Big Trip Part II

132 page behemoth Internship report's finally done, so I have some room to breathe and catch you all up on events and pictures here.

It's hard to believe that my exodus ended over a month ago. Time is flying by! We only have about 6 weeks left!

So I think I left you all in Berlin. I got up early to catch an all-day walking tour. That didn't pan out because no one ever showed up to the meeting place, so I found another tour that was free. That's better anyway, right? I passed by the American Embassy and was so excited to see a little piece of home so far away. I stopped for a picture and was promptly rushed by a guard who told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures in front. He didn't care that I was American and informed me that he was Turkish. Ooook. Moving on...

On the tour we got to see all the major sites and hear the historical stories of Berlin. Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Cathedral, the Reichstag (Parliament), Schlotzsky's Deli... Not to trivialize the other sites in any way, but you can't beat free bathrooms and large coke refills with as much ice as you want! At the Reichstag, I got to go up into the dome for a great panoramic view of the city.

The next day saw me headed for Munich. By then the 8 hour trains rides went by tolerably well. I got to Munich just before dark and I hadn't planned it that way, but I arrived just in time for Oktoberfest. The city was PACKED and there were no hostel beds to be found other than the first night, so I caught up on some laundry and walked around in search of some dinner. I refused to settle for pizza or chicken. I wanted real German food! I ended up with a bratwurst on French bread with some insanely hot mustard. Yum! One day I want to go back to Munich and actually see the city. I got up the next morning and stashed my luggage in a train station locker before my trip to Neushwanstein Castle.

I think it's pretty safe to say that Neushwanstein was the coolest thing that I saw over the whole trip. You HAVE to see the pictures. It's quite a walk up the side of the mountain to get to the thing, but absolutely worth it. Our tour guide wasn't the nicest guy though. I was the youngest person on the tour, everyone else was elderly, and he kept leaving them all behind! We all managed to make it to the top together to see the inside of the castle. It's even more ornate than the outside, except I don't have anything to show for it. You're not allowed to take pictures inside.

Back at the Munich train station that night, I boarded my train for Salzburg, Austria. This time the announcements weren't translated into English, so I was on edge the whole time, worrying that I would miss the stop and end up in Hungary or somewhere. I arrived in Salzburg around 11pm, exhausted. I decided to take the bus to the hostel instead of walking. Mistake. I had no idea what stop to get off at and the bus driver couldn't understand what I was talking about, so I took a guess and got off the bus just as it started raining. Turns out, I had gone about twice as far as I needed to, so I huffed it the rest of the way, in the rain. I had been looking forward to Salzburg since before I left Derry, so I was determined to enjoy it no matter what. I finally made it to the hostel, got into my room and climbed to my top (very creaky) bunk with no ladder. I'm sure the person in the bed below was cursing me silently. They got their vengeance by snoring, loudly, all night.

It was still raining when I woke up, but what'cha gonna do? I broke out the umbrella, found a way to hold it and my camera at the same time and headed out for the old city. Salzburg is beautiful, even in the rain. It's very old world-ey with narrow little streets and shops and dozens of churches. Then suddenly the squares come alive with fruit stands and meat and cheese carts and cuckoo clock makers. I climbed the hill up to Nonnberg Abbey and started my Sound of Music site-seeing experience. Any of you who know me well know that I am a nerd for musicals. The Sound of Music being one of my favorites, of course I had to go see all the sites from the movie: Nonnberg Abbey, Mirabell Gardens, the Von Trapp house on the lake, the gazebo, the wedding church in the lakes and mountains region, and the cemetary. Everything was absolutely gorgeous, yet it continued to rain. No matter! I got to experience some warm apple strudel with cream and that made everything better. After a very long day, I made my way back to the hostel. Along the way I ran into crazy foreign guy #2. I don't mean to be stereotypical at all, but this is the truth. This little old Indian man in a turban came chasing after me shouting hello, hello. I ignored him at first because I wasn't expecting anyone speaking to me. He decided the best way to get me to stop was to get directly in my path. He asked if he could touch my hair. I am my mother's daughter and I really don't like strangers touching my hair. It's just weird. But he grabs my braid and starts running it through his hands. Said something about how he sells wigs and whatnot. Well, mister, don't get any ideas. You're not getting an inch of my hair, and I politely stepped away so he would let go. Then he asked me out for coffee and told me I was beautiful. GO AWAY! I declined the coffee, and started on my way with him trailing along behind. After a few more refusals to his offer for coffee, he went away.

The next day I stopped by the house that Mozart lived in, but it wasn't open yet and so I was off to Zurich! What a train ride that was. I rode miserably with a bunch of smokers as far as Landik where we all had to get off the train and board six buses to take us to Bludenz where we would catch the train to Zurich. I found out along the way why we had to take such a roundabout way. There was still a lot of damage from the floods, and the rail line from Landik to Bludenz hadn't been repaired yet. We drove around some washed out bridges and houses. It looked awful.

