We got up early the morning of Oktoberfest and rushed to get Lederhosen. Lederhosen is an investment. The cheapest we found in all of Munich was 100 euro ~ $130. We tried on multiple variations until we each found the right one. (I got the same as Troy, but he found them first). While I was changing in the changing room I continuously heard clicking sounds and looked up finally after I got my Lederhosen on and Troy had been taking pictures throughout my changing process. Hilarious. Sorry, can't put those up.
Once we settled on the perfect lederhosen Troy and Mindy changed back into their jeans for the walk back to the hostel. Denton and I were a bit giddy and kept the lederhosen on. Denton had no problem paying and leaving, but mine had a security tag thing in the back calf. When I paid the lady had me sit on the register in front of 8 people in line to get the security tag off. It was embarrassing and awesome at the same time. I think Troy has a picture of the event.
We got back to the hostel, dropped our stuff off, and headed for the fair grounds. The place is like the State Fair of Texas except focused on beer and not small plastic cups of beer, but full liters of beer. Each liter cost about 8-9 euros ~$11-12, but remember a liter is around 3.5 cans of beer. Intense.
We settled into a fairly rowdy tent, I don't remember which one right now, but it was very lively for 12 pm on a weekday. The tables are open seating until 5 PM. After that time, reservations have been booked for around a year in advance. The tables were a lot of fun. We met a lot of high school kids skipping class and the on the other side retired German couples. Needless to say we made a lot of friends. Here is a video of some of the events inside the tents. Notice the guy that gets on the table and chugs the entire liter. That video is of the third time he did that in a 3 hour period. Insane. It was funny because a lot of people would try to chug their liters on the table and if they hesitated or slowed down for a second everyone in the entire tent starts booing them.
We headed back to the hostel around 6 PM and hung out before taking a much needed nap. We woke up at around 11 PM, got a slice of pizza and then went back to sleep to prepare for the 2nd day of Oktoberfest. We got up early the next day and had to switch to a hotel because the hostel had no room for us. After checking in we walked to the fairgrounds. We decided to take on the rides before having a beer. They had some crazy fun rides there. Our stomachs were completely messed up by the time we sat down at the first tent to have a beer. Here are some videos of the rides. It is long so only watch if you are a big fan of rollercoasters:
We walked around to many different tents and each one is very different with a different vibe and crowd.
I could go on and on about all of the interesting people we met and crazy things we saw, but I need to leave some stories to tell when I get back. Troy and I were the first to get back to the hotel at 9:30. I will say that Mindy and Denton were the last to come back because of a crazy story they can tell better than me. It involved a taxi driving over Mindy's foot. They took tons of pictures all along the way. The German ER doctors have a splendid sense of humor from what we were told the next morning. Mindy enjoyed the low-cost to free medical services in Germany and Britain.
The next morning we headed to the train station and I had to part ways with the guys. It was very sad.
My next destination was Budapest, Hungary. I was beyond exhausted at this point. I was right at the 2 month mark and the guys really pushed to see and do everything possible with little sleep. I don't blame them and would do the same if I was traveling for 10 days, but pacing is important. Anyway, I got to Budapest by nightfall, had a quick meal, and went to bed.
(Love Locker: When you are in love with someone you put a lock on this.)
The next day I got up early and went on the free walking tour. I learned a great deal about Hungary and their poor decisions in both the First and Second World Wars. Along the Danube the scenery is beautiful. The tour was very informative and you can see the country is still recovering from communism.
(scary)
After the tour I went to the train station to try to get an overnight train for the next day to Copenhagen. Everything was booked for the next two days so I had to buy a plane ticket from Budapest to Copenhagen. It didn't turn out to be too bad because I would have needed to travel 48 hours. After the ticket fiasco I went to one of Budapest's famous baths. The place was huge:
The natural mineral water was really warm and great. After walking so many miles a day and carrying a backpack everywhere I also treated myself to a 30 minute massage. It cost around $20, not too bad. The bath is surrounded by a massive park. Walking around the park I felt like I was back in Oak Cliff where I grew up until the age of 6. The residential part of Budapest looked like Dallas in 1985. The clothes, buildings, everything.
