FLASHBACK!!!!!!!

oh i forgot........
whilst we were at the campsite in potsdam(berlin) we saw these two girls come walking down the path towards us after we had already been for a swim,(and i mean these two in bikinis would make you want to go and jump in all over again).
so after oggling at them for the next day and a half we eventually ended up talking to them on our last night, well i say we shane went to the toilet and eventually when he came back he said he had been talking to them and liked on of them.so being the good mate that i am i came over to give him a helping hand, i mean how can he chat one of them up with the other one there and unfortunately although they are sisters i had to put up with trying to talk to the younger one whilst he went after the older one.little did i know how much younger untill i asked and then took a step back and just carried on talking so that she wouldnt go over and interupt shane mid-flow.....being nice as i am.but in the end everything that i had done to help the poor boy he managed to mess up all by himself.as we all congregated to say goodnight (being the ample opportunity for shane to ask her to go for a walk or something) he took a step back and stretched but it seemed that whilst stretching he managed to relax a certain area which made the most delightful noise.....a fart!!!!!!yes after all his hard work and my help he went and farted right in from of them whilst everything else was quiet and no one was speaking.talk about a mood killer, never have i seen two people hurriedly say goodnight and leave in that fashion before in my life.......and of course shane is left standing there like a pillock not knowing what to do or say after his action, so hanging his head in shame he goes to bed......silly silly boy......
(now please that has to be up for some kind of award for network)

annoying little people standing over my shoulder......

left berlin and moving on, well not said that in a while without a (but we stayed a few extra nights) now have i??? we put in a big day getting out of berlin and after the sun and rain and anything else that has been decided to be thrown at us we managed to get to a campsite once again in the middle of nowhere but ner to a place called stendal.....however then insue a great day as we found that just behind what seemed toe a dark and dingy forest that we were sure to get bitten to pieces in we emerged onto a massive manmade beach!!!!cue the frisbee!!!well the repaired one anyways.....but first time for a swim and after going out to about 50 meters i hit upon something i wasnt exactly expecting, a ledge in the middle of nowhere???adn when i saya ledge i mean a rock and it ws surrounded by god only knowswhat but after closin my eyes and hoping i decided that it was all just very soft mud.....well i hope so at least.....
one of the oddest things about that campsite was oaying 25 euro deposit on a key for the toilets which we presume was a reason for us to go back in the morning and pay for the site....but not!!!upon going back to reception and meetin a few fellow cyclists and playing the mine is bigger than yours game with routes i got the deposit back and he sent me on my way....without paying!!!YAY!!!!
unfortunately our luck didnt last to the next night as we had to pay for that one and it was interestingly placed to say the least, however we did meet another couple of fellow cycling travellers....but these guys were american.ensuing mine is bigger than yours in every fashion between shane and the guy (the guy having twice as much kit on each bike for a 2 week trip) proved to come to a halt when in the morning shane realised that he had his first puncture!!!!after all the picking on me finally he got one too!!!!but he was slightly more fortunate than me in as the american guy who was standing there had a friend with him who builds his own bikes!!!not bad eh so as well as shane getting some expert advice on his tyres he also got a free tune up from the guy whilst having to listen to the worst german in the world ´coming from the american, and whats worst the german guy even spoke english!!!the game did eventually come to a halt when shane had out his padlock for the bikes, kryptonite, the best make around right and you always want a lock with u right???but no the american pipes up with "why would you carry that around its way too heavy, we dont need anything like that.and its not even that good." but at that moment the german guy turns around and sees the lock on the floor and picks it up for shane and after handing it to him turns to the american and says "the best, everyone should have one" so after leaving the american gobsmakced and shane rather smug we leave promptly and gain a good pump thanks to the nice german man.(also just before we got to the camosite that night shane ended up with yet another puncture!!!)
last night we ended up at a campsite that i wouldnt even think would exist....and i mean that because the nearest village is 5km away and there is sod all on site.except for an old lady who saw fit that after a long day cycling we seemed to need coffee and cake and she didnt take no for an answer, untill it came to charging us for it......however we do have to say that it was great cake full of sugar and very soft.just right....the only odd thing about the campsite was that the daughter of the owner decided to say just before we went to bed in the only english phrase that she had said all night "ah you sleep under my bedroom window" so with a strange sense of foreboding we quickly gathered our things and made for bed.without looking up for fear of anything to come.
now instead of staying there for another day and resting we decided to move on a bit to another site just down the road but out of the way abit so the next day wouldnt be so bad.....however after arriving here and finding it is actually a really good place we are staying here anyways!!!(they have go karting)bar is good and fairly cheap but the internet room is being clogged up by a load of kids that keep on staring over mine and shane shoulders i dont know which one of us will lash out first but they are closer to shane so i dunno yet.......
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over budget in berlin!!!

ok getting out of prague was interesting to say something of it.after following numerous streets in cobblestones(something which my bike really doesnt like) and going up and down hill for what seemed like an eternity we evetually made it to the city outskirts where we soon came head on with the czech versions of cycle paths.......not exactly what i would call beneficairy to the state of our well used bicycles.so back onto the roads and we head along the hills and out of the surrounding area doing what we do best and cycle into a head wind, somethings never change.....
the campsite we got to really was just a haven for the dutch and the german im not kidding but if you wanted to try and be a good camper i suggest you either kidnap one of them or just tag along cus no one knows how to camp like these guys do, and in the middle of nowhere in the czech republic you would think that german and english might be useful but no english here has been replaced by DUTCH!!!!they all speak it and all the signs are in it too as well as german and czech of course but no english, im not one to moan about such things but how many "e"s and "o"s do you want in one word!!!!
heading out from there we break past our original destination and make a rather adventurous plan to try to get to dresden that day but after the rain and a rather long stop, shane gave all his change away to a girl selling ice cream only to realise that he still needed some to go and get water from the shop we were perched outside....well done.....we did make it to the outskirts of dresden but at that point had offically ran out of juice so even after all of shanes persuading and trying to feed me sugary stuff i only just managed to make it to a campsite just outside only to be confronted by a huge group of what must either be school kids or scouts making as much noise as possible and causing havoc in the surrounding area.as we had eaten and it was still light we decided to get our frisbee groove on and show the new guys what we were made of but the next morning i did regret that decision as my chest and arms ached from playing for about 2 hours straight.that does seem to be one of the major problems of our trip at the moment as we get to campsites but as the days are so long we have to doss about untill about 10 so we can actually sleep and when i say sleep i mean just bake in the heat of the tent!!!and believe me it gets damned hot in there!!!!
so leaving this day we found ourselves a day ahead of our plan so we set out to continue as normal to the next campsite when it happens....we think the combination of the heat and the long day before just got to him but shane ran out of juice as well, at 11 oclock!!!so after a little rejuvination of the food varitey and stopping to get some more inner tubes for my bike, he and i both felt up to a good day cycling but then we encountered the hill, now after cyclign through the alps you think a little 8% hill for about 2km wouldnt be that bad but oh no we got to the top turned to each other and suggested, "next campsite?"
now im not sure if it was a good idea or not to go to this campsite but it was close to where we were and had a huge expanse for us to frollock in or whatever, but then of course being who we are we sunbathed for a bit and then got the boredom reliever out, FRISBEE!!!!but this time we had alot of trees around so after hitting them continuously we invented a new game based on the rules of headers and volleys with trees being the goal posts.......however after variating the game a little i ended up clipping the trees quite alot to try and get it around him.....and ended up eventually snapping it in half as it clattered into a tree just out of shanes reach......whoops.but never to fear after ice cream we sat and watched some rather interesting takes on volleyball and i repaired it with gaffer tape!!!!yes it has been the solution to all of our major repair problems so far, well an extent of them anyways.....to while away the evening we went down to the lake(which is common place in nearly every campsite in germany) and ate crisps and drank water to get ready for the day ahead of us.now as we are in germany i have heard many fables about the way they bath in the sea, mostly naked so i wasnt suprised to see a few wandering about on one of the campsite beaches but it was that evening when we saw what can only be described as a BIG woman get into the far end of the lake(and when i say big i mean me and shane had seen her earlier,much to our distaste, sunbathing topless and the girl had more wings on her than a KFC bargain bucket, i mean she was BIG).but the worst thing about seeing this was seeing her bottom halfs go flying over her hed as she galloped into the lake....not a nice sight and with them in our direct sight and nowhere to turn we tryed to divert our attention but with some kind of morbid curiosity we kept on looking back to see the next part which was a man about the size of shane run into the water behind her but he was clothed, well at least untill she flipped him over like a pancake and removed his bottoms too so now me and shane are sitting there eating crisps and having to see this rather grotescque display in front of us.and im not being harsh with that comment as they then proceeded to have sex in the lake right in front of us......now we became disturbed......and i mean savage garden "truely madly deeply" disturbed!!!!to prevent us throwing up we decided it would be a good time to leave but wanting to avoid the passionate nudists we took the long route around the campsite...stuff that nightmares are made out of right.
leaving that place and hopefully the mental scarring behind we continued on towards falkenberg, nice enough place with a nice enough campsite and a great lake that i managed to complete my furthest achievement in the water, swimming from one side to the other without stopping!!!i think it must have been about 500 mts but shane says it was like a small puddle.i dont care im happy!!!
the next day started out really well but soon started to challenge the worst day in the world title....puncture in the middle of nowhere....not a problem ive had a few by now but i then made the mistake of letting shane try and fix it and when i mean try i mean he bodged it up completely and didnt even mention it untill we eventually got to a shop, and when i say eventually i mean we had to walk about 1km to the next small town and beg a bis driver to let us on with bikes and take us to the town we had just been through.....thankgod he did otherwise it would have been one hell of a walk back!!!getting back to the shop and having a chat with the guy there we both agreed that my back wheel was screwed in every which way after the amoutn of punctures and buckled times the rim had finally given in and bent in so as it would continue nipping any tube put into it as was my problem.......so after extensively searching the shop he came back with the only wheel my size in the whole shop!!!and as its is so good i ended up saying to him how much for both wheels and as it was only 15 euro extra i went for it(having previously borken my front dinamo that day as in snapped it completely off the frame whilst putting my bike down so therefore not having anything to keep it for). so 100 euro lighter i got another couple of tubes for my new tyre(the old ones i brought turned out not to be the right size at all even though they said that they were!!!!so making a repair impossible)and just headed to the train station to make our distance that day.stung for 25 euro on the train and shanes panniers falling off again we decided that we should just get to the campsite as quickly as possible....but that being easier said than done it being another 2 hours untill we eventually found it after cycling through the outskirts of berlin and finding numerous ways to slow us down one being more cobbles!!!!!
however after a bottle of cherry wine for me and a few wiessbeers for him we soon relaxed and contemplated the next day of sightseeing.but just to make it all the more interesting shane spotted a huge storm across yes another lake and said dont worry its going past us.however at 4 in the morning he was proven wrong with the largest and most violent storm i had ever witnessed especially whilst in a tent so after scrabbling around to get our things in the dry quickly we just lay there and watched it play out (i mean watched it through the tent as we could see the lightning!!)
sp here in an internet cafe feeling the effects of a bottle of wine and not alot of sleep we are now going to head off to some other place to see someting esle as is our way of sightseeing(if its pointing out on the map it must mean something)
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again tired in prague

