München Pt 1

25th January 2013
My dad always used to say, "if you need to be doing something, don't talk to your friends". Not exactly groundbreaking but it was so true. From Hamburg, we were flying to Innsburck, Austria to pick up a car from Hertz to then drive into Germany again. This was because it ended up around €100 cheaper than if we were to just have picked it up from Germany. The fact that Europe is so small geographically still boggles my mind. On the way to the airport, we were chatting on the train and we weren't paying attention. After a while, I realised that the train was taking an awfully long time (it was meant to be gone to the airport. By this stage, we only had an hour before our flight took off. Cue panic. By the time we reached the airport, it was 45 minutes left and we ran from the station to the check-in kiosks. Well, tried to run would be more accurate. At some point, this thought honestly crossed my mind: go on without me, it's fine. I am normally not much a runner let alone having an extra 16 kilos on my body; I am not cut out for the Amazing Race it seems. We got to security and the woman was intent on being this super bitch. I had canned corn from Rome (meaning that I flew out from Venice to Prague without a problem). But the woman threw a massive fit about the thing and was so rude: "Do you speak German or English?" (I tell her I speak English) "DO. YOU. SPEAK. ENGLISH. OR. GERMAN?". Yep. Finally she let us go and we ran to the boarding gate and they were just starting to board everyone! Although, I wasn't sure if they would allow my other hiking bag onboard (since it was a budget flight, they are quite strict about it). All I remember is that Exchange Dude was talking to the woman at the boarding gate and gesturing towards me and I just made sure I looked forlorn. Ha it worked though and we boarded with all our luggage!

Innsbruck was pretty, especially with the snow capped mountains. The plan was to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. It was an incredibly pretty drive.











Neuschwanstein Castle gives me a little bit of a sour taste when I think back to the memory. By the time we arrived, it was just past 4pm and we purchased tickets for the 5pm tour of the castle. However, from the parking lot to the castle, it was a 40min walk (which we did not realise initially) and by the time we actually arrived at the entrance we were rudely informed by the employee that the castle was closed and 5pm was the last tour and there was nothing they could do. And she proceeded to storm off. Exchange Dude was fuming as a) I had purchased both tickets for I believe a total of €50 which had just been wasted and b) the rudeness of the employee. It wasn't as though it was just some random woman on the streets, no it was an employee working at a tourist attraction and didn't even care about anyone else. Really.





In addition to that terrible experience, the castle was underwhelming. In the pictures it looked like this



In reality, it was quite ugly up close.








After the frustrating experience, we headed to Munich. To get there, we had to go on the autobahn. The autobahn are highways or expressways which have no speed limits. Yes, that's right, no speed limits. I believe Exchange Dude reached 180km/h (which was the maximum the car could reach) which was an interesting experience. Though, what was scary was the fact that we were one of the slower cars on the road.


At some point we managed to drive out to Austria and back into Germany unknowingly.
Bavaria is quite different to Nothern Germany, it feels warmer and more home-y. I also had my first proper meal in a very long time. Exchange Dude ordered (it is lovely having someone who can speak the language, although there was some difficult in understanding as I have been told that the Bavarian accent is quite thick and difficult to understand). We had pork, reindeer and spätzle.








Love this stuff!


Reindeer
I had to go to the bathroom and once again, I was fuming that there was a woman collecting money for use of the bathroom. I actually snuck into the bathroom and then quickly walked past the woman, pretending that I didn't see her. It was a glorious moment and the most rebellious I have ever been.

Hamburg

24th January 2013
Hamburg, Germany was my next destination and it was where I was meeting up with Exchange Dude. On the train from Berlin to Hamburg, there was this middle aged woman sitting in my carriage and we struck up a conversation. Well, more accurately she started to talk to me. I don't remember too much about the conversation apart from the fact that she was from Munich but lived in Hamburg now and visited Berlin for a concert with her girlfriends.

When I imagined our reunion, I thought it would be nothing short of a movie moment. Oh boy, that didn't happen. I had received a call earlier that day informing me that Exchange Dude was late due to his delayed train. Funny story actually. When I went to check out of my hostel, the person at reception said, "Some guy called to tell you to check your email because your boyfriend's train is delayed". The most bizarre sentence since I actually thought, "wait what boyfriend?". Lol.

I didn't have a working phone with me therefore I couldn't actually contact Exchange Dude and had to hope that he wouldn't miss me when he arrived at the station. It was quite an experience standing in the cold outside the station, looking at everyone who was leaving whilst the Swan Lake piece played on repeat by the station.


Finally, finally he arrived and it was the most anti-climatic moment of my entire existence. I actually thought I would have been more emotional, but I was just... not feeling it. The thing that struck me was that he sounded so British. We then went for a quick lunch (although I wasn't really hungry).




Exchange Dude is actually trilingual; he knows English, Dutch and German. Also knows French but more on a basic/ intermediate level. On exchange, there was a girl called Franzi who was from Hamburg and Exchange Dude had asked her for some advice when visiting. She highly recommended the Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg.

