Hutchwood

Hey hey everyone!!!

So you thought i was dead huh? well ive just been busy travelling and getting boozy with Sam of late. Im going to go through the last month as quickly as i can but theres a lot so dont feel bad about skimming or whatever but there are photos on the flickr and I also had to make another new flickr so that should break the monotony of this grueling task.

Oldest one - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8075577@N02/
Old one - http://www.flickr.com/photos/12650085@N02/
New one - http://www.flickr.com/photos/21750162@N05/

So I last wrote in Gdansk and from there kicked off to Bialoweiza NP for some bison hunting. turned out much easier to go to the reserve to see them so thats what i did along with a lot of other animals. Um, wolves, elk, los, boars and a lynx. So that was a pretty awesome adventure. Then i made it down to Warsaw for a day of absolutely nothing. I went to the national museum but the line was huge cos it was free on Sundays and i couldnt be bothered so i watched a movie and went to bed. I did go to a Russian Market which was pretty cool but i was already stocked up on all the illegal guns and weapons i needed.

Then it was time for Krakow! what a great town that is! Lots of cool bars, great food, good bunch of people in the hostel. Awesome. Took a day trip to Auschwitz which was a very intense day but im glad i went. Also visited a Salt mine which was cool aswell. Had better reception 100m underground than I get in Benalla, go figure. After all that it was time for a train overnight to meet Sam in Bratislava. A few fun days of boozing and sightseeing and we woke up hungover across the country on a bus to Strbske Pleso. Making drunk decisions to go snowboarding worked out a treat as we boarded the best snow I have even been in! The runs werent that great but the powdered snow with the pre-season lack of crowds was incredible!

After kicking there for a few days it was down to Budapest for hot baths, sight-seeing, kite flying fun. A lot of walking especially when we stormed (walked up) the hill to the citadel overlooking the city. And off to Vienna after a couple of days. In Vienna we cruised the town and got boozy while doing a gluvine and christmas market tour of the city. That was when we again decided to got snowboarding. this time in the Gastein area. Sleeping in Bad Gastein and boarding in Bad Hofgastein. So amazing! check the photos out from there. They are a little out of order but they look incredible!!!

Then a night train to Salzburg. Sadly we skipped town early without seeing the city. We skipped off to Munich. couple of days there with a day trip to Fussen to see some really cool castles and we were confronted with quite a problem. 117 euro each to train to Prague.... so 234 euro or we could just hire a car for 7 days for 339.... hell yes, especially when that 2007 astra twin turns out to be a convertible!! oh it was awesome!

After not being able to part with Black Betty (as we named her) and sleeping in her the first night we checked out the Pilsner Urquell Brewery (the second time for me) and eating a huge meal at the restaraunt there. Haha it was weird a stripper came in to this totally normal restaraunt and gave some guy a lapdance on the table then left. Random as hell... anyway so then we drove off to Prague. Driving in prague was horrible. during peak hour with one way streets and signs we didnt recognise was terrible but we got through and parked in the tighest garage in the world. our fairly skinny car had only millimeters either side even with the mirrors folded in. a couple of days there seeing cool sights and drinking cheap beer with absinth before driving off to Dresden.

A night in Dresden, before an awesome day trip in the convertible with the top down to some sandstone cliffs. photos speak for themselves but it was awesome out there. we had to catch a ferry just to get the the little village before we climbed this huge hill for a view of the area. a great daytrip. Then chilling out with some other aussies and a sheesha bar before bed. Next day we just walked the city and bailed for Berlin, which is where we are now.

Ditching Betty was hard, she had become a part of us but it had to be done, the city is no place for a car like her. she needs to be somewhere she can stretch her legs and feel the wind in her.... top down.... roof....
Anyway so then last night we drank at the hostel bar including an appearance by Das Boot before bed leaving us a little under the weather today and thus blogging instead of sightseeing.

And that brings you back up to date. Sorry for long time no speaky and also for the lack of humour in this blog. I dont really say anything funny that isnt a quite from the mighty boosh anymore since hanging out with Sam.

Anyway, i miss you all and have a Merry Christmas if i dont blog before which i am sure i will.
Lotsa love
Hutchi

Hey everyone!

Writing to you from Gdansk, Poland and I'm sure more regulary now that I am a lone wolf.

Ill start from London though. I worked right up until the night before my flight, the whole time with my boss Rob telling me how drunk I had to get on my last night. Knowing that i had to fly and that I would be probably drinking a fair bit with the swan in Prague I was a little worried. So when I was closing on Monday night with no sign of anyone (I was working with the Assistant manager) I was very relieved. Only as i was doing my last job, in walked rob and another bartender with boozing on their minds. Anyway we had a pretty intense hour of shots and pints before wandering off home. good send off i must say!

