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Travels in Deutschland, Part 3

This is the final part of my travels through Germany, you may also be interested in Part 1 and Part 2. My next stop was Heidelberg, a small medieval university town. By the time I got there I was getting sick, and since the hostel was clean and really chill (plus free internet!) I decided to stay two nights. The city itself was cool, the old town was small and picturesque, and they had a nice path on the opposite hill from where you could see the city well. You also get a nice view from the castle above the city, a castle who exists mostly as ruins today. It’s a lot more like a real castle however, with towers, walls, moat and the works. Inside the still standing buildings of the castle was an ENORMOUS wine barrel, probably about eight or nine meters in diameter, and also a small pharmacy museum. That was actually a lot more interesting that it sounds - it shows the whole history of the practice, from the ancient Roman age to now, and I learned a lot of interesting things.

Heidelberg, as seen from the castle
Since I was sick I told myself I wasn’t going to drink on either night I was there, and go to bed early. On the first night, a US Air Force officer bought a keg for the whole hostel and we all had a few beers till late in the night. The second night, I went out with a Canadian girl at the hostel for one beer, and we ran into a bunch of Californians with whom we had more beers and a few shots. Drunk, I then ran into some Texans with whom I hit up McD’s for a late night meal. So overall not a good stay for my health, which is why the next night in Frankfurt I took it easy. Frankfurt was the first city I’d seen in Europe with a real skyline. Compared to North American cities it’s not much, there are only a handful of skyscrapers, but it was still a sight I’d missed. The first day in Frankfurt I explored the waterfront of the Main a little but I was very tired, and a still sick, so I went to bed early (my hostel was in the heart of the red light district, by the way, it was actually kinda funny). The next day I did much of the same thing during the day (although I did randomly find a cartoon exhibition, featuring German cartoons similar to the Far Side). In the evening I met an amateur photographer from Toronto, Noah Markus, at the hostel and we went out shooting together. I learned quite a lot from him since he’s been into photography longer and he knows a ton about cameras and lenses. While out, we also ran into a group of drunk Germans, one of which was getting married the next day. Noah bought a shot of vodka and some stickers from them which meant he could pick out a ‘nice German song’ for them to sing; he picked 'La Bamba', very, VERY German...

Frankfurt
After Frankfurt I left for Cologne where I spent a whole day. I locked my bag away at the train station (which was a bit of an adventure) then I explored the city. I hiked all the way to the top of the Dom to get a nice view of the city, then I attended a mass inside. That was the first Catholic mass I’d ever seen, and it was surprisingly very similar to the Orthodox masses I remember from when I was younger. The experience itself was awesome due to the enormous size of the cathedral, the pipe organ and the incense. An interesting thing I found after the mass was on the train bridge crossing the Rhine, right next to the Dom: couples would carve their names or initials on a lock, fasten it to the bridge, and throw the key into the river thus proclaiming their eternal love for one another. The bridge is covered in locks like these, and while I was there I saw a few couples actually performing the ritual. Romantic, but personally I’d keep a copy of the key.

The Dom in Cologne
That evening I got picked up by an old friend of my mom’s, Alina, and her three kids. Steffi is two years older than I am, Johanna one year younger and Andy two. I spent a few days with them, all of which were a lot of fun. They spoke very good Romanian and even English so we got along really well. They showed me around their town, Alpen, and around, saw the remains and archeological finds from an old Roman Legionary camp, watched a few movies, even went to the Netherlands for a few hours (they lived super close to the border). I didn’t want to leave Alpen anymore after my stay, but I had to start heading back towards Prague since my flight to Rome was only a few days away. After Alpen I visited Gorlitz, the eastern most city in Germany where my friend Andreea (from Vancouver) has family. The city itself is small and cozy, with its beautiful medieval churches, houses and towers. It’s also split in half by the River Neisse, which is actually the line that defines the German-Polish border. It’s a little shocking seeing the difference from one side of the river to the other, but it was cool to be able to say I’ve been to Poland (even though I only spent under an hour there). Even though Gorlitz is in Germany, the difference between former East Germany and West is definitely noticeable. The train stations and small cities I passed while traveling through the east of the country were evidently poorer and in worse maintenance then those in the West, and the people themselves also looked a lot more ‘eastern’. They were very nice however, the eastern Germans, and eastern Germany was equally as fun as the west. After Gorlitz I headed south to Prague for one night, stayed at the old Kolej (room 223D), and got ready for the trip to Rome. This post was published from Mola di Bari, in Southern Italy.