Miniatur Wunderland (German for miniature wonderland) is a model railway attraction in Hamburg, Germany and the largest of its kind in the world, built by the twins Gerrit and Frederik Braun. As of January 2011, the railway consists of 12,000 metres (39,370 ft) of track in HO scale, divided into seven sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. Of the 6,400 square metres (68,889 sq ft) of floorspace, the model takes 1,150 m2 (12,378 sq ft).

City Hall








The place was incredible!! There was so much detail and honestly, you could have spent hours at the place. Within each landscape, there were clearly stories going on with the tiny people and a lot of interesting things happening too. The one that comes to mind is a sunflower field with a man lying on a checkered picnic blanket naked and a girl hovering around his nether regions. Every 15 minutes or so, the lights would go off, switching from day to night and the landscape would completely change. One of the coolest parts was the airport where it was programmed to take off as well as land and the usual waiting in line before the runway.

By the time we left, it was dark and we went to a park with the intention of visiting a fair. I didn't do any sort of planning for the remainder of the trip since Exchange Dude wanted to plan it all. Turns out the fair wasn't on that night so we headed back to the hotel.

Forgot to mention this for Berlin post but one of the things that irritated me the most about Europe, especially Germany was the need to pay for the bathroom. It is understandable to have to pay to use a public bathroom, but it was so frustrating when I was already a paying customer at restaurant and still had to dish out to use their bathroom. Seriously.

Would I visit again?
Probably not.

Berlin

Next stop was Berlin, Germany. This will be compilation of the 2.5 days that I was in Berlin. I caught the train from Prague to Berlin and unfortunately I didn't have my own compartment (I sat with some random girl). It was really awkward when Border Control/ Czech police came by to look at our passports and our subsequent visas. I had purchased a Happy Meal in Prague and I kept the toy, and when I pulled out my passport the toy fell onto the floor and the police officer picked it up and handed it back. Awkward. Yet hilarious. It was nearly a 5hour train ride to Berlin and I just watched movies for most of the journey.



I stayed at Singer 109 Hostel. I had quite a lot of difficulty locating the hostel since the directions weren't overly helpful. In the end, I ended up asking this local German woman for help, me with my 0 knowledge of German and the elderly woman who didn't understand English. But she showed me in the end which was lovely. The hostel. I'm not entirely sure what it is. I feel as though it was serviced apartments but then they had several rooms for the dorms, therefore a hostel. It basically felt like a hotel. I believe I paid $6 AUD a night. Yes $6! Downside was that since it was low season, I felt that they didn't clean the bathroom properly. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.





After dropping my bags off at my 'hostel' I ended up just exploring the surrounding area. There was ice in the river (which I thought was really cool) and it was interesting to see that by the time I left Berlin, the ice had spread significantly. I also ended up at Maccas (free wifi, yes please) and the manager who served me was from Washington D.C and we started talking about the States and Australia ('You're an Australian too? Man you guys are like ants, you're everywhere!').

I had booked a walking tour with Berlin Walks and at €10 it was ridiculously cheap. It was also however, ridiculously cold. Out of the group of 10 people, 6 (including myself) were from Australia. It was quite enjoyable being on the tour, having someone to take my around. Usually, if it was cold, I would just walk faster but that really wasn't possible as I was in a group environment. Everyone was complaining about their feet being cold in their boots whereas my feet were warm (relative) even though the outer layer of my socks were wet. At some point, the tour guide made a stop at a little store so that people could purchase more socks/ gloves/ beanies.








'Mother and her dead son' statue




Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe






This was basically me. And I was still freezing. It is my nose that gets cold so easily and I don't actually know how I can even counter that... unless I wear a balaclava. Something else I have realised is that my hair is a lot browner than what I thought.


Honestly, I don't remember too much about the fine details of the tour but the places that it took us to are here

Originally, I was meant to meet with my Berlin Greeter however things came up and he wasn't able to meet with me. But nonetheless I decided to visit the area that he had originally suggested. I visited the East Side Gallery. I also bumped into a girl that I met on the tour the day before.






Karl-Marx-Allee

The Karl-Marx-Allee is a 90m/300ft wide boulevard stretching for 2km from the Frankfurter Tor to Alexanderplatz. The monumental street is lined with apartment blocks built in a socialist realist style.

Look at that ice.


My stroopwafel. It is meant to be chewy on the inside, however it was so cold that it completely hardened and was impossible to bite into.
My Overall Thoughts
Germany was quite different to all the other countries that I had visited. I didn't really have much of a first impression of Berlin. Neither loved it nor hated. It was just so-so. Perhaps it was the cold or perhaps it was just the gloomy and grey weather.

Would I re-visit?
Unsure.

Beaches

I had to drop off my take home exam at uni and I took it as an opportunity to have a day out. It was a nice break from being in front of my computer screen all day. I initially had plans to visit Warriewood Beach but in the end, I settled on Narrabeen Lagoon, Narrabeen Beach, Collaroy Beach and Long Reef Beach.












Upon returning to Australia early this year, I discovered that most Gloria Jeans had closed. I used to have two at my local shopping centre however they are both gone now. I used to only purchase the Iced Chocolate and I actually found one on my way back home.