Night train to Switzerland

Last night I hopped on the 9 o'clock train from Dresden to Zurich! It was a nice ride and I actually had a pretty good sleep. I chatted a bit with two of the people in my cabin and they were both really nice. When I got to Zurich I transferred to the train towards Luzern and got off in Zug, where I am now.

When I got off the train I met up with my old au pair Daniela and spent the day with her family. It was great to catch up with her after 20 years and to meet her wonderful husband and adorable 2.5 year old Leilani. We went to her brothers house for a few hours and Leilani played with his three kids, and later we hung out at Daniela's place and had a wonderful salmon dinner and I finally got some good vegetables in Europe! It was a really great time!

We parted ways around 8:30 when Leilani was in bed for the night and Daniela drove me to my hostel here in Zug. Tomorrow I will spend some time down at the lake before taking the train to Nürtingen back in Germany to meet up with Jutta and family!

The train station in Dresden, Germany

Daniela, Leilani, and I

A day in Dresden

This morning I after I got up and ready for the day, I checked out of my hostel in Dresden and walked to the train station to store my bag for the day. Thank goodness there were storage lockers because I really didn't want to have to walk all the way back to the hostel after a long day! So my things were safe and I was on my way to explore a new city.

I think that one day was definitely sufficient to explore the city. It is a really nice place, and I very much enjoyed being here! I began my day my obtaining a ticket to enter the Historic Green Vault, which according to my trusty new Rick Steves' book is the must see location in Dresden. Downloading Rick Steves' Germany was the best decision ever. I definitely made great use of my time here because of it, and I'm pretty sure it will continue to come in handy later in my trip as well (so Kelly, get ready for Rick Steves' talks Hamburg haha). Anyways, after ing getting an 11:30 entry time I headed to Theaterplatz where the self guided walking tour from my book began. I proceeded to read from the travel book and walk around the city, stopping halfway to go in the Historic Green Vault, the New Green Vault, and a few other museum exhibits in the Dresden Palace. I think my favorite stop on the walking tour was the Frauenkirche (a huge church). Both the outside and the inside are quite spectacular. It's hard to imagine that most of this old looking city is really not that old at all since most of it has been rebuilt since the fire bombings of WWII.

My tour ended looking over the Elbe river into the new town area, and I read a section that said if it a sunny take take the hour walk tithe Blue Wonder Bridge. I thought that sounded like a lovely idea and so I set off. The walk took two hours and I was so tired by the time I got there! That bridge wasn't even that cool (maybe it was just bitterness from a walk much longer than I anticipated). Luckily there was a lovely biergarten right at the bridge, so I enjoyed some time there while resting and beginning a new book.

I decided that the tram back was a much better option than walking, and so on the team I went. It dropped me back in Dresden near a pretty sweet mall, so I walked around there for a while. I probably could have purchased about five or six things, but I was good and only spent money on a little snack for the train, some delicious assorted gummies. Speaking of gummies I forgot to tell you that I saw a Gümmibar bedspread in Crete! I couldn't stop singing the song forever, ba ba ba dubi dubi yumm yumm three times you can bite me. If you haven't heard the song look it up on YouTube. It's pretty stupid, but fun to watch! Ok, back to today. I saw an Apple Store at the mall which was awesome, but I am sad to report they have the same iPhone cases as home, so there was nothing new or exciting to buy there. Buying Apple here is way more expensive, so I'm really glad I don't have to get my electronics here! After a bit of time at the mall and a brief moment of free wifi in one random spot, I wet off to get some fruit (strawberries and the best price of mango ever) and a sausage for dinner. I am now sitting at the train station way to early waiting for my night train. (and now that was last night cause there was no Internet for free at the train station)

Me near the Zwinger

The Frauenkirche

Inside the church

The "Blue Wonder" bridge

The biergarten near the bridge

My yummy cake

Biking in Berlin

Another one I wrote offline and forgot to post! Sorry for the delay!

