Thursday, January 6, 2011
back to reality
Sorry for the lack of posts to finish up our trip but we lost internet at Shane's place and we were not able to finish it up. I will finish up new years and our crazy travels home but being tossed back to reality means it might take a few days.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
If hell were a train ride this would be it!
After stumbling out of bed in a state of...well, lets just say it was not optimal for long day on multiple trains we forced ourselves to take showers and eat some of the hotel breakfast. We headed back over the the nearby train station that luckily really close to the hotel. Matt Shane and I basically crawled onto the early train only to find that it was insanely packed. We had this bright idea to take regional trains back to berlin and this was suppose to take only 3 hours longer than taking the high speed I.C.E. train. Morgan may have been the wise one here and took the ICE even though it cost more money because she had Syd to worry about and didnt want to have to change trains a bunch and carry him around and such. So anyways we saved 100 euro or about 130 bucks by not taking the ICE and thought we were soooo smart for doing this. Well, about half of germany was thinking the same thing and sardines we would become for the next 11 hours.
The first train ride was the longest and was about 4 hours. Unfortunately the only available seats on the whole train were in the dining car on a high table seat that was only had about 5 inces of butt space. Lets just say it was very uncomfortable and the fact that we were in a state of post drinking distress this first 4 hours was NOT good times.
After getting to the first station where we had to change trains we realized how many people were planning on doing the same thing and it was a few hundred. Oh and it was freezing cold outside and the train was running 25 minutes late due to “weather conditions” Well this sucked because this means we miss the connection we planned to get at the next stop. Realizing that we were maybe going to have to fight for a spot on the train we decided to get right up to the edge of the platform to hope that a door would happen to land right in front of use. Sure enough the 2 car train...yes, this regional train was only two frickin cars for 200 people and it was already practically full stopped with a door conveniently directly in front of us! Talk about a lucky break! We got on and about 150 people were not so lucky and lucky was totally relative too. We were soooo lucky that we got to stand in the isle.
As the trains changes continued the crowds became less and less. Train number three we will call “Beware of flying luggage.” We thought we were lucky when we got a small room with about 10 seats in it but turns out we were not so lucky we picked the only seats next to a group of german white trash guys that decided that it was best if they yell the entire train ride. To top it off they put a huge heavy bag in the rack above the seats but didn’t realize that it was too big to go up there and when the train turned a corner guess what flew off the rack and straight into my kidney...Yep, the luggage hence the name of this train ride. It hurt like hell and was almost like getting punched in the kidney but what could I really do so I just pushed the bag off me gave a look and then laid my head back on the table to try to get some sleep.
Before catching train number four we had about 45 minutes so we grabbed a quick bite to eat against my better judgement at McDonalds....Gross as usual but it was fast and stopped our stomachs from eating their own insides. Train number four was mellow and we shared a small room on the train with a girl named Matilda. Matilda was going to visit her boyfriend for Silvester (we learned that silvester is what the germans call new years eve and new years day is called new years). It was fun to hang out and talk about the german education system and how it compares to the US system for a little bit and how she is in school to become a doctor. This was a short train ride and soon enough we hopped out of train number four and practically ran across the platform to catch the fifth and final train back to berlin!
Since this change was at a small station the connecting train waited for us all to get on even though our previous train was a few minutes late. Train five was also a bit crowded but at least we all had seats and we were in the final 1 hour and 30 minutes of what turned out to be an 11 hour day of traveling back to berlin. Hey we did save around $130 bucks which was nice and all of our trains went through some seriously beautiful countryside. I think we were actually going a round about way to berlin through the german mountains.
We made it back to berlin grabbed a quick bite to eat at falafel UFO around the corner from Shane and Morgans place and then crashed out around midnight. We didnt get up until 10am and man oh man was that needed because it was now new years eve and we were in for a late night or should I say early morning!
The first train ride was the longest and was about 4 hours. Unfortunately the only available seats on the whole train were in the dining car on a high table seat that was only had about 5 inces of butt space. Lets just say it was very uncomfortable and the fact that we were in a state of post drinking distress this first 4 hours was NOT good times.
After getting to the first station where we had to change trains we realized how many people were planning on doing the same thing and it was a few hundred. Oh and it was freezing cold outside and the train was running 25 minutes late due to “weather conditions” Well this sucked because this means we miss the connection we planned to get at the next stop. Realizing that we were maybe going to have to fight for a spot on the train we decided to get right up to the edge of the platform to hope that a door would happen to land right in front of use. Sure enough the 2 car train...yes, this regional train was only two frickin cars for 200 people and it was already practically full stopped with a door conveniently directly in front of us! Talk about a lucky break! We got on and about 150 people were not so lucky and lucky was totally relative too. We were soooo lucky that we got to stand in the isle.
