World Wanderings

I'm in Munich, capital of Bavaria and also of beer. Doesn't sound like too bad of a place to stop over for a couple of days. How can you go wrong with delicious beer (yes, I know to some this is a contradiction) and lederhosen. And yes I've seen plenty of people (who weren't tourist) wear them. In fact just last night at a beer garden, the guy running sound for the band onstage was in full garb. Just amazing.

But alas I didn't come to Munich just to see awsome garb and drink a delecious brew. I was interested to see a fully rebuilt city that had been pretty much destroyed by the second world war. Not only rebuilt, but rebuilt the way it was. It has been interesting to walk around, surrounded by what appear to be rather old buildings, but in all honesty are only 50 or so years old. It's an interesting mix of old architecture with a rather new, unscathed by time, petine.

After traveling all day from Switzerland, which took a cable car, bus, and 4 seperate trains, I decided to head out without a map and explore the cloudy city of Munich. Low and behold the street that I happen to stumble upon is the main shopping strip, and what a strip it is. It's a good two miles long, and filled to the brim with every loud, screaming, in your face store that they could find. It was a bit dissapointing. But then out of the corner something caught my eye. The double steeples of a nearby cathedral. I stopped on by, found it open, and was awashed with the sound of voice and organ. I had stumbled upon a rehearsal for the next evenings concert. This was a little more like it. I stayed until the building closed. I then proceeded to stumble upon the ritziest and expensive street in Munich, the street sides lined with pricy sports cars. And finally I ran into the famous Hofbrauhaus, the biggest tourist attraction for those seeking out beer houses. Not too shabby for randomly walking around.

Yesterday was filled with a free tour, museum visit, and an obligitory visit to the Hofbrauhaus. The free tour was a bit disjointed as my guide was battleing a cold, and every cough got her a bit off track, but still a decent overview all together. Afterwards I found a marketplace filled with delicious looking food, and got myself a 'mystery meat' sandwhich. I only say mystery meat because it was labeled in German. It was good and I'm still alive.

After a lot of walking and a visit to one of the many art museums I meandered over to the beer hall, hungry for a hearty meal and a food brew. Both of which I got. And while sitting down at my bench, I met a semi-local German (from an hour north), here For one night. While his English was a bit disjointed, it was much better than my German, and he ended up being a fun character to talk to for a while. Again, I'm always amazed at how many people speak English. I feel as though every German I've met speaks a good bit of English.

Afterwards I spent way too long last night trying to find and book hostels for the next few places (Salburg, Vienna). After little luck, my credit card not working, and places literally booking up as I was searching, I just gave up and went to bed not sure of the next nights accomidations. Just generally I have been frustrated with the whole online booking process, as hostels charge a booking fee (that adds up after 30-40 of them) so I try to call, but they make you go through extra work to find thier phone number. In the end some hostels don't even book over the phone, and sometimes Skype just doesn't work. While when I started I worried little about finding a place, but it's still the height of the tourist season and places fill up. Anyways, I have my qualms, but I awoke this morning first to a but of panic but then determined that everything would work out.

And it did. I found a random hostel in town and decided to stay two more nights (my current hostel was books full, my original plan), and on my way to the random hostel I stumbled upon a pretty well know franchise of hostels (with a good reputation). Pretty sure that they had no space, I decided to give it a try anyways. Sure enough, space doe two nights. Not I only did I find a place and was able to stay two more days in Munich, I also have been able to book a place in Vienna through them (and can get a place in Berlin as well). Eveything worked out better than I could have imagined. Now I just have to see about Salbueg for one night, but I'm not worried.

So after solidifying a sleeping spot, I went back into Munich to see more of it. I spent most of the day at museums. One in particular, which was a technology museum. I spent amost 5 hours there, and didn't see a good third of it. It has to have been the most comprehensive museum of it's kind. It traced the engine from wind turbine to steam to combustion to jets and rockets. All in more detail than I've seen out fourth anywhere else. But that was only one subject. There was aviation, space travel, bridges (and all the different kinds of construction), optics, physics, chemistry, building materials, glass, photography and film, printing, paper, and on and on. I'm glad they didn't chose I translate half of it into English, because I would have seen even less. One thing I did walk away with was a renewed desire to learn out to fly an aircraft (which I've always had).

