Europe

To Be or Not to Be...

Since the morning train to Stockholm was all full, I couldn’t leave Copenhagen until the afternoon. I decided that I would travel around outside of the city for the day before coming back to take the train to Sweden in the afternoon. I mapped out my route to cover 3 suggested day trips in the span of about ¾ of a day. I started with a 7 am train to Helsingør, the location of Kronberg castle, famous for its affiliation to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Next stop was a coastal fishing village called Gilljete. After dozing off on the beach, I headed to another castle town before making it back to Copenhagen to catch my train. It was nice to get away from the busy city for a while, especially on a Sunday as the closed shops made the streets peaceful and the sights serene.

The photo is of the Hamlet castle, with its reflection in the surrounding moat. I wanted to strike a Hamlet pose, but I didn’t have a skull to hold unfortunately…

"To sleep, perchance to dream: — ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come…” -Hamlet

Copenhagen

On my own again, I’ve spent the last couple days in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first day was filled with nothing but rain, but I managed to tour the Carlsberg brewery, the 4th largest distributor in the world. The weather cleared up the next day and I was able to see everything the city had to offer. Copenhagen is a beautiful city with colorful buildings and canals winding all through it. I think there are more bikes than cars here; even in the rain, there are dozens of bikers around every corner. The picture you see is the traditional postcard photo you would see for Copenhagen…with the addition of yours truly!

Headed to Stockholm, Sweden tomorrow. Let’s hope for some sun…

Berlin

The last stop in Germany is Berlin. A city now filled with character, Berlin has gone through quite a bit over the years. During the walking tour we saw many important sights regarding both World War II and the Cold War. From Hitler’s bunker, to the site of Nazi book burnings, to the Berlin Wall, to Checkpoint Charlie, the city is riddled with historical points of interest from the not so distant past.

The East Side Gallery, a mile stretch of the recreated wall, displays various paintings and graffiti from artists around the world. Here I am on the other side of the East Side Gallery, doing my best to get over the wall. After a few failed attempts, I gave up and walked through the now open gate.

Crazy to think that was next to impossible during my lifetime, just over 20 years ago…

The Hamburg Fischmarkt

Yes, I spelled that correctly…

For the last couple days, I’ve been in Hamburg, a port city in northern Germany. Although not much of a sightseeing city, Hamburg is a great city with many parks, lakes, and unique neighborhoods. The feel of the town is very similar to Seattle. After checking out all the churches and some parks on the first day, we woke up early the next morning to go down to the market. Early risers and late nighters join together at 5 am to either get their weekly seafood fix or continue their party with a snack and a concert. Vendors like the one you see in the picture auction off goodie bags of fish assortments to their jovial customers, bickering and bartering with everyone they see.

It doesn’t stop at fish, though. Vendors auction off giant bags filled with anything from fruit to candy to giant plants, with their new owners happy to lug their haul back up the hill to go home. Watch out for Banana Fred, though. One unsuspecting market-goer walking by was whacked in the head by a stray banana being tossed into the crowd. He must have been dazed by the impact because he didn’t stop to pick up his free banana. Luckily for me, that banana was just what I needed to wash down the fish skewer and crab sandwich I had for breakfast…

Thanks Banana Fred!

Prague

Today I did the tourist thing in Prague: Free walking tour followed by some exploring around the city. The picture shows the Prague castle and its cathedral. The city itself is great; the streets have a lot of character and the views are awesome. I tried some traditional goulash and dumplings and I have to say that I approve of the cuisine! Can’t wait to see what else this city has to offer…

Also, I met up with my roommate Jason today, should be a pretty fun next few days!

More friends…

A classmate of mine, Mary, has joined me for the next couple weeks of my trip. We met up with some more Cal Poly friends that randomly happened to be in Munich at this time as well. After saying farewell to them (Rachel and Patrick) we met up with MORE Cal Poly friends. These friends happen to be locals, though, as they are both from Germany, but studied with us in California (Jonas and Marina). Here we are at the English gardens, a big park in the city. We swam a little bit and enjoyed the first real day of summer so far.