Here's a quick Budapest video:
I'll have to leave it there. Thanks for reading! I'm in Sweden now. Copenhagen and Stockholm coming soon!
The free walking tour in Prague was great. Keith was our tour guide for both the morning city walking tour and then the afternoon Castle walking tour. Keith was from the US, but visited Prague and fell in love. We walked the entire day and saw everything from the famous clock tower (Czech Back to the Future Sight),
Kafka's Monument:
The concert hall where Mozart debuted Don Giovanni (see the movie Amadeus):
Albino Peacock:
The aristocrat's murals of himself (Denton def. plans on doing this):
Mosaic cleaned up by special NASA solution:
Impressive Cathedral:
Studs:
Prague by night was beautiful:
We walked all day and were exhausted by the time the sun went down. I was told great things about the Prague Pub Crawl, but we learned the hard way that Sunday night was not a good night. We watched some of the wackiest dancing ever. A big guy from the pub crawl got on stage, took off his shirt and started dancing. Another guy walked up and jokingly hit him in the stomach. The guy was fairly strong so he laughed and told the guy to try again. The guy punched him hard in the stomach and the big guy immediately punched him in the face. The guy that got punched walked away like nothing happened and the guy on the stage kept dancing. I have never seen that before. Out of control.
Here is a little video with some highlights from Prague:
The next day we got up early and drove to Dresden. Dresden was controversially destroyed by allied forces from February 13-15, 1945. Many saw the attacks unnecessary because the war was mostly over. Great historical building and arts pieces were lost forever. Dresden has done an incredible job rebuilding since then. Dresden was a beautiful stop and I'm really glad we did.
After spending the afternoon in Dresden we drove to Munich. We got into Munich a little late and parked the car. Due to Oktoberfest a bed costs around $80-150 even in a hostel...The first night we stayed in a 40 person dorm. They gave us a free shot of Jaeger when you check in. We checked in quickly and went straight to Hofbrauhaus to get dinner and a drink. Hofbrauhaus is one of my favorite places anywhere. Do not go to Munich without going there. It is a mini-Oktoberfest. We discussed plans to visit the Eagles Nest the next day and invest in Lederhosen before heading back to the hostel.
(Cramped elevator to the top with reflections everywhere)
The Eagles Nest was a gift to Hitler from the Nazi Party. It is on the top of an alp and looks out over Salzburg and the alps. We were amazed by the views. The house is now converted into a restaurant.
(Wow)
(Opening of the cave to the elevator. The elevator goes straight up into the house.)
Here is a video because words can't describe:
After having lunch at the top we took the bus down the mountain. We made friends with a tour group of older people on the way down. We took the quick autobahn drive back to Munich and made it in time to get to Hofbrauhaus for another dinner with my friend Andrea. She survived guy talk and it was great to catch up with her. I should also mention we got the penthouse at Wombats Hostel. We had a five bed, private bathroom, with balcony for two nights. It was incredible. I was first in bed with dreams of the next days Oktoberfest. We got back to Munich too late that night to buy Lederhosen so a full morning was ahead of us the next day to prepare before getting to Oktoberfest early...
I will have to stop here due to time restrictions. By the way, I'd like to thank the Swedish for their trains having fast, free internet. My trip from Copenhagen to Stockholm has been very enjoyable. I'm sorry I'm still behind, but I promise Oktoberfest, Budapest, Copenhagen coming soon...
I met up with Denton and Troy the next morning at the hostel. We immediately headed off to make the Free Berlin Walking Tour. Our tour guide was from Boston and got her undergraduate degree from Columbia in European History. Needless to say she did a great job of teaching us all about Berlin. She was a bit of hippie, but Denton and Troy still somehow survived the tour. We walked from our hostel clear across the city to all of the sites. We thought the tour would last 2.5-3 hours, but I think it almost went 5.
