Friday, August 14

We woke up before the alarm this morning. I don’t sleep well knowing a train depends on me walking up to my little watch alarm! Oh well, it gave us more time to get organized. It is kind of a weird feeling getting up watching 68 other people sleeping in their beds! And it is even weirder because most of them appear in the night after we have gone to bed!!
No problems with the tram or the train to Dresden, where we arrived just before 11am. I have been told by EVERYONE that Dresden is a place to visit – however it wasn’t evident getting off the train! However, as we walked closer to the centre and the river, I saw what people meant. Within a very small area there are three churches, one synagogue, and various art galleries and government buildings. All of which were beautiful.
Dresden has nothing remaining from its Eastern Germany days – it looks just like any other German/Austrian city in respects to what you’d expect to find. That was a little disappointing, but I’d been told that you’d never know what it had endured. And, although I know absolutely nothing about the history of Dresden, from looking at the post cards and putting it together with what I saw, I think one of the reasons it is so well known is that it was completely demolished during the war – and today it has all been rebuilt and is beautiful.
One of the three Churches, Kreuzkirche, was interesting to see because the original stone foundation was used as the foundation for rebuilding the church and the sculptures and various elements in the rock were preserved to be seen within the new church.
The main church in the city, Frauenkirche, was beautiful from the inside and out. It was huge and was entirely shaped in a dome shape. It looked kind of like a theatre on the inside because there was seating up high for several levels. The colours were fantastic – pastels of blue, pink, and yellow. It was really spectacular.
The other church was more cathedral-like and had the typical cross-like structure on the outside. There were many statues standing on the roofline, which was pretty unique. It was huge. Much bigger than the other two churches, actually. It was the Hofkirche and is located right near the river, which made for great pictures!!
There was an impressive mural along the wall of one of the government buildings. It went on and on forever. The bridge was also nice – but we didn’t end up exploring anything on the other side of the river at all.
We had an ice cream (my last one) sitting in a little cafe in the central square looking at Frauenkirche. The service was not great but the ice cream sure was. The best bang for our buck thus far on the trip, I’d say! Don’t think I’ll be eating ice cream for a while now!
We then walked back around the same church and there was a guy playing a grand piano in the street. All songs that are well known, like unchained melody, Elton John, Beetles...we listened for a good half hour or so – and then I had to buy a CD! It was just too perfect. How does it get any better than sunny church steps, in Europe, listening to live piano music?! I’m a suck.
It was really a great day – much better than another one in Frankfurt, I dare say! And this way we broke up the train trips as well. Currently, we are on the ICE (German high speed train) heading towards Frankfurt where Sophie will catch another train home and where I will hang out in the airport until my flight leaves tomorrow!!
Bye!
-Allison

Thursday, August 13

I had such a great sleep last night! There was some noise, but because there was a general noise it kind of drowned out everything else. I think it also helped that I could breathe almost normally again.
The included breakfast was good too...nothing to write home about, but it was pretty good, none the less! After eating our allotted cheese and bread we headed out to wander around the city. We hiked up a hill to see a huge pendulum on top of a hill – but it wasn’t working this morning. It was a nice view of the city, however.
We then walked to the market and looked around there for a while – bought some nougat and a huge basket of raspberries. Both quite good!
Those were our two main events of the day, to be honest! We wandered over to the government buildings and to the other train station because the towers looked pretty from a distance (nothing too special when we got there, however!!). We then sat down on a bench in a very busy park – it was an excellent hour or so that we sat there looking at the people. There was an interesting group that sat down next to us. They opened their box of wine with their teeth and then proceeded to share it while bumming cigarettes from a group of young girls sitting across from us. They later all fell asleep with their chins on their chests.
When we were tired of sitting there we walked back to the tourist part/ old town and walked into a few shops. We were severely lacking money because we had to give a 200czk for our deposit at the hostel – and we had only taken out 600czk originally. For lunch we split a hot dog! It was kind of funny, but it gave us another chance to people watch on the curb of the clock tower. And....we saw the clock hit the hour (twice today, actually) – where a little skeleton pulled a string to ring the bell above and some other figures did a little dance. It was quite cute.
We decided it would be more fun if we could use our 200czk so we walked back to the hostel and begged to trade in our deposit for an increased euro value – which then gave us a lot more money to play with! Ohh – and on the way back to the hostel we passed a hotel called “The Manderin Oriental” where there was a huge crowd, police, and media assembled at the exit. Apparently, Madonna was going to be leaving soon – so everyone was waiting there to see her! Well, we waited for ½ an hour with no action, so we left! However, I can now say I saw the hotel where she was staying in Prague!!
After a nap in the hostel we headed out to locate some form of dinner – and managed to buy an ice cream each and then a hot dog each – and then found enough cones for a ½ cone each! You think I’d be ice creamed out by now, eh!? Apparently not...they just have the best ice cream here ever!! My two favourites are lemon and Strachetella. Both awesome!!
Oh – another funny thing was making Sophie pee in fancy hotel toilets again! We were looking for things to do, so we walked around the “Carlo IV” for a while until we found the washrooms! When we found them she looked at me and said “I don’t think this is normal, but I thank you. They are better than public toilets”! It was funny!!
One more night here in the hostel and then in the airport tomorrow night before heading home on Saturday morning!!
Night
-AJ

