trains, aka how i spend my life

March 27: On a train, on the way to Venice

We're sitting on a plush ICE train in Germany on our way to Munich. (The we, by the way, is me, Rachel, Kathy, Brittany, Caroline, Amanda, and Kaitlyn.) It even has radio stations- you just plug in your headphones! Oldies right now, though we did enjoy a strange Italian song that included the lyrics, "ahh, shuttuppa yo face-a"!

Kathy and I made a friend in the dining car. He thought we were British because we ordered tea but when we revealed our Texan loyalty he wanted to know whether we had ever been bitten by a snake while swimming. Then he mistook my major, psychology, for scientology...noooo. He asked a lot of questions. We have encountered a lot of very nice, helpful people in Europe, especially in Germany.

Anyway, the ride's gone well so far. We had a little confusion when a train switch listed on our schedule actually meant "run all the way to 20 cars ahead of the train so it doesn't take you to Budapest when it splits four ways." But, we made it. Seasoned train veterans by now.

Right now we're laughing at the mountain of candy that Kathy brought: marshmallows, Cadbury eggs...you know, things that will keep us going, haha. The running joke is using the word "beast" right now. So we listened to songs by Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and laughed for hours. The beast will make off with your children!! Ummm anyway, I am tired and sleep-deprived, so it's time to nap. I can't wait to get to Italy- we have about 8 hours left. Good night!

riding solo

After sleeping in, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Bonn. Matt and I met up with some of his friends and we headed to the Haribo gummy bear store. We'd expected a factory, but it was like a grocery store with only candy for sale...haha.

We explored some more of Bonn and I saw Matt's school and the cool window design they had to make for a class. We grabbed some delish 50 cent pizza and headed to Cologne to try and see the cathedral again. Sadly, the climb to the top was still closed. We paid tribute to some of the Beethoven sights, too: a statue and his birthplace.

Our last stop was a sporting goods store to find a backpack for my friend Kaitlyn. But this was no ordinary store...it was amazing. It was shaped like a circle, with 4 stories and an open center. The bottom floor hosted a pool where there was scuba diving and the ceiling was like an open sky..it was super cool. We didn't find the backpack but headed to the train station.

So, this was my first time to navigate trains by myself! You should be proud. I did very well. I had to take 3 different trains to get back to Maastricht over 2 hours. I'd hit two of them and was waiting for the last train from Heerlen to Maastricht, when the sign over the platform suddenly changed to "niet instappen." Bad news...this means no stop, which means NO TRAIN. Naturally I was a little confused. A conductor told me, oh yeah, there's no train to Maastricht this weekend.

Um, what?!

Take the bus. He gestured in a direction and provided no further instructions.

Well, there was more than one bus at the stop. Somehow I remembered to pretend that I knew what I was doing, and it must have worked because two people came up to me and asked me in Dutch which bus to take to get to Maastricht. Secretly I was following this British businessman and a Dutch lady, both who said something about Maastricht so I figured I would just do what they did.

When a bus finally arrived, I asked the driver if he was going to Maastricht.

He said, nope. Valkenburg.

Hmmmmmm. Well, Valkenburg is on the way to Maas. And the British dude was getting on. He said we could take a train once we got there. I asked a Dutch student and an English-speaking couple, and they were all nice and said I would be fine. So I got on the bus.

30 minutes later we arrived in Valkenburg and took the train (from the wrong platform) to Maas. Thank goodness! I found a sign inside the train that said for some reason (my Dutch isn't good enough for me to read that part) the train couldn't go from Heerlen to Valkenburg, which is why no train could go to Maas. Makes sense, but it would have been nice to know that earlier!

The point is I made it back just fine. And I spent the rest of the weekend resting and catching up on homework. I'm really glad I decided to do that. I am leaving tonight with Kathy and her parents for Denmark! Hello Hamlet! :)

bonn-ding time

So I should have updated this a while ago, but believe it or not it has been a little stressful over here! We are winding down the semester (I KNOW) with about two weeks of school left. Obviously that leaves a pretty small window of time to finish up schoolwork, so that is what I have been doing. (As well as planning for Denmark, but more on that later...)

Let's rewind. Last weekend, I went to visit Matt in Germany. I went with some friends, Bri, Taylor, Annabeth, and Caroline, Friday morning to Cologne. It was sadly a dreary, drizzly day as we first glimpsed the Rhine River.

While we waited for Matt to get out of class, we toured the Chocolate Museum.

