“Throughout Europe by train”- Chronicle of an Interrail-
August 2009:
Berlin (Germany)-Prague (Czech Republic)-Vienna (Austria)-Innsbruck, the tyrolean alps (Austria)-Munich (Germany)-Paris (France)-Barcelona (Spain)
First, I have to make a brief introduction about what is an “Interrail” due to the fact not many people know about it, (not even me!). I discovered what is was by pure chance… The “Interrail” is a train ticket that allows you to travel within many places in Europe. You can purchase different tickets and travel within different cities, towns, countries, etc… at your own choice.
After searching lots of information I chose the ticket for 5 days in 10, thing that allowed me to travel as much as I wanted every day of those 5 days within a period of 10 days. Nevertheless, there was just a single day in which I could travel twice. These kind of trips are very tiring!.They are aimed at young people with little money. The idea is to know many places in short periods up to a whole month.
You need to have lots of energy to walk a lot, sleep a little (and very bad!), have a great sense of orientation, know how to read maps and indications, take quick decisions, and think, think a lot!. You have to think all the trip away: destinations, schedules, what train to take, what to visit. Language is useful to know, otherwise, know how to read the answers we are given.
I don´t want this to sound redundant but these kind of trips are not for people who want to arrive to a place and have everything served: a good bed, good meals and automatic tour guides . It´s a tailor-made trip, a trip that allows you to be free and discover what you want.
In the beginning, I was going to travel alone but due to those rare things in life, I found a friend again; someone I didn´t see for more than a year, so. In a couple of days I convinced him to travel with me.
Barcelona summer is too heavy, heat is really unbearable and after so many years you get bored… what was better than go to discover new territories with the secret hope of finding out colder and nicer climates…? This was the great chance!: I had much time, some savings and wanted to know Germany and Austria overall. These were my goals, what I visited in the middle was to find closer places to link the whole trip. The last place, Paris, was a close link to go back to Barcelona.
I made rough plans with the links, train´s timetable, where to sleep (if I was going to sleep or not), etc… Finally, I followed the plan quite well, but you can never have 100% planned. It is good to have a plan, but the rest comes along during the trip.
So, let´s go to the chronicle of an unforgettable adventure!
GUTEN ABEND BERLIN!
Germany-Berlin
Wednesday, 12th August:
15:30- We meet up at “Sagrada Familia” metro stop (blue line) to go to “Sants station”, from there we will take the train to “El Prat”, Barcelona´s airport.
16:30- We arrive to Barcelona´s airport.
17:40-We take the plane to Mallorca.
18:15-Take off to Berlin with a stop in Mallorca city. The first plane is called “Niki” and has a fly as a logo. This makes us laugh a lot (does this happen because we bought cheap tickets?, a fly rides us? or is that “poorness attracts flies”…? does this airline exist or is it just a virtual representaion, ha ha ha) -J
19:50- We finally take the “Air Berlin” plane at Mallorca´s airport. It is good to higlight the impeccable Air Berlin service. They served drinks and a sandwich. From this time I feel that Germany must be as perfect as I imagine.
22:40-We land in “Tegel” Berlin´s airport. My first impression has to do with the fact that we didn´t go through any immigration control, what else could we ask…?, there is nothing more stressful than being at a control point, so we entered as if we were at home. This airport is small, nothing impressive!
Public toilets have two compartments only, this would be repetitive at every public bathroon in Germany. If there is a 20 women´s queue, you have to wait a long time…
I hadn´t booked any hostel for the night we arrived. Seeing the airport was so small, we didn´t want to sleep there. The information point was closed but at least we found some free maps there. After reading the indications on how to arrive to the booked hostel for the following 2 nights (“City Hostel Berlin”), we decided to take a bus to “Zoologischer garten” train station. We thought about spending the night there and take the metro (U-Bahn) afterwards or go walking to the hostel. When we arrived to the station we were absolutely lost: in a new territory, with all the indications in German, the reservation and information centres closed. We had a small panic attack… Entered in a bar to drink something and went to the Mc Donalds that was in front and open all night. I consider important to say that knowing a little of German helped me a lot. Hardly anyone speaks in English to you!.
After eating there and observing another repetitive thing: public bathrooms are paid and this goes from 50 cents up to one euro! Or things like train stations have shower services from 4 to 8 euros and locker services from 2 to 5 euros… we decided to spend the night there. We went to the upper floor and tried to sleep seated as owls…
I do not know how we did it but we were awake around 6 the following morning.
Thursday 13 August:
We wanted to use the time to make the following reservation to Prague. Had to wait until 7 in the morning, when the reservation centre at Zoologischer garten opens. When it did, we made the reservation for 16th August. This cost 4 euros to each of us. Later on, when we had become Interrail experts, we realised this reservations had not been necessary; there are destinations and shcedules where the reservation is compulsory but this was not the case… Lack of experience teaches a lot!
We set out to walk to the hostel which was at Berlin´s heart, “Mitte” zone. In this nice walk we passed near a marvelous park called “Tiergarten”. It is said that people go nude there. Another repetitive fact was people riding bikes. Everybody in Germany and Austria rides a bike. You also see elegant men in smart suits riding bikes. What I didn´t get use to was to respect bike lanes. I wasn´t knocked down just by pure chance!.
When we were close to the hostel, we passed the Holocaust memorial, which is a big space full of gray cement blocks forming a labyrinth. The Stasi museum is on a small street that we found on our way. I was taking pictures of everything around and tried to remember where were those things that I would want to see in detail later on. When we finally arrived to the hostel, left our things in a space that they have reserved for it and went to the city centre, close to the famous Branderburg Tor to begin one of those free walking tours with a tour guide.
