I'll go to bed with you guys

Yes so this is slightly later that it should have been... bite me. It's my damn blog and I'll update it when I see fit so there.

Anyway so I do believe that I last left us off in the boiling city of Rome. I cannot even begin to explain to you how mice it was to finally get out of that oppressive heat and into the wonderfully air-conditioned bus again. Anyway we started out the morning heading for our next destination, Florence. Now I'll be honest, I didn't know much about Florence before coming on this trip. But as it turns out they are famous for their leather and gold. Awesome, both of which are completely out of my price range. Anyways, more on that later.

When we hit Florence our first stop was a leather shop (But they sold gold and silver as well so what the hell...). I will admit that it was rather interesting to see how they made these rather fancy leather boxes. They are made of nothing but leather, no wood, no metal hinge, nothing. They also take a while to make and so cost an arm and a leg. Actually to be more accurate they pretty much cost one entire side of your body.

Anyways, after examining everything in the shop we had like an hour of free time so we went to go check out this church/cathedral thing. I can't tell what the difference is between them except the size and that cathedrals tend to have more fancy stuff in them... Anyway, this one was unfortunately under a lot of restoration and so a large number of the tombs were not on display which is unfortaunate. I did manage to see the tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo (Kawabunga dude [If you don't get the reference then shame on you]).

After wandering around the cathedral for a while we took a brief look around the town (As I said we didn't have much free time) before we went to meet up with the group again for a guided tour of florence. Now the fun and games was going to begin, and by fun and games I mean the most boring guide on the trip. She started by explaining what some of the statues around florence were (There are a lot of them). About the only two I thought were cool was the replica of The David and this other weird one where the artist sculpted his face onto the back of the statues head... Other than that the tour suuuucked. She spoke in a fairly monotone voice, it felt like a lecture. This wasn't helped by the fact that she gave far more information on the history of various things than was necessary including the origin of some words... which she would inevitably spell for us... seriously?

Anyway, we drudged our way through the tour before we had some more free time which was pretty much just spent walking around looking at the various shops while I forced myself not to blow all my cash on a new leather wallet. The one other place we saw which I thought was pretty cool was this other cathedral thingy. The only reason I found it cool was the fact that I used to have a 3D puzzle of it. Bug thing with an orange roof... I thought it was cool so screw all of you chuckling to yourselves. After the short free time we met up with the group again and headed to the camp site where we got to chill for a bit before heading back to the city to get a group photo and grab dinner.

The photo was pretty cool, taken with a great view of Florence in the background, but that had nothing on the dinner we had. The dinner was just made of awesome. We split from the main group for dinner and it was worth it. The pasta I had that night was made of win. I think the pasta was called tagliarini or something like that. It was basically a very thin spaghetti which I had with a nice rich carbonara sauce. Damn was it good.

Anyway, after the food we went on a little bit of a walk about while we waited for the main body of the tour to finish their dinner and grabbed some gelati (ice-cream) which was pretty cool. The best though, was the size of the cone the one girl got. Damn,it looked like a baseball bat with ice-cream sticking out the top of it, was kind of rediculous. After we met up with the group we headed to a karaoke bar to see if we were going to stay or if we were going to head back to the camp site.

To say the club was overcrowded would have been an understatement. The entire place was packed like the front of the crowd at a Rolling Stones concert, slightly crazy. Anyway, we gapped it backto the camp site with a bunch of the other tour people who didn't feel like getting squished. And that was about it for Florence and for Italy.

Cioa...

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 3
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2
Other Guy: 1
Vatican: 2

I am a zombie mummy vampire

People of Rome... invent outdoor airconditioning... please... Okay, so day 2 in Rome started out by being hotter than the previous day, awesome. We started off the day by catching busses and trains etc into the city itself where we then proceeded to head directly towards the Vatican, wanting to try avoid queues etc. Surpirisingly enough there was absolutely no queues when we got there. I was expecting tons of people lined up for blocks. Hey, all the better for us.

So we headed in and then proceeded to start looking around at all the statues and paintings etc. Holy cow, they have a lot of them. Seriously. Like every surface is covered with stuff. Well, one of the main things that we wanted to see there was the Sisteen (spelling?) chapel so we headed off to see that. Now, I'm not going to say that it wasn't impressive, because it was, but my expectations were a little different from what was actually there. Anyone that knows about it knows that there is that picture with the guy whose hand is reaching out towards god's hand... you know the one I'm talking about? Well I always imagined it was this massive image that covered the ceiling... It isn't.