As the trains changes continued the crowds became less and less. Train number three we will call “Beware of flying luggage.” We thought we were lucky when we got a small room with about 10 seats in it but turns out we were not so lucky we picked the only seats next to a group of german white trash guys that decided that it was best if they yell the entire train ride. To top it off they put a huge heavy bag in the rack above the seats but didn’t realize that it was too big to go up there and when the train turned a corner guess what flew off the rack and straight into my kidney...Yep, the luggage hence the name of this train ride. It hurt like hell and was almost like getting punched in the kidney but what could I really do so I just pushed the bag off me gave a look and then laid my head back on the table to try to get some sleep.
Before catching train number four we had about 45 minutes so we grabbed a quick bite to eat against my better judgement at McDonalds....Gross as usual but it was fast and stopped our stomachs from eating their own insides. Train number four was mellow and we shared a small room on the train with a girl named Matilda. Matilda was going to visit her boyfriend for Silvester (we learned that silvester is what the germans call new years eve and new years day is called new years). It was fun to hang out and talk about the german education system and how it compares to the US system for a little bit and how she is in school to become a doctor. This was a short train ride and soon enough we hopped out of train number four and practically ran across the platform to catch the fifth and final train back to berlin!
Since this change was at a small station the connecting train waited for us all to get on even though our previous train was a few minutes late. Train five was also a bit crowded but at least we all had seats and we were in the final 1 hour and 30 minutes of what turned out to be an 11 hour day of traveling back to berlin. Hey we did save around $130 bucks which was nice and all of our trains went through some seriously beautiful countryside. I think we were actually going a round about way to berlin through the german mountains.
We made it back to berlin grabbed a quick bite to eat at falafel UFO around the corner from Shane and Morgans place and then crashed out around midnight. We didnt get up until 10am and man oh man was that needed because it was now new years eve and we were in for a late night or should I say early morning!
Vienna to Munich
As Matt said in the previous blog post we went to bed exhausted and woke up a little bit later than we had anticipated. We had a train to catch around 2pm and plans to meet up with the girl who let us use her apartment for lunch at 12 but before hand matt shane and I were going to head to the central cemetery. Morgan wanted to go check out a different museum so she took off first then Matt, Shane and I hopped on one train that we thought would take us straight to it. Well, matt may have been a tad bit off because we ended up at the wrong cemetery! Google maps fail! After asking some local folk we figured out it was a few tram stops down the street so Matt and I hopped on the tram and headed in the right direction. Shane headed back to make sure he was back to meet up for lunch while Matt and I decided to try to see this one last thing and skip lunch. We knew there were some specific sites we wanted to visit and we were not too sure if it would be hard to find them or not but once we got there we realized this place was HUGE! It seriously had about one million people buried there! The goal was to visit the musicians area of the cemetery where Betheevon Schubert and Brahms were all buried and where a monument to Mozart was (No one know exactly where Mozart was buried because he was buried in a mass tomb). It was cool to be surrounded by such great composers who shaped music as we know it today. After Matt and I wandered around the cemetery a bit more checking out some other tombs and some of these were absolutely nuts. a few had their own alter built atop a grave site that was for an entire family. Also in the cemetery was a section for soldiers and all of the tombstones were identical and in perfect lines while everything else was a bit more haphazard. All in all the central cemetery was a cool experience and I am glad that we were able to squeeze it in right before we left.
On the tram ride back to the underground we had contemplated whether or not we should buy a tram ticket since our ride was only two stops and Matt actually said ehhh we probably don’t need to get once since we have not been checked at all up to this point. Famous last words!!! Luckily I decided to buy one when we got on and Matt followed. Sure enough as soon as we sat down there they were checking tickets on the tram. We would have been popped and wasted 40 euro or so and in fact the person right next to us did not have a ticket and the swiped his credit card and he paid the tram ticket right there on the tram. Talk about a close call on that one! We managed to navigate our way back to our Ubahn stop and grabbed a quick lunch at the station because we were too late to meet up for lunch but we did get to say goodbye and thanks at the apartment. Very nice to have a place to go to and didn’t have to worry about a hotel or check out times or any of that business.
We had a pretty mellow train ride from Vienna to Munich that was about 5 hours. Compared to the 9 hour train ride a few days before this was a short ride over to munich. We got into munich train station around 6pm and headed straight to our hotel which was real close to the station which was nice. We decided to take quick showers then head out to grab some food at a place that shane had been to a few times before that wasnt too much money but had really good traditional German food. This restaurant was right next to the main shopping street in Munich and across the street form a HUGE cathedral. I guess this cathedral has a little show that little wooden people come out and rotate around but we missed those shows which I for one was okay with.
