TravelStream™ news feed for member ericrg on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ericrg en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:14:05 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1191094740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1191094740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1191094740/tpod.html Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:14:05 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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London, United Kingdom

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Paris, France

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Bayeux, France

It is official, it is time to me to go home. After arriving at this gorgeous little town with cobblestone streets, great food, and a beautiful church, to not be impressed(as I am now) shows me that it is time to go home. I mean, this town is simply amazing and yet, I am unamazed. Too much of a good thing over here in Europe I guess...?

I took a 6:15 train from Strasbourg to get here and had to transfer in Paris. I almost missed my train because it was mislabeled but after all the traveling was said and done, I did finally get to Bayeux. One interesting thing of note was at the train station when I was originally buying my train ticket in Strasbourg, I was attempting to buy a ticket to Bayeux but obviously couldn't pronounce it right because I kept getting the craziest look from the woman behind the ticket counter. I also didn't know how to spell it at the time(still probably don't for that matter) so I had to get out of line, bust out my book, write it down, and then present her with the written version. Evidently, I was stressing the wrong sylables because I wrote it down, she said "ohhh...Bayeux" and it sounded exactly like what I was saying....

After my long trainride across France, I was disappointed when I didn't have enough time to check out Mont St. Michelle. Now I was left with the choice of a day trip for Mont St. Michelle or the D-Day Beaches due to the fact that I only had 1 full day in Bayeux. I chose the beaches and it ended up being a good choice but a difficult one to make.

The one thing that you notice first that is extremely heartening for an American is the amount of love shown Americans on the streets of Normandy. American(and Canadian and English) flags line the streets and once you make known you are American to the people, they are amazingly nice to you. I guess they haven't forgotten the sacrifices made by Americans and it makes you proud to say that your from the United States. There isn't enough of that in the world considering our current political situation and to recieve such acceptance overseas feels pretty nice considering some of the comments I have recieved to this point in my trip.

I spent my first night in Bayeux walking around attempting to find an internet cafe, which proved to be pretty much impossible. There is something akin to an internet moritorium in Bayeux because the one computer IN THE WHOLE TOWN was at the Post Office and it was 7 Euros for half an hour(what a deal). I went out for a good French meal that evening seeing as it was one of my last nights in France and I had been good about my money that day. If I thought the French meal in Strasbourg was good, then this one was mind-boggling. Probably in the top 5 dinners of my trip. A three course meal with amazing house wine and super service. I had the fish soup(my usual staple), a beef potroast kinda thing that was amazing, and a tri-burnt cream dessert with pistachio, vanilla, and chocolate burnt creams. I started up converstaion with a couple of people around me and genuinly enjoyed the whole experience. There is just no beating French eats....

The next day I dedicated to the D-Day Beaches. I signed up for a tour and found myself the youngest member on the tour by a solid 20 years. I think it might have something to do with being so late in the tourist season and all the kids being back in school but I definately was in the lower age bracket for this tour.

The truly inspiring thing about the tour was not the beaches itself but the company with whom I shared the experience. In my group was an 82 year old man who had actually stormed the beaches ON D-DAY. He wasn't the first one on the beaches but landed about an hour after the first rush and this was his first time back to Europe or the beaches since his days in the war. What are the chances of that happening. My tour guide says that this happens about once every six months or so but I felt so lucky to be part of this tour. The tour guide really just took a step back at every stop we made and let the former soldier(Bill was his name) do all the talking. As amazing as it was for me, I can only imagine what it must have been like for Bill.

The tour itself was relatively interesting. They took us to the D-Day Museum which was filled with info on the landings at the different beaches as well what was left of the big man-made harbour that they floated over from England. That was the coolest part of the whole museum.

Then we went to the American cemetary which was the most impressive thing about the trip. If anyone has been to Arlington Cemetary, they would understand how powerful that experience can be. There wasn't a tour or anything, it was just the immaculately kept grounds of the cemetary with a memorial to the fallen soldiers at one end and a small chapel at the center. This was the only part of the tour that Bill got emotional at. It was pretty emotional for everyone in the group and I doubt that there was a dry eye left after seeing the emotions that welled up in Bill.

