Berlin to Munchen - AUTOBAHN BABY!!!

... So after a couple of quick drinks with the girls it was bed time, back to our ridiculously over priced hostel. Right in the city, so i suppose it's the old saying of, "Location Location".

We tried to get an early start out of Berlin to Munich, so we left about 9am and we were greeted by quite possibly the girliest car in the lot (A Volkswagon Fox), but for 60 euro/per day, we weren't complaining. Some rough directions and a map and we were on our way, by the way i was designated driver, Jim was too scared to drive on the Autobahn.

Now if you have always wanted to go fast - like me - and like pushing the limits of your motor vehicle... You can!!! The Autobahn's around Germany have no speed limit. AWESOME. I got that little VDub up to 180km/h... It just wouldn't go any faster, even after throwing out the spare tyre and taking off the air filter... Lies, sorry.

It was about 8 hours of driving with a couple of stops for petrol and snacks... Mmm snacks... The scariest thing about driving that fast is overtaking slower cars and knowing that there are Porches, Audi's, BMW's and even Ferrari's trying to overtake you. They must've been going 220kmh plus. They come up in your review mirror so, so fast.

Ok, upon arrival into Munich James and I realised we had no where to stay... Hmmm... And Mills also realised that he had failed once again to top up his Cash Passport. When will i learn? What a dooosh! So we drove around looking for an internet cafe... Jackpot, found one on the side of the road, but alas no carparks. I drove up around the block to find these gates to what looked like an old school or something and but a sign inside in German reading "Auchtung, das automobielens locht van upun... actually that's not what it said, but i though ah, no worries we are only gonna be 15mins. 1hour and a bit later we mosied back to the car to find the gates were locked and the car, oh yes, trapped inside. D'oh!

I'm pretty sure now that the translation for that sign was, "Warning this is private property and the gates will be locked at 8pm".

"James do you have your swiss army knife, I'm pretty sure i can unbolt these bolts and free open the gates", said Mills. They were rusted to the ground. So were the other gates about 100m up the road, Curses! But that didn't stop me having a crack. i'm pretty sure i even had a go at picking the lock. I'd seen enough action movies, and plus, there is a little bit of MacGuyver in all of us. Looked like we were gonna spend the night in the car inside a lot which now was becoming a pretty spooky in the dark.

But as good fortune would have it, James and I had been having a bit lately, I noticed that on the other side of the compound there was some building work being done. Jackpot, they had some temporary fencing in place which i quickly cut (swiss army knife) and moved the fence to make our exit. James piss bolted back to the car like a little girl, half shouting - incase he was heard - to hurry up. OK, so we had an exit but there were poles blocking the path. Who's to say we couldn't drive through this garden and through those shrubs and trees. Ah, i would never have tried that in my car, that's for sure.

We sped out of there like we the cops were hot on our heels, which i'm sure James thought, because he made me go back to pick his bandaid that had come off during the daring escape. Fool. Excuse me while i digress...

The previous day, we had gone to the hospital in Athens. James had a complaint about a piece of glass stuck in his foot. Now i have had plenty of splinters in my time, which should've automatically given me clearance to dig in with my toe nail clippers and get out the glass. But, he decided it best to put his faith and his heel, in the hands of the Greek medical system.

On a stinkin hot day, we arrived after quick train ride to the main hospital about midday. Were pointed to the Emergencies part, only to be told the "Emergency room is only open from 2pm"... What the? What if there is an emergency? It's all Greek to me... haha, pardon the pun.

So we waited and finally got let it. I have never seen anything like it. Security was tighter than Revolver at 2am on a Saturday night. If you didn't get stretchered in from the ambulance, which nearly ran everybody over in the line out the front, you had to wait your turn and plead your case. Terrible.

Anyway Jim got the glass out and was stiched up by who he still claims as the hottest young doctors he has ever seen. Maybe that's why the line was so big? ... That was where the bandaid came from...

Back to Munich and yes, i drove back and picked up the Bandaid, in case the cops found it and matched his DNA.

