Does It Offend You, Yeah? pictures

Here's pictures from the Does It Offend You, Yeah? concert I went to in Rome.

Rome, Italy

Thumbs up for the Vatican

It's pretty silly that I've been back in the USA for over a month, and I still have two towns that I haven't blogged about.  But I guess that's pretty typical for the non-professional blogger.  My apologies, and we will continue with my stop in Rome, Italy.

I arrived via overnight train from Vienna, which was my first overnight train experience.  I got a really good rate on a 4 bed compartment, 49 euro if I remember correctly.  I shared the compartment with a nice couple and had a great conversation with them which now escapes me.  In the morning, I awoke to the Rome train station and set off on my quest to find a place to stay.  I hadn't booked anything, and had another difficult time finding wifi to use to explore my options.  I finally found a hotel with free wifi that I used to book a hostel for night.  That night I explored a bit of the town and attended a CouchSurfing meetup that was overwhelming.  I met a couple cool people, but the place was just too crowded to get to know anyone.

On Friday, I discovered there was a misunderstanding at my hostel, and I would not have a room for the night.  I had picked that hostel because I was promised a room for at least 2 nights of my 4 night stay, but now I was back on the Internet trying to find a place for the remainder of my nights.  I ended up booking a room on AirBnb for about the same cost as the hostel.  I stayed with a guy named Peter, who had a 2 bedroom apartment in the south part of town.  He was really passionate about the history of Rome, and he took me on an unexpected walking tour all through Rome once I had settled in at his place.  I got some great photos, but unfortunately he wore me, so Friday was an early night for me.

Walking through town, I had discovered that a band I liked, Does It Offend You, Yeah? was playing in town on Saturday night.  I set off to go check out the Vatican during the day, planning to make my way over to the club to see the band at night.  Peter warned me that there was a big protest in the center of Rome that day, so I avoided that part of town.  Good thing I did, as a bus ride through town later that night would reveal many broken windows and burned cars.  The Vatican was great, but I enjoyed the live music portion of my day much better.  While there was a huge delay in getting people inside the club, the band played a great set, and I met some really cool Italian kids in line while waiting.

Sunday was my last day in Rome, and I met up with some CouchSurfers for a walk through Trastevere.  We had a really good time walking and chatting, and I met a fellow poker player enjoying his time traveling the globe.  We broke off from the group and hit up a bar I had discovered on Thursday before parting ways.  It was definitely a low key day, but I was used to that on Sundays in Europe.  Besides, I had to get back and do laundry and pack before heading back to Cannes to work the WSOPE.

Trevi Fountain on a Thursday evening 

Requisite picture of ancient ruins 

Colosseum 

Pantheon 

Spanish Steps

(video) Does It Offend You, Yeah? covers Nirvana's "Aneurysm" (live in Rome)

Vienna, Austria

Mid-way through Day 1 at the Paradise Poker Tour

Chris and I arrived in Vienna somewhere around 9am via an overnight train from Prague.  I use the word overnight loosely as the train left at around 4am, so we were pretty tired getting into Vienna.  Chris was flying out the next morning at 6am, so he really only had one day to see the town.  We met up with Kristina and dropped our bags at her place, and then went on a walking tour of Vienna.  I went on a search for authetnci schnitzel, but everything was overpriced in the area we were at.  We eventually settled on all you can eat sushi for the bargain price of 8 euros a piece.

After stuffing our faces, Chris suggested we find a place to chill since we were so tired.  We found a coffee shop with comfortable couches called Phil that fit the bill, so we hung out there until my friend Ben was available.  I met Ben in Barcelona, and he was nice enough to offer to host me for a few days in Vienna.  Once he got back from band practice, the 3 of us headed over there to hang out til the wee hours of the morning, drinking and playing guitar and singing songs.  Chris left for the airport somewhere around 4am after Ben cooked an amazing spaghetti 2am dinner for us.