This morning I checked out of Wombat's Hostel, stored my things, and set off to finally see the sites in Berlin. I meant to take a tour beginning from the Brandenburg Tor at 10, but I was the only one who showed up and they said the tour therefore would not go. Total bummer. I had read about another bike tour out of Alexanderplatz an hour later, so I moseyed on over I got there pretty early, which was lucky because I was cold and my earliness gave me the chance to grab something with long sleeves since getting my jacket from the hostel would have made me miss he tour.

So, the biking tour was pretty awesome. I got to see a lot of the sites in Berlin and learn a lot about the city that I didn't know. Our guide was an Irish man named Kieran who's been living in Berlin for the last three years. He was pretty funny. We biked all over the city seeing Checkpoint Charlie, the Tiergarten, museum island, te government buildings, remnants of the Berlin Wall (including an old sniper tower), and a lot of other cool stuff. It also turned into a pretty nice day as well half way through!

For lunch we stopped at a biergarten near the zoo that had really good sausages. It was very lovely to be eating in the middle of the gorgeous park. The tour overall ended up taking way longer than I anticipated so I missed the train I wanted to get on and I also missed the one after it. I ended up on a train that took an hour longer, but that's ok. I could have taken one later that got in around the same time mine did, but I didn't feel like sitting around in my hotel for no reason.

The train was late, but overall fine. I finished my book and eventually found the hostel. I had once again made the mistake of not loading a map or figuring out where I was going before I got there and had no Internet! My room was alright, and I got a free glass of prosecco (after which I broke the class by barely touching it) and now I'm going to sleep with the old half dressed people watching tv. Thank god for eye masks and earplugs!

In front of the Brandenburg Tor

The TV Tower

A remaining peice of the Berlin Wall

An old sniper tower

A symbol of victory over the French

Delicious meal at the biergarten

The monument to the Jews who were killed in WWII

The Reichtag (famous German governemnt building)

Polska!

Today I added another country to my trip, though it wasn't on purpose. I'll start from the beginning...

This morning I got up, tip-toed around my sleeping roommates yet again, and headed the Berlin Hauptbahnhoff to catch a train for my admittedly quite random day trip. I felt like going somewhere a bit different and after some Internet searching last night I decided I would take the train to Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. This is by the Frankfurt you are all thinking of. Frankfurt (Oder) is a small city (well town really) near the Polish border. I hopped on the train heading to Warsaw around 9:30am and made the short journey of about 1h15m. When I arrived in Frankfurt I quickly realized my big mistake: I read that it was a nice place to visit, but I didn't look to see where I should go from the train station or exactly what I should do terr! Oops! So I began my day by aimlessly wandering through a town in which I knew next to nothing. It was quite a nice little place and was quiet and clean. I found a nice park, some cool buildings, had a yummy pretzel, and strolled along the river Oder a bit. During that stroll is when I spotted the bridge!

I had seen that Frankfurt was near the border, but for some reason I thought there was no chance it was actually within walking distance. Once I saw that the flag of Poland was flying on the other side of said bridge (see my seemingly useless knowledge of every world flag is good for something!) I made a mad dash (that was more of a leisurely walk) to the bridge. It was a bit of a disappointment that there was no border control, and thus my passport was void of any stamping love, but I was in another country! I have a sick passion for adding places to my list of visited. I even once made my mom drive an extra two hours out of the way in the middle of the night just so we could cross the state line between Idaho and Montana (we were staying in Washington) and I could say if been there, so getting a whole new country was like heaven.