Aftere the cemetary, we went to a famous portion of the beach that was left untouched since that day. It was pock-marked with holes left from shell explosions and some of the German pill boxes were still intact. Bill showed us exactly where he had landed on the beaches, from what he could remember("it looked a lot different back then" he said) and gave us his own take on the beach invasion. After this, we borded the bus and headed back to Bayeux.

I have to say that this was the most powerful and emotional experience on my trip. Aushwitz was powerful and impressive but this took it to a whole new level. It would have been amazing without Bill but with a veteran of D-Day in our group, it gave it a personal touch that you just couldn't get from listening to a tour guide.

I spent that night making a baguette sandwich(my last in France *frown*) and drinking wine with some other people from the hostel. Not much night life in Bayeux but with good wine and company, who is to complain? The next morning I was off to my favorite city in the world for one last glance before heading to England and then home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1159022640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1159022640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1159022640/tpod.html Sat, 23 Sep 2006 11:10:41 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Strasbourg, France

Ahh....back to my favorite country in Europe. I almost forgot how much I loved France and then I jumped off the train, smelled the fresh baked baguettes, and passed 10 beautiful women in a row. Oh yeah, that is why I love France.

Strasbourg is French but being right on the border with Germany, it has the best of both worlds. The great French food, wine, and women while 40 percent of the people speak German(it makes my life slightly easier) and they have good German beer. Cant much beat that.

The way to Berlin was a long way out of the way but well worth it and the train back to Strasbourg was again a long one. To go to Berlin is to go about 6 hours the wrong way from Munich if one wants to travel to Strasbourg. After a 7 hour train ride from Berlin, I finally arrived in Strasbourg, about a 2 hour train ride from Munich. I checked into my rather nice, though somewhat sterile, hostel and met my nice roommate from Canada. We went out for a nice but overpriced French dinner and then came back to the hostel for a drink in the bar before calling it an early Friday night. All of this traveling is taking it out of me and I was exhausted at 9pm last night.

Today was one of my more enjoyable days so far. I walked around this beautiful town and was impressed by all the sights. It has a great Gothic cathedral that looks like it is built from matchsticks because you can see through the tower and most of the knave. It is hard for a church to impress me after 5 months on the road but this one did a pretty good job. I then visited Petite France which is an area made up of a collection of 5 islands. The islands are paralleling each other, separated by canals, and connected by old stone bridges. It is all lined with trees and cool little cafes. This town is also a wanderers paradise with a city center filled with pedestrian cobble stone streets and small alleyways hiding cafes and cool little shops. Even after five months, it is still fun to just wander around and search cool new towns.

After my wandering, I stopped for a drink at a cafe to write in my journal and people watch the main square. This area(Alsace and Lorraine) are famous for their good white wines and when ordering one of these at a cafe, it is hard to go wrong. I went with a Gewurstiminer last night for dinner and a really good Reisling today at the cafe. Shoot, I might just have to try a Muscat tonight with dinner! Dinner is about the only thing on my agenda for the rest of the night seeing as tomorrow I have to catch at train at 6:15am to get me to Bayeux at a reasonable hour. I want to see Mont St. Michel as well as the D-Day beaches and time is running short. How, after 5 months, do I not have enough time to fit everything I want to see into my schedule.

Only 5 more days for me before I ship out and, as much as I have loved this trip, it is time to go home. I want to lay in my own bed, wear something different than the same shorts/shoes/shirts/underwear that I have worn, and eat food without paying for it. I never thought I would get sick of going out but Mom's chicken chilli or parmesan crusted chicken sounds pretty damn good right now. Only 5 great days left and then on the plane I will be. You watch, one week after being home I'll be itching to go back.

ps- My beloved Dawgs play tonight, please give us a victory.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158868260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158868260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158868260/tpod.html Sat, 23 Sep 2006 10:47:48 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Berlin, Germany

Whew....Oktoberfest is over. I had spent 5 long days having the most fun of my life but I needed to get away. It just makes for a long day of singing, dancing, and drinking and to do it five days in a row can be taxing on the body.

