Bristol baby yeah

Had a great time staying with Jane and Mark, bonus points go to the arrival of Jess (one of Janes friends from school) from Africa just a few hours before me.

Perfect tour guides, and I am sure they love every minute of it!! Jane, maybe you could change careers! We headed into Bath on Sunday, well started the day just a bit out of Bath where we walked along the canal and saw where the canal passes over not only a set of railway tracks, but a river as well.... really is an interesting feat of engineering design. Also saw some of the canal boats in action - now that would be a relaxing way of life!

Bath is an absolutely beautiful place, one of the most amazing things was the lines and lines of terraced houses... like were talking 100m or more... crazy!! And the copious amounts of sandstone Roman architecture, just amazing. After scouring the tourist centre for a place to eat we finally got some lunch and then Jess and I headed off to do the tour of the baths. Hot springs, rich in minerals that were reknowned for curing many conditions... that's why the city was extablished and then developed by the Romans who built the baths and temple over the springs. Read more on Bath here.

Monday - caught the train to Cardiff. Really beautiful city, especially the Cardiff Bay area... even though it was windy, rainy and essentially a crap day. They have poured millions into developing the bay to become a local, national and international tourist destination. Most impressive is the blockade they put in place to essentially dam the tidal bay that was left as a stinking mud flat for about half the day (guess that happens with a 14m tidal shift!). Also went to see the Millenium Stadium - massive new stadium, home of the Welsh rugby team. Monday night we went and checked out the MASSIVE swinging bridge... kinda makes the one in The Gorge look like half a squashed pea! Finished the day with a great little pub meal and a few half pints of Leffe (Belgian trappist beer).

Tuesday - packed up, dropped gear with Jane at work and headed out around Bristol with Jess. Spent a big part of the arvo in the Industrial Museum that traces Bristols involvement in the development of many things including airplane engines (especially the concorde) and it's massive involvement in the slave trade. More pub life and some gorgeous pints of Grolsch to top off the Bristol experience.

Thanks Jane and Mark.. had heaps of fun. And thanks Jess for being a champion fellow traveller/tourist!

And then it was off to Scotland... Edinburgh to be precise.

Ireland proper

So you wanna know what happened in Ireland? ... you sure??

...you really sure?

OK, so here it is: 4 nights, 2 nights in Dublin and 2 nights in Cork.

Didn't get in to the hostel till late arvo and still hadn't had lunch, so went straight to the pub for a meal and real Guinness. Certainly wasn't disappointed... they really do make it the best in Ireland!! Watching the Aussie boys wallop the 'Rest of the World' team in the super test highlights really topped off that night.

Wednesday - Headed off to the Modern Art museum first up - wow, some people have a really strange outlook on life!! Next was the old gaol which has been renovated into a museum. The tour guide told us stories of all the old inmates - heaps of really big stories, none bigger than the 10 guys involved in the 'Easter Rising' that were caught and executed in the front courtyard. One of the guys was sooo sick when captured that they kept him alive in the military hospital just long enough to have him executed. When they bought him to the execution they had to tie him up as he was not able to even support his own weight... some seriously crazy stories to go with that one.

Had pub lunch before heading off to the Guinness Storehouse at St James' Gate. Was kinda cool to stroll through the 5 stories of educational, promotional and other stuff - the best bit of course was the free pint in the sky bar 'Gravity' that has a 360 degree view over Dublin. Headed out to 'The Brazen Head', the oldest pub in Ireland apparently. Dinner, Guinness, Baileys and Jamesons Whisky... what a way to finish a day.

Thursday - packed up and headed to Cork. Ended up asking about 4 times for directions to the hostel, and finally found it. Had to go back and tell the girls at the florist that their directions sucked and told them actually how to get there! Proved to be a good move as they did end up giving some good advice on what to do around Cork. Kinda just scoped out the town and settled in for an early one

Friday - went to Blarney to check out the castle and kiss the Blarney Stone. Pretty amazing place, especially the grounds which felt like I was back in the middle ages! Caught the bus back into Cork and then down to Kinsale, port town that brought in all the wine trade into Ireland back in the day. Really cute town with some awesome views over the bay. Yet another town with a castle - this one was built to take customs charges on the wine coming in.