Wednesday, August 12

We woke up this morning at 5:30am because we were walking to the train station and our train was supposed to leave at 7am. It was hard trying to be super quite at that time because in these small flats there are doors everywhere, it seems! In any case, I think we did a good job of being quite and we were on our way by 5:50!!
It was a nice, quite walk down to the station. It is actually quite impressive that our number of bags has remained the same throughout the entire trip. I know mine is a little bigger and I think Sophie’s weighs a little more, but overall quite good!
I had coughed and been awake most of the night because of my personal lack of oxygen, so eating wasn’t really all that appealing to me at all and I was able to sleep most of the 5 hours on the train to Prague. There were no passport checks at all, which I was kind of disappointed about, because I would have really liked another stamp. However, I know there has been something in the media (oops, I guess I should be following these things) about the lack of visas for visitors going to the Czech Republic. So, it was probably a good thing that they decided they didn’t need to check my passport – I wouldn’t want any trouble!
We arrived at about 11:30, and both Sophie and I were rather dazed because we had both slept most of the way! We wandered out of the train and finally found some information regarding how to get to the hostel that I had booked on-line. By this point, however, I realized that I had no money...so off to find a machine we went. We finally found one, and withdrew what we thought was acceptable. It is always hard to tell! Meh.
The tram worked well and we got off at the stop we wanted. However, that was the end of the directions that I received from the hostel! Thankfully, Sophie has eyes that work better than mine and she spotted a HUGE sign that indicated that the hostel was about 100 feet from the tram station! It was perfect!
The hostel is another whole experience! It is a gym that has been converted into a hostel. There are three floors – the main floor consisting of 70 bunk beds – separated by sheets in between groups of 12 beds. There are also corresponding lockers that make kind of the middle hallway between each side if the gym. Then, on the second floor are the guys showers and bathrooms and on the top floor are the girls bathrooms and showers. It is quite the arrangement, really. However, for 7E per night we also get breakfast and free internet! AND – it is in the middle of everything. One block away is the famous Charles Bridge, for example. So, you couldn’t really ask for a better price or a better location! I am really impressed with the hostels I found for this trip, to be honest! I think I did quite well overall (thank you very much ;) ).
We spent a grand total of 2 minutes in the hostel before heading out to visit the city. We really saw everything, and I didn’t use my map as much as normal, because the city is easy to navigate with all of the bridges and large buildings, etc.. We went over the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) and up to the castle, stopping into many of the churches and tourist shops along the way. The castle is huge and the Cathedral is gorgeous. I think I liked the views from the top more than the actual buildings, however.
We made our way back down to the river and walked across to the other side where we explored the Jewish town. I was disappointed, however, because they wanted to charge us for everything in that area – not really our style - so we didn’t actually go into the Synagogue or museum. I really wanted to go into the grave yard, because I just love graveyards, but even that was about 10E to go to...so I snuck a good picture instead!
Afterwards, we walked around the old town. We saw the Old Town Square with the clock tower and several churches. We walked past the National Theatre and got lost in the various streets with all of the shopping and tourist trap shops everywhere! I really like the feel of this city. Yes, there are tourists everywhere, but it is still so pleasant and cute. It makes me happy!!
As a bonus, the food is much cheaper than most of the other cities we have visited, so we went out for dinner instead of getting groceries. We ate pizza again – at a very cute little place in the old town. I actually drank a beer with my pizza because it was ½ the price of water or pop! Go figure, eh?! But it ended up being 6E for an entire pizza and a 50cl beer! Pretty awesome! (wow! I sound like a guy...pizza and beer!)
I was a little happier after my beer, so walking was more interesting, so say the least. At least it made Sophie laugh! I went back to this place that had nice vases to look at this one that I kind of like...but I think I won’t buy anything this time. I am starting to feel a little broke, to say the least! We then stopped into this art gallery and Sophie fell in love with this beautiful (original) painting. It is a black and white painting of St Nicholas Church with a red streetcar on the road in front. It is absolutely gorgeous. I really liked it as well – but it was listed for 19000 originally. He came down pretty fast when he saw that Sophie was a little interested. He came down to 8000 and Sophie couldn’t make up her mind. Sooo....we went away and sat on a curb so she could think about it – I knew she would buy it, however! We went back and offered 7000 and she ended up buying it for 7500, which is about 300E! I am glad she bought it, because one of us should have bought it and I sure don`t have the money –so it is better that she bought it!! Made me happy!
Now, we are back in the hostel, and it is rather odd to be in this big gym with all of these people! May be an evening for earplugs!!
Night
-Allison

Tuesday, August 11

We ‘slept in’ this morning...which was a good thing because I definitely did not have a good sleep because of all of my coughing! Thankfully, Sophie wears earplugs to sleep, so she didn’t hear me during the night!
We ate our breakfast before heading out to explore more of Vienna. It wasn’t really raining, which was a really great thing! We found an excellent route heading down into the center of the city, which, unfortunately was lined with shops...lots of which had sales! We stopped into a few – and I got a shirt for 5 E and so did Sophie! We then stopped into a dollar store and I bought a pair of plastic flip-flops that immediately gave me blisters between my toes! I didn’t realize my feet were such high maintenance before! OH! In that store there were also those really good shopping bags that I had bought two of at Safeway – except, here, they were only 1E! I bought 2 more...just because I know what they cost at home and because we have used my plaid one daily here!
We passed by several sites including a castle of sorts and a few museums, the opera and another theatre. Because we had already seen all of the official sites we mostly wandered around, poking into the shops along the way! It really poured rain for a while, which was annoying to say the least. At this time we were walking through a nice park where there were statues of famous musicians and composers – so I got a picture with Strauss, in the pouring rain!!
We walked down all of the shopping streets that we wanted to see (that Herman had told us to visit) and walked along the river. There were ice cream shops everywhere – people here eat ice cream even more than I do, it is great! We ate a wonderful ice cream cone at a place beside the river before continuing along the streets...
In front of the opera there is a nice fountain and grassy spot. We sat there for a good hour watching all of the people pass by! It was really interesting. The diversity of tourists and locals as well as a few really bold pigeons was cool to see! We were tired, so it wasn’t hard to sit on the curb for that long, watching the world go by!
I took out the map and decided that we really had seen everything that we needed to see, so we were going to start to make our way back up to our couchsurfing location...when I decided it would be a good thing to stop in the “Grand Hotel Vienna” to have a look. Sophie was completely appalled – but I have been well trained, and despite us looking awful, there were no problems. It was a beautiful hotel. And, the bathrooms were to die for! I decided since we were walking around the hotel that we should try out their facilities! Awesome, I must say. It was enough to shock Sophie into crawling out of the hotel as soon as possible.
We hung out at the couch surfing flat for a couple of hours after getting groceries to cook dinner for us three. I figure since Bernd had offered to lend us the use of his stove and fridge, the least we could do was offer to cook him food! Works for me – pasta is cheap.
It was interesting dinner conversation...between talking about Truman Capote –who wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s (I totally didn’t know that before) to condom dispensers in the major cities in Europe to the conversion between square meters and square feet. I think Bernd was/is a little odd – but he seems to be really into all of this couch surfing stuff – having hosted over 30 groups in the last year – which works for me! I seriously have never met someone so meticulous. I was afraid to leave any crumbs anywhere or drops of water in the sink! And that is a comment coming from me!! Anyway, I thought we were doing really well with the cooking of the dinner and keeping really tidy and everything. But, then, he made a comment about how he always tries to take everything he brings with him away with him! Sounds obvious, I know, but he kept saying it – and in a way that made me think he actually wanted us to take our garbage with us! That is just a little extreme, I think. In any case, we will make sure to bring all of our belongings with us when we leave tomorrow, but I think the garbage will be staying where it is. Sorry!

