My g/f's heading off to the far east for 3 weeks, and I'll go mental if it's just me and RoRoRo in the flat, so I was thinking of just hopping down into central/eastern europe, and seeing where I end up. I'll definitely head down through Latvia and Lithuania, so I guess the first question is how much time I spend in Poland, and whether I head south to the Czech Republic and Slovakia for beer, or head west to Germany for beer. All I know is that I'll be heading wherever I head for new beers.

It would be fun to put faces to names, and maybe have some games of something (over a beer, perhaps ;-) ). Either recommendations for backpacker hostels, or couch surfing possibilities most welcome.

come on over to southern California and I will take you mountain biking.

If it's new beers you are looking for, then Belgium is the place to be! They have a wide variety, and their trappist beers are famous! ;-)

I'm fairly impressed with the 886 Belgian beers that I've had already, certainly. And have been to various places in Belgium several times (Bruges being absolutely idyllic).

Having had only 133 Czech beers, and a shameful 11 Slovak beers, and never having visited either country before, and needing to visit Riga and Vilnius soon, the lager belt is more conventient.

Having said that, if I saw a dirt cheap return flight to Brussels or Amsterdam - I'd be there in an instant!

Which ever beers you had, they must have been pretty good. Especially, if they allow you to surf Europe on a couch. Most of us would need to buy a bus ticket and go by coach, ha ha. :-)

Plans are forming - I'm going west to Germany!

Sofas won't be the softest thing on my trip - hopefully I can get to Bamberg, and then I'll get so excited by the beer that I end up in a padded cell!

I would love to play games with you if you happen to pass through Denmark :)

I live in Enschede, the Netherlands, and you're welcome to stay here and play a couple of games with generic material (which is all I have :). I'm not an expert on beer though, but I can get you a crate of “Hertog Jan”:http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertog_Jan_Brouwerij of which I have happy (though very distant) recollections.

If you're looking for something special in Germany, one of my friends is brewmaster and he often had to travel to Kulmbach
in his professional training. This town is very famous for its brewers and beers. The local brewery brews one of the strongest beers worldwide and there's also a brewing museum. Perhaps that might be the right place for you?

Ooops, wrong login…

Warsaw reporting in, but i don't drink alcohol

btw i think RoRoRo stopped predicting this group: http://littlegolem.net/jsp/forum/topic2.jsp?forum=130&topic=72

RoRoRo stops predictingwhen the winner is known iirc

YHW - Kulmbach indeed sounds interesting. You can tell your brewmeister friend that I have a well-over 20 year old bottle of EKU 28! (unopened) I'm unsure of its exact age, I just remember the BB date is some time in the mid 90s!

I drank too much beer in Finland and am a couple of days behind schedule…

You sound like a colleague who has collected more than 2000 different (empty) beer cans from around the world…at least he had until he married.

[Insert every swear word known to man here]

Total disaster - I get home, and I find one of my servers has died. Dunno if it's mobo or HD, as I get different errors every boot. So I'm going to need to buy a replacement and get that up and running over the weekend.

So that's the schedule ruined, and the budget too probably :-(

Ach. Bad news. [Inventing a few new swear words for the occasion] I hate it when that happens.