Munich and Krakow

Czesc everyone!

Just a quick update on iPhone so no photos unfortunately. Will try get photos up when we can.

We are now in Athens and will be traveling to the Greek islands tomorrow morning.

After our last few days horse riding and rafting in Cesky, we travelled by car to Munich. Known as the beer capital of the world for good reason. Around the city there were many beer halls and beer gardens capable of accommodating up to 10,000 beer drinkers. Typical German sausage, schnitzel and pork knuckle were great accompaniments to the beers. During our time here we visited BMW World, took a bike tour around the Munich streets and went on a tour of Allianz Arena (Bayern Munich's football stadium).

Before we knew it we were flying off to Poland, where we stayed in the city of Krakow. We all loved our stay here. The massive town square had many shops and sights to see that are lucky to remain standing after Germany invaded Poland in world war 2. Krakow is by far the least expensive city we have been to. Though we don't like to admit it, a lot of the time was spent shopping. We all got polish haircuts too. Photos to come of course. Pete has a hair cut resembling Manto (he looks hot).
Our second day in krakow saw us visit Auschwitz concentration camp, which was the biggest nazi concentration camp where over 1 million prisoners were executed including all the women and children the Germans caught. This was the main extermination area during the holocaust. The tour was a real eye opener we will never forget. Walking into the gas chamber and past the 'wall of death' was a real moving experience.
On a lighter note, polish food and polish vodka is amazing. Pierogi (little dumplings) were our favourite of the cuisine. We enjoyed many varieties of vodka including a plum vodka weighing in at 72% alcohol. Good times followed.

Not sure if will have good internet on the Greek islands, so if we don't get to update you guys will here from us in Italy next week! We all send our love to family and friends back home. Goodnight!

London, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague and Cesky Krumlov

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay between blog posts but we have finally found a good Czech computer. New photos have been updated in the album on the right. As usual the photos will be in chronological order starting from Photos from San Sebastian and ending with our photos in Cesky Krumlov, where we are currently staying.

Since we have covered a fair bit of Europe since our last post and don't have much Internet time, we will split up the post into dot points about each city. Everyone loves dot points.

London

• Wish we spent more time here, so much to do ranging from theatre productions to soccer games.
• Took a double decker bus tour and saw all the big sites including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Fun fact 1: The Big Ben is actually the Bell inside the tower, and not the clock face.
• Went on a soccer stadium tour of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium with ex Arsenal legend John Radford.
• Visited Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Spot which one is the shiny wax model below...
  

Paris

• The sites in Paris were the most impressive yet. The Eiffel tower was much larger than what we expected. Also saw the Louvre, Notre Dame and Arc de Triomphe
• Stumbled across the tunnel where Princess Di passed away.
• Visited Moulin Rouge at night with its interesting toy stores.
• Dined out on the town and tried Snails and Frog's Legs, which were both surprisingly delicious!

Amsterdam

• Beautiful little city with little canals and bikes everywhere.
• Met a lot of people here that seemed to be very happy.
• Went on a bike tour through the Dutch windmill countryside where we tasted Gouda cheese and bought wooden clog shoes.
• Visited the Heineken Factory and took part in a beer appreciation session.
• Went for a stroll down some street that seemed to have red lights everywhere. Window shopping at its best.
• Pub crawl with almost 300 people was a night we don't remember but will never forget!

Prague

• The capital of the Czech Republic. An amazing medieval city surrounded by castles and cathedrals.
• Hired bikes and made our own tour down the cobble streets of Prague.
• Visited the famous John Lennon Wall, filled with graffiti art inspired by John Lennon and the Beatles.
• Enjoyed a night at the famous 5 story club in Prague - with $1 AUD beers we weren't complaining.
• Note: Eastern European females are very easy on the eyes to say the very least.

