Plannage

Me and beth got out of bed before 8am this morning. Win.

We are off to get the train to Pompei, climb a volcano, that sort of thing... Then hopping on the ferry to Sicily. Good times.

Miss you all xxx

Quote from Beth's blog "Also on the Hankas-mental-health front: not looking good. Evolved from pigeon wierdness straight to budgie lovin'. We're talking full blown conversations, whistling, even looking at their young. I'm giving her like a day and if things don't start looking up she's getting abandoned."

She dies tonight.

I made friends with a budgie. Beth thinks it's weird. I called him Richard. Richard told me he doesn't like Beth.

Also, everyone in Naples has this stupid toy which is 2 plastic balls on a piece of string that click together. It's the one and only noise that is seriously at risk of making me go insane... other than the sound of Beth's voice of course...

Also, at the hostel, we all write our name on a plastic cup so we can re-use the same one and not kill the planet. Beth forgets this every time she wants a drink so uses a brand new, world-killing cup every time. Today, she got a bit scared that Giovanni might kill her because of it.

Beth told me about a big online game called 'the lying down game'.

Basically, you find a spot, lie face down on the ground and get someone to take a photo. The places have to get more risky or whatever as you go along....

Beth is the same colour as the rocks. Fact.

Naples

In our hostel we met this guy called Gavin. He's from Ipswich, lives in Australia, travelling around Europe. We took him out for dinner, pretty hilarious guy as it turns out. Pretty sure we scared him a little bit though. A good quote from the night was "Can i make this pizza into a calzone" (calzone just being a folded pizza)... The reply... "Impossible!"

We also met a chinese girl from Singapore who is pretty cool, she came round the city today with us which was nice.

A lot of the pigeons here have no toes, I feel really bad for them but Beth just thinks it's funny because she's a heartless arse hole.

Also I'm sure you lot all remember how excited i was to go on a sleeper train...

Last night we boarded the train at 11:30pm, got talking to a bangladesh guy who just moved to italy, he was pretty cool. The ladies in our cabin said nothing, just passed out. Then this huge (at least 6foot7 and 20 odd stone) guy with a big 'napoli' tattoo on his calf, sat down next to me. He immediately fell asleep, snoring loudly. Now we went for the cheap option of seats rather than beds so everyone else in the cabin, including Beth, fell asleep sitting up straight. I am a bit special and cannot sleep lke that. So i curled up like a cat on the chair leaning my head on the armrest... which was cool until the huge guy rested his arm (which was about the size of my whole body) on top of my head. I thought he would eventually wake up and move it but obviously he didn't so i left it until i could no longer feel the right side of my body and was forced to move. Turned out, he didnt care very much.

As we got of the train, we noticed the people in the other cabins were obviously more seasoned travellers than us and had worked out that the chairs reclined... there was no need to sleep sitting up or curled up like a cat. Fail.

Update on the water challenge:

Innsbruck: Hot, smelly water.
Venice: Sea water pumped through the taps...
Naples: Tastes a bit stale but not too bad. Bit of a win compared to Brussels.

Look how brown i am! Ah ha!

Venice

Venice is every artists' dream. It is just breath taking. There are no cars, no bikes, even the emergency services travel by boat. The streets are clear water canals. The houses are tall, painted pastel colours, most with flower boxes on every window. People are friendly and helpful. We visited lots of markets, including a proper fish market, with live fish swimming around in tubs, doesn't get fresher than that. Beth burnt her nose, forehead and arms but is grateful for the colour. I love Venice, I would go back there in a heartbeat.

Austria

From Lindau, we hopped on a train to Innsbruck (as that's where the train to Venice went from). It turned out to be lovely....

a few pics from Lindau, which was waaaay prettier than it looks on my dodgy camera.

Lots of things

Lindau was beautiful! Very expensive to stay there though so we hopped on a train to venice. We stopped in Innsbruck over night. It's a really lovely city... warm even though its surrounded by snow-topped mountains.

We made it to venice at 10am the next day. Venice is just so breathtakingly beautiful, we spend all day wandering the streets, paddling in the canal and visiting the markets. I sat down to draw whilst Beth slept in the street like a homeless person. Last night we paid 3 euro to get on the sleeper train to Napoli.

Naples is soooo hot, and very pretty. Our hostel is really cute and Giovanni, the guy who runs it, is lovely. He just took me out on his motorbike all around the coast of Naples at 80mph, was AMAZING, fucked up my hair though.... We are off to see some sights so will upload photos from Lindau, Innsbruck, Venice etc later.