Caroline, Bri, Taylor, Annabeth

It had some extremely strange statues and artwork, but was still tasty.
After I bought some chilipepper-flavored chocolate (not as bad as you would think), we met up with Matt, and headed to the impressive, towering Dom Cathedral.

Sadly, due to construction we weren't able to climb the stairs to the view up top, but we still enjoyed seeing the inside.That last window was redone after the original was broken-- it's a modern mosaic design.

After exploring, the girls headed back to Maastricht, and Matt and I headed to his host home. He lives with a very nice German family in Bonn. His host mom is so sweet! She cooked for us (delicious) and then we met up with some of Matt's friends from school- they were all cool and we had a fun time!

schloss neuschwanstein

Little did we know that a trip to Fussen, Germany, would be over 2 hours away from Munich! It really is a DAY trip. So we woke up after a fairly decent sleep, grabbed some pastries nearby (the lady was soo sweet and tried so hard to speak English but we all ended up pointing and grunting anyway), and hopped on the train.

From Fussen, we had to take a bus to Schwangau. We wandered around, hoping to grab some lunch and head up to the castle. Like always, we walked around like crazy hobos for 30 minutes. There is something about always looking for food that gets to you. And it doesn't ever get easier, either. We are always, always looking for food! We decided on a place called Cafe Weiner. I know you're laughing. But it was actually pretty fancy and our waiters were fantastically nice. I had one of the best sandwiches of my LIFE- ham, turkey, and pineapple. Mmmmmm. I am taking notes on food here because I have been adventurous...Jeff, you would be proud. However, being a fancy place, there is a focus on leisure and enjoying and savoring your meal. Thus our lunch turned into an extended affair.

Along those lines, we need to talk about something. It's called water. And in Europe, if you didn't know, the whole having water at a meal is totally different. First of all, there are like 14 options. Ok, I am exaggerating, but only a little. Water is not free here. You can have water in a glass bottle, iceless, with "gas" (sparkling), without, mineral water, regular water, or ask explicitly for "house water" which is tap water (and I still can't figure out how much it is)...and it always costs more than, say, a soda, or alcoholic drinks. I just want to take this opportunity to thank America for having free, non-confusing water for cheapos like me. THANK YOU!

Anyways. Schwangau is a charming, fairytale-esque town. Like the castle, think Disney. SO cute. But so expensive. I have to be honest here...our planning for this trip didn't work out as well as we had hoped. With the extra time at lunch, we had to wait for a later bus, and thus it took longer to walk to the ticket booth. While we thought it would be fine as tours last until 5, it was after 3. And after 3, you can't buy a ticket. Soooo, we didn't get to tour inside. But we still were able to trek up the mountain/hill to see the amazing castle! It was soo gorgeous.

Brittany, Kathy, Caroline, Me

It was Kathy's dream to dress up like a princess for this...so she did! It was tucked under her jacket as we walked up. Got a few glances, most likely of admiration. ;)

bavaria

After successfully navigating 4 train switches across Germany, we (me, Kathy, Brittany, and Caroline) arrived in Munich on Friday morning. The plan for the day was to check into our hostel, grab a pastry, and head to the Neuschwanstein Castle. (more about that in the next entry) I am really proud of the fact that we planned our whole trip and never missed a train!!

I totally forgot to take pictures of our hostel, Easy Palace, but it was pretty nice for a first hostel experience. I slept on the top bunk. One of the things we've noticed about Europe is that there are no top sheets. There's a mattress cover, and a squishy comforter, but no inside sheet. And somehow, this makes you warmer...at least it has so far!

Anyway, my first impression of Munich was that the buildings were surprisingly pastel-colored. It was much more colorful than I had expected. We had a nice breakfast and headed to Fussen.

When we returned to Munich, it was getting dark, but we wanted to find a famous place to eat. We came out of Marienplatz and were awed by this colossal structure in front of us!

At Hofbrauhaus, we had one of the most delicious meals EVER. Oh man, the potato soup was incredible. And I tried some of the sausage and sauerkraut...not bad! We ordered pretzels, but our waiter, while nice, did not speak English and forgot to bring them. We waited politely and finally asked him again...but they never came. We had to ask someone else, and he had already given us the check so we decided to switch seats and get some dessert amongst the action.

And by action, this place was absolutely packed and full of mostly boisterous, talkative people. It was huge and crowded but fun. When we moved, though, our waiter followed us! He was working that area too. Embarassed, we found some bench room next to a really nice English-speaking young couple. Someone had a birthday so the band came over and played for them...fun!


The next day, we enjoyed a quick morning look at some of the taller structures, and then headed to Salzburg for our next adventure!