Emz and Lo in Europe

So, we went to Slovenia for a night. It was definitely a spontaneous decision, but I’m oh so glad we squeezed in some time to visit the lovely city of Ljubljana. It was surprisingly charming, beautiful, and affordable. The hostel we stayed in was all that we could have asked for - cheap (9 Euros a night), super clean, great staff, good pillows (surprisingly rare), central location, and strong wifi. To cap it all off, we had booked our beds in a 12 bed dorm but we were the only guests! Ljubljana really isn’t that big so there aren’t endless things to do, but we enjoyed wandering around. We stumbled upon two separate outdoor photo exhibitions (one focusing on modern architecture, the other on international photography), walked along the river, and took the funicular up to the top of the Ljubljana Castle. We had a delicious, traditional, and hearty Slovenian meal for dinner. We did manage to avoid the horsemeat burgers, a local specialty. All in all, Ljubljana was a delightful and relaxing stop in between Salzburg and Vienna.

While I’m sure Salzburg has a thriving, unique and modern cultural identity, we were only in town for two nights so what were we to do other than fully embrace the two things the city is most famous for: The Sound of Music and our main man, Mozart. We arrived on Friday night and were to leave Sunday morning for Ljubljana. We stayed at Yoho Hostel, I think the best hostel to stay in while in Salzburg, featuring all the necessities as well as great and cheap food, and nightly showings of none other than The Sound of Music. As soon as we got off the train and dropped off our things we set out, map in hand to see Salzburg in all it’s glory.

*Disclaimer regarding the photo of me below which I did not authorize: A scarf is a very flexible and practical garment to be used in drizzly and chilly weather and I’ll stand by my choice of outfit as a strong and independent woman. Additionally, I think wool socks and Birks speak for themselves in terms of blissful comfort.

To continue, Yoho Hostel’s handy free map had a suggested walking route around the city that could be done in a few hours and tackles all the main sights. We ate some chicken curry at a cozy Indian fusion restaurant called My Indigo and set out for the damp trek. We stopped into Mozart’s Residence and Birthplace, (where the ridiculous photo of me as Mozart and somehow also as Amanda Bynes comes from) the Festival Hall, the Dom, (where Maria and the Captain got married!) Residenzplatz, Rathausplatz, the Salzburg Theatre which literally features a marionette performance of The Sound of Music, and we even hiked up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress for a pretty view of the old city. Salzburg’s weather was quite similar to Munich’s but thankfully a little less cold. After our tour of the main sights and downtown Salzburg we made our way back to the hostel to make the showing of the feature film! We met an adorable father-son traveling duo from London, Ontario as well as my three roommates, two guys from Singapore and one engineer from Idaho. At this hostel we couldn’t get a room together so we each stayed in a 4-bed mixed dorm and met our respective roomies! We just happened to speak more with mine the way things worked out and on our second night all gathered together to watch the Dortmund/Bayern soccer championship in the TV room, quite an event for Germany! Some Manitoban girls we met were actually in Munich for the final and reported that things got so crazy when Bayern won that police had to close the underground so people didn’t spill out onto the train tracks. Now that is crowded!

On our second day we did a tour with Fraulein Maria’s Bike Tours and it was the BEST decision we’ve made thus far. It was not technically an official tour in the eyes of the tourism board of Austria, but it was a strictly cheesy Sound of Music tour, taking us to all the classic sites, which was absolutely fine by us.

We twirled in the vivacious hills where Maria once twirled, we skipped down the road where she once skipped, we almost fell into the lake outside the von Trapp estate, we sang Do Re Mi where the children sang Do Re Mi, and we cycled blissfully through the Austrian outskirts and inskirts? of Salzburg all the while learning odd facts about the film and even the real live Maria von Trapp! And I do not have to tell you we were belting the soundtrack to the film because that is a given.

Salzburg was a delightful time and possibly the most tourist-y we’ve been thus far, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Some things worth returning for would be of course to get to know the city sans the cheesy tourist attractions, but also western Austria is famous for it’s ice caves, salt mines and the Eagle’s nest, located in and around the Bavarian Alps. There’s much more to explore and Austria is a wonderful country, to be further raved about in posts about Vienna!