Night
-AJ

Monday, August 10

We woke up this morning later than normal for a travel morning. I think we got to sleep in until 7am! It was quite exciting considering the noise that the other roommates made when they came in at 4am!! I guess I should get used to it because in Prague we will be sleeping in a room with 70 other people. Makes 12 seem like nothing.
We took the bus and the train and the tram to get back to the far train station where we were early – Sophie hates it that I like to be early for trains...I guess I am just so used to planes where you have to be early that I insist in applying this idea to trains as well. In any case, we had time to eat our brioche with nutella and peaches before we climbed aboard. And, it was a good thing that we got on when we did because, once again, there was a shortage of train seat space!
The ride was uneventful, really. I think the train was mostly full of North Americans, which was funny because aside from the guy running the hostel in Budapest, there haven’t been many North Americans around.
We got to Vienna around noon and made our way down towards the centre. It is, once again, a big city – and there is so much to see!! Thankfully, Herman, (from our first couch surfing location in Munich) lived in Vienna for 8 years and gave us a map and provided us lengthy details of what were the mandatory sites!
We passed by almost everything at some point or another, I think. Firstly, we walked along the Mariahilfestrasse where there was a tonne of shopping! It was kind of difficult, actually, because we were really trying to resist shopping!! I, however, was excited to see a huge Swarovski shop. After I saw the ones in Salzburg and decided that I would probably buy something, I went on-line and checked out what my options were! I found the exact thing I wanted on-line, but neither of the stores in Salzburg carried it...so I was excited to see that this first store we entered had the necklace I wanted! And, it was also nice to see it was listed for the same price as I saw on-line. It took about 2 seconds of looking at it to make the purchase (which is pretty amazing, for me!). It really helps when I know exactly what I am looking for and what I am expecting to pay for it! I decided to buy a necklace instead of a trinket because I don’t like to dust – and necklaces are really more my thing, anyway!! J
We continued walking and walking and walking and passed many museums including the ones for natural history and art. We continued walking and saw the Hofburg castle (I think that is what it is called). It was nice – they really like white statues here in Vienna (and I guess in Austria in general!). We continued walking through the castle district and saw where the Vienna Boy’s Choir practices and where the Lipizzaner Stallions also ride – both of which don’t run this time of year! I was very disappointed, but I think Sophie was rather relieved. I don’t think she is much of a concert person at all.
Sophie was hungry – and I guess I was too, so we walked to the Cafe Landtmann where we had a nice little argument because Sophie couldn’t make up her mind between eating and only having a coffee...which irritated me because I just wanted to have a nice big meal and call it done for the rest of the day, but Sophie thought it was too expensive and told me to eat by myself, which I obviously didn’t want to do. And so, both of us being incredibly stubborn sat there and didn’t talk for a while – quite nice, really! Who knew there could be someone who was even more tight with money than myself?! Go figure!!
We silently walked around the Rathaus, which was also quite beautiful and Cathedral-like. There is a film festival going on right now and it was one of Wagner’s operas that was going to be playing this evening. (Quite fitting, because of the castle we went to see in Germany that was made to bring his operas to life!) Of course, because we weren’t really talking, there was no real decision made to go or not to go – but it ended up being a good thing that we didn’t go because there was a huge rain downpour!
I don’t like silence, and talking to a person that doesn’t reply gets irritating, so, quite maturely, we split up for an hour and a half – I hoped that that would help the situation! It was only food, after all!! I went and walked back through the castle district – read up about the stallions and poked around all of the tiny little streets with amazing little shops in them. The shopping here in Vienna is just amazing.
We met back at the castle around 5pm, where we headed back up towards the train station where we had arrived because we knew there was a grocery store there. We managed to find useful things to eat – pretty much the standard bread and cheese, however, here in Austria, they have milk that is actually refrigerated, which tastes just soooo much better. We ate in a little park before deciding to walk all the way to Bernd’s place.
We walked because we had two hours to kill before he would be home for the evening, and we didn’t want to just sit on his step – and you get to see more things when you walk, rather than take the tram...however, by this time, we had already been walking for 8 hours with our packs on our backs, so the walk was rather long!! And...to top it all off....it really did start to downpour when we were about 40 min away from his place. It rained and rained and rained and we got wetter and wetter and wetter. The worst part was after we had actually found his building complex...the way he had written his address didn’t make much sense at all and we wandered around looking for the right place for a good 10 minutes in the downpour. Finally, Sophie ran towards someone who was walking and it was him!! It was a good thing too, because we had walked past his place several times already!!
Bernd’s place is absolutely spotless...makes me even nervous to move about! It is very comfortable, however, because he has done this a lot and has good ideas to make sure we are who we say we are – for example he checked my passport before giving me a key to the place, which is a really good idea! So, yah, tomorrow we are going to make pasta for all of us – so Sophie and I can eat something else for a change...
For now, good night – breathing may be a challenge – as my lovely cold is completely in my chest – but I am sure I won’t die!
Night -AJ

Sunday, August 9

Sunday, August-09-09
We decided that sleep was a good thing this morning because we covered so much territory during the 5 hours walking around yesterday afternoon. I managed to sleep in until 7:30, which was relatively impressive for me. I then went for a run around the island. The island actually has a running track around the entire thing, so it was quite nice! It was already 25 degrees at 8am, however, so that definitely slowed me down! I don’t do heat that well!!
When I got back from the run, no one had moved an inch in the girls’ dorm! I woke Sophie up and after we were all showered and ready, we ate breakfast on the deck (in the hot, hot sun!) – it was a breakfast of pretzels and nutella! Quite nice, really! J
Walking, we went to the castle. It was quite the walk – we are not used to these big cities!! We walked past the “House of Terror”. It is a new museum that has been erected to document the two terror regimes in Hungry.
It was great to see the castle! The gates are the entrance to the grounds and are called the gates of Becsi Kapu and are the most important in the city. There is an angel in the centre, holding a double cross, which is there to remind of the recapturing of Buda in 1686. There were several different and intricate buildings on either side of the gates and square.
Inside the gates were the castle and the thermal baths. The castle was very beautiful – It is hard to describe these things, really. The grounds were lovely as well, but since we already walked for 2 hours straight, we decided it wasn’t really necessary to explore the area surrounding the castle! And, for the baths...well, they are a “must do” in Budapest, but with the temperature, it was definitely not appealing to hop into a hot tub!! And, the cost was a little exorbitant. So, instead we just took some random picture of the building!
We got on the metro at the castle and took it to....the mall! When we got lost leaving the train station we found this mall – that we thought would be open today as none of the shopping down town was open at all. So, we got there and shopped – for a grand total of 4 hours! It was impressive, really. Sophie is a shoe addict, so we stopped in almost every shoe store in the mall! I was trying to find some form of sandal replacement (I have the sandals I wore the 4 weeks in India – and I have a blister on my heal!!), but the shoes here are more expensive than what I want to pay...so no go! However, I did manage to find a sweater in alpaca wool that I bought! Go figure, eh? It is almost 40 degrees and I buy sweaters! Oh well, more practical than summer things, I suppose. And then, I also found this awesome blue and brown coat – which sounds scary, but it is pretty cool! So, yes, those are my Budapest souvenirs!!
Well, we had a nice picnic in the park and then came back to the hostel to attempt to redo our bags with all of our purchases! It should be interesting tomorrow because our couchsurfing host doesn`t want us there until 9pm!! A long day of carrying things in the future!!
Night -AJ

