The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Alternative Country

Wednesday October 21, 2009; playlist: Neko Case


Today I got up super early to get on train to Salzburg Austria. In order to save money and have more time in the city, I had to take 2 S-bahn trains to a station in far east Munich and then meet my train to Salzburg. I could have caught the Salzburg train at a sooner station in Munich but the Bavaria ticket doesn’t kick in till 9am so I skirted the system by taking the S-bahn as far as I possibly could. With all this train switching I just barely made my Salzburg connection, it was close with some movie style running up and down stairs to hop across the platform just in the nick of time. Time seemed to fly by once I was on the train and in just a couple hours I was across the border and in a new city.


The station was under construction but eventually I found a little portable building that housed the tourist information office. I got a map and an explanation of the bus situation. I also decided to go ahead and get a Salzburg City card good for 24 hours of bus rides and free entrance to almost anything a tourist would want to see in the city. It was a little expensive but I figured it would at least pay for itself and make my day easier. The card would probably force me to see more things that I would have if I had to pay for everything individually too. So I walked over to the bus area and happened upon one of the buses the guide told me would take me to the Aldstat, the old town. Well I sit down and I hear a girl, American most likely, step on the bus and ask the driver “zentrum” meaning center which is another word for the place I want to go. He then pointed to the buses across the lot. Ooopsies, looks like I’m on the right bus but going the wrong way. So I get up, go to the back door, which is now closed, and can’t figure out for the life of me how to open it. Thank God for some random lady who pushed a button I had no idea about for the door to open. I’m so used to just pushing the door on the train and it opening for me. Danke lady! They speak German in Austria as well, not that that really helps me since I don’t speak it but fun facts are fun.


So then I run over to the area the driver pointed to an wait for the right bus. I’m pretty sure that bus I was on would have taken me to Aldstat eventually but I’m guessing it would have just taken the long route. My bus finally shows up, I hop on, go through a couple stops and step off at Mozartplatz. I could right away that it must be the off season because here I am in the middle of one of the main squares in the old town and I’m pretty much alone. I’m looking at my map from the tourist office when a lady approaches me and begins speaking German, very fast. I’m sure my face said it all because I don’t think I even said anything before she asked “English?”. She just wanted to know where I got my map and if I knew where the tourist office was. You’d think for someone so fluent in the language she’d be able to see the big green sign with an “i” right across the square but maybe she’s new to travel :). So like the pro I am, I pointed her in the right direction and went about my way.


I had decided to start at the Panorama Museum, my Rick Steves guide book said it’s good and it’s free with my city pass. So I walk in, get my ticket and go in the main part. Emptiness. Looks like no one else cares about this. I walk around a bit, feeling like I’m being followed by a bored tour guide who finally points out how to actually see the panorama painting. The whole deal with this museum is that in the 1800’s it was very popular to have an artist paint a panoramic view of your cityscape and then show it off to other cities around the world. Now they have restored the painting and display it in a circular room in the museum. It was pretty cool, the guide even pointed out the building that we were currently in, but it wasn’t spectacular. Guide book fail!

After that, I made my way to the area past the square where you can ride a little car type thing up the mountain to the castle/fortress that overlooks the city. I didn’t even have to use my map to get there because there were direction signs everywhere in German, English, and Japanese haha. The ticket office was on a cute little cobblestone street with a steep incline and a curve to it, adorable. Once in the office I just flashed my city card, got a ticket, and crammed into one of three little compartments. They reminded me of a park in North Carolina, a completely closed in with windows ride up a mountain side. I talked to some Americans before getting in the car, it was nice being able to speak with people. I do enjoy being by myself, but it’s always nice to talk to once in a while. They also asked me how long I’d been living in Europe. That makes like two times this trip. I’m a pro at fitting in. The car goes backwards up the mountain kinda slow, like a pretty lame roller coaster. The view from the top is amazing though! The morning’s fog had pretty much lifted so it was becoming a beautiful day and you could see for miles at the top of the fortress. The city sits right below and behind the fortress is the Alps, so there are great views from any point on a day as beautiful as today. Included in the ticket up the mountain is entrance to the marionette museum and the palace museum, but I skipped both. It was much too pretty outside to be stuck inside looking at scary dolls etc.

Come on Feel the Illino....Bavaria!

