Munich & Amsterdam

So this one is going to be a little short so I can try and catch everybody up to where I am presently… After I left from Cinque Terre, Italy I headed back up to Munich, Germany. I wanted to go back because the first time I went was during Oktoberfest and needless to say I didn’t get to explore and enjoy the city as much as I wanted. So this time I took the night train to Munich and got to the city at 7:00am so I had a good start on the day. It was a surprising clear day, but extremely cold with a high of 29 degrees with the wind chill. I dropped my bag off at my hostel called Famous Youth Hostels, they are all over Europe. The hostel was probably one of the best hostels that I stayed at. After I had dropped my bags off I had a few hours before I was going on a walking tour of Munich so I just walked the streets and got some breakfast. I met up with my tour group at the Marienplatz and watched the Glockenspiel, which is ranked as one of the most over-rated sights in Europe. It’s just these figurines that go around in a circle on top of this big building in the middle of one of Munich’s largest squares. After we got our group we headed off walking around Munich. It was really interesting to learn about Munich and how much of its history is directly related to the breweries that the city and region is most famous for. After the tour I headed back to my hostel to thaw out even though I was wearing almost every pair of clothes I owned. The day went well though and was happy to see more of Munich. After I got back and took a nap in my room I had made plans with a few of the people from the tour to go on a cub crawl later on that night. It was nice because instead of bars we went to four of the most famous breweries to drink at. We ended the night conveniently at my hostel bar so I was not far from my bed at the end of the night. In the morning/afternoon I traded hostels to one next door that had more openings and was cheaper. I spent most of the day inside the hostel because the cold from the day before was traded in for a down pour of rain. It was a short night for me because I was catching the train from Munich to Amsterdam the next morning at 7:00am. The train ride to Amsterdam was of course eventful being first that my train was delayed in Frankfurt where I had to run and to the ticket counter and buy a ticket over the border into The Netherlands because my Euro-rail pass was not for that specific country. So I got to see a lot of the Frankfurt train station in a short amount of time between sprinting back and forth from train to ticket counter and back. But I got to Amsterdam just fine after that around 5pm and met up with my friend Hayden who is playing basketball overseas as well in Germany. Hayden and I played basketball together at Shasta College my 2nd year. The thing I didn’t know when I was booking my hostel was that Amsterdam was hosting one of the biggest techno/DJ event of the year the very weekend that Hayden and I decided to meet up there so it was very difficult to find rooms available. The first night that I stayed in Amsterdam I had to stay in a place that was a little ways out, but Hayden was fortunate to find a place to stay in the main area. That day we spent just walking around the Amsterdam and we also waited in line and went through the Rijks Museum. The next day I packed all my stuff up and headed back into town to find my other Hostel which was a lot more centrally located then meet back up with Hayden to do a little touring. We ended at the Van Gogh Museum which was amazing and learned a lot while we were there… That night we ate dinner at a really nice Indonesian restaurant which was amazing! The food was great and a lot of it. We could have used a little more water when we got to the spicy plates but overall it was an amazing meal. If you don’t know what Indonesian food is like it’s a little like food from India, with curry’s, chicken and beef cut up in little pieces and white and yellow rice. The taste and spice was similar to Indian food but not as spicy I don’t think, or I’m just getting used to the spice finally….. The next day Hayden and I were leaving back to Munster which is where Hayden is playing basketball in Germany. Before we left we got up somewhat early and headed over to the Ann Frank House which had been close to where we had been staying. We waited in line for a while to get in but it was nice to learn about it all over again and see what they had gone through which was really amazing. The thing that impressed me the most was the amount of space the families had was much bigger then I had imagined it was. After we had spent a good amount of time going through the house, we decided we had better go back to our hostel and grab our packs and go check in for our train which is another story on in its self. I will try and get everyone caught back up to the present.

Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre October 17-20

So it has been an amazing few days in the Cinque Terre area. The Cinque Terre is a National wildlife preserve that consists of five small towns that are spread out along the Northwest coast of Italy. On the 17th Nichole and I arrived in Riomaggiore the first of the five towns to stay the night. When we arrived the views from everywhere on the town are amazing and look out over the ocean for miles… We got to where we thought was our hostel, but were informed that we had to climb another 50 yards up the stairs to their other location, which was an interesting adventure with a 40 pound backpack on my back. Once we got up to our room it was all worth it though… Our room had a kitchen sitting room and also a terrace that over looked the whole town and ocean. We ran back down the steps to the main strip to grab a bite to eat at a little pizzeria. We bought some wine and headed back up to our room to hangout on the terrace. The next morning we headed out to hike the 5 hour trail through the five towns. The first trail led to the second town Manarola which isn’t very far hike and is the busiest stretch because it’s the easiest and for most of it you use an old WWII bunker that spans the two towns. The next town we walked to was Corniglia and is the only town of the 5 that isn’t right on the beach but is set up on a small hill right about to the edge of the cliffs that fall straight down to water below. This walk was a little bit longer about 40 minutes but on arriving to Corniglia you have to go up from the trail 400 plus steps up to the town. So this was a precursor of what the next two trails where going to look like. All of the towns that we visited are surrounded by acres of grape fields. One of Cinque Terre’s most profitable exports and what the area is known for most; other than their great beach front towns, are their wine. All the towns are surrounded by these wine fields but the walls of the city in Corniglia are literally grape vines. From Corniglia we caught a little bit of a snag on our trail. Obviously the lady at the trail head forgot to tell us that the trail from the 3rd city to the 4th was not open. So we just detoured around the trail and just walked the very scenic road for awhile. For about the first 45 minutes all we did was walk up hill. Way up above the trail. When we came almost to the very top part of the hill we found one of the other trails back down the back side of the hill. Cinque Terre has many different hiking routes to all the cities they are marked as easy, moderate, and difficult. Of course we found out about 25 yards along the trail that we were indeed on the backside of the mountain on the difficult trail. It was an interesting adventure; I think that if couples were on that trail together they might not be one by the time they reached the next town….haha. As hard as it was getting down the hill, the views and scenery were just amazing! Going into the 4th town of Vernazza it is just beautiful. We stopped in Vernazza to have lunch and of course get some gelato. After we hung out for about an hour in Vernazza we jumped back on the trail for the last leg of the journey heading to the 5th town Monterosso. By this time in the day it was getting a lot warmer, so the uphill parts seemed a little bit worse. But we got to the fifth city in about 75 minutes about 15 minutes sorter then they said it would take us, so I guess we were moving right along. The 5th city of Monterosso is more like the beach resort town, with sand beaches and a lot of hotels that are along the water front rather than the other towns which just have rocks and pebbles along the water. But it was absolutely amazing to walk into Monterosso, it is very beautiful. When we got there we walked around a bit then headed to a little lunch Café to get something to eat for dinner. I had a seafood pasta that was very delicious. After we ate we got on the train back to the first town of Riomaggiore. After our full day of hiking for over 4 hours it took about 20 minutes to get back to our first town, with stops along the way of course. Feeling pretty tired and full from dinner Nichole and I just got some wine and headed back up to our room to hang out on our terrace and shot the breeze. It ended up being a sort night because we were both fully worn out. The next morning we showered and packed our stuff up. Nicole and I ate breakfast at the place we eat most of our meals at just down the stairs from our room. After we eat we had to do a little internet surfing and planning our trips. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and we took off in our separate directions. Nichole heading to Florence, Italy and I was going to stay an extra night in Cinque Terra. After we went our separate ways I took off back to Monterosso to hangout in the sun on the beach. I was in much need to have some sun in my life after being in Poland and Austria the last 2 weeks. The weather was nice, warm when the sun was out and a little cool when the sun went behind a cloud but very nice. Whenever I got a little too hot I would just go jump in the ocean, which was cool but refreshing. After my day on the beach I headed back to Riomaggiore. That night I stayed in a 10 person dorm room which turned out to be really great. I met a few of the people staying and we sat at the kitchen table of the dorm and talked about our travels for hours tell it was finally midnight. It was great to talk to some other people that were mostly traveling alone. Again, lots of aussie’s. So the next day I spent weighing my options on where to go next I had planned out a route to Paris but the train I was going to get on was late and the connection I would have missed so I changed my trip and headed up to Munich Germany on a night train. My next blog will come shortly, I have a little more free time on my hands these days… Hope all is well….
Jason