And there won't be snow in Vietnam this Christmas time...

Not a single little smidgen sadly. And though all of you in England are complaining about the dark and rainy weather, we'd love a bit of that right now. As well as some selection boxes, advent calendars, crackers and especially an oven to cook Christmas dinner - Christmas will definitely not be a traditional one this year in Vietnam.

We have a tree though!

It's been over a month since our last blog, and since then, we've been settling down into the quiet suburban life in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. We have our own apartment, our own bikes and we don't pay tax - what more could we wish for? Obviously it'd be nice if the bloke who lives downstairs stops stealing from us, but you can't have everything in life.

No serious bumps yet

We've finally started getting a decent number of hours teaching every week too. This is obviously good - as it means we make more money - but also bad, as it means we have to work. The lessons with the kids are usually good, though the ones with ADHD certainly know how to stress you out for half an hour. Perhaps worse are the kids who act as if you're their mum all lesson. A lot of the battle is often with the teaching assistants - with the best ones putting on Tom & Jerry for the kids with 10 minutes left, and the worst ones heading round the classroom, and beating the children with a stick.

Occasionally they're nice

The build-up to Christmas has been a rather less-festive one that we might've hoped for. Yes we've still had a tree, cards and a James Bond marathon on TV, but beyond that, it's sadly subdued. There are a few festive shops around but you don't really feel that their hearts are in it, and we're fully expecting to be woken up tomorrow (Christmas morning) by the banana-lady who roams the streets at 6am every day trying to sell bananas wake us up at an un-holy hour for no reason.

Having a beer in the street

So Christmas this year will be a little different. We're having to fry our roasted chicken tomorrow, while one of our presents for each other is wrapped up in bin liners. Despite it being a different Christmas - it'll still be a great one. Vietnam is an amazing country - we have amazing jobs and friends here (so long as they're not bringing duck fetuses to our house) - and since we'll be sticking around here for a few months or so, we're putting out an open invitation to anyone who'd like to come and visit!

The only thing left to say, is we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

You don't know man... you weren't there...

However we were. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of adventures through Vietnam, as we've cheated death (which is every time you cross the road), got jobs, and realised that it doesn't actually rain THAT much in Manchester. In fact, in comparison to Vietnam, it could be as dry as the Sahara Desert.

We are never going to describe Manchester as 'rainy' again

The first city we arrived to was Hanoi, and as we got a taxi to our hostel from the airport, we learnt that it was perfectly fine for motorbikes to go the wrong way down a motorway. When you get to traffic lights, the rules are "At a green light, proceed with caution. At a red light... also proceed with caution". Despite being here for two weeks, we've only seen one crash (and that was a minor bump); and we remain incredibly jealous of all our friends who've seen big crashes (or been in them).

Nobody crashed

One of the must dos for Northern Vietnam, is a trip to Ha Long Bay. Over 2,000 huge limestone rocks stand over a vast stretch of sea. It's simply stunning. The wonders of the rocks made up for the dodgy company we took our tour with. Called 'Joy Travel' - the cheapest tour company there was - we later found out their ships are prone to sinking in the night. If that doesn't happen, you can guarantee that half-way through the first day, a random selection of guests will be told they have to change boats, they're over-subscribed, and more and more nonsense. We were unluckily selected to change boats - though this was a blessing in disguise, as we met a load of cool people on our new boat.

Ha Long Bay

Our three days at Ha Long Bay also included an epic beach football match on a beautiful beach of Cat Ba Island, kayaking through caves in the islets, and playing Ring of Fire with a Polish guy, who looked as though he might cry when we told him he had to give away some of his drink to put in the middle glass. More hilarious, was that you weren't allowed to drink your own alcohol on the boat (there was a fine in place, to make you buy the expensive boat beer) - hence we kept on slipping away to our room, to fill up our empty beer cans with $1 wine.

Ring of Fire

Before we left Hanoi, we decided we wanted to see Huu Tiep Lake - where a B52 bomber landed after it was shot down in the American War. The less said about the trip there, the better. We got a taxi to somewhere near it (the driver hadn't heard of it - neither had many others; for some reason a crashed plane in a lake isn't the biggest of deals in Vietnam), and then proceeded to spend around two or three hours walking round the streets before eventually stumbling upon it. It was only when we got back to our hostel to look at the route we'd walked, that we discovered we'd walked in a big circle - AROUND the lake.

