We checked out of our hostel in Sofia just before 6:30pm. Jordan and I had gone to a local pub for a couple drinks prior to departure for our train. Our hostel manager was amazing at this hostel. Almost like staying with a family. He made our stay really enjoyable and was very happy just to have us there. We were also the first ever Canadian’s to stay there.

We boarded our train to Istanbul around 7:30pm. Our coaches were there, but the engine was not. It was late by over an hour leaving Belgrade, so we waited in our 6 person couchette for it to arrive. Luckily, the train was not busy at all, so Jordan and I had a couchette to ourselves. Beside us were two ladies from the Peace Core (stationed in the Ukraine and Bulgaria) who were heading to Istanbul for vacation.  We befriended them and the train conductors. When the train arrived, we were all sitting in the conductors cabins drinking beers and sharing stories of our adventures.

We arrived in Istanbul at 10am the next morning. After getting lost trying to find our hostel, a few locals came over and helped us. Everyone here is very friendly! We checked into our hostel, which looks up at the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia from its rooftop terrace. We had a couple drinks at the cafe under our hostel and had a much needed nap. Waking up in the early evening we called an old friend… Tolga. Tolga met us at the cafe under our hostel and then took us for dinner downtown, showing us some of the nightlife and sights in greater Istanbul.

The next day we went down the road to a pub and had a few early morning pints. By the evening, Jordan was dead tired, and went to bed, but I stayed up and met a young Australian who is traveling around eastern Europe before heading to school in Munich in October. We went down to the same pub and had a few drinks, and exchanged some stories of our travels. We befriended the bartender here (Borat) who gave us free sheesha and use of a hookah.

Next morning the three of us wandered through the Grand Bazaar. Not as bizarre as expected. Mostly carpet shops and lamp stores. After a few hours going through the Grand Bazaar, we headed back to our new favourite pub in Istanbul to see Borat and enjoy some more free sheesha and cold beers.

Today, we went inside the Blue Moqsue, and then headed into continent #3… Asia. We ventured by boat down to the Princess Islands and finally did some much need swimming! First time this trip!

Tomorrow, we leave for Greece, the final leg of our trip before heading home. Hard to believe less than 3 weeks remain…

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After a series of very long train rides from Budapest through Romania (Timisora and Bucharest), we are finally in Sofia, Bulgaria. Unlike Romania, Bulgaria is actually quite a bit cleaner, more modern and the people are very friendly. We are currently staying in a hostel with 2 other people from Australia, who have been traveling the globe for the last 9 months. The hostel is more of a renovated house on a back street, run by a husband/wife who provide us with free food, free beer and free internet! They are probably the most accommodating managers yet! They even picked us up from the train station! They are very happy to just have us stay with them at their hostel. We are also the very first Canadians to ever stay here.

As for Timisora, we arrived in mid afternoon from Budapest, and immediately walked across the run down street to our hostel. It was kind of like walking through a mid-eastern country in Asia… at least from what I have seen! We enjoyed some cheap beers at the pub beside our hostel and were to bed early to catch our 9 hour train ride to Bucharest the next morning.

We arrived in Bucharest shortly before 3pm and got lost trying to find our hotel. After 30 minutes or so, we called the hotel and found out our Google Map directions were taking us in the completely wrong direction. The hotel was actually right across from the train station… we had just turned the wrong way. We checked in and headed to a little kebab stand for lunch, then sat outside in the beautiful weather and enjoyed a few cheap beers before heading back to the hotel (before nightfall).

Tomorrow we take a night train (our last train of our trip) into Istanbul. The last train, and longest train yet (14+ hours). We will have to get Visa’s at the border at 1am before entering Turkey. We will arrive in Istanbul shortly after 7am on September 3.

A couple picks of Bucharest are below. Nothing much to see.

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Well, it seems like forever since the last update. We are currently back in Prague for the second time on our way east through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Over the last couple weeks we have not done too much in the way of traveling. We ended up back in Amsterdam somehow… yes, this would be the 4th trip to the happiest place on Earth, but not for very long. Seems to be a kind of central hub for us before we head to a new location. Like a vortex that sucks us back in after every few cities or so! We then headed to Berlin for a couple days where we relaxed and prepared for the second round in Czech Republic.

