I Don't Think We're in Hessen Anymore: Salzburg/Berchtesgaden

It seems difficult to make a trip to Germany without going to Bavaria some way or another. I hadn't planned to go back to the land that can do everything, but speak proper German. But when one travels with a group, particularly one with someone in love with guidebooks, things happen. A group of four of us girls took a "girls' weekend" to Salzburg. Hitler and "The Sound of Music". We're a very diverse group.

We didn't spend much time actually in Salzburg, but mostly in the surrounding areas. A weekend is not really enough time to see much when you want to take tours. Our Saturday morning was devoted to history lessons. Since we were so close to Obersalzberg, we took a bus to Berchtesgaden to see Hitler's Eagle Nest and the bunkers under Berghof. It was really interesting to hear about the bunkers. They could basically be a mole city, but for people. It's also really eery being down there.

The documentation center is really cool, as well. All of the information is in German and there's so much of it, you could spend probably a whole day there. Of course it was also raining/snowing, depending on the altitude, so it was pretty cozy with everyone trying to avoid the weather.

There was a lot of snow by the elevator up to the Eagle's Nest. It was also crazy foggy, like "Oops I lost my friends in the fog." foggy. There was even more snow at the Eagle's Nest. It was the first day of the "season", so it kind of makes sense, but it was discouraging to have thought you saw the last of the snow and end up in a winter wonderland.

We had time to spare after we got back down from the mountain since we missed the first bus back to Salzburg by five minutes. It's a cute little Bavarian town, can't really understand what anyone says, but it's the American view of stereotypical German.

We had time to explore Salzburg a bit in the evening and walked around the old village, ate dinner we didn't have to cook and visited the wine market. It's a gorgeous city, even in the rain fog.

The next morning was devoted to "The Sound of Music". Since a lot of the movie was filmed in surrounding areas, we got to see the countryside. There's nothing quite like driving around the turn of a mountain and seeing a lake on one side and a deer farm on the other. We stopped to doing Alpine tobogganing between two of the smaller towns.

In Mondsee where the wedding scene was filmed, we visited the church. For a donation you can purchase holy water....in mini Jägermeister bottles. Now that's class.

Redbull Headquarters

Another quick stroll through the old town, a visit to the Mozart house and a trip through the castle gardens and it was time to head home.

The Aussie's first time Alpine tobogganing

 I must be allergic to Austria because I started getting sick on the way home. Or maybe I'm just allergic to Bavarians. Who knows.



There are only 4 more weeks left in the semester and I have 4 presentations in the next 2 weeks. It will be a mad dash to the finish with trips to Rothenburg and Berlin thrown in and some more exploring of Hesse including concerts and castles.

Going Dutch: Belgium and the Netherlands

As it neared the time for my Eurail pass to expire, I started looking at places for day trips. After considering Weimar and Leipzig, I looked at a map. The following is my thought process: "Hey, Belgium is really close. Only 4 hours to Brussels?! I don't have class Thursday....I desire a day of beer, chocolate and waffles."

Yes, those are the main reason I went to Belgium. Also just to add another country to my ever-growing list. I picked the right time to go since the next day Christabel and I would be going to Amsterdam for the weekend. Yay for a warn up course in Dutch (which I will refer to as not a real language, just like European money is too colorful to be real money). I can't take Dutch seriously. It sounds so made up.

Anyway. The day proved more interesting than planned as my first train was so delayed that I missed the connection to Belgium. After many, "I'm stuck in Cologne. I don't wanna be stuck in Cologne"thoughts. I realized. I AM stuck in Cologne. Meaning more train options. I would have to take 3 more trains, but I would make it to Brussels. The train to Liege reminded me of an old black and white movie where the pianist sat in the audience to play along, the damsel was tied to the train tracks and the villain was constantly twirling his moustache.

I finally made it to Brussels. First on the list: find the Grand Place. Grand Place=Chocolate and Beer museums.

Getting a demonstration on how to make a traditional Belgian praline

Part of a train made completely out of chocolate

Since I knew I didn't have a lot of time in the city, I just kind of wandered, looked at what I wanted and kept going. I did buy a waffle-from an Australian stand nonetheless-and the headed toward the Atomium.

 And that was basically my day in Belgium.

 Amsterdam

So I don't know what I really excepted from Amsterdam. Well, I knew the stereotype vaguely...I contemplated looking for a stereotypical picture, then decided I didn't want to have to try to unsee anything.

I will say, the Netherlands are beautiful. The train ride there was gorgeous. We knew we hit the border when windmills started making more an appearance. 

We arrived in the evening so we got to see the city by night as we made are way to the hostel. We found out that 3 big events were happening that weekend:1. Dutch Memorial day 2. Independence Day 3. their soccer team playing in the EuroCup. The third proved to both be a nuisance and great for people watching. 

Memorial day ceremony

Those are from two different days. We spent a lot of time wandering around and being tourists. We only went into 2 museums: the cheese and the tulip museum. It was a light vacation. We wanted to go to the Anne Frank house, but due to the metro hating us, we couldn't afford to stay in line for two hours. The Metro changed directions on us, then broke down at a station where no other line ran. That was our morning. Oh and the driver announced everything in Dutch. Dutch is not a real language.
Mark Twain said "Dutch is not a language, it's a throat disease." I agree.

We took some tours around the city. We were on a tour when the Ajax(their soccer team) won and lead to me being slightly accosted by a very happy, drunk fan. This provide the best people watching since we were already walking around in the Red Light District. We watched many of the drunk fans be rejected by the women in the windows.

Also, the safest place in Amsterdam is on a bicycle. Always keep that in mind, it may just save your life. They remove thousands of bikes from the canals every year. 

The RDL isn't as traumatizing as one would think. I, however, was propositioned 3 times. 1.To buy illicit substances that even the Dutch don't tolerate. 2. If I wanted to work for the evening. 3. Did I want an evening without a gigolo. But I guess that just comes with being a living female walking around in that area.

Due to almost everyone in the hostel room snoring, talking in their sleep, etc I got maybe 5 hours of sleep over 2 days. Hence why there aren't many stories. My sleep deprived brain repressed or erased them all.