Huu Tiep Lake and the B52 bomber

Following Hanoi, we took a night train to Hoi An. Surprisingly, it wasn't quite as nice as the night train we took in Germany, and inevitably, it wasn't made for people above the height of 5ft.

Lots of room

Our time in Hoi An was a slight struggle, solely due to the constant rain that was around. Apparently we missed the worst of it though. We recently spoke to someone who left Hoi An a few days after we did, who had to get a boat out of his hostel. The rain (and this isn't just standard England rain - Vietnam rain is a completely different breed. It's like comparing Bucks Fizz to Vodka) meant we had to stay in our hotel for a couple days - which did give us the benefit of catching up on some quality films. We'd particularly like to recommend Trading Places starring Eddie Murphy. Give it a watch.

Great film

When we did manage to leave the hotel, we predictably bought suits. Hoi An is the place to buy a tailored suit, and we both picked up a couple for the bargain price (you'd struggle to find a nicer suit) of 100 quid a pop. We also managed to brave the streets of Vietnam with a couple of motorbikes, driving to the beach for the day. Once you've got past the initial 'help, I'm going to die' moment, you end up thinking Vietnam has great road laws, and that English laws are pointlessly strict/annoying.

Yehhh we're rich

And so now we're residing in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon is an awesome city, with a pretty amazing history. We took in the war remnants museum one afternoon, and in between the parts of seeing the awesome planes and tanks they have there, you do some reading, and see some pictures, and you realise that the USA is one of the scummiest countries that's ever existed. Much of it was on a similar level to Germany and Japan in WW2.

Tank with a rather large gun

Day-by-day, we've taken up the local sport - shuttlecock kick-ups, bought a watch a day, and even got jobs here. After a couple days of wandering around the city handing in our cvs to schools (to teach English), we had interviews with a school who are evidently stupid clever enough to want to employ us. A short lesson demo later (which consisted of teaching to two staff members - one a 40 year-old woman who was acting like a kid with ADD - hard not to laugh), and we were offered jobs, which will hopefully be starting sometime next week.

Wild street celebrations after the Vietnam football team scraped to a 2-0 win... over Timor-Leste... in the GROUP STAGES of the South-East Asia Games. God knows what will happen in they win the whole thing...

So the foreseeable future, we'll be living here in Saigon. So long as we don't get sacked. Which we don't think will happen. As were the bestest english teachers that has ever exited. Right?

Cheaper than Chips

We've spent the last couple of weeks in Asia, venturing through Thailand and Laos before coming to Hanoi this evening. The excitement has been non-stop, and with both of us several genuine watches richer, we're able to act like kings.. kind of.

Childish kings

We flew into Bangkok with slight trepidation, as so many people we'd spoken to who'd been, had said it was crap. Turns out that's a load of nonsense. Bangkok is amazing - you just have to accept it for what it is - a weird, over-populated, over-touristed, utterly bizarre at times place - but a fun one all the same. Also it has a funny smell when you get there, but you get used to it.

And it can get a bit wet.

Highlights of Bangkok included Thai boxing training, going to a 'table tennis club' (where Dave was lucky enough to play against one of the staff members) and Myles being propositioned by a lady of the night around 3am. After declining, jokingly saying he didn't know if the prostitute was male or female, she duly whipped her dress above her head, and pulled her underwear down (in the middle of a pretty public street) for the answer. Female in case you wanted to know.

Competition winner!

Also we bought heaps and heaps of 'goods' from the markets. We're unsure if this is a highlight or not.

Due to the horrific floods bombing through Thailand, we had to fly to the North of the country where we spent several days in Chiang Mai. It was far, far more serene than Bangkok, despite still being the second biggest city in the country. The local night market kept us entertained in evenings (when we weren't off watching a (free) ladyboy cabaret show - surprisingly good), as well as going to a Muay Thai fight night (a three-way blindfold match being the highlight); while days could be spent just walking around the town.

Great stuff

One day was put aside for elephant trekking. Seeing the elephants in their natural homes in Africa had been amazing, but riding them was on another level. Under the direction of our utterly hilarious/amazing/mushroomed-up guide Song, we rode through the jungle (dressed like hippies of course for some reason) on the back of these huge creatures to a waterfall - except when Dave's elephant decided she'd had enough and wanted to wander off in the wrong direction.