ok its official me and shane are officially ill!!!!
we have contracted the very much fatal disease of stay-another-night-iness....
yes that means we are still in prague.after originally only planning for 5 days we have ended up taking advantage of the 7th night free bonus and the 8th night paying attraction of the hostel.....
reasons for:
1st night, get here and we wonder about as far as a restaurant down the road and pln for a nice quiet night just monging out and taking advantage of the lack of pillows here.....but unfortunately as me and shane are just so socially attractive(as in people cant stop talking to us) we ended up befriending some rather interesting scottish girls who were planning to go out for drinks etc that night as you end up doing in prague right?so we accompanied them out knowing full well that we would be a bit tired the next day but ready for action none the less....get to the club and all is fine untill the girls meet a guy who is brothers with someone they went to school with(tedious link or what)and so of course one of them ends up in his arms, as most girls seem to....ahem....well someones at least.....but as he is a kiniving little so and so he offers her a pill and being a bit under the influence of alcohol she accepts.hence starts the comedown of the night......after about half an hour of her being dissapeared from view we eventually find her staggering about with this guy, obvioulsy the copious amounts of alcohol and pill didnt mix very well.the interesting thing is she had a bf back home but was dangerously close to cheating on him, however as she was so leggless every time they got close she just kinda slumped away from him.kinda helpful i suppose???but when we found out what had gone on we quickly fetched some water for the lass and started to get together to leave to return to the hostel.unfortunately outside we found that the taxi was only capable of taking 4 people?so one of us would have to either go in another taxi or just walk.....and as the soberest of the group i volunteer for the mission.....now not normally would i go running through city centres but i have to say running through prague at about 4 in the morning was an interesting experience to say the least.and by some kind of miracle i managed to not only find the hostel but to get there and meet the guys from the cab before they had even got into it!!!kudos to me eh???
the next morning they all seemed to be suffering from the night before but still have an abundance of energy, well enough to throw sheets over the skateboarders that had managed to rampage through the hostel causing much havoc and generally annoying the hell out of the everyone in existance...especially when trying to sleep(it has still continued to this point though).as well as trapping and cutting off the "skatepark" they had built shane joined in and started sac races up and down the length of the dorm with the sheets that the cleaner had nicely piled up.....and seemed somewhat amused as she saw how her washing was getting dirtier and dirtier by the minute, not to mention when we tied shane and one of the girls to each other and left them to their own devices.....ahem.....
we did eventually escape the girls and made it up to prague "castle" ok its not a real castle its a big old gothic church with houses surrounding it on a hill, not a castle!!!!
we ended up going out again that night with a couple of american girls that we had met as well that day ending up back in the club again and with one of them having slightly too much to drink.....2 bottles of wine worth......pretty much since then we have been doing the touristy thing during the day and meeting people and going out with them in the nights.
however a couple of nights ago me and shane ventured out into the unknown realm of just us two drinking in prague together....and then proceeded to end up in the zizkov area.....which to us was full of shady dark very "local" pubs and bars and a few burnt out cars!!!at which point we decided it would be a good idea to return to the main streets and either go back to the main square or just find a slightly brighter bar.and much to our happiness we did find a new bar...and a new friend....in a man about the size of shane but built with a barrel in his chest.the guy didnt speak any english but immediately as we walked into th bar he welcomed us as strangers and told us to sit with him, so being the open minded sligthly worried but up for a laugh guys we are we sat besidehim and listened to his stories of his life and the things that he has done and does.much of which was translated in very small broken german/french and alot of hand signals with my interpretaion for shane when the language derived away from the simple words....so our friend Deano: father is from hungary, mother from slovakia, born in czech rep.doesnt like german beer but loves both czech pils and english beer.used to be a captain in the communist times in charge of operations at the airport but now after the fall of the communism he is now working with sniffer dogs in the security control.....bit of a demotion.....and has to work 20 hours a day with his 3 dogs one of which was in the bar with him, and im not joking this thing was as long as both of my hands together and so scared it seemed as if it just wanted to die right there and then....poor thing...but the little bugger did try to bite me once when i was stroking the top of its head either that or it was yawning and i put my hand in the way?after drinking our first drinks rapidly to b able to leave Deano bought us both another drink each from the rather attractive bar maid that he seemed to be trying desperately to chat up.after this we felt doomed to be trapped for a while at least but then he started to show us the scars he has from the battles he has been in....as in long scar down his belly from being knifed open and a coulpe of bullet holes in his hands....freaky stuff eh?well after still humering him for a while and eventually trying to tell him who we were and what we were doing here i go to get him a drink and enable us to leave with a clear conscious but when i turn back around i see shane and him having a finger wrestling competition....i mean of all the things?this guy had massive arms and shane thought he could beat him?eh???
after eventually leaving the bar when shane had finsihed tickling his hands.....we headed back into town and proceeded to get rather drunk in several different bars but the highlight of our night we belive is going past the bar of one...well bar and asking for two beers and when we returned the guy had got us a table and had them both freshly waiting for us there....now thats what i call service!!!!
if anyone does come to prague take a day trip to Kunta Hora (maybe not spelt exactly like that???)it is wirth it to see the bone church, yes you heard me you go insid and the whole place is decorated with the bones of 40000 people in it!!!!eeriee is one way of putting it but knowing that they had been in there for about 400 years before they were properly cleaned first is even worse i think.....
seen so much architechture here and pretty things i just cant write about it all so ill just leave it to you if you ever come here to find it all out for yourselfs.....
however hope that you dont get rudely awoken by two girls that you met in budapest poking you at half seven in the morning calling out "hi santa!!"not impressive but they did end up going out with us last night to the 4 story club and we got back at about 5 in the morning....yeah one of those nights and to top it off i was bloody tour guide "santa" for the day taking them around where i had already been and showing them all the sights i coul squeeze into one day whilst shane laid in bed feeling slightly ill that was proven to the exten of how ill he felt when we went to our local that night for food(when i say local i mean we haveeaten in there everynight since we got here and can have a steak meal with side desert and beer for under 5 pound!!!)and decided to make it all the way to the bathroom open the oilet door and throw up all over the toilet and surrounding walls!!!very nice to after leaving a large tip to make up for the mess we hastily left and that was pretty much it for shane that night in the way of food or drink....shame.
ok hopefully we will be leaving tommorrow and ill try to get back in berlin which should be about in a week so not too long folks!!!
so ttfn
x