We met two nice Australian ladies on the tour. They were staying at the same hostel and walked back with us. Somehow they put up with our ridiculous conversations all the way back to the hostel. I think this was about the time Denton started taking credit for navigating us in the right direction, especially when he was completely wrong. It was funny.
Berlin was really incredible. Standing in the place where such hatred and terrible acts occurred was terrifying. We stood where 20,000 books were burned in one night, where hundreds threw their children over walls in order to find a better life, where those who opposed Hitler were taped being slowly hung by their necks by piano strings, and where a top SS officer put 5 of his children under the age of 14 to death. Haunting.
After a long, long walk we made it back to the hostel where we met up with Troy's friend from Wash U. Johnny Minder. Introduced to us as Minder. By this time Denton and Troy had been up around 35 hours. We got off our feet for two hours or so, but did our best to keep those two awake. As we were about to go to dinner, there was a knock on our door. We invited the Australian ladies to dinner with us, but did not expect to ever see them again after "guy talk" on the long 7-10 kilometer walk back to the hostel after the tour. At the same time, we are studs...?
(Important site where Michael Jackson held Blanket out over the balcony)
We walked around for a while until we found a great German food restaurant. They had a special on Oktoberfest Spaten liter beers. Minder and Troy ordered a different kind of beer and Denton was unsure about a beer, but went with the special anyway. Troy, Denton, and I were served liter beers (even though Troy didn't order that), and Minder got a half liter. Denton immediately began calling Minder Mindy because of his "small" beer. Troy happily accepted his liter and the rest of the night was history. We were only told our table was too loud 4 times, so the night was a great success.
The Denton alarm went off super early the next day. I expressed my feelings for the early Denton alarm before making my way to the shower and getting ready. We set out on the metro subway. The subway in metro is notorious for people not buying tickets. We accidentally didn't buy them about 1/4 of the time. We meant to get off at the train station, but basically just walked onto a random subway without checking anything and our plans quickly changed to see the Olympic Stadium. It was incredible. We saw old pictures of the famous Olympics where Jesse Owens took care of business. His name is all over the wall with all of the winners. Well worth the trip out there.
We then went to the Berliner Dom. It was magnificent. As soon as we made our way to the middle of the cathedral the massive organ began playing. Indescribable experience. We then climbed to the top of the dome to see incredible views of Berlin. Mindy jumped up on the ledge and asked me to take a picture of him. I kind-of-to-totally freaked and told him to get down. Adventurous guy.
After the Berliner Dom I got a haircut from a lady that didn't speak English, fun times! Also, we had dinner and learned to never order Nachos in Berlin.
After dinner we met up for a pub crawl. The pub crawl took us to some off the beaten path bars including a goth bar and an oldies dance club. The goth bar was a bit intense, but overall a memorable experience. Plus Mindy found a special friend. Needless to say the pub crawl went late and we over slept the next morning. Troy and Denton made a dash to get our rental car before the place closed at noon, while Mindy and I packed up their and our bags in order to make the noon checkout. Somehow this all worked out.
We met up with Jimmy and headed for Prague. We had a Garmin GPS, but word to the wise, GPS doesn't work all that well in the Czech Republic.
I didn't drive, but being on the Autobahn was a lot of fun. It was more interesting when Denton was taught how to drive stick in 2 minutes and against the wishes of all the souls in the car went onto the onramp. Luckily Denton is a pro and did great.
So there are stories during a trip where you think to yourself should I tell this or would everyone just be happier not knowing. If you would like to know what happened to us after dark in the middle of nowhere Czech Republic when the GPS doesn't have a clue a highway is shut down due to construction...well ask me and maybe I'll tell. We met some characters and to put it nicely I thought all five of us were going on to the greatest adventure of all as Peter Pan put it.