After a long day of wondering an museuming, I decided to treat myself to another hearty Bavarian meal, which consisted of meat anda potato dunpling in a mushroom gravy. Mmmmm. This time I visited another, smaller beer house, with even better beer. It has been a good day.

The secret to the Swiss and their neutrality? Community gardens and randomly placed benches out in the middle of nowhere with amazing vistas.

I've seen more community gardens in Switzerland than anywhere else in Europe. In fact I havnt seen them any where else in Europe. It's an interesting thing to pass by on the train. Each person has thier little 30x30' plot of land, a little garden shed with an overhanging roof, and several chairs to sit and enjoy. They and quaint and cute. While we have a cimminty garden near my home, it's nowhere as elaborate. The Swiss know how to do it up.

As for the benches, they are everywhere, and often in some pretty remote spots. It's as if a group of people where each asked to carry a wooden bench around and plant it in a spot that thy deemed worthy of a bench. No matter how remote or odd the spot. I saw a hill, in what looked like the middle of farmland, and sure enough not only did the top have a conviently placed tree with a bench underneath, but it got the grand treatment of cement stairs going up to it. Yes, out in the middle of what appeared to be nowhere. Surely this is the next advancemt in the world of extreme benching.

On a more srerioud note. It really is amazing how many different, strong cultural influences are combined in Switzerland. They could never go to war, each country around them seems to have it's own piece of the pie (without actually owning anything). With 4 national languages, and 4 distinct cultures, the Swiss are much like thier famous knives, very versitable. In fact after meeting an elderly lady in her 80's who spoke beautiful English, I didn't worry about anyone understanding me. Everyone spoke at least 3 languages it seemed. That and they were very kind and helpful.

Of course another secret of the Swiss is their chocolate. How could anyone argue with a country that produces top notch chocolate? I have a feeling most international arguments are solved with a simple shipment of chocolate. At least in my world that's how it would work. It would have to be dark though.

I did managed to keep up my goal of 1 chocolate bar a day. Maybe not the best for ones health, but wonderful for ones soul. There were so many different varieties, it was hard picking out just which lucky bar would meet it's timely demise in mouth. Each day I attempted to go for a bar that would one-up the previous days. And yes, I made sure to have chocolate fondue while in Switzerland (goal accomplished).

Switzerland is more than just chocolate, knives, and huts full of cheese (I was in a few of those, walls filled with wheels of cheese). The landscape is nothing short of breathtaking. I saw a cloud 'jumping' off the top of a small peak along the shore of a large glacier lake this morning. In fact, dispute it being rainy and cloudy the past two days, I've seen some really cool clouds. Sometimes the hill/cliffsides would be dotted with ctiny clouds, creating an interesting texture of what looked like cotton candy and the sharp shapes of the trees peaking through. And occasional overhead, much further above your head then you think anything should be, a pale white peak and a little blue sky would peek through the high blanket of clouds. These glimpses were almost more overwhelming than seeing the whole mountain all at once since, once they were covered, you forgot just how imposing and high they actually were. Though little could beat seeing a whole range of the alps outside of the dorm room window at the hostel I stayed at in Gimmelwald.

I now am entering the final three weeks of travel. I have about 7 cities I want to see, and I want to be in London a few days early, just to make sure that if there are any transportation issues with getting to my flight, I have a buffer day or two. This gives a pretty tight schedule of 2-3 nights in a city.

How my pace has changed since I first started out. I was determined to packed every moment in, take overnight trains for long trips, and just move fast. It took a month to get burned out with that style of travel. I have enjoyed taking things at a slower pace, staying an average of three nigths in a place (adding or taking away a day where I thought I needed to)., and just traveling when I need to instead of waiting for overnigt trains. Because of this, I've been able to take almost all regional trains or non reservation trains, so my eurorail pass has been working out much better for me. I feel as though I can hop on and off trains to get to all the places I need, and I don't need to wait in line for a stupid reservation.

I think Switzerland has slowed me down even more. Seeing how there was much less to do (museums, sights, monuments) and just more to see and experience. Most days were spent going on a hike, and then relaxing in town by the lake or back at the hostel. It's been good to have a good bunch of downtime.