Zurich is a big shopping city, but not very well marked. I wandered around a while and finally found an ATM to get some Francs. Finally, an exchange rate in my favor! I was starving but none of the restaurants were open yet. I couldn't understand any of the signs. They weren't German (not that I would understand German anyway), but apparently Swiss-German is something very different. Anywhoo, I headed for that international symbol of recognizable food--the golden arches. Yeah, I copped out and ate McDonald's. Whatever. It was the best 13 Franc ($10) Mc Chicken Sandwich I've ever had. To get to the hostel you take the little trams that run all over the city. Not knowing how in the world to buy a ticket, I just got on and hoped that I wouldn't get in trouble. The hostel in Zurich was the nicest of the whole trip, and I enjoyed a nice CLEAN shower. :-)

The next day I hauled my bags along back to the train station to stash them while I went site seeing. Along the way, the strap on my trusty purse snapped. Hmmm.. good thing I was in a great shopping city! So, I got sucked into the stores and ended up taking away a lot more than I had intended. Hush, I didn't get anything that I didn't need.....

I was really disappointed not to get even a glimpse of the Alps. The persistent rain kept the clouds so low that you couldn't tell there were mountains at all. I caught my train to Basel, hoping that I would get to see the Alps along the way. No such luck. :-(

Goodness, it's 3 am! I'd better wrap this up and get some sleep. I was hoping to catch up to France. Maybe next time.

Here's a few more pictures.
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The Big Trip Part I

This has been a long time coming but with the sudden load of school work, internship report, and not having a computer on top of it all, I haven't had much time for an update. Hope you guys have all been doing well!

I think my last email ended in Oslo...

I'm glad I decided to stay a while in Oslo. The original plan was to catch the 7am train to Copenhagen. Ehhhh... not so much. There were plenty of things to see but I couldn't make it around to everything, especially after I lost my map. It wasn't so easy to walk around on the cobblestone streets wagging a suitcase along behind either. But I got to see the Royal Palace and the docks near the city hall. It was a gorgeous day! I caught the 13:00 train to Copenhagen which took me around the coast of Sweden. It was a really long eight hour ride, but at least I got to get out of the train in Göteburg, Sweden and go for a walk. The rest of the ride to Copenhagen was uneventful except for the 15 minutes the drug-sniffing dog was aboard checking everyone out. Not that I had anything to hide, but you can't help but be a little nervous when a huge German Shepherd comes your way. No worries. He gave me a reassuring lick on the arm and went on his way.

It was pitch black when I finally got to Copenhagen and I had a long and confusing walk to the hostel. My map wasn't the greatest and the streets weren't marked well either. A nice local helped me out and I finally arrived at "Sleep In Heaven". Oy, how do I describe this place? It was ANYTHING but heaven. My room was a 10 x 10 closet that I shared with 5 other people in two sets of three-bed bunks. I decided to try out the showers since it had been a long day and I felt gross. I'm sure I was cleaner than the shower. Thank goodness for flip-flops! And the water was nice and hot, even though it turned off every 2 minutes. Annoying timer faucets... The other people were already asleep so I had to unpack and make my bed in the dark. No blanket! I crawled into my cubby-hole exhausted but looking forward to morning so I could get out of there. After about an hour of being unable to go to sleep because I was freezing, I put on my jacket, two pairs of socks, and spread my towel out over me. It helped, a little.

I was up and out before the other people in the room woke up. Lazy bums. Dragging my bags along with me again, I endured the cobblestone streets and dodged the bikers towards the bridge where I ate breakfast and watched the sun come up over the river. So Copenhagen isn't so bad after all! I walked through a few of the many parks, saw Rosenborg where they keep the Danish crown jewels ('cept it was too early to go in), Amalienborg where the Danish Royal Family stays in the winter and where Parliament meets. After about 3 and a half hours of lugging bags around, I was worn out. Copenhagen is a BIG city!! I decided to head for the train station to catch my reservation for 11:45.

While engrossed in my map in the square near Tivoli, trying to get my bearings for the train station, I apparently attracted the attention of this Italian guy from Germany. He came up to me holding his map and laughing saying that he was lost as well. Being the cautious gal that I am, I feigned confidence. "I'm not lost. Thanks. Bye." And started on my way across the street. Boldly, he followed along asking me where I was going. I told him the train station and started walking faster. He kept up, trying to make conversation with very broken English. He did manage to get me to say that I'm from America but living in Ireland. He said he'd like to visit me there sometime. He didn't seem to understand why I laughed in his face. After I turned down his offer for coffee the upteenth time, we finally got to the train station. I kept hoping that he would give up and go away, but he seemed to think that I was nice and kept following along saying something about it being destiny that we were both lost in the same square at the same time. He asked for my number and told me I should wait and take the 6pm train to Berlin with him. Right, buddy. He hung around while I waited in line to get my ticket, helped me find the right train platform, and even bought me a Snickers bar for the ride. I felt bad for being so rude to him, but the whole situation was just too weird for me. I'm not used to guys approaching me. I told him bye, puzzled by his continued interest, got on my train and found a seat. Just as we were pulling away, he ran up to the window and waved to me as we drove away. WEIRD.

I got to Berlin around 6 and enjoyed a much shorter walk to the hostel. This one was very nice. I made up my bed and went downstairs to the hostel restaurant for dinner. I met two girls from the States and we ate together. Mmm... Wienerschnitzel and sauerkraut!

I'm gonna wrap this up for now. It's getting a bit long and there are tons of pictures to see. I've got pictures from Glasgow up to Zurich so you'll see more than what I've talked about so far, but that's ok. I know you mostly just want to see the pictures and not read my ramblings. :-p

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