Grüß Graz

Leipzig was not my cup of tee so I caught an earlier train to Berlin today.

It was only a couple hours earlier than the train on my itinerary, but it was the first time during the trip that I did not follow the itinerary.

During the past six weeks, I have been itching to get to Berlin. While in Graz, I read the Berlin section in my "Lonely Planet: Germany" book 20 times in anticipation for this leg of my trip.

At 5 p.m. I finally arrived in Berlin. I got off the train at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station). The station was the coolest train station that I have ever seen. It is ultra modern with a great view of the Reichstag out the front entrance.

Although it took me a while to find the right city train, I eventually made it to my hostel in former East Berlin. The place is really nice, but I am in an eight-person dorm room on the second floor. It should be interesting.

Today was a long day. I am so tired after walking around Leipzig all day plus my adventures on the Berlin subway system. There are apparently some nice clubs around the corner from the hostel. I may check those out, but only after a nap.

Labels: Berlin, Leipzig

Schloss Neuschwanstein near Füssen, Germany

The past few days I took a time out of sorts from my crazy travel schedule. Instead of rushing off to see another huge city, I visited a friend in Kaufbeuren, Germany instead.

Last year in high school I did an exchange with a Gymnasium (like a high school) in Kaufbeuren. Each person was assigned a pen pal. We wrote the pen pal in German and they wrote back in English. In October 2005 the group from Germany came to Indiana for 10 days and stayed with the American pen pals. In March 2006 the group from America went to Germany for 10 days and stayed with the German pen pals.

It was kind of a neat exchange except I wish that I could have stayed longer. After the program I kept in contact with my friend, and came to visit her the last couple days.

Unfortunately my visit was again very short. It was bitter sweet because I got to see her and her family again, but then I had to leave after only about 48 hours with them.

Yesterday I went with my friend again to Schloss Neuschwanstein in southern Germany near the Austrian border. Instead of taking a tour of the castle again (I took one last year), we decided to instead visit nearby Schloss Hohenschwangau. This castle belonged to the father of the king who built Neuschwanstein. Although the outside is not as fancy as Neuschwanstein, it was very nice inside.

After our tour we hiked over to the Maria's bridge so I could get a good photo of Neuschwanstein.

It was nice to be able to get away from the big cities a bit and to visit my friend.

My friend had school today so I spent the morning walking around the Kaufbeuren with her mom. After school she met me in front of the Rathaus and we went to the train station with her mom.

I really did not want to get on the train because I wanted to stay a bit longer, but in the end I did. My first train was 14 minutes late so I had to wait an hour in Nuremberg for a train to Leipzig.

The train to Leipzig was a high-speed Inter City Express train that traveled at 140 miles-per-hour. It was really neat. The trip took about three hours, but I spent most of the time watching "Das Leben der Anderen" (also known in English as "The Lives of Others") to set the mood for Leipzig. The movie is about the Stasi, the infamous East German secret police.

I had been waiting to see the movie for months,and it was well worth it because it is a great movie. I was surprised how much of the Northern German I was able to understand.

I arrived to my hostel in Leipzig around 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow I will do some sightseeing in the city before taking my last train to Berlin around 5 p.m.

Labels: Kaufbeuren, Leipzig

The infamous Kehlsteinhaus, once owned by Hitler, is now a restaurant.


A view east through the Alps from Kehlstein.

Berchtesgaden was a very wet experience.

Monday I took a train from Venice to Villach, Austria then from Villach to Salzburg. In Salzburg I caught what I thought was the one-hour train to Berchtesgaden. The train only ran to Bad Reichenhall, a small town halfway between Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.

The train shutoff, the driver packed up for the night and got off the train. Everyone on the train had to go the rest of the way by bus. I still do not understand why the train quit running so early.

The bus ride was not bad, and I ended up arriving in Berchtesgaden earlier than I would have with the train. When we arrived, it was the rain storm of the century. Luckily my hotel was literally in sight of the bus stop, but I still got soaked running with my luggage to the hotel. To make matters worse, my umbrella broke in the midst of my 100 yard dash to the hotel door.

In the end the only thing that got really wet was my backpack. All my books got wet. The first order of business in the hotel room was to unpack my entire bag and open all the books to let them dry. In a way it looked as though I were cramming for a final with all the books laying open around my bed.

Despite the rough start, things got better when I got to the hotel. I stayed at the Hotel Bavaria, which oddly enough is not listed in the Lonely Planet guide. I found it a couple weeks ago searching on Google for something in Berchtesgaden. It was a great find. The place is actually more of a bed and breakfast than a hotel despite the name. The room was very nice, and I even had a private bathroom (unlike Venice).

The Eagle's Nest

Tuesday morning I grabbed my warm clothes and headed up Mount Kehlstein to visit the infamous Eagle's Nest. The Eagle's Nest was built by the National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) as a present for Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday. The house sets on top of a mountain in an area called Obersalzberg where all Hitler's cronies set up camp in the late 1930s.