Saturday, August 8

I am still on the train....9 hours after we started at 2am this morning! We went to bed last night at 10pm and woke up at 12:30 to go to the train station. I felt bad because Krista said she would still be awake when we left so we could say thank-you and bye, but she was asleep! I wrote a nice little note on a paper towel!
It has been an interesting 9 hours. We (thankfully) reserved our seats when we arrived in Ljubljana – the train was full to overflowing. Lots of people didn’t have seats at all, they just stood in the corridor. Not nice! Well, Sophie and I just put in our ear plugs and pulled out our pillows and slept – until we were rudely awakened by a screaming boarder officer demanding us for our passports! I sure wasn’t expecting boarder checks here...never has been in Germany or Austria! However, crossing into Croatia and then into Hungry there were several mean officers who really liked to yell!
Sophie was completely appalled! She kept saying, “but this is part of Europe” – never had her ID card checked crossing the border before! It was difficult to explain that this is actually more normal – for what I am used to – than to have free crossing all of the time. I mean, really, we have to have them to go to the US too!! In any case, despite the many rude wake-up calls throughout the night, I was happy because I got lots of stamps in my passport! They were bored for the most part – checking people’s documents two and three times at each stop – that is why it takes so long to get from point a to point b!
Well, I think we now only have about 1 hour left on the train before we reach Budapest. We will find our hostel first thing, I think, and then head out to explore. It looks as though there is a lot to see in the city – and tomorrow is Sunday, so some things may be closed, which will be irritating!!
We arrived in the city about an hour later than planned. It was a slow, painful ride, mostly for those people who had to stand in the corridors and move around every time people wanted to leave or enter the train. However, when we arrived, it was hot – something like 38 degrees! Really good fun walking around with the packs and long pants in that!! And...after 10 hours in the train, the washrooms weren’t exactly pleasant, so Sophie and I held it and walked, and walked, and walked.
We started off going in the wrong direction (again!!) but found our way in the right direction. This time the map was more what I was expecting and things were quite far away. This is definitely a big city! It took us a good hour and a half to arrive at our hostel. We did make it however, all in one piece – sweating buckets and buckets!!
The hostel is located on the island of Margit – szigel, which is located ½ way between Buda and Pest. It is a beautiful island – 2.5km long. There is a park, several pools, gardens, a small zoo, ruins, a fancy restaurant, a running track, tennis courts, etc...it kind of reminded me of Central Park – however, here the water is located outside of the island instead of a lake inside the park!
We felt pretty lucky to get a place in this hostel because there are only 12 female beds. It is located so close to everything and has small cooking facilities, both of which are excellent bonuses. And, it made me happy to see the hotel on the island because guaranteed they are paying a lot more than 6Euros per night for the same view as we have here!!
We dropped our things and changed into shorts and got on our way to visiting the sites. It was sooo hot, and that was our biggest problem, but I guess that is better than rain! We first started by walking around the Parliament buildings. It looks like a cathedral; its architecture is so spectacular. However, we couldn’t go in it at all – but we don’t tend to do that, in any case, so it was okay! I think it is more photographed than some of the other sites in the city, even though there is less importance attached to the building than some of the others.
Across another bridge – with lions on it this time – to visit the sites of Buda castle and Royal palace. The castle has been named a Unesco World Heritage Site and was huge. Again, we didn’t go in, mostly because the inside has been turned into an art museum (there are a lot of museums in Budapest). It was built in the 13th century and was rebuilt and changed in various ways by many different rulers over the eras. There are a bunch of ruins that are located in the castle grounds that were discovered recently. The 700 year old church that is on the grounds – it had beautiful tile work on the roof, but the rest of the building had renos being done to it at the moment.
We wandered around the grounds and saw various museums, the national theatre, etc. There was a cute little market, where I resisted some nice glass – I think that is more of a Prague thing, in any case. After boiling to death on top of the mountain, we walked down the hill and explored a couple of churches en route to locating dinner.
There was also this really cool fortification called the Fishermen’s Bastion that surrounded the church area. It was built by Frigyes Schulek who designed an elaborate system of stairs climbing from the Danube to the hilltop. The stairs were decorated with turrets, scrolls, and statues and were defended by the fishermen’s guild.
We were totally exhausted from the train and the heat and the walking. It was great to go to a real restaurant for dinner. M Schigand said that he would buy us one dinner, so we ate pizza at a little cafe! It was great. And, actually, the food is quite a bit cheaper than it was in Germany or Austria.
The ice cream is a rip-off, however! I was so excited to see that it was sooo much cheaper than what we had been paying elsewhere, when I discovered that the portions are TINY! I was sad...
After our dinner, we walked back on the island and wandered around exploring everything that was there! It made me happy to realize what a great location we found! J
And then, I went to bed...my nose is all stuffed... no one believes me that I need to sleep early – every time I travel I get sick half way through the trip....definitely not a party style, am I!
Night
-Allison

Friday, August 7

We woke up this morning well rested from our solid, comfortable, and undisturbed sleep! It was great. Krista was still there because she was going to be working from home for the day. It was rather casual, however, and we just discussed what time we should be back at her house in the evening in order to make sure we could get in.
We headed out to get the bus to go to Lake Bled. However, Sophie and I had a little argument because she isn’t as much of a morning person as I am – and therefore functions at a snail’s pace in the morning – which I totally forgot to take into account when I considered the length of the walk to get to the bus/train station. In any case, we took one wrong turn and despite me practically running towards the train station, we missed the 9am bus – which made me really happy. We argued a bit (nothing too dramatic) and got over it by eating some pastries and juice by the station.
The bus ride was nice. There was pretty much no one in the entire bus. It was also great because it really gave us a tour of some of the smaller towns between Ljubljana and Bled. Bled was only 50km away from Ljubljana, however, because of the “tour” that we went on, it took a little longer than anticipated. None the less, 1.5 hours later we were in Bled!
It was a much more touristic town/city than Ljubljana, I’d say. We headed directly down to the lake because we didn’t want to do much today. We found a nice grassy spot on the hill by the lake and spread out! The weather was perfect and the location was pretty awesome as well.
Bled is known for the island in the middle of the lake; the only island in Slovenia. On the island is a church that has been gradually formed over the years – paintings from one period, alters from another period, etc. It cost more than the bus fair to get to Bled to get to the island, so we decided to appreciate the church from the shore where sat for the day.
The lake was gorgeous with the mountains towering over the valley and was a temperature of 23 degrees! It was a really nice swimming temperature, and there was no one in the lake at all!! Sophie and I each went for a nice little swim at various times and then we sat and basked in the sun. It was really nice and relaxing.
We got an ice cream cone (again!) and headed on our way back to Ljubljana. It always amazes me how a relaxing day like that can be so exhausting!! In fact Sophie said just that – but somehow it was much more amusing when she said it!
Well, tonight/tomorrow is going to be a gong show, so I guess I should go take my shower and have a nap....we’ll see!
Night

