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Recalling fondly my last stay in Rome, I decided to book at the same hostel again – the Ivanhoe. When the check in chick told the manager that I’d stayed here before he bought me two beers – without seeing me, as he only stopped in briefly. When I saw him the next night he actually recognised me, remembering me as “that guy who drank that entire bowl of punch!”. Awesome.

We spent our 4 days in Rome doing the usual thing, seeing the Colosseum, exploring the ruins, wandering through the series of confusing art filled corridors that is the Vatican. Jac spent her time in St Peter’s Basilica accusing the Pope of molesting children, only acceding by saying that he probably wouldn’t have access them to molest them. Now, I know it’s a big call coming from me, but time and place woman! I once again forgot to being my European passport with me and hence missed out of half price entry, again. Whoops.

As well as the above attractions, we checked out the Spanish Steps, which were less crowded than usual, the cooling weather driving people off the streets – not the hawkers however, they were out in full force. The Fountain of Trevi was as packed as always, no change there, as was the Pantheon. Interestingly enough as we were there the Occupy Rome movement (partner to Occupy Wall St) was getting into gear and most days we had to walk through them to get back to the hostel.

Jac loved Via Condotti and Via del Corso, the prime shopping streets of Rome, and we spent an entire afternoon shopping around. She finally ended up with a pair of proper Italian leather shoes, her goal for all of Italy.

We went out with the Hostel on Friday night to a club, partying without losing all semblance of control like last time I was here, crashing out around 3.

This time however, unlike last time, I wasn’t drunk/hungover as hell when leaving Rome and all in all the goodbye was rather more pleasant.

We hit Pisa still tired from Venice, leaving as mentioned with little sleep. Packs on, we stopped off at a supermarket to grab some ingredients for lunch and headed to go see the famous leaning tower.

Some sightseeing, a divine sandwich and an hour-long nap later, we headed back to the train and made our way to Rome. Nice seeing you again Pisa, it’s been fun.

Leaving a city with less than the optimal amount sleep seems to be becoming the norm, but as we leave Venice with just under 4 hours sleep I don’t regret it for a second. The past 3 days have been the most fun we’ve had in Europe so far, mainly because of the amazing people we met.

We arrived in Venice, city of love (well, water), having an argument. Not the stereotypical way of entering a city known for romance and all that jazz, but meh – and hey, I was in the right! Oh and yes, 5 hours of sleep in Milan

Either way, first impression of Venice was awesome. It didn’t stink as bad as people have said it does (helps that we came in October, not the hottest season), while it was crowded it wasn’t ridiculous, and there was some sort of festival/march going on as we left the station.
We decided to grab a coffee and watch the remainder of the parade pass before getting to our hostel. This is where I formed my second impression of Venice – stupidly expensive. Damn touristy place!

Being now made blatantly aware of the fact that the main streets will rip you off our goal was to drop packs and get lost in the side streets. By 4pm we were all truly lost in the Jewish quarters and ended up kicking back a bit on the north ‘shore’, for lack of better words, of Venice.

Eventually finding our way home we were greeted with the promise of dinner and €4 all you can drink sangria. Ecstatic at the prospect we cracked open some beers and started making friends.

5 hours, 1 plate of creamy pasta, 3 German beers and too many cups of Sangria to count, we – and our newly found friends – headed out to check out the nightlife. 2 pubs later, we’d seen it all. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot in Venice clubbing/pubbing wise. There used to be a whole pub area which the university students favoured, but the locals complained and got a curfew (midnight) enforced. Cops walking around hosing the ground puts somewhat of a dampener (…I’m sorry) on your evening, so the nightlife is now spread around and nothing is open past 2.

Still, we had some fun with the fellow travellers who stayed out as well as the staff, finally coming home around 2:30. What did find on our return? Nothing else but a threesome.

Now, I’ve been exposed to dorm sex plenty of times, and you can sleep through it (you’d be amazed what you can get used to). However, never have I experienced, or even heard of, a dorm threesome…that’s just something else.

If that wasn’t enough another couple had snuck in and were trying to go at it on the top bunk of someone who was already asleep. Now, that’s just plain rude HILARIOUS! Shenanigans on TOP of someone else? Audacious! The best bit was they weren’t even staying at the hostel! The poor guy on the bottom bunk eventually exploded, fireworks style, and had a scream at 3:30 in the morning. Man was next morning fun.

 Memories of an awesome Saturday still fresh we headed out around Venice for the day, this timing heading south (we were staying in the northern section, Cannaregio). Starting off with a Gondola ride across to the Rialto markets (unfortunately just setting up at the time), we checked out the Rialto Bridge, the Piazza San Marco, the view from Sante Maria della Salute

After 2 days of Milan we decided to duck up to Lake Como for a day away in the countryside. Italian trains being…Italian trains, getting there wasn’t straightforward and required a bit of patience and flexibility. After bouncing through various trains and stations, we finally arrived and it was definitely worth the hassle.

