The End of a Journey, but a Beginning of a Friendship

I'm typing this message while sitting home looking out through the window and thinking what a great trip I had. I wrote on my first blog text "Trip in total will take 28 days go through 17 cities in 6 countries giving me an opportunity to meet 23 friends along the road."

Nothing goes exactly as planned but that's normal so this is how my trip turned out: It lasted 28 days including , through 18 cities in 7 countries gave me an opportunity to met 25 friends along the road, plus of course X amount of other people I didn't know before who I just met also on the way. So I would say that I managed to reach my goal on this trip. 

Even that there has been lots of social life as you might guess but I still have had time to think different things by myself while moving from place a to place b. Going around Europe by train is an incredible experience and I would suggest everyone to do it at least once (this was my third InterRail). There are many people travelling, everyone sharing their unique stories, experiences and thoughts about world and life, and while you listen -you learn. People are in general on their deepest nature helpful and kind towards others, especially among backpackers - or at least that is the way I have experienced it. It's kind of mutual respect.

It has been an absolutely pleasure for me to have been able to do this trip. I've seen places that I probably wouldn't ever find myself, I've had experiences that I couldn't have done by myself, I've learned about different cultures things I wouldn't discover on my own and most of all I've been privileged to know you all. I can't thank you guys enough for being part of my inter(national) rail on this summer, I enjoyed every minute of it. And hopefully I wasn't too difficult guest to handle :D

As it all comes down to an end and I've visited to meet you, I will challenge you come visit in Finland. There is always a place for you to crash in Tampere (assuming that Im there at that time :D ). 

I will stay now in Finland for next five months (at least I think so now...) and after that go to Beijing, China for spring semester. After that who knows where I'm going to be, one thing is certain: I will keep travelling and blogging up my ways, and will always let you know if I'm somewhere around to sit down for a coffee.

Berlin - Where East Meets West

So this is it then, last stop of my tour – Berlin. Before I started my trip I made a decision that I wouldn’t pay even a single night of accommodation on my trip. So far so good but my Berlin let me down in that sense. I planned to crash at one friends place but it didn’t work out so I tried alternative plan: Texted some of my friends asking might they no anyone who could host me a night or two and joined emergency couch Berlin group on couchsurfing website, but there was no result, I was homeless. In Venice it was fine to spend a night at railway station but I was going to stay 3 nights in Berlin so I needed to do something. Many of places were fully booked, but I managed to find out a good deal in 3 star hotel… So after a month travelling and sleeping mostly at friends places, now I suddenly had a room in 3 star hotel… Luxury indeed!

Berlin is a city with great vibes and interesting history. What makes it most interesting is that there is not so called single centre but instead there are many areas that could be considered as centres. Last time I was in Berlin, I was staying at Eastern side but at this time I was staying at Western side of the city… And if you don’t know, Berlin is huge, it easily takes around half hour to get one side of the city to another, but luckily public transports are really good – at least enough time to sleep when moving one place to another ;)

I spent these few days in Berlin for just going around and experiencing some cultural sights. The Unesco world heritage site, “museum sinsel”, Berlin cathedral, the city of Berlin museum and remainings of Berlin wall. City is full of small details that can be tracked down to it history, for example some of traffic lights had the man walking wearing a hat and walking stick… You can only find these on Berlin.

Besides that I also met my friend Patricia who I have met before 7 years ago in Bulgaria. It was an interesting “re-union” since it was funny to see how much people change in that long period of time. I mean that we had many interesting conversations related of different kind of points / views of life, what is right and wrong, or is there even such a things than right or wrong?

Berlin is also called the nightlife capital of Europe so I needed to find out is it true or not. On a first evening I was discovering nightlife of Western Berlin on my own, it was nice and truly the myth of the Eastern part being the “nightlife centre” is not true anymore. I manage to found few nice jazz lounges and one very small cosy bar where everyone seemed to know everyone. Second evening I decided to check what is an Irish pub like in Berlin… to be honest, wouldn’t recommended that, live music wasn’t good ad prices expensive. On last evening I thought to experience Eastern Berlin by joining pub crawl. And that was a huge fan! I did the tour called “alternative pub crawl” and we visited places called Yesterday Bar-Last Cathedral-Absinth Bar-Mein Haus Am See-Coffee Burger … Every place was different on is atmosphere from a hippie styule to gothic horror bar and decoration, every place was cool! I would honestly recommend to take this (or some other) pub crawl tour in Berlin, its way to find places wouldn’t find otherwise at all. Only think I didn’t like in places like lounges etc. that it is impossible to just walk into a bar, order and pay drink. You always needed to sit down first before someone came to ask what you would like to have, then you could place your order and have a drink… A simple thing made way too complicated :D