At 12pm the next day, the kids from the school directly behind Ben's place woke me up.  I wasn't too stoked as I had not fallen asleep until 8am.  But I was up for the day, so I headed back into town and joined Kristina on running some errands for school.  She had to go to sleep early that night, so I went to go see Pierce The Veil at Szene.  Krystina, who I met in Prague, was in Vienna, so she joined me.  I'm not a Pierce The Veil fan, but my friend Henri was selling their merch, so he put me on the list.  The show was ok, and afterwards Krystina and I had a couple of beers at Travel Shack Vienna before I headed back to Ben's on the night bus.

On Friday, I was excited to go play the Paradise Poker Tour at Concord Card Casino.  The buyin was 500 + 50 euro, and it was a great structure.  I also was pleasantly surprised to find out that they included free dinner every day you are in the tournament.  I finally had my schnitzel on day 1, and lasted just long enough on day 2 to get another meal.  I busted out when I 4-bet shoved pocket fives and ran into an active player's pocket eights.  No complaints out of me, though, as the tournament was well run and I still had a few days to enjoy Vienna.

After living in Ben's closet for a few days, I decided to upgrade myself to a private room the Hostel Ruthensteiner.  I wasn't feeling 100% well, so decided to take it easy for the next few days.  I remember Kristina joined me for dinner on Sunday at Pizzeria Mafioso, where we had an amazing pizza and some delicious gnocchi.  On Monday, I joined Kristina again in shopping for a jacket and a pair of shoes, and we ended up going to see the movie Horrible Bosses... in English!  Good flick, and the movie theatre was so much better than most American movie theatres in that they sold beer at the snack bar.

On Tuesday we checked out Wiener Prater as I was itching to play some pinball for some reason.  We found a slew of pinball machines and a few other carnival games, though most of the carnival rides were shut down for the winter.  For dinner, I had my third burger of the trip at Die Burgermacher, which was overpriced and not that good.  I do believe it was the best burger in Vienna, though, but it wasn't half good as the burger I had in Amsterdam or Munich.

Wednesday was my last day in town as I had booked an overnight train from Vienna to Rome that left in the evening.  Kristina and I went to the AYCE sushi joint again (it was so cheap how can you blame me?) and then I went to an amazing CouchSurfing meeting.  The founder, Casey Fenton, was in town holding a conference as sort of a Q&A for CouchSurfers.   Without going into too much detail, I was impressed with what Casey had to say, and was very disappointed I had to leave early to catch my train... which I almost missed!

Pierce The Veil... or is that one of the opening bands?

So many starting chips! (you can count them if you want)

The schnitzel looks somewhat like the picture, and tasted better.

Prater had so much to offer!

Casey Fenton speaking to the CouchSurfers

(video) Friendly Fires - "Kiss of Life" (live in Munich)

Prague, Czech Republic

Chris (right) and I hanging out on the Charles Bridge

Per a recommendation from Kristina (whom I met in Paris), I took the Student Agency bus from Munich to Prague.  It was much cheaper than the trains at 30 euro, and comfortable enough for the ~8 hour journey.  Boarding the bus, I met an American named Kevin who was heading back to Prague to fly back to the US.  We sat next to each other and talked most of the way, distracting ourselves from the bumpy ride.  When we finally reached our destination, Kevin joined me at a CouchSurfing meeting where we grabbed some cheap food and beer at a bar called Hrom Do Police.  Afterwards, I headed over to Kristina's friend Honza's to crash for the night.  We ended up staying up until 5am talking about many different topics -- Honza is definitely a cool guy!

On Friday I woke up and stopped at the bank to get some money so I could pay for my apartment rental.  I found a room with two beds for my friend Chris and I to stay in -- he was flying in that day from Indiana to spend six days in Europe with me.  After having a meal with Honza at Kozlovna, we found Chris and went on a walking tour of Prague.  Honza was a great host, but he had to leave early, leaving Chris and I to explore on our own.  We ended up at a small bar on our street called Angel Winn, which had a sign on the door saying "non-stop."  Apparently, the bar never closed, and we took full advantage of that on every night of our trip.

