no words need for this. it was just awesome!

yo

in eastern europe, i guess people don't see many asian here. i could understand that people can't help staring at yoshimi becase they don't see asian often. but when i was walking with yoshimi, people actually pointed us and sometimes laugh at us. i don't get it at all! many time i say to them, "what are you laughing at? you've never seen a teddy bear or what?" but many time local people don't speak english much so they start cracking up more. forget it! check please!

kumako

i was staying a 18 people dorm in krakow, my bed was the bottom of the bunk beds and a guy was sleeping above me. this guy, everynight he comes back really late and sleep till afternoon. so i never seen him in person. one morning i woke up because i heard this puky puky sound, and i realized that the guy is puking above me with laying down. i jumped out bed because i thought that puke is going to leak on me...ewwwwwwww! he must be really drunk and tired, he went back to sleep with his own puke. of course, i couldn't go back to sleep...no way!

yo

Vienna=Music, I heard that you can see an opera really cheap at the state opera house in vienna. so opera starts 7:30pm, but if you want to do the cheap way, you have to go the opera house 2 hours before the opera starts which i did. and you pay 3.5 euro to get in for the standing area where located first floor only 30 yards from the stage. the opera was famous one, "tosca". it was great! especially i felt so good to see an opera at the state opera house in vienna. although i was standing total 6 hours straight...no pain no gain!

yo

I don't see any reason why there shouldn't be an armwrestling world championship. But to be perfectly honest, I just never have given it a whole lot of thought. So you can imagine my surprise when I realized that I arrived just in time for the opening ceremonies. The bus ride from Sofia to Veliko Tarnovo was uneventful except for the Vin Diesel double feature. He's HUGE in Bulgaria. I'd had a big night the day before. I always have trouble staying hydrated in countries where the beer is cheaper than the water. A few of us at the hostel(highly recommended-Hostel Mostel-$14 for a bed, breakfast, dinner, a beer, and unlimited internet access)were out till 4am at a bar/club. Survivor's Eye of the Tiger(of Rocky 3 fame)was a real crowd pleaser on the dance floor. I slept through breakfast and then caught the next bus to Veliko Tarnovo. When I arrived I was met by a man speaking English not unlike Borat. He greeted me with, "If you believe Jesus, give high five." My immediate reaction was to think of you, MacCrone? What would you do, a believer of Jesus, but a staunch anti-high fivist. Me? I didn't want to disappoint the first person I met in this town. I gave a high five, he smiled, and then proceeded to tell me about the armwrestling championships, which wasn't hard to believe since the small town was filled with the bulging biceps of the 1500 participants. I dropped my pack at a hostel, and that evening went to the opening ceremonies. I met a Canadian guy, former competitor, now Canadian team cameraman. He gave me the scoop: this was the 29th annual games, there are weight classes, mens, womens, juniors, seniors, right-handed, left-handed, and disabled(wheelchair, blind)events. This year there are 42 countries participating in an Olympic-like competition, complete with drug tests. Who knew? I guess there is probably a world championship of just about everything held somewhere every year.
It's now been exactly one month since we left and our romp though Europe has just about come to an end. Yo & I both feel strongly about the joys of traveling alone. I've met some great people these past three weeks on my traverse of the southern Balkan peninsula. But there is also something to be said for shared experiences. I can't wait to see Yo tomorrow in Sofia and travel together again. From Sofia, it's on to Istanbul where we begin the Middle East segment of our journey.
-Shawn