Salzburg to Firenze

This was my last little leg of my European backpacking adventure. In the morning, I decided to go to the Salzburg museum because they were housing a traveling Sound of Music exhibit- could that be any more perfect?? It was also only 1.50 to get in. I saw the outfits the real Maria and Baron Von Trap wore as well and many of their personal items, pictures, and music. There was some interesting history about the family that I didn't know before. I am so glad I did this. 

Then I went to the train station to board my train back to Firenze. It's bittersweet knowing that this will be the last time in a long time that I will get on a train to go home. I'm not ready to leave yet. I want to see my parents, but I wish I could see them in Florence. I know that I will be back one day and there is nothing more I would enjoy than being able to call Europe or Firenze home again. 

Last stop, last day- Salzburg

I can't believe the very last day of Beth and my's tour of Europe has past. It was so great and so much fun but it went by way to quickly. I don't think I've even been able to process all we've seen and done. 

The last day, we woke up and attempted to find a hike. We were eventually able to find one and we went on about an hour and a half hike over this mountain/hill in Salzburg. It was very pretty. I wish we had more time and we could have hiked some more. Every time I hike or am around mountains, it makes me really excited that I am moving to Colorado. 

After our hike, Beth was bound and determined to find a brautwerst and we succeeded! We came across a little outdoor market and had a picnic on the steps of one of Salzburg's 47 churches. For a town as little as Salzburg, this is quite a large number. 

Then we waked back to the hostell to retrieve our things. I walked Beth to the bus stop and tried not to cry as the bus pulled away to take her to the airport and then to London. We had such a wonderful time together. When we met as freshmen in high school, I never would have imagined that we would backpack Europe together and see 4 countries and 8 cities with each other. There are so many great memories that I know I will treasure forever. I am so lucky to still have Beth as my friend. 

I then went to find my next hostel because luckily, the one we booked together didn't have a bed for Friday night. After finding my new hostel and seeing how much nicer it was, I set out to go to the castle. I got caught in a rainstorm on the way there but after the rain slowed, I was able to find the path up the castle. I debated about paying to go in but finally decided that I was there and I probably should. Once inside, I was really glad I did. Included was an audio tour of some of the rooms and it gave a great history of the castle and how it's grown and changed. There's been a castle on the top of the mountain since 600 and it was expanded through the 1800's. It was neat to see an older castle since the ones in Germany were more modern. I also saw some of the rooms of the castle as well as their weapons, torture machines, the chapel, and some outfits. All of the explanations were in German though so I wasn't able to read them. 

After this, I headed back towards the city in the rain and went to an Asian restaurant that Beth pointed out earlier as one that she read about. It was really good and cheap. I had veggie curry and it was so nice to eat something a little spicy but I am so looking forward to my favorite Italian meals in Firenze. 

Prague by day, Salzburg by night

While Beth and I were exploring yesterday, we found a bagel restaurant. I haven't had a bagel in over 2 months so I was super excited. Since we wanted to use up all our crowns because we knew exchanging them back would be obnoxious, we each ordered a bagel and cream cheese and then pancakes to share. Both were delicious. 

We then went to Old Town square and walked around a bit. Our tour guide had pointed out a synagogue that is now a museum of drawings from the Jewish children taken from Prague and put into a concentration camp. We went to go see them and were shocked to also see that the inside of the synagogue was covered with the names of all the Jewish people from Prague who killed during the holocaust. There were so many names. The pictures were also very moving because the majority of the children who drew them did not live. It was sad to see. 

We then went to the Jewish cemetery. It was the only plot of land they were given to burry the dead. There were 12,000 tombstones literally stacked against each other like dominos but over 100,000 bodies. Eventually, there was no more room and they had to burry their dead elsewhere. The last body buried there I believe was in the 18000's. 

After this, we grabbed another bagel to take with us for lunch and headed to the bus station to catch our bus then train to Salzburg.