Tuesday October 20, 2009
Today’s playlist: every Sufjan Stevens song I have ever illegally downloaded.

I was planning on going to Salzburg Austria today, but after the craziness that was yesterday’s almost fiasco I decided to sleep in, this is supposed to be a vacation remember? So I took my time and headed into Munich around midmorning. After the long ride in on the S bahn I transferred to the subway to head north to the University area. What a confusing mess, New York and even Shanghai are way easier in my opinion. The area around the university, I think called Schwabing, is very nice and is also where all the diplomats and embassies are located. Englisher Park is on the eastern border of the area and I walked along the edge of it back towards the Residenz and Marienplatz area. I really liked the gardens at the Residenz, very nice for people watching and sun bathing I guess since it seemed like all of Munich was out on a bench catching some rays on a sunny October day. After a little exploring I made my way back to the familiar Marienplatz and passed by my favorite store in Munich, the felt store! Ok, I know I said was going to get something this time, but really what am I going to do with some super thick expensive felt? They did have a kit type thing that included a cat but it was like 9€, not really worth it. I turned the corner from the felt store and was back in the center of old town Munich. I walked around a bit, saw some more of Viktulen Markt and got some gelato. I wanted to get like a shirt or jacket or something from the German National team, but everything was so expensive and cheap looking. I guess you really can’t expect more in such a touristy area, I mean I was like across the street from gag Hard Rock Café. I walked around a bit more and enjoyed my gelato in a small park behind the old city hall building before heading down the escalator down to the S bahn. Goodbye again Munch!

I then encountered the same problem we had trying to get back Sunday, none of these trains were going to Freising. I looked around and finally figured out that this platform was for trains only going east and I needed to go west of course. So I followed a few signs to some random horror movie type stair wells and finally got to the correct platform, only I was on the wrong side. In this station, since it’s so popular everyone gets on the train on a certain side and everyone gets off on the other side, to ease the flow of people. So I just had to fight a little harder to get on the train, but it worked out in the end.

I got to Feising about an hour later and took my time walking back to the hotel since the shops were actually open at this hour. I didn’t find anything but I did find some things to take pictures of, of course. It really is such a cute place and I should probably explore it some more. Oh well, early day tomorrow….Salzburg here I come!!

Lost in Translation

Monday, October 19, 2009


Decided to go to Amberg and Regensburg today since the weather looked best there. So I walk out of the hotel to head to the train station and it's super cold and foggy out; I would have rather stayed in bed. Walking to the train station didn't take as long as I thought so I got there super early, buy my day pass train ticket and wait. The train to Schwandorf, where I will transfer to Amberg, finally arrives and I hop on board. It looks like the train from Hogwarts! There are little compartments with 6 seats each and a hallway on the other side of the train. Most had one or two people in them, so I just picked one at random and sat with a couple German ladies. A little while later a crazy woman walked in to check our tickets. I got yelled at because I forgot to write my name on my pass, ok maybe not really yelled at, but when you don't know the language and someone is being strict with you it really translates to screaming. Then she asked, in English sort of, what my stop was. I told her Schwandorf, she said tons more things in German that of course I couldn't understand and then left our compartment. So now I was super confused; was I even on the right train?


At the next stop it seemed like everyone got off, so of course I did too to see if I was on the wrong train. I still don't really know what was going on but I went to the front of the train and there was a sign on one of the doors that said Schwandorf so I jumped on there and looked for a seat. I found an empty compartment, yay!, and sat down. Then I noticed there was luggage in there....oops, looks like I just crashed someone else's party. I was soon joined by a large group of people with lots of luggage, I think the train continued to Prague so that's most likely why I saw so much luggage, and then the people who already had their things in the room came back. So then there was lots of back and forth in German about what was going on. As long as I got to keep my seat, I didn't care. After all this the compartment was full. Just me, half of the group of young people, and two kinda creepy looking European dudes. I guess only one from the young people group spoke English because he is the one who asked me if his group could sit in there. I was just really hoping at this point that the train would stop in Schwandorf, which just happened to be the very next stop, yay! And I actually heard the train guy say Schwandorf on the speakers so I knew it was coming up. So I get up and like crawl over everyone else to get to the hallway, the English speaking dude asks if I have any luggage, nope, and I wait with everyone else in the hall for the train to stop so I can go to a different platform and wait for the train to Amberg.


