Salzburg

I took another night train from Budapest to Salzburg.  I thought I was being clever because these tickets were cheaper and otherwise I'd have another night of lodging to consider.  However, this night train experience also left me quite exhausted.  I left Budapest at 9 something and arrived in Salzburg at 3:30ish in the morning.  With their train station under renovation (and it being quite chilly), I really didn't have a place to go, besides a small shelter on the train platform.  So, I read my book (Into the Wild) while waiting for a coffee shop to open at 6.  In retrospect, I should have gone to my hostel and asked if I could sit in the lobby, but that didn't occur to me for some reason.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer was an interesting book to read during my travels.  I began it on the first day of my journey and finished it on the last.  It was about someone almost my age who goes off on long journeys all alone and eventually heads up to Alaska with limited provisions to escape society and live off the land.  I certainly saw parallels in our journeys, though his were much more idealistic and extreme.  And while he reveled in solitude I wished I had had a traveling companion.  Certainly there are advantages to traveling alone, mostly in the independence it allows (you can take as long or as short as you want at a museum), but my usual life is quite independent, living alone, with most of my friends and family far away.  In any case, I highly recommend the book.  It is a compelling read, and though it is non-fiction, Krakauer crafts it as a mystery and fills it with interesting psychological and philosophical insight.

After getting a cup of hot coffee and a bite to eat, I found that Salzburg is a beautiful city with a gorgeous landscape.  Some of the mountains had snow and the clouds/fog were moving slowly overhead.

I had the chance to tour two different houses that Mozart lived in, plus take a tour of sites from the film Sound of Music.  The latter had the potential to be cheesy, but it was a great and fun experience to see these beautiful buildings, see the lake country, learn behind the scenes information about the film and even sing to the soundtrack on the bus.  There was more to see, but I was only staying a short while.

One difference I noticed between Munich and Salzburg is in whether I was addressed in English or German.  In these cities I would always address someone (waiter, shopkeeper, etc.) in German first (I began with English in Budapest).  In Munich, they would almost always hear my accent or clumsiness and respond, to my dismay, in English.  In Salzburg, however, they would always continue in German, which I appreciated.  Also, at home in Rimbach, if I address someone in German, he usually would respond in German, and I became accustomed to this.  Not only do I want to respect their cultures by speaking in their native tongue, it helps me to practice speaking German in any situation.  I'm not really sure why these two cities were different in this respect, they are both tourist cities, if anything, Salzburg more so than Munich.  And I saw non-German speakers getting around just fine in Salzburg, indicating they do speak English.  In any case, it was easy to get around and someone who didn't know any German would easily survive in these places.

One excellent opportunity to practice my language skills was in Salzburg.  I stopped for lunch in a small cafe and there were no open tables, so an older man asked if the other seat at my table was free, and I said it was, and we had a nice conversation, all in German.  Interestingly, this year is Salzburg schools' first experiment with a Fall break and we talked a bit about that, among other topics.

I met many Australians in my hostel (and in Munich too).  It seems that it is really common to take a gap year between high school and college and many use that time to backpack in Europe.  Some of them were on the road for months.  I got so tired being out for a week.  I think this is because I kept myself so busy and wasn't staying for very long in any one city; to be out for so long you need to learn to rest.  In any case, it was really nice to return to my apartment and get some rest in my own bed.

Budapest

I took a night train from Munich to Budapest.  While booking my night train I wasn't sure what to expect.  I had a seat in a compartment with three others.  They got off at different times from me and others got into the compartment and so on.  One of the stops was an hour long for some reason.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep well.  When I arrived in Budapest I had breakfast with my uncle (who was there on business) and then took a necessary "nap."