sleepy in prague

ok well the plan that was originally to stay in bratislavia for 2 nights was extended for 3 more to make 5 night stay in total.the 3rd night we met some rather interesting irish girls who were travelling together around the cheaper parts of europe.lovely girls the lot of them but for the life of me at no point could i ever get all of their names right in one go and so forth led to much confusion in my head whilst trying to talk to them.shane however didn't seem to have the same problem at all and managed to befriend one of them very well and as far as i know always got her name right.personally i think it was the cups of tea we were feeding them all the trime that kept them talking to us, never beat a good cuppa after a bit of a razz on the night life eh?
that same night we met what i can only describe as the most untidy bunch of travellers i have ever met in my life....well to b fair they were all from liverpool so what can you expect???no but they were a good bunch of people generally just the mess after the first night of drinking was something else that you wouldnt expect in a hostel, oh well so it still continued on the next night with plentyful drink and mess again....not that we minded as the hostel turned into one huge social mass in the common room something that it hadnt been for the few days before hand.sorry if this isnt making any kind of real sense but to be fair the whole time in bratislavia i was fairly well lubricated with the old alcohol so not all of it is completely clear in my head and as shane is in bed right now i cant exactly as him for reference not that he saw much except from pots of gold if u get me lol....ahem.....although i do have to say that the bbq with the irish girls was somewhat more coordinated as we even had a salad and a marinated course which of course wasnt present last time due to the lack of people to fill the roles of the women at the bbq, incoming bbq politics discussion with remaining people of the hostel actuallty turned out ok witht he argreement that the women should do the prep whilst we cook the meat ggrrrr manly....however one of the crowning glories of the time there was an english guy showing an aussie how to light a bbq.....so not natural as it was shane as well....
after finally realising what we were ment to be doing in the first place we packed up and left to regain the route along the danube towards budapest, first night made it to gyor a little city just south about 70km and slept in a small campsite behind a b&b kinda thing. the second night is the interesting one as shane is uncapable of sticking to any kind of direction or course we have planned we eneded up missing the danube bend and heading south through the buda hills accompanied by signs for no horses and carriages, tractors and something else that resembled a bicycle but we couldnt be sure so we continued along the road anyways...untill we realised how close we were to budapest and the realisation that we could in fact make it from one capital to the other in 2 days of riding, but annoyingly after calling around we found no accomadation avaliable to us at all so we continued on towards the capital not knowing exactly where we would stop untill we saw the sign for a place called nimrod, ment to be a little b&b taht we thought it would be nice to stay in before budapest but when we eventually found it we saw the lights on but no one home, litterally so using our noodle we stayed for a while and waited to see if anyone showed up with shane occupying us by going and buying a couple of beers from the only thing that was open, local bar. hours past with no sign of life in the building so we decided we would stay the ngith anyway, and after getting the tranjear going and a few more beers we spread out the sleeping bags on their patio just behind the bulding and got some kip before being awoken by the sun at about 5, this being the signal for us to start moving and packing up our belongings we headed to the nearest petrol station in search of croissants and toilets and being succesfull we were very pleased with our free night and good breakfast and the promise of a good bed that night.being only 21km outside budapest now was a envigourating experience as it seemed to fill us with energy that allowed us to both conquerthe buda hills with ease and pass our 3000 mile mark in the same morning although a view over the city would have topped it off we had to settle for some workmen cutting grass and a bilboard of roger federer and some kind of fragrence. so in a rather good mood and knowing we had made it this far without a map and evetually finding the right hostel and after i had a complete tyre failure with my inner tube explaoding i was forced to walk my bike through the swealtering streets of budapest whilst shane hightailed it along to get the reservation sorted out. and guess who was at our hostel!!!none other than the liverpublians from bratislavia, not that it wasnt planned or anything lol.after saying hello to all again and being socialble with a couple of people in our room we ended up drinking with them and an amazing game called touch the cup, with international drinking rules being applied at the same time. needless to say as the unexperienced one of the group i got hit for the first 3 drinks and my run of bad luck continued untill i got hit for another 3 in a row later on and on the last one realising it wasd going to come back up on me i excused myself from the table and adjurned to the toilet.after in my rather anibreated state managing to make it to a club with everyone i came back andcaused a rather interesting argument between two of the liverpublians and immediately proceeded to start hurling my guts up, 2 hours later im being pushed into my tope bunk bed in my room by 3 guys and left to die in peace.needless to say the next morning when i awoke after getting it all out of my system i felt right as rain and charged up to the guys to firstly thank them for helping me out and secondly to annoy the living hell out of them by beign all chirpy and happy whilst they all still clearly suffer from their efforts in the game the night before.that day not much happened untill we decided to go caving in the buda hills, that afternoon.taking along one of the american girsl from the liverpool room we joined the group of american guys and a mix of girls from all over the place, but the gusy did all seem to be american and of course when we got inside(shane not being in my group as he joined the group being the only male surrounded by 9 girls...ahem...)they proceeded to egg each other on and compete to see obviously who is the bigger man but when caving that isnt a good idea so me being a bit smaller managed to show them all up by not only getting through every tight space but doing ti alot quicker and without bragging about it but just making small little comments to make sure they knew what was going on, oh the fun of bursting people's bubbles.....not that im harsh lol.it was a interesting experience all round with the winnie the poo hole and the globe room and the room without a name room.im not joking the guide was pointing to rocks and calling them name and we all looked at each other as if to say what were they smoking when they names all these things???then telling us that there had been a concert down in one of them at one point?well that was interesting to hear.......
after eventually returning from the caves to the hostel we had a couple of drinks and shane dragged me out to a bar called nothing but the blues bar which seemed in fact to play nothing but thrash metal....not exactly my cup of tea, and after talking to his new female friends that im sure would be interesting somewhere but didnt seem to have and opinion on anything i spoke about poo for about 10 minutes then left as i couldnt be bothered any more hoping that my choice of topic conveyed my enthusiasm for the ones i was left talking to.
the next day we headed out into the touristy part of budapest and climbed up to the citadel and castel and roayl palace to be confronted by some of the most amazing views over a city that we have been afforded since going up the cupola in rome.comign down and heading towards hero's square once again we are both dumbfounded by the sheer size of this place and the scale on which the hero's are being celebrated and so we decide to name thm all and guess what they were doing, after commenting on their facial hair to depict their character(and i swear if one more person calls me santa i might kill them)if u could see me you might understand.especially in the red boiler suit from the caving.that evening we went to the baths and after meeting a new zealander who was uncapable of getting out of the whirlpool she ended up coming back to our hostel for food and drinks that night and the group of us including people from my room headed out to get drink and eneded up sitting by the danube peacefully drinking on our last nigth with the knowlege that me and shane had an early morning train to catch he headed off to bed soon leaving me the german and then new zealander sitting at watching the sun coming up over our heads illuminated the buda side in the earl morning haze whilst finishing our drinks.finally returning to the hostel i wake shane up and we head out towards the train station leaving the new zealander in my bed as i wasnt usign it and she didnt know how to get back to her hostel at that time in the morning so i said sleep here ive paid for it so why not use it?makes sense no?it wasnt untill we got to the stationa dn asked about that we realised that our train actually left from another station so racing across budapest at 5 in the morning we make it in time to get our carriage and get the bikes on and i proceed to start to fall asleep almost straight after having the tickets checked only to be awoken about 6 times during the jouney by different officials for passports and tickets to be shown and having to explain that i thought shane was in the toilet at one point and blagging my way through telling him he was english so no need to worry....as it seemed to work with all of the other border control officials that we meet, international secret password....british...
anyways all that done we get to prague with no maps so have to start to guess where wear going and afte ri argue witht he exchange guy about rates shane finds a big map and immediately as we head out we go in the complete wrong diection and as a matter of luck we end up on the road we were ment to be on anyways and a phone call later we end up at the hostel and find the biggest drom in the world i swear, about 100 beds in one large sports hall type room but never mind it seems like it should be fun anyways, right im off now to smash a guitar around the head of a guy who has been sitting next to me playing and singing out of tune for the last hour so
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making sweet music in bratislavia.....

ok so now guess where we are now.....check the title lol.

going back a couple of days to the donauinselfest we recovered from it evetually buit it does deserve a mention.me and shane got on tv......on MTV as well.ok there was a dance stage there in the middle of the huge island that it was taking place on but then we noticed right at the front there was a gap and me and shane being who we are decided that to represent our country well we had to go and throw some shapes in the gap to get people filling it up.as all dance places are the gap was filled with mud and one guy dancing by himself in thew middle so we let him take center and just filled in on the edge and started to bust out the good old mercy mandancing moves and before ľ minutes was up we made it onto the big screen.......but not only that the dj had just said we are now live on mtv so we were like yeah got onto internation television.every form of the media has been dominated by us now.just need like a full interview or something to top it off but we cant be picky now can we...
moving on from that stage we went in search or drink as per usual and as shane was returning our empty glasses he managed to find a rather attractive lady to start dancing with.but littl did he know she had method to her madness.big guy behind her was trying to dance with her so she just grabbed him untill the other guy left and then she left him there as well, but before that i did see shane trying to leave to come back to me at which point i waved like a mad man to catch his eye and say stay there you fool.......and he did untill she left.....can we all say aaaaaahhhhhh......
after running through trainstations and getting onto crammed buses we eventually made it back to our campsite and retired for the night.only to be rudely awoken by the german girl and her bf in the tent next to us in the morning i dont need to explain i think you can all guess what.......

ok continuing on our journey we made it down to bratislavia on one day from wien after getting a bit lost comign out and ending up cycling through 2 km of nudist beach before having to return back the way we had come just to get out of there.not something we want to repeat anytime soon.

we though about going out the first night here but we decided just to hit onr bar then go back, untill we met the english guys.we have shanes rather obvious way of staring at a bar maid backside to thank for that as she leaned over there table next to us he leaned and so did the english guy on that table.catching each others eye many short jokes and laughs were made then we began to talk to them only to realise that the whole bloody group bar one lives in dereham......of all the bloody places.......that being said they asked us to join them and a rather interesting sunday night insued with many more beers and cocktails and shooters following.new version of a b52 was tried and tested as well.went down interestingly is the only way i can put it i think.then at the end of the night we were show the best food to have at the end of the night around here.the american special hotdog.so so nice im telling you go to the tescos, yes there is a giant tesco here, and just outside there is a small hut that sells these soooo gooooooood.
again last night as we had planned to leave today we thought that we shouldnt have too much so wondered in had a drink and returned to the hostel bar to meet a rather interesting mix of people.two aussies, cornish man, small finnish guy, french canadian girl, english couple, and the biggest finnish guy i had ever seen in my life and my god could he drink.i know the country is full of alcoholics but he was impressive.needless to say the aussie that challenged him to drinking was annihilated and upon returning to the hostel was found sleeping in the kitchen floor the next morning.....but going back a bit when we decided to return to the hostel a little earlier, after the bill was asked for and we realised that we hadnt ordered any drinks just other people so we didnt want to be caught with the paying, also not having much cash left anyways.....me shane and the aussie that wasnt half dead walked towards the hostel to discover the floor made noises.im not joking shanme stepped on something that looked like a drain to find that each tile on the small section made a different musical note, so as u can guess the next few minutes were filled with much dancing on it and filming of the drunked dancing to the music.untill we found what must be the drum as we all jumped up and down making the most noise physically possible and hopefully waking the neighbours.see we can discover new things whilst drunk although walking past it again today we saw something else but we will wait untill we have had a few tonight to discover it.....cant ruin all our fun in one go.

