukey goal for Owen.

In an effort to rid myself of all Macedonian readies I just bought 5 croissants with a touch of cocoa in them. The brand being 7 Days, I’ve become addicted to them lately. That’s my brekkies sorted for the short-term.

When I get to Thessadonachie at 22:34 (in theory) I’ve got 24 minutes before the train I need to be on departs to Athens. By the law of sod I’ve just noticed on the screen that it’s already 15 minutes late. I’m on it now and considering it’s already late it doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to get going. It finally departed at 17:45 which puts me 6 minutes over the buffer I had right from the off. I hope the driver has a turbo button.

It did indeed transpire that I missed my train as we didn’t get in until about 23:15, 40 minutes or so late. Luckily there was another train at 23:33 but I had to pay an extra €11 as it was all couchette. I don’t know why you have to pay more though as there are 6 couchettes in a room and it’s 6 people to one of those rooms without the couchettes in anyway. So basically you are paying 11 Euros for a pillow, blanket and sheets. Though I couldn’t actually apply my sheets as I was on one of the highest bunks and I had about 2ft clearance between me and the roof. It was all pretty uncomfortable but I was that tired I still slept for 4 hours+ of the 6 hour journey (though it was closer to 7 hours in the end, not too reliable these Greek trains).

The hostel seems pretty good. Though I went in my room and there are lots of half-cut (by the smell of them) snoring men in there. I can’t figure out which is my bed as they’ve all just put their clothes on all of them. It’s 08:00am though so I’ll just do the stuff I need to on the internet and then sort it in a bit.

Expect lots of dodgy Greek references (like the Anchorman inspired post title) over the next few days.

Pic is from Ohrid.

I also had time to do a bit of research for getting to Thessaloniki, there are many different options with different complication, price and duration levels. The most promising is the train from Skopje to Thessaloniki on Saturday at 17:15 getting in at 22:34. Though this would mean going back on myself and I refuse to do that, so what I want to try and do is pick the same train up at Gevgelija on the Macedonian/Greek border at 19:55. This morning I need to look at how to get to Gevgelija from Ohrid and also somehow confirm with the Macedonian railways that the train details on the German Rail site are correct. This also means that I’ll stay another night in Ohrid.

While on the bus I entertained myself in a multitude of ways; I read some more of ‘Don Quixote’ which I’m now 60.40% into, I messed about with the simply brilliant Bebot iPhone app which I’d bought for a quid that day, I listened to loads of music in Itunes and Spotify (mainly to keep from hearing the truly terrible usual pap that comes with the buses in these parts, I don’t mind going on record as saying that the Balkans has produced some of the worst music to ever grace this planet) and lastly I came up with the below.

Fri 16 – Ohrid
Sat 17 – Night train
Sun 18 – Athens
Mon 19 – Athens
Tues 20 – Night ferry
Wed 21 – Taormina
Thurs 22 – Taormina
Fri 23 – Siracusa
Sat 24 – Palermo
Sun 24 – Night ferry
Mon 26 – Naples
Tues 27 – Naples
Wed 28 – Rome
Thurs 29 – Rome
Fri 30 – Rome
Sat 31 – Florence
Sun 1 – San Marino
Mon 2 – Venice
Tues 3 – Venice
Wed 4 – Milan
Thurs 5 – Vaduz
Fri 6 – Munich
Sat 7 – Munich
Sun 8 – Zurich
Mon 9 – Bern
Tues 10- Geneva
Wed 11 – Monaco
Thurs 12 – Andorra
Fri 13 – Madrid
Sat 14 – Madrid
Sun 15 – Madrid
Mon 16 – Lisbon
Tues 17 – Lisbon
Wed 18 – Seville
Thurs 19 – Seville
Fri 20 – Valenicia
Sat 21 – Valenicia
Sun 22 – St Jean D’ Angely
Mon 23 – St Jean D’ Angely
Tues 24 – St Jean D’ Angely
Wed 25 – St Jean D’ Angely
Thurs 26 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Fri 27 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Sat 28 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Sun 29 – Paris
Mon 30 – Paris

Now this is anything but set in stone and probably unachievable really, a lot of it is based on guestimates on travel times but it’s a rough plan at least. I’m already missing plenty off that I’d like to fit in and another month would be perfect, the way I see it though I’ve a lifetime to comeback and fill in all the gaps.

I got a cool stamp when leaving Albania, whoo! That was the good bit of customs.

On the Macedonian side was the bad bit. Things took ages, my bus that was due in Struga at 23:30 didn’t actually get in until 02:00 because they kept us sitting there on it for hours and then we were standing outside for another 45 minutes or so in weather on par with a Mancunian January. Finally for some reason we then went on a different bus, I’ve no idea what it was all about and I didn’t even get a stamp for all my troubles. I rang the hostel at about 1 in the morning and the bloke said he’d wait up luckily. I’m now not a fan of Macedonian customs, though maybe it was the bus company’s fault, who knows.

It was even hard work after that. I knew Struga should be about 15 minutes from the border and when I saw a sign saying it was 2KM away I kept alert. Then the bus pulled over and it was clearly not a bus station or in any way what could be considered a town, I was worried. Of course no one spoke English so I was in a bit of a pickle. I gathered just about from the driver that this was indeed deemed as the Struga stop but there was no taxi rank. An old woman and a young lad had got off the bus and a taxi pulled up from nowhere for them, the driver was gesturing and I took it that he was advising me to get involved with that taxi before it scarpered. It was pretty much my only choice after all and if that was a no go I would have been stranded 15KM from where I needed to be in the cold and rain with no plan B.

The taxi driver didn’t speak a word of Blighty talk but I showed him the address and asked how much and after a little bit of confusion (all the while with my foot in a big puddle) I finally got that he’d take me there for €5. So he dropped the other people off in Struga (where the bus had stopped was on the outskirts then) and then proceeded to go to Ohrid. But he didn’t know the guesthouse, so then he stopped and asked another driver and we ended up following him, at this point I think he was trying to say it was €5 to here and more beyond. As none of this was in English though I wasn’t sure and certainly wasn’t going to help him out in that respect.

We ended up on some street in the pitch black and the other driver assured us this was it, though the place they were pointing at didn’t look right to me. While checking the address on my phone he then inadvertently deleted the email which had the address and directions from the centre (which I was going to use to try and find it on foot), so rather miffed and dejected I paid him and set out on a bit of a hopless task to find the place.

Within seconds I’d walked past it, whoo! So he had dropped me on the right street after all just not at the right house. Phew.

A bit of a nightmare journey all round really. But just after 3 I was finally in bed and enjoying the fact that there were 2 large blankets to keep me warm.

Though it transpired that they weren’t enough and I had to dig my sleeping bag out at 6 in the morning. I got a solid 4 hours after that.

One thing I’ve forgot to mention is that since I’ve been in Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, power cut are very regular. I suggest if you’re a gamer to save very often or have a back-up generator?

The place (Antonio Guesthouse) I’m staying is alright, not much fun but I’ve privacy and it’s clean, cheap and secure. It’s advertised as having WiFi everywhere but the router is in the adjacent building and the signal is that weak that I lose it every minute and have to manually reconnect, is driving me mad!

When I got out and about today the first thing I went to do was have a look at the actual lake which is lovely, but I have to say I think there are better in Cumbria.

Then I was just mooching around the old cobbled streets and came across a few historical landmarks, first up was the Church of St. Sophia, next was Czar Samuel’s Fortress (which offers the best views available of the town) and lastly the Plaosnik Monastery (I found it to be a serenely peaceful place, though it helped that I was the only person in it).

I’d never had roasted chestnuts before and you see plenty of street sellers flogging them round this side of Europe so I finally gave them a try. I shall be having them again in the not so distant future.

Just an afternoon was long to see the sights of Ohrid really as they’re all very close together, though I imagine that in the summer you could happily spend a few days here. It’s a nice place.

After that I walked to the bus station so I know where I’ll be going tomorrow and also to get times and prices. My plan to get to Gevgelija and pick up the train to Thessaloniki is in tatters as even though it’s closer, it involves 2 or 3 changes which could be complicated or lengthy for all I know. There is another quicker option but it involves crossing the border between bus stations in a taxi and it could work out to be pretty expensive. So, even though I don’t like it, I’ll have to go back to Skopje in the morning which will take around 3.5 hours and then wait round a few hours there before getting the train I mentioned earlier. Boo.

By this time I was well in need of a substantial meal and I was getting a bit bored of pasta, pizza or lasagna all the time. I was full of the cold, tired and weak and wanted a meat feast God damn it.

I found a nice little restaurant doing a mixed grill but they had no room at the inn, man. Then eventually I came across a large but completely dead (I was the only one in it, not a good sign eh) called B.A.D Restaurant, what a terrible name.

I ordered ‘Alexander’s Sword’ (pork, veal and chicken on a large skewer with salad and fries). It certainly met the substantial requirement and the meat was all very tasty, so a good selection. The obligatory local beer I had was in Cyrillic so I don’t know the name.

I figured out why the place was empty though, when I came in they put on and turned up that music I have had to face on the buses a lot recently. I’m honestly really looking forward to getting out of the Balkans to escape it as it’s everywhere, they all seem to love it as well.

3 of Cobra Killer’s first 4 albums (Cobra Killer, 76/77 and Das Mandolinenorchester) are what I’ve listened to today. There is a bit of hype around the German outfit at the moment apparently and I think it very unjustified, all 3 of the albums are boring and juvenile. They should take a look at Crystal Castles to see how that sort of thing should be executed. Avoid them like the bubonic plague (which incidentally around 3000 people a year are still diagnosed with, I discovered last night on the National Geographic channel). One thing I should say to be fair, the hype is about their 5th and latest album which I haven’t heard, the predecessors have left me with absolutely no desire to though.

I spent the next few hours in an internet cafe and it’s here that I discovered that all my planning for Thessaloniki was a waste of time. There’s no hostels there and I’m not paying for 2 nights in a hotel, bugger. So I will go straight to Athens. I still need to go to Skopje and in fact I’ll need to get the same train to Thessaloniki, but then change there to get in Athens at about half 5 in the morning. On the plus side it frees up a few extra days. I’ve amended my rough plan above already, it didn’t even survive a day!

So tomorrow day and night (and well into the next day) will be a complete day of transit, I can’t say I’m relishing it.

I’m not very I’ll equipped for these sort of meteorological conditions, my hoody isn’t cutting it. One option is to make a hole in the bottom of my sleeping bag and use it as a sort of thermal dress, that could potentially look a tad daft though. Luckily it’s not a huge issue as Greece and Italy are my next 2 destinations after Ohrid.

I can’t get a hostel pickup from Struga tonight but the owner said a taxi should be less than 5 Euros so even if it ends up being double that it’s not too bad.

When I got back I had a long chat with my roomy, Ben from Brighton. He certainly knows his football. He’s a massive Brighton & Hove Albion and is even the official club photographer which is pretty cool, the photos used in this book are his.

It looks like my mates Topi, Pekka, Jimbo and Coopa (and maybe a few others) are going to meet me in Madrid for a weekend in mid November. That should be a good ‘n, I’m looking forward to having a cerveza or 19 with people I actually know properly.

The next leg of my journey after Ohrid will take me to Thessaloniki on the Greece mainland, as is the standard of late, there’s nothing direct which means lots of messing about on my part trying to figure out how to get there.

Albania is well known for high levels of OC, so I’ve amused myself today by weighing people I pass up and guessing if they might be involved. There’s a bit of business in this though too, if I decide to make a move on the scene I have to know who the major players are to take them out don’t I. He’s definitely one, got your card marked now son. Those 3 blokes talking and smoking in the bus ticket office are certs, you’re going down as well fellas, down to Chinatown.

I’ve just danced through a load of high speed traffic like Kinkladze through the Southampton defense, enjoy. Here’s me thinking the green man meant walk for the pedestrian and the red light stop for the Mercedes.

I’m just trying to find a gaff for a spot of lunch now. The strange thing about Albanians is when I ask them if they speak English they say yes, but then when I follow that up with “Do you serve food?” in the clearest most pronounced fashion I can muster, they look at me like I’ve actually asked “How many cyan marbles did the rabid parrot pass to the lazy sea-lion last August in Bolivia?”. I’m starving.

I was trying to avoid fast food but my hunger is not in a mood to be fussy anymore. So egg calzone, fries and a coke are now in front of me in a place that is more like a restaurant than a cafe. At what amounts to £1.40 for the lot it’d be rude not to. Albania is the cheapest country I’ve been to so far without question.

There isn’t really much to see in Tirana, it was a good decision to switch to just the 1 night. I’m glad I’ve come though because it is a city worth visiting for a short while if only to take in the crazy hecticness of it all.

Now while I compose this I’m just having a large bottle of Tirana premium pils nicely presented with a perfectly chilled glass. Well dome Tiranians.

To drown out the omnipresent sound of traffic and Benz horns I’ve been listening to ‘Why There Are Mountains’ by Staten Island’s (I’ve been there I have) Cymbals Eat Guitars today. They're somewhere between Broken Social Scene and Bright Eyes and pay little regard to traditional song structure with the tempo and mood changing at every turn. It’s a very solid debut but there’s no outright stand out tracks really. The important thing is there’s loads of potential and I’ll be keeping an ear out for this lot in the future.

So I’m just about to set out to catch the bus to Ohrid now. I wonder what the homicide levels are like there? I do hope it’s not a case of, now brace yourself, no really … ‘Murder most Ohrid’. And on that note I shall bid you adieu for the night.

That together with this room being absolutely freezing didn’t a good night’s sleep make. The room is that drafty I reckon It might be haunted. Maybe the cockerel was an audio apparition if there is such a thing.

I’ve not used my sleeping bag once yet on this trip but it may well have been worth bringing after all as I’ve a feeling it’s going to get a bit nippy in some hostels yet to come.

Yum, meat burek for breakfast. I’m a fan.

The fridge magnets situation is getting quite daft again, my bag is considerably heavier than when I set out on July 27th. I should really post the spoils so far back but I can’t be arsed is the reality. Here is a list of magnets I need to get hold of retrospectively:

Washington DC, Philladelphia New Orleans, Tucson, Flagstaff, Yosemite National Park, Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park, Luxembourg, Bonn, Hamburg, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Krakow, Timisoara, Sibiu, Chisinau, Tiraspol, Bucharest, Pristina, Podgorica.

It looks a lot but when you consider the amount of towns and cities I’ve been to over the past 6 months or so it’s a pretty small percentage where I’ve been unable to find one or just forgot. By the time I eventually hang up my backpack I’m going to have to buy one of those big f*ck off American fridges to accommodate them all. One thing’s for sure though, it’s going to be the only fridge in town that’s cooler on the outside than on the in.

I’m on the bus to Shkoder now (for €6) and should be crossing over to Albania shortly I’d have thought. Hopefully another passport stamp will be forthcoming.

Off the top of my head (my rough guide is in the luggage hold with my bag) I’ve just been trying to figure out what’s left for the 6 weeks or so before I return to England. What I’ve come up with is probably too ambitious in that amount of time but is potentially achievable dependent on how long it will take to travel between them. It’s a very rough list and the order is only an indicative outline too. Anyway, here goes:

Tirana, Ohrid, Thessaloniki, Athens, Palermo, Naples, Rome, Vatican City, San Marino, Florence, Venice, Milan, Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Vaduz, Munich, Monaco, Andorra, Valencia, Madrid, Seville, Lisbon, Saint-Jean-d’Angély (to see Nimrod), Normandy (not sure where exactly yet) Paris.

If you’re lucky readers I might throw another list in later just to complete the hat-trick.

Okay, this time there really was no customs at the border (on the Albanian side). Very odd. So obviously another lost stamp.

Shkoder seems a bit of a crazy place. Lots of hustle and bustle with a mix of new Mercedes and old horse and carts. We just went past a tall skinny man in a suit with short wavy hair and driving a tractor, it was impossible not to think Borat.

No sooner had I got off the bus than I’d spotted one across a busy roundabout that was heading to Tirana. It cost 3 Euros which seems about right as I spotted the locals giving 500 lek notes and getting 200 back, €3 is about 400 lek so one of the currency converter apps on my phone tells me anyway. I’m not entirely sure how long the bus takes but I think it’s more than 2 and less than 4 hours, 3 might be a good estimate to go with based on that I reckon.

When I get there I need to try and figure out the best way to get to Lake Ohrid. If I can I want to only stay tonight in Tirana and use tomorrow to see it before heading off to Ohrid in the evening. I’ve booked 2 nights in Tirana but I’m hoping to be able to cancel one. The pace must be quickened considering the destinations outlined above.

We’ve just gone past a pretty baron area where there were literally around 20 decent sized independent furniture shops in a row, flogging some horrifically garish gear too. These tricky Albis must love their sofas.

Now going through some town close to Tirana within 500 metres there is a Barcelona Cafe, a Bayern Munich Cafe and an AC Milan Cafe. Not sure what that’s all about though I expect the City one to follow shortly, or maybe it’s already at a more affluent area of town.

Okey dokey I’m there now and the hostel where I’m staying tonight is not bad at all. Freddy’s Hostel is it’s moniker and I have indeed me Freddy, a lively chap at that. I’m in a 2 single bed room and another Englisman checked in a few hours after me so I’ve not got it to myself like I have in most of the places I’ve stayed at of late, he is a photographer from Brighton and seems like a nice fella.

I was listening to the ‘The Flying Clup Cup’ by Beirut earlier on the bus, it’s the only one of their three so far that I hadn’t yet heard and it’s another winner. Haunting stuff as ever.

I’ve found out that I can get a bus at 19:00 tomorrow that gets to Struga at about 23:30, Struga is 15KMs from Ohrid. The hostel that I’ve booked does a pickup so hopefully they still do it at that time, otherwise a likely expensive taxi ride will be my only option.

Today’s photo is of Skopje and not Tirana, for the usual reasons readers.

Over.

While waiting in vain for the bathroom I renewed my City card to the tune of 30 quid, ouch. Though to be fair you do get a fiver off the first 6 times you use it. I expect to be back in Manchester for all of December so I’ll be looking to get to all the games I can, home and away. My first will be Chelsea at Eastlands, not bad eh.

The bus actually only took about 2 and a half hours but it was most unenjoyable. Awful roads meant it was a very very bouncy journey. Another half hour or so and I reckon I’d be doing some serious damage to the upholstery.

Today I’ve been listening to the rest of Cass McCombs’s back catalogue. ‘Catacombs’ and ‘PREfection’ are the ones I needed to catch up with. The former bar one tune or two offers nothing and the latter is average really. Nothing comes close to his brilliant debut mini-album ‘Not The Way’ for me (even ‘Dropping The Writ’ which as I said the other day, I liked) that’s the one to get.

I’m really loving being able to fill in the missing pieces for bands I’ve liked for ages as well as bands I might have heard about a day ago on a blog or podcast. There’s that much stuff to get you wouldn’t have an earthly without a service like this. Best tenner I ever spent this Spotify lark.

It’s a bit of an odd setup for getting to the hostel. Rather than having directions on the booking email like normal it just says that it’s 100 metres away from the station (is actually closer to 500) and to ring them when you get there. So I did, only they don’t speak English, but they do say hello and yes a lot and then put the phone down. So I rang back and just about got the gist that someone would come and find me in 5 minutes (actually 20). A strange approach but no skin off my nose I guess. When I met them later though, the lady who runs the place and her son (I presume it’s her son) are friendly enough, even if she does have no teeth.

While waiting I bought a couple of croissants for lunch, one with jam and one with spumante which after reading the wrapper I’ve discovered is an Italian sparkling wine.

With the croissants I had a bottle of Sprite, now I don’t know if the spumante was altering my taste buds but it didn’t taste much like Sprite. It was more like Mountain Dew that a tramp had took a pee in and left to settle for a week.

I’m in another tired and grumpy mood today (as you may have gathered) so I wasn’t in the mood for the incessant taxi offers you always get when disembarking of the bus. “Taxi, taxi?”, “Taxi, taxi?”. No, I still don’t smeggin’ want one since you asked me 6 seconds ago Sinbad.

The schedule for getting to Shkoder was pretty much as I’d found out on the net, so I’ll be heading there at 12:30 tomorrow. Hopefully the buses running from there to Tirana should be as I worked out to.

So the woman who runs the hostel came to the station to pick me up as promised and took me back. Only it’s not a hostel, it’s a self contained little apartment (en-suite and has a little kitchen of sorts) in their house. I’ve probably been given a slightly better setup because it’s dead, I’d selected a 5 bed dorm on Hostel World!

I’m going to be pretty bored tonight I reckon though as there is no one else here and there’s not even any Internet access (wireless or otherwise). I’ve needed an early night for quite some weeks now so here’s my chance.

As it’s pretty much out of season I’ve definitely noticed that a lot of places I’m staying are really quiet now, which is good in some ways but it also means it’s harder to make travel buddies obviously.

After I’d got my bag straight and that I went for a walk into town to have a butchers. All pretty standard small resort sort of stuff and then after about 20 minutes you get to a pretty little beach. I had an early tea of lasagna at Caffe Pizzeria Plaza which looks out onto it. There was something done differently that I can’t put my finger on, it’s a good difference though whatever it is. Yum.

On the way down I spotted an internet cafe in with PS3s. I might nip in on the way back and show the locals what’s what, I’ve nothing better to do after all. There’s a new kid in town gamers.

I did indeed have a few games of FIFA, €2 for an hour. Though none of the locals saw fit to challenge me. I can only think they were intimidated from the off by watching me tonk Utd 5-0 with City (pre Tevez, Adebayor and friends roster), I can’t say I blame them.

I got a bit lost trying to find the hostel again, I knew I was very very close but off one of the main roads you go up this hill and I didn’t realise there would be absolutely no lighting, so trying to find the right house was very difficult. I rang them and tried to get them to come out, it would only take them a minute. The woman twoddled on as usual and then said okay and put the phone down. I knew she hadn’t understood a single word I’d said. Luckily I found a local and he helped me out. Not easy.

Best search today – ‘typical Latvian man’.

With regards to getting to Tirana it looks like my best shot tomorrow will be just to get the earliest (12:10) bus to Ulcinj on the Montenegro border, then try and transfer to Shkodra and from there hopefully get a direct bus to Tirana. I’ve just got to hope that the timings all work out otherwise I’ll be stranded and I don’t like the sound of that.

Okay I’ve spent ages digging through travel forums online and I think by the time I get to Ulcinj tomorrow it would be between 15:00 and 16:00 and the last bus to Shkoder in Albania will have left at 12:00. This is all far from concrete though but I’m going to take it it as being that way so I’ve booked a hostel in Ulcinj for tomorrow night, I don’t want to but it makes most sense.

Then I’ll get the 12:00 bus to Shkoder ( if indeed there is one) on Wednesday which should take about 2 hours. From there I’ve read that buses run to Tirana (where i’ve booked a hostel for Weds and Thurs night) on an hourly basis but only up to 16:00, there seems to be a bit of confusion around the stations as well but I’ll deal with that on the day.

I’ll probably get the evening bus to Ulcinj tomorrow now (which will get me in about 22:00) as that will give me the day in Kotor and as I’ve already said, I really like it here. Unfortunately it’s still chucking it down though.

The grumpster who runs the hostel seems a lot friendlier today, maybe he was just having a bad day yesterday. I’ll give him a 2nd chance.

Kotor Fortress was the most enjoyable part of my day. It should cost €2 but there was no attendant probably because of the bad weather so result. It’s built directly into the mountain behind the town and it will take you a good 40 minutes or so to get to the top. There’s loads of different paths and old crumbing stair cases to take, not to mention dark mysterious caves that could be harbouring all sorts of ghouls and goblins. Basically there’s a lot of opportunity for boyish adventuring and I took full advantage. There was hardly anyone else about which made it even better. Today’s picture is the view from near the top.

As a reward for my efforts I treated myself to a jam donut when I got back down. It was nice but it was the tiniest portion of jam imaginable. One solitary bit had a vague jam like taste.

My company while hiking was Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys fame. His ‘Keep It Hid’ album is decent but nothing spectacular, a lot of is just the same (but generally poorer) than the dirty blues he belts out with The Black Keys. There is enough here to make it worth a listen though and if it was all as strong as the last third it would be a very good album.

The old walled town (which the hostel is actually within) is great for just wandering around aimlessly. It’s got enough little guinnels and passages to make it interesting but not so many that you can’t stumble upon anywhere you want to find within 10 or 15 minutes.

