Still sick but recovering: sweats, nausea, aches, ears hurt like hell when swallowing, glands swoolen to the size of golf balls (ok, I'm not a golfer but they're big), and on a friggin train. We pulled into Prague (Praha) at 8am and did the typical tourist thing when in a new city -- took a cab to the hostel. We paid way too much, which worked out to about US$6.00 for a 10 minute cab ride. If only we knew our way around we'd have walked from the danged train station. We got checked into The Clown and Bard hostel. This hostel flat rocks. If I had to suggest a place to stay in Prague then I would definately have to mention this place. If/when I return I'll definately be staying there. We each got a shower and attempted to sleep, which didn't work that well for me. Got up to eat around 1pm and got our first informal view of Prague -- nice place. I got a bowl of gulash soup which turned out to be like eating a bowl of brown gravy with chunks in it. A little salty for my tastes but probably just what I needed. On our way out I met some of the kids from the Patras Greece to Brindisi Ferry ride that I had played games with that night. They're in our hostel so we'll definately see them later. Back at the hostel I watched this guy Andre paint this other guy Andrew's portrait in water colors. It's actually a cool process to watch and turned out very well. I ate dinner with Carey and Andrew (the guy from the painting -- please pay attention). I'm definately feeling much better by this point. But that could be due to the 600mg doses of advil that I'd been taking.
So what does one do for their first night in Prague? First let me mention that as we went back from dinner I re-met Dave (from Interlaken) in the hostel. From this point on you can assume that I am with Dave and Carey most of the time while in Prague. Dave is Canadian (aye) and is borderline insane. That's ok to say since I'm down right certifiable myself ;oP I surveyed the bar lookin for a beverage and was pointed to the bottle of absynth. I had heard of it (Van Gogh cut his ear off while on this stuff) but didn't know that it came from Prague. Well, it was there, I was there, so I tried some. Definately not what I would call tasty, but it sure packs a punch. Dave saw me do it and got another 5 or so people to do it with him. From there we headed out to this four storey dance club called Karlovi Lazni. On the way to the metro I noticed that the long escalator down (probably 200 feet) had no little bumps on the flat surface between. For god knows why I decided that it would be a good idea to slide down the thing. I didn't actually see the construction at the bottom until I had gathered alot of speed (and still accellerating). To stop I of course put my feet down, then grabbed for the rubber rail of the down escalator next to me burning the hell out of my forearm (actually blistered the thing). The good thing is that I survived the ordeal and it was fun. So much fun that Dave jumped on and followed me down. This was not the best idea since the security woman only saw him and not me (I was going too fast). She came out and yelled someting in Czech, to which he looked duely chastized, and then left. We actually did catch the metro and got to the club which was flat amazing. If you don't like what's being played on one floor then just go up to another one. It's like four separate clubs in the same building -- with free internet access ;o) The 17 of us that left together from the hostel stayed until closing at 5am. Coincidentally the metro system shuts down from midnight to 4:45am. Makes ya wonder...
First day in Prague... likin it :o)
I got up at 1pm, ears still hurtin, still sweatin, gettin kinda tired of it all. Must remember to send a thank-you note to the makers of Advil ;o) Carey and I went down to the corner pizzeria/pasta house and ordered up some chow. The food there is pretty good, but my appetite is gone. Luckily Dave showed up and helped us finish it all (heh). With our stomachs quietted we three headed out on the tram (light rail train) to see the castle. What castle?? Why Prague Castle of course. It's quite impressive. Really big, nice workmanship, excellent views, junk like that. We met a girl taking photos of basically everyone (with other folks' cameras). We utilized her services (as long as you're at it...) and found that she's from the states and just waiting to meet up with a couple of friends. No sooner had she said that did her friends arrive. Leah was the one waiting for Theile (pronounced Teal) and Nikki (work that one out for yourself). We decided to follow them around since they seemed to know where they were going. After about 15 minutes of walking Leah came to the realization that she had left her daypack back in the square where we had met. The other three continued on through the gardens (I'd seen gardens before) and I went with Leah back to the spot in hopes of finding the lost pack (right). Oddly enough it wasn't there (go figure). I suggested that we ask for a lost and found on the remote chance it was turned in by someone. As it turns out, someone had left the pack with the shop directly adjacent to the square -- score! What are the odds of that?? Needless to say, Leah was both relieved and happy. We hooked back up with Carey and Co. at this way famous bridge (ok, it's the Charles Bridge), climbed a tower and got some amazing views of the city. Prague is incredible.
