**Travelling Worries**

When you are travelling, there are a lot of things to stress about. Here are some that I have experienced during this trip, and some I am stressing about right at the moment:

• Did I book for the right date?
• Where am I sleeping tonight?
• Does it include breakfast? (in Italy, that is usually a resounding NO)
• Is that Harburg or Hamburg?
• Can I get a croissant without 4 kilos of sugar inside it? (In Italy, that is always a resounding NO)
• Can I eat before 8.30? (In Italy, again, a resounding NO)
• Is this awful aeroplane toilet ever going to flush?
• When it does, will it actually take everything with it or am I going to have to declare this an environmental hazard and guard the toilet for the rest of the trip not letting anyone in?
• I can see where I want to be, but how do i get there?
• Wouldn't it be nice if the traffic free zones were actually traffic free?
• Did I write down the name of the airport correctly? Why do cities have more than one airport?
• Where is my luggage?
• How do I say 'Can you speak English?' in Dutch, German and Italian.
• Did that nice lady on the intercom say ('welcome to Milan', or 'would you like some jam?'

Bonngiorno.

**Accidento**

Very short post.

Last day with my friend the tractor truck. I call him that because he runs on diesel and is louder than my grandfather's old tractor. And more expensive to rent than a truck, relevant when you see what is coming.

I had been driving the old tractor all over Tuscony, with visits to Siena, Monteriggioni, Follonica, Saturnia, Pisa and Florence. Today, was the last day, after about 8 days of driving on the wrong side of the road, dodging insane Italians on all manner of vehicles. Tractors, motorbikes, cars, trucks, scooters, bicycles and don't forget the occaisional suicidal pedestrian or gawking tourist. They threw everything they had at me and the old tractor, and we just laughed.

Until today.

Pulling up outside Europcar to return the keys, get our stuff out and quickly run to the train station togo to Milan, I heard a sickening crunch and a corresponing lurch against the steering wheel. 'Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap' is about the only thing that went through my head. Better yet, there's already a policeman at my window, going 'seriously, I can't believe you just did that'.

Not only was I right outside Europcar, I was also outside the police station. It gets worse. The car I hit wasn't just a car, it was a Mercedes. What's worse, the Mercedes belonged to one of the policemen in the building. What's worse, the policemen around me started to ultiply. The guy from Europcar appeared and seemed to be negotiating something for me/him/us. All of this was happening in Italian as I wondered if it seriously would be all that bad an idea to run away.

'Don't worry, happens all the time says the policemen owning the car' (he probably got some sweet insurance deal out of it all'. 'Don't worry, happens all the time', says the Europcar guy.

Damage to cars being his headlight, and some rubber that rubbed off his bumper onto the side of our car that can easily be removed by hand. Damage to mine and Annabel's wallets. Well, its too embarrassing to say, except that we need to pay the full premium, regardless of the damage, and that we may as well have rented a tractor, a truck, and a rocketship, sent them half way to the moon and back as well as refueled them 3 times before returning them to the depot minus their headlights and paid or their replacement, and it would have been cheaper.

Am safely in Milan (cos I know you were worried)

Ciao.

**Linguistic Adventures**

1. I went into a caffe and ordera 'Latte' (I saw it on the menu, a 'Latte')
Girl: Latte?
Rob: Si.
Girl: Blanche?
Rob: Si si, uno Latte
Imagine my surprise when I am given a nice warm cup of milk.

2. I was trying to buy extra credit for my phone for more than a week. I found a store with 'Vidaphone' on the outside. Everyone previously seemed absolutely convinced that there was no way to add credit to a German SIM card from Italy (which is just rubbish). I managed to convey that I need 10€ credit. The lady spoke no English or French. I tried to ask if it would work even if the SIM card was German. So then she looked relieved and started going off in German. It took me about a minute to explain that I couldn't actually speak German, just had a German phone.

3. After a trip to the beach in Follonica, I needed to wash all of my clothes (either that, or start wearing them inside out). After trekking backwards and forwards for an hour, we found one with a lovely old lady inside. THe first ten minutes were spent trying to explain that we needed a washing machine and not a dryer. Eventually the dispute was settled with emphatic hand gestures and everyone chanting 'acqua, acqua, si!'

4.In Siena, we stayed at a place called Cassa Laura. Because Laura was apparently not home. Bencini Laura, her mother (or perhaps grandmother [we'll never know]) let us in. We spoke no Italian, she spoke no English or French. She took out money and gave us a key. Along with a 15 minute explanation of where to park our car, how to open the door and where we could leave our bags during the day and what we should do with the key in the morning. Apparently convinced that we had understood every word, she left. The next day, we returned after leaving our bags and key in the house as instructed only to find that the whole place was locked with no one apparently home. Bencini Laura came home and started scolding us in Italian. It was hilarious. But she kept asking questions as if we were going to be able to respond. What a nice lady. LOL

Ciao

Comments

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**Berlin**

So I know this is confusing, hell, I'm still confused and I am about to try and explain it to you all. I have no phone credit anymore, it seems not a single postbox exists here and this is the first internet cafe I have found that doesn't look like it belongs to a third world country.

