Heads-up: This is a near-transcript of the written journal I kept while traveling, edited to avoid becoming a small novel. Saturday, 04 December 2010 I'm writing this en route via the A2 from Düsseldorf to Berlin. So weird! Jennifer and I are having a superpuente in Germany right now. We arrived late Thursday night in Weeze and two of her friends, Mohammed and Edin, picked us up at the airport and drove us into town to our hostel. We met two other Americans at Barajas who were also on our flight, and they ended up catching a ride with us and staying at our hostel as well. Jen's friends took us out for really delicious kebabs and walked around with us the first night.
On Friday, Jennifer and I walked around Düsseldorf a little and had our first glühwein (mulled wine) in one of the many Christmas markets. The wine was good but extremely sweet and strong... I guess that's how the Germans stay warm in the winter! Later that day Mohammed and their other friend Selcuk met us at the train station in Düsseldorf and took us on a quick trip to Cologne, or Köln, which I really liked. The Dom, a large cathedral, was incredible! It was ancient and beautiful and we fortunately got to take a walk through it before passing through a Christmas market (of course) and walking along the Rhine river. We only spent the evening there before heading back to book another night at our hostel and go into the Altstadt, or old town section of Düsseldorf. This area was so alive!
The rest of town seemed to disappear after sunset, but after walking through a ridiculous shopping district full of designer storefronts, the bars in this area couldn't seem to contain the partygoers. It was also very beautifully lit for Christmas, as seems to be the norm around here. Mohammed insisted that we try the pizza from a place called Lupo in the Altstadt because the Lonely Planet guidebooks say it's the best in town. It was good, but we all split a pizza with grilled tuna on it so of course I couldn't fully enjoy it... blech. Once through the Altstadt we walked along the river to the big TV tower in the harbor. We went up the very fast elevator to the observation deck--168m high--before having a seat in the cafe upstairs. I enjoyed a very rich hot chocolate while the four of us sat and talked, admiring the nighttime view of the city. Jennifer's friends were so nice and fun to hang out with, and it really helped that they were from Germany! Mohammed got us set up with a rideshare from Düsseldorf to Berlin (where I am currently writing) so we are currently in the backseat of a car with an adorable Russian couple on their way to visit their daughter in ballet school. Apparently public transport across state lines in Germany is extremely expensive, so the rideshare program here is really effective and ridiculously cheap--we're only paying 30 euros each to take a trip that would have cost about 100 each by train.
Oh yeah, the hostel in Düsseldorf, Backpackers Hostel, was great. Highly recommended for being cheap, clean, and a small breakfast included in the price helps! It was super comfortable, too. The beds were bigger than my bed in my piso and even the common areas felt like a friend's house. The funny thing was that a group of Spanish girls were staying in the room next to us, so when I woke up I could hear Spanish through the walls... very confusing. What's even more confusing at this point is how much German I already know, without knowing I knew it! (uy) Somehow I'm seeing and hearing words around town and I know what they mean... not just the ones that are obviously similar to English. Maybe it's time to learn German! 220km left to Berlin! Apparently the Russian guy is a guitarist and writes for a German guitar magazine. That's cool. He got really excited when I said I knew some guitar. Okay, we've arrived! Berlin is much colder than expected... and I think we were spoiled by the last hostel because this one is not nearly as cozy. After checking in, we made the very cold trek down our street, Schönhauser Allee, to have some lunch (rutabaga & beef soup) and later walk to Alexanderplatz to experience, what else, another Christmas market! We had another glühwein and our first bratwursts of the trip... yum. The main drawback of this part of the trip is that the two metro stops nearest our hostel are currently under construction, so we have to take a very crowded bus from the next nearest metro or walk about 20 minutes in the freezing Berlin air... as I write this, it's -5 C outside. Brrr!!
Monday, 06 December 2010 Yesterday was so busy! We saw pretty much every touristy thing Berlin has to offer: the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial, and more.
