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

BONUS POST - THINGS WE´VE LEARNED IN EUROPE SO FAR

In the Netherlands, when crossing the streets, be aware of - Cars, Trams, Busses, Trucks, Bikes (and Bike Taxis), Scooters and Pickpockets.

In Ireland DON´T DRIVE.

In the UK, there is no possible way to wash youre hands in warm water. The hot and cold taps are separate and a mile apart.

In Brugges, the city closes about the time my dad goes to bed. (Around 6ish)

You get a deep feeling of satisfaction when you figure out how to flush the toilet.

A deep feeling of satisfaction after climbing a volcano fades extremely quickly when shirtless four year olds come over the peak skipping and laughing

Mayo on fries is only good if taken in small quantities - ordering a large fry with mayo is similar to ordering a large steak - but getting an entire cow in a swimming pool of HP sauce.

In some hostels, there is NO way you will get sleep. Get over it.

We´ll post again with more educational lessons

Cheers,

The ``Enlightened´´ Boys

Amsterdam

Alright, this post may not be gramatically correct and missing various punctuations marks because Berlin keyboards are not exactly a walk in the park.

We ended our stay in Brugges - One of the nicest cities Ive ever been to. Stay at the Bauhaus if you go. Met some awesome kids there - Sally, Derek and Adam as well as Kentucky Julie.
(Ill get to Brenden and Barbara in a sec.)

So we left Amsterdam yesterday. Theres not much to tell about the city. Everything youve heard is probably true, and not worth describing in this post. There were a couple of things however that did make the city somewhat enjoyable:

French frieds - awesome, but if you ever order them - dont try and save the mayo till the end. Trust me, itll last.

Brenden and Barbara - Two awesome canucks we convinced to come with us to Amsterdam from Bruges. Great pair - had a blast with them- Have fun on the rest of your trip guys if you read this. They also know my friends Fraser, Tanz and Bradshaw, as well as my cousins Kennedy and Sam - small world.

The streets - not so much cause theyre fun, but its worth mentioning that crossing without the green guy is like jumping in front of a moving bus. Its a certainty that you´ll get hit.

Thats about it for Amsterdam. In Berlin now - about to do some much needed laundry. We´ll be in touch

Cheers,

(Officialy changing my sign out name from Coates to The Boys)

The Boys

Brugges- Our World War One Tour

Alright - So today we decided to spend some serious cash and drop 40 euro on a tour of the World War I sites. If anyone reading this post goes to Beligum and doesn't do it, I'll have to have some serious words.

Brugges is located about 15 minutes from the city of Iepers (Ypres, or Wipers) It's where a ton of battles were fought in the First World War, and most notably where Canadians held their position against the Germans under heavy Chlorine gas. It's another one of those instances were you realize how lucky we are to be living in Canada, and how proud you are to be a Canadian.

Our first stop was the monument to commerorate the Canadians who fought at Ypres - Belgians call it the rest on your arms (gun) reversed- (Bayonet downwards) - monument. It's actually called the St. Julian monument. Its beautiful - and the soldier atop is facing home.

We then headed to the biggest British cemetary outside of England, with about 13 thousand graves. The number of graves is astonishing - and I could never describe the emotions over the internet so I won't really try. But knowing there are kids lying there younger than my little brother Luke (18) makes one stop and think.

We then headed to a museum for lunch and on then to hill 60 - The only preserved battlefield in Belgium. The idea behind the battle was to tunnel below German lines, plant 24 different dump truck sized explosive pacakges, and blow up an entire ridge. We were standing in a crater caused by one of the blasts and as 10,000 were killed as the explosives went of, we were literally walking on a mass grave.

We also visited a replica (on the actual spot) of a communications trench and sat in the dressing station where McRae wrote "In Flanders Fields" - The whole day is an experience I will never forget. Canadians always get made fun of for the flags on our backpacks - I wish mine was bigger.

We're heading for Amsterdam tomorrow, but visiting the things we have has given me a much better understanding of what these kids did so that I could be here writing this email. Lest we forget has taken on a new meaning.

