Fussen, town of castles and mountains

We knew that we wanted to go back to Germany after Amsterdam, but we weren't sure where. Once again our guidebooks came through for us: Fussen. Fussen was, pretty much, the land of classic castles and mountains. Awesome! Quite possibly my favorite things. You know the Disney castle? I've been to the castle that inspired it: Neuchwenstein. Also the one that came before it, Hohenschwangau. Think I spelled them both correctly. Either way, they were cool. We took guided tours of each so it was educational too.

Our hostel in Fussen was really really nice. The three of us had a four person room to ourselves, we made an awesome new friend named Jean, and they had the best breakfasts of any hostel or hotel we've been!

The second day we split up. Alex and I were going to hike to the peak of Sauling, 2042 m. Jean, the great new friend, came with us. It was a beautiful day for a hike and the view was absolutely gorgeous. Just indescribily beautiful. To one side we had the smooth green landscape, dotted with small towns and lakes in shades I'd never before seen. To the other side was the vastness of the mountain range, stretching off in the distance into the east and to Austria in the south. It was amazing. However, we ended up on the wrong path and did not, in fact, go to Sauling. Whoops. Instead we ended up going way too west and ended up at Tegelberg, a little rest stop type place at the height of 1707 m. I couldn't bear to turn back without having climbed to the top of something, so we checked the map and found another peak nearby: Branderschrofen, an acceptable height of 1881. The hike was fine, exhausting but fine, until we reached the very end. We couldn't have been more than 50 or 100 feet from the peak when suddenly the path ended. All that remained was a short climb, then the narrow rocky side of the mountain countinuing on and up. It could have been called a ledge, had it been smooth and/or path like. That was the end for Alex, but Jean was willing to try going farther if I was willing. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to make it, physically or otherwise, but I was too stubborn to turn back. And I did it! I didn't stop and I didn't fall to my death and I did make it to the top! It was exhilerating!!

Amsterdam, it's cool but it's not all that

Our Amsterdam hostel was really good and not so great at the same time. The main downside was found while I was off getting money: black mold. While it's not good for anyone it's particularly not good for Constantina. For some reason the hostel people didn't offer to move us, or to clean it, so Alex ended up taking a mask and some bleach spray stuff and killing it off. Seems like an unpleasant job to me but he enjoyed it. After that we walked around for a while, hungry and indecisive, until eventually settling on a tasty Italian place with very nice wait staff. Having food in us perked us up enough to walk around. They have lots of interesting shops there.

We'd enjoyed walking tours in other cities so we decided to try to find a free one there in Amsterdam. None of us knew much about the city, so it seemed like a good way to get an introduction and learn about some cool places. Sadly we never found it. We waited for a while in the rain, but eventually had to give up and make our own walking tour. Touring the Red Light District by day and then by night was a fun time. We had some tasty foods and saw some interesting shops. By night the whole area was lit up with neon lights and signs. Windows that had been mostly vacant by day were then occupied by prostitutes. We decided to check out a club in the area, which was an interesting time.

For our second full day Constantina and I split a cake and we headed off to the zoo. It wasn't quite what we'd expected, but it was still fun. I think that part of the problem was that we were all pretty tired, and kind of malnourished that day. The zoo was fun and kind of chill, which was nice, but we also kind of forgot to eat. Dinner that night was Indonesian food--yay! I'd really wanted to make sure I had some Indonesian while we were in the Netherlands, and it didn't disappoint.

That night we hung out with our hostelmates. Well, some of them. We made friends with three out of the four people in the room. The fourth we named Sleeping Guy, because it seemed that all he did was sleep. Come in at night, he's sleeping, the next afternoon-sleeping, later that evening-still sleeping. Strange. But anyway, our little group went out for tasty tasy gelato, then off to a cafe. It wasn't quite what I'd expected but I did really enjoy the experience. Very relaxing.

That was pretty much the end of our time in Amsterdam. Our last morning and afternoon was spent getting ready to go and then hanging out around the train station. It was a fun city, and I wouldn't not recommend it, it's just that there are so many other places which are just, well, more awesome.

