For the first time in ten days, every article of clothing that I am wearing is completely clean. Its amazing how much better the simple feeling of clean clothing, which still smells fresh from the wash, can make one feel. Besides that, I am dealing with a back pack that has decided its had enough and is barely making it through small journeys from the train to the bedside where its dropped for the night, a left foot with one of the most painful blisters I have ever experienced changing the layout of my pinky toe, and an agenda that is too big for the amount of time remaining on this trip.
That said, I have had a jam packed last week or so. Where to begin? Honestly it has been so long since I have blogged that I don’t recall where I left off.
How about Munich, what quickly became my favorite city in Germany. In Munich I spent 4 wonderful days with a gentleman named Michael who made sure to point out the best ways to see the area. We also left Munich for one day and drove to Venice, Italy. That’s right, I said Italy, crazy huh. Venice was a lot of fun, very cool sights and an incredibly interesting pubic transit system. Boats instead of a subway J Was actually really nice not to risk getting ran over by a mo-ped. Back to Munich, did you know Munich was Hilter’s favorite city in Germany? The area is beaming with history of that time. Within the city center, 4 structures serviced WWII, yet everything is being rebuilt to its original look.
Then after exploring the city, the following day I was fortunate enough to meet an ex co-worker from my time working at Target named Julie. We hung out and saw the Olympic stadium and enjoyed a great time in Munich. It was truly a pleasure getting to reconnect with an old friend in a foreign country, over amazing views and even better beer.
The following morning I jumped on a train to Berlin for a quick exploration of the city. However, upon arriving in the city I looked around for hostels about 3 hours and got lost more times then I could count due to construction on metro lines and no metro employees being sure of which stations were closed. Eventually, I discovered an interesting little hostel by the name of Helter Skelter hostel, which actually came recommended by a fellow traveler I met in the station. After checking in and getting situated for the evening, I set out to sight see. Even though the city is rather large, the general sights are relatively close together. The Jewish Memorial was incredibly touching, however getting into the Memorial was a little bit of a challenge. Their security discovered the pocket knife in my backpack, which I had forgotten about. They proceeded to ask me about it in German, so not only did I not remember that I had it but I also did not know what they were telling me. Getting yelled at in German in a Jewish memorial when all you can figure out with your limited German is that they were saying “weapon”. That’s a different experience. That said, the memorial itself was very touching, with the intent of memorializing the memory of every person killed during the holocaust. The project remains ongoing, with a system set up to add names or memoriam for any family members you may have had be touched by the great tragedy. After exploring, I headed back to the hostel and hung out with my roommates, a Canadian and two very interesting British girls, one of who could open beer bottles with her teeth. The next day the 4 of us explored more of the city before I grabbed a train to Prague for the evening.
