sportik's adventure blog

Thursday, May 21, 2015

It maks sense, really.

My European adventure is coming to a close. Only 6 more days in Germany and then it's back to the "real world".

I'm going to give you a glimpse into how (or why) I've been able to do this crazy trip and at the end I'm going to ask something of you. It's completely optional, but it would mean a lot to me.

Back in 2008, I made the decision to move to Australia. I hadn't thought out every detail. I didn't know how I would afford it or what I would do for work when I got there, but the decision was made and I put all my faith into it. And it worked out. Something that I had only dreamt of as a child, moving to another country, was acheivable.

The same principle took place with this trip (and many other things in my life). At some point along the way, I made a decision. I was going to quit my job and travel until I didn't want to anymore. Once the decision was made, there was no un-making it. There was no backing out.

Again, I didn't know how I would afford it. I didn't know where I would go exactly or what I'd do when I got there, but none of that mattered. And here I am. In two months, I've been to Scotland, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Germany. I've seen and done so much more than I planned, dreamed or thought possible. And I'm stopping, not because I've run out of money, but because I'm tired. I've pushed myself really hard and enjoyed every minute.

I feel very blessed to have accomplished so many things in my life, but the secret is and has always been belief and sacrifice. I believe without doubt that it will happen and I am willing to give something in return.

To save up for this trip, I stopped living alone and rented a room from a friend. I sold my car and took public transportation. I sold everything I owned. I negotiated over money (which can be uncomfortable, briefly sacrificing comfort). I always kept my focus on the goal without hesitation or doubt. It was the same when I moved to Australia.

Other decisions in my life came with different sacrifices. When I decided to get a Master's degree, I worked during the day, giving up my evenings to attend class. I gave up money for tuition and books. I gave up my weekends to study and do homework. But every sacrifice paid off.

The other thing is, there are innumerable ways to get the same result. I could have applied for scholarships or grants and quit my job, taken day courses and still had my evenings. I could have put all my belongings in storage and traveled for half as long. I could've volunteered to work on someone's farm in Europe and had free room and board and traveled twice as long (it's called woofing. look it up if you're interested).

For me, the recipe is a simple one. Decide. Believe. Sacrifice. Achieve. It is with that recipe that this trip was possible and now that the trip is wrapping up, I'm looking forward to the next great achievement...whatever it may be.

Thank you for letting me write something other than another "what I did today" blog post. Tomorrow, I'll get back to recapping my time here in Germany.

Now, I mentioned that I'd be asking something of you. All I ask is this. If you can, send me an email. Say anything you'd like. I'd love to hear from you. My email address is: sportik@gmail.com

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Germany: Neuschwanstein Castle to the Black Forest

Today was another day with A LOT of driving. I am tired. Also, I know I didn't post about yesterday but I sort of got depressed when trying to write about it (concentration camp and all). So, it might take me a few days to put that one together.

As for today, I will try to load pictures with captions, but the internet connection at my hotel is weak.

I drove from 9am - 7pm with an hour break to climb 600m uphill to see a castle...well, THE castle, in my opinion. But anyway, I'm wiped out. I'm going to have dinner and sleep and maybe spend tomorrow morning catching up on my blogging.

UPDATED: May 21st - From Cologne

Hi! I am finally in a hotel with reliable internet. Let the blogging begin!'

This blog post is about May 19th. I woke up in Munich and didn't really know where I wanted to go. See, I have been doing two things to determine my next move. 1) I download a map of the country that I'm in and circle cities that I'd like to see. Then I do internet research on each place I circled and maybe change my mind a few times, deleting and recircling on the map until I have a decent idea of which places I want to go. 2) I get out an old fashioned piece of paper and make three columns. Where I want to go, what I want to see there and when I'd like to be there. Finally, between the place names, I do a Google Maps search to see how long it would take to drive between them and I write it down. I'd been following these two maps/plans, but May 19th had Neuschwanstein Castle and May 20th was blank. The castle was only an hour and a half from Munich, near the town of Füssen. I figured I could stay there, or I could drive down in the morning and make my way west, towards the Black Forest (everybody was telling me I needed to see it). So, without pre-booking a hotel anywhere, since I didn't know how far I would get, I left in the morning for Neuschwanstein Castle.

Now, if you don't now, the Neuschwanstein Castle is THE castle that Disney himself used as the inspiration for the Disney Park castles. If you know me at all, you know I love me some Disneyland (California!). So, I HAD to see this.

I was warned by the hotel reception in Munich that it was supposed to be bad weather. "If you have rain boots, put zem on." She said it was supposed to be a hard rain. I drove an hour and a half with a 10 minute drizzle, at most. Parked. And the rain stopped entirely. Brilliant!

This castle is on a hill.

