The Final Day

Well, today was the last full day of my 10 month journey. I pulled out the last couple dollars in my checking account yesterday and now I think my balance is around $3. That was a brutal feeling. Ted and I are currently in London and spent the day doing another tour around the city on one of those open roofed double decker busses. Ted hadn't seen any of London so I figured it was something we had to do. We also met this funny French guy, Mathieu, who came with us as well. He is here studying English and is stayin in our same hostel room. Since my last post, in Budapest, we flew to London, then took a bus to Belgium, then a train to Holland, and yesterday flew to London. Budapest was a really awesome place. It was pretty rainy for the majority of the time we were there, but I still had a great time. The place is full of culture and history, but also has this wild side where people just love to go there and party. People were saying how they have been there for months or years because they just couldn't leave the place. I really enjoyed it, but I had no trouble moving on. One cool thing we did there was go to the Hungarian public baths. It is this massive establishment that has something like 10 indoor pools, each with different vitamins and minerals in the water at different temperatures, and then 3 massive outdoor pools at varying temperatures. It was pretty crazy to see. It cost about $15 USD for the day to be there, but it was so worth it. I hadn't been in a spa since I don't know when. Though, I must say it was a lot more than just a spa, it was the experience and all the people, and laughs that came from that which made it so fun.

From there, as I said, we went to Paris. Paris is easily one of my favorite place I have traveled to, not only on this trip, but all over the world. Actually as a whole I love France. The whole deal about French hating Americans has been a total fallacy to me. They have been awesome to me, both times I went there on this trip. Even Ted agreed with me on how great the people were. We were lost looking for this hostel and some random French couple stopped just to help us and wouldn't quit till we found where we were going. Just one example, but that was pretty cool to me. We did most all of the touristy stuff in Paris; the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Champs-Ellyse, Notre Dame, and a few others. Ted and I spent my birthday in Paris, which will always be memorable for me. It was a funny day, we rented bikes and rode all over Paris and had some laughs. I was just stoked on being in France for my birthday. It was so cool to me.

After France we went to hop the train to Belgium, but the train tickets ended up being almost three times more expensive in the train station as opposed to buying them online beforehand.. so we opted to take the bus instead. That ended up to be a 7 hour waiting game in the bus terminal. We had all of our stuff with no real place to store it, so we just decided to hang out and relax. The bus was much cheaper too, so that was awesome. I never had to really worry about the prices of the trains before when I had my eurorail pass, but now since it got stolen, dealing with that has been brutal. Oh well though, it is all part of the grand adventure I guess.

Belgium is a pretty awesome place. Belgium is home to two of my favorite things; Belgian Beer and Belgian Chocolate. We settled in Brussels for the short amount of time we were there and fortunately the worlds largest collection of beer in one bar happens to be in Brussels at this bar called Delirium. The place had some of the best tasting beers I have ever had. They are a lot different than anything I have ever had. The thing is though, you cannot test too many because they have 8-10+ % alcohol content. So it would take a long while to taste them all. I believe at the bar they had some 2,500 different beers. The world record for a single bar. It was pretty cool to be there. The Belgian chocolate was a whole other glorious thing. There are so many chocolatiers all over the place, and almost all give you free samples. Ted and I did this chocolate tour, and that was pretty interesting and delicious. I gave myself an awesome stomach ache before the day even really began. We didn't have to to do it until the morning we left too, so we had to get up early and rush to this museum to do the tour before our train to Holland. Regardless, it was great. On the way back from that too we stopped and had Belgian waffles that were insane. That just added fuel to my sugar coma though. The train ride to Amsterdam was heavy. I was still not feelin to good when we got there. May have been the Belgian beer from the night before or the chocolate, but probably the mix.

Going back to Holland was cool. I made it to the Heineken brewery this time, as well as the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. Those were all interesting to see. Ted is very into museums and those things so it is good having him here to drag me along. I feel museumed out very much of the time, but something like the Heineken brewery really gets me excited. History was never my thing, though I know its important, museums make me so tired most the time. The Van Gogh Museum was pretty cool, though I was expecting a bit more I think. He has some really amazing pieces, and when you look at them upclose they look so simple but the further away you move the crazier the whole picture gets. Good stuff. The Anne Frank house was crazy to see, but depressing. It was a lot bigger than I thought. To see the actual diary too was insane. I couldn't read a word of it, but looking at it was wild.