Saturday - back to Dublin, via the Guinness factory to get that one more souvenir and then flew to Bristol to see Jane and Mark.

Movie quote #019

OK, try this on for size. Please include actor and character as the destinction between the two is important for this one!

Actually, lets go all out - describe the scene too!

"It's like looking in a mirror. Only... not."

Movie qoute #018

Just for those die hard fans out there that can't wait another day for some movie trivia. 3 guys in this conversation; character names, real names and full movie title please.

DP: Woodstock? That was quite a show, man.
G: You were at Woodstock?
W: Excellent! What was it like?
DP: It rained all morning, and then it cleared up in the afternoon. And that's it, I almost remembered something else, but it's gone.

Ireland

Guinness, Guinness and a squeeze of the Irish luck.

Ohh did I mention Guinness.

Mmmmmm YUM!

London - the mother land

Well, theres so much to say/do and so little that I can be bothered... let's go for the abridged version!

Tuesday - arrived, met Nick at work, left my stuff and went walking for a couple hours till he knocked off: Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, Big Ben, saw the London Eye but no trip yet, top notch bike shop and some serious realisation that stuff in here in London was going to be EXPENSIVE!!!

Wednesday - the official day of rest (read over half the seventh season of Buffy)

Thursday - more buffy, then into town to check out Westminster Abbey, and the rest of the West End including Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus & Oxford Street... I was really piecing together the monopoly board by now [also seen Whitehall and a few others already]. Picked up Nick from work and we went to see his mate Ali, had a few pints and my first pub meal in England... not bad, but nothing on what i got in Ireland (later on folks).

Friday - went to Oxford, beautiful city - the old sector is totally dominated by the University and the colleges. Spent most of the day in the museums and also walked through the grounds of St Johns college - GORGEOUS!! Back that night for beers and BBQ with the guys at Nicks and the 3 Canadian chicks (Mel, Jen and Sharna) that would be staying till tuesday). An awesome night of poker unfolded with the boys and Mel holding the fort till atleast 3am (Sean and Timmy went till 3:30am).

Saturday - re late night last night, not much happened today. Pub meal for lunch, prep for the night of drinking, then out to the Zoo Bar for Jen's b'day. Cool pub/club with wicked beats downstairs and good mix of current/old pop upstairs. There was a bit of a drama between Jen and Sharna at leaving time (due to Sharna picking up some kiwi guy... go figure!).

Sunday - another lazy day... Went for an Indian buffett lunch with the boys (OMG HOW FILLING!) and then went bowling that night - damn that was cool. I bowled a 140 in the first game, which led the night until the end of the 3rd game when Sean over took me with a 142.

Monday - trooped around town with the Candian gals. Went to Harrods to check it out.. damn, pretty flash!!! And hella expensive! We were going to "do high tea", but that was going to be almost 20 quid... blow that for a joke!! We did the criminal thing for paying 12.50 pounds to go on the London Eye - not really worth the AUD$30, but can say I've done it now I guess. On the way to Les Miserables we saw the premier for A Corpse Bride. We saw Tim Burton, Helen Bonham Carter and Christopher Lee, unfortunately missed Johnny Depp as we had to get to Les Mis. Speaking of which, it was damn good! Really glad I went!!

Tuesday - packed bag and headed off to Ireland

Movie quote #017

Strongly disappointed in the efforts made one the previous movie quotes... and they were easy ones too!!

Try this:

W.T.: "How can we sail to an island that nobody can find with a compass that doesn't work?"
Gibbs: "Aye, the compass doesn't point North. But we're not trying to find North, are we?"

The impending doom/liberation

Hmmm, only three and a bit weeks to go.

Have been at Nick's place in London and experience both the touristy and the 'local' way of life. Damn this place is expensive!

