Day 15 of the AMAZING EURO-TRIP:
Munich, Bavaria, Germany (Munchen, Bayern, Deutschland)

Went to the famous Hofbrauhaus last night for the classic Bavarian beer garden experience. This was at the end of a pub crawl, so I was quite drunk by the end. But because Bavarian beer is so pure (the purity law of 1516), I have absolutely no hangover this morning... feeling great!

Salzburg was a blast, the views are incredibly scenic!

Day 11 of THE AMAZING EURO-TRIP:
Cesky Krumlov, Bohemia, Czech Republic

I came here on Sunday morning, a 2 and a half hour bus ride south from Prague. It's really beautiful here, a picturesque small town seemingly unchanged from the middle ages. Tomorrow, I head to Salzburg, Austria, about a four hour bus and train trip... hopefully I can get caught up on my written journal.

I gotta say, I LOVE Australian women!

And I have discovered the wonderful world of Vegimite (some popular condiment that they use in Australia). And of Czech absinth (buggered me up last night for sure).

I'm going rafting down a river a bit later. Looking forward to an afternoon in the Czech outdoors.

Day 7 of THE AMAZING EURO-TRIP
Prague, Czech Republic
(note: I tried doing this post yesterday from the hostel, but the computers there were screwed up)

The trip has been a blast so far! London was cool, both literally and figuratively, and Prague is definitely hot (both the weather and the women!). Brilliant! I've gone clubbing the past two nights, not coming home until past 4 AM, so tonight I'll definitely be taking a break. Maybe just do a stroll around the beautiful Charles Bridge. The hostel in Prague is pretty far from the town centre, but still reasonable. I did the Prague Castle yesterday, and toured the National Museum and Museum of Communism today. Back in London, hung around Hyde Park, went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and visited Greenwich and the Royal Observatory, and drank in the hostel there. Met some cool people so far, including in Aussie in London who will be trying to get work in Belfast, she hung out with me all day Monday at Greenwich and afterwards. Plus here in Prague, a bunch of people from Arizona, England, Scotland, Georgia, South Africa, and the rest of Canada. One more day in Prague... on Sunday morning, I'm heading to the south of the Czech Republic near the Austrian border.

Day 1 of THE AMAZING EURO-TRIP:

Markham, YYZ, YHZ (Halifax)

I won't be blogging everyday on my trip as I don't want to spend that
much time in Internet cafes, nor can I afford to do it if I want to
actually see stuff. I will have a written journal along the way which
will eventually be converted into a Web site.

Went down to Montana's last night at John and Richmond for a last night
out. I wasn't really up for going, but since my friends insisted on it,
I decided to go down for a few hours, although I warned them that I
would be leaving earlier than them. Had a couple of beers, both of them
pretty bad (after drinking good beer for the last while, Rickard's
Honey Brown tastes like total watered down crap. And A Marca
Bavaria.... yech!). One of my friends knew a bouncer there, so got
ourselves some free shots as well. Quite the hottie crowd out last
night. I left around 1 AM, so that I could get a decent night's sleep
last night.

So I head to the airport this afternoon. Let the adventure begin!

Other than the last minute stuff that I'll be tossing into my bag tomorrow morning, I think I'm good to go!

Tomorrow, I head for my trip.... feeling excited? yep. Feeling nervous about something screwing up? yep. Worried about going broke over this? yep. Well, I probably won't be blogging much over the next few weeks (not that I have been as of late anyways), but I will try to get into an Internet cafe or something, and post a report on where I am that day!

For the complete trip report, you'll just have to wait for the Web site that I generate out of all my photos and written journal.

Hmmmm.... is this a new Blogger interface today? Looks pretty good, I'll have to play around with it when I get the chance.

Great... just a week after I send an email out to everyone saying that I switched my primary email address from Rogers to gmail, Rogers goes and revamps their service so that their email is now part of Yahoo (which has a far better Web interface than their old crappy one-which is why I switched). Well, I'm not going to send out another message telling everyone I switched back, so I'll see how it goes.

One problem with it though is that your Rogers account can now be used as your yahoo account... and you login with it. But if you have Yahoo groups (or baseball pool), you'll have to log out, then log in to your old Yahoo account to get access to it.