Como is the main town of 11 larger towns – as well as countless smaller villages – based on the shores of Lake Como, about an hour north of Milan. Absolutely beautiful town, however coming from Milan we hadn’t expected the chill, both in shorts and singlets.

We took the funicolare up to the top of one of the mountains in between which Como is nestled, climbing a further 30minutes to reach the lighthouse and panoramic view. Sadly, almost all the restaurants were closed so we were forced to journey back to Como itself to obtain a meal.

After discovering that the next ferry to Bellagio, the town nestled at the center of the famous inverted Y shape of Lake Como, was an hour and a half away we instead found something small for dessert and relaxed next to the lake for a bit. On the way back to the train (we’d sadly decided to skip Bellagio because the return ferry ride would take just over 3 hours and we were out of time) we wandered through the old part of town and saw the Social Theatre, almost flooded roughly 60 years ago.
As well as that, a church I found I liked more than the Duomo (architecturally) and a tower which I swear is from Age of Empires II…

Well, I’ve said it before (near the bottom) but I’ll say it again.

Travelling hungover sucks.

We’d decided to celebrate the first half of our trip and our last night in Berlin (and Germany – barring a 12 hour stopover in Frankfurt) with a bottle of cold champagne – a gift from Irwin Kerner, for whom we’d worked in the Vineyards. The only way to cool it, as there no fridges, was to chuck it in the pool – for some unknown reason icy cold. Although I’m over half German myself, I just don’t get them. The weather is awesome, hot even (high 20′s), and they’re rugged up in scarves and jackets with the heaters on in the trains. Then, the pool – open late afternoon till midnight, so designed to be used at night – is bloody freezing!

Rant aside, the champagne went down well – a little too well perhaps. Next thing I know, empty mojitos litter the ground and Jac’s caught a rabbit.

Add that to few hours of sleep and flight with Ryan Air (like Tiger but cheaper) and you can imagine what a relief it was to finally hit the hostel in Milan.

Along the way we’d run into two German girls who shared a bus ride into town with us (as we landed in Bergamo not Milan itself) as well as a coffee and some rapidly melting travel snacks – Milan being a rather warm 29 degrees. Thanks for the gummi worms Isi and Katie!

Apart all the typical things you do in Italy – coffee, appertivo (which we sadly didn’t manage to try), pizza, pasta, gelato – we also did the Milan specific things, sightseeing and of course, shopping.

Being the fashion capital of the world, Milan has plenty of shopping. Jac took full advantage of the fact and we spent a large portion of our time walking around the main shopping areas. I didn’t mind it so much, being able to enjoy the aforementioned fashion in action. Apparently a lot of what we would skanky, isn’t, when it’s in Milan anyway. No complaints here!

One of the most impressive structures (outside the Duomo) is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the oldest shopping mall in the world. A beautiful constructed 30m high vaulted glass ceiling encloses nigh on a kilometer of shop front, the millions of handmade floor tiles perpetually being painstakingly restored.

While we didn’t get the chance to try appertivo, we did check out the nightlife, heading out to Porta Genova, the night life area. Pretty much a bunch of bars and on the banks of a canal, absolutely packed. Shame that the trains closed at 12:30am, which made getting home an adventure in itself…

6 hours of blissful, rhythmic efficiency later (high speed german train) later, we were in Berlin. Somehow, doing nothing for a quarter of the day wears you out and we were beat, spending the remainder of the night in.

We’d somehow managed to score 3 weeks of sunshine, not the most common thing for Germany in late September, and we – as well as the Berliner’s – were making the most of it. As well as that, we’d arrived on the weekend immediately before Germany’s Reunification day – the 21st anniversary of East and West Germany reunifying (October 3rd) and everyone was partying in full swing.

At roughly 5am two German girls (Nina and Katie) returned home, introducing themselves in the faint light of predawn. By no means letting them prompt us to rise any earlier, we barely managed to make our 11am New Berlin Walking Tour. Now, I’ve raved about these tours before, so I won’t do so again, but it was well worth our time.

After the almost obligatory post walking tour drinks with the group we headed up to Mauer Platz on the recommendation of Eva (from Stuttgart). Glad we did, because it was just a massive festival. The entire park was filled with people, from African drummers to football tricksters, a full market set up and even a 500 person Karaoke pit!

That night we went on the pub crawl organised nightly by the Walking Tour guys, Nina and Katie joining us for 4-5 hours of responsible drinking with a rubber duck.

Drinking and partying aside, as Monday was Reunification Day itself there was quite a large number of things going in Berlin to go see, the exhibition of United Buddy Bears among them. All along Kurfuerstendamm Strasse in West Berlin there were these painted bears on display, one for each country recognised by the UN.

