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This hostel is miles better and more in tune with the hostelling experience, the last gaff was too instituionalised. I’m going to try and avoid HI hostels on the whole as although some have been good plenty of them don’t have fun very high on the agenda. This place does a half litre bottle of Kolsch for 2 Euros 20, Jurassic Park.

I obviously slept a lot better than the night before (it’d be pretty much impossible not to) but it was not without incident. I got to bed about half 12 and shortly after some American or Canadian fella did the same, only he wasn’t so accomodating to the other 4 people in the room as I was. He was going about with his torch (sorry flashlight) not worrying who’s eyes it went in, then his very bright laptop came on and to boot he was incessantly fidgeting noisely.

I could handle all this though, it was the crisp (sorry chips) eating that did it. He had a massive bag of the buggers and was forever digging around the salt ridden crevices and then making exceedingly loud crunching noises (even my earplugs were penetrated).

When the dingbat had woke me up for the 3rd time and he was still munching away an hour after he had started I said “Do you wanna give it a rest pal, there’s people trying to sleep over here”. No reply back but crisps away, laptop off, everything hunky dory.

This morning an English bloke (seemed a sound lad actually but he checked out before I really got speaking to him) who had the bed between me and munchy (so had it worse than I did) asked me what that greezer was all about. We just don’t know.

For the vast majority of today I’ve been in the hostel making use of the free web access on PCs (with IE 5 on them, a full 3 versions out of date!) to plan my travels. Quite handy as most hostels just provide free wifi and charge for use at the machines.

For the US trip I’d spent ages planning most stuff (mainly transport and accomodation) before I went, where as due to not having the time beforehand and the rough nature of my route anyway, this is all planned as I go. It allows for more freedom which I wanted but it can also take ages (taking away time from actually seeing things) to sort out the transport side in a cheap manner, the accomodation booking isn’t that bad. You have to book stuff in advance really to do it cheaply as prices tend to go up the longer you leave it.

The perfect combo is an unplanned route (or largely unplanned) and your own set of wheels (2 preferably but 4 does the trick too).

Anyway, I’m an expert on the quirks of the German rail system now, which not unexpectantly is pretty bloody good. I’ve sorted a train from Hamburg to Berlin for less than 40 Euros but couldn’t get a cheap ticket from here to Hamburg as I’m going tomorrow and cheapo tickets have to be bought 3 days in advance minimum. That means nearly 80 Euros, gulp. But aha, I found a workaround didn’t I which meant I only had to pay 35. Okay it will be on slower regional trains and take me over 2 hours more to get there and I will also have to change 3 times I wouldn’t have had to with the more expensive fare, but still, Jurassic Park.

I’ve also booked my next 3 hostels and booked a flight from Berlin to Riga for about 90 Euros. I’ve had to cut Dresden from my plans which is a shame but can’t be helped. So my next week and a half or so will now be Hamburg-Berlin-Riga. From Latvia I then plan to go (probably via bus) to Vilinus in Lithuania and from there Poland and Slovakia. Then who knows.

Hopefully when I’m in Eastern Europe my budget should start looking a bit more healthy. It’s not like I’ve found Germany to be really expensive (no worse than home really) but still a tad pricey for backpacking finances.

There has been a bit of good news for the coffers though. I got a phone call from Nationwide before asking about what sort of figure I wanted for compensation for the hassle and inconvenience I’d had with their cash card debacle. I said I don’t know but that I’d had to cancel bookings because of it and it had cost me dosh etc. The woman was okay, she said she will speak to her manager and get back to me. I reckoned they’d come back with a hundred quid offer and that’s exactly what they did, if I’d have initially named a figure I’d maybe have got more but they might gave wanted receipts and stuff then and I don’t need the mither when I’m out of the country. Still, a ton isn’t bad and it just shows that it’s worth complaining!

With all the beaurocracy I’ve been taking care of today I’ve seen very little of Cologne but I did make it to the Dom though which is only round the corner. This Cathedral is one of the largest Gothic structures ever built. It’s absolutely huge inside, very poweful and impressive.

After that I found a little restaurant and decided to take a risk, no small event for a fussy eater like my sen. I saw something with the words penne, salsa and curry in (and plently more daftly long German ones besides) and opted for that. It was pasta in a thin mild curry sauce with chicken, broccoli, carrots, parmesan and a bit of other stuff. It wasn’t great but not horrible and probably a lot healthier than the salami pizza I wanted to order.

Now I think I’m going to go and see if I can find that bar Topcat recommended. TTFN readers.