eurotrash
:: berlin
brr.. uh.. so i went to berlin.. its ok
the backpackers i stayed in was cool. it was full of ppl jsut hanging out all asking "so.. what should i do in berlin?". it was totally cold though.. but everywhere ive been so far has been totally cold.

i went on this walking tour thru berlin which was pretty amusing.. the guy was like an actor who jsut did the tours to pay bills between jobs. he sorta reminded me of Stephen Hilare.. if u know who that is =p

in Germany pretty much everything is closed on Sundays cept for restaurants and train stations.. like theres nothing to do at all.. i stopped by a few street markets cos they were the only things around. they were mostly littered with heavy overcoats and pre-war east german communist odds and ends. lots of old antiques plastered with DDR .. which stands for Deutsche Demokratische Republik .. not dance dance revolution =p

:: paris
more snow in paris.. like everywhere.. it was really pretty... but i cant feel my fingers =p paris wasnt as exciting as id imagined.. all i really did was go siteseeing... to sights which were all like closed or undergoing maintenance.. or both =p the backpackers was heaps cool in terms of ppl.. there was a cheap bar on the ground floor where i hung out all the nites i was there. i was a bit exhausted from travelling.. and admittedly sightseeing by myself was getting very lonely, especially when all my photos are jsut of buldings with no ian in the frame. theres jsut no one around to stop and turn to and say "how do u think they managed to build that?". it was nice to sit in a bar and jsut chat to some ppl in english in a conversation which consisted of more than "uh.. do u speak english?".. or "can i buy one of those.. uh .. things..."

the rooms were totally tiny though.. and the showers were even smaller. i could barely fit thru the shower door sideways.. and im not exactly the largest person around. i dunno how anyone bigger than me wouldve even been able to get inside.

there was this fast food place called Quick.. which is basically a maccas rip off.. but they had this fondue burger which like had all theses different kinds of cheeses on it... mmm.. so cheesy =) hehe.. and jsut for Hunt, the ppl eat french fries by dunking them liberally with ketchup.. and mayonaise.

.. it was kinds suprising to see how devoid of shopping malls both these places were.. like paris had one small one.. and i didnt see one at all in berlin. they jsut have streets lined with stores.. not many higher than 2 stories. not a sky scraper in sight. at supermarkets in europe, u have to bag ur own groceries.. apparently its took complex for checkout chicks to handle =p it makes me realise how big Sydney really is.. i always thought Sydney was just a quiet town compared to the Londons and Pariss of the world, but it is quite large and busy. also i miss Sydney weather.. tis so cold here.. brr..


.. um.. i have more to write.. but atm im feeling heaps sickly.. im stuck at khanhs place resting.. ill probly play some Tony Hawk and maybe some DDR later.. hehe..

brr.. its cold in here..
in other news.. its friggin cold in prague. luckily im leavin in a few hours.. phew.. but im going to berlin which is apparently just as cold..but apparentlz heaps of fun.. so its ok. i suspect i have freeyer burn all over mz face from the chilly air.. it feels like im sunburnt almost.. but cold.

yesterday i pretty much saw all of prague.. it was cool. you can pretty much see all of the sites in one walking tour .. if u dont mind walking all day. i took some photos of the cool stuff.. theÿre prety boring though cos im not in an of them.. i may as well have bought a book of postcards, cos then id at least have some good quality shots of the things. its getting a lil lonely travelling by myself.. but i have managed to find some random person to talk to at each stop which is cool. i screwd up my bookin for berlin.. so i have no place to stay the first nite.. gah.. but the 2nd n 3rd nites im stayin at this place which claims to be planned around backpackers travelling alone.. so hopefully that goes well.

i also went to see a classical music concert in a church hall, cos apparently thats the thing to do in prague. it was really nice, not mind-blowing, but pleasant sounding and a nice way to finish up here. im hopefully gonna catch a 6hr bus to berlin.. gah.

.. actually halfway thru this post ive decided to catch the train instead =p it costs about AU30 more.. but theres better times and its about 2hrs faster. also it prettz much stops right at where i want to go. i think.. =p

.. last day for free internet.. i probly wont post again till i get back to london on friday. well.. unless ive got spare change.. which looks likely considering ive blown out my CC, and therefore got extra cash.

... but only.. on.. my.. own..
uh i know this is out of order n stuff.. but i figure i may as well use free internet whilst i can =p

atm im staying at a hostel in prague. i wouldnt use the word great to describe it.. or good even .. but its cheap and its warm and its near the middle of town and its filled with other backpackers.. and its away from creepy spanish guys. its 5am.. but since i had no idea what was going on last nite.. i went to sleep at 10pm... so i jsut naturally woke up at 5am =p nothing is open and its still dark and snowy outside... so i figured i may as well blog it up.

a quick flashback...
:: tokyo
this was heaps whirlwind.. i didnt really get to do anything cept buy a snowboard and a naruto headband!!!!!!!§§§ hehe.. it doesnt really fit me though.. grr. i caught up with chito n others and ate ramen and hung out at harajuku to gawk at freaks.. they were heaps more camera shy this time though.. they looked jsut as cool though.. possiblz cooler than last time. i saw this portable xvid player.. i almost bought it on the spot.. it was less than au?400 .. i cant figure out how to make a dollar sign =p anyway it turns out its the same as this shinco one u can buy in Sydnez.. so ill same my travelling monez and buy it back home.