On top of that we visited one of the bars that the Lonely Planet called a hangout for "punks, rockers, and other leather-clad folks" and I had a really tasty Czech beer called Staropramer Schwarz. One German guy working near Potsdamer Platz suggested that we check out the Kreuzberg neighborhood, so we went out that way and ate some pizza because we're still on Spanish time and 3pm is not German lunch time. Also, the 4pm sunset is really messing with me. After pizza we decided to stop into a dive to see what kind of beers were on tap, and wow was that an experience. It was the towniest of all townie bars, with the strangest mix of characters I've ever seen. The bartender looked like a 25 year-old Spanish guy, to our right was a old man falling asleep in his beer mug, and to the left was an old man dressed as a woman, but not doing a very good job at it. There was also a drunk woman dancing around the bar who at one point put her arms around me and Jennifer and asked us what our names were (in German) and we gave her Spanish names and spoke Spanish to each other because pretty much everyone in Germany speaks perfect English. When we left, the bartender said "hasta luego."
Now I'm sitting in a small restaurant somewhere near Friedrichstrasse. We just ordered lunch and made a poor mistake of ordering beers because they had red and green attached to their names, but they taste like cherry and apple flavored candies, respectively. Yikes. The couple at the table next to us just asked where we were from because they heard us speaking English and it turns out that they're from New Jersey and have the same travel plan as us so far--started from Düsseldorf, came to Berlin, and next heading to Prague. Funny!
After "lunch" we ran into another Christmas market. Hah. We took some photos and headed back to our hostel to pick up our bags before meeting our ride to Prague... but unfortunately I missed a text from him earlier in the day saying he'd had a car accident and wouldn't be driving to Prague. Ugh! In true Amazing Race style, I got on the computer and saw that there was a train leaving for Prague in about an hour and a half... so we took off for the main train station, bought some sandwiches and got our painful 60 euro train tickets (the ride would have only been 20) to Prague. So now I'm sitting on the train. It's freezing in here!
We'll be getting into Prague in about five hours, just past midnight, to begin our quick stop in the Czech Republic. I've really enjoyed Germany so far. Most of the people have been helpful when we needed it and there is just so much history everywhere that it's hard not to be fascinated. It is a strange feeling to be away from Madrid, even though I've only been gone a few days. I wonder if I'll feel relieved when we get back, like I'm going back home. When I think about it now, it feels like I'm away from home, but when I'm in Madrid I don't feel that way. It's incredible to think about what I'm up to... that Madrid feels like home after not even three months, but I still can't believe I am really living there! What am I doing there? What am I doing, speaking another language fluently enough to make friends and do everyday things... even now, our train sits at a stop in Dresden, Germany... what am I doing in Dresden? How did I end up on a random ten-day vacation in some European country? Sometimes I just can't believe this is where my life has gone, but I am so happy that it did.
Tuesday, 07 December 2010 First impressions of Prague: wow. This place is beautiful! Our hostel here is nice but it seems to have the same effect as the hotel mom and I had in DC... super-modern looking with tons of interesting and unique features, but that's about it. But it was super cheap! This morning Jennifer and I had a small breakfast in a cafe nearby before walking toward the river and seeing the Dancing Building. I am just floored by how ornate everything is here, from the architecture to the stones that make up the sidewalks.
We continued along the river until we reached the Charles Bridge which I guess is only famous because it is pedestrianized and has lots of morbid religious stuff on it. But still we crossed it and took pictures because it was very beautiful and found a small Christmas market (imagine that!) and tried the Czech version of mulled wine... spoiler alert! It tastes the same, just has a cooler name: svařák. We climbed through the Malá Strana neighborhood up to Prague Castle where we enjoyed some really nice views of the city and happened to arrive just in time to see the changing of the guard. It was nothing fancy but still nice to see. We decided not to pay the 350 Czech crowns to get in (about 14,50 euros) and instead walked around the neighborhood and back down the hills to have a tasty Czech lunch of beef goulash and potato dumplings, and the best part... a cold, fresh Pilsner Urquell. Fantastic.
