8th Sept - Prague

• Booked flights to return home. Uncle had told me a pub to go and drink in in Prague 1
• Travelled back to Jana's, made funny faces in reflection of Metro window:)
• Jana wasnt in, got maps out to try and find pub uncle had recommended. Found it eventually and headed out
• After few wrong turns found pub, but went and had dinner in really nice restaurant first
• Went to pub, couple of pints, live band downstairs, they were really bad, went and listened to them anyway play Beatles covers:)
• Realised we were in danger of missing last metro home, ran back to Metro over Charles bridge, turned out we actually had a bit of time to spare
• Home, bed

• People watched on Charles bridge, decided not to busk
• Had a juggle in the park, followed by a huge lunch (3-4 courses) and a couple of beers
• Sat down and people watched on Charles bridge, had a game of Shithead on the Bridge
• Hired out a pedalo, Mike wouldnt go past the boys:)
• Went to Tescos to buy some presents of Jana + family and some souvenirs to take home (ie Vodka)
• Jana, Mike and I went out for drinks to some more local places, I got thrashed at table football. Grabbed some food around 11ish on way back home

• Went down local park near Janas and had a juggle, quite windy, school kids running around park (this one kid went round about twice as much as others).
• Went to local restaurant for lunch, popped into supermarket for some food for Journey (leaving for Interlaken on night).
• Popped back, packed, played some shithead, said bye to the dog and Janas mum, and headed to Train Station
• Went into a seedy dirty sex shop cus it also had internet
• Bought phone card for my mobile, didnt work (and have now posted it back to Jana to use)
• Was just getting to sleep (around 11pm on train) then got chucked off as had to change trains. Shame cus we had a carriage all to ourselves

• Managed to get half asleep on train to Zurich (where we were gonna have to change to get to Interlaken). I smashed a beer in my bag whilst on train so stank of beer even though I washed it all out in train toilets:)
• Got a train to Interlaken no problem, and found hostel to stay in (Balmers hostel). Checked in, around midday now
• Did usual stuff (supermarket, get map etc) before walking around town and going to see both lakes (Interlaken = inbetween 2 big lakes). Very scenic place.
• Booked canyoning for next day (canyoning = started at top of canyon and have to make way to bottom via abseiling, swimming, jumping, death slides etc). Had a game of chess on big chess board
• Happy hour at bar, got 3-4 drinks in each. Bed

• Woke up to torrential rain, meaning canyoning had been cancelled, but could do 1/2 day less hardcore one. Decided to go on that
• Canyonign from 10:30 - 3. Awesome. Really worth doing
• Lots of games of table tennis and did some juggling
• Tried to get dinner but was 20 cents short to both buy what we wanted, so I got less good meal :)
• Played table tennis with some American girls for ages, had a few games of pool, met Adrian, guy who is most amazing Piano player Ive met
• Couple of pints, bed

• Mike woke up redicuosly early, I got up and we sorted ourselves out
• Had a few games of table tennis, packed our stuff, had a walk around the town and took some photos of us juggling outside a circus which was setting up
• Met Adrian again and swapped some pen tricks for some card flourishing moves:)
• Got train to Basel, which looked like concrete heaven, ie very ugly
• Decided to head straight to airport and stay night in airport. Time at airport involved juggling, shithead, shave, popping over to France and back, eating lots of crap food, some more juggling and some mroe shithead and some sleep

• My plane left at around 11. No problems. Mikes left around 3. I got back to Liverpool airport, bought a train ticket even though I had no money on my card (dont know how that worked) and got home around 5-6ish. Mike got home no problem with his parents picking him up from Airport I think

www.shankypants.co.uk/summertrip2004

On Monday we tried to get a licence again. With the Town hall now being open we thought this would not be too much of a problem. Town hall No.1 though told us to go to Tourist Information and ask them, as they had no idea what we were talking about. Tourist information told us to go back to Town Hall No.1, which when we told them is where we had been sent from the said "Well our advice is to go and juggle on Charles Bridge until the Police move you on". Haha, thanks Lady, official rights to juggle illegally on Charles Bridge. So thats what we did.

Although on Monday we werent in our performing gear and it was quite late so we only did it for about 5 mins before deciding a juggle in the park and some beer would be a much better idea. Monday night was also Korfball training for the Prague korfball team, so Mike and I, after a hard day at work in Prague:), headed down there with Jana to play some korfball for an hour or so. It was a good laugh (even if I didnt have a pair of trainers and had to play in some really out of style shoe-esque objects, hehe), and Mike joined in even though hes never played korfball before. Quality.

We were both pretty knackered after that, and it was getting late so we got a take-away pizza (called Pizza-Go-Home, ironically) and headed to bed at a fairly earliesh time of 12.