That train ride was only about 15 minutes and then I was in Amberg. The Bahnhof is right across the from the main street going into the city, I think that is what persuaded me to visit. So I walk into town, and there's not many people there, and really no tourists. It's a nice little town though with a long street running through it with lots of shopping. I walked down that main street towards the square but stopped when I saw a tourist info center. It's always a good idea to pop in there and grab a map, although I probably should have asked what there is to see in the town, but oh well. I continued on to the square, which isn't much compared to what I've seen before, just the main church in town, a tiny markets and more shops. So I continued walking down the street towards the river that runs through the town. I heard there is a bridge in Amberg that looks like a pair of eye glasses from the reflection of the bridge in the river. So that's what I was looking for, I couldn't see it from where I was so I walked to another bridge behind the church to look from there and still couldn't see it. I never found the bridge, but looking back on my pictures I think if I had just gone down the river a little farther I might have found it, oh well.


Across the bridge in the other side of the town was more shopping, not really anything different, just more of the same. I did check out a bookstore and bought a kids books about a cat. I love it! I figured it would be easier for someone (Allyson) to translate, easier than Twilight or Coraline. After the bookstore I walked around a little more before going back to the train station to grab a bite to eat and catch an earlier train to Regensburg (Reagansburg). The cafe was cute, there was even a section in the cooler for "American drinks"! After a short wait I got on my train to Schwandorf where I would have to switch trains again to get to Regensburg. Problem. I tried to get on the Regensburg train when I got to Schwandorf but there was no one on it, and then some guy approaches me and tells me I have to get off, at least that's what I guess he was saying. So no onto plan b or whatever. I go inside the station and find when the next train to Regensburg arrives, not for another hour! Yuck. That really tempted me to just stay on the train and go back to Freising, but I was determined to check out Regensburg so the day wouldn't be a total waste.
So there I sat in the crappy Schwandorf bahnhof waiting until the train finally came and I got to Regensburg an hour later than I had wanted to. The main tourist area of the city is a bit of a walk from the station, and I was told that I could take the Aldstadt bus and use my Bavaria day pass (thanks Marissa!) so that's what I did, kinda. I don't really know exactly what bus I got on, I think it said something about Aldstadt, but I do know that we went a different way than the map showed at the bus stop. Whatever. So i hopped off when we got to the river incase it wasn't the right bus. It ended up working out for the best since I wanted to see the river and the famous bridge anyway, so why not just start there and work my way back? I walked about halfway across the pedestrian bridge to take in the view of the city from the river. Very Pretty, you could just see the tall gothic towers of the town cathedral. After that I made my way to the cathedral by following a few signs and checking my guidebook.


What an amazing church, it reminded me of St. Vitus in Prague and pictures of the cathedral in Barcelona that Gaudi designed. The architecture is so frothy it appears to be dripping cement. I went inside to check it out and to have a sit and look in my guidebook for the location of the ruins of a Roman city gate from 179AD. Well, I'm fairly certain the stupid guidebook was wrong because I went to exactly where it showed me on the map and there was nothing there. I was beginning to run out of time and I hate walking in circles, but I finally found it and it really wasn't much. Still cool to think about how old the city is though. After that mess I went to the bus stop outside the cathedral, but it turns out that I was on the wrong side of the street to catch the bus to the station. Of course. So there goes one bus I should have been on. I walk across the street and had to wait ten minutes for the next one to finally show. I have no idea what the purpose of that other bus stop with the same name as the stop I needed, but whatever. I still made it to the station with a little time to spare before my train arrived. I sat in a compartment with three other women and one I think got in trouble for not having the right ticket. I wish I could have understood the situation, but oh well. I had to wait a little while for Dad and his coworker to pick me up from the Freising station, but I didn't mind after all the waiting I had done today and that meant I didn't have to walk back in the dark and cold evening!

