Back into Prague for our last full day. We made our way to Wencesles Square, snapshotted a few sights we hadn't yet seen and then spent a bit of time shopping for gifts, and pants for Mark.

The previous night we'd met a couple of Americans at Pet Penez, one of whom was keen on going to see a church made of bones about an hour's drive away. Mark and I were keen so headed back out of the city in the early arvo to see if we could meet with her (we'd left a note at her hostel that morning). Turns out our note must have missed her, and we had no idea where to go, so we went back to our hotel, moved all of our stuff out to the new hostel, had a shower and then went back into the city to see Czech play Ghana. A great upset for us (as Aussies) to see, but the Czech folk weren't too impressed.
The atmosphere was nothing on the Germany Poland game in Dortmund, but it was still pretty good to be there.

We wandered around, looking for Sip and Joe who we missed catching up with, but then later found a nice underground bar with a big screen showing the night's game of USA vs Italy, along with a cute waitress out the front, and some American fans in the basement whom we could cheer against.
Even just the two of us making usual game-time noises must have been a bit much for the yanks, one of them gave us the finger when they scored, which we found hilarious, especially when we saw the replay and found it was an Italy own goal anyway!

Dinner done with, we went out the largest night club in Central Europe. This was quite a bit better than I remembered it, it had been cleaned and the top story was opened; a chillout bar which was a good place to go to get warmed up.
Mark and I danced the night away with various girls and the odd (one) queer Swede, spending most of our time on the 60's-80's floor just to be daggy.


Gotta love Prague. I'm glad Mark's going back on his Contiki tour so he can buy me a painting!

Feeling a bit jipped by the hotel we were staying in we wandered down the road to a hostel and booked our third night to be there. The place was pretty dingy actually, but it seemed solid and clean enough, the people were friendly, and it was quite cheaper.
Walking back to the hotel I looked over at PugPug (our car) in the hotel car park (behind a secure fence) and noticed it had its wheels clamped! Inside to sort out the drama, and they gave me a form to fill out that should have been put on the dash of the car the first time. Not to worry, not harm done thank goodness.

Next was sussing out the public transport to get us into the old city. It's easy enough to use and pretty much everywhere, so we had no trouble catching a tram into the city and then part way out of it again. D'oh. Have an argument and then catch the next tram back in.

Prague is really such a lovely city. We went into the old sqaure and saw the churches there, including the clock tower. Then over the Charles Bridge and found a place off the main road to eat a traditional Czech meal of roasted duck with potato dumplings, bread and two different types of cabbage.
Mark's camera died, so instead of climbing the hill to the palace we thought we'd head back to the hotel to have a shower (it was well over 30 degrees and were sweating like madmen) and then head back into town to watch the football from there.

Back at the hostel, we ran into a couple of other Aussies - Sip and Joe whom we go on great with, so we sat down to watch England just beat Trinidad & Tobego, went to our new favourite place for dinner "Pet Penez", and then back to the hotel for Sweden and Paraguay. By the end of that we'd had enough beer to just be ready for sleep, and what do you know, our beds were only a lift ride away so off we chuff and lights out.

Not a hugely eventful day today. We left Hagen fairly early, bound for Prague. Along the way were some perfect driving conditions: overcast and cool, open 3 lane autobahn; and we got the car up to 180km/hr with only a slight decline (a record we have yet to break...)

TomTom took us through Nuremburg (on the other side of the country to Nurburg) where we were yesterday), a city was vaguely familiar with (read: have been given a short tour of once before; not ever driven around it) so we pulled in for lunch and to check e-mails.

Back on the road and we were soon entering the Czech Republic. We made good time to Prague, and quickly discovered another problem withour whole sat-nav idea - the maps of Eastern Europe seem to be a little more than slightly off. Turns out it's not a showstpooer, but it requires whoever's not driving to be following the map and to know where you are, and to give directions rally driver style.

OK so we make it to the Exotl Inn alright in the end - with sme help from a local Czech driver who was already on the phone and who also manaed to honk his horn and point us to not turn down this particular street, but to go forwards more and down the next one. And watch out for that tram.

Anyway, this inn, it's nice and seems fairly new, but the prices are rip-off tourist traps and our bathroom is falling apart and isn't drained, so when some dope showers with the door open the floor is satched for a day and a half afterwards.

Staropramen beer is my fav so far.

Today was Mark's 21st birthday!
We left Pünderich (as we found out it's called) after a large breakfast and another long-but-with-minimal-content conversation with the sweet old landlady, on our way to the Nurburgring.