That picture is just a small one on the ceiling, it is in fact one of many pictures that cover the ceiling of chapel. I always expected it to be this massive thing, not a tiny little one. Whenever you hear about it or see it on TV it is always made out to be awesome. I was slightly dissapointed with that, but then again, the chapel itself is damn amazing. It's crazy how much work went into it. Anyway we headed out of there to go and grab some food before we continued to explore the various parts of the Vatican.

The Vatican clearly thinks it knows what people want to see. That is to say, they apparantly believe that EVERYONE wants to see the Sisteen chapel. Why? Because it seems that a large portion of the other exhibits that you can go see will lead you back to the entrance to the Sisteen chapel. Yes it is impressive... but a lot less so on your third trip around it. Oh well. After we had our fill of the different art pieces etc. in there we decided to head off to go explore the rest of Rome for a bit.

Oh, before we continue, I need to explain something. Lee-Anne hadn't brought any propper flip flops or anything like that for the trip, so she decided to get some the night before at the little market thingy at the camp site. This will be important, remember it.

After heading out the Vatican we headed around the corner (a really big corner) to go see St. Peter's Bascilica. Damn, that place is huge. I don't know how people managed to design places like that let alone build them. Or decorate them. The amount of gold in there is kind of crazy. Not to mention the paintings, murals, statues... you get the point right? The place was crazy awesome. I would have gone up the stairs to the top but then I wouldn't have had a chance to see anything else in Rome, I can't quite explain how long that queue was because I couldn't see the end of it. Oh well.

After we finished up there we decided to go look at the Circus Maximus. If you know about the place then you can see where this is going. Anyway, it was time for fun and games. Now, you remember those slops I mentioned earlier? Heres were the fun began. She got blisters on her feet, right where the top of the slops were. So she used micropore tape something or another to cover it. The slops kept eating it, oh well, reapply and continue. So we caught the metro to the Circus Maximus station, checked our maps and headed out to go see it. Well... we walked, and walked, and walked, and couldn't see it. You want to know why?

We couldn't see it because it 2006 the remains of it were torn down. Well now, damn wouldn't that have been useful information for our tour manager to have given us but noooooo, not even a mention. And the damn thing was still listed on the map that he gave us. That was a painful waste of time, mostly for me because I had to listen to her complaining about her feet the entire time. My poor ears, you cannot understand the pain... anyway.

After that failed walkabout we continued on to get some awesome pictures and views of the Roman forum. This was of course after we had paid rediculous prices for some drinks because it was so hot. The Forum was massive. A lot bigger than I had expected. We went from there and headed towards the colloseum when we had some real fun and games. We were just walking down the path as this guy with an umbrella is walking rather quickly towards us. Out of nowhere this HUGE guy slams his hand around the other guys throat and shoves him up against the fence. Now, we didn't want to make it look like we were paying attention to this so we just kept our same pace and continued walking in the same direction we had been going and definitely, nope nope definitely not, looking at what was going on. One problem, the big guy starts hauling the other guy the same direction we were going.

That was when we noticed it. Just up ahead there was an old Italian guy sitting on a ledge with some shopping bags, and this other darker skinned guy on his knees while another large italian guy is standing over him. The guy on his knees looks like he is begging and praying. Kind of creepy. Anyway, the guy moving in the same direction as us, brings umbrella guy to this scene, takes the umbrella and puts it into one of the packets that the old guy had. It's at this point that the guy who stole the umbrella (I'm assuming) starts beggging and praying as well. The old guy waves his hands and the big italian guys shove the two thieves (I'm assuming) away who then bolt.

It was kinda dodgey and creepy but you have to admire them. It was a damn effective way of getting back the stolen goods as well as scaring the bajeezus out of the thieves... and any tourists that happened to be near by. Well we vacated the area as fast as possible and headed off to our next stop. A little church in Rome where some Capputian (spelling?) monks had their crypts. Wow, I'd say they were wrong but as our tour manager keeps reminding us, it's just different. All of these crypts were decorated with bones. Human, animal, all just stuck in various patterns etc around the place. There were even some bodies that looked really well preserved that were just there in poses. The weird thing is that they were just out in the open air and it didn't seem like they were decaying all that much. It was kind of creepy.