Sleepy day in Munich

Sunday October 18, 2009

Today we didn't do much. We slept pretty late, or at least I did, and then headed out around noon on a walk to the train station in Freising. It didn't take too long to get there and the station is a lot nicer than I thought it would be. We found the track for the S bahn line and then I had to figure out the German ticket machine. Yeah that was pretty difficult since I know like no German. But I figured something out and got a partner ticket for three zones. We had to wait quite a while for the next train, so I was playing with the ticket machine to see what I'll have to get for my travels the rest of the week. Then I realized that we didn't exactly have the right ticket since Freising is like four zones from Munich or something really confusing. So I bought another ticket to cover what we didn't have and soon after that our train showed up. It took pretty long to get into the city because of all the stops along the way, but we finally got to the Marienplatz which is the main tourist area of the city. Coming out of the subway it was so cold and wet, miserable. I was starving so we just headed to the first place we saw. The food and service was good, I had currywurst, and after that we walked around the pedestrian shopping areas. Everything was closed because it was Sunday so there was pretty much nothing to do. We stopped in a couple churches that I saw last time and then we found a starbucks. After that it started snowing, really wet yucky snow, so we decided to just give up and start heading back to Freising. We got down to the S bahn track but there weren't any trains listed going to Freising, so we took a train on the same line going the opposite way thinking we could just ride it until it turned around. Yeah, apparently you couldn't do that on this train and some train guy yelled at us that we had to get off here. Oh well, at least the next train to Freising was there right away, only it was two tracks away. So we had to quickly run down under the tracks and run up to the right track and jump on. Then we thought everything was fine till we find out that the train splits before Freising and the back half goes to the airport. Of course we're on the back half, so at the last stop before the split we had to get off and run to the front section and get on, while everyone with luggage ran to the back. We finally got back to Freising and walked around downtown a bit before heading back to the hotel. It's a cute town that seems to have a lot going on, too bad nothing is open on Sunday! So we go back to the hotel and just veg out for a bit. Then Dad's coworker Mike arrives and our group goes to dinner at some place off the town square. I guess that's about it, didn't really do much today, just trying to get the lay of the land so hopefully I'll be able to understand what's going on tomorrow when I have to go it alone...

This is something I have to do for myself

Saturday October 17, 2009

First of all KLM is one of the nicest airlines I have ever flown. The best part, besides awesome layover in Amsterdam the Venice of the north, is each personal tv comes with a little remote so you're not forced to watch whatever tv/movie is on the 3 to 4 movie channels they give you. So you get to pick your movie or show and start it whenever you want. And you get to pause and rewind/fastforward just like a dvr! Best thing ever. Why don't all international planes have this feature?? One more thing about KLM, the food is just ok but reminded me of ikea. yuck.

Alright, so flight was good. I actually slept most of the way like I wanted to so I would be able to function in the city. Side note: they sure like to drink on this airline. They kept pushing beer, wine, and after dinner bailey's shots haha. We landed early, about 7am and I made my way to the arrivals area for passport control which was a total joke. No line, took about 1 minute. The guy was cute though, and told me Centraal was just 15 min away on the train and I should be back in no time when I told him I was just here on a layover to see the Anne Frank Huis. Thanks rando Dutch guy. After that was baggage claim, which was easy since I had none, and then I just walked through a door that said nothing to claim and I was out into a train station. The train station part of Schipol is huge and open with lots of shops and people all over. There were little machines that you could get tickets from but I went over to the huge ticket booths and bought mine from a person. I just wanted to make super sure I was getting the right ticket and headed to the right platform; not like it even matter because no one ever asked to see a ticket from me. So a few minutes after I go down to the tracks the train gets there, and its a double decker...umm, awesome! The doors open to a little platform and you can either go upstairs or down to two different seating areas. It was really nice for a little 15 minute train ride, you really get your 7 euro worth haha. Next stop was Centraal station Amsterdam.

Walking out of central was little scary. It wasn't at all crowded yet, with what I hear to be beggars and drug pushers, but the sun had barely started to rise and the area around the station was under construction. So it was hard to gain my bearings, but I just followed a few people and ended up on Damrak, the main tourist street in the city. And this is where I got a little lost. I decided to go to Anne Frank first since it was the most important thing to me, and I heard the line gets super long if you wait too late. So I was just walking down Damrak looking for something bigger than a tiny/scary alley to cross over to the outer canal rings where the house is. After a while I reach the Dam Square and there was a carnival set up, probably is super cute at night. I decided then to turn right down a street bigger than an alley but after walking it for a few minutes I began to wonder why it's talking so long. So i turned up a canal to an even bigger street I could see straight ahead that looked super busy, always a good sign. I was right, the Westerkirk Church was right up on the corner and Anne Frank is like next door to the church!