Siegen - At The Outbacks Of Germany

“Who does go Siegen?” – A sentence heard from a friend as I told my destination… Yes, I was going to Siegen. Interesting destination in a way that all way until this point of this trip I’ve been aware about the location of the place where I was. This was first time as I knew that I was going to Siegen but if someone would have given me map of Germany and ask to point out that place, I wouldn’t have even a clue, and to be honest I still don’t have even that I was there already. That is the reason why I decided to call it outbacks of Germany especially after I arrived there by train the train station wasn’t exactly full of people…

But I had a reason to be there, I was visiting Katharina. There wasn’t much planned besides going to the city at evening meeting up some of Katharina’s friends. At first I took my backpack at her new flat which was really nice (especially comparing on her Irish “flat” – small room which door could barely be opened because lack of space) and reminded me a little bit of my first flat in Helsinki on its size and floor plan.  There we had few cups of coffee and had a chat before heading to supermarket get something for dinner…. Meatballs warmed up in microwave with noodles and bbq sauce, cheap student meal ;)

When we finally made our way to the city center, I heard which is a big thing in Siegen, that separates it from other cities in Germany… They have a deepest pedestrian walk area on city center in Germany (or at least that’s what they think)… what a sight! Outbacks indeed :D There we, me surrounded by 10 Germans, sat down in one bar several hours and enjoying few beers and smoking some sisha. It seemed to very popular there in Siegen.

After all it was nice to visit Siegen also and as I said at beginning of my journey, I’m not going to see places, I’m going to meet friends. It is now 22nd and last day when my InterRail ticket is valid so last train ride will take me to Berlin for few days before flying from there back to Finland.

Neuss - At The Doorsetp Of Dusseldorf

Managing to hang around 14 hours in a train to reach Neuss: Luckily I haven’t got too many of these long train rides, I mean that those are okay even that they start to be a bit exhausting at certain point. At Neuss Nina was waiting me at the station to drive me up at her place. The story with Nina is actually same than story with Alex (Blogpost Stuttgart), we met on ESN Tampere trip to Russia in 2010. On my interrail two years ago I also planned to visit Nina but at that time everything was just overlapping and days were simply too short to find a time on my trip so It was four years ago when we met last time. Excited!

Neuss is quite unknown place, it is a pretty little town which is located between Dusseldorf and Cologne having good S-Bahn connections on both. Also the day I arrived there happened luckily bee a good one with sunshine because Saturday (at least morning hours) seemed to be just raining. We decided to enjoy that and packed up picnic things heading up to the river  A great moment of relaxing after my long train ride, I have to confess that I think that I even fell asleep for short moment. The river is actually the border of Neuss and Dusseldorf and quite busy one what comes to boat-cargo ship delivering something somewhere. And on the backround there was Dusseldorf’s TV tower, which was actually also possible to see Nina’s and Martin’s flat window.

 

After warming up in sun we went to take a look at the city, having idea of enjoying ice cream… The real summer delicacy. Central plaza was filled up with cafeterias and restaurants where people were sitting and chatting, spending the lazy Sunday. Unfortunately we weren’t that lucky with the weather anymore because quite soon after we had got our ice cream portions it started to rain… first only dew drops but quite soon like pouring water from the sky. People, including us, started to move around quickly like ants at work trying to fit themselves under umbrellas or find a place somewhere else, under arches etc. more or less successfully. We manage to survive quite dry (or at least in my opinion) from the rain.

At the evening there was something new as dinner thoughts. If it wouldn’t have been raining we would have gone to near park to have a bbq but obviously because of the rain it wasn’t possible, but the idea itself was good so it just needed to be modified little bit. Indoor bbq, a completely new try out which actually worked. We used kind of a table grill, placed it under the window (Nina & Martin lived luckily at top floor) and grill master Martin started to grill, few things at one time… It actually worked, we didn’t burn the house down, flat didn’t start to smell like a bbq and the food was delicious. My personal favorite date palms wrapped in bacon. What was good about this home bbq, after feeling completely stuffed the way into a bed was short, just to fell in there and have some sleep.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Bratislava - An Escape From Vienna

I have been travelling few times around area Vienna / Budapest on my previous trips and every time thought to visit in Bratislava since it is so close both of them but never manage to do that. This time I was going to do that for sure even that turn out to be a night without sleep in Vienna before. Train ride from Vienna to Bratislava takes an hour which means good time to sleep. I left my backpack in the locker at Vienna because I needed to return there later to take a night train (again) to Germany so I could travel light for this one day which was nice since it was going to be again around +30 Celsius degrees. 