Now, this blog isn't quite turning out as one might have expected it to. So everything is all over the place. I don't want to overload you all with information, so here is a quick summary of where i have been.

Day1: Hannover
Day2: Osnabruck
Day3: Hamburg
Day4: Rostock
Day5: Berlin
Day6: Florence
Day7: San Gimignano
Day8: San Gimignano (but visited Monteriggioni)
Day9: will be Siena [today]

For those areas I haven't yet told you about, I will come back to them at some stage in the future. But I need to get my time in Berlin off my chest, as so far it has been one of the most mind-altering. Here is what happened:

• Got a ride with some guy from the internet (some car pooling website) as advised by Mike (Nicole's b/f). Guy ripped me off, [note to self, learn to haggle before going to Nepal].
• Met my Welsh and English [from Hamburg, which you may or may not yet know about] buddies at the Brandenburg gate [on phone] Rob: 'seriously mate, I can't see the Gate, are you sure its near the station I got off at?' Jake:'OK, go stand in the middle of the street and look down it, see that big fuck-off gate with the horses on the top? well, that's it...' Rob:'Oh, that one...'
• Saw the Reichstag
• Saw the Jewish Memorial [which takes up an entire square, absolutely massive, which each cement block representing so many lives]
• Saw Hitler's bunker [which is now a car park, saying something about how the German people want to remember him]
• Finally learnt how to spell Tuice (as in cya later) thanks to Nicole in an SMS, however, due to a lack of the appropriate keys on this Italian keybvoard, you will all have to survive with my English way of pronouncing it 'Tuice!'
• Was almost physically sick at the site of the remaining Berlin Wall. THey have a series of photos showing the terrorism of the Nazi regime. The photos of Jews digging their own graves was a little too much.
• Saw Checkpoint Charlie and almost felt the tension that existed there until 1989.
• Went on a pub crawl with the Pommies for 12€. It seems that the only tourists in Berlin at the time were Canadian and British. And the 3 Aussie guys I met that I tried to dissassociate myself from.
• Saw a cool guy with ginger dreadlocks playing the cello in a rock band.
• Visited 2 bars and 3 clubs.
• Went to find a bar with 'real music' in it.
• Was almost tricked by nasty East Berlin girl to go into a gay club.
• Tried to learn how to use the S-Bahn & U-Bahn at 2 in the morning.
• Found myself in a cocktail bar with 3 near strangers (who were wonderful conversation) at 4 in the morning.
• Chased the M5 tram down the road as I was afraid it was the last for the night.
• Had an argument with a prostitute over whether I had a cigarette or not.
• Woke up super early.
• Checked out the Hauptbahnhopf (huge Berlin train station).
• Flew to Florence.
• Total time in Berlin approximately 24 hours.

Tuice!

**Hannover & Osnabrück**

So now that I have arrived in Hamburg (Thursday 15 May), via a nice, if small, station called 'Harburg' I have some time to tell you more about my stay with Hene in both Hannover and Osnabrück. But first, a little commentary of the last hour and a half.

Oh, look, its 10:12, that's what time I was meant to arrive at Hamburg, this station has to be it. No don't bother looking at the name of station, I can't see it anyway. Don't ask anyone around you if you are in the right place, just jump off the train like a lunatic without thinking twice...yes, there you go, you stupid twit.
Look, there's a sign that says 'Harburg', maybe that's German for 'Hamburg', ok now for the directions to the hostel. Well, these directions are obviously rubbish, I mean, there's no street here called Kirchenallee, they must have stuffed up!
OK, my mistake, so I'm at some place called Harburg, I hope I'm still in Germany, cos if I'm not I have no idea what I am going to do. Look, there's some people trying to avoid my gaze.

'Sprechen zie English?'
'You are at the wrong station you stupid Australian idiot [paraphrasing what I am sure she was thinking]'.
Anyway, the short version of the story is I fumbled my way here and found the hostel.

My time with the Lederer's in Hannover was fantastic. After semi-recovering from jetlag and a medium sized hangover, Hene and Florian took me to town to see stuff. We wandered around the local castle's gardens. I would have checked out the castle had it been there, but unfortunately it was completely wiped out during the war. Apparently, almost 90% of the city (of now 500 000 people) was destroyed in the Second World War by British bombers, with more than 11 000 civilians dying. I found that a little confronting seeing as my grandfather was a bomber pilot.