That afternoon I went to a very interesting museum called "The House of Terror."  The name seems to inspire thoughts of Halloween, but its actual content is much more serious.  It documents the tragic periods of fascist and communist rule beginning in 1944.  In 1944 is was known as the "House of Loyalty" and was the headquarters of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party (Nazi).  After Soviet occupation began, the building became headquarters for communist terror organizations.  Before seeing this museum, I was only vaguely aware of Hungary's role in the 20th century.  I had the opportunity to learn quite a bit, from the Nazi government, to the Soviet occupation to the revolution of 1956.  Importantly, I got a sense of what it was like to live on the other side of the Iron Curtain.  I wonder how similar the experiences of the Hungarians were to other countries such as the GDR.

Another museum I toured was inside Buda Castle.  It traced the history of Budapest from the beginning (and I do mean beginning).  It was another opportunity for me to learn about this place I didn't know that much about.  Its history is complicated, with many different peoples ruling the area.

I found Budapest to be a lovely city, full of breathtaking vistas, interesting architecture and good food (goulash!).

Visit to Munich

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

There is a lot to do in order to leave for a trip: plan, reserve, eat perishables, get your mail covered, pack, clean, etc.  These things took me way longer than I had expected and I went to bed quite late in preparation for a very early morning.  I picked the 5:41 train out of Rimbach so I would arrive in Munich early enough that I could do quite a bit.  Waking up, I actually felt pretty alert, though that feeling would not last the full day.  I changed trains at Weinheim and Stuttgart and arrived in Munich a little after 10:00.  After having a coffee at Burger King and using its restroom, I put my things in a locker at the train station and set out for the center of town, Marienplatz.  I walked down a pedestrian zone to what is the center of the city with much of the sights I wanted to see (me and many other tourists).  I saw three churches, St. Michael's Church, the Frauenkirche and St. Peter's Church.  I was also able to see the New Town Hall and the Old Town Hall, though I did not see the Glockenspiel run on the former.  I also toured the extensive Residenz where the Bavarian royalty used to live, their treasury and the Cuvilliés Theater.  After seeing these I was decidedly exhausted and went to my hostel to check in.  I got into my room, which I shared with five strangers, and took a nap.
I later went to the Hofbräuhaus for some traditional (perhaps touristy) dinner (Weisswurst) and beer.
Many of these sights sustained some form of damage in World War II and Munich decided to restore them.

The hostel's atmosphere was very young, though this hostel has no age limit.  I did get a chance to meet some interesting people.  One of my roommates was an Australian man who was traveling, another was a German who is between homes and jobs.  In this place, everything was in English first and German second, if the German was provided at all.

Friday, October 15th, 2010
Today I went to see the Dachau concentration camp.  It was a powerful experience I would recommend.  I was very interested in the evolution of the camp as it changed throughout its twelve years of Nazi rule.  I found a professional tour guide who was well worth hiring (Gordon's Tours).  Having studied the Holocaust in depth last semester, the subject was very much fresh in my mind and it was helpful to see in person many of the things I have read so much about.  I am especially interested in exploring questions about why things happened the way they did and what were the motivations behind them.  What was known about the concentration camps to the average German?  What about the average American?  Why wasn't there greater opposition to them?  Why were the inmates evacuated to the western camps (like Dachau) toward the end of the war?  One of the biggest messages was how much the Nazis and the SS were interested in Public Relations.  They were so careful and active in trying to send the right messages to achieve their goals.  A big part of the museum is also the history after 1945 and the many things that have happened at the camp.  One new thing I learned about was the terror of the clean camp at the beginning.  Of course it was terrible as conditions deteriorated towards the end of the war, but the clean camp was terrible because it was clean because of the fear put into the inmates.  Things had to be in order, or a lot of people would get punished.  It was an extremely interesting experience that of course can be a quite difficult one, encountering so much evil and human suffering.  Especially difficult was seeing film from 1945 of dying and dead inmates.  If this had been the only thing I saw on my trip, it would have been worth it.

I also went around the city and saw the English Garden and the outside of the Pinotheks (they were already closed by the time I got there).  Another long day and I was exhausted.  Time for a night train to Budapest.

Elternabend

New post about Elternabend: http://mlsgt.blogspot.com/2010/10/elternabend.html