Eastern Europe has it own atmosphere, it is hard to describe on words but for some reason for some reason it can be noticed when arriving from Western Europe to Eastern Europe. At least one certain thing is that in general prices get lower… Ice cream scoops 1e, beer (pint), 2e, or traditional Slovakian all you can eat buffet 6e. Not complaining at all.

Bratislava is a place which easily is discovered during one day, of course you it would be possible to spend more time if visiting all museums etc… But seeing an old town and castle are the most important things to do there. The old city is much similar kind of than Zagreb, Dubrovnik and little bit like Budapest… Made for pedestrians, small streets full of shops and restaurants. At quick look it didn’t seem to be place that much for younger people to visit because most of the tourists (especially walking tour groups) were middle-aged and onwards.

I was rather tired as you might imagine so I needed to start day with having an ice coffee and I managed to find really nice place. Kind of spacious and comfortable design cafeteria where lamps were for example made from pots and it acted as a small book shop / reading corner place at same time. Near that place I found a road sign that somehow I just felt to fit for myself well… I would say that it reminded me about my past 9 months, life is just all about attitude and there is no need to stress too much about work.

I climbed to the castle where I could see really beautiful views over the city. Around midday and plus 30-35 degrees climbing up sun heated stone stairs was interesting thing to do but luckily I found also some shade (forgot to put sun block again) to chill out up there and just watch people and views. The holiday – A man at work indeed!

After a day in Bratislava I was now able to pin up again new country and city on my map of the world. So back to train and Vienna and no this time there was only a poor men air-condition which mean open up windows and let the wind blow. Last look of Vienna and then boarding into a night train to Neuss.

Vienna - Culture & Clubs

In Vienna there was expected to be an international weekend because Maria's two friends from Ireland were also coming to visit her on the same weekend than me. No worries, more people more fun =)

On a first day in Vienna only actual thing we did was to pick up the girls from airport and have a dinner together in Italian restaurant called Vapiano, simple concept and good food. With filled bellies we all headed to Marias flat to plan a little bit that what was going to happen within next few days… So far best plan is that there’s no plan, except our lovely host Maria had bought “just in case” some ingredients to make cocktails… Including small cocktail umbrellas. At beginning we thought maybe to go out but after few drinks everyone started to feel so tired that having just a movie night started to sound better option, and it definitely was, especially the choose of the film. It didn’t took much time before we all fell asleep while watching it… Movie still kept running on and on, I basically slept all other parts than beginning, some scenes in the middle and the ending. But on the other hand I can say that now I’ve seen the movie and can pick up something different for next time.

Vienna is famous cultural city filled up with theatres, operas, concerts and of course cafeterias. So first full day in Vienna was a cultural sightseeing day which started with Schönbrunn palace. Even that I’ve seen it already, have to admit that it is still quite an amazing complex… Some people have had too much wealth and power centuries ago, to build and live such a places. We just wondered that how on earth people manage to find each others as there was no other kind of communication devices than a paper and a pen, for example if you decided just to go for a walk into a garden…

Then way continued on the top of the Vienna, main cathedral northern tower at St. Stephans Platz where a small escalator which felt like a space pod, mostly because it was actually round shaped, lifted us to enjoy views over rooftops of Vienna. There is also catacombs under the church where I visited while I was last time in Vienna so I guess it is possible to say that I’ve been on the top and bottom of Vienna. Timing was perfect for visiting that cathedral, not because of beautiful day but also there happened to be a free classical music concert in the cathedral, legacy of Mozart still exists as it was proven by these talented orchestra members.

No Vienna without visiting a cafeteria enjoying some wine (or “spritzer” – white wine mixed bit of sparkling water) and piece of delicious cake. I almost couldn’t believe in my eyes when I saw that cake slice with whipped cream, there would have been easily enough for two but I was brave and finished it all by myself… Such a sacrifice!

Red trams are also part of streets in Vienna and actually the best way discover the city around. Just jump into a tram driving around and if see something interested, just hop off and on again. There is even a tram line 1 which is a ring tram, which provides could say the best sights in Vienna. Nevertheless enough culture is enough for a one day even that there would be still places visit but it was time to prepare ourselves to see Vienna’s nightlife. 