I have only a week left in Europe now and I need to be up in London on the 28th but I had to see Berlin for at least a day before I went home. I took the train about 7 hours up to Berlin, not being able to sleep at all during the train ride, and wound up there at 5pm exhausted and ready for an early night. That is exactly what I got. I got to the Circus hostel in Berlin(another one of those top 10 hostels in Europe) and checked into a very clean and modern 8 bed dorm. The hostel is beautifully decorated for a hostel with modern rooms, bathrooms, a bar, and a restaurant. I was feeling cheap and tired so I hopped across the street for half a chicken, salad, and fries for 4 bucks. I heard Berlin was cheap but that is ridiculously cheap for western Europe. After dinner, I did some laundry and then went straight to bed. I can only wonder what my roommates thought when they walk in at 830 and find me sleeping but....

I woke up this morning knowing that I only had one day to see the city and I decided a tour would be the way to go. I had heard great things about this guy named Terry Brewer who gave all day walking tours throughout the city. When I say all day, I mean all day. He picked me up at the hostel with another guy and took around town for 10 hours. 10 hours. This guy was an amazing tour guide though, so it was well worth the time walking around with him. He was a former diplomat for the British during the cold war and was stationed for 25 years in Berlin. He was there when they erected the wall overnight and then there again when they demolished it. Our guide named Jay in Rome was amazing but this guy made him look like a hack. He knew about ever building on every street in every district in Berlin. He would point out random buildings and give huge stories about them. After meeting this guy, everyone in the group was looking around wondering if he is just making this stuff up because he knew so much. He also knew everyone in the city. He had been giving walking tours for almost 30 years and so we couldnt walk a block without somebody poking their head out of a store front and yelling "Guten Tag Terry" or coming up to shake his hand. As you can imagine, we walked around for 10 hours and saw about the whole city(at least by my estimation) but he said he could take you around Berlin for a week everyday and still not show you everything. We saw the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Museum Island, the Lindenstrasse, every old Nazi building around, and then tons more that I cant even remember. On top of all this knowledge, he was also extremely funny and affable. I guess a whole career as a diplomat teaches you a thing or two about communicating with people because this guy could talk your ear off. If you are ever in Berlin, I would highly suggest a tour with Mr. Terry Brewer.

Tonight I am working on the blog and then again calling it a reasonably early night. 10 hours of walking around will make a man tired and I have a long day of travel tomorrow on my way to Strasbourg, France.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158484380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158484380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158484380/tpod.html Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:34:49 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Munich, Germany

I have been looking forward to this part of my trip now for about a year. I booked my hostel and had my plans to visit Oktoberfest solidified last November and to see it finally come to pass has been magnificent. I had huge expectations going into Oktoberfest and it has lived up to every one of them so far. I cant say enough about how cool this festival is.

I started my time in Munich by checking into one of the nicest hostels I have stayed at so far. The Meininger City hostel in Munich is run like a hotel with a bathroom and tv in every room and it is cleaned daily(something most hostels in Europe dont do). It is also centrally located and, more importantly, it is only a 5 minute walk from the main Oktoberfest fair grounds. I got to the hostel the night before the opening day of Oktoberfest and spent my first night checking in and then eating dinner with one of my roommates at the beer hall across the street. I wanted to have an early night with the opening of Oktoberfest the next day but that idea quickly went out of my head when I walked through the door of this authentic beer hall and met two fellow Huskies. We spent the night having a couple liters of great Augustiner beer and eating sausages and pretzels. I was having a blast and Oktoberfest hasnt even started yet!

The next morning I woke up early and had breakfast with the girl from my room before we both headed out at 830am in hopes of finding a seat at a table in the beer tents. We heard you had to get their early and those rumors were correct. We got to the fair grounds almost 3 hours before they tapped the first keg and still couldnt get a spot inside. We met with the two huskies from the day before and spent the first 3 hours of the festival waiting for the first beer to be served with making conversation with anyone and everyone around us. It is so much fun to sit at these big tables surrounded by people that are all as excited for the festival as you are.