oh yeah we are staying another night and now we have milk we can have tea in the morning yay.......
oh and bbq at the hostel was great especially when u buy disposible ones with random northeners and make the smoke go towards the washing being hung out above us causing the lady to stare out of the window at us.good old english sense of cosideration coming into play there but for the amount of meat we have been missing out on we just made up for it.so much pork......good times.

anyways im off now a few other people waiting to use this and only 2 computers here avaliable.....whoops....

ttfn

biggest party in austria....and we are here.

ok i know its a big leap from lake konstanz to wien but we are here.....#
from the south side of konstanz we stayed at my mothers friends house, lovely lady but shereally did have the same tastes as my mum which was quite scary but thought none the less, after walking the dog and alot of ice cream by the lake we journeyed on across the lake to the other side and hopefully a hostel but to no avail as it was fullly booked, oh well camp site it was.
from there we started to head up north towards tubingen and the promise of a place to stay and a good night life well a party was peomised but oh well.after suprising clara by arriving before 12 in the morning and getting her out of bed we eventually had the grand tour of tubingen, if u planning of making a day of it i suggest walking very slowly and going in all the shops as it took us a grand total of 10 minutes to see nearly all of the sites around.that night was good however, 1 euro for tequilla???how can it go wrong???apparently so as claras promise of a night bus was unforfilled and we walked back to her house at about 3 in the morning but obviously the next day we wouldnt have been up to much cycling so we stayed another night and lounged about by the open air swimming complex nearby that was absolutely packed full of people.........u can fill in the blanks........but after swimming and sunbathing and a bit of one knee two knee with the locals we ended up with another frisbee and a beach ball all courtesy of the friendly girl behind the counter and me asking very nicely.
from there we continued on our journey(ok i may not sound alot on here but at this point from konstanz to munich we covered over 300 miles...in about 5 days riding.) and eventually hit munich after a late night meeting the german school group who were all alot older than us but still very socialble teaching them all new and very useful phrases that u wont normally learn in an english class abroad...(you all know what i mean same thing u use the french dictionary for in school when u didnt want to do the work).upon arriving in munich we were given about 4 sets of directions all from different locals as to the whereabouts of this hostel all going in the general right direction but none actually getting us there and it was only through u going into a odd driveway that we stumbled upon it.the first night rained so not much to say there but the next day we decided that we should do a tour of munich and what better that a cycled tour as its famous for being flat its not too bad we think eh???introducing the california crusiers....courtesy of mikes bikes tours also avaliable in amsterdam(we think we might try it)now there bikes are nothing like the bikes that we are used to the handle bars look like so kind of cup and the castration bar really is that bad....the tour itself wasnt that bad, 4 miles in 4 hours now how hard is that but still we managed to find people lagging behind in our group.now im not one to moan but talk about americanised i mean it was informative and all but if u are looking for a real in depth tour go for something else but if u want to go jump in a fast flowing river over so jagged rocks under a bridge then go to the second largest beer garden in the world and have a couple of litres of wiessbier then i reccommend this tour for you so after having a couple and feeling a bit tipsy i started to concentrate on the cycling instead of the tour, this would be the part with all the roads on it wouldnt it and the very vague conversation i was having with the american girl i had met didnt really register as i was just aiming to not fall off my bike and hurt or kill myself.dont drink and ride its not a good idea......anyways getting back to the shop i quickly nipped in the hofbrauhaus to use the loo then returned to find that our night plans had already been arranged for us by those nice kind people as just down the road we could get another free beer for going on thee tour and then that night they do a pub crawl, great idea so back to the hostel, sleep, shower, eat, change in that order and still a bit whoosy go back to the bar and begin again.now from then on the night gets less and less clear but our host took us to some places that i wouldnt never have found by myself in a million years, well done to him.one of which did remind me of the ferryboat however strange but true.....at some point after walking through the hofbrauhaus we met the two american sisters from our tour who decided to join us on our crawl and later in some other random bar we gathered a few other girls to come with us but i cant quite remember how i just remember introducing myself walking along the street after realised that they were there with us.twas a good night though we ended up in a club and i started talking to andrea who was a lovely girl that hopefully we will meet again soon when we get to prague but before i could get another drink a rathzer unsober shane approaches me and says we got to go im being thrown out, great who has he hit whats happened?it was only later i realised he had been throwing up in the toilet and got caught by the bouncer who removed him forthwith.i realised how ill he was when we got into a taxi and as i was trying to explain where our hostel was to this guy shane opened the door and started to reinact his earlier show, the kind taxi driver just started moving slowly along the street making a nice line for other to follow later im sure.after reaching the hostel and finally getting in we collapsed on the beds and went right off after getting him the bin in case he needed it again, and he did.great.next day i left him in bed a cycled around the town and checked out some of the sites that the tour hadnt included whilst he eventually got up and walked to the olyimpic stadium for a look around.
leaving munich a little light in pocket we travelled up the isar river towards the donau to star what has now become the newest addition to our journey....budapest.
in the last few days the weather has been brilliant so cloacking up nearly 400 miles in 5 days riding isnt too bad for us hence why we are already in wien.staying just outside as everywhere is packed inside....u wanna know why???the biggest street party in austria is on this weeked and we are smack bang in the middle of it.....who hooo party on.
ttfn when im sober again lols
x

1 more day to go, 1 more day to munich...

ok i apologise now for the very poor spelling this keyboardis absolutely rubbish so not my fault ok?
ok so we left st maria waving goodbye to the whisky bar and the place we hd called home for the lastfewdays. and when people say recovring fromdrinking is a uphill struggle they obviously didnt have in mid cycling p a muntain pass after 3 days of a great lack of activity...but we did have some encouragement in the form of the two rather socialble hitchikers guie tothe galaxy fanatcal swizz guys whom had been our companions in drink for the last few nights wavingto us outof the back of the bus and makingsome hand guestures that did make us want to catch their bus and make them cycle up the pass...and i think he hd his happy faceon as well...after this rather interesting startto the day and after limbing what seemd like a mountain just o get villages along we finally sawthe real pass that laidhad of us, however we did notsee the road hich would take us there but in hindsight that was probrly a good thing asif we had we might have sat at a bus stop and waited as all the buses rund there have bikeracks on the back ow tepting or us eh?but eventually after 1hr20 minutes odd we inally reached the top ofhe firstpass and it was a greatfeeing having a coffe in he restarant at 2100 meteres or so and even better thait nl took about 1hr to get back down as i went do then back up anthr 300 meters or so before fnally getting us there.tha night we tough it would be a god idea to have a drink so after buying a bottle of baileys ad finishing it hat night wedecided togo to sleep.
the next morningwe awoke and remmbered what we woudbe doing that day, cycling up yet another pass and on a sunday when we knew that not mch would be open but us being the ever sointellegent peole tht eare w carried on anyways ans we hadto leave as shane had used the hotel recption of the plce next to the touristenlagerthat we were staying in to cll home nd didntwant to pay for it....the day started well going downhill for abut 6km but we knew we would have to go back up and by god we did.passingsnowon theside of theroad an knowing tht we still had o go up another 200 metrs plus was anodd feeling to saythe least and when we did eventuallyreachthe top we met some rther confused cyclists,confusd because we hadgot to the top in 1hr 45 includingthe strt to th next town and with the amount o bags that we had on us and they were aying that they were tired without nay bags on teir specialist mountain climbingbies,cheecky buggers oh and by the way that pass gotto 2383 metrs climbing about 1000 altogether.going down was alot betteras it nly took 20minutes,no yu dont want t know but 40mph withoutpedalling isnt bd for us two eh?so we eventually found omewhere to sta in klosters in a littl b&b that we were the onlyoccupnts of so was nice,and think the daughte took a liking to shane hehe.finally leaving klosters we continued onour way, downhill sowards lake konstnz and the promise f a place to stay with a friend of y mums.but we knew tat we couldnt get there in one day so we were looking foranother place to stay.after finding therhein cycle path and flying aong thereinto a headwind we looked up to seea uge blck cloud forming above us.not good.but not as funny as the huge cloud that ws over liechenstein and not anywhere near switzerlan at the time, phe they dnt even hav a motorway how can they cll themselves a country...but after consulting the local grasskeeper we traveld from switzerlad through liechensteain in about 0 minutes into austri whereat border control weweregreeted by german speaking men who as soon as we sad we were engish just waved us through wih a smile and a gesture tat made us think they must be very accomadating to english people in this country.we arrived in feldkirch ina bit ofrain an staed their for thenight wtching german versions of jericho itsso fun toguess whats going on when you cant understand it.after crossing borders a total of 6times thatdaywe fell aslep quite easily.
ok this keyboard is really annoying m so ill leave it therefor he minute and might fish either tonight or in munich and cath up t where we arenow...
ttfn