Moving on...We got into Prague at around 11 PM and checked into our hostel. Luckily for us we were upgraded because the water in our original hostel was not working. We had a five person suite all to ourselves. As soon as certain people had their first encounter with a buday, we ventured out to see the city. We went to the five story club and it was pretty crazy. We decided going to high school in Prague is a lot different than our experience. The place was mostly high school seniors. Each floor was a different theme and it was madness in there. We had a good time, but were pretty worn out from the events of the evening and called it an "early" night.
The next morning we got up and barely made the free walking tour. It was great. If you are ever in a foreign city drop by a hostel and pick up a brochure for a free walking tour. You learn as much as you would on another tour, get exercise, and you only need to tip $5-10 for what is normally $25-30. Prague is one of the only cities in Europe untouched by the war...well, except for an accidental allied bombing.
I will have to leave it here due to time issues. I need to go out and see Copenhagen. I'll update Prague, Dresden, Munich, and Budapest in the next few days. Keep checking back!
So I got on the overnight train in Madrid bound for Lisbon, Portugal at around 10 PM. Due to bad experiences I take two benadryl pills before getting on night trains to ensure I'm the first one to fall asleep. The system worked flawlessly Madrid-Lisbon. I got in my bed, read for an hour and I was out. Each overnight train is very different depending on the country. The Madrid-Lisbon trains cost 30 euro on top of the rail pass and there are 4 people to a cabin. The cabin is very small. I've seen up to 6 beds in a small compartment. The "steward" takes your tickets and wakes you up 30 minutes before you are due to arrive. I wish they woke you up 5 minutes before. Sleeping on a night train does not equal real sleep. With all of the stops and starts the sleep isn't normal.
I got off the sleepy night train in bright, sunny Lisbon, Portugal. I walked the kilometer to my hostel and was told I couldn't check in until 2:30 PM (This is standard at hostels). I didn't have the energy to walk around Lisbon yet so I went into the movie/tv room and passed out. I must have been a pretty pathetic sight because the best hostel worker ever politely woke me up and asked if I wanted to get to my room early. We'll call him Jim since I don't know how to spell his name. Jim spoke excellent English and has endless energy. He is from Lisbon, but has done a good bit of traveling himself. I should give a plug for the hostel at this point. The hostel is called "Travellers House." It is the #1 rated hostel on Hostelworld.com. No small feat. Everynight the hostel has some sort of activity or dinner or something to ensure easy interaction with your hostelmates. These range from dinners to happy hours to pub crawls. Anyway, Jim took me up to my room and I took a much needed shower before venturing out. The hostel is located in the very middle of Lisbon in the middle of the shopping district. I decided to hit up the most popular tourist sites the first day and ventured out to Jeronimo Monestary where Vasco de Gamma is buried and is famous for being the place sailors spent the night praying before their long, dangerous journeys. It was pretty amazing with intricate architecture and haunting biblical artwork inside. Just across from the monestary is a massive fountain and gardens leading to Discovery Monument, a monument to the Portugese explorers that put Lisbon on the map in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Just down from the Discovery Monument is the Belem Tower. The tower was a defense fort built about 100 meters into the water. It cost 5 euros to walk through. The tower has beautiful views of the ocean. It is easy to see how ships could easily be taken down. My Aunt Kimberly should never take a tour of this place. There is a single about 1.5-2 foot wide spiral staircase leading 5-6 stories up to the top. There is no system for going up or down. People would basically push through or trap you against the wall. Luckily no one was carrying swords or bows and arrows. Once I got to the top and took pictures I was not excited to attempt my way down. I seriously thought about yelling "Cannonball" and launching myself into the water. Thanks to a frugal life style I think I've dropped a few lbs or as they call them in Britain, stones...? and was able to squeeze past numerous massive men and women to make it out. Now walking down to these places seemed like a short walk on the map I got. Using my scouting skills HALFWAY through my walk, I figured out the map didn't have a distance measurement. I took a much needed bus home. Thanks to Google Maps I found out the walk was around 8-10 kilometers. I got back to the hostel and read myself into a siesta.
