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Home, sweet home

I am finally home after what was literally an entire day of traveling.

In Washington I was literally a zombie. A coffee from Starbucks helped, but that last flight seemed longer than my two previous flights combined.

I immediately cheered up when I reached the Dayton International Airport and got to see my mother for the first time in nearly seven weeks. Originally I did not think that being gone only seven weeks would be a big deal. It really wasn’t until the last week when I started thinking about coming home.

Europe was really a life-changing experience for me, but in the end I am glad to be home again. It’s not that I missed the United States of America, but rather that I missed seeing friends and family. If I ever wanted to live in Europe, I would definitely have to bring my friends and family along for the ride.

That may be possible for the next trip. A few years from now my parents will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary, and they are already kicking around some ideas about a trip through Europe. (I would have to come along to be the translator and guide naturally.) I’m really excited that they are even considering it. I wouldn’t have to worry about homesickness since I would essentially be traveling with the home.

Wow. It’s late!

Although I am very tired, I have been looking through photos from the trip on my laptop for about the past three hours. Really I need to sleep, but I am just amazed by how great the photos look.

I ended up taking only 1,090 photos. The end total will be much smaller than this because many of the photos will be stitched together to create panoramic photos. There are also a few shots that came out a bit out of focus that won’t make the final set.

It will probably take me a good week to get all of them edited and put up online. I am in the process of putting up a portfolio website that will include the cream of the photos. However, all the photos will be on my Picasa web album account.

Stay posted for an announcement on that sometime next week.

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Waiting

I’m finally back in the states after two flights, but now the long wait begins. Apparently my travel agent thought that I needed nearly six hours between flights. I can understand two hours tops, but six hours?

I took my time getting off the plane and going through Customs and Immigration knowing that I had all day. When I got into the terminal, I saw there was a flight leaving in 3o minutes for Dayton … my destination. I could have made that flight! Oh well, what can I do? Right now what I want to do is sleep. I have been literally traveling all day, and I am very tempted to just go take a nap in front of the gate. After all, I’ve got about five hours.

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Packed

The weather today was probably the worst weather I have seen during my time in Europe. Throughout the day it was around 65 degrees Fahrenheit with a cloudy sky and light rain.

But the weather didn’t stop me. Since I basically saw all the major landmarks yesterday, I spent the day seeing a few landmarks that weren’t on the tour.

My first stop of the day was the Berlin Zoo. For months I have been hearing and reading about Knut, the new star of the zoo. Knut is a polar bear that was born in captivity at the zoo on December 5, 2006, and later rejected by his mother. He became known world-wide when a couple animal activists called for the zoo to let the bear die rather than raise it as a domestic pet.

The zoo didn’t let that happen. Instead they used some well-played PR to introduce Knut to the world. It was hard to convince the public that the bear must die when there is footage on all the news channels of him running around being cute.

Knut was basically the only thing that interested me at the zoo. I had heard so much about this bear that I wanted to see him for myself while I was in the area.

The weather was still crappy when I left the zoo so I headed down to Unter den Linden, Berlin’s “Main Street,” to do some shopping.

Several credit card swipes later, I was headed back to the hostel with all my gift shopping for friends and family successfully completed.

I will probably go to bed early since I am setting my alarm for 5 a.m. tomorrow. My flight doesn’t leave until 10 a.m., but I’m not exactly sure how to get there so I don’t want to chance it.

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What a day

Berlin

Today I took an eight-hour walking tour around the city. What a day!

It started at 7:30 a.m. when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. My alarm was set for 8 a.m., but I got up thinking that I might be able to find a place to get some Frühstuck (breakfast).

Scratch that idea. I forgot that it was Sunday. Apparently Sunday is the day when Berliners don’t open their businesses. So I instead just enjoyed a nice morning walk through the ghost-town-like streets of East Berlin.

The walk wasn’t that bad besides the fact that I couldn’t find any food along the way. During the entirety of the walk, I could see the Fernsehturm (TV tower) looming over the neighborhood. Being my first full day in Berlin, I found it interesting to be able to see a relic of the Soviet era looming over the city. This wasn’t the only Soviet relic that is still visible in East Berlin as I would find out later.