-AJ

Thursday, August 6

We woke up early this morning so we could catch the bus to get to the train station. It was the perfect morning in Salzburg – makes sense because we were leaving. It is nice, however, because we really felt that we did a great job of exploring the city – there was nothing left for us to see, which is always a great feeling. Actually, thus far, I have more or less felt like that when leaving each city. I was worried it was going to be too fast of a trip, but it really isn’t!!
The train trip was phenomenal. Definitely one of the most spectacular that I have ever done. The first train from Salzburg to Villach (or something close – located on the border between Austria and Slovenia) was typical landscape with lots of small towns and corn; however after changing trains, the scenery was spectacular. We went through the longest tunnel I have ever been though and on the other side we were surrounded by lush forest and huge majestic mountains. I think it would be comparable to taking the train through the Rockies – but I’ve never done that, so I can’t say! It was incredible...and there wasn’t a person or cow or house to be seen for at least an hour after this tunnel. I really do like the mountains!
We passed several towns en route including Lake Bled, where we may go tomorrow if we have finished with Ljubljana. We could tell we were arriving into Ljubljana because it was much more industrial and sprawling than any of the other little towns we passed along the way. It didn’t look like any of the other European cities that we have visited. It actually looked a lot more like an industrial North American city! There were big supermarkets and IKEA-looking stores and more space than elsewhere over hear. A lot of concrete and a lot less green.
We arrived at the station around 1pm and decided to walk down to the centre. It wasn’t as far as it showed on the map, which is always a good thing. Walking was interesting, however, because there were no people in the streets at all! It was like we left all of the tourists back in Austria! It was kind of a nice change, but it was rather odd to be in such a dead city.
The buildings weren’t well maintained, however, it was still evident we were in Europe – no dramatic changes, by any means. There was very interesting graffiti on some of the walls...made for interesting pictures, that’s for sure. Seems like not everyone appreciates capitalism! The streets were wide, and empty, but had the same stores that are common everywhere – much to Sophie’s dismay. She was convinced things were going to be dirt cheap in Slovenia. I know she was disappointed, although she still managed to buy a pair of shoes!!
We walked in the main circle and saw the pink Church of the Annunciation, but we were unable to go inside. Leading away from this main square was a very cool bridge – called the triple bridge, because there were actually three parts over the water. Kind of cool. On the opposite side, there was a HUGE market – which made me really happy. There were a tonne of souvenier-type stalls, as well as some not so tacky things. I bought a wooden spoon and fork for salads – 1E each – as well as these FIMO fork and spoon that I want to bring to work. Both things no indication that they came from Slovenia, but I think wood is a common thing here, and there were some lovely bowls, but I figured I didn’t really have the place to put a wooden bowl – and I already have one from Costa Rica.
We saw the town hall, the university, the library, the park, and the castle. The castle is on the hill in the centre, much like the fort in Salzburg. However, Sophie and I were dying from carrying our bags around in the sun, so instead of actually going up to visit the castle, we stayed by the river and ate an ice cream cone. Almost the same thing, really!!
En route back to the train station to meet our next couch surfing host, we stopped at the Dragon Bridge, which seems to be one of the famous sites in the city. We got lots of dragon pictures!!
Krista met us where we had planned. She was very nice, but seemed quite busy and over planned (like me normally!). She had forgotten that she had a plan to hike up a hill with her friend tonight and we were to come with her. I would have loved to hike up the hill if I didn’t have this ridiculous blister on my heal (who ever heard of getting a heal blister from sandals...driving me crazy!) and if we didn’t have all of our things. Her car was a little sketchy, with a trunk that wouldn’t lock or even close properly, so Sophie and I didn’t want to leave our things – passport, money, computer, etc in the car while we went up the mountain. It was too bad, but I think we are probably getting enough exercise from walking around the cities for 4 hours with our packs, in any case.
Instead of hiking up the mountain, we headed off to the grocery store – bags and everything – to get some food for dinner tonight as well as food for Bled tomorrow – as we had decided by this point that we had seen enough of Ljubljana.
We had a nice picnic by the river while waiting for Krista...and then we waited and waited and waited! Apparently they met some friends up on the mountain and they had a few beers at the pub up on the top and ended up being 1.25 hours late in getting back to the car! Sophie and I had nowhere to go, so we sat there in the parking lot waiting! She sat plucking her leg hair and I read. It was kind of funny, I mean, really – what could we do? Anyway, Krista eventually returned from the mountain and we drove back to her house.
She was going out tonight, and we were welcome to go with her, but by that time it was about 9:30 and sleep seemed like a better idea. So, we skipped being sociable and went to bed instead! Too bad, however, I am already getting a cold, and I’d rather not, if I could!!
It should be a good sleep!

Night
-Allison

Wednesday, August 5

I couldn’t sleep last night – I don’t want to get sick...so I’d better work on that soon – I may have to resort to earplugs. Although, it wasn’t so much the noise as the lack of oxygen in the room that woke me up at 5am! After an hour or so of lying there I decided to go for a run – rain or no rain! And, it actually wasn’t raining at all anymore! I had a really nice run along the river – the world here starts so much later than our day at home, so there wasn’t really anyone to be found in the streets.
When I returned, the rest of the room, besides Sophie, was still sleeping (that would be because they were noisy until 2am or so!!) – I think I sweated more in the two minutes it took me to get my clothes and shower things than I did on the entire run!! In any case, we all survived...no problems!
Sophie and I went up to the main level of the hostel and enjoyed the included breakfast! Not anything deluxe, but it included buns and nutella as well as hot chocolate, so I was happy. There were also enough sandwich material that we were able to make meat and cheese sandwiches for lunch – which is also a good thing!
We headed out to visit the town around 7:30, which was a great thing because there were not more than a handful of other tourists around, which was really quite nice. We started by climbing up the various paths towards the Hohensalzburg Fortress. It is on a hill/plateau above the entire city...really quite majestic. It is over 900 years old and is the biggest and most fully-preserved fortification in Europe! It was built by Archbishop Gebhard in 1077, where is served to protect the clergy and the population.
We hiked up and up through the gates that surround the fort. The views were fantastic. Because we were visiting the fort before opening hours, we didn’t have to pay! We lucked out with that, because the cheapest option for visiting the fort when it is actually open was almost 10E each! That is a lot of food for Sophie and I! However, because it wasn’t really open, we only saw the courtyards and various buildings...but that was fine, because we mostly wanted to see the view from there! We were happy.
Instead of going right back down the hill we walked around the top. From the city, you can see various homes and buildings up top, by the castle – but, in reality, there were tonnes! We wanted to walk to the other side of the plateau before descending into the valley. However, we got lost...it was really quite humorous. We walked and walked – something that should have taken us about 20 minutes ended up taking us over an hour! It was a beautiful walk, however, with lots of trees and such, but it was kind of annoying being lost on a seemingly simple and small mountain. In any case, we finally got directions from one of the workers and he directed us towards the ‘exit’...however, even those directions didn’t get us close! Fortunately, he was going in our direction – and every time we made a wrong turn, he drove up a few minutes later, telling us we were going the wrong way! It wasn’t very obvious at all – and he must have had to correct us at least 5 times, but we finally made it down the mountain. Good exploration, however!
We sat by the river and had a snack – it was quite lovely – before heading off to the other side of town again. We’d seen most everything yesterday, so there wasn’t much left to see. We wandered around and went into a few stores and things, but both of us were so bent on not buying anything, that neither of us managed to make and purchases!
After about 5 hours of wandering, we sat in the Mirabelllgarten, where we had also visited yesterday, to have lunch. The garden was built by prince-archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau along with a palace as a token of his love for Salome Alt. They ended up having 15 children in total – 10 of which survived. It was a nice garden, but in my opinion, it lacked grass!!
We were in the process of returning towards the hostel when we decided we should get some groceries for tomorrow’s train trip. However, we didn’t want to back track at all, so we ended up choosing a relatively random direction and walking that way until we found the grocery store! Go figure that it actually worked too!
My plan for a nap was interrupted by the fact that I learned that my house didn’t have any electricity! That is always nice news when one is across the world! Well, a few long distance calls later, I think the problem is rectified, but I will have to check my e-mails tomorrow to verify! Ugg....
I successfully convinced Sophie to go to the Mozart dinner and performance, which made me really happy! It was “an authentic candlelight concert in a historic baroque hall” – and was actually awesome! We got there early, and had AMAZING seats at the group table as well as in the hall. We were literally the first table and had a perfect view of the players and the singers. The group all studied a the music school in Salzburg and were spectacular. I didn’t expect that there would be singing as well, but the two individuals that did the opera were fantastic. Being in the front also made a difference! It was like the performers were just for us!!
The food was quite good as well. It was typical Austrian dishes that were served. We had a lemon soup with a dumpling for the starter – which was odd, but still quite good, actually! Then, for the main course there was some type of meat and various veggies all in this awesome sauce. And dessert was lemon frozen thing that was also quite nice. And, to top it all off, we had really nice people at our table, so the conversation was good!! I was happy that Sophie was okay with going because the one night of entertainment cost more than both of our accommodation for both nights in Salzburg. It was totally worth it, though. Seems like listening to Mozart in his birthplace city is pretty cool!
A late night tonight, and it will be an early day tomorrow as we head off to Ljubljana!!