Looking for a repeat of the previous nights festivities we all arranged a shot of absynth. That stuff is harsh! I had to wash it down with a couple of tequila slammers this time. Someone wanted to wait and take the last metro over to the club. That sounded ok to me until we missed the dang thing. Fine, an alternate plan had to be formed. We settled on the Acropolis as we had heard it was a dance club nearby. They were half right, it was nearby but not a dance club. At that point we all split up and went our separate ways. I went down the block to look at the sign of a bar and Leah and Heather followed. The fact that the sign had a skull and crossbones on it didn't phase me, nor did the fact that the guy inside unlocked the gate to get in with a key. The thing that bothered me was the fact that he also re-locked the gate with that key after we entered. What if there was a fire or a mass murder or something going on inside? How were we supposed to get out? No worries, they had foosball and black beer, we were set! We played until the wee hours got a bit bigger and then headed back to the hostel late. I found my bed quite comfortable and welcoming and got as much sleep as possible (which wasn't much).
Got up after a few hours of sleep to participate in a walking tour of the city. Turns out that this tour was excellent (and offerred by the Clown and Bard, just ask :o). The guide was funny and really knew his history about the area. At one point we were sitting in front of the large ex-communist building that they now broadcast radio-free europe from (that's a service that broadcasts capitalist ideas in communist countries in their own language). A group of security officers gathered nearby and our guide got visibly nervous. He explained as we were about to move on that there is alot of security around that building because it gets alot of bombings. My thought was why the hell were we sitting in front of a building that gets bombed frequently when we could have been in the park a block down?!? It was interesting and it did drive the point home that Prague used to be a communist city until relatively recently. The walking tour ran from noon through til 5pm and covered pretty much everything you'd want to see. We got a better view of the castle and the history of the Charles Bridge. We actually went inside the cathedral in the castle and it was very cool. The stained glass windows are much more impressive than most of the stained glass I had seen before and, although it was large, it didn't seem quite so cavernous. I'm not about to convert or anything, but it was an impressive structure.
Carey and I headed back to the hostel to drop the junk we had been carrying (cameras basically) and then get some food. Another girl (Amanda) had just showed up at the hostel and needed to go by the train station for ticket info -- Carey and I needed to do the same thing so we offerred to play guide. Leah overheard and decided to come along to get her reservation sorted out. That train station trip was utterly uneventful. I have no idea why I wrote about it but at this point I'm loathe to delete it. Sorry. Afterwards we headed for pizza because we were starved (it's cheap and it's good). I got the surprise pizza which turned out to have lettuce, some ground meat, and some sliced meat on it and was actually quite tasty. By time we were done eating it was around 9pm and it seemed a good idea to go back to the hostel. On the way I bumped into Heather (from foosball the night before and the walking tour) and Amber (friend of Heather) who were starving but tardy. I agreed to go back with them to the pizza place and drink some beers. Turns out that Paul (dude that gave the walking tour) was there waiting on his food so we joined him and made a party of it (c'mon folks, it doesn't take much to make a party). I grabbed a Red Bull on the way back and enjoyed a tequila slammer as we waited for people to get organized for the night's festivities. The plan was to go to that four storey dance club, stay up all night, pack, shower, and catch my train that was to leave at 8am. No problem. I was a little tired so I took a vivarin to keep me up 'til dawn and beyond. We actually got there this time and I discovered a new beverage. It's called Semtek and is basically Red Bull with Tequila. I was feeling a bit tired from the night before so I decided to have about 10 or so over the course of the night/morning. Needless to say I was not sleepy by the time we hit our train and had an extraordinary time. Oh, and I lost the majority of my voice -- I guess I was a bit excited earlier on ;o)
I must note that I am now well. The cure? Abuse yourself as much as humanly possible and the germs will just leave. Seriously, read back over the last few days at what I did. No sleep, too much alcohol, not enough food (what I ate was not nutritious), expend all of the energy you have and use up some from the end of your life span, and just flat ignore it and have an amazing time anyway. Go figure. The way I see it if you're meant to die from something then you will, if not then you will recover.