My tour started at 10:30 a.m. The tour guide picked us up at the front entrance of the hostel. This was the number one reason I chose this particular walking tour. The fact that I didn’t have to walk but only 5 steps out the front door to join up with a tour was great.

The tour itself was definitely worth the money. Our guide was very knowledgeable about Berlin and the world politics that has shaped the history of the city. Not only could he answer any of our questions, but he also led us to all the major landmarks in the city.

During the day we saw the Jewish district, several embassies (including the spaceship-like Czech Republic embassy), the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, a remaining piece of the Berlin Wall, the site of Hitler’s bunker (where he comitted suicide in 1945), Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Cathedral just to name a few.

After the tour, I went up to the top of the Fernsehturm for a look at the city. It was neat to be able to see the city, but it was not worth 8.50 Euros. From atop the tower, it was very apparent what part of the city was East Berlin just because of the architecture.

It’s been nearly two decades since the wall opened, but so much of the Communist block-style architechure still exists most likely because it is literally everywhere. After WWII, the Soviets rebuilt the east side of the city so they put up ugly, prefabricated buildings all over the place.

In the end, the tour was a great way to get the absolute most out of the day. When in Berlin, I highly recommend taking one of Brewer’s Berlin Tours.

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Ich bin ein Berliner

Leipzig was not my cup of tee so I caught an earlier train to Berlin today.

It was only a couple hours earlier than the train on my itinerary, but it was the first time during the trip that I did not follow the itinerary.

During the past six weeks, I have been itching to get to Berlin. While in Graz, I read the Berlin section in my “Lonely Planet: Germany” book 20 times in anticipation for this leg of my trip.

At 5 p.m. I finally arrived in Berlin. I got off the train at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station). The station was the coolest train station that I have ever seen. It is ultra modern with a great view of the Reichstag out the front entrance.

Although it took me a while to find the right city train, I eventually made it to my hostel in former East Berlin. The place is really nice, but I am in an eight-person dorm room on the second floor. It should be interesting.

Today was a long day. I am so tired after walking around Leipzig all day plus my adventures on the Berlin subway system. There are apparently some nice clubs around the corner from the hostel. I may check those out, but only after a nap.

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Time out

Schloss Neuschwanstein

The past few days I took a time out of sorts from my crazy travel schedule. Instead of rushing off to see another huge city, I visited a friend in Kaufbeuren, Germany instead.

Last year in high school I did an exchange with a Gymnasium (like a high school) in Kaufbeuren. Each person was assigned a pen pal. We wrote the pen pal in German and they wrote back in English. In October 2005 the group from Germany came to Indiana for 10 days and stayed with the American pen pals. In March 2006 the group from America went to Germany for 10 days and stayed with the German pen pals.

It was kind of a neat exchange except I wish that I could have stayed longer. After the program I kept in contact with my friend, and came to visit her the last couple days.

Unfortunately my visit was again very short. It was bitter sweet because I got to see her and her family again, but then I had to leave after only about 48 hours with them.

Yesterday I went with my friend again to Schloss Neuschwanstein in southern Germany near the Austrian border. Instead of taking a tour of the castle again (I took one last year), we decided to instead visit nearby Schloss Hohenschwangau. This castle belonged to the father of the king who built Neuschwanstein. Although the outside is not as fancy as Neuschwanstein, it was very nice inside.

After our tour we hiked over to the Maria’s bridge so I could get a good photo of Neuschwanstein.

It was nice to be able to get away from the big cities a bit and to visit my friend.

My friend had school today so I spent the morning walking around the Kaufbeuren with her mom. After school she met me in front of the Rathaus and we went to the train station with her mom.

I really did not want to get on the train because I wanted to stay a bit longer, but in the end I did. My first train was 14 minutes late so I had to wait an hour in Nuremberg for a train to Leipzig.

The train to Leipzig was a high-speed Inter City Express train that traveled at 140 miles-per-hour. It was really neat. The trip took about three hours, but I spent most of the time watching “Das Leben der Anderen” (also known in English as “The Lives of Others”) to set the mood for Leipzig. The movie is about the Stasi, the infamous East German secret police.