Night

-Allison

Tuesday, August 4

I am in the most amazing hostel I have ever stayed in. It is only 15E per night for a room of 8 people and we are located right in the middle of Salzburg and have a view of the castle up on the hill! It is a very busy hostel, but the accommodation is fantastic: great rooms, showers, toilets, sitting area – and even includes breakfast! Pretty awesome for that price, I do say so myself!!
It rained and rained and rained today! It was not good. We woke up this morning at 7am – Ralf and I had decided to go running this morning. However, when I made it downstairs, it was pouring rain, and therefore we decided not to go. It was really too bad, but I didn’t want my new runners to get all mucky, and I really didn’t want to lug around wet clothes all day long.
Ralf dropped us off at the train station and it was sad to say bye! Just like it was with his parents; we were welcomed so openly, I feel as if I have known them for a very long time! I guess that is a better thing than not liking the people we stay with, however.
The train ride was fine. It was only a 1.5 hour trip to Salzburg. It was raining the entire time, unfortunately. When we arrived, the lady at the tourist information centre in the train station was very helpful, which was a nice change. We got extra maps of the central area of Salzburg and she mentioned the different concerts that were available to us. I really want to do this Mozart dinner concert one of the nights we are here, but it costs 36E, so I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to convince Sophie to do it (*I still regret not being able to go to the Vivaldi violin concert when I was in Venice 2 years ago, so I really, really, wanted to go to this one!!).
We found our bus and got to our stop without any difficulties – except that it was absolutely pouring rain. Actually, the bus stop was a lot closer to the train station than we thought it was. The map of the centre is on a large scale, so things end up being a lot closer than we think they are! Better than the opposite, I guess! Anyway, we got off the bus, and organized our plastic coverings and coats to best cover all of our things as possible. A bonus for always carrying Air Canada plastic bags around! They are sure useful. The bus stop was really close to the hostel where we were headed – but the 10 minute walk to the hostel still managed to soak us completely. We were walking puddles when we arrived.
Check-in was interesting; the only unfortunate part being that we weren’t allowed to have our keys until 2pm. Actually, it ended up being okay, because we were so wet and unorganized that it gave us a while to dry out and chill before getting our keys so that we could leave our things before heading out again. It is possible to carry our backpacks – just not so great in the rain when it is nice to keep things dry!
After dumping everything in our dorm room, we headed out to visit Salzburg. Thankfully, the perpetual downpour had changed into a sprinkle, which was much more manageable. We followed the maps and sites that the tourist information office had provided for us at the train station. We went into an absurd number of churches – I don’t even know how many. They were all beautiful. In one of them a lady was playing the organ. We wandered around inside for quite a while to listen, because it was just beautiful. The main Cathedral in the central plaza was stunning. It was simple, with fewer colours than many of the other churches, but it was beautiful. In most of these churches there are various performances that happen on different days. I can see why they do that because the acoustics are awesome and there is always a lot to look at!
We walked through the central square – the carillon wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the one in Munich. We saw Mozart’s museum and birthplace – however, didn’t want to pay to go into either of them. Sophie and I work well like this; we have the same price point on most things! Not too much on attractions and not too much on food!
Food: We were walking through the central square and found a Pretzel vendor who had all different types of pretzels! We bought a chocolate covered one. It was actually only shaped in the pretzel shape, when it was actually a pastry! It was an excellent lunch, however! He he he...when we were busy eating, it started raining quite hard again, so we ran into the nearest shelter we could find! It ended up being some random person’s entry to their home! Thankfully, that individual didn’t come home while we were sitting there, but their neighbour did and he sure gave us some weird looks!
We explored a couple of cemeteries – I have to check with my “Sound of Music” list, but I think the cemetery where St Peter’s Church is located is the one they used for the flight scene. We didn’t want to do all of those sights today, because Sophie doesn’t know the movie, and it was relatively painful site seeing the “mandatory” sights in the rain, never mind music ones!! However, it IS going to be nice out tomorrow. That means we are going to go up the hill to the castle and up the other hill to the park, as well as explore the Sound of Music sites. We didn’t want to visit another castle in the rain. There should be an amazing view of the city and surrounding areas from the viewpoints, so I want to be able to see them!
After almost 4 hours of exploring, we went in search of real people and a grocery store for dinner. Salzburg is an absolutely gorgeous city, but there is definitely a high tourist population! I have a feeling Prague will be like that as well. We did find a grocery store and bought some cheese and tomatoes for dinner. Makes for quite the affordable dinner, really! I dropped a pudding/yoghurt in the fridge isle and it broke open – but I didn’t know what to do with it because there aren’t typically garbage cans in grocery stores, so I just put it beside the isle where this happened – but Sophie just couldn’t stop laughing! It was kind of funny...but I felt bad!! Nothing much I could do!! By the time we walked back to the hostel and found a good location to sit for a few hours, it was already 7pm!! The day in the rain sure went by fast! I really do hope it isn’t raining tomorrow.
I am in the search of a nice Swarovski crystal as my main purchase here – because it seems fitting that I buy one in the country where they are made. I haven’t found anything that I have fallen in love with, yet, however...so I’ll just wait and see! Not crucial!!
And Sophie’s line for the day: “We are going to eat Mozart’s balls” – in context – there are these famous chocolate balls here (EVERYWHERE) called Mirabell chocolates that look like Lindt chocolates, but have marzipan and some other paste thing on the inside. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny!