Then it was time to fly! I made a phone call to a cup day celebration in its final throes and spoke to Linden, Jus and Sam which was awesome before boarding my very rocky flight to Prague. Who should be waiting for me other than my good friend the swamp cheese (Swaney). Awesome!

The first night we wandered the streets and made the worst drink choice ever. I blame him. We bought an ice bucket full of mojito. Terrible. anyway, a good wander later and it was time to retire.

Next morning up bright and early to look for a cheaper hotel then gave in to the ease of just paying the next two nights where we were. We then found out that the brewery we thought was in Prague was actually in a town called Plzen. So we jumped a train 1 hour and 45 mins to the brewery which was awesome! Ate some amazing food consisting of meat...of a pig... i think all of it.... the pig that is.... each! ridiculous. then a pretty cool brewery tour of pilsen urquell which they claim is where the name pilsner comes from and other beers should not be able to be called pils. Anyway, awesome tour and we trooped home. Wandered around a little more and ended up at the casino. where swan doubled his money and i broke even.

Next day, a little less bright we decided to go and look at the Castle. Cool castle and we climbed the 287 (although i counted 295) steps to the top to see the view of Prague. Then we wandered again before chilling out in our room playing cards and watching tv before dinner. Pizza, bars casino, more wins, then more bars. ridiculous!!

So it was time to say goodbye to the swan and to Linden flying to Queensland and out of phone contact. Lonely times but ill pull through. Hung out with a random american before crashing into bed. Early start followed by massive amounts of Train. It was from the train that i saw deer and the biggest snowflakes EVER!! Switching in Berlin to Poznan, Poland...

I needed accom and it gets dark here at 4pm so by the time it was 930pm it was VERY COLD! I walked to the first place which was full. so i went to the second on the list and it was like Queens College but only used as accom during the summer when uni was out. so then i walked all the way into the town square to another place... which was all boarded up and gutted so clearly no longer in use! Although there was still old paint saying hotel. A contrast to the next one which had never been a hotel even though the name and location were right. so i walked all the way out of town to the next most expensive. i had already decided it was my last try and would sleep at the station if i couldnt get in. Ended up getting a suite. Loungeroom bathroom and twin bedroom for 100zl or
$40! I hate Poland flippancy but i sure love Poland prices!

So I trained up to Gdansk after a walk of Poznan in the morning. I got in late so I just found my hostel, had dinner with some different Americans and hit the hay! In the morning i grabbed a tram to the beach. beautiful subzero degree day! and i ripped off my clothes and jumped in the baltic!!! oh yeah! so so so cold. hours later my feet are still numb! totally worth it though! check the photos out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/12650085@N02/ or on facebook.

Afterwards i walked the city then wrote you all a blog. Tomorrow im heading off south and east to some lakes so i doubt if i will be contactable for a while. Not that it matters ill still have my phone and check my email which is all i do now anyway.

Lots of love,
Take Care,
Hutchovski

Hey everyone,

This is going to be a pretty boring entry as I have been up to very little since hitting London. My days consist of one of three things. I either
A) Go to work.
B) Walk around checking out Banksy's and other Street Art
C) Lay in bed way too late and just watch TV all day. (usually hungover)

But i have made the following observations of working in the London Pub Scene.

1. Scottish people are SO damn hard to understand. SO SO SO DAMN HARD!!
2. In England, grown men (even builders) can order Shandys, Tops (which is like a shot of lemonade in the top of your beer), Ciders, Snakebites (half cider, half lager, dash of blackberry cordial) and all sort of premixed girly drinks without their mates or anyone teasing them for being weak.
3. They also often dont finish beers, just buy new ones.
4. Coke is the most popular mixer for Vodka?!?
5. You cant understand a single word a Scot says. I have more luck understanding the French or Germans who come in speaking their native language than the Scottish speaking English.
6. Old English or Irish men have no quarms about dropping the C-bomb at ever possible chance.
7. The English are the laziest race of people EVER! And feel no guilt about sitting down while there are 10 people waiting for beers and only the Aussie (That would be me) serving.
8. Im not even sure Scottish people arent all just taking the piss out of me. They cant really be speaking English. Madness.

But I have good news on the horizon. I only work a split shift on Sunday (all day) then a close on Monday (5pm till close) and i am outta here for the partying to commence with the Swan! Should be rad and I will have a lot more to say when I blog next.