The reason it was a target for the bombers is because it was one of Germany's major manufacturing locations during the war. Making weapons and vehicles. Now I understand it is the major base of Volkswagen.

We climbed to the top of the town hall (although its a tourist attraction its also where the council have to work, I don't know why I found that surprising). From there we had a beautiful view of the city and the Marshze (sorry Hene, I have no idea how to spell it). The Marshze is a large artificial lake built by Hitler. Kind of like Lake Wendouree in Ballarat but with water and boats.

We visited a church whose walls are still standing, but whose roof has been missing since the war. Kind of a memorial and testament to those who died both in the fighting and on the run or because they no longer had a home.

Hene and I caught the train to Osnabrück where she is studying at uni. Left to my own devices while she was at uni, it was the first time I was really on my own and found it very diffcult. The tiny few phrases I have managed to pick up so far really don't get me very far if the first response to my question 'Sprechen zie English?' is 'Nein'. I mean, where do you go from there? I usually say sorry, mumble short words I hope they'll understand and make all sorts of weird hand gestures. I'd say that the most difficult part was buying 4 stamps for Australia and 1 for Japan. That lady was not impressed at something.

But in general the people are very friendly and more than willing to help out. The weather was fantastic as I explored the churches and town hall of Osnabrück. The city is apparently Germany's centre for Peace. It was the place where they signed the treaty to end the Thirty Year's war. Apparently, Post-WWII the Mayor was very concerned about what he called 'ongoing suspisciousness' and developed a twin city partnership thing with city's from around teh world, starting at first with the Netherlands. Young people from both sides do exchanges up to this day. I think Osnabrück now has about 7 sister cities.

So, now that I'm here and you are sort of up to date, I'm going to investigate Hamburg! Off to Rostock tomorrow to catch up wtih Nicole Hines (for those of you who know her) and then the following day to Berlin before I embark on the next adventure to meet Annabel in Italy!

Talk soon.

**Arrival and Beer**

So on Monday, I arrived to a dinner party that started at 3 in the afternoon and went to midnight. In the prior 40 hours I had spent an inordinate mount of time in either an airport or an aeroplane, lost my luggage in Singapore, met a Malaysian lady that lives in Newcastle (England), discussed Chinese, Australian, Nepali & British politics, nd gone for a flip in a tiny little Fokker 50.

I was staying with my old housemate's family in Hannover, Germany. They were a very nice family. Hene - my housemate, Florian- bro #1, Maximillion (that's his full name!) - bro #2, George-dad (who when he introduced himself I thought was 'Flodge' and Marita-Hene's mum.

THe party wasn't for me, but a celebration for Max's confirmation. It was a public holiday and everyone decided to get a little drunk. We started with coffee & cake, and then moved quite quickly to beer and wine. Being in Germany I was trying to get as much 'culture' as possible into me. Starting with Herrenhäuser and a very nice wheat beer. They kept trying to get me to comment on what my favourite was, but I was trying to say that hey couldn't be compared. They just thought I was being diplomatic.

More details soon, I need to go and catch a bus to a train to Hamburg!

Auf Wiedersein!

**Plans**

So my cousin came to visit Australia (from France) last year, and I said we would go on a roadtrip around Victoria. Mainly because when she comes to Australia she only ever sees Queensland. Unfortunately, that's about all that was said or done regarding that roadtrip. She came, we didn't go anywhere. So I made the decision right then that we had to make up for it by doing something crazy. A roadtrip through France and Italy.

Since then, it occurred to me that I have been to France, and not Germany, and I have friends in Germany to visit and Annabel (the cousin) wouldn't be free until May 18th as she is doing all this prep work for the Cannes Film Festival. So the plans changed. I'm leaving Oz on 11 May and won't return until May 30. I'll now be spending about a week in Germany with Henrike (Jim, my ex-housemate's g/f) and hopefully at some stage meeting up with Nicole Hines to see her and her lovely town of Rostock.

So far, all I really know is that I am arriving in Hanover and leaving from Milan, the stuff in the middle is really quite unorganised, which could be really fun, but is also incredibly stressful right at the moment. I think I need to take a chill pill and let it all pan out.

As it is, I currently have no idea how I am actually going to make it from Berlin to Florence, as the cheap flight I have discovered still goes unpaid for, my bank has decided to implement an amazing security feature that is so good I can't buy anything, even in Australia. So as far as that goes, it apparently includes cheap deals over the internet from some website the backend of nowhere in Europe. We also have no car or accommodation booked in Italy except for the first night. So I am sure that there are some fun times ahead.

Also feeding the desire for this trip is that it is more than a year since my passport was last used and Dan, Christina, Zo, Julian & Timmy's emails from abroad have been making toey. I need to get away and get a couple more countries and stamps under my belt. Does anyone have a Lonely Planet of Italy I can borrow?

Stay tuned for updates and photos!