Good company, pre-drinks, salt sticks and drinking games… That is what good start of evening was made of. We left at Marias flat around midnight, a bit different than Ireland where places would almost be closed already. As night turned into a morning we had we covered up three places in total, quite rushing and running around I would say but on the other hand, once you discover nightlife do it well. For me two was anyways enough so instead of getting into a last club for an hour or so I decided to wait others outside, just buy a beer and sit down in a park enjoying first lights of sun over Vienna  having an interesting conversations about Vienna's history with some history students.

Ps. I would like to make a sad announcement: Now it was the day when I finally gave up my most beloved jean shorts which just simply were starting to rip of too much. Bought originally from Prague in 2006, started to ripping off so my mom shortened them as shorts maybe in 2010 and been fixing then since few times but I guess nothing lasts forever, at least they were good value on their price :D

Kufstein - On The Way To Vienna

Late afternoon I arrived to Kufstein, a small city in western parts of Austria where Maria was waiting for me. Austrians enjoys outdoors and why not, they have a beautiful landscapes and opportunities, for example on summer hiking and climbing, and on a winter downhill skiing and snowboarding. I was warned that I should wear comfortable sporting clothes because we went to climbing outdoors. I have been bouldering (indoor wall climbing without ropes) few times while I was in Ireland but this is my first time climbing outdoors with using the ropes, luckily I felt to be in safe hands as both Maria and Johan were giving instructions. It was a real fun experience, especially with lightly twisted ankle I had as a memory from one of the previous stops.  But of course still I needed to give a try and I managed to climb up one wall out of three we were trying. Unfortunately I don't have pictures while I was climbing but I decided it safe to keep both hands on the wall than play with camera while climbing... 

Main reason to stop to Kufstein was that Maria was working there and from there on we continued to Vienna together next day. So I was staying a night at Marias parents place, really nice house and friendly family. We had a glass of wine at evening and were just chatting for a moment. Definitely funniest moment of evening was the sentence “Somethings just goes in a blood” … It was my comment on certain situation during out conversations creating an inside joke. The house itself have was in scenic area and for example in the morning it was a pleasure to just look out of the window while enjoying a cup of tea.

We stopped by first at Marias working place that was at the edges of city and from there we had our morning exercise. An hour long walk (Now I understand why Austrians are so into hiking :D) to the Kufstein centre and railway station. We had some extra time so we sat down to enjoy cups of coffee in that cosy town. The timing was perfect, while drinking coffee I heard some music but didn’t see anyone playing it and then I found out that the world biggest open-air organ (4 307 pipes) is located in Kufstein, and sound of that can be heard in a center of the city.

After a coffee and a short “concert” me and Maria took the train to Vienna, my first time on this trip while I’m travelling from one place to another with someone… Weird but fun :D

Munich - Home Of Lederhose & Dirndl

At the beginning of my journey I wouldn't thought about visiting two times in same city… But it happened. After leaving Mannheim, destination was Munich (again). Starting of the day was similar than last day, a real déja vu, I arrived at railway station and threw my backpack into the locker at the station and Julia picked me up from there. From railway station we headed up toward park where I also met her sister, but before that we stopped to “food arches” pick up some takeaway lunch, my menu was cheese pretzel & some kind of roll with meat & mustard in it… Traditional things, I was told. 

There is no summer without an ice cream, so we definitely needed one. There is a place called “Crazy Ice Cream maker”, a place with many interesting flavors… Beer, Kinder Bueno, Lime and I hear that they have had sometimes even salmon ice cream, crazy indeed. I tried two flavors, Deutchland and Lime ice creams, good stuff :P

 Since day was getting warmer we decided just to chill out in a park, enjoy good company and just chatting about whatever comes to mind… And I can guarantee that there were more or less weird topics included but those one will be only known by me and Julia. But It was anyways a great day just to chill out without having anything more bigger plans than that, after all I came to Munich to meet friends, not doing sightseeing. As day turned towards evening I was still a bit unsure where I would sleep my next night… But as always, everything will sort out somehow.

As Julia needed to leave to Juli and Nina were both finish their work and could come to meet up. I was joking that it was like changing of guardians or babysitters (however want to take it) where I was told to wait in certain spot and I would be picked up there and wasn’t allow to move anywhere so I wouldn't get lost. Anyways Nina and Juli took me to a dinner for a famous place called “Hofbrauhaus“, a real Bavarian place: Waiter & waitresses wearing traditional outfits, food was simple but heavy and on the backround of course German marching music or drinking tunes by the folk band. I found it quite funny that even those traditional clothes (Lederhose & Dirndl) are kind of a think to joke about, they are still sold everywhere… even in C&A, they probably have every year new traditional trend model out :D

I didn't need to stay another night at Munich railway station because Nina was luckily able to offer me a place to crash for a night, Thank you very much!. So at next day I was meeting Julia at the fish fountain (Fischbrunnen – a new German word I learned!), popular meeting point in Munich right in the heart of Marienplatz. It was again nice and (really) warm sunny day so we thought just walk around little bit around city and ended up lying on the grass enjoying the warmth.

