Em, Bonnie (another Perth Matt) and myself have been exploring the glorious sites of London for the past week. These have included a local pub (for a quiz, we didn't win), Bonnie's living room (for Charmed and Will & Grace marathons), various areas surrounding the Mongolian and Chinese consulates (where I got hopelessly lost), Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Borough Markets, curry in Brick Lane, a mad disco in Kentish Town (where i literally danced holes into my shoes)and an amateur comedy night in Leicster Square. There are photos courtesy of Em forthcoming of the disco night. Oh, and Bonnie was recognised after the comedy night tonight as the "gong-grabbing girl". You see the comedians were supposed to last as long as possible before they were gonged off. The MC was being far to lenient on one incredibly unfunny guy in Bonnie's esteemed and tipsy opinion, so she ran to the side of the stage, grabbed the gong and got rid of him. She was cheered, mightily.

I am back in London. Back at Bonnie's house (again! I love her) and my eastern adventures are over for now.

Here is a list of the cities I visited in the order I enjoyed them and why.

Budapest-My favourite city. Great hostel, great hostelmates, cheap, cheap, cheap and paprika galore.
Krakow-Pedestrian friendly, very historical, cheaper than Budapest and gave me my most interesting hostel experience to date. The power went off and they refused to come and fix it until the next morning. Everyone was wandering around with candles which was great but by 4.00am the candles had gone out and going to the toilet in pitch black was incredibly interesting.
Salzburg-Small, full to the brim with Mozart crap, beautiful old pedestrian streets and a market containing men in lederhosen. And the Sound of Music of course.
Vienna-Actually enjoyed Vienna more because of the lovely Canadians, old buildings and desserts.
Prague-Was beautiful. My hostel was not.
Bratislava-I probably would have enjoyed this more if it had been an earlier stop. I still can't decide why i had issues with this place, i think i have to go back and find out. Possibly the food i was eating there (McDonalds and popcorn) may have influenced my mood.

(No offense to my American friends intended)
1)99% of American tourists cannot make a decision or purchase until they've asked five hundred billion questions.
2)Said tourists then MUST interrupt or correct the tour guide at LEAST four times.
3)The late night drunken snack is a deep fried cheese patty and mayonnaise in a bun. Sounds gross, looks gross, smells gross but I'm told it's delicious.
4)90% of the Czech Republics' Jewish population died in WWII
5)Germans and Czechs don't like each other.
6)2 students commited suicide in the late sixty's by setting themselves on fire (in protest of the mobilisation of the Soviet army in Prague)
7)Old men that stay in hostels generally are as weird as they look. The one sitting next to me on the computer this morning loudly produced so much phlegm in a ten minute period i had to get up and leave. The general rule is no eye contact, no eye contact.
8)This is a whole Eastern European thing-They don't like notes. At all. If you try and pay with a note almost regardless of how big the purchase is, they ask for something smaller. Usually the only reason I use a note is when it's all i have and the thing is, when i say no they ALWAYS gave me the change. Unless they refused to serve me in the first place. That happened too.
9)Prague is lovely
10)And very full of tourists.

I would like to start by apologising for my blogging slackness lately. With limited internet time I'm afraid it's low on priority list after finding a place to stay, checking that i haven't run out of money etc. Luckily it's 4.30am and the boys in my room snore so loudly I've found the perfect time to blog. Hurrah! No line for the computer, that's for sure.

Both Vienna and Bratislava were 2 night, 1 day stays. Vienna was beautiful. I stayed at Wombats Hostel which had great rooms, cheap internet and was unsurprisingly packed with Australians. I managed to meet two Canadian girls though and the next day we did a tourist walk that mainly consisted of us trying to see (not go inside of) all the major tourist attractions on a postcard we found. It worked really well but i have to confess that from now on whenever i smell horse shit i will think of Vienna. Lovely, huh? But there is a downside to that old-fashioned carriage ride. We also went to a free organ concert in a beautiful catholic church. The name of the church totally escapes me but it was very pretty. We also partook of the baby pink chain of dessert restuarants for afternoon tea. I finally had strudel in Austria and it was delicious.

Bratislava kind of sucked. I'm not sure exactly why. I think i'd hit a travellers wall or something. The hostel had gone for a festive and warm concrete motif which i think had something to do with it. I met two hard-core kiwi travellers and a Melbournian who works on Brunswick St who knows Em (or of Em). On the face of it i should have had a good time. On my first night we went for midnight drinks and castle-climbing (not as stupid as it sounds, we only got one beer before they kicked us out) and ended up in this tiny hole in the wall pub.I slept in, wandered around the main squares the next day and after some vigrous hand gesturing and a complete lack of Slovak/English communication I ended up with a ticket to a opera/choral/orchestra concert which turned out to be pretty amazing. Leigh (Melbourne guy) and I went to a movie and hung out and I left the next day. I truly don'tknow why I didn't like it all that much. It was definitely the dirtiest and most graffitied of all the cities I've been but it was also the cheapest. A pint of beer was less than $3. The people i met were great though and they've started a travel initiative about a travelling hoodie that you can read up on at www.Hoodelicious.blogspot.com

I am currently in Krakow. The only big city of Poland to remain relatively unscathed after WWII. I've met up with Fiona, an Irish girl I met in Budapest and we have been making our way through some pubs, cafes and restuarants as well as visiting the old Jewish Quarter, walking past the castle (that totally counts) and we're planning a visit to Auschwitz tomorrow. It should be interesting as well as utterly depressing and I probably won't blog again until the end of Prague (my next and last destination on my Eastern European sojourn). But for now, you're all up to date and I'm off to wake up the snoring Frenchman so I can get some sleep.