Saturday we slept in, and finally made our way to Plzensky Andel, a restaurant that Kristina recommended.  Chris and I both had the breaded cheese appetizer and the salmon main course, which were both amazing.  Earlier in the evening, Chris had met two girls from Prauge on the street in front of our apartment, so we met up with them at a bar called Bulldog.  Renata and Alena were really cool, so we headed to another bar called Back Doors to have another drink.  Unfortunately, the girls ran out of steam at around 1am, so Chris and I made our way to Prague Beer Museum to try to meet up with some CouchSurfers.  It had looked like we missed them, so we went to Harley's Bar as that was another recommended place to go.  Long story short, that place sucked.  It was loud, crowded, and Chris and I instantly turned around and left.  Where did we go?  Why Angel Winn, of course.

It was another late night, and so another late morning.  I was craving a bagel, and Chris agreed that that would hit the spot, so off we went on The Quest for Bagels.  The first place we looked for, Hunger Wall, was closed on Sundays, so we headed to our backup joint, Bohemia Bagel.  I had a fantastic salmon bagel sandwich before heading to a coffee shop in the city to meet up with a CouchSurfer from Brooklyn named Krystina.  She joined us in meeting Honza for a beer at a place called The P.U.B., which was an awesome bar concept.  We had our own table with our own beer spouts, and we used a touch screen to keep track of who drank how much.  The touch screen also let us make music requests and just added the charge to our bill.

Unfortunately, The P.U.B. closed early since it was Sunday, so Honza directed us to his school's student bar.  It was empty, but definitely a unique experience.  Unfortunately, Honza had to leave us, but we gained Renata in trade, so it wasn't all bad.  The four of us found a bar called Chapeau Rouge and drank there until it closed.  We still weren't done, so it was our ritualistic stop at Angel Winn until the sun came up.  I think we finally went to sleep at 10am that morning?  I dunno, it was kind of a blur.

As a result, Monday didn't begin until nighttime for us.  Chris and I had made plans to attend a CouchSurfing karaoke meeting, so we headed there, stopping at the 24/7 post office to mail some postcards of mine.  After getting a bit lost on the trams, we finally arrived to a small group of CouchSurfers and a large selection of songs.  Chris and I both sang quite a few times, finally doing a duet of Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike."  We left early, but of course were back at Angel Winn for the fourth straight night.

Tuesday was a bit of a mess, and I really can't remember how it all went down.  We woke up around noon as we had planned to have a ride to Vienna.  But somehow the ride fell through, and by that time all of the busses had left town.  I was so exhausted from all of our late nights and aftermath that I fell back asleep at 7pm and woke back up at midnight.  Chris had met back up with Renata one more time, and we made the decision to catch a 4am train to Vienna.  That meant a few hours of watching TV shows in our room in Prague before we hit the road, finding another nap on the train to Vienna.

My meal at Kozlova 

Drinks at Back Doors with Renata (left) and Alena (right)

At The P.U.B. with Honza (left) and Chris (right) 

 Angel Winn = non stop! (and free wifi, too)

Hitting the high notes at karaoke with Chris

Munich, Germany

Ini and I at Oktoberfest

After ditching my bag with Elias, I hopped on the metro to go to Atomic Cafe where Friendly Fires were playing that night.  I had so much fun at the Berlin concert that I wanted to see them again.  The show was sold out, but I got lucky and found a kid out front selling an extra ticket for face value.  I decided to skip the same opening band from Thursday and asked the girl working the door where was a good place to get a quick bite.  She sent me to a burger place called Cosmogrill, and I was very happy with her recommendation.  I got the daily special, which I had no idea what it was until I got it.  Fresh spinach, cheese, mushrooms, and some sort of secret sauce.  It was huge and delicious!