Well I'm in Germany now (as of writing). Got asked for my passport by customs for the first time since entering France from Spain. It's been a good long while. Although I'm kind of sad my passport won't be filled with stamps, as they don't stamp them internally (at least traveling by train through Europe). Oh well.

Next update will be on Munich.

So, as per usual, my itinerary changed. Originally I was going to go to Bern and Zurich, but instead I find myself in Gimmelwald for a few nights. And as I write this, I realize that it is a few nights too short. But I have three weeks left, and I've already cut a bunch of cities I'd like to see. That's what traveling is all about though, seeing, staying, and enjoying where you're at. I'm not too worried about all the places I'm not going to get too. But at this point I must trek on, or else I may just get stuck here in Switzerland. It's amazing, and I'll be back.

To pick up where I left off, the rest if Swiss day was good fun. The parade was fun to watch, filled with cows, horses, traditional dress, and local customs. I managed to keep enough sunblock on me to not burn in the bright hot sun during it all. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing in the 'relaxation room' at the hostel (a room filled with hammocks). The hostel had a huge party, and the owner even stopped by to say hi, and a group photo was taken. So next season you can find my face on 'Balmer's Herberge' brouchures (it'll be small and pixelated).

The day finished off with a grand set of fireworks. I thought I would have missed my big fireworks show opportunites, which I normally catch back home, but alas I got my big production show. After which they light a huge bonfire, whose flames reach 30+ feet. Good times all around.

Of course since I added an extra day, I was moved to a 32 bed dorm for that night. It wasn't a very large room, so bunks took up the wall, stacked 3 high, and each section contained two beds. So I got to sleep next to mystery person 'x', as I went to bed long before they arrived. I was awoken by them in the middle of the night, as the man next to me turned and swung his arm in my direction. Nothing like being beat up when sleeping by the unconcious person next to you. Dorm experiences always are interesting.

I have to say it'll be nice to have a room to myself when I finally get back. As well as being in a place where bathrooms arn't unisex.

Anyway, I took a lazy morning to rest up some more and headed over to Grimmelwald. It was cloudy and a little rainy at points. But the walk in the valley to the cable car, that would take me up to the village, was georgious. The misty, cloudy background created an excellent background for the steely peaks in the distance.

Grimmelwald has been nice, and while I could see the alps out my bedroom window all yesterday, they have failed to peek through the fog and cloud that has hung around all day. It's cool to walk along the street and only see cloud on one side, almost like being in some sort of 'cloud city'. So it's been another lazy day, well, after hiking for 4 hours this morning up to one of the glaciers and back. I'm enjoying these lazy days though, and could stand a few more. But yet again I need to keep moving to my next destination.

Luzern

Luzern from above

Walls around Luzern

Luzern, view across the lake

Luzern, view across the lake

Interlaken

Swiss Valley

Gimmelwald

Swiss Valley

Swiss Day parade

Swiss Alp view from Gimmelwald

I seem to have a problem with this whole concept of relaxing. I've notice this before, and I don't think it's a problem that willbe solved any time soon.

Yesterday was supposed to be my day to relax. Spend the day either in the hammocks provided at the hostel, or go down to the lake for a day at the beach and a cruise. Well that didn't quite happen. Since I knew I'd have time to relax today, I decided to go for a little hike to a bunch of waterfalls that I saw yesterday.

This small hike ended up being something to the effect of a 34km hike (well it was mostly flat so I'll call if a walk). Hmm. Not quite the day or relaxing I had oriinally planned. Funny how that happens. I just could sit still yesterday and needed to do something. I didn't feel like paying foe the train, so I decided to walk a few towns over where t would have left me off. Plus I figured I could enjoy the amazing scenery while I was at it, which I did. For the most part the hike followed one of the glacier water rivers, and I was able to see at least one or two of the snow capped peaks while I was walking. So it wasn't like I had a boring hike by any means. It was a much nicer day than the one before, with only a few clouds here and there, but much clearer.

