Europe Awaits

After a long dark English Summer it was time to tighten the old straps of my backpack and head back for the path, I said goodbye to all my my new found Family and was heading for the Eternal City. Oh what a sight Rome is for a young Man, its old glory is evident in its bellowing streets and proud architecture, my feet were sacrificed for the good of my curiosity, this must be how the Romans fit into their undersized clothing, you just keep walking to satisfy the demands of your eyes of its infinite desires. The noise of the City was chaotic music and its stench was expensive perfume, Romes like my first born Child, no matter how loud and obnoxious it is, it could do no wrong in my mind while taking an absurd amount of photos of it. A map wasn't needed since getting lost was the whole idea, I walked through this labyrinth for nearly a week and started to feel a part of its rhythm, I found this spot on a narrow wall right next to the Colosseum and some famous arch and just watched down on its stradas and ruins for over two hours just thinking and envisioning its past, what an intense place to sit and wonder, almost too much for such a young mind to play with. One thing you do start to realize is how much of a slob Rome makes you feel for been in a tee shirt, I almost felt I should buy a suit to walk down the street just to fit in, all the Romans look beautiful and elegant for every occasion, it gave me a petty ease to think how long they must be in front of the mirror for them to make me feel like such a tramp.
The much talked about town of Sorrento was next were I was promised a picturesque typical Italian town, instead I was faced with a once typical Italian town ridden with English pubs and plagued by American tour groups, how disappointing, you could see its old youthfulness appearing through the cracks but it was too late, it had already been slaughtered by the praised rapist they call Economic Growth, it was how ever very near the Ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. I spent a day in each followed by a climb up Mount Vesuvius, I was to fly out of Napoli (Naples) so I spent a good three days here, I met some great people and drank wine that equaled the company, the day I had to leave was my birthday, the big two zero which was spent sitting in Prague airport ALL day for a friend from back home. 'A' had planned to travel through Eastern Europe with me for about 6 weeks which of course had to start with the predictable Czech City of Prague, we were not disappointed and it seemed to be a good start to our trip together. We went down to a small town in the south called Telc where I still proceed to worry that places are said to be colder then this, we arrived with no accommodation and quickly found out my source for supposedly the only Hostel in town is closed after summer, after a couple of minutes of worry we were met by fat lady who grabbed us by our pathetically thin jackets and started knocking on the doors of peoples houses until she found one who was willing to let us in, this pretty much sums up the hospitality of the Czechs. Cesky Krumlov was our last stop in the Republic and it more then lived up to our expectations, we stayed two nights in this paradise sampling beer and wandering its streets, we ended this night by getting drunk with a French School group.
16hours later the next day and after a very close encounter of been mugged we arrived in Hungary's capital, Budapest (pronounced buda-pesh-t) , It was wonderful to be back in a real City filled with life, it was first world wealth with third world character. It is one of those cities that is too close to pay for transport but a little too far to walk it, never the less we walked it and still have blisters to prove our efforts, the Market is one of the best Ive seen and the bars just as good, we found an old Turkish place very appropriate to its past that we drank sweet bitters from and shared a large Hookah (Flavored Bong/Pipe) this was followed by a dip in the ancient Turkish Baths that are so well known in Buda. We are now in Croatia, been the obvious choice for a couple of Kiwis been so close to the coast, we will see what comes our way...