Our after-lunch walk took us to the Old Town square where there was, of course, a Christmas market. Then we walked through an expensive shopping area with stores like Gucci and Hermes before going back to the hostel to warm up. We ended up chatting with one of the people staying in our room and then the three of us went out for a drink nearby. A girl working at the hostel recommended a bar nearby called U Sudu, which my friend Maggie also recommended! It was really cool inside. I think there were a total of three bars within this one, all connected by a network of caves and tunnels. A tiny puppy ran around the room we chose.We left to get something to eat and ended up having bratwurst at a stand near the bar that played hilariously bad American Christmas music. After that I suggested we try this bar that I saw on Three Sheets that just happened to be across the street from our hostel. It was an absinthe bar called Absinthe Time, with a huge menu of just absinthes before getting to the other drinks. We asked the bartender what she suggested and we ordered from her suggestions and had it prepared with fire, which is apparently the Czech way. I have to say, I didn't hate it! The fire melted sugar into the absinthe and made it bearable... in very small sips.
Thursday, 09 Dec 2010 On a train again... this one is super bumpy and old. Our second day in Prague was nice, but I am pretty sure we saw nearly everything there is to see on day one, so day two wasn't very eventful. Another rideshare fell through, ugh! This situation was so strange... the guy asked us to meet at one hotel at 6pm, but on the day of he asked if we wanted to leave earlier in the day. We agreed, having seen pretty much all of Prague twice, only to discover that 15 minutes before the time we were supposed to meet him, he'd emailed me asking to change locations to the other side of town. Of course we were on our way to meet at one place so I couldn't have possibly checked my email... irritating. We ended up going to the train station to find out we'd have to pay another 55 euros for a train ticket that wasn't leaving until the next morning, so we went back to our hostel to book one more night and leave early the next day. Jennifer and I took what remained of our Czech money and went for some beers to ease our irritation. We met some really weird kids in the bar at our hostel, too... one girl claiming to be Russian who grew up in DC but now lives in Prague, some other guy from Brooklyn who allegedly plays poker for a living and just travels around looking for tournaments, and another super weird 17 year-old kid from India who went to American schools... sure. Oh! and this morning our train was delayed 35 minutes and apparently we have to change trains once we arrive in Plzen. Uyyy.
Saturday, 11 Dec 2010 So much has happened! Our train from Prague to Munich was such a mess. We sat on the train with a bunch of other Americans who were super nice and entertaining, so it helped pass the time as our train made multiple stops and kept going backwards and just uuuf. When we finally arrived in Munich I felt so relieved. Czech is just so confusing! Our hostel in Munich was also only about five blocks from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) so we finally felt like everything was working out again. The hostel was okay... no perks and not very clean, but at least our roommates were nice. After arriving in Munich we walked to the city center and ate a really delicious dinner at the Bayerischer Donisl. It was amazing... Jen had turkey schnitzel and I had pork with potatoes.
After dinner we walked a bit more and eventually found the Hofbrauhaus... or beer mecca! There were loads of tables full of people eating and drinking giant liter mugs of delicious German beer, all with a typical German band playing in the middle of the room. The problem was just how full the place was. We walked through the entire place looking for a spot, preferably not with old people who probably didn't want to talk to us, and we decided (with a bit of uneasiness on my part) to sit at a table with a bunch of younger-looking guys... but one was passed out on the table, hence my discomfort. They, of course, welcomed us to their table. Two were German, both named Martin, one passed out, one Swiss guy, one Maltese guy named Etienne, and one American guy named Chris who lived in Switzerland. They were nice and everything was fine until Pass Out Martin woke up and started banging his head and fists against the table and glared around the room. Over the course of the evening he slept with his head on the table, lying on the bench, and eventually under the table for a minute. At one point the waiter came by and told him he had to leave, so when he left his friends told him to sleep under the table and later told the waiter that he'd left. Terrible idea. Pass Out Martin was so belligerently drunk that he tried to stand up under the table so of course the waiter noticed that the table was moving and had to bring over the boss and they had a long chat and eventually the two Martins left. So we thought. Somehow they found their way back in without getting caught and sat back down with us, but then they both started falling asleep! The boss guy told them they had two minutes to leave and somehow they actually left and didn't come back. Who knows what happened to them? Then the Swiss guy left, and it was just me, Jennifer, and Chris and Etienne. We decided we wanted to go for another drink, but maybe not a full liter, so we left and went to a hip-looking bar where Chris bought us all some dunkelweiss beers. Not my favorite, but still nice to try. At one point we got into a conversation with two girls at the table next to us only to discover that one of them was from Madrid! Finally, I got to speak Spanish again! The weirdest part was that the two girls were also staying our hostel... and in our room! Crazy!
