Summer '16 Trip: Day 16

LAST BLOG POST AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Or at least it’s the last blog post for this trip. Who knows where I’ll go next………………..

But anywho, we got up a little after 9 or so, which was lovely. I had been dying to try this bagel place right next to the apartment, so that’s where we went for brunch. The service was iffy (not surprising, but always annoying), but MAN were those bagels good. They were real bagels (the boiled kind), and were just absolutely perfect. I got a cinnamon raisin bagel with GOAT CHEESE CREAM CHEESE and honey (the spread was called “Sticky Goat”). I also had a white hot chocolate, something I hadn’t had in ages. I loved it all! There were also all kinds of books on display (I guess for sale? We couldn’t really tell), so it had that cute literary café look going as well. Honestly, I’m surprised we didn’t go back for a late lunch or dinner.

While we were traveling, Kayla’s study abroad roommate (who’s in a longer program) had been keeping watch over Kayla’s other small suitcase in their apartment. After brunch, we went to go get it. We were just there for a brief moment, but from what I could see, it was a very nice apartment. Maybe I ought to have studied abroad in Berlin! …Just kidding.

We took the suitcase back to the AirBNB, and then set out for some last Berlin adventures. Kayla’s favorite German chocolatier, Ritter Sport, has a big store in the city center, so we of course had to go there. Fortunately, they’re actually open on Sundays! It was super cute. Kayla got a bunch more chocolate to give as gifts, and I just got a small square to eat right then (my suitcase was looking a little too full for any more goodies).

Giant chocolate squares!

The next stop was Checkpoint Charlie, which had a neat little outdoor gallery/info/history area. There were also guys dressed up as US Soldiers that you could take photos with or get illegal passport stamps from (we did neither). It was just weird being there and thinking that when my mom came to Berlin when she was in college it was actually like that. Crazy!

Both of us were feeling pretty off (I think our last day of train travel finally did us in), so we went back to the apartment to rest some. After a little while, we decided to go to a fancy burger chain place called Peter Pane for dinner because all I really wanted was French fries.

Worry not—I did not only eat French fries. I actually had one of the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had! They had a dinner special thing where you could get a burger, fries or a salad, and a cocktail and saved about 3-4 euro doing so. The cocktail I had was also one of the best I’ve ever had, I think because it had mango in it. The patty of my veggie burger was made of walnuts and celery, which sounds odd, but was actually really good. The best part of the burger, though, was the fact that it had GOAT CHEESE on it. Mmmmmm. I’m addicted. (And I think y’all can gather that we both got fries instead of salad).

We took the subway to the East Side Gallery after dinner, and walked along that for a while. It was neat! And the weather was lovely, despite having rained some earlier. We actually then walked all the way from the gallery back to the apartment (which actually isn’t a long walk at all), where we got as packed as possible and went to bed.

The cute little bridge between the East Side Gallery and the apartment

It was going to be another early morning for us, but at least this time we’d be going home!!! I’m excited. It was a short trip, but an excellent one. I got to revisit cities I already knew I loved, fall in love with new ones, AND (most importantly) do all this with one of my very best friends. I couldn’t have asked for more! Except maybe someone to carry all our luggage for us…

Well, so long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen! Goodbye! I hope you join me next time I make use of my passport!

Summer '16 Trip: Day 15

Day 15 was our earliest morning so far. I got up at 5 am to get ready, pack up, and finish up any last chores in the apartment. It was rough, but we wanted to get back to Berlin as early as possible. The only way to do that was to take an 8 am train out of Zurich.

Luckily, we were successful in getting to the train station via the tram, even with our semi-obnoxious suitcases. At the train station, we stopped to get breakfast. Well, it was a little early for me to eat, so I just had hot chocolate…but at least it was something. Once our platform was finally posted, we headed there and figured out where our car was going to be.

