Still trying to catch up!! (Amsterdam)

Well guys, I've found another internet cafe and I'm trying to catch up with this blog! I'm in Amsterdam at the moment which is a pretty crazy town.. It's a stoner's heaven with "Coffee Shops" that don't sell coffee on every corner! Just about every street is lined with girls on the job in windows, trying to lure you in for a small fee.. 50 Euro for the works is about the going rate in case anyone is interested :)

Amsterdam has a lot more to offer though than all this with Anne Franks house, the Heiniken museum, and a lot of wicked countryside with windmills and stuff. We hired bikes and pedalled our way round the small town of Edam, birth place of Edam cheese, which was a really quiet town, much different to the heart of Amesterdam.

We also watched a guy make a clog from a block of wood. Pretty crazy to see how fast they make them but I tried it on and it wasn't as comfy as my new Birkenstocks so I didn't make a purchase.


My last blog left off at Rome after visiting the Colloseum. From there, we headed to the island of Capri, just off the Italian coastline. This place had the warmest water I have ever swum in. It would have been almost 30 deg, much warmer than what I'm used to down the Island!!

The water was crystal clear and we got some great pics with the waterproof cameras.. This internet cafe doesn't have a USB connection so I can't upload any pics but I'll add them in at the next cafe I can get to. Update: Pics are in :)

From Capri we jumped on another ferry and headed to Sorrento, a quiet little town in Italy. We headed out for dinner to a little piano bar in town and got talking to the owner. No one was playing that night so he said I could jump on and play a few cruisy tunes. I played for about half an hour and it was mad :) The guys gave us a heap of free drinks, including some lemon cellio, a local lemon flavoured liquior, made in Sorrento. It tasted like rocket fuel but was great to try. Dinner was the best gnocchi I've ever had as well so was a great night.

The next day we headed to Pompeii and did a guided tour of the city ruins. It was lost under 21 feet of ash from the volcano Mt Versuvious near the start of time and wasn't found until the 1700's. The ash preserved everythin so well that most of the walls are still standing and they know an unbelievable amount about how the city once was. We walked through the old brothel and even saw plaster moulds of people in the exact poses they were in at the moment of their death!

From here, we jumped on another ferry and headed to the Greek island of Corfu. This was where I was the last time I did a blog and it was such a cruisy place. The first day we took an all day boat ride and checked out the Island. We cruised around all day drinking, eating, and jumping off the boat to swim in crystal clear water all around the Island. We spent the next 2 days lazing on the beach and by the pool and the nights in the bars that were literally 1 meter from the beach! It was great to actually have some time to relax after spending so long sight seeing and walking around cities.

After spending 4 days in corfu, we took a 24 hour ferry ride up the guts of the adriatic sea and headed for Venice. It was a long ferry ride but we slept alot to recover from all the partying we did in Corfu. When we got to Venice, we headed to the town of Verona, home of the real life Romeo and Juliet. We saw Juliet's balcony and checked out the rest of the town.

The next day we headed into Venice and did a gondola ride. The thing felt like it was going to tip over the whole time but it was great to check out the back streets of Venice and see where and how the locals live.

From Venice, we headed up into Austria to the town of Vienna. There, we caught up with the girls, Shelly, Sez and Rikki who were there for the night too. Was great to see them after so long! We stayed the night at their hostel and on the way some guy tried to roll me for my fake Rolex! Lucky I had the girls with me and they looked after me :)

The next day Dazzman took us to a pub that sold Chilli beer! Yeah thats right, beer with chillis in it.. You took the first sip and it tasted great. Then the burning started and the only way to get rid of it was to drink more beer so you took another sip. That fixed it for another 2 seconds and then the burning started again. This continued until the beer was all gone and you washed the taste out of your mouth with another one of their beers, brewed right there in the pub. Was an interesting beer but not something you could drink all the time.. Thanks Daz!

We then travelled up into Germany and stopped at the Muthausen concentration camp. We saw were they were kept, the crematorium ovens and some footage of bodies that were literally skin and bone.
Was pretty crazy to see what the jews went through and quiet sad. Definitely gave us all a new appreciation for the lives we lead..

From here, we headed Munich and set up camp. There was a standing wave in the river at our campsite and people were surfing it! I didn't get a chance to surf it cos I had no board but we're going to head back to Munich later in our trip. We had a few steins at some beer gardens throughout the city and had dinner at a beer hall. Munich is a great place!!

Time is running out so I'll finish it there for now. I'll be back on in no time to fill you in on the details on the rest of my trip up to Amsterdam and also post some photos :)