GERMANY

After seeing Amsterdam I took a train through Germany to eventually get to Prague. Originally I wanted to see Munich (since then everyone has been telling me I've really missed out) but the trains there were all booked and it turns out I didn't really have time anyway. Here's some stuff I wrote while traveling through.

"The train travel here is refreshingly casual and relaxing. Something I'm more than pleased to have after a few days in Amsterdam. You can pretty much sit where you please. A train ticket from there to Prague allows me to travel at my leisure taking trains when I see fit. If I miss my first train, I can grab the next one 2 hours later. The train stops every half hour or so and I suppose I can get off anywhere for a lunch break or some sight seeing. Unfortunately there is so much to see and so little time to do it in.

From what I've spotted out the window between naps, the landscape is slowly changing from the uber-flat low grassfields of Holland to the rolling hills to what will eventually be the beer-clad mountains of Bavaria. I've just decided to stop in Nuremburg tonight. Images of "Beerfest" and St. Pauli Girls are too much for this beer snob to resist. The lady over the intercom just informed me that we are approaching Frankfurt, the last stop for this train..."

"So as it turns out I have no choice but to stay in Nuremburg tonight. There were 2 stops in Frankfurt and of cource I chose the wrong one. Probalby better of that way because now I have time to see some of Frankfurt, get lunch and use the internet."

"I just snuck on a local train back to the other train station. I got off and had to run and almost missed the train to Nuremburg, which would have stranded me here in Frankfurt for another day. Just as the train departs a lady comes and askes me for a ticket. I reach into my pocket... and nothing. I look through my bag but its nowhere. The lady starts yelling in German, asking for a ticket, and eventually accusing me of not having a ticket. 5 minutes later I find it, with a smirk on my face, "see, I had a ticket afterall". She was less than pleased."

"Just now it hits me that this train also goes through both train stations in Frankfurt. All that hassle for nothing."


Nuremburg


More Nuremburg


Germans are weird.


So I spent one night in Nuremburg, pretty uneventful. I walked around town and got dinner. With my dinner I got a "Bionade", what I thought was a german beer I never tried before. Turns out it was a soft drink. The hostel was very nice, I even had my own room. But, the people were kind of lame and noone went out so I stayed in. I never even drank a beer in Nuremburg.

The next day I got on the morning train to Prague. Halarity did ensue.

"While the Germans seem strict and timely at first (the train conductor apologized profusely for being 7 minutes behind schedule), after a bit of conversation (and beer) they are quite laid-back and fun loving"

"If you ever get the opportunity I highly recommend following around a German bachelor party. The group livened up my train right from PG to PSSC. Bar-tour style matching burgundy shirts, traditional pants, and crates of German lager brought me back to many a Vermont bus trip. To top it all off the namesake of the party bore a pink bunny outfit with 2 posterior holes that revealed a thong and a supple canvas for signatures. The rest of the shirts said, in English, "Hey bunnies, watchout for the wasted pink one. Last day in freedom" (say it to yourself with a german accent). My biggest regret was not taking a picture, but I did finally down a few German beers.