Germany - Munich

We arrived in Munich on July 10th at 6am - after another night train! We had a compartment with 6 seats and at first only 3 of them were occupied.  We sat back, relaxed and thought to ourselves, "This could be a pretty good night train with only half of the comparment occupied.  We have plenty of space to stretch out and snooze."  After about an hour of travelling, our fellow passenger left and it was just us 2.

Well, as time went on, the scenario changed. At about 1am, we were awoken from our light sleep as 4 teenagers were placed in our compartment.  They then began to talk amongst themselves (with outdoor voices) when it was obvious we were sleeping before they entered.  Typically with night trains, you have to make a reservation and we knew that only 4 of the 6 seats were reserved (2 belonging to us and 2 belonging to other people who would join the train later on throughout the night).  These teens didn't have reservations and were part of a school trip, so one of the train attendants shoved 2 of them in our compartment (as 4 of the seats had reservations).  As soon as the attendant left, the teens brought in 2 of their friends for a full cabin filled with chatter and giggles at 1am!

After about an hour or so, the kids began to get sleepy and one soon rested her head on my arm. I thought, "Hmm...Do I gently nudge her head back off my body or just let it be?"  I decided to just let it be - yes, sometimes I can be that nice :)  I swallowed up the discomfort and added body heat and just let it be. 

At about 3am, the people (an elderly couple) who had reservations for the other 2 seats entered the compartment.  Wow, I've never seen people move so fast. The teens jumped from their seats and without question, all 4 left the compartment.  The elderly couple got settled in and we tried to sleep once again.  I think in total, I had about 1 hour of sleep on that night train. Between the teenagers chatting, the movement between people and the elderly man attending to what I think was a weak bladder every 30 minutes, I was pretty thankful that I was off the train at 6am.

On to Munich! Finally, we had arrived and we were in desperate need to freshen up.  For €1, we could use the bathrooms at the train station and this time I paid it, as I wanted to wash my face, brush my teeth and use the toilets. Being in Europe, I haven't had to pay too often to use the bathrooms.  In most of the train stations what I have done is enter a train that's on the platform that isn't set to leave for at least 5 minutes and use their facilities, instead of paying at the station! Hee hee - keep that little secret between just us! It has saved me several Euros so far!  I do have a Eurail pass and basically I have an unlimited ticket to ride these trains, so I don't feel guilty. If the train were to depart with me on it, I would simply show my Eurail pass and I would be allowed to take the train.  If I didn't have the Eurail pass and was doing this, I'd hear guilty bells chiming in my head. Guilty, guilty, guilty! Not a nice sound.

After we freshened up, we locked up our luggage and went off to explore Munich. It was a Sunday morning and most shops and museums were closed (on Sundays in Europe, most things are closed. It truly is a day of rest). The streets were also relatively quiet as we were exploring so early, so we finished our itinerary quite quickly.  Here are some pics from Munich.

Glockenspiel

Glockenspiel up close

Inside the Hofbrahaus

Inside the Hofbrahaus - People have their own mugs locked up!

Theatinerkirche

Englisher Gardens

Surfing at Englisher Gardens - this was really cool to watch!

Residenz

Well - that was our morning/afternoon in Munich. We then boarded another train for Dusseldorf where we slept at the airport overnight as we had a 6:3am flight to Bilbao, Spain. 

Hungary - Budapest

We left Vienna for Budapest on July 8th. When we got off our train, we instantly felt the heat! It was like 35C plus humidity. It felt even hotter for us with our big packs on our backs, our day pack on our front and then being crammed into a city bus that was overflowing with people - an experience I won't forget!

Remember how I said I loved Prague in a previous post?  Well, add Budapest to the list of my all-time favourite cities. Budapest is gorgeous and I can't wait to return. The more I explored Budapest, the more I fell in love with the city.

Budapest is actually divided into 2 regions: Buda and Pest. The west bank of the Danube is Buda (and is quite hilly) and the east bank is Pest (which is flat). Our hostel was located on the Pest side.

