It's been a whirlwind of a trip since Seth met me in Berlin on Thursday. We have covered a lot of ground and done some incredible things in the past few days. Thursday and Friday I took him on a crash course of Berlin's major sights - the Reichstag, Alexander Platz, Holocoust Memorial, Tiergarten, etc. For ease and "convenience" we rented bikes to tour the city. Little did we know the headache that would ensue.
After leisurely walking through the Holocoust Memorial museum, we went back to where we had locked up our bikes and accidentally broke the key off in the lock! Well shoot, now what do we do? We took the U-bahn back to bike shop where they gave us super sharp, heavy duty wire cutters to go cut the lock off of the bike. So we take the U-bahn back to the bikes, but as we were trying to cut the wire, these Russian-looking guards came up to us asking if we were stealing the bike! We tried to explain what happened, but we couldn't really communicate very well. The we showed them the lock with the broken key and it was good enough for them to leave us alone. We rode the bikes back to the shop (in killer Berlin rush hour traffic) and decided to retire our bikes for the night. Whew, what an adventure!
We arrive late Friday night in Munich after a 5-hour, uneventful train ride (fighting for a seat when we first got on the train was the only difficult part.) The wombat hostel was really nice and thankfully right near the train station. However, they overbooked the place so Seth and I had to share the bottom of a bunk bed for the first night. But they only charged us for one bed the first night and gave us coupons for breakfast and free drinks in the Wom-bar.
Saturday we took a train to Dachau to see the memorial of the former concentration camp. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day, but the experience was sombering and slightly overwhelming. The complex was enormous. There was an expansive museum, recreated prioner baracks and religious memorial sites. You could also walk through the area where they cremated people. Very eerie, but a good experience. The really cool thing about visiting Dachau, was that there is now a convent built up against one side of it, so there are a lot of nuns walking around. Seth and I stopped into the church there and caught a few minutes of the nuns' singing. It was beautiful.
The next day, Sunday, we took a 2-hour train ride to see the Neuschwanstein fairytale castle. The castle is located right on the edge of the Alps in the middle of Bavaria, so the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. After a tiring 40 minute climb up a mountain, we got to tour the ornate, but somewhat gaudy, castle. It really was like a fairytale with turrets and tapestries and grand staircases. I half-expected to see a dragon fly outside the window! When we returned to Munich we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus to get a liter of beer, some German spaetzle and listen to a leder-hosen clad oompa band. It was touristy, but a lot of fun!
Even though we left for Rome on Monday, our night train didn't leave until 9 p.m., so we had basically a whole day in the city. We went of a free bike tour with a company that just works off of tips. I know - back on the bikes again. But this time we weren't responsible for locking them up, so it was ok! We saw some great historical and architectural sites and then continued into the massive Englischer Garten for lunch at a beer garden (which featured a giant Pagoda; they seem to have their cultures a little mixed up here!) The Englischer Garten was sooo much nicer and better than Berlin's Tiergarten. Beautifully landscaped with rivers, swans, flowers, bike paths and even an artifical surfing wave. I know, pretty weird, right? This river they diverted into the park flows very fast in the beginning and so they added rocks underneath to create this wave of water that people actually surf on. It's pretty awesome and will make more sense once I post some pictures. After the tour, a couple of us went back to the park with our guide, Conner, and few of his friends to hang out, throw a frisbee around and essentially stare death in the eye.
Here's what happened: The river I mentioned above splits in two directions, one slow, meandering river and one fast, rapid-filled one. Apparently, the locals (including our guide) jump in the river just downstream of the surfing wave and float down with no floation down the river. Me and Seth half wanted to try this, half were forced to by Conner, a couple of his friends and another American from the tour. All I can say is what a rush! The water was so cold, it was hard to breath when you first got in. But soon it seemed to warm up, whether from getting used to it or from being numb. The trick is to definitely keep your feet up in front of you so you don't get caught on any rocks or branches. The river is mostly smooth, just fast-paced, but at this one point you actually have to free swim through some actual rapids. It forces you under for a few seconds and is pretty scary! After that though, it's smooth sailing until you climb up this rickety old ladder that was probably put in for people who accidently fall in the river, not us crazy people who choose to! It was so an incredibly fun and bizarre experience, something I know Seth and I would never have done on our own.
Last night we took the night train from Munich to Rome, which was also pretty uneventful beyond an incredibly rude woman who worked in our car and took our tickets. But we both ended up getting a few hours of sleep. Right now we're kiling some time in an internet cafe until we can check into our hostel. I will catch up with you again when I can. But for now, Ciao bella!
