Almost done

Has it been a month already?? I do not want to go back. I have been enjoying the Czech republic lately. The first day I just wandered around and at night I went to a jazz show at the Reduta. It's a venue that bill clinton visited back in '94. A band consisting of a trumpet, trombone, tuba, drums, banjo and clarinet played some old jazz. They covered 'It's a wonderful world' and everyone was singing along. good stuff. I went to Plzen the second day and did a tour around the Pilsner Urquell brewery. It was a great tour, much better than the Heineken tour. I ate at a restaraunt at the brewery and had some traditional czech food. Let me tell you, I have grown to love saurkraut, it is awesome with sausage. That night I went out with a brazilian guy named rodriguez and went to a bunch of pubs then hit a disco. Met some girls from Norway, the first people I have ever met from that county. Rodriguez got friendly with a local czech girl, but she told him she was a lesbian and kept asking him how the brazilian girls are. The club we went to was 5 floors, each floor had a different type of music. I lost Rodriguez and went home at 4am. The next day I saw the famous castle up a hill. On the way there I saw a sign at a pub that said Kelt Stout and couldn't believe that there was a czech stout beer, It was the only stout I have had so far that isn't from Ireland on this trip so far. I went in and had a few drinks and continued on my way to the castle. Oh yeah, I stopped by the Franz Kafka museum as well. It was alright, just told you about his life and such. Finally go to the castle. the castle itself was huge, took a few pictures here and there and looked around and left. That night I went to another venue that had a blues band playing. they covered Alber King's Born under a bad sign and a B.B. King song. They were alright, but nothing compared to the guys they covered. Today I didn't get up until 11. I ate at the louvre which likes to remind you that Franz Kafka and Albert Einstien ate there. I then went to a pub that brewed its own beer. Very tasty beer, the place is called U Pleku I believe. Wandered around a bit and now I am here writing this. I plan on seeing another jazz show tonight with some guys from my room. We are supposed to meet in about a half an hour, if they don't show I'll still go see a show somewhere then hit some pubs here and there and call it a day. Tomorrow I am taking off for Munich again. This might be my last post, I'll try posting once more in Munich. If this is the last post, I will not be coming to bakersfield the 11th. I will arrive the 11th, but it will be 11:55pm, and I think the last bus to bakersfield is at 11:30, so I'm going to get a hotel room and grab a bus at another time the next day. I'll call someone in bakersfeild the 12th to pick me up when I arrive at bakersfield. Someone hopefully can pick me up that day.

Another post in Florence

Been taking it easy here in Florence. Today I have experienced my first line to get into a museum during this whole trip. I went to see the Uffizi art gallery today, took about 25 to 30 minutes to get in and the audioguides sold out before I could get one. The gallery itself was alright, a lot of 14th 15th century paintings depicting bible stories and christ. They have the painting with the naked lady on a sea shell in the middle of the ocean, Monty Python used it in a sketch or movie I believe. Today I plan on going to the train station after this post and reserve a couchette to Wein (somewhere in Austria I believe). Then from that train station I go to Prague. After that I am going to check out the Duomo, I passed it later today and there was a huge line to get in. Fun. Last night I went to an Irish pub called Dublins. Had 3 Guinness and did not really want a fourth, but if I had one more I would get a free Guinness scarf, so I got a fourth and the scarf. The food here has been great, last night I spent 35 euros (the record for most expensive dinner in Europe so far, and this time I was not drunk so I could enjoy it.) on bruschetta, a tomato soup that looked like it was made by putting peices of bread in a bowl with olive oil and tomatos and the smashed into a thick paste. Did not look good, but tasted very nice. I then had Veal with french fries and was too stuffed to have a dessert. Had the most expensive wine they served in a cup (8 euros), I can taste the difference between it and a 5 dollar bottle of wine at home, but I still do not like wine that much. Lots of little restaraunts where you can pick up a slice of pizza to go for cheap, I do this for lunch usually. Surprisingly, the free breakfast offered at the hostel is very good, I actually get up before 9am everyday to get it. The weather has been very nice yesterday and today. The sun is out today and yesterday it did not rain. A pair of Indians (from India) are sharing a room with me. They told me it was 55 rupees (I think thats their currency) for one Euro and that this trip was very expensive for them. Made me realize my 1.30 for 1 Euro was not really that bad.

