The Fais dot com

Last day in Switzerland today. It has been wonderful to stay with someone and get my energy back. Plus, Switzerland is incredibly expensive; the Swiss Franc is roughly at par with the Canadian dollar, but things are twice as expensive. A Big Mac meal at McDonalds costs nearly 12 swiss francs, for example.  My biggest expense here has been traveling, as I’ve been doing day trips out to various cities in Switzerland.

Tuesday I went out to Lausanne, which is about 15 minutes away. It’s another very nice, old city. It’s also the headquarters of the Olympics, so I went to the obligatory museum they. I unabashedly love the Olympics, so I loved it. They do sort of gloss over the messy parts of Olympic history, like the fact that the Nazis hosted them, and various judging scandals. Plus it seemed pretty obvious that the founder of the modern olympic movement was a bit of a pederast… He wanted to revive the Olympic games - which classically were done completely nude - for young men to learn the glory of physical education. Certainly raised a few eyebrows.

Yesterday I went to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It hit all the usual European city criteria: Very nice ‘old city’, big fucker of a cathedral, and museums. It’s also where Albert Einstein came up with his theories of relativity. Fun fact: Einstein married his cousin. Yet still the most influential physicist ever. Discuss! Bern also has bear pits, which I was sort of looking forward to. But they were closed, re-opening at the end of July. I just BEAR-ly missed it.

Today I just bummed around the very pretty town of Morges, which is the closest town to the village I am staying it. I didn’t really do much, other than nap by the lake and ride a bike with the most uncomfortable seat around. My butt is seriously bruised.

Although staying with real, actual European people has been fun, I am looking forward to getting back to hostel life. Sure, it can be awful and you get no sleep because people snore. But it can also be loads of fun.

My stay in an actual European home is finished. Laundry has been done, batteries charged (both literally and figuratively) and my next three hostels have been booked. I am ready for the next leg of my trip!

This week is my ‘free’ week in Switzerland. I am staying with an old friend of my Mom’s from university, and her family. Bonus: her husband looks a hell of a lot like Liam Neeson. With the right accent - his is Swiss-German - it would be uncanny. They live in Lille, a small town twenty minutes from Lausanne, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It is absolutely gorgeous here, with great views of Lake Geneva and the Alps in the background.

Today was supposed to be the big planning day, but although I have a rough estimate of where I’m going, I haven’t booked any hostels or trains, so it could be… an interesting week once I leave on friday.

Everything is going fantastically other than that, and it’s definitely nice to have a bit of a break from hostels. Last night was the first night in 18 days that I didn’t sleep in a room with at least 5 other people.

Some quick facts about my trip so far:

• Days since I left Canada: 19
• Countries visited: 6 - The Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and I passed through the tiny principality of Lichtenstein on my way from Salzburg to here, so I’m counting it.
• Pairs of pants worn: 1
• Amount of time on trains: 29 hours and 40 minutes.
• Number of cities: 5 - Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Salzburg, Lille (it’s a tiny town, but I’m counting it.
• Number of Australians met: too many to count. They are everywhere in hostels in Europe. Luckily, they are usually awesome.

I still have to plan out the next couple stops on my route, but after that it’s pretty much set: Venice, Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Ghent (for Belgian purposes), Paris, Bayeux, Lyon (or somewhere in southern France), Barcelona, Madrid. I had to drop Florence for Madrid, and Cologne (which I may still do on the way from Munich to Belgium) in order to do another city in France, as Paris to Barcelona is further than I thought.

Time to look at flights, and figure out if London and Edinburgh are in the cards.

-Matt

Yesterday I arrived in Salzburg, Austria just as the sun was starting to shine for the first time since Sunday. I was originally going to stay for four nights, but was warned not to by one of my roommates. He said that “if New York is the city that never sleeps, Salzburg is the city that never wakes up”, and that you only need one day here, not the three I had planned. So I changed my plan, and am now only staying until Sunday. The same roommate also works with the Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies. Pretty cool, I thought. Still doesn’t cut down my six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but that’s okay.

