I had a great time traveling around Europe with Anna and Ryan!
We decided to get a Eurorail pass rather than booking cheap flights the whole way. I suggested getting the pass, but after we bought it I thought we might have made a mistake. Looking back on our whole trip, I’d say I am glad we took the train everywhere. Some of our trips were pretty long – like 14 hours or so – but it is a lot more comfortable in a train and you get to meet some really interesting people and get to know them really well from a few hours of talking.
We started our European adventure on the night August 14th, taking an overnight train from Malmo to Berlin, then from Berlin to Wroclaw (pronounced vort-swave), where Anna’s cousin lives. We stayed in his small apartment with him and his girlfriend, sleeping in their living room. They showed us around Wroclaw and took us on a great hike a few hours away in the Czech Republic.
Our next stop was supposed to be in Prague, but we took a minor, unintentional detour. As we were getting off of the train in Dresden, Berlin to transfer, I took my luggage off of the train and then went back on to help Anna and Ryan with their luggage. The doors closed, leaving my luggage outside on the platform and Ryan, Anna and I and their luggage inside the train. Luckily the next stop was only 15 minutes away. We caught a train going back to the other Dresden station and to my surprise and immense happiness my bag was still on the platform.
We missed our connecting train, so we spent the day walking around Dresden and had a pretty good time.
Finally, we arrived late that night in Prauge. Our hostel was in Prague’s epicenter of tourism, so things didn’t start to quiet down until 4:00 in the morning. We stayed in Prague for a few nights, usually spending our days walking around and exploring the city. My favorite thing in Prauge was a jazz concert that we went to one night, kind of by accident. I saw a flyer for “free music.” Being the cheap college students that we are, we take advantage of any free opportunity that presents itself. When we got to the jazz bar and the bouncer asked us to pay the cover charge we showed him the flyer that we had picked up. He explained that “free music” is a style and has nothing to do with the price. We felt like dumb Americans.
We decided to pay the cover charge (it was cheap, only about $6) and the music was great!
Our next stop was in Bern, Switzerland. It was my favorite stop of the trip and by far the most beautiful. It was a nice change of pace from Prague. Our hostel was located right on the Aare river, a freezing cold river of snow melt from the alps that is the most beautiful shade of turquoise and has a super fast current. Ryan and I went swimming down it one evening (rather, we were flushed downstream in the current). It was freezing, but really awesome to move that fast in the water.
From Bern, we took a day trip to Spiez, a city in the Bernese Oberlands. The city is situated around a huge lake that is the same beautiful shade of turquoise as the Aare river. The Alps are all around the lake. We set off that morning to hike in the Alps. Instead, we ended up walking along the banks of the lake and taking a three-hour nap on a rock that juts into the lake.
Our last stop was in Barcelona. We saw several Gaudi projects. My personal favorite was the Parc Guell. We also ran into several other Cincinnatians. We took a day trip to a beach just south of Barcelona with about 6 other UC students that we ran into. The water was the perfect temperature, and the beach wasn’t too crowded. At the end of the day some people started playing pick-up sand soccer and Dave (another UC student) and I joined in. Sand soccer is so much more physically demanding than normal soccer. Its hard to walk, let alone run in the sand. Nevertheless, it was fun and a great workout. I’d missed playing soccer since I left Copenhagen.
By the time the end of the trip rolled around I was ready to go home. Traveling was really fun, but really exhausting. Its really nice to be home and sleep in my own bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment