so after that impromptu trip back to the U.S. i went along as regularly scheduled on a backpacking trip with joe around central/eastern europe. armed with our eurail pass, we took the train system by storm. we arrived in frankfurt, went to magdeburg, germany to see my friend and his new baby! then on to berlin for a few days. we stayed with friends and i think that was the best part of the trip. biking around the city, eating delicious and cheap vegan food (including sudanese!), and going to my first football (soccer) game. a minor league, but none the less a roaring crowd - magdeburg vs. berlin. i felt like i was in a detention center - there was barbed wire separating the two teams' fans and security guards everywhere to swiftly address any fan riots. we took an overnight trip to gifhorn, where i spent a year as an exchange student. a short top in braunschweig to catch up with an old friend and indulge in some tofu hotdogs german style - piled with sauerkraut and mustard - mmm! then to have a delicious dinner and rousing conversation with my darling german tutor and her husband, plus their pack of adorable adopted dogs. i relish these times catching up with old friends, as well as taking a time out from the industrious big cities and experience a slower pace of life in smaller towns, where you tend to absorb more of a country's culture.
then it was off to prague, which i still romanticized, recalling my fabulously carefree, cheap, and fun semester there back in 2000. boy, have things changed! same fairytale winding streets and charming character, but quite surreal. every store sold the same tourist souvenirs, trying to sell the very charm of the city, turning the town into a Disney style attraction instead. and my goodness, the dollar is sinking in value and killed us on this trip! czech republic did not have my most favorable opinion this time around - my favorite restaurant was closed, the hostel was ridiculously expensive, and it was like the black hole of new jersey and its toll bridges - easy to get into, but you have to pay to get out. our eurail pass didnt work in the czech republic, which we were aware of, but what we didnt know was how much they would charge when we wanted to leave!
we managed to evade the black hole and hurried on to sopron, hungary. a quaint, medieval town on the border of austria with a gothic town center and mysterious passageways. it was by far the most charming town with the best sleeping arrangements in an old inn on a cobblestone street. it is also known for its cheap dentistry - there are a gaggle of dentist offices and that churns its tourist industry. come for a teeth cleaning, stay for the culture! we took a day trip to vienna to see klimmt's priceless painting 'the kiss' and the catacombs holding vienna's rich, famous composers, and black plague victims alike. we swung by the store of my favorite chocolate wafer place, Manner. it was like being in willy wonka's chocolate factory - so many tasty tidbits!
budapest was next on the list - finally the huge storm cell had cleared that area, so we were a little bit warmer and drier. of course i had to return to margit island for a photo shoot and the play on words of 'margit hid' - hid is bridge in hungarian. it was so refreshing to go into a place, state my name, and they knew how to spell it without asking me to repeat it! i think budapest could be my second home. a crossroad of cultures seductively displayed - germanic logic of its layout, decadent opulence of its turkish baths, straight lines of socialist structures, the hapsburg elegance, the silent old jewish quarter, the balkan smokiness of its bars, and above all, the unique magyar spirit.
we reluctantly moved on to munich. my eastern european guidebook was of no use to us, so we kind of wandered into our plans. a sobering afternoon was filled by a tour of dachau, the first nazi concentration camp. it was a prototype and model for future concentration camps. in total, over 200,000 people from multiple countries were housed there - political prisoners, jews, roma, 'asocials', and many more 'deemed' unworthy of human dignity. dachau holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated. therefore, it was one of the first places where the west was exposed to the reality of nazi brutality. the Americans found approximately 32,000 prisoners, crammed 1,600 to each of 20 barracks, which had been designed to house 250 people each. survivors were so emaciated and on the brink of death, over 1,000 died in the month after liberation. many of you know this general history. it never ceases to impress upon me the severity of human action and 'rationale' - to eliminate 'life unworthy of life' according to their beliefs in human superiority. it is unfathomable how citizens allowed this to come into practice through complacency or fear or their own latent (or blatant) racism, and even more horrifying to realize ethnic cleansing and genocide are still happening in todays world.
the next day we tackled my birthday wish - a day in the alps! we took a scenic train ride to fussen, and worked our way up to neuschwanstein castle - king ludwig's 19th century bavarian palace homage to richard wagner. a decadent monument to extravagance. with breathtaking views and hiking trails leading into the wilderness. this was also spargel season in germany - white asparagus. so i devoured a bowl of spargel soup in the picturesque town center of fussen. we ended the day by visiting one of the infamous munich beer halls.
the last port of call was amsterdam. we took a winding train from munich - oh how i loved those train rides. to cuddle up with a good book, gaze out the window as wilderness, fields, and cities pass by. we got to town and saw indiana jones - not the best of the series, but a fun action film and harrison ford is still top notch as indy! the next day, we did another museum/culture race. visiting the van gogh museum first, an artist from my favorite art period. incredible to see his progression as a painter and learn about his path as an artist. then the anne frank house - another somber tour. to be in the very rooms as she had once, hiding for two years and filled with all her teenage angst and hope. it brought me to tears to see a video of her father reflecting on their time in hiding and her diary. “For me, it was a revelation. There, was revealed a completely different Anne to the child that I had lost. I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings.”
after that, we strolled through the canalways and streets. what a beautiful city and oh, the bikes! how i would love to live in such a bike friendly city! the next stop was at the rjiksmuseum. absorbing the history of amsterdam and appreciating the dutch masters such as rembrandt. joe would have loved to go to the stedelijk museum for modern art, but it was under renovations, so that concluded our museum tour. we had an enjoyable dinner at an outdoor pub on a bustling square, then parted ways the next morning. joe, back to minnesota, and me on to sarajevo. this was a bit of a role reversal, where i actually got to send joe off, because his flight was first. typically, he is wishing me bon voyage. i really wish he could have stayed longer and explored sarajevo with me. i have an insatiable curiousity that is fueled by travel and i so wish i could share more travel experiences with joe, since that is how we first met! (we found out through friends that we were both traveling to india in the same year).
all in all, it was a flourish of activity, seeing old friends and exploring new cities and enjoying the adventure of the journey itself.
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