After almost 3 months of traveling, it kind of feels like this is our life now. It will be a very weird transition coming home.

Tomorrow, we leave for Budapest and then we connect into Romania from there. One month till we are home!

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Okay, the last time I was in Paris, I was a teenager. After spending 3 days here for the second time in my life, I absolutely fell in love. Around every corner is something to see. Music everywhere, even on the Metro. Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, the canals…etc… just amazing.

Our original plan was to stay in Paris for only 2 days, but, this wasn’t nearly enough time! Our first day we walked around visiting Notre Dame first (lighting a candle for cousin Kim back home), followed by an outdoor look at The Louvre. We then walked to the Eiffel Tower, where the line to go up was much too long to wait. So, we just stood under it for a while. We then went down to the canals and enjoyed some wine and cheese as the sunset. Romantic, we know! Ha ha!

It was BC Day on our first day in Paris so we made our way to The Moosehead Pub to celebrate. You can guess the brand of beer they serve…

The next day we tried to go inside The Louvre, but it was closed! We ended up just walking around enjoying the sights, before heading out for some dinner and a few bottles of wine.

On our last and unplanned day in Paris, we went to The Louvre yet again. After waiting 10 minutes, we were in! We walked around The Louvre for a few hours (massive), ending it with Monna Lisa. We spent the evening in Paris Nord, overlooking all of Paris from atop the stairs. A beautiful end to a beautiful city.

The following day we had no real plan. So, we went back to Amsterdam… the happiest place on Earth. We are now on our way along the coast of northern and western France. Visiting the D-Day beaches in Normandy and then to Bordeaux before heading into Spain and Portugal.

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After showing a group of campers how to make a bonfire in Munich, we started what became a huge communal fire where we met people from all over. We were staying at a place called "The Tent" which was a series a massive tents with bunk after bunk of beds in them. Thank goodness we brought air freshener! At 1am, the owners put out our fire, so we headed to a free outdoor festival going on down the street with a guy we met from England. After a couple litre beers, we headed back.

The next morning we took an early train to Mainz, staying in a little town just off the Rhine River. We stayed at a cute family run hostel, where our room was upgraded to a private twin and the owner gave us two bikes to ride through the wine valleys. We biked to the top of one hill where we stumbled across an old tower that overlooked the valley. To our pleasant surprise, there was a wine tasting here as well. After a bottle of Flicke (white) we headed back down the hill for dinner on the river. Quiet evening all in all.

The following day we began our trip up the Rhine, camping in Rudesheim. We took the boat up to Koblenz the following day, passing by vineyards and massive castles all the way up the river. We arrived in Koblenz in the early afternoon, and made our way to Luxembourg, where we stayed the night before heading into Paris.

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Time is kind of a funny thing. When you keep busy, time flies… but at the same time it could be said that Budapest feels like weeks ago.

After Budapest we took one hell of a long train ride to Salzburg. Going to be honest here: Salzburg was MUCH nicer than Vienna. We checked into our hostel around 6pm, just in time to have a quick bite and then watch “The Sound of Music”.

The next day we made our way down into Bled, Slovenia where we stayed at a family run hostel. Since the hostel was a bit far from the lake, they let us use their bikes to get there. We of course got lost and didn’t make it to the lake. Nice to be on a bike again though! The following day, they gave us a ride to the lake so we could see it, and then dropped us off at the train station. After 4 trains, 2 buses and a walk across the Slovenia/Italy border, we finally made it to Venice (area), where we got a cabin in Fusina overlooking Venice.

To our surprise, it was one big beach party. Complete with an old man singing and playing a keyboard guitar. Of course he played “I Want It That Way”… bringing back memories of Edinburgh. Over our two days in Funisa and Venice we met some really nice people from England, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Canada (the best). On our second day we took a boat into Venice and got lost wandering around the narrow alley ways. Venice is absolutely gorgeous.