Whilst just outside a local mini-mart near the old-town, I was getting some beers out of the fridge when the guy came out and said you can only buy them if you have an empty bottle for each one first. That’s ridiculous. In Croatia and Romania the price would be a bit higher than advertised if you didn’t have an empty but no beer at all without an empty is a funny approach. It’s a classic chicken and egg scenario, erm I think. No matter, I just went to the supermarket on the other side of town that I used last night and 4 pivos are now mine.

After dropping my supplies off I was going to venture back out and look for a decent meal but once more very heavy rain abounds??. So it’s the pizza parlour directly next to the hostel for me. I’ve ate a lot of pizza on this trip, in my defense they are usually one of the cheapest thing on the menu though and needs must. I’ve gone for the ‘Diavola’ which is tomato, mozzarella, pork sausage, hot chilli pepper and pepper apparently. When it came it was basically just a pepperoni pizza with a couple of large chillis (which were mingin’ as they’d been drowned in vinegar so I didn’t bother with them) and it was pretty good.

As nice as Kotor is there isn’t really that much to see so I’ve changed my mind again and will probably now get the early bus as originally intended. I don’t think there is much going on on Ulcinj but at least if I get in at 16:00ish I’ll have the evening to relax.

Which funnily enough is exactly what I intend to do with this one, I’ve just opened a bottle of Nirsickro (it’s not actually called that but it’s something similar, I can’t quite make it out) with my Swiss army knife and now I’m away.

Best search today – ‘how much are a bag maltesers’. TTFN.

As I will be back in Western Europe soon prices will be a risin’, so it’s necessary for me to start making concessions when and where appropriate. An easy one is to demolish any breakfast with the word free before it to avoid paying for that meal and also making only a snack required for the following one.

So that being said I had 2 large slices of bread with jam, 2 slightly mini (but not on taste!) chocolate croissants, 2 slices of bog standard buffet cheese, a slices of bog standard buffet ham, 4 slices of bog standard buffet salami, a Dairylea like triangle of cheese, a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. My lunch will be a tin of tuna I smuggled out. That’s cricket mate.

I’m feeling a bit zombie like this morning as by the time I checked in and got to bed last night it only left me with 3 or 4 hours kip time. I’m in a positive mood though so will plough on regardless and get out and see what Podgorica is all about before getting a bus to Kotor this eve (though I need to get back down the station and figure that out).

So what’s Podgorica like? Not got a clue. No sooner was I ready to leave and have a butchers than an almighty storm had broken out. I borrowed an unmbrella to go back to the bus station to get money to pay for hotel (you have to pay cash to get the discount) and I still got completely soaked in a matter of minutes. From the look of the sky it’s going to be here for the duration so there’s not really anything to do but get outta town. I would stay another night but I can’t justify another €55. A shame eh.

If this was to happen anywhere Podgorica is probably the best place. I certainly can’t make a full judgement on the place from what I’ve seen, but from what little I have (and have read and heard from others) it looks like there isn’t too much going on anyway.

The buses are pretty much every hour and it’s 20 past 12, so I’ve bought a ticket for the 14:23 to give me a couple of hours to sort some things out on the internet in the hotel.

I do hope the weather in Kotor is improved, it’s only 2 hours away though so I’m not holding my breath. I’ve got 2 night’s there though so hopefully the weather will be okay tomorrow at least.

On route to Kotar we passed through Budva and the coast of the town (which I got a view of from the surrounding mountains before entering it) looks beautiful, I expect likewise from my destination.

There now and the weather still looks a bit humpty but it has stopped chucking it down for now at least. Let’s go and find the hostel then.

Kotor is lovely. A pretty little old town surrounded by the sea one side and mountains on the other. No sooner has it stopped than It’s pouring down again, I hope it subsides in the morning as I’m really looking forward to exploring.

The hostel seems okay too though it is inundated with mosquitos. I’m all repelled up this time though and have already killed 2 of the sods with my shoe, payback.

I’ve just handed over €2 to have my washing done, much needed I can tell thee. This means I’m going to have to squat round here for the next 4 hours or so though unless I fancy a walk about in the rain in my shorts.

It will give me time to try and figure out my transport to Tirana at least. There’s no direct bus, I think it might involve 2 or 3 changes but trying to find out the schedules beyond the first bus is pretty much an impossibility. I might be best going back to Podgorica and trying to get a train from there maybe. At worst I’ll just have to get the bus to Ulcinj (which is the furthest point I can get a bus to in the right direction) and then if I’ve missed whatever connection I need I’ll just have to try and find accommodation there. Cripes.

I know it’s Saturday but i will likely take it easy tonight, I am operating on 3 and a half hours after all. Maybe just a few cans or somet.

Crystal Stilts ‘Alight of Night’ is the album I’ve been listening to today. Okay it’s not particularly original, but who cares, it sounds great. Lots of fuzz, lots of distortion, lots of wall of sound type stuff, lots of miserablist fun. Super I say.

The rain eased off eventually so I ventured out to get some supplies in. On my return I still couldn’t get WiFi access (I hadn’t been able to since I arrived) so I asked the fella working here if he could reboot the router, christ he’s a miserable sod. I wasn’t impressed with his aloofness and lack of info offering at check-in, you get more words out of this guy. Anyway router, he was just like “It works for me”. This lead me to suspect the DHCP server on the router wasn’t working (a reboot would likely fix!) so I went down the static route and asked to quickly check the settings on his laptop, grudgingly he let me and a minute later I had WiFi. Apologies for the tech mumbo jumbo, but the point was that the guy wasn’t very friendly and made things more difficult than need be. Poor staff rating on Hostel World I reckon.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess how much dosh I’ve accrued from Google AdSense on the Lonely Planet pages so far? Closest to gets a KitKat chunky courtesy of moi.

That reminds me of a KitKat related joke:

Gerald is feeling peckish and goes to a 24 hour garage late at night, he says to the girl at the window “Get me a KitKat chunky”.

The girl twoddles off and returns with a KitKat chunky.

“What the hell’s this, I wanted a traditional standard KitKat you fat cow” says Gerald.

Oh dear. Claire Roberts told me that, blame her.

I’m now sat roun waiting for my washing and wanting to get some kip. The girl said 3 hours and we’re on 5 now. Mr personality is at the controls so I think he’s doing his best to extend my misery. Goit.

Montenegro brings us up to country number 20, if you include Transinistra (which I do). Well there you go eh.

Favourite search this time round, ‘the north face vespa backpack’. Wowzers, I’d be interested in that myself!

Lastly, I like this.

PS The photo is actually from Sofia, I did take a few of Kotor but none came out up to scratch.

It costs €55 (and that’s the cheapest in town) which is a bit annoying as that’s not far off a week’s worth of hostels but I didn’t really have any other choice. There’s only one hostel there as I’ve mentioned earlier and that has an 11pm curfew (one of many daft rules they implement) which is no good to me when my bus won’t get in until well after midnight.

At least the hotel is right near the bus station apparently, so I’m not going to have to faff about with directions or taxis.

Podgorica isn’t actually supposed to be that good but I like to see a country’s capital city and I don’t think I could have got to Kotor (near the Montenegro coast line) direct from here anyway. I’m looking forward to Kotor, it should be a chance to relax after what’s been quite a hectic few weeks.

Bloody hell, how annoying. I just had to hand over €4 (which lets face it, is pretty much 4 quid these days) to ‘The Professor’ at checkout as I’d borrowed one of the city guides and left it in the bus station while rushing about yesterday. It’s only a crappy small magazine, one that in most cities would be free, so I thought he was trying it on at first (and maybe he was and did get them free or cheap, I can’t have seen him forking out €80 for 20 as he said) but it does say in tiny letters on the front €4. This is fastly turning in to an expensive week.

I just stopped for a lunch time pint at a place where I saw there was a wireless network and before ordering I asked if it was their’s and the barman confirmed it. Then after I’ve got the pint of Peja they give me the password which is wrong and it transpires they don’t know the right one, great. I wanted to stock up on my podcasts for my imminent 7 hour bus journey. I guess I’ll just have to find another pub, oh the hardship.

I know I’ve not said much about Pristina as there isn’t really much to say, it’s not done anything for me. To be fair it is a city in what is in effect a new country which is changing fairly rapidly so in another 5 years who knows what it will be like.

The only thing I can think to mention is that Bill Clinton appears to be pretty big over here, streets and shops named after him and bill-boards (geddit?) with his swede plastered on. The Kosovan government even subsidises the cost of cigars. I presume all of this is because he was the American commander-in-chief when NATO bombed Serbia to get them off Kosovo’s back.

The mozsters got me again (8 bites is the count) as I forgot to apply the repellent last night, blighters to the end they are.

I just had a very early tea at XIX only 90 minutes after my lunch as I had to fit it in before my bus ride. It was my first ‘Full English’ in 2 months and it was ruddy gorge’.

Crikey, I’m dying for a haircut but with still the best part of 2 months to go I’m likely to look like Pat Sharp on my return.

On the bus now, goodo. I just got a bottle of water and a bag of crisps before embarking and the shopkeeper said to me “Where you from?”, “Manchester” was my obvious reply. “Wayne Rooney!”. “No, Carlos Tevez”. “Ah, Manchester City”. That’s more like it fella.

Oh boy this is going to be a long journey. They’ve just switched the ‘entertainment’ on. Some DVD of people (Albanians I think) singing and dancing to that awful tuneless Turkish sort of music. It’s penetrating and therefore ruining my Mayo and Kermode (though he’s not on it this week as he has swiney) weekly film reviews podcast.

I’d honestly rather listen to drum ‘n bass than this, it’s the most horrific sort of music on the planet and every ruddy song is exactly the same. I could make a killing (pun intended) selling cyanide capsules to fellow passengers.

I’m going to have to switch to something louder to drown out this assault on the ears out. Cue my thoughts on Beirut’s ‘March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland’. Well it’s almost a companion piece to their first album ‘The Gulag Orkestar’ with the powerful horn section and graceful synths present again. I really like it but it’s not quite at the standard of Gulag (granted, a very high standard that was), I’ll need to download the album imbetween now.

Over 2 and a half hours in and that stuff on the box is still going, they’ve turned it down a fair bit now though so I can bare it. Oddly, currently on screen is a tall and skinny Albanian man in a suit who is a great lookey likey for Matthew Kelly.

On the way out of Kosovo the customs man who boarded the bus was looking for my inbound stamp, I knew I should have got one when coming from Macedonia. Luckily he just gave it me back and that was that.

Very strangely there was no Montenegro customs at all, that’s a new one on me. Another stamp goes begging. I’m telling ya, it’s an international conspiracy to deprive me of the travelling badges of honour that are righly mine.

Actually I take it back, there is a Montenegro customs, but it’s a good 5 miles I reckon from the Kosovan border. That’s a new one on me. Got a stamp though, whoo!

They’ve turned the sound back up. Boo.

Well it’s gone over 7 hours and still no Podgorica. I don’t think it’s helped that the driver has stopped for ages loads. I hope we get there soon, I’m dying to collapse in my bed. The good thing is that my hotel is supposed to be 200 metres from the station.

Also, I’ve just yawned and my ears have popped. That’s made the travesty of sound even louder. Not pleased.

Another bleedin’ stop. The driver has the bladder of an infant guinea pig. Onwards I say, onwards!

This is ridiculous. This numpty has more breaks than a Spanish builder, they last ages and ages too. I’m not sure what I hate him more for, his music taste or his laziness. Nearly half 1 in the morning, I’m not going to get very long for my €55.

I’m finally there readers, thank Jehova.

The hotel is really nice, 10% off with my ISIC too which will save me a fiver. Night.

There are indeed some very strange channels on this cable setup. One called 21 Junior just has weird and awful Eastern European songs sung and danced to by little brat kids 24/7. It’s very bizarre and a bit disturbing. Oh for Sky Sports News.

This morning I had a mini-adventure to find an ATM so I could pay for another night in this guesthouse. Apparently the nearest one is just 10 minutes up the hill. Well it’s right back down the other side again and the road splits numerous times without a clear obvious route to take, I got there in the end though and at least I now have an idea of the route to town. I’m hoping there will be some sort of travel agents there to get my next bus ticket rather than having to go on a right mission to the central (or not so central) bus station.

To make up for rising accommodation and transport costs I picked up some supplies while I was out. For €4.40 I got 2 croissants, a carton of apple juice, pasta, pasta sauce, some meat for the pasta and pepper. That’s my next 4 meals taken care of, not bad eh.

I got back to the hostel and paid ‘The Professor’ the dosh for the room no probs. The Professor is what the fella who runs the place calls himself, he’s a bit of an old character and delighted in telling me that he studied in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne between 1971-1975.

‘Solaris’ has just come on telly now and I should really be getting out and hunting for a bus ticket but I’ve never seen it and it’s only 90 minutes so it has to be done, i don’t half miss my films. Mini review of sorts here as always.

I see on the news that Bazza O has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Ridiculous if you ask me, what has he actually achieved yet? I hope he goes onto do something that warrants such an award but all he has done so far is talk (very well I might add), all politicians can do that.

In the end I did have to go to the main station to get my ticket. I walked into town and had a look about but couldn’t find any travel agents that would sell tickets. So then I got a taxi to the station at a pre-arranged (I always do this as so many of the taxi drivers in these parts try it on) price of 3 Euros and tried to pay attention to the route so I could walk it back (which worked a bit, kind of, well I had to go back on myself a couple of times but it was dark by this time so that didn’t help!). I got the ticket and it was 16 Euros leaving tomorrow at 17:45 and taking about 7 hours.

So as I’m not going to be getting the bus to Montenegro in the morning at I thought (there is one but it’s at 7 so I’d have to be up at 5ish and I’ve not had much sleep lately as it is) I’ll have most of the day to have another look round Pristina. I’ve not been very impressed so far but granted I’ve not explored that much yet. What has been doing my head in is the roads here, cars are always parked on the pavements so you have to walk in the road a lot constantly avoiding traffic and often having to crisscross. Red lights and green men don’t seem to mean much in these parts either. The ying to that yang is I’m liking using the € again.

The fact that I’m here all day tomorrow also meant I could eat out this eve and use my remaining supplies for lunch before I leave the guesthouse. I found a cheap little place called Pizziera Rona. 3.50 for a decent pizza and a bottle of the local pilsner, Peja (very nice).

I’ve listened to another couple of albums today offline with Spotify (will ya shut up already about that!). ’200 Million Thousand’ by Black Lips was first up. It’s very much in the same garage-rock vein as their previous outing, ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ and it’s reasonable enough but the killer tunes that it’s predecessor had just aren’t there this time round, so ultimately it’s a disappointment for me. The other album was ‘Dropping the Writ’ by Cass McCombs. It’s appealing to me more with every listen so far, reminding me of Elliott Smith in a lot of ways. Goodie gumdrops is the initial verdict.

Another film was also somehow squeezed in earlier, ‘Semi-Pro’ with Will Ferrell. My thoughts are in the same place as my ‘Solaris’ ones. I will say that Will Ferrell could make me laugh reading the dictionary though, genius that fella.

I’m currently sat trying to sort a hotel for Podgorica for when I arrive at about 1 in the morning tomorrow night (that’s a paradox right there that is), is a ball ache and taking ages (to do it cheaply anyway). I’ve just booked 2 nights at a nice looking hostel for Kotor afterwards though. It’s not very far from Podgorica so it should be pretty easy to get to, that’s what I’m hoping anyway.

Today’s best search ‘buy a jar of gypsy tears’. Maybe I should start floggin’ them on here?

I started with 2 full boiled eggs while waiting for my 4 slices of bread to toast, 2 of which I put butter on and the other 2 chocolate spread. Yum. More grub to follow later.

Before brekkie I was speaking to an interesting Norwegian bloke who’d very much been travelling off the beaten track. He’d followed up a year in Shanghai by making his way home in a rather indirect fashion, I’m talking about all the Stans for starters. You know, Kazak, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen etc. Impressive.

I didn’t get very long at all to see Skopje today as I didn’t leave the hostel until well into the afternoon with trying to sort stuff out for the next leg. I’ve got a hostel (of sorts, which is unlikely to have WiFi so it may be a while before I can actually post this) for tonight in Pristina but beyond that my plans are a bit sketchy.

I’ve been unable to figure out online, what buses run from Pristina to Podgorica in Montenegro and also to find a hostel there. Hopefully there will be some info at the station tonight. There is actually one hostel but it looks bloody awful and it’s relatively expensive for it too. I eventually had to give up on the planning as there was a power cut, that kind of took the matter out of my hands. I’ll have to try and get net access in Pristina somewhere and sort out a cheap hotel if I can.

Whenever I’m on the net I tend to multi-task a lot to stop boredom setting in. So while trying to figure out my travel logistics I also signed up to Spotify’s premium service. Warning, you may want to skip the next 4 paragraphs if this sort of stuff doesn’t appeal to you in the least.

When this first came out a month or so back (or actually that’s when the iPhone app came out but that’s the bit that makes the premium service useful to me in my current circumstances) I initially thought why on earth would I want to pay a tenner a month for music that I won’t actually own. But when you look at it closer, what you get for the price of a pint a week is pretty damn fan dabby.

You can listen online to pretty much anything you want without any advertising interruptions or any other obstructions. But the really cool bit is that you can also download the music to play it offline as much as you want (as long as you maintain your subscription obviously) too and you can do all this directly on the iPhone (or a PC).

For example, earlier I downloaded some albums I had on my ‘to be purchased on the cheap via eBay’ list and I’ll listen to them later on the bus without any internet access. The very first 5 albums I searched for were all available and as the artists were Adem, Beirut, Black Lips, Cass McCombs, Crystal Stilts and Cymbals Eat Guitars they aren’t exactly mainstream.

It’s pretty impressive stuff and means I’ll get to listen to a huge amount more of music I wouldn’t have had access to before. I know you can listen to the tunes online via the free version of Spotify anyway (and I did used to back in my working days) but the offline feature together with the iPhone is just so liberating and perfect for travelling too. 10 quid well spent.

Anyway, Skopje. When i got out in the end I made my way across the River Vardar (over a bridge like, I didn’t swim it) to the old town and I liked it a lot. There’s lots of very narrow old rustic streets and it’s not touristy at all. It does get a bit skanky towards the back where there is a massive Market though.

I got a touch lost on the way back as it’s a right labyrinth. Luckily I found some high ground to spot some landmarks (like this) to get my bearings again.

After that I had a look round the fortress which isn’t particularly impressive but it’s worth a gander if you’re about anyway and it gives decent views of the city.

Ohh oh, here comes another Spotify paragraph, I’m not participating in an affiliate program honest. While wandering around I listened to all of ‘Takes’ by Adem and I don’t know how it made my list in the first place, it’s wishy washy nonsense and incredibly dull. Amazingly the songs are all covers. A real shame as I loved ‘Homesongs‘. So Spotify has probably saved me a fiver or so already as that’s what I’d have eventually paid for the album on eBay. Splendid. The only downside so far is that you have to run it interactively so you can’t do anything else on the phone (like compose stupidly long blog posts) whilst listening, but this is a restriction Apple apply to all 3rd party applications anyway.

Food was needed by this time and a little bistro called Trend looked decent and reasonably priced. I had the Pesto Genovese and it was okay, a little bit bland though. On the plus side the portion was rather large and I liked how they put Parmesan around the edge of the deep bowl rather than all over the pasta. Not bad really for 3 and a half €.

Then it was back to the hostel for a quick recharge of batteries (both the IPhone’s and my own) before making my way to the bus station.

My last meal was the unhealthiest of the lot. After a bit of messing about I ascertained that I didn’t need to pay to put my bag in the bus luggage hold so this left me with 130 local currency to get rid of with 7 minutes before the bus departed. I went back into the depot and spotted a fast food place doing burger, chips and a can for exactly 130, well that’s a sign isn’t it. The chips were rank but the burger was surprisingly tender.

This journey takes between 2 and 3 hours I think and the bus has plenty of leg room so it will likely go quickly.

Skopje is near the Macedonia/Kosovo border so it wasn’t long before the customs malarkey, it feels like I do this every day at the moment. The bad news is I didn’t get a stamp again and I don’t know why, man.

I’m in Pristina now and I think I’ll have to get a taxi as I’m in the middle of nowhere, it’s getting late and there’s no walking directions anyway.

The hostel said it should cost €3 and he wanted €8, I got him down to €5 by just walking away when he wasn’t having it, though I’m not sure where I was walking to as there were no other taxis about!

As expected, this gaff is much more a guesthouse (I suppose the clue is in the name) than a hostel. It’s okay though, for 15 Euros I’ve got my own room with cable TV (with loads of channels in English) and a fridge.

I’m enjoying just veging in front of the box, after so long travelling I could lie here for days. I watched a little bit of the World Cheer-leading Championships on Eurosport 2 and it’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever seen, there’s even some blokes doing it, the gymnastics levels are pretty impressive though. Now I’m watching some rubbish Bruce Willis flick where he’s an army geezer in Africa. It’s cheesier than the cheer-leading stuff.

I may well have to stay another night here as it was all closed up at the bus depot when I got there tonight and by the time I get there again tomorrow (having also sorted a hotel) my bus may have left or at the least I won’t have time to see this city.

بطاقة الطالب is the most unusual search of the day. WTF?

Okay, I suppose I’d better reign this one in then. Time for tubby bye bye.

I was awoken at not long after 6 this morning by an Aussie fella turning the light on in a bit of a panic. He wanted to know if anyone had a first-aid kit as apparently a mirror and fell on someone and split their arm open, white stuff and muscle visible and everything. Lovely. I do and provided him with it. I was very much awake by this point.

I reckon the Aussie who made the request might be a vampire. Every night I’ve been at the hostel (which happens to be the first one I’ve ever given a 100% rating, I must be getting soft) he stays up all of it and will then go to bed and not get up to 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Vampire.

Customer service in Bulgaria (and other countries in the region) is quite odd and takes some getting used to. This morning when putting my bag in the luggage hold on the bus I noticed that the other bags had labels on them. So I went to enquire about it at the office which the bus was parked in front of. The woman looked busy doing paperwork stuff and talking to another bloke behind the counter so like a proper Englishman I setup a queue and waited for her to make eye contact or express in some other manner that it was business time. A few minutes passed and then someone else walked in and flanked my newly formed orderly line and proceeded to get dealt with in seconds. Did the counter lady think I was just stood there mulling over her poor complextion? This country.

Anyway, all sorted now. In 7 hours or so I should be in Macedonia.

It occured to me earlier that I’ve not seen a Vespa (or Lambretta) in weeks and weeks. I’m really looking forward to getting to Italy, surely there is somewhere there I can hire a geared scooter (and if a vintage one all the better)?

I’m gonna try and get some bus kip now. This is a nice song to fall asleep to.

We’ve just gone through customs and I didn’t get a stamp on my passport, man . As far as I know Macedonia isn’t in the EU so I’m not sure why not.

The bus took an hour less than I was expecting (including the hour gained from switching back to GMT +1) so that was good.

Unless I arrive really late, the weather is bad or it’s stupidly far away, I like to walk to the hostel. The Art Hostel where I’m staying isn’t very far away but the directions that are always included in the Hostel World booking confirmation email consisted of “Head in the direction of Vodno Mountain for 20 minutes”, completely useless. It was only the equivalent of than €2 in a cab though.

I’m staying here just one night, while at the bus station earlier I booked a seat on a bus to Pristina for 18:00 tomorrow, it takes 2 hours. So that give me all day to scope out Skopje. I’ll have a little look tonight while trying to find some decent grub, but I’m abut knackered so am just taking it easy for now.

The hostel (actually it looks more like a budget guesthouse) I’ve booked for Kosovo doesn’t seem very good, though as it’s the only one I didn’t have much choice!

There was an Aussie bloke in the room at the hostel who was ambling for having a look about the city as a group and suggested seeing if anyone else was interested. I semi-politely got myself out of it by kind of not really saying yes or no and leaving by myself 20 minutes later. One I wanted to sit down and eat and didn’t fancy doing so with a load of people I don’t know watching having likely already ate themselves. Two, I often prefer wandering around a new city on my own.

So when I finally dragged myself onto the Skopje streets it was around the 21:00 mark, nosebag was needed greatly. I found Amigos pretty soon and even sooner afterwards I’d placed my order for chilli con carne and a bottle of Skopsko I think I might have over done the super hot habanero sauce judging by the severe burning sensation in my mouth and lips. It was very nice though. It came to just under €8 (I’m not even going to get involved in explaining the currency as it’s one of those daft ones with too many zeros in the denominations).

