Hey everybody!
I know it has been awhile since I left Europe but it has been a busy month since I returned to Atlanta. Anyways I'll jump right into the 8 day adventure Kris and I had after we finished our exams. We left Metz after cleaning up our room, packing, and leaving that crappy dorm behind. We caught an afternoon train to Munich that got us there around 9:30 pm on Thursday August 2nd. We then met up with a friend of Kris's Dad (thanks alot for this by the way Eric Moen) and dropped our massive suitcases off at his friend's appartment just a couple of blocks away from the main train station. We then took a break before our night train and grabbed a couple of half liters of Munich's finest Augustiner Helles beer and then headed out for Budapest.
After not too terrible of a night train in a six person car with only one other German guy we went to the closest ATM and pulled out 10,000 Hungarian Florins... I had previously looked up the exchange rate (Exchange Rate) but it's still really weird to get used to the price levels in a new city and know how much we would need. When we finally found the hostel and set all of our stuff down we just sat down on the beds and napped for about 3 hours to catch up on the lost night train sleep.
When we finally woke up from our nap we went out to get some coffee and explore our surroundings. We found plenty of monuments and statues from the Soviet Era of Budapest all over the place and found a nice place to eat dinner while watching some Olympic action on a nearby TV. We were going to go on a beer tour that night, but it ended up falling through and we just explored the night life around town and had some drinks at a couple of the famed bars and clubs in the area.
The next morning we decided to relax for the day so we took the metro up to the Szechenyi Baths and Pool just north of us which was amazing. The complex is set up with a massive rectangle building filled with locker rooms and changing rooms in the front and different temperature baths and saunas scattered around inside. The middle of the building was an open air pool area with one dedicated for swimming lanes, and two for recreation. We spent the next four hours of our day going in circles around the building and trying out different temperatures to see which ones we liked best. It was a super relaxing day and I can only imagine what it would be like to party there at night which is also an option. Afterwards we grabbed some lunch at a neighborhood place nearby and decided that we would go for some hammock relaxation time in the park surrounding the baths for the early afternoon.
Around 5ish we decided to walk back to our place and go get some dinner before deciding on a plan for the night. We had found a map of the city with a list of famous bars around town and decided to go bar hopping at a couple on the list. The first two were a bit quiet but it was still early so we just figured the party hadn't started yet. Then we stopped in at a bar called Szimpla Kert which was rated by Lonely Planet as the 3rd best bar in the world. We got some drinks and ended up talking to some girls on vacation from Amsterdam and had a fun time in my favorite 'Ruin Pub' I had been in. We headed back at the end of the night and crashed for the night.
On Sunday we decided to go on a walking tour of Budapest that we were following from an app. Kris and I managed to walk around plenty that day... All the way to the town center and across the river only to climb a small mountain. We did get to see plenty of cool sights including the Budapest liberty statue and an array of soviet anti-aircraft guns and artillery left over from the city's occupation. We managed to get a great view of the parliament building from across the river and then made stops at the Hungarian National Gallery and the beautiful Matthias Church up the river. We then followed the river to a bridge crossing back over to the side we were staying on. We took a small detour when we found out that there was a park on the island in the middle of the river on the way back and set up hammocks next to a large fountain and relaxed after a long several hours of walking. We then headed back to our hostel and decided that we wanted to go see The Dark Knight Rises that night. We found a theater that was showing an original version with Hungarian subtitles and after getting some dinner took the metro to the theater. We had to wait around for awhile, but the movie was awesome and not to mention ridiculously cheap! It was a great relaxing end to our stay in Budapest.
The next morning we grabbed a ride on a train to Vienna that wasn't too long. We had lunch and some nice Austrian beer at a local cafe and then took another walking tour that Kris downloaded off the internet for us to follow. We checked out a slew of famous statues, cathedrals, and buildings in the city and even had some locally famous cappuccinos at a coffee house. After finding another park next to the train station, we set up our hammocks and enjoyed the warm afternoon. Honestly, by this point we were tired of doing touristy things and we were relatively broke so hammocks were a common alternative to having to actually do anything. That evening we hopped on yet another train bound to take us back to Munich and one step closer to our final destination and flight back home.