Cleaning the ride home

Following Thailand (though we'll be returning), our next destination was Luang Prabang in Laos, and instead of the horrifically sounding 30+ hour bus, we plumped for a two-day slow boat along the Mekong River. Unfortunately, you had to get a six hour minivan before you got on the boat, and we chanced upon a driver who looked like he fancied a nap in between the bits where he was overtaking on hills and blind corners. Luckily, the passenger seat was taken by soon-to-be best buddy Tracy, who decided to wake him up by having a chat with him; "DO YOU KNOW WAYNE ROONEY?" "WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE CURRY?" "HAVE YOU GOT A WIFE?" and so forth...

We have no idea who this is

Incredibly it did the trick, and we arrived at our place for the night safe and sound. In the morning we'd meet a load (again, soon-to-be mates) who did the same journey as us,  but for some reason did their journey through the night. Personally, we were of the opinion that they'd had the better journey as they wouldn't have been able to see what the driver was doing.

Doing some shots

The two day boat down the Mekong River was an enjoyable enough affair. At one point during the second day - for reasons we aren't sure - we dropped an old man off on a beach, with not a drop of civilisation in sight. We figure he was left there to die because he didn't pay for his ticket.

Bye mate :(

And so we've spent the last several days in Luang Prabang, spending our days at amazing waterfalls, and spending nights at all you can eat food markets (for less than £1) and an awesome bar named Utopia, where we've discovered a burning passion for volleyball. A slightly curious oddity is that bars have to shut down at 11:30pm, so if you want to stay out later you head to the BOWLING ALLEY! Except  when you get there, you discover it's.. just.. a bowling alley...

Waterfall party

We've just been on a short flight over to Hanoi, having a slightly bizarre experience with Lao Airlines - our backpacks got their own seats, the plane started moving the second they closed the door, and the safety presentation lasted (without exaggeration) five seconds.

Awesome breakdancing Lao kids

So Thailand and Laos have been a pretty fantastic few weeks for us. We managed to meet Alan from The Hangover (who hilariously didn't want Dave in the photo due to his hair - Alan was calling him Pepé Le Pew), a girl who claims (and we have our doubts) to have starred in a play about Stockport, and five of the most awesome Lao kids you could ever meet -  Gon, Jon, God, Samsung and Tom Hanks. Fingers crossed we'll survive crossing the streets of Vietnam, and we'll be updating soon..

The Hangover 3

A short stay in Africa

Slightly delayed, but it's finally time for the tale of our 11 days spent in Zambia and Botswana. First off, a few public thank yous though. Firstly to Myles' dad for offering us his airmiles to fly to Africa on the cheap, especially as South African Airways, who we flew with, are awesome. Next, to the Prestons who were fantastic hosts during our couple of odd nights we had to spend in Ascot (couldn't fly direct from Africa to Asia). To the Galloway family for picking us up at Heathrow Airport at 7AM. And finally to the Hurst Knoll Year 6 class. For those that don't know, they're taught by Myles' mum, and as part of their Geography lessons this year, they're following our worldwide adventures. Recently they were set a task to research Prague, advising us where to go, and what to see, and we were delighted to receive the letters!

So, back to the story. After a long and tiring flight, you could forgive us for having dodgy maths skills, which meant we calculated the currency conversion incorrectly by a factor of ten. Consequently we spent the first day/evening spending lots of money for no reason, assuming the 50,000 bills in our pockets was equal to $1, instead of $10. A horrible 'Hungry Lion' lunch and a (for Dave) severely undercooked chicken for dinner, meant Africa started slightly downhill, but that would soon change (apart from when we both got ill...).

Worst fast food chain ever

The following day we ventured into town to see the hand-craft market. Rows and rows of stalls where you'd be greeted by seller after seller, who'd be nigh on impossible to get rid of. They as good as lock you in their shop until you've bought the heaps of junk awesome merchandise on offer. After struggling through the market for a couple hours, we exited with severely heavier bags, particularly Dave, before spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool of our delightfully named hostel, Fawlty Towers.