And yea, that takes us London. Showed Ted around Camden Town a bit yesterday and went out in Soho and Picadilly for a bit in the evening, and today we did the bus thing. We did get to see the changing of the guards today too, which was extremely long, and what I felt to be very uneventful. I couldn't really see too much of what was happening, so that might have added to it.

Tomorrow I will be flying home. I am so excited to see my family and friends again and not share a bedroom with 10 other people every night. It has been a magical journey. I still know I have a lot of learning and growing up to do. I am curious to see what comes next, and where life will take me. I wish I had something wise to say at the end of this, but I don't. Thank you guys for reading this. -AJ

I cant believe its November.

Hey all. Apologies for my absence. I am currently in Budapest, Hungary, with Ted. Since my last blog I had gone to Prague, Czech Republic, and then continued from there to Germany where I picked up Teddy and caught a couple sights in Berlin. Prague is such a beautiful place. I really enjoyed it there. The history, culture, and sights there are amazing. For sure one of my favorite cities. Berlin was great too. I was there for 4 days total and enjoyed it very much. I had gone there once before but only for one evening before departing to Holland. I am glad I got to see it again though. Germany is a pretty awesome place with amazing people. I was there the eveing before Ted got in so I got to wander around a little bit, and cruise before I received him at the Airport. It was pretty funny/awesome to see him. We were both semi lost in the airport I think and then when we finally saw each other we started laughing like little kids. It was so funny. He couldn't believe he was in Germany and I couldnt believe he actually was able to come! It was very good to see a familiar face in person. So we had some fun in Berlin, saw a couple sights and wandered around a bit. For the first day we figured we needed to do a bit of planning so we stared mapping stuff and figuring prices. And the final idea that we decided on was to rent a convertible Smart Car and drive down to Vienna then tour the rest of Europe. Neither of us had really any clue what we were getting ourselves into, we just thought it was going to be hilarious. So we basically put all our eggs in that basket and decided it was the right thing to do. That evening we met up with some other friends, Sophie and Julie, in Berlin that took us out for the evening. Apparently they had been living in California while I was traveling and had met Ted and few other friends of mine. So it was fun to hang out with them and go around town with a local. Very lovely Germans. Ted and I also made friends with this guy who shared our dorm room with us, Emmit, who was a total character. Awesome guy and super funny. We had a blast with the guy. Nonstop laughs. Of course Ted and I figured we had to see the Berlin Wall, since we were in Berlin so we did that of course. Pretty gnarly to see.

So our last day in Berlin we go to pick up our Smart Car from the rental place. For those of you who might not know what a smart car is; its pretty much the worlds smallest street legal car. It is as long as it is tall, seats only 2, only goes about 70 mph and looks like a pod. But they are hilarious. So we get to the rental place and start asking questions and learn that if we were to take the smart car on the Autobahn we would be miserable. So we ended up getting a BMW r as the Germans call it a "BMV." It was only a couple bucks more and we would be able to riproar on the Autobahn with it. So it was an easy call. We were kind of bummed that we couldnt get the Smart Car but once we figured out how long it would have taken us to get down there and how boring it would be, we figured we had made the right choice.

The Autobahn was pretty sweet. Ted drove the whole way. We were going to rock, paper, scissors for who drove but I haven't driven stick in years and letting me relearn on the autobahn was most likely suicide. So I got to nap and play DJ while ted gunned it down the Autobahn. I played the role of checking to see if any Ferarris or Lamborginis were coming up on us fast. Couple of times things got close. But we didn't see any real sports cars ripping down the road, which was kind of a bummer. But it was still cool to see it. We didn't break any land-speed records but we definitely had the thing going. It was super fun.