Heading to Dublin today till Saturday. Then flying back over to Bristol to stay with Jane for three nights, so that makes it Tuesday that I am flying up to Edinburgh, once again for four nights.... then I have two more nights in London before heading over to The Big Apple (kinda a weird nickname for New York, given that it's longer... only in America!!).

I'll be arriving in Sydney on November 10th in the morning and staying till Sunday 13th when I head back to Tas... it is almost impossible to comprehend how much I am looking forward to my own bed, a real shower/bath, and most importantly my kitchen!! (Ohh friends and family were supposed to squeeze in there somewhere too! hehe)

So anyways - time to pack the back and head to the land of submarines with flyscreen doors, cement floaties and water proof tea bags. Let Guiness fall from the heavens and surround me in enternal bliss... bring it on Ireland!!!

And then there was Paris

Paris, France - yet again a site for mixed emotions... it's amazing how much your preconceived ideas of a place/country can effect your experience. Even before I arrive in Paris I was singing the sour note... having to leave Interlaken and forfeiting the chance to go skydiving, ahh well - as has become my motto, "You can't do everything", or "I'll do that one next time".

I had booked accom the night before from Balmers, so had no idea what the place would be like, but atleast I knew where I was going (kinda). Got on the metro and headed for my stop - emerging from the subway I was surrounded by a feeling of "why the hell am I here?" - this place was ghetto city and by the time I had walked halfway to the hostel that was confirmed with the street corners being crowded by groups of young middle eastern / indian men and a couple of real shazza's to boot - just a little unsettling for our poor little traveller.

So anyways, found the hostel and checked in... not exactly the best hostel I've seen, actually it was kinda crappy... but I still haven't heard anyone speak of a 'good' hostel in Paris.

Sunday morning I got up and headed into the Louvre, expecting to spend the whole day there. Luckily I pretty much walked straight in, no lines - now that's a good omen for the day! Headed straight for the Mona Lisa, and as can be seen from the pictorial post - I came, I saw, I photographed. Now to be perfectly honest, it was kinda cool to stand there in front of arguably the most famous paiinting in the world, but it's still just a painting... (no comparison to 1 foot of fresh powder snow, or natures most beautiful creation - an individual snowflake, perfect in it's fractal symmetry... anyways off topic there). Wandered around the Louvre for a good 4-5 hours (spent most of that time in the Egyptian section), by which time I was mentally drained and really ready for a change of scenery.

So left the Louvre and walked up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe (once again see photos). Pretty amazing setup, it's just this massive arch in the centre of a roundabout that has about 6 lanes of crazy-ass drivers and 12 main streets converging upon it. In the centre of the arch is the monument to the unknown soldier from WWI... kinda moving actually.

After hanging there for a while I hopped on the metro and headed for the tower - might as well knock over these things in one go!! I arrived there around 4:30pm to find somewhat of a police blockade not letting anyone within a one block radius of the tower... after a couple minutes of standing around I asked one of the french guys (obviously a waiter from the restaurant at the tower) what was going on - he just replied "Threat of bomb". Well damn!

Clearly nothing actually happened as the tower still stands (it seems it is still safe from the likes of Team America!!). So anyways just headed off and walked around the southern banks of the Seine and 'took in' the Parisian life... was kinda joyful actually as it was sunday afternoon and there were heaps of people playing in the parks, kicing the soccerball etc - normal people, living normal lives... life just doesn't really change much no matter where you are from i guess!

Anyways, Monday I got up and headed to the tower again. Walked up the first two storeys as it was heaps cheaper, but it was like over 600 steps... ohh my gawd! Then had to line up on the 2nd floor to catch the elevator up anyways. The towers is over 1000 foot tall, so the view was unreal - even though the city was clouded in a haze of smog... yay for big cities! Tripped around the south bank again for a while, then checked out Notre Damme.