Our first day in Salzburg we walked around the Old Town and soaked in the sights. As my father warned me, Salzburg’s tourism industry weighs heavily upon it’s two claims to fame: that it’s the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that The Sound of Music was set and filmed there. These two facts are unforgettable after visiting this beautiful city. The pictures are as follows: The fountain the children splashed past with the steps in behind where they sung Do Re Mi (!!) The fanciest McDonald’s sign I’ve ever seen The city skyline from halfway up the road to Salzburg’s fortress The gnome park briefly pictures in Do Re Mi The fountain Fraulein Maria runs past and splashes some water out of during her Confidence song on the way to the Von Trapps Mozart’s original piano Lo as Mozart The lovely Elbe River

Just for the record, here's a little sidenote statistic - out of the 16 cities Emz and I will visit on this trip:

7 of them are German speaking, (Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Dachau, Salzburg, Vienna)

4 are Dutch speaking, (Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans)

2 Czech speaking (Prague, Chesky Krumlov)

1 Slovenian speaking, (Ljubljana)

1 Slovakian speaking, (Bratislava) and lastly

1 Hungarian speaking (Budapest).

In Brussels of course we were able to speak some French but it's funny how on this trip we ended up not really practicing our pre-existing language skills at all. Perhaps a good excuse to do another trip to France, Spain and Italy? Only time will tell...

Munich/ Munchen was where our flawless weather kicked out and the clouds were disrespectfully leaking all over us, but that hardly hindered our experience! Munich was the fourth and final German city we visited on the trip and the first in Bavaria. Munich is a great city. Emz and I both agreed living in Munich would be both pleasant and easy. (Minus the language barrier of course.) Once we settled into our outrageously convenient hostel (4U Hostel) located steps away from Munchen Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) we set out for downtown to explore. Great first impressions of the main square with the impressive Rathaus (town hall) and it’s famous glockenspiel. We ate and retired after a long day of travel and walking. The next morning we started out our full day in Munich with the standard free walking tour put on by Sandeman’s New Europe tours, the same company that we went with in Amsterdam and Prague. We absolutely lucked out and got an amazingly qualified and intriguing guide, Marcin. (Polish name, British man.) He gave us such good information and we learned an insane amount; we almost forgot it was the coldest and wettest we had been on the trip thus far… Almost. With him we went into the expensive shopping district and spotted Schicki-Mickis, the German slang for the uppity high class wealthy folk who wear high heels on cobblestones, sport Rolex’s and have blow-outs. We learned some cool factoids like that Hugo Boss actually launched his career by designing the SS brownshirts’ uniforms. We passed the pub where 4 men founded the Nazi party together, and learned that Munich is historically most famous for it’s salt. Munich translated roughly means monks, and the to this day the monk is an important symbol of the city. We walked the street where Hitler was famously almost shot down, but was saved by his clumsy bodyguard. We learned that the lion is also an important symbol of the city as the founder of the city “Henry the Lion” was a very influential figure. The same man was a complete pedophile and married a 12 year old girl, but I guess everyone has their flaws.

We learned that if you are caught doing the Nazi salute or displaying a swastika in Munich there is a minimum fine of 2500 euros and you will not be allowed in Germany or Austria for 8 years. Can you tell I legitimately started taking notes on this tour?! Marcin was a gem. In any case, after the informative yet soggy tour, we sought shelter in a Augustiner pub. Augustiner is arguably Munich’s pride and joy, possibly after their soccer team who won the league championship a few days after we left though! Apparently every Munich native has their fridge stocked with this beer, and the company is quite philanthropic within Germany. They don’t export their beer because of purity laws keeping them from putting in any chemical preservatives but hey, that’s what makes it such a treat to enjoy in the homeland. Edelstoff is the kind we had, and it was indeed delicious. And it must be if the Pope endorses it! (Details on that foggy, but the pope and I have sipped the same beer and I'm sure google could be of service here.)

After we had dried off a touch, we set out to tackle some of the main tourist sites Munich has to offer in our own walking tour sort of fashion. We visited the expansive Englisher Gardens and the Chinesischer Turm biergarten. It was pretty deserted due to the weather but just seeing the capacity for 7000 people and thinking about all the lively and tipsy Germans drinking their beer on a hot summer’s day was quite the image!

We strolled through some parks and stopped at various monuments and points of interest before retiring to our room and getting a good night’s sleep before our day trip out to Dachau.