Feeling accomplished I sat down on a little bench outside the church to look at my map and see what went wrong...I just went too far south on Damrak. I should have turned at another street that was hidden by the stupid carnival set up. Oh well. So I walked up the block to Anne Frank and there were already people in line, and it was 30 minutes before it opened! I wandered up the street a little and took a few photographs before settling into the line behind them. The people in front of me were in Ams on a layover as well, on their way home to New Jersey from Africa. It rained a little off and on until the house opened, and the line was pretty deep behind me. The museum is awesome. You start in the warehouse and offices and then make your way up to the secret annex. It's a self guided tour, but there is so much to read, watch, and look at. Something I really liked about the museum were the quotes from Anne's diary on the wall that pertained to whatever was on exhibit in that room. After going through all the office rooms and up some steep stairs it was time to go behind the moveable staircase and up to the annex. The stairs up were extremely steep and very tiny and led to what was Anne's parents and sister's room. Otto Frank, Anne's dad kept a map of Normandy on the wall and tracked attacks made in the war, and he marked Anne and her sister Margot's height as they grew in the annex. The next room is Anne's that she shared with the dentist. The walls are still covered with all the photos and postcared she put up to make living there more bearable. Being in her room where she sat at her desk and wrote her diary was unreal. Up another set of stairs, again unbelieveably steep, narrow and tiny, was the main room/kitchen of the apartment which was also room to the Van Pels. Their son Peter lived in the stairwell to the attic next to their room. After leaving the annex and finding out the fates of all who lived there, they have Anne's actual diary on display. Anne had plans to turn her diary into a novel after the war, so there is a section in the diary room where you can see revisions she had typed up in preparation for publication. Another cool part of the museum is right at the end there is Shelly Winters Oscar she won for her portrayal of Mrs. Van Pels in the movie based on Anne Frank's diary. She told Otto that she would give it to the museum if she won, and she actually did. Leaving the museum and walking past the front of the little brownstone that contains the secret annex, you can't help but look at the canal and think about the face that this is the last thing Anne saw of Amsterdam as she was being taken from her hiding place to Auschwtiz.


On that note it started to rain. Of course I didn't put my umbrella in my carry on bag, wasn't sure if it could come through security, so I put the hood up on my jacket and headed back to the main part of the city. A few times it really started pouring so i hid under store overhangs until it let up. At one point I ran into the people from New Jersey, it was funny seeing familiar faces in a city where you know no one. Eventually it stopped raining and I turned a few corners and found the cat boat!


De Poezenboot is a house boat on the Singel canal that gives refuge to stray cats in the city. I'm guessing there are a lot because I saw two earlier at the church next to Anne Frank Huis. I didn't see any cats in the boat, but I just had to go check it out. You can even go inside and play with the cats, but I wasn't there the right day. By then I was feeling pretty tired but it was only like 10:30, so I made my way back to Damrak. I had to take a few scary alleys, that probably aren't so scary as I think they are, but I made it to one of the main pedestrian shopping streets which was super crowded by now. I checked out a few stores, but I still wasn't feeling great so I continued to Damrak and then it started randomly hailing/sleeting. I had just crossed the street behind this tram and I thought it was just the tram kicking up rocks, it took a minute to realize it wasn't.


It only lasted a minute and I made it back to Damrak where I saw a bunch of canal tour places. I picked one at random because it was fairly cheap and looked like it was about to leave. I thought this would be a great way to see more of the city and kill some time. It was alright. I got a window seat but my window couldn't slide open so a lot of my photos have a glare. The tour went around the main canal of the city and pointed out many interesting sites, we even went by the cat boat! It was a round trip so at the end we were brought back to Damrak and I decided to just go back to Schiphol.


This time Central was much more crowded, but I was able to look at the boards and find my platform right away. The train came not much later and I hopped on like a pro. I started a conversation with the lady sitting across from me, i figured she was doing a layover like me since she was looking at a boarding pass. She thought I was European haha! We talked a little bit about where she was from (Seattle), where she was going (Dusseldorf, Germany) and how this was her first time overseas. We split up at the Schiphol train station because she had to go find the locker she had stored her carryon bag. Security wasn't too bad, and I didn't have to go through passport control since I was just going to Munich. Ummm, ok whatever. Dad and I landed in Munich around the same time, met up and caught a cab to the hotel. We planned on walking around after dinner but it was super busy and took too long and we were exhausted after the trip so it was time for bed.