Cesky Krumlov

• One of our favourite cities so far. Small little town also in the Czech Republic. Fun fact 2: The film 'Hostel' was shot in Cesky Krumlov.
• The town is built around a castle that resembles something out of a fairy tale. Buildings are immaculate and a spectacular river runs through the city, which we plan to row down tomorrow on a raft pub crawl.
• The castle moat has real live brown bears in it, as they served as castle protection in the 16th century.
• Took part in extreme downhill riding on these little modified scooters with bicycle wheels. High speeds saw many bugs splat on our faces.
• Have booked in horse riding for tomorrow morning. There are whispers that one of us will slap Paul's horse and watch him gallop uncontrollably down the countryside.

I guess that about sums it up! We miss you all very much and always look forward to reading new comments from everyone. Our next couple stops are Germany and Poland before heading off for 8 nights on the Greek Islands, so will try and update at one of these stops.

For now, dobrou noc!

PS. We'd also like to mention an ongoing soccer table feud between the early starters Dom and Pete vs. the late starters Age and Paul. Current tournament score is 4-0 in the favour of Dom and Pete. This means that Age and Paul have won approximately 0% of all tournaments. Updates to follow.

San Sebastian & Pamplona

First off - we are all alive everyone so no need to worry!

Second - we are now in London and this hostel doesn't let us upload photos, so just writing a quick post on iPhone.

The running of the bulls was an experience we will never forget. The excitement and adrenaline that kicks in just before the bulls are released was overwhelming. People around us could be seen warming up and praying on their knees. We decided to stand about 100m from the start of the run, just before the accurately named "dead man's corner". Once the bulls were released all we could do was hope the massive 600kg beasts would run in a straight line and ignore us, which they did. Phew!

Apart from the bull run, the parties associated with the festival were crazy. The opening party in Pamplona square saw us get completely drenched in sangria (like cheap wine). Will upload photos of before and after shots of our nice white clothes and new purple alcoholic smelling ones. The town we stayed in, San Sebastian, was about an hour out of Pamplona but was a beautiful little city on the west coast of Spain, with pristine beaches and cheap pintxos (like tapas, but even better). We tried some interesting food such as pig ear, quail egg and duck liver.

I'll leave it there for now. Will update with photos soon either at an internet cafe or once we get to Paris.

Thanks for all the comments and stay tuned!

Ibiza and Madrid

Greetings everyone and to all the new people that wrote us blog comments (we will mention you all individually when we have time).

We are quite tired but will blog to the best of our abilities!

Photos have been updated in the album. Also, note that the photos are in chronological order from newest to oldest. Newest 2 photos are from Madrid.

Last couple days in Valencia involved us seeing the 'sights' at the beach, beating the local Spaniards in a game of soccer (photos to come) and visiting the Oceanographic centre.

The last 4 nights in Ibiza were ones to remember to say the least. Ibiza surprised us, as it wasn't just a 'party' island. The beaches were pristine, the chillout bars were really cool and we had our best meals of the trip so far at the restaurants. The promo girls walking around also caught our attention.

However, it goes without saying that the nightlife in Ibiza was something that must be seen to be believed. We went to 3 of the big clubs - Amnesia (where we saw Mr. Snoop Dogg), Es Paradis and Space, which had a capacity of over 10,000 people.

One of the highlights of our stay on Ibiza was the 2 nights we stayed in the Ibiza Gran hotel. Was a great place to relax during the day after a long night out on the island.

Paul and Adrian have now joined us on our trip. The PPAD team is now at full strength. Our first mission together was to go watch the sunset at Cafe del Mar - but it was overcast...

We are now in Madrid, which is quite a nice city, though we only stay here 1 night before we are off to San Sebastian for the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

After reading this entry I realised it is not funny so might edit it later on the include some degree of humour... For now we'll let the comments provide the humour for us!

We will update again in San Sebastian after we have run (successfully) with the bulls.


PS. Just thought of some humour:

When Manto goes to Pamplona, he doesnt go running with the bulls - he goes running with the people.

Haha, Adios!