Been taking a lot of pictures here, very photogenic place. With Brussels it was hard because the electrical lines for the trains were always in the way of neat buildings and stuff. I have not been taking as many pictures during this trip as I thought I would.

Firenze

Been a while I know.

Ok, I am now in Firenze (Florence). Arrived in town yesterday (31st) around noon and proceeded to look for the hostel. I have been having a bad habit of arriving at a new country with no money and no directions to the hostel. I am staying at the Archi Rossi hostel which has a webcam on its website (google it), maybe you can see me walking in or out of the place. So when I got my room I showered up and then slept for an undertermined amount of time. Time for me here is often undetermined because I still do not have a watch. When I woke up I met these two guys from LA, Jimmy and Matt. We started the night off drinking wine and beers in the common room down stairs then Matt suggested we go to a club he was told about. We went out to find it but never did. When midnight came around the streets were packed with people and they sprayed champagne everywhere and fireworks were going off. The fireworks were not the colorful variety, more like the m80 kind, the ones that make a loud noise and that is it. A few minutes later people proceeded to smash their bottles on the ground. It was good fun. We then went to a club called the Andromeda. Since it was new years, the cover charge was 35 euros, but you get a free drink. our free drink was a vodka and redbull. We talked to some girls and had a few more drinks and took off. There was an Irish pub down the street of our hostel so we stopped in and met two guys who were twins from Chico. we had a lengthy discussion, but I cannot remember what the subject was about at all. I had a Guinness and took off for the hostel. I was told it was around 4am when I took off. I got in bed and thought it was a good night. I had the top bunk and leaned over and proceeded to puke on the floor. I wiped my mouth and then thought, now it was a good night.

Today it has been raining nonstop. I hate it. Give me snow any day, fuck rain. I guess I should mention something about Brussels as well. I would say that place was teh lowest point of my trip so far. I did not meet many people there and the night life was not the greatest. The first night I went to a jazz club which was pretty cool, there was not an empty seat in the whole place, it was packed. The music however, was not my favorite. They played fusion jazz, which to me sounds like all the players were soloing at the same time. There was absolutely no rhythm to the music, it just did not make sense to me. but the people there were eating it up, they loved it. Oh, and the greatest find at Brussels was the Delirium bar. Some might recognize the name Delirium. Yes, it is the same beer with the pink elephants on the bottle. The same stuff that I drank the night I will never forget but never remember. Their claim to fame: 2,004 beers from around the world were served there. Their beer menu was as thick as a phonebook, needless to say I was there for a while and visited twice. I checked out the museum of musical instruments which was a little boring. I checked out the Faberge collection at another museum and it blew my mind how incredible some of their work was. I got to see 14 of the famous eggs Faberge did for the Czar in Russia.

I had trouble getting to Firenze from Brussels. It seemed all the trains to Paris were booked, and going through paris was the most direct route. I ended up getting a train to Bern (Switzerland) then taking a night train to Firenze. Sleeping in a couchette is not comfortable, especially if you are in the very top one. Bern, by the way, was the coldest place I have been to so far. Munich was the coldest before I arrived at Bern. Amsterdam I was comfortable wearing my long sleeve shirt, jeans and a rain jacket outside. Brussels was almost as cold as Munich at times. Florence is just like Amsterdam but much more wet.

Christmas in Amsterdam blew. Everything was closed and pretty much sat around drank a few beers I had bought from a store and watched The Incredibles in the common room downstairs. Christmas eve I found a great bar called In De Wildeman where I met a guy from London. He was in Amsterdam for business (I wish I had asked him what business). We started talking about beer and I mentioned that I was just at Andechs. He then told me he lost his wallet and girlfriend there a while ago and asked if I found his wallet. He recommended I try a beer from the Bavarian area that was brewed by a nun. It was delicious. He told me he was going to a party new years eve that would have two barrels of that beer. I wish I had written down the name of the beer.

That is it for now.