It's true you know. This is one of my favourite cities of all time. It has a great vibe, cheap beer and this hostel is the best one I've ever stayed in. It's Central Backpack King if you're ever in town. I have mainly been hanging around the Pest side of the river (far superior to Buda if you ask me. My first night was spent on a fruitless search for a rocking nightclub with four fellow aussies and a canadian. We ended up at a uni club full to the brim with mannequins (not kidding here),karaoke and about 14 people. We sang We Will Rock You and a guy tried to pick me up by poking me in the stomach(still not kidding)and saying "you're beautiful". Not the most successful of nights but i found friends for my stay and got night views of teh Danube, parliament and castle hill. Yesterday i hung around main street Pest and the massive central markets. Salamis a foot bigger than me and lace galore, i went back today i liked it so much. Today I walked to Buda, went up a funicular car thingy to castle hill, a church and Fisherman's bastion. Got very lost outside the castle walls along with four other confused tourists but had fantastic views of the city. Finally I climbed a hill, St Gellert's hill in fact and visited the Statue of Liberty at the top. She was holding a feather, i don't know why because you had to pay to go up to the statue. Finally, a small Budapestian quirk. The supermarket/deli staff here are the rudest and most terrifying in all the world. Everyone else is nice though. Yay Hungary, I'm totally coming back.

I'm actually not really complaining about this on my behalf. It's on the behalf of the lovely Salzburg hostel staff who put on the movie, every night at 8pm without fail. I loved watching it and actually recognising all the places. My hostel was practically at the base of the castle and right near the abbey. I however wasn't nearly as excited as the girl next to me who sung along to ALL of the songs.

I have no whinges about Salzburg as a city. It was picturesqe, i had great weather, i'd love to go back. I do however have complaints about some travel stuff in general. 1) Only having 1 day in a city, and that day turns out to be a Sunday. There were some lovely markets, complete with lederhosen but not much else was open. 2)Tiny, petite, Kate Moss like girls who snore like hippos. 3)When you're so hungry, you give up looking for the cheap, charming, local restaurant and end up with 5 million tourists and crappy food. Then you walk two minutes down the road and find three fabulous alternatives to the weird-ass "gorgonzola" pasta you just ate. This has happened to me at least twice already on this trip.

My one day in Salzburg was pretty nice. It's a tiny city so I walked from the old to the new town, took a boat ride down the river and explored many, many Mozart attractions.

I bet half of you are worried that this is another public urination story and the other (more observant) half are groaning at my naffness. But it's not remotely an exaggeration, everyone in this country uses 'wee' as a describing word. Even if it makes no sense.

I love Scotland. We've spent the last four nights in Campbeltown and it was actually really awesome. On our first full day we went for a wander around the Loch and rented a video. Not so exciting. But on the second day we regained our uber-tourist form and FINALLY found a rental place that hired to 22 year olds. Harry bravely drove on the worlds wettest and windiest roads. There was only one minor car in a ditch episode that was resolved very quickly with the aid of a Scottish and an American woman.

We had a picnic lunch at Skipness castle (built in the 13th Century)and made our way to Furnace. We then got directions from the very friendly locals to Kenmore, a group of 6 houses around a green in the middle of nowhere. We perhaps should have thought about the words 'quarry', 'country road' and 'hire car' but we made it unscathed and it was beautiful. Briony's entire matriarchal line have all holidayed in Kenmore so she and Harry decided to ignore the fact that it was a) winter and b) freezing and go for a dip in the Loch. I had a fantastic time laughing from my warm, dry perch. Especially when the people in the dinghy went by with their binoculars. The day ended with a trip to Inverary and dinner in Lockgilped where i'm convinced i ate mad cow steak. So freaking gross. It was a great day though and Harry and Briony were introduced to Day categories, the game that kept us going in 1999.

On our last full day we went near the Mull of Kintyre (shout out to James for the song reference) and wandered through a graveyard. Our third graveyard in the UK if i'm counting, which i'm not. We got caught in the rain, walked on the beach, Briony fell over and Harry threw a welly. Then we had tea and scones. And that's about it for now. Back to London tomorrow, then it's off to Austria to begin my adventure behind the ole' Iron Curtin.

Wow. Eagles game, wow. We went to the Oz Bar, they were selling cheezels, shapes, twisties, burger rings, "aussie pies" (no, the meat was far too identifiable) and australian beer. The swans fans outnumbered us but we screamed enough that at the end of the game one of the swans girls actually came over to congratulate us. Boo to the guy who spoiled it for Harry by yelling 'Eagles won' through the window before the game.

We are currently in Campbeltown, Scotland staying in Harry's uncles house. Although it has a beautiful Loch the Scotland lonely planet does not exactly rave about the city. However, we did have some very nice curry last night. I think we'll be making a lot of day trips while we're here.