Because of the mass quantities of anti-sleep related products I had consumed I was not tired in the least when I got back from the dance club at 6am. I showered then woke Carey up who had left the club earlier to get a bit of sleep before the train (he doesn't sleep well on trains normally). I walked around outside the train station once my bags were in our coach just to relax a bit before the ride. Oddly I was able to sleep the entire time from 8am to 1pm when we arrived in Munich (Munchen). Carey and I got ourselves a double room in the Euro Youth Hostel right near the train station for a mere 42 DM (2 DM (Deutch Mark) is about US$1) per night (ouch, my largest cost for accommodation yet). The room was the nicest thus far, and the bathrooms looked positively sparkling. The weather was nice (cool, overcast, dripping) but not optimal for walking so we started our stay by doing laundry. As our clothes washed we went next door to a deli and bought some sausage (cooked this time, amsterdam reference), bread, and beer (we are in Germany after all). The guy working at the laundry was really nice, which was odd that a) he was there and b) he was really nice. We then went back and slept from 4pm 'til 6:30pm to burn the afternoon but not the evening. Feeling refreshed we felt up to the task of finding and experiencing the Hoffbrau Haus (there are some umlauts in there, really). It turns out that Hitler used to frequent this place as it is one of the last authentic beer houses left around. The asmosphere is festive to say the least. They have a brass band that plays there constantly, honest to god german beer wenches that can carry 8 litres of beer at a time (4 in each hand), and hundreds of drunk and drinking folks just lookin to have a good time. The communication ranges from loud speaking, through shouting, all the way to full on singing and whooping. This would be where I lost the rest of my voice ;o) Dinner was spectacular and cheap. We had (each) 2 sausages, kraut, mashed potatoes, and the best horse radish I've ever tasted. The beer went down easily and before you know it I had had 2 litres. Not too shabby for a man recently on his death bed. The folks we shared a table with were from Dallas and Saskatoon (ok folks, some were from Dallas, others were from Saskatoon). Those Saskatoon folks talk funny too. Kinda like Fargo, and they don't think the Fargo folks talked funny either. I wonder if the movie was that funny to them... Anyway we have an open invite if we ever want to go to Dallas so that's nice. Another guy we met at the table left with us but we only ended up going back to our hostel to drink more beer. Man was this guy annoying. He was working on his PhD in Scientific Philosophy or something and had to be the most shallow individual I've ever met (knock wood). As the hours grew larger in the morning I felt compelled to tell him exactly what I thought of him. Surprisingly all he could do was agree. What a waste of oxygen. A beautiful woman was leaving the hostel shortly after and he darted out in an attempt to draw her in. I also darted out but all I could do is laugh at his lines and urge her to run fast and far. She at least laughed with me and made her escape neatly. A good deed done and I was able to sleep...
Up at the crack of noon. We missed the walking tour that was our plan for the afternoon, so grab a quick shower and some food and head out to Dachau instead. Our feeling was that a couple of hours (including a free movie on the history of the place) was plenty (entrance is free as well -- I guess they figure that enough folks had paid already in one form or another). Dachau was the first concentration camp and was thus the model for the others. It had a working gas chamber that was never used for some reason (folks were shipped off to other places for that sort of thing). Seeing this camp made things a bit clearer. I think that anyone interested about the holocaust should see the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, a concentration camp (Dachau worked for me), and another source like Anne Frank's house to get a decent picture. There are always three sides to any story: what both parties involved say and what really happened. There were more than jews housed in this camp. It was used as a prison for Gypsies, Russian P.O.W.s, SS Enemies, and of course Jews among others. The rules were very strict in the camp, as they would be in a military boot camp around that time. Living conditions were harsh as they had to be to contain that many people and keep them in line. Punishment was swift and examples were made of the offenders to keep others from following suit. Starvation was mainly due to the fact that the food, which there was little of, had to feed not only the german army, but the german population as well in a time of war and poverty (economics is why the whole thing began in the first place). Mainly the ones that were put to death were the sick and dying. Sure there were others as disobedience was not tolerated, but that was the main group of folks being put down. This overview is very unemotional and could be completely wrong, but it is as I have come to understand it. I apologize if its callousness is offensive in any way.
After Dachau we decided to head over to Hoffbrau Haus for another go at the place. On our way we noticed Mike's Bike Tours (the best tour you'll ever take). We paid and made reservations for the next day's tour at noon. The guy that took our reservation had a few minutes so filled us in on the details and basically had a nice chat about Munich and places to see, eat, and party. From meeting this guy and one of the tour guides we could tell already that everything we had heard about the tour was true -- it was going to be a blast! We met this girl named Amanda who had been on the train back from Dachau as we entered Hoffbrau Haus so she hooked up with us and we threw back some chow and brewskies ;o) Several litres of donkle (german for dark beer) later we headed back to the ranch where I met Sabina and Anna. Anna works at the hostel and Sabina is her friend. We talked about things that I can't remember, drank some beer, and basically had a great time until around 6-ish. Sleep came late that night and I remember it being sooooo comfortable that I wanted to stay there forever. But alas, all things must come to an end...