I leave for my backpacking trip in three days! Feeling excited, yet nervous at the same time. I tried fitting on my backpack today... funny, even though I intentionally am bringing less clothes, and lighter ones as well, than my trip last year, it feels heavier! I think I need to shift things around so that there's more weight at the top, and not so much at the bottom. I'm also bringing an extra pair of shoes this time for different occasions, so that probably adds to the weight.

I'm starting to wonder whether my decision to switch to gmail as my primary email account right awaywas all that wise... the site does seem to be unavailable quite a bit, or I do get delays in getting emails some times. (And also anyone hear any reports of gmail messages having problems being delivered to hotmail - not that they're ever that trustworthy in getting your message delivered anyways).

6 days until I leave for my trip!

Interesting... I used to blog a lot more when I was actually working, yet, with over a week off now since I was laid off, I barely post. I guess when you have all that time in front of a computer at the office, you gotta spend time doing something.

I went to watch "King Arthur" this evening at Fairview. Pretty good movie, I wasn't really aware that there was a "Great Wall"-like structure in England during the Roman era, but I just read an article in the National Post (about the wall in Israel), and there in an insert under other walls from history, was this wall that was shown in the movie.

A week from now, I'll be on an airplane over the ocean, going to London on my Euro-summer adventure. I've started working on my Web site that I'll make detailing my adventures on this trip, similar to the one I did last year (in between working on my resume, of course). I nearly never made it... on the way to Fairview Mall, some crazy woman who must have been half blind nearly sideswiped me trying to make a left turn while I was driving straight from the opposite direction. It wasn't even close to possible that she could have made it, why she tried to make the turn is beyond me. Fortunately, she braked within inches of hitting me. I thought for sure my hide was toast.

As I'm killing time in the Indigo bookstore yesterday afternoon in the Manulife Centre, what do I see on a table display right beside Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country?". By David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke, "Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man". Genius. It's about time that someone exposed his distorting of facts that he's used, to create his wild conspiracy theories, lies, and innuendo.

Tip for people who need to buy travel gear... Le Baron on Woodbine Avenue in Markham (just south of Highway 7) is much cheaper than the downtown shops. Yes, they are a fishing and hunting shop primarily, but there is a ton of stuff in there as well for you backpackers.

12 Days until my trip... get me away from everyone!

Well, an adventurous day of heading to some random place I've never been to before in Ontario... Orangeville, followed by Creemore (including a stop at the Creemore Brewery!), Collingwood and then Wasaga Beach (European ladies definitely took to the legalized toplessness in Ontario much better than Canadian girls here!), and after driving back down the 400, Nando's chicken followed by watching Spider Man 2 at the Elgin Mills Cineplex in Richmond Hill.

Spider Man 2 is far better IMHO than the original movie. Definitely a much tighter story, and some amazing fight sequences.

Just saw a trailer for M. Night Shmulyan's new movie "The Village".., is this guy a one-trick pony? It looks like "Signs" all over again.

My Canada Day yesterday was spent at Milne Park to watch what should have been a good fireworks show... unfortunately, the show was interrupted several times because the show operator kept screwing up the launch sequence.

Tomorrow, myself and a friend I know going back to high school will resurrect an old tradition of ours... just hopping into a car, and driving to some random place in Ontario where we've never been before. We have no idea where we'll end up, I'll report back here when I get back home tomorrow!

Today was my first day of unemployment. Slept in, went to the mall, just chillin' and prepping my backpack for my trip. The final day of work was sorta surreal on Wednesday... it never really hit me until I got off the subway that morning. Well, in the afternoon, I went to The Rex for a pint, before ending up at Crocodile Rock where there was a bunch of other co-workers, many of whom were also getting laid off. (Despite that place's reputation for being cougar central, I rather like that place... you even get some unexpected hotties showing up sometimes). Then ribs at good ol' RD's, love that mango jalapeno sauce!

I will try to not discuss politics for the rest of the summer in this blog (until the parliament reconvenes in September)-although the provincial P.C. leadership race may make its way in on occasion (go John Tory!). I definitely need a break after that stressful federal election campaign.