July 18

Salzburg

Arrived in Salzburg and took a stroll in the old city. It's just so pleasant, the weather is beautiful with lots of sunshine and clear blue skies. Musicians serenade passerbys, classical melodies fills the atmosphere; this is truly the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart.





'Jazz It' is this really cool jazz club which is worth a visit if you're in Salzburg. I was lucky because on that night, Wolfgang Muthspiel one of the most famaous Austrian jazz guitarist was performing. He was part of a quartet consisting of double bass, piano, drums and guitar and the performances was absolutely entertaining and beautiful. So much so that I lost track of time and soon realised that it was already pass midnight. The thing is I had to take a bus for about 20-30 mins to this place and thus had no idea if there was a midnight bus back to my hostel.

Now standing all alone in the dodgy bus station, a mad man shouting and approching me, getting abit agitated now, he's getting nearer but he's not looking at me so that's good. Glanced to the left, a man sitting on the bench with a smirk on his face, not good. Turned right, there and behold a lady is walking towards the station. I shall call her Angel. I walk directly towards Angel, and ask her which bus I'm suppose to take. Thank goodness she speaks English. What? She's waiting for the same bus, Hallelujah! Hahaha so we chatted and waited and waited and chatted and still no sign of the bus. Anyway to cut the long cold night short, there was no direct bus so we had to take one half way and walked the rest of the way. Of course I wasnt familiar with the roads so Angel (I cant believe I forgot to ask her name after talking to her for about an hour or so) walked me back to my hostel. Seriously, she was so nice. To whoever you are THANK YOU so much!

July 17

Neuschwanstein Castle

It's been raining heavily but I have to see King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein castle, the fairy tale castle adopted by Disney in Sleeping Beauty. Since it was pouring, I decided to take the bus instead of hiking up. I still got soaked, and was so cold. It was pretty misty too so I could hardly see anything! All those photos with the beautiful castle and it's spectacular scenery was absolutely hidden with the thick mist and clouds!




Ok since outside was a letdown,I decided to take the guided tour in the castle. Unfortunately, cameras are prohibited and hence I couldnt capture the magnificient architecture, intricate art works and stupendous structures. Basically all the walls are covered with Richard Wagner's theatre stories (as you can guess King Ludwig was a huge fan of Wagner). There is once part of the castle which was converted into a man made cave to depict one of the operas His Highness watched. The colours and patterns used for the carvings and paintings are very unique, nothing like I've seen before. In a way they are rather vibrant and striking. Anyway this Bavarian king was also known as the Fairy Tale King due to his obsession with theatre and operas. However in later years he began to shy away from the public eye due to a plot to overthrow his reign in the Bavarian Parliment (with the excuse of insanity). Sadly, King Ludwig's death remains a mystery, he was found dead in a lake. Some say he committed suicide while others say he was murdered by an insider. I guess not all fairy tales end with a happy ending.

16th July

Dachau


Beginning 1933, Germany was beginning to create a new ‘German Society’. The number of political prisoners were increasing and the need rose to place them somewhere thus giving birth to the concept of concentration camps. Dachau is actually the first concentration camp and was used then as a model for others, including Auschwitzs. The initial site of this camp was actually a machinery/weapons factory but after WW1, the Germans were not allowed to produce any of these so some guy known as Heinrich Himmler converted the factory to a concentration camp. However, they wanted to give the impression to outsiders that Dachau was a work camp, where people were rehabilitated so that they can fit into the new German society! (doesn’t this ‘rehabilitation’ concept sound like ISA?). But soon after the war in 1943, many Jewish, Polish and Russian prisoners were also held here and the place became over populated (41000 prisoners died in that 12 years, which is about 9 people per day!)



Anyway the whole history and walking the path of the prisoners was a real eye opener for me. I’ve watched many movies, read books about the sufferings in concentration camps but just standing on the soil where innocent blood was shed is just overwhelming. Many prisoners resulted to committing suicide because it’s the easiest way out.