Stuttgart, land of cockroaches and disappointment

Stuttgart, as one might guess from the title, is not one of my favorite places. It was not even somewhere we'd intended to go, really. Unfortunately Alex lost his rail pass somewhere along the way, which meant we had to modify our plans to go through a city where he could buy a new one. Fortunately Stuttgart wasn't far from Freiburg and was on our way up to Amsterdam. Quite convenient. The plan was to stop in Stuttgart, Alex would get his pass, we'd eat dinner, chill, then hop a 1 am night train up to Amsterdam. Already had the reservation tickets and everything.

Stuttgart was a nice enough city. It had lots of pretty fountains and a nice walking area. I searched for a restaurant while Alex and Constantina stayed at the station with the bags. We ended up eating at an American-type place that was just across the street and down a little. It was good. We decided to go hang out in some park area until it was time to go back to the station. The first place we tried ended up having too many way too big cockroaches. But no problem, we just went down to the big square area I'd found earlier, which was pleasant and had benches and fountains. No problem.

Went back to the station to grab our train out. But it wasn't up on the marque. Still ok, figured it might be too early for it to be listed, but we might as well ask anyway. Turned out the train was actually for the next night, not that one. Rrgh. Very frustrating. The tickets were all in German, of course, so we couldn't read it. Wandered around for a while, indecisive, tired, eventually got to a hostel and to sleep around 3 am. The next morning we everything worked out fine, ended up taking a day train up instead. Just an irritating thing to have to deal with.

I'm so behind on blogging!

Still need to catch up on Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Fussen, Venice, and now Rome. Might get the chance tomorrow night, but probably not. Think I'm the only one who's behind and needing internets still.

Freiburg, a rest with friends

We were in Freiburg less than 48 hours, but it still managed to be relaxing. Getting in was confusing because we hadn't figured out how we were meeting up with Andrew, who had kindly offerred to host us. There was some stress and worry, but we found our way to the Black Forest Hostel with the help of no less than 5 friendly individuals, and thanks to the use of their computer found out that Tabitha had been waiting for us the whole time!

It was really awesome getting to hang out with Andrew and Tabitha and Balin and their friends. I couldn't believe just how long it had been since I had last seen Balin. That's the problem with studying abroad, I suppose. Andrew was an excellent host! He and the others had even gotten mattresses and sleeping bags and pillows for us! It was really really nice.

Paris, the city of sun and delicious food

At last, sunlight! It had been so long, but finally we escaped from the rain that had been following us through Europe. It only rained once during our time here in Paris, and it was while we were underground so we didn't mind. Except for in some areas where it seemed to be leaking.

We were really hungry and tired and indecisive when we first got in. Fortunately we found a little shop with really delicious sandwiches and pastries. After we were properly nourished we were able to make plans. We decided to start out big and headed off to the catacombs. Awesome! We went down about a million stairs and walked a ways through tunnels under Paris, eventually reaching the tunnels full of bones. It was pretty amazing and intense. The evening was spent back in Montemartre, where our hotel was. We had a delicious salad for dinner.

The second day we did the Louvre, because it needed to happen. It was quite easy to get there and there was hardly a line. There were, of course, tons of other people there, but it didn't feel too crowded for the most part just because it was so big and open. It was really cool to get to see such impressive and beautiful art. I was especially excited to come across the Raft of the Medusa, a painting I studied in an RC class. After standing and walking for so long we were a little tired, so we chilled out at the courtyard fountain. We wandered off from there and saw the Arc de Triumph, also cool. That night we went to another classic, the Eiffel Tower. I must say, it was quite impressive. It was both visually larger and physically smaller than I had expected, if that makes any sense. We heard that going up to the third (top) floor wasn't worth it due to crowd and expense, and that it was better to just go to the second floor and go to Sacre Cour for the full city view. The second floor was amazing! We went at night, and we could see Paris stretched out before us, expansive and bright.

The third day Alex and Constantina had a date planned so I went off on my own. I just kind of wandered about, ending up at the Notre Dame. I'm really really glad I went. It was just awe-inspiring. It was so huge and ornate and beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, and asked some other tourists to take pictures with me in them (for you, Mom). We had planned to meet up at the Gare de Lyon train station to get our train to Germany worked out. While walking there I saw a whole bunch of police vehicles go by and wondered why. Not long after that I got a call from Constantina's mom in Sweden, telling me that Alex and Constantina had been delayed due to some sort of threat on their subway line. It sounded like they were fine, and I was fine, so everything was fine. I just meandered my way over to the station and sat outside in the sun until they got there.