Basil wasn't around sadly

Our next couple of days in Zambia were spent at Victoria Falls, which was quite simply incredible. Though we went in the dry season, it gave fantastic views, and going in the dry season had the added benefit of being able to swim in the Devil's Pool, the naturally formed swimming pool at the edge of the falls. Swimming and lying at the top of the falls, just a couple of metres away from being swept over to your death was incredible. Plus as part of the trip they gave you a scone. Superb stuff.

We're the two on the right in case you weren't sure

The only thing you can do to match that is a bungee jump. Which is precisely what we did the following day - a 111 metre jump above the Zambezi river, where it splits through the Zambia/Zimbabwe border. There's no point in even trying to describe the emotions of it so we'll leave it by saying: Everyone do one. As soon as you can.

Myles...

...and Dave.

The second half of our stay in Africa was less adrenaline fueled - though still fantastic. We got the chance to visit a couple of local villages (even meeting the head man of one village), and even tried our hands at farming during one afternoon. Turns out Zambians are far better at digging up onions than we are. Who'd have thought?

Dave and Chris farming

Just before our short stay in Crocodile Creek (amazing place), we popped to Botswana for a couple nights to go on safari in Chobe National Park. Incredibly, it was even better than Knowsley Safari Park. Hordes of buffalo, giraffes, monkeys and elephants (nearly 100,000 in the park) were mixed in with a few lions, hippos, crocs and other animals in a National Park over half the size of Wales. In the evening we camped somewhere out in the wilderness, stupidly not bringing anything you should take camping.

Chobe National Park

It's a huge shame we didn't get to see more of Africa, as the part we did see was incredible. We rowed down the Zambezi river, saw a cat get through security at an airport, and even learnt the Australian name for a ginger (ranga). Stay tuned for adventures from Asia soon. Oh and of course - on the flight from Livingstone to Johannesburg, Dave was sat next to a model - Genevieve Morton. Can't forget that.

Farewell Europe

First of all - to our hundreds thousands of followers, apologies for the lack of updates. The simple explanation was Oktoberfest. But we'll come to that...

We left the story last time with our brave warriors heading to Berlin to see famed Huddersfield University athlete Matt Bostock, now living in the German capital with his girlfriend Jess. They were great hosts over the weekend there, Berlin's (when you're not walking through the streets with people drinking beer/pissing everywhere) a cool city (oh and when there's not a huge anti-abortion protest), and Matt has a career as tour-guide waiting for him when he gives up with computing. Oh, plus we played hacky sack so it was automatically an amazing weekend. NB: Dave has now bought a hacky sack to take round the world, so look forward to hacky sack photo excitement in the near future...

Climbing over Berlin Wall

Following Berlin we were off to the party city of Prague... to get some chores done. But first, we met up with Andy Waugh and his mate Jack in the train station. Andy Waugh's a Loughborough University war veteron, and we were able to give him the lowdown of the dos and don'ts of Berlin (e.g., don't go to the club that plays a russian roulette variation on bugchasing.)

Anyway, back to the chores in Prague - both Myles and Dave needed haircuts at this point in our journey, plus Myles needed to have some dental work performed - so where other than Prague to do it? The city itself is fantastic. You head into the main square and there are food-stands everywhere serving steaks, pork, kebabs, grilled cheese... all for about a couple of quid. Following haircuts and dental treatment, the only thing left to do was head for a night out which we duly did at Roxy where it was DnB night. If you've ever been to a DnB night with a load of Czechs who've taken ecstasy, you'll know it's quite a bizarre experience. If you haven't, make sure you do it - the 'dancing' is quite something.

On the train to Prague

After many beautiful steaks, chickens and ribs, it was sadly time to leave Prague, though considering the next destination was Munich - and Oktoberfest, we weren't too upset. Oktoberfest was/is to quote repeatedly from Dave "*adjective* insane". It seems strange that a festival that is essentially a lot of people drinking, can be indescribable - but it is. From the moment when a couchsurfer tries to force a quad-whiskey down your neck at 10am (fair play to Dave, he finished his), to 3pm where you're barely conscious, and through to 9pm, when you're wondereing why you're so drunk, and why you're so hungry, and why, why, why you're paying €5 to go on the world's worst ghost train, it's just insane. It may simply be a beer festival, but it's something everyone needs to experience. NEEDS TO.

