Month: June 2019

I arrived in Berlin at around 8:00PM. Using the wifi at the train station, I found a hostel and headed there for the night. In the morning, I headed out to explore.

I visited the Brandenburg Gate, which was only a short way away from my hostel. Commissioned by Prussian king Frederick William II in 1788, the Gate was originally built as a symbol of peace, however throughout the centuries it has signified different things depending on the ruler’s ideology. While there, I ran across a political protest, something I don’t get to see that often living in a small town.

They were protesting the Assad regime in Syria. From there, I went to the Berlin Wall memorial. The official memorial includes a preservation of not only the wall itself, but also the Death Strip and the various additional fences that stood alongside the Wall.

Later that evening, I visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is one of the most famous Holocaust memorials in the world. The site is 200,000 square feet, and the memorial consists of 2,711 concrete stelae of varying heights set in a grid pattern.

The next day, I walked to the East Side Gallery, the unofficial Berlin Wall memorial. This gallery is the longest remaining original section of the Wall, stretching about 1.5km along the river. Painted on the wall are 105 murals dedicated to documenting “a time of change and express(ing) the euphoria and great hopes for a better, more free future for all people of the world.”

It was a remarkable experience to walk along the wall, see all the murals, and contemplate the history this wall has seen and been involved in. On a lighter note, check out how this street restaurant improvised some chairs!

When I heard that there was a city in Switzerland called Interlaken (pronounced the same as Michigan’s Interlochen), I knew I had to go there. I must say, Switzerland definitely lives up to its reputation as a beautiful location. The landscape is stunning.

Interlaken isn’t a very large town, so there are only so many hostels in the town. I arrived in the afternoon, and when I tried to check in to a hostel I found out that there happened to be a festival going on at the time, and while there were openings that night, the following night was all booked up. This was the case at all the hostels in town. I still wanted to spend more than just one day in Interlaken, though. So, I hatched a plan.

Now, Interlaken is famous for it’s hiking, so there’s lots of trails around the city. Of particular interest to me was the Harder Kulm trail, which went from Interlaken up the mountain to an outpost at the peak.

After checking out of my hostel, I spent the day exploring the city and taking in the scenery. At about 6 pm I headed to the trailhead and started the hike up Harder Kulm. It’s about a 5 mile hike overall, and it was fairly steep. Here’s a picture of the typical trail conditions

Two miles in or so, the trail went straight through a cow pasture! There was a fare in the fence, and the trail just went right through. There was a cow standing on the path, and I had to walk around it.

After about one more mile, I came across a small turn-off from the trail that led to a wooden structure built into the hill, and I decided this would be my home for the night. You see, my plan for this hike was to find a place to sleep for the night, since the woods seemed safer to me than an alley or something. This place was an excellent fit.

My last visitor was at about 8:00PM, and after that my only company was the small field mouse who lived nearby. I named him Nibbles after the way he ate the bread crusts I gave him.

The view was amazing. I unfortunately didn’t get to see either the sunset or the sunrise because I was facing the wrong way, but watching the last traces of sun slowly disappear from the peak of Finsteraarhorn (The third highest peak in the Alps, and the highest in Switzerland) was still an awesome experience in the fullest sense of the word.

The night was fairly cold, but it stayed above freezing at least. I think it was around 45° at the coldest. It wasn’t a very good sleep, but I did get a few hours of rest. In the morning, I finished the hike up the mountain to the outpost at the top and took the first train down at 8:00AM.

There was a train going directly to Berlin at 10:00, so I hopped on that after stopping in at the store in town for some breakfast.

That’s all for now, farewell until next time!

After it was time to leave Rome, I decided that my next destination was Venice. I had met some other travelers at the hostel in Rome who were traveling to Venice as well, and I decided to take the same train they did.

The hostel we stayed at was more like an eight-floor hotel than a hostel. It was definitely the biggest hostel I’ve stayed at so far.

Venice itself is on an island, and has pretty much no cars on the island proper. It’s really easy to get lost there. All the streets are narrow and twisty, and don’t connect to each other in any sensible way.

There’s a big plaza in the center of Venice that has actually been designated as a world heritage site.

As I took that picture I was facing away from the most notable feature of the plaza, the big church.

The church has a bell tower they let people up into.