Finally, the keg is tapped, the people start going wild and the first beer is served. I see the women carrying 12 steins at a time and I am blown away. You see pictures and hear stories but until you see it in real life, it is hard to believe. I cant imagine how much weight that must be for those women(most of whom could probably kick my butt at arm wrestling) to carry around all day. Yeah, that was really cool.

So we start drinking at 12pm and I dont leave the fairgrounds until 11pm. What happens between that time is nothing but fun and revelry. I dance with locals, sing the beer songs, meet tons of nice Munich folk, get my butt whooped in arm wrestling by a 60 year old woman, take tons of pictures, eat pretzels bigger than my head, eat meters of sausage, and yes, drink a bit of beer. During the day, I split up from all the people I went with just to meet back up with them 10 times throughout the day while also meeting tons of locals and just having fun. I knew Oktoberfest would be a good time but I never thought it would be this much fun.

The one downfall of the day was when I got home at 11pm to find my memory card was almost full. Unfortunately, in my attempt to delete all of the photos I had already loaded onto my IPOD, I ERASED ALL MY PICTURES. So I have none of the really cool pictures from my first day of Oktoberfest which almost led me to spike my camera in disgust. That really sucked but I have three more days of Oktoberfest and Munich to replenish my lost photos and although I wont have my first day, I imagine most of the days from here out should be almost the same.

Ill update more when I actually have pictures and more stories to tell.

Day 2
Day two was, again, just a blast. I met up with the two guys from Seattle and we decided to check out the inside of the tents. The first day we sat outside with a bunch of families and did a more traditional style day with local Germans. Day 2 was spent with lots more tourists and young people and was much different than day one.

We first went to the Hofbrauhaus to find ourselves overwhelmed by the mass of drunk people at 12pm. Did these people even go to bed or did they just stay up and drink until then. The atmosphere is like nothing I have ever experienced. The band is playing, people are dancing and singing, they are throwing beer everywhere, and everyone is pretty much making an ass of themselves. There were a lot of local German young people around but not much in the was of older folks.....hmmm....I wonder why?

We stayed there and sang the songs and ate pretzels and met lots of nice folk before getting hungry for real food and we left outside. Day two was less crowded and so you didnt feel bad leaving your table to walk around because you knew that you could get new seats at a different table when you wanted to sit back down. On day one, if you got up, there was no sitting back down. We had some more sausages(pretzel and sausage is what I have been living on for 3 days now) and then headed to a more relaxed tent for a little break. Well, it started with a relaxed feel but that was just because the band was taking a break. Once the bad started back up, it was more dancing and singing.

We spent the rest of the night there and met tons of more nice people and again, we just had a good time. It is hard to explain how much fun Oktoberfest if you havent been there and as much as I want to see the rest of Munich, I think I will find it tough to spend a day walking around town when I know I could be at Oktoberfest. My plan was to take today away from the festival but I am going there again today and more than likely tomorrow as well.

Day 3 and 4
My goal for day 3 or 4 was to take a bike tour or explore the city but after all the fun I had the first two days, I just couldnt pass up another day at Oktoberfest for walking around and checking out a town I had already seen twice(with previous tours). I spent both days hanging out with the two guys, James and Ben from the UW, as well as tons of other locals and tourists that we met at the tents. After the first weekend at Oktoberfest, it calmed down a lot during the day. You could walk into any tent and easily find a table until about 4pm but after there, it was as packed as usual. On day three, it was about the same story as the previous days. We met tons of people, danced on tables, sung songs whose words we didnt know(yeah, hey, blah blah, yeah, hey....) and generally had a good time. Day four, we sat down at a table only to have two CUTE Swiss girls come and join us. We spent the day with them and generally had the same good time as the days before.

In total, Oktoberfest was as good a time as I have ever had in my life. I dont know if I have ever had more fun and I could definately see myself coming back again. There is not a place in the world where people are as friendly and fun loving and welcoming as there(the copious amounts of beer might have something to do with that) and I think it is something that everyone has to do at some point in their lives. I could see myself coming back there again just for the festival, which says a lot because there hasnt been a place or event in Europe that I could see traveling all the way to Europe for just one thing. After five days in Munich, I couldnt handle much more but what I did experience changed my life for the better.