As seen from the road

As seen half way up the hill

You can't just park at it and walk around like I did with Glamis Castle in Scotland. You park in this cute little "town" (cough shops cough) and pay to take a bus or a horse drawn carriage to the top. 600m (meters) up a fairly steep hill.

Cute town

Note: if you go here, be sure to buy tickets to the castle in the little town. If you get to the castle itself, they don't sell tickets and you can't go in. I didn't want to go in, but I did want to see the outside of it for myself. So, I got to hiking! I put on my rain boots (shoes) and regretted my decision at about 300m. I tore off my rain jacket and cardigan, coughed a good portion of my lung out and watched a bunch of 80-year-olds pass me up the hill. "Ok, dummy, you can do this."

At the 580m mark, I stopped at the café to have a pretzel and a coffee (but secretly, I just wanted to stop and catch my breath without anyone wondering why). It was a GIANT and delicious pretzel and the coffee wasn't bad either.

20 more meters and I'd reached the top and it was worth it! All sorts of Japanese tourists were speaking to each other excitedly, but all I could make out between the streams of Japanese words were, "Disney! Disney!" I loved that so much. =)

Even the view from up there was spectacular

Once I was done at THE castle, I walked down the hill.

One comment here. There were two paths. The way I came up and a way with stairs. My friend Amanda in Copenhagen had an impact on me, which I realised at this fork in the road, and I hope it sticks with me forever. She, on more than one occasion, took a different path back than she'd taken to a place. Her philosophy was, "I've already seen that. Let's see something new". So, I took the path with the stairs and I loved every step.

Back at the car, after shopping in the cute town, I looked at my map of Germany. The one with all the circles and I picked a town near the Black Forest. A town that wasn't circled. A town I knew nothing about. I plugged it into my GPS and drove 4 hours to get there. I planned on stopping along the way, or stopping to find wi-fi and book a hotel, but that didn't happen. I drove and drove and drove...

Driving

The GPS didn't see this coming! Road very much closed.

Even when tired of driving, I appreciated the gorgeous homes/castles along the way.

With all that driving I wasn't having fun anymore, but the GPS said I was close so I kept going. I reached this town, whose name I won't mention because I HATED IT! Sure, it was big enough to be on the map. And yeah, my GPS said there were hotels in the town, but they were all B&B's and I swear to God they looked like they'd been closed for 10 years. The streets were narrow. There were a lot of people who didn't look friendly. I wanted out of there.

PROBLEM. I didn't have a clue where to go. And this is where my mood really took a turn for the worse. I KNEW this was going to happen. I put myself in this situation and that made me more upset. At one point, I even saw this sign!

I pulled over and typed into my GPS that I'd like to find hotels. It gave me 20 or more choices that were the German equivalent of "Bob's hotel". I tried more than one. Closed. It was at this point that I started looking up "Ibis" or "Travelodge" or "Hilton". The closest of these to me was Zurich! Then I had the bright idea to look up places that I knew would have free wi-fi. "Starbucks". None. "McDonald's" Yes! And only 15 minutes away. I was seriously in the sticks, folks. I got to McDonald's and asked, "Do you have wi-fi?", "Yes, but you need a Germany phone number to confirm." If I had a Germany phone number, I wouldn't need the F&*#&^* wi-fi. Ok. Calm down.

I had a cheeseburger in silence.

I got back in the car and tried the random hotel search again. 20 more minutes in a random direction, hoping hoping hoping. I got there and saw that they were open, but I also saw the only German word I ever learned in college. Besetzt. Occupied. I went in and the woman only spoke German. She ushered me out, speaking the whole time, and pointed at the sign. I assume, "Idiot. We're full up. Go away." I started driving out of that little town and saw another hotel. I pulled over and asked the woman if she had any vacancies. No, but she spoke English and was nice. I asked if I could use her wi-fi to find a hotel and she said YES. Oh, happy day! I got my tablet, plugged in the wi-fi code and within 10 minutes had a place booked in the Black Forest. A DESTINATION! No more wandering. No more anger! I thanked the woman profusely and plugged the address of my hotel into the GPS. 1 Hour away, but WHO CARES! Yes, it was 6pm and I had been driving since 9am. Yes, I was tired and cranky, but I knew where I was going and that made all the difference. The hour flew by and I arrived in my super cute Hotel Diana (in Feldberg). My room overlooked the Black Forest. I had a fantastic dinner in the hotel restaurant and then passed out in my bed.

Lesson (re)learned. NEVER start driving without a destination in mind.

The view from my hotel room.

