germania ed austria

26/11-30/11
This week we got Thursday off for American thanksgiving, since USAC is an American company. This was perfect for our trip to Germany and Austria, right at the beginning of the Christmas markets! We took an overnight train Wednesday night from Florence to Munich, which somehow ended up arriving like an hour and a half late, so that messed up our plans a little to go to Salzburg for the day. Luckily there were a bunch of other trains leaving about every 30 minutes so we checked into the hostel and left our stuff then went back to the train station and got on about an hour train ride to Salzburg! From there we went on the self guided walking tour suggested by our bff Rick Steves and saw: the old town, Mozartsplatz, Residenzplatz, Neue Residenz, Glockenspiel, Alte Residenz, Salzburg Cathedral, Kapitelplatz, St. Peter’s church, Universitaetsplatz, Getreidegasse, Mozart’s birthplace/residence, and Mirabell gardens and palace. Being a huge Sound of Music fan, I convinced everyone to take a short bus ride to Hellbrunn Castle where Lisl and Rolf’s “16 going on 17” gazebo is! Unfortunately it was locked! All I wanted to do was run around the benches like Lisl, but no. The castle and the grounds were cute, though, and they were having Christmas markets there as well as in downtown Salzburg. It was so beautiful there, just really cold! We walked around outside as much as we could, visited the Christmas markets back downtown, ate some brezeln and then decided it was time to head back to Munich. The train was a little late, but they announced it like 50 times and apologized a ton; so different than Trenitalia! So we went to bed in our big 6 person room, otherwise empty besides us, in the number one rated hostel on hostelworld.com (it was really cool). The next day started out with a free 3 hour English walking tour of Munich, that made me realize maybe I want to be a tour guide.. hmm add it too the list. The tour took us by all the things we had wanted to see, including: the Viktualienmarkt, Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel, Residenz, Frauenkirche, National Theater, Maximilianstrasse, Church of St. Peter, Old Town Hall, Hofbrauhaus, New Town Hall, Max-Joseph-Platz, and explained the beer hall putsch. We walked by St. Jakobsplatz, Karlsplatz, and an ice rink, down a shopping street, by Hofgarten and Augustiner before getting to Marienplatz to start our tour, bought some chocolate and pastries (our German diet) and returned to Augustiner that night to have some real German beer, though Carla was the only one brave enough to get a whole liter stein. I preferred the radler, beer with lemonade mixed in. After the tour we ate at a place with a bunch of the tour people (including a guy from my 1st year intermediate German class at McGill in Montréal.. small world, right?!). After the tour we made our way to the Englisher Garten, Munich’s version of Central Park and the biggest park in a city in Europe, and where they apparently surf on the man made stream that runs through it. Even though it wasn’t too late in the day, it was already getting dark and we started to walk back through the center of the city to go shopping at the Christmas markets in and near the Marienplatz! We had tried some Gluhwein and Punsch in Salzburg (both like hot forms of cough syrup) so we knew to stay away from those, but one German woman’s advice to us “when we are cold, we drink” definitely made sense; being outside all day made us feel numb! So we returned to the hostel, where there was an inside garden, basically a huge open room with lots of chairs and free wifi, right next to the bar, and we just hung out there. We decided that we saw pretty much everything we had wanted to in Munich, and that we would have time to go and see the Konigsschlosser the next day, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, somewhere I have always wanted to go! So we looked up the train schedule and got on an early train to Fuessen, the closest town to the castles, two hours from Munich. We even lucked out and got some super cheap tickets because it was the weekend. So after our beautiful train ride through scenic Bavaria, we took a short bus ride and then went up to tour the castles, Hohenschwangau first, then Neuschwanstein. Fuessen and the town of Schwangau where the castles are actually located are some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. They are in the mountains, and when we were there, were covered in snow. Everything looked like it was straight out of a postcard. Hohenschwangau is the smaller of the two castles but is where King Ludwig actually spent a lot of his time. He commissioned Neuschwanstein to be built but he died shortly after he moved in. This castle has great views of the even more magnificent Neuschwanstein, located even higher up on a hill. But the inside of Hohenschwangau was ornate and impressive. Next we hiked up the mountain to the next castle. They based the Disney world castle after this one; that is how story book like it is. I loved it. It’s got amazing views of the towns and mountains around it and the inside, even though unfinished, is still really lavish. After that we walked up even higher, to the Marienbrucke, with a great view of Neuschwanstein which was unfortunately being cleaned on that side, ruining our pictures (this is typical of Europe.. everything is constantly being restored!) Even though it as cold and snowy there, our little hike up the mountain kept us warm. So thats the solution for keeping warm! Marienbrucke, by the way, was this tiny little icy bridge suspended way up in the air, a little scary, but totally cool. Tired from our hike up we decided to take a bus down, and had to wait for awhile, but saw the cutest, smartest Italian boy “perform” how well he knew his colors and addition, in both English and Italian! We decided to take an hour to walk around Fuessen before taking a train back to Munich. It was just a cute small town with beautiful architecture and pretty streets filled with Christmas lights (Germany really goes all out – I love it)! Then a train back to Munich and from there we did some last minute Christmas shopping and Christmas market shopping. Then it was back to the hostel to pack, proving that we really had bought too much, when all our bags ended up being heavier or in my case, I just had a whole other one, filled completely with chocolate, gummy bears and other Christmas market goodies. We got to “sleep in” the next day since our train didn’t leave until 9:30 am, that was the latest we got up the whole trip! We got some food and then got on our 13 hour train ride back to Viterbo. This was the most beautiful train ride I have ever been on! First it was through Bavaria (beautiful, I want to go back, especially to see where my aunt is from), then through Austria and Innsbruck, and then through the alps in Austria and on the Italian border. There was a full on blizzard going on in there and it was amazingly beautiful! Our only train problem had to do with our optional train reservation not actually being optional (it made no sense, I can assure you; such are the rules of Italy) and our connection in Bologna being like 45 minutes late. It wasn’t just our train that was late (I probably should have taken a picture of the train board) every train that night was delayed - typical Italy. So basically the trip was great.. until we got to Italy. This lead me to notice and remember some more Italian/American differences: only in Italy: can every train be late, nothing be open, two people meet on the train for the first time and talk the entire ride, not multitask (you’re on the train, that’s enough, clearly you have nothing else to do. Like I don’t know something quiet, like reading?! Maybe for school?), inform them that you can use the informal form and kiss when you leave (this happened across from us), stare (typical), have a personal soundtrack (meaning play your music out your speakers on your mp3 player or cell phone for everyone to hear, yes of course we all want to hear it!), yell into your phone (this is where the “Italians are loud” stereotype comes into play), and say “ciao” 50 times in one sentence and not sound like you’re crazy. We almost missed out connection in Orte to Viterbo, but luckily the train lady called and told the train to wait for us.