Once again, everything comes to an end at some point and it was time for me start to rail onwards. Before that we all went to have lunch together, kind of a final gathering I would say. Then it was time to slowly move towards railway station and say goodbye for Munich. So I jumped into a train which destination was a place called “Kufstein” … Only god knows where it is and what it is to be expected.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Mannheim - A Surprise Visit

I have to confess that Mannheim wasn't on my original travel plans but as I have said, I don’t like planning too much because things usually changes on the road. So I have to say how flexible people are, I managed to inform Nina at Sun evening that I thought to visit Mannheim and sent a text around 7am that I will be in Mannheim within 1,5 hours. Still I just had time to walk to cafeteria enjoying a coffee and she was already arriving to pick me up. I was so embarrassed because my lately lack of sleep caused me the effect of falling  sleep(or then my brains were just running slow) almost in every place where we stopped to down for a while moment… 

After all we didn't spend that times in Mannheim itself, only to see those few most important tourist sites. First was the castle in Mannheim, which actually mostly are at the use of university. That is one thing I like that mostly of European universities are still on those old buildings… Not like Tampere University built somewhere around 1950’s / 60’s. Another interesting fact about Mannheim and its castle, the city has been built around it in a way that it should be possible to see the castle from every main street of Mannheims city. Another monument is the water tower, 60 meter high building completed in 1886. 

We took the S-Bahn to get to small medieval town Heidelberg. Ride was about 20 minutes, again for me it was 20 minutes of struggle to stay awake, I failed. Town was much smaller than Munich but I think there was much more tourists in Heidelberg than in Mannheim. So far it seemed that sun had also find its way to central Europe so even that day was lightly rainy, it was very warm… On that heat first we trembled our way through the city streets and on a way Nina pointed me a Christmas shop that was open all year around. The main point of the city was (also) a castle. We climbed up around 300 stairs to the hill where castle was located. Up there from viewing platform all over the rest city, beautiful view. German is not only beer drinking country since they have also own wine production, Riesling wines for example. My guess is that on that castle they have had quite good wine drinking “parties” few hundreds year before. The guess is based on the size of the wine barrels that were called “The Great Barrels” … One barrel had capacity of 190 000 liters.

For dinner both of us (especially me) were that tired that decided to cook something simple for dinner, we ended up for doing pasta salad and of course enjoy a bottle of German Riesling wine. I learned in Ireland that Nina is good for baking stuff so for dessert we bought some red currants and she made mini pies out of those, yum! Long day outdoors, good dinner and bit of wine… I was ready to collapse into a bed and truly slept like a baby that night, and at the morning after I felt ready and fresh for new adventures.

When Germany Became World Champion

After a night without sleep the train ride felt my saviour… I had about 6 hours on the train to catch some sleep… Unfortunately since there weren’t that many trains on that day, it was packed. Thankfully I was boarding on train on its departure station so I had an option to find free place without a notification of reservation, and luckily I did found one.

Finally arriving Munich I had been able to sleep a bit but seriously not too much. Julia picked me up from the station and quickly just rid of the backpack leaving it to stations locker. First to a bar to have pint and look there first half of the game and then moved to another place closer to the main party street. And believe or not, we were not the only ones watching the game.

At the end of second extra time German manage to score a goal and victory was only few minutes away. While the referee did blow on his whistle to indicate ending up the game, the song “We are the champions” was played aloud and everyone went completely crazy! There were fireworks, torches, flags, flags etc... The same as Finnish won the wold championships in ice hockey everyone went crazy as well… Difference here was that people gathered around on the streets instead of the city square and people didn’t go to swimming on fountains like we Finns used to do. If I would have my spare clothes with me I would have shown a Finnish style to swim in a fountain :D

I spent whole night out so it was my second night without sleeping… But definitely worth to see how much football affects on people lives in Europe and especially in Germany in that special day. Julia needed to left already a bit earlier during the night since she needed to wake up at 6am and her friend train departure at around 5am. I took train to Mannheim 05:30am and fell asleep in a train before it even departure from Munich.