This stuffed bear greeted everyone at the front door

Germany loves to put Gummy Bears on your pillow at night

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Germany: Munich

Originally, I intended for this blog post to cover the 460 kilometers I drove today (285 miles). Driving that kind of distance can be dull. It can be painful. It can be tiring. I remember when I was in my early 20's driving down to LA (Disneyland, Long Beach or Orange) was HARD. I would keep myself busy to try and help the time pass, but the only thing you can really do to "keep busy" is eat, drink soda or smoke. Which is what I did. Every half hour, I'd allow myself one thing (a cigarette, snickers, coke) but 1) That's just stupid and 2) See 1.

Now that I'm a grown up, I am mentally able to drive for long distances without getting bored or distracted. I don't check my phone, don't smoke at all anymore, don't eat and rarely drink water while driving. I just sort of settle into it. In Germany, in particular, staying focused on traffic is a MUST. Speeds are upwards of 140kph (80mph) in the SLOW LANE. But it varies and can drop down to 60kph in a moment. And if there is an accident 140 can turn into 0 very quickly.

For the most part, my drive today (from 9:30am-2:30pm, with breaks for petrol and lunch) was smooth sailing. I loved the German scenery. Forests and farms alternating with the occasional small town view. The roads I took from Dresden to Munich stayed away from towns for nearly the whole trip. Here are some of my views. (Note: I would take my camera in my right hand when traffic was predictable and blindly take photos, not looking at the camera or aiming, keeping my focus on the road. These are the good photos.)

Plenty of space between cars to feel comfortable at high speeds

Look at that color. Gorgeous.

That yellow is a field of two foot tall stems with small yellow flowers on top.

I am convinced that these forests are so plentiful, Europe should thank Germany for its Oxygen.

Getting passed with great speed while I cruise at 140kph (80mph) in the "slow lane"

Ausfahrt means Exit in German...not "Aussie Fart" (p.s. it never gets old)

To mix up the view...windmills

Cute, small town surrounded by beautiful grasses, flowers and trees.

What the?! In 400m, don't go 80 and get over to the lane where they can't go 50.

These brown signs are very common and seem to say something about what's in the town you're about to pass, or maybe just something cool about Germany.

I tried 4 times to catch this sign. This is the best I got. It was one of those, "My life is awesome" moments where I just happen to be driving through Nurenberg to Munich. What? How did that happen?

More driving. It looked like this for 5 hours people. You try staring at this and not get bored.

Ok, one story about driving and then onto my evening in Munich.

It was 1pm and I had 1 hour left according to my handy, dandy GPS. I had already stopped once to get fuel and to use the restroom. I really didn't want to stop again, but I was getting hungry and didn't want to feel weak at any point while pushing through. I opted to stop at a Burger King, but when I pulled off the road to the Autohof (I think the translation here is car courtyard, but basically it's where everybody should stop to eat or pee, etc) the parking lot was FULL of cars and big rig trucks and dudes everywhere, so I just drove through and back onto the highway. There was another stop 500m ahead with a KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, gas station. I knew they'd have parking if they had all that. So, I stopped, parked, stood in line for a burger and onion rings (disappointing), ate and got back on the highway. As you may recall from that last photo, there was "no" traffic. Plenty of space to be going 140kph. Well, now traffic was going about 20kph. Steadily moving, but very slowly. It was strange. But not 1km up the road, the reason presented itself. There was a massive accident where someone ran up the back of someone else. The front end of the car was flattened. Someone had put out flares and road signs (I think all Germans carry this in their cars). Everyone seemed to be out of the damaged cars, standing on the side of the road. I thanked God for the lunch break, saving me from the accident and drove on to Munich.

I checked into my super cute hotel. The desk clerk was so helpful and nice. He carried my luggage up to my room and gave me recommendations of where to go to dinner, with extra excitement when talking about the Beer Garden up the street. It's not just a normal Beer Garden, he said, it's the biggest in the world with seating for 8,000. Sold. When dinner time rolled around, I took a 10 minute walk up the street to the Hirschgarten. This is what I saw on my walk and at dinner.

There is a huge palace (Schloss Nymphenburg) up the street from my hotel and this beer garden area used to be the hunting grounds for the residence of the palace. Now they have a special area for deer to live peacefully.

Deer are my favorite animals.

So cute!

Ok, last picture of deer, I promise.

Big Beer Garden. Lots of seating.

The menu for the restaurant

My waiter wore lederhosen! Leather shorts.

Kässpatzen! German noodles, Swiss cheese, fried onions. So good.

Keep Driveway Clear!

Adorable neighborhood

Caution! And exit at a walking pace? Is google translate messing with me?

A bumper sticker I saw that reminded me of the fairy godmother. I don't know what it's for though.

Well, I had a lovely walk, an even better dinner and I bought a chocolate for dessert. And I don't know what's in it. Surprise for me!