On the way to get to the open air concert (from the Bears Exhibit) we went through a large park, quite near to where Dickie, Crispy and I (2009 travelling companions) had seen a rather interesting sign. Turns out, that part of the park was in fact a nudist area, and it being nice weather they (old, old wrinkly men interspersed with the occasional woman) were out in saggy, flaccid force. However unenjoyable, it does explain this:

We had a quick, one day stopover in Stuttgart on our way to Berlin, mainly for me to greet some old workmates and friends, shoot the shit a bit. Some beers with Frank and Bernd, colleagues from my Moog Germany days, then a breakfast with Rheinhold, Hiltrude, Eva and Maik – perfect way to get reacquainted.

We briefly hit up the Cannstatter Wasen but after Oktoberfest it felt too much like a carnival than a true celebration of debauchery and alcoholism. We did however find a bier tent in my honour, unfortunately they were booting people out at closing time so I didn’t get to enjoy a beer.

Still in our Lederhosen and Dirndl, reeking of alcohol, revelry and merriment, we staggered to our train and managed to get to Erlenbach. Expecting some time to freshen up (read: shower and change), we were instead treated to a surprise lunch with the whole family, grandparents, aunts and cousins galore.

Still, it was good to see everyone again, and they all forgave our post-Oktoberfest condition.

The rest of the week in Erlenbach was spent helping out my grandparents around the house, cooking, baking and doing things my 92 year old grandfather could no longer do with ease.

In between that we managed to squeeze in some of the wine harvest, as well as a tour of the local wine producing factory.

While Erlenbach was designated to be a rest period after Oktoberfest, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go out with my cousin Stefan and enjoy some cold ones in Heilbronn.

Friday morning saw us gather the rest of our gear and farewell my grandparents, hopefully not for the last time – stay healthy you old buggers!

Bright and early Thursday morning Jac and I grabbed our bags and started what turned out to be an epic 4 day binge. We hit Munich around 2pm, found our campsite and checked in. While paying 50 Euro (per person…) for a tent is a bit of a blow, it was softened by the unlimited beer and sangria. It became a regular thing to get a beer while waiting in line for breakfast, and most mornings before leaving the campsite at 9 I’d downed 4 cups of frothy goodness.

Check in completed, we changed into our outfits – prompting the 200 Americans who’d just rocked up to take countless photos because I was the first person they’d seen in Lederhosen – and headed to Oktoberfest itself.

We were meeting up with Cait, Alicia and Verena – all friends from Sydney – who had been going hard since the morning, celebrating Cait’s Brother’s birthday.

We quickly got into the spirit of things, devouring large chunks of roasted meat while consuming copious amounts of alcohol. A 1L stein of beer would set you back 9.20 Euro, a princely sum but well worth the cost. As it was, half the time you were standing on the table singing and jumping around, so when your beer ran out you would pay almost anything to keep on partying.

Friday night, after spending the day in the Disney Castle (Schloss Neuschwannstein, the white castle built by the mad King Ludwig),we went to catch up with Alex, an army mate from Sydney who was also in Oktoberfest. Turns out he’d started having heart palpitations and had landed himself in hospital – 3 days of almost no sleep and too much party will do that to you. We visited him on Saturday morning as he was being kept under observation for the entire weekend to ensure the beta blockers were doing their job. He pulled the pin after that, heading back to Norway to rest and recover a bit.

However, where he fell, we partied on. Saturday ended up being the most epic day of all, reaching double figures in the Steins count (10 steins makes me a drunk – and poor! – man) before taking a nap on the grass as a prelude to hitting the clubs. By this point we’d moved away from Oktoberfest itself in order to sober up a bit and get some non-ridiculously priced food, having a small alcoholic tea party on some grass near a supermarket. A princely dinner of kebabs later we headed off to the clubs.

The club started off quite poorly, but once we’d downed a bottle of vodka we’d smuggled in (lederhosen have many uses) and the music got good the night was on. In between trying to set up Cait with every random who came by, executing poorly choreographed dance moves, pointing at boobs, and undressing me, we even had time to witness a fight and a couple going at it on a bench!

All in all it was an epic 4 days, well worth the couple of hundred Euro.

Heidelberg was to be another fairly chilled out stop for us, and it delivered. An old university town, there were plenty of sightseeing and shopping opportunities. We checked out Schloss Heidelberg with its 200,000L keg, admired the view for a while before kicking back on the grass next to the Neckar river with some beverages and relaxing.

We spent a day walking through the hills surrounding Heidelberg, up to Tingstaetten, but for the most part it was some idle shopping (although we did buy our Oktoberfest clothes while here) and catching up with family.