Now it’s goodbye to Bavaria (and the food and beer) and off to Prague!

Prost!

France was bread and cheese. Switzerland was bread and chocolate. Since being in Germany, however, my diet has consisted of two things that trump the previously mentioned delicacies: Sausage and Beer. Not just any sausage or any beer, but the best! It is a law here in Munich that only 3 ingredients can be used to brew beer: water, hops, and barley (or wheat). It’s simple, but it sure is delicious.

The picture is a group shot of some friends enjoying our litres of beer at the Augustiner brew house. The scene was filled with table after table of locals and tourists yelling and cheering and dancing, stomach’s full and lips wetted.

Das ist gut, ya???

Dachau

Today I went to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. Dachau was the model camp that most others were designed to during Hitler’s reign.

The picture you see is the surrounding fence that kept the “workers” inside the walls. The combination of barbed wire and electric fence made it impossible to escape, if one even got that far. The moat to the left is preceded by “no man’s land,” a small strip of grass surrounding the camp, that held certain death for anyone that crossed into it. Prisoners were often times forced into this area by guards. They were then shot from the towers as they were supposedly attempting to escape.

The blatant lack of humanity exhibited by the Nazis is very difficult to come to grips with. Starving, sick people were worked, beaten, and tortured on a daily basis to the point of death. Images of piles of corpses and stories of innocent people losing their identity, dignity, and ultimately their life were forever imprinted into my memory as I walked through the museum and grounds. How this all could have possibly occurred such a short time ago, in a so called advanced society leaves so many questions…How? Why? These questions, though, have no answers.

There is a monument inside that says NEVER AGAIN in 5 different languages. It is inspiring, but it is more of an aspiration than a statement of fact. Genocide continues to occur in various parts of the world. The extermination of the Jews (along with others) during the Holocaust was a genocide that we are all somewhat familiar with on one level or another and understand as being evil, as being something that would not occur today…but it does. People continue to be mercilessly killed simply for who they are. Darfur comes to mind.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on the world’s genocides, and I am not actively involved in helping these situations, but I urge those reading this to really take a step back, look at your life, and be thankful for the gifts you have been given. None of us knows what torture feels like, what being worked to death feels like, what losing everything you own, even your name, feels like. We can, however, understand and recognize when things are not as they should be, when a level of humanity is being removed from society. All it takes is a little perspective, and I gained a lot today…

At Home on the Trains

After saying farewell to Cooper in Zurich, I had a day or two to kill before meeting another friend in Munich, Germany. All the cities that were relatively close by couldn’t be seen in just a day or so. So, I devised a plan. I would take two overnight trains in a row, saving on rooms for two nights, while still traveling someplace new. My destination? Ljubljana, Slovenia. (Leeyoobleeanna)

The plan was perfect until I found out I didn’t actually get a bed on the train. I found this out the hard way as I woke up to the conductor yelling at me in some language I’d never heard. He finally got the point across that I needed to pay or go sit in a regular seat. 12 hours later, there I was in Slovenia, my regular seat as uncomfortable as ever.

So with a sore neck and an hour of sleep, I explored Ljubljana. It’s a cool little city, worth the day trip. Great places to nap, too. I would recommend the park bench in front of the castle! I also fell asleep in a church pew, but that one was unintentional…

That night I jumped on the night train again, headed for Germany. Needless to say, I made sure to get a bed this time. Walking up to the platform around midnight I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I passed backpacker after backpacker attempting to sleep, one hand covering their face, the other with a death grip on their belongings. Such is the life of a traveler. Anyways, my assigned bed was one of six in a compartment about the size of a walk-in closet; it was going to be a cozy night. After positioning all my bags in such a way that I could actually turn over without hitting my head on the ceiling, I was settled for the night, headed to another country.