After this, and much whining from miss silly slops, we decided to head back to the camp site where we had a "buffet" (it's not buffet if you can only go up to get food once damnit) dinner followed by more boiling as we tried to sleep amidst the horrendous amounts of noise that were coming from the bar. Oh well. Oh I should mention that she also went plummeting down the stairs at the train station on the way back and gave herself a rather nasty bruise. One again die to the slops. Lets just say that the slops did not meet a happy ending when we reached the camp site...

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 3
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2
Other Guy: 1
Vatican: 2

Chemical warfare of the peri-peri barbeque fart variety

Hello good morning and thankyou please, theres liable to be a blast of posts shortly as I actually have access to internet. Go me.

So when we, and by me I mean the royal we, had finished up in Venice and now it was time to get up nice and early and head off to Rome. Now I think I mentioned that Venice was hot. If I didn't then let me tell you now, Venice was hot. But Venice my friends, had nothing on Rome. Partially because we had awesome air conditioned cabins in Venice. Our accomodation in Rome was... less than awesome. But more on that later.

The first thing we did as we hit Rome was go on a mini walking tour. We got to see some cool stuff such as the Trevi fountain and spot the colloseum in the distance but more importantly we got to see the Pantheon. That building was cool. The size of it, for when it was built is pretty awesome, not mention that the only source of light in the place was a single hole in the roof which still managed to get the job done. After that it was time to go for a walk about and grab some dinner.

I must give this its own section so that I can describe to you something of great importance. You can get pizza anywhere in the world. Different places are better than others etc. etc. But there is still one universal truth. The Italians invented the pizza and by god can they make good ones. The pizza I had that night was by far the best pizza that I have ever had in my life. One moment it was on my plate and the next it was in my stomache with me wondering where it all went. If you ever want to have a propper pizza, go to Rome. Or at least to that little cafe/restaurant/thingy because damn was the food good. Anyway, moving on. After the meal we were all trundled back to the bus to go to our... accomodation...

To say we were dissapointed with the accomodation in Rome would be an understatement. It was definitely the worst we had had. The real kicker? Our tour manager, who had been warning us about how we had to lower our expectations of all the previous accomodations, kept raving about this one. He was going on and on about the facilities and about how this was a serious upgrade over the normal place. My question, how damn bad was the normal accomdation.

The rooms were like saunas. There is no other way to describe it. It was boiling hot and the room seemed to just pull whatever heat it could find into it. Then the other fun part about the rooms. Our cabin was basically a room in a 3 room cabin unit thing, and if anyone moved in any part of the unit the entire thing shook. Well that was fun... or not... At least there was a pool... which was closed by the time we got to the camp site. Okay so there was free internet... with huge queues and you could only use it for half an hour. Fail.

Needless to say it didn't look like Rome was going to be pleasant. Weather wise anyway. I was, however, planning to enjoy the day of sightseeing we had planned for the next day...

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 2
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2

The only free seats you'll find

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Venice. Well the ladies and the gentlemen are, so I don't know why I'm mentioning them here. None of them read this anyway, just the stalkers that I seem to have accumulated. In the famous words of our tour manager, "Oh well".

Okay, so bright and early we woke up and went for breakfast before heading out to the ferry to take us to Venice itself. But first a word on the breakfast. Those of you who don't know, Venice is in Italy. By default, this means that in summer it is bloody hot. Being right next to a large body of water, it means that it is very humid. Humid and bloody hot makes for awful muggy weather. While it was fine in the rooms as they had air conditioning, it does mean that everywhere else kind of sucks. Taking this into consideration, it has come to my attention that eating cocoa pops with milk that has been steadily getting warmer is not a good idea.

Other than that mishap with breakfast, however, it was a fairly simple matter of walking the short distance to the ferry and heading into Venice itself. To say that Venice was geared for tourists would be like saying that snow is cold. It's a bit of an understatement. I am firmly convinced that there is no other business in Venice other than stuff for tourists. Everywhere you looked you found shops selling souvenirs. Sometimes you didn't even have to look as they had mobile shops and would come up to you. But more on shopping later. First, we had some demonstrations.

Our first stop after a mini tour by Chachi we were taken to a glass blowing demonstration. For anyone that seen glass blowing before you know that it is pretty cool. What we saw here was beyond awesome. Taking a small piece of molten glass the guy was able to mold it into the shape of the Ferrari rearing horse in less than 5 minutes. Needless to say I now have one of those sculptures taking up some space in my bag (hope it doesn't break in transit). After that it was time to go see another demonstration that wasn't exactly to my taste. A lace demonstration...