On Tuesday we actually managed to do some busking (hoorah), getting down to Charles Bridge just after 12, and doing about 1.5 hours worth. We were waiting for the Police to come around and chuck us off as we were both shattered (we had both flashed 8 balls on Monday, but our arms and stomach muscles were both paying the price for trying for 1/2 hour), but much to our dismay they never arrived, so we decided on our usual routine (read first paragraph), and went to get some lunch and beer.

Tuesday night was quite fun though. We decided to get off the Metro a couple of stops before the Centre to find a cheaper restaurant and also so we could have a walk into the Centre afterwards (a nice romantic walk along the promenade :)), both of which we achieved. We had stopped over the other side of Chalres Bridge so also got to see Prague lit up from that spot as we were making our way across. Very pretty :).

Before heading home though we thought we'd get another beer in and found a cool little Music bar in the middle of the centre. The beer was cheapish (around 50p for 3/4 a pint) and the music was cool, so we stayed for 1 before getting the last metro home.

Mike and I woke up today both feeling extremelly full. I dont know if it was the breakfast, plus 2 course lunch, plus a big dinner, plus abuot 5-6 pints throughout the day which did it, or the heat ... im going for the heat .... but today has been a struggle. So much infact we couldnt be bothered to go for out usual beer and 2/3 course lunch, but just grabbed some greasy food at a quick stop snack place. It was also a bit windy and we didnt fancy our chances of not dropping a club into the river below if we juggled on Charles Bridge, so decided against busking as well. We have however been juggling in the park, but we have not however, for the first time since arriving I think, had a beer at lunch. maybe we're saving ourselves for later ...

Jana, our lovely host that was putting me and Mike up for however long we stay, met us at the train station, she even met us on the platform :), and took us to her house in the outbacks of Prague. It was gone 9 by this time but me and Mike still needed to eat so Jana took us to the local little restaurant down the road where beer is the fantastic price of 50p a pint, its nice and not even watered down! Our whole meal was around 2.50 GBP each, and our pizzas were huge. We both instantly decided this was a nice place to stay for a long amount of time.

As is our (just decided now) custom (with us doing it twice, in Berlin and here in Prague) we took a walking tour of the town on the first full day and learnt all about the city and its quirks and history. The tour was worth doing, not up to the standard of our Berlin one, but still nontheless enjoyable and informative. I wont go into the everything we learnt as it would take up wayyyyy too much room, but Im sure I can bore you with it when (if) we get home :)

After the tour we popped back to Janas house (she had been working all day) only to find that scary thing happening that we couldnt get into her house (her door has a funny quirk to open it) and hadnt met any of her parents yet, meaning we were trying to let ourselves in for about 5 mins with the keys to a house we werent sure anybody knew we were living in. Eventually I think her mum heard us trying for the umptieth time to try and open the door and came and let us in, realising ì stupid English people trying to open her front door with a set of house keys were probably the ones living upstairs in the spare bedroom :).

The night wasnt going to be anything special, we just popped into the heart of the city and had a couple of beers and another meal for two at a nice Italian restaurant (arent we sweet:)), but a couple of amusing points happened. One – Mike blocked up the toilet in Janas house with an grand and worthy English poo (he says it was tissue, but I dont believe him, considering how much he washed his hands after having to put his hand down the blokced toilet, much to my amusement:)), we were both cracking up, ahhh, childish humour, aint it great. And two – I got called a “sexy man“, albeit it from a hooker who was offering me a blow job (sorry parents who are reading this, I dont know what it means but I think it might be rude:) ).

The next day was Saturday, and with it a beach volleyball tournament that Jana was playing in. We decided to go watch for a couple of hours before getting on with our own stuff. Well that was the plan anyway, but somehow I got asked if I wanted to play in a team (to make up a 3) and foolishly agreed (Ive never played beach volleyball before, how hard can it be though:)). The day was a great laugh, I really enojyed myself, we only lost, ummm, all the games apart from 1, and I think my team stopped using me in any part of the play as much as possible:), but it was a good laugh. The entry was only 4 GBP but you got free beer all day and a free ice lolly after every match, how cool is that. It was a fun tournament so nobody really cared I was an English superstar that they had called in to play for them :). Oh and as a side note, beach volleyball is harder than it looks.

Well that tournament took up most of the day (I think Mike got a little bored, but if he reads this, cheers mate:)), and by the time it drawed to an end it was gone 7:30. A girl on my team though was going out on the night with some of her work mates, so we took her number and said we´d try and make the 9:30 meeting time. We decided to try and make it there for that time, which meant a rush back to Janas (Jana had gone to James Brown concert, but we didnt really fancy it), both have a shower (I had soo much sand on me) and then rush back into town. We got there on time (miracrously) but they didnt turn up till 10, women hey (me and Mike used the time well and got a maccies, the 2nd one of our trip now).