After queuing, groups were divided by languages, we were with the Spanish group and the tour began at the “Academy of the arts” where Hitler asked the architect Albert Speer the design of a new Germany. Speer was named as “the first architect of the Reich” or “the architect of the devil”.
This tour was about the oriental side of Germany. We weren´t very convinced about doing it, due to the fact we believe everyone tells you history from the most convenient point of view. On the other hand, you usually find out that everything you hear is everywhere in history books that you have already read… The anecdote was that the Berlin guide had a Jewish name and the guide we later had in Munich was a black guy.
The “Branderburg Tor” is a symbol of Germany inspired by the acropolis of Athens. Over the highest part you can see a quadriga with Godess Victoria mounted on a chariot drawn by four horses in direction to the city. This godess has the symbols of Germany: the eagle and the iron cross, symbols that have been taken and put again through the years because of their nazi connotations.
The highlight here is that in 1806 Napoleon took it out to show it as a war trophy in France, later on, after Paris was taken by Germans, the quadriga was recoverd and restored by them and the square where is nowadays is called “Paris square”.
When Berlin wall was built in 1961, Brandenburg Tor remained in no man´s land, without access from the east nor from the west. Only frontier soldiers and special guests from RDA could access to this monument.
From this square you can see the Reichstag or German parliament. This is a beautiful building… it is said that the dome was built transparent for people to go and see how governors work, that is in a clean way for them.
Afterwards we were taken to the Holocaust memorial that we had already seen in the morning.
From there we departured to the place where Hitler bunker is said to be buried. It is a square surrounded by buildings with families, and acoording to what the tour guide said, not even those people know where the bunker was. Afterwards, we went to the rest of Berlin wall, the air force building, the Checkpoint Charlie and Gendarmermarkt square.
The general nazi air force quarter is an amazing survivor of the rain of allied bombs that left Berlin in ruins in the second world war.
With its colosal scale, this is one of the best nazi architecture examples in the world. It is said that the building wasn´t bombed because of the big quantity of documents saved there. They wanted to protect this.
There is nothing much to comment about Berlin wall, behind it there is the “Topographie des terrors” where SS and GESTAPO quarters are based, probably the most feared place in Berlin in times of Nazi terror. German Secret police worked there, carrying on interrogations and executions in the basements, while in the next door building the SS planned the Holocaust. The remmants of these two buildings have been transformed into an elaborated exhibition: “Topographie of terror”.
We were just about to go to this exhibition in the following days, but we finally decided to go to Stasi musem.
We visited Check point Charlie and Gendarmermarkt afterwards, too. We were so tired at this point… We had to go back to do the check in at the hostel. Went back at 3 pm, did the check in, had a shower and slept until 7 in the afternoon.
When we woke up we took the metro to go to Kreuzberg zone. We were told where to find a street full of bars. This neighborhood is very pretty, vibrant, quite cheap and with a special energy. There we ate a great turkish menu. From there to a coffee bar where we tasted delicious cakes and coffess from another world!. We couldn´t believe how delicious the food was and like three times cheaper and with more quality than Barcelona.
Had breakfast in the hostel, coffee with milk, juice, tea, cereals, delicious bread that sometimes was hot and baked, we made sandwiches with tomatoes, cucumbers, ham, salami and cheese. There was honey and marmalade too. Good quality is a hilghlight because I have been to hostels where cheapest and lowest quality bread and cereals were served.
After the coffee bar we went out and asked to some guys in the street about some punk bars… they sent us to Oranienstrasse. The guy told me that in this street and Adalbertstrasse “everything happened”, “you don´t know very well what is going on, but something is always going on!”, this was the way it really was.
We arrived and went into a heavy-punk bar where I took some pictures, there are lots of book shops and all kind of cultural places in this zone.
We arrived to Berlin on 13th August 2009, coincidentally, on a 13th August 1961 Berlin wall was built, the wall that would divide Germany in two sad halves…
Friday 14th August:
After having breakfast we went to the “Checkpoint Charlie museum”. This was the most famous crossing from Berlin Wall between 1945 and 1990. It is on Friedrichstraße, and opened a path between the american and soviet control point, where Mitte and Kreuzberg zones are joint nowadays. The use of it was allowed only to soldiers and allies embassys, foreigners, employees of the permanent delegation of the RFA and the RDA officials.
The word Charlie comes from the OTAN phonetic alphabet and is its thirs letter. Checkpoint Alpha was the highway crossing in Helmstedt, Checkpoint Bravo the one from Dreilinden crossing.
As a consequence of the attempt by the leadership of the SED of restricting the rights they had as allies in Berlin, in October 1961 Soviet and U.S. tanks positioned themselves faced with heavy ammunition.
Checpoint Charlie was scenary of amazing escapes from East Berlin.
The control point was destroyed on June 22nd 1990, nothing remaind except the Checkpoint Charlie museum until 13thAugust 2000 when an identical reconstruction of the first booth control was opened. The only difference is in the sandbags that are filled with cement nowadays.
Today, Checkpoint Charlie is one of the most important Berlin tourist attractions. You can also see the museum dedicated to the wall´s history, the last flag of the Kremlin and many fragments of German separation.
This is a very emotional museum. From the moment you enter until you go out, you are living the pain of all the people who intended to escape the wall. There were escapes in home-made airplanes, hot air ballons, people that hid themselves in suitcases, canoes, cars… You can´t stop getting shocked about the wit that all the despair woke up…
Very sad the fact that many babies were adopted by other families and their identities were also changed.