So, I walked over the bridge and officially entered Słubice, Poland with absolutely no pomp and no circumstance. Regardless I was pretty happy. I strolled around another town that I literally nothing about. The building were pretty and there were different things to look at, but I quickly learned that Polish was a whole new obstacle. In other languages I can sort of get by reading some signs and stuff and I know a few words such as "thank you" or "hello," but with polish I literally knew squat. All the menus were only in Polish or German as well, which made getting lunch difficult. I eventually decided that to get some food I needed some of the local currency and found an ATM. I took out 40 PLN (which is about $11.50) and figured that should be good for lunch. I highly overestimated the prices in Słubice. Maybe I should be hanging out in Poland more cause crossing the border sure made everything MUCH cheaper. Anyways, with that 40 PLn I got a delicious lunch of pierogies and the best 7up I think I've ever had, a small ice cream cone, a trip to the WC (which apparently thy charge for in Poland), and a tank top to spend the rest since I still had just over half left! Pretty good for less than $12 I think. Had I known the conversion was so good maybe I would've done a little more shopping there! After I was done spending time in Słubice, I bid adieu to Poland, walked back across the Oder river, and took a long walk to the train station.

By the time I got to the train I was exhausted from being on my feet for so long and I was way ready to sit. The train back required two transfers, but I got some reading done (currently reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and it's actually quite interesting). I did some laundry, had a delicious pizza near the hostel for dinner, and I am now attempting to plan where to go next. I'm hoping to leave Berlin tomorrow and I better caused I'm not booked to stay here tomorrow night!

Slubice, Poland

The Polish Kitchen where I had lunch

My yummy pierogies

Yesterday's thoroughly uneventful evening

Wrote this last night and forgot to post!

I relaxed for a bit at the hostel after the zoo and then headed to Burgermeister for dinner since I found it online and it was supposed to be both good and inexpensive. It took me three trains to get there and then I had to wait a while to order and even longer to get my food. The place was a little stand under the U-bahn tracks and was pretty cool. I had a little trouble with the no mayo no mustard thing on the burger and the guy seemed super unhappy with me, but he'll get over it. The burger and fries were pretty good and I made my way back to the hostel again. I decided to book a third night in Berlin so I can take a day trip on the train tomorrow. I guess I'll decide where that's to in the morning. I hung out in the hostel bar for a bit with a few of the many Aussies here (they have a big tour so there's a ton of then) and now it's off to bed!

Burgermeister (self explanatory I think)

View from the hostel roof

Exploring Berlin

This morning I went off to explore the city with little to no direction. I saw a flyer about a large flea market in Mauerpark, so I ignited that was as good a place as any to begin. I set out to walk to the flea market and made it there with no wrong turns!

The market was way cooler than I thought. If it didn't cost so much to ship things over seas I probably would have made a few purchases for my new condo in Michigan. I got some lunch and some amazing fresh squeezed orange juice and just wandered through the markets.

On the way out of the market and on the way to the S-bahn station (I refuse to take the U-bahn because I get note S-bahn free with my rail pass) I stumbled across the old Berlin wall. I spent a good amount of time strolling along and reading the various blurbs. I need to read more about the whole division of East and West Germany later I think. It was pretty cool and I enjoyed reading about it and seeing a bit of the old wall that divided the city for so many years. To bad David Hasselhoff wasn't there to sing! Haha.

I centrally got to the S-bahn station and hopped on the train to the Zoo! The Berlin zoo is supposed to be one of the best in the world, and since I have a weakness for zoos I couldn't resist! It was a pretty awesome place. The fort thing I saw when I walked in was three huge Indian elephants (and later on saw there were at least three times as many). I also happened to stumble across feeding time for the monkeys and apes. The squirrel monkeys were hilarious. One had a bird it was eating and all the other ones were chasing it around and trying I steal it. I also got to see the big cat feeding time. In the big cat room there was the cutest baby ocelot being drug around by the neck by its mother an there were three baby jaguars. If you haven't noticed in my posts by now, I have a major weakness for baby animals. There were definitely enough to appease me at the zoo today. I have decided late spring is absolutely the best time of year for a zoo visit. The zoo overall was great, and if I listed everything this post would be A. long and B. insanely boring. So I will move on.