Enter really random night. Really random night. If youve ever been on Holiday with your parents when you were a kid and stayed in some holiday hotel where they do cabarets in the evening, all these different acts and stuff, and people sitting round the edge of the dance floor cus all the tables have someones coat over the chairs with nobody siting on them cus they are sitting on the edge of the dance floor, welcome to what we were at. It really was like that, and from when we arrived (around 11) to about 1 we had all these different acts come on. And none of them were that special to be honest, but the beer and cocktails were budgie prices so that helped the time go by. And then after 1 the club turned into a Salsa dancing club, which is awesome if you know how to Salsa dance, which Mike and me definetely did not. And somehow the 3 girls we were with all knew how to do it really well, which made us look even more stupid :). Nevertheless after a couple of cocktails we got up and gave it a go.

Now I know I cant dance, but I usually dont care cus you dont affect anybody else, just your own pride (which means I normally dont care, Im having fun:)), unfortunately with Salsa dancing you dance with someone and thus your dancing affects the way they dance, which in essence meant I felt really stupid trying to dance with any of the girls who could dance really well, and Im sure they didnt want to dance with me again, haha. Mike somehow though has got the moves, he picked it up and actually could bust a couple of moves on the floor, making my wooden leg dancing seem even worse, bastard :). He says he can Disco dance, whatever that is, but hes promised to show me when we get to a normal club:).

Just after 2 the girls were tired and decided to head home, so Mike and me decided to get a Taxi back to the metro station by Janas house (Metros had obivously stopped running by this time). Now I wish I could say we got home quickly and easily without any hassle, but unfortunately our short plump Lionel Ritchie look-a-like competition winner taxi driver ensured that he wiped all trace of where Luka Metro station was before taking us on our journey.

After seeing the same roundabout 3 times we eventually seemed to be heading away from the main town centre, which we assumed was a good sign. Nope, first stop he tried to dump us off at was Zilicny metro station (which just like you, we have no idea where it is either), back to the roundabout, then up another road, nope turn around, “how about big titties boys, I take you to strip joint, you like big titties“ was his next ploy, “ummm no thanks mate, just to Luka metro station, L, U, K, A, Luka, got it“, which Im guessing from the roundabout re-appearing was a no, then to another metro station Luziny (or something), “no mate Luka“ (enter around the 45 min mark here). This taxi driver was crazy. Somehow though, 5 minutes later, and by, we can only guess, complete luck considering we had been down nearly every road in Prague, we found the Metro station. I dont know who was more relieved, him or us. But we were good tourists, and only gave him the agreed price (that our girls we were with had negotiated with him before we took off), which amayingly he accepted without arguing. I thought we were going to have to do a runner. I think he was relieved to have found it cus it was evident we werent going to leave his taxi till he did:).

Today, Sunday has been a really hard day though. Weve been to a closed Town Hall to try and get a permit to busk, sat in the park, did some juggling, went and had a 3 course lunch with a beer where we talked about what we were going to do for dinner (Mikes dad would be proud, so he says), sat down in a park where Mike fell asleep and I read my book, before heading home, reading a bit more of our books and then going out for dinner down the local restaurant. Yes, it is a hard life. :)

Weve been here for just over 3 days now (thus this fairly long update, sorry folks) and Mike still hasnt met Janas dad, hehe, but I think were gonna be here for a bit longer yet. Everything is cheap, the weather is scorching, and were still having fun. No need to move on (/home) for a few days yet.

We also knew how long the walk back would be to our hostel, so decided to catch the U-Bahn back home, which was easy enough. It was quite late by this time and we were both really hungry (we had our first McDonalds of the trip for lunch, not bad considering weve been out here for 2 weeks) so decided to get some food. After last nights average meal in the hostel we decided to ask where a cheap restaurant was. The receptionist pointed us in the direction of the Indian restaurant across the road. Cool, Indian, havent had one for a while so was looking forward to it. We got a table for 2 with a nice candle and were talking in English, in Germany, sitting in an Indian restaurant .... hehe, a nice eclectic mix.

It was Karaoke downstairs in the hostel bar so after a quick nap we donned our best gear and headed down there, meeting up with some mates we had met over the last couple of days. Now anyone who knows me knows I cant sing, but hey its Karaoke, youve got to get up and make a fool of yourself :), so that what I did. Twice. I didnt get up by myself, but me and a few others dedicated a few songs to Mike, whos birthday it was in about 10 mins time. Im sure he was happy hearing our beautiful voices grace the air, hehe.