Tuesday was up early and headed to the airport... confusing as hell! Charles De Gaulle is massive, and there is two RER stops.. luckily i chose the right one and managed to find the right terminal... sooo many terminals!!! Unfortunately I found it too quickly and ended up with about 3 hours to sit around doing nothing in the airport. Ohh - interesting note for the day: They had this "biometric visa" station for people ariving back in the country - looked like they were just fingerprint scanning people with this special visa on their way back in... not really sure what was going on, but seemed kinda high tech.

So anyways, in London staying with Nick now. Finally got to see him after his no-show at Oktoberfest. London info can wait till I have done a bit more... later.

Interlaken - between the lakes

Well, there's not really a great deal to tell about Interlaken as I was only there for one night.... appart from the fact that it's in my top 3 beautiful places of the world!!

Almost magical setting with the Alps rising up all around the town, bordered by lakes on the east and west, and a direct view of the Jungfrau from almost anywhere in town. Interlaken is probably the adventure sports capital of the world! From the hostel front door I could spot 4 different adventure sports shops, plus the crew that the hostel are associated with... and that's just in a 50m block of this one street!! There's everything from kayaking to canyoning, bungee to zorbing, paragliding to skydiving... you name it, it can most probably be done right here!! (not to the mention the skiing/snowboarding etc). Although this is the place that had the horrific canyoning accident in 1999 where 18 tourists (plus guides) died in a flash flood, activity is abundant as people from all over the world flock to this adventure mecca.

Definitely ear marked as somewhere to come back to on the return journey!!

Ohhh and the guy that owns the hostel I stayed at certainly rates a mention - Balmer's herberge. After checking out I went and bought a few souvenirs from the hostel shop and was saddling up ready to head for the bus when he came out and started speaking to me. After a couple minutes he's like "So you are travelling alone?"
"Yeah".
"Just wait there a minute", as he ducked back into the shop.

.... A minute later he emerged from the shop with a bunch of goodies in hand. "Here you go my friend, you have been travelling for a long time it is definitely time you wrote home", he said handing me three postcards. "One for your mum, one for your dad and maybe one for your ex-girl friend..."

I smiled, "Thanks" eyeing off the rest of the goodies.

"And you'll need a pen to write on them, so here's one of our hostel pens. Good quality, made in Switzerland - not Thailand. And so you don't get thirsty here's a drink bottle, also very good quality, made here in Switzerland - not China!!"

"Thank you very much", I repeated.

What a champ!! Certainly recommend this guy and this place to anyone that wants to stay in Interlaken, whether it's for a night, a month, or a year!

A proper day of rest

This cold is really giving me the bum steer... how is one expected to have fun when you can't hardly swallow.

Taking the day at Nicks place in London to relax and chill out. Getting some serious Buffy action, full season seven DVD collection, broadband and cable TV.... and a really comfy couch.

Will do a write up on Interlaken and Paris later, but can't be bothered right now.

Hope you are all well wherever it is that you are, and that life is treating you well.

Pictorial from Oktoberfest and beyond

OK - well here's number one, Craig, Janine and myself rockin' it out with the beer steins!


Potentially the worst ghost ride ever, but Craig made it a spectacle!


Ready for the rollercoaster boys?


King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria


Illegal photo of St George in the throne room of the castle


Prague - old school street scene


Prague at it's classical best


Boozing buddies in Prague; Chamille and Andy


Innsbruck - an Alpan view from the top of the world


Old town Innsbruck


My lines in the Glacial Power... ohh yeah baby!!


The T-bar had to stop for some slow moving traffic


What a view!!


It never looks as steep in the pictures!!


Classic scene of Interlaken


Another Interlaken beauty


Louvre, Paris - Illegal pic of the Mona Lisa


Louvre, Paris - if you can read this you deserve a medal!


Arc De Triumph


Now that's a sunset!


The Arc from on high


A birds eye view


And looking up


Now REALLY looking up


Here ends the reading

Ode to a broken camera

The LCD on my camera is broken, so I have no idea when my card is full, until the camera just stops taking photos... Hence I am now paying through my nose to use a computer with CD Burner in Paris... good thing it has net as well and can upload pics... LOV'IN IT!!

