The best and worst of Europe.

10 countries, 4 months, one bag, no rules. Here's my best and worst.

Drinking:
Best: Spain - Amazing cheap wine, there's no such thing as a measure of alcohol it's all done by a very lazy eye, and if you pick anywhere in a city there's probably about 20 bars in a 5 minute walking radius.
Worst: Norway - When a beer costs $20 you know you're in the wrong place to drink.

General Promiscuity:
Best: Poland - 4 nights out and 3 propositions...
Worst: Spain - Oh they're all really nice... Offer to take you around then you call them and they pretend like they don't even know who you are.

Value for your money:
Best: Estonia - I was living on about $10 per day, which includes sightseeing, public transportation, sightseeing and drinking. (Note accommodation was free since I was couchsurfing)
Worst: Norway - I'll give you 2 examples. A big mac combo is $15, the bus to get to oslo from the airport cost me more money than the flight to oslo from london!

Museum's/Galleries/History:
Best: England - I could write a list bigger than this article about all the cool stuff in england, but top 5 - National Archieve (Magna Carta), National Museum (Love the egyption section including the rosetta stone), Stone Henge (WOW), The tower of london, Westminster (Do they really live in that?)
Worst: Slovakia - When the 'highlight' traveling exhibition that you pay good money to get into is Van Gogh's doodles of naked fat women you know something's up. (Note: Bratislava has a really beautiful old town, just not much inside)

Nature:
Best: Sweden - Stockholm itself is a collection of islands on the ocean. It's small and easy to get to the country and the countryside is like Algonquin park. Beauty at its best!
Worst: England - There's not much naturewise, they call Brighton a vacation spot and the beach is a bunch of huge rocks with garbage floating in the water.

Weather:
Best: Spain - It's almost December and it was 18 degrees today.. It doesn't rain much... and it's sunny most of the time.
Worst: It's a tie Ireland/Scotland/England - When you show up at the end of July and it's 18 degree's you know something is odd... When your host keeps the window and doors open because of the beautiful weather, you get this feeling that you might have made a mistake coming here... When it hits 25 degree and the metro's speakers are blaring that it's important to stay very hydrated on these HOT summer days and that emergency staff are standing by in case of emergencies you feel like running as fast as possible. lol

Candy:
Best: Sweden - OMG half there stores are filled with candy, it makes one wonder how everyone's in such good shape. The classic swedish candy is hard licorice candy that's sweet and SALTY -ewwww... lol
Worst: Spain - Of course you can buy it, but there's not much around and it's bloody expensive.

People:
Best: Norway - Everyone is so bloody friendly, if you're looking lost in the street they stop to ask if you need directions...
Worst: I can't really answer this one. I've had good and bad experiences everywhere, but there's no where that sticks out.

Hippest City:
Best: This is REALLY REALLY hard but I have to give this to Riga, there's tons of stuff to do, a beautiful old town, a huge river running through the city, a great beach a short train ride away, lots of fun party people. 2nd place goes to Barcelona , 3rd place goes to Tallinn.
Worst: Bratislava - Imagine this beautiful city with nice friendly people and after 3 days of wondering around you have no idea what else to do, when you ask your hosts they say leave and go to Vienna hahahahha

Peace and Love for now!

London for the weekend

July 22nd-24th

My journey begins in London Town. I didn't sleep in my overnight flight, but I arrived excited and energized friday morning. The first things that I noticed were everything appeared to be backwards. Besides driving on the wrong side of the street, londoner's walk on the left side of an elevator and wait on the right, which is the opposite of what you expect. Houses and buildings are extremely old, people are quiet and reserved if you dont' know them, but if you stop to ask them a question they'll go above and beyond to help you out.

I met my old friend Ivana for lunch on friday and got a cheap phone. 10 pounds for the cell and another 10 for the card. 4 pence per text and 8 per minute. There's no long distance.

The Metro is pretty easy to understand with some practice, pick yourself up an oyster card that you swipe in and out for the cheapest possible daily fares. I've been topping out around 7 pounds per day.

Most of the museum's are free. The national library was a treat some very old books and documents including Magna Carta! The national musem's Egyption display was incredible, I found the Rosetta stone.

I've been couchsurfing for the weekend with a very experienced london host. We've done a big of drinking and eating. Last night was pub crawl night.

London is pricey. I've been lucky to have an excellent howst that's given me a couple free meals and met a few new friends who have bought me a pint. In 3 days I spent 108.5 pounds plus 15 for the metro on my oyster card.

I'm off to stockholm on the 6am Ryanair flight.

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