On to Western Europe...

Michelle and I headed south to the Czech Republic after our short time in Poland. We took the night train to Prague and from there took a train to Ceskey Krumlov, a small town south of Prague. It was a beautiful, little town that had a river running through it, a medival castle on the hill, and colorful houses and shops throughout the winding cobblestone streets. Another picturesque city but this time a bit more low key and remote. We found ourselves relaxing in our hostel, wondering through and getting lost on all of the back streets, running through the countryside, canoeing down the river, and renting bikes for a nice ride outside of town. And yes, we were those crazy foreigners who found ourselves in workout attire running through the historical castle and weaving through groups of tourists. Also, we were the only ones in our bikinis floating down the river and through the town drinking a few Czech beers! Oh, fun times!!!! We found a fabulous hostel that fit the sleepy little town perfectly and simply enjoyed the Czech atmosphere!!! We only stayed for two nights and then made the 4 hour trip back to Prague. A nice taste of nature combined with a simply splended historical town!! I spent some time in Prague, which I have already visited four years ago, so it was interesting returning. Michelle and I split ways at this point because she wanted to venture into Germany where she had once studied abroad. Our plans were to meet in Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. So, I was riding solo in Prague for a bit. I met up with Matt and Tony, the Kiwi guys from Krakow, and certainly had some fun times. We got out of the city for the afternoon and ventured to a spooky little town to walk the streets and see the main attraction; the bone and skull decorated church. The guys had heard of this attraction and just couldn't wait to see the masterpiece. Well, once there it was certainly a sight to see; human skulls and bones were hanging from the ceilings and walls. Definitely a creative and artistic creation of human remains, however, a bit creepy in retrospect. The guys imaginations started running away from them and they had so much fun convincing themselves that we were going to get stuck in the creepy little town over night. In their favor, we did see some biazzare things; such as hillarious backfiring cars, bikes with gas motors attacted and mullet taxi drivers listening to heavy metal music. After our afternoon beer overlooking the city, we were in search of a mode of transportaion back to Prague for the night. However, before heading to the station we grabbed a few more bottles of beer, and some cheese, bread and sausage for the train....with the essentials in hand we found our way with a little help from the local teenagers on which bus to take to the station and boarded it! However, the night didn't end there because of course we had to wait for our train but who wanted to sit around and wait! We ran back to the store in a mad dash for more alcohol and food...and even met our teenagers again! So fun! Before I knew it my time in Prague was over and I had to meet Michelle in Germany....Oktoberfest time!!! It was Michelle's dream to attend the biggest beer festival in the world! Let me just tell you a bit about the famous Oktoberfest. Over 6 million people attend this festival each year and consume over 1,600,000 gallons of beer. There are six German beers: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner and Spaten. These breweries set up shop in Munich and have huge tents for thousands of people to drink huge steins of their beer. Michelle and I went with another girl from the states, Brennen, and our German friend, Gotz. On a Sunday afternoon, Oktoberfest was packed with people in every tent which made it difficult to find a seat for the four of us. After much pleading we sat with a group of Aussie and Swedish guys that entertained us the entire night! We received a few roses from an Italian man, danced in the isles with German women, and "Prosted" (cheers) with surrounding tables!! Beer stein after beer stein....loving the Augustiner beer, we ended up dancing on the tables to the local music with Germans and living Oktoberfest to fullest! The atmosphere is purely German with people wearing the traditional clothes, servers caring six or more huge beer steins, and people chowing down on pretzels and sausages. What's not to love??? Well, Oktoberfest was an amazing experience but it soon ended because I had to be rushed to the ER the next morning. It turned out that I had a kidney infection that I was not catering to and therefore, had to be admitted for two nights. No worries though...I am back in action after my admission to the German hospital. Michelle was a great nurse and visited me with loads of food and great stories about Oktoberfest!!! After I was finally released, we found ourselves on a train to Italy. Currently, Michelle and I are sitting in Milan, Italy visiting one of our Japanese friends. We are currently job hunting via internet and will probably be moving to Spain for employment.....keep your fingers crossed for us. Overall still loving the on-going traveling........