craziness and more...

so my 26th birthday was totally radical. i use the word "radical" because everywhere in freaking europe they are wearing 80's clothes and the girls all have joan jett haircuts, and it really sucks. but i digress...

i felt much better on my birthday, so i got to the beer tent at oktoberfest around 2 and stayed until 8:30. i had a kick ass time, to summarize very briefly. after 4 liters of beer, i strolled out with a beer stein under my hoodie, and a free souvenir to take home; even if lugging that glass around is heavy and taking up space in my bag. it's ok, it will be worth the trouble! for those of you who have never been, oktoberfest is ridiculous. there are 12 beer tents which each hold about 9000 people, plus another 2000 outside in the beer gardens. so you're literally talking about 130,000 people at any given point in time that are getting wasted. by about 7 pm everyone is standing on the tables singing and dancing. i got to the hotel around 9 and slept until about 2 am when i woke up with a hangover. a couple hours later i got back to sleep, and woke up in the morning feeling fine. so i went back to oktoberfest. but, no, i didn't drink more. i decided to ride a couple roller coasters instead. after that i headed out of munich for innsbruck.

innsbruck is a small city of about 150,000 people, but has a student population of about 25,000, so i had a blast. i got there at night, met a couple guys, and went out to the bars. the nightlife in inssbruck is great, and the girls are incredibly beautiful. not as beautiful, though, as the alps. shit. the next morning i took a gondola to the top of the alps, and i could have stayed up there all day. it was one of the most awesome things i've seen, ever.

i went to lucerne later that day, and i'll say this about switzerland. it's expensive as fuck. lucerne was nice and all, but i liked innsbruck better. i didn't stay in lucerne very long the next day.

i went to interlaken. still in switzerland, but AWESOME. the most beautiful place i've been to. the hostel was great, and i met so many cool people. i also went canyoning. that means i was jumping off cliffs, sliding down waterfalls, and repelling down rock faces. not kidding, i think that may have been the most fun thing i've ever done. skydiving is close. i'm not sure. but canyoning is definitely up there. honestly, i wish i could have stayed in interlaken for the whole 2 months. it's THAT nice. plus everyone at the hostel spoke english. not just spoke it, like they were indigenous to an english speaking country. even the people who worked there. weird.

i left interlaken for venice, which is a beautiful city, but kind of boring for a single guy. i walked around and checked everything out. and of course the boats are the public transpotation, so i basically got a tour of the city every time i wanted to go somewhere. but 2 nights was more than enough time there. especially since my lame ass hostel had an 11:30 curfew. i hate that bullshit.

not sure where to go next, i had to choose between croatia, bologna, or florence. croatia was my favorite option, but the logistics were difficult, so i opted for bologna. of course, i didn't feel like walking around the city at 8:30 at night trying to find accomodations, so i just stored my shit at the train station, went to an english pub, and figured i'd see what happened. maybe i'd stay up until 6 am and go back to the station and take the early train to florence. as it turned out, i met these girls and ended up drinking with them until 2:30 in the morning. then one of them told me i could crash on her couch. that was very cool. somehow this kind of stuff seems to work itself out... (knock on wood).

anyway, now i'm in florence where my internet time is about to expire. so i have to jet. to be continued...