Working out train stuff was a lot easier than I'd thought it would be, other than one significant problem-Alex no longer has his Eurail Pass. Ack! Fortunately he didn't need it for the book, but unfortunately he was unable to find it. It was really stressful, and we had to go find the police station to file a report (which was difficult due to the police being unhelpful), but he'll get his money back at least. On our way back we stopped by Sacre Cour, which did give a wonderful view of the city! Worth all the stairs we had to climb to get up there.

Also, we met up with Molly McGuire for coffee! Alex and I also went with her and some of her friends to a party on a boat. It was entertaining, though getting back was kind of a pain. We ended up taking a cab because it was tons faster.

Today we're heading off to Freiburg. We're going to stay with Andrew Nicholson there, before heading off to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

I have now uploaded all of my Sweden, Denmark, England, and Ireland photos, as well as some of my French photos! Some of them are flipped wrong and most don't have comments, but I'll work through them bit by bit.

The end of England, all of Ireland, and the introduction of France

We had an afternoon flight out of London, so we decided to take the underground partway to the airport so we could hangout there with less stress. We explored the train station by the King's Cross station some and had some really delicious pasties and tea. My pastie was chicken and vegetable. Unfortunately we ended up being rushed after all, but we made it on the plane and that's what matters. Could've done without the brisk run through the airport.

Dublin was awesome! I had thought that Irish was kind of a dead language, but it turns out it's used there much more than I thought. We saw it on all the signs everywhere. We got there in the evening on Saturday, so most things were closed. It was kind of weird how early everything closes on the weekend in Dublin. Our hostel there was pretty good. It had the most disappointing breakfast ever, but we also met two really cool people from Croatia who were staying in the same room as us.

The time we spent in Dublin felt like really productive travel. We got in a lot of museums, tours, and other experiences. We went to a museum about vikings, churches, parks, stores, walking tours, pubs, and the coast. Going to the coast was probably my favorite part of Dublin. We just took bus 31 east to its very last stop. From there we walked a little ways to where there were paths along the side of mountains at the edge of the sea. The view and scenery was absolutely spectacular. Just indescribably beautiful. The mountains were small and lush, with green grasses and kind of scrubby, thorny plants with yellow flowers. The descents were steep-cliffs in some places. The sea was beautiful and the sky seemed endless. Sadly I won't be able to post pictures of it until I'm back at the hotel room and can recharge my camera's batteries.

The only bad thing about Dublin was that the rain followed us there. Sometimes the rain there is so light it's like a heavy mist, and they call days with that kind of weather 'soft' days. Also, it was even colder there than it had been in Sweden, somehow. Plus we had to get up at 3:30 to catch our 6:30 flight, which was not particularly great. But at least we had plenty of time at the airport and weren't all rushed for once.

Paris has been great! We've eaten a seen a lot in our two days here. However, I'm going to detail all that next time I'm on the internet, either later today or tomorrow. This internet cafe is kind of slow and pricey, so I'd rather hold off until I can be uploading pictures at the same time.

At this point I've uploaded all of my Sweden and Denmark photos to my Picasa account, as well as some of my England photos. You can find them all here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdekenzie. One of my travel companions, Constantina, is ahead of me in uploading and has all of hers here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/irisi/.

Bussing around London

So yesterday we got up and headed over to London Bridge for our bus tour. It was definitely the right way to see London. Even our British roommates at the hostel suggested taking a bus tour to see the city.

On the topic of roommates, we had some pretty awesome ones. One was a man named Steve, who is in London visiting his father, who is sick. Steve has the type of life I'd love to have some day. He retired young and has spent the last 10 years traveling the world and studying languages. Two years in China, two in India, one in Indonesia, months in Russia, all around Central America... I never thought I'd get to compare Chinese, Russian, and Indonesian grammar, all with the same person. The other really cool person was Henna. She's been in London a few years, but lived in India beforehand. She was very friendly and also very interested in travel.