:: london
uh.. this place is totally hectic.. although i did arrive with multiple bags in the underground at peak hour frantically trying to obtain change for my pounds to call Khanh.. even though she had no reception´.. gah.. jsut like sydnez, it swallows ur whole coin if make a call.. so i was like wasting whole pounds to call her and say "where are u?" and then itd cut out. i said to meet at platform 1 at waterloo stn.. which sounded good.. cept there are two platform 1s at Waterloo stn.. wtf? a few pounds later we finally caught up.. phew.. i was glad to dump the luggage. the tube stations look cool inside.. sorta futuristic ´.. but old at the same time..

i hung out with K and scott for a few days.. jsut walking around and hanging out. we ate at Fifteen.. which is Jamie Olivers restaurant. it was by far the most expensive restaurant ive ever been to.. and not even close to the best. it was close to AU500 for 3 of us for 3 courses. and they werent even good. mz entree was ok.. but it was uber oily.. my main was a risotto which was tasty but also as oily as Danny Zukos hair. the dessert was apple crumble.. it wasnt good .. i dunno how else to put it =p

at nite i went to see Les Miserable at the Queens Theatre in Londons west end =) i was heaps excited.. that i didnt even realise i was paying upwards of AU100 for it =p i have to say it wasnt the greatest performance ive seen..singing was average, heaps strong british accents in the middle of songs supposedly sung bz french revolutionaries... the set was incredible though.. it was this giant hogde podge set thing, in two separate parts which thez used for the barricade, but it rotated sideways to make for other back drops. it was awesome looking... up until it broke .. and caused a 20min delay in the show =p

k and s were addicted to this coin game at the arcde.. they have them in sydnez, its the one where u put in a coin and it pushes other coins to maybe get them to fall down. it took 2p coins.. and they mustve spent 5 pounds.. thats 250 coins in this machine.. so dumb.. shakes head. just like japan thez have pokies inside video game arcades.. i dunno the logic behind it.. other than getting kids hooked early.. i guess its a natural progression. what i did find weird was a pokie inside a bakery, on the platform of a train station.. i think thats a bit much =p

:: prague
ive already talked about this place.. and after seeing some more.. its still awesome. todaz im gonna do some crazy running around trying to see the rest of it in 1 day. luckily its not that big, area-wise, so i should be ok. i heaps over=budgeted for prague.. or mazbe ive heaps under-spent? =p its heaps annoying that they dont have euros. stuff is cheap... not crazy cheap, but cheap enough.

i talked to these cool travellers a the hostel where ive stayed.. some germans and a jap guy and a danish guy. theyre all real helpful with finding stuff and getting tickets n such. i feel like ive seen berlin already cos everyone talks about it... grrr.. i wish id planned more days there now.

hihi°°
czech kezboards are teh weird...

so im in prague
im quite awe=ridden bz this place. it looks inredible.. i onlz have 2? dazs here .. i totalz wont be able to see it all.. ne1 wanna come back and see it with me somedaz_

some totallz creepz spanish guz was tryin to pick me up today.. at first i thought he was a cool fellow traveller.. he was on the back end of a long trip which including him losing a friend to the tsunami =í but we were chatting over coffee and he was like inviting me back to his place in spain and trzing to get me to go on this cruise thing with him.. i managed to ditch him bz sayin i was going to this concert .. which i coudlnt actuallz afford to go to .. but i might go tommolo cos it looks awesome..

in other news.. despite the awesome surrounds of prague.. the ppl seem like theyre still in the middle of communist oppression.. ive seen a total of 2? smiles on the faces of locals... its quite depressing..

.. also danishes in prague are ok.. better than london.. not as good as tokyo. mz dad has this thing where he needs to trz maccas wherever he goes.. but i like to try danishes.. and ice cream ..

eep
ive gtg

im sick of always hearing all the sad songs on the radio
um.. this weekend i didnt do anything. jsut stayed home and packed and planned and did some stuff around the house. this may seem like i have no life and no frens.. but in fact i prefer to think of it as me not conforming to social norms like partying and the seeming need to be popular =p

we won frisbee last nite.. it was a quarter finals. it was pretty funny. we were up 9-3.. but then we played crap for ages.. and they brought it back to 10-9. then i made a diving catch in the endzone =) w00t me. so we're thru to the semis.. sadly i cant play .. unfortunately ill be occupied in europe =p hehe

.. 5 days till im free of this prison called Sydney.. i have no idea where im going.. ive looked at heaps of maps n schedules.. and im still undecided.. ill probly jsut start catching random trains and going whereever looks good on the day..

its like that, and thats the way it is
the lunch otpion at the rba cafeteria today was "Magazine Meal Jamaican Jerk Chicken" .. wtf?

im not too sure how im supposed to feel or what im supposed to say
so.. uh.. long time no see.. *awkward silence* .. so um.. hows things?... *looks at feet* ...

so anyways... ive been awol for a bit.. and well i dont really have a good excuse, but i wont insult u by making up a bad one. seems my last post was like a week ago.. and nothing has happened really.. *shrugs* im not that exciting.. heres the compressed version (empty days omitted)

:: friday
went skating till i could barely stand up. it was good though.. i wish i could go skating more..

:: monday
started a linux course. its pretty fun.
frisbee was a friendly.. i played horribly.

:: tuesday
basketball comp started. we got thumped.. still fun

.. and thats it.. sorry if uve been waiting all week for an interesting post.

um.. i guess i should write something else..
well firstly ive been converted to a linux nerd. im 3/4 thru this redhat course, and im starting to remember why i liked unix so much at uni. ive seriously learnt more in 3 days and i learnt in 4 years of UTS, especially about admin and configuration stuff (which they never seem to teach u at uni). im gonna install fedora at work and at home (fedora cos our work servers are redhat).. well ill install it as soon i finish downloading it over our juicy rba cable =) i figure that nowadays all i really use my home puter for is email, web browing, bittorrent, IM, and watching divxs. all of which are as good if not better on linux. ill still dual boot though, jsut in case i feel like playing games (something linux is still devoid of).

in other news: no rate rise today