Ah, here's a bad thing. I was either picked for or lost 250 DM (about 100 bucks) over the course of the night. If I had to vote then I would say that I dropped it when I went to tip the bathroom wench. C'est la vie -- therapy for letting things go I guess...
Morning finally found me at 2pm. The day was beautiful and sunny (until later in the afternoon when it rained) and the shower was awesome! I headed down to the park and hung out with Anna as she waited for her friend Melanie. This day gave me the opportunity to see a beautiful part of Munich that is not very touristic. Oh, I must mention, as the astute reader would note, that I missed the danged bike tour that happened at noon. Carey was very understanding and got my refund for me (what a nice guy :o) Another thing to mention would be that my voice was fully gone and I was seeing no signs of a return :o( I basically hung out all day, drank a few (really, not many at all) beers and returned to the hostel late enough to catch Carey on his way back from Hoffbrau Haus. We hung in the hostel bar for a while and drank more (ok, this would be more than before) beers and waited for sleep to find us in the wee hours.
We woke at 8:30am (dear lord!), checked out, and stowed our bags at the train station. We then went to see the Deutch Museum, which was large and chock full of science and history. The place would have been better if more of the exhibits had some english translation for their description, and if there was more touchy feely exhibits, but you do what you can :o) Carey and I walked back from the Museum since it was a nice day and not that far (couple KM). We stopped in at an internet cafe for some e-mail and beer (remember, Germany...) and met a nice french waiter guy. I decided to go on the bike tour at 4pm so carey and I split up around 3:30 right after trying a McBeer -- that's right, they serve beer at McDonald's. How could we pass that up?? It was like typical american beer, but was beer nonetheless ;o) By the time I got to the bike tour I was "happy" ;o) We rode these nice bikes around and listened to this guy spew more humor than history and basically had a great time. Midway through we stopped at this massive beer garden (The English Garden) for lunch... oh, and beer :o) I got a mass (that's what they call a litre of beer) of this lemonade-like beer, stepped back in line as I drank it and bought a mass of Bock beer (that's what they call this really strong 12% beer -- yum! and it smacks you hard!). Needless to say the rest of the bike tour was more fun than the first half. Folks were entertained by my antics, and I was amazed that I could still ride a bike (it's just like riding a bike... heh ;o). After the tour we went directly to Hoffbrau Haus where I met care and swallowed a couple mass of donkle (yum *burp*). By the time we got to the train around 10:30pm we had to use up our DM coins (changers don't take coin) so I bought a 6-pack to give us something to do on the train. I of course dropped the beer on the way to the coach and some of them rolled under. Clearly the thing to do was retrieve them, so I did. That made me dirty from climbing under at train (aren't they supposed to clean there??) but oddly I didn't notice until the next morning. A nice guy named Hormoz from a place that I don't remember shared our coach at first, then Carey and I were left alone to lie down and sleep -- and boy did we sleep well :o)
Still on the train: Around 6:30am the two guys in the next cabin freaked out. We heard banging, thumping and yelling, then saw one run by with his pack and then the next ran by with his pack and no shoes on. A few minutes later they came walking back all dejected until we stepped out and told them that the stop they just "missed" was Dusseldorf not Amsterdam. We all had a good laugh for the next three hours until we arrived in Amsterdam at 9:45am (heh). Nice guys though, they sounded like they were from New Jersey or something.
We stowed Carey's big bag at the train station and checked in at the Flying Pig. Because we were on the waiting list they let us in to the common room. From there we were able to get the new door code and get back to take a shower. Sure we had to dress in the hall, but that's kinda common at the pig and the shower felt soooo good :o) Carey was off at 11am to get a train to the airport (from what I hear that worked out ok for him with a few minor hitches and he's unhappily back in the states at work ;oP). I did a bit of e-mail while waiting to get a bed and started meeting all sorts of folks from the hostel in Prague. Walked down to a cofeeshop after getting a bed, had some beer, did some e-mail, and then returned to the hostel to wash out my only pair of shorts by hand and hang them in the room, relax a bit, and eat a nice lunch of snickers and peanut m&m's (yum!!). I took a nap from 5-8pm to recover from the night on the train, did some more e-mail, spent the night relaxing in front of the movie chanel ;o)
Woke up at the crack of noon. Unfortunately I had made a lunch appointment with my friend Mabel (I met her in Dahab) at 12:30. No worries, I found the right tram (eventually), got off at a stop near the stop I was actually supposed to get off at (I felt good about it), and walked back to the place to meet her right on time :o) The day was hot, but my shorts weren't done drying so I was stuck wearing long pants -- perhaps I should invest in another pair. Lunch was pretty good if you like sandwiches with raw fish in them (turns out I do), but short as she had to return to work. I of course didn't have that problem so I decided to watch Scream 3 instead. Turns out that it was starting just as I arrived at the theatre (which happened to be in the same square as the place we just ate lunch in) so there was no wait involved. It had been months (like 5 of them) since I had been in a movie theatre. I probably anticipated this movie a bit much since it didn't live up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good, but I was expecting more. Leaving the theatre left me a bit introspective so I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and finally ended up at The Globe (the sports bar type youth hostel that I stayed at my first night in Amsterdam) for dinner. Headed back to the pig at 9pm, did some e-mail, drained some beer bottles, and just kicked back and relaxed the night away.