Probably about midday. Happy and dandy.

On the way home, we nearly had a slight hiccup. For those that know Dave, know he is rather lax with timekeeping. And those who know Germans, know that when your German couchsurfer says, "be back by 11pm as that's when I go to sleep, otherwise I'll kick you out", he means be back by 11:00pm on the dot. The inevitable happened, and when Myles went home shortly before 11pm to sleep, Dave went off to find some food before sprinting home, and making it back at 11:04pm. After a relentless begging session, he was allowed to stay though, and we were off to Oktoberfest the next day once more. Cue more of the same. Throw in some gingerbread, a Coronation Street loving Canadian, brass bands, dirndls, beer-after-beer-after-beer... and you just have the greatest party on earth.

Wahey!

After all the excitement from Oktoberfest, we decided to take in some peace, quiet and scenery in Slovenia. It's a 6-hour train ride through the Alps on the way to Slovenia, and just like Norway, you kind of felt like you were in the middle of Lord of the Rings. The same could be said of Slovenia, albeit with a slightly modern twist. We spent three days in the lovely-sounding city Bled. There's a beautiful lake in the centre of the city, and in the centre of the lake is a church on an island. So with nothing better to do we decided to swim to the island. Turns out the water in Slovenia is rather cold. We confirmed our theory the next day when we walked down Vintgar Gorge (awesome), and Myles decided to pop in for a little paddling session. Ignoring all the jokes though, Slovenia was a beautiful country, very cheap, and well worth seeing.

Slovenia

Our final few days were spent in Amsterdam. I'm sure many people reading this have been, so I hardly need to explain the ins and outs, but it's a very bizarre place. At times, fantastic, and at times, simply ridiculous. Our three highlights from the red-light district (don't worry...) were a) seeing twenty guys chase a guy down the street, into a bar, before laying into him with chairs, bottles and tables; b) finding out what the blue lights meant (if you haven't been to Amsterdam yet - this is where all the hotties are); and c) having an Asian lady of the night pop out of her door and sing Moves Like Jagger to us as we passed by. Beautiful. We decided to rent bikes while we were in the bike capital of the world too (NB: Dave had to get a ladies bike as he was too small for the mens bikes), and at that, Europe was over.

Cycling in Amsterdam

We've spent the last day in Ascot at family friends (big shoutout to the awesome Prestons), before we're off on a flight to Zambia (via South Africa) in a couple of hours time. Europe has been amazing - hopefully Africa will be better.

Land of the Vikings

After spending short times in Malmö and Göteborg, we were finally heading to Norway, one of our most eagerly anticipated destinations of the trip. Arriving in Oslo, we were surprised to find the capital one of sunshine and festivals as apposed to the snow land we may have expected. A marching band played down one street while on the opposite side of the high-street was a stage where Norway's answer to U2 were performing.

I'm doing them a disservice, they were far better than U2

A night train to Stavanger followed, with the spectacular fjords (and suicidal landmarks Kjerag and Preikestolen) our main reason for visiting. We were staying in a small town named Ganddal (nicknamed Gandalf) with a couch surfer named Marthe. We'll dedicate a quick sentence to her as she was the bossest person who ever resided in Norway. Epic breakfasts, free raincoats and she took us to a Norwegian dinner party on our first night there, where we met Hugh Grant. AND she made the greatest meal ever for us after we came back from a tiring hike one day. She's mint.

Megaboss Marthe

The first of our hikes was a 8-mile round-trip up steep, slippery rocks which made a mockery of our belief that we could complete this wearing trainers, shorts & t-shirt. Fortunately we were able to borrow gear. Some of the views were incredible (see the pics), and at times during the walk up the mountains you did just stop, look around, and think "Wow, England's really crap." After a couple of hours or so we reached Kjerag, a rock, wedged between two cliffs, and hanging over 3000ft of solid stone.

Kjerag

Looking over the edge of the drop was bad enough - it's (shock horror) a lot more terrifying when you're actually there. There was another group who'd arrived just before us and a few of their number were too scared to go on the rock - but you couldn't really blame them. Just to get on the rock, you had to side-shuffle along a one-foot wide rock shelf that sloped into the chasm below. The rock once on it, was incredible. Quite simply one of the most intense adrenaline rushes ever imaginable, and that was before Dave decided to do a handstand on it, before nearly falling off.