Hope you are all well. And i miss you all heaps!
Check out the awesome street art I have been seeing, especially the Banksy that was done only a few days ago! awesome!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12650085@N02/

Lots of Love
Hutch

Hey gang!

So since we have last spoken it had been quite a journey. From Turkey to Munich, Rothenburg, Frankfurt to London. And i had best start with Munich and Oktoberfest. Now as Im sure many of you are aware how this ended up, you will have to wait as it didnt happen on the first day.

So James and I arrived in Munich, excited and thirsty. We trained to Peter and Julianes house. It was a long way out of town. we were starting to get worried as we left all civilisation and were now speeding through cornfields and forrests. Soon however we got off and as we followed Peters directions we had some breathtaking views over the plains with the alps in the background. wow.

So the house was beautiful and the welcoming hospitality amazing. Showered and refreshed James and I were eager beavers so we went in and joined the laderhosen wearing locals and drunken tourists for a litre or two of Spatenbrau (in the Schottenhamel tent) before training home to meet Sara and Westy at the station. Apparently they couldnt follow the exact same instructions I followed.

So then the next morning we got up to arrive at the fest right when they started serving. Forced to sit at tables reserved after 3pm we thought that would be ok cos we had to be home for a family dinner with Anja and we didnt want to be that drunk. from the flickr photos you can piece together a better memory of it than i can. All i remember is 4 rounds of beers (apparently there was a fifth) then I woke up in the first aid tent. From the bill of €106 i concluded that I was suffering from alcohol intoxication and that I needed to be warmed up for two hours because i had hyperthermia. Anyway, so i missed dinner, am quite embarrassed and dont really know what happened to me at all.

So the next day i had some making up to do. 9am arrival with friends of Anja reserving us a table worked a treat and we were seated while thousands scrambled for places. Not that there was much sitting. The day was filled with snuff-tabac, big lowenbraus and lots of stein swaying singing. Oh and there were twisty cigars. and lots and lots of sausages.

This time i made it home. unscathed, dry and with my dignity although i did have the wobbly boot on. The next day was spent organising our way out of Munich (harder than u think at this time of year) then we left the following morning. To.....Rothenburg.

Rothenburg is and was sweet. A totally walled castle. And James and I finally, Finally, FINALLY, got two single rooms instead of a twin room. And with an amazing breakfast all for €20 each. Oh it was awesome! slept like a baby. And the town is soo cool! its a totally walled, overly bavarian city. We ate like kings, drank like kings and slept like kings. Oh, it was sooo good. Walking the town walls was great and eating amazing (mainly sausage based) meals with amazing (mainly wheat based) beers was just what we needed.

Then it was time to skip to Frankfurt and fly from there to Old Londontown.

London. Ok, so I have no idea where James is living, but i am living in a stinky, small, dirty house sharing a room with Paulie (Lachies mate and old housemate) in White City. Thats west london and I am working in a pub called the Green, in Shepards Bush, which is the next suburb over and about 20 mins walk. Not a bad job. they have cool pump ales that you have to pump into glasses and everyone is pretty cool. I do a lot of waiting on people which i spose is good practice. Oh and on my first night I had a gay guy buy me a drink, a group of 4 chicks tell me im "well fit" and some random chick say "your a very wanted man". when i replied "by who". She laughed and said "by me you prat". I think its just cos im not ridiculously white and I brush my fairly straight teeth. Although my bosses girlfriend came in especially to listen to my accent so I dunno. I think it was just a first day thing as today I got dougnuts (thats means nothing mum).

Anyway, so thats the update. Everything is expensive as hell. and I cook almost all my meals because of that in my stinky little hovel. but its starting to get better. im cleaning slowly.

Theres a couple of pics of Oktoberfest and ill put some Rothenburg pics up soon on the flickr.

Talk soon everyone,
Miss you all as usual. Except you daino, as usual.
Hahaha, nah ur alright daino.

Take care
Hutch

Hey Everyone!

As you can see from my map i have been busy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12650085@N02/

So i left you all in Naples with big plans of going to Pompeii. Well those plans came to reality as can be seen in my flickr site. Pompeii was pretty cool but to be honest i dunno. I guess i built it up to much and expected there to be bodies everywhere and other cool stuff whereas almost everything good was removed and put in the museum in Naples which we didnt visit. The plaster casts of the depressions the bodies did leave were pretty cool though, as were the remains of the city. i did really enjoy it but i think i expected more thats all. Apparently Naples has the best pizza in the world and invented it. We went to arguably the best pizza restaraunt in Naples. They only serve Margherita and Napoli and although awesome, not the BEST pizza i have ever had. Actually i think Linden and I have cooked better. Jez im bagging this place out a bit. I really did love Naples, Pompeii and the Pizza I promise!