The night was dying down by about 1ish to we headed to bed, only to wake up nice and early to meet some people for breakfast before we all were going our seperate ways. Mike and I have headed back to the Zoo station place, cus we thought it had an internet cafe where we could place Mikes USB camera to upload his photos (but thats been proved wrong, so weve made quite a big journey for nothing, but hey I finished my book on the U-Bahn so thats cool:), oh yeah and some women was sick on the U-Bahn, so thats not soo cool). Were catching the 3:35 train to Prague to meet up with Jana (a friend from Czech), so by the time you read this thats probably where we are ....

A few random thoughts of the day for you:

After a few beers they were shooting off to a Coffee shop but me and Mike couldnt be arsed to make the effort, and considering we werent smoking away our money (thats for my mum) we stayed in and had a couple more beers with some people we knew at the hostel. Next morning it was up and packed by 10:30 to get to the train station to catch the 11:13 to Berlin.

6 hours and about 15 games of shithead later (I am now, as of this morning, 51-40 up :)) and we were in Berlin. We had booked our hostel the day before so we knew we had somewhere to stay, the appropiately named 'Circus' hostel. Unforunately there are 2 circus hostels in Berlin and sods law we went to the wrong one first, nevermind, not too much of a walk to the next where we checked in and went up to our 4 star hostel room (no kidding).

We made a plan to do a full day walking tour the next day, knowing that it would be the best way to see the sites of Berlin and get a full blown day history lesson in the progress. So knowing we were going to be doing a lot of walking the next day headed down the supermarket to buy 6 random german beers for a beer tasting session in our room that night (oh and some dinner in the form of a whole chiken, 1 baguette and some pre-fabricated cheese stuff, yum yum).The night was finished up down the bar for a beer and me realising I had entered a new item into my Things Ive Lost Whilst On Holiday' (an ever expanding list, this time with a book added onto it).

The walking tour the next day was well worth the money, and im not going to go into everything I learnt and looked at on it, Ill bore you with some photos when I get home (if I get home:)) and a commentary on them, but we saw just abuot evrything there is to see, and learnt about everything I needed to know about them in the progress. We got back around 7ish and had some food with some people we had met on the tour, and decided to meet downstairs in the bar at 9:30 for the infamous Circus Hostel Quiz.

Me and Mike are officially thick ! :) Our team, although I thought we did ok and had some clever people on it, came joint 6th place (out of a possible ........... 7 places), and to top it off this annoying team with an annoying loud Swede on won, dammit. Nevermind, nothing a beer cant nurse away (I swear this sounds as though we are drinking all the time, but seriously we arent actually drinking that much). I headed off to bed around 12:15 or something and read abit of my book before falling asleep.

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, is roughly what happened (minus the comb, who needs to brush their hair?), and that was all before breakfast :). Usual run of the mill day to be honest without too many out of the ordinary occurences. Down the park in the morning, juggle, back for lunch, down to damn sqaure, busk, back to hostel, down supermarket, cook food, eat, drink, cards, chess, update trog on website. Wow my life really has become mundane ... even if I am in Amsterdam, haha.

Its was Friday night though, and that meant another trip to Boom Chicago, this time for Heineken Late Night, which is (roughly) a 2 hour show totally improv with all the Boom Chicago cast involved. Theres free beer given out for good suggestions (which I won one off for my suggestion of widlife as a TV genre, wahoo, maybe I should put that on my site:)). Its was, as always, a totally awesome night, and due to us having 2-for-1 flyers it only cost us 6 euros each, nice.

We woke up today to a some lovely sun shining through our windows (well actually I woke up to all our room mates competiting at 'who can make the most noise whilst pretending their making the least noise' at 8am in the morning, but the sun was shining). This meant a days worth of busking ahead of us, yey !!

Before heading out to Dam sqaure though we decided to do our morning juggle in the park, where we can mess about on stuff we cant do yet, and thus dont mind dropping all the time. Over an hour later and it was the trek to the square to set up camp and try and earn some moolar. This weekend though theres a massive festival going on all over town and the streets were lined with people, stalls in places stalls arent usually found and a general good vibe pumping through the city. In the Dam sqaure there was huge Hara Krishna (sp?) festival, which was awesome. Loads of music, stands and performers.

We found a spot and started to do a bit of juggling, but I dont think our heart was in it at the time, and we were being overshadowed by some statue people (god damn those people). We earnt a bit of money (around 6-7 euros I think) before heading back to the hostel for lunch where we recharged our batteries (I had a sleep:)). A couple of hours later though and it was back to earn some money.

