Welcome to the Hilarity100.

Exactly what is the H100? You'll be sorry you asked. It's what happens when a bunch of friends go travelling around Europe for one hundred days with no particular plans, itinerary or budget. But we do have a van two bikes and a car. And this is the site where we keep track of what we've been up to.

Technically we're on the second leg of the Hilarity, after a brief "holiday" in the UK regrouping after our van exited stage left.


Si writes about UK:

Ask us in person if you've got questions

Matt just found this on his laptop, a good 445 days after we typed it while driving back to London in a reliable green Ford Mondeo. It seems like an appropriate way to wrap up the Hilarity. Oh, and we should mention that half the hilariteers are now embarking on another epic European adventure.


Written on December 17, 2006 at 4:16pm.

Well we're now making our way back on the M20 from Dover to London, having waved goodbye to the Continent from the decks of a ferry this afternoon. After the hilarity of a sign at the docks at Dover wishing us a "Ferry Merry Christmas" (ha!) we decided it was time to write up a list of one hundred random moments of hilarity from the trip.

Some have been discussed before, and some have escaped the website thus far. Ask us in person if you've got questions.

  1. Matt showering naked (duh) with the Estonian Mafia
  2. Cranky, bloody Cranky
  3. Shopping for food
  4. The Holy Grail is closed for renovations
  5. Matt's shrunken jacket
  6. Yoghurt? Milk?
  7. Our pilgrimage to the The Church of the Assumption
  8. Slovenian days as planned by "Pappa"
  9. Shower screens
  10. A Slovenian multi-course feast as prepared by Mamma
  11. Condiment teats
  12. Miming for "Do you have bike parking spaces?"
  13. Presto buttons
  14. Apparently limitless variations on hand soap dispensers
  15. Awkward service-station toilet line-of-sight issues
  16. Our tour of the Colosseum
  17. Bumping into Lou and Sam on a spinning bridge
  18. The spinning bridge
  19. Slightly damp tents
  20. Miming for towels
  21. The French version of Deal or No Deal
  22. Pedro's
  23. Swimming in the Med
  24. Girls leaving gifts on Si's hostel bed
  25. Simon, Patron Saint of Shower Gels
  26. Mot's hair growing more hilarious each and every day
  27. Hostel breakfasts
  28. The Vienna Laundry Party
  29. Rescuing Canadians from the Czech Republic
  30. Ex-Soviet now-hostel creepiness in Plzen, Czech Republic
  31. Polish border guards. With guns.
  32. Unmarked German Autobahn traffic police
  33. AFL teams on pub crawls
  34. The few Americans who reinforced their stereotypes
  35. Every classical painting we ever made fun of
  36. The Great Jacket Heist of Monaco
  37. A soggy tent
  38. The Stationmaster
  39. Unconvincing breasts in classical art
  40. Monaco's all-singing, all-dancing changing of the guard
  41. The tent blowing away, with Matt in it
  42. The Milkmaid
  43. Being watched over by the Preem bear
  44. Brown goo in a tube
  45. Flagons
  46. Swedish mechanics
  47. The Poo-and-Review toilet
  48. Italian motorways around Bologna
  49. Throwing rocks at cans
  50. Posnan's being completely full
  51. Beer fridges by Norwegian rivers
  52. Beer fridges by Barcelona's beaches
  53. Street drinking (in most countries)
  54. Belgian beer recommendations
  55. Wheat in our frozen vegatables
  56. The "EINE EURO!" woman on the train
  57. Animated crosswalk men in Bilbao
  58. Mot's fascination with funicular railways
  59. Bears in a moat
  60. Matt trying to check into the hostel at 8am
  61. Snoring dude and his friend, Surly man
  62. Spirit of Tasmania's new career
  63. Matt's inability to remember the name of any place we stayed
  64. Plopsaland, rounds one and two
  65. Busking piano accordion quartet
  66. Matt writing Simon a note in the dark
  67. Ambiguous "horse burgers"
  68. Our improv headlight deflectors
  69. Walking down a dark, empty alleyway in Barcelona to the sound of El Mariachi music
  70. The Hostel International overly-zealous stamping procedure
  71. "A pair to wear, and a pair for spares"
  72. The cry of "Who wants to drink some f-ing vodka?!"
  73. The Adelaide Girls' re-enactment of flamenco dancing
  74. Lou's socks
  75. The wrong town in Slovenia
  76. CandyUp
  77. Matt's overexcitement about Kufola, and the inevitable gutting disappointment
  78. Church bells ringing at 12:45 at night (that's 15 tolls)
  79. The secret "head to the toilets and turn left" casino
  80. Rain on the Cinque Terra
  81. Petting zoos in Amsterdam
  82. A variety of Google Maps-suggested wrong turns (including, but not limited to, one suggesting a left-turn off a 30m-high bridge and a deserted, dead-end country road in Germany)
  83. Assembling a bike rack in the snow
  84. Driving in Rome
  85. Other people's haircuts in Spain
  86. Tesco in the Czech Republic
  87. Emergency choc milk
  88. Every Australian-themed pub we saw
  89. Stumbling for wireless internet in Koln
  90. Si's never-ending Spot this Comic Sans quest
  91. Matt's never-ending quest to identity the prime-number-ness of every. Damned. Number. Motorway numbers. Exit numbers. Room numbers. The list goes on.
  92. Group photos in Bled, Slovenia
  93. "Mot's oddly shaped head"
  94. Mot's ability to break things
  95. Pisa photos
  96. Matt insisting we listen to The Bee's Chicken Payback every morning in the car
  97. Driving past Hell
  98. "The Bunnies"
  99. Jodi's photos
  100. Rewiring a van
  101. Reattaching an exhaust using a butterknife
  102. Ceiling-level powerpoints in Amsterdam cafés
  103. Geek jokes with Sam
  104. Matt blaming everything on the Currywurst
  105. The menu at White Trash Fast Food
  106. Evangelical couch-surfers
  107. The senior-citizen tour of the Vatican Museum
  108. The Saint Gerome vs. Saint Sebastian smackdown in Madrid (ding-ding!)
  109. Rediscovering Sphinx
  110. "Our Northern (English) Friends" in Prague
  111. The constant cat-and-mouse game between street vendors and police in Rome
  112. Cooking pasta on the balcony of a hotel room
  113. Polish educational children's tv shows
  114. Frasier revoiced in Czech
  115. Matt's unerring ability to flood any bathroom
  116. Mot receiving a job offer while in a field somewhere in Slovenia
  117. Rock skipping with Mot "One Bounce" Wilmot
  118. Explaining the name Mot to Americans ("Maaaart?")
  119. Licking a waterfall in Slovenia
  120. Our Pakistani kebab-shop friend in Madrid, shouting us free drinks
  121. Frequenting a Spanish bar famous for a gangster shooting
  122. Austrian border patrol people with a sense of humour
  123. The omni-vend
  124. "Being tucked-in by Mister Wilmot"
  125. A shop filled with shiny things in Amsterdam
  126. Being yelled at by French people
  127. Matt wearing everything he owns to bed
  128. Passenger-side tollbooth maneuvers
  129. Bottle of Simon
  130. The noise at the end of the Astronomical Clock in Prague (imagine a chicken being strangled with a party whistle in its mouth)
  131. Steph
  132. Feeling slightly underdressed at the Swing Orchestra in the Vienna Philharmonic hall
  133. Pilsner Urqell's Beer World promotional video
  134. Mot being mistaken for IT support at a hostel
  135. Our many varied dormmates, bless each and every one of them, those we met and those we didn't
  136. Gina: Hilarity member by-proxy.
  137. Complimentary beers in Vienna
  138. Driving past El Moron
  139. The Prince of Biscuits
  140. Si falling through a chair
  141. Passing time on the ferry trip to Norway
  142. Matt talking his way into a politician's office in Spain using a Google-translated printout
  143. The omnipresent Zara, the Ness and Kate's fascination thereof
  144. The creepy receptionist who-never-slept in Prague
  145. Toilets that auto-deodorised with a vengence ("in places I'd rather not be unexpectedly de-odorised")
  146. The parental sixth-sense when the van broke down
  147. Every reception desk person who tried to keep our passports overnight (and never succeeded — good luck to you all!)
  148. Listening in on phone calls to Judes (Hi Judes!)
  149. People asking Matt what he does for a living
  150. The never-ending battle between the glove-box and Simon's kneecaps and shins
  151. Bimbo Sandwich trucks