Now off to Berlin to recover my strenght and head down the back stretch of my trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158250560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158250560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158250560/tpod.html Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:40:59 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Stuttgart, Germany

Stuttgart is famed, not for the town itself, but for the big companies that make the town their home. Both Porsche and Mercedes Benz call Stuttgart their home and are the main tourist draw that bring motor heads(and people on their way to Munich) into the capital of the Berner-Oberland.

I left Heidelberg this morning and arrived in Stuttgart to find the only available hostel is again an HI hostel. This one is even larger than the one I just left and it feels exactly like a hospital. It's location isn't as bad as usual for HI hostels but it is a 15 minute walk up a STEEP hill from the train station which makes the already extensive check-in process even more abhorrent and tiring. As you can tell, I don't really like HI hostels.

I checked in a dropped off my bag before immediately heading out to check out the big draw of the city. I took the fast train about 10 minutes out of town(again without paying, I am loving this free transit thing...) to the Mercedes Benz headquarters/museum. I heard it was really good but wasn't quite ready for what I saw. They just built a huge new museum that opened in May that is dedicated to their history and their future in the automobile industry. It was so interesting that even people who have no interest in cars would have enjoyed the stroll through this place. The best part is that it is all done with Mercedes class. Leather interiors in the elevators, free audio guides, polished metals on every surface, and just an overall sense of high class permeates the museum. It is also interesting because they discuss their whole history and how they played a role in the world and how the world events shaped their company. It was really interesting to see their involvement in WWII(which was extensive) and the impact on their company with the death of JFK. Who would have thought our President being assassinated would effect a German company. They also had tons of cars hanging from walls, plastered to the roof, or sitting on their own fake racetrack. It was just a lot more fun that I would have thought out of a car museum. I kept thinking that my dad or grandpa should have been there because they would have really enjoyed it.

After the museum, I walked around on the main town square before coming here to do some internet work. Tonight I going to sleep early because tomorrow is Oktoberfest and that may limit my sleep for the next couple of days. I am so excited for Oktoberfest it is hard to put into words, I just hope it lives up to my lofty expectations.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1157911680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1157911680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1157911680/tpod.html Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:28:45 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Innsbruck, Austria

Not much to say so far about Innsbruck. I spent most of my day on the train coming here from Vienna. Again, it is so nice to be back in Western Europe with efficient and fast train travel. I checked into my hostel which certainly isnt the nicest place but it is the best located hostel in town and it isnt too expensive. I walked around, checked out the town, and now I am heading back for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow I am going on an all day guided hike that is offered for free to anybody who stays in a hostel or hotel in town. What a cool plus that it. Ill put more up when anything more to talk about happens.

Day 2
So more to talk about has happened. I spent today on a free hike up into the mountains of the Austrian Alps. Innsbruck offers the coolest service where they provide you with a mountain guide, free bus transportation, and even free hiking boots to go hiking around their town. I don't know how much this kinda thing would cost anywhere else but it was nothing but high class. The buses are coach cruisers, the guides are very knowledgeable, and the hike is absolutely gorgeous. I went with a French Canadian from the hostel who had taken these hikes for the last couple of days and we met a couple of cute Australians on the way to the hike. We took the hour bus ride to the base of a mountain and spent the next couple of hours hiking up to a 600 year old church/restaurant on the top of this mountain. We stopped for a great lunch cooked by one priest who runs the church and the restaurant and then headed back down the mountain for the end of our hike. It was so nice to get up into the fresh air of the alps again and recall the beauty that I witnessed 3 months ago in Switzerland(minus the snow).

After the hike, I met back up with the Aussie girls and we all went out to dinner at a good Italian place in Innsbruck before going out to a movie. Yes, I did it, I saw Snake on a Plane and loved it. It was one of the first movies I have seen in English in months and I enjoyed every minute of it. Afterwards, I said goodbye to the girls who had an early train ride the next morning and headed back to the hostel. I met another traveller from Seattle and we decided to go out and talk about our hometown over a drink. Innsbruck isn't known as a big party town and it showed. We went out at 9:30 and found the one open bar in town to have a drink at. It was fun to catch up with another guy from Seattle(he went to SPU and works at Microsoft) and recall memories from our hometown. I haven't met many travelers from Seattle and he hadn't met any so that made for a somewhat interesting night.