good things come in little packages

ok so upon leaving trento wer thought that it might be a bit more kind to us, well the weather at least, but no it was still drizzling some what so we decided to brave it out and get to bozen or bolzano depending on where you live and how you speak in that part of italy.but when we started to leave we did meet a couple of aussie cyclist who seemed nice enough and were headed in our direction, cue shanes temptation for speed and overtaking.it didnt take us long as they did seem to be getting on a bit and we all know what shane is like when he gets the bit between his teeth. so we get to bozen and nothing really much happens there we sleep and eat....normal for us two.
its the next day that should be brought to your attention however, as you all know by know we arent very good at sticking to plans so when we said we should just ride to merano the next day of course we get there no problem but as its so early we have a quick check at our maps and see that the hostel that we were going to go for isnt that far away just more than we had already done and yeah we know that its going to be uphill a bit but we think none the less of it and carry on straight away.after seeking directions from a local postman who gave us maps and fine words of encouragement we started on the cycle path that should take us nearly the whole way to immediately find a rather large diversion up what can only be described as a big old hill.after conquering this and realising that yes shane was still alive we continued up along this way going ever so more up for a short while before we just hit the nice long straight and unhilly cycle path again.this was all ok untill we saw what was to become next of us, a few road trips here and there let us see the "valley" that we had to get up. i think the place was glurns that was the last time we saw a road untill we nearly hit the switzerland border.the cycle paths that had served us very well during the day suddenly turned to a dirt road uphill....great.after push pulling and at some points nearly wanting to cry over the stupid idea to carry on that day we finally reached the swiss border and were waved stright through, obviously we dont look shady as we cycled through at all of 2 miles an hour....the lady in the supermarket that we found right on the border changed some money for us and i started to try to calculate all the prices in euros and pounds that we are familiar but when your tired belive me it doesnt come very easily,im not ant ok.. having finally arrived in the little town of sainta maria up a hill i would like to add and having a jogger overtake us uphill we officially decided that we would stay 2 nights to make up for it.
after finding that the hostel was somewhat simple in its layout but nice and charming however we ventured out for our celebratory drink to the landmark of 2000 miles that we had crossed during the day with a stunning background, after walking to one end of the town and finding only closed restaurants our hearts began to sink but on returning towards opur hostel we saw what can only be described as a saving light, that changed colours and obviouslz as simple as we are we walked towards this light and discovered that no more than 20 meteres from our hostel that was a bar, or so we though.when we got inside it was like an optical illusion we thought there must be more to this as the bar was all of 8.53 meters all round so we thought yeah this seems nice we will stay.it was only after taking and drinking that we realised that it was not only a whisky bar but the worlds smallest whisky bar!!!somehow in walking up the stairs we missed the signs outside telling us this and all the leaflets inside untill it was pointed out to us....how silly did we feel. needless to say the next day after a short trip to a waterfall we returned to the whisky bar for more....nourishment....after discussing with the nice men running and owning the place we learned of their bussiness plans for the future and how it all got started in the first place.needless to say we were somewhat gobsmacked at the full range of alcoholic beverages present and the fact it was all whisky...even better.shane has now also gained a taste for baileys...ill leave you to make up your own mind on that one.the mroning of our supposed departure we returned to the whisky bar to have some photos taken of us on our bikes and outside the place with some warming fluid in our hands...but it was ok it was a minute after 9:30 in the morning...we returned to the hostel as it was raining with thoughts of the story that we had been told would be written for us not realising quite what was going on as the whiskey that early did somewhat go to our heads a little...whoops.after the rain continued and it got later in the day we thought right thats it we are staying another night and after we eat lunch we promptly fell asleep for pretty much the whole afternoon so it was indeed a rest day for a change. and of course we did return to the whisky bar again, its nice alright dont judge...and after conversing more and drinking more the beer that had deprived the bar for a few weeks before hand fianlly arrived so what better way to send of the night than starting with whiskey then having a nice cool guiness helped by a rather intriguing machine that i hadnt experienced before, for the guiness pouring ok dont get the wrong idea.
so here we are once again at a computer but this time its still part of the whisky corporation, yes once you get in you dont get out, and we are writing up the blog but now there is another link to us so heres a link to them
www.smallestwhiskybaronearth.com
trust me go on it not only will you get to see the smallest whisky bar on earth and dream of going there(of and if you are going there get ready for public transport as it isnt the easiest place to get to but well worth it) but you will also see a bit about us two with photos and a small story!!!!but seriously go on there go through the link or type it in on google, soon it will be in the guiness book ok records and official but you heard it here first.....go there!!!
ttfn
x

one more thing.......

just to keep ya hanging on.........we are now changing our route form the originally planned munich to prague we are now diverting to vienna and then down the danube to budapest first then getting the train up to prague so we wont be loosing much time and yet still gaining a few more countries.......
any thoughts?
ttfn
x

a change of the winds......

ok so we have had a little change of heart(and no its not inspired by women, why does everyone think that?).....no sorry dad im not coming home early to work for you instead we have decided.............ill tell you at the end.
ok i noticed i skipped quite a huge part out after rimini which is worth talking about so im gonna go back over it a little as its raining and not nice on our rest day so this is us resting on the internet where they didnt ask us for id and they have music downloaded from limewire on the computers......dodgy me thinks?
unfortunately we seem to leave places on the worst days and our timing isnt that good so our leaving for bologna on a sunday was no better.we had to travel 80 odd miles and it wasnt cool ill tell you that.we set out with me not having had any sleep due to shane from the night before so i wasnt feeling great already, id drunk about 2 litres of a nice mix of both coffee and water to get me going or so i hoped.we got about 2 thirds of the way along when we though we should stop again and call the hostel once more just to make sure that we still had room and that we were going to be a bit later than originally planned due to us leaving at about 11 o clock in the morning(very late for us).that went fine but about 20 seconds down the road suddenly out of nowhere my wheel had taken a turn for the worst again and buckled sideways.....give me strengh.....was one fo the many phrases flowing like the rivers of babylon throuhg my head an out my mouth (more mutley style to be frank) as i didnt have anything to fix it with we have to stop and dismantle my wheel so i could take the mudguard off and disconnect my back brake for the ramaining 30 odd miles into bologna.when we did eventually get there we then had to find the hostel we knew it wasnt in the centre but we had our bikes so it shouldnt have been a problem for us but the we ran into another problem the scale and accurasy of the maps in both of the hostel books that we had were put to the test and both failed miserably.....so after cycling down a country path finding farmer giles and extracting about as much information as a chastiy belt isnt annoying we headed back into town to find some guy on a big bike that shane was naturally attracted to(the motorbike not the bloke) and he said to follow him. i dont know what he was thinkning or how far we had come but shane the quicker of the two of us on the bike was being left for nothing and me struggling with sleep deprivation alcohol intake and a day of cycling on a half dead bike was well far behind and still had to keep going at about 20 miles and hour just to stay withing eye contact of shane!!!!eventually after refinding the petrol head biker he pointed to a road and said go that way so gratefully we did and slowed the pace right down that we might have been going faster if we were riding backwards.....the hostel was ok and we booked in and our ingenious plan started to fall into place.the next morning we took my bike to get fixed and then had to cycle back up to the hostel then get th bus back into the city so we could get the train that day to firenze obviously we would ahve normally cycled it but neither of us felt up to the 120km ride over the alpines again so we got the eurostar through the mountains amuch more pleasureable way of doing it.the hostel was beautiful to put it mildly it was a country villa with a fountain and gardens very very nice.florence as a whole was just nice, people say its beautiful and the most amazing city but we both found it just nice.and annoying the david couldnt be seen as the place that it is in is closed on mondays how stupid is that???the next leg was to get to the train station in the morning quite early so we could get back to bologna and get our bikes we had left at the hostel so we could get to verona.this proved to take a little longer than we had hoped for so we evetually left at about 12oclock.then began the trip to match all trips so far.we ended up cycling a total of 92.83 miles that day to get to verona and along the way we met a rather strange american guy.he resided in a bar in the middle of nowhere (well just outside cento) and had a full beaming american accent to go with his full annoying american pig-headedness.his name was tom and after translating to the bar maid for us he then told us a few anti-english jokes which we both politely congratulated him on and laughed at the right points......i could see shanes blood boiling in his veins already at this point......but then he told us about a bet he had with a taxi-cab owner in england, so we asked him where and he said well its called ACE cabs (ding ding alarm bells start to ring for us it does sound familiar....)and then he said yeah its in cromer!!!!we were like we live right next to cromer thats amazing!!!so next time anyone who is reading this happens to end up in a ACE cab ask if the guy owning it is called richard and has he paid the stupid american in italy over the football match bets.....thankyou.
anyways when we got about 40km from verona we started to look to the sky for some kind of help and inspiration and then realised that the sun was sarting to go down!!!!!eeek so we pedal a bit faster and then the sun just keeps accelerating down towards night time so we start to worry that we are going to be stuck on a major trunck road into verona and be in the dark cycling with no lights so it ended up us pedalling our little backsides off to get there.we hit verona at about half 8 and the street lights had just started to come on needless to say we were both completely shattered and needed some well earned sleep.the hostel was really ok there but they locked all the doors including the dorms at 12 at night every night and you werent allowed out again untill 7 the next morning when the unlocked them..... know its a youth hostel but we arent children we came to get away from constriction and confines is what i heard the wo annoying american guys next to us saying(they were annoying as the first night they sat with their other new found american friends strumming very annoying and untalented tunes on a guitar that i was tempted on more than one occasion to smash over his head or at least hide from him)we stayed the day in verona and its has to be the best city we have stayed in it was just so old and not overpopulated by tourists i mean there was alot of them but you walk down one off street and you seem to loose everyone and just be secluded in a realy feeling italian city with alot of character to it.after watching the football and eating in a restaurant and straight after followed by a kebab......we were hungry ok?....we stayed up and drank a bit with a south african/new zealand girl we had just met that morning and learned a bit about her strange shouting habits in her house and the guys living next door to her who thought the whole house was a bit weird......hello nicole......at least she was nice enough to wake us up in the morning by drawing on me.......not impressed it have to say but i had drawn a huge X on her back the day before so i suppose i deserved it.
moving on from the flatlands we headed to lake garda where we had tried to make it in time to meet shane's nan whilst she was on holiday.luckily for us we did make it in tiem and shane even managed to meet her off her day trip bus whilst going to get some food from the supermarket after we had washed our clothes(see grandma neednt worry about it we are washing them).we had a meal that night with them and then saw them again the next day for a walk and they had also taked their hotel manager into letting us use their pool for a bit......get in.....around lake garda we took a cable kart up to one of the mountains and walked around a bit and i also managed to get sunburnt whilst eating along wth the yodelling being played to us....not looking forward to that.......we met quite alot of other cyclist but when they were telling us about what they were doing they always seemed a bit shocked about what we were doing....it is nice to get one up on people who think they are being extreme......
anyways after shane has nearly killed his leg yesterday getting to trento we had to stay here for a day so he could rest it so sitting here typing is probably best for it i think?well im typing he is looking at the john lewis website..........need i say more.......
but yeah im off now
ttfn
x