We went back to the square and started to have fun out there, the best way to earn money I reckon. We were playing around, and doing all the usual busking tricks - getting kids involved, juggling round people etc. A few hours later and we were drained, but mentally and physically, but it had been fun, and the vibe out in the streets was awesome. We came back to the hostel and counted up our earnings - a new record (beating the only other one we ahd of 23 euros:)), yes a massive 28 euros and 32 cents, you know it baby !! Hehe.

Yes people, you know it, Mike and Nick have officially now busked and earnt some money :) After lunch we popped into town and did a bit of juggling outside the casino (that didnt earn us much money, but did earn us a "this is great what your doing, President Bush is trying to stop all this, you guys should keep on doing this" comment). We then moved down into a really busy street and found a closed down shop so did about 3 minutes of juggling there but got no money and felt a bit awkward so decided to move on again (whistle stop busking tour of Amsterdam, hehe).

We finally made our way to the Dam sqaure, the big one with the cathedral in and set up spot, slightly away from the statue people and starting throwing some clubs around. Luckily this square was just what we were looking for, loads of kids and their parents, which meant we could do our usual array or tricks - passing clubs round the pesky little blights (how English is that:)) and getting more people involved. Good money making potential in those tricks as well. We came away a couple of hours later with a hat (a little bit) full of change. The police passed us a couple of times but seemed happy at us, just watched us for a couple of minutes then moved on. Gave us some confidence that the licence malarky isnt as strict if your not doing a big street show.

We got back to the hostel just after 5 and counted up our earnings - 23.72 euros. Wahoo. We were happy as it meant we could afford dinner and some beers at Thirsty Thursday here at the hostel. Mike wasnt feeling up for many beers though (after hangover day the other day:)), which meant I only had a couple. I beat this Guy at chess as well but I dont know how cus I lost my queen half way through (thats getting geeky aint it ....). We also got our first official telling off to stop juggling last night - outside the hostel due to the neighbours potential of complaining, it really has been a day for 1st's aint it :).

The night passed away with a few games of shithead (which Im now winning 11-7), a couple of beers, and that silly coin flicking game across the table where you get 3 tries to get it onto the edge, then flick it up ..... people who are of my generation might know what I mean from school lunctimes ... maybe :)

The rest of the day was spent bumming around, eating etc (we had this really nice Salad for dinner) before heading off to Boom Chicago, again. It really is a really funny show, go check it out if your over here (but get tickets from a street vendor if you can, much much cheaper). Mike wasnt drinking but I had a cheaky pint. Next stop was bed (we really are gettin quite boring here arent we:)).

Mike and me had bought tickets to go see Boom Chicago again so we headed off there in the evening to see some more improv and sketches. A lot of the sketches were the same as last weke when I went to the show, but the actors were different and obviously all the improv was unique to that show. It was a good night and we had quite a few pints (which Mike is now paying for up in bed with a headache:)).We came back to the hostel afterwards and had another cheeky beer before heading to bed.

Anyway around 6am in the morning, after a crappy nights sleep on the airport floor me and Mike headed of to Amsterdam to try and find somewhere to stay for the night. We eventually found a nice cheap hostel called "The Flying Pig" (around 7:30am after trying another one first). We are staying in a double bed together, nice and cosy, hehe, but cheaper than a bed each.

Due to last nights crappy sleep though we both crashed out again for a few hours, before I woke up and sorted myself out (ie shower, clean teeth etc) and then we both headed out to a supermarket to get some food for lunch and dinner. Its useful being here last week as I knew where one was that was relatively close, so we plodded down there to buy our classic ham-and-cheese-sandwiches-for-lunch food, and some pasta and sauce for dinner. Hey we need to save money :). Weve figured that if we dont earn a thing whilst busking, we can survive for about 2 weeks on that basic food and the double bed option. So hopefully we should be out here for a bit longer than that.

After some food we thought we'd have a go at getting some money out on the streets. We werent prepared to do a show or anything yet and really only wanted a juggle, but thought if we are going to practice we might as well do it on a street with a hat out infront of us and see if anyone puts anything in. Well they did. We earnt, over about an hour juggling, 1 euro and 10 cents. Thats enough for a packet of crips ..... each. Yes, not one between us, but each, hehe. Well at least we know we cant just stand on the street juggling and having fun, but actually have to put on some kind of show .... more work but more rewarding (in terms of confidence, character building and the art of entertaining people).

The evening was spent making a bit of dinner and having a quiet pint at the hostel. We met these 2 essex ladies (I think they are sisters, around 40yrs old) which were well funny. We played some cards with them and I swear my reputation for cheating with cards spreads across countries, just because I got pontoon in my first hand, and then mike got one, and I was dealing. What can I say ...... hehe. They were really watching us shuffle and deal the cards ... and there I was thinking I could get away from the accusations ...:)

I was still quite knackered from the day though so headed off to bed fairly early.

