2004-10-13 | Munich, Germany Today was absolutely great. But it did start out a little scary. Once I got into town, it was very difficult to find accommodation. I thought it would be a piece of cake because Oktoberfest is over with. (Yeah I know...I missed it.. but read on) Anyway after a lot of wandering to find a place and a lot of phone calls I finally found some really cheap accommodation.

I dropped my bag off and left because my room wouldn't be ready until 2 PM. I hadn't had a shower yet but didn't feel entirely gross. I still just mapped out some sights to see while having breakfast and was off.

Today it was free for me to get around by the train because I have a rail pass. The funny thing is, is that there is no security for tickets to ride the trains. Anyone can hop on, but if you got caught I am sure there would be a hefty fine.

My first stop was a huge church and also some gardens and the main

2004-10-15 | Prague, Czech Republic

I arrived at the train station and at the currency exchange (for Czech Kronas) the guy at the counter was trying to sell me into this shady hostel he had in his flat. Instead of that I went out in the city and relied on my powers of randomness (thanks Susan for making me realize that) to find me accommodation. I basically went into relative direction of where my guidebook said there was hostels.

I stopped at a few hostels that were overpriced and gross looking and this is where I made the decision to go high class.....YES.... a hotel. After getting no sleep the other night because of naked hostel sex, I decided I want my own room.

I found a room for 65 Euros and it RULED. I settled in, took a nice shower, cleaned my underwear in the sink and watched some crappy Czech TV. I also mapped out my next destination.... Switzerland. Once I was done organizing things I began to wander the city.

The first thing I

2004-10-17 | Lucern,SwitzerlandAfter the super long train ride from Prague to Switzerland I finally arrivedin Zurich. I had 9 minutes to get to my connection train and as I rushedover there, I made a phone call to this girl who I talked to the nightbefore about possibly staying at her place. Since I didn't get a hold of her,I decided to just rush to the connection and hang out in Lucern. I barelymade it.

Once I arrived in Lucern, some backpackers had the same backpack as meand I said, hey nice pack as I walked past them. They probably thought Isaid"hey nice rack" or something. But come to find out they were staying in thesame hostel as me. So we bumped into each other and walked around the city.

Now let me tell you.... Lucern is really amazing and I am glad to notspend time in the big industrial city of Zurich. Everything here is sopristine and calm. The weather is not cold at all here. The view can mostlybe

2004-10-18 | Interlaken,SwitzerlandMatt and I decided to head out to Interlaken this morning. The scenic routewas pretty amazing and I took a ton of short video clips. It was so amazingto see the color of the water, it was a dark teal and was totally unlikeanything I have ever seen. The buildings are so small and unique inSwitzerland. Basically everything is a small town and you cant even countthe number of wooden houses in any given town. SEE YOUR POSTCARDS if you areone of those select individuals who gets regular postcards.

Once we arrived in Interlaken, we felt lost and pissed because wecouldn't find one single street on the map. Come to find out there are twotrain stations here in this small town and our bearings were all messed up.Our packs were definitely weighing more for we had to walk nearly a milewith them on. The one good thing is that we were walking

2004-10-19 |Grindelwald,SwitzerlandWe woke up and I immediately went to the bank, the post and shopping. Ibought a Swiss army knife. The thing is freaking bad ass (notice the Renneengraving). It has everything a hard working man needs. Even a lighter whichis really powerful. When asked for what I want engraved, I wasn't selfish byputting my first name. I put Renne so that my children can use it to burntheir hands and scare their mom with them and their first knife.

After that we went to the bike shop to start our adventure sport wechose. This was probably the most bang for our buck and was the best decisionbecause the weather was pure crap today. It took about 30 minutes to get teebikes but it was worth it because the bikes were great mountain bikes thatwould work great for riding down the alps in the rain. We rode to the trainstation and then received info on how much it will cost us to ride up oneway with bikes. but it was too