I really did like Prague. I loved how beautiful and ornate it was. Once again, it had a Disney like quality to it. The one thing I really did not like was the people. Our tour guide even told us that the people there aren't very friendly. I sort of don't blame them because there are a lot of tourists but at the same time, it would

be nice if they tried to be nicer. People in the train and metro station literally shoved our backpacks and us just because they were annoyed we were taking up room. We were also asked by every single security person to show them our tickets. That hasn't happened to me anywhere else. 

We took a charter bus followed by a train to Salzburg. The train was very nice, it had outlets and wifi. That wasn't quite enough for Beth though so she bought herself a bottle of wine but then decided to be a little classier than drinking it straight out of the bottle so she transfered it into a water bottle. It was quite the site. 

When we got to Salzburg, it was 9:00 at night so we checked into out hostile. It was pretty gross. It was filled with high school tour groups and just had a funky smell. We decided that we could suck it up though because Beth and I were only staying there for 2 nights. We went to a Mexican restaurant recommended to us by the front desk person at the hostile and then came back and went to sleep. Another successful backpacking day! 

The hills are alive with the Sound of Music

Beth and I woke up the next morning (Happy 4th of July!) weary of the weather- there was a 60% chance of rain all day. My dad texted me the night before saying that that means there's a 40% chance that it won't. Well, we were still preparing for the worst. After breakfast at the hostile, I discovered Frauline Maria's Bike tours, where we would ride around to see 20 locations from the movie. It was also half the price of a bus tour, you saw more and got to get closer to them. We booked the afternoon one and then decided to walk around the town. Salzburg is the cutest little town. It was very sweet and relaxing compared to the business of Prague and Munich- a great last stop. We made our way back to the train station as well so I could purchase a ticket back home and then at lunch at a delicious place. We had a knerolde (or something like). It's an Austria speciality- sort of like a large gnocci or dumping- and one of my favorite things I have eaten so far. 

Then it was time for our Sound of Music bike tour. We saw so many things- the horse fountain, the arch where Kurt tells Leisel he's to busy to see her anymore, the covenant and the church where the real Maria was married, the front and back of the house (they used two separate homes), the lake, the gazebo and the locations for the do re mi song as well as a lot more. We rode through the city as well as some very pretty countryside. I am so glad we did this. Beth also agreed that it was so fun. We never would have found all the locations on our own and it was fun to ride a bike too! 

We finished the night at an Austrian beer garden- the Augustineer. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day where we didn't even have a drop of rain! My dad was right! 

Prague

Prague, pronounced Praha by the locals, was such a gorgeous city. Beth and I took a walking tour in the morning that showed us all the main sites in Old Town and the surrounding areas. We saw the astronomical clock, old town square, a bunch of concert halls, the Jewish quarter, two synagogues, the powder tower, Charles Bridge, the castle from afar and New Town. 

Prague's streets and buildings are beautiful. 

They didn't look like they had been touched by the war and that was because they weren't. Out tour guide told us that Prague was Hitler's favorite city so he gave strict orders to not bomb it. He also didn't want any of the synagogues damaged because, being the sadistic man that he was, he planned to turn the Jewish area of Prague into The Museum of the Extinct Race. Pretty messed up but once again, lucky for us because it all still stands.

After the tour, Beth and I had lunch and then crossed over the Charles Bridge to our side of the river. We walked around a bit before finding the John Lennon wall where we took our hippie pictures. 

We then walked up to the castle so we could see Prague from above. 

After this, we came back to the hostel to relax, sit and do some laundry. We ate dinner at a not very good restaurant before coming back for the night. One of the most frustrating things for me about traveling is trying to find good quality, not touristy, normal priced food. Unfortunately our dinner this night was a swing and a miss. Regardless, we still had a wonderful day. 