Its now Tuesday afternoon, and Im sitting in the Hostel updating this, listening to the thunder and the downpour of rain outside. It is seriously tipping it down, unbelievable. I was in the park this morning with Mike and we were juggling around, practicing some routines and moves, working on an act (that we figured we might need after yesterdays crisp packet money:)), came back for some lunch, and now BOOM, thunder, lightning, very very frightning.

Two other major things have happened today - 1. We found out we are prolly going to need a licence to perform any proper act. 2. Im getting sponsorship for this site. More on both of those later ....

Well yes we were in Rotterdam but I am now back in Amsterdam (now being Monday), and the last few days have been awesome. Friday morning we met up with Rachel and Mike, who were coming out for the weekend / busking respectively. Due to Thursdays mishap at the Heineken Experience we headed there after sorting out the bags. Me, Helen and Gaz still had our bikes for the day, whilst the others got the tram. Unfortunately it was absolutely tipping it down, im talking some serious rain and wind. I arrived to the 'experience' soaking wet, much to the amusement of the staff inside who were nice and dry. Luckily the others who had caught the tram werent too much better off, as the walk from the tram to the 'experience' was filled with rain and wind :)

The Heineken Experience is definetely worth a visit if your in 'Dam, its 10 euros entrance and you get 3 free beers and a free glass at the end of it. Plus the actual tour is quite a laugh and educational (well, I certainly learnt that me and Guy were better than Neil at table football).

After that trip we headed back to the hostel to pick up all our belongings and catch a train to Rotterdam where we to camp for the upcoming korfball weekend tournament.

The journey was all pretty much uneventful (although I did have a scare that somehow I had spent 600 GBP already as an ATM wouldn't give me any money, luckily I think it must have been out of cash cus a cash machine at Rotteram did give me some money). We had all our stuff picked up from Rotterdam station by someone on the RISK organising committee (RISK begin Rotterdam Internation Student Korfball - ie the tournament) which was awesome as it meant we didnt have to lug all our equipment over to the camp site (that was 2 metro stops away). A few tent erections later, and some beer and cards in the tent and I hit the sack and feel asleep (read - fell asleep inbetween Guys snoring).

Saturday was spent korfing for the majority of it, where we played really quite well. We lost to 2 dutch teams, but not embarissingly (sp?) buy beat Bristol (and not for the last time this weekend:)). We only had 3 games on the Saturday (each game being 40 mins mind, so that was quite enough). The evening arrived, and with it 3 crates of beer from the supermarket and a BBQ to go. I think the sun was even out, the evening was looking as though it was going to be a good one.

The social for the evening was in the form of a Hawaian theme, but due to AMsterdams lack of Hawaian theme shirts we were left to cope with what stuff we had bought with us. Ah ha, sandles, shorts, open shirts and some hola things (those things that go round your neck), oh and some sun tan lotion on the face, and we were looking the part. SO good infact that Gaz was in the running for best dressed individual (god knows how, cus our attempts really werent very good:)).

Now somewhere along the evening Bristol obviously felt agrieved at loosing the korfball so challenged us to some drinking competitions. Needless to say we accepted, challenge 1 being a 5 man boat race (or 4 man and 1 woman boat race) with bottle of beer, with the person drinking have to be swung on the swings that were that. Now Im not just a kid and complaining we lost that one, but we have some speculation that one certain member of the Bristol lot cheated and had drank some his beer prior to his go .... hmmm never mind cus the next challenge was 3-2-1. 3 members of your squad are selected, one having to down 3 drinks, after finishing that someone else has to down 2, and then finally someone has to down 1. Well we thrashed them, we had finished before they were even onto their '1'. Guy was our main man upfront drinking 3 (these were only halves by the way ..), followed by our middle man Neil, and following up the rear - me.

Bristol were feeling the pressure I think and were trying to think of the next challenge, luckily I had one for them ready - a dance off. Gaz or Hels came up to me after I thought of the challenge and said "Nick you cant dance you idiot" or words to that effect :). Haha, well that may be true, but I was drunk so there. Each team had 5 mins to sort out a dance. Me, Helen and Neil blew them out of the water. An individual referee was selected and gave the Bristol lot an 8, and gave us an undeniable 9. Our dance really was awesome, haha.

The rest of the night passed away with some normal dancing and some drinking (and some red wine, white wine and beer mix combo, hmmm, interesting). I think I hit the sack around 3:30 or something.