Dachau is the town most famous for being the location of Hitler’s favourite concentration camp. I don’t really have much to say about this trip other than I’m very glad we went, it was quite an experience physically being there and walking the grounds, and I’m glad we went on a paid tour because if we had gone independently we would not have gotten nearly as much out of it. It was not a cheery day but it was an important day.

For our last hurrah in Munich we visited the Nymphenburg Palace and gardens after returning from Dachau. It was quite stunning and I was very fond of all the ducks and swans. And walking through elaborate gardens is one of my favourite pastimes so it was a more uplifting end to our stay in Munich, as well as Germany.

A main attraction we did not see in Munich was the Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle! That could have been another day trip but before we knew it, it was time to head off to Salzburg the morning of Friday, May 24th.

I would absolutely revisit Munich, and I’d be supportive of an Oktoberfest trip being made so as to fully experience the biergarten culture!

On Thursday we did a guided tour out to Dachau, the former concentration camp turned memorial site. It was very heavy, but I felt as though it was something I had to do while in Europe and I found it to be very worthwhile. I’m really glad we went with a guide since he was able to provide all the information we needed (whether I wanted to hear it or not at times). He was able to strike a balance between being informative and respectful, which I appreciated. Dachau was the first concentration camp the Nazis ever built. It served as the model for all that were built after it, and it was Heinrich Himmler’s ‘favourite’ camp. It was constructed in 1933 and was in operation up until April 29th, 1945 when it was liberated by American troops. It wasn’t constructed as a death camp (like Auschwitz-Birkenau, for example) but of the over 200 000 people that came through Dachau in the 12 years it was operational, over 41 000 were killed. Just a few minutes after we entered the facility I experienced a feeling I never had before. Everything in me was telling me to leave, to get out of there. I knew I was safe, but I felt nauseous and uneasy for the majority of the tour. We spent about four hours at the site, walking through the main administration building, the prison, the reconstructed barracks, the grounds, and the gas chamber/crematorium. We also watched a twenty minute documentary about the site’s history. Dachau is one of three camps across Europe that still has its original gas chamber facility and crematorium, though there’s no proof that the gas chamber was ever used for anything besides disinfecting clothing. I couldn’t stay in either of those rooms for long. It was horrific.

Tuesday we took the train from Prague to Munich. I went to get a snack on the train (around 11:00am) and the man working at the concession insisted I get chocolate and beer: “A perfect combination. Nothing goes better with chocolate than beer!”. I didn’t argue with him. Once we arrived, around 4, we wandered around downtown and sat in the Odeonsplatz for an hour or two. The next day we did an amazing walking tour with Marcin, a past British history and music professor, and learned all about Munich. He did a great job of balancing humour and history while keeping us engaged. I particularly enjoyed his discussion on German resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War. I can most definitely see myself living here, learning German, and eating apple-based pastries daily. We had a perfect lunch after the tour and then set off to see some more sights, including a beer garden with 7000+ seats. The dreary weather meant that it wasn’t too busy, but I’d imagine it would be packed on a hot August afternoon. We ended up going to see Star Trek that evening with four other people from our hostel - a guy from Toronto, a girl from Wisconsin, a guy from England, and a girl from New Zealand. It was lots of fun and a thoroughly entertaining film.

The pictures go as follows: Train snack Main market square Opposite ends of the spectrum of Bavarian fashion An EU government building Proof that in Germany, even the police officers drive BMWs The old Rathaus and the Glockenspiel (second most over-rated tourist attraction in Europe) Me having lunch at the Augustina Brew House (goulash and a pretzel - delish) A sign for one of Munich’s many beer gardens

Prague (in Czech, Praha) was GORGEOUS. The golden city of 100 spires was possibly my favourite city we’ve visited on this trip. My opinion may be slightly influenced by the fact that we had perfect weather during our entire stay but I think even if it was raining we would have had a delightful experience there. We arrived on Friday May 17th from Dresden and left the morning of Tuesday May 21st headed for Munich.

Something somewhat unique about Prague is that by a miraculous stroke of luck, most of the city has been preserved. It has been an increasing pattern in cities we’ve been to that all the “old” buildings are not in fact that old because they were bombed or destroyed during WWII and were reconstructed later on. This makes the “old towns” of many cities actually newer than the “new towns.”