I had been waiting to see the movie for months,and it was well worth it because it is a great movie. I was surprised how much of the Northern German I was able to understand.

I arrived to my hostel in Leipzig around 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow I will do some sightseeing in the city before taking my last train to Berlin around 5 p.m.

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All wet

Kehlsteinhaus

Berchtesgaden was a very wet experience.

Monday I took a train from Venice to Villach, Austria then from Villach to Salzburg. In Salzburg I caught what I thought was the one-hour train to Berchtesgaden. The train only ran to Bad Reichenhall, a small town halfway between Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.

The train shutoff, the driver packed up for the night and got off the train. Everyone on the train had to go the rest of the way by bus. I still do not understand why the train quit running so early.

The bus ride was not bad, and I ended up arriving in Berchtesgaden earlier than I would have with the train. When we arrived, it was the rain storm of the century. Luckily my hotel was literally in sight of the bus stop, but I still got soaked running with my luggage to the hotel. To make matters worse, my umbrella broke in the midst of my 100 yard dash to the hotel door.

In the end the only thing that got really wet was my backpack. All my books got wet. The first order of business in the hotel room was to unpack my entire bag and open all the books to let them dry. In a way it looked as though I were cramming for a final with all the books laying open around my bed.

Despite the rough start, things got better when I got to the hotel. I stayed at the Hotel Bavaria, which oddly enough is not listed in the Lonely Planet guide. I found it a couple weeks ago searching on Google for something in Berchtesgaden. It was a great find. The place is actually more of a bed and breakfast than a hotel despite the name. The room was very nice, and I even had a private bathroom (unlike Venice).

The Eagle’s Nest

Tuesday morning I grabbed my warm clothes and headed up Mount Kehlstein to visit the infamous Eagle’s Nest. The Eagle’s Nest was built by the National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) as a present for Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday. The house sets on top of a mountain in an area called Obersalzberg where all Hitler’s cronies set up camp in the late 1930s.

Despite its infamous history, it has one of the best views in the world. From the Kehlsteinhaus, as it is known in German, I could see Berchtesgaden below and Salzburg, Austria in the distance. It was simply amazing. Although it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit on top of the mountain, I still had a great time just setting there and gazing into the valley below.

The best part is that the main room of the residence, where Hitler played host to foreign diplomats, is now a restaurant. It is funny to think that the room where that sad excuse for a human being once sat is now home to a restaurant full of tourists, many of whom are foreigners. The restaurant was good. I had a Wiener Schnitzel and a beer from the famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich.

I ended up staying at the house for around four hours before I caught a bus back down the mountain. Halfway down I visited the Dokumentation Obersalzburg, a museum that focuses on the forced Nazi takeover of the Obersalzberg area where they built their southern headquarters. It took me nearly three hours to go through the museum.

At the end of the museum is part of the underground bunker network constructed for the Nazi elite that is open to the public. It was very interesting especially since it was the first time I had ever been in a bunker.

I did not return to my hotel until 7 p.m. Unfortunately, Berchtesgaden as a city closes well before that time. I took a walk around the city after returning from Obersalzberg, but could not find anything open. I spent the rest of the day relaxing in my room or on the balcony which had a great view of the mountains.

Overall, Berchtesgaden was a good side trip. It was nice to be able to break up a trip full of big cities with a small city where I didn’t constantly have one hand on my wallet and other on my camera.

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Berchtesgaden bound

Today is kind of a bitter sweet day for me. Bitter because I am leaving Venice, one of the most beautiful and cultured cities in the world; but also sweet because I am heading to Bavaria (southern Germany) to Berchtesgaden.

Last night I went out and got some really nice photos of the sunset from Saint Mark’s square. Up to that point I had been really frustrated with myself because I felt I had not taken anything good. That all changed last night. I got there at the perfect time to get some great sunset shots then I stuck around to get some after dark photos on the Grand Canal.

My mother told me the other day that she wants to frame a photo from my trip and put it up in our living room. I was kind of worried because I was not sure whether any shots were that good. The pressure is off now.