I’ve not seen nearly enough yet to judge Macedonia’s capital. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

Now I don’t mean this in a horrible way, but strewth I’m getting sick of Aussies (despite meeting plenty of them that I like). The number of them travelling is just ludicrous. I reckon it’s a stealth invasion and at some point soon the Australian Prime Minister will order an all out attack on the EU. Mark my words.

My hangover was a bit worse than it I initially seemed, but I knew what had to be done. Large chicken McNugget extra value meal, double cheese burger and 3 barbeque sauces. It’s the first time I’ve actually ate a full meal in McD’s for months (though I do nip in for the odd milkshake), damn did it do the trick.

While in Smacky’s I had my first direct experience of the Bulgarian reverse shaky head thing. It’s pretty similar to what a lot of people from India are prone to doing. In a word, hilarious.

Right, I feel better now so let’s see what your made of Sofia.

So I walked for around 5 hours and saw a variety of things like the Statue of St. Sofia (like fighter pilot’s thumbs aren’t they!) and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. I also sat and watched a load of skater kids in a park trying tricks on a ramp, with lots of painful looking tumbles occurring regularly.

Then I done something I probably shouldn’t have done, I bought a pair of Ben Sherman sunglasses. To be fair though I have been after a pair for ages and also as I’ve been pretty frugal lately, I’m under budget. I like ‘em ‘n all.

I’ve liked Sofia. It’s not really that special but it is just quite a nice place to walk about. I’d recommend dropping in if you’re in the area.

Skopje tomorrow then and country number 18 with in. Blimey.

My favourite search of the day is ‘the andorran model museum’. How this brings someone to my site I have no idea. As yet I haven’t been to Andorra never mind the model museum. Truth is stranger than ficiton eh.

Lastly, much kudos for Richard Dunne for the classy aftermath of his goal against us last night.

I saw a Twiiter post (tweet to the initiated) yesterday from the fellas over at Hey! Manchester raving about the KEXP Music That Matters podcast. They are usually on the money so I’ve given it a whirl and have not been disappointed. If like me, you like lo-fi indie and Americana, fill your boots.

I’m having a bit of trouble working out my route at the moment. But I’ve just sat down for an hour and had a go, here’s the latest draft:

Sofia-Skopje-Pristina-Podgorica-Kotor-Tirana-Ohrid

Or in country form:

Bulgaria-Macedonia-Kosovo-Montenegro-Albania-Macedonia (again)

After that I’ll be heading south, ultimately to Athens and then a ferry crossing from Patra to Italy. Route yet to be formalised!

It’s a very overcast day here in Sofia but I’m not going to let that daunt me and shall shortly be going on a heavy duty walk around the city. I’m armed with the excellent Hostel Mostel map that has pretty much everything you could want on it detailed. Jobs a good ‘n.

The sun has come out now and I’ve just sorted my bus ticket to Skopje, 32 Lev with my ISIC. It’s 16:00 and I’ve not ate since breakfast so time to grub up now.

While looking for somewhere to eat I nipped into a supermarket to get some apple juice (which is pretty much as close as I get to fruit nourishment on my adventures). There were 3 kids who were definetely no older than 14 all stocking up on beer, the checkout lady didn’t bat an eyelid. Bulgaria eh.

I’m sat in Cactus and have ordered the Teriyaki duck fillet with coriander rice noodles. I nearly opted for the pork chop and potatoes with barbeque sauce but decided to leave my comfort zone just a little. A pint of Zagorka is the accompaniment. The food was a posh portion (i.e. not that large) but absolutely lovely. The main was about half as much again as it said on the menu, I’m not sure why. I didnt say anything as for what I ate and a beer it came to the equivalent of less than 8 quid anyway, which isn’t bad at all for what I got.

Plus it’s a free beer and pasta in the hostel tonight. Geordie joy juice.

Bugger, I have just realised I’ve got teriyaki sauce on my City shirt. Classy eh. Those noodles do tend to lead to a bit of splash back though. Bugger. To disguise my shame I’ve whacked my North Face jacket on but it’s far too hot to be sporting such clothing, 15 minutes to the hostel and with a quick change all will be right with the world again.

I’m a little bit worried about catching the The Villains vs The Citizens game this eve. Hopefully I’ll just buy some cans in and watch it at the hostel but it’s quite a busy place so someone could scupper my plans by whacking a DVD on at half 8 or something, it’s a 10 o’clock KO local time so in theory I’d have to guard the telly from about 8 which would be a right pain.

My plan is to guard from about half 9 and then if someone is already watching Saw VIII I’ll have to leg it to one of the Irish pubs on my map. This in itself is risky as the game won’t finish to getting towards midnight and I think they’ll want to chuck out before then. If it does come to that maybe they’ll take pity on me and let me see it out, especially if Martin Petrov is having a blinder.

Okay, I’ve just made an executive decision; I’m not going to go to Rila Monastery tomorrow. I’m sure it’s very nice and everything but it will save me €20 and give me the chance to do the full on tour of Sofia I intended to do today as it’s a bit late in the day for it now. Also it will give me the chance to have 3 consecutive decent night’s kip in a row for a long long time as I won’t need to get up early. Although I’d really like to see the monastery (and shall do one day), that’s a rather hefty plus column in my book.

To celebrate this decision I’ve just bought six 500ml bottles of different brand beer while listening to British Sea Power. The running order shall be Stella Artois, Zagorka, Becks, Kamenitza, Staropramen and Apuaha.

In other news I managed to crack my nose on the taxi door frame last night while getting my bag out in the dark and with it pissin’ down. It looks like I’ve been in a ruck.

Now apologies to all Plovdivians as what I’m about to say will likely offend them, Plovdiv is an absolute sh*thole. It’s the worst place I’ve been in over 2 months and I’m very glad to be on a bus out of here now.

I wandered round for 5 hours and saw nothing worth writing about. Now obviously it’s possible that I’ve missed some hidden gems, especially as I only had the rubbish map in my rough guide covering the Old Town (pretty much a non-entity in itself), but I suspect not. After Veliko Tarnovo I had high hopes for Bulgaria ‘n all.

Let’s hope Sofia has more about it, though it’s had poor reviews from every other traveller I’ve discussed it with. At worst, I know the hostel where I’m staying has a pool table.

I opted for the bus over the train even though it was 13 lev (between 6 and 7 quid) vs 7 lev as the next one was at 17:00 against 17:25 and it’s only 2 hours against 3 on the bus anyway.

I’m in the hostel now and as expected, it’s very good. I think I’m going to stay an extra night as I’ll use tomorrow to explore Sofia and then the day after I think I might do the day trip to the Rila Monastery as it looks pretty impressive. Then come Wednesday morning I can get an early bus to Macedonia. Great.

Search of the day – ‘bugger fest denver’.

There was one difference from previous night’s though as they had a belly dancer for a short while at the hostel. I reckon she was silicon enhanced as despite a tremendous amount of violent shaking overall, those bad boys were more static than the Maginot Line.

I was mighty relieved when it was all over as she was getting up people watching as participants, luckily I got away lightly.

There was a bloke from Prestwich (and amazingly he wasn’t Jewish) last night who lives in London and sounds about as Mancunian as Boris Johnson. I was having a rather heated debate with him about City and United. To think they call us bitter, he couldn’t hide his vitriol and hatred for our new found status. Apparently we (and Chelsea earlier) have no right to upset the status quo. I like it.

This morning I actually made brekkie, I had a couple of slices of bread and nutella and then went back for 2nds but by 09:31 they had cleared everything away. Breakfast fascists.

It was the usual chaotic, sweaty and slightly hungover rush to make it to the bus on time, as ever I did by a couple of minutes. Phew.

After I’d got my bag checked into the hold a fella rudely beckoned for me to help him with a very heavy box he was trying to carry, which I did. This wasn’t followed by any verbal or physical display of thanks. I should have kicked him in the nads.

I’ve just spent my last 5 TL on a sandwich for later and some Fruitella like strawberry sweets, I’ve munched the lot in one go and consequently feel a bit, what my Mum would describe as, ‘yeaky’. On a more positive note, I have just seen a man at the service station who looks like a Turkish Jim Bowen, (I would like to put smashing, super, lovely in Turkish here but it doesn’t really translate).

The customs stuff went without a hitch. I think ‘Mr get help but don’t thank’ wanted me to get him some cigs at duty free, not ruddy likely matey. If he keeps this up he’s going to get a kick in the nads.

Tired, tired, tired. All I want to do is get to my hostel, post this, check the footy scores have a quick bite to eat and then get to bed.

There now and it’s absolutely chucking it down. If it’s like this tomorrow I won’t be seeing much of Plovdiv.

This hostel isn’t very good at all really. The family running it are nice enough but the place is untidy (though clean just about) and other than a bed and acces to a bathroom, there is nothing else that other hostels offer for the same price. The Internet connection isn’t working as well so I probably won’t get a chance to post this until tomorrow. At least as no one else is staying, I have the room to myself so can get a decent sleep.

Night night.

Man, I missed brekkie again this morning. Doh.

Ohh oh, here comes another extremely loud Islamic prayer call. Time to listen to a podcast, this one in fact.

Shortly I’m going to go in hunt of bus ticket to Plovdiv (which I’ve now decided to visit after all) for tomorrow. I know there are plenty of buses going that way but I can’t find the times or prices. I don’t want to get a night one if I can help it as my plan is to arrive in Plovdiv Saturday evening (probably quite late) and then see a bit of it in Sunday before taking a bus to Sofia which should be 3 hours or less I’d have thought. Then the Sunday and Monday (Villa vs City!) night there before moving on to Macedonia.

There are bus ticket bureau type places round the city but I think they may be difficult to find. It looks like I’m going to have to go on a right mission to the station where I came in at as there are literally around a hundred different ticket offices there. I’ve a feeling this is going to be a right ball ache.

Actually it turned out to be pretty easy. I found a travel agents round the corner and 40 TL later I’d purchased a ticket for 12:00 tomorrow. It takes about 7 hours which is perfect.

Right now I’m just waiting in Kosk Restaurant with my Efes Pilsen for my spicy sausage omlette to arrive. I nearly opted for the Turkish Ravioli but then I saw a picture of it and it looked like a right veg fest.

The omlette was nae bad but the bread with yogurt sauce before it was beaut. It was like a really soft and warm pita, that is hollow and over filled with air. Yum.

I’ve just booked my hostels for Plovdiv and Sofia so that’s all my immediate planning out of the way.

Now I’m toying with this Turkish bath thing. I’ve heard good and bad tales so am in 2 minds.

I wouldn’t say that Istanbul has been one of my favourite cities of the trip but I am glad I came. It’s been very different from everywhere else I’ve been so it’s been worth it for that alone. I’d definetely come back at some point.

The Turkish bath didn’t happen in the end, it’d have cost the best part of 40 quid which is a bit extravagent on a traveller’s budget. I’m going to give it a go one day though.

So back to the Bulg tomorrow. I’ve heard good things about Plovdiv and not so good about Sofia. I’m not worried though Sofia though as Bucharest wasn’t exactly raved about by others and I liked it, also I’m in a Hostel Mostel so I know that side of things will be good.

Though I love the roof garden, another thing I don’t like about this hostel is that they don’t allow you to bring your own beer in but neither do they subsidise the price of their own (it’s around £2.50 a pint). Bad hostelling that. There is a lot that’s right about the gaff as well though.

Istanbul is going to be a relatively expensive few days I think as prices are a lot closer to what it would be at home (and sometimes well beyond). But I’ll be back in the Balkans in a few days so it’ll be back in the cheap scene then.

Today the Topkapi Palace is on the agenda and I might even have a Turkish bath once I’ve priced it up. There was a lad from Shrewsbury who said he fancied trying it last night, though I will probably have missed him now with not making it up for brekkie.

I also need to sit down in front of a PC and plan the next week or so beyond Istanbul. I think it’s likely to involve more night buses, boo.

By the time I got out it was time for lunch rather than breakfast, finding some where cheap is not easy round here though. I has this rice and meatball combo and a couple of baklava and it was well over a tenner.

Food in the belly, I trundled around Gulhane Park just outside Topkapi Palace, it’s a lovely little place. Then it was on into the Palace itself, entry was a little steep at 20 Turkish Lira but there’s not really much point coming here if you don’t see stuff like that.

The Palace was nice, I wasn’t overly interested in the Ottoman artefacts on display but the grounds and the interiors of the buildings are definetely worth a butchers.

I bumped into the lad (Dave) from Shrewsbury by chance while I was there so afterwards we tool the Galata Bridge over the Bosphorus into the Galata region of the city (I presume Galatasaray have something to do with this area).

There were loads of locals fishing off the brıdge and I thınk you can hire the gear and have a go yourself, that may be somethıng I do tomorrow if I have tıme.

Across the bridge you can go up the Galata Tower for 10 Turkish Lira. It offers great views of the city and was well worth the dosh.

I had to buy some more Zovirax earlier, that was another tenner (Sterling) more or less, what a sneak!

Tonight’s agenda will pretty much mirror last night’s I reckon. More Vole and hookah pipes are likely.

After that it was The Grand Bazaar. It didn’t do that much for me really but it is worth seeing if only for it’s sheer massiveness.

In my tired and frail state a few treats were needed to keep the energy levels up. I had this really sweet Turkish rice pudding which was gorgeous, it shaln’t be my last of the trip. The other was a little pastry called baklava, also pretty nice.

Hurrah, checked-in. Time to have a go at a day-time kip, something I rarely manage.

I got about an hour, better than nowt I suppose.

The Agora Hostel where I’m staying seems okay, a couple of pros and cons so far. The best bit without a doubt is the great view from the roof garden bar which looks out on to the Bosphorus.

My evening will likely consist of a couple of cheeky beers (and just a couple as they’re none too cheap) up there before a big wedge of sleep that I’m looking forward to immensely.

At the end of the night I was good and even though I was feeling okay I turned in around midnight as the bigger picture was in focus. It was a good night though and I met cool people from the US, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and even my own fair isle. The subtle nargile fumes eased the proceedings.

I enjoyed watching City take West Ham apart last night. It does indeed seem we’re the real deal. I don’t reckon the Rags will be singing 20 odd years (and we’re still ‘ere) for too much longer.

A spot of lunch may be in order just now I think, let’s have a trundle into town.

I’ve managed to find the one English bar here, St. Georges. Classy eh. I’ve gone for the full Wetherspoons experience to ease any mild home sickness I may have; beer (Boliarka, which now I’ve seem the translation, is what I’ve been drinking in the hostel all the while) burger and chips. Jurassic Park.

Food finished i think I’m going to have rush my pint as ‘Radio Swiss Pop’ is the resident noise pollution, it’s as bad as the name suggests it might be.

Have a read of this. I don’t think I want to go to Turkey anymore.

I found my way to the bus station with nae bother and picked up a ticket for 40 lev (20 quid). I’m just waiting for the bus now.

I’ve rang the hostel and they’re open 24 hours, the tram starts running at 5 in the morn and I’m due in at 4 (if there’s no delays), the visa at the border should be 20 lev for a British citizen like myself, mozzie repellent applied, hoody in hand, battery fully charged and I’ve got a 2 litre bottle of water and a large pack of cheese crisps. Basically, I’m hot to trot baby.

The passenger next to me is a very friendly Bulgarian named Kenan and we’ve discussed a whole plethora of subjects in the past 4 hours or so. We will keep in touch via Facebook and all that.

We’ve just gone through customs and I got stung a bit (not by the rampaging bees I should probably add), because I paid in lev they charged me 40 rather than 20 (so 20 quid rather than a tenner). I’m not sure why but there’s only so far a debate can go in impromptu sign language. It’s not the end of the world though is it.

So I made it to Constantinople in one piece. The bus got in at about half 5 in the end but by the time we (there was an Australian girl on the bus also heading to the hostel) got to the hostel it was well past 7, big place this Istanbul. I can’t check-in until 13:30 and then some much needed sleep will be on the agenda. Until then I may as well have a mooch round as I’m right in the tourist bit. TTFN.

Sleep update: well I had an even earlier night and was tucked in for 11 and asleep by quarter past, blimey. Unfortunately some kids (a nice enough bunch) having a holiday before uni starts came in at 1 and woke me up, though I managed to get back to sleep pretty quickly(ish). Then at about 5 the remaining two of the group were in and wow is all I can say. The noise one of the girls made from her nostrils is unreal. So then I didn’t get back to sleep until half 7, for a couple of hours. So I suppose I got a better amount of hours than of late, but it doesn’t really feel like it. This few days resting up plan hasn’t really worked out. Oh well, onwards I say!

I had a look at the Tsarevec Fortress today which is only a few minutes from the hostel on the edge of town, it’s well worth a visit. The remains, while nice, aren’t really anything you won’t of seen before but it’s a nice big open grounds to walk round for an hour or so and you get some good views of the hills surrounding Veliko Tarnovo. It was relaxing as well as with it being out of season now there was hardly anyone there, a lot of the time it was just me.

After that I meandered into town, finally picking up some mosquito repellent (courtesty of a note explaining what I needed in Bulgarian kindly provided by the lady at the hostel) along the way. Veliko is a quite a small place but busy and bustling too. There’s loads of estate agents advertising dirt cheap property in English, I can certainly think of worse places to live.

I had my first ever bolognese pizza for lunch, curiously it had around half a solid boiled egg per slice. Very strange but quite tasty none the less.

Reet, must go the City vs Hammers match starts in a few minutes. I’ve literally got the entire hostel to myself to enjoy it. A little bit spooky it is.

I’m perking up a bit today even with the lack of sleep. Come a new week on the morrow, I’ll put a full tourist shift in and inspect Veliko properly.

Roughly 2 months in and after coming very close on a number of occassions, I’ve finally lost my Adidas 2 in 1 shower gel/shampoo combo. It’s for some lad or ladette in Bucharest to enjoy now. So this left me in a position of having to source replacements, something which worried me greatly when present in a country using Cyrillic. I mean I could end up with nail polish remover or worse, Head and Shoulders for frequent use with a ginger flakey scalp.

Luckily a lot of the bottles had English on them too so I’m now the proud owner of Wash & Go (did you know that David Ngog’s Liverpool team-mates have nicknamed him ‘Wash’, clever eh) ‘Fruity Boost’ volumising shampoo for normal hair and also Herbs of Bulgaria (I’d rather have Herbs of Jamaica) relaxing lavender shower gel for men. Goodo.

I had a crazy reverse sandwich earlier, the filling was on the outside and I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to eat it like that or place the stuff in manually. It must be the former as there was some sort of mushy relish gluing the bread together. It was hangin’. See the photographic evidence below.

I’m just watching the Sunderland vs Wolves game on the idiot box at the hostel. Why on earth would anyone do that you may ask. Well I have Darren Bent, Kevin Doyle and Michael Turner in my fantasy team (Manchester Oilers), that adds a bit of spice. Ooh there you go, less than 10 minutes in and Bent has just hit a perfect penalty. 4 points, that’ll do nicely.

Speaking of the hostel, it’s possibly the best one I’ve ever stayed at. I can’t think of anything to criticise, and that’s pretty much unheard of for me. So here is another richly deserved plug.

Oh, or maybe it’s here – Hostel Mostel. They have one in Sofia too so I’ll definetely be staying there when I head that way after Istanbul.

The game is over now and finished 5-3 to the Mackems. 3 goals and 3 assists and possibly some man of the match bonuses to follow was the result for me, points galore. It’s tough at the top.

The grub at my temporary residence was a bit different tonight. Some sort of rice dish with peas and other veg through it, though it was a bit of a mine-field for me as there were evil sweetcorns hidden through out.

Going back to the sandwich thing, that’s not the only thing Bulgarians do in reverse. Apparently (I’ve read about it and other people I’ve spoken to have confirmed it), when they shake their head they mean yes and when they nod it they mean no. How daft is that! I’ll leave you with that as a final thought for tonight readers.

Last night I went to bed at 1 but didn’t get to sleep until 6 and was then awake at 9, grrr. I’m a bit under the weather with a bunged up nose, headache and sore throat, so that with 15 itchy mozzie bites makes for difficult sleeping. I can’t really face a night train/bus with that sort of preparation. So if I can string 2 or 3 decent night’s kip together here in Veliko Tarnovo that should do the trick.

The only thing is that it will eat into time for future destinations. So to offset it I might just stay 3 rather than 4 nights in Istanbul and not go to Plovdiv on the way to Sofia at all. Soz Plovdiv, but to be fair, you do have a very silly name.

So feeling like I do and now having 3 full days after this 1 to explore Veliko Tarnovo, I’ve done pretty much nish so far today.

I have booked a hostel for Istanbul though, figured out what bus I’m getting (it leaves here at 20:30 and get in at about 04:00) and researched the rules around visas. I’ve also got my washing done and looked into how I’m going to catch the City vs West Ham game on Monday.

It’s on ESPN (the Yanks that picked up the mess Setanta left behind) and sod’s law there’s one English pub here that has Sky. I’ll have a trundle down to it tomorrow to enquire if they have ESPN as well, it’s unlikely though. It wil be on the Internet but as the PC here is a Pentium II 333 MHz with 192 MB of RAM (which must make it around a decade old) I don’t think it’s going to be up to it, in fact I’d probably have more joy with one of these.

The game is on BBC Radio 5 Live and I know I can get that unrestricted on my phone so that’ll be better than nothing at worst.

If I feel up to it (which I don’t really at the moment, tough stuff this male-influenza you know) I’ll have a walk into town later and see what the Bobby Moore is.

Actually, at 17:00 (so 15:00 in Blighty) I had a flick through the channels on the hostel TV and the Stoke vs Rags game was on some Bulgarian sports channel which has given me hope that we’ll be on too. Indeed not long after I saw an advert for it, Jurassic Park.

I suppose I better have a shower, no east feat with a weary and achy body (can anyone else hear violins?).

After the shower I went to watch the 2nd half and some loud and slightly annoying American fella had switched it to a documentary chanel and wasn’t willing to switch back, god damn douchebag.

I see Richard Dunne has been playing pretty well for Villa buy has just given away a daft 89th minute penalty to cost them the game against Blackburn. Nothing changes. More often good performances but costly stupid own goals, red cards and silly pens to follow no doubt.

After tonight’s ‘light evening meal’ (which was remarkably similar to yesterday’s broth except with some sort of beans rather than potatoes, still quite nice) I managed to leave the hostel for 15 minutes to catch this. There wasn’t actually any music where I watched it from but the light show was still very grand and impressive. Apparently it is on pretty randomly as it only goes ahead when people in the posh hotels have paid for it to do so, they will play the music directly in the hotel and then the guests will watch from balconies.

The American bloke I referred to before is ok I suppose and certainly very well travelled and has some quite interesting tales, but he boasts constantly. It’s not becoming, especially when a man is well past 50 (and possibly past 60). One thing he said that stands out is “Living near Tucson the past few years, I’ve sewn more oats there than at any point in my life, including college”, urgh. The funny thing is I heard him say the exact same thing word for word to someone else at dinner last night. Urgh again.

This hostel has a very progressive approach to their beer sales. There is a fridge full of ‘em (as well as soft drinks) and then on the side of it there is a sheet of paper where you put your name down and mark how many you have had in tally fashion, then you pay at the end. It’s all terribly trustworthy and is actually quite nice, you don’t feel like taking liberties. Though the fact that the beers are about 65p helps ‘n all on that front. I’ve only had 3 or 4, purely medicinal of course in my current plight.

I couldn’t get a decent picture of the light show (not for want of trying) so here is the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest instead.

While walking there I went past a large garden gate and was taken aback by a huge bang like a sledge hammer bashing into it, followed by an almighty roar and a large paw protruding under it. I had a peek through a hole in the adjacent fence and was greeted by a very menacing looking rottweiler which wouldn’t have looked out of place in The Omen. I made a split-second decision on the sturdiness of the fence and then gave Rex a little whistle, I don’t reckon he was too impressed.

Patsy Parisi (or was it Philly?) just walked past me. So that’s 2 (Paulie Gaultieri was the other one remember) Sopranos lookey likeys I’ve seen now in Bucharest. There must be somet going down. I wonder what the skinny is?

There’s definitely more stray dogs in Bucharest and Romania in general than anywhere else I’ve been so far. If I was to help one of them and take it into my home as my own, would that make me …. drum roll please …. wait for it …. nearly there …. Dan Petrescu(e). Ohh geez man, that’s so bad it’s great.