We did a lot of walking in Budapest on July 9th in the 40C plus humidity weather.  So much so that I began to develop what I self-diagnosed as a heat rash on my legs. Upon further googling, it seems that it could have been photodermatitis as well.  Oh well, it's practically gone now :)  I'd post a photo, but it was gross looking!

We started off the day by going to Heroes Square to see the Hosok Tere (Millenium Monument). Near the square, we visited the city park which had an art museum, art palace, Vajdahunyd Castle (which is really a building located on an artifical lake...doesn't look like much of a castle).  We also walked by the Széchenyi Bath - Hungary is known for their thermal baths and on my next visit to Budapest, I'm having a spa day.

Heroes Square

City Park

Széchenyi Bath

We then headed to Margareta Island, an oasis between Buda and Pest, on the river Danube.  It's a huge park with beautiful fountains, flowers, trees, a mini zoo and 2 large pools.  We enjoyed our walk on the island as there were plenty of trees that provided a welcome relief from the sun.

This fountain on Margereta Island was well used. Kids and adults alike played in the water to cool down from the beating sun.

As morning turned into afternoon, the sun only got hotter!  With sweat beads rolling from our foreheads, we made our way over to the Buda side of town - steep hills & hot heat.
 
We ascended up a steep hill and many steps to reach Fisherman's Bastion, which is a monument located on Castle Hill.  Also on Castle Hill was Buda Castle - wow! Beautiful!  From Castle Hill, we had breath taking views of Parliament (gothic style building completed in 1902), the Danube, the bridges which connect Buda and Pest and the Pest side of town.

Church at Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

View of Parliament from Fisherman's Bastion

Enjoying the scenery!

Buda Castle

Buda Castle

More views of Pest from Fisherman's Bastion

Views of Buda, the Danube and Pest from Fisherman's Bastion

After taking in all the beautiful scenery, we walked along the Danube and headed back towards the Pest side. We walked by the famous food market (it was after 3pm so it was closed) and through the centre of town which had many shops and restaurants.  After exploring the city for over 10 hours by foot, we were exhausted and were looking forward to a cold shower and sleep.

Budapest was a beautiful city and I hope you guys all have a chance to go there one day! You won't regret it!

Next stop - Munich, Germany!

Austria - Vienna

We arrived in Vienna on July 7th just after 6am.  Thankfully we had beds on the train last night, but it was still uncomfortable nevertheless.  Another sleepless night :( I really wish I had taken a photo to show you how small the compartment was with 6 beds.  There was barely any room for our bodies, let alone our luggage. We were fortunate in that the top 2 beds were not reserved so Matt lifted my 20+ kg bag onto the top bunk.  The other two guests were only travelling for about a week and had little backpacks with them compared to our 65L and 70L packs, so that freed up a little space for them at least!

When we arrived at our hostel, it was too early to check in, but they did allow us to use the guest showers and boy did we need them! It felt so refreshing to be clean! After the shower, I took a snooze on the sofa in the lobby for a while and then we did some laundry.  Finally, we could check in.  We brought our stuff to our room and then headed out to tour Vienna.

This was my 2nd trip to Austria.  The first time I only went to Salzburg (in 2000) and thought Salzburg was great. I remember a giant market, the Mozart Square, Mozart chocolates and visiting the salt mines. Now, I was getting the chance to explore the capital city!

We started off by heading to the Museum Quarter which is exactly that - an area filled with museums, along with cafes and shops.  We then headed downtown where there were many more shops, monuments and fountains to be found.

Here are some pics from Vienna with brief descriptions below!

One of the museums in the Museum Quarter. Did you know that the Museum Quarter is the 8th largest cultural area in the entire world? LOL!

Hofburg - the Imperial Palace

Walking through the downtown sector of Vienna - beautiful!

Rathaus - Vienna's City Hall

Kunsthistorisches Museum a.k.a. Museum of Fine Arts

Schönbrunn Palace - One of the most important cultural monuments in Austria and is a major tourist attraction. There are gorgeous gardens behind the palace (but we were too exhausted to look....)