Good morning from Dresden

I'm not sure what it is about me exactly, but a friend recently described it this way, "You seem to attract conversations." This morning at breakfast was no exception. I even had one headphone in, listening to a show on my iPhone. A very tall, older gentleman popped his head into the breakfast room. I noticed him because he had to duck to get into the room. He had a bald top and lot of fluffy white hair in that horseshoe men get around his head. He immediately looked friendly. It was in the eyes. He left the room.

In two more minutes, he came back and sat next to me with a hand cupping his mouth saying "Guten morgen" in a jokingly loud way. Pretending to shout so that I would hear him over my headphone. I took it out and offered to share my carafe of coffee with him, explaining that I only speak English. He said, "Then this shall not be a problem communicating." We spent the next ten minutes having a good ol' chat.

We talked about where I'm from. I've been saying "California" to people when they ask, because my accent is clearly American and everyone knows California. If I say Australia, obviously they know where that is, but it doesn't make sense when hearing me speak. The nice man asked me what brought me to Germany. I said, "I have family in Arnsberg, so I thought I would drive around Germany first before seeing them." He said, "Pope not included." From my quizzical expression, he knew I'd never heard that one. "There is a saying," he said, "Americans want to travel through Europe in three days, Pope included." I laughed and said, "Well, I've been traveling around Europe for nearly two months. I even went to the Vatican. Pope definitely not included."

He then said, "The exchange rate should be good for you." So, I said, "I've been living in Australia, so not really." He expressed to me that the Euro is a foolish concept, giving the example of The Emperor's New Clothes. "It is amazing that only a few people seem to recognize that it doesn't work. It is Step 3 before Step 1." He went on to explain that different countries have different economic policies and cultures, and by making them all use the same currency, this will not make them all work the same, or think about money in the same way. This is so obvious now with the German/Greece situation (He did not mention this. This is my example). I asked him if he thinks Germany will revert to to the Deutschmark. "It is the smart thing to do." I thanked him for sharing his thoughts with me. It was the moment that Dresden (and maybe Germany) was emotionally saved for me. I'd been feeling grumpy and put off by so many little things. It was hard to go from Ireland (the friendliest, most accommodating country) to Germany (where no signs or directions are in English. If you're lost, you're lost. Done.). But this wonderful man reached out to me and brought me out of my little funk. It was quite nice.

He ended our talk with this. He said, "America is in support of the Euro because it weakens Europe and therefore increases the value of the US Dollar." It was such a simple statement, but I cannot find fault with it.

We wished each other a good day and I asked him where he was from. "Very close to Dortmund," which could be said for Arnsberg (where I'm going). I said, "Maybe I will see you again." He laughed, "There are only 7 billion people in the world. It could happen." I'm going to keep an eye out for him...just in case.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Germany: Dresden

If you've come here looking for a chipper blog, try again tomorrow.

Having said that, I'll do my best not to be a total poop, but today wasn't my favorite. I will still pull out some positives...maybe tomorrow (I'm posting this unfinished).

This morning, I checked out of my hotel and asked the dude at reception, the easiest way to the Berlin Schönefeld airport. This is not the main airport in Berlin, but it's the one I'd flown into from Dublin, so I picked it when pre-booking and pre-paying for a rental car. He said there was a regional train from the Zoo train station. The zoo was a 5 minute walk from my hotel (surprise, surprise). The train station was another 5 minutes up the street, but this was not communicated very clearly and led to a small bit of confusion. Meanwhile, because it's morning and chilly out and I'm walking at a brisk pace, my lungs are rejecting everything about this. I had to stop more than once to hack and wheeze and regain some oxygen. Once I found the train station, I found the information booth and asked an employee if he spoke English. "Nein" he was kidding. Schadenfreude. It's the German version of sarcasm, I think. He told me that due to construction, I would not be able to take one train, but would have to transfer. Honestly, he gave me such good directions that only had trouble finding the platforms because they are in no order that makes any sense. Still, it was a pretty smooth go. And it only cost me 3.30 Euro rather than the 40 Euro it'd taken when I took a taxi. (It's always easier GOING to the airport).

What I noticed while on the train was that the city of (East) Berlin has a lot of buildings that look like prisons. Or public housing. Which makes sense, honestly, considering it was Communist for such a long time.

Also, I heard an American man complaining to his wife about getting a fine for not validating a train ticket prior to getting on the train. He was upset that the officer didn't speak better English, so he could argue his way out of the ticket. This is a typical American sentiment, which I frankly agree with...in America. But the customer is not always right in Germany (or Australia for that matter). I had read up on how to take public transportation and even linked to it in one of these blogs. On the site, it clearly said to validate your ticket or you will be fined 40 Euro. They do not care if you are a tourist. The rules are the rules in Germany.

<To be updated...>