3 pork knuckles please!
Matt shane and I all got a pork knuckle for dinner which came with knoedel. SOOOO GOOD! it has the skin still on it with a layer of fat underneath it and when cooked turned into cracklin’ and taste delicious. Yes I did take a photo and no it doesn’t do it justice. I think we all recommend that if you have the chance to eat a pork knucle, do it! We each had a dark hef beer there too and that was also good. Morgan had some roast pork that also was topped with cracklin’ just a different cut without the bone. Another good thing was it only cost us each about 10 euro which saved us some money for our next stop... HOFBRAUHAUS!
For those who don’t know what hofbrauhaus is, it is a enormous beer hall filled with sining germans, live music and 1 liter steins of beer..MMMMMM we did a few laps trying to find a place to sit and settled in on one of the tables on the outter edge which was nice cause every once and a while we would get some fresh air form outside that would come in. After liter number one Morgan headed back to the hotel and Matt Shane and I ordered round number two...so 16 ounces at dinner and now in another 64 ouces in and the good times were a flowing. In a whirlwind of laughs, bathroom runs, photos and conversations with our table neighbors who also turned out to be americans, almost getting scamed into buy a hofbrauhaus keychain with my picture on it, we ended up ordering third liter of delicious frothy beverages and our table mates actually picked up the tab on this round which was cool. So now in 3 liters and a pint at dinner in about 2.5-3 hours we were primed and ready for a fun walk back to the hotel. The details of this enchanting mature walk home will remain unblogged as will the the night and following morning for everyones benefit. Munich was good times even though were were only there one night and didnt get too see all that much. From what I did see it is a very clean big city, well at least the city center where all the shops were and I would like to try to make it back there some time.
On the tram ride back to the underground we had contemplated whether or not we should buy a tram ticket since our ride was only two stops and Matt actually said ehhh we probably don’t need to get once since we have not been checked at all up to this point. Famous last words!!! Luckily I decided to buy one when we got on and Matt followed. Sure enough as soon as we sat down there they were checking tickets on the tram. We would have been popped and wasted 40 euro or so and in fact the person right next to us did not have a ticket and the swiped his credit card and he paid the tram ticket right there on the tram. Talk about a close call on that one! We managed to navigate our way back to our Ubahn stop and grabbed a quick lunch at the station because we were too late to meet up for lunch but we did get to say goodbye and thanks at the apartment. Very nice to have a place to go to and didn’t have to worry about a hotel or check out times or any of that business.
We had a pretty mellow train ride from Vienna to Munich that was about 5 hours. Compared to the 9 hour train ride a few days before this was a short ride over to munich. We got into munich train station around 6pm and headed straight to our hotel which was real close to the station which was nice. We decided to take quick showers then head out to grab some food at a place that shane had been to a few times before that wasnt too much money but had really good traditional German food. This restaurant was right next to the main shopping street in Munich and across the street form a HUGE cathedral. I guess this cathedral has a little show that little wooden people come out and rotate around but we missed those shows which I for one was okay with.
3 pork knuckles please!
Matt shane and I all got a pork knuckle for dinner which came with knoedel. SOOOO GOOD! it has the skin still on it with a layer of fat underneath it and when cooked turned into cracklin’ and taste delicious. Yes I did take a photo and no it doesn’t do it justice. I think we all recommend that if you have the chance to eat a pork knucle, do it! We each had a dark hef beer there too and that was also good. Morgan had some roast pork that also was topped with cracklin’ just a different cut without the bone. Another good thing was it only cost us each about 10 euro which saved us some money for our next stop... HOFBRAUHAUS!
For those who don’t know what hofbrauhaus is, it is a enormous beer hall filled with sining germans, live music and 1 liter steins of beer..MMMMMM we did a few laps trying to find a place to sit and settled in on one of the tables on the outter edge which was nice cause every once and a while we would get some fresh air form outside that would come in. After liter number one Morgan headed back to the hotel and Matt Shane and I ordered round number two...so 16 ounces at dinner and now in another 64 ouces in and the good times were a flowing. In a whirlwind of laughs, bathroom runs, photos and conversations with our table neighbors who also turned out to be americans, almost getting scamed into buy a hofbrauhaus keychain with my picture on it, we ended up ordering third liter of delicious frothy beverages and our table mates actually picked up the tab on this round which was cool. So now in 3 liters and a pint at dinner in about 2.5-3 hours we were primed and ready for a fun walk back to the hotel. The details of this enchanting mature walk home will remain unblogged as will the the night and following morning for everyones benefit. Munich was good times even though were were only there one night and didnt get too see all that much. From what I did see it is a very clean big city, well at least the city center where all the shops were and I would like to try to make it back there some time.
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