Instead of visiting the gardens at Schönbrunn Palace, we opted for Apfelstrudel at a cafe located on the grounds. It was pretty good and tasted like fresh apples and cinnamon and with very little sugar! I seriously love that about European bakeries - their products aren't coated with sugar inside and out. Despite being a "sweet", it has a savoury element.  I have the recipe for this strudel too! 

Later in the afternoon, we tried Wiener Schnitzel!  Here is a pic of mine, served at my request, with ketchup.

We visited some other sites as well in Vienna including the Naschmarkt and St. Stephen's Cathedral, but the above were the highlights of the day. Next stop - Budapest, Hungary!!

Poland - Auschwitz Concentration Camp and Krakow

After our awesome day in Prague, we headed back to our hostel to shower and catch the night train to Krakow, Poland.  This was our first experience with a night train and unfortunately it wasn't our last.  If you're a light sleeper like me, a night train is NOT for you! We weren't able to get beds on the train so we were in a 2nd class seated compartment that had seats assigned for 8 people (in 1st class, these compartments only have 6 seats...talk about getting cozy with your neighbour in 2nd class). Thankfully though, we only had 4 others join us.  These 4 others were all relatively tall guys with long legs from Paris who enjoyed looking at Playboy magazines throughout the night and enjoyed drinking and talking at all hours.  When they were ready to have a quick snooze, one guy left the compartment to sleep on the floor out front and the other guy slept on the floor in the compartment, so basically our feet were playing footsies with his feet throughout the night. In hindsight, I wish I had taken a photo, but in the moment all I wanted to do was close my eyes and have them stay shut.

After a long sleepless night on the train, we arrived in Krakow at about 7am.  We first had to find a bank to withdraw Polish Zlotychs, find the luggage storage at the train station and book our train or bus tickets to Auschwitz.  As it was 7am, no currency exchange places were open so we found a bank machine.  After we had some money in our pockets, we dropped off our luggage and bought train tickets for the 8:35am train that stops 2km away from Auschwitz.

We walked up to the train platform to await our train and as a train pulled up at 8:32am, we boarded it thinking the train would be on the platform for a few minutes and then take off at 8:35am.  I asked the train whistler blower (not sure what his title is, but he gets out on the platform and blows the whistle to say everyone has boarded the train and it's ok to depart) whether the train went to Auschwitz as the signs above displayed nothing.  He waved us on board and we hopped on.  As soon as we were on at 8:33am, the train departed and we looked at each other with facial expressions that read, "Oh crap!".  The train left 2 minutes early and in Europe, trains are relatively puntual. They might leave late, but never early.  We instantly realized we were on the wrong train! 

It took about 3-4 minutes to get to the next stop and we ran off the train, ran down the stairs and ran up the other flight of stairs to change platforms to go back to the main station.  We could hear a train pull up and we booted our butts to get on the train. After a quick glance at our watch, we knew we wouldn't make the 8:35am train. When we got back to the main station, we inquired when the next train would be and whether our train tickets would still be valid.  The next train was at 10:40am and no, our tickets were no longer valid.  Oh man!  We then decided our next best option would be to take the bus. 

We walked to the bus station and thankfully a bus was leaving at 9am.  We purchased our tickets from the driver and 1.5 hours later we were at the gates of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was an incredible experience.  I don't really know how to describe it.  I had been to Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany in 2000 and that was also an incredible experience, but Auschwitz was larger in scale and had some displays that were gut wrenching.  You felt sick to your stomach as the display brought to reality the severity and the scale of what happened some 60 years ago.

Our tour of Auschwitz started off with a short film and then we met with our tour guide.  We each wore a headset and our guide spoke ever so softly into her microphone and the sound was transmitted into our head phones.  I really don't know how to describe the day at Auschwitz. I felt so many different emotions and had so many thoughts that it's hard to describe coherently.  Instead, I'll just write down a few notes of what stands out about Auschwitz for me.

We toured both the original Auschwitz and Auschwitz II Birkenau camp. The latter was built after Auschwitz as Auschwitz quickly became too small. The sheer size of Auschwitz II Birkenau was enormous.  There were railway tracks that were built specifically to enter the camp so that those who came off the trains wouldn't see anything else but the camp itself.  The people who came into the camp were directed in one of 3 ways - two of them led directly to extermination and the other led to survival as they were deemed fit to work.  Also, some of those (mainly children) who were not sent directly to extermination were used as guinea pigs for medical experiements. I am not going to even go into detail about the type of medical experiments they were conducting.  Awful!