My final destination of the falls turned out to be a dissapointment. There was an entrance fee (boo), and I saw a lift, so I figured it wild take us up to the bottom of the huge falls, 500 or is meters up. Nope. I only took us up a little ways where the water fr the three larger falls emptied out into a cavern. Sure it was really cool to see. Especially to watch the way in which the water had carved out the 'cave' I was in. I just would have rather seen the really awesome huge waterfalls that I had seen from the other side of the canyon.

Oh well.

It was a good walk anyways. On my way back I stopped into one of the local towns and picked up some of the local cheese and bread. I muched on those as I made my way back to Interlaken. This hike was followed by a quiet few hours laying in a hammock finishing up a book. The day was finished up with a dinner, wine, and chocolate with a fellow traveler. Not a bad day at all.

Today is Swiss day.

I spent the first half of the day at one of the surrounding lakes with a friend from the hostel. We hit the lake, and hit it hard. I finally got around to just doing nothing (and catching up in journaling), as well as jumping into the cold cold glacier water. It was so refreshing. The weather could not be better, with nary a cloud in the sky, the vistas are amazing, especially with the ever present snow covered peaks in the background. I might just end up staying here for the next three weeks (not really though).

After swimming, I went into town to check out the local parade, which was a lot of fun to see. Lots of traditional dress, brass bands, horses, saint bernards, and drums. It was fun, quirky, and a fun look at some of the Swiss traditions. Tonight there are fireworks (yahoo), so it should be a pretty awesome day all in all.

I took the train from Luzern to Interlaken yesterday. It had to be the most scenic train ride I've taken so far. The whole ride was filled with large pearlescent blue lakes that lay between mountains. The sky was crystal clear and a perfect blue color. I was almost tempted to ride the train back to Luzern (and then back to Interlaken).

I'm now staying in Interlaken, the high thrills, adventure seeking, mountain climbing jump off point. My hostel, which has almost everything a hosteller could want, has it's own booking counter for things such as white water rafting, bungee jumping, paragliding, hang gliding, and of course sky diving. Very temping, but just all too expensive for me right now. But trail hiking up the mountains is the good, fair price of free. So that is what I have been doing.

I spent the rest of yesterday wondering around Interlaken, getting a feeling for the town, and looking for a good view point to see everything (including the Swiss alps, ever present in the background). I found one point just on the outskirts I town. A good 120m above the city, and I had found a relatively decent view. Of course all of the fun and excitement of hiking up switchbacks came rushing back to mind. After staying and enjoying the view for a while, I headed back to the hostel, where I sent the rest of the night hanging out.

Today was a bit more involved. I decided I would take a train to a nearby town and hike up to a town called Murren. Instead of gaining an altitude of 120m this was slightly more at nearly 900m. It was supposed to be a 2.5 hour hike, but I just could wait around taking that long getting up. I actually ended up arriving at the top, drenched in sweat, in an hour and a half. It was a steep ascent, and of course I didn't exactly pack proper hiking gear (yay for sandles), but I was pretty proud of myself for blowing thier normal hiking time out of the water. It was good that I arrived when I did for a got thr only glimps of the alp range that I would get for several hours.

When setting out I figured it might get overcast, but I was really hoping it wouldn't. Sure enough, as soon as I walked into town, the clouds came and covered up the snow topped peaks. I trucked onwards though heading to my final destination of Grimmelwald. A small one road village of 150 people with a view of the mountains to die for. And just as I was wondering around town the clouds cleared up enough to see all the peaks. It was breathtaking, and as I sat on a bench with the best view in the world, I couldn't think of anywhere else that I wanted to be at that moment. It was well worth the strenuous hike.

It was also interesting to see the town go on about it's normal life. Everyone was out on the steep hills (30-45 degree inclines) cutting, raking, and harvesting hay. It was amazing to see how they could work on such a harsh steep land. It was probably more amazing to see they driving trucks up these inclines, fill them up, and drive back down the hills side. It looked labor intensive, and walking up and down hills all day does not sound quite like my cup of tea.

Another funny occursnce happened while I was in the one street village of Grimmelwald. I ran into a friend from my earlier travels.

How things like this happen, I will never know. Of all places to be, and of all times to be there, we both happened to be there at the same time. I have to say, after having several of these run-ins while in Europe, the world really is a small place.