The next morning I woke up and left the lame hostel to catch and early train to Heidelberg. Ohh, I almost forgot to complain about how lame the hostel was. I had great luck with a cool hostel in Vienna but recently, I have struggled with housing options. This hostel was dirty, as you could probably tell, and the breakfast was horrible and the staff was SOOOO RUDE. I have never met a hostel manager who won't even turn around to answer a question you have or won't even answer a question and will just point to a piece of paper that has his answer on it. I asked him where the internet cafe was and he wouldn't even respond, he just thrust a piece of paper in my face and turned around. Grrr....is it really that hard to be nice? Ok, enough with the hostel rants, I had enough to rant about at the next hostel to let this one off the hook.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158161760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158161760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1158161760/tpod.html Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:05:36 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Heidelburg, Germany

Heidelberg is a town I had visited before with previous trips to Europe and I didn't have much in the way of expectations going into the city but the two days I spent there turned out to be a very good use of my time. I needed to kill a couple of days before Oktoberfest in Munich and so I was left to decide between a couple of towns in Western Germany. Heidelberg was my choice.

I got into town after a reasonably long trip on the train and immediately took the bus downtown in an attempt to find a hostel/cheap hotel. I looked around for an hour or so and didn't find anything which meant that I was forced to retreat back to the train station and take a bus out of town to the HI hostel. I don't like HI hostels but as the only cheap place to stay in town, I didn't have much of a choice. HI hostels are a huge network of hostels throughout Europe run by Hosteling International. They tend to be newer facilities that are very clean, offer a good breakfast, and are reasonably cheap. That all sounds good but let me tell you why I don't like them. They are usually way out of town(this one was a 45 minute walk or 15 minute bus ride from the center of town), they are filled with all ages from really young to really old, they cater to school groups, and they feel like a hospital. This one was no exception from those tried and true rules. I luckily met a couple of other travelers from Australia and Canada because had I not, I might have shot myself sitting alone listening to the chatter of the hundreds of 15 year old school group kids that seem to invade the place.

Now that my little rant is out of the way, I spent my first night at the hostel just relaxing after dinner and then called it an early night. The next day, I met up with the Canadian Chris and his friends from Australia and we all went up to the one famous site in Heidelberg, the castle. Now I have pretty much had my fill of castles, churches, and museums after 4+ months but this one wasn't bad and was a way to spend the day. It is famous for being a)Huge and b) having the largest barrel in the world. We took the tour, saw the barrel, got the views/pictures of the city and then headed down to the main pedestrian walkway for a cup of coffee in the main square. I still haven't gotten tired of that part of traveling. We sat around and talked for a couple of hours before going back to the hostel(more free transportation, I just stopped paying for busses too) and eating dinner on the cheap at the hostel kitchen. It was everyones last night in Heidelberg so we decided to take a trip back into town that night and have a couple of drinks. We couldn't stay out to late because the busses back to our hostel stop running at 12:30 and we luckily caught the last one, otherwise that would have been a long cold walk.

The next day I had a good breakfast at the hostel consisting of breads, cheeses, meats, cereals, yogurt, coffee, tea, and, everyones favorite, nutella. After breakfast, I checked out and hopped on the train for Stuttgart.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1157821440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1157821440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericrg/europe-2006/1157821440/tpod.html Sun, 10 Sep 2006 14:12:59 -0400 Backpacking through Europe for 5 months during the summer of 2006

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Vienna, Austria

After a month in Eastern Europe, it was refreshing to get back to the familiarity of Western Europe. I took a night train from Krakow to Vienna and was looking forward to the first new city I was going to experience on my own. Let me say that it didnt get off to a good start. I didnt sleep much on the night train because I was woken up and checked 8 times for my passport. Then, while we stopped in Bratislava(I think) and I was asleep, two thieves almost stole my bag. I had the door to the sleeper car locked but the window was slightly open and these two guys were standing outside of the train, one standing on the others shoulders, and had pulled the window down and was climbing into our car. Luckily, the other guy in the car with me woke up and told them to get away because in another 10 seconds or so , they could have stolen everything I had. So after that close call, I didnt sleep much more on the train that night and arrived to Vienna at 6am, at the wrong train station(Bahnhoff Ost instead of Bahnhoff West), and it was POURING down rain. So I had to take a tram all the way across town and then walk about 15 minutes to my hostel in the pouring rain to have the hostel tell me that I can drop off my bag but I cant check in until 2pm. All I wanted to do was sleep.....really.....please.....