***sorry this is sooooo long, and it took even longer for me to type up! I might not get another one done before I get back, but eventually I'll post all my entries...***

6 months lata

So here we are, six months after my first journey to Europe, although it feels like years ago, and I am preparing to do it all again. The whole thing is pretty spur of the moment, I bought my ticket like a month before I was scheduled to leave, and here I am a little over a week before I board a plane and hop over the pond back to the motherland. I decided to go because my dad will be going over for business, and this way I can go and get out of paying for a hotel! The type A personality in me has everything pretty well planned out, so here is a little preview of what you'll be reading/seeing in my blog while I am overseas......


8 hour layover in Amsterdam

train day trips to Lindau Amberg Regensburg and Salzburg

and of course a full day or two in Munich! Even though I was just there in March, there is still plenty to see and do, and you know I love just sitting on a bench and people watching :)

dad and I will be staying in Freising, a little town just north of Munich with the oldest brewery in the world!

the great thing about Germany/Bavaria is the Bayern Ticket. It's like a day pass to ride any regional train in Bavaria (Bayern) for only 20 Euros! That's how I'll be getting around to anywhere outside Munich, I hope it's not too confusing haha.

guess that's all....wish me luck!

Jenny


ps...this time around I am determined to buy a swatch of felt from the felt store! We saw the store back in March and I stepped in and snapped a pic and I must get some this time. Not sure what I will be doing with the felt, but I love that only in Germany is there an entire store devoted to felt haha!

The surreal life/it was all a dream

Friday March 27, 2009
I truly can not believe that we have already been back from our European vacation for a week already. Going back to “real life” was hard at first, but the routine is getting easier now that we are a week out. It really feels like the whole trip was just a dream and that we never left and came back. I hate how I felt so stressed and unprepared before the trip and so I kept telling myself it’s only a week; I wish i would have like calmed down and enjoyed the whole experience more. Not to say that I didn’t, because I certainly did have a great time, but I know that it could have been even better. I guess that is what return trips to Europe are for! At least with this trip all we had to do was show up, and I think I miss that the most! Being told what time you had to be somewhere, not having to worry about breakfast and dinner, always having transportation, and knowledgeable guides to show you around the city.

Once we actually got the hang of the trip it was relatively stress free, at least for me haha. I really miss seeing most of the people everyday. Most, not all haha. Some of those people I can certainly do without seeing for a long time! We were very fortunate in that we had an excellent driver and tour director. They really went above and beyond what I think was considered their job requirements, and our tour was so much better because of that. And the kids! I would have never thought before going on this trip that I could have so much fun with people 5+ years younger than me, but I did. It just feels so strange to me to be friends with people who aren’t as independent as my older friends. Oh well, maybe the group will have a reunion or something, but I know it won’t be the same. It’s just like with my Hong Kong group. Once you leave the crazy living together, sleep deprived, foreign bubble, the group’s not as tight when you see each other after returning. Its funny what happens when you go on big trips with a group or people you don't know too well. You end up banding together and becoming friends with and meeting people you would have never talked to normally because the situation is special and calls for it. Then you come back and it’s just not the same. Ok enough with the Debbie Downer moment!

The trip was amazing and I can’t wait to go back someday. I would really love to go back and explore more of Eastern Europe like we did on this trip, like Poland, Hungary, and Austria. The most fascinating aspect of these countries is all their recent history with World War II and communism. I think that even though I didn’t love it at first, Berlin was one of my favorite places on the trip. I definitely feel like I need to go back there and explore it more. Prague of course was amazing and I would go back there in a heartbeat. There was so much more to see in that city! Munich was lovely, but I feel like I saw pretty much everything I wanted to. I would go back of course, but I would plan on spending more time in other places. There is way too much to do and see and never enough time or money!Well, I guess that brings my little email blogs to an end for now. I’m working on making a movie thing using some of our pics and German music of course as well as a book with select photos to show everyone. But really, you just gotta go there to fully understand it! Next trip: hopefully back to Asia! I love that I am now able to compare Asia and Europe, and appreciate each for their pros and cons. I’ll have to get back to you on which I prefer haha!