And yes, I slept like a baby…

Schynige Platte to First

After getting some advice from the locals, Cooper and I (along with a couple friends) set off to do “the” Alpine hike. The hike took us up and down the ridge, up Faulhorn peak, and down to First. On one side were the giant glacier filled peaks, while the other looked down over Interlaken and its surrounding lakes. The hike was tough, and took us about 6 hours to get to First. We weren’t done, though, as we had to make the 3 hour descent down to the town of Grindelwald, where we made our camp for the night.

Our feet were not too happy with us the next day, especially while we made the 12 mile trek along the river back to Interlaken…

Lake Como

After Mass, a couple new friends and I took a day trip to Lake Como, about an hour outside of Milan. It was a beautiful day and the towns surrounding the lake had a great feel to them. We enjoyed the views during the ferry rides across the lake from town to town, and of course the gelato once we got to shore.

Somehow we happened to eat lunch at the exact spot where the cover photo on my guide book was taken. This one’s for you Rick Steves!

After a quick day and a half in the motherland, it was back up to Switzerland for a couple days of hiking through the Alps.

The Matterhorn

My roommate Jason joined me and Cooper in Zermatt, Switzerland to do a little backpacking. The first day we hiked a couple hours and found a grassy area to camp out right below the Matterhorn. The fire kept us warm…until about 3 in the morning. It wasn’t all bad, though. As I poked my shivering head from my sleeping bag, I saw a cloudless sky lit up by the bright white jagged peak, illuminated by the moon. I enjoyed the view for a minute or so before ducking back into my cocoon of a sleeping bag.

The next day we completed our hike of the Matterhorn trail before heading back down the hill to Zermatt. Headed to Interlaken today, more hiking ahead!

Normandy

Today I took the train to the Normandy region of France to visit Omaha Beach, the site of one of the D-Day landings and the location of the most American casualties. Before visiting the cemetery, I walked down to the beach and reflected on the fear those brave soldiers must have had storming that beach as the enemy waited, perched on the hill, firing away. Today, the scene at the beach is just the opposite: a peaceful stretch of coastline with rolling hills of bright green grass.

In the cemetery, white crosses are aligned on perfectly manicured grass, row upon row, upon row. I stumbled upon this grave site of the unknown soldier, something I had read about just before arriving. The shear number of graves is mesmerizing and humbling. Thanks to all those that have served in the military, especially those that sacrificed their lives…

May perpetual light shine upon them

Batting Practice

Sitting in front of the Eiffel tower, I figured it would be a perfect chance to get a little BP in. I didn’t have a bat, so I figured a baguette would do the trick. It's been raining a little bit on and off here in Paris, but we finally got a little bit of sun once we got to the park. Great day, great views…

Just in case you were wondering, the ball went out of the park, into the River Seine.

Maison Dovalle

Tucked in the little village of Montreuil Bellay in the Loire valley of France is a bed and breakfast situated on a hill right next to a castle. How did we end up here you ask? Good question. I asked myself that same thing multiple times during the two days we were treated to a free bed and meals consisting of fresh bread, shrimp, snails, muscles, salmon, and, of course, ratatouille. The midnight fireworks and late night singing was just icing on the cake.

Special thanks to Claire, Kat, Muriel, and Kevin!

The Cal Poly Connection

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, but I have run into quite a few Cal Poly grads already in my travels. There were the guys wearing the Bull's Tavern shirts in Pamplona, as well as another recent grad getting ready to run. In San Sebastian, after doing the limbo to some live music in a plaza, I turn around and see a friend of mine from high school that I haven’t seen since graduating in ‘06. Yesterday, I was sitting in the internet room of the hostel, and a girl walks in that kinda looks like a friend of mine from school. Then she talks and she kinda sounds like a friend of mine. Kellen?? Somehow, someway, a good friend of mine through my roommate Josh happens to be staying at the exact same place I am, with two other Cal Poly girls. I guess it really is a small world after all…