So heres my haiku for the camera's LCD screen:

My L.C.D died
Cry aloud, I tried not to
Now my pics are fried

Innsbruck - Austria

Left Prague, caught the night train to Munich, collected the Visa card, got pisse doff about Dachau, then headed to Innsbruck.

Innsbruck is AWESOME, a reasonable quite town, givn it has been named the capital city for winter sports in the world.... CRAZY!!!!

So just checked out the town on day 1 (monday) and got my barings, something I did NOT want to do the next morning given I had to catch a 7:20am bus to the ski fields.

All good, up bright and early (alarm set for 6:10am, bit of a shock to the system, but it was worth it), dressed, breaky and walked to the train/bus station for the bus. Well damn... once I got my hire gear and got out on the snow..... it was AWESOME, I mean the weather was crap, but the snow... OHH YEAH, it was like 1 foot of fresh powder!!!! The best snow i have ever experienced. The cloudy/snowy weather was a pain, but after buying some snow googles I really couldn´t care less.

Day 2 was much the same; early start, crappy weather, but awesome snow, another 7-10cm overnight... Ohh yeah baby!! EAch of these first two days the weather really set in around 1pm when it started to really snow, making the visibilty anything down to 2 meteres.. quite crazy when you are screaming down a mountain on a board!! had only planned on staying 2 days, but Thursday was supposed to be better weather so decided to come back for one more day.

Anyways, Day 3 started just like the other two, crappy overcast weather, with clouds and the occasional bit of snow hindering the visibility. HOWEVER, around 11:30, the clouds started to break open and the sun showed his face every now-and-again. we had like 4 hours of really decent weather without is being full sunshine. Late in the afternoon I spotted this guy doing cliff decents off the top of the mountain, so went to check it out. First time I look I chicken out (I mean this was a 85 degree drop, that pretty scary, especially with ricks and sh!t below you!) Scooted around the bottom and jsut did the run out to the lift again.... The next time however I must have grown some balls, coz I had seen the guy going down again and decided I HAD to do it as you don´t get thi snow is Aussie and would be too long before I got another chance.

So i cruise up to the top of this cliff, peak and over and almost pack my dacks again. Regarless, I strapped in and went for it, OHHH MY GAWDD What a rush!! With powder snow like clouds, a massively steep decent really becomes a walk in the park... I now know how those crazy b@st@rds on those snow boarding movies have the balls to do some of the stuff they do.... real power doesn´t hurt when you fall over!!!!!!! WHAT A REVELATION!!!!!!

I had the most AWESOME afternoon EVER, it was soo cool. Also happened to meet this French Candian guy (Sebastian, married his Austrian g/f for work visa in Austria) who was doing the same cliff stuff... crazy dude indeed!! We meet up later in Innsbruck for beers, but both of us were so stuffed that all we wanted to do was head home to bed... ahh well, early night means you can wake up early right..... well I didn´t feel that way at 6:30 when my alarm went off... but forced myself out of bed as I still had to pack the bag ready to head off to Interlaken in Switzerland... stay tuned for the update on that one (only a one night stay, as have to get to Paris to see the sights).

Prague

OK - so here we go for the second round on typing this one. The worst thing about paying for the Internet is the cafes that cut you off at the end of your time and you lose EVERYTHING!!!!! Much prefer the use, then pay ones... but what can you do??

OK, So Prague....