We are now on our way to Munich, Germany, where over the next couple days we will be travelling up the Rhine River before heading into Luxembourg.

Hard to believe our trip is half over already…

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Seems like a distant memory, but it’s hard to believe only 6 weeks ago we signed up for our first pub crawl in Edinburgh… then less than 1 week after that we did one in Dublin. We had sworn off pub crawls after we saw the dent they left in our wallets… until of course, we went to Prague!

After Amsterdam we took a very long train to Berlin where we rested up, watched Japan beat USA in the women’s world cup, and slept and ate a lot! Our plan was to spend 2 days in Prague and 1 day in Brno before heading into Vienna. After our first night in Prague we immediately signed up for a third night. First off, drinks are about $1 – $2 each and full meals are under $5. Also, we decided to do the pub crawl on our second day, so we thought resting up on an extra third day would be most ideal.

So, our first night we sat down in the absinthe bar / hostel bar which was managed by a bunch of world travelers who were all very nice and laid back. We had a few super cheap beers, and before you know it, 20 of us are all sitting on the ground playing “Kings Cup”. Of course, to our surprise, in Prague everything is also decriminalized up to 15 grams. Not to worry folks, we were good boys! Kind of like Amsterdam without the coffee shops. Anyway, we came to realize at around 4am on our first night, that we were in a pretty awesome party hostel. So, we skipped Brno and stayed in Prague.

Our second day we walked around and did the tourist thing by day. Getting lost in old town, following the rivers, and so on. By 8pm, we were pretty tired, so we went to a pub crawl (contradictory, I know). Well, this pub crawl is all you can drink (absinthe too) in the first hour, then 4 bars with VIP entrance… Including the biggest club in Central Europe (5 stories). This pub crawl was also twice the size of our last ones… combined. Did I mention it is cheap in Prague yet? Well, it is. In 3 days of splurging we spent almost $100.

After stumbling back to our hostel at around 3:30am, Jord went to bed, but Sean stayed up and socialized in the hostel bar with a few fellow travelers until about 6:30am. Waking up the next day by noon.

Our final day was a planned quiet day and night to prepare for our travels further southeast. Always the plan… but that wasn’t the case whatsoever. After watching some of the fellow hostelers play some live reggae (including Sublime covers), we decided to stay up for a bit and chat with everyone. Jord, going to bed at 7am (they serve beer all night here) and Sean, didn’t sleep until we got on the train.

You come to realize pretty quickly how important sleep is. However, well worth it! We arrived in Vienna and resting up (really this time)… then went to Bratislava, Slovakia where everything was half the price of Prague… Sigh.

We are now in Budapest (beautiful), off to Salzburg tomorrow, staying at “The Sound of Music” themed hostel.

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So, we left off in Leuven, Belgium… wow, that feels like ages ago! Been a while since the last update. Internet time has been rather limited lately.

After Leuven, we caught our bus to Rock Werchter, a 4 day rock concert with an 80,000 person capacity, over 60 bands and super strong beer!

Day 1:
Started with Seasick Steve ft. John Paul Jones, and ended with The Chemical Brothers. Sean got a bit drunk. Made friends with neighbours and generally rocked out.

Day 2:
Started with My Chemical Romance and ended with Kings of Leon. Jord got loser drunk, climbed a fence trying to leave the festival (and ended up in the VIP section), got tackled by 3 security guards and kicked out of Rock Werchter. It’s ok, we told the ticket desk he lost it while in a mosh-pit. He got back in (sorry Mom and Dad).

Day 3:
Relaxing day. All our 12% beers are now gone. Bed early.

Day 4:
At Rock Werchter they have a rule: if you pick up 20 bottles and bring them in, you get a free drink token. Well, we collected a lot that morning. By 2pm, we were ready! We made a slap bet stating that Sean could not finish all his drinks before Iron Maiden. Well, he won… but missed Iron Maiden (passed out). Video of Jord being slapped to be posted on YouTube when we get home.

So, that was Rock Werchter. Upon leaving Rock Werchter, we went to the happiest place on Earth… Amsterdam! Sean put his back out just as he was leaving the train station. Wonder where we could find something to relax those muscles?!

