Greece Continues

Alright, so we're back. I realize once again we havent posted in awhile.There's a great eplanation for this. The entire island of Corfu uses internet that is powered by a series of small rodents on spinning wheels. If one get tired the internet dies. But seriously, slowest internet ever. If I can log into my email in under 1 minute Im doing great. But on to the stories...

Not much is new in the life of the boys. We just sit on the beach all day, play in the Ocean and just lounge out. Greece is pretty awesome to this point. After 6 weeks of travelling, not living out of my backpack (Well still living out of it, but its all over the floor) has been great. We all agree our vacation within a vacation has been awesome.

Matts crazy rash is pretty much gone. After a couple of days inside, he gave us and just wrapped himself in tensor bandages. If anyone remebers Thundercats, he looked like Mumra. I may be mistaken on the name, but we still found it pretty funny. And in case anyone was worried about my cut, Im fine. Im pretty mad at my body for bleeding that much for such a small cut. Anyways, Ill get over it.

As we said in the last post, our missing soldier is back. The three of us agreed that having Marc around is hilarious and we missed him a great deal when he was gone. But now hes returned and is currently on a scooter with Braden driving the island. Adam and Matt decided that today would be a good reading day. Our next three days will all be spend in airports, ferried and planes so relaxing is working out pretty well.

Thats about it for the four of us. Next stop is London, where it all began, and were looking forward to heading back to Canada. Travelling really makes you appreciate where your from. Cant wait to see everybody, which goes for all of us, and we'll hopefully be posting in London to sum up our adventures.

Adios amigos

The Boys

It's all Greek to us...

I know we said we'd talk more about Italy, but we only have 8 minutes of internet left, so that is getting cut short. 4 days in to Greece now, 6 left. We are cooking under the hot Greek sun and having a blast here. On our first night here, we attended a Pink Palace tradition, the Toga Party. It was a great night, and we were fortunate enough to meet up with Jordan and Elena again (for the third time this trip) and they decided to stay one extra night here in our honour. Adam somehow managed to cut his elbow on a piece of glass and bled all his (and several other people's) toga. We are happy to say that after a few seconds of holding a piece of toilet paper against it, the cut felt round the world is now healed. Matt, on the other hand, is sick. He has developed some sort of crazy rash and under Doctor's orders, he cannot drink or be in the sun (hence the reason I am posting here). I am on some anti-histamines because the doctor says I have had an allergic reaction to something (but he is not sure what). It seems to be clearing up though, so i will be good in a few days.

The big news: MARC IS BACK. He rejoined us here on our second day and our quattro is now full again. Its great to have him back. No one can do the elephant noise like he can. 1 minute left.

Ciao bella,

The Boys

Rome

So as a bonus post, we'll write about rome now as well. When in Rome....I realize that doesnt really apply here.

We got to Rome after our awesome overnight train, and had to find a campsite. That pretty much was like trying to find a dairy farm in downtown Toronto. After missing our stop we finally arrive. The setup was pretty sweet. We had 2 cabins and three of us. They were airconditioned, and had sweet fridges to keep our 50 cent wine cold. Our first night we decided to have a wine and cheese. After buying the finest of boxed wines and 4 varieties of cheese, we set out to have a nice social dinner on our patio. Wine and Cheese Europe 2006 turned into The 2006 Cheese Toss Invitational. Every cheese we bought was the worst cheese Ive ever had. That doesnt make sense but you didnt eat this cheese.

Our next day we hit the vatican. Unreal. The whole thing is like a piece of art. The statues and paintings are unbelieveably beautiful, and the whole thing seems surreal. This leads us to the sistine chapel. Its hard to descirbe the sight of the chapel on a post, but it was the most beautiful artwork I will ever see. We then went to St. Peters square and climbed the dome to the top. After 780000000000000 steps we got to the top. View was awesome, and I lost 16 pounds doing it. And all it cost was 4 euros. Matt and Braden snuck in. Sneaking into a church seems a little sacreligious, but... when in Rome.

Thus ends our first two days. Well continue to update tomorrow on our travels through Italy and Greece.

Cheers,

The Three Amigos

Switzerland - I found my camera

Alright, I realize we havent posted in a long time. Long story short, internet gets expensive and its not always available. Oh well, back to my camera

So apparently after calling it a night, I hid my camera in my bed under my mattressm went to brush my teeth, and went to sleep. The only problem was it wasnt my bed. It the the bed beside mine. No big deal, we found it and I now have all my pictures. Im pretty happy about it.