So I dropped off my bag and decided to make the best of it and explore the town. Luckily, after I stopped for a quick breakfast, it had stopped raining and I had clean skies to walk around under. Having been in almost every major European city, I was still blown away by the architecture in this city. The Hapsburgs had all the wealth in Europe for a long time and it shows. The buildings in this town are just huge and overly ornate. The Parliment building, the Hapsburgs castle thingy, the ministry of defense, the churches, and just about every other building on the Ring Strasse are almost too much to take in. I had decided after walking around for an hour or so that I wanted to check out one of the hundreds of museums in Vienna to waste some time and I chose well in the Kunst Historishe Museum. It is the fine arts museum in town and it had to be one of the best art museums I have seen so far. I liked it much more than the Louvre in Paris or the Uffizi Gallery in Florence because it had more of the art I liked. I love northern European art such as Dutch, German, and Flemish painting and this museum had a whole wing dedicated to it. They had Durer, Bosch, Rembrandt, Holbein, and a whole room dedicated to my favorite artist ever Pieter Bruegel. They had 12 or so of his paintings including 2 of my top 3 paintings by him. Lets just put it this way, I spent about 2 hours in the Northern European section of the museum and about 15 minutes in the Italian-French-Spainish section.

After the gallery, I had had my fill of walking and was finally allowed to check into the hostel and take a nap. Ohhhh man, best nap ever. I was out from about 2-5 when I finally woke up and rode the metro out to another art gallery called the Beleveder. I was too late to enter but it did teach me a valuable lesson, I dont have to pay for public transportation. They sell tickets that you are supposed to stamp but nobody checks and so nobody buys them. I must have taken the public transportation buses, trams, and metro about 20 times without ever buying a ticket. Sweet deal.

This is where the scary part of traveling alone starts. How to meet people and avoid going to sleep at 8pm because there is nothing to do? Well, at the Wombats Hostel(one of those "top ten" hostels in Europe), meeting people is easy. They have a bar that is packed to the gills with fellow travelers and it made meeting people a blast. I went down for my free drink at the bar that is supplied to you when you check in and I instantly met four Australians and a dude from Idaho. Then, the coolest part of it all, the hottest girl in the bar comes over and starts talking to us. Isnt it supposed to work the other way around? Well I spent the rest of the night at the bar hanging out with my new friends and reveling in the fact that my fears of traveling alone have been squashed. It was such a relief to meet these people and know that, even out of tourist season, there are still people around to hang out with.

The next morning, I woke early and decided to take a bike tour of the city. There is just so much to see in Vienna that I thought a bike tour would again be a great way to do it. I wouldnt say it was the best tour(our guide didnt speak the best English) and I was the youngest one on it by 10 years but it was still well worth it and better than trying to walk around the city all day. After the bike tour, I met back up with Alex(the girl from the night before) and Lester from Australia and we all went out to explore the town and have some famous Austrian Schnitzel. We went to this place and for 9.50 Euros we got a HUGE plate of schnitzel that we all shared and we walked out of the joint owing less than 5 bucks a piece. What a deal for a supposedly expensive town. That night, again, was spent down at the hostel bar with the some of the people I met from the night before and a couple new people that I happened to meet. The night started off well with a halftime tie to Oklahoma and me singing Bow Down To Washington for the whole bar and ended rather unpleasantly with us getting blown out and the bar playing the same Shakira song for the 10000th time. I cant tell you how much I have come to hate that song....

Today I woke early again and caught a train to Innsbruck for some fresh air and an escape from the big cities I have been traveling through recently.
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