When we got to Vienna we met up with Peter and Susan, two awesome Austrians who let us crash at their place. Ted had met them back in the States while I was gone and had planned to make his way down to see them. I was onboard, he had told me they were awesome people, and he didn't lie. They were so cool and so fun. We had some great laughs. They took Ted and I to a soccer game between these two huge rivals and it was such a gnarly game. The fans were insane! People lighting off fireworks in the crowd, throwing stuff constantly, and they even had the riot police out and read all over the stadium. I guess there has been some insane battles between fans in the past. It was great to see though. Very intense, but very fun. They took us also to get some real Wiener Schnitzel. Which really means schnitzel from Vienna. Vienna in Austria is referred to as Wien. And a person/thing from Vienna is called a Wiener. Yup. I never knew this. We had some laughs. Peter and Susan were so fun. The next day I took Ted to the Vienna Zoo to show him how awesome it was. He dug it. It was just as cool the second time for me. There was no attempted baby attacks, but it was still great to see the tigers again. The whole zoo is so cool, and it was crazy to see that just in the short time that I had been gone, how the seasons had changed so much. Most of the trees were bare now and it felt like winter was really getting a grip. Seeing the seasons is so cool and beautiful. I would love to see the first snow fall. That would be so epic. There are already Christmas things going up all over too and that makes me indescribably excited. I love Christmas lights in the cold.

So the next step was to drive to Budapest, but wildly enough, rental BMW cars are not allowed in Hungary and numerous other Eastern European countries. Also, we couldn't afford to pay for the gas for the car... so we both decided that ditching the car early would be a good call. The first time we filled up cost us $90 USD. And we complain about $2 a gallon!? $90 to fill up a BMW 1 series. Insane. We lost a bit of cash in the deal but calculated that we would still be saving a ton of money taking cheap trains and flights everywhere. So it all worked out. It was fun while it lasted though. And I never had to drive. So I was stoked. I would like to relearn driving stick though and then hit the Autobahn.. when I have more money too so I can afford fuel.

We are now in Budapest, Teds sleeping, I was going to nap but figured I should blog for you guys. I feel bad that I was bad about it recently. The trip only has 2 more weeks. I am kinda bummed about it, but I am going to make these last two weeks amazing. I am very happy to see my family and friends though. And I am so stoked Ted could be here for the final days. This trip has been so good to me. I feel so blessed.

Well I am out. I will try to soon, hopefully a couple more times before I get back. -Bye.

I keep forgetting where I am..