You can see lots of documents such as falses passports, you can read stories about how people pretended different accents in languages that they completely ignored. They could be identified because of the fabric they wore. Some women even made false uniforms trying to make them as perfect as possible.
To forget all this tragedy and in need of lunch, we went to “Nikolaikirche” zone at about 3 pm. This is a beautiful zone full of bier gartens where bars are more expensive. We had a typical German dish: potatoes soup with small sausages as the starter, grilled sausages with potates and sauerkraut as the main course.
The sauerkraut is the famous “chucrut” (from the french word choucroute and this from the German Sauerkraut: Sauer, sour, Kraut:cabbage, that is salted cabbage in brine. It can be made by fermenting cabbage leaves in water with salt (brine).
Due to its conservation capacity during long periods, it has been used in Germany, Holland, Poland to be eaten in winter periods in which it is necessary to preserve vegetables to balance the diet.
It is often accompanied by pork meat. Jewish recipe usually use the chucrut to cook the duck and goose.
Captain Cook used to take sauerkraut barrels in his ships for the crew, this way they were able to prevent scurvy.
From there to the famous Alexander Platz. This is a beautiful square where Berlin people spend afternoons and nights. We found a very interesting historical exhibition about repression in the Nazi era.
Young people who looked like rebels or non-conformist was arrested at Alexander Pltaz and interrogated per hours. This way many counterculture movements were born. They made punk rock concerts in churches or performed in the subway.
Having tasted just a snack of the Berlin underground scene, I wanted to go to the famous Rigaerstrasse, place full of squatter houses and bars were beer cost cents.
After asking many people how to arrive there, we took the right metro to that zone. I started to take pictures all the way until we were close to a bar full of graffities and I watched an ad that said: “No camera-No problems”, ha ha, I had taken millions at that point in time but just in case, I saved my camera.
We were so tired that we didn´t know where to go, we ended up at a bar run by Brazilians. This wasn´t a squatter´s bar nor a counterculture place. My God… the change between the German perfection and the typical Latin disorden was hard. They delayed a lot to bring us what we had ordered, they made their excuses saying that the first dish it has burnt the starter so they had to prepare it again. After this disastrous experience I had the idea of taking another metro, this time to “Prenzlauerg”, an alternative zone, it´s a place that has a street that was a key point in the history of communism. It also has a squatter´s area called Tacheles.
It was late at night and we were lost… we the giant map in our hads. We were on a corner trying to guess what direction to take, we didn´t know which was the lively area of this neighborhood. A German guy passed toward us. He stopped and asked us if we needed help in a very kind way. He said this in German and I recognised the verb “Helfen” (help), so I answered inmmediately. I continued talking in English and I asked him if he wanted to be out tour guide that night… He accepted so the three of us ended up having beer in a bar. This guy grew up in East Berlin, so he also spoke Russian, an obligatory language to learn at school at that time in that zone…
This night was fantastic. We went back to the hostel very late at night…
Saturday 15th August:
We left the hostel at about 10 in the morning, went to the central train station (Hauptbanhof) to ask how much were the lockers service. You had to queue and go through lots of controls so we decided we would leave our bags together in a locker from the other station (zoologischer garten) that was only 5 euros pero 24 hs (2.50 each one), we would walk Berlin a bit more, visit more sites, we would sleep at the central station with our sleeping bags and the following morning, we would departure to Prague.
We walked Unter den Linden (main avenue in the Heart of Berlin), we saw a beautiful street market and went to the Stasi museum. Unfortunately, this museum was in German version only, so we just saw the context. Such a pity because it is free and it seemed a very serious museum. Basically, it had all the tools that the nazi secret police used (tools to hear conversations, stamps, false stamps, etc…).
When we went out, the only thing persecuting me was hunger!. Luckily enough we found a supermarket where we bought some food to prepare a delicious picnic with kartoffelsalat (potatoes salad), crisps, chocolate, beer, delicious bread that cost just cents, delicious yoghurts and a marvelous and fresh fruit salad.
I can´t forget to mention that Berlin is full of wasps!. Every time we ate, they flew toward us… maybe it is because of the humidity in the city, the word Berlin means “swamp” and the floors have to be constantly drained to avoid this.
I almost forget to say that sneaking in the subway it is wicked easy!. The first days we paid the tickets, and the last, too, just in case, but in the middle we got on without paying!. I am not proud of this but what a nice feeling to do things outside the law from time to time! And more in a place that has been so historically controlled.
At 5 pm a new destination is awaiting: to go to Sachsenhausen, a concentration cap that is an hour away from Berlin city. We had to take the train (S-Bahn) in Oranienburg direction. When we got on I realised we were in the wrong direction so we got off at a town that said “Humboldthain” and waited the next train to Oranienburg. Here you could feel another kind of air… you felt nature, outskirts, green areas… away from stress and pollution…
Once we arrived to Oranienburg, we had to take a bus to the concentration camp. Entrance is free (it would be shameful if you had to pay…). We had to walk for a long while until we found an impressive door that said “Arbeit macht frei”. That was the welcome to a place full of horror, a place where not even ghosts are able to be around…
What can you see? Cells, ovens, a horrible place where medical testings were made on dead bodies, a shooting area. A museum with lots of pictures and anecdotes, prisoner´s uniforms, personal belongings…
When we walked down the stairs of the big barracks you could feel a gelid kind of cold air that I had never felt in my life. Considering it was summer and you could die from the heat outside. We were sweating most of the time. I felt scared many times. Doors are grey, heavy, intransigents…
Amongst many other curiosities, prisoners had to make false money (pounds and dollars) at this concentration camp.
