'A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."

We all knew this would happen

2009-01-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

So let me begin by saying sorry to the few of you who have been follwing this blog as i havent updated in forever, ive gotten to the point where im sure i am missing things but i will do my best, here we go. Im in Vienna Austria right now, Eamonn has gone back to Ireland and Im travelling with an Aussie couple I met in Berlin.
So since my last update Ive been a couple of places...Madrid, Sevilla, Malaga, Barcelona, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Bratislava, Prague and Budapest (and yes it is Buda on one side of the river and Pest of the other, weird no?), all of which has brought me to Vienna. Let me say that winter in europe isnt that bad, however instead of snow, it is simply grey, and i mean GREY, all the time. Sunshine is a delight which one can never get enough of and Vienna has got the good stuff! Went to a turkish market yesterday and I cannot describe this place, but since this blog would be empty otherwise I will try. First, you can barter with them, they say 25 euros and what they really mean is walk away saying you will only pay 10 and haggle your way down to 10 until they finally give up, shoot you a look of disgust that they were unable to swindle you and smile as you walk away with your 10 euro purchase...ha! The food is another story though, vendors actually yell at you saying how much better their food is, while bad mouthing the vendor across from them, claiming the whole while that people have gotten sick from their food and the only way to 'salvation' from these devil vendors with rotten food is to purchase theirs instead, it was a little wild.
I must admit that when I began this trip I lumped Europe as one place, simply with different countries but oh how I was mistaken, Eastern europe and anyplace that was once behind the iron curtain is like a magical wonderland for a person with vices such as myself. Party until 7 in a smokey techno club with locals who simply love the fact that you will buy a round of shots and think nothing of it (we began calling koruns and florence, czech and hungarian money, dirt money because 1000 florence is worth approximately fuck all) and in return the locals take us around to these hole in the wall places which once inside are actually amazing! Side note, bouncers in clubs are simply there, they do not help with anything and whena fight breaks out they throw the loser out on his ass, true story I saw it with my own eyes.
As far as sights and the whole tourist thing, I would have to again give it up to Prague, the city is so old that almost all of the structures you see are black from centuries of wear and tear, but the city is adorned with so much gold that the stautes of angels, and yes angels are everywhere, are the brightest gold you have ever seen. When you look up you are simply awe struck with the fact that your looking at almost 1000 years of culture, hístory, war, and revolution. I felt like so small when you think that the castle your standing in was built in 988 and has been a religious and political hub for longer than I could possibly imagine. Also I have to give it up to Gaudi in Barcelona, his garden and house were unreal and you overlook the entire city. Pics will be posted early Feb as I will have access to a personal computer, I promise! La Sagrada Famillia, which Im quite sure I have mispelt, is also a Gaudi fixture in Barcelona, but has been being built for over 100 years, seriously, he was a religious zealot and wanted to build the ultimate cathedral. They estimate that construction will be completed in about 10 years...look this thing up.
Im headed to Munich next with an Aussie couple I have been with and meeting an american girl we all met in Prague and Budapest for...wait for it...Australia day? Yes I will be throwing off the shackles of Canadian citizenship for the day and will be born again Aussie, Ive learned the chants and the songs, even the american girl is in on this and what better place than the beer capital of the world, this is going to get messy and I cant wait!
Im going to Korea for about a month on Feb 1st to see some friends from Uni who are teaching there then back to Europe for another month, maybe more if I can work illegally, who knows. After reading all this in only one post I promise you, dear reader, that I will update this no less than once every 10 days, hopefully more often and will pictures for those of you who gave up on reading long ago.
Im struggling to think of a clever way to end this post, and since my time on this computer is rapidly coming to an end, a boring, unclever and lame goodbye will have to do.
Brad

Hola

2008-12-17T03:52:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
Just wanted to give a quick update on whats going on with me. Paris has been conquered and as beautiful as it is (ill post some pictures later), the Parisians are for the most part assholes! Dont get me wrong it was a great time and I would recomend it to anybody, but French people really do, for the most part, live up to the stereotype. Other than that we did the tourist thing really, saw the Eifel, Cathedral Notre Dame, L´Arch de Triumph and a ton of beautiful architecture and art. Its really quite humbling when you stand back in a catherdral and think how long it has been there and how many people spent their lives building it. I must say though that by far the coolest thing we saw were the Catacombs, long elaborate tunnels built under the city near Saint Michel which run 25 meters deep and are filled with the bones of 10´s of thousands of people. When the black plague hit they ran out of places to keep the bodies so they went into the catacombs. Now they are all arranged aesthetically and skulls are even arranged into shapes like hearts and a cross, ill upload pictures of that! Finally, as morib as I sound here, we checked out the cemetary where Voltaire was buried and other famous Parisians, it was something else, entire families for generations were there, pretty crazy. The weather left something to be desired as it was grey and somewhat rainy a lot of the time but we made do. Food was good, people do actually walk down the street and eat baguettes, which are sold absolutely everywhere along with cheese and some of the cheapest wine you will ever come across.
I´ve got tons more to say but it is our first day in Spain and Eamonn and I are eager to go out and explore the city, so I promise the next update will come soon and with pictures. Miss you all.

Hello and Goodbye

2008-12-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

So I leave for Paris tomorrow and I couldn't be more pumped. I'll be meeting my buddy Eamonn once I get there and spending five days in Paris before we head over to Madrid. I don't have many set plans on places to go or how long I plan on staying in any given place; I feel like more of an adventurour that way I guess. Along the way I hope to make it over to Southeast Asia and visit some of my aspiring teacher friends in South Korea and maybe even track down Andrew Mitchell, who is probably lost in a jungle somewhere and helping to build a rollercoaster for the impoverished village he's staying in.

I'll try my best to keep this as up to date as possible so everybody knows where I'm at. When I get some pictures over there I'll add a couple. Feel free to post on my blog or write to me on facebook.

Hope everybody enjoys and I can't wait to hear from all of you!