There’s a nearby island that is used as the graveyard. Being an island, they are kind of short on space, so people these days are only buried there for 20 years or so before being moved to a different location. There are some really old graves though. The most famous person I found was Igor Stravinsky

Despite dying nearly fifty years ago, people still regularly come and put flowers and notes in his grave. A testament to how influential a composer he was, I suppose.

I’m in Interlaken, Switzerland now. It’s a beautiful area. But that’s a separate update. Until next time!

Sorry for the long time between updates. I’ve been having a lot of fun.

Rome is a city that I definitely knew I wanted to visit when I was planning this trip. Nicknamed “The Eternal City,” it was the capital of my favorite historical empire, the Roman Empire.

I wandered around the city for several days, but I feel like I could have spent my whole trip there and still not seen everything. Nonetheless, I did see most of the major sights.

The pantheon is an extremely impressive building. Built under the reign of Augustus, and later remodeled under Hadrian, it’s main dome is massive. One of the biggest domes in the world. It’s also one of the best preserved buildings from that time period.

The Altare Della Patria isn’t nearly as old as the pantheon. It was built over 50 years from 1885 to 1935 as a tribute to Victor Emmanuel, the man who unified Italy and established the Kingdom of Italy. It’s an extremely impressive building.

Next, the Colosseum, perhaps the most iconic Roman building. It needs no introduction.

Finally, the Forum Romanum. This area, mostly ruins now, was where official proceedings like Triumphs, elections, and debates were held. It has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the history of the world.

The hostel I am staying at here in Rome is amazing. Definitely the best hostel I’ve stayed at so far. The grounds include a slackline, a pool, and a sauna!

It’s in Zagarolo, not Rome, but it’s still only a short train ride away.

In that picture, the pool is on the right, the sauna is in the building on the left, and straight ahead behind the tree is the building with the dorms.

The people are cool too. I met a lot of friends while here.

Here is Walt and I having breakfast, with two of the four resident cats watching.

Here is dinner the previous night.

They have a bunch of board games here. I played codenames with this family from Ontario. It made it a little difficult that all the cards were in Italian, but we made it work. After Codenames, we played euchre until 1AM.

The hostel has events going on throughout the week. Last night was the Pasta Party. We had to make the pasta ourselves.

Here’s a picture of us all eating the finished product!

This hostel was by far the best one I’ve been to so far. It was also the cheapest, at only €16/night! Definitely hard to top.

Until next time!

When I started planning this trip, Florence was one of the few cities I put on the “Must Visit” list. I can say now, after visiting it, it definitely lived up to its reputation. Florence’s art and architecture are truly magnificent. For example, look at this enormous, elaborately decorated church, the Santa Maria del Fiore:

The interior of the church is equally magnificent:

Additionally, included in the ticket were a few other things:

A visit to the top of the bell tower

Entrance to the Baptistry adjacent to the Cathedral

And entrance to the nearby museum where, among other relics, they have the original doors Lorenzo Ghiberti created in 1424, which Michelangelo famously called “The doors of Paradise.”

I would be amiss to say that the Santa Maria was the only notable cathedral I visited while there, however. The Basilica di Santa Croce is another impressive place. While not as visually impressive on the outside, it is still an imposing structure. The interior, however, is where things get interesting. A number of notable historical figures have graves in this church. To name a few of the most prominent ones, Michelangelo

Galileo

Machiavelli (Under restoration currently)

Dante

And finally, Florence Nightingale.

There’s a river running right through the city of Florence named the Arno. I watched the sun set from a bridge over the river on a number of occasions. Here’s a picture of the sunset on the Arno.

On the other side of the Arno from where I was staying is the old Pitti palace, where the Medici family lived when they ruled Florence in the 15th century. A portion of the palace is left relatively identical to how it was back in the Medicis’ days. Here’s a few pictures:

Around the palace are the Medici gardens. These gardens are massive, and really easy to get lost in. As I did. Repeatedly.

One night, I decided I wanted pizza. I had seen this place called GustaPizza that I wanted to go to earlier that day, but it didn’t open until 7:00. I decided to try again, and lucky me, it was open! They cooked the pizza in a traditional wood-fired oven:

The pizza was really good. Apparently a lot of people agree with me about that, because by the time I left the line stretched around the block!

Today I traveled from Florence to Rome, where I’ll spend the next few days of my trip.

Alla prossima!