Ranga count is now up to 10.

I miss my bofriend lots.

Family are kind nice too. bye xx

Water challenge update: Brussel= mouldy, Amsterdam= Nice.

Goodbye Amsterdam, Hello hell hole.

So we waved goodbye to The land of sex, drugs, stag dos, bicycles, mushrooms, americans, irishmen and one girl from Coventry... What a beautiful place. Pretty impressed that Bash and I made it out in one piece.

After a VERY long train ride (due to "an accident with ein personnen on the track") we made it to Frankfurt. It is cold and a little bit ransid. We are leaving tomorrow but staying in a mixed dorm tonight with 2 twin boys who are extremely quite and one guy who is probably at least Dad's age...

Of to Lindau tomorrow because Ben said we could see3 countries all at one time there. AWESOME. Ta ta for now! Love xx

Beth has stopped carrying her blade around. Probably a good thing, if she wapped that out on someone, it's probably more likely they would stab us. Plan for the day is to go rent some bikes and cycle around the city. EVERYONE here rides a bike, cars are soooo last year. Dangerous walking anywhere as the cyclists often dont use the handlebars, they are THAT cool.

Other random photos from Beth's camera!

Quote from Bashka's blog:

"Starting to worry about hanks state of mind. What started as a love of pidgeons has rapidly turned into an obsession"

Pidgeons are the same everywhere. Amsterdam pidgeons below...

Amsterdam- smoking allowed... no tobacco.

We arrived in Amsterdam and immediately found the warumstradt, which is a street full of a mix of hostels, sex shops, cafes and bars, all of which you can smoke anything EXCEPT tobacco in. Brilliance. There are promotions people all up the street advertising hostels and hotels. Bash and I where nattering away when an American (Jason from Cansas) started talking to us, gave us the card for his hotel which is right on the canal. We went to see it and LOVED it, our room overlooks the canal which is full of little boats, we have 2 huge windows and managed to bargain with him to give us a 25% discount. Win.

Last night we asked if Jason (the american), Jay (the Irish guy who runs the hotel) and Toni (a girl from Coventry (?!)) wanted to come out with us. They took us to a bar where everyone was smoking all kinds of things and we sat on cushions on the floor and drank ridiculously over priced drinks. We then moved on to Hunters bar which was pretty hilarious because by this point beth had probably inhaled too much second hand smoke and told the American that she though it would be hilarious to see someone poop in another person's mouth. Disgusting girl. Luckily he didn't know anywhere she could see that.

This morning, we are sitting in a Popeye themed internet cafe where there is free hash available on the tables. Again, I feel the second hand smoking is making me feel pretty cheerful... Upload photos and go!

One more interesting fact, we have made it from Dover to Amsterdam without anyone checking our passports... as far as anyone else is concerned, we are still in naaaarfuck.

Love to the family.

(Lots of love to Dan. We have been doing a ranga count for you. So far, in Europe we have only seen 2 gingers. Fail.)

Also, in the last five minutes a man with twigs on his head walked past making seal noises.

Bashka came up with a challenge: drink the mouldy smelling tap water in every country and see what happens. I accept this challenge. Good day, sir.

Extras

Im really not sure why but Bashka brought a blade with her. I think it's to cut up our roadkill dinners with...

Also, they have Ford KAs here which I think probably means they are the best cars in the world. (the city is also over run by smart cars...)

We had the BEST breakfast this morning... Hot waffles with ice cream, which we devoured in a gorgeous market place in the sunshine.

Sadly, we haven't found the human centipede (look it up on youtube please) in Brussels so the hunt continues to AMSTERDAM. Win.

Night out in Brussels

You have one and only chance to make hostel friends. If you reject them because they are rapey, everyone else in the hostel takes that as a sign that you are not friendly. Walking through the city at night is beautiful but there is only one club (that isn't a gay bar) open on a Monday. Obviously, that's where we headed. Beth and I have some drinks etc and get approached by a group of men. The men were not rapists or Murderers (calm down mother) but Trauma surgeons here for the European surgeons' congress... Or something like that. I begin a pleasant conversation with one fellow about his recent surgeries and how rewarding it must be to save lives... In a brief lapse in the conversation, I hear Beth talking to one of the other surgeons.... "If someone offered you dog meat, would you eat it?".... I realise I shouldn't leave her unattended....

Anyway, here's some photos of our night, the surgeons and stuff. Europe is brilliant because I can smoke in hotels, bars, even cafès... Beth is less impressed by this.

p.s. I feel like I have run a marathon, carrying a backpack around is tricky.