Hello. I am in Austria. I keep forgetting where I am lately though. I have been moving placesto often in the past couple months that it is really getting weird when I try to think of where I am and it takes a moment. But yea.. I am in Vienna, Austria. I had heard it was a boring place from a lot of people before coming here, and at first, I kind of believed them. Yesterday I kind of just wandered around the city and it really wasn't that stimulating. But today, a full 180. I had one of the best days I have had in a while. I slept in, then went to the Vienna Zoo and walked around this part of town that looked like it had Christmas decorations up and it made me so excited and warm inside. The Zoo though, easily my favorite zoo I have been to in the world. It was enormous and in the middle of this amazing museum park. It was really a sight. I fell in love. The season really added to the beauty of it too. All the trees had the autumn leaves and where going bare. The ground was littered with the bright, fallen leaves and the zoo had a very old, classic style. It is what you imagine a zoo to look like when you are a child. But along with it's classic style, this zoo had one of the best varieties of animals and fish. They had an incredible snake collection too; everything from Cobras to Vipers and massive Anacondas. I have seen a zoo or two in my day and this one really was the best. It even beat out the one in Bali and I loved that one. That one did have the animal petting and stuff, but this one just wowed me so much. It had a lot of pastel coloring and unique rod-iron fencing. It really felt like you were so close to a lot of the animals too. In fact, one of the most intense things happened today that serious blew me away. First off, last night I dreamed about having a pet white tiger and we were best friends and we hung out the whole dream and it kept giving me hugs and playing with me. It was a great dream. So today I really wanted to sit and spend some time watching tigers. I was watching these two massive Bengal tigers in the indoor exhibit and there was basically just an inch thick single pane glass thing between you and the tigers. The tigers were just laying down kind of looking around, not too interested in the viewers. Then this little kid, about 2 years old walks up in front of me and presses herself up on the glass. Both tigers instantly lock onto her in a very eerie way. And suddenly the large male just locks on and starts to get in full attack mode. The baby is just laughing and bouncing uo and down touching the glass, having a blast, while this tiger is just licking its chops (literally). I was drop jawed.. and started snapping pictures hoping that something awesome was about to happen. So this tiger starts to get up slowly, locked onto the baby and slowly starts crouching over towards the glass, back arched up and head low. I was getting so wound up, it was so tense in the little room. Everyone is staring at this baby and the tiger and then the tiger lunged from about 5 feet away, claws out, mouth open right into the glass. It made the craziest BOOOM. The tiger didnt even seem fazed, it just popped back up and started biting at the glass like a maniac, slobbering and steaming up the window. Then it kind of regrouped and walked back a little, still eying the child and lunged again from a different angle. I saw it coming and tried to video it but my camera wouln't go into video mode! I was so bummed. But I managed to snap off about 15 pictures. After this attempt the tiger sat there and kept trying to break the glass to get to this baby. It was going up on its hind legs and smashing its paws and face into the window. It was incredible. And all the while the little baby is laughing and putting its hand up on the glass, inches from the incredible jaws of the tiger. I got this picture of the baby putting its hand right on the nose of the tiger as its attempting to maul her through the glass. It was truly an amazing sight. So fun to watch. I was laughing pretty hard about it too, and people were looking at me like I was disturbed. But it really was that nuts that you had to laugh about it. I have never seen anything like that in person. The other tigers were not nearly as exciting after that event. I also watched a lion gnaw on a giant femur bone, that was pretty sweet to watch. Big cats are so cool. Mike Tyson used to have a pet white tiger. After my wonderful time at the zoo I walked through the rest of the awesome park went to the top of this pretty hill and overlooked all of Vienna and that was incredible too. It was a day of beautiful things. Being at the zoo today really made me so happy. I love animals and I am pretty sure I get along better with them more than most humans. Oh yea! There was also this room in the zoo, where you had to walk through like 3 things of separated big rubber flaps and you ended up in this dark room... the room was filled with bats flying around! It was so rad. No glass, just bats flying all around you, bumping into you and going nuts. It was another incredible experience. I'm not usually that big of a fan of bats, but I don't hate them. That was pretty cool though. There must have been a sign saying what was in there though and I must have missed it, because I was the only one in there. Super cool though. That zoo was awesome. Also they had flying squirrels. I had a blast watching those little guys. Though, while I was leaving the zoo I was nearly attacked by an Austrian squirrel! They are crazy little guys! They come right up to you and they are so funny looking. They are all brown and have little point ears and just go nuts. If you stop and look like you have food they come right up to you. At first I was so into it offered the little guy a leaf as a good gesture, and he went for it and I thought he was going to fly up my arm and bite my jugular. I got a picture of it. It scared me. I may or may not have screamed. I couldn't stop laughing about it after. Those Austrian squirrels.. dangerous.

I should talk about other stuff besides the zoo and animals I guess.. Before Austria I was in Slovenia as I stated. Ljubljana was a really pretty place. I didn't really have any expectations but when I arrived I kind of ended up in the bad part of town and was like oh no... I have 4 days here... The walls around the place where I stayed were littered with graffiti and I was not sure as to what was going on. I also didn't arrive there till 2 am. So that was weird. But The next day, started walking around and got out of the weird hostel area and found the city center. It was beautiful. Really cool and peaceful. Unfortunately the first day I was there was the only clear day.. the rest of the time I was there rained very very heavily. I still went out and explored the city but I couldn't take pictured because I didn't want to ruin my camera. Slovenia was cool though. Some very pretty girls there as well. And most everyone speaks english. Which is good because Slovenian is the most intense language. I could not understand a flippin word! I met some girls out one night from there and tried to get them to teach me some words but I could not pronounce anything for the life of me. They were getting a kick out of me trying to read Slovenian too. Funny stuff. It was a good time. I met this French guy too who's family owned a Winery in France and he was out traveling around getting more educated on the wines of the world. He was a cool man. Good guy to keep in contact with. There are a ton of other great things to see in Slovenia, such as like really cool caves and sceneries, but the weather did not permit me to go see such things. Next time. I don't think I will make it to Poland this trip anyway so I will have to come back. I also wont be making it to Iceland which I really wanted to do.. So I will have to come back.. Norway and Finland too... Theres so much to see still. Once I have more money.