Papers Please- onto stop #2

Beth and I woke up on Monday morning and headed to Munich's city center. We dropped our bags off at the lockers in the train station and then went exploring. Parts of downtown Munich that survived the bombings were very pretty. It's really odd to think that WWII actually happened here. Bombs were dropped where we stood, houses destroyed and lived lost. Sometimes when we learn about things in school, it's easy to think that it happened so long ago or in such a far off place that when you're actually standing where events did occur, it's a little surreal. I suppose that's how I felt at Dachau too. 

Anyways, we walked around downtown, went to an outdoor market for breakfast, and poked our heads into a few churches. Around noon, we headed back to the train station with some snacks and mini wine bottles to catch our almost 6 hour train to Prague. 

We finally found some seats and chatted and ate our gummies. We were in a 6 person compartment but luckily after about an hour, it was just Beth and I. Suddenly we heard the door open and these two men in uniforms with guns came in. They started speaking to us in German and I am sure Beth and I both had a "deer in the headlights" sort of look. We both sort of looked at each other and then they said in English, "German police. We need your papers and passports." Few! We were so relieved. We let them see them and then they left. It was a very odd experience and somewhat terrifying as well.  

I slept on the train while Beth kept watch over our things and then we made it to our next stop, Prague. Our first task was to exchange money because they don't use the Euro. It's about 24 crowns to one Euro so I felt rich... That is until I ordered a 200 crown meal. Even though that's relatively cheap, only 8 euro, it was odd to see all the prices so high.

We found our hostile, which was nice but a bit older feeling than our last one and then walked to dinner. The hostel was located steps from the Charles Bridge so it was in a great location. We walked through downtown a bit before coming back and calling it a night. Prague sure did look beautiful though and I was excited to see it in the daylight.

 

Today Was a Fairytale

For as long as I knew that Walt Disney had based Cinderella's castle off of a real live castle, I wanted to go. I think it was a few years ago that I discovered the name of it- the Neuschwanstein, a beautiful castle in Germany. I put this castle on my bucket list with the hopes that maybe someday I'd be able to make it there. 

When researching Germany, I happily discovered that it is an easy day trip from Munich. I told Beth that we absolutely had to do this so we woke up on Sunday morning and headed to the castles. 

There are actually two castles here, the Neuschwanstein and the Hohenschangau.

           This is the Neuschwanstein 

The Hohenschwangau was the actual home of King Ludwig. It's not nearly as beautiful as the Neuschwanstein but it was an actual castle where princes and princesses lived. We were able to tour the inside of this one. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of this castle on my phone but I will upload some once I can take them off my real camera. Beth and I had some extra time before we toured the castle so we went on a little 40 minute hike down a random trail. The views were beautiful and we happily sang Sound of Music even though we were in Germany and not Austria. 

After the tour, we hiked to the main attraction, the Neuschwanstein. Wow this castle is beautiful. You can see how and why Walt Disney was inspired by it. Cinderella's and this one look very similar, the real one is just a lot bigger. I said the phrase that Beth would soon be tired of hearing, "it's actually a real live Disney!" I just really love Disney and get excited when I see it in real life. 

We walked to a beautiful look out point and fought off the crowds to take pictures. The Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig in the 1800's so it's a newer castle and it was built to be a theater- never to be lived in. That's part of the reason why it's so beautiful- it was a show piece. After taking our pictures and staring at something that is actually real and not made with Disney magic, we headed back down the hill and back to Munich. 

It was such a treat to be able to see these wonderful castles. 

Nuremburg- Stop #1

Beth and I decided that we really wanted to go to Germany to see a concentration camp and I really wanted to go see castes. Ryanair had a 15 euro flight into a place called Nuremburg so we decided to fly into there. Since our flight didn't get in until 7:30, we had planned to spend the night. The hostel was super cheap and it was probably the nicest hostel I have ever stayed at. I was so glad that this was Beth's first hostel experience because my first one was pretty gross and sketchy. 

Nuremburg is the cutest little German town. 