Travels in Deutschland, Part 2

This is Part 2 of my travels through Germany, you can read Part 1 here. I left Nürnberg early on the 30th of May, on a train towards Fussen in Southern Bavaria. Just a few kilometers from Fussen lies Schwangau, the little village sitting besides the imperial castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Neuschwanstein is the cooler one in my opinion; it lies on top of a big cliff at the foot of the Alps, overlooking an enormous gorge over a waterfall and looks exactly the way you’d imagine a fairy tale castle to look like. I hiked up there with a New Zealander I met in Fussen, but didn’t feel like paying to actually go inside the castle. Near the castle is also a bridge spanning the gorge, which is a little bit above the castle and looks over it and towards the Forggensee lake and the pastures and small villages of Southern Bavaria. I talked to Keiron, the New Zealander, for a while, about a lot of things, it turns out he has a degree in Music but now works for a huge Australian wine company as the manager of a publicity, PR kinda team (I don’t remember exactly what the team did). We also checked out the other castle, which Keiran said looks like a castle from a King Arthur legend, after which we walked over to the Alpsee lake. The nature there is amazing, it reminded me a lot of the last episode of Band of Brothers when Major Winters swims in the Austrian lake after the war in Europe was over.

Neuschwanstein Castle
We split up afterwards, and I had to find ‘the office’ for the only affordable room in the village for the night. There technically wasn’t an office, it was just a few people who I luckily bumped into outside the ‘pension’ or whatever the place is called. It was basically just a building with rooms, and you paid the person straight up when they brought you up. I had a fairly large room with a single bed to myself, with a table, a private shower and toilet, even a stove and fridge! It was a little pricey, 22 Euros, but given the fact that every cheap room in München was booked for that night, this was a really good option. I also showed up to Fussen with no plan, and I had been eyeing the benches around the village as potential places to sleep (all my stuff minus the camera was locked up at the train station), so the money I paid was worth it. The next day I checked out of the room (this meant leaving the keys on the table and just leaving), locked my bags up again, and rented a bike for the day. I got an awesome street bike and the plan was to start biking along the Forggensee and see where I end up. It was awesome! They have a nice paved path for bicycles that goes along the lake, and from time to time a little farther away from it through pastures and villages. It was just like the movies again, just what you’d picture Bavaria to look like. The Alps on the other side of the lake, both castles almost always visible in the distance, the cyan-coloured lake, cows and their bells, horses and lots of nature. I biked over 30km and only got lost once, but the constant going up and down hills killed my legs, I was super tired when I got back into Fussen.

Cottage in Southern Bavaria
At the train station waiting for the train to Munich were two Californians, a brother and sister, who were having trouble communicating with the people at the train station that they lost a bag there earlier and whether there was a lost and found anywhere. Unfortunately for them (Joe and Biz) they didn’t find their bag, which had an expensive gift for their grandparents in it, and being a Sunday, there was nobody at the train station offices to help them. It turned out that they had beds booked at the same hostel I was hoping to find one in Munich, so we chatted for a while on the train and searched out the hostel together. The hostel luckily had a bed for me too, so after we all unpacked our stuff we went to look for a bite to eat. Most places seemed to be closed on a Sunday evening, but we found a place with cheap pizza. It turned out the be a gay bar/lounge/restaurant. I think the ‘Queens’ in the name of it should’ve been a bit of a giveaway. Afterwards we had a couple good, cheap Bavarian beers each at the hostel bar, which was showing The Meaning of Life, and we ended up chatting about all kinds of things until 1am.