I am off to Prague tomorrow and I am pretty excited about that. There is this amazingly cool Cathedral that I want to see there. It is pretty much the only one I am really excited about. Its called Sedlec-Ossuary. Look it up. It looks awesome.

But then, the most exciting, my best friend, Ted, from home is coming to Berlin to meet me to travel with me for my last 20 days!!!! I am so fired up about that. So stoked. It is going to be a blast. He has never been to Europe so it will be a great experience for him I hope. So excited about it.

So yep, bye bye.

Venizia.

Hello all. I am currently in Venice, soon to be boarding a train to Slovenia. Pretty excited about it. I don't know anything about Slovenia, or even what there is to do there. I heard its cheap though and after Italy that seems like a dream. I love Venice though. The place is much more captivating and awesome than Rome to me. Genova and Milan were actually both cooler than Rome I though. When I got there the guy at the hostel was like nearly upset that I was only spending a day and half in Rome. SO he wrote out all the places I needed to go and all this junk. I mean the guy was great, and really seemed to care about everything there and really took the time to try to help me make the most out of my stay. So I appreciated that. I don't know how long he thought I was going stay at each attraction there, because I felt like a day and half was plenty. I didn't bother going into any of the things though. I didn't see any sense in that. And I didn't really care. Call me uncultured or whatever, but I would much rather see some beautiful landscape or something like Venice than some old buildings. I am sure it will upset people that I refer to Rome in such as way, seeing as so many people were soo fond of it. Whatever. The big fountain there was pretty impressive though (can't even remember the name of it, and I don't care enough to google it). But in all truth, it just kinda reminded me of Caesars Palace in Vegas.. minus the fun and gambling. You can drink in the streets though in Rome, but apparently its super frowned upon. I am so annoyed by that. It really rubs me the wrong way when people look at you like a jerk when you are just having a casual road-beer and doing some sightseeing. They really give you dirty looks. I just laugh it off though. I accidently poured a beer in a womans shoe today though.. she was not stoked. It was a totally accident and I said sorry, but she wasn't having it. I was trying to get my sandwich out of a bag and happened to tilt my hand funny while doing so and yea poured a little bit out just as this woman was walking by in her heels and she got a little wet. I don't think it helped that I laughed at first. Oh well. I think the people of Venice will be very relieved when I am gone. I have had fun though. Back to Rome though; I went out the first evening with this guy from Canada who was in my same room and doing the same 2 day deal in Rome. We went out on the town and tried to find a pub semi-early in the evening and I ended up making good with this girl who owned a pizza place there and finagled myself some free pizza. We hung out for a bit and she showed me this cool cheap bar in the town that smelled like old dirty babies and hot fish. It was hard to stay inside the place. But it was pretty funny trying to put my finger on the smell. That was fun though. I now know I should marry a girl that owns a pizza place, or some sort of food place, or maybe a chef. Not a bartender though. Maybe a bartender. We'll see. Anywho, the day after that, the canadian and I headed down to check out the Colosseum. But before we got there I needed a bit of the "hair of the dog." So we get off the metro and wander around the outskirts of the area looking for a drink. Some indian guy pops out of nowhere and he starts yelling prices at me for drinks. We agree on a negotiated price and and Allan (the Canadian) and I grab a seat outside. I am facing the restaurant and I keep looking at this poster and it looked like a bunch of guys in diapers with girls around them. I couldn't see it too well so I asked Allan if he could.. he tells me no its a bunch of men in tighty-whiteys... and those aren't girls, they are guys in drag. We kinda look at eachother and he says, "I think we're at a gay bar." I look at him, look at the poster, look next to the poster at a rainbow sticker then look up to a giant rainbow banner, then look at the name of the bar.. "Coming Out," with a logo to two men's silhouettes overlapping. Instant embarrassment and uncontrollable laugher came over us like a tsunami. We started looking around and just couldn't stop watching people watch us. Just two dudes havin a beer at a gay bar. It was ridiculous and hilarious. Needless to say we did not stay for another round. The Colosseum was pretty cool. Walked around it once and checked the Forum out for a bit. But yea, I was over it pretty fast. To get in was like 15 euros and a 3 hour wait or something. Yea right. I don't even spend 15 euros on the days meals. To get into the Vatican is also like 15-20 euros and if you don't reserve online you can wait for like 4+ hours. I went there, checked out St. Peter's square and then fell asleep in the marble. Had a nice little nap in the sun. That was a highlight of the day. You forget sometimes how amazing naps are. Short naps. The ones where you wake up at like 11 when you crashed at 5 are no good. Their good if you're in a party place actually. Not if you are in Venice or somewhere quiet like this. Rome is alright though. If you're into that whole thing I am sure you can spend a lot more time there. I felt 2 days was plenty. Venice I think 3 days was plenty too. This place is a maze though. You need one whole day to just find where your staying. Not really. But it is confusing at times. It reminded me of the movie the Labyrinth with David Bowie. One of my favorite movies still. So epic. David Bowie + Jim Henson.. dream team. I wonder if Jim Henson has an autobiography? Im reading Bruce Lee's biography right now and it's pretty good. Pretty funny because apparently he was kind of a show off and jerk at times. One lady that's interviewed in the book says something like 'I was told not to say bad things about some one so I am not going to say much about Bruce...' then she briefly talks about how he was a jerk and disrespectful. I laughed. In his movies he portrays himself as the confident "good guy," but I guess he was a bit of a loose cannon and had a bit of a stutter. He still is pretty rad though. Anyway, traveling is good, I will stop talking about Bruce Lee.. I am excited for Slovenia. I was supposed to go to Croatia after but I don't have the time unfortunately. I think that will be a place I will come back too though. Croatia and Greece. For sure. After Slovenia I am going to Austria then Czech Republic. Excited for both those too. I set it up so that I can spend halloween in Progue. I feel like that will be a good time. Not sure what I will do for a costume though. I'm sure I can throw a little outfit together though.