The train journey was okay, if a bit hot and sweaty. There were 2 blokes on the train who’d been at the hostel and my seat was with them so that made time pass a bit quicker. Funnily enough I’ve been to both of their home towns.

One fella a bit younger than me who was from Dusseldorf and a film buff which gave us some common ground. The other was a retired bloke in his early 60s from Malmo who spends 4 months a year there, 4 at his other home in Spain near Alicante and another 4 travelling just about everywhere, his passport stamp collection is most impressive. I asked him what his job was previously, he said it was related to weaponry (specifically explosives). I’m saying he’s an arms dealer.

This hostel I’m staying at is pretty good value. It’s €6.50 a night in a 10 bed dorm and another €2 per night for breakfast and a light evening meal with a beer. They also picked me and the Swedish bloke up for free from the station.

The evening meal was some sort of Bulgarian broth with potatoes in it, not bad. The best bit was that a lot of people eating didn't want their beer. Sometimes you just have to stand up and be counted, I duly obliged for 3 people.

There were an older (60s) set of couples from Devon who were spending a night here on their way to Varna. I like people from round those parts, they're normally warm and friendly. If I could get a decent job there it's somewhere I'd like to live when back in Albion.

You may remember that I mentioned Schmap were interested in potentially using one of my photos on Flickr for their New York City guide. Well I have them permission and they picked mine to use, goodo. Here’s what it would look like on the iPhone.

I’ve just counted 11 fresh mozzie bites in a variety of annoying places, liccle b@stards.

I can’t be bothered tonight as it’s quite late, but first thing tomorrow morning I need to figure out how the chuff I’m getting to Istanbul. There may be complications relating to funny Bulgarian ticket office opening hours and then trains possibly being off due to the floods in Istanbul. I’ll deal with it all tomorrow though.

Lastly, big shout out for Clure R over in da New of Z who has got an accounts job paying the equivalent of 35 large Sterling. Nuff rezpect.

The picture is of a rather large football boot (I suppose you can see that can’t you) in Bucharest, not really sure what it’s all about to be honest.

I did use BBC iPlayer to watch all of The League Cup Show this morning though. Us scoring to from set pieces blimey, we used to go an entire season without scoring one. The ‘Typical City’ season looks to be well and truly shed.

I slept like a baby last night despite the fairly regular boom of super fast cars outside the window, it sounds like drag race is going on sometimes. I feel better for it and another one like that and I might even resemble a member of the human race again.

I left the hostel fairly late as usual but just now I’m sat nursing a bottle of Ursus (or is it nursing me?) in Cismigiu Park which the hostel looks out onto. I really like it, dare I say it more than the much larger Central Park in NYC.

After that I walked up to the Palatul Parlamentului which is supposed to be second largest administration building in the world, just behind Stretford Town Hall. It is massive like.

While wandering around I was listening to the Matt’s Today in History podcast and one episode was about ‘Dancing Mania’. I thought it was a wind-up at first, mental eh.

For grub tonight I had a real craving for Pizza Hut and there’s one very close to the hostel so I scatched that itch. I’ve been making use of the various hostels I’ve been in kitchen’s facillities a lo lately and have also got my budget on track so a little Western treat wouldn’t hurt. One pepperoni and spicy beef later and jobs a good ‘n. I only got the individual size portion ‘n all which is a first for me.

Them I just took an hour or so stroll round randomly to try and get a better feel for Bucharest in the short time I have here. It seems to be a city that takes a lot of flak about it’s grim architecture, but I like it. There’s lots and lots of grey run down communist tower blocks but some of them have real quality. Like one I was looking at before had what seemed like a Greek podium on top of it, really unusual. If I had a decent camera I’d have been able to capture it.

So Bulgaria tomorow. Of the 14 countries I’ve been to so far, Romania could well take the number 1 spot.

The pic is of a load of old guys playing chess in the park, it looks like a good way to spend your golden years to me.

I’ve booked my hostel for Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria (I’ve decided to miss out Varna to save time) and I’m just about to go and try and sort a train ticket for it and then get some food supplies in.

Other than that I just plan on resting up in the Midland Youth Hostel so I can have a good bit of Marco Poloing tommorow in Bucharest.

I’ve sorted my train ticket and it was 74 lei (just shy of €20). There is a slight complication where I have to change near the end and wait 2 and a half hours for the connecting train, I’m only 20 minutes away by that tome though so I’ll try and get a bus rather than wait that long.

I watched half of Sidney Lumet’s ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ in the hostel earlier, then the disc decided it wasn’t going to play. Bobbins, I’ve wanted to see that for ages ‘n all.

In my brief foray around Bucharest earlier I have to say I quite liked it. I’ve not heard very good things about the city from fellow travellers and okay the never ending deathly grey concrete flats (which I saw for miles on the way in) are very ugly. But I think the place has a certain charm. I’ll elaborate one way or the other come the morrow.

Man, I feel like a zombie. I have been up for about 38 hours though. I’m really really really looking forward to my bed. First up though I’m going to listen to the City vs Fulham Carling Cup game on BBC Radio Manchester via the rather clever and nifty Wunder Radio iPhone app. I hope it’s not a dull game or else I may just nod off.

Check this dude out:

This hostel is pretty good but it’s a little bit out of the way and you have to use taxis to get where you need unless you have the time for a decent walk. So I needed money for a cab and for the actual coach fare (as well as a bit of food supplies) but the shopping mall next door doesn’t open until 10. The taxi drivers don’t seem to speak English and I didn’t fancy trying to explain I needed an ATM with time not being on my side.

Right, so my change of plan is to visit Tiraspol in the break away republic of Transnistria for the day, this is the place I didn’t go to the other day with the Welsh lads because of the derby.

Then I will either get the night bus at 22:00 if I’m back in time or at worst stay an extra night here and make sure I’m ready to rock ‘n roll properly tomorrow morning.

I’ve cast away the apathy (mainly due to tiredness from too many late nights and also because of the laziness that can develop when you have a comfortable hostel to squat in) and it’s groovy gravy from here on in folks, maybe.

Do you know I had to buy another set of earphones a couple of days ago. That’s one pair I’ve had stolen (or taken by accident), a replacement pair from Berlin lasting a month or so before packing in and then a cheap pair I was forced to buy in Poland (so I was over the minimum card amount in a shop) lasting around a day. It’s up there with my biggest recurring costs, blimey.

I’ve always wondered why mosquitos don’t bite you on your face, it seems they do. One of the sods has nailed me just under my right eye socket (as well as on my left knee and right elbow). Grrrr.

Crikey, the bus station setup here is mental. You get there and there are a hundred buses (literally) in all directions. There’s a load of mildly official looking larger ones under departure gates, then there are lots more dodgy minibuses with signs in them saying where they are going.

Eventually I found the right mini-bus more by chance as I heard the driver saying Tiraspol. I wouldn’t have noticed it by the sign as this one was all in Cyrillic. With the help of a pen and paper I got the price (30 lei, that’s less than 2 quid I think), departure time, how long it takes (a bit less than 2 hours) and what time the last returning bus is. Not bad eh.

I’ve heard that sometimes the border control peeps expect bribes so I’ve stashed my decent value notes in my sock just in case.

The suspension of this vehicle is on par with that of the waist-band of Vanessa Feltz. It’s proving exceedingly difficult to compose this blog but I’ll soldier on anyway eh.

Hmm, I may have a problem. At customs going into Transnistria the official said in English “You must stay 10 hours”, I replied that I can’t as the last bus is at 18:45, he just repeated his last statement and added “Understand?”. “Yes” was my reply.

10 hours is 7 more than I intended (and intend) to stay. I’m positive that the Welsh lads had stayed less than 10 and they didn’t have this issue. Also I spoke to maybe 3 or 4 different people (including staff) about visiting here and they didn’t mention it either.

So I’ve got 2 options, neither of which are particularly appealing.

Option A is to try and find somewhere to stay in Tiraspol and go back to Chisinau tomorrow morning, there are lots of drawbacks to this: My bag is in the Chisinau hostel so I’d have to ring them and ask them to look after it, I obviously don’t have any stuff that would be useful for spending a night here (even a jacket), I can’t imagine it would be an easy task finding somewhere cheap to stay (few people round these parts speak English), I’d need to ring the hostel in Bucharest to change my booking (again as I already Skyped them this morning to move the booking forward a day as it is) and lastly I don’t bleedin’ want to spend a night here you draconian red star beaurocrats!

That leaves option B of having to chance it and pay for the bus back to Chisinau at risk of being detained at the border until midnight (or beyond! This post might never actually make it onto STBB and the SAS may have to launch Operation Get Bugger Back, I’ve paid enough ruddy national insurance to justify it). If I do get detained, how the hell I get back to Chisinau at that time I know not.

Actually I think it might not be a case of having to spend 10 hours here, it’s more likely that you can’t enter and leave within the same day. I’ve just noticed that the bloke has written ’24′ next to the stamp saying ’22 CEH 2009′. I wonder if there’s anywhere to buy tipex round here, ahem.

I hope it isn’t the same customs official working I get later, or I can’t really deny understanding what was said to me on the way in (though it probably doesn’t matter to them whether I understood or not anyway.) My current plan is to play dumb if this issue does rear it’s ugly swede and hope its more hassle for them to have me hanging about but that would be negated if it’s the same geezer. Backup plans formulated so far are small change bribery and outpouring of extreme violence on da muddas.

I really need a beer. First I’ve got to figure out how to change some lei for roubles, apparently there are no ATMs here or they don’t work or something.

That bit was straight forward enough, I changed a 200 Moldovan lei note to 2 x 100 notes and then changed one of them to 81 roubles. I did get questioned by a copper while sitting on the steps doing the maths prior to this though, I showed him the (as yet undoctored) paper I was given at the border and he let me go then.

The state of my wallet is becoming a mighty complicated affair. It is currently home to Transnistrian roubles, Romanian lei, Moldovian lei and Lithuanian somet. Come back €, all is forgiven.

Niet is a Russian word I’ve heard often today. As in “Do you speak English?” – “Niet”. You see the station where the bus dropped us off doesn’t seem to be near that much and I’m not really sure which direction it is to the town centre (if indeed there is one), I’ve made my best guess and headed in that direction while trying to keep track of the route I take.

I can’t begin to tell you what beer I’m drinking as the name is in Cyrillic. I’ve found a bar at least anyway.

I’d guessed right so got to have a quick butchers about. Transnistria seems to be very much still steeped in Sovietism. Lenin and hammer and sickle stuff everywhere. It sees itself as part of Russia which is evident by the Russian flags on display and Putin posters knocking about.

Flamin’ ‘eck, oh for a babelfish right now. I appear to have got myself in another pickle. I stopped in for something to eat at a very large fast-food chain called Andy’s Pizza. I went for steak and chips but wasn’t sure if I was reading the price right as it was 35 roubles (a touch over £2) which is ridiculously cheap, there was some other number next to it saying 300 and I wanted to be sure this wasn’t the actual price as it would have been ridiculously expensive and I wouldnt have had enough to pay for it. So when I tried to query this what seemed like the entire staff surrounded me and none of them spoke a word of the Queen’s (this isn’t a criticsm when I say this, it’s just an explanation of the situation) so we were getting no where fast. Where’s Andy when you need him eh? I just chanced it and luckily it was the 35 amount.

The food was okay, nothing to write home about (though in a way, that’s exactly what I’m doing) and quite small portions. But I certainly got my 2 notes worth.

The next thing that went wrong is I got a little lost (no map and the Cyrillic street names not helping) with about 20 minutes to go before the bus left. Cue me sprinting about (which has given me blisters in these sneeks) lots trying to find someone who speaks Blighty talk to get directions.

I found someone eventually but it was a little difficult to understand as she kept getting her rights and lefts mixed up. I got enough though and thankfully with the turn of one corner I knew where I was again.

I’m on a bus to Chisinau now, I’ll know if I’m home and dry shortly as the border is only 15 or 20 minutes away. Gulp.

I thought I was on the wrong bus for a bit as the route to the border seemed very different and had taken considerably longer. It said Chisnau – Tiraspol on the front and I said Chisinau to the driver and he kind of nodded but then I thought well the sign should be Tiraspol – Chisnau so maybe they’ve just not taken it down and it’s actually going somewhere else now. It’s horrible not being able to speak to people, you spend a lot of time not knowing what the chuff is going on.

Well that’s a relief, after all that threating the official that came on the bus didn’t bat an eyelid when he looked at my papers. I did think the odds were in favour of there not being a problem, but still I was far from sure.

This outing really hasn’t been worth all the stress and ball ache. I think I’ll switch back to lazy apathetic mode, it’s a simpler life. Groovy gravy indeed.

Right I made it back to the hostel in time and have shared a taxi with a Dutch girl who is getting the same bus. She’s a freelance journalist on a working holiday with an interest in the geo-politics of the region so I picked up lots of good info.

The bus is a full on double decker whopper complete with tables and everything. That’s relative luxury after what I’ve been used to of late.

I just showed my travel companion that the little thing on her iPhone is actually a remote and microphone, to be fair she has only had it 6 months! Women eh, give them access to some top banana technology and I gurantee they’ll only utilise a tiny fraction of it.

They just gave everyone on the bus a rum and cocoa flavoured croissant and a peach drink for free. Not bad this for 235 lei (less than 15 smackers).

It took a couple of hours to get everyone through both set of customs but there should be no further disturbances now so at 2 in the morn, I’m going to have a go at a much needed kip.

I was daft and didn’t take my hoody on the bus and as a consequence of that I was freezing. As a consequence of being freezing I didn’t sleep a wink. Boo boo.

Okay it’s getting close to 7:00 am I’m in Bucharest now you’ll be relieved to read.

The next stage of my disasterous 24 hours was a completely inept taxi driver who said the journey would cost me €10 and I said 10 lei as I knew €10 was 5 times the price it should be, he nodded. After the first corner he clearly didn’t have a clue where he was going (even though it’s is one of the main streets in Bucharest. Shortly afterwards he dropped me on a street that I was pretty sure wasn’t the right one, but I couldn’t see a street name to confirm it as we weren’t near a corner. Reluctantly I gave him the 10 lei and the cheeky sod had the face to try and get more off me by flashing a 50 lei note (which would be even more than the 10 Euros he’d tried to charge me initially), for that distance it should have only been about 4 lei. I told him to “Get to f*ck”. He had dropped me on Regina Maria Blvd rather than Regina Elizabet Blvd, so I had to get another taxi anyway. Grrr.

The last little quirk of the day was having to ring the hostel several times (and likely have cost myself more in roaming rates than it will have done to actually stay here tonight) to figure out where it was as it was supposed to be 44 Regina Elizabet Blvd and as I’d been at 34 and 10 metres later I was at 54 with no hostel between it was a bit perplexing. For some unexplicable reason 44 is a quarter mile the other way, I can’t even be bothered thinking about why.

It’s been a bit of a ruddy long one today hasn’t it readers. Readers? Hey! Where did ya go?!

I have managed a bit of logistics progress. I was looking at the possibility of going to Ukraine and considered different options but it wasn’t really working, so that will be for another trip (the world is just too damn big!). Here is what I think my route will be:

Moldova – Romania – Bulgaria – Turkey – Bulgaria (again) – Macedonia – Kosovo – Montenegro – Albania – Greece – Italy – and beyond.

Or in a bit more detail:

Chisinau – Bucharest – Varna – Veliko Tarnovo – Istanbul – Plovdiv – Sofia – Skopje – Prishtina – Podgorica – Tirana – Athens.

I may stop off in one or 2 other places in Greece on the way and I have an idea of where I want to see in Italy but it’s a bit too early to start working that out yet, there’s plenty more Balkans survival necessary first. There will be other areas I will probably visit in Macedonia and Montenegro as well, I have an idea of a few but will look into it when I get closer. Also, I might end up missing Varna and Plovdiv in Bulgaria out, I’m getting a bit conscious that although I still have plenty of time left, it’s going quite fast and there are places in Western Europe that I really want to see in reasonable depth (Italy mainly). I’ve underestimated how long this leg of the trip will take really, it may be that I have to leave places like Spain and Portugal out (definitely Morocco at the very least anyway).

Tomorrow morning I should be getting the bus to Bucharest at 10:00 if all goes to plan.

The pic is another one from Belgrade. Over.

I was getting desperate as it got closer and closer to KO and took to just asking people on the street, but not that many Moldovians speak English really. One bloke seemed determined to assist and took me on a bit of a wild goose chase, we must have walked the best part of a mike. He took me to a cinema, why on earth would a cinema show a football match? He then reckoned there was somewhere across town where it would be on if we got a taxi. I don’t know if he was genuinely trying to help me or just playing silly beggars but I didn’t trust him and I’d had enough. I just jumped in a taxi back to the hostel to try and watch it on the Internet there.

I missed the first half hour but then once I’d installed Sopcast it was all okey dokey.

So I can’t really be bothered talking too much about the game actual game. It was one of the most exciting and entertaining derbies ever but we were cheated with the ridiculous amount of stoppage time added. Whether we were good enough for a point with a largely abject 2nd half performance is irrelevant. Fergie time is clearly still prevalent.

Most annoyingly it robbed me of what would have been my blog title for today, ‘You’ve been merked innit’.

Our day will come though and what’s better, they know it. The future is blue.

The 2 Welsh lads had invited me to go with them for a day trip to Tiraspol in the break away republic of Transnistria and if it wasn’t for the match I’d have definitely gone. They’re are a reet daft pair, they love the danger element of the border crossings in these parts. The encounters of corruption and bribery is what seems to makes it interesting for them.

So I’ll have another look around Chisinau tomorrow but if I’m honest I’ve not been impressed with the place at all. It’s not somewhere I’d have any interest in returning to that’s for sure.

Another older picture today I’m afraid, there are very few worthy candidates making themselves available at the moment. This is St. Nicolae Church in Brasov.

I just went to the shopping mall next door to pick up some food supplies (dirt cheap too). The rather posh place is ingeniously titled … wait for it … Mall Dova. I bet the fella who came up with that had a rather large smirk on his swede that day.

I’m off out now for some food (and a few cheeky beers no doubt) with the couple from London I was on the bus with and a couple of lads from near Cardiff

We ate at the Beer House and I had barbecue chicken and fried potatoes (though they gave me fries). It was okay but pretty pricey for what it was, I can’t say I’d recommend the place. The home brew beer was nice though.

After that we went to Rock ‘n Roll Cafe which has plenty of rock ‘n roll related stuff all over the walls but strangely played anything but. It was a good wee gaff mind.

Now we’d heard that Chisinau is supposed to be one of Europe big party cities but it was Saturday night and there was hardly anyone about. Eventually we stumbled upon City Club which we stayed until the very early hours.

It was awful really, the people were arrogant Bacardi Breezer advert types with the girls loving themselves, the men all thinking they were Moldovan gangsters (though undoubtedly some actually were) and the bouncers enjoying reminding you of the many rules they had in place. It was also quite expensive (I spent far too much, a couple of el cheapo days needed now) and the music was rubbish. But having said all that it was still a decent night as the people I was with from the hostel were a good laugh, plus the walls looked a bit like the cover for Broken Social
Scene’s eponymously titled album.

I eventually got to bed at 07:00 am, ouch.

The photo is another one from Bran Castle, you wouldn’t want Vlad walking behind you in that passageway would you.

I got up late anyway (not surprising after getting to sleep at about 5ish) so grub was needed pronto. I found a buffet cafe called Autoservice La Nae round the corner. It was a bit pricey (only relative to what I’d paid at other Romanian eateries) at 20 lei but I just pointed at stuff without knowing what it costs (it isn’t a swanky place so I thought it would be cheap) as the prices weren’t in English. It was very nice though, I had some sort of spicey thin Cumberland like sausage, a pork steak and nearly mashed potatoes. Lovely, that will be me for a good few hours.

As I’d already seen most of Brasov anyway and had my bag with me, I just sat on bench in the sun for a couple of hours while entertaining myself with phone related stuff, that killed a few hours until my battery started complaining.

After that I took a walk down Strada Sforli (Rope Street), which plenty of literature advertises as the narrowest street in Europe. Wikipedia reckons that Blighty takes that prize though, hurrah.

Now I wasn’t really that hungry by this time after my early afternoon meal but I thought I’m not going to get a chance to eat again for a fair while so I nipped in Bar Kowlun for a pizza that was massive and about the norm price, a bit too cheese heavy for my liking though (and no I didn’t order quattro formaggio). The Holsten Premium was most refreshing.

The mini-bus I was expecting was actually a full sized mudda and I got on and paid my 60 lei without a problem so that was a bit of a relief. There was even entertainment of the film variety, not that they entertained me as they were dubbed without subtitles. One of them was some awful cliche ridden and uninspiring (this was clear eve without the dialogue) western with Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz, in fact it must have been this. Still, with them two on screen it was okay to glance at every now and again I suppose.

I wasn’t lying when I said the further east you go the more dogs you see, I counted 14 in the centre of a roundabout we went round in Bacau, 14! There was also loads at customs when we crossed the border, one of which looked very much like it had rabies as it was exhibiting some very unusual behaviour. I neglected to pat that particular one.

Speaking of customs, I had a bit of a scene around me here. I was very hot (they were over doing it somewhat with the bus heating) and uncomfortable and doing my best to find some position that I could contemplate getting some sleep in as it was about 1 in the morning now. Anyway, I finally found one that was working for me which involved my legs being draped a bit over the seat in front of me (there was only a handful of people on the bus). So when the lights came on as we were at the Romanian side of customs control, the driver went mental at me in Romanian about it and proceeded to go and fetch a Policeman/customs bloke to reprimand me. I couldn’t see the big deal myself as I’d taken off my trainers and wasn’t marking anything or disturbing anybody else. As much as I was angry with the jumped up little jobsworth throwing a paddy I just kept calm and obeyed what he said as there is only going to be one winner with something like that, the Policeman was okay about it and was just going through the motions really anyway. Still, talk about an over-reaction. Eventually I managed to get 2 consecutive hours even without the drape manoeuvre.

The Moldovan side of customs didn’t present any such craziness, though the official here did have a ridiculous and massive frisbee like hat that made me and the English couple a few rows behind me laugh.

The bus was supposed to get in about 07:00 am but it actually got in at about 04:30 am, go figure. This meant the public transportation I’d planned to use to get to the hostel wasn’t running and probably wouldn’t be for a good few hours. There were lots of shady looking taxi drivers gathering around but none of them spoke English. Luckily the English couple were in the same boat and happened to be staying at the same hostel as me, so we haggled a bit with a few drivers and eventually convinced one of them to take us for 20 Romanian lei (so 10 lei for me), that was probably a fair bit more than it should have been for the relatively short distance but at that time in the morning it was worth it.

The next problem was that when we arrived at the hostel it was as closed as it possibly could be. Again luckily, after milling about a bit in front and pushing the doorbell a few times a light appeared a couple of floors up and the girl who works here let us in. My bed in the dorm she ushered me into was most comfy, which was great after a couple of challenging night’s sleep. Though the cockerel in next door’s garden was busy doing what cockerels do which is quite annoying, even with earplugs in. But I managed to find the Land of Nod again in the end, phew.

I think I’m going to stay an extra night here as the hostel seems like a good place to relax and there is a PC in the bedroom which I can use for travel plans, this is the most complicated stage of my trip as I really need to work out the route for the next 8 or 9 countries to make it work. Plus it’s derby day tomorrow so that day is pretty much written off.

The usual story where a good picture opportunity hasn’t presented itself so here is the mititei I ate in Brasov the other night, umm um umm.

Christ, you wouldn’t want to get stuck in a lift with that guy would you. Get to the point douchebag! After all that the tuna was vile low grade stuff, on a par with cat food no doubt. But I felt obliged to follow through with what I started so I munched it anyway. Urgh.

Now I’m on my way to Bran Castle which is about an hour away on the bus. It is often wrongly reported that Vlad the Impaler lived here, he did once attack it though.

I didn’t think much of Bran itself as there are loads of tacky tourist stalls and tents, but the castle was quite impressive and had a look about it that suggested Count Dracula could easily make himself at home there. 6 lei in (would have been 12 without the student card) and another 10 if you want to use a camera. You’d be mad to pay the extra though as you can easily get away with taking snaps anyway as long as you’re discreet.

I was meant to go to Rasnov Fortress on the way back but I just couldn’t be bothered as I’m feeling very sleepy. I intend* to try and get an early night tonight though as I suspect sleep will be in short supply tomorrow night on the mini-bus to Moldova.

