This blog post is brought to you by the very smelly train I’m sitting on right now. I’d tell you where I’m traveling, but I don’t want to ruin the “Where in the World is Ross?” game. I had written down a note earlier in my trip so I would remember to tell you all that 1st class seating on these trains is 5x better than 1st class on a plane. But I think I just got lucky with 1 train earlier since this one is pretty bad.
Now to catch you up on the last week of the journey:
Spent last weekend in Berlin, and then these last 3 days (Mon - Wed) in Munich. Berlin is enormous, and I would have gladly stayed an extra couple days to see more things, but Oktoberfest in Munich was calling my name. I liked the hostel I stayed at in Berlin for the most part--perfectly located, young crowd of nice people, great bar & lounge area, etc. Only miscalculation was for me going the cheapest route possible & booking a bed in the dorm…that would be the 50-bed dorm. It really wasn’t all that bad, but obviously some inconveniences (loudness at the wrong times) compared to a room with less people. The room was filled with bunk beds. On night 1, at about 4AM, I woke up to the sound of my bunkmate getting out of his bottom bed, and I watched him walk back & forth between the shower room and a storage closet for 5 straight minutes looking for a bathroom. He was wearing only tighty-whiteys. I got a kick out of that, and an even bigger laugh the next day when I finally met him, and he was a really old dude, at least for a youth hostel’s standards.
By the time I got to Berlin on night 1, I decided to stay at the hostel bar to eat & have some drinks. Was feeling pretty tired anyway. I was lucky enough to meet 2 guys from Madrid that were staying in the hostel for about a week. Since I’m traveling alone, I’ll take what I can get for new friends, but these guys were great. Both knew a decent amount of English, one better than the other, so it wasn’t too hard to communicate. They were more than willing to ask me questions about the English language & I tried to help. One of them was constantly getting tripped up on the difference between “beach” & “bitch.” The other guy didn’t understand how to tell these 2 phrases apart: “No idea” & “No eyed deer.” I didn’t even bother to ask him why he thought anyone would ever be saying the 2nd phrase.
The other topic they wanted to jump right into with me was the healthcare problems in America. They couldn’t understand why it was so hard to offer it to everyone, blah blah blah. I didn’t try to sound educated on the matter.
Here is the abbreviated version of the things I saw during my 2 ½ days of sightseeing in Berlin:
Brandenburg Tor, the Reichstag, Tiergarten, Potsdamer Platz, the Jewish Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie (spent lots of time reading about the wall & Cold War stuff), Alexanderplatz, TV Tower (2+ hour wait to go up the tower = no thanks), Eastside Gallery (my favorite free sight I’ve seen so far… 1.3km stretch of the original wall covered in paintings/murals), Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium).
Olympic Stadium was a must-see for me, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a great mix of sports & history. Interesting that viewing it from the outside gives it an old, historic look, but the inside is very modern & high tech. I did the 1-hour audio tour while walking around by myself. You may start to see a pattern emerge of me always opting for the audio tours. Not only do I think they’re extremely helpful, but since I’m alone, it makes me feel like a friend is with me while sightseeing. Sometimes just to make myself feel even better, I’ll talk back to the person speaking on these audio tours.
“Oh audio tour guy, you’re so knowledgeable. How did you learn all these things?” Or, “Hey audio tour guy, after we’re done here do you wanna grab some lunch?” (Don't even think of criticizing this)
Anyway… the coolest night activity I did in Berlin was a pub crawl. This was recommended by others & the pamphlet for it in the hostel was very persuasive--free shot of Jaeger with every drink you buy! The crawl began at 9pm and we were supposed to visit 5 bars over the whole night. To make a long story short, after 9 the next time I looked at my watch was 4am, and I was only at the 3rd bar. No one from the crawl was still there. I left the bar at that point, conveniently found a bratwurst vendor, and then convinced myself I could walk home. I made it 2 blocks before realizing I had no clue where I was. Then I remembered we took the train to one of these bars so there was no way I was close to the hostel still. I wisely gave in & took a cab.
I understand this post is long & we're not even talking about Munich yet. Here it is quickly:
-I lucked in to meeting a cool girl from Virginia within minutes of being at my hostel, and she was traveling solo. We became drinking partners for 2 days.
-Began the festivities at Oktoberfest by 9:30am on Day 1. Those festivities continued for me for 2 straight days.
-Daytime at Oktoberfest = Organized Chaos
-Nighttime at Oktoberfest = Sheer Madness
-I had aspirations of sightseeing on Day 2, but that was a dumb thought. I really thought I'd see some things on Day 3, but the shitty washer/dryer in the hostel screwed me. I had to spend 4+ hours sitting there waiting for it to eventually dry. Took up a lot of my final day in Munich, and cost me the BMW Museum.
-I have now heard "small world" thrown around about 300 hundred times on this trip...to the point where it's really annoying me now. The best example I can give of the "small world" phenomenon is when I met 2 people randomly at Oktoberfest who bartend at my favorite mountain in Tahoe (Alpine for you SF-ers)...small friggen world indeed.
-If I was into making rash judgments about foreign people I've met, I would say that Swiss & German people are the nicest, Australians are the loudest, and Italians are pricks. But those types of judgments would be irresponsible of me.
-Austrians I met wanted to talk about 2 things: Governor Arnold & how they think 9/11 was a conspiracy by the U.S. I think I got the point across that they should probably never say that to another American again.
And now for your viewing pleasure...a bunch of pics from Berlin (some of the big sites + those Eastside Gallery paintings I mentioned + Olympic Stadium + my 50-bed dorm room)
Enjoy!
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