The rest of Interlaken was pretty cool, minus the fact Marc was gone. He had to catch a flight home from Zurich, which he missed and then spend 4 hours in the Ottawa airport because of a bomb scare - probably the best 24 hours of his life. Braden went hangliding while myself and Matt rented some sweet cars and drove through the mountains. It was breathtaking to say the least. We left Interlaken and headed for Rome. All roads lead to Rome apparently, and contrary to popular belief, it wasnt built in a day. We took an overnight train and met two of the coolest people ever. By coolest I mean not cool in any way shape or form. However, we just played some euchre and went to bed. I was having an awesome sleep in my ken doll sized bed when I was awoken by customs looking for drugs. They didnt find any and I went back to sleep.

Thats it for us boys

Cheers

The Three Amigos

Some more sweet pics 3

Some sweet pics 2

Some Sweet Pics 1

And Then There Were Three

Marc has left us. As I type this, hes on a train to Zurich to fly home. Our foursome is now down to three.

Marc wasnt feeling well for a second night in a row. We headed to hospital again and the Doctor didnt really give any different advice from the night before. After waking up and still not feeling well, Marc decided to head home. I dont want to worry anyone, as Im sure he is going to be fine in a couple of days, but we all thought the loss of a member of the eurotrip deserved an individual post.

He was an essential part of this trip, and will be sadly missed. Were going to have to figure out a way to make up for his absence. Weve tossed aroud the idea of a blow up doll with a picture of Marc on the face, but it woudnt be nearly as funny as Marc was this trip. Plus it cant eat 32.5 pounds of lasagna in one sitting.

Now were going to have to take group pictures with a hole in the middle.

Switzerland - My Camera Got Stolen

Last night we got to Switzerland and realized how incredible it was. We are in Interlaken, a small town on the edge of a lake and nestled snuggly in the Suisse alps. It a pretty scenice place. Id Show you all pictures, but...

After playing an awesome game of flipcup with some Yanks we met in Prague and again randomly here, I decided to shut it down. I headed to bed, camera in my jeans pocket which were at the foot of my bed. In the morning, it was gone. It still may turn up, but right now it seems that it got stolen during the night. To make things worse, my clothes were soaking wet as our room had a small flood. So needless to say, Im not overly impressed at the moment, however I have to look at things in perspective - This is a trip not many people ever have the chance to take, I can claim the camera and the memory card with my insurance, and most of the pictures we have on the other cameras. Worse things have happened to better people. Its a piss off, but these things happen. I still have my health.

Now Marc, however, does not. Last night Waters took a trip to the hospital with a bit of a fever. Now to avoid any uneccesary worrying, our little guy is doing fine. Hes taking some meds and will be back on top very shortly. However, he doesnt get to drink. Which is exactly where Im going.

Cheers,

Coates (I signed my own name just in case people had no idea whose camera was stolen)

Switzerland - Quickest post ever

Gotta run - going to check out the alps. Ill post again when we get back

Auf Weiderzang

The Boys

Munchen - Or Munich to us Canucks

Alright, so we havent posted in awhile. Our collective bad. So we just came from Munich and are now in Switzerland. Im going to write 2 posts today, to make up for our lack of posting.

Bratislava ended pretty much how it began. The city is not all that exciting so we just took a bit of a mid trip break. On the plus side however, Adam, Matt and Braden all had bed bug bites. We think they were bed bugs, but we really have no clue. So when in Bratislava, remember to sleep tight and... oh nevermind.

Munich was a pretty rad city. The hofrbrahaus was fantastic. Couple of hilarious videos came out of that one, but you will all have to wait for the DVD. We stayed in a hostel called Easy Palace. Nice place. Munich is a little more expensive than we would have liked, but no big deal. Litre beers made up for it. We also ran into some Canadians we had met in Amsterdam on our last night there. It really is a small world. We had some beers with them in both the hofbrahaus and a casino, took some hilarious pictures with an old German couple, then said our goodbyes. We might meet again in Greece, but you never know with backpackers.

We also took a tour of Dachau, the first concentration camp. Now, I have to say I was unsure of what to expect. The camp was set up as a place for political prisoners, and not a death camp. Auschwitz is the most recognizable death camp - but we couldnt get to Poland. I figured that it would be pretty much like a jail- I was way off. Just touring the place gave me a truer sense of what went on in the Nazi regime, and to hear stories of the prisoners daily routines was quite disturbing. Much like our tour of Brugges, Dachau gave us a greater sense of understanding that I would not otherwise have had. Its absolutely terrifying to know what went on in the barracks, infirmary, crematorium and the role call grounds of Dachau. I could not begin to comprehend what these people went through and again this sort of experience makes us thankful to live where we do.