After a few mellow days in the dam, we headed north to Hamburg, Germany (making sure to avoid the produce… don’t worry). The following day we headed up to Copenhagen, Denmark on a very long train-boat ride… where the train actually got onto a boat.

After a couple expensive days in Copenhagen, we researched our ferry ride from Stockholm to Turku… after this, we decided to bail on going to Finland and opted to go back via night train back south… back to the happiest place on Earth… Amsterdam! First, we headed to Goteborg, Sweden, for a couple days of beach camping and relaxing. Then, back to the dam for 3 wacky nights of absinthe and memory loss, we are now on our way to Prague via one night in Berlin!

Since Norway, Finland and Poland have fallen from our itinerary due to railway work and expensive boat costs, we have added a two new countries to our list:

– Albania
– Montenegro

Both of which will be visited after Italy, via Corfu, and ending that coastal trip in Dubrovnik, Croatia before heading to Serbia.

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After leaving Cardiff, we took the train down to Salisbury to catch the bus to Stonehenge. Upon arriving in Stonehenge, we spoke with a Druid who was telling us all about the festivities over the last few days. We setup our tent for the first time and prepared for 2 days of relaxing/camping. The first night we all gathered around a big communal fire and jammed out a bit… Jord and I even joined in… don’t ask how. Bottle of Jameson might have been our inspiration. Haha! We met lots of locals and one girl from New Zealand (Vashti) who was travelling around on her own… like Jord and I are. The following day we went to Stonehenge. Amazing!

On Friday we took the bus back down to Salisbury (Vashti joined us for the company) and we all headed to London. We arrived in the ghetto of London in mid-afternoon and checked into our hostel. The following day we did the tourist thing around London… changing of the guard, Big Ben, Circus, London Bridge, etc…

That evening we headed out to a club/pub called Koko with Vashti (she got some free tickets). After a few drinks and getting lost on the tubes a couple times, we finally made it there.

On our final day/night in London, we headed to Clapham Common to catch some rays (32c over here!). Later that night we met up with an old friend of mine… Jeremy Petley. Jeremy, Jordan and I began a little pub crawl (to put it lightly). After losing Jordan at around 10pm, Jeremy and I continued our debauchery around the town. A few Kabooki-Kabs later, we ended in Soho. Jeremy and I stumbling back to the hostel at 3:30am to find Jordan had already made his way back (phew!).

The next day we woke up a little discombobulated and walked to the nearest train station to head down south to Dover. We ended our day in Calais, France after catching the boat. Goodbye Britian. It’s been a slice! We are now happily on the ‘continent’.

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After the 2nd period of the Canucks game, we headed to sleep in Belfast. Waking up a couple hours later to catch the early train north to Coleraine (activating our EuroPasses). From here we caught a bus to the Giant’s Causeway. After spending an hour or so here, we headed back down south to Belfast, switching trains to connect us to Dublin. Arriving in Dublin around 7pm, we checked into our hostel.

The following day we starting by buying a bottle of Jameson, loaded up our small backpacks and made our way to the Old Jameson Distillery. At the end of the tour Sean did the Jameson Whiskey Tasting challenge and got the certificate.

Did you know: A glass of Jameson is consumed every second in Dublin alone.

Right after leaving the distillery, we made our way to the Guinness Factory for the freshest pint of Guinness ever in their Gravity Bar. We headed back to our room after this to meet our roommates (from Reno) for the pub crawl which started at 7:30pm at Temple Bar. Four pubs later… Lil tipsy to say the least.

Waking up the next morning a bit discombobulated, we walked to the train station and headed to Cork. Very nice city! We walking around the city for a bit and went to a local pub for a couple pints of Murphy’s. Following our night in Cork, we headed to the Irish west coast, to a small town called Tralee, where we wandered around on the beach for most of the afternoon.

After a 24 hour train and boat trip combination back to Wales, we are now in Cardiff (after a quick trip south to Bath). Tomorrow we head south to Salisbury, England, where we will be camping for the next 2 days at the Stonehenge Summer Solstice Festival.

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