Sunday arrived and with it the start of the RISK tournament (the Saturday games being a pre-event mini tournament). The girl we had met in Belgium (Julie) had travelled across from Belgium to play with us for the day, bringing our total girls up to 3, and our squad looking pretty strong. Our first group stages consisted off 2 dutch teams, so we were thinking that we were going to be heading down into the lower pool. We played really well though, and beat 1 dutch team but lost to the other, meaning 2nd place in the pool was ours. Amazing. The next game was against another dutch team that was beat by 2 (although for some reason I thought we had lost it when we came off the pitch, hehe), and then we had a 6th/5th play-off against Bristol. This game was also for the coveted spot of highest placed British team at the tournament. Final result - 4-1 to us, with Gaz getting a penalty, me hitting a long shot, and Esther hitting a long shot and a short range shot (Esther being some girl who was playing for us since Rachel had injured her ankle the game before). It was a really good game and we played really well.

I had been playing for Cardiff all day as well (they were 1 man short) meaning that I had played a total of 9 games throughout the day, I was shattered. Before we could sleep though (it was only about 5pm, hehe) what we were doing in the night had to be sorted out. Our original idea was to crash at the korfball club house, but it turned out we werent going to be able to do that. The plan evolved throughout the night, but in the end the plan was to head into town for a farewell meal with Julia and her dad, then get to the respective airports in the evening to crash there before the flights. Me and Mike were going to head to Amsterdam airport and crash there with Rachel till her flight then head to Amsterdam in the early morning to find a hostel.

Well with a load of wine over the meal and a lot of beer at Boom Chicago things were looking up for a big night out clubbing, and needless to say that this is where we ended up. Although ended up might be a bit of a mis-interpretation, as I actually ended up in bed around 12:30 with no idea how I got there, why I had left soo early or what the hell had happened after about 11. Everyone else got back about 5 ish (with us using an amazing elaborate scheme of leaving the door key under a bin bag out the front of the hotel, yes we were stupid like that, luckily it didnt get stolen). Supposedly I got in a mood and couldnt snap out of it so decided to leave. Quite annoying really cus the others had an amazing time (some more than others, bike rides and all, but Ill leave that for speculation:)).

With such a late night for some people it was also a fairly late waking up (my grammar is awful aint it:)). But eventually everyone was up and we all decided to hire out bikes (they really are fun, whoooosh, wahey, ok Ill stop). Our next stop was the Heineken Experience, which is a tour of the old Heineken factory and the process of making the beer (and free beer). Due to some of us getting biked earlier (while others were still asleep) we split up though and decided to meet at the 'experience'. The latest you can buy tickets is 5pm, due to the place closing at 6. Well me, Gaz and Hels managed to get there around 4:30, but the others arrived at 5:01 (no im not kidding), and the bloke at the door would not let us in. How mean is that. The others blamed them being stopped by the police on the way and nearly having their bikes confiscated along with a massive fine due to riding in an area they are not allowed to ride in. I dont know, some people hey:).

With that trip postponed till tomorrow we headed down the Vondel park to chill out for a while and grab some more beers for tonights drinking game fest that had been organised. Vondel park is quite large, and the main path is a big circular path round the edge of the park. Needless to say this led to a race around the edge (a total of a couple fo kilometres I reckon) which I came home in style, closely followed by Gaz, and then trailing far behind Neil and Matt. That race did mean a nice big rest though, which was spent dozing about on the grass juggling and playing cards (it is a hard life aint it).

Before drinking began though we decided to take a tour of the Red Light District, purely for Matts sake you understand :) which was very entertaining (and no none of us did spend any money over there (as far as Im aware, Im sure we lost Matt for 15 - 10 - 5 mins :))). With that trip over it was back to the apartment for food and beer. Food being in the form of Dial-a-pizza, and beer being in the form of, well, beer.

During the holidays we had been making a list of as many drinking games as we could think of, and the plan for tonight was to get through as many as we could before heading out. By 11:30 we were all suitably drunk and decided to head off to a bar and then onto the same club as last night. I think Helen was on water, and some of the others were knackered from the night before, so in the end it was just me, Neil, Matt and Guy who headed to the club. I was well impressed 'cus I managed to convince the lady behind the ticket desk that I was dutch ('cus I knew the word for four in dutch, haha), but unfortunately when she came back to me with some Dutch I had to claim my innoncence and admit I was actually an annoying Englishman :). The club was rammed - now I cant remember a lot from the night before, but supposedly it was even more rammed this night than the last. We had an ok time, Guy left a little earlier than me, Neil and Matt, but I think last night had taken it out of us and we headed off around 3:30.

Boom Chicago last night was amazing, and I would seriously suggest anyone whos in 'Dam to check it out. Its a mix if improv comedy (like 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' if youve seen that) and sketch shows. It was really funny, and worth the 10 euros it cost for the ticket. Soo good infact that we are heading back there tonight for a different show.