For the first time all trip, the train was FLIPPED AROUND. It really wasn’t a huge deal, since we were the first stop, meaning we had a good amount of time to get on board, but still. Walking the length of half the train with suitcases amidst a bunch of other confused people isn’t exactly my favorite thing. At least we had a good place to put our luggage on the train, reserved seats, and a pretty chill atmosphere. The whole time we were on that first train (about 3.5 hours to Mannheim) it was nice like that: not too many people. Our train from Mannheim to Berlin, though (5.5 hours) was a different story.

It was unbelievably overbooked. There were people standing in the aisles, little kids sitting in the sections between cars, and luggage everywhere. It would’ve really been a nightmare had we not reserved seats. Eesh! I don’t know how all those people managed.

On the trains, I listened to music, wrote blog posts, began reading Persuasion by Jane Austen, and watched half of Forrest Gump with Kayla. (Once Forrest and Bubba arrive in Vietnam—when Fortunate Son is playing—the lady next to me got up to go to the restaurant car, so we paused it, but Kayla said her neck hurt so we just stopped. Not like I’ve never seen it before, though...clearly).

Overall, the trains were fine. I didn’t get bored or feel uncomfortable or anything. It was chill.

Once we got to Berlin, though, we took a few Ls (for my older readers, that means that we ran into some bad luck). For one, both of the ticket machines at the U-bahn platform weren’t working. One wasn’t accepting any form of payment, and the other was only taking coins. Kayla and I put in all the change we had, but we were 15 cents short. Thankfully, two British girls lent us the coins. We felt terrible, though, because they didn’t have enough coins to get their tickets, and so they had to go to a different platform or something. Stupid ticket machines!

I’m pretty sure the only other problems we had were a broken escalator and ridiculously, absurdly long lines at the grocery store. We had no problems getting the AirBNB key from Sophia, the host, and found the things we needed to buy at the drug store and the grocery store. 

Aubrey's special request

We had dinner at a cute place called The Winery down the street from the apartment and really enjoyed it. Of course we had to get wine, since they had such a good selection. To eat, we shared a bruschetta with pecorino cheese and eggplant, and also each got pasta. We needed the nourishment after that long day!

As you can probably imagine, we went to bed on the earlier side. We stayed in the same AirBNB as we did in the beginning of our trip, but this time we were in a different room. Our bed in this room was a loft bed. I’d never seen a double bed loft bed! It was neat, and very comfortable, but kind of obnoxious, of course. But I guess it saves a lot of space.

So once again, we were going to sleep in Germany. And I must say, it was very nice not having to set an alarm—especially one for 5 am!

Summer '16 Trip: Day 14

Kayla got me up at about 8:45 on Day 14 so that we could get ready, have breakfast, and check out of our hostel. We weren’t leaving Interlaken right away, but as is normal with hostels, check out time was at 10 am. Breakfast was free at this hostel, so that was nice! Especially since it was the usual toast, yogurt, and bland cereal spread.

We put our bags in a day locker after we checked out and then set off into the main part of town to do some shopping. Kayla got some gifts and things, and I got myself a cute little Swiss Army Knife! I even got it engraved with my initials (no extra charge!)

After an hour or so of that, we went back to the hostel to retrieve our things and then made our way to the train station. We caught a train to Bern at noon, and then switched to one that would take us back to Zurich. I couldn’t stop looking out the window; you wouldn’t believe how pretty and turquoise and perfect the mountain lakes were. I’ll never forget that train ride from Interlaken to Bern. It was like taking a train through heaven!

At the Zurich Hauptbahnhof, we decided to go reserve seats for our trains back to Berlin. Once again, we had to wait kind of a long time (what is it with Switzerland and long lines?!), but it all worked out fine.

Starving (it was after 3 pm at this point), we took the tram back to the AirBNB and made grilled cheese sandwiches. They probably weren’t even that good, but it tasted like the best sandwich I’d ever had in that moment.

We changed into swimsuits and headed back into the city center to find a place to tan. I would’ve loved to have gone swimming, but we didn’t have much time, and the water must’ve been freezing cold anyway.