Friday morning we went to the concentration camp memorial at Dachau. The exhibit was incredible. There was so much information about all sides of the war, from estimated numbers of those who died in Dachau vs the registered numbers, some old Nazi propaganda, flyers, articles, etc. We walked through barracks and the main hall and kitchen area, in the square where there was a daily roll call, and around the perimeter to the crematoriums. We walked through the "showers" which were of course the gas chambers. It was pretty terrifying to know that I was standing in a room where thousands of people died. We walked through a room that used to house dead bodies before cremation. I passed a wall that was used for shooting lineups.
Most importantly, I did something that so many innocent people never got to do: I walked out of Dachau the same way I came in, through a gate marked "Arbeit Macht Frei," and I did it alive and unscathed, though a bit shaken. Dachau was an incredible, almost surreal experience. What happened during the Holocaust always seemed so far from me, so before my time and my culture and the life that I know, but going there and seeing all of that just made it so much more real and terrifying.
After a few hours in Dachau we went back to Munich and had another delicious German meal at a place called Augustiner. I tried veal meatballs (!) with potatoes and veggies. After another "lunch" we went to the hostel to get our lives together for today and tried to set up a rideshare to Frankfurt. The very very very helpful girl working at the hostel made phone calls for us and found us a ride! We rode the high of that success all the way to the Paulaner Brauhaus where I had probably the freshest beer ever. Delicious.
This morning we didn't have much time before our ride so we had a small breakfast at a nearby bakery and went to meet our ride. They didn't show up right away so of course we panicked a little, but they did eventually get there! So now I'm in the car to Frankfurt. Our drivers this time are two sisters in their mid-twenties who said they used to do the rideshare a lot and they really love the experience. They're really nice. Too bad not all the drivers along the way were like this! We should be arriving in Frankfurt in about an hour and then it's our last night in Germany!
Okay, now I'm in the hostel in Frankfurt. This place is pretty cool, in a really old building on a pedestrian square right across the street from the main train station. The room is nothing spectacular, but of course there are four Spanish people in our room! The hostel bar has a piano in it and someone is playing "Winter Wonderland" right now. We just got back from seeing all of "old" Frankfurt and my favorite Christmas market of the trip! There was a brass band on a rooftop playing Christmas songs... so wonderful. Other than that, Frankfurt is so commercial!
Skyscrapers and financial buildings are everywhere. But, more on the Christmas market: I had schnitzel, finally, and loved it. It was on a bun so I don't think I'll be hungry for days. We also tried Apfelweine, which was good and mostly tasted like green apple cider, but later we had winter-apfel schnapse and it was just spectacular. It was a warm shot of the schnapse and it tasted like hot spiced cider. If only airlines didn't have stupid liquid restrictions, I would have bought a bottle of it. After seeing pretty much everything in Frankfurt, we walked along the river for a little while before coming back to the hostel and being bothered by some weird dude in the bar.
Sunday, 12 December 2010 The weird guy kept bugging us for a while, and after talking with the Spanish folks in our room, the girl said she'd noticed him bothering every girl in the hostel. At one point last night some old guy came in the room claiming I'd stolen his bed, but I explained that there was nothing on or near the bed to indicate that it was taken, and he went on some rant about how people steal things if you leave them, blah blah blah, he went and complained and they just gave him another room. Hah. I didn't sleep well because people kept going in and out of the room all night and I had to get up early, which is always how it goes. The best part about our hostel, however, was that it was right next to the train station where we needed to catch a bus to the airport this morning. Fortune smiled upon us again as Jennifer and I managed to buy the last two tickets on this bus for the jump seats right up front. We got to the airport with enough time for check-in and breakfast and no problems getting on with our backpacks.
Traveling was fun but I'm very glad to be going back to my slow-paced, relaxing life in Spain.