Now this was something different, and not in a good way. Our tour manager had continualy gone on about how all the guys in his previous tours had said that this was the best thing that they had seen on tour so even a few of the guys were excited about this (maybe they thought there would be lacy underwear being displayed or something, I dunno). The problems with the demonstration were twofold: firstly it was a lace demonstration, secondly our tour manager had been lying through his teeth. The demonstration was the biggest waste of time of my life. This includes the numerous times I have heardthe Superboy punched reality rant. It was that bad.

Anyway, I managed to duck out of there as fast as I could and we went a browsing. Letsjust say that not much actual purchasing was done, why? As I stated earlier, Venice is pretty much just there for tourists. Due to this fact, everything there is horribly expensive. Veniceis known for two main things, it's Venetian masks and Murano glass. Both of these things can be found in various locations all around the city which one would assume would help lower the price with such an abbundance of goods. The sad truth is that the prices seemed to be uniformly increased everywhere we went.

The other issue I have is with the Murano glass itslef. Sure, its got specific tints of colour to it but then answer me this, why were there different colours of Murano glassavailable? I've seen glass factories in various places all making different coloured glass items. So if the glass here was special because of itscolour why is it still so expensive? With the numer of places around the world that can make different coloured glass items why do the Venetians get to charge so much? I suppose it's because people are williung to pay the prices they set, I am proofof that.

Well not exactly the price they set I suppose. It was entertaining to discover just how much they seem to enjoy haggling overthe price of the items. When a shop assistant comes up to you and goes, "You like this? We can work out special price for you." Mostplaces I have been to they try and sell it to you for the listed price and only start haggling if you initiate it. I'm not sure if the Venetians were actually trying to make a profit on the itemsor if they just set prices so that they can haggle with people. They reallyseemed to enjoy it. Oh well, to each their own. It's not wrong, it'sjust different.

After copious amounts of browsing overpriced shops we managed to grab some lunch... for an hour and a half... the restaurant was cooler than the streets of Venice. The muggy heat seriously becomes oppresive after a while. I don't know how people manage to live in it. It's unbearable asfar asI'm concerned. Well after a long lunch and then finally reforming our tour group we all went off for gondola rides. It was pretty cool I suppose, it's definitelya different way to travel aroundacity and is pretty relaxing. Unfortunatelyour gondolier (is that the right word?) didn't seem to be one of the singing variety (one of the groups on a gondola apparently got shouted at for asking their gondolier to sing). Once we were done in Venice it was time to catch the ferry back to the mainland and head back to the camp site. And thatwas pretty much it for Venice... you can go now... seriosuly leave, you're creeping me out...

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 2
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2

Because you're the expert on butterfly sex

Good morning stalkers. Time again for me to try and catch up with all of my posts, I'll get it done one of these days. I blame it primarily on the bad spots for getting internet... mostly... anyway, on with the show.

We left Austria early that morning to head off to white water rafting... with basically no rapids. This was pretty much why I wasn't doing it. If its going to be proper rafting, I want the aim to be to go down the river over rapids etc. and not to be about throwing each other out the raft and tipping it over. Sod that. Anyway, we dropped off the rafters and headed on down to the finish to wait for them. We didn't exactly have to wait for very long, the bus trip down to the finish was a bit windy and no where near as direct as the river route. After this it was back into the bus to head for Venice.

Now here's the kicker. Our tour manager was carefully explaining that we really needed to lower our expectations for the accommodation we were going to get because this was to be our first camp site. After the "awesome" hostel we had in Prague this had me a little worried, although, in the back part of my mind I was sort of going, "but it's always been relatively fine so far...", and then we hit the camp site.

Wow, was he wrong. Twinshare cabins. Bathroom with shower and toilet en-suite and here's the best of all, airconditioning. I honestly don't know how he expected us to think that this was shit acommodation. As far as I'm concerned it was the best we had had so far. Better even than the "hotel" in Amsterdam (that being mostly because it was twinshare instead of quadshare). We did't actually go into Venice itself as that requires a ferry ride (for those of you that don't know Venice is made up of a lot of island type things...). Anyway, we were all set to have a nice relaxing day, make that evening, at our camp site in Venice. That night we were once again presented with a barbecue (which was awesome).