The tracks were closed because of a race the next day. This was a slight disappointment at first, but we soon saw that there was still heaps to do apart from sit and watch flash cars all day.
We started at the F1 track. The museum there was quite good, and it was a shame we had to race through it to make the tour. But the tour was worth it - it took us over through the 'paddocks' as they call them, and because of the race the paddocks were full of cars, and beautiful ones at that, and were being tuned. We got to go up into the media room, and also up onto the roof of the control centre/pits building, and down through the whole pits. Lots of great photos and just a top atmosphere of everyone running around like crazy getting their cars going for the race.
Next we went up to Nordschleife, the larger road circuit that we were really more interested in anyway. There's an M5 BMW taxi you can get to race you around the full circuit and we were hopefull to get in without any booking. But again, because of the race the next day the whole thing was booked out. Oh well, we did get to see a few flash cars doing test laps at least!

From Nürburgring it was to be over to Dortmund, and off we went, TomTom leading the way. Unfortunately we got caught in a large traffic jam - nearly doubling the time it should have taken us to get there, and we didn't even make it all the way. My PDA (mini-computer that runs TomTom) went flat just when we really needed it, and we discovered the car charger for it wasn't working the whole time.

Bugger, so we took the next exit and found a shopping centre where we were going to see if we could find a map and something to drink. We walked into a travel agent and were treated once again to generous hospitality German style - he phoned up places for us, tore a couple of maps out of his phone book and gave us directions to a nearby hostel and instructions on how to get into Dortmund.

Sweet, so off we go to dump the luggage and onto the train, making sure to walk in the completely wrong direction for the train station, just to stop us feeling clever.
Dortmund was just about in a state of riot. By the time we got there (about half way through the first half) there were gangs of police roaming some areas, the main square had the big screen torn down, and everyone was crowding around smaller screens in other pubs. Glass and rubbish (rubble even if it sounds better) covered the streets, and we even saw some stormtrooper-cops.
Finally we found a decent sized big screen, downstairs in a food court, with hundreds of people piled on top of each other. Perfect! In we get and join in the going nuts for the last half of the game. It was great timing - we were just able to help shield a couple of fraulines from the storming masses (they were quite.. appreciative) and still had 45mins of tension before the Germans actually scored and won the game.

Such a top and unique experience.

They don't seem to make boring days in Europe.

In the morning (after updating the blog) we used TomTom (the sat nav program) to find a shopping centre nearby and on the way for where we wanted to go, and stopped in and bought another FM transmitter for my iPod (no music is just not doable), and other supplies.
Then it was on to Nurburg, home of the Nurburgring racetracks. TomTom told us there was a campsite nearby, and off we went.

The nearby campsite was actually in some random village that wasn't really very close to Nurburg at all. But it was quite nice, right on a river, the weather was warm and we were stuffed so we decided to make the most of it and stay at the caravan park there anyway.
The pub where the park is run from was closed with a sign in German about how to get help. Hm. OK, next pub along, and there's a nice girl who spoke (quite broken) English and started to assist by pointing us back to the first pub. We told her that no it was closed, so she came out and tramped around the caravan park with us to find the owner. We eventually did, and he spoke even less English! We managed to get out of him that there were vacancies and the price, but not til later did we manage to communicate that we didn't have our own caravan but would need to sleep in someone else's.
That wasn't an option so he took us back to the second pub where the girl then took us to a Gasthaus (Guest House), which was full and then to another, which wasn't. She then left us with an elderly lady who spoke absolutely zero English at all, but only after we'd worked out some of the details. 35Euro for two, including breakfast and with our own room ("nicht zu frauline???" or something) and large bathroom.

We unloaded and, after a heavily involved discussion (the subject matter was very light, it was the effort required for discussion that was heavy) with the landlady, headed back down to the river to make ourselves wurst and cheese rolls for lunch. It was just lovely. The weather was so warm (30+ degrees) and the grass was thick and the view was quite pleasant. And, one better, we found a third pub that advertised showing of World Cup matches!

In we went, and drank 2 milkshakes each while watching the end of the South Korea vs Togo game. Then it was back outside to the thick grass for a deep sleep in the shade. Back into the pub for the next game (France vs Switzerland), this time trying the different beers and making sure to document (by photograph) the first time we tried each one.

That done, we had to find another venue for the screening of the third game, so in the car and through the windy narrow cobblestone (probably older than Captain Cook) streets, stopping at every guest house and pub until we found a place that offered to turn on the TV for us. Well, they might as well, we were the only ones there.
As a bonus they had a large meat platter (with veges and salad) on the menu, so Mark and I indulged while we had the chance, and it was just a top meal! The chef was a youngish bloke and sat down with us right infront of the TV for the first half of the game, soon joined by his sister (or was it his girlfriend? We didn't ask questions...). Then, after we'd finished the meal, they invited us to their friend's place where they have a projector going for all the games, and we saw the 2nd half of the Brazil vs Croatia match sharing beers with a room full of people who didn't understand us, but who found it amusing that we cheered so much.