When I got back I had a another little look round a few parts of Brasov that I didn’t get a chance to yesterday.

Now I’ve just stopped for a cheeky one in the Blue Train Club. It’s not a particularly friendly place and I won’t be coming back. Still, the Silva beer is nice enough. It could either give me a much needed perk-up or go the other way and leave me bordering on a comatose state. Actually it just maintained the status quo, I feel exactly the same.

* Intentions are one thing but I’m posting this at half 4 in the morning as I got a little bit too involved with Civilization Revolution on the iPhone, doh. Great game though, pretty soon the iPhone is going to have to start being considered a serious gaming device.

A new little friend was made while I watched the film. A smallish black mongrel dog who had followed someone into the hostel in the day decided to curl up next to my feet, he even had a little bark while I left him to visit the gentleman’s.

The woman behind the desk at the hostel says he can’t stay here but they will do their best to find him a home, if I had one myself he could make it his too. I hope it works out for the little scamp.

After I’d finished with B.A.R. 2 toff lads (light purple sweaters over their shoulders and everything) from Oxford put ‘The Big Lebowski’ on. That is a very hard movie to put down, but it was half 2 in the morning and I’ve seen it many times before so I managed it, well after half an hour anyway.

I finally finished ‘Moby Dick’ this morning and while I enjoyed it in patches, I didn’t really like it on the whole. It’s very hard to follow the narrative and for huge stretches the narrative is just abandoned altogether and you get a cold scientific description of every tiny facet of a whaling ship and every all the anatomy that makes a whale, I’m talking hundred of pages like that. I do really want to see the film with Gregory Peck in now though.

The last 2 thirds of Don Quixote are back on the agenda now.

Right, my plan is coming together, I’m staying 2 more nights at this hostel which I like and then I’ll (hopefully!) get the 19:00 mini-bus to Chisinau on Friday which takes 12 hours. Then 2 nights in Chisinau (which I’ve just booked a hostel for) and a train back into Romania on Monday to get me to Bucharest. Beyond that it gets quite complicated as I have to consider where I’m going to get a ferry to Italy from. That will decide my route for the 6 or 7 countries I intend to try and visit between now and then.

When I finally got out to have a look at Brasov the first place I visited was the St. Nicolae Church (not my photo BTW) as it’s 1 minute from the hostel. It’s quite a simple building inside and out but it had a very nice serene charm to it, even the grounds outside it were really peaceful.

After that I begun an epic trek up Mount Tampa in the Carpathians. If you use the marked paths through the forest it should take about an hour and be relatively easy. I decided to do the majority of it off path though with a lot steeper shortcuts between the swerves of the path. This was a lot more challenging (especially in a pair of these) but good fun. It was tough to find a route sometimes but I really enjoyed it overall, it took me about 35 minutes. It was getting quite late and the sun was going down on the way back and also locals had warned me to watch out for bears, so my route back basically consisted of me jumping or sprinting from tree to tree or rock to rock and hoping not to build up too much momentum to not be able to grap it, I had a few dicey moments but no mishaps in the end.

Just into the forest where the trails begin is a restaurant named Casa Padurarului, I decided to stop for a well earned beer but the food smelt nice and was reasonably priced so I decided to indulge.

I ordered mititei (grilled meat rolls) as a Romanian artist (of the pis$ as well as the painting variety) in Sibiu had raved about them to me. You buy them individually so I asked the waitress how many would be an adequate amount for a main course, she said you need 4 or 5 so I ordered 6, ahem. Boiled potatoes as a side again and I had Ursus Premium again to drink, it is the ‘King of Beer in Romania’ after all. This lot came to 16 lei (4 quid more or less) and the food was absolutely succulent and scrumptious, my only regret is not ordering 14 of the rolls.

I’m really liking Brasov, it’s one of my favourite places so far.

Search of the day that’s brought someone here is a tie between ‘rat cat dog San Francisco’ and ‘red star belgrade mad dogs and englishmen’.

This day has just turned into a long and painful one. My bus to Brasov was at 14:35 (and takes about 3 hours) and I was at the station before 14:00 but you have to buy tickets from the driver. What I didn’t realise was that it is actually a minibus and when I went out of the inside waiting area at 14:25 it was already full. Boll~cks

So I now have to wait until 17:00 and I’ve no gurantee of getting on that. I’ve a feeling they might be funny about my bag as well because of the limited space. Boll•cks.

Mosquito repelent is high on my purchase list now, I’m sick of litteral little bleeders. Boll¥cks.

I’m also not appreciating the Romanian approach to queuing, I’m going to have to start dishing out some pain soon.

You have probably gathered I’m in a right mood now, my stinking hangover isn’t helping matters. It’s at times like these that I put on this by Paul Simon. I defy anyone not to sing along to that bad boy, if you don’t you must be a cylon. One of the highlights of my trip in the US of America was when that came on the radio while I was speeding through a beautiful forest on route from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. I’ve just found the bluegrass version.

I just gave an old man my seat and he and his daughter were very grateful. Surely that will get me a place on the next bus. You know, instant karma, ying and yang, tit for tat, no?

Need for Speed Undercover on the iPhone is making the time pass quicker than it might. I just bought myself a Golf GTI then added a spoiler and a bodykit, lowered the suspension and spray painted it black. Max power innit!

Some dodgy little gypsy kid (he looked about 3) just spent ages trying to get me to give him my phone by staring at me, pointing at it and speaking in Romanian. Not for a full jar of gypsy tears little gypsy kid, do one.

I’m on the bus now and am feeling most uncomfortable and a tad claustrophobic. There’s no luggage hold so my bag is between my legs in front of me which leaves little room for my legs. I think my right knee is going to be sore shortly. On the bright side it could be a lot longer trip than 3 hours so I’ll manage.

The driver charged me 22 lei, now the nice hostel girl had told me to hit him with an expletive if this be the case but without a bicycle in reserve, I didn’t think this to be a wise course of action. Grudgingly, I paid the man.

The journey went okay in the end, it only took about 2 and a half hours and half way through the guy next to me got off so I had plenty of room then. Jobs a good ‘n.

Brasov look an interesting place, I’ll be getting acquainted with it properly tomorrow.

The hostel seems good too. They give you a voucher for every night you’re there (in my case 3) to get a free beer. It’s local stuff called Ciucas (is that Toadfish from Neighbours on the left?). I don’t think I’m going to have any vouchers left in the morning.

I’ve not had many photo opportunites today so here is one of me gazing in the Transylvanian wilderness.

I just watched the Arsenal game highlights on YouTube. Silly boy Ade, a 3 match minimum ban is coming your way and deservedly so too. City should try and put some appeal delay tactics in I reckon so that he can play in the derby.

Having spoken to the very friendly girl at reception (who is also doing my washing), it appears it will be a bit of a tall order to reach Sighisoara and Brasov in the same day unless I get up at an unsociable hour which isn’t going to happen. She also ensured me that I must tell the bus driver to Brasov to f*ckov if he tries to charge me more than 20 lei. If I do that I reckon another night in Sibiu might be on the cards.

The washing is going to take until 17:00ish and as I’ve nothing but the shorts and t-shirt I have on (that inlcludes being forced to go). I’m going to wait around until then. With a bit of VPN jiggery pokery I can trick BBC iPlayer into thinking I might be in the UK so I’m going to watch Woody Allen’s ‘Matchpoint’. Did I ever mention how much I love my iPhone?

Actually, after 20 minutes I’ve had to give up on that little venture as the Wi-Fi signal is a bit flakey. No matter, my first batch of washing is ready early anyway, it’ll have to be odd socks until my 2nd batch arrives but I can live with that. Let’s go and have a butchers at Sibiu then.

First impressions are good, very quaint and I’m enjoying the change of architecture styles. Speaking of firsts, it’s time for my first meal of the day (it’s deadly for me when the hostels don’t include brekkie) and I’ve found a nice little bistro called Dolce and gone for a salami pizza (as it’s about the only thing on the menu I can make out) complimented by a large bottle of Ursus Premium. The pizza was huge and tasted amazing, it was glazed with something extra that gave it a nice sweet kick. Yum.

Next I just mooched round for a while. Crossing the The Bridge of Lies is the only thing worth mentioning. Apparently if you tell a porky on it, the whole thing takes a tumble. I didn’t risk it folks.

You really only need a half day to see Sibiu, there’s not really anything special to see but it’s just, well, nice.

The further east you go, the more wild stray dogs you see. There’s been loads in Romania and there were lots in the other Balkan countries I’ve been to as well. I remember it was the same when I was in Russia. It’s tear jerking stuff for a firm advocate of man’s best friend like myself. Though I bet by the time you get as far east as China the situation takes care of itself, ahem.

Now I’m just putting a bit of time between my last meal and the next one (which will likely be a cheap dish of pasta a few doors down) by having a pint of Mrs Artois in Al Calpone’s cafe. I suspect Al or anyone to ever have been associated with him (like Murray the Hump – this is an article well worth 20 minutes) has even heard of the joint.

I’m also finishing off the last 5.1% of Moby Dick. I’ve hardly read at all for the past few months, usually when I try I’m that cream crackered that I have to give up and revert to a podcast a few pages later.

Actually its just as cheap for me to order something different in this place (Unicum). So I’ve gone for Muschi de porc Sibian (pork fillet Sibiu style), I’m not entirely sure what to expect but I’m hoping for the best. I’ve been good and gone for boiled potatoes rather than fries French as a side. Becks for beverage.

Verdict? Nice to eat ya, to eat ya nice.

My, it’s getting a bit nippy here. This may be a sign of things to come as I’ve still a good few months left of this trip so it will take me into winter more or less. I’m not adequately supplied for winter conditions but plan B is just to wear everything in my bag at once, fool proof.

The rest of the night will be spent in the hostel with a 6 pack of Timisoreana for company.

PS The reason I know of Murray the Hump is because this lot who I used to love were named after him.

My rough plan for the next week or so is a couple of nights in Sibiu, then 3 in Brasov and then from there make my way to Chisnau in Moldova. I need to look into how to get there properly but it’s going to be a bit of a mission and probably involves dodgy night trains so I was thinking of leaving it and going straight to Bucharest, but I’m not likely to be this close to Moldova again anytime soon so sod it. After that I’ll make my way back into Romania for a quick visit to the capital on route to Uncle Bulgaria.

This means I desperately need to try and find somewhere showing the derby on Sunday in Chisnau. I’ll be mortified if I don’t, especially as I missed the last one while in Yosemite. I’m actually getting quote jealous about missing this new city era, bring back Alan Ball until I’ve finished travelling I say (Derren Brown could probably have a good go).

I’m just sat in a bar outside the station now waiting for the train, to pass the time I’m sampling the local brew, Timisoreana. Pretty good is the verdict.

The train journey went fine and was even on schedule, finding the hostel was a doddle too. It’s all been a bit too easy, I’m bracing myself for a backlash.

Just after check-in they gave me a complimentary traditional schnapps, Palinca. As Gollum said in that walking film, “It burns! It burns us! It freezes! Nasty elves twisted it. Take it off us!”. Alternatively, “Can I have another one?”.

I forgot to say that Belgrade is definetely on the list of cities to return to. There was lots I didn’t get a chance to see, it’s very much a full European capital with plenty of intrigue held within it.

The Romanian currency (lei) is really cool. The crisp notes feel like they are laminated and they have a plastic see through bit in a different shape depending on the value, the 50 is an eagle and the 5 a semiquaver for instance.

I’ve been listening a to The Walkmen a lot lately, they have to be one of the finest bands to ever come out of the Big Apple for me. Ace stuff.

The New Red Star Belgrade t-shirt was going to make it’s debut today but then I realised I’d been wearing my City shirt when the mighty blues had achieveved their 4 consecutive victories (without conceding a single goal) so far this season. It would be utter school-boy folly to break the habit, if I didn’t wear it and City were to take a hiding I’d have to accept undiminished, unmitigated and unequivocal responsibility. Alan Partridge.

I’ve not had much luck finding the City vs Arsenal match (that’s is the first and last time an emoticon will ever appear on STBB). This is despite the best efforts of Stephen, the nicest man in Timisoara. A Romanian takes an Englishman to 2 Irish bars and a Scottish bar, (there’s surely the beginnings of a joke in there, me and cousin Derek certainly believe that to be the case anyway) but all to no avail.

Stephen is just a bloke I asked for directions on the street and he went well out of his way to try and find a bar for me that was showing the game. I bought him a pint to say tah, is an interesting fella who knows a lot about the city as he used to be a guide here. I might meet up for a beer with him later.

I’ve engaged in conversation properly with 3 Romanians so far and they’ve all been spot-on with a keen sense of humour, nice people.

I’m watching the Stoke vs Chelsea game as buggers can’t be choosers. But I must say that ‘Eurosport 2 Live’ need to get it sorted, they’ve gone for a bit of steak and gammon when they could have had a double helping of steak.

At least there is Wi-Fi though so I’m using that Sky Sports app to get regular updates. Half time and it sounds like we are giving Arsenal a bit of a hard time.

I can’t stand Didier Drogba but what excellence for his equalising goal against Joke, so simple but utterly brilliant. Why are the best footballers usually immensely dislikable? Oh for a world of Zola’s.

Well to put a spin on a well known idiom, the applecart looks to be well and truly decimated. A City side that is no way near reaching it’s potential is flying in 3rd place in the league with a game in hand to boot. Although it’s very early days, one might be tempted to say goody gumdrops. Mr Wrigley might just be wrigglin’ a week tomorrow.

The lei (or leu in singular) is cooler than I thought, 12 lei for 4 pints was my final bill. Now brace yourself for this, that’s less than £2.50. I hope Easyjet and friends never get to know about this Balkan treasure of a country.

I’m now watching the Spurs vs Rags game in The Scottish Pub and I’m without doubt the most Scottish thing in here, that includes the bar prop stuff. Still, I’m enjoying the cheap Carlsberg on tap and watching Spuds make the swamp dwellers look like the Faroe Islands under 13 girls amputee team, maybe I’ve exaggerated that point a touch. Or a lot even, Giggsy Wiggsy just hit a beltin’ free kick to equalise, no doubt that alone will bag him player of the year for the 2nd year running. Great player that he was and good player that he is, last season was the Scorsese Oscar scenario (not that I think The Departed to be a bad film, but it’s certainly not in the same league as Raging Bull, Goodfellas etc. and more importantly Pan’s Labyrinth) of the footballing world and an undiminished, unmitigated and unequivocal sham.

I’m a bit ruddy hungry as it’s half 8 and all I’ve had today is a continental brekkie and a bar of chocolate. There’s 2 huge bowls of nuts on the bar but I don’t want to touch them for 2 reasons. Reason one being that I’ve never in my life started eating nuts and not destroyed all that be available in front of me and two being that bar nuts are subject to the regular maulings of many men who have just handled their own personal nuts in the WC and neglected to wash their mits afterwards. Paulie Walnuts would concur.

Romania (or at least this city, but I expect it to be the same in the other places I’ll visit) is a very different experience to others I’ve had so far. I feel almost like the only tourist here, it’s not even as though it’s not Westernised here but the masses haven’t cottoned on yet that it offers just as much as somewhere like Vilnius or Ljubljana. When it finally happens that charm will diminish slightly. It’s gives benefits as well when but prices inevitably start to rise and the usual tacky tourist trappings will become omnipresent.

I didn’t end up meeting Stephen in the end, he did text me late on to see if I was still about but I was back in the hostel by then. It’s probably a good thing as 2 consecutive reasonable night’s were well due.

Country number 13 don’t you know.

After that we went to his local called Maska, it was a nice laid back place with a good decor and ambience. It was here I had my first ever dalliance with the spirit rakija, it tasted like flavoured vodka to me.

Then (after quite a few beers) Marko said ta-rah and we (I was with one of the German lads and an Aussie girl from the hostel) went in search of Savsko Jezero. It’s an island off the Sava with a lot of different bars round it. It took us not far off 2 hours to walk there and was in no way worth it. There was only one bar open and it was very expensive, not far off the equivalent of 4 quid for a small bottle of beer. I got to experience turbo-folk first hand though and realised that’s what the Bosnian lads on the train were playing on their phones the other night, awful. We left after 1 drink.

I recall Christoph (the lad from Hamburg) telling me about an Irish-Cuban bar in Prague called O’Che’s. I thought that was funny I did.

Right I’m telling you, there is an International mosquito conspiracy afoot, no sooner have my last lot healed than they get me again. I’ve got 8 fresh bad and welty bites in random places that are driving me mad with itchyness. I ruddy hate the sods.

I was really hoping to see the Tito Masauleum this morning and was told it was about a half hour walk by the hostel. No chance, it’s an hour minimum and a very tough route to work out too. I walked half of it and then jumped on a bus but jumped off again early when I saw the Red Star Belgrade ground, time was getting a bit tight to make my train so I decided to have a look at the Marakana instead of the Tito museum.

I actually really enjoyed it, the ground is quite run-down but has a lot of character with lots of cool stenciling and graffiti on the outside walls. I done a full circuit and then went in the club shop which is actually in the ground so you can see right in to the stadium through adjacent railings in the gates.

There was also an unofficial shop next door with slightly edgier gear on sale. I bought a really cool t-shirt for 15 Euros, it says on it ‘Red Star is calling’ (in Serbian obviously) and it was a toss-up between that and the ‘Epicentre of madness’ one, but the former had a cooler picture and design.

I didn’t get as many pictures as I wanted as that bobbins camera I bought in Vienna has the battery life of a 4 pack of dodgy brand AAs sold near the counters at Aldi. When I get back to Albion I’ll be getting what I can for it on eBay and sorting an alternative.

One thing I forgot to mention was how errie the derelict Yugoslavian army HQ looks in the middle of Belgrade as they were bombed by NATO in 1999 as part of a campaign to try and prevent further genocide in Kosovo. See here for details.

I’m now on the train to Timisoara in the west of Romania and I should be there in 5 hours. The train itself has definetely seen better days, probably at some point in the 19th century, I’m a bit concerned that I’m going to have to get out and push. I’ve heard that the trains in Romania aren’t great though, you can tell by looking at the schedules and the large travel duration for what looks to be a relatively short journey. Maybe I should try and blag myself one of these.

Crikey, that was a bit of luck. At what I thought was 20:19, I changed the time zone on my phone to match Bucharest and while doing this it occurred to me that Romania might be an extra hour forward again to Serbia (so GMT +2), which indeed it is. Now as my train was due in at 20:55 and it was now actually 21:19, this presented a bit of a problem as it was likely I’d missed my stop. Very luckily for me the train was running latex 15 minutes later and we were there.

I’ve just arrived in the hostel and it’s nice. The owner is a very funny and animated guy and so is the one room mate (or Rom mate) I have so far. I like Romanians. This should be a good place to rest up for a couple of nights, just what I need as it happens.

Huge game against Arsenal tomorrow, I’ll be gutted if I don’t find somewhere to watch it. If City can do the Gooners (again) then people will really start to sit up and take notice. It will be hard though, personally I think Arsenal have a better team than both Liverpool and the Rags and in Arshavin they have the player of the season in the making (though I think he might be injured for this game, thankfully), to think we paid double the price to get Lescott!

They were going out afterwards and even though I was tired, I went too as when good opportunites present themselves I try to take them up, just as I’ve learnt to give the ropey looking ones a miss.

It was a bit of a washout in the end as we struggled to find anywhere decent. We ended up on a boat club on the banks of the River Sava playing dreadful R&B with prices 3 or 4 times over the norm. We only went in because it’s the only place we found still open and it was free, a quick look about and we left.

Annoyingly when we got back to the hostel (somehow at 4) we saw a flyer advertising an alternate night for that very night, doh. Still, I quite enjoyed just wandering around Belgrade at night taking in the strange charms of the city.

The damn mozzies got me again in the night, grrr! One of them has even bit me on my scarvon my leg, what kind of mosquito would do a thing like that? These Serbian variety are the lowest of the low.

About an hour after I checked into the hostel yesterday they gave me my passport back and that evening I noticed a card inside with some information in it like my name, hostel, date of check-in etc. My German pals said they were told at check-in that if stopped by the Police on the street and you don’t have both your passport and card you face the equivalent of a €50 fine. They neglected to tell me this at my check-in and I hadn’t been carrying, numptys. Though come to think of it I seem to remember there was something similar in Russia.

I just went with a few people from the hostel for a look around Kalmegdan which is a nice park with a fortress within it, all perfectly pleasent.

Right, off to meet Marko now for a bit of Belgrade local style. Should be good.

Today’s photo is of another photo that was in an exhibition held in the park, the pictures were of various places in Serbia. What a cool place to live.

Still, they were nice enough. I’d managed to sleep for 30 minutes or so I think and when I awoke one of them was trying to warn me about ‘bandits’ of some sort who will steal your valuables. Something about staying awake for the next 3 hours (this was about 20 minutes before I was due to change at Doboj, they got off the stop before) while going through Republika Srpska.

The bit I couldn’t understand was what the ‘pipes’ or ‘bumps’ were that they said they use. They only thing I can think is they drug you somehow if you’re already asleep? I’m pretty sure I’d wake up otherwise if someone was going through my pockets as they are not the loose sort, a hefty dry slap would follow.

When I got on the 2nd train there was no danger of me falling asleep anyway as I hadn’t even got a seat. It’s was a one carriage train that already seemed to be pretty much full with most of the booths curtains shut and lights off. I found a little spot next to the WC right at the rear of the carriage. It was looking to be a grim 6 hours, though I quite liked staring out of the window watching the tracks dissapear into the darkness where we had just been.

I take it back, a few minutes later and the inspector had found me a seat. In fact there was only me and one other crazy (slightly drunk, or possibly entirely) guy in the booth (they fit 6 people). I think he was Serbian. He seemed to like my bourbon a lot (he requested 2nds shortly after 1sts) and our conversation really just consisted of firing Premiership footballers names back and forth at each other. Football is like what Esperanto never could be, truly a universal language.

The amount of customs checks on a 9 hour train journey were unbelievable, at least 6 or 7 different uniformed people throughout the night with various stamps and weaponry. Add to that 4 or 5 ticket checks and you’re not getting you’re magic 8 hours on this trip that’s for sure.

In Belgrade now. Crikey that was quite the experience, a different beast entirely to the Amtrak night trains in the US. There was just a weird edge to everything with a lot of shady characters knocking about. Wits were needed in your top pocket.

I don’t plan on doing much exploring in Belgrade at all today, far too tired. I think I will just try and plan the next leg of my trip in Romania while I’m waiting to check-in at the hostel (I’ll get there before 7 in the morn and you normally can’t check-in until late in the afternoon, gulp), get some supplies in, try and have a snooze and then wake up and have a go at finding a bar showing the England vs Croatia match. Tomorrow will be time to explore.

Let’s go and find the Manga Hostel then, cool name eh. Found it and the first impressions are pretty good.

Supplies bought, checked-in and hostels for Timisoara and Sibiu in Romania booked. I just need to sort my train ticket then all sorted.

I got an email out of the blue before saying that this picture had been shortlisted to be used in the latest New York City guide on Schmap. I hadn’t submitted it, they must just scan Flickr for stuff they like. You don’t get anything if they pick but they do credit you with the photo so I’ve given them approval to use it if they want, why not eh.

My sister has a friend in Belgrade and I’ve arranged with him to meet for some beer tomorrow night, so that should be cool. Always good to get in with the locals! I could have met him later but I’m knackered after no kip last night so would rather take it easy today and have a good ‘n tomorrow.

Actually I’m not even going to try and catch the England game, with the time difference it will KO at the same time as the Serbia vs France game so I think it would be a futile task. A 4 pack of 500ml Amstel in the hostel and the match of the nation that hosts me will have to do. They are making a bit of a thing of it in the hostel anyway so it might be fun.

I just sorted my train ticket to Timisoara and it was only 770.00 Dinar (€8) with the student card, I think it would have been double without, result.

On the way back I had a calamari bap for tea (I’d been good and made pasta for lunch) that I’d seen a fellow from Middlesboro have earlier in the hostel. A new experience but a good one.

Over.

This morning I tried the traditional pastry snack burek for brekkie. It’s really just a large Greggs pastie filled with spinach, potato, cheese or meat. I had a tats one, yum.