anything can happen in the next 2 minutes.....

ok so now we are in riva del garda, for those of you who dont know where it is look at the north of italy at the bigest lake and right at the top you might find us.
the trip from ancona has been a rather interesting one so i shall begin from there......
we left ancona and headed to a little place called rimini just along the coast from there well i say just along the coast but you know what me and shane are likle by now just along the coast equates to about 50-80 miles along....but enough about that......we got to rimini and evetually found the hostel after asking a few taxi drivers and getting a bit loast around the back streets in a very confusing one way system, once there things looked up however as the people has big smiles and all seemed clean and nice.....skip to morning......we awoke and got ready to get going bags on bikes, lycra on and all limbered up nicely when shane comes up with a great idea....im a bit tired do you want to stay another night???i look at him and my first reply was something which i would rather not put on here but after along of whining and questions i finally arrived at a decision....if the go-kart track we passed yesterday is open today we will stay if not then no.....so after consulting the rather ravishing red-head behind the counter shane came back out with a big grin and a phrase "get the bags off mate".....so after pratting about with the bikes for a while longere and returning to the same room as before but the othe side we changed again and got ready to head off to the track.the new plan was to hit the track then come back and hit the beach but as you have all figuredout by now nothing on our little trip is as easy as it sounds.....we got bak onto our bikes and headed out of town towards the track that we had seen on the way in, i thought he was joking when he said 5 miles out but no it was nearly at the main road and afer he airport, however when we got of the road and headed towards the track we had seen we realised something was missing.......cars.......at least ones our size........we had stumbled across a toy car racing track not a go-kart track as we had origianlly hoped for. a the thought of going back without and driving action we asked if there was another one about, the direction he gave us confused us somewat as we had come from there and no seen one along there.......but holding faith of local knowledge we went off in the direction given to us and sure enough after about 1km we found a huge go-kart track and massive signs on both sides of the road directing us to it....needless to say we werent impressed at our own lack of observational skills the previous day.after filling our need for adrenaline and two fairly evely matched races with pollen as a hazard and mcdonalds weighing us down in the second race we returned back to the hostel. on our return we went to head towards the beach untill shane realised what day it was and the huge event taking place that day.....fa cup final so of course the next logical step is to try to find a bar with sky tv watching the game instead of he beach after meeting dead ends all over the place we returned to the only bar watching football and shane pleeded with the man for some kind of repreive from his non football orientated state the man said ok yes but he had his own atch to watch so siting in a closed resaurant watching italian 1st division football and the fa cup we didnt buy aything and made friends with the restarant owner(shane had prevously been heard to say,"how come in a country like this they arent showing the final from the best league in the world" i sorry but this is italy they think if it isnt theres its not good and especially when it comes to football)when the game had come to its exciting if not unexpected conclusion we left the bar with a promise of return for his food later on that night but privately thinkning we migh go somewhere else instead......this is where the towel insidents began, i went upstairs and to the loo whilst shane couldnt hold it for two minutes to get back to the hostel so he arrived at the door as i was finishing and i heard him speaking, it being shane i obviousl thtough immediately that he was talking to himself about me having locked the door and no being there but when i had washed my hands i found him running down the stairs and a girl in a towell standing there in his wake(my immediate reaction was the shout shane in a manner he might come back here and see what i was seeing but obviously it didnt work as he continued on the way down) so of course then i urn to the random if not slightly embarressed girl in the corridor and ask whats going on, im told she somehow got locked out of her room the details of which were a bit hazy as to be honest i was finding it a little hard to concentrate wondering what shane had to do wit it and then she told me that he was saving her from going down in a towel and askin for a spare key.i made a joke o it asking to see if our key worked in her door and she gave a frightful reply and relieved sigh as i discovered it wouldnt turn..........oh the shame..........so after opening my door i asked the normaly quesions where you from what you doing and arent they some nicely shaped tan lines on your shoulders.........shane finally returned and afer helping her and closing our door behind him the elongated word that was uttered from his lips had never been so well placed.........."MATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"..........i did have to agree it was a very worth mate situation to be in at that time.again skipping ahead to a clothed......steph......and a few beers later we were about to go out for food when we came across a couple of girls sitting at the downstairs bar, insulting them by calling thm american isnt the best way to strike up a conversation but it seemed to work with amusement for us in it as well,(canadian). i had gone upstairs to get a jumper when shane said put your jeans on, i asked why and apparently we were going to be going out with the girls to some random bars of something they had been told about, so much for him being tired as a reason to stay there another night.......eventually after photos introductions and directions we made our way as a group of 6 to the restaurant that me and shane had spent a good hour in during the day without spendin any money so that we could eat.after much dilemma about the choice of wine and the splitting of the bill according to the quantities drunk of each drink(at one point i was waiting for then to get the tape measure out and examine the glass so they could see exatly how many cents the french girl should have to pay for the wine).we ended up at completely trendy quite loud and funny bar where drink after drink followed and loosing 2 members of our group before we eventually got to the stage of heading to the beach bar which ended up to be a 25 euro trip away.(the last remaining girl bar steph with us was named jenny) we headed to the bach bar clu thing and after getting confused about the bar ordering system having to pay at a completely different place to that wich you get your drinks at we then went off to dance.....and when i say dance we ended up on the tables with steph having dissapeared with a man mountain of a sleezy italian and jenny retaining her presence with us and the 3 of us boogying on down and getting told off for holding onto the mbrella for support on the not very well balanced tables.u think clubs in england are easy to loose people in at least they have boundaries, afer going to the toilet and returning to find both shane and jenny gone i had to run around the club like a maniac untill i first found and then re-lost shane and then found jenny and re found shane.steph had been completely absorbed by the italian so she said she would get home with him......so the 3 of us eventually got back after jenny found some people from the hostel who were driving back that way so gave us a free lift....result....on returning to the hostel shane headed straight up whilst i stayed for about 10 minutes to chat with jenny, however when i did return to the room i found it locked and the only sound was snoring (i later discovered tha shane had gone right off to sleep and someone else had locked the door from our room and had earplugs in so i was completely screwed) contemplating a night on my own on the stairs i when back down and found that jenny also come across the same problem with her friend from earlier in the night having gone back and locked the room so we headed upstairs to the roof after being told we werent allowed to sit in the bar area.watching the sunrise was a nice way the spend the mornin hours when the person falls asleep and your left to contemplate how you are going to survive the coming ride to bologna without any sleep at all.....i wasnt impressed with shanes lack of sympathy for me either and when he in turn locked himslef out of the room after having a shower the second towel insident was evident as he had to come down to the reception to get anoher key.the third was when we were eventually saying goodbye to our friends and jenny reappeared in a towel to see us off.the hostel of towels and lockouts .....interesting times.
we have surivived and after meeting shanes nan on holiday and racing against the sun to get to verona from bologna (biggest day 92 miles) we are all ok and ready to head off to the alps now.....
bike has been repaired a further 2 times so still not impressed with it but i will keep on going.....
food is waiting and ive been o here way too long so ttfn
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coast to coast in 3 days....