After visiting the gloomy installations, we saw the surrounding area… it is full of Jewish graves with the typical stones on them. There are also candles forming the star of David and many memorials…
Later on, once outside, I sat down on a bench and started to caress a beautiful cat that was loitering the place. It is also very impressive to see the beautiful roofed houses nearby. I ask myself how did German people not notice what was going on there…
We realise that the return bus wasn´t running at that time, so we had to go back walking.
I had to ask to strangers once more! –in German- we finally walked for 20 minutes and arrived to the town´s station, we took the train and went to Postdamer Platz (another typical Berlin sight) and had a coffee at Balzac Coffee. Went to pick up the bags to Zoologischer garten and from there to Hauptbanhof (main train station) to sleep with our sleeping bags. Next morning we would travel to Prague…
As an aditional comment, I have to say that people in Germany are very kind. They look at you quite much. I felt they looked at me many times and they also approach you to ask for things. They are very special… I also had this feeling that they believed I was having them on when I spoke in English, because when they saw me they started speaking in German very naturally and they got surprised when I answered in English… they relaxed when I mixed some German words/expressions in the middle of the talk…
HEAVENLY HOT PRAGUE
CZECH REPUBLIC-PRAGUE
Saturday 16th August-First Interrail trip:
It´s early in the morning, we are on our way to Prague, we are so tired that we spend almost all the trip sleeping. I only remember that when I opened my eyes I saw the train in Dresden. One more hour to arrive… These trains are so comfortable, incredibly clean and functionals. Some have tables, so you can eat sitting in front or you can play cards or write… We want to arrive and find a hostel…
Once in Prague train station, we had to ask if someone could book a hostel for us, they wanted to charge us a lot, moreover, everybody spoke in Czech and all the indications were in that language too. I do not know how we were able to take the metro and reach the city centre. We started walking… asked for a hostel in many places, no one gave us precise information… I asked a guy who was an Irish bar promoter in the streets. This guy sent us to a cheap hostel in the city centre… but what a hostel… a horrible experience…
The receptionist was nasty, the place was dirty, unsafe, our roommates were nasty too and we had that sensation tickling all the time: “I want to get out of here”. I had a shower around 2 and we went out for a walk. In the end, we would spend just one night there, so we had to resist. The heat in this town is even worse than in Barcelona. Berlin was hot too, but not that heavy. Prague was fire licking the skin and entrails…
We took the tram number 9 after asking in the street. We wanted to visit the “Charles bridge” (or bridge of the saints). We went down to a restaurant in front of the river and tasted a czeche menu quite heavy for the weather. Beer was very good. Afterwards, we walked the city all around (churches, the famous clock based on astrology figures, the theatre, etc…). Went into a shopping centre and bought a fruit salad, water, coke, we were dehydrated!. Around 5 or 6 in the afternoon, we took the tram number 22 to the “Castle of Prague”. This is a beautiful place to visit and quiter than the city centre. Prague is well known because of its architecture, but I found that is a little overloaded and everything seems dirty (black). It is like an overloaded scenary, grotesque at some point…
The castle is beautiful and surrounded by trees so you breath peace. The centre is full of tourists and people look at you with a strange expression o their faces… it seems like distrustful expressions so you feel unsafe, as if you were going to be robbed any time. Very different from the safe atmosphere of Berlin.
Czech food is also rare… sometimes is too fatty and with strange flavour combinations…
When the castle visit was over, we took the tram to go back to the hostel. For my displeasure, an inspector asked for my ticket. First he asked it to my friend, (he didn´t understand him and he said “no” thinking the man was trying to sell something), when the man asked me, I also said “no”, but he insisted until he said “ticket”, I showed him the ticket and he took him, I was scared he wasn´t going to return it to me, the ticket was expensive because I took it to use it for 24 hrs in all means of public transport. Finally, he gave me the ticket back, but at that point I was furious with all Czech people…
Before going back to the hostel, we went to the train station to ask for the trains schedule to Vienna, next day.
Until that time, we had travelled 4 hours from Berlin to Prague, so we would make 4 hours more from Prague to Vienna.
Fortunately, we went back to the hostel… I think we slept with one eye open…
I remember to have heard a crash and I was scared… could it be a bullet? A shot…? there was a double crystal window in our room, but it was so hot that I had left it open…
VIENNA, A MUSICAL AND BOHEMIAN PARADISE
AUSTRIA-VIENNA
Monday 17th August-Second Interrail trip:
I have no idea if the crash around the hostel in Prague was a shot… what is good is that I´m writing this, that is to say: we slept with one eye open, but luckily, we woke up with two!
9:30-We have already had breakfast in the hostel. Go down the stairs to buy something at a bakery´s (some of that strange czech food…), went up because the hostel offered free coffee (yes, one of these coffess that it seems to be made with a stocking), but at least we could trick our stomachs.
We have to take the train to Vienna at 12:30. Last night we made the booking for Vienna. We did it using the Internet service at the hostel in Prague.