Because of my bed mishap yesterday , I didn’t think it prudent to store my bag (for 2 Euros) at the hostel while I had another look round Sarajevo today before my train to Serbia this eve. So I went in search of somewhere else to put it and found the Pansion Lion who very kindly said I could leave it there for nothing, I gave them 5 Convertible Marks (a bit over 2 Euros) anyway though.

I’ve just signed up to the ‘Tunnel Museum Tour’ at the tourist information centre for €12. I’m not sure exactly what it entails but it’s centred around the tunnel near the airport that was a key factor in Sarajevo surving the siege by the Serbs as it brought supplies, both civil and military.

On the whole I’ve found the Sarajevo citizens to be a very warm and friendly people (apart from the ticket inspectors, but they’re one just one step down from traffic wardens all around the world).

I’ve had a ridiculously unhealthy day and am feeling it, there really is very little option here though. Hopefully the next hostel will have a kitchen and I can sort myself out then.

The tunnel museum tour has just ended after 2 hours and it was well worth the money. Mohammed the guide packed a huge amount of information into that time and although I’d done a decent bit of research on some of the different conflicts in the Yugoslavia war already, I now feel a lot more informed about this one. He also injected a lot of personal tales (and some truly awful jokes) in there and even showed us the the shrapnel scar he received when he was 10 years old after sedating his Gran so he could go out and play, the little scamp.

The strangest and erriest bit was seeing video clips and photographs of many recognisable buildings in the city on fire or heavily damaged from shelling. Like the Holiday Inn I was only in yesterday for instance.

I’ve spent most of the rest of the day just ambling around the city and taking in 0.33 cl of Sarajevsko (which I’ve discovered is still brewed here and is a highly respected pivo in the right circles) every now and again.

It’s nearly half 5 now and I’m a little bit bored with 4 hours still to kill. A solution that has stood me well for the past 5 months when in this situation came to mind, cinema. I’ve not had much joy in finding a free Wi-Fi connection all day so was reliant upon just coming across a picture-house by chance, something I’d not done since I’d been in Sarajevo. I headed well out of the old town into a district that looked more likely and what do you know, a few turns later and I’m in a flicks with Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Basterds’ showing shortly. Belter.

By the time the movie finished I had about an hour left, just about enough time to grub up, grab my bag and get to the station.

Anyway, the film; well I can’t really rate it either way to be honest. I knew it wouldn’t be dubbed but what I didn’t know is that most of it would be in German, a fair bit of French and a touch of Italian. And obviously the subtitles were in Bosnian not English. Doh. The 20% that was in English was just Brad Pitt being a bit of a plonker.

Just my luck, I’d have been okay with ‘Valkyrie’, ‘Defiance’, ‘Enemy at the Gates’ or ‘The Eagle Has Landed’. It only cost me the equivalent of about 2 quid 50 though and it got me off the streets for a couple of hours.

Another burek (meat filled this time) was all I had time to have for tea on route to the station. Just as tasty.

On the train now, I think it’s going to be a long night.

The photo is of the building that housed the entrance to the tunnel in the Bosnian army controlled section of the city.

This left me with option A of going to the hostel owners, explaining the embarassing situation and possibly facing a financial penalty (though it wasn’t really my fault) or the rather more cowardly alternative B of hiding the plank (or planks now) in the back of the wardrobe and keeping stum. B it is. If I was 7, I’d have also hid myself in the cupboard.

The bed is still more than sleepable on as it’s the middle lower plank (on my stature, it’s roughly where my calfs shall rest tonight, unless I decide to roll over in which case it’ll be my shins) and it’s a simple enough fix (another bit of cheap wood cut to size and Bob’s your cross dressing aunty) when discovered so there’s no point making a fuss eh, ahem.

I just had my first meal of the day at 17:00 and I opted for the mince omlette. They have a funny approach to the omlette round these parts as what I actually got was 2 joined fried eggs (yokes perfectly intact) with mince meat sprinkled about. Still, it was tasty enough.

Getting to Belgrade is a bit of a pain. Option A is to take the bus which leaves at 6 in the morning (meaning a very early get-up to allow for getting to the station, and I never sleep when I know I have to rise at a ridiculous hour) and takes 8 or 9 hours I think. Option B is to take the night train which leaves at half 9 at night and gets in at 6ish, there’s little chance of sleep though as there is a change after midnight and apparently you are subject to lots of tickets and customs related checks through the night, one advantage is that it would allow me the full day in Sarajevo tomorrow plus it would also mean 1 night’s less board to pay for. Option B again. The ticket cost me 50 Convertible Marks (about £22.50).

I’ve never been to a central station train station (with a central bus station next to it) before that doesn’t have a cash machine. They also didn’t take cards of any kind, fortunately there was a Holiday Inn with an ATM a 10 minute round-trip walk away.

On my way to the station I got stung for the 1st time on this adventure for fare dodging. Ironically I had intended to pay for this particular trip as I was aware that the inspectors patrolled heavily, but there was no ticket machine at the stop and then I got on at a middle door and forgot to get a ticket from the driver. It cost me about 20 quid. Crivens.

Apart from wandering around taking in Sarajevo’s Ottaman vibe today the only thing I have done worth reporting is to have visited the spot near the Latin Bridge on the River Miljacka, where the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 which indirectly led to World War I. Another result of this historical event was giving the floppy fringed, tight trousered, striped shirted, Scottish art-punkers outfit a band name not far off a century later.

I ended up in Restaurant Club Jez by pure accident. I’d walked into a reasonable looking cafe and asked if they had an English menu which they didn’t but the bloke ushered me through a maze of corridors and via a bar and club into their sister restaurant which did. It was a very swankier looking gaff though.

Luckily the prices weren’t too bad though still more than I intended spending. I went for penne pasta with bolognese as it was cheap, but I actually got spaghetti (I know it’s still pasta but I’m not a fan) for some reason. Actually that reason was that the bloke serving spoke no English. It took me ages to order a beer (Sarajevsko and good stuff).

The meal was rubbish, it came with a huge over-bearing mound of horribly rich parmesan that infected the rest of the dish, it was like having the ashes of a golden retriever next to your grub. I didnt enjoy in the least.

That God awful Celine Dion Titanic tune is being played on the restaurant sound system, it’s the pan pipes version though. I think I’m going to strangle myself with the copious amounts of sphaghetti I’ve left. Time to leave.

Today was topped off when the remote (a quality tool when mooching about random streets) on my earphones broke. I’ll tell you why you don’t like Monday’s Bob, because they’re bobbins that’s why. Just like you, Bob ‘bobbins’ Geldof.

The photo is of the remnants of a shell that hit the building I’m staying in during the siege of Sarajevo.

I tried to get on the bus with my bag but the driver had the charm of the last fella. ‘osser. By this time my blood was boiling, I’d gone slightly green and my muscles were doing a Popeye impression.

Luckily for me a nice couple from Sussex had witnessed these events and kindly gave me their last 12 Kunas. Crisis adverted by seconds. The only other thing I could have done was to rush to an ATM and withdraw the minimum 100 Kunas, I really doubt I’d have had time for this and I get the feeling that the lovely chaps at Autobusni Kolodvor wouldn’t have been hanging round for me either.

The couple that gave me the money said my Joy Divison (Peter Saville’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ album cover except in colour) t-shirt swung it for them. To think I was going to wear a Ben Sherman top this morning ‘n all, phew.

This practise is a new one on me and I’ve been on buses in plenty different countries. They should at least tell you when you buy your ticket but from now on I’ll be holding a little back to allow for it.

We passed the Croatia/Bosnia border earlier (and with that, I’m on country number 11) without incident. Am in Mostar now waiting for the bus to leave and I can’t say I recognise it much rom last time I was here, though I think we’ve approached from a complete different direction.

Reet, in Sarajevo now and the hostel is a funny little family run place, a very friendly family at that. 2 or 3 nights here and then on to Belgrade, from there I’ll be looking to get to Transylvania (watch out Vlad!) in Northern Romania but I’m not really sure where yet.

I was listening to the lady who runs the hostel talk about the Yugoslavian war earlier and it was fascinating, what Sarajevo endured for over 1000 days is staggering. It’s the longest siege any European capital has been under in history.

Now I’m going to have a little walk into the city and try and pick up some cheap nose-bag.

The photo is of the view from the hostel living room.

There was a beach party going down on the, erm, beach. I’d had a half invitation from a crew of South (or Sith but not nasty Jedi lords) Africans (complete with hilarious Lethal Weapon II bad guy accents) but didn’t really pursue it as I just wasn’t in the mood and was relishing the change of pace Split offered. A couple days of not much is what I needed. Besides you had to pay in, it would probably be bobbins music and I don’t think I’d have had much in common with the people I’d have gone with.

Anyway, after lots of dull conversation the majority of the living room gang left (beach party on the beach bound I think), apart from 2. One on the PC (nae bother) and one still watching the idiot box (man, I only want a little go on a next generation console).

This girl, who I’m going to call Megan as she looked like she might be called Megan, was a stayer, guaranteed. I resigned myself to this fact and joined in watching ‘Animal Cops Houston’ on Animal Planet. Crikey, I think I must be on the menopause as I was nearly balling a few times. What’s worse is that there was an advert (for some related show I think) that showed a dog just messing about with a couple of lions; little wrestle here and a cuddle there, it took all my strength not to hum the ‘Born Free’ theme tune while doing a Gazza.

Megan eventually caved and I got to play ‘Fight Night Round 4′ and recreate the Hatton vs Pacquiao fight, which went pretty much the same as the real one. Ace game though and I did give Jake ‘The Bronx Bull’ Lamotta a right hiding with Muhammad Ali, no mean feat.

So anyway, that was my night in Split. How cool am I.

Today has been pretty much the same as yesterday really, lots of lazing and not much doing (apart from taking Pro Evo revenge on the hostel dude) which was fine by me. I’m not really sure why I’m bothering blogging, I suppose it’s because dead blog waves are a crime.

Speaking of the hostel dude (Peter), he’s a lovely bloke but also a terribly bad loser. Every time I’m leathering him on Fight Night Round 4 suddenly his thumbs become really sore or he has to make a phone call. I find it funny as a non-victory can sometimes be sweeter than a certified one.

I’ve just found somewhere showing the England vs Slovenia game just in time for the 2nd half. It’s right in the touristy bit so it’s a fair bit over the odds for a beer at 20 Kunas, but as luck would have it I have 60 of the blighters to get rid of before I depart Croatia tomorrow. You don’t need Carol Voderman for maths like that.

I like the new England shirt as well as the City ones, those boys over at Umbro have really got their act together. Jolly good.

Every now and again my England vs Slovenia coverage was interrupted by one of the barmen whacking on Teletext (or somet similar) to check the racing results (or somet similar) while staring inquisitively at a wee bit of paper pulled from his wallet. It was like watching a match at my Dad’s. This fella gave me a nod to suggest sorry each time though, that’s more than you get from the old man.

I can’t say I’m enamoured with my 7 hour (plus the invariable delays) trip to Sarajevo in the morning, but I am looking forward to the city. I’ve booked in for 2 nights but may add a 3rd on the spur of the moment, that’s the kind of crazy maverick I am folks.

The verdict for Split, thumbs up. I’ve also neglected to mention it’s crawling with Vespas, pretty much all PXs with the odd T5, but still. Though but being a small sea apart from Piaggio and friends, I suppose that makes perfect sense.

PS Favourite search of the day that brought someone to this site – ‘joey barton with earphones’.

The Balkanology site is a very useful resource for travelling in this region of Europe. The German Rail site is another great resource as it allows you to search for schedules all across the continent, in English too.

Prior to the travel planning I did have a few games of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 on the PS3 with the guy running the hostel. He beat me 2-1 three consecutive times, soul destroying. It only strengthens my belief that FIFA 2009 is more advanced and superior game without doubt.

I just sorted my ticket to Sarajevo, I’m on a 7 hour bus journey for 190 Kuna. Not too bad.

Then I went for a early evening stroll down the beach a gorgeous level of sunshine nicely accompanied by a cool and refreshing sea breeze made it a nice experience. Of course I stopped off for an obligatory swift Karlovacko at some sort of Hadjuk Split bar.

I’ve been to 3 places in Croatia now (Dubrovnik, Zagreb and Split) and I’ve liked all 3. It looks a good quality of life round this way. I reckon I could get use to it.

While walking to the station I passed a scary old gypsy lady begging, she looked really like the one from ‘Drag Me To Hell‘. Everyone was giving her a wide berth including me but I couldn’t help but make eye contact. I hope I’m not cursed.

An hour and a half into a 6 hour train journey and I’ve already ate and drank everything I brought with me. Man, I always do this. The most pretty Croatian scenery will have to suffice for my entertainment.

I leave a review for each hostel I stay at on Hostel World as do most people. I’ve done this countless times and have only once received a disgruntled email reply from the owner before (though the reviews are generally good). That was the guy at the Lyons House Hostel in Niagara Falls but at least he was polite and just wanted constructive feedback. Marko at My Hostel in Ljubljana was not so polite however. Check out the email he sent me this morning and my response here. So if you visit Ljubljana, certainly don’t stay at the My Hostel.

Right, after a restless night in the oppressive heat last night, I’m going to try and get a bit of shuteye on this train as it’s direct so I don’t need to worry about sleeping through a change. See you in 10 minutes.

Okay, I’ve tried to sleep in a variety of different positions for the last 3 hours and I think the consecutive amount of sleep I managed in any one go was 43 seconds. I’m now 15 times more tired than when I embarked upon this train, plus I now have a split-ting headache (oh you bet ya, there’s more Split related puntastic brilliance where that came from).

The bloody train is running at least 2 hours late for some reason, all the announcements are in Croatian so I don’t know why. It’s probably got something to do with the fact that it’s spends more bloody time stationary than in transit, that’s my best guess. I’m Hank Marvin’ ‘n all.

So I’m now finally in the Situs Hostel and it’s seems really nice, it even has a PS3 which could mean I get to see very little of the place. I’m glad I’ve come here to the Dalmatian coast. I was in 2 minds as initially I was going to go directly to Sarajevo from Zagreb. I guess you could say, it was a split-decision.

I’ve booked an extra night as I can’t be bothered with a full day’s travel again the day after tomorrow, I just plan to relax and this looks like the place to do it. After food I’m going back to the hostel to take it easy for the night.

I’m just in a little restaurant by the Adriatic Sea called Fife that the bloke who checked me in gave me the heads up on. Very nice it is too. It’s really cheap considering the location so I decided to treat myself to a sirloin streak. I can’t remember the last time I had steak and after this I still won’t be able to as they didn’t have any, man. Mixed grill it is then, lubricated by Kaltenberg.

I’m sat next to what I presume to be Fabio Capello’s French cousin and family, spitting image I tell ya.

The mixed grill was lovely. It cost me 65 Kuna (under 8 quid) altogether. I’d have had banana-split for afters but I’m on a budget here people. Luckily for you, there’s no need to skimp on the puns eh.

Anyone still there? No? Okay, over.

I was also laughing when an Aussie girl who was having trouble with her netbook asked her mate “Should I use the big computers instead?”.

After lots of moping around and living life in reverse this morning I finally got my buttocks in gear, had a shower, finished off that pasta (plus the single remaining beer I had left) and got myself out on to the streets of Zagreb.

I didn’t make it very far though as within 2 minutes I was in a bar I’d read about in my excellent Rough Guide (am I allowed to mention them when I’m kind of affiliated to Lonely Planet?) as it’s literally round the corner from the Hobo Bear hostel where I’m crashing.

Anyway the bar is called Sedmica and is well hidden down what I’d call a guinell (as would many other Northern folk) which in itself is off a side street. It’s a cool little place with some decent loose roots and reggae tunes on the go. It’s somewhere I can imagine Johnny Dangerously knocking about, though he might detest reggae for all I know.

Speaking of Lonely Planet, there’s a whole £1.14 of advertising revenue been made by me so far don’t you know. Not that I’m arsed, I’m just happy with the exposure on a good travel (miles better than Rough Guides, ahem) site.

Actually the tunes in this bar are going all over the place now, I’ve not heard a single one before but I like them all, always the hallmark of a good establishment. I think it’s time to leave or my Zagreb experience could be a minimalist one.

Davey, one of the lads I was knocking about with in Bratislava and Vienna uploaded this video earlier as an indication of what the trip was like. Peruse if you so wish.

Just one more in this bar and then I’m offski to the Zagreb City Museum. I could happily sit in here all day if I was in good company, or any company for that matter. I like how they leave the iTunes Cover Flow display on so you know who you’re listening to if you don’t know who you’re listening to. Right now it’s the album ‘Tiny Voices’ by Joe Henry and the best way I can describe it is as like what Jaime Cullum would sound like if he wasn’t crap, a tw*t, had a decent band, some of his own ideas and was mates with Pela and Håkan Hellström. Is twit a swear word?

They’re playing soft blues now. This is a hard place to leave. It’s like a 16:00 lock-in.

Davey has also uploaded another clip of a very different ilk. I like it muchos.

I’d like to tell you what beer I’m drinking but I have no idea, I’ve become like Steve McManaman on this trip, I just point a lot and see what comes of it. He was like a midfield witchfinder General during his City days, at least he had a lovely barnet though.

I did eventually leave the bar and make my way to the museum which was bang in the heart of embassy country. When I trundled my way over there I came across a large procession of flash blacked-out and parked-up cars surrounded by a fair old amount of broad-shouldered, tight white-shirted, dark shaded (?), Madonna miced up (urgh), grim sweded tough looking b@stards knocking about ominously. Bodyguards I reckon. Somet was going down.

I’d have liked to think that a few of them were sweaty palmed and even itchier triggered as they suspected me of being a rogue Western European hitman here to kill the vice-president of Chad with a Pritt Stick. As it was I’m pretty sure they all had me correctly zeroed as a slightly lost, slightly tipsy, mildly deadly English tourist.

The museum was okay and only cost me a little over a quid with the stud. card applied (I never tire of that joke). It was very quiet though and after 3 pints previous and a couple of floors of exhibits I got to feeling quite sleepy. So sleepy in fact that if a 16th century Zagrebian couch (bought then, paid in 1620) had have been an item on display I may well have just had a wee kip there and then. No harm done.

The place is worth a look if you have the time as it’s cheap in, large, well maintained and professionally put together and covers many eras of Zagreb’s (and the precursors to) history. I’d have liked to have seen a lot more on the past 20 years though, but my main historical interest is always 20th century. Me, me, me eh.

For my evening meal I went to a place serving cheap traditional Croatian grub that the hostel had recommended, Mali Medo. My washdown was courtesy of Zlatni Medvjed (lager with golden colour, refreshing taste and a semi-bitter aroma apparently) and my main course was Trganci s pivnickim gulasem (home made pasta with pub goulash apparently).

The lager was indeed bitter (and not the best IMHO) and the scran was hearty seafaring stuff, it was basically thin strips of pasta with chicken gravy and beef chunks (sounds like Italian Winalot), quite stodgy but tasty enough. I demolished it. All for the meagre sum of 38 Kunas (matata), or £4,50. I rounded it up to 50 Kunas or 6 quid as the lady was friendly. Not so hobo style.

So I’ve not seen as much as I should have done of Zagreb but I’ve liked my time here. It seems a very dynamic, busy and cosmopolitan city with ever so slight hints of the Mediterranean about it and lots of traditional charms, this appeals to me.

It is as yet untouched by the budget British airlines but I’m sure this is a matter of time. Dubrovnik has already fallen as has Budapest, the net closes. I shouldn’t complain as I often make use of these facilities. 27 pi$£ed up fellas from Slough can easily dilute the attraction of any city though.

A special mention for Richard Dunne this eve, although I’ve not been his greatest fan over the past few seasons I’ve never doubted his heart and effort. To throw out a mega cliche, he has been a great servant to the club. It is indeed the end of the era and a blue moon does look to be rising finally which is a good thing in my book, but what I will say is that he was certainly one of the major highlights of the last one. Cheerio Two Tonne and the best of luck to you. 4/1 on an own goal within 5 games of his debut at Ladbrokes no doubt?

It’s a bit City heavy (and football in general) this blog lately I concede. I can’t pretend it’s going to change any time soon though. Apologies and TTFN.

The train I’m on is a bit smelly and smeggy but I’m only on it for less than 3 hours so I’m sure I’ll manage. John Cooper Clarke is keeping me company anyway.

I wasn’t impressed with Ljubljana very much but I have been with the Slovenian countryside on route to and from the city. Right now I’m passing huge dense green forests on mountain slopes, with pretty houses scattered about randomly and glistening rivers interjecting every now and again. It’s all very nice.

I should probably have visited Lake Bled on my way from Vienna to get some alternative experiences in rather than just cities all the time. Now that I’m not going to visit The Americas anytime soon I should be able to make room for stuff like that.

I met a nice couple from London (well one was from Brighton) and the bloke told me that he had read on Wikipedia that turbo-folk (whatever that is) was leading to violence in Zagreb bars or something. Sounds brilliant.

I got my first stamp on my passport this trip when crossing the Slov-Croat border, I love the old passport stamps. Boo EU.

While in the station I sorted my ticket to Split for Thursday, was 140 odd Kuna (about 20 Euros) with my 25% international student discount applied. Kiss my face.

This Hostel seems very nice so far, it has a nice ambience, good facilities and thankfully Wi-Fi. I much prefer it to the previous one.

I’ve just been to the local supermarket and picked up a few different beers while I was there as I plan to take it easy tonight and do a bit of work on my Balkans route. Right now I’m drinking Pan and it’s going down very well. Next up is Ozujsko and then Karlovacko.

Today’s picture is of some church door or other in Ljubljana.

Unfortunately this was the highlight of the day. I’ve not been very impressed with Ljubljana really, it’s pretty in little patches but there’s not really anything of interest to see (or at least I didn’t come across it) and it didn’t seem to have much of a vibe about it (or at least I didn’t pick it up).

My attempts to find decent priced and healthy food today hasn’t gone very well either. The Slovenians clearly aren’t too big on pasta (or at least pasta for under 10 Euros, okay I’m going to stop doing that now as it’s quite annoying isn’t it). So being very hungry at 20:00 I decided to settle for some more modestly priced cevapici. This didn’t go too good either though as the girl said she spoke some English when she actually meant she spoke none. I thought I’d ordered when I said “cevapici” and she corrected my pronunciation, so after I’d been sat for a good while listening to ’100 Broken Windows’ era Idlewild and finished my nice pint of Union and still nothing had arrived, I got the gist that it wasn’t coming. When I tried to enquire what was happening I soon realised I’d have about as much luck if I asked her what she thought the pros and cons were of the Revie Plan. Hungry and demoralised I resigned myself to my fate of another bit of cheap and easy fast food.

The bloke behind the counter at Smacky’s said “Have a nice day”. How can I have a nice day at nearly 21:00?

So Zagreb tomorrow, my ticket was only about 12 Euros and it’s a 3 hour journey. That’s more like it after €65 to get here from Vienna.

As I can’t find a web service to display my route as I go (or at least one that I can pipe into this site), here is an old skool (poor resolution, as I’ve had to rotate the image) version showing where I’m up to at the moment.

I think I was agitated because I checked-in late and couldn’t get my stuff sorted. I didn’t really want to turn the light on and wake up 7 other people (though some people don’t seem to give an aardvark about doing that) to put valuables in a locker, dig out my earplugs (which meant when I did finally nod off other people getting up woke me not too long after) etc.

Right, that’s my little whinge out of the way.

I went to the supermarket before to try and eat a bit cheaper and healthier but apparently they shut at 12:00 on a Sunday, crivens. My diet at the moment is like ‘Supersize Me – The European Tour’. Actually, I’ve lost weight because of skipping so many meals but the insides can’t be too good, am not looking forward to my first run when back on Albion soil.

Right, that was the last little whinge honest, I swear on my prized Gerogiou Kinkladze highlights VHS.

I’m going to get rid of my Boingo subscription as I’ve not used it once on this trip. It was okay in The States as pretty much every McDonalds hosted Boingo supported wireless, so all you had to look out for was the golden arches and emails were on their way. This isn’t the case in Europe so the only way to find a Boingo spot is to go on their website (as it happens they don’t have any in Slovenia) which kind of defeats the object. Se ya Boingo.

I’ve managed to find a pub called England Pub (maybe the geezer who owns China Restaurant in Vienna is the proprietor here too) showing the Pompey vs City game. What’s more that unlike my abode for the next few days, it has Wi-Fi. Which gives me the opportunity to publish this (as well as yesterday’s post).