I am really looking forward to Berchtesgaden. It is a very historical city because it was the official retreat for the Nazi party during World War II. Atop Mount Kehlstein sets the famed “Eagle’s Nest.” The house was built as a birthday present for Hitler himself, but he rarely visited it because he was said to be afraid of heights.

Despite its past, the house is now only a restaurant with one of the world’s greatest views. I am really looking forward to this as a chance to get away from the big cities that fill the rest of my itinerary. I hope to just relax a bit before I head up north to the big cities of Leipzig and Berlin.

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Venice!

Venice, Italy

Yesterday I arrived in Venice to begin my post-program travels.

The trip was only supposed to last around five hours, but thanks to the wonderfully on-time Italian railway workers it took six and a half hours. Apparently there had been a railway workers strike the night before and the delay had something to do with that. Nothing like setting at the Austrian-Italian border for an hour.

It was neat because I ran into a girl from the program when I went to change trains at Bruck an der Mur. She was taking the same train I was except she was getting off one station earlier to catch a train to Florance. We ended up riding in the same compartment, which made the long journey much more enjoyable.

My hotel is nice. My only complaint is that I had to lug my luggage up stairs to my room on the fourth floor. Other than that, it’s a really nice place. It is literally around the corner from the train station, and a bunch of restaurants.

My room is literally a closet because it is a one-person private room without a bathroom. And I thought my dorm room freshman year would be the smallest room that I would ever sleep in!

Despite arriving an hour later than I thought I would, I was able to see a large portion of the city yesterday afternoon. I took a 6 Euro water bus from the train station to Saint Mark’s square. It was definitely a good investment because it was more like a boat cruise than a bus trip.

After walking around a bit yesterday, I came back to the hotel and tried to take a nap. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my alarm clock for 8 p.m. so I did not get a chance to go take night scape photos. I ended up waking up at 2 a.m.

Today I got up at 8 a.m. and set off for a walk through the city. I bought a book yesterday with tour routes, but after seeing how expensive everything is here, I decided that I would not spend the day in museums. Instead, I decided to just wonder around the city a bit and try to get lost.

I did get lost, but not on purpose. After walking around most of the morning in 90-degree heat, I decided to head back to the hotel to get something to eat and possibly take a nap. I soon realized that Venice is perhaps the hardest city in the world to walk through. The book I bought yesterday came with a map, but it was not much help since the streets bend and twist all over the place.

Luckily, I eventually found a series of signs pointing back towards the train station, and I followed them back to my hotel.

Venice is really beautiful, but I will not be heartbroken when I leave tomorrow. I don’t know any Italian so it has been a very interesting time to say the least. I regret not taking an Italian class at Indiana University last semester. It definitely would have helped.

That said, it is a really neat and historical city, and I still can’t believe that I am actually here.

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The end

Today was the last day of the program. We did not really have class today, but instead we went to a cafe across the street and had coffee and cake.

Overall, it was a very sad day. After a few hours people began to leave, and I suddenly realized that I may never again see some of them.

Last night was our Abschiedsfest, a nice dinner with all the host families followed by a few performances by the students. I contributed by singing a song with a couple other students to Volker Horn who is the Resident Coordinator for the program.

Volker is in charge of all the housing arrangements and trip arrangements for the program. He is also a really great guy who seems a little shy at times. So one can easily picture the look on his face when we pulled in front of everybody and started singing a song to him.

It was great. Although he was very embarrassed, he told me later that he really liked and appreciated the song. (I’ll try to get a copy of the lyrics posted here soon.)

In all, the Abschiedsfest was a big success, and a great way to cap off the program. But it was ultimately sad because it was basically the end of the program.

Tomorrow morning around 5 a.m. I am heading to Venice, Italy. I am not sure how much internet access I will have after I leave Graz so I must apologize in advance if this blog gets a bit boring in the next week. Hopefully I can find an internet cafe in Venice where I can write a quick blog post or two.

When I return to America in a couple weeks, I will be posting an in-depth analysis of the program and my time in Graz. I did not want to hastily post something today, but rather have some time to reflect a bit on the experience first.