We can´t wait to arrive to Vienna, I feel that is a place that will give me the same sense of security as Germany. I even miss to hear the messages in German at the loudspeakers in the train station. In Prague I feel lost and threatened…
We start the trip to Vienna and arrive at 5 in the afternoon. When we go out of the station we take the metro to a hostel that was highly recommended on the Internet (Meininger). We arrive and do the check in without any problems, I have a shower and go out to walk the city. Instead of taking the direction to the centre, we take exactly the opposite, when I feel that we are lost, and we are with the big map in out hands, a man approch us to ask if we need help (he had the same kind of nice attitud as the German guy in Berlin). We start talking and he even walks with us for a while. Once we make the indications clear, we walk to the centre, it is getting dark… We visit some squares, “Karlplatz” is probably one of the most famous ones. Almost by pure chance we go into a beautiful church called “Karlskirche”. There is a young orquestra playing and singing classical music. We have never heard something so perfect. If the angels in the sky or paradise sound in some sort of way, I am sure it is in that way. It is a pristine sound, heavenly, perfect… and also for free!.We stay for a while and then continue the stroll. Pass near the Vienna Opera, go to the centre, discover places, find beauty everywhere.
Vienna is an imperial city, is full of amazing statues and perfect squares. You breath a very relaxed atmosphere. The sensation is “These people know how to live”. You see many cafès and people having ice-creams or eating the famous currywurst (sausages with curry sauce) at the squares or in the streets. You can also see horse drawn carriages riding tourists through the streets. You feel as if you were part of an imperial court in the past decade. Shops have expensive glassware and antiques. There are the typical traditional costumes for women and men in all the shopwindows. Prices are very high but food is not so much.
There is a street in the centre where the floor is decorated with stars (like in Hollywood) but with famous musicians names on it.
When it is very dark, we go to a market in the street that sells currywurst and taste the typical Austrian beer “Ottakringer”. To end the night as if we belonged to the Hausburg dinasty, that is to say: like kings! we have one of those expensive ice creams served in glass that I had never seen anywhere else. They are served in big glasses, you see ice cream, fruits and long silver spoons. After sightseeing around shops that sold small objects 5000 euros or more, this is the only illusion that we can afford.
Go back to the hostel walking…
Tuesday 18th August:
We go down to have breakfast. The hostel is really perfect: very clean, comfortable, very well located… Go to the city centre to enjoy Vienna by day. Start with “Museums Quartier” that is a zone with many museums. From there we walk to “Hofburg”, which is the imperial palace and the biggest castle in Vienna, it is located in the old town. It was residence for the Austrian nobility including Habsburg family and emperors of the Austro Hungarian empire. Our goal is to visit a museum called “Haus der musik”. We reach it after asking to many people, Vienna streets are not very easy to locate. We love this museum, it has three or four floors dedicated to the biggest musicians of classical music: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Mahler, Alban Berg, Schönberg and Weber.
In the downstairs floor you can see old tabs and an introduction to the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra. As a contrast, there is an interactive space in which is explained how the biggest musicians threw dices to get inspiration. They explain how the movement of the dices establishes a connection with the music bars. You can throw big rubber dices in that space and what you throw is reflected on a big screen that starts writing the music that you are creating. This game can be played by 2 persons, so one of them writes one part and the other writes another, at the end, you have created an orchestral score in two voices, isn´t it great?, I enjoyed this museum very much!.
In the following floor you can see lots of interactive screens with headphones. Each one explains the different aspects of the sound: amplitude, frequency, etc… It tries to approch ourselves to understand the phenomenon of sound from what we hear when we are in the womb.
Once you have seen many of these screens, you can go up to the floor where you meet the biggest musician in the world. Before entering, you can take free audio guides in the language you want. This stage was very funny, you notice the masterpieces plus the most intimate details of each musician. For example: it is said that “Haydn” was poorer than a rat, and once he became famous, he sold his musical works to different publishers, so, he sold the same work to more than one publisher (assuming none of them would notice it), “Beethoven” was a neurotic neighbor, he moved house like 68 times. “Mozart” left his wife in the bankrupt and full of debts. She was forgiven some of them because she had 2 children. I think Haydn got married with a prenuptial agreement (I didn´t know they existed at this time too). As a curiousity, you can see a stuffed bird he brought from one of his trips once he was famous.
If I remember correctly, “Schubert” was the one so poor that he didn´t even have a piano! He composed everything inside his head.
We already know that Mozart was too funny. It is said that he squandered the money and he even lent some money to his “friends”, he never saw that money back of course.
When you are approaching the end of this fantastic musem, you can lead the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra.
You only have to take an interactive baton, place yourself in front of a big screen where the orchestra is waiting for you, select the language, the piece of your choice and start leading, lots of fun!
We went out laughing, from there we went to a supermarket, bought some things for a picnic. Afterwards we took the metro to the Danubio river. Here is very easy to sneak into the metro too, so we paid for it only when we considered it necessary.
The famous “Danubio”… at that time, boats for tourists didn´t work, so we watched the landscape and took pictures. There are some ships with discoteques inside and you breath a total relax as in all Austria…
We even found a beautiful square with hammocks strung between trees. You could hear that someone was playing the violin somewhere near…
At about 20:15 we went into a bar and tasted the traditional “Eisskaffe”, which is a coffee with ice cream and a wafer. This is fabulous.
When we decided to go back to the hostel walking, we saw a heavy bar “Graffitti”, it was very original, so we went inside for a beer… before going to sleep.
Wednesday 19th August:
This day we must leave the hostel. We go to the train station we arrived to (Subahnhof), after enquiring about the schedule to Innsbruck, we realise that trains departure from Westbahnhof, so we leave the station and take a train to Meidling, from there we take the metro u6 to Westbahnhof. We leave our bags in a locker, once we have arrived. We have all day long to walk because we will travel the following day so we will spend that night at the train station.