Our walking tour guide in Prague was really not very good, but the tour itself was great and explored all the main downtown areas of the city. That left us ample time to explore around the lesser-visited parts of the city and put our Use-It map to good use. Prague is not flat, and I appreciated that, as I never trust a city with no hills. The city is full of amazing viewpoints from which you can see all the red roofs, steeples and greenery Prague has to offer. The best part of the Use-It map in my opinion is the suggested walking routes. It offered us three and we did them all because we’ve had such good experiences with the walking routes in the past! The first one took us through the quarters of Karlin and Holešovice, a more industrial and modern region. Apparently in 2002 most of this area was demolished by floods so most of the buildings are new. Halfway through the walk we spotted a sketchy looking foot tunnel so naturally we decided to walk through it. The map suggested it would take us to a park and after a long and brisk walk of listening to the joker-like laughter of strangers echoing through the tunnel we emerged in a park indeed. I don’t know why I expected any less from Prague but their parks, or at least the ones we visited were absolutely gorgeous. (Again, experiences were of course elevated by weather.)

The other walks we did took us through the more mainstream areas such as Petrín’s Hill where Prague’s “Eiffel Tower” can be found as well as an amazing view of the city. We actually stopped hiking half way up to lay in a lush, rolling meadow because it was too hot and we were too tired. We had a quality photo shoot in this meadow and enjoyed the much needed shade after walking all day in the sun.

Prague’s most famous bridge, the Charles bridge, was constantly jam packed with tourists and for good reason as it is probably the most beautiful bridge transporting people over the Vltava river. even so, we never actually crossed it as there are at least 5 other perfectly good bridges connecting the city to cross on.

We visited at least three high-up viewpoints during our stay in Prague and from every angle it is just as mesmerizing. Something that can be seen from almost everywhere is the TV tower, a horrible monstrosity that for some inexplicable reason/someone’s idea of art has 11 giant black (stone?) babies crawling all over it. This structure was voted the world’s second ugliest and everyone is confused about the giant baby “art.”

We used the trams and metros quite often to get from the further ends if the city to others and it was all going wonderfully until the very last evening. We had just gotten some traditional Czech potato dishes from an outdoor market and were waiting for the metro to get back to the hostel, when a man in a discreet navy blue bomber jacket approached us. He came up close and flashed an odd metal object on a chain at us and then uttered “tickets” in a gruff, tired voice. These people’s only job is to ruin others’ lives. Pure panic flashed through Emz and I’s eyes and we knew we were caught. It was actually quite sad because I in fact had a ticket but it was not validated so the two of us headed upstairs to pay him our 40$ fine, or 800 Czech crowns. Not the best end to our stay but regardless of the negative, Prague was beautiful, classic, filled with things to do, and relaxing and charming all at the same time. However, the UNESCO world heritage site, Chesky Krumlov takes the cake for charming I’d say. This quaint little town is gorgeous. It’s extraordinarily tourist-y but we had a delightful time wandering around, eating traditional pastries and going up to the castle tower and museum for some historical background and an amazing 360 degree view of the town. As you can see from the photos Emz posted, it was quite breathtaking. After about four hours we caught the 4pm bus, a ride taking us back into Prague after about 3 1/2 hours. The next morning we were en route to Bavaria!

In summary, Prague has something for everyone coming from every walk of life. Five out of five stars! Also I’d definitely recommend the hostel we stayed in, Czech Inn, as the staff was helpful, the rooms and washrooms were clean and spacious and it was very easy to find and close to everything by walking, tram or metro! Also the name is a Czech pun which is fun as well.

OH. How could I forget: We Czecked out (ha) THE GREAT GATSBY, Wonderful film. Indulgent, over-the-top, a glorious spectacle. If you’re not into cheesy films sprinkled with every last ounce of glitz and glam New York in the 20’s had to offer, don’t see it.

Our last full day in Prague we took a three hour bus out to Cesky Krumlov for a day trip. It’s a town built around a 13th century Czech castle, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a bit of a tourist trap but it really was amazing. I’m glad we got such good weather! We had a nice lunch, toured the city, climbed to the top of the clock tower, and explored the castle museum. We had some of the most beautiful views we have seen all trip. I love the red roofs!