Back to the landlady's guesthouse (just roll the car downhill slowly and don't scrape the sides!) for a well earned rest.

What a day for the books.
We arrived in Frankfurt a bit before 6:30am, on a plane full of Japanese jersey wearing fanatics. They were cool but, we got photos with them.
Standing in the customs line we were approached by another Aussie-jersey wearing bloke who asked us where we were headed. His plane was late so he'd missed his train to Bad Durkheim (30mins from Kaiserslautern where the Aus-Jap game was on that arvo) where he was going to meet the Aus Football Fanatics Ass. that we was a part of. If he was there by 9am then he'd get the bus with them to the game.

Our pickup from the airport was nearly half and hour late (after we called), but eventually the three of us were there to pick up Mark's and my baby for a month - our 206 SW Trendy. Getting used to driving oddly on the wrong side of the car as well as the wrong side of the road, we headed off for Bad Durkheim.
About half way there, the BMW infront of us starts flashing - or at least a red sign on the back seat does, saying "Polize" and "Stop", and an arm out the window flags us to pull over. We pull into a nearby servo, excited and bewildered. The cops come over, get one look at us in matching yellow jerseys and says "ah, football".
Turns out it was just a random check ("we like to do this in Germany") and we were off again.

Within 10mins of Bad Durkheim, both the GPS receiver and my PDA with the sat nav software batteries went flat. The iPod accessory we'd bought in Malaysia was a dud; not only would it not play the iPod, but it wouldn't charge a USB device (like a PDA for example) for more than 2 seconds. Great, middle of nowhere and no idea where to go.

After a short bit we found signs to follow, and made our way to the middle of Bad Durkheim, and soon after that were able to charge our techo-gadgets and found the campsite.
Upon inquring we heard that our mate had in fact missed his bus (by over half an our, no surprise) and also that there was one available caravan in the campsite! We snapped that up, for a decent 32 euro (quite flash van), dumped luggage and headed off for Kaiserslautern.

Man it was packed there. We parked the car where we thought must be close to the stadium because of the police and millions of cars around, and then proceeded to walk over a kilometre to the stadium itself. Our other mate already had tickets, so we left him at the stadium and back-tracked to where people were lining up to collect tickets, in the hope of lining up ourselves to buy some.
While the volunteers were very friendly and didn't exactly laugh at us, it was obvious that we weren't going to get tickets, so we resigned ourselves to looking for a big screen nearby.

Wandering idly towards the town, we were approached by a few scalpers. Quite dubious at first, but still really excited, we snooped around, sussed out a few legit tickets of passers buy, and decided to take the plunge.

We paid 145euro each for Category 1 tickets. Heart in mouth, we headed for the gate, making a point to stop and stand around at each security check point to see if other punters were having trouble with tickets.
The big one was the scanners. But we were all good! The screen read 'accept' (or something) and we were in!

We found our way to the seats (making sure to get a photo with a cute volunteer on the way) which were 4 rows back in the 1st tier almost above the Aussie bench. Just fantastic. And noone came to check on us, noone came to kick us out, and we were set!

My brother and I were witness to the first Australian goals scored in World Cup history, and our first win too.

Voices sore, and tired as all buggery, we shared beers with other Aussie kin before retiring to our car (which wasn't that far away), driving to the caravan (long way around, who reads sings...) and a tops nights sleep with pleasant dreams!

In the morning we slept in as long as possible before breakfast finished, making sure to sneak some bread rolls for lunch.
Back over to Chinatown to try our hand at bargaining for sunnies, trinkets and shirts. We did quite well by Aus standards, but were perhaps still too soft really.
Buying supplies from a 7-11 (after a trip to the bank - they don't take Visa doncha know) we randomly bumped into the same girls again and bade them farewell once more before heading back to the hotel to change, and then over to the shmick new conert hall in the base of the Petronas Towers to see the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra play a whole lot of Mozart. It was quite lovely, despite us struggling to stay awake at times.
The towers have a shopping centre in it, and I suffered trying a gawdawful coffee at the expense of free Internet access (Starbucks' redeeming feature) on my PDA. I finally found an iPod accessory we were after for our European car trek, and then we headed off to the airport.

Our taxi driver was a really friendly guy, full of natural life extenders and general health advice (Ginger is the secre the Japanese have been keeping all these years as to why they're always so alert!). Great timing, we checked in and ate some really average airport-priced food before settling down a bar to watch the Netherlands v Serbia & Montenegro game, which finished only 15mins after our gate arrival time! At least we didn't have to wait anywhere.