|
|
It feels crazy to be somewhere besides Italy after spending so much time there. But the past couple of days have been so vastly different that I’ve been too busy to miss it that much! Wednesday morning I woke up early, took a train to the airport, and flew from Rome to Munich, Germany. After taking a train to the city center, I grabbed a sandwich, which felt absolutely bizarre to not be eating pasta. My taste buds don’t know what to do with themselves now. I walked from there to the hostel that I’m staying in (Euro Youth Hostel), dropped off my bags and got checked in early so that once my bed was ready I would be all set. With only my passport and laptop locked up and everything else vulnerable to be stolen :) I headed off to explore the city. The most wonderful woman who checked me in gave me a map and pointed out some of the key spots to go to. With only a general direction in mind, I started wandering through the old section of the city. I saw some awesome cathedrals and the town hall. I also saw the Bavarian Chancellery (probably like the ‘state’ capital?), and believe it or not, even in below freezing weather there is a spot along the river with a fast current that people go surfing on! I watched for a few minutes as a few brave (freezing) souls hit the waves. Somewhere along here, I saw a poster about something going on in Salzburg. It was in German so I couldn’t tell you what it was for, but in my crazy head it only meant one thing: check if there’s tickets to hop on a train to Austria for the rest of the day. There was. I thought about it for approximately 0.2 seconds before deciding it was a great idea and had tickets set up to leave in about an hour. I made my way back to the hostel, moved my belongings to a notably less vulnerable location on my bed, grabbed a few things in a bag and bolted to the train station. I got on the train, and worked on a few things for school while the Bavarian countryside flew by. Let’s rewind for one second to discuss why most of my belongings were on my bed. Under the bed, there is a locker that I put my suitcase in. Now for some reason, I always pack the most stuff possible into a space that’s too small for it. So naturally, my suitcase was bulging and not regular suitcase-size. I began to cram it under the bed, and was forcing it in when I couldn’t get it to go any further. I pulled it out to take a few things out of the outer pockets, and realized that I tore the entire front off of my suitcase :) Frustrated and with a train to catch, I took just enough things out to get it in and shoved it back inside, leaving my backpack with the more important things out on my bed. I am clearly just so excited to get to wander around with a botched suitcase for the rest of my trip. Fortunately, that thing has been literally around the world, so it’s gotten a fair amount of use before being torn up. I guess this is a sign that I need to stop overpacking. We’ll see how that goes. *now resuming the chronological tale of events* The train got into Salzburg around 4:30pm, and I started to wander through the city. I had done absolutely zero research before making this decision, and only knew which general direction I should head. Only about two hours later did I decide to Google what the top spots to see are to check what I’d missed. I saw Mozart’s birthplace, some beautiful churches, and took in the hilly terrain surrounding the city. Being later in the day on a Wednesday and also below freezing, there were not many people out, so I got to see most of the touristy spots without anyone else around. I walked up to the fortress situated at the top of one of the hills, and wandered around inside. There was incredible views of the city from up there, and again, not a single other person in sight. It was a bit creepy for a few moments, but hey I survived. I’m pretty sure that during the day you’re supposed to pay to go all of the places I did, but the gates were wide open and there was no one there to offer directions, so I just went for it. Yay for playing the dumb tourist and using it as an excuse to do whatever I want. By the time I reached the top I was really thinking it would be awesome if there was a bathroom, but given that everything was completely devoid of living people I didn’t expect to find one. Until I did. And it was a true sign that I was meant to wander around this fortress because I didn’t find another open bathroom until I got back to the train station. I slowly wandered back down from the castle-fortress goodness, and listened as the church bells went wild every 15 minutes. Salzburg was so distinctly different in culture from Italy, and it felt so weird to see people having dinner at 5:00pm and the streets being empty by 7:00. In Italy, most people didn’t start going out for dinner until around 8:00, so there were many more individuals to run into. I meandered my way along the river and then back to the train station, and got on the return train to Munich. Even though I only spent about three hours in Salzburg, I was