From there on the night was relatively calm except for one major hiccup. I tried ordering a drink. Not to say that I had problems ordering the drink, that's fairly standard regardless of where you are in the world. The problem came in when I tasted my drink. You see, I had ordered a fairly simple vodka and lemonade. Not exactly a complicated drink. So I had my first sip and it all seemed fine, until the aftertaste hit me... I can quite honestly say that this is the worst vodka that I have ever had the displeasure of drinking. I would gladly take russian bear and quite probably black horse before I would willingly drink a glass of that stuff they said was vodka.

And so it was that I poured away a good chuck of money (for those of you not in the know, when converting South African rands to Euros we get screwed big time) as I had declared the drink undrinkable and, as everyone knows, this is my tv show so my word is law. Errr... yea that was it for day one in Venice. Good evening and good night...

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 2
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2

Ripleys believe it or not

Good morning stalkers. I hope you all had a sucky day while I was out enjoying myself on vacation. You had sucky times? Awesome. So on with the journey. Now that we were done in Munich and the beer halls it was time to head off for our next destination; Austria. Okay now I wouldn't say that I wasn't looking forward to Austria, I was kind of indifferent. Why? Because I've been there before. Damn was I surprised.

Austria in summer and Austria in winter are too completely different things. For those of you who are confused by the seasons, it is currently summer here in Europe, 'kay? Now Austria was our first stop where it didn't look like it might rain at any moment which was a nice change from the rest of the tour. After a hurried breakfast... which I didn't touch. I couldn't recognize most of it... anyway, we headed off to Austria. The trip didn't take all that long and once again our tour manager decided to remind us that the accommodation wasn't going to be very good because it wasn't actually a hostel, it was a Contiki special stop over.

I'm not entirely sure what he was trying to get at, because this was one of the best places we had stayed in. Not to mention one very important factor, twinshare instead of quadshare. For those of you not versed in languages other than stupid, that means that it was two to a room instead of four to a room. For those of you who still don't get it, it means that we weren't saddled with roommates this time which was awesome.

Now, to the shock and awe of most of my stalkers out there, I did exercise here. I'm not talking about going to gym and doing some arbitrary exercise, I'm talking about good old fashioned exercise; bike riding. Immediately after arriving at the spot, we were handed our mountain bikes and we started our bike trip UP the mountain. Yes that is right, not some quick little excursion down the road, it was up a friggin mountain.

For the unbelievers out there I have photographic evidence of having been on this bike ride. So bugger all of you. The damn thing was 25kms. Most of which was uphill, the end of the ride was cool I suppose, it was downhill but it was much much steeper than the ascent and thus it was shorter. Do I regret it? Not one bit. The views from the top of the route we took were AWESOME. You can see down the entire valley and out to all of the logging sites that are around the town we staying at. This is definitely another thing I suggest everyone try do. If you're thinking of excusing yourself saying that its too long and hard then think of it this way: if I managed to you it you bloody well can as well. If someone as lazy and unfit as me can do it then anyone can.

The ride finished off with a decent barbecue (seriously, when are they going to learn it's called a braai?) This was followed by some relaxing in the room and then "bar orientation". Now this one was entertaining. Basically, it was an excuse to have us all pitch up at the bar and get given a free shot of sour apple schnapps... hey I'm not complaining, but they could have just said, "guys we going get drunk huuuaaaaaaaaa!" It would have worked just as well. Anyway, we proceeded to move from here to dinner, after which it was some more drinks.

Now, something that I need to explain about our tour manager. For most of the beginning of the trip he has been sick. Not that you could tell from the way he behaved on the bus etc. He is actually pretty decent at making it seem like he's fine, however, because he had been sick he hadn't been coming out drinking. Well he was feeling fine now... at least until the other Contiki reps got hold of him and poured I don't know how much alcohol down his throat.

So later that night after finally finding him (we were surprised that he was capable of standing without assistance) we headed out to a bar in the town. Ooooh wait before the bar, I just remembered. We did it after the barbecue, we went for a walk into town. The reason? I had this weird rash on my hands which I've had for a while but it seemed to be getting worse. So we hit an Austrian pharmacy where the lady who could barely speak English gave me this weird looking gel stuff to put on it. Only one word can describe it, AWESOME. As I am sitting here typing the rash things are almost completely gone, anyway, bar.

So we headed out to the bar for a few drinks and had some mild entertainment with Chachi (the tour manager) losing his watch. I left earlier than some of the others and may I just say this. Some people should not be allowed to sing while drunk. I know I'm bad as it is, but at least I don't make up songs as I go. New Guy had decided that he was a grand composer and was sharing all of his new ballads on the way back... someone save my ears... please? Anyway, that was pretty much our short stop in Austria.