Before we tanned, we got the ice cream we’d been craving for a whole day at a fancy little place we saw on Wednesday when we were exploring. It was delicious! And worth the wait.

The only place where people were tanning you had to pay to get into, but we were fine with that. Most of the tanning decks at the place were really crowded, so we went to the farthest left one to set up camp. However, before we could even take off our shoes, a man came and told us that we were in the men’s only section. We couldn’t even be embarrassed because it was so funny. Who’s ever even heard of a men’s only section, anyway??

So we found a small space to put down our towels in one of the normal tanning areas, and stayed there for a while. It felt so nice. 

We laid out for a while, and then took the tram back to the apartment to shower. We had dinner, did a little more laundry, and cleaned up the apartment some. The host had asked us to do a couple things, and even left us a little money for our trouble. After getting as packed as we possibly could, we went to bed for the last time in Switzerland. Sad, but I’m getting excited to go home soon!

Summer '16 Trip: Day 13

Off to Interlaken!

A snail I saw across the street from our AirBNB. Also, notice the blackberries growing there!

We were only going to stay there for one night, so we took an earlier train. It left at 9:30, and got us to the Interlaken East train station at about 11:30, with just one transfer in Bern. Nice and easy!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous in Interlaken. Very cool but still bright and sunny and just wonderful. We left our suitcases at our AirBNB (since no one was staying there the night of the 28^th, and we were going to stay there again the night of the 29^th), and just brought a few small bags with us. Because of that, the 15ish-minute walk to the hostel was a breeze.

The hostel we booked was really nice, but it was a good thing we didn’t bring our suitcases: the room was teeny tiny. The guy at the desk who checked us in told us that we had full access to public transport and this activities center in town (which included swimming pool and mini golf) for free as guests of the hostel. Of course, we never made use of the town’s bus system—it was too nice out to not walk!

Before we did anything else, we needed lunch. There was a place in the main town area that looked pretty good, so we sat down there. Kayla had schnitzel, and I had risotto. It was pretty good!

The whole reason we came to Interlaken was because Kayla had heard about a tin toboggan slide thing on a mountain that she was absolutely dying to do. In order to do the slide, we had to take a train to a little town called Grindelwald (I know, just like Harry Potter!)

The train ride only took about half an hour, and it was very scenic. When we got to Grindelwald, I was surprised to see how many tourists were there and how “happening” the town was. It was bigger than I expected, and had lots of shops and restaurants and things. We just went straight up to Pfingstegg, though, to do the slide.

For some reason we thought we needed to take a bus from the train station to the site where you get on the cable car up to Pfingstegg. It took us a while to figure out which bus we needed to get on, and then we had no clue how to buy a ticket. We went inside the train station info area and waited FOREVER just to find out that you buy your ticket on the bus.

It turned out that we were only two stops away from where we needed to go. I mean, it wasn’t a super short distance, but it wasn’t worth 3.60 Francs a piece. We knew we’d be walking back after!

We paid for our cable car ride and got right on it. It was pretty cramped, but super cool looking out on the mountains and whatnot.

At the top, we found the ticket office for the toboggan slide and again had to wait forever in line. The people in front of us were so incredibly slow…I still don’t know what they were doing. Meanwhile, I was kind of freaking out because I found out that you control the speed of your own toboggan. I thought it was just like an automatic thing! I don’t know! I’m too Disney-fied I guess. I was almost too scared to do it, but I decided I would just go slow if I got freaked out.

But I survived! And it was really fun. I think the people behind me wanted me to go faster, but too bad for them. 

After taking in all the views from Pfingstegg, we got back on the cable car and went back down to Grindelwald. As we walked back toward the train station, we were on the lookout for ice cream. However, there wasn’t any to find! Well, lots of stores sold pre-packaged ice cream bars, but we wanted the real deal. It just wasn’t meant to be though, I guess.

Our train back to Interlaken was a little rough; my ears were popping a lot. But it was short, so it was fine. We went to our hostel for a little while before going out for dinner.