As for the bus tour, it was pretty great. We started off at Tower Bridge and went in this big loop heading west southwest and then north and back around to the east. We went to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the Green Park, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Temple Church, and the Royal Courts of Justice. There were people protesting outside of Parliament, though we weren't quite sure what it was they were objecting to. Westminster Abbey and the Royal Courts of Justice were particularly beautiful. After the bus tour we went on a walking tour. It was really interesting to get to learn the historical background of some areas.

Time's up.

The end of Sweden, all of Denmark, and the beginning of England

Sweden finished up with some hail and a rush for transportation. Constantina's mom took Alex and I for a short hike up the mountain behind their house. It was a really lovely area, and I wish we'd had more time to wander and explore. However, we needed to be on our way, and it started hailing not long after we'd been out. At first the hail was fun and interesting, but then it kept going, and started getting larger, and became progressively less fun through the run back to Constantina's family's house. Good fun overall, though. Then we had to rush about to get ready and get to our train on time, though we of course made it.

The train ride to Denmark was nice. The Swedish countryside is really beautiful. We also made friends with two Swedish guys across the aisle. Apparently they were in Goteborg for a robot building competition, which sounded pretty cool.

Copenhagen was a whirlwind. We couchsurfed there with an awesome guy Christian. He was really great and I wish we'd had more time to hang out with him and his equally awesome friend Bill. The city was also very cool, and hard to see in a day. But we did our best. We made it to the seceded anarchist area, Christiana, which is very small, and very interesting. We also ate delicious Danish pastries and wandered around the city some.

From Kobenhavn we flew over to London. Getting checked into our conveniently close hotel ended up being kind of a pain, but it all worked out. Things have been kind of chill since then. It's nice to have more than a day in a city. We're staying at a hostel in Greenwich, which is strangely pronounced more like "gre-nich". Yesterday we went and were touristy at the Prime Meridian. Eastern and Western hemisphere at the same time! Tomorrow we're taking a bus (double-decker, of course) tour. Sounds really touristy, I know, but I think it'll be a really conveniently and affordable way to get all around the city and see everything. Internet cafe computer time is almost up, so that's all for now.

Sweden

Sweden is a beautiful, friendly country. My impression of people here is that they are very helpful and speak excellent English. They also have a lot of birds that remind me strongly of ones I saw in Beijing.


Our first day in we mostly settled into Constantina's family's house. We went out to the World Culture Museum (Varldskultur Museet) for a little bit and learned about Bollywood and theft of Peruvian artifacts.



Our second day (yesterday) we went to the Fish Church, an important part of Goteborg. Apparently it used to be a church, and now it's a fish market. I'm not really sure how that happened. After that we wandered around Goteborg with Constantina's younger brother, Sotiri. We never quite managed to get to the old city of Haga, but we did find other interesting things. My favorite were the buildings built into the rock. Swedish buildings in general are pretty. It seems like each building has at least one particularly nice or interesting characteristic.
In the evening we went to an event at the Chinese Embassy. I never expected I'd get to use Chinese so much in Sweden! The event was celebrating China's upcoming hosting of the World Expo next May. Strange that the best Chinese food I've had in a while was in Sweden.

Today we took a ferry out and wandered around one of Goteborg's little islands. It seemed like each of the houses there was really cute and had beautiful landscaping. We ended up mostly exploring a small island off of the island we went to. It was a lot of fun climbing around on the rocks there. Wading was sadly short, as the water was pretty cold. But still fun! We also played scientists and observed the life in a little tide pool.

Tomorrow we'll hike up the hill behind Constantina's house, wander a little more, than hop a train to Denmark and Kopenhagen!

Arrival

I'm in Sweden!  We arrived yesterday morning.  We almost didn't make it past Amsterdam due to a short connection time, but fortunately the airport sent a fierce German lady to help us make it through in time.

We're staying with Constantina's family in Mölndal, which is just outside of Gotesborg.  Her parents and brothers are very friendly, and I'm enjoying spending time with them.  It's noon here now and we're making lunches so we can head out and explore Gotesborg some, so I'm going to go help with that.  I'll try to post again with more details before we head out for our next country.

This is hopefully posting to my blog, from an email, through my iPod.