So essentially, Kjerag was awesome. And neither of us died. Which was a huge bonus. The next day though, we'd be tempting fate again as we headed to Preikestolen, a huge (near-flat) cliff edge, that stood 2000ft above nothing but rocks.

Preikestolen

The hike up Preikestolen was hugely easier than the Kjerag one (Myles even wore shorts) and just over an hour or so after we set off, we were once again hanging off cliffs, dangling over the edge, despite the ridiculously strong winds that were trying to push us off (we were sort of sat on the wrong side of the rock...). Sadly though, tragedy did strike this time, and after a couple of leaps on the edge of Preikestolen, Myles fell off the top to what would kill a lesser man. Myles escaped with just a grazed knee though, as our time in Norway was sadly coming to an end.

We'd only spent five days in Norway, but they'd been absolutely incredible. The fjords were simply incredible and the pictures sadly don't do them justice (check them out on FB anyway though). It was Lord of the Rings on steroids. We stopped off again in Göteborg and Malmö (and even managed to see a pretty awesome beach in Sweden - who would've thought?) on our way back down (staying with the same awesome couch surfers we met on our way North), to where we're currently residing for a few days - Berlin. With Prague, Oktoberfest and Amsterdam coming up, it remains to be seen if we'll be sober enough to complete a blog in the near future, but if not, we'll just write you a drunk one.

Going North

Hi everyone! It's been the best part of a week since our last update, but we've finally managed to get a bit of extended internet time, so here's what we've been up to since we left the story at Rome. We'd just stayed in the dreadful Hotel Michigan, and decided we needed a little relaxation, away from the slightly over-the-top busy life of Rome. So we booked in a few nights into Camping Tiber, a couple kilometers North of the centre. The place was absolutely awesome. A bar, a restaurant, beautiful weather, a swimming pool, clean sheets... and all for just €9 a night. It was ridiculous.

On the way to the campsite for the first time, we walked through the North of Rome, and at a good lookout point of the city, a Japanese lady came up to us to ask if she could have a picture with the city in the background. Not a problem! The strange thing being, she also wanted Myles in the picture. So we did the only thing we should've done, and got a picture with her on our cameras too. We're unsure if she thought Myles was a celebrity or not - answers on a post card please, though suggestions of Rik Waller will be frowned upon.

Myles with a fan

Camping Tiber was only a 30 minute trip into Rome (and only €1 - take note London), and on a later excursion to Rome, we popped into the Pope's house, as well as seeing sights such as the Pantheon (awesome) and the Trevi Fountain. One of the other great experiences of Rome was Della Palma - one of the many ice cream shops in Rome. This particular one had about a million (probably underestimating..) different flavours, and while Dave went for the sensible (and delicious) combination of banana, chocolate and melon, Myles was a bit of a tool, and struggled through a champagne, amaretto and mars bar flavoured one.

Dave had fun with his ice cream. Myles struggled.

After a few days of drinking cheap white wine in Camping Tiber, we got the train up to Pisa where we spotted the most unoriginal collection of people in the world, all posing exactly the same way - pretending to hold up the leaning tower... Then we joined in and discovered it was actually awesome fun. Besides the (surprisingly impressive) tower, Pisa was an utter dump, so we hopped on another train soon after, where we were spending the night in Florence. After getting lost (even despite having a compass...) for an hour or so, we managed to find Locanda David - the hostel where we spending the night. The problem being, no-one was in. Ah.

Mad skills

As if by magic though, the woman who ran the place turned up around five minutes after we arrived, and after a brief language struggle with her, we were all checked in and ready to hit the town. That night was the first 'proper' meal we had - pizza! It wasn't quite as impressive as the chap on the table next to us, who'd ordered a traditional Tuscan steak (around 30oz), but considering we'd been living off bread and plastic cheese the past week - it was delicious. After the meal we headed into the city at night, and both discovered Florence was amazing. The buskers were good, there was a hilarious comedy act in the middle of town, even the tacky crap being sold for €1 was better than the typical tacky crap. The following day we popped up 400+ stairs to the top of the Cathedral in Florence, which was tiring, but worth it once up there. After an evening McDonalds of three cheeseburgers, and two fries each, we had to sadly leave Florence and were off on another night train, this time to Munich.