We actually had dinner at the same restaurant where we had lunch. This time, we got cheese fondue! I know fondue isn’t really a summertime thing, but hey, they were serving it, and it was cool enough outside that we definitely didn’t get hot or anything. And it was very good! Although I actually think the fondue I made at home with my mom and my friend Carly over last winter break was better, but whatever. For dessert, we went into the chocolate shop section of the restaurant where, once again, Kayla got macaroons, and I got truffles.

Kayla and I had been thinking we might want to go swimming after dinner, but before we went back to change, we decided to go find the pool and scope it out. Turns out the outdoor pool was already closed! However, the mini golf course was open, and no one was playing, so we decided to just do that. We both kind of sucked, but it was pretty fun. Kayla beat me by 4 points (although our scoring system was a little off—she probably beat me by more than that).

The rest of the night was pretty chill. We took showers and all and then just chilled until we were tired enough to go to sleep. 

Side note about Interlaken: it’s really cool! Super pretty, and perfect for “thrill-seekers.” As long as the sun was out, there were tons of people paragliding, and even some hang-gliding. If you’re into that sort of thing, or canyon jumping, or just hiking in some beautiful mountains, I totally recommend it!

Summer '16 Trip: Day 12

After a long day of travel and being dumb, we figured we earned a day of sleeping in. I don’t think we even got out of bed until almost 10. We got ready and ate a little breakfast before setting out into town around 11:30.

Our AirBNB host had laid out a bunch of helpful Zurich guide books for us, so that was nice. The books informed us that the best way of getting around is by tram. Luckily, there was a tram stop pretty close to the apartment, and that tram goes straight into the city center.

We got off the tram about a stop after the stop at the main train station, and of course it started raining. We did have our umbrellas at least, but it was coming down pretty hard. My nose was super runny, so we popped into a McDonald’s so I could blow it. After that, we walked a little ways, but then took refuge under an overpass thing for a bit. Most people were hiding out as well, so we figured the rain would probably pass soon.

It died down a tiny bit, so we walked to a cute souvenir shop (a nice one, not one of the crappy ones I like to frequent) and looked around in there for a few minutes. Amazingly, the rain stopped! I guess Switzerland’s weather at this time of year isn’t unlike Austria’s (except it’s a little cooler—just what I wanted).

The only two things we knew we wanted to see and go into were the two big, old churches in town: the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster. They’re across from each other on opposite sides of the river, so we just kind of headed down toward their general direction. 

We started to feel pretty hungry, so after looking at a few nearby restaurants, we decided to sit down at one. It was more or less along the river, and seemed very high-class. The prices weren’t any higher or lower than anywhere else, but the food sounded really good. And it was! Kayla had a huge club sandwich, and I had some yummy Alpine cheese ravioli with pears. I also decided to splurge and get a Bellini, which hit the spot as usual.

View from our seats at the restaurant 

Before we left the restaurant, we asked the hostess for a good chocolate shop recommendation. She told us to go to Sprungli, just across the river. And so we went!

Actually, we first went into the Fraumünster, which was very beautiful. No pictures were allowed, but I gotta tell ya, the stained glass was really unique and pretty. After that, it took us a while to find Sprungli (even went into another chocolate shop first), but at last, we did. It was so worth looking for! They had so many wonderful-looking treats in there. Kayla got some macaroons, and I went for the truffles. They were delicious, and very reasonably-priced (although I would pay just about anything for chocolate that good).

Next we just walked along the river on both sides and explored. It was a good time to get some picture-taking in.

The Grossmünster Church was also very pretty, but very hot. You can pay to climb one of its towers to get a nice view of the city, but we were a little too hot and tired to really be down for that. Actually, I was starting to feel a little dehydrated, so we hit a souvenir shop to get some water. Zurich actually has some public drinking fountains (which are great—fresh mountain water!), but it’s nice to have a bottle that you can drink and then refill in the fountains. 

We went to a home goods-type store to buy a lighter so that we could actually cook at the AirBNB. It can be difficult to find things you need sometimes in Europe, but fortunately we did find a lighter.