Entrance to Auschwitz

Actual gas canisters used for the gas chambers

The following photos show real items collected from those men, women and children who came to the concentration camp.

Various prosthesis

Suitcases

Shoes - there were rooms of women's shoes and children's shoes

Toothbrushes

These photos only show a close up on the items. The photo below shows how big the displays actually were. 

This was as much of the hallway I could get into my camera lens...but the hallway was longer. This room showcased women's shoes. Imagine giant hall ways with displays filled with personal items, suitcases, children's clothing, women's shoes, children's shoes, etc.  There was also a  room filled with hair.  Men, women and children all had their head shaved at the camp and I cannot even begin to describe the vast quantity of hair. It just made your heart feel instantly heavy and made your stomach want to pump back everything you ate for breakfast.  Sad....very sad. (Note: We were not permitted to take photos of the room with the hair).



This is where people were executed.

Crematorium

Toilets

Bunk beds in the barracks

Railway track built solely to enter the camp

The barracks

Memorial plaque in English.  There were plaques in about 20+ languages.

These are just some of the photos I took at Auschwitz and Auschwitz II Birkenau camps. I tried to pick ones that would emphasize the scale of the maddness that happened just a few decades ago. 

Krakow

On a lighter note, we visited Krakow in the evening.  We didn't get back into Krakow until about 5pm so our time was limited.  We ended up just walking to the main square and checking out the near vicinity.  Here are some photos from beautiful Krakow:

Street entertainment! I wonder how he's doing that?

Town Square

Well, that was our extremely busy and exhausting day in Poland. We left Poland close to 10pm and boarded our 2nd night train in a row en route to Vienna, Austria. 





Czech Republic - Prague

Before I even visited Prague, I knew I'd be in love with the city.  From pictures I had previously seen on TV, on the Internet and in guidebooks, I was already in love with the city.  When we arrived on the evening of July 4th, my thoughts were confirmed and as we started to discover the city on our own on July 5th, my feelings for Prague intensified. I LOVE this city.  I love its charm, its character, its pastel coloured buildings and red roofs, its cobble stone streets (although my feet didn't appreciate them after 10 hours of walking), the hills (yes, I loved the hills) and the breath taking views as I ascended up a new hill. I LOVE PRAGUE!

Our hostel was located in the perfect area of town called Mala Strana, meaning "Lesser Town". The area was filled with character and was charming! Not to mention, our hostel was beautiful.  If you are going to Prague and need a hostel to stay at, I highly recommend Little Quarter Hostel!

We started off our sightseeing by exploring the sights in our own neighbourhood.  We began by ascending up a gazillion stairs to get to the Castle. In Czech, they refer to the square as "Staromestske Namesti". The Castle was pretty and the views at the top of the stairs were incredible.

Ascending up the stairs to get to the Castle

Each time I see someone taking photos with an iPad, it brings a smile to my face as it looks absolutely ridiculous!

Ahh, beautiful Prague!

Stunning Prague!

The entrance to Prague Castle

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral - One of my favourite gothic cathedrals! The other being the cathedral in Koln, Germany

I love Prague!

Charles Bridge

Our hostel was located on the northside of Charles Bridge and the pictures above are from the sights we saw on the northside.  Once we were done seeing the northside, we crossed the famous Charles Bridge to reach the southside.

Charles Bridge is fascinating. It is a pedestrian only bridge and it was filled with people - tourists, vendors, musicians and artists.  The bridge has 30 finely chiseled sculptures and 2 towers located on either side.  Here is a pic of the bridge as we crossed it:

Here are some photos of the sights we saw on the southside of the bridge in the Old Town:

View from the bridge.

Walking the tourist filled streets

Tyn Church

Astronomical Clock

St. Niklaus Church

There are just a handful of photos that I have from Prague. I look forward to visiting this awesome city again in the future!