Back Home

Well, here I am back in Canada, safe and sound after 37 days and over 10,000 miles of travel. It was a great adventure, but it feels pretty good to be back home too. Kingston remains as fantastic as it always seems to be in the summer, and I just had my first Tim's coffee in over a month, which was far too delicious for words.

Here's a very brief summary of the trip, country by country:

Greece: Athens = dirty. Santorini = beautiful. Rhodes = neat, but Santorini is a tough act to follow. French fries on gyro pitas = absolute genius.
Total time spent in country: 7 days.
Total number of gyros consumed: 14.

Turkey: Beautiful coastline, food ranging from fantastic homemade stuffed peppers to extremely dubious bowls of mystery meat, extremely hospitable and friendly people (though a few are just a bit *too* friendly), beautiful architecture, great weather, no toilet paper anywhere. Border control is an exercise in trust, as we lost our passports for 2 hours on entry AND departure, only to have them returned no worse for the wear.
Total time spent in country: 12 days.
Cans of Peach Cappy consumed: approximately 25.

Did I mention we rode camels in Turkey? We rode camels.

Romania: Visit limited to overnight stay in train station.
Total time spent in country: 8 hours.
Number of giant rats killed by cats in front of us: 2.

Hungary: Budapest is wall-to-wall great architecture. Tons of history as a result of almost 50 years of Nazi, then Communist occupation. Relatively cheap, and not yet completely overrun by backpackers.
Total time spent in country: 3 days.

Vienna: A very familiar feeling western-ish city after half a month of middle eastern/eastern European culture. Tons of music everywhere.
Total time spent in country: 2 days.
Lunch dishes eaten that ended in "schnitzel": all of them.

Czech Republic: Similar in feel to Budapest, but the buildings are even more ornate, the beers are even cheaper, and every other person in the city is a tourist. As for the food, I will put it this way. There's a reason Canada doesn't have a huge proliferation of Czech restaurants.
Total time spent in country: 4 days.

Germany: The Alps were amazing and the Schloss Neuschwanstein was every bit as awesome a building as it looks in pictures. Munich was just a wall-to-wall World Cup party the entire time we were there, so my overall impression of the city is probably not typical of how it is under normal conditions. Still, it had some of the tastiest beer I have ever had. Also, German public transportation is a ridiculously precise and easy to use system. Canada could learn a few things.
Total time spent in country: 6 days.
Number of people partying in the streets after Germany's last game: 20,000+.

Top 5 Things (no particular order):
-Santorini sunsets from Cafe del Mar
-Scootering around the Turkish countryside
-Swimming with swans in an Alpine lake (despite the fact that swans are huge and terrifying up close)
-Partying in the streets until sunrise in Munich
-Lucky's Souvlaki gyros/peach Cappy (tie)

I hope my travelogue has been entertaining, I'll be sure to keep you all posted the next time I get a crazy adventure lined up!

Munich Arrows

One thing James and I have learned about Munich with ABSOLUTE certainty is that you CANNOT trust any arrow you see. On no less than six occasions now, we have followed arrows leading to destinations only to wind up in the middle of nowhere. In the most ridiculous case, there was actually a sign not ten feet from a beer hall advertising its location. The arrow was pointing directly away from the building.

Poor signage, or cruel tourist prank? We may never know.

Deutschland!

It's been a few days since I've had a chance to post, but it hasn't been for a lack of adventures!

Earlier this week we spent a few days in Fussen, a quaint little mountain town in the German Alps. The town itself was nice, but our real reason for being there was its proximity to one of my all time favourite buildings, the Schloss Neuschwanstein. It's a huge, multi-turreted castle perched in the foothills above Fussen that was commissioned by King Ludwig II in the mid-late 19th century. It was actually designed by a theatrical set designer instead of an architect, which explains the fact that it looks like something out of a fairy tale. The interior is pretty nice too, with tons of intricate wood carvings and one chandelier in particular that weighs over two and a half tonnes. Unfortunately, Ludwig died before the interior was finished, so there are still whole floors that sit completely empty and inaccessible to the average tourist (me). That's fine by me though, the castle looks cool enough from the outside to make up for any shortcomings in interior decorating.

After the castle, we tracked down a nearby lake and, after devouring a picnic lunch consisting of bread, cheese, salami, chocolate and strawberries (I don't know why, but German strawberries are crazy delicious), hopped in for a swim. Aside from the fact that the lake is fed by meltwater from the snowy mountains (making it a wee bit chilly), it was a great place for a swim. It's hard to beat the scenery of swimming in a lake surrounded by mountains, without a motorboat to be seen. Oh yeah, there were swans too. I swam with swans.

Next was Munich, where I'm writing this post right now. Yesterday we pursued an intellectual and highly refined study of Munich's most famous product: beer. The verdict: Germans know their beer. We also got a chance to watch the Germany/Italy game amongst Germans, which was a great time. Unfortunately, the home team lost. However, that didn't stop thousands of Germans from pouring into the streets following the game for a huge spontaneous street party in Schwaben, Munich's student ghetto. For those of you from Kingston, it reminded me of Aberdeen on a much larger scale, but minus any flipped cars and with more flags. I was talking with a local guy about it, and I remarked that it was really surprising that so many Germans were in a seemingly great mood and willing to party the night away despite having been eliminated from the World Cup. He shrugged, then informed me that there is a saying in German that goes (roughly translated): "You have to take your parties as they come".