Back at the concert, I came in just in time for the band to begin.  I met up with Denis, a CouchSurfer who also offered me a place to stay.  The concert was good, but not as good as it was in Berlin.  Why?  Well, there were a bunch of kids from England that were clearly trashed from Oktoberfest, and they were moshing in the front and running into people left and right.  I spent half the set trying to protect the younger girls at the concert from these idiots, and it pretty much ruined the show for me.

After the concert finished, the club turned into a nightclub where they spun like 50's and 60's music.  I met up with Ini, the girl who was hosting me, and we danced and drank the night away with her friends.  I didn't get the memo ahead of time, but Ini apparently had plans to be out all night, so we had to stay out until the metro started back up at 5:30am.  Amazingly, we weren't the last ones to leave the club.  Europe knows how to fucking party!

On Sunday Ini woke me up and made me breakfast, which was just one example of how awesome of a host Ini is.  We headed to Englischer Garten to meet her friend Hanna, and enjoyed the awesome weather that day.  I think we spent like 2 or 3 hours there just hanging out, much like the rest of Munich.  Afterwards, I got my first taste of Oktoberfest as we briefly walked through.  We didn't go in the beer tents, but I did try a 1/2 chicken for dinner that was pretty tasty.  Ini ran into a friend of hers named Ludwig, and he joined us in our mission to get back my luggage.

Elias was at Oktoberfest and his car was nearby with my luggage, so after some phone tag, we finally found him.  My luggage survived, and the three of us joined another friend of theirs at a local bar called Alter Ofen.  After watching Ludwig and his shenanigans for a bit, we called it a night and headed back to Ini's place.

Monday was a pretty chill day.  I stayed in most of the day to plan my next stop, Prague.  My friend Chris from Indianapolis messaged me on Facebook a few days earlier and said he wanted to come to Europe and meet up with me, so I helped him find a ticket and we looked at places to stay and what to do.  In the evening, my poker playing friend Norman that lives in Munich invited me to Oktoberfest, but that was a massive fail.  I called and texted him a bunch from random people's phones at Oktoberfest, but Norman never came to where I was to find me.  After waiting around for an hour or two, I threw in the towel and just wandered around Munich for a bit before heading home.

Tuesday I left the house much later than I wanted to.  Somehow my time in Munich had flown by, and I hadn't yet done my laundry.  So after doing my laundry, I headed into the city in search for some all you can eat sushi.  I found the place, and decided to indulge in the 20 euro price tag, even though lunch was only 10 euro.  The sushi wasn't fantastic, but it hit the spot and I ate a ton.  They call it "running sushi" because the plates come around on a conveyor belt and you just grab what you want.  I did it years ago on tour... it was pretty fun.

I then went to a CouchSurfing meetup, but didn't end up staying long as Denis told me he had an extra ticket to see Owl City at Backstage, a club I had played with Fenix TX like 10 years prior.  The band was OK, but Denis and I were more impressed at the opener, Unicorn Kid.  He was a 19 year old kid with a fun, Girl Talk-esque stage presence.  I chatted with him for quite some time before Denis and I headed back to the bar  where the CouchSurfing meeting was to hang out with the stragglers that were still there.  I had just enough time to enjoy a beer with them before catching the last subway back to Ini's.

My whole time in Munich was nothing compared to my last day, where I spent all of the day at Oktoberfest.  It started at 4pm with Ini and ended with me hanging out with this kid Dominik from the CouchSurfing meeting and closing out the beer garden.  Between that, I can't say exactly what happened, but it was a blast and I highly recommend anyone going to Oktoberfest at least once in their life for the full experience.  Just be ready for a lot of bathroom trips.

Amazing burger from Cosmogrill 

Friendly Fires for the second time 

The streets of Oktoberfest 

Not even my halfway point at running sushi 

Unicorn Kid 

I am responsible for at least a couple of these empty glasses