Despite its infamous history, it has one of the best views in the world. From the Kehlsteinhaus, as it is known in German, I could see Berchtesgaden below and Salzburg, Austria in the distance. It was simply amazing. Although it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit on top of the mountain, I still had a great time just setting there and gazing into the valley below.

The best part is that the main room of the residence, where Hitler played host to foreign diplomats, is now a restaurant. It is funny to think that the room where that sad excuse for a human being once sat is now home to a restaurant full of tourists, many of whom are foreigners. The restaurant was good. I had a Wiener Schnitzel and a beer from the famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich.

I ended up staying at the house for around four hours before I caught a bus back down the mountain. Halfway down I visited the Dokumentation Obersalzburg, a museum that focuses on the forced Nazi takeover of the Obersalzberg area where they built their southern headquarters. It took me nearly three hours to go through the museum.

At the end of the museum is part of the underground bunker network constructed for the Nazi elite that is open to the public. It was very interesting especially since it was the first time I had ever been in a bunker.

I did not return to my hotel until 7 p.m. Unfortunately, Berchtesgaden as a city closes well before that time. I took a walk around the city after returning from Obersalzberg, but could not find anything open. I spent the rest of the day relaxing in my room or on the balcony which had a great view of the mountains.

Overall, Berchtesgaden was a good side trip. It was nice to be able to break up a trip full of big cities with a small city where I didn't constantly have one hand on my wallet and other on my camera.

Labels: Berchtesgaden

Today is kind of a bitter sweet day for me. Bitter because I am leaving Venice, one of the most beautiful and cultured cities in the world; but also sweet because I am heading to Bavaria (southern Germany) to Berchtesgaden.

Last night I went out and got some really nice photos of the sunset from Saint Mark's square. Up to that point I had been really frustrated with myself because I felt I had not taken anything good. That all changed last night. I got there at the perfect time to get some great sunset shots then I stuck around to get some after dark photos on the Grand Canal.

My mother told me the other day that she wants to frame a photo from my trip and put it up in our living room. I was kind of worried because I was not sure whether any shots were that good. The pressure is off now.

I am really looking forward to Berchtesgaden. It is a very historical city because it was the official retreat for the Nazi party during World War II. Atop Mount Kehlstein sets the famed "Eagle's Nest." The house was built as a birthday present for Hitler himself, but he rarely visited it because he was said to be afraid of heights.

Despite its past, the house is now only a restaurant with one of the world's greatest views. I am really looking forward to this as a chance to get away from the big cities that fill the rest of my itinerary. I hope to just relax a bit before I head up north to the big cities of Leipzig and Berlin.

Labels: Berchtesgaden, Venice

A night view of the Grand Canal as seen from the Rialto Bridge


A gondola sits docked across the harbor from the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore

Yesterday I arrived in Venice to begin my post-program travels.

The trip was only supposed to last around five hours, but thanks to the wonderfully on-time Italian railway workers it took six and a half hours. Apparently there had been a railway workers strike the night before and the delay had something to do with that. Nothing like setting at the Austrian-Italian border for an hour.

It was neat because I ran into a girl from the program when I went to change trains at Bruck an der Mur. She was taking the same train I was except she was getting off one station earlier to catch a train to Florance. We ended up riding in the same compartment, which made the long journey much more enjoyable.

My hotel is nice. My only complaint is that I had to lug my luggage up stairs to my room on the fourth floor. Other than that, it's a really nice place. It is literally around the corner from the train station, and a bunch of restaurants.

My room is literally a closet because it is a one-person private room without a bathroom. And I thought my dorm room freshman year would be the smallest room that I would ever sleep in!

Despite arriving an hour later than I thought I would, I was able to see a large portion of the city yesterday afternoon. I took a 6 Euro water bus from the train station to Saint Mark's square. It was definitely a good investment because it was more like a boat cruise than a bus trip.

After walking around a bit yesterday, I came back to the hotel and tried to take a nap. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my alarm clock for 8 p.m. so I did not get a chance to go take night scape photos. I ended up waking up at 2 a.m.

Today I got up at 8 a.m. and set off for a walk through the city. I bought a book yesterday with tour routes, but after seeing how expensive everything is here, I decided that I would not spend the day in museums. Instead, I decided to just wonder around the city a bit and try to get lost.

I did get lost, but not on purpose. After walking around most of the morning in 90-degree heat, I decided to head back to the hotel to get something to eat and possibly take a nap. I soon realized that Venice is perhaps the hardest city in the world to walk through. The book I bought yesterday came with a map, but it was not much help since the streets bend and twist all over the place.

Luckily, I eventually found a series of signs pointing back towards the train station, and I followed them back to my hotel.

Venice is really beautiful, but I will not be heartbroken when I leave tomorrow. I don't know any Italian so it has been a very interesting time to say the least. I regret not taking an Italian class at Indiana University last semester. It definitely would have helped.

That said, it is a really neat and historical city, and I still can't believe that I am actually here.

Labels: Venice