Morning checked in at 1:30pm and my shorts are done drying :o) Did a bit of e-mail and met Dave (from Interlaken and Prague) as he arrived at 2pm. Turns out that Dave's friend has worked in Amsterdam for quite a while so I went with them on a brief walking tour of the central part of the city and relaxed in Vondel Park for a while. Vondel Park is a massive park that is packed with folks, both tourist and local -- a very cool place. After the tour they both had prior engagements so I met some Aussies and another guy from Prague and relaxed with them. That's what's cool about youth hostels. There are people hanging out all the time just waiting to do things with folks. In hotels and even at home all of these people would be in a room alone and would never meet. See, so it's a bonus not to have any privacy in the hostel invironment ;o)
Hmmm, seeing a trend here: I'm going to bed later and later and getting up later and later. This morning I didn't peel myself out of bed until 2:30, but was smarter as I wasn't supposed to meet Rachel (french woman that I met in Dahab) until 4:30 at a place that I knew how to get to. I got there a bit early, did some e-mail and did the establishment the favor of draining a couple beers (what a nice guy I am). She arrived only to say that she had to work her other job that evening and that she wouldn't be able to hang out. Bummer, but no worries. I headed back to the ranch and hung out with my aussie friends from the day before. One of the aussies, "Dave" just to make it as confusing as possible (not the canadian Dave from Interlaken and Prague, this would be a new Dave), can generally be found downstairs in the hostel watching some crap movie or something. Turns out that the movies this evening weren't so crap after all, so we relaxed through a couple of them and then walked the town a bit when the rest of the group arrived. Our walk led us to a "smart shop" where they have available various natural products -- definately an interesting place. By the time we got back to the pig I was starving, so I had a nice mushroom dish which was surprisingly good. We played a card game called "shithead" at which I did surprisingly well (all things considered) and had an amazing time. In fact that night may be my most fun ever. What can one say? I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me ;o) The only sad note would be that I lost my one and only piece of jewelry through the course of the evening (you remember, the ring that I bought in Dahab...). Regrettable, but I didn't actually like wearing the danged thing anyway ;oP
Woke up starving but found Dave (the aussie) before I found food so I relaxed a bit and played some cards until they were ready to move from the hostel, which was late. I and a couple other aussies from the group decided to get some dinner from the smart shop and then we all went out dancing. The food was ok, and we danced the night away as the dance club we went to (Trance Buddha) didn't make us leave until 5am. Definately a different atmosphere than in the club in Prague, but fun nonetheless.