ok after we left salerno with the very happy man in the hostel bidding us farewell after taking an exceedingly in depth interest as to the reason for our trip and why i chose shane to come with me...(we think he thought maybe the other reason two guys go off together...not nice)we headed into the hills....ok when i say hills i mean the big old mountain range in the middle of italy.the first day we got quite far with no real happenings except for having to fork out 45 euros for a hotel as there was nothing else for abslutely miles and shane did look as if he was about to die on me.the next day however i think deserves some note....alot of note...
welcome to the worst day of the trip:
morning ok nice hot weather we get going on the one road thatw e need to take us to our destination...foggia...that would mean that we crossed the whole of the mountain range in 2 days and something we could be very proud of.however the problems started at first with it being a sunday and no supermarkets or anything are open so relying on tabbachi and cafes to be open we plundered on to a town and after asking some locals we did actually manage to locate a supermarket but the directions which shane was given didnt seem to make note in his head as he continued straight passed it and only later said dont worry we'll find something.after not finding anything for quite a while we managed to find a small runthough town and get some much needed food although it was only crossaints and sweet stuff not exactly the lunch for cycling like we do in the blistering heat.ok now we left this place after i watered the solitary plant in the car park before i burst and headed on towards our destination we were making good time and generally going downhill being on the other side of the mountain range now that was untill we hit a diversion, i said as it was a sunday no one will be there so lets just go through the road works but shane insisted on going round and when i say round i mean up,and up,and up.this path ill call it went up for about 2 maybe 3 miles to some small littel godforsaken town which overlooked the road we should have been on.after this we had to then find a way back down from the hill to our road not as easy as it sounds.after consulting a few car drivers we evetually found our road.now my wheel hasnt been in very goo shape for a long time slightly buckled up and down and a little left and right but this road had so many potholes it made swiss cheese look like mozzerella!!!the first bad signal about my back wheel was when i discovered i had a puncture, after inspecting this we found it at the valve not a good place to find a whole.now this random kid on a bike which looked like he had stolen bits off other bikes and cars to make it pulled up and when we said we didnt speak italian in phrases which would surely state that themselves he still decided to stand there and watch us....spooky.not saying anything he just stood and watched as we dismatled my back end and fxed it, or so we thought.as not more than 1km down the road we started to go steeply downhill, you know when is going to be really steep when you see signs that dont allow lorries to go down them.14% was the nicest part i think and this is where the bad conditon of the road took over.my hands as red as the blood pulsing through them from holding the brakes so much my back wheel completely went and by the time i got to the bottom the phrase pear shaped resembled what my wheel looked like to me.completely and utterly F°°°°°D.this threw up the next dilemma where do we stay and how do we get my bike unridable at this point to a shop.luckily and this was the only bit of luck we had all day we stopped outside a train station, but the trains werent running that day and the next one was at 6:41 the next morning and after that at about 3:00 so we though the morning one will have to do.we did find a room which we put the bikes in and the lady opposite supplied us with directions to a bar and a choc-ice each so shane went off the get food and beer and i sat and read contemplating all the possibilities of things that had and could still go wrong with the day.eventually when he retrned frm the bar only #1km# away we ate and drank and sat and waited.when it got dark the bugs came out, when i say came out i mean the were in swarms resembling tuna fish movements in the sea.after closing the door we realised our room had a light which we externally controlled somewhere, after contemplating cutting the wires we gave up and tried to bed down for the night.again luck wasnt on our side as the bell that signals the trains and the hourly freight trains going by destroyed any chance of and sort of sleep we hoped for.we got up at 5 so as not to miss our train and were eagerly awaiting anything that could get us to foggia.up untill this point there hasnt been any enlgish speaking people to tell our tale to so sorry for ranting ok.we got to foggia and evetually found a bike shop thansk to tourist informations in norwich's finest helper.bike fixed 2 new inner tubes all for 20 euros im not complaining then after we got a half priced breakfast thanks to shane confusing the guy at the cafe with his poor attempt at english tourist italian we discovered today might not be so bad.since then our trip has gone without any major events to bore you with so i wont.however we are moving some at the moment and will be in bologna in about 2 days at this rate so things are looking up.
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oh btw we now passed 1500 miles and fianlly lubed our bikes today...

how sore am i......

leaving rome wasnt exactly the nicest experience i have ever undertaken but after finding the cycle path and climbing over a fence or two with the bikes then cycling down an autoroute for a while we finally headed along the right track....albeit a rather odd one that consisted of a dual carriage way as long as the acle straight just with a couple of hills thrown into the mix.now what was really weird was this old guy from kiwi-land who was going in the same direction as us all the time but he seemed to be going just so slowly, he would tell us that he leaves at like 7 and that 10 (which is when we leave generally)is far too late for us to start but ever day that we were cycling towards napoli we overtook him at some pace and still with some distance to go however we always ended up at the same place as him now tell me if that isnt weird i dont know what is especially with the amount of campsites along the coast we were travelling along.....something suspicious i thinks....
but going back to rome now that is something to write about, i could tell you how beautiful all the arcitechture was and how amazing the sistine chapel was but first i think ill start with shanes inate abililty to get himself into some rather interesting situations well i did assist in this one but was funny all the same.now im not the first person to generalise about another person or like the whole idea of people being what you guess they are but when the hostel manager in rome says to you"ah you are english yes?you must play football???" my first response isnt to shout in outrage at him for being so narrowminded but instead i ask y?he goes on to explain that he has a small team and needs a goalkeeper at which point the light turns on in my head and i nominate shane for the idea...."yes yes goalkeeper"i say"but not me my friend......... the tall one he is a very good goalkeeper... amazing....yes yes he will play for you"so thanks to me and my overzealous attempt to get us some free accomodation shane returns from the toilet to find himself involved in a discussion about gloves to which end he has no idea that he has gotten himself into....of course im standing there laughing at him whilst he gets told to go and change because they leave soon....the ensuing match was like watching a cubscout trying to define the reason that he just wrentched his fellow cub to the floor and proceeded to repeat the new wrestling move that he learnt last night.......completely hopeless.....not just the players but OMG(sorry too many americans about) the final score 6:2 guess which team shane was on...yes you got it the loosing one and having also hurt his foot and groin he finished the match not exactly the flavour of the month with the manager so free nights out of the window we returned to the hostel to meet a ratherannoyed looking aussie girlwho appeared alot younger than she was but to her advantage i would say, whom after being highly stressed at check in joined us for some wine and ended up spending the whole duration of her rome trip with us....great laugh if not hypocratical in not practising what she preeches but it is always nice to know thateven the nicest looking peple have flaws...great fun
anyways if anyone ever has the really clever idea to attempt tp cycle through napoli i have and even better one...DONT!!!!!!! im not kidding the amount of times we nearly got hit ont he way to the hostel was incredible and the roads looked like something that gary had got mad at whilst trying to install and given up half way through......the way back though we discovered the train we wanted to catch(to avoid cycling through the harbour and just get the naighbouring pompeii) left in 40 minutes now 5 miles in any city in 40 minutes isnt exactly wat i would call easy but when your reduced to acting like a scooter and weaving in and out of cars as the only means to get them to notice that your alive its not the kind of palce you want to try it in.having made our epic race through the city the police man wasnt too happy to see us speeding through the train station so after telling us off i ever so politely asked him to tell us where to go but instead of the english a-typical response of to hell he even walked us to our train....however learning that it didnt leave for another half an hour i ws none too pleased that our sprinting abilities and life risk taking skills had even been brought to surface.
the last coupld of days have however made up for the torment of the earlier stages as we found a nice hostel in sorrento which although isnt yha was really good as well.it alll came to a head last night when between mine and shane socialising abilities we managed to get all the english speaking people bar two drunk and really annoying americans who went to and i quote "represent the hostel, and tear up the town"(who we later saw falling into thin air and not finidng it so comfortable or accomodating as the floor seemed to be) and acouple of australians who had a big day the next day, all the rest of us went to a karaoke bar and beeing prtty much the only ones in there the mike was ours to kill our favourite tunes along with dont look back in anger and i want it that way.after a long night of arduous singing we returned to the hostel with the 4 older english guys trying to hit on the 2 younger and may we collectively say attractive girls from australia although the guy werent informed, much to our delight and watchful amusment, of the fact that all the girls out that night had boyfriends.when they found out they still continued on but to no avail.sorry but when you know this and they dont it really is funny to watch them try so hard but get nowhere....back at the hostel at about 2 in the morning the bar nextdoor was still open so we stayed there for a while as one by one all went to bed except me and the australian girls and me being the only one still drinking at this point as the other english guys had returned and brought water and shane was just hungry i feel happy to be the last one standing.the two, by this stage rather drunk, aussie girls were half helped half pushed up the stairs to there room where i left them to try and figure out tactics to get into the room get their toothbrushes and be quiet at the same time(this being at 4 in the morning now) i decided i didnt want to know how it ended so i went to i say crawl but as i was on the top bunk hop into bed as quietly as possible.oh so much fun.
today we cycled the amafi coast which is no mean feat but when hungerover and really tired it was realy hard for me at least.oh well self inflicted injuries cant be blamed on anyone else except the barmen so thanks signoire sleezy italian man...
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oh off the the other side of italy now........oh the pain of the hills.......

long time no see......