Today, I celebrated that good weather by going into the Alps, up a mountain, and spending a couple hours in a cave. Not just any cave, but the world’s largest ice cave. It was really cool, and definitely worth the otherwise steep price tag.

But before that I had some time to kill. So I decided it would be a good idea to climb up a big fucking hill. It was a Bad Idea, especially since most of the tour consisted of walking up an actual mountain, before walking up another 700 steps inside the same mountain. I have done a lot of walking uphill today. Of course, I did get some fantastic pictures of the fortress that overlooks Salzburg, as well as of Salzburg itself. I’d say it was breathtaking, but it was really the climb that was breathtaking. Pause for laughter.

After a rocky start, I’m really loving the whole backpacking solo/hostel thing. Sometimes you may end up finding nobody to talk to and head to bed early, but otherwise you get to do whatever you want, and meet loads of interesting people. It’s great! I’m looking forward to my next stop, which is with an old university friend  of my parents. She lives 15 minutes from Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a great place to get to stay for free!

-Matt

Tonight is my last night in beautiful Prague. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s beautiful… For the past three days it’s been either raining or being very close to raining.

I have still been enjoying it, fortunately. But all of my pictures, rather than just being low-angle shots of old buildings, are just low-angle shots of old buildings with a boring grey background.

What I didn’t fully realize before I came here is just how touristy Prague is. Both Berlin and Amsterdam have had tourists, obviously, but not the same volume as Prague. Plus, Prague’s are all families and old people, and generally confined to the main tourist sights. Go a couple minutes away from the Astronomical Clock or the Charles Bridge, and the crowds thin out.

But in the Old Town, it goes restaurant, tourist shop, restaurant, money changer, tourist shop, restaurant, and so on. It’s a tourist trap in the vein that I’m more familiar with.

If I didn’t have a hostel out in the residential area north of the old town, I wouldn’t even be sure that Czech people lived here in a capacity other than to work at one of the restaurants or tourist shops.

At least I can see why the place is touristy. A lot of places have old buildings, but Prague’s are especially nice. Most of them are churches, but you still have the castle — which is not a castle in a traditional sense with moats and drawbridges and the like, but more of a collection of pretty buildings on a hill.

Yesterday I went out of the city an hour or so to Kutna Hora, a nice little town with the usual enormous churches, as well as a smaller church that is decorated not with stained glass or intricate paintings, but with the bones of thirty thousand peasants. Mostly their skulls. It’s pretty sweet, actually. After about twenty minutes you start to accept the fact that there are beautiful decorations made out of human remains, but it is still quite pretty.

Hostel life has taken some getting used to, but the hostel I’m staying at in Prague has been lovely. Wonderful people, and plenty to go traveling on day trips with. There are some oddities about it, like the fact that it’s more important to know where someone’s from than what their name is, but it’s otherwise great.

Tomorrow I head off to Salzburg, Austria, the home of the Sound of Music, and some dead composer. Looks like I’m in another hostel with a bar, which is definitely a plus.

Hope all is well with Canada, and all of you.

-Matt

p.s. Dave, that particular person is not one of the four I’m meeting up with. But maybe I’ll run into her at some point?

First of all, thanks to everyone for the comments! I do read them all, so keep it up!

Secondly, I am bad at counting. When I was booking my first three hostels, I failed to notice that I had no hostel booked for June 20th. I checked out of Berlin on the 20th, so clearly I should check in to Prague on the 21st, right?

So I am in Prague for a day longer than planned. Fortunately, Prague is also a pretty good city to make that mistake in. It’s cheap, it’s very pretty. Most importantly, the beer is fantastic. And inexpensive. Being here four days rather than three turns my itinerary from a frenzied rush into something that allows me to sleep in until 10:30 without any problems.

Going to check out Prague Castle today! Probably will come up with a more exhaustive Prague post before I leave.

-Matt

My last night in Berlin tonight. Thought I’d crank out a blog post before happy hour begins, so all of you can hear how Berlin has been! In short, it has been pretty fantastic.

In long, I’m pretty much all history’d out. Pretty much every day I’ve been checking out at least one historical monument or sight. Most of it associated with Nazi Germany. My conclusion: Nazis are the worst. Literally. So stop saying people that are sort of mean are Nazis.