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 2
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2

Don't prost too hard

Well then folks, now that we were done in Prague it was time for us to take a trip back into Germany, this time to Munich. We were getting slightly worried as our tour manager had once again warned us not to get our hopes up and that tour accommodation was going to continue to decline. After Prague this was getting slightly worrying, but we headed off anyway.

Our first stop in Munich was the world famous Glockenspiel... our tour manager warned us that it was over-rated but damn... it has to be one of the most pathetic things that I have ever seen. The astrological clock in Prague at least looked pretty cool, even if it's display was a little weak. This thing was... useless.

The entire thing that it does looks like it was some sort of carousel. Sure it was made ages ago so I suppose yay, good accomplishment for back then. But the way people go on about this thing you would think that it farts gold and burps wishes. Anyway, this wasn't thankfully, what I had been looking forward to in Munich. That title belongs to something a lot more special, a lot more sacred and awesome. A proper German beer hall.

After dumping our stuff in our rooms at the hostel. Okay no wait, I have to tell you about the door locks. Holy cow. These things were complicated. You had to press in a button. Press your room key card to the sensor. Wait for a light to change colour, turn the knob to the right while pushing on the other handle in order to open your room. Only it didn't work. Our esteemed tour leader was slightly misinformed about the locking mechanism.

On the actual door handle there is a slight, and I do mean very slight, bulge in one direction. That is apparently the direction you have to turn the handle in once the light changes colour... Seriously have these people not heard of a simple lock and key or even a normal damn keycard system? This sort of thing should be outlawed as torture. Do have any idea how loud drunk people are when trying to open their rooms at nigh? Anyway, that only happened later, back to the beer hall.

So the beer halll we went to was a bit out of town but it was damn awesome. Huge steins (read one liter) jugs of beer as well a huge meal (read pork knuckle). It was made of awesome. The food was cooked to perfection, the crackling was nice and crispy while the meat itself was still juicy and I was even able to drink half of my beer. For anyone that knows me they should know that I do not drink beer. It tastes crap. Which is what my taste buds decided to remind me about half way through the stein. Oh well. I can still say that I went to a German beer hall and had pork knuckle and beer. So screw all your disaproving looks.

Anyway, it was't just food and drink that we got at the beer hall. There was a full on performance by some dancing girls, oh but before that, the "band". This consisted of one old guy on the trumpet and this other old guy on the keyboard. And wow, this guy on the keyboard looked half dead. There was absolutely no facial expression. He could have been Keanu Reeves grandfather. He just stared sideways at all of us and continued playing with this completely dead expression on his face. I was ebegining to think that perhapos he had died and his body was just so used to doing the same thing that it simply got up and carried on doing what it was used to doing.

Anyway, they provided some awesome music and wow the guy in the trumpet... he liked to make us drink. For those stalkers out there who don't know about beer halls, there is a specific song that everyone has to sing in the hall, which toast to at the end of the song. Well the trumpet guy kept calling for everyone to sing this song and take up their glasses after every second or third song. It was kind of rediulous. Not to mention, although I only spotted it about half way through the evening, he had nothing in his tankard. He would just lift up the lid, we toasted and then he put it down again... not suspicious at all... hmmm... but anyway, the dancing girls.

The performance was awesome. Lots of leg swinging, skirts flying and strange branch things being twirled around. It was good entertainment. I can see why the Germans of old enjoyed having beer halls so much. If I was getting entertainment like that every time I went to one I'd be there like every day. Good times. The best of which was this one dance where they used a bench and would smash it up and dopwn against the stage while dancing around it. While this was happening, two of the other girls would be using different sized cow bells to provide accompanyment to the music. It was really cool and I reccomend everyone try and experience it some time. Stalkers... you do it when I'm not there... you dodgy freaks...

But anyway, the evening was a great time, some people got called up on stage to dance with the girls as well as having everyone in the hall join in for the chicken dance (some of the people didn't know how to do it, I thought everyone was born with that knowledge?). After everything had died down and we cleared out of there we headed back to the hostel and the club that it had down stairs. I have to admit that the club was pretty decent; dance floor, bar, pool tables etc. Anyway we had two or so drinks there before heading back up the rooms to get a relatively early (read like 12 or so) night before we heading off the next morning.

Scores:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 2
Chachi: 1