The next day was a public holiday in Germany, so unfortunately no butcher was open to sell me Leberkaese. I did find a bakery open, so I didn’t set out to explore the city on an empty stomach. Just a few blocks west of the hostel is Theresienwiese, the giant field where Oktoberfest is held yearly. It’s enormous! I can only imagine how much fun it would be with a few hundred thousand people all enjoying Bavarian sausage and amazing Bavarian beer. The beer here really is great, and if you get it on tap it’s served in either half a liter for the weak, or one, yes ONE, liter for the real beer drinkers. It almost gets difficult to hold these monstrous beer mugs… Exploring the city was fun. Right before getting to the old town I saw an middle aged German man setting up a huge chessboard in a park (by huge I mean the pieces came up to my knees and were thicker than my arms). I stopped by to see what he was doing, and he challenged me to a game. If you know me well enough, you know there’s no way in hell I would turn down a chess game, especially one as epic as this. He was really good, I was on the defensive right from the start and felt as if it was only a matter of time before I made a costly mistake, but he made one first and I was up a knight on him, from which point on I dominated the game and ended up winning. He was getting some help from the few spectators, one who kept saying “Der junge ist gut!”
Canada triumphs over Germany in this ultimate chess match
The old town of Munich is pretty, but I think I’ve been spoiled by Prague. It has several huge, beautiful churches and a really cool Rathaus, but it’s nothing compared to Prague. The St. Jan Nepomuc church was gorgeous however, being intricately painted from floor to ceiling and lined in awesome sculptures and decorations. I also went up in the bell tower of a church (St. Peter) and took in the view from up there. The day was a overcast so I could see as far as the alps, but I could see the entire city. One really interesting thing is that a river flowing through the English Gardens, creates a natural standing wave at one point, just after passing under a bridge. This means that there are people always surfing there, back and forth, until they lose their balance, fall in and float down the river. It’s really mesmerizing, but I don’t know if you can call it ‘surfing’ - the surfers kinda just stand up and they’re already on the wave. It’s really cool and worth seeing, nonetheless.

Surfing away from the ocean
In the evening I met up with Joe and Biz again. We enjoyed some free beer tasting, and wow, Bavarian beer is ALL good. The wheat beer is really interesting, and the Helles is super smooth and you can definitely drink more than one liter-sized mug. We played a drinking game with a girl from Victoria (how crazy is that?? Small world) and after 2 mugs of beer each plus some shots of Jager (it was happy hour, a shot for one euro) we were definitely drunk. We got into quite an argument with a cocky Italian guy, who kept saying that Italy is the best because they make love not war, and that the mafia is great. Apparently he was part of the mafia, and he made fun of us for holding jobs, but for some reason he was staying at the cheapest hostel in Munich… I also talked to a German lady who was shocked at how we were taught WW2 in Canada. She was shocked to find out that our teachers lectured that Hitler came to power for many reasons, leading as far back as the Treaty of Versailles. She says she was never taught it that way, that they were never given such connections, and she didn’t know that the inflation of ’23 played a role in the rise of the Nazi party. Maybe she didn’t pay attention in school, but it was definitely interesting to hear this and I wonder what German students are taught today. The next day Joe, Biz and I went to Dachau. I had been to Terezin about a month before, but Dachau was so much more shocking. First of all, the camp is enormous. Thousands of prisoners suffered there, and many of them died. What I hadn’t known before is that the camp was established merely three months after Hitler became Chancellor, and it was the only camp to be used for the entire twelve years of Nazi rule. Initially imprisoned in the camp were political prisoners, mostly communists, social democrats and trade unionists, but over time it became a labour camp for all kinds of people. Imprisoned at the concentration camp by the SS were Jews, Roma, homosexuals, foreign resistors, priests, Jehovah's Witness, Soviet POWs, beggars and the socially outcast (homeless, the mentally or physically challenged), and anyone else the regime found a threat or sub-human. The pictures and video footage from around the camps, are truly awful and they really leave you speechless. It’s hard to comprehend the hatred of some men, and how men can treat other men in such ways. The memorial is very educational however and it touches on more aspects of the Third Reich than just Dachau, and I’m glad I had the chance to see it. This post was written from Frankfurt. I'll blog about Heidelberg, Frankfurt and whatever comes next soon. Stay tuned.

Travels in Deutschland, Part 1

The next few posts will be long, split up into many parts, and probably always at least a week or two behind in where I actually am. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in the common room of a hostel in Heidelberg Germany. So here's Part 1 of my German travels: The four months in Prague felt both fast and slow at the same time, but regardless, they are over and it's time for traveling. First stop, Berlin. Shawn, Kevin and I pulled into Hauptbanhof on a Saturday afternoon, under the burden of hugely heavy backpacks  (sorting our belongings and deciding what to bring with us and what to leave behind in Prague was an adventure in itself). We hadn't picked out a place to stay ahead of hand, and when inspecting a city map, an older lady offered us a "private apartment" close to the Brandenburger Tor but we refused (since we had to decide on the spot) and went on a hostel-search instead. We arrived in Berlin on the 23rd of May, precisely sixty years after the founding of the FDG and there were many people watching a free concert around the Reichstag and the Tor. This made finding the city info booth a little difficult (roads were blocked off, there were huge crowds everywhere), but in the end we found it, picked out a hostel, and trekked all the way there.