It might sound familiar because it's where the Nazi trials took place. It was a precious town and still had the old German look because it wasn't all bombed to pieces during the war. Parts of it had modern buildings because the original ones were bombed but the majority of it was original architecture. Most of the pictures of it are on my real camera but these sort of show it. It honestly looked like Epcot. Disney did a good job recreating a German village. That night, we went to a beer hall and then back to the hostel to go to bed. 

The next morning, we met one a guy at the hostel and he was planning on going to see the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. Since we were planning on doing that too, we went with him. It was a very surreal place to be. We saw the place where Hitler stood to give speeches and looked up at the spot where he would use been. 65ish years ago in the same spot there would have been people standing where we were honored to hear him speak and to see him. It was odd.

 The area surrounding it was a beautiful lake and park where the Nazi's would hold picnics. 

After this odd experience, we went back to Nuremburg and our new friend was able to show us around because he had been there for a few days. We saw some pretty churches, found Karoline street (my name in German!!), and walked to the castle grounds. 

After this, we went back to the hostel to catch our train Munich! It was a great first stop. 

Munich and Dachau

From Nuremburg, Beth and I took a train to Munich. We chose to go here because we really wanted to be able to see a concentration camp and castles while in Germany. Munich was the perfect location to be able to do both of those things. We arrived to our hostel around dinner time and headed to the beer hall across the street- apparently the best in Munich. We were seated at a long picnic table with other people and attempted to order out food in German. We fit in here surpassingly well and everyone just assumes we're German. The people on either side of us were super friendly and spoke very good English. Since our waitress did not, they helped us order our food and let us try what they had ordered and their beers. There was a family who was visiting their son who goes to college here on one side of us and some business men on the other. The family was very nice and they even bought and took a shot with us. Being with these people really made the night. We had such a good time. 

Now for the sad part. 

The next morning, we decided I go to Dachau. We knew it was close to Munich but I was shocked to find out it was only a 20 minute train ride. The entire experience was very odd. It's hard to describe what it was like. The hardest part was seeing the pictures and watching the videos. We took a guided tour and our tour guide was incredible. The tour took almost 4 hours but it was worth it. It was rainy and cold for the tour but it sort of added to the experience. She told us so many interesting facts about Dachau and how sadistic the Nazi's were. I'll share a few here but there's just too much and then this post would be even more ridiculously long.  We started the tour walking the same path the prisoners would have taken and she described how when they entered, they would have been greeted by Nazi's whipping them and hitting them with billy clubs. They were told they were leaving their property, rights, and human dignity at the gate. Then they would enter through the famous, "work will set you free doors" and have to endure 25 lashes. The prisoners had to count this out loud and if they lost consciousness during it, they would douse them with cold water and start again. Basically, it was just awful. 

Dachau was built to be the model concentration camp and it was the only one used for the entire war. The ovens ran constantly and more had to be built to keep up with the horrifying amount of deaths. A gas chamber was built but it was never used for a large amount of people. No one is sure why. 

When Dachau first opened, it only housed political prisoners. For the first two years, on Christmas and Hitler's Birthday, a few people would be let free. This was because then they could tell others that it wasn't that bad because they were let free. Obviously once the war started, this was no longer the case. No one left and became a free man. Dachau also only housed men. The barracks were built for 50 men each and at one point, they held 400-500 each. 

Roll was called twice a day and everyone person had to be accounted for- dead as well as alive. At one point, there was over 80,000 people here and every single number had to be called. The longest roll call on record was in January (cold, snowy conditions) and it lasted 12 hours. It was forbidden to use names- only the numbers given to prisoners that were sown onto their uniforms. If you were caught calling someone by their name, you'd be punished. Those are just some of the facts and stories out guide shared with us. 