We arrived late that night in Munich and stayed in the local Wombat Hostel right across from the train station. It was one of the nicest places we had stayed at so far due to some recent renovations but nevertheless we were crammed into a 6 person room and since there wasn't much to do around the neighborhood we just shot some pool and drank beer with some guys we met in the hostel bar and lounge. The next day we managed to move over to the apartment that Kris's Dad's friend Uli was lending to us for the remainder of our stay. (Thank you very much Uli and Eric Moen!) We found a local grocery store and found food to cook for ourselves and set our stuff up in the nicely located flat right on the corner across from the tents of Oktoberfest that were being set up in preparation for the festival coming up. We also discovered that the Augustiner brewery was a 10 minute walk down the street... We ended up spending more than a couple of meals there drinking their amazingly tasty and smooth beers. We also purchased souvenir glasses from them which compared to most other places in Munich were cheap.
During our three full days in Munich, we most often went to the English Garden and Augustiner Brewery for drinks and hammock relaxation time since we had previously seen most of the tourist attractions in the city. We did however make sure to stop by the Deutsches Museum and check out all of the awesome exhibitions they had to offer. Student prices were only 3 euros or so and we managed to spend almost 5 hours in there being engineers who were interested in all of this science and technology on display. They had exhibitions on everything from music instruments, to aerospace, to tunnel construction, to electricity and engines. I would highly recommend this as a must see in Munich since all of the displays are interactive and very interesting and educational.
To finish up, my summer was filled with new and exciting adventures all over Europe. I saw new places, met plenty of new people, had new food, had great beer, and enjoyed every second of it. I would go back in a heartbeat and I know there would still be more for me to see because you could spend a lifetime wandering the different countries of the world. I will definitely have to go back as I didn't make it to all the cities or countries I wanted to including London, Berlin, Croatia, Madrid, Copenhagen, Portugal, Ireland and Scotland, but that will have to be another journey and another blog! Thanks to everyone for reading and keeping in touch with me through all of it and thanks to my parents for helping me make this possible because this entire trip would have been a nightmare if I hadn't had someone to help me prepare for it.
--Brian
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Reaching New Heights in Interlaken
Hi all!
On my last weekend, I wanted to do something crazy fun, something out of the ordinary... I had heard from many people throughout the summer that when you are looking for this kind of fun, go straight to Interlaken, Switzerland. Interlaken is a quiet town in eastern Switzerland that is surrounded by two lakes to the east and west and towering mountains to the north and south. This location is unique because of all the amazing terrain it offers. You can do anything from skydiving, to ice climbing, to whitewater rafting, and much more. I chose two events out of the list and decided on Canyoning and Hang Gliding.
The only tricky thing about this town is that there are only so many places to stay, and I wasn't able to book too far in advance so I ended up staying in a town further down the lake from Interlaken called Iseltwald. The Lake Lodge we stayed at was right on the banks of the glacier melt water with amazing views and cozy rooms (compared to most of the other places I had stayed this summer).
Saturday morning I headed out to go canyoning in the Grimsel canyon about an hour outside of town. Canyoning is a combination of rock climbing, rappelling, zip lines, and swimming all through about a kilometer of a canyon. When we started it was extremely foggy, raining, and cold but luckily they put us all in wet suits, life jackets, and helmets to keep us safe and warm. We started off rappelling into the canyon from the side of a road over 50 meters above which was a scary feat with the fog all around us. We then walked, waded, swam, jumped, slid, and zipped our way across rock formations through the canyon. The total length was only about a kilometer or so, but still the adventure took the better part of 3 hours. There are pictures to come of the whole trip, but it was a bunch of fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Interlaken.
The only other bad part about Interlaken (and Switzerland in general) is that the food is really expensive so eating out wasn't exactly an option. I managed to find the local grocery store and grab some food and snacks for the weekend though and it didn't turn out too bad at all.
Sunday I had arranged to go Hang Gliding, in the hopes that the fog and bad weather would clear up by then. When I got picked up for the trip out to the take off site, I met Birdman Bernie (The dude in the videos that is flying me around) from Australia and he gave me all the necessary instructions and preparations for taking off while we were still in the last of the fog on top of the mountain. (The videos that he taped are all in the Interlaken album with the pictures) When we were done setting up the hang glider the fog finally lifted in such a short time that it just seemed like luck. We took about 5 running steps and lifted up into the air, quickly ascending over 100 feet above the mountain. The entire ride was crazy to watch from that high up and was actually rather serene until we started diving down towards the lake and making all sorts of sharp turns. I was absolutely thrilled the entire time and after our quick landing I could only think about going up for round 2. Unfortunately, hang gliding is rather expensive so there was only one trip for me this time, but who knows... maybe there will be more later in life!
I then went kayaking when I got back to the hostel so I could explore the lake around me. I paddled to a small island, almost flipped over countless times, avoided the ferry, watched some local kids jump into the lake on a rope swing, and admired the beauty of the surrounding forests and mountains on what turned out to be a windy, but clear and sunny day.