Loving life in Florence

Unfortunately, we accidently booked seat tickets, instead of beds. Which was rather unpleasant. Also, the train got into Munich at 6:30am, again, not the nicest thing in the world. But we were soon off again on a (ridiculously nice) German train up to Berlin, where we staying with Dave's mate Matt for the night. Germany was tough for Dave to start with. The only German he knew was "Guten tag", and so was using it for "Hello" (good) and "Goodbye" (not so good). Dave then managed to get in a fight with a pelican at Berlin zoo, before Matt (and his girlfriend Jess) treated us to a BBQ in the evening.

Typical Galloway...

And up till now, we've largely been on trains as we head up through Scandinavia to Norway. Yesterday we stayed in Malmö (after our train decided to get on a ferry - bizarre) with a couple of couchsurfers - Malik and Fredik, while we're now in Göteborg for the night staying with our host Caroline. Aside from Dave becoming an insomniac, and Myles developing an all-body rash, life is "straight-up bossing", and hopefully that will continue as we head to Norway tomorrow. Guten tag!

From Paris to Rome...

Greetings all. We're in our fourth day on the road and already it feels like we've been here a lifetime. It's absolutely crazy the amount we've managed to cram into these first few days.

Sunday evening was when it all kicked off, as we had an emotional goodbye with our families at Manchester airport, before having a lovely pint (cheers Stu) while watching Man Utd smash eight past Arsenal. Fantastic stuff.

Bye England!

When we arrived in Paris, we were due to be picked up by Anthony Rodrigues, someone we met through couchsurfing. Anthony was a really cool guy, and he made us feel completely at home in his apartment while we watched the third Pirates of the Caribbean film (awful). Apparently in France you can decide if you want to watch films in English or French, with subtitles for either language too - space age stuff.


After a not too horrible kip on his couch (Myles) and a "slightly hard" airbed (Dave), Anthony generously dropped us off at the airport the next morning so we could get a train to Paris.

Anthony our awesome Paris host

We arrived in the North of the city and after a brief McDonalds, we checked out Sacre Coeur (France's answer to the Taj Mahal), before heading to the train station to reserve tickets for our overnight train to Rome that evening.

"Hi, can we book two tickets for the night train to Rome, please?"
"No! System says no! Can't book! Completely full! Can't book!"

Ah.

Notre Dame

Still, we plodded on with our day, with the plan to walk across the city, seeing the sights along the way. As it turned out, Paris was pretty awesome. I had always thought of Paris as a French London, but it wasn't. It was actually good. Notre Dame was our highlight of the day, and far more impressive than the overrated Eiffel Tower. Call of Duty fans would love Paris, simply for the fact that there are a large number of armoured police around these monuments, were all carrying FAMASs.

We headed back to the train station in the evening to see if we could chance the overnight train to Rome, and fortunately, it was no-way near fully booked (surprise, surprise), so we were able to hop in a compartment with a French lad named Keyvan. He was off to Bologna to surprise his girlfriend (the French are always showing us English up eh?), but he was a cool guy, and spoke better English than even us.

Dave enjoying the night train

Waking up in Rome was slightly surreal, seeing as we went to sleep in Paris, but we were soon up and about looking for a) awesome stuff in Rome, and b) a place to sleep for the night. Rome was even more impressive than Paris, and with the help of Dave's trusty compass, we went exploring like we were in Lord of the Rings. Huge, ridiculously designed buildings were around every corner. Extra praise is richly deserved for the Colosseum. Looking at it on the internet or on TV just doesn't do it justice in the slightest.

The Colosseum

After toying with the idea of sleeping in the train station (which we perhaps might've done, had they not played a semi Star Wars theme every 30 seconds through the loudspeaker), we found Hotel Michigan, which gave us a room for the "bargain" price of €15 each. I don't want to tarnish this blog with foul language, so feel free to check out what some other people thought of Hotel Michigan here. Hmm.

Hotel Michigan. Better left unsaid...

Anyway, after lunch today (bread and plastic cheese - feel free to bet on which of us will have a heart attack first...), we're heading to a secluded hostel in the North of Rome (supposedly nice), before we head to the Vatican tomorrow. Ciao.