The last thing we did in the city was sit by the river for a while and enjoy the sun. There were a ton of swans, ducks, and seagulls, which was kind of nasty, but neat. Some kids sat by us and smoked, which was hilarious. They were listening to EDM remixes of Green Day and other older bands like that, so that was interesting.

Pre-teens with cigarettes!

We found a stop for our tram pretty close by, and then took the tram back to Oerlikon. At the apartment, we successfully prepared a pizza and some salad (even though the only dressing in the place was Thousand Island—not our favorite) and had a cute little dinner. I had messaged our AirBNB host earlier asking about the laundry situation, and she informed us that the machines were in the cellar! No wonder we didn’t see them. 

Laundry was kind of a struggle, too. I only needed to wash a couple things, but Kayla had a lot she wanted to wash. We did two loads, which washed fine, but the dryer was…another story. It works all right, it just takes forever. We ended up hang-drying everything.

After finishing The Lizzie McGuire Movie, we went to bed, excited to take a trip to another part of Switzerland the next day.

Summer '16 Trip: Day 11

Today was the day I got to finally add a new country to my list!

We had to get up pretty early, but our two hostel roommates needed to as well, so it all worked out. No one had to be quiet or get ready in the dark (or try and stay asleep with the lights on)!

After getting ready, I ate some of the cereal I’d bought at Aldi/Hofer the day before, and then we were off to the train station. It was rush hour, so the underground was pretty hectic and crowded, but again, it was just two trains with three stops total—no big deal.

We managed to get seat reservations for our train once we were at the station, which was good because it was going to be a long one. Luckily, it took us directly to Zurich, but still, it was almost an 8-hour train.

We had quite a bit of time before we could get on the train, so we popped into McDonald’s for breakfast. They were serving fries at 8 in the morning, so obviously we got some. Unfortunately, they weren’t very good (Kayla’s were all old and nasty and about half of mine were, too), but it wasn’t the end of the world. They had free Wi-Fi, so that kept us entertained until we headed to a market to get some food and then to the platform to get on the train.

Some little cucumbers I bought at the market. Look--they're called cucuminis/minigurken!

Surprisingly, those 8 hours on the train flew by! Maybe I’m just really used to travel at this point, I don’t know. However, we did watch both The Phantom of the Opera and Legally Blonde, so that definitely helped pass the time. We also ate sandwiches that we bought at the train station that morning. And of course, the scenery outside was just gorgeous. I happened to check my map at one point to see where we were, and lo and behold, we were in Liechtenstein!! So that makes two new countries for me.

We arrived in Zurich around 5:20. We kind of struggled to find an ATM, especially since Kayla really had to pee (which she did sneakily at a Burger King), but finally we did. Switzerland uses the Swiss Franc, so we needed to pull out some cash.

Such pretty bills!

Our AirBNB wasn’t exactly close to the station, and we didn’t really feel like trying to figure out the public transportation system of a new city with all our bags and everything, so we took a taxi. It was pricey, but fast and easy. On the way there, I saw a Tesla car on the road for the first time, which was exciting for me.

Our AirBNB was a small but nice apartment in the Oerlikon neighborhood (or actually, I don’t know if it was a neighborhood, or a district, or even a different town…but you get it). After staying in a few hostels, it was nice to have a place all to ourselves with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Kayla was disappointed because she’d been banking on doing laundry there, but we couldn’t find the washer and dryer, even though it said online that the apartment had them.

Hungry, we headed out to find food. We had heard that Zurich’s prices were very high, and that certainly was the case. At any given restaurant, one person’s meal is probably going to be around 24 Swiss Francs (CHF), which at the moment is roughly $25-6. So that night, we went to a nearby grocery store and got some necessities: frozen pizza (a pack of three for like 2 CHF!), bagged lettuce, bread, cheese slices, goat cheese, butter, crackers, turkey, and bananas. We went back to the apartment with plans of making one of the pizzas.