What made this experience though was that we met a man when we were about to enter standing outside the gates. He told us that he was in Dachau when he was 14 years old. My jaw dropped. Being able to meet a person who had to endure this and live to tell us about it was incredible. He said when he was 15, he was transferred out of Dachau to another camp and then it was liberated. They were put on a train because the end of the war was near and the Nazi's wanted to get rid of them as quickly as they could. When they were in the country side, he jumped off the train and ran to a farm house. There he was given milk and the best, most fresh bread and butter he has ever eaten. When we got up to leave, a Hitler Youth came up behind him and shot him through the neck. The bullet came out through his cheek- we could still see the scar. The Hitler Youth could tell he was still alive and told the man that he could either lay there and he'd shoot him again or get up and walk to the train. The man got up and walked to the train. He said he laid in the train for 3 days with no medical attention, food, or water until the America's found the train. Today, he has a condo in Florida and was very excited to learn that's where we're from. I just can't imagine going through what he has and then coming back to the camp. It made me think how lucky I was to just be able to walk out that gate at the end of the day. I wasn't held prisoner and tortured for no reason. Seeing this gentleman really made the experience once I will truly never forget. 

Pisa... again

Pisa. I have gone there so many times to see the lovely leaning tower. I am very fortunate to be able to do so and it is nice because it's only about an hour from Florence. Our plane left from Pisa so we decided to go a bit early to be able to see the Leaning Tower and take the mandatory cheesy pictures. We got to the tower just fine, took about 100 pictures trying to get it juuuusst right and then sat in the soft green grass in the sun.

 Coming from Florence, grass is such a nice treat! We noticed a lot of people coming and going from a different entrance so when we left, we decided that that must be a short cut. Well it definitely wasn't. We walked around the outskirts of the city before finally finding the Arno. I was a little stressed about getting to the airport (even though it's literally 4 minutes from the train station) because of our scenic route. We had planned to take the 4:55 train and made it to the train station at 4:56. I was a little/ a lot stressed and I felt like I was failing Beth so we just took a cab to the airport. It was the best 6 euro I've spent. We made it with plenty of time and were able to even grab a water and rest before getting on our plane to Nuremberg! Our European adventure was about to being! 

Firenze with Beth

As soon as I got off my plane from Paris and made my way back home to Florence, I met up with Cassy and Beth for lunch. It was such a neat feeling to see Beth in my favorite city and to have her actually being able to see and experience the place I love so much. We had a very enjoyable lunch and then Cassy had to go babysit so I took Beth out to see some of my favorite places. We went to Piazza Michelangelo, San Lorenzo leather market, ate gelato, went across the Ponte Vecchio, past the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens and to Romana. 

Since we were by Romana, we went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner, Osteria Santa Spirito. We split delicious ravioli with cream walnut sauce, rigatoni with tomato sauce and salt ricotta, and spinach. After dinner, Beth was exhausted from traveling all day and not sleeping on the planes so we returned to the apartment. The FSU librarian was nice enough to let us stay there for free. 

The next morning we woke up and headed towards the Duomo. We climbed to the top to see another beautiful view of Florence. 

The ticket we bought also gave us free entry into the Baptistry so we quickly walked through there before heading to the Central Market. We strolled through the vendors selling meat, fresh cheese, pasta, olive oil, spices, dried fruit, and fresh fruit and veggies. We bought some fresh strawberries and four peaches for only 2 euro and some dried pineapple and melon. We ate out little snack on the steps of San Lorenzo church before walking back through the main city center of Florence and to Gusta Pizza for lunch. After lunch, we went shopping at the cutest store, Brandy Melville. We walked past the Ospidale degli Innocenti and into the church that's in that piazza. We then returned to the apartment to rest before meeting Cassy at Piazza Republica before dinner. We walked through Florence before going to Anita's for dinner followed by La Carria for gelato. We went out for a drink and then to secret bakery. 

The next morning we woke up and tried to see David. Even though we got there when it opened, the line was already 2 hours long. We decided to use the passes from the duomo to climb the bell tower because they were still valid. 

We went back to San Lorenzo for one more quick walk through before heading to the study center and Natalino's for a sandwich for lunch. Then it was back to the apartment to pack and off to Pisa! It was such a great 3ish days with Beth in Florence and it was so fun to be able to show her my city.