It was pretty damn cool actually. Really old gothic buidlings and some seriously cheap beer. Unfortunately the beer at the hostel tasted like sh!t.. even though it was like Kc25 (just over 1 Aussie dollar) for a pint. The second night we were there we started drinking the original Budweiser from Czech Republic that was still under 2 Aussie dollars a pint and was delicious!! Ohhh yeah the beer fairy is back in town..... (hmmm can anyone tell that I have had a couple to drink before typing this?? All I am talking about is beer)

OK

Day One in Prague: Camille (chick from the states that I met on the train) and I went to the hostel but couldn´t check in till 1pm, so we walked around the town for a couple hours, came back checked in, met this US guy Andy and then headed off to check out some serious food action, and then the rest of the main attractions. Went and walked around the palace which was pretty huge and stuff, but we didn´t go in because it was too late at that stage and we decided that the outside view was well enough anyways. Bought the obligatory Absinthe... OMG, most Absinthe has a 10% count on the ç&?/% (whatever the wormword active ingredient is called) but the stuff i bought in new and is 35%.... ohh yeah baby!! Apparently it mixes well with red bull.... hahaha Anyways, just hope I can get it through customs.... Apparently there is theis really goos stuff that is like 300 Aussie dollars for 700ml, but it´s 100% of the special stuff, as well as being the standard 70% alcohol.... OMG!!!

Anyways, so the night we spent in the hostel bar drinking the afore mentioned beer that wasn´t really that good. Choice planning by Camille and I saw the next morning wasted with sleep and Internet (lucky to those that got email responses, pissed to me who lost his almost finished Prague post..) Anyways, that afternoon we chilled at the local Bagel house with bottomless cups of coffe and gorgeous Baileys Chocolate Cheesecake... ohh yeah!! spent the arvo checking out some more shops and getting a souvenirs, then headed out for a few beers that night = the real budweiser!! So much better than the American ripoff.. ahh well what can one say, pints for under 2 bucks, ohhhhh YEAH!!!

The next day Andy and Camille left early so I was left to fill in the day by myself, unfortunately is was pissing down with rain and couldn´t do what I had planned, so went to the museum instead, got some cool pictures of rocks, fossils and escavated human skeletons.... but nothing overly cool... ohh except the Trilobite fossils, which have my vote as probably the coolest prehistoric creature predating dinosaurs. Wasted about 6 hours at the train station just dodging the rain, but finally caught the night train to Munich... the safe house of my new Visa card!!!!

So I got the new Visa, but the rest of the plans for Munich (take 2) fell through because Dachau (the first concentration camp - basically a museum now) was closed due to it being a monday..... ahh well - got on the train and headed for Innsbruck.

Neuschwanstein (a quicky)

The castle the Walt Disney based the Dinsey castle on. Originally commisioned by King Ludwig of Bavaria like about 200 years ago.... so having trouble remembeing details now as it´s over a week since I was there, really should write this stuff down...

Anyways, King Ludwig lived in his fathers castle for 17 years while hi new castle (Neushwanstein) was being built - it wasn´t even complete when he moved in and was only there for about 6 months when the local government declared him mentally unstable, and mysteriously he was drowned a week later - a death still unsolved to this day. Apparently the physicians that declared him mentally unfit had never even met him.... sounds like a bit of a setup.

So anyways.... 17 years waitings for his dream castle, and he only stayed there for less than 6 months... poor bugger. It´s an amazing castle though. got some íllegal´pics inside the castle, including a great one of this fresco of St George slaying a dragon!! Need to print that one out for the boyz, hey Phill!?!?

Awesome countryside, awesome castle - and onlz a 2 hour train ride from Munich... EACH WAY, good thing I had all day. Met these two US guys; one worked for the DoD in the states and test pilot engineer and the other was a marine based at the US Luxembourg Embassy. Crayz couple of boys (brothers actually), went for beers at Oktoberfest when we got back to Munich before my night train to Prague... kinda cool really. Helped the sleep on the crappy train!!

Alt.Total.Loser @ Oktoberfest

Ohh dear.... so here's the down low on the whole situation.

For those of you that got frantic sms's or calls you will have an idea, and even if you read the previous post, but here is the full story.

Tuesday morning, Richard arrives in Munich but can't check into his hotel because it like 8am and way too early. So he leaves his rucksack in the hotel luggage room and takes the daypack with him - naturally this contains all important things like passport, tickets, oakleys, MP3 player, mobile phone, guide books, jacket.... you know all the essentials that you DON'T want to get stolen so you keep it with you.