Night. AJ

Monday, August 4

I woke up this morning at 6am so that I could go for a run before heading off in the car for Palace Neuschwanstein – the famous castle that I built a puzzle of about 10 years ago. It was a nice, little run, but I kind of died. I think I forget how to run already!
We had an amazing breakfast of typical German sausage and things that I ignored because there were also croissants, nutella, and milk – my staples when I am here!! We ate with the whole family, which is always something that baffles me when I stay here. It was good in any case.
We drove Bettina to the train station so she could go to work and us remaining three went to the castle. Ralf drove us the scenic way, which was nice because then we got a great view of the countryside instead of only the autobahn. No matter how much I drive here (or am a passenger) I don’t get used to the speeds that people drive! I made Sophie sit in the front because I wouldn’t have been able to handle it!
It took us the full 2.5 hours to arrive at Neuschwanstein, and it was raining! It is too bad, because the white castle would have looked incredible against a blue sky, but I wasn’t at all disappointed in the castle at all, in any case! We went and waited in line for about an hour to get tickets for the castle tour. Then, because they only allow a few people inside at a time, we had another 2 hours to kill before we could go for our tour! The area is actually a ski hill and has several lakes and lots of forest area, therefore, we walked around one of the lakes that was there. It was spectacular. I was in heaven – I have wanted to go to this castle FOREVER!!!
After our 1h walk around the lake, we went and had a snack at the car before hiking up the mountain to reach the castle entrance. It was funny because the signage said that it was a 40 minute walk up and we did it in 15 minutes! We just kept passing people, and I don’t think we were walking all that fast at all. And I have the short legs of the group. Ralf and Sophie are all giant in comparison to my height! It is located on a jagged cliff that is located 200m above the river valley.
In any case, we got to the top and took a million pictures before our tour started. The “fairytale castle” of King Ludwig II was built in 1868, which wasn’t all that long ago in castle years. He was building it to put Richard Wagner’s operas into reality. Construction started in 1869 and was almost entirely finished by 1886. The third floor was never completed because Ludwig died in 1886. The government declared him insane because he was building several castles including this one and because he never married. He drowned in the lake next to his place of confinement through mysterious circumstances. To this day no one really knows how he died.
The interior decorations were phenomenal. Millions of tiles were used to make scenes of nature on the floor in the main hall where the throne would have been, had it been finished. All of the posts and ceiling decorations were painted in detail. The ceilings in various rooms were made of pine and painted. In his bedroom there were secret panels and doors to get to the bathroom and other rooms. And, above his bed were fine wooden sculptures that took a bunch of sculptures a long time to finish everything. All of the walls were painted with scenes from Wagner’s operas. It was probably the most beautiful inside of a castle I have ever seen.
I was seriously smiling all day long because I was sooo happy to be visiting the castle! And, it was so awesome that Ralf was able to drive us, because it wasn’t really easy to get to! I am sure that is way above and beyond normal ‘couch surfing’ duty!
We arrived back home quite late and dinner was made for us! (I felt so spoiled) It was cheese, meat, and bread – the perfect dinner to me! We talked a lot about Canadian identity, which is always an interesting conversation to have with Europeans because we don’t have any history compared to those people here. The bonus when I discuss things like that with people here is that they too like to argue, so it makes me really think about what I am saying – good debates make me happy!!
Herman gave us an idea of what we should be doing and seeing in Vienna, which was a good thing because that was one of the only cities that I didn’t have time to research at home. Moving kind of got in the way!
I said good-bye and good night (which was really quite sad!!) and then went to sleep! I can’t believe how they welcomed us so easily into their family for 2 days! I was really quite sad to say goodbye! And I was only there for 2 days!! (really only 1.2, in reality!!)
Off to Salzburg tomorrow. Hopefully the rain stops a bit before then!