ok we are in rome............i know that is a long time since i last got to look into here but ah well whate can you do in a country that likes to have anti terrorism laws on anything going???oh by the way back to english keyboards so i apologise whilst i get used to the old system again......first thing that comes to mind for me is the first hostel we stayed in in italy,ok we guessed to general rule f hostels would follow as they had done in france and all be on hills but when you come to a valley town and see the only hill is right in the middle you think to yourself you have to be kidding me right????but oh no there it is in shining recognition of everything that you dispise about people who decided where things should be like signoposts and hostels it sits not just as a hostel but a pink castle yes im not joking the hostel in finale ligure is a pink castle on top of the hill!!!!!!and not only was it a castle but we had a shrek moment carrying our luggage up to the taller room in the tower which is accessed by the roof so if it had of rained we would have got soaked of and speaking of rain im here in rome only after the biggest terrential downpour that the region has seen in like a year!!!!great and doing about 100 km on a day like this isnt that good.....anyways if you are a keen cyclist i recommend the path across the national park in the mountains just before la spezia in italy.hell of a way up but amazing scenery when you get there....
anyone thinking of going to genoa?????dont its horrible the whole place is like if you got birmingham feel and industrialness and put it in the same place as portsmouth as a port......not nice oh and shove a huge hill to put the hostel on top of and that is pretty much my impression of genoa...
livorno you should miss as wellanother port but if you are lucky you will find shanes customised mongoose cycling top along a road on the way in....it was hot and we didnt have them on and shanes was on the back of his bike and somehow it came off and i didnt see it even cycling behind him but i think it might have been when we were sprinting on our bikes to get to the speed camera that showed your current to see what we could get 37 not too bad for slightly uphill however since then we found another and managed 53 downhill so not bad either......
no major accidents to speak of but i have hit a car not very fun but we were going reaslly slowly so i didnt really hurt myself but was annoyed at the stupid driver pulling out so i ever so politely told him to go away and leave me alone.......no really i didnt swear at him......
freecamping for the first time was great experience our scouting skills didnt evade us and after using hand signals to an old lady she told us that we could stay at the bottom of her field so when we got there it was all seclyuded and a kind of a fire pit had been arranged so we made our own one from tree bark and small twigs no paper!!!!!went really well and after cutting my legs up to saw through a fallen tree with my penknife saw which i dont recommend you doing.....we stayedf warm and kept the bugs off.....however the rolling mist the dying firelight and the spooky noises made fr a very nervous sleep for the ones who dont go straight off like other people....ahem shane ahem.....
night after that was pretty cool as well it was raining and we stopped for lunch to find a rather larger cycling group there as well.after finidng out that one of them was in fact an irish guy we joined them for the meal.....lovely bunch of people who have taken a squat in a old disused factoryy and set up a free cycle repair centre in rome????odd you think so do we but whatever they invited us to a house for the night with promise of food and wine and after alot of umming and arghing we decided to go and see first but as there was no other accomodation avcaliable to us we went for it in the end....and when i say food and wine i mean the food was coming out of and space possible in a kitch the size of my bedroom with a table of 16 sitting down eating at over 50 liters of wine present and i dont mean bad wine this stuff was so tasty you would no believe howeven we only managed 15 litres but i think i had y fair share of the stuff for free im not complaining....the guy whos house it was is an editor of a book company which is quite sucessful but he is really obscure as his books are as well......all in all a fantastic night topped off with a guy and a guitar and a girl with an accordian and tamborine as well as everyone singing untill the early hours a night well worth the effort of pushing our bikes up hills for 2 hrs and im not kidding they were up up up....
if i think of anything else notable i will catch up again soon in the next few days but thats about it for now.....oh shanes foot is a bit better but still bad enough for him to be complaining about though......
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big news

first major injury goes to shane!!!!!!!we suspect a broken toe or two as he jumped off the top bunk of the bed this morning in his bare feet.they have been taped together as is only solution we have and need to ride over to italy today.will say more about actualy trip later but for now were off!!!!

been a long time

ok so the first flat tyre goes to me.....bottom of some hill in nice at the harbour i leave my bike with shane for like 2 minutes and when i get back the tyre is completely flat and messed up so yay its all ok now after re-learning how to fix a puncture at the hostel(u can tell how many i used to have).
weather wise we unfortunately managed to get wet.....very wet the region has just had the worst downpours of the last year and happened to be when we were both having really bad days so great fun.on thew plus side however the list of people that we are meeting is increasing and they all seem to be quite friendly no matter how weird they are(note:if a french candadian man is in your room dont turn the light on he might be as uncourteous as ours and spread eagle on top of the sheets naked, not a pretty site after a bottle of wine.....)but on a french not i havent actually had a conversation with any french people who werent selling me somthing yet howevere there seems to be an ubundance of french canadians all over the place they are a bit interesting to say the least i mean speaking french one minute the switching back to english the next........so odd.oh a stereotype has been met we met some sweedish girls in sete and one was blonde with big boobies hehe lol.waiting untill italy to find the short stumpy man with a thin moustash throwing a pizza in the air saying"eh tony".
we have met an interesting truck driver though.he has been driving trucks from spain for god only knows how long and now he decided to cycle to turkey.....i mean wtf would u think it?and he smokes but he does keep going......oh and next year he want to do turkey to china??????u do meet some dont you...
oh and if you ever go to nimes stay at the youth hostel as its in the rich part of town out of the way they can keep the bar open untill late and after a few beers and some table tennis in the rain me and shane started our little party piece of makign a couple of roses which turned into a master class for some others and produced free drinks for the both of us as well as conversation with some rather interesting german sisters.(enough said)oh and check out there world map on the wall they have photos of people they liked up on there where they have come from.and of course you know who have made it onto there representing norfolk...booyeah....
the ride itself has become very intersting now as we have left flat ground for the hills of sotuhern france and believe me when i tell you they are hills.but just looking at the mountains a little way off makes me glup hard and thats not just the stale bread in the hostels.
drinking from a bowl has never been something promoted in england its bad manners isnt it???here however if u get a cup or a glass they give you funny looks.....strange isnt it?
and just so i know doesn anybody think that me and shane sound anything like australian because everyone we meet(bar the younger german sister who though we were irish???)seems to think that we are australian and when we tell them we are englishg they become very shocked. is it just me or are people very bad at accents.......
oh new purchase:holey seat!!!!!going to put it on today later when the hostel re-opens and try it out hopefully should be better than the one that i already have.
and on a final note about france the signposts are awful as only after you finally ask all the people in site which way you are/should be going towards the hostel or whatever and you start on what you believe is the right road do you see a sign post.surely they should let us know by sign first and if we really cant see it then we ask but must be just another thing like the bowls of cappucino......oh and abstarctly all condom machines are on the outside walls at pharmacies surely that is more embarressing for the poor sole who just needs the odd one making him/her do it in public so that everyone knows what they are doing rather than the smirking store clerck in england and the nosy old lady giving you scorneful looks as she peers around your shoulder to tut at you ear making sure you know of her disapprovement at the younger generation?????
anyways two rather attractive girls have just sat down next to us both on either side in swim suits so off to do my duty to god and the queen......thats what networking is about right?????
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sete

ok we are here in sete just to the southwest of montpellier on a rest day.and trust me we need it.after finding the canal au midi from direction of a slightly large man in toulouse who said it is the best route and we could do it in 3 days....but dont be mislead by french opptunism the canal although following between the major road and the motorway does have a considerable amount more ground to cover.we ended up doing another 60 mile day to get to a place only 40 miles down the road from us!!!!now do you see what i mean.oh and before this we did manage to meet a couple of australian girls in the room next to us who are living in bath working in private schools as assistants( we cant seem to figure it out but all the girls we meet seem to be linked to the private sector somehow.....daddys credit card ahem.....)they were somewhat interesting with their take on travelling as they had brought a coffee perculator and always had frothy lattes in the morning.......i suppose it beats our hot chocolate in a tent but we think ours is more fun.oh and for them to find out that the hostel doesnt have wifi was such a culture shock as they had brought their laptop with them.....they should see this so hello girls(mr fish is waving).also dont leave a city on a bank holiday nothing is open at all as we found out to our dismay, and for some reason packet pasta just doesnt quite fill you up as much as you would hope it to.....but thznk god for the campsite owner who after telling us to move the tent in case a camper van wanted to come through :& he then redeemed himself by making us some freash bread and strage gingery but not muffins that went down a treat.
note: if you are going to carcassonne to stay in the hostel dont be fooled by the big castle into thinking it would be all historic and that u go up there and its full of shops and food halls.....as well as the hostel and let me tell you on small winding streets bikes with panniers arent that accomodating and whilst on the subject of panniers shane has now broken his one as well...one all but it has been fixed through cunning and learning that knifes should all have safety locks and tie wraps.so no problem lols.oh yeah back to carcassonne in the hostel at night halfway through watching zorro in french the barman/receptionist/allround cool guy came over and enlightend me to the bottle of wine for 4 euros and me being me of course i had to accept the challenge.nearly got all the way through but whilst ending a phone conversation i got a txt from shan telling me that it was mixed dorms i looked drunk and they were hot i hurriedly got off the floor i was leaning against and made my way up to the doorm leaving the half glass that would have marked me as finished therefore robbing me of my sense of drunken achievment.and of course upon arriving finidng that one woman was taken and the other not what i would call attractive my drunk state started to annoy the hell out of shane as apparently i was shouting but i seem to think that talking loudly so that he could hear me on the bottom bunk whilst the lights were still on was perfectly acceptable behaviour for a hostel.there has to be one drunk person so why not fill the gap in the market eh?
however if i had of known that the nextday we would be here i dont think i would have started that bottle.here is reffering to the place that is exactly 81 miles away from carcassonne at 15mph average with laden bikes.thats why we are having a rest day and promising ourselvs that we will never be that stupid again but when its flat make good use of it right???
oh and if u come to sete go to eat at "le grillon" 11euros for a 3 course meal(i had escargo,possion et the largest cheese board in the world brought out and to be told eat what you can being a kendrick i was in there,and yes ant you would of had a field day) and to see on the sign outside "le vin est compris" definately go there pretty much all u can eat in 3 course style with loads of free wine!!!!!!!!
anyway im sensing this is rather long and you shall have dozed off by now so ill return another day.
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