At about 12 at midday we arrive to “Schonbrun” (the Sisi palace). We had to walk through giant gardens until reaching the interior of the palace, once there, we couldn´t believe the expensive the entrance fees were, so we decided to visit the surroundings of the palace. After a while we went to a bar to eat something. Later on we sat on a bench at the gardens of the palace to drink a beer. When we were very tired we took the metro until Langer, I wanted to go to a cyber cafè, when I finally find one I realise the keyboard is in German so I can´t write properly. Go to a bar to have a coffee (typical excuse when you need to go to the bathroom, ha ha). There I have a nice surprise when a dog approaches my seat, jumpes and seats next to me. I start caressing it and he looks at me as if he was smiling. His owner turned up and starts talking to me in German, I answer I have no problems about the dog next to me. Afterwards another dog enters (a white one) and starts playing with the first one. It is a real show!. In places like Germany, Austria and France people have pets and pay taxes for them, this way they get the right to take them almost anywhere like bars, shopping centres, etc…
When it gets dark, we go back to Westbahnhof by metro. Enter in a very elegant bar with delicatessen and taste some delicious Austrian cakes. Then we walk around.It is full of lighting shops. It is such a curious thing that Vienna shops stay open until so late at night, at least in the summer. When at this point, all my body aches, I feel fire through all my body and my throat aches too, I think this is caused by weather changes.
I had spent quite a lot of time trying to book a hostel for Munich because we wouldn´t spend a night in Innsbruck. From the time I unseccessfully tried at that cyber cafè with the German keyboard where I only lost my money, I tried to book using the Internet on my friend´s mobile. When it was too late and walked towards the train station I saw a branch from Wombats, so I entered and asked for brochures, they guy at the reception offered me to book by phone but he couldn´t. The plan would be to arrive in Munich and book on the same day. We weren´t going to lose much because this hostel is near the train station where we would arrive.
At a certain time we entered in a McDonalds and afterwards in a very nice bar ran by a lady with lots of personality who was surrounded by 4 or 5 drunk men, they were very nice too. Ther we had a capuccino to stay awake and went out at about 2 in the morning. The atmosphere was very relaxed and with very good music…
Went to the station and tried to sleep on the floor. Every time we got to sleep, someone around make some noise so we suddenly woke up… When the sun was close on the following morning, we took the train to Innsbruck, how fun!
… LANDS OF MONKS AND BIER GARTENS!
AUSTRIA-INNSBRUCK/ GERMANY MUNICH
Thursday 20th de August: Third Interrail trip:
6:14-We travel to Innsbruck. We have already passed Salzburg at 9 (the town where Mozart was born). I haven´t seen the landscapes…. too much fatigue…
There´s a father with his 3 daughters… (as usual I am surrounded by children, nuns or priests in my trips!).
We arrive to Innsbruck at 10:44. We get off with our heavy bags… it was so hot… We visited the town that is full of churches and lovely shops. We would have liked to stay longer but we had planned to arrive in Munich on the same day, so, after sightseeing for a while and drink lots of drinks went back to the station to ask for the next train to Munich.
We made a picnic in the same station and at about 2 in the afternoon we took the train. The arrival in Munich was in the afternoon, went to the hostel that was near the station and had no problems. Went up, took a shower and relaxed a bit. We went to a traditional “Bier Garten” by night. The place is famous and is called “Augustiner”. It is like going into a big “patio” from a house. These places are full of trees and plants. It is full of rustic tables and people enjoying giant glasses of beer.
We tasted the local beer there, a very traditional Bavarian bread and a traditional meal.
When we finnished eating we couldn´t get up, we felt so heavy!!. The girls were dressed with their typical Bavaria costumes (bayern girls), fact that it made the evening more picturesque.
GERMANY-MUNICH
Friday 21st August:
11:00 a.m.-Went down to the hostel´s reception to meet up whith the guy that would be our tour guide (a nice and handsome black guy), (one of those free tours, that wasn´t so for free because at the end you have to pay whatever you want as a tip). The tour would last for about 3 hours and we also considered about taking it or not, we escaped earlier from the one we took in Berlin because we were sick of listening so many stupid things together, nevertheless we thought this would be a good way to know the city. That would help!.
The visit startet at “Frauenkirche”, a church in the city centre, “The Glockenspiel”, which is a beautiful clock that at a certain time (I don´t remember if it is at 11 or 12 midday) starts to show some dancing figures.
“Marienplatz”, then the “Viktualienmarkt”, which is a food market that includes bier gartens all around. It is a very picturesque and traditional place.
“The Hofbräuhaus”, the oldest brewery in Munich, used by the Nazis. In 1920 Hitler proclaimed the foundation of Nacional Socialism here. It also hosted the first and most violent attacks against Jews. If Berlin was the capital where National Socialism was conducted, Munich was the capital of the movement as an idiology.
Later on we visited “Karlplatz”, “Odeonplatz” and then we were free to explore the city on our own. We wanted to visit the most traditional breweries so we chose “Paulaner” that is right in the centre. Undoubtedly, one of the finest beers. Then, we arrived to the “Englisch Garten”, which is a giant bier garten in the centre of the city. It is the biggest park in Europe and bigger that the New York central park. You can see much more than bier gartens, in the summer, you can see University students, people playing football, riding horses, playing cricket or surfing, because the park is surrounded by a river. Ther is also a place for nudism, FKK -in German: Frei Körper Kulture: Free Body Culture.
From there we followed the way to the University, maybe this wouldn´t have been so important if Scholl brothers hadn´t taken part in the history of it.