So after that it was pretty much time to head towards Greece and island time. So we jumped a train back to Rome (where we would fly to Athens). Coincidently our timing got us there on the right day for White Night! A huge festival that covers all of Rome with live music and all sorts of crazy fireworks and parades! It was awesome! I just walked the streets seeing amazing things! I stupidly left my camera at home though. It was sooo amazing to see fireworks and a live band in front of the arch at the foot of the colusseum, breakdancers and just below the palantino on the giant bit of free land there was a huge set up of thousands of coloured lit up globes! Amazing!

So then it was time for the flight which went off without a hitch and we were in Athens. We had to skip the ruins and exploring of southern mainland greece due to the fires but had a great time wandering around Athens. We saw the acropolis and the changing of the guard at both the unknown soldier and at the presidents house. We even checked out the stadium for the first olympic games. So close to jumping that fence and doing a lap... Then it was ferry time to the Greek Party Island Ios. On it we met an Argentinian guy named Andy and I ran into Dirk Heinz from Queens and his mate Matt from Hildas! So we hung and partied with those guys along with some other aussies we ran into in Pamplona and Lagos (Dan, Tab and Kiera). So we had quite a possie as we lay on the beach for 3 days and nights spending the nights partying VERY hard. You may have heard about the fight with the Melbourne Footy Boys on Ios. Yep that happened while we were there. And some random idiot punched me from nowhere while i wasnt looking. Im lucky that didnt turn into a fight because they turned out to be Bra Boys (Sydney Street Gang) and I might have been a lot more than just sorefaced. End of the day i was happy to bail the morning after to Santorini. We hired four wheelers and cruised around the island which was awesome before we lost Dirk, Matt, Robin (Belgian chick) and 2 aussie boys to the Athens Ferry. So it was down to the 5 aussies. We hung out the next day on Mykonos before James and I left for Turkey!

We arrived early in the morning and were pretty happy to just jump a local minibus to some accomodation and hit the beds for a couple of hours. Then it was time to see the ruins of Ephesus. Theyre 2nd century BC roman ruins and theyre pretty cool. The photos can be seen on the flickr. I especially like that latrine photo. Call me a nudist but im a pretty big fan of pulling my pants down with thousands of people around.... hehe, dont worry i waited till the coast was clear. The library there was restored and was pretty damn impressive. I must say now though we have seen about as much roman ruin as any man can handle! The lady who dropped us off was taken to hospital and didnt come to pick us up so we only got a little look at the Temple of Artemis. Which to be honest is just one pillar which we saw from a distance anyway. So theres a wonder of the ancient world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis

The next morning we caught a bus down to Fethiye (pronounced Fet-Heeya, i have heaps of trouble with the pronouniation) and we chilled out a fair bit there as we waited for our cruise to start the next day. The roads here are really good and all through the mountains they have 3 lanes. its awesome and it just changes between solid and dashed lines on the bends so you can overtake when u can see and cant when u cant. genious! GENIOUS!

So the next morning we jumped our bus to Kas (cash) and boarded our cruise. Our yacht was called Blue Key and was awesome. 8 cabins and heaps of deckroom. Check out the photos! On board there were 4 Aussie chicks (18yr olds from Perth), 2 South African guys and 1 other Aussie from Melbourne. Plus Crew. And basically we just cruised around swimming and playing games during the day. And boozing and playing drinking games at night. Awesome fun. i must have a yacht one day! oh it was nice! just lying around playing backgammon and asshole (dont worry mum its a card game, hahahaha). Just what i needed after the stress of being on holiday for 4 months.... more holiday!

Then we got off the cruise just in time for the end of the South Africa VS Tonga rugby match which was fun to watch with the South Africans! Afterwards there was time for net, and a supermarket dinner run before james and i did the double buses through the night to arrive in Cannakle (chan-ackle-eee). Exhausted we grabbed some kebabs and hit the internet before passing out for about 13 hours sleep. This morning we visited the horse they used in the movie Troy because although we are very close to the ruins they are apparently not worth seeing so the photos will do us.

And in about 30 mins we are off to do the tour of Gallipoli which is going to be quite a lot to take in. ill write about it as soon as i can. So thats where i leave you all.

Sorry this one hasnt been very humerous! ill vomit and poo myself in the next few days to liven it up for ya.

Lots of love to all of you.
Hutch