Matt writes about UK:

The Plopsaland that keeps on giving

Now that the trip is well and truly over the hilariteers have spread back all over the UK to celebrate Christmas in their own ways. Which is partly why the Hilarity100 site has gone so quiet. That and we're busy washing everything we own, sleeping in non-bunk beds and enjoying showers that don't requiring the pressing of a button every thirty seconds.

But we still have an unpublished back-log of highly amusing anecdotes, photos and indeed videos. And since this website is our record of the trip, we will continue putting up a few bits and pieces whenever we get bored and want to re-live our adventures. To kick this off, I give you a Christmas photo from everyone's* favourite post subject: Plopsaland.

b-plopsaland-everyone.jpg

Merry Christmas from the world's most realistic reindeer and sleigh

It's our way of thanking everyone who was playing along at home via the website and made the trip even more amazing then it would have been otherwise. Cheers.

*"Everyone" may or may not include Simon.


Matt writes about Belgium:

Day One Hundred: Day of Closure

It's our last day and we're currently driving towards Calais to board the ferry that will take us back to the UK (where the hilarity shall officially end). But as we were just beetling across Belgium we saw a turn-off from the motor-way for none other than Plopsaland. Much excitement erupted in the car, originating mainly from myself.

Some of you may remember Plopsaland from earlier in the trip. I certainly do.

So yes, the excitement built as we followed the signs and, sure enough, we arrived at the shiny gates of the promised Plopsaland.

b-plopsaland-mattpoint.jpg

Matt arrives at his happiest place on Earth

b-plopsaland-mattlaugh.jpg

...and still finds it unnaturally hysterical.

Now I officially feel that the Hilarity has reach a natural end. I've achieved all that I came here to do. Good times.


Si writes about Belgium:

Almost there

We're on our last full day here in Bruges, Belgium enjoying the waffles, beer and frites. Tomorrow (Sunday) we pile back into the car and drive to Calais, catch a ferry across the Channel to Dover, then drive back to London, where we'll officially end the hundred days of hilarity.

In case you're wondering where we've been, we've made a helpful map showing our merry path across Europe. The little dots indicate places we stayed, and everything's divided up by colour:

  • Green lines and dots are for everyone travelling together;
  • Red lines and dots are for Mot and Ness;
  • Blue lines are for Matt and Si (with bonus guests Steve and Loren since Lyon, France).

Check out the map and marvel at the silly back-tracking Matt and I did around Germany.


Si writes about Spain:

Barcelona is Gaudi

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