On Tuesday, I went on a 10-hour walking tour with an old British guy who has lived in the city on and off since the late 50s. So for ten hours, I got a very detailed history lesson about Berlin, specifically what that whole ’Berlin Wall’ situation was all about. Very worth it, but very tiring on the feet. It was today I had my first Döner Kebap, which is probably German for ‘delicious’. Cheap, filling, and basically gyros if you put it in a pocket of bread, added some extra stuff, and toasted it. I have been living off of it for 4 days.

On Wednesday, I went to the Berlin History Museum, and got more of my history fix. Thursday, I went to the Sachenhausen Memorial, the site of a former concentration camp. And today, I checked out the ‘Topography of Terror’, on the site of the SS and Gestapo headquarters — it basically detailed the war crimes perpetrated by these people, the most immediate result being the deaths of millions and millions of people. I also went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is (predictably) very depressing.

But today I did also check out the Reichstag, which is the German parliament building. It kicks the Peace Tower’s ass. But I suppose when you’ve got so much history, you’ve got to have something to show for it.

I’m about to run out of internets, so that about does it for me. But I have started to plan out the rest of my trip! From here, it’s Prague, Salzburg, Switzerland, and then Italy, where I will meet up with a group of four very cool Newfoundlanders I met while in Berlin!

 Next stop: Prague!

-Matt!

I have safely arrived in Berlin. Well, that probably goes without saying. I was going from Amsterdam to Berlin, after all. Anyways, I’m here, and I like it more than Amsterdam already.

Quick side note: German keyboards are mostly the same as English ones, except they switched the Y and Z keys. It is, as the Germans say, crayz.

So yes, Amsterdam. Probably not a great place to start my trip, in hindsight. It’s full of people there to party, mainly in groups of three or four. Not a great place for a solo backpacker. So while I still met a fair number of people, it was a little more difficult than I’d have liked.

Saturday I decided to go on a pub crawl, which turned awful pretty fast. By pub crawl, they meant ‘club’ crawl, which is not really my scene. I mean, one of the clubs had a fog horn that the bartenders would hit, at which point everyone would go ‘woo’. Awesome. Plus they all had smoke, and played crappy music like Barbie Girl (seriously) and more Lady Gaga than I would like to remenber. But I had paid up front, so in order to get my ‘free’ drinks I had to go to each club. Fortunately, I met a couple like-minded people (two girls from Maryland and Philadelphia) in the second club. After that, we joined forces to make fun of everone in sight - from the tramped-up British girls to the douchebag American frat boys.

There were also plenty of highlights. The Anne Frank House is an incredibly moving and well done museum that attempts to (and succeeds) put a human face to the Holocaust. The holocaust is an incredibly monstrous thing to get your head around, because six million is a number that’s so huge, it’s difficult to comprehend fully. Hopefully some of the places I go here in Berlin will help with that. Also a great museum was the Dutch Resistance Museum, which showed in incredible detail what life was like in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. Fantastic displays and a cool touch-screen audio tour guide that provides tons of information.

Another plus is that Amsterdam is a very small city. By the third day, I was able to find my way around reasonably well, and I could walk basically anywhere I needed to go. It’s also gorgeous when it’s not pouring rain. Canals are awesome, everyone. We should get some good ones in Canada.

Berlin is pretty great so far, although I’ve only just arrived. Definitely more modern, but not completely without history. There are also a lot of great museums and some great walking tours that I plan on taking. The hostel is quite nice, with a cafe/restaurant on the ground floor, and a bar (with cheap drinks) downstairs. I don’t think I have a day where I don’t have something planned, so provided I can stay fed cheaply, I think I’ll like it here.

I’ve also attempted to plot out the rest of my trip. From here, I will (probably) hit up Prague, Cologne, Switzerland (where I have a place to stay), Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Aachen in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, Bayeux (in Normandy), and Paris. Then I’ll maybe hit up London, then fly home. It won’t take as long as I originally thought, since it seems that although I have 15 travel days to use, I may not take the full 60 days to use them. I may be back in Canada at the beginning of August, rather than the middle. We’ll see!