After that, it was still only about 4pm so I decided to catch the ferry I had seen earlier to tour through another town on the other side of the lake called Brienz. The ferry was a spectacular ride with great views and restaurant/bar service on board if you felt like paying for it. Upon arriving in Brienz, I realized that just like all the other towns around the lakes this one was kind of small and didn't have much in it besides a small movie theater and a couple of restaurants. So instead I grapped some ice cream and rode the ferry back to Iseltwald.
I then headed out on Monday morning, but all in all Interlaken is a great area to stay in if you are looking for adventures or if you just want to relax and kick back. 10/10 I would go back (maybe with more money next time... haha).
P.S. - This was my last weekend trip because I have finals coming up next week, but Kris and I will be going out to several cities after finals since we aren't scheduled to fly out until August 11th. Budapest, Vienna, Munich, and Frankfurt here we come!
Cheers!
Brian
On my last weekend, I wanted to do something crazy fun, something out of the ordinary... I had heard from many people throughout the summer that when you are looking for this kind of fun, go straight to Interlaken, Switzerland. Interlaken is a quiet town in eastern Switzerland that is surrounded by two lakes to the east and west and towering mountains to the north and south. This location is unique because of all the amazing terrain it offers. You can do anything from skydiving, to ice climbing, to whitewater rafting, and much more. I chose two events out of the list and decided on Canyoning and Hang Gliding.
The only tricky thing about this town is that there are only so many places to stay, and I wasn't able to book too far in advance so I ended up staying in a town further down the lake from Interlaken called Iseltwald. The Lake Lodge we stayed at was right on the banks of the glacier melt water with amazing views and cozy rooms (compared to most of the other places I had stayed this summer).
Saturday morning I headed out to go canyoning in the Grimsel canyon about an hour outside of town. Canyoning is a combination of rock climbing, rappelling, zip lines, and swimming all through about a kilometer of a canyon. When we started it was extremely foggy, raining, and cold but luckily they put us all in wet suits, life jackets, and helmets to keep us safe and warm. We started off rappelling into the canyon from the side of a road over 50 meters above which was a scary feat with the fog all around us. We then walked, waded, swam, jumped, slid, and zipped our way across rock formations through the canyon. The total length was only about a kilometer or so, but still the adventure took the better part of 3 hours. There are pictures to come of the whole trip, but it was a bunch of fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Interlaken.
The only other bad part about Interlaken (and Switzerland in general) is that the food is really expensive so eating out wasn't exactly an option. I managed to find the local grocery store and grab some food and snacks for the weekend though and it didn't turn out too bad at all.
Sunday I had arranged to go Hang Gliding, in the hopes that the fog and bad weather would clear up by then. When I got picked up for the trip out to the take off site, I met Birdman Bernie (The dude in the videos that is flying me around) from Australia and he gave me all the necessary instructions and preparations for taking off while we were still in the last of the fog on top of the mountain. (The videos that he taped are all in the Interlaken album with the pictures) When we were done setting up the hang glider the fog finally lifted in such a short time that it just seemed like luck. We took about 5 running steps and lifted up into the air, quickly ascending over 100 feet above the mountain. The entire ride was crazy to watch from that high up and was actually rather serene until we started diving down towards the lake and making all sorts of sharp turns. I was absolutely thrilled the entire time and after our quick landing I could only think about going up for round 2. Unfortunately, hang gliding is rather expensive so there was only one trip for me this time, but who knows... maybe there will be more later in life!
I then went kayaking when I got back to the hostel so I could explore the lake around me. I paddled to a small island, almost flipped over countless times, avoided the ferry, watched some local kids jump into the lake on a rope swing, and admired the beauty of the surrounding forests and mountains on what turned out to be a windy, but clear and sunny day.
After that, it was still only about 4pm so I decided to catch the ferry I had seen earlier to tour through another town on the other side of the lake called Brienz. The ferry was a spectacular ride with great views and restaurant/bar service on board if you felt like paying for it. Upon arriving in Brienz, I realized that just like all the other towns around the lakes this one was kind of small and didn't have much in it besides a small movie theater and a couple of restaurants. So instead I grapped some ice cream and rode the ferry back to Iseltwald.
I then headed out on Monday morning, but all in all Interlaken is a great area to stay in if you are looking for adventures or if you just want to relax and kick back. 10/10 I would go back (maybe with more money next time... haha).
P.S. - This was my last weekend trip because I have finals coming up next week, but Kris and I will be going out to several cities after finals since we aren't scheduled to fly out until August 11th. Budapest, Vienna, Munich, and Frankfurt here we come!
Cheers!
Brian
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