During the tour, Aleesha and I met other travellers: Chris and Sam from New Mexico (USA) and Steve, Justin and Laureen from Whistler, Canada. We were all depressed after the tour and decided to head to the famous beer gardens to lift our spirits!


After some beer, we headed to the ‘travellers’ campsite, where Laureen suggested we make s’mores (marshmallow burnt lightly until soft, then sandwiched between 2 graham creackers). Sounds mouth watering but it started to rain and the campfire was put to a halt. Instead we went out for ice-cream and played in the rain. After saying our farewells, Aleesha and I left for our hostel. Definitely able to sleep well with all the walking and alcohol.

July 15

Mimi and the Korean girls accompanied me to the train station, which was very sweet of them. To get to Munich I had to change trains in Zurich. So I decided to leave earlier, which will give me ample time to explore Zurich before railing of to Munchen.



Zurich is like most big European cities. But what really intrigued me was during lunch time, most people head for the parks, bridges and river banks to have their sandwiches. Businessmen in suits sitting by the sidewalk, or along the bridge with their legs daggling off for a relaxing lunch in the sun. How cost efficient and nice!

Well on the train to Munchen I sat beside this gorgeous girl, who was nice enough to help me with my heavy backpack. After about 5 hours or so, I reached Munich. I got totally lost with their mass transportation links. The transportation system is efficient but there are like a zillion lines that it can be a little bit confusing for outsiders.


Welcome to Munchen!

After settling in the dorm, I met Aleesha Moroney (my roomie) from Sydney. She's works like for 6 months to collect enough money, then travel for the following 6 months. And she has a pilot license, and is planning to apply to Qantas when she gets back home. Anyway Aleesha and I have decided to join the Dachau tour tomorrow.


With my roomies Rihanna and Aleesha

14th July

Switzerland is so beautiful but the crappy weather is spoiling everything. Again I got up and it was raining. I decided to brave the rain to see Lucerne city. Well I spent 10 francs on an umbrella and still got soaking wet , not to mention it’s so difficult to take pictures when you’re holding an umbrella and trying hard not to wet your camera at the same time.




Basically I did a big and I mean big city walk. I refuse to pay for transportation so I did everything by feet. Started of with the Chapel bridge, which is basically a 14th century wooden roofed bridge which is decorated with Swiss historical scenes. However it was burnt down later on and had to be reconstructed, although not all the painting were recovered. Further down from there was the Spreuebruke bridge which is also decorated with eerie scenes Totentanz (Dame of Death) paintings. I like the old town with it’s cobblestones pavements and nice paintings on the walls of the buildings. Eventually I reached the main city walls, climbing up to the top of the tower to get a better view. By now, the weather was beginning to clear and the sun was coming out again so that was good. I headed to see the famous Lion of Lucerne monument before heading back.



Now when I got back, I bumped into Mimi, remember my Korean roommate whom I met in Montreux? What a coincidence! Met her other 2 roommates and spent the evening with them. Later on the 4 of us and another Italian guy went for a walk and we got lost. Our short walk lasted for at least 2 hours I think but it was fun, despite the fact that it started raining again.

13th July

(12 pm)

It’s raining in Lucerne. This is not good.


(9 pm)



I said, hell with the rain I have to so something. So I went up Mt Titlis, which apparently is covered with snow all year through. It was freezing cold, it was so cloudy I couldn’t see the beautiful glaciers which is the main attraction there. On the bright side I sat on the world’s first rotating aerial cable car and I have not seen so much snow before. I made some snow balls and wanted to throw them at some people, but the only people up there were this elderly Chinese people on a tour. I don’t think they’ll be very happy with some random stranger throwing snowballs at them. Gosh in times like this I wished I was traveling with someone.

12th July

Bad bad weather. My plans for Jungfrau must be cancelled. Instead I slept in late, went to town to do some souvenir shopping, bought some groceries and just stayed in the hostel, reading and writing in my journal. I’m so disappointed but things like this cant be helped. Although I think the rest is good after 2 weeks of non stop travel.

Will leave for Lucerne tomorrow and am hoping the weather will be good, so at least I can go hiking up Mt Pilatus.