Backpacking

So many things have happened since we last updated this blog, but all I can remember from the time is a diving Italian prick, an unfortunate Lucas Neill and a little Spanish referee who could.

We're out. The ride was great though. Even if it it did end in about the most shattering circumstance possible. One that Frank Farina could be proud of.

After thinking a little harder I can now think of some of the other things that have happened in the last two weeks. Some highlights of the trip since we last checked in......

1) Innsbruck, Austria. This place is magic. A city sitting in the middle of a huge valley and nestled by the river Inn. We went white water rafting here and managed to flip the raft on the very first bit of white water we found. We had been in the raft for about a minute. Awesome.

Form an orderly queue ladies

2) Liechtenstein. Actually, that wasn't a highlight at all. We just went there. Why not?

Shot from the Peugeot Partner catalogue, going out to Nick La Porta

3) Stuttgart. A definite highlight. We thought the celebrations were good in Kaiserslautern after the Japan win, but it was nothing compared to the way we celebrated after a draw! I hugged so many people in yellow shirts and have so many photos with random best mates for the night.

Thank you Harry

Litre beers make quality photography a little difficult

4) Czech Republic. Although overrun with tourists, Prague was a beautiful city, as was it's small village version, Cesky Kromlov. We spent five days in the country, drinking the best lager in the world, eating stodge and taking picture perfect photos.

Quality roads in Czech Republic as you can see, took 9 hours to drive 250km, Pilot Kerr was not impressed

5) Krakow. Not really a highlight either actually. We didn't see this city as well as we would have liked since we spent a day at Auschwitz. Needless to say, a happy enjoyable day it wasn't.

6) Budapest. Our current location. This city is beautiful with heaps to see and do, and we haven't even been to the Roman baths yet. I plan to spend the entire day there today.

Hengel's philosophy in life: Take the bull by the horns (Hengel wasn't actually posing for this either)

A detour is a choice between two tasks, each with their own pros and cons

Culture points meter broke after we maxed it out in Paris... sorry can't estimate the tally anymore

Sorry about the gap between the last few blogs. We are now promising each other for the third time this trip that it will never happen again.

Take care,

Liam and Michael

Hope everyone is enjoying the World Cup as much as we are... wow how good was our comeback against Japan! We were in Kaiserslautern for it and the celebrations lasted 10 hours, Aussies absolutely everywhere... although we never want to hear Down Under, Thunderstruck, Khe Sanh or even Shaddapaya Face again...

In Berlin currently playing poker with Sven, recovering from the mad celebrations following watching Freddies late winner. As you all know Sven is clearly the most patriotic guy on planet earth and he has 500,000 Svenska companions here in Berlin, they were pumped. A selection of (non novelty, sorry) photos

Hoegaardens didn't disappoint in Brussels
The bus carrying our heros to make us very happy, eventually...

Sven and brother Elias on match day, getting pumped

What is a goal without a flare or two

No Timmy Cahill winner, but pretty good nonetheless

5 euros and you're instantly part of the Aussie Swedish fan club

11 Swedes and Aussies sleeping in Sven's 6m x 6m apartment, crazy week

Enjoy the tournament everyone.

Keep in touch,

Morto

Wow, this is going to be a draining entry. First things first: Melon and I made our rendez-vous with Morton and Kerr in Paris after taking a Lithuanian taxi, two quick flights, one expensive English express bus between airports and a French train into Paris.

The next three days involved knocking off major French attractions in most likely the highest culture point scoring day ever! First we hit the Eiffel Tower, then off to the Arc de Triomphe, then a stroll down the Champs Elysees towards the Louvre for our record breaking view of the "Highest Culture Point Scoring Attraction world wide" according to the Morton culture point scale, the Mona Lisa. Further to this we drank some french wine that night to completely max out the culture points for that day.

Saturday saw us heading back to the airport to pick up the much hyped and much beloved Peugeot Partner. After a few minutes to completely changing the way we drive we were off to Rotterdam and to our first Partner stop: a football friendly between The Netherlands and Australia!

Saturday the 4th started early with a breakfast of Hoegaarden Grand Cru´s and continued with a delicious kebab before heading to the Kuip dressed to the nines in our yellow Australian garb (except Morton who hadn't managed to locate a shirt yet).

If anyone has ever been to an interstate AFL match where the home fans outnumbered the visitors, think that except every single person is dressed in orange (usually pretty crazily and with an air horn), is super pumped to be at the game and also super friendly. The national anthem was sung with Advance Australia Fair sounding like only the singer was there compared to the 40,000 dutch fans singing at the top of their voice and drowning out everything!

The game was awesome as you would have seen on telly (if you watched) and you would have seen us sitting behind the goals at the end where both of the goals were scored. After the match we headed to an irish pub where the Aussie supporters were headed to party the night away. We met some interesting characters that night including "Frank the Tank" who had passed out in a chair in the middle of everyone a bit "Weekend at Bernies" and All-Australian "Dazza" who was supporting a green and gold Aussie Afro Wig and letting people sign his body (God only knows why).

We left the pub for our camping ground cabins, which were a little out of town so we decided to run a bit of the way. Morton and I got a little tired so we stopped and took it easy while the other two soldiered on. Morton and I, with our keen sense of direction found our way back to the cabin at around 2am to find no sign of either Melon or Kerr and with only one key for the cabin in Kerr´s pocket. So Morton and I got into the Partner for our first sleep in the van to wait and see if the other two arrived. An hour later I axoke to find Melon and Kerr inside the cabin playing cards. They had managed to run past the turn towards the camping ground to qnd when realising they were lost had found two Polish campers with a portable GPS machine who were also lost on their way to the campsite. After following the Poles who were going in the wrong direction to their GPS machine they bailed and flagged down a passing police car who told them they would need a taxi, so they asked what the police were doing to which they replied they were going to answer a call and said to wait where they were and they would come back and get them in about 10 minutes. Like clockwork the police returned 10 minutes later and gave the boys a lift back to the camp. I am still not sure who was more excited, looking at the photo with the police the cop looks like he was having the time of his life.

coming up soon... more pictures and Amsterdam and Brussells