Travel Adventure with Morgan

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I left Cannes at the end of May and met up with Morgan and her friend Brittany in Munich. I took the night train and it was a pretty long trip but everything went well and I arrived in Munich right on time. Munich was one of my favorite towns! We went on a pub crawl and saw several different beer gardens where beer was sold by the liter! The next day we visited some castles in the German countryside, which were beautiful! Cinderella's castle was based off of this castle and it looked a lot like it too! They were built by Prince Ludwig of Bavaria but he eventually went bankrupt because he built too many castles so it's not completely finished. The next day in Munich Brittany had to leave to head on home but Morgan and I spent another day doing some siteseeing. We took a guided bike tour which ended up being a lot of fun! Our tour leader was really knowledgable and entertaining. We saw a lot of cool things like a river where people can surf, a beer garden, and a nude park! We saw a lot of historical things too and a lot of building were destroyed during World War II. Later that night Morgan and I ate dinner at the Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer hall. It was really good and we met up with some people who were on our bike tour and talked with them for awhile. That night we left on a night train to Vienna. I liked Munich a lot, everyone was friendly and it was very interesting but I was getting a little sick of bratwurst and beer and pretzels!

Our next stop was Vienna. We arrived early in the morning and were able to check into a room right away which was really nice because we were pretty tired. We slept for a couple hours before we explored the town. Vienna is a nice town, it had quite a bit of shopping, but we knew we couldn't buy much because we'd have to lug it around for the next few weeks! We walked around and saw a lot of government buildings. The Euro 2008 soccer games were being held in Vienna along with a couple other places in Switzerland and Austria, so there was a lot of set up going on because they were just about to start. The first day in Vienna Morgan and I got caught in the rain so we hung out at a coffee shop where we watched a lady smoke probably at least five cigarettes in an hour. It was ridiculous. Then we saw the movie "Sex and the City." That was fun! The next day we visited Freud's museum which was pretty interesting. Otherwise we hung out and relaxed a lot. Our hostel didn't indicate that there were any tours to go on, which would have been fun but it was nice to just relax too.

Next we went to Olomouc, Czech Republic. Morgan had already seen Prague and I wanted to see slightly smaller town anyway so I did some research and heard good things about the town. It is a really cute town too! We checked in and had to haul our bags up four long flights of stairs which wasn't very fun, but our hostel was really cute and gave us a lot of ideas of what to do in that area. Our first day in Olomouc we walked around the town which didnt take very long to see. There was a singing contest going on where a lot of kids from different countries would perform. We saw the opening ceremonies, it was weird because most of the countries competing were from that area, such as Latvia and Lithuania, but Puerto Rico was there along with Singapore. We didn't see any of the actual competition but we did see a group of girls perform a dance, it was cute, they were lady bugs. Later we had some traditional Czech food that our hostel had recommended to us. It was all very cheap and good too! We got a pint of beer for only one euro! We both had potato pancakes. The next day Morgan and I walked to a park and read and tanned. Our next stop was Krakow, Poland.

We arrived in Krakow later in the day and walked to the main area of town. There were some street performers doing break dancing so we watched their show which was really cool, they were very good! Later we walked around the largest indoor market in Poland where there was a lot of amber sold from the Baltic Sea. It was really pretty. The next day we visited the Salt Mine. We started by walking down about 50 meters or so underground and saw a bunch of cool salt sculptures. This mine was absolutely huge, our tour lasted two hours and we only saw a small percentage of the mine. We heard how horses would spend their whole lives underground, and never see the light of day. There was a cathedral under there and underground lakes where the salt content was even higher than the Dead Sea. It was really pretty. Later Morgan and I went back to the hostel and watched a soccer match, it was Poland versus Germany so it was a very important game. Unfortunately the Polish team lost. We went out to the bars later and after the game was finished there were some pretty upset Polish fans on the streets. The next day Morgan and I visited Auschwitz. It was very sad to hear about all the history but the tour was done really well and we learned a lot from the guide. I'm glad we went even though it didn't put us in the happiest mood! Later that night we celebrated one of the guys in our hostel's birthday. Krakow was a really nice town and our hostel was really fun too. I feel like it is up to the hostel to let their travelers know what to do in their town. Our hostel in Krakow gave us a lot to do and we had a great time there! We didn't really want to leave, but we had to go to Warsaw because Morgan was flying out of there the next day.

Warsaw was a lot different than I expected, I guess Poland was in general! It was really nice and I felt fine there, even more comfortable than in France with the culture. I was very impressed with Poland. Warsaw is a very pretty town, very cosmoplitan. It's so nice because it was pretty much destroyed during World War II so all the buildings are new or newly renovated. Morgan and I weren't able to see a lot of the city though unfortunately because we were there a short amount of time and Morgan's foot was hurting really bad so she didn't want to walk much. Our last day together, Morgan had to leave in the early afternoon so we spent part of the morning walking around a little bit and then we just sat in a park and talked. We said goodbye later which was sad but I had a great time with her and we knew it would only be a couple more weeks before we saw eachother again in Boulder. After Morgan left, I walked around Warsaw myself and saw a lot of government buildings and a nice plaza with many bears representing all the different countries of the world. Then I had to go back to the hostel to catch my train to Berlin.

I had a few more days before I met my dad in Barcelona so I decided to see Berlin myself. I got there pretty late at night and went right to sleep once I got to my hostel. The next day I walked aimlessly looking for a place to eat breakfast and then found a park to read in for awhile. Later I tried to go on another bike tour of the city but it was full so I took a walking tour instead. That was really interested too. There is just a ton of history in Berlin from both WWII and the Cold War and it's all so recent! I saw The Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gates, Humbolt University, and many other places too. The next day was my last day by myself and I was thinking about going on a different walking tour but I didn't make it to the meeting point on time so I did some shopping instead. I found this huge department store and explored that a lot. Later I went back to the hostel and got all my stuff together and headed to the airport. My flight to Barcelona wasn't until 7:30 in the morning but I didn't want to deal with waking up really early and taking public transportation and everything so I stayed at the airport. It really wasn't very comfortable, I didn't sleep at all. I read a lot and did some sudoku but all in all it wasn't too bad. The next morning my flight took off right on time and I got to Barcelona to meet my dad!

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Photos

At the Beer Garden
Brittany, Morgan and me

Humboldt University
Eistein taught here