Cheers,

Coates

The Mercer Report: Ireland

I just thought I'd add a few things to the previous post about Dublin. Here's what I've learned about Ireland:
- People give names to their homes, exactly the same as we name our boats. Houses even have full signs that display this name. (the house we are staying at is called Rossturc)
- Believe it or not, Ireland has palm trees! (i have pictures to prove it)
- "What's the crack" is a common term meaning ,"hey, whats going on?!"
- All the street signs are written in both English and in Irish
- Hurling is the coolest sport ive ever watched, and the players dont get paid to play but rather play for the pride of their County in Ireland
- The Irish Police are called The Garda, and they don't carry guns!
- The Irish hate being called English as much as we hate being called American
- Traditional Irish Stew is the best food on the planet
- "Slainte" is Irish for, "Cheers"
- I only drank Guinness for the entire time in Ireland...I had to use a calculator to figure this one out, but it turns out that I drank about 12 litres of it!

Well thats it for now, hope you all learned something!

Slainte,

Braden

HOW TO VIEW PHOTOS

CLICK ON LINK TO THE RIGHT CALLED "sweet photogs"
LOG IN USING barrhaveninvasion06@hotmail.com
PASSWORD IS eurotrip06

Once logged in, click on "My Albums" and voila you now have slide shows of each city weve been to!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dont delete, change or edit any pictures. This is the best way to share our pictures, but if you mess around with it, it'll be no good.

Slainte

Dublin' our pleasure

That's the writing on the shirt I wore our first day here. I'm quite the geek. However, on to the post.

I guess you can't really start a post without describing where you are. We're staying about a 5 minute drive from Bono's house. And Enya, though I had no idea who she was. The area is beautiful - Dublin is not what one would expect, but then again we're in quite the posh neighborhood. We're staying with a friend, Dave, who we had staying at our house last year. The family has been more than gracious, and we've had a great time with them.

I guess our favorite part thus far has been the Guiness brewery - we spent about two hours there. Its not so much the beer we liked, but the whole experience of being in the biggest brewery in the world. It's like our Mecca.

We been introduced to a couple of new sports - Hurling and the more well known Gaelic football. Hurling is basically a bunch of grown Irish men with huge wooden spoons, a lacrosse ball, zero padding except for a 1987 cooper bucket, and playing solely for pride. In other words, men with a death wish. Today we saw a guy rip every tendon in his leg, which may be coincidence for our first time, but i still think its crazy.

Tomorrow we head for Belgium, to drink some delicious beers and eat chocolate. Maybe even some waffles. Better yet - Waffles with chocolate washed down by a beer. I'll try and get Rossi or Marc to post with another impression of Ireland, but if I can't - TTFN

Cheers, or Slainte

Coates

London down, scotland here we come...

So London was an absolute blast. We were staying in smaller town called Streatham Hill and would take the train into London. We spent 6 pounds on an all-day traveller pass which gave us unlimited travel on the tube, trains and busses. One of the biggest pains of walking through London is that there arent any trash cans anywhere! We ended up having to carry our garbage around with us until we would get so lucky to find a trash can.

Some of the funny things that have happened so far is that we hopped on the wrong train and ended up in Streatham Common instead of Streatham Hill. Who knew there was a difference?

Haha, oh yeah..We were walking down a street in London when Braden mentioned that something was leaking in his bag. So he pulled out his Nalgene (which he thought was the only liquid in his bag) and found that it wasnt leaking. With a puzzled look on his face, Braden then opened up his bag to find a mysterious bottle of Canadian Club half empty with no bottle cap. How did that get there? Well it turns out that Coates put the bottle in his bag without telling him, and then forgot to put the cap back on. I hope that Coates was drunk when he did this, otherwise its gonna be a long trip!

London Calling

London beer is delicious!

I figure that's an appropriate way to start off. Having a blast in London - The boys shut'er down earlier last night, while I rocked the Canadian Embassy with Sean, James and Laurs (Cousins) Had a great time - Canada house is in a prime spot right near trafalgar square. Today took a huge walk, played some cricket, went to abbey road, and now we'll go celebrate Mercer's date of birth. We've had my cousin guiding us around the city, and staying at her flat, but tomorrow we set of for Edinburgh (pronounced Edin bra) No idea how we're getting there, but we'll figure it out

Taking a a ton of pictures, and drinking an equal number of pints - Gotta take off for now, but we'll update again in Edinbra - Take'er easy

Coates