Aug 2007

Finally, a little uninterrupted internet time so I can finish off this recap! I believe last time I posted I ran out of time while talking about Hitler's Eagle's Nest. So that's where we were, and it was lovely - right on the top of a mountain, and you'd look out and see the tops of other mountains and you could even see into Austria from the height! But apparently, Hitler only used this house 14 times because he was very claustraphobic (which would be no good for the elevator ride up the mountain), and he was scared of heights. What a chicken!
From the eagles' nest we took a bus to a beautiful mountain lake called Konigsee (sp?) and spent a couple hours lying in the sun and enjoying the impressive surroundings. The lake was damn cold, I did not want to swim! Took a train back to Munich and that was our day!
Our hostel in Munich (Jaegres or Tigers as I called it) was pretty good I think, as I said before it was a 40 bed room, and mine and shannon's beds were right by the door. Super. The first night I got no sleep, cuz it was the weekend, and let's face it - get 100 or so young people together in a hostel with a bar - there will be a party, and people will be coming and going all night. But it was alright. I'd stay there again.
Because so many of the German words are so long and consonant filled, I got into a habit of reading the first two letters and the last letter and making up the middle bit, maybe it was impatience, maybe laziness. But it actually turned out to be quite a laugh. Everytime we'd see a complicated word, I would read it out in my own special way, and Shannon would correct me, as best she knew how. Yep, good fun!
The next day (my last full day), we took a train to Salzberg, Austria. There we walked and bussed around the city, saw some sights, ate some food, just had kind of a relaxing day. Salzberg is the birthplace of Mozart, did you know that? There are tons of statues and museums and depictions of him. It is a really beautiful city. My last couple days, I had started to budget my money a little bit, and I made it so I would have just enough euros to last me to get to the airport. So on the train trip back to Munich from Austria, I had about 9 euros (in coins mostly) to my name, enough to pay for a little snack (we called it dinner) and the transit ride to the airport the next morning. The previous day I had asked a train man what train ticket to buy to get to Salzberg and he said and that's the one I bought for the ride there and back. However, it became apparent that we had taken a different kind of train back (a faster, nicer one), so my ticket was invalid. When we were staying with Jens and Ester they said if you get caught without a valid ticket you have to buy an new ticket and pay twice the amount of it or something. So me with my 9 euros was not prepared to pay for this.
The train guy who told me I had the wrong ticket was so nice though, when he told me I had to buy a different one from him, he watched me turn to Shannon and ask to borrow money, and then he said, "13 euros.......special price" I still ended up having to borrow money, but I am not complaining! Thank you, nice train man!
The next morning we got up early and got organized, I walked Shannon to the Hauptbanhof as she was taking off to Berlin to tour around there, then to Colonge, then back to Frankfurt to fly back to Calgary on Friday. She was a great travelling partner, we had some fun!!! I went back to the hostel and made friends with 2 members of the Canadian national rythmic gymnastics team over our hostel breakfast of toast and jam. I took the underground to the airport and flew back to London Stansted Airport where I caught a train back to Melton. So here I am back. Ahhhhh, what a great trip and what wonderful memories I will have from it!
I went back to work today......boring, but necessary! I have an alright work schedule coming up for August, so should be able to tour around here a little bit more. It'll have to be by public transit or friends though, my orange van is not up to snuff.
So that was my trip in a nutshell. I heartily reccomend Germany to any and all of you reading this!
Bye for now!!

Wow, the frequency of my recent posts is alarming! Even to me!! But I want to keep this blog updated while stuff is still fresh in my mind.
So Hauptbanhof........ it mean train station, or the place shannon and me have been spending a lot of time in the past couple days. We came to Munich on friday and checked into a middle of the road hostel. 40 bed mixed dorm room for 19 euros a night, met some cool people, some not so cool ones, you know how that goes! Anyways we have spent 3 nights there and are sleeping there again tonight, so it feels a bit like a home now. On saturday morning we went to Dachau concentration camp. What a place! To actually see the place and walk where the prisoners walked and walk through the crematorium building was quite a experience. We ended up spending 4.5 hours there, so much to see and read and learn. Very sad. Quite unbelievable what the prisoners had to go through.
Later that day we stumbled upon a summer festival at the Olympic park complete with rides and carnival food, and a live band, and beer gardens with the servers in traditional costumes - ledrhison I think its called. Funny. We made our way to the Olympic Village where the 1972 Olympic massacre happened. I took a course in university and we spent a lot of time learning about it, so it was great to see the park with my own eyes.
The next day we went to Berteshgarten (sp?) which was a three hour train ride one way to go to the top of a mountain in an elevator shaft to see Hitlers fortress which was a gift to him on his 50th birthday from the SS. It was pretty cool and a beautiful day, we could see the whole mountain range. But my time is being cut short again because of the expensive internet. Till next time......