They were the founders of an anti nazi group called “The white rose”. They printed and handed over anti nazi propaganda. There is a movie about this part of the history that is called “Sophie Scholl”.
I remembered the scenes where the girl ran through those big stairs at the university… when I entered and saw the same stairs I was very touched. There are memorials inside and outside the place. Both, brother and sister were executed because they were found guilty against the German nation.
When you leave the place, you do it with a wrinkled heart …
Later on we went to a lovely coffee “Lotter Leben”, set in the 50s, with outstanding service. That night we went to bed early … we were very tired …
Munich symbols are the lion and the monk (as the monks were the first to brew beer), the symbol of Germany is the bear. They say there is rivalry between these two cities. Moreover, Germany is known by Munich stereotypes: the Oktoberfest (beer festival in October), the traditional Bavaria costumes, etc. .. . etc … In Munich you can breathe an atmosphere of joy, relaxation, smiling faces and remember large groups of people sitting in the beer gardens chatting and enjoying their huge jugs of beer. Undoubtedly, this is a city to enjoy and socialize. Far away from the hectic pace of life in big capitals.
OH LA LA PARIS!
GERMANY-MUNICH/FRANCE-PARIS
Saturday 22nd August-Fourth Interrail trip:
We went to have breakfast at the hostel in Munich, picked up our bags and left them at the reception. Went to the train station to ask for our next destination. In the original plan I had jotted down Belgium and then France. It was a lot of hours travelling between Munich and Belgium (up to that moment every trip had taken us 4 hours), so I thought about going to Switzerland (Zurich or any other place close to France), this would be a better link. We asked for the schedule and went back to the hostel to surf the web. The idea was to spend the night in Switzerland and go to France the next day. It was very difficult to find hostels plus they were very expensive. A direct trip to France would be better because this was our last destination. Went back to the station to ask for the new schedule and on the same day we travelled to Paris.
On our way we should commute to another train at Sttutgart (a German city). This trip was the most atypical of all and judging by what we saw, we were scared thinking about what would be waiting for us in Paris!
What did we see…? we were sitting one in front of the other with a table in the middle. A man walked the corridor from time to time. He was a drunk man and he said no sense ina loud voice. We laughed a lot looking at him. There were two German women, they were the ticket collectors. There was also a French guy ticket collector doing the same, all of them spoke half French half German. We had never seen so many of them together, what did they have to control so much?
We had travelled with one or a maximum of two ticket collectors. The drunk man approached them and said no sense, he also threatened to smoking in the train, thing that is forbidden, he said to one of the German women (in English):
“Oh… cmon, don´t be so German, don´t be so strict”, and he tried to approach her physically. There was a French captain dressed as in the age of Napoleon. The French guy tried to speak to the drunk man in a calm way. Beyond our seats you could find the bar of the train, that is to say: we were seated at an strategic position to see the “wildlife” around…
There were families and black people in the train also.
We arrived to “Gare de l´est” station (East Paris) in the afternoon and the first thing that struck us was that Paris was full of black people. You didn´t know if you were in France or Africa… it was amazing!
We were very tired so we started searching a cheap hotel by the surroundings. As sort of general rule, railway stations and the surrounding areas aren´t pretty and this wasn´t an exception.
I booked a hostel from Munich, but it was for the following two nights. We weren´t going to sleep at Paris train station under those conditions… we felt unsafe.
My first impression was to see dirtiness everywhere, even more than in Barcelona, and it is a fairly dirty city. The second was that Latin environment (disorder, queues, unexpected situations, etc. …), much more than in Barcelona …!
Sunday 23rd August:
We found sort of a crap hotel after midnight, 2 stars, near the train station. It is unbelievable that Paris is so expensive, they wanted to charge us a lot for crap hotels, I do not know how did I do but I asked for the cheapest rate, discounts and negotiated the breakfast to be included in the price!, 30 euros for each one but at least we didn´t have to share the room with strange and unkind personages such as the ones we had seen in the other hostels. This was a “hotel”.
We had breakfast at the hotel the next morning and then took the subway to the hostel I had reserved. To my amezement, it was located in one of the most bohemians and typical Paris neighbourhoods: “Montmartre” (I was amazed because I didn´t know where we were going to be at the moment I made the reservation on the net, I didn´t kow Paris). You could see the typical stairs surrounded by trees, ivy and old lanterns all around. This is a neighbourhood of painters, writers and any person who searches inspiration. Besides, the zone is very quiet. We reached “Square Coulaincourt”, did the check in and went to the nearest tourist attraction: Montmartre cemetery.
Some celebrities are buried there but they are not the “most famous”, they sleep in another cemetery that we later visited too. At the end of the day we visited many graves, as my friend said, if asked how he had spent his time in Paris he would reply “deadly!” ha ha ha.
The graves of this cemetary are more than beautiful and very old too. I couldn´t stop saying I wanted to take a picture here or there everytime some scene seemed “gothic” to me. To feel deep mourning, we walked under beautiful trees and the inevitable screeching crows disturbing in the air… When we were very tired, we went to a bar, later on we went down in the Eiffel Tower´s direction. Bought some goods to eat in our way and started a picnic at a park called “Meceau”.
This was a true intense day… after relaxing a while on the grass, we followed the famous route to the “Arch of Triumph”, from there to the “Eiffel Tower” and then through “Sena” river, you can see the tower from this location. The curious hint was that before arriving you can see the bridge where Lady Di died, there is a memorial hounoring her. It is a very quiet place to walk…
Alexandre III bridge has admirable sculptures, when the sun goes down at sunset they look even more beautiful, the gold colour joins the orange of the sun and generates very special lights effects, they are perfect to take pictures.