Still up from the night of dancing before I decided that since I had to check out then I would just stay up all night. It turns out that amsterdam doesn't ever actually sleep, but it gets more peaceful early in the morning. I got to see hoards of folks in their power-suits riding a crap bicycle to work. It's really an interesting sight. The reason I was checking out was that Mabel (my friend from Dahab) was going to be out of town for the night and offerred to let me stay at her flat. I didn't have to be there until between 3 and 5pm so I used my time to find an internet cafe that would actually let me stick a floppy into the machine and save my HTML from this site (this file actually) onto it. That only took about an hour which left plenty of time for me to chow down and meet up with Dave & Co. The sad thing is that this was the last time I was to see them. I was actually toying with blowing off the offer from Mabel and staying for my aussie friend's last night in town, but I was a month behind on my site and couldn't really pass up the opportunity to catch up *sigh*. We said our tearful good-byes at 3:30pm and hit the tram to arrive at Mabel's at 4:30pm. As it turns out, Mabel and her significant other didn't actually arrive until 4:50pm. 'Twas only a minor inconvenience as the day was sunny and warm. I hung out near her place and used the time to ponder life's complexities (why do they still use pull-tab cans in egypt?? Contractual obligations?). Mabel and Brenda (a beautiful James Dean lookin' chick) didn't actually leave until 6:30pm which gave me a few minutes to get to know her a bit. I then threw in a load of laundry, ate a bit, took a really nice shower, and watched this MTV-like thing that was fine unless the VJ was talking, in which case it was in Dutch :o( That station is one of those that you don't actually have to look at to enjoy, so I multitasked and cranked up the ol' computer to work on my update task. Again, I must thank Mabel for letting me use her machine and her apartment for two nights. It was extremely helpful and a good thing to get out of hostels for a night or two. That said, the system she has at home is only used for Write (a word processing program much like MS Word with far fewer bells and whistles due to its age) and I believe is powered appropriately for said task. It is a 386 with 2mb of ram running Dutch Win 3.1. One thing to note when doing a large writing project that you don't save often (remember that writing a large-ish file to disc in Win 3.1 is not an instantaneous process) -- don't kick the power switch. It could cause you to lose an entire day, like the 14th of April!). Wrote from the 11th through the 15th of April, took my contact lenses out for a much needed cleaning, relaxed to some music (one of the things that I miss the most), and hit the hay.
Damn, slept until 2pm -- doh! Ate PB&Banana on a roll of sorts (like a hotdog) and got down to some serious typing. Mabel returned at 10:30pm by which time I had typed from 15 April to 4 May, done the dishes, folded my laundry and re-packed my bag. I finished 4 May and caught some z's. It was hard sleeping so early (I think it was like 11:30pm by time I tried). I could really stand to sort my schedule out at some point...
Got up at 8am (that's right folks, 8AM), left by 8:45am, and got back to the Flying Pig by 9:30am to put my name on the waiting list for a room and get my somewhat questionably legal free breakfast. The deal on that is that the breakfast is free to folks staying in the hostel. I wasn't officially staying in the hostel yet, but I figure that I had missed enough breakfasts that this one wasn't going to break them or anything. All you get is free coffee or tea, a bowl of cereal or three slices of toast or a slice of toast and a roll and a boiled egg and two choices of either jam or nutella. The coffee is awful by the way, more reminiscent of mud then coffee if you must know. As I waited for a bed I came acrossed Dave (the aussie). It turns out that the others he had been travelling with had headed down in to Belgium and he was more interested in staying in Amsterdam, so he did. Had I known he was still in town I probably would have returned from Mabel's after only one night, but I got so much done that it was probably better that I stayed. I got my bed (finally) and went to find an internet cafe again so I could upload my efforts. Turns out that the one I had gone to originally was full up with a line. Dang. I headed on down the road to another... that was under construction and not offering services. Dang again. Finally I found one and sat down to a terminal with only one button on the mouse -- oh the horror! That's right baby, it was a Mac -- ewwww! They did have a couple of "old" PCs available. I used one for a while just to clean up the text (now that I could view it in a browser) and then attempted an upload. Lovely lovely Netscape 4.7 blows chunks. I've had problems with this version before as it won't allow me to view http://geocities.yahoo.com, the site that has the upload file manager for my site. Grrr. I searched around on the machine and found a version of Internet Explorer. Cool, or so I thought. It turns out that this particular version of IE was old enough that it didn't support the version of Java required to upload. Damn. One final try was to move to the PC right next to me (the guy just vacated it). It was only running Netscape 4.6 (a much more usable version of Netscape IMHO) and did the trick. Update successful from 11 April through 8 May. Sure I was still owing an entire week, but still... I finished up that task around 2pm and returned to find Dave who was waiting for me to go eat as I was going to (finally) show him the chinese restaurant that I had been talking about since I met him. The movie Elizabeth had just started so we relaxed a bit and watched it before going to eat. He was impressed with the chinese restaurant (Kam Yen) which serves large portions in addition to having low prices (score!). We grabbed some muffins for desert and, after walking the town a bit, returned to the hostel to relax and watch The Truman Show and Godzilla. Ah, something that I must note about Amsterdam is that they love chips, french fries, or frites -- however you want to call them. They have entire shops that that's all they do -- chips! You can get a massive cone of chips for just over 4FL, which is under US$2.00! The sauces cost a bit more (I think ketchup is 0.75FL), but they have a miriad of choices. Right, my point was that Dave and I went on a chip run to fill our guts before sleeping, which came shortly after returning.