Hi!
Just bought some minutes here at an internet cafe in Fussen in Bavaria, so thought I would update on the happenings of the last couple days. Staying with Shannons friends Ester and Jens and their baby Julian was great, they were so hospitable and just happy to have us (I think). They had a lot organized for us and we got to a lot of places we probably couldnt have seen without spending tones of money and time on the train. We drove down to South Germany to stay with Esters parents at their place in the Black Forest which was so beautiful. The thing that really struck me about all the cities and towns we were in was how each little street was so unique and pretty. All winding cobblestone streets with tall buildings with all sorts of colorful flowers on the windowsills. Lots of outdoor cafes....... Just a really beautiful holiday spot in my opinion.
We had lots of funny moments with the family, like how Shannon and I cannot say Goeten Naacht (sp?) which means "good night", the closest we come is saying "good nude". This German language is difficult!! But we ate a lot of German food like Schnitzl (sp?) and Bratwurst (sp?). At breakfast time they put out like Sandwich meat and cheese and rolls and everything.... its funnny.
We left the Kriekenbaums yesterday morning and took a train to Fussen. It was a 6 hour ride but there were 2 changes enroute so it didnt feel that bad. When we got to fussen we had a bad experience finding a place to stay. We went to tourist info to get a list of available hostels and we chose the cheapest one and set out to find it with our packs on our back. An hour later we found our place and rang the doorbell......nobody home. It was getting dark and starting to rain at this point and we hadnt eaten since breakfast. We set our packs down and mulled over our choices then just started ringing the doorbell out of tiredness and frustration and a woman answered!!!! We were a little surprised but more greatful than anything. Till she said she had no rooms to rent despite the rooms available sign in her window and the info from the tourist place. Packs back on....... A hour and a half later we made it to another place and thank the Lord they had room or we would have been sleeping in the train station! So this morning we got up early and went to the most beautiful castle I have ever seen or imagined. Neuchveninstein, it is right in the Alps, so high up that the clouds actually surround it. It is amazing. I would elaborate but I am going to run out of time on this computer. We are off to Munich in an hour, tomorrow will see Dachow(sp?) a concentration camp and Hitlers eagles Nest. Bye!

Hallo (German greeting),
Ahh, so much to say, so little time! Flew into Frankfurt on saturday and go picked up and taken to Neinleganan sp? to the home of the Krighleibaums sp?. Since then have been to a wine festival; Strasborg, France ; Heidlburg ; Europa park (europes disneyland) ; and Friburg. Right now we are in the town of Walwadt sp? which is right near the black forest, staying at the home of Esters parents where we have been eating and drinking like queens and marvelling at these fancy germans. But tomorrow we must part ways, and Shannon and I will learn what it is like to be on our own in a foreign non english speaking land!
Tomorrow we take a train to Fussen where we will spend the night at a cheap hostel and travelling to see the castels in the morning. The one castle in particular we are interested in is the one that Walt Disney modelled Cinderellas castle after. It is the number one tourist thing in Germany, so may be crowded but should be worth it. Not looking forward to the 6 hour train ride to get there however.
It is very beautiful here, lots of trees and mountains. The weather has been hot which I very much welcome after rainy old england! You should see the house we are staying in right now...... Gigantic and fancy!!!! Me and shannon are sleeping in the loft and it is just like in the movie Heidi, how you open the huge windows in the morning and the beautiful mountains and trees are close enough to touch and the cathedral tops from the nearest city are just visible. It really is gorgeous. But its late and I got to go and get organized for tomorrow. Hopefully we will soon find an internet cafe so I can spend some time and fill you in on some of the details.
Ciao (Germans say that)