Went to the Ann Frank house this morning (which Im sure my mum will be pleased to hear that im getting in some 'proper' culture:)). It was actually a good experience, and also worth going to see if you pop over here. As was the next stop, the world infamous Sex Museum (yes mum, thats 'proper' culture too:)). Ive been there before when I was last in Amsterdam, but for only 2.5 euros I thought I might as well pop in and see it again. Got some funny photos from that one ......

Over the past couple of days seen some interesting street buskers doing their stuff, but only seen 1 juggler, and he was more of a side attraction having fun and not worrying about the money. It seems there are two main types of busking out here, both of them slightly more aggresive than the English polite way, hehe. Youve got your classic do a 3-5 minute act outside a cafe with no crowd interaction, then go round the cafe asking for money. Then youve got your covent garden style act where you do a more involved 20-30min act. Interesting and has got me thinking how me and Mike should head when we come back here next week. Ill have a word with him and see what we come up with ....

Me, Gareth and Helen headed down to some big park in the SW of the 'Dam and chilled out there for a bit, and I met another me, haha. This guy was into computers, juggling and card tricks, scary hey, and he went to Brum Uni ..... Although at some point about two years ago he decided to get really good at card tricks and do a bit of juggling, where as I went the other route - a bit of card magic but a lot of juggling. Needless to say he was a great chap. :)

Last night was spent abusing my body with some more alcohol and some late night partying, although I did head back a little earlier than Guy, Matt, Neil and Gaz as I was shattered. Although actually it turned out that me and Helen had no idea where our hostel was. We literally spent about 30-45 mins looking for our hotel when we knew it was nearby. All we had to go on was it had 3 flags sticking out of it, and there was a shoe shop opposite it. No we didnt think the name of the hotel would be useful before we left the club :).

We finally arrived in Brussels 2 hours after schedule (due to another delay in the air, in a queue over Brussels). Now some people thought that I would know where we were going from Brussels airport, and they were right, I knew the town name of where we had to get to, but for some reason they also thought that I should know how to get there, or at least where abouts in the country it was situated. Gah, who do I think I am, some orgainsed bloke who organised the trip? Hehe. Luckily it wasnt too hard, the nice man behind the counter at the train station explained it all to us.

Finally arrived in Dendermonde for the rain to set in around 9ish. A taxi ride, finding out that we already had a big tent set up to sleep in, the organisers giving us air mattresses, and quite a few beers later and we all hit the sack. Doing not a lot all day but sitting down in trains, planes and automobiles is suprisingly quite exhausting.

Saturday arrived and with it 5 korfball matches of 2 20min halves. Needless to say it was quite knackering (and yes we did loose everyone one, but nevertheless was a great laugh, and luckily the coniditions were quite good - the tournament being outdoors). Guy scored 2 goals, much to the suprise of everyone who knows guy in any shape or form, putting him into top goal scorer position at the end of the first day. He also unfortunately bent back his thumb near the end of the day in one of the games though, and it was looking unlikely that he would be able to play the next day.

The social in the evening was where the real fun began though, with the beers being drunk around 7pm, and finishing around the 3 oclock mark. Classic parts of the night included Matt throwing up at 9:50 in the evening, while some people were still eating dinner and hadnt started drinking yet :). Shortly after Neil went to the toilet and whilst he was away all of us playing drinking games decided to give every fine we got from now on to Neil, and any new rules to be made up during the drinking games to be tuned in such a way to affect Neil :) Needless to say he had to stop drinking about 40 mins later, haha.

The Disco was a good laugh though, and, even though my memory is fairly vague I remember doing some stupid dances to some stupid euro pop music. Haha. Unfortunately, at about 10:30 the next morning the night before seemed like an awful idea. Our fist game was against Manchester at 11:30, and I dont think any of us were in a shape to play korfball. Nevertheless we were all on the pitch on time (just, in Neils case) only to be beaten soundly 5-1. I think I gave away two penalties, haha, nevermind.

With only 1 game to go, we didnt have a win and Guy was still top goal scorer on 2. Luckily though I managed to find some form and hit 3 goals in the next game, giving us a win over UEA, and moving top goal scorer over to me. Thank god for that, haha.

The night on Sunday was a little bit more mellow. We went out for a nice chinese with the Nottingham lot (even though we were drove there by this really scary drunk guy whos 25 point parking manuevere tested all of us not to laugh), and then headed off to an Irish pub (hmmm Guinness). We had a few drinks (or a few more in Helens case), with one classic moment where Neil was trying to flick up beer mats and catch them, only to flick them up, miss the catch, hit them across the table and in the process knock over a full drink all over two belgioum girls who ahd come out with us. Haha, what an idiot :)

We got back to the camp site about 1, put up a few shelves in the shower block (maybe we were more drunk than we realised - the story really isnt that interesting) before heading off to bed.