More to come...

IOS, Athens, and Berlin... What a City.

The morning had arrived that Jim and I would leave behind us the "Island of Dreams", and venture forth to the mainland to figure out a way to get to the Oktoberfest in Munchen.

It had been a hellish final night. If i can remember correctly, consuming continued till the very wee hours. I awoke in an unfamilar room to Jim shouting that we had 20 mins to get to the boat. A very quick run and pack job was needed and succeeded. We said our goodbyes and shed a tear or two (... It was very dusty that day).

The boat ride was long and hard without the hang over cure of the beach, so i tried to sleep it off. I remember after just getting off the boat and walking to the closet McDonald's, i mentioned to my new found friend James that we had pretty much been consuming for a month straight. "What if sober Rob doesn't get along with sober James?" I asked. His reply simple and straight forward, "We just go have a drink." Excellent.

So after some very terrible Micky D's - which i can still feel in my stomach - Sarah (Cool english chick, Melrose resident and Fun Pub worker) James and I jumped in a cab and started looking for accomodation. The cabby had a place - as most do - but it was way too expensive. Luckily the Irish girls who had been at Ios had done their homework and found us a place not too far from the Acropolis right in the centre of town. Stop it.

Quiet night in after dinner and a walk through the narrow streets of the old town in Athens. Sarah and I walked to the Acropolis in the morning, and may i say, so worth the walk... Just amazing views... Apparently the Centre of Ancient Greece, on top of a a hill which looks out over the valley which is Athens (Picture to come). The museum is pretty interesting as well, lots of ancient artifacts.

Sarah left that afternoon (back to study in Edinburgh), so we took her to the train station. Walking out of the train station we saw a camera crew and a very, very attractive reporter. So knowing that we spoke zero Greek apart from the word "Malaka" (which i'm still not a hundred percent sure what that means), we asked if we could be on Star TV. We just had to say how great Greece was, Mission accomplished. If only it were that easy to get on Australian TV.

Two things you should do while in Athens... Go to the Acropolis, and go to the travel agent to book yourself out of there. Not much else going on, and i found that it was quite a dirty city.

With flights to Munich through the roof and the lack of days to get there a huge factor to cancel out trains. We decided to stop off in Berlin and catch a train down from there.

It was an early flight the next morning so Jim and I decided to rough it at the airport that night, and no Jim you cannot sleep in my sleeping bag. I flipped through the travel book and found that there was a bike tour (fattyrebiketours.com) in Berlin that left at 10am, excellent, that gave us half an hour to get to the spot from the airport the next morning.

A half hour stop off in Thessaloniki and onto Berlin where we arrived a little later than scheduled. So we Frantically tried to find the right bus and get to the "Bike on Time". Fortunately the bus stop was right outside the giant TV Tower at Alexanderplatz (the bike shop). Sorted.

Probably one of the best things i did while travelling. The tour was not only informative but it was a great way to see the city. Our tour guide was a dude from the States who had plenty of knowledge on Berlin history, and the World Wars. I had been reading a couple of novels set around the time of WWII, so it was cool to actually be there, above Hitler's bunker, the Parliment building, and all the buildings still covered in soot and dust from the bombings years before. You could even see bullet holes in some of the old outposts in West Berlin. A tad eerie...

After purchasing my Fat Tyre Bike Tours T-Shirt and a piece of the Berlin Wall it was off to the train station. Thinking that the max price would be about 30 euro each for a train ticket, James and I were shocked and appalled to be informed that the price was 80 euro each. How does get nicked sound? An idea popped into my head and i headed around the corner to Europcar. Why not just drive down Jim? Done and done. The car was 60 euro to hire and a bonus feature was that if we couldn't find accomodation in Munich we could always just sleep in the car. Sorted.

Still on a bit of a budget, that night we went for a walk through town and found a small bar and had a chat with some local German girls... James just had to tell them i was some sort of Australian celeb. Idiot. Bit embarrasing for Mills...

To be continued...