JT10 - Touring Decadence

Russell Square, London.  2007. "The only promise I'll make ya is you'll arrive in one country and leave from another, the only condition is there's no questions asked...." "I'm in...." Who'd have thought that by uttering those two simple words inadvertently I'd be committing to a journey that would take me and my fellow JT comrades across the length and breath of Europe.  Prior to that journey the only Stein I knew played up top for Chelsea not beer, I thought hostels were exclusively for chopsy Aussies with dreadlocks not cranky Northern Irish men, blogs were for IT guru's not Internet Cafe amateurs, the word Split meant ice creams not countries and the phrase walking tour sounded like torture... ok not everything's changed.So here we are ten years on.... 30+ stops on the map and the world's a very different place to when we started out on this thing and as a group we're all in different places but as far as JT is concerned ultimately everything's the same.  I sit in a familiar UK airport aware that I'm about to embark to Europe for 3 nights but no idea where it will take me.... where's left?!  As has become the tradition of late I also have a mysterious unopened package in my bag which is making me very nervous.  That said truth be told it feels like a bit of a celebration this time out - to make a decade worth of annual travels stick feels like an achievement worth celebrating. So open my first envelope at Birmingham check in...  We're off to Berlin in the heart of the motherland and the country that holds the most dots on that map of ours.  A fitting destination for celebration I'd say.... that said it's never that simple so who knows where we'll end up, who we'll meet, who's even on the tour and what's in that bloody package! So here's to ten years of being hungover in bunkbeds, to budget airlines, to sleeper trains, to Stevies tantrums, to every random stranger we've met, to every sight we've seen, to Jimbos foot jam, to climbing bastard Bulgarian mountains, to anything and everything we've seen and done on along the way.... Here's to Jimbotours - see you on the other side! PROST!!!!! Shauny G.

10 years on and we are still going strong. A lot has changed in that time. . the jeans we wore in Munich are a touch tighter, the world has voted to hate each others differences instead of enjoying them, hostels are less scary hovels and more cosy ikea showrooms (RP et al 2016), JT members have fathered (at least) 5 children (mainly John). One thing however doesn't change and that is our love for the food, beer and people of Germany and this trip, so far, hasn't disappointed.

After a brief "meat up" in Berlin where we went to a fake Irish pub and a Plastic Munich beer hall (Berlin needs to have a word with itself) we headed to the enormous main station to venture deep into the German abyss. So slick is Jimbotours Plc in its 10th year we can use the great city of Berlin as merely a transportation hub. So much has changed that Shaun lead the boys. new rucksack on back, stealth like through the numerous levels of the maze-like station to arrive at our required platform with seconds to spare until departure. Where is our destination I hear you ask .....Leipzig ...........yeah Shaun had never heard of it either (some things don't change).

We arrived to Leipzig station which is so huge that they had a McDonald's and a Burger King. We hopped on a tube and came to a beautiful glass station where our hostel was located. Following a bit of navigation using google maps (jimbo 10 years ago would hate me) we came to our hostel. The hostel was beautiful with a nice receptionist, pool table and beer fridge if the girl in Prague is still in the hostel business she could learn a few things.

The 3 boys, Shaun, RP and JD headed to the bar district of this cute city. Similar to Eindhoven there was a street full of cool bars packed with people watching the local energy drink sponsored football team playing on tv. We waited patiently to get served by the good looking but shoreditch-esque moody barmaid growing thirsty until a German guy stopped her in her time tracks and demanded she furnish us with our chosen imbibements. After the wolf of Leipzig's intervention we had near 1 on 1 bar service. The guys we met at the bar were cool and brought us in search of 'the door'. They brought us to a great little darts and table football bar where we enjoyed all

It had to offer. All this time our very own Anika Rice was travelling across Europe solving clues to find out where we were. The man is stevie who with the help of many locals and his German guide book located us via the worst Irish bar in the world.

A great night continued with numerous bars and tasty kebab before heading home and introducing the new melancholy stevie b to his bunk bed. After 10 years one thing we can still be sure of is that Nigel Farage and that tosser Boris Johnson were wrong - long live Europe and long live Jimbotours 

X

....it's been 10 years since my last confession and I don't know where to start.      Let's begin with your most recent sins my son and we can go from there. Ok well we awake in Leipzig to the familiar feeling that as quickly as we arrived we would be on the move again.  A brief whizz around the town with a very jaded RP bringing up the rear and we're on a train to our next destination - Dresden.  In a Duisberg esque decision we end up off the train at the wrong stop and wrong end of town.  However with prior experience of such mistakes under our belt we made our way to the local first floor boozer and set about achieving 3 things... bringing RP back from the pit of despair, drink an Aperol spritz and most importantly find a way of getting the JT elite written into Stevies will.  I'll be the first to concede that the latter took us down some dark rabbit holes! Having achieved all three we make our way to our latest digs which is a quaint little spot and couldn't differ more from our previous residence.  The most thorough hostess ever eventually gets us booked in and we make our way to meet the locals.  Within four steps from the hostel a large bloke throws a beer bottle at a puppy and instantly Shauny G is regretting the decision to wear a pink shirt - Germans don't do pink it seems and I'm still convinced that bottle was intended for me!  You see I should explain that during the war allied forces levelled Dresden in arguably the single biggest bombing of the war... as such a lairy shirt could be almost as dangerous as a lairy short irish man in this town. The Germans love themselves a pop up wooden shack serving cold beer and warm wine.  The masses congregate outside but due to the aforementioned shirt we sought the safety of the wooden walls and begin chatting with the locals.  After an all too brief debate with our German compatriots on Steve's potential with German ladies - you decide what the debate concluded - we moved on through the town.  Dresden like many spots in Germany is a cracking town to "make a party" and even Stevie got a round in albeit the worst tasting round of cocktails ever poured.  A far too late kebab dinner concluded the evening for a snoring battle between Steve and I as well as quick game on findmyphone.com for Jimbo. The following day brought a rest bite on the travelling front as we conclude the Dresden is a two night town and set about on a Jimbo walking tour.  To my delight even James wasn't really up for it and more time was spent eating and deciding on the specifics of the terms in Stevies will than deciphering Baroque architecture.  With RP departing that evening it meant the walking tour concluded, we bid farewell to a mistakened Muslim RP and hit the nearest irish bar - yet another broken rule.  With Stevie asleep in record time at the bar we called it a night full to the brim of wonderful German beer and the ever occssional Cuba Libra. Our final day consists mainly of pleading our innocence to the hostel that we didn't have a food fight in the hostel - though I can empathise with where the accusation came from - bloody Brexit.  A coach across the German countryside and Shauny G making the opening of a Berlin Xmas market before departing through differing airports. So you see Father it seems with every tour my list of sins grows but in fairness you'll have your work cut out hearing Stevie Bs list so I'll be on my way. JT10 done roll on JT11 and beyond....  Cheers. Shauny G.