able to see so much without any crowd to fight and free reign over all the best picture-taking spots. The next morning, I was able to sleep in a bit and got breakfast at the hostel. I headed to the train station and got on a train bound for Füssen, from which I took a bus to reach Hohenschwangau, the town that’s home to Neuschwanstein Castle. Getting off the bus, I could already get a view of it towering over the mountainy region, and began walking along the hills to see it in person. As I got close, I realized that there was a rainbow hitting it from the snow that was lightly falling. It was so light that it made the air look sparkly, and framed the castle gorgeously. I got up close to take in some great views, and realized that the place I most wanted to go, Marienbrucke, was currently closed for repairs. This is a suspension bridge where the most famous pictures of the castle come from, so I was a bit disappointed but still glad I got to see it in person. After this I made my way back down the hill, got some amazing smelling quarkbällchen (tiny donuts) on the way, and came back into the town. Here, there is another castle that I walked over to, and could get some good views of Neuschwanstein too. I hopped on a bus back to Füssen, and took the train back to Munich with a stop in Kaufbeuren. Let’s take a moment to discuss how amazing trains are here. I noticed this in Italy as well, but since I’ve taken quite a few in Germany it’s really hitting me how much better the service is. Trains come on time to the minute, run multiple times per day, and get you from Point A to Point B with zero hassle. Taking Amtrak in the states is usually behind schedule without a clear window of when it will arrive, slow, and expensive. The system here really puts the US to shame, and I wish it were this easy to get around at home! That night, I went out to explore the rest of Munich that was on my radar, and went back to some of the same places to see them lit up after dark. One thing I definitely wasn’t prepared for was how cold it would be. It was in the 20’s or 30’s most of the time, so I had to buy yet another new jacket because the one I had wasn’t cutting it. I’m not the biggest fan of the one I got, but it was cheap so who cares! I picked up a pretzel (or two) as I made my way around the city, through the English Garden, and eventually back to the hostel. I got everything packed up and ready to go for the next morning so that I could get up and head to the airport. After arriving in Amsterdam I made my way to the hostel, which was a bit of an event on it’s own. Trains here aren’t quite as reliable, and since I speak zero Dutch it was wildly confusing trying to figure out where I needed to be. Trains kept getting canceled or switched to a different track, and it’s seriously incredible that I made it to Centraal Station on my own. From there I had to take a ferry across a river (canal?) to reach the hostel. After getting checked in, I went back to Centraal Station to meet two of my friends who were coming in from London! (One is from the UK, one is from Germany, and we all met in Puerto Rico.) We wandered around Amsterdam for a while, got some fun Dutch food, saw tons of beautiful canals, and took in everything around us. One thing that I’m still trying to wrap my head around was the sheer amount of bikes that exist in the city. Everyone in Amsterdam seems to bike everywhere they go. You have to watch out when crossing the street not to get hit by a cyclist, and always watch where you’re walking because if you happen to be in the bike lane then it could be game over awfully soon. The next day we went to the Anne Frank House, which was very somber and thoughtful to take in. Being in the same place that Anne and her family hid for years during World War II was surreal, and makes it so much more salient to think of the history that paints Europe. I kept thinking about my experience seeing Auschwitz in Poland, and the future experience I’m going to have on the Anne Frank Project trip to Rwanda. Afterwards we explored more of the city, had some stroopwafels, and made our way from restaurant to restaurant to try everything worth trying. It was a really nice way to wrap up such an incredible trip! The next morning, I made my way to the airport and left Amsterdam for Detroit, then back to Buffalo. I’ve learned so much over the course of this trip, and I’m so excited to transfer it all to the classroom as I’m student teaching this Spring. Another trip checked off the list, onto the next adventure!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCiao! My name is Alex and I’m a senior in the Childhood Education program. I love experiencing different cultures, trying new things, and traveling; this trip will bring my foreign country total into double digits! I’m thrilled to be able to work with students of a different background than myself, and hope to go into TESOL in the future. I can’t wait to bring my Italian experience into my own future classroom! Archives
February 2020
Categories |