As night approached we reached the impressive and fantastic “Notre Dame” cathedral and ended up the evening dining in the vibrant “Latin Quarter”.
Monday 24th August
Went down to have breakfast and started sightseeing very early. Since 9 in the morning until 13:30 aproximately, we visited “Per Lachaise” cemetery. This is the place that holds famous graves from famous people like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Honore de Balzac, Colette, amongst many others…
This cemetery is huge and you have to take the subway to arrive there, it is quite far away from the city centre. The sculptures are marvelous, quite similar to Montmartre but much bigger. What caught our attention were the graves from the people that weren´t famous, sometimes they were more beautiful and better that the ones from the famous people. On the other hand, these ones were fenced or protected, I guess people damage them. Jim Morrison´s grave is more than simple, there is a picture of him on it and people had threw cigarrette butts, a rose and a letter… Oscar Wilde´s grave is awesome, people have written lots of lines showing their love on it (there are also kisses with rouge). In this cemetery there are memorials for dead Jewish people at concentration camps. To find the graves is not an easy task. You have to follow a brochure-map and try to guess the division where each one is located.
When this visit was over, next one was the famous “Moulin Rouge”, I later realised it was quite close to our hostel. The zone is full of sex shops, this makes the neighbourhood itself not so nice to visit.
Paris seems a cabaret. I loved the black iron poles that have a white ball on the top. They are in the streets. They remind me the canes that are used in the cabarets. There is no denying that the city is pretty and bohemian. I also noticed they love the pink colour. Many hotels, restaurants and public places are painted in pink.
On our way back to the hostel we went up some endless stairs in our neighbourhood until we reached the “Sacré Coeur” (sacred heart) church, which seems more a palace than a church. In the surrounding areas is full of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops, that is the heart of Montmartre. We went into a bar where there was a pianist playing live. The bar was very pretty, the decoration, the atmosphere… but the tables were too small and became claustrophobic. Before this, we tried a crêperie but we left it (prices scared us!) besides, when I looked at the sofa I was seated on, I saw it was broken and seemed very old, I did not give time to the mites to make me company … Paris is beautiful, but better not look beyond the packaging …
Tuesday 25th August-Fifth Interrail trip:
Everything is closed on Tuesdays. We had one more trip on our Interrail ticket and didn´t know where to travel. It was clear enough we had to go and return on the same day because we didn´t have much time. That night we still had the Coulaincourt hostel.
We went to “Gare du Nord” train station, which is like the main station, after queueing for a long time we asked where could we go (go and return on the same day). If we did it to Switzerland (whether it was Zurich or Geneva) it was quite expensive (32 euros per booking) so we chose to ask about some closer place to France. They encouraged us to go to “Chantilly Gouvieux”, they said there were lots of castles, museums, etc… besides, the train delayed less than half an hour. We decided to take it thinking that we would spend the whole day there but the surprise was big… when we arrived and went to the tourism office they said that everything was closed because it was Tuesday (I thought that happened only in central Paris).
Started strolling through the village. The place is beautiful, elegant, has an amazing horseriding place and beautiful fields all around. The architecture of the houses is a dream… We found another cemetery and visited it… then, went to a restaurant and ate much better than in central Paris, better prices included!. I ordered a pizza with typical French cheese, it also had thin slices of potatoes.
We didn´t delay much… at around 4 in the afternoon, we took the train to return to Paris. Once there, walked to the famouse “Lafayette galleries”.
Went back to the hostel quite early because we were knackered…
Wednesday 26th August
This was the last day at the hostel. We went down to have breakfast and wished not to have seen what we saw in our bread baskets. I said it before and I repeat it: you´d better look the outside of Paris. We saw happy ants walking over the bread!. After this incident, we picked up our bags, left them at the hostel´s reception and head off to the “Louvre Museum”.
We spent more than 4 hourse visiting this museum and we would have needed many more!. It is an amazing museum. It is a palace filled with belongings of people from royalty, curious things are displayed: from the “dressing case of Napoleon” to famous works like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. The part of the sculptures is one of the most exquisite of this museum.
We were really knackered. Went out of the museum and head off to a bar, from there we took the metro to the hostel, bought some things to eat, picked up the bags again, took the metro and then the train to the airport. This trains cost 8.50 euros (and we complain because you pay around 3 to go by train or bus from Barcelona airport to the city centre!).
We spent the night at the airport, I used the sleeping bag… but at the place we were, there were people making reforms with drills and heavy machines (in full midnight), so we had to move because the noise was unbereable.
Thursday 27th August:
7:40-Our flight from Paris to Barcelona takes off- What a relief to leave Paris behind… it was like being in Spain but doubly disordered and dirty, beautiful outside but you´d better don´t look inside…! No one gives you precise information at train stations, they make you go like to a 3 different points of information to end up confused. The airport works with the same disorder. It is impossible to sneak yourself in the subway, they don´t have air condition so it is a nightmare in the summer. When I compare this with the precision we saw in Germany and the cleanness… I can´t believe…
Yet as I always say, is fine to visit different places and compare, begin to rule out places for future visits and plan where you would gleefully go back!
… I think Berlin is a history book, Prague is an overloaded scene, Vienna is a choir of angels, a bell flower Innsbruck is, Munich is a smiling rogue and happy monk, Paris is a careless cabaret, a vintage rouge …