After the siesta I went to the common room where people were having a beer and socializing. The hostel had a cool honor system. They had a full Cribs TV Show style fridge with cokes, tea, water, and beers all for 1.25 euros. We just marked the sheet next to our names how many we had. 1.25 euros is like $1.50 a beer. Not too bad at all for Europe. I picked up a Super Bock and sat down in one of the bean bags and met some Scottish girls, an Australian guy, and a few Americans. The beer I saw everywhere in Lisbon was called "Super Bock." It seemed like a direct insult to Texas's own Shiner Bock. The activity for the evening in the hostel was a dinner of special sausages from all over Portugal. The sausages were cooked over this funny little grill in the shape of a pig. Jim used basic rubbing alcohol to cook the sausages. I had everything from pork marinated in red wine to the delicacy of black pig sausage. They were all delicious. Everyone stood around the table, made sort of tapas out of the sausage, bread, and cheese and of course enjoyed the red wine which was included. The entire thing cost about 6.50 euro. Not bad for a full meal. After getting all of our money's worth, we hit the town. Lisbon is also a late going out city. Dinner was at 9 PM and we left the hostel at around midnight or so. We went to the alta area.
I should explain at this point that Lisbon is known to have 7 hills, but I think they are liars and there are actually 7,000. The sidewalk and streets are made of finely cut tiles much like the ones I saw in Pompeii. I walked past some work crews fixing the tiles and it was apparent that, though incredibly beautiful, the tiles were each finely cut and difficult to replace. Lisbon is in some ways like San Francisco with the endless hills, almost exact replica of the Golden Gate Bridge, and identical tram system. Across the water looking out on the city is a huge, and I mean huge Jesus looking out over the city. It reminded me of the pictures of the huge Jesus in Rio De Janiero.
Anyway, we went out in the Alta District. In Lisbon it is legal to drink in the streets. A lot of people either bring it from home or walk into a bar, buy a beer or sangria for about 2 euros and ask for it in a plastic cup and journey out into the street to talk or to go to the next bar. The bars are lined up on every street and they are tiny and have no air conditioning. If you like sweaty people rubbing against you to Britney Spears and random TLC songs this is your place. I do appreciate TLC as much as anyone, but the heat was intense. I left for the hostel a little early and called it a night. The next day I had breakfast and met up with a guy from Israel and a guy from Australia who wanted to walk around the central part of the town. We walked up a hill and found ourselves overlooking the city.
There was even a cool elevated and platform. You could see the ocean in front of you and to the left a massive castle. We walked from there over to the castle, but decided against going in due to the price. It was a vibrant area and we saw the biggest mustache we had ever seen. Check out this guy:
We saw all sorts of church's and viewpoints before heading back to the hostel 5 hours later to take a much needed siesta. After the siesta I walked around some more and saw all sorts of street performers and enjoyed one of the custard pastries Lisbon is well known for. The activity for the night was 2 euro a person all you can drink until the keg is tapped beer and then pub crawl. I took it pretty easy and hung out with people from all over. I went on the pub crawl, but was exhausted. I walked back after reaching the final bar. Party pooper, yes. This is what happens when you walk around all day and haven't been getting much sleep for a while.
The next day I checked out of the hostel and prepared myself for a marathon of a journey from Lisbon to Madrid to Barcelona to Paris to Lucerne...yeah, yikes. This trip consisted of 2 overnight trains in a row, something I've never tried before. Due to getting everything set to go, I forgot to eat until I got to the train station in Lisbon. I then proceeded to eat some pizza and get a horrible stomach ache. Lesson learned. I took the benadryl, read for an hour and knocked out on the train. I woke up in Madrid, changed train stations and took the Ave (high speed train) to Barcelona. I had a 6 hour layover in Barcelona and the train station didn't have a luggage storage place so I got a cab and took a miniature tour of Barcelona to all the places I missed when I was there a week before including Sagrada Familia and the Boqueria Market on Las Ramblas. I did it all with all my luggage in tow. It was a tough 5 hours or so. I've found the Golden Arches in Europe still don't mean good food, but they do mean internet hot spot. I went to the McDonalds next to Sagrada Familia and Facetimed my Dad on my phone. It was good to talk with him.