On and empty stomach at 10am Richard partakes in his first stein at Oktoberfest, Lowenbrau - YUM. As he was sitting there a pack of Aussies ambled in about 11 and he invited them to join... always nice to have the familiar aussie oka accent when one is by themselves. So by 2pm we'd had 3 steins and an awesome pretzel the size of a basketball. Time for Richard to go check into his Hotel. Enter Paulaner stein glass into daypack and exit building. Souvenir #1 for Oktoberfest.

So Richard checks into his hotel, dumps the souvenir and heads back to the party with daypack in tow (you know, just incase another souvenir might fall into it). Several steins and half a roasted chicken later, the pissoir stops are coming quite often. As had been the practice all day Richard was leaving his bag with the aussie guys - it was alot easier to navigate through the throngs of people without a backpack on.

All of a sudden Richard notices that his bag is missing, but due to the turn over of people at the table it wasn't as obvious that the aussie crew entrusted with the bag were also missing - it was still the same table full of friendly faces. After several hours of searching frantically for the bag and several trips to lost property, the tent was closed at 11pm. Richard quite hysterical now went to the police and reported the bag stolen, also rang Visa and cancelled the credit card. Well there wasn't much more our lost traveller could do until lost property opened at 12:30 the next day so he went back to the hotel for some sleep.

Waking up sober, the truth set in and our traveller was really annoyed with himself more than anything. Discussing the issue with the hotel staff they couldn't believe how calm Richard was, but he just replied "Well what can I do to change it?".

After going back to the police station to ammend the list of stolen objects Richard realised that his bag contained several thousands of dollars worth or gear... kind of a silly thing to take to a massive beer tent full or drunkards! Luckily our not so seasoned traveller still has his wallet and camera in his pockets - so that was €20, a drivers license and the last few days of photos (the rest were in the stolen bag) So he finds a phone and calls home, his parents jump immediately to his assistance by contacting the issurance, Telstra... the works.

Meanwhile the beaten man sauntered into the closest Internet cafe to check his email and try to contact his friend Craig that he was to be meeting that night (with no phone that was going to be hard). There were a couple of the Aussie guys there and when Richard told his story they were very empathetic, but what could they do to help??? They had been ejected from the tent earlier in the night for being just a bit too drunk - bit of an acomplishment if you have seen the antics they allow at Oktoberfest before kicking you out. (This was lucky event number one for the day - actually crossing paths with these guys)

Lucky event number 2 occured about 10 minutes later when one of the guys came over, "Have I got some good news for you". One of the other Aussie guys had just texted him asing how he could get in contact with the Tassie guy because he had his backpack.

"OHHH MY GOD", Richard exclaimed as he almost jumped across the room to hug the poor messenger. Richard immediately rang the bag possessors and worked out where they were staying and then legged-it to the S-Bahn (subway) to retrieve his long lost bag. EVERYTHING was still there, naturally, as a travelling Aussie always instinctively watches anothers back.

AWESOME

The saga was all but over, the only outstanding issue was the cancelled Visa card, but after a days worth of phone calls between ANZ and Visa, an emergency card was on it's way to Munich. Unfortunately the star goose of this story was leaving for Prague on the Thursday night train (with no address in Prague) and the card would not arrive till Friday. Luckily the staff at the hotel agreed to sign for the card and our learnered traveller would be able to collect it on Monday morning on his way back through Munich. Another stroke of luck was the fortunate meeting with his good Contiki-roasted friend Craig, who loaned him enough cash to see him through the Prague trip and back to his card on Monday.

Hooray for sanity, soberness and such good friends!!

x-------
Footnote: The names in this story have not been changed to protect the innocent as each person deserves the recognition they get for parts played.
Richard: the man that learns lessons the almost-too-hard-way
Craig: The cash-knight in shining armour
The Aussie crew: Sainted protectors of documents
The messenger: A dove of peace in the confusion
The beer: the destructive tool of Satan, but we love it none the less for it's part in this story!!