Buuuuutttttttttttt it didn’t quite work out. The main problem with European flats is European appliances. The oven and stove were both gas, and needed to be manually lit. And the only lighter in the place was out. Feeling somewhat defeated, I ate goat cheese and crackers, and Kayla ate a turkey and cheese sandwich.

So we couldn’t eat what we wanted to, and we couldn’t do laundry. It was pretty sad, but kind of funny at the same time. To make ourselves feel better, we started watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie, but got tired and had to stop about halfway. We went to sleep hoping that we wouldn’t struggle quite so much the next day!

Summer '16 Trip: Day 10

The main plan for Day 10 was to head to Schönbrunn Palace, the lovely summer residence of the Hapsburgs.

We got breakfast at Aldi (which we would've done the day before, but it was Sunday and virtually everything closes on Sunday), and then walked to the Opera House to get on the yellow line of the hop on-hop off bus. Later, we realized that this was kind of stupid, because the yellow line actually makes a stop at the Naschmarkt, basically right across the street from our hostel...but oh well. We got a little more walking in. 

A large pink bunny statue by the Opera House

The palace was so pretty. It took a long time to get our tickets (which were, of course, free with the Vienna Pass), and then we had to wait 45 minutes to get into the palace, but it was okay. We got to explore the gardens a bit in the meantime.

You couldn't take pictures inside the palace, but it really was beautiful. And the audio guide tour was well-done. There were a ton of obnoxious people in there, but I still enjoyed it.

Our Vienna Passes also allowed us entry into the hedge maze and the zoo at the palace. The maze was kind of stressful, but fun, I guess. And the zoo was much bigger than I would've thought! We didn't even see everything. However, we got pretty hot and tired and hungry by the end of it, so we didn't stay there all that long.

Mongooses (mongeese?)

Adorable otters

We took the bus back to the city center, and then had lunch at a nice cafe. On the bus, neither one of us could stay awake, and I felt pretty awful when I got off. I was tired and dehydrated, and I'm also sick (or having allergy problems...I can't really tell which it is. But all I have is allergy meds, so that's what I've been taking), so I felt like I was going to die if I didn't get some food and water ASAP. After lunch, though, I felt quite a bit better.

There were two museums on our Vienna Pass list that we wanted to check out: the Haus der Musik and the Natural History Museum.

The Haus der Musik was extremely weird, but enjoyable nonetheless. It was very...European. It's kind of hard to explain. But it was interactive and informative, and I definitely liked it. I even got to virtually conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (and obviously I used both hands, being a former drum major).

We got to the Natural History Museum about an hour before it was going to close, so we just went to see all the stuff we wanted to see. Of course, we started with gems and minerals, saw some dinosaur skeletons, and then went to go look at the stuffed animals (I always feel weird calling them that...but that is technically what they are).

Unlike museums in the US, this one was not even remotely air conditioned, so the animal exhibits kind of had a weird smell. It was tolerable enough until we got to the bird room, where it absolutely reeked of formaldehyde. We practically ran out of there; it was so nasty. It was basically closing time anyway, so it all worked out.

For a little bit, we sat on the steps of the museum and people-watched, but then we relocated to a patch of grass at the Burggarten. Unfortunately, the horses don't come out to graze on Sundays and Mondays (so thank God we accidentally caught them on Saturday)! Eventually, we went searching for a place to have dinner. Kayla kind of wanted traditional Viennese cuisine, but we actually ended up picking an Australian pub. I guess if you can't have Austrian, you might as well have Australian! It worked out well because we'd both been wanting fish and chips since Berlin, and now we could finally have some.

We went to a cute little all-pink place called Aida for dessert. I knew I had to have a piece of Sacher Torte before leaving Vienna. It was amazing! Kayla, who doesn't really like chocolate all that much, had a piece of blueberry vanilla cake, which she also really liked.

Made a lightning trip to Vienna, eating chocolate cake in a bag...

After cake, we went back to the hostel and went to bed. We knew we'd have to get up nice and early to catch our train to Zurich.

I can't believe I'm finally going to Switzerland!