Alright end of post one. Gotta squeeze a second into about 2 minutes so Ill make it quick.

Bratislava - I cant think of a witty title

So here we are, sitting in a internet cafe in the capital of Slovakia - Another warning about my typing - Slovakian keyboards are hard to use. Really hard

We decided to hit Bratislava, breaking from our plans, as it was rumoured to be really cheap. The only problem is this - McDonalds is the same price everywhere - which is where weve eaten a lot. Ahh well - its a little slice of home

We hit a sweet castle today where a sign and internet site promised knights fighting, jousting, and general mayhem - All we got was cheap beers and the chance to throw axes at a target for 50 cents. Im not complaining about either, but the lack of Knights fighting left a sour taste in the mouth - Which was washed down with said beers. Quite a nice castle however, and we have some sweet pictures.

Thats about all I have for now. Im experiencing a major case of writers block. The beds we are in are a little harder than jello - and I stress a LITTLE harder. As a result, Im on about 13 minutes of sleep. Ill try and make it better in Munich. Or Munchen as us fluent Germans call it

Cheers,

The Boys

Prague - We're Millionaires

I think if we pooled our money, the four of us could buy Prague. I'm not talking like a house, I mean the whole thing. A deal might be in the works, and if it goes through, each of you get an apartment complex, theatre, gas station, and chinese food restaurant. We may even throw in a bridge or two.

Alright, with that comedic routine out of the way, we just wanted to give a little taste of how cheap Prague is. We decided to go out for dinner last night. Stopped at a chinese food restaurant we'd seen, and decided to order. Adam, Matt and Braden ordered the same thing which included

Hot and Sour Soup
A huge helping of Szechuan Fried Chicken and Rice
A Pint of the Original Budvar (Budweiser)
Tax
Tip (We weren't sure if we had to but we did anyway - we're big wheels here)

All for the low low price of 120 Krowns. Roughly converted, thats about 6 dollars Canadian. Then we went out to buy a couple of beers from a convenience store. After picking up a 500 ml bottle of Pilsner Urquell and noting the price, Matt said, and I quote, "21 Krowns - man this stuff is expensive" For a little fun, let's translate this into Canadian "1 dollar for a premium beer - man this stuff is expensive" We each decided to break the bank on a PilsUrquell, and grabbed two other 25 cent Canadian half litres. That wasnt a mistake - two other beers cost 25 cents each.

In short, Prague is awesome.

Cheers,

The Boys

Berlin - A Lesson on Why Communism Sucks

We're not going to bore you with politics, we just thought it was a funny name for the post

So, after travelling to the Czech Republic, we remembered that we didnt update ye olde blog in Berlin. So we'll do it now. Our first night in Berlin, like our first night anywhere, begins with us getting lost. When travelling to any city, try to remeber to print directions to the hostel first before trying to pull a "Marcgellan" - Funny story- keep reading. We eventually found the hostel, and it was awesome. In the words of Mercer, we lived in an ikea catalogue for 3 nights. It was pretty sweet.

So after arriving, we decided to try our hands at a pub crawl. Yadda Yadda Yadda, without Marc navigating the way home, Rossiter Coates and Mercer might still be riding the U-Bahn. Awesome night though. The next day was one of the best spent in Europe. Laundry day. So, therefore by best I mean worst. But it had to get done. Moving on.

That night, we headed down to the hostel bar to watch eurovision. It's kinda like the world cup of american idol, where each country submits a song and callers across Europe call in to vote for a winner. Now I just said world cup - This world cup however would be played between Vatican City, Andorra, Lichtenstein, Morocco, a contingent of penguins from the south pole and Canada. That show was terrible.

The next day we did a free bike tour of Berlin - Incredible - Saw the wall, reichstag, the jewish memorial, brandenburg gate, checkpoint charlie, an opera house bombed/rebuilt three different times, Paris court (In which the French embassy is the smallest building in the square - a sweet tribute to the defeated Napoleon) stood above Hitler's bunker, stood in the square where the Nazis burnt over 20 thousand books, and best of all Nate's American Sandwich Shop.

Our last night in Berlin, we decided to go see Davinci code - mixed reviews - What did get awful reviews however was our hour long walk home at 1 in the morning. 2 thumbs down by all. (The U bahn aparently closes the same time my dad goes to bed - I gotta keep throwing this one in)

Thus ended our stay in Berlin - On to Prague.

Cheers,

The Boys