Hope Canada hasn’t exploded or anything!

Matt

Still in Amsterdam, and enjoying it quite a bit. I think that 4 full days may have been a bit long to stay in one location, especially with the art museums not holding much appeal for me. But I still have two full days here, and am determined to make the most of them. I haven’t quite adjusted to the strange schedule of the backpacker, but I have almost conquered the jet lag.

Yesterday I did a couple tours; first at the Heineken Brewery, which isn’t much of a brewery, but basically a multimedia tour of how Heineken is made and the history of the brewer.  It was very well done, and made all the better by the three free beers. I also did a guided tour of the red light district, which isn’t nearly as seedy as you’d think — it’s actually one of the safest parts of the city, due to all the security cameras and extra police protection.

I’m still trying to get my sleeping back on schedule, which can be tricky when people come into the room at 4:30 in the morning. But the solution was pretty simple: ear plugs. The city (especially on weekends) literally parties until dawn, although I only have the stamina for 2:30 at the latest.

And Thursday night the hostel was overbooked, so at 4:30 a drunk guy tried to kick me out of my bed - which was apparently his bed as well. Exciting times for a first night.

Today I plan on visiting the Anne Frank House and the Dutch Resistance Museum, take a nap, then go on a pub crawl.

Until next time,

Matt

edit: I have a cell phone here - the number is (011) 31 065 098 83 46. Send me a text or something. But keep in mind that Europe is located 6 hours in the future.

I have landed safely in Amsterdam, after the flight from cliché hell. I was in an aisle seat next to the bathroom, in the vicinity of two screaming babies. Needless to say, I did not get any sleep on my red-eye.

Coming into a foreign city completely cold is pretty intimidating no matter how you slice it. The closest I’ve been to that was first year coming out to Vancouver not knowing anyone. Which was still Canada, and a place I was supposed to be. It was completely overwhelming. Culture shock, mixed with no sleep with a dash of language barrier and no good maps.

Despite having a state-of-the-art debit card, I can only get money out of every other ATM here. So by noon, I was feeling pretty despondent. But I was lucky enough to join a free tour that helped get me oriented within the city. The same company runs free tours in cities all over Europe, so I will definitely be checking them out.

Thank goodness for hostels. In my case, the Orfeo Hotel in Amsterdam. Once I got there, I was given a nice-sized map, and met up with a bunch of other backpackers. Britons, Americans, Brazilians, Aussies, French Canadians, and another Canadian (from Hamilton, no less). Everyone is incredibly friendly, but seem to be more apt to include you in their plans if you happen to be an attractive female. The male/female ratio is pretty skewed in this hostel.

I think that’s all, so I’m going to go back to drinking Heineken and playing Crazy Eight Countdown with some of the other people here.

-thefais

I can never sleep when I’m excited. My mind doesn’t settle down, so I just stay up surfing the web. Tonight is especially bad: I’m watching videos of people playing the piano on youtube. But I’m too excited to sleep.

Tomorrow, I head off to Europe for two months to go backpacking, and travel solo. I have a Eurail pass, a camera, a backpack full of clothes and a guidebook. And money.

I fly into Amsterdam tomorrow, then it’s off to Berlin next week and Prague the week after. But beyond June 25th, I’m playing it by ear. I have a place to stay in Switzerland, but other than that it’s hostels or anything else that’s cheap.

The Europe trip is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but because of school or work or rent I’ve been unable. I suppose that’s the benefit of being unemployed and living with your parents: you can go to Europe.

I don’t really know what to expect. It will be my first time outside of North America, save a week-long trip to the Dominican Republic in high school. I keep trying to prepare myself, but I have no frame of reference. Even my beloved popular culture has very little to offer as far as backpacking across Europe is concerned. But if Taken is any indication, I’m going to be sold into the sex trade, only to be saved by Liam Neeson. I’ll pass.

I’ll try and post to this blog as often as possible, to keep everyone updated of my progress. I hope to keep writing throughout, and keep commenting so I know who’s paying attention.

Next up: Amsterdam!

-Matt