After the zoo I was thoroughly exhausted after eight hours on my feet, so I took the S-bahn back to Alexanderplatz and walked back to the hostel, where I am now. Fun times!

The TV Tower

Mom and baby deer of some sort

Tapirs

Lion at feeding time

Ich bin ein Berliner

I have arrived in Berlin! Yesterday was a much longer travel day than I anticipated. I left the Rethymno Youth Hostel around 5:20 and walked to the bus station where I caught the bus to Heraklion. After the bus, a short taxi, the flight, two trains, and a 1k walk, I finally arrived at my hostel in Berlin well after midnight (including a one hour time change going west). My reservation was a little bit messed up when I got here, but it all worked out and I was eventually able to get to sleep! Today I will probably explore the city and eat some good German food!

Dr. Fish

First off, I was finally able to upload some pics back to "Finally warm again."

Today was my day to just walk around Rethymno. I went to the Fortezza this morning and had great views of the city, had a Greek salad by the water for lunch, and walked around a bit looking at various shops. I also decided to get one of the fish pedicures they have everywhere here. You put your feet into and aquarium of these fish (which they call Dr. Fish) and the fish literally suck off the dead skin from your feet. It is quite an unusual but very cool feeling. I even got an extra 15 minutes for free which was nice. I did a little reading and the time went by very fast. I'm having a little relaxation time at the hostel now and might go back out a bit later, but we'll see.

Funny little dog who was sticking his head through the door

Church in Rethymno

Old church at the Fortezza

View of the city from the Fortezza

View of the city from the Fortezza

In the Fish Spa

Dr. Fish sucking off the dead skin

Exploring Western Crete

The last two days I have spent driving around the western part of Crete with the friends I met in Athens. Two of them rented motorcycles and me and one of the Kiwis rented a little Suzuki Jimmy 4 wheel drive. The guys on the dirt bikes wanted to do some off roading, and that we did.

The first day we drove along the highway for a while until we went up the second to last peninsula along the northern coast of Crete. The roads on the peninsula were super rocky and I was very glad to be in a car with some good 4WD. The views were pretty awesome as we were fairly high up and the landscape was beautiful. There were very few things indicating human alteration of the area which I always like. There were also a ton of goats and sheep, and the sheep looked really different than the sheep in Ireland. Definitely a cool breed I have never encountered before. Chris, maybe you can shed some light on the sheep from Crete! So the road we took seemed to go on and on, and eventually we wound up at this amazing little cove with a pebble beach cliffs, and beautiful blue water. Actually, the water here in generally is really pretty blue and very clear, but this place was stil pretty amazing to see. I love being in secluded places, and since the drive out there was really rough and long we were the only ones out there.

We drove back along the same road and made it back to the city of Rethymno where we are staying just fine. Parking here was quite an adventure as there are barely any spots open!

Yesterday we decided we would give the south shore a visit. We drove along the road to Plakias, and boy was it beautiful. The drive goes through this enormous gorge with spectacularly high cliffs and a beautiful stream going through the bottom. We off roaded a little to get down to a power station to see the stream and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful water, flowers, greenery, and rock made for quite a relaxing stop. We continued on to the beach and as you exit the gorge you get a birds eye view of the area. We decided not to go to the main beach in Plakias and instead went to a smaller beach in Damnoni. We relaxed on the beach for a while and it was lovely.

After the beach we headed along the windy roads of the interior of the island to find Lake Kourna. Thank goodness Pete had downloaded a map that miraculously showed us where we were on it, because some of the turn offs were confusing. Along the way we stopped at a cute outdoor cafe with waterfalls and lots of trees for a drink. I ordered a Sprite, but got some Cretian soda that tasted like bubblegum instead. It was kind of gross, but I drank it anyways. We eventually wound up at the lake and had a bite to eat before renting an awesome paddle boat with a water slide. This lake was amazing. I wish pictures would do it justice, but it had clear blue water and mountains along one side of it. We took the boat out for an hour and went swimming in the lake, using the water side a lot.

After the lake we head back to Rethymno and returned the car and bikes and headed to the hostel. I was beat to I just relaxed, watched the finale of Glee (which actually had some surprises in it), read a little, and went to bed. Today I think I'll explore Rethymno and then take a bus to the airport which is an hour away in Hereklion. This has definitely been a nice spontaneous destination!

Our little 4WD

The cove with Sam and Dale's bikes

The cove

The cove

The beach at Damnoni

The beautiful stream in the gorge

The beautiful stream in the gorge

The weird bubblegum-y soda

In Crete!

Yesterday me and three people I met at the hostel in Athens got a flight to Crete! We flew into Hereklion last night and took a taxi over to Rethymno. It was a long taxi ride but we got a pretty good price and I got the pleasure of the tiny middle seat with no leg room.

So we got to the hostel here, ate a very late dinner and pretty much went to sleep. This morning we rented a small Suzuki jeep and were going to take a drive around the western part of the island. Will check in later!

Our dinky plane to Heraklion

Change of plans

So things have changed a bunch in the last day. I was going to go sailing for a week off of Greece, but that fell through this morning after I checked out of the hostel in Athens. So after some other last minute planning I am heading to Crete this evening instead for a few nights. Should be fun!

Finally warm again

I arrived in Greece finally last night after a long day of flying and it is so much warmer than Ireland. Let me first just say that I have not felt unsafe or uneasy once since I've been here. Now that that's out of the way...


I got to my hostel around 7, got myself together, and went to the rooftop bar at my hostel. The view from up there was amazing with the Parthenon lit up in the background. I met some cool people an just hung out for a while.

Today I've been hanging out with four people I met last night. We went to the acropolis which is pretty amazing and the views are spectacular. We walked around a bunch and then had lunch at a little Greek place that was a bit touristy but still good.

We hung out for a bit after lunch and then I left to explore on my own. I did yet another hop on hop off tour so I could see the major sites in Athens and it was good fun. It's nice to be able to see things and get some history and commentary as you ride around on the bus.

Anyways, sorry it's a bit short but I'm not in a huge writing mood. Just wanted I check in! Internet is getting spottier so my posts may be less frequent and a bit shorter, but I'll still try to post as much as I can as often as I can!

View from the roof bar at the hostel

View from the Acropolis

Walking up through the acropolis

The Parthenon

A beautiful Doric temple (not part of the acropolis but nearby)

Guinness for Strength

Or so the saying goes...

This morning I woke up, showered, and chilled for a bit. I spent some time chatting with a girl I met last night while I was charging my phone this morning, and I did a little reading while I charged my camera battery. Pretty exciting stuff.

Anyways, I ended up using the ticket for the hop on hop off bus I was given yesterday. I rode around most of the loop, saw a lot (including a Calatrava bridge), and got off for lunch. Where did I lunch you might ask? The Counter of course. I passed it on the bus and it stopped right next to it do I just had to go. I would say it's a bit better at home, but it's still yummy here.

After lunch I got back on the bus and completed the circle plus some to the Guinness Storehouse. The museum the factory has set up is really awesome and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. You get a free pint with your ticket, and since it was free I couldn't pass it up even if it's not my favorite. Two months ago they opened a new section where you lean how to pour your own pint and you get to be the bartender. That was way cooler than just ordering a pint at the bar do I did that. I got a certificate complete with tomorrow's date, but I lost it somewhere (which I only just noticed). At least I got a picture of it!

At the Storehouse gift shop I got a little souvenir bottle opener for my new fridge and walked back to the hostel to chill before dinner. I'm just going to walk around until I find someplace good to eat. Tomorrow I have an early flight so I doubt I'll do much tonight.

The Counter in Dublin!!

Inside the Guinness Storehouse

The "Guinness Academy" where we poured our own pints

My pint of Guinness

My certificate that I lost :(