Well I'm relaxing now, and plan to spend tomorrow recouperating from today adventures.

A thought.

I've come to realize that the Internation Youth Hostels (IYH) hostels are so institutionalized and have such an expected outcome, that they are all pretty boring. Since they are so predictable (they have to meet certain standards), they have become a haven for families and school groups. The individual adventurer will be hard pressed to find people to hang out and talk with at one. There is no character at one of these hostels, unlike the quirks and admenities of the independent hostels (which I've mostly stayed at). The one that I stayed at in Luzern, much like the others was behind the times in offering wifi and didn't have an open kitchen to use. 2 important things for backpackers amongst many others.

Ok, off to chill.

I'm finally in Switzerland, after changing plans a month ago and going south instead. But first let.me recap my last day in Italy.

I planned to be here a day earlier than I actually arrived, but that would be due to meeting a fellow traveler at the camping grounds in Venice who had plans to go to Murano. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to stay in Luzern, so I decided to stay an extra day at the camp and go to Murano with them. For those who don't know, Murano is a small island near Venice well know for it's glass.

So the next day involved a nice 1 hour boat ride around Venice and out to Murano, which luckily helped justify the outragious 6.50 euro ticket each way for the "bus". Of course I feel only turists use them (or pay those prices). But it was a clear sunny day, with clouds bursting over the mountains in the distance. The salty, questionable, water splashed up on the boat occasionally, cooling off my arm and legs.

The island itself was great. It had all of the charm of Venice with it's colorful decaying buildings, bright open sidewalks, and quaint bridges, but without the crowd. There was no crowd to be seen, the most people congregated in one place was at the bus stops. It was great. Many of the streets were completely empty. We spent the day wondering all the small, offbeat paths that we could find, as well as enjoying the great many shops filled with glass art. It was a day well spent, and a fitting end to my time in Italy. For the next day I was off to Switzerland!

My day began unhurriedly, as my train left at 11am. I took my time gettin up and moving for the day. Like many times I've moved from place to place, I didn't have a hostel booked and didn't know when all my connecting trains would leave. But that didn't bother me, I knew I'd get there. Get there I did. After arrivin in Milan, there was one train leaving for Zurich, one which needed a reservation. I only had 10 min, not enough time to wait in the hour long line. I was ready to just give up and wait for another one, when I decided to just go to the zurich train and give it a try. I asked the conductor (who didn't speak any English) and he just waved me on! Alright! Taking initiative works. Every other train from that time was ready and waiting at connections (I had two more). To top it all off, there was plenty of space at the hostel. It was a smooth day of traveling. And a georgious day as well. In Italy the train followed alongside the mountians, but when we started heading north and going into Switzerland, we went into them. It's really as you would picture it, with talls mountains, green valleys, glacier blue water running down the side in waterfalls and rivers, and quaint towns and houses pearched along the sides. I lost count of the number of waterfalls and small churches perched at the edge of towering cliffsides. It was almost 4 hours of visual bliss.

Then I get to Luzern. A town perched on the egde of a lake which laps at the foot of mountains on the distant shore. I think I could grow old here. There's a lovely prominade that winds alongside the lake shore, filled with benches and million dollar views. My days here have been spent less doing than seeing things. I've just been wondering through the old town, along the shore, and on top of the old city walls. As well as taking my time and relaxing. It's been nice.

Although I had my first sticker shock moment. I've grown so used to the euro that when I heard the amount for three nightsy jaw almost hit the floor. Then I remembered it was in Swiss Francs, almost equal with the dollar ( and it's about $1.4 to the euro). So, funny enough I've been converting everything back to euros, because that is what I've become used to. And since everything in Switzerland is about one third more (a mcdonald meal starts at 9CHF), it makes everything seem a bit more reasonable. I found it odd jus how used to euros I had gotten. But I guess it makes sense since I've been using them for the past two months.

Luzern has been great. Also since my hostel doesn't have wifi, it's pretty awesome that they have blanketed thier downtown area in free wifi. If only every city was that awesome.

Well I have one last night here, been trying to catch the sunset every night, as it lights up the nearby mountain range beautifully, so I'm off to do that. Tomorrow I head to Interlaken.