I’m hitting up Bern in Switzerland at the moment.
After Berlin Ash and Drew decided on Prague and since everyone seems to rant and rave on about that place I figured I may as well come for the ride and at least overnight there. So maybe I’m missing the point, but honestly Prague has been the biggest let down so far. For a place everyone hypes up it really just seemed like any other European city without any of it’s own real personality. In the night Ash, Drew and I went out and got dinner. BEST DINNER EVER. Full of pork with a side of red cabbage sauerkraut.
I was hoping to fly directly from Prague to Venice or Rome but flights were stupidly expensive and complicated (long stopovers) so I settled for hitting up Munich instead. I did always want to go there but I figured it just wasn’t going to happen with everything else I wanted to do but you know what, I’m glad my plans buggered up and that I had to ‘settle’ on going there instead of Venice (for the moment anyway). Munich is easily the best city I’ve been to so far, it’s beautiful, has plenty of character and there’s just so much to see and do.
I arrived in Munich pretty much homeless. And I also discovered 4:30 in the afternoon, in the middle of Summer, is not a good time to try and find a hostel. All were booked up so I had to settle for one of the cheapest hotels I could find… You would think it would be a welcome change from a hostel, but for my first night away from my pals I was kinda looking forward to making friends. Oh well! The afternoon I got there I did what I normally do and checked out the city by foot. No idea how far I walked, but I was gone for a good 5-6 hours and my feet were done for!
The next day I rented the coolest bike ever and decided to explore things that way and give my feet a rest. I pretty much just picked a direction and rode as far as I could until I hit something interesting… I came across the zoo… didn’t go in but I could see a few things from the side of the road. around the area is a big river and lots of trees, almost forest like… Was good fun just being out of the city. Came back to the hostel later in the afternoon and came across Jo, a girl we all met on the train to Prague who also stayed in our hostel there. Found out about a Beer Challenge and decided to head along to it. Very fun night. Very hazy too.
Drinking on public transport with Jo
My drinking buddies for the night
That about brings us to today. Caught a 7am train to Bern (waking up has never been so hard!) and damn the scenery is picturesque through Bavaria down to the Swiss Alps. It’s just so goddamn beautiful. Speaking of the alps, I’ve been noticing I’ve been getting way puffed out walking up here, particularly with the steep hills I have to scale.
Bern, Switzerland
Anyway there’s a pretty fast flowing river through here and you can jump in one end, and about a kilometre or two downstream you wind up at the free public pools… It was awesomely refreshing, particularly on a day like today which I think was low to mid 30′s.
Loving every minute of this place, definitely a place I want to come back to in future, would love to see Lucerne too but can’t do it all, right? Tomorrow night I think I’ll catch an overnight train into Venice. Gonna be rad!