Anyways I am off. I have a bit more time in Venice and I might go grab food or get lost again.. This place is so awesome how there is water everywhere. They don't have a metro.. they have water-busses. The Taxi's are water taxi boats and instead of like horse carriage rides they have the Gondola deal. They are funny to see. I really want to see one tip over or some one fall out. I know thats rude of me but I feel like the laugh from that would be a good. Everyone said Venice smelled bad though? I disagree. It is like a very mild harbor smell. Go to Vietnam or China and then talk to me about weird/bad smells. I haven't had to pull my shirt over my face once here, or get the feeling that your eyes are going to water because of random rancid smells. I do miss asia though. So fun and so different. They way you stand out there is so funny. I stand out here too actually, but everyone thinks I am homeless. I was eating some grocery store food and imbibing some orange juice a few nights ago on a street corner (because I was too hungry/thirsty to walk back to the hostel) and I realized after a few minutes that I looked like a full blown hobo. Long dirty hair, a beard, asian fireman hat, windbreaker with a sweater under it, torn jeans, and old destroyed converse eating random vegetables and such out of a plastic bag... The normal Italian citizens would not even look at me, or walk near me. The only people that acknowledged me where real homeless people and they would say Ciao. One bum told me Bon Apetito, and I was stoked. I think he was giving me props for getting food. This whole thing was also in Milan, where there is a lot of wealth. So I don't think they take kindly to bums. I thought it was funny when some woman would walk like really close to the street just to not walk near me. Like I was going to jump up from my meal and rob them or whatever. I wasn't even drinking booze! Oh well. It was a good laugh for me. Being a bum wouldn't be fun though. Alright. Goodbye.