I love the new City 3rd kit, actually I like all 3 of the new Umbro kits. Never mind on the pitch, City are really getting everything right off it at the moment under the new regime, like the new website, free match streaming, reduced ticket prices in important cup games to ensure a full stadium etc. They actually seem to treat the fans as just that, rather than generic customers. Refreshing to those on the inside.

They made a right move in getting rid of Sulaiman Al Fahim. How much of a tubbsy plonker did he look in a Portsmouth shirt with his name on the back, he’s like an Arabian Mike Ashley.

Another solid if unspectacular performance from City for a 1-0 win. There’s clearly a lot more to come from those players, that’s the scary bit for other teams after 3 straight wins without conceding a goal, and 5 if you include The Carling Cup and a friendly against the perrenial footballing underdogs, Barcelona.

Am just having another pint to leech the wireless, the Villa vs Cottagers (George Michael is captain) game in the background providing some interest.

This blog post is hot to trot and my interest in the Villa game is waining (actually it wained entirely 3 minutes in when Fulham conceded and 2 fantasy football clean sheets went amiss). So I’m just going to make my way back to base, rest up a little and figure out the best way to approach Zagreb.

Tomorrow I’ll have a proper look at what Ljubljana has to offer.

I’m just on my way to Ljubljana now. I’ve a feeling it’s going to be a long day. It’s supposed to take 6 hours with 1 change which would get me in at about half 9 tonight but there’s a murmur of potential delays due to problems between Graz and Maribor. If so I’ll miss my connection which would mean an extra change needed and another couple of hours on my journey.

Now I’m solo travelling again I’m going to try and be good and take it easy, as much for my budget as my health. This last week has been way over what my daily spends should be. It’s easier said than done to be a hermit in the hostel environment though.

The one I’m in tonight should help though, it’s in a bit of a remote location I think. It’s a 50 minute walk or somet through a forest to get to the city. Crikey.

I take the sleep thing back. Ruddy knackered now.

I’m not sure what part of Austria I’m in but it’s a very large, green and pretty valley that I’m going through. I think I’m on the edge of the Alps.

I just went past a Lindt factory, umm, how nice is Lindt chocolate.

I must have drifted off while listening to the Filmspotting podcast which is no reflection on that show as it’s excellent. A mere 10 minutes later and I was awoken in a dazed state (maybe there was even a bit of dribble on the go) in Graz by the conductor tapping me on the shoulder and banging on in German and a bit of English about something to do with a bus. I got the gist and then had to leg it to take my cramped place on the awaiting bus outside.

It didn’t start very well as the driver managed to stall the veichle straight away in an extremely violent fashion. If I was back in Blighty I’d have a whiplash compo claim in before you can say Iggy Pop is a sell out. I think the paper work might be a bit tricky round these parts though.

All this for the none too cheap rate of 65 Euros.

The good news is that the bus made it in time for the connection. The bad news is that the conductor just stung me for €3 for a reservation fee. What’s having a ticket for the train if it’s not a reservation? I don’t trust these sneaky Slovenians already.

I’ve been doing a little route planning and here is a very very rough order of future destinations to take me as far as Italy:

Ljubljana-Zagreb-Sarajevo-Belgrade-Bucharest-Istanbul-Sofia-Skopje-Tirana-Athens.

Then from Greece I would look to get a ferry to the south-west of Italy.

All that would probably take around a month. Then I would still want to do Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Morocco (possibly) and France after that. So maybe another 6-8 weeks for that which would take me up to around the end of November. Then a few weeks in Manchester to sort stuff out and if I could afford it, a few more in Cuba on route to New Zealand where I’ll be looking for graft.

I’ve pretty much ruled the Central America expedition out now as it’s not financially viable, so a much bigger than first planned European campaign could be a good compromise.

All this is just speculating though, it all just depends on how the money is holding up so I’ll just play it by ear.

It’s 22:09 and I’m in a Smacky D’s in Ljubjlana. I’d rather not have fast food but it’s late, I’m famished and tired and I don’t fancy wandering the streets looking for a gaff serving cheap pasta (I could murder some pasta).

It’s not a very good one though. They say I can’t upgrade my coke to a milkshake if I pay the difference, outrageous as that is a standard request I have granted often. The beauty of McDonalds is their consitency the world over. When you take that away, well then you’re heading down the Wimpy route.

It’s now midnight and I’m finally at the hostel after an hour waiting for a bus. Phew. Not impressed is my first impression though, no Wi-Fi!!!

That’s just reminded me, someone asked me the other day what Wi-Fi stands for and I wasn’t sure (because after checking, it doesn’t actuallly stand for anything). Geoff voiced his own guess though, Wireless Fuc*ing Internet.

I’m not too sure what today’s photo is of readers. It was in the Natural History Museum in Vienna. My best guess would be a mobile Nazi casino.

Last night we went to a very cool club called Flex. It’s just a shame that the tunes were ones of a techno variety, I think so anyway, but I techno notice of that sort of pap so it was possibly acid-monkey-trance for all I know. It was however the loudest music I’ve ever heard, it literally hit you as a wall of sound, forcing you to dance whether you wanted to or not by violently shaking you with an evil bass.

It didn’t matter though as we probably only spent about 10 minutes actually inside the club. There was a large outdoor bit on the River Danube where we spent our time. A good night was had indeedy.

I said the other day that Cass (one of the marauding Scots) was a good muscian; well judge for yourself as here’s some of his stuff with his band Signals. I reckon they’re ace.

Today isn’t much fun for me as it’s one of the practical get on with stuff sort of ones. The lads have all gone down to some lake or other watery type feature for a swim, a great idea in this weather. But it’s clothes washing, hostel booking and transport planning all the way for me.

I have just bought a camera though. I was in 2 minds on whether to do it or not as it’s not the sort of outlay you want to make in my position, but I couldn’t find anywhere to repair my CyberShot and it’s a bit daft travelling for another 2 months without a memory capturer isn’t it.

The cheapest one i could find was a Casio for €80 but there was a much better looking Samsung one for another 20 so I opted for that. It’s the Samsung Digimax i5 and I don’t think it’s great (it’s only 5 mega pixies) but it’ll do for now at least. I didn’t actually realise it’s 2nd hand until I had a proper look at it when I got back and then read a review saying it was released years ago. In my defense, all the signs were in German! Still, it’s not really a great idea to go camera browsing with a hangover.

With the 2GB memory card I needed it cost me 108 Euros (about 95 quid) in all. I’ve likely been ripped off a bit but there weren’t many alternatives so I’m not too fussed.

So I’ll be back on my lonesome come tomorrow but I’ve had a good few days with these sound lads, plus being on my own again will be better for my liver, wallet and fat back.

Chores done and I’m just off out for a few well earned bevvies now.

‘Headmaster’ is the best drinking game on the planet, even the card game ‘Pig’ takes a beating off this one. Basically when one person puts their head on an inanimate object (or an animate organic one for that matter) you have to not be the last to do it or face the consequences. You get one shot each at this each which you can covertly strike with at any time, so awareness is needed. It sounds moronic but it leads to dramatic sprints down a street so not to be the last person to plant your swede on the bonnet of a BMW, school girl like giggling follows.

Am in a Chinese restaurant now with the imaginitive name of ‘China Restaurant’. The crispy beef and egg fried-rice with some viciously spicey condiment went down a reet treat it did.

A few awful Tenerife like bars were next up. But they were quite a good laugh for novelty value in short doses.

After that we wandered about for a while trying to figure out which venue was most deserving of our patronage, as aliens in a city often do. It was getting late so we just opted for Flex again. It wasn’t a bad call as the music was infinetely better, it was alternate but with an edge to it and dance leanings. Any club that plays a remix of King of Convenience’s ‘I’d rather dance with you’ can’t be bad.

It’s 05:53 and we’ve just got in and Geoff has the hairdryer on the go after a little bit of rain, bit daft is Geoff you see. He is also a comic genious susceptible to moments of divine inspiration. He does the Bullshit Billy Connolly Tour better than Des McClean himself.

Night night.

It’s absobloodylutely ruddy roasting here so to get off the streets for a bit we went to the Natural History Museum for €3.50 with a student card. Good value I’d say as the place is housed in a gloriously fancy and massive building.

It hosts all sorts of bizarre exhibits and while some of the stuff was a bit dull there was plenty to make it a worth while visit. My favourite bit was getting to see live piranhas, I’d love to have got away with whacking a can of Spam in there and watching the carnage ensue.

Right, am just off to the Travel Shack again to watch The Citizens steal the Palace’s crystal. Up the blues.

1 hour later and it’s hello country number 8.

The hostel is pretty nice. I’ve just been sat in a lovely summer garden at the back with the sun-a-shining and listening to one of the Glaswegian lads (Cass) I’m knocking about with put out his tunes on the guitar. I was well impressed with his style of playing and he has a good voice on him too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him doing very well sometime soon.

I’ve booked an extra night in Vienna which will take me up until Saturday and then I’ll be looking to make my way to Slovenia. Down, down, deeper and down eh.

Tonight it’s more football on the idiot box for a change, these lads are all Celtic fans (apart from Geoff who’s St Mirren all the way) so they’re after watching the 2nd leg of the Arsenal game obviously. Forgive me Del, but It’d be a lonely life as a traveller if you hold people’s footballing affinity against ‘em. Though first and foremost a City fan, the team I look out for once past Hadrian’s is Gers.

Do you know it’s nearly 16:00 and I’m yet to eat a thing yet, this is becoming an all too regular occurrence. I’m off to remedy it now.

Actually I didn’t remedy it until around 4 hours later but when I did I had a belter cevapcici at a gaff named Mariahilferbrau (I can’t find a link). I’d already tried this dish many years ago in Bosnia and it was even better 2nd time round. The various meals everyone else were scoffing looked just as tantalising.

Am now watching the Arsenal vs Celtic game in Flanagans (it’s a Bermudan bar by the way, hold on, wait a minute, no I got that wrong, I can confirm that’s it’s actually an Irish bar) where I’ll also be taking in the Carling Cold Cup game of Crystal Palace vs The Mighty Blues tomorrow night. It’s not going too swell for my new pal’s team though, with them being 4-0 down on aggregate.

One of many graduates from the academy of footballing excellence has just entered the fray so all is not lost for them, the fearsome Willo Flood. He has the physique of a 9 year old and the boat-race of a 74 year old.

Game over and Celtic well beaten. Hell of a strike by Donati at the end though mind.

After that it was down to The Travel Shack which is just round the corner from the hostel. It’s like a hostel bar without the hostel, well worth a look if you’re a backpacker as that’s what it’s geared up for.

Last night I went to a couple of bars with the Scottish lads after the end of the Liverpool game and then a bobbins club called Channels which we only hung about for 1 drink as it was, erm, bobbins.

Then I became a member of Olympic Casino (member 572 4922 in case you’re interested) but to my credit I resisted flittering my travel funds away. Little lucky Geoff came out with 70 Europeans from an outlet of 10 though in roulette, so that added a bit of excitement.

After all this hi-jinx I was a little tired this morning so once I’d sorted the hostel stuff out it was back to bed until 14:00 or so. Back to work time sure is going to be a culture shock.

In the evening I done something I swore I would never do again after Riga, I went on a walking tour. I now swear never to go on another one again, at least until next time anyway. This tour lady started off by showing us a bog standard as you ever might care to imagine building that apparently pre 1985, was the tallest building in Bratislava. I’ve seen bigger bungalows. The standard was set.

Bugger, my camera has had it. The lens isn’t coming out properly so it’s all blurred. With many months of travel in front of me I’m going to have to sort somet out pretty shortly. Costly no danger, shudder.

Right now I’m playing a variety of card games (switch, bullshit, rummy. blackjack, Texas hold ‘em, pig and scabby Queen being amongst them) in the hostel with those Glaswegian lads, a good bunch to be sure. Many of these games were new to me but they were all good and pig is the surely the most fun you can have with a 52 deck that doesn’t involve a game of strip poker, 17 bottles of Jack Daniels, a Sony handycam and the Swedish girl’s beach volleyball B-team.

Many hours later and I’m finishing this post off at 4 in the morning.

The Glasgow contingent are also heading to Vienna tomorrow so I’ll have a few travel buddies while I work out how get to get to Slovenia.

Over.

I’d already heard I wouldn’t need very long to see Bratislava as it’s pretty small, this proved to be the case. Coupling this with the fact I was cream crackered from the previous week’s exertions, I decided to have a lie-in (though it consisted more of lazing and dozing than the full on shut-eye I craved) and after doing lots of researchy stuff on the Internet I didn’t leave the hostel until about 4 in the afternoon.

After a couple of hours ambling I’m happy and don’t feel like I’ve missed out on stuff like with some of the previous cities I’ve drifted through. That said, I like Bratislava. Although there isn’t really much to see (apart from the unusual cool statues littered about the old town) it’s a pretty place and has a nice relaxed vibe about it.

While wandering I came upon a temporary stage with a decent size crowd round it, the event being Slovak Blues. Dreadful it was, some languages just don’t lend themselves well to music.

After more walking I found a cool little bar (which I forgot to take the name of so can’t provide a link to) hidden out of the way of passing tourists and am just giving a pint of Saris a 2nd chance (everything deserves a 2nd chance don’t it – apart from Gary Glitter, Joey Barton and Marmite) now as the one I had last night with my tea was horrible. To be fair that one was out of a can and this draught offering is improved though still not great. No 3rd chance will be allowed.

Now I’m just going to find a little cafe for some grub and I might see if I can find somewhere showing the Mickey Mousers vs The Villains game. It’ll keep me off the streets and out of trouble for a few hours. Plus I’ve a vested interest in it with the pubescent spotty shiner sporting Spaniard that is F.Torres, being my El Capitano in the fantasy footy stakes. Double hat-trick please Nando.

The cafe I found (Sibyla) met the 2 requirements I had – 1 it was fairly cheap and 2 it served a national Slovakian dish I was after, Bryndzové Halušky. Budvar wash-down.

I caught the game in El Diablo (The Devil would be the English from Spanish translation, lovely). After half time 5 lads from Glasgow came in, I got talking to them at that was the end of the quiet night. It turned out they’re not only in the same hostel as me, but also in the ‘Dublin’ suite like myself, though the dorm next door. Told you Bratislava is small.

Wien (in German) tomorrow, or Vienna in my (and very likely your) tongue.

So after a repeat of the previous night where I just sat round the hostel drinking and talking to people from many different nations, I once again have a nasty hangover.

My route today is Krakov-Katowice, Katowice-Breclav and finally Breclav-Bratislava. I’ll get in at about 7 this eve.

I’ve only booked 2 nights (and tonight shall be a quiet one!) in Slovakia and have booked another 2 in Vienna. Right now I’m going to decide my route after that by consulting my rough guide, but my rough plan is Ljubljana in Slovenia and then Zagreb in Croatia.

I’m a firm advocate of keeping the British Pound but the omnipresent Euro on the mainland does have significant advantages. When you’re only in a country for a few days it’s difficult to judge how much of the currency you’ll need and not end up taking some of it to the next country where it will be redundant.

So while waiting for my next train I just bought 3 bottles of water, some rubbish earphones I don’t need, a bottle of Sprite, a big box of chewing gum and some tictacs when all I wanted was a single bottle of water (which in my dehydrated state I was in desperate need of). This is because there was a minimum 20 Zlotys charge to use a card but this was better than using an ATM as the minimum you can take out there is 50. Bring on the Euros again.

With all this water and Sprite I’m now dying for a pee, only I don’t have the 1 Zloty required. A nightmare scenario.

I’m still trying to get my head around this Google AdSense stuff and it’s as simple or as complicated as you want to make it (I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse but I’m naturally curious and inquisitive so I tend to go for the latter). It seems in the couple of weeks I’ve been in the Blogsherpa program I’ve had 400 and odd impressions (page views) but only 3 advert clicks (not really suprising when you consider that with a post on Riga the advert might be for a Mosambique safari) which has earned me the grand total of 45 pence. But hey, that’s the equivalent of around 250ml of Zwiec round these parts, so not to be snivilled at.

I just listened to a podcast on Simon Bolivar. What an interesting fellow.

The photo is of the bar I watched the footy in yesterday.

This hostel is ace actually but my rant on the key (as in Yale, not crucial) situation yesterday was well justified as vindicated by events today. This morning (well not really as it was well past noon) I heard a lot of scuffling about below and it transpired that my bunk mate couldn’t get into his locker built into the underside of the bed. This is because I had the key for the lock in my jeans pocket attached to a Kenyan rhino keyring and the actual room key, why this was I know not. They unscrewed the hinge on the fitting (worryingly, rather easily) and got in that way. It wasn’t until I handed the room key in on the way out (as is protocol) that all became clear. Madness I tell you, madness.

Sorted my train ticket earlier, so tomorrow I’ll be heading to Bratislava, pretty much all day ‘n all. I better watch my alcohol intake tonight as it leaves about 11:00 am, a scandalously early hour for a train to depart if you ask me.

In an effort to feel like I’ve actually seen some of Krakow I went up St Mary’s Basillca before, ooh err Missus eh. On my adventures so far I think I’ve climbed nearly every sort of tower, turret, belfry, spire and steeple imaginable but this mudda was hard work, obscenely steep and considerably claustrophobic. They should put a sign up at the entrance saying “Warning – Climbing this mudda while in an overhang state may lead to you believing that you have swiney”. By chance I’d timed it well though as when I got to the top a lone trumpeter was playing a tune that breaks off mid way through to commemorate a 13th century trumpeter, who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. I like stuff like that.

Not happy, I scouted out this place an hour and a half before the KO of the Manchester City vs Wolves game (while wearing a City top I might add) and asked if they were showing Manchester City vs Wolves game in my best Queen’s, they said “Yes”, cook a cat I thought. So when come 16:00 I was greeted by The Pie Eaters vs The Rags I wasn’t happy and went to enquire about the matter. They just said “But you said Manchester”, I replied “I don’t want to watch this shower of shite do I”, they didn’t respond. Though I actually am doing that very thing as what’s the alternative? Severely miffed.

Ohh man, I hate watching this lot in a pub full of prawn sandwich scoffers with not a Manc in sight. One of them just started up with ‘Gary Neville is a red’ in a distinctly un-Mancunian accent. I thought about countering with ‘The Neville Family’ but I’m considerably outnumbered so it probably wouldn’t have been wise.

I’m going to list the full lyrics of the aforementioned terrace song as it’s one of my personal favs:

(To the tune of The Addams Family)

—

De da de da
De da de da
De da de da
De da de da
De da de da

Gary and his brother
Make love to one another
They’ve both had their mother
The Neville Family

—

Splendid stuff.

On another sport related note (some travel blog this eh), I don’t know too much about cricket (though I do have a passing interest for many reasons I won’t bore you with) but it’s everywhere at the moment with The Ashes. Anyway, my point being – How micro-second instantly dis-likable is Ricky Ponting. That was a rhetorical question that was. Rhetorical aside the answer was, and you needn’t phone a friend (crikey I’ve turned into Harry Hill – minus the specs, large collar, wit, baldness and Doctorate), very.

The Missionaries of Rhythm are the best break dancing crew I’ve ever bore witness to, much better than the stuff I saw in NYC where you’d maybe expect the cream of the crop circles. An awesome (and that is a word I only use once a year on the grounds of terminology taste) show. It never ceases to amaze me that people can be so good at one individual thing when I can be so bad at so many. Check ‘em out here. You might want to fast forward a bit and I’ll point out that the lineup I saw was slightly different but probably even better.

Umm, I’m hungry now but I feel like Joseph of Nazareth as I’m wandering around plenty but I can’t find a barn serving hotpot. Quiche Lorraine was on my mind from the same gaff as last night but on entering I was told my Zlotys were no good as they have a full reservation, charming that is.

I can hear that trumpeter from the tower again somewhere in the distance, that’s put a grin on my swede.

I’ve stumbled upon a Chinese restaurant via a chance right turn and just gone for soya noodles with beef, it didn’t take me long to order as I was half an hour away from picking up a can of Pedigree Chum (or at worst a Pot Noodle) from the local Polish equivalent of The Late Shop. Ruddy famished.

Very nice it was and cheap as, erm, noodles too.

I chuffin’ hated Grandstand as a kid. Steve Rider was clearly not a football man and why the rubber duck would I give a flying chimpanzee about downhill skiing (uphill would be like climbing St Mary’s Basillca on a snowboard) in Zurich or archery in Wrexham when I’m sat in Gorse Hill contemplating whacking the Binatone on because Grandstand is duller than Michael Owen’s memoirs to be.

So Krakow seems a cool place and is the 3rd of 12 cities so far that I have a desire to visit again sometime soon. That’s a 25% hit rate people.

The pic is of an unusual scene I walked past earlier. Surely that laptop bag contains Semtex, gaffer tape and an alarm clock? Someone should really call Team America. I’d do it myself but it’d cost a fortune on O2 roaming rates.

PS You can’t call me a bitter nosed blue because I acknowledge that Owen goal was sublime, all be it reluctantly. Of greater importance, City are still sitting pretty and as a City-Card holder I got my gratis diamond encrusted Rolex in the post the other day from Croque Monsieur (sorry, I mean Sheikh Mansour). Nice one Shakin’.

PS again. I just heard the trumpeter once more from my dorm window. It’s really nice hearing something of historical substance in the distance when you know the exact spot that it’s originating from. I like this.

My initial impressions of Krakow were positive as I navigated my way through the old town to the hostel while scouting out Irish bars as potential venues to catch the City vs Wolves match tomorrow.

I think I’m destined to open the World’s greatest hostel (though I’m not sure Manchester would be the best location). I’ve stayed in so many now that I’m in a pretty good position to contrast and compare and I have encountered all the aspects that make a perfect hostel, but never all in one establishment.

This hostel (Mundos) is a very good one. Great location, very clean, nice staff etc. But it has a couple of small issues like the rickety old wooden bunk beds that make a right racket and almost give way when you move your little toe. Also, I can’t get my head around the key policy. There’s 6 people in the room but only 2 keys and you have to leave them at reception when you leave. So sometimes you’ll go up and it’ll be locked, sometimes not, sometimes you can lock it when you leave, sometimes not and so on. It’s like an island crossing logic puzzle involving a 2 man pedalo, a rabid wolf, 2 goats, a can of Fanta and 4 dwarfs. Or maybe not.

A lot of hostels go with a theme (normally a continent, country or city) but for many this theme merely goes as far as a name on the door. Not this gaff, I’m in Kenya and don’t I know it. I’ve got a leopard-skin print blanket and check out the bad boy I’ve got resting on the wall at the side of my bed in the pic below, I feel like Michael Caine (except without eyeshadow on). My name … is Michael Caine.

I’m just on my way to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum about 50km away and I can’t really say I’m looking forward to it. But I think it’s something that needs to be experienced.

Well it was horrible as expected but exceptionally well presented by on site guides who it’s clearly very personal to. It’s so eerie seeing piles and piles of shoes, spectacles, combs and even human hair. The constant scores of morbid and disgusting facts you hear is an assault on the ears, it’s just hard to get your head around the sheer scale of what went on. Free speech is one thing but I can’t believe there are still people on this planet who are Holocaust deniers.

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way of getting to Bratislava (that’s in Slovakia Mum) from here on Sunday and a train seems likely but the only direct one is a night train which gets in at the awkward time of half 5 in the morning. Another one requires a couple of changes and takes a bit longer but it gets in at half 6 in the evening, which is much more convenient so that is likely the one I’ll opt for. Either train is over 50 quid though, buggery.

After Bratislava I’ll move on to Vienna, which won’t take long as they’re the closest 2 capitals in Europe. Then it gets a little bit trickier and I need to have a little think but it’s a good chance it’s The Balkans.

After my outing today I’m feeling a little bit downbeat and sombre so I’m just going to take it easy, get some food and then have a few cheap beers in the hostel.

I’ve found a lovely little well priced restaurant round the corner called ‘Kilmaty Poludina’ and have ordered Pierogi with meat filling (traditional Polish-style dumplings baked on butter and served with mixed salad). Of course with the obligatory pint of Zwiec.

I seem to eat out nearly every night which may not seem like the best course of action for budget travel, but it’s so cheap (the meal tonight wasn’t much over a fiver with a drink) round these parts it makes sense. When I hit Western Europe I reckon I’ll be reviewing my strategy.