-Allison

Sunday, August 2

Sunday, August 02-09
Okay...so we arrived in Munich around 11am...and couldn’t find Ralf. We didn’t get an e-mail from him on couchsurfing this morning before we left Frankfurt, and so didn’t know if we were going to find his house or if he was going to meet us, or what! We wandered around the train station for a bit, and then decided to find the tourist information centre, as they would most likely have wireless internet (oh, and this is after we sat down on the curb beside a coffee shop to figure out that they didn’t even have wireless).
The information guy was kind of useless, to be honest...and ended up directing us to an internet cafe! He didn’t even understand what we were looking for at all. In any case, we gave up on the internet idea and called Ralf instead...after two tries and 60c later, I managed to reach him and we made arrangements to meet at his house between 6 and 7pm. I felt better knowing I wasn’t keeping anyone waiting, so we both got comfortable with our backpacks and extra bags and hiked all over Munich!
We followed my guided tour again – using my pre-printed google maps and numbered tourist sites corresponding to information and photos to match each site. (Not going to lie, I am pretty proud of my maps and information I organized!) We saw pretty much everything!! We walked and walked and walked. First of all we walked through the walking part of the town where all of the amazing shops were located. Fortunately it was Sunday today, so nothing was open, otherwise I might have done some serious shopping damage!
There are an insane number of churches in Munich and all of them were sooo beautiful. The first one was St Micheal Kirche. It was pretty cool because there was a service in progress and there was music and people singing. The churches here are lighter than the ones in France – ie better pictures – and not nearly as depressing, either!
The second church was the very famous site in Munich. It is the church with the two green towers that you see in all of the tourist information! It is called Fauenkirche. It was under construction a little bit (like most of them are in Europe) and the inside wasn’t quite as nice as the previous church, but it was nice to see.
We walked through the centre of the city and saw the Rathaus – which is where the current government buildings are located. It is the town hall (Neus Rathaus) and is absolutely gorgeous. There were wonderful stone carvings and sculptures all over the immense building. It was built between 1867-1909 and is over 300 feet in length. In the centre there was the clock tower where there is the world famous carillon. It has been there since 1908. The carillon shows parts of Munich’s history including the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V. And Renata (don’t know who they are, but apparently they are important). The other part of the carillon shows a famous dance of Munich called the “Schafflertanz” that was arranged during the time of the plague and is currently preformed every 7th year in Munich.
We walked through the centre of the town hall and continued walking towards St Kajetan Kirche. It was completely yellow on the outside, but was absolutely gorgeous on the inside, with many angel carvings and statues all in white. Here, also, there was a service in process and the music and acoustics were pretty phenomenal. We saw the Feldhernhalle – which, again, I don’t really know what it is...however, there were some neat statues there! It was right next to the yellow church and next to the Bavarian residences. They weren’t as amazing as the current town hall buildings, but they were very large and good to see, I suppose. I think they use the various courtyard for performances and celebrations as a few were set up for this reason.
Walking back towards the centre we saw the National Theatre. It is constructed beautifully, and I would have liked to go back in the evening when it was going to be open, to see inside, but Sophie wasn’t really interested and we weren’t staying right in Munich, so that wasn’t possible. It actually seats 2,100 people!! We stopped in a park to eat our random food that we had left over from yesterday for lunch and I had a nice little nap on my backpack. It was the perfect temperature.
Then, we went on a marathon walk all the way down to another government type building. We passed the centre of justice and other official government buildings on the way. We walked through a very nice park and saw a couple of other churches – but it was very, very, hot and there was a rain storm coming...so we went to the beer hall.
The beer hall, called Hofbräuhaus, has existed since 1644 and is famous for beer, food, tourists, oo,m-pah music, and Lederhosen. It was quite the hall. Absolutely huge and full of people everywhere. There were picnic-like tables for seating, and we managed to find a spot for our bags and us to squeeze in. We decided not to order food because it was a real tourist trap, however, we ordered beer and a bretzel. We split a 50cL beer, which no one ever does. The server gave us a little bit of a hard time, but we managed to only have a 25cl beer each. It was actually really good. Sophie picked out one that was mixed with lemonade or something, so I actually enjoyed it! (My rationale for learning how to drink paid off!) It was an awesome experience, actually. Definitely the best thus far – although I have a feeling it will be hard to compare experiences soon!
When we left the beer hall it had finished raining for the moment, so we wandered back through the centre of the city and to the subway to take the 45 min ride to Grafing to find our couch surfing location for the next two nights. It was absolutely pouring rain when we arrived, so Sophie put on her poncho and walked around the tiny station to find a map so that we could walk to the house. And, we actually made it without any wrong turns at all, I was very impressed. Sophie and I make an excellent map-reading team!
It was slightly awkward knocking on this random door in this town in Germany, however, Sybille (Ralf’s mom) and Ralf opened up the door and said “Hi”. Herman, Ralf’s dad came and introduced himself as well and we were shown where we could leave our bags in the room that would be ours for the next two nights. We then went down to the kitchen area and sat around the table and chatted with Ralf and Herman. Everyone was so amazingly nice and all spoke English so well. Out of the five of us, I was the only one who wasn’t speaking in my second language...it made me kind of sad! I learned a lot about Germany and Herman liked talking about the time he spent in the US. It was awesome to be so welcome in some random home.
We ate dinner out in the back yard – and the dinner was amazing! There were three different kinds of meat (I was so full by the end, but you know the typical European force-feeding concept) and salads and everything! I think it helped that we were there on a Sunday evening, because they explained that this wasn’t typical. It was sure great, however. We also met Bettina, Ralf’s girlfriend and she, too, spoke flawless English and was interested in who we were and what we were doing. It was a great dinner.
Afterwards, we walked through the town to the local beer hall to have some wine! The beer hall in Grafing is the oldest building in the town and was located right in the centre. There was absolutely no one there at all. We had a rosé, of which I managed to have about 2 tablespoons....we also had beer at dinner – I have had a serious amount of alcohol today for someone that doesn’t normally drink at all!! It was good to see around the town a bit, however, because I don’t think we will have time at all tomorrow or anything before we leave.
I can’t believe how awesome the couch surfing is! The parents totally adopted us. Ralf is super nice. They fed us. So awesome. I am going to be sad to leave in 2 days!!
Night
-Allison

Saturday, August 1

I am currently in the train in Germany! Pretty cool, eh?! Apparently it is a good thing that I travel, because otherwise I wouldn’t ever write anything down anymore!
I arrived in Frankfurt yesterday and managed to find the main train station. One older, scraggly guy was trying to get me to use his train ticket at the airport – thought I’d avoid that issue and not do that! The ticket machines in Frankfurt, however, are not tourist-friendly to say the least! There are about 50 options of ticket purchase combinations, and at the same time you have to enter in the origin and destination in order to get the proper fare...all in German, en plus! In any case, I did, eventually, get on the right train and make it to where Sophie would be arriving.
While waiting for Sophie to arrive, I took a little walk around downtown Frankfurt! The first thing that I remember thinking is that “wow, I didn’t know that Frankfurt would be so much like India!” Seriously! All around the train station was the Indian sector and there were goulabjaman (sp) being sold, and sari stores, gold bangles, etc. It was a little ridiculous, considering!! My next thought, when I’d left the Indian part of the city was, “wow, I was most definitely born on the wrong continent.” It is awesome here! All of the walking paths with the shops and the river with like, three different churches. It made me pretty happy – don’t understand a thing that people were trying to say to me – but it was beautiful, otherwise!
Sophie came in when she was supposed to and we found each other no problem, quite amazing considering that we arranged to meet in a train station that neither of us had ever been to! It was great to see her again. And, she hardly brought anything with her! She definitely beat me in that department!! All she had was her good old, OSEF bag! It was quite impressive, I must say.
We navigated our way on the tram to the hotel that I had booked on-line. It wasn’t right in the centre of the city, but it only cost about 2E for the trip on the tram, so it ended up being a good deal. Actually, the hotel was only 35E, which was even cheaper than the cheapest hostel when you consider it was the both of us. It was in a good location and was very clean, and safe-feeling, so it was all good!
After dumping our stuff, we headed back out to the city centre, stopping at a grocery store on the way to buy food for lunch/dinner. We only spent 7E! I love being cheap, sometimes! J We brought our cheese, bread, and tomatoes down to the park and ate lunch in the sun by the river. We then continued on our way, using the map and information that I had printed off at home, to explore the main sites. There isn’t too much for tourist sites in Frankfurt, actually. There were a lot of museums, none of which we visited. We also saw St Paul’s Church, which is well known because it represents democracy and national unity in Germany. There was a large painting with a lengthy description as well, but I was losing steam, having not slept too much on the plane, so it was more just a look about.
We continued on and saw the Römer, which is the town hall. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful with the gables and balcony, and is known throughout the world (go figure). There was a big fair happening in the central area here, so pictures weren’t great, but it was kind of a cool building. We also went into the Imperial Cathedral (the coronation site of German emperors in the past). It was all red stone on the inside, instead of the grey-brown sandstone that is so common elsewhere. And, there was a wedding happening, which was interesting to see. They were obviously quite wealthy to have rented out this cathedral for the wedding...Sophie and I sat on a bench watching and criticizing their outfits as the guests were busy hugging the guests and all that jazz!
We were dying of thirst by this point, so we walked back to the train station area, and found...hold your breath...a Starbucks! Sophie is an addict! Starbucks are everywhere in Germany, but are more rare in France, still (thank goodness), so it was a treat for her to have a frappachino there! It had better have been a treat, because the costs are absolutely astronomical! It was nice to sit and chill, however! We rested up and had a nice chat regarding houses and real estate – don`t worry, I haven’t considered buying anything here!!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped and got some fruit and juice for breakfast tomorrow morning. And then I went back to the hotel and died....slept...until this morning! Quite nice, really.

A demain!

-Allison