I made it back to the train station right before my train took off for Paris. I continued my tradition and got into my cabin. Our cabin was completely Americans traveling around Europe. I laid down to read and immediately was interrupted by some incredible snoring. After hours of listening to it, I decided it sounded like someone jumping on a fully blown whoopie cushion every 4 seconds...terrible. I put in earplugs and nothing worked. Finally I got up at 5:30 am and sat at the breakfast bar and read my book, looking up from time to time to see the the sun simmer over the dark blue sky. It was peaceful, but did nothing to make up for severe sleep deprivation. The best part was when the two gentlemen entered the breakfast bar about an hour before our arrival in Paris and were like "We wondered where you went." I quickly told them I needed to change and ran back to the room to attempt a 45 minute power nap. Again, Night Train Rule #1: Fall Asleep Before Your Cabinmates. I took video 4 different places in the night. It doesn't capture the decibel level of the snoring, but thanks to the decibel app on my phone the snores averaged about 88 decibels and one hit 97. I think that is a noise violation in Austin. The small cabin had a lot to do with how loud it was.
I switched train stations in Paris and after two incompetent train customer service reps I finally got tickets to Lucerne, Switzerland. I found a Euro Hot Spot near the train station--AKA McDonalds and booked a hotel for Lucerne (I waited until then because I wasn't sure I could make it to Lucerne.)
I took a taxi to my hotel, which was a bit of a mistake. The hotel is about 6 kilometers outside of Lucerne, but easily accessible by an hourly train. The cab driver was a girl in her early 20's and was very, very friendly. Though she offered, I turned down partying with her and her friends that night. She gave me half off the ride though. I checked into the 4 star hotel (I found a really, really good last minute deal). I got the cheapest room possible which put my across the street from the lake in a 300 year old barn. It was actually really nice though. Above is a picture of the barn. I went downstairs to ask where to get food and they said the only place close is the hotel informal dining. This reminds me of when my Dad says to dress casual and that generally means put on a coat and maybe a tie. I walked downstairs and treated myself to a good meal after 48 hours of traveling. The waiter gave me a free appetizer and it was very nice. My room was big and comfortable. For the first time on my entire trip I fell asleep to absolute silence. It was magical.
The next morning I got up early to get the free buffet breakfast and to walk around Lucerne. The breakfast was excellent. Have you ever heard of a candlelight breakfast?
After breakfast I packed up and walked across the street to take in the lake view. It was incredible. I sat down and just had some reflection time. Time flew by and before I knew it I ran to check out and was told I would miss the train to the city. I ran up a steep hill with luggage in tow and dove into the train making it without a second to spare.
Lucerne is a great little town. I had two hours to walk around. The major thing I wanted to see was the Lion of Lucerne.
"the Lion of Lucerne is the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."- Mark Twain
(YIKES)
Amazing stuff. There are numerous shops selling swiss army products, watches, clothing, etc.
Great place. I boarded the train bound for Berlin. The train ride was long, but I was in 1st class thanks to the Eurail Pass. I got candies and cashews every 2 hours or so. I read the last 300 pages of the book The Passage. It was great. Written by a Rice University Professor. It is a very different kind of vampire book. I arrived in Berlin at about 9 PM and checked into my hostel. My room had about 8 beds in it and everyone in the room had been hanging out for about 3 days. It was fun to talk with them and get to sleep at a decent hour.
Now I'm just preparing body and soul for Denton, Troy, and Jimmy's arrival. I asked my Dad if we Troy, Jimmy, and I made the prayer list in the church bulletin (we all went to church together in Dallas). He said not yet, but hopefully someone gets on that. Berlin-Prague-Munich- You don't know what you're in for. Oktoberfest here we come. Thanks for the e-mails and suggestions of things to see. Please keep them coming!