Reichstag in Berlin
Starving, we explored our neighbourhood looking for food, finding only a terrible Mexican restaurant. It turns out we explored in the wrong direction; we found cheaper, better food in the opposite one just a short walk from the hostel later that night. We had a donair each, and Shawn and I checked out Potsdamer Platz. It's amazing! The 'dome', or whatever you want to call it, is lit up at night and the entire square makes up one of the coolest modern structures I've ever seen. (I'm a big fan of modern architecture, so Berlin was a great city for me to explore). Underneath the dome there's a movie theater, a few restaurants, bars and cafes, and a lot of people just chilling, drinking beers on the edge of the fountain. Right outside the square are a few chunks of the old Berlin Wall, today covered in chewing gum and graffiti (the graffiti is probably from the 80s, though). What I think is really cool is the fact that the path of the Wall is marked all throughout the city by cobblestones which today go over grass, through buildings, across streets and through metro stations.

Potzdamer Platz Canopy
During our stay in Berlin we did a lot of touristy things: we took an elevator ride to the top of the Fernsehrturm to take in the view (since the city is flat we could see its entire stretches from up there, the city is enormous), walked up to the modern dome in the Reichstag (what’s really cool is that they had solar panels up there - the German Parliament is leading by example), snapped some photos at the Brandenburger Tor and Holocaust Memorial, walked along the route of the Wall (there’s one street that has a good hundred meters still standing - Shawn and Kevin didn’t get to see it, I stayed an extra night and saw it just after they left for Budapest), crossed Checkpoint Charlie a few times, explored the other big squares the cities boasts. What I must not forget to share is the artery-clogging, heart-attack-inducing, takes-a-day-off-your-life drunken meal we had one dawn. To start at the beginning, one of Kevin’s cousins (also from Long Island), Brian, happened to be in Berlin for a few weeks and he met up with Kevin and Shawn one night. I was out taking pictures of Potzdamer Platz, then headed over to the bar where they were talking about the Tighe family history. My arrival meant a few more Jevers, and after a few liters spread amongst the four us, we were all under the influence. Shawn and I were both hoping that the Kebap stand we loved was still open (the sky was lightening up at this point), and unfortunately four our health it wasn’t. Right next to Mustafa’s stand was a little kiosk called “Curry 36”. We saw these two Germans enjoying an epic-looking meal, and we pointed and screamed excitedly that we all want one as well. The meal consisted of: two shish-kabobs worth of meat, one sliced up German sausage, caramelized onions, greasy fries, and literally fistfuls of ketchup and mayo, all mixed into an unrecognizable yet delicious concoction. This might sound tame to you, but it took a concentrated effort to finish this heart attack special (except for Shawn, go figure), and to top it all of we went straight to sleep afterward.

Berlin, rebuilt
So overall Berlin was great. We saw a lot of awesome buildings and cool historical locations (the Fuehrerbunker is now a parking lot, by the way) and had a good time. Shawn and Kevin then headed to Budapest on their way to the Balkans, and I headed to Nürnberg (Nuremberg).

View from the edge of Neuhof a. d. Zenn
My dad’s cousin Adi was waiting for me at the train station in Nürnberg, and I caught him right when he was in the middle of moving to a new place. He was still living in a small village about twenty minutes outside of Furth-Nürnberg (right next to Nürnberg) where he worked and where he was also moving. The village is called Neuhof a. d. Zenn and is absolutely gorgeous. It’s situated in the countryside, just a few minutes from a forest, and a few kilometers from other small villages in all directions. On the first night I was there I borrowed Adi’s bike and went for a ride through the countryside. It was amazing, the air was so fresh and clean, and it was so quiet you could hear the crickets. After a few minutes of biking I saw two deer up ahead on the bike path! I thought that was awesome, except it got even more so; after about an hour of biking I saw ten deer and a huge rabbit. One of the deer ran next to me as I biked for a few meters before vanishing back into the forest. While in Nürnberg I basically worked for the food and lodging I was getting at no cost, helping my dad’s cousin move. I did however explore the Old Town of Nürnberg, which it turns out was heavily damaged in the war but rebuilt almost the exact same way it used to be. It has a few ‘old’ churches, and a cool castle overlooking the entire Old Town on a little hill. I also checked out the mausoleum where the Nazis held their huge rally in the 30s, I even walked up and stood on the pedestal from where Hitler gave his speech. Today the whole place is mostly a big ruin, and there’s absolutely no inscription or anything there. It was also tough to find, the Germans like to ignore their Third Reich past it seems. After Nuremberg I've been to Southern Bavaria, Munich and now Heidelberg. I'll blog about those soon. So stay tuned for Part 2.