PS I started to doubt my own sanity earlier. I kept hearing really loud wolf whistles and other impressive sound effects every now and again while I was eating, but I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. There was only one couple in the part of the restaurant I’m in and it kept coming from their direction, I begun to wonder if the guy had amazing voice throwing powers like Keith Harris or the bloke from Police Academy (I can’t remember his name but not Mahoney or Hightower). Shortly after I spotted the bottom of a covered birdcage behind them. Phew, not one slice short of a Hovis after all.

I went back to that Vintage clothes store (actually called ‘Vintage’) yesterday and it wasn’t bad. I didn’t buy ought for reasons I’ve mentioned many times here before. If you’re round these parts and like that sort of thing I recommend you look ‘em up, its on Jana Pawla II, number 44.

I’ve done a hell of a lot of walking today and went to loads of different places on my list but to be honest, most of them weren’t anything special so I won’t bother rambling on about them. Plus I’m in a rush as I’m just off to catch my train which will see me in Krakow after 3 and a half hours. Goodo.

Warsaw is well worth a visit though, I’ve enjoyed my time here.

The picture is of a statue merged into a building in the MDM housing district. It’s very Stalinist and there are many more like this depicting the perfect Communist life.

“Dear Steve,

How come your voice goes all high pitched when you get excited on the radio?

You sound like Theodore of ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ fame.

Ta,

Dan”

It reminded me of an occasion a couple of years back when my pal Nimrod (who will be well known to some of you) sent a serious (no comedy effect intended) email to Kevin Nolan while he was still picking up his yellow cards in a Bolton shirt. And it was published! It went something like this:

“Hi Kevin,

I like cooking Kevin. What food do you like to cook and eat Kevin?

Thanks loads Kevin.

Andy Haslam, Horwich (aged 12 and 3 quarters)”

That still makes me howl now.

Also, does anyone else reckon Fat Sam was wearing one of these when this occurred?

Now we’ve got all that daftness out of the way, let’s talk Warsaw. First up was another trip to the central station to try for the Krakow train ticket again. It was a doddle this time round with a minute queue and although the lady didn’t speak a word of English I’d allowed for this by preparing a note before-hand saying ‘Krakow’ and the date and time it should leave and arrive at it’s destination, as well as the price I expected to pay (40 Zlotys for the specific train I’d picked rather than around 100 for most of the others). If you find yourself in the same situation the InterRegio train is the cheap one you want.

Warsaw isn’t set up very well for walking. I keep finding myself foot-wrecked with huge swathes of uncrossable land in front of me. There’s lots of strangely placed traffic lights, awkward and unlikely dead-ends with underground mazes as your only possible route. Still, all in a day’s adventuring.

My plan of having a fridge magnet of every destination visited that I’ve carried forward from my USA expedition isn’t going too swell. They don’t seem to flog them anywhere west of Belgium so my retrospective purchase list (and I tell you this, I actually have one) is growing by the city. When I finally hang up my backpack there’s going to be some serious eBay action on the go.

The main place for me to visit today was The Warsaw Rising Museum and was also the main reason for me staying an extra night in the city as it wasn’t open yesterday. It only cost me 3 Zlotys to get in with my stud. card (to put it in perspective, I’ve been paying about the same for a bottle of water) and I’d have happily paid considerably more. It’s a brilliant detailing of the Nazi invasion and everything that followed until ‘liberation’ by The Red Army. I was told you need about 2 hours to get round it and as is my modus operandi I arrived exactly 2 hours before closure. In my opinion you need 3 to do it properly.

So for grub tonight I went to a Communist themed restaurant named Pod Czerwonym Wierprzem (lnn Under The Red Hog). It was a little bit tacky but it was quite good fun either choosing from the proletariat menu or the bourgeoisie one. I went for ‘Fidel’s Cigars’ – pork chops rolled into a cigar shape served with spicy Cuban tomato sauce, possibly cooked on the thighs of a virgin. Plus some boiled potatoes on the side and another pint of Zwiec (actually 2 as there was a promotion on apparently). It was a bit pricier than last night’s meal but still pretty cheap and was reasonably nice too.

Okay, I’ve not really met anyone in the hostel so rather than squat around the place on the Internet with some tins all night, I’m off to watch ‘Wrogowie Publiczni’ at the local cinematic purveyor.

So ‘Public Enemies’ was pretty much what I expected after reading many ranging reviews. I missed the first 3 or 4 minutes which normally I will religiously not do but I’d already paid my 16 Zlotys, or erm, 3 quid. Depp was good as always and it was shot well, but even though it kept me interested just about, it was light on anything else of real quality and very Hollywood all over. It’s a shame really as Dillinger certainly is an intriguing character. One other thing of note is that after doing a bit of research (which I can’t help but do on fiction or semi-fiction) I wish I’d of seen the flick before I went to Chicago as I’d have looked up the Biograph Theatre while trundling around the city’s Lincoln Park area.

Krakow tomorrow, well actually I’m here most of the day still as my cheapo train doesn’t leave until about 18:00.

I quite like Poland.

The New World St. Hostel seems great too. I was a bit worried at first as to get to it you have to walk up a very grim council-estate like flight of stairs, I had fears of another Denver hostel experience, but these concerns were unfounded as once you reach the top the atmosphere is much more warmly.

It also has the most genial staff I’ve come across, I’ve seen a few of them being very patient and helpful with all sorts of people. Throw in good facilities, an ace breakfast (not free but cheap at less than 3 quid) plus a great night-time view of the Palace of Culture and Science from my window and a good hostel you have made.

Warsaw seems more interesting than I expected it to be (apologies for my ignorance Varsovians) so I’ve booked another night as half a day (which is all I’d have got by the time I get out today) won’t cover it. This has caused a few headaches with my Krakow booking so I’m just trying to sort that out now. Sorted.

Today has been another one of those planning heavy days and I’ve worked out a very very rough route for the next few months. I’m actually thinking of making it more extensive than originally planned as I’m not sure I’m going to be able to fund my Central America proposal so a longer duration in Europe (and maybe a short Cuban trip) might be a good alternative. None of this is concrete so I’ll just play it by ear and see where I’m up to in a month or two.

Ah, I knew this hostel couldn’t be perfect – one very cold shower later. What’s the emoticon for shiver.

Right then, Warsaw. Well first up I walked up to the main central station to see if I could get my ticket to Krakow for Thursday but after 10 minutes in a queue that was going nowhere I decided to try again tomorrow.

After that I went looking for a vintage clothes shop that I heard was dirt cheap but just got there a bit too late. Again maybe one for tomorrow.

Next on my hit list for the area I was in was a visit to an arthouse cinema (Muranow Cinema) that is very discreet (without the address it’s unlikely to be somewhere you stumble upon) and sill has the original Stalinist style décor. Lars Von Trier’s controversial ‘Antichrist‘ was the offering and I considered it but it was getting late and nosebag was on the agenda. Maybe tomorrow night if nothing better comes up. Tomorrow, tomorrow – I feel like the little ginger orphan Annie.

So stomach a rumblin’ I sought out the restaurant ‘Pod Samsonem‘ which I’d read was an excellent traditional Jewish Polish place. I ordered the hashed sausage, pork and beef stewed sauerkraut served with potatoes. A pint of Zywiec provided the washing down for this meal. This was only 22 Zlotys altogether, which is less than a fiver Sterling. I should also add that it was lovely, my palate is very much suited to Eastern European cuisine.

My taste-buds satisfied I then strolled home through Warsaw’s old town. Though in reality it’s not that old as the vast majority of it was decimated in World War II and has since been rebuilt, still it is very pretty, if a little over populated with tourists.

BTW This post’s title is a reference to a line in a Johnny Cash song. It was in a short list of Polish to English phrases in a little pamphlet I was reading on Krakow. It made me laugh for it’s off the wall randomness.

Okay, I’d like to say this picture was taken in Warsaw but unfortunately I’ve not managed to find anything picture worthy (or at least capable of capturing on a 1 mega-pixie flashless iPhone when the sun has done one) so until I do, it’s the Berlin Wall all the way folks. It looks like the 2 Harry’s to me, Redknapp and Hill.

So far it’s the only place other than Berlin, that I’d be actively interested in returning to. I’m sure I’ll get the chance some day.

3 hours after departing on the train from Vilinus we’ve arrived at Sestokai neat the Lithuania/Poland border and boarded another train heading to Warsaw, 5 more hours and we’ll be there.

The new train is quite cool, am in one of those little cabins with an adjacent corridor like in the movies, I’ve always wanted to go in one of them. Splendid.

Right, in Warsaw now. I said tarrah to Elise (the Aussie girl from the hostel who was on the train with me) and then made my way to my new home for 2 nights. Lets see if I can actually see some of this city.

Country number 6, they’re racking up ain’t they.

The pic is another Berlin one as understandably, photo opportunities have been limited today.

My head feels like gravity is imploding (I don’t even know what that means but that’s what it feels like). It’s not that suprising really, I had a White Russian and a shot of absinthe (I dont get the hype?) amongst many other things last night. I’m not really a fan of these organised pub crawls, but as a solo traveller they almost become a neccessity, rent a friend if you will.

The fellow who led the events was a very strange little Australian bloke who was constantly bouncing in a Euro dance fashion to echo how much of a great time he was having, he disturbed me slightly. The bars and clubs we went to were bobbins apart from one Quentin Tarantino inspired bar (named Tarantino funnily enough) but there were some good people about so it was a reasonable night.

Man, no sooner than my last lot of mosquito wounds have healed than I have a new batch. The pesky little beggars. If I coat my body in a thin layer of cyanide would it harm myself more than the pesky little beggars?

There’s another one of these free walking tours on today but I’m not going to go as for one it’s in 3 minutes and I’m composing this from my bed in my pants, and two I lost the will to breathe on the last one. Crikey I’m in a cynical mood today, muchos apologies.

I’m just watching the Rags vs Birmingham now with a fellow named Darragh from N.I. who I was out with last night, good chap. I’m hoping this hairy dog I’m having will have the desired effect.

Now watching Scousers vs Spurs, accompanied by rather cheap beer, ‘riffic. I’ve already spent my fact of the day. I informed Darragh that the Italian footballing giant that is Juventus, kit was originally inspired directly by the world’s oldest league club Notts County, he was suitably impressed. His submission several hours later was that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was renamed to Hero Turtles in the UK because Ninja was considered too violent. A great effort but the impact was lessened as I already knew this. A valiant attempt none the less though I’m sure you’ll agree.

So Vilnius actually looks really nice but I’m going to have to come back to see it as I’ve spent my time here watching football and drinking beer. Not a bad way to spend a few days but I’m slightly annoyed with myself at the waste. Have had a good time though and met some ace people on the same wave-length, which can be a rarity on these adventures.

Tomorrow a 10 hour train journey to Warsaw awaits. There’s an Aussie girl from the hostel on the same one so that should hopefully make it go a bit quicker.

The pic is of a painting on the Berlin Wall, in a rather poor showing I’ve hardly took a snap in Lithuania. I’ll try and buck my ideas up come Poland readers.

I had a few remaining Lats to get rid of so was buying a plethora of different snacks and drinks at the station. It actually seems quite hard to find anything substantial in Latvia unless you eat in a restaurant, all the little shops just do crisps and chocolate but not much else. Luckily there were a few vending machines though. I threw an orange juice (one where it uses fresh oranges in front of you, too pulpy for my liking) and a hot chocolate down my neck and got myself a big bottle of water, some onion crisps (not cheese and onion mind, just onion) and a distinctly minging looking sandwich (I couldn’t begin to tell you what’s on it and I’m perpetually putting off actually eating it).

Last night’s sleeping was better relative to the previous few nights, maybe 5 hours. The room was darker and quieter and when my alarm went off early this morn I could happily have dozed for a week or more in that very spot. But that is not the life of a traveler, onwards.

One of the lads from Wolverhampton happened to be in the bunk above me and woke me up at about half 4 in the morning when he got in and then proceeded to chat to me for the best part of an hour. Nice chap but boy can he rabbit. It’s probably just as well I didn’t end up bumping into them earlier as I’d of ended up going out and a night out at a Latvian club might well have just finished me off.

A major international incident was just nearly sparked off by myself when an armed man in combat gear boarded the bus asking for passports, I’d left mine in my bag in the luggage haul, gulp. Luckily he decided not to shoot me and gave me permission to go and get it. Though he didn’t actually bother checking it in the end anyway, I reckon by this point he had twigged by my demeanor that I knew my way round a Kalashnikov.

I’ve been attempting to get a little kip time the past couple of hours but these Baltic roads just aren’t on par with the ones back in Albion, no Siry.

So I’ve given up and am spending the journey listening to some excellent bluegrass – ‘Catfish On The Line’ by The Water Tower Bucket Boys. That and a bit of reading and blogging is making it a decent enough trip.

My Dad has warned me to be extra vigilant in Lithuania as he reckons the Liths are nearly as dodgy as the Mexes, not to be trusted. I’d better hope I don’t come across a half Lith half Mexey on my travels, that bad ass Eastern Bloc desperado would be one mudda not to turn your back on, you could easily end up sporting dead man’s hand I reckon.

Am there now and I’ve just managed to sort my train ticket for Warsaw (after weighing up the bus options) come Monday in the adjacent station. 66 Litas (or Leroys as I will here-on-in refer to them) which is roughly the equivalent of 16 quid. Not bad for around an 8 hour journey.

Though I managed to acquire said ticket it was not done without a stiff upper lip. I encountered various levels of disinterest, impatience and downright rudeness with the worst being a woman who made a huge frown, sigh and roll of the eyes because I dared to enquire how long the night-bus took. I’ve had this a fair few times before and the way I handle it is to switch to ultra polite and sarcastic mode while mumbling insults under my breath. All in a traveler’s day you see.

Some would argue, well it’s a different country and a different way of life and they well may be right, but for me manners are manners in any country, language, race or creed. You don’t have to know the lingo to know whether or not you are being treated or are treating someone correctly.

I’m just watching the City game in The Dubliner now. I’m pretty much the only one here and the commentary is turned down, but still, I’m happy to have found somewhere, plus the beer is very cheap as the British stags (and the British language) have yet to add this city to the big list.

The jukebox (or whatever is piping the music into my ears) is a diverse one. Jonathan Richman and The Beach Boys being the highlights and U2 and Aswad being the low so far.

Two old arrogant Southerners have joined the proceedings now and are sat behind me making a big noise with no sound. “Man City is it, they’ve all taken their Chelsea tops off and put Man City ones on”. Yeah, I’ve just flung my 2005/06 Chelsea shirt off and put my 1995/96 City one on. ‘ossers.

Anyway, 2-0 and the proverbial game of 2 halves. Well it just goes to show you get what you pay for and what you train up. Class strike (and even classier first pass) from Adebayor and wonderful composure (I’m reluctant to say it, but it was George Best like) from Ireland. That kind of stuff wins games.

To celebrate I had some lovely mince meat potato dumplings in crispy bacon and white wine sauce at a local Lithuanian cuisine gaff. Lovely food but again little in the way of friendliness.

Blimey, country number 5 you know. How many do you reckon I’ll do in all?

The picture is of a bridge where Latvian couples place Halfords bumper-locks for symbolic purposes when they become bestowed to each other. Lovely isn’t it, I’m filling up here.

I post this at nearly 6:00 am in the morning after a pub crawl. I’m yet to fully form my opinions on the fellow crawlers.

At the moment I’m probably averaging about 3 hours a night, not good. I think I might check in to the Hilton come Lithuania. I’ve to change room today so Lord knows what awaits.

I’ve just been on the free (well, tip based) walking tour of Riga and it was 3 hours of complete boredom, if the Berlin one was an 8 or 9 out of 10 this was a 2 or 3. I find it hard to believe they were the most interesting buildings or events to occur in the city. I only went on it because I’m again short of time. Still only 3 Lats spent so no harm done, plus there were a couple of lads from Wolverhampton on it who had good wit so maybe I’ll see them for a drink later.

One thing I did pickup on the tour was a tiny bottle of Riga Black Basalm for just over a Lat, it’s their most famous drink apparently and is based on a recipe over 2 centuries old. It’s basically some ridiculously high volume alcohol that’s vile tasting and is (or at least was) considered a cure for any ailment you could care to mention. Snakeoil basically.

No sooner had I got back than I had to rush straight out for the shooting thing. It was me and 3 French guys doing it. It was all over pretty quick (7 or 8 shots on each weapon) but it was a good experience and I enjoyed it. The pleasantries were thin on the ground and I got the feeling the ‘instructor’ had killed people. All very Soviet, all very what I wanted.

One of the French fellas had a bit of a tick and to my shame, I thought I didn’t fancy being next to him with a shotgun. As it happened he turned out to be the best shot amongst us with a particularly ace headshot with the pump-action being the highlight. I done okay, not ‘Man From U.N.C.L.E‘ standard, but pretty solid shooting with the target in my backpack to prove.

Half past 5 and my 2 meals of the day have been bags of crisps. My diet of the past couple of days has been ruddy awful but it has been down to circumstace rather than choice so hopefully things will pick up shortly in that respect. Now even, Latvian cusine defo this time! Though it may require a bit of sprinting as Riga has been having Mancunian like heavy downpours all day.

One thing I do like about this hostel is their penchant for giving out free beer. I got 1 at check-in, 1 after the shooting and another after I had to check-in all over again for the room change. The stuff they give you is Zelta (gold is the translation).

So Riga is okay and it’s a good place for a group of lads to come away to but I’ve been to a lot better places culturally and architecture wise. This is part of what this tour is all about though, I’m making mental notes about places I want to come back to and explore further in the future. Of the cities visited on this trip, Belin is probably the only one that falls into that catergory, there are a few others though from previous short European adventures.

над.

The hostel give you a free beer on check-in which is a nice touch. Though I’m going to hold judgement on the place yet as I’ve a couple of reservations (one for me and another for my invisible friend Baxter) about a few elements of the gaff.

Today has quite literally been a right wash-out. I’ve had to spend an eternity doing my washing thanks to a dryer that is about as effective as a troupe of pygmies whistling on the individual garments. It has seriously took me all day.

All finished now but we got a SOCK DOWN people, I repeat, SOCK DOWN! How does it happen? I deliberately purchased loud and brash foot jackets and painstakingly oversaw the entire washing and drying process in an effort to thwart this ludicrous phenomenon, but all to no avail, one of the buggers still got sucked into a dimension unknown. It’s Sole destroying stuff, it really is.

So at not far off half 7 PM I prepare to venture into Riga properly for the first time. I’ve not ate (though I’ve just had a pint while waiting for my barnet to dry) a single morcel yet as there is no brekkie inclusive or otherwise, or even snacks of any kind at this hostel. I could eat a horse as they say, probably legally in Latvia too. So a feast fit for a marauding Viking and then a bit of Marco Poloing round town to get my bearings is the plan.

I had intended on sampling some genuine (extra emphasis on the ine) authentical Lattastic grub and the hostel recommended a place called ‘Lido’ for just such the thing. Unfortunately when I got there, a massive queue faced me and at 20:15 my stomach was in no mood for delays and luckily a solution presented itself in the form of TGI Fridays across the road. Okay not very Latvian, but Latvian Smatvian, I was God damn hungry and the thoughts of my previous (and only) TGI experience in Austin-Texas already had me salivating.

One Jack Daniels burger (cow and bourbon, 2 of my favourite things) and me is a happy boy again. It’s the first time I’ve ever been asked how I like my burger cooked, classy joint this TGI. Tonight’s washing down was provided by a pint of Aldaris. Medium-well BTW.

My stomach full, I then done a quick reccy for the main bus depot to get me to Vilnius come Saturday morning, 10 minutes round the corner from the hostel. Kiss my face.

After that I went in search of the MI6 bar (don’t you love a good Friday and Saturday nightlife outburst?) as it caught my attention in the guide-book, but fair play to them, they are doing something right as I couldn’t find the place.

I nearly left my Nationwide card in the cash machine again before. It’s just not natural when they give you your card back after the money (and only if you press a button then), it wouldn’t be so bad if it was all the machines that done it but it’s only the odd one so it can easily catch you off guard if you’re not concentrating 100% (I’d say 110% but that would be ridiculous).

Okay, I’ve had a trundle round Riga’s old town and it seems nice enough in parts. Incisive and in depth stuff eh. I’ll try and report something of genuine note on the morrow.

Oh there we go, just found my bearings. The pesky wee fellas that they are.

Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to that shooting trip (I presume it’s this one, it’s a remarkable coincidence other wise) which is held at an old Soviet underground nuclear bunker where the Latvian Police now train. I was asking the guy about it and he said you get to fire a Kalashnikov, a hand-gun and a pump-action shotgun. I said “Great, it will be just like back home”. It’s 35 Lats (about 40 quid) from the hostel but I figure it would be a more expensive if I wasn’t in a former Eastern-Bloc country so I should take the opportunity while I have it. I won’t be doing too many things like this on this European adventure though mind, that’s a day’s budget blown away, again quite literally.

Amongst the dross there was some good clobber but while not really over priced it was no cheaper or rarer than stuff back home. I did see that Fred Perry shirt that I spent pretty much my last few bucks on in New York, it was €75 (about £65) so I now feel vindicated in getting it for about £25 Stateside.

Alas I did not leave without a purchase though. I’m trying to cut out any extravagance on this trip to save funds for future trips but I have probaby come away a touch light on tops to wear so was on the lookout for somet decent but cheap. In the sale section of the shop there was a Ben Shernan skinny fit polo that fitted both me and the bill, it was about 30 quid. Fair play to that brand, after years of some very banal or down-right horrific gear (granted, they have always had some good threads) they have started putting out nice stuff under their new logo.

Right, now we’ve got fashion weekly out of the way let’s talk Berlin. There were a couple of other East Berlin districts (Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain) Pekka had said were worth looking up that were next to each other and also the East Side Gallery (which was still on my hit list) was in one of them. So that’s where I took myself off to next.

As I wouldn’t get much opportunity to eat tonight (with the flight and that) I decided to stock up at lunch and stopped at a little Italian cafe called ‘La Romantica’ near the Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn stop. I opted for the spaghetti alla marinara (shrimp, prawns, tuna, mussels, tomatoes and garlic) washed down with a bit of Berliner pilsner. The spaghetti was great value at only €4.60 for a very generous portion. Job done.

Then it was over to The East Side Gallery, it’s a 1.3 kilometre stretch of the Berlin Wall running along side the River Spree which has been left standing as a memorial. It’s covered in thought provoking paintings by lots of international artists and makes for a very interesting sight. If you go to Berlin it should be high on the list.

After that I walked through Kreuzberg which seemed a really cool area with lots of trendy bars, cafes etc but I didn’t have any time for anything but a quick walk through. I managed to get some replacement iPhone earphones (complete with remote) for 10 Euros (not sure how long they’ll last!) from a little dodgy electronics shop, just as well as I’m getting quite the pile up of podcasts.

My last visit was to the Topography of Terror which is an open air exhibition (while the permanent housing is being built for it) located on top of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. It was very grim as you’d expect. Unfortunately I had to abandon this half way through as time was getting a little tight to make my flight. I had hoped to make it to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche as well but it wasn’t to be.

I’ve seen some good stuff today but it’s all been a bit rushed, 1 more day would have been perfect.

I’m about 2 and a half weeks in to this trip and as yet I haven’t purchased a single tram, tube, underground etc. ticket. Pekka informed me that in nearly a year in Brussels with daily use of the metro he’d not encoutered a single inspector so I certainly wasn’t going to bother then and I’ve continued in the same fashion in Deutschland. The penalty in most of Europe is about 40 Euros so I reckon in the unlikely event I do get collared, I’ll still be well up overall. This strategy shall continue as and when possible.

My pal Topi is in Tallinn at the moment interviewing Kaka, Robinho, Daniel Alves and friends prior to their International friendly game with Estonia (how cool is that!). I’m not sure how long he is there for but it’s only about 3 hours away from Riga on the bus, still that’s a 6 hour round trip which would mean I wouldn’t get to see much of Latvia so it’s a non starter really. I would have definetely been up for it if I’d not already been to Tallinn (with Topster funnily enough) but with limited time and money (or limited time because of money) I’m making sure every place is somewhere previously unventured by myself.

So I liked Berlin a lot and would have liked to sample the alternative night life that I’ve heard is great, but I didn’t fancy it on my sen so that’s one for a return trip.

To country number 4 we go.

Also, I don’t half get some strange Google (or whatever search engine) searches bringing people to the site. Who the rubber duck is searching for ‘Dan Bowen Food Lion’ ?!?!

Pic is of a couple of Vespa 50 Specials I spotted earlier. Make a nice couple don’t they.