Day #7: The one with the nazis.
Got up and explored. We went up the funucular railway to the castle (it really puts the 'fun' in... you get the idea). From there we could see views of the surroundings which can only be described as "woo"some. It was a sunny day as well which meant we got some nice views of the hills. They're alive apparently, with the sound of music.
There was an over-descriptive audio tour, which told us that the "area was famous for salt - hence the town's name. Salz is German for salt!!", and an exhibition about Austians fighting wars with bushy moustaches. Mostly however, it was all about being high up.
On the way back, we saw some art. YES. We are so cultured, we should make our own Actimel.
Later on we met an Irish man called Kevin who didn't believe we existed. I can't remember his reasoning since my notes aren't quite that detailed... maybe we were too stunningly good looking. Anyway, we explored a couple of bars with him and he was a much amiable fellow.
When we got back to the hostel there were a number of very drunk Polish football fans with a big flag saying they had come from Ireland. The barman had let them choose the music and pull pints since the bar was otherwise empty, and they were most friendly and interesting. And when I say interesting, I of course mean they were nazis.
The Pole behind the bar decided to select a song on youtube, the video of which featured many skinheads and swastikas, at which point the bar erupted in a load of fascist salutes. Me Dave and Kevin decided to continue enjoying our pints, looking at the floor, deciding a civilised political debate was unlikely.
After the nazi song, one of the drunk Poles shouted "Abba! Play Abba! The winner takes it all!". So now whenever I see adverts for Abba Gold I think of the holocaust. Thanks, Poles!
Posted on: Saturday, 7th June 2008
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Day #6: The Sound of Munich.
I should have used that headline yesterday.
We've gone to Salzberg. I'm hoping to find a tour of pretty locations that doesn't constantly talk about Julie Andrews. Euro 2008 kicks off tomorrow so we're thinking perhaps the Alpen countries may not be the best places to be around cost-wise. Indeed, the hostel is charging us extra from tomorrow.
The hostel is nice; the woman behind the counter is stupidly hot as well. These are important things to note. Anyway, we managed to spend a fair chunk of the afternoon asleep. We checked out a couple of bars which was nice.
She was really hot, though.
Posted on: Friday, 6th June 2008
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Day #6: The place with the giant beer
We got to Munich having had very little sleep. There was an annoying ticket inspector/border policeman who kept coming back and checking our passports. He searched our moustached room-mates bag which made me think he was on the look-out for a nefarious drug dealer. Lucky our cover remained, lol.
Munich is a big place, big on, er, bigness. All the buildings are enormous and grand and there are lots of statues of men on horses, and, in one excellent example, lions. We wandered around, admiring the Bavarian architecture and found some nice views in the Englischergarten (where there were rapids!) and the Hoffgarten (the Hoff was off with KITT we think). Down by the river a shield of the dense trees make you forget you're in a city of 1.5 million people.
In the evening we had some enormous pints of Bavarian ale, so big that they weren't actually pints, they were litres. I felt like a Hobbit. It was class.
Posted on: Thursday, 5th June 2008
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Eurotour Day #5: Orange you glad we're in Amsterdam?
We left the hostel and wandered around some parks for a bit. We discovered that the RIA is a big boring exhibition centre and we went on a Metro train that meant we ended up futher away from where we wanted to be than when we started. That was nothing to do with me.
Anyway, that place was the Vincent Van Gogh museum. We felt very cultured admiring the paintings of him and his contemporaries.
We also find the world's coolest shop - it sold retro games consoles including things which I'd always assumed were myths - the Sega Nomad, the PC Engine, and the Virtual Boy! We had to leave because otherwise I would have bought something stupid like a 3DO or an Atari Lynx.
Alas, we forgot to return to the shop as we returned to the station to get the night train to Munich...
Posted on: Wednesday, 4th June 2008
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Eurotour Day #4: Dutch Courage.
Breakfast was some bread and some ham stuff. Those crazy Dutch! I want to see just how tolerant they really are but my travelmate discouraged this.
Our roommate, a bearded man in his 40s, was doing some weird tai-chi thing which meant he was lying on the floor and leaning against his bed and breathing deeply. I was disturbed, especially since Dave was in the bathroom and I was left alone with the strange man.
I quite liked Amsterdam; if you keep away from the sex shops and the hash cafes its a really nice relaxed city. The ubiquity of bikes and canals makes it like nowhere else on Earth. Except maybe Cambridge.
As part of my continuing plan to depress myself we visited Anne Frank's house which was exactly as I'd imagined it. It's quite a lot like she described it in her diary funnily enough. I feel sorry for Otto Frank, returning home to find despite his best efforts, his plan had failed and everyone he cared about had been murdered.
I had an okay burger at the hostel. We were too tired to do much else so after a quiet pint and a long walk home (it's quite hard to navigate when every street looks identical) we went to bed.
Posted on: Tuesday, 3rd June 2008
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Eurotour Day #3: Nether(lands) the train
At about 10 we got the train to Amsterdam. On the train I read Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut which was interesting. It had time-travelling aliens in it; always a winner.
The flat landscape of the Netherlands scrolled past like an old Mode 7 SNES game until we arrived at the main station at about 1.
After waiting ages at the tourist information we got booked into a hostel. It was very basic in its layout, but there were 2 for 1 drinks so all was excellent. We lazed around a bit in Vondel park before exploring the winding, canalled streets.
Our roommate snored as much as me; this disgusted me. However, we had some fine Dutch beer and so nobody noticed.
Posted on: Monday, 2nd June 2008
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Eurotour 08 Day #2 - Sprouts.
Still in Brussels. We got up aboout 8 and after watching some German telly (about some dullards who love to snowboard, and some of them take drugs, and then slide down a mountain and almost hit a car when high, and another one mistakes the drug dealers for aliens. Actually, that sounds excellent) we went to explore.
We saw the infamous Mannakin Pis, which, I believe translates as Peeing Boy. Somewhat amusingly there was also a Pis beer shop and a Pis chocolatier. Brussels is fairly pleasant and nice